The Plot Thickens
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After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets.
20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. -
One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, I must find a home for you, where you will be well provided for.
2 Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. 3 Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. 4 When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.”5 “I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered. 6 So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.
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So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”
16 Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
A feature of a good story is that it draws us in. We want to know what happens next and ultimately how it ends. In Ruth, this great love story. We want to know what happens from the start to part granary where the barley was threshed and to the final scene in the drama! This is more than the story of Ruth, or Naomi or Boaz, it is His story and it is our story.
I want to look at this beautiful story in three parts: 1. Friendship 2. Kinsman 3.Offsprinfg
1 The Friendship
2 The Kinsman
3 The Offspring
The Friendship
I hope you know the story of Ruth, I can only give a brief background this morning. We read in the first two chapters that Naomi and her husband Elimelech & two sons Mahlon and Chilion left their home town Bethlehem at a time of famine and personal poverty for a better life in Moab to the East. The better life didn’t happen. The two sons married Ruth and Orpah. Tragically all three men died, Elimelech, Mahlon (Ruth’s) and Chilion.
Bereaved, broken and broke, Naomi decides to go back to Bethlehem as a widow. She has nothing to give her hope or help in that society, no children, grandchildren, no possessions or trade. She has two daughters-in-law Ruth and Orpah but they are Moabites, a people (from Sodom) despised by Israelites.
Naomi and Ruth have forged an amazing friendship and because of that friendship Ruth will not separate, v14 Ruth clings to her. Wherever you go I will go for you stay I will stay your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die may the Lord deal with me if anything but death separates us. Ruth 1:16. Naomi can’t persuade Ruth to stay with her people in Moab. Through their friendship Ruth, a Moabite takes the name of Yahweh on her lips - amazing. In this we learn that friendships can change the world. Ruth in friendship, breaks spiritual, racial, class and cultural barriers in loving Naomi. We can engage in friendships sharing Jesus by our testimony in words and deeds. As disciples of Jesus should. It is not sermons or debates or Alpha that changes the world it is thro’ our friendships. [I met Pete McGowan when I first came to England to study in Manchester. We were two Irish boys alone and in need of a friend. Pete became a Christian during those three years and we are still in touch. I am going to his church in Coleraine to speak in a few weeks. He, like me, can say, ‘What a friend I have in Jesus.’
Most of us are so busy running around doing this and that – making the world a better place but constant friendships is what make a difference – ‘where you go I will go, live where I will live.’ This church is nothing without friendships.
Ruth goes with Naomi to Bethlehem knowing that as, a Moabite, she’ll be hated. It was harvest time (Ruth 1:22) and being penniless, Ruth goes to glean from the edges of the Barley fields. Ruth 2:3 ‘As it turned out she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.’ ‘As it turned out.’ What a synonym for God’s sovereignty! This is no coincidence.
Now we have another character to think about Boaz – what is he like? Will he be interested in Ruth, a Moabite? Ruth 2:5, Boaz notices Ruth, then in Ruth 2:8 Boaz speaks to Ruth. Realising she is a Moabite and alone that she is in danger. Boaz says Ruth can harvest (not glean) with his women workers. Ruth asks why are you being so nice to me, a foreigner (2v10)? Ruth 2:11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12 May the Lord repay you for what you have done.
I hope you are on the edge of your seats. How will this turn out? The plot thickens!
Kinsman-Redeemer
When Ruth goes home to Naomi she has a lot of grain more than from gleaning quantity, Ruth says where she got from. Naomi says do you know who Boaz is - a Kinsman Redeemer. See Leviticus 25. Jubilee is a custom whereby after 50 years land sold goes back to the original family. But 50 years is a long time so in-between times the land could be bought by a kinsman redeemer. When a family had lost everything and had no children to carry on the family name a kinsman could redeem the property and family line if he married the widow. NB. The land and the children would be heirs of the dead person (Elimelech) not the Redeemer. It is a big sacrifice for the Kinsman. But anyway, Naomi is old and can't have kids. The plot thickens. Boaz has to marry the last eligible family member to have children ie Naomi – it is called Levirate marriage (Kinsman marries the widow & raises children. To procreate, Boaz would have to marry a Moabite and Deuteronomy 23 forbids that: ‘may not enter the assembly of the Lord to the tenth Generation.’ Who would do that? Step up, Boaz.
Naomi decides that this kinsman has a heart of grace. She tells Ruth to have a wash and put on Chanel No.5 and a nice dress. That night Ruth does what Naomi said.
As Boaz sleeps Ruth uncovers his feet and lays down at his feet. In the middle of the nigh,t something startles him and he wakes up to find someone at his feet and says who are you? ‘I am Ruth, your servant. Cover me with your garment.’ In those days cover me with your garment meant marry me to redeem me and my family. Give us back a name and our inheritance.
Boaz says I will do it. He is the Redeemer, the great bridegroom.
He does two things 1. Takes on the debt of the family. 2. Marries Ruth.
When Boaz marries her all his wealth becomes Ruth’s legally. He is the gracious redeemer. A whole new in the love and mercy of Boaz awaits.
Here today, we are citizens of the third millennium, and it is hard to understand the customs of thousands of years ago.
What this story reveals through kinsman Boaz is that our kinsman Jesus, though he was equal with God in every way, became one of us. He is our KIN born of Mary, human yet divine so that he could meet us where we are. Love us as a bridegroom loves a bride, pay the price to redeem us from the mess we are in: cleanse and forgive and give us all that is his – his righteousness, his heavenly home and his ever-present help in our daily lives. Colossians 1:14 says in him ‘we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.’ Philippians 2:7,8 “He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross!”
This kinsman, Jesus says in Mark 1:15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
And to those who already believe he says follow me and I will make you fishers of people. ….
Illustration: Christianity Explored course members and currentlygrapplingg with this very matter, what it means to follow Jesus. next week Jn 3:16 [Tom]
The Offspring
So what do we make of the final Act in our drama? Ruth is not mentioned again after Chapter 4:13 which says Boaz marries Ruth and they have a son. Naomi and the son are the main characters in the final scene. The women of Bethlehem praise God. Naomi has a kinsman.
If you look carefully, there’s an ambiguity in Ruth 4:14,15 that points us to the secret of the story and the secret of our lives – our redeemer.
The women said to Naomi: “Praise the Lord, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age.
Prophetically, the women say (Ruth 4:15) “He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age.’ 4v14 ‘May he become famous throughout Israel,’ is a prophetic prayer beyond the expectations of baby-Obed (meaning Servant). In the bigger picture, Obed grew up to become the father of Jesse, the father of David>Solomon>Rehoboam>Abijah>Asa>Jeroboam >Jehoram >Uzziah x20>Jesus. That family line (for 30 generations) leads to Jesus, ‘there is a redeemer Jesus God’s own son’ (Matthew 1:5). Immanuel God with us (Matthew 1:23).
By trusting in God, Ruth became part of God’s redemptive purposes.
She could have had a comfortable life in Moab, remarried a Moabite and had her own family but she chose not to better herself or even to put herself first. She put God first. As a result it is said of her, she is better than 7 sons – i.e. better than the perfect family because she put God first in serving Naomi.
Naomi, by returning to Bethlehem caused, 30 generations later, an ordinary girl and her fiancé Joseph go to Bethlehem for a census.
I like Ruth and Naomi because they are ordinary people with a life of downs and ups. In the ordinariness they had a simple faith that God was with them and would not abandon them because of their faithfulness to him.
[Illustration: James McMurray-Taylor was a Rev in Belfast who volunteered to become an Army Chaplain in 1943. He served with the Royal Ulster Rifles. He was just an ordinary man, serving Jesus in an ordinary way in wartime. He did not seek the limelight - stories of him as chaplain were unspectacular - blessing soldiers going to fight, retrieving nametags from the battlefield to return them to the loved ones of the lost, conducting funerals of the dead - all ordinary things - it was all that he could do. He was holding on to truths, like God is his ever-present help. An ordinary man serving for the glory of God. He went back to parish ministry after the war and ended up in a rural parish in Fermanagh until he retired in 1980. In 1977 received the Queens Jubilee Award for services to the Army Cadette Force who he continued to serve after the war. James McMurray-Taylor an ordinary man serving our extraordinary God.
Two ordinary women Ruth and Naomi have affected the lives of many even here and now. You and I are here because of their offspring Jesus.
Likewise, God will use our ordinariness, doing ordinary things that glorify God that blesses and loves others – drawing your friends, relatives and neighbours under the influence of our extraordinary redeemer – Jesus Christ.
I conclude with a verse from a City Alight song we will sing as a reflection:
What gift of grace is Jesus, my Redeemer,
There is no more for heaven now to give.
He is my joy, my righteousness, my freedom
My steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace.
