Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hi, everybody.
[00:00:04] If you were not here last week, you're off the hook. But the rest of you, come on now.
[00:00:09] Hi, everybody.
[00:00:11] Okay, that's better. So, yeah, the correct response is, hi, Vern, or Hey, Vern or something. Vern. So, good morning and welcome. And we are in. The Book of Ruth started last week in chapter one. Today is chapter two. If you've got a text with you, invite you to turn there with me.
[00:00:27] The Book of Ruth is a brilliant work of theological art, as it has been said, and it is exactly what it is. It is a beautiful story. It is a romance. It is theologically dense and rich. It helps us understand God and ourselves. And God. And today we're in chapter two. The Book of Ruth is set in the time of the Judges. The time of the Judges, this is 3,000 years ago, was a particularly difficult time in human history, where some of the worst human rights abuses ever happened during the Season of the Judges. And the Book of Ruth is embedded in that.
[00:01:04] The reason the things were so bad in the time of the Judges is because everyone did what was right in their own eyes. That's the way it says it at the very end of the Book of Judges. Everybody did what they saw fit. Way we might say today is everybody made up their own truth and just did whatever they wanted to do. So in chapter one, we learn about a guy named Elimelech, whose name means my God is king. And he rebels against the capital K, doesn't act like God is king, and he faithlessly leads his sweet wife Naomi and his two sons named Mahlon and Kilion, whose names mean sick and dying. He leaves with Naomi and with sick and dying, and he goes to the house of leaves the house of bread and praise, and goes to what Psalm 60 calls God's toilet. This was a bad decision. And so Elimelech did. Dies.
[00:01:58] Naomi, her daughters or her sons marry two Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah, and then those sons die. So now she's lost her husband and both of her sons. And so now Naomi is a widow with two dead sons and two demon worshiping daughters in law, their names Orpah and Ruth. Orpah decides to go back to Moab as they were looking to move back to Bethlehem. She. She goes back to Moab, and then Ruth goes with Naomi. And Ruth's name means friend and she acts like a friend. And so she sticks with Naomi and she makes a beautiful commitment to Naomi, some of the most famous verses or sentences in all of the literature.
[00:02:44] And then she goes with Naomi back to Naomi's hometown, which is Bethlehem.
[00:02:49] In spite of her relationship with Ruth, Naomi's life is ruined.
[00:02:55] And so she changes her name from Naomi, which means sweet, to Mara, which means bitter. And then she claims that God has abandoned her. She even says that God has afflicted her. Now he hasn't. But she feels that way. And we know how she feels because we felt that way.
[00:03:12] So Naomi and Ruth return to Bethlehem and they do so the end of chapter one tells us at the beginning of the barley harvest. And I mentioned to you last week that the literary thrust of the Book of Ruth is emptiness and fullness. And so Naomi is empty, but she's coming back to a land of fullness. And if you've been a Christian for just a minute, you've had doubts and wonderings about God and his involvement in your life.
[00:03:42] There are times when we don't see and we don't feel and we don't experience the presence of God in our lives. And we ask, along with the poets and the prophets of the Bible, where are you, God? Don't you care about me?
[00:03:55] Why did this happen? Why am I going through that?
[00:03:58] Why are you letting me go through this difficult time? Why are you forcing me into this? Are you afflicting me?
[00:04:05] I'm empty.
[00:04:07] And what happened to your promise of fullness?
[00:04:10] So this is Naomi and perhaps to a lesser extent, her daughter in law, Ruth.
[00:04:15] They are poor and single and barren and widowed and women at the time of the judges, a particularly difficult time. But the barley harvest has begun, so the girls are empty. But they're heading into a land of fullness.
[00:04:31] So let the gleaning begin.
[00:04:33] Chapter two, verse one. Now, Naomi had a relative on her husband's side from the clan of Elimelech. Elimelech would be her dead husband, a man of standing whose name is is Boaz.
[00:04:44] So last week we talked about the names in the Book of Ruth, moving the storyline along. And here we have another one. This is Boaz. Boaz name means strong or strength compared to Mahlon and Kilion, whose name means. Their names mean sick and dying. So Boaz is a man of strength, he's a man of standing.
[00:05:07] The man of standing line there probably means that he was mighty warrior or a war hero. It also reflects his abilities, his social standing. He's a man of good reputation. He's a substantial man of noble character.
[00:05:23] He's impressive.
[00:05:25] He's the kind of guy that, if you're a single woman, you look at his left hand because you want to know if he's single or not.
[00:05:34] And then there's a setup and a scene change in verse two.
[00:05:39] And Ruth, the Moabitess, or Moabitess, either one, said to Naomi, let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.
[00:05:54] So we see again that Ruth is being identified by her country, which is God's toilet.
[00:06:04] So, you know, she's from Billings, and so she is now a foreigner in the land of Judah, and she's in a town with a proclivity towards racism.
[00:06:21] But she's not going to let that be an obstacle. She's going to go glean. Okay? Gleaning.
[00:06:27] Gleaning would be like dumpster diving. Gleaning is collecting aluminum cans for recycling.
[00:06:33] So the Torah. The Torah, the Old Testament law, actually had a provision. So it was a law. It was like a social program to help the poor. And the way that program worked is when you are harvesting your field, whether it be grain or olives or grapes, you're to leave the edges of the field unharvested.
[00:06:54] Leave it, just ignore it. Just round the corner, think 10%, just leaving some behind.
[00:07:03] Just don't harvest it and don't go back and pick up stuff that you may have dropped. The idea is that the poor can come through. They have the dignity of doing some work, and they're able to collect some grain. It's a good social program for the needy. Well, Naomi must have explained gleaning to Ruth, because there likely wasn't a social program like that back in Moab.
[00:07:27] So Ruth is like, I'm going to go do what you talked about. I'm going to go do the gleaning thing. And so Naomi's like, yeah, go do that because we need to eat. Verse 3. So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out.
[00:07:45] As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech, as it turned out, literally in Hebrew. The way that reads is as her chance chanced.
[00:08:05] As her chance chanced. We're very fortunate to have excellent English translations of the Bible. And this would be one of the reasons why, because we don't talk that way as her chance chanced.
[00:08:17] And so the Bible translators go, the meaning of that is as it turned out, which is like a colloquialism, just a slang, the way we talk, because this is a rhetorical device in the story to point to the opposite. And so the first, readers or listeners of this story would have heard or read, as it turned out, and they would have chuckled at that, like, and they'd go, oh, yeah, right.
[00:08:43] As it turned out, like it was just happenstance, like it was just chance. In other words, their mindset is, God is arranging some things. He's involved in this. It was not by chance that she ended up in Boaz's field.
[00:08:57] It was by what we call God's providence or divine providence. Divine providence means that God, with wisdom and love, cares for and directs all things in his universe, and that includes you and your life.
[00:09:14] That God, providentially, we say, is involved in your life, working things out on your behalf and in your benefit and for your shalom, for your flourishing.
[00:09:25] God is constantly working behind the scenes. He is directing and he is controlling situations. And so, yeah, God leads her what seems like something that would be random, right to Boaz Field.
[00:09:41] God, the great matchmaker, sees to it then that Boaz drops in on his business that day and in that moment and. And the relationship with ruth begins. Verse 4.
[00:09:55] Just then.
[00:09:56] There it is again. Yeah, right. Just then, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters. The Lord be with you. The Lord bless you. They called back just then. The way you might tell it is if you were telling this story, you'd go, and then, wouldn't you know it, Boaz shows up.
[00:10:17] Or you might say it like this. You'll never guess who walked up.
[00:10:21] Boaz.
[00:10:22] This is God's providence. Verse 5.
[00:10:27] Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, who's that?
[00:10:36] This is the first indication that we are now firmly in a romantic love story.
[00:10:44] This was my love story.
[00:10:47] I was on campus at Biola University and I was a new student. And then I saw a girl named Raymi who would later become my wife. And as she was walking by, I said to one of my new friends that I had just made, who's that?
[00:11:09] And then I may have asked the question, well, whose woman is that?
[00:11:15] And I found out she had a boyfriend.
[00:11:18] Yeah, God's providence.
[00:11:22] I'll wait.
[00:11:24] And then I went over to the center of campus and I just flexed and waited for her to walk by.
[00:11:31] Just so you know, I'm flexing now, so it was not impressive.
[00:11:38] Whose woman is that?
[00:11:40] Who's that?
[00:11:42] Ruth, the foreigner, sweaty and dirty, hair up in a high ponytail, shuffling and stooping behind the harvesters. And she catches boaz's eye.
[00:11:56] It's 3,000 years ago. We haven't changed a bit. Verse 6. The former replied, well, she's the Moabitess. There it is again, identified by her nationality and her ethnicity, who came back from Moab with Naomi.
[00:12:12] So here's a double Moab. That would be like saying, well, she's the American from America.
[00:12:19] She's the Moabitess from Moab. And what he's doing is pushing the perceived racism.
[00:12:28] This is mildly racist.
[00:12:30] She's the widow from God's toilet who hangs out with grumpy Naomi. She's from the enemy country.
[00:12:39] Verse 7. He goes on.
[00:12:41] She said, please let me glean and gather among the sheaves like the bundles behind the harvesters.
[00:12:48] She went into the field and his work steadily from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.
[00:12:55] So he's mildly racist, but he's at least acknowledging that she is a hard worker.
[00:13:01] She asks nicely, and she is gleaning. But she also quite brazenly asked to browse among the bundles.
[00:13:08] And this gives us a little insight into her personality, that Ruth is not downtrodden and demure.
[00:13:14] She is courageous and even a little aggressive. Because what she's asking to do goes beyond the social program, so goes beyond the law. The law requires that Boaz lets the poor glean in his fields. But Ruth gets this permission slip to do more. She's going to go to the sheaves and she's going to grab more. There's some desperation there.
[00:13:39] And so she asks and this guy who doesn't like her lets her my so as I told you last week, my granddaughter lives in North Carolina now. She's almost 2.
[00:13:54] And I had a friend show me a video this week of this little girl on the porch of her place, Parents place. And a bear walks up to the porch and this little girl goes, can I pet that dog?
[00:14:13] And the parents are like, no, no, no. And she goes, can I pet that dog?
[00:14:17] And then she says it one last time with a beautiful long dog, Can I pet that dog?
[00:14:22] And I send that to Madeline. I'm like, this is my granddaughter, isn't it? She's gonna grow up talking like this. I mean, my daughter's a fourth generation Montana, and now my granddaughter's being raised in North Carolina. It's not Moab. I'm not saying that.
[00:14:37] But I am saying I've been laughing about, ah, I'm this little Mary Lou. She's gonna grow up with this Southern accent. Can I pet that dog?
[00:14:45] Now, interestingly, research has shown that the Southern accent with a woman is extremely powerful. And when a woman from the south with a Southern accent is Asking for something, a request. The accent lilts up, it gets a little thicker.
[00:15:05] And she actually doesn't do it on purpose. It's just very natural.
[00:15:10] So that accent has a way of, you know, melting somebody's resistance a little bit. And I just think about maybe Moab or Ruth has an exotic Moabite accent. And this somewhat racial guy, he allows her to grab the sheaves, to grab some bundles, to take more than is allotted to her.
[00:15:33] And so when that happens, she. She's working on that. And Boaz learns about that. Boaz takes it even farther. He's gonna lay out a very benevolent and compassionate and kind program because, you know, Boaz is a good guy with a good eye. And so he says in verse seven, verse eight. So Boaz said to Ruth, my daughter, that's a term of endearment. He's being respectful to her also, by the way, it indicates that he is somewhat older than her. My daughter, listen to me. Don't go and glean in another field and don't go away from here.
[00:16:10] Stay here with my servant girls. Servant girls will be the employees.
[00:16:14] So it turns out that Boaz, the war hero, a man of social standing and noble character. Ruth is now learning he's rich, he's a successful businessman. He's got a bunch of employees and a bunch of acreage, and he is a farmer, and he's good at it. And he tells her not to leave.
[00:16:35] Why is he telling her not to leave?
[00:16:39] Because she was probably leaving.
[00:16:42] Why would she be leaving?
[00:16:45] Because of the danger and the harassment of working in those fields and the harassment that she would have been getting from the men and the women.
[00:16:55] She's a moabitess.
[00:16:57] Verse 9.
[00:16:59] Watch the field where the men are harvesting and follow along after the girls, the employees. I've told the men not to touch you. Why do you need to tell Menda not to touch her? Because this is the time of the judges. This is a dangerous time for her. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.
[00:17:21] So Boaz lays out a plan of protection and giving her dignity because there's some work to be done. And Boaz knows that Ruth is going to be in danger in any other field. He steps in and gives provision and he gives protection, and. And Ruth is overwhelmed with relief and gratitude. Look at verse 10. At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me, a foreigner? There it is again.
[00:17:52] By bowing and identifying As a foreign woman, she is expressing surprise at Boaz, kindness to her.
[00:18:01] She's gotten far more than she requested or expected.
[00:18:06] And this is obviously again the providence of God. In God's providence, he is working out her hope that she would find favor, that she would have provision and protection. And then what some scholars say is the high point of the whole chapter, verse 11, Boaz replies, I've been told all about what you have done for your mother in law since the death of your husband, how. How you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before.
[00:18:40] It's a small town and last week we saw that the women didn't recognize Naomi at first, and then they did, and she's pretty haggard. And then Naomi changes her name from Sweetie to Bitter. And.
[00:18:57] And then they're introduced at that time, of course, to Ruth. And so then they hear the story and that spreads quickly around town. And so Boaz hears about this girl and he's like, oh, the girl I've been hearing about, that's this Ruth right here.
[00:19:15] And then, why did Ruth do this?
[00:19:18] Why did she do this for Naomi?
[00:19:21] It's her commitment and her submission to Naomi. What she's doing is showing chesed love. We talked about that word last week and it's all over this chapter again. Loving, kindness, mercy, compassion, covenant, keeping, love, loyal love.
[00:19:37] Boaz is seeing that in Ruth. He's hearing about it. And frankly, Boaz likes that in a woman, as all of us would. Verse 12.
[00:19:46] May the Lord repay you for what you've done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you've come to take refuge. He's praying for her, giving a blessing to her, and she's acknowledging that she is now putting herself under the wings of God. Because Chemosh doesn't have any wings, the God of Moab, that God requires child sacrifice.
[00:20:12] So she is now putting herself under the wings of Yahweh. She's putting herself under the wings of the God of Israel. And Boaz is speaking blessing over her, and she's being humble about this. Verse 13. May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my Lord, she said. You have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant. Though I do not have the standing of one of your servant girls. What she's doing here is using a Hebrew word that refers to a woman on the lowest rung of the social ladder.
[00:20:48] So she is humble. And then Boaz takes it up a notch. Verse 14 at mealtime, Boaz said to her, come over here, have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar. When she sat down with the harvesters, the men, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all that she wanted and had some leftover.
[00:21:12] So Boaz is now inviting her into the intimacy of the midday meal, which is a tradition where she does not belong.
[00:21:21] But he invites her in to eat, and then he gives her a heap of freshly roasted grain, so much so that she eats her fill and she has some leftover. So the ordinary noon meal becomes another demonstration of chesed, the loving kindness of God, the kind of chesed we can do with one another.
[00:21:43] So Boaz is thoughtful and he is generous, but he's also got to be a little smitten, right? He's attracted to her, wants to bring her nearer.
[00:21:55] Now, remember the theological or the literary thrust of the book, emptiness and fullness.
[00:22:05] Ruth's stomach was empty, and now it's full.
[00:22:08] And then Boaz, who's part of her fulfillment, he takes it up another notch. He shows her unusual, unheard of in the time of the Judges. Kindness.
[00:22:22] Verse 15. As she got up to glean. I got to get back to work. Boaz gave order to his men. So she's heading out there, and he says to them, even if she gathers among the sheeps, the bundles don't embarrass her.
[00:22:36] That's probably what was happening before.
[00:22:39] No touching, no talking, no correcting, no harassing.
[00:22:42] Leave her alone. If you can't bless her, just leave her alone.
[00:22:46] Verse 16. Rather, pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up. And don't rebuke her.
[00:22:56] Don't just make her pinch grain out of the dirt.
[00:22:59] Actually drop some stalks.
[00:23:02] Boaz is going again, above and beyond what the law requires. And then don't rebuke her. Don't bug her about this. Let this happen.
[00:23:12] So the relationship has now begun.
[00:23:17] And the relationship at this point is founded on what?
[00:23:23] Well, I mean, certainly the. I mean, Boaz noticed her out there. Okay, that's a reasonable beginning.
[00:23:33] But then notice in both of them, character, kindness, generosity, humility, chesed, loyal love.
[00:23:47] A lunch date in public, protection, hard work.
[00:23:52] It's in both of them.
[00:23:54] Now, look, you're not going to see that on the Bachelor or the Bachelorette or Beer in Bikini island or whatever your show is.
[00:24:04] You're not going to see that in most couples. Don't be most couples.
[00:24:09] A few years ago, we crossed the threshold.
[00:24:12] First time in American history. There are now more single adults than married.
[00:24:18] But maybe that's because relationship began on tinder or inebriation and lust and dysfunction rather than trusting the providence of God that he is going to bring the right man into your life, the right woman into your life at just the right time. And maybe he's got somebody in mind for you that is so special that he's actually waiting for you and urging you to be Boazi, to be Ruthie.
[00:24:49] Character, kindness, generosity, humility, morality, chesed, selfless love, character to be developed in you before God's going to trust you with someone so precious to him. Him.
[00:25:04] Providence.
[00:25:08] Let God be first and let God be providential. Let God provide and protect and let the chesed happen. Don't let go and let God hold on tight and let God. Verse 17 so Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley, you know, took the seed out of it, get rid of the husk. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered and, and it amounted to about an ephah, old fashioned word. It's essentially nepha would be about 20 liters.
[00:25:40] That's not our system. So 20 nalgenes. Yeah, you got 20 nalgenes full of grain. So it would weigh about 30 pounds.
[00:25:51] Now again, remember, emptiness and fullness, this is what was once empty, is starting to fill.
[00:25:58] Ruth is gleaning and she's getting gifted months of food for her and Naomi, which tells us that Boaz is extremely generous.
[00:26:08] He's demonstrating powerful and admirable chesed, kindness, compassion, love and mercy toward Ruth, but also towards Naomi because he knows that Naomi also needs to eat.
[00:26:21] And Ruth can't wait to get home and tell Naomi. Verse 18 she carried it back to town and. And her mother in law, that's Naomi, saw how much she had gathered.
[00:26:32] Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.
[00:26:38] This is actually a bit of a whiplash for Naomi, a surprise for her because, you know, Naomi is empty and fearful for Ruth all day because of the environment that Ruth was in in the time of the judges. But then Ruth comes home with a backpack. She comes home with 30 pounds of food and some already roasted grain for Naomi. This is the first door dash.
[00:27:00] So Ruth is like so excited to deliver her this food. Verse 19 her mother in law asked her, where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you. Then Ruth told her mother in law about the one whose place she'd been working.
[00:27:17] The name of the man I worked with today is no, no, no, no, Boaz.
[00:27:23] So the guy that has now been casually mentioned in verse one and we see a little bit of his kind of courtship stuff, he is now center stage. And Naomi is pumped about this verse 20. The Lord bless him. Naomi said to her daughter in law, he has not stopped showing kindness.
[00:27:44] Anybody want to guess what Hebrew word is translated kindness?
[00:27:49] Chesed.
[00:27:51] It's time we all said it together. One, two, three. Chesed. Yeah. That thing you felt on the back of your neck was the person saying it behind you.
[00:27:58] He has not stopped showing chesed to the living and the dead. She added, that man is our close relative. He is one of our kinsman redeemers.
[00:28:12] So kinsman, redeemer.
[00:28:15] The word redeem means to buy back or to pay the price.
[00:28:19] So this is why we talk about Jesus being a redeemer. This is what he did on the cross. He redeemed. He paid the price for the guilt of our sin. He took that on himself. That's why we say we've been redeemed. Or we talk about redemption or Jesus is the redeemer. That's where that comes from. Okay, but then the second part of it or the first part, kinsmen.
[00:28:41] So we don't use the word kin much. I think my granddaughter probably will start using the word kin. But here we would say relative or family.
[00:28:51] So the way we might talk about it is family redeemer or family buybacker, if you will. So last week we were introduced to the ancient law of levirate marriage. Quick summary. Married guy dies without any children to carry on his name and his legacy and his property.
[00:29:08] So his brother or next closest relative marries the widow, hopefully she has a son.
[00:29:15] And then the name of the dead guy will carry on along with his legacy and inheritance. That was a big deal in the ancient world. Well, now we got another concept that we got to grasp, and that's the family redeemer concept. The family redeemer was the adult male blood relative who serves as an advocate for any vulnerable or unfortunate clan member. Okay, so some examples would help.
[00:29:44] The family redeemer would assist in a lawsuit that you were in.
[00:29:50] Or the family redeemer would care for a widow, take care of her.
[00:29:55] The family redeemer, if you find yourself in financial problems and you have to even by law, sell yourself into servitude to get out out of that financial problem, well, the nearest relative, the family redeemer would actually buy you back and then give you your freedom. That's what a family redeemer does, or you run into financial trouble and have to sell your land. Now selling your land is unthinkable in Israel because the land is promised, which is what made Elimelech move so egregious as he's leaving his promised land.
[00:30:30] And if you had to sell your promised land, your land, your nearest relative would buy that land or buy back that land so that then you can work it and gain some dignity and income and legacy and be a participant in the promise. Okay, you get it. So that's family redeemer stuff. Under the umbrella of family redeemer is the levirate, levirate marriage.
[00:30:56] So Naomi is pumped because Boaz is a relative and he's already acting like a family redeemer. He might be the guy. And so she is saying, ruth, don't swipe left, right? Like don't ghost him, don't screw this up. It's Boaz and he's one of our redeemers. Verse 21. Then Ruth, the Moabitess said, he even said to me, stay with my workers until they finished harvesting all the grain.
[00:31:31] Again, the Moabitess, the Moabitess still stressing her foreignness, which makes the hesed love of Boaz even that much more significant.
[00:31:42] Because in that storyline of emptiness and fullness, Boaz is filling. And that's what chesed does when you experience chesed love from somebody, that kind of loyal, covenant keeping, merciful love from somebody, or when you give it to somebody, it fills you. That's what's happening. Verse 22. Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter in law, it will be good for you, my daughter, to go with his girls, his employees, because in someone else's field you might be harmed.
[00:32:15] We're reminded again of the plight, poor foreign widow, that word harmed. You know, there's a theme of danger in these first two chapters, isn't there? And that word really means physically attacked or molested or raped.
[00:32:31] It is the time of the judges when there has been a pattern of no restraint. And everybody did whatever they wanted to do to whoever they wanted to do it to. And the strong then mistreat the weak. And in that society there was nobody more vulnerable, well, than Ruth Foreign. She comes from a hated country, poor widow woman, but she is now a protector.
[00:33:00] She's got somebody to call in a drone strike. It's Boaz, verse 23. So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And that's eight weeks.
[00:33:15] That means she has somewhere between nine to 12 months of food filling.
[00:33:22] And then.
[00:33:24] And she lived with her mother in law.
[00:33:28] The providence of God is so clear in this chapter.
[00:33:33] Remember God in his wisdom and his love, caring for and directing all things in your universe, all things in your life.
[00:33:41] Ruth picks a field at random. It happens to belong to Boaz.
[00:33:45] Boaz just happens to check in on that parcel that day, and he sees her.
[00:33:52] Ruth receives such unusual favor from Boaz that it has to be God's Providence, his loving care directing all things. And she's filling.
[00:34:02] Naomi's dead husband.
[00:34:04] Elimelech is a relative of Boaz. They're from the same clan. There's a chance that this guy might be the family redeemer, the rescuer, God's Providence, his wise care. For us, it's the best man.
[00:34:19] But with that in mind, notice the last line, kind of an odd last line.
[00:34:26] And she lived with her mother in law.
[00:34:30] Why does it say that?
[00:34:33] Why does the narrator add, and she lived with her mother in law?
[00:34:37] Why is it important to know that Ruth lived with her mother in law? Which we already know that's happening.
[00:34:42] Especially when Naomi was such a bitter woman.
[00:34:48] Well, the reason that line is there is because of the silence of the eight weeks.
[00:34:57] Nothing noteworthy happens in eight weeks.
[00:35:00] Such a good start with Boaz.
[00:35:04] And then that was it.
[00:35:06] No swipe right expectations from Boaz.
[00:35:11] No third date. He paid for dinner, sex, nothing for the employees to gossip about.
[00:35:18] Not even a long walk at sunset talking about the things that young couples talk about, which is everything.
[00:35:27] Ruth got treated with remarkable chesed on day one. And then she worked hard every day and lived with Naomi. And that's it.
[00:35:37] Boaz is a bygone.
[00:35:40] So the first time reader of this, or the first time listener to this story goes, well, at least I got food.
[00:35:47] Looks like the widows are going to subsist on gleaning and good fortune and otherwise live lonely, isolated and marginalized lives.
[00:35:54] I mean, the Boaz thing was great, but Ruth just goes home to her bitter mother in law.
[00:36:02] Which brings me to a little maxim that I hope you'll remember.
[00:36:06] And it is this. The companion of Providence, brace yourself.
[00:36:11] Is patience.
[00:36:15] And we don't like patience.
[00:36:17] The companion of Providence is patience.
[00:36:21] We've got a couple more chapters, but right now we are in the silence and the imagination and the longing and the hard dirty work of eight weeks.
[00:36:33] Is Ruth going to be single and vulnerable forever?
[00:36:37] Is Naomi going to stay bitter and never get better?
[00:36:41] Is our emptiness going to only be filled by food and not by the rest of Things that a human being needs to flourish.
[00:36:49] You ever felt this way?
[00:36:52] God seems silent. Things aren't moving. You're left wondering. You're tired of guessing.
[00:37:01] Well, it's normal, you guys. It's just normal.
[00:37:05] It is in the dark night of the soul that we must remember that God is actually working the night shift.
[00:37:12] Ruth is gleaning in the daytime, but God is working all the time.
[00:37:18] We are praying and seeking and searching and hoping and having trouble sleeping. But God is working and he is arranging and he is marinating and he is actually actively participating.
[00:37:31] You just don't see it yet.
[00:37:34] You're not sleeping because you're having trouble trusting. But God is not sleeping because he is trustworthy.
[00:37:42] He's actually busy working behind the scenes for your good. The companion of Providence is patience.
[00:37:53] The companion of God's providence working things out on your behalf is that you settle in and trust him and wait for it to come, to fulfill. Fulfillment, fullness.
[00:38:09] Now that would be a really depressing way to end. And so I've told you that we're only doing this verse by verse, one chapter per Sunday.
[00:38:20] But I gotta give you a little peek.
[00:38:22] Here's the first two words of chapter three.
[00:38:28] One day.
[00:38:31] Hmm.
[00:38:33] One day.
[00:38:35] Chapter three starts with one day.
[00:38:41] Something's coming.
[00:38:44] The companion of Providence is patience. And one day is coming.
[00:38:50] God's Providence, his chesed, his loyal love, his covenant keeping, promises to you, promises that that one day is coming when you are asking the question, God, are you there?
[00:39:06] What he's doing is going, oh, yeah.
[00:39:10] And one day you'll know.
[00:39:15] One day the waymaker is going to make a way.
[00:39:19] One day, the man, sorry, the God, capital M man, who's got good plans for you, going to reveal them.
[00:39:29] It's going to be a powerful day.
[00:39:31] You might ease into that day. It might happen all of a sudden, suddenly, but one day, one day, all of this stuff, all of the eight weeks of grinding is going to be revealed. What God's purpose was and his plan for you. Your one day is coming and we're going to learn about Ruth's one day next Sunday.
[00:39:59] And so let us stop here and pray.
[00:40:05] Would you take a moment to think about it?
[00:40:08] Talk to God, what you've been meditating on, thinking about something that was revelatory.
[00:40:15] Maybe it's pouring out like I'm in the eight weeks and I hate it.
[00:40:18] Or maybe you'll look back on one day and thank him. Whatever your heart needs right now to talk to God about, please do it.
[00:40:26] We, Heavenly Father, believe in your providence, your care for us, that you've got good plans for us, you're working some stuff out that we don't see. It is frankly, a little hard sometimes to sit in it not knowing what you're doing.
[00:40:41] But we want to say to you right now that we trust you.
[00:40:46] We thank you that you're an all knowing, all loving, providential God and you're working things out on our behalf and it's going to be revealed to us, or it has been. And we can look back and worship, or we can look forward and hope, knowing that you're going to keep your promises to us. And so we thank you.
[00:41:02] Will you please give us courage and yeah, patience to trust your good plans for us.
[00:41:11] In Jesus name, amen.
