Hall of Heroes: Ruth

13^th Sunday after Pentecost,

August 10, 2008

 

We’re starting a new series today called, “The Hall of Heroes.”  We’ll be taking a look at some of the bigger known – and lesser known – people in the Bible, examining their lives, and seeing how God used them and drew close to them in spite of their sins and shortcomings.  Most of all, we’ll be looking at how Jesus and His cross are found throughout the Bible.

We’re starting today with Ruth.  Ruth’s story is found in the book of Ruth, which is the 8^th book in the Old Testament.  I invite you to take out your Bibles, and turn with me to the opening chapter of Ruth.  The order goes: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy – the Torah, or Pentateuch, written by Moses through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that tells the story of God’s people from day one of creation to the Exodus out of slavery in Egypt and getting ready to step into the land God promised them.  After Deuteronomy comes Joshua, which tells what happened immediately after Moses died and the people walked into the promised land. 

After Joshua we have the book of Judges, which tells of the people in Israel after they took the promised land as described in the book of Joshua.  Judges tells how they fell in and out of love with God, and how God’s love for them never ended, but rather He continued to save them over and over again by bringing judges, or rulers, to their rescue up until the time God established a kingly monarchy for His people.  Finally we have the book of Ruth, which is a little, but very important, sidebar that took place during the time of the judges.

To put this book in context and tell what happened, around 1250BC an Israelite family moved to the region of Moab during a famine, and there the two sons fell in love with, and married, Moabite women.  During the course of time, the husband and two sons died leaving just the wife and two daughter-in-laws behind.  The famine ended, and the wife, Naomi, decided to go back home.  One of the daughters-in-law stayed in Moab, and the other – Ruth – pledged herself to Naomi and went back with her.

Moab was a region of area on the southeast side of the Jordan River.  The country, or region, of Moab was named after – not surprisingly – the man named Moab who settled it.  Moab was a person who was saddled with a bad reputation, it was almost like he never had a chance.  About a thousand years earlier than the events in the book of Ruth there were these two cities called Sodom and Gomorrah.  We all know the story about the abominable sins that raged there, and how God sent fire and brimstone to destroy them.  If you were in our Adult Discussion last year, you may remember the pictures we looked at of the sulfur balls that are still found in the area where Sodom and Gomorrah were.  These sulfur balls are not found anywhere else.  We all know about Abraham’s nephew, Lot, and his wife and two daughters running away from Sodom and Gomorrah, and Lot’s wife turning to look back and being destroyed – turned into a pillar of salt.  What most people don’t know is what happened after that.

When Lot and his two daughters finally got far enough away from the two cities, they took refuge in a cave.  The two daughters, having lost their mother and fiancés, thought there was no hope for them to have a life anymore.  So, they devised a plan to secure their future: they would each get pregnant and have a baby.  There was only one problem with this plan: there were no men around except for dear old dad.  On two separate nights, both the girls got their father drunk and slept with him in order to get pregnant.  Both did, and one of the babies born of this incestual sin was Moab.

As an aside, do you see what happened here?  The daughter’s lived surrounded by sin gone unchecked, and it got into their hearts and minds.  When they felt they needed to take matters in their own hands, they only did what they thought was the most logical thing to do.  Sin has a way of taking over – of even sounding rational – when we are not immersing ourselves in God’s Word, and when we are staying away from God’s people.  That’s yet another reason why it’s so important to read and study your Bibles and continue to come to church.  But, that’s another sermon for another time…  Back to Ruth.

Because of his background and the life Moab then lived, there was constant friction and animosity – read, “hatred” – between the Israelites and the Moabites.  That these two nice Israelite boys married Moabite women would have been a scandal to the people at the time of Ruth.  Now, in your Bibles, take a look at Chapter 1, verse 16  "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."

You can underline that last part – “Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.”  Even to this foreigner God’s grace was extended, and she knew she would not be turned away.  The same is true for us.  It doesn’t matter where we come from or what we’ve done.  It doesn’t matter what our background, our parentage, or our sins are.  God’s mercy and grace is given freely to each of us.

Ruth went back to Bethlehem with Naomi, and met a man named Boaz.  Boaz was a good ol’ farm boy.  He owned fields of wheat, and as was the practice of the time, after his harvesters went through and picked the wheat, anything that was left behind was made available to the poor and needy – and a widow with a Moabitess daughter-in-law together definitely qualified as needy people.  When Boaz met Ruth, he told his harvesters to leave behind a little extra for Ruth. 

Boaz was also a relative of Naomi’s and the law gave him the right to ‘redeem’ or purchase and keep for himself, all of Naomi’s late husband’s holdings.  The one who did this though, also became responsible for all the living people left in the household.  It was because of this, that a relative closer to Naomi than Boaz refused to redeem Naomi’s late husband’s holdings: he didn’t want all the responsibility of the other people that would come along with it because it might interfere with his own goals and future.

Did you follow all that?  Basically, Ruth and Naomi went ‘back home’ with not much more than the shirts on their backs, and through a series of God-ordained circumstances, Ruth met a relative of Naomi’s, and the two women found themselves in a situation of being taken care of by a good man named Boaz, and the potential of losing Boaz’s care to a not-so-good man who really only thought of himself.

Now, let’s pause here and go to Jesus.

The whole concept of being redeemed in the Old Testament means that all the old things are wiped away.  The debts, the problems, the issues of your past become the debts, problems and issues of the one redeeming you.  However, there were also very strict rules about who could and could not redeem someone. 

We call Jesus our Redeemer, and that is true.  When He redeemed, or purchased us, He took our debt of sin, problems and issues on His own shoulders, and He did it fulfilling the Old Testament regulations.  Remember, Jesus said, “I didn’t come to abolish the law,” that is, “I didn’t come to wipe out what you all call the Old Testament and make it non-applicable to you,” He said, “I came to fulfill the law.”[1]  That is, “I came to make sure everything is done as it needs to be done, and pass the benefit on to those who believe in me.”  So just what are the regulations about being a redeemer?  You can write these in the margins of your Bibles.

First, in order to redeem someone in Old Testament times, the person doing the redeeming had to be related by blood to the person being redeemed.  I could not redeem you, and you could not redeem me, because we are not related by blood.  Jesus could though (and you can write these scripture references next to this first note), because He is related to us.  John 1:3 says that through Jesus all things – including people – were made, and John 1:14 says Jesus took on flesh and blood and became a living, breathing man.  Our Creator, who made the blood in our veins, became a person with the same blood in His veins.  We are related to Jesus because He is God, and God is our Father.

The second thing needed to redeem someone was that the person had to be able to pay the price of redemption.  You might be related to someone, but if their debt was too high, you might not be able to afford to take it on and make it your own.  Jesus is the only one who was able to pay the price of our redemption.  It took the sacrifice of a perfect, sinless person to pay our debt.  1 Peter 1:18-19 says this: "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect."

He is related to us and He is perfect.  The third requirement is that the one doing the redeeming actually wanted to do it.  It was something the person desired and not something that was being forced upon him.  Hear this now: Jesus wants you.  He wanted to redeem you.  Hebrews 12:2 says "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."  Know what the joy set before Jesus was?  It wasn’t the cross or knowing that He would rise again.  The joy set before Jesus is you.  It’s you in heaven with Him forever.  For the joy of having you, Jesus willingly embraced his cross and took all the physical torture and even separation from God the Father Himself so that in the end He can spend eternity with you.  He loves you with a mad, passionate love that will not let you go.  He not only was willing to redeem you, He’s the one that set the whole process up so He could!

Finally, the fourth thing needed to redeem someone is that the person doing the redeeming had to be free himself.  A slave can’t redeem a slave; one who is in debt over their heads can’t bail out someone else in debt.  Jesus wasn’t bound to anything.  In fact He even said in John 10:18, “No one takes {my life} from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.  I have authority{or the ability} to lay it down and authority {or ability} to take it up again.”  The only reason He had the ability to do this is because He is God, and as such isn’t in debt or under the thumb of anyone.

Jesus is our Redeemer, and through His death and resurrection, all who believe in Him as their only Lord and Savior are destined for Heaven.  Our Redeemer lives, and one day He will come back to take us to the place He’s been preparing for us. 

Boaz went forward and paid the price of redemption for Naomi.  He took on her debts and household, and because of that also came to be closer with Ruth.  The two of them married and had children.  However, that’s not the end of the story.  Turn with me in your bibles to the end of Ruth, chapter 4, verse 17.   Boaz and Ruth had a son, and Naomi took the child under her wing, like most grandmas do.  Then take a look at what the verse says: “…they named him Obed.  He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.”

Do you know what this means?  You can make a note of this in your Bibles: Jesus came from the line of David – that means that his mother, Mary, and earthly father, Joseph, were descendants of David.  If there had been no Ruth, there would be no David.  Consider this: if there had been no Moab, there would be no Ruth the Moabitess, and thus no David.  God used a child born in an incestual sin, and a foreign woman who lived her life in the shadow of that legacy, to produce the line that lead to Jesus; to produce the circumstances needed to redeem you and me. 

There is no sin too great; there is no legacy too ‘out there’ to escape God’s love.  The only way you can get out of it is to reject it – you can walk away.  Or you can let the love of God that protected these widows and made a way for Jesus to come to redeem you, wash over you and make all things new. 

Just like He did for Naomi; just like He did for Ruth.  Just like He deeply desires and wants to do for each of us.  If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation – the old has gone and the new has come![2]  Literally, the old has died and the new has been born!

It has been born through the redemption of us by Jesus – through the purchase of our sin debt, and the eradication of it.  Know that peace today!  Know that joy today!  If you don’t, please come and talk to me – I’d love to tell you more about this God of ours who is crazy in love with you, and gave all He had to redeem you.

Amen.