God Blesses Godly People – Ruth 2:1-23
May 5, 2013
If we become the people God wants us to be, then He will direct us in the path He wants us to take. Have you ever wondered if God made the perfect person for you? You may have heard the term, “a match made in heaven”. Let me show you a clip from the movie “Serendipity”. I actually watched it with Ruth and another couple in PNG. We had gone on a weekend away and we decided to watch a romantic comedy. So they had the movie Serendipity on a VHS tape. It was recorded from the TV. Well we watched the movie all the way through and then right at the end with 5 minutes left, the tape stopped. There was no more recording. And if you know how romantic comedies work, the last 5 minutes is when they resolve all of the conflict and the couple always ends up together. I remember Phil and I laughed and laughed at the irony. Well, I’m not going to show you the end, but a clip at the beginning. (Show Serendipity clip) Is it fate who is in charge of circumstances? Who is in charge? This second chapter of Ruth tells clearly who’s in charge. God arranges circumstances to bless those on whom His favour rests. We need to strive to be the kind of people that God blesses. If we become the people God wants us to be, then He will direct us in the path He wants us to take.
A couple of weeks ago we began looking at the book of Ruth. Let me review the story up to this point. During the time of judges, before Israel had a king, the land had a drought. One family decided to pull up stakes and leave to go to another country, the country of Moab. There was Elimelech the father, Naomi, the mother, and two sons, Mahlon and Kilion. They settled down in that foreign country, but disaster struck. First Elimelech died. After living there for 10 years, the boys married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. But sometime later both sons died as well. Naomi now had to make a hard decision. Where would she go and how would she provide for herself. She heard that the famine in Israel had ended and there was food. So Naomi again packed up and made plans to move back to her home country.
As she began her journey, her two daughters-in-law also accompanied her. But Naomi urged them to go back to their own mothers’ homes. She argued that if they went with her, she would not be able to provide them with husbands. After many tears are shed, Orpah bid them goodbye. But Ruth, clung to Naomi, declaring her unwavering devotion to her. Verse 16 is the key verse of the chapter:
“But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.’”
With that declaration, the women go back to Naomi’s hometown of Bethlehem. The last verse in chapter one sets up the next part of the story: “So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.”
Chapter 2 we are introduced to a new character, Boaz. And if you look at the Book of Ruth as a romance story, this chapter chronicles how the two main characters meet. The story is simple. After settling in Bethlehem, Ruth needs to find food. She decides to go out and glean barley, since this crop was ready to harvest. In the Old Testament there is provision for the poor. Take a look at Deuteronomy 24:19: “When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widows, so that the lord may bless you in all the work of your hands.” Ruth goes to a field to begin gleaning, picking up the leftovers behind the harvesters.
It just so happens that she goes to the field of Boaz. Now we are told that Boaz had a special relationship to Ruth. He was a relative of Elimelech, Ruth’s late father-in-law and as a result he could restore the land and the fortunes of the family. Of course Ruth doesn’t know this.
As Ruth gleans heads of barley, Boaz arrives to check on the harvest. He notices an unfamiliar woman working in the fields. After asking his workmen, he finds out that she is Naomi’s daughter-in-law. Boaz has already heard the story of Naomi returning and how a young woman from Moab accompanied her and helped her.
Boaz speaks kindly to Ruth and tells her to stay in his fields where it will be safe. He tells her to drink from the water jars his workers had and invites her to eat with them during the mealtime. He even gives her an extra measure of roasted grain. Unknown to Ruth, Boaz tells his men to leave extra stalks on the ground for her to pick up.
After the work day is done, Ruth returns home with a large amount of barley. Naomi asks Ruth where she was gleaning and recognizes the name of Boaz as one of her close relatives. She tells Naomi to stay in Boaz’s field where she will be safe.
If we become the people God wants us to be, then He will direct us in the path He wants us to take. Ruth and Boaz were both people who lived lives that pleased God and as a result, their lives were directed by the Lord. God blesses godly people. I want to spend the rest of this sermon examining the character qualities of Ruth and Boaz and how we can emulate them, so we too can be in the centre of God’s will.
First I want to look at three qualities of Ruth’s life and then next week, I want to look at three qualities of Boaz’s life. The first quality we notice about Ruth is that she had a humble attitude. We first see that in verse 2 of chapter 2 (read verse). Ruth asks Naomi if she can go out and glean some grain. Now what surprises me is that she asks permission to do something good. That’s like if my son Joshua came up to me and said, “Hey Dad, can I please cut the grass?” What does he expect me to say, “No way, go play on the Playstation instead”? That’s like a no brainer. But Ruth asks anyway, because she wanted to show her mother-in-law respect.
When I was a teenager, that was exactly opposite to my attitude to my parents. Every time I asked them if I could do something, they would say no. So after a while I just stopped asking them. I never told them what I was doing or where I was going. As a result my relationship with my parents became strained and broken. After I became a Christian it took many years to rebuild it. The Lord wants us to be respectful and humble to those in authority over us. If we can’t be respectful to the people over us on earth, how can we expect to respect God in heaven?
Ruth also showed true humility when Boaz spoke to her and showed favour to her. Look at verse 10 and 13 (read verses). Ruth was keenly aware of her vulnerable position. She was not exaggerating when she said she didn’t have the standing of one of Boaz’s servant girls. She didn’t. As a widow and a foreigner on top of that, Ruth was in one of the lowest of social classes. She was needy and she knew it. As a result, her gratitude for Boaz’s kindness was overwhelming.
Like Ruth, we need to be aware of how needy we are. We may not be poor and scavenging for food like Ruth, but spiritually, we are needy people. We have all sinned and need God’s forgiveness. We are all broken and we need God’s healing. Until we realize who we really are and how great our need is, then we will never be truly thankful to God. Humility is a key trait if we want to live a life that pleases the Lord. And it’s a key characteristic if we want to receive God’s blessings for us.
A second characteristic that Ruth shows is that she was a hard worker. That comes through in many verses in this chapter. First we see in verse 2 that she took the initiative to work. She didn’t have to be asked by Naomi to go out and get food. Instead she asked Naomi. And when she started to work, she worked hard. Take a look at verse 7 and 17 (read verses). Ruth didn’t stop and rest every couple of hours. She worked steadily and she worked long. She worked until it was evening. And after she was finished gathering the barley stalks for the day, she wasn’t done work. She had to thresh the grain. That process involves taking sticks or a club and hitting the stalks until all the grain falls off. That is hard, long work. And the results were an ephah of barley. Do you know how much that is? It’s 22 liters worth. That’s almost 6 gallons. That’s a lot of barley. It was enough barley so Naomi took notice and asked where she was gleaning and who helped her.
You know I believe that it’s important to work hard at the task that God has given us. I know that some people don’t like work and think it’s a curse. But do you know when God first commanded Adam, the first man to work? Was it before or after the fall? It was before. After God created man, in Genesis 2:15 it says: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” This was before Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. Work is a gift from God and we were made to work. It is what were designed to do. In fact, good, healthy, constructive work, helps us draw closer to God.
That’s what the desert fathers found out. The desert fathers were a group of men and women who wanted to become so close to God, that they ran away from the temptations in the world and went to live in the wilderness and deserts. Anthony the Great went off into the desert in 270 AD and was the father of the movement. But even though he tried to run away from temptations, he found that his meditation on God was constantly interrupted by sinful thoughts and temptations. He pleaded to God for help. Listen to his account:
When the holy Anthony lived in the desert he was beset by a state of listlessness, and attacked by many sinful thoughts. He said to God, “Lord, I want to be saved but these thoughts do not leave me alone; what shall I do in my affliction? How can I be saved?” A short while afterwards, when he got up to go out, Anthony saw a man like himself sitting at his work, getting up from his work to pray, then sitting down and plaiting a rope, then getting up again to pray. It was an angel of the Lord sent to correct and reassure him. He heard the angel saying to him, “Do this and you will be saved.” At these words, Anthony was filled with joy and courage.
Work is a gift of God that enables us to better focus on Him. That’s why in monasteries today, the monks spend time praying and meditating, but they also spend time working, making bread or wine or some other business which the monastery sells.
Working hard though doesn’t come naturally. We have to learn how to work. I remember my first job. I worked for K-Mart as a cleaner. My friend was working there and asked if I wanted to as well. I said sure. I was 14 years old and I really didn’t understand what it meant to work. One day the manager walked by as I was cleaning to glass of the front door. He stopped and took a look and asked me if I thought the glass was clean. I said sure, it was clean enough. He rubbed his finger across the glass and showed me the dirt on his hand. The next day I was fired. My second job was a Dairy Queen. I got the job because my older sister was working at another Dairy Queen store. I remember after my first week, the manager took me aside and warned me that I had better start listening to the supervisor on the shift and doing what she said. The manager said that blood was thicker than water and because my sister was such a good worker, she would give me another chance. Well I did start learning and I ended up working for Dairy Queen all through my high school years. I even ended up being a supervisor.
Working hard doesn’t come naturally. We have to learn how to do it. Here are a couple of suggestions. First, take the initiative. Instead of waiting to be asked to do something that needs to be done, when you see a need, do it. You know I like it when I ask my kids to wash the dishes or collect up the garbage when I’m out and come back to find it done. That’s great. But do you know what makes my heart fill with gratitude for my children? It’s when I come home after a meeting and find the dishes washed and the garbage collected, and I didn’t even ask them.
Second, go the extra mile. Don’t just do what you have to in order to scrape by. Complete the assignment and then do something a little more, something extra. That’s often what makes the difference between a good business and a great business. Napoleon Hill shares a true story in the book, “The 17 Principles of Personal Achievement”, about a department store clerk one rainy day. That day an elderly lady walked into the store. The clerk offered to help her, but she had only come in to get out of the rain. Instead of ignoring her, he brought her a chair. When the rain stopped, she thanked him and left. Two months later the owner received a letter from the lady asking him to send the clerk to Scotland to take orders to furnish an entire castle. It turned out she was Andrew Carnegie’s mother. He was a wealthy steel tycoon and one of the richest men of the world at that time. When we choose to do a little bit more, our actions can have unexpected rewards.
Third, in whatever you do, work with a positive attitude. Colossians 3:23-24 says: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for me, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” There will be many times in our lives where we will be called to do things that are difficult, unpleasant and unfulfilling. There will be many times when we will get no verbal recognition and very little financial compensation. But if the Lord has called us to that task, then we need to work at it with all of our hearts. The key is working to please Jesus Christ. If we can remember that in every job that we perform, we are doing it for Jesus, then we can transform our attitude.
Now I want to give a warning about hard work. Even though work is good and comes from God, like any gift from God, it can be abused and warped into something dangerous and sinful. Many people have made work into their god. They invest their time, their energy, their lives into their work and it destroys their friendships, their families and their relationship with God. We need to be careful not to make work into our god. But saying that, hard work is a characteristic that God blesses.
A third characteristic that Ruth demonstrates is that she was wholly dependent. Look at verse 11 and 12 (read verses). Boaz was impressed that Ruth decided to leave her homeland and venture out into the unknown, to a new land, a new people, a new culture and a new God. Ruth did it because, as we saw in the previous sermon, of her loyalty and commitment to Naomi. But we learn here, that the reason she was able to make that step of faith, was she was entrusting herself to the God of Israel. I love the end of verse 12: “May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
When Ruth decided to cling to Naomi and go with her to Israel, she was warned by her mother-in-law, that she would have no prospects of having another husband. Ruth went with the full knowledge that her life would be one of a widow, living in a foreign nation, with no blood relatives to support and help her. She was going voluntarily into a life of poverty with no guarantee for tomorrow. But she was doing what God had called her to do. She was going where God called her to go. She was wholly dependent on God. And in this chapter, she was beginning to find out that placing herself in God’s hands is the best place where she could be.
Ruth had thought she had given up the chance of being married again and having a family when she obeyed God and went with Naomi to Israel, but God’s plans are the best plans. The Lord brought Ruth to exactly the place where He had prepared for her, to the husband He had provided for her. In verse 3 it says, “As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz”. But Naomi makes it clear that this was no accident in verse 20 (read verse). Naomi recognized that God had orchestrated the meeting between Ruth and Boaz. He was providing more than Ruth could have ever expected. God’s plans are always the best plans. Even when we think we are giving up something to follow God, He often gives us so much more.
Hudson Taylor, the founder of China Inland Mission, which is now known at OMF, faced a difficult decision when he was getting ready to go to China. The woman he loved refused to marry him unless he gave up his dream of serving in China. She reasoned, "Must you go to China? How much nicer it would be to stay here and serve the Lord at home!" She made it plain at last that she would not go to China." Taylor struggled with this decision. He wrote to his sister, “What can I do?” he wrote to his sister. “I know I love her. To go to China without her would make the world a blank.”
Finally in tears, Taylor ended his relationship with his fiancé. He trusted that God would have something better for him later if he denied himself for the sake of the gospel. And his faith proved true. With a heart for God, Taylor penetrated deep into Chinese culture. He dressed like the Chinese, learned their language, and lived among them. By the end of his life, 205 preaching stations, 849 missionaries, and 125,000 Chinese Christians were a testimony to a life surrendered to God.
And the Lord provided for him in another way. God provided a wife in China—one who shared his passion for missionary work. Maria grew up in China, the daughter of English missionaries in Shanghai. She was as fluent in Mandarin as she was in English and became great help and comfort in Taylor's work. "It never cooled, my love for her," he said forty years later—"It has not cooled now."
Mark 10:29-30 says: "Truly I tell you," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: home, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and field - along with persecutions - and in the age to come eternal life." This verse proved true in Hudson Taylor's life, so he could truly say at the end of his service in China, "I never made a sacrifice."
Now I am not saying that the way to find a godly husband or wife is go to the mission field. When we were in Papua New Guinea, there were many single female missionaries. Some were new and had arrived on the field and while it was true that there were a few who found husbands while we were on the field, there were others who had laboured for decades and had never married. I can't guarantee that if you follow God's will you will be like Ruth and find your Boaz, or your will be like Boaz and find your Ruth. But I will guarantee you this: If you follow God, no matter where He leads and do whatever He asks you to do, you won't regret it. In fact, you will be able to look back and say with Hudson Taylor, "I never made a sacrifice." The truth is that whatever we give up for God, what He has in store for us is so much better.
One little girl saved up her money for weeks and weeks. She wanted to buy a pretty little plastic pearl necklace she had seen down at the store. At last, she had enough money to buy the necklace. She was so excited! Her Daddy took her down to the store so she could purchase the necklace of her dreams. She brought it home and paraded around in it proudly. That night, when her Daddy came in to kiss her goodnight, he asked her, “Selena, can I have your necklace?” Little Selena looked at her Daddy with a frown and said, “No, Daddy. It’s my necklace.” Her Daddy just smiled and kissed her and said, “I love you, Sweetie. Good night.” The next night the same thing happened. Her Daddy asked her if he could have her necklace, and her response was the same: “No, Daddy. I saved and saved and bought this with my own money.” Daddy just kissed her and said, “I love you, Selena. Good night.” On the third night, when her Daddy came in, Selena was sobbing, with big tears streaming down her face. She handed her necklace to him and said, “Daddy, you can have it. I don’t need it anymore.” Her Daddy smiled and knelt down beside her and pulled her close for a great big Daddy hug. Then, he took her necklace and slipped it into his pocket. As he did, his hand came out with a thin black box with a velvety cover. He opened it and held it out to her. Her eyes got as big as saucers as she saw a string of real pearls shining back at her. “Oh Daddy,” she said. “Thank you, thank you! If I had known, I would have given you my necklace the first time you asked.”
If we become the people God wants us to be, the He will direct us in the path He wants us to take. Want kind of people does He want us to be? He wants us to be like Ruth who was wholly dependent on Him.
You see, it’s not fate that controls our destiny. God says in Jeremiah 29:11: “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord. ‘Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” We see that verse coming true in the Book of Ruth. Though Ruth thought she was giving up everything, the Lord had better plans for her. If Ruth had never left Moab and come to Israel, she would never have met Boaz. God’s plans are always the best. And we will see the fulfillment of those plans in the weeks to come.
If we become the people God wants us to be, then He will direct us in the path He wants us to take. We need to become people like Ruth. We need to emulate her characteristics. We have to have a humble attitude. We need to be hard workers. And we need to be wholly dependent on Him. Next week we’ll be looking at three characteristics of Boaz.
