Audio Transcript:

Hello, welcome to the Mosaic Boston Brookline, our online worship experience week, I've lost track. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever time you're watching. We're so glad that you tuned in. Today we are continuing our sermon series through the phenomenal book of Ruth. One of the things I've been meditating on regarding preaching is in the preaching process, it feels like cooking. God often compares God's word to food, be it bread or spiritual manna or honey, and one of the challenges of preaching into a camera is I'm cooking and I don't see you eating, and that's part of the joy of cooking is seeing people enjoying the meal. However, people have been writing and people have been messaging us that God's word has been impacting them. It's been changing them, it's for nourishing them, and we are so thankful for that. God's word is powerful and God's word does nourish our souls and this is what God's word does.

God's word is a feast presented to us. When we come humbly before him, we get satisfied. It doesn't just feed us. It also transforms us to be the best versions of what we are, what we're designed to be by God. And there's something about nutrition where if you eat correctly, you absorb the nutrients, etc. However, when you train, when you put your body under pressure for time and pressure and then you eat, actually you get more of the protein, more of the nutrient, there's something like that that goes on with God's word in a time of pressure that when we are going through suffering, when we are going through difficulty or hardship, and we eat God's word, it builds us up fortifies us. It makes us stronger. Diamonds are formed under heat and pressure over time. And that's what we see happening with our community and that's what I pray happens with you as well.

So feast on God's word today. Today we're in Ruth chapter two. And if you are new to the book of Ruth, one of the things that you realize is it's a literary masterpiece. It's one of the most profound works of literature in all of the history of the world. And it reads in four parts like a Shakespearean play and today we are in the second part. The context is that Ruth and Naomi, Naomi is Ruth's mother-in-law. They returned from Moab. They had a really difficult time in Moab and they returned to Bethlehem because they heard that God had removed his hand of rebuke and the famine is gone and the house of bread has been restocked. Ruth has been hopeful. She has developed a new faith in the Lord. Naomi on the other hand, has grown bitter against God's hand of affliction.

She actually tells everyone in Bethlehem, don't call me Naomi, which means sweet, call me Mara, which means bitter and perhaps in the season you're going back and forth between Naomi and Mara. On the one hand you rejoiced to see what the Lord is doing. On the other hand, you're bitter at the negative consequences and this is where Naomi is and she says, "It's exceedingly bitter to me. The Lord has gone out against me." She recognizes God's sovereign hand in the difficulty. It might not be directly from God, but it certainly passes through his hand. She says, "For the almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty the almighty." She says, "Has brought calamity upon me," and she doesn't realize the blessings that God has sent to sustain her in this difficult time. And that's Ruth.

Ruth has incredible blessing to Naomi and God blesses Naomi through Ruth. And Naomi also doesn't know that God is in the details. God is behind the scenes, God is working. She doesn't know that God has preserved a kinsman Redeemer. And we'll get into that from Naomi's husband who will ultimately Mary Ruth and preserve Naomi's life and name. So Ruth and Naomi, they arrive in Bethlehem at the time of the barley harvest. That was the last verse of chapter one and this coincidentally was towards the end of April. And that's where we find ourselves. But there's no such thing as coincidence with God. It's always Providence. So would you look at a text with me today where in Ruth chapter two verses one through seven to begin with, and we'll read the rest of the text during the sermon. Ruth chapter two verse one "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 and gleaned in the field after the reapers and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz who was of the clan of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and he said to the reapers, the Lord be with you. And then 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's 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 and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest."

This is the reading of God's Holy and infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Five points to frame up our time together, grow in truth, grow in sensitivity to Providence, grow in capacity to bless, grow in humility to receive and grow in faith and works. The title is sermons grow in grace, and these are the five steps that we can glean from this text in order to grow in grace. So first of all, grow in true worth. Perhaps some of you have taken an economic hit. You're worried about your net worth with this whole Corona epidemic. Well, there's something more valuable and more important than a net worth. It's a true worth, a true worth from the perspective of God. And Boaz is here characterized as a worthy man, worthy, not just in terms of wealth.

He wasn't just a wealthy man, he was a man of God. And the Yiddish, there's a word for a man like this. It's the word Manch. And this is exactly what Boaz was. He's wealthy, yes. He's built up a business, yes. He's worked hard, yes. He's been diligent, yes, but he's also got a great reputation. People around him love him. He's been adding value to everybody around him. He's been building everyone up around him, not just himself. God has blessed him and he has been a blessing to others, which is rare in Bethlehem at this time to find a worthy man. The book proceeding, the book of Ruth is the book of Judges. And the book of Judges there's two little episodes bookends about the town of Bethlehem. The first one is a story about the grandson of Moses who leaves Bethlehem and then leads the Danites in idolatry.

And the second time that we see Bethlehem mentioned in the book of Judges is really sordid story, a tragic story about a concubine from Bethlehem. And what happened with her actually resulted in civil war in Israel and led to almost obliteration of the whole tribe of Benjamin. So this is unique to see a man from Bethlehem who is a worthy man, a godly man, a righteous man, a man who cares about the people around him, a man who uses his strength to bless others, to protect others, to provide for others. May God send more men like Boaz, like this guy. He adds value wherever he goes. His name literally means strength or Valor or warrior. And this is fascinating because Ruth's former husband, the name of the Hebrew means frail or sickly. And now we meet Boaz who is a warrior of man of God.

He's a man of wherewithal, despite hardship during a famine. He capitalized on the situation, perhaps bought up some more real estate and actually got into the farming business, the barley business, and he's doing really well for himself. He's older in years. Ruth at this time is probably late twenties, early thirties and Boaz considers her a young woman. So there was an age gap. Perhaps he's in his late forties or mid fifties. We're not sure. We're not told he's not married. We're not sure why he isn't married. Most likely it's because God has been saying, "No, it's not time. Focus on the duties that I have for you. Focus on my will for you. The time will come." And there's lessons here that we can apply to ourselves. So Ruth wakes up they just moved to Bethlehem. She wakes up in the morning and she's looking for a way to provide for Naomi and for herself.

And she knows, and perhaps Naomi taught her about the laws of Moses and Leviticus. The laws about gleaning God had included in the law provision for the immigrants, for widows, for orphans. And he did that by stipulating the harvesters must leave grain on the edges of the field and that farmers can't pick up the ears of grain that they drop. This is fascinating and we can glean from this theology of God's view of the economy, that God means to provide for people through work and through the blessing of other people. It's a redeemed view of capitalism, of industry, of work where people in need could come and they weren't just given handouts. They weren't just given social services or this wasn't just a soup kitchen. They were provided with meaningful work and the crucial difference between this and a handout was they did have to work and it was hard work and it was hot work.

It was almost as if you compare it to today, it was like trying to subsist on collecting cans and bottles and recycling them, but it was enough to meet a means. And I just want to pause here and mentioned that God has been doing this throughout ages through the church. We see this in the book of acts and the very beginning that the church met one another's needs and we've been seeing this during the crisis. I want to thank everybody in the community who has been generously, sacrificially contributing to the COVID-19 fund. Your funds have paid for rent, they've put food on tables, they've paid for medical bills. Thank you so much, and may God bless you abundantly. So we see that God does care. He's got a heart in particular for the disenfranchised, particularly the weak and those on the fringes of society.

And he writes into his law provision for the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant. And we see that Ruth qualifies on two accounts. She is an immigrant and she's from a different people and she is a widow and she is a worthy person as well. We'll deal more with her in chapter three that she too is a worthy woman. She is a Proverbs 31 woman and what's fascinating is in the Hebrew Bible, the book of Proverbs ends with chapter 31 and very next book in the Hebrew Bible is Ruth. She is a Proverbs 31 woman. She's the epitome of a godly worthy woman. It's lesson here is grow in true worth as defined by God. Second, grow in sensitivity to God's Providence to Providence. This is Ruth 2:3, "So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz who was of the clan of Elimelech."

So we hear that Boaz was Ruth's husbands, distant relative, and that's repeated again in the text, meaning he qualifies to be a kinsman Redeemer. We dealt with this last week and we'll deal a little more with this next week, but the kinsman Redeemer, the job was to keep the name of his relative going and you do that by marrying the widow of your relative. What's fascinating here is that in the text, this is emphasized that he's from the clan of Elimelech. It's emphasized because to the original audience, this detail queues that we are now in a romantic scene. It's as if the lights are cued and the music is queued, and now we're in a love story of developing a love story. Now for us, this little detail about Boaz being a relative of Naomi or of Ruth's husband, it doesn't cue romance for us unless you're perhaps from Alabama or Mississippi.

Just kidding, but it did for them. For them, they realize, "Oh wow, there's hope for Ruth. There's hope for Naomi," and what the original readers immediately recognized is, "Wow, there's something going on behind the scenes. There's director guiding the events behind the scenes." And this phrase that she happened to come... in the Hebrew it literally says her chance chanced upon this as it turned out, as luck would have it. What a stroke of fortune that Ruth, it just so happened that she moves with Naomi to Bethlehem. It just so happened that they needed food. It just so happened that she woke up with a desire to work. It just so happened that she went to a field. It just so happened that she went to the field of Boaz who is single and he's wealthy and he's a worthy man and he loves God and he's literally the most eligible bachelor in Bethlehem and it just so happened that Ruth goes to his field and what the text is emphasizing is this is not happenstance.

This is not coincidence. This is not circumstance. It's not chance. This is Providence. This wasn't serendipity. This was God's Providence. It's not just a happy convergence of events. It's an orchestration of events that God himself is orchestrating every single one of these details. Sometimes God works through his visible hand of miracles. More often than not, he works through his invisible hand of Providence. And the lesson I want to draw out here is that we need to develop a sensitivity to God's Providence. We need to look at events happening in our lives and learn to discern God's hand behind the scenes. And one of the ways we do this is by studying Holy scripture and by recognizing God's hand of Providence and Holy scripture. And then you begin to see that same hand, the same fingerprints in your life. I'll just give you a couple examples of the story of Esther. Tremendous story of a girl that goes from a nobody to a queen and she's put in a position of influence and power for a time such as this in order for God to use her to redeem his people.

The story of Joseph, he goes from being sold into slavery, from jail, from captivity to becoming the CEO of Egypt. And when his brothers came to visit him, this is what he said. "You meant this for evil, but God, he meant it for good. God sent me ahead of you down to Egypt." Do we see God speak in this story? Did we see angels coming from heaven? Do we see a burning Bush? No. Ruth woke up. There was no angel. There was no prophetic word. There was no burning Bush. She woke up with a desire to do her duty, which was to provide for herself and for her mother-in-law, and God used that moment. We are to learn to see God's hand both in suffering and blessing. In suffering, Naomi saw God's hand and she said, in Ruth 1:13, "It's exceedingly bitter to me for your sake, that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me."

In Ruth 1: 20-21 she said, "Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara for the almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the almighty has brought calamity upon me?" She saw God's providential hand in that. But we are to also see God's providential hand in blessing and God does a blessing. And here he's beginning to bless. I've been meditating on this idea of God's hiddenness, God's at work and every single detail in our lives, but he often remains anonymous and there's incredible humility in that. When you recognize who God is, he created everything by the power of his word and humbly stands behind the scenes and we have to develop a sensitivity and when we begin to see his hand at work, we can glorify him for his greatness.

There's many of you perhaps in quarantine have been watching more television or Netflix or whatever than usual. There's a way to watch a movie or a show where you just experience the story as it's presented to you and you're just there. You're just consuming. But there's another way to watch. You can watch the movie or the show as a producer and then you start thinking about all of the decisions that are made behind scenes, about the camera angles and about the script and about the plot as it's developed. And this is what I'm talking about when I say you got to develop a sensitivity to God's Providence, and this is where pride gets in the way. Pride makes us the primary character of the story, and we're so absorbed by our own life that we can't see the hand of God's Providence and this is what the gospel does, it humbles us and then we begin to see God at work all around us.

You begin to see how meaningful your life is that every detail in your life is supercharged with significance. Ruth makes a freewill choice to go to this particular field and God uses her freewill. He uses her decision in his plan and as the ultimate matchmaker brings her together with Boaz. Edward Lorenz about 50 years ago. He's a mathematician and meteorologist. He developed computer models in order to map and predict weather patterns and actually that work was a major contribution to chaos theory. This is really fascinating. If you have time to do read up on this. He discovered that when he ran data on a very, very rudimentary computer and when he ran data... he ran a few data sets and one of the data sets he ran with a number 0.506127 he ran a second one of these tests and he rounded off by accident that number 2.506 so just cuts out 0.000127 and he realized that after about a month those two data sets led to radically different weather patterns.

And one of the things that he drew out of this was that miniscule statistically insignificant variables lead to massive difference in weather outcomes. And he coined the phrase the butterfly effect and I'm sure you heard of the butterfly effect and he said that a butterfly in Brazil could cause a tornado in Texas. The tiniest details in our lives have seismic implications. Scripture says that God has a book with our lives. Our lives are detailed in that book and every single one of our days is ordained before us as yet one of them has come to be. So don't worry. Give the weight of tomorrow to God. Jesus says, "Do not be anxious about anything today, has enough problems, let tomorrow worry about itself." That's a lesson we can draw from it. The other lesson is Ruth focused on her duty. She prayed and then she acted, and my question is where in your life in terms of your obedience to the Lord are you leaving out the 0.506127?

Tiny little details if you fix them, if you turn to the Lord in those areas of your life, it can have a dramatic effect. Three is grow in capacity to bless. Ruth 2:4, "And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and he said to the reapers, the Lord be with you, and they answered the Lord. Bless you." And we see in this one interaction, we see how amazing this guy Boaz is. Imagine if your boss walks into work back when we go back to work. When your boss walks in and says, "God bless you. Oh my dear employees, I love you so much. May you starts benedicting them in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, God." Etc. But he does that. He's created this really happy, healthy work environment where his employees respect him and honor him and he treats them fairly.

He was a pious man. He was a godly man. If you want to see how healthy a person's relationship is with God, look at the details. Look how much the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the grace of God has saturated the practical details of life, including work relationships. How did Boaz get here? He grew in his capacity to bless. We don't know how he developed his business. We don't know how big his business was, but it's large enough so that he can help others put food on the table. He's grown in a capacity to bless materially and spiritually. Verse eight "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." So he's asked the question, who is this young lady? He's come from Bethlehem.

He goes to this field, he immediately notices Ruth and he already knows about her. In a small town everyone knows your business as well as you know your business and he asks about her and then he talks to her. Verse nine, "Let your eyes be on the field that you are reaping. 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 and 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 to 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 your 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 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." If you watch romantic comedies, I do not, but I've learned that apparently in romantic comedy is there's a plot device called a meet cute, meet cute and it's used to introduce characters in how they meet one another. It's the moment of character meets another character and there's a romantic spark. They bump into each other ice skating or someone drops a pen, they hand it to this other person and there's a spark of chemistry. Mistaken package delivered. You bring it to the other person.

All of a sudden sparks fly. This is what's going on with Ruth and Boaz. This is the very moment they meet. In any couple... a married couple like when you get to know a married couple what's the first question you ask? How'd you guys meet? And for some reason the beginning infuses the whole relationship with meaning and that's why although meeting online apparently is a thing no one wants to say, "We met online, we met on bagel and coffee or whatever that," but for them this was meaningful and we see that Boaz noticed her. Why did he notice her? Does she look her best? Obviously not. She's farming, but that's not what caught his attention as a man of worth who is concerned for his own character. Before even seeing her, he's heard of her reputation of her character and even here we see that she's humble and she's grateful.

She uses the word favor twice and she begins the text by telling Naomi, I'm going to go find a field. Perhaps I'll find favor. The word favor means grace. There's no entitlement. There's no pride. She doesn't believe that anyone has to give her something. She doesn't believe she deserves anything from anyone. And she says, "I found favor in your eyes." Humility and gratefulness. Recipe for happiness. She's not looking for a handout. She's a hard worker. She's honest and he's attracted to her faith. I've heard that you believe in God. I've heard that you are faithful to God and you're faithful to Naomi. You're faithful to your people. He's recognized the sacrifices she's made. You love the people around you through sacrifice. And that right there is what he notices. So he tells her, don't glean anywhere else. This is verse eight he says, "Don't go to any other fields." In a lawless society, this is a big deal.

She didn't have any protection, doesn't have body guards, she doesn't have someone to look over her. So Boaz says, "I'm taking you into the community, I'm welcoming you in. I'm giving you my hedge of protection." He's providing, he's protecting and he speaks God's word into her life. So he's also pastoring. One commentator says that Boaz is here by instituting the first anti sexual harassment policy in the workplace, recorded in the Bible. He's not a chauvinist. He's chivalrous. He treats her not like an immigrant. He treats her not like a foreigner. He treats her like family. And that's part of what it means to be a worthy person. And this is what it means to be a Christian. God said, "Love your neighbor as yourself as much as you love yourself." That's how much you are to love your neighbor, meaning treat your neighbors like family.

He, says, "Help yourself to water." He gives her food and generously, verse 12 she says, "The Lord repay you for what you have done." This is what he says to her. "The Lord repay you for what you have done in a full reward. Be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel. Under whose wings you've come to take refuge." He says, you've come to Israel, you've come into close proximity to God. You're taking refuge in God's shadow. May God bless you for that and this is fascinating and he talks about reward. May God give you a reward for taking refuge under his wings. What does this mean? Does that mean this is like a paycheck or like a salary? Like God pays you for taking refuge in him? No, that's not how this works and this is why the imagery of the Eagle is so important here.

God doesn't have employees. God has children so God doesn't give paychecks. He gives gifts. And this is why the imagery is so important. He says, "God is like a Papa eagle." It's a father Eagle and Ruth is like a little eaglet coming into safety under daddy's wing. And may God reward you with gifts. I love this imagery so much. I've been blessed with kids. My daughter Sophia, she loves reading. And with the whole quarantine library's been closed, she's been really blessed with a Kindle. She asked a long time ago, she said, "Dad, I want a Kindle. How can I get a Kindle? Can I get paid to wash the dishes?" And I said, "No." There's a rule in our household. There's no financial transaction for work. I'm not going to pay you for what you're supposed to do, so start washing... We are to help around the house.

But you want to Kindle? Yeah, I'll give it to you as a gift. That's how it works. Do your duty and God gives gifts. That's how this works. Psalm 57:1 "A Miktam of David when he fled from Saul in the cave, be merciful to me. Oh God, be merciful to me. For in you, my soul takes refuge in the shadow of your wings. I will take refuge till the storms of destruction pass by." And I want to emphasize the word for. Be merciful to me Oh God, for because in your shadow... my soul takes refuge in you, in the shadow of your wings. God, be merciful to me because I've seen in you the source of ultimate security. Be merciful to me because you are great and you are good. And that's so different than how we often come to the Lord.

We often come to the Lord and say, "Lord, be merciful to me. Send me blessings because I have been good." That's workspace righteousness, workspace salvation. We come to God, appealing to our own goodness. God bless me because I've been good. And the Psalmist says, "Lord bless me because you are good, Lord you are merciful. You are the great God of the universe." And when you come to God like this, humbly not appealing to your own righteousness, but to his goodness, he can't but bless you because he is great, because he is good, because he is merciful. We appeal to his goodness, not our own, and Ruth recognized that she hasn't earned anything before God. She hasn't earned anything from Boaz. Everything is grace, and she honors him for his generosity and she takes refuge in his generosity and the lesson here is that we are to take refuge in the generosity of our savior.

And this is the message of the gospel. Even in the old Testament as well as the new Testament, God will have mercy on anybody, a Palestinian or an Israeli or a Moabite or an American. Anybody. Anybody who humbles himself, like Ruth says, "Lord have mercy on me. Not because I'm good, I'm not, but because you are good, you're the great God of the universe." This is the same language that Jesus used when he was talking about the hard-hearted Pharisees in Matthew 23:37 he says, "Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones, those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing!" All the Pharisees had to do was turn from their self righteousness from their self justification. I take refuge in Jesus Christ, take refuge in the grace of God, so I wonder, are you viewing your relationship with God as an employee boss relationship? Or God, this is what I'll do and this is what I expect.

Or do you view your relationship with God as an eaglet coming to a Papa eagle and they're completely different. God's looking not for employees, but he's looking for people who will take refuge under his wings. Ruth 2:13 then she said, "I 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." She calls him Lord, so she's giving him respect. There's a toughness to him. He's strong, but then she says, "You've comforted me." You've spoken kindly to him. Boaz is both tough and tender. He's strong and sensitive.

In Ruth 2:14-16 we see the generosity of Boaz emphasized again, "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 to her roasted grain and she ate until she was satisfied and she had some leftover. Then she Rose to glean and Boaz instructed his young men saying, let her glean even among the sheaves, 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." Boaz is a man of action. He likes Ruth and he immediately acts with wisdom and there's strategy here and I just want to pause right now and explain the strategy. This tact. He's very tactful. Perhaps you've heard of the adage that the way to a man's heart is through the stomach. Well, I think that applies to everybody and Boaz knows that the way to Ruth's heart is also perhaps through yes, generosity, but a throw, nice meal.

Come, let's have a nice meal. Let's have some carbs, a little bread. Little roasted grain. Never had roasted grain, but that sounds delicious. A little wine. Let's strengthen ourselves, enjoy the community and enjoy the fellowship and then go back to work. In the ancient East. This was more significant than it is today. Today to have a meal together, a cup of coffee or lunch. Yeah. It's meaningful in the ancient East to welcome someone to your table is to welcome them into your life. It's to approve of them. It's to accept them is to say, "I want to walk this walk with you. I want to live life with you." The fact that Boaz ate with his people tells us a lot about him. The fact that he is so generous to Ruth by giving her water and a meal tells us even more and then he goes on and he says to his guys, "Let her work. And also I want you to toss grain out."

And what he's saying is I don't want just to fulfill the law of Leviticus. I don't want to just not completely maximize my profits. I want to actually lose money. I am intentionally losing money to bless this person and we see radical generosity. He's going above and beyond the law and he's saying, "I don't want to just fulfill the law. I want to give grace and I want to give grace upon grace, upon grace and this kind of generosity, this kind of kindness, this reveals the heart of Boaz and it reveals the heart of God. Generosity does take finances. This is important lesson the scripture does teach us. And Ephesians 4:28 says, "Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need." God says, "Don't just work to provide for your own needs and the needs of your family, but work to have a little leftover so that you can be generous." And this is how we grow in our capacity to bless. 1 Peter 4:9 "Show hospitality to one another without grumbling." I can't wait for the quarantine to be over to start showing hospitality again.

Ruth 2:17-23, "So she gleaned in the field until evening and she beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an ephah of barley and she took it up and went to the city. Her mother-in-law saw where 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, 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 worked and said, the man's name with whom I worked 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 by my young men until they have finished all my harvest. Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women less than another field, you be assaulted. So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvest and she lived with her mother-in-law."

We see Boaz as a worthy man. We see Boaz as a man sensitive to the Providence of God. We Boaz as a man who has been increasing his capacity of blessing. We see the same in Ruth that she has increased her capacity of blessed through her industry and hard work. Four is grow in humility to receive. This is Ruth 2:17, "So she gleaned in the field until evening and she beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an ephah of barley." She worked all day and at the end of the day she even ground the barley, meaning she takes the opportunity that God gives her and she runs with it. She gleans everything that she can possibly glean 12 times the word glean is used in the chapter that to emphasize the fact that she wasn't too proud to stoop down and pick up what God is giving her and there's such incredible lesson here.

That God gives more to those who are willing to be faithful with what he has already given. God gives her a little bit and then blesses it and multiplies it. Sometimes we miss out on so many of God's blessings because we're too proud. We pray. God give me a field. God give me a huge harvest and God says, "Hold on. Before we talk and start talking about real estate deals. How about you take what I'm already giving you? I'm providing for your needs."

We see incredible humility that then leads to more and more blessing. It's humility to receive what God is giving you. Now, do you have that humility? Are you humble enough to receive what the Lord gives now and the ephah is about 29 pounds. She got 29 pounds of grain. This is a ton. Probably her biggest problem at the end of the day was figuring out how to carry this thing home in one day. She makes enough to feed her and Naomi for about two weeks and then Boaz said, "You can, you can keep doing this every day until the end of the barley harvest season." That's about seven weeks, so meaning in seven weeks, if she got as much as she got in the first day, she'd have enough food for a full year. Verse 20, "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 the close relative of ours, one of our redeemers."

The word Redeemer... and we talked about this last week and we'll talk about this more next week. It's used over 20 times in this book. It's the kinsman Redeemer redeem. What it talks about in the mosaic law and the law of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, that a near relative becomes responsible for the economic welfare of a family when that family is in distress. So if the family is in debt, the kinsman Redeemer pays off that debt. If the family had to sell themselves into slavery to pay off a debt that kinsman redeemer pays off the debt and then also redeems them from slavery. He's responsible to maintain wholeness and security and the welfare of the family. And this is a hint of the gospel that God provides Ruth a Redeemer.

And through Ruth he provided a Redeemer for all of Israel in King David and through David, God provided a Redeemer for all of humanity in the King of Kings, our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. And God defines love as sacrifice. Boaz sacrifices Ruth sacrifices. And that's the show is that true love sacrifices. The God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but should have everlasting life. The gospel is that you and I, we are Ruth. We are pagans and idolaters and sinners and rebels, and we come from the wrong background and we come from the wrong pedigree and we come to the Lord empty handed and needy and the Lord Jesus, he's our Boaz. He comes, he redeems, he provides, he protects and he pastors are weary souls. And the same way that Boaz doesn't just fulfill the law in providing for Ruth, he goes above and beyond and gives her grace upon grace.

And scripture says that Jesus Christ comes and he is full of truth and grace and from his fullness, we have received grace upon grace, not just the law. We found favor now in the eyes of God. He delights in us in the same way that Boaz delights in Ruth. 2 Corinthians 8:9, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor so that you by his poverty may become rich." God who gave us his son, who gave us his best. This is a God whom we can trust with the rest. He's provided for our greatest need. Obviously he'll provide for our lesser needs. What's fascinating is that God isn't just the director of the story talks about God's hand of Providence. He's behind the scenes. He's not just the director. God writes himself into the story. He puts himself front and center. He becomes the main character of his own story in order to redeem us and in that story, what do we do with God? We killed him.

And he allowed that to happen, to provide a way to kill our pride, to kill our sin, to kill our rebellion, and then offer us the riches of his grace. This is how I think of grace. I think of grace as an acronym. It's God's riches at Christ's expense. I like that. God's riches at Christ's expense. Grace is free because someone paid for it. That someone is Jesus Christ. Point five is grow in faith and works. We see this in both Boaz and we see this in Ruth that they believe and they pray, but then they also act and they also act it to answer their own prayers, so to speak, and we see this incredible intertwining of God's sovereignty and human responsibility, faith and works.

You believe and you do. What's fascinating about Boaz is he's a wealthy man and he lived a very spiritually, apostate, morally corrupt environment, but he still by faith kept a relationship with God in a place where it's really hard to be faithful to God. On top of that, Boaz doesn't come from a great spiritual pedigree. Who is Boaz's mum? Bible trivia. If you get this right, you get a chicken wing right now. If you answer, type it in the comments section, Facebook go. Boaz's mum. Boaz's mum, her name is given to us in the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 1 genealogy of the King of Kings, Matthew 1:1-6, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac, the father of Jacob and Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers and Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram and Ram, the father of Amminadab, Amminadab, the father of Nahshon and Nahshon the father of Salmon and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the King." From the story Rahab, Rahab was a former prostitute. Remember the story of Jericho that she hid the spies from Israel and then her whole family was saved.

Rahab was Boaz's mom. Boaz doesn't come from a great spiritual pedigree, but nevertheless he believed in God and when you believe in God, when you believe in God's redemptive grace, your past does not dictate your future. Grace changes that, you're on one trajectory. This is where repentance does. It turns you from that trajectory and now you're a completely different trajectory. You're on a trajectory of blessing and Ruth was a poor Moabite woman, extremely vulnerable. She too overcame her circumstance, overcame her past with faith in God believed and they acted on that faith. They believed that God is true. His word is true. His will is good, and then they align their life with his will and it completely changed everything. They planned and the Lord established. We plan and the Lord establish and we believe the Lord establishes our works.

Verse 12 and Boaz says, "The Lord repay you for what you have done. A full reward given you by the Lord, the God of Israel under whose wings you've come to take refuge!" This is a prayer. He's praying for her. May God bless you. May God provide refuge for you and Boaz becomes the answer to Boaz's prayer. We see an incredible intersection of faith and work. Sometimes prayer moves the hand of God and sometimes prayer changes our hearts and we see something similar on the cross where Jesus Christ on the cross has been crucified. He says, "Father, forgive them." People crucify him. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. They don't know what they're doing. They're still guilty. They still need forgiveness. Father, forgive them. Jesus, prays this and then he answers his own prayer through his sacrifice, the intersection of faith and works, God's sovereignty, human responsibility.

Philippians 2:12-13, "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only is it my presence, but much more my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." You work it out. "For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Work out yourself to focus on your duty and then recognize that it's God who's giving you the energy. God is the one who's working through you. Sometimes we need to look to the Lord in our prayers and ask him for help and then we need to get up off our knees and use his spirit that he's given us to work. The five points if you missed them, grow and true, worth to grow in sensitivity of Providence growing capacity of blessed, grown humility to receive and grow and faith and works.

Boaz and Ruth probably did not see David's greatness. He came. He was their descendant, most likely they didn't see his greatness. Most likely they didn't really understand all the blessing that God would provide through their faithfulness. God found in them faith that he used to bless not just their life, but generations beyond. G. Campbell Morgan said, "You may be God's foothold for things of which you cannot dream." So friends grow in grace because you don't know how much you will impact eternity. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we thank you for this time and the Holy scripture. What a rich word this is. What a feast you've given us today. Lord, I pray that you make us more like Boaz and Ruth, and we love them so much because they reflect the greatest character of our scripture and that's Jesus Christ. We see Christ likeness in Boaz, we see Christ likeness in Ruth. Make us a people like this and give us the power of the Holy spirit to do it. And we pray all this in Christ. Holy name. Amen.