Sermon Tone Analysis

I’d like to start off this morning with this Scripture reference referring to idolatry & it is the 2nd commandment of the 10 commandments

Q.

What exactly does that mean?

Q.

Does it mean that children get punished for the idolatry of their parents?

I dare say that many Israelites understood it that way

Or, at least, they used that understanding to their advantage

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Q.

What advantage, you may ask?

Well, the advantage of an excuse

“I’m in this predicament, not because I’ve sinned, not because I’m guilty, but because my father sinned or my mother sinned

“You see, I’m bearing the iniquity of the fathers on the children up to the 3rd & 4th generation”

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Now this verse can be looked at in 2 ways

a. God is directly punishing the children for the evil, idolatrous ways of their parents…or

b.

God is allowing the consequences of the parent’s idolatry to play out in the lives of their children

I take the latter to be correct

There is cause & effect happening when people sin - others do pay the price

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Take reckless driving, for example

You may cause harm to others

Drug use - you may cause harm to others - breaking & entering to find money for drugs

Now to the nitty gritty - fail to raise your children in the ways of Yahweh & chances are that they will suffer as a result

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Ros & I were driving through Echuca on the way home from playing Squash one night

There were a gang of youths - about 6 of them & some were being smart, deliberately walking across the road in the front of our car

Q.

What was their home-life like?

Q.

What teaching or worldview were they being raised on?

Sin has its consequences & I think the punishing even to the 3rd & 4th generation speaks to the negative consequences of idolatry upon a home & a society

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But in contrast, Godly faithfulness extends to a thousand generations

Hyperbole - yes - going beyond the point to make the point - but the point is well taken

God blesses those who are loyal to Him to a greater extent, than the negative effects of idolatry

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The Israelites, however, were conveniently using this sense of - “oh, it was my father’s doing - for why they were in exile in Babylon

So a Proverb developed to reinforce their blame game

But what did the Lord have to say about that?

The fathers catch cold but the children sneeze

But the Lord says that they are as guilty as their fathers with their faithlessness & idolatry

God judges a person, not by the fact that he or she had bad parents, but what he or she does before the Lord

The soul that sins will bear his own judgement

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I raise this today to bring our attention to the story of Naomi & Ruth

Things went terribly bad for them & for all intents & purposes, they had not done anything wrong

But under the hand of God, life went downhill big time

They had lost all the husbands to death & had no children

Many would have thought - Naomi, what did you do so wrong - are you one of those being punished up to the 3rd & 4th generation?

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But the Scriptures don’t indicate that Naomi, nor Ruth, nor Orpah had done anything wrong

On the contrary, Naomi, the only Israelite maintained her faithfulness to God & Ruth becomes a convert to the true God of heaven & earth - & guess what?

It “paid off” - God showed His faithfulness to them

But He went one step further - through their loyalty to Him, their legacy resulted in the birth of King David which then led to the birth of King Jesus

What a wonderful blessing to be a part of God’s great plan of the ages in bringing Jesus into the world - the rewards of their loyalty to the Lord

1. Boaz’ Crafty Move Ruth 4:1

When we looked at chp.3, Ruth had made a move on Boaz to secure him in marriage as a kinsman-redeemer to continue on the legacy of her deceased husband in Israel

But as we saw in the last chapter, there is one who is ahead of Boaz as far as rights of redemption are concerned

To refresh us on this law in Israel, we read the following...

This is the principle, but the principle seemed to be extended beyond just a literal brother

So that it may include an uncle or second cousin who could also be a kinsman-redeemer

Q.

How did they arrive at this?

Possibly through other laws that speak about inheritances and legacies, like this one from the book of Numbers...

From here, it seems that it was acceptable to be a kinsman-redeemer even though you are not strictly the brother of the deceased who had no son to carry on his name

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Boaz, therefore, knows that by rank of redeemer, there is another man who is a closer relative, than he

Remember that Boaz was not going to sit on this, but was going to act quickly for Ruth & Naomi’s sake

Again, what happens here is another example of the Lord working through the whole process

It just so happened that as Boaz went up the gate of the city, that the close relative - first-in-line kinsman-redeemer happened to be passing by

It is similar to what we found in chap. 2

As Boaz went up to the gate…it happened that the close relative was passing by - what are the chances?

When the Lord is involved, those chances come about

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I love the way Boaz deals with this issue

As are most transactions, in this time, they are handled at the gate of the city & there he gathers a quorum of Elders needed to verify the transaction

But Boaz eloquently played a game of let’s say, Snakes & Ladders with the first-in-line kinsman-redeemer by first presenting to him the land or “ladder”

The land was Elimelech’s property & it could not be sold, because it must remain in the family - it became Mahlon’s property

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Here’s Naboth’s response to King Ahab’s desire for his vineyard

It could not, technically, be sold, but the property could be used, in the interim, to make money - say as a share farmer would do on someone’s property & he would have certain rights on that property

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The first-in-line kinsman-redeemer is happy about that - all upside like climbing the ladder

I think it is also a strong possibility that such property would even pass to him, if Naomi & Ruth pass on with no husband or child

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However, there is more to this, if he wants to merely acquire the property as a kinsman-redeemer, part of the deal is that he will also have to acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, who is the rightful heir to that property

Which also means that when the kinsman-redeemer & Ruth have a son, that first-born son will inherit the property of Ruth’s former husband, the deceased Mahlon, so that his name & property will continue in Israel

But this, to the first-in-line kinsman-redeemer is like hitting the snakes, in the game of snakes & ladders as you slide down on the board & lose a lot of ground

This game of Snakes & Ladders where the ladder was presented first has shown us something very revealing

It made it really clear that this man was no where near the calibre of godly Boaz

All he cared for was himself & whatever fortune he could make from the exchange

Unlike Boaz, who considered lovingkindness or loyal love as of far greater priority than his property

The way Boaz approached this matter shows clearly that He would rather obey Yahweh & honour Him, than merely to line his own pockets

2. Boaz Marries Ruth Ruth 4:8

As much as we would like to make this a wonderful romance, it tends to be more a matter of duty

Duty is one of those lost virtues in today’s world, just like lovingkindness & faithfulness are

Boaz saw his duty - to do his duty - as his commitment to His God

Doing your duty is to him, a matter of faith & virtue

Let us not see duty as boring & devoid of relational overtones

Duty is involved in how you relate to God - it was certainly what moved God as we see the rewards from Him come to Boaz, Ruth & Naomi

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Q.

What are we to make of marriage to a Moabitess?

In the law it states that Israelite men must not marry foreign women

When Ezra announced the reforms to Israel when they finally returned to the Holy land after being in exile for 70 yr in Babylons, they decided to get really serious with God

It was a radical time & a radical move towards a growing hardlined, law-based, practise

Part of those reforms were to put away the foreign women & their children whom they had married in defiance of the Law

There are students of the Bible who have agreed & disagreed with what Ezra and the community had done

In agreeing with it, they would say that it is the proper approach of the law & the only way to get back to a holy community

Those students/commentators who oppose what Ezra said to do, would say that no where did God command for it to be done

They point out that a close contemporary, the prophet Malachi, stated: “I hate divorce, says the Lord, the God of Israel”

However, that was talking about marriage in general & not about marriages that were formed in disobedience to His law - so I’m not sure we can put too much weight on that