1 Week 9: The Story of Scripture Scripture: Ruth 1-4 THE FAITH OF A FOREIGN WOMAN Sermon preached by Pastor C. John Steer Autumn Ridge Church, Rochester, MN March 12-13, 2016 When Benjamin Franklin was the United States Ambassador to France, he occasionally attended the Infidels Club. This was a group of unbelievers who liked to search for new literary masterpieces. On one occasion Franklin read the story of Ruth to the club but changed the names so it would not be recognized as a book of the Bible. When he finished the club members were unanimous in their praise. They said it was one of the most beautiful short stories they had ever heard and demanded that he tell them where he had come across such a remarkable work of art. With great delight Franklin told them it was from the Bible, which they professed to regard with scorn and derision. Ruth is certainly a literary epic. It is a great love story. We can imagine how some of the tabloids might report it today. The headline could be How One Woman Found Happiness in the Arms of Her Second Husband. Ruth s name means beloved and she was clearly a looker. This is why some people call her Babe Ruth. They say that any great plot should be succinct enough to be summarized in thirty seconds. So here is the outline of Ruth: Naomi s family leave Bethlehem to escape a famine. They travel to Moab, but while there Naomi s husband and two sons die. Naomi is left with her two daughters-in-law, one of whom, Ruth, decides to return with Naomi to Bethlehem. Back in Bethlehem the two women struggle to survive until a wealthy landowner named Boaz takes an interest in Ruth and provides for their needs. Ruth and Boaz fall in love, marry, have a son called Obed, and Naomi becomes his nurse.
2 That s the basic plot but there is a story behind the story. For Ruth describes the romance of redemption. Ruth is the Bible within the Bible. We could call it The Gospel According to a Mother-in-Law. It is a narrative of God s love and gracious provision. It tells us how the Lord can bring something very good out of something very bad. We wouldn t guess this from the opening chapter where we find A MISERABLE START. The story begins, In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab." (Ruth 1:1) This informs us that Ruth comes from the same period as the book of Judges. We looked at Judges last week. After one service a person came up to me and said, I didn t know there were such terrible books in the Bible. I hope my children don t read it. Well, disobedience is disastrous, and the book of Judges describes what happens when Israel had no king and everyone did as they saw fit. Sin is very serious. It destroys people, families, communities and nations. That s why God sent Jesus to deliver us from sin. But even in the darkest of situations we find glimmers of light and we only have to turn a page from Judges to Ruth to discover it. The first verse tells us that there was a famine in the land. Very often in scripture famines are a mark of God s judgment. It is possible that God brought this famine because his people had forgotten him and were following the Baals. They were failing to teach their children about him so that a generation grew up that did not know Yahweh. So this family of four from Bethlehem go and live in the country of Moab. This map shows the journey they had to make. As you can see, Bethlehem is on the west side of the Dead Sea and Moab is on the east side. Now this journey is ironic because Bethlehem means The House of Bread but at this time there is no bread and this Jewish family are going to live in Moab which God had expressly told them not to do. The clan of Moab had been born out of an incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughter. Moab represents a constant threat to the Israelites. It embodied the temptations and dangers God wanted his people to avoid. The story starts with a famine which the leads the family to go to a forbidden land. But the bad news doesn t stop there because next we are told, Now Elimelek, Naomi s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons." (Ruth 1:3) So Naomi has lost her home and now she has lost her husband. She is left a widow but at least she has her boys.
3 The narrative continues, Naomi s sons married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth." (Ruth 1:4) Now again this was contrary to God s commandment that his people were not to marry those who did not follow him. The Moabites had their own religion and so this story is going from bad to worse. But we haven t reached rock bottom yet because next we are told, After the family had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband." (Ruth 1:5) The family had gone to Moab to seek bread but instead they found graves. The sons are laid beneath the soil of Moab leaving their two young widows with their already widowed mother-in-law, Naomi. So now Naomi has nothing. She has lost her home, her husband and her sons. We are not surprised that a bit later she tells people, Don t call me Naomi...call me Mara, (Mara is the Hebrew word for bitter) because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. (Ruth 1:20-21) Naomi s name means pleasure but because of her circumstances she has become bitter. In thirty-one weeks we are attempting to go through The Story of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. We have noted that there is an Upper Story and a Lower Story going on at the same time. The Upper Story belongs to God and the Lower Story to us. Here we see the Lower Story being worked out in Naomi s life and it is miserable and wretched and life has left her bitter. Perhaps we can identify with Naomi. We too have made a miserable start in some aspect of our life. We set off with great hope but it has been one disaster after another and we are finding it very hard to reconcile the Bible s statements that God is good and kind with our own experience. We are bitter at life and bitter at God. The next chapter in the story could be titled A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW S LOYALTY. Naomi hears that the famine has come to an end in Israel and that Bethlehem is once again the House of Bread so she decides to return home. She tells her two daughters-in-law to go back to their parents house in Moab explaining that she has no more sons to be their husbands and that they may not be welcomed as foreigners back in Judah. Orpah sees the wisdom of this and kisses her mother-in-law goodbye and sets off home. We never hear of Orpah. But Ruth refuses to leave and makes one of the most beautiful statements of commitment found anywhere in the Bible.
4 For Ruth now turns to Naomi and says, Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me. (Ruth 1:16-17) Those words are often found on marriage bulletins and used in weddings, but they were not originally said between a man and a woman but between a daughter-inlaw and a mother-in-law. There are lots of mother-in-law jokes and there is sometimes a kernel of truth behind them. It has been said that the definition of mixed emotions is seeing your mother-in-law driving off a cliff in your new Porsche. One woman said, My mother-in-law and I were happy for 20 years. Then I met her! Sadly, relations with our mothers-in-law are sometimes strained. But Ruth shows a better way. She clearly loves her mother-in-law and nothing will dissuade her from accompanying Naomi back to Bethlehem. Ruth and Naomi by Rembrandt Now this was an enormously courageous thing to do. The Moabites had oppressed the Israelites for eighteen years so people of that tribe were far from popular. The people of Moab were looked down on by the Hebrews as inferior, dirty and undesirable. Later there was a Jewish law prohibiting any Moabite from entering the temple in Jerusalem. But Ruth has become a person of faith. She has learned about Yahweh from Naomi. So they set off and arrive in Bethlehem just as the barley harvest was beginning. The next stage of the story describes A REDEEMER S LOVE. Life was not easy for two single women in those days. There were no social services. But God in his mercy had made two provisions that applied to situations like this.
5 The first was the law of gleaning. When fields were harvested reapers were told not to be too industrious and pick up every piece of grain. Instead they were to leave the kernels that fell on the ground so that poor people could collect them for food. The law said, When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest... Leave them for the poor and the foreigner." (Leviticus 19:9-10) Ruth takes advantage of this provision as she tells Naomi, Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor. (Ruth 2:2) This is when she meets Boaz for the first time. He is a relative of her dead husband. Boaz is obviously taken by her and instructs his harvesters to leave plenty for this lovely lady. Summer of Ruth and Boaz by Nicholas Poussin The second provision is the role of the guardian redeemer or the kinsman redeemer. This is spelled out in Deuteronomy: "If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel." (Deuteronomy 25:5-6) So here is this instruction to family members on how to take care of relatives. The next of kin played an especially important role as the guardian redeemer. He could be called upon to fulfill three specific duties. The first was to redeem property. The second was to provide an heir through marriage. The third was to avenge the unlawful death of a family member. Now all this seems strange to us, but in a day when women were vulnerable it protected them. It kept the property in the family and ensured that there would be an heir to carry on the family name. This redeemer was known as the Go-El in Hebrew and he was particularly responsible for the helpless members of a family.
6 As a Moabite, Ruth isn t aware of this protection but Naomi is and so she tells Ruth exactly what to do saying, Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don t let Boaz know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do. (Ruth 3:3-4) This was an ancient way for a girl to show she was interested in a fellow and wouldn t mind being married to him. So this is exactly what Ruth does. When Boaz was fast asleep she went and lay beside him as he was guarding the grain on the threshing floor. There is a little statement in the narrative which I thinks speaks to the authenticity of the account. For we are told, In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned and there was a woman lying at his feet! 'Who are you?' he asked. (Ruth 3:8-9) You can understand his surprise. Boaz has gone to bed on his own and now he has got company. In response Ruth replies, I am your servant Ruth Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family. (Ruth 3:9) It is clear Boaz is flattered that Ruth has chosen him as he is not the nearest guardian redeemer. He has an older brother who should fulfill this legal duty and so Boaz has to give his brother first option. So he talks to him the next day at the city gate with the elders there for witness. Perhaps Ruth and Naomi are hiding nearby waiting to see what happens. The elder brother goes away and Ruth s heart sinks. He looks about 110 and she does not fancy being married to him, but Boaz is young and handsome. But there is good news. The older brother doesn t mind buying Elimelek s land, but he doesn t want to take on a Moabite wife so he passes the privilege on to Boaz in the customary way of that time, by taking off his sandal. It was the equivalent of shaking hands on a deal. It meant that Ruth and Boaz were now free to marry. In this way Boaz becomes Ruth s Go-El, or redeemer. He takes her into his home and cherishes her. It is significant that all of this is taking place in Bethlehem. That s a big clue for the deeper meaning of the story. Another is the role of the redeemer who comes to the aid of the outsider and the destitute. We see that this is a lovely picture of Jesus who came to be our redeemer when he was born 1200 years later in Bethlehem. He meets us in our poverty and need, often caused because of our own disobedience and sin. He takes in an outsider like Ruth. Let s remember that Ruth is a foreign woman. She is not one of the chosen people. Yet she exercises faith.
7 And when we do that Jesus claims us as his own. He redeems us by his precious blood so that we now belong to him. Indeed Paul likens our relationship with Jesus to a marriage with Christ as the bridegroom and us as the bride. The story ends with A WONDERFUL HERITAGE. Ruth and Boaz are married and soon afterwards Ruth gave birth to a son who they name Obed. Naomi loved this little boy and we read, Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him." (Ruth 4:16) She has lost so much in her life but now God has honored her. Her life was bitter but now it is better. Then we are told something quite extraordinary about little Obed for He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. (Ruth 4:17) So here we learn that the greatest king Israel ever had has despised Moabite blood in his veins. He is a descendant of Ruth the Moabite. But that s not the end of the story. In the genealogy of Jesus given to us in Matthew we read, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David." (Matthew 1:5-6) King David was an ancestor of Jesus. So twenty-eight generations later the Messiah is born. It is quite possible that Rahab was the mother of Boaz. Rahab, who had hidden the spies in Jericho, was saved when the city fell because she hung a scarlet rope out of her window. By this act of faith she became part of the chosen people. Perhaps that is why her son, Boaz, is particularly sympathetic to an outsider like Ruth and took her into his family. In Matthew s genealogy of Jesus there are four women mentioned in addition to Mary. Tamar committed incest with her father-in-law, Rahab was a harlot, Ruth was a foreigner and Bathsheba (referred to indirectly) was an adulteress. This shows how God s grace forgives the darkest of sins and reaches beyond the nation of Israel to the wider world. It also demonstrates that God welcomes the outsider and can lift the lowest person and place them in royal and divine lineage. Here we see the Upper Story of God working everything together. Even in these early days God is planning to send his Son as our guardian redeemer. God sends the famine which in turns sends Naomi and her family to Moab. God gives Ruth a love for Naomi and the faith to return to Bethlehem. God orchestrates the relationship between Ruth and Boaz. They give birth to a boy who is an ancestor of the Messiah. The Lower Story may seem a shambles, but in the Upper Story God is working out his perfect will so that you and I might be redeemed.
8 Now what are the practical takeaways from this remarkable story of Ruth? I suggest there are at least three. First, this story tells of God s generous love for the homeless, the hungry and the lonely. We see how Ruth without a proper home, without adequate food and without a reliable companion found a home in Bethlehem where she was cared for by her guardian redeemer, a man named Boaz, whose name means strength. This story speaks to us for we are all spiritually lonely, hungry and homeless until we are found by our Redeemer. Second, this story causes us to ask how we can be a modern day Boaz. Boaz recognized he had a responsibility and so do we. We have been given much. There are those around us who are in need. Boaz took in a refugee. There are a lot of lonely people in our community who feel like outsiders. They want to be accepted and God calls us to be agents of acceptance on his behalf. He calls each one of us to be a Boaz to somebody. Third, the story of Ruth teaches us about extraordinary kindness. The most important word in the text is the Hebrew word Hesed which is translated in our English Bible as lovingkindness. So Ruth shows hesed to Naomi and Boaz shows hesed to Ruth. This kindness, this hesed, is more than the loyalty one expects from a friend. It is that extra level of goodness which sustains a truly meaningful relationship. It imitates the divine initiative which comes without being deserved. For hesed is the way of God. Hesed is a key word used throughout the Old Testament for describing God s faithful kindness in his covenant relationship with his people. So what is portrayed in this little book of Ruth is human beings doing what God desires for human relationships. It is people practicing hesed. Hesed is the life of integrity, of human responsibility and in this love story we see hesed is obtainable. For in Ruth there is no miracle. There is no great manifestation of God s power. There is simply a living out of the way of God. We began by summarizing the story of Ruth in thirty seconds. Let s do the same with the gospel of Ruth. The gospel of Ruth is that God receives with gracious understanding our complaints, our doubts, even our accusations. The gospel of Ruth is that love is more powerful than prejudice. The gospel of Ruth is that in acts of hesed we see the face of God.