A Heavenly Kindness (Ruth 2)

Our gospel reading this morning is from Matthew chapter twenty, beginning in the first verse.

Jesus said, For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place.

And then and to them he said, You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give to you.

So they went.

Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour he did the same.

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing.

And he said to them, Why do you stand here idle all day?

They said to him, Because no one has hired us.

He said to them, You go into the vineyard too.

And when evening came the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, Call all the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last up to the first.

And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.

Now when those who were hired first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.

And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.

But he replied to them, Friend, I am doing you no wrong.

Did you not agree with me for a denarius?

Take what belongs to you and go.

I choose to give this last worker as I give to you.

Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?

Or do you begrudge my generosity?

So the last will be first, and the first last.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Well, the truth is I am a worst case scenario thinker.

Are you a worst case scenario thinker too?

I'm a worst-case scenario thinker myself.

When something goes wrong, my reflex, my internal reflex is to think just how wrong this thing can go, just how off the tracks we can go.

And then I'm gonna work backwards from a solution.

I'm gonna go to that worst case scenario and then hopefully find it's a little bit better than that.

I spent most of my morning yesterday dismantling our washing machine because when I opened it up, I noticed that the drum where you load the clothes, it dropped about five or six inches.

So immediately I'm thinking, well, my dish, my my my washer is toast.

Like I'm gonna need a new one, and I start playing the scenarios of hiring a repairman and what it's gonna cost to get a new washing machine, and so naturally my head is thinking, it's done, this, this, this thing is kaput.

So I start ripping this thing apart, and and mind you, I'm just not handy, not in the least.

But I've got my tools out and I'm pulling this thing apart.

And my wife, who was helping me out, she very graciously reminded me, have you have you tried running a drain cycle just to see if there's a little more water in there?

Sure enough, I ran a drain cycle and my washing machine is just fine.

I could have spared myself a few hours of that work.

See, my brain goes right to the worst case scenario.

This thing is broken, and I need to start ripping this thing apart if I'm gonna salvage it.

But it's not just a washing machine.

I'll hear an individual clunk under the hood of my car, and my brain is already thinking about the fact that my engine's about to explode.

I'm a worst case scenario thinker.

Are you a worst case scenario think too?

See, I I I always want to be prepared.

I always want to be prepared for when life is gonna go out of control, for when I'm gonna be left without, and for when I'm not going to have what I need to get by.

So what do I do?

I try and control and manage my environment.

I try and take out the tools of that I've got in my tool belt of life, so to speak, and start tearing apart the problem as best as I can manage this thing, because I don't want my life to go out of control.

I don't want to be left without what I need, and I don't want to, I don't, I I don't want to be left without enough to get by.

See, friends, I think it's this kind of worst-case scenario.

In fact, I think it's the kind of fear of a worst-case scenario that certainly Naomi knows so well in Ruth chapter 2.

Ruth 2 · chapter mention

I think Naomi and Ruth both have received a worst case scenario.

While they were sojourning in the land of Moab, their whole family has passed away.

Naomi's husband, Elimelech, has passed away.

Ruth's husband and Orpah's husband have passed away.

They are left without any kind of provision, they're left without a uh security, they're left without anything they need.

Their only glimmer of hope is that they could go back to Naomi's hometown of Bethlehem and maybe, just maybe discover enough food to make it through day by day, slugging it through.

Their life has gone out of control.

They are left without, and they are worried that they will not have enough to make it through this day.

They are living in a worst case scenario, but in the midst of this worst-case scenario, we discover a marvelous truth.

We discover that Ruth and Naomi both are met with a heavenly kindness in the midst of their worst case scenario.

They're met with God's chesed.

We talked about this word chesed last week.

Remember, it's very guttural, you've got to use your throat when you say it.

The chesed of God.

It's God's steadfast love.

That's what we just read about in Psalm 136, his chesed lasts forever.

It is his covenant commitment to his people.

It's like God's marriage vows that he won't forsake his people.

It's his rescuing faithfulness that in the midst of a worst-case scenario, God is still at work bringing his redeeming purposes to fruition.

This is important for us to know.

Because I think in the midst of a pandemic, we have a whole new kind of worst case scenario to think about.

I mean, my goodness, I get a tickle in my throat, and mentally I start mapping out the shortest route to the emergency room.

There's a whole new kind of worst-case scenario that we're confronted with.

And there's political unrest, and there's, we read the headlines, we're confronted with all kinds of worst-case scenarios.

Where is there hope?

Is there hope for us?

I think there's hope for Ruth and Naomi in the midst of their worst-case scenario, and there's hope for us.

We who are met by heavenly kindness in the midst of our worst-case scenario, we can be rescued from the fear of a worst-case scenario by God's heavenly kindness.

And why is that?

It's because God's heavenly kindness is reliably providential.

It's because his heavenly kindness is radically inclusive.

And it's because his heavenly kindness is really satisfying.

So let's dive into our Ruth reading.

Let's find some good news.

If we are fearful of a worst-case scenario in our life, let's find some good news that gives us hope in Christ that heavenly kindness will meet us in our worst case scenario.

Heavenly kindness from God is reliably providential.

So heavenly kindness means that there's no such thing as coincidences, there's no such thing as chance or happenstance.

God is always at work, working his redeeming purposes in and through the fabric of creation and in and through the fabric of humanity.

One of my heroes of the faith, his name is George Mueller.

And George Mueller lived in England in the 19th century.

He was an evangelist, but he ran a number of orphanages in the city of Bristol.

And over the decades that he ran these orphanages, he housed over 10,000 children, and then he provided for the education of some 120,000 children in his lifetime.

It's an incredible story of faithfulness.

But in all of his years working in the town of Bristol, George Mueller never had more than three days worth of supplies or finances to keep the orphanages going.

He never, he didn't have a stockpile of fortune.

He lived on prayer.

He lived on faith that God would provide in his way.

And so, as would happen sometimes, it would be supper time, and orphans and staff would be gathered in the dining rooms, and there would be no food to provide, so George Mueller would simply say, It's time to start praying.

And so they would start praying, and then coincidences started happening.

Coincidences.

Like the milk truck cart would break down outside the orphanage, like the baker would bring by loaves of bread, and they were never left without supper on a single day.

See, God is always working his redeeming and providing purposes in and through the fabric of life.

George Mueller counted on the fact that God's heavenly kindness is providential.

It's not just sheer chance, it's not just sheer luck.

And this is what Ruth is discovering for herself right in this reading.

See, in verses 2 and 3 in chapter 2, she sets out to glean in a field.

And she happened to come, that's how our translation puts it.

She happened by Boaz's field.

But the Hebrew here is literally by chance she chanced upon his field.

I mean, the sensitive reader is going to know that something is up here, something more than just sheer happenstance is happening here.

Ruth is being divinely led to this particular field where Boaz, a relative of Elimelech, Naomi's husband, is uniquely placed to provide for their needs.

This is not sheer luck that Ruth happened by this field.

God is orchestrating these events such that he's bringing forth his rescuing purposes.

But that's not the only coincidence that's happening here.

Verse 4 tells us that Boaz has come in from the town of Bethlehem.

He's come from Bethlehem into his field.

He doesn't need to be there, but on this particular day, he's come to check out his field and check in on his servants.

And by sheer happenstance, he happens to notice this young Moabite woman gleaning in the fields, and he asks his servant, What's her story?

See, there's so many coincidences happening here, happenstance that we know there's a hand behind it.

God's heavenly kindness is reliably providential.

God is working out his redeeming and rescuing purposes in the very fabric of creation and humanity.

See, the Bible affirms what George Mueller knows, knew to be true, and what Ruth is discovering for herself, that even when life seems out of our control, even life is out of our control, it is not out of the Father's control.

He holds history in his hand.

He is at work rescuing us and redeeming us and working his purposes into the fabric of history and into the fabric of our lives.

That's even true in the midst of a worst case scenario.

It doesn't mean, by the way, that the worst case scenario is God's uh uh is God's um is is is you know is the the benefit that God wants you to have.

No, God is even at work redeeming what is difficult, even what is uh uh even what is tremendously bitter for us to endure.

We think of Naomi calling herself bitter.

Even what is bitter for us to endure, God can and does work his redeeming purposes out of it.

Doesn't mean we call evil good, but God is not beyond redeeming for good what is a worst case scenario for us.

That's what Ruth is discovering.

God's heavenly kindness is reliably providential, and that should give us hope.

That should give us hope that God is still at work even on our worst day to bring out his good purposes for us.

God's heavenly kindness is reliably providential.

God's heavenly kindness is radically inclusive.

Now, does that, I'll just take a pause there, does that word make you feel a little uncomfortable?

Because for biblical Christians like us at newsong, that word inclusive can be something that makes us feel a little bit uncomfortable.

This word inclusive can sometimes seem to communicate more about particular commitments to a social agenda than, say, commitments to biblical authority.

But I want us to pause here because I don't want us to eject this word inclusive.

I think we need to baptize this word.

I think we need to reconsider just how wild and generous God's heavenly kindness is.

It's a kind of wild generosity that we see in Matthew chapter 20.

Matthew 20 · chapter mention

The Father delights, he delights to give his grace abundantly to all, to all.

There's not a single person excluded from that.

And here's where we see it in our Ruth reading that heavenly that God's heavenly kindness is radically inclusive.

We see it in verse 2, but we've seen it all through chapter 1, and by the end of chapter 2, we'll have seen it seven times listed that Ruth was a Moabite or she's a foreigner.

It's as though the author of Ruth wants to put up a neon sign that flashes saying, Ruth does not belong.

She does not belong here.

She is not an Israelite, she does not belong to God's covenant people.

The author is saying Ruth is not entitled to any kind of heavenly generosity in the way that we might expect.

Because Israelites might expect that, sure, we're God's covenant people, we've received God's promises.

I would expect that we would get God's generous heavenly kindness.

But no, God's kindness spills over to all.

There's no one excluded from it.

Even Ruth, this Moabite foreigner widow, is a recipient of God's heavenly kindness as it's mediated through Boaz.

She is receiving God's Hesed, his steadfast love, even if she's the last person that we might expect to receive that, or the first century reader might expect to receive that.

So it makes me wonder who is the last person in my life?

Who's the last person in your life that you would expect to receive God's heavenly kindness?

I suspect we all have someone in mind.

I suspect sometimes in our honest moments, we might think, yeah, I'm not perfect, but at least I'm not like so-and-so.

Holy cow.

We all have those moments where we act as though we're workers in the field who've earned our wage and we've earned more than someone else, but God's radically inclusive heavenly kindness reminds us that we are all on even footing at the foot of the cross.

We are all recipients of grace.

Now let's be clear: that heavenly kindness is a transforming kind of heavenly kindness.

It takes our will, it takes our affections, it takes our desires, and it sets them on Jesus.

So we become more and more conformed into his likeness.

That's a transforming kind of kindness, but no one is excluded from it.

Boaz gets that.

Boaz gets that no one's beyond God's heavenly kindness because he extends an invitation to for Ruth to come and glean in his fields.

See, God had set it up such in his law in the Old Testament that when foreigners who were left without, who didn't have provision for themselves, they didn't own a field, right?

They were they were gonna be struggling day by day getting by, God commanded his people when you glean the fields, when you go and pluck the grain, you're gonna glean everything except for the edge of your field.

And you're gonna leave the edge of your field unplugged, you're gonna leave the grain there so that foreigners, widows, orphans, people who are in need can come and freely pluck that grain for themselves.

And if you drop grain, you're going to leave that so that foreigners and widows and orphans, people who are without can come and receive that.

That's going to be a generous, inclusive heavenly kindness even for them.

But it's going to require that you trust me.

It's going to require that you trust me to provide what you need, and out of that abundance, others will be provided for as well.

No one is beyond God's heavenly kindness, and Boaz gets that.

So he extends this invitation to Ruth to come and glean.

Boaz sends her with an abundant amount of grain home, because he gets that God's heavenly kindness extends even to this Moabite, even to the last person that we might expect.

So this should give us some reassurance.

Because even on our worst day, I'm included in God's heavenly kindness.

God's heavenly kindness extends even to me on my worst day, but it also extends to my neighbor as well on their worst day.

There is no one who is beyond God's heavenly kindness, beyond his grace, beyond his steadfast love.

And for anyone who repents, anyone who comes to Jesus, anyone who lifts up their hands to the Father and asks for mercy will receive it.

Because God is delighted to give us his heavenly kindness.

It overflows into our lives and into our communities and into the lives of those we least expect.

God's heavenly kindness is reliably providential.

God is always at work in the circumstances of our life to move forward his redeeming purposes.

God's heavenly kindness is a transforming and radical kind of inclusion.

That all people are invited to come and receive his goodness and his provision.

And finally, God's heavenly kindness really satisfies.

It really, truly satisfies.

And here I want to read verses 14 to 16.

This is a remarkable scene where Boaz invites Ruth, who's been gleaning the fields, to come and have table fellowship with him.

Verse 14 At mealtime Boaz said to Ruth, Come here, eat some bread, dip your morsel in the wine.

So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed her roasted grain.

And she ate until she was satisfied and she had some left over.

When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her, and also pull out some of the bundles from her and leave it for her to glean.

Do not rebuke her.

What's going on here?

Well, we might just read this as Boaz is having a simple lunch break, and he wants to get to know this new young woman who's gleaning in his field.

But if we read that with 21st century eyes, we'd miss the significance of what's really happening here.

See, in the ancient Near East, table fellowship was about as close and connected and committed as you can get.

When you share your table with someone, it's as though you're sharing your life with someone.

It's as though you're sharing your heart with someone.

Boaz isn't exactly getting, it's not a romantic connection, at least not yet.

But Boaz is inviting Ruth to come participate in this table fellowship as a full member, as though she's a full member of the covenant community.

Boaz gets that God's heavenly kindness is overflowing and it spills out.

And God's heavenly kindness really truly satisfies.

Because you see that in the last half of verse 14, that Ruth ate and she was satisfied.

Let's not forget that Ruth has Ruth and Naomi both have endured famine for at least a decade.

This might be the first time Ruth has had a full stomach in years.

That is a wild kind of generosity.

I don't know what that's like.

I know what it's like when my tummy has had too much to eat.

That's my first century problem.

Or my first world problem, pardon me.

But Ruth, Ruth hasn't felt a full stomach in years.

And we have brothers and sisters in Christ around the world who know exactly what that feeling feels like and know what it's like to receive that wild kind of heavenly kindness that satisfies their needs.

See, Ruth is in a position where Ruth and Naomi both have come into Bethlehem because of fear that they won't have enough.

They've left Moab with a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe the Lord is visiting his people and providing for them bread.

Maybe, just maybe, I'll go and I'll just have enough for today.

And then tomorrow, maybe I'll have enough for then.

Have you ever felt like that?

Maybe, just maybe I'll have enough for today, and then tomorrow, I'll have to figure that out too.

But here's Ruth, the recipient of a wild kind of heavenly kindness, a kind of heavenly generosity.

She's sent away in abundance.

Because Boaz doesn't just invite her to the table to be satisfied.

Boaz sends her away with an epha of grain, which is to say, if she was taking a plane back to see Naomi, she'd be paying for extra checked baggage.

Like she's bringing a month of food home.

She's gone to the field hoping for enough for today, but she is going home with a month's worth of food and provision.

This is a satisfying, abundant kind of heavenly kindness that she's received.

And friends, when we look at At this story through the eyes of the cross, we see the gospel.

We see good news for the fearful.

We see good news for those who are facing a worst case scenario.

Because, like Ruth and Naomi, we have lost control.

Our lives have spun out of control.

This is the reality of sin.

When I talked about the early chapters of the Bible in reference to God's blessing, his intention that we flourish, we see a creation that was intended for good and yet has spun out of control.

And as we are born into Adam, as we are born into this helpless state of being, we too are born into this condition of spinning out of control that we call sin.

We've been born into death in Adam.

That's what we saw in our study of Romans in chapter six.

And the consequence of sin in our own lives is such that we get to Romans chapter seven and we hear Paul's words, they might as well be our words sometimes.

I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Have you been there?

Have you felt like I'm not even in command of myself?

My sin has so corrupted me that even the things that I desire aren't being realized.

The good that I want to do is not what I do, and yet I do the very thing I don't want to do.

We are out of control, corrupted by sin, and unable to get ourselves back on that right path.

We are out of control.

And like Ruth and Naomi, we are left without.

We are excluded.

Isaiah chapter 59, the prophet writes to God's people that your iniquities or your sins have cut you off from God.

Isaiah 59 · chapter mention

Because of your sins, he is turned away.

That's a new living translation.

We are the last people you would expect to find heavenly kindness, because we, like our first parents, have forsaken the Lord.

And finally, like Ruth and Naomi, we do not have enough.

We do not have what it takes to earn God's forgiveness, to earn God's righteousness.

Again, Romans chapter 3, Paul writes that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

We do not have what we really need to get by.

We do not have in ourselves what we really need to enter into the kingdom.

We cannot do enough, perform enough, believe enough on our own, apart from God's heavenly kindness.

Like Ruth and Naomi, our worst case scenario has come true.

And yet our worst case scenario is far worse.

Our worst case scenario means that we are cut off from God, spinning out of control, and helpless to do anything about it.

But if that's the bad news, if that's the worst case scenario, then thanks be to God that the best case scenario has come true as well.

That the good news is hope for us all.

That the good news is that God has shown us his heavenly kindness in Christ.

Because in Christ, God has shown us a providential kind of heavenly kindness.

He's shown us that he works all circumstances of history and creation towards his redeeming purposes.

So after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection and ascension, and now the Holy Spirit has commissioned the church to go forward and to proclaim this good news, Peter is standing in front of a crowd in Jerusalem, and he says this therefore let all Israel, let all of God's people know that let all of God's people know this, that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified to be both Lord and Messiah.

So did they crucify Jesus, or did God orchestrate these events?

Well, Peter understands this is providence.

God is using the very circumstances of history to bring forward his redeeming purposes in Christ, so that Jesus is saving us from our sin.

Like Joseph, what was intended for evil has brought about good.

And in Jesus, we see a heavenly kindness that is inclusive.

All have sinned, and yet Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.

That is everyone.

No one is beyond God's heavenly kindness in Christ.

And finally, in Christ, we see a heavenly kindness that satisfies.

Jesus tells us in John chapter 6 that He is the bread of life.

John 6 · chapter mention

Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Friends, I don't think it's a coincidence that Ruth, who has left Moab and gone back to Bethlehem desperate for food, desperate to receive bread, is invited to the table by Boaz and receives bread and wine.

That points us towards that heavenly feast, that table of our Lord, where he breaks bread and shares wine with his disciples.

Except this bread is his body, and this wine is his blood shed for us.

The very covenant promise of God's faithful, heavenly kindness to us in Christ, who died for our sins on the cross and gives us new life by his resurrection.

In fact, it's Christ's resurrection.

That means what Naomi says to Ruth is true, that God's heavenly kindness does not forsake the living or the dead.

Friends, there's good news for us.

In the midst of our worst-case scenario, God is working his providential, his radically inclusive, his really satisfying heavenly kindness that leads us to Jesus.

God is giving Ruth this heavenly kindness through Boaz, but we know Boaz is a Redeemer, and we're going to talk more about what a Redeemer means in the life of the nation of Israel as we go.

But we know that Boaz is pointing us towards the great Redeemer, Jesus, who died for us, who is our Redeemer, and shows us that same providential, inclusive, and satisfying heavenly kindness in him.

So I might be a worst case scenario thinker.

Maybe you are too.

But even in our worst case scenarios, we know that God is at work providing for us, bringing us into his redeeming plan.

We know that there is no place we can go where we cannot find refuge in God's heavenly kindness.

So I want to close with a quote from George Mueller.

I talked about him earlier.

George Mueller, who knew what it's like to rely on this heavenly kindness, he knew what it was like to try and control and manage, but he forsook that so that he could rely solely on God's provision.

He says this in the midst of a worst-case scenario, I think this rings true.

George Mueller says we should not shrink from opportunities where our faith may be tried.

The more I'm in a position to be tried in faith, the more I have the opportunity of seeing God's help and deliverance.

Every fresh instance in which he helps and delivers me will increase my faith.

Friends, this is our hope.

Our hope is that God is at work providentially, bringing us all in inclusively, and he satisfies us, truly satisfies us in Christ.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your heavenly kindness.

The heavenly kindness that you showed to Ruth through Boaz, the heavenly kindness that you show to us through our Redeemer, Jesus Christ by the cross.

Set our hearts in this kindness.

Set our hearts on the truth that you are at work and nothing is beyond your fatherly hand.

And so, Lord, we pray, release us from fear.

Redeem our worst case scenarios for the glory of your name.

Amen.