An Overview Of Ruth

If you have your bibles where you open them to the Book of Ruth, the Book of Ruth, and in the ten Sunday evenings that I will have this year, Lord Willing, we will journey through the Book of Ruth. You said, how can we do that? The book is only four chapters long. And you'll see we're going to be preaching through the Book of Ruth. We're going to be looking at it verse by verse. We're looking at Old Testament narrative. We've talked in the series last year about reading all of scripture from a Christ's centered perspective, and we're going to read the Book of Ruth from a Christ's centered perspective. This is a very familiar story, which means that it's one of those dangerous stories that we think we know better than we actually know. There's also an obvious connection to Christ. At the end of the Book of Ruth. We know that there is an introduction to a grandparent of King David, that that is really the sort of culmination of the story of Ruth, and so it's easy for us to see that this gets us to the line of Christ. However, it is also a very practical narrative and that's what we're going to look at over the course of the ten sundays that we examine this book. This is, at its core, a story about a courtship and marriage that produces a child. Boil it down in its simplest terms. This is a book about a courtship and marriage that produces a child. There is nothing more common than that. People get married every day. Babies are born every day. I know we like to talk about the miracle of childbirth, but it happens every day, all day, all over the world. It's the most natural thing in the world in many ways, and we're grateful to God for it. But this is why we're here. This is how all of us are here. There's only one who came here a different way, and that's Adam. Amen. Even Jesus had to come through that same process, a childbirth. And so in a way, this is a very common story, the story of a courtship and marriage that ends in the birth of a child. However, this courtship and marriage has monumental obstacles, and that's part of what's so compelling about the Book of Ruth. This is not your normal boy meets girl story. We have a famine, that threatens the life of an entire people. We have death beginning of the book. We have Naomi's husband and sons who die. We have distance, They go off to a foreign land and Moab, and ultimately we have to find our way back to Jerusalem. There's the obstacle of culture and ethnicity. This is a Moabite woman. This is a woman whose people have often been considered an enemy of Israel. So how do we get this Morabike woman into a courtship in Israel to eventually become part of the genealogy of King David? Think about that. This is a foreigner who would have been despised in many ways. There's the issue of law and tradition. In fact, some of the law and tradition that we find in the book is quite difficult for us to understand when we see things happen. What does it mean that she covers her feet to what are we talking about here? We'll get into all of that. But these are huge obstacles. There's also common obstacles. Every couple who goes from not knowing one another to eventually being closest living relative has to overcome obstacles. I've said that before. I'll say it again because it absolutely amazes me. My closest living relative is not related to me by blood. Huh, my next of kin, as we said, you have that phraseier, you're next of kin. My next of kin does not share my blood. She's my wife and she's my closest living relative. How do two people not related by blood, who are not predetermined and chosen for one another? In most parts of the world, In some parts of the world, that does happen. But how do you go from complete stranger to closest living relative. That's an obstacle that every couple overcomes one way or another. Amen. So the obstacle of cultural barriers and difficulties, and they have to overcome cultural barriers and difficulties. But in the end, God makes away. And everyone who goes from being strangers to friends, to husband and wife, to parents, grandparents, so on and so forth, it is because God makes away. And this is very important because we live in the age of Love conquers all. If you can't say amen, you ought to say that that's where we are. That's what we relieve. Love conquers all, and we believe that you know, everything that we do is a celebration of love, and we come to a wedding and we want to see people gaze at one another and say things like the love that I have for you is a love that in the history of love has never been more lovely, and I will love you until love is no more love, because my love is the greatest love that love has ever known or loved before. And then six months later, ah, why did I do this? God makes away? God makes away. In fact, there's no real overt profession of love between Ruth and Boaz in the book. We don't know what either one of them looks like, because the things that attract them to one another in this text don't have much to do with what they looked like. In fact, there is a scene in the book where Boaz, having committed himself to Ruth, then goes to another man who, according to law, custom, and culture, has first priority. And Boaz doesn't say I love you so much that, no matter what, you are going to be mine. He says, I love you so much that if you're being cared for means you go with him, then I will see to it that you get with him. That sounds different, doesn't it, Because it's rooted and grounded in something that's not very familiar to us. God makes a way. Let me give you the outline, and then tonight what we're going to do is we're going to read Ruth. You look at hardship and you see hardship as evidence that God is not there, when the fact of the matter is nothing could be further from the truth. God is in control even of the hardship. Amen. Thirdly, strangers strangers. God uses strangers, and all of a sudden, here is this Moabite woman. Naomi didn't choose Ruth, her son did. Ruth is a stranger from a strange land. Her son met this stranger in a strange land, and her son married this stranger in a strange land. And yet when Ruth comes back home to Bethlehem, who's with her? This stranger who's not a stranger anymore. God uses all kinds of people in its providence. And finally, hope, hope. Go from hardship to strangers to hope. And when we understand God's providence, that's where we always end. So that's the first section, the providence of God that brings us together. We have to understand that regardless of where we are in this process. Section two, The character of Christ reflected in our courtship. The character of Christ reflected in our courtship. Our courtship, this process that we go through in order to get married, to get married, in order to reach a marriage is a process that is also governed by God's truth. Amen. A pair of people well suited for each other take a journey through submission and devotion, love and security, passion and purity, finally arriving at the at the precipice of marriage. This is courtship. It goes by many names, takes different shapes, and doesn't always work out. However, when it is done right, few things are more compelling, especially when we realize that it paints a picture of the Son of God's pursuit of his bride the church. This matters. It shouldn't be casual, This idea of just casually going from person to person. When you understand that this is what we're talking about, that should not be in our vocabulary. Amen. So in the fifth message, we'll look at the idea of a suitable pair. A suitable pair. Why are Ruth and Naomi a suitable pair? Is it because you know they have all these things in common. They really don't. They don't have many things in common, and they're a suitable pair. And again, young people find themselves in that trap. Or if we just find the person with the right level of compatibility, you know, I believe it was Ruth Graham who said it best. If the two of us are the same, one of us is unnecessary. Amen. Some of the most beautiful aspects of marriage are those areas where we're not compatible, and God uses it for his glory. God takes a man or a woman who needs some rough edges chiseled off, and puts them with another man or a woman who in that particular area is going to chisel at them. It's uncomfortable, often unpleasant, but over time, like water wearing array at a rock, those rough edges become smooth and those areas be transformed through a lack of compatibility. So no compatibility is not everything. The character of Christ is everything. That's what we're looking for, the character of Christ. So a suitable pair based on our understanding of the character of Christ. Submission and devotion. When I say submission and devotion, oftentimes people think, well, yeah, you know, the woman's submission and in courtship, a woman doesn't submit to a man. Let me say that again. In courtship, a woman doesn't submit to a man. I've had this conversation. I don't know how many times a young man comes to me and he's, you know, my girlfriend and she won't submit to me, and I'm like, good for her? Well, no, that's the what do you mean good for her? I'm the man and she's the one. The Bible calls wives to submit to their husbands, not girlfriends to submit to their boyfriends. For her to submit to a man who's not her husband would be unbiblical. Well then, how do I know if she's going to be submissive? If she's submissive to the people in her life that she's supposed to submit to right now? Oh so, now, what does this one tell you? You have a woman who is not submissive to her father, who gave her life and food and breath and clothes and everything else. But you think that she's going to turn around and be submissive to you because you look good. Help you if you think that's gonna work out? Well huh yeah, but you just don't understand her father. Her father, hate her father. What is imperfect like you. So if her father's imperfection is an excuse not to submit to him, what are your imperfections going to be? Dummy? Do you see? But there's another side to this too. Bo Haz also submits mutual submission in marriage. Not biblical wives submit to husbands. Husbands don't submit to their wives. Wives submit to their husbands. Husbands love their wives, serve and care for protect their wives. But wives submit to their husbands. But in courtship, you want to see a man submit to what number one, to whatever authority is over that woman. Number two, to the precepts of God as they relate to the protection of We'll see this in the next one of her pure and her reputation. That's what happens. When Boaz goes to the other Redeemer, he is submitting himself to the rules, regulations, and customs that have been set upon him by God through his word. Amen. Israel's a theocracy. These things come from God, and so he goes and submits himself. He doesn't say, my love for this woman, my desire for this woman is more important than the authority of her family. It's more important than the authority of the culture. It's more important than the authority of the word of God. No, he submits to it, even to the point of if I can't have her, this is more important than me having her. So this submission and devotion a couple in the midst of courtship, they are submitting themselves to whatever has been required of them. Again, this goes completely against the grain of what we see in the culture. Our love is so big and so powerful and so real. We won't submit to anyone or anything because we have to be together no matter what. That's a godless disaster waiting to happen. Seven. Love and security. Love and security. This is something that we see in the courtship of Ruth and Boaz. Love and security. She is protected by him, She is secure because of him. You'd be amazed at how many young women stay in relationships with young men where they are not lovingly secure, and yet because they're so afraid of being alone, they stay. I told you this is practical. Huh. Eight. Passion and purity. Passion and purity. If there is no passion, why are we getting married? Amen? You gotta be passion for something, but passion and purity. The passion doesn't override purity. Overrides and courtship. Again, Remember this section is all about how our courtship reflects the character of Christ. We cannot reflect the character of Christ in our courtships without purity, purity, and we'll talk about what that means, because for a lot of young people, you know, purity is if you haven't reached the consummation of the relationship, then it's pure. Ah. No, No, purity can be gone long before the consummation of a relationship. Amen. It involves a lot more than that. Then, the final section, the redemption of Christ that's reflected in our marriages, because that's where we're headed, the redemption of Christ that's reflected in our marriages. Marriage is a picture of hope and redemption. It is a horizontal picture of a vertical reality. As such, marriage is never and in in itself. It always tells another story. Thinking of marriage this way helps us to recognize our own limitations and our reliance upon God. It also helps us to face obstacles knowing that in the end, they too must bend to God's will. Marriage must never be viewed as an end in itself. It's not where you define your fulfillment. You define your fulfillment in Christ Amen. So it always points to something else. So the last two sections one the ninth one will be loving marriage. We'll see that in first half of chapter four. I didn't give you the chapter reverences or these other ones, but that's all right, you'll see when we get there. And then the last one is hope in redemption. Hope and redemption. It's not just having children. That's not the idea here is that you get children. The idea here is hope and redemption. It's interesting that in the first part of Ruth we start in the This is in the time of the Judges, and it's in a time of famine. Everyone is doing what's right in their own eyes. We don't have the Great King of Israel leading Israel, and people are wandering. This family goes off because there's no bread in the house of Bread. And at the end there is the birth of one who is a parent of a parent of the Great King, who is the answer to the greater desire that Israel had at the time. So we find bookends here. It's not just that a child is born, it's that a redeemer has come. And so we see these little pictures. Number one we see the kinsman Redeemer Boaz, who points a picture of Israel's Redeemer who is to come. And then we see a child who is born, and this child who is born as a grandparent of the Redeemer in the form of King David who will come. And King David is just a picture of the Redeemer that will eventually come from him. So that's why it's not just about a child being born, it's about hope and redemption. Amen. All right, that being said, let's read Ruth. In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and the man of Bethlehem excuse me, and Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife Naomi. The names of his two sons were Mielon and Kilian. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem. In Judah, they went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Mobike wives. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Maelon and and Killon died, so that the two women so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. This she arose with her daughters in law to return from the country of Moab. For she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters in law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters in law, go return each of you to her mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and whipt, and they said to her, no, we will return with you to your people. But Naomi said, turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husband's Turn back, my daughter's go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope. Even if I should have a husband this night, and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying. No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. Then they lifted up their voices and wept again, and orb A kissed her mother in law. But Ruth clung to her, and she said, see, your sister in law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister in law. But Ruth said, do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. People should be my people, and your God my god. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me. And more also, if anything but death parts me from you. And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. So the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. The women said, is this Naomi she said to them, do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me. So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabide, her daughter in law, with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the Barley Harvest notice beginning of chapter one Famine the end of chapter one Barley Harvest. Now Naomi had a relative of her husband, a worthy man of the clan of Alimelec, whose name was Boas. And Ruth the Moabide said to Naomi, let me go to the field and gleamed among the ears of grain after him, in whose sight I shall find favor. And she said to her, go, my daughter. So she set out and went 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 clan of Alimelec. And behold, Boas came from Bethlehem, and he said to the reapers, the Lord be with you, and they answered, the Lord bless you. Then Boaz said to his young man, who was in charge of the reapers, whose young woman is this. The servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, she is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. She said, please, let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers. So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest. Then Boaz said to Ruth, now listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you, And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn. Then she fell on her face, bowing 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. Boaz answered her, all that you have done for your mother in law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and now you, and how you left your father and mother and your native land to come to a people that you did not know before. The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. Then she said, I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants. At meal time, Boas said to her, come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine. So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted grain, and she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over. When she rose to glean, Boas instructed his young men, saying, let her glee even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her, and also pull out some from the bundles for her, and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her. So she gleamed in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleamed, and it was about an ephah of barley that's probably twenty five kges. It's a lot, and she took it up and went into the city. Her mother in law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over. After being satisfied, and her mother in law said to her, where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you. She told her mother in law with whom she had worked, and said, the man's name with whom I work today is Boaz. And Naomi said to her daughter in law, may he be blessed by the Lord whose kindness has not forsaken the living of the dead. Naomi also said to her, the man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers. And Ruth the Moabite said, besides, he said to me, you shall keep close to my young men until they have finished all my harvest. And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter in law, this good, my daughter, that you go out with this young with his young men, lest another lest in another field you be assaulted. So she kept close to the young women of Boas gleaning until the end of the barley, and we'd harvest, and she lived with her mother in law. The Naomi her mother in law said to her, my daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? Is not bo As our relative with whose young men you were, See he is winnowing barrow tonight at the threshing floor. Wash therefore, and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak, and go down to the threshing floor. But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do. And she replied, all that you say, I will do. So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother in law had commanded her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. And she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. At midnight, the man was startled and turned over, and behold a woman lay at his feet. He said, who are you? And she answered, I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer. And he said, may you be blessed by the Lord. My daughter, you have made this last kindness greater than the first, and that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask for. All my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I remain to night and in the morning. If he will redeem you, good, let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until morning. So she laid his feet until the morning. But arose before one could recognize another, and he said, let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor, and he said, bring the garment you are wearing and hold it out. So she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. Then she went into the city, and when she came to her mother in law, she said, how did you fare, my daughter? Then she told her all that the man had done for her, saying, these six measures of barley he gave to me for he said to me, you must not go back empty handed to your mother in law. She replied, wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out. For the man will not rest, but will settle the matter today. Chapter four. Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there, and behold, the Redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by. So Boaz said, turn aside, friend, sit down here. And he turned aside and sat down. And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, sit down here. So they sat down. They said to the Redeemer, Naomi, who has come back from the the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. So I thought I would tell you of it and say, by it, in the presence of those sitting here, and in the presence of the elders of my people, if you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not tell me that I may know, for there is no one beside you to redeem it. And I come after you, And he said, I will redeem it. Then Boas said, the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance. Then the Redeemer said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it. Now, this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging. To confirm a trend action, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other. And this was the manner of attesting in Israel. So when the Redeemer said to Boaz, by it for yourself, he drew off his sandal. Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses this day that I have bought from my hand, that I've bought from the hand of Naomi, all that belonged to Alimelet, and all that belonged to Killion and to Mielan. Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Maelon, I have bought to be my wife to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gates of his native place. You are witnesses this day. Then all the people who were at the gate, and the elders said, we are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily and Ephratha and be renowned in Bethlehem. And may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah. Because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman. So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a redeemer, And may his name be renowned in Israel. He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age. For your daughter in law, who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him. Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap, and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying a son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Now these are the generations of Paris. Paris fathered Hesron, Hesrun fathered Ram, Ram fathered a Mendab, a Menadab fathered Nashon, and Nashon fathered Salmon, Salmon fathered Boas, Boas fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered. David. Made the Lord add a blessing to the reading and hearing of his word. Amen.