Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a
mighty man of wealth, of the family of
Elimelech, and his name was Boaz.
And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let
me now go to the field, and glean
ears of corn after him, in whose sight
I shall find grace.
And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.
And she went and came, and gleaned in
the field after the reapers.
And her hap was, the chance was, that
she alighted on a part of the field
belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred
of Elimelech.
And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said
unto the reapers, The Lord be with you.
They answered him, The Lord bless thee.
Then said Boaz unto his servants that were
set over the reapers, Whose damsel is this?
And the servant that was set over the
reapers answered and said, It is the Moabitess
damsel that came back with Naomi out of
the country of Moab.
And she said, I pray you, let me
glean and gather after the reapers among the
sheaves.
So she came, and hath continued even from
the morning until now, that she tarried a
little in the house.
Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not
my daughter?
Go not to glean in another field, neither
go from hence, but abide here fast by
my maidens.
Let thine eyes be on the field that
they do reap, and go thou after them.
Have I not charged the young men that
they should not touch thee?
And when thou art athirst, go unto the
vessels, and drink of that which the young
men have drawn.
Then she fell on her face, and bowed
herself to the ground, and said unto him,
Why have I found grace in thine eyes,
that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing
I am a stranger?
A preacher by the name of Chris Austin,
one of the early church fathers, and he
referring to Boaz and this particular incident says,
Observe that what has happened to Ruth is
analogous to what happened to us.
For she was a stranger, and had fallen
into extremist distress.
But Boaz, when he saw her, neither despised
her poverty, nor condemned the lowliness of her
family.
So the Lord Jesus took up the church,
and chose the stranger who lacked possessions for
His bride.
Well let me sketch in the scene, in
case you're not familiar with the Old Testament,
in case you're a stranger within the gospel
field this morning, you've come casually into this
tabernacle and at this moment you're not too
sure as to what it is that I
am making reference about.
Well, Ruth and Naomi have returned to Bethlehem
from the land of Moab.
Ruth is not a Jew.
She was originally a Moabites.
They have come back having lost everything, Naomi,
her husband and her two sons.
Ruth, well, she has rejected her home and
rejected her country, and she has accompanied Naomi
to this city, which in history has such
a great place.
So here are these two poverty stricken women.
And one morning Ruth determines that because she
will not beg for her bread, that she
will go out into the harvest fields for
its harvest time.
And there she will follow the reapers, and
she will claim what is the right or
was the right in those days of the
poor, of going along by the borders of
the field and taking what particular grain she
could find as it was missed by the
reapers or as it fell from their hands.
So here we have one of the most
graphic pictures in the Old Testament of a
rural harvest scene.
You can almost hear the swish of the
blade as the reapers go into the fields
around Bethlehem and as they cut down the
crop.
And here, as John Keats tells us in
one of his lovely poems, we view the
sad heart of Ruth when sick from home,
she stood in tears and in the alien
corn.
Well watch Boaz as he first of all
comes into this tract of land.
He is the owner of this portion of
the field, and his servants greet him.
And he in turn lovingly greets them, the
Lord bless you.
And Boaz in the fifth verse we discover
makes some inquiries to who the foreign lady
is with his reapers, where does she come
from?
The information is supplied.
And then Boaz makes his first encounter with
Ruth.
And here I say is typified, is foreshadowed
for you and for me the way that
a greater redeemer than Boaz shall make encounter
with those who he has come to help.
Boaz, we're told in the first verse, was
a mighty man of wealth.
So was our Lord Jesus.
Boaz was attracted to a woman who was
desperately in need.
So was our Lord Jesus.
Boaz would transfer some of his wealth in
the favor of Ruth and Naomi.
We read in the Gospels, or rather in
the New Testament, that we know, reminds the
Apostle Paul, we know the grace of our
Lord Jesus.
How that though he was rich, yet for
our sakes he became poor.
That through his poverty he might make others
rich.
Here then I say is typified the ministry
of the kinsman redeemer, even our Lord Jesus.
And so we watch this scene as the
mighty, rich, and tender-hearted Boaz goes towards
this insignificant Moabites.
And we marvel as we see not only
literally this historic picture, but we find it
to be typifying our own experience of the
Lord Jesus Christ and his love towards us.
So if you'd like a title for my
address this morning, how about study, or studies,
in the affection of the kinsman.
Now notice first of all then his winsomeness
as he makes an approach to Ruth.
I read to you the words of the
eighth verse again.
Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Heareth thou not
my daughter?
Go not to glean in another field?
Neither go from hence, but abide here fast
by my maidens.
Is it not singular, is it not gripping
that he refers to this unknown foreign woman
as daughter?
He puts her at her ease immediately.
And we read that it was the custom
of the Lord Jesus Christ when he approached
people to refer to them by their name,
Zacchaeus, Mary.
The gospel says that the Lord Jesus knows
his sheep.
And that means that if you have found
yourself this morning, by chance so to speak,
in this tabernacle listening to my voice, you
may be unknown to me, but you're not
unknown to the God of Boaz, to the
one who became the God of Ruth.
He calls his people by name.
And what is more, Boaz in no way
despises what Ruth is doing.
He realizes that she's a gleaner.
He knows her penury, her poverty-stricken condition.
And you might think that a mighty man
like Boaz with wealth and authority invested in
him, one of the elders of the city
of Bethlehem, would have nothing to do with
this woman.
So poor, she has to follow his reapers.
But in no way does he despise her.
Rather, he has a concern to make her
work more productive.
Don't lean in any other field.
Stay here.
And he has a word on the side
to his servants to ensure that more grain
falls within the reach of Ruth than would
naturally be the case.
And that's a point that's worth picking up
and amplifying, is it not?
That Jesus is always concerned to make our
work more productive.
That's one of the reasons why he encounters
us.
Here are a group of men fishing.
They're frustrated.
The hours have gone by.
They've invested all the night in their task,
endeavoring to catch fish.
But they have been eminently unsuccessful.
And Jesus comes around and he says, You
know, fellas, if you just go back, I
know it's the early hours of the morning.
It's not the right time to engage in
fishing.
But just go back into your boat and
cast your net on the side that I
command.
And I tell you, your work will be
more productive.
The Lord Jesus does not despise these men
because they were fishermen and unsuccessful that night.
He involves himself with their toil, and his
concern is to make them more productive.
And that's precisely his relationship to you and
to me, involved in the rough and tumble
of our lives, concerned to make us effective
and productive in service for our fellow men
and, more importantly, in our service for God.
And notice also, regarding Boaz and Ruth, that
the former will supply the latter's need without
taking away her independence.
He appreciates the initiative.
That is Ruth's.
He knows of her kindliness towards Naomi.
He wants to secure that independence and to
add to it.
And this, to me, suggests a picture that
unravels one of the theological knots within the
Bible.
I speak of the sovereignty of God.
The absolute sovereignty of God.
And the lack of ability of men and
women to save themselves.
Salvation is within the hands of God to
dispense.
And yet the Bible does not blush to
say, work out your salvation with fear and
trembling.
Here is Boaz.
He is the owner of the field.
And he is complimenting Ruth on her initiative.
And in a sense, he is endeavoring to
get her to retain her independence.
But if she will cooperate with him, then
the result of her labor will be that
much more beneficial to her and to Naomi.
And the Bible declares this, that if we
seek God, if we use an initiative which
perhaps unknown to us is promoted by the
Holy Spirit, he will bless that initiative.
He will marry it to his grace, to
his benevolence, so that your work in the
gospel field shall bring many rich rewards, a
veritable harvest of blessing for you and for
those to whom you minister.
The winsomeness of the kinsman redeemer.
His manner of approach is delightful, a study
in human relationships.
He does not despise her standard in life.
And he will in no way take away
her independence.
His winsomeness.
But stay a while in these two verses
and let's dig further, for there's much more
to be discovered.
A spiritual harvest is latent here.
Not only the winsomeness of the kinsman redeemer,
but also the genuineness that his words have
within them.
Go not to glean in another field, neither
go from hence.
You see the repetition there.
It smacks of sincerity.
Here's a woman, I repeat, she's a foreigner.
It's obvious that she's not a Jewess.
What's she doing on Boaz's tract of land?
Why not send her off somewhere else?
There are no markers to determine which land
belongs to Boaz and which belongs to his
neighbours.
Why should his land be impoverished by this
woman?
Send her away.
But no, he's genuine in his concern for
her.
As genuine as the Lord Jesus Christ is
toward us, Boaz receives a stranger into his
land.
And shall I tell you something, friend?
No man comes, no woman comes into the
family of God without first having been a
stranger.
We all come as Moabiteses to the gospel
field and perhaps we fear within our hearts
that the owner will dispatch us, will send
us about our business, will say we have
no rights there.
For sure enough, we have no right.
We don't own the field.
We don't qualify to benefit from the harvest.
But the glorious thing about our kinsman-redeemer
is that he says, You who've got no
rights, you who've got no money, you who've
got no qualifications at all, you come.
My field's a big field.
The harvest is a bumper crop.
There's room for the roots of the 20th
century.
There's room for all to come in here,
gone up to glean in another field.
Don't go from hence.
The words have a human touch within them.
I read once of a Roman general who
had this to say, and his remark is
significant.
He was speaking about some of the need
in the Roman Empire.
I am a man.
Nothing that concerns men can be of indifference
to me.
So Jesus Christ was and is a man,
albeit the God-man.
And nothing that involves humanity leaves him indifferent
and cold.
He came to mount a rescue work so
that sinners might be helped by his ministry.
He came to bring the bread of life
so that those who were starving may receive
food and enter into the experience of salvation.
I'm a man, and there's nothing that affects
humanity to which I can be indifferent.
Go not to glean in another field, neither
go from hence, but abide here fast.
As though he were saying, Ruth, it wouldn't
be to your benefit to be found in
any other field.
Though you didn't know it, you were divinely
led here.
There's no particular tract of land that can
meet your requirements as my tract, for my
servants are at my disposal.
They will do what I tell them to
do, and I will work in your interest.
I don't know what brought you into our
church this morning, though we praise God for
every person who comes, and the warmth of
welcome of our brotherly inland was very genuine
and spoke for us all.
And let us say this, and you'll appreciate
the way that I'm expressing it, we're glad
that you've come into this particular land, into
this particular area, because here is something that
can do you good.
Here are gospel blessings that we can share
with you.
Here is the Spirit of God who is
involved not only with my life, the elders'
lives, the deacons' lives, but every ordinary person
in this congregation.
Don't go elsewhere.
Don't make your involvement be away from the
gospel field, for if that's the case, then
what you're really seeking you can never find,
and that which your heart craves after will
never be delivered to you.
Stay in this field.
Stay within the orbit of a gospel ministry.
Come within the province of this book and
its promises.
Come within the shadow of this table and
all that it represents.
Don't go elsewhere.
Ruth can find no satisfaction in any other
field than that one which is by Bethlehem,
under the jurisdiction of the Redeemer, Boaz.
It wouldn't be good for you to be
found in another field, Ruth.
Stay here.
Let us remember the affections of the kinsman
Redeemer, his winsomeness, his genuineness, and his comprehensiveness
in his love towards this young woman.
Sometimes we sing a hymn, and perhaps I
should have selected it this morning, full salvation,
full salvation, and this is what we believe
the Lord Jesus dispenses.
He doesn't just save us.
He keeps us.
He fills us with his Spirit.
He gives us gospel blessing upon gospel blessing.
And here you see in the ministry of
Boaz towards Ruth, the whole idea typified.
Here is comprehensive affection.
What does a woman on her own in
a foreign town require?
In land where there are ordinary people working,
she needs fellowship.
She needs companionship in a word.
So what does Boaz say to Ruth?
Abide here fast by my maidens.
And when you come within the gospel family,
there are brothers and sisters and mothers and
fathers that God gives you without number here
on this earth.
This was the reply of the Lord Jesus
to Simon on one occasion when he said,
Lord, we've given up everything and followed you.
And Jesus, in his reply, said, Simon, that
may be the case.
And I know what you're saying, but listen,
you never give up anything in following me
without receiving a hundredfold.
Abide here fast by my maidens.
What else does a woman require when she's
in such a circumstance as was Ruth?
Protection.
Stay with verse 9.
Have I not charged the young men that
they shall not touch thee?
And when I place my life within the
disposal of the Lord Jesus, when I cling
to him for salvation, he not only saves
me, he protects me.
Says the apostle Paul, what shall separate me
from the love of God?
And he goes on and he gives a
whole catalog of things that possibly might.
And then he says, no.
I'm in the protection of my kinsman redeemer,
and there is no power on earth, under
the earth, or in heaven that can put
a wedge between me and that.
And refreshment.
If you're working in the fields, don't you
require this?
Must not this be part of the blessing
that your kinsman redeemer will give you?
The latter part of verse 9.
When thou art a thirst, go unto the
vessels and drink of that which the young
men have drawn.
Here is water for Ruth.
Water that is almost akin to the water
of salvation of which the gospel makes reference.
Notice that this water was already provided.
It was already waiting for Ruth before she
ever entered into that tract of land, as
indeed the salvation that Jesus offers you was
ready before you entered into this, the precincts
of this church.
And notice that it is available to Ruth.
It's freely offered to her.
And she can take it whenever she is
thirsty.
And I point you to our kinsman redeemer,
even Jesus, as he dies on the cross.
And I tell you that he sunk a
well there.
And there's liquid salvation that's available for you
and for me to drink of.
It's free.
It's manufactured just for you, just for your
requirements, just for my requirements.
The comprehensiveness of the love of the redeemer.
Have you noticed, and I say this in
closing, that in the third verse we come
across this peculiar expression in Scripture describing Ruth
entering into Boaz's territory.
Her hap was to light on a part
of the field belonging unto Boaz.
And that word hap is an old-fashioned
word.
It's a Jacobean word, in vogue when this
book was translated into English, but it needs
updating.
And so you could use the word chance.
Does that surprise you that you can find
the word chance in the Bible?
If it does, then let me disarm you
of any prejudices because Jesus told the parable
of the good Samaritan and he says, by
chance, Luke, what is it?
12, Luke chapter 12, I believe so.
By chance a priest went down, by chance
a Levite went down, by chance a Samaritan
went down.
But it's just chance on the human level.
The lot is cast, says Solomon, into the
lap, but the disposing of it is the
Lord.
Shakespeare, there's a divinity that shapes our ends,
rough-hew them how we will.
By chance on the human level, Ruth enters
into that field.
And Boaz will be there, Boaz who can
minister to her, Boaz who will ultimately take
the part of the kinsmen and redeem her
and Nehemiah and rescue them from their abysmal
circumstances.
Is it by chance that you came into
the tabernacle this morning?
By chance that I felt so impelled to
give you this word that I came into
this pulpit?
Not by chance at all.
There's a Redeemer, you see, who's winsome, who's
genuine, who's comprehensive in his affections towards you
and towards me.
Will you not recognize him as Ruth recognized
Boaz?
Will you not say, Lord Jesus, I've come
into your gospel field.
Let me feast from the corn that is
there, satisfy my heart with good things, forgive
me my sin, and because you bled and
died to save me, I ask that you
will enable me to enter into a relationship
with you that will last in time and
throughout eternity.
We continue next week to discover what Ruth's
reaction was to Boaz's invitation.
Amen.
Father, we bless you, the majority of us
in this sanctuary, for the day when by
chance, as it were, we strayed into the
gospel field and your son, our spiritual Boaz,
drew alongside and bid us welcome and said
that there was food and there was drink
and there was protection and fellowship and so
many heaped up blessings.
We praise you that his words were not
empty.
He fulfilled all that he promised.
We thank you, Lord, that we're still gleaning
in that tract of land, and we praise
you for all that our relationship with you
increasingly means.
Now, Lord, continue with us as we remember
the death of our kinsman and his mighty
resurrection.
Amen.