The Perfect Prince Who Provides His People with Peace

Introduction

Every May at high school graduations all around our country, there is an incredible feat that is celebrated: Perfect Attendance. Students who make it from Kindergarten through Senior Year having never missed a day of school. No sick days in 13 years. Never skipping school for 13 years. Never being gone for a family trip for 13 years. Never being forced to go to the doctor’s office or to help out with something around the house. Never missing for a family funeral. Perfect attendance for 13 years seems impossible - it’s quite a remarkable accomplishment! But just because a student had perfect attendance, doesn’t mean that they were a perfect student. They might have perfect attendance in a class, but not a perfect grade in the class. We can extend this from the classroom to our community - you might be a good, law abiding citizen, but we’ve all been guilty of breaking things whether it be speed limits, HOA rules, or specific codes and customs. Part of being a human is dealing with problems, in many cases that we only have ourselves to blame.

Several years ago there was a person in Seattle who happened to be deathly afraid of spiders who happened to see a spider in his laundry room and he was trying to come up with a solution to that problem… after several minutes he arrived at a conclusion: He was going to make a create a homemade blow torch and burn the spider. He grabbed a can of spray paint and a lighter and attempted to light the spider on fire and he certainly succeeded at eliminating that problem in his life! The issue with this solution, though, was that it also caught his house on fire and by the time all was said and done, he was left with over $60,000 in damages and repairs to his house and things inside of it! He solved the problem but his solution wasn’t very helpful because it caused more problems than it actually solved.

In life we face problems because we aren’t perfect at keeping God’s law. In fact, there’s only one person who has done that perfectly and that person is Jesus Christ. This morning, as we wrap our up study of Ruth, we’re going to see how Ruth’s redeemer solves her 2 greatest problems and we’ll be reminded how Jesus Christ, as the true and better Redeemer continues to solve the problems that His people face today and how He alone provides us with PEACE!

Ruth 4 CSB

1 Boaz went to the gate of the town and sat down there. Soon the family redeemer Boaz had spoken about came by. Boaz said, “Come over here and sit down.” So he went over and sat down. 2 Then Boaz took ten men of the town’s elders and said, “Sit here.” And they sat down. 3 He said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has returned from the territory of Moab, is selling the portion of the field that belonged to our brother Elimelech. 4 I thought I should inform you: Buy it back in the presence of those seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to redeem it, do it. But if you do not want to redeem it, tell me so that I will know, because there isn’t anyone other than you to redeem it, and I am next after you.” “I want to redeem it,” he answered. 5 Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the field from Naomi, you will acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the deceased man, to perpetuate the man’s name on his property.” 6 The redeemer replied, “I can’t redeem it myself, or I will ruin my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption, because I can’t redeem it.” 7 At an earlier period in Israel, a man removed his sandal and gave it to the other party in order to make any matter legally binding concerning the right of redemption or the exchange of property. This was the method of legally binding a transaction in Israel. 8 So the redeemer removed his sandal and said to Boaz, “Buy back the property yourself.” 9 Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses today that I am buying from Naomi everything that belonged to Elimelech, Chilion, and Mahlon. 10 I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, to perpetuate the deceased man’s name on his property, so that his name will not disappear among his relatives or from the gate of his hometown. You are witnesses today.” 11 All the people who were at the city gate, including the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is entering your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built the house of Israel. May you be powerful in Ephrathah and your name well known in Bethlehem. 12 May your house become like the house of Perez, the son Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring the Lord will give you by this young woman.” 13 Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. He slept with her, and the Lord granted conception to her, and she gave birth to a son. 14 The women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you without a family redeemer today. May his name become well known in Israel. 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. Indeed, your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” 16 Naomi took the child, placed him on her lap, and became a mother to him. 17 The neighbor women said, “A son has been born to Naomi,” and they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. 18 Now these are the family records of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron, 19 Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab, 20 Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, 21 Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, 22 Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.

Our God is in the details. Whether it be a widow from Moab or a wealthy Israelite. Whether it be a famous name like David or a forgotten name like Hezron. At Christmas, we celebrate that our God is the God who provides. He provided for Ruth. He provided for Boaz. He provided for Mary and Joseph. He continues to provide for us today! Let’s pause and thank Him for the peace we find in the Prince of Peace!

God Provides Redemption (1-13)

What does the word redemption mean? We sing about redemption. We read about redemption in the Bible. But what does it actually mean? Kids, have you ever been to Incredible Pizza? Our oldest, Gabriel, loves going to Incredible Pizza and playing in their arcade area! Whenever you play in an arcade, you have a game card that you’ve put some money on and that card allows you to play games. As you play the games, if you do good, you earn tickets. You keep playing until you run out of money on your card and then you go to the prize area and you are able to “redeem” those tickets and use them to get a prize! One definition of redeem is to use something to gain something else. To redeem something requires some sort of cost, so we can say that redemption is costly. It either cost you something or it cost someone else something. Biblically, this is the same - redemption is costly… but we’re not talking about the cost of a few dollars to get a prize. We’re talking about redeeming someone, not something.

In the Old Testament, we see that God redeems His people in Egypt whenever they were slaves. Got came to their aid and redeemed them while the Egyptians suffered as a result because they refused to let the Israelites go. Finally whenever the Israelites were allowed to leave, Pharoah changed his mind and God once again provided for His people by parting the Red Sea. The people remembered God’s goodness and faithfulness and referred to God as their Redeemer

Psalm 78:35 CSB

35 They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their Redeemer.

God paid for their physical freedom by sending these plagues. But redemption isn’t just something that God does, it is something that He calls His people to do as well. We see this in Leviticus 25 as God’s law called on family members to help other family members out. Say a family was very poor and had to sell their land to make ends meet, the law in Leviticus 25 calls on a kinsman-Redeemer to purchase that land and to restore it to that family. To pay for it personally and to give it back to the family - this is costly! There was another type of redemption, though, and that is whenever a husband passed away and his wife had no children, the nearest male relative had the obligation to marry this widow so that any property that the husband had would stay in the family. What we see in Ruth 4 is this redemption as Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, owned land but had no children to pass it on to… which meant that there was an opportunity for a redeemer to step up and buy or redeem the land.

Boaz sets the stage well for this first family redeemer, the one with a better claim than Boaz. He brings the leaders of the town together and tells him the situation and the man immediately says that he wants to redeem the land. This makes financial sense - there was just a famine some 10 years earlier. More land = more crops = more money = more power to leave for future generations! But there’s a problem in verse 5… the land doesn’t come alone. It comes with Ruth. Elimelech has no children. Ruth married his son. Therefore, whoever redeems the land, also redeems Ruth. If this redeemer has children with Ruth, it is Ruth’s children who will inherit this land. If he had previous children, he will leave less for them because of this decision - so he sings a different tune in verse 6 after counting the cost. “I can’t redeem it… or I will ruin my own inheritance!”

How many times do we get into trouble whenever we look to our problem instead of our Provider? We aren’t told why this redeemer said no - maybe it was financially motivated as this decision didn’t make financial sense. Some believe that he says no because of the political reality of Ruth being a Moabite woman. Why on earth would a wealthy Israelite marry a foreign Moabite? These are the questions that are going through this man’s head and he declines. These are the questions that we often ask - does this make financial sense? Does this make political sense? Is this a helpful relationship or alliance? Will this benefit me?

Aren’t you thankful that God doesn’t ask these questions whenever He redeems us? What does our redemption benefit God? It doesn’t! We are fallen sinful people who are separated from Him and God is the Creator and Sustainer of everything and He has no needs. We don’t scratch an itch that God has. We have nothing to benefit His bottom-line. In fact, we don’t bring anything to the table other than our sins.

Romans 6:23 CSB

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Yet, we read in Scripture and are reminded during Christmas, that God loved us so much that He sent His Son into this world to seek and save, who? Spectacular people? Deserving people? No! Sinful and desperate people. If Jesus only redeemed people who checked all the right boxes, then no one would ever be redeemed!

Romans 5:8 CSB

8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Sinners. The great news of Christmas time is that Jesus Christ seeks and saves sinners. Not spectacular and perfect people. Sinful people. He does this at great cost because we see in Romans 5:8 that Christ died for us! This is the cost of our redemption, the very life of Jesus Christ. From the beginning of time, this has been God’s perfect plan - to send a snake-crushing, sin-slaying Savior who would live a perfect life and die for our sins on the cross. Jesus does what we could never do and what no one else could ever do for us - redeem us from our sins and provide us with His perfect righteousness.

Because the first family redeemer declined, Boaz jumps at the opportunity because of his love for Ruth. Redemption is costly, but it is motivated by love. The first redeemer was self-centered (the cost is too much for me to do this), the second redeemer was other-centered (the cost is too much to NOT do this). We know that this was the case for Jesus - Philippians 2 tells us that He humbled Himself, came to the earth as a servant in order to redeem people with no hope, just like you and me. This is God’s provision. We all need His Redemption!

God Provides Life (14-17)

Not only do we need redemption from our sins, but we need to be raised to life. Redemption is a hard sell to people who think that they are fine… but resurrection is an even harder sell to people who don’t realize that they are dead in their sins. This is the story of Scripture, God bringing life where there was once death. This is what we see in our passage here with Ruth giving birth to Obed.

But there’s a justifiable question: why on earth does verse 17 tell us that a son was born to Naomi? Do you remember what she said back in the first chapter whenever they returned to Bethlehem?

Ruth 1:21 CSB

21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has opposed me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

Naomi said that she returned empty? This isn’t true. She had Ruth. Because of God’s providence, she also got a grandson. Think of Abraham and Sarah - waited 25 years for God to come through on His promise of a son. Think of Hannah who waited years to give birth to Samuel (prophet who anointed David). Think of Job… for a time he blamed God for what had happened to him in his life, and then God pulled back the veil just a little bit for him to get a glimpse of all that God had done and was presently doing to sustain him and Job in one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, Job 42, says this:

Job 42:2–3 CSB

2 I know that you can do anything and no plan of yours can be thwarted. 3 You asked, “Who is this who conceals my counsel with ignorance?” Surely I spoke about things I did not understand, things too wondrous for me to know.

Job 42:5 CSB

5 I had heard reports about you, but now my eyes have seen you.

What is one of the recurring themes in the Bible? We get so caught up in our problems that we worry about anything and everything! Naomi, through the redemption of her daughter-in-law, Ruth, experienced hope, peace, and the blessing of life. Through the redemption that Jesus brings to our lives, we too experience hope, peace, and life. What gets us in trouble is our inability to wait and our stubbornness to trust in God’s providence. But friends, if we would just wait. If we would just trust that God IS who He says He is and that God will do what He promises to do, all of our complaints and all of our objections and all of our critiques would prove to be false. God is present with His people in the mountain high and the valley low. God does work all things for the good of His people. God’s provision provides His people not only with earthly, but eternal life.

John Piper shared this years ago, “The life of the godly is not a straight line to glory, but we will get there.” Aren’t you thankful for this blessed assurance that we have in Jesus? We’d love a straight line, wouldn’t we? I love straight lines. In fact, whenever Lindsey and I moved down here and into our house in Ozark, I began to try different routes to get to South Gate to determine which way was the fastest… does anyone else play the “I want to beat my phone ETA” game? That might just be a competitive spirit coming out, but that’s a routine for the Hayworth’s! So here I am, trying to find out which option is the fastest and it says to take James River Freeway… so I take it. The next time I take an alternate option and it’s CC between Ozark and Nixa… so I take it. After a few days of these options, I take Evans Road and start to do that a few times and realize that of all the options, this is the fastest! I can beat my ETA. I can take a relatively straight path. We love these options… but life isn’t full of them. In fact, life is often full of us going left when we should go right, and our GPS says “Re-Calculating” in the background.

In this life we suffer hardships. Setbacks. Trials. Pain. Ups and Downs… but because of God’s love and grace, we have hope that at the end of our road, we get glory. We have eternal life. The result of Ruth and Boaz being married was the birth of a son named Obed. We see the miracle of new life as God provides life where there was once barrenness. Did you know that God is still in the business of bringing life and light from death and darkness? This is what He alone does!

Ephesians 2:1 CSB

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins

Ephesians 2:4–5 CSB

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!

From death to life - this is what our God does!

Generations of God’s Grace (18-22)

God uses unlikely people to accomplish His good pleasure for His glory and for our good. In these closing verses we discover that Ruth is the Great-Grandmother of the greatest King Israel ever had, King David. Does that make much sense to you? A pagan, Moabite woman, who was an enemy of Israel is used by God’s grace to not only demonstrate His provision and protection, but to bring about His chosen King generations later. This story makes no sense in a culture that prided itself on power and strength - the story of Ruth would have been one of weakness. Yet, our God uses unlikely people to demonstrate His divine strength. He provides and makes a way where there is no other way.

Think of a way that God has provided for you today. Maybe you’re having difficulty with this. Let’s start with the obvious: God woke you up! God provided you with another day. He has provided for you a loving church to worship with today. He has provided you with clothes or if you’re worshipping with us online He’s provided you with the technology to do that! He is good and He has provided for us.

God provides opportunities for us to be witnesses for Him. This includes the hospital when you’re suffering with a smile on your face and the staff is shocked. This includes the grocery store whenever the check-out line is long and eating away at your limited free time. This includes the traffic light whenever someone cuts you off and you’re stuck waiting even longer than you otherwise would have had to. This includes the basketball court whenever the official makes a controversial call and you’re tempted to raise your voice and forfeit your Christian witness. See, God provides not only for us whenever we’re facing adversity… He also provides opportunities where people undoubtedly are watching you and me to see how we respond to certain things. Not only did God provide for Ruth and Naomi in this text… God also provided for Boaz. God provided him with an opportunity to redeem this Moabite woman whose people were bitter enemies of the Israelites. Everyone at the city gate was watching to see what Boaz would do and lo and behold he redeems Ruth. God uses Boaz and Ruth to magnify His greatness and show His wonderful plan of salvation for the nations. God will use Ruth and Boaz and from them will come king David and from King David, will come King Jesus! God’s provision must give us peace as we trust in Him and His perfect plan.

What is attempting to steal your peace today? Just as this world can’t touch our joy, this world can’t rob us of our peace. Our eternal peace and rest with God has been won because of Jesus Christ! Because of Jesus, you can have peace when problems arise. You can have peace in tribulation as John 16:33 states. Think about this truth of peace during times of suffering… Years ago there was a pastor who had just lost his wife suddenly and he was taking his daughter to the funeral service and it was a sunny afternoon until a semi-truck pulled up alongside their car casting a large shadow that blocked out the sun. The dad was trying to explain the hope that Christians have even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death as Psalm 23 tells us. It immediately clicked in his head and he asked his daughter, “Would you rather get hit by that semi-truck or by its shadow?” The daughter without hesitation said that she’d rather get hit by its shadow… The dad said that what Jesus has done for sinners like you and me is He took the full blow of getting hit by the semi-truck of sin and death so that you and I only have to face its shadow. The shadow of sin and death is real. It clouds our vision. It still stings. It causes real pain. But we can endure that shadow knowing that Jesus paid the price.

Luke 2:14 ESV

14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Is God pleased with you today? That’s a frightening thought at times, isn’t it? If we’re being honest based on our own works and actions, we displease God as we sin and we sin all the time. So many at Christmas time use Luke 2:14 and stop with Glory to God and peace on earth… that’s not where the verse stops though so we can’t stop there either. Friend, if you don’t know Jesus as Lord and Savior, if you are not redeemed today then understand that you do not know this divine peace and you are not at peace with God either. This peace that God extends to us is only experienced by those who have faith in Christ. Those who are redeemed by His blood. Matthew Henry put it like this centuries ago, “What peace can they have who are not at peace with God?” If you do know Jesus, if you do have faith in Him, and if you have been redeemed - If that is you, then Luke 2:14 tells us that God is pleased with you. What an honor and what a statement! How is it true? Because God has provided forgiveness for you in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Whenever God looks at you as a Christian, He see’s the blood of His Son and Jesus’ perfection is credited to your account so that God looks at you as though you lived a perfect life and therefore, He is well pleased. This is grace. This is provision. This is mercy. This peace is found in a person and His name is Jesus! Do you know this Jesus?

God’s Provision Gives Us Peace

Ruth and Naomi came back to Bethlehem empty in chapter 1 but here in the end they are filled. Maybe you enter this Christmas season empty. You’re suffering and struggling and you feel as though the Almighty has afflicted you. Friend, if this is you, understand this: The God of the Bible Provides for His People! He provides food to the hungry. He provides strength to the weak. He provides salvation to the sinners. He provides hope to the hopeless. He provides peace to the peaceless. I’m not sure about you, but during the Christmas season peace and contentment can be so hard to find. It’s easy to grow envious during this season. We’re jealous because this side of the family got more time with the kids and grandkids. We’re jealous because this couple is experiencing something that we wish that we were experiencing. We’re jealous because this church is experiencing this and ours is not. As much as we talk about being satisfied and happy and content during this time of the year, this time of the year actually seems to make us grow even more discontent than we previously were! Maybe this is you today. Maybe you’re here and you’re fighting for peace. You’re fighting to stay content. You’re fighting because you’re not feeling the normal way you feel at Christmas.

If your cup is running empty today, understand that God does His best work with empty cups! Know that Jesus alone can not only fill your cup but He can give you living water that will forever satisfy your soul. He provides you with peace that weathers the problems in this life. What does God’s peace do in our lives? What must you and I do to experience it today? The Bible tells us that there are 2 things that we must do

To Experience God’s Peace, you must Repent of your Sins

In order to experience God’s peace, you Bible tells us that you must be right with God… until that happens, you will not have peace. How can you and I be made right with our God? We must have our sins be forgiven. We must be redeemed. This means that we are called to repent or turn away from our sins and trust that God is faithful to forgive us. If you’re anything like myself back in the day you want God’s peace without desiring God’s unrivaled rule in your life and that simply won’t work. If you want the peace that Jesus alone can provide, you must repent of your sins. Admit that you have said things, done things and thought things that displease God. Understand that your only hope is for Jesus to pay for those sins and trust in Him today.

To Experience God’s Peace, you must Follow after Jesus Daily

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not enough to simply understand that you have sinned and need Jesus and never do anything with that information. The Bible tells us that if you want to be His follower, you must Luke 9:23

Luke 9:23 CSB

23 Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.

If you are serious about wanting the peace that only Jesus can bring to your life, you must repent of your sins, deny yourself, and follow after Jesus daily. This is a war that we go through daily as our sinful self and our fallen world try to rob us of that peace and joy… Don’t let your heart be troubled. Don’t let your heart be afraid. Trust in the Prince of Peace. Trust in His Word. Trust in His provision. Trust that He will provide maybe not what you want… but exactly what you need to glorify Him and fulfill your purpose!

Wherever you are and whatever you’ve done, you’re not too far gone for God’s grace. You haven’t sinned too much to experience the peace and forgiveness found in Jesus Christ. If God could save a widow, pagan worshipping, Moabite woman and use her in the lineage of King David and eventually Jesus Christ, don’t believe the lie that God cannot save, forgive, and use you. He still uses crooked sticks to his straight shots! Trust in Jesus and experience His peace today.