Show Notes
Ruth 4
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your love to us.
[00:00:11] We thank you that we love you.
[00:00:14] What a joy it is to have our whole lives, our hearts, our thoughts, our ways, the things we do, the ways we think, the things we feel to have it all aligned and directed toward you.
[00:00:33] Lord, what a joy it is to walk in your paths, to walk by the light of your word, power of your spirit shining brightly in us that we might see and know the goodness, mercy, the kindness, the promises, salvation of our Lord and Savior.
[00:00:56] Lord, we ask that you would help us to hear your word from Ruth for today that you would help us to see in the story of this family of Ruth, Boaz, Naomi, of the larger family and tribes, community, and even the people of Israel, your providential loving hand doing all the work that you bring to fulfillment and completion in Jesus, help us to see it that we might believe it for our own lives and to walk, to walk by faith in you.
[00:01:36] We ask, Lord, that you would bless the preaching and that you would bless the hearing and that you would be honored and glorified. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:01:49] Please be seated and turn your attention to Ruth. Chapter 4 Ruth 4.
[00:02:12] It's.
[00:02:43] So in Ruth, chapter four we come to the end of this love story, a story that is not filled with what we typically think of as love stories.
[00:02:59] Lots of flirting, lots of romance, but a different kind of love, a very deep kind of love.
[00:03:11] A love that is steadfast, a love that is self sacrificial, a love that gives and gives and gives of oneself for the blessing of another.
[00:03:27] It's a story and I love that we've seen in Ruth, in Naomi, in the community, in Boaz, and ultimately in God, who as I mentioned when I was praying, is guiding and directing and providing all of this and ultimately fulfills these things in Jesus.
[00:03:50] We come to the conclusion of Ruth 4, of Ruth. In chapter 4.
[00:03:57] It brings the story to a close. Our wondering, Ruth's wondering, let's say, if we were in her shoes of is this going to happen? Will he fulfill his promises? He does.
[00:04:09] And then the awesome conclusion in which we see that the little actions and things that happen in a particular family here have implications for the whole nation and even the rest of history.
[00:04:22] So let's give our attention to Ruth, Chapter four.
[00:04:27] Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there and behold, the Redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by.
[00:04:35] So Boaz said, turn aside friend, sit down here.
[00:04:39] And he turned aside and sat down and he took 10 men of the elders of the city and said, sit down here. So they sat down.
[00:04:51] Then he said to the Redeemer, naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech.
[00:05:01] So I thought I would tell you of it and say, bide in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people, if you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not tell me that, I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it. And I come after you.
[00:05:19] And he said, I will redeem it.
[00:05:22] Then Boaz said, the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you will also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.
[00:05:34] Then the Redeemer said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for for I cannot redeem it.
[00:05:45] Now this was the custom in former times in Israel, concerning the redeeming and exchanging.
[00:05:51] To confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was the manner of attesting in Israel.
[00:05:58] So when the Redeemer said to Boaz, buy it for yourself, he drew off his sandal. Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Kilion and to Mahalom.
[00:06:16] Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahloh, I have bought to be my wife to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place.
[00:06:33] You are witnesses this day.
[00:06:35] Then all the people who were at the gate. And the elder said, we are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, to together built up the house of Israel.
[00:06:47] May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.
[00:07:00] So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son.
[00:07:08] Then the women said to Naomi, blessed be the Lord, for he has not left you this day without a Redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel. He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age for your daughter in law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.
[00:07:30] Then Naomi took the child, laid him on her lap and became his nurse.
[00:07:35] And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, a son has been born to Naomi.
[00:07:41] They called him Obed.
[00:07:43] He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
[00:07:48] Now these are the generations of Perez.
[00:07:50] Perez, the father of Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.
[00:08:09] Amen.
[00:08:23] Well, if you've been walking through, listening through Ruth along with us over the last few weeks, more, if you're familiar with the story, you remember where we're at.
[00:08:37] Ruth the Moabite was married to one of Naomi's sons. They were in the land of Moab. And then when a famine lifted in Israel, when God lifted his hand on Ruth and Naomi came back, came back to the land. But they're in a very difficult situation, coming back in some ways empty.
[00:09:02] I'm struggling. I'm two widows, not a lot of food, not a lot of hope in the future.
[00:09:13] Ruth in a difficult situation. Naomi in a difficult situation, wondering what was going to happen.
[00:09:20] And what happens is that a man named Boaz, a man who had something of an age gap with Ruth, a man who was wealthy, a man who was respected, a man who had this good reputation in land, in servants, he is very generous.
[00:09:43] And out of his generosity, out of his love, he promises to take care of Ruthven, even to marry her, even to buy this land. But there is something that stands in the way of that, something that stands in the way of him, between the him just allowing Ruth to gather among the grain, to have her at meals, to belong with his people and workers and that sort of thing, to get from there to wife.
[00:10:12] There is someone that has a right to that.
[00:10:17] And that's important to understand the background of what's going on here. In order to understand what exactly is happening, what Boaz is doing.
[00:10:28] Part of what's going on in the background here is that God wanted the land that people had to stay within the tribes of Israel.
[00:10:38] He had apportioned it out. He had given to each tribe its own place, its own place or places, in the case of the Levites. And there were various reasons for this.
[00:10:51] One reason Is that it reminds the people all the time that he's the sovereign Lord. He didn't say, go pick for yourselves. Choose what you want. He put them like. Kind of like our body parts or members in a church. He takes the family and he put them all in. In their particular places, particular allotments.
[00:11:11] But you can imagine over time, various difficult situations might happen where somebody might need to sell the land like Naomi's having here to get money.
[00:11:21] What happens if that land is sold out of the family?
[00:11:25] Well, eventually the land of the tribe, you could see it shrinking and changing over time.
[00:11:31] And there's a principle that God wants to keep, partly involving his sovereignty and his rule and his kingship over the land.
[00:11:43] If you turn with me to Leviticus 25, you'll see this.
[00:11:50] Let's turn there together.
[00:11:57] Leviticus 5:23.
[00:12:16] He says, the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine, for you are strangers and sojourners with me, and in all the country you possess, you shall allow the redemption of the land.
[00:12:37] And then there's different examples given. We'll hear the first part in verse 25.
[00:12:42] If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold.
[00:12:54] If a man has no one to redeem it, and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, let him calculate the years since it is sold and pay back the balance to the man whom sold it, and then return to his property.
[00:13:10] This is true not only of land, but even oneself.
[00:13:15] So if you look at Leviticus, same chapter, Leviticus 25, 2047.
[00:13:24] If a stranger or sojourner within you becomes rich and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself, basically selling yourself into slavery as a way to take care of your debts, right? Sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you, or to a member of the stranger's clan, then after he has sold, he may be redeemed.
[00:13:49] One of his brothers may redeem him. And then we have a list, an order.
[00:13:54] Or his uncle, sorry, one of his brothers may redeem him, or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him. Or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he grows rich, he may redeem himself.
[00:14:09] So you see, the person who is doing the purchasing, whether it's of a person, in the case of somebody selling themselves, or in the case of a property, in case of somebody selling their property, the person doesn't lose their money, right? There's not A kind of injustice there. Like I sell you the land and then it just gets taken away from you and you lose your money, right? Somebody comes in and buys it from you to help me. If I'm the one doing the selling someone from, let's say I have land that I need to sell, I sell it outside of my tribe, I sell it to someone else, I sell it as a way to provide.
[00:14:51] Then a brother of mine can come and buy that land from the person who purchased it, buy the land, that person gets paid back, and then my brother, then the land would, would stay in that, in within the tribe, within the family, or if I'm able to gain enough money myself somehow, then I can do that myself and bring the land back. Why? The principle is there at the beginning. The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine, for you are strangers and sojourners with me and all and in all the country you possess, you shall allow redemption of the land.
[00:15:34] We also see in this, this kind of order that happens, there's an order of the rite of redemption. First the brother, then an uncle or cousin, then in a Redeemer, a close member of the tribe.
[00:15:47] And that's what's happening here with Boaz, both in regard to the land and another issue with regard to the name of a, of a family, the name of a man that can't be passed down because he dies and has no son to pass it down to another institution within Israel, that we could translate brother in law, marriage, kind of an odd term. But essentially what happens is in this situation where someone dies, he has no son to pass it on his property and his name onto his brother comes in, marries his wife, he's dead. So this is okay. He comes in, marries his wife, the son is born. But then what happens?
[00:16:34] The man, then the inheritance of the one passes down to the son.
[00:16:39] I know this is a little complicated, but it's important because what's happening here is that this redeemer who comes, the redeemer who's first in line before Boaz, he is reminded that in this particular situation, this land that he's going to redeem, this land that he's going to purchase, he's not going to keep.
[00:17:00] And it's not going to go to one of his sons with his name, it's going to go to Elimelech's son and the name of Elimelech and that family, if Ruth has a son.
[00:17:13] So it's kind of a loss.
[00:17:16] Plus there might be other reasons, but that's the main one he mentions. And this is the one he says.
[00:17:24] He says, when it comes to the land, he says, yeah, I'll redeem it. And then when he finds out about Ruth or remembers Ruth and remembers that his name will not pass through this land, it will not pass if she bears a son, he backs up and he says, go ahead, Boaz, you can redeem the land.
[00:17:50] All this. There's a lot of things going on here, some very subtle, some complicated, but perhaps the main one to focus on is that is, we can see very clearly there's a cost here to Boaz.
[00:18:03] He's not the first one in line.
[00:18:06] And yet even though this other Redeemer steps back and says, no, no, thanks, I don't want to do it, I don't want to help really in this situation because it's too much of a cost to me personally. Boaz, even though he's further in line, even though there's this age gap, even though there's a wealth gap, even though there's other things that are perhaps odd about this, he's willing to do it.
[00:18:33] God raises up a Boaz, he raises up this Redeemer to care for Ruth, to care for Naomi, to continue on the name, to keep the land within the family.
[00:18:49] In all these things, we see the work of God maintaining and as he maintains and continues his work over his people.
[00:18:59] The self sacrifice of Boaz, as I mentioned, is his age, this poor woman outside of Israel, we can see that Boaz has nothing really to gain from marrying her.
[00:19:13] If he's looking for prestige by worldly standards, this is not going to help his cause, right? Usually, you know, when people are looking to marry up, right, they look for people that are wealthier than them, people that are more connected than them, people that have better family names than them, better networks than them. None of this applies to Ruth.
[00:19:39] And then, of course, the sale of the land is a loss of his own money without some of the normal benefits from it.
[00:19:48] The other Redeemer tries to and does protect himself from these consequences. But of course, it leaves Naomi and Ruth in the situation they're in.
[00:19:58] It doesn't protect the family's land, the land of the tribe.
[00:20:03] And in some ways, even though he has a right to pass on this right of redemption, there's something about it that's a little icky.
[00:20:14] He was there.
[00:20:15] He was first in line. He had this thing to do, this blessing to give, and he said no.
[00:20:24] There's this irony one commentator points out that I thought was good and worth quoting, he says it remains an instructive fact that he was so anxious. He who was so anxious for the preservation of his own inheritance is now not even known by name.
[00:20:41] The name of the one who was blotted out was not Elimelech, was not Obed, was not Boaz or Ruth. But this one who was trying to protect himself, trying to protect his name. He's never mentioned he's a friend, He's. He's the redeemer. He's so and so referred to in all of these ways and never mentioned.
[00:21:11] In our lives. We can get very overwhelmed by our needs.
[00:21:16] We can get overwhelmed by the things that are going on.
[00:21:20] And I would be bet a lot of money that he felt like that. Because we all feel like that from time to time. And sometimes a lot of the time, Naomi felt like that as she was on her way back from Moab, thinking about how much she'd lost, how empty she was. And we can get to these places of emptiness, or we feel the threat of emptiness and we worry, we get anxious.
[00:21:50] Maybe it is the emptiness of loneliness.
[00:21:55] A house that used to have a family member in it that isn't there anymore.
[00:22:00] Maybe it's the emptiness of a hungry stomach not knowing where you're going to get groceries from.
[00:22:08] Maybe it's the emptiness of a bank account or the emptiness of a name. Feeling like you're not getting noticed, like you need to get noticed at work, by friends, or worse, people thinking badly of you.
[00:22:24] These various things that we have going on in our lives, things which we need, community, a good name, food.
[00:22:34] They're not bad things in themselves, they're good things.
[00:22:38] But when we anxiously try to preserve them, when we strengthen our grip on these things and the things of this world in a way that rejects the Lord, in a way that loses sight of him in a way where he's kind of in a blind spot and we're not focused on him anymore, it tends to make our anxiety worse and it makes our problems worse. Because as we increase our effort and strength in the grip that we have on the things of this world, we often do so in a way that rejects our Lord.
[00:23:16] We do this, some of us do this in a way that not only holds our hands around the things of this world, but even the things of heaven, we try to reduce the fear we have of judgment or increase the hope we have in heaven by doing good things, by being a good person, by trying really hard to please God. But the same is true of heavenly things as eternal things. The More we try, the harder we work, the more we see we don't really have a grip on them, we don't really have a grasp on them. And in fact our sin is there all the time. Things are slipping through all the more.
[00:23:54] Having needs like food and hope, community and these kinds of things. There's nothing wrong with that.
[00:24:03] But there is a thing that is wrong with rejecting God who made these things to pursue them at any cost.
[00:24:12] God made us to be dependent creatures. There's nothing wrong with that.
[00:24:17] Would you blame a plant, let's say, would you blame a plant for needing sunlight? What a bad plant?
[00:24:25] Of course not. Would you blame this? Would you blame it as, you know, so insufficient, it's so dependent. Stupid plan, right? No, we don't do that.
[00:24:35] We don't do that with children. We don't blame children, you know, for, you know, a three year old asking for you to help feed them. God say you should really be self sufficient, right?
[00:24:47] A bird needing a tree. We could go on and on.
[00:24:52] But yeah, we do blame ourselves for needing God.
[00:24:56] We get down on ourselves for being creatures that are not totally omnipresent or omnipotent, able to do everything and be everywhere at all times. Being creatures, there's no need for us to be entirely self sufficient against God. In fact, our frustration around that and our difficulties around that kind of reveal a secret thing in our hearts.
[00:25:23] A kind of rejection of God, a kind of separation from Him, a little bit in us, maybe a lot of us that thinks of ourselves as the ultimate source of happiness, as the ultimate source of strength. And so we become worriers and protectors of grabbers and grippers of the things of this world.
[00:25:46] And that is sin.
[00:25:49] Being a dependent creature on God. Nothing wrong with that. That's how he made us. That's how our lives are filled with joy.
[00:25:57] But grabbing and gripping and striving and storing and being overly protective of these things, that's where sin comes in. And that's where now we have another need. Not only for food and protection, help and these things, but now we have a need for forgiveness.
[00:26:18] We have a need for rejecting the Lord, for walking away from him, for trying to be our own gods, trying to find our own happiness in ourselves.
[00:26:29] We don't only need food in our stomachs, but now we need the forgiveness of God.
[00:26:37] Now someone that needy who comes into our lives, we might walk away. It's just a little too much trouble.
[00:26:51] They got all these things going on.
[00:26:53] On top of that there's all these moral problems not just problems, things that are personally offensive, difficult, relationship breaking and all the rest.
[00:27:08] But that's exactly the kind of situation, and with the kind of person that God steps forward to.
[00:27:15] He steps into that life, into our lives, broken lives, rebellious lives, needing lives, needful lives. He comes into that like Boaz in this story, but in a greater way.
[00:27:31] And he says, I got you.
[00:27:35] I will forgive you.
[00:27:37] I will provide for you. I will take care of you. And he doesn't just make a promise, but like Boaz, he fulfills it.
[00:27:46] He doesn't rest until it's done.
[00:27:51] Boaz didn't protect his life, his reputation, his happiness in the world.
[00:27:57] And neither did Jesus.
[00:28:00] The Son of God comes into the world. And he who was rich became poor for our sake so that we might have all the benefits of belonging to the Son of God.
[00:28:11] So that we might be inheritors of a heavenly kingdom which no one can take away from us.
[00:28:18] So that we might never be in a position where we need to sell ourselves or sell our little parcel of, of heaven to be with Him.
[00:28:29] He provides for us so perfectly and so completely in the things to come and in the things of this world that we can put our whole faith and hope in Him.
[00:28:44] I noticed in the hymn that we sang in not what My Hands have Done, there's this thing, as the fourth line, it says, his cross dispels each doubt I bury in his tomb.
[00:28:57] Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.
[00:29:03] You can kind of put yourself in the shoes of Ruth.
[00:29:08] She's there hearing these words along with the rest of the people in the town, along with the elders of Israel. And. And she hears this man back down, this Redeemer, say, yeah, I'll do it. Oh, wait, no, never mind.
[00:29:25] Rejection.
[00:29:27] And then Boaz steps up and does exactly what he promised to do. And he says, I will redeem her.
[00:29:33] I will redeem the land.
[00:29:37] You imagine the sense of relief that you would have in that moment.
[00:29:42] The sense. Any doubt that was remaining about, is he really going to do this?
[00:29:46] Is he really this good of a guy? And then he does it.
[00:29:52] And then you gain a son.
[00:29:55] And then Naomi, watching all of this through God, just working through all these people and all these sort of things, and then having this grandson.
[00:30:07] That is the feeling, or one of them, one of the feelings that Christians have when we think about what we sang.
[00:30:18] His cross dispels each doubt I bury in his tomb, each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom where Jesus says, well, as the as it also says in this hymn, he calls me his, I call him mine.
[00:30:35] He says, this one's mine. I've died for him, I've died for her.
[00:30:41] Their name will not be blotted out.
[00:30:47] That's a relief.
[00:30:49] Relieving, relieving. There it is, a kind of love, a comforting kind of love, an everlasting kind of love.
[00:30:59] Because this is coming from the lips of God, who gives himself so fully for us, who sacrifices not only a part of his personal wealth, but his very own life, shedding his blood so that we might live forever.
[00:31:20] This is what Boaz is pointing to. This is what the Holy Spirit points us to in this story, pointing us to what it is to live under the wings of God, what life is like to live under the protection of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our redeemer and our helper, our protector, our provider.
[00:31:44] If your faith is not in Jesus, put your faith in Jesus.
[00:31:49] Not your ability to get your next meal, not your ability to keep your good name, not your ability to resolve a conflict or find a friend, but in Jesus.
[00:32:00] Put your faith in him and he will give you life, life everlasting, because of his love.
[00:32:08] Let's pray.
[00:32:10] Our heavenly Father, we thank you for the redemption we have in Jesus Christ.
[00:32:14] We give you all praise and glory.
[00:32:17] Thank you for calling.
[00:32:19] Thank you for calling us yours.
[00:32:22] Thank you for allowing us to call you ours.
[00:32:26] Be our joy and our light, continue to pour out your grace on me and all of us here.
[00:32:33] Lift us up, protect and provide for us. We pray this all in Jesus name, Amen.
