Lessons From Ruth of Why we are Called

We often wonder why God called us. I know I asked, why did He call me? And of course, why did He call you?

He knows what He's doing. We all know that for sure.

Many of the older members of the congregation and almost all the young ones were probably born in the church.

And like I wasn't born in the church, actually I found out I was more on the feet of the trumpets. When I was about 40 years old, because my mom started listening to the church when I was one.

So I was a pagan for one year.

And actually I picture myself with a birthday candle and a Christmas tree, but that's about it. I don't remember it at all. And after that she came to the church, and I just happened to look at a Hebrew calendar once with some students and found out I was born on the feet of the trumpets.

Which I found fascinating, to say the least.

Which is great, because I could celebrate my birthday on the Julian calendar and the Hebrew calendar. I have more money with the Hebrew calendar to spend, so it's more fun.

But if you're born into it, you're not really sure about your calling. When I was young, there were all these stories. Someone found a Plain Truth magazine, a trash can, or somebody at two o'clock in the morning driving a truck, turned the radio on, Herbert Armstrong was speaking, and all these crazy stories that God really wanted them, because He did these things for them. My wife was like that as well. She knows her calling, because she came to Ambassador College at age 18. She didn't know anything about the church to speak of. Her grandmother had just become a member. And so she came over to their house. Her dad had lost his job after working in preventives for 19 years.

They didn't have much money for college. She brought an envoy. She got the feast. She brought it over to their house and showed Michelle's parents this beautiful school with these beautiful young people and a farm in Texas. They were very organic-type people. They had a work program where you could work your way through college. They thought, wow, this is great! She came to Ambassador College and wondered where everybody went on Friday night.

Her mother called and said, when are you coming home for Christmas? She said, they don't keep Christmas. Well, they're Christian, aren't they? Yes, but I'll be home in January. She didn't understand that at all. You knew God was calling her, and it worked with her. It didn't totally come out of the blue. I think God was working with her, because she had had questions about the Trinity, and the Lutheran minister couldn't explain it. She went to the Baptist Church. She enjoyed the singing and stuff. She actually did an altar call. She came down there, and they asked her to baptize the next day. That night, she called the minister and said, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not coming. I think God was working with her. She came to Ambassador College not knowing anything at all. Somehow God brought her to Ambassador to Texas, and she started learning. She didn't know what she was going to learn. She didn't realize what it would be. God knows who he calls and why he calls him. God knows why you're sitting here. Even if you don't understand it, you know your destiny. You know things you've learned in church. Today, I'm going to cover the book of Ruth, which I started doing a few years ago. Actually, the first time I gave it, I kind of apologized to the students because I figured they'd covered it in ABC. But it takes more than nine months to really cover the Bible thoroughly. They covered it, but they kind of flew through it. When I gave the sermon, they were excited and said, wow, there's a lot more to it than we thought. So I started giving it when we went out to ABC services like this, so that each of the classes that buy an extra hour for ABC, that's eight hours a day for nine months, isn't enough. But you give this sermon for them and also kind of give the rest of you a sampler. We do ABC samplers, so you can kind of see what ABC does and what it teaches and how it teaches. And so a bit of those things will be in the story that you can have. Again, the book of Ruth is often read at Pentecost, which is coming in a few weeks. It's the Feast of Weeks. It comes from Leviticus 23, which you're all familiar with. And I'll just read a few verses there and that so it'll set the stage for why we have this. Verse 15 of Leviticus 23, You shall count from you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheep of the wave offering.

Seven Sabbaths shall be complete, even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath, shall you number fifty days, and shall offer a meat offering. Again, God ends this section with, And you shall 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 leave those for the poor and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God. That's another reason the book of Ruth is read in the Jewish communities of Pentecost. Ruth was a gleaner. She was out glaining in the fields. And it was that time when the grain sheep offering came up. And so we know, of course, that the Feast of First Fruits, we, James 1, 18, tells us that we're the first fruits of God. And of course, Christ being the first of the first fruits. But God ends his description of this feast of weeks with instructions to leave the corners of the fields unharvested for the poor and for the stranger. So everyone is really included in the book of Ruth, in the meaning of Pentecost and this feast. So Ruth is read. That's a wonderful book. It's a book of love, a book of kindness, a book about redemption. It shows many of the laws of the Old Covenant. But truly it describes the New Covenant, even more so, and the promises that come with that when you understand what it is. It's about redemption being redeemed, and Christ is our Redeemer. And as we read this story, we understand the characters in that. It does similar functions that the family that Christ would come from would come from them. So we'll turn to the book of Ruth, if you would. And again, I'd like to look at Ruth in the way that God was dealing with Ruth. And I want you to think about it in terms of how is God dealing with you. Because things in your life that happen, I think, are less random than we think. My mom started listening to church when I was one. My dad had a stroke. He was supposed to die. My mom was praying. We got disowned by the whole deans side of the family because she was going this crazy religion. And she's praying. The doctor said he's going to die. That's it. And the family made fun of her. And she prayed and prayed. And in about three months, he came out of it and went back to work. And then two years later, he dies. There was murder trial because he was killed in a construction accident. They called that. He was smashed between a wall and a runaway crane, which goes three miles an hour under power. And he was a star athlete and stuff. And I'd have been in football and sports. I'd never had the life I ended up having if he had lived. And my mom at the funeral was told to go to Big Sandy, where the widows are, which is kind of a sad thing. Organizing how much a widow is in a place where there are no men. But that's another thing.

Such is life. So Ruth, of course, you wonder why God does some of the things she does. So look at your life in that same way. You see, Ruth's historical setting is around 1100 B.C. So we're talking about 3,000 years ago, a little over. A period of the Judges, when Israel would go up, and then they would go down. You know, they would obey God after crying out to him for a while. And then they would do what the other nations did, and they'd go back into captivity.

Someone with a Philistine, somebody would take over, and then a person would come along, like Gideon, or Deborah, and Bayrak, or Samson, and then they would go through that cycle. And that's what was happening when Ruth was written. And so you understand the period that it is. The most interesting thing, for many reasons, about the book of Ruth, though, and the most peculiar thing, I think, is that it's brought out so much that Ruth was ethnically not an Israelite.

She was a Moebite. And now she was distantly related through Lot, but she was not a covenant people. And so it's constantly burning the eyes. It's never just Ruth. Most of us aren't known by Aaron from wherever, or whatever. But this is a big part of the story, and I think it's something for us to look at as well. If you turn to Genesis 19, or hold your place in Ruth, we're going to go to Genesis 19 because it shows where the Moebites came from. Because when you look at Ruth, you've got to wonder, how did she get into Israel? How did God bring her into this? Okay. Now, you know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, when the fire and brimstone comes down, and Lot and his wife and two daughters, and the only ones that come out.

And the wife looks back and turns into a filler of salt. Apparently Lot had other children that died, didn't want to leave, and died there. And so the two daughters think, wow! And I don't know if they knew if there was anybody left alive at all, if everybody had died. But they get their father drunk because they're afraid. As they said, the daughter said that his seed may be preserved.

Let's get him drunk, and you lie with him tonight, and I'll lie with him. So here we got verse 36. So both daughters of Lot were a child by their father. So we have incest here. The first born bore a son, called his name Moab, the father of the Moavites to this day.

Verse 38, the younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ami, and he's the father of the sons of Ammon to this day. So, incest is our background. Now we read more. Go to Numbers 25. Let's read a little bit more about them. Numbers 25, verse 1, Israel lived in Sittem, and the people began to fornicate with the daughters of Moab. Now, that's not a good thing.

We all know that. And they called the people to sacrifice to their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So they're idolaters as well. And Israel joined himself to Baal-Piora, and the anger of God was kindled against Israel because of that. So the Moabites, so here she is, conceived genealogical through incest, and her people are fornicators and idolaters. Now, when you go looking for a spouse, that's exactly what you want to look for, right? You know, it just makes sense, right? Not really. So you're wondering, how did she come into this thing?

And so we're looking at that, and she had a very, very tough upbringing in the sense of overcoming what she had to do. But it's interesting that God said not to have anything to do with them at all. So she didn't grow up worshipping the God of Israel. She didn't at all. She was a foreigner, a Moabite. And her name is mentioned 12 times, but most of the time it's not just Ruth, but Ruth the Moabite, the foreigner, whatever it was that she was, an alien.

She was a stranger, not a covenant people. And through this entire chapter, we're constantly reminded of that. Go to Deuteronomy 23. Let's look at another thing that God said to them about Moab and the Ammonites as well. In Deuteronomy 23, we see that she doesn't come into the covenant. She's not one of those people. She's actually supposed to be excluded from Israel. So Deuteronomy 23, verse 3, it says, Now Ruth is less than 10 generations after a lot.

In verse 4, So how did Ruth ever come into the congregation of Israel? Being that. Now, Michelle, when she came to Master College, after she'd been there for a year, somebody let her look at her file. And again, she had no background, but when she looked at her file, she said she was part Gentile. She had no idea what that meant, so she called me and said, Which part of me is Gentile?

My legs, my arms. I said, No, no. Your dad is French and English, which is Israelite, and your mom is Italian and German, so that was World War II in action. But it was funny. I said, Now the Germans and Israel, because we tried to pick who the nations were back then, I said, That's the Gentile part.

And she said, Do I have to marry somebody that's part Gentile and part Israelite and since I wanted her, I said, No, which is true. But it was, you know, how did she get here? What was it? Why did God call her? But again, God accepted Ruth, and by the end of the book of Ruth, you find that she's being praised, and she becomes the ancestor, King David, and Jesus Christ Himself.

So someone who, fornication, idolatry, don't have anything to do with them, don't bring them to peace, don't do anything with them, is part of our Savior's genealogy. How did this come to be? So when you look at Ruth, you've got to look at this whole story and see how she's finally mentioned. In Matthew 1, the genealogy of Christ, three women, all the men there, but three women. Ruth the Moabites, Rahab the Harlot, and the wife of Uriah the Hittite, doesn't even say her name.

All strangers are sinners in that thing. So how did this happen? So let's turn to Ruth and start the book and kind of look at how this works. We have a world full of unkind people, and I like the book of Ruth because people that are unkind, we call it Ruthless, which only works in English. The sermon part doesn't work in Swahili and whatever. But Ruthless is what they are when they're not very nice. So it came to pass in verse 1, The days from the judges ruled there was a famine in the land. A certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to dwell in the country of Moab. He and his wife and his two sons. Why?

There was a famine in the land. In the times of the judges, that happened, and many times Israel didn't obey God. It sent famines and armies and whatever. And I would say God probably caused this famine, because this is what's going on here, because I can't think of any way that Ruth would have gotten in to Israel if an Israelite hadn't gone over and married her.

So God seems to be working with this thing. Verse 2, The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi. And the name of his two sons, Malon and Chileon, and Ephraimites from Bethlehem Judah.

They were Jewish in the Prod tribe of Judah. And they came into the country of Moab, and they continued there. And Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. Now I can relate with her that, because my mom had two sons when my dad died. And they took them wives of the woman of Moab, the name of one was Orpah, the name of the other Ruth.

And they dwelt there about ten years with them. And then Malon and Chileon died, both of them. And the woman was left of her two sons and her husband. Now, Naomi probably was thinking, is this the curse of Moab? We're not supposed to go there, we're not supposed to have peace. You've got to wonder what she was thinking when this happened. Verse 6, She arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab. For she heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited His people by giving them bread. So there was food back there now, and that's where her family was.

So again, God seemed to cause the family, the family seemed to end it as well. And now they're going to move back minus the men. And so it returned. So verse 8, Naomi says to her two daughters-in-law, 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. She's asking God to put a blessing on them because they've been kind to her.

These two women that weren't Israelites, but they were kind to her. And they had done right by her and by her husband and by their father-in-law. So God, she was asking God to bless them. And that's why we have family. Verse 9, she says, May God grant you that you may find rest each in the house of her husband.

So she wanted to have a family, have a marriage again. Find someone else you can be in love with. She kissed them and they lifted up their voices and wept. So this is a female thing all getting together and crying. You guys don't deal with things quite that way. And they said to her, Surely we'll return with you to your people.

They both said this. And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughter. Why will you go with me? Are there yet sons in my womb that they may be your husbands? I mean, you know, they're old enough to get married and they're 10 years. So they've got to be at least 25, 35 years old. And if she had another child, you know, by the time it got old enough to marry them, they'd be 50 or whatever. So she's telling them that I can't. She knows the law of Israel. You know, you've had another son that marries to pass on the genealogy.

And she says to them as well, Turn again, my daughters, for I am too old to have a husband. And if I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband also tonight, it should also bear sons, 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 against me. And that's what she thought. Curse them all out or something, and God's against me. That's our thoughts often when things happen to us. I'm sure my mom wondered that when my dad died. And they lifted up their voice and they wept again.

And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. Orpah was willing to go back. She saw the futility in it, I suppose, and such. She loved her mother-in-law, but she went back. And Naomi's tried to tell her other daughter to do the same thing, her daughter-in-law. She said, Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods.

Return after your sister-in-law. Michelle was in college. There were a number of kids that came, kind of like her. Most of them knew a little bit more than she did. But she had one that was a Catholic. She was a Lutheran, which I always teased her that was a rebellious Catholic. But they would sit on Friday night and sit on a Bible study. They'd actually had their own Bible studies.

And they would sit and talk to each other. And finally, this Catholic, and she'd come down for her boyfriend, and the reason for being there wasn't exactly pure. But she said, Michelle, do you understand that this church is saying this is the truth and all the other religions and churches are wrong? Michelle said, yeah, I didn't see that. And so her friend actually left at the semesters. When she left, she told the rest of the dorm mates, Michelle may feel lonely, can miss our studies, and may leave.

But she really believes this stuff, so make sure she doesn't leave, because I'm leaving. So she was kind of like Orpah, and Michelle was kind of like Ruth. No, I see this. It's God's people. They're teaching the truth here. It was difficult, though, for her. And look at her example that we have. Ruth's conversion and turning toward God. Ruth said in verse 16, And treat me not to leave you.

Quit badgering me to leave. Or to turn back from following after you. Wherever you go, I will go. And 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. That's a pretty strong oath, she sang to him. And she says this following, The Lord do so to me, and more also of anything but death, part you and me. Wow. What a statement to make. Naomi saw this, and she was determined.

She quit telling her to go back. She acquiesced in that. She kind of like Jacob when he wrestled all night with the Word that became Christ. Do you really want it that bad? This is it. Your people are my people. Your God is my God. This is where I'm going to be. She had a difficult time, though. She was a woman. One strike against her in Israel, in a sense, because she could not be circumcised to become part of Israel, to be part of the congregation.

But what she did do is make that solemn oath. She renounced her gods. She renounced her people, and said she would follow Naomi no matter where she went. That would be it. Naomi is a type of the church. Your people. The members of the church will be my people.

Your God is my God. I've left my people, and have taken your people's mind. And your God will be my God. They'll be one and the same. So, verse 19, we continue on. Both of them went till they came to Bethlehem. And it happened when they came to Bethlehem, all the city was moved about them and said, Is this Naomi? A little older. No husband, no sons. Is this Naomi?

And again, Naomi means pleasant. And she says to them, Don't call me Naomi. Don't call me pleasant. Call me Mara, bitter. For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. That was her thoughts. Have you ever thought that way? Ever thought something that's bad? And God's moving you somewhere. And you don't even see it. That's where she was. She says, 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. That's what she thought. But God, it wasn't His position. He was doing something. She didn't know it. So, verse 22, Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitez, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. So that's right at the start of the Feast of Pentecost, right around that time, when the harvest was coming in. And so, we see Naomi and Ruth there, wondering what would happen.

Not really knowing what was going to be. Obviously, Naomi knew a lot about the Scriptures and things, from the advice she gave to Ruth. But we see where she's coming back now. In verse 2, we'll start there, there was a relative of Naomi's husband, a man of great wealth, and a family of Elimelech. And his name is Boaz. Interesting, Boaz means in him strength. And he's the Redeemer for Ruth, and first Christ is the strongest one for us. Verse 2, so Ruth, the Moabites, said to Naomi, Please let me go to the field and glean heads of grain, after him and whose side I may find favor.

She doesn't know where she's going to glean, she just knows she's going to go out there and try to find some food for them. She had heard about gleaning, obviously, from her mother-in-law, knew it was something practiced in Israel, and she wants to find favor somewhere. And she said to her, Go, my daughter. Ruth left and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come on the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. Again, happened on my father happened to get sick, he happened to die.

Did she really chance on Boaz? Again, you can never prove, you know, I mean, I have with healings and miracles you can, most of the time you can't prove what God is actually doing in your life. You can surmise it after a series of things, but if you talk to someone outside, they're going to say, Oh, it's just coincidence.

You know, it just happens. But when you see these things happen in your life in different ways, think about what God may be having you do. And so that's what's happened here. God is working with this woman. He wants to bring these two together, and he's going to have the genealogy of his son come in through this woman. In the line of David, no man comes to God except the Father calls him, and obviously God is putting these two together.

Most of the time when you're called, God doesn't give a voice and say, Hi there, I want you in my church. You get a piece of knowledge, you get something, it doesn't make sense, like Michelle, the Trinity made no sense, and what are you doing this? And just joining a group because they have a nice band doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And so God sees those things and uses them. And just as I don't think Michelle's grandmother brought that on, boy, it was a coincidence.

You can't prove it otherwise, but that's what brought her to God, to the church, in that. And that's what's happening. Now let's notice the things that Boaz does for Ruth, and you can look at it from the standpoint of what Christ does for us. Verse 4, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, The Lord be with you. Interesting, because Emmanuel means God with us. The Lord be with you, God with you. Boaz said to his servants, The one who was in charge of the reapers, whose young woman is this?

This is someone new. She hadn't been out there before. So he's wondering, who is it? So the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered and said, It's the young Moabite woman that came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. So she's a foreigner.

And it's interesting. The reapers are in charge, and he's giving them that, leadership is necessary. And Ruth, of course, is asking for a position as a gleaner. Verse 7, She said, Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. She asked for the slowest position, which is humility. It's humbling to say, Hey, we're so poor, we need the corners of your field to be able to eat and survive. And she knew, because her mother-in-law had told her, that they left the corners of the field, and the things for people who were poor, or strangers, to come and take that. And so she asked for that low position.

So that's what she did. She worked diligently. It says, She worked diligently since the morning, with only a little bit of rest. Oftentimes, that's what happens. We don't know. Verse 8, She says, So Boaz is saying here, listen to me. I don't like Christ when He told the disciples to listen, hear my voice. She's saying, Listen, my daughter. Verse 9, She tells her, And Boaz says to Ruth, Don't go out there with other people. Just stay here in my fields. Blaine here. We're supposed to stay close to God and fellowship with His people. How you have to interact, there's no question there. But there's a parallel. That Boaz is taking care of Ruth.

And He's giving her all the things he needs. He tells her if she's thirsty, to drink of her things. In John 7, Christ says, If you're thirsty, come drink. If you drank it this well, me, you'd never thirst.

And Boaz is kind of doing that same thing that Christ's talking about. God wants us to drink freely of His Holy Spirit. He wants us to fellowship freely with His people. He wants us to help one another, have contact with each other. And so Boaz is telling her to stay in these fields, and He would take care of her. And she'd be right there.

Now, it's interesting because He's providing her with refreshment. He's providing her with food, encouragement, strength, and even Himself. It's because she would see Him, as He would be out there. Constant contact. So she wouldn't have to go back to town or back home to eat anything. She'd be right there with Him. She didn't have to go away to do these things.

In verse 10, Ruth says, She fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to Him, Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of Me, since I am a foreigner?

It's interesting. Why would you look at Me? I'm a Moabite. And yet you've helped Me. She knew Boaz did not have to do this for her. He gave her all these additional blessings. That's the type of thing that Christ gives us that we don't necessarily know. Verse 11, Boaz explains, though. He answers and He says, It's been fully shown to Me that you have done to your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before. He knew she was a foreigner.

Remember? Noemie had said to her, You've done all these good things for the living and the dead. May God deal kindly with you? Boaz is saying it's been fully shown what you have done for your mother-in-law. How special that was. And this is the answer to why he blessed her, even though she was a foreigner. The people that you did not know. But she had been doing what God requires all along. Regardless of her nationality or her heritage. Verse 12, The Lord repay your work, a fuller word be given to you by the Lord your God. The God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge. You recognize she was seeking God. And Ruth said, Let me find favor in your sight, my Lord, for you have comforted me, and have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your maidservants. Again, she's a Moabite as a foreigner, and also a woman. It didn't have to be helped.

Verse 14, Boaz said, At mealtime, come here and eat the bread, and dip your bit in the vinegar. She sat beside the reapers. He handed her roasted grain, and she ate, and was satisfied and left. She had kind of gone up from being a gleaner to sitting with the reapers, sitting with Boaz. She was getting the milk of the word, and now she was getting the meat of the word, in one way. If you look at the analogy, our spiritual growth is like that. We start with milk and go on to meat. Her master was now passing her food. When she rose up to glean, verse 15, Boaz commanded a young man, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves. Don't rebuke her. And also let fall the handfuls on purpose for her, and lead them, so that she may glean them. And don't rebuke her. Don't stop. So she gleaned in the field till evening, and beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephile barley. A lot more than you would get from the corners of the field. Now she's going back to Naomi to tell her what happened. And, verse 21, Ruth the Moabites said, He also said to me, You shall stay close to my young men, till they have finished my harvest. So not only did he say, Stay in my field, glean with my reapers, but stay here for the entire harvest. Not just a day, not just a week, but the entire harvest. God wants you in His church forever. Physically, till you die, or till He returns, you're resurrected, and be with Him forever. God calls the weak of the world. The gleaners were the weak of the world in that time. Verse 22, Naomi says to her daughter-in-law, Ruth, Good, my daughter, you go out with His maidens, so that they do not fall upon you in any other field. I wonder if it was an unsavant other fields, or exactly what it was at that time. Naomi knew there was something special. She would know how much you'd glean normally. This was a lot. Verse 23, She stayed close by the young women of Boaz, to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest. She dwelt with her mother-in-law. Ruth listened. Ruth, a type of a Christian, stayed with her mother-in-law.

A type of the church. God calls us, and God gives us permission to be in His field, to glean, to learn. He admonishes her not to stray, meaning stay in the church. Don't leave the house of God. Don't leave what is truth. He also says stay among His young women, meaning that fellowship is important, because they'll help. They'll teach. They'll protect.

They might even correct and demolish. But for your good, it's the best place to be. We know we're told in Hebrews 10 not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. And so she's there with Boaz, with the young men. She's under His protection. All of us need to be around God's people. Be careful. Be gentle with my gleaners. We're going to help one another. Those that are new and those that have been in for decades.

Now we look at what Boaz is doing for Ruth without telling her. Again, he didn't tell her, hey, I'm going to drop all these handfuls of grain for you. He sets it up so she can succeed in her gleanings. Now, doesn't God do that for us? Doesn't He set things up? We succeed in some things. We fail in some things. And do we fail because God's teaching us something? We don't really know. But how much is He working in your life to do what He wants?

And if we look at how much God has done for each of us, through His love and His grace, we could see that. So chapter 3 of Ruth, we're more into the story. Her brother-in-law Naomi said to her, My daughter, shall I not seek arrest for you, so that may be well with you. Again, she wants you to have a husband and a family and know what that's about. And in God, of course, in Hebrews, it talks about arrest for the people of God. Verse 2, And now is not Boaz of our kindred, he with whose maidens you were? Behold, he winnows barley tonight in the threshing floor. Now here's what I want you to do. Wash yourself, anoint yourself, put on your clothing, go yourself, known to the man, don't be known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. And so when he lies down, you mark that spot where he lies down, and then you'll shall go in, uncover his feet, take the blanket up, and lie down. And then he will tell you what to do. Now, that's the custom they had then. If my wife had done that to me in college, we'd have both been kicked out. So we're not advising that type of way of finding a mate. Verse 5, She says to her mother, All that you say I will do. She agreed. That's got to seem a bit weird to her, because the Maldives didn't do this. She went down to the grain floor, and did according to all that her mother-in-law told her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, and he went to lie down at the end of the heap, she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. Now, he didn't wake up right then. It happened at midnight. The man trembled and turned to himself, and behold, a woman hit his feet. He had to be drinking quite a bit to not find it the first time. But he woke up and said, Whoa! What's this? Who are you? And she answered, I'm your handmaid, Ruth. And you shall spread your skirt over your handmaid, because you are a kinsman or a demer.

Your peaches let Naomi have told her. Verse 10, then Boaz said, Wow! 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 poor or rich. You weren't trying to do something for yourself. You were taking care of your mother-in-law, and you were doing what you were told, and you were trying to become part of our people and our God.

Boaz is saying to Ruth, a foreigner, had fulfilled what the law was all about. The love, love God, love your neighbors yourself. That's what she was doing. She had asked him to be your Redeemer. She had done what the law said, go to the kinsman and ask him to redeem you. She did that. She had gone for this older man, Boaz, and shown abundant kindness all along the way to everyone. Boaz answers.

Verse 11, Now my daughter, do not fear, I will do all that you ask, for all of the city of my people know that you are a woman of virtue.

People knew what she was doing. I'm sure when she first came then, they were probably gossiping and talking, what's this malvite doing? What's this? But she had shown by her actions. Her bride, when Christ said, the bride has made herself ready, she was making herself ready for whatever God was doing. And he says, that's true, I'm your kinsman, but there's a kinsman nearer than I am.

And the old law said the closest kinsman was the one that had the right. He says, Stay tonight, and it shall be in the morning. If he redeems you, well, he will redeem. But if he does not delight to redeem you, as God lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning. And she lay at his feet till morning. And she goes up before anyone would know another, so it was dark.

He said to her, Don't let it be known that a woman came to the floor. Again, he's protecting her honor, so that people wouldn't know that she'd gone there. He also said, Bring your veil and hold it. She held it, and he measured out six measures of barley, and laid it to her. And she went to the city. He had told it, given her grain.

When she came to her mother-in-law, she said, Again, it's still dark. Who are you, my daughter? She told her all that the man had done to her. She said, These six measures of barley he gave to me. For he said, Do not go empty to your mother-in-law. And she said, Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will fall. For the man will not rest until he has finished this thing today. What did Christ say in Matthew 26?

I will not drink of the vine until I do it in the kingdom with you. He doesn't want to rest either from us. Paul writes in Philippians 1, Be confident that he who has begun to work on you will finish it, and complete it in the day of Jesus Christ.

We know he will finish it. Ruth was a beautiful woman in character. And Boaz thought it a great honor that she had come to him and asked him to redeem her. She had gone above and beyond. Make it said, You have done more now than when you came in. Christ would love to see us go above and beyond. That's what he wants from us. That we're better at the end than we are at the beginning. To show more of the fruit of God's Spirit.

To show that love. And to help others. Christ wants to see us grow in zeal, that first love. That love that impressed Boaz. Boaz feeds her. Christ said, I'm the bread of life. Take and eat. He that comes to me will never hunger. So here we see that same example. When Israel became God's by redemption, they could trust him to deliver them. And when they did trust them, he did deliver them. When they went after idols and did wrong things, he had to stand back and let them learn.

We today can count on God. We know that. That's our Redeemer. He made us his own. And he will act to deliver us in the same way. Verse 4, chapter 4, verse 1, Now Boaz is going to fulfill this.

Boaz goes up to the gate and sat down there. Behold, the kinsmen of whom Boaz spoke came by. Note it doesn't even give his name. That's how much God thought about putting his name in the Bible, which may be for his benefit when he killed the resurrection. We won't know who he is, because otherwise we're going to say he's going to know what he passed up. But here he is, the one he's talking about. And he said, such a one, turn aside, sit down here. And he turned and sat down. And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, come and sit down here, and they sat down.

They were ten men because you do have witnesses or any contract. And that was one of the requirements, was witnesses. And he said to the kinsmen, Naomi, who has come out of the country of Moab, sells a piece 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 will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not redeem, tell me so that I may know. For there is none to redeem beside you, and I am after you. And the man said, oh, I'll redeem it. I can use a nice piece of land. This is wonderful. Great. I'll take the land. That's a good deal. But Boaz throws in something else.

Boaz said, in the day that you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must 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. Ooh! And the kinsmen said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar my inheritance. You redeem my right to yourself, for I cannot redeem it. Aren't you glad that Christ wants you? Didn't you like this, kinsmen? No, I like the good part, but I don't want this Moabite in my family. I'm not going to mess my genealogy up.

Verse 7, For this was the custom in former times in Israel, concerning redeeming and concerning changing. To confirm everything, a man took off his sandal and gave it to his neighbor, and this was the testimony in Israel. And that's before those witnesses. Therefore the kinsmen said to Boaz, buy it for yourself.

So he drew up 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 limilex, and all that was chileans and malons from the hand of Naomi. And also Ruth of Moab, the wife of Malam, 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.

And you are witnesses this day. And all the people in the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. I'd like to go to Luke 24. If you would, keep your place there, we'll finish it up. Luke 24. Christ is there. In Luke 24, verse 45, he says he opened their mind to understand the Scriptures. Because the redemption law was pretty clear, they knew what you had to do to redeem things.

And he said to them, verse 46, So it is written, and so it behoove Christ to suffer and rise from the dead the third day. The repentance and remission of sin should be proclaimed in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You have to die for the sins to redeem us. And you are witnesses of these things. I was wondering when he said, you're witnesses of these things. I didn't realize until a number of years ago that he was doing the levered law, the levered law in Deuteronomy. He was redeeming based on that. Behold, I send the promise of my Father to you, but you sit in the city of Jerusalem till your clothe the power of Manahai.

He lifted up his hands and he blessed them. He was fulfilling that levered law. They didn't understand it, but he explained it. Boaz acted in the Old Testament like a kinsman redeemer, based on the levered law in Deuteronomy 25. In Deuteronomy 25, you go through that and there were several things that you had to do.

One, first, you had to be a blood relative. Christ became our blood relative by being born with a Virgin Mary. His Father was God, but he was genetically human with that part of the chromosomes. So he was a near relative. He fulfilled that. The kinsman had to have the money to be purchased, to purchase the inheritance. Christ owns the universe. He had certainly enough to purchase all of us.

When Boaz said to the elders, you're witnesses this day, I bought all the with limilex. Christ, when he died, he bought all that we are to bring up that. The third thing you had to be, you had to be willing to do it. The first kinsman wasn't willing. I'm not going to borrow my inheritance. I'm not doing this. Christ willingly did this. What did he say to it?

He said, no man can take this from me. I give my life willingly. He did the leopard law. The same way Boaz did it, the same way he was describing the deuteronomy 25. God accepted Ruth. I'm sure there was talk about Ruth. The other kinsmen still, even though the village knew she was virtuous, wouldn't mar his inheritance. The other New Testament church had problems with the Gentiles, too.

Peter had to go to Cornelius and bring them into the fold with America, with the tongues of fire, and the same thing that happened on Pentecost. For the Jewish people, God is not a respecter of persons. God accepted Ruth, just as he accepts all, quote, Moabites, unquote, all of us. We weren't part of God, until we made that choice to be in covenant with them.

And God wants all mankind, if they repent, to be part of that. God accepts people who fear Him, who do what is right regardless of their race or national origin. That's what it's about. When Peter in Acts 10 was done in Cornelius, he said, of a truth I perceive God is not a respecter of persons. It's not about being an Israelite by birth, by genetics, in every nation, Him that fears Him. And works righteousness is accepted by God. That's what it's about. God accepts that. He works with it. Our story. It's all part of that. God's Spirit has been available since Pentecost. Christ's resurrection, all that are truly baptized, are part of His body.

Go back to Ruth. Swing your pages back over there.

Again, why does God call Gentiles? Why does God call anyone?

We go back to Ruth 4.

Verse 11, people in the gate were witnesses. They tell Him, May God make the woman who has come into your house, like Rachel and like Leah, for of these two built the house of Israel, that you may be blessed in Ephrata, and be famous in Bethlehem. And let your house be like the house of Pharaohs, whom Tamar bore to Judah, and the seed which God shall give you of this young woman. When Boaz took Ruth, 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, Blessed be God who has not left you this day without a redeemer, so that His name may be famous in Israel. Naomi, pleasant, asked to be called Marah, because God dealt harshly with me. He doesn't like me. Let my sons die, my husband die. Verse 15, He shall be to you as the restorer of life, and one who cheers your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, has borne him, she who is better to you than seven sons. I told my daughter that. You're better than seven sons. At least the girls feel good. It's true. A lot of cases. It doesn't make any difference. Male or female. If you do what's right, God sees the heart. It's not about your sex, nationality. So Naomi took the child, laid it near bosom, became nurse to it, and the woman, her neighbors, gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi. They called his name Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David. Special time. And then the generations go on down to David.

Someone who didn't understand what God was doing for her, a daughter-in-law who didn't just try to do what's right. God calls. Who was called? Ruth the Moavist. He was called to join the genealogy of Christ. She had strived to strongly fulfill the terms of the covenant that God had given. She married an Israelite. Boaz, a type of Christ. We do the same thing. We make a solemn vow of baptism. We become betrothed to Christ. 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. We're part of that picture that he's printing. Christ has no problems making us his bride. When we repent and are converted and receive the Holy Spirit, He wants all mankind. There's an order to it. The firstfruits, the gleaners, those of us. Better resurrection, but He wants the rest of them. Second resurrection, when people will be given a chance to understand that. That's why God's plan is for all mankind. We become a new man. We become blameless. Ruth shows that in God's side, it doesn't make any difference what your background was. The fact that you came from incest. The fact that your genealogy, your heritage was idolatry and fornication. The fact that God said you're not supposed to be an Israel. And yeah, if you're still idolatry or an fornicator, yeah, you're not going to be part of Israel. But when you sit there and do as Ruth did, and you say, Your people are my people. Your God is my God. And I'll die with you. That's what we said when we died with Christ. The same thing. We have an inheritance. We have that hope of eternal redemption. And that's what the book of Ruth is about. Yes, it's a fun story. The characters are there. They make it into a nice movie sometimes. They miss the point of what it really is. By sin, we forfeit our inheritance. That's why Christ laid his down. He laid his life down by free will. The kinsmen willing to marry us. To bring us into part of his family. The Holy Spirit came to Christ, disciples in the church on the day of Pentecost. One of the functions there is to put us in Christ's body, to be part of it. And it doesn't matter what race, what gender, anything of the background. It's a matter like Ruth. You've made yourself ready. You've been purified. And if you think about it, if you did all these things, when you look at what Boaz did for Ruth without her knowing it, and you see what he did, we can be assured through the Holy Spirit that God is going to do incredible things for you, whether you know about it or not, if he is your God. And we are the people of God.