Sermon Tone Analysis

1.

A Random introduction and Random Right Turn - vs 1-3 

A1.

Random Prologue - vs 1

1 Now Naomi had a kinsman of her husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.”

The author presses pause on our story to introduce us to a new character, Boaz.

And in this introduction we learn two important details.

First we see that he is a kinsman, he’s a relative of Naomi’s husband, Elimelech.

Not only is he a relative, he is from the same clan as Elimelech.

Now in Israelite society the way things work is an individual, you are part of a family.

Your family is part of a larger clan and then multiple clans made up one of the 12 tribes.

The clan level was the most important social group there was in Israelite society.

Boaz was from the same clan as Elimelech.

He was not loosely related to Naomi’s husband.

He was from the same clan.

Next we see that he is a man of great wealth, or as the ESV puts it a worthy man.

This is not simply a reference to Boaz’s economic stability, though it is that.

It is not merely a reference to his social status in Bethlehem, though it is that.

At its heart this is a reference to his character.

But what is the author’s point in introducing Boaz here?

To get us to ask this very question.

To peak our interest.

Boaz?

Who is this Boaz?

What does he have to do with anything?

B. Ruth’s long for favor - vs 2

If you remember, chapter 1 ended with the information that Ruth and Naomi came to Bethlehem at barley harvest.

They just happened to get to town at this time.

The new morning dawns and Ruth is filled with the desire to get to work - verse 2 “2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain” For the second time in as many verses the author reminds us where Ruth is from.

She is a moabites.

The author wants us to feel how the tension and awkwardness that this Moabitess in Israel would have felt.

She is an alien, she is a foreigner, she is an outsider.

But this awkward situation does not paralyze her.

Instead she springs into action.

But before doing so she asks permission.

She is so devoted to Naomi that she is not willing to leave her side without consent to go.

Now what she wants to go and do is glean in the fields.

In those days the male reapers would grasp stalks of grain with his left hand and cut off the grain with a sickle in their right.

When the armload of grain became to large to do his job, he would lay them in rows beside the standing stalks for the female reapers to tie into bundles or sheaves.

At times, ears of grain would drop to the ground from the reaper’s hand and or when the reapers were bundling the ears into sheaves.

The Law of God, in , stipulated that these stray ears should be left on the ground so that the alien, the orphan and the widow could come by and pick them up.

This practice was called gleaning.

God being rich in mercy, being the father of the fatherless, set up this means for providing for the immigrant, the poor and the destitute.

And Ruth, as a Moabite and a widow qualified for this system on two accounts.

However not every landowner would have been a law-abiding citizen.

Remember, this was the time of the judges!

It could have also been especially dangerous for foreign woman, a Moabitess, who had no one to protect her.

She was stepping out in faith that somewhere in the fields of Judah that there was a generous, lawful landowner who would make room for her.

She wanted to glean after one in whose sight she found favor.

This word favor is also translated grace, most famously in , “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Ruth was looking for grace.

She hoped to find mercy from a landowner so that she and Naomi could eat.

In sum her request revealed a vulnerable foreigner who demonstrated exceptional courage and yet respectful restraint.

Even if it was her right under the law, she would glean not with presumption, but with humility.

The camera shifts to Naomi and all that she can manage is a brief three word answer, “Go, my daughter.”

Perhaps she is crippled by her bitterness and this is why she stays behind.

Though her body lives, her heart has been beaten down by her bitter condition.

She was living in the valley of the shadow of death and all she bring herself to do is say “go, daughter.”

Which is what Ruth does in verse 3.

A2.

Ruth’s Random Right Turn -vs 3

“3 So she departed and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers;” This quick string of verbs rapidly shifts the scene from the city to the countryside and it is there that we see that Ruth “happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.”

Happened?

Ruth just happened upon Boaz’s field.

Literally she chanced to chance upon Boaz’s field.

You see, in that day there was very little distinction between one field and another.

It was a jumbled patchwork of subdivided farmland, there were no large signs saying “welcome to the field of Boaz”.

She just happened to find the piece of farmland that belonged to Boaz.

Why does the author talk like this?

This striking understatement is intended to create the exact opposite impression - accident?

Of course not!

The author her is highlighting the providential hand of God behind this apparent accident.

To borrow the language of Proverbs, Ruth planned out her way but it was the sovereign Lord that directed her steps.

For Ruth this was accidental, but not for God.

His hand guided her to the right place at the right time.

The same hand that sent the famine and later provided bread is the hand that brought Naomi and Ruth back to Bethlehem precisely at the beginning of the barely harvest and has here guided Ruth to that portion of the field belonging to Boaz.

Dear brothers and sisters, hold on to this truth: nothing happens in God’s world by accident.

Nothing in your life happens by accident.

Everything happens by our God’s divine appointment.

We are not driven about or caught up in some blind impersonal force of karma or coincidence.

There is no such thing as a chance encounter.

There is a sovereign God who orchestrates all the events of His people’s lives for His glory and their ultimate good.

I hope that you saw that last week and that you see that here today.

Transition

So we started with a question, who is this Boaz?

Then we see Ruth hoping to find grace in the eyes of a landowner and then we see that she just happened to make a right turn into a field owned by none other than Boaz.

This next scene, Hesed in the Field of Boaz opens with yet another surprise arrival.

2. Hesed in the Field of Boaz - vs 4-17

A1.

Narrative Intro - vs 4a

4 Now behold Boaz came from Bethlehem” Just then, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem.

Literally this phrase carries the idea of sheer surprise.

Wouldn’t you just know it?

Guess who just happened to stop by that same day?

It’s Boaz!

Not only did Ruth arrive in the field of Boaz by God’s providence, she arrived just in time to meet Boaz.

This was not a daily appointment that a landowner would have kept.

Landowners visited only on occasion in order to assess progress.

It just so happened that that day was the day Boaz decided to go to his field.

B1.

Scene 1 -vs 4b-13