Ruth 2 Piper

Naomi’s Bitter Providence and the Hope at Bethlehem

Well in chapter 1 of Ruth God's hand fell hard on Naomi and her family, right a famine in Judah a move to a pagan land the death of her husband marriage of her two sons to foreign wives. Ten years of marriage each without children the death of each of the boys and.

Then.

One of her Daughters-in-law turning away as she was heading home so she says in verse 13 of Chapter 1 the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me and in verse 20 the Almighty has dealt very Bitterly with me.

So the situation at the end of the chapter 1 is that a Crack a ray of hope is shining because it says they arrived in In Bethlehem her home at the beginning of the barley harvest and and if you've read ahead Then you know what's gonna happen in the barley fields is where the love story is gonna start.

Boaz it's going to appear and a relationship is going to happen and everything is going to change and it's just a beautiful little touch at the end of chapter 1 that Dawn is just over the horizon, but Naomi simply did not have the wherewithal to see any signs of hope she was Very depressed because of all the blows that God had brought Against her and she thought her days were were over as far as any significant life or influence in the world.

Boaz as Relative, Worthy Man, and God-Saturated Man

So now we turn to chapter 2. There are in verses 1 to 7 Three things that we need to see. One is who is Boaz? What do we find out about this man number two the character of Ruth and Number three a very merciful providence behind the scene.

So let's take those one at a time in verses 1 to 7 Boaz right off the bat verse 1 chapter 2 is said to be of the clan of Elimelech which means now we're introduced to the fact that Naomi had committed a Colossal blunder in chapter 1 by saying to Ruth there's nobody for you.

She was so discouraged and so oppressed that her mind was not clear just like your mind will not be clear when you're Depressed about your future. You'll see it way bleaker than it really will be and hers was too bleak because she didn't think of Boaz and so we're introduced to the fact that there is a Relative there is one who can do this strange Custom of marrying the widow and raising up seed to the line of Malon by the way, I made a mistake this morning.

My assistant David pointed out. I said, I don't know which one of these Sons Ruth had married and it says in chapter 4 verse 10 very clearly that she had married Malon. So Sorry about the mistake. No, we got that clear.

So That's the first thing we find out about Boaz he was a part of a limilex family. He can do this if if God would put it together for them hasn't happened yet it also says that he was a man of worth or We were talking to earlier about what does that really mean?

Is it worth or is it wealth and in the context here? He's clearly a worthy man, and he's clearly a wealthy man. He owns all these fields where people even the poor are Gleaning freely around the edges.

So you've got a wealthy man and worthy man and you've got a man who is in the family of a limilex. He could in fact if God were put together marry this woman and complete the plan that God seemed to be up to in Moab and the last thing we find out about him and this is in verse 4 is That he is a man of God.

When you're reading something like this you look at the little details. You should and ask why are they there and listen to this Boaz greets his servants like this behold Boaz came from Bethlehem and he said to the Reapers the Lord be with you and they answered The Lord bless you.

What's that little little? Conversation therefore is to show this man in the details of his life as a God saturated man and so he's been introduced as a Relative of a limilex he could do this he is wealthy which makes it all the better because he's got the resources to carry this woman and her mother-in-law into the future and He is a godly man and Ruth wouldn't even look at anybody.

Who wasn't a godly man and you women shouldn't even look at a man? Who's not a godly man and I mean that with all my heart you can evangelize. But none of this dating none of this courting stuff with unbelievers that just came to my mind.

Ruth’s Initiative, Humility, and Industry

Secondly we learn about the character of Ruth. We've met Boaz and now we learn more about the character of Ruth which is going to be very important in this chapter. Three things about her number one. Notice Ruth's initiative in love or in care for her mother-in-law in verse 2 Ruth says let me go to the field and glean along along the ears among the ears of grain.

In other words Ruth Naomi the mother-in-law didn't have to say to the Foreign daughter-in-law, would you please get out and do something? We're poor. We need food. She didn't have to do that. Rather Ruth says to her may I go?

Will I go. I will go and do this gleaning for us. So that's the initiative then secondly notice her humility. And the way she did she does this the way she puts herself forward out. There is very beautiful verse 7.

The servants report to Boaz how she had approached them and and they say this she said.

Please.

Let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the Reapers. She didn't just presume she could do it. She asked if she could do it even though it was a statute in the law that the poor could Gleam on the edges of the rich people's Leavings when they were done with their harvesting.

So she Asked. And she reminds me in asking in this humble way of another woman in the New Testament. And the parallel here is is really remarkable. Jesus said I've come only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel when the Syrophoenician another foreign woman Coming to Jesus and she said yes Lord.

But even the dogs eat from the crumbs under the master's table. And Jesus was rocked by that answer. And he said I've never seen such faith. That is great faith. So you've got Ruth Humbly asking if she could just take the edges and take some grain back to her mother-in-law.

She's a humble woman very strong very courageous. Very initiative taking but very meek and the third thing notice her industry. Verse 7 continues. She has continued from early morning. They're reporting this she has continued from early morning until now except for a short Rest.

She so she worked all day long and clearly this is being reported for us to admire.

This.

Woman, so that's the second thing we see in these seven verses is her her character. Here's the third thing a merciful Providence is about. It's in the offing verse 3.

Verse 3.

So she set out and went and gleaned in the field After the Reapers and she happened to come to a part of the field. Belonging to Boaz who was of the family of a limeleck now. You don't have to write your whole theology into every verse.

But there is a massive theology here in those little words. She happened to come to the field of Boaz. You know, this is no accident here. This book is written to describe God's providence in the life of this family to prepare them to give Birth to David down the line and Jesus beyond that and so the coming together of Ruth and Boaz just happened according to this verse and we know that that's a covering for a grand act of Providence and the point there is that a man in mind a Man's mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.

So Ruth goes out with a plan. I'm just going to go get some food for my mother-in-law and me so that we can eat and she hasn't a clue. What God is doing that day? I wish I had a half an hour just to talk to you about my life and the way God Has worked me just let me sketch just take a few minutes and sketch because I want to encourage you.

Not to have too much of a plan for your life. Because God's got a big one and you might really mess it up. Sitting in a worship service at age 18 in Greenville, South Carolina not knowing whether to go to to school at Emory in Atlanta or Johns Hopkins in Baltimore or Wheaton College, Illinois the three schools to which I had applied.

I Was sitting there with my mother in our usual pew about four pews back and there came over me. I wish I could remember the song that we were singing an.

Absolute.

Unmistakable. Sense and peace go to Wheaton. It's one of those inexplicable kinds of peace arbiters in your life and I Praise God that I did that because there are a thousand reasons why that seems to me now to have been a very good Thing.

I was a lit major. No big plan. They're a literature major to this day. I'm thankful that I was a lit major in a philosophy minor. I only got into Bible later. I didn't know how to date girls. I didn't know what to do.

I wanted to be married someday. I was freaked out by the thought of even calling a girl up on the telephone and The the Lord one afternoon in the fine arts room because it had a stereo set in it.

I.

Was sitting on the couch with my roommate Bareford and and a girl came in by the name of Noel and She was on another couch and she overheard us talking and a conversation happened. And I've been married to her for 40 years.

That wasn't that was no plan. That was zero plan that that was a gift straight from heaven to this chicken-livered.

Male I.

Got mono in the summer of 1966 and was three weeks in the hospital. Three of the best weeks of my life because I had to stop being pre-med because I had to drop organic chemistry and God spoke to me through the radio message of John Harold Ockengay That the Word of God is precious beyond measure and I was Converted kind of a second time to the Word of God and I said all I want to do is understand the Bible.

I don't know what to do with it with my life. 20 years old and I just want to know the Bible. So I shifted took all the Bible courses instead of chemistry and science courses and I said, what do I do next?

I was one of the Bible somebody said go to seminary. So I went to seminary. I chose fuller because it had palm trees in the pictures. And I was sick and tired of the weather in Wheaton and they said it was good for the next century because they were kind Of cutting-edge evangelicals and so I went there and I fell massively in love with the exegesis of scriptures.

I'm done with seminary now at three. I'm 25 years old. I'm married and What do I do now, I don't know what to do. I just love the Bible didn't feel any call one way or the other except to the Bible and At that point a wise person said well if you still got a lot of energy in you to study Why don't just get one more degree then you can do anything you could teach or you could preach to be a missionary.

Or whatever saw went to. I said, where should I go and and one professor dr. Ladd George Ladd said well, don't you go study with with? My friend over in Munich, Germany and.

I.

Wrote him and he said only by the study of dr. Ladd can come over here. He didn't know me from Adam. I was so frightened when I went to Munich and I went there and three years later I had a degree and I didn't know what to do.

Now. I'm 28 years old. What do I do now? I've studied the Bible all my life. You know, it seems like and haven't ever had a real job and and One door open one single door. I wrote about 30 letters to churches to seminaries to mission agencies.

I'll do anything Lord. I just love the Bible. I want to teach the Bible or preach it or do something with the Bible. I love the Bible. One door opened a college in st. Paul, Minnesota named Bethel College.

I've never been there. I've never been to Minnesota didn't know anything about it and I walked through that door and was there for six years and one night in October 1979 God came down. This is kind of like a Who am I thinking about Pascal?

Remember that midnight scene of Pascal and he said midnight fire. He sewed it into his coat. They found it when he died. A little story about that night when he met God and God came down about 1 a .m One morning and said you will preach young man.

You will stop analyzing Romans 9 and you will proclaim to God of Romans 9. That's literally where it where it happened and I got up the next morning. I said Lord if I had my wife has to go with me you know and.

He knew that.

So I just rolled over at 6 in the morning as soon as I saw her eyes open I said, what would you think if I resigned at Bethel and took a church and she said I could see it coming and. So in 1980, that's what we did and that's where I've been ever since.

My life has simply not been planned by me. I just I look at it and I say don't get too hung up on this plan thing do the next. Demand. I taught seventh graders when I didn't know what else to do as a first-year seminary student.

Well, I just want to do something.

They said I teach seventh graders and then I taught ninth graders and then they gave me a young marriage class and I just did. The next thing with all my might it seems to me that Ruth is just going out being obedient daughter-in-law here.

She's gonna make a living for her mother-in-law and God Takes her right there in that obedient day and make something spectacular Happen for her. So that's that's just a little testimony to my belief in the fact that don't worry too much about having your life planned out.

God's got it planned out and he wants a holy obedient Person so follow him in.

That.

Grace, Legalism, and Taking Refuge Under God’s Wings

Now verses 8 and 9 Boaz Approaches Ruth and Shows her great great kindness. He provides her food. They work in the field. They stay close. He says stay close together to the women. I'll give you protection from my men.

Drink all you want. I'll take care of you. And then comes verses 10 to 13 and This is the most important section in the chapter, I Think it's very profound. She asks a question. She says in verse 10 Why she bows down notice.

She bows face to the ground and Very humbly she says why have alpha I found favor in your eyes. That you should take notice of me when I am a foreigner, it's a very humble woman. She was Stunned at the way she was being treated by Boaz.

She was just amazed. She wasn't an arrogant person. Last Sunday when I was preaching I defined humility by saying it's the opposite of a sense of entitlement. Many Americans and we're known for this I think have a swaggering sense of entitlement.

You owe me. Ruth had nothing of that. She was amazed that he would treat her so Kindly and she asked the question Why have I found grace or why have I found favor in your eyes? And I think that's Answering that question for yourself is Absolutely essential.

The answer that you give to that question will make all the difference in your life. You can give a legalistic proud answer a works answer or you can give a humble answer a grace. Exalting answer as to why you have found favor.

Because this is favor that's coming through Boaz.

From.

God. That's plain when you read Boaz's answer, let's read it verses 11 and 12. Boaz answered her All that you have done for your mother-in-law. Since the death of your husband has been fully told me how.

So he has the inside scoop here in the kind of woman. This is that's why he's moving on her and How you left your father and mother and your native land and Call and came to a people that you did not know before.

The Lord now notes. She said why did you show favor to me? And he's giving an answer that the Lord is Repaying her. The Lord repay you for what you have done and a full reward Begiven you by the Lord the God of Israel under whose under whose wings you have come to take refuge.

That's the most important section in the chapter when it's just going to take some a few minutes to unpack that with you and Might have to say some things for more morning. That could either mean the ways divide theologically here.

You take this that could either mean The answer to your question Ruth. Why have I found favor from God through you?

Is.

Because you behave properly in relationship to your grandmother and God pays Proper behavior. Well, that's one way to take the text. That's what I call legalism justification by works. Or you could take it another way.

You could say Well, let me not give you the answer because because I'd rather just draw it right out. Where I'm getting my clue from this text as to how I should take it. It's from the last phrase I read there.

Verse 12.

Under whose wings you have come to take refuge the Lord.

Repay you.

For you.

For what you've done and a full reward Given you be given you by the Lord the God of Israel under whose wings you have come to take. Refuge. Now the imagery that's created there that Boaz is interpreting her behavior a certain way is not the image of Ruth the employee working for God or Boaz the employer Performing well in her labors and getting an appropriate due wage.

That's not the picture when you say God is responding to a little eaglet That has flown for refuge under his wings. That phrase is massively important. Jesus stood before Jerusalem Jerusalem Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks and you would not.

Why wouldn't they?

Because he said these Pharisees justify themselves. They are so arrogant they don't bow down. They have a sense of entitlement. And here is here is Ruth and Boaz is spotting her behavior and he's interpreting it.

I'm gonna argue he's interpreting it in terms of the fruit of faith or the fruit of grace. So somehow back in Moab in those ten years Ruth had fallen in love with the God of grace and the God of glory and the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and she had flown out of all the refuge of Moab and her parentage and the false gods and she'd flown under the wings of the caring Merciful God Yahweh and there she just wanted to be safe and she wanted to be fruitful and she wanted to enjoy Him wherever he went and evidently now, this is this is the way I try to live my life.

I commend it to you. Once you've flown there once you've gone there and you're hiding under the wings of Jesus or the wings of Yahweh. Depending on which Testament you're in we're in the news. So we're under the wings of of Jesus and he's he's got us protected against the fires and against our enemies.

Even though there's much suffering in the Christian life. We cannot be destroyed if we go there and find Satisfaction in him what's gonna flow over from us is a great sense of freedom. To take risks and love other people and so the way life is lived.

It's like this. She's in Moab. Naomi says Your husband's dead. My husband's dead. God's hand is against me. I'm going back to my people you girls go home this has been a terrible experience and I'm leaving and and Orpah finally does that and Ruth says no.

Your God is my God not going anywhere. I'm going with you and She clearly goes as a servant. I'm gonna care for you. You're the mother of my husband and your God is my God. I love you because I love him.

That's what Boaz sees you flew under the wings of God and under the wings of God. Movement began to happen. Naomi with that God covering her starts to go somewhere. Have you ever experienced this you wonder do I go to this school or this school?

Do I take this course or this course do I talk to this person or this person? Do I do this mission trip with that mission trip? Do what do I do Lord? There's so many good things to do in the world. How do you do that?

One way to think about it is you stay under the wings. You stay in the place where the blessing is falling and it may be the riskiest hardest place in the world. To leave her own homeland with all the familiar food and all the familiar customs and all the familiar gods and all the familiar language was not easy and she said I'm Going because I'm staying under the wings of God.

I'm gonna follow this woman and serve her. So the way I understand the answer to Ruth's question. Why have I found?

Favor.

With God Through Boaz.

That he would show me any attention and open up a future to me that I never dreamed. The answer that Boaz gives her is when you fly under the wings of God when you hide in him like a Humble little chick or a humble little eaglet not a hero.

Not somebody who can boast about their great achievements. But you just go under there and you draw down grace and draw down mercy. God's worth not your worth is put on display God's value and God's strength and God's wisdom and God's evil up God's.

God's.

Power is put on display there. God's wisdom is put on display so that you are calling attention to him and not yourself. There's the difference between a works religion and a grace religion. A works religion figures out ways to call attention to my Achievements and my performances so God appropriately responds and rewards.

A grace religion says how to have any claim I'm just gonna call attention to grace by hiding. According to the second Chronicle 16 9 the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself Mighty like a great eagle on behalf of those whose heart is whole.

Toward him. The answer to the question. Why have you found favor is not that you've performed and God is impressed but rather your acts of love have flown out from.

Childlike.

Hiding in the grace of God Galatians 5 6 neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail but Love or faith working through love. That's what was going on here. Her love for Naomi. Was the out growth of her faith in this eagle under whose wings she had flown.

For.

Refuge Naomi said to her daughter when she comes back with this report about how good Boaz was to her May he be blessed by the Lord. Whose now that who's there refers to the Lord whose kindness has not Forsaken the living or the dead.

And I just want you to see that the sky has opened for Naomi. She has moved from the Lord has dealt very bitterly with me to saying the Lord's kindness has not forsaken the living or The dead. We sing a lot of British hymns.

Because the Wesley's.

Wrote a lot of great hymns and.

Because.

William Cooper wrote great hymns. Now, you know, you know, you're you're great him writer.

William Cooper.

Never got out of chapter one. He was suicidal all his life. Tried to kill himself. What three times John Newton loved him so dearly. Never forsook him. I Wrote a song that when we preached The gospel of Ruth back in 1984.

We sang it every Sunday for four weeks. God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Ye fearful saints fresh courage take the clouds that you so much dread are Big with mercy and will break in Blessings on your head.

Judge, not the Lord by feeble sense But trust him for his grace behind a frowning Providence. He hides a smiling face.

Deep in.

Unfathomable minds of never-failing skill. He treasures up his bright designs and works his sovereign will blind. Unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter and he will make it.

Plain.

You can write things like that And never seem to rise above it. Isn't it amazing that God will take you in? Ruth one. If you have to live there all your life and use you for John Piper.

200 years later. I.

Love that song. I live that song. Dark things come into my life almost every day and William Cooper ministers to my heart. Suicidal though he was.