Flipside Christian Church

We're in the book of Ruth.

We started this series last week.

It's a four week series
because there's four chapters in Ruth,

and I've titled this series
The Unseen Hand of God.

We have a Bible and brought one with you.

Go to the book of Ruth.

It's right after the Book of Judges.

So goes.

Genesis. Exodus.

Leviticus. Numbers. Deuteronomy.

Joshua. Judges. Ruth.

So it's right there at the beginning
of the Old Testament,

and the book of Ruth is a book

about the providence of God, though
it doesn't use that word.

We see what's called the providence of God
all throughout the book of Ruth.

And I want to help us understand the

what providence is.

It's different than the miracle of God.

There's the problems of God
on the miracle of God.

And God
is active in both most of the time.

And this is just a recap for those of you
who were here last week.

Most of time when we want God to move
in our lives, we want a miracle of God.

We want him to step in right now,

do something miraculous, solve it,
fix it, add it, change it, whatever.

While God does that,

that's not God's normal mode of operation.

Even in the book of acts

I cover some 30 years of time.

There's about 30 miracles
in the book of acts.

That's only one a year.

That's not a lot.

We read it as though that everybody

walking around the church got a miracle,
and it just didn't happen that way.

Though that still happens.

God's normal mode of operation,

this world is through his providence.

And his providence
says this that God orchestrates

supernaturally the natural.

So God takes our natural world,
our decisions, our mistakes, our success,

all that.

And he supernaturally mixes
those together for good.

The Bible says
for the good of those who love God.

And that's an important thing
for us to stand to us to understand.

So the providence of God,

for those who are disobedient,

the providence works in alignment
for those who are obedient.

Providence of God works for blessing.

Here's what I mean.

The Bible promises us that

we know Romans 828,
that God works all things together

for the good of those who love him,

and were called according his purpose.

Jesus will tell us in John 1415

that you'll know you love me
if you obey me.

So part of the litmus test of loving
God is obeying God.

It doesn't mean being perfect, but it does
mean when I realize there's sin

in my life, I repent, I confess it,
I repent of it, and I do it God's way.

That's living in obedience.

For those who live in obedience, God's
providence works and creates blessing.

That's the promise of Scripture.

But for those who don't love God,
guess what?

Prophecy doesn't work that way for you.

Providence of God works for alignment,

for the blessing of those who do love God.

Because the Bible says

God providentially works together,
all things together

for good, for those who love him.

So for those who don't love him,
God is still providentially in control.

But those lives work in alignment
for the blessing of those who do.

I look at the book of Ruth

in the book of Ruth.

This whole providence of God,

the Book of Ruth is a story about Ruth
and her mother in law, Naomi.

Naomi was married to a man
named Elimelech, and they had two sons.

God's providence did not work

for the blessing of those three men.

They all died

in a foreign land.

But it did work for the blessing of Naomi,
and especially Ruth,

who came back to faith and came
became women of faith.

Loving God

and God, providentially
working these together for them.

Do you understand
what we're talking about here?

Yeah. So?

So it's not like like
just everybody just happens to get,

you know,

I mean, there's the common grace of God
that the rain falls on the just

and the unjust.

You know, the sun rises and falls
for everybody.

You know, like the common grace of God,

we all get
free air to breathe at this point.

They haven't taxed that yet.
So we all get the, you know,

but but God's hand of

providence works for those who love him,

but for those who don't love him,
God aligns

their lives to work on behalf
and for those who do.

And and so and so.

I want you to understand
how this Providence thing works.

And so one of the ways
we say it is this, that, that God's hand

seems most powerful
when it is most unseen.

And the providence of God
we don't see from the front windshield,

we see in the rearview mirror,
we can look back and see,

hey, God was doing something,
and this is how he orchestrated things.

We don't see it
looking through the front windshield,

but those who believe in
and trust the providence of God

can look through the front windshield.

Unknown of what's
going to happen in the future,

and go into that unknown with confidence
and assurance, because they know

that the providence of God
is working on their behalf.

You follow fast.

So let me just

I think God gave this to
me right before the first service started.

It was sitting right down here

and I got out
this posted on our job to this down

because it just kind of hit me
all of a sudden.

Let me just let me just tell you.

Contentment.

Contentment is proof

that you trust God's providence.

Let that sink in.

Your contentment right now

is your proof
that you trust God's providence.

Because if you know that you love God

and he's working things right now
together for your good,

there's a lot of contentment in that.

You understand things now.

So let's turn that coin over

discontentment in your life right now

is proof that you do not trust

the providence of God.

Do you understand?

And so

when we start talking about doctrine
and sound doctrine,

like the providence of God,
it has profound implications

on how we live and how we view our lives

and the world.

It's easy to be it's easier.

It's easier to be content
when I trust that

whatever's going on right now,
God is working it together for my good.

If I don't trust him, his heart
or his hand,

discontentment is soon to follow.

You got it?

Yeah.

This is why Christ followers

and relationship with the father

should be the most contented
people on earth.

Because we know

that all things.

We're good. You.

So I'm not to verse one yet.

We'll get there.

Let me just recap a little bit
to the story of

the book of Ruth
is a story of providence and redemption.

And we're going to talk about

what redemption is
and how it's fleshed out in chapter two.

But Ruth, the main character,
there's only two books in the Bible

named after a woman, Ruth and Esther,
both in the Old Testament.

So the book of Ruth named after this,

the the heroine in this story, Ruth,

she's not a Hebrew.

She's not from the Promised Land,
from a land called Moab.

And how she got to the promised land
in the story of God

is that this man Elimelech,
whose name means

God is my king,

didn't live like it and didn't trust God.

He was married to a lady named Naomi.

And in the land of Israel, during the time
of the judges in the Bible,

there was a famine that hit.

It wasn't a natural famine.

It was a judgment of God against them
because they had rejected

God as their king.

And so God allows this famine
to happen in in this famine, Elimelech

and his wife
Naomi and their two sons decide to move

to the land of Moab
because things were tough in Jerusalem.

Actually, there in Bethlehem, Ephrathah,
the very place where Jesus was to be born.

So way before
Jesus is born, that there's famine.

And so they it's hard
here. It's difficult.

And so they, like us,

have to solve their problem
and not wait on God to do anything.

And so they move to Moab.

The thing with Moab
is, Moab was a land of the people

who came about
by an incestuous interaction

between the lot,
the nephew of Abraham and his daughter,

and he got her pregnant.

And this nasty old story and her son

out of that into incest, was named Moab.

So all these people come
from that lineage.

And so God said that
whole thing is just evil and bad.

I want my people
to stay away from that people

because they're going to corrupt
you and lead you away from me.

And so there were all these rules
and curses on like, don't go there.

And so that's where they go.

They're experiencing difficulties.

So they leave the promises of God and
they go to that place they shouldn't be.

And while there, they're
looking for greener pastures.

Elimelech and their two,

now with two sons, die.

Naomi's two,

two sons are married to these Moabite
girls that they met in this land.

They were there for over a decade.

And so now Naomi
is forced with this decision.

Do I stay here in this Moabite land
or do I go back?

Do I return to God and His people?

She starts hearing that God's
doing great things amongst his people.

And she says, I'm going to go back.

And she tells one of her daughters in law,
Orpah tells them both,

just stay here with your people.

Orpah says, yes,
I will stay here with my people.

And Ruth says,
beautiful, beautiful sentiment.

No, Naomi, where you go? I will go.

Your people will be my people.

Your God will be my God.

Where you die, I will die
and they'll bury me there, she says,

I want to I want to convert to this
this God that I hear you talk about now.

And so Ruth and Naomi make their way back
to Bethlehem, Ephrathah

in the Promised Land.

Now that was all. Chapter one.

And so chapter two is like,
they're here now in the Promised Land.

And we

start to see this story,
both of Providence and redemption.

Redemption is when you buy something back,
you redeem it and make it whole.

And we'll see in chapter two,
these types, we're going to be introduced

to a man named Boaz.

And Boaz is a type of foreshadowing
of Jesus the Messiah.

And Ruth will become his bride,

a Gentile bride,

just like the churches, the the non-Jews,
the like the Gentile bride of Christ.

We're going to see these types
of this great story of of redemption,

but we're also going to see the redemption
of this broken

woman named Ruth,
this broken outcast named Ruth.

And we're also going to see the redemption
of our hero, Boaz.

It's an amazing thing that God does.

And we'll
I'm going to say that for the end.

But this is where we are.

And right at the end of chapter one,
it says, they came back.

They just happened to come back
right at the barley harvest, right as the

the as the as as the, as the,

the produce was coming back

as, as, as the famine in this part
apparently was being lifted.

It was a time of great abundance.

They just happened to.

Have you ever had those moments in life
when you look back and like,

you know what, I just happened,

but it sure worked out well, right?

Yeah. Right. I just happened.

They happened to be here at the right
time. I happened to be there for Adam.

I happened to make this vision
and it just happened to.

That's the providence of God.

If you love him.

And so,

right at the barley harvest,
let's pick up chapter two, verse one.

Now, Naomi had a relative
of her husband's,

a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech,
whose name was Boaz.

So this woman, Naomi,
her name means pleasant.

She has lost everything.

She's going to change her name to bitter
because she's lost her husband,

her sons, her possessions,
her land, our home, everything.

She had a relative back in Bethlehem,

Ephrathah a relative of her husband.

This is going to be a really,
really important.

And I'll unpack it
as we go through this process.

Just remember that
this guy Boaz is a relative

of her late husband,

and the Bible says he was a worthy man,

literally
a wealthy man, a man of great wealth.

Both.

Okay, so during this time of famine,

Elimelech, Naomi and their two sons leave

because obviously they don't trust
God in times of trouble.

So they leave.

But obviously everybody didn't leave.

Boaz stayed.

Boaz stayed where God had placed him.

He stayed in the promises of God
in the presence of God

and in the presence of God's people.

And the Bible says specifically
that he was a wealthy man.

He has a lot of fields.

He's a farmer.

How does a farmer become a wealthy man

in a time of famine?

By the grace of God and his providence,

working things together for his favor.

Right. So here's what happens.

We get in these times of famine
and difficulty and pain,

and we think God isn't doing anything.

I have to go.

I have to leave.

I need to solve my own problem
rather than just staying.

And trusting this almighty, providential

God to work things
together for good, right?

Right.

They left,

and three of them died

and she lost everything.

Boaz stayed

trusted

God's heart and God's hand

and increased his wealth
in a time of famine.

Amazing.

Absolutely amazing.

Don't chase Moab.

Some of you need to listen to me
right now.

Well, don't chase Moab.

Stay.

I don't know how you translate that.

You're old right now,
but you need to hear this word.

Stay.

Praise God.

They don't chase Moab.

Stay.

Trust his hand.

Trust his heart.

Trust his providence.

Stay.

Like a verse two and three.

And Ruth, the more I said to Naomi,
let me go to the field and glean

among the ears of grain after him, in
whose sight I shall find favor.

And she said, or go, my daughter.

So she she set out.

Ruth set out, and went and gleaned
in the field after the reapers,

and she happened to come to
the part of the field belonging to Boaz,

who was of the clan of Elimelech.

Let me just unpack this for a minute.

This idea of

gleaning this was God's welfare system
for his people.

In ancient Israel.

The law of gleaning
comes to us from Leviticus 19, verses

nine and ten, and I have it on the slide.

I want to read it for you
when you reap the harvest of your land.

He's talking to the, the,
the, the farmers.

When you reap the harvest, you shall not
wholly reap the corners of your field,

nor shall you gather
the gleanings of your harvest.

Go to the next slide,
and you shall not glean your vineyard,

nor, shall
you gather every grape of your vineyard.

You shall leave them for the poor
and the stranger.

I am the Lord your God.

So this is what he's saying,

he saying, you farmers have,
you know, barley, wheat, grapes, whatever.

When you go to harvest the crop,

you don't harvest the edges
and you don't harvest the corners.

Leave those.

And as your harvesters
move through the field,

if they drop something,
they're not allowed to pick it up.

Okay. Why?

Because God knew that there were widows

and orphans
and the poor amongst his people.

And he said, you and foreigners, okay?

And he said, you have to leave
what's there so they can come through

and pick up what you drop
and what you leave behind.

It's estimated that up
to 20% of the farmers production

was left on the field for the poor
and the needy, and the foreigner.

And what God is saying is twofold.

One of the things that he's saying
now, pay attention here is that you

who have be generous with it.

You're leaving 20% behind.

You and Boaz willingly

left 20% on the table.

Do you know why?

Because he knew that
what he had wasn't. Is.

It was by the grace of God.

So for those of us who have

the implication
command here is be generous with it.

Don't hoard it. It's not yours anyway,

the other implication here in Scripture

is if you don't have be willing to work
hard,

the welfare system of this country is
broken

and is created a nation of beggars.

The welfare system and God's
economy was this.

You have must leave some on the ground
for those who don't up to 20%,

but you who don't have to be willing
to work to get it.

You don't get free handouts.

What it does is give provision
for the poor and dignity to the poor.

There's nothing dignified of walking up
to the government with a handout.

It robs people of their dignity,

a rostrum of their personhood,
and it makes them beggars and slaves.

And God

says, I do care about the poor,
and I want to take care of the poor

through the people through whom
I have given much to.

But the poor must work
so they keep their dignity.

They understand

that's the law of gleaning.

And so Ruth is sitting here.

She has no idea of this law.

She's been in motion, raised in Moab.

And on their journey back,
I had just imagined Naomi telling Ruth

all the glory of this gracious God,
that she's coming back to his providential

hand, his miracle and his goodness
and his grace and his favor.

And so when they get back there,
she asks her mother in law,

May I please go to work?

I love this woman. Yes,

she she virtuous,

honorable, hardworking.

She's in need.

And she doesn't just stay home.

And I'm just going to pray
and ask the Lord to intervene.

I'm sure she did that.

And then she went out
and worked to understand she had a need.

Yeah.

And she's so gracious to honor her mother
in law and ask permission to go work.

She had every right to.

But she honored those over her.

May I please go?

I want you to understand, I'm
going to talk about this.

I'm going to talk about this later,
but I just want to introduce it here.

When you trust the providence of God, it

creates confidence and produces momentum.

Just keep that in your heart.

Don't show that slide yet.

I'm not there.

Just think about it.

You guys are doing great
now. Thank you. But hold on.

Just keep this in your mind.

When you believe in trust
the promise of God,

it will create confidence in you
and it produces positive momentum.

And both are super important.

Now listen.

If you have children,

you need to teach this to your kids.

The providential hand of God,

because it will create in them
a great deal of confidence

and it will produce
a great deal of momentum.

Nothing will slow them down,
not because of who they are,

but because of the hand of their God.

Your kids, my kids when they're young.

But why is this happening?
Why does that happen?

And how come I don't?

How can they do
I don't there's why don't the

and that's what they're supposed to do.

They don't know
they're ignorant. They're children.

And so

those of us who are not ignorant,
who know God.

So listen, relax.

It's God's providential hand.

You trust him as all over your life.

It's not going to go like you expect.

That's okay. Yeah.

And it creates this incredible

confidence when things don't go well

and this incredible momentum that though
this didn't, it's not going to deter me.

Do you understand?

And so here's this woman, Ruth.

She's lost her husband.

She's lost her family.

She's lost everything that she knew
growing up with.

And she's here in this land.

And she's not deterred,
she's not downtrodden.

It's just like, hey, can I go work now?

What incredible woman, incredible faith.

And she just happened

to come to the part of the field
belonging to God just happened.

Can you look back at the.

Just happened times

time and time again?

Listen for those walk in and faith
that Jesus, nothing just happens.

It's Amen.

Look at verse four.

And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem.

And he said to the reapers,
and the Lord be with you.

And they answered, the Lord bless you.

Now this is a job site.

Have you ever worked construction
or in the fields?

This is not usually how people talk.

Your foreman shows up.

The Lord bless you

and all the good stuff here
and the Lord be with you.

And I just like this.

But this guy.

But he's just, he's a he's larger
than life is good and he's a faithful man.

He's a man of God, is a man of integrity.

And in the time of the judges,
when everybody was running away

from doing all that through this cultural
moral relativism, nobody cared about

this was the one guy, the shining light,

the standard of a godly man.

Who leads

with God,
who leads from the place of faith.

He's going to run his business this way.

He's going to treat his employees.
This way.

And in response, they love him back.

It's just this guy.

It's just amazing.

Verse five.

Then Boaz said to his young man
who was in charge of the reapers,

whose young woman is this?

Now the difficult thing in the Bible,
we don't have inflection.

We just read in his words.

And it could have been
he sees the new woman gleaning

because he knew who was gleaning
and was like, hey, who's the new one?

I got to keep track on the ledger.

Could be that or

it could be like the.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, who was this young chick over there?

Right?

I mean, let's just be real.

Let's not get too spiritual.

Who is this woman?

Verse six.

And the servant
who was in charge of the reapers answered,

she is the young Moabite woman who came
back with Naomi from the country of Moab.

She said, please let me glean and gather
among the she's after the reapers.

So she came,
and she has continued from early morning

until now, except for a little,
you know, ten minute breather.

This servant.

Now, I told you already in the book of
Ruth we have these typologies.

Boaz is a type of foreshadowing of Jesus.

Ruth is a type of foreshadowing
of the Gentile bride of Christ,

the church,
this unnamed servant in the Old Testament.

We have a few different instances
when the an unnamed servant does

the bidding of the master to go

look for
and prepare a bride for the master.

The unnamed servant is the type
or a foreshadowing of the Holy Spirit.

What we know in the New Testament from
Jesus is he says, the Holy Spirit

will not testify about himself,

won't talk about himself, but only what
he hears from the father about the son.

So the the Holy Spirit,
who never talks about himself,

only points people towards the master.

The unnamed servant
doesn't talk about himself, only points

the one who will be a bride to the master.

This is the Holy Spirit's
role in our world and in our lives

leads us to the one
we're to be betrothed to.

Reports
to the one of the condition of his bride.

We see the Holy Spirit here.

And she is the one.

And she asked
if she may glean amongst the others.

I love this
because what she could have done,

she had a legal right
to this Leviticus 19.

She had a legal right,
and she could have come to the servant.

And Boaz the servant, said, hey,
I'm gleaning I have a legal right to.

I have a legal right to this.

You can't deny me of my rights.

You better not try to transgress
a marriage.

This is my legal right.
I'm asserting my rights.

A right, because after all,

that's what good all Americans do.

I have a right.

You have no right to.

You know, cost me on this.

And though she has a right,

she leads with gentleness and honor.

A virtuous woman.

She is Proverbs 31.

And so she has a right.

She says, I will honor
you and your authority,

and I would like your permission.

Please pay attention

to the virtue of this woman.

Verse eight.

Then Boaz said to Ruth.

Now listen, my daughter,

not really his daughter is just a
like a real tender language here.

Do not go to glean

in another field, nor leave this one,
but keep close to my young women.

Let your eyes be on the field
that they are reaping and go after them.

Have I not charged the young men
not to touch you?

And when you are thirsty,

go to the vessels and drink
what the young men have drawn.

So this is is doing.

We have to understand.

He's saying, look, stay with me

and stay with my people.

You're safe here.

Stay here.

Don't look elsewhere.

And this is exactly what Jesus would say
to us.

Stay with me.

Don't look elsewhere.

Don't wander off.

Stay with me.

Boaz knows

the goodness
that he will give this young lady.

She doesn't know it yet,
but Boaz does. Listen.

Jesus knows the plans.

He has for you.

You don't know it yet, but he does.

And his word to us is stay with me.

Stay with me.

Do you hear this?

Yeah.

And honestly,

I think one thing like this
is also the first indication of there's a,

there's a budding attraction between Boaz
and and Ruth happening right now.

And Boaz, his role as a man

is to provide and protect.

That's what he's doing here. Stay with me.

Follow the Reapers
you will glean along the way.

I want to provide for you.

And I've commanded the guys
not to mess with you.

I want to protect you.

Now, listen, men,
this is biblical masculinity.

Not because

women are ineffective or can't provide
for themselves for comfort.

None of that at all.

This is just a reflection
of the heart of the father.

To provide and protect
those God has given to us.

This is biblical masculinity.

Ladies, please, if you're married

and your husband says, sweetie,
I just don't like you driving at night.

He's not being condescending.

He's being protective.

To understand this.

And he says, honey,

I would rather work
two jobs than borrow money from anybody.

He's not being arrogant. He's.

He wants to provide.

And any man that doesn't lead
with provision

and protection has a broken soul.

This is biblical masculinity.

And this is hard
wired in the in the core of a man

and women in or moms in your sons.

This is who your sons are.

And that's why sometimes they blow up

because they're figuring out
how do I be a protector?

It's okay. It's good.

Like nurture that in biblical, godly ways.

This is a godly man says, I'm
going to provide for armor, protect you.

You just have.

And I commanded the young men
not to mess with you.

This is the first anti-sexual harassment
law we have on the books,

and I am
I might just go something like this.

Just go with me. In my mind,
like Boaz is big old guy.

He's.

He's got all this,

you know, this farming system,
this big conglomerate he's in charge of.

He rolls up on the fields
and is, you know, in his F-250

or whatever is okay,
come on, team meeting.

Get over.
Come on. Get over here right now. Good.

Stop it! Get.

We got to get together in. Listen.

We all know the new girl.

All right.

No eyes over here. Quick! Look in her
eyes. Over here.

All right. Right here. Yep.

Listen, don't mess with her.

You don't talk to her.

You don't touch her.

You don't even look at her.

I'm at. I'm saying.

Listen, you see, all these fields
I own, they will never find your body.

I just see it going down like that.

You know what I'm saying?

A little sense of an archetype.

You know, you're like a, you know,
because a big on knife on the size,

like this.

What's he doing?

He's providing for just protecting her.

Boaz has such great

things planned for her
that she doesn't even imagine right now.

So does God for you.

Just stay in that,

I don't know what verse I'm on.

Well, now on ten.

Then she fell on her face
down into the ground.

She's an act of of of honor and said them.

Why have I found favor in your eyes
that you should take notice of me

since I'm a foreigner?
Let me just say this.

But me, I'm going to read more.
Let me run!

But Boaz answered her,
all that you have done

for your mother in law since the death of
your husband has been fully told to me,

and how you left your father and mother
and your native land, and came to a people

that you did not know
before the Lord repay you for what

you have done, and a full reward
be given you by the Lord,

the God of Israel, under whose wings
you have come to take refuge.

Then she said,
I have found favor in your eyes,

my Lord, for you have comforted me

and spoken kindly to your servant,
though I am not one of your servants.

Listen,
she has lost everything to her husband.

Like I said, her family,
she's in a foreign land.

She lost everything she had in her
homeland.

She's living with a bitter, bitter,
bitter woman.

Rightly so.

This woman, Naomi, has left
all of her family.

She went to a land, lived there
for over a decade. Her son died.

Her husband died her once a night.

Her other son died. She lost everything.

No doubt she's bitter, right?

I mean, we can understand this.

And Ruth is living in this nasty, bitter,
dark environment.

Lost everything.

And has she ever asked the question,
Lord, why all this bad?

The only question she's asked.

Is why all this good to me? I'm.

Do you see that?

Most of the time when you and I go
through deserts and seasons

and pain, our first question is, what?

God, why?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And Ruth's question is.

I'm a foreigner to you.

Why the grace to me? I'm.

The are attitude.

God, I was once outside your family.

You've been so good.

Why would you be so gracious to me?

Do you understand?

Yeah.

Profound for me.

See? And this is what?

Now you pulled that slide.
This is what I'm saying.

Providence creates
confidence and produces and creates

positive momentum.

This is what it does.

I don't know why, and

I don't like what's going on right now,
but I trust the providential hand of God.

And when I'm

living in that realization,
it creates incredible confidence.

I don't like
what's in front of the windshield,

but I have confidence.

I don't like what I'm living in right now,

but it's not going to slow me down.

Momentum is so huge for it,
so huge to have here.

Here's the thing about momentum.

Momentum is so powerful.

You take a big locomotive and put a three
inch wood block in front of its wheels,

and a three
inch wood block will stop a locomotive

from moving because it has no momentum.

But you take that same locomotive
and get it up to its top speed.

It has so much momentum
that you put a three foot,

concrete wall in front of it
and it won't stop it.

That's the power of momentum.

And Christ followers ought to be living
with the most confidence and momentum

in anybody on the
planet. Why? Because we know

the providence of God.

You follow well.

And if you've learned that, you darn
well better teach it to your children.

Yeah.

And if you haven't learned it, it
darn well better learn it.

And I love this about Ruth,
that she is more amazed.

And this is what happens
when I trust God's providence.

I'm more amazed by the grace
given to me than I'm bitter

about what's taken from me.

When I understand

the providence of God,
let me move through this.

Just a few more verses.

And that meantime Boaz said,

come here and eat some of the bread
and dip your morsel in the wine.

So she sat beside the reapers,
and he pastored, to her roasted grain,

and she ate until she was satisfied,
and she had some left over.

When she rose to glean, Boaz
instructed his young men, saying,

let her glean even among the sheaves,
and do not reproach her, and also

put some out from the bundles for her,
and leave it for her to glean,

and do not rebuke her.

So we invite her to dinner,

and my Bible says,
when she she ate till she was satisfied.

The literal translation
is that she kept some back

so she didn't eat
everything on her plate. Why?

Because some

know.

Because it's a first date.

And ladies, you don't clean your plate
on a first date.

You don't.

You don't ask for a second.

I'll have salad.

Right

now, she's also thinking about Naomi.

She's like,
I don't want to eat at all. It's.

I gotta take some home.

I just like the way I think more.

But she's virtuous. And.

And Bill says,
let her glean amongst the sheaves.

The sheaves after the harvest

is come through,
and they gather and they bind it up.

That's a sheaf of.

And then they drop it on the ground,

and they let the others come by
and pick up all these sheaves.

And so he says, listen, yes, she has a
right to the edges, in the corners.

And this has a right to
what's just fallen.

But let's, let's go beyond what is legal,

let's grace her,
let her glean, even amongst what

we've gathered, and even take some extra
and throw it out for her.

She Boaz could have said, look, God,
I'm right before you

because I've done what you asked, I obeyed
that was it I but

but Boaz knows

that what he has is come from his,
and it comes from God's.

And so he can be extraordinarily generous.

So he goes above what is required.

He doesn't do it here.

He goes up by beyond
what he gives more than

what is requested
by God and commanded by God,

because he knows

he's been given so much
by the gracious hand of God,

so he can extend that
same grace to others.

Do you understand that?

So he becomes this
incredibly generous man, because he knows

that God will use to measure to him
what measure he used to give out.

He wants a lot

from God, and so he gives a lot
because that's what the Bible says.

Yeah, it's just beautiful.

It's interesting to me to that.

Just let me just say this,
that Boaz had no idea what hung

in the balance of his obedience
and generosity.

Boaz knew this was the law from God.

I'm going to be it.

And God's been gracious and generous.

I'm going to be gracious and generous.

He had no idea what was hanging in the
balance, what was hanging in the balance.

His bride.

He wasn't saying, look,

if I be obedient and I'm gracious, God's
going to give me a beautiful woman.

He didn't know that. He didn't say that.

He said, I'm
going to be obedient. Oh, God says,

and I'm going to be generous with that.

He's giving me.

He had no idea what hangs in the house.

Listen, my friends,

you have no idea what's hanging
in the balance of your obedience.

You have no idea what's hanging
in the balance of your generosity.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

You have no idea what the providential

hand of God is orchestrating right now
on your behalf.

Moving heaven towards you
and for you in response to your obedience

and your generosity. You have no idea. You

so stay.

Be obedient

and go beyond what's expected into grace.

Follow my.

So she gleaned in the film till evening.

Then she beat out what she had gleaned.

And it was about an ephah barley
that means a whole bunch.

And she took it up and went into the city.

Her mother in law saw what she had
gleaned.

She also brought out and gave her
what food

she had left over after being satisfied
because she kept some back.

Because she didn't want to, you know, look
like a porker eating on the first day.

And her mother in law said to her,

where did you glean today
and where have you worked?

Blessed be the man who took notice of you.

So she told her mother in law,
with whom she had worked

and said, the man's name,
with whom I work today is Boaz.

And Naomi said to her daughter,
May he be blessed by the Lord,

whose kindness has not forsaken,
the living or the dead.

Naomi also said, the man is a close
relative of ours, one of our redeemers.

This is really important
for the rest of this book.

In the next few chapters,

the Hebrew word is called goel,
and it means that kinsman redeemer.

The Old Testament law was
if a woman was left husband less than the

someone from the close
family had the obligation to redeem her

out of her poverty and singleness
and redeem her into a family.

That was the law.

And so Boaz is one of those people.

It's the kinsman redeemer.

It's the Hebrew goel issues
23 times in four chapters.

It's the most often, Ruth is uses

that word more often
than any other book in the Bible.

Per capita for chapter.

So this is an important thing.

And we're going to you're
going to learn about this a lot next week.

So but keep that in mind for next week.

He's a he's
a redeemer is a kinsman redeemer.

Verse 21 Justin up.

And Ruth the Moabite said, besides,
he said to me,

you shall keep close to my young men
until they have finished all my harvest.

And Naomi said to her, Ruth, her
daughter in law, it is good, my daughter,

that you go out with this young women,
lest in another field you be assaulted.

So she kept close to the young women
of Boaz,

gleaning until the end of the barley,
wheat, and the harvest.

And she lived with
her mother in law. Listen,

she said, it's good

for you to go out with him.

Don't leave him and his people,

because wherever you go, outside of him

and his people, you will be assaulted.

Listen, dear friends,

stay close to Christ and his people.

Everything outside of
that will assault you.

Do you understand?

You hear me?

Right now?

Boaz.

The picture of Jesus redeeming
a Gentile bride, the church.

But also this is the story of Boaz.

How many of you know who Boaz is?

Mom was.

Joshua to a lady named Rahab.

Rahab was a Gentile,

a non Hebrew in Jericho,
who was a prostitute.

When God's people came into Jericho,
before the walls came tumbling down,

they two spies met this lady Rahab.

This lady Rahab has a sensitivity
to the God of the Hebrews

and promised to hide the spies,
God's people.

So God could do his work.

Out of that agreement, Rahab

was saved, adopted into God's family.

A former prostitute adopted into God's
family redeemed her life.

Out of her life came this little boy
she called Boaz.

Boaz stayed in the land of God's

promises, stayed with God
and with his people.

And God providentially orchestrated
his life to be a man of great wealth

and prominence, to
then be so comfortable with broken lives,

to meet this other little foreign
woman of a broken life and redeem her.

If God can do that through a broken man,

a broken prostitute in Jericho,
and a broken little boy,

the son of a prostitute,
what can he do in your life?

Amen.

Oh, Redemption.

Dennis.

And so, Naomi,

whose name has been changed
to bitter, says, now this is good.

And she begins to recognize
the unseen hand of God.

And that realization starts her
transformation.

And Naomi's advice to Ruth is, what?

Stay.

Why don't miss this?

Why does she encourage Ruth to stay?

Because Naomi didn't stay,

and she knows the peril
and the destruction

of walking away.

And she says, dear sweetie,
please don't go down that road.

I've been there

and walking away from Christ
and walking away from

his people
is so much pain and destruction.

You don't want to invite that
into your world.

Stay.

God's doing something good.

Stay there.

Trust God's providential and unseen hand

because we know what Romans
828 says, I know the plans,

and they are for your good.

All things together.

And we know what Romans nine says,
that those who hope in

the Lord will never be put to shame.

And when you're living like that,

confidence and momentum,

we got a good God.

Good stay.

Father, thank you for this day.

You are a good God.

Encourage us more and more
and more to stay.

You know, some of us have walked away.

You know who we are.

You love us anyway.

Thank you,
thank you. Love us though we are.

But you call us to change.

You call us to trust.

In father,

thank you
that we can trust your providential hand.

I want to give you an opportunity
right now.

To trust God's providential hand.

To move
from discontentment to contentment.

I don't
know what that means in your world.

I don't know what you're going through
right now, but I.

But my guess is

that if you could correct God, you would.

And maybe this is the day
where you say God,

I don't want to offer you any advice.

I don't want to give you any direction.

I just want to trust your providential
hand.

I choose you today.

You you.

Even when it's hard, I choose you.

And I trust you to work
all things together for good.

Because I love you.

Father,
I thank you for the promise of your word.

Encourage us with it.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

You okay now?

All right. Yeah. Listen.

Read Ruth two this week

with an eye towards the providence of God
and trusting him.

And to read Ruth three for next week.

It's an awesome chapter,

and it will tell you, young ladies,
how to get a great husband.

Are you ready to sing Ali?

I. That's.