So Boaz Took Ruth

the following message by Alistair beg is made available by truth for life for more information visit us online at truth for you to take your Bibles and turn to the Old Testament with me to the Book of Ruth you'll find out that our Bibles around you if you've come without one this evening and if you would like to be able to go directly to Ruth chapter four you'll find it on page one eight nine page one eight nine we've taken a pause from our studies in Ruth and people have been asking where where is Ruth where is where is she I said well she's coming we'll be back so here we are for those of you who've been waiting I I hope that you've been reading Ruth chapter four verse one meanwhile boys went up to the town gate and sat there when the kinsman redeemer he had mentioned came along Boaz said come over here my friend and sit down so he went over and sat down well as to ten of the elders of the town and said sit here and they did so then he said to the kinsman redeemer Naomi who has come back from Moab is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother Allen Allah I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people if you will redeem it do so but if you will not tell me so I will know for no one has the right to do it except you and I am next in line I will redeem it he said then Boaz said on the day you buy the land from Naomi from and from Ruth the more Bettis you acquire the dead man's Widow in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property at this the kinsman redeemer said then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate you redeem it yourself I cannot do it now in earlier times in Israel for the redemption and transfer of property to become final one part he took off his sandal and gave it to the other this was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel so the kinsman redeemer said to Boaz buy it yourself and he removed his sandal then boys announced to the elders and all the people today your witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech Killian and I have also acquired ruth the moabite s melons widow as my wife in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from the town records today you are witnesses then the elders and all those that the gate said we are witnesses may the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah who together built up the house of Israel may you have standing in Ephrata and be famous in Bethlehem through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman may your family be like that of Paris whom Tamar bore to Judah so boaz took ruth and she became his wife then he went to her and the Lord enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to her son I should keep your Bibles open on your lap let's pray Lord God again we ask that as we study the Bible together that beyond the pages and the voice that we hear we may meet you the Living God that we might hear your voice and that you will use your word to convince and to convict to correct to reprove to encourage to accomplish the purposes that you have ordained for it for we pray in Jesus name well we're studying the only book in the Bible that is devoted to the domestic history of a woman I don't know if you've thought about that but it is true and interestingly a woman who is actually a foreigner in Israel I have had to resist in my notes and in thinking about this evening the temptation of rehearsing the whole story all over again because it is a wonderful story and those of us who have been studying it and thinking about it I think have found that in much the same way as going back to a wonderful meal and going back to the leftovers somehow or another when it is a really good meal the leftovers with a little bit of heat can taste as good or even better again and as I've gone back and rehearsed this story I found that my heart has been kindled I hope you have also but I have to resist the temptation I hope in our final study to read from a book that someone sent to me which is a children's version of Ruth and it is the whole book of Ruth set to poetry so I'm looking forward to doing that and you may want to bring your children on that occasion actually it's probably written the reason I like it so much is written at my intelligence level and I benefited from it greatly but chapter 3 you will recall those have you been present ends with Ruth having met with Boas in secrecy all of chapter 3 has taken place as it were under the cover of darkness she had been as a result of the encounter gone home to Naomi and Naomi has urged her there in verse 18 of chapter 3 to wait my daughter until you find out what happens the word colloquially means sit tight and Ruth comes home after all of the drama of that evening as she has encountered Bors on the threshing floor she has come bearing the encouraging gifts that have been sent by the hand of Boaz and the wisdom of Naomi says now I just want you to sit tight with that wonderful female intuition finely honed by time and by circumstance Naomi is pretty sure that Boas isn't gonna dilly-dally when it comes to the issue that has been raised she reckons that he's going to want to settle this matter very very quickly and so she says I think if you just hold on things will fall out in a moment or two I summarized chapter four under three separate headings I'll give a first of these to you now I wrote down first of all the gate the negotiation and the sandal the gate the negotiation and the sandal because that's really what the first eight verses are all about Naomi is right Boaz has wasted no time in getting to the place he needs to get to in order to deal with this issue that has transpired on the previous evening he is gone we're told in verse one to the town gate and I tried in my mind's eye to see him there perhaps under the cover of the morning mist hastening in order that he might get in position as early as he possibly could there would be people at that time in the morning traders beginning to set up their stalls beggars hoping for an ideal spot so that they would be strategically placed when the little trickle of a crowd began to develop into a stream and a great conglomeration of people making their way out of the town to head to their place of employment the gate area in a place like this and in this period was spacious and purposefully so because the towns and the cities and some of you are visited in the middle east were built in a very compact fashion many times the roads and the thoroughfares were actually in darkness because of the way the places were constructed usually very narrow and cloistered away and so there really was no place within the labyrinth of those streets and byways for people to congregate and so the places where they gathered were at the gates where often the architecture provided even places for them to sit so that they may conduct business so much like an Italian Piazza serving as both a marketplace and civic center there the law was administered and their business was conducted a good concordance incidentally will help you with this you just simply need to look up gate and then you can go and look all around the Bible at every time the town gate or the city gate is mentioned and when you do you will find for example the words of Job 28 when I went to the gate of the city and took my seat in the public square the young men saw me and stepped aside and the old men rose to their feet in Proverbs 31 a Solomon speaks of the wife who whose nobility is a commendation to her husband he says her husband is respected at the city gate where he takes his seat among the elders of the land now until we understand that we may say to herself what's the big deal about going to a gate well that wasn't it he was just going to a gate that was hanging on a fence in a garden somewhere but he was going to the main central place where the citizens would gather in order that commerce might be conducted and in order as I say that the law might be administered so the writer of this story and it is a wonderful story has both of the characters sitting at the end of chapter 3 and Naomi has told Ruth I want you to sit tight and here as chapter 4 opens Boaz has gone to the town gate and he's sitting at the town gate now wouldn't be true to say that he went there because he had an appointment rather he went there hoping for an appointment and the reason that he went there because he was committed to doing the right thing that's the reason that he went to the town gate you remember in Chapter 3 he had said to Ruth when she said spread your blanket over me when she made this proposal of marriage to him essentially he said well you know I'm so gratified by your kindness and all of the considerations of your heart but I need to tell you and you'll find this in the heart of chapter 3 I need to tell you that there is another kinsman redeemer who's actually in line before me so I really like the idea but I have I have a problem because I must do the right thing and because he was determined to do the right thing he goes to take his place in the city gate in order that he might make contact with us in and see just how he's placed I don't know about you but I find myself reading this and saying well come on Boaz she loves you you really like her don't go fiddling around to the gate you never know what might happen marry her for goodness sake but that would be wrong wouldn't it because the first question every day about everything is always the same question what is the right thing to do and if you determine in every decision that you make to make that the first question you ask at least you've asked the right question at the right time and because he is a man of such integrity because he is concerned about the law of Israel because he is concerned to live in purity before God he is unable to simply allow himself to rush off on a great swell of emotion nor is he about to encourage this young girl to do the same so he says to her we're going to have to do the right thing alas how many marriages have been consummated without taking time to ask that question what is the right thing to do just because you think he is the correct package or he looks the right way on the outside or you think she's the the real deal or whatever it is or you got a feeling in the pit of your stomach or you had a great surge of emotion or whatever it was you must always ask what is the right thing to do and when you're getting the answer to the right thing to do you're gonna get it by reading your Bible carefully you're gonna get it by listening to your mother and father you're gonna be getting it by paying attention to those who know you best and love you most and then ultimately you will get it as a result of the Spirit of God bringing circumstance and guidance from Scripture and the counsel of godly friends and that concurring with the feeling within your heart but if the feeling in your heart takes you counter to all of those other issues don't do it don't spend another moment even considering it so what we discover is that the circumstances of born boys and Ruth were such that they were determined to act in concurrence with the laws of redemption because of what it meant for them and also for what it appla implied in all of Israel now don't misunderstand me that's not to say that they were marrying each other or they were moving towards me propelled simply by external circumstances it is clear that their hearts belong to each other but nevertheless they were not about to be swept away by pure emotion so boaz goes to do what he needs to do and he puts himself in the best possible place to meet this other individual this is the thoroughfare this is where the people come and if he happens to find him here then he's in an ideal spot because this is where the elders of the city deliberate over issues like this and if he can meet him at this exact place then he can perhaps get enough of those fellows together and he can conduct business right there and then and proceed with his day and that's exactly what happens when the kinsman redeemer he had mentioned came along he's sitting there looking and he can't believe his eyes here comes mr. so-and-so he says you remember this in back in chapter 2 Ruth says to Naomi she said I would like to go out and see if I can find favor in in the eyes of somebody and go and glean behind the Reapers in somebody's field and you remember back in chapter 2 and it says and as it happened as it happened amongst all the fields and all the possibilities in whose field does she find herself in the field of boys as it happened and here as it happened he came down the road an apparently inconsequential moment being guided by the providential choice of God putting together the decisions of life wonderful incidentally I read as my own extra extra credit homework Genesis chapter 4 and the wonderful story of the way in which Rebecca is chosen as a wife for Isaac if you haven't read that story in a while and you have time before you go to sleep read Genesis chapter 24 there will be extra credit for it I don't know who gives out the credit but anyway there will be so Boas summons the individual eiseley the King James Version is wonderful the way it reads in the King James Version is this whole such on one turn aside down here see here just walking along chagrined Boulevard and someone says oh such an one turn aside sit down here well that's what he says and the remarkable thing is not only that he said that but that the fellow sat down and he turned aside and he sat down come over here my friend and sit down so he went over and sat down and then boys took ten of the elders of the town and he said sit here and they did so this guy's pretty powerful guy excuse me sir sit down okay and hey the 10 of you over here sit down ok fine we'll be right there not a problem an indication incidentally probably are the significance of Boas in terms of his position in the culture but also in terms of the quality of his character if he'd been a scurrilous rascal people that said you know what you go sit down somewhere boys we don't have time for you or your kind but he's able to say excuse me could you sit for a moment certainly and you fellas could you help us there's a matter here we need to discuss and immediately they're right there it's interesting isn't it that this strategic character has no name in the record clearly Boas knew his name and yet he doesn't give him a name and there's no name here if I day refers to him as mr. Sohn soar in in cockney terms what's night hey what's night which is what's his name or how was your features hey come here might sit down here yeah what's night sit down why they don't give his name I can only think of two reasons one they didn't give a name the writer doesn't give a name because he doesn't want the embarrassment to follow to his ears when they realized that this man who had an opportunity to enter into the circumstances of these people decided not to do it or perhaps that there is a sense of judgment in it in that this man deciding that he wants to preserve his name and as a result of his desire to preserve his name to preserve his inheritance and to preserve his family he's unprepared to do anything for Ruth and so the writer says well you were so concerned to preserve your name I'm not even gonna give you her name and so the biblical record doesn't have his name he's just mr. so-and-so it's just a little reminder in passing for those of us who are trying to make a name for ourselves forget it let someone else make a name for you let someone else praise you don't you worry about your name now the negotiations which follow are there you can see them they're straightforward ten of the elders acting as witnesses it was a standard practice and I could spend a long time now complicating this issue I don't want to do that I want to run the risk of simplifying it to the point where you said I'm gonna have to go and get a commentary I'm sure it's much more interesting than the way in which he described it but I've told you before that the law made provision for the widow who was childless it was her late husband's brother's duty to marry her as a widow the law also provided for the care of an individual who was forced as a result of widowhood to sell the property which had fallen to her as a result of marriage and the next-of-kin of the original owner had first dibs at buying that property and the object in both instances was the preservation of the family and the family name as you see in verse 5 and again in verse 10 so the marriage responsibility was seen as a duty and the process of the purchase of the property was to be regarded as an opportunity now we may want to think of them the other way around but that's the way in which is is presented marriage you're gonna have to marry uh-huh it's your duty okay but guess what you get to have this big field it's your opportunity ah ha now that's why TS mu need a little Irishman when I asked him at the age of 78 why he had never married he said he would rather go through life wondering what he didn't have and having what he didn't want but cuz he recognized the peculiar duty that was involved in marriage and so it is that here Boaz confronts this individual in that way the property that was held by Naomi went both in equity and in law with the hand of Ruth it was a package deal you couldn't get the one without the other and so Boaz very properly and yet I think you will agree very skillfully sets before this kinsman-redeemer first of all the privilege that is represented in the redemption of the land that's where he starts isn't it interesting Naomi who has come back from Moab verse 3 is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother linoleic I thought I should bring it to your attention so that you might have the opportunity of redeeming it and as you're reading this story for the first time you're reading it and of course you were already on the site of Boaz I hope you're saying come on boy wise you know you got to get this girl and you're reading along and it says and go ahead and you've seen yourself he's not going to redeem it he can't possibly redeem it and all of a sudden in verse 4 you hear the man saying I will redeem it oh oh s I told you not to do that I said don't do that I said this go ahead and marry O'Reilly don't do this boys but I says wait a minute I'm not finished yet hear me out I'm not done with the deal so he says that yeah now listen before we start chucking sandals around here before we start swapping sandals and what know there's this another part of the story that I need to mention to you because on the day you buy the land from Naomi and Ruth the mobit assume he hasn't mentioned to this point you acquire the dead man's widow all the guy says wait wait a minute no no no I'm in for the land but I'm not in for the widow and if the land and the widow go together if it's a package deal then I'm out boy says well I guess you're out and the reason that he was out you see is because I might endanger my own estate you see in the first instance if he just was buying the land he was redeeming the land then it gave him the opportunity of an accruing asset the only thing that could be a detriment to that would be if Naomi somehow or another were to marry and have an heir because then the heir would fall heir to the land and so it would be of no advantage to him there was no possibility of that but now when he hears about Ruth the Moga tests then he realizes where minute if I do this I will not only be out for the purchase price of the land I also get a wife that not particularly interested in having and furthermore when all is said and done this will dilute my own Empire and will create the possibility that what I'm holding in trust for my own children will be diminished as a result of me entering into this legal transaction and so he says quite honestly you just go ahead and redeem it yourself there six I cannot do it and then the kinsman-redeemer in verse eight removed his sandal symbolic gesture we're given in a little aside there in earlier times in Israel for the redemption and transfer of property become final one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other that's kind of nice isn't it you know maybe have your social security number on the board of your sand or something like that but the transaction was sealed in a legal way there's purpose in that isn't that in order that not only would be here with their ears the commitment that was made by both parties but also that they would even see the transaction unfolding before them so that in that kind of community they would be able to say AHA no no no no I remember very clearly no no no it was mr. so-and-so who took his sandal off and gave it to Boaz it wasn't boys they gave his sandal to mr. so-and-so and I remember hearing what he said he said if that's the case I will not redeem it you go ahead and buy it yourself and all the way through the Bible actually we have these wonderful symbols to reinforce things we have it when we come around the Lord's table do we not as we're nourished by bread and sustained by drink so we are nourished in the gathering around the Lord's table in Baptism we have a graphic reminder here and now I rescind my rights to myself and I follow Christ we can say it but we depict it in marriage the same is true we could simply say things but we don't simply say things we say and and and I now declare you husband and wife on the basis of the fact of the giving and receiving of a ring and by the joining of your hands for as much as X&Y I have declared the same before this congregation and of witness to that fight by the giving and receiving of a ring and by the joining of their hands and now to clear them husband and wife so you have in the simple gesture a demonstration by boss of his commitment of his love and of his personal sacrifice I have just a few minutes I'm going to go into my second point I won't go all the way through it for your encouragement for some of you especially the youngsters here you're going oh dear please don't go to the second point but I will I promise you I won't go very far under my second I had the second heading read the announcement the confirmation and the prayers the announcement the confirmation and the prayers first heading I've forgotten myself I don't imagine you have remembered it at all oh yes the gate the negotiation and the sandal you find that in years to come someone you say what and the wide world was that about I haven't a clue and then you say I didn't remember it then I don't remember it now but anyway the second heading the announcement the confirmation and the prayers then in verse nine boys announced he announced and in verses 9 and 10 you have the final words of boys in the story of Ruth after this he says nothing this is his final statement the bystanders at the town gate had clearly given their attention to this little drama it had unfolded before him in the morning hour those some of them were a little late for the work the people said where were you this morning said or you won't believe what happened mr. stone so gave his sandal to boas and it was unbelievable apparently he's marrying Ruth the mob it says oh why I wish I'd been there I'm sorry I missed that well get on with your work now yes he was very clear his words were solemn they were precise they were strikingly detailed he stood up and he made it absolutely clear about the property had belonged to a limo lacked to Kilian and Mail on the sons the transaction was clear he assumed both the privilege and the duty and he made very very clear the identity of the girl that he's marrying her name is Ruth the more the tests and frankly between you and me someone may have observed he paid dearly for her but of course he was happy to pay dearly for her because a wife of noble character who can find she's worth far more than rubies her husband is respected at the city gate where he takes his seat among the elders of the land clearly there were personal benefits to be enjoyed by both of them but notice how Bois explains his purpose in marrying Ruth verse 10 in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from the town records are here he getting married boys oh yeah I am why is that well I don't want the name of a limo like to disappear from the town records party that's why you're getting married no that's not the only reason I'm getting married but that's one of the reasons I'm getting married it is I seemed like a very selfless reason to get married boys well I suppose you could say it is I mean most people to get married boys are all getting married because they're just so consumed with the possibility of getting what they can get from this individual upon whom they've said their affections and here you are standing in the public square saying that the reason that you're marrying this lovely girl from Moab is so that the name of a limo let will not disappear from the family records that's amazing to me boys that's striking that's unusual that's different that makes me think boys that there may be something even more significant to this marriage than you yourself know and the person says they don't even realize what they're saying for the baby or bed get that somebody is the grandfather of David and Ruth is the great-grandfather of David and how does it happen that this marriage takes place because of our surge of emotion because of boys's glands no because Boaz determined to do the right thing seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you but reverse it and you're on your own God says you take care of my things and I'll take care of you things so Boris says and this is why I've done what I've done today you are witnesses and the elders and all those at the city gates as in Fiddler on the Roof you know when they say do you have a blessing for the Tsar and remember the little rabbi says yes mayors are live as far away from us as he possibly can and they all say Amen I'm and may the Tsar love as far from us as he possibly can well that's exactly what's happening here today you're witnesses and then the group said witnesses if he'd been concerned only for himself and his own desires he could have snatched Ruth off as his wife and they could have run off and had their honeymoon with all of this nonsense out in the town square so he's a different kind of guy isn't he he's the kind of man you should be looking for girls will be looking for some guy that knows how to fiddle the books and get the best out of his out of his expense account and we're looking for the guy who can go from nothing to zero in terms of his passions in a moment the flush of enthusiasm but when it comes to the issues of integrity the way in which he deals with people the way in which he responds to his parents the way in which he sets up his business and so on all of these things these are the most significant things because these are the things that will make and break your marriage together the other stuff is a sideline a happy sideline but a sideline we're not creatures were human beings and if ever we had any doubts about the nature of marriage as its laid out in Scripture we could go just to the Book of Ruth and I think we would have enough and I'll say a couple of comments in closing when marriage is laid out for us in the Bible that is not laid out in the way in which most of us think of it it's not in the Bible as a private alliance between two people that can be made or unmade as they wish by their own private choice the presence of witnesses in relationship to this and in relationship to marriage is not just some happy but irrelevant gesture it is vital part it is a constituent part of what is taking place in a marriage because a marriage is a social civic ceremony as well that is why you should not elope even if your father offers offers your money to do it that is why for the same reason she'd not be you should not be baptized in a bathtub either up in somebody's second room second-floor bathroom because the whole point of the symbolism in the ceremony is that it is public and in the same way marriage takes place like that Genesis 2 therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother shall cleave unto his wife and they shall become one flesh so you have leaving cleaving and interweaving and as marriage is crumbling us and as confusion reigns in the minds of many it's absolutely crucial that at every point through the structure of our church here we're making absolutely clear what the Bible says concerning the nature of marriage and it is to this that we will come back on the next occasion how quote I'll finish my comment on marriage and there have one final comment by giving you a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer in one of his books he says marriage is more than your love for each other it has a higher dignity and power for it is God's holy ordinance in your love you see only the heaven of your happiness but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind your love is your own private possession but marriage is something more than personal it is a status it is an office that joins you together in the sight of God and in the sight of man young people resist every temptation without you and within you to reverse the order of God's plan first you leave then you cleave then you interweave interweave is my word or not my word is in the dictionary but it doesn't say that were there but everything in you as a teenager says let's go interweave right now and if you're only concerned a goal with your glance then you'll reverse everything and you'll find that you're a dreadful difficulty reversing back out of everything and then the whole idea of leaving and cleaving in a public dimension is actually a tawdry and sorry looking piece of merchandise take the advice of an older man won't you no matter what anybody says it costs boys to do what he did and he is in that a wonderful picture to us of the Lord Jesus Christ he was a kinsman he had to be related to do what he did and Jesus became like us in order that he might be the priest for our sins a faithful high priest Boaz shared his bed with a penniless alien making her his bride and Jesus by redeeming us has made us his bride and we the penniless aliens are the beneficiaries of the fact that he did the right thing John said to him no really you should baptize me not me baptize you and jesus said no let it be so now for thus it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness which means what thus it is fitting to do the right thing and Christ did the right thing and Boaz provided for this young more Vitesse a future and a hope and the Lord Jesus Christ as our Redeemer has provided for us also a future and a hope so that we look forward to the day when we will stand in glory and we will see his face and then we will praise His name forever in that holy place this message was brought to you from truth for life where the learning is for living to learn more about truth for life with alistair beg visit us online at truthfortheworld.org

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 7,456

Rating: 4.9455781 out of 5

Keywords: Biblical Figures, Book of Ruth, Alistair Begg, Truth For Life

Id: VWdvGFZ6VTI

Length: 35min 31sec (2131 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 26 2020