2020-11-01 Ruth 2
Notes
Transcript
1 Now Naomi had a kinsman of her husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.
I. Boaz displayed his faith through displaying biblical hospitality.
I. Boaz displayed his faith through displaying biblical hospitality.
1 Now Naomi had a kinsman of her husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.
2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.”
3 So she departed and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.
4 Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, “May the Lord be with you.” And they said to him, “May the Lord bless you.”
5 Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?”
6 The servant in charge of the reapers replied, “She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab.
7 “And she said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ Thus she came and has remained from the morning until now; she has been sitting in the house for a little while.”
8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen carefully, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field; furthermore, do not go on from this one, but stay here with my maids.
9 “Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Indeed, I have commanded the servants not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the servants draw.”
A. In a time when everyone did what was right in their own eyes, Boaz lived out God honoring hospitality.
A. In a time when everyone did what was right in their own eyes, Boaz lived out God honoring hospitality.
8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen carefully, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field; furthermore, do not go on from this one, but stay here with my maids.
9 “Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Indeed, I have commanded the servants not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the servants draw.”
Illus: I know, I know, we are done with judges and want to bury it and move on. It is essential to draw the intended contrast between the two books.
The theme of the book of judges hammers over and over was, everyone did what was right in their own eyes. The book of judges chronological what happened to and entire nation when the citizens did what was right in their own eyes.
Ruth, though a separate book in Scripture, falls in the middle of the Judges timeline. Ruth is a story during the time period of Judges.
More than that Boaz, our focal character today, is introduced living out both the letter and the heart of God’s law during the time when everyone did what was right in their own eyes.
In days of faithlessness, Boaz remained faithful to God.
How? In the law God instituted a mercy or hospitality the foreigners, strangers, and impoverished. The law was that when harvesting, you were not to be selfish and pull every single grain to maxamize your profit. Instead your were to leave parts of your field unharvested and the leftovers in the field so that the impoverished could eat.
It is clear in our passage Boaz did not resort to the selfishness of getting his, but instead embraced the biblical heart of compassion and hospitality.
9 ‘Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest.
10 ‘Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God.
B. The greatest way to show the world God’s grace is through God honoring hospitality.
B. The greatest way to show the world God’s grace is through God honoring hospitality.
8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen carefully, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field; furthermore, do not go on from this one, but stay here with my maids.
9 “Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Indeed, I have commanded the servants not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the servants draw.”
Illus: We are living in a time where everyone does what is right in their own eyes.
We are living in a time where everyone is out tor get their own.
From politics where we desire to do whatever is necessary to advance and agenda to business strategy which seeks to pinch every penny to advance a bottom line, we live primarily for ourselves.
The greatest example is how we look at our fellow man. We now see anyone on the opposite side of an issue as a foe to be defeated and demoralized.
Think about boaz for a second. He was showing kindness, hospitality, benevolence to a Moabite ***She was the enemy*** widow woman. He had nothing to gain from her, but lived out the heart of God through his hospitality.
Let’s all admit that screaming at the broken world has not transformed the world for Christ. It is a failed method because it is exactly contrary to God’s method.
Instead, if we embraced compassion, benevolence, and hospitality, the world would see the transformation of Christ in our lives.
What does that look like? It looks like building intentional gospel relationships with people who may not look like you, sin like you, or even spend like you. You build those relationships so that through your generosity and love, you can bring them to know the grace and love of Jesus Christ.
As long as we continue distance ourselves from the world around us, we will continue to an empty baptistry. Evangelism must begin by building relationships.
1 Let love of the brethren continue.
2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.
15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.
16 And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
II. Boaz saw that Ruth was different.
II. Boaz saw that Ruth was different.
8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen carefully, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field; furthermore, do not go on from this one, but stay here with my maids.
9 “Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Indeed, I have commanded the servants not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the servants draw.”
10 Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?”
11 Boaz replied to her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me, and how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people that you did not previously know.
12 “May the Lord reward your work, and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.”
13 Then she said, “I have found favor in your sight, my lord, for you have comforted me and indeed have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your maidservants.”
14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here, that you may eat of the bread and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar.” So she sat beside the reapers; and he served her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied and had some left.
15 When she rose to glean, Boaz commanded his servants, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not insult her.
16 “Also you shall purposely pull out for her some grain from the bundles and leave it that she may glean, and do not rebuke her.”
A. In a time where people were disposable Ruth treated Naomi as an image bearer of God.
A. In a time where people were disposable Ruth treated Naomi as an image bearer of God.
11 Boaz replied to her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me, and how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people that you did not previously know.
12 “May the Lord reward your work, and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.”
Illus: We saw how Boaz was different. Ruth was as well.
If Ruth was to do what was best for Ruth, Ruth would have gone back to Moab, found her a sugar daddy, and lived in under his provision. Isn’t that what Naomi urged Ruth to do?
Instead Ruth went back to Israel with no real way to provide for herself, but in loyalty to serve and care for her mother in law. Ruth embraced the life of a begger walking in the harvest fields picking up the left over grain. On top of that she didn’t just glean for herself. She worked double so that she might provide for her mother in law.
That was the heart that boaz saw. In the way he lived out the compassion through leaving food in his fields, he saw that same heart in a Moabite woman who served her mother in law by becoming impoverished for her.
In a time when everyone was living to get theirs, Ruth lowered herself to serve a woman she could have abandoned and no body would have blamed her for.
Hear the heart of God. When you embrace His ways, you cease to live for yourself and instead seek to live out God’s love for those around you.
32 ‘You shall rise up before the grayheaded and honor the aged, and you shall revere your God; I am the Lord.
33 ‘When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.
34 ‘The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.
B. Boaz is the distinct opposite of the Levite and his concubine.
B. Boaz is the distinct opposite of the Levite and his concubine.
13 Then she said, “I have found favor in your sight, my lord, for you have comforted me and indeed have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your maidservants.”
14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here, that you may eat of the bread and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar.” So she sat beside the reapers; and he served her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied and had some left.
15 When she rose to glean, Boaz commanded his servants, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not insult her.
16 “Also you shall purposely pull out for her some grain from the bundles and leave it that she may glean, and do not rebuke her.”
Illus: There is a reason the book of Judges ends in the crash landing of the levite and the concubine only to be followed by the story of Ruth and Boaz. These two stories paint two very different pictures.
In the story of the Levite, a man who was supposed to be one of God’s men treats his companions as a less than person throwing her to the urges and depravity of a mob.
Boaz was different. Truthfully most people saw Ruth as a disposable person. She was a foreigner living in a land that was not her own. She was a woman. She was a beggar. Yet where the Levite sacrificed his companion to protect himself, Boaz sacrified what he had to protect Ruth.
Can I challenge you? Look around. We live in a community where you might see many who are like Ruth. There are many here that the regular world would consider as disposable people.
I want to challenge you to look for the image of God in every person in our community. As we live in a world that tells you to vilinize and dehumanize those who are opposed to you, can I challenge you to do the opposite.
Instead of dehumanizing your fellow man, look specifically at those whom you disagree with, feel anger towards, and see them as image bearers of God. Give them the benevolence, compassion, and hospitality of people made in the very image of God.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.”
III. Ruth is a story about redemption.
III. Ruth is a story about redemption.
17 So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.
18 She took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also took it out and gave Naomi what she had left after she was satisfied.
19 Her mother-in-law then said to her, “Where did you glean today and where did you work? May he who took notice of you be blessed.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.”
20 Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed of the Lord who has not withdrawn his kindness to the living and to the dead.” Again Naomi said to her, “The man is our relative, he is one of our closest relatives.”
What is a family redeemer, and why does it matter?
What is a family redeemer, and why does it matter?
Illus: The ending of the book of Ruth shifts to the story of Ruth and Boaz.
At this point in the story Ruth is a foreign woman beggar who depends on the mercy of Boaz.
The book of Ruth includes an important point: that Boaz is one of Ruth’s closest relatives.
In OT law God owned all the land, and people were simply stewards of that land.
When a man died, the property could redeemed, repurchased and the process would move from the closest relative on.
Along with redeeming the land, the redeemer would also take on the any liabilities such as family, debts, etc. It was a way that God would provide for example the widow of deceased.
When a cruel man redeemed the land, it would often mean that the family was not cared for. **Remember we are still in the time of the judges**
As the scripture highlights Boaz and his heart, it sets up the story so that a gracious redeemer embraces not only the care of Ruth, but of Naomi as well.
We will get to that in the next few weeks.
There is a bigger picture God is building through the book of Ruth. Scripture wants you to see the broken, helpless, destitute foreigner that is completely dependent on a redeemer.
Why?
Because it wants you to place yourself in Ruth’s shoes. Ruth’s story is yours and it is mine.
It is the story of how God took a helpless destitute foreigner and made her family through a generous act of redemption.
To become a believer you must be redeemed. What does that mean? It means that we are foreigners who are not apart of God’s family. BUT, on the cross Jesus bought all of us. He bought our sin, he bought our debts, he bought our brokenness. In redeeming us he made us apart of His family.
When you take the bold step of faith, the bold proclamation that Jesus is your God, God will redeem you and make you his.
12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
