The Heart of the Redeemer - Ruth 4:1-10 - April 21, 2013
Series: From Heartache to Hope – The Redemption of Ruth #10
Some time ago now we began a series of messages on the book of Ruth. The series was called “From Heartache to Hope – The Redemption of Ruth.” The book of Ruth is an amazing story of how God can bring hope and blessing out of the most unlikely circumstances of our lives. And because of that it is a very powerful story. When God moves in unexpected ways, when He’s at work in surprising places, our hearts are encouraged and we dare to hope - why? Because we long for God to be moving in, and through, the midst of our own stories as well, don’t we? And the incredible thing is - that He does! He moves in our lives today!
Now we don’t always recognize it – we don’t always see His hand at work – often because we’re not looking for it – sometimes it’s because we don’t have the big picture in view - but He’s moving behind the scenes just the same. That’s a theme that comes up again and again in this book - God is at work in the everyday moments of our lives. And that should encourage our hearts and strengthen our faith – to know that God is continuously working behind the scenes to accomplish His purposes – to bind up the broken hearted, to bring hope from despair, life from death, to shine light into darkness and to deliver ordinary people – people like you and me, from the power of sin, and into a life of freedom through Jesus. This is the God we discover in the pages of the Bible. This is the God who is at work in and through our lives even today! And that’s a good thing - because we need healing – not just some of us – but all of us. Every one of our lives is broken in some way; the image of God in which we’re made is marred by sin – both our own sin and the sin of others. And because of that we know pain, and suffering and hopelessness. We know despair and struggle and sorrow. And we know brokenness and heartache.
That’s how the book of Ruth starts off, doesn’t it? In chapter one, in the opening verses of this book, we discover heartache and sorrow. In a town named, “Bethlehem,” in a region known as “Judah,” there is a famine. “Bethlehem,” means “House of Bread.” “Judah,” means “Praise.” But because there has been no praise – no worship of God – in the house of bread, there is now no bread in the place of praise.
In the midst of this devastation we meet a family who’s just trying to get by. The father is a man named Elimelech. His name means “My God is King.” He is married to a woman named, Naomi. Her name means, “sweet,” or “pleasant.” Together they have two sons, Mahlon and Kilion. The picture we’re given is that of a family that’s struggling just trying to make ends meet. But Elimelech was a man of action. He was decisive. He didn’t have problems making big decisions. We can admire him for that. The problem was though that he didn’t make wise decisions. He didn’t look at the big picture and he didn’t count the cost. And because of that, we can learn from his mistakes.
What Elimelech decides is that the grass is literally greener on the other side of the fence. He packs up the family, what possessions they have left, and he heads out to make a new start elsewhere. What he ends up doing though, is going to the land of Moab. Scripture makes it clear that his plan is to one day return to his homeland, but for a while he is going to reside in the land of Moab. That doesn’t sound so bad till we realize that Moab stood for everything that God was against. Elimelech is going to show up there with his family, and they’re going to discover the reality of what they already know – that no one in Moab worships the same God they do. There aren’t going to be any churches for them to worship at. No believers to fellowship with. No one to come alongside of them, and encourage them, and pray with them, and for them, and no one to talk to about the things of God with either.
Elimelech is decisive but he is not wise. He doesn’t count the spiritual cost of his decisions. Instead of staying in Judah and trusting God, he removes himself and his family from anything that has to do with the Lord. And the result is this: his two sons are going to marry outside the faith, and then both he, and his two sons are going to die in this foreign land. They went to stay for just a while – but they never ended up coming home. And they’re going to leave behind them three heartbroken, penniless women, who don’t have much hope for the future at all.
Folks, before we make those big decisions of life, we need to be counting the cost. Before you take that new job, with the big raise and all the benefits – before you choose the university or college you want to attend – before you start that new relationship with that special someone - count the cost – the spiritual cost of doing so. What will the effect on your family be? When you move to a new city people tend to check out the neighborhoods, amenities, recreational opportunities, schools and so on – but have you checked to see if there is a good church around? One that preaches and teaches the word of God and lives out their faith? See, it doesn’t benefit you anything at all to store up wealth here on earth but to lose your family – your children - to the world in the process.
Chapter one ends with Naomi, broken and grieving, heading back to Bethlehem. Her two daughter’s in law set out to go with her but she tries to discourage them – she has nothing to offer them - there’s nothing but more struggle and sorrow waiting for them in her homeland. So Orpah turns back, but Ruth refuses to. See, she’s been changed, she’s been transformed. God has been working in her life and she has committed her life to Him. She pledges herself to go with Naomi, to make Naomi’s God her God and Naomi’s people her people. What she’s doing is running towards God – so many people are running from Him – but Ruth is running towards Him. She’s going to seek refuge “under His wings.”
As they enter into Bethlehem, the women of the town recognize Naomi – at least they think they do. She’s been changed. She’s aged. Gone is the look of joy that used to be about her but they call out to her just the same. Naomi’s response? “Don’t call me Naomi,” she says. “Call me Mara.” Mara means bitter. “I went out from Bethlehem full,” she cries out, “but God has brought me back empty.” Life has been hard for Naomi. The dream has come crashing down around her in a million broken pieces. And maybe you can relate to that today because it’s a picture of your own life. You can feel her emptiness, despair and pain because you know it firsthand. Maybe you’re sitting here today, struggling to keep it together on the outside, but really dying inside.
Because that’s what happens, isn’t it? We wear masks with one another. We don’t share what we’re really struggling with. The marriage could be on the rocks, or you might have just lost your job, or a loved is dealing with a devastating illness, you don’t even know how you’re going to make it through the day, and someone asks you “How are you doing?” And what do you say? Nine times out of ten you say something like this, “I’m fine. I’m good.” What are you doing? You’re keeping people at arms length. Not allowing them to enter into your struggles with you. And you need to use some discretion with this – you don’t want to share with just everybody – but you do want to share with people you trust, who can support you, encourage you and speak truth into your life. Naomi lays it out there, wears her heart on her sleeve, and in doing so gives the people of God an opportunity to enter into her struggle, and to help her.
As chapter two begins Naomi and Ruth are desperate. No money, no food, no prospects. But this is where we begin to see God’s hand at work behind the scenes. He has brought them back to Bethlehem at the time of the harvest. And that’s important because at harvest time, the poor, the widowed, the needy, could go out to the fields, follow along after the harvesters moved through, and they could glean from what was left lying on the ground. In doing so they might just be able to scrape by. Ruth sets out to do this very thing. She doesn’t know anyone besides Naomi. She isn’t familiar with the people, nor their customs, she is a foreigner from a people that is despised and feared by the Israelites, she is a stranger in a strange land. But Ruth is also a remarkable young woman who is willing to do what needs to be done. She goes out to the fields and it just so happens – this is God’s hand at work again – it just so happens that she ends up in the fields of a man named Boaz.
Boaz is a kind, generous and godly man. He shows up at his field at just the right time to meet Ruth. Again, that’s God’s hand at work. Boaz has heard about Ruth. She’s the Moabitess. She’s widowed. But she’s also turned her back on her own people, her own gods, and begun to worship the one true God. She’s not now what she once was. And maybe today you can look back at a life lived apart from God. And maybe there’s shame and regret and remorse there at the way you did life. But then you met Jesus and something – everything – began to change. You experienced a godly sorrow that led to repentance and brought forth salvation. That’s how the Bible says it happens – and now you’ve become a new creation and you’re moving forward with God’s plans for your life. That’s what Ruth is doing. She’s set aside her dreams and come to live in a foreign land to help take care of her mother-in-law Naomi and to get to know God. Impressed by what he’s heard, Boaz asks God’s blessing on Ruth and becomes, in a way, an answer to his own prayers, because he begins to graciously bless Ruth by encouraging her to stay in his fields gleaning throughout the entire grain harvest. At the end of the day he sends her home with enough grain to last Naomi and Ruth for several days
Boaz is a godly man. He walks closely with God and because he walks closely with God he understands the heart of God. And the closer we walk with God, the better we will understand the heart of God as well. And the better we understand God’s heart, the clearer, and easier, are the choices that we must make in each day. Knowing God’s heart, we are likely to choose God’s ways over the world’s ways. Boaz was affected by the famine just as Elimelech was. He must have been – it lasted for years. And maybe Boaz was tempted to look to greener fields elsewhere as well – we’re never told what he wrestled with. But what we do know is this: he doesn’t – he doesn’t run off to Moab – why? - because he understood God’s heart and was willing to walk in faith where Elimelech walked by sight.
And where some men might have taken advantage of a woman in Ruth’s predicament, Boaz treats her with grace and respect and seeks to bless her. He’s living out the heart of God. When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus responded by saying, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength.” But then He went on to say, “And the second is like unto it: Love your neighbour as yourself.” Boaz is doing both those things and he’s doing them abundantly. That should be true of us as well.
Chapter three begins with a bit of a crisis. The harvest is nearly over. Soon the gleaning will be done and Ruth and Boaz will go their separate ways. But Naomi’s got a plan. She came back to Bethlehem bitter, but through Boaz’s kindness she has begun to understand that God has not rejected her nor forsaken her after all. She’s begun to experience hope again. And hope causes us to look beyond ourselves. Naomi wants the blessing of a new happiness, a new love, a new family for Ruth. Maybe Boaz is the one? He’s somewhat older than Ruth. But he’s a godly man and truth is that godliness is far more important than age is when considering a match. It’s more important than looks and its more important than the bank account too. Men pursue a godly woman – one who loves God more than she loves you. And women, only allow yourself to be pursued by a godly man. If he loves other things more than God he will love other things more than you.
Naomi tells Ruth to take off her widow’s clothes, set them aside - the time of mourning has come to an end, it’s time to live again. She tells her to get herself cleaned up and to go down to the threshing floor and after Boaz has fallen asleep by the grain she is to go and lie down at his feet. Now ladies, I wouldn’t recommend this today. Sneaking into some guys house late at night, lying down at his feet, isn’t bound to end well. This was a different time with different customs. But it worked out pretty well for Ruth. It was her way of letting Boaz know that she is willing to marry him, to be his wife, to be the mother of his children, and to make a life together with him – if he would like to. Keep in mind that Boaz is older. He didn’t think she would be into him because there were younger, wealthier men around that she could have chosen. His response? “Thank you, Jesus!” That’s a paraphrase but you get the idea.
But just as chapter three started with a crisis it also ends with a crisis. See, there’s a problem. What Ruth has essentially asked Boaz to do is to act as kinsmen redeemer on her behalf. Legally, Boaz doesn’t have first right to redeem Ruth. Someone else has the first right to do so. Chapter three ends with Ruth returning to Naomi’s house and Boaz getting ready to confront the nearer kinsman redeemer. We’re left wondering what’s going to happen. Will Boaz be able to redeem her or will the nearer kinsmen redeemer step up to the plate and do what needs to be done. This is where we pick up the story in chapter 4 so let’s begin reading in verse 1 …
“Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat there. When the kinsman-redeemer he had mentioned came along, Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down. Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so. Then he said to the kinsman-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”
Boaz is very shrewd, he’s very wise in what he’s done. The town gate is where the business takes place. So that’s where he waits. Sooner or later this other fellow is going to come by and Boaz can settle the matter with him in front of witnesses so that there can be no doubt as to what has taken place. When this other guy shows up, Boaz sits him down, gathers ten elders to act as witnesses, and sits them down too. And then he goes into his sales pitch. Now keep in mind that Boaz wants to marry Ruth – he’s not looking for a way out - but even more importantly he wants to honor God in the process. He wants to do what is right in God’s eyes.
There are not a lot of people who want to do that these days. People tend to put their own desires ahead of honoring God. And so a young man and a young woman will fall into love with each other and they’ll move in together and enjoy all the benefits that should come with marriage but without the reality of the marriage covenant made before God. That may be pleasing to the flesh but that’s not honoring to God who established the marriage covenant in the first place. But as a society, even as churches, we’ve moved away from seeking God and His righteousness ahead of our own wants and desires. When we do that, whether it is in the context of a relationship, or in our business dealings, or the myriad of other choices we’re making in the course of each day, we step outside of God’s will, and when we do that, as Elimelech discovered, there are consequences. And the trouble is that those consequences aren’t always felt right away.
Elimelech moves his family away from any godly influences to escape a famine. Probably seemed to him the right thing to do at the time. The day he set out to go to Moab he had no idea the tragic, and dangerous, and sorrow filled path that he had set his family on. And it’s not that Elimelech wasn’t a nice guy. It isn’t that he wasn’t loving or compassionate – he was trying to do his best for his family. His name may have meant, “My God is King,” but the truth is that Elimelech didn’t allow God to rule in his life. Lot’s of lip service but no obedience. He didn’t allow God’s word to speak into his choices. Men, if you want to do your very best for your family, determine to become a godly man. Determine to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and then love your family as yourself.
And men, sometimes we blow it, and when we do, we tend to blow it big time. We can mistake doing things for God, with loving God and living for God. We’re all about doing. Last week Fred brought a message about raising our children in the faith. And what we saw again and again in the Scriptures that he went to was that it is possible to do things for God, but to lose your family in the process. That is not a godly thing to do. To pour your life into others at the expense of your own family is not a godly thing to do. I know because I’ve done that. It is still a struggle to find the right balance. It’s not easy at all. But if you aren’t going to be a husband to your wife, or a father to your children, who will be? These are things that God has called you to do, and as you do them well, you are choosing to honor God and to live out the faith.
Boaz wants to do it right. He wants to do it in a manner that honors God and blesses Ruth. But in our flesh, in our doubt, we fear for the outcome, don’t we? What if this other redeemer says, “Yes, sounds like a good deal to me.” What’s that mean for Boaz and Ruth? The thing is – that’s exactly what happens here. Look to the end of verse 4 with me …
“I will redeem it,” he said. Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquire the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.” At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”
Legally, this other fellow should have stepped up to the plate. As the nearer kinsmen redeemer it was his responsibility to be helping Naomi and Ruth in the midst of their need. But he hasn’t been. When he’s offered the opportunity to buy back the land he’s all for it. It’s going to benefit him. But when he finds out a bitter mother-in-law is part of the deal he loses interest pretty fast. Maybe he’s already got one of those – we don’t know – but the thought of having to take care of a couple more people doesn’t appeal to him. And it’s not going to benefit him at all because any son born to that union would inherit Naomi and Ruth’s land. It won’t be his so there’s no benefit to him. And so he refuses to do what’s right and he refuses to redeem.
Folks, sometimes there is a cost to doing the right thing. It can be hard. But I would suggest to you that the cost of not doing it is even greater. Many years ago I was at a conference and a young man stood up and confessed that he had made a living as a thief stealing from various businesses. He was so convicted by the Spirit of God moving in his life that he went back home and confessed to all his crimes. That’s a hard thing to do. He went back home knowing that he might be sentencing himself to a few years in prison. But it was more important for him to do the right thing, rather than the easy thing, because if he didn’t follow what God had laid on his heart, he risked grieving the Spirit of God, and sundering his newfound fellowship and intimacy with the Lord. It was better to face the short term cost of righteousness as opposed to the long term costs of rebellion. The nearer kinsman redeemer was not made of quite the same stuff and so he tells Boaz to redeem. Verse 7 …
(Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.) So the kinsman-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal. Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion and Mahlon. I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from the town records. Today you are witnesses!”” (Ruth 4:1–10, NIV84)
Boaz is a good and godly man. He’s going to step up to the plate and clean up the mess left behind by Elimelech, Mahlon, Kilion. He’s going to do what the nearer kinsman redeemer should have done but wouldn’t do. He’s going to be as the hands and feet of God to the hurting and the needy. This is what a redeemer was meant to do and this is what Boaz did. He paid the price to buy them back from hopelessness and despair and to give to them a new life. That’s what Jesus has done for us, isn’t it? Those verses that ________________ read before the message remind us that we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. He is a redeemer ready and willing and able to redeem, one who has paid the price necessary to be able to redeem us. And just as Ruth is going to discover new life with Boaz so too do we discover new life in Jesus. That’s God’s gift, His grace, His love to us, that we, who are covered in sin and shame, find forgiveness, hope, peace and new life through Jesus’ blood shed for us. It’s the precious blood of Jesus by which we are redeemed. He has become our kinsmen redeemer.
And men, maybe you will have the opportunity to be an earthly redeemer in the life of your wife too. Maybe she’s been neglected or abused or mistreated by the men in her life – by a father who wasn’t there when he ought to have been, or who couldn’t be there even though he wanted to be – or by a boyfriend who didn’t know the meaning of love and took advantage of her. Maybe she’s been told all her life that she isn’t beautiful, that she’s not worthwhile, that she’ll never amount to anything. And you have the opportunity to do life with her, to encourage her, to support her, to love her as she is meant to be loved. You will pray with her, you will pray for her, you will worship and serve God together and you will seek to be a godly man in all the things you say and do and the way you live your life. In doing so you will be a redeemer of sorts as God works through you to bless this precious gift he’s given you in your wife. And if you’re not sure how to go about that, take to heart the apostle Paul’s words …
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” (Ephesians 5:25–28, NIV84)
Let’s pray …
