Kinsman Redeemer

It's interesting that we celebrated the Feast of Pentecost a couple weeks ago, and I gave a sermon there that I'm going to give here today entitled, The Kinsmen Redeemer. At the Pentecost time is the time when the Jewish people read the book of Ruth, and so I'm going to talk about the book of Ruth a bit today. There are many things about that time of year, Pentecost especially, that believe the Ten Commandments were given on the Feast of Pentecost many years ago. It's also speculated that Noah offered his offering on the day of Pentecost when he came out of the ark, as it says the third month. We know it's the day when the Holy Spirit was received by the New Testament Church and our down payment with Christ's blood so we could be part of his kingdom and his family. And later on, the same thing happened with the Gentiles at Cornelius' house when the Holy Spirit was given. We also know it's a type of jubilee, counting 50, 50 days, similar to 50 years. And so our redemption will come when Christ returns, obviously, when the Holy Spirit comes in full. All these events happen at that time of year. And like I said, those are historical, but yet they're also future.

And we're going to attain eternal life through God's Holy Spirit, which we have to have to do it. But oftentimes we wonder why God calls us. That's one of the things when I was a child, I grew up in the church. And you ask the question if you're called, if you grew up in the church, because you wonder exactly how that fits. You don't have some great story of a magazine in a trash can or a radio station in the middle of the night or some of the stories of the way people come into the church and into the truth of God. But you ask, why did he call me? Why did he call you?

Many of the middle-aged people here, or younger people like me who grew up in the church, didn't really have a special event, it seems, that made them come to church. If you're born in it, and often sometimes you question if you are called because of the fact that you want some special thing. But if you're like my wife, you know you're more certain because she came into God's truth in a way that's very different than I did. She was the opposite of me, and she, I think, believed that God was working with her from the start when she started trying to find who God was. It was interesting because when I came to college, I had finished 12 years from Pearl Schools, which was the parochial school of the church at the time, and I'd gone through the Bible several times already from cover to cover. My wife, however, grew up a Saluthran, and I see she's kind of back where she started today. But she had a lot of questions. They couldn't explain the Trinity to her, and various problems that she had. So since they couldn't explain that, she shifted and tried the Baptist. They were young and energetic, and she went with some friends. They had the altar call that night. In the euphoria, she came down and did the altar call. They were going to baptize all of them the next day. She went home and decided she didn't know what she was doing. She called the minister the next morning, and said, I'm not showing up to be baptized. I have no idea what happened last night. So she didn't come that way. But it was interesting because her grandmother had just come into the church. I'm not even sure if she was baptized yet or not, but she was right in the early stages. She had an envoy. Michelle's father at that time had worked for bendix for 19 years and just got laid off. They didn't have much money, and they wanted to go to college, but they didn't have a lot of money for college. So her grandmother sent the envoy over to the house, and they looked at this envoy, this Christian school, and thought, this is really nice. Then they saw they had a work program, so he didn't need any money. So they could work and pay off college. They were concerned about drugs, and they were concerned about drugs, and the hippie movement in the 60s, and all those things. They thought this would be a great place.

It's one of those things that the grandmother didn't tell them was that they kept the Sabbath and the holy days and didn't keep Christmas and Easter. So my wife came to college expecting to go home for Christmas, and then everybody disappeared on Friday night. She wondered where they went. And the Sabbath, she called home, and her mom said, well, are you coming home for Christmas? No, they don't keep Christmas. Well, what do they do for people that do? Well, we were breaking in January. I'll come home then. For the feast, they gave her $20 and told her to go out in the woods and get food from the people in the piney woods. She had never gone out begging for food before, but the people were all friendly. And so she learned. So she ended up in Texas in Big Sandy, where I met her. It's interesting because she didn't know really why she was there at the time. Turn to Leviticus 23. I'm not sure why I'm going to go to the book of Ruth today.

Again, this is a book that's traditionally read at this time of year. It's read because it had the time of the harvest, the early harvest. And again, Pentecost is called the Feast of First Fruits, the Feast of Harvest, Feast of Weeks, or the Greek Pentecost, which means the last two are just about counting 50. In verse 15 of Leviticus 23, it says, You shall count for the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheep of the way of offering. Seven Sabbaths shall be complete, even until the morrow after the seven Sabbaths shall you number fifty days, and you shall offer a new meat offering to the Lord. So that's when it comes. Notice the end of this section, verse 22, it says, And when you reap your harvest of your land, you shall not make clean riddance of the corners of your field when you reap. Neither shall you gather up any gleaning of your harvest. You shall leave them to the poor and to the stranger. I am the Lord your God. That's another reason the book is read at this time. Ruth was a gleaner in the fields, tied to the feast and the harvest. And at the start of the count of the first ripe grains, a later wheat crop would be cut and weighed before God by the priests. And no one could eat or harvest until that was done. It was a first fruit offering and was holy to God. God's people are called first fruits. We know that. James 1.18. It tells us that very clearly. He says of His own will He begat us with the word of truth, truth, like we heard in the sermonette, that we should be a kind of first fruit of His creation. We indeed, those of you sitting here, are part of His first fruits.

Revelation 4.4 tells us that these are those who are not defiled with women. They are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb where He goes. These are redeemed for among men, being the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And so this picture is the first fruits as well. It's fitting that God gave His Holy Spirit on that day, which is why He did, and a proof I used for people to show that the Holy Days weren't done away because Christ walked and talked with them. He didn't give them the Holy Spirit until that day. He didn't tell them, hey, why wait? I've already resurrected. Here's the Spirit. He said, wait, it'll come when it's supposed to. And it did. He didn't change those things. And His Spirit is a guarantee of the resurrection to eternal life. It's interesting that He bought us with His life. And God ended that description of first fruits with an act of kindness, ending the description with leaving the corner of your field for the stranger and for the poor because everyone's included in God's plan. That's really what it's about. So Ruth has read at this time of year. It's a wonderful small book about love and kindness and redemption. That's where it comes from. It's a story. It's only four chapters long. It's small. There's a lot of deep meaning in that. It's about redemption being redeemed just as Christ is our Redeemer for mankind. And as you read the book, you should see God's plan in Ruth's life.

Even though the book shows many of the laws of the Old Covenant, truly it's about the New Covenant. This I'll show you today. And about the family that would soon be the genealogy of Jesus Christ on earth. But it talks about God's hand and Ruth's life. Not only Ruth, but Naomi and Boaz and those that would come afterwards.

So I want to look at the book of Ruth and the way that God was dealing with her, where she started. Because I want you to look back into your life and see where God called you and what are the things that he may have done in your life. It should bring encouragement to you to see what God is doing in spite of any hardships you may have had. Historically, the book of Ruth is about 1100 B.C. at the time of the period of the Judges, the times of Gideon and Samson, Deborah, and all the people that are written about in Judges. The people couldn't stay very close to God for very long. They kept sending and breaking God's law, doing what the heathen around them did. Then Galveston would deliver. They'd come back to him. Then he would start over again. They would get complacent. Then he usually took some kind of major suffering or act of God to bring them back, unfortunately. Ruth is interesting for many reasons. The most peculiar thing is Ruth was a Moabite. She wasn't an Israelite. She was distantly related because her Moab was the grandson of Lot, Abraham's nephew. It's interesting what they say about the Moabites. In Genesis 19, it shows where the Moabites came from. We'll look at that. If you remember, Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed. Lot was there in the city. God sent the angels down to tell him to leave. He did with his two daughters and his wife. Of course, his wife looked back and turned into pillar of salt. As Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. They went to a place and his daughters, I don't know if they didn't think any more men were left on earth or what, but his children, it says they wanted to raise up seed to their father. So in Genesis 19.36, it says, so both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. They got him drunk, slept with him one night, and the younger daughter the next night.

In the firstborn, Borosan called his name Moab. He's the father of the Moabites to this day. And the younger also Borosan, and his name was Ben Ami, the father of the Ammonites to this day.

We read more about the Moabites in Numbers 25. And it's not too pleasant a history.

In Numbers 25 verse 1, it says, Israel lived in Shittim and the people began to fornicate with the daughters of Moab. That's not a good thing to be doing. And they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to their gods. Again, another bad thing. And Israel joined himself to be a pure, and the anger of God was kindled against Israel because of Moab, the Moabites. So when we look at this, Ruth didn't grow up worshiping God, the God of Israel. She had really a pretty tough genealogy to overcome. She was kind of untouchable in that sense. The setting is Bethlehem, which is also interesting. Of course, that's where King David came from and where Jesus was born.

It's also where our Redeemer comes from. Ruth was a foreigner, a Moabites. Her name is mentioned 12 times in the book, and five times it's not just Ruth. It's always Ruth the Moabites, Ruth the foreigner, Ruth not one of the Israelites. It's very specific that her non-Israelites heritage is constantly stressed. So her status was that of an alien, not of an Israelite. She was a stranger, not one of the covenant people. It's interesting, through the entire chapter 2, you're constantly reminded the Moabites were not an Israelite.

She doesn't come under the covenant. It's interesting, if you read Deuteronomy 23 about the Moabites, why didn't she come under the covenant? When you read about the people that are excluded from the congregation of Israel in Deuteronomy 23.3, it says, "...an Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord forever." Why? 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 Balaam, the son of Beorah of Mesopotamia, to curse you.

Nevertheless, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you. And you shall not seek their peace, that is the Ammonites or Moabites, nor their prosperity all your days forever." So how did this Moabite end up in the genealogy of Christ in the camp of Israel?

How did Ruth come into that congregation? It was interesting. My wife came to college. She didn't really know anything. One day Dr. Torrance, who was a registrar, let her see her file. And when she looked in her file, she found this saying there that said she was part Gentile. Now my wife had no idea what that meant. She came to me and asked me which part of her is Gentile. Arm, leg, so she didn't know they were insulting her.

But it was funny because she said, does that mean I have to marry someone who's part Gentile? Or what does this mean? So it was interesting. But if you look at Ruth, the Moabites, she was all Gentile. Okay? That's the background that she came out of. And they couldn't enter into the tabernacle for 10 generations or more. And don't ask for her to prosper. It's interesting because God accepted Ruth. Why did God accept Ruth? By the end of the book, she's lauded and praised for her virtues. And she becomes an ancestor of David.

Talks about that in the book. She's fondly mentioned not only at the end of Ruth, but in Christ's genealogy in Matthew 1. She's mentioned by name. Three women mentioned there. Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uri the Hittite. Interesting. Bathsheba doesn't get named by name in that. So why was Ruth able to come into the congregation of Israel with what God said in Deuteronomy? Turn to Ruth 1. This book is a lot about kindness. It's interesting we have a word in English for unkind people. They're called, what, Ruthless. Okay? Kind of play on words, but it kind of fits because of her background.

Verse 1, verse 1, it says here, It came to pass in the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. Why was there a famine in the land? In the times of the judges, again, Israel disobeyed so many times that they simply turned from God and God removed his blessing.

He allowed famines and disasters and other things to happen. He obviously allowed this famine. But I also wonder if he didn't cause this famine because he causes some of those things as well so that this story could be told. A story of David and of Christ. Was it circumstance or not? Was the envoy that Michelle's grandmother sent to the family circumstance or not?

What was it in your life that may have seemed to be circumstance that brought you to where you are? God caused the famine in the land and caused the limilec in his family to journey to Moab. Verse 2, it says, The name of the man was a limilec, which means God is king. The name of his wife was Naomi, which means prosperity and sweetness. The name of the two sons were Malon and Chileon. They came to the country of Moab and continued there.

In a limilec, Naomi's husband died. She was left and her two sons. I can relate with that. My dad died when I was three and a half and my mom had two little boys. Then it kind of leaves you wondering, what do you do? In her case, the minister did the funeral and told my mom to move to Big Sandy, so we did. But here they are alone in Moab. She and her two boys.

In verse 4, it says, The two boys, they took wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Orpa, the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelled there about ten years. And Malon and Chileon died, both of them. And the woman was left of her two sons and her husband. All the men were gone.

In verse 6, she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab. Why? For she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited His people and given them bread. The famine was over. God seemed to have caused the famine and then caused the prosperity to follow so that they could come back. And now He's taking Naomi and her daughters back without the men. No men. Ruth and Naomi return as widows. And that leaves later the story of Boaz, which will come to you as a type of Christ waiting to redeem Ruth and the family. And God worked all this out. And I'm sure they didn't know it at the time, but He was working with them. Verse 7, She went out of 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. And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, something a mother would probably say to her stepdaughters in this case, go return each of you to your mother's house. May God deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. What she's doing here is asking God to show a blessing because these two Moabite women had done what they knew was right by her and by their dead husbands. And they had done that. They had done right. And so she was asking for a blessing. Verse 9, again, she says, May God grant that you may find rest each in the house of her husband, if you want to remarry, have families. And she kissed them and they lifted up their voices and wept. The sad parting is what Naomi thought. But they said to her, Surely we'll return with you to your people. They both said that. And Naomi said, No, turn again my daughters. Why will you go with me? Are there yet sons in my womb that they may be your husbands? If you read the book of Allah, you find out that if a man died without seed, that a brother or kinsman would go in and raise up a seed to them.

And she says in verse 12, turn again my daughters. I'm too old to have a husband. And if I should, if I had a husband and also tonight would bear a son, would you wait for them till they were grown? Will you shut yourselves up not to have a husband? No, my daughters, for it makes me very sad for your sakes that the hand of God has gone out against me. That's what she thought. Her thoughts and our thoughts at times is God's against us. God's against me. My name isn't pleasant. God's against me. But it wasn't God's thoughts when sometimes we think things that aren't the way God thinks, just as she did here. And they lifted up their voices and wept again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth hung to her. Orpah laughed. She went back to her people and to her gods.

And Naomi said, in verse 15, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. Go back like she did. It's interesting, Michelle, when she came to college, they'd run an article in the Plain Truth Magazine about the college, and there were about 15 people who came to college that year that had no background in the church at all. And she had a roommate, her friend that she talked to all the time, who was a Catholic. And they sat and talked on Friday night about all this religious stuff. And her friend finally said to her, in almost sure what they're saying here is that all the other churches are wrong, and only this one is right. He said, I don't believe that. Now, she had come there because she had a boyfriend back home who'd come to college and kind of shocked her boyfriend when she showed up for college. But then she found out her boyfriend had another girlfriend, and so she decided it wasn't for her and laughed. Before she laughed, she told the other girls there that now Michelle, she's close to me and she really believes this stuff. And she may leave because of me. Don't let her go, because she does believe this. So her friend went back to her gods and her church and her people. Michelle stayed. And you wonder some of those things in your life, if that's what doesn't happen to some of us at different times. We look at the example of Ruth. What we have next in verse 16 is Ruth's conversion, or beginning of it at least. Verse 16, Ruth said, And treat me not to leave you. Don't ask me to leave you.

I'm not going to. 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.

This is a pretty strong oath, she's saying. Everything where you are is where I'm going to be. Your people and your God. And then she says this, The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death, depart you or me. It was an oath before God. And Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her. She quit speaking to her about going back. Okay. It was interesting because Ruth was a woman. She couldn't be circumcised to come into the congregation of Israel, but she made a solemn oath. In her oath, she renounced her gods. She renounced her people. She renounced everything that she was part of before. She left her people. Your people. If you look at Naomi as a type of the church, what she was saying is, your people, all the members of your church are going to be my people. I've left my people. I've taken your people as my own. And most importantly, your God will be my God. They will be one and the same.

She was being converted. Verse 19, both of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And it happened that when they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was moved about them. And they said, is this Naomi? They knew Naomi. She said, don't call me Naomi. Don't call me prosperity or sweetness, which is what her name means. Call me Mara. For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.

God's been bitter against me. I went out full and God has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi since God has testified against me and the Almighty has afflicted me? Do you ever think that way?

Verse 22, so Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabite as her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. And again, that's the setting. It begins right after the wave sheaf offering, the barley harvest. So they'd be harvesting right now over in Israel.

And it's only after that harvest they could start being in the fields. So Ruth and Naomi returned right as that harvest began. And now we're introduced to Boaz, the kinsman-redeemer.

In chapter 2, verse 1, it says, There was a relative of Naomi's husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech, whose name is God his king, and his name was Boaz, which means in him his strength. So Ruth, the Moavites, again emphasizing that, said to Naomi, Please let me go to the field and glean heads of grain. After him and whose sight I may find favor. I'll just go out and start looking and someone will show me favor and I'll do it. She doesn't know where she's going to glean. She's just going to go out in the fields and find someone, hopefully, that favors her and she can glean in the corners and pick up some grain to take care of her mother-in-law and herself to feed them for food. Verse 3, she said, Go, my daughter, go out. And she left and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field that belonged to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. She happened upon, it says. Now, I wonder if she really happened by chance upon this field of Boaz. God's like that. He does things to you that seem like time and chance. But they're not really in His sight. But for us, they seem to be. God was working with this woman because He wanted to bring these two people together. Ruth, a type of church or Christian and Boaz, a type of Christ to redeem her. And He wants us to learn something from all this. And so she winds up in Boaz's field, Christ's field, the line of David. And He wanted Jesus to come from these two people. It's interesting, in John 6, 44, Mr. Armstrong always quoted that all the time, No man can come to me except the Father which sent me to draw him. And I'll raise him up the last day. A calling. God is working something out in both of these two people's lives. Neither one of them know it. And also in the lives of millions of others who would come after them. In our lives as well.

It's interesting because we all have a calling. We all have a calling. But I've never had anyone come to me and say, Well, God called me. And this voice called out and said, Hi, I'm God. I'm calling you. Come to my church. And if you did hear any voices like that, then come talk to me. Because I've never heard voices, at least not when there wasn't a person there, in front of me.

But it's interesting because these aren't really random acts in Ruth's life. Just as they're not random acts necessarily in yours or my life.

Just as I don't think Michelle's grandmother's envoy was random, nor things in your life, if you have God's Spirit.

It's interesting that King David and his example, and the other kings, and particularly Christ, whose life has touched us the most, came from these two people. Boaz and Israelite and Ruth the Moabites.

And again, I believe there's no random meeting. It was meant to be, and God was working with these people to bring them together so that he could fulfill His plan. Now notice all the things that Boaz does for Ruth. And look at it in the light of what Christ does for the church. In verse 4 of chapter 2, Now, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, The Lord be with you. Interesting, God be with you. It's the name. Emmanuel. God with us. Boaz said to his servant, who was in charge of the reapers, Whose young woman is this? Hadn't seen her before. Didn't know who she was. So the servant who was in charge of the reapers, Antrimus said, It's the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.

Always emphasized there. Interesting, they had a servant in charge of the reapers. Their leaders are necessary in the field, just as they are in the church, for the spiritual health of the congregation.

And again, emphasizing she's not an Israelite. Verse 7, she said, Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the shes.

She asked for the lowest position. It wasn't beneath her to glean where the strangers and the poor were. Her humility shows here. It's like us when Christ said, Take the lowest seat. It shows her character. And she asked, May I please glean behind the reapers? According to the law that I read in Leviticus 23, they left the corners of the field for the poor and the stranger to glean. There's nothing that says the people had to allow them to glean among the shes or take the best.

So she asked for the lowest seat to glean.

She came, verse 7, continuing, it says, and continued from morning till now, though she rested a little while in the house. So she took a little time to rest. But she had been working diligently all day, which is a little rest. And Boaz says to her in verse 8, Do you not hear my daughter? Do you not glean in any other field? Neither go away from here, but stay here close by my maidens. So Boaz is telling her, listen to me. Listen. Just as Christ told his disciples to listen. This is a type of Christ when he says, listen, my daughter. Christ said, my sheep hear my voice.

Ruth heard Boaz.

Verse 9, Let your eyes be on the field that they reap and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men that they shall not touch you? When you're thirsty, go to the vessels and drain. Of that which the young men have drawn. So Boaz said to Ruth, don't go glean in another field. Stay here. Don't go from here. Stay close to my young women, to my servants, to my men. Keep your eyes on my field where they reap and go after them. Just as we're supposed to stay close to God and to Christ, to fellowship with the people here.

And also, when you're thirsty, he tells her, go to the vessels and drink from where the young men have drawn. She didn't even have to draw water. I am going to give you water.

Similar to what Christ said. He gave His Holy Spirit the type of that water on Pentecost. Boaz gives a symbol of the Holy Spirit to Ruth, the water, the fountains of living water. Notice the parallel of Ruth 2.9. You can keep your finger there. I'm going to read John 7, verse 37. Where Christ says, on the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, if anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. This He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive, because the Holy Spirit was not yet given, and Jesus was not yet glorified.

Christ wants us to drink freely of His Holy Spirit.

How does the water benefit Ruth? Well, in many ways. It gives her refreshment. It gives her encouragement. It gives her strength. It enabled her to do a lot more gleaning. It also enabled her to have a lot more contact with Boaz. She didn't have to go to town to get a drink. It was right there in the field. She didn't have to go away from Boaz to get water. And she was able to stay in the field among the reapers, among the gleaners, the young men, and be refreshed and strengthened and helped. And she would stay there, and she would have everything she needed. He supplied the food. He supplied the drink. He supplied the work. And he supplied himself, as we see later in chapter 3. So here in type, we see the Holy Spirit given in the Old Covenant. In verse 10, what does Ruth do? She fell on her face and bowed 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?

Why did God pick you? Why did He pick me? She knew that Boaz didn't have to do this, but He gave her all these additional blessings, along with the simple gleaning. It's not that a type of what Christ gives to us as well.

In verse 11, Boaz answered her and says, It's been fully shown to me all that you have done, to your mother-in-law, since the death of your husband. All of it was shown to me, that you left your father and your mother, the land of your birth, and came to a people whom you did not know. Now, again, a foreigner, moving to where she doesn't know, saying similar to what Naomi had said, when she said, You've done all these good things for me, living in the dead. May God deal kindly with you. Boaz says it the same way. It's been fully shown to me all the things, the kind things you've done for your family. And this is His answer to why He blessed her. Even though she was a foreigner, a stranger, a people you did not know, a Moabiteus, but yet she had been doing her obligations to Naomi and to God. That's God's government commands. And He says in verse 12, The Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given to you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge. It's not the church I refuge as well in these times. Verse 13, Ruth says, Let me find favor in your sight, my Lord, for you have comforted me, have spoken kindly to your maidservant. Though I am not like one of your maidservants, I am not an Israelite. She is a Moabiteus, a foreigner, not of the Lamb, also a woman. Boaz says again in verse 14, At the mealtime come here and eat the bread, and dip your bit in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers, and he handed her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied and left. Now he's pulled her up to be with the reapers, not the gleaners. And he actually passed grain to her. He's feeding her himself, directly, passing her food.

Verse 15, She rose up to glean. Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean, even among the sheaves, and don't rebuke her, don't stop her. And also let fall of the handfuls on purpose for her, and leave them, so that she may glean after them, and don't rebuke her. Leave them extra for her. So she gleaned in the field until evening, and beat out what she had gleaned. It was about an Ipho barley. And now she's going back to Naomi. And it's telling her what happened. Verse 21, Ruthamoe-Bidus, again, said, He also said to me, You shall stay close to my young men, until they've finished my harvest.

So not only did He say, Stay in my field, glean among my reapers, but also stay the entire harvest. Stay till it's done. Not just a day, a week, but the entire harvest. God wants us also to stay through His harvest, all of our lives. He's doing scriptural gleaning for us, refuge in the spiritual body. Verse 22, Name He says to her daughter-in-law, Ruth, Good my daughter, you go out with His maidservants, His maidens, so they don't fall upon you in any other field. Was it unsafe? Perhaps, in some of the fields. Is it unsafe outside the body of Christ? It's difficult. A lot of people try to stay home and do things themselves. It's very difficult.

Verse 23, She stayed close by the young woman, a boaz, to gleam the field till the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest, and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.

So Ruth listened to Boaz. She did what he told her to do, what Naomi said. Ruth, the type of a Christian, stayed with her mother, her mother-in-law, a type of the church. God calls us, and Christ gives us permission to glean in His fields, to understand His word of truth.

He admonishes her not to stray from His field, just as Christ doesn't want us to stray from the church. Do not leave the house of God.

When He says to His young woman that He wants you to be with, meaning fellowship is very important, to be with the people that have God's way.

Stay by the young woman, He says, because it will help you, it will protect you, it will take care of you, and they might correct you, even admonish you, but it's the best place to be with my people, with God's people. Hebrews 10.25, keep your finger on Ruth again.

Where's the best place for us to be? Hebrews 10.25, not forsaking the assembly of yourselves together. This is the manner of some, but enduring one another, and so much the more as we see the day approaching, to help each other, to glean with each other, to share with each other.

Malachi 3.16, it also says a similar thing, to be together. Malachi 3.16, then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another. They talked, and the Lord listened and heard them, so a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on his name.

It's a time for us to stay with the reapers, the assembling, the speaking, working together as gleaners in the same field. It's important. And Boaz warns his young men not to harm her, because she's under his protection. Just as we're under the protection of Christ. How often does God warn us to make sure we care for the flock? Don't abuse our authority. All of us need to be careful with God's people, God's gleaners, for to help one another.

Look at what Boaz is doing for Ruth. Without telling her anything at all, he set it up so she can succeed in her gleaning.

Does God help us succeed? Give us his Holy Spirit, his words, how much do we actually have to do? How much has God done just on his own for us out of his love, out of his mercy, his kindness?

Chapter 3, verse 1, of Ruth, it says, Her mother-in-law Naomi said to her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for you, so it may be well with you? And now is not Boaz of our kindred, he with whose maidens you were? Behold, he winnows barley tonight in the threshing floor.

And she tells her in verse 3 what to do. Therefore, wash yourself, anoint yourself, and put your clothing on you, and go down to the floor. So she's cleaning herself up to go down there. She says, we cleaned up before coming before God. Do not make yourself known to the man until he's finished eating and drinking.

And when he lies down, you mark the place where he lies, and you shall go in and uncover his feet and lie down, and he'll tell you what to do.

My wife would have done that to me in college. I'd have gotten kicked out.

But she didn't, thankfully. Still worked out.

Verse 5, She said to her, all the youth say I will do. She agrees with everything her mother asked her to do. And this is kind of strange. She's a Moabite, doesn't know the customs. And someone came up and said, hey, go down there and lay at this guy's feet and cover yourself with a blanket. That would sound pretty foreign to you. Pretty strange, but she does it.

It's interesting. My wife was like that in college every time they had a forum. I was in Pasadena, I transferred to Pasadena, and I was waiting for her to come. And they wouldn't let her come for a year and a half. And every time they had a forum and said, you shouldn't be going together, I got a Dear John letter. And then I figured out that it was another forum and I'd write her back, talk her back into it. I convinced her we couldn't commit fornication from 1500 miles apart. And so we got back together. But I got several Dear John letters. She was about as innocent as can be. I'll take advantage of that, obviously. But having grown up and knowing all the things like some of the young people at church here.

Verse 6, She went down to the grain floor and did according to her mother-in-law and told her. When Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap. And she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. She did as she was told.

And as it happened at midnight, the man trembled and turned to himself and behold, a woman lay at his feet. And he said, Who are you? And she answered, I am your handmaid Ruth. And you shall spread your skirt over your handmaid, for you are a kinsman redeemer. She's telling him, the law, the customs, at that point. Verse 10, And then he Boaz said, Blessed are you of the Lord, my daughter, for you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning, in that you did not go after young men, whether rich or poor.

She did her duty. She took care of Naomi. She was humble and selfless.

The way we should be is God's people.

Boaz is saying that Ruth, this foreigner, had fulfilled the law, what it's all about. Love God, love your neighbor as yourself. She had asked him to be a redeemer. She had done what the law stated, where it says in Deuteronomy, Go to your kinsman and ask him to redeem you. She had done that. She had gone for this older man Boaz, who had shown her abundant kindness, all along the way. And Boaz answered her in verse 11. And she says, And now my daughter do not fear, I will do all that you ask, for all the city of my people know that you are a woman of virtue. A Moabites, a foreigner, but a woman of virtue.

And now it is true, I am your kinsman redeemer, but there is also a kinsman nearer than I.

See, the firstborn has the right to redeem. It has to be a blood relationship.

And he says to her, Stay tonight, and it shall be in the morning. If he will redeem you, well, he will redeem. And if he does not delight to redeem you, as God lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning.

And she laid his feet till morning, and she rose before anyone could know one another. It was dark. And he said, he told her, Don't let it be known that a woman came to the floor. Don't tell anyone.

And he said, Bring the veil that was on you, and hold it. When she held it, he measured out six measures of barley. She had a scarf, kind of like he wrapped stuff up into it. And he put six measures of barley into that.

And she went to the city. He knew that Naomi wouldn't understand. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, Who are you, my daughter? Because it was dark still. She told her, All the man had done to her. And she said, These six measures of barley he gave to me. For he said to me, Don't go empty to your mother-in-law. And verse 18, Naomi says, Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will fall. For the man will not rest until he has finished that thing today.

Christ, in Matthew 26, 29, said, I'll not drink with you again until the kingdom comes.

And he wants to drink it new with you and me and his father's kingdom. Philippians 1.6 also says, Be confident in this very thing that he who has begun to work and you shall complete it. In the day of Jesus Christ.

It's like Naomi had said that, Boaz, he'll complete this today.

Ruth was a beautiful woman in character, probably beautiful, physically as well. Boaz thought it a great honor that she had come to him and asked him to redeem her. She had gone above and beyond. As he said, you've done more now and than you did in the beginning.

She didn't lose her first love, God, in the way of God's people.

Christ would love to see us go above and beyond to do that much the way Ruth did. Christ would love to see us do more at the end than at the beginning because he wants to present us blameless before God. And he says he does that several three or four places. He presents us to God. Faultless. Most people do show a first love than it wanes. Christ wants to see us grow and zeal. That first love. And Ruth impressed Boaz. And Boaz fed her and took care of her. And as Jesus said, I'm the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall never hunger. Ruth never hungered with Boaz.

Chapter 4 now shows the redemption of Naomi and Ruth, the Redeemer and near kinsmen.

When Israel became God's by redemption, we understand that by creation, He created it. We could trust Him to deliver us. And Israel trusted God. We can also count on God today as our Redeemer. He made us. And He's going to act to deliver us.

Verse 1 of chapter 4.

Boaz went up to the gate on the side of all, and he sat down there. He wasn't ashamed. He was seen by everybody. And behold, the kinsmen of whom Boaz spoke came by. He didn't even give his name. And he said, such a one, turn aside, sit down here. Come here. I'm going to talk to you. Sit down right here. And he did. He sat down. And he took 10 men of the elders of the city and said, come sit down here. And they sat down. Why? He wanted witnesses to this, because you needed witnesses. If you want to read about how you redeemed someone, you can write down, Deuteronomy 25 verses 5 through 10. It talks about what you have to do to be redeemed, taking your shoe off and all those things. In fact, even more than taking your shoe off, it says to take your shoe off and spit in the person's face. Doesn't happen here in Ruth, but that's what it says in Deuteronomy. So the man got off easy in this case.

So he took 10 men of the elders and said, sit down. And they were witnesses. And he said to the kinsmen, verse 3, Naomi, who has come again out of the country of Moab, sells a parcel of land, which was our brother, Elimelechs.

So she's selling it.

And I said, I will tell it in your ear, saying, buy it before those who live here and before the elders of my people. If you redeem it, redeem it. But if you'll not redeem it, tell me so I may know. There is none to redeem besides you and I am after you.

It's interesting because the man's thinking, wow, a piece of land. And that'd be good for the family. So he wants to buy it. So what does he say? He says, I will redeem it. Oops. Is that why God had mine? The other kinsmen is going to redeem it?

Oh, Boaz says, oh, by the way, verse 5, Boaz says, you know, in the day that you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must also buy also from the hand of Ruth of Moab, the Moabites, the foreigner, the one that you're not supposed to have in your camp for 10 generations and the one that led you to fornication and other gods. The wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance. You want the land, you can't take the woman.

And the kinsmen said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar my own inheritance. You redeem my right to yourself, for I can't redeem it.

It didn't want her. It didn't want to mar it with the Moabites.

God and Christ do want us.

Whatever genealogy or heredity or ethnicity we have.

Verse 7, this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing. To confirm anything, a man plucked off his sandal and gave it to his neighbor, and it was a testimony in Israel. Therefore, the kinsmen said to Boaz, buy it for yourself. So he drew off his sandal. And Boaz said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was a limalex and all that was chilians and malons from the hand of Naomi. And also Ruth of Moab, the wife of Malon, I have purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, so that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gates of this place.

Are we not dead without Jesus Christ? Are we not dead unless he redeems us?

You are witnesses this day, he says in verse 10. And all the people in the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. May God make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, for those too built the house of Israel. And may you be blessed in Epitha and be famous in Bethlehem. Turn to Luke 24. We'll go back to Ruth in a minute. Luke 24, verse 45.

He opens their mind to understand the Scriptures. Christ is often in their mind to understand. He says to them, so it is written, so it behoove Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sin should be proclaimed in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things.

Witnesses again. And behold, I send the promise of my Father on you. But you sit in the city of Jerusalem until your clothed with power from on high, till it comes, the Holy Spirit. He led them out of farce Bethany and lifted up his hands and blessed them. And as he blessed them, he withdrew from them and was carried into heaven.

He had died, was resurrected. He told them to wait. You're going to have the Spirit. It's going to come.

And I'm redeeming you. And you're witnesses of this. Back to Ruth 4, verse 12.

Boaz had purchased Ruth, redeemed her.

Verse 13.

Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife. And when he went to her, God made her conceive, and she bore a son. And the woman said to Naomi, this woman whose name meant pleasant, who she thought she was cursed, her name should be Mara, bitter.

But God had worked it out, to his plan.

Blessed be God, who has not left you this day without a Redeemer, so that his name may be famous in Israel. And he shall be to you as a restorer of life, and one who cheers your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you has borne him.

She bore a son.

And it says in verse 15, verse I read to my daughter a lot when she was little, she who is better to you than seven sons, Ruth, Amoebaethis, a foreigner.

And Naomi took the child and laid in her bosom, and became a nurse to it. It was like her own son.

She cared for it. And the woman, her neighbors, gave it a name, saying there is a son more than Naomi, and they called him Obed. He's the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Then it goes on to the genealogy.

Boaz acted as the Old Testament kinsman-redeemer. His actions were based on the levered law in Deuteronomy 25, that a near-kismen had to be a blood relative. And Christ became our brother by birth to be a human and by the Holy Spirit, by God giving us the Holy Spirit.

Christ is the firstborn of many brethren. It says in 1 Corinthians 1, 26.

And as the firstborn of many brethren, He has the right to redeem us. That's the closest relative. And the kinsman also had to have money to purchase the forfeited inheritance.

Boaz was a wealthy man. He purchased it. Christ gave the whole world. He created it. That was His.

And He paid the price for us. He purchased us. The inheritance so that we wouldn't have to die.

Christ created the world and gave His life. God is often portrayed as Israel's redeemer.

He's near-kismen because as a Creator, He redeemed all of us. He could pay that price. In Exodus 6, we read in verse 5, God's talking to the Israelites because coming out of Egypt was another redemption that Christ showed.

In Exodus 6, verse 5, God says, I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant. We were in bondage to sin before Christ forgave us. Wherefore, say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will rid you of their bondage. I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm with great judgments. And I will take you to me for a people. I will be to you a God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, which brings you from out of the burdens of the Egyptians.

Mrs. Ruth told Naomi, your people are my people, your God is my God.

God redeemed Israel. Boaz redeemed Naomi. Christ redeems us as church, His people.

Ruth carried burdens, but she chose God's way. And God blessed her. God accepted Ruth. I am sure there was talk about Ruth, the Moabites, the foreigner, just as we see in all countries, strangers, who are looked at. And I am sure there was lots of whispering. And the other New Yorkians would adopt redeemer.

In the early New Testament church, they had a problem with Gentiles. It was not surprising that the Jews would be skeptical about foreigners. They were looking at what we read in Deuteronomy. They did not let certain people in. The covenant forbade certain people to come and worship and assemble with God. Yet God accepted Ruth, just as He accepts you and me and all the Moabites, the people who have sinned into His church, if they repent, if they truly choose God and choose Christ as their redeemer. God accepts all who fear Him and do what is right, regardless of race or national origin.

Acts 10, 34, when Peter was sent to Cornelius. He didn't want to go. Of course, he had the vision and the unclean animals and things. He's told by God that, don't make anything unclaimed that I've made plain, referring to people. Verse 34, in Acts 10, Peter opened his mouth and said of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. He doesn't care if you're a Moabite, an Israelite, a foreigner. But in every nation that fears Him, and works righteousness, is accepted with Him.

If you work righteousness, you're accepted.

God's Spirit has been available from that day of Pentecost after Christ's resurrection to all who truly repent and are baptized. We celebrate Pentecost every year as an annual reminder of that Spirit. It's also a reminder of our redemption that Christ redeemed us by His Holy Spirit to make us His brothers so that He could redeem us as the first of kin. Turn to Ephesians 2, if you would, because we want to be accepted by Him.

Ephesians 2, Ephesians 2, verse 11, it says, Therefore, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, Moabites, so to speak, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision, the covenant people, made by the flesh with hands, a circumcision, that at the time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in this world.

Ruth wasn't redeemed until she ended up in the field, and as a wife to Boaz.

Before Ruth met Naomi, she had no clue about Israel, or Israel's God, or Israel's ways. She was a Gentile. She was a foreigner. She was an alien from the covenant. She didn't know. She was out of it altogether. She was like Michelle. She didn't have a clue. What's a Gentile? Which half? What am I? Going back to verse 13, Ephesians 2. But now in Christ Jesus, you who are once far 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, having abolished in His flesh the enmity. He's taken our sins so we can go to God. He puts us back in touch with God because He takes our sin to Himself, which is what's cut us off. It's what made us foreigners, what made us Moabites, our sins.

Go back up to verse 4, Ephesians 2. But God, who is rich in mercy, takes wealth. Because of His great love, which He has loved us, even when we were dead in trespass, made us alive together with Christ, and were saved by that grace, and 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. Think of all those things that Boaz heaped on Ruth, the extra grain, the extra fields, the protection, the water. That in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and the kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

We were like Ruth. We were unbecoming of being God's children. We were estranged from the covenant through our sins. We were breaking God's law, but He in His mercy plucked us up, allowed us to glean in His field and grafted us into His church. He redeemed us.

Remember that God does call whoever He will. He knows who and when. Who is called? Ruth, the Moabites, who was joined to the church. She had strived strongly, faithfully, to fulfill the terms of the covenant that she didn't grow up with, that she had to learn. And she married an Israelite, Boaz, a type of Christ. We do the same thing. We make a solemn baptism, an oath, that God is our God. And we want to be the bride of Christ. Betrolled to Him.

We're asked to be part of the covenant people. We want to be covered by Christ's skirts, as Boaz covered Ruth.

And he wipes away our past. We're part of the family.

We're part of the congregation. And we're at one with the rest of the body of Christ, the Israel of God, the church, part of His family, the family of Elimelech, God who is King.

Ruth and Israelite because of her character. She was more Israelite because of her character than most all the Israelites were.

God accepts people who are righteous. Boaz had no problem taking her to be her wife.

Ruth was not born in the church. She learned it.

Christ has no problem taking us as His bride. When we repent and are converted and receive the Holy Spirit, all our past is forgiven. We're claimed. We become part of the congregation. A new man, part of the natural olive tree, part of the God family. That's what He wants. We're begotten or part of that. Ruth shows that in God's sight, that is conversion to God's way of life, is incomparably more important than your ethnicity or your history.

Ruth is a Gentile.

It's what God had in mind all the time to save the whole world, even though she was a Boabitis, even though her family tree had led Israel to strike, even though it seemed that you shouldn't want to be married to a Moabitis. You're no longer that when you're redeemed. You become part of God's Church. And the Gentiles that weren't physically part of the covenant can be part of the covenant because Christ died to save all mankind. And He had that door open to all who are willing to come under the covenant. To understand that, and all these things, it says in Romans 15, were written for us.

Before, for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. And we have that hope.

Hebrews 11, 13, Scripture that's read constantly in the faith chapter. These all died in faith, not having received the promises. They're there, though. Having seen them far off, persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Just as Ruth was a stranger and pilgrim, but she embraced the covenant people and their law. For they that say such things declare plainly they seek a country. If they had been mindful of that country from where they came, they might have had opportunity to return. And Sorpa returned to her people and to her gods. But Ruth said, no, your people are my people and your God is my God.

But now they desire a better country, a heavenly one, where God is not ashamed to be called their God. As Boaz wasn't ashamed to marry Ruth. For he is prepared for them a city. He's not ashamed to be our kinsman redeemer, to redeem us. And we do have hope, as long as we're in God's spiritual body, His Church.

We have hope to return to redemption, that Christ is our Redeemer. And we have hope in that soon-coming return, in the wedding supper, in the marriage to Christ. Christ alone had the work to pay for all humanity, to be the kinsman redeemer. And He had to be willing to buy back the inheritance, which He was, by His own life.

He laid out His life of His own free will. Just as Boaz didn't have to redeem Ruth, He did it of His own free will. The kinsman had to be willing to marry the wife of the deceased relative. Christ is willing to marry us and have that bridegroom relationship with the Church.

The Holy Spirit came to Christ's disciples on that day of Pentecost, some 2,000 years ago, nearly. One of the functions of the Holy Spirit is to bind us. It's the body of Christ. To make us spiritual brothers and sisters. Doesn't matter your race. Doesn't matter your gender. Doesn't matter your ethnicity. Doesn't matter at all. Everyone who receives God's Holy Spirit is baptized in the Church. He's redeemed by Christ.

He redeemed us with His blood and made us as brothers and sisters. Since He's the firstborn, our next of kin, He has the right to redeem us. And He chooses to do so happily. Thankfully.

Ruth made herself ready. She purified herself. She listened. She did what she was told. And as we think about being first-fruits, let us use God's Holy Spirit to help us to overcome, to make ourselves ready, to truly love God above all else, to love our neighbor as ourselves. Let God be, and let Christ be, your kinsmen redeemer. Because that's what it's all about.