THE BIG FINISH
Ruth 4:13-22
INTRO: At a young age, George Herman Ruth was left at St. Mary’s Industrial School, where he met brother Matthias. It was there that “Babe” Ruth learned about baseball. [Clip from The Babe]
You never know what circumstance or what person God will use to accomplish something extraordinary…
1. GOD PROVIDES RUTH WITH A HUSBAND AND A SON (13)
Read Ruth 4:13
A. Boaz marries Ruth
Boaz makes good on his promise (4:10). No cold feet. God’s providence is seen as Ruth, the Moabitess, ends up with a great husband in Judah! The very reason Naomi told her to stay in Moab was because she wouldn’t be able to find a husband in Judah. Ruth 1:11 This culminates a providential set of events
B. God enables Ruth to conceive
In our society, Ruth’s previous years of childless marriage (1:4) & Boaz’ age would make them prime candidates for a fertility specialist. Emphasis on God allowing her to become pregnant. It was part of His plan! Now, that does bring up a delicate point. If God can enabled someone to conceive, he can also disable someone to conceive.
C. Ruth has a son
The wording moves briskly to this main point - a son is born! This culminates the amazing providence we see in their immediate family. It really is a miracle. All orchestrated by God. The marriage was important, but now we see something viewed as even more important by the author – the birth of the child. Suddenly we see a little bigger reason for the story of Ruth – the birth of a child.
Transition: There’s nothing like the birth of a child – it brings joy and hope, and looks forward to the future. [Show image from Roots]
God’s provision of both a husband and a son for Ruth illustrates the way God’s unseen providence always triumphs! Illus: Like the Mounties who “always get their man.” Wait until the end of the book! This would be a great ending, but there’s more...
Read Ruth 4:14-17a – end with “Obed”
2. GOD PROVIDES NAOMI WITH A KINSMAN-REDEEMER (14-17a)
Naomi was emptied (1:5), now we see God fulfilling her again through:
A. A son
A son was a tremendous blessing to Ruth & Boaz, but the focus here is on Naomi. As far as action goes, Ruth and Boaz actually fade from view at this point. This child is a tremendous blessing to Naomi:
• He will take over for Boaz as her kinsman-redeemer (he is considered Mahlon’s son);
• He will provide for her retirement;
• He will be “one who serves”.
The women rightly say “Praise be to the Lord”, and “Naomi has a (grand)son.”
Illus: How we felt when D.J. was born: following the devastating blow of the death of our oldest son Brian, we saw and felt God’s provision of another son – DJ. And later, Austin and Aimee as well.
Illus: We’ve got some new grandparents around here, and boy are they easy to spot…
B. A daughter-in-law
Ruth, whom Naomi originally tried to dissuade from following her (1:13-15), not only provided for her immediate needs by getting a job, but now in the ultimate sense provides for her - an heir. She is better than 7 sons! (The culturally optimum number of sons to have). This is the ultimate compliment in a patriarchal society.
Who would have thought God would use the people and events he did to provide for Naomi and her family. When we are empty, only God can ultimately fill us.
3. GOD PROVIDES ISRAEL WITH A KING(17-22)
Read Ruth 4:17b-22
God always has the “pressbox perspective.”
Illus.: I was never much of a hockey fan until I went to my first game, and sat up high and saw the whole picture of what was happening. Sometimes you have to back up to see the wider of view of what is happening.
A. God uses Boaz & Ruth to prevent a missing link in the family line of David
Obed becomes the grandfather of David, Israel’s most famous and honored king! This is a record of how God, in His providence, made sure there was no breakdown in the family tree. God had something in mind for Naomi, Ruth and Boaz that they could never have guessed - the son God provided for them would be grandfather of blessed king David!
The family tree hails back to Gen. 49:10; where Judah was told his family would be rulers. It is orderly, ten names, with Boaz in the honored 7th position.
The wider purpose of the book of Ruth, and the events it chronicles, is to show how God providentially prevented a missing link from occurring in the line of David.
It is enormously significant, in light of the promise to Judah that his family would rule. Even when things looked bleak, when it would have been easy for Elimilech to break the chain, God arranged an amazing series of events so that his promise, his purpose, would be maintained and fulfilled.
4. GOD PROVIDES THE WORLD WITH A SAVIOR (Matt. 1:1-17)
Illus: From on top of Buck Rock, you can see the whole valley.
Suddenly, we see the bigger impact of their lives, and a wider purpose for this book:
A. God uses Boaz & Ruth to prevent a missing link in the family line of Jesus
The family tree goes even farther, though.
This genealogy is mentioned again in the Scriptures – in the New Testament, in the book of Matthew. Let’s read it.
Matthew 1:1-17
Ruth and Boaz have the privilege of being in the direct family line of Jesus Christ Himself, the ultimate “son of David” (1:1). Wow! Not only did God’s providence provide for Naomi’s family, but for David and Jesus’ as well!
They had influence and impact beyond their wildest imaginations! All this to a couple of ladies at their wits end when our story began. God always sees down the road, and has an eternal perspective. The events, circumstances, and people God brings into our lives serve His wider purpose for our lives, and have impact beyond what we are able to see.
What do we learn from this incredible story? What does all this mean to us? There are 3 things God wants you to see from the Book of Ruth:
God’s providence always accomplishes his purposes
God’s providence always triumphs. God absolutely has a plan, he has a purpose that he is intent on accomplishing. He can and will bring it to fruition. He will not be thwarted. And so God’s providence, his arranging and working of people and circumstances, always works to fulfill his purpose. God’s purposes always prevail. I love what Rick Warren writes on the very first page of his best-selling book, “The Purpose Driven Life,:” “It’s not about you.”
The biggest mistake we can make in life is to assume that our purposes are preminent, are most important, and that God, like some kind of cosmic genie, exists to help us accomplish our purposes. Quite the opposite is true. God’s purposes prevail. And so many times when we feel like we’ve been dashed upon the rocks of life, disappointed, let down, it is because we are straining against God’s purposes. When we seek to align our purposes with God’s purposes, then we have peace. Then we have satisfaction.
God’s purposes are always good
It could be frightening to comtemplate the fact that God’s purposes always prevail, except for this one fact – God’s purposes are always good. It goes part and parcel with his nature as God. Having an all-powerful God who always accomplishes his purposes would be terrifying it he wasn’t good. All the time. We see that in our text – Each of the purposes that God accomplished – the husband and son for Ruth, the grandson for Naomi, the king for Israel, and the Savior for all of us – is good. What a tremendous truth to realize that God’s purposes are good, and good for us. The God of the universe puts right in the middle of his purposes our good. Amazing!
This helps us see that every good thing we receive from God is part of something even bigger that he has in mind…
God can use unexpected people and unlikely means to accomplish his good purposes for you
God doesn’t always go about fulfilling his good purposes for us in the way we might imagine. Who would have thought that he would use Ruth to accomplish his plan for Naomi? And that he would use Boaz and Ruth to accomplish his plan for Israel and the world? You never know who it is that God will use. And more often than not, it is exactly the kind of person you wouldn’t think he would use that he in fact uses. This encourages me! And God uses some unusual means. He uses even the circumstances and events that we see as “bad” to accomplish his means. If everthing he does works toward his purpose, this requires a complete re-evaluation of your circumstances. Can you see them as God accomplishing his plan, which is by definition good?
There’s a passage in the NT that has really grabbed me in the last few weeks. I’ve read it countless times, but just recently noticed something. It’s in the book of John, chapter 9. Let’s look at it.
John 9:1-2. They come across a man who has experienced something “bad” – he was born blind. The natural reaction is to ask, “Why?” Did he do something bad? Did his parents? This must be some kind of punishment, right? Now look what Jesus says:
John 9:3-4.
Jesus says this isn’t some kind of punishment. No, it’s for a purpose. This happened (blind from birth) so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. Can you grasp that? That God would let him be blind his whole life, just for this one moment where he intersects Jesus, who goes on and heals him.
Are you willing to allow that the things that have occurred in your life, even the “bad” ones are allowed so that God can show his work in your life?
CONCL: What and whom has God placed in your life? Is His providence capable of triumphing in the end? Can He fill your emptiness? Can you trust his long range perspective?
