Ruth 2 - God's Providence In Our Blessing

Tom Shrader explores Ruth chapter 2, demonstrating how God's providence works through seemingly random circumstances to bring blessing. He examines how Ruth 'happened' to glean in Boaz's field, showing God's hand in orchestrating events for His people's good. The teaching emphasizes the cycle of God's grace leading to obedience, which leads to blessing, which leads to greater thankfulness and obedience.

“The providence of God is like Hebrew words - they can only be read properly backwards.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Ruth

Recorded: 2011

Duration: 48 min

Themes: providence, blessing, obedience, grace, faithfulness, provision, protection, thankfulness, seeking gods will, trusting in uncertainty, single adult, new believer, struggling financially, feeling lost, young adult, questioning gods plan

Scripture: Ruth 2:1-23, Ruth 1, Leviticus 19:9-10, Psalm 46:10, Proverbs 31

Theological Themes: divine providence, gods sovereignty, redemption, biblical narrative, old testament, covenant faithfulness, sanctification, spiritual maturity

Full Transcript

Open your Bibles to the book of Ruth, if you would. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand, and the guys will bring you a copy. If you have one of our Bibles and you hit that page number, will you shout it out for me? I think it's around page 143. We looked last week at chapter one. Today we're going to look at chapter two.

We had our collective meeting this week, and I think some of the guys are thinking maybe we'll combine chapter four. We'll spend four or five weeks in this book. The book itself has a lot of different themes in it. The overriding theme is the providence of God, the redemption of God. We chose the idea of God's providence because redemption is all through this—you cannot miss it. We talked about really the providence of God, God's working in our life, even when we can't see it at that moment.

Reviewing Chapter One

Let me do just a brief moment and summarize chapter one. If you look at chapter one, verse one, "It came about in the days when the judges governed that there was a famine in the land." So there's a famine in Israel, especially in Bethlehem, which means "the house of bread." There is a time of judges, it's a time of immorality, it's a time of sin. Most would believe that this famine is a result of God's disciplining the nation of Israel.

Within the nation of Israel, there's this man, Elimelech, and his name means "my God is king." There's Naomi, whose name means "pleasant," and two boys, Mahlon, whose name means "puny," and Chilion, whose name means "pining" or "dying." So you take those together. Here is Elimelech, and he's in this setting. He is God's guy, he's a Jew, and there's famine in the land, but his thought process goes like this: "A guy's got to do what a guy's got to do." So I've got to provide, I've got to go, and regardless of how God sees it or what God says, I'm going to take charge and I'm going to go do this.

Here's what happens. "My God is king" takes his wife "pleasant" and his kids "puny" or "sick and dying," and he goes to Moab. He gets there, and the boys marry two gals, Orpah and Ruth. By verse five, they've been in Moab at least ten years, and all three of the guys die.

Naomi hears that the famine in the land is over, so she decides she's going back. She has these two Moabite women, her daughters-in-law, and she says, "I'm going." They say, "Oh no, no, no, we're going with you." Then she lays it out. She says, "This is going to be really hard. You're not from the nation of Israel. In that system, they would be provided for. The guys you were married to—their brothers would have to provide for the widow. Where they're gone, they don't have offspring, so you're all alone. You have no money, you're a foreigner, you're not desirable, nobody's going to take care of you, nobody's going to want you. You're damaged goods."

So Orpah says, "You know what, you're right." She goes back. Ruth says, "No, you're not going to get rid of me." So there's that beautiful section. In fact, we can read it again in chapter one, verse sixteen, where Ruth says, "Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried." What an amazing statement of commitment on Ruth's part.

In response to that, Naomi really doesn't say anything. She just says, "All right," and away they go. They come back to town, the town is abuzz, and they say, "Is that Naomi?" She said, "Don't call me Naomi. Naomi means pleasant—call me Mara, that means bitter, because I'm a bitter old lady." Verse twenty-one, at the end of verse twenty-one: "The Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me. God did this. I went away full—I had my husband, I had my sons, I had resources, land. I've lost it all, everything, and I'm bitter."

I confessed to you last week, she's the hardest of the character traits to figure out. We don't know if she wanted to go to Moab or she just simply went as the obedient wife. But we know she's coming back bitter. She has a resource that is incredibly strong, and the resource is Ruth.

Where we left off last week is verse twenty-two: "So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the land of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest." What's interesting for us is that would almost coincide to where we are on the calendar today. The barley harvest would have been middle to end of April, so just a week or so ago. The barley harvest and the wheat harvest—the two of them would last two, maybe three months. So she's got that in front of her.

Moving Into Chapter Two

We pick up the story in chapter two. Here's something really interesting to me—these are the kind of things I like. Chapter one covers a period of over ten years. Chapter two covers a period of one day. We told you last week that about fifty percent of the book is dialogue. So a lot of dialogue today. We're going to meet Boaz, Ruth, Naomi, and others.

Indeed, there is protection that we'll see today that Boaz provides. We're going to see really a couple of different messages—there are so many different messages, and obviously I'm going to miss more than I hit. But one of them's going to be the role of the man as the provider and the protector. We're going to see what, at least in Boaz's eyes, makes a beautiful woman. So if you're here and single today, I've got some little practical tips for you as well.

Grace, Obedience, and God's Blessing

Then some of the servants of Boaz will come into play along the way. The quality or characteristic we're going to talk about today is redemption in the midst of blessing. So what really comes into play today is grace. But also, as we unwrap the story, we see this idea of God's grace, Ruth's obedience, and God's blessing.

The one characteristic that separates biblical Christianity in terms of salvation from every other religion in the world is grace. Whenever we start to talk about grace, we can get a little goofy with it. We get all sorts of different responses when we talk about grace.

Some just get hard because we have a lot of conservative people who hang out at redemption churches, especially Redemption Gilbert. So you get your shorts in a knot over everything. The minute we start talking about grace, you want to talk grace, obedience—you love God, obey my command, bam, that's it. But you have this reward stuff that's in here, this blessing stuff that's in here. Now, there are distorted pictures of that. There are people that just say, "I'm just going to obey, and then God has to bless me." At the end of today, we'll try to cover the last 10 minutes or so to try to focus on that. But I want to make certain we get this story today.

Understanding Old Testament Pictures

When we see Boaz, we said also, as we're looking through this narrative, we're looking at Old Testament pictures, kind of like with the parables. I taught this week the parable of the talents. The master leaves, he leaves one guy in charge of five talents—five talents were segments of money. So he gives one guy five talents, another two, another one, then he comes back, day of accounting, and so on.

In this whole thing, as you teach it, you can go nuts with these parables. You can try to make them say this or make them say that. Generally, there's one big point. In the parable of the talents, really, the point is: God gives you much, you'll be held accountable for how you steward that.

Let me digress just a second. The point in that too is everything in our life, although we possess it, is owned by God. Your time, your energy, your effort, your money, your brains, your good looks, your hard working, your commitment, your strength, your talent, the ability to play a piano, the ability to be good with numbers—whatever it is. When Rush Limbaugh says "talent on loan from God," I don't think he means to be, but he's literally true.

Everything Belongs to God

Even on this Mother's Day, even our kids. Susan and I were married like three months. I come home one day and said, "I'm not happy, and I've given you the best 90 days of my life. What do you want?" She said, "Well, you're no bargain either." So we're going at it like this. If you have two people, and they're all screwed up, and they can't get along, what do you do? You have a baby. So now we have a baby. We're stuck on stupid here. We're just stuck.

Well, in the middle of this, God saves us. What we learned about our baby was that Sarah was not our baby. She was God's baby that He had entrusted to us. Even on this Mother's Day—and I'm not going to hump all this language—but mom, those really aren't your kids. Those are God's kids that He's entrusted to you. One day, He will judge you by how you stewarded that kid.

Our parenting philosophy was really easy: to raise our kids to be independent of us but dependent upon God. It's all this stewardship stuff.

Introducing Boaz

So grace, how do we handle it? In chapter 2, Naomi had a kinsman of her husband, a man of great wealth—and I'm going to say that's great valor, great character. It's not just financial wealth. This is an extraordinary guy. He's an Old Testament picture of Jesus. He's from the family of Elimelech. If you're one of these people that mark in your Bible, let's put a circle around "family of Elimelech," whose name is Boaz.

Ruth said to Naomi, "Please let me go to the field and glean—we'll talk about what that means in a minute—among the ears of grain, after the one in whose sight I may find favor." There's another word that you're going to have to—let's put an underline under "favor." We'll figure out different ways to mark them. Favor or grace, we're going to see that.

She departed and was gleaning in the field after the reapers, and she happened—we've got to find another way to put a box around that—she happened. She happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the family of Elimelech. In my Bible, because I mark all over, I just draw a line from that family of Elimelech to the second reference, verse 1, verse 3.

God's Providence in the Details

The reason I do that is when I pick up this verse, I often just pray, "God, bring to mind some stuff here maybe," because I know I've looked at it before. All of a sudden, you'll see those lines, you'll collect the family, and you'll see this idea of favor. Then you'll see this idea of "they just happened."

There's this idea of gleaning. Here's Boaz, and the name Boaz means literally "in His strength." God presents these humans in the scriptures pretty much warts and all. You get Moses—you get the good, you get the bad. David—good, bad. Peter—good, bad. Paul, same thing. Nothing negative said at all about Boaz.

Here comes Ruth, and she said, "Your people, my people, your God, my God." She comes to her mother-in-law, and she wants to talk about gleaning.

Understanding Gleaning

Now gleaning—I'll just read you Leviticus 19:9-10: "When you reap the harvest in your land, you shall not reap the corners of your field, nor should you gather the gleanings, what's left over there in the harvest. Nor should you glean your vineyard,"

nor shall you gather the fallen fruit from your vineyard. And you shall leave them for the needy stranger, for I am the Lord your God." So He's saying, listen, if your fields is square, I want you to leave the corners. And just as you harvest, you're going to drop some accidentally. Some is part of the process—don't pick it up. Because that's my program for feeding the poor, the hungry, the needy, the sojourner.

So God has a clear picture in His heart for the needy. I don't want to make too much of a political thing out of this at all, but He also said they at least need to go do the picking. I read yesterday, one in seven people in this country—now that's a lot—are on food stamps. Just give me a stamp and I go get whatever it is I want. I'm not denying need—I got need—I'm just saying, if you give somebody something for nothing, they're going to get addicted to something for nothing. And they're going to want more for nothing.

Almost 50% of the people in the country pay no federal income tax. And 20% of the people get the majority of their income from the government. Those are huge numbers. Let me tell you what—what are they going to do? Because we need hard and fast change and some of those policies and departments need to be cut. Well, 50% of people aren't paying any tax, so they're not looking to pay more tax. 20% of people are getting the majority of their income from there, so they're not going to change it. And one out of seven are eating for nothing.

God's Design for Caring for the Poor

God's plan is for us to take care of the poor. We want to do that, but He said, you know what? There's a corresponding responsibility here—they at least need to go out to the field and get it. So that's His plan, and Naomi understood it. Ruth understood it. Ruth goes to Naomi and says, this is what I want to do. And Naomi says, perfect—pick me up some extra along the way, really is kind of what she's saying.

The Providence of God in Ruth's Steps

So she goes out and here's verse three. This is so cool: "So she departed and gleaned in the field after the reapers and she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz." So here's this big, huge field and different guys own different sections. And she just happens to be walking along and she just happens to come to this field and she knows the rules and she just happens to stop in this one portion that just happens to be owned by Boaz.

It's the providence of God. We don't know how she decided to stop here. We don't know if she heard a voice—it doesn't say any of this, and I'm guessing she didn't. It wasn't written in the sky, "Go here, follow this arrow." I doubt that it was a burning bush. I doubt it was a dream. There wasn't a chapter and verse. It's the providence of God.

One author writes this: "The providence of God is like Hebrew words. They can only be read properly backwards." So you're in the midst of something and you're going to go nuts, frankly, trying to figure all this out. But a lot of times you can kind of step back and you can look at it and go, "Wow, I see what God did."

A Personal Story of Providence

So I'm in 1975, I'm in Iowa and I'm talking to a guy and it's late spring, early summer and he said, "I'm going to move to Scottsdale. I hate the winters in Iowa. I despise them, I'm done, I'm moving." I said, "Well, where's Scottsdale?" I didn't know what state it was in. And he said, "Well, it's in Arizona." I said, "I think I'll move, too." He said, "Okay."

So I move. I move from Iowa to Arizona but not just Arizona—Scottsdale. Well, on the other side of the country, Susan's in Idaho. She graduated from college. She's with the girl who was her best friend and roommate and they decide, "Listen, we're going to be in Idaho all our lives. Let's go somewhere for a year, see what happens and then we'll come back." So they decide Arizona. On the way out of town, they stop to get a map to figure out how to get here.

So they're driving down. Now, she lands in Arizona—could have been anywhere—but she comes to the Phoenix area. Not just the Phoenix area, she decides on Scottsdale. Well, I had decided on Scottsdale but I was in North Scottsdale. For whatever reason, I decided I wanted to be downtown so I moved to downtown Scottsdale, specifically 68th and Osborne.

But at 68th and Osborne, there's four corners. Two are residential, two are apartments. Susan's looking for a place. She lands at 68th and Osborne but there's four corners—two are residential, two apartments. Apartments on the east, apartments on the west. She decides to go to the apartments on the west. I decide to go to the apartments on the west.

I'm looking for an apartment, and the only vacancy they had was apartment 202, so I took it. A few months later, Susan's moving in, and she and her roommate want a place, and they want a two bedroom, and the only two bedroom available is 201.

The Hand of God in Meeting My Wife

And then I just see her, and I'm attracted to her, and this is how lame I am, right? So she's swimming laps one day, so I'm standing down there because I know she's going to end here—her towels are here—so I know she's going to end there. My best physical feature are my feet. I have perfect feet. I have absolutely perfect—they're perfect. You know like George Costanza was a hand model? I could be a foot model. I just have perfect feet.

So I'm standing down there, and she swims up and comes up to get a breath, and I said, "Hi," and she kind of looks at me, "What are you doing?" And I said, "I got cool feet, huh?" So not many guys have ever used that line, and she said, "You know, get the towel, get out of here."

And so this started—we just happened—I just happened, she happened to be available, I happened to be available. She happened to like me, I happened to like her. It all worked—it's coming together like a hand in a glove. And you look, and it's just been happening.

I come down, we come to Phoenix, I need a job. And my friends say, "You got to get into real estate." I said, "Oh my gosh, showing houses, I'd be out of my mind."

mind. And they said, "No, commercial, it's easy." So I got onto Coldwell Banker, which at the time I think still is the best company in the town. What I didn't realize—because I'm thinking, why would they not hire me? Just give me a desk, get out of the way—but what I didn't know, literally to this day, I don't know anybody in the last 30 years who's gotten a job there who wasn't referred in. I just walked in off the street.

They just happened to put me in an office where two guys one day were talking, and I just happened to overhear them at a point that I'm very low in my life talking about them going to a Bible study. Though they never invited me, I just happened to ask if I could go, and I happened to show up the day that Larry Wright happened to be teaching from the book of Romans, and I happened to hear the gospel. Six days later I happened to come to Christ in repentance and faith, and right after that, Larry happened to develop an... see what that is?

So can I go in and start to orchestrate all this and God's moving on? I don't know, and this isn't to generate fatalism, because we're going to see responsibility and decisions. I mean she decided on that film, so how do you make a decision? How do you make those decisions in your life? How do you figure out what college to go to? How do you figure out whether to date somebody or marry somebody? If you're going to get married, where do you go? How do you make those decisions? Are they just all random?

Making Decisions Under Providence

No, there are some processes, so next week we're going to talk about providence and decisions, but today it's really on God's blessing. So she goes out, isn't that great? And she goes out, and there's our boy, Boaz.

Verse four: "Now Boaz came from Bethlehem"—He's a picture of Jesus—"and he said to his reapers, 'May the Lord be with you,' and they said, 'May the Lord bless you.'" Talk about no management labor problems! Look at him with his servants. So He is a man who's not just financially wealthy, He's wealthy of character. He's wealthy in His worship of God. He loves His people.

The Character of Godly Leadership

I think this is magnificent. Those of you that are bosses, you're afraid, "Oh, if you show them you care, they'll take advantage of you." Some will, but you know what you're going to get? You're going to get this back. So you start doing this. Look at the Google employees—I know there's always exceptions. Look at Starbucks. Look at Whole Foods. All these companies pay well, benefits well, treat their people well. You go in there, and they care about you. I'm sure there's other companies. But you see that.

We did this little self-evaluation the other day, and they said, "What kind of environment, work-wise, do you not do well in?" I said, "Top-down, heavy authoritative, lots of rules. Not interested." I don't mind rules, and I don't mind a boss, but I want a Boaz. He just gets it.

Boaz Notices Ruth

And so then Boaz said to His servant in verse five, "Whose young woman is this?" So He says, "Who's the chick who's gleaning over there?" Now, we've had long discussions, because there's nothing in here that says she was physically attractive. And there's nothing, by the way, in here, at least as far as we're going to go today, that would in Him say there was anything physically compelling about her.

So think about it. She's a foreign gal, probably doesn't speak the language well, she's sweating, she's out there picking up this stuff. There's just nothing—I may be carried away, but my point is, she just didn't come out of a bath with a pedicure and a new fragrance. That's not going on here.

And He says, "Who is she? Does she belong to anybody? She taken?" Because a girl like that, you gotta believe the guys are going to gobble her up.

The Servant's Report

And the servant said, "She's a young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab, and she said, 'Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves,' and thus she came, and she has remained from morning until now. You can't stop her—she's a machine. But she's sitting down and she's taking a breath. She's resting right now. That's who she is."

In the Jewish scripture, the book of Ruth immediately follows the book of Proverbs. So if you're reading through that Jewish literature, you finish Proverbs 31—this picture of what a woman is and what she's to be, and it talks about hard working and qualities and character, and she's entrepreneurial and all the other things—and then your next page, you meet Ruth.

Character Over Physical Attraction

So here's this gal, Ruth, and Boaz is absolutely smitten with her. He sees something totally different about her, and I'm okay, maybe, that there's a physical attraction, but there's something that's way deeper than that.

I watched an interview with Rob Lowe the other night—by the way, it was terrific—and He was talking about how He's been sober 21 years. He and Charlie Sheen used to hang out a lot, and this is going to sound... I probably shouldn't even say it, but I don't mean it this way. Rob Lowe was known for a lot of the really beautiful women He dated, and He married this gal who was His makeup person on one of the movies He was doing. She said, "We just connected, we were best friends, and I just knew she cared about me and she didn't want anything from me," and He said, "I think she's really hot."

Now they had her picture up. I guess she's hot—I don't know, she's lukewarm—but I mean, here's this guy, and I mean this: Rob Lowe was great in this interview, but it was that it wasn't just that He got the gal with the prettiest face and the nicest figure and the best hair and all. He just said, "No, there was something about her that was different than everybody else." So girls, I'm just telling you that, and guys too, because—

Ruth's Availability and God's Timing

Other guys go, "Oh, the girls are taken." Ruth wasn't. I see gals all around Redemption Church in studies I do—great, young, single gals, many who are desperate to find a guy because they don't think there are many guys. But there are Boazs out there. Not many, but there are Boazs out there, and there are a lot of Ruths.

How do you find them? I'm just telling you, you can go through whatever, and I'm not down on any of that stuff. But the best way to find them is just live life and live it for Christ and do what you're going to do, and God's just going to bring somebody in there. I know that's a crummy answer. I hate that answer, but it just happens that way.

It just kind of, you know, you're hanging out. I was talking to somebody, and where'd you meet your wife? "I decided to work in children's ministry. She had a kid in children's ministry. We got married." Half of you can be that way. God'll do these things. You just be the person God's called you to be—the guy, the gal—do your thing. If God's got that person, He can bring them together. He can bring her from Idaho, Iowa, anywhere around. He can do that. That's what He does. That's the whole point here.

Now that's not an excuse to do nothing. Because we can do the same thing as it relates to work or any issue, but I still have a responsibility to work, to prepare, and to do all the things I'm supposed to do.

Boaz Offers Protection and Provision

Here's what Boaz—Boaz gets who she is, and he understands it. She's been gleaning, and now in verse 8, Boaz said to Ruth, "Listen carefully my daughter, do not go to glean in another field." I don't want to lose you, babe. "So don't be going over, because I've never trusted more. So don't go over there and start gleaning over there. Furthermore, don't go on from this one, but stay here with my maids. Let your eyes be on the field which they reap. Don't be looking around—go after them. Indeed, I've commanded the servants not to touch you."

I'm going to give you protection, and when you're thirsty, give you water from the jar that the servants drink up. So there you go, guys, that's what a girl's looking for: protection, security, somebody to love them, somebody to care for them. You can talk about all the other stuff, but that's kind of what you're after. Guys be a guy, and girls be girls. I mean, we need to figure all this stuff out. It's not that hard. Boaz gets it.

Ruth's Response of Unworthiness

Look at her response. She fell on her face. I never quite got that response, but nonetheless, we continue. Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and she said to him, "Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take notice of me? I'm a foreigner."

You know what she's saying? "I'm not worthy of you, Boaz. I don't get it. I don't know what you're doing here, man. I didn't expect it. I don't deserve it. I'm just gleaning. I'm not worthy. I don't bring anything." Everything Naomi said is true.

So in the midst of all this—and I can't get it, there's probably two dozen legitimate ways to start to teach this, so I can only pick one. So you kind of pick the one that fits for you, and you apply it. Let me give you the overarching principle: Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God." And He found favor. And remember, this is pictures of salvation, so that's really us before God. That should be our response to Him.

Our Jaded Response to God's Grace

If you're one of these people that are doing worship, and they're reading, you know, the songs are up there, and you're singing, "How long can this last? I got to get through worship. I got to get motivated." I'll give you a motivation. It's the same motivation Ruth has here. God dumps all this grace on you.

I've been watching Oprah a lot lately because it's the farewell season, and I'm going to miss her. So she had on Shania this week. Missed it. DVR'd it. Got it. Two weeks ago, she had on a best friends only show where you had to bring your best friend to go. So she and Gayle are up there. They're talking about all the stuff they've done, how cool it is. There were some really great scenes.

So at the end, here's what Oprah says: "You and your best friend are going to the Maribel Spa for three days and two nights." And these gals went nuts. They were so excited. They're jumping up and down. It was awesome. I mean it was—I thought it was really cool. And then I thought, so God says, "I've forgiven all your sin. You'll spend eternity in heaven and My Spirit will indwell you here." "Yeah, that's a big one. Thanks."

They're going to the spa. You're going to heaven. They're dancing around like it's a big deal. And you're going, "How long do you think He's going to talk?" Isn't that amazing? We're a little jacked up, I'd say. And in this process, the thing that's going to focus me is when I understand the grace that He's given me.

The Lord's Reward for Faithfulness

And what in essence He now says is the Lord rewarded you. So look at verse 11, and we got to fly now, oh my golly. "All that you've done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been reported to me. And how you left your father and your mother in your land, and you came to a place where you didn't know anybody. May the Lord reward your work."

And he goes on, and he gives her instructions. And mealtime comes in verse 14, and Boaz says, "Come here that you may eat from the bread, and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar." And so she sat beside the reapers, and they took care of her. And then he tells them, when you go out and you're harvesting, he tells his reapers, "Drop some stuff on purpose for her."

Ruth Returns Home with Abundance

Well, if we're to shift to another scene, the other scene is she eventually goes home. She picks what's about 30 or 40 pounds—bushel and a half. So she's hardy stock too. And she hauls this stuff home, and she took it to Naomi, verse 19. And her mother-in-law said to her, "Where did you glean today? Where did you work like this? We've never seen anything like this. May he who took notice of you be blessed."

And she told her mother-in-law—

You should have seen this guy, his name was Boaz. Boaz means "in strength."

Naomi's Recognition of God's Kindness

And she had to say that rather than... "May he be blessed of the Lord, he has not withheld his kindness." Verse 20, key word: kindness. Underline it, box it, mark it. It's a word in Hebrew that appears 250 times in the Old Testament. It speaks predominantly of God in His reference to us, His expression of His goodness, and His commitment, and His loyalty, and His love, and His care for us.

And so back she goes, then Ruth says in verse 21, "Furthermore he said, 'You shall stay close to my servants until they have finished all my harvest.'" And Naomi said to Ruth, "It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maids, so that others do not fall upon you in another field"—don't want to get hurt. So she stayed close to the maids of Boaz in order to glean until the end of the barley and wheat harvest. So about two and a half months.

Now, we pick up right there next week with Boaz, and a strange story. I'll just tell you this: take a second, don't do it now, take a second sometime this week, and you read chapter three, and then you come in next week and tell me what it means. It's some strange stuff. We're going to have to study really hard, because on the surface there's a lot of things going on in there.

God's Provision and the Nature of Obedience

Here's what I want you to see here. Some of it really obvious, but God's provision and God's blessing. But also the idea of Naomi sending Ruth out, Ruth obediently following her mother-in-law's orders, and then God blessing Ruth's obedience.

When it comes to this idea of obedience, we talked about as we were preparing the lesson, we came up with three ideas that can be false ideas. One of them is this: I'm saved by grace through faith, I've got to obey. "If you love me, you keep my commandments." If you love me, yes, obey me. Very cold, very sterile.

The other is license. So we're talking about grace, obedience, rewards. The other is, God's given me grace, so I get rewards. It doesn't matter whether I'm obedient or not. There's a third one that's kind of this prosperity thing that says, if I obey, God will do it. If I do this, God's obligated to do that.

The Problem with Prosperity Thinking

That's my problem. I always have those problems with those stories. I talk all the time, like Daniel. Daniel goes into the lion's den, does everything right, everything goes okay. Spends the night in the lion's den. The lion doesn't eat him, he gets out the next morning. I hate that story.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, two chapters earlier. In they go, into the fire, they're there, fire's all around them, there they are burning. They come out and they don't even smell like fire. I hate that story.

Now here's why I hate the story. It's not that I've got any problem with those boys. The problem is with us. Because we have a tendency to read those stories and say, well if I'm obedient like they were, when I'm in my lion's den or my fire, God's going to get me out of it. And all of you have lived long enough now to know, that doesn't always happen.

Grace, Obedience, and Reward

The gospel is this, that we're saved by grace through faith. And for a variety of reasons—by the way, included in them, the desire for heavenly rewards. There's others for sure, so God might use us to display the gospel, so God might infect the community with our love, to please Him—there's all sorts of ways. But one of them, just for pure heavenly rewards, that's not selfish. He says if you do this, this is what I'm going to do.

So along comes the gospel. Here's God's grace. God gives me grace, I'm obedient. There's a reward. I'm thankful and that continues. Religion has the same idea, but it's not motivated by grace. It's motivated by fear. It's motivated by if I don't do this, God's going to zap me—all that kind of stuff. But that's not what's going on here.

An Invitation to Grace

Maybe you're here today and you're going, I don't have the foggiest clue what they're talking about. Well, here's what we're saying: that you can today be in right relationship with God, and that happens not through your obedience but through God's grace. You're just like in that sense like Ruth—you don't deserve anything. But nonetheless Jesus—and in this picture Boaz comes along—and He sheds grace on you. We're saved by grace through faith.

There was that point in time. You may know the day, you may not. There's a point in time where you understood that your sin separated you from God and God moves, God opens your heart. God did it, it just happened. It was in His providence. Before the foundations of the earth He decided that you'd be His kid, and you're saved by grace. You didn't bring anything to it. In fact, anything you had got in the way. You didn't think you were smart enough. You were too smart. You didn't think you had enough, you had too much. It was always in the way.

But now how do you respond? Fall on your face—the Eastern custom. You thank God, you pour out your heart to Him.

The Cycle of Grace and Obedience

If you're over in the conference center, you've already had that time where you've taken communion together and worshiped together. But for us that are here in the chapel, what's going to happen is in about a minute Justin's going to come and lead you in a time of communion. It's a response to this. And then Tim and the band are coming to lead you in songs that are response to that. If you're over in the conference center, as soon as we're done Justin will be there to close your time.

But this becomes the whole cycle of life. And all of a sudden it just begins to feed on itself. The more grace He gives me the more I obey, the more I obey the more He begins to bless in big ways and small.

God's Quiet Providence

I think God does these huge things all the time and we don't even see Him. We don't even notice. We're waiting for Him like, "Here comes the guy that's got half a leg," and if God does something—boink!—you get a new leg. That's the stuff we wait for this week.

So two weeks ago tomorrow, I'm on the phone because Susan is at a point now where she's always handled our finances for 33 years and she's been incredible. But I need to remove that burden from her now, so I'm trying to do it. I've never been to an ATM. I don't have a debit card. My ATM is I go, "Susan, I need money," and then she gives me money and I go, "Okay." So I'm learning all this stuff.

Well, I'm on the phone with this guy and I give him a credit card for something. That was two weeks ago, so not last Monday—the Monday before. Last Thursday, my wallet—I have a wallet. Here it is. This is my wallet. I use this and I keep all these ones in it. Then I have another little thing that I keep credit cards in.

The Missing Credit Card

Thursday I realized I can't find my credit card. Where did I have it? Oh yeah, it's at home because I had it out talking to the guy on the phone. I go through the day, I go home, I look everywhere. I cannot find that credit card. I turn that house upside down.

The next morning I'm on my way to the bank, and I'm serious about this—I think this is a gigantic God thing. The next morning I'm brushing my teeth. I don't have to do much because it's electric. All I have to do is hold on. I'm holding on, so I'm not even brushing my teeth—I'm holding on to this—and I get a vision of me in the car reaching under the seat and pulling out a credit card.

So I go out and get in the car. I have a Volkswagen Passat. Well, there's no room. There's a little motor that moves the thing around because apparently I'm not agile enough to do it on my own. So there's nothing in there. So I start pulling stuff out. I'm pulling out—yeah, I found Jimmy Hoffa's ear. I'm pulling out stuff. There's stuff flying out of there—pens, things, everything. I can't find it. I clean out everything under Susan's side, under everything.

God's Answer in an Unexpected Way

So I get the idea, "Well, you're kind of a fat toad. Why don't you back it out of the garage so you can get under there?" I get under there. I can't get anything. I cut my hands, I'm complaining. I'm sitting there saying, "Okay, this was just stupid," and out falls the credit card.

I started to tear up and I'm going, "You know what, God?" Because I have not been very—I have not been a good boy for You to give me that. I know that sounds like a really little deal, but that was gigantic. That was totally Him.

Obviously I put the card there, but that's the stuff He does all the time. I'm telling you that if you're waiting for these big moments, they'll come. But there are moment after moment, day after day, where He's just sparing you, moving you, providing. Does He always do it? No. Do I think the next time I lose my credit card I'm going to go right away and go, "I know what to do. I'm going to brush my teeth. That's where God speaks to me. Not even brush them, just hold it"? Well, no. But that's what He did.

The Pattern of Obedience and Blessing

I'm just telling you there's that obedience, and then He blesses you, and then you're thankful for that blessing. He tends to bless you more as you're obedient to Him. It doesn't mean life isn't tough. I mean, I'm on my way right now—I'm going to say amen to you and I'm going to the grocery store to get groceries. I talked to Susan between services and she just said, "I feel so sick." It doesn't mean that's going to go away. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. He's a great God who's redeemed you.

An Invitation to Know Redemption

Now if you don't know what it means to be redeemed, when we're done here in the front of the conference center and in the front of the chapel, there's going to be men and women who are here who for that moment in time exist for one reason—and that's to answer your questions and spend time with you. So if you're in the conference center, Justin's right up right now and he's going to say thank you and give you some instruction. If you're here in the chapel, Justin will be out in a second to lead us in our time of communion.

Father, thank You for these amazing truths. They are from You and they are of You, and God, we thank You for Him. We just pray that You would continue to use us in a way that would bring honor and glory to You. We love You because You first loved us, Father. Now we pray that we would obediently follow You and know that part of that is the reward, the blessing, the joy that we have of knowing we're in right relationship with You. God, we love You. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.