Christian Character

Introduction

Recap of the story

Israel is currently in a famine and Naomi and her family go to Moab to get food. Husband and 2 sons die. The 2 son’s wife - Ruth and Orpah. Orpah goes back to her family whilst Ruth stays with Naomi because she loves her to the point where she is willing to be an enemy to the Israelites and be poor out of love

Naomi and Ruth go back to Israel and Ruth asks Naomi to see if she can go to fields and pick up scraps so that they can gather food because they had nothing and they were poor

What ends up happening is that Ruth “happens to come” to a guy’s field named Boaz and he ends up being really really nice to her where he offers her protection, provides her with food and instructs his workers to like “randomly” drop their barley onto the floor when she comes pick up the scraps. She essentialy found refuge in Boaz.

Today we are going to look at the characteristics of Boaz and Ruth

Boaz

Who was Boaz ? - Ruth 2:1 “Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.”

Boaz was also a very godly man and how we can determine this is because of his everyday character and life

Ruth 2:4 “And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you!” And they answered, “The Lord bless you.””

Boaz was in charge of many of the farmers, yet he greeted them with “The Lord be with you” and they answered “The Lord bless you”. Something just as simple as saying Hi in the form of “The Lord be with you” indicates Boaz’s dependency on God - why?

Because the fact that God was present in even the simple action of saying “Hi” in a godly and loving way meant that he always and continuously had faith in God and he knew that God also worked in him and showed his love in the same way. That through the small everyday things, God’s love is still revealed to him.

I think that we only really think about God about our actions or about our life only in sitatuons which we think are “out of the oridnary” for us (Whether that be good or bad) and have a significant impact on us from our own perspective.

Us (look at yourself)

If we only think that God is working through our lives during the significant events that happen (whether it is good or bad) we become numb to the things that he does continously in our lives and then we argue that God is not working through our lives which means Satan is then working through your life to think that God has abandoned you or left you.

e.g) Lets take your Mum or Dad or both for example - When they buy you something for your birthday and its really special and big, you feel their love right? But when they cook dinner for you, or they pick you up from school, or they do the laundry, do you feel their love in the same way? Or now is it because they do it so often that it’s just a given and it doesn’t feel like anything.

Now - if they end up doing something that makes you angry, isn’t what happens is that you literally forget all the things that they have done for you and then focus on that one thing that made you angry - Does this mean that your parents love you less ? Absolutely not !

And you do the usual like “close the door really hard but then scared if you do it to hard cause it’ll make a loud noise” and then “screm into your pillow but not so loud that they can hear but you kinda want them to hear it”

In the same way, God cares for us and shows his love for us through also the big things that he puts us through, but also more often than not the small, everyday things in our life and Boaz is a prime example of someone who realises God working through his life through these small things.

And so even in the things we consider normal and boring, God is ALWAYS (not sometimes) but always working through our life and glorifying him through our normal actions just like Boaz to his employees by saying “Hi” helps us to continuously remind us this and block Satan from decieving you that God is not working in your life.

What are some small, everyday blessings that you often overlook but are now trying to appreciate?

Ruth

Lets look at what Ruth was doing:

We see Ruth’s initiative to care for Naomi - Ruth 2:2 “And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.”” .

Naomi didn’t ask for Ruth to do it, she did it out of her own will, because she wanted to, because she loves Naomi

This is a way we can evaluate how we view our relationship with God - asking ourself do we love him? Because Jesus did everything out of his own will for us because he wanted to - because he loved us.

How ? Because if you find yourself WANTING to do what Jesus has said you know you love him, but if you find yourself FORCING or HAVING to do what he says then maybe not. What I’m not saying is that it’s easy because it definitely is hard, but even if it is hard you still WANT to do it if you truly love Jesus.

Jesus went through so much to the point where he prayed very hard for him not to be crucified, but he did it out of love for us.

When you guys get older and start liking people and then start loving people - you will experience this same thing I’m sure - that at times it’s very hard but you still WANT to do it. When it gets to the stage of it feeling like you HAVE to, thats an indication that maybe the love you once had was gone.

We see Ruth’s initiative to work in Ruth 2:17 “So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.”

Ruth literally tried so hard, she worked so hard to grab scraps off the floor the whole day but Why? Was it for herself? No, it was for Naomi because she loved her.

In the same way, when we study or when you work, we should be trying our hardest, our best. BUT (and this is important) not for ourself, but to glorify God because we want to. I can promise you that I cannot do what I currently do if I thought all this hard work was my own doing - No, it is because my entire goal and thing in my head is I want to glorify God, I want to glorify Jesus because I love him.

1 Corinthians 9:19–22 “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.”

How do you show love to those you care about ?