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To get us thinking tonight I want you to discuss this dilemma in pairs.
A friend from church confides in you that they as a family have no money, in fact they have been
living off credit cards and they have now built up a significant debt. Their other half won’t
approach anyone for help because they don’t want to be seen as a failure. But they have no money
to pay their bills. What do you say/do and why?
a. Just listen and nod encouragingly in the right place after all a listening ear is what they need.
b. Listen and encourage them to go as a couple to get help.
c. Talk to them and encourage them to get help but then follow it up by anonymously posting some
money through their door.
d. Talk to them, and offer to go with them to see their spouse and the church leadership. Follow
that up by continuing to provide support and care when needed.
Some decisions we make are easy aren’t they, some are more difficult, some are simple right/wrong decisions others offer choices between wrong, good, better and best. At the end of Ruth 3 there is just such a choice for Boaz, between what is good and what is best.
God honours those who honour him.
What is the big question as chapter 4 opens? Will Boaz get to redeem Ruth?
Boaz in the book of Ruth is a man of standing, of integrity and faith. One of his stand out characteristics is his ‘hesed’ love - his loving faithfulness, grace and mercy which goes beyond the requirements of duty, here in chapter 4 we see yet more evidence of it.
I wonder what advice an agony aunt would give Boaz? Here is Ruth, a beautiful younger woman who has shown her integrity and shares his faith, and she has proposed. He wants to marry her - seen in his hurrying down to the town gate to resolve the issue - and it is an act of self sacrifice and love. It seems a match made in heaven. I guess the agony aunt would be saying just marry her - don’t bother going to the town gate just elope at the end of chapter 3.
But Boaz’ love for God is seen in his obedience to and going beyond the letter of the law. It’s seen in chapter 2 as he not only obeys the law allowing Ruth to glean but abundantly provides for and protects her. It’s seen in chapter 3 in his response to Ruth’s proposal and here in his doing the right thing even when it may not mean he gets what he wants.
Boaz will do the godly thing not just the good thing. If he just married Ruth it would be a good thing - it would secure her future and Naomi’s - but Boaz will do the godly thing. And so (1-4) he greets the closer kinsman redeemer and explains the situation to him, giving him opportunity to do what Boaz longs to do.
Boaz stands like a light in the moral darkness of the time of the judges, at a time when every one did as he saw fit Boaz will do what honours God. Boaz proposes that this kinsman buys Naomi’s land and adds it to his own. A simple takeover, just another acquisition for a wealthy man, and the kinsman is more than happy to accept that, you can almost see the £ signs in his eyes.
But then Boaz throws a spanner into the works. 'Ah great well done, oh yes and there’s a special deal with this piece of land, two for the price of one deal, you get the land and the lass.' You can see the pound signs dissolve.
Because by acquiring the widow with the land this kinsman’s duty is to have children for Ruth’s dead husband, to carry on the family line. So if he buys the land and marries the widow, and they have a son, that son is counted as Mahlon’s heir and the land reverts to him as his inheritance.
You can see this man squirming can’t you? ‘Ah... erm... I can’t do that. It’s too risky, I might lose the money I paid for the land, and it certainly wouldn’t be any good as an investment to make my retirement more comfortable. There is no way my accountant would approve of that and my portfolio manager would have a heart attack. No I can’t do it. Erm... I know why don’t you.’
The author of Ruth has shown a significant interest in people’s names; Elimelech, Mahlon, Kilion, Naomi, Ruth, Orpah, Boaz are all introduced by name and each has a meaning, even in this chapter we are told the babies name. But how is this pivotal figure is introduced? "the kinsman redeemer, he had mentioned" as so and so.
Do you see the sense of irony in the man’s statement "I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate." I can’t do this my family might become bankrupt. He is so concerned to preserve his estate, place and name and yet it is Boaz who will follow the spirit of the law and redeem at significant cost whose name will be preserved by God. I wonder if the man’s anonymity is a subtle means of judgement on him for his failure to act according to loving kindness.
God honours those who honour him. So Boaz secures salvation for Ruth in marriage by buying the land of Elimelech but also in continuing the line of Mahlon. And Boaz’ name is remembered.
God fills the empty
1:20-21 how did Naomi describe herself? Bitter and empty. In chapter 1 she is uncertain of her
faith and about the character of God, and faces a bleak future. But we have seen God’s grace and
mercy in filling her emptiness, in every chapter there has been provision and filling, a foretaste
of chapter 4’s final provision.
Even at the darkest point of ch1 Ruth is at Naomi’s side she is not empty, but God has provided a means of provision. In ch2 Ruth returns with God’s provision through Boaz of abundant gleanings and Naomi’s faith is reawakened. In ch3:17 Ruth is sent back to empty Naomi, but must not go back empty-handed. And now (13-16)we see white haired Naomi’s frown lines turned to joy as she gazes down at her future secured and a family line redeemed. Because God has enabled Ruth who was barren for 10 years with Mahlon to conceive and give birth to a son, a son who is a redeemer, bringing renewal and sustaining life.
The questions of chapter 1; what on earth is God doing? Does he care? Does he see? Is he kind? Is he loving? Can he provide? Are all answered. God provides, he is in the business of filling the empty.
It is not an instant filling but it is a filling worth waiting for. And it is not a one off. As the book closes this genealogy points the way to Gods provision of rescue for his people, a provision that sees a son of David - Jesus rescue and redeem at cost to himself.
God works through the enduring faithfulness of his people who live with him as king.
As we look back on Ruth I wonder what has struck you about the way God works? God works through
Ruth - a Moabitess who having counted the cost and leaving everything she knows behind puts her
faith in God, takes him at his word and lives by that faith. God works through Boaz a man of
standing who lives by faith, obeying not just the letter of the law but embodying the steadfast
love and grace of God as he goes beyond it.
God takes the ordinarily faithful actions of his people and wonderfully works them into his plan of salvation. In the time of the judges God is working out his purposes not just through the great deliverers that he raises up but through the enduring faithfulness and steadfast love of ordinary people in a backwater town.
As Ruth closes we see this narrative for what it is, it is not a romantic comedy, its not another episode of a family soap opera but God displaying his loving faithfulness and working out his plan of salvation. God saving Naomi through the actions of those who enact their faith and God’s character, but in the process God is working out his plan of salvation that sees David come to the throne and Jesus being born of his line and all through the ordinary faithfulness of his people who live with him as their king.
'Jesus life in terms of physical descent was linked to the story of a Moabite girl gleaning in a barley field miles from home, to a caring mother in law and a loving kinsman, to a night time conversation at a threshing floor, to the willingness of a wealthy farmer to go beyond the requirements of the law in his care for her. In short it is in the ordinariness of ordinary people that God is working his purpose out.'
Isn’t that encouraging for us as we seek to live ordinary lives faithfully living for God with Jesus as our King. As his redeemed people we are part of his purposes and plans and he takes our everyday acts of faithfulness and works them into his purposes for his glory.