Ruth - Part 2 - Chapter 2 Series

How many of you had a Rubik's Cube when you were younger? How many don't know what that is? How many of you were able to solve it...without cheating? I remember working on mine and starting to feel like I was getting the hang of it. I finally got one complete side done and felt so good about myself...until I started working on the next side. You know how it was. Every time you moved one piece it messed up the part you had done and you couldn't remember how you got it there. It was so frustrating!

So, at this point you had two choices. You could either keep working on it, getting more and more frustrated and never seeming to make any real progress or you could pitch the thing in the trash or at least a drawer and never try it again. All the while some nerd on YouTube is doing it one-handed and blind-folded in 26 seconds. It's one of those things that you know is possible but you just can't seem to figure it out.

Now, how many of you married men out there sometimes feel like you must have married a Rubik's Cube? You start to get the hang of her after a while and feel pretty good about yourself and then everything changes. It feels like every time you do something you mess something else up and then you can't remember how you did it right. It's so frustrating and now you have the same two choices to make. Do you keep blindly working at it getting more and more frustrated or do you just quit?

Well, just like you can go to certain websites and they will walk you through solving a Rubik's Cube by showing you how to do it, you can also go to the Owner's Manual, God's Word, to see what a woman needs in a husband. But just like those websites won't do it for you and you have to do the work and put some effort into it, the Bible won't do it for you either.

I've said before that if you didn't know that marriage was God's idea you would think it crazy that a man and a woman are supposed to marry and live together. We are so different and yet we know that it can be done. We see it all the time. We just have to figure it out. Thankfully, God has given us numerous examples of how to do it in the Bible. Today, I want us to look at one of the most beautiful love stories ever written.

There are some considerably different cultural issues to deal with in the story of Ruth and her kinsman-redeemer Boaz. The book of Ruth is a short one -- only 4 chapters -- but we unfortunately don't have time to read the whole thing so I'll fill you in on some of the main points while you go ahead and turn to chapter 2.

The story of Ruth and Boaz begins when Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi, return to Bethlehem from Moab where they had been living. Naomi's husband and both sons, one the husband of Ruth, had died, leaving the women penniless and without a male protector. Upon arriving in Bethlehem, Ruth goes to gather some grain in a field so they would have something to eat.

There was no Social Security or Welfare or anything like that. In those days, if you didn't work or have somebody to provide for you, you would starve. So, the first thing Ruth does is go grocery shopping. Let's read how she did that and what happened in Ruth chapter 2:1-16.

Now Naomi had a relative on her husband's side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.2 And Ruth the Moabite 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." 3 So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.4 Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, "The LORD be with you!" "The LORD bless you!" they answered. 5 Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, "Who does that young woman belong to?" 6 The overseer replied, "She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. 7 She said, 'Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.' She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter." 8 So Boaz said to Ruth, "My daughter, listen to me. Don't go and glean in another field and don't go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. 9 Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled." 10 At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, "Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me--a foreigner?" 11 Boaz replied, "I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband--how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12 May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge." 13 "May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord," she said. "You have put me at ease by speaking kindly to your servant--though I do not have the standing of one of your servants." 14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, "Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar." When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. 15 As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, "Let her gather among the sheaves and don't reprimand her. 16 Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don't rebuke her."