What A Difference A Day Can Make

From 28-3 to 34-28…what a difference a half can make.

Image: 28-3

Does anyone know the significance of that number?

[SAD TOM]

Tom Brady and the New England patriots are no strangers to the super bowl. A few years ago, they played the Atlanta falcons and by the 3rd quarter the game was pretty much over. Atlanta was up 28-3 and had all the momentum in the game. Tom Brady looked old, he threw a pick six (which is an interception returned for a touchdown)

[TOM ON THE GORUND]

And I think that is where we are with Naomi in the story of Ruth. Everything has been going against her, she has no sense of hope, she is bitter, and hopeless.

Need: how can we have hope when life seems hopeless?

Subject: God uses broken people to reach broken people

Context: Naomi is a broken woman; life has been so hard on her that she has forgotten how to hope. She believes that God has turned his back on her and is actively working against her.

Text:

Preview: life is hard, and sometimes we want to give up…Naomi knows this better than anyone, but the reflection of a greater kindness draws her back in and reminds her of her hope in God.

Body:

I: the line: where is the line? What is the least we can do to obey God?

Ruth 2:5–7 NIV

5 Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?” 6 The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. 7 She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”

[WHERE IS THE LINE?]

Ruth 2:5-7

How far do we need to go to help someone else? Ruth is gleaning in the filed, but should she be allowed to be among the harvesters? What does the law say? Should she only be allowed to work on the outskirts of the field? Where is the ‘kindness’ line? It would make sense for the overseer to tell Ruth to stay away from the workers because they were gathering the crop, she could have just worked on the edge of the field and most people would probably consider that kind enough...

b. Overseer’s response - we don’t really know

II: the leadership: Boaz is a good dude. He is good to his workers, he is good to Ruth

Ruth 2:8–13 NIV

8 So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. 9 Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.” 10 At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?” 11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12 May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” 13 “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have put me at ease by speaking kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servants.”

Ruth 2:8-

[BOAZ, GOOD DUDE, GOOD LEADER…]

BOAZ: Stay, Follow, Drink: Stay in my field, follow my workers, and drink their water if you get thirsty. It is safe to say that the “kindness line” for Boaz is much further than the overseer, and that is fair, it is his field after all.

RUTH: Why me? Ruth responds to Boaz’s kindness with grateful humility. She did not expect to find security, comfort, and hospitality…she just hoped to get enough food for her and Naomi to survive a little while longer.

BOAZ: You’ve been kind to Naomi and that hasn’t gone unnoticed. May God repay your kindness to Naomi. You’ve come for refuge, may you find it in God Himself. Don’t rely on my kindness, God’s is better.

RUTH: Thank you for comforting me, please keep being nice to me even though I don’t deserve it...

III: the leftovers: Boaz reflects God’s kindness to Ruth and it overflows to Naomi

Ruth 2:14–23 NIV

14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.” When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. 15 As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her. 16 Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.” 17 So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. 18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough. 19 Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!” Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said. 20 “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.” 21 Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’ ” 22 Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.” 23 So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

Ruth 2:14-23

[I KNOT ITS THE LAST THING YOU WANT TO HEAR YOUR MOM SAY AT DINNER TIME… BUT SOMETIMES LEFTOVERS ARE A GOOD THING…]

Personally, this part of the passage hit me the hardest. Boaz was a man of standing…he had no business eating with his workers. Meals for them weren’t just a quick bite and get back to work. Meals were a big deal, something you would share with a close friend…not your workers…and especially not that Moabite woman who showed up randomly in your field...

Boaz shows kindness to everyone. He reflects God’s character to those around him, sort of like how the moon reflects the sun’s light, it doesn’t have it’s own light, but we still see it all the way from space!

Ruth eats her fill and even has some leftovers.

Boaz gives orders to his men to let Ruth work among the sheaves, don’t keep her on the outside, let her work where the grain is abundant…and you know what…pull some out and make it even easier for her to gather.

Ruth goes to work, and she works hard. She doesn’t waste Boaz’s kindness, she takes full advantage of his kindness. In fact, she gathered a ephah, any guesses as to how much that is? [5 gallon bucket here??]

How long do you think this much grain would last two people? Several months would be a conservative guess. But she wasn’t done, Boaz said to keep coming back until all the grain had been harvested, so there was going to be more on the way.

Naomi is shocked, she is like “where did you go today?!?” “Who would have let you gather like this?!?!”

And the answer Ruth gives turns this narrative on its head. This is the point in the movie where the music changes from dark and gloomy to big and hopeful, this is the point in the game where the Patriots go from getting blown out to fighting their way back into the game, this is where Naomi goes from felling like God has abandoned her to understanding that God is up to something much bigger than she could have ever dreamed.

Ruth 2:20 NIV

20 “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.”

Ruth

Boaz is not just a random good dude in Naomi’s life, he is one of the guardian-redeemers (kinsmen-redeemers in some translations)

I wonder how much Ruth knew about the Hebrew culture. I’m sure she was like “oh yeah, the guar—dian----re—deemer....I totally know what that is...”

Why is that significant?

This isn’t just hope for today, this is God’s built in answer for people like Naomi who have lost everything. Boaz is one of the men whose responsibility it is to redeem Naomi. In some cases the redeemer would avenge a murder, or buy you out of slavery, or buy back all of your land that you lost, or marry a widow and provide her an heir and care for her.

Summary: Boaz reflects God’s kindness to Ruth, and Ruth brings home the fruit of her labor and presents it to Naomi. Through Boaz’s kindness and Ruth’s hard work, Naomi sees the hand of God and receives encouragement and her attitude shifts from broken to blessed. She sees the goodness of God; she feels his kindness again.

Re-image:

If you don’t know the story, the Patriots scored 31 unanswered points and won Super Bowl 51 in overtime.

34-28 “that’s why you play to the end” - Tom Brady

[sad tom next to happy tom]

There wasn’t just one play that brought the patriots back from 28-3, the defense caused a fumble, Tom Brady threw some touchdowns, the receivers made some unbelievable catches, and James White ran for some hard-fought touchdowns…

The point is, Tom Brady didn’t win that game on his own. He gets most of the credit, but he needed help. Because everyone needs help. In this story, Naomi needs help and she found it in Ruth and Boaz. Naomi is in this emotional dessert, and God works through Ruth and Boaz to meet Naomi where she is and restore her hope.

This is how God designed it, he only uses broken people. That sounds odd but it’s true. God uses broken people because that is the only kind of people there are…you are broken, I am broken and God uses us to help and encourage each other.

Bill Belicheck (the coach of the NEP) is famous for telling his players “just do your job” and I feel like that is a message that is lost on us sometimes. Do your job, now that will look different for each one of us, but God has something for us to do, and it may seem small to us…but what will it mean for people in our lives like Naomi?

God may call you to do something big and flashy, or he may call you to just go work in a field somewhere…but whatever he has for you could be part of someone else’s comeback story…or maybe even your own.

QUESTIONS:

1. Have you ever felt hopeless? Discuss your answer with your group.

2. What are some other (specific) examples you can think of in the Bible where God worked through people to bring about His purposes?

3. Do you think obedience to God is important in the Christian faith? Why/why not?

Bill Belicheck (the coach of the NEP) is famous for telling his players “just do your job” and I feel like that is a message that is lost on us sometimes. Do your job, now that will look different for each one of us, but God has something for us to do, and it may seem small to us…but what will it mean for people in our lives like Naomi?

God may call you to do something big and flashy, or he may call you to just go work in a field somewhere…but whatever he has for you could be part of someone else’s comeback story…or maybe even your own.