Introduction
In our home growing up, photographs were often stored in shoeboxes that fit under the bed or up in the closet. Now and then, those boxes would come out, and we would begin our trip down memory lane. Scenes in black and white took me back to my roots, rekindling bygone feelings and reminding me of precious stories. Pictures and the memories they evoke help us to keep our story alive.
In a way, that's what we're doing in this series of messages from the Old Testament. We're thumbing through the biblical pictures of some of the lesser-known people of the Old Testament - common people like us whose choices impacted their time and ours. We KEEP THE STORY ALIVE by gaining Godly wisdom from their experiences that will help us today. Today we open a scrapbook of biblical pictures, this time from the book of Ruth.
In the 85 verses of the book of Ruth we follow one family and a foreign woman named Ruth as they eek out a living during the difficult days of the judges - a time of moral chaos and national instability, described in the last verse of Judges by the frightening words, everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25). The story takes unexpected twists and turns that fire the imagination and soothe the soul.
Ruth is for people who wonder where God is when one tragedy after another pounds their faith. It is for people who wonder whether a life of integrity in tough times is worth it. And it is a story for people who can't imagine that anything great could ever come of their ordinary lives. Walk through this precious story with me.
I. Scene 1: Suffering and Hidden Hope
Chapter 1 is laced with details, so it will take a little longer to journey through than the Old Testamenthers. Ruth 1:1-5 covers over 10 years of time with simple words that state some hard, cold facts for one family:
"In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah."
"They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the Old Testamenther Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband." Ruth 1:1-5 HCSB
Any Jew of the ancient world would have picked up a few things in between the lines that easily escape us in our present-day culture - historical aspects that open windows of insight into the plight of this family.
A. Famine
Every Israelite knew the cause and effect relationship that God had made known between idolatrous worship and the onset of a famine. God had promised to bless them if they obeyed, but if they turned to idols, He promised to shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you (Deut. 11:16-17).
B. Moab
Moab lay about 100 miles north of Jerusalem, and I assure you, it was not listed among the desirable vacation spots for traveling Israelites. It was a pagan land, whose inhabitants worshipped the false god Chemosh, sacrificing their babies to it. God had levied some of His harshest words against the Moabites. Israel was to have nothing to do with them.
So you begin to put the pieces together. Elimelech is trying to avoid consequences of Israel's sin against God, but in doing so, he puts his family in spiritual jeopardy. And sure enough, his two sons soon marry two Moabite women named Orpah and Ruth.
C. Grief
Verses 3-5 are short and full of agony. The three men of Naomi's life die, the finishing stroke on a decade that had included for Naomi driving hunger, the upheaval of her life as she departed from her homeland, cutting all familiar ties, and adjustments to a strange and God-rejecting culture--blow after blow, tragedy upon tragedy. You need to know that in those days, a woman who was alone had nothing. These three widows had absolutely no social status and no economic means to survive. They were essentially equal to the homeless of our society today. This was compounded even more for Naomi, since she was an Israelite living in a foreign country.
So it's no surprise when we read in v. 6-7 that the Lord had visited His people and given them food, Naomi immediately packed up and started for home. And it's no surprise that she urges Orpah and Ruth to stay in their homeland, where there was some hope of marrying again. Naomi painted the future a grim black, holding out nothing to them but widowhood, childlessness, and possible destitution.
Orpah decided to stay and in tears said her goodbyes. But Ruth felt such devotion to her mother-in-law she refused to leave. In one of the most endearing parts of this story, Ruth pledges herself to Naomi with such lasting covenant words that they are frequently spoken in weddings. Verses 16-17 record Ruth's loyal love: "Entreat me not to leave you or to return 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 will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you."
What a gift was Ruth! But Naomi was simply too depressed to let herself feel any comfort. She had no hope of anything good in her future. Numbed by pain, everything that comes out of Naomi's mouth in Chapter 1 reveals just how sunken was her heart. As she enters Bethlehem, the women in town see this haggard woman and ask, Is this Naomi? (v. 19). The name Naomi means "beautiful."
But such a name mocked her now. She answers back in v. 20-21: "Do not call me Naomi ("beautiful"); call me Mara ("bitter"), for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?"
Scene 1 ends in despair and gloom. Convinced that God is against her, Naomi exaggerated her hopelessness so much that she couldn't even see the rays of hope peeking through the clouds. It was God who broke the famine (v. 6) and God who bound Ruth to her. And as we shall soon see, a dawn of rejoicing is about to come! For the children of the Lord, it is always true: weeping may endure for the night, but shout of joy comes in the morning! (Ps. 30:5).
II. Scene 2: Romance and the Grace of God
It covers one 24-hour day in the lives of Naomi and Ruth, and before the sun sets, the tables will have completely turned for them both. They have to wait until day's end to see it, but we get the hint in v. 1! Now Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.
Boaz is the last major character in our story. As this chapter unfolds we learn that Boaz had a reputation as a God-saturated man of character and kindness. He was a man of wealth whose values were governed by God's Word, a fact that is clear in how he treated the poor and how he dealt with his employees. But the thing that put a grin on the faces of the Jewish listeners of that time was that he was related to the now deceased Elimelech, the importance of which will soon become apparent.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves! Back in v. 3 we find a hungry Ruth who goes out to glean with the poor. She had no deliberate plan about which field she would work. She just finds one, rolls up her sleeves and starts gleaning. But what on the surface to her appears to be a wild coincidence, we who are in the know understand as far from a random occurrence. Ruth just happens to find herself in the field of this man Boaz. God was behind this. Luck, good or bad, has nothing whatever to do with Ruth's choice or our lives.
Boaz spots this cute brunette gleaning with the poor and all I can say is, it was love at first sight. He goes out of his way to show her favor: giving secret instructions to his workers to deliberately drop some sheaves for her, feeding her a huge lunch, and loading her down with grain at the end of the day.
When Ruth goes home to Naomi and recounts the details, the lights suddenly click on for Naomi. And when she heard the name of their benefactor was Boaz, her mourning turned to dancing! "May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!" Naomi also said to her, "The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers." (v. 20)
III. Scene 3: Renewed hope and a risky proposal
Chapter 3 will take your breath away and raise your eyebrows! Ruth continues to glean in Boaz's fields until the harvest is over. It was then that Naomi, newborn in her hope in the Lord, comes up with a risky strategy to make a husband out of Boaz. This mother-in-law turned matchmaker knows that Boaz is a kinsman. And she knows that the Mosaic Law, which had a provision to preserve the family name. If a husband died and there was no son to perpetuate the family name, the nearest kin was obligated to marry the widow.
So Naomi counsels Ruth to fix herself up--after all, the only way Boaz had seen her was covered in the dust and sweat of working in his fields. Dress nicely, put on your best perfume, and go to the threshing floor of Boaz. The men would remain with the grain overnight, so watch where he lays down to sleep, but don't let him see you! After he is asleep, sneak up, uncover his feet, and then lie down.
Now all of us, and possibly Ruth included, can't help but wonder aloud, "And just where do you suppose that will lead?" Naomi answer in v. 4, "He will tell you what to do." Sure he will! This is a very strange strategy. If you want to give the relationship a chance, why not a conversation with Boaz instead of this risky midnight maneuver? What if it backfires and Boaz draws the wrong conclusion, which would mar Ruth's reputation and humiliate her?
Nevertheless, we feel the suspense as Ruth plays out Naomi's strategy exactly. When Boaz turns over in the middle of the night and awakens, he discovers this woman lying at his feet and wants to know who she is. Ruth identifies herself and then says in v. 9: "Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer." This was Ruth's subtle way of making a marriage proposal. She humbly says, "There is a family link in the Mosaic Law that you are obligated too. But I want you to know that if you would have me as your wife, I will agree."
There are sweet subplots at work here that I can't go into, but the daring scheme worked. Boaz agrees to marry her, but there is a yet a problem: Boaz knows of a nearer kinsman than he to Elimelech's family.
IV. Scene 4: The sandal exchange and the savior
The next morning, Boaz skillfully presents the situation to the nearer kinsman, and the man gives Boaz his sandal, a symbolic way of saying that the transfer of right was accomplished. And so it was that a foreigner from a condemned country was brought into covenant relationship with God. During one of the darkest times in Israel's history, a most unlikely young lady gives birth to a boy named Obed, who would later father a son named Jesse, who would beget David, the king who would bring Israel back to God and the ancestor to the Messiah, who is So Boaz and Ruth were married, Naomi was cared for the rest of her life. And they had a son named Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David, who was the ancestor to the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
V. Love lessons
I want to conclude this morning by drawing three lessons, or applications, from this loyal love story.
A. Rest in the mighty hand of God
The sovereign hand of God touches everything in this precious book. The great lesson of Ruth is that God is at work in every circumstance. His invisible hand steers us according to His good purposes whether we see it or not. Ruth had gone through some terrible things, but every difficulty, every question, the uncertainty and brokenness became God's way of doing something better than could have happened otherwise. We find the beginning of God's grace when we come to the end of ourselves.
Brother, sister, even when you are completely unaware of what is happening, or even why something is happening, God is guiding your decisions and actions. He is working everything together for your good and His ultimate glory. Our responsibility is to surrender to His sovereignty. The Heidelberg Catechism puts it this way: "I trust Him so much that I do not doubt He will provide whatever I need for body and soul and He will turn to my good whatever adversity He sends me in this sad world. He is able to do this because He is almighty God; He desires to do this because He is a faithful Father."
Have you surrendered yourself to His sovereignty? Do you trust His purposes for your life, even when things look bleak? Have you discovered the glories of "God's happenings" in your life? Don't let the gloom keep you from seeing the glimmers of hope all around you!
B. Cultivate your character
This is a story of a God-saturated man, a God-dependent young woman, and a God-exalting older woman who don't cave into the temptations of their circumstances, but held fast to the right and trusted in the Lord. Think about Naomi for a moment. While in a pagan land, she worshipped the true God when the entire culture around her bowed to Baal. She so lived this before Ruth that Ruth trusted in her God. And even when despair had overshadowed her, Naomi never doubted that God was behind what was happening to her.
Or look at Ruth. Her love was shot through with loyalty, a virtue sadly missing in the negotiable notions of love of our time. She stayed with her mother-in-law when she didn't have to. She did not waver in her faith in the one true God, even through her losses. She was industrious, humble, yet bold, willing to risk herself in her faith in God.
Then there was Boaz, who didn't succumb to the power of money or the allure of a woman at his feet at midnight. These are people of character. They paid the price in private, in the day-in and day-out, developing habits and settling personal issues so that when the testing time came, their banner was clear and integrity sound.
Senator Dan Coats rightly said, "The only preparation for that one profound decision which can change a life is those hundreds of self-defining seemingly insignificant decisions made in private. Habit is the daily battleground of character."
C. Receive the redeemer
Just as Ruth saw reality in Naomi's religion, and wanted it for herself, some of you are ready to receive the redeemer into your life. Ruth and Orpah help us see the options. They both had the opportunity to turn their backs on what they were worshiping and follow the true God. Orpah had started out to follow Naomi but then bailed. Many people do that today. They start out but never make a commitment to Christ. You might see them in church for a couple times but then they vanish. God doesn't want a half-hearted commitment. He's looking for people today who will say, "Your God will be my God." Are you ready to do that?