Drama of Redemption (Part 1)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures verse by verse with No Compromise.

Redemption Through Christ and the Story of Ruth

I love the story about a father and son. They had a relationship that got strained. They lived in Spain and finally the son snapped and he just moved out, ran away from home. And that father just tried to track that rebellious son down and tried to find him.

Didn't know what to do. He was desperate. And so finally he puts an ad in the newspaper in Madrid, according to James Hewitt. And the advertisement said this, Dear Paco, meet me in front of the newspaper office at noon.

All is forgiven. I love you, your father. According to the account, the next day at noon in front of the newspaper office, 800 Pacos showed up, all wanting forgiveness and love from their father. Aren't you glad you have a father who through Christ Jesus forgives you?

I mean just reading Revelation chapter 20, it's scary to think that if you had to stand before God for everything that you've done and not done before this holy creator God who's a judge, we would be undone.

We would be like Isaiah but worse. Woe is me for I am undone. But to think in Christ Jesus, the Bible says, we have redemption. In Christ Jesus we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us.

That's Ephesians chapter 1. We are redeemed people as Christians and that's why we sing to the Lord and shout to the Lord. We didn't do much shouting during that song but still, good song. Like Paco's father, God our father is willing to forgive, able to forgive.

Ruth, Boaz, and the Kinsman-Redeemer

And let's turn our Bibles to Ruth chapter 3 this morning to see a picture of Ruth and Boaz. And as we focus on their relationship and see Boaz, we'll see that even though Boaz is a man of integrity and Ruth is a woman of excellence, the real picture is of Christ Jesus, the true redeemer of souls like ours, souls like yours and mine.

And so we're in the book of Ruth. I call it the gospel according to Ruth because Ruth preaches redemption found in Christ Jesus. If you're a sinner and have ever sinned, you need to be redeemed from that slave pit of sin and that's what Christ has done.

And so if you think how does God paint a picture in the Old Testament of redemption, personally he does it through the book of Ruth. You can almost miss the forest for the trees if you get so focused on Ruth and Boaz that you never think what does it teach me about God the redeemer?

And so we'll try to do both today. What does the text say and then how does it fit in the drama of redemption? Now in Ruth chapter 1, Naomi was widowed, Ruth was widowed, Orpah was widowed. I keep hearing a kind of a banging sound.

Is that me? Well that's somebody upstairs. Well you know what they're shouting, they're just praising the Lord with their own off beat. I thought there was like a chipmunk in the walls or something. I was at the shepherd's conference last week and the lights went off while MacArthur was preaching.

And so somebody in the front row gave him a flashlight and he just kept on preaching. So it was probably 12 years ago when Lenita was the secretary, she said Mike please come into the sanctuary. I said okay.

I came in here and there was a flying squirrel here in the sanctuary, zooming all around. That's why they call them flying squirrels. How do you catch a flying squirrel? And so Lenita would go around that way and I would go this way trying to catch the flying squirrel.

So the moral of the story is pastors have to be ready for anything. Beats up there, chipmunks, squirrels, flashlights. There's a problem in Ruth chapter 1 and you had no bread in Bethlehem, the city of bread.

And so Naomi and her husband go down into Moab. It was a bad decision and bad things happened there. But there was a solution to the problem as they come back to Israel. Ruth is redeemed, she's a convert and she meets Boaz.

It says in chapter 3 verse 1 of Ruth as we pick it up, I'll just read these verses for a review so we can get to our passage for today that is 11 through 18. Ruth chapter 3 verse 1 says, then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, said to Ruth, my daughter, should I not seek rest for you?

Should I not seek a marriage for you? Remember her husband had died down in Moab, that it may be well with you that you might have children, continue the line. Is not Boaz our relative with whose young women you were?

He's related and the way it was set up in the old days was Israel needed to be redeemed by God. God would take care of Israel in this very wonderful way of protection and provision. So too he wanted his people to act the same way and so if your husband died, somebody else needed to step in to give you protection, provision, redemption.

It would be through a relative, a kinsman redeemer. It says in verse 2, see, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. And make sure you remind yourself on the threshing floor is a place where the man who owned this grain would guard it because people would steal it and also other bad things happen down on threshing floors.

Hosea chapter 9 verse 1, prostitution was one of them because you can imagine back in the day if you weren't thinking biblically and correctly, let's have a huge party, thank you for the wonderful grain, for fertility, for the seed and by the way, let's have a bigger party with prostitutes and other things so it's a dangerous place.

So dangerous Boaz has to watch over it and too dangerous to send a young lady there but Naomi did it anyway. Verse 3, wash therefore and anoint yourself, put your cloak on Ruth and go down to the threshing floor.

It's mentioned again but do not make yourself known to the man till he has finished eating and drinking. But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies, then go, uncover his feet, lie down and he'll tell you what to do.

And she replied, all that you say I will do. And you can feel the tension, remember when we looked at it a couple weeks ago, lots of ambiguous words that are related in a sexual context and what's going to happen down there and Naomi wants so desperately the right thing, a husband for Ruth but maybe she wants to get at it through any possible way.

So she went down to the threshing floor, it's said again verse 6, and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her and when Boaz had eaten and drunk, his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain, right, he's going to guard it.

Then she came softly, uncovered his feet and lay down. At midnight, the man was startled and turned over and behold, a woman lay at his feet. He said, who are you? I don't think he said it quite like that.

And she answered, I'm Ruth, your servant, marry me. That's basically what she said. With the cultural language of the day, spread your wings over your servant for you are a redeemer. That's Exodus, excuse me, Ezekiel 14 language, Ezekiel 16 language where basically she's saying I know your feet are cold so you're going to have to twist over and cover your feet and while you're at it in a symbolic way, cover me as well with the language of marriage, please marry me.

Verse 10, and he said, here's finally some relief in the tension of the drama. May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter, finally, I mean, I want to take a deep breath and say all the sexual tension and possible things that could go badly is just let out of the room because he says, you're to be blessed by God, my daughter, I know exactly what you're trying to do.

You want me to marry you, you want me to be a kinsman redeemer for you, I understand it and for that you're to be blessed because that's a good thing to do to have the line of Elimelech go on through you.

That's a wonderful thing, you're blessed. You could marry anyone you want, everyone knows about you and you're known at the gates and you're this hardworking Moabitess and you could have anybody you wanted but you pick me an older man.

He no longer calls her a stranger, nor a foreigner, nor a Moabitess, but daughter. And he says, may the Lord bless you, the Lord seems to be blessing everything here providentially moving behind the scenes, yes, this God, this sovereign God has been in control of this from the very beginning.

He doesn't say to her, well, this is not a proposition for marriage, this seems like it's a proposition for sex, how could you, how dare you? He doesn't say that at all, he says, you're to be blessed.

And every time you see the character of Naomi, excuse me, the character of Ruth and the character of Boaz, the author, most likely Samuel, paints their picture as one of integrity, holiness, and he says, you know what?

You've made the latter act of devotion better than the former. Your former act of devotion was to take care of Naomi and to stay with her and this is even better, to marry an old man like me, it's wonderful.

The Lord bless you, my daughter. You could have gone after a young man, the literal Hebrew is the choice ones. You have had anybody you wanted, notice the text, it says, whether rich or poor, what is that for you hermeneutic students?

The very end of verse 10, whether rich or poor, well, what do you do with a little phrase like that? It shows the two opposites to show the entirety. You know, I've searched high and low, haven't you?

When I say I've searched high and low, what does that mean? I've searched high and low and everywhere in between. You could have had rich, you could have had poor, you could have had anybody in between and you picked me.

Verse 11, and now my daughter, do not fear, I will do for you all that you ask. You're not asking for some kind of seedy, illicit thing at night in the threshing floor, you're asking me to protect you and to continue the line of Malon, your dead husband, and the line of Elimelech, I'll be glad to do it for you.

For all my fellow townsmen, know that you are a worthy woman. It's about time we see a worthy woman in judges. Name me one woman in judges that says of her she's worthy. You don't see that at all, and here we find a worthy woman.

In the English it doesn't translate very well, all my fellow townsmen, it means all the gate of my people, no. Everybody who sits at the gate, those shakers and movers and leaders and the elders and the big shots, all those leaders know you're a worthy woman.

Everyone knows your reputation, and the word worthy means excellent. It means noble, full of integrity. It was used of Boaz in chapter 2, verse 1, a man of valor. Boaz, the man of valor. Ruth, the worthy woman of noble character.

Ruth and Proverbs 31: The Excellent Wife

Now let me just tell you something really neat. This is worth coming for today. In English, we have judges and then Ruth. Now I would sing you all the books of the Bible, but I don't want to do that, but that's how I've memorized the books of the Bible, by singing.

Genesis 6... Right here we have judges and Ruth, and in one sense it's really good because Ruth starts off in the days when the judges ruled, so you realize this is a cesspool of sin in judges and now we have these two people of valor and of excellence and of integrity.

But in the Hebrew canon, they don't have 39 books like we do in the Old Testament, they have how many? Good, 22. They have 22 books, and guess what book comes before Ruth in the Hebrew canon? In English you have judges, Ruth, and in Hebrew you have what?

Well, I'll tell you. Esther, Job, Lamentations, Proverbs, Ruth. You have Proverbs and then Ruth, and you're like, what's the big deal? Why is that neat? Are you starting to think Proverbs 31 talks about what?

A woman of excellence. Who would be a good woman of excellence? Who's a good Proverbs 31 woman? Who's a woman with integrity and nobility? Ruth! So let's go to Proverbs chapter 31 just for a moment to see what a praiseworthy woman is like described by Proverbs 31.

If you ask society today, what's a praiseworthy woman look like, I wonder what they would say. And my guess is they'll say everything opposite of Proverbs 31. My old pastor said if you ask society today about a praiseworthy woman, she would refuse to submit to her husband, demanding equality with him and everything.

She would have an affair or two or three, a divorce or two or three, an abortion or two or three. She would make sure that she was eminently fulfilled herself. She would rely on her own resources. She would not want her husband or children to threaten her personal goals.

She'd have her own bank account. She'd hire a maid or cleaning service. She'd eat out at least 50 of the time with her family or without. She would make cold cereal and coffee standard fare for her family and quick frozen meals usual dinner fare.

She would be tan, coiffured, aerobicized, bulging with muscle. Now this was written in about 1980. So maybe now she'd be cross-fit on a paleo diet. Some of you do that here, but I won't tell you who they are.

She'd put her children in a daycare center, making sure that each one had a TV in his or her room so that when they were home they wouldn't interrupt her routine. She'd be opinionated. She would demand to be heard from and eager to fulfill all of her personal ambition.

The world would applaud her and she wouldn't be able to stay married or happy and her kids would probably be into drugs and she would be a million miles from the woman of God described in Proverbs 31.

Now it says in chapter 31, verse 1, the words of King Lemuel, the oracle which his mother taught him. So this is a mom teaching a son about life through a poem. Now King Lemuel may be what Bathsheba called Solomon.

We're not exactly sure. This would be like a pet name for your son and it could be Bathsheba teaching Solomon life. And she says in verse 3, be sexually pure. She says in verse 4, don't overdo it with alcohol.

She says in verse 8, stick up for the needy. And now in verses 10 through 31, Lemuel's mother says, pick the right kind of wife and devotes all these verses to picking the right kind of wife. 22 verses in Hebrew to perfectly match up with 22 Hebrew letters.

So it's kind of like an acrostic, well it is an acrostic, but it's like the ABCs of how to pick a wife. How do you pick a wife from God's perspective? And it starts off in verse 10 with the exact same word used of Ruth.

An excellent wife, a valuable wife, who can find for her worth is far above jewels. That's the exact same word for Ruth. Of one of nobility, of excellence, of integrity. If anyone could find that kind of wife, he would be so blessed.

She's hard to find, but when you do find her, boy, that's a treasure. They're rare, but not extinct, these kind of wives. In Jerusalem back in the old days, people would get married and then the men would go find the husband when he was alone.

And since the text says an excellent wife who can find, the men would come up to the recently married man and say, did you find? Is she good? Is she excellent? And as I read this, I just think of Ruth.

Verse 11, the heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She helps, she doesn't hurt. She's a helpmate, not a hurtmate. She's loyal. She's a confident, a confidant. Verse 12, she does her husband good and not evil.

She's an asset, not a liability, all the days of her life. I mean, the blessings from our triune God flow through the wife to the husband, and God just blesses him through her. Hawkins said, in modern society that has tried to declare marriage and family as useless relics of bygone days, tied to irrelevant customs.

Proverbs 31 stands like a literary statue of liberty, welcoming all who have tried the sociological jargon about loose commitment and easy divorce and found it wanting. And she's a hard worker, just like Ruth.

Verse 13, she looks for wool and flax and works with her hands in the light. She enjoys her work. She knows it's to God. There's no division between this is secular and this is sacred because sacred and secular.

What words did I just use? I think there's a chipmunk stuck in the wall. She doesn't have the bifurcation between secular and sacred because what she does even at home is like an offering to the Lord, to God alone be the glory, living for His glory.

Verse 14, I mean, this sounds like Ruth, doesn't it? She's like merchant ships. What do you mean like merchant ships? Like she buys enough at the mall to fill a merchant ship? No, she brings her food from afar.

Abundance, taking care of her family. She'll go to any length to make sure they're taken care of. Verse 15, to do that, she's going to have to be getting up early, early to bed, early to rise, makes a woman healthy, wealthy and wise.

Verse 15, she rises also while it's still night and gives food to her household and portions to her maidens. She considers a field. She's resourceful. She's kind of an entrepreneurial spirit. She buys it from her earnings.

She plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength and makes her arms strong. Notice in the Proverbs 31 woman and in the description of Ruth in the book of Ruth, nothing said about how they look. How do they look?

Well, she's got long hair and she's got long eyelashes and olive-colored skin and whatever you think might be pretty or beautiful, not described at all. It's her inner beauty, right, that's described.

She's not lazy at all. She's a worker like Ruth. Verse 18, she senses that her gain is good. Her lamp does not go out at night. Plans ahead. She stretches out her hands to the staff that holds the wool.

The disc staff in her hands grasps the spindle. She's generous. She extends her hand, literally open palms, to the poor and she stretches out her hands to the needy, selfless woman. She's not afraid of the snow.

Try living in New England. For her household, for all her household are clothed with scarlet. She gets the best. She plans it out. They're ready to go. Oh, it's snowing out. I've got you covered. She makes coverings for herself.

Her clothing is fine linen and purple. Such a hard worker. It's like Ruth cleaning all day long. There's the poor over here, the spillover. Her husband is known in the gates. The elders, the big shots all know what a wonderful woman this woman is and only if I could have a wife like that when he sits among the elders of the land.

I don't mean I. Some of you looked at me like, if only I had a wife like this. I'm talking about this guy right here, but I do have a wife like this. She makes linen garments and sells them and supplies belts to the tradesmen.

Strength and dignity are her clothing and she smiles at the future. That's Ruth. And now from the inside out, she opens her mouth in wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. No slander. No backbiting.

But words of life. No idle talk. I love Chuck Swindoll's description of a tombstone in England. Gray slate tombstone, kind of like what we have here. Beneath this stone, a lump of clay, lies Arabella Young, who on the 24th of May began to hold her tongue.

But that's not Proverbs 31, 26. Verse 27, some of you finally get it. She looks well to the ways of her household, does not eat the bread of idleness. Literally, bread of idleness means eyes looking everywhere.

She's not just trying to be discontent, looking all around. What can I do next? No, she's busy. And the payoff is, by the way, better than climbing the corporate ladder, better than a raise, better than a career.

Her children rise up and bless her. Sounds just like Ruth, doesn't it? I think they're going to do the exact same thing for Ruth. Her husband also praises her, saying, Many daughters have done, there's our word again, from Ruth and Proverbs 31, 10.

Excellence, integrity, nobility. Many have done nobly, but you excel them all. You're the best of the best. After all, verse 30, charm is deceitful. Charm means bodily form. What a woman looks like, what her form is like, is deceitful, because that doesn't show you what's going on in the inside.

And beauty is vain. What an awful translation that is, beauty is vain. ESV, NAS, both say beauty is vain. Is beauty vain? No, but it's fleeting. We all like beauty. It's not vain, but it's fleeting. So the external form of a woman is deceitful, and beauty does flee.

But the woman who fears the Lord, like Ruth when she got converted in chapter 1 of Ruth, who fears Yahweh, she shall be praised. She doesn't care what the culture thinks, what society thinks, what Oprah thinks.

What does the Lord think? And as Proverbs 1 starts off with, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of what? Wisdom. Here a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're located on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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