December 16, 2001

God's Christmas Blessing: Ruth

Ruth 2 & 3

Last week we started a series of studies for the Christmas Season, and they are from the book of Ruth. There are two reasons for that: one is that Ruth is just full of any number of neat things for us as Christians, it is almost like a whole sack of Christmas presents for us from God.

The other reason we are in Ruth, is that Christmas is a time when God shows us His wonderful grace in a most marvelous way, through sending His Son for our salvation, and Ruth is the story of God extending His grace to a heathen gentile woman. There was a time when every one of us was like Ruth; unsaved, a heathen, outside the promises and covenants of God, ignorant of the salvation of God, but God provided a way to bring us to Himself.

Last week we saw how an Israelite family, Elimilech and Naomi and their sons, had left Israel during a time of famine and gone to Moab. That was an example of God's people leaving the place that God had put them, leaving the place of blessing, and going out and trying to find satisfaction and fulfillment among the people and provisions of the world, away from God.
Anybody here ever do that?

Elimilech died, Naomi and her sons stayed on and the sons married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. Ruth's husband died, and Orpah's husband died as well. Now all three of them were widows in Moab. That was an example of how your disobedience to the will of God can ruin not only your own life, but the lives of your family and those around you.

It is an example of what happens when we compromise with the things of God, thinking that when we have a convenient time, we will return to God, and get back to the place of blessing. There might never be a convenient time, the judgement of God on our disobedience just might get there first.
Anybody here ever see that happen?

Then Naomi learned that God had blessed Israel, the famine was over. Since Naomi's husband had abandoned his land, Naomi had no legal claim to the land anymore, she would be returning to a life of poverty, trusting God's provision for widows to live on the charity of others. She can't imagine that God's provision would feed all of them, so she tells the other women to remain behind in Moab. When we get out of the will of God and our lives get messed up, what happens to our faith? Does it hit bottom? Do we think that God no longer cares about us? Do we act like Naomi, and discourage others from finding God's blessing?

Orpah stayed in Moab, but God had begun a work of grace in Ruth. In one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible, she swears that she will follow Naomi to Bethlehem no matter what, and that the God of Israel will be her God also.

After Ruth and Naomi got back to Bethlehem, the two women survived by Ruth going out and gleaning the leftovers from the fields where people were harvesting their crops. God led Ruth to the field of a wealthy man named Boaz, a godly man, and a relative of Naomi's late husband. Boaz recognizes that Ruth is a good woman, and he treats her kindly. That is where we left off last week, and we'll resume at that place now.

If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn to Ruth chapter 2, and verse 10. Boaz has just told Ruth to stay and glean in his fields, follow his maidservants, drink from his waterpots, and not to worry about being molested by any of the young men, because Boaz had commanded that they should treat her decently. And here is her response:
"Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?
:11 And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore.
:12 The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust."

When God first called Abraham out of Babylon, modern Iraq, God promised him that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him. When God called Israel out of Egypt, He told them that if a stranger, a foreigner would take upon themself the covenant with Israel, then that person would be treated just like one of God's Israelite people, there would be no discrimination.

Boaz knew how God did things. Boaz is quick to make Ruth aware that God is willing to have her come under the protection and blessing of His covenant. The children's song is very true; "Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world." Jesus Christ was sent from God to seek and save all the lost of the whole world, the only requirement is to believe and receive Him as Saviour.

Notice also in verse 12, that Boaz gets the Gospel in the right order. "The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust."
Ruth trusted in the God of Israel before she ever did any works. She made a decision to trust in the God of Israel when all she had to go on was what she had seen and heard from other people.
She had grown up as a heathen gentile, just like I did, and probably just like a lot of you did, and God convicted and convinced her to trust Him and follow Him. That came first. After she had chosen to follow God, then she began to show forth good works. Then she began to go and get food for her and Naomi, then she began to do good works as a result of her decision to follow the true God, but not before. She chose to follow God and then stepped out in faith to follow Naomi back to Bethlehem, demonstrating that her faith was real, and not just lip service.

That is a little bit like when we ask someone to trust Christ as Savior, and then get up and come down to the altar, putting their faith into their shoe leather, stepping out before other people as a testimony of a decision that has already been made. Does walking the aisle get you saved? Not at all. Does praying a prayer get you saved? No. Can you get saved without walking an aisle or praying a sinners prayer? Absolutely! The Bible says that if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. (Rom. 10:9) Does walking an aisle to the front of the church and praying a sinners prayer help a person to believe and confess the Lord Jesus? Sometimes. It is a means to an end.

Are there people who have walked an aisle and prayed a sinners prayer who have never really done business with God? Sad to say, I think that happens. But I can't see into anyone else's heart, and only they and God know for sure. That is why 2 Corinthians 13:5 tells us to examine ourselves, whether or not we are in the faith; to test and prove our own selves. Know our own selves, whether or not Jesus Christ is in us. Because if we get that wrong, nothing else matters, our future is simply a disaster waiting to happen.

Look at verse 12 again, and notice the abundance of God that Boaz calls forth for Ruth. He tells her: "The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee by the Lord God of Israel." He tells her: "For everything that you have done, God is going to pay you back in full, and with some left over," a full reward. That sort of blows Ruth away, she is surprised. Look at verse 13: "Then she said, Let me find favour in thy sight, my lord; for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens." She was probably thinking: "I have an accent, I don't speak the language all that well, I am not from around here, my clothes are different, and still this man treats me this graciously. How can this be?"

Isn't that the way God shows His grace to us, every day, all the time? We don't know how to talk, we don't know how to act, sometimes we still talk like heathens, we still look like heathens, we still act like heathens, and God forgives us for Christ's sake, He still pours out His grace and provision on us in spite of where we come from or how rough we still are.

Something else: God is not a cheapskate, God is generous with us. And that's the way Boaz was with Ruth. Boaz was a wealthy man, and he had a pretty good idea of how wealth is to be used. Not just for his own purposes and pleasure, but also for the benefit of others. Look what he tells her in verse 14: "And Boaz said unto her, At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left.
:15 And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not:
:16 And let fall also some of the handfuls on purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.
:17 So she gleaned in the field until evening, and beat out that she had gleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley."
Boaz saw to it that she was treated just like everybody else, she got the same food that he was having. Then when it was time for her to go back to work, he made sure that she got more than she might have expected.

There is a neat little phrase right in the middle of this, look at verse 16: "Handfuls on purpose." Boaz saw to it that she would find more than she might reasonably expect to. Does God ever do you that way? Sometimes you find something extra laying out for you right where you can pick it up. God has seen to it that He has dropped you a special blessing right where you can find it, a handful on purpose.

On the other hand, He doesn't put it in your basket for you. Ruth was still out in the sun, sweating, working, getting her hands and her feet dirty, and she still did not see how God was planning for this whole scenario to turn out. She was probably still wondering what was going to happen. Things still did not look any too good. But meanwhile, God was arranging for her to find extra handfuls that had been dropped on purpose just for her.

Maybe right now you are going through a rough time. Maybe things are not going all that good, you are out in the sun, so to speak- sweating, working, dirty, not sure that tomorrow things are going to get better, and you are not real confident. Don't get so worked up that you miss the blessing. Depending on your situation, God just might have dropped some handfuls on purpose for you to find, and if you get too wrapped up in worrying about what might happen, you can miss seeing them. Sometimes we miss finding a blessing from God because of fretting about things. Don't let that happen to you.

Verse 17 says that when the day was over, and she had picked up everything she could find, then she had to go and winnow the grain out, and when she got done sorting out the grain from the chaff, she had an ephah of barley, or a little more than 7 gallons of grain. Two things strike me about that: one, barley is not the best grain in the world. Barley bread is not the kind of grain that you get really great bread out of, it is poor folks food. If you want really good bread, you use wheat, or corn, but barley is for poor folks.

On the other hand, she had a bunch of it. Seven gallons worth is about all you could possibly get in an apron or tote sack, so she had all she could carry. That tells me that God blesses in abundance, but He doesn't always give us the cream of the crop. God meets all our needs, He gives us whatever it takes to take care of us, but He doesn't always give us silk sheets and caviar. And once again, God didn't stuff it in her apron for her, she had to work and sweat and pick it up herself.

But now look down to verse 23: " So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and dwelt with her mother in law."
Ruth hung in there and did what Boaz and Naomi told her to do, and before it was all over, after she had a good supply of barley, and then she got into the wheat. Now she was into the good stuff. Hang in there. Sometimes it takes a while before things get better. Sometimes you have to make do with second rate for a while before things start to improve.

Sometimes we are the one sweating, trying to get by picking up barley, we are in that uncertain Ruth type situation. And sometimes we are the one like Boaz, helping out the one that is sweating. When we are in the Ruth situation, sometimes we just need to hang in there and be patient, but when we find ourselves in the Boaz situation, how can we show others the love of Christ?

I think Boaz saw Himself as a steward of the riches of God. What would it be like if all of us saw ourselves as just stewards of the things that God has given us? When we see somebody with a need, do we think to tell them "Here; sit down and take refuge with me under the wings of the Lord?" Let them know that they can take refuge in our homes, eat our food, be refreshed at our expense? Not that we have to become a boarding house for everybody that comes along, I don't mean that, but do we know how to show Christian hospitality? Just something to think about.

When Ruth got home that night, with her sack full of grain, Naomi was really excited. She knew that something out of the ordinary had happened with Ruth. Verse 19: "And her mother in law said unto her, Where hast thou gleaned to day? and where wroughtest thou? blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee. And she shewed her mother in law with whom she had wrought, and said, The man's name with whom I wrought to day is Boaz.
:20 And Naomi said unto her daughter in law, Blessed be he of the LORD, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen.
:21 And Ruth the Moabitess said, He said unto me also, Thou shalt keep fast by my young men, until they have ended all my harvest.
:22 And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter in law, It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other field.
:23 So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and dwelt with her mother in law."

Isn't it wonderful when hope returns? When faith starts to come back to life? After all those years of being depressed and bitter, Naomi suddenly begins to realize that maybe God had not abandoned her after all.
She suddenly begins to see that just maybe God has a hand in what is happening. She sees that maybe it is more than just a coincidence that Ruth has brought home this huge amount of grain from someone that is a near kinsman to her dead husband. God does not always show us His intentions with a big neon sign lit up, and bells and arrows pointing to our own particular version of the promised land. Listen for that still, small voice. Learn how to hear it when He speaks.

Naomi was at least a middle aged woman at this point, and all of a sudden she starts learning something. God begins a new semester in her education. She is learning to recognize the hand of God in her affairs, and she is learning to recognize His grace as it comes to her through others.

What if Naomi had chosen to follow the wisdom of the world at that point? Worldly wisdom might have told her not to let Ruth make a pest out of herself, not to appear greedy, so that maybe Boaz would still be generous again next year. Worldly wisdom might have suggested that after Ruth had gotten done with the fields of Boaz, maybe she would do well to go around and hit up several other wealthy landowners, who knows, maybe she would have similar success with them like she did with Boaz.

But that little light of faith had come on, and Naomi could see the hand of God using Boaz to minister to them, and this time she was not going to leave the place of blessing. She had left the place of blessing years before, when she and her family had left Bethlehem and gone to Moab, and all her men had died, and she wasn't going to leave the place of blessing again. She had learned her lesson, she could see the hand of God working in her life, and in Ruth's life, sending a blessing, she was grateful, and that place of blessing was right where she planned to stay.

Between the end of chapter two and the beginning of chapter three, I think we see a further growth and maturity in Naomi's faith. Several weeks or more have gone by, time enough for Naomi to think about what God has done, what God is doing, and time for God to bring into her mind where He wants to go with this situation. Naomi begins to realize and understand what God has in mind for Ruth and Boaz, and also for her. Chapter three and verse 1: "Then Naomi her mother in law said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?
:2 And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to night in the threshingfloor.
:3 Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the floor: but make not thyself known unto the man, until he shall have done eating and drinking.
:4 And it shall be, when he lieth down, that thou shalt mark the place where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in, and uncover his feet, and lay thee down; and he will tell thee what thou shalt do."

Christmas is ten days away, and all the presents are going to be wrapped up in all kinds of pretty paper and bows, and people will be exchanging all those neat pretty packages with each other. What would it be like if no one bothered to unwrap their packages? What would it be like if you gave someone a gift, and they never bothered to unwrap it, they just took it and put it on a shelf in their room, and never opened the package up to see what sort of gift was inside? You would feel frustrated, wouldn't you? A gift has to be unwrapped and appreciated in order for it to be a worthwhile gift, doesn't it?

Naomi recognized that Boaz was a gift from God to Ruth and to her. She began to have faith that all this situation was not just a coincidence, but it was from the hand of God arranging to bring a blessing into their lives. She thought about how Boaz was one of their near relatives. Boaz was capable and qualified to buy back the land that Elimilech had forfeited, and thereby redeem and reestablish Elimilech's name and inheritance in Israel. In order to do that, Boaz would have to declare himself as a kinsman redeemer for Naomi and Ruth, and he would be expected to marry Ruth, and raise up children from her to continue Elimilech's inheritance.

That is a picture or a pattern of what Jesus Christ has done for us. God became a man, He became a kinsman to us. At one time God was far away in heaven, He was very different from us, we had very little in common. We were strangers and foreigners to Him in a big way.

But then God became a man, born in a manger in Bethlehem. He was tempted in all points just like we are, but without sin. That qualified Him to become our kinsman redeemer. He is able to purchase back what man has lost. Adam lost, forfeited his place of authority over the earth when he sinned in the garden, and every one of us has also forfeited it just as much by our sin, but God had other plans. Jesus Christ has become our kinsman redeemer, He desires to buy us back, to make us His Bride, and to reestablish us back in a relationship to Himself where He wants us to be.

It is neat here to see Naomi, an Israelite, about to be restored back to her inheritance that she has lost, and Ruth, a gentile, about to brought into a relationship she never would have had except for some Israelites getting out of the place of blessing. Is that not a good picture of the church and Israel in this present age?
God has wrapped up a tremendous package of blessing to Israel and the church, in the salvation that is in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is not good enough just to take the package and sit it on the shelf. It is not enough just to look at the pretty churches, or the Bible, or the externals. You have to unwrap the package, make the Lord Jesus Christ yours by faith, receive Him, and trust Him for salvation, or the gift that God has given you will not do you any good. God has given the gift, there comes a point where you have to step out in faith and unwrap it.

Naomi has the faith and the wit to see that God is guiding the whole process, and that moves her to step out in faith and unwrap the gift. She sees the hand of God working in a particular direction, and when she is convinced that her understanding is correct, then she gets on board and begins to move along in the direction that God is obviously leading.

That says something to us. A lot of people get some bright idea of something that they would like to do for God, and then they take off on their own and ask God to bless it. And then they wonder why it never gets off the ground. There is a better way. Watch and learn what God is doing, and then get on board with Him, and participate in what He is doing. Then you will have good results. That is what Naomi did.
Once she figured out what God was doing, what God had in mind for their redemption, then she went and told Ruth what to do and how to act.

Something that she does not say to Ruth, although it is implied, is that Ruth is to become the wife of Boaz, and Ruth understands that. So Naomi tells Ruth to avail herself of the custom of the time, and that is to offer herself to Boaz to become his wife, because of his kinship to Elimilech. She is not to offer herself openly or publicly, but discreetly and privately. She is to offer herself in the expectation that he will do the honorable thing, and treat her as a kinsman-redeemer should. She is to offer herself with the expectation that he will not refuse her or put her to shame.

That sounds very familiar to us, because Jesus tells us in John 6:37 "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no way cast out." Ruth is to offer herself to Boaz with the same faith that we are to offer our selves to God with. If you go to God and ask Him to save you, redeem you, buy you back from sin, there is no way that He will refuse you, put you to shame, or cast you out. He will treat you right, treat you honorably, and redeem you with a mighty redemption. When God calls us to come to Him and trust Him for redemption, we are to answer Him the same way Ruth answered Naomi: Verse 5: "And she said unto her, All that thou sayest unto me I will do."

Naomi could see the hand of God in all this, Ruth could see the hand of God in all this, and she was willing to be obedient. Her redemption, Naomi's redemption, hinged on whether or not Ruth would be obedient to the vision God had given. Throughout the Bible the success of the plans and purposes of God works because people believe what God has shown them. Over and over God tells His people to obey Him, to be obedient to Him, and when they are, when they do, wonderful things happen.

I believe that God has plans for this fellowship of people right here, that God wants to use us as a testimony of His grace, His faithfulness, and His ability to take a bunch of people from all over the place and make us a spiritual family. Use us to show forth the riches of His grace in His Son, teach us to let Jesus act through us, speak through us, and show forth His love for others through us. But it will take being obedient to His Word. Not obedience to me, or to Steve, or to David, or to Laura or anybody else here, but obedience to God, and to His Word.

What would our lives, our marriages, our futures be like, if every time God brought us to a point of decision in our lives, we were to tell Him: "All that you say to me I will do." What kind of church would we have if every one of us could get into the habit of telling God, every time He confronts us with one of His forks in the road; "I will do what ever you say."

We live in a society of compromise, compromise on our morals, our finances, our behavior, who we hang out with, where we go, what we do... What would it be like if we set before us this coming year the words of Ruth, and make them our rule of faith and practice: "All that you say to me, I will do?"

Whether or not we are obedient to God will not hinder of slow God down in the least. Our failure to obey what He has in mind will not cause His game plan to stumble or fall short, but it will affect us tremendously. If Ruth had chosen not to obey God, King David would still have been born, and God would still have made him famous in the kingdom of the Messiah, but Ruth and Naomi would not have gotten the blessing, somebody else would have gotten it instead.

God has a blessing waiting for you and I this year. God has a blessing that He wants to give to someone, the question today is: who it will come through? Maybe you are the one that God want to use to bless someone with. Maybe you are the one that God wants to use to multiply a blessing that none of us expect or have any idea about. And you get blessed while God is blessing someone else. That would be typical for the way God does things.

But it won't happen if you aren't obedient. If you will not be obedient to God, He can find some body else who will be, and they will get the blessing that you should have had. Ruth heard Naomi tell her the plans of God, and her answer was; "All that you say to me, I will do." As you consider the plans of God for you in your life this year, what sort of answer will you give Him?