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Over the past two weeks, we have been looking at the story of one woman named Ruth, and how God used her in a mighty, mighty way.
In the first week of our study, we looked at Ruth chapter one, and how Ruth and Naomi’s relationship gives us several principles for how a godly family should operate.
And then last week, we looked at different qualities in the life of Boaz that God used to show His favor to Ruth and Naomi.
But more important than that, we looked at how Jesus Christ used these same qualities in His redemption of the human race.
Today, we are going to look at a theme that runs throughout the Bible.
It is the theme of Providence.
Providence is a word that isn’t used as much in today’s churches, but throughout church history it has been one of the favorite themes of historians, preachers, and laymen alike.
Tyndale’s Bible Dictionary defines Providence as “God’s activity throughout history in providing for the needs of human beings, especially those who believe in Him.”
And Providence is a major theme throughout the book of Ruth.
And I’m sure that you would all agree with me that God’s Providence is an amazing thing.
To know that the God of the universe has a master plan, and He is working everything out in our best interests.
I know that sometimes, the storms of life can seem so powerful that it is almost impossible to see how God is guiding our lives, but by faith we know that He is always in control.
But one of the mysteries of Christianity is how God guides His creation.
I mean, we know that God is not some puppeteer who is cleverly pulling the strings, while we are merely puppets that are doing His bidding.
And yet, we also know that God is in complete control, and nothing in the world will stop His master plan.
So that leaves us with a theological dilemma.
How can we say that God is in ultimate control, while we know that He allows us to make decisions for ourselves?
This is a humongous question, but Ruth chapter three sheds some excellent light that is helpful for all of us to remember.
So with that in mind, I ask you to turn to Ruth chapter three, and we will be reading verses one through eleven.
Again, Ruth 3:1-11.
“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.’
And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast?
Behold, he winnoweth barley tonight at the threshing floor.
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.
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.’
And she said unto her, ‘All that thou sayest unto me I will do.’
And she went down unto the floor, and did according to all that her mother-in-law bade 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 corn: and she came softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid her down.
And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was afraid, and turned himself: and, behold, a woman lay at his feet.
And he said, ‘Who art thou?’
And she answered, ‘I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.’
And he said, ‘Blessed be thou of the LORD, my daughter: for thou hast shone more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch that thou followedst not young men, whether poor or rich.
And now, my daughter, fear not; I will do to thee all that thou requirest: for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman.”
Let’s pray.
The title of this morning’s sermon is “Providence through Faithfulness.”
We have already determined that God had huge plans for Ruth’s life, and we are exploring what exactly God did to bring everything about.
And in the course of today’s passage, we are going to see three ways that God’s Providence was at work in Ruth’s life.
The first way is through the strategy of Naomi.
The second way is through the obedience of Ruth.
And the third way is through the redemption by Boaz.
So let’s begin with point number one.
Point #1: God’s Providence through Strategy
Let’s read verse number one of our text again.
“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.’”
In this verse, Naomi approaches Ruth with a proposition.
Naomi tells Ruth that she has been looking for a way for her to have peace and security in her life.
On Mother’s Day, we talked about how Naomi always has Ruth’s best interest at heart, and we see this anew in verse one.
Naomi does not want Ruth to spend the rest of her life as a widow.
We’ve already talked about what a difficult life they had in Israel.
And it’s no coincidence that Naomi approached Ruth when she did.
You see, the barley harvest was about to end, and winter was about to set in.
Now remember from last week that Ruth had gathered two weeks’ worth of barley in one day, but the simple fact is that time was not on their side.
Presumably they did not have any money.
And no matter how good of a picker Ruth was, if there was no more grain in the fields they couldn’t pick anymore.
And while they had gathered a lot in one day, there is no way that that amount would last them all winter.
Knowing that they were still in desperate need of help, Naomi approaches Ruth with a very wise plan.
Look at what Naomi says in verse two.
“And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast?
Behold, he winnoweth barley tonight at the threshing floor.”
Naomi reminds Ruth that Boaz is one of their kindred.
No doubt Ruth would have immediately realized what Naomi was getting at.
Remember, if a woman’s husband died, a member of his family was obligated to marry that woman and provide offspring for the dead man’s household.
And in the Old Testament law, the nearest relatives got first choice on claiming the woman, and then it went down the line from there.
And because Naomi had no living sons, she had begun to look around Bethlehem for a suitable kinsman, and her heart had settled on Boaz.
So Naomi told Ruth that Boaz was going to be at the threshing floor that night.
And in these days, a threshing floor was not exactly a great piece of infrastructure.
It was essentially a spot in the field where all of the grass had been beaten down, and they often would mark off the boundaries of the threshing floor with a circle of rocks.
So you’ve got this large circle of rocks, and a bunch of bare dirt in the middle.
That was a threshing floor.
The reason farmers had threshing floors is that when the men would cut down the fields, inevitably there would be many weeds in the field.
Instead of trying to destroy the weeds when they little like we do today, they allowed the weeds to grow to full height, and just harvested them with the grain.
Then, they would pile up all of these harvested plants and throw them into the threshing floor.
Then they would take what looked like a giant pair of numb chucks, and they would beat the pile of plants.
Sounds productive, right?
And they would beat, and beat, and beat, and beat, and beat all day long.
And while that sounds absolutely pointless , what would happen is the head of grain would separate from the barley and would fall to the floor.
And in Israel, there is normally a wind that begins blowing as the sun sets, and continues to blow throughout the night.
And what would happen is that this wind would blow away all of the weeds, and would blow away the stems of the barley; and all that would be left was the heads of grain that were too heavy to be blown away by the wind.
And the reason that Naomi knew that Boaz would be sleeping there that night is that farmers would always try to sleep at the threshing floors during harvest, to protect their crop from thieves in the middle of the night.
I say all of that to try to give you a mental picture of where Boaz was this night.
Growing up, I always imagined Boaz in a large house or something, but he was basically out in a circle of dirt, surrounded by the grain he had worked so hard to secure.
Look at what Naomi says to Ruth in verse three of our text.
“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.”
The question that arises in my mind is why on earth Naomi picked this specific night for Ruth to make her move on Boaz.
I mean, there aren’t many romance novels that begin with a man threshing a pile of grain all day.
But Naomi knew that they would be celebrating this night, because the harvest was brought in, and they would be having a feast in honor of all of the blessings God had given them.
But Naomi did not want Ruth to go in and crash their party.
Instead, she told her to be very sneaky and not let anyone notice her presence.
While it’s impossible to say for sure, I imagine her hiding behind a big pile of weeds waiting for the party to end.
Then, notice what the next stage of the plan is in verse four.
“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.”
What on earth!
Naomi had the audacity to tell Ruth to sneak up to where he was lying down and to cover herself up with part of the blanket at his feet.
But in reality, this was a genius plan on the part of Naomi.
And something that I probably need to make sure you understand is that this is absolutely in no way, shape, or form a sexual advance on Boaz.
Ruth was not some sort of prostitute that was trying to seduce Boaz.
She quietly went in, and laid crossways at his feet and covered herself up with the corner of his blanket.
And I’m sure if you asked Lydia she would tell you, there is nothing romantic about a man’s feet!
So remember, there is absolutely nothing inappropriate going on here in this verse.
Instead, what we have here is an ancient Middle East practice of physically covering people who were under your protection.
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