Ruth 3 Sermon v2.12

Please turn in your Bibles to the book or Ruth Chapter Three, it is on pg ????, it is after the book of Judges and before 1st Samuel. I am going to read the chapter, which will be starting in the middle of a story, then give extensive background so we can really understand the text in question.

READ RUTH CH 3

This is the Word of the Lord:

Please pray with me: Holy Father, bless the exposition of Your Word today. May the Spirit take the feeble, fallible words I utter and turn them into sanctifiying speech and may they convict those who need conviction, comfort those who need comforting, and grant assurance to those in doubt. In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

There is a real rest that comes from covenantal faithfulness.

There is a real rest that comes from covenantal faithfulness.

Not a rest as in naps and lazying around the house, but a soulful rest that even though life may be falling apart we can rest in the knowledge that we belong to God and are faithfully doing what He asks of us.

This rest is what allowed Paul to say that he could be content in all circumstances! When we are faithful to God, faithful to the covenant He has laid down, we can find rest and God will bless that faithfulness.

In contrast, Unfaithfulness to God’s covenant never brings rest. It might bring temporary gain or pleasure but never rest. As an example,

When your spouse or parent asks for your phone to look up something because they left theirs in the other room, do you experience fear or peace?

If you are being unfaithful with your phone usage that requests brings only fear which is the anti-rest. But if your usage is in accord with God’s law there will be only peace because there is nothing to fear, nothing to hide. That is rest.

I have mentioned two words, covenant and faithfulness. We hear the term covenant most often referring to marriage. That when a man and woman take their vows, they enter into a covenant that binds them together.

And that marital covenant brings with it blessings and obligations. So too when we put on Christ we enter into a covenant relationship with God that also brings blessings and obligations.

The boundaries of the covenant are the obligations surrounding that formalized relationship. Faithfulness then is keeping to and honoring those obligations. And we intrinsically know this, because we all understand what a faithful husband or wife is or a faithful Christian.

Covenantal faithfulness then brings with it God’s blessings among which are rest because we are within His will and under the shadow of His wing.

Covenantal unfaithfulness will always bring fear and uneasiness because we are outside God’s will and know that God’s discipline will come in order to correct His wayward child.

This contrast between covenantal faithfulness and unfaithfulness permeates the book of Ruth as both Naomi and Ruth are seeking rest in a time of trial and tribulation. Chapter three, which begins and ends with mentions of rest, highlights this.

But before we can dive into Chapter three, we must first understand what happened to Ruth and Naomi and Boaz in Chapters 1 and 2 of Ruth, because only then can we grasp the true weight of what is happening in our text.

Ruth takes place in the time of judges, which if you know anything about that book, it is a time of wickedness and rampant covenantal unfaithfulness. As a consequence, God has struck the town of Bethlehem with famine.

We must realize that God punishes covenantal unfaithfulness because it is the consequence of sin but also as a final warning to his children to turn and repent. Famine is thus both a punishment and a call to repentance.

But one man from Bethelhem, Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, disregards this call to repentance and instead chooses to excommunicate himself, his wife, and his two sons and leave the promise land for the land of Israel’s enemies, Moab.

Elimelch’s self imposed exile from Israel, this leaving the promised land/aka the church is the height of being unfaithful, like a husband walking away from his wife and shacking up with his mistress. He then compounds his unfaithfulness by then marrying his sons to foreign heathen women.

In consequence, God brings punishment on Elimelech and his family by striking his sons wives, Orpah and Ruth with barreness. And when that call to repent goes unheeded, God finally takes the lives of Elimelech and his sons, leaving Naomi and and Orpah and Ruth as widows.

This is a punishment beyond merely the loss of a husband. In the Old Testament, being without husbands or sons jeopardizes the covenant. Because it is through the children of Israel that the Messiah will come. It is also how the promised land is passed down from family to family.

So now with no males in her family, Naomi’s lineage and place in the covenant succession is about to be done away with.

Rather than reacting with humility and repentance however, Naomi continues in the bitterness of covenantal unfaithfulness and bids her daughters to not follow her to the promised land, to not look to Yahweh to care for them but to return to the false gods and idol worshipping of Moab.

This is sin. This does not mean we must always be joyous and happy when death and sickness strike. David has plenty of Psalms where he despairs of his life, but he still held tight to God.

Do not be Naomi, do not sin in your grief.

But Naomi does one righteous act, even if done in a spirit of bitterness and despair. For she returns to the promised land. This is crucial because only by returning to the land, which is a kind or repentance, can Naomi hope to find blessing and healing.

APPLICATION: And this remains true today brothers and sisters! Only the promise land is not tied to any one geographical area but is itself the church! There is no salvation, no rest, no true satisfaction to be found outside her walls!

For The church is the bride of Christ. to abandon the church is to spit in the face of our Savior. No matter what is going on in your life, no matter the trials that God has you going through, do not abandon the church. Do not forsake the bride.

And it is no coincidence that the resolution of the story begins when Naomi decides to return to the land, as in her actions are faithful to the covenant, when God then blesses her with a companion.

Because, in the midst of this rampant covenant unfaithfulness, or sin, we get the first ray of light and it comes from the Moabites Ruth.

During her time with Naomi and her family, despite their apostasy and self imposed excommunication, Ruth must have learned of Yahweh, of the God of Israel and the promised Messiah.

And the Lord made her dead spirit alive and she was determined to not be parted from this God. So when Naomi returns, and Ruth makes her impassioned promise to make Naomi’s people her people and Naomi’s God, her God; it is important to realize that there is more here than love of Naomi.

There is a love for and a desire to be faithful to God, a desire to enter into the covenant!

Ruth is covenantaly binding herself to Yahweh.

And at this point, Ruth understands more of the covenant than Naomi. Ruth realizes where salvation is to be found and she will not let it go!

In other words She has forsaken the false rest offered by false gods, and is willing to undergo physical hardship to find the true rest of God. Ruth is the prime example of what Christ meant when he said:

Matthew 10:37–38 “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”

APPLICATION: We must be willing to give up all for the sake of Christ.

Family, position, country, hertiage, everything.

It does not mean that God will always require that of us, but we must hold all that as nothing compared the excellency of knowing Christ!

Ruth gave it all up, willing to commit herself to the fate of being a poor, widowed, Moabite foreigner in Israel and all for Yahweh, for the hope of the coming Redeemer. May we be inspired by her actions and her commitment to the covenant as we seek to lead faithful lives in the service of our God.

DRINK WATER!!!!

Upon returning to Bethlehem, Ruth goes to glean in the fields because God has blessed Bethlehem with harvest.

But there is a still a problem. Naomi has returned, good!

The Lord blessed her with a faithful daughter in law, great!

They have the means to feed themselves, essential!

But in this story, a husband is needed to bring full restoration. Naomi needs a male heir and Ruth needs a husband to ensure the covenantal promise of a Messiah! And so we come to Chapter 2, where we see a delightful bit of Scriptural humor!

READ Ruth 2:1–4 “Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. 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.” So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem.

As Christians, we know there is no such thing as coincidence with God. The writer knows this too

and you can imagine the air quotes in this verse, and Ruth “happened upon” the one field belonging to a relative of Naomi.

And i love the, “Behold! ANd Boaz came forth! Can you image! What a coincendence, wink wink”.

Brothers and sisters, the Bible is not a stuffy, dry tome of religious text. It is a beautiful story with drama, love, evil deeds and even humor!

So Chapter 1 sets up the needs that have to be met and then in Chapter 2, “Behold Boaz!”

This is the moment in the romantic comedy where the tall dark stranger walks through the door, the light shines around him and all eyes are drawn to him and every viewer knows, this is the love interest!

Only in Ruth, Boaz is far more than a love interest, in ways we will explore as we go on,

he is a kinsman redeemer,

he is a Second Adam,

and he is a Christ type figure, pointing forward to the real Christ.

Understanding what a kinsman redeemer is is crucial to truly grasping what is happening in Ruth and how God brings about restoration in this story.

The kinsman redeemer is a relative who redeems and rescues another family member in need. The institution presupposes covenantal bonds and solidarity between the one who is need of redemption and the one who does the redeeming. The redeemer acts on that bond to rescue, deliver, or to liberate his family member usually at great cost to himself.

Thus the kinsman-redeemer lives out covenant faithfulness.

Of the many roles of the kinsman-redeemer, there is one crucial to this sermon, that of the kinsman-redeemer and the leviriate marriage.

The leviriate marriage states that the closest kinsman redeemer, if single, would marry the the widow of a deceased kinsman if that dead husband left no sons. The first son born to this marriage would be raised in the name of the dead relative and the son would assume the inheritance.

As he would take the place, in the eyes of the law, of the deceased brother carry on the dead man’s name and inheritance. Any other children the kinsman redeemer has with his new wife would be his, but not the first son.

We see this in action in the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38. Where Judah’s first son is killed by God after being married to Tamar but before a son is born, Judah, in accordance with the leviriate law gives his second son, in a leviriate marriage to Tamar but he is also struck down by God. Judah then refuses to give his third son to Tamar, as the law would require.

And so Tamar, knowing her rights, and as yet another foreign woman who yearns to be connected to the promised seed and part of the people of God, tricks Judah into giving her the son she is legally and covenantally owed. This is why when Judah discovers what happened, he credits Tamar with righteousness and himself with guilt.

So now we can see why the author points out Boaz’s relationship to Naomi before Boaz himself is introduced. The audience would have known all about the kinsman redeemer and leviriate marriage laws. So knowing that Boaz is a relative, when the author writes, “Behold, Boaz!” Everyone could start clapping and cheering! Here is the answer! Here is he who can redeem Naomi and Ruth out of destitution!

More can be said about Boaz’s character, but suffice it for now that he is called a worthy man. This encompasses wealth and importantly that he is a covenantally faithful man.

APP And in Boaz we see the Biblical pattern of the second Adam.

The first Adam failed in the Garden and brought death. And so we needed a Second Adam who could bring life and succeed where the First Adam failed, and this true Second Adam is Christ, our kinsman redeemer who frees us from the chains of sin! And the OT repeats this pattern throughout Scripture and are all pointers to Christ.

In this story, Elimelech is the first Adam. his failure, his sin brought death to his family and threatened to end his line altogether. But in Boaz we see the hope of a Second Adam. In Boaz we see a kinsman redeemer who, through Ruth, can raise up a son to keep the family name alive.

Elimelech brought death, Boaz promises life.

DRINK WATER!!!!

Now, With the cultural context and textual clues and typological characters we have discussed, we finally understand Chapter 3 and this chapter should come to life in a brand new way from when we first read it.

READ Ruth 3:1–5 “Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to Ruth, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.” And she replied, “All that you say I will do.””

One thing to understand is that Ruth had gleaned in the fields of Boaz for probably upwards of four months. The last verse of chapter two says she gleaned till the end of the barley and wheat harvests. And so this is not a case of Ruth meeting Boaz and the next day Naomi sends her out to get a husband.

Later in Chapter three Boaz remarks how Ruth’s covenantally faithfulness is well known to the people of Bethlehem and that couldn’t happen in just a matter of days. So for four months she has worked hard to feed herself and Naomi and demonstrate her faithfulness to her covenant promise.

Four months where Boaz could see the character and faithfulness of Ruth.

Note, no mention is made of either Ruth’s or Boaz’s appearance, and the Bible does comment on beauty! And I think that is not by accident.

The author wants the reader to see Boaz and Ruth by their actions, not by their appearance. For you men and women who are single, take this to heart.

Physical attraction is important, don’t hear me saying it is not,

But men, a woman who fears the Lord should be prized more than only by her outward appearance!

And women, A man who upholds the covenant in all respects and who acts honorably to all should be desired far more than height and money.

So its been four months of hard work for Ruth.

Now that the gleaning is over, Naomi wants to find rest for her God-honoring daughter in law and that rest is to be found in a husband, Boaz.

Now I want to be clear, this is not the Bible saying that women can only find rest in a husband everywhere and at all times!

In this instance, the rest Ruth will find is in faithfulness to the covenant.

If both Ruth and Boaz do what the covenant requires, aka marrying to raise up a son for Naomi, rest will be found due to their covenantal faithfulness.

So what’s important is to hear the typological truth being presented.

Remember, Boaz is a type of Christ. When Naomi points Ruth to find her rest in Boaz as husband, one thing we can hear is us being pointed to Christ to find our ultimate rest. To seek out the one who himself promised “Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

That Ruth is willing and wanting to do this truly shows the depth of her coventantal loyalty to both Naomi and to Yawheh

Nothing is forcing her to seek out Boaz as a kinsman redeemer, nothing is forcing her to seek out this levirate marriage.

And remember what this means. that if Ruth marries Boaz, her first born son will in the eyes of the law and community not be hers but rather Naomi’s. She will grow, give birth too, nurse, and raise a son who will not benefit Ruth and Boaz in any way in terms of inheritance and continuing the family name.

And there is no promise of two sons. If there is only one, then Boaz and Ruth would now be left with no son of their own to inherit and carry on their name.

That is why, spoiler alert, when Boaz marries Ruth and gives brith to Obed at the end of the book, and Naomi take the son into her lap, there is far more behind this phrase than simply where the child was physically, it denotes a transfer of sorts,

Which is why immediately after taking the son into her lap the women of the city proclaim “A son has been born to Naomi”

This is the strength of Ruth’s covenant faithfulness.

Tamar demonstrated her desire to be a part of the covenant through child birth by the extremes she went to with Judah.

Ruth demonstrated faithfulness to the covenant by forsaking everything, to include her first born son, to fulfill her obligations.

May both their desires to be a part of the covenant people of God leads us, the church, who are in the covenant to hold on and to never let go of the redemption we know have in Christ!

And if you are outside the covenant, may the desire and extremes these women went convict you and draw you into the covenant with Christ where you will find true rest.

DRINK WATER!!!!

So to do this, to enact this leveriate marriage with Boaz, Naomi gives Ruth a rather interesting set of instructions.

This is not a plan for an immoral encounter between Ruth and Boaz as some commentators hint at,

but this is an invitation for marital intimacy.

By uncovering his feet Ruth is inviting Boaz to take her under his wing, to take her into his care as his wife and yes, that includes consummating the marriage there on the threshing floor.

The reason this is not immoral is that this is a levirate marriage proposal, and an elaborate ceremony is not needed

if Boaz is the closest redeemer, he can, in full covenantal faithfulness and moral integrity take Ruth as his wife that night, consumate the marriage, and nothing sinful would have happened at all!

Is this the normal way marriage should happen, no! But neither are these normal circumstances in the Book of Ruth!

Now continuing with the text Read Ruth 3:6–15 “So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” And he said, “May you be blessed by Yahweh, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as Yahweh lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning.” So she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another. And he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” And he said, “Bring the garment you are wearing and hold it out.” So she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. Then she went into the city.”

To continue with Ruth, we can now understand why Boaz is in awe of Ruth’s actions. He blesses Ruth because of her covenantal faithfulness. First her loyalty and kindness to Naomi in coming to Israel with her and now her covenantal actions in coming to Boaz and requesting a levirate marriage

We also learn three things about Boaz in this set of verses.

First, Boaz shows great self-control.

It is night, he is by himself and this young woman comes requesting a marriage where he could take her right there on the threshing floor. But he is a covenantally faithful man in that he acknowledges there is a redeemer closer than him. If Boaz had taken Ruth then, it would have been a sin because he would have transgressed the law of the kinsman redeemer.

And to be covenantally faithful, we too must cultivate self-control. But self-control that comes only through gritting ones teeth to reject the apperant pleasures of sin will eventually fail. Our self-control needs to come from not only a sense of what not to do, but from a desire to do what God wants of us, and that we also find in Boaz.

For the second thing we learn is that Boaz finds great joy in being faithful to the covenant.

We hear this strange phrase from Boaz “You have made this last kindness greater that the first in that you have not gone after young men.” What I believe Boaz is expressing is gratitude that Ruth has given him the opportunity to fulfill his coventantal obligations!

And being asked to be a kinsman redeemer, a levir for the house of Elimelech, even though it will cost him, fills him with joy!

For Boaz, the Law of the Lord is sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb!

There is no greater challenge to all of us as Christians to seek to approach the Law of God with this delight.

To find delight, rather than gloomy acquesiance to God’s Word.

And in Christ we can find even more delight than Boaz, for our salvation does not rest on our actions but on the finished work of Christ! Boaz looked forward to a shadow of a promise, we have its fullfillment! So let us obey with joy and gratitude!

The third is that the author really wants us to see the Boaz is a second Adam!

Once again we have the humorous, Behold, a woman! But notice the symbology. Boaz is asleep, and when we awake there is a young woman who is proposing marriage. Sound familiar? Did not the Lord God put Adam to sleep and created Eve so that when Adam awoke, behold! A woman! Only this second Adam will act righteously where the first failed.

And in his actions, Boaz foreshadows the greater Kinsman Redeemer. The Son of God who led a sinless life and who found conintul joy in obeying his father, even to the point of death on a cross. And while on the cross, asleep to use the language of the Bible, when the blood and water poured from jesus side, HIs bride, the church was formed.

And then finally

READ Ruth 3:16–18 “And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, “How did you fare, my daughter?” Then she told her all that the man had done for her, saying, “These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, ‘You must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law.’ ” She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.””

The chapter began with Naomi seeking rest for Ruth, and now Ruth has rest because Boaz will do the work.

Through his swift faithfulness to the covenant he has given Ruth peace of mind.

This once again points us to Christ. When Christ went off to the Garden to pray prior to his death, he went alone and what where the disciples doing? They were quiet litleraly resting.

Boaz is going to to go and complete Ruth’s redemption while she rests. Naomi in effect to Ruth, “You rest, he is going to go take care of the matter. He is going to work out your redemption for you, totally apart from you, alone.”

And our salvation is not won by our actions for we put on Christ’s righteousness, we put on his death, burial and resurrection. Praise God that it is Not by our works are we saved, but by Christ alone!

And this brings up applications for especially husbands and wives.

Wives, take note of the joy of Boaz when Ruth asked him to exercise his covenantal authority and then see how she then rested and TRUSTED him to act for her good.

You want to give your husband rest in your respect for him, then ask him to exercise his covenantal authority…. and this is important….., then TRUST him to act and FOLLOW his lead

It can be easy to think I can do that myself, or even I could do it better. But your husband KNOWS when you DO NOT trust him and it robs him of rest.

Husbands, may your faithfulness to the the covenant you made with your wife be like Boaz and may it bring her rest.

If your wife can bring to you a problem or issue and leave knowing it will be taken care of or that you will find a way to resolve the issue without undue delay, you have given her rest.

But if you are known to take too long, or constantly fail in your commitments your wife will never be able to rest. And this rest is important because when she can rest in your faithfulness, she can then bloom in her calling as a wife and mother.

So men, be swift in your obligations, may your wife know that you will not rest till you accomplish the task.

Be a Boaz to your wife’s Ruth and may both of you find rest in fufilled coventnantal faithfulness.

In summary Ruth showed amazing acts of covenant faithfulness, she left home and family, she did back breaking work to feed herself and her mother in law and she gave herself in marriage to a man in order to raise up a child not for herself but for her Naomi.

And the Lord gave her rest.

Boaz showed amazing acts of covenant faithfulness by staying in famine stricken Bethlehem, showing kindness to foreigners, putting the joy of covenant obligations ahead of sinful pleasure, and acting swiftly on his duties.

And the Lord gave him rest.

Boaz and Ruth demonstrate that there is a real rest that comes from covenantal faithfulness.

And while we give honor to Ruth and Boaz for their covenant faithfulness,

they should point us to our Father who has always been faithful to His covenant which is why we, the church, can truly rest.

He is the God who does not change like the shifting shadows, and He is a Father who loves to good gifts and honor His covenant with His children.

Naomi and Ruth started the story both widows and childless, unprotected, and alone.

God brought about a complete change through a Second Adam, a shadow Christ:, giving a husband to one, a son to both and rest and protection through the house of Boaz.

Both Naomi and Ruth needed a second Adam, and they where provided an earthly one and through them the true Second Adam now gives rest to all.

So through His covenantal faithfulness, God gives us rest. And like Boaz who did the work and gave rest to Ruth, so Christ has accomplished all on the cross for us so that through His actions may find rest.

So as we take the Lord’s Supper today, do so with thanksgiving for the true rest we find in Christ. Our Kinsman-Redeemer who freed us from death and sin and into a glorious salvation!

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen!

Dear God, may we be ever in awe of your faithfulness. We fail so many times, we stumble and fall but through Your spirit you help us get back on our feet. This is why we can rest. Because you will not abandon us. May also the faithfulness demonstrated by Ruth and Boaz help us give rest to those around, spouses, children, parents, friends, the church…. May our faithfulness to You cause the Fruit of the Spirit to grow and mature and be a cause of rest and assurance ultimately in Your love and faithfulness. Amen.