Ruth Part 6: Help My Unbelief (Dr. Trey Benfield)

Scripture Readings:

Isaiah 43:1-7
Matthew 10:26-28
Ruth 3:11

We are in our week six in our study of Ruth.  Ruth is a relatively short book, and we are going through it rather slowly.  However, I think you will agree that not only is a compelling story, but there the author has managed to cram a lot of theology into this book.  My focus so far has been on the particular word hesed which is used quite a bit in the Old Testament to describe God’s relationship with His people.  We have talked about hesed and how no word can adequately translate it, because it contains several concepts like loyalty, mercy, grace, and a love that goes beyond ones duty.  It is illustrated in the story of Ruth by Ruth and her relationship with Naomi as well as Boaz and his relationship with Ruth.  By using a story, the author is able to communicate this concept in a more vivid way that just a definition so that we experience it in a deep way.

Today, I am going to revisit one verse that I think lies at the heart of Ruth and I want to go into more detail.  In this verse Boaz tells Ruth do not fear and I will do for you all I ask.  When I studied this verse I realized that these two phrases are used repeatedly in the Bible to describe God’s attitude toward His people.  So what I want to do in the sermon today is take these two phrases and try and understand their significance and what we can learn from these words.

However, I am going to start with a story.  In 1940 Adolf Hitler turned his military westward invading France after taking over Norway and Denmark.  Great Britain had sent 316,000 troops to France to help the French halt the Nazi invasion.  Hitler’s disciplined, mechanized army with its Panzer tanks and extremely effective air support proved too much for the Belgian, French, and British army.  The British Expeditionary Force, the French 1st Army, and the Belgian Army became trapped near the Dunkirk.  On the East and West were two massive German armies and to the North the English Channel.  For the Allies there were only two options available, hold out and fight and suffer certain defeat or surrender.  As those in Great Britain awaited news of the fate of the British Expeditionary Force, an officer was able to send out a three word transmission - “but if not.”   The British knew there would be no surrender, the army would fight to the end.   

The three word phrase introduces a verse from the book of Daniel.  King Nebuchadnezzar had made a giant golden idol and demanded that at certain appointed times, everyone in the empire was to bow down and worship the golden idol.  However, three Israelites, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego refused to so.  Nebuchadnezzar had devised a punishment for refusal - a fiery furnace.  When King Nebuchadnezzar confronted the three Israelites, they replied, “Our God is able to deliver us.  But if not, be it know to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden idol that you have set up.”  How were Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego able to defy the greatest conquerer at that point in human history despite the very real prospect of death by without any trace of fear?

So let’s first look at “do not fear.”   The phrase do not fear, do not be afraid, fear not or some variation is found in almost every book of the Bible.  In fact, do not fear is the most frequent command issued in the Bible.  Often the phrase is used at key movement in the story and also at times when God makes an appearance usually in response to a crisis.  The first time fear not is used was in the critical moment when God makes the great covenant with Abraham promising him descendants and great kingdom.  It is repeated again to Abraham’s son Isaac and then numerous times in Deuteronomy as the Israelites prepare to take over the promised land from the Canaanite and also to Joshua as he leads the Israelites into battle.

The book of Isaiah contains a section called the servant songs in which the Messiah is promised and repeatedly the command is given to fear not.  When the messiah is born in Bethlehem, the angels tell the shepherds fear not for I bring you good news of great joy that will be to all people.  I could go on.  

As we look at the examples where we are told not to fear there are some consistent reasons given for why we should not fear.  First, God’s people are under his protection.  God tells Abraham that He is his shield.  God is bigger than any enemy and everything and everyone is in His power.  The Psalms says God is our refuge and our strength therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains move into the heart of the sea.  The Lord is on my side I will not fear, what can a man do to me.  Jesus will later reassure the disciples that all power in heaven and on earth is under His authority.  

Second, God’s presence is with His people.  God’s presence means that His people will benefit because He is actively there to bless them and fulfill His promises.  When Isaac is harassed by the Philistines and cannot dig a well, God tells Isaac, “fear not, I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring.” I am with you is frequently repeated to His people.  He is on their side and that means He is actively working together with His people.  Often this phrase is used when God’s people are taking on a project like conquering Canaan or building the temple.  They are to know that with God’s help the goal will be accomplished.  

Third, God has a plan and He is in control.  We are not to fear the future because God has already decided the outcome.  God will redeem His people.  He tells Israel he will gather them for the east and the west.  God tells them fear not, nor be afraid have I not told you from of old and declared it?  God has a plan for His people and that plan is nothing less than the salvation of the whole world.  Jesus says fear not for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  Remember that when Jesus talks about the kingdom, that is not an abstract concept to His audience.   The kingdom is shorthand for God’s plan to free Israel and to fulfill all the promises made in the Old Testament.  Jesus tells us fear not I am the first and the last.  
What I find interesting about this concept of not fearing is that despite its persistent repeated command throughout the Bible, the Church is full of fear.  We fear cultural relativism, shifting cultural values, future economic collapse, the marginalization of faith in public life, atheists, militant Islam, politicians that do not conform to our views and we sit and worry and fear that one or more of these groups will crush the church.  However, John tells us the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.  

Listen to this quote from Leviticus that describes the state Israel will find itself if they depart from the loyalty to God: “The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues.  They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues.”  
What this passage tells us is that fear means that we will not be able to stand before our enemies.  Furthermore, those who forget God are recognized by the fact that they make irrational responses to irrational fears.  A driven leaf puts them to flight.   The scary thing for the church is at the heart of fear is unbelief in the only assurance of safety, God Himself. 

We should beware of those in the church who try to instill fear in us.  The consistent message of the Bible is against this.  Paul says that God gave us not a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self control.  This passage in Leviticus was written before the Israelites were to go into Canaan and establish God’s kingdom.  The point of the passage is a warning the fear will prevent the establishment of God’s kingdom.  The same holds for the church today.   How often does fear prevent us from living up to the ideals of the kingdom - our quest for economic security keeps us from engaging with the world, our fear of the other prevents us from loving our neighbor, our fear of lack of control prevents us from trusting God.   If we hope to establish Christ’s kingdom, the church must be characterized by power, love, and self control rather than fear.  

This is not to acknowledge that there are not real dangers.  The Bible never presents the world as anything other than a broken, violent place.  However, here is what Jesus says, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”  The power of the resurrection means that nothing physical can ultimately harm the Christian.  

When Jesus stand before Pilate the man representing the power and authority of the greatest empire in human history, Pilate tells Jesus, “Do you not know that I have the authority to release you and the authority to crucify you.”  Pilate is not blowing smoke.  His authority is real.  He can crucify and he can release.  However, Jesus shows no fear despite the very real threat Pilate represents because as Jesus says, “You would have no authority over me unless it had given you from above. “  For the Christian the key to living without fear is understanding that even despite the very real threat posed by the powers of this world, those powers are ultimately in submission to God who loves His people.   

Now lets looking at the second part of this verse.  Boaz tells Ruth I will do for you all that you ask.  Just as with do not fear, this is a statement that is repeated throughout the scriptures.  In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”  or later in Matthew “Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith.”  There are at least twelve different occasions where Jesus will make a similar statement not counting the stories where the gospels overlap.  Later James will say, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given him.  But let him ask in faith, without doubting.”

The point I want to make from these examples is that God promises to give us what we ask for and the only thing that prevents Him from doing so is a lack of faith.  Just as with the command to not fear, I think we in the church have a hard time believing that this is true.   Here is what I do and here is what I think most Christians do - we will pray to God and ask him for small things but we are scared to pray for what we really want.  We trust Him to take care of the the things we know are easy to achieve but the really hard things we don’t pray about.  There is an inconsistency here because God created the universe, he can do the hard things as well as the easy things.  

Really though we are scared because we have asked God for something in the past and we have not been given it and we have doubted God.  We have prayed for something and we have not been given it and we have read these verses and have concluded we must lack faith.  So we try again and tell ourselves we must not doubt and that we need to really believe this time, but we know we are forcing the issue and that is not real faith.  So we end up ignoring these verse.  Maybe we don’t think that God intervenes in this way anymore.  The problem is that we have a high view scripture and just as with the command to not fear we must deal with this repeated and clear promise.  

So what do we do?  I do not know that I can answer all the questions. However, I think Ruth gives us some help in dealing with this issue.  You see forcing ourselves to have more faith is not the answer.  The answer is in a correct view of who God is and this is where this story of Ruth and Boaz helps us.  I have been making the point all along that the reason we have this story is because at times in the book of Ruth, both Boaz and Ruth have demonstrated hesed.  Remember hesed is the very important Hebrew used to describe God’s grace, mercy, loyalty, and love for His people.  Ruth’s love from Naomi causes Ruth to leave her family and her home and become a poor, refuge in a strange and possibly hostile land with little prospect or hope.  Ruth demonstrated hesed by showing great loyalty to Naomi.  Boaz has offered care and protection to Ruth inviting her to his table and sharing his food with her despite the fact that she is from an enemy nation and has little to offer him.  Further Boaz has pledged himself to her even though her methods were impertinent and brazen.  What this story is doing is giving a real picture that we can take hold of and feel of the character of God’s love for His people.  

So when we see Boaz offering this promise to give her anything she asks and calls her his daughter, we understand what Boaz means.  He wants to be her husband, he wants to act as her father, and just as a good husband or father Boaz wants Ruth to be happy and to have joy.  This is where Ruth is helpful because I think a lot of why we have problem asking God for what we want is that we have an inaccurate picture of the character of God.  God wants us to have joy and happiness and God wants the best for us and we don’t believe it just like a father wants the best for his child 

Now don’t think I am preaching the prosperity gospel here.  Sometimes we are not given what we ask for.  I have known Praveen for several years now and I know that he has prayed for relief from his back pain.  I know that we as a congregation have prayed together for relief from his back pain.  Is it because of a lack of faith that this has not happened?  I don’t think so.  I do not know why God does not give us the answer that we want sometimes.  Paul prayed that God would remove the thorn from his side but was not given relief.  Job never received an answer as to why he suffered.  Jesus prayed that the cup would pass from Him.

What I do know is that it is dangerous for us to view God in any other way than that He is a good father who desires our joy and is able and willing to provide for us.  When the serpent tempts Eve in the garden one of the lies the serpent tells her is that God really does not desire her happiness and that is why He withholds the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from her.  I think this incorrect view of God is why the doubt and the lack of faith enters our minds when we ask God for something.  The point I want to make is that just with the command not to fear, the belief that God wants joy for us, is based on the fact that God is on our side.  We cannot follow this command or pray the way we need to if we view God in any other way.  If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son but gave him up for us all, how will He not also graciously give us all things?  

This is hard but I think that I have made the point of how serious this issue is to us in the church.  Let me conclude by leaving you with this story from Mark to help.  A man brings his son to Jesus because he is possessed by a demon.  The disciples are not able to cast them out and Jesus says clearly it is because the disciples lack faith. Jesus tells the father, “All things are possible for one who believes.”  Right here the father and the disciples are dealing with this issue.  The fathers response is “I believe; help my unbelief!”  We need to ask God to help our unbelief.  We need to repent of the ways in which we have ignored the clear teaching of scripture and we need to remember that God is our father and desires nothing less than His kingdom for us.  We need to boldly draw near to the throne of grace.  We have not received the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.  We have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba! Father!
 

Ruth Part 5: The God who Covers our Shame (Dr. Trey Benfield)

Scripture Readings: 
Genesis 3:8-11, 21
Zechariah 3:1-10
Ruth 3:1-18

Today we look at the third chapter of Ruth.  This chapter begins the climax of the drama of Ruth.  For the last few weeks we followed the story of Ruth who the text makes a point of identifying repeatedly as a Moabite woman.  The Moabites were a nation of people located next to Israel.  They were a people with a disgraceful origin who worshipped pagan gods.  The Moabites relationship to Israel was one of animosity.  Not only is Ruth a Moabite but she is a poor, desperate refuge whose husband has died, who has left her home and her family to move to a strange, alien land.  Yet she has found protection under Boaz who has provided for her.  She arrived in Israel at the beginning of the barley harvest and Boaz allowed her to glean from his fields and accepted her under his care as one of his own.  However, the harvest is now ending and Noami and Ruth find themselves in desperate circumstances once again.  

It is at this point that chapter three takes up our story and Naomi knowing the women would need a new long term strategy to survive concocts a plan.  This is where the story gets interesting.  Naomi tells Ruth to clean and perfume herself and put on her best clothes and then wait until Boaz has finished eating and drinking and then to uncover his feet and lie down with him.  She explains to Ruth that Boaz will know what to do.  The question for us then is what exactly is going on here.  

The text is purposely ambiguous.  This is not uncommon in Old Testament literature.  Sometimes a story is not spelled out to us because the writer wants to draw us in and force us to think about what is happening.  Now we in the church have a problem with passages like this because we want to make the Bible into a morality tale.  We come across a character and if they are a good character we draw the lesson that we should emulate that person.  If they are bad we then we say we should not be like them.  So since Ruth is clearly the hero of the story we take this ambiguity and instead of reading  it like any other story we come up with some convoluted explanation about how Ruth is doing something noble.  

A common interpretation sees Ruth’s action as an ancient custom where she is symbolically making a marriage request.  The problem is there is no evidence for this at all.  Others think she is communicating to Boaz by changing her clothes and wearing perfume that she is no longer in a period of mourning for her husband.  The problem for this explanation is it seems the text would have probably emphasized that she was in a period of mourning earlier and there is are also Naomi’s persistent conversations with Ruth about finding a new husband.  If Ruth were still in a mourning period it seems unlikely that Naomi would have brought this up.  I I think if we read this anywhere else but the Bible I think we would know exactly what is going on.  

So let’s try to read this like its any other story.  Boaz and his men have spent the last eight weeks working hard harvesting grain.  They are now finished for the season, they are an agricultural based society so this grain is like money in the bank.  So what do they do now that their work is finished and they have a lot of money - they have a party?  As the owner Boaz would be responsible for putting together a celebratory feast for his men.  They are feeling good, they have just consumed a big meal, and likely also celebrated with drink.  The scene would have been like when sailors come to port after being at sea or cowboys riding into town after making their run.  No doubt there would have been the general debauchery at least among a certain portion of the men if perhaps not Boaz himself, but this would have been the atmosphere in some way or another.  All this revelry would have taken place at the threshing floor.  We know that Judah’s dalliance with Tamar took place at the time the sheep were sheared.  In Hosea 9 we are told that threshing floors were the places where prostitutes frequented.  

Boaz is described as having eaten and drunk and his heart was merry.  This phrase his heart is merry is the same phrase used in Esther to describe Xerses state when he commands his wife to show herself off before his drinking buddies.  So we have a man whose inhibitions have been dulled by food and drink, who has just completed a hard period of work, who is in a festive mood, being approached by a woman who has perfumed herself and put on her best clothes. 

The words Naomi uses when she explains her plan to Ruth are also suggestive.  Naomi tells Ruth to uncover his feet and lie down.  Uncover, feet, and lie are all words that can have a completely innocuous meaning, but are also frequently used as euphemisms.  The fact that these three words are used together combine with the set up tells us that Ruth is actively trying to seduce Boaz in attempt to force him to propose marriage.  Also keep in mind that Ruth is a Moabite and Genesis 19 tells that the Moabites because Lot’s daughters got their father drunk in order to take advantage of him.  

So what we have here is a poor woman attempting to seduce a rich nobleman and force him to marry her because she is poor and desperate.  Ruth is trying to manipulate him and take advantage of Boaz.  In the parlance of our times she would be referred to as a gold digger.  When Boaz discovers Ruth at his feet he says, “Who are you?”  This is the same phrasing used twice by Isaac in the story where Jacob dresses up like Esau to swindle the blessing from his blind father.  Now once again we have a story of a person who use deception to get something she does not deserve.  

Cause here is the thing, Ruth’s attempt to railroad Boaz into marrying her is a two pronged attack.  First, she will seduce him.  Second, Ruth asks Boaz to marry her  because he is her go’el.  However, while Naomi might be able to claim Boaz as a Naomi, it is unclear that a Moabite who has married into an Israelite family has that right.  Furthermore, even given that she might be considered part of Boaz’ clan it was not the duty of a go’el to marry a widow.  It was the brother of the dead husbands duty but at no point does the Torah assign this task to the go’el.  Ruth by asking Boaz to marry her as a go’el is asking Boaz to do something he is not required to do.  

Yet this has been the story of Ruth all along - in this simple tale we have two characters who go above and beyond their duties and obligation.  Earlier we talked about this going above and beyond and we said that Hebrew has a special word called hesed.  Hesed is usually translated as lovingkindness or steadfast love which does not really get across the point.  In fact no one word can probably contain the concept of hesed.  Ruth has shown hesed in her relationship with Naomi by remaining with her and caring for her despite the fact that her own husband is dead severing the connection between the two.    Boaz has shown hesed by going beyond the requirements of the Torah for gleaning, but also ensuring that Ruth is protected and also lavishly providing for her even letting her eat at his table.  

The reason this is important and the reason we are dwelling on this point is because continually God is described using the term hesed.  What makes the story of Ruth important is that it illustrates the concept of hesed better than any simple definition.  If we understand the story of Ruth, then we understand a bit better the character of God.  God is a God who goes above and beyond duty.  He provides lavishly for the outcast.  He takes the despised and calls her my daughter.  He brings protection and rest.  So lets dig a little more into this story and see what this tells us about the character of Boaz and how this illustrates to us the character of God.    

First, Ruth’s actions to seduce Boaz are amazingly impertinent.  Yet, Boaz’s response is neither to take advantage of her nor to condemn her.  Once again we see this demonstrated in the life of Jesus.  Think back to Mary who pours the expensive perfume on Jesus, unbinds her hair, and washes his feet.  This is amazingly awkward and puts Jesus is a precarious position and yet he is not concerned about his reputation.  All he sees is a woman desperately looking for protection and rest. 

Second, Boaz’ does not respond to Ruth’s actions by calling her out as a gold digger and then saying I accept you any way look how magnanimous I am.  No, instead Boaz dignifies her and praises her.  Listen to his words in verse 10, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter.  You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether rich or poor.”  Boaz was not an old man by any means since he has demonstrated that he can work a full day in the fields. However, he looks at Ruth and praises her for not going after the man with whom she had better chance at having a child with or the richest person.  This was not simply about physical love since Ruth had plenty of opportunities.

Boaz even describes Ruth as a worthy woman in verse 11.  This is the same phrase used in Proverbs 31 to describe the ideal wife.  Boaz knew that despite Ruth’s actions, there was something about his character that attracted Ruth to him and not just anyone.  

We see this demonstrated by Jesus as well.  When Mary empties the perfume on him he dignifies her actions by publicly praising them knowing it would earn him scorn of others.  When the Syrophonecian woman confronts him, Jesus tells everyone that her faith is great.   When the woman with the issue of blood essentially tries to steal Jesus’ healing power, Jesus tells her to be of good comfort and acknowledges her faith.  

Third, in verse 14 we see that Boaz is concerned that Ruth’s action of spending the night at the threshing floor would bring shame to her by the community.  Boaz wants to protect her from this.  He says, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.”   Boaz then gives Ruth six measures of barley.  Why does he do this?  Boaz does this so that if she is seen leaving the threshing floor by anyone in Bethlehem, they will conclude she is simply a hungry woman asking for food.  Boaz once again demonstrates hesed by protecting her from shame.  

Think back to the story of Adam and Eve.  If you will recall after they broke God’s one commandment and became aware of their shame and vulnerability before God, how does God respond?  We would expect that God would end the human project right there, but God doesn’t do that.  God issues a promise of a redeemer that would defeat the serpent.  Rather than allowing Adam and Eve to continue in shame he replaces their own flawed attempt at covering themselves with fig leaves by providing animal skins for clothing.  

The passage we read earlier from Zechariah contains much the same message.  Joshua, the High Priest, stands accused by Satan.  This is one of the few appearances of Satan in the Bible.  Satan means accuser and in the Old Testament Satan functions like a prosecuting attorney.  Joshua stands before the court in dirty clothes showing his unworthiness and proving the point Satan is trying to make.  Joshua is not worthy.  God’s response is to cover his shame and to make him worthy.  This is God’s hesed - it is above and beyond the law.  God goes on to say that Joshua is not an isolated case of God’s beneficence but an example of what is to come.  God promises the redeemer that will be able to make us worthy.  

This is what hesed looks like and this brings me to my fourth point.  Ruth’s case rest on the fact that Boaz should marry her because it is his duty as the go’el, the redeemer.  Here is the thing though - the torah is very specific about the duties of the go’el.  Not once is one of the duties listed as marriage.  There was a custom called levirate marriage in which the brother of the deceased husband is to marry his brother’s widow.  However, that is not necessarily the go’el.  Boaz is not even her immediate go’el.  Yet Boaz again demonstrating hesed, again goes beyond the law and makes the oath “as the Lord lives, I will redeem you.”  Such is Boaz’s love for Ruth and such is God’s love for His people.

What I want us to see is a God who loves His people.  What I want you to experience is the depth of this love.  That is what I think is the heart and the beauty of this story.  Ruth, the rejected, the poor, the foreigner, the enemy, the gold digger comes before Boaz with her impertinent convoluted scheme and Boaz far from rejecting her, far from merely fulfilling his ethical obligations under the law lavishes her with generosity.    Just as in the story of the prodigal son, the Father rejects the sons scheme to work as a hired hand and instead gives his son his finest coat and his ring and his staff and kills the fatted calf.  

Boaz does not treat her as Moabite trash scavenging through Israel’s garbage bins.  Boaz shows instead God’s plan for Israel and God’s plan for the whole world by showing us and Israel what God’s hesed looks like.  Even allowing her to glean would have been a kindness that required a strained interpretation of the torah as she was a Moabite whose only connection to Israel was a dead husband who should not have married her in the first place.  Boaz accepts her, dignifies her, and protects her from shame and humiliation.  This is a love that will fully be demonstrated on the cross when Jesus wrings Himself of His divinity on the cross and accepts our shame and humiliation not because of any obligation or necessity or greater law, but for one reason and one reason only - because He loves us.  

I want to conclude the sermon with one more picture of this from the book of Ezekiel.  I did not include it our readings because I wanted to present here so that we can hear it with these thoughts fresh and our mind.  Its powerful and amazing and communicates the generosity and the way God covers our shames and dignifies his people much better than any concluding remarks I could possibly come up with.  This is Ezekiel chapter 16:

Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem:  Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.  And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling clothes.  No eyes pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on an open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born.

And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you, ‘Live!  I said to you in your blood, Live’  I made you flourish like a plant of the field.  And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment.  Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; you were naked and bare.  

When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were the age for love, and I spread my wings over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine.  Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil.  I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather.  I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk.  And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck.  And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.  Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk, and embroidered cloth.  You ate fine flour and honey and oil.  You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty.  And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor  that I had on you, declares the Lord God.  
Elimelech has a scheme, Naomi has a scheme.  Adam and Eve had a scheme to know good and evil.  The Bible is the story of people who over and over again reject Him and devise schemes.  The Bible is not the story of heroes.  Abraham, David, Peter and the great people of the Bible all have a scheme.  The Bible is a story of failed schemes that lead to shame.  Yet despite them all God works to cover the shame of His people despite their schemes.  Just as he covered Adam and Eve and just as Boaz covered Ruth by giving her the grain.  Ruth says that she wants Boaz to spread his wings over her.  This is a phrase to describe God’s protection of His people in Deuteronomy it is also used in the Ezekiel passage.   

The passage will grow on to tell how this woman rejects God’s love developing her own scheme , just as we all do, but it will end with the promise of an everlasting covenant that even through the rejection of God’s love will go on to atone and cover even this and this everlasting covenant, the fulfillment and culmination of all the stories of hesed is what Jesus gives to us on the cross.

Ruth Part 4: The Mystery of the Go'el (Dr. Trey Benfield)

Scripture Readings: 
Leviticus 7:11-18
Ephesians 3:1-11
Ruth 2:14-23

We are continuing our study of the book of Ruth.  Last week we saw Ruth act heroically and tenaciously in her desire to provide for herself and her mother-in-law Naomi.  This was a potentially dangerous activity because Ruth was a women without any form of protection and a Moabite who were foreigners, pagans, and enemies of Israel.  However, she receives the protection of Boaz who also provides for her above and beyond any duty and obligation in the Torah.  Boaz does this despite a number of negatives - her impertinence, the fact that she was the foreign wife of an Israelite, a practice forbidden by Israelites, and a Moabite on top of that.  

So the New Testament authors frequently use this term mystery to describe how we interpret some of the concepts used in the Old Testament.  I have found that  understanding how the New Testament uses this term mystery is very helpful in helping us understand how the New Testament interprets the Old Testament.  It is a difficult topic for us because the Old Testament is mostly a collection of stories of a foreign culture and a lot of times the New Testament takes these stories and interprets them in a way that is very different than how we would use them.  Often it looks as though the New Testament is taking the stories out of context and forcing them to say something that they don’t say.   What I want to do is take this use of mystery and apply it to this story to show how we can make more sense of how this story applies to us and make it a little more relevant.  I also think it will help us be better students as we study the Old Testament.

In the Ephesians passage we read earlier, Paul uses the phrase mystery four times.  We think of mystery as something difficult or impossible to understand or explain.  Something like a riddle or puzzle that needs to be solve.   In the Ephesians passage Paul is partly using it this way.  

However for Paul, mystery has a very specific almost technical meaning that is derived from Daniel.  So if you remember in the book of Daniel, at several points Daniel is asked to interpret a dream that the king has.  These dreams are called a mystery and the interesting things about them is that they are understandable to some degree on their surface.  However, it takes Daniel who we are told is given wisdom from God to interpret them, to give them a more specific meaning.  So this is the key to a mystery.  It is something that we grasp on the surface level, but later revelation from God is needed to give them a fuller, more specific meaning.  That is what we see Paul doing in the Ephesians passage.  The mystery is made known to Paul by revelation that comes from Christ.  

What I want us to do with our text from Ruth today is see that there is a surface meaning that is readily accessible, but develops a fuller meaning as a result of the revelation of Christ.    

So our passage today starts with a meal shared between Ruth and Boaz.  Eating a meal together was highly symbolic in that culture.  Meals were an expression of hospitality and to celebrate special occasions.  They were even used as a way to cement agreements between people who made treaties to show that they were bonded together.   So what Boaz does by inviting Ruth to his table is no small matter.  One of the things we notice about Boaz is he is not an absentee landowner.  He knows his workmen and eats alongside them.  He does not use his status as a nobleman to separate himself.   Here he extends this generosity to Ruth.  

What I want us to notice is how many cultural taboos Boaz is breaking down by this simple act.  First, Ruth is a woman.  Second, she is poor.  Third, she is from a foreign country.  Fourth, she is from an enemy nation.   By eating with her, Boaz is destroying all of those barriers and showing that his hospitality extends to her despite all of these negatives.  He is showing that he is bonding himself to her and even celebrating their relationship.  However, Boaz goes even further.  He allows Ruth to dip her bread in the sauce.  The word for sauce is something like a wine vinegar - so something akin to maybe how we might go to an Italian restaurant and dip bread in a balsamic vinegar.  The grain is not simple barley but roasted, essentially it was malted barley.  That would have made the barley sweeter and then the passage tells us she was given as much food as she could eat.  Boaz is giving Ruth not just a meal but showing her abundance and even extravagance.  

Now let us contrast this with the behavior of the Pharisees in the New Testament.  The Pharisees hoped to go above and beyond the teaching of the Torah to show God the quality of their devotion.  They thought that by doing this they would earn God’s favor and show that they were truly repentant hoping God would see this and return and do all the wonderful things promised to Israel like getting rid of the Romans and setting up His kingdom.  The Pharisees became a private dining club since they observed a lot of laws concerning purity that had to do with dining.  The result of this was the Pharisees excluded those who did not adopt their rigorous program.  So when Jesus came preaching repentance and the coming of the Kingdom and then dined with those who did not think like the Pharisees the Pharisees were offended.  Surely, this was no way for the true Messiah to do things.  

However, if they had paid attention to Ruth, the Pharisees would understand that Jesus is doing exactly what His ancestor Boaz is doing.  Jesus is breaking down every barrier.  Like Boaz he is welcoming the poor, women, sinners, and all those excluded to His table.  Yet God is always breaking down barriers.  He takes a people who are slaves and takes them for His own.  He gives children to the barren.   When Hannah and Mary sing their song they describe God as not just powerful and not just good but as a revolutionary who reverses the world order.  

We see this concept foreshadowed in the passage we read in Leviticus.  The book of Leviticus starts just after the tabernacle has been built and the glory of God moves in to take residence.  Leviticus is written to instruct the people how they are to live now that God Himself is dwelling in their midst.  In order for the people to be able to approach God, God institutes a series of sacrifices.  One of the sacrifices is called the peace offering.  The neat thing about the peace offering is that when the animal is sacrificed the fat and choice parts are burned on the altar as the portion that belongs to God.  One part of the sacrifice is then given to the priest and the another part is given to the offerer.  The priest and the offerer then roast the meat and eat it before the presence of God.  What is symbolized by the peace offering is that God and the offerer are at peace with one another, they are bonded together and they share a meal in fellowship.  This is what God desires with us and the same approachability is what is communicated in both Boaz and Jesus’ actions as they share meals.  

What is it about Boaz that allows him to show such grace to this woman?  To answer this question I want to go back to the passage from Deuteronomy concerning the laws for gleaning.  “When you reap your harvest in your field a forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it.  It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.”  Verse 22 gives the rationale for this practice, “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.”  So the reason given for taking care of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan is because in some way Israel could identify with them since they were once slaves.  

Now here is what everyone reading this book in ancient Israel would know that you don’t know.  Does anyone here know who was Boaz’s mother?  It was Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute who helped the Israelites conquer Jericho.  You see I think the reason Boaz was able to show such hesed was the same reason Israel was supposed to show hesed - it was because they could identify with being a foreigner, with being without resources and without hope.  

The incarnation is the ultimate example of this identification - God comes in the form of man in order to identify and experience what we experience.  Hebrews tells us we have a great high priest because he is able to sympathize with us.  This is why hesed is able to go beyond duty or obligation and why it is real and causes us to fall to our face and bow to the ground just as Ruth does to Boaz.

It is what Christ did for us and what we must do as the church, if we are to be a light to this world - identify with the other.  If we are to be effective we must not separate ourselves from the world and see our ourselves as somehow superior.  Remember it is Christ who though he in the form of God, did not could equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant.  This is the power of the incarnation and if we embrace it it can be the power of the church as well.  Those who are first shall be last.  The greatest in my kingdom will be a servant to all.

How we will do this?   The same way the Israelites were told to do it and the same way Boaz did it - by identifying with the other.  Throughout this story, Boaz has not used his wealth and status as a way to separate himself.  He is not an absentee landlord, but one who visits his workmen and knows them.  He eats with them and when he comes across a foreign, possibly pagan widow, rather than marginalize her he identifies with her because his mother was not so different.  

When Ruth returns to Naomi and describes to her Boaz’ actions and the meal they shared, Naomi tells Ruth that Boaz is a relative of hers and is a redeemer.  In Hebrew the word for redeemer is go’el.  Go’el is a technical, legal term.  It refers to a near relative who is charged with certain responsibilities for the economic well being of the people under his care.  

According to the Torah a go’el had some specific responsibilities.  First, the go’el must buy back any hereditary property that had passed outside of the clan.  As we discussed last week, specific property was given by God to specific families and the family was charged with administering that land.  The land belonged to God but the family was charged with managing that land.  Provisions were made in the law to prevent the land from passing outside the family.  If you remember the story of Naboth.  Naboth owned a particularly nice vineyard that King Ahab wanted.  King Ahab asked to buy the land from Naboth but Naboth refused.  The reason Naboth gives for his refusal is because it would be wrong to give away the inheritance God had given to his family.  It was the responsibility of the go’el to make sure the land always remained with the family.  

Now let me explain how this works with the concept of mystery.  What I want us to see is how the revelation of Christ shows us how Jesus acts as a go’el and fulfills these duties to a greater degree than the Old Testament writers would have envisioned.   In the Old Testament the land was important because it was the people of God’s inheritance.  This is why it could not pass out of their hands and why it was important for the go’el to redeem the land if it had been sold to an outsider because the owner may have fallen into debt.   When Jesus comes He redefines the whole concept of the inheritance.  No longer is our inheritance the land.  The land was important because it was where God dwelled.  However, because of Jesus’ death and resurrection the glory of God was no longer confined to the temple and to the land of Israel.  The presence of God and the inheritance was now something that belonged to every believer.  

So if you remember when the Samaritan woman at the well asks Jesus if God is to be worshipped on Mount Gerizim where the Samaritans worshipped God or Jerusalem.  Jesus answers, “The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.”  The nature of the inheritance had been expanded and broadened.  No longer was it Israel but the whole world.  All authority would be granted to Jesus on heaven and earth.  This is the point Jesus is making when he says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy but lay up your treasure in heaven.”   Our inheritance is the kingdom of God which Jesus has purchased for us.  Jesus had come as the go’el and bought our inheritance at the cost of His own life.  This is the mystery - in the Old Testament the land was the inheritance and the go’el redeems it, but this is a mere foreshadowing of the bigger picture in which Jesus the more perfect go’el redeems for His people the true inheritance.  

Second, the go’el must purchase the freedom of any member of the clan who had sold themselves in slavery usually because of debts.  In the book of John, Jesus says that all those who practice sin are enslaved to sin.  Our sin has led us to slavery and just like those in ancient Israel our only hope lies with our go’el , our kinsman redeemer who pays the price and purchases us from slavery.  Jesus says that He came to give His life as a ransom for many.  Like Boaz He is not an absentee landowner.  He identifies with His people serving rather than being served.  Like Boaz He breaks down the barriers and takes the poor and the marginalized and eats with them.  The go’el was a weird ancient custom at home in a clan based society.  However, it is a powerful picture and we see Jesus takes this picture and transforms it into a story of the greatest redemption of all - the salvation of humankind.  

As His followers we must understand that we are a people who were in need of redemption and have been redeemed.  Rather than trying to earn God’s approval by distancing ourselves as the Pharisees did, we must work at breaking down the barriers that separate us from others.  We must extend grace like Boaz in a way that is abundant and extravagant.  We will do this the way Israel was commanded to do in Leviticus - by remembering that they were once slaves in a land that was not theres.  It was what Boaz did and what Jesus did - not distancing ourselves from others but identifying ourselves with others.  This is the mystery that Christ reveals to us.  The Church must not be served but must serve and to extend the ransom offered by the ultimate go’el, the Redeemer who came to give His own life as a ransom for many.  
 

Ruth Part 3: Impertinence and Grace (Dr. Trey Benfield)

Scripture Readings: 
Deuteronomy 24:19-22
Matthew 15:21-28
Ruth 2:1-16

We are continuing our study of the book of Ruth.  So far in our story we have followed the story of a man named Elimelech who fled his home in Judah because of a famine and took his wife and his two sons with him to a country called Moab.  I emphasized that this famine is presented not as a random event but the result of a curse because of Israel’s failure to obey the law.  Ruth is set during the time of the book of Judges which is not Israel’s finest hour.  Mostly Judges is the story of oppression, violence, and abuse of power.  

Elimelech’s sons marry two women from Moab, something forbidden by Israelite law.  During the family’s ten year stay in Moab, Elimelech and his two sons die leaving Naomi and her daughters-in-law Orpah and Ruth.  Naomi decided to return to Judah.  This is significant because the word return is related to the word repentance and is the remedy to the curse.  Her daughter-in-law Ruth decided to return with Naomi to Judah despite being a member of an enemy nation and having very little prospects in this new country.  We are told Ruth does this out of devotion to Naomi.  In this she embodies the Biblical idea of hesed  which describes loyalty and kindness above and beyond duty.  Hesed is the word often used to describe the devotion of God to His people.  So the crazy thing about this story is that this Moabite woman presents to us a picture of the love of God.  

As we begin our passage today we are introduced to a new character in this story, a man named Boaz.  Boaz is introduced as a relative of Naomi’s husband, a noble man, from the clan of Elimelech.  Typically, when the Bible introduces a character we are given the name, the person’s family, status, and then the significance for the story.  Here the order is reversed because the narrator wants to highlight that Boaz is a legal relative of her husband.  This detail would raise the hopes for the readers who understand that as a relative he had a legal responsibility to Naomi.  At this point Naomi is unaware of Boaz and the reader is unaware of whether or not Boaz would fulfill his duties but the hope is raised.

When Boaz himself appears on the scene we are told that he greets his workers with a blessing, “YHWH be with you.”  Boaz uses the name YHWH the personal name for God used by people who are in covenant relation with Him.  Once again our hopes are raised that Boaz is committed to YHWH and to the law.  This reinforces the description of Boaz as a worthy man and if He is a follower of YHWH then perhaps Boaz will fulfill his duty to Naomi as her relative.  At this point we only have the words of Boaz we do not know if his deeds will match them. 

In the Old Testament we are frequently expected to look and see if the words and actions of the characters match.  For example, in the book of Judges which I said earlier was set in the same time as the story of Ruth, there is a character named Gideon.  Gideon is chosen by God to route one of Israelites enemies called the Midianites.  After Gideon does so in spectacular fashion, the people try to make Gideon king but Gideon refuses saying that only God is king.  That sounds great and we often tell stories to our children about how faithful Gideon is and suggest they be like Gideon.  The problem is that in the next chapter we find Gideon building a harem and fathering 70 children with his wife one of which Gideon names Abimelech.  The name Abimelech means ‘my father is king.”  The text really does not comment on this, but sharp readers will realize that the picture of Gideon is of a person who says one thing but does another. So at this point the reader of Ruth is supposed to anticipate the question will Boaz’s actions match his words.

At this point Boaz asks the question, “Whose young woman is this?” or “Who does this woman belong to?”  We may be forgiven if we find this sexist and a relic of a patriarchic society.  However, the real question Boaz is asking is who protects this woman?  If she is affiliated with a husband or a father or even a clan then she would be safe since anyone accosted her would suffer repercussions from her protector.  What Boaz really wants to know is Ruth safe.  

This was no small concern.  Remember as we have said earlier, Ruth is set during a particularly brutal and lawless time period in the history of Israel.  The powerful did what they wanted and the weak suffered what they must.  Women were particularly vulnerable and Judges gives several instances in graphic detail of the horrible treatment of women during this time period.  Boaz is right to be concerned and upon discovering she was a foreign and enemy nation if he had any concern for her safety it should have been heightened.  

The question Boaz asked is answered by a field supervisor, a manager.  Although he answers the question, he also gives a few more details.  First, he says that she has come to “glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.”  So lets talk ancient near east agriculture. 

Barley is a type of grass that grows in stalks.  At the top of the stalk is the head which contains the seeds or grain.  The great thing about grains is that they can be dried and stored and used for food, animal fodder, or you can make beer out of it.  Now when it was time to harvest, the stalk was cut with a curved blade called a scythe.  This was before the iron age so the sickle would have been made of flint attached to a stick or possibly bronze.  Once the stalks were cut they were stacked in sheaves.  At this point the seed has to be removed from the head which would have done by beating the stalk against something hard like the ground.  This was known as threshing.  If you were really fancy you would beat it with a stick called a flail and you would have a special prepared hard surface made of stones called a threshing floor.

During harvest time, Israelites landowners were required by the Torah to permit widows, orphans, the poor, and foreigner to glean from their fields.  The landowners was not to cut all his grain but leave the corners for the gleaners.  Workers were also not supposed to go back and look for grain they missed or dropped.  This grain was also left to the gleaners.  This grain was part of the Israelite safety net and was provided for the groups of people who would have been most vulnerable in their society - widows, orphans, and foreigners.  

Notice in verse 2 Ruth says to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.”  However, the report the supervisor gives to Boaz is a little different.  He tells Boaz that Ruth asked to glean AND to gather among the sheaves after the reapers.  Remember sheaves are grain that has already been cut and harvested by the workmen.  The supervisor is giving Boaz the impression that Ruth is not satisfied by merely gleanings but wants some of the harvest sheafs as well.   This would have been considered the height of impertinence for a foreigner to demand this sort of thing.  

The supervisor then goes on to note that the Ruth has been working in the field from very early in the morning only taking one short rest.  When we read this we are immediately impressed with Ruth’s industriousness.  There is something appealing and we think that is neat Ruth is a hard worker.  However, what it means to the supervisor is that she is taking all our grain.  Once again the supervisor is highlighting Ruth’s impertinence.  Now the syntax of the supervisors words is very confusing.  Its possible this is meant to convey to the listener that the supervisor did not quite have the story straight.  In any event he certainly created the impression to Boaz that she wanted more than just the allotted gleanings.

By contrast Boaz is accepting, generous, and kind.  He calls her my daughter indicating to everyone that Boaz has accepted the responsibility of providing protection to Ruth.  Boaz tells her not to bother going to any other fields where her position may be more precarious.  His workmen are ordered not to harass her.  A Moabite woman would ordinarily been subject to whatever a man could get away with, Boaz is letting his workers know this is not the case on his land.  She is also privileged with drinking from the workmen’s water.  Ordinarily the first thing a woman would do on the way to the field was stop by the town well and fill her animal skins with water.  Boaz tells her that she does not have to do this.  Later Boaz will invite Ruth to her table even offering his sauce rather than just giving her bread and then will even allow her to harvest from the sheaves rather than just the gleanings.   

Ruth is understandably overwhelmed by Boaz’ kindness toward her.  She falls on her face in a sign of respect and asks Boaz how she had found favor, literally the word is grace, in his eyes.  After all she is a foreigner and she understands the unlikelihood of her receiving any special treatment.  Boaz answer is that he knew of the way she had sacrificed everything out of devotion to Naomi.  However, there is something else he adds.  Ruth had left her father and her mother and everyone she knew and love to come with Naomi to Israel.  She had responded radically and irrationally.  

Throughout Ruth the text has subtlety made references to stories of the great men of Genesis.  We start with a focus of Elimelech who flees from a famine.  The same circumstance confronted Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and each time they received blessing from God.  Yet Elimelech and his sons die and so the story shifts to Naomi.  Naomi though is old and it unlikely she will carry on the family name.  The same circumstances had occurred in the life of Sarai and Rachel and God had intervened and the result was a great multitude of descendants that struck fear into the heart of the Egyptians.  Yet with Naomi we see no sign of history repeating itself.  Instead we see God’s blessing falling on Ruth.  In fact she is oddly fulfilling the story of Genesis by radically and irrationally leaving her family and the land she knew just as Abraham way back in Genesis when God said, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”  Ruth is actually the parallel with Genesis that we have been waiting for.  Somehow Boaz understands a glimpse of this.  

However, I want to spend the rest of the sermon focusing on the actions and decisions of Boaz.  First, Boaz is taking an ordinary event and has made it an occasion for  compassion, generosity, and acceptance.  He is demonstrating the hesed to this woman that goes above and beyond the law.  His commands to his workers and his actions all go above and beyond the requirements of the Torah.  In this way Boaz acts as an ideal Israelite.  Remember that one of the purposes of the Torah, was to be a light to the Gentiles.  By keeping the laws, foreign nations would see the wisdom and understanding of God reflecting through them.  Ruth remarks that Boaz has shown her grace.  She has seen the character of God demonstrated in the abundance of Boaz’s generosity.

Second, Boaz has done this despite Ruth’s impertinence.  It is likely the supervisor is exaggerating Ruth’s request, but Boaz is acting on his information. Rather than berating her he indulges Ruth.  We see Jesus demonstrate this same indulgence.  On more than one occasion Jesus is approached by a woman who we can classify as impertinent and in all instances His response is similar to Boaz’s.  One of our readings gives an example of Jesus’ generosity to an impertinent woman.  The Syro-Phonecian woman, a pagan from a land that was historically at war with Israel, approaches Jesus begging him to cast a demon out of her daughter.  His disciples wanted to send her away but Jesus saw something in her and tested her.  At one point he calls her a dog but she doesn’t miss a beat begging for Jesus’ help.  Jesus not only heals her but holds her up as an example of faith.  

Think of the prostitute who pours the perfume on Jesus and washes him with her hair.  Think of the woman who suffers the discharge of blood and touches Jesus in order to heal herself.  Remember Jesus is a holy man and her discharge of blood makes her unclean and yet she touches Jesus anyway.  All of these women are rewarded by Jesus despite their impertinence.  Each experiences God’s hesed.

Third, Boaz makes his decision to show Ruth grace and hesed despite an ethical dilemma.  If you go back to verse 4 you will see that Boaz came from Bethlehem and went to his fields.  Here is the question, why does Boaz not live near the field?  A farmer like we know a farmer would have had a farmhouse on the same property as his fields.  Not in the ancient world.  Bethlehem is a city which has a very specific meaning in Hebrew - it means a settlement surrounding by a wall.  The reason the wall was important is that it provided protection.  So Boaz didn’t have a farm house on his fields because he would not be safe from raiders.  Therefore, everyone lived in the city and then went to the fields to work.  So who would raided places like this?  Well it would probably be the enemy nation right next door to Bethlehem - Moab.  

Let me read another passage from the Torah, “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia to curse you.”  You see the Torah commanded care be provided for widows and for foreigners.  Ruth was both of those things.  Her connection with Naomi was a plus since she was a member of Boaz’s clan.  However, let us remember that Ruth’s connection is only because Naomi’s son married a foreigner, something forbidden by Israelite law.  Then not only is she the result of foreign intermarriage she is a Moabite on top of that.  

So what does Boaz do when the Torah seems to command two different things?  He chooses grace and hesed.  You see, Boaz has realized that the Torah was not meant to limit God’s grace and hesed.  Rather it is meant to demonstrate it in a radical way.  For Boaz this is just the start of his ethical dilemma though.  In a future sermon we will see how Boaz continues to demonstrate grace even when his ethical dilemma intensifies.  

Fourth, Boaz understood something key about who he was.  You see God gave the land of Canaan to the Israelites.  Each family was given an allotment and was charged to administrate and manage their portion of the land.  However, the land was to be viewed as God’s property, not the Israelites.  The Israelites authority was delegated by God.  They were to rule over the land as God’s representatives.  Ideally this meant reflecting Gods’s character in how they treated the land, the workers, and the people in their community.  Boaz understood this in a way that most of the Israelites did not.  The result was the Boaz is motivated to show God’s hesed and concern for the vulnerable.  

So normally, I make a big deal about how we usually make a mistake by turning the Old Testament into a big morality tale where we are supposed to be like the character we decide is the hero of the story.  However, in both the actions of Ruth toward Naomi and Boaz to Ruth I think we are supposed to be like these characters.  You see Boaz is acting like Israel was supposed to act, like the Torah envisioned them to act but they so rarely did.  The result of the actions of Boaz is that a woman from Moab is blessed.  Remember that God’s promise to Abraham is that through him all the nations of the world would be bless.  We see this being worked out in the story of Boaz and Ruth.  

So the church and we as Christians must be people characterized by grace.  We must be a people who give abundantly and overwhelmingly.  Our actions should not be limited to duty and obligation but must go beyond.  Jesus tells us if someone wants our tunic, we give them our tunic and our cloak.  If someone forces us to go one mile, then we go two miles.  We are to give to the one that begs.  We should do this in the face of impertinence or cultural conflict or even religious prerogatives.  Boaz does not understand the Torah as a limitation.  When there is an opportunity to show anyone God’s grace we must take advantage of the opportunity.   

What will motivate us to do this is the understanding that our lives, our stuff, our children  and our families are not our own but gifts from God.  We are to manage all of these gifts as if they belong to another.  We are to reflect the character of God in how we administer all of the things we have been given in this world.  This is what is meant by stewardship.  We need to stop thinking as though we own it and instead see how we can use our possessions and gifts and resources and blessing to demonstrate the character of God.  Like Boaz we must do so without fear of God’s law and even in the face of what is not customary, what is not courteous, even in the face of impertinence.  Also in what I think is one of the greatest lessons this story has to teach us - we have the ability to demonstrate God’s character in the ordinary and know that it goes forward to build the kingdom.  
 

Ruth Part 2: The Parable of the Good Moabite

Scripture Readings: 
Genesis 5:28-29
Luke 10:25-37
Ruth 1:6-22

Last week we began our study of the book of Ruth.  We saw a man named Elimelech from Bethlehem lead his family to the land of Moab because of a famine.  The story indicates the famine is a punishment from God.  According to Deuteronomy, there was a solution to the problem of famine and that was repentance.  Elimelech devises his own solution by going to Moab.  

The problem is Elimelech is an Israelite and the Moabites were historical and bitter enemies of the Israelites.  Further Elimelech was from the tribe of Judah, the tribe that the future king of Israel would come from who would eventually bring peace and prosperity to the earth.  Elimelech shows his contempt for the promises of God and for the land God had given his family by leaving.  

When we arrive at our text today the situation has changed.  Elimelech and his two sons are dead leaving only Elimelech’s wife Naomi and the wives of his sons Ruth and Orpah.  The story will now shift focus away from Elimelech and to Naomi.  From now on what we have is the story of the redemption of Naomi.  

Our passage today starts with a gift to Naomi and her family from God.  Here God provides news to Naomi from Israel -  God has acted to relieve His people from the famine.  Verse 6 says that the Lord has visited His people and given them bread.  So, not only has God provided for them the basic necessity of food, but God has given them bread.  Most importantly verse 6 has God call Israel His people.  By using the term His people, the text lets us know that God has not abandoned His relationship with Israel.  Over and over again the Old Testament repeats the refrain, “I will be your God and you will be my people” to summarize God’s goal in His relationship with Israel.  Despite the famine, God still considers Israel His people.  The relationship has been restored.

Despite this evidence of God’s blessing, Naomi’s situation is perilous.  First, she is a widow which was not a good situation for those in the ancient near east.  Women had few independent means available to provide for themselves.  It is true that the torah commanded the Israelites to care for the widows and for this very reason that they were at a severe economic disadvantage.  Remember that this is the time of the Judges and if the book of Judges teaches us anything it is that the most vulnerable in Israelite society and especially women were taken advantage of, exploited, and oppressed.  Women were looked at property to be exploited for their sexuality and disposed of as the men around them saw fit.  The record of Judges is the record of men with power murdering innocent young women.  This is the world Naomi is returning to and for Naomi who is old, without a husband, and who has spent the last ten years in the country of the enemy and could potentially be viewed as a traitor, return is dangerous.  

On top of this, Naomi has lost her husband and her two sons and has no prospect of carrying on her family name.  There is only one conclusion that her fellow Israelites would draw from these occurrences.  They would not see this as a series of unfortunate events, but evidence that Naomi has been cursed by God Himself.  If Namoi would return, it is probable the Bethlehem community would view her as a under God’s curse and worthy of abuse.  

As precarious as return is for Naomi, the situation for Ruth and Orpah was worse.  Ruth and Orpah were actual Moabites and their connection with Naomi was a result of the sin of intermarriage by their dead ex husbands.  Ruth and Orpah were foreigners and refugees and though the torah commanded that foreigners and refugees be taken care of, Israel is not likely in a hospitable mood.  Ruth and Orpah are not going to Canada where Pierre Trudeau and a group of children are waiting to meet them.  They are going to a country that is hostile and understandably so since the Moabites had a history of opposing and oppressing the Israelites.    

So Naomi’s plea to Ruth and Orpah to release them from any obligation to remain with Naomi as she returns to Israel should be seen as a kindness on Naomi’s part.  Naomi asks that they return to the house of their mothers.  This is an odd expression, you would typically expect to hear house of your fathers.  However, from other uses of this phrase it seems to have to do with marriage.  Naomi is releasing her daughters-in-law to remarry and move on with their lives.  She even offers a blessing on them from the God of Israel.  

It is significant that Naomi offers this blessing on Ruth and Orpah in the name of YHWH because YHWH is the covenant name of God that is used by His people.  However, Naomi does not stop there.  Naomi asks that YHWH demonstrate the kindness that Ruth and Orpah have demonstrated.  YHWH is being asked to model His kindness after the kindness of these two Moabite women.  What is even more remarkable is the Hebrew word translated here as kindness is hesed.  

I have talked about hesed before and I will do so again.  It is really one of the few Hebrew words you really need to know.  The reason you need to know hesed is because no one English word is really adequate to communicate the concept of hesed.  So to understand what is being communicated we cannot rely on our translations.  Typical translations of hesed include kindness, mercy, faithfulness, love, lovingkindness.    The word hesed is most commonly used an attribute for God.  In fact when God reveals Himself to Moses, what is proclaimed is a God abounding in hesed.

Hesed is always used in a context of a relationship as it is used here describing the relationship between Naomi and her daughters-in-law.  I like to think of hesed in terms of loyalty and this makes since because it is always used in the context of a relationship like that of a subject to a king or among members of a clan or family.  It is a deep devotion resulting in action.  These actions go beyond requirements or duty.   So the love, mercy, and grace God shows to His people because of His relationship with them is all bound together in this concept of hesed.

It is Naomi’s prayer that YHWH’s hesed would result in rest.  Rest is another theologically important word.  The sabbath is a day of rest because it points to the goal of humanity’s work on earth.  We are to model our work after God who worked creating and filling the earth and then rested when His work was completed.  However, because of sin our work has been frustrated.  This is the whole point of Ecclesiastes.  The opposite of the habel in Ecclesiastes that we spent so much time talking about is rest.  Way back in Genesis 5 a man named Lamech who called upon the name YHWH, had a son he named Noah.  We are told that Lamech names him Noah in the hope that he would be the one who bring rest from the ground that YHWH had cursed.  If you remember last week, I made the point that the first five verses of Ruth paint a picture of family under a curse.  Naomi’s prayer for her daughters-in-law is that they will find relief.  

It is no coincidence that the text is using all of these theologically charged terms.  The Biblically attuned hearer would recognize echoes of God’s big plan of redemption for the cosmos and find it illustrated in this story of a woman who is under a curse and needs redemption.  What we have in Ruth is a parable told in a very relatable way about our  common human situation and God’s plan of salvation for humanity.  

I make this point because we need to introduce another important word in this story.  In Hebrew the word is shuv.  Shuv means return and is used 12 times in this passage.  Repetition is a key method Hebrew narrative uses to emphasize a point.  So whenever you hear a word repeated like this, we should pay attention.  At several points its even used in a weird way.  For example, you will notice that return is used with Ruth to describe her journey with Naomi to the land of Judah.  The problem is that Ruth had never been to Judah.  Until this point Ruth had lived her whole life in Moab.  So the question is why does the text use this specific word when others would work just fine?

The answer is found in the beautiful poem Ruth comprises to answer Naomi’s plea for her to return to Moab.  “For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge.  Your people shall be my people and your God my God. Where die I will die, and there I will be buried.”  Ruth has so completely identified herself with Naomi, she has so completely subordinated her own plans and agendas to Naomi, that she and Naomi are the same.  

Now here is the interesting point - the Hebrew word shuv is also the word for repent.  If you remember last week, I said that the famine that afflicts the land of Judah is not an ordinary natural event.  It is the result of a curse because of the disobedience of Israel.  God had entered into a sort of contract with Israel and Israel had broken their part of the deal.  Deuteronomy tells us there were a set of penalties if Israel failed to uphold their end of the covenant and this included famine.  However, I also said that Deuteronomy also anticipated that Israel would break the covenant and provided a solution.  The solution was repentance.  

So what we have is a picture of what repentance looks like.  Repentance is exemplified by Ruth who has completely abandoned her past, all previous connections, ties, opportunities, and plans and has reformulated her life completely to something else.  Ruth has even vowed to die where Naomi dies and be buried with her.  This is a stunning statement because the location of your burial was of supreme importance to those in the Ancient Near East culture. 

Ruth has completely identified with her mother-in-law, a follower of YHWH, an Israelite, God’s chosen people, from the royal tribe of Judah who will produce the king who will bring peace and prosperity to the whole world.  Elimelech had abandoned this plan.  Here Ruth the Moabite, who in this story is used as a picture of true repentance.  She has now reformulated her whole life to be a part of this plan.  

This was Israel’s job, to be the people who bring YHWH’s blessing to the rest of the world.  What is interesting is that we see Naomi,a true Israelite, performing this role in probably the most imperfect fashion possible.  She has left the promised land and allowed her sons to marry foreigners who have no interest in the promises given to her people.

We totally miss this point because we don’t understand what a small town Bethlehem was and how it must have been a slap in the face to every other villager who remained through the famine.  Then to return with a Moabite woman who had married her Israelite son something forbidden to the people of Israel.  You can imagine the self righteousness of the villagers was through the roof.  I can imagine when Naomi logged onto her Facebook and read the statuses from her Bethlehem friends it must have been like, “Hungry, but happy to be living in the land God gave us.”  “My father and grandfather didn’t suffer fighting Canaanites so we could leave at the first sign of famine,” “How soon we forget the evil of King Eglon of Moab.”

However, when Naomi returns the community does not spurn her as a traitor.  Instead the community takes pity on Naomi.  Time, grief, and sorrow had taken their toll on Naomi and it was apparent to those who had known her before.  Naomi means pleasant but Naomi insists that instead she be called Mara which means bitter.  Naomi’s insistence on a name change is consistent with her identity.  Her view of herself is so afflicted by sorrow it is too painful to hear the name pleasant.  Furthermore, Naomi places the blame for her state squarely on God.   

Interestingly, she uses the title Shadday twice which is translated Almighty.  Shadday is not a name of God, it is an adjective describing God.  The entomology of Shady is difficult and disputed, but I think the key is to see it as a reference to Genesis.  Shadday occurs six times in Genesis but at every point it is used in conjunction with the covenant promise of fertility and children.  Here is the root of Naomi’s bitterness.  She has no children and no prospect of carrying on the family of her husband.  In her culture that is pretty much her only purpose and now it has been taken from her by God Himself.  

Yet, Naomi is now back in the promised land where there is bread.  The townspeople do not hate her, instead they pity her.  Her daughter-in-law has shown amazing devotion to her.  On top of that Naomi has missed the point that Shadday the God who brings children and fertility in Genesis again and again did so despite barrenness.  A recurring theme throughout Genesis is God bringing life out of lifelessness.  

So Naomi represents a return but it is not a complete return.  We will have to wait for the redemption of Naomi.  Naomi is still under a curse and without joy.  We sense again the story shifting its focus.  At first the focus is Elimelech, here it is Naomi, but we see the spotlight moving to Ruth.  Listen to how this scene ends.  “So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter in law with her, who returned from the country of Moab.  And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.”

The return of Naomi is stated briefly and succinctly almost in passing.  Barley is significant because you can make beer out of it, but more likely mentioned here because it was the first crop that was harvested.  The time is early spring and so the text is signaling that there is hope and renewal ahead.  However, the most remarkable feature is the length devoted to the return of Ruth.  Twice the verse mentions she has returned from Moab.  

If you were an ancient Israelite the transition from Elimelech to Naomi to Ruth as the hero of this story is beyond shocking.  Remember we said the story of the great fathers of the Israelites starts with a famine and so the reader would anticipate Elimelech following in their footsteps.  However, like in so many cases, God is working to subvert the normal order and is doing something completely unexpected.

Ruth’s actions and especially her song are portrayed as unbelievably virtuous.  Think of who gets to sing songs in the Old Testament.  Adam after seeing Eve, Moses after the defeat of the Egyptians at the Red Sea, Hannah at the birth of Samuel, David in the Psalms.  Ruth is being elevated by this story to this level and yet the text cannot stop reminding us she is a hated, despised Moabite, the enemies of God.

In fact we could rename the book of Ruth, the parable of the good Moabite.  Think about the parallels between the story of Ruth and the parable of the good Samaritan.  The Samaritans were a despised people that chose to assimilate with the Assyrians rather than fight them.  They intermarried and rejected the promises of YHWH and formed their own syncretic religion rejecting Jerusalem.  They were traitors and despised by the Jews.  However, Jesus shows the Samaritan exemplifying the virtues of Israel in a way above and beyond any obligation and duty.  

The Samaritan is a model of YHWH’s hesed as is Ruth.  He takes the beaten man to an Israelite inn and pays for his care.  This would be the equivalent of an Indian in the Old West showing up in a frontier town carrying a white man with two arrows in his back.  Ruth abandons everything to face potential hostility with almost no chance of a meaningful and prosperous life.  Notice Ruth’s poem mentions death three times.  Her future is to die with Naomi.  All of this because of her relationship to her mother-in-law.  

So its not a stretch to see the story of Ruth as the basis for the Parable of the Good Samaritan.  What I think is fun about making that parallel is it is in response to a teacher of the law that Jesus tells this parable.  At this time a teacher of the law would be like a Bible scholar.  The story is so radical to the teacher of the law and I would imagine the rest of the audience, yet they had probably had the story of Ruth for hundreds of years.  It was likely read every year during the Feast of Weeks.  Ruth is a great story and no doubt the ancient Israelites enjoyed it too.  Yet they probably heard the parable of the Good Samaritan and thought it came way out of left field.   Jesus must have seemed like such a radical.  Yet Jesus is not near the innovator He seemed.  

The other interesting thing is that the Parable of the Good Samaritan is told in the context of repentance.  The lawyer asks, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
We sort of miss the point because of the translation, but eternal life is a translation of the Greek phrase, zoe ainios.  Zoe is of course life such a zoology and ainios is like our word eon in the since of an epoch or age.  So a better translation might be life of the age.  You see in Hebrew thought there were two ages, the olam ha zeh or this life and the olam ha ba or life to come.  The olam ha ba or life to come is the time when YHWH comes to earth and establishes His rule conquering Israel’s enemies and creating peace and prosperity for His people.  This is what the lawyer wants to be part of.  The lawyer also knew based on the Deuteronomy passage we talked about last week that the olam ha ba would come when Israel returned to God and obeyed the torah again.  The word for the returnnis of course shuv or repent.  

Jesus turns the question on the lawyer and essentially asks the lawyer what repentance is all about.  The lawyer says obeying the law as summed up in the two great commandments.  It is one thing to give the right answer but it is another to actually do it and Jesus wants the lawyer to understand the radical nature of repentance.  His story of the good Samaritan paints a vivid picture of what is involved in hesed and to add insult to injury demonstrates by using a hated Samaritan.  So what Jesus’ simple story has done is subverted the lawyer’s entire worldview by showing that repentance is not about being a part of this people group and its not about simply following a few rules.  

So what we have in both stories is two models of what repentance looks like.  Naomi returns.  She fulfills the surface meaning of repentance.  The teacher of the law also fulfills the surface meaning of repentance.  However, Ruth and the Samaritan demonstrate real repentance in a far more meaningful way.  Repentance for the Samaritan and for Ruth means leaving it all behind, their background, their agenda, their commitments and their plans and radically reorienting them.  Jesus’ words to the teacher of the law are to go and do likewise.  

Ruth has demonstrated a fully fleshed out picture of what repentance looks like and I think its more difficult but also a more beautiful and meaningful picture than our typical high minded abstract theological definition of repentance.  For God’s people, the answer to the problem of the brokenness of the world, to the problem of the violence and oppression that surrounds us, the solution to the curse, the way we are to enter into rest, is repentance.  We must return if we are to be part of God’s people and enter the age to come.  It is a daunting task filled with danger and uncertainty.  It is not safe and it is not achieved by our own plans and schemes.  Instead we must identify with Christ to such an extent that we abandon our own identity.  He will lead us to true rest where we can find more than bread and relief but a home both in this age and the age to come. 

Ruth Part 1: Under a Curse (Dr. Trey Benfield)

Scripture Readings: 

Genesis 12:10-20
Deuteronomy 30:1-9
Ruth 1:1-5

For the next 7-8 weeks I will be preaching through the book of Ruth.  Ruth is a great story and the timing of our series could not be better.   In ancient Israel the start of the year began in spring with Passover which coincided with the start of the barley harvest.  For the next 7 weeks barley and then wheat would be harvested.  At the end of the wheat harvest was a festival called the Feast of Weeks.  Today we celebrate these holidays as Easter and then 7 weeks later as Pentecost.  The story of Ruth is set during the 7 weeks of the wheat and barley harvest and the book of Ruth is typically read during the Feast of Weeks even among Jews today.  So in a kind of neat way our lives will parallel the story of Ruth as we study Ruth for the next few weeks.

Ruth opens with the phrase “Now it happened in the time...”  This is a common way the Bible introduces a book similar to how a fairy tale might begin with “Once upon a time..”  or better yet “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.”  However, the point of the phrase is to connect the book it opens with an earlier work.  For example, Leviticus begins the same way because it wants us to connect the Levitical law with the ending of Exodus which covers the building of the tabernacle so that we connect the book of Leviticus to the tabernacle.

Now we are told that the setting of Ruth is during the time the judges were judging.  So the author wants us to understand that is set during the time of the judges.  The judges were a series of tribal chieftains who were raised up by God in response to various threats the Israelites faced.  The time period the of judges followed Moses and Joshua and the Exodus when Israel began to establish themselves in the land of Canaan and before the monarchy which began with Saul and David.  If you like dates, this would place Ruth sometime between 1300 and 1050 B.C.  

The purpose of this phrase in Ruth is not to satisfy later historically minded reader’s curiosity.  The Old Testament historians did not write history the way we think of it.  History was meant to do more than communicate facts, but rather was written to make a theological point.  If you know anything about the book of Judges, you know it is generally a negative, depressing, and violent book.  It was a period of anarchy where those with power did whatever they wished without regard to any sort of ethics or morality.  This was exactly the situation the law of Moses was meant to remedy.  The book of Judges ends with these words, “There was no king in Israel.  Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Not only does Judges end with these words, but this refrain was repeated throughout the book.  

Here is how Moses in Deuteronomy describes God’s purpose for His selecting Israel from among the nations and for the purpose of giving them the law.  “See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land you are entering to take possession of it.  Keep them and do them for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the people, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon Him?  And what great nation is there, that statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?”  

If you remember way back in Genesis 12, God’s plan for Abraham was to make his descendants a great people with a great land and that through them all the nations of the earth were to be blessed.   They were to be the shining city on the hill.  What Judges wants us to see is that Israel has failed to live up to this ideal.  Instead they are just like every other nation where the only rule is power brought about by violence.  

In light of this background we are to read the famine as no ordinary natural occurrence.  The text hints at this - famine is the subject not the object of the verb.  The proper force of the words are not that there was a famine in the land, but that literally famine stalked the land as if famine were personified.  This should not come as surprise since famine was one of the curses outlined in Deuteronomy if Israel did not live up to their part of the bargain and instead rejected YHWH as king by rejecting his laws.

Here is what Deuteronomy says will happen if Israel breaks the covenant YHWH had made with them:  “And the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron.  YHWH will make the rain of your land powder.  From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.”  So what Ruth wants us to understand is that Israel is not suffering a series of unfortunate events.  The people are in effect under a curse.      

Now I feel I should stop here and say something about the concept of famine as punishment.  Namely are we today supposed to see the hand of God in places afflicted by famine?  Can we look back at Ethiopia and the 1980s or Biafra in the 1960s or China in the 1930s as under a curse sent by God.  My answer, despite many Christian teachers who have said so, is no we cannot say that.  Here is the reason why.  The curse of famine here is a result of the breaking of the covenant established with Israel at Mount Sinai. That covenant has been broken, the Israelites were removed from their land by the Babylonians and has been replaced by a New Covenant established by Christ by His death and resurrection.  Rejection of this covenant carries its own penalties.  Hebrews tell us there will be no sacrifice for sin and that we can expect judgment and the fury of fire that will consume adversaries of Christ.  

At this point in the the passage our attention shifts to a particular family suffering under the curse.  We are giving very few details about them.  All we know is that it is a man, his wife and their two children.  What we are told is that the family is from Bethlehem of Judah.  Many of you know that Bethlehem can be translated house of bread because it is a very fertile area.  The irony of the family leaving the house of bread for what is called the fields of Moab once again lets us know that there is an reversal of the natural order.  More importantly for the story of Ruth as a whole, this family is from Judah.

The way the text flows, their location is more important than even their names.  You see Judah is significant because according to Genesis 49, the king of Israel will come from the tribe of Judah.  Remember a lack of a king that would lead the people as a loyal vassal of YHWH is what the book of Judges identifies as the problem in Israel.  The violence, oppression, and depression of Israel at the time of Ruth is because there was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes.  

However, this king to come from Judah was no ordinary ruler.  Genesis 49 says this the king who in the last days will rule not just Israel but the whole world.  This king will bring prosperity to Israel.  The book of Numbers takes this and elaborates further and says this king will bring the blessing to all the nations.  This is a fulfillment of the promise to Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him.  

By leaving the promised land and his people, Elimelech is showing his disbelief and rejection of this promise.  Like Lot and Esau, Elimelech shows no interest in God’s promise and rejects his role in God’s plan to bring blessing to the world.  The pattern in the Bible is sin leading to exile from God’s presence.  Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden to live east of Eden.  Later Israel would be conquered by the Babylonians and marched into captivity.  I can list other examples because one of the ways the Old Testament makes its point is through repetition and one of the points it wants to make is the rejection of God’s law and promise leads to exile from His provision and presence.  

However, not only does Elimelech leave the promised land, he goes to Moab.  The Moabites were the product of an incestuous relationship between Lot and one of his daughters.  They opposed the Israelites entrance into Canaan and even hired the pagan sorcerer Balaam to curse the Israelites.  At the time of Ruth, Israel was forced to pay tribute to King Eglon of Moab.  So Moab was not just a foreign land but an enemy of Israel.  Here is what Deuteronomy has to say about the Moabites, “No Moabite may enter the assembly of YHWH.  Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of YHWH forever, because they did not meet you with bread and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia to curse you.”  

Moab worshipped a pagan called Chemosh and we know from 2 Kings that a king of Moab actually sacrificed his child to Chemosh.  However, not only did Elimelech and his family move to Moab, his sons took Moabite women as wife.  The action of taking Moabite wives is also forbidden by Deuteronomy.  The text lets us know it disapproves of this action by using not the normal verb for marry but an unusual verb that means to lift or carry.  In the rest of the Old Testament this expression always has negative associations.  

The result of all of these choices is that instead of finding prosperity and life, they find death.  Over the course of their ten years in Moab, Elimelech and his two sons die.  Also notice that since the family spent ten years in Moab it is likely that there was an issue with barrenness or sterility since Chilion and Mahlon die without producing children.

The picture presented here in these five verses is of a people under a curse.  Elimelech has rejected God’s law but ultimately God’s promise.  He and his sons are dead and buried outside their family lands.  Remember in this culture being buried in the land of your fathers was of supreme importance.  Jacob will make his sons promise that they would one day return his bones to the land of his fathers.  

The children died childless meaning there was no one left to continue Elimelech’s legacy.  This is another terrible result in the culture of the ancient world.  It is made worse because Elimelech was from Judah and specifically Bethlehem.  The text mentions Bethlehem specifically twice in these verses and in verse 2 we are told that Elimelech’s family were Ephrathites.  We are told this because there were two cities named Bethlehem and Ruth wants us to know that this is the Bethlehem in Judah which is the one King David comes from and which Micah tells us the messiah will come from.   We know Elimelech’s family had royal aspirations as evidenced by his name which contains the word king.  

However, the situation for the women is even worse.  Without children their lives are failures.  Without husbands their situation is dire.  The ancient world was no place for widows.  Since barrenness in the ancient world was always viewed as the problem of the woman no man would marry Orpah and Ruth since they had demonstrated they were incapable of bearing a child.  They are refugees, belonging neither to Moab or Israel and with no hope of Canada welcoming them in.  

The situation is bleak, but there are some hints that God is at work even in this story where His kingship, His law, His promise, and His plan has been rejected.  There is hope and we will conclude today by looking at two places where can see this hope and also two points of applications.  

First, you will remember earlier that I said that one of the ways the Old Testament makes its point is by repeating patterns.  So an ancient Israelite hearing the story of a man facing a famine would instantly recall a series of similar stories involving the great fathers of Israel, Abraham, Isaac, and Joseph.  Each of their stories starts with a famine.  Instantly, the Israelite hearers of this story would have drawn the connection to those stories and begin to speculate as to Elimelech’s role and what God was beginning to do to advance his people.  This is why our first reading was from the passage in Genesis 12.  

In the story, Abraham goes to Egypt, lets Pharaoh think his hot wife Sarai is really his sister, Pharaoh would give Abraham a bunch of stuff sheep, oxen, donkeys, and camels.  However Pharaoh is afflicted with plagues and sends Abraham away with all the loot.  Something similar happens to Isaac again as Isaac tries to pass off his wife as his sister.  This time the Philistine king Abimelech makes a peace treaty with him after seeing how YHWH continues to bless him despite Abimelech’s opposition.   The third time occurs after Jacob’s sons sell Joseph into slavery, Joseph becomes the vizier of the Pharaoh, saves his family from the famine and they become prosperous in the land of Egypt.  Each story begins with a moral failure on the part of the family of Abraham and ends in blessing as God’s promise for this chosen family is made more and more manifest.  

God’s kingdom is going to be built often in spite of His people rather than because of His people.  So the story of Ruth is not without hope and we are not without hope.  No matter what we have done and no matter the mistakes and despite all negative appearances -  despite ISIS, despite Putin, despite the Presidential race, despite all the world’s problems, God will build His kingdom. 

Second, after the book of Deuteronomy details the curses that will befall Israel if they break the covenant in Deuteronomy 28, a remedy is provided.  If Israel will repent God will restore his people.  Here is how Deuteronomy 30 puts it:  

“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, 2 and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then theLord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. 5 And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. 6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. 7 And the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. 8 And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today. 9 The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, 10 when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Notice the first verse actually anticipates that the covenant will be broken and the curses will come upon the people of Israel.  However, the story does not end their.  Just as their fathers were blessed despite their morally questionable behavior, YHWH will not abandon His program of bringing prosperity to His people.  

The reader of these verse would then be reminded that despite the dire circumstance of God’s people, God will not abandon them.  The king is coming to establish God’s kingdom whose goal is to bring YHWH’s blessing not just to Israel but the whole world.  The blessing of the king would bring prosperity to all. 

Entrance into this kingdom would require a repudiation of all previous plans and schemes and instead would require loyalty to YHWH’s plan.  The word the Bible uses for this process is repentance.  The solution to the curse is not the solution of Elimelech.  Elimelech ignored the words of Deuteronomy and sought his own solution to the problem of famine.  He left the promised land and the house of bread and instead of life and prosperity found death.  

When we come to the New Testament we hear Jesus preaching the fulfillment of these promises given in Deuteronomy and anticipated by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The gospels repeatedly sum up the teaching of Jesus in one sentence.  Jesus came preaching repentance and the kingdom of God.  

Like Elimelech we are people living in exile.  We are a people under a curse who left to our schemes will find nothing but despair and death.  We are people surrounded by a world ruled by power and violence.  The crazy thing about the story of Ruth and the crazy thing about the passage in Deuteronomy is that despite our efforts to solve the existential problems of life on our own, is that God is still at work.  As we saw in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God will redeem His people.  We will see the way this works out in Ruth as we continue our study.  For us, just as much as for Elimelech, for Naomi and Ruth, for the Israelites, for those who would hear the teaching of believers the solution is to repent and hold fast to the promise of God’s kingdom that despite all appearance He will bring blessing to the whole world.  

Why are You Looking for the Living with the Dead? (Dr. Chris Lundberg)

Scripture Readings: 

Luke 24:1-12

Luke 19 (Dr. Chris Lundberg)

Scripture Readings: 

Luke 19:28-40

Loving without Reserve (Dr. Chris Lundberg)

Scripture Readings: 

John 12:1-11

Rejoice with Me (Dr. Chris Lundberg)

Scripture Reading:

Luke 15