Lessons from the Book of Ruth

Good afternoon to all of you and to anyone tuning in. People on the beach. It was raining there and it was nice and dry until we got to 100 yards in the building and then it poured down rain on us. I guess we were two minutes late. Good to be with you. I appreciate Mr. Antion asking me to join him.

I have a full-time job working with ABC, but I certainly love doing it and being part of the program and young people. In the past, teaching at the college is always refreshing to be with young people. It makes you feel young. But eventually you get old. I let my kids say, Dad, you're getting old. And that happens to us all, unfortunately. But someday we won't get old or at least we won't feel it. That's good. I was going to give a sermon this morning. I gave a couple of the ABC students and a few people probably heard it online. It's the hard part of giving sermons. In Cincinnati, you never know what people have tuned in and listened and heard part of it. So you're trying to come up with a new sermon every time you speak is always challenging, especially if you never pastured. So you don't have that 30 years worth of drawers full of sermons. But it's fun. We all have years of experience to work with and things to go.

My sermon I was giving today is about the book of Ruth. I gave it back from Pentecost time. It came about because we often ask ourselves and we wonder why God calls us. And my voice just got deeper. Do that again. That makes me feel good. And you ask yourself, why did he call me? And why did he call you? Many of the middle-aged people here are younger, or kind of like me.

In the sense, all my memory of my life has been in the church. Even though my dad was never in the church, he died when I was four. And so I don't remember anything other than the truth. And it's different. If you're born into the church, you wonder, do God want me or do you want my parents? And when I was young, we didn't understand first Corinthians the same way we do now about being sanctified through your parents.

So you always wanted that great calling that the old-timers, when I was a kid, would talk about finding a magazine in the trash can or hearing the broadcast at 2 in the morning or whatever. None of that happened to me. In fact, my worst time in college was trying to find a difficult Scripture sermonette because none of them seemed difficult. I had to learn Protestantism so I could give sermons on it, which is sad. But it's also good because you start out with the truth. You don't have to unlearn anything, which is nice.

My wife is very different than that, though. My wife, she knows God called her because she wasn't born in the church. In fact, she came to Ambassador College. I was a sophomore, she was a freshman. And she came to college not knowing anything about the truth at all. In fact, she was planning to go home for Christmas. And everybody went on Friday night and Saturday because that was her back-under. It was so different. She grew up as a Lutheran. Well, Catholics think Lutherans are just rebellious Catholics, which is pretty close to the truth. But it was interesting because they couldn't explain the Trinity to her. She asked, she was about 15-16, she was asking these questions that the minister couldn't answer.

Finally, she just told her it's a mystery. You can't understand it, just take it on faith. Well, she didn't know that kind of faith. So, she had a Baptist friend who was a really nice guy and took her to her Baptist church. And they had an altar call that night. She went down the altar call and they were going to baptize her the next day.

And that night she felt, this is just emotion, this isn't anything. And so she called the minister and said, I'm not coming tomorrow, I changed my mind. So she never got baptized by them. Her dad had lost his job at Bendix. He worked 19 years and got laid off. So, Michelle had graduated from high school and wanted to go to college. Her parents didn't have any money to speak of to go to an expensive school.

And they were concerned because of the 60s and the immorality and godlessness and things. It's worse today than it was then, but it was bad then. And so her grandmother, who had just come to the church, had an envoy and mailed the envoy to her parents. Well, the envoy didn't really talk about the Sabbath and Holy Days, any of that. It was basically the college for people and students. They had a farm and her parents were into nutrition and health and raw milk. And so, man, this is a lovely school. Hey, a work program!

She could pay her own way. That's even better. So they decided she could go to Ambassador College. And so she came there, like I said, not knowing her grandmother kind of left out those parts of the truth. And while she was there, she started trying to figure out what it was all about. But it was interesting. God knows who He calls and why. And traditionally, the Jewish people have always read the book of Ruth around Pentecost time. And because it concerns the harvest, the Feast of First Fruits. And so they read it then.

But it's in Egliticus 23 to verse 22. Of course, verses 15 through 22 talk about Pentecost and counting. But the end of that verse, 22, it says, When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not make clean riddance of the corners of your field when you reap. Neither shall you gather any gleaning of your harvest. You shall leave them to the poor and to the stranger. I am the Lord your God.

And of course, gleaning was a matter of you plowed and you harvested, and you left those sections there for people to be able to gather. And so Ruth was read at this time, too, because she was a gleaner and is part of the harvest. But there's even more to it than that. God's people are called the firstfruits. And of course, Pentecost is the Feast of Firstfruits. And God says in James 1.18 of his own will, he begat us as a type of his firstfruits of his creation.

And so we are the firstfruits of God, and so there's a lot of meaning in that. And so, Ruth, even though the Jewish people don't necessarily understand what Pentecost truly means because they don't accept Christ, they do read the book at that time. And so we look to Ruth, we look at her background, and you've got to ask yourself in one way the same question I asked to start, is, why did God call Ruth as such?

Because Ruth is about redemption. It's a wonderful book about love and about kindness. And it shows many of the Old Covenant laws in the book, but in reality it's a book about the New Covenant. It says an awful lot about the New Covenant promises, if you really understand what it's about. If you read the book, you see God's hands in Ruth's life. And everything that happens there, God is dealing with her, although she doesn't know that.

And, in fact, it'll be interesting when she reads her own book when she's resurrected, to see what she thinks of what happened at that time, how much she would not know that we know about her. But it talks about God's hand in Ruth's life, but not only hers, but Naomi, her mother-in-law, Boaz, and her family. And you look at her life, and you realize that God was dealing with her. And you should look at your life and realize that God is dealing with you.

And all those things that you may think are time and chance, were they really? Time and chance. It should bring encouragement as you see what God does, in spite of the hardships, the things we all go through. There are many, many things. The highs and lows in life hit all of us in different ways. And so I'm going to go to book a roof and think about what God did in your life, why you think about what He did in hers.

The historical setting for Ruth is around 1100 B.C., the time of the Judges, period of Samson and Gideon and Delilah, and all those things that we read about.

It was an interesting time because Israel always deserted God, and then they'd cry out to God and come back to Him. And there's a lot of suffering that happened during that time, and then repentance of a sort, then going away from God.

But Ruth is very interesting for many reasons. The most interesting to me is the fact that Ruth ethnically was a Moabite. She was not an Israelite, per se, even though she was distantly related to Abraham through Lot, her ancestor. And we know the story of Lot, where the Moabites came from. You all know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. They were so morally corrupt that God decided to destroy it.

And Lot, of course, was Abraham's nephew, and Abraham wanted to spare his nephew, and God set the angels down and told him to leave the town. Which He did with His wife and two daughters. The rest of His children stayed in Sodom and Gomorrah and did not come. Of course, His wife looked back longingly and turned into pillar of salt. And then His two daughters fled, and they thought, I don't know if they thought there were no more men around or what, exactly.

But they wanted to bring up seed to their father. You can read the story in Genesis 19. But it's interesting because they decide to get their father drunk. The one night the older daughter goes in, the next night the younger daughter goes in.

You know, they get him drunk two nights in a row. And Lot's always a fun story for me because when you don't think he can make it, just read about righteous Lot. And you think, wow, if he could repent and go through what he did, then there's hope for the rest of us. But it's interesting because they sleep with their father. They both get pregnant. And the one is the father of the children of Ammon, the Ammonites, and the other is the father of the children of Moabites.

And it's interesting because I think we really need to look at the background of Ruth a little bit to understand why Ruth is so peculiar in the sense. Go to Numbers 25, verse 1, if you would, because Numbers gives a little background of the daughters of Moab. As Israel was there, it says, The people began to fornicate with the daughters of Moab. Now, that's not a good thing. We all know that. And verse 2, even worse, And they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the anger of God was kindled against Israel.

Okay, so that's two strikes. You have fornication and obeying other gods, turning to false gods. So Ruth didn't grow up worshipping the God of Israel. That wasn't her God. She had a pretty tough genealogical history to overcome to be part of Israel.

And the setting, of course, is in Bethlehem, where this takes place, most of the book. And it's interesting, because that's where Jesse and David come from, obviously, and live, where Christ was born. But Ruth was a Moabite. It's a foreigner. And in fact, her name is mentioned 12 times in the book. And five of the times, it's not just Ruth, but it's Ruth the Moabite.

It's Ruth the foreigner. It's always acciding the fact, very specifically, that her non-Israelites heritage is being expressed specifically. Her status was an alien. She was a stranger, not one of the, quote-unquote, covenant people in that. And so we see that through the entire book. And why is this? Well, go to Deuteronomy 23. Let's take another look at a little more of her ancestry and the history of what God said about Moabites.

Because there are certain people that were excluded from the congregation of Israel. Deuteronomy 23.3 says, Why? Verse 4, Nevertheless, the Lord your God did not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you. So you shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever.

So it seemed like Israelites didn't really care a whole lot, and God didn't want the mixing with the Moabites very much there. But it's interesting. Michelle, when she came to Ambassador, I said she, you know, she was like most Protestants. They don't know their Bible that well.

And especially Lutherans and Catholics. And so she was able to read her file when she was at the end of her freshman year. And in her file, she read that she was part Gentile. Now, she didn't know what that meant. She didn't. She that she was part Gentile. She came to me. And since I knew everything, I could take advantage of the situation. But it was funny because she wondered which part of her was Gentile.

Arms, legs, what exactly does this mean? Didn't know it was kind of an insult at the time. But it was fascinating. And I explained to her, she wondered if she had to marry somebody who's part Gentile. So she don't know what I was. And of course, I'm sure Israelite, obviously. But then I told her, no, it was fine. She could marry me. So it worked out. But again, her background was a little different than mine. And so it was interesting to look at Ruth and wonder, you know, how did Ruth come into contact?

How was this happened? That God accepted her. And so, but God did accept Ruth. In fact, by the end of the book of Ruth, you read all these wonderful praises of her. And then she's even mentioned in Matthew in Christ's genealogy where it talks about Rahab and Ruth, two Gentiles. And the third one, the wife of Uriah. It doesn't even say Bathsheba's name, even though she's Israelite.

So it's interesting. So why was Ruth then able to come into the congregation of Israel? You've got to ask yourself that because God says, don't wish him peace or prosperity and don't even let him into the 10th generation. And it wasn't 10 generations yet, even. And so this is there. So turn to the book of Ruth now that you have some background, and we'll look at that. Always enjoy the fact that Ruth, we have a term for people that are unkind, and it's called Ruth-less. But it's just pretty good because Ruth was probably one of the kindest people you could read about in the Bible.

And the book is a lot about kindness, obviously. In Ruth 1, 1, it says, Now, why was there famine in the land? Obviously, again, Israel disobeyed, as they had so many times, and God removed the blessings from them, the rain and dew season, etc. And in Israel, you have to have rain, or you don't have any crops, because there's no natural rivers there to speak of, other than the Jordan, which isn't that large. And God allowed these disasters and things to occur. And so God obviously allowed this famine, and He may have even caused this to happen. We don't really know. But we've got to wonder if He caused this. Was it a circumstance, or was it something that God had in mind and planned? You know, it's like I asked, was it a circumstance that Michelle's grandmother sent an envoy to her family? Or was it something that God had planned? And what is it in our life? You know, what envoys, quote-unquote, in your life came that brought you to where you are in your life? But anyway, it says there was a famine there, and God caused the Alemolek and his family to go to Moab in verse 2. So the name of the man was Alemolek, which means God is king. It's the name of the meaning of His name. The name of His wife was Naomi, which means prosperity or sweetness. And the name of His two sons was Malon and Chileon.

And so they came to Moab. In verse 3, Alemolek, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left in her two sons. And I can relate to that, because my dad died, my mom had two little boys, and we were told to move to Big Sandy. And so at age 4, I moved to Big Sandy in 1955-56. And so, you know, it's a tough road to hoe. You're a woman with a couple of small boys.

But anyway, it says in verse 4 that they took them wives of Moab. The name of the one wife was Orpah, the name of the other was Ruth. And they dwelled there about 10 years. So obviously the boys were probably teenagers when he died or something, and they married. And Malon and Chileon died, both of them. And the woman was left of her two sons and her husband, so she was in law, just with her two daughters-in-law. Verse 6, she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab.

Now why did she go there? Because of a famine. Why did she come back? For she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited his people by giving them bread. So the famine's over. He seemed to have caused the famine, and he seemed to have eliminated the famine. And now Ruth and Naomi are returning as widows. No men coming with them. This seemed to be worked out by God. Verse 7, she went out of the place where she was, her two daughters-in-law with her.

They went on their way and returned to the land of Judah. Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go return to your mother's house. May God deal kindly with you as you have dealt with me and with the dead. What she's doing here is asking God to bless them because they were kind to her and good. She wanted these two Moabite women to be happy and to continue with their families.

She knew they had done right by her and their husbands. She was asking God to bless them. In verse 9, May God grant that you find rest, each in the house of her husband. She kissed them and they all cried. You imagine these three women sitting there crying. They loved each other and she was trying to have them go back. They loved her and they said to her, No, surely we'll return with your people.

We'll go back with you. Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters. Will you go with me? Are there sons in my womb that may be your husbands? If a man died without leaving an heir, then the nearest family would marry her and raise up family.

That was part of that. She said, Am I going to have more sons for you to marry? She said, I'm too old to have a husband. Even if I should, if I had a husband tonight and bear sons, would you wait for them to be regrown? You're going to be 20 years older than they are, by the time they're married. She said, Will you shut yourselves up and not have a husband?

No, my daughters. It makes me sad for your sake that the hand of God has gone out against me. Her thoughts. I've been cursed. God took my husband. He took my two sons. It was her thoughts, but it wasn't God's thoughts. And oftentimes, things happen in our lives. We think, Oh, I'm cursed. It's not something that is good, but we don't see it the way God sees it. So, verse 14, they lift up their voices and wept again.

Orpik kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clunged her. The mother-in-law said, Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. You go back, too. It's interesting. Michelle, when she came to college, she sat with a Catholic friend of hers. And every Friday night, they would sit and talk about all the things they had heard in Bible class that Michelle was learning and their Catholic friend was not believing.

And she finally told Michelle, did you realize that what they're saying is that all these other churches are wrong and they're right? Michelle said, Yeah, that's what they're saying. And her friend laughed at the semester break. On back, Ruth and the legend of her gods, she told her friends in the dorm, she said, Don't let Michelle go back. She may go back because she's lonely or homesick or Mrs. May, but she believes this stuff, so don't let her go.

I think about that, and it's interesting because Ruth says in verse 16, she says, Don't ask me to leave you. Or to turn back from following you, for wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people. Your God, my God, where you die, I will die. And there will I be buried. This is pretty strong oath, she's about to say now.

The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death, parts you and me. When her mother-in-law saw she was determined to go with her, she quit asking her to go back. Let her realize that's where she was. It's interesting because she was a woman. It would be hard for her to enter the congregation. She couldn't be circumcised, obviously, to become part of Israel.

But what she did was make a solemn oath. She renounced her gods. She renounced her people. She renounced everything that she had been to become something different. Your people, all the members of your church, are going to be my people, my church. I've left my people. I've taken your people as mine. And most importantly, your gods will be my God. One and the same. So here they go now. They're going together, verse 19. Both went to Bethlehem. And it happened that they came to Bethlehem. The city was moved about them. And they said, is this Naomi? And she said, don't call me Naomi.

Don't call me prosperity. Don't call me sweetness. Call me marx. Bitter. That means for the mighty has dealt very bitterly with me. Where are the gods? Not that gods do something wonderful or great. But bitter. I went out full and God has brought me back at me. Why did Naomi nail me on this? God has crucified against me. The mighty has addicted me.

That's the way we say it at times. Because the bad do happen. But how do we use them? How does God use those things? So name returns, verse 22 of 1, and not just Ruth, Moabite, Carter-in-Law, with her, who returned to the country of Moabite and came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the harvest. That was when Pentecost was, after the way she fought the offering. We couldn't harvest until after that, so we know the timing of that. In chapter 2, we're introduced now to Boaz, which is going to be Ruth's Redeemer, a type of Christ, our Redeemer.

Verse 1, it says, there's a relative of Naomi's husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech. Again, God is king, family. And his name is Boaz. Boaz meaning him as strength. Which, of course, Christ has all the strength in the world for us. So Ruth the Moabite, again, not Ruth. You'd think after they told her what she was, they'd quit doing that. But Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, please let me go to the field and glean heads of the grain after him and whose side I might find favor.

She doesn't know where she's going to go. She knows about gleaning, obviously, and it's the two women, and they haven't got anything. So they're going to get some food. And she says, can I go out and glean? I'll just go out there and tap onto some field, and hopefully somebody will lead me to where I can get some food for us and to find some favor with someone. And so Naomi says to her, go, my daughter.

So she left and went and gleaned after the Reapers. And she happened to come upon the field belonging to Boaz, who was the family of Elimelech.

Now, again, it says she happened upon. But you've got to ask yourself, does she really happen upon Boaz's field? Oftentimes, God's like that. He lets you think you happened upon something when Elimelech wasn't much planned. But you didn't know about it. And so God seemed to be working for these two people because he wanted to bring them together. This woman and this man, Ruth, a type of the church, or a Christian, and Boaz, a type of Christ, who redeems us. And he wants us to learn something from all this experience that he's telling us in this book. And it's interesting. I know Mr. Armstrong always quoted John 644, No man can come to me unless the Father draws me, who sent me draws him. And I'll raise him up the last day. How many times are people called? They don't really know it. Ruth is obviously being called here to be part of the genealogy of Christ and to be part of the Bible. And God calls us, but when God called me, I didn't hear this voice from heaven saying, Aaron, this is God. I'm calling you. Please come into my church. I mean, none of you had that either. And if you did, you probably ought to talk to someone. But I've never heard voices, at least not without people in front of them. But you really need to... But that's the way God works. He doesn't let you know what's going to lead you down this path, and you wonder. So there's not a random act that we see here probably aren't so random. They're probably not so random in your life. Just like I don't believe the envoy was random in my wife's life. So God wanted this woman as part of His people. And so if they weren't brought together, we wouldn't have had King David and Christ's lineage the way it is. It probably wasn't random. We want it to be. And we'll notice all the things that Boaz does, and you can compose the things that Christ does as well as His people. So in verse 4, Boaz came to the Lamb and said, He's with you. Boaz said to the servant who is the reaper's. Whose woman is this? So the servant charged of the reaper's answer and said, It's the young Moabite woman that came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. Okay? You've got to wonder something about this kind of insult, you know? That's the way people are. But it's interesting because the servant's in charge of the reaper's, and there obviously has to be people that are the people that help to understand how people come from them. And they're necessary to the spiritual congregation of the Reapers. Again, that's Emily, she's not an Israelite. But Ruth said, Please let me know you can gather after the Reapers among the sheaves.

She was asking for the lowest position you could possibly have in Israel. This is for the poor and for the stranger. And it was interesting because she's showing her humility here. Can I just be among the poorest of the poor, you know, to help to glean some food? And she asked for that lowest seat, for the leftovers, so to speak. Kind of like the lady who took the crumbs, who went to Christ, and she said, The dogs eat the crumbs off the master's table.

She was willing to show the humility that, Look, I don't want any special, just let me glean. So she came and continued to morning till now, it says, Though she rested a little while. She'd worked diligently through the day. Verse 8, Boaz said to Ruth, Do you not hear me, my daughter? Don't go glean in another field. Don't go away from here. Stay close to my maidens. Boaz is basically saying, Listen to me. And do what I say. Just like Christ told His disciples to listen to Him.

And she's saying, Listen to my daughter. Like Christ said, My sheep hear My voice. And so, she's listening to Boaz. He says, Listen on, Let your family on the field, Let your family reap, and go after them. Do not command the young men, and not touch them. And when they are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink, that which the young men have drawn. So Boaz is saying to Ruth, Don't go anywhere else. Don't go from here. Stay close. By my women, by my servants, by my people.

Don't go after others. Kind of like Christ. We're supposed to stay close to God, and to Christ, and to fellowship with His people. And when you're thirsty, He tells her to go drink the vessels of water that my men drew. So I'm going to give you water. It's kind of like Christ, when He gave us the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. He said, Wait, I'm going to give you something. Just hold fast.

It's coming. And so Boaz gives the symbol of the Holy Spirit to Ruth. Water. Notice the parallel from John 7.37. Keep your finger and Ruth there. In John 7.37, when Christ is talking about the water, He says, The last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, then to me and drink, do you believe that as the Spirit of the Spirit has said, that his heart will fill the rivers of living water? The folk of this concert, who was believed in the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, and Jesus was not yet glorified. He wants us to drink free of His water, of the Holy Spirit.

How does the water benefit? What does it do to the water? It gives her encouragement, gives her strength. It allows her to do more gleaning than she could have done otherwise. She had to go to town to get water or food, and it enabled her also to have a constant contact with us. She'd go back to the city, she could stay right there.

Didn't have to go away from Him. She could send the reapers, the gleaners, and the young men, and be refreshed and straight. She could stay right there, and everything she needed, right there. He supplied the food, He supplied the drink, He supplied the work, and He supplied Himself to her.

So here we see a type of the Holy Spirit given to us, where Christ gives it to us and applies Himself and His services to us as well. Verse 10, Ruth falls on her face, bows to the ground, and says to him, Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner? Why did you pay? Why did God pick us? Same question. She knew Boaz did not have to do any of that. He gave her only additional bow as well.

Look at what Christ gave us, and the grace of the Lord gave us. And by her soul, as answered to her, it has been fully shown to all you have done in mother-in-law, as the death of your husband. That you left your father and your mother. You left your birth. You come, you did not go before her. She was preaching her strength, her lenity, even a foreigner.

She blessed her. The people you did not know. She had been doing her obligation to God and to her mother. And he says in verse 12, The Lord repay you your work, and a full reward be given to you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge. Isn't Christ our refuge? The church our refuge as well. And Ruth said, Let me find favor in your sight, my Lord, for you have comforted me. You have spoken kindly to your maidservant, for I am not like one of your maidservants.

She acknowledges she is a modest, a fool, not an alan, a woman, which didn't help her at all. Just like Christ, who died for our sins, we didn't need it. We were strangers. And He comforts us. He speaks kindly to us. Let us be His brother or sister. He's our older brother and sister. And she wants that favor. Boaz says to her, The mealtime come here and eat of the bread and dip your bit in the vinegar.

She sat beside the reaper. She kind of upgraded now from a gleaner to a reaper. She was right there, and he handed her grain directly from him. She sat beside him and took food directly from him. Her mastery was passing her food. She rose up to the glean. Boaz commanded these young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves. Don't stop her. Let her come out here where we're actually picking up the real stuff. Let her take some of that. And also, let the handfuls fall purposely for her and leave them so she may glean. Don't stop her. So she gleaned the field till he beat out what she had gleaned, and it was a bit of an ephoe, partly.

This was good at it. Now she's going to go back to Naomi and tell what happened. It's interesting because Boaz didn't tell Ruth to come out here and do this. He just told his people, let a little extra drop. Let her have some more.

How many times has God not let us know when he's dropping something off for us? Hopefully we recognize it. So she tells her mother-in-law, in verse 21, Ruth, the nudges Ruth, Ruth the Moabideth, said, He also said to me, You shall stay close to my young men, until they have finished my harvest. Naomi knew what this meant. So he didn't only say, Stay in my field and glean with my reakers, but stay here for the entire harvest. Not a day, not a week, not a month or whatever, but the entire harvest.

Stay here. God wants us through the entire harvest as well. He wants us to glean spiritually from Him as much as we possibly can. He says to her, Let us do spiritual gleanings from Him, rather than His body.

He says to her, Father-in-law, That's good, martyr. In Matthew 22, you meet with the maidens, so that they don't tell you in any other field. Again, you've got to ask yourself, Is this safe in any other field? Sometimes we get away from God's people, and God, it's not that safe out there. A lot of people go through different difficulties, and we pray that they find their way back, and some do. Some don't. But it's safer. Verse 22, Stay close to the young Moabos, and the end of the harvest, and the wheat harvest, both harvests, and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.

So Ruth listened to Boaz. She listened to what he said, and she listened to what her mother-in-law said. Ruth, the type of a Christian, stayed with her mother-in-law, the type of the church. And God calls us, and He's given us permission to glean in His field. And tell us not to stray from it. Stay. Don't leave the house of God. It's like God says, Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. We need the strength and courage of each other and the protection. Fellowship is important. And so she's staying by the young woman.

Why? Because they'll help you. They'll protect you. The young men are there. And they might correct it and admonish you, but it's the best place to be. Because that's what each of us needs. And we know that. So we look at all the things that Boaz is doing for Ruth, and we have to realize that with each other we have to be careful. When Boaz tells the young men not to harm her because he's under his protection, how often do we see God warning his shepherds and his people to take care of the flock, to don't abuse authority?

To be honest and straightforward, all of us need to be careful with God's people. Because we're God's gleaners. And he wants to take care of us. And we're to help one another with that. And we look at what Boaz is doing with Ruth now without telling her, he set it up so she can succeed in gleaning. And she doesn't even know it. Doesn't God do that for us? How much do we actually have to do? We have to think we're doing it all ourselves, and really God is doing what we do. And how much is done for us is love.

A protection that we don't even know. Verse 3, from both of Naomi's sons and daughters, Why not see God for you? Be well with you. And now, as not Boaz, again, old Mosa, With whose maidens you were, behold, he whinnles tonight in the throat of the floor.

Then push yourself, put your gun, and go down to the floor. And up ourselves, we go before God. She says, Do not let yourself know until he is finished and drinking. And Christ is hard to pass. Hopefully, you'll be with him. And when he lies down, your mouth tells you, you mark the place he lies, And you shall go on and uncover his feet, lie down, and tell you what to do.

Now, if my wife had done that at college, I'd open a kitchen. But, I did this thing and I had a strain. I mean, if someone told me something like that, I'd think, you're probably nuts. It's the same verse for me. It says there are all that you say I'll do. I'll do it. It agrees with everything. It was interesting. And Michelle was that way, too. I had to work with her quite a bit.

Because every time we had a forum that you weren't supposed to be dating seriously until you were a senior or junior, and she was a freshman, I was a sophomore, and I had left and come to Pasadena, and I got Dear John letters every time they had a forum. Then I had to find out that she really didn't like anybody else. I had just another forum, and Ron Kelly wasn't my favorite person at the time. He was a dentist, and he kept getting these forums that I thought he hadn't given.

No doubt. God had his word. But it was interesting because she agrees with all the other things that would seem a little strange to a phlebitis, obviously, that had been raised with God. So she does this.

She says, verse 6, She went down to the great floor and did a guide to all her mother and mother. Boazan and Drent, and he's hard to marry. Obviously, marry because he's at your feet. He'd probably marry if you don't know that she's there. And so he went down to lie down at the end of the heap, and she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down.

And it happened about midnight. I guess he finally sobered up a little. The man trembled and turned to himself, and behold, a woman lay at his feet. And he said, Who are you? She answered, I'm your handmaid, Ruth, and you who spread your skirt over your handmaid, you are a killer. He told her, well, my mother-in-law told him he wasn't, so that's what you are. Do this. But she did. Boaz said, Wow, bless are you of the Lord, my daughter. For you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning. You did not know your young man, whether poor or rich.

With a dunner, she took care of no one. She did not know God would have her dud. She was humble and selfless. And Boaz recognized this. And Boaz is saying to Ruth, the foreigner, You fulfilled what the law is about. She had done what the law stated. She had gone to her kids' men now and asked to be redeemed.

She had done that, and she had gone to this older man, Boaz. Not after many young men, this man had shown kindness to her. And Boaz answers her. And now, my daughter, do not fear, I will do to you all that you ask, For all in the city of my people know that you are a woman of virtue. This Moabites, who probably came in and was talked about and gossiped about, Became known as a woman of virtue by all the people.

And it's interesting. And now it is true that I am your kinsman-redeemer, But there is also a kinsman nearer than I. And it's the closest relative that has the right to perform this. He says, 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, then I will redeem you. Lie down until morning. And she laid his feet till morning, And she rose up before anyone could know, so it was still dark. And he said, Don't let it be known that a woman came to this floor.

Don't tell anyone that she was here, anyone who may have seen this. And he said, Bring a veil that you have, and hold it. And when he held it, he measured out six measures of barley, and laid it on her. And she went to the city. He knew that Naomi would know what that meant. He filled it up so she wouldn't go back empty. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, Who are you, my daughter?

Obviously it's still dark, can't see anything. And Ruth told her all that the man had done to her. And she said, Six measures of barley he gave to me. For he said, Do not go empty to your mother-in-law. And Naomi says to her, verse 18, Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will fall. For the man will not rest until he has finished the thing today. What did Christ say? Matthew 26, 29, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine.

From this day till now, until I drink with you, my kingdom. Philippians 1, 6, where he says that he that began a good work and you will complete it. Naomi is telling her, Boaz will do this. He'll finish this. Ruth was a beautiful woman in character. Probably a beautiful woman in physically as well.

And Boaz thought it a great honor that he had come to him to ask to be redeemed. And Christ would love to see us to do more, go above and beyond at the end, more than the beginning. Often we have that first love and it kind of dies. We have to make sure that we keep it up and keep going to show more of the fruits of God's Spirit.

As we develop as Christians, it's what we need to do. That we can be presented blameless, like Christ says he will, present as blameless before God. So Ruth had impressed Boaz. And Boaz had fed her and taken care of her, given her bread. Just like Jesus said, I'm the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger. And Ruth, as long as she was with Boaz, never hunger again.

Israel came to God by redemption and they could trust Him. And we can count on God as our Redeemer to make us His own. And now we finish this in Ruth 4 because Boaz is going down to the gate. And He sat down, and behold, the kinsmen of whom He spoke came by. Doesn't even give us His name. And He said to Him, turn aside, sit down here. So the man sat down. And He took ten men of the elders of the city and said, come and sit down. And they sat down. Witnesses. And He said to the kinsmen, Naomi, who has come again out of this country of Moab, sells a parcel of land, which was our brother, Elimelechs. 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'll redeem it, redeem it. If you will not redeem it, tell me so that I may know.

For there is no other to redeem besides you, and I am after you.

Now, this is God's plan to get them together. The man says, I will redeem it. Oops! Is that what God wanted? Oh! By the way, He says, 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 wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance. You have to take this foreigner, this Moabites, along with the piece of land.

Oh, that changes things, doesn't it? So the kinsmen said, I can't redeem this for myself, lest I mar my own inheritance. This Moabites? This isn't... I can't do this. You redeem my right to yourself, for I cannot redeem it. I don't want her. I want the land. I buy that, make some money, but I don't want the woman. God and Christ do want us, thankfully.

Verse 7, This was accustomed in former times, In Israel, concerning redeeming and concerning changing, to confirm anything, a man took off his sandal and gave it to his neighbor, and this was the testimony in Israel. It's interesting if you actually read in Deuteronomy 25, it says that she's also the spit in his face, so the guy got off easy on this one. You can read that in Deuteronomy 25. But he did take off his shoe, so he had that part.

And so, verse 8, Therefore the kinsmen said to Boaz, Buy it for yourself, and so he drew off his sandal, and as Boaz said to the elders and all the people, You are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was a limonox, and all that was chileans 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 the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of this place.

We indeed are dead without Christ, eternally, without Him. And it says, You are witnesses this day. And all the people gathered in the gate, and the elders said, We are witnesses. May God make the woman who has come to your house like Rachel and like Leah, for these two built the house of Israel. May you be blessed in Ephetaph, and be famous in Bethlehem. It's interesting, in Luke 24, verse 45, you go there when Christ is talking about that, when you talk about witnesses. He said, So it is written, that it behooves Christ to suffer and arrives from the dead the third day, repentance or mission to sin should be proclaimed in the name, among all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

And you are witnesses of these things. To redeem, there had to be witnesses to that. That's why there were witnesses of Christ, death and sacrifice, and what happened? Back to verse 12, Ruth 4, Let your house be like Pharaohs, whom tame our board of Judah, of the seed of which God shall give you of this young woman.

And Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife. And when he went into her, God made her conceive, and she bore a son. And the woman said to Naomi, this woman who had said, Call me marah, call me bitter, call me cursed, who thought she was cursed, the woman said to Naomi, 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, one who cheers your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you has borne him. This is a scripture I quoted to my daughter all the time. She who is better to you than seven sons. Better than seven sons. Anyone who leaves mother and father, like Christ said, and comes to me, will have brothers and sisters in the church and family.

If you're willing to forsake all, and let God be your God, leave the sins of this world behind. And Naomi took the child, and laid in her bosom, and became a nurse to it. And the woman or neighbors gave it a name, saying, This is a son born to Naomi. They called his name Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David. And the rest of the chapter goes on and gives more genealogy. Blessed be Naomi.

In the end, that's how God worked it out. Boaz acted as the kinsman-redeemer. His actions were based on that La Vergara law in Deuteronomy 25. And a near kinsman had to be a blood relative. And Christ became our brother, physically, in one sense, by the virgin birth, but spiritually through the Spirit that's given by God. And we are his brothers. He's the first born of many brethren, we're told in 1 Corinthians 1.

And so he is our closest relative, and has the right to redeem us. And the kinsman had to be wealthy, or had to have the money to purchase that. What was the price? Christ created the whole earth. He owned it all. He created it. So he paid the price for us, and he gave his life. Ruth carried the burdens that God expected her to carry. She was more an Israelite in some ways than the Israelites were.

And she chose God's way, so God accepted her. I'm sure there was talk about Ruth, about who she was, the whispering that went on in Israel, the gossip and things when she got there. The other kinsmen wouldn't even redeem her.

I've got to wonder what he thinks when he reads the book of Ruth. It's interesting that the early New Testament church had a problem with Gentiles as well. It was not surprising that Jews would take a skeptical look at foreigners coming to God, because the law of the Old Covenant forbid certain people from worshipping, from coming, from assembling with them. Yet God accepted Ruth, just as God accepts all the, quote-unquote, Moabites, you and me, because we, indeed, are Moabites without God's Spirit, foreigners. And he accepts all mankind if they repent and follow him.

God accepts all the people who fear him and do what's right, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, history. It doesn't matter. That's why Peter, in Acts 10, when he said, of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, when he was sent to Cornelius, the Gentile. And of course, the tongue sat on his head, and the wind came, just like it had a Pentecost. I always wished that would happen to Baptism, so you'd know somebody's really ready for Baptism. I baptized Kelly. I didn't see any wind or fire, so I'm not sure.

But that's true of everybody I baptized, so... And it didn't happen to me either, so you've got to wonder about yourself. We're all in the same boat. But it's interesting to see that God is not a respecter of persons. It's about your obedience, about what you do, how you accept that. God's Spirit is available for us to be a part of his family. It's fascinating. Turn to Ephesians 2. In closing here, we'll look a little bit in Ephesians. Ephesians 2, verse 11. Everyone's accepted if they repent.

It says, Therefore, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, Moabites, so to speak, who are called to uncircumcision by that which is circumcised, made in the flesh by hands, that at the time you were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenant promises, just like Ruth, having no hope, but without God in this world, not yet redeemed. Before Ruth met Naomi, she had no clue about Israel, or Israel's God. She was a Gentile, she was a foreigner, she was an alien from the covenant, she was out of it altogether. It's kind of like Moshewin. She came to college. Had no clue. But she learned. This is all of us do. Verse 13. 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 wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity. Our sins, He took them, that cut us off so that He could redeem us. Going up to verse 4, earlier in the chapter, God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace we've been saved, we know that, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace. Think of all the things that Boaz heaped on Ruth. That in ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. We were like Ruth, undeserving of becoming one of God's children. We were estranged from the covenant. We were breaking God's laws. But in His mercy, He plucked us up, and He grafted us in His church. He redeemed us. Remember that God does the calling. He calls whom He wills. Who is called? Ruth the Moabitez was called to be part of Christ's lineage. She has strived strongly to fulfill all the terms of the covenant. She married an Israelite, Boaz, a type of Christ. We do the same thing. We take a solemn vow of baptism. And Christ redeems us, and we become betrothed to Christ. That wipes away our past. We're part of the family, part of the congregation. And we're one at rest with the rest of the body of Christ, the Israel of God, part of His family, Elimelech, God His King family. Ruth was an Israelite because of her character. She was more Israelite in her character than many of the rest of Israel were, certainly more than the near kinsmen who wouldn't redeem her. Boaz had no trouble making her his wife. He considered it an honor. Christ has no problem making us His bride. When we repent and are converted and receive the Holy Spirit, all the past is forgiven. We become a new man, a new woman. We become part of the natural olive tree, part of the Israel of God, His family.

Ruth shows us that in God's sight, conversion to God's way of life is what is important. It's incomparably more important than your genetics, your heredity, your race, your nationality, the language you speak. It's interesting. Ruth, as a Gentile, shows the God what God had in mind all along to save all of mankind. He was going to save the whole world, not just Israel. But those Gentiles who had not been physically part of the covenant, He was going to save them, too. He always had the door open to those willing to repent and come to Him, those whom He'd call, and those people who look to the future. We do have hope as long as we're in God's Church and the spiritual body. We have eternal hope of redemption that Christ is our Redeemer and our soon-coming King and our soon-coming marriage to Him. The kinsmen had to be willing to buy back that four-fitted inheritance. By sin, we four-fitted our inheritance. By sin, our inheritance was death. He offers us life. Christ laid down His life of His own free will. It had to be a free will thing. He could be like the other kinsmen and say, no, I don't want it. But He looked at us in whatever condition we're in and said, yes, I want you. And He was willing to take us in that bride-and-groom relationship that He offers. The Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, and it's come to each of us, laying out of hands down through the generations. And one of the functions of the Holy Spirit is to bind us as brothers and sisters to our kinsmen Redeemer, to be part of that body. And again, it doesn't matter what race or what gender you are.

Everyone who receives His Spirit is baptized. Christ redeems us all with His blood, and we are brothers and sisters to each other. And when He gives us His Spirit and becomes our kinsman Redeemer, Jesus is our next of kin, our closest relative. Ruth made herself ready for Boaz. She purified herself. She did everything she could in her power to truly make Naomi's God her God and her people.

She was ready. We each need to use God's Spirit as well to make ourselves ready to be the bride of Christ, to above all to be neighbors to each other, and to let Christ be our kinsman Redeemer.