Fields of Favor and Faith - Ruth 2:1-4 - February 17, 2013
Series: From Heartache to Hope - The Redemption of Ruth - #4
Looking back over the years it is safe to say that the summer of 1994 has been the most difficult period of my life thus far. Much of what I believed to be true about myself, and about life, as well as many of my hopes and dreams, came crashing down around me that summer. At the time I was working as a flight instructor and in the space of just two months I was involved in two aircraft accidents. I was engaged to be married but broke the engagement off. I was deeply depressed and contemplated suicide frequently. And that was just the tip of the iceberg, as they say. It was a very dark period in my life.
And for quite some time I wondered, and I wrestled, with what it was all about. Why did that all have to happen? Where do I go from here? Could life ever look different? Was there any hope for a better future?
Naomi and Ruth must have wrestled with similar questions in the darkness of their own hearts as they came to the outskirts of Bethlehem so long ago. The last few years had not been kind to them. They had both lost husbands and Naomi had lost her two sons. In her own words, “she had gone out full, but God brought her back empty.” There was bitterness in her heart that changed her personality and colored the way she perceived the world around her.
I think I can understand a bit of what she must have felt in those days - and maybe you can too because you have got your own story. For quite some time I despised that bitter period of my life and wished that it had never been, wished that I could go back and do things differently. But the passage of time, as you well know, is a one way trip; there is no going back; there is simply a moving forward.
At the time I could say like Naomi, “that though I went out full, God brought me back emptied.” But now, after the passage of many years, my perspective has changed. While there is still sorrow, and a bit of pain from that time, the bitterness is gone. Looking back on that summer I now see things differently than I once did.
In the second chapter of the book of Romans the apostle Paul asks his readers a question. It’s not a question to which he expects an answer, but rather a question he asks in order to make them consider their very understanding of how God moves, and acts, in their lives. He writes to them and asks them this, saying: “Do you show contempt for the riches of his [God’s] kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?” (Romans 2:4, NIV84)
What I took as bitter, was really God’s kindness to me. How can I say that? Because it’s the events of that summer that transformed my life and ultimately brought me to faith in Jesus. God’s kindness led me to brokenness, and brokenness to repentance, in order that He might bring healing and new life. If it were not for the events of that summer, my hands would not have been emptied so that He could fill them up with that which was pleasing to Him.
Naomi and Ruth stand in that place today. Their hands and lives have been emptied, but God has not forsaken them. And if you’ve gone out full – full of life and hopes and dreams and expectations that are marked by your own will and desires rather than by God’s, and He has brought you back empty and broken, I want you to understand that God has not forsaken you either. Even now He may be at work, laying the foundation, to give you a new future. With that thought in mind I’ll ask you to open your Bibles with me this morning to the book of Ruth; Ruth, chapter 2, and we’ll begin reading in verse 1. This is what we read …
“Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, from the clan of Elimelech, a man of standing, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.” Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech. Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The LORD be with you!” “The LORD bless you!” they called back.” (Ruth 2:1–4, NIV84)
Now chapter 1 ends with Naomi lamenting that though she went out “full,” God has brought her back “empty.” But, as is so often the case when we find ourselves in that long, dark night of the soul, Naomi fails to see the fact that her life has not been entirely emptied after all. She has lost much, it’s true, but she is not alone. Ruth stands by her side and Ruth is a young woman of amazing character.
You’ll remember from our study of chapter 1 that when Ruth decided to follow Naomi back to Bethlehem, that Naomi was returning home, but Ruth was leaving father and mother, friends and family, and all things familiar, and going to a foreign land. And yet she went none-the-less. She went with a vow on her lips to stick with Naomi through the good and the bad, to live where she lived, and to die where she died, to worship her God and to live among Naomi’s people, for they would become her people too.
Ruth goes to Bethlehem on faith and by hope. Faith that this God she had committed herself to was going to protect her and to provide for her. Hope that the future might be brighter than the past.
The narrator of this book longs for us to see that God is at work behind the scenes in even the very darkest moments of our lives. The final verse of chapter one emphasizes the fact that God, who had brought them back empty, also brought them back just in time for the barley harvest. He brought them back at the one time of year when two widows, without recognizable hope and without prospects, would be able to find food to sustain them.
You see, the law of the land that God had given to His people, and which had been laid down long before during Moses’ day, stated that the farmer wasn’t to harvest his field clean. He was to leave portions of it standing, and that which was naturally left behind during the harvest was to remain on the ground so that the poor, the needy, the orphan, the widow, could come along and glean the leftover grain from the fields. In this way God had made provision to help those who found themselves in desperate straits.
And so Ruth goes out to the field, and we know she’s looking for food, but she’s looking for something even deeper too. Verse 2 tells us that she was looking for someone in whose eyes she might find “favor.” Your version might say that she went looking for someone who would look upon her with “grace.” What does that mean? It means that she went out to the fields hoping to find someone who would look upon her kindly, who would be well disposed towards her. Grace, itself, is unmerited favor – a blessing beyond anything that could be earned or expected. This is what she hoped to find in the field just outside of Bethlehem.
She was desperate to find favor amongst the people and longed to experience grace because she had no expectation of either. The writer makes sure to remind us that Ruth was a Moabitess – a foreigner. She was not a member of God’s chosen people; she was in point of fact, of the people who were enemies of the God of Israel and who had set themselves against the people of Judah at every turn. And the book of Judges, during which time Ruth’s story unfolds, tells us that it was not unusual for the Moabites to attack God’s people, leaving heartache and destruction in their passing. And yet Ruth is looking for grace. Despite who she is, despite her background and her past, Ruth goes out to the fields hoping to experience grace and favor at the hand of God and of His people.
And it may be that you are here this morning and you’re longing to find grace as well. You come here today burdened by the shame, and the darkness; overwhelmed by the pain and the sorrow of the past. You hear the words, “God loves you and welcomes you,” but you don’t dare to believe it. And you’re sitting in your chair this morning, feeling like a fraud, and thinking that if the rest of us only knew what you had done, what you wrestled with still, if we could only see the thoughts that pass through your mind, and the darkness that rises up in your heart, that both we, and God, would reject you. You’ve come to church hoping to find favor, longing to experience grace, but with no expectation of either. Perhaps sin and sorrow have broken you, marred you, and left you, like Naomi, embittered against the world and wondering if you have any future at all.
If any of those are your struggle today, then may you meet with the God of grace as Ruth did in the field in which she gleaned. What Ruth is going to discover, and what we need to remember, is that God is already at work behind the scenes, even in the most difficult moments of our lives. Which means that you are not here by accident today! God moved in your heart to bring you here and you moved in obedience to His voice. This is part of God’s work, part of His purposes in your life, that you are here this morning to discover the same grace that Ruth discovered, and to begin to catch a glimpse of God who has called you to Himself that you might find healing and hope in His presence!
Ruth goes out into the field – it’s probably one big, huge field, with each man’s portion marked by boundary stones. She goes out into this field, knowing no-one, not understanding the customs of this people, with no expectation of finding favor in anyone’s eyes, and the Bible tells us that, “as it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.”
Now my mom and dad just got back from a two week cruise in the Caribbean. There were over 2800 other passengers on that ship with them. The first night out they are seated at a table with two other couples. They hit it off with them right away. That night, as they go their separate ways, the one fellow gives my folks his full name, and room number, on a sugar packet so they can get a hold of him and his wife if they wanted to. The next morning mom is looking at this man’s name, first and last, and she’s sure it rings a bell for her but she doesn’t know why. Later that day they are eating a meal together again and mom starts to ask the fellow a number of questions trying to figure out why his name is familiar. It comes out that he grew up in Ireland and his family moved to Toronto sometime later. Mom grew up in that general area as well. As they talk they begin to discover that they know some of the same people. Over supper that night it gets even better because they discover that not only do they know a lot of the same people, but it turns out that they are actually second cousins themselves! Folks, what are the odds that out of 30 some million people in Canada, that these two couples would decide to go on a cruise to the same location, at the same time, ending up on the same ship and at the same table and then discover that they are related to one another though they have never met before? Is it coincidence? Is it happenstance? No – it’s the providence of God! God working behind the scenes directing and guiding and providing for the good of His people!
That story gives us a bit of perspective on Ruth’s own story. Of all the people out in the fields that day, how is it that she happened to end up in the field that belonged to a relative of her father-in-law? How is it that she ended up in the field of the one person who might be expected to look upon her with favor because of the family ties involved? People might call it an accident, or a pure coincidence, or a happy occurrence, but we ought to be calling it, “God’s providence!” for that is what it is.
The phrase translated as, “as it turned out,” is only found in one other place in the Old Testament and that is in the book of Ecclesiastes (2:14) where it points to the fact that God is sovereign, He is in control. The whole point being that Ruth ends up in the field of Boaz, not by accident, nor by co-incidence – two words which aren’t in God’s vocabulary, but she ends up there by God’s good grace. He is looking with favor upon her and leading her to where she needs to be so that His work can be accomplished in her life.
And again, we get the same sense from verse 4 when we’re told that “Just then Boaz arrived.” At just the right time, Boaz arrives and meets Ruth. He could have come and gone before Ruth had arrived. He could have shown up and missed seeing her because she was in a different part of his field. He could have arrived after she had left for the day. But none of these things happened because we’re told that “Just then” – when the timing was just right – Boaz arrived. And because of God’s divine providence, these two people, one seeking grace and the other willing and able to bestow it, find themselves in the same place, at the same time, and neither of their lives will ever be the same again. This is the grace of God!
And that is something in which we can take hope as well. Particularly if life isn’t making sense for you right now, if the pain has overwhelmed the joy, and sorrow crushed your heart, let Ruth’s story be an encouragement to you. For those who come to God seeking grace, sometimes find it in the most unlikely of places. And it might be that the trials of life that so weigh you down today, may be the very goodness of God to you in that they will bring you into a new, or a renewed relationship with Jesus – a relationship in which you will find hope, and healing and a future by God’s good grace.
And I love the thought that God is moving behind the scenes of our lives, that He is preparing the fields for us as we go, and that at just the right time, He will move in such a way as to open our hearts to Him, or to give us sight that we might see Him at work, or to bring healing to our brokenness, or hope in the midst of our despair, or a new future when the present has fallen apart, just as He did for Naomi and Ruth. That is God‘s grace to us and may we, like Ruth, find God´s favor as we seek His face.
Let’s pray …
