Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

It’s been said before that if you take a person who lives an average adult lifespan of 70-75 years, they will have spent 3 years of their life waiting on things.

While that figure might be a tad on the high side, we all know that waiting for things can be infuriating at times - even when we try our best to smile and survive.

A survey conducted about 10 years ago found that the thing that people hate waiting on the most is grocery store lines and that people in urban cities spend on average 5-6 minutes waiting to check-out each time they go to the store.

5-6 minutes and people throw a fit.

What a strange world we live in - but our world seems to gets stranger and stranger the deeper you dive.

In a New York Times article, journalist Alex Stone tells the story of how executives at a Houston airport faced and then solved a cascade of passenger complaints about long waits at the baggage claim.

They first decided to hire more baggage handlers, reducing wait times to an industry-beating average of eight minutes.

But complaints persisted.

This made no sense to the executives until they discovered that, on the average, passengers took just one minute to walk to baggage claim, resulting in a hurry-up-and-wait situation.

The walk time was not a problem; the remaining seven empty minutes of staring at the baggage carousel was.

So, in a burst of innovation, the executives moved the arrival gates farther away from the baggage claim area.

Passengers now had to walk much farther but their bags were often waiting for them when they arrived.

Problem solved.

The complaints dropped.

For the same article Stone interviewed MIT operations researcher Richard Larson, the world's leading expert on waiting in lines to discover the psychology behind our waiting.

What happened at the Houston airport makes for a perfect illustration.

Larson shared that we tolerate "occupied time" (for example, walking to baggage claim) far better than "unoccupied time" (such as standing at the baggage carousel).

Give us something to do while we wait, and the wait suddenly becomes bearable.

This is why, so often, waiting on God feels like unoccupied time to us.

We wait, but what is really happening behind the scenes of our life?

Is God actually doing anything?

Waiting on God implies developing a new perspective of what God is doing while we wait on him.

We have to understand that waiting on God isn’t unoccupied time… It’s occupied.

He is at work in our lives.

He has a purpose for us!

While we may not like to wait, God has a purpose for us in our waiting.

Waiting on the Lord is often where our faith grows the deepest as He is able to prune us and refine us and shape us into the people that He desires for us to be.

While we wait it can be tempting to take matters into our own hands rather than trusting completely in God’s plan… As we trust in God, though, it doesn’t mean that we don’t have anything to do.

Today as we continue looking at the book of Ruth we’ll be in Ruth 3 to see how God answers following a bit of a cliffhanger in chapter 2. Ruth has lost everything but traveled with her mother in law to Bethlehem.

They arrive at the beginning of the barley harvest.

She goes and happens to work in Boaz’s field.

Boaz notices her.

She discovers that he is a relative of her deceased father-in-law.

He provides protection and food for her… and then the chapter ends.

What will happen next?

How will God continue to provide?

Let’s look to God’s Word and see how God’s love leads us to rejoice.

This morning we encounter an interesting and at times difficult text for us to understand.

We see that God once again provides for Ruth and Naomi through the kindness and generosity of Boaz.

In their waiting, God is faithful and God is with them.

Today, God continues to provide.

God continues to be with His people.

During this Christmas season, we celebrate the ultimate way that God has provided and that is by sending His Son to this earth.

The birth of Jesus demonstrates the kindness and generosity of our God and fills our hearts with unending joy - let’s give Him thanks for sending His Son today.

Pray

While we may not have our usual time this morning to dive as deep into this passage as we’d like to, we’ll look at this chapter of love and joy and try to uncover 2 Ways to Have this Joy as we draw near to our God.

First, we

Draw Near to God Fully Cleansed (1-5)

This whole chapter happens under the shield of darkness and it begins with a plan from Naomi to her daughter-in-law in order to help her “find rest” and be taken care of.

We have to disconnect from our American context and background this morning and strive to understand Ruth’s world some 3000+ years ago!

In this world, if you were a widow, you needed either children or a husband.

Ruth had no children - so Naomi is saying that she needs a husband.

It’s interesting that Naomi chose to use the word rest as what Ruth needs… The rest here is in reference to the security, protection, and benefits found in a marriage union.

In order to be prepared for this potential rest or union, Naomi tells Ruth to go get ready and get with this plan.

She must be cleansed before she draws near to Boaz.

We’re not just talking about taking a bath here.

This isn’t your typical shower after a long day of work or a workout - this is a ceremonial cleansing to prepare for something serious and to demonstrate that your time of mourning is complete and you’re looking for this protection and rest in marriage.

The motivation for getting cleaned up isn’t first and foremost her smell - it’s to show Boaz that she’s ready for the next step, if you will.

She’s going to wear her best and go to the threshing floor where there likely were many people and families - not just these 2 - and lie down by his feet.

What’s going on here?

Progressive Christians and non-Christians love to spice this story up but we don’t see sinful activity taking place.

We don’t see anything happening before the marriage union - after all, Boaz will share in verse 11 that Ruth is a woman of noble character just like the Proverbs 31 woman.

What’s going on here?

We see a Moabite woman draw near to an Israelite man.

We see a poor peasant draw near to a rich ruler.

We see a young widow draw near to a middle-aged man.

We see risk here but we also see hope and love.

James 4 tells us about the importance of drawing near to God

How are you and I able to draw near to our God?

It’s not by coming up with a clever scheme with our mother-in-law and sneaking into a crowded sleeping area in the middle of the night - the only way that we are able to draw near to our God is to be fully cleansed by the Word of God and the Blood of our Savior.

We can’t achieve this by our own merit or effort… We can’t cleanse ourselves - unlike Ruth’s story of redemption in this text, we require outside help to be redeemed.

See, it is Jesus who serves as our High Priest and Who gives us access to our Father

The only reason this is possible is because of Jesus and His love for us in coming to this earth, living a sinless life, and dying in our place!

This is what we celebrate at Christmas time and the life and death of Jesus should provide our hearts with uncontainable joy because we are now able to draw near to our Father not through our own goodness, not through taking a long shower, not by trying really hard, not by cleansing ourselves by our own actions… but we are able to do this exclusively through the atoning work of our Lord and Savior and His blood that was poured out on Calvary in our place.

1 John 1:9 tells us that our God is faithful and just to forgive us from our unrighteousness if we confess our sins.

Draw Near to God Faithfully Committed (6-18)

The majority of this passage is spent looking at this encounter between Ruth and Boaz.

Boaz is out guarding his harvest with others and has eaten and drank and is winding down for bed while Ruth is watching to see when to approach him.

If you have kids, you’ve probably played the “are they asleep yet” game!

You get them in bed but they roll around or you’re rocking them but their eyes are still fighting to stay open and you ask your husband or wife, are they asleep yet?

Here’s Ruth trying to approach Boaz the way Naomi told her to at the perfect time and eventually it happens and she lays down by his feet.

Several hours likely pass and perhaps a gust of wind tingles Boaz’s exposed toes and he see’s Ruth casually laying down next to his feet!

As if that weren’t enough, Ruth shares that she desires Boaz to take her under his wing as her family redeemer.

Ruth is committed to Boaz.

She has done something shocking and risked her character and her position as a servant in his field - but she has demonstrated her commitment to this man and Boaz acknowledged this by pointing out that she has pursued him rather than someone younger.

She has pursued someone who is the son of Rahab - who didn’t have exactly the best reputation.

He shares that she is a woman of noble character and that he is in fact a family redeemer but that there is another redeemer with a better claim.

Perhaps this was a 1st cousin rather than a 3rd cousin, we aren’t told but there was an order to this redemption that we’ll study more in depth next week.

Here we see that Boaz commits himself to Ruth and continues to provide for her.

He gives her 6 “measures” of barley.

In chapter 1 there was darkness, famine, and loss… all of these things have been provided for due to God’s providence demonstrated through Boaz’s kindness.

All parties benefit here!

Ruth was committed to Boaz and Boaz was a faithful and willing redeemer - we are able to draw near to our God because of the faithfulness of our Redeemer.

We can’t make a straight line from Boaz to God or from Ruth to ourselves but we can see glimpses of parallels here.

We see a picture of God’s character and love in this true story.

In the midst of our waiting, we can draw near to our God through faith because of Jesus.

What is the result whenever we place our faith in Christ?

We experience the reward of redemption.

We experience the joy of belonging to Jesus.