Sermon 8: God Works In Mysterious Ways Series

Sermon 8: God Works in Mysterious Ways

Series: Ruth

Chuck Sligh

August 4, 2019

TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Ruth 4.

INTRODUCTION

If you asked the average person to quote a verse of scripture, besides John 3:16 or Genesis 1:1, the third most probable verse they would cite would be that “God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.” Except that’s not…actually…IN…the Bible. But the statement is a true representation of how God works, and that is no less true of the ending of the story of the book of Ruth.

Everyone likes a story with a happy ending, and the Book of Ruth is that kind of story. The book began with 3 funerals and 3 weeping widows; it ends with a wedding and, ultimately, the joyful birth of a bouncing baby boy, as we will see. At the beginning of the book of Ruth, everything is falling apart; at the end, life has been put back together again.

If this story were a work of fiction, someone might say, “But life isn’t that way. People don’t always live happily ever after.” That’s true; but the book of Ruth IS true, and these events happened to real people. Everything ended “happily ever after” because God was working behind the scenes in mysterious ways.

For the last seven weeks, we’ve been examining the love story in the book of Ruth. Before we jump in, let’s first let’s review the basic details. Due to a famine in Israel, a man named Elimelech left Bethlehem-Judah and moved his family to Moab. Elimelech and his wife, Naomi, had two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. Mahlon and Chilion both married Moabite women, named Orpah and Ruth At some point Elimelech and his sons passed away, leaving all three women widows. Naomi decided to return to Bethlehem-judah, and Ruth decided to go with her, while Orpah deciding to stay in Moab.

Once in Bethlehem-judah, in order to eat, Ruth set out to find a landowner who would, as she described it, find grace in her and allow her to glean barley in his field. Ruth found grace in a wealthy man named Boaz. Boaz immediately took an interest in her and did all he could to provide more than enough food to sustain both Ruth and Naomi. Later, when Ruth told Naomi she had worked for a man named Boaz, Naomi immediately realized that he was a close relative of her late husband. This meant that Boaz was qualified to act as their “kinsman redeemer,” a term in the Law of Moses that stipulated that a close relative could redeem, i.e., buy back, someone’s lost land and also marry a widow and raise up their firstborn son in the name of the deceased husband. So, Ruth approached Boaz one night and asked him to do just that. Boaz was more than willing to take on the responsibility of the kinsman-redeemer but there was a problem—there was another man who was a closer relative than he was. With that background in mind, let’s consider three wonderful truths from our text:

I. FIRST LET’S CONSIDER RUTH’S REDEMPTION – Verses 1-10 – “Then went Boaz up to the gate, and sat him down there: and, behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz spake came by; unto whom he said, Ho, such a one! turn aside, sit down here. And he turned aside, and sat down. 2 And he took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, Sit ye down here. And they sat down. 3 And he said unto the kinsman, Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech’s: 4 And I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it: but if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside thee; and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it. 5 Then said Boaz, What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance. 6 And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance: redeem thou my right to thyself; for I cannot redeem it. 7 Now this was the manner in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbour: and this was a testimony in Israel. 8 Therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz, Buy it for thee. So he drew off his shoe.