Ruth 4

Discussion Questions

• Naomi, who once asked to be called “Mara” (bitter), ends the story holding a grandson and celebrating the Lord having provided a redeemer. Wolterstorff describes mourners as “aching visionaries.”  Is there anywhere in your life that you are still in the “aching” stage, waiting on a reversal that is yet to come?
• The book ends not with Ruth or Naomi, but with a genealogy which points to Christ’s arrival centuries later in the same little town. Why does God so often work through small or seemingly insignificant places and people? What “small” faithfulness in your life might God be weaving into His larger story?
• Plantinga writes, “Human sin is stubborn, but not as stubborn as the grace of God.” Where do you need to realize and believe this week that God’s grace is more stubborn than what’s gone wrong?

Transcript

Well, grace and peace be multiplied to you today. We study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel. If you want a paper copy, we have some folks that are going to pass them around. Just lift up your hand and they’ll bring one to you. We’re going to be in The Book of Ruth, finishing up The Book of Ruth today. It’d be good to have the text in front of you as it is each week. And if you don’t have a Bible at home or you know someone who doesn’t have a Bible, feel free to take one as our gift to you. Also, I want to welcome all those who are worshiping with us online this week. May the Spirit of our Lord move among you just as He is here today in this room. Well, this morning we do find ourselves in the final chapter of this little, short story tucked away in the Old Testament, we call The Book of Ruth. Now, many throughout history have looked to the story of Ruth with admiration as a literary masterpiece, a theological work of art. It is a beautiful story, and I hope you’ve seen that all along the way as we’ve been studying it. We are innately wired to be captured by good stories and by good storytellers. Stories help us make sense of the world around us, making meaning of a world that’s not as it’s supposed to be. That’s why we sing songs like “We will feast In the House of Zion.” There will be weeping no more someday. Centuries ago, we learned our shared stories from parents and sages and elders around campfires, making meaning and sense of life.

Today the campfires and sages have changed forms a little bit: Netflix and YouTube, small screens, big screens. In fact, this past weekend, one of the most beloved stories in Western civilization brought in $264 million in global box office sales, The Odyssey. A story that weaves together themes of homesickness and family and virtue, pride, and temptation. It was written over eight centuries ago. And for those who are a little down on the movie because it doesn’t match the book, I looked this up: Book sales of that book of poetry rose 76% this year. That story is still shaping culture today. So, whether legends or fables or true stories, like we’re reading in the book of Ruth, stories help us form meaning, help us make meaning, in this world. At one point or another, cultures and individuals both will ask fundamental questions about life. We all do, whether explicitly or implicitly. Questions like: Where are we? What is this world? Is this a created world? Who is he? Who is God? Who are we? The Bible tells us we are made in His image. What has gone wrong? We all can tell that something’s wrong in this world. What is the solution? And where is this all going?

These are all questions that we ask in one way or another. So, when we open up the book of Ruth, this little, short story, we find that actually, I think it punches above its weight in terms of its size. It’s a little, tiny book, but it punches above its weight. It’s a story, yes, about grief and loss of Naomi, the faithfulness of Ruth, the character of this man Boaz. But tucked behind those stories is a bold response to the question that every generation and every individual asks. We ask it implicitly in that song “We Will Feast In the House of Zion.” Where is this going? Is history going somewhere? Is my suffering, my life, my joys, my delight, are they connected in some way? Or are we just on a boat without a rudder? Or are we being guided by something or someone? The story of Ruth bursts on the scene of the Old Testament. When you read throughout the Old Testament, you can just see there’s a bright glimmer of hope here because it lands right on the spot where there’s so much depravity and corruption in The Book of Judges. And Ruth brings this great light of hope that somebody is guiding history. We are not just simply bobbing along throughout history. A hope that shows that the God of all creation is intimately aware of our grief, of our longings, of our joys, of our desires. The author of Ruth wants us to know up here that that’s true, up here in our head. But the author also wants us to feel it deeply. I wonder if you’ve noticed that. He’s a good storyteller. Wants us to feel it deeply. Every sense is engaged in this story. It opens in the city of Bethlehem. That means the name means “house of bread.” And ironically, the house of bread at the beginning of the story of Ruth doesn’t have any bread. But even the imagery there, that it begins in the house of bread, you can smell the bread baking or the lack of it.

The widows are weeping on the road back home. The barley is ready to be harvested as we continue to read. Are there wedding bells in the distance? That’s where we left off last week. The author wants us to know that there is a good God. He wants us to know that up here, but he wants us to feel it. He wants us to know it here. Now, to help us keep this full story fresh in our mind, we can think of the book of Ruth in three different key locations. Number one, chapter one: The decisions on the road to Bethlehem. If you remember our study of chapter one, it’s the remarkable display of love and commitment from Ruth to Naomi. Chapter two: Providence in a barley field, the kindness and the generosity of Boaz the farmer, who allows Ruth to glean in her field, the kindness of the Lord to visit His people. Remember, there was no bread, and now there’s bread. Chapter three: Redemption at the threshing floor. We see the kind of the scheme of Naomi, the bold request of Ruth to Boaz, “Will you marry me? Not only that, will you redeem this family, this broken family that’s faced so much loss?” And we also see the commitment of Boaz to do just that. And then chapter four, we have: Hope in the little town of Bethlehem. A little bit of Christmas here in July.

So, this morning we just sang “We Will Feast In the House of Zion.” We will feast. And the only reason we can sing that is because we know to whom we belong. Because we know His character from stories like Ruth. Our hope that one day all things will be made new is rooted in real history. Real history. And we are held firmly in the grip of a God whose love, whose Hesed love, we keep going back to. That steadfast love, a word so rich we can’t really give it a translation. That steadfast, faithful love, a promise to never let go, and He will not. That’s what Ruth is communicating to us. It’s that promise that lies beneath the story, that’s underneath the story when they scratch the surface a little bit. And it’s a story that should shape our lives. So, I’d love for us to turn to chapter four, if you would, we’re going to wrap up our story here of Ruth, Chapter 4, verse 1. And if you would, let me pray for us and we’ll get started: Father, what we know not, teach us. What we have not, I pray You would give us. And what we are not, would You make us, Lord? By Your Spirit, through Your Son Jesus Christ, who is our only hope in life and in death. And we all said, church, Amen. Chapter 4 begins like this: “Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the Redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. So Boaz said, ‘Turn aside, friend; sit down here.’ And he turned aside and sat down.’” So Boaz has some kind of authority in here. You’re going to see this. He’s going to call some people around to the city gate. And I’m going to put a picture up here.

This is actually what the city gate likely would have looked like. This is actually in Beersheba, and you could visit that today. That would be a city gate. It’s kind of like if you’ve seen movies of Italy or if you’ve been to Italy, piazzas. It’s a big open space where decisions were made. People communed and they saw one another. They made decisions. They made agreements. Now, what’s interesting here is this other redeemer, let’s back up just a little bit to our study from last week. If you remember last week, Ruth boldly makes this proposal to Boaz and says, essentially, would you marry me? And more than that, would you redeem this family? And there’s a custom and a law on that day called the kinsman redeemer, Goel. And the idea, the gist of it is, in those days, oftentimes a family might lose their land, might lose some of their property, maybe even some of their people, and a redeemer, another family member, could buy it back. That’s essentially what we’re talking about here. And it’s kind of in this particular story mixed in a little bit with Leverett Law. Because she’s also encouraging him to marry her. It’s all mixed up together. This Goel. Would you do both of these things for us, Boaz? And so, what it looks like to me is apparently that same morning, he goes to the city gate, and he gets on with the business.

Now, the tension here, if we’ve been looking at the purposes of God, seems to be that God wants Ruth and Boaz to get married. But Boaz says, yes, you are going to be redeemed. He commits himself to that, you and your family. But it may not be me. There’s another redeemer, a relative that’s actually closer. That was the custom of the day. Boaz was a good and godly man, so he goes to the city gate, and he gets down to business. Now, this other redeemer, we’re not given his name. In fact, the Hebrew there is Plony Almoni. And actually, it would have been just as funny to the original readers. It was like in Hebrew, that doesn’t mean anything. It’s like Joe Shmo, Mr. So-and-so. So, Mr. Ploni Almoney here, it sounds Italian. Sounds Italian to me. I don’t know. Sit down over here. Okay. Verse 2: “And he took ten men [this is Boaz] of the elders of the city, and he said, ‘Sit down here.’ And so they sat down.” Apparently, it would have been the custom of that day to have at least ten elders to confirm a deal, confirm a transaction. Verse 3: “Then he said to the redeemer, [he said to Joe Shmo] ‘Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech.’” That was Naomi’s husband who died in Moab. Verse 4: “’So I thought I would tell you of it and say, “Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people.” If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me that I may know, for there is no one beside you to redeem it, and I come after you.’ And he [Joe Shmo] said, ‘I will redeem it.’”

Now let’s not go past this too quickly. If this was an opera, there would have been shrieks over in the corner. We don’t know, maybe Ruth and Naomi and the women of the town were in the corner by the city gate listening, and they would have been frightened. No, no, no, no, no. Ruth said, “I wanted to marry Boaz, not Mr. So-and-so. And he just said that I’m going to redeem.” But Boaz, he’s not crafty here, he’s not deceiving, but he’s smart. And by the way, the word “redeem” 13 times in this chapter. Boaz is smart. Verse 5: “Then Boaz said, ‘The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth, the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.’ Then the redeemer said, ‘I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.’” We don’t know all the reasons. If you’ve seen Shark Tank, “…for all these reasons, I’m out.” That’s basically what’s going on. Maybe he already had sons, and he didn’t want to loot the inheritance. Maybe he already had a wife. Maybe buying the land, he was financially able to do that but not to also care for a wife and an entire family. We’re not sure. But he is interesting. He’s not named, the guy who gave it away is not named. So, he gives the right of redemption to Boaz. And so, we see that tension release there.

Verse 7: “Now, this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging: to confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was the manner of attesting in Israel. So when the Redeemer said to Boaz, ‘Buy it for yourself,’ he drew off his sandal.” Okay, so we look at verse 7. The author is saying this custom was in the former times in Israel. Essentially what’s going on here is he’s saying… I know this is weird, the whole sandal thing. Now it’s possible, we actually don’t know for sure why exactly they’re taking the sandals off. It could be, when you read throughout the Old Testament, when you put your foot on the land, that land is yours in some sense. And when you take off the sandal and you give it to someone else, you say, “I’m giving you my land.” Or think about Moses at the burning bush. God says, “Remove your sandals, for this is holy ground. This is my ground.” So, there’s something going on here, something with deeper roots than we even realize, but even the author of Ruth thinks it’s a little funny. Verse 9: “Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, ‘You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belong to Elimelech, and all that belong to Chilion and to Malon. And also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Malon, I have bought to be my wife to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.’ Then all the people who are at the gate and the elders, [so everybody now in the whole town] said, ‘We are witnesses.’” Little side road here: This is not a marriage ceremony, but when we gather for a marriage ceremony, when I talk to engaged couples, I like to mention this is not just a private transaction between both of you. When you make a covenant together, like we’re seeing here, you are doing it before the sight of God, before the sight of all of your family and friends. You’re making a public commitment and even the state in the marriage ceremony. There’s something beautiful about a commitment that’s in public.

“…and the elders said, ‘We are witnesses [and the townspeople. Listen, they give a blessing here. This is beautiful.] May the Lord Yahweh make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrata and be renowned in Bethlehem, and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord Yahweh will give you by this young woman.’ So Boaz took Ruth.” We actually don’t see the wedding ceremony. Interesting, it just skips right to this. “…Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. He went in to her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son.” Now we don’t know this for sure, but in Moab it says that they were there for ten years, and she was married to Malon, and she didn’t have children. And I think it’s possible, maybe even likely, that the author is telling us that she was barren. And by the way, so was Rachel and Leah until the Lord gave conception. Now the Lord has been moving providentially throughout this entire book, but only on a few occasions, this is only the second time, that we see explicitly said, the Lord took action here, and the Lord gives conception to Ruth. There’s something so beautiful.

Verse 14: “Then the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, [literally a nourisher of your gray hair] for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, [Look at that honor.] has given birth to him.’” Seven sons, that would have been symbolic of a perfect family, a complete family, a full family. Remember, Naomi was empty at the beginning of this story. And now we’re beginning to sense some fullness here, in particular with Ruth. Verse 16: “Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse [or his nanny].” Verse 17. “And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name.” The women of the neighborhood have a big part in this whole story. I don’t know if you’ve noticed. Women of the neighborhood gave him a name. They even named the child. “…saying, ‘A son has been born to Naomi.’” Of course, it was born to Ruth, but through Ruth to Naomi. You see that emptiness, fullness there. “They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.” Obed, likely a shortened form of Obadiah, which means “servant of the Lord.” What a great name!

Verse 18. “Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Aminadab, Aminadab fathered Nashan, Nashan fathered Salomon, Salomon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, And Jesse fathered David.” And that’s King David to come. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. That genealogy, let’s just stick there for a minute, spans more than eight centuries, ten generations. The providential hand of God, the author wants us to know this, hand of God, generation after generation after generation. He’s the God of history and He’s the God of households. He’s transcendent and He’s imminent. The book of Ruth is a love story on multiple levels, isn’t it? The costly, sacrificial, committed love of Boaz for Ruth and her family; the costly, sacrificial, committed love that Ruth demonstrates to her mother-in-law on that road to Bethlehem. And the author of Ruth beautifully illuminates these examples of Hesed, faithful, steadfast love, and we have so much to learn from them.

But when we examine carefully how the book was put together, how the author shaped it to tell us this true story, I think we should remember that it began, if you look at Chapter 1, verse 1, it began within the days that the judges ruled. So, we’re starting to see the framing of this entire book in the days when the judges ruled. And then the book ends with this eight-century-long genealogy, which on the surface level reading can seem like an insignificant add-on, like unconnected to the rest of the story, like they just added it on. But I think if we’re to take seriously the authorial intent, what the author wants us to know, I think it’s worth considering how the author frames The Book of Ruth and why it matters, why it’s important. Now, as students of the Bible, when we come to the Bible at home or here at church or in a study, when we come to the Scriptures, in particular the Old Testament, we should constantly be asking the question: What time is it? What time is it in the story? Where are we in redemption history? How might God be moving forward His purposes in history, in individuals, and in His plan to make all things new, individuals and all? So, for just a second, go with me for a minute to the 30,000-foot survey of the Old Testament.

We’ve already mentioned it in some of the songs we sang. In the Garden of Eden, God graces Adam and Eve with an abundance of all that they need. He walks with them in the cool of the morning. He gives them a job to be representatives of Him, to His beautiful creation, with a calling to cultivate and see it flourish, living in perfect relation to God and to one another. But then as we read Genesis, a serpent starts talking. And there’s our first problem. Snakes don’t talk. Except in this case, something’s wrong. That’s our first problem. But more than that, actually, Adam and Eve obey the word of the serpent over the life-giving word of Yahweh. Put differently, there was a great reversal downward of all that God had designed in His good creation. You can think of it like this: God as king and He’s given humanity vice regency over the creation. So you have God and humanity and creation. And this great reversal, when they trusted the word of the serpent over the word of God, there was a great reversal. All of a sudden, creation is up here, asserting authority over humanity, which is trying to assert authority over God. You can see that great reversal. And that reversal introduced devastation, sin, and death, and broken communion between God and one another.

Sinful nature is the most verifiable claim of the Christian faith. I can just look in the mirror. God, by His sheer grace, though, set into motion his purposes to reclaim, to redeem, to get His family back. And in the early pages of this tragic scene, if you remember, there’s a promise that God made that through the seed of the woman: a child would come that would crush the head of the serpent, the deceiving serpent. God’s grace, God’s initiative. And that promise seemed in jeopardy as we continue throughout the Old Testament when the Hebrew people were enslaved in Egypt. Okay, but are the promises of God true? We’re here, we’re enslaved forty years. In the wilderness with Moses, are the promises of God true? In the grip of idolatry that broke them apart and broke God’s heart. And then we get to The Book of Judges. It highlights both the absurdity and the brutality of a world turned against God. If you remember in Judges, it says there was no king in the land. Everybody did what was right in his own eyes. Injustice and moral depravity, unchecked corruption. I want what you want and I’m going to take it. That was the law of the land.

Now, through all of that, any thinking person would ask the question, “Is God trustworthy?” How could He possibly be working in a situation like this? What is He up to? Now skip forward to today. I imagine many of us in this room asked that question, had it rattling around in our minds. I did. What is God up to? We see pain around us and suffering. The question might have been rattling around, probably was rattling around their mind. How could God be at work in a time like this? And smack dab in the middle of the chaos of Judges comes The Book of Ruth, which illuminates the darkness. There was no king in the land, the book opens. Moral anarchy, but the book ends with another reversal. Look there at verse 22 in chapter 4. Through the line of Ruth and Boaz would come a king, David. God is a God of great reversals. History isn’t just bobbing around aimlessly, neither was this family in Bethlehem. Tish Harrison Warren puts it like this, it’s so beautiful: “We cannot hold together human vulnerability and God’s trustworthiness at the same time, unless there is some certain sign that God loves us, that he isn’t an absentee landlord or, worse, a monster… it takes the whole story of redemptive history to shape our questions about God’s presence in the darkness.” Oh, she’s so right.

There is another greater story of costly love going on in the background in the book of Ruth. Let’s consider together three what I’ll call sketches of this final chapter in Ruth that serve as signposts of God’s love, that point to God’s love at work in all of creation and in each of us this morning. Number one: The cost of redemption. Turn with me, if you would, to verse nine. We’re going to read verse nine one more time. Chapter 4, verse 9: “Then Boaz [this is his big speech] said to the elders and all the people, ‘You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belong to Elimelech and all that belong to Chilion and to Malon. Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Malon, I have bought to be my wife to perpetuate the name of the dead and his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.’” Now, why did we read, reread all that again? Did you notice that this act of redemption by Boaz? It includes far more than simply buying back land. Far more than simply marrying his bride, Ruth.

It certainly includes those things, and we shouldn’t diminish the affection that Ruth and Boaz have for one another. But if we’re not careful, we can collapse this entire story down to sentimentality. A heartwarming love story where they all live happily ever after. Cinderella puts her foot in the glass slipper, and it fits. Mr. Darcy and the… what was it? Elizabeth Bennett. I had to look at my notes. Sorry, Emily. We don’t want to collapse this to mere sentimentality. What we witness in that city gate in our story here today is costly commitment for the good of the entire family. Did you see it? The name of Elimelech, Naomi, and her boys, Malon and Chilion and Ruth the Moabite, the entire family, Boaz bears it all upon himself. All of it. The law did not require him to do it. There was provision in the law to get out of it. We see that with Mr. So-and-so, Joe Shmo. In the moral landscape of The Book of Judges, in fact, Boaz could have just taken what he wanted, perhaps with little to no consequence. But he bears it upon himself. Why? This was a man who worshiped Yahweh. And we see this so plainly in chapter three, if you remember from last week’s study, where he worships Yahweh. He blesses Ruth, praying to Yahweh.

Now, these are the last words that we read of Boaz, a commitment to take upon himself the responsibility of this entire family, a financial responsibility with the land and his new wife and new child, Naomi and her well-being. And the name of Elimelech, not to mention his own name, and Elimelech’s name likely was sullied because he had taken his family to enemy territory and to Moab. In those days, your name was your reputation. It was everything. They didn’t have degrees that they could fall back on. It was their name. It was their family. And he bears all of that. It was risky and it was costly. Yeah, Ruth did make the proposal, and we thank God for that, but Boaz commits all of himself to this family, to Ruth. He was reflecting the character of Yahweh. Boaz was reflecting the character of the God he worshipped. It’s hard for us to imagine, I think, it’s hard for me to imagine what this kind of commitment would have looked like in a culture that was so morally impoverished in The Book of Judges. Can you think of what this commitment would have seemed like then? Can you imagine what Ruth saw in this extravagant act of love towards her and towards the whole family, given her past in Moab, a nation known for disregard of human dignity and life? The grace of God flowing through this flawed but faithful man Boaz should move us. The author of Ruth wants it to move us. He wants to see, not simply to mimic his virtue, and although I think this would be a good thing for us to do, to mimic it in some ways, but to draw us back to the God that he worshipped. To draw us back to Yahweh.

We become what we behold, friends. And he was reflecting the character of his God. Number two: We see the God of great reversals. Let’s look at verse 15 together. So the women of the neighborhood are blessing Naomi, and they’re speaking about the baby, Obed, and say, “He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” Now, earlier in chapter one, if you remember, Naomi changed her name. Don’t call me Naomi. Naomi means sweet or pleasant. Call me Mara, bitter. I don’t want to be called sweet right now. I’ve lost my husband and my two sons. I’m impoverished. Don’t call me sweet but bitter. And I can imagine that emptiness, that triple loss. Two sons and her husband. I can imagine her singing along with us the song that we sang earlier, that verse, for the promised morning, “O how long, O God of Jacob, be my strength.” I can hear her singing that with us. See, the women of Bethlehem knew Naomi’s story. They must have known her story, but her emptiness has now turned to fullness, a different kind of fullness with this new grandchild, and a redeemer that’s taken upon himself the responsibility to provide for this family that’s suffered so much loss.

The women of Bethlehem notice this remarkable work of grace, and they give thanks to God. They can’t help but worship, “Blessed be Yahweh.” That’s what it says there in the text. Philosopher Dallas Willard once said, “The whole Bible could be could be explained by the law of inversion.” The law of inversion. It’s the way of God’s kingdom. The last shall be first. To find your life, you gotta lose it. Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who recognize that all they have is need, and they come to Jesus to find everything: life and forgiveness. So, the first great reversal downward that we see in the Garden of Eden, down and away from God, introduced death and decay into this world, but it has an expiration date, and for that we should say amen because of an even greater reversal that’s already in progress and will come in full when the Lord comes back to make all things right, wiping away all tears. We can see it in part now. Sometimes it looks like Naomi with a new grandbaby but sometimes it looks like we will feast in the house of Zion when He comes again with hope, knowing that the fullness of God’s great reversal will come soon.

Even Naomi, though, was experiencing this new fullness. She still grieved the loss. How could she not? Her husband and her two sons, but she was looking to eternity for ultimate fullness and eternal perspective. We are one day closer, friends. I love this. I love this book by Nicholas Wolterstorff, Lament for a Son, a short little book. He said, “Standing on a hill in Galilee, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ Who then are the mourners? The mourners are those who have caught a glimpse of God’s new day, who ache with all their being for that day’s coming, and who break out into tears when confronted with its absence… The mourners are aching visionaries. Such people Jesus blesses; he hails them, he praises them, he salutes them. And he gives them the promise that the new day for whose absence they ache will come. They will be comforted.”

God is a God of great reversals. Do you sense the weight of that? Paul would say that the whole earth is groaning in anticipation for that great reversal to come. And we see glimpses of it today: marriages being restored, hearts turning to the Lord, friendships being renewed, grieving being comforted by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the great reversal to come by Jesus who said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Now let’s consider a moment how the women of Bethlehem actually honor Ruth. Throughout The Book of Ruth, seven times, Ruth is called Ruth the Moabitess, or Ruth the Moabite. And kind of like a scarlet letter, she bore the mark of a foreigner for most of the book. The mark of someone from an enemy nation. And she’s welcomed, yes, into the community. We see that from the beginning. But almost every time she’s mentioned, her name is bundled with that stain from her past. Ruth the Moabite. But the story takes a distinct shift after that costly redemption that we see from Boaz. No longer Ruth the Moabitess, as we read in our text, “Ruth, the daughter-in-law of Naomi.” In fact, as soon as that redemption is completed, and they say we are the witnesses here, as soon as that happens, Ruth is called simply “the wife of Boaz.”

And even the elders and the townspeople, when they witness that redemption, they call out to Yahweh, they call out to God, they give Him worship, and they bless Ruth and say, “May she have a family as blessed as Rachel and Leah [both women who are barren, by the way]. The townspeople honored Ruth alongside the women who built the house of Israel. The original readers of Ruth would have been astonished at this great reversal. The hand of God reached across ethnic and religious and national and tribal lines and sought after Ruth the Moabitess and calls her by a different name, Ruth, the one who belongs to Yahweh. She’s the former Moabitess. Listen, this is God’s specialty. Amen. He runs after, He seeks after, He calls after all kinds of people with stained past, murky present, unclear future. He calls them, and He calls them to restoration and to redemption, a new name and a new family.

In chapter one, Ruth makes one of the most consequential decisions in her life. I would say one of the most consequential decisions in history. When she turns to Naomi and says, “Your people are my people. Your God is my God.” Ruth gives everything up in order to follow Naomi and her God, Yahweh. In that moment, I believe she entered through the narrow gate by the power of the Holy Spirit, who sought her when a stranger running from the fold of God. I love how the apostle Peter put it, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.” God is a God of great reversals, the law of inversion from darkness to light. It’s all over the place in the Scriptures, and it’s all over the place in a room like this. We just told stories around the room. “Out of darkness and into the light” could be the subtitle of the book of Ruth. God is a God of great reversals. And we see that here when the hope, the bright light of hope, begins to burst in this little town of Bethlehem. That’s number three: The little town of Bethlehem. The book of Ruth begins in Bethlehem, and it ends in Bethlehem. The ways of God are rarely straightforward. He’s steady and He’s trustworthy, but He’s not always predictable.

Bethlehem was an ordinary town of little consequence, measured by its size and its production. Basically, it was a little settlement outside of Jerusalem. And from this little backwater town, from simple, ordinary people like Naomi and Ruth and Boaz, comes this little baby, Obed. I’m going to call him Obi. Look again at verse 14: “Then the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! [Verse 15, towards the end.] …for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” Now, when we read this, it’s a bit of a head scratcher on the surface. We just came from the scene where Boaz, the great redeemer, makes his great speech. He reclaims the family, he redeems the family. But here the women of Bethlehem are talking about another redeemer, one born to Ruth. And the women who were blessing Naomi for this great gift of a child could not have known in full what they were praying for, what would come from this little family in this little town of Bethlehem, but they knew the Lord was up to something.

Perhaps they had a renewed sense that God, the God of all creation, had not forgotten this family, the God of all creation had not forgotten Israel, not forgotten that town. God is always at work in history and in households. God’s providential hand moving through every generation. Micah the prophet, a couple hundred years later, would say, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephraim, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” The little baby Obed, Obi, in Bethlehem is only a foretaste, a signpost of the baby who would come a thousand years later in Bethlehem. Charles Spurgeon once said, [I love this] I’m paraphrasing, he said, “In England, every little village has a high street which connects to a road, which connects to a highway, which ultimately will get to London. And when you read in the pages of Scripture, every scripture has a highway which leads to a road, which leads to another road, which leads to the metropolis of Christ.” And we can see that here in Ruth. The genealogy at the end of Chapter 4 is not an add-on. It’s a bright red signpost that points to the promise-making and promise-keeping God who never lets go, in this case, never lets go of a sinful nation.

Everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes. And with His guiding hand from that nation comes another baby born in Bethlehem, the Lamb of God, who would take upon Himself the sin of the world. For all those in Christ, for who were once in darkness but have been brought into this marvelous light, we are held in that same grip. And I hope you know it, His grace is stubborn. We are held in that grip. The apostle Paul pastorally calls this to mind in Romans 8. We’re so familiar with this, and we know that all things work together for good, to those who love God and those who are called according to His purposes. But don’t miss the first two words or first three, “And we know that all things…” Know, not and we wish, and we hope, and we dream that all things will work. No, no, no. Paul says, “we know.” And how do we know? Because of the man of Bethlehem that hung upon the cross, bearing our sin and shame, His bodily resurrection, the character of God that works in generation after generation, like we see here in Ruth, to seek and save the lost. He is good, He is good, He is good.

Cornelius Plantinga says, “To speak of sin by itself, to speak of it apart from the realities of creation and grace, is to forget the resolve of God. [I love that phrase.] God wants shalom and will pay any price to get it back. Human sin is stubborn, but not as stubborn as the grace of God…” The author of Ruth wouldn’t have known it in full but as we lift our eyes to an eternal perspective, the great reversal to come, we see in Revelation they sang a new song saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God…” Redeemed is the word there, actually, “you redeemed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” And as we are given a glimpse, when we read in Revelation of that throne room, every nation, tribe, and tongue are worshiping Jesus. Ruth, the former Moabitess, is a part of that scene. She herself, another tribe and a nation, was redeemed by the one who had come later from her line in Bethlehem. She’s engrafted into that story.

Charles Spurgeon said, “Those little arms in the manger will one day grapple with the monster ‘Death,’ and destroy it. Those little feet shall tread on the serpent’s neck and crush that old deceiver’s head!” God is a God of great reversals. “He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us, how will he also not, along with him, graciously give us all things?” That’s what Paul continued to say after he said, “We know that all things will work together…” Chapter 1 shows Naomi praying for the kindness of God upon Ruth. Do you remember that prayer? There’s all kinds of prayers in Ruth. Naomi prays for the kindness of God for Ruth, and God answers her prayer. Naomi knew that God was kind, that He was good, even in the midst of her loss. And the Christian faith doesn’t sweep away sin, it doesn’t sweep away shame or our own suffering under the rug, but it offers us a suffering servant on the cross who bore the burdens Himself. By His wounds we are healed. The great reversal.

God is a God of great reversal. He turned a cross into resurrection. Our bodies will be renewed one day. The mourners will be comforted. We praise God for the glimpses of His kingdom today, but we also pray with an eternal perspective. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Let’s pray together: Heavenly Father, we bless You for Your kindness to us. Open our eyes to see how You have provided, how You’ve protected, and held us firmly in Your grip. For those who are mourning this morning, we ask for the comfort of Your Spirit as an anchor, to bring to mind Your goodness, to bring to mind Your promises that You will never leave nor will You forsake. Bring to mind for all of us all that we have in Your Son Jesus, the fullness that we have through Your Son Jesus. His resurrection and life is also ours. Holy Spirit continue to move among us this morning and the rest of this week. In the sure, steady, steadfast name of the Lord Jesus Christ, church, we all said, “Amen.”

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs

“Praise To The Lord The Almighty“ by Joachim Neander and Catherine Winkworth
“He Is Making All Things Right“ by Ben Shive, Bryan Fowler, Skye Peterson
“We Will Feast In The House Of Zion“ by Sandra McCracken and Joshua Moore
“There Is A Redeemer“ by Melody Green
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois by by William Reese, Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty, Matt Boswell
All songs are used with permission. CCLI License no. 2003690

Looking for our Hymns of the Week or resources to worship anytime? We’ve curated a playlist of hymns TVC Worship has led on our YouTube Channel!

Call To Worship: Faithfulness of God

Leader: For the word of the LORD is right and true;
He is faithful in all He does.

Men: Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens,
Your faithfulness to the skies.

Women: You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

Men: For the LORD is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Women: O LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy;
in Your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.

Men: The LORD is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made.

All: For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen!

Classic Prayer: Soren Kierkegaard

Father in Heaven! You have loved us first, help us never to forget that You are love so that this sure conviction might triumph in our hearts over the seduction of the world, over the inquietude of the soul, over the anxiety for the future, over the fright of the past, over the distress of the moment. But grant also that this conviction might discipline our soul so that our heart might remain faithful and sincere in the love which we bear to all those whom You have commanded us to love as we love ourselves. You have loved us first, O God, alas! We speak of it in terms of history as if You have only loved us first but a single time, rather than that without ceasing You have loved us first many times and every day and our whole life through. When we wake up in the morning and turn our soul toward You – You are there first-You have loved us, first. If I rise at dawn and at the same second turn my soul toward You in prayer, You are there ahead of me. You have loved me first. When I withdraw from the distractions of the day and turn my soul toward You, You are there first, and thus forever.

Confession of Faith: New City Catechism

Part 1, God, Creation & Fall, Law Q 18,19,20

Leader: Will God allow our disobedience and idolatry to go unpunished?
People: No, every sin is against the sovereignty, holiness, and goodness of God, and against his righteous law, and God is righteously angry with our sins and will punish them in his just judgement both in this life, and in the life to come.

Leader: Is there any way to escape punishment and be brought back into God’s favor?
People: Yes, to satisfy his justice, God himself, out of mere mercy, reconciles us to himself and delivers us from sin and from the punishment for sin, by a Redeemer.

Leader: Who is the Redeemer?
People: The only Redeemer is the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, in whom God became man and bore the penalty for sin himself.

TVC Prayer Ministry

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Mission Highlight: International Justice Mission (IJM)
Praying for the Persecuted Church: Tanzania

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