Sermon Tone Analysis

God bless you for making the choice to be in His house this morning!

Our God is good, amen?

We witnessed God’s goodness in our Scripture passage last week, as we saw how God used Naomi to transform Ruth’s life, and then how God used Ruth to bless Naomi’s life.

We saw straight from the pages of the Bible how a godly family should operate in the face of hard times.

And last week, as we left Ruth and Naomi, they were journeying together to Bethlehem, where they were going to try to restart their lives, after the tragic death of Naomi’s husband and her two sons.

This morning, we are going to look at how they fared back in Israel, and how God used one man to do mighty things for Ruth and Naomi.

Yesterday, I was thinking about that huge Christmas tree that they light every year in Washington, D.C.

You know which one I’m talking about, right?

It’s massive, and there are so many lights on it.

And while I don’t know for sure, I imagine that it would take a pretty big generator to power all of those lights.

But in my opinion, the miracle of science is not the tree covered in lights, and not even the generator that turns fuel into electricity.

For me, the miracle of science is that little thing that runs between the generator and the tree.

We call them wires or cords, but the technical term for anything that conducts electricity is a “conduit.”

That little, seemingly insignificant wire takes electricity from the mighty generator, and uses it to power an amazing work of art.

And it’s just a little wire!

This morning, we are going to look at how Boaz was just like that conduit.

Except Boaz was not lighting a big Christmas tree.

Oh no, he was doing something much greater.

Boaz was a conduit that funneled God’s favor to two widows who desperately needed someone to help them.

If you’re not already there, I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Ruth chapter two, and we are going to be reading verses one through ten of this chapter.

So again, Ruth 2:1-10.

“And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.

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.’

And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.

And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, ‘The LORD be with you.’

And they answered him, ‘The LORD bless thee.’

Then said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers, ‘Whose damsel is this?’

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: 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, that she tarried a little in the house.’

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: 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.’

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?’”

As always, let’s being our time of studying God’s word with prayer.

The title of this morning’s sermon is, “Becoming a Conduit of God’s Favor.”

First, we are going to examine what Boaz did that allowed God to bless others through him.

Second, we are going to look at a man later on in history who exhibited these same qualities of Boaz.

Finally, we are going to look and see if God would have us to be conduits of His favor to those around us.

But before we do any of that, I want to briefly explain what’s going on here in this passage.

Last week I mentioned that widows in the ancient world had a very difficult time providing for themselves, because it was normally the husband that provided for the families, and there were no government programs to provide for them.

Well, Ruth and Naomi witnessed this harsh fact first-hand once they arrived in Israel.

They were entirely on their own.

So Ruth announced that she was going to go look through the fields and see if there was any grain left over, so at least they could provide some food for themselves.

And Ruth did not just pull this idea out of a hat.

No, God made a provision for widows and foreigners (of which Ruth was both), by commanding farmers to not pick their grain bare, but to leave some scraps so that widows and foreigners could go in and get the scraps so that they wouldn’t starve to death.

Ruth wanted to take advantage of this clause, so she set out of Bethlehem, and headed towards the fields that surrounded the town.

And Ruth was a very smart person.

Instead of going to fields where there was nobody around, she came across a field where the reapers were currently going through the field, and she went right behind the reapers, so that she would have dibs on the scraps.

Now Ruth didn’t know it, but she was currently picking through a field owned by a man named Boaz.

Now Ruth had never met Boaz, and she had most likely never heard of him.

But what Ruth didn’t know is that Boaz was a relative of Naomi.

This was extremely beneficial for Ruth, because Boaz had a familial obligation to be kind to Ruth.

Isn’t it amazing how God works things out?

So often, He uses our own free will to accomplish the things that He designed before He even created the world.

God desired for Ruth to end up in the field owned by her distant relative, and Ruth decided by her own free will to go and do the thing that God designed!

I love the way that the King James Version communicates this great truth.

Look at what verse three says about Ruth’s wanderings.

“And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.”

I love that phrase in the middle of the verse.

“And her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz.”

That is the King James ways of saying, “As luck would have it, she ended up in the field of Boaz.”

But of course we know that the Bible is using a little bit of sarcasm, because there is no such thing as luck.

God had designed one of the most beautiful love stories in the history of the world, and He set everything in motion when Ruth just so happened to wander into Boaz’s field.

But once again, Ruth didn’t know whose field she was in, and it wouldn’t have mattered if she did, because she had no idea who Boaz was.

But before long, Boaz came out into the fields to see how his workers were doing.

And we see a bit of the spirituality of this great man, when he addresses his workers by saying, “The LORD be with you!” How many of your bosses address you that way every morning?

Boaz quickly noticed that this woman was following his workers around, so he asked someone who she was.

The supervisor of the farmhands told Boaz that it was Ruth, who was the Moabite woman that had come back with Naomi.

The supervisor explained how Ruth had asked if she could follow after the reapers and collect some of the scraps for her and her mother-in-law.

Intrigued, Boaz went over and began talking to Ruth.

Look at what Boaz told Ruth in verse eight of chapter two.

“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:” This verse shows us what a good heart Boaz has.

Boaz told Ruth that she did not need to go into any other fields, because he would make sure she was well taken care of in his field.

While before, Ruth had been going behind the workers and getting scraps, Boaz told her to join up with his workers, and take as much as she wanted.

So before, she would have gotten the nasty little pieces of barley that didn’t meet the workers’ quality standards.

Now, Ruth was right there in the thick of things, picking as much barley as she wanted!

Boaz also offered Ruth protection by telling her that he had commanded his young men not to touch her.

As you can probably imagine, a young woman wandering out in the fields by herself would be a prime target for someone who wanted to do her harm, but Boaz assured her that that would not happen while she was in his field.

And so with Boaz’s protection and blessing, Ruth began picking.

And she picked, and she picked, and she picked some more.

Later on in the chapter, the Bible records that Ruth gathered an ephah of barley.

An ephah was close to four gallons!

It would cost the average person two week’s wages to buy an ephah of barley in the local market, but Ruth had gathered this in only one day, all because Boaz had been generous to her! Isn’t is absolutely amazing that in only one day God had transformed Ruth and Naomi’s hope for the future.

Before, they were destitute widows who could only hope to find some scraps in the surrounding fields.

But now, they had found a man that would protect her and make sure they had enough to eat.

Any time in the Bible we see a person go from desperation to blessing, we say that that person has God’s favor upon them.

And I think that we can definitely say that this is true in the life of Ruth.

So the question that we must ask ourselves is, “How did God show His favor to Ruth and Naomi?”

The way God showed His favor to these two women was not some mysterious, supernatural way.

God did not make manna fall out of the sky like He did when the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness.

He did not keep their grain from running out, as He did with Elijah and the widow that housed him.

He did not multiply her bread, as He did when Jesus fed the 5,000.

Obviously, we know that God can do mighty miracles, and that even the laws of nature do not apply to our great God.

But the main point of this morning’s sermon is that while God can do great miracles, He very often uses His servants as conduits of His favor to other people.

And that is exactly what we have here in the case of Ruth and Boaz.

God showed His favor to Ruth through Boaz.

So the question that arises for us this morning is, “What qualities about Boaz allowed him to be used as a conduit for God’s favor?”

I want to quickly mention six qualities about Boaz that God utilized to bless Ruth.

The first quality God used is that Boaz was a relative.