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Luke Abendroth Sermon
Good morning. It's great to be back and to be here at BBC. Like my dad just said, I have so many great memories here. And just really learning the truth here, not just from my dad, but from so many of you.
I was just talking to Wes before the service about some memories from Sunday school and different object lessons that I still remember. And so it's really great to be back here and to be preaching. Well, I want to start off by asking if you've ever wondered at the fact that Jesus is so celebrated this time of year.
Whether you're in line at Black Friday shopping, pushing other people over to try to get a present, or walking down the street, you see nativity scenes and sets. And it really is amazing. We're used to it.
But it's amazing that this time of year, almost the whole world stops, especially in America, and celebrates, at least in name, the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is celebrated. His name is used over and over.
It's the only time that you'll hear things from the Bible, like Bethlehem, or a manger, or the cross, or angels, and magi, in public places, in malls, and schools. But really, it's interesting that when you stop to think about Christmas and the Jesus of Christmas, especially here in America, there's so many things about this Jesus that don't align with the Jesus of the scriptures.
The Jesus of the scriptures is often very different than the Jesus that we hear about around Christmas, or even the Jesus that's used for political ends, or mentioned by politicians on both sides of the aisle.
We hear about Jesus. But is the Jesus we hear about the real Jesus? The Bible describes Jesus not as someone who is going to come and fulfill our greatest desires, not as someone who's going to give us everything we want, but as the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
Jesus Christ is the eternal God, who the Word, who became flesh, who appeared in a manger as a little baby, who lived a perfect life, obeying the law in our place, suffering its curses and consequences for us.
He's the eternal Father, mighty God, he's called. The government is upon his shoulders. All of these things, they seem to be missing in the picture that we get of Jesus around Christmas. But I think the best place, I don't think, the best place to go to understand who Jesus is is obviously the scriptures.
We see Jesus in the New Testament and in the Old Testament as the biblical savior of the entire world. And there's a story that I love as a kid, the story of Excalibur. It's the story of King Arthur and how he got his sword.
And the story is there's a sword in the stone and only the king who was worthy, only the man who was worthy of being king could pull this sword from the stone. And I wanted to imagine two different people seeing this event, seeing King Arthur, this myth of King Arthur pulling his sword from the stone.
And one of these people is just traveling through town. He's visiting and he walks by and he sees a crowd gathered around the stone and he wanders over and he sees a young man pull a sword out of the stone and the entire crowd erupt in applause.
This would be impactful. He might be amazed. He might wonder that something's going on and be intrigued. But imagine the difference of response was for someone who had grown up in the town near this stone.
He passed by the stone with a sword in the stone every day on his way to work. He remembers the things that his father told him about the legend that the one who could pull the sword out of the stone is worthy to be king of England.
Imagine that person when he sees King Arthur pull the sword out of the stone. Imagine the difference in response. And we want to talk about not just the biblical Jesus, but Jesus in the Old Testament.
When we understand Jesus, especially in the Old Testament and the expectation, we can be like the person who's lived in the town, who knows what to look for, who can truly celebrate and be amazed at who Jesus is.
There's so many things about Jesus that we see from the Old Testament. We've already talked about them. Jesus is the high priest who's able to sympathize with our weaknesses. When he sees our sin, when he sees us respond poorly even in trials, he sympathizes with us.
He says, I know, I understand, I've known and experienced what that's like. He's the high priest. He's the prophet. He's the word himself who teaches us all truth. He gives us good news. He speaks a better word than the blood of Abel and his blood speaks to us about forgiveness.
He's the king of kings. There's so many different things we can pull out of the Old Testament. But I want to focus on one specific thing this morning. In the book of Ruth, open your Bibles to the book of Ruth, and we're going to talk about Jesus as redeemer.
Jesus is the redeemer. Jesus redeems sinners. He is our redeemer sent from God to rescue us. And we'll talk about what a redeemer is in this passage, but it's good to remember passages like Ephesians chapter one, verse six, or Ephesians chapter one, starting in verse five, Paul says, he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.
And then this, in him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. Or in Galatians, we hear that Christ redeems us from the curse of the law by being born under the law for us.
The New Testament constantly talks about Jesus as our redeemer, as our rescuer. And we're gonna look at the book of Ruth this morning because the book of Ruth, more than any other book in the Old Testament, helps us understand what it means for Jesus to be a redeemer.
What is a redeemer? What is redemption? Well, the easiest place to go is to the book of Ruth. And so we're gonna look at these different characters in the book of Ruth. I'm actually gonna fly through this whole book.
We're gonna look at it from a 30 ,000 foot perspective, like a jet tour through this book. So we're not gonna cover all the details, but we're gonna look at what it means that Jesus is our redeemer. So before we do that, let's give a little bit of context to the book of Ruth.
The book of Ruth takes place just after the book of Judges. And remember the book of Judges. What is happening over and over in the book of Judges? What does the author say? It's very similar to our culture today.
People did what was right in their own eyes. There's this constant refrain that people are doing what is right in their own eyes. They don't look to the law of God. They don't look to his good commandments for them to find out how they're to live.
Instead, they could come up with their own ethical scheme. And the book of Ruth comes right into the time of the judges. In chapter one, verse one, it says this, in the days when the judges ruled, or in the days when the judges judged.
This book comes during the time of judges. This is the time when everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes. And it's interesting how the author of Judges, and if you'd like to know where, I can tell you after the service, but the author of Judges four times mentions this phrase, that they do what is right in their own eyes.
But he gives a reason for it. The author of Judges says, there's a reason why people do what is right in their own eyes. And it's kind of unexpected. It might surprise you, but the author of Judges says it's because there is no king in Israel.
The reason why people do what is right in their own eyes is because there is no king in Israel. And yet the book of Ruth starts by putting us in the time of judges, and yet the last word of the book of Ruth is the name David.
David, the king, the king of Israel. So this whole book is here in the Bible to get us from the time of the judges, when people do what is right in their own eyes, because there's no king in Israel, to the time of the kings, to King David.
This is all about getting us to the king. And in the meantime, it's gonna show us what redemption looks like. Besides that, I think there's two main themes of the book of Ruth. If you need to answer a question about what Ruth is about, these two themes would really summarize the entire book.
One is that God is sovereign. God is in control. God is sovereign over every detail of our lives. Even the hard things that come into our lives, God is sovereign over. That's the first truth of the book of Ruth continues to emphasize.
But the second truth is this, that God is loyal in his love. God is loyal in his love. It's a word that continues to pop up throughout the book of Ruth. The word for steadfast love, it's often translated, or loving kindness, or we could translate it, loyal covenant love.
God is loyal in his love, and God is sovereign over all things. It's interesting that Jerry Bridges, in his book, Trusting God, says, those are the two things that you need to know to get through any trial.
If you know those two things, you can get through any circumstance in your life. If you know that God loves me, he's for me in Christ, he's given me everything in the life, death, and resurrection of his son.
He's loyal in his love, and he's sovereign over every detail of my life. If we know those two things, we can get through any trial, any circumstance, any hard thing, we can persevere through. And those are the two things, the two summary themes of the book of Ruth.
Well, there's four chapters. We're gonna look at four different acts, and I'm just gonna summarize these books and show how they teach us these two truths and set us up to expect a redeemer. So chapter one, we already said it starts off with the time when the judge is judged.
This whole act, if this was a play, this is act one, I would entitle this disobedience and emptiness. This is not only the time when the judge is judged, but if you look at what my dad read earlier in verse one, it says there's a famine in the land.
And for us, it's easy to just skip over things in the Bible, and we think, well, there's famines all the time, there's floods, there's bad things that happen. But remember, in the first five books of Moses, especially in Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 19, there's this relationship that God has set up with the people of Israel.
Remember, the people come to Mount Sinai, they gather at the mountain, and God enters into a marriage covenant with them, and he says this, there's gonna be blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.
If you obey, you'll be blessed. If you disobey, you'll be cursed. We won't get into all the details of this, but it's quite different, Paul says in Galatians, than the covenant that God makes with Abraham.
When God makes a promise to Abraham, he says, I'm gonna bless you, no matter what. Unconditional, I will bless you, no matter what you do. Paul says that's the gospel, that's the good news. But the covenant at Sinai, the covenant that God made with Moses, with the people of Israel, it's got this principle of works.
This is the law, this is that thing that Jesus picks up and says, do this and live. If you obey, you'll be blessed. If you disobey, you'll be cursed. And Leviticus 19 specifically says this, verses nine through 10.
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner.
I am Yahweh, your God. Earlier in the chapter of Leviticus, he gives these details for how we're to treat sojourners, how the land of Israel is connected to the promises of God. But earlier he says, when you have food, you need to give it to the sojourners, but when you don't have food, this is because of your disobedience.
It's because you've disobeyed me that you're cursed, that there's actually a famine in the land. So this is not only the time when the judge is judged, but there's a famine in the land. And we're introduced to a family, a father named Elimelech, a mother named Naomi, and two sons, Malon and Kilion.
And they go outside the land of Israel to the land of Moab. It's another thing that we can easily move over. We move all the time. We leave places. I heard the Bartlets are moving soon. It's not the equivalent of moving to Moab, but similar.
Just kidding.
But in this time, in the Old Testament context, moving outside of the land of Israel was not something that is acceptable. If you were experiencing the curse of God in his promised land, you were to wait and to repent.
But God had a special blessing upon the land of Israel. Remember his conversation with the Samaritan woman? They are having this theological discussion, and she says, you say that you worship on that mountain.
We say it's this mountain who's right. And Jesus doesn't say it doesn't matter. He says, we're right, but soon, the Father is going to seek people who worship in spirit and in truth. But there is a geographical centrality of the nation of Israel that the land is important for the people of Israel, that they are to remain in the land.
This is the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey. And if you disobey, it will spit you out. But if you obey, it will prosper. And so right away, when we see this move that this family is making, if we know the Bible well, we see this is a dark time.
It's not only the time of the judges, but it's a time of famine. And then we see this family, instead of repenting and trusting the Lord to provide, they move to the land of Moab. But then there's the first hint of something good in the story in verses six through 18.
Verses six through 18 tell us that there was two wives, two wives of Naomi's sons. And Naomi's sons had just died along with her husband, so Naomi's left alone. But there's these two women that decide to come back to Israel with her, Ruth and Orpah.
Actually, Orpah is Oprah's name, but they spelled it wrong on the birth certificate, it's a fun fact. But Ruth and Orpah, they're gonna go back to Israel with Naomi. And yet, Naomi says, well, I don't have any more kids.
Go back to Moab, return to the land that you were raised in. It's gonna be better for you back in Moab than if you come with me. But there's a miraculous conversion of Ruth. Orpah ends up going back to the land of Moab, but Ruth decides to come with Naomi to Israel.
In verse 16, she says, do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you, for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.
Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you. And then Naomi's silent and lets her come with her. But you see, in the midst of this horrible situation and all of this darkness, there's a famine in the land.
God is cursing his people. Naomi's husband and both of her sons have died. There's finally this piece of information, this woman, Ruth, she decides to actually return with Naomi, and she forsakes the gods of Moab, and she says, I'm gonna be loyal to the God of Israel.
Your God will be my God. It's a dark story, but there's a ray of hope here in the conversion of Ruth, that God is still working. But how does Naomi respond to that? Does she see, well, I'm being disciplined for my disobedience, and God is still on the move.
Ruth has been converted, this is amazing, God is working. Well, she says this. When the woman asks, is this Naomi, she says, do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me? Just amazing conversion, Ruth has forsaken these other gods, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, she says, now Yahweh is my God.
Your people will be my people, even echoing that phrase, that I will be your God, and you will be my people. But Naomi doesn't see it. She says, Yahweh has brought me back empty. Call me Mara, which means bitterness, not Naomi, which means pleasantness.
I've been forsaken by God. But is Naomi right? Has God forsaken her? In the midst of this darkness, in the midst of the curse of God, has he forsaken her? Well, that brings us to chapter two, or act two.
There's a ray of hope. Here's a ray of hope. We're introduced in, we're not gonna read the whole thing, but in chapter two, verse one, we're introduced to a third character, Boaz. And he's introduced as, the ESV says, a worthy man.
But that word, or that phrase, worthy man, is used throughout the Bible to describe the mighty men of Israel. It describes the men who did great deeds, the mighty men of David who go and get water for him.
The mighty men who strike down the Philistines. It's a word that doesn't just have the idea of someone who's rich, or who's worthy, but it's a strong man, a mighty man. We're introduced to this character, and this phrase used throughout the book of the Judges is used.
And we're introduced to him, and we're told he's of the same clan as Elimelech. He's of the same family, he's a relative. But then, the author of Ruth picks up the story, and he says, he describes a conversation between Ruth and Naomi, where Ruth says, let me go into the fields and glean.
Leviticus 19, we read it earlier, it's that passage in the law where God commanded Israel, make sure you leave the sides of your field for the sojourners, for the widow, for the poor, for those who are oppressed.
Even in the law of God, he reveals his love and mercy by providing for the sojourner. And so he says, leave the sides of the field so that people who don't have anything can finally get something to eat.
And Ruth knows about this law, and she says to Naomi, let me go and glean. We're back in Bethlehem, we're back in Israel, I know you don't see me as anything, I'm included in the emptiness, but let me go and see if I can get something.
And in this chapter, we get the meeting between Ruth and Boaz, and Boaz is just over the top. He's not just a mighty man, but he's specifically a man of God. From the very beginning, even in his greeting in verse four, he says, the Lord be with you.
He mentions the name of Yahweh, and then throughout the entire chapter, he shows himself to be a godly man, a great example of biblical masculinity. He stands up for Ruth, he says, I'm gonna protect you.
He serves her, he even sits and feeds her a meal. But the amazing part of this chapter is that the narrator sort of with a wink tells us that this all happened by chance. This is just so lucky. Look at verse three, so she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech.
One Hebrew scholar translate this, by sheer luck, she came into the field of Boaz. And then a few verses later, actually in verse four, says this, and behold, and wow, a lucky day. Boaz is coming from Bethlehem, and he comes in and sees the reapers.
So there's this meeting between Boaz and Ruth, and there's so much there that's so amazing in both of them that they show this godliness, and especially Boaz's over-the-top care and provision for Ruth.
But the narrator highlights that even though this seems like a typical circumstance, even though this seems like luck, God is orchestrating all these things behind the scenes. Naomi's interpretation of events, that she's empty, that the Lord has forsaken her, it's not correct.
No matter what she feels, no matter what circumstances are going on in her life, God has not forsaken her. God is loyal in his love, and he's sovereign over all things, and he works through these seemingly hard circumstances and seemingly ordinary circumstances.
There's no parting of the Red Sea in Ruth, there's no deliverance of stones falling on the Amorites. Seems like normal life. And yet the narrator wants us to see.
These things are not lucky.
With a wink, he shows us God is sovereignly working through all these things. And so Boaz not only serves her a meal, but he gives her over-the-top amounts of grain, and she brings it back to Naomi.
And let's read in verse 17 how Naomi interprets that. Verse 18, and she took it up and went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied.
And her mother-in-law said to her, where did you glean today, and where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you. So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, the man's name with whom I work today is Boaz.
And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, may he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead. Naomi also said to her, the man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.
Find out, this is not just a random person. The narrator's already told us this. We know this. Boaz is a man from the clan of Elimelech, but he's also a redeemer. When we think about redeem, we usually think about someone redeeming something.
It's buying someone out of slavery. And that's a good thing to think about. That's a good picture of God's redemption. But redeemers in the Bible actually have three different jobs. There's three things that redeemers do in the Old Testament.
One of them is if a family member's sold into slavery, the redeemer's to go and buy them out. They're to rescue them by paying the price for them and delivering them from slavery. That's one of the things redeemers do.
The other thing redeemers do is when a family member has sold a piece of land, a redeemer is to go and buy it so that it stays in the family line. Then my favorite thing that a redeemer does is the third thing.
When someone kills one of your family members, unjustly murders them, the redeemer's job, given him by God, is to chase down the murderer and execute him. These are the three things that redeemers do.
It's not just buying out of slavery. The redeemer is this picture that God gives to Israel of a family member who looks out for his family. If anybody likes Louis L 'Amour books, this is the Sackets. No matter what happens, they're gonna come and help each other.
This is the picture of the redeemer in Scripture. The redeemer stands up for his family and no matter what situation they're in, he delivers them, he rescues them out of slavery. He rescues their name with the field and he even avenges them and destroys their enemies.
This is the picture of a redeemer in Scripture and Naomi says, this man, he's one of our redeemers. He's a close relative. In the time of the judges, there's this godly man. Everyone's doing what is right in their own eyes.
But Boaz, mentioning over and over the name of the Lord, showing grace and kindness to Ruth, providing for her even though she's a Moabitess. So chapter two ends with Naomi telling Ruth, it is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, lest in another field you be assaulted.
So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests and she lived with her mother-in-law. So chapter two ends with Naomi giving this advice to Ruth.
Stay close to his daughters for the whole season. Glean from the field of Boaz. Naomi, she's the one who went out from the land of Israel with Elimelech. They disobey God, they experience God's curse.
Even though Ruth repents by the end of chapter one, she says, I'm empty, God has forsaken me. But the end of chapter two, we think maybe, maybe Naomi has learned her lesson. Naomi finally starts to see that God is good, that God is faithful, that he's providing for her.
Through Ruth.
She's not gonna say that she's empty anymore, is she? Well, that brings us to act three, chapter three. A fleshly plan and a godly response. Naomi, at the end of the day, doesn't seem like she's learned her lesson.
The same impulse that drove her to not wait under the discipline of God in the land of promise, but to flee and to seek respite elsewhere and provision outside of God's law. Seems like it hasn't left her, this fleshly impulse.
Listen to this plan, starting in chapter three, verse one. Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, my daughter, should I not seek rest for you that it may be well with you? Is not Boaz a relative with whose young women you were?
See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Wash, therefore, and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak, and go down to the threshing floor. But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.
But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do. Naomi comes up with this plan. And if you're like me, when we read the Old Testament, often we just think, I don't know, there's a lot of weird stuff in the Old Testament.
Maybe this is just how they proposed back in the day. But sometimes that can stop us from interpreting the Bible well. We need to think like an Israelite, and we need to go back and to understand just like that villager would have known and understood the customs and the stories about the sword and the stone.
And I think this is really just as weird as it sounds. It's just as really as bad as it sounds. Remember earlier in chapter two, Naomi had said, make sure you stay close to his young women. Otherwise, you're gonna be assaulted,.
Even during the daytime.
Remember, this is the time of the judges. But now she's saying, go out at night, go down to the threshing floor, and anoint yourself. What is a threshing floor? Well, a threshing floor was the place where they would take the barley from the harvest, and they would throw it up in the air.
It was usually on an elevated place, and the wind would blow the chaff away, and the good pieces of the barley would fall down. They would collect that, and they'd be able to make bread with it. But usually, a threshing floor was a public place.
It was rare for someone to have their own private threshing floor. There's usually a threshing floor for the whole city, for the entire town. And one of the things you'd have to do is you'd work during the night when the breezes would come, and then because, especially since this is the time of the judges, because there's thieves around, you'd have to sleep and lay down next to all your barley that you gathered.
You'd work, and then you'd protect. You'd lay next to your harvest. And so Boaz is there in this public place, and the interesting thing is, Hosea chapter nine, verse one, says that Israel has whored after other gods like a prostitute at every threshing floor.
Hosea tells us that the threshing floor is where prostitutes go. It's famous for being a place of prostitution. This is used to spiritually describe Israel and their disobedience. So Naomi tells her to go down at night.
She's no longer concerned with her protection. Anoint herself and go to the place where prostitutes gather, and then lay down at his feet, and he will tell you what to do. We thought maybe Naomi had learned her lesson, but it doesn't seem like she has, and surely Ruth is not gonna go along with this plan, is she?
Well, verse five says that Ruth replied, all that you say I will do. So just like any good story, there's a hiccup here. Ruth and Boaz have met. They both showed godliness, and they both sort of embodied the loyal love of God throughout the story, but then there's this hiccup in the plan.
What's going on here? This is a horrible idea, but Ruth goes down to the threshing floor. She does just what her mother-in-law asked. She waits until Boaz has eaten and drunk. She uncovers his feet.
At midnight, Boaz wakes up, and he says, who are you? And she answers, I am Ruth, your servant, but then she does something that Naomi doesn't tell her to do, the law of God. She says, redeem me.
You're a redeemer.
Remember what the law of God says about families and how to provide for one another? Redeem me out of this distress that I'm in, and Boaz says, may God bless you. He praises her that she would seek him even though he's older and that she would go to him.
He sees that she's really doing this for her mother-in-law, that both of them stand out as these examples of God's love, this self-sacrificial love, that Boaz is willing to marry this Moabitess, and Ruth is willing to marry this older man, all to provide for Naomi, and so Boaz gives Naomi, or gives Ruth a bunch of more barley.
It ends again in a similar way as chapter two, and how does Naomi respond this time? By the way, Boaz also looks out for Ruth's reputation by saying, don't tell anybody that she was here. How does Naomi respond?
Does she finally learn her lesson? Well, it seems like it. Ruth says, after asked by Naomi, how did you fare? She says in verse 17 of chapter three, these six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, you must not go back empty.
Remember the last time we heard that? Naomi says, I'm empty, but Boaz says, you must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law. Naomi responds, wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest, but will settle the matter today.
Naomi starts off the chapter seizing after the promise, maybe the same fleshly impulse that drove her into the land of Moab, outside of God's law, seeking blessing not in God's way, seeking what God could provide outside of his will, and then similarly here, she comes up with a scheme to secure Boaz as a husband for Ruth, and to provide for herself.
Earlier she had prayed, the Lord grant rest to you, Ruth and Orpah. Now she says, should I not seek rest? Like Sarah with Hagar, she goes outside of the promise, outside of the plan to seize after what God has already offered.
But through the godliness of Ruth and Boaz, Naomi finally gives her first piece of good advice. She says, don't strive, cease striving, wait, be still. Ruth, this redeemer, he's the type of man, he will not rest, but will settle the matter today.
This is a redeemer who will not rest until the matter is finished, until he can say it is finished. He won't stop. God's loyal to his promises. He's sovereign over all things. And now Naomi is seeing that both of those things are true, and God is going to answer her prayers or her desires, and God is going to be faithful to his promise, but he's going to do that through a redeemer.
God is sovereign, and he loves his people, and he provides for them through a redeemer. That's what we see in this situation. And so the chapter ends, and the camera in a sense zooms in on Boaz as Naomi says, Ruth, wait.
You can trust Boaz. You can put your confidence in him. You can rest in him. He'll settle the matter today. And that's exactly what happens in chapter four. Act four, we see redemption and fullness. Verse one begins, now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there, and behold, the redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by.
So Boaz said, turn aside, friend. Sit down here, and he turned aside you. But there's another redeemer who's closer than I. There's another redeemer who actually according to the law, he gets first dibs on redeeming you, on rescuing you.
And so part of what Boaz has to settle is he has to figure out, is it okay for me to redeem? Am I gonna get the right of redemption from this other man? And so what he does in chapter four, how he resolves this is he calls all the elders of the city, and he sits them down in the gate of the city, and the gate of the city is like a courtroom.
The rest of scripture describes, this is where legal matters are settled. This is where drama is settled. This is where things are worked through, and the elders are the ones who bring the decision. And Boaz turns to the gate, and again, by sheer luck, that redeemer happens to be passing by at the very moment.
And so Boaz says, turn aside. Turn aside, friend. Sit down here. And he tells this man a story. He tells him the story of what needs to happen. He tells him about the redemption that needs to be accomplished.
But it's interesting that Boaz first mentions the partial of land. We find out there's a field that Naomi owned or used to own and possibly sold, and this field is now up for sale. And this is what's specifically mentioned in the Old Testament as one of the jobs of the redeemer.
And he mentions there's a field, and this land is up for grabs, and the man says, I will redeem it. He actually agrees, and there's a sense in which if you're following the story closely, you're gonna be let down.
I thought there was this amazing romance going on, and Boaz is gonna provide for Ruth, and all of this is gonna be an amazing end to the story. And this other man then agrees to redeem the field. But then Boaz adds something in verse five.
Not only are you gonna get this field, but he says the day you acquire the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.
Boaz adds something. He says you not only have to take the field, but you also acquire Ruth the Moabitess. You also acquire this widow. And again, we can easily read over this quickly and think this is another weird custom that they have.
When you get a field, you have to marry someone as well. But what Boaz is doing here is really amazing, and we don't have time to get into all the details, but there's a law in Deuteronomy 25 that Naomi had mentioned earlier.
It's called the Law of Leveret Marriage, or the Law of Brother Marriage. Basically what this law said was when a man dies, if he has no kids, his brother, if he's unmarried, his immediate brother, is to marry his widow, and the first son that they have together is gonna carry on the name of the dead brother.
The man dies, his brother marries his widow, and now this enables the line to continue. Each person's line in Israel in this way, if they were obedient, would be provided for. They would have a legacy and a name that continued on.
That's in Deuteronomy 25. There's a separate law in Leviticus 25 that talks about the right of redemption, that a near kinsman, a kinsman redeemer, a redeemer that we talked about, if their relative's field is sold, they're to buy it back so that they can keep it in the family, but there's no law that says that if you buy the land, you also acquire a woman.
There's no law that explicitly says these things. Boaz is combining two laws from the Old Testament. So what is Boaz doing here? Why does he do this? What Boaz is doing is he's interpreting the heart of the law, because here's the heart of the law.
Remember what God promises to Abraham? God says, I will take you, Abraham, and I will give you three things. I'll give you land. You're gonna inherit all of this land, the land of Israel. Not only land, but I'm gonna make a great nation out of you.
Your seed will be as many as the stars of the sky. Land, seed, not only that, you will be a blessing to all the nations. These are the three things that God promises to Abraham, and he passes through the animals and says, no matter what, I will be faithful to you.
Land, seed, promise, I'm gonna give this to you, Abraham. And then God gives the law, and the Mosaic law in many ways is to show sin, yes, but it's also to protect this promise.
It's to protect these three things,.
Land, seed, and blessing to all nations. The land is to stay in the family. Joshua talks about this in Numbers and Deuteronomy as well. The land is to be continued on in the family so we can know this is a descendant of Abraham, and they have this specific land, that God has given them this land.
That's one of the reasons why God says you need to keep this land in its allotment, in its portion, in the 12 tribes of Israel. And God is providing for that by giving this law of redemption. What about the law of leverant marriage?
Well, remember, God says, from you, Abraham, I will provide a seed, an offspring, who will bless all the nations. And the way that I'm gonna ensure that you continue to have a descendant, that you continue to have an offspring is, even if you die and you have no kids, your brother who's unmarried is to come in and is to provide a seed, a descendant for you.
So there's a logic behind the laws. They're not just random. And Boaz sees that. In the time when everyone does what is right in their own eyes, because there's no king in Israel, here's someone who not only knows the law well, but he combines it, he's an expert in it, and he can take two laws that might not seem connected, but attach them together, knowing that this is the heart behind the law.
How does the redeemer respond? He says, verse six, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it. He says, well, if I do that, what if I only have one son?
Then my name won't continue. Before, all I do is I acquire a field. That benefits me. But this could impair my inheritance. This demands something from me. And so there's a custom. He gives his sandal to Boaz.
He says, you can redeem it. And everyone celebrates. Everyone says, this is amazing. Boaz, you are truly a worthy man. You've rescued Ruth. You've rescued Naomi. And this is exactly what the people say.
Boaz says, you are all witnesses that I have acquired Ruth, and I have acquired this field. And they say in verse 11, we are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel.
May you act worthily in Ephrathah, and be renowned in Bethlehem. And may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.
All these people say, may you be blessed like the mothers of Israel. May you be blessed like all of the wives of the patriarchs.
May you be fruitful.
And then we find out that, yes, Naomi raises the son. The son is a redeemer for her. She treats the son as her own. She's been filled not only with bread. She's been returned to the land of Israel, but she's given a son, a descendant, everything that she's lost, she's now found.
Her old age is gonna be restored by this child. She has this amazing daughter-in-law. She's blessed. But even more importantly, we find out in verse 17, and then in the genealogy at the end of the book, a son has been born to Naomi.
They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. All of this, all of this provision, seemingly for one poor old widow who still does not respond righteously to every circumstance, all of this is to provide the king of Israel,.
King David.
In the town of Bethlehem, King David was born. And the amazing thing about this book is that this book really explains so much of the Old Testament, because there's these two things that are intention, and these two things, even though we're not Jews, are intention for us as well, that God is a God of love, that he's gracious and merciful and kind, that he has made an unconditional promise to us that if we will come to him by faith and trust in the son, admit that we're sinners and call out for help, that we will be forgiven.
But this God is also holy and just and righteous. He demands obedience from us. And this was revealed in the Old Testament in two covenants that God gave to Abraham, an unconditional promise. I will bless you.
No matter what you do, I will provide for you. Even if you keep lying over and over and over and saying that Sarah's your sister and not your wife, I'll keep blessing you in spite of your sin. But then there's this other promise given on Sinai to Moses.
Do this and you will live.
Blessings for obedience, curses for disobedience. And in Judges, you see how that works out for Israel. They spiral and they sin and repent and then are judged and over and over and they end up, by the end of the book of Judges, they don't even look like the nation of Israel.
They don't look different from the other nations. There's these two things and how do we understand both? How can God say, do this and you will live, curses if you disobey, and I will bless you unconditionally?
What we find out later in the Bible is it's all through the king. In spite of the failure of the people, God says, I'm not gonna treat you people anymore based on your own personal obedience or based on your own corporate obedience.
But as it goes for the king, so it will go for you. When the people disobey, the king is cursed and when the king disobeys, the people are cursed. When the king obeys, the people are blessed. And vice versa, as it goes for the king, so it goes for the people throughout the rest of scripture.
And so this man, David, really answers the tension of all the Bible and not this man, David, but his descendant, Jesus Christ. And the king will come and we will relate to God no longer through our obedience as his people under the Mosaic Covenant, but we will relate to God through our representative, through our king, through our redeemer, and God will bring about through his redeemer, through his king, through his obedience, what?
He will bring about land. Remember Boaz, he acquires the field for Naomi and Ruth. Seed, they have a son who ends up being the father of David and blessing to all nations that even Ruth, the Moabitess, is brought in.
And so this entire book sets up and shows us what redemption looks like. That in spite of our sin, in spite of our disobedience, in spite of even when God continues to provide for us and we don't get it, we don't notice it, we respond poorly, God has provided a redeemer for us in the town of Bethlehem.
He's the king and he's so much greater than Boaz. He doesn't just serve us, he doesn't just care for us. He's not just willing to suffer losing his own inheritance, but he comes and he's born to die. Suffers the curses that we deserve on the cross for us.
Willing to lose everything for you if you'll trust and put your faith in him. This is the good news of Christmas in the book of Ruth.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for your word, thank you for this story. We thank you so much for our redeemer, Jesus Christ. We thank you that we can relate to you now through the king. We don't have to provide our own obedience anymore to earn anything from you.
We can respond in obedience just out of gratitude for what he's done. We thank you for your son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for his life, that he perfectly obeyed the law. We thank you for his death, that he suffered it in our place and we thank you for his resurrection.
Father, we pray that you would help us to celebrate you and your work and your faithfulness.
Around Christmas in Jesus name, amen.