Gleaning the Lessons from Ruth

Well, thank you to the ladies' choir for the beautiful special music. There are times when you just want to go, okay, we're done. We'll just end it right there. There's no need to have the sermon afterwards. We'll leave it. But that's not how it works. You're stuck with me. Sorry.

You know, the Jewish people have organized the books of the Bible in a very specific and very purposeful way. The totality of their canonized scripture for which the Jewish people has 24 books are the same books that we have, we refer to as the Old Testament. But the difference between our Bible and the Jewish Bible, the Tanakh, is that we have some books that are split. So, for example, we have First and Second Kings, we have Ezra and Nehemiah, we have other other books, Chronicles, that are split into First and Second. And so those are split in our Old Testament Bible, and they're single books in the Tanakh, which accounts for the difference between 24 and 39. But they are arranged and they are organized into three basic divisions. Firstly, the one that we're probably most familiar with is the Torah, or the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible that are written by Moses. Then we have the Naveem, or the Prophets, which consist of those books that we would consider to be major and minor prophets, except, interestingly enough, you may or may not know this, Daniel is not included inside the prophets as the part of the writings. The Kedavim, the third division, is simply the writings, and that consists of histories and poetic books. And it also contains a collection of five scrolls that are referred to as the Hemish Megalot. The Hemish Megalot. And the Megalot are a specific collection of shorter books of the Bible that are read publicly during the festival seasons. So these are books that are very specifically read at certain times throughout the year. For example, the Song of Solomon is one of these books of the Megalot that is traditionally read during the Sabbath of the Jewish Passover. And according to the custom of some, it is read at the end of the Passover Seder. Okay, so the Song of Solomon read at the end of the Passover Seder, the book of Lamentations, is typically read on the ninth of Av, which is a fast day in Israel that commemorates the destruction of Solomon's temple by the Babylonians in 587 BC and the destruction of the second temple in 70 AD by the Romans. Jewish history places both of those events as occurring on the ninth of Av. And so the book of Lamentations, very appropriately so, is read during that time. The book of Ecclesiastes is one of these Megalot books that is read on the Sabbath of Sukkot, Feast of Tabernacles, the Jewish season of joy. Book of Esther, you might be already aware of what that's connected to. It's read during the Feast of Purim, during the late winter and early spring, because the story of Esther and the history behind it is the reason for the celebration of the festival of Purim. Lastly, the last of the five scrolls that make up the Megalot is the book of Ruth. It's the book of Ruth, which is traditionally read on the morning of Shavuot today, the day of Pentecost. Now, we are most certainly not Jewish. We are here to celebrate and commemorate the day of Pentecost and the New Covenant understanding of what that day entails and what these holy days mean and symbolize. But it is important for us to recognize the book of Ruth was not chosen in a vacuum to be a book that was focused on during this festival season. It wasn't happenstance. It wasn't an accident. Somebody didn't just open the Bible and go, you know what? Ruth sounds great today. Let's go ahead and do that. And everybody went, that's a great idea. We should do that again next year. This was done purposefully, brethren.

It was done purposefully. It was intentional. The events of the book of Ruth take place in the 50-day period leading up to the days of Pentecost. But it's more than that. It is so much more than that. And I would honestly venture a guess that most Jews likely don't realize what the true reason really is. Because while the book of Ruth illustrates a number of Old Covenant principles, concepts, aliens and foreigners in Israelite society, for example, levered marriage, redemption of property. These are all concepts that are present throughout the book of Ruth. It talks about the significance and the importance of the elders at the gate.

The book of Ruth does all of these things with a very firm view forward into the future with the fulfillment of the new covenant, Sir Jesus Christ. So with the time that we have remaining today, I'd like to explore the book of Ruth and glean the lessons, pun intended, glean the lessons that we can learn from this book today on this day of Pentecost connecting the importance of God's plan for mankind and for the significance of this day in that plan. So the title of the second split today is Gleaning the Lessons from Ruth. Gleaning the Lessons from Ruth.

To start, if you turn over to Leviticus 23, we'll begin there. Because we want to take a look at the instruction that was provided to ancient Israel regarding this particular day. Leviticus 23, and we'll go ahead and begin in verse 9, it's important to recognize this is not a day that exists in isolation. None of God's holy days exist in isolation. They're connected to one another in a variety of ways. But in Leviticus 23 and verse 9, we'll see kind of the initial aspect of this day. Leviticus 23 and verse 9 says, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I give you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priests. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf. On the day after the Sabbath, the priests shall wave it. And so we see this instruction we recognize and we teach in the United Church of God that this Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread was not the fixed high Sabbath, but that it was the weekly Sabbath, necessitating the need to then count to Pentecost, to find the date to Pentecost.

But we see that the morning following that Sabbath, the people were instructed to bring a sheaf of the first fruits to their harvest to the priest who would wave it before the Lord so it would be accepted on their behalf. During the time of the Second Temple, this went from being individuals all swamping the priests with their individual sheaves of first fruits to a single first fruit offering that was offered for the entirety of the harvest. But they were instructed at this point they were not to eat bread, they weren't to eat parts of grains, nor fresh grain, until this offering was made. This kicked it off, and only after the wave sheaf was offered could the harvest of that spring's grain then begin. Now we recognize this wave sheaf offering pointed forward to a fulfillment in the new covenant of Jesus Christ as Jesus Christ being the first of the first fruits. The morning after the weekly Sabbath, during the days of 11 bread and 31 A.D., Mary came to the tomb to find it empty. Christ had been resurrected and was to be offered before God as our wave sheaf, as our wave sheaf, as the first of the first fruits, the first-born of many brethren to come in a spiritual harvest. And so we see the stage set then for Pentecost to occur. Continuing in verse 15 of Leviticus 23, it says, And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave, offering seven Sabbaths shall be completed, or as it's written, seven sevens, seven weeks, essentially, shall be completed. Forty-nine days, seven times seven.

One of those little charts when we were kids. Verse 16, count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. So the count to the day of Pentecost began the day of the offering of the wave sheaf. Seven sevens were counted, and then the following day which brought them to the day of Pentecost when the new grain offering was made to the Lord. This year, June 9th, on the Gregorian calendar. Here we are. We're gathered.

Everybody counted to fifty. Good. Nice work. We got there, right? Verses 17 through 20 line out these various offerings that were to be made on this particular day. We're not going to dig into those today simply for the sake of time. If I dig into that, we're going to end up here all afternoon. So we'll jump past that because I want to get to verse 22. I want to get to verse 22, because this speaks somewhat to the story of Ruth. Verse 22 of Leviticus 23, tucked right in there underneath all those offerings, tucked in there underneath all of these other pieces as to how this day is to be celebrated and to be kept. Verse 22 says, When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. In other words, you can't just mow the whole thing down. You have to leave some. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God. So we see during this time of year, during the harvest, that there were specific allowances and specific instructions for those with land not to completely harvest the entirety of their field, not to reap the corners, not to gather any of those remnants that remain, but instead to leave them for the poor and for the stranger, and that this is inextricably tied to Pentecost, tied to the Feast of Weeks. And here we see a very strong example of God's character, of His love for mankind, of His providence and of His care, that those who were poor, those who were aliens, were provided for, that they would be able to go out and obtain what they needed to eat and to survive. Would you turn over with me, please, to the book of Ruth? We're going to begin to pick the story up of Ruth here as it kind of pertains to where we're heading today. The book of Ruth, we're going to go ahead and pick this particular book up. But before we do that, before we do that, I want to read one sentence from the book that precedes it. I want to read one sentence from the book of Judges. And you can probably guess which one it is. It's the very last sentence of the book of Judges, because the last sentence of the book of Judges sets the stage for the book of Ruth.

And I think we understand what happened during the time of the Judges. We recognize what was going on in Israel. But the entire plot line, the whole plot line of 21 chapters that make up the book of Judges can be summed up in one single sentence. Judges 21 and 25. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. How did that work out for Israel? You know, we go back and look at it. How did it work out for Israel? Throughout the book of Judges. You want to take a look at cycles that just continue. Throughout the book of Judges, we see a cycle of disobedience, an idolatry, typically disobedience and idolatry. We see punishment. We see cries for mercy. God save us. God help us. We see God raised up a righteous judge to deliver Israel. They're delivered. And then what happens? The cycle starts right back over again. Disobedience, idolatry, punishment, cry for mercy, raised up a deliverer, delivered.

Only to then slip slide back into disobedience and idolatry and on and on and on that cycle chunked for 400-some years. The cycle of disobedience and raising up a deliverer and delivering for 400-some years. And we can look at that cycle. We can read the book of Judges. We can look at that cycle and we can say, you know what? From a 30,000-foot overview, I get it. I can understand intuitively what's happening on the grounds, so to speak, as we're up here at 30,000 feet. But what is really unique about the book of Ruth is the book of Ruth provides a unique perspective in that it gives an on-the-ground account as to what this period looked like for regular folk.

Not for the ones that God raised up as deliverers in the book of Judges, but for Joe's Six Pack or in this case, you know, Elimelech's Six Pack. We can see what was going on in their life and what they were experiencing at that time. So beginning in Ruth 1, with that context built, beginning in Ruth 1, now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land. There were a lot of famines in the land during the days when the judges ruled. That was a method of punishment. It was a way of getting Israel's attention. And a certain man now, mind you, this one was really bad.

And we'll get at why this famine was really bad in a minute because they circumvented some instructions that God had given them a long time before that regarding Moab and ended up going into Moab anyway. So it says, a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.

The name of the man was Elimelech. The name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Malin and Chillian. Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah, and they went to the country of Moab, and they remained there. Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died. And she was left and her two sons.

Now they took wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years. Then both Malin and Chillian also died. So the woman survived her two sons and her husband. So we can see the effect that the famine in Israel at this time, ten years, was having. It was even extending into Moab.

So this was a large, large famine. And it's highly likely this famine was a result of disobedience as time went on. But we see Elimelech die, Malin and Chillian die, leaving only Naomi and the two Moabite wives of Elimelech's sons, Ruth and Orpah. Verse 6, then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab, for she'd heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited his people by giving them bread.

Again, Israel cries out, God delivers, God provides. The famine is now beginning to be over in the area of Bethlehem. So they decide maybe we should go back. Verse 7, therefore she went out from the place where she was and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. Verse 8, Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, go return each to her mother's house. It says, go home. Go home. There's nothing for you here. There's nothing for you there.

Go home. It says, the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband. In other words, if you go home, you can be remarried. Go home and remarry. Go home and raise a family. Go home and live the life that my sons weren't able to give you because of their pre-emptive death, or their premature death. So she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.

Verse 10, and they said to her, Surely we will return with you to your people. And Naomi said, turn back my daughters. Why will you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb that they may be your husbands? Turn back my daughters. Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons, would you wait for them until they were grown? Are you going to wait around and marry my new children? Go home.

Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? Know my daughters, for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. Naomi essentially gives the women permission to remain in Moab, to return to Moab and to remarry, to find husbands and settle down, live the good life that they might find rest in the house of their husband. And initially, both Ruth and Orpah both raised their voice and wept, initially attending to go home with her to Bethlehem. And Naomi continues to reason with them. They shouldn't restrain themselves from having husbands because they go back to Israel. Chances are very good. They will not remarry.

They are Moabites. The chances are very good that they will not remarry in Israel. And so she's telling these ladies, the chances of you remarrying, you will be widows for the rest of your life. And these girls were young widows. They were young widows. Naomi encourages them to stay and to seek out a life among their people. But we see that they lifted up their voices in verse 14 and they wept again. But Orpah kissed her mother-in-law and headed on down the road back home.

Ruth, on the other hand, though, what happened with Ruth? Ruth clung to her. Ruth clung to her. She cleaved to her. The word is debach. D-A-B-A-Q. It's debach. It's cling to, to stick to. It's the same word that says a husband will leave his family and cleave unto his wife, to stick to, to be close to. Naomi cleaved herself. Or, I'm sorry, Ruth cleaved herself to Naomi. Naomi tries to reason with her again, tries to get her to follow Orpah, but Ruth replies in verse 16. And this is very well known. It's read through a number of weddings throughout ceremonies for centuries, these particular words. In verse 16, she says, In treat me not to leave you, in treat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you. For wherever you go, I will go. Wherever 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.

Now, the next set of words solidifies these things a little bit, because she says, The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me. Ruth makes an oath here to disavow her people, to disavow her gods, to walk away from her culture, from her traditions, and from the things that she was comfortable with. To walk away from the land of Moab, and instead claim Naomi's people, claim Naomi's God as her own. To go into the land of Israel and dwell among them, she said, I'm not going home to be buried. I'm not going to let you bury me in Moab. As far as I'm concerned, the door is closed, she says to Naomi, on the land of Moab. I'm coming home with you, and I'm going to become like you. Ruth, at that point, cut all ties. She walked away from the life that she knew. And Naomi, wisely, at this point realized she was fighting a losing battle. You know, there's times in life where you realize, we can't continue talking about this. You're going to do what you're going to do, and here we are. So she quit arguing with Ruth, and she accepted it. They returned to Bethlehem, and as it mentions in verse 22, they return at the beginning of the barley harvest. The beginning of the barley harvest. So the wave sheep had been offered. We're early into the barley harvest, which means the time frame of our story is firmly in the 50 days that are leading up to Pentecost, the count to Pentecost.

As the story of Ruth unfolds throughout chapter 2 and chapter 3, God guides her to meet Boaz, and she begins to work in his fields. The second chapter takes a number of opportunities to make it abundantly clear to the reader that Ruth is from Moab. In fact, there are 12 references to her by name. Five of those references tack on that she's a Moabite, or a foreigner, or an alien, or something along those lines. Almost half of the references tack that on with some kind of qualifier. For example, Ruth 2 verse 2. Ruth the Moabitis. Ruth 2 verse 6. The young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi. Ruth 2, 11. You've let your father and mother in the land of your birth.

Ruth 2, 13. Though I'm not like one of your maid servants.

Ruth 2, 21. Again, Ruth the Moabitis. The author of this book did not want that fact escaping us.

When we went back and read it, he did not want that fact escaping us. He wanted us to know, and wanted all of Israel to know, when they went back and read this, that Ruth was a Moabitis. Why? Why? Why is that important? Let's go to Deuteronomy 23. This is the little bit of rules that Alimelech and his family circumvented. Deuteronomy 23. If you can go ahead and leave a leave a finger here in the book of Ruth, we'll come back. Deuteronomy 23. I got to monologuing and went right past it. I do that sometimes.

I did it again. I was thinking about monologuing.

Deuteronomy 23. And we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 3. The beginning of this particular section, we see there are certain individuals who are excluded from the congregation. They were excluded from the assembly of the Lord for a variety of reasons. For example, we see emasculation as one of those things, either crushing, mutilation. So eunuchs, for example, would be prohibited from assembling at the temple in this way. One of illegitimate births shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

God established prohibitions in some cases. In verse 3, what is that prohibition?

An ammonite or moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord forever.

So there was a very specific prohibition put into place on those who were from Moab.

God established this prohibition. These were distant cousins of the Israelites, but they were prevented from coming into the assembly of the people from into the congregation. Why? What was the reasoning? Well, here's the reason in verse 4. Because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam, the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. And you remember this story as they tried to get Balaam to curse. God worked it out in the Israelites' favor each time.

Growth as a moabite was a big deal. In fact, you can see at the bottom in verse 6 of that same section, you shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever.

The famine was bad enough that Al-Imlaq overlooked that. He went to seek their prosperity and go and to take of the food that was present in Moab. But as a female—I was doing some reading on this—as a female, she was not part of the prohibited group. There are some Jewish scholars that claim that culturally it was the responsibility of the men to bring bread and water, and it was the men who then hired Balaam. And so it was the men who were prohibited from coming into the assembly while women, it says, were allowed. That's the position of some, regardless. It's notable that Ruth was a moabite, given again the animosities between her people. They had a history. Israel and Moab had a history. It's like the Hatfields and the McCoy's. There's a history that goes back in a certain amount of things that have occurred throughout that time frame. Yet Ruth, though her incredible character, Ruth threw her character, showed she was true, showed she was honorable, and frankly more spiritually an Israelite than a number of the Israelites during the time of the Judges. In Ruth 2 and verse 8— if you go ahead and turn back there—we see that Ruth's reputation has preceded her. We see that Ruth's reputation has preceded her. Ruth 2 and verse 8—her story is known to the people of Bethlehem. And then Boaz said to Ruth, You will listen, my daughter, will you not? Do not go to Glean in another field, nor go from here, but stay close by my young women. Let your eyes be on the field which they reap and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn. Verse 10, So she fell down on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner? You know, Ruth takes the time to ask Boaz. Boaz, what's the story here? What's going on? You're taking notice of me, I'm a foreigner, I'm clearly a Moabite. Everybody knows I'm a Moabite, right? Everybody knows. Why are you being so kind to me? Why are you protecting me? Why are you providing for me? Other people in Israel at that time followed the law to the letter.

They provided people with the edges of the field. Sure, they allowed for gleaning, but it may have been subpar grain. It may have been difficult to glean in that area. It's been a hot day's work for not a whole lot of grain, and yet here is Boaz just throwing grain at Ruth, loading her up as often as he can, letting her pull from the sheaves themselves, not just the gleaned areas. We also see, as we learn a little bit about Boaz, he had a good relationship with those who gleaned his fields. He was a good man. Verse 11 of Ruth 2, what is his reason? Why is he treating Ruth special? Boaz answered and said to her, it's been fully reported to me all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before. And so he says, the Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.

Boaz acknowledges her faithfulness to Naomi, her willingness to leave her own people to come to the Israelites, acknowledges that she forsook her gods, and that she chose instead to come under the wings of the Lord God of Israel for her refuge. That she put her trust, she put her faith in the God of Israel, not the gods of her own fathers.

In many ways we might say that she took the opportunity to become an Israelite spiritually.

Verse 13 goes on, verse 13 continues, says, Then she said, Let me find favor in your sight, my Lord, for you have comforted me, and have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though, again, here's one of those spots, I'm not like one of your maidservants. Boaz said to her at mealtime, Come here and eat of the bread, and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar. So he sat beside the reapers, and he passed parched grain to her, and she ate and was satisfied, and kept some back. Not every person that owned a field would have done this. No, this was special. And when she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. Also let grain from the bundles fall purposefully for her. Here's a pile of grain, here's a pile of grain, here's a pile of grain, here's a pile of grain, here go Ruth, here you go Ruth, loading her up. So she gleaned in the field until evening, and beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. So she got into substantial amount of barley. She takes it home, she, you know, explains to Naomi this wonderful man that she's coming to contact with, who took notice of her and has helped her. And when Naomi hears his name, Naomi realizes that he's actually a close relative of a limlelec. In fact, he's such a close relative of a limlelec that he's close enough to potentially fulfill the levered marriage requirement. So we know the rest of the story, we won't read it for sake of time, but Naomi instructs Ruth in what to do. She says, dress yourself up, anoint yourself, go in the night, uncover his feet, and lay down at the foot of his bed. We see that Scripture, when he awoke at midnight, and he turned himself over, he realized there's someone else in here.

Kind of had that moment of, wait a second, I'm not alone. Not in the days where you can flip the light switch on and go, hey, who are you? Get out of here! Now, you don't have that opportunity at that point. So in the dark he calls out and says, who are you? Not the most effective intruder alert, but who are you? She identified herself and explained the situation. Boaz was touched that she would consider him as an older man. I mean, she's younger, as the stories go, she's beautiful, and that she, rather than chase after the young men, whether rich or poor, that she would seek him.

He explains that there's a closer relative and that he has to ensure that the other man doesn't wish to redeem her along with the field. So he meets with the elders at the gate, goes through the legal requirements to redeem Ruth according to Leverett Cuscomb. We see the closer relative, yes, he wanted the field, but when he realized that field came with the wife, he said, ah, I want to ruin my inheritance. I don't want to lose out of my inheritance. You go ahead. You redeem the field, you redeem the wife. Everything's good. Here's my sandal. Shake hands. Here we go. Good times. We're done, right? We should do that again in these days. We make an agreement and take off our shoe. There you go. Hold my shoe. It's probably not the most effective way of making agreements, at least in our time today, but we see that ultimately Boaz, according to the law, redeems Ruth. They were married. Together they bore Obed, who bore Jesse, who bore David, the line that would eventually bear Christ. At the end of the book, Ruth, who is a Moabite, an alien, and a foreigner, is lauded by those in Bethlehem as being better to Naomi than seven sons. She was an incredible blessing to Naomi. You know, as we mentioned in the beginning, while this book is firmly rooted in numerous Old Covenant practices, this book looks forward to the New Covenant. It looks forward to the New Covenant. It looks forward to a future fulfillment of that covenant, because the events that began in earnest on that day of Pentecost so many years ago made that fulfillment possible. Let's turn over to the book of Ephesians.

Over to the book of Ephesians. You know, hopefully I'm not trouncing all over the messages that will follow. As Mr. Consella said this morning, you know, there are benefits to getting to go first.

You get to use them real quick. There's always... repetition's a good thing, regardless. It's important. But I'm used to being the very last one, and you're hacking and splashing the whole way through, trying to figure out what do you cover, what do you don't cover, what's been covered, etc. Let's go to the book of Ephesians. Book of Ephesians. So we take a look at what occurred on that day of Pentecost. We're going to pick it up in verse 11 here in Ephesians in a minute. Ephesians 2 verse 11, you can kind of turn there. We look at the day of Pentecost in 31 A.D. when God poured out His Spirit on the firstfruits that were gathered on that day. The Jews that were gathered together for Pentecost were cut to the heart by Peter's sermon. They were convicted. They were cut to the heart by Peter's sermon and by God's conviction. They were convicted. They desired to know what they could do as a result of that conviction. They realized we were in the wrong.

We messed up. How do we fix this? How do we go forward from here? So Peter instructed them, as we saw in Mr. Kinsella's message this morning, to repent and to be baptized.

That their sins would be forgiven and that they would receive the Holy Spirit. We see three thousand were baptized on that day. I don't know if it was one big line and just bloop, next, bloop, you know, assembly line of laying hands. And I don't know. I don't know. You know, I'm not a hundred percent sure. But it's important for us to recognize these Jews on that day of Pentecost were not the extent of God's plan. Those three thousand weren't it. God intended to offer this opportunity to the Gentiles, too. Offer this opportunity to those who had for so long been prevented from entering the assembly of God. Going forward, they would have access to God, not through the physical act of circumcision, but through a circumcision of their hearts.

Through literally being cut to the heart and being convicted and accepting Jesus Christ in their life by yielding themselves to God and to His ways. Ephesians 2 and verse 11 says, Therefore, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, verse 12, that at that time you were without Christ. You were being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Verse 13, we'll pick up here in just a second, before Ruth met Naomi, she was a Moabite. She had no clue about Israel and Israel's God. She was a foreigner, she was a Gentile, she was an alien to the covenant of God. She was firmly on the outside of what was available at that time. But, brethren, God reached out to Ruth and called her. He provided her with this opportunity to make a change in her life, a chance to know the truth, a chance to forsake her old way of life and to walk in newness of life. It goes on in verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once afar off, you who were once afar off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation. Verse 15, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. Verse 16, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. Now, in her previous life, keeping the gods of the Moabites, Ruth was an enmity to God. She was an idol worshipper. She was living contrary to God's instructions. She was, at that time, separated from the covenant. She was in need, as all of us are in need, of reconciliation.

All of us are in need of reconciliation to God. All of us are in need of God's grace, in need of His love and of His mercy. Here we go back up the passage just a little bit. We're going to reverse ourselves here in Ephesians 2 to Ephesians 2, verse 4. Ephesians 2 and verse 4 says, But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, even, brethren, when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, and parenthetically, by grace you have been saved. Verse 6 raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Brethren, we were in the same place as Ruth at one point in time.

We were living our lives based upon what we thought was true. We may have been at that time in our life defining that truth for ourselves, or we may have you adhering to somebody else's interpretation of the truth, but at a point in our past we came to a point where we recognized that what we thought was true, that what we based our entire life upon up to that point, was in fact patently false. God began to work with us. He began to reveal to us His truth. He began to call us out of that life. He taught us His truth. He gave us His mercy. He provided us an opportunity to become a part of His family, to become partakers of the divine nature. We were completely and totally undeserving of that opportunity. We are still completely and totally undeserving of that opportunity. We were dead in our trespasses. It was as a result of God's grace that we have been provided a chance to become something new, to become something different.

And that process of conversion, that process which is made possible by the events of this day, that indwelling of God's Holy Spirit within us, that gradual changing of a heart of stone to a heart of flesh, a heart that is willing to yield itself and submit and be worked with and learn and not constantly fight everything that God reveals, everything that God asks us to do. That shift from that heart of stone to that heart of flesh enables us to be grafted into the Israel of God. It enables us to be brought into the body of Christ, to the the ecclesia. Romans 8 and verse 9—I didn't get all the way out of the way with having one read already this morning, but I was close. I almost made it. Romans 8 and verse 9, if you turn over there for a small amount of repetition this morning. Romans 8 and verse 9. We'll go ahead and read through this section. I'm going to go through the full picture of it from Romans 8 and 9 on. Romans 8 and verse 9—you know, this section of Romans is such a great dissertation on conversion and what conversion looks like—but in Romans 8 and verse 9 it says, But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Mr. Kinsella very much brought out that idea of the importance of having that Holy Spirit in us. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his, and if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Verse 12, Therefore brethren, as a result of these things, therefore brethren, we are debtors.

We're debtors. We owe somebody. Not to the flesh. We're not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit of God, the Spirit, if by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Verse 14, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God, and was brought out again this morning, the contrary to that is also true. If you are not led by the Spirit of God, it's difficult to call yourself a child of God.

For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.

That Spirit of God, which dwells in us, thanks to the events pictured by this day, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, the availability of that Spirit in the modern era of the Church, this makes this possible. Allowing ourselves to be led by that Spirit to follow it into the truth of God, into a greater love for others, to a refining and a purifying of our attitudes and our actions and our characteristics. Following that Spirit as God works in our lives to chip away the rough edges, to conform us to the image of his Son as we yield ourselves to him. Ruth had no idea where her journey was going to go when she stood there watching Orpah walk down the road back to Moab.

She didn't know what was going to happen when she got back to Israel. She was going to follow Naomi home and then what? Maybe she's a widow for the rest of her days. Maybe she had no idea what the story was going to look like. She stepped out in faith. Her husband, dead, facing the prospect of returning to the homeland of Moab, a widow, and she makes a decision that changes the trajectory of her life. She chose to forsake her gods. She chose to forsake her people and chose instead to cling to Naomi. She chose to return with her to Bethlehem, even though it likely meant a life of hard service. You know, Naomi was older. She would be taking care of Naomi for a very long time.

She chose the God of Israel as her God and the people of Israel as her people. She walked away from everything. We might say in the vernacular of Deuteronomy, she chose life. She had two options before her. She could return to the idolatry. She could return to all of those things, or she could choose life. Ruth chose life. God guided her to Boaz, who in this account represents a type of Christ. Boaz cared for her. He instructed her. He provided for her safety. He provided for her needs.

She made the decision in this account to come and seek his redemption, entering into a covenant relationship with him. Boaz followed through. He redeemed, and he married her. Ruth was a Moabite. That fact is plain as day throughout Scripture. Yet, even among the Jewish people, she is regarded for her faith, for her loyalty, for her love and her kindness to Naomi, and frankly is an incredible example to all of us. She's such an example that the Jewish people, even today, continue to read her story yearly. Every single year on Shabbat in the morning, her story is read, and everyone that is there is reminded of the meaning and the symbolism of this day. Yet, even though the Jews see that story as being largely about the harvest of Shabbat and Ruth's conversion to Judaism, within this very short book, God has provided an allegory to something even greater. He's provided an allegory to something even greater. Ruth's life in the events of the book is an allegory or an analogy to the conversion process, not just to the Old Covenant, not just to the nation of Israel, but to the Israel of God, to the spiritual body of Jesus Christ. It looks forward to a time when the Gentiles would be grafted into the family of God, when the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon Gentile and Jew, when Christ would redeem all of those who come to Him, regardless of their nationality, regardless of their country of origin.

That time is largely symbolized by the day that we're here to commemorate and celebrate today, the day of Pentecost. In that spiritual harvest will be Jews, Gentiles, men, women, slaves, freemen, all who have put on Jesus Christ. We'll turn to one last scripture as we close here today, Galatians 3, verses 28 and 29. Galatians 3, verses 28 and 29. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.