Providence and Praise

Big idea

Tension: What is God doing in this?

Resolution: using Ruth to bring forth the Messiah.

Exegetical Idea: God is using Ruth and Boaz’s meeting to bring forth the Messiah.

Theological Idea: God is working all things to the glory of his Son.

Homiletical Idea: Every pain we’ve endured is God’s tool to bring about the glory of his Son.

Outline

A Story of God’s Providence:

In Media Res: “Call me mara”

Where we left off last week - Ruth and Orpah had come

Introduction - The women call her Mara (1:19-22)

Rising Action

Ruth goes out to glean (2:1-3)

Cultural Background: gleaning in the field (Deuteronomy 24)

Boaz comes out (2:4-7)

Boaz tells Ruth to stay with him and offers to protect her, gives her sustenance (Ruth 2:8-9)

Ruth asks why (2:10)

Boaz responds that he knows all that Ruth has done and how he has come and converted (2:11-13)

Climax: At mealtime, Boaz dignifies her by inviting her to the table, and inviting her to dip her bread in the wine (14). Boaz gives her enough of their lunch and she has some left over.

Falling Action

When Ruth rises to go, Boaz instructs his workers to take care of him (15-16)

She returned to Naomi with an ephah of Barley and Naomi asks, “what is going on here?”, Ruth responds, his name is “Boaz” (17-8)

Naomi responds to her daughter in law, “May he be blessed by the Lord - that man is a redeemer” (20)

Ruth says “he told me to stay close” and gives her approval (21)

Conclusion: She hangs out with him until the end of Barley Harvest, which would have been roughly 4-5 more months.

So here’s the big question: What is going on here? I mean after all, the characters for the most part seem very flat. There’s very little development that is going on, very little that we find out for sure. So what is going on here, the key is what we see in vs. 3, “She happened to come” she “chanced a chance.” But that word is meant to indciate that there is something more going on than meets the eye. God is actually working behind the scenes. The Lord is actually at work in this.

Call me Mara - This is probably a reference to Exodus 15:22-27, when the Israelites come to the a bitter well. Marah is the name of the waters, on the road out of Egypt to the promised land. By invoking this, she is akcnolwedging the Lord’s past salvation, and his future destination. But she’s also acknowledging the fact that wehre she is at on the road from brokenness to wholeness, from salvation to eternity, is bitter. But she never doubts for a second that even though she is walking under his heavy hand, that the Lord is sovereign over this.

Throughout this, we see that God is working. he is the one who brings Ruth and Noami together, who brings Ruth to Boaz, who prepares Boaz his whole live.

And we call this sovereign working of God in the events of history, his “Providence.” God’s Providence is his intentional or purposeful sovereignty. This is a story of God’s Providence, wehre we see that he is exercising Lordship toward the end toward which he is directing the world. God’s Providence is his intentional Lordship over all things.

Objection: Now maybe you think, “Wait a minute, are you saying that God is really in control over this great disaster that befalls Naomi and Ruth? How could God allow that to happen? How could God plan in his plan that this great evil would come upon them? Isn’t that cruel? Are you really saying God is in control?” <Dostoyevsky, the Brothers Karamazov>

Answer: And I would just say, “Are you saying he isn’t?” Listen, in my short time on this planet, I probably have seen an on average disproportionately high amount of suffering and trauma. I’ve been to the places in the world when all that is left in the room is a crumpled shell. I’ve confronted abusers. I’ve been betrayed and threatened. I’ve been shaken. And here’s what I can tell you, it is far more comforting to know that those moments do fit into God’s plan than that they don’t. To think that everything I’ve suffered is just random is a devastating possibility that I just can’t fathom. To know that God is in control, and the things that I’ve suffered, though they are evil and malevolent, are not bigger than God is sometimes the only balm that I can find in this broken world.

God is sovereign and in control, and this story is a testimony to the fact that he is sovereign and is working all things for his own purpose.

Transition: So what is his purpose?

The Purpose of God’s Providence:

Abraham

Gen 12 - covenant

Gen 12 - going to sojourn in Egypt

Gen 13 - Abraham and Lot parting

Gen 14 - Lot captured sojourns in the fields of Sodom, Abraham rescues him and is blessed by Melchizedek, king of Salem

Gen 18-19 - God comes to judge Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness.

Gen 19 - Lot and his daughters escape. Lot’s daughters get him drunk and seduce him. From the offspring of this brokenness comes Moab, from where Ruth and Orpah come.

King David - Well, as we’ll later see, Ruth’s son is named Obed, and Obed’s son is named Jesse, and Jesse’s son is David. And David looks way back to that king Melchizedek, the king of Salem, and decides that he’s going to try to be the next king of Salem, the king of peace. That’s why he makes his capitol “Jeru-salem.” That’s why he names his Son - Sholoma - or Somon - or peace.

Which is why David prophecies in Psalm 110 concerning the Messiah to come, “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool under your feet for you will be a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

Genealogy of Jesus - And it is from this King David who tries to be a Melchizedek, that the Messiah comes. We see his genealogy in Matthew 18, where we learn that the Messiah comes from Ruth and now we start to see things come together. If Ruth and Boaz would have never met, then the Messiah wouldn’t have come. If Ruth hadn’t come back with Naomi, then a Messiah never would have come to redeem all the brokenness nad greed and perversion in her family. God was using his providence in her suffering to redeem her from her suffering.

Death and Resurrection of Christ - and he does htis by the death and resurrection of Jesus: Acts 2:22-24

Acts 2:22–24 ESV

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Everything in the Old Testament has been arranged for this moment, that the Messiah might come and die and be risen again. That the Son of God would come and die as atonement, as redemption, as salvation. That through his death God might put death to death. That the pangs of death would have no more vice, no more strength, no more power.

So you say, that was the goal of God’s providence then, what is his goal now? What goal could my suffering possibly have now?

Four goals of his Providence

Spreading the Gospel among the nations: Rom 11:25

Growing the Church to Maturity (Ephesians 4:11-16)

Maturing us as his children (Hebrews 12:7-11) cf. 2 Cor 4:17

Towards the eternal exaltation of his Son (Philippians 2:5-11)

Big Idea Reveal: I know you feel like your life might be broken, tossed out, useless. I know you might wonder, “how could God ever make this whole?” And you need to know, no tear you’ve shed, no blood you spilt, no night you’ve wept has ever been wasted. No hair turned gray or lost, no weeping or crying, no broken bone or heart, will ever go to waste. God has ordained those moments for his glory and our unceasing, eternal joy.

Transition: So does this mean we have to just sit back and enjoy the ride? Does this mean we have no responsibility at all? Absolutely not! I believe that part of the reason God gave us this passage is so that we would know how do we respond when our lives are on the fritz, when we can’t figure out what God is doing. This passage gives us cues for knowing how to serve him)

Responding to God’s Providence:

Take Shelter Under his wings (2:12)

Praise Him (Naomi looks back on her life and sees the way God has worked redemption and provision 2:20)

Be a man, or be a woman.

Boaz is a manly man, but one who gives up to serve others.

Ruth is a noble woman, one who gives her life in generosity for her mother-in-law, who is humble and outward focused.

Put your hand to the plow - Get to work. Don’t waste your life.

Be generous - Look at what God has given you and use it to bless others.

Conclusion: Oxford square - Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer