Boaz & Ruth

February Sunday Night Series - Love Like Ours

With This Series, We are Going to Take a Look at 4 Couples From the Bible…

With the Specific Focus On the Similarities…

Between Their Relationships and the Church’s Relationship With Jesus

We are Looking for Love Like Ours

I Know Every Man Would Much Rather Be Here…

Talking About Love and Relationships…

Than at Home in Their Recliner Watching the Super Bowl

But, I Promise I Will Keep it Short

Tonight We are Looking at Boaz and Ruth

Summary of Ruth

The Story of Boaz and Ruth Takes Place in Bethlehem of Judah in the Period of the Judges

A Couple From Bethlehem Named Elimelech and Naomi Take Their 2 Sons…

And Move to the Land of Moab Because of a Famine in Bethlehem

Unfortunately, Elimelech Dies

So Naomi is Left With Her 2 Sons, Who Eventually Get Married Themselves

But After About 10 Years of Living in Moab, Both of Naomi’s Sons Die

Naomi No Longer Has Anyone to Take Care of Her

So She Decides to Move Back Home to Bethlehem

And She Advises Her 2 Widowed Daughters-In-Law to Return to Their Parents

One of Them Does, But the Other One Doesn’t

Ruth Commits Herself to Naomi

Ruth 1:16–17 (NASB95)

But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.”

That Right There is Allegiance

This is the Kind of Allegiance Christians are to Have to Jesus

What Ruth Did was a Very Kind, Noble, and Self-Sacrificial Thing to Do for Naomi

So Naomi and Ruth Return to Bethlehem With No Provider and Nowhere Else to Turn

They Return at the Time of the Barley Harvest

Ruth Begins Gleaning Barley From the Field of a Man Named Boaz

Boaz was Related to Naomi’s Late Husband Elimelech

Boaz is Extraordinarily Kind and Generous With Ruth

When She Asks Why, He Tells Her He Had Heard of Her Kindness and Loyalty to Naomi…

And He Wanted to Return Kindness for Kindness…

And He Wanted Her to Experience the Blessings that Come From Choosing to Submit to the One True God

Ruth 2:11–12 (NASB95)

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. 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.”

He Refers to God’s Name Twice in His Reply to Ruth

I Believe This was Intentional in Turning Her Heart to His Benevolent God

Boaz Wasn’t Just Kind and Compassionate…

He was an Evangelist at Heart and Servant of God

After the Barley Harvest Ended, Naomi Tells Her to Go to Boaz at Night and Lie Down at His Feet

When He Wakes Up, She is to Ask Him to Be Her Redeemer

What She was Asking for was Really 2 Things:

Property Redemption and Marriage

A Close Relative Could Buy Back a Dead Relatives Property So That it Remains in the Family Lineage

And a Close Relative Could Also Marry His Dead Relatives Widow and Provide a Child for the Late Husband

This was Considered an Act of Extreme Kindness and Mercy for a Relative in Dire Need

Boaz Recognizes Ruth’s Proposal as a Greater Act of Kindness to Naomi Than Before

Not Only Did She Leave Her Homeland and Family to Stay With Naomi…

But She was Now Willing to Marry On Old Relative of Naomi…

In Order to Redeem Her Property and Bear a Child for Naomi’s Family Lineage

But Boaz Tells Ruth that Another Relative is Closer in Relation Than Himself

So He Gets Up Early in the Morning to Ask the Closer Relative if He Will Redeem Naomi’s Property for Her

The Man Agrees Until He Discovers That He Would Have to Marry Ruth as Well

So They Negotiate and Boaz Redeems All of Naomi’s Inheritance and Marries Ruth

Ruth Bore a Son Which Restored the Lineage of Naomi and Her Late Husband

Naomi Became the Great-Great-Grandmother and Ruth the Great-Grandmother of King David

Similarities Between Boaz & Ruth and Jesus & the Church

You Don’t Have to Try Very Hard to See the Similarities

The Man From Bethlehem Shows Compassion to the Foreigner

The Godly Man Shows the Mercy of God to the Woman Who Doesn’t Know God

The Rich Man Provides Abundantly for the Poor Woman Who Has Nothing to Offer

The Woman Asks for a Redeemer and He Willfully and Joyfully Redeems Her

The Woman Who Previously Had No Future and No Hope…

Was Given a Future and a Hope By Her Redeemer

Boaz Gives Us a Beautiful Picture of the Loving, Compassionate, Gentle, Self-Sacrificing Jesus

And Ruth Gives Us a Vivid Picture of the Church

Once We Were Foreigners and Enemies of God, But Jesus Reconciled Us

Once We Were Lost and Dying With No Hope to Be Seen, But Jesus Redeemed Us

Romans 5:6–11 NAS

For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

We Were Once Helpless, But Jesus Died for Us

We Were Once Sinners, But Jesus Died for Us

We Were Once Enemies, But Jesus Died for Us

Ruth and Boaz Had a Love Like Ours