Ruth No.3 Ruth and Boaz

The second chapter of the book of this very, very lovely story, basically of two women. One a Jew, the other a foreigner. One old, and the other in the prime of life.

Ever thought of the word Ruth? I wonder. You see, last Sunday, though I ran out of time and was not able to give you all that I had intended to, one thing that I think was coming through was that the sterling qualities that are wrapped up in this lovely lady who gives her name to this book. But I said in the process of my remarks that in one sense I believe that everyone in the tabernacle represented Ruth.

In other words, this is what we want to be, in some respects, something of a personality, something of a nature, something of a daring faith. That's what we want to reproduce. And Ruth has given a word to our English vocabulary.

Have you thought of this? It's a negative word. I mean by that that we can judge our lives by what we don't have that resembles Ruth. I'm referring to the word ruthless.

Are you ruthless? Less than Ruth. Now that's not what the less than Ruth, but rather to have certain of the dispositions of Ruth reflected in our own personalities. That's the reason why it's good, you see, for us to look at biblical characters, because they're fleshed out for us, are sterling examples of people that we should endeavor to be.

But of course we want to go on from Ruth to become more like our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what did we say of Ruth? Well, what we might say of you and me, if we were quoting from Hebrews 4 and verse 16, she went out to find grace in her hour of need. Now that's what the Bible offers you and me.

It encourages us to do this. Here we've come together on a Sunday morning. Why are we together here? Well, we want to find grace.

We want to find help. We want to find spiritual energies granted to us by the Lord God. We want to have our visions refocused.

We want a greater understanding of his will. We want a dynamic to be able to perform what we've come to grasp as being God's purposes for us. And so here is this lady who starts out in the second verse.

We read, with the desire one morning to find grace in the eyes of somebody. You remember the tale? She and Naomi were back in Bethlehem. They had no money.

They had insufficient food, and so they used the regulations of those days as Ruth went out to the field around Bethlehem to glean, to take over the leftover of the grain, hoping that she might find favor, the end of verse two, in the eyes of someone. Well, she did, didn't she? She found favor in the eyes of Boaz. And if Ruth resembles what you and I want to be in some senses, I put that in qualifications, at least I underline it by the information in my voice.

In some senses, Boaz speaks to us a little of our Lord Jesus. So she encounters Boaz, and Boaz indicates that he's had his eye on her for some while, and he's grateful for what she's done for Naomi, his fellow Bethlehemite. And she has not only shown faithfulness to Naomi, but Boaz, with perception, tells us in the 12th verse, he appreciates that she has moved a religious commitment from the pagan gods of Moab to the true God of Israel.

And so he gives her this benediction, may you be richly rewarded, verse 12, may you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. Now, my friends, does not that refer to you? You've come to take refuge under the great wings of our Lord Jesus. That's what he offered the children or the citizens of Jerusalem, you remember? How often would I have gathered you as under my wings as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not.

So you set off in your Christian journey, you wanted to find grace, and having found the grace of salvation, you wanted more grace. You see, you have a right to be greedy for the grace of God. You have a right to be greedy for the grace of God.

Thus verse 13, may I continue to find favor in your eyes, my Lord. You see, it's the nature of our God to be generous. John's Gospel chapter 1 will make reference to the grace of God.

Of his fullness have we all received, and grace upon grace, or blessing upon blessing. What God offers you and me as Christians is a continued blessing upon our souls, amazing grace. No wonder John Newton was staggered.

All you see here is Ruth, and she's found favor in the sight of Boaz, and she wants to find more grace. 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. And so you and I, we appreciate the incredible grace of our God.

He loved me. Do you remember me bringing this out last week? He loved me, and he gave himself for me. Do you understand that? Do you understand why God incarnate in Jesus Christ should want a relationship with you? It's amazing, is it not? But that's the nature of his grace.

And so going back to the story of Ruth, what do we discover? Well, verse 14, at mealtime the grace that Boaz has already profited increases. As he calls her to come to the very spot in the field where he and his servants are. Come over here, have some bread, and dip it in the wine vinegar.

Now that's the clarion call which is reacted by our Lord Jesus as he says, come unto me. You see, it's incredible for a Jew to invite a Moabites, a man to invite a woman in those days to have a meal. And it was incredible that Jesus should seek out the likes of Zacchaeus and say, I'm coming to your house.

Or attend in the homes of those who were known as being profligate and sinners. Indeed, it was said of him, this man receiveth sinners and eateth, eats with them. A comment of derision on earth, but a wonder in heaven.

This is what the Lord Jesus does. He doesn't call those who you would expect to come. He calls those who you wouldn't expect to come like this Moabites, like you, like me.

And he bids us come and dine. So Boaz reassures Ruth that she can sit at his table. He'll even proffer her from his own hand some of the roasted corn.

She who stood in his presence is told to sit. As later on and as the centuries roll by, our Lord Jesus will have 5,000 people plus womenfolk who all need to be fed. And the first thing he tells his disciples is sit them down.

And then he gets a handful of loaves, you remember? And fishes. And he distributes them to the disciples and there's divine multiplication as they take that refreshment from hand to hand and the crowds are satisfied. Boaz offers Ruth grace upon grace as our Lord Jesus does.

Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar. While when she sat down with the harvesters he offered her some roasted corn. She ate all she wanted and had something left over.

I am mindful that when the 5,000 were in the company of the Lord Jesus, they didn't just have sufficient. They had what some will call today an eloquent sufficiency. There were baskets full left over.

This is the generosity of Jesus, Boaz. Always concerned to meet our needs and to meet more than our actual requirements. But the grace of this Boaz is not exhausted.

For verse 15, as she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men. Even if she gathers among the sheaves, don't embarrass her. Rather pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up.

Don't rebuke her. You see, in this field of grace where Ruth is to glean, there's no territory that's prohibited to her. You see, Boaz has spoken.

He receives her not as a Moabitess, not as a stranger, but as one of his own. That's why she comes into his immediate presence and dines with him. And as a result of this, the whole field is open.

There are no signs trespassers will be prosecuted. And in the field of grace, my friend, you and I, who've come in contact with our Lord Jesus, are invited to glean where we will. For within this book, there is much for us to digest and benefit from.

You see, of our Lord Jesus, it might well be said, his power has no limit. His love has no measure. His grace has no boundary known unto men.

For out of his infinite riches in glory, he giveth and giveth again and again. This is a glory of the Christian gospel. Anticipated here with this delightful story, the interaction of Ruth and Boaz fleshed out and made absolute in our Lord Jesus Christ and the love that he directs towards you and to me.

So he gives her, does Boaz, he gives Ruth permission to go through the whole of the field wherever she wants and there to glean. And he tells his men, drop some on purpose for her and don't rebuke her. The mothers of Salem are disabused by our Lord Jesus.

They want to prevent him from coming to prevent them from coming to him. But our Lord says, none of this, let them come. You see, he's ever open for those who are humble and lowly of heart, whether it's mothers of Salem or whether it's Ruth the Morbitess or whether it's some widow woman in Worthing or some man who's out of sorts, who needs the companionship and the help of the Lord Jesus.

Don't rebuke her. Drop handfuls of grain for her. Isn't this the incredible thing about God? You see, he doesn't just deal with you and me on a mass production principle.

You see, there are handfuls of grain that he has just for you. I mean, you must admit that this is a valid point from the whole of the story of Ruth and Naomi. Why is it included in Scripture? Well, because God has in his providential care the great sweeps of history.

I mean, that's obvious from the Old Testament, isn't it? You find the emergence of one empire and another empire. Some great people come across the pages of Scripture. But God, in his infinite concern, has recorded within the Old Testament this slender little book that bears the name of Ruth to tell you and me that God is not only concerned in the mass movements of population, he has an interest in ordinary people like Ruth and Naomi.

Handfuls of grain. Jesus is raised from the dead. He speaks to a couple of women.

He gives them a message, go to my disciples and tell Peter. A special handful of grain for Peter, because he's in special need. Have I got someone here like this today? You need a special handful of grain from the Lord.

Some anxious parents, so concerned that your teenage kids are not quite developing in the way that you want. Your anxiety is legitimate in degree, but there are certain things that you have to leave at the feet of the Lord Jesus, who called you into the priestly ministry of being a parent, and has granted that he will help you in the discharge of your office. Some older person who's harassed by the thought of death.

Never mock anyone like that. One day the thought will drip you. One day it will be an immediate thing.

Now, there's a handful of grain for such. In my father's house are many mine students. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.

What do you do with your best spring blooms in the garden? At times you'll pluck one and bring it into the home, and don't you see that the great Father God does that? The garden is on earth, and the blooms are his children, and there are times when he will stoop down and pluck one and bring it into his house. You're concerned because of an operation in front of you. Some sickness is into your system, and you're really in trouble over this nervous apoplexy.

Don't you appreciate, my friend, that your times are in his hands? He inspects every tomorrow before it comes to you. You see, he's the God of Ruth. He's the God of Naomi.

Naomi comes from Moab. She's so bitter in her soul. Mara, why? Well, not because she doubts the existence of God.

She doubts God's good will. Do you ever like that? I never have a problem with atheism. To me, atheism is absurd, intellectual, but I do sometimes have a problem in understanding the mysterious ways of God.

Now here is Ruth and Naomi, and God has special handfuls of grain for these two of his children, both literally and also spiritually. So Ruth continues, verse 17, continues gleaning in the field until evening. It's been a good day.

You ever had days like that? But even the best of days come to an end, don't they? And at the end of the day, how do you find Ruth? Well, she's not weary in well-doing. You remember that little expression from the Authorized Version of the New Testament? Weary in well-doing, having difficulty as an evangelical continuing, you know, flagging. So you've done a five-mile run.

At the end of the day, you're absolutely bereft of all energy. But Ruth's not like that, not on this occasion. At the end of the day, when evening's come, verse 17, midway through the verse, then she threshed the barley she had gathered.

And you know, my dear friends, if you forget everything else I shared this morning, I want this word to be for you, because I believe it's prophetic to our congregation, and I measure my terms in using that word prophetic. So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening, then she threshed the barley she had gathered. You see, there are many people who come to church who never do what Ruth did on this occasion.

She's got the stalks of barley, and in as much as they're in her possession, she's better off than she was at the beginning of the day. But that's not the end of the matter. She has to thresh the stalks of barley so she can benefit from the grain.

How many times, go on, forget everyone else, just you and me, more importantly, just you and the Lord. How many times do you spend an hour, an hour and a half with fast on a Sunday, morning or evening, or both, I'm not really bothered, as to what example you take, and you appreciated being here? Or maybe it was some other church that you went to. He was a good preacher, you say? I really enjoyed him.

You know, he spoke with such clarity and with such power. It was a good time, but my friend, did you really benefit? You see, at the end of the day, unless you thresh the barley, then what was the point of going to church? Unless you digested by prayer and meditation what was offered to you, then your situation is as absurd as Esau, who spent a day out in the woods hunting, and when he came back, he blew it all on a bowl of pottage, a bowl of soup, that he took in exchange from Jacob. Do you remember? Do you make what time you invest in attending church on a Sunday that much more profitable by threshing the corn, by threshing the barley, out in the privacy of your own mind later on? Do you know what I'm talking about? But please, just smile or nod your heads or something, because I really do believe this is important, you see.

I'm thrilled that so many people crowd into the tavern. I don't quite know why you all come. I say that quite humbly.

I wouldn't come to hear myself preach, and I say that sincerely, but if in God's grace, somehow, through my words, or Ted Davis, or anyone else who shares this pulpit with me, if somehow the word of God is dropped in front of you, if there are stalks of barley, then I tell you, my friend, you have not benefited just by being here until you take those stalks back home, into the privacy of your own mind, and you thresh the grain. The barley, by prayer and meditation, does you good, you see. Half an hour on your own on a Sunday can be as profitable to you as five hours in the company of people, working through what has been shared.

So Naomi, so Ruth Gleam, verse 17, in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephra. Now that wasn't much, not in terms of the granary of the Lord of the Harvest.

As far as Boaz was concerned, it was utterly insignificant. But as far as Ruth is concerned, and Naomi is concerned, this is more than they have had for many a month. Riches untold about the neatness of grain.

Ah, but dear Ruth, how much I've come to love you. Don't you realize? This is but the first fruit. This is just a little sample.

This is just the beginning of the great wealth that's round the corner for you, the like of which you have never known in your life. It blows your estimation, even if we were to let you into the secret at this point. Those has hardly begun to give, and you've hardly begun to receive.

For out of his infinite riches in glory, he giveth and giveth again and again. I lift the historical incident, and I apply it to the gracious, generous provisions of Almighty God directed toward Ruth like you and me gathered in the sanctuary this morning. And so she goes with her golden grain.

She carries it back to town. Verse 18, like the two on the Emmaus, carried back to Jerusalem the thought that Jesus, the experience that Jesus had been with them. She carries the grain back to town where is her mum-in-law, but before she passes on some of the grain to her mother-in-law, she eats herself.

See, my friend, I can never benefit you in your life unless I've eaten myself. Unless I've imbibed faith from God, I can't become effective in a ministry to anyone else, because most people are not interested in some sort of academic belief. They're more interested in a person who has come to a belief in the risen Christ, and the Lord Jesus' power has so changed their lives that there is something about them that qualifies them to pass on the message of the evangelist.

Do you understand what I mean? That's all the difference in the world, incidentally, between theology and philosophy. You can't be a biblical theologian if you're not experimental. You see, you come, I think one of the reasons why you come and listen to those of us who have the honour of filling this pulpit so regularly is because at least, however ineloquent we may be, you do get the impression that the folks from this pulpit have an experience about which they are talking.

They're not just talking philosophically. It is not a lecture. And so Ruth takes in the grain that she has gained as a result of the generosity of Boaz and her own industry, on the other hand, and ultimately, she gives it to her mum-in-law.

What's left over? Verse 19. Her mother-in-law asked her, where did you glean today? Hey, that's a prophetic question, isn't it? Come on, you folks are not concentrating so well. Actually, you all seem as though you are doing so well.

I'll take that back from the tape. Where did you glean last week? Since last week we were together with Ruth and Naomi and Boaz, where did you glean? You see, it seems to me that that's a perpetual question that we must be asking ourselves every day at the end of the day. Where did I glean today? What did I do today that counted? What new field did I go into, so to speak? What fresh grain did I gain from the Word of God? What did I do for the Lord who says, the field is the world, and changing the metaphor, I have set before you an open door.

Where did you glean? Did you glean at your office desk in fever? Thank God for that. Did you glean as a grocer, looking after your shop, dealing honorably with your clientele? Did you glean as a schoolteacher, in the way that you tried to influence another life, perhaps not directly, but indirectly by your demeanor in the classroom, in the staffroom? Where did you glean today? Oh, Naomi, that's a precious thought. We need to have a re-echo of your question at the end of every day, to make a state stock and to realize that the hours that we spent were a gift from the Lord to be invested as wisely as we would invest money in a bank account.

Where did you glean today? What fresh thing did you discover? How much more like the Lord Jesus are you as a result of the gleaning in which you indulged? Before she can answer and tell Naomi a little about her experiences, Naomi is already blessing the man who has obviously been the benefactor of the Moabites. End of verse 19, blessed be the man who took notice of you. Hey, don't you think, in respect of our Lord Jesus and his interest in our lives, that perhaps there's some Naomi somewhere in heaven who says, blessed is the man who took notice of you.

It is not that I did choose you, Lord, for, Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse you, hadst thou not chosen me. The thing that brings tears to my eyes when I read scripture is the elective love of Jesus Christ, that he chooses me.

I don't understand the mystery of redemption, the mystery of election, but this I believe because I find it in so many areas of the Old and the New Testament, that it is by the grace of our Lord Jesus, the heaped up blessings of Christ, that I am brought into a relationship with God, the Heavenly Father. Blessed, angels hear me, blessed be the man who took notice of me and mark my gratitude for all the unexpected privileges that result from his attention. The Lord bless him.

Ruth told her mother-in-law about one at whose place she'd been working. The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz, she said. And there's old Naomi, can't you see her? Sort of septuagenarian.

I don't know what her age was, but let's say that makes some of us here feel comfortable. A lady in her 60s, a lady in her 70s, a lady maybe in her 80s, and when she hears the name of Boaz, she goes straight down memory lane. Boaz, our relative, Elimelech, the kindness that Elimelech received at the hands of Boaz yesteryear.

That's how you can read, incidentally, the 20th verse. The subject matter may be Boaz, the subject matter may be the Lord. It doesn't really matter which way you take it, you can have a blessing either way.

But the Lord bless him. The Lord bless Boaz, who reminds me of the kindnesses that my husband used to receive. The Lord has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.

He does so by using Boaz to minister to Ruth. Incidentally, here's a handful of grain after all. How do you minister to the dead? You say, here he goes, he's getting into a sort of Catholic dilemma with purgatory.

Not a bit. How do you minister to the dead? You sometimes remember those who used to be with us here in the tap, their great contribution that they made. Don't you appreciate that their families live on? And in ministering to their families, in one sense, you honor their memory.

That this is really what Naomi is saying of Boaz. He's still ministering to my husband by ministering to you. And she narrows it down.

And she says, that man is our close relative. That man is our close relative. And as a result of all that she now has come to appreciate, she starts to correct the faulty theology of the first chapter.

Verse 20, halfway through, the Lord has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead. The Lord has not stopped. He's still concerned for me.

He's still concerned for us. My friend, don't you appreciate that that's always the case? He never stopped showing his kindness, this God. He's the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

He's the God of Elimelech. He's the God of Ruth. He's your God.

He's my God. His compassions never fail. And of our Lord Jesus, it is said, he's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He never leaves off showing his kindness. That man is a close relative. What did Jesus one day, and with this I start to wind up my address.

What did the Lord Jesus one day say to his disciples? Whom do men say that I am? And they got several sort of versions in answer. Some say that you are the prophet, some say that you're Elijah, and so on and so forth. Now for the Lord Jesus to be any of these wouldn't make him personally our Redeemer.

One of the prophets, it's no good to us if the whole ministry of our Lord Jesus is just a prophetic ministry. He has that, but he has more. He's not just a relative.

He's not just a close friend. There is something ultimately unique about the Lord Jesus. And this is what the disciples have to realize.

Who do you say that I am? Lord, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. You are our Redeemer. And this is ultimately what Nemi will come to appreciate, as she's almost teaching on the same word, abusing the same words as Job, who one day said, I know that my Redeemer lives.

So Naomi says, that man is our close relative. He is one of our kinsmen Redeemers. She will ultimately appreciate that he is the only Redeemer who can offer to Ruth and to her what they most need.

Now, isn't it interesting that Naomi's excitement in God has been triggered off by a Moabitess. I believe that the Gentile world owes a legacy to the Jewish world. We owe a debt.

The gospel is to the Jew first, and also to the Gentiles. By and large, the Jews have rejected the gospel. To a much greater degree, the Gentiles have accepted the gospel.

Now, do you see here the prefigurement of the great opening of the eyes of Israel to the truth of the gospel, as it is in Jesus Christ, as Ruth comes to Naomi and tells Naomi about Boaz, and as a result of her having Boaz in mind, her knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures are brought back to the very forefront, as she realizes Moses teaching in Deuteronomy about the kinsmen Redeemer. Oh, my friend, there is much encouragement here for us to be evangelistic in our purposes and to think of those ancient people, the Jews, in the purposes of the Lord. So Naomi tells Ruth what she's already decided in any case, to stay by Boaz, to go back to the fields until harvesting is through, and we read in the 23rd verse an illustration of those who endure to the end shall be saved.

So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvest were finished, and she lived with her mother-in-law. How much of Ruth is there in you? The same tenacity, the same courage to nail your colors to the mass, to acknowledge that the God of Abraham is your God, industry to work in the fields, largeness of heart, having received some grace to ask for more grace, and having realized the blessings to take that blessing to someone else so that in the sovereignty of God it may trigger off a desire in their lives to be restored to the relationship that they used to enjoy with God themselves. Thank God for Ruth.

Thank God for the anticipations of the Lord Jesus that we have in the character of Boaz, and may it be in God's grace that as I've handed out from this pulpit some stalks of grain this morning that you'll be careful enough to gather them up, to take them home, and to thresh them, and benefit by the teaching yourself. Amen.