Faith and Favor Ruth 3
Faith and Favor Ruth 3
Tue, Jan 14, 2025 8:40AM • 40:47
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
incarnation of Jesus, Advent series, genealogy of David, Naomi's bitterness, Ruth's steadfast love, Boaz's kindness, kinsman redeemer, threshing floor, Naomi's change, Ruth's faith, Boaz's promise, six measures of barley, redemption of Ruth, Naomi's restoration, greater Boaz
SPEAKERS
Josh Slater
Knowing that whatever you set out to accomplish you would fail. That includes drawing us closer to you. Lord that through all of history, it hinges on one point, and that is the incarnation of your Son, Jesus, Christ. And we know that you made that pray, that you you set that emotion, and you wouldn't let anything fail. And then that Jesus Christ came, and he died on the cross for our sins so that we could have redemption, so that we can have forgiveness, so that we could come to know You. We thank you for what you've done more than we thank you for who you are. We pray this morning in Jesus name Amen. Alright, so we are in week chapter, week three of our Advent series in the book of Ruth. Ruth is an interesting place to go to study the Advent. For those of you who haven't been able to be with us the last couple weeks, Advent is simply a time of its means. Coming is what it means, and it's the time that we take the four weeks before Christmas and really focus on the coming of Jesus, and then you would say, Well, Josh, why are we talking about Ruth doesn't talk about Jesus, but what it does do is it does tell us about Jesus's forefathers. So spoiler alert, at the end of the of the book, in chapter four, we're we're told that there's a genealogy, and part of that genealogy is Ruth is married to this guy named Boaz. And Luther Boaz have a son, and his name is Obed. And Obed is the father of this guy named Jesse. And Jesse is this the father of this guy who's who's pretty well known throughout the scriptures. His name is David, and Jesus comes from the line of David. And so we see this beautiful message that God takes our messy lives. He takes the problems that we have, and he, he, he works them out for his glory and for our good. And what do I mean by that? So the book of work begins with this story about this lady, Naomi, and her husband, Elimelech. You know, Naomi and Elimelech live in the town of Bethlehem, and Bethlehem is going through a famine at the time. And so what they do is they they decide that in order to to feed our family, we have to leave Bethlehem, and we have to move to this land of the Moabites. And the Moabites are enemies of Israel. They are enemies of God. They have a sketchy history, which we'll talk a little bit about later. And when they move to Moab what happens is tragedy strikes Naomi's family, so first a little let her husband dies while they're in the lab, and then after that, what happens is that Moabs sons, they marry some Moabite women, so they marry some of the women in the lab, and then they die. May Leon and Killian are the names of the sons. Both of those words mean sickness or illness, which we talked about a couple weeks ago. That's a weird thing to name your kids, but that's what happened. So may Leon and Killian, they both die. And so Naomi is left destitute. She has no family, she has no friends, she has no no reason to stay in the Moab. And so she decides that she hears about what's happening in Bethlehem and what happened after 10 years of living in Moab, there is a harvest being harvested in Bethlehem. So they're going back to Bethlehem. And on her way back to Bethlehem, her daughters in laws, Ruth and Orpah, and she looks at them and says, You don't have to come with me. I have nothing for you in the land of Bethlehem, so just stay here, find some nice husbands, live your life and go about your own business, and what was like? Okay, fine. I will do that. I will go live with my mother and find a new husband. And Maya, or Ruth, who becomes a central character of the story later on, says, No, I'm going to go with you. I'm going to demonstrate God's steadfast love to you, wherever you go, I will go wherever you live, I will live. Your God will be my God. Your people will be my people. Where you live, where you die, I will die. And so she's showing this, this type of love, this love is, is this the word in Hebrew, and it means a steadfast kindness and love. It's the same type of vote that God shows to his people. And so they're in Bethlehem, and when they get to Bethlehem, they have no food to eat. And so Naomi, or Ruth, decides that she's going to go and she's going to glean from the fields of a guy. She doesn't know who a guy is. She's just going to walk around. She's going to find a field. And the text tells us, in Ruth chapter two, that she happened to come upon a field of a man named Boaz, and it was just by happenstance, which we know isn't true. It is the hand of God, the providence of God, who guides Ruth to this field of this man named Boaz. The reason why Boaz is significant is because he's called, he's what is what is called a kinsman redeemer, which means that what he can do is he can re establish Naomi and Ruth as Israelites in Bethlehem because of that destitution that they went through. They were kind of just homeless and strangers in the land. But he can re establish them by redeeming them, by buying them back to by buying their property back and re establishing. Them as a people in that community. And so we meet Boaz. And what do we learn about Boaz? Well, we learn this actually before we get there. There's a song that came out in the 90s by a group called salt and pepper, and it was, what a man, what a man, what a man, what a mighty good man, right? That was a song. I don't remember that song. I remember the song anyway, and that's what people want, right? Women want a mighty good man. And what we learn about Boaz is that he's a mighty good man. And when I was thinking about this text, I was thinking about when we lived in Georgia, there was an older lady who lived there, and I was visiting with her one day, and I wanted to know how she met her husband. And I said, so her name is Miss Benny. And I said, Miss Benny, how did you meet your husband? And she goes, let me tell you a story. So this town that we lived in at the time that we lived in, Corey and I and the kids loved it. There were about 150 people, so it was like a village. It wasn't even really a town, right? It was a anyway, so we were living there. And I said, So Miss Benny, how did you meet your husband? And she goes, Well, I went to my mom, and I had a list of like, five names of guys. And she goes, Mom, what about you know, Joe Bob? And she goes, No, Joe Bob, he's your cousin. And she went through the names, right? They weren't close cousins, but they were close enough that it was not going to be anyway. And so she went down the list of names, and she finally got to her current husband. And her mom thinks about it for a second, and she goes, You know what? He's not related to us at all. And so And Miss Benny said, that's the guy I married. I just decided at that point in time that I was going to go marry this guy, because he's the one in town that I'm not related to. Anyway, it was a funny story, because it was just the hand of God. They've been married for, I don't know, 50 years at that time, and so it ended up working out. But that's just kind of what I think about when I think about when I think about finding a good man. It's not always just that you find a good man, and sometimes that that man becomes good later on. But anyway, so we think about like all the Hallmark stories around now, my mom loves to watch those Hallmark movies, and they're all the same thing where the girl goes to a town and and in that town she finds a man that she that, you know, she departed from when they were in high school, and now he loves her and all this stuff anyway. It's just weird. We want we love relationships, and we love these, these types of stories. Hey, I just told you the plot to every Hallmark movie. Okay, so what'd you say? Corey spoilers. They end up getting married and living happily ever after. They found a formula that works for him anyway. But we love, love stories, and we love to know about, you know what God is doing in the lives of people. And we see these and we we know, like, what is going on with Ruth and Naomi. They are in a horrible spot where they don't have anything. And then when she walks out to this field, they learn about Boaz being this kinsman redeemer and and being this kinsman redeemer is something beautiful that is a picture of God's redemption of his people, which, again, we'll give it to later. But anyway, they're sitting there and and this is where we're at. So at the end of chapter two, we get this last line, which is also a line of hopelessness, even after we learned about Ruth going into the field and she gains, or she's able to get, like, 50 pounds of grain to bring back home. And when she brings that back home, we still get this, this sad line here at the end of chapter two. And at the end of chapter two in Ruth, it says this, and she lived there with her mother in law, and it's not sad, because she lived there with her mother in law, but there's still something missing from her life. There's still something missing from what she where she needs to get to. And so there's still this this air of hopelessness, because if she doesn't find a way to live with somebody, to find a man, a good man, to marry her, she's going to continue to live in this destitution. And so then we get to chapter three. Now, up to this point, we gotta remember about Naomi. Naomi, she was angry and bitter about her situation, which I understand. She lost her husband, she lost her kids, she has no money, she has no family, she has no security, and so she's been angry and bitter. In fact, when she moved back to Bethlehem, the people were like, hey, Naomi.
And she's like, don't call me, Naomi. Don't call me Naomi. Call me tomorrow. No,
that doesn't mean anything to us. But like, Naomi means something like pleasantness, the Mara means something like bitterness. Don't call me pleasant anymore. I'm bitter. I'm angry for the hand of God has been against me. That's how she's feeling at this time. Now, she starts to perk up. Towards the end of chapter two, when Ruth comes back with all this grain, she starts to get a little bit excited. But then at the beginning of chapter three, we see that she's kind of turn head and about face. Here's what it says in chapter three, verses, one through I think we're going to then one through five. Yep, one through five. It says this Bruce, mother in law, Naomi, said to her, my daughter, shouldn't I find the rest for you so that you can be taken care of. Now is it Boaz, a relative? Haven't you been working with his female servants? This evening, he will be winnowing and Bartley on the threshing floor with. Wash, put on perfume oil and wear your best clothes. Go down to the threshing floor. But don't let the man know that you are there until he is finished eating and drinking when he lies down. Notice the place where he's lying. Go in and uncover his feet and lie down. And then he will explain to you what you should do. In verse five, says So Ruth said to her, I will do everything you
say. Okay, so
Naomi is excited about the grain that's been coming. So a little bit of that destitution, a little bit of that bitterness that started to to wane, and now she's thinking, grain is good, but it's not going to last forever. They finished the barley harvest. The harvest last for about seven to eight weeks, and if we just kind of average out, that's a lot of grain, and she's bringing home 50 pounds of grain every day, so she's got enough food to last her a long time. But this gleaning from the field isn't sustaining it's not going to be something that sustains her. So Naomi thinks I got a plot. Here's my pot. We're going to go and find Noah. She says this, shouldn't I find rest for you lately, shouldn't I find some rest for you? That word rest is essentially saying, shouldn't I find your husband to go home to somebody to take care of you, somebody that can do more for you than I can do for you. In chapter one, she tells Ruth, don't come with me, because I have nothing for you. And now she's like, Hey, I'm glad you came with me. I've got something for you. I've got something for you. I'm going to help find you the rest. I'm going to help find you security. I'm going to help find you somebody and And who's this that's going to be the solution to the problem. The solution to the problem is going to be this guy, Boaz. Boaz is going to be the solution to the problem. And so we see that Naomi has had a heart change, right? She went from being bitter to kind of being excited. She she wants to now, bless her daughter, with this relationship with Boaz and show so she has had this heart change. You know, part of the part of the problem with bitterness and anger and frustration, especially when we're frustrated with God, is what it does, and it helps to point us inward. It points us inward, and so we can't see the the heartache and the hurt on other people. We're so focused on what's happening in ourselves, and this is what's happened to Naomi up to this point. But God's been working on our heart, through the kindness of wisdom, through the kindness of Noah's and grace that Noah has given to Ruth Naomi starting to come around, and she's starting to, I would say, for for lack of a better word, she's repented. She's had a change of heart. She's had a change of mind. She goes, there's gotta be something better for you, Ruth. There's gotta be something better for us. Ruth, and this better for us is this guy named Boaz. She has a shift from selfishness and despair to compassion and commitment to Ruth. What we don't understand is she doesn't have to do anything for Ruth. She has no obligation to help her find a husband. She has no obligation to help her live a life of prosperity in Bethlehem. She has already told Ruth, I don't have anything for you, and now she's like but I think that we can figure something out. I think that we can do something, and it's just a beautiful picture of that heart change that happens when the god start, when God starts working in our lives, using the people around us to work in our lives. And so this, this, this plot, is something that actually Naomi is trying to fulfill when she prayed over Ruth at the beginning of Ruth chapter one in Ruth chapter one, verse nine, she says, May the Lord grant each of you rest in the house of a new husband. So this rest that she had prayed over Ruth back in chapter one, she is now trying to help find and find in this person of the last Naomi finds it now that is she. She takes upon herself the responsibility to take care of Ruth. Of Ruth has demonstrated that Cass that love of steadfastness, that kindness, that grace, and now she wants to return the favor. She has seen it again in Boaz. It's just a beautiful picture of how God works through other people to accomplish his mission in our lives. You see, until Ruth is married, she is an outcast. Until Ruth is married, she has no hope. Until Ruth is married, she's just going to be going into that field every year, the plucking grain, hoping that Boaz continues to be generous to her. But if she's getting married, if she marries Boaz, that she's going to find fullness and richness and rest. You see the restlessness here? Can you imagine going out to the field, day after day, year after year, and just picking the grain, and how restless that would leave you, because they're still longing for more. That's what's happening. She's trying to find her rest and comfort in an arms of for lack of a better word, a Savior. Now let's talk about a threshing floor real quick, because that's what Naomi says that she needs to go to a threshing floor. A threshing floor. When I thought about a threshing floor for a long time, I thought it was like this building or whatever, but basically it's just a high, flat mountain top where they would take the wheat, and they had to beat the wheat out, right? They had to make sure that they they got all the wheat out, and then what they would do is they would throw a. Everything up in the air. When a wind came by, when the wind came by, they threw everything in the air. The stuff that
wasn't important would fly away, and the stuff that was important would fall now, when is this happening? This is happening after a 10 year famine. Okay, they're on the threshing floor after a 10 year famine. Now, I don't know about you, but if you had had a 10 year famine where you your crops weren't producing, and you were going to go to the threshing floor to finally thresh out what you have, you have harvested. There'd be a party going on, wouldn't there? It'd be excitement going on. And the threshing floor was actually known for a place of excitement, a place of a party, some drinking, some nefarious activities too. I do want to give a little bit of of a warning. I guess there's going to be some uncomfortable stuff that happens in the next couple of verses and so, but we'll talk about them, and I'll try to make them as uncomfortable or as non uncomfortable as possible, but I just want you to know that there's, there's going to be some awkwardness, and it's okay, okay, we'll, we'll discuss that anyway. So the threshing floor is where they would be having a party, and so they're having a party, and they're throwing up wheat, and Naomi says, Hey, what I want you to do Ruth is I want you to go and I want you to change your clothes, and I want you to put oil on, and I want you to take a bath because you stink real bad. And I want you to go make sure that you are presentable to Boaz. I want him to notice you. Now, this isn't just simply that she wants Naomi to or Ruth to smell good. It's not just that she wants Naomi or Ruth. I'm like, I'm going to do this all morning. It's not just that Naomi wants Ruth to feel good about herself. But there's also this picture we got painted that for most of this time, probably what's happening is she has been mourning the loss of her husband, and in that morning, she's wearing these mourning clothes that were just kind of black and dredge and like just kind of unseemly. She's in this washing, this changing of her clothes, this putting oil on her body is like a renewal of her soul and a renewal of her, her willingness to continue a relationship with somebody else. And so we see this when David, when his son with Bathsheba, passes away, he goes through a mourning period where he's wearing these, these clothes that demonstrate mourning, and then when the Lord tells him that his morning period is over, he goes and changes his clothes. So there's this transition that's happening for Ruth. So Naomi is now giving Ruth permission to move on from her son to go and marry somebody else. Not only that, but if you think about it, Ruth has been working out in the fields for the last seven eight weeks. And as she's working out in the fields for the last seven and eight weeks, it's potentially Boaz has only ever seen her stinky, dirty and covered in some frupping clothing, right? And so now she's saying, hey, why don't you go out and actually make yourself presentable to this guy? Maybe he'll notice you a little bit more. So that's kind of what's going on. There's a change of heart, there's a change of attitude, there's a change of just physical appearance as well. Now, what's happening, though, is it's a risky thing for Ruth to go out to the threshing floor to go and present herself to Boaz, because she doesn't really know how Boaz feels about her. Right? They have an employee, employee or relationship going on here, and so she doesn't know how how Boaz is going to respond to her. So there's some riskiness here. Not only that, but she's an outsider as well, right? So, so it's not only is she a woman who is a widow, but she's also an outsider because she's a Moabite, she's an enemy of Israel. Now we have seen that Boaz has been kind to her, has been showing her grace, but she really has no idea how Boaz is going to respond? How is he going to interpret this? What are some ways in which Boaz could interpret her approaching him this way she he could interpret it along with the parties that were going on this, the threshing floors were also an opportunity for prostitutes to go out and make money. And so there was prostitution that would happen at the threshing force too. So he may just think she's a common prostitute. He may think that she's crazy for coming up and talking to her to him, he may just reject her altogether and say, Go away from me. And this risk here is if she goes out and he says, Don't talk to me again. Guess what happens? All that food that she's been gleaning has now dried up. She has no opportunity later to go back to the field, right? And so this is a risky proposition that Naomi is presenting to Ruth, and Ruth says, I'm going to have faith. I'm going to have faith in what you have asked me to do. I'm going to have faith in the God that you claim to serve. I'm going to have faith and I'm going to step out, and I'm going to go even with all the risks, even with all of the the potential, you know, ramifications of this, I'm going to go out and I am going to trust that God is going to take care of it. She's already seen the hand of God moving in her life, right? She's already seen the kindness. Boaz has shown her as the hand of God moving in her life. He's she's already had Boaz pray over her, showing the kindness of God. So, so she's like, I'm going to go out on faith, I'm going to take a step in that direction to go see what's going to happen. And so in verse six through nine, after Ruth says, I will go do as you say. Verse six says she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother in law had charged her to do. After Boaz ate, drank and was in good spirits, he went to lie down at the end of the pile of barley, and she came secretly, uncovered his feet and laid down at midnight. Boaz was startled, turned over and over and they're lying at his feet. Was a woman. So he asked, Who are you? I am Ruth, your servant. She replied, take me under your wing, for you are a family Redeemer. Okay, so this is where things start to get awkward. This language here, used here is very sexually charged language. Okay? Now I think that the purpose in this is to show who Ruth is and who Boaz is. If we remember Ruth is a Moabite, right in chapter two, the author would not let us forget that Ruth is a Moabite. Why is that important? Well, one, there's tensions between the Moabite people and the Israelite people, and part of those tensions come from two places. The first place is in Genesis, chapter 19. Genesis, chapter 19, is this the story about Lot and his daughters, and his daughters get lot drunk, and then they sleep with him, and then they have a child. And the child that is born to his oldest daughter is this child that she names Moab. And this is where we get the Moabite. So that's the first place, okay, the second place happens in numbers 25 Yeah, numbers 25 and this is where the Moabite women become temper temptresses to the Israelite men, and they tempt them to to to have sex with them, and then also to have them worship their idols. And so we see that this story is building upon this knowledge of who the Moabites are, right, this this story is building upon this tension between the Israelites and the Moabites. Is Ruth going to be a woman of integrity? She said, Your God will be my God. Or is Ruth going to be a woman of the Moabites who is just who she is? That's the tension that is presented here. And she goes down to the threshing floor, and she she's there and she watches him, and he's drunk and he's merry and he's having a good time, and he goes to go lay down. And the reason he's laying down next to his grain is because he wants to make sure that he protects it from animals and from people who may want to steal it. Remember, they've just gone through a 10 year famine. There are hungry people abounding. So he wants to make sure that he's protecting it. And she's watching him like a hawk, and she sees where he lays down, and she goes and she lays down next to him, and she uncovers his feet. And that's just really weird in itself, right? Why are you uncovering his feet? But she uncovers his feet, and maybe it's just because they the cool air will wake him up, and he wakes up, and he sees this woman in front of him, and he says, Who are you? What a question, who are you? And the way that Ruth responds, he says, I am your servant. I am Ruth your servant. Now what's important here is that in chapter two, when they first meet, Ruth says, I am the lowest of your servants to Boaz. And here she just goes, I am just a regular servant. I am here for you, Boaz. I'm here to serve you. And it may be socially awkward and it may be kind of just weird for us to think about, but here Ruth is just she's beside herself, and she's wanting Boaz to recognize her and to save her from the pit of despair that she's been in. And she says, Oh, I love this. Actually, she went down the threshing floor and did everything her mother in law had charged to do this verse six. And after Boaz ate and drank and was in good spirits, he went down on the pile of barre barley. And then, instead of waiting for for to do everything that she was told to do, Ruth actually says, I'm your servant, Ruth, and and what do you want me to do? She doesn't wait for him to tell her what to do. He goes, What do you want me to do? And I think it's just a beautiful picture of that. That's that step of faith as well that's coming out. She she makes a request, and I think that it's just the faith that Ruth has at this point for Boaz, or for God in Boaz is just a beautiful picture of the faith that is needed to move past where she is. Ruth is essentially going to be here and she's. Saying, I want you to marry me. I want you to marry me. Take me under your wing, for you are our family Redeemer. That is what verse nine says. And he's and she's saying, hey, Boaz, this is weird, but I need you to redeem us. I need you to save us. I need you to provide for me and Naomi. Will you do that? Will you take me under your wing? This, take me under your wing, or another translation is that you cover me with your cloak. This is this idea of protection. She's going a step further than than what Naomi even said, because she's not just waiting for Boaz to give her instructions. She's saying, Boaz, this is what we need from you. And this, this taking her under the wing, his wing, or her marrying Boaz isn't just going to provide for Ruth. That's what we see here, is that it's not just going to provide for Ruth him, taking her under his wing, to marry her and to take care of her, is going to also provide for Naomi. Naomi is going to be restored. Ruth is going to be restored, and any child that they have after this, this first, or any child that they have, specifically the first child, is actually going to belong to Naomi's line, so that Naomi's line of lineage will continue on. And this is part of that kinsman redeemer, that family Redeemer thing, is where he's going to purchase back the land. But when he purchases back the land, he's also going to purchase back the family and so Naomi's line isn't going to stop with may Leon and Killian. No. Mis lion is going to continue to go if Ruth has children. Now, the problem with that is that Ruth was married to may Leon or Killian, one of one of the two, for 10 years or so, and she hadn't had children. So we don't even know if she's going to be able to have a child. Well, I told you earlier that she did, but we don't even know at this point in time. Point in time if she's going to have a child, right? And so this step of faith is is a step of we need help. And Boaz, right now, you're the only one we know who can help us. Will you please take me under your wing, which is an interesting thing for her to say. And the reason why it's interesting for her to say is because Boaz prayed this prayer over Ruth back in chapter two. In chapter two, verse 12, Boaz says this. He says, May the Lord reward you for what you have done, and may you receive full reward from the LORD God of Israel, who under whose wings you have taken refuge. She has taken refuge under the wings of the Lord, and now she's saying, Boaz, I don't want just want to take refuge under the wings of the Lord. I want you to be the one I take refuge under as well. Now this taking so Ruth is essentially saying, Boaz, be the answer to the prayer that you prayed. Be the answer to the prayer that you prayed. Now think about that real quick. She is a servant, a Moabite, a socially awkward girl who is demanding of the one who employs her to marry her. He's saying, you have to marry us. You're the only option. How much gusto does that take for her? How much faith does that take for her to say you have to You're the one, and we need you. Please do this. You prayed that the Lord would cover us with his wings. You prayed that we would be the ones who or that God would take care of us, and Boaz, you are the one to take care of us. How many times have we told people that we were going to pray for them when we could have been the answer to that prayer, oh, I'll pray that you get your electric bill paid. I pray that God puts food on your tables. I pray that you have a restored relationship with with your loved one. This is what I pray. But what if you are the instrument that God is going to use to be the answer to that prayer? That's what's happening here. Boaz is the answer to the prayer that he prayed, and Ruth is saying, You're the One God has provided you for us in his grand scope of his narrative, of his story of the life that he's called us to. I'm telling you, Boaz, that you are the answer to the prayer that you prayed. Will you do this for us? Then we get Boaz his response in chapter or verse 10, and he says this. Then he said, May the Lord bless you, my daughter, you have shown more kindness now than before because you have not pursued younger men, whether rich or poor. Now don't be afraid, my daughter, for I will do whatever you say. Since all the people in my in the town know that you are a woman of noble character. Yes, it is true that I am a family Redeemer, but there is a redeemer closer than I am. Stay here tonight and in the morning, if he wants to redeem you, that's good. Let him redeem you. But if he doesn't want to redeem you, as the Lord lives, I will now lie down until morning. So what do we see here? Boaz has gone from being the master to the servant. He goes whatever you say, Ruth, I will do. I will do what you have asked. Why? Because He is a loving character. He is a representation of Jesus. I will do what you cannot. And he says that your kindness to me now is better than before, because. You have pursued younger men. You could have pursued other people, younger better looking, having more money, having less money, but just better looking, right? You could've chased after anybody, but you came to me, he she could've married anyone, and he says, But I see you and I hear you, and I will do this, but there's a wrinkle, right? There's a little bit of wrinkle. There's another Redeemer who's closer. Now this is significant, because in in this redemption thing, so it's called a Levite marriage, where basically there are steps to take in order to marry someone who's lost their land, to marry someone who has been abandoned or or is a widow. So it starts with the brother. So if you're the brother, if May, Leon would have died and Killian, Killian would have married her. But then there's also, like the next step, is the father, I think, what is it? It goes Brother, no brother, uncle, cousin or close clan relative. So there's steps that need to be taken. So we see the integrity of Boaz here. He could've just said, No, I'm going to marry you. But he says, No, there's somebody closer, and we have to check with him, because the right thing to do, the honorable thing to do, is to make sure that we are doing this the way that God honors it. Now I think it's just a beautiful picture of who we know Boaz to be. Boaz has shown kindness, he has shown integrity. He has shown that he loves the Lord, and he continues to show that, even though we see from His own lips that he wants to marry Ruth, right? He wants to marry her. He wants to make her whole. Maybe it was that during those eight weeks that she was harvesting, he's just sitting back going, Man, That Woman, she does she I've got some feelings for her. Maybe that's what it was. Maybe he's seen her over the last eight weeks and he's like, you know, I know that I'm a kinsman redeemer, but I don't want to approach her, because I know she's still mourning, because she's still wearing those morning clothes, but now that she's changed clothes, now that she smells a lot better, now that she's oiled her body up, she's ready for something else. And so he goes to her, or she comes to him, and he goes, I will do everything that you ask, whatever you say, I will do what was the first kindness that he's represented, or that he's talking about here, though, is the kindness that she showed to Naomi, that kindness in chapter one, where she looks at Naomi and says, Wherever you go, I will go. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my god. Again, she could have abandoned Naomi, left her to destitution, but instead she came with her so that kindness is good, and then he shows more kindness when she approaches Boaz. But again, there's a a wrinkle that other family Redeemer. Now we do learn here that it says that Ruth is a person of noble character, and this just a Bible. Fun fact, in most of the Hebrew Bibles, they have a different order of the scriptures than we do. And one of the orders, the one of the ways that they order, it is that they have Ruth following right after proverbs 31 so it's Proverbs The End of 31 and then Ruth. Now if you don't know the Book of Proverbs, The chapter 31 talks about what an honorable woman looks like, what a God fearing woman looks like. And so for Ruth to follow that the end of Proverbs, it's showing us that she is that Proverbs, 31 woman, which is also interesting because she is also a non Israelite. She is a Moabite. She is a, for all intents and purposes, an enemy of God. And yet God says that she has been honorable. Okay, anyway, so she's a noble character. She's done what she's supposed to be doing, and now we see in verse 14. So she lay down at his feet until morning, but got up when it was still dark. Then Boaz said, don't let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor. And he told Ruth, bring the shawl you were wearing and hold it out. When she held it out, he shoveled six measures of barley into her shawl and went down, went into town. She went to her mother in law, Naomi, who asked her, What happened my daughter, then Ruth, told her everything that the man had done for her. She said he gave me these six measures of barley because he said, Don't go back to your mother in law, empty handed, my daughter, wait until you find out how things go for he won't rest unless he resolved this. Resolves this today. So at the end of the previous section that we just read, Boaz says, one way or another, you are going to be married, either this guy's going to redeem you or I'm going to redeem you. So there's this hope and this joy and this peace that is stewing up within Naomi or within Ruth, who eventually flows over to Naomi. But what happens is he she stays with him all night, and then he tells his men, don't tell anybody that that woman was here. And why would he say that? Because he doesn't want her character to be soiled. He doesn't want people to think wrong things. And then he sends her home. But before he sends her a home, he gives her six measures of barley. Now there's a lot of debate over what six measures of barley is, but it's somewhere between or somewhere around 80 pounds of grain. So it's not an insignificant amount of grain. So when she first went home, she took what, 50 pounds, 30 to 50 pounds with her. This time she took 80 pounds with her. And so what? What is? This gift. This gift is almost like a promise. This is this promise that I'm going to resolve the issue. So he's giving an promise to Naomi and to Ruth. I'm going to solve the problem that lies before you. I am going to be the solution, either me or this other guy. There is this six grains. Now, six is significant. And the reason why six is significant is because in the Scripture, the six is the number closest to perfection without there being perfection, right? And so seven is the number of perfection. And so this idea is that there's still something waiting for. There's still something to long for. There's still something else coming. And that seventh seed, that seventh measure, is going to be later on in chapter four, when Ruth finally gets to who has been barren all this time, finally gets to bear a child to Naomi, to make Naomi whole, to bring Naomi peace, to restore this redemption. But he says, I'm going to give you this grain. And they and Ruth comes back and he she goes, Why did he give you all this? Naomi says, why did he give you all this? And we were let in on a another part of the conversation we hadn't seen earlier, where she goes, he didn't want me to come home empty handed. And that's significant because of this, he's it's significant because what is Ruth say at the beginning of or towards the end of chapter one, in chapter one, verse 21 she says this, I went away full. I went to Moab full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. You. The Lord has brought me back empty. She's come empty, but now she has a fullness of grain. She has been promised redemption. She has been promised reconciliation. She has been promised this restoration of her name through this man named Boaz, through this name, man named Boaz, we see that God is using him to fulfill, to take what was empty and make it full, to fulfill a promise that God is going to take care of his children, to fulfill a promise that God is going to make things whole, to fulfill a promise that God does not see, does not not see us. He sees us, and He knows us, and He loves us, and he feels our pain and He knows our heartache, and he he's going to be restored. Ruth is going to be restored. Naomi has a faith here in Boaz as well. At the end of verse 18, when it says, My daughter, wait until you find out how things go for he won't rest unless he resolves us today. Do we see that? Chapter Three begins with, I'm going to find you rest. Shouldn't I not find you rest? And then at the end of chapter three, she says, He will not rest. He's going to be restless. He's going to do everything he can to make sure that this is accomplished. He's going to do everything he can to make sure that you are redeemed. He's going to make everything. He make everything. Make sure that he can do this. He will do this. He loves you and He cares about you. Now. Just think about this, and I think about the redemption we have in Christ. He did everything he could to save us. He came to earth, giving of himself through his life. He lived the perfect life that we could not live. He was the most noble man. Yes, Boaz was noble, but Jesus was more noble. He gave of himself. It wasn't just grain that he gave, but he gave his life for us. He died on that cross to save us, to promise us the redemption that God had seen from the beginning of time, that we are enemies of God, and He wants to bring us in to be part of the family of God. And it's just this beautiful understanding of what God has done for us. And we see this through this mini picture of this story of Ruth and Boaz. Through these four chapters, we see that redemption is coming, and that that longing for the redemption at the end of chapter three, that longing for redemption that is fulfilled in the person and work of Christ, that we were all enemies of God, and through His sacrifice, he has called us daughters and sons. What a beautiful understanding of the gospel that Jesus gave us. We don't we don't have to be walking around here empty handed. He has given us fullness of life. I just pray this morning that I know that there's some emptiness in some of our hearts and in our souls, there's some pain and there's some struggles. But I want to promise you, and I promise you, and I promise you that if you give your life to Jesus, He will make you whole. He will fulfill you. He is the greater Boaz. He is the greatest Redeemer. He is the promise that God made in the garden, that he is going to conquer sin and death. And we get that through the person and work of Jesus, that we get this bridge of redemption back to the Father. So if you haven't given your life to Jesus today, I just pray that you would I pray that you would look at him and see how beautiful and gracious and kind and loving and compassionate he is. Let's pray, Father, we are so humbled by your love. We are so humbled by your grace. We are so humbled by the fact that you call us sons and daughters. We thank you for these stories, these stories of redemption, these stories of sacrifice, these stories of love and grace that through the the stories of these men and women in the scriptures, we get to see the character that you have on full display. Thank you, Lord, for your life and for your love, and I just pray that you would draw people to you, that you would use us to be the answers to prayers, that you would use us to be the ones who show the goodness of God to the world around us that we would go out and we would proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to those who.