Christ Church, 6.00pm

May 29, 2005

Ruth 2:1-20a

In that reading from Ruth tonight, we actually had quite a big chunk of that book of four chapters, which has been described as of the most charming stories ever written. Certainly it sits here in the midst of the history books of the Old Testament, and it seems something very different. Here we have no talk of kings or prophets or wars; nothing of that sort here. Rather a rather charming story, yes, and a short love story. And that may well provoke the question; “What is this story, this love story, of Ruth doing here. What is it doing here as part of Holy Writ? What is this deeply personal story doing here?

But that in part is the answer. For this very personal story has a key place in God’s purposes, and together with its personal touch has much to tell and to teach us. It’s central character is Ruth, one of the daughters of Naomi, a woman who, though born an Israelite had gone to live in Moab because of famine, along with her husband. When her husband dies, her sons marry Moabite women. This was not forbidden, but we read in Deuteronomy that no Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord (23:3). They have daughters and it looks as if they have settled down in Moab. But then the husbands die, and Naomi is left with her two Moabite daughters-in-law. She decides to return to her home country, a bitter woman, and advises her daughters-in-law to stay and have the chance of remarriage..

One of these is Ruth, the central character of the book and story which bears her name. This story shows how God works through people, blesses people and how through tem he fulfils his purpose. And in chapter two tonight we read of how Ruth met Boaz, the man through whom he would touch Ruth, bless her and further his purposes. If we look right to the end of Ruth, in chapter 4 we read of Boaz taking Ruth as his wife, of their having a son, Obed, and we read then: he (Obed)  was  the father of Jesse, the father of David. David, who was the most glorious of Old Testament kings, a man described as being after God’s heart, David who, in many ways prefigured his later descendant, the Lord Jesus Christ, or as the hymn writer has it “great David’s greater son”. David in his person combined the roles of priest and king, and prefiguring the priestly and kingly roles which belonged to Jesus- King of Kings and our Great High Priest.

  We see much more prefigured in this story too. At the start of chapter 2 we read that Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side from the clan of Elimelech, a  man of standing whose name was Boaz. Now under Israel’s laws, this man had the role as ‘Kinsman Redeemer’, with the responsibility of protecting the interests of needy members of his extended family. And such of course was Ruth; a foreigner, a woman, who along with her mother-in-law had no immediate means of support. So, later on in this book we read that Boaz did become kinsman-redeemer for Ruth. In this role, he prefigure their descendant, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came from heaven’s throne to join the human race, so that were his ‘kinsmen’, and he would be our redeemer.

But the very picture which the book of Ruth presents us is with God’s gracious dealings, of God working his purpose out, and I want to begin by looking at the way in which Ruth comes to be part of that blessing and part of that plan. It’s first worthwhile noting that Ruth was a Moabite woman and as a Moabite she would be a Gentile, one not part of God’s chosen people, one not to be accepted ‘into the assembly’. And yet, God uses this woman- a Gentile as part of his purpose, and that shows God’s greater plan to extend his purposes, his salvation to Gentiles as well as Jews. In one of the so-called Servant Songs, Isaiah says of God’s Servant, I will make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth. (Isa 49:6) .

  So here we have this girl, this daughter of the widowed Naomi, who is a Moabitess, and who returns with Naomi to her home town, which was Bethlehem. Right back there Bethlehem had a very special place in God’s plan.

But the key to Ruth’s place in God’s plan lies in the fact that when Naomi decides to return to her home country, and has said to her daughters-in-law that they would be best off staying put that Ruth, we read, ‘clung to her’ The key bit is in chapter 1 verse 16: where you go, I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God. It’s that choice of Ruth’s that Naomi’s God will be her God; the one true and living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that this is the One who will be her God. It’s that decision which places her into God’s blessing and into God’s purposes, and as one who would play an important role in that purpose. We never know how important that decision, “your God will be my God” can be. Our decision to let the living God be our God, the God of our lives can have consequences we may never dream of. We may think that nothing but our salvation hangs on it- a danger maybe of a very “personal” form of Christianity, but that is NOT the case. We thereby put ourselves not only into the way of God’s blessing, we put ourselves also into the way of God’s purpose.

So now we come to pick up the story of chapter 2. And in a way part of the lesson of chapter 2 is that Ruth did not sit on her backside and wait for something to happen, some help to come her way. She takes action, and that in its way was as important as her decision  to make the living God her God.

Lawrence Richards says in his commentary, “Naomi and Ruth were now in the position of the widow and fatherless in Israel “. They had no-one to care for them; no means of support.

  It was the time of the barley-harvest. And there is one way in which they can gain support, and to support themselves. There was a provision laid out in the book or Leviticus in chapter 19 and verses 9 and 10 we read: When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of the field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. …Leave them for the poor and alien. I am the Lord your God. This is God’s Law, God’s way: Leave something for other people, don’t keep everything to yourself.  

So, in chapter 2 and verse 2 we read Let me go to the fields and pick up the left over grain behind anyone in whose eyes I may find favour. So, Ruth goes to this particular field and starts to glean the grain. Many  people must have gone to glean the grain; many poor, many strangers, may sojourners. This was their one hope of providing for themselves, and maybe of providing for their family too. Ruth goes to a field and starts gleaning.

  We read then in verse 3 that as she went to glean it turned out she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz. “It turned out”. .It sounds like pure chance, and in some ways it was; it was just where she chose to go, but with no knowledge of the significance of where she was. Coincidence? Some people say that for them a coincidence is a “God-incidence”. This surely was a “God-incidence”! God’s hand of blessing was on Ruth, and he steers her by his hand upon her to that field and so to Boaz, the one who would be her kinsman-redeemer. So she has put herself firmly into God’s blessing, firmly into God’s purpose. God does use these ‘random’ events to bless his people and to use them thereby.

There’s more detail in our reading which I will not be looking at tonight. But let us take away the key link between that choice ‘for’ the God who is God of our Lord Jesus Christ, and standing in his blessing and his purpose. Amen.