Ruth: A Love That's Amazing Series

Ruth: A Love That Amazes

Ruth 3; 1 John 4:7

Pastor Ralph Juthman

INTRODUCTION: ( Read 1 John 4:7) 7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

There is nothing so immeasurable or as important as God’s love and yet His love so misunderstood by man today. God is love! Do you really understand what that means? In this passage, the simplest & yet most profound statement of all is "God is love." That sounds beautiful, but what does it mean? We use the word "love" a lot, & I’m afraid that our use of it can be rather confusing. For instance,

Love is something that we “fall into.” Love brings stars into our eyes, & causes our hearts to go pitter?pat. "Love makes the world go ’round."

ILL. Someone even said, "Love is never having to say you’re sorry." Now, whoever said never met my mother in law. I can assure you of that.

So what is love, really? It is safe to say many have no idea of what love is or what it is about.

Once a young man kneeled before a beautiful young woman beside a placid lake.“Darling,” he said, “I want you to know that I love you more than life. I want you to marry me. I’m not a wealthy man. I don’t have a yacht, a Rolls-Royce or lots of money like Johnny Green, but I do love you with all my heart.” The young woman paused for a moment and said, “Darling, I love you with all my heart too. But before I say ‘yes,’ tell me a little more about Johnny Green.”

The Bible tells us that "God is love," & that I am to "love the Lord, my God with all my heart." It tells me to love myself, & to love my neighbor, & even to love my enemies.

For so many love is the one thing they want more than anything else – to love and be loved. And yet it remains elusive and seemingly unattainable. So ,What is love?

Today we have before us a picture of love. It is a picture of God’s love, The Bible declares God is the source and sum of true love. God is the reason we can love, beause God is love.

Read Ruth 3:1-18

Around midnight, Boaz suddenly woke up and turned over. He was surprised to find a woman lying at his feet! [9] ‘Who are you?’ he demanded.

“‘I am your servant Ruth,’ she replied. ‘Spread the corner of your covering over me, for you are my family redeemer.’" – Ruth 3:8-9

Now things are really starting to heat up for Ruth – and depending on how you read verse 9, here in chapter 3, they could be getting hot! But we’ll get back to that in a minute.

As you recall things started out looking pretty bleak.

Naomi andEleimelech and their two sons ( Skinny and Stinky) had moved to Moab because there was a famine around the home town of Bethlehem. The sons married Moabite women. Then Naomi’s husband died – and then her two sons died as well. Naomi was devastated and was convinced that God has done this to her and that she had no future – so she might as well return to her hometown of Bethlehem. Besides, the word out on the street was that the famine in Bethlehem was over.

She encouraged her daughters-in-law to return to their original families so they could get married again. One does – but not Ruth. She was hopelessly devoted to her mother-in-law. So leaving behind her native land, language, culture, and people she went to Bethlehem with Naomi.

So we’ve got these two poor women trying to eke out an existence in Bethlehem.

In that era if you didn’t have a man you didn’t have much hope because it was a male dominated world. Men owned the property. Men earned the living. If you were a single woman not under the covering of some man – a father, an uncle, a brother, a husband – you were stuck.

And such appeared to be the case with Naomi and her daughter-in-law, Ruth.

Although, they could still do the things that poor people did to survive. So Ruth went out into the fields to glean.

Well, as it turned out she ended up gleaning in the field of a middle-aged balding, overweight guy named Boaz. And Boaz, was extremely nice to Ruth – making it easy for her to glean. He even provided lunch and extra grain for her to take home to Naomi.

Ruth goes home to Naomi with her booty and Naomi says – “Wow, this guy would make a great husband for you. Hey, he’s even a member of my late husband’s extended family.”