The Bible from 30,000 Feet,
Soaring through the Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Turn in your Bibles
to the book of-- Ruth. --Ruth. The book of Ruth
has only 85 verses. Because of that great
fact, we don't have to fly the airplanes so high. We can go a little bit lower. We can get a good view
of most all-- not all, but most all of the verses
that are in these short four chapters, these 85 verses
called the Book of Ruth. The book of Ruth is one
of the only two books in the Bible named
after a woman. What's the other one? Esther. Esther. And I love it because, in
a very patriarchal society that the Old Testament
definitely was, we have two women
whose names appear as the heads of
these biblical books. Of course, in the
New Testament, that is completely come to fruition
because Paul the Apostle says that, in Christ,
it doesn't matter if you're Jew, or Greek,
or slave, or free, or male, or female. Galatians says you
are all one in Christ. But I love the fact that,
in the old covenant, in the Old Testament, we find
this short little, but very poignant, little book of Ruth,
a book named after a woman. Now, the name Ruth means friend,
or friendly, or better yet, friendship. And she lives up to her name. She becomes, in this story, a
close friend, a loyal friend, a loyal advocate of her
mother-in-law Naomi. It's a beautiful love story
between these two women who love each other. It's very unusual that
you have a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law who
love each other so well, so adamantly, so permanently. But also, it's a love
story between Ruth and her husband-to-be
named Boaz. So one of the only two books in
the Bible named after a woman. It is the only book
in the Bible named after an ancestor of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and that becomes really
the highlight of the book. The author will highlight
the genealogical record in the very beginning of
the line of King David. We'll get that at the end
of this short little book. And Ruth, therefore,
is the only book named after an ancestor of Christ. And it's very noteworthy that,
in the genealogical records in the New Testament,
the name Ruth appears. That was very unusual
to have, as part of one's pedigree--
especially royal pedigree-- the name of a
woman, but she appears. She's an ancestor
of Christ, and it's the only book in the
Old Testament that is named after a non-Jewish
woman, non-Jewish person. She is a Gentile. We'll find out that she is
from the other side of Israel, the eastern side,
the area of Moab. The book of Ruth is a
story of providence, and that's a word,
that's a doctrine, it's a concept that you
should be very familiar with. And I'm going to talk
a little bit about it at a couple points
in this study. Providence is something
that you and I experience. We experience God's providence. Now, a lot of Christians,
I have noticed, make a big deal
about the miraculous. And God is a God of miracles. He can do everything He
wants, but God most often works through providence,
rather than the miraculous. And I remember hearing a guy
on television years ago saying, have you experienced
your miracle today? You can have a daily miracle. And he didn't say miracle,
he said "mee-ree-cle," so I just thought
that's kind of weird. But anyway, what you
really can expect is God's daily
providence in your life and providence is the idea
that God takes natural events, and He enacts
supernatural results. Things happen in life, and God
uses all those things to work out a supernatural outcome. That's providence. Romans 8:28-- we know that
all things work together for the good of
those who love God and are called according
to His purpose. So God can take anything
that happens to you. It's not an impediment to Him. It's never an "oh
no" moment for God. God never says oh no,
what am I going to do now? He says, this is perfect. I'm going to weave this
for a supernatural outcome, these natural experiences and
circumstances that we face. So it's the story
of God's providence. The book of Ruth is also
a story of conversion. Here is a Moabites
woman, a Gentile outside of the covenant of God, outside
of the covenant land of God, who comes to believe in
Yahweh, the God of the Jews, the covenant God of
the people of Israel. And so the story shows
how a Gentile girl comes to believe in the
Jewish God, the God of Israel. So it's a story of providence,
it's a story of conversion, and it's also a
story of redemption. We have, in the
Old Testament book of Ruth, a preview of a very
cardinal, salient New Testament doctrine, and that is the
doctrine of redemption. The doctrine of redemption is
where one person, one party pays the price to buy the
freedom for someone else. That's redemption. In the New Testament,
the background is the slave markets
of those times. In the Old Testament,
it's the idea of the land that
could be forfeited-- or it had to be sold,
if a person was poor. But it could be purchased back. It could be redeemed back. And the great story about
Ruth, it's not just land. It's a person and land that
gets redeemed, as you will see. It was a Augustine, that church
theologian from North Africa, who made this statement-- "The new is in the
old contained." Oh, excuse me-- yeah-- "The new is in
the old contained. The old is in the
new explained." Or as I think he put it, "The
new is in the old concealed, and the old is in
the new revealed." What does that statement mean? It means this-- in
the Old Testament, there are truths of
the New Testament, seeds of the New Testament. There are predictions that
anticipate the new covenant, anticipate what we experience
in the New Testament. It's there in the old. It's predicted in the old. When we get to
the Old Testament, we see all of those
predictions, all of those anticipations
blossomed and coming to fruition in the new. So the new is in
the old concealed. The old is in the new revealed. There's four chapters
in this book, and you can outline the book
based on these four chapters. Chapter 1 is love's resolve. There is a young
Moabite woman named Ruth, who makes a resolution
to follow her mother-in-law to the land of her ancestors,
the land of Canaan, the land of Judah, the area of
Bethlehem, the land of Israel. She makes a resolute promise
that, no matter what happens, she's going to follow Naomi. That's love's
resolve in chapter 1. In chapter 2, we
have love's response. Ruth goes out and gleans
in the fields in Bethlehem during the barley harvest. She will encounter a
man by the name of Boaz. Who will respond to Boaz. Boaz will respond to
her, and a romance will start in that chapter. In chapter 3, we
have love's request. You'll see a very, very
interesting twist of events in chapter 3, where Ruth
asks Boaz to marry her. It's a very different kind
of a setup from our culture, and even that culture,
but what she does is she asks Boas to redeem her. She asks the question. It involves a marriage, but
she asks Boaz to redeem her. Then in chapter 4, we
have love's reward, and love's reward is
where there is a wedding. They both wed, Ruth and Boaz,
and a little bit of the family is then mentioned. So the book of Ruth
opens with a famine and closes with a family. It opens with a funeral, and
it closes with a wedding. Very great little story. We begin in chapter 1 verse 1. We won't read all the
verses of the book, but there's enough
to get the story. Verse 1-- "Now it came
to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that
there was a famine in the land. And a certain man
of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the
country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons." Now, there's a
lot in that verse. And since we have time,
I went unravel it. If you look at verse 1,
it's giving us the setting of the book of Ruth. First of all, it was
a time of rebellion. It says it was during
when the judges ruled. Now, we've studied the book
of Judges a few weeks back. And we saw how, in
that book of Judges, Israel turned away
from the Lord. God sent them
these warriors, who were like little messiahs, who
would temporarily deliver them from the hand of their enemy. It was dark days, days
of apostasy, days of war. So that is the setting. The setting is the
book of Judges. And if you wanted to put a fine
point on exactly when it takes place, most scholars
believe that you could fit the book of
Ruth in Judges chapter 10. That's the chronology
where it fits-- Judges chapter 10. One of the judges is
named Jair, or "Jayer," as we like to mispronounce
it in our language. That is the judge
that probably was ruling during the time the
book of Ruth takes place. Also notice something else-- it was a time of relativism. It didn't say that in
the verse, but how does the book of Judges end? It says, there was
no king in Israel, and everyone did what was
right in his own eyes. So it was a time of humanism. It was a time of existentialism. It was a time of relativism. People just didn't
follow God's statutes. There was no rule over them. They just sort of
made up their own rule as it felt good to them. It was sort of
like, dude, just do whatever's in your heart to do. That's the worst advice ever. It is? Yeah, it is, because
the Bible says the heart is wicked,
deceitfully wicked above all else who can know it. Don't do what's in your heart. Do what the word of
God tells you to do. Have that is the
standard above you. If you don't, and if
you just do whatever is in your heart to do,
you're in the book of Judges. There's no king, no
authority, and everyone does what is right in
his or her own eyes. So it was a time of rebellion,
it was a time of relativism, and it was a time of judgment. We know that because it says
that, "In the days"-- verse 1-- "when the judges ruled, there
was a famine in the land." God had predicted, in the book
of Deuteronomy, if you obey Me, I'm going to bless you. I'm going to pour
out rain from Heaven. I'm going to give
you abundant crops. I'm going to give your
families, and your cattle, and all your flocks abundance. If you don't obey me, if
you sinned against me, I'm going to send
famine to the land. There's a lot of
different reasons, mechanically or naturally,
why famine happened. Sometimes it happened
because lack of rainfall. That's the typical reason. Sometimes it happened because
invaders came into the land and destroyed crops, so
they weren't as productive. Sometimes it was high winds
along with no rain from Heaven. Sometimes it was insects,
like the Book of Joel, that would destroy the crops. But the real reason is
the children of Israel are in the midst of a
cycle that we talked about in the book of
Judges-- do you remember it-- called the sin cycle. And there were four
phases to the sin cycle. Rebellion was the first stage. They rebelled against God. Retribution was
the second stage. God allowed Israel to
be tormented by enemies. Repentance was the third
stage, and restitution was the fourth stage. That's the sin cycle. It happened over and
over and over and over and over and over again
in the book of Judges. By the time we get to the book
of Ruth, which takes place during the time of
Judges, the book opens up by telling us we
are in stage number two. There is God's retribution
because of their rebellion. There is a famine
that has hit the land. "The name of the man"-- verse 2-- "was Elimelech." Great name. His name was a testimony. Elimelech is a Hebrew name
that comes from two words-- Eli and melech. Eli means "my God." El is the generic term for
God in the Hebrew language. When you add an I to
it, you personalize it-- Eli is my God. So his name was my God is King. Great name, right? His parents had
high hopes for him. Here's a kid who's going to
be named my God is the King. Now, if you live up to
that name, that's awesome. If you don't, it
ain't so awesome. But he had an opportunity
at every stage of his life to give a testimony. Imagine Elimelech
at work, and the PA says, Elimelech, line 6-- because you're
saying, in Hebrew, "My God is King, line 6." And so he had an opportunity
to tell co-workers how God was his King. Just keep that in mind that
that is what his name means. "The name of his
wife was Naomi"-- Naomi is a word that
means pleasantness. --"and the names of his two
sons Mahlon and Chilion; Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to the country
of Moab and remained there." Now, when couples had
kids in those days, they would name their
child either their hopes and their aspirations for
that child to fulfill, or they would name
that child based on something that happened
during birth-- circumstances around the birth. So for example, when
Elimelech got his name, his parents were naming him
with high hopes that here's a kid who's going to live
up to that testimony, that he's going to carry around
with him, my God is the King. However, sometimes
things happened at birth, and the kids were
named based upon that. So when Isaac and
Rebekah had two children, the first one that came out
of the womb was all red, and he had hair all over his
body, so they called him Hairy. That's a good name. Look at how much hair he has. Hairy, that's what Esau means. And then his brother, the
twin, followed right after him, grabbing the foot, grabbing
the heel of his brother Hairy. So as soon as little
Jacob came out-- Yakov means heel catcher. So he's grabbing--
look at that, he's trying to trip his brother up. Let's call him heel catcher. So they were named based on
circumstances of their birth. When we come to these
two boys that are named, it's very interesting. Mahlon means sick, or
sickly, or weakling. And Chilion means pining,
or wailing, weeping, crying. So when I read this,
I can just think, we're dealing with some
very honest parents here. I'm sure that every
couple has a fear-- kind of a morbid fear
that, if they're-- I'm going to have a child, it's
going to be like really weird-- weird looking-- or
some deficiency. I don't know if I'll
be able to handle that. That's a fear that probably
most every parent has. Now, when these two
kids were born, it probably-- they
weren't that bad, but this is dad's reaction. He sees the first one
being born-- he goes, sick. That thing looks sick. Looks like he's just a
sick old man or something. So they named him Sickly. That's what his name means. That's a tough tag to have
to carry around with you your whole life. So they named the
first one Sicko. They named the
second one Crybaby. So you got Sicko and Crybaby-- and overreaction,
but nonetheless, it's what they were called. Now, keep something in mind-- Elimelech means my God is King. Too bad he didn't live like it. Too bad he didn't
trust the Lord and stay in the land of the covenant,
the land of Israel. And the first hint
of bad times-- there's famine in the land-- and he high tails it
across the Dead Sea to the area of Moab,
the hills of Moab. He didn't stay put. Like Abraham, when there
was a famine in the land, he went down to Egypt,
didn't trust God-- was a mistake. Likewise, Elimelech
goes to Moab. If you were to stand on
Bethlehem on the hill, you can-- if you go right to the
eastern side of Bethlehem, you can stand and
look on a clear day, and you can look down
and see the Dead Sea. And then on the other side of
the Dead Sea, the hills rise up and you see the plains,
the plateau of Moab. Moab-- the high hills
are about 3,500 feet. The lowlands in Moab
are about 2,500 feet. The soil is very
porous, so it brings in a lot of the rain
at that high plateau, as opposed to the low desert. So it can be lush. It can be great for farming. And obviously, Elimelech
and his boys were farmers, so they leave the
place of famine, and they go to
find higher ground. But there's a problem with Moab. If you remember your Bible,
you remember back in Genesis 19 that the motorbikes were
the descendants of Lot. And they were false worshippers,
or idol worshippers. They worshipped god
called Chemosh-- C-H-E-M-O-S-H. He is found
written in the Bible, in the Old Testament. And Chemosh was a very
fierce, angry god, whom they believed required
blood and sacrifice. So he was worshipped
by killing people-- especially children-- as
part of their worship. That's where he's going. He's leaving Bethlehem, and
he's going over to Moab. How many of us are
like Elimelech? There's pressure in our
lives, finances aren't good, the mortgage seems to
creep higher and higher. So we make a reaction, instead
of waiting on the Lord, being renewed. Like Isaiah said, those
who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. We can quickly react. Verse 3, it says, "Then
Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died." So evidently, he
was sickly himself. The whole family must
have been sort of-- had a tendency toward illness. "Elimelech, Naomi's
husband, died; and she was left,
and her two sons. Now they took wives of
the women of Moab"-- out of the covenant. "The name of the one was Orpah,
and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelt there
about 10 years." They're there a decade,
out of the land, in this foreign land of Moab. "Then both Mahlon and
Chilion also died." It was a matter of
time, I'm guessing. Sicko and Crybaby,
they were sort of destined to a short-lived
life, I'm guessing. So they died. "So the woman survived her
two sons and her husband." Now, there's a lot of
heartache compressed in those three short verses. I can imagine them
going to Moab. It was great at first. They settled into a nice four
bedroom tent, two-camel garage, joined the donkey lodge. They were involved
in the community. Things were looking up for them. They were good. Then one day, Naomi
gets a phone call from Moab General Hospital--
the emergency room. Ma'am, I hate to tell you this,
but your husband Elimelech-- my God is King-- just croaked. He died. Broke her heart. Some time goes by-- her two children die. Now this woman is
in the position of having lost everything-- her covering-- her husband,
her provider-- her children-- her sons, who could
provide in his absence. Now she has two
daughters-in-law-- no way to earn living in those days. They've walked away from
their land in Bethlehem. They're in danger of losing
the inheritance that they would have had in Bethlehem. So Elimelech found a grave
where he sought a home. He was seeking his livelihood,
and he lost his life. "Remember," Jesus said, "whoever
seeks his life shall lose it. Whoever loses his life
for my sake will find it." Now, at this point, it's good
to pause and bring up a point. You're a Christian. You trust the Lord. But life has taken
a turn for you. It's not what you
thought it would be. It's getting pretty
bad, and so you start to gripe and
complain, and you worry, and you fret, and you wonder,
how could a God of love allow me to go
through these things? Stop there and just think of
Naomi, bereft of her husband, her two sons, left wondering
what's going to happen, crushed by the burdens of life. And here's the principal. The worst that
God has for you is better than the best
the devil has for you-- or the world, if you will. The very worst
circumstance you could be in trusting the Lord is
still better than the very worst, or the very best,
that the world would say, here, this is what you need. This is what you want. Chase after this. God's worst is better
than the world's best. Just ask Naomi. She'd tell you. Now, fortunately, the
story doesn't end here. Be a drag, if it did, if it
said "the end" or this became a chapter in the book of Judges. But while we see, that in
the midst of disobedience, in the midst of leaving
the land of the covenant, in the midst of boys
marrying Gentile girls, we find out that God rules, but
more than that, God overrules. I love that, because
we make choices and we go, oh no,
now it's all over. Look what I did. God overrules. All things work
together for good to those who love the Lord. Verse 6-- let's
see the all things. "Then she arose with
her daughters in law that she might return
from the country of Moab, for she had heard in
the country of Moab that the Lord had visited his
people by giving them bread." Notice the language
of God in this verse. I discovered that, when a person
goes through deep dark trials, they sort of move away
from the commitment, from the covenant of the Lord. They go to the land-- the new land of their own
desires, their own will. It's good. God isn't all that important. They don't go to church as
much, Bible studies much, pray as fellowship, as much, until
there's a famine, until there's a problem, until there's
loss, there's death, there's problems,
there's issues. Then suddenly, a person gets
God conscious all of a sudden. It's interesting how that works. They start seeking the Lord. They get a divorce, they
start seeking the Lord. The bottom drops
out financially, they start seeking the Lord. David said in Psalm 1:19,
"Before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now, I keep Your word. It is those trials that God
uses to get our attention. Famine gets our attention. They're in the
retribution phase, but the retribution phase
was, as you remember, followed by the
repentance phase, as God got their attention. Therefore, because
she heard about what God was doing in
Beth and therefore she went out from
the place where she was, and her two
daughters in law with her, and they went on the way to
return to the land of Judah. Now, at this point
in the book-- and I know I'm kind of moving slow. Don't worry. I'll pick it up. But again, there's
only 85 versus. At this point in the
story, what happens next will be one of the
most decisive moments in world history. I realize that it's an
incredible statement to say, because you're
thinking, a few women in Moab going through a bad time,
having a little discussion. That's one of the most
decisive moments in history. In fact, I'll do you one better. If you were to look
at all that was going on around the world
at the time, there were some pretty
significant things occurring at this very moment. This very moment, an era
called the Neolithic era, was coming to an end--
the primitive era of making and using
stones as primary tools. It was giving way
to the Bronze Age, the early stage of the Bronze
Age into the Middle Bronze Age. The age of Greece was starting
to happen at that time. Over in China, there
was a dynasty-- a very advanced dynasty
called the Zhou Dynasty that was just being settled. The Mayan dynasty in
Central and South America was beginning to flourish. Now, you'd say, those
are important events on the world stage. But what happens here in this
little conversation in Moab tops all of those, because
if the right decision isn't made here at this
moment, you might as well go tell the Magi not
to come to Bethlehem. What do I mean? What I mean is that Jesus
is born in Bethlehem, right? He's born in
Bethlehem because it's called the City of
David, his ancestry. It's called the City
of David because David was born in Bethlehem. David was born in
Bethlehem because his dad Jesse was born in Bethlehem. Jesse was born in
Bethlehem because his dad Obed was born in Bethlehem. And Obed was born in Bethlehem
because Ruth and Boaz had Obed in Bethlehem, and because
Ruth said to her daughter-- Ruth said to her mother-in-law,
wherever you go, I will go. Your God will be my God. Your people will be my people. It's because of that decision
that the Magi later on can visit Bethlehem,
because the Messiah will be born in that city. So verse 11, Naomi said to "Turn
back my daughters; why will you go with me? Are there still sons
in my womb, that they may be your husbands"? So Orpah, one of the
daughter-in-law, said, bye-bye. She went back home to Moab. Go down to verse 16. But Ruth said, "And treat me
not to leave you or turn back from following after you, for
wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge,
I will lodge. Your people will be my people. Your God, my God. Where you die, I will die,
and there, I will be buried. The Lord do so to
me and more also, if anything but death
parts you and me. What a commitment this
young gal is making. It's a very
steadfast commitment. I'm ready to follow you
and I wherever you end up. That's pretty steadfast. It's a steadfast commitment. But it was more than a
steadfast commitment. It was a spiritual
commitment because the word that is used in this book is
Yahweh, the God of Covenant. What she's doing is saying,
I am willing to leave my people, my
family, my religion of worshipping Chemosh. And I'm ready to follow you,
and your God will be my God. This is a conversion
that takes place. So they arrived
back in Bethlehem. It's been 10 years, but
they still recognize Naomi. They go, oh, look at them. That's that lady Pleasantness. I recognize her. Where's your husband,
my God is King? He's not with her. Where's her sons? They're not with her. But she's in tow with this
young girl, who's not Israelite. She's Moabites. Verse 20-- "But she said to
them, do not call me Naomi"-- don't call me pleasantness--
call me bitterness-- Mara-- for the Almighty has
dealt very bitterly with me. It's amazing, when bad things
happen, that we blame God. Now, God is sovereign. God did allow this to happen. It was under the
sovereignty of God, but-- by the way, I just want
to let you know something, in case you didn't know. Every person who's ever
been born, so far, dies. Whether middle age, or
old age, or young age, everybody has an
expiration date. We just don't know when it is. But it's funny how we know that,
but then when it happens, like, I can't believe God allowed
that person to die, because-- I don't know-- I thought they'd
live forever and ever and ever. I've even been with people whose
99-year-old grandmother died, and they're angry at God. I'm going, really? You want her live to, what, 130? I don't think she would
enjoy that experience. But she's back, and she's
angry, she's bitter, and she's-- don't even
call me pleasant anymore. My new name is bitterness. "I went out full"-- verse 21--
"the Lord brought me home again empty. Why do you call
me pleasantness-- Naomi-- since the Lord
has testified against me, and the Almighty
has afflicted me"? So Naomi returned, and Ruth the
Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned
from the country of Moab. Now they came to
Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. The Holy Spirit puts that there
for a very specific reason, which I'll show you in a moment. So they come back. It's Mid to late April. That's when the
barley harvest starts. That's chapter 1. Chapter 2 is romance. It's love's response. Ruth will meet her
future husband, Boaz. Do you remember the
first day, first night that you met your spouse? Do you remember it? Can you think back? It's good for you to bring that
memory up from time to time-- frequently, actually. It's a good memory for me. I'm sure was a good
memory for you. I'm sure you didn't say,
go, get out of here. There was an attraction. It's why you're together. So it's good to remember
what drew you together, so as life goes on, you won't
allow things to draw you apart. Just remember that attraction. Well, he didn't turn out the
way I thought he'd turn out. Well, opposites
attract, so you're going to have to get used
to some of that adjustment. Nonetheless, verse 1--
"There was a relative of Naomi's husband,
a man of great wealth at the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz. So Ruth the Moabitess
said to Naomi, 'Please let me go to the field,
and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight
I may find favor.'" So she said to her,
go, my daughter. This is what's going on. In the Old Testament
law of the Jews, there was, in Leviticus chapter
23, the laws of the harvest. And there was a
welfare law that God instituted known as gleaning. And gleaning was the harvesters
go through and take the crops at harvest time, but they
don't go through a second time. They only go through once. They move quickly with their
paces, and when you do that, you leave a lot of stuff behind. In fact, this kind of
farming, where you'd speedily go to harvest crops, you could
sometimes leave as much as 25% of the harvestable
crop in the field. God said, leave it that way. Don't go back and get the rest. Let the poor of the land go
in and glean whatever is left, and take it home for themselves. It was a beautiful, gracious
way of God caring for the poor. It was a welfare law. So the poor could
glean in the fields, according to
Leviticus chapter 23. "Then she left"-- verse 3-- "and
went and gleaned in the field after the reapers." Now, watch this sentence-- "and she happened to come to
the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the
family of Elimelech." That's what it seemed like. It seemed like it
was happenstance. It just happened that way. It was just a circumstance. She goes out in Bethlehem. There's lots of landowners,
lots of fields-- just happened to
go to that field. It didn't just happen. It seemed like it just
happened, but God is overruling. "Now behold, Boaz
came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers,
'The Lord be with you.' And they answered him,
'The Lord bless you.'" Boy, does not sound like any of the
work crews I've ever been on. My dad was a builder,
and he would have me in the summer working
on some of those crews, and there wasn't this
kind of language. It wasn't God bless you. It was God's something
else you, usually. What a great work crew to be on. The boss comes and he
says, the Lord be with you. And they say, God
bless you, man. And then in verse 5, he
says to the workers, hey, who's this chick? Whose young woman is this? Now, back to the language
of the work crews-- Boaz obviously is
a spiritual man. For the boss to
come to the fields and invoke the name of God-- God be with you, he
says to his workers-- God bless you, is
the response-- he is a spiritual, centered man. He becomes the husband of Ruth. Gals, if you're
husband hunting-- and I would say you probably
shouldn't be that way, but you probably are anyway-- if you're hunting for a
husband, make sure that he is God-oriented, that he loves the
Lord, that his greatest focus-- and it's not compartmentalized-- oh, praise the Lord, God
bless you, when I'm at church, but then when I'm with the
work crew, it's foul language. Get somebody who doesn't live
the compartmentalized life, but it's the same. That's why it takes time
to watch and observe. How are they at work? How are they with their friends? How are they with their family? Do they really love the Lord? That's what she was
after, and that's what the Lord will
provide for her. Now, notice back in verse 2,
Ruth said to Naomi, "Please"-- notice this word please-- that's a gracious term-- we don't say it enough-- "Please let me go to the
field, and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight
I may find favor"-- not knowing who that would be. And look in verse 7-- to
Boaz, she says, "Please let me glean and gather after the
reapers among the sheaves." And then verse 10-- "So she fell on her face." Ouch. Now, that just
means she got down as a term or a way of showing
of humility and respect. It was often done. "She fell on her face,
bowed down to the ground, and said to him, why have
I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of
me, since I am a foreigner"? But listen to the sweetness. It's always, please, please. Please, mother-in-law, can
I go work out in the fields and sweat all day in
the hot sun, please? Please, Boaz, can
I work in labor as a poor person in
your fields and glean? Now, what if your kids came
to you and said, mom, dad, can I please clean my room? And then after that, can
I please straighten out the garage? Then, can I go back in the
backyard, and can I please clean up after the dogs-- please? You'd need therapy
for about a month. What in the world
got into my kid? Well, maybe the Holy Spirit. But here's what it shows us. This graciousness is
still in her voice. She has lost her husband. She's lost her father-in-law. She's lost her brother-in-law. She has left her home. It's been a long journey. And all of those
bitter experiences has not robbed her of
a sweetness of spirit. That's unusual. It's awesome. The sorrows of the
past haven't robbed her of the pleasantness and the
graciousness in the present. It's a beautiful,
beautiful testimony. Now, compare her
to another woman, you know about in the Bible-- in John chapter 5,
the woman at the-- 4 and 5-- the woman at
the well of Samaria. Jesus goes to Samaria-- John chapter 4-- sees a woman
who has had five husbands, is living with a man is not
her husband, and she has-- she's just weathered with
resentment and bitterness, and the kind of
language she uses-- she's just beat up
by life, and she let life get the best of her. Compare her with Ruth-- totally different spirit. So now, I'm turning the corner. We talked about looking
for the right husband. Husbands, guys, if
you're wife hunting, look for a gal with
the right attitude. Well, I'm looking for
a chick that's hot, and she's going to look awesome. That's where we place our focus. A woman who fears the
Lord shall be praised. Every part of our physique
will change rapidly. There's a law of
the universe, folks. It's called gravity. And we all lose. So Peter says-- 1 Peter chapter 3-- It's not fancy hair, gold
jewelry, or fine clothes that should make you beautiful. He says to women,
no, your beauty should come from within you. It's the beauty of a
gentle and quiet spirit that will never be destroyed,
and is very precious to God. Now, in verse 11, Boaz
answered and said to her, "It has been fully
reported to me all that you have done
for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband,
and how you left your father and mother in the
land of your birth, and you have come to a people
whom you did not know before." Your reputation precedes you. I've heard of your kindness. You're the talk around town-- your attitude, your commitment. "The Lord repay your
work, and a full reward"-- it's one of my favorite
verses in scripture-- certainly in this book-- "a full reward be given you
by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you
have come for refuge." You've lost it all. You didn't go back home and take
refuge at your parents' house. You took the risk. You took the step of faith. You went into a new
land, a new god, but you have come under the
care, the covenant care. And the word he uses is--
or is used in the sentence here-- is Yahweh. The word Lord, notice
it's capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Whenever
you find that in the Old Testament, that capital LORD
is a reflection of the Hebrew tetragrammaton four-consonant
YHWH, or W-H-Y-H or V-H. YHWH-- it's the
covenant name of God. You've left home. You've come under the shelter,
the shadow, the protection of Yahweh, the God of Israel. Boaz heard about her
spiritual commitment. Boaz heard how, at that
little Y in the road, when Orpah went back home, Ruth
said, where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. And he thought, now,
that is an awesome woman. She is a converted woman. She's a Gentile who comes under
the covenant of the Jewish God. In verse 15, she's out-- Boaz, in the meantime,
says, stay for lunch, gives her parched grain. She has a nice big lunch. Verse 15-- "When She
rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his
young men, saying, 'Let her glean even
among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. Also let grain from the
bundles fall purposely for her; leave it that she may glean,
and do not rebuke her.'" So this gal's going to tag
along out in the fields, and she's going to glean,
like the poor people do. If she wanders out into other
fields, don't yell at her. In fact, throw out a
little bundle from time to time on the road
as a little extra. So she'll come by and go, whoa,
look what I happened to find. Awesome. Give her a little extra. Give her abundance. So she goes home, tells Naomi. Naomi-- mother-in-law--
hears about this, and encourages the process. Verse 20-- "Then Naomi said
to her daughter-in-law, hallelujah." Didn't say that, but that's-- the NSV, they do Skip version. It's almost, though.
"'Blessed be the Lord'"-- praise the Lord-- "'who has
not forsaken his kindness to the living and the dead.' And Naomi said to her, 'This
man is a relation of ours, one of our'"-- goel is the Hebrew word--
"'close relatives.'" Kinsman, redeemer--
that's the word goel. Kinsman, redeemer--
close relative. So I love this about Naomi. She's totally in for this. She kind of sees
what's happening. The dominoes are getting set up. And she encourages
the process that she's going to tell her
daughter-in-law to go after this guy. Which I like, because
she could've said, you'll never find
another man like my son-- was a good husband to you. None of that stuff-- she encourages a second chance. Now, there's an
undercurrent theme I mentioned at the very
beginning of this book-- I want to bring it up again-- and that's the idea
of God's providence. God's providence, once again,
is God using natural events to effect a
supernatural outcome. He arranges events. They seem to you like it
just happened, but it didn't. See, I look back and
I think, you know, it just happened
that I was invited one night to my ex girlfriend's
apartment for a potluck. And it just happened
that, when I went, there was a girl who happened
to be there named Lenya, and we happened to
strike up a conversation. And then it just happened that
I had a friend of mine who said, I'm going to move
to Albuquerque. And I happened to say, why? And he happened to say,
you ought to come with me. And all those
little happenstances became the will of God unfolded. And you don't see
it at the time. You see it looking back, right? Go, wow, if I wouldn't
have met that person, if that person wouldn't have
said that, if I wouldn't have gotten into that wreck,
that a little fender bender, I wouldn't have met so and so. That wouldn't have happened. So that's providence. It's not miraculous. In a miracle, God
intervenes in natural law. And a miracle is
the intervention and superimposition of
supernatural over natural law. That's a miracle. Providence is God uses natural
events, natural circumstances, natural law. The word providence-- our
word-- comes from the Latin word provideo. Provideo comes from
two Latin words-- pro, which means before-- video means to see-- video. So provideo-- providence
means to see it in advance, to see something beforehand. God sees your whole life,
and knew your whole life before you were ever born. You're just discovering what
He saw in the beginning. You don't know it. Things just happen to you. They're programmed
and planned by God. That's providence. He arranges the natural to
affect the supernatural. So for example, notice the
provenance, the timing of this. It says, back in chapter
1, it was the beginning of the barley harvest. Now, Naomi and Ruth come
back as poor people. God's laws to care for the poor
is that you go out and glean. So now, it puts poor people
and professional landowners in the same field
at the same time. Timing was perfect. The place was perfect. She just happened to glean
in the field of Boaz. There's a lot of fields
in Bethlehem, as I said. By the way, Bethlehem
is a Hebrew name that we talk a lot
about around Christmas. A lot of people don't know
that the Hebrew word for bread is lechem. Lechem is bread. Beit is house or place. So Beit Lechem-- Bethlehem-- actually means the
house or the place of bread. Why? Because it was-- it's
terraced, and it was called the bread basket of Judah. It's where lots of
farmers had lots of crops, and Boaz happened to be one
of those where Ruth just happened to be gleaning. So it was the right timing,
and it was the right place. As it says in chapter
2, she happened to come to a part of the
field belonging to Boaz. Chapter 3, we come
to love's request. Now, this is sort of the heart
of the romance of the story. Naomi is so stoked. She's being the matchmaker here. You ever see the movie
Fiddler on the Roof? So at this point in
the book of Ruth, comes the song matchmaker,
matchmaker, make me a match. Find me a find,
catch me a catch. You know the rest? Matchmaker, matchmaker,
look in your book, and-- perfect match. Why am I singing to
you on Wednesday night? I have no clue. So Naomi becomes the
matchmaker, but really, God's the matchmaker. It's a match made in Heaven. God had all of this planned. Verse 1 "Naomi, her
mother-in-law said, 'My daughter, shall I not
seek security for you, that it may be well with you'? Now, Boaz, whose young women
you were with, is he not our'"-- goel, relative,
kinsman, redeemer? "'In fact, he is winnowing
barley tonight at the threshing floor.'" Winnowing is
where you take the grain, throw it in the air in the
late afternoon, early evening. The wind comes,
takes the chaff away. The meat of the grain
falls to the ground. That's how they would winnow. "Therefore wash yourself
and anoint yourself, put on the best garment, go
down to the threshing floor, but do not make herself
known to the man until he has finished
eating and drinking." Naomi was practical . You know what she's saying to
her daughter-in-law, right? Look like a million bucks. Look like a knock-out. Put perfume on. Get the best dress. Do your hair just
right-- makeup. Make him go, wow. Because he already
said, who's this chick? Wait until he sees you tonight. "Then it shall be,
when he lies down, that you shall notice
the place where he lies; and you shall go in, uncover
his feet, and lie down." That sounds weird to us. I'll tell you about
that in a moment. "And he will tell you
what you should do." Go down to verse 9. She goes. They're winnowing. He's done. He goes down to sleep along
with all the other winnowers. It's night time. She lies down. He feels, senses somebody's
down there at his feet, and he goes, who are you? What are you doing at my feet? Are you smelling my feet, or-- who are you? "So she answered, 'I am
Ruth, your maidservant.'" Now, listen to this-- "Take your maidservant
under your wing, for you are a close relative." She's proposing to him. She's popping the
question-- marry me. Because they're poor, they
have to sell the land that belonged to Elimelech. And according to the laws of
the Old Testament, the only way that land can remain
in the family is a close relative has to buy
it back, has to redeem it. But there was also a
law in the Old Testament that, if a man and a woman
marry and the husband dies without giving a male
offspring to his wife, then the brother
of the dead husband has to go into that woman
and produce an heir. It was a way to keep the
family lineage going. Again, that's an odd kind
of a law to our ears today. But she is proposing to him. She is saying, take me
under your covering. Cover me over with
your protection. She's asking for
lifelong protection. So she's asking the question. It was like a Sadie Hawkins
thing, but it worked. "Then he said, 'Blessed are
you of the Lord, my daughter. For you have shown more
kindness in the end than at the beginning, in that you
did not go after young men, whether rich or poor.'" Boaz is probably around
45 to 50 years of age. She's much younger-- 25, 30-- half his age. He rightfully calls
her "my daughter," because she's at that age. He was a contemporary, remember,
with Naomi and Elimelech. "And now, my
daughter, do not fear. I will do for you
all that you request, for all the people
of my town know that you are a virtuous woman. Now, it is true that I am
a close relative; however, there is a relative
closer than I. Stay this night'"-- verse 13-- "'stay this night. In the morning,
it shall be, if he will perform the duty of
a close relative for you, good; let him do it. If he does not want to
perform the duty for you, then I will perform the duty
for you, as the Lord lives. Lie down until morning.'" Nothing immoral is going on. He is simply saying, I accept. I will be you're covering. I will be your protection. So the garment is
symbolic of an intent. Chapter 4, the last little
chapter, this is love's reward. "Now, Boaz went to the
gate and sat down there; and behold, the close relative
of whom Boaz had spoken came by. And Boaz said,
'Come aside, friend. Sit down.'" So this is the guy who has
the first right of refusal-- the closer kinsman who could
redeem the land for the family and marry Ruth. So he says, come here. Sit down. Let's talk. The courtroom was
the gate of the city. It's where all the legal
proceedings took place. It's where all the
business took place. It's where all the
news was disseminated. So they're at the gate,
this open, large enclosure at the entrance to the city. "And he took 10 men of the
elders of the city, and said, 'Sit down here.' So they sat down." They're going like, what's up? "Then he said to
the close relative, 'Naomi, who has come back
from the country of Moab, sold a piece of
land which belonged to our brother Elimelech. And I thought to
inform you, saying, buy it back in the presence
of the inhabitants, the elders of my people. If you will redeem it or
buy it back, redeem it; if you will not redeem it,
then tell me, that I may know; for there is no one
but you to redeem it, and I am next after you.'"
OK, really quickly-- when Jewish people had
a piece of property, they had a title deed. If they lost the property
or had to sell the property, there was a title deed-- a scroll that was
kept by the seller, and one that was for public
records, for the buyer. So the buyer and the seller
had access to the deed. So the deed was this scroll
sealed with wax seals. On the inside-- sometimes
even on the outside-- were written the stipulations
of the transaction. Now, for somebody to redeem
that land that would be lost, there were qualifications. Number one, you
had to be related-- a goel, a kinsman redeemer. Number two, you had to
be willing to do it. Like, yep, I want that. I want to expand my
boundaries, get more land. And number three,
you had to be able. You had to have the money. So you got to be
related, willing, able. "So Boaz said, on the day that
you buy the field'"-- verse 5-- "'from the hand of Naomi, you
must also buy it from Ruth the Moabitess, the
wife of the dead, to perpetuate the name
of the dead through his inheritance.'" Now,
notice how slick Boaz is. He goes, hey, man, there's
some land in the family. Do you want it? Yeah. OK, but there's a catch. The catch is, if you get
the land, you get the chick. You got to marry her. Now, she was obviously
a very beautiful woman, but notice this. "And the close relative said,
'I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I ruin my
own inheritance.'" In other words, I'm
married with kids. We've already got
this thing going on. I'm not going to
mess this one up. And in verse 9, "Boaz said to
the elders and all the people, 'You are witnesses this day,
that I have brought all that was Elimelech's'"-- that I have purchased--
bought-- all that was Elimelech's-- '"and all that
was Chilion's and Mahlon's'"-- Sicko and Crybaby's
land as, well-- "'from the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess,
the widow of Mahlon, I have acquired as my wife to
perpetuate the name of the dead throughout his inheritance,
that the name of the dead may not be cut off
from among the brethren and from his
position at the gate. You are witnesses this day.' So Boaz took Ruth. She became his wife;
and he went into her, and the Lord gave
her conception, and she bore a son." Verse 17-- "They
called his name Obed. He is the Father of Jesse,
the Father of David." Now begins the royal line. This is important
because King David will be mentioned, highlighted,
become the seminal king. Now, have you ever
seen a person, and when you look
at the person, you go, that person
reminds me of somebody? You've had that
experience, right? I've had people come
up to me and say, you remind me of somebody. I had somebody come
up to me recently. You remind me of somebody. He's a preacher. I said, well, I'm
reminding you of me. You probably remembered
the younger me. This is the older me. But I say, no, no, no, you
remind me of my brother, or you remind me of my
uncle, or something. When I look at Boaz,
I think, you remind me of somebody named Jesus. Because what he does
with Ruth and with this land is a picture of
what Jesus Christ will do. The goel, the
kinsman redeemer, is one of the clearest pictures
of Jesus in the Bible-- a bridegroom who
buys a Gentile bride, and prepares that
Gentile to be his wife. The Gentile bride is the church. Jesus gave a parable in which
he said, the kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in
the field, which a man found and hid, and for
the joy over it, he goes and sells all that he
has, and he buys the field. Real quickly, fast forward
to the ultimate real estate transaction in history,
Revelation chapter 5. You don't have to turn there,
but in Revelation chapter 5, John sees the scroll in
the right hand of him who sat on the throne,
written on the inside and on the outside,
sealed with seven seals. And somebody said, who is worthy
to take the scroll and then loose the seals? And nobody came forth. So John said, I wept much. Why did he weep? Because he realized
what is being held is the title deed to the Earth-- the title deed to the Earth
that was lost when Adam gave it away, essentially, at the
fall to Satan the usurper, who became the god of
this world, the prince of the power of the air. And nobody came forward to
redeem it, and so he wept much. Revelation chapter 5 is what we
call-- or what you would call, if you're in the real
estate business-- the closing, where
Jesus, at the end, comes to fully redeem the Earth. He redeemed by his own blood. He is the kinsman
who was related-- that's the first
qualification-- he was related. The Word became flesh
and dwelt among us. So first qualification,
he's related us. That's why there
was an incarnation. Jesus became a man,
flesh and blood, because now he's related
to us, as the goel. He was willing to do it-- the second qualification. He says, nobody takes
my life from me. I lay it down of myself. I have the power to lay
it down and take it again. So he was willing to do it. And third, He was able to do it. He had what it
took to pay for it. What did He use for his payment? Blood. Paul said, feed the
flock of God, which he purchased with his own blood. Jesus Christ, related,
willing, and able, steps forward and
takes the scroll from God the Father
on the throne. And that is the picture of what
goes on during that tribulation period, and ends when Jesus
comes back, to rule and reign as King of Kings
and Lord of Lord over the field from which
He purchased the bride-- the bride of Christ, the church. So yeah, it's great story. [APPLAUSE] What's amazing is
that the book of Ruth takes place during the
time of the Judges, which were such dark days. And in the midst
of such dark days, such a beautiful
love story occurs. Here's the parallel. We live in a dark day and
age, but behind the scenes, God is all about
preparing a bride-- the church. And everyone who says,
yes, Jesus, yes, Lord, I give myself to you, I
surrender myself to you, becomes part of
that great company-- the bride of Christ-- comprised of Jew and Gentile-- largely Gentile-- that he
calls out, that become his own, and will enjoy that
inheritance forever. Father, as we
close this book, we open our hearts to these great
truths of a kinsman redeemer, and of the great
providence of almighty God. Lord, you gave, through Your
spirit, in this book of Ruth, a picture, a preview in
very easy-to-understand form of what is going to take
place with a greater transaction at the
end of time, When the lion of the tribe of
Judah, the Lamb of God slain, steps forward and
takes that scroll and unlooses the seals,
fulfilling the qualifications, and redeems the world
lost at the fall, and buys and redeems the
world back to You, Father. And then Jesus will rule
and reign over this creation for 1,000 years of
a restored Earth. The field itself
will be renewed, and the church,
the bride, will be in that field
ruling and reigning with Him for 1,000 years. Lord, thank you
for this preview of great and coming attractions. And I pray for anyone
who doesn't know You, hasn't committed
their life to You, that they would say yes to
Jesus, yes to the Savior, yes to the bridegroom,
the lover of their soul. If you're here tonight
and you don't know Christ, you can just right now say,
Lord, I believe, I trust. I turn my life, my self,
my future over to You. Forgive me of my sin. Cleanse me from unrighteousness. Give me a brand new future. It's in his name I pray. Amen. We hope you enjoyed this
message from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Church
for more resources, visit CalvaryNM.church. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from The Bible from 30,000 Feet.
