Sermon 5: God’s Watchcare Over His Children Series

Sermon 5: God’s Watchcare Over His Children

Series: Ruth

Chuck Sligh

July 14, 2019

BLURB: Ruth 2 tells us that Ruth “happened” upon the field of a prominent man named Boaz. This changed the course of Ruth's and Naomi’s life forever! Was this simple coincidence or chance? This sermon teaches us about God’s watchcare for His children through His providence, provision and promotion.

NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives.

INTRODUCTION

Illus. – Brenda was a young woman who wanted to learn rock climbing. She went with a group to climb a tremendous cliff of rock. During the ascent, the climber above her snapped a rope against Brenda’s eye and knocked out her contact lens.

Now, you know how tiny contact lenses are and how difficult they are to find. Here she was: very far from home, with everything around her blurry in one eye, somewhere up in the mountains and no place close by to replace her lost contact lens. She looked out across range after range of mountains with her one good eye, thinking of that Bible verse that says, “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.” She thought, Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every single stone and leaf on those mountains, and You know exactly where my contact lens is.

Finally, the time came to hike down the trail to the bottom of the mountain. When they arrived, there was a new party of rock climbers coming up the trail. One of them shouted, “Hey, guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?”

In astonishment, Brenda looked down at a contact lens that looked like hers. The only way to know for sure was to put it in, and sure enough, she could see clearly: It WAS her lost contact lens!

Well, that would be amazing in itself, wouldn’t it? But the rest of the story is even more startling. When Brenda asked the young lady where she found her lens, she said an ant was slowly carrying that contact lens across the face of a rock!

That story illustrates the main focus of Ruth 2—The truth that God is not a God who is way out there, uninvolved in the lives of His children. No, He is very near—intimately involved in the details of our lives.

Jesus said “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? and not one of them shall fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear…not therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:29-31)

God watches over even the sparrows and even knows the number of hairs on our heads, but Jesus said that we are of more value than many sparrows. So God knows what is going on in each of our lives and is intimately involved in everything we do.

The theological term for this is God’s “watchcare.” Today I’d like for us to examine three aspects of God’s watchcare from Ruth 2.

I. THE FIRST ASPECT WE OBSERVE IS THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD – Verses 1-3

The very first verse is a clue to the theme of this chapter, and indeed the whole book. Naomi returned to Bethlehem-judah penniless, husband-less, and hopeless. Her only asset was her foreign daughter-in-law who was in the same situation as she.

Yet all along, the solution to their dilemma was known to God – verse 1 – “And Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a prominent man of noble character, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.” This man Boaz was the one who would be the answer to their problems. But, at this point Naomi and Ruth did not have a clue that God was working behind the scenes in their behalf.

Once they settled into their new home, their first concern was food. Rather than sitting around to see what would happen or bemoaning their bad situation, Ruth immediately shows initiative, and decides to go out and find some food. – verse 2 – “And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, ‘Let me…go to the field, and glean ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.’ And she said unto her, ‘Go, my daughter.’”

Now what is “gleaning”? Gleaning was an interesting practice unknown outside Israel.

In Leviticus 19:9-10, we read, “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap…the corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Nor shall you strip your vineyard bare, nor gather the fallen grapes from your vineyard; You shall leave them for the poor and foreigner.”