Ruth - Second

Inform:

Ruth meets Boaz by gleaning in his field

Naomi starts to be hopeful

Boaz is interested in this Ruth character and instructs workers to “help” her out and be kind to her

Explain gleaning

Boaz was a kinsman redeemer

Meaning he was a relative of Elimilech, and could “redeem” Naomi and Ruth, and provide for Naomi an heir

Ruth goes and lays down on his feet while he’s sleeping

Naomi’s plan

Boaz wants to redeem her, but there is a closer relative, and that’s where we are picking up the story

Ruth Chapter 4:

Question for you, have any of you ever been on a really windy road before?

Going to my in-laws house, we drive roads that literally go back and forth and back and forth.

And you sometimes think, if this was just a straight line we would have been there 25 minutes ago!!!

And our kids sometimes think we are close because a turn looks familiar, but we still have many more turns to go.

See, the story of Ruth is very much like this

It’s very much back and forth and back and forth as we’re going to see today.

We went to watch the mighty All Blacks, the New Zealand rugby team, who wear all black, hence the name

But, I had a deadline to meet after the game, I needed to be back here for church that morning

Traffic after game due to road being closed

It wasn’t the workers fault that the traffic had been created, but they were the reason right?

Sometimes bad things happen because of choices we make, and sometimes bad things seem to happen regardless of choices we make.

Naomi’s life

Think back to last week, Naomi and her family had fallen on hard times, partly due to their lack of trust, and partly due to circumstances, but life was tough.

That kind of sums up Naomi’s life.

Her family had made some bad choices and things happened

What we’re going to see today though, is that Naomi’s life, as hard as it was, as windy as it was and continued to be, God was going to bless her, as God blesses all His people, not always in this life, but in eternity

But today, we’re going to see that bad things can creep in even in the midst of good being done.

recap

Boaz is going to try to redeem Ruth, meaning he’s going to take over Naomi’s family property, marry Ruth, care for Naomi, and follow what was required of the redeemer in this day

The problem is, there is someone who is closer in line, and so essentially, he gets first dibs

Naomi and Ruth had developed this plan, but they’ve hit some curves in the road

Long story short:

The guy says yes I’ll be the redeemer

Boaz says, by the way, you have to take Ruth the Moabite as your wife and try to provide an heir

The guy then very quickly says, “No, No, No, I don’t want to redeem anymore”. I’m out

So Boaz takes the guys sandal in victory, puts it on the mantle and takes Ruth as his wife

God allows Ruth to have a child (remember she was married 10 years before and was childless....that was rare)

But then you’d expect maybe to read “And they lived happily ever after”....but the story flips back to Naomi

In fact, look at verses 13-17

“ 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.

The women in Bethlehem are celebrating saying that a son has been born to who?

Not Ruth, but Naomi!

See, the book may be titled Ruth, but so much of it is about Naomi, and God’s faithfulness

Think back to last week, Naomi even claimed God was against her and had left her empty.

But let’s look at God’s provision, even though she couldn’t see it

God provided Ruth, who wouldn’t leave her side

God provided a lifting of the famine, so they could return from Moab

God provided work and a field to provide food for them when it was just Naomi and ruth

God provided Boaz, who by no chance of fate owned the field that Ruth randomly picked to glean in, who was a kinsman redeemer.

and Boaz was always on the scene, Naomi just didn’t realize it

We won’t always see God’s plan for our lives

God provided a husband for Ruth, and a son for the family line of Elimilech, which was super important in these days

See, Naomi’s life had been rough, yes? To lose a husband and both sons, I think we all would say life was terrible if that happened to us.

But God always had a plan, God was always working, moving the pieces

Ruth was always going to be faithful

Boaz was always in Bethlehem, waiting

A son/grandson was always going to happen

Hard times

Listen guys, you will go through hard times in life, there’s no denying that

Sometimes it will be because you made stupid decisions and sometimes those decisions have consequences

Sometimes it will be because God allowed hard times to come…whether through illnesses or loss of jobs, or your family falling apart

And when those times come you will not be able to see past that windy part of the road, and even if you could there will always seem to be another corner to turn

But the Book of Ruth is proof to us, that God sees past it all, and God works through it all

says this, “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.”

God is active in the world and he’s working all things according to His will

But we have an inheritance

What is it?

It’s salvation through Jesus Christ

And don’t miss this, look at , “They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.”

David, King David.

Do you know who comes from the line of King David?

Jesus did

Do you see it, Jesus Christ, our inheritance, our hope in the hard times, came by way of Naomi going through her struggles.

God worked through Naomi’s mistakes, and through Naomi’s tough times to bring about the Messiah, to bring about the hope that we have today

So yes, hard times will come, but God is faithful. God was faithful to us even through the life of Naomi, and God will be faithful to us through our lives too.

We may never see it, we may have a hard life from here until we die, never seeing the glimpse of hope that Naomi saw.

But if we are in Christ, we already have it.

Keep your head up, keep your eyes focused on getting to where you are going, through the curves, through the ups and downs, and He will be faithful.