Securing Ruth's Future

SERMON: 2008-04-14--ru0505--1-securing-ruth-s-future-part-2 SOURCE DURATION: 00:23:21.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 1.00 APPROVED: false REASON: Segment [0] clearly begins the exposition of the sermon regarding the story of Ruth. Segment [407] concludes the final reflection/message of the sermon. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:19:14.160-00:23:14.360 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- To understand this morning what is going on in this story of Ruth where she meets Boaz in the middle of the night on the threshing floor, we need to understand a little bit of the background to this story. Particularly we need to understand two separate but very closely linked Old Testament provisions. And the first has to do with the redeeming of the land. You may remember that when Israel came into the promised land, God provided an inheritance of land not only for each tribe but also for each individual family. That land was to stay in the family as their inheritance forever. It is one of the ways in which God was trying to teach his people in the Old Testament already that there is an eternal inheritance that he has for his children. He doesn't want us to be slaves, he doesn't want us to be exiles, he wants us to live in the fullness of the authority of the children, the sons and the daughters of God most high. Unfortunately, historically, of course, not everybody was able to hold on to the land. Sometimes people had no heir. Sometimes as is the case with Naomi in chapter 4, you're forced to consider selling the land. Now when that happened, the onus of responsibility would fall on a relative who had to buy the land on your behalf so that it could stay in the family. That is the kinsman-redeemer of which this passage speaks all the time. Not everybody had a relative and not everybody that had a relative had a relative that was willing or able to do that. In that case, you had to wait until the year of Jubilee that came along every 50 years and then in the year of Jubilee, the land came back to you and it stayed in the family. That was God's provision not only to teach us about an eternal inheritance, I believe, and to teach us about the biblical doctrines of redemption and salvation, but also in a very practical way to keep the rich from getting richer and the poor from getting poorer. And so you have the redemption of the land. Now closely related to that, but not linked together earlier in the Old Testament, is a thing called leverate marriage. You may not have heard the term before, but you're probably familiar with the concept. In a leverate marriage arrangement in the Old Testament, when a man died without an heir to carry on his name and thus hold on to his inheritance, the responsibility fell on the next younger unmarried brother, get this, to marry the widow. The first child conceived out of that relationship would be considered the deceased brother's son and he would carry on the family inheritance and in that way, that brother's name would not die out. And what are the, you know, oldest examples of that in the Old Testament is the story of Tamar. In Genesis chapter 38, Tamar was married to the oldest son of Judah, one of the 12 sons of Jacob and one of the founders of the tribes of Israel. His oldest son's name was Er, E-R, the Bible says he was a bad dude, God killed him. And then the next brother's name was Onan, Onan had a responsibility of marrying Tamar and having a child by her to take his brother's place, while Onan is famous throughout the course of history because he refused to beget a son with Tamar on behalf of his brother. The Bible says he spilled his seed every time they had sexual relations, God didn't like him either, killed him dead. It's the way it is, you can read it, Genesis chapter 38. Now by this time, Judah is getting more than a tad nervous, he's got one boy left. His name is Shelah, without an I, S-H-E-L-A-H. He was only a young lad, and of course he lived in fear that the young lad would be next in line, he would get struck dead too, Tamar was not a good catch apparently. And so he says to her, well, you know, the boy is only a boy, wait until he is grown up and then I will give him to you as your husband. Well, he never intended to do that, the boy grew up and was never presented to Tamar as a husband. Well Judah's wife died, Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute, she had sexual relationships with her father-in-law Judah, got pregnant, out of that pregnancy two boys were born and one of them was called Perez. And his name occurs later on in Ruth chapter 4, because he becomes one of the ancestors of Boaz, who becomes the ancestor of David as you know, who in turn becomes the ancestor of Jesus. And interestingly enough, in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1, not only do you find the name of Ruth as I said a couple of weeks ago, but you'll also find there the name of Tamar. And again, the intent is on purpose, God is always trying to communicate to his people, doesn't matter where you come from, doesn't matter what you've stooped to, doesn't matter if you're born on the wrong side of the tracks, Jesus is ultimately our kinsman-redeemer who brings us back to our inheritance. So here you have these two Old Testament provisions, initially unrelated, the redeeming of the land and the principle of leverate marriage, now by the time of Ruth and Naomi, which is set in the days of judges, those two had come together. And so when Naomi contemplates selling her late husband's land, she wants to find a kinsman-redeemer who will buy the land and thus keep it in the family, as well as marry Ruth. In this way, the first child born to that relationship will carry a limilex family name. And thus secure the future of the family line. And thus unfolds in Ruth chapter 3, this little episode on the threshing floor. Let's look at it together. As we do, three things I want us to note. Number one, it is Naomi who takes the initiative. Verses one and two, one day Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, that is to Ruth, "My daughter, should I not try to find a home for you? Where you will be well provided for is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been a kinsman of ours." Now gleaning grain is not a bad way to make a living short term, but it's kind of the pits for long term security. And so Naomi, looking ahead, knows that in that society and in that culture, when social assistance was not yet invented, if Ruth was to have security for the future, she needed a husband who would provide for her and would provide for her well. And that is why then she raises the question, "Should I not try to find a home for you, where you will be well provided for?" And I think there is a principle at work here that is helpful for us to understand. And the principle is this, parents ought to provide for their children. The apostle Paul in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians chapter 12, puts it this way. He says children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. Children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. Now that doesn't mean, of course, that children have no obligation to their parents, particularly as they get older and are in need of help, but what it does mean is this, that in the normal course of events, parents being older, being hopefully more secure and more established have a responsibility to share their well-being so that their children can launch into life as securely as possible. And if that is true economically speaking, it is surely also true in the context of marriage. Parents have a vested interest in seeing that their children are happily and securely settled in a stable relationship. My daughter, should I not try to find a home for you, where you will be well provided for? Now historically, this provision in many cultures has taken the form of arranged marriages, you know, the deal, you know, two sets of parents get together sometimes when their children are still very little and very young and they make arrangements that their kids are going to marry each other, 10, 15, maybe 20 years down the line. We frown on arranged marriages in our Western culture. We think they are artificial, they are forced, probably loveless, and in some cases, to be sure, that has been the case. There are horror stories that are associated with arranged marriages. But here's the interesting thing, you know, statistically around the world, arranged marriages have a lower rate of divorce than do marriages in the Western world that are based on the Western concept of romance and love. Interesting isn't it? Now there may be a lot of reasons for that, and we don't need to get into those this morning except to point out that without pushing for arranged marriages, which really don't work in our culture, but if you have parents who love their kids and who know their kids, they aren't just going to force their kids into a relationship without involving them to some degree in the choices that are made. Naomi here does not simply say, "Well, there is Boaz. I want you to marry him." No, she says, "Should I not try to find a home for you, where you will be well provided for? Here is Boaz. What do you think in effect?" And of course Ruth responds, "I will do whatever you say." One generation has a vested interest in the welfare of the next generation. And there are many ways, as parents or grandparents, we can engage in that process that falls far short of trying to arrange marriages. If you've ever tried to set two kids up or play matchmaker, you'll notice most of us are highly resistant to such attempts. We'd much rather stumble and fumble our own way through than have somebody else try to figure that out for us. But there's a lot of things that we can do to try to help our kids understand the importance of biblical teaching on marriage. We can model it. We can show them from scripture the importance of character formation, that the Western notion of chemistry and the Western notion of sexual attraction is only one aspect of a relationship that ultimately what really matters and what counts is do we know each other? Do we see each other? Do we care for each other? Can we be loyal to each other? Can we trust each other? That process needs to start early in life. We need to lay solid foundations in the lives of our kids. As well, we can arrange all kinds of settings and situations where kids can get in touch with other kids of similar interest and background and faith commitment. I know it's probably not at all politically correct today, but the joke was often in my day when a girl would go to college that-- and I'm dating myself here, obviously-- that she went for an MRS or a Mrs. degree. And as I said, you know, that's just not the correct thing to try to talk about in this day and age. But understand this. Most lasting relationships for a lot of kids are formed in their college days. What college your kid goes to? What university your kid goes to? What crowd he or she hangs around with has a lot of bearing in who they come home with. I mean, look at all the kids that have gone to Calvin or to Redeemer or to one of the other Christian colleges, and they married somebody from clear across the country. That's how a lot of us get to do a lot of traveling. At least that's the bonus. And there's nothing wrong in understanding-- you know, if I was a single young man looking for a mate, one of the places I think I'd go is at the church. Where else do you find attractive, intelligent, beautiful young women, ones you could spend your life with? We need to import some good, attractive, handsome, intelligent young men into this community, marry a few of you off, but you know, we try that too. We deal with all of life around here. We make no separation. You get the point. Money has a vested interest in making sure that Ruth is well looked after. And if you've ever had a kid or a grandchild entering into a bad marriage and a bad relationship, then you know what an incredible pain that causes as the years go by. And so we don't have to be ashamed and to say that as a Christian community and as Christian families, we have a vested interest in doing everything that we can that marriages be in the Lord and that they be good and strong and secure. Naomi is without apology. That's one thing we notice in this chapter. The second thing I want us to notice in this chapter is that it is Ruth who does the proposing. Verse nine. She says to Boaz after he's awakened in the middle of the night, "Spread the corner of your garment over me since you are a kinsman redeemer." Now at first glance, I think you'll agree with me. This story in Ruth chapter three is a bit on the edge, don't you think? I mean, doesn't it kind of make you wonder about Ruth and Naomi and Boaz? As a matter of fact, I'm surprised that no Hollywood movie maker has ever seized on this story because it has all the makings of a very salacious film. What's really happening here? Well, remember the historical context. Boaz is a rich man. The only contact Ruth has had with Boaz has been out in the field when she has been gleaning. Boaz lives a distance away in Bethlehem. She can't exactly walk up to him in the field with all the other workers around and say, "Oh, by the way Boaz, I'd like to get married to you." I mean, timing is everything if you're going to propose, and when the man is focused on the job, that might not be the best time to get a yes answer out of him. You got to set the stage as Naomi well knows, you know, wash, perfume yourself and put on your best clothes. If you're going to be seductive, then do a good job at it. So the harvest has been brought in, the Bible's very realistic about this stuff. The harvest has been brought in and they're threshing on the threshing floor. Now threshing floor in biblical times was a flat piece of dirt outside, maybe a circle [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:19:14.160; remove through 00:23:21.000] 50 feet in diameter, and they would of course beat and [CUT] flail the grain to separate the kernels from the stalks. And then they would winnow it. Winnowing means separating the wheat from the chaff, and the way you do that is you throw it up in the air and then the wind carries off the chaff and the grain remains behind. That by the way is one of the reasons they did this at night. At night it was not only cooler, but you'd have the night breeze. And so the night breeze would facilitate this process of threshing out and winnowing the grain. Today, combines do this, threshing machines do this, but back then they had no such thing. And so this is a happy time. And Boaz, instead of going back home, decides to stay the night, partly because this is celebration time and they've been drinking and they've been eating and they're all in pretty good spirits, and so he decides to lie down and sleep with his pile of grain. I don't know if he was afraid somebody was going to steal it, but he was there. And that then becomes the background against which Naomi advises Ruth to lie down at his feet and to invite him to spread the corner of your garment over me since you are a kinsman redeemer. That is a euphemism for marry me. Spread the corner of your garment over me is an invitation to protect me, shelter me. Even though this has the appearance of evil perhaps, there is nothing inappropriate that is happening here as we'll see more in just a few moments. But it is a marriage proposal from Ruth inviting Boaz to be her husband. And again, I don't think we're pushing the limits of the story. If we say there is a principle or a lesson here that is helpful for us to clue in and that is this, a woman can be strong and yet tender at the same time. Sometimes I think we get the impression that women in Bible times were weak and unable to stand on their own two feet and were lorded over and bossed around by the men, that they were more property than they were people in their own right. And I'm sure that has happened occasionally and sometimes in ancient cultures, even biblical cultures, but generally speaking, it is a reinterpretation of the history of the Bible because there are many women in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament who are women of courage and women of strength and who are able to be that and to do that without compromising their femininity or becoming shrill and excessive examples of what sometimes we have seen in the feminist movement today. You see that in Ruth. I mean Ruth is a woman's woman. At Naomi's advice, she is not averse to taking advantage of her feminine charms. Wash yourself, perfume yourself, put on your best clothing. If you're going to propose, timing is everything and you may as well learn how to do it right. Doesn't hurt that the guy's been drinking or that he is half asleep, but a girl's got to take all the advantage she can get. She [CUT]'s a woman. [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:23:21.000; resume after this marked segment] This could be dangerous, but you know what I'm trying to say? She's a woman of deference. She's not shrill. She has what the New Testament calls a gentle and a quiet spirit. At the same time, she's incredibly strong and incredibly courageous. Can you imagine the courage it would take to do this? Here's the social distinction. He's a rich and a wealthy man. She's a poor widow. Never possesses her to think that she could propose to him. Not only that, but even in the culture of the day, it runs contrary to the grain for her to take this initiative and to do what she's doing. Besides that, she could well ruin her reputation. I mean if everybody else finds out that she's been visiting Boaz at night on the threshing floor, you can imagine the stories that are going to go around. And she's going to say, "Oh, well, I just slept at his feet and asked him to put the corner of his garment over." Yeah, people are going to roll their eyes and say, "Tell me another one." I mean, people weren't any more stupid then than they are now. It's the way it is, folks. And consider this. She takes the risk of him rejecting her outright. It takes courage to be that kind of woman. And the principle there is that you can be everything God says a woman ought to be. You can be as feminine as feminine can be and still have a strength of character that makes you strong and that enables you to stand up and to fight for what is right. Coincidentally, Valerie had devotions at her staff meeting this past week and she shared some thoughts in that vein and direction, quoting from John and Stassi Eldridge's latest book called Captivating, Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul. It takes unveiling to begin to grapple with the differences between a man and a woman. But one of the chapters here is entitled The Warrior Princess. And she talks about the fact that not only are men called to be soldiers of the cross, so are women. And here is what she says, "Women warriors are strong, yes, and they are also tender. There is mercy in them. There is vulnerability. In fact, offering a tender vulnerability can only be done by an incredibly strong woman, a woman rooted in Christ Jesus, who knows whose she is and therefore knows who she is. Offering our hearts wisely, living in the freedom of God's love, inviting others to rest, alluring those in our lives to the heart of God, and responding to the heart of God and worship are some of the most powerful ways that a woman wars for her world. But she also puts on the full armor of God daily and takes her immovable stand against the powers of darkness. Satan is defeated. The prince of this world is cast down. The rulers and authorities are disarmed. But the demonic realm is a realm of lies, hatred, and murder. Satan and the fallen angels, now demons, have been cast down. But they are not chained, not yet. Their enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. And he does devour. He assaults and maims and steals and kills and destroys wherever he can. And the brunt of his malice falls on God's image bearers, on you and me, on the beloved. Satan is a vicious, ruthless bully, and a bully will not back down unless someone stronger stands up to him and exposes him for what he is. That is your job. For greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. Women, as well as men, are called to be soldiers of the cross. And a woman can be strong and yet tender all at the same time. Naomi takes the initiative, Ruth does the proposing, and then Boaz proves to be a man of integrity. Don't know about you, but I'd find it a bit of a shock to wake up in the middle of a night and find a woman sleeping in my feet. And there would be many a man, historically, and there would be many a man, even in the church today, who would not be adverse to taking advantage of that situation, particularly when they're half asleep, and they've had a good deal more wine to drink than probably was good for them. The amazing thing with Boaz is that he never crosses any lines, and he walks through this whole episode with the utmost of integrity. The first thing he says to her is the Lord bless you, my daughter, verse 10. This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier. You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. He's not insulted by this marriage proposal. In fact, he's quite pleased that she should have an interest in him, a man you will recall who was much older. And he goes on to say in verse 11, and now my daughter, don't be afraid. Here's a man who sees her heart. Here's a man who knows the risk that she's taking. He goes on to say that he's going to tend to the matter immediately. He says in verse 12, although it is true that I am near of kin, there is a kinsman redeemer nearer than I, that is to say there is another relative that is closer to you than I am. He has the first right of refusal to buying your land, and he has the first right of refusal to marrying you. That's the story that we'll look at when we get to Ruth chapter four. And then he's concerned about her reputation. And let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor. He knows what wagging tongues will do with this story. And then he provides for her needs, bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out. And when she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and put it on her. And these are for her mother-in-law, don't go back to your mother-in-law, empty-handed. Boaz is a man of integrity. And again, I don't think we pushed the story too far. If we say that the principle here is this, one key, there are many, but one key to a good marriage is for a woman to have a husband who knows how to provide properly for his wife. You know, we live in a culture that has become highly sexualized. We live in a culture where men and women are drawn together by chemistry. If you watch any of the reality shows, and it's always this thing about we have this magical connection, have you ever noticed that? And it's good to have chemistry and I don't recommend that you marry somebody that you're not drawn to and that you don't have chemistry with. But there's an awful lot more to marriage than feeling good about each other and being good with each other in bed. There's trust, there's faithfulness, there's integrity, there's loyalty, there is the ability to do life together, to share common values. I've often said to young people over the years when they come for premarital counseling, I'd ask them, you know, why have all the people in the world that you could be attracted to? Why do you want to marry each other? I remember some couples more so in the past than today, but couples would look with these big question marks in their eyes and they would just say, we love each other. And I'd say, well, it's wonderful that you love each other, but what does it mean that you love each other? Because 10,000 dirty diapers later and a bunch of snotty kids hanging on your legs and bills that need to be paid and jobs that needed to be tended to, you know, lovey dovey feelings have a way of going out the window when they are confronted by the harsh realities of daily living. And you know what are the marriages that make it? The marriages that make it are not the Hollywood glamour marriages where people have all the beauty and all the attraction and all the chemistry in the world, but no ability to do relationships, the marriages that make it are marriages where men and women can see into each other's hearts, where they can love each other, where they can have integrity together, where they know what their roles are, they know what their places are. And a man's job in that is to be able to provide for his wife not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually and in every other way. You know what makes women go out and have affairs? Because their men don't see them. Because their men don't cherish them. Their men don't hear them. Their men are so busy taking care of the externals of life that they don't know how to relate on that deeper level where the woman needs to be cherished. I don't care how strong a woman you are, I don't care how gifted a woman you are, part of womanhood created in the image of God is to be cherished, is to be seen, is to be loved. Somebody has said a good definition of intimacy is into me see. And Boaz, though he's an older man, though she could have easily found younger men who might have well been attracted to her, because all the indication is that she was not only a godly woman, but an attractive one as well. Boaz, Boaz knew how to look after Ruth. And Naomi understood that intuitively, Naomi knew his character. And Naomi said to Ruth, Boaz will make you a good and a fine husband. And ultimately, of course, Boaz as kinsman redeemer becomes an example of the Lord Jesus, who ultimately is our ultimate redeemer who laid down his life for the church, his bride, so that we could be cherished and be with him forever. And in the New Testament, the standard for Christian marriage becomes the relationship of Christ to the church and the church to Jesus. And every time we do a wedding around here and every time we read that wedding form, we talk about the wife submitting to her husband even as the church submits to Christ with all the biblical ramifications of that. And we talk about the husband loving his wife even as Jesus loves the church. And that's God's call, and that's God's offer. And he makes it possible through faith in Jesus. And this story of Ruth is but one of many stories in the Old Testament that gives us a glimpse of what it is that Jesus has come to do. Let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you. May God our might have the grace to bear to be my servant too. Mother, let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you. Pray that I might have the grace to let you be my servant too. I will hold the Christ like for you in the nighttime of your fear. I will hold my hand out to you, speak the peace you long to hear. I will weep when you are weeping, when you laugh I laugh with you. I will share your joys and sorrows till we've seen his journey through. When we sing to God in heaven, we shall find the harmony. Born of all we've known together, of Christ, love and agony.