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The Romance of Faith: The Risk of Love
Ruth 1
Tedd Kidd was five years older than Janet, finished college before her, and started to work in a city hundreds of miles from her. They always seemed to be at different places in their lives. But they had been dating for seven years. Every Valentine's Day, Tedd proposed to her. Every Valentine's Day, Janet would say, "No, not yet."
Finally, when they were both living in Dallas, Texas, Tedd reached the end of his patience. He bought a ring, took Janet to a romantic restaurant, and was prepared to reinforce his proposal with a diamond. Another "no" would mean he had to get on with his life without her.
After salad, entree, and dessert, it was time. Tedd summoned up his courage. Knowing that Janet had a gift for him, however, he decided to wait. "What did you bring me?" he asked. She handed him a box the size of a book. He opened the package and slowly peeled away the tissue paper. It was a cross-stitch Janet had made that simply said, "Yes."
Rubel Shelly of Nashville, Tennessee recorded that story which was told at Janet's funeral after seventeen years of marriage to Tedd.
I think that the relationship of a Christian to God in Christ is somewhat like a romance. There is a courtship period during which God pursues us. There is the moment of decision, where God invites us by the Holy Spirit to become his Son's Bride, and he awaits our "Yes." Then there are the many years of marriage that follow, filled with many ups and downs, during which our relationship with God through Christ is perfected. Yes, the life of faith in God is indeed a romance, an adventure. And you can never be sure exactly what turn that adventure is going to take next. But our God is in charge and he has a good plan, and a home for us to reach in the end.
I have entitled this series of messages starting today: The Romance of Faith, because we are going to look at one woman's romantic journey with God. Her name is Ruth and her story begins in the book by her name, Ruth 1:1-22. Let us read the first part of Ruth's adventure with God together. Hear the Word of God. . . .
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.
Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
When she heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back, each of you, to your mother's home. May the Lord show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband."
Then she kissed them and they wept aloud and said to her, "We will go back with you to your people."
But Naomi said, "Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me--even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons-- would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord's hand has gone out against me!"
At this they wept again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-by, but Ruth clung to her.
"Look," said Naomi, "your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her."
But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, "Can this be Naomi?"
"Don't call me Naomi," she told them. "Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me."
So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
What do you do when the romance with God, when life itself, turns bitter? Do you take the risk of love, of loving God anyway? I want us to look at how three different women answered that question. The women are Naomi, Orpah and Ruth. When life turned bitter for Naomi she, amazingly, turned to the Lord and the Lord's people.
Here was Naomi, bereft of her husband and her two sons, living in a foreign country, without any visible means of support, and yet she had the courage to turn to God and to God's people in her desperation. "When she heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there."
Now I don't mean to suggest for a moment that Naomi was happy. She wasn't and that is made quite clear in the text for today. Naomi says to her daughters-in-law, "It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord's hand has gone out against me!" Then later she says to her old friends in Bethlehem, "Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me."
At first glance Naomi's complaining hardly seems godly. But the amazing thing is that in spite of all the bitter things that have happened in her life, the loss of a husband and two sons, she continues to trust in the Lord. She hears that the Lord has come to the aid of his people back home in Bethlehem by providing food for them, so she decides to return home. Naomi could just as easily have decided to stop following the Lord. After all, what good had he brought into her life? But she doesn't do that. She continues to trust the Lord. She takes the risk of continuing to love the Lord.
Naomi was angry with God but she did not stop dialoguing with him or following him. How much better it is to do with bitterness and anger what Naomi did than what so many of us do.
There was once a family that came down with a devastating illness. Several of the children died, and the rest suffered permanent brain damage. What investigators discovered was the father had found a truckload of discarded seed corn and fed it to the family hogs. The corn (not intended for animal feed) had been treated with something so bugs wouldn't eat it before it germinated. The hogs ate it, seemingly with no ill effects.
But when the family hogs became the family breakfast, the family was poisoned. It seems that many substances-pesticides and heavy metals like lead and mercury-do not pass through the digestive system, but remain in the body, always. In tiny doses, the effects are minimal. But over time, the effects are horrible. (Ed Rowell, "Why Am I Angrier Than I Used To Be?" Leadership Journal [Summer 2000], pp. 79-80)
That's what happens to many of us. The daily irritations, disappointments and hardships of life make us angry at God. No big deal, we think. Just blow it off. But we don't. Instead, we bury the anger, only at some later time to realize how it has destroyed our relationship with God and others.
Naomi didn't do that; she didn't bury her anger. She talked through the anger and the bitterness with God and others. Rather than turning away from God she continued to dialogue with God and she continued to recognize that he was in charge and that he was the One who could bring her out of the pit of despair.
Another good thing that Naomi did was that she turned to God's people. When she was in desperate straits, she returned to Bethlehem. How many of us, when things go really wrong in our lives, just hole up by ourselves and avoid coming to worship, turn away from the Lord's people? That is not the answer to depression and despair. Not only do we need to stay in touch with the Lord when we go into the deep pits of life, we also need to stay in touch with God's people who can support us, pray for us, encourage us, and hold us up. That's what Naomi did.
A number of winters ago, heavy snows hit North Carolina. Following a wet, six-inch snowfall, one could see the effects along Interstate 40. Next to the highway stood several large groves of tall, young pine trees. The branches were bowed down with the heavy snow-so low that branches from one tree were often leaning against the trunk or branches of another.
Where trees stood alone, however, the effect of the heavy snow was different. The branches had become heavier and heavier, and since there were no other trees to lean against, the branches snapped. They lay on the ground, dark and alone in the cold snow.
When the storms of life hit, we need to be standing close to other believers in the Lord. The closer we stand, the more we will be able to hold up. (Carl G. Conner, Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 4) That's the way Naomi handled hard times in life. She turned to the Lord and dumped her anger and bitterness upon him, and she turned to the Lord's people for support.
How did Orpah handle life when it turned bitter? Orpah turned back. Naomi encouraged her daughters-in-law to go back to their homes because she wasn't sure what hope they would have of finding husbands in Bethlehem. At first, both Ruth and Orpah insisted on returning to Bethlehem with Naomi. But when Naomi urged them again to stay behind, Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-by and, as Naomi said, she went back to her people and her gods.
Who were Orpah's gods? The chief god of the Moabites was Chemosh, a god to whom human sacrifice was apparently made. You may think, "How horrible that Orpah would turn back to serving a god like that!" But are the gods we serve any better - the gods of money, or pleasure, or convenience? You say, "But at least we don't sacrifice humans to those gods!" Don't we? Don't we sacrifice ourselves and our families to gain money and affluence? Don't we sacrifice marriages for pleasure? Don't we sacrifice one million unborn babies on the altar of personal choice every year in America?
Let me ask you this: when life turns bitter are you tempted to turn back from following God? We probably all are tempted like that. But if we turn back we will never know what blessings would have come if we continued to follow the Lord.
In December 1999, an extreme sports fanatic scaled the 120-foot statue of Christ the Redeemer on Brazil's Corcovado mountain and jumped from its outstretched arms. In order to accomplish this feat, Felix Baumgartner, 30, an Austrian, smuggled his parachute on board the little train that takes dozens of tourists up the 2,000-foot mountain to visit the statue. Once at the base of the Christ-figure, he scaled the gray stone statue, climbed on to one of its fingers, and jumped. Baumgartner's parachute worked, and he walked away in one piece from the stunt.
How many people approach life like this daredevil? Rather than turn to the One who invites all who are weary to come to him and find rest, many prefer, like Orpah, to jump from the safety of his hands. Unlike this thrill seeker however, theirs will be a far different end, for there are no spiritual parachutes for those who turn away from the one true God. (Alan Wilson, Nyon, Switzerland; reference Daily Telegraph [London, 12-4-99])
By contrast, how did Ruth handle life when it turned bitter for her and she lost her husband? Ruth, like Naomi before her, turned to the Lord and the Lord's people.
What a great witness Naomi must have been of one who keeps faith in the Lord in the midst of adversity! The fact that Naomi kept following the Lord even when bad things happened in her life, must have influenced Ruth to commit her life to Naomi's Lord. This just goes to show that the way you handle bitterness in life will affect others.
David Atkinson writes, "How often the Lord uses the experiences of his people, especially in times of affliction and difficulty, in pointing others to himself. When Moses went to meet Jethro, his father-in-law, he told him ?all that the Lord had done to Pharoah and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them.' Jethro rejoiced in the gracious deliverance from God: ?Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods.'
"Likewise, Paul, shut in prison under Roman guard, which he regards as part of being ?on duty' for Christ, writes to his readers in Philippi: ?I want you to know, brethren, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel'. Through his sufferings, the church was stirred to a new devotion, and Christ was preached.
"Here in our passage, the Lord is bringing Ruth to faith, surely using Naomi's experience of grace through affliction as a persuasive testimony to himself. A God who makes himself known in the valley of the shadow can be trusted in the more comfortable days as well."
So Ruth takes the risk of choosing a new way, the risk of choosing to love and follow the Lord in the midst of her pain. Ruth also chose to identify herself with the Lord's people, specifically with Naomi.
Choosing to love is always a risk. There is the risk of love in marriage, the risk that the other person will hurt us or leave us or die on us. There is the risk of love in childbearing, that we might lose that child before he or she comes to maturity, or the risk that they will spurn our love. There is the risk of loving our enemies, that the other person won't extend the same olive branch to us. And there is the risk of loving God. We are afraid that at some point down the road we will find out that we have been "had" or that God will demand more than we can give.
C. S. Lewis once wrote, "There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable."
When it comes to the risk of loving God, aren't the odds in our favor? For if we invest our lives in loving God and serving him through Christ, then find out at the end that he was not real, what have we lost? But if we refuse to love God and serve him through Christ, and come to the end of our lives, only to find out that he is real, then we will, potentially, have lost all.
A young woman had planned a small family wedding at her local church. When her parents arrived early on the day of the wedding to make sure everything was ready, they noticed a banner from the recent missions conference was still behind the pulpit. Its message seemed appropriate for the wedding as well. The banner had three words on it: WORTH THE RISK. True love for God and for others, is always worth the risk.
But how can we take the risk of loving God and his people in the midst of pain? We can only do it by his love, and by the faith he imparts to us. The fuller revelation of God's love has been disclosed to us in Jesus Christ, in his perfect life, his death on the cross for our sins and his resurrection from the dead. It is supremely in the cross of Christ that we see what real love is. And it is by that cross we are empowered to love him and others in return. As some poet once wrote:
Love is not passion, love is not pride,
Love is a journeying side by side;
Not of the breezes, nor of the gale,
Love is the steady set of the sail.
Deeper than ecstasy, sweeter than light,
Born in the sunshine, born in the night,
Flaming in victory, stronger in loss,
Love is a sacrament made for a cross.
Will you take the risk of loving the One who died for you on that cross?
The Romance of Faith: What Love Does
Ruth 2
We all want to know what love is. Love is the deepest need of every human heart. But if you want to know what love is then you must enter the romance of faith. And even more important than what love is, is what love does. Love is not just a feeling, it is an action. We see love in action in the continuing faith journey of Ruth. Hear the Word of God from Ruth chapter 2 . . .
Now Naomi had a relative on her husband's side, from the clan of Elimelech, a man of standing, whose name was Boaz.
[2] And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor."
Naomi said to her, "Go ahead, my daughter." [3] So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.
[4] Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, "The Lord be with you!"
"The Lord bless you!" they called back.
[5] Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, "Whose young woman is that?"
[6] The foreman replied, "She is the Moabitess who came back from Moab with Naomi. [7] She said, 'Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.' She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter."
[8] So Boaz said to Ruth, "My daughter, listen to me. Don't go and glean in another field and don't go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. [9] Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled."
[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?"
[11] Boaz replied, "I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband--how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. [12] May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."
[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."
[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, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. [15] As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, "Even if she gathers among the sheaves, don't embarrass her. [16] Rather, pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don't rebuke her."
[17] So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. [18] She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.
[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 at whose place she had been working. "The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz," she said.
[20] "The Lord bless him!" Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. "He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead." She added, "That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers."
[21] Then Ruth the Moabitess said, "He even said to me, 'Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.' "
[22] Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, "It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with his girls, because in someone else's field you might be harmed."
[23] So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
The first thing we see about love in this passage is that love guides. The author of Ruth lets us in on a little secret at the beginning of chapter 2. The author lets us know about Boaz, who, as we shall soon find out, is a potential "savior" for Ruth and Naomi.
I think we can learn from this story that God is lovingly guiding the lives of those who love him. Ruth gleaning in the fields of Boaz was a part of God's loving plan to provide Ruth with sustenance and-as we shall see in the coming chapters-a husband!
Paul says in Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
Notice Paul does not say "all things are good". We can look around at our individual lives and see that all things aren't good. My brother dying at age 50 from cancer complications, leaving behind a wife and two young sons, was not good in and of itself.
We can look around at our world and see that all things are not good. Terrorist actions around the world are not good.
Ruth's husband, Naomi's son, dying at a young age wasn't good in and of itself.
Paul doesn't say all things are good. He says that in all things, in cancer, in terrorist bombings, even in death, God works for the good of those who love him.
George Matheson was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1842. Before he reached the age of two, it was discovered that his eyesight was defective. He, his parents, and the specialists fought a heroic fight, but before George had finished his course at Glasgow University he was completely blind. With courage and faith he graduated with honors in philosophy, studied for the ministry, and in a few years' time became the minister of one of the largest churches in Edinburgh, where he carried on a memorable ministry. In addition to his preparation of services, he did a great deal of parish visitation and wrote numerous articles and twelve books. (James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited [Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1988] pp. 273-274.)
It must have been heartbreaking for George Matheson's parents to battle against a strange infection in their baby's eyes that eventually led to blindness. Yet look what God brought out of that tragedy. Though it all, George Matheson's faith grew stronger, and after twenty years of blindness he wrote the words of the familiar hymn:
O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine's blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.
Amazing words from someone who spent most of his life in total darkness-words that might never have been penned were it not for his blindness!
And just think, if it were not for the death of Ruth's first husband, she might never have met Boaz and, as we shall see at the end of the book, she might never have become the great-grandmother of King David. The Lord brought out of Ruth's tragedy not only the great King David, but also through his line, so far as his humanity was concerned, Jesus of Nazareth.
The second thing we see in this chapter is that love works. Again, love is not just a feeling; it is an action; it is doing what is best for another.
Ruth went to work out of love, in order to support herself and her mother-in-law. Ruth trusted that her life was being guided by the Lord. But she did not wait for the Lord to miraculously provide her with a living. She made use of the means which God provided for her and went to work.
Martin Luther once wrote,
If God did not bless, not one hair, not a solitary wisp of straw, would grow; but there would be an end of everything. At the same time God wants me to take this stand: I would have nothing whatever if I did not plow and sow. God does not want to have success come without work, and yet I am not to achieve it by my work. He does not want me to sit at home, to loaf, to commit matters to God, and to wait till a fried chicken flies into my mouth. That would be tempting God.
A vivid example of working love was displayed in the movie Places in the Heart with Sally Field. The story takes place in the South of the Depression era. Mrs. Spaulding, played by Field, has a husband who is a policeman. Her husband is killed in the line of duty and she is forced to support the family on her own. With no previous experience she sets out to raise a cotton crop for sale at market. The scene that is riveted on the film of my memory is the one where Mrs. Spaulding, her family, and the hired hands are harvesting the crop. We see her hands, scratched and bloodied, as she picks the cotton.
That is the diagram of love. Love is willing to get dirty, yes, even bloody, in order to do what must be done for the good of others. Love works.
The love of God in Christ is a working love. That love which God has for us led him to send his Son to the cross, where not only his hands, but his head, his feet, his side were bloodied for our sin.
The third thing we see in this passage is that love protects. Boaz sought to protect Ruth from potential harm which might come to her from his hired men, and the harm which might come to her if she worked in another field.
The Lord protected Ruth through Boaz. For as Boaz himself said to Ruth, "May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."
Everyone who is a believer in Jesus is protected under the shadow of his wings. So, you may ask, why do so many bad things happen to the Lord's followers? We are tempted to say along with Teresa of Avila, "Lord, you would have more friends if you treated the ones you have better!"
Certainly most of the bad things that happen in this world can be explained by the fact that God has given free will to human beings. Terrorists have free will to get on planes and fly them into buildings.
Why has God given us such a power as free choice? Because it is the only thing that makes love possible. If we were merely God's puppets there would be no real love in life. Apparently God thought the gift of free choice worth the risk.
We are told that because of the first human beings' free choice, death has come into our world (Romans 5:12). As a result of that free choice the creation itself has been subjected to frustration (Romans 8:20). So in some way we can't fully understand, all of the evil that happens in the world happens because God originally gave freedom of choice to the first humans, and those first human beings did not use that freedom wisely. Since then the disease of sin has affected all of humanity, so that none of us use our freedom wisely, apart from God's intervention of grace in our lives.
So, suffering is a result of the abuse of free will, somewhere along the line, and God doesn't remove all suffering because to do so would be to remove free choice. The good news is that the Lord can and does use suffering in our life to make us more like Jesus. And, as Jim Eliot once said, our lives are immortal until our jobs are done. The Lord protects us, his children, and doesn't let us die until we accomplish his work in the world.
It was just a couple of weeks before Christmas in Southern California a number of years ago. A pastor and his wife and her sister had been Christmas shopping and were driving down the freeway on their way home. It was a cold, blustery night, dark and rainy. His wife and her sister were busily chatting in the front seat of the car. The pastor's three-year-old daughter was in the backseat by herself.
Suddenly, the two adults were aware of a strange, unnatural, and horrifying set of sounds as they heard the back door of the car open, the whistle of the wind, and a sickening, muffled sound. Quickly they turned and saw that the little girl had fallen out of the car and was tumbling along the freeway.
The mother slammed on the brakes and pulled the car to a wrenching stop, jumped out, and ran full speed back toward the child. When they arrived at the child's motionless body, they noticed something strange. All of the traffic was stopped, lined up like a parking lot just behind her body. She had not been hit by any car. In fact, the car that would have hit her was stopped just a few feet short of her body.
A truck driver jumped out of his cab and was bending over the girl as they arrived at the scene. He said, "She's still alive. Let's get her to a hospital quickly. There's one nearby." He picked up the child, they all got into his large truck, and sped off to the hospital. The child was unconscious but still breathing.
When they arrived at the hospital, they rushed into the emergency room and the doctors immediately began to check her vital signs. The room was hushed. Finally, the doctor spoke: "Well, other than the fact that she is unconscious and scraped, she appears to be in good shape. I don't see any broken bones. Her blood pressure is good. Her heart is fine. So far, so good."
The mother bent over her little girl. Her eyes were full of tears and her heart was filled with gratitude for such a miracle. Suddenly, the girl opened her eyes and looked up at her mother and said, "Mommy, you know, I wasn't afraid." Startled, the mother said, "Oh, what do you mean?"
"Well," said the little girl, "while I was lying on the road I wasn't afraid because I looked up and saw Jesus holding back the traffic with his arms."
Your life is immortal until your job is done. The love of the Lord Jesus Christ is protecting you even now.
The fourth thing we see about love in this passage is that love provides. Boaz provided for Ruth so that she ate all she wanted and had some left over. The Lord provides enough and to spare for his people. Jesus says in Matthew 6:33, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
The following is an excerpt from the diary of George Mueller, who founded orphanages in Victorian England. Mueller never asked for money from others to support the ministry of the orphanages, he would just pray to God about the need. . . .
August 18, 1838: I have not one penny in hand for the orphans. In a day or two again many pounds will be needed. My eyes are up to the Lord. Evening. Before this day is over, I have received from a sister five pounds. She had some time since put away her trinkets, to be sold for the benefit of the orphans. This morning, whilst in prayer, it came to her mind, I have this five pounds, and owe no man anything, therefore it would be better to give this money at once, as it may be some time before I can dispose of the trinkets. She therefore brought it, little knowing that there was not a penny in hand, and that I had been able to advance only four pounds, fifteen shillings, and five pence for housekeeping in the Boy's Orphan-House, instead of the usual ten pounds.
August 23: Today I was again without a single penny, when three pounds was sent from Clapham, with a box of new clothes for the orphans.
Mueller was later to look back on the period from September 1838 to the end of 1846 as the time when the greatest trials of faith were experienced in the orphan work. They were not years of continuous difficulty, rather, there tended to be a pattern of a few months of trial, followed by some months of comparative plenty. During the whole period, according to Mueller, the children knew nothing of the trial. In the midst of one of the darkest periods he recorded:
These dear little ones know nothing about it, because their tables are as well supplied as when there was eight hundred pounds in the bank, and they have lack of nothing.
Another time he wrote,
The orphans have never lacked anything. Had I had hundreds of pounds in hand, they would have fared no better than they have; for they have always had good nourishing food, the necessary articles of clothing, etc.
I have never met a young child who worries. Why don't young children worry? In most cases it is because they have a responsible adult who is caring for them. It never enters their mind to think that Mommy or Daddy won't provide for them. So how is it that we have a heavenly Father, who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and who promises to take care of us, and yet we worry?
The Lord provides for his own. He will provide for you, enough and to spare, by his love, if you put him first in your life.
Finally, we see in this passage that love hopes. Ruth 2:20 is the turning point in this story as Naomi begins to hope that her future may be better than her past. When she hears about Boaz she says that the Lord "has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead. That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers."
We will see more about the kinsman-redeemer in the next chapter. Suffice to say for now, however dark your circumstances may be, there is hope because you have a Redeemer in Jesus Christ.
During World War I, a British commander was preparing to lead his soldiers back to battle. They'd been on furlough and it was a cold, rainy, muddy day. Their shoulders sagged because they knew what lay ahead of them: more mud, blood and possible death. Nobody talked, nobody sang. It was a heavy time.
As they marched along, the commander looked into a bombed-out church. Back in the church he saw the figure of Christ on the cross. At that moment something happened to the commander. He remembered the one who suffered, died for our sins and rose again from the dead. There was a note of victory, a note of triumph, a note of hope alight in his heart once again.
As the troops marched along, the commander shouted out: "Eyes right, march!" Every eye turned to the right and as the soldiers marched by they saw Christ on the cross just as their commander had. Something happened to that company of men. Suddenly they saw a picture of triumph after suffering and they took courage. With shoulders straightened they began to smile as they went.
Look to the cross on which Christ died for your sins and you too can have hope because there is a redeemer. "Eyes up, march!"
The Romance of Faith: Just the Man I was Looking For
Ruth 3
There is an interesting verse in Ezekiel 22:30 where God says,
I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.
I think that verse gives a picture in miniatrue of the human dilemma. Sin has created a great gap between God and human beings and there is no human on earth who can bridge that gap. The amazing truth, not related in Ezekiel, is that God, before the creation of the world, knowing that we would create such a gap by our sin, decided he would become a human being and stand in the gap for us. He himself became just the man he was looking for.
We have a picture, a foreshadowing, of that man, Jesus Christ, in the third chapter of Ruth. Let's read it together and see the picture of salvation which God gives us there. Hear the Word of God from Ruth 3:1-18 . . .
One day Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, should I not try to find a home for you, where you will be well provided for? [2] Is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been, a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. [3] Wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don't let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. [4] When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do."
[5] "I will do whatever you say," Ruth answered. [6] So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.
[7] When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. [8] In the middle of the night something startled the man, and he turned and discovered a woman lying at his feet.
[9] "Who are you?" he asked.
"I am your servant Ruth," she said. "Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman-redeemer."
[10] "The Lord bless you, my daughter," he replied. "This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. [11] And now, my daughter, don't be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character. [12] Although it is true that I am near of kin, there is a kinsman-redeemer nearer than I. [13] Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to redeem, good; let him redeem. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Lie here until morning."
[14] So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized; and he said, "Don't let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor."
[15] He also said, "Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out." When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and put it on her. Then he went back to town.
[16] When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, "How did it go, my daughter?"
Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her [17] and added, "He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, 'Don't go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.' "
[18] Then Naomi said, "Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today."
The first thing we need to see in this passage is The Initiative in this romance. Naomi took the initiative to find Ruth a husband. It was the responsibility of parents in those days to make arrangements for their children to marry.
Though this is a historically rooted romance between a man and a woman, I think this story also provides a metaphor of the romance of faith. Who is it that initiates the romance of faith in our lives? God took the initiative to find a bride for his Son just as Naomi took the initiative to find a husband for Ruth.
Israel is called the Bride of Yahweh throughout the Old Testament. The Church is called the Bride of Christ in John 3, Ephesians 5 and Revelation 21. God chose us to be his Son's bride before the creation of the world. As Paul says in Ephesians 1:4-5 . . .
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.
Who took the initiative in my marrying my wife? In one sense you could say that I took the initiative. I proposed to Becky over the phone from three thousand miles away at a time when we were not even dating. I sent her flowers first, and it came so out of the blue, from her perspective, that she didn't even guess, before reading the card, that the flowers had come from me! Clearly, I took the initiative in proposing to marry Becky.
But if you probed a little deeper into our story you would learn that before I ever met Becky, I met her parents. Becky's dad, Len, arranged for me to preach at a particular church when I was in seminary. Len and Barbara, Becky's mom, came to hear me preach. Unbeknownst to me, Barbara went home that day and said to Becky, "I just met your husband!"
So was the initiative in marrying Becky wholly mine? Hadn't her mother planted the idea in her mind long before I ever met Becky? And didn't Becky, perhaps unconsciously, do things to woo me? And didn't people in our church try to put us together, long before I ever had a serious interest in Becky? And why did Becky's mom say what she said that day after hearing me preach?
I think if you were to dig back even further, into the secret counsels of our Triune God, you would find that God had planned, before the foundation of the earth, to put Becky and me together. For as Paul says, God "works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." God is sovereign in all things, and especially in the romance of faith. He takes the first step in the dance. He decided to save us before the foundation of the world.
As C. S. Lewis once wrote, ". . . if Shakespeare and Hamlet could ever meet, it must be Shakespeare's doing. Hamlet could initiate nothing. . . . Shakespeare could, in principle, make himself appear as Author within the play, and write a dialogue between Hamlet and himself. The ?Shakespeare' within the play would of course be at once Shakespeare and one of Shakespeare's creatures." (Surprised by Joy, p. 214)
The whole universe and its history is God's great play. He, as Author, has planned everything. Our salvation is part of that plan. He even works our free choices into the history of the play. He stands outside the play, and yet he brings about our salvation by becoming a character in the play. And he dies as a character in the play to redeem other characters from slavery.
That is the next thing we see in the story of Ruth, a picture of The Redeemer. In chapter three of Ruth, Boaz is asked to play two roles.
First of all, Boaz is asked to play the role of levir. As David Atkinson has written,
The levirate refers to an ancient marriage institution in which an in-law is involved. If a man dies without children, the ?name' of the dead man is perpetuated through the widow's marriage with another man (for example the man's brother), and through her having children ?for' the dead man.
Secondly, Boaz is asked by Ruth to play the role of goel, or kinsman-redeemer. Again, Atkinson explains, "The goel is the responsible next of kin who acts to prevent property being lost to the family." The kinsman-redeemer can redeem people as well as property. (See Leviticus 25.) He is also responsible to act as the "avenger of blood" if his kinsman is killed. The kinsman-redeemer could act as trustee in such payments as were due in order to make restitution for a wrong caused by the sin of a kinsman. The word goel also carries the sense of the payment of a price. Sometimes it means the payment of a ransom, a redemption price, as a result of the kinship relationship.
Forms of the word goel are also used of Yahweh in Exodus 6:6-8. The Lord is our kinsman-redeemer, as we see throughout Isaiah 40-55. Jesus acts as our levir and goel.
D. A. Leggett has written,
In the actions of Boaz as goel we see foreshadowed the saving work of Jesus Christ, his later descendant. As Boaz had the right of redemption and yet clearly was under no obligation to intervene on Ruth's behalf, so it was with Christ.
And David Atkinson says,
Christ is closely associated with us (as Boaz with Ruth), being born in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3). He pays the price of redemption demanded by our old master-his own death. . . . But such a Goel could not be held by the power of death. He rose from death, ?bringing with him those with whom he had associated himself.' . . . A new family has been created by the intervention of our great Kinsman-Redeemer. We are adopted into God's family (Romans 8:15) and so are children of God-and fellow heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16-17). . . . Christ our Goel, like Boaz for Ruth, is related to us, able and willing to redeem.
Just as Boaz acts as levir and goel for a specific person-Ruth-so Jesus acts as levir and goel for a specific people. In Matthew 1:21 Joseph is told by the angel to name Mary's child Jesus, "because he will save his people from their sins." His people in this context clearly means the Jews. But in John 10 Jesus says he is the good shepherd and that he has two sheep-folds-a reference to Jews and Gentiles. "The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. . . . I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me-just as the Father knows me and I know the Father-and I lay down my life for the sheep." When Jesus died on the cross he did not simply die for an unknown mass of humanity. He died for specific people. If you are a believer in Jesus-HE DIED FOR YOU!
Forty-two-year-old David Saunders waited on the driveway of his Hanover, Michigan, home for his 4-year-old daughter, Danielle, to get off her school bus. A pickup truck was stopped behind the bus. Saunders crossed the street to meet Danielle at the bus and then the two crossed the street together and stood in the Saunders' driveway.
Suddenly, David Saunders noticed that a car behind the bus was traveling too fast to stop safely before entering the crossing zone. The car swerved to avoid the pickup and went into the Saunders' driveway. Heading directly for them both, Saunders grabbed Danielle by the arm and flung her away from himself and into their front yard.
Saunders was then struck by the car and he was later pronounced dead at the scene. Danielle was treated for minor injuries at a nearby hospital and soon released.
That story, while giving us a picture of a father's natural love for his child, also gives us a picture of Jesus' redemption of us. We have the uncontrolled automobile of sin hurtling at us every day of our lives, bringing with it-death. By dying on the cross Jesus stepped in the way of that speeding car and died our death for us. He paid the redemption price for our lives with his own blood.
The final thing we need to see in this passage is The Response. What is Ruth's response to the idea that Boaz should become her kinsman-redeemer? Ruth responded to Naomi's suggestion by saying, "I will do whatever you say."
Ruth is not a pawn, or a puppet, in this story. It is not as though Ruth has no choice. She could have chosen to pursue another suitor. But she doesn't. Why? Because she has already become a part of Naomi's family. She trusts Naomi. She has met Boaz and likes him. What's not to like?
The same thing can happen with us in the romance of faith, when we become part of God's family, the Church, and get introduced to his Son, Jesus Christ. What's not to like? The choice is ours, but Jesus is irresistible.
Just as Ruth found Naomi's plan irresistible, so the person in whom the Holy Spirit is working will find God's plan of salvation irresistible. Jesus said in John 6:37, "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away." And in John 6:44 he says, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day."
I love the way C. S. Lewis describes the paradox of our free response and God's sovereign tug on our hearts. The following is an excerpt from Lewis's last official interview, with Sherwood Eliot Wirt of Decision magazine:
Mr Wirt: In your book Surprised by Joy you remark that you were brought into the Faith kicking and struggling and resentful, with eyes darting in every direction looking for an escape. You suggest that you were compelled, as it were, to become a Christian. Do you feel that you made a decision at the time of your conversion?
Lewis: I would not put it that way. What I wrote in Surprised by Joy was that ?before God closed in on me, I was in fact offered what now appears a moment of wholly free choice.' But I feel my decision was not so important. I was the object rather than the subject in this affair. I was decided upon. I was glad afterwards at the way it came out, but at the moment what I heard was God saying ?Put down your gun and we'll talk.'
Mr. Wirt: That sounds to me as if you came to a very definite point of decision.
Lewis: Well, I would say that the most deeply compelled action is also the freest action. By that I mean, no part of you is outside the action. It is a paradox. I expressed it in Surprised by Joy by saying that I chose, yet it really did not seem possible to do the opposite. (God in the Dock, p. 261)
That's what we see happening in Ruth's life. She chose, but how could she choose the opposite? Boaz was a perfect fit for her, like a key in a lock. And so when Naomi suggests marriage, Ruth jumps at the chance. In the same way, the one who is chosen by God before the foundation of the world, and who is enlivened by the Holy Spirit, upon meeting Jesus, the ultimate Kinsman-Redeemer, jumps at the chance for marriage. The invitation is irresistible, don't you think?
What is your response to the Kinsman-Redeemer? Since you have such a great Redeemer in Jesus Christ, how can you reject him? As the writer to the Hebrews said, "How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3)
The Romance of Faith: What Love Is
Ruth 4
What is love? Joseph Fletcher writes: "The word love is a swampy one, a semantic confession:
See it now! Uncensored! Love in the raw.
I just love that hat! Isn't it absolutely divine.
Do you promise to love, honor, and obey?
Aw, come on-just this once-prove your love.
I love strawberries, but they give me a rash."
What is love? In Ruth 2 we saw what love does. Now in Ruth 4 we will see what love is. I believe that the highest form of love, what the New Testament calls agape love, and the Old Testament calls hesed, is a kind of love that ultimately involves a decision. This is what we see in Ruth 4. Let's look for the decisions of love in this chapter. Hear the Word of God. . . .
4:1 Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat there. When the kinsman-redeemer he had mentioned came along, Boaz said, "Come over here, my friend, and sit down." So he went over and sat down.
2 Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, "Sit here," and they did so. 3Then he said to the kinsman-redeemer, "Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. 4I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line."
"I will redeem it," he said.
5 Then Boaz said, "On the day you buy the land from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquire the dead man's widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property."
6 At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, "Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it."
7 (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.)
8 So the kinsman-redeemer said to Boaz, "Buy it yourself." And he removed his sandal.
9 Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, "Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion and Mahlon. 10I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon's widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from the town records. Today you are witnesses!"
11 Then the elders and all those at the gate said, "We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 12Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah."
13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14The women said to Naomi: "Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth."
16 Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. 17The women living there said, "Naomi has a son." And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
18 This, then, is the family line of Perez:
Perez was the father of Hezron,
19 Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab,
20 Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
21 Salmon the father of Boaz,
Boaz the father of Obed,
22 Obed the father of Jesse,
and Jesse the father of David.
Love is a decision. Ruth's nearest kinsman didn't have to act as goel or levir for her. In fact, Ruth's nearest kinsman chose not to. This highlights the voluntary character of love.
Boaz didn't have to marry Ruth either. But he chose to, out of love for Ruth. Boaz had not spent time in a long courtship with Ruth. They didn't date over many years. He barely had time to fall in love with Ruth. But Boaz chose to marry Ruth because it was the best thing for her and for her mother-in-law Naomi.
Love is a decision to do what is in the best interest of another. Joni Eareckson Tada writes,
Always, love is a choice. You come up against scores of opportunities every day to love or not to love. You encounter hundreds of small chances to please your friends, delight your Lord and encourage your family. That's why love and obedience are intimately linked-you can't have one without the other.
I have referred previously during this series to the fact that Becky and I did not date before we were engaged. We had been friends for a year and a half. I had gotten to know everything about Becky that I wanted to know about my future spouse. I proposed to her based upon God's leading. But after the proposal and the acceptance I think we both had our doubts about whether we were doing the right thing in the right way. Then we met with our pastor and his wife. He encouraged us with a biblical definition of love. He said, "Love is a decision, Will. And you have decided to set your love upon Becky. Having made that decision it is absolutely right for you to go ahead and marry her." Ever since that time I have been so glad that our marriage relationship has been based upon a decision to love each other, not so much upon feelings of in-loveness, or sexual attraction, though all those things have mixed with agape love over the years in our multi-dimensioned relationship. We are not always in love, nor will we always be in love with each other. But our love for each other in marriage is based upon a decision, and upon vows we took to love each other until death. That gives our marriage a rock-solid foundation in Christ.
Secondly, I want you to see from this passage that love is a decision that requires sacrifice. Ruth's nearest kinsman didn't want to redeem the property or redeem Ruth because it might endanger his own estate. He didn't want to make the sacrifice. Boaz, on the other hand, was willing to make that sacrifice, and in that choice we see his great love for Ruth.
Jesus was also willing to make that sacrifice for us. Jesus was not afraid of endangering His estate in heaven by coming down here to earth and dying to redeem us. We read in Philippians 2:6, that Jesus, "being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped." Jesus did not cling to the privileges of heaven, but he gave up those privileges in order to become a human being, live for us, and die for us. In that action we see what love really is. Jesus said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."
A few years ago college president William Banowski interviewed Hugh Hefner. He wrote of this encounter:
I was made keenly aware of the universal appeal of Jesus during one of my conversations with Hugh Hefner in Chicago. As we talked, Mr. Hefner surprised me by saying, ?If Christ were here today and had to choose between being on the staff of one of the joy-killing, pleasure-denying churches, he would, of course, immediately join us.'
Then Banowski goes on to say,
What most offended Jesus' contemporaries, and what modern men find even harder to accept, is His insistence that to find life we must first lose it. Hugh Hefner writes: ?We reject any philosophy which holds that a man must deny himself for others.' The playboy cult holds that every man ought to love himself preeminently and pursue his own pleasure constantly. Nowhere is the clash between popular playboyism and the ethical realism of Jesus any sharper than over how the good life is to be achieved. Hugh Hefner tells us to get all we can. Jesus tells us to give all we can. Because the clash is total, there is no way to gloss over it. The popular philosophy teaches that to get life you must grab it; Jesus taught that to win we must surrender. The conflict is absolute and irrevocable.
Hugh Hefner was wrong. The true Church of Jesus Christ is not joy-killing and pleasure-denying. Rather the true Church and the true Christian finds the greatest joy and pleasure in sacrifice. And that is what real love is about.
Thirdly, we see in this story that marital love is a public decision. Boaz married Ruth publicly, in the presence of the elders of the covenant community. Marriage is a covenant in which we take vows before God and other witnesses.
David Atkinson writes,
Today's questions, ?Why get married?', ?Why bother with the piece of paper?', are to be answered in terms of responsibility to society, and a recognition that our equivalent of the elders and all the people have a proper interest in the formation of a new family group.
Public witness is always an aspect of covenant-making. And the social importance of public witness retains this aspect of the meaning of marriage. But there is a personal value here also. The public witness serves among other things as a buttress in a marriage against disintegration in those times when the relationship is under strain. It is a constant reminder that promises were made, obligations entered into, and prayer for grace and resources asked. The vows were not simply a private matter, but publicly made and publicly witnessed. A sense of accountability to the wider Christian fellowship helps us to maintain our promises and acts to support us in the harder times when our commitment to loving faithfulness is put to the test.
I have seen the fall-out from couples living together without the public commitment of marriage. I saw a family member's heart broken when the girl he was living with left him. And I witnessed the numerous difficult relationships with women that followed that one. God didn't create the idea of marriage as a covenant in order to spoil our fun. He did it to protect us and insure our greatest joy. God meant marital love to be a public decision for our own good.
Fourthly, we see in this passage that prayer undergirds the decision to love. The elders and the whole community at the gate prayed for the marriage of Boaz and Ruth.
Let me ask you: Do you pray with and for your spouse? Do you pray for the marriages represented here in this church? Prayer, by God's grace, is the one thing that can keep marriages from disintegrating in our midst.
Duane Storey writes,
Praying with their wives is one of the last things some men do. Why? Perhaps it's because prayer places them in a position of dependence upon God and husbands may not want their wives to see them in a dependent situation. Yet my wife says this about praying together: ?I feel closer to you when we pray together, Duane, then at any other time. For me, praying together is the most intimate thing we do.'
Kneeling beside the bed, holding hands, lifting up our praise and requests, and entering into God's presence may indeed be the most intimate thing any of us ever does with our spouse. It is part of God's design, because spiritual intimacy is another vital part of marriage. When a couple's body, soul, and spirit are in harmony with one another and with their Creator, physical intimacy becomes reminiscent of Paradise, and love returns to Eden.
Men, take the initiative to pray with your wife on a regular basis. I know I need to do this much more than I do. For as we men take the initiative in this area we will be undergirding our marriages for our own benefit and for the benefit of our families.
Fifthly, we see in this passage that the decision for sexual love belongs within the context of marital love. Boaz did not have sexual relations with Ruth until he had covenanted before God and God's people.
The problem with sex before marriage is that it puts the cart before the horse. When you have pre-marital sex, even with the person you end up marrying, it precludes the full development of the one-flesh relationship that God wants to grow over time. Couples who put sex first often find it difficult to develop friendship, and affection, and agape love for one another later. And then the marriage collapses because it was built solely on the flimsy foundation of sexual attraction, which does not last forever.
Again, David Atkinson writes,
In the thinking of our author and other biblical writers, physical sexual union belongs within such a context of a committed, loving, and publicly known relationship. This was not only to safeguard the rights of children. . . . The richness of the God-given significance to physical sexual relationship requires a context of permanent and committed love and faithfulness between the partners." Within such a context the greatest of human romances can thrive. Outside of such a context our sexual relationships are destined for pain and ultimately for the garbage heap.
Brenda Jo Hansen writes,
As an author, I was with my husband at my first book-signing at a secular bookstore. After explaining for the umpteenth time what an ?inspirational romance' novel was, I was feeling discouraged.
Near the end of the day, as a woman waited in line, her husband blurted out, ?I've never heard of a Christian romance before.' Before I could reply, my gallant husband replied, ?Well, I've been living one for almost twenty years.'
Christian romance is the best kind there is!
Sixth, we see in this passage that the decision to love must include loving the fruits of love.
Notice that it was the Lord who enabled Ruth to conceive and bear a son. It is always the Lord who brings about the conception of human life.
In Psalm 139 David says,
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
Human life begins at conception, under God's hand, and therefore must be loved and protected from conception. That's what Boaz and Ruth did for little Obed. They accepted him as a gift from God's hand, loving him and protecting him from conception on. Imagine what would have happened if Boaz and Ruth had aborted Obed. Not only would King David never have been born, Christ never would have been born because physically speaking He was a descendant of Obed! Human life, from conception to old age and death is precious to God and so it ought to be precious to us as well.
Seventh, you can see in this passage that your decision to love will affect future generations. You are who you are, to a large degree, because of who your parents and grandparents were. There is nothing casual about sex; it affects future generations. The sexual relationship that you may treat casually may result in a whole line of humanity. That's why I always challenge young people who may be thinking of having sex outside of marriage. I ask them, "Are you ready to raise and love a child? Because if you are not, you ought not to have sex." Sex is not something to be treated casually.
George Chauncey once wrote,
The church should be a community of dates instead of pumpkins. Pumpkins you can harvest in six months. Dates have to be planted and tended by people who will not live to harvest them. Dates are for future generations.
The family is a community of dates, not pumpkins. When you have sex with someone else as Boaz did with Ruth, that sexual relationship is going to result, not just in one child, but in future generations. So you need to consider what you are doing seriously and with awe. And we need to do all that we can, by living out God's love in the home, to raise up future generations of godly families.
Finally, we see in this story that love is ultimately expressed in God's decision to include the outcast. Ruth is one in a long line of outcasts that God brought into His covenant family. Ruth was a Moabite, a descendant of the incestuous Lot, the nephew of Abraham. There was a curse on the Moabite people. But Ruth, by God's grace, was included in God's covenant community through her marriage to Boaz.
Tamar, who is mentioned in this passage, was another outcast. Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, got a wife for his son Er, presumably from among the Canaanite people, and her name was Tamar. Er died without giving Tamar a child. In fact, Scripture says that the Lord put him to death because he was wicked. So Er's brother Onan was to act as levir and marry Tamar and give her children that would carry on his brother's name. But when Onan went in to have sex with Tamar Scripture tells us that he spilled his seed every time. He didn't want to act as levir for Tamar because it would endanger his own estate. What Onan did was wicked in the Lord's sight, so the Lord put him to death also. Then Judah promised his son Shelah to Tamar in marriage but he didn't come through on the deal. So Tamar dressed up as a prostitute and got Judah to sleep with her but Judah didn't know it was Tamar. That's how Tamar came to give birth to Perez who we read about in this chapter.
Finally, there is a third outcast, not mentioned by name in this story. According to the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1, this outcast woman was the mother, or perhaps a grandmother or great-grandmother of Boaz. Her name was Rahab and she was the wife of Salmon. But before she became the wife of Salmon she was a prostitute in Jericho and we read about her story in Joshua 2.
So what we see, in this seemingly boring genealogy at the end of the book of Ruth, is that God, by His grace, is always including the outcast in His covenant family. And what we learn from that is that if these outcasts could be included in the family tree of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, then all types of people can be included in God's family. God's kind of love always reaches out to the outcast.
The following story, which is supposedly true, comes from the time of Oliver Cromwell, leader of the Civil War in England back in the 1600's. A young soldier had been tried in military court and sentenced to death. He was to be shot at the "ringing of the curfew bell." His fiancee climbed up into the bell tower several hours before curfew time and tied herself to the bell's huge clapper. At curfew time, when only muted sounds came out of the bell tower, Cromwell demanded to know why the bell was not ringing. His soldiers went to investigate and found the young woman cut and bleeding from being knocked back and forth against the great bell. They brought her down and, the story goes, Cromwell was so impressed with her willingness to suffer in this way in behalf of someone she loved that he dismissed the soldier saying, "Curfew shall not ring tonight."
Paul says in Romans 5, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." God loved us so much that while we were still outcasts, deserving the death penalty for our sin, He became a man and tied Himself, not to the clapper of a bell, but to a cross, and He bled and died for sinners like us.
Love is a decision. God made a decision before the foundation of the earth to love sinners. Have you accepted His love for you and are you living out that love in relation to others?
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