TEACHING BRIEF
Date Written: August 5, 2012
Date Taught: August 8, 2012
Church: OPBC (Wed Night)
FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENTS
Series Title: A Study in the Book of Ruth
Sermon Title: Acting On Faith
Text: Ruth 3:1-18 NLT (read ALL passage here)
Introduction:
Now we have seen Naomi and Ruth come through some very difficult times. Both losing their husbands, both anxious over their futures, both wondering if food would be available…
They have seen God bring them safely into Judea…
They have just seen God provide a source of food in a miraculous fashion…
With all of this happening we can see that Naomi no longer believes God has NOT abandoned her. She also can see God’s hand in the life of her daughter in law, RUTH…
When we left the story last week Ruth had gone out to look for food by gleaning in the fields, she had found a field where she had gained permission to glean for food.
The owner of the field, Boaz, as it turns out was a relative of Ruth’s father in law and he took compassion on Ruth and treated her kindly that day… and made arrangements for her to work in his fields for the entire harvest…
So we pick the story up here in chapter 3 where Ruth and Naomi have rec’d this good news about having a food source for the time being… and although Naomi sees God’s hand in her life and the life of Ruth, she begins to act in REACTION to God’s moving!
Now I want to caution how we view this… Naomi is acting out of a faith in God based on what God has done in her life! This action by Naomi here in chptr 3 was based on what she believed God was leading her to do… and let’s look at the focus of her actions… it was focused on helping Ruth!
So often when we see God moving, we also begin to act, but there are times when we act selfishly and try to steer God’s actions to OUR way of thinking or OUR desires… this is NOT what Naomi is doing!
Naomi was a faithful follower of God and she saw God’s hand in this and I believe that she was led by God to act on faith in this instance, even though the methods were a little out of the ordinary… God is not bound by the ordinary or the traditions of man!
Let’s read the story and then we will break it down bit by bit…[Read Ruth Chptr 3 – NLT]
Ok now we know the story… let’s break this down and see what God has for us in this passage!
1One day Naomi said to Ruth, “My daughter, it’s time that I found a permanent home for you, so that you will be provided for.
Looking at v.1 we can see the intent and agenda set forth by Naomi here… this is NOT about herself, but her actions here are for her daughter in law.
We know that she has her daughter in law’s best interest at heart… this sentiment from Naomi here is a direct reflection of her sentiment set forth in chapter 1 when Naomi begged both of her daughters in law to leave her and go back to their families… she wanted what was best for THEM, not her.
So we can see that this act of faith taken by Naomi was an act of faith that God would work things out… but the goal of this act was to provide for RUTH…it was an action on Naomi’s part, done out of love for Ruth!
2Boaz is a close relative of ours, and he’s been very kind by letting you gather grain with his young women. Tonight he will be winnowing barley at the threshing floor.
Now Naomi is wise and knows about her culture. The implication we can see here is that Ruth is simply happy with the current arrangement of her being able to work in Boaz’s fields and provide food for her and Naomi.
But Naomi sees beyond the harvest and into the future. She wants her daughter in law to have provision far beyond this harvest season… so she comes up with a plan! Her plan is quite ingenious and a WHOLE lot out of the ordinary! It was a plan of ACTION and not passivity… which would have been the cultural norm at the time.
You see with no male in their family to go out and arrange a marriage… Ruth was left to waiting on a man to notice her and then seek to marry her, but being a foreign woman in Israel, there were NOT many takers, in fact it doesn’t seem as if there was anyone seeking to win her over…
So Naomi takes matters into her own hands and devises a plan to see to it that Ruth finds a good husband and is taken care of…the next few verses reveal the plan in detail. Let’s go over the plan:
3Now do as I tell you—take a bath and put on perfume and dress in your nicest clothes. Then go to the threshing floor, but don’t let Boaz see you until he has finished eating and drinking. 4Be sure to notice where he lies down; then go and uncover his feet and lie down there. He will tell you what to do.”
Naomi KNEW what to do and she wanted Ruth to understand this… there were certain things she COULD do and certain things she could NOT do…Naomi wanted Ruth to understand the serious nature of this plan… so she starts her plan out with personal instructions… she tells Ruth to listen to what she is telling her and to follow it to the letter!
Take a bath
Put on perfume
Put on your nicest clothes
Go to the Threshing floor (a place of work)
Stay out of sight until the right time (when he is asleep)
Uncover his feet…
Lie down there…
Be patient and wait for him to instruct you…
5“I will do everything you say,” Ruth replied. 6So she went down to the threshing floor that night and followed the instructions of her mother-in-law.
Here Ruth reconfirms her respect and love for Naomi. Ruth had the love and respect to leave her home country, leave her family and cling to Naomi, even when all looked bleak and hopeless for her.
THEN Ruth had the respect for her to ask permission to go out and help provide for them once they returned home to Naomi’s homeland. Ruth not only found food, but was blessed to find a continuing source of food for them. She even brought home some of the food Boaz had given her in the field that 1st day, and presumably had been doing so ever since this arrangement with Boaz had started.
NOW, here it seems as if Naomi is telling Ruth to go to this man who has treated her with great kindness and for Ruth to basically throw herself at him! But I want you to see what she says to Naomi… “I will do EVERYTHING you say…” This shows us her complete trust in Naomi’s judgment and her respect for Naomi by her willfully obeying this request.
I believe it also reveals something else about Naomi and how Ruth saw Naomi. Ruth had been around Naomi for over 10 yrs and had seen how she had lived her life and how she had trusted in God… The implication here in the Scripture is that Naomi saw God’s hand in this situation and she takes action based on faith… RUTH trust Naomi and has seen God move and she follows thru on Naomi’s request.
So Ruth goes to the ‘threshing floor’ and waits for Boaz. Now what is a ‘threshing floor’? Well it is simply a place where the Barley grain would be separated from the chaff… In Ruth’s day this is similar to how it may have looked [show picture here]
They would throw the grain into the air and the heavier grain seed would separate from the lighter chaff covering and the chaff would blow away and the seed would fall to the ground.
With large tracts of land that produced tons of grain in the harvest… the winnowing of the barley would be a major event. Now I do NOT believe that Boaz was the one who would have been DOING the work of winnowing the barley, but he would have overseen the operation.
Remember that we have seen how he was a compassionate boss who loved his workers and fed them… he would have been intimately involved in this very important step in harvesting the grain. At the end of the day Boaz fed his workers and it was obviously a celebratory meal as they ate and drank till late…
Ruth went to the place of winnowing the threshing floor and she waited on Boaz…
7After Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he lay down at the far end of the pile of grain and went to sleep. Then Ruth came quietly, uncovered his feet, and lay down.
Now let’s remember what Naomi had instructed Ruth to do when Boaz came out to the threshing floor… I am not sure how Naomi knew that Boaz would be sleeping there… but it is thought/believed that the reason was security! He would have been sleeping with his crop to protect his crop…
Now we can see that Boaz completed his day
8Around midnight Boaz suddenly woke up and turned over. He was surprised to find a woman lying at his feet! 9“Who are you?” he asked. “I am your servant Ruth,” she replied. “Spread the corner of your covering over me, for you are my family redeemer.” 10“The Lord bless you, my daughter!” Boaz exclaimed. “You are showing even more family loyalty now than you did before, for you have not gone after a younger man, whether rich or poor. 11Now don’t worry about a thing, my daughter. I will do what is necessary, for everyone in town knows you are a virtuous woman. 12But while it’s true that I am one of your family redeemers, there is another man who is more closely related to you than I am. 13Stay here tonight, and in the morning I will talk to him. If he is willing to redeem you, very well. Let him marry you. But if he is not willing, then as surely as the Lord lives, I will redeem you myself! Now lie down here until morning.” 14So Ruth lay at Boaz’s feet until the morning, but she got up before it was light enough for people to recognize each other. For Boaz had said, “No one must know that a woman was here at the threshing floor.” 15Then Boaz said to her, “Bring your cloak and spread it out.” He measured six scoops of barley into the cloak and placed it on her back. Then he[d] returned to the town. 16When Ruth went back to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “What happened, my daughter?” Ruth told Naomi everything Boaz had done for her, 17and she added, “He gave me these six scoops of barley and said, ‘Don’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’” 18Then Naomi said to her, “Just be patient, my daughter, until we hear what happens. The man won’t rest until he has settled things today.”
