A Happy Ending
Ruth 4
Today we are going to finish our look at the book of Ruth. This short book is an amazing love story, and one that tells the gospel message of redemption that is found in Christ Jesus.
In these four short chapters we have followed Naomi as she and her family left Bethlehem because of a famine in search of food. They traveled to the land of Moab. There her husband Elimelech died. Her two sons married Moabitie women Ruth and Orpah. Her two sons died, Orpah turned and went back to her family.
Ruth and Naomi were left alone. They traveled back to Bethlehem. God sent a harvest. Naomi grew bitter and insisted that her name be changed to “Mara” meaning bitter. Ruth stayed committed to Naomi and to God. Ruth gleaned in the fields happened to stumble upon the field of Boaz, Happned to catch Boaz's eye, and Boaz just happened to be a close relative that made him their kinsmen redeemer. The only one that could bring them hope a chance for a better life.
Last week we saw that Ruth asked Boaz to marry her and then there was a snag because he reminded her that there was a closer relative that had the first say in redeemer her.
Today I want to talk to you about a happy ending. We all like a good ending, and a happy ending makes for a good ending. We read books to get to the ending, we watch movies to see how it ends. I can endure a slow start or even a bad start to a movie or book if it picks up and has a good ending. We can't even begin to count how many children's books end with the line “and they lived happily ever after.” It's just something in our nature that wants to see things work in a good way for good people.
The Bible is full of good, happy endings.
In the book of Job were are told about a a great man of God who lost everything he had
The book of Job began by telling us that he was a good man
Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
Then he lost everything he had
but in the end
Job 42:10 And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
We are also familiar with the happy ending of Joseph. Joseph's brothers hated him sold him into slavery but in the end they were reconciled and the Joseph was able to take care of his family
When I think of happy endings the widow woman comes to mind who was about to starve to death until the prophet Elijah came and stayed in her house and God kept supplying the need.
There is also Daniel who was tossed into the Lions den and God sent his angels and shut the Lions mouth
Most importantly there is the account of Jesus who was crucified for our sins and it appeared to the disciples and his followers that all hope was lost until the first day of the week when the women found the tomb empty and the angel appeared to them giving instruction to go into the city and tell the disciples that he has risen.
Then this morning we have the record of the life of Naomi and Ruth a book that ends with a happy ending.
There is a reason that God has filled the Bible with the record of peoples lives and situations that turned around for good. It is because for those of us who are saved the last chapter of our life book will be a happy ending. In the end we win. We win over our enemies, we end over injustice, we end over sickness and even death. The last words in our life book read “and he or she lived happily ever after.”
Before we get into the application of the message today lets look at what takes place in this passage
Ruth had asked Boaz to marry her now in chapter four he calls a town meeting with the elders. Town business was always conducted at the city gate.
There was a piece of property that Naomi owned it had probably been mortgaged so it needed to be redeemed, so Boaz gives this other close relative the opportunity to redeem it
Rth 4:4 So I thought I would tell you of it and say, 'Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people.' If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me, that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you." And he said, "I will redeem it."
Then we see the heart of Boaz. You see Boaz really wanted to marry Ruth so in verse 5 he says
Rth 4:5 Then Boaz said, "The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance."
here Boaz gets very creative he says you want to the land you also get Ruth, the Moabite. Emphasis on the Moabite. He said this to persuade this other man to back our of the deal. No good Jew would have wanted to marry a Moabite woman.
So Boaz marries Ruth and they have a child and here is where the story gets really good.
Rth 4:14 Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel!
Rth 4:15 He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him."
Everything turned around for Naomi. The Women and the Bible never refer to her as “Mara” Her family lineage is going to continue.
And then the book of Ruth ends by giving the genealogy all the way up to David to let us know that it also ended well for Ruth. She went from the land of Moab to Bethlehem. She went from poverty to riches. She went from serving idol gods into having a part in family tree of Jesus Christ, the son of the living God
That's why we declare to the church today
Rom 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
God has a way of working things out. Because God can see the whole picture. He already knew how Ruth was going to fit into the plan. The same is true for all of us.
This week as a church body we lost a dear brother on Christ. We had to say goodbye to Lowell, at the funeral service Pastor Jim and myself talked about how God already knew the day when he was going to be called home and as we look back we see a lot of different events that took place in his life in just the last couple of years in order to make his life story a happy ending.
God has a way of working things out.
There are just a couple of things today that I would like for you to take away from this passage that I believe can change the way you look at life. Remember that we change the way we look at life we also change the way we live.
We are not known by our failures
Take just a moment and raise your hand here today if you have tried to do something and failed at doing it. The rest of you are just too proud to admit it.
In 1831 there was a man who lost his job, in 1832 he was defeated in a run for the state legislature of IL, in 1833 his business failed, 1835 his sweetheart died, in 1836 he had a nervous breakdown. In 1843 he was defeated in a run for the US congress. IN 1854 he was defeated in a run for Senate and in 1856 and again in 1858, but he didn't stop trying because in 1860 he was elected president of the United States. Abraham Lincoln went down in history as one of the most successful presidents, yet he failed more than he succeeded in life.
We don't have to be identified by our failures.
We all have failed and will fail. Even more than that we all have sinned and will sin.
Rom 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned
Just in case that wasn't clear enough for you Paul repeats it again in the next chapter
Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Naomi had chosen after the death of her husband and two sons, after dealing with the move to Moab because of the famine to just accept the bad things in her life as the norm and to be identified by them.
Rth 1:20 She said to them, "Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
Rth 1:21 I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?"
but the book ends with Naomi holding a baby on her lap named Obed who was the father of Jesse, the father of David, the greatest king to over rule in Israel, to this day the Jewish nation is identified by the star of David and the city of David. God refused to identify Namoi as Mara and the people in the city refused to identify her as Mara because they could see that the Blessing of God was resting upon her.
Speaking of David being a great king, he still failed miserable in being a good family man. He committed adultery with Bathsheba and his whole family went down hill from there. But here is what God said about David.
Act 13:22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the [son] of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.
Here's the thing we do fail and we do sin, but God is able to see through all the outward and see out heart. And God identified David as a man that was after the heart of God.
How we identify ourselves determines how we live and act.
That's why is is so important for us today as Christians to know how God identifies us. If we think of ourselves as sinners, than sin comes naturally. If we identify ourselves as an alcoholic than drinking comes naturally,
God chose to identify the wife of Elimielch by the name Naomi it means pleasant not the name she gave to herself of Mara
The Bible identifies us as being righteous
2Cr 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The Bible identifies us a holy people
1Pe 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
We are a blessed people
2Pe 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that [pertain] unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
We are the sons of God
Rom 8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Gal 3:26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
Satan would have us identify ourselves as sinners, because sinners sin. I want to challenge your thinking today. Biblically speaking you are not just a sinner saved by grace. I have been known to identify myself and I'm sure that many of you have like this “I'm just an old sinner saved by grace”
If that's the case what's so amazing about Grace.
Grace says “you were once a sinner but now a saint.” you were once unrighteous but now you are righteous. You once were lost but now your found. You were once destined for Hell but now you are a citizen of heaven.
We must know our identity in Christ. We are the sons and daughters of God who have been given everything that pertains to life and godliness in Christ Jesus.
In God's eyes you are not known by your failures. God has forgiven you of every sin and its time for everyone of us to forgive ourselves. Don't allow yourself to be known by the name Mara. Take the name that God gives you. Some people are walking around with these name tags on that say “I'm a failure because I couldn't keep my marriage together” Or I'm a no good sinner because I fell back into sin after accepting Christ and because of these false identities we have a lot of potential that is not being used for the glory of God. See we use these titles to justify not teaching, or preaching or singing or witnessing
when the truth is:
You are a blessed, holy, chosen child of his. When we believe this it will change the way we live. Because if God be for us who can be against us.
Rom 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
When we know our identity in Christ we can be assured that there will be a happy ending in our life story.
The Best is Yet to Come
Second, we have to remember that the best is yet to come.
We live in such a negative world that this is hard for us to remember sometimes.
In the 1970's the scientific community and the media were telling the world that the earth was cooling and another ice age was coming
in the 90's it changed to global warming and the ice caps were all going to melt and we were going to push mankind into extinction by our pollution and energy consuming light bulbs
at the turn of the century it was y2K, then swine flu
Yet for us who are saved the Bible teaches that the Best is yet to come.
God blessed the latter days of Job more than the first. God blessed Ruth and Naomi and turned things around for them. It easier to endure the difficult times and the low times in life when we keep in our minds that the best is yet to come.
Rth 4:14 Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel!
Rth 4:15 He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him."
Memories are good, I enjoy looking back through the photo albums as much as anyone, but when we choose to life in the past we choose not to live. The Word of God is always leading us to keep looking forward for what is yet to come. We cannot even begin to imagine what God as prepared for us in the future.
1Cr 2:9 But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"--
that is why even when we are told that we have cancer, or we loose everything we own, or loose our job we keep going forward keeping the faith that the best is yet to come. There is no sickness, no enemy not even death that can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord
Phl 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
Phl 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Runners who look behind loose the race, drivers who look back crash their cars. Christians who get hung up on how things use to be quit serving effectively today and we grow bitter.
Let me give an example in the past revivals in the church were a big thing people came from all over to hear the gospel and they might last for weeks and even months, and it was a great thing. But today when many churches attempt to have a week long revival it's not that effective and it causes some people to grow bitter towards the people who don't come.
What we have to realize is that the methods that worked in the past to reach people with the gospel may not work in the present that doesn't mean that people don't care about God or about the word just that we might need to try something different to reach them.
When we believe the best is yet to come we don't get hung up by the past whether it be a method or a more personal mistake or sin.
Some people allow their failures of the past to cause them to give up living today.
Paul said forgetting those things that are behind. If Naomi and Ruth had given up they would have missed the greatest blessing of their life. Having this child to raise and the royal family that would descend from this child all the way to Jesus Christ the savior of the world
Before our Lord went to the cross he had some good times with his disciples and had formed some great relationships but in order for him to do What the Father sent him to do he was going to have to leave all that behind and endure the cross that was set before him.,
The writer of Hebrews tells us that Christ endured the cross because he knew that best was yet to come
Hbr 12:2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
he was able to see the joy that was before him.
We are not God so we are not always able to see how things are going to work out for the good, and there are times when we question if things will ever get better
This is where our faith comes in to play. We have to trust that since we are the children of God that God wants what is best for us and what will bring him glory. Which means that the best for all of us is yet to come, because God wants all of his children to gather around the throng. There is no happier ending than that.
It's all about Jesus
For our final point this morning, let's go back to our text in Ruth. It closes with a genealogy in verse 22, Obed fathered Jesse and Jesse fathered David
You fast forward a 1000 years and Matthew picks up the genealogy and says Jesse the father of David the king and David was the father of Solomon and all the way down to Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary of whom Jesus was born who is called Christ.
The whole Bible is about the person of Jesus. The reason that it was a happy ending for Naomi and Ruth had nothing to do with Naomi and Ruth it had everything to do with the plan of God.
The reason it worked out for Joseph had nothing to do with Joseph it had everything to do with the plan of God.
The ending of our life is going to be a good one because its all about the work of Christ in our lives. It it Christ who saved us and Christ who called us and Christ who will greet us when we step over the finish line.
Listen to what Paul says
Phl 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Our lives are a work of God. God completes what he starts. He will bring his work into completion on that day when Christ comes back for us.
This does not mean that life will always be a bed of roses here on earth. There will be time of famine, disease and despair, but we are guaranteed a home that awaits us in heaven, a real place, where theere is no more death nor pain nor crying.
And that my friends is the happiest endings of all.
In closing
The Book of Ruth is a great book with a happy ending.
What about the book of your life? It is my hope and prayer that everyone here today will be able to say that their life book will end with Jesus saying, “Well done thy good and faithful servant.”
maybe you are here today and your not sure and you want to be
The Bible says that you can know that you have eternal life.
1Jo 5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.
There maybe one here today that is still hung up on a past failure, a past sin and today you have come to realize that God has forgiven you completely of your past and you just want to thank him today for setting you free, did you know that you can come and do that today.
It's possible that you are here today and you are struggling to see how anything good is going to come from your life, because you are still in the valley please I urge you to just come in faith I will pray with you and we will trust that God is working things out beyond your wildest dreams for His good and glory. Remember you are a child of His and He has already blessed you with everything that pertains to life and godliness in Christ Jesus
