Ruth the Moabitess

It's always good to come out with the ABC crowd. I enjoy the indie church, but there's a lot of competition to come here. You have to get in line. Especially since we've got former pastors over there competing. They always want to come back and see their kids and things. So that's understood as well. But they let me this time come back.

Do you ever wonder why God calls us? Why He called you? What about staff? Why did He call me? For those of us who grew up in the church, many of you who are middle-aged, or older, perhaps, your whole life has been in the church, pretty much as mine has.

Do you wonder that question? People like my wife, though, are a bit different. She wasn't born in the church. She didn't come to the church until she came to college and had to learn what I'd already known from the time I was a child. Of course, I had twelve years of Imperial schools and Bible class every day of my life, pretty much. So I knew a lot of things that she didn't know.

In her case, she didn't know anything virtually about scriptures. She grew up Lutheran. Lutheran are nice people, but I always refer to them as disobedient Catholics, because of Luther and her rebellion there. She liked the people there, and her family was there, but no one could explain the Trinity to her.

She wanted to know how three could be in one, and that was a stickling point for her. She asked a lot of questions about it, and finally the minister there just said, It's something you have to take on faith. You can't really prove it or explain it. You just have to know that it exists. It didn't satisfy her, so she went to a Baptist church.

She has some friends that went to a Baptist church. A great youth program, a great thing. They had a great song service. The minister preached, and he had an altar call, and so she came up to the altar call.

They were all supposed to get baptized the next day, and when she got home, she said, What am I doing? I don't know what it is. She called the preacher and said, I'm not coming. I don't really know what I'm doing. So she didn't go there. Then what happened? Her senior year of high school. It was interesting, because her dad had lost his job.

He had worked for Bendicks Corporation for 19 years and I think 8 months. It's kind of like the old joke, either fire you or give you the gold watch. They terminated him before he had full retirement, and so he was out of a job and went into another profession. They didn't have a lot of money, and Michelle was getting ready to go to college. None of her family had been in the church at all, but her grandmother had recently gotten baptized and had an envoy. She came to dinner and brought an envoy with her. This envoy is a Christian school, wonderful kids, had a farm there. They believed in health foods and things, and they had their own dairy and all these things down there.

They thought this would be good for her to go to. So she came. When they got there, she didn't want to where everybody went on Friday night. What's Sabbath? We don't go to church on Sunday. She called home, and said, are you coming home for Christmas? No, they don't come home for Christmas. They don't believe Christmas. So they are Christian, aren't they? Well, yes. Finally, she said, look, her mom said, what about the people who do believe in Christmas? She said, I'll be home in January.

That's when the break is. So she came home. For her, she kind of knew she was being called. Her calling was special because she came to an understanding that she wouldn't have had any of the way. God does know who He calls. He knows why He calls them. Today I'm going to go through a book of the Bible that's very fascinating. It's the book of Ruth. In fact, the title of the sermon is Ruth, the Moabitis. I did this about three years ago. I did it in Cincinnati. I saw some ABC students afterwards and kind of apologized.

I said they probably already covered this in class and found out that they hadn't. In fact, they really enjoyed the sermon. Some of them actually came back to hear it again in the afternoon. After that, I decided I would go ahead at one of the churches that I would go to for the special music. I would go and give the sermon. That way they can cover a book a little more thoroughly than they did in class. Because trying to cover the whole Bible in nine months is a very difficult thing to do. This book has a lot of special meaning to it.

It's very interesting that Ruth is usually read at Pentecost. We're coming up on Oliver and Bread in Passover, and I think it applies there as well. But the book of Ruth occurs at the time of the harvest. It's a very special book. It is taken from Leviticus 23. You will read that at Pentecost. We'll read it in all the feast days we do. If you turn to Leviticus 23, verse 15, we'll go ahead and just look at that.

It says, "...you shall count from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering in. Seven Sabbaths shall be complete, even from the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you shall number fifty days, and you shall offer a new meat offering to the Lord." Again, notice God ends this section in verse 22 with, "...and when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not make clean riddance of the corners of your field when you reap.

Neither shall you gather any gleaning of your harvest. You shall leave them unto the poor and to the stranger. I am the Lord your God." One of the reasons the Jewish people read this at Pentecost is because Ruth was a gleaner.

And Pentecost, of course, was the time of the harvest, and they left it. But the poor, he left it. You weren't allowed to try to take everything. God's welfare system allowed for people that were down to be able to eat and be fed. And God's people, of course, were called the firstfruits, which come at Pentecost as well. And were redeemed by God.

But it's interesting that God ends the description of the Feast of Weeks with the instructions to leave the corners of their field unharvested. To leave that there for the poor, that everyone is included in being fed. It's a wonderful little book about love, about redemption. And many of the laws of the Old Covenant are brought out into it. But indeed, it truly describes the New Covenant promises in this book. Ruth is about redemption, being redeemed just as we understand Christ is our Redeemer. And we'll celebrate that at Passover shortly. If you look back in your life, you may ask yourself, how is God dealing with you? Many times we can't see how God is dealing with us. We tend to think things are not going as they should. Oftentimes God works with us in mysterious ways. But the book of Ruth should bring you encouragement, even in times of hardship, times of suffering. The historical setting of Ruth is around 1100 B.C. It's the period of the Judges. They went back and forth during that time. They obeyed God, then they disobeyed God, then they got into captivity. Then a deliverer would come, a Gideon, a Samson, or whoever. They'd be delivered. And then they'd go back and rebellion an idolatry. And then another deliverer would come. And up and down, just as sometimes we have in our lives, ups and downs that go that way. And this was set in a period of time when there was major suffering during one of the down periods of Israel. It's a peculiar book in the sense that it talks about Ruth, Ruth a Moabite. Ethnically, she was a Gentile. She was distantly related to the Israelites through Lot. You know the story there of Abraham's nephew. But it's interesting to understand where the Moabites came from and what they did. Of course, you read the story of Lot leaving Sodom and Gomorrah. I'd like to go to Genesis 19, if you would, because Sodom and Gomorrah had been destroyed. And Lot, even though he had other children that didn't go with him, his wife and two daughters did, and his wife, of course, looked back longingly at what was there and turned into a pillar of salt. And the fire in the brimstone came down and destroyed the cities of the plains there. And Lot's daughters were afraid, and they wondered what would happen. And they wanted to preserve the seed of their fathers. So in Genesis 19, verse 36, they got their father drunk, and they slept with him. And it says in verse 36, So both daughters of Lot were retiled by their father. So one night they got him drunk, and the older daughter slept with him. And the next night the younger did. And so the firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab, the father of the Moabites, to this day. And the younger bore a son and called his name Ben Ami, the father of the sons of Ammon, to this day. That is the heredity of Ruth, the Moabites. We read more of Moab in Numbers 25, in verse 1. It says in Israel, And the people began to fornicate with the daughters of Moab. That's not a good thing. And the people, they called the people to the sacrifice of their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to their gods. Idolatry, not a good thing.

And Israel joined himself to Baal-Pior, and the anger of God was kindled against Israel. So Ruth didn't grow up worshipping the God of Israel. Heredity was pretty tough. Her genealogy came from incest and fornication and idol worship. So how do we have a book of Ruth? How does it go? It's interesting the setting of Bethlehem, too, where Christ would be born, where King David came from. Ruth was a foreigner. She was a Moabite. She was a Gentile. In fact, her name is mentioned 12 times in the book, and five times it's not just Ruth, but Ruth the Moabite. It's very specific about that. Her non-Israelites heritage is constantly brought up in the book. Her status was that of an alien, not one of the covenant people. So how did it come to be that she became part of Israel? Through the entire chapter, we're constantly reminded over and over that she does not come under the covenant. I'd like to go to Deuteronomy 23. Let's look a little more and see how strange this really seems to be. The following are a portion of people that are excluded from the congregation of Israel. Deuteronomy 23, verse 3. It says, Why? Verse 4, Verse 5. So how did Ruth become part of the congregation of Israel? It's not the tenth generation. It's not forever. It's interesting. My wife, when she came to college, she didn't know anything. When she was transferring to Pasadena, they let her read her file. In her file, it said she was part Gentile. Now, she didn't know what that meant, so she came to me and asked me what that meant. She wanted to know which part of her was Gentile, arms, legs, or whatever. Then she wanted to know if she was allowed to marry somebody who was part Gentile. I assured her she didn't because I wanted her. But it was interesting. She didn't even know she was being insulted by being a Gentile. It wasn't, but her family is funny. She's a quarter French, a quarter English, and a quarter Italian, and a quarter of Germany. She's in World War II put together. Although I think it's mostly Manasseh, so I don't think she's Gentile anyway. But it's interesting. When you read this thing, you wonder, how did Ruth, the Moabite, come into Israel? But God accepted her. By the end of the book, you see she's lauded and praised.

And not only that, she is listed in Matthew and fondly mentioned as in the lineage of Christ. Of course, she's the great-grandmother of King David. It's interesting, Matthew 1 on the list, there's three women listed in Christ's Iniality. Rahab, the harlot, Ruth, the Moabites, and it says, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. So you've got two foreigners and an adulteress.

So how did they get in there? It's interesting. Turn to Ruth 1. Let's look and see why Ruth was able to come into the congregation of Israel, when you consider the background that she had. We'll pretty much stay in Ruth most of the time here. In Ruth 1, we'll start. I think it's interesting because of Ruth's kindness. We have a word for unkind people that kind of works in English, Ruthless. It fits. In other languages, it doesn't, but it fits here.

It says, it came to pass in the days when 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 was there a famine in this land? Again, the times of the judges, there were so many times they turned from God. You've got to wonder, did God actually cause this famine for them to move?

Did God work this out? I mean, you wouldn't think it would be a good thing to have a famine and to have to leave. But did He work it out or did it happen? He could have caused it, of course.

Verse 2, it says, the name of the man was Elimelech. That name means God is king. The name of his wife was Naomi, which means prosperity or sweetness. And the name is two sons, Ramallah and Chilean, the epithites of Bethlehem Judah. And they came into the country of Moab and continued there. Verse 3, Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left, and her two sons.

I can relate easily to that. My father died when I was three, and my brother and I were left there with my mom. And the minister, Mr. Black, will do the funeral and told her to move to Big Sandy, where the widows were. A difficult time. Verse 4, they took them wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Orpah, the name of the other, Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years. And Malon and Chilean died, both of them. And the woman was left of her two sons and her husband.

I wonder if she thought this was the curse of Moab, having gone there. What she thought when that happened? Verse 6, though, we see a change in direction. She arose 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, the covenant God, had visited His people by giving them bread. So the famine is over. Now, did God cause that to be over?

He seems to have caused it, and He seems to have later caused prosperity to happen back in Judea. And He's taken Naomi and her family to move back. But making them come back minus all the men. It's her and the two daughters-in-law, returning as a widow, waiting. What was going to happen? In verse 7, She went out of the place where she was, her two daughters-in-law with her, and as they went on their way to return to the land of Judah. In verse 8, Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go! Return each to your mother's house. May the God, the Yahweh God, the covenant God deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with Me.

What she's asking here is for God to pronounce a blessing on them because of their loyalty, because these two Moabite women had done right by her and her two sons. Even their both their husbands had died. And so now, since they had done what is right, she's asking God to bless them. In verse 9, it says, This is a very emotional setting. And they cried.

And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters. Why will you go with Me? Are there yet sons in My womb that they may be your husbands? You know, in the law of the land, if you had an inheritance and a man died, that a brother near Kinsmen would come into them. And so, if you had another son, you know, they'd have to marry.

And they'd produce seed for the firstborn. And that was it. But they were old. They were married. They'd been there probably 30 years old or so. And she says, Turn again, my daughters. Verse 12, I'm too old to have a husband. And even if I should have hope, hope for a child, and I should have that tonight. And should also bear sons. Would you wait for them until they were grown? Will you shut yourselves up not to have a husband and wait? No, my daughters, for it makes me very sad for your sakes that the hand of God has gone out against me. That's what we think when something goes wrong. God's gone out against me. I had a husband and two sons and you, but He's against me now.

And again, they lifted up their voice and wept. An orphan kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. She said, Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her God. Return after your sister-in-law. Go back. It's interesting. My wife, when she came to college, she had a real close friend who was a Catholic. And they both came not knowing anything. Her friend came because she had a boyfriend that had come there a couple of years before.

She had since found another girlfriend, so her coming was kind of a surprise to him. But it was interesting because Michelle and her would have Bible studies on a Friday night by themselves. And they would talk about all these things that the church was teaching. And her friends said, Did you really believe this? You know what they're saying? They're saying that all these other churches are wrong and this is true. And Michelle would say, Well, yeah, I do get it. And it was interesting because her friend Mary actually left after the end of the first semester.

And she told all the dorm mates, she said, Make sure Michelle doesn't leave. She may get homesick and she may have missed me, but she believes this stuff. So she stayed. And she walked through a lot of rules. She obeyed the rules. It was interesting. She came with a lot of short skirts. It was just after the 60s, and she didn't know anything about the church.

And she came there and she had all these short skirts. And they gave a forum on that dress and said, You got it, R You have Ruth? Let's look at Ruth's example. But Ruth said, verse 16, And treat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you, For wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die. And there will I be buried. Now listen to this oath she makes. The Lord God do so to me, and more also if anything but death, parts you and me.

Pretty strong words. And when she saw that she was determined to go with her, Naomi quit speaking with her about it. It's interesting. She was a woman. She couldn't be circumcised to enter the congregation. But what she did was make a solemn oath. An oath to Naomi. She renounced her gods. She renounced her people. She said that she would follow Naomi wherever she would go.

Naomi is the type of the church in this book. Your people, all the members of your church, will be my people. Your God will be my God. I've left my people. I've taken your people as my people. And most importantly, your God is my God. They'll be one and the same. Hard to do to renounce your past. Verse 19, Both of them went and they came to Bethlehem. And it happened when they had come to Bethlehem.

All the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi? She had gone through a decade of trauma and trial and older. And sometimes you see someone older and you say, Is that you? And she said to them, Do not call me Naomi. Don't call me sweetness. Don't call me pleasant. Call me Mara. 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 and the Almighty has afflicted me. That's what she thought. Sometimes we think like that. It was in God's position. Do you ever feel that way? Verse 22, So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab, and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

We know when this was. They had returned right as the barley harvest had begun. We know that happens right at Pentecost. Now we're going to be introduced in chapter 2 to her Redeemer, to Boaz. Boaz is a type of Christ. In chapter 2, verse 1, it says, There was a relative of Naomi's husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of a limilec. God is king. And his name is Boaz, which means that him is strength.

So, verse 2, So Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, Please, let me go to the field and glean heads of grain after him, and whose sight I might find favor. She doesn't know where she's going to go glean. She's just going to go out in the fields and find a field, and hopefully she can find favor and glean. And Naomi says to her in verse 3, Go, my daughter. She laughed and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers.

And she just happened to come upon the part of the field belonging to Boaz of the family of a limilec. She happened upon. I wonder if that was really a chance, or was it something God is working out? Any more? I don't believe that that envoy that Michelle's family got was a coincidence. Was this a coincidence? You can't prove it until you look at the rest of the life and see where it goes.

You can't really know how God is directing us. God is often in our details without us even knowing it. On the very first day that she goes out to glean, she lands in Boaz's field. God was working with her, apparently wanting to bring these two together. Neither one of them knew it. They wouldn't. And He wants us to learn something from all this. He wanted us to know that King David and Christ would come from this union.

In John 6.44 it says, "...no manageable can come to me except the Father who sent me draws them." We don't know how that drawing comes, always. It can come through your parents if you're born in the church, or it can come through an envoy, it can come through Ruthamalbitis. But it's a calling. God is working something out in these lives. When God called you, I doubt if you woke up one night and heard a voice that said, Hey, this is God.

I'm calling you to my church. I've never heard voices. Well, without any people there, actually. But these aren't random acts in Ruth's life, I don't believe. Just like they're not random acts in your life and my life. When you come to the truth, I don't think Michelle's envoy was random. Nor for you if you have God's Spirit. God is working with all of us. Let's notice the things that Boaz does for Ruth. Let's look at them in comparison to what Christ does for us.

First, Behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to his reapers, The Lord be with you. Interesting, that name, Emmanuel, means God with you, who is going to come from this union. Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, Whose young woman is this? 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. It's interesting, the servant in charge of the reapers.

It has to be people in charge for the spiritual health of the church. So God puts in elders and ministers and congregations and families to help each other. Verse 7, She says, Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. She's asking for the lowest position. Her humility shows here it's not like us being admonished to take the lowest seat. It's like Christ when He says, Don't take the chief seat, take the lowest seat, be brought up. She's asking to glean. It shows her character. Please may I glean behind the reapers?

She knew according to the law they were supposed to leave the corners of the field, for the poor and the stranger. But nothing says they were allowed to glean among the sheaves, which she later gets to do. She asked for a lowest seat. So she came and continued for mourning until now in verse 7. And she rests a little in the house. She'd been working diligently all day. Verse 8, Boaz says to Ruth, Do you not hear my daughter?

Do not glean in any other field, neither go away from here. Stay close by my maidens. Learn from them. Work with them. It's interesting, Michelle, when she went home her freshman year, her parents lit up a really good job for her, paid a lot of money so she could go back to college. She went back home to take it, and she had to work Sabbath. So she said, no, I can't do that.

Her parents said, you have to. She said, I can't. They said, well, you wanted money to go back, and we're not going to help you. So she went out looking for jobs herself, and she had to take three jobs to make enough money to even make half of what this other job would pay.

But that's what she chose to do. Even then, she was short. The guy was the prize to her lady, a young girl who wanted to go to college and saved up money and wasn't accepted to college and offered her her money. Michelle didn't take it. She went through her grandmother and a friend in the church.

She actually got a loan that her grandmother, Coastline, for it, that got her back to college. She chose, again, when you choose, my people and my God will be your God and your people like Ruth did. You follow the rules. You do what it takes. And so Boaz tells her to stay by his maidens and learn. Boaz is saying, listen to me. Remember Christ when He told the disciples to listen? So Boaz is saying, listen, my daughter. Christ said, my sheep hear His voice. And they do. Verse 9, Have I not commanded the young men that they should not touch you?

And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink of that which the young men have drawn. So Ruth is being told by Boaz, don't go to any other field. Stay here. Stay with my people. Just as we're supposed to stay close to God and close to Christ and close to fellowship with His people.

When you're thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what they have drawn. Boaz, in this symbolization, is giving the Holy Spirit to Ruth. Drink of the water. What did Christ say on that great day of the faith? He who drinks of this water will live forever. God wants us to drink freely of His Holy Spirit. He wants us to be with His people. How does the water benefit Ruth? It gives her a refreshment.

It gives her encouragement. It gives her strength. It enables her to do more gleaning. It enables her to have a constant contact with Boaz. She did not have to go back to town to get a drink. She could do it right there, right in the field.

She didn't have to go away from Boaz to get water. She'd be right there among the others, the reapers. She had everything she needed. Boaz supplied her food. He supplied her drink. He supplied her work. He also supplied himself to her later on in chapter 3. Verse 10, Ruth fell on her face, bowed to the ground, and said to him, Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?

Like us, when we say, God, why did you call me? Nothing special about me. But there is something special, and God sees something that we usually don't see. She knew Boaz did not have to do these things for her, yet he gave her all these additional blessings. Is that not what Christ gives to us? And He gives us His Spirit. Verse 11, Boaz answered and said to her, It's been fully shown all that you have done to your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and you have left your father and your mother in the land of your birth, and you have come to a people whom you did not know before now.

He acknowledged that she was a foreigner, a gentile, a Moabite. Remember what Naomi said earlier? You have done all these good things for the living and the dead. May God deal kindly with you. And Boaz is saying it's been fully shown all these kind things that you have done. And this is His answer. She had been doing her obligation to Naomi. She was fulfilling the law, not even knowing it.

Verse 12, The Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given to you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge. And she 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, a foreigner, also a woman. And that didn't help her status either. In Israel. Verse 14, Boaz does to her, Had mealtime come here, and eat of the bread, and dip your bit in the vinegar, and sip aside the reapers. And he handed her a roasted grain, and she ate, and was satisfied, and left. Now she sits beside the reapers. She's advanced from being a gleaner. Christ has brought her up. Boaz has brought her to His table. And He passes grain to her, and she eats, and is satisfied.

The Master is serving her, passing her food. Verse 15, And when she arose to glean, Boaz commanded these young men, saying, Let her glean among the sheaves. Don't rebuke her. Let her also let handfuls of grain fall. Give her a little extra on purpose. Leave them, so she may glean them. Don't rebuke her. Don't stop her. So she gleaned the field until evening, and beat out what she'd gleaned.

It was about an epho barley. Now she's going to go back to Naomi and tell her what happened that day. Skip down to verse 21. Ruth the Moabites said, He also said to me, Ye shall stay close by my young men, till they have finished my harvest.

So not only did he say, Stay in my field, and glean among my reapers, but also stay here for the entire harvest. Not just a day, a week, the entire harvest. God wants each of us for the entire harvest, all the way through, till it's done. Scriptural gleaning. Verse 22, Naomi says to her daughter-in-law, Ruth, That's good, my daughter. You go out with his maidens, so that they do not fall upon you in the other fields.

You have to ask yourself, Would it be unsafe? And you get separated from the body of Christ? It is unsafe. And Satan wants to separate us and divide us. So verse 23, So she stays close by the young woman of Boaz, to glean until the end of the barley harvest, and the wheat harvest, and she dwelt with her mother-in-law. So Ruth listened. She heard what Boaz said and did exactly as he asked.

So Ruth, a type of Christian, stayed with her mother-in-law, a type of the church. And just as God calls us, Boaz was a type of Christ. And Christ has given us permission to glean in His field, to understand His words.

And He admonished her not to stray from her field, meaning stay in the church. We need to stay with the people of God as well, to stay among them. It is the best place to be. People in the church may make mistakes, they may admonish you and correct you and protect you, but it is the best place to be among God's people. We are told not to forsake ourselves together. Paul says that in Hebrews 10.

Malachi 3.16 says that there is a place of honor that you are not to forsake the assembling of yourselves together, and is a place written in the book for those who fear God. And come together to meditate on His name. It is time to stay with the reapers, the assembly. Work together. Boaz warned the young man. Young men in his group, she is under my protection. Don't mess with her. We are also to help one another. Look at what Boaz is doing for Ruth now. Without telling her, he sets her up to succeed. Does not God do that for us? When He gives us His Holy Spirit, He sets us up so we can succeed.

He does what is good for us. How much do we actually do, sometimes, I wonder, in this life? We have to do it as if we are doing it ourselves. But how much of it is He actually doing? How much has God done through His love and grace? Ruth 3, Chapter 1. Her mother-in-law Naomi said to her, "...shall I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?" We have a rest in Hebrews waiting for the people of God.

She wants her to have a husband and a family. "...and now is not Boaz of our kindred? He with whose maidens you were. Behold, he winnows barley tonight in the threshing floor. Therefore, wash yourself, anoint yourself, put your clothing upon you, and go down to the floor, just as we should clean up before we come before God." She says, "...do not make yourself known to the man until he is finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, mark the place where he lies, and you shall go in and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do." She said to her, "...all that you say I will do." She agrees.

Kind of an odd thing. My wife had done that in college. We'd been kicked out.

Verse 6. She went down to the grain floor, did according to all that her mother-in-law had told her. When Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap. And she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. And it happened at about midnight, the man trembled and turned to himself, and behold, a woman lay at his feet. And he said, Who are you? And she answered, I am your handmaid Ruth. You shall spread your skirt over your handmaid, for you are a kinsman-redeemer.

Verse 10. Boaz says to her, Blessed are you of the Lord, my daughter. For you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning, and you do not go after young men, whether rich or poor. Boaz is saying that Ruth, the foreigner, has fulfilled the law and what it's about, taking care of Naomi, to love God, to love your neighbor as yourself. She had asked him to be a redeemer, a levered law. She had done what the law had stated, go to a kinsman and ask him to redeem you. Now she had done that and gone for this older man, Boaz, and the abundant kindness that he had shown along the way. Let's look at Boaz's answer in verse 11. Now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do to you all that you ask, for all the city of my people know that you are a woman of virtue. You're told in Revelation, the bride has made herself ready. Virtuous. Claim. Verse 12. And now it is true that I am your kinsman-redeemer, but there is also a kinsman nearer than I, a closer relative than I am. Stay the night, and it shall be in the morning he'll redeem you. If he does well, if he will redeem. And if he does not delight to redeem you, as God lives, then I will redeem you. Lie down till morning. And she lay at his feet till morning, and she rose up before anyone could know one another, because it was dark. And he said, Do not let it be known that a woman came to the floor, is he protecting her honor? Protecting her? No accusations? I'm sure there have been talk about this Moabites in Israel. Verse 15. And he said, Bring the veil on you and hold it. When she held it, he measured six measures of barley, and laid it on her, and she went to the city. He filled it so she could go back full. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, Who are you, my daughter? She told her all that the man had done for her. And 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's finished this thing today. Doesn't that remind you of Christ in Matthew 26, verse 29? But I say to you, I will not drink of this vine.

From now on, until the day when I drink of it in my father's kingdom.

Also in Philippians 1.6, where he tells us to be confident what he started in you, he will complete it in the day of Christ.

Ruth was a beautiful woman in character. He thought it an honor that she had come to him to be redeemed. She had gone above and beyond.

As she said, you've done more now than in the beginning.

He saw the special character in this woman. Christ would love to see us go above and beyond in our character, in our serving each other. He would love for our fruit at the end to be better than our fruit at the beginning. Christ wants us to see in growing love and in zeal that first love. Ruth impressed Boaz by what she stood for. Boaz feeds her. Christ said, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger. And Ruth never hungered while she was with Boaz. Chapter 4 shows the redemption and the process.

It comes from the levered law, which you can write down. It comes in Deuteronomy 25 if you want to read about it. It says what happens if someone is going to redeem someone, how they take the woman to be their wife. It talks about the firstborn, if they don't have any children, how the brothers go through it.

It's interesting because someone won't redeem it. It says that he's going to take off his shoe and put it up. It says that he's going to spit in his face, which you got off easy because this story doesn't do that. But it's interesting what she had to do. She came to God by redemption as well, by creation, going through Egypt, the Red Sea. Believers can count on God as their Redeemer, as Christ has made us His own, and He actually delivers us.

Let's read in chapter 4, verse 1. Boaz went to the gate, and he sat down there, behold, the kinsmen of whom Boaz spoke came by. He said, hey, you! Didn't mention his name here. Turn aside and sit down here. And he turned aside 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 to be witnesses. And all the things were done in the gates of the city. All the business was transacted there. And he took ten men to be witnesses. And he said to the kinsmen, Naomi, who has come to our country from Moab, sells the parcel of land, which was our brother, Elemilex.

And I said, I will tell it in your ear, saying, buy it before those who are here, and before the elders of my people, if you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not redeem it, tell me so that I may know. For there is none to redeem it besides you, and I am after you. And this near kinsman said, I will redeem it. Oh, that's a good piece of land.

I'll take that land. That's a wonderful thing. Let me buy that. But Boaz continues, verse 5. And Boaz said, In the day that you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must buy also the land and by the hand of Ruth of Moab, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance. Oh, the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar my own inheritance. You redeem my right to yourself. I cannot redeem it. I don't want this Moabite in my line.

I don't want to mess up my life. She may be virtuous, but she's a Moabite. You do it. Christ wants you. He hasn't rejected you. This kinsman rejected Ruth. And this was the custom in the former times in Israel concerning redeeming, concerning changing to confirm everything. A man plucked off his sandal and gave it to his neighbor, and this was a testimony in Israel.

Verse 8, Therefore the kinsman said to Boaz, Buy it for yourself. So he drew off his sandal. And Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, You are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was a limalax and all that was Tylian 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 from the gate of this place. And you are witnesses this day. Keep your finger there. Let's turn to Luke 24, if you would. Luke 24. Because, see, our inheritance would be cut off too.

Because we'd be dead without Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Luke 24, verse 35. You've probably never put this together in the same way before with Ruth. Verse 45, it says, Christ, Luke 24, 45, He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

And He said to them, So it is written, and so it behooves Christ to suffer and derives from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sins would be proclaimed in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Christ's redemption of us had witnesses. And behold, I send the promise of My Father to you, but you sit in the city of Jerusalem till your clothes are power from on high. Stay here till the Holy Spirit comes on Pentecost. And He blessed them. You are witnesses. You need witnesses for the redemption. Christ had witnesses when He said that.

He was redeeming us. And He had to suffer and die for you and for Me. And we'll celebrate that in a couple of weeks. It's interesting. Boaz did it at the gate with witnesses. The redemption had to be there. Verse 11. All the people back in Ruth 4, verse 11, All the people in the gate, 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 may you be blessed in Eprada and be famous in Bethlehem. And let your house be like the house of Phares, whom tame our board of Judah, of the seed which God shall give you of this young woman. And Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife. And he went to her, and God made her conceive, and she bore a son.

And the woman of the village 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. Remember Naomi? Don't call me Naomi. Don't call me pleasant. Don't call me blessed. Call me Amara. Call me cursed, bitterly, I've been dealt with. No. She was blessed of God. Verse 15, And 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've always read that scripture to my daughter. Women are very valuable. Incredible. Verse 16, Naomi took the child, laid it in her bosom, became a nurse to it. And the woman, her neighbors, gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi, and they called his name Oed, Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David. We often think sometimes we're being cursed and we're being blessed. When events aren't working out, God doesn't like me when He's working them to your benefit. He's making it happen.

Boaz acted as the Old Testament kinsman-reseamer. His actions were based on the levered law of Deuteronomy 25. The near kinsman had to be a blood relative. Christ became your blood relative in mine by birth to Mary. He was your blood relative of the human race. And you had to be a blood relative to redeem the people. The kinsman had to have money to purchase the forfeit inheritance. Jesus Christ is part of the family of God, home of the universe.

He had everything to pay, and He paid with His own life. And He had witnesses to that. God is often portrayed in that role of a redeemer. The book of Ruth shows that. God accepted Ruth. I'm sure there was talk about Ruth when she came in. Gossip, gossip, gossip. Look at that. The Moabites. Talk how she's here. We're not supposed to have one of those people here. The other kinsman wouldn't redeem her. She was interested in the early New Testament church. She had a problem with Gentiles. You can't come in among the chosen people.

Well, you can, but you've got to be circumcised. You've got to do this. You've got to do that. They created problems for them. It's surprising that the Jews took a skeptical look at foreigners. The law of the covenant forbids certain people from worshiping. Yet God accepted Ruth. Just as He accepts all, quote, Moabites, unquote, that come to Him. All Gentiles, if they repent. God accepts people who fear Him, who do what is righteous, regardless of race or national origin. It makes no difference. In Acts 10.34, Peter says something very clearly. When he opens his mouth and he says, "'Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, when the Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit.' And it took the wind and the fire and all the things that happened in the first Pentecost for them to believe.

And Peter had to say, yeah, this is God. People repent. He accepts them. But in every nation that fears Him and works righteousness is accepted. And that's where we are. God works with us. What is our story? My story is very different. I grew up in the church pretty much, although my father wasn't anything to do with the church. He was a great guy from everything I understand, but he died when I was three. I never really knew him. I have some glimpses and images, but it's interesting because he had a stroke and was supposed to die a couple of years before.

My mom was just starting to hear about the truth and prayed and thought he'd be healed. And I got disowned by the deans side of the family. Didn't see hardly any of my relatives my whole life. He was supposed to die. They said they'd made fun of her for religion. Now he's going to die. The doctor is going to die. Instead he got healed. Then two years later he's killed in a construction accident. They thought it was a murder, because they had a big trial. The pictures of him were in a vault somewhere where Indiana Jones boxed his, too.

Somewhere, all the pictures were there. I wish I knew how to get him back. But they had him for the trial, because he was smashed by a runaway crane. The crane with the ball goes three miles an hour. It's kind of hard to have a crane that runs three miles an hour run over you and kill you. But he couldn't really prove anything. But why did he heal him only to kill him two years later?

It boosted my mom's faith, incredibly. But then she was totally devastated with this. Yet it took her to Big Sandy, where the Imperial Schools was. Then a couple of years later she went to Pasadena, where Imperial was, and I met all the people that would be the evangelists and the people that I would have to work with years later.

Was it coincidence? Hard to say. All I know is everything I've done in my life I've needed for the next event. All of them have been pretty challenging. God does so many things for us that we don't really know why. We may think it's bitter. We may not think it's pleasant, when it may be. It was interesting because Ruth the Moabite, this was joined to Israel. She was joined to his church.

She had strived to do everything, the terms of the cabinets of Israel required. She married an Israelite, Boaz, a type of Christ. We do the same thing. We make a vow of baptism to come under covenant with Christ and with God. It wipes away our past and we become part of the family, part of the congregation, and we're redeemed. Ruth was an Israelite because of her character. She was more Israelite than most of the Israelites were. Boaz had no problem taking her to be his wife. With our repentance, God has no problem to take you into his church, to be part of the bride of his son and his family.

Christ has no problem with us when we repent. All the past is forgotten. We become a new man, become part of the natural olive tree grafted in, as it shows, part of the family of God. Ruth shows that in God's side, conversion to God's true religion is so much more important than your ethnicity or your history. You became from incest, from idolatry, from fornication. That's not what's relevant. Ruth shows as a Gentile what God had in mind all along to save all of humanity, as many as he will take it, as many as he will learn, willing to do as she did, give up her people and give up her gods and take on the true God and the true people of God.

That's what it's about. He always opens the door for those who are willing to serve him. When we have hope, as long as we're in God's spiritual body, we have hope of eternal redemption through Christ, our Redeemer. He takes it as an honor to do that for us. We should be honored to have him accept us in the same way. We have our hope in the soon-coming marriage to Jesus Christ, His return, when we rise to meet Him and become part of the family. The kinsmen had to be willing to pay the price to buy back the forfeited inheritance.

By sin, you and I have forfeited our inheritance. Through Him, He buys it back. Christ laid down His life of His own free will. The first kinsman didn't want it. He didn't have to do it. The kinsman did not have to accept that duty. Christ did it willingly for you and for me. The Holy Spirit came to Christ, disciples, on the Day of Pentecost. From that time on, in baptism and laying out of hand, you received God's Holy Spirit. Again, it doesn't matter what your background was. It's who you were.

It's who you're going to become. He makes His brothers and sisters by His Spirit. When you look at the book of Ruth and you think, look at everything that God did for Ruth and for Naomi.

Ruth made herself ready. She purified herself. And God accepted her. How much is God doing in your life to make you ready? Let's use God's Spirit. Let's look at this Passover in Unleavened Bread and purify ourselves so that we can be like Ruth. That the true God is our God and His people are our people. If you do that, you'll have that inheritance that Ruth and her descendants have.