Tonight, turn to the book of Ruth with
me and we'll look at this, just tremendous
story.
One of the neatest love stories to me
and watching it unfold in all of the
Bible.
It's right after the book of Judges and
before 1st and 2nd Samuel there.
And if you're having trouble finding it, there
it is.
Let's pray and then we'll look at this.
Father, how we thank you for your word.
And Lord, we thank you for what you
designed when you created man and woman.
Lord, for the relationship and the magnificence of
marriage.
And we ask, Lord, that in these series
in which we're going through just looking at
Biblical couples and watching, Lord, their relationships develop.
We ask, Lord, that you would teach us
of your plan and how you work in
wonderful ways.
And so we thank you and we praise
you for it.
Teach us and feed us.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, the book of Ruth, of course, as
it begins, it says, Now it came to
pass in the days in which the judges
ruled that there was a famine in the
land.
The book of Ruth, of course, is put
here, right?
Because it's right after the book of Judges.
Because it takes place during the time of
the book of Judges.
And it's really a wonderful story, I think.
If you aren't familiar with it, I hope
you get familiar with it tonight.
But it's wonderful in the sense of it
with the backdrop.
At a time where the children of Israel
were largely spiritually in a wasteland.
They were up and down, you know, all
the different cycles.
Some seven cycles through the book of Judges.
They would have a high point and then
down they would go.
And over and over again, it was quite
cyclical, spiritually speaking.
Up and down and back and forth, it
seemed.
And there was a lot of apostasy.
There was tremendous leadership disorientation in the whole
of the country.
There was social chaos.
It was just a time to where it
wasn't healthy.
It wasn't a good time at all.
But just to kind of firstly, because it's
a wonderful book and it's also a short
book.
So it's easy to do a whole kind
of a simple review of the book.
And that's what I want to do first.
Then we'll go back and look at their
courtship.
Because it's easy to look at the whole
book together.
But it's one to where the story, it
begins at this time, of course, during the
Judges.
And there was a famine in the land.
And so off goes this Hebrew couple.
Here as it were told in verse 2,
as they head off, go to the land
of Moab.
And their names were Lamanack and Naomi.
And his name means, My God is King.
And her name means Ruth, pardon me, Naomi,
means Pleasant One.
Or Delightful.
But here, My God is King and Delightful
head off.
And they have two sons.
And if you happen to have a marginal
translation, they named their children in those days
so often by whatever their observations so much
were about them.
You may recall that like with Esau and
Jacob.
Esau, he was a hunter and he was
these two supposed twins.
But one of them came out strong and
healthy and quite hairy.
He took all the good food in the
womb, it appeared, and left nothing for little
poor Jacob.
But they named one of them Harry.
And the other, that's what his name means,
what Esau means.
And Jacob means heel catcher or cheat.
He had to cheat in the womb to
get what the poor guy could kind of
get.
But they named him that way.
Well, here, My God is King and Pleasant
One have two children.
And they named them Sickly and Pining.
And so these guys had a rough start
when you look at them.
I mean, from the day that they were
born, these guys obviously unhealthy pregnancies.
And there they were perhaps there with famine
and everything else going on maybe in the
land and the difficulties.
But they were born in weakness.
And they were obviously they never got over
it.
They died quite young.
But here they head off and they leave
Jerusalem or Bethlehem.
And they head on out and go to
the land of Moab, finding out that they
hope they can make it there.
Well, when they get there, their two sons,
they met a couple Moabites, women, gals from
Moab there, Naomi and Oprah.
Oprah means gazelle and pardon me, not Naomi
and Oprah, but Ruth and Oprah.
But Oprah means gazelle and Ruth meant friendship.
But here they went off and they met
and got married there.
Well, while we're there, dad dies.
And then while they're there, the two sons
die off rather early on in the book.
And there Naomi is now left with her
two daughters-in-law, Oprah and Ruth.
She then turns to them and she tells
them just stay here.
She hears that the famine is kind of
over, that the wheat and the barley harvest
are coming through, and that there is some
way to make a living back there.
And she says, I'm going to go back
to the land where I came from, but
you stay here.
And they said, no, we'll go with you.
And they said, wait a minute.
She says, I'm too old to have children.
If I had another husband now, I couldn't
give you, you know, ever give you sons
anyway that could ever raise up and be
husbands to you.
I have nothing to offer.
There's no future with me.
So you stay here where at least you've
got family and you've got an opportunity and
you've got a world and you've got a
culture all of your own.
So you stay here.
And so Oprah, she says, OK.
And she figures, well, I guess that's it.
They both initially were going to go.
But then at that point, Oprah reasoned it
out and she stayed.
But then Ruth came and said, of course,
one of the most famous verses in the
Bible is when she said, don't, I won't
leave you.
I'm not going to turn back.
And she says, from following you forever, you
go.
I will go wherever you lodge.
I will lodge.
Your people will be my people, your God
and my God.
And where you die, I will die.
And there will I be buried.
And so the Lord do so to me.
And also more of anything but death parts,
you and me.
Here she came and somehow or another, this
Hebrew family had come here as she'd come
from another religion, another culture, another world.
And here they came out in famine.
They came out unhealthy.
Three of them died there.
And yet she saw something that was there
within Naomi or what was left to say,
I don't know much about where you've come
from.
I don't know much about the world.
But even what she had already seen is
pathetic of a view of godliness in the
sense of a sorrowful view.
Not pathetic, I don't think that's the word,
but sorrowful one.
I've seen it like this, but she was
so touched by it.
She said, wherever you go, I want to
go.
Wherever you lodge, I'm going to lodge.
Whoever your people are, I want them to
be my people.
Your God's going to be my God.
When you die, I want to die where
you die.
I want to be buried where you're buried.
And only death is ever going to separate
us.
And so she turns and she says, okay.
But as she returns back to the land,
they say, Naomi's back.
And she says, no, don't call me Naomi,
the delightful one or pleasant one.
Call me Mara.
It means bitter because the Lord has dealt
bitterly with me.
I went out full, it says in verse
21, the Lord has brought me home again
empty.
Why do you call me Naomi?
Since the Lord has testified against me and
the Almighty has afflicted me.
And so here they come and the harvest
has come in.
And by the time they get into chapter
2, they're now into the harvest season.
And the way that kind of the welfare
system of the Old Testament was, is that
they didn't have anything like we do where
you'd give a percentage and it's taken out
of your taxes and then it's set aside
in a welfare system to help the poor,
the needy, or the widows, or the fatherless.
Or whoever it is that society determines is
needy.
The way that it was done, which I
think is a wonderful way, but it was
one there to where as they would glean
the fields, or as they would harvest the
fields, is that they could pass through twice.
The owner of the field, this was just
the way the government was set up.
If you owned a field and you had
a harvest in it, you could pass through
on two occasions to get whatever it is
that you could harvest out of it.
And after that, whatever grew or whatever was
left was then left for gleaners.
And those were the people that needed welfare.
Those were the widows, or the fatherless, or
those that couldn't find work, but needed to
sustain themselves.
And so that there was a certain dignity
to it.
They went out and they found work.
They worked alongside other people.
And their lives were functional.
And while they were going through a difficulty
or whatever it was, they maintained a dignity
and kept themselves used to and disciplined to
work and to go out and find work.
And it was really a rather wonderful system.
Well, they came, and here it just mentions
in chapter 2, verse 1, it says, And
Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a
man of great wealth, of the family of
Elimelech, and his name was Boaz.
So Ruth the Moabitess went to Naomi and
says, Please let me go into the field
and glean heads of grain after him, in
whose sight I may find favor.
She said to her, Go, my daughter.
This was something that sounds like Ruth was
aware of Boaz.
She wasn't.
It makes that quite clear later on.
But it just mentions it here.
And she just says, Let me go out
and see if I can find some work
with anybody who finds favor on me and
do some gleaning.
And she said, Okay, go on out.
Well, it tells us in verse 3, Then
she left and she went out and gleaned
in the field after reapers.
And she happened to come upon a part
of the field belonging to Boaz, who was
of the family of Elimelech.
And here is something where it just says,
of course, it happened.
It just appeared, obviously, to us maybe or
somebody watching.
It's just kind of coincidental.
Of course, it wasn't, was it?
But the thing is, is that here she,
according to her thinking, she was just going
out and just doing what she thought she
ought to do.
And as she was doing it, she comes
along and she's in this field of Boaz.
Then Boaz comes along out one day just
to check his field, see how the labors
are doing.
Verse 4, it says that he came and
he said to the reapers, The Lord be
with you.
And they answered him, The Lord bless you.
Then Boaz said to his servant who was
in charge of the reapers, Whose young woman
is this?
Well, the servant answered who was in charge
of the reapers.
And he said, The young Moabitess woman.
And she came back with Naomi from the
country of Moab.
And she said, Please let me glean and
gather after the reapers among the sea.
So she came and has continued from morning
until now, though she rested a little in
the house.
Then Boaz said to Ruth, You will listen,
my daughter.
Will you not?
Do not go and glean in another field,
nor go out from here, but stay close
by my young women.
Here is something where she just comes along
and she just happens, as it says there.
And then Boaz, he just kind of happened
to come along himself to check on things,
see the employees.
But as he looks out, he sees this
woman who he had never seen before.
And he asked about her.
Who's this?
Oh, this is, you know, Naomi, she's back.
And this is her daughter-in-law.
And she's been out here working all day.
She's been working, working.
She only took a brief rest.
And so Boaz comes cruising over to her.
And says, Now, listen, young lady.
And she's, of course, unaware of anything.
And he said, I don't want to see
you working any other place.
He actually called her and says, You know,
you will listen, my daughter.
There was an age difference, obviously, between.
We'll see a little more of that later.
But it's something that he just kind of,
it would appear, took this fatherly kind of
role.
Now, listen, my daughter.
He said, I don't want to see you
go out and work in anybody else's field.
So you just stay right here.
And stay with the young women, he tells
her in verse 9.
And he says, Also, I've told the young
men to stay away from you and not
to bother you.
And have I not commanded the young men
not to touch you?
And he says, It's a rough world out
here.
There's real tough times.
And I just, I'm just caring for you.
Maybe as he appeared, at any rate.
I kind of think there was something happening
right from day one myself.
But it's something that watching this thing is
he's kind of watching her.
And she's kind of unaware of it.
But he looks and he sees her.
And he kind of says, It's a dangerous
world out there.
So you just stay around here and we'll
all watch over you and make sure you're
okay.
And then she turns.
She says, Well, why?
Why do you care about me?
And why have I found favor in your
eyes that you should take notice of me
since I'm a foreigner?
Why?
Well, Boaz answered and he said to her,
It's been fully reported to me.
All that you've done for your mother-in
-law since the death of your husband.
And now you've left your father and mother
in the land of your birth.
And you've come to a people whom you
didn't know.
The Lord repay your work.
A full reward be given you by the
Lord God of Israel under whose wings you
have come for refuge.
He looks there and he says, I realize
that you've left.
Perhaps he'd already heard of this vow that
she had made to Naomi.
Wherever thou goest, I will go.
Wherever thou lodgest, I will lodge.
Your people, my people.
Your God's, mine.
And he looked at her and he said,
I realize you left everything.
Home and family and everything to follow her.
And may the Lord just be your refuge
and may he repay you wonderfully.
The reason I think there might have been
a little something to it is.
It said in verse 14, Now Boaz said
unto her at mealtime, Come here and eat
bread and dip a piece of bread in
vinegar.
So she sat beside the reapers and passed
parts grain to her.
And she ate and was satisfied and kept
some back.
Here's something, he asked her out to dinner.
And he says, Why don't you, let's just
have a little, since we're here, you know.
You eating?
You hungry?
Didn't you read he asked her there to
join him for a meal and she does.
And then he says, By the way, keep
all the scraps here.
Keep all the leftovers.
You take them all home with you there.
And then he turns and he tells the
servants.
And verse 15, And when she rose up
to glean, Boaz commanded his young men saying,
Let her glean, even some among the sheaves.
Don't rebuke her or reproach her.
And also let some of the grain of
her bundles fall purposely.
From the bundles fall purposely for her.
Leave it that she may glean and don't
rebuke her.
Here he says, Let her pass through the
fields, even before it's gone through twice, is
what it means there.
And he says, And afterwards, just kind of
spill a little.
You know, when you're going through, just kind
of let a leak out of you.
Just sort of a casual way.
So she goes and she comes home at
the end of this day there to Naomi.
And in verse 19, when Naomi sees all
that she's brought home, this huge amount of
food, you know, she looks at her mother
-in-law and said to her, Where have
you gleaned today?
And where did you work?
Blessed be the one who took notice of
you.
So she told her mother-in-law with
whom she had worked.
And she said, Well, the man's name with
whom I work today is Boaz.
And he says, I just went out.
I was just working.
And this guy came up.
He was so nice to me.
And, boy, everything just, it was just wonderful.
Is this a lot?
You know, she probably thought as she came
home with all this pile of stuff, where
a gleaner would kind of, you know, like
welfare.
You didn't come home like you own the
company.
You came home, you know, like, you know,
you got enough to make, you know, a
night's meal for the evening and then go
back to work the next day.
Well, she comes home with all this.
And she's looking at this thing and says,
Where have you been?
And the Lord has blessed you in a
wonderful way.
And she says, Well, just, I don't know.
Just with a guy named Boaz.
Then Naomi said to her and her daughter
-in-law, Blessed be the Lord who has
not forsaken His kindness to the living and
the dead.
And Naomi said to her, The man is
a relative of ours.
He is one of our near kinsmen.
Then Ruth, the Moabitess, said, Well, he also
told me you'll stay close to my young
men until they have finished all of my
harvest.
And he says he wants me to come
back and just work there.
He told me not to go any other
place.
Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law,
It's good, my daughter, that you go out
with the young women and the people do
not meet you in any other field.
And so she stayed close to the young
women of Boaz, gleaned until the end of
the barley harvest and the wheat harvest.
And she dwelt with her mother-in-law.
So here for some period of time, while
the harvest is continuing on, this little scenario
goes on for at least some weeks.
Well, it comes to the end of it.
And then as it comes to the end,
it tells us in chapter 3 now that
Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her,
My daughter, shall I not seek security for
you that it may be well with you?
Now Boaz, whose young women you were with,
is he not our kinsman?
In fact, he is winnowing barley tonight at
the threshing floor.
Therefore, wash yourself, anoint yourself, put on your
best garment, and go down to the threshing
floor.
But don't make yourself known to the man
until he has finished eating and drinking.
Now here's something, what is happening here to
explain is that in the Old Testament, in
the Hebrew nation, they had what they called
the right of a kinsman-redeemer.
You see, the whole great expectation, the whole
great dream of all of Israel, of course,
was to be the dream of ever being
in line to the Messiah.
That was the ultimate of all.
That's why, I mean, that they knew that
they always dreamed of the firstborn, of it
being a male, and all the dreams that
they would have.
But it was something there that they wanted
to continue the family name on.
And also just to keep the heritage.
The way that all of the generations passed
things on, and the way that inheritance was,
it was passed on through the sons.
And so when somebody would have sons, they
would die, and there was a certain amount
of land.
It was set way back under Moses and
Aaron, initially spoken of.
And then when Joshua divided up the land
when they came in, it was all according
to tribe.
And every tribe had a certain area of
the land of Canaan.
And part of the geography was set for
that tribe, and then they divided it up.
And then for then on, the land belonged
to that family.
And all that had to happen is the
family to continue.
But if a man didn't have any sons,
then it would end up being lost.
Well, here in the family, identity and heritage
would be lost.
But if a man was married, and he
died before he had had sons, one of
his immediate kin, the closest of kin, right
on through a line, but they had what
they called a kinsman redeemer.
And that is, is that that man would
then go to this man's wife who had
died, and have a child with her, hopefully
a son, and then that son would then
take over the inheritance.
And so here was the family farm, or
the plot of land.
The husband had died, the wife was there,
and then a brother, or someone would come
and have a child for her, but the
child would carry on the brother's name, the
one that had died.
And they're to carry it right on through
history for them, is what a kinsman redeemer
was all about, was to redeem the family
name when an extra kin had died, and
to step in and take that.
They would also take the financial responsibilities of
it.
They would take the responsibilities of helping to
raise the child as if they were their
own, though it was a nephew, essentially, as
far as the history, though they were actually
the father.
Well, then it would be passed on down.
And at any rate, here is Naomi, her
husband has died, and now at this point,
because she is too old to bear any
children of her own, it would just be
lost.
But because she had a son, though he
had died, who had married a woman, now
that made Ruth there the one that was
the kinsman redeemer, or the one that if
she could have a child, it would carry
on for the family.
So Naomi tells Ruth after the harvest season,
here's what I want you to do.
I want you to go down there, and
she says, first I want you to wash
yourself, get all cleaned up, put on some
perfume, anoint yourself, get on your best garment,
go down to the threshing floor.
I understand Boaz is working tonight.
So go on down there, and when he's
all through working, wait until he's finished eating
and drinking.
You know, I don't want to get sidetracked,
but that's some wonderful advice there, I think,
given by this mother-in-law.
You know, I mean, the things that she
said, some of them just so simple and
yet so practical.
Where she just tells her some things, she
says, now get cleaned up, and smell nice,
and wear the nicest thing you've got.
And this is something that's funny.
There's a lot of people, they don't understand.
I'm not talking about trying to be worldly
or fancy, but there's nothing wrong, Kay Smith
used to say, if the barn needs painting,
paint it.
But we're somebody just to look as nice
as they can look.
And a lot of people just don't think
that way, and wanting their just to look
nice.
I went to college at Cal Poly in
Pomona.
At the time, it was predominantly an agricultural
school.
And there was a lot of jokes on
campus, because most of the gals were there
studying agriculture.
We used to have a lot of kidding
going on.
The homecoming queen came over the hills at
5 o'clock.
You know, it was kind of the joke
there.
And if the son was right, you weren't
sure which one she was.
And they were bringing in the cattle.
But it was just a lot of them.
They were just tough women.
They could spit and chew like anybody else.
And it's something where, instead of just realizing
the femininity, there's nothing wrong with realizing its
power and the wonder of it.
I'm not into trying somebody to be flashy.
And Peter talks in the Bible about the
women trying to adorn themselves with all of
the plating of gold and the fancy, you
know, external things.
And to where the real beauty of the
woman is in the hidden woman of the
heart.
But there's nothing wrong at all whatsoever with
what's there to take care of it.
And not only that, but also the wisdom
of, he's had a tough day, before you
talk to him, make sure he's had something
to eat and drink.
Tremendous wisdom.
There's a well-equipped mother-in-law there.
And she says, just wait until you look
nice, and then wait until he's ate and
drank.
Then talk.
And then she sends him in, though.
And the way that the kinsman-redeemer thing
worked is, is that after he went to
bed, she was instructed, she went in and
she was to lie at the foot of
his bed.
This was not a sensuous thing at all,
or in that sense of the word.
But it was one there to where then
she said, you uncover his feet.
And that isn't just because he'll eventually be
waken up by his feet being uncovered.
That was part of it.
But also one that now there, he then
is to take his blanket, and if he
covers you, that is saying there that he
is going to take the part of the
kinsman-redeemer.
Well, he wakes up, sure enough, later on,
and he says, Who's there?
It's dark.
What's happening here?
And she says, Well, I'm Ruth, your maidservant.
She said, Take your maidservant under your wing,
for you are a near kinsman.
Then he said, Blessed are you of the
Lord, my daughter, for you have shown more
kindness in the end than in the beginning,
in that you did not go after young
men, whether poor or rich.
But he goes on and he tells her,
he says, However.
So obviously he'd thought about this, but he
says, However, we have a problem.
I'm not the next of kin.
I don't have the first right here to
do it and to take you to be
my wife.
But there's another that is the closer of
kin.
And so you've got to go home.
It's not my decision.
It's his.
And so she gets up while it's still
dark and he sends her on home and
gives her some food to go.
And then when she gets there, Naomi, of
course, is waiting.
She said, Well, Ruth, how did it go?
What happened?
And she said, Well, there's another one that's
of closer kinsman redeemer than he is, who
has the first right of refusal.
And so he said he was going to
take care of it.
And then in verse 18, Naomi says to
Ruth, And she said, Sit still, my daughter,
until you know how the matter will turn
out.
For the man will not rest until he
has concluded the matter this day.
Here's Naomi.
She looked at this thing and she says,
Got it.
She obviously turned and she said, This guy
is not going to sleep again.
We hooked him good.
We got the guy.
And he's not going to go to sleep
until he's settled this matter, I can tell.
And to me, it's a wonderful picture of
romance, but romance in a godly way, in
a wonderful way.
I mean, here are these two people.
I think as we go back and we
make some observations, it's so wonderful to see
the way this all happened.
And so the next day, immediately, Boaz is
out there.
He goes out the city gate to where,
that's where the business was done.
He gets ten men of the elders of
the city, which they need to have to
have this council.
And then he gets his brother there.
And here as he gets his brother, he
says, By the way, brother, I got a
little thing, a little business here to do
with you.
He said, Sure, what is it?
And he said, Well, you know, our brother,
Lemonade.
And he says, Yes, God rest his soul,
or whatever they said.
But at any rate, he says, Well, you
know, Naomi, she's back.
And that didn't bother him because she was
too old to bear children.
But before he had left, he had sold
his land in the famine, obviously.
She said, I had to sell the land,
but you have the right to buy it
back.
That was the way that also with the
kinsmen redeemer, anytime somebody had to mortgage, it
was more equivalent to a mortgage, in a
sense, that couldn't actually be sold.
Or anytime that money was taken, you could
return the money and get it back.
And so he says, Well, there's the land,
and it's there, and it's yours if you
want it.
So if you want to go, you know,
redeem it back, you know, it's all yours.
He says, Hey, I'll take it.
And he says, Okay.
And he says, Oh, by the way, maybe
I forgot to tell you.
She also came back with a daughter-in
-law, you know, sickly and pining.
You know, they got married, and they died,
of course, too.
That was real sad.
But before they died, one of the wives
has come back here, a Moabitess.
And I don't know what you think about
that.
And he says, Oh, he says, That wouldn't
be good.
No, my wife won't go for this at
all.
I don't think it'd be tough at home.
It'd be tough on the whole inheritance.
See, it'd be fine if he thought, Oh,
I'll take it.
We'll bring it all into my family for
the inheritance.
It'll just add to our wealth of our
family to pass on.
But in the kinsman-redeemer, the children, they
were produced through it, that you had to
finance and raise them up and take care
of the cost of all of that.
And then you turned it all over to
them in the end anyway.
And so he says, Oh, that's going to
mess up my inheritance real bad.
My kids won't go for that.
Pay all this money out, and they'll never
get anything back.
Bad deal, bad deal.
And he says, I can't redeem it for
myself, lest I ruin my own inheritance, in
verse 6.
He says, So why don't you take it?
Bless his soul.
Okay.
I'm a good guy.
I'll do this.
And so he turns, and as was the
custom was that a man, when he had
made a deal, he took his shoe off
and his sandal off.
He gave it to the other, and so
he did that.
And then he says, You are witnesses.
And then he ended up where Ruth became
his wife.
And not only, of course, did she become
his wife, but then obviously Naomi, her life
was entirely turned around.
It says in verse 13, Then Boaz took
Ruth, and she became his wife.
And when he came into her, the Lord
gave her conception.
She bore a son.
And the women said to Naomi, Blessed be
the Lord, who has not left you this
day without a near kinsman, and may his
name be famous in Israel.
And may he be to you a restorer
of life, a nourisher of your old age,
and for your daughter-in-law who loves
you, who is better to you than seven
sons has borne him.
Then Naomi took the child, laid him on
her bosom, and became a nurse to him.
Also the neighbor women gave the same saying,
say, There is a son born to Naomi.
And they called his name Obed.
He is the father of Jesse, the father
of David.
But now in this wonderful story to think
here that not only was the family immediately
cared for and was hit, but then they
went on to where he ended up becoming
the great-grandfather of King David.
Of course, when Jesus inherited the throne of
his father, David.
But what a story.
You know, when you just stop to think
of it.
To me, when I think of this story
myself, it's one there to wear over the
whole thing.
I just want to write Matthew 6.33.
Because to me, as I look at this
love story, it's a story that to me,
both of them, when you look at both
Ruth and Boaz, the secret of this magnificent
love, of this magnificent story of redemption listed
through all eternity now, set in stone in
a wonderful way.
But right over it, you could just write,
here's two people in a world and a
time when they were largely backslidden.
They still live, both of them, spiritually for
God.
They were somebody, both of them, they weren't
looking for each other.
It's pretty apparent when these two came along,
I mean, they had all sorts of differences
about them.
They had all sorts of reasons they shouldn't
have made it.
That these two shouldn't have met.
She was raised in poverty.
He was raised in affluence.
They're from two different cultures.
It was one there to where the cultures
didn't even talk to each other.
Aaron had commanded, Moses and Aaron had commanded,
that the Moab, they were never ever to
be allowed within the temple.
For what they had done and their terrible
sins, the children of Israel looked at Moab.
Even David later on, he says, Moab is
my washpot.
You know, and over Edom I cast out
my shoe.
But it was something that the Moab, they
were far, far from anything that the children
of Israel would ever talk to, ever have
anything to do with at all.
Two different cultures.
You may remember the first meeting they had
when he talked to her.
He says, why do you talk to me?
She says, I'm a foreigner.
There was great racial discrimination at this time.
These two should never have made it.
It was something that there was something in
their backgrounds.
Very, very different as well.
He was born and bred in Judaism.
He was born and bred in, so to
speak, in the church.
She had a very godly and spiritual background,
obviously.
And yet here she was born in Moab
and raised on pagan gods in her background.
It wasn't until finally that she had come
to this place of, recently in her life
of coming over to this tremendous conversion, in
a sense, over to Judaism and thy God
shall be my God.
And there, but it's, there are a couple
that on one hand, it's almost would be
easy to say, oh, for a different time.
Oh, for a different space or place in
the world if we only could have met.
But there's so many differences.
These two never would have made it through.
I'm trying to think.
There's one big counseling thing that a lot
of people go through and they get married
in premarital counseling that gives you, if you're
compatible.
These two would have flunked it real bad.
They'd have gone through this thing and people
would have shake their heads, wait a minute,
no way, Jose.
Forget this thing at all before you get
going.
And yet the wonderful thing about them is
that they were destined of God to be
together.
It's something to where, as you look at
it, though the thing is, is both of
them, for one thing, they were saints.
They were wonderful saints.
She was a saint in poverty, he was
a saint in wealth, but they were saints.
And rather than her looking back to Moab,
rather than her, when it came time, when
Oprah left, there was something that she made
a decision that in her heart, in her
life, she had given her life to God
the best way she knew how.
And though even a recent convert, her conversion
was genuine, it was deep.
She could look at her and she said,
wherever you go, that was geography.
Wherever you lodge, those are the circumstances in
which you live.
She looked at Naomi, wherever it is, your
people, I'll take your culture.
I'll move right into it.
And your God.
Here she looked at her and her life
had changed geographically, circumstantially, culturally, spiritually, in every
way.
She made a decision that she never looked
back on where her conversion was real.
And though, on one hand, the wonderful thing
is that all she knew about Judaism, it
was all formed in poverty.
There was a famine in the land.
And there was something so magnificent to me
about it that the reason I'm convinced of
the depth of her conversion, there was no
affluence out there in following.
There was no blessing.
There was no worldly thing whatsoever to follow
Naomi for.
She was a woman, when she met her,
they left the land and the people in
a religious world that was in famine and
a country that was in division and in
backsliding.
And yet this couple, as they came and
they brought their two sons, they were sick,
they were all dying.
Three of them died right there.
And yet there was something she saw in
it where whoever your God is, I love
Him.
He's mine.
And I want to know Him.
I want to be a part of Him.
Nothing in Moab had ever touched her.
And her conversion, it was genuine.
It was real.
It was obvious.
And it was something there that she came
and the Lord had become her refuge, even
as Boaz looked at her and he says,
The Lord be your refuge.
And she made it through difficult times.
It's difficult being raised in poverty.
But through it, she lived.
Boaz had the equal amount of difficulty, only
at the other extreme.
He was a saint in wealth.
In both of these, neither one of them
are real common.
But there's something there to where you look
at this man, he's a wealthy man.
And yet he was obviously a saint.
He was a spiritual man.
When he came out in the fields, the
first word that we hear out of his
mouth, he looks at his employees, he says,
The Lord be with you.
They answered him.
And the Lord bless you.
Here was something that this man in a
backslidden world at the time, spiritually not much
going on, but all the reason just to
live for his wealth and live for whatever
it was.
But he looked there at his employee.
He wanted to put a blessing of God
upon them.
The Lord bless you.
And how he loved and he cared for
them.
He had great compassion about him as a
person.
In verse 8, when he looked there at
Ruth, she's obviously somebody there quite a bit
younger.
Significantly younger.
We don't know how much younger, but it
would appear because Boaz was Alemanek's brother, that
he was equivalent to being her uncle.
And probably significantly older.
In his first conversation, he called her his
daughter.
It was something in chapter 4, in verse
3, it says there in verse 3, talking
about the kinsmen redeemer process, he says there's
this land that belongs to our brother Alemanek.
So here he is, of course, Alemanek's brother.
In chapter 3, in verse 10, it tells
us there that when she came there to
be the kinsmen redeemer and lay at his
feet, he looked at her and he says,
well, you haven't gone after the young men.
And so here he was, perhaps even a
generation older than her.
And yet at the same time, he looked
at her in just compassion.
He cared for her.
He wanted to do what was right.
He said, you stay with the women.
And he says, I've told the young men
to behave around you.
But it's something there that is life.
It was one there, there was just a
tremendous spirituality about it.
He was a man as well of great
integrity.
When there, he obviously had this great love
just within him, but yet at the same
time felt, well, she's too young for me.
This wouldn't be right.
And there, this man looking at this relationship
and perhaps dreaming of it and desiring it,
but yet at the same time just treats
her so correctly all the way through.
And then when there the opportunity is in
his integrity, he says, it isn't right yet.
We've got to do this right.
I've got to go and check things through.
And of course, the next day, he did.
He also, as he remarked about her, he
looked at her and he wasn't taken in
so much by her appearance.
We don't know what she looked like.
We haven't any idea.
But he saw beauty in her.
It says there what he was taken by
in verse 11 of chapter 2.
It says that it has been fully reported
to me all that you've done for your
mother-in-law since the death of your
husband, how that you left your father and
your mother and the land of your birth,
and you have come to a people who
you did not know.
The Lord repay your work.
A full reward be given you by the
Lord God of Israel under whose wings you
have come for refuge.
But here it was something what Boaz, the
beauty he saw and the beauty he was
taken in was spiritual.
He looked at her and he says, in
this backslidden world in which we're in, when
everybody else lives for their own interest, when
it's a world get it all you can
and be all you can be and instead
of self-preservation and self-protection, you're here
going out gleaning fields.
You've left everything just to take care of
this little lady, your mother-in-law.
And he looked at her and he realized
what a tremendous quality.
Somebody once said that usually when guys are
out dating, there's one type of girl they
look for, but when they sit down and
they want to pick somebody to get married,
they pick somebody like their mother.
And I suppose that depends on the mother,
I don't know.
But it's something to where I do remember
one time my mother-in-law, when I
was engaged to Jean, and she was quite
a character.
She was a lot of fun.
She had Alzheimer's the last ten years of
her life and it was difficult.
But when she was doing well, and I'll
never forget one time when I'm over dating,
when I was dating Jean, she was going
to college in Santa Barbara and a friend
of mine from Pomona, he and I, we
used to go because he had a girlfriend
up there at the same college at Westmont.
And so we'd go flying up there all
the time.
Well, we stopped by Jean's house to pick
up something for her on the way up.
So we stopped by and Jean's mother talks
to my friend about this girl.
She says, now tell me all about her.
Is she spiritual?
Does she love God?
And then she gets into a thing and
she's real intense in this conversation.
You'd have to know her.
She's a real strong, real bold lady.
But she gets to him finally and he's
talking to her and explaining everything.
She says, okay, now tell me about her
mother.
Tell me about her mother.
I want to know about her mother.
And he says, well, what do you want
to know about her mother for?
And he said, because women, they'll turn out
like their mother.
And you should really consider her mother.
And while she's saying this, I said, goodbye.
I'll go walking out the door.
And she says, where are you going?
I said, I was just over here in
your council and I'm getting out of here.
And she says, oh, no, no, not in
this case.
This is different.
Really, I was just kidding her out of
this thing when she said a woman's going
to be like her mother.
But you know she is.
And my wife, that's one of the things,
the qualities I loved about her.
I loved her mother.
But it's something here where Boaz, he looked
and he watched this relationship that Naomi had,
or Ruth had, and how she cared and
how she was a giving person.
And when somebody is that way, people oftentimes
think it's the flash or that they pick
up somebody.
It isn't that.
Boaz was taken.
He looked at her and he realized this
is a woman of great quality.
This is a woman of great heart, of
great depth, of great character.
This is a woman that he realized he
desired to spend his life with her.
I'd like to give her all I've got.
That's, of course, what he did, I'm sure.
But you want somebody to share your life
with that looks out for not their own
interests but yours.
One of the great problems in most marriages
is selfishness, isn't it?
One of the great tensions in marriage is
when people can't give to each other.
When they're there for their own interests, you're
in trouble.
A little while back, my son called me
down in San Diego and he said, Dad,
I need some advice.
I said, what?
And he says, well, I'm getting $1,700
in tax return.
And he'd already called and talked to Jean
the day before.
And Jean told me, she said, you better
call him and talk to him.
I was going to, but he called me
first.
So I already knew the story.
Because Jody, my daughter-in-law, when she
heard about this money, she'd already seen a
sofa and a matching chair and a coffee
table and these things for the house.
And she had most all of it spent.
You know, she just, whoopee, isn't this exciting,
we're getting $1,700.
And she went out and she found these
great deals.
And she came and she says, look, honey,
what we can do?
Well, he says, we can't.
We're not doing that with it.
And she had it all spent in her
mind.
And he, of course, had it spent in
his mind when he called me up.
He says, Dad, I don't know what to
do.
He says, Jody really thinks that this is
how this money is going to be spent.
And I don't know how to tell her,
but she really is into this.
And I said, well, I'd just tell her.
Just go to her and tell her.
You go do that.
What would I tell her?
I said, well, tell her the truth.
Tell her it's your money.
And you're going to spend it on your
Jeep.
And you're going to get new rims for
your car.
And you're going to get yourself a new
surfboard.
And you're going to get yourself the new
outfits.
And you're going to spend it all on
you.
She's not going to get a penny of
it.
Now, you just go tell her that.
And you do that.
And I want you to know, I just
really, I went on for three or four
minutes.
And you tell her, don't touch your stinking
money.
Don't expect a penny of it ever.
And I poured it on so heavy.
And at the end of it, I stop.
And it's completely quiet.
And he says, do I really sound like
that?
And I said, well, you tell me.
And I said, you can either give it
to her with a big fight.
Or you can just give it to her.
And I said, if you give it to
her with a fight, nobody will be happy.
But if you just give it to her,
you can both be happy.
He said, yeah, I guess so.
So he did.
But I learned that a long time ago.
You just, you know, give it up.
It's quite a world.
It's a nice place if you do that.
You know, I know this doesn't sound too,
I don't know what it sounds.
I guess I'm whipped.
I don't know.
But the thing is, my dad, I told
a story of what I went through with
him one time.
And he just taught me.
It's a long story.
I won't get into it now.
But I'll never forget the phrase that he
told me at the end of this.
He says, Don, let me give you some
advice.
After I'd been through a little ordeal.
And we'd only been married a couple of
years.
All the money went her way.
And he said, Don, let me give you
a little advice.
He who has a happy wife, has a
happy wife.
And I'm waiting for the end.
And then I realized, that's it.
If you've got a happy wife, you've got
a great life.
You really do.
If you don't, you're in trouble.
You know, no matter what you do.
But the thing is, I'm not saying in
a worldly way of maneuvering.
But to me, when there's people that know
what it is to give to one another.
When they know what it is with spiritual
values.
Things for the kingdom.
And to me, as you watch these two.
And you see the wonderful way that God
brought them together.
They grew in faith together.
I think both of them had to have
a night that lasted a month.
When their Naomi came home.
And she'd fallen in love with Boaz.
He there had fallen in love with her.
But there was this huge roadblock there in
the way.
And next of kin.
And nearer of kin.
And it's something there to where now it
was up to him.
It was outside their hands.
But they both had to look there and
say, God has to take care of it.
The Lord has to work this thing through.
And I think the secret of every marriage
as well.
Is where people know what it is to
even put their own relationship on the altar.
And say, God, if you're going to put
us together and keep us together, you have
to do it.
We've got to rely on you.
We've got to trust you.
But the wonderful thing here is that they
learned this.
And then to stop to think that these
two couples.
I mean, they were not only saints in
faith.
And saints in trust.
And saints in obedience in their life.
They're saints in eternity.
When you stop to think that Ruth and
Boaz.
They had a little boy there.
Little did they know.
And they were holding a little guy.
And they named him Obed.
And then one day as Obed grew up.
And he had a son.
And they named him Jesse.
And then Jesse grew up.
And he had a son.
And he named him David.
To stop and think of the grace of
God.
The goodness of it.
They reaped a harvest beyond any barley field
they were ever in.
They reaped a harvest in eternity, their faith
did.
Came through their children.
Because they taught them the way of God.
They taught them.
What a heritage to have parents like this.
For young Obed.
And then as he raises Jesse.
And then Jesse raises David.
And on how not only are the sins
of the parents followed.
You know, go down to the third and
fourth generations.
But also a lot of the spirituality of
it.
A lot of the heart for God.
And it happened so wonderfully.
In this whole genealogy.
To think their harvest.
You know, their love and their trust for
God.
But how wonderful it is.
When somebody to me, as I said, just
puts over this whole book.
And to me the story, I think, of
every marriage that succeeds.
It's Matthew 6.33. Seek ye first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness.
And all these things will be added unto
you.
They weren't looking for each other.
They were looking for God.
So often people, I've watched people through the
years.
That often times have gone off this.
I'm going to go to places where all
the people my age are at.
I want to go to where, you know,
things look the best.
And so they go out.
I want to go to get this great
singles group.
I want to go here where they got
this.
So I'm going to go because, you know.
But they're going looking.
Rather than they're just about the business of
serving and loving.
And in those things, I'm convinced that the
person who goes out and looks.
I think God just says, well, have a
nice time.
Go look.
But if you'd seek me first, I'll bring
them to you.
You don't have to look.
You just serve me.
You just go out in the barley field.
You go out and glean.
You go out and do what it is
I've got for you.
And then one day you watch.
And I'll bring you a kinsman redeemer.
I'll bring you somebody that here Boaz, this
man who had so much.
But in reality, he didn't have anything until
he had her, did he?
His life ended with himself.
And though he had great wealth, he had
no one to share it with.
But to be able to just to pour
it out on her and then the generations
to follow.
And as well there too with Boaz, with
Ruth.
She had so much to give.
The two of them had so much to
share.
And what a marriage they no doubt had.
What a joy they brought to each other.
Father, how we thank you for your word.
How we thank you, Lord, for the things
that you want to teach us.
And while, Lord, a lot of the ways
that we would think of going out to
pick someone and find someone.
That, Lord, so often when we're just about
the business of serving you.
When we're going about the processes of whether
thou goest, I'll go.
Whether thou lodgest, I will lodge.
Thy people shall be my people.
Thy God my God.
Whether thou die or shall die.
Where you're buried, I'll lie.
Lord, that when we can just look at
the body of Christ.
Be about the business of serving.
Bringing in, Lord, the harvest.
Serving the kingdom of heaven.
Not out on some sort of a search.
But, Lord, that when we're seeking first the
kingdom.
You will add on everything else unto us.
Teach us, Lord, that faith.
Teach us, Lord, that fidelity to you.
Teach us, Lord, what it is just to
be about serving and doing the business.
And then, Lord, just like Ruth, one day
we'll just happen.
Quote, unquote, upon a field.
And another person will just happen to show
up.
All by your divine providence.
Teach us these things, Father.
For we ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.