Ruth No. 2 boaz shades of the Saviour

I'm always somewhat reluctant to engage in what some Bible commentators refer to as typology. That really means seeing exactly the person of our Lord Jesus in the Old Testament. I think that it's overdone, this whole approach, in some books, and has little biblical justification.

But there is, nonetheless, a real sense in which the Old Testament sometimes illustrates, in a fleeting fashion, the noble character of our Lord Jesus. There are flashes of light in the Old Testament which help to define, help to map out, the relationship that there is to exist between the Lord Jesus and His Church. In other words, the Lord Jesus and you and me.

And it seems to me that we have one of those lovely illustrations here in the opening verses of the second chapter of Ruth. Here is a woman who is very, very much in need, Ruth the Morbitus, and she comes back to Bethlehem in the company, you recall from last week, of her mother-in-law, Naomi. And she discovers in Bethlehem that there is there a relative of whom she has heard nothing.

A relative of hers only by marriage, who has the name of Boaz. So, let's have him very much in mind. This rather, as I said in my prayer, this rather, in my earlier reading, this rather remarkable man in the Old Testament, Boaz.

You meet him, first of all, in the opening verse. He's a man who, according to the authorized version, is a mighty man of valor, a man of wealth. The NIV gives us a man of standing, probably one of the judges, possibly a man with great military prowess, a man who has authority, a land owner.

For it appears later on, as you read into this chapter, that not only does he own certain tracts of the land around Bethlehem, but he commands a labor force. In other words, Ruth is introduced to one of the most significant people that live in Bethlehem at that time, Boaz. His name means, in God is strength, or God is my strength.

Strangely enough, those of you who are very conversant with the details of the Old Testament, you'll recall that two of the main pillars that are visible as you entered into the temple had names, and one of them was called Boaz. In one sense, you could say then that Boaz was, in many, many ways, a pillar, a pillar of respectability, a pillar of spirituality, a powerful man, a gracious man, a generous man. And so it's this relative, this unknown relative, that Ruth is to meet.

We're told in the second verse, Ruth the Moabitess asks Naomi, let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor. Now, she reminds me, does this lovely lady Ruth of the woman in the New Testament, you remember, who couldn't bid and who didn't want to beg. Well, she doesn't want to beg.

She wants to go and to get some food for herself and for her mother-in-law, and she does so by using a regulation in the Old Testament, in the book of Leviticus, which tells us that the fields were always to be left for those who were poor to glean. In other words, this wasn't a grace and favor thing that Ruth was after at this point. It was part of the law.

In those days, there was concern, as there is today for older friends, for widows, for those who were poverty-stricken, and they had the right, the right by divine law to go to the fields to glean by the borders. And so, Ruth asks Naomi for permission to do this. Let us, let me go to the fields and let's pick up the leftover grain.

Now, this man Boaz, in one sense you could say, could you not, that he's the lord of the harvest. You say, well, that's rather an extravagant claim. We see what you're getting at because the Lord Jesus, in Matthew's Gospel chapter 9 and verse 37, refers to himself in that capacity.

And in John 4, you remember at the end of the incident where he's been dealing with the woman at Sychar's well, which we'll touch on again in a moment or two's time, he speaks to his disciples and he says, the fields are white unto harvest. And here in Matthew's Gospel, as I say, he uses the expression the lord of the harvest. Now, in a very real sense, in a very literal sense, this was Boaz's function, if you please, in Bethlehem for the reasons that I've just given you.

A very great man, a powerful man, a land owner, and he is controlling the larger part of the harvest around the fields of Bethlehem. And so, it's to the lord of the harvest that Ruth goes unwittingly as she uses what is her right as a poor person to glean from the borders of the field. But notice how she puts the request to Naomi.

Let me pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor. Now, we've been talking a lot this morning in the lovely time around the Lord's table, led by my good brother John Hanson. He set the tone of our thinking by bringing out the word grace, the grace of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus.

What is grace? It's unmerited favor, something that you're given that you don't deserve, at least that you have no real right to. And here Ruth is speaking of going into the fields to meet someone who she doesn't know and possibly she might find favor in his eyes. Have you not as a Christian found favor in the eyes of God? Have you not been brought into the company of our Boaz, the lord of the harvest, who's taken notice of you? So, Naomi agrees and she says there at the end of the second verse, going on into the third, go ahead my daughter, go ahead.

So, she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. Now, here is where the N-I-V becomes anemic and the A-I-A-V is much better, though it uses an old-fashioned word. The N-I-V says, has it turned out? The A-V puts it something like this, her hap was.

Have you ever thought about your hap? You say you didn't even know you got a hap. H-A-P, hap, shortened for happening. Certain things happened, certain things turned out for her in the most remarkable way.

She's gone to find grace and she discovers at the human level by chance, at the divine level, for God is in on this. See, the problem with you folk is that you know the tail end of the story. If you were new to this, then you'd really be on the tiptoe of expectancy, wondering just what was going to happen.

Well, it turned out, coincidentally, her hap was. Divine sovereignty intervenes and she finds herself working in a field belonging to Boaz. Blinded and alone, I stand with unknown thresholds on each hand.

The darkness deepens as I grope, afraid to fear, afraid to hope, yet this I think, I learn to know, each day made surely as I go, that doors are opened, ways are made, burdens are lifted or burdens laid by some great law unseen and still, unfathomed purpose to fulfill, not as I will. The poet grasps the intervention of God in the affairs of ordinary folk like you and me, like Ruth here. So, Shakespeare, there's a divinity that shapes out and rough-hues our lives as they will.

There's a divinity that shapes our end, rough-hue them as we will. Her hap was. She moved into the fields of Boaz.

As the hap was, if you please, of Eliezer, the servant of Abraham. You remember, he went to fetch a wife, to get a wife for his master's son. What a job! His hap was, as he watered his camels, that the first woman to come to that watering spot was Rebecca.

Oh, what an amazing coincidence! She is going to be the one that will marry Abraham's son. It just happened on the human level. Or did it? Here is our Lord Jesus.

Now, He must go to Galilee, but He must go through Samaria. Why? Well, you see, there's a woman sitting by Jacob's well, and her hap was to be there at the time when Jesus was there. It's amazing what happens when the Lord is in control of our circumstances, is it not? But, you see, our lives are conditioned in many degrees by the sovereign will of our Lord.

And so, Ruth sets out for the fields. And as it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech. Just then, that's what it says, isn't it? Just then, Boaz arrived.

Another coincidence? Just then, Boaz arrived. Another coincidence? No, of course not, because God is involved in this, you see. He wants Boaz and Ruth to meet up, the one with the other.

And as He comes into the field, He greets the harvesters. The Lord be with you, He says. Isn't that amazing? Imagine the managing director, shall we say, of Ford's going in at Dagenham.

The Lord be with you, and they all stand up and say, the Lord be with you too. Imagine Arthur Scargill saying that to the miners. Let's not read too much into it, however, because goodbye really means God be with you.

I'm sure Mr. Scargill says that, and whoever is the management at Dagenham's. See, sometimes we can use our expressions of greeting or farewell without realizing that they have a religious basis. Goodbye, God be with you.

Well, I dare to suggest that Boaz here is much more concerned to get across a divine greeting than we are today as we use these lovely religious expressions. The Lord bless you, they called back. And Boaz, who happens to be there just as Ruth happens to have spent some hours in the fields that he controls, he asks the foreman of his harvesters, whose young woman is that? You see, there's never a seeking soul that comes into the fields of grace that God does not espy.

I'd really like that to be one of the last things that stays in your minds as ever you reflect upon the tabernacle ministry here, that at least somebody taught you that in the estimate of God, you are important, you have intrinsic value. Do you remember, I think it's rather funny, Joseph's brothers come down to Egypt and Joseph espies them. That's a lovely word from the A.V. He espies them.

He knows that they are there. He's in on the secret. They're not.

They don't know who he is, but he's got his eye on them. Boaz has his eye on this Moabites. Ruth is called five times a Moabites in this book, underlining the fact that she's not part of the Jewish race, but God, through Boaz, his servant, has his eyes upon her.

There is an eye, says the scriptures, or rather says one of the hymn writers, that never sleeps. God keeps his eye upon you, the great shepherd of the human flock, who sleeps neither by day nor by night. He has, has Boaz, his eyes upon this Moabites Ruth.

And so he puts the question, whose young woman is that? Verse five. And he gets the answer. Although it does seem as though he's got some information, maybe by intuition or divine revelation, I don't know, in addition to what the foreman gives.

She is the Moabites who came back from Moab with Naomi. She's the Moabites. Now, how does he immediately greet her? Now remember, you've got here strength encountering weakness, because he's strong.

Boaz means that. You remember, Ruth, she's a weak widow woman. You have riches encountering poverty, because he seems to control a great deal of the affairs of Bethlehem, and she's so poor that she has to go and glean.

Incidentally, when the Lord Jesus encountered you, what were you like? Were you one of the noble of this world? One of the great intellectuals? I mean, he has encountered people like that. There have been, but they tend to be somewhat exceptional. Indeed, the apostle, when he does a sort of membership run-through of those who've clocked in the church of Corinth, says that not many mighty were chosen, not many powerful.

Rather, God chose the humble things of this world, so that he might confound the things that are mighty, so that people might stagger when they see what God uses as a foundation to build on. Now, it's amazing what God can build upon a low foundation. And when Ruth encounters Boaz, she sinks on her knees.

She prostrates herself. But on that flimsy foundation of feminine testimony, God will build into the pedigree of Jesus Christ none other than Ruth. It's amazing what God can build on a foundation that's flimsy, or seemingly so, a foundation that is low, as Ruth kneels in the presence of Boaz.

He's given the intelligence. She came with Naomi. Maybe Boaz thinks that she, in some ways, resembles Abraham.

You remember Abraham? He set out not knowing where he was going. You ever done that yourself? In life? A bundle of circumstances. You don't know where you're going, but your hat was.

You landed up in Canaan. That was Abraham, wasn't it? So Ruth sets out with Naomi, not knowing where she's going, but believing that she ought to be in the company of her mother-in-law. This is her hat.

It's all coincidental, or so it seems, at the human level. But when Boaz has information as to Ruth's presence in her fields, in his fields, possibly he thinks in terms of Abraham. And he admires Ruth.

He admires her. The name Naomi has been mentioned. He knows that he's a relative of Naomi.

He also knows certain responsibilities that he, as a Hebrew relative, has for this elderly woman, and, as a knock-on consequence, the responsibilities that he has to her daughter-in-law. So Boaz says to Ruth, verse 8, my daughter, isn't that tender? How do you greet your friends? I'm not being sentimental here. Words themselves can easily trip out of the mouth, and so I'm not asking for superficial words.

But how do you treat the brothers and sisters in Christ? Do you appreciate the depths of relationships that are there to be discovered? The responsibilities that are ours, one for the other, never exploit a relationship. It's a tragedy of the Christian church that sometimes relationships within it can be exploited. Boaz is not a man like that.

Boaz says to Ruth, my daughter, listen to me, the way that Jesus once said to you, listen to me. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Now Ruth was in that condition.

You see, the thing that makes me so interested in Ruth is that when I think of the great Lord of the harvest, he weeps over Jerusalem. Do you recall that? Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who storm the prophets, you who despise all whom God sends to you. How often would I have gathered you under my wings as a hen gathers her chicks, but you wouldn't.

You wouldn't, but Ruth would. Ruth's a Moabite as she would. The Jews by and large have rejected Jesus Christ, but there are Ruths in my congregation.

I use that word in a bisexual fashion. There are Ruths in my congregation who have responded through the ministry of Boaz, who recognize who the Lord of the harvest is. And so he speaks, don't go and glean in another field.

Don't go away from here. See, once you've gone into the fields of grace, there's nowhere else to glean. The devil will come along.

He'll try and shift you from where you are, but the command of our Boaz is, don't go and glean in another field. Don't go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls.

There are others in the fields of grace, you see. We're back again with the church in mind. Thank God for the corporate nature of the church, the communion of the saints, the brothers and the sisters who together glean in the fields of grace.

Stay here, my friend. There's food nowhere else. The Lord of the harvest, he controls what is good for you in this field.

There is nowhere else that you can find what you require. And so he ministers to Ruth. He ministers to you and to me.

Watch the field where the men are harvesting. Follow after the girls. I've told the men not to touch you.

You see, there's safety in these fields. There's safety in the company of Jesus. When Jesus is in attendance, when his eyes are upon his workers, you can rest and relax and leave everything to him.

That's why he uttered that invitation, come unto me, all those of you who like Ruth. I'll give you grain, but I'll not only give you grain, but look at the last part of verse 9. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled. Bethlehem was famous for a well.

You remember the well of David? Well, not so much the well of David, but the well that David wanted water from. Do you recall that incident in the book of Kings, reproduced in the book of Chronicles? No, you see, it's a fag, isn't it? If you are a lady working in the fields, just as one of the poor whose rights are defined by the book of Leviticus, you're in problem when you need a drink. All the way back to the well, what a fag.

But you see this, this boa says to Ruth, when you're thirsty, my men have already drawn water from the wells and it's available for you. Oh, every one that thirsteth, let him come to the waters. And drink freely.

Isn't that what Jesus says? I am the water of life. If any man thirst, let him come unto me. And whosoever will, says the book of Revelation, let him come and let him drink.

For our boas has made this provision available for you and for me. Not only food, but drink. All that we need, the stuff of life and the water of life.

And it's there in the fields of grace, where you are to glean. Don't go anywhere else. Now, how does she respond to such love, such exquisite, tender love? She bows down her face to the ground.

Verse 10, she explains, why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me a foreigner? I'll tell you this, and there's no attempt at piety. There's hardly an occasion on a Sunday that goes by when words like that don't enter my mind as I come around the Lord's table. I take the bread and I take the wine.

Now, there are many things in my Christian life that I've done that I'm ashamed of. Many have been the occasions when I have left undone the things I ought to have done and done the things I ought not to have done. But of this I can claim, not proudly, but by God's grace.

I've never lost my faith in the Lord. I've never lost my sense of wonder that he chose me. He loved me.

He gave himself for me. This is the incalculable thing, you see, that I don't understand, the dimensions of his love. I can understand God saving you, but I find it impossible to understand God saving me.

Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me a foreigner? Boaz says, well, I've been told all about what you've done for your mum-in-law since the death of your husband and so on and so forth. He's impressed, you see, by the fidelity of Ruth to Naomi, but he re-reads it at a deeper level. He sees it not only in terms of faithfulness to her mother-in-law, but the transference of her beliefs to the Jehovah, the almighty God of Israel.

This is what has happened to you, Ruth. You have come to trust in God himself, our God, and so he gives the choicest benediction. May the Lord repay you for what you have done.

May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. Isn't that marvelous? Did you sleep well last night? Do you have one of these continental quilts? We got converted to that about three years ago. Took a little bit of ingenuity to finish up later on in the night with a quilt still on you, but I made it.

Isn't it nice on these cold nights just to snuggle under? You know in the temple they had cherubim. Those are sort of angelic figures, sort of at the top of the degree, the real top brass were the cherubim. Well they weren't brass, they were gold actually in the temple, running away with my metaphor.

And these sort of hovered over, this is how they were carved, they hovered over the Ark of the Covenant where God was, at least that's where God would sometimes realize his presence on earth. And this is really what gives birth to the analogy of hiding yourself under the shadow of the Almighty or developed here in Ruth, coming under the wings of the God of Israel. How often would I have gathered you under my wings as a hen gathers her chicks, I would that you wouldn't.

You ever seen a little chick afraid to go under the feathery dow of mother hen? Of course not. You see in the summer it's the best place because it becomes a canopy preserving her or the other chick from the heat of the day. In the winter it preserves her from the piercing chill of the night.

Now this is what Ruth has done, isn't it marvelous? She's come under the wings of the God of Israel. Boaz realizes this and he's so very grateful that he sees the faith that there is in this woman. And so he gives her this great benediction, may you be richly rewarded by the Lord.

And she who set out at the beginning of the day to find grace, she asks for more. Verse 13, may I continue to find favor in your eyes my Lord. You have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant, though I do not have the standing of one of your servant girls.

I'm gonna have to try and wind up here. I've got a lot more to share but it'll do for next week. You see she's back again in the same position as I took you to a moment or so ago.

She's overwhelmed by the sense of the of the kindness of Boaz to her. As you and I are overwhelmed are we not by the sense of the kindness of God. Do you remember what I said? I can understand God loving you.

I really do mean that, I'm not saying that for effect. But I find it hard to understand him loving me. You see I know myself.

It's taken a long time to know myself but I do know myself in degree. All the bundles of contradictions that are there, all the idiosyncrasies, all the things that you never see, I know. And that he still loves me I find to be very difficult to comprehend.

And so she says here, Ruth as she's addressing Boaz, I do not have the standing of one of your servant girls. Lord what standing do I have in your sight? Do you ever ask yourself that of God? Behold now are we the sons of God. That does not appear what we shall be.

But when he shall appear we shall be like him and we shall see him as he is. Isn't that remarkable? I'm breaking off. This is a most disjointed address.

I've lost the homiletics because I got so involved in the story I forgot to keep looking across this part of my lectern. But if you can go away from this church this morning with a realization that all that Boaz anticipates is fleshed out in marvellous fashion by the Lord Jesus then you'll guard a richer person. And if you can see in some degree Ruth in your own circumstances a moabitess.

Nothing in the purposes of God at the theological level or so it would seem she wasn't one of the stock of Abraham was she? Yet her hat was. The way it turned out. All so very fortunate, all so very lucky.

That's the way you're here this morning. Very lucky that you're here you see. That's how the worldling might refer to this particular day in your calendar.

But God doesn't refer to it like that. Or the first time that you came into the tab or a similar church and you heard the gospel preached. It wasn't just coincidence.

Your hat turned out like that because God is like this. He has a concern for Ruth and he wants to introduce Ruth to Boaz. Though Ruth's got very little in terms of a dowry to bring.

He loves her and eventually because you know the end of the story so I'm not spoiling it he marries her. So Jesus loves you and me and he makes us part of his bride, his church. Not because of what we brought, not because of what we were, but because of what he has enriched us with and caused us to be by his grace.

Oh how marvellous are the ways of God. Past finding out this divine mercy, this abundant grace my friend. It's yours and it's mine.

Then let's thank our great God our Jehovah for his dealings with us. Let's do so as we sing our final hymn. 406.

Through all the changing scenes of life in trouble and in joy. Verse four is sublime. Oh make but trial of his love.

Experience will decide how blessed are they and only they who in his truth confide. 406.