Sermon Tone Analysis

*God’s Grace and Providence in Little Things and Little Towns Like Bethlehem (Ruth 2) *

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It is my great joy to be a pastor (shepherd) and to be a preacher and a herald of the message that was given to shepherds in the fields: good news of great joy for all people—a Savior born in Bethlehem.

This afternoon and early evening I will have the joy of officiating the wedding of Emily Price and Mauricio Iracheta (are they here)?

It is a special day for them we want to acknowledge and pray for them and God’s glorious blessing on their union of covenant love.

One of the beautiful things about marriage is it’s a picture of the covenant love Jesus has for His people, that Scripture calls His bride.

And one of the beautiful things about Scripture is it gives us so many beautiful pictures of the love of our Redeemer, and maybe the most beautiful ones is in a passage I want you to turn to in the book of Ruth (8th book of Bible, before Samuel~/Kings~/Chronicles).

On Sunday evenings we have been studying through the book of Ruth, which has been one of the most moving and impactful series of messages to me personally that I’ve ever preached, and since I won’t be here /this evening/ because of the wedding, I want to give the next message in that verse-by-verse series this AM, which in God’s providence happens to fit nicely with the cantata theme “After darkness, light.”

A little over 3,000 years ago, this story tells us about a Jewish couple, Elimelech and Naomi, who moved away from Israel in the dark times of the Judges, when everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

The times were even darker for Naomi in Moab: her husband died, and their 2 sons married pagan idol-worshipping Moabite women and for perhaps 10 years neither marriage produced a grandson to carry on the family name.

And to add darkness upon darkness, both of Naomi’s sons died …

 

In Ruth 1:6, Naomi is in the fields of Moab and “just happens” to hear from someone who had travelled from Israel that the Lord had visited his people again and blessed them by providing them food.

A little glimmer of light is now seen on the horizon of a darkening sky in the twilight of this widow’s life, the dark clouds move and reveal a star shining and she follows this light from the East in Moab back to the town of Bethlehem.

And along the way, another light that lights the path is Ruth, widowed daughter-in-law, has come to worship the Lord of Israel and v. 16 expresses Ruth’s conversion from darkness to light, from idols to Naomi’s God.

/22 //So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the land of Moab.

And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest./

In Jewish calendar and culture, the beginning of barley harvest was the springtime season kicked off by the Passover Meal (14th of Nissan celebrating their redemption from Egypt under Moses) and then followed over the next 7 days by the Feast of Unleavened Bread and then First-fruits (the first grain of which was barley).

Leviticus 23 describes how Israel’s priests were to take the first sheaf gathered and wave it before the Lord, signifying the Lord was the provider of our daily bread and grain and all things, and also indicating faith in God’s providence (providing and guiding and governing involvement of God) that there was more to come.

This is the very exact historical time that God’s providence, not coincidence, brings Naomi and Ruth into town, and it would prove to be a time of great significance in redemptive history, not only in the past redemption of Israel as a nation under their deliverer Moses, but in this story it will be the time of redemption for a non-Israelite individual gal named Ruth under another redeemer, and in the future it would be a time where the ultimate Redeemer and Deliverer would redeem and deliver all God’s children eternally.

Jesus Christ is called in the NT “Lord of the harvest” and Passover and Passover Lamb.

It was with unleavened bread that He spoke of His death at the Last Supper, and Paul calls His resurrection the first-fruits (1 Cor.

15:20-22).

It was not by mere happenstance or chance that Jesus died in this season, dying precisely on Passover Friday, and rose on the 16th day of Nissan, the day after the Sabbath that the OT calls the Feast of First Fruits.

Just as the first fruits of barley was a promise of the remaining harvest, so also Christ’s resurrection signifies to all believers of more to come in the future – all who trust Christ will be raised with Him in the end.

Later readers of the Bible pick up on God’s orchestrating all these little details leading to Christ.

Coincidence?

No. Providence?

Yes.

What is God’s Providence? /‘God's providence is His almighty and ever present power,[1] whereby, as with His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures,[2] and so governs them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty,[3] indeed, all things, come not by chance[4] but by His fatherly hand.[5]/

[1] Jer. 23:23, 24; Acts 17:24-28.

[2] Heb.

1:3.

[3] Jer. 5:24; Acts 14:15-17; John 9:3; Prov.

22:2.

[4] Prov.

16:33.

[5] Matt.

10:29.’

(source: Heidelberg Catechism, Question #27)

 

This sets the context for our study in Ruth 2, “God’s Grace and Providence in Little Things and Little Towns Like Bethlehem.”

It’s in the little things of everyday life that God is working, not just in the rare miracles in biblical history, but in the moment-by-moment step-by-step day-by-day events of life, in dark times of suffering and loss and in the mundane daily routine of work, as we’ll see.

*2:1* /Now Naomi had a kinsman of her husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz./

Chapter 1 was written mostly from the human perspective of Naomi, which has been mostly darkness, but now the narrator shines the light on the perspective of God and His providence, and the potential provision seems totally unknown to Ruth and it seems to have been forgotten to Naomi as well, who 2 verses earlier said she had nothing (1:21a), i.e., she thought she was empty of family.

Naomi was bankrupt, emotionally and financially, but behind the curtain of this drama the audience gets a peak of a kinsman (close relative) of Elimelech God has, Naomi’s close relative, a man of strength and noble character and kindness named Boaz.

And oh, yeah, he happens to be rich, and oh, yes, he happens to be single.

Ruth knows nothing of this, but the readers get this split-screen.

We usually can’t see what God’s doing behind the scenes, but He is the God behind the seen.

His invisible hand of providence has its fingerprints in every verse of the book of Ruth and in our lives, too

/ /

/2//And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favor.”

And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.”

3//So she departed and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech./

God provided for the poor in OT law by giving them opportunity to /work/ in the fields to gather what was dropped by the harvesters as they made their rounds.

In business today, cutting corners isn’t usually viewed positively, but in the fields of Israel God called on God’s people to leave the corners to the poor, widows, foreigners.

It was more of a “work-fare” system than a welfare system, and it was a God-ordained opportunity for landowners to be gracious and trust God by leaving some of their fortune to the less fortunate, and it was an opportunity for the poor (not a handout or entitlement mentality) to work hard to provide food for them and their family.

It wasn’t more spiritual for Ruth to pray “give us this day our daily bread” and then do nothing.

She did what she could in faith yet knew her need to receive grace from God and others as she went.

It was hard work in the hot sun all day trying to get a handful of food, but maybe she might find mercy from someone who would drop enough scraps of food behind that Ruth so greatly needed.

In Matthew 15, a Gentile woman came before our Redeemer, and /began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord…” … she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!”

And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

/[unclean Gentiles]/ But she said, “Yes, Lord; but *even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall* from their masters’ table.”

Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.”/ (v.

22-28)

 

See if you don’t detect a similar attitude in this Gentile woman as we keep reading.

v. 2 calls Ruth “/the Moabitess,” /reminding us she was a foreigner as well as poor, a woman, and a widow at that.

Some Jewish men in history thanked God daily they were not a Gentile or a woman, and Ruth was both, but even worse she was of the esp.

hated Moabites.

So you can understand why the end of v. 2 has her hope that she might find favor ~/ grace in someone’s eyes.

Verse 3 is written with drama and a theological smile: … /and she *happened to come* to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz …/

 

The Hebrew root behind “happen” appears 2x in v. 3, as a play on words, like “it /happened/ that she /happened/ upon a field of Boaz.”

Or “Ruth /turned/ into a field, and /as it turned out/, the field was owned by Boaz.”

A couple versions use the phrase “it just so happened” (NCV, ICB), and from a human perspective, Ruth was simply seeking to be a hard-worker and provide for herself and her mother-in-law.

But from God’s perspective, this was not “as /luck/ would have it,” it was as God’s /love/ would have it.

And in v. 20 even Naomi’s eyes that were previously blinded in dark suffering are able to see the Lord’s kindness behind the events of this chap.

We also see this perspective behind the expressions of v. 4: /Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, “May *the Lord be with you.*”

And they said to him, “*May the Lord bless you.*” 5 Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?”/

/ /

The word “behold” in v. 4 draws attention, and in the book of Ruth is used for the dramatic effect on the audience of what the actor may not see, but what God’s providence is orchestrating and directing behind the scene (ex: Ruth 3:8, 4:1).

It was no "accident" that Boaz had come out from Bethlehem at the same time Ruth was gleaning in his fields near town, it was an appointment by God.

Luke 2 (NKJV) /8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

/

/9 And *behold,* an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid./

“Behold” often draws attention to a work of the Lord and in Boaz’s greeting to his workers and their response there is a recognition that it’s only by the Lord’s presence and blessing any of us succeed

            Behold (look) to God’s work in this story and in yours …

/ 6 The servant in charge of the reapers replied, “She is the young *Moabite* woman who returned with Naomi from the land of *Moab**.*

7//“And she said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’

Thus she came and has remained from the morning until now; she has been sitting in the house for a little while.”

8//Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen carefully, *my daughter.*

Do not go to glean in another field; furthermore, do not go on from this one, but stay here with my maids.

9//“Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them.

Indeed, *I have commanded the servants not to touch you.*

When you are thirsty, *go to the water jars* and drink from what the servants draw.”/

There are any things about the character of both Ruth and Boaz that we could study, and will Lord-willing on a future Sunday evening, but for this study today I want you to notice the /gracious/ words of Boaz (and to think beyond him of the Lord he loved and was like).

In Luke 4:22 it says people from the hometown of Jesus marvelled at the gracious words coming out of the mouth of Jesus:

- /Personal grace: /“My daughter” (v.

8) is a term of tender-hearted kindness, not the usual way a Jewish man would address a Gentile woman stranger, but a personal term, treating her even like family!

- /Providing grace /(v.

8b “Do not go to glean in another field”) – in other words, your needs will be provided here in these fields

- /Protective grace /(v.

8c “… stay here with my maids”) – and he in v. 9 has already commanded the male workers not to bother or harass her or worse; his authority would guarantee her security

- /Particular grace /(v.

9b “When you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the servants draw”) – even permission to draw his water like a servant would have been grace for a Gentile.

This is extraordinary in a cultural context in which normally foreigners would draw for Israelites, and women would draw for men (Gen 24:10–20), Boaz’s authorization of Ruth to drink from water his men had drawn is indeed extraordinary.[1]

But this isn’t a “usual” Jewish man or “usual” Gentile woman …

Boaz has noticed this

 

initiate

10Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?”

Luke 8:43–48 (NASB95) /43 And a woman who had a hemorrhage for twelve years [NKJV “and had spent all her livelihood on physicians”], and could not be healed by anyone, 44 came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped … 47 *When the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came trembling and fell down before Him*, and declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched Him, and how she had been immediately healed.

48 And He said to her, “*Daughter*, your faith has made you well /[literally, “has saved you ~/ delivered you”]/; go in peace.”/

11Boaz replied to her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me, and how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people that you did not previously know.