Ruth 4:13-22

“The Imitation Game” was a different kind of WWII movie. It was not about General Patton, or the great Winston Churchill, or even heroic soldiers like those in the 82nd airborne division. Instead this WWII movie focused in on an awkward mathematician named Allen Turing.

The Allies were experiencing heavy losses at the hands of the Nazi’s and one of the reasons for this was because the code language that the Nazi’s were using was unbreakable.

Up to that point all the great, vast arsenals of intellectual firepower from England, France, Russia and the US could not decipher their code. That is until Allen asked for an opportunity to try his hand a cracking it. He and a small team of people then figure out how to crack the code and save countless Allied lives.

This mathematician work disappears behind the scenes, especially when compared to the strategy of generals, and the heroic efforts of solders.

But even though his work was not well known, and not in the forefront it was a major component of the Allied victory.

His work

Allen’s work was hidden, behind the scenes, but just because it was hidden does not mean it was not significant or important or worthy of a movie being made about it.

In a similar way much of God’s work and action is hidden, that is until our attention is drawn to it, and we see how extraordinary it really is.

Sometimes we don’t think we see God at work. Or maybe we just want to know what he will do, so that we know our actions will pay off.

In Ruth we see the hidden work of God through ordinary means. We see God working mostly behind the scenes, and through ordinary faithfulness, of ordinary people.

FCF: You know sometimes we don’t think we see God at work. It is like we have a built in bias that sees ordinary life as somehow not God at work.

We need our life restored, our life nourished, we need redemption

We write off the stuff of everyday life.

Yeah sure we stand on a gigantic rock flying through space around a gigantic ball of flaming explosions, all the while spinning around at about 1,000 mph AND we’re not slingshoted off into outer space, and we think yeah, but I want to see God do something amazing.

Or maybe we think yeah I get that God works through the ordinary, but we don’t know how, we want to see tangible results in our time, and so maybe we feel a little disappointed, because God seems to be working a lot slower than we would like.

We need redemption, we need someone to act in our place and on our behalf.

This morning we are going to look at this last bit of Ruth and see that God works through ordinary means.

just want to know what he will do, so that we know our actions will pay off.

Or maybe we just want to know what he will do, so that we know our actions will pay off.

And if this is true if God works in and through ordinary means what does it mean for us? What does it require of us?

Proposition: God accomplishes his extraordinary plan through his ordinary people

In our passage we will see that it requires that we should acknowledge his providence, bless his name, and join in his kingdom work.

Proposition: God accomplishes his extraordinary plan through his ordinary people

If this is true what does it mean for us?

we should love faithfully

So first we should

Acknowledge his providence.

At the end of our story, Boaz and Ruth get married, and God causes Ruth to have a child. Then the focus shifts to Naomi. Look with me at verses 15-17

Ruth 4:15–17 ESV

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.” Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. 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.

Ruth 4:

Ruth gave her son to Naomi to raise and take care of, and one day this son would take care of Naomi and continue Naomi’s family line.

Here we see one more instance of Ruth’s love for Naomi. She did this because she loved Naomi, she was faithful to Naomi, so much so the women agree she is better than any son that Naomi could have had, not only that she is better than 7 sons, the number often associated with perfection. Why? Because she loved her.

From the very beginning Ruth has shown steadfast love to Naomi. She left her family, her customs, her homeland everything known to her to live in a foreign land. She clung to Naomi saying your God will be my God, your people will be mine. She became one of God’s own.

And she loved Naomi, and through it all and unbeknownst to Ruth God was working his extraordinary plan through her. Her love in the face of the unknown placed her right smack dab in the middle of God’s extraordinary plan.

The most likely situation she faced was a life of widowhood barely eking it out, but she would do so as one of God’s own. Which she counted as more significant than going home. She loved Naomi when the outcome seemed unknown. She might not have known what God would do in her life, but she knew what story God would write

But unbeknownst to Ruth God was working his extraordinary plan through her. Her love in the face of the unknown placed her right smack dab in the middle of God’s extraordinary plan.

Illustration:

after a while out of respect began to imitate him, even though being a Christian was illegal at the time. Then the grace of God

Vs 15 Ruth did not have to give her son to Naomi, yet she did becuase she loved her

Application: God’s will for your life is not to know the outcomes, but to love faithfully where he has placed you. And in that we play a part

They were able to do it because God was their greatest treasure.

Ruth and

Ruth when she came with Naomi confessed, your God will be my God, your people my people, she gave up everything to follow God.

God’s word does not promise you that if you love in the face of the unknown your story turn out like Ruth’s, your story may be Alban’s.

God calls

So how doe we love others in the face of the unknown, when we don’t know the outcome. When our story might turn out more like Ruth’s or more like Alban’s.

How does knowing that God is working to acomplish his plan through ordinary people encourage us to love in teh face of the unknown?

Well Your greatest treasure has to be God. If something is functionally more important than knowing the love of God in your life, whatever that is you will never risk it. Even if you may not say it is more important, but is it functionally more important?

Your greatest treasure has to be God. If something more important than knowing the love of God in your life, whatever that is you will never risk it.

If it is your kids education, you will never

If that is your money, you will never risk it for the kingdom, you may give some, but nothing that causes you too feel the pinch. If it is your time you will hold on tight to your “me” time. If that is your job you will sacrifice everything including your family to maintain that success, if it is sports you will never skip a practice or a game to worship God or serve your neighbors. If it is your reputation, you will never risk being perceived wrongly in order to love someone.

If that is

If we want to love in the face of the unknown we have

If we want to freedom to risk loving others we must first resonate with this fact. That if everything is lost in your life, you have everything in Christ.

And the more that Christ is your souls devotion, the more you can risk loving others in the face of the unknown.

And what ever extrodinary plan God

You can know the joy the Lord, trusting his plan whether that turns out looking more like Ruth or more like Alban.

God is working

But, both Ruth and Alban knew this. That they belonged to God, and so no matter what loss come, financial, relational, social standing, even their own life, they belonged to their savior, and nothing could take it from them.

Why should we love faithfully, specifically when we don’t know the outcome.

God’s

God’s

Rejoice in his providence.

Look with me at verse 13

Ruth 4:13 ESV

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.

First comes love then comes marriage then comes a baby in a baby carriage.

Boaz and Ruth get married, and our passage says that the LORD gave her conception. Now I don’t think we need to have the birds and the bees conversation this morning, but what is being described here is not a miracle in the strict sense of that word. It is God’s ordinary means.

Mary’s conception of Jesus was a miracle, Ruth’s conception is not a miracle of God, but the working of God’s providence. God’s providence is his making everything happen that does happen.

His holding together all things so that we don’t all just cease to exist.

So as Jesus says a sparrow does not fall, apart from God’s will.

And God works through the smallest of things, like sparrows, to bring about his purpose.

So it is fine to call things natural, or the laws of nature, but God is the lawgiver and nature does not exist apart from God’s continual working. His created order is not that infomercial oven that he just set it and forget’s it. He is continually working.

So a miracle is Gods extraordinary working, and providence is his ordinary working, and both are spectacular.

In the story of Ruth God has worked through his providence, so that Ruth might have a child.

Illustration:

Marilynne Robinson, a novelist and essayist, wrote an essay where she challenged some assumptions we have when it come to this world. She said:

For almost as long as there has been science in the West, there has been a significant strain in scientific thought which assumed that if a thing can be "explained," associated with a physical process, it has been excluded from the category of the spiritual.

Then she gives this example:

This wood is solid right? It is not a liquid or a gas, but solid, but

If all of us here were to shrink down, down to the size of atoms, chairs that we are sitting in or this table would not appear to be a solid, but loose clouds of energy. Held together by forces of magnetism and the like.

She says that “It seems to me very amazing that the arbitrarily selected "physical" world we inhabit is coherent and lawful.”

Application:

Vs. 13 God is the one who orchestrated it all.

Application:

She is describing God’s providence. God actively holds all the chairs we are sitting on together.

And in the case of Ruth he through ordinary means caused her to conceive, so that she would have a child, and so that his promise to put an end to sin and evil might come about.

This means that

So this means for us first that we should not write off God’s providence. The water we drink in our schools, and television is naturalistic. In the new great reworking the TV series Cosmos by Neil deGrass Tyson, begins with the phrase, The universe is all there was, all there is, and all there every will be.

This is naturalism, and are surrounded by it everywhere we turn, this thought that things work by themselves.

But that is not what the Bible teaches, Scripture says all things hold together in Christ.

Sure God’s providence might be hidden from our eyes. Looking back at my own life, and how I got to Clemson, it was the working of God’s providence.

Or the birth of my children,

or that steaks taste good,

or that it rains.

But what we often do is brush that to the side as if that is just natural, as if nature exist apart from God’s continual working.

God is at work all around you, no sparrow falls apart from his will.

Application: Don’t be fearful of recognizing God’s providence.

All we need to do is open up our eyes and see, how God is at work,

and everything no matter how small is part of God’s extraordinary plan.

So shrug off the closed system of naturalism, and acknowledge his providence.

and when we acknowledged his providence at work it should lead us to

Because God is at work through ordinary means, we should acknowledge his providence, as well as

and when we acknowledged his providence at work it should lead us to

Bless his name

Verse 13 says that the Lord gave her conception, then in verse 14 we read

Ruth 4:14–15 ESV

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! 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.”

Ruth 4:14–15 ESV

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! 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.”

Ruth 4:14 ESV

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 4:14 ESV

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!

In response to God working out his plan through these ordinary means of Ruth and Boaz having a child.

These women bless the Lord, and they do it by calling to one another what they have to be thankful for, for the gift of this son to Naomi, and for Ruth and her love for Naomi, in how she was the best ever, better than even the best son.

They bless the Lord, by remembering and celebrating, praising, and thanking God for how he has been good to them.

that is reminding Naomi of something that she already knows, that this child is a gift to her, and they go on to list their hopes for the child, and for

In the Bible the phrase Bless the lord occurs many times especially in the psalms.

Or as tells us bless the lord o my soul and forget not all his benefits. And then list all the reasons we should praise God.

In the Bible the phrase Bless the lord occurs many times especially in the psalms. These women were blessing the Lord, by

This passage and psalm 103 give us a picture about what it means to bless the Lord

Illustration:

CS Lewis used to have a problem with giving thanks and praise to God. His problem was that he was put off by how often the Bible asked people to give thanks to God.

He said: “We despise the man who demand continued assurance of his own virtue, intelligence, or delightfulness.” why should God be any different.

But what he found as he reflected and grew was that all enjoyment, whether that is God or anything, always overflows into praise and thanksgiving.

Then he says this:

“I think we delight to praise because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keeping telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete until it is expressed.”

This is why the old joke about

This is why that old joke about the husband not telling his wife that he loves her is somewhat humorous. She ask him, why don’t you tell you love me more often, and he replies, honey I told you I loved you when we got married, if anything changes I’ll let you know.”

honey I told you I loved you when we got married, if anything changes I’ll let you know.”

Well Lewis would say that if you love one another of if you love God it will continually overflow in expressing it, that love is incomplete if it is not expressed.

Lewis says that we must give thanks and praise to God because if we don’t we live incomplete, lives, our lives our impoverished.

He went on to say that we actually need praise.

He went on to say that we actually need praise.

Application:

Application:

Blessing the Lord is not about complementing God, but about completing our enjoyment of him. To bless the Lord we cannot merely believe in our mind that he is good, loving, gracious, and kind. To bless the Lord we have to actually feel gratitude for what he has done. That is what is going on with these women and Naomi.

And gratitude is not something that comes to us passively, it is something that we must cultivate, we must attend to God’s ordinary work with gratitude in our lives.

God does perform miracles, we should pray for them, have an expectation of them, but we cannot truncate our view of God to only the miraculous.

become a way of life, a manner of being.

It needs to become a way of life, a manner of being.

We do this in community by reminding each other, like these women did with Naomi, what they have to be thankful for.

When we recognize his working through people we should bless his name, by giving thanks. enter into joy

, by reminding each other like these women reminded Naomi, of what to be thankful for.

We do this individually, by reading and praying the Psalms so that those prayers become your prayers.

Or by keeping a journal of gratitude.

If we are to bless the Lord, we need to cultivate gratitude in our lives for all God’s works.

God is a work to accomplish his plan in this world and we join with him in that work as we bless his name through gratitude.

ordinary work he is doing in our lives, for he will use all things to bring about his good plan.

But not only should God’s ordinary work that is often hidden lead us to bless his name, it should also lead us to

Join in his kingdom work

Look with me at verse 17

Ruth 4:17 ESV

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.

Now when the original readers would have gotten to this point in the story they probably would have done a double take, like “say what?” David, king David? yes that is the David I speak of.

King David comes from a humble line of people, even a Moabite, the enemy of the Israelites.

And God worked behind the scenes through the ordinary means of Ruth’s love for Naomi, and Baoz’s love for Ruth to provided a king for his people, and eventually, the king Jesus Christ.

And throughout Israels history God worked in miraculous ways, but he also worked behind the scenes in ordinary ways.

And the same is true of Jesus, he worked in miraculous ways calming the storm and healing the sick and in ordinary ways like receiving a cup of cold water on a hot day from woman who was an outcast in her community, or sitting down and eating with sinners, or taking a child on his knee and talking about the kingdom of God.

And while the up front in your face miraculous ways of God grab our attention, and encourage our faith, Ruth reminds us, don’t neglect the ordinary ways of God. Just because it might not make as much of a flash, does not mean God’s not doing it.

And Jesus then lived

And Jesus ministry which included the miraculous also included the ordinary. He spoke to people, he ate with peole

But you know Ruth, I mean she is great and all, but she is not an Israelite, she is not really one of us.

But that is exactly it, the kingdom of God was never meant to be only for Jews, God’s kingdom is for all peoples.

and eventually through his ordinary work

Ruth reminds us that often God chooses humble ways like the faithful love two widows have for one another to advance his kingdom in this world.

many generations later provided another king, a better king, a king who would not just be from a line of outcasts like the Moabites, but would be cast out, so that all might be brought in.

Jesus is the king who came

but would be cast out, so that all might be brought in.

God worked through his people

Jesus is this king, he is the king of the outcast for all humanity has been cast out, but by his sacrifice, by his life giving sacrifice we can be brought near. The outcast can be brought home.

God worked so that Ruth the moabite, the outcast, would be in God’s family tree. And he is still doing that work today, of bringing in the outcast.

Illustration:

You see Jesus is the fulfillment, the pinnacle, the one who

Vs 17 God worked redemption for Naomi, but it points to David and ultimatly to the incarnation when God worked redemption through his one of his people Jesus; The incarnation

Illustration:

And while we may not always know how God uses ordinary ways to advance his kingdom we know he does. Jesus once told a story, and he said:

Mark 4:26–28 ESV

And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

Mark 4:26-

Application:

Just like God advanced his kingdom in hidden ways through Ruth, Boaz, and Naomi, he still does the same today.

And this is good news.

This means that God advances his kingdom through ordinary means. So lets say you recently move into a new house

Because sometimes we think God only REALLY works through miracles, and maybe that has been few and far between in your life.

Sometimes we think that God only works in extraordinary ways. And that the ordinary stuff of life is somehow not God’s work.

So for some people you have see God work in miraculous ways, and we have heard stories of the miraculous, and it encourages our faith, but if we don’t see miracles then we assume he is not working and get disappointed.

Some of you are still waiting for God to prove himself through a mi

And on the other end some of you think God only really works through miracles and he has in your life, but when you go through a seasons of not seeing any miracles you wonder if God is even there.

first are those people who only think that God works in the extraordinary and spectacular ways.

This means that God is not only at work

think that God works in the extraordinary and spectacular ways.

But it is good news that God works through ordinary means.

And so a few people started tutoring at the Pendleton Community center and that ministry grew and it has been a blessing to the community and to Christ the Redeemer.

God is at work in and through his people, in the ordinary things in life, not only in miraculous.

The ordinary work of kingdom work.

When we take an employee under our wing and help them grow personally and professionally we join God’s work in advancing his kingdom.

When we go see a friend in the hospital we join with God’s advancing his kingdom.

When we are tired and hangry at the end of the day we can pray that God would give us patience and endurance for the next few hours as we try to wrangle our kids to bed, and he responds in kind, we are joining with God’s work in advancing his kingdom. You can tell that last one comes from personal experience.

Figuring out how to help your employee become more mature God is at work advancing his kingdom. Checking on a friend in the hospital God is at work advancing his kingdom.

Because God works in the ordinary things of life it means that we can join with him in advancing his kingdom. Not only in the miraculous, but in the ordinary.

He will come again,

Conclusion:

They are an example

But more importantly they set the stage for Jesus

And we probably will not know how God will use our small actions in advancing his kingdom. In Jesus story the man spreading seeds did not know how they were growing, they just were.

Ruth did not know that the steadfast love she showed Naomi would place her in the genealogy of Jesus.

It is not really our job to know HOW God is using our action going to advance his kingdom,

but to simply know that he will do it and trust that he will use his people.

Conclusion;

As our series on Ruth comes to a close we are reminded not to neglect God’s often hidden, but extraordinary work.

Behind the scenes God is there guiding, leading, planning, at work advancing his kingdom in all the the ordinary events in creation.

We don’t live in a closed system, God create this world, set it and forget it.

We live in an enchanted world. A world that exists and works only because God wants it to.

And in a similar way, God’s extraordianry work of sending his son to live and die and then die in our place, and send his Spirit is so that we might live as he created us to be,

I

So may he open our eyes that we might see his ordinary work, and may he enable us by his Spirit to join with him in his extraordinary kingdom.