Children’s Sermon
Trivial Pursuit. Lowest score ever in bowling organized league play? Mike Kappa, Racine Wisconsin: 2.
Nothing wrong with playing game; but careful lest our lives be trivial. How do we know what is important? Some people think it is receiving mention in the paper. WSJ. But the Bible says something different. Pleasing God and serving others. So every time you see this game, you think: this is fun, and it is a chance to think about how I decide if my life is trivial.
Introduction
Read Ruth 4.13-22. Pray.
Churches like ours tend to spend much time and derive most ideas from technical and doctrinal parts of the Bible. If you look at the web pages of lots of PCA churches (as I have done on several occasions), you will find Paul’s letters more frequently preached through than the parables of Jesus; Romans taught more often than Ruth; many more series on the doctrinal distinctives which split the Protestants from the Roman Catholic church (called the “Solas of the Reformation”) than you will stories of the Patriarchs. We prefer our religion in the form of systematic theology and doctrinal statements.
In the three volume systematic theology by Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Paul’s letters are cited thousands of times; Ruth only garners three mentions. In volume 1, page 64, Turretin notes: “The Gospels and Paul’s epistles shine with far greater splendor than the book of Ruth or Esther; but yet it is certain that in all are these arguments of truth and majesty.” A few pages later in the same volume, Ruth is again cited, this time to show that in Bible days, relations by marriage could be referred to as if they were blood relatives: “… as Naomi calls her daughters-in-law ‘her daughters’ (Ruth 1.11-12, the common mode of speaking).” The only other mention is in a discussion of whether Levirate marriage practice violated the laws of consanguinity. When a woman’s husband died, the laws of Israel said that the man’s nearest relative should marry the widow and give her a son to keep the inheritance in the family line. Turretin briefly discusses whether this practice violated the law prohibiting the marriage of a relative.
Ruth also fares poorly in other doctrinal theologies. Both Boice and Berkhof mention Ruth only once; Berkhof in a list of examples of how Bible words may not be related to God at all: “According to the Scripture the word ‘grace’ is manifested not only by God, but also by men, and then denotes the favor which one man shows another, Genesis 33.8,10,18; 39.4; Ruth 2.2; 1Samuel 1.18; 16.22.”
The book of Ruth describes people who lived obscure and seemingly unimportant lives. The author weaves a grand tale (to be sure), but provides no systematic theology. In fact, God himself makes only a cameo appearance in the story, and once only, in Ruth 4.13, are we told that God does anything. God’s name is mentioned a few times, yes, by Naomi in a complaint and by others in wishes for happy blessings and in greetings. But God plays a minor, two-bit role in the story.
So Ruth can be difficult to appreciate. But that is to our detriment. In this short book, God shows real people who live out their faith in honest ways, and unbeknownst to them, are written into a grander drama. Let’s start with Ruth since the book is named for her.
Ruth 4.13: “So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son.” With those words, Ruth’s redemption is complete and she takes her place as one of the most perfect examples of the church. Who is Ruth?
• She is a foreigner, not born into the people of God, a critical distinction in Old Testament Israel. Passover marked and made the Jewish people, and about it God said to Moses in Exodus 12.43: “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it….” The Jews were a separate people; aliens, strangers and foreigners were looked upon with disfavor or disgust.
o But the New Testament says that all people are foreigners before conversion: Ephesians 2.12: “Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” We are Ruth!
• More than a foreigner; she is an enemy, a Moabite. Deuteronomy 23.3-6: “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the LORD forever, because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor… to curse you…. You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.
o But Romans 5 says that before God reconciles a person through faith in Christ, he or she is his enemy. We are Ruth!
• As a Moabite, Ruth worshipped false gods.
o But covetousness is idolatry, and the Bible insists that no one is born with a natural desire to give thanks to God and honor his right to rule and receive glory. We are Ruth!
• Ruth was a widow; the Bible says that Christ must be a husband to the church.
• Ruth was barren; apart from Christ we can do no good.
• Ruth was completely poverty stricken; we are spiritually poor with nothing in our hands to bring to God to earn his favor or allay his justified wrath at our rebellion.
• Ruth was unappreciated, treated as “nothing.” When Naomi returns to Bethlehem after more than ten years away, she says, “I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty.” Empty? What about Ruth? Few people can boast of such a daughter-in-law. The women of the city later remind Naomi, “she has been more to you than seven sons,” but Ruth was “as-if-she-were-not” in Naomi’s initial calculations.
o 1Corinthians 1.27-29: God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. We are Ruth.
Why does God include Ruth in his Bible? So that we see what it looks like to need redemption, to be lost and alone, to be barren and broken, to have nothing and need everything. And Boaz is Jesus to Ruth! He seeks and saves the lost; he marries the widow; he makes a foreign enemy into a faithful friend; he writes someone who was a nothing into his family line!
God is at work in the world, like Boaz, seeking the low and despised and those who are not – the Ruth’s of the world – to marry into his church! What shame to us that we are not involved in the ministry of evangelism! Our time is not less conducive to conversions that the days when the judges ruled. Yes, there is evil; there are problems. But God’s heart is not depressed by the difficulties; his heart is captivated by love for the lost, the Ruths of this day.
But Ruth is not the only one who teaches us about life.
The Bible only mentions Obed in genealogical lists, like in our text: “Boaz fathered Obed, Obed father Jesse….” But while the Bible never tells us what he did, we know how greatly he blessed others.
Obed blessed Boaz and Ruth. You may not notice at first, but Ruth’s first marriage lasted over ten years and produced no child. She was barren; but God intervenes. His one declared act in the book gives Ruth a son. So this unlikely pair (Boaz’ mother was a prostitute and Ruth was a lost and lonely foreigner) – because of Obed, Boaz and Ruth are written big in the story of redemption!
Obed also blessed Naomi. She seems informally to “adopt” him as her own son and the women of Bethlehem share her joy, saying (Ruth 4.14-15): “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age….”
They tell us two ways that Obed will bless Naomi. He will be a “restorer of life,” a reason to live. He gives his grandmother a present purpose and a passion. Every grandparent I meet confirms that grandchildren are like a fountain of youth – they make one feel young again. They restore life as they remind us that there is a future.
Obed also will bless Naomi in her old age. He will be the son who cares for her when she cannot provide for herself. He will see to her future.
Notice how the women describe Obed: a “redeemer.” He does for Naomi what Jesus does for his people – he gives both a present hope and an eternal home.
We live in a dark world with what seems to be an impotent church and no possibility of progress. But Christ is to his people a restorer of life. He gives a reason to live, a fountain of youth to those who know him. Your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Your faithfulness to your family produces results. Your service and love to one another makes the church a shining light. Obed did not succeed in trivial pursuits; his name is unknown apart from a few Bible students, and even then his only mention is in genealogies. But he blessed his grandmother, and that was enough for him. Faithful in little; significant beyond measure – this is God’s pattern, if you will accept it.
Christ also is a nourisher of our old age. He went before us into heaven, there to pave the way and prepare an eternal home. No one cares for us better in old age than Jesus. Here is the blessing of God if you will accept it.
Obed blessed others beyond his family. He brought fame to Bethlehem. What a small, insignificant town, yet who does not know its name?
Obed blessed Israel as the grandfather of King David, and, ultimately, Obed blessed the whole world.
Luke 2.8-11: And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Early in our seven week study of Ruth, I told you that Naomi is really the central character. We now see how the author conveys this. Notice that the conclusion is about Naomi, not Ruth, and notice that it balances perfectly the introduction. The book begins with Naomi’s trials and sorrows; it ends with her hope and happiness. In the beginning, she loses her family; in the end she gains a new family. She starts the story alone in a foreign land; she ends up surrounded by home and friends.
Naomi has walked a long and twisted road. She could not have imagined (nor, probably, have desired) the destination when she set out. William Cowper wrote in his hymn: “Deep in unfathomable mines of never-failing skill, the Lord treasures up his bright designs and works his sovereign will.” He calls them unfathomable mines of skill because we cannot fathom them, we cannot understand the end from the beginning. His ways are not our ways, his thoughts not our thoughts. Our path, like Naomi’s, is not straight. It traverses many switchbacks up the mountain of glory.
“Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace; behind a frowning providence, he hides a shining face.”
As we walk with Naomi, feeling her pain and bitterness, then rejoicing in her redemption, we realize we can trust God even when the clouds are so thick that we cannot see the road ahead or the signs on the side.
Naomi lost her husband and sons; God brings a daughter-in-law faithful and loving beyond measure.
Naomi had no hope of marrying or keeping the inheritance in the family; God brings Boaz, a redeemer, a relative, a son by marriage, a godly and compassionate provider.
Naomi was embittered by the death of her sons, Mahlon and Chilion; God gives Obed to be a son for her, and a grandson who is king of the whole nation.
The main point of this book is found from walking with Naomi. You, too, face many bitter setbacks, and your path must cross twisted, tangled ways. The life of the godly is not a straight line to glory, but God takes you there.
The world around us says that what is important is your Facebook page and the tweets from Chad Ocho-cinco. The Bible says those things are mostly trivial. The world says that sharing the gospel with a neighbor, loving your mother-in-law, providing for your wife and raising children to know and love Jesus – these are trivial. The Bible says they make all the difference in the world.
Ruth, Naomi, Boaz – they did not know, as they walked by faith down a crooked path, that the end was the Messiah. We cannot see the end when we are on the path. We walk by faith and not by sight. Only God sees the end from the beginning. Only God’s people have the faith to trust him to lead all the way to glory.
You fearful saints, fresh courage take, the clouds you so much dread / are big with mercy, and shall break, in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace; behind a frowning providence he hides a shining face.
