Ruth 3

Ruth, Chapter 3. This was during the time of the judges, 1360 to 1050 BC. Everyone was

doing what's right in his own eyes. There's no king. There's habitual trouble. People are

dishonoring Christ. God is judging them. He raises up a judge. It's a cycle of judgment that goes

around and around and around. And that's the time of the history of Israel when this book takes

place.

So we talked the first week about Naomi, Elimelech,

Mahlon and Chilion went down to Moab, 60 miles SE to the land of their enemies. The three

men die and Naomi comes back with only her daughter-in-law in tow. And we said the big idea

of that is what if there's an all powerful, all compassionate, all knowing God who's at work

behind the scenes? What if trusting him is more important than constantly saying my life is full or

my life is empty? What if God was about to do something amazing?

That's the first chapter. The Second chapter. Naomi gets back to Bethlehem with Ruth. They

are too impoverished widows. She owns a piece of ground, but of course it hasn't been farmed

because nobody was there to farm it. They have nothing. And so Ruth goes out into the field to

glean, and she happens by raw accident to stop at the field of Boaz. And Boaz shows ridiculous

kindness to her. She gleans a lot of barley and a lot of wheat. Stays there for the entire harvest.

And so we said, here's the big idea of Chapter 2. In every circumstance, seek refuge under the

wings of God and wait to see what He will do. Ruth specifically gave up the gods of the

Moabites and took refuge under Yahweh. And Naomi saw that, and Boaz saw that. She is a

person who says, I know where to run when I'm in trouble. And she wasn't raised in the faith.

She didn't know this God. But when she came to know him, she said, this is where I'm going

because I'm in trouble. She took refuge under the wings of God.

Ruth, chapter 3 Please. I want to read this for us. And then we'll think about it together.

“Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, “My daughter, shall I not seek security for you?

Is not Boaz, our kinsmen, who's made you were with the women with you? Behold, he winnows

barley tonight at the threshing floor. Wash yourself, therefore, and anoint yourself and put on

your clothes and go down to the threshing —---“

(My text says to put on your best clothes, that the word best is supplied. It shouldn't be in there.

I'll say a little bit more about that in a minute, but there's a specific kind of clothing that she was

instructed to put on based on the word go down to.)

“Floor, and do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. It

shall be when he lies down that you shall notice the place where he lies, and you shall go and

uncover his feet and lie down, and then he will tell you what you shall do. She said to her All

that you say I will do. So she went down to the threshing floor, and did according to all that her

mother-in-law had commanded her. When Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry,

he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. And she came secretly, and uncovered his

feet, and layed down. And it happened in the middle of the night that the man was startled and

bent forward, and behold, a woman was lying at his feet. He said, Who are you? And she

answered, I am Ruth, your maid. So spread your covering over your maid, for you are a close

relative. Then he said, May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have shown that your

last kindness is greater than your first by not going after young men, whether rich or poor. Now

my daughter, do not fear, I will do for you whatever you ask for. All my people in this city know

that you're a woman of excellence. Now it is true, he said I am a close relative (Redeemer).

However, there is a relative closer than I remain tonight. And when morning comes, if he will

redeem you, good, let him redeem you. But if he does not wish to redeem you, then I will

redeem you as the Lord lives, lie down until morning.”

“So she laid at his feet until morning, and arose before one could recognize another. And he

said, Let it not be known that a woman came to the threshing floor. And again he said, Give

me your cloak that is on you, and hold it out. So she held it, and he measured to her six

measures of barley and laid it on her.

Then she went into the city. When she came to her mother-in-law, she said. (This is Naomi

speaking to Ruth.) How did it go, my daughter? And she told her all that the man had done for

her. Then Naomi said, I'm sorry, Ruth said, these six measures of barley he gave to me, for he

said, do not go to your mother-in-law empty handed. Then she said, wait, my daughter, until you

know how this matter turns out, for the man will not rest until he has settled it today.”

Boaz gets a request about 2:00 AM perhaps, and Naomi says he'll deal with it today. No reason

to worry.

Let me pray for us.

Father, we need your guidance and direction as we think about this story. We know it's a story

inspired by the Holy Spirit. We know it's in a book that you have preserved now for three

millennia. We know that you have something for us here. May it be clear to us. May we honor

you as we think about it and open our hearts to it. And so God is clearly, we pray in Christ's

name, Amen.

About four years ago, friend, I needed an ablation, which is a process where they kill some

nerves in your heart so your heart beats in a better rhythm. And I went to the doctor and he

looked at me and he said, yeah, we can do this for you and it'll probably work. It might not work.

We can do three or four of them if we have to. So I went into the to the folks at the desk and

they said, yes, here it is. And we can schedule you. And besides your insurance, it'll probably

cost 30 to $40,000. So I'm thinking, well, I'll just leave my heart the way it is for 30 or $40,000.

So I go home and I'm complaining about this to a friend of mine on the phone, he said. Dave.

You can get a self kit and do this yourself. So I go on Amazon and I see the kit $2600 and I buy

it. And it arrives and it has the sterilization stuff and it has the stuff to numb your arm and your

legs so you can put the cameras in. It has a little camera, it has a little laser. It has a one page

instruction sheet. And it says when the camera shows this on, on the camera screen, you're

there. And then you take this little button and you click it 20 times. Just move it around, click it

20 times. Anybody believe that story? Anybody would like to buy some oceanfront property in

North Dakota? You can't do an ablation on yourself, friends!

When I had my ablation done I was knocked out cold and extremely happy. And I woke up later

and the doctor said, yeah, it went pretty good, Mr. Gibson, and we'll see how it goes. There are

things in life that we need that we can't do for ourselves. I needed an ablation. I needed a wife. I

had to ask this woman. I needed support For 16 years as a missionary. I've needed to answer a

prayer 45,000 times. Conservatively, I've needed forgiveness 55,000 times. There's stuff that

I've needed that I couldn't do for myself. You and I need stuff that we can't do, and this, this

particular chapter, is a primer on what I do when I need something that I can't manufacture for

myself.

Now, friends, if I need my oil change, I can drive it into the dealer and get it changed. I could

change it my own yard if I wanted to go find a way to get rid of the oil. I mean, I can do that, and

I've done that.

But there's stuff in my life that I need that I can't do. What do you do when you have stuff you

can't do?

Here's what happens in this book. Ruth, Chapter 3.

As this story continues to unfold, please be clear about something. Stories are not delivered,

fully blown, fully done. They unfold. The story of Ruth is unfolding as we read it. The story of our

lives is unfolding as it is lived.

I've opened a new chapter in my life and thought you're kidding me. I did not see that coming.

Life unfolds, stories unfold, and there's two kinds of stories in terms of a literary genre. There's

the tragedy and the comedy. This is in the literary genre sense. The tragedy is the story's

unfolding. Things are happening badly, and then the hero dies. That's a tragedy. We live in a

comedy. That is the stories unfolding, things happening that are not the best, things happening

that are very bad. Things get better. They get worse again. The story unfolds chapter after

chapter, but in the end?

We don't die, we live forever. If you've trusted Christ, if you've asked Him to forgive your sin, you

just go to the last chapter of Revelation, read the chapter. We win eternal joy. We live in a

comedy. Now, that doesn't mean the whole story is unfolded, and that doesn't mean there's all

happy stuff as it unfolds. But that means we take courage, because at the end we are people

who experience ridiculous victory in Christ.

This story that's unfolding before us is a comedy. It doesn't end with two widows dying of

starvation. It ends far better than it began . Better than either of them could ever have imagined.

If you've read the book, you know it ends wonderfully.

Naomi's plan verses 1 to five. She's going to seek security for Ruth by asking Boaz to be the

kinsman Redeemer of Ruth. She's going to seek security because they're not set for the long

haul. They have some grain that Ruth brought home from gleaning, but they're not set for the

long haul. They need something else. And so our plan is this. Verse one is going to talk about

the problem, verse 2, the summary of the facts, and verses three, four and five. Here's the

details of how I'm going to tackle this problem. This is Naomi's plan.

Now remember I said last week, I have a plaque on my wall that says, Dave, what have you

done about this problem? The question is, am I fretting about stuff or am I doing stuff about

stuff, Naomi? Is not fretting, she is taking action to work it out.

Verse one is not the right thing for me to do to seek security for you Ruth. It means I need to find

you a husband. She calls her my daughter. She's family. She's a child of God. She's in the

relationship by faith, not by birth, but by faith. And she said the right thing to do is to find you

literally a place of rest. Where could Ruth rest?

Well, if she had a husband, she could rest in her home. She could rest with her children, she

could rest eventually with her grandchildren. But if she doesn't have a husband, she won't rest.

She'll go out and glean next year and next year and next year, and Naomi is concerned about

that and she wants to help her. So verse two, she says, here's the summary of our situation. We

have a kinsman Redeemer named Boaz, the very man with whose maids you have gleaned.

Naomi or Ruth happened, total accident, happenstance stopped in the field of Boaz, except of

course for God being up to something. And Naomi says, OK, we have this man, this kinsman

Redeemer. The custom in their time was if a man died and his wife was left childless, that the

brother of that man or close relative of that man would marry her, raise up a child to keep the

name of the deceased man. That child would continue to own the field, the property that the

man owned. That name would not be wiped out in Israel.

It's mentioned many times in the Old Testament, Leviticus 25, Genesis 38, Deuteronomy 25 in

the New Testament. When the Pharisees tried to catch Jesus, they said seven brothers married

this woman. They all died without children. That's the kind of thing that's going on there. So

they're going to approach Boaz, the kinsman Redeemer. As we said last week, here's what a

kinsman Redeemer could do by the field. Mary Ruth, give a child to the family name so they

would still have the name in the field. Give security to Ruth and to Naomi.

The Kinsman Redeemer is a type of Christ meaning.It's an Old Testament picture that ports

forward to say Jesus the Redeemer is coming. Kinsman Redeemer is a type. The snake lifted

up on the stick by Moses is a type. All the sacrifices are a type. Moses himself is called a type of

Christ. The ram caught in the thicket of Genesis 22. It's a type of Christ when God in Genesis 3

killed animals to get skins to cover the sin of Adam and Eve

the very first sacrifice, shedding blood to cover sin. These all these things point forward to the

fact that Christ is coming for us. So we said last week in order to be a Kinsman Redeemer, Boaz

had to be a close relative. He had to have no personal debt. He had to have the money to buy

the field and he had to be willing to do it. Any of those four things. Jesus is a close relative. He

became a man who called himself our brother. Jesus had no personal debt. He never sinned.

He had the means to redeem us. He had his precious blood. We're going to celebrate that in a

little bit. And fourthly, he was willing to do it. He was willing to die to pour out his blood. And so

he is our kinsman Redeemer.

Now, verses three to five, Naomi says to Ruth, here's exactly what I need you to do. Wash up,

dress up, perfume up. Now, as I said, she didn't say put on your best dress. She said literally put

on your outer garment, which means the poor people had this big outer garment that they would

wear and it was their covering for warmth at night. The basic message is it might be warm right

now, but at 2:00 AM it's not going to be like taking this garment with you when you go out there

and have to sleep all night, or at least lay all night thinking about what's going on there now.

What happened was Boaz finished all the gleaning. He has this big stack of grain. It's like four

months worth of work for him and his workers. It's a lot of money, and so he's going to sleep at it

to keep it safe.

Now, friends, if you had four months of your wages in cash and you had to leave it on your

driveway overnight. I don't know about you, but I'd be there with a Jeep mounted 50 Cal. You

know, this is 4. This is four months of money. And Boaz is there pre Jeeps and pre 50 Cal. But

he's there to guard his stuff. And Naomi knew he would be there. And so she sends Ruth there,

giving her precise instructions. Go to the threshing floor. Do not reveal yourself when he's fallen

asleep. Go up, uncover his feet, lay down at his feet when he wakes up. You're going to ask

him, you know, cover me. You're going to make this request of him, and then we're going to see

what he says. So this woman is a sterling woman who does exactly what her Mother-in-law

says.

Verses 6 to 9. Here's the initiative. Ask Boaz to spread his covering over you. It happens

exactly like Naomi said it would happen. And in the middle of the night, the man wakes up. The

text literally says he shivered. Like his feet were cold and he shivers awake. And when he

shivers awake, he discovers a woman at his feet. It's dark. How does he know it's a woman?

She's wearing perfume. How many of you have ever raised a junior high boy? Wasn't a junior

high boy. Yeah, we had two of them. Wasn't a junior high boy. Sorry, son. Worked my boy into

an illustration. I owe him money now.

So he says, who are you? And she says I'm Ruth, your maidservant. It's working out exactly like

Naomi said. She says to him in an amazing respectful way.

Not demand. Marry me, spread your covering over me, bring me into your house.

By the field, raise a child to Elimelech. This is an amazing situation because it is a direct

instruction to him. It's not a it's it's not arrogant, it's not unkind, but the grammar is he's she's

just telling him what to do.

It's a remarkable statement that she makes. Spread your garment over me. Give me security.

Bring me, bring me into your home. Please help me. It's a bold plan. It's a risky plan. And she

carries it out.

I have a friend who said to me, Dave, are you trying anything so amazing that unless God

works it is doomed to fail? Are you working on anything so amazing that unless God intervenes,

it will absolutely fail? And this is a plan where they needed God to intercede. She comes in, the

man wakes up from a dead sleep. He shivers awake and she says, spread your covering over

me.

Verses 10 to 15.

Boaz says listen if the first in line will not redeem you. I will certainly redeem you. There was

someone in line ahead of him to redeem her so when he woke up. He says my daughter uses

the same word that Naomi uses for her. This is family. This is a person I respect, she said. Your

loyal love to Naomi is known to everybody. It's a word that's pronounced hesed. It means loyal

love, covenant love. It's the kind of love that's based in the lover, not in the person being loved.

It's the kind of love we're supposed to have at the altar when we say to our spouse. Soon to be

a spouse, we say. I love you because I decided to love you and therefore I'm going to act for

your well-being and there's nothing you can do about it. It's that kind of love. And that's the kind

of love that Ruth has that she has demonstrated all this time to her, to Naomi. And he says, God

bless you because your first, your second kindness is greater than your first. You didn't go after

a younger man, boys are clearly older. You didn't go after a younger man, whether he's rich or

poor, you came to speak to me. And so he says, do not be afraid.

She says I am your maidservant,Ruth. Spread your covering over me. I'm your servant. And

then Boa says no, I'm your servant. I'll do it. I'll do this. If the 1st man doesn't do it, I will

personally do it. Listen friends, this woman came into this city weeks ago. She was unknown,

she was a Moabite, she was impoverished, she had no relationships there weeks ago and now

she goes and lies at the feet of one of the wealthiest men in the city and says marry me.

It's a pretty stark request and it's amazing what's going on here. And Boaz says I will do it. If the

first in line doesn't do it, I will do it because everyone in this city knows that you are a noble

woman. You're a person of moral character. Everyone in the city knows. He literally says

Everyone in the gate knows. It's called a metonymy of place. You mentioned the place.

To stand for the people who are at the place. If we say heaven help you, we mean God help

you. Metan me a place. Heaven's not going to help you, God's going to help you.

Every person who uses the gate of Jerusalem knows that

you're a noble woman in a matter of weeks.

Friends, a couple of decades ago, my father bought a windmill from my uncle in Dupree, SD

and he wanted to move to Montana where he lived. And so a buddy and I took a pickup and a

trailer, went to Dupree to get this windmill for my dad. We're checking in the motel. Back in the

day when you wrote stuff down, and I was writing it down, I put my name there and the guy who

owned the motel was reading it upside down. And as soon as I finished my name, he said,

“Oh, you're Leora's nephew and you're here for the windmill. And my buddy turned to me and

said, Dave, this town doesn't need no newspaper. Bethlehem is a town that didn't need a

newspaper. Everybody knew. Everybody knew her, and she was a noble woman. But being a

noble man, Boaz says there is a relative closer than me. I will defer to him. I will talk to him in

the morning. If he will redeem you, good. Let him redeem you. But if he will not, he says, I

swear. As God lives in the name of Yahweh, the existing God, I will do this. I will take care of

you. So it's still dark. He gives her six measures of wheat. The scholars think it's between 18

and 30 lbs. She takes it home. It's a pledge to Naomi. It's a down payment to Naomi saying I'll

do this. Naomi hatched this plan. Naomi knows about the kinsman Redeemer. Naomi put her up

to this. And now he sends a gift back saying don't go to your mother-in-law empty handed. Take

this gift. It's my down payment. On what I'm going to do for you, he made it very clear he was

going to do exactly what he should do.

A scholar by the name of Darryl Bach said this. The lives of genuinely good people are not

governed by laws, but by character and a moral sense of right and wrong. For Boaz, Yahweh's

covenant with Israel provides sufficient guidance for him to know what to do in this case.

I don't doubt that Boaz was the keeper of the law. But he also had a moral compass, and he

followed the moral compass to do what was right for this woman in this situation. Finally, verses

16 to 18, here's Naomi's assessment. She says the man will not rest until he settles it. Ruth

comes home. She's got this down payment. She shows it to her mother-in-law. And Naomi says

to her, literally, who are you? It's their way of saying how did it go, how did it workout?

What happened? And so she tells her the entire thing, rehearses all of it. And Naomi's thought

is, wait, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out. The man will not rest until he

has settled it. Today, sit tight. He's a man of character. We have nothing to worry about. Either

the first guy in line will do it or Boaz will do it. It's like, OK, we win, the game's not over, but I

Know now we win. Sit tight. Because this is a man of character, he will deal with it.

Now, friends, this woman came into town weeks ago as an impoverished Moabite woman

weeks ago. And now she makes a request of a wealthy Israelite man to marry her. And he says,

everybody in town knows you're a noble woman. I'll take care of it. It is a stunning, stunning

event. I think it's a primer on how to seek security friends. When you need something that

you can't provide for yourself, ask And then sit tight.

Ask and then wait to see what God will do, or what the doctor will do, or what your family will do,

what your friend will do. If you need something you can't provide for yourself, ask. Matthew

7:7-11. Ask, seek and knock. Just keep after it. Keep saying, Lord, I need you to help me. I

can't make this happen for myself.

I first preached this sermon series two years ago. And another church in town. And my closing

illustration was this. I have a friend named Roger who lives near Spokane, who's been waiting

for a heart for two years. He's on a mechanical pump. He needs a heart. At the time, he was 66

years old. It looked pretty bleak because 66 years old are not at the top of the list. My friend

Roger's not on the list anymore. Because three weeks ago, they gave him a new heart.

And on Tuesday, he's going home with a new heart. He asked. He trusted God, and then

he would sit tight.

Now, friends, I'm old enough to know God might not have given him a heart. He might have. He

might have died, obviously. But He still did the right thing. Ask the Lord, ask the heart transplant

folks, and then sit tight and see what God will do. What do you have in your life that you need to

say? God, I need you to help me. I need you to help me. I can't manufacture it. God is a whole

lot better at answering than we are at asking.

Lamentations 3:22. “The Lord's loving kindness indeed never ceases, for His compassions

never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says

my soul. Therefore I hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the person who

seeks him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord.

Let's pray. Father, there's a lot of stuff we need. A lot that we can't provide. And so we're going

to be like Naomi and Ruth, we're just going to say, please help. Please work. Please intercede.

We're going to wait silently. We're going to wait patiently. We're going to wait in faith and ask

you, our Father, to work. Whatever is going on in the heart of anyone listening at this moment.

Will you please work? We entrust ourselves to you in Christ's name, Amen.