Ruth the Moabite

Good morning once again! Good morning! Good to be here with you. Certainly appreciate meeting you and sharing some of your stories and your life, what's going on. Appreciate the hospitality of Lena, with Lewis, my colleague. He may call me his boss, sometimes calls me boss, but I always call the people that work internationally colleagues because I've been there and done that. And it's a challenge to learn so many cultures and so many places and so many things that are different than they are here.

And yet to learn to work with those situations. And it's always a wonderful thing. Today, my sermon is gonna be something I've actually given each year for the ABC students. It's kind of an ABC sampler of sorts. And I've given this, I actually gave it in church six, seven years ago. And the students at ABC, I told them, I made a comment that, well, I'm sure this is secondhand to you because they've done, they said, no, they didn't really cover it that much. And so, since that time, in order to save an hour of class time, again, trying to cover all the books of the Bible thoroughly in nine months at ABC is a challenge. And so, so I cover this book and it's a service, so I give an extra hour of class time that way for the students.

And this sermon is about the book of Ruth, and I've entitled it, Ruth, the Moabite. And it's an interesting book, but it's often read at Pentecost. That's from the Jews read it at Pentecost. And it's about, the reason they do it, because Ruth's the gleaner and the various things that happen in the book of Ruth, actually, it's in many ways more a book about Passover as well, because redemption comes with Christ's death.

But I cover it in a way that adds, hopefully, a bit of what you've read before. Most people look at Ruth as kind of a story. That's a book, and it's wonderful. It is a wonderful little book. But I ask the question again about, why did God call you? Why did God call me? Why did God call Ruth? In that sense, the position she had. You know, I told you yesterday, I was basically, I wasn't born in the church, but I didn't know anything else about it coming in at two years old.

I don't remember anything other than a picture of me with a Christmas tree and a birthday candle once. And so I was a pagan for one year. But the rest of the time I was in the church. So I grew up knowing the truth. I didn't, you know, the hardest sermonette for me to give in a bachelor college was a difficult scripture, because I didn't know any difficult scriptures.

Because all of them made sense to me, because that's all I'd heard from grade school, to go high school, to their college, Mr. Armstrong, etc. So it was fun. Now my wife was very different than I was. She was just the opposite of me. She didn't know anything about the church. When God called her, she didn't even know she was being called. Because her life was so different, she came to Ambassador College not knowing about the Sabbath, not knowing about the Holy Days, not knowing anything. She grew up Lutheran, and I always said, a Lutheran was just a rebellious Catholic. And they couldn't explain the Trinity to her.

She had questions about some of the things she was hearing, and the minister got so frustrated, he finally just said, accept it on faith. Well, she didn't have his faith, so she didn't accept it. And she left the Lutheran church and went to a Baptist church. And the Baptist church was a lot of fun. A lot of kids there are singing and different things. So this is kind of nice. And she got kind of moved by the emotion and did an altar call. And the minister said, I'll call you. Come back tomorrow, and we'll be baptized.

And that night she thought about it, and she said, I don't know what I'm doing. And she called the minister up and said, I'm not coming. And so she didn't come. Well, with her, it was interesting that her dad had worked for Mendick's over here in New Jersey, where she grew up. And he got laid off after 19 and a half years, which was unusual to get laid off that far into your career.

But he was, and so they didn't have any money. And she was coming up on her senior year in high school and giving it for college. And they had planned for her to go to college at one of the colleges, close by. They didn't want to go to any college because they were concerned with morality of the 60s and which was, you know, 1971. And some of those things were still there.

And so they were, but now they had no money to really pick and choose a college. And what happened was, at that point in time, her grandmother had come into the church. Her grandmother was a big Christmas Easter party person and whatever. And she came into the church and all of a sudden things changed. But she didn't tell her family any of this stuff because they always did that. She, in fact, joined the church because she was proving her uncle, who got the literature, was wrong and ended up proving him right.

Her uncle never came into the church. The co-worker for some 34 years till he died. And she came in. Well, she'd just come in and she happened to buy an envoy at the feast. And she brought this envoy over to their house. And in this envoy were all these beautiful people, beautiful campuses.

They had a farm there. They were organic people. And hey, and they had a work program. You could actually earn your way through college. And they thought this was wonderful. And again, nothing was said about the Sabbath, the holy days, or anything in that particular envoy. There wasn't anything written about that. And so they panned through this book. And boy, this seemed like a great place to go. So she applied for Ambassador College. And she went. And when she got there, everybody disappeared on Friday night.

And then the Sabbath, they went to church. Nobody went to church on Sunday. And she had a job. And then two weeks into classes, they had this feast of tabernacles. And she had, I mean, she had no idea what she was doing. She didn't know what an FOT was, what a UB was, what a, you know, a GTA, HWA. They had all these lingos that we had that in speak, that we still have in some ways. And she kind of was quiet. But she was listening and learning. And that year, there were a number of people that came that there was an ad in the plain truth. And she had never seen a plain truth. She hadn't come that way, only the envoy. And she had a friend who was Catholic that came.

And her Catholic friend and her sat there on Friday nights together and had their own Bible study. And they had talked. And finally, her friend said, Michelle, you realize that they're saying all these other churches are wrong, and this is what they're teaching is right. Michelle said, yeah, I'm saying that. Well, her friend didn't see it. And she left. That's a master. And she told her friends and stuff that Michelle might get lonely and miss their Bible studies and things and their talks.

And she said, don't let her leave. She believes this stuff. So Michelle stayed. So Michelle kind of knew she was called, in the sense that she had her story. And most of you have a story. You know, some call it late in life, some early, and different things. I didn't understand my story really until they understood about 1 Corinthians 7. And your children have their calling through their parents. So my story was through my mother in that. God knows why He calls us and when He calls us. He knows what we need and what we do. Again, this book is usually read at Pentecost by the Jews. But I read it now because I think there's more to it than just the Pentecost message.

Much more, in fact. Of course, we know Ruth was a glainer, and that's why it carries him. But there's a lot more to that than God. So we turn to the book of Ruth, if you would. We're going to be there. We're going to jump around different places. But so you can keep a marker there. But I'm going to go, first of all, let's look at the history of Ruth.

And when you look at her history, and again, I want you to use this sermon from the standpoint of looking at yourself and saying, how did God call me? Why did He call me? What did He do in my life? Because each of us has things that God has done that we don't know when He did it.

And we don't know why He did it, necessarily. Except we had something that He saw in us that He could work with, and that we could use in the future. And so we look at this book about redemption, crisis, our Redeemer. And again, we should see God's hand in Ruth's life, but we should also see God's hand in our life. And that's the way He deals with her. The historical setting of Ruth is about 1100 BC, the time of the Judges. It's interesting that Israel couldn't really stay in tune with God long enough to reach a jubilee, or about every 40 years they would fall out of worshiping God. They'd be taken captive, or they had to pay tribute to some other nation, the Philistines, the Amorites, different people.

And so this period by the time of Otraim in Israel. In Genesis 19, we see where the Moabots came from. The sermonette talked about that. And we know that they were descendants of Lot. Lot who came out of Sodom, as we heard the sermonette, who left with his wife, who turned into pillar salt. His sons wouldn't come out, and his sons-in-law. Other children he had wouldn't leave with him. But his daughters came out to him. So in Genesis 19, verse 36, after reading the story of the fall of Sodom and Amorah, and everything we've heard in the sermonette, we go to the fact that the daughters realized that they didn't know what they really thought as far as men, and that there weren't any, and their father, they wanted his seed to be preserved.

So in Genesis 19, 36, so both the daughters of Lot were by child by their father. They got their father drunk, because they thought, hey, we need to have seed for our father. And one night the older daughter did it, the next night the younger daughter. Obviously Lot was very drunk, because he didn't know what was going on there. But they're both by child with their father, so we're talking about incest here. The firstborn Borosan called his name Moab, the father of the Moabites to this day. In verse 38, the younger also Borosan, called his name Benami, the father of the sons of Ammon to this day, the Ammonites.

And that was their relatives. But we read why God didn't care for them so much in Numbers 25. If you turn over to Numbers 25, and they're coming back from the Exodus, we read more of Moab in Numbers 25 and verse 1. It says, Israel lived in Sittim, and the people began to fornicate with the daughters of Moab. So we see that's not such a good thing in God's eyes, obviously.

And Israel joined himself to Baal-Pior, and the anger of God was kindled against Israel.

So Ruth didn't grow up worshiping the God of Israel. She had a very tough genealogically psychological history to overcome. Fornication and idolatry. Now, in Ruth, the setting is Bethlehem, which is very interesting as well, because that's where Jesse the father of David would be, and where Christ would be born. The interesting thing about Ruth in the book of Ruth is it always talks about her as a foreigner. Over and over, it's Ruth the Moabites, a Ruth the foreigner.

Throughout the entire chapters of Ruth, we're constantly reminded that this woman is not a covenant person. Now, we're told in Deuteronomy 23, verse 3, if you turn there, about people that aren't covenant people, more particularly the Ammonites and the Moabites. And you ask yourself the question when you read this, how did Ruth get into Israel and the genealogy of Jesus Christ? Deuteronomy 23, verse 3, it says, Why, versus 4?

And it says, Wow! So how did Ruth come into the congregation of Israel?

It's interesting that she was a Gentile. Michelle, when she was in college, she didn't know the difference between Gentiles and Israelites and things, and they let her read her file her first year. And in her file, it said that she was part Gentile. And she called me and asked me, what does that mean? Are my arms Gentile? My legs? You know? And I said, no, I said, really, it's, your mother is Italian and German. That's Gentile, and your father is French and English, and that's Israelites. And she said, well, do I have to marry somebody part Gentile? And I said, no, because I wanted her. And, which was true, so I was able to convince her to marry me eventually.

But again, she didn't know what it was. But Ruth was a Gentile. She was not an Israelite. She did not come under the covenant people, so to speak. But we look at this thing, and God accepted Ruth. Why? By the end of the book, she's lauded and praised. This person did, you know, and it was more than 10th generation when you look at the genealogies. And it certainly wasn't forever, but she came into that, and she's fondly mentioned. And even mentioned in Matthew, in the genealogy of Christ, where it talks about Rahab the harlot, Ruth the baubite, and the wife of Uriah, the three women mentioned in his thing, all with dubious backgrounds.

So why was Ruth able to come into the congregation of Israel?

So I'd like you to turn to Ruth 1, and we'll look at this book about kindness.

There's a word for people that are not kind, called Ruthless, and that works in English, but it doesn't work in other countries. Ruth 1. We'll start through this as we go through this book and see some of the things that happened, and consider what happened with her, and think of the things that happened in your life. It came to pass in the days of the judges, where they ruled there was a famine in the Lamb, and a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to dwell in the country of Moab. He had his wife and his two sons. Now you can ask yourself, why was there a famine in the Lamb? Well, they were serving God, but it made this man move out of the country, remove his blessings from Israel, and so they went to Moab, because there's not a famine in Moab. Did he just cause this? Did it happen? What was part of it? Was it circumstance? It was that envoy, Michelle's grandmother brought circumstance that brought her there. What in your life seems to be circumstance?

In chapter verse 2, the name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife Naomi, which means prosperity or sweetness. The name of his two sons, Malan and Chilean, Bethlehemites of Bethlehem Judah. And they came into the country of Moab and continued there. Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left, and her two sons. I can relate to that. My dad died when I was three years old. My mom had two boys, and my mom read the book of Ruth, and she looked at that from the standpoint of where she was. But these men, verse 4, says, they took them wives and the women of Moab. The name of one was Orpah, the name of the other, Ruth, and they dwelt there about 10 years. So these young men married these women, and Malan and Chilean died, both of them. And the woman was left of her two sons and her husband. So she goes there, and all the men are gone. And these two women that they married, and herself. What does she do? Verse 6, she rose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab. For she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited his people by giving them bread. Famine's over. Did God cause that famine to be over at that point in time? It hadn't been. Would she have returned? The things that are happening here, it seems God caused the famine to move them and caused the stoppage of the famine for them to move back, except they wouldn't have any of the men with them. And so Naomi and Ruth could return. Verse 7, she went out of the place where she was, her two daughters-in-law, with her, and they went on their way and returned to the land of Judah. And Naomi said 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 with the dead and with me. So she had dealt kindly. The two daughters had dealt kindly. She wanted to go back and find husbands, and she's asking God to give them a blessing for what they had done for her, these two Moabite women. Apparently, she was a good mother-in-law, and they were learning from her. But they had done what is right, and so she's asking God to bless them. She wants them to have a family to have the things that she'd lost, actually. Verse 9, may God grant you that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband. And she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices on web. So this was a female cry-in-law. And they said, surely we'll return with your people. They both said, no, we'll go with you. But Naomi said, turn again, my daughters. Why?

Why will you go with me? Are there yet sons in my womb that can be your husbands?

I mean, obviously these men are probably in their 20s, late 20s, and the daughters are up there as well. And she's telling them that, I'm not getting any more sons for you. Go back home. 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 even tonight, they could bear sons. Would you wait for them till they were grown?

No. Will you shut yourselves up not to have a husband? No, my daughters. It makes me very sad for your sakes that the hand of God has gone against me. That's your thoughts. God is against me. He took my sons. He took my husband. God doesn't like me. How many times have we thought something like that, when things don't go right in our lives? And they lifted up their voices and wept again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law and left, but Ruth clung to her. Ruth was like, Orpah was like Michelle's friend. Yep, I'm going back. I'm leaving this.

And Ruth said, no, I'm staying. She said to her, behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and back to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law again. What do we do when something goes wrong? Do we go back to the comfort we had before? Or do we stay with God? When we look at the example of Ruth, and what we're seeing here is a type of conversion of Ruth. We're seeing her quest to find God. Verse 16 of Ruth 1, Ruth said, and treat me not to leave you or to turn back from following you. Wherever you go, I will go. And wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people. Your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die. And there will I be buried.

And now, O, if the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me, when no one saw that she was determined to go with her, she quit talking about going back. She would get challenging her to return to her people and her gods. Luke 14, 26, we're told by God if we're not willing to leave father and mother, and love him more than our family, that we're not worthy to be disciples. And Ruth is saying, I'm not turning back. I'm going to stay with you. Your God is my God.

She had difficulty because she was a woman. How could she get in with the covenant people? Women had difficulty in the way they were considered. She couldn't be circumcised to get into the covenant people. That's one thing that men could do. But what she did was make a solemn oath. She renounced her gods. She renounced her people. She said she'd follow Naomi wherever she went. Whatever she did, whatever she taught her, her people would be my people and her people.

I'll learn their customs. I'll learn their ways. I've left my people, and now I'm taking yours. And the most important statement is that your God is my God. One and the same.

We continue in verse 19, both of them went till they came to Bethlehem. It happened when they had come to Bethlehem. All the city was moved about them, and they said, is this Naomi? Hey, sweetness, prosperity. Hey, you're back. She said, do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara. Call me bitter. For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and God has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since God has testified against me? The Almighty has afflicted me.

Do we ever feel that way? Job, I imagine, in some ways, felt that way. What once happened, he kept his God and stuff. He had to ask why. All of us asked why. I've asked why me. All of us, we see ourselves, and we're not worthy of this, and they're right. We're not.

But God knows what he's doing, and Christ is. So Naomi returned, verse 22, and Ruth the Moabites, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab, they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. So that barley harvest starts right after the way she fought for her. So we know the time of the year when it was, and so she's there right at the time, after Passover, after Unleavened Bread, time right now, where we are. And Ruth and Naomi returned to Israel.

And, verse chapter 2, we read about Boaz. Verse chapter 2, verse 1, it says, A relative Naomi kinsman, a man of great wealth, and the family of Elimelech, his name is Boaz, meaning in him is strength. So Ruth the Moabites, again, said to Naomi, Please, let me go to the field, and glean heads of grain after him, and whose side I might find favorite. You have this rule of gleaning here. I'll go out and find somewhere I can pick up some food for us. She doesn't know where she's going. She doesn't know what she'll find. All she is is she's going out to the fields to find that food. It's almost favorite. And her mother in Los Estuar, go, my daughter. And she left and went and gleaned in a field after the reapers. And she happened to come upon the part of the field belonging to Boaz of the family of Elimelech.

Now, again, did she just happen to come on to it? That's what she thought. But was it really? Or was God taking her somewhere for something that she didn't know, and Naomi didn't know, and Boaz didn't know? Did she chance upon it? God's like that. We can't really know how much God is doing for you. He's done so many things. We talk about miracles, and we think, in fact, Lina and I were talking tonight about miracles that God has done. My favorite one is the lady that wanted to go to the feast, and her husband was antagonistic and would not let her go. And was angry about the whole thing. And finally decided, okay, there's another one wants to go with you itself. So fine, you can go. I'll let you go. Just take the car and go. Here's the keys.

She didn't know, but he had taken all the spark plug wires out of the car.

And she walked out of the car, put the key in it, and drove off.

And a week later, she drove back. And he runs out there and opens the hood, and the spark plug wires are still gone. God does things like that. We don't know it. He doesn't tell us when he's done that. But if we trust him, he does things that are special. And he was doing something special.

She didn't chance onto that field. I don't believe. But she thought she did.

So God is like that. These details.

Again, God's working with this woman, because apparently he wants to bring them together.

And Ruth, the type of the church, Boaz, the type of Christ, the redeemer.

And this book is written so we can understand how these things work with God in our lives.

No, I always included John 644. No man can come to him except the Father draws him. And he draws us in ways that we don't know. He draws us with an envoy. He draws us, you know, whatever person in your life. Son or daughter, relative, friend. Her grandmother came in because she was proving her brother was wrong. And she comes in. He doesn't. These are things that are saying. God doesn't call us by saying, hi, I'm God, but you come into my church. I mean, if he did, then there's probably something wrong. But he doesn't have these random acts, sometimes, that we think are random. They're very special. King David, in his example and other kings, particularly Jesus Christ, whose life has touched us the most, came from these two people. So I believe it wasn't a random meeting that God was working something out here. And now we notice all the things that Ruth has done for her by Boaz. And if you think about all the things that Christ does for us as well, without us necessarily even knowing it. Verse 4, it says, Behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to his reapers, the Lord be with you. Interesting. God be with you. Emmanuel means God with us. It says, Boaz said to his servants, who was in charge of the reapers? Whose young woman is this? He didn't recognize this woman. It's a new person in town.

So the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered and said, it's the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. Again, she's not an Israelite.

Yeah, the servant in charge of the reapers. There's structure in the church. Verse 7, she says to him, Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the shes. She's asking for the lowest position. The humility Ruth shows here. Her character, can I glean behind? There are other reapers. Can I have the lowest position in Israel? Poor people glean and things. And being a stranger, there's nothing that says that she had to glean among the shes or take more than that because she's asking just for help here. She's asking for the leftovers, if you will. The lowest seat. Verse 7, she came and continued from morning until now, though she rested a little while in the house. So she'd been working diligently all day with just a little bit of rest. She was really trying to do everything she could for her and her mother-in-law. And then Boaz says to Ruth in verse 8, Do you not hear my daughter? Do not glean another field, neither go away from here, but stay close to my maidens.

Boaz is saying, Hear me, listen to me. Christ told His disciples in His church to listen to Him to give. Listen, my daughter. Christ said, My sheep, hear my voice. And Boaz continued in verse 9, Let your eyes be on the fields that they reap. Go after them. Have I not commanded the young men that they shall not touch you? And you are thirsty? Go to the vessels and drink that which the young men have drawn. So Boaz is saying to Ruth, Don't go gleaning anybody else's field. Don't go from here. Stay by my women. Stay protected. I've told my men to protect you. We're to stay close to God and to Christ and stay with His field, His brethren. We're this field in the church. And He says, When you're thirsty, go to the vessels and drink, which they've drawn. I'm going to give you water.

Just like Christ said, He gave us the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Boaz has given me the symbol of the Holy Spirit. Drink of the water. Drink of my water. Parallel between Ruth 2 and 9 and John 7, 37. John 37, on that last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. Who believes in me in the Scriptures has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

He spoke concerning the Spirit, which had not yet come, and which the believers would receive.

God wants us to drink freely of His Spirit. Just as Boaz said, drink freely of my water. What I've given. How does this benefit Ruth? Well, He gives her refreshment so that she can be refreshed. He gives her encouragement. He gives her strength so she can even do more gleaning. Enable her to have constant contact with Boaz even. She does not have to go back to town to get a drink. Things would be a little easier for her. It would enable her to have that contact.

So, it was easier for her. He was making it easier for her. He even did more than that to her. He supplied food. He supplied drink. He supplied the work. He supplied Himself. Again, we see that type of the Holy Spirit, which supplies us with what we need. In verse 10, 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? Why did you pick me, God? I haven't done anything. We've all asked that.

She knew Boaz did not have to do this for her. He gave her all these additional blessings.

Again, Christ, do you have to do this for us? He chose to. Boaz answered and said to her, He has been fully shown to me all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband. You have left your father and your mother. You have left the land of your birth. You've come to a people who you did not know before now. Remember what Naomi said? You've done all these good things for the living and the dead. May God do it kindly for you.

Boaz was now saying, It's been fully shown to me what you're doing. You know what the covenant people are supposed to do, be it you're a foreigner, you're a Moabite. And his answer, Mr. Wyatt blessed her, is even though she's a foreigner, because you came to a people you did not know. But she had been doing her obligation to God. And he saw that. Verse 12, The Lord repay your work. A fuller word be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge. Is the church not our refuge? We come under. Verse 13, she said, Let me find favor in your sight, my Lord, if you have comforted me, and have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your maidservants. Again, a Moabite is a foreigner, not of the land, and a woman, which didn't help her. Verse 14, Boaz said to her, At mealtime come here, and eat of the bread, and dip your bit in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers, and he handed her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied. Now she kind of advanced from a gleaner. He was pulling her into his fear with his reapers. He was passing grain to her, and she ate and was satisfied. Her master is serving her food now.

Verse 15, When she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves. Don't rebuke her. Also let fall handfuls on purpose for her, and leave them so that she may glean it. Don't rebuke her. In other words, hey, let's leave a little more. Don't let her know. I've did that for my children sometimes, when they did things, just to help them out. Let them encourage them so that they can feel good. I remember my son, when he was about three years old, we had read the little train that could, and I think I can, I think I can. I told him to keep trying, keep trying. I had a log there that was in the way, at least it was to him, and he decided he wanted to move it. And this log was way too big for him. And he was pushing, and he said, I think I can, I think I can. I knew he would be out there all day, because he knew he could do it, which he couldn't. So I go up beside him, I say, yeah, you can do this. And I pushed myself with it. He didn't see me. He moved. He thought God had given him great strength to move that log. And he didn't know it. And of course, I knew he'd probably go back and try again, so I cut it up. But that's like us. We don't know some of the things that God does. And Boaz is leaving extra grain for her to pick, so she can be successful. Verse 17, she gleaned the field till evening and beat up what she's doing. It was about an ephob barley. A lot more than normal for a gleaner. Now she goes back to Naomi and tells her what happened. Ruth, the Moabitis, said, he also said to me, you shall stay close to my young men until you have finished my harvest. So not only did he say stay in my field and glean, but stay here for the entire harvest. Not a day, not a week, not a year, but actually forever. That's what God wants us through His entire harvest to come into His kingdom. God wants us. And He's doing the scriptural gleaning for us, our refuge in the spiritual body of Christ, where we take it.

And Naomi says to her daughter-in-law, verse 22, good my daughter, you go out with His maidens so that they do not fall upon you in any field. Again, was it unsafe? There were a lot of things and going on in those days which were unsafe. The highways weren't safe. There were robbers and things. And again, it's unsafe outside the church. People leave the church. So many of them eventually fall away and don't believe anything at all. I'm on a forum with all the three campuses each have a forum. I'm surprised how many people have become atheists. They become all sorts of things.

And you wonder why. Verse 23, so she stayed close by the young women of Boaz to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the weed harvest. And she'd go out with her mother-in-law. So Ruth had listened. She had done what her mother-in-law said. As a type of Christian, she stayed there like we stay in the church. God calls us. Christ has given us permission to glean in His fields with His Word. He says fellowship is important. Stay with my people. We should stay with God's people. It's the best place to be, no matter who you are. And God tells us in Hebrews 10.25 to not forsake the assembly of ourselves together. We need the encouragement for each other. We fear God.

It's time to stay with the reapers, to assemble with them. And speaking and working together, gleaning in the same field is very important, especially now with the world falling apart. I feel very fervently we're on the threshold of the Great Tribulation. Just the world is falling apart so rapidly. And the war and the things that are going on now worldwide. People have always thought that in the past, but the news was always local. And if your area is falling apart, you thought it was the end. But now the whole world is falling apart.

And it's happening before our eyes. But Boaz again warms the young men not to harm her. He's under her protection. And how often do we see God warning the shepherds not to hurt His people, to take care of the flock? He talks about wolves entering in. He doesn't want us to abuse our authority. He wants us to treat each other kindly and with respect. All of us need to be careful with God's people and friendship and what we do and sharing and helping.

We look at what Boaz is doing for Ruth without telling her he's set it up so she can really succeed.

And with us, he sets us up so we can succeed. Even though we have trials, he sets it up so we can succeed. How much do we actually have to do? How much has God done on His own through His love and His grace? Hard for us to say sometimes. Verse 1 of chapter 3, we see a bit more of the story. Her mother-in-law Naomi says to her, my daughter, shall not seek rest for you, so it be well with you. He wants her to have a family still. She wants her to have all the things God intended from creation of Adam and Eve. And he says, now he's not Boaz of our kindred. He is with whose maidens you were. Behold, he winnows barley tonight in the threshing floor. Naomi knows the scripture. She knows what she's doing. Has therefore washed herself, anoint yourself, put on your clothing, and go down to the floor. Again, just as we clean up, we come before God to learn and progress to Him. And she says, do not make yourself known to the man until he's finished eating and drinking. Christ is harvesting us, and He's out there with the harvest to finish it off. She says, when He lies down, mark the place where He lies, and you shall go in and uncover His feet, and He will tell you what you shall do. Now, this is a strange thing.

And Ruth says, all you say I will do. Now, this is very foreign to her, and yet she says, I'll do it. She agrees with everything. Now, if Michelle would have laid down with my feet in college, we would have been kicked out. But it's a different time of different culture. She went down to the grain floor and did according to all her mother-in-law told her. When Boaz is eaten and drunk, his heart was merry. I dare say it was very merry. He went to lie down at the end of the heap, and she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. And it happened at midnight, the man trembled and turned to himself and behold, a woman lay at his feet. And he said, who are you? She said, I'm your handmade Ruth, and you shall spread your skirt over your handmade, for you are a kinsman redeemer.

And then he, Boaz, said, blessed are you of the Lord my daughter, for you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning, and you did not go after young men, whether poor or rich.

You did your duty. You took care of Naomi. You were humble. You were selfless.

Boaz is saying that Ruth, a foreigner, was fulfilling the law, what it's all about.

Love God. Love your neighbors yourself. She had asked him to be a redeemer. She had done what the law stated. Go to your kinsman. Ask him to redeem you. She had done that. She had not gone anywhere else. But now, for this older man, Boaz, has shown abundant kindness along the way. And now Boaz gives his answer. Verse 11, Now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do to you all that you ask. For all the city of my people knows that you're a woman of virtue. And now it is true, I am your kinsman redeemer, but there is a kinsman nearer than I. Stay tonight, and it shall be in the morning. If he will redeem you, well, he will redeem. And if he does not delight to redeem you, as God lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning. And she lay down at his feet until the morning, and she rose up before one can know one another. It was dark. And he said, do not let it be known that a woman came to the floor. And he said, bring the veil and hold it. And when he measured it, he measured six measures of barley and laid it on her, and she went to the city.

He filled it, because he knew Naomi would know what this would mean. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, who are you, my daughter? Obviously, it was still dark. And she told her all that the man had done. And she said, these six measures of barley he gave to me. And he said, do not go empty to your mother-in-law. Kind of a dowry of sorts. In verse 18, she said, Naomi says, sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will fall, for this man will not rest until he's finished this thing today. What did Christ say to his disciples in Matthew 26, 29? I say to you, I'll not drink of the fruit of the vine until I drink it with you in my father's kingdom. What did Paul write in Philippians 1.6? Be confident he who has begun a good work will finish it in you.

Naomi's telling her, Boaz is going to finish this. God is going to finish with you. If you let him, you stay close to him. Ruth was beautiful in character, and Boaz cited a privilege and an honor that she'd come to ask him to be redeemed. She had gone above and beyond. As he said, you've done more now than when you came in. Christ would love to see us do more now than we did at the beginning, to keep that first love that he talks about, and to do the things that he has taught us to do, to be blameless. Those people show first love, and then it kind of wanes. Christ wants us to grow and zeal, to grow and love. Ruth had impressed Boaz. Boaz had fed her, taken care of her.

Jesus said, I'm the bread of life. Come eat of me. We've read that for the Passover.

And who comes to him never hungers. Spiritually, we don't have to hunger when we have his spirit. When Ruth went to Boaz, she never hungered again. Chapter 4 shows the redemption of Naomi and Ruth. If you turn to Deuteronomy 25, you keep your hands on Ruth there if you want. Deuteronomy 25, it tells what the kinsman redeemer is about. Chapter 25, verse 10, or verse 5, we'll start there. It says what happens if brethren dwell together and one of them dies. So you have a family and brother's there and has no child. The wife of the dead shall not marry without to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go into her, take her to his wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her. And it shall be that the firstborn which she bears shall succeed in the hands of his brother, which is dead, that his name not be put out of Israel. Who gave the inheritance that would have gone to that family. And if a man does not like to take his brother's wife, then he had a choice, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate of the elders and say, so she's going to say to the elders, as far as witnesses, my husband brother refuses to raise up unto his brother's name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. Then the elders of the city shall call him and speak to him. And if he stands to it and says, I don't want to take her, then shall his brother's wife come to him in the presence of the elders, loose his shoe from off his foot, spit in his face, and shall answer and say, so shall it be done to the man that will not build up his brother's house. And his name shall be called in Israel the house of him that has loosed his shoe. That was the law. When Israel became gods by redemption as well as creation, they could trust him to deliver them. We today count on God to deliver us that faith that we have. Now, chapter 4, we read what happened here. Boaz went to the gate, again in the sight of all. That's what you did. He went to the gate where the elders were. And behold, the kinsmen of whom Boaz spoke came by. And he said, such a one, turn aside, sit down here. And he turned and sat down. I find it funny that a woman like the kids are all named, but here this man doesn't get a name. I guess we'll call him Mr. No Name, or the man whose shoe was loosed, I guess, whatever. But it's not there. And Boaz says he took 10 men of the elders of the city, come and sit down here, and they sat down. These were the witnesses that were required. He said to the kinsmen of Naomi, who has come again out of the country of Moab? Again, of Moabitis. She sells a parcel of lamb, which was our brother, Elinolex. And I said, I will tell it in your ear, saying, buy it before those who live here, before the elders of my people.

If you will redeem it, then redeem it. And if you will not redeem it, tell me so that I may know, for there's none to redeem it besides you, and I am after you. And the man says, I will redeem it.

Oops! Is that what got out of mine? It's a nice piece of land. I think I'll buy that. That's a pretty good deal.

Heboaz, verse 5, he says, 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.

You must take this foreigner, this Moabitis, to your wife. And the kids must say, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar my own inheritance. You redeem it, my right to yourself. I cannot redeem it. He didn't want to do it. I don't want to Moabitis. They're not supposed to be in Israel. You do it.

Moaz wanted her. This Mr. Donate didn't. Christ wants us. God wants us. He didn't have to redeem it. And he didn't redeem it.

This was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing. To confirm everything, a man plucked off his sandal and gave it to his neighbor, and this was a testimony in Israel. Therefore, the kinsmen said to Boaz, buy it for yourself. He drew off his sandal.

And Boaz said to the elders, you are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was a limelax and all that was chilians and malons from the hand of Naomi. And also, Ruth of Moab, the wife of Malon, I have purchased to be my wife to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, so the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of this place.

We are dead without Jesus Christ. And Moaz says, you are witnesses this day. Now, the man got off lucky because they spit in his face, which Deuteronomy allowed him to do.

And we don't know his name. We never will probably until we can ask God and Christ.

Verse 11, all the people in the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. May God make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, for these two built the house of Israel. And you may be blessed in Epheta and be famous in Bethlehem.

Keep your hand there, but turn to Luke 24, if you would.

Luke 24, begin in verse 45.

Christ, talking to his disciples, says in verse 45, he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Chapter 24, verse 46, he said to them, so it is written, so it bewove Christ to suffer and to rise from dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sin should be proclaimed in his name among all the nations beginning at Jerusalem. Verse 48, and you are witnesses of these things. Christ was a witness, and he had his disciples there as witnesses of the redemption.

Christ was doing what the law required in redeeming us. Behold, I send the promise of my Father on you, that you sit in the city of Jerusalem until your clothe of the power from on high. He led them out as far as Bethany, lifted his hands up, blessed them. As it happened, he blessed them, he withdrew from them, was carried up to heaven. But they were witnesses of these things. He took a witness back to Ruth, if you would, Ruth 4, verse 12. They said to him, Let your house be like the house of Phares, whom Terma, Tamar, bore to Judah, and the seed which God has given you from this young woman. And Boaz took Ruth, she was his wife, and he went to her, God made her conceive, and she bore a son.

And the woman said to Naomi, the woman who once thought she was cursed, call me Marah, call me bitter, God has cursed me. They said, Blessed be God, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, so his name may be famous in Israel. And he shall be to you as the restorer of life, 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 always told my daughter, you can be better than seven sons.

Women are very valuable to God, very special. They serve God just the same way we do. We all serve God, and we're all special. So Naomi took the child, laid it in her bosom, became the nurse to it, and the woman, her neighbors, gave it a name, saying, There is a son born in Naomi. They called his name Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David. The near kinsman.

We have brothers and sisters. We have near kinsmen.

Boaz in this section acted as the kinsman redeemer, and they were based on that levered law that we read in Deuteronomy 25. What are the rules of the levered law?

One, you had to be a blood relative. Boaz is the blood relative. Jesus Christ, he was God before. He came down and born of the Virgin Mary. He became a blood relative of humanity.

And redeeming us, he did what was required. Christ became our blood brother, being born of Mary.

He's our older brother. When Christ created the world, he gave his life.

The kinsmen had to have money to purchase the forfeited inheritance.

Boaz was a wealthy enough man to purchase it. But Christ, you can't buy forgiveness from sin with money. Not if you're in the Catholic Church, you can do that. Doesn't really forgive anything. And indulgences and other, almost every religion in the world has a way to get out of sin yourself. I was shocked, and I didn't realize in Islamic world, one of a King of the Saints, right-hand man, Abu Uddit, came to his dryer's house during Ramadan. And it was in the summer, so it was late. And I said, well, we'll put dinner off till later. He said, oh, no, you don't do that. And I said, well, what do you mean? It's Ramadan. You can't eat during the daytime. Oh, it's okay. As long as we buy two meals for the poor, for every one we eat, we're okay. So if you're rich enough, you can just eat away. Just buy a bunch of poor meals. Almost every religion has a way out of things, which is sad. But that's not what God is. He didn't purchase us, even though he created the universe, he owned everything. He purchased us with his life because only death is the penalty for sin. He didn't sin, so he didn't deserve death. So he could pay the price for us, part of the levered law. He created the world, and he's giving us his life for ours.

The third thing you had to have in the levered law is you had to be willing to redeem.

Mr. Noam wasn't willing to redeem. Turn to John 10, if you would, with me. John 10. Interesting chapter when you put these pieces together. I never thought about that. I've read Ruth so many times, it's a wonderful story, fun, good book, and price came there, etc. But when you look at the real parts of this in John 10, in verse 17, talk us to his disciples.

He says, therefore does my father love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man takes it from me, but I lay it down on myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again. This commandment have I received from my father.

Christ said, I am doing this willingly. I want to take you and redeem you.

He did all three parts of the levered law in redeeming us. We often don't realize, you know, Christ kept the law. The sacrifices, he was a sacrifice, he did away, but he did the levered law in redeeming us. And Ruth, like I said, it's read at Pentecost, but we're redeemed because Christ died a Passover. So it fits this feast as well. And he was willing to do it. He wanted to do it. He desired to do it. Like Boaz said, I desire your virtue is known through repentance, you become pure, you become blameless. And I want to redeem you.

I'm your blood relative. I have the sinless life that can do it, and I want to do it.

That's what he's saying. Ruth carried many burdens, but she chose God's way. God accepted Ruth. I'm sure there was gossip about Ruth. Mr. No Name Didn't Water.

I'm sure the other kinsmen thought, even though Marmite and Herodot's in the early adjustment church, they had a problem with Gentiles. Why? Because they're not the covenant people. But God didn't have a problem with people. The Jews were skeptical, because again, they were certain people forbidden to be in the assembly of the Lord.

But God accepted Ruth. He accepts all the Moabites out there. All the people, if they repent.

If your God is my God, and your people are my people.

In Acts 10.34, Peter, because he was taken with that, it was a Jewish religion until God showed him to know, this is the whole world. I want to save everyone. In Acts 10.34, it says Peter opens his mouth after the vision. It says, Love, the truth I perceive God is no respecter of persons. But in every nation, he that fears him, and works righteousness is accepted with him.

Doesn't make any difference what your ethnicity is, what your race, what your background, what your country, what your inheritance, whether you're born, you know, descendants through incest, whether you were an idolater and fornicate, those things go away. It doesn't matter if your God is my God, and your people are my people, and I do what God wants. Turn to Ephesians 2.11, if you will.

All that truly repent and are baptized have that opportunity with God's calling to accept that redemption. You had to ask for redemption. You had to ask to be baptized. When God and Christ fulfill their parts in calling you. Ephesians 2, verse 11 and 12, again, all are accepted if they repent. Verse 11, Ephesians 2, Therefore, remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh, Moabites, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, made in the flesh by hands, that at the time you were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of the promise, having no hope and without God in this world.

None of us were redeemed until we asked and accepted that. Before Ruth met Naomi, she had no clue about Israel. Or Israel's God. She was a Gentile. She was a foreigner, an alien from the covenant. She was out of it altogether.

Just like Michelle had no clue when she showed up on the steps of a master college.

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 middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the hymnatee. Our sins cut us off from God. We're in that scripture in Isaiah 59 in the day. Going up to chapter verse 4, going up a bit, But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love, which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace have you been saved, and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The ages to come he might know the exceeding riches of his grace. Think of all those things that Boaz did for Ruth, that he heaped upon her. That in ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. We were like Ruth. We were undeserving of any of this.

We were estranged from the covenant. We were breaking God's laws. In his mercy he plucked us up. God called us. We asked for that redemption and he redeemed us. Who does God call? Who is called in the time of the judges? Ruth the Moabite. Boaz the Israelite. Anyone who serves God accepts God and his word and his commandments. We make that solid baptism and God redeems us and we become the troll of Christ. It wipes away our past. Gives us a chance to start over. Part of his family. Part of the congregation. And then make indifference. What your birth nationality was.

We're part of God's family. Ruth was an Israelite because of her character. Because she was actually more Israelite than most of the Israelites were. Because in her character she was living God's law more than most of them. And Boaz had no problem at all in making her his wife. Christ has no problem at all making us his bride. When we repent, they're converted, receive the Holy Spirit. No matter what age you are, whether you're two years old, and I didn't get his spirit obviously till I was later, but I think he was working with me. Like I was working with Michelle until she asked for redemption as well. And we became a new person. Part of the natural olive tree again. Part of the God family. Again, Ruth shows that in God's sight conversion is incomparable to any ethnicity, history, background, or anything you have. Ruth the Gentile shows what God had in mind all along. He wants all people to serve him. And even in ancient times before Christ's sacrifice, you could join Israel if your God is my God and your people are my people and I'll obey your laws. That was all part of it. He was going to show save the whole world, not just Israel.

Those Gentiles who had not been physically part of the covenant, the door was always open to them.

So all of us have that opportunity, and all those things were written for us to understand his purpose and his plan. Hebrews 11, we're told they all died in faith. I haven't seen the promises of the Lamb, but knowing it was coming, they desired a different country.

Ruth desired a different country. Orpah went back to her people and her gods.

We have to stay with God's people. We have hope as long as we're in God's church, his spiritual body, not a corporation, but a set of beliefs. We have hope to eternal redemption, that Christ alone has the worth to pay for all humanity.

Again, the killed men had to be willing to buy back the forfeited inheritance. And by sin, we forfeited our inheritance. Christ laid out his life of his free will. He had to choose to do that.

And he was willing to marry so that we could have part in God's family, our inheritance. One of the functions of the Holy Spirit was to bind the body of Christ together. And it doesn't matter what race or gender you are, everyone who receives the Holy Spirit is part of his family, part of the team, part of what God wants. And those who don't, God doesn't call now, for whatever reason, why he called us is something he saw that you can offer.

Something for people to rise up in the resurrection that you can help with. He saw something you could do, and he gave you a spirit so that you could be there to help.

We're not aliens before. When we accepted Christ, we became part of the covenant people, the new covenant people, the family of God. Ruth made herself ready. She purified herself. She did all that the law commanded. We also need to use God's Holy Spirit. We also need to use God's Holy Spirit to do all the law commands and to recognize Christ as our Redeemer. It's not about Ruth the Moabite. It's about all the people who choose God to be their God and God's people to be their people.