Viewing Ruth's Story through New Covenant Eyes

Once again, I want to welcome everybody here that's with us locally today in front of me, and then we want to welcome those that are on the webcast and those that may be hearing this message in days or weeks to come. I want to speak to the season and I want to speak to the time and hopefully speak to each and every one of our hearts as we move into this message. One of the great themes that runs through the course of Scripture is how a great God takes ordinary people, ordinary people like you, like me, and does extraordinary things through them to accomplish His miraculous purpose. Perhaps oftentimes He takes those that others may not notice or even know exist, may not be important, but basically that no flesh might glory, and that God Himself might receive all the glory at hand. This enduring and dominant theme of Scripture of God taking ordinary people and doing extraordinary things towards His purpose is played out again and again in Scripture to grasp a wonderful understanding that I want to impart to you today so that today, here, and now, with you and with me, this can affect our personal walk on the pilgrimage that is set before us. It's often been said that most heroes are people who don't know that they're heroes. They are simply men and women that—hear me, please—that do the right thing at the right time and in the right way for the right reason. Even in all else, everything else is pulling them the different direction. I'm going to repeat it again just to give you the emphasis. They do the right thing at the right time in the right way for the right reason.

In other words, for the right motive, for what's stirring in their heart. The common denominator of such men and women is that they have made themselves and kept themselves open and willing and available to God and to others. This is not going to be high Greek or lofty Hebrew today. This is going to be very simple. A lot of it is going to be one, two, three.

The things I've just given to you, you can almost take home right now and begin to chew on it as to ourselves looking into our spiritual mirror and to be able to say, where are we in what God would hope is emanating from us? So the bottom line is, we're going to be talking today about people that were open, that were available, and that were willing to enter into service of the heart to others. Such a story is discovered in the book of Ruth in the Old Testament. Now, we're going to cover this. I've often, in years past, I haven't touched on Ruth for about seven or eight years. I probably need to up that more, because of what I'm about to say. This saga of tragedy, turn to triumph, is normally read in the synagogues before or on the day of Pentecost. What would be in Hebrew, it's called Shufat.

In other words, why would the Jewish kingdom be reading the story of Ruth on this day, which we in the Christian church call Pentecost, whereas in the Bible it's called the Feast of Weeks. It's called the Feast of Harvest. It's called the Feast of First Fruits. All of those are going to come into play, especially as I've relooked at this over years of looking back at this, of the importance of why the Jewish synagogues would read this during or up to or on Pentecost.

In the Church of God community, we often reflect and learn from its message during this same time period. And so that's going to be my intention today, because I remember long ago there was a gentleman in Pasadena that used to speak behind a table, and he'd often say this, hear me please, repetition is the best form of emphasis. Repetition is the best form of emphasis, and God by his grace has brought these stories down to our age that we are to rehearse year in and year out.

Of course, we have the holy days that bring us into alignment with God's purpose, but there are these incredible stories that the children of Israel, later the Jews, would grow up with, that we grow up as the spiritual Israel of God, where we speak of a Mary, the mother of Jesus, where we speak of David, the young shepherd lad that goes into the valley of death and faces the giant when nobody else would. We speak of a Daniel who stood up to the beast power of his time in the sixth century and never made God's second, but always allowed God's will for him to come first.

That's why we cover these things. Allow me to share the importance of the book of Ruth in this regard and why I speak to you about it today. Its narrative emulates the message of the spring festival seasons. Its narrative is a story, and even Jesus would share stories for us to learn great spiritual principles about at times. It's a story of interruption, but not only God's interruption, but of deliverance by accepting a formerly unknown Savior, and yet wonderful, and thus with that interruption and with that coming to knowing of a new known Savior, a God in that sense, that there's the putting off of the old.

The old world goes away and moving towards that new world. Interesting. And always with an ongoing grace-filled trust about God's provisions of His personal ongoing seeding and cultivating and harvesting of first fruits, pictured by the barley harvest, which is spoken of in this book. Have you ever thought about that? We talk about the harvest seasons of Israel and how the holy days are set around those, but have you ever just thought, and we talk about the term first fruits as we're coming up to Pentecost, but have you ever thought of how God is seeding you today, putting in the seed, how you are being personally cultivated towards ripeness by what God plants in your life, and to recognize that only God wants to harvest us for His glory and for His purpose?

With that stated, then, let's ask ourselves one more question. Why is the book of Ruth so essential for us to understand? It's simple lessons. Simple. I like simple. Keep it simple. Sam, keep it simple. Sally. Simple. It has two major lessons. Just kind of putting this out for you if you want to jot it down so I don't lose you along the way. Two simple lessons. Number one, faith.

Number two, obedience. Oh no, there's the O word. Obedience is played out by simple people. And the reason why I'm so excited about sharing this message with all of you today, that those simple lessons that we're going to talk about of faith and obedience are given as a profound cure to us that find ourselves in a wilderness experience, sometimes not of our own making. We are in between the exit. We're in that exodus. We're in that time of pilgrimage. We're at times we find ourselves in the wilderness experience, not in Sinai, but in San Diego County.

What do we do? How often do we motivate and move on faith? And that obedience to our God above is the motive. It's that internal compass that will direct us then to get our minds off of ourselves, but be people of integrity and compassion towards others. In this story, it is a recipe for closing down our past and moving into a new future with God as our partner. So today, the title of my message is simply this. Are you ready? Viewing Ruth's Story. Viewing Ruth's Story with New Covenant Eyes. Viewing, just so you know where we're going, Viewing Ruth's Story with New Covenant Eyes.

The book of Ruth is best understood by beginning in Judges 21 and 25. I'll just rehearse it with you. That is where at the end of the book of Judges, it said that each man, and I might say perhaps each woman to make it in the 21st century, was doing that which was right in their own eyes.

Now what's going to happen with that thought of the last thought in the book of Judges, recognizing that the story of Ruth is during that time of Israel now in the land and in that time of Judges that we're going to find something. We're going to deal with very real people. These are not fairy tales with very, very real problems and with a very real God who stands out in discouraging in antagonistic times and ultimately, ultimately, not immediately, will bring us to peace. That is, number one, if we're faithful. Are you with me? And number two, if we're obedient. And we're going to find both of that in this story. The setting here is in pastoral Bethlehem during the harvest season. It's during the time of the barley harvest between the days of 11 bread and coming up to the what would be called the Feast of First Fruits in the Bible in the Old Testament, the Feast of Harvest. There's three main characters. I'm glad there's not ten or the sermon would go for 10 hours. It's just that it's like a stage play. It makes it very, very simple. There are three main characters. Number one, there is Ruth. Number two, there is Naomi. And number three, there is Boaz. As we move before we go any further, just to kind of lay some foundation here before we get to going, okay? The term Ruth that we use comes down over many, many hundreds, if not thousands of years. Ruth is actually a Latin derivative that comes off the Greek derivative that comes off the Hebrew derivative going way back, which actually probably goes back to the Moabite tongue. Now, if I don't, if I have you confused, I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is. When you see Ruth in your Bible, that's basically the Latin. If you go way back and basically try to move back, what, 3,300 years or so, let me just jot this down. You can jot this down. The term Ruth or rue-ot, r-e-u-i-t, personifies two words, friendship and association. Friendship and association. You see where this is going? God calls things for what they are. And sometimes He gives us a name to come to and then to live up to. Names are important. Sometimes our parents give us names that are strong names or this name or that name, hoping that the child will grow up into that. And so we see this. Another thing I'd like to share with you is simply this. It's fascinating about the book of Ruth. It's simply this, the three characters. If you're going to have a story about God's way of life, wouldn't you just have just the perfect people in it? But here the three characters are this. Number one, Ruth is a gentile. Ruth is a foreigner. Number two, Naomi. Naomi is a widow and downcast, as we're going to find in a moment, because once we get into the story, it's going to move quickly.

And number three, most interesting of all, the son of a former prostitute. Isn't that just great?

But this is who God deals with. These are the people that live life in its agony, in its agony, in its mountaintop experiences, and in its valleys, and in its deserts, and yet come out on the other side because of their faith, because of their obedience, because they do the right thing at the right time and the right way beyond themselves. This is so much. I could just leave right now. That's it. If we all did that, we'd probably be moving ahead towards the kingdom, wouldn't we? Absolutely. The good news of the book of Ruth is that God will use anyone.

Here Weber goes again. Ad nauseam for 20 years with all of you. God will use anyone who is open, who is available, and who is willing to go beyond the human norm and look beyond themselves in service of the heart, rendered not only to the one in front of you, but it is a sacrifice before God himself. So chapter one, let's go right into it. I'm going to read right through it. If you want to go to the book of Ruth, I have like lots of notes. I'm just going to read it, make a comment or two, because it'll carry for itself. Are you ready? Here we go. Everybody got their seat belts on? We're ready to go. Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled. So we know the time that we are. We're in the Bronze Age. We're in the time of settlement in what would be called the Promised Land. And it was called the Promised Land, but sometimes you're wondering, this is the Promised Land. You know what's going on here. That there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab. He and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Alimelak. The name of his wife was Naomi. And the names of his two sons were Malon and Chileon, Ephratites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there. One thing I'd like to share with you is we find that this is not just a singular event in the Scriptures, but oftentimes, oftentimes, that God would allow famine to cause his people to move beyond that which is ordinary in their lives. We think of Jacob. We think of the children of Israel going to Egypt. We think of other situations in the Bible where there was famine that to get us out of our comfort zone, to get us out of our ordinary so that God's extraordinary purposes might ultimately be worked in us. We that ourselves are ordinary and simple. And yet, God is trying to again what? As the great harvester. He's planting seeds. He's cultivating us. He's desiring to reap us when we're full towards his glory and towards his service.

So there's the famine in the land. And we notice the name of the first character is Naomi. You might want to jot this down. God calls things for what they are. You may not know it. You'll see it in her attitude, but her name meant pleasant one. It meant pleasant one. She just had a natural affability towards individuals, a hominess, as Dennis was bringing out in his first fine message, a motherhood. Just easy to be with. No, not everybody is easy to be with. She was easy to be with. And they've gone to Moab. Now Moab, we need to recognize, they were Hebrews. They were cousins of the Israelites. Remember, Moab goes back to Lot and his daughters after the fall of Sodom. But they were pagan, and they were a thorn in Israel's sight, even as they came into the land as they were beginning to take over the land. There were the Moabites. So it was a little bit like the Hatfields and the McCoys. They were all kind of out of the same brood, but they had their guns loaded towards one another, and one were followers of God. The others had drifted into paganism. Now it's going to be very important. You might want to do this sometimes. Go through your Bible and mention circle. Are you with me? It's kind of like a Bible study. Circle the number of times Moab or Moabites or Moabites damsel are mentioned in the book of Ruth. Because it was a witness what God was doing, not only at that time, but what he was going to ultimately do with all of humanity. That we were not going to be just singular focus, but to recognize God had a purpose for everybody, even the pagans! And what we're going to see, which is so exciting, I thought about it as we were inching down here on the 15 towards all of you. The book of Ruth is about creation and a new creation. And that's what the whole story of Exodus is about. That's the whole story of the pilgrimage. That's the whole story of God's intervention in Egypt, God's intervention in our life, the giving of the law at Sinai on Pentecost, and us being able to day as the spiritual Israel of God, to imbibe of that and to recognize then what we're noticing here is the seeding and the cultivating of this new creation that was occurring around 1200, 1250 BC. So let's notice that. And they went to the country of Moab and there it ran. Then, Alem and I, verse 3, Naomi's husband died and she was left and her two sons. And now they took wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other, Ruth, and they dwelt there about 10 years. Well, that's sad. But they noticed an X-verse. It gets, do I dare say worse, humanly speaking. Then both Malon and Chileon also died. And so the woman survived her two sons and her husband. Now let's notice something going back. Before the famine.

Now it came to pass. Sometimes we can plan a year. We have all of our plans kind of all laid out. We're going to do this in March. We're going to do this in June. We're going to do this. We have this plan to go here or therefore in our community, the Feast of Tabernacles. So we have all of our nice little plans laid out. But then this famous phrase can come upon you and me. And now it came to pass. God, in dealing with us people that are maturing in the spirit, are not concerned about us keeping up our own man-made schedules, which is important to do. Please understand, we want to plan our lives. But what he's really concerned about and where the real growth comes is what happens when we all of a sudden have dropped upon us and now it came to pass. What do you do with those moments? That maybe life in all of it has not prepared us for. And yet in that moment, we're going to have to learn to a have faith towards God and number two, be obedient to his ways. Otherwise, we're without a rudder. We're without a compass.

I know how excited we all are about our GPSs. I'd like to be excited, but I don't know how to work when that's why I have Susan. We really needed that in Washington, D.C. Trust me.

This is it. And then we notice here where it says, then 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 had visited his people by giving them bread. And therefore she went out from the place where she was and her two daughters in law with her, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

So they began to depart. They are already in motion. Follow the motion and the energy of what's happening here in verse seven. And Naomi said to her two daughters in laws, even as they are in movement, go return each to her mother's house. The Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. These were good ladies. They might have been pagans, but they were good ladies. They honored, as we heard Dennis's message, their elders. There's something happening here.

The Lord grant that you may find rest. That in the Hebrew actually means security. Each in the house of her husband. So she kissed them and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, surely we, plural, will return with you to your people. But Naomi said, turn back my daughters. Why will you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb that they may be your husbands?

She's becoming sarcastic to make a point. Turn back my daughters. Go for I am too old to have a husband. And even if I should have hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons, are you going to wait around for them? Are you going to wait for them until they're growing? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? No, my daughters, for it grieves me very much for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. Now we're going to come back to that phrase. Stay with that. Are you with me? The hand of the Lord has gone out against me.

This is from Naomi, the pleasant one. Then they lifted up their voices and they wept again. Can you capture the picture, friends, of what's happening here? Here are three women. They're on a dirty, dusty road, leaving Moab, going to Bethlehem. They're having this conversation. They're in the open air. And this grievous onslaught of death has hit this one family. And it's all of the, why? Why? Why, O God? Why, Lord? Why now? Why me?

And being over in the Middle East, women by nature are emotional more than men. Not that men don't have emotion, but also in the culture being very animated with their emotions in the Middle East, if you've ever seen the clips, you see almost this wailing that is going on. Capture the picture. Put yourself into it. These are real people that this is happening to.

Then they lift up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law. And then comes the downbeat of the rest of the story. But Ruth clung to her. Wow!

Should say that in the microphone. Wow! Clung to her. Now, I have a question for you. May I? Does that mean that Orpah was a bad person? I mean, it took her two brushes to get her off, right? You know, in that sense. She didn't say, Oh, the old lady, let her go back to the house of bread there called Bethlehem. No, she wanted to go. But then there was something that God saw in Ruth, this clinging to her. Naomi comes back and said, Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her God's return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave you or to turn my back from following after you. For wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people. Your God shall be my God. And where you die, I will die. And there I will be buried. And the Lord, this is not just about Naomi. Please understand as you see the entrance of what was motivating Ruth, and the Lord do so to me and more also, if anything but death parts you and me. I want you to understand something that we're finding here, especially as we move between the days of 11 bread and moving to Pentecost, that we need God's Spirit to be able to allow this to be our motivating modus operandi as well. Her devotion and her commitment is not only to the older lady that she's sharing that dusty road with. She is committing herself. This woman that had been a Moabites pagan is committing herself to the God of creation, the same one that you and I worship. And when she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her. You know, you ever done that? You kind of recognize, don't bring it up again, this is done. This is how Ruth was. Now, the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem, and it happened when they came to Bethlehem that all the city was excited because of them. And the woman said, is this Naomi? You ever had that experience? I have. Sometimes when I haven't seen people for years and years, I kind of learned as I get older, I introduce myself with my name. Because sometimes I don't know what happens along the way. I remember that story. It's not a hook. It's what Robin Williams played Peter Pan and the kids, he's in wherever it is, wonder, whatever it is. And they go like this. They go like this. Peter, is that you? And they're the one guy's kind of, they had to figure it out. You know, time does things to you. Experiences do things. They make you age. They change your heat to bring it up to all of you. I is one. You're human. I am. We change as we get older. Experiences can literally be carved on our face as much as the figures on Mount Rushmore. They said, is this you? Now notice, but she said to them, do not call me Naomi. Don't call me pleasant one anymore, but call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. Remember Mara, term Mara, member of the pool in the wilderness?

It was bitter. Same name. I'm like, I'm clogged up. I'm stagnant. I'm bitter.

And sometimes when you have lost a mate, you've lost children, which is very hard on a family.

It takes time. It took Job 42 chapters, didn't it? And sometimes we have to be patient as God begins to seed, as he begins to cultivate, as he brings people into our lives, like a Ruth, like a Naomi to Ruth, like a Boaz that we're going to get to in a moment.

So Naomi returned and Ruthamobidus, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. Remember the wave sheaf that we talked about? Or maybe it was Mr. Smith. I forget who gave the wave sheaf sermon here. We're in the barley harvest time. Jesus was the first of the first fruits. That's why the barley was taken at that time during the beginning of the Days of Malefim bread.

But the barley harvest continues. The rest of the first fruits are going to be coming. Now, chapter 2, verse 1, there was a relative of Naomi's husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of a limalak. His name was Boaz. Boaz. Now Boaz is not a direct Hebrew name of and by itself. It's not a singular. It's actually a compilation. It's compounding two different thoughts. And basically, if you want to jot this down, it means to be strong. To be strong.

Also, it means to be still. Excuse me. To be swift. To be strong and to be swift.

To know what you're about and be about doing it in God's service.

We can all be a Boaz. And we're going to learn that we can all be a Ruth, that they're there. On this Mother's Day weekend, as we think of one of our mothers that come out of the Bible, the very great grandmother of David and the one whose line goes down to Jesus himself. Now, Ruth so, verse 2, Ruth and Moabite said to Naomi, Please let me go to the field and glean heads of grain after him and whose side I might find favor. And she said her, Go, my daughter. Then she laughed and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of a limelak. Now, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, The Lord be with you and bless. And they answered him back, The Lord bless you. Oh, wouldn't that be wonderful today to have those kind of relationships at the office? Okay. Where a gentleman comes and praises God and says, The Lord bless you. And the echo comes back based upon his example that the Lord bless you. Now we might not be able to do this in the office, but in our homes, that God is at the center. And we recognize that we're under God's grace. We're under God's favor. We're under God's not only intervention at the beginning, but his sustaining grace to allow us to move forward. Then Boaz said in verse five to his servant, Who was in charge of the reapers? And who is, who is this person? Who is this young woman? So the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered and said, It is the young Moabite woman who came back from Naomi, from the country of Moab. There it goes again. Like there's the, she's the other. She's the, what we call today, the other, the one that is outside of our community.

She's a Gentile. And she said, Please let me glean and gather after the reapers amongst the sheaves. So she came and has continued from mourning until now, though she rested a little in the house. And then Boaz said to Ruth and he engages her, You, you, you, please listen, my daughter, will you not do not go glean in another field nor go from here, but stay closed by my young women. Let your eyes be on the field, which they reap and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn. So she fell on her face, bowed to the ground, and said to him, Why have I found such grace, such favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner? And Boaz answered and said to her, It is, it has been fully reported to me all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father, you've left your mother, you've left your, the land of your birth, you have left it behind.

You're not like your great-great-great-grandma there, Lot's wife, who looked in the rearview mirror, over and out, moving towards Bethlehem, and to a people that you did not know. The Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given by you, the Lord God of Israel, right at the center of the conversation, under whose wings you have come for refuge. A couple of thoughts. Number one, notice he's talking about the younger man. He brings that up a couple times in this discourse that we've just been going through. This tells us that Boaz was a much older man.

This is not a hot summer romance that's about to occur. Okay, sorry to disappoint you. He's an older man, but he has responsibility that we're going to be talking about in a moment. He keeps on talking about the younger men. He says, and he sees something. I'm going to read it again, and I read it to you as an audience, and the audience that's on here with me today in this service. Can this be what what God might say of us or others? The Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel under whose wings you have come for refuge.

That our trust and our confidence is in God. That even when we don't see the clouds on the horizon, we take our umbrella with us, knowing that it's going to rain in God's time, in God's way.

This is even a point that Jesus would later on talk about how he would want to gather Jerusalem under his wings, that they might feel secure with that greater Boaz, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus who was born in this town of Bethlehem.

Then she said, Let me find favor in your sight, Lord, for you have comforted me and have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I'm not like one of your maidservants.

Now Boaz said to her at mealtime, Come here and eat of the bread, and dip your piece of bread into tacos, no, no, into vinegar. So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed parched grain to her, and she ate and was satisfied, and came back. And when she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her.

And let grain from the bundles fall purposely for her, leave it that she may glean, and do not rebuke her. So she gleaned in the field until evening, and beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephamite. What's going on here? Let's remember that it's the time of the book of Judges where every man was doing that which was right in his own eye. Many of those that have been chosen of God to be in the land of promise were not necessarily keeping all of God's laws, of which one of them was that you will save corners of the field, corners of the field for those that are without, to remember them. This is the instruction in Leviticus under Pentecost, under Feast of Weeks back then, Feast of Harvest. What we're sensing from, are you with me? What we're sensing from Boaz and what's going on here, he's not just giving what he has to give.

No, I'll drop a dime here. We'll help her out here. He goes above and beyond, and he tells his men, let her come into the main field. Let her have a full till of what is out there. Let her fill up for his kinsmen. She doesn't have to be in the corner. She can be a full player. She can come along with the other women after the men go through with the threshing and let her have abundance.

Let her pick that up. You know, I think of my own life sometimes. Do I realize how God is sprinkling grain in front of me? He may not give me the full field, but God kind of sprinkles a little grain here and there to see what I will do with that little grain that he allows to be picked up before he gives me that full harvest in his kingdom.

You ever thought that way? Isn't this an exciting story? I get so excited. I'm sorry it's been seven or eight years. I get so excited with this story. It is so full and rich for we that are under the new covenant that are followers of that greater Boaz because this is a typology of both Christ and the church of Boaz and the church. Let's keep it going here because I don't want my excitement to run four hours.

Neither do you. Then she took it up and went into the city and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. So she brought out and gave to her what she had kept back after she had been satisfied. And her mother-in-law said to her, where have you gleaned today?

And where did you work? Blessed be the one who took notice of you. So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, well, the man's name with whom I work today is Boaz. And it's not said here, but all of a sudden, are you with me? Hmm. Okay. We're about to see the first yinta, if you remember Fiddler on the roof with the yinta, going to work here in a moment.

And so then I only said to her daughter, blessed be he of the Lord who has not forsaken his kindness to the living and the dead. And I only said to her, this man is a relationship of ours, one of our old close relatives. Verse 21, Ruth Moebite said, he also said to me, you shall stay close to my young men until they have finished my harvest. And I only said to her, to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women and that people do not meet you in another field.

So she stayed close by the young women of Boaz to glean until the end of the barley harvest. So we're almost at the end where are you with me? We're almost touching on the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of First Fruits, the Feast of Harvest that we know in the Christian community as Pentecost. So she stayed close by the young women of Boaz to glean until that end of the harvest, and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.

Chapter 3. Then, Naomi, her mother-in-law said to her, my daughter, shall I not seek, in the Old King James, I believe it says, rest for you. What she's saying is security, as it is in the New King James, that it may be wealthy. See, Ruth was probably newer to the faith, and Naomi had seen this work down through history, what's about to happen. Now Boaz, whose young men you are with, is he not our relative? In fact, he is windowing barley tonight at the threshing floor.

Therefore, wash yourself, anoint yourself, put on your best garment, go down to the threshing floor, get ready for the square dent, no, I'm just joking, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. He's got work to do. Then it shall be when he lies down, that you shall notice the place where he lies, and you shall go in, uncover his feet, and lie down. In other words, take the blanket off his feet, and you shall lie down, and he will tell you what you should do.

And she said to her, all that you say to me I will do. Dennis, your message, honor your father and your mother, she obeyed. So she went down to the threshing floor, did according to all that her mother instructed her. And after Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was cheerful, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. And she came softly. They did not have king-sized beds, did you notice? He was lying on the grain. And she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. Now it happened at midnight that the man was startled.

I think I'd be startled too. And there a woman was lying at his feet. And he said to her, who are you?

It's dark. Mr. Edison was not yet born. It's dark. When it's dark, it's dark.

And she said, I am Ruth, your maidservant. Take your maidservant under your wing, under your security, for you are a close relative. Then he said, blessed are you of the Lord, Lord, my daughter, for you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning, and that you did not go after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear I will do for you all you request, for all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman. One thing that we're learning about Ruth when she's in the field or even in this occasion at night with Boaz, something that we all need to learn, our reputation goes before us.

Sometimes our reputation goes before us to a town and before another congregation, perhaps before a family member that we've never met, but they've heard about us.

What have they heard about you? What have they heard about me?

He says, but so he says, stay the night, and in the morning it shall be that it if he will perform the duty of a close relative for you. No, what happened is so I'm not the closest relative in verse 12. However, there's a relative closer than I stay the night, and in the morning it shall be that if he will perform the duty of a close relative for you, good, let him do it.

But if he does not want to perform the duty for you, then I will perform the duty for you as the Lord lives. Lie down until morning. So she lay at his feet until morning, and she rose before one could recognize another. Then he said, do not let it be known that the woman came to the threshing floor. Now verse 15 is important. And also he said, bring the shawl that is on you and hold it. Bring the shawl. And when she held it, he measured six effas of barley and laid it on her. Then she went to the city, and when she had come to her mother-in-law, she said, is that you, my daughter? Then she told her all that the man had done for her. And she said, these six effas of barley he gave me, for he said to me, do not go empty to your mother's-in-law. And then she said, sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out, for the man will not rest until he has concluded the matter this day. What's going on here? What's going on is to say, in the book of Deuteronomy, you can shot this down, Doug Deuteronomy 25, 5 through 10, this is a levarite, what they call a levarite marriage. If a man died in a family, the next of kin would take that woman to become his wife, that she might have a name, that she might have security. Back then, one thing, again, remember Naomi getting involved, and it was kind of teasing her about to be the yinta? Okay, the matchmaker? No. What was happening was simply this. She was doing her responsibility as the matriarch of that family. Her son had died, she had her daughter-in-law with her, she knew what the law was, and she knew that the next of kin had a responsibility. Again, different world from the 20th century. Do people grow in love together? Yes, but it was basically marriage at the time was a socio-economic compact to keep the family going, to keep people sheltered, to keep people alive. And what did is she came in, she removed the sheet off his feet, and when it says that, where is this what he said that he, what he took, when it's the shawl, he took a shawl, that shawl in other translations is turban, can be a turban. The shawl is often used to wrap up a turban. It was a symbol of who he was, that turban. And then he filled that turban with grain, with an offering to the mother-in-law, who was in a sense the head of that relationship at that point. So what you're seeing is this compact that from death can come life. Let's stay with the story. Verse 18, then she said, sit still my daughter until you know how the matter will turn out, for this man will not rest. Now, gentlemen and ladies, think this through for a moment. Two things. What is one of Boas's names? He's strong, but he's also swift. He says, don't tell anybody. I'm going to take care of this two years from now. No. It's going to be taken care of in the morning. Now, obviously something's, I would say, happening between Boas and Ruth too. Okay, I didn't fall off the turnip truck. But to recognize that, notice what then she says. Sit still. Circle that. Okay, friends, how often do we want to take when God is already in motion? Or maybe we don't fully understand his plan, but we prayed to him, seeking his guidance. We keep on going like that hamster in a hamster wheel.

You know, hammy the hamster.

We want to take matters into our own hand. And Naomi says, sit still.

Sounds like the Red Sea, right? We just covered that a month and a half ago. Tell the people to stop and see what God is going to do and how he's going to open up doors.

Folks, how are you and I doing and sitting still and allowing patience to have its perfect work? Real quickly now. Now Boas went up to the gate. This is great. And remember, we're not talking with Washington, DC, or LA. Bethlehem might have had a couple hundred people at this point, if that. But the gate is where everybody went in and out, just like your front door at your house. So Boas went up to the gate and sat down there and behold, a close relative of Boas had spoken, came by. So Boas said, come up. Hey, hi, how are you doing? You know, a little fun going on. This is a fun part of this story. Hi, how are you doing? Come on over. Let's have a Starbucks together. Let's sit down and let us come and reason together. So he came aside and sat down, had the invitation, and he took 10 men of the elders of the city and said, sit down here. So they sat down. Hmm. I thought I was just invited over. Now we've got the other 10 guys. What's going on here? And he took him in. Okay, so then he said to the close relative, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, sold the piece of land, which belonged to our brother, Alemolak. And I thought to inform you, saying, buy it back. I'm doing you a favor. I wanted to inform you that there was some property involved here. You know, like when people die, everybody wants to know what's going to happen to the property, right? So he said, I thought it just kind of lets you know here. And the silt piece, which belonged to our brother, Alemolak. And I thought to inform you, saying, buy it back in the presence of the inhabitants and the elders of my people. And if you will keyword redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not redeem it, then tell me that I may know that there is one, but there is no one but you to redeem it. And I am next after you. And he said, I will redeem it. So the man that doesn't have a name, we know Boaz's name. He's strong. He's swift. But we don't know the other guy's name. And we probably won't till someday, by God's grace. And the other man said, yeah, I'll redeem it.

Then Boaz springs the trap. Then Boaz said, on the day that you buy from the land of Naomi, you must also buy it from Ruth. Pardon me, the Moabites. That was for a fact.

You have to marry the Gentile Gao. How abouts it, buddy? That's Hebrew. For how abouts it, buddy?

The wife of the dead, perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance. And the close relative said, I can't redeem it for myself, lest I ruin my own inheritance. You redeem my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it. Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging to confirm anything. One man took off his sandal and gave it to the other. And this was a confirmation in Israel. And therefore the close relative said to Boaz, buy it for yourself. And so he took off his sandal. And Boaz said to the elders, you are witnesses this day that I have bought all that Alemilex and all that was Chilions and Melons from the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth, the Moabite. Now I'll just spell it out, guys that are listening. Ruth, the Gentile, the other, and the widow of Melon, I have acquired as my wife to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brethren and from his position at the gate. And you are witnesses of this this day. And all the people who are at the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. The Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel, like Leah, the two who built the house of Israel. And may you prosper in Ephrata and be famous in Bethlehem. And may your house be like the house of Peres, one of the two sons of Judah, that were out of a lever right marriage relationship themselves. And that's why that's brought up. Whom Tamar bore to Judah, and because of the offspring, which the Lord will give you from this young woman. So Boaz took Ruth, she became his wife, and when he went into her, the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. And then the woman said to Naomi, blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a close relative. And may his name be famous in Israel. And may he be to you a restorer of life and nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him. Then Naomi took the child, laid him on her bosom, and became a nurse to him. And also the neighbor gave. I've actually got to open up my Bible here, because that got cut off in my computer that was being naughty this morning. Just give me one second. Here we go.

Give him a name, saying, this is a son born to Naomi, and they called his name Obed. He's the father of Jesse, the father of David. And it goes on and on into the line of Jesus Christ. What's going on here? Let's wrap up. Why am I, as your friend and as your pastor, sharing this with you at this time between the days of 11 bread and as we rejoice as we approach Pentecost?

This is the story of the kinsmen Redeemer. Boaz is the lesser Christ, and Jesus of Nazareth is the greater Boaz. They are both kinsmen Redeemers. Death was at hand. The stop of a line of life was at hand. And the person that could and should have did nothing. And yet, this Boaz in the book of Ruth gave everything and was willing to put everything on the line to a widow, to a Gentile that the other did not want. And yet Jesus and his father gave that propitiation and gave that sacrifice and put forth what it meant to purchase us through the blood of our Savior and said, Welcome to the family. And you can trust in me.

You can have faith in me. I will not leave you. When I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it. And that's the confidence and the faith that we have as we come to Pentecost. When Jesus on that last night of his life said, I will come to you. And he did.

Both he and his father, through the Spirit that we talk about at the Feast of Pentecost. I want to share one thought. I wrote it down here. This comes out of the Life Application Bible.

First, my thoughts. When we remain open, available, and willing today, and do the right thing at the right time, in the right way, we will not know the full purpose and importance of our lives until we are able to look back through the focus of eternity. Little did Boaz know. Little did Ruth know. Little did Naomi, who got happy again with little Obed, underlap, know what each and every action would bring beyond themselves.

They didn't know that their great-grandchild would be David. They didn't know that out of their bloodline. Israelite and Gentile. We should say a lot about where God was going, hence, along the way in the Old Testament, what that would produce. I share this as an encouragement as we continue on the Exodus journey, as we continue on our pilgrimage.

Faith and obedience are a cure for the bewilderment that might set us upon us at any time.

And to recognize that there's a God above that is watching.

What we do in this lifetime is only a part of the story.

The rest of the story may occur beyond this and by God's grace, because He has intervened in our lives, because His presence is now within us.

We've been called to be like a Ruth, to be like a Boaz, to be like an Aome, in this time of harvest.

Sometimes we've spent in this way of life for 50 or 60 years, and my encouragement, as we think of harvest, is simply this. I think God is still planning to do some seeding in each and every one of us. I think He has some cultivating to move away and get out of us some of the weeds that may still be there. That harvest, that ultimate harvest of firstfruits, might be to His glory, to His honor. And because of that, may His name alone be praised.