Let's Get Married

Introduction: This story of love coming to an unlikely pair in an unlikely time, is a beautiful picture of God’s work of redemption through Jesus Christ. This is a story of sadness that turns to celebration.

Love Songs of Life:

Feb_07 - Tired of Being Alone - The Complement of Love - Genesis 2:18-25

Feb_14 - How Can You Mend a Broken Heart - The Comfort of Love - Genesis 24:61-6

7Feb_21 - Love and Happiness - The Cost of Love - Genesis 29:20-30

Feb_28 - Let’s Get Married - The Commitment of Love - Ruth 4:1-12

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (HCSB) - “4 Love is patient; love is kind. Love does not envy; is not boastful; is not conceited; 5 does not act improperly; is not selfish; is not provoked; does not keep a record of wrongs; 6 finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for languages, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.”

“Marriage is when you agree to spend the rest of your life sleeping in a room that's too warm, beside someone who's sleeping in a room that's too cold.” - E.J. Graffiti

The Song: The 1973 love ballad by Al Green, declaring a passionate love and need to stop fooling around and a longing to get married. In the height of the song he exclaims “I wanna take you in my arms and hold you, take you in my arms and squeeze you; take you in my arms and love you day and night I want to make everything all right, all right.”

The Scripture: "One type is story and Ruth is one of these. Ruth tells a true, simple, engaging and well-crafted story. It is a short story told in four chapters—eighty-five verses. Most importantly, it was written under the control and direction of God the Holy Spirit, and is part of God’s transforming message for us.”

After Ehimilech takes his family to Moab because of a famine in Bethlehem of Judah he dies. So this love story starts out with a famine, a funeral, two weddings, two funerals, and a return of two widows to Bethlehem of Judah.

The Story: The story is of a widowed mother-in-law, Naomi and her widowed daughter-in-law Ruth, who return to Naomi’s homeland. There is pain and tragedy in the circumstances of life that force these women to return to Bethlehem of Judah. But grace meets them there in the form of Boaz, who would eventually become Ruth’s husband and kinsman redeemer. So a story that starts out with deep burdens, ends with triumphant blessings.

The story of Ruth takes place in Judah during the period of the judges. Because of a famine in the land, Elimelech takes his wife, Naomi, and two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, to settle in the land of Moab. After Elimelech dies, the two sons take Moabite wives—Orpah and Ruth. After the sons also die, Naomi decides to return to Bethlehem. She advises both of her daughters-in-law to stay in Moab, but Ruth refuses and returns to Bethlehem with Naomi. Their return coincides with the beginning of the barley harvest. Ruth was cursed, crushed, and condemned. - (Adrian Rogers, 2005)

Purposeful Commitment (4:1-8)

A Coordinated Purpose (4:1-4) - “1 Boaz went to the gate [of the town] and sat down there. Soon, the family redeemer Boaz had spoken about came by. Boaz called him by name and said, "Come over here and sit down." So he went over and sat down. 2 Then Boaz took 10 men of the city's elders and said, "Sit here." And they sat down. 3 He said to the redeemer, "Naomi, who has returned from the land of Moab, is selling a piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. 4 I thought I should inform you: Buy [it] back in the presence of those seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to redeem [it], do so. But if you do not want to redeem [it], tell me, so that I will know, because there isn't anyone other than you to redeem [it], and I am next after you." "I want to redeem [it]," he answered.”

Psalm 37:23-25 (KJV) - “23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. 24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. 25 I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

A Costly Purpose - (4:5-8) - “5 Then Boaz said, "On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you will also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the deceased man, to perpetuate the man's name on his property.” 6 The redeemer replied, "I can't redeem [it] myself, or I will ruin my [own] inheritance. Take my right of redemption, because I can't redeem it.” 7 At an earlier period in Israel, a man removed his sandal and gave [it] to the other party in order to make any matter [legally] binding concerning the right of redemption or the exchange of property. This was [the method of] legally binding a transaction in Israel. 8 So the redeemer removed his sandal and said to Boaz, "Buy back [the property] yourself."

Note: The words redeem/redeemer/redemption occur twenty-three times in the eighty-five verses of Ruth.

Leviticus 25:25-26 (HCSB) - “25 If your brother becomes destitute and sells part of his property, his nearest relative may come and redeem what his brother has sold.26 If a man has no family redeemer, but he prospers and obtains enough to redeem his land,”

Ruth 3:12 - “Yes, it is true that I am a family redeemer, but there is a redeemer closer than I am.”

Public Commitment (4:9-12)

Costly Commitment (4:9-10) - “9 Boaz said to the elders and all the people, "You are witnesses today that I am buying from Naomi everything that belonged to Elimelech, Chilion, and Mahlon. 10 I will also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon's widow, as my wife, to perpetuate the deceased man's name on his property, so that his name will not disappear among his relatives or from the gate of his home. You are witnesses today.”

Verse 9 Note: The kinsman who was closest wanted the resource of more land, but not the responsibility of a wife, so he could not and would not redeem Ruth. The old Adamic nature cannot and will not redeem us. There were ten (10) men at the city gate who bore witness. These men represent the Ten Commandments, who bear witness to man’s depravity. There is only one who can redeem us from our destitute estate.

Verse: 10

Proverbs 31:10-12 (HCSB) - "10 Who can find a capable wife? She is far more precious than jewels.11 The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will not lack anything good. 12 She rewards him with good, not evil, all the days of her life.”

1 Peter 1:18-19 - “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:”

Illustration: In 1865, at the Monument Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore Maryland, sat Mrs. Elvina M. Hall. As the 47 year old widow sat listening to the morning sermon, she became overwhelmed by the need for people to be saved, and the glorious truth that man’s salvation had been accomplished by Jesus’ death on the cross. She immediately grabbed a hymnal and wrote the words to Jesus Paid It All on the leaflet pages of the hymnal.

“I hear the Savior say,

‘Thy strength indeed is small;

Child of weakness, watch and pray,

Find in Me thine all in all.

Jesus Paid it all,

All to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow. - Elvina M. Hall

Celebrated Commitment (4:11-12) - “11 The elders and all the people who were at the gate said, "We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is entering your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built the house of Israel. May you be powerful in Ephrathah and famous in Bethlehem. 12 May your house become like the house of Perez, the son Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring the Lord will give you by this young woman.”

Proverbs 19:14 (KJV) - “House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.”

Prosperous Commitment (4:13)

Prospered in Marriage (4:13a) - “13 Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife.”

Genesis 2:24 (KJV) - “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Matthew 19:4-6 - He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Prospered in Multiplying (4:13b) - “When he was intimate with her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.”

Note: Ruth had been barren during her entire ten (10) year marriage in Moab, but she becomes pregnant almost immediately in Bethlehem. She literally went from a barren place to a blessed place.

Hebrews 13:4 (KJV) - “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 - “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Psalm 127:3 (KJV) - “3 Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. 4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.”