Family Christmas: Ruth and Boaz

Introduction:

Good morning once again and welcome to Hope. At this time our children can be dismissed to children’s worship. I invite the rest of you to open your bibles or devices to Matthew 1 with one finger and Ruth 1 with the other.

Leading up to Christmas Sunday we are spending the sermons walking though the lives of a few of the people who appear in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1. We are calling this series of messages: Family Christmas. Last week we talked about Rahab, the prostitute, who believed God and ended up being listed in the family line of Jesus. I said that if there is room for someone like Rahab in the family of Jesus, then there is room for you as well.

Today we are going to look at the story of two people who appear in this family line of Jesus. Let’s read the first five verses of Matthew and find out who we are investigating today.

Matthew 1:1–5 ESV

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,

This is the Word of the Lord. Let’s pray and ask God to help us understand the significance and change our lives with it.

Pray

The story of Ruth and Boaz is found in the book of Ruth in the Old Testament. This is book is truly a story of romance, loyalty, and faithfulness. I’m going to try to cover the entire thing today. There’s simply no way I can get indepth on everything so I want to encourage you to read these four short chapters this week at home.

Based on what we see in verse 1:1 the story of the book of Ruth takes place during the time of the Judges. I don’t know if you know about what we call the period of Judges but it is recounted in the book of Judges which directly precedes the book of Ruth in the canon of scripture. It was 400 years of time after Israel arrived in the promised land. This was an incredibly dark time in Israel. The final verse in Judges illustrates it quite well.

Judges 21:25 ESV

25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

If you look back at the period of judges you see a cycle repeat itself over and over. The people sin and God would send enemies to oppress them. The people would eventually cry out for help and God would raise up a deliverer, referred to as a judge to deliver them as an act of His mercy. But even amidst this dark time we get a peek at the hidden work of God going on in the book of Ruth. Even in the worst of times, God is at work.

Read passage:

Ruth 1:1–5 ESV

1 In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, 5 and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

There is a lot going on here. There is a bit of irony as well. But I want you to see that these women had lost everything.

I. Naomi and Ruth lost everything.

Reading this passage we can surmise some things about Elimelech and his family. There was a famine in the land and this man left Bethlehem to go to Moab. Bethlehem means “house of bread.” There’s a certain irony in the fact that they were leaving “house of bread” during a famine.

While they are there in Moab, Elimelech dies. His sons take Moabite wives which was prohibited for Israelites. Then, they pass away and Naomi, his wife is left with these two Moabite daughters in law, Orpah and Ruth. Naomi is a widow and then she has to do something no parent wants and has to bury here sons. Orpah and Ruth have lost their husbands. These ladies have lost everything and I can imagine the deep sense of loss and possibly hopelessness that they may have felt.

Naomi hears that back home in Israel that the famine is over and there is food there. So she decides to head back to here homeland. They’re on their way back to the land of Judah and Naomi tells her daughter laws to go back to their families. They wept over this. They said they weren’t going to do this but she again told them to go. They weep again and Orpah kisses Naomi and goes back to her people. But the scriptures tell us that Ruth clung to Naomi.

We start to see what kind of woman Ruth is. Listen to verses 15 through 18.

Ruth 1:15–18 ESV

15 And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” 18 And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

Ruth was determined. Some might see this as stubbornness. She was taking Naomi’s people as her own and she was making a decision to follow the God of Israel. They arrive in Bethlehem to the notice of the town. Verse 19 says the town was stirred because of them.

This reminds me of the small town that I grew up in. We knew most of the people in town. When Bethany and I got married we decided to go back home for a visit. There is a great little festival in my hometown and we decided to go and take some friends of ours with us, Eric and Jesse. Eric was just a normal looking dude. Jesse had long blond hair that she had dyed electric blue. So the night before the festival we go uptown to walk around the square and look at the booths getting set up and the store windows. Now, in my fantasized memory, people are like doing double takes and falling off of ladders as we walk by. My mom said people were asking about Jesse later on when they would run into my mom in town. The town was stirred.

II. God provides Ruth and Naomi with a soft landing.

Ruth tells Naomi to let her go and glean from the fields. This whole section might sound kind of strange to us today but in the law of Moses there was a provision made to care for the poor. It was sort of like a welfare to work program. The poor were not supposed to sit around and wait on government handouts but were permitted to glean in the fields and around the edges after the main workers finished. They were allowed to pick up what was leftover. Farmers were to leave the edges of their fields unharvested for this very purpose.

This was hard, hot work and could have been dangerous for a foreign woman who was not connected to anyone to keep her safe or for her to call out to if she was in danger. But here is loyal, hard working Ruth offering to go out into the fields so that she and Naomi would not starve.

So Ruth goes out and by divine appointment she ends up in a field belonging to a guy named Boaz who was a relative of Naomi’s husband.

Ruth 2:3 ESV

3 So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech.

Boaz is said to be a worthy man. He was a God-fearing man who cared for the poor. Again, by divine appointment, Boaz comes to the field and sees Ruth.

Ruth 2:4 ESV

4 And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you!” And they answered, “The Lord bless you.”

He asks his workers who this woman is and the foreman fills him in about her. There was a divide in their social standings, to be sure. And yet, listen to how Boaz speaks to her and the offer he makes to her:

Ruth 2:8–13 ESV

8 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. 9 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.” 10 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?” 11 But 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 how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. 12 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!” 13 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.”

Boaz also provided food for her. She ate with the reapers. This is an extraordinary kindness being shown to her. He even tells his workers to be deliberately careless in harvesting so there is plenty left for her to glean from the fields.

Boaz welcomed Ruth even though she was an outsider. He made sure she had enough food for her and for Naomi. Ruth heads home and shares what happened with Naomi.

Ruth 2:20 ESV

20 And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.”

Do you see that phrase, “one of our redeemers.” This is in reference to something God had set up in the law. Someone in the family could act as what is called a “kinsman redeemer.” The kinsman redeemer was obligated to buy back relatives that sold themselves into slavery because they had gotten too deep in debt. According to Ian M. Duguid, “Under certain circumstances, the kinsman redeemer also had an obligation to marry the widow and raise up a child for a brother who had died childless. In this way, the inheritance would continue to be associated with the name of the man who had died.”

(Iain M. Duguid, Esther and Ruth, ed. Richard D. Phillips and Philip Graham Ryken, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2005), 162–163.)

Ruth and Naomi make a plan for how to approach Boaz about enacting his redemption of them. There’s a whole account of it in Ruth chapter 3 but let me just say that it works.

Ruth 3:10–13 ESV

10 And he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. 11 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. 12 And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. 13 Remain tonight, 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 the morning.”

I want you to see that there were plenty of loopholes that Boaz probably could have escaped out of in this situation. He wasn’t a brother and as we find out in the passage, there was another redeemer first in line. Let’s read and find out how Boaz makes the necessary arrangements to redeem Ruth.

III. Boaz makes the necessary arrangements to redeem Ruth and provide for her and Naomi.

Ruth 4:1–10 ESV

1 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. 2 And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, “Sit down here.” So they sat down. 3 Then he said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. 4 So I thought I would tell you of it and say, ‘Buy 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 besides you to redeem it, and I come after you.” And he said, “I will redeem it.” 5 Then Boaz 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.” 6 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.” 7 Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging: to confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was the manner of attesting in Israel. 8 So when the redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself,” he drew off his sandal. 9 Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. 10 Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, 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 gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.”

Boaz was not just trying to do the minimum here. He wasn’t concerned with just meeting the obligations of the law. His heart belonged to the Lord. He had been touched and softened by God’s covenant faithfulness and it overflowed. It moved him to action for those around him. God’s faithfulness to Boaz caused Boaz’s faithfulness to Ruth and Naomi in redeeming them and providing for their future.

Ruth 4:13–17 ESV

13 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. 14 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! 15 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.” 16 Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. 17 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.

God uses Boaz to show his goodness to Naomi. She had been bitter because of what happened to her family. At one part in the story she even had told people to call her Mara which means bitter. But through God’s lovingkindness He showed her His goodness.

Ruth becomes part of Israel. And not only that but this act of love that she did for Naomi and that Boaz did toward Ruth, end up landing them in the family line of the Messiah, Jesus Christ Himself. Truly this is light out of darkness. Life out of death.

Conclusion:

John Piper titled his book about Ruth, “A Sweet and Bitter Providence.”

Our momentary suffering and troubles are ultimately designed to bring us to God. They play into God’s sovereign purposes in our lives. In Ruth’s case it was also to bring about salvation in Jesus for those who call on His name.

Elizabeth Elliot said,

“God will not protect you from anything that will make you more like Jesus.” - Elizabeth Elliot

During this season of Advent, of waiting for the celebration and joy of Christmas I want us to sit in that for a bit. In the darkness there is anticipation for the dawn.

God’s ultimate plan is not that we be happy and healthy but that we be more like Him. He will spend your whole life from the time you come to know Him as Savior until you die growing you and sanctifying you so that you look more like Jesus. This is sometimes painful but always a grace of God.

When we see the redeemer Boaz in this story, it should move our minds to think beyond him to the ultimate redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. All of this was happening setting up and leading to the birth of Christ, the perfect God-man, who lived a perfect life and would give that life on the cross in the place of sinners like you and me and redeem us out of the bondage of slavery to sin. He rose from the dead proving that God accepted that sacrifice as sufficient and showing that death no longer has a hold on us.

Before Jesus came the first time there was darkness and silence. Now we wait for His return.

Pray