God Provides

I do have to tell you before we begin that I was very stirred up this morning and almost unwilling to preach from Ruth 2, which is what

I worked on this week to present to you, which from last week you know we had planned to present.

I think the scope of these fires and somehow my nonchalance in that having perhaps transferred to the church somewhat not enough times and as you heard my prayer this morning, not often enough remembering that this is

God, not just intellectually, not just because the scripture says that everything that happens whatsoever, no matter how small it is, is from the hand of God or from His decree of will and all those glorious truths which we don't set aside in any way.

Have we taken enough time? Have we slowed down often enough? We the people of God, by faith in Jesus Christ, having as Conley pointed out a few moments ago repented of our sins and knowing our sins be forgiven, even letting our hearts be softened towards God and towards our unbelieving neighbors especially by all these things, a pandemic the like of which no generation has seen and we're living in it.

And now these historic fires. Our governor yesterday was castigating people who do not believe in global warming.

When I was thinking about that and I saw passion, I thought this is real. He really is stirred up about this.

And whether you believe in global warming being man caused or not, I'm not going to politicize it one way or the other.

But could it be that God allowed it, even if it's fossil fuel created?

I'm not saying it is or isn't, but if it is, is that not our father, our

God who is over the waters, whose voice thunders, whose voice causes fires?

Could it not be him warning us and telling even his people even more to repent and to look to our stewardship, to look to our attitudes toward our neighbors?

Could it be that God has sent this to bring our neighbors, to bring on believers to himself?

I was speaking with one of the sisters here this morning before we started, and I know I'm going on a while.

We'll get to Ruth two in a moment. Bear with me. And I was pointing out that one of the things that has always struck me since the first time

I read the Apocalypse, the book of Revelation, and even more so now in Revelation 9 and Revelation 16, you have these two incredible statements from the

Apostle John about men suffering these terrible sores, this incredible pain, seeing these disasters going throughout the world.

And what do they do? They shake the fist of God. They blaspheme his name. They curse him and refuse to repent of all the sin that these disasters

God sent to expose. Let it be that the church, that we, this generation, seeing these things, may our hearts be softened.

May we not just in our minds say, well, God has sent us and he does it for a good reason, but know truly that God has done this.

He's done it in this time amongst this people in order to bring his church closer to Christ, to bring us more in repentance and more into his image as is his predestined will for us.

Romans chapter 8 makes us so clear. But also that our loved ones, our neighbors, our co -workers, our friends will not do as we see the men in Revelation 9 and Revelation 16 and shake their fist at God and curse him.

But instead, repent and know that if they can't, if God sent this and it brought them to faith in Jesus Christ, repentance towards God and faith in Christ.

Then we can, with the beginning of Psalm 29, see that God sent it so that we would glorify his name all the more.

Those are just some thoughts that's just from one of you two pastors, impromptu to you.

I would just encourage us all as we look at this, as we see the statistics flowing, as we see the fires growing and the first responders going in and people being displaced.

I heard on the news that one out of 10 Oregonians has been chased out of their homes. I know they're not as populous as California, but still one out of 10.

Let's be those who know that God did this for good purpose and for good reason, and let us pray that those around us would not shake their fist, but instead bend their knee and come to faith in Jesus Christ and know eternal life through him.

Please turn to Ruth, chapter two, then we will,

God willing, attend ourselves to this chapter, which is the second in this book that we began last week.

Ruth, chapter two, I'll read the entire chapter and then we'll begin. Now, Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was

Boaz. And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight

I shall find favor. And she said to her, go, my daughter. So she set out and went 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's of the clan of Elimelech.

And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, the Lord be with you.

Excuse me. He said to the reapers, the Lord be with you. And they answered, the Lord bless you.

Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, whose young woman is this? And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, she is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.

She said, please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers. So she came as she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.

Then Boaz said to Ruth, now listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women.

Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you?

And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn. Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, why have

I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner? But Boaz answered her, all that you have done for your mother -in -law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before.

The Lord repay you for what you have done and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the

God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. Then she said, I have found favor in your eyes, my

Lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I'm not one of your servants.

And at mealtime, Boaz said to her, come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine.

So she sat beside the reapers and he passed her roasted grain and she ate until she was satisfied and she had some left over.

When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, let her glean even among the sheaves and do not reproach her and also put out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean and do not rebuke her.

So she gleaned in the morning until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an ephah of barley 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, 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. And Ruth the

Moabite said, besides, he said to me, you shall keep close to my young men until they have finished all my harvest.

And Naomi said to 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.

God bless the reading. And now the proclamation, Lord willing, of his word.

Now in the 1975 documentary called Jaws, Robert Shaw played the part of a shark hunter named

Quint, and Quint plays the part of a survivor of the USS Indianapolis, which was sunk by a

Japanese torpedo during the last few days of World War II in the South Pacific. About 300 of the nearly 1 ,200 men went down with the ship and almost 900 men were in the water for four days.

Dying of salt water poisoning, dehydration, hypothermia, and worst of all, sharks.

Sharks will come up unseen and feed on these helpless men. And Quint explained to a couple of other shark hunters,

I'm not going to give you the whole documentary's plot, is describing what it was like when a sea plane, a

Navy sea plane landed. This plane had been out on a reconnaissance patrol, taking it kind of nonchalantly because the enemy

Navy was just about gone to dip the wing of the plane, was just looking around kind of a bored way and saw the men and landed.

And began, the crew began pulling the men out, and Quint relates to these other men how that was the time when he was really frightened, when he saw the chance to be saved, when he saw hope before him.

And all of a sudden, the terror of the last four days all came upon him.

It became unbearable waiting for those in line to get onto the plane to see if he'd be able to make it.

When he saw hope, then the danger became exaggerated. Now, of course,

Jaws wasn't a documentary. I say that tongue in cheek and I say that so I can justify why

I will not swim in the water. I was very affected by that movie at that age. But Shaw's description of what it was like is very close to actual accounts.

I've read about the USS Indianapolis several times. I couldn't find my books, so I can't quote them to you.

So I used Robert Shaw's rendition of Quint to bring it to you.

He was so accurate, he was so close to what I read in the actual books, I think he really studied those before he played that part.

But Ruth and Naomi, who we just read about, they were not in shark infested waters.

Of course, they were in some danger. They were in a sin laden land. They were in a land where everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

They were in a land where widows were maybe a peg above lepers and foreign widows, maybe a peg below.

A land where help was not to be expected and where denizens of the deep would prowl about intent on harm.

And the question is, by this master storyteller of this book of Ruth, the question is, are they going to live?

There's a tension here, and I don't know if we can really grasp it from our comfortable lives, just how desperate these two women were.

Naomi, a widow, widows at the bottom of society. Naomi, a widow, but lower because a

Moabite widow. Will anyone reach down a hand and pull them up from danger?

Ruth, too, shows us that only God can answer our deepest needs, that only

God is ultimately our rescue in the depths of despair when all hope is gone and only sorrows await.

That's when the Lord reaches down his hand and rescues people. And that's when he reached out his hand through this man we just met,

Boaz, and rescued him. The same God, this

God who seems in this book to be only in the background, he's here today.

He is the prime mover in the book of Ruth, and I think he's even made more so by the way the story is written by the few times that he's mentioned as having instigated events.

I think the scarcity of the times that he's actually mentioned exaggerates, it amplifies, not exaggerated, it amplifies his sovereignty and his hand in everything.

The same God seemingly in the background, he's here today. This God who we worship this morning is the same

God as rescued Naomi and Ruth. His arm has not grown short, so he cannot rescue.

His eyes have not grown dim, so he cannot see. He is the true living God, and he provides for those who come to him by faith in his son,

Jesus Christ. If you've come to his son, Jesus Christ, by faith in him, then he has already rescued you and is continuing to rescue as he grows us into his image.

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have not come to him in faith, this message, this is a gospel message here in Ruth chapter two, because this

God of rescue rescued them from starvation. And from destitution is the same

God who, if you will turn to him, will rescue you from spiritual starvation, from spiritual destitution and grant you eternal life.

The same God today centering around this one place. Did you notice how it focused down?

It came down to this one spot, Boaz's field, Boaz's field.

Everything happens there. Ruth goes there to see if she can scrape together enough leftover grain. That's called gleaning, which is very hard work, by the way.

And she just wants to get enough to fill their bellies for the day. Just enough for the day, manna enough for this day, we might say.

All happens here in this one field, all history coming down to this one field in this one town of Bethlehem and this one

Moabite widow. And we'll follow her along here. Everything happening here in Boaz's field, verses one through three, we find

Ruth goes to Boaz's field, in verses four through seventeen, which is sort of the heart of the message, that's where Boaz goes to Boaz's field.

In the end, verses 18 to 21, Naomi eats from Boaz's field, of course, what

Ruth brings to her. So it's all going to happen there in Boaz's field. We're going to look at it in those parts, one through three for Ruth going there, four through seventeen,

Boaz and what he does, 18 to 21, is Naomi and she benefits from it.

Verse one, now, Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was

Boaz. Now, Naomi was surely aware that Elimelech's relative lived in Bethlehem and she surely knew that he was a worthy man.

Though this is the author writing to the readers. And so there's a bit of mystery.

We don't know if they are quite aware of it yet. The word worthy combines a couple of Hebrew words which have to do with being mighty, like it's used of Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the

Lord. And it has to do with power and strength and wealth. And that's the way the new

King James would have it, say he was a mighty man of wealth. So here's this relative there in Bethlehem, a worthy man.

And right away we could wonder, well, if Naomi knew he was there, she surely did.

Why not sending him right away? When I was a young kid, I thought

New York was the most terrifying place on Earth. I still don't like it there. I've only been there a couple of times just to get in and out of airports.

But, you know, you see those movies about kids who get lost in New York. If you were a helpless person, a foreigner, didn't speak the language, those sorts of things, in a city like New York, you didn't know which street to turn on to stay in safety or to get out of danger.

And you had a rich uncle, let's say. Wouldn't you call him? Wouldn't you get on the phone and say, hey, rich, benevolent, worthy uncle, how about a couple of dinners?

How about a place to sleep for a couple of nights where I'd be safe? I've got to get my bearings in this place. Why didn't

Naomi do that? As soon as she heard the name, as you heard in the reading, she knew who he was.

Why didn't she go to him right away? We're not told, so we're going to speculate just a little bit.

Maybe pride prevented her from making the call. We can handle this on our own. More likely, she who changed her name from Naomi, which means pleasantness in Jehovah, to Marah, which means bitterness.

She may have lost all hope. Maybe she didn't call him Boaz because she knew everyone in that land was doing what was right in their own eyes.

You recall, that's the last few words of the book of Judges, which comes right before Ruth. In those days, there was no king in Israel.

Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Why would anyone in that sin -soaked land bother to help a couple of poor widows?

Even knowing that God's word would require merciful help, who would do it if they're doing what's right in their own eyes?

Even knowing that God's word speaks of a special outrage from God against those who do not go out of their way to help the helpless.

Do a quick concordance search sometime after services and look at widows and orphans and see how often they're used as a symbol of the helpless and God's special view of them and the special view he expects his people to have of them.

I think we've all been at one level or another in helpless conditions. And from that dark perspective, isn't it hard sometimes to see any light, to even find a thread of hope to grab onto?

It's like the survivors of the Indianapolis. They had no idea that that reconnaissance plane was even out there, not even looking for them.

These two, Naomi and Ruth, had no idea. That this unmentioned relative was out there and not looking for them.

But who was? Well, God was. And God was not really even so much looking for them.

He knows all things. So he's not looking, trying to find out what's happening. God was preparing.

God was preparing a way of escape, as he promises to do for you. In 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31, no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to man.

But in the temptation, he also gives you a way of escape that you can bear up under it.

God was preparing a way of escape for them. You may not see it now, but God has already made the way of escape.

For them, the law against harvesting twice was a way of escape for the poor.

In Deuteronomy and Leviticus, landowners are prohibited from going over the grain twice and from cutting the corners very precisely.

In other words, you don't go up to the end and then back up and make a perfect 90 degree angle and get all the grain.

You kind of take a rounded turn around and just leave that corner alone. And once you've gone through your field, you don't go through again.

You're leaving something behind. What is that? Now, there's a lot of reasons for it in the context of Ruth, too.

I would say that's a way of escape for Ruth and Naomi. It's a way of escape from poverty. It's a way of escape from starvation.

It leaves them something behind. It's a way of escape for the rich landowner as well. It helps him escape the greed and the avarice that rides so close and under the skin and is so ready to come out and go through the field twice.

And to hold on to every nickel that we've made. And to be less than open handed with the needy, as God is with you and has been with you and me.

Well, Naomi and Ruth didn't see it yet. This first verse is the author of this book, under inspiration of the

Spirit, telling us about this husband. And so not knowing the rest of the story, as all of us actually do.

But if we didn't know, we'd say, oh, my word, are they going to find him? This whole town of Bethlehem was not as big as San Jose or cities today.

But in this town, how will they ever find this worthy man? Do they even know he's still living?

Those sorts of things. You have to feel the tension. You have to wonder the way the author wants us to wonder if it's going to even come up about.

Well, Ruth is willing to try. If you look at verse two again. And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight

I shall find favor. And she said to her, go, my daughter. It could be translated there.

I pray you give me permission to go into a field to glean, to glean. And right away we can ask again, if we ask questions of the text, why should she ask?

She just go and see what happens. Well, I think Ruth is in a manner of speaking, borrowing

Naomi's passport. So someone might say, hey, what are you doing in this field? This is gleanings for Jews, not for Moabites.

Get out of here. And she'd be able to answer back. Do you know Naomi, a Lamelech's widow? He was an

Ephratite from this very village. I'm here for her. I think that's what's happening here.

I think that's why she was getting the permission. So she could say she's representing someone who should be there or could be there, is allowed to be there, and for whatever reason could not.

And then Naomi's go, my daughter. I think that's a hopeless sort of whatever, as we might say today.

Go ahead. Let's see what happens. But I think we're just going to get a few sticks like the widow that Elijah ran into in the first Kings, and we'll just boil up some soup and have some broth and then we'll die.

I think she's hopeless at this part. Whatever. She gives this non -Jew, this

Moabite daughter -in -law, no advice, no directions, no encouragement. And I wonder, which are you?

Which am I when the going gets hard? Are we a Naomi? Sort of a whatever.

Let's just go on with things. We just see what happens. A hopeless, cynical sort of just go ahead.

Or Ruth, willing to reach out, willing to try, willing to see what

God might have in store. I think here Ruth is sort of a tigger, a tigger saying, come on, let's go.

Let's at least give it a try. And Naomi is the Eeyore saying, what's the use? Well, go ahead and give it a shot.

So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers as she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Limelech.

She happened. It was a coincidence. I mean, she wasn't looking for Boaz's field. So far in the story,

Ruth doesn't even know that there is a Boaz, much less one who is Naomi's late husband's relative, much less one who is a worthy man in a land where my eyes decide what's right to do.

And the Hebrew says something like, as chance would chance it, she ended up in this one field.

Like Rick Blaine said, out of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine as chance would give a chance.

Surprise or surprise, she goes to this one field. Now, we have to picture this a little bit because there's no sign hanging over the field which says

Boaz's barley, the best in Bethlehem. Come here and glean the best. It's all one big field.

And then within the field, you can't see it from outside, though the harvesters knew where they were. There were stone boundaries.

So as chance would chance it, Naomi, from not being able to see that, happened into that one field.

These fields all conglomerated together from the outsider's viewpoint. Our author here is a master storyteller, is he not?

I mean, we can hardly move on without asking ourselves how many times you or I stumbled onto a field of plenty without even having had any idea.

Like the man in Jesus' parable who, as chance would chance it, came to a field with this great treasure.

What was that great treasure? It was, of course, the gospel. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that great treasure for which he gave up everything and bought that field.

So brothers and sisters, if you're in hard times now, if you're having difficulties with health, with economics, with whatever the case may be, you need to know that even if you don't see him now, that God is there, he's watching, he's guiding, he's caring, he's preparing this way of escape.

As chance would chance it? Well, the author doesn't think it was just a random occurrence and she just stumbled onto it.

He's giving all the glory to God. He's using a technique to bring that more to bear for us as we read this, as chance would chance it.

And I think we do no harm to the story if we say, as God planned it, with Ruth's ignorance, of course,

God's secret counsel belonging only to himself, not chance, not random events, not just bad luck.

As hard as things could be for people out there, like I said, with one out of ten Oregonians having to move out of their homes because of the fires and the things that we've been going through here with the lack of health because of the bad air quality and all these other different things.

As God prepared it, as God prepared it for good reason, as we said earlier, we come to verses four through 17.

That's really the heart of the matter. The first three verses are Ruth going to Boaz's field.

Now, Boaz comes to Boaz's field. If you take this in four steps, the first is verse four.

And behold, it's sort of like, and again, surprise and wait, stop, take a look.

Guess what just happened? Now, Ruth, by chance of chance, got to this field and guess what happens next?

Boaz came from Bethlehem and he said to the Reapers, the Lord be with you. And they answered, the

Lord bless you. Is this a coincidence? Of course not.

Surprise or surprises, guess who comes along? But Boaz, who owns the field. I mean, come on, really, really, is this the way the story is going to be?

It's starting to sound like the finale in one of those Dickens movies or those detective shows like Detective Parot, where everybody comes together and they figure everything out and all the people and all the right players just happen to walk into the room at the right time so that we can get the conclusion of the story.

But see, it's not a story in that sense. They're being told a story, history, and it's a history of God's working.

It's a history of God's mercy. It's a history of God through this small place and these few people working out his purposes ultimately in the

Lord Jesus Christ. Ruth gets permission to glean.

She picks a field owned by a relative who is worthy and poof, there he is. No, along he comes as God determined in his decree to will, his predestined will.

We need to think for a moment, all the chance meetings that happened to bring you to faith in Christ.

Have you ever stopped and look back to see how God so arranged things, how

God so prepared them and you and all the circumstances around you, whether it be your job, your economy, relationships, whatever it is to bring you to Christ?

Oh, I can't even start with mine right now. I couldn't summarize it small enough to get through this message, but to look back and see what

God did to bring me to him. And I know it wasn't chance. I know I didn't stumble into it, though from my viewpoint, it did.

Looking back now, knowing God's sovereignty, as little as I know of it, but knowing it as I do, it's not random.

And God's mercy showered down upon you to bring you to him. Just as it is here with Ruth, chance of chance in the field.

And behold, the next thing that happens, there's Boaz. Think of God's preparation.

Think of God's secret will. Think of God who works all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his pure purpose.

Because that's what this is a precursor of. That's what is happening here. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So that's first part of this section, verses 4 through 17, is Boaz coming to Boaz's field.

And he blesses the workers and they bless him. And then he asks about Ruth. Verses 5 to 7.

He said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, whose young woman is this? And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, she is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.

And she said, please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers. So she came and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.

We need to pause for just a moment. I said earlier that this hard work is very hard work. Gleaning is tough.

I'm not going to give you a long explanation of it. It would take too long. Look it up when you get home. And read about how much work, how much effort gleaning really was.

This didn't come easily. Then Boaz said to Ruth, now listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one.

But keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping and go after them.

Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.

So Ruth is, in a word, well commended. She's recommended. Boaz is told that she's polite and respectful.

She said, please let me glean. She's a hard worker. She's continued from early morning till now, except for that short rest.

And she was with Boaz's relative's widow. She was with Naomi, who Boaz clearly knew of.

Now, in that land where everyone's doing what is right in his own eyes, I have to say everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

That's what the scripture tells us. And I'm going to include Boaz. Boaz is one of the people there who at the end of Judges said, there's no king in Israel, no king over Boaz or anyone else.

And he, with the rest, did what was right in his own eyes. But unlike the rest, what was right in Boaz's eyes, what was right in his eyes, what was right in God's eyes.

What was right in God's eyes is what was right in Boaz's eyes.

He is, we could even say, part of a believing remnant. God has reserved for himself 7 ,000 who did not bow to need of Baal, as God told the prophet

Elijah when he thought he was all alone. And if everyone's doing what is right in his own eyes, we have at least this one man, this

Boaz, this worthy man. Who, what is right to him is what is right to God.

This is the remnant argument of Romans chapter 9 through 11. If you're in Christ, you are part of that believing remnant.

You're part of the church that does what's right in God's eyes. Are your eyes fixed upon him?

In this land where we live, especially in this valley where we reside.

We do know that it's very well described by the end of Judges, everyone doing what is right in his own eyes.

That's the way book of Ruth starts. We do what's right in our eyes, do we not?

But only by the grace of God, only because by the grace of God, he's changed our eyes. He's given us eyes of faith that want to do what's right in his eyes.

And this is Boaz. This is Boaz doing what's right in his eyes. Has this ever happened to you, though, where someone does you good or you do someone good for no other reason than it's right by God's eyes?

Deuteronomy 24, 19 says to landowners that they are to be generous to the helpless.

And when they are, it says God will bless the work of their hands. Jesus says to us that a cup of cold water in his name is as if it came directly from him.

It's representing him that way. And that's reason enough to do what's right in God's eyes and let

God's eyes be our eyes. Let God's eyes pleasing him be what gives us our direction.

And God does provide protection for his children. It's when I wander from the God I love that I get into trouble.

Now, parents, I'm going to leave it to you to describe if you want to. Judges chapter 19 in that terrible chapter in Israel's history.

If you're not familiar with what I'm speaking of, you can ask afterwards and we can read it together.

But it's a terrible chapter in that history. And this is the risk to Ruth there in that field.

This is why Boaz tells the men not to touch her. And that's why he tells her, I put my blanket of protection over you.

Speaks of coming under the protection of the wings of the Lord. Well, there's that special protection that a single woman would need in that place, especially a single woman.

This is the risk that she bore when she went in there. And without Boaz, it might well have happened.

The grace of God is something that can overrule the worst kind of wickedness. I think of Psalm 105 and verse 15, where the

Lord says, touch not my anointed ones. Do my prophets no harm? Hebrews chapter 13, verse 2, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.

And thereby, for thereby some have entertained the angels unawares. And to Boaz, we might say, or a future wife.

To Boaz, we might say, or the great grandmother of Israel's greatest king. Knowing how this book ends up.

You never know what part you might be playing in God's plans by simple obedience to Him. By doing what is right in your eyes, because what's right in your eyes is what the scripture says is right in God's eyes.

As Boaz. You know, I think Boaz was a true type of Christ.

Imperfect as he was, needing as much as anyone to be covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. I think he's a type of Christ.

And from my viewpoint, he's one of the clearest types of Christ we have in the

Old Testament. The way he blankets protection over Ruth. The way he guards her.

The way he commands his servants to leave her alone. The way he makes sure that she has enough to glean to bring to the ones in need that she's trying to serve.

Very much like Christ. As a type, by analogy. But if you read of Boaz, and you study topology, which is those pre -runners, those forerunners to Christ.

I think he's a pretty good one. Maybe one of the best. In verse 10 to 12, we have

Boaz doing what is right. Not just thinking what is right, but putting it into action. Then she fell on her face, verse 10, bowing to the ground and said to him, excuse me, why have

I found such favor in your eyes? Sorry. That you should take notice since I am a foreigner.

But Boaz answered her, all that you have done for your mother -in -law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me.

And how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people you did not know before.

The Lord will repay you for what you have done and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.

This might make you think of what happened with Jesus in Luke chapter 17. Remember, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem when 10 lepers see him and they cry out for help.

They cry out for a crumb of bread from his table, for a chance to glean a handful from his field, if you will.

Read in Luke, it says, when he saw them, he said to them, go and show yourselves to the priests. And as they went away, they were cleansed.

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.

And he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a

Samaritan. If I said now he was a Moabite, it would have done no harm to the meaning there.

He was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, we're not 10 cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?

And here's Ruth, the Moabite, the Samaritan coming back to worthy

Boaz. She said to him, if I found favor, excuse me. She said to him, I have found favor in your eyes, my

Lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.

And at mealtime, Boaz said to her, come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel into the wine. So she sat beside the reapers and he passed to her roasted grain and she ate until she was satisfied.

And she had some left over. When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, let her glean even among the sheaves and do not reproach her and also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean and do not rebuke her.

So she gleaned in the field until evening. She beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an ephah or about 30 pounds of barley.

Says, do not reproach her. Do not. It means do not humiliate her. You know, the poor are far enough from dignity as it is just by being poor.

But they are made in the image of God as much as anyone is. And this is what Boaz is protecting, what he was providing when he ordered his men not to touch

Ruth. He guarded her dignity in one way, that special way, that special protection a woman especially needs, especially then.

But here he again sees with godly vision and looks out for her dignity in another way by making sure her work paid off so she didn't have to go and beg.

Now, many years ago, I was meeting at a Panera's with a fellow pastor. We used to meet there every

Monday. And while we were there, a homeless man walked in to go into the restroom. And, you know,

I have to admit, he was sloppy dressed and he hadn't had a bath for a while. And you could tell, you could smell as he walked by that he just really needed to clean up.

Well, the supervisor stopped him and said, you can't come in here. You have to leave. And the guy said, well,

I just need to use the restroom, please. Let me just, I'll go right out. I said, no, no, it's only for paying customers.

And I kind of rebuked the supervisor. I said, look, the guy just needs to use the restroom. I mean, we can stand that for a moment, at least let the guy go use a restroom.

You know, he's got nowhere to go. And while I was having this conversation, the fellow pastor

I was meeting with already had his wallet out and he handed the guy 20 bucks. He said, well, go use the restroom and then use this 20 bucks to become a paying customer.

How does that work? Well, I'm not trying to boast about myself or this fellow pastor.

It was a moment God gave us to be a Boaz, to protect someone's dignity and brethren, the people we come across, whatever condition they appear to be in and how they got to that condition is really not our business unless they're members of your family or members of our church.

And then we have to give them help. But it's a dignity that is protected. Everyone made in the image of God. And here

Boaz, this type of Christ, this forerunner of him, is protecting that made in the image of God dignity that all people have.

Think this way. When you see people down and out, not whether they cause or in trouble, odds are that they did.

But our business is like Boaz's was with Ruth to protect dignity, to watch over them, to protect them.

And finally, she gives her report to Naomi. It's verses 18 to 21.

And she took it up and went into the city, not it being all her gleaning, all the extra food. 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 her mother -in -law, 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.

And Ruth the Moabite said, besides, he said to me, you shall keep close to my young men until they have finished all my harvest.

And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter -in -law, 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 what do we have here? It's Naomi's morning is being turned to dancing, not all at once, but her spirit brightens.

She immediately sees God's hand in everything. Now, it's Naomi who saw God's hand before.

Matter of fact, if you read Ruth, it's Naomi who attributes things to God and moves the story along in that way.

It's Naomi who changed her name to bitter because the Lord had moved his hand against her.

The Lord has dealt bitterly with me. Do not call me Naomi, call me Marah, call me bitterness.

Now she pronounces a blessing upon whoever this man was who had let Ruth glean.

She says, blessed is the man who took notice of you, starting to brighten a bit. Apparently, the field owner had to approve people coming to his field to be sure they were legit and that they had the right, if not the duty.

And he had to then turn pretenders away. When she hears that name, when she hears

Boaz, she sees more clearly. You know, it's that reconnaissance plane dipping its wing just a little tad.

It's that bored pilot looking for ships from a nearly non -existent fleet. And he's just as nonchalantly letting his tired eyes roam.

And then he saw the men in the water and he landed. He got them out of water and out of the danger. And this is what

Naomi is seeing. She's seeing that God caused that plane, caused Boaz to dip his wing just a bit and to see their trouble.

And then God, through Boaz, as God so often does through you, as God does through the church and his mercy ministries.

Lands that plane. And crew members reach out and pull those who are in the water out, those who are in such danger out as he pulls

Naomi and Ruth out from starvation. From the indignities that could have been foisted upon, especially

Ruth. Naomi started to see more clearly now. She started to begin to leave behind that name bitterness and see that the

Lord has not forsaken the living or the dead. Why would she say dead?

How would God forsake the dead? Well, they had been as good as dead.

They had been as good as dead from the time they left Moab, but the

Lord hadn't forsaken them. By the chance of chances, and I'm going to stop saying it in that way.

Our author put it that way, not to say that things are random, but to multiply our view of God's sovereignty. But by God's design, by God's mercy, moved

Ruth to that one field out of all those fields, owned by that one man out of all those owners.

Not forsaken the living or the dead. They had been as good as dead. Well, Boaz was a forerunner of Jesus Christ, a type of Christ, imperfect as he was.

I would argue in the same way, Naomi's statement, there is a forerunner of what we have in the

New Testament from Ephesians chapter two, verses one through five. Where God has not forsaken the living or the dead.

And the apostle Paul tells us, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air.

The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

And we're by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace, you have been saved. Saved, not by a

Boaz, worthy a man as he was saved, not by gleanings to keep us from starving.

We're all pretty well fed in this place. Saved from eternal death, saved from separation from God, saved from eternal dying salvation, brethren.

God, who is rich in mercy, reached down and saved

Naomi and Ruth. And as we keep going through Ruth, we're going to see his grand plans for Ruth, especially, but for both of them.

As history, as all redemptive history focuses in here and hinges upon this short history that we have.

God, who is rich in mercy, even when you were dead in your trespasses, the sins in which you once walk, brethren.

God willing, once walked, I believe the gospel.

In this chapter is as clear as anywhere in the Old Testament. That God has reached down into lives and been that rescuing arm that pulls out of the water, pulls out of danger, pulls you out of this world and the sins and the trespasses and the ways of this world run by the prince of the air.

Once walked, can we give glory to God for that rescue? Can we look to Ruth and Naomi and see that God has through Boaz rescued them?

Can we look at this history of a man, a regular man doing what's right in God's eyes and wonder and look to our own eyes and see if they're fixed enough on his word, fixed often enough on the scripture.

Praying enough, asking God to help us to do what is right in his eyes as Boaz did.

He was just a man like the rest of us. Like James says of Elijah, he was a man like any other man, a man who needed

Christ's blood to cover his sins. And yet when he prayed,

God withheld the rain. When he prayed again, God sent the rain. When Boaz saw

Ruth, he did what was right in God's eyes. And God used Boaz to save her.

May we give glory to God and understand how he works all the more.

Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you again for this day. Thank you for bringing us together, for giving us this opportunity to again gather as your people.

I pray your blessing be upon us so we can continue at the table and you be pleased with the worship we're receiving here this day.