A Righteous Redeemer
Justified to Do Justice: Learning to Love As We’ve Been Loved • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 15 viewsIn the book of Ruth, we get to see justice and righteousness in the flesh. This is not a book of dry teachings about caring for widows, immigrants, and the poor in the abstract. This is the story of actual righteous people who leveraged their own wealth and well-being to do justice. Ruth acted with honor, doing justice for her mother-in-law, and Boaz did justice by caring for and redeeming Ruth and Naomi. His redemption mirrors, in several ways, what God had done for Israel, what Jesus has done for the church, and what we ought to do for our neighbors.
Notes
Transcript
Series:
God saved us to serve others
God loved us to love others
God justified us to do justice for others
Story (See It):
But the best way to learn how to serve, love, and do justice is to see it in action.
So, this morning, I want to introduce you to the family of man named Elimilech, who lived in the town of Bethlehem
Family of Elimilech
Family of Elimilech
During the time of the Judges
A horrible time
There was no king in Israel
Everyone did what was right in their own eyes
You might think there was NO JUSTICE
But there were a handful of people, who still cared about doing what was right
God punished the people with a famine
So, Elimelech and his family moved to Moab
Wife - Naomi
Sons - Mahlon (May-lon) and Chilion (Killi-on)
Married wives, Ruth and Orpah
(Picture) Unfortunately…
Elimelech died
Chilion died
Mahlon died
Naomi felt bitter and alone
Her daughters-in-law were all she had left
she decided to go back to Bethlehem and depend on the generosity of her tribe
she urged her daughters-in-law to go back to Moab
However, Ruth refused to leave
16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
Ruth’s covenant faithfulness is called, “chesed”
steadfast love
loving kindness
loyalty
It is an essential aspect of
righteousness
justice
Ruth is demonstrating righteousness
doing justice
showing the same kind of covenant faithfulness that God shows
Ruth embodies what what one scholar observed in Proverbs…
“The righteous are willing to disadvantage themselves to advantage the community; the wicked are willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves.” - Bruce Waltke
Ruth was willing to disadvantage herself
To seek the good of her MIL
And the good of her dead husband’s family
While Israel was filled with wicked people,
Naomi found a righteous Moabite DIL
who showed steadfast love
who pursued justice
Ruth and Naomi went back to Bethlehem
The were widows (Ruth was a sojourner) and poor
The law gave them the right to pick up grain in the fields, after it had been harvested
So they went to the field of a man named Boaz
8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. 9 Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.”
Some of you may have experienced the opposite of Boaz
wicked men
who take advantage of vulnerable women
in recent history, many powerful men have been caught bragging about how they have taken advantage of women
that is wickedness and injustice
Boaz demonstrates righteousness
He is providing the justice due to a sojourner and a widow
Protecting her vulnerability
Providing for her needs
To do otherwise would be a perversion of justice
10 Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?”
11 But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before.
Her “chesed” (steadfast-love) and righteousness
inspired his righteousness
because she did justice, he did justice
and both of their righteousness is a reflection of God’s righteousness
12 The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” 13 Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.”
Did Ruth take shelter under…
God’s protection?
Boaz’s protection?
BOTH!
When God’s people are reflecting God’s righteousness
They care for the poor, foreigner, fatherless, widow
They are a conduit for God’s protection and providence
Boaz continues to demonstrate righteous generosity, but in chapter 4, he becomes a REDEEMER
Naomi’s family was in desperate need of redemption
No husband to reclaim the family land
No sons to carry on the family line
In the society, Naomi was basically dead
There was a relative
Who could marry Ruth, provide a son who would legally be Mahlon’s son
Buy the land back and return it to Naomi’s family
Boaz approached the relative with this opportunity
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.”
The land and the child
would be someone else’s
This would be a true act of righteousness and justice
But it’s costly
Doing justice is always costly, it’s a sacrifice
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!
The story goes back to Naomi
Ruth and Boaz
Have worked together to bring justice
to the house of Naomi
They have redeemed her family line
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.
This is justice!!!
Everything is as it should be
Life has been restored
Land has been restored
Family line has been restored
The hungry have been fed, the homeless have been sheltered, the foreigner has become family
Do you see how this is the Gospel, redeeming, restoring, bringing back from the dead
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.
And David would eventually be the father of…Jesus
Ruth and Boaz
Redeemed the house of Elimelech
And their great great grandson…redeemed YOU
His redemption should teach you…
Live like you’re part of THIS family
Practice righteousness and justice
what does that mean?
8 Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. 9 Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.
This is what
Ruth did
Boaz did
They defended the rights of Naomi
They sacrificed for her
They disadvantaged themselves for her
Israel was still a mess
it was still filled with wickedness
the system was still corrupt and broken
they weren’t trying to change everything / fix everything
it was “just”…
one act of sacrificial love
one act of sacrificial love
It changed the world
it brought about King David
it brought about King Jesus
it brought about…YOU
in response, this week, surely we can all find and perform one act of sacrificial love
