A Son Is Born

Text

Ruth 4 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.” 11 Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, 12 and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.” 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. 18 Now these are the generations 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.

Prayer

Father, we praise you and thank you for the book of Ruth. We stand in awe before you as the God who takes the most hopeless situations of this world and redeems them. As we will see in this final chapter of Ruth, you work all things for good for those who love you and are called according to your purposes. More importantly, Lord, I pray that you would cause us all to see the Redeemer this whole story points to—the one who takes those who are bitter and empty and makes them filled with endless joy through Christ, and in whose name we pray, Amen.

Sermon

Introduction: The True Story of Scripture

There is an aspect to Christianity and the Bible that I find hard to grasp, sometimes. This aspect is a lingering, subconscious floater from my childhood. Growing up, I rarely paid attention to what was being said in the various churches I found myself in. My mind was on other things—I was discipled by other things.

But God, in his great mercy, grabbed hold of me as an adult and drew me towards himself. He instilled within me a desire to know him, and to learn of him from his own words. I’ve told this story before, but when Hannah and I were engaged, there was a distinct moment that I can remember where I was filled with this realization of how far behind I felt.

It was a simple thing: Hannah was driving from Cottonwood to meet me in Redding. I was already there, and she had just pulled up in her car. I could hear that she was listening to someone talking, either in a podcast or the radio—but not music. This stood out to me. I asked what she was listening to, and she shared that it was a Tim Keller sermon. She had been listening through Keller’s sermons on her daily commutes from Cottonwood to Redding. In that moment, I was convicted and intimidated. Here I am, only a short time away from vowing to lead this woman in marriage before God, and can I honestly say that I am capable of leading her spiritually?

This was a part of a larger, growing sense of urgency in my life at that time. I felt so behind, so immature, and so messed up from a life of public schooling and squishy churching.

But God moved and worked in a mighty and simple way. Following Hannah’s example, I, too, started listening to sermons and podcasts. This was nothing short of a supernatural intervention of the Spirit. Where there was previously a barren and lifeless obligation to read the Bible, now, there was a passion that was alive and well—God filled an empty cup. Redeemed a situation. So if you feel like I did, start listening to some good teaching. There’s literally more available today than you have time to consume.

Inside every cable, conductors like copper allow electricity to flow, while insulators protect and prevent interference. Power cables with more copper and better shielding handle higher currents and longer distances. Similarly, as the Christian grows in their knowledge of God, their spiritual capacity increases. As their familiarity with the Word of God increases, that electrical current also becomes better protected and insulated from threats.

What works for me with this analogy is that it addresses only the capability of the cable, and not what powers it. Because there are plenty of people who know the Bible very well, but obey it poorly. There are too many high voltage power cables that are unplugged from their power source.

We all have issues in this department. A few moments ago, I mentioned that there was an aspect to Christianity that I struggle to grasp, from time to time, and that it was a kind of mental floater from my less-than-interested-in-the-Bible upbringing. This aspect is that of the Bible being story. The Bible is a story. It’s function, in part, is to tell a specific story.

Now here’s the problem: I grew up reading stories. I loved stories. To this day, I continue to be a person who, if I like a story, will immerse myself in it, and seek to know everything about it. That’s why if you bring up Lord of the Rings, you’re going to get more than you bargained for. It is a great story! But I grew up conditioned to approach stories as fiction.

Ruth is not fiction. Ruth is beautiful, poetic, symmetrical, and structured so well it feels like a fictiona story—but it isn’t. In fact, much of the Bible feels almost too beautiful, poetic, symmetrical, and structured to actually have been true. This is the lingering lie I learned from the world, that all good stories with happy endings must be false.

The story of Ruth, the story of Christmas, the story of the Bible—all are amazingly, wonderfully, astoundingly true stories.

The Ending of Ruth

The story of the book of Ruth ends in a similar way with this chapter. In it, the hopes and fears of Naomi’s life are met in this redemption. In the little town of Bethlehem, Boaz the Kinsman Redeemer gives his life and livelihood to purchase and redeem the house of Elimelech. Let’s go through this ending and make sure we’re picking up on precisely what is happening.

In chapter three, Boaz tells Ruth that he will do what she and Naomi were asking of him. He would, indeed, redeem the house of Elimelech. But he was going to do it the right way. God had laid out precisely how this process was supposed to go, and, if they were going to follow God’s instructions, there was a relative to the family who was closer to them than Boaz. They couldn’t skip this without disobeying God’s instructions.

This is what is addressed in the first section of chapter four. Boaz goes to the gate, where all the townspeople go out and in. Before long, this relative is seen walking by. Boaz flags him down, and they sit together. Boaz brings men of authority, “ten elders of the city,” and has them join this discussion.

He explains the situation to this man, stating that Naomi has come back and is selling the land of her deceased husband and their relative, Elimelech.

Boaz does something interesting. He begins with the attractive part of the situation: the land. “Hey, our cousin is dead, so his land is up for sale.” What man wouldn’t be interested in some land?

The relative says, “I’ll buy it!”

But wait, there’s more.

Then, Boaz clarifies the full scope of the purchasing:

Ruth 4:5 ESV

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.”

At this point, I want to remind you of two things about this situation:

This family had returned from the land of the Moabites who, though they weren’t friendly to Israel and were forbidden from worship, were not technically forbidden from marrying with.

Ruth was someone who loved the God of Israel, obeyed him, and had developed a positive reputation in the community.

Despite this, the relative says:

Ruth 4:6 ESV

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.”

“On second thought, I can’t move forward with this,” he says.

Why do you think he reverses his position after learning about Ruth?

The most charitable read might be that he didn’t want to mix with a Moabite woman.

It might also have been that, because there was now a woman of child bearing age involved, whatever possessions he might have acquired in the deal would now go to the children he would be honor bound to provide to Ruth.

In other words, he would be spending all that time and money on stuff he wouldn’t keep—it would go to the family he was redeeming.

Perhaps it’s somewhere in the middle, but the fact that his U Turn takes place after Ruth is mentioned tells me that the charitable read is probably not the true one.

The fact that the townspeople bless Boaz for his willingness to redeem the family tells me what I need to know about the context.

And then there’s the business with the sandal.

This is probably confusing to us as moderns, but there’s plenty of things we do that would’ve puzzled these people, too.

The short version is this: in Deuteronomy 25, God lays out through Moses what the duty of a man’s brother is in the event of his death.

This is that “Levirate marriage” we’ve been talking about. By the way, if you’re curious, that phrase comes from the Latin word levir (spelled l-e-v-i-r, and pronounced “leh-veer”), which means “husband’s brother”.

If a man lives near his brothers and dies, one of them is duty bound to rescue that man’s household from destruction by providing an heir.

The brother can refuse, but not without consequence. Listen to this,

Deuteronomy 25:7–10 ESV

7 And if the man does not wish to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’ 8 Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, ‘I do not wish to take her,’ 9 then his brother’s wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’ 10 And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal pulled off.’

So this is where this custom with the sandal comes from. This practice clearly morphed over time. Add in the reality that we are in the time of the judges, and we shouldn’t be surprised that God’s law is not being fully followed.

Regardless, this redeemer who is closer than Boaz takes off his sandal and says, “I forfeit my right—buy it yourself.”

Boaz accepts the responsibility, and calls on not just the elders but the people in the area watching to be witnesses of this transaction.

Then, all the people and the elders bless Boaz. Ruth and Boaz are married, and they have a child.

The women bless the Lord and ask that he would provide richly for their house through this child.

Naomi’s bitterness and emptiness gives way to joy and fullness, as she now becomes the nurse of this new baby, Obed.

Ruth then concludes with the genealogy of David, showing how Obed would be his grandpa.

God the True Storyteller

“And they all lived happily ever after.”

What a great story, right?

What a wonderfully written story.

Going back to my comments at the beginning, stuff like this reads almost like fiction.

But how does Ruth end? It ends with a genealogy. It ends with a detailed sequence of historical events that result in the birth of King David.

No Israelite would wonder if David was a real person. No Israelite would wonder if Perez was a real person.

It’s not fiction—it’s history. This actually happened.

This is that amazing thing that’s hard to grasp with God, that the stories he writes are told in space and time.

God tells the best, true stories.

Conclusion and Application

And of all the many directions we could go in this last chapter of Ruth, this is the one I’d like us to follow and end with: God’s redemptive storytelling.

The Hesed of God

Think of how God’s hesed is shown—his steadfast love. Naomi at no point curses God, but did state that she felt God was “testifying against her.” She felt that God had pronounced judgment upon her, and that her years would end in emptiness. She believed this so fully that she renamed herself “Mara,” bitter.

Though we wander and break covenant, God does not.

When speaking of the disobedience of Israel, Nehemiah said,

Nehemiah 9:31 ESV

31 Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.

Though we as God’s people are prone to depression and despair like Naomi, God knows the end from the beginning.

The hesed of God is seen clearest when, though we are unfaithful to him, he is faithful to us. He does what he promises to do.

Ruth should tell you something about your life circumstances; namely, that you cannot take them at face value. You cannot look at the surface of disaster and respond appropriately without factoring in that God is working both on the surface and below whatever disaster.

You are incapable of understanding the mechanics of God’s purposes, but you are, Bowman, very much capable of fully knowing the outcome of God’s purposes.

The Hope of God

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Few things were as hopeless in those days as being an old widow with no sons.

Every era has its own kinds of “hopeless situations.”

I was just talking to someone this week about how hard a time they are having finding a spouse. They want to be married and start a family, but are not encouraged by what they see.

Then there’s the hopelessness that can find its way to family life in general. Perhaps its unbelieving family, or bitter conflict.

Our world is directly attacking children and the family because so much of life and hope is wrapped up in it.

Verse 13 says that Boaz and Ruth had a son. Verse 15 says Naomi now had a future and a hope for her family, and a daughter in law who loves her. She had the happy ending in this life.

But, in this life, not everyone experiences this kind of happy ending. God, who does all things well, and for our good, calls us to follow him into dark places.

But these are not dark places to him.

Psalm 139:11–12 ESV

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

These verses from Psalm 139 are the flashlight for the darkness. Whether the bitterness of life is centered on children, marriage, or family in general, whatever darkness it is, this is the light we need. That God is in it, he knows the way through, and he has us in his hands.

The Hand of God

Psalm 139:5 ESV

5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

He lays his hand upon us, especially in the darkness. If you are in the darkness today, I pray God would give you an awareness of his hand that holds you with love and grace.

I pray that we all would know this hand of God that not only holds us fast, but created us. Also Psalm 139…

Psalm 139:13 ESV

13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

Will the God of heaven and earth, who loves mercy and shows steadfast love to a thousand generations; who formed your inward parts, do anything truly bad to you?

“Whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say, It is well, It is well with my soul.”

Conclusion: A Son Is Born

We will end now with the single most important part of not only Ruth, but the whole Bible.

Read verses 14 and 17 with me.

Ruth 4:14 ESV

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!

Ruth 4:17 ESV

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.

The blessing said to God then for Obed is the same we say to him today for Jesus.

“Blessed be the Lord, for he has not left us this day without a redeemer! And may his name be renowned and proclaimed from the highest heavens to the lowest hells!”

For the God of heaven and earth came on Christmas day, when a son was born to Mary. They named him Jesus, for he will save his people.

Isaiah 9:6 ESV

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Let’s pray.

Prayer

Father in Heaven, we praise you, we magnify you.

You took Naomi’s bitterness away and gave her joy. You take our bitterness away and give us joy.

You brought Ruth from an evil land and into your family. You bring us out of darkness and into your marvelous light.

You called Boaz to dedicate his life to the redemption of his family. You called your Son to give his life for the salvation of a new family. Your family.

Boaz bought Ruth to be his wife. Christ has purchased us to be his bride.

Psalm 113:5–9 ESV

5 Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, 6 who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? 7 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, 8 to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. 9 He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!

In Jesus Name, Amen.