December 9, 2001

God's Christmas Blessing: Ruth

Ruth 1 & 2

How many of you have finished your Christmas shopping? How many of you are planning to put it off until the last minute, and then just hope for the best? How many of you started getting ready for Christmas some time ago?

Something that I have been reading about lately, and plan to share with you this Christmas season, is how God began planning that first Christmas a long time ahead of time. Planning where and how, and more importantly, who would be in on it.

Part of who Jesus is and where He was born almost 2,000 years ago was because of a promise that God made to King David. Some of you have been studying the book of Matthew on Friday nights, and you probably noticed that King David's great grandmother was not an Israelite, but a foreigner, a woman from Moab, a gentile woman named Ruth. God wanted this gentile heathen woman to get saved, to become a part of His family, and to become part of the family tree that included His Son. God loved her so much, and used her for so many object lessons about the Christian life, that He wanted His Bible to have a whole book written about how He worked in her situation.

As we prepare and get ready for Christmas this year, we will spend the next several weeks focusing on God's faithfulness as it is seen in the story of Ruth. There are so many good things for us to glean from this book, that it comes across to me as a whole collection of "Christmas Presents" for us from God, and that's the reason I chose it.

If you don't remember the details about the story of Ruth, or if you are a new Christian and haven't got to it yet, here is the 1 minute version: The time frame is three generations prior to the birth of King David, and there is a famine in Israel. An Israelite named Elimelech abandons the family farm in Bethlehem, takes his wife and sons, and goes to live in Moab, a pagan country about 20 miles east of the Dead Sea.
Elimilech dies, and his sons marry heathen wives, Orpah and Ruth, and then his sons die. Now his wife Naomi, and her daughters-in-law Ruth and Orpah are all widows.

Naomi decides to go back to Bethelem, and tells her daughters in law to stay in Moab and find themselves new husbands. Orpah stays, but Ruth does not. She swears that she will go with Naomi, and that the God of Israel will be her God.

They return to Bethlehem, and survive by following the harvesters through the fields, picking up the leftovers that God told the Israelites to leave behind when they harvested their crops. Ruth attracts the attention of Boaz, a very wealthy man and a distant cousin who owns a lot of property, and he tells his servants to look after her, protect her, and see that she gets a good share of the gleanings. Naomi realizes that Boaz has the legal right to reclaim the abandoned property of Elimilech, but to do it, he will also have to marry Ruth into the bargain, because otherwise, there is another man who has a better legal claim to it.
Needless to say, Boaz gets the girl, he gets the property back into the family, Naomi gets grandchildren, and God gets a very special gentile woman into the family tree of His Son, and in the process, He gives us a whole bunch of object lessons about His grace, and about how to live as Christians.

So this Christmas season, we will look at a tragedy, a romance, and a bunch of good lessons about God's grace. Those will be our Christmas presents from God to us. Do you remember how, when you were kids, there were always some presents that you got that were "things you wanted", and others were "things you can use?" It was great to open the toys, but somewhere along the line, someone would have given you some socks, or underwear wrapped up, because it was "something you needed?" Well, here in Ruth, we get the best of both worlds. Something that we need, something we can use, and it's all something that we want!

If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn to Ruth chapter one and verse one.
"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 sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons."

All of us have heard the expression; "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence," and from time to time, probably most of us have acted like it's true. "If only I had a better job, I would be happy." "If only I had a better house, I would be happy." "If only I had a better wife, or a better husband, I would be happy." Maybe you are not happy in your present situation, and maybe you think the answer to finding happiness is to change your situation. Sometimes that is true, but much more often, the answer to you being happy is to ask God to change your head and your attitude to be what He wants it to be. That can make a bad situation tolerable, and a tolerable situation into a blessing.

But what do we do instead? We take matters into our own hands. Instead of waiting for God to meet our needs, or let Him use the situation to make us into the people that He wants us to be, we punch out.
We "fix it." Yeah, right; sure we do.

Instead of waiting on God to deliver Israel from the famine, Elimelech took his wife and kids and abandoned the family farm. He went to Moab. After all, Moab was not having a famine. They had rain, they had food, their economy was doing great, (even if it was a heathen country, and God had told the Israelites not to have anything to do with it.) Of course, there was always the possibility that his sons would marry heathen wives, and they might turn his sons away from the worship of Jehovah, and away from the covenant that Jehovah had made with Israel, but "Hey, we've all got to eat, right?
It will just be a temporary compromise, right? We'll just live there for a few years until the economy gets back on it's feet, the standard of living resumes, and then we'll go back to where we're supposed to be."

He never made it back. Verse 3 says that Elimelech died, verse 4 says that Naomi and her sons lived on there for about ten years, and then both sons died. Christian, when you compromise about the things of God, and meanwhile, you tell yourself fairy tales about how you'll straighten things out down the road, be careful. You may not get the chance. You might think that you be casual about the things of God today, and then tomorrow you'll turn over a new leaf and get back to where you belong, but you may not get the chance. The curtain may come down before you expect it. And then you will get to stand before the judgement seat of Christ and watch your coulda', shoulda, mighta done it plans burn up and turn to dust in the wind. Proverbs 27:1 tells us: "Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth."

Something that was true of Israel, and is also true of us, is that God has no plans for Lone Ranger Christians. His promises to Israel were to the nation as a whole, on a specific chunk of land, living as a specific defined group of people. That was part of His covenant to them. When Elimelech left the land that God gave to him, he forfeited God's blessing, God's protection, and his portion of his inheritance for his children. His land was his guarantee, God had given it to him, but he walked away from it. And it turned into a disaster for him and his family. If we as believers attempt to try and live our lives apart from fellowship with God's people, apart from the body of Christ on earth, His church, it will be a disaster for us also. You can take that one to the bank.

Sometimes we get to thinking; "Well my church is having a famine, it is as dry as it can be, and I'm not getting fed, I think I'll just stay home on Sunday, or just go have fun like my unsaved friends do. They don't go to church, and they seem like they're doing OK." Be careful. Things might go OK for a while, but don't be fooled by short term success. Ten years down the road, where you gonna be? When you make plans that ignore God's instructions, how will they turn out? Badly.

Along with that, when you get looking at what you think is greener grass away from God, you not only ruin yourself, think about how you drag down those around you. Look at verse 6: "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 how that the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread." While this tragedy was being played out away from God and His people, God had been blessing things back in Israel. But Elimelech and his family missed it, because they had departed from the place of blessing. Stay in the place of blessing. Keep yourself in the will of God. Ok?

Verse 7: "Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters in law with her; and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah.
:8 And Naomi said unto her two daughters in law, Go, return each to her mother's house: the LORD deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me.
:9 The LORD grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept.
:10 And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.
:11 And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?
:12 Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also to night, and should also bear sons;
:13 Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from having husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD is gone out against me."

Naomi is in a bad way. Because her husband abandoned his property, Naomi no longer has any legal claim to it. She no longer has any portion or inheritance among God's people. Her daughters-in-law have no legal claim or inheritance among God's people. The only thing that they could look forward to was God's law requiring Israelites to care for widows and strangers, to provide charity. All she could count on was being on welfare, the generosity of others, for the rest of her life. When we turn our backs on the plans and purposes of God and go off on our own contrary way, not only do we risk the possibility of messing ourselves up, we stand a good chance of ruining the future of those we love.

Naomi was so bummed out and discouraged at this point, that she demanded that her two daughters-in law go back to their own people. She knew that the laws of Israel provided for the widow and the stranger, but she could not imagine her needs, or the girl's needs being met that way. Like her husband, she lacked the faith that God could or would meet their needs according to His word. Her faith was down in the dumps.

But God was not done with them yet. God stirred up a spark of faith in Ruth, and gave her a love and a hope that pulled her toward God's people and God's promises. God used Ruth to strengthen her mother-in-law.
Verse 14: "And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.
:15 And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.
:16 And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
:17 Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me."
Beautiful words. Powerful words. Loving words. Why did Ruth make such a strong commitment? Probably because the Holy Spirit was leading her, but maybe she also knew something of God's promises to Abraham.

God had promised Abraham back in the 17th chapter of Genesis, that He would make an eternal covenant with Abraham. That He would be Abraham's God, that God would bind Himself in an eternal covenant to the children of Abraham, and to the strangers that would come and bind themselves to that same covenant. A gentile woman like Ruth.

Our God is a covenant making God, and when He makes a covenant, it is as everlasting as He says it is. In the ten years that Ruth had lived with that family, I think maybe she had heard about that covenant. I think maybe she had learned about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and she knew that if she committed herself to that God, then He would commit Himself to her.

Did you know that's still true today? If you will commit yourself to God by receiving His Son Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin, He will commit Himself to you. Do you know that once He does, He will never leave you or forsake you? That He will keep you secure, as His child, from now through eternity?

You can't earn it, you can't buy it, but if you will give up trying to earn it, buy it, or work your way into heaven, if you will repent of your sin and turn to God, and receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, receive God's finished work on your behalf, God will do a wondrous work in your life. He will take away your sin, He will come and live inside you in the person of His Holy Spirit, and your life will change. He will start you down a new road, and it will be a marvelous journey. If you have never personally received Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin, you need to do it today.

In verse 16, Ruth tells Naomi: "Thy people shall be my people, and thy God, my God." There was probably more than one thing that convinced Ruth to leave Moab and follow Jehovah and Naomi. Probably several things. I think that Naomi had a testimony and a daily walk that made an impact on Ruth. I think that between what Ruth knew about Abraham and his following after God, what she had heard from her husband and Naomi, and what she saw in Naomi, a seed got planted, it got watered, and it sprouted up until the Holy Spirit used it to convict her to turn her life around.

Sometimes God uses just one small morsel of truth to convict a person, but more often He uses an accumulation of true things to convict us. We see that this is true, and then this is true, and then this is true, and we are over whelmed, we are convicted by a mass of evidence that God is true, and His Word is true, and the Gospel is true. And then we act on our convictions.

Do you live the sort of life that presents that kind of conviction to others? Are you consistent in your daily Christian life? Does what you do agree with what you say? Can others hear Christ in you, see Christ in you, see how the spirit of Christ in you agrees and interacts with the spirit of Christ in other believers? Whose life will you impact for Christ this Christmas? Who will see Jesus in you this year? A friend? Your child? A spouse? Will this be the year that someone will watch you and come to the point where they say; "Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God?" I hope you live that kind truth-convicting life this year.

Naomi's testimony did have it's ups and downs. She had a testimony that helped persuade Ruth that Naomi's God was true and real, but her testimony was also that being a follower of God was not a gravy train.
Verse 19: "So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi?
Rut 1:20 And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
Rut 1:21 I went out full and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?
Rut 1:22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest."

The word Naomi means "pleasantness", and the word Mara means "bitterness." Naomi's trials and difficulties had not destroyed her belief in God, but they had changed her outlook from pleasantness to bitterness.

Why did she have all those trials and griefs? Was it her husband's fault? Probably to a large extent, probably he was the one primarily responsible for causing them to leave the place of blessing. But possibly it was also her fault. Perhaps she was also greatly concerned that her family would starve during the famine and they went to Moab because of her fretting and worrying about it, who knows?

Apparently her husband died before her sons married, if she had persuaded the sons then and there for all of them to go back to Bethlehem immediately, things might have been different, who knows?

I think it is interesting that at this point in her life, she cannot see that God has a plan to bring fullness back into her life, and all she can see is her sorrow and bitterness. By any chance are you like that? Is God dealing with you right now, trying to get your attention, trying to get you into that place of blessing where He can bring something wonderful into your life, or out of your life, and meanwhile all you can see is that He took away something you really cared about?

God wants to bring forth abundant fruit out of your life, He wants to make you into the image of His Son, holy, wise, unselfish and good, and in the process, maybe He has to take something out of your hands that you want more than anything to hang on to? That's not easy.

Are you crying and unhappy because maybe He is taking away something that is not good for you, but you want it anyway? That can be hard, but there is something a lot harder. That's when He takes away something that is really good. Maybe there is something genuinely wonderful and good in your life, some lovely person, some excellent talent, some beloved relative, and God takes them away.

We live in a sin cursed world. God has gone to extraordinary lengths to redeem us, and even though our salvation is free to all who will receive it, it is not a cheap or easy salvation. The Lord Jesus gave up His place in heaven, came to earth and became a man, and He went through an incredible amount of trouble and grief to accomplish His plans, the plans of God. He thought it was worth it, and since He is all knowing, obviously it was. That tells us that sometimes it is necessary for good people to go through an awful lot of trouble and sorrow to obtain a worthwhile goal.

Naomi was having trouble with that, because she didn't see the goal. She didn't see that God allows or causes us to go through the fire because that's the only way that gold can be purified. Are you bitter about something that God has allowed or caused in your life? Don't be. God is not done with you yet. You haven't seen the last chapter in your book yet, so don't give up on the story. You may not like it at the moment, but it's not finished yet.

Naomi had been through a rough time in the first part of her book, but a new chapter was about to get started. Chapter 2, verse 1. "And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.
:2 And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.
:3 And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and she happened to come to a part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech."

One of the ways that God provided for the poor in Old Testament Israel was for farmers during the time of harvest not to reap their crops all the way to the outside edge. Neither were they to pick up whatever might fall or be dropped. All those leftovers were for the poor, the widows, the orphans. And it ought to be the same with us now. James 1:27 says that; "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction," It says of the early church in Acts 2:45: "And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
:45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need."

We have a lot of very unselfish believers in this congregation. Not everyone gets to see all the things that I see, but I see a lot of Christians in this church that think nothing of giving something away to someone else that needs it. Praise God. Like James says, that is true religion. Keep it up. Keep on in that same way.

Verse 4: "And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The LORD be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless thee.
Rut 2:5 Then said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers, Whose damsel is this?
Rut 2:6 And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, It is the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab:
Rut 2:7 And she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves: so she came, and hath continued even from the morning until now, except that she tarried a little in the house.
Rut 2:8 Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens:
Rut 2:9 Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them: have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? and when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn."

I like this man Boaz. I like his consistent lifestyle. He uses all the right words, and he backs it up with all the right actions. He greets his servants graciously, He asks God's blessing on them, he is not snooty or high minded, and his Godly attitude has a good effect on those that work for him. He brings out the best in his people. If you have a crummy attitude, and poor mouth everything and everybody around you, don't be surprised when everybody around you has a crummy attitude. A grouch can make others grouchy, but gracious words can make others gracious.

Part of the reason that Boaz's servants were gracious was because the boss set a good example. He checked out who Ruth was, he knew that she had a good testimony, and then he required his people to treat her decently and graciously. He didn't just talk the talk, he walked the walk. His actions spoke just as loudly as his words. He was the kind of person that is a role model to all of us here. He was the kind of person, that if he was part of this congregation, I bet we could see Jesus in him, and hear Jesus in what he said, on a fairly regular basis. Are we doing that? Is that the way that we are behaving? Are we consistently Christian in word and deed? Boaz apparently was. I think that's why God picked him out to be part of the family tree of our Lord Jesus. God wanted us to see what he was like, learn how he acted, study his character, and think about how to be like him.

As God was planning His first Christmas, and preparing to give mankind His perfect Christmas gift, He wanted Boaz to be a part of it. Ruth probably never expected to meet a Boaz, certainly Naomi didn't, but God had other plans. Who do you know that is like Naomi: bitter? Is there someone in your life that has no expectations for God to bless them? Is there someone in your life that doesn't know God, and has no idea that He blesses people? Who do you know that is like Ruth? They have heard that God is good, and that God's people are good, and now they need to see real Christianity in action. Will you be like Boaz to them? Will you become the Boaz in their life? Maybe you are the one that God plans to use. And all you need to do, is to live a genuine, faithful Christian life.

A normal, Holy Spirit led Christian life will get the job done, and get other peoples needs met. Letting Jesus act through you. Letting Jesus speak through you. All you need to do, is faithfully and consistently do what God wants you to do anyway. Could it be any simpler than that? If you will just live a consistent, genuine Christian life, God can use you this year to be the Boaz to some Ruth or some Naomi that needs God to bring blessing into their lives. That would be the best Christmas present that you could give to anybody this year. Will you do it? I pray that you will.