December 6, 2022 • 21 mins
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Ruth was helpless, yet from her position of helplessness, she humbled herself to cry out for help. She did not cry out randomly; instead, she directed her cry towards the only one who could help her situation, Boaz.
Boaz, as a kinsman redeemer to Ruth, was in the position to hear her cry and answer her needs. He had already begun to assume the position of her redeemer, and her cry to him for help would not fall on deaf ears.
Join us as we continue to look at the story of Jesus through the Book of Ruth and see how the story of Boaz and Ruth paints a beautiful foreshadowing of the love of Jesus for His Church.
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Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:06):
Welcome to drippings from the honeycomb, the official
podcast of Another 12ministries. We are so glad that
you have decided to join us aswe enjoy the sweetness of God's
word, one verse at a time.
Welcome to episode three of ourjourney through the book of
Ruth, as we take a look at theChristmas story, the story of
(00:27):
Jesus. And we do it through theOld Testament book of Ruth. Now,
again, I want to reiterate thatRuth is such an interesting
story, not only because it setsup this incredible image of the
kinsman redeemer, but alsobecause it is a story about two
real people who are in the lineof the Messiah who would be the
(00:49):
ultimate kinsman redeemer forthe human race. And that's what
makes it such an incrediblybeautiful story. One that really
teaches those of us who followJesus Christ, what the heart of
God is towards us. It provides areal clear look into the love
that drove him to enter theworld that drove him to serve
(01:10):
us. And that drove him to go tothe cross. By way review, Ruth
has come with her mother in lawfrom Moab Ruth is a Gentile
woman, amoa bitis, who wasmarried to Naomi son, a Jewish
man, their family had fled fromIsrael to escape a famine. And
we know as we looked at inepisode one, that famines in
(01:32):
Israel were always a result ofGod's judgment, God had
instructed the nation of Israelthat they were to follow Him and
that if they didn't, one of theways he would punish them would
be by famine. So this family infleeing had actually been
running from God. They were nothumbling themselves. They were
not being obedient to God, theywere running from God, seeking
(01:53):
to escape his judgment ratherthan to repent. And in the
process of doing that, thehusband and both of the sons
died, leaving three womenwidowed. And we come to this
place where Naomi is sending herdaughter in law's back and Ruth
refuses to go Ruth stays withher. And then we saw them come
(02:15):
from Moab to Bethlehem, we sawthat even though it's not
recorded in the text. God'smercy to these women on this
difficult and dangerous roadfrom Moab to Bethlehem is
evident because they arrivedsafely in Bethlehem. And not
only do they arrive in Bethlehemsafely, they arrive in Bethlehem
during a time of harvest. And soGod's sovereignty is just
(02:37):
completely visible throughoutthe pages of this book, as we
see him align events to meet theneeds of these two women. And
more than that, not only isthere a harvest happening, when
Ruth goes to glean, she ends upgleaning in the field of the
kinsman redeemer for Naomi'sfamily, and the Scripture
(02:59):
definitely paints the picture ofhappenstance. Now, obviously,
there's no happenstance. This isa play on words, obviously, the
author of this book, whoeverwrote this book, is pointing to
the fact that in human terms,this just kind of was chance,
luck, it happened that she wasin the right field. But
obviously, the deeper point thatScripture is making is that it's
(03:21):
too much of a coincidence forthis to have just happened. God
clearly is scripting eventsbehind the scenes here and is
going to work his will inbringing the light of the
Messiah through this family. Sothere's no accident that any of
this happened. God is sovereign.
And he is orchestrating events.
Here. He is working behind thescenes. And of course, we saw
(03:44):
that when Ruth comes into Boazfield, he notices her
immediately and he wants to knowwho she is and why she's there.
And when he finds out that she'sconnected to this family of
Naomi and Elimelech Elimelech,who was Naomi's husband who has
passed away, he immediatelysteps in as the provider for
this family. He instructs Ruthto come and glean in his fields.
(04:05):
He tells her to stay by hisfemale servants, he orders his
male servants to strew goodharvest in front of Ruth so she
will have a better take from thegleaning and he also instructs
them to leave her alone. Don'tbother her. If she cleans in the
wrong place. It's okay let herbe. And so immediately we see
Boaz completely unbeknownst toRuth, stepping in and caring for
(04:30):
her. He's already fulfilling hiskinsman redeemer
responsibilities, even beforeRuth knows who he is. As far as
Ruth is concerned, this is justan extraordinarily kind man who
is helping her. She does notknow until after she goes and
talks with Naomi about who he isthat he is actually someone
(04:52):
charged with the redemption ofthis family in a crisis. So we
see Bo as taking on hisresponsibility, even before
there's any pressure on him todo it, he willingly takes up his
responsibility, he willingly isseeing to the provision of these
two women of this family linebecause don't forget, it's more
(05:15):
than just the two women. This isabout family lineage, this is
about preserving a line that isgoing to be stamped out unless
somebody steps up. This is a nohope situation. If someone
cannot redeem this family, thename of Elimelech dies, the name
of Naomi's husband is gone. It'sa race from the earth. There's
(05:39):
no other way to save it. So thisis more than just two women
needing food, needing shelterneeding a provider. This goes
down to family lineage, whichwas a big, big deal in ancient
Israel a big deal in the ancientworld period. But especially a
big deal in ancient Israel,because your family lineage was
tied to your land inheritance.
(06:03):
And if you lost your familylineage, then the inheritance
went with it. And this is such agreat picture of the loss state
of humanity after the fall. Youknow, when God created Adam and
Eve in the Garden of Eden, hegave them the earth He gave them
charge over the Earth and theuniverse, to rule it to tended
(06:24):
to care for it, to oversee it tosteward it for good. And when
man sinned, he fell from thatposition, he lost that position
and his position, our positionas humans is hopeless. There's
no way back, our family line hasbeen cut off our tie to our
creator had been cut off, andthere was no way for humanity to
(06:50):
cover that gap and get back toGod. It was going to have to be
something that God did. And sowe start to see this picture in
Boaz of Boaz taking up hisRedeemer responsibility
completely on his own. He's theone who finds out who Ruth is.
He's the one who takes theinitiative. He's the one who
(07:11):
steps into the role of provider,he doesn't tell her who he is,
he doesn't say, hey, look, I'myour kinsman redeemer,
everything's going to be okay.
He is the one who instead askswho she is. And when he finds
out, he treats her withextravagant kindness by stepping
into his Redeemer role,unprompted. And this is
absolutely a picture of theTrinity stepping into their role
(07:34):
as Redeemer without beingprompted. It starts in Genesis
three, God could have slain Adamand Eve in the garden, God could
have destroyed them and said,Okay, we're going to just burn
this universe up, we're going tostart over, we're going to make
sure that Satan doesn't comeinto it, we're going to
eliminate all evil, and thenwe're going to do it again. But
he doesn't do that. Because Heloves His creation, because God
(07:57):
doesn't make mistakes. See, Godhad a plan from before time
began. And he stepped in andprovoked to make right the
wrongs. And he starts byclothing, Adam and Eve,
punishing the serpent punishingAdam and Eve and then explaining
that one will come one day totake the cursor away. There will
(08:21):
be an intervention by God intohuman history that will
eliminate the curse that willbreak the power of this hopeless
situation. And so this pictureof Boaz just mirrors that
beautiful story. And it mirrorsthat beautiful story of Jesus
(08:42):
who humbles himself and comes toearth in the form of a baby who
is born into humanity who serveshumanity, who dies for humanity,
who rises again and iscontinuing to intercede before
the Father for humanity. Thiskinsman redeemer concept is so
perfectly portrayed in thisstory. And it was done so
(09:04):
specifically by God so that wewould have this beautiful
picture of how much he loves us.
So we have Ruth and Naomi, Ruthhas gone back. She's brought
back all this food. Naomi iswondering, where did you glean
today? How do you have this muchfood that you brought back with
you? And when Ruth shares withher, Naomi immediately
(09:26):
recognizes what is happening,somehow, beyond all hope, their
kinsman redeemer is beginning tostep forward to take
responsibility for them. And soshe instructs Ruth, how to go
about petitioning him tocomplete the redemption,
petitioning him to step forwardand marry her and raise up a
(09:50):
line to Elimelech. Naomi's deadhusband, this is important
because if Boaz marries Ruth,any children they have have,
especially sons that would carryon the family lineage will not
carry on his own lineagethey will carry on Elimelech
lineage. And this is what werefer to in the Old Testament as
leveraged marriage, it is theidea that a kinsmen someone
(10:14):
within the family will step inas a husband and procreate with
the widow in order to preservefamily lineage. But it's
definitely a negative for thefamily member that steps in,
it's a negative because his linewon't be continued, any children
of that marriage will bear theline of the dead husband. It's a
(10:35):
negative financially becauseit's now splits his inheritance,
whatever he's going to leave tohis posterity is going to be
split. So if he had a wife, andhe had children, and then he
married this widow within thefamily to raise up a line of
succession for her dead husband,now his inheritance must split
between the two. So this is aserious negative for the family
(10:58):
member that is a redeemer, it'sgoing to cost him dearly. And so
both as his immediate obedience,immediate stepping forward to
take on this role, is extremelysignificant. And the only
devices this plan with Ruth topropose this marriage solution
to ask Boaz to save them,essentially is what's going to
(11:22):
happen. And she tells Ruth, goup to the threshing floor, the
harvest has been gathered inthere threshing out the barley
that has been gathered. In otherwords, they're separating the
grain from the stock so they canburn the stocks and taking the
grain, it's a lot of work,they're going to be sleeping in
the fields to make sure theirharvest isn't stolen from isn't
taken by someone else. Sothey're going to be sleeping on
(11:44):
the threshing floor, go there,laid his feet and uncovered his
feet so that he'll wake up. Andwhen he does wake up, ask him to
save us ask him to be ourRedeemer. And so we pick it up
in route three, verse eight,nine, where it says, At
midnight, the man was startledand turned over and behold, a
(12:06):
woman lay at his feet. He said,Who are you? And she answered, I
am Ruth, your servant, spreadyour wings over your servant,
for you are a redeemer. Now,before we get into the beauty of
what Ruth actually asks him for,it's important that you
(12:26):
understand that the idea ofuncovering his feet was very
intimate. This was a veryintimate concept, the feet could
have meant anything from justthe feet, to all the way up to
the waist. And so this idea isthat Ruth is saying to him, take
this part of your robe, thisportion of your clothing that
(12:47):
covers you in the most centralpart of your body, and throw it
over me, this is a petition forhim to cover her with marital
and physically intimateprotection. This is a petition
for him to marry her and raiseup offspring with her. It's not
just a ceremonial marriage,marry me and take care of me.
(13:09):
But there won't be anyrelationship between us. This is
more than that. This is saying,marry me care for me and raise
up children to further myhusband's line because he is
dead and can't do it. And whyBoaz specifically, because he is
in the position of being aredeemer. See, it wasn't just
anybody who could do this. Ithad to be someone who occupied
(13:30):
the position of Redeemer, theyhad to have that status, they
had to be connected to thisfamily in such a way that they
were qualified to be a redeemer.
Now the idea of spreading wingsover somebody, this civilization
of incredible intimacy,protection, covering provision.
(13:53):
This stems from a beautifulconcept of God putting his wings
over Israel. And there are twospecific passages that I think
are incredibly beautiful. Thefirst one which was actually
penned by Ruth's great grandson,King David. He wrote this, he
said, He who dwells in theshelter of the Most High will
(14:16):
abide in the shadow of theAlmighty. I will say of the
Lord, my refuge and my fortress,my God in whom I trust, for He
will deliver you from the snareof the fowler, and from the
deadly pestilence. He will coveryou with his pinions and under
his wings, you will find refugeHis faithfulness is a shield and
(14:39):
a buckler. Now this concept ofRuth needing this kind of
protection, Ruth meeting, thiskind of provision really echoes
in those words of David whoknows what he was thinking about
exactly when he wrote thosewords, but I can tell you this
much. There is no accident thatRuth asked Boaz to spread his
wings over her for protection.
He and David wrote about thealmighty spreading his wings
(15:01):
over his children. There is a anincredible civilization in that,
this idea of protection underthe wings of someone more
powerful, and God himself whenhe spoke of Israel, in Ezekiel
16. And he talks about his deepand intimate love for Israel
used this language. And thischapter is beautiful, I would
(15:25):
encourage you to read Ezekiel16, because it shows God's
faithfulness and love forIsrael. But in verse eight, God
speaks this way. He says, When Ipassed by you and saw you,
behold, you were at the age forlove, and I spread the corner of
my garment over you and coveredyour nakedness. I made my vow to
(15:46):
you and entered into a covenantwith you declares the Lord. And
you became mind. This amazingpicture of a man who loves this
woman so much, that he puts theseal of his protection over her.
He says, you will be with me andI will protect you and I will
(16:10):
provide for you, and I willelevate you up. And I will give
you every good thing that youneed for life, for happiness for
joy, so that you can thrive andbe the very best version of who
you can be, so that you areloosed from any cares and
concerns of the world, and youcan fulfill the greatest measure
(16:32):
of your potential. And that isexactly what this picture of
casting wings over a bit truthmeans. God did not cast his robe
over Israel to limit Israel,Israel only limited itself
through its own sin, God casthis robe over Israel to elevate
(16:54):
Israel. That was his whole pointto bring her to this pinnacle of
beauty, pinnacle of excellence,pinnacle of righteousness and
holiness before him so thateveryone who looked at Israel
would say the favor of God restson that. You see, Ruth made this
petition and through itrecognized a few things. She
(17:15):
recognized her Redeemer, and thelove that he had for her. And in
that she recognized her helplessposition. She made herself
humble, and she understood shecould not change your
opposition, she was powerless tomake any changes, she needed
someone to act on her behalf. SoShe appealed to the one who
(17:38):
could, she remained completelyobedient. She followed Naomi's
instructions to the letter, thenshe follows Bo as his
instructions to the letter,because when he responds to her,
he gives her some detailedinstructions, and she follows
them. And then she waited withconfidence. What a picture of
Jesus Christ Jesus who coversthe sin of the world, by
(18:00):
throwing his blood over it. Hestretched out his wings over his
people, he paid for theirredemption, by doing something
they had no ability to do forthemselves. He stepped into that
role volitionally of his ownmotivation. No one begged him to
take that position. He just tookit. They were looking for their
(18:24):
deliver. When he came, theyrejected their deliver. But it
didn't matter. He did it anyway.
He took that role and fulfilledit. While he was being
persecuted for doing it. Jesusdisplays the ultimate love for
His people, by sacrificinghimself by doing for them what
(18:45):
they cannot do for themselves.
God inspired the author ofScripture, who wrote Ruth, to
give us this astounding look atwhat a kinsman redeemer looks
like, so that when Jesus woulddo what he did, everyone who
reads the scriptures could lookback and say, Hey, I've seen
that before. I've seen thatbefore, not in his pure form,
not in his greater form, not inhis far reaching of a form. But
(19:09):
I've seen it in the actions ofBoaz, in the story of Ruth. And
I know that Jesus is thefulfillment of all of that
Jesus, who came from the line ofBoaz and Ruth fulfilled the
ultimate picture set up by Boazand Ruth. And we, those of us
who believe in Him, are thebeneficiaries of his redemption.
(19:29):
We are the beneficiaries of Hislove. So as you contemplate the
love of Jesus this Christmasseason, the love that drove him
out of heaven, this is what wecelebrate. During Christmas.
It's not just that Jesus wasborn in a stable in Bethlehem.
That's what we sing about.
That'swhat we talk about. That's why
we give one another gifts tocelebrate the greatest gift. But
(19:52):
don't forget that before he wasborn before he was in Mary's
body Love drove him to lay downthe splendor and majesty of his
position in heaven and humblehimself to be born in a stable,
it was love that drove him here.
It was love for us. It was lovefor those who did not love him
(20:17):
back. Just like Boazdemonstrated incredible love to
a Gentile woman who was gleaningin his field who didn't even
know who he was. So Goddemonstrated incredible love by
sending Jesus and Jesusdemonstrated incredible love by
coming willingly to those whodidn't know him. To those who
(20:41):
didn't love him. To those whoultimately hated him so much
they put him on a cross. But inspite of all that Jesus spread
his wings over lost and dyingworld that he loved giving them
hope, giving them a future andredeeming them from a hopeless
fateI hope you enjoyed this episode
(21:08):
of drippings from the honeycomb.
If you would like to learn moreabout another 12 ministries and
the work that we are doing totrain youth ministry leaders to
bring the Gospel to youngpeople, visit another
twelve.org. If you would like tosupport our ministry, click on
the Donate link in thedescription below.
Welcome to drippings from the honeycomb, the official
podcast of Another 12ministries. We are so glad that
you have decided to join us aswe enjoy the sweetness of God's
word, one verse at a time.
Welcome to episode three of ourjourney through the book of
Ruth, as we take a look at theChristmas story, the story of
(00:27):
Jesus. And we do it through theOld Testament book of Ruth. Now,
again, I want to reiterate thatRuth is such an interesting
story, not only because it setsup this incredible image of the
kinsman redeemer, but alsobecause it is a story about two
real people who are in the lineof the Messiah who would be the
(00:49):
ultimate kinsman redeemer forthe human race. And that's what
makes it such an incrediblybeautiful story. One that really
teaches those of us who followJesus Christ, what the heart of
God is towards us. It provides areal clear look into the love
that drove him to enter theworld that drove him to serve
(01:10):
us. And that drove him to go tothe cross. By way review, Ruth
has come with her mother in lawfrom Moab Ruth is a Gentile
woman, amoa bitis, who wasmarried to Naomi son, a Jewish
man, their family had fled fromIsrael to escape a famine. And
we know as we looked at inepisode one, that famines in
(01:32):
Israel were always a result ofGod's judgment, God had
instructed the nation of Israelthat they were to follow Him and
that if they didn't, one of theways he would punish them would
be by famine. So this family infleeing had actually been
running from God. They were nothumbling themselves. They were
not being obedient to God, theywere running from God, seeking
(01:53):
to escape his judgment ratherthan to repent. And in the
process of doing that, thehusband and both of the sons
died, leaving three womenwidowed. And we come to this
place where Naomi is sending herdaughter in law's back and Ruth
refuses to go Ruth stays withher. And then we saw them come
(02:15):
from Moab to Bethlehem, we sawthat even though it's not
recorded in the text. God'smercy to these women on this
difficult and dangerous roadfrom Moab to Bethlehem is
evident because they arrivedsafely in Bethlehem. And not
only do they arrive in Bethlehemsafely, they arrive in Bethlehem
during a time of harvest. And soGod's sovereignty is just
(02:37):
completely visible throughoutthe pages of this book, as we
see him align events to meet theneeds of these two women. And
more than that, not only isthere a harvest happening, when
Ruth goes to glean, she ends upgleaning in the field of the
kinsman redeemer for Naomi'sfamily, and the Scripture
(02:59):
definitely paints the picture ofhappenstance. Now, obviously,
there's no happenstance. This isa play on words, obviously, the
author of this book, whoeverwrote this book, is pointing to
the fact that in human terms,this just kind of was chance,
luck, it happened that she wasin the right field. But
obviously, the deeper point thatScripture is making is that it's
(03:21):
too much of a coincidence forthis to have just happened. God
clearly is scripting eventsbehind the scenes here and is
going to work his will inbringing the light of the
Messiah through this family. Sothere's no accident that any of
this happened. God is sovereign.
And he is orchestrating events.
Here. He is working behind thescenes. And of course, we saw
(03:44):
that when Ruth comes into Boazfield, he notices her
immediately and he wants to knowwho she is and why she's there.
And when he finds out that she'sconnected to this family of
Naomi and Elimelech Elimelech,who was Naomi's husband who has
passed away, he immediatelysteps in as the provider for
this family. He instructs Ruthto come and glean in his fields.
(04:05):
He tells her to stay by hisfemale servants, he orders his
male servants to strew goodharvest in front of Ruth so she
will have a better take from thegleaning and he also instructs
them to leave her alone. Don'tbother her. If she cleans in the
wrong place. It's okay let herbe. And so immediately we see
Boaz completely unbeknownst toRuth, stepping in and caring for
(04:30):
her. He's already fulfilling hiskinsman redeemer
responsibilities, even beforeRuth knows who he is. As far as
Ruth is concerned, this is justan extraordinarily kind man who
is helping her. She does notknow until after she goes and
talks with Naomi about who he isthat he is actually someone
(04:52):
charged with the redemption ofthis family in a crisis. So we
see Bo as taking on hisresponsibility, even before
there's any pressure on him todo it, he willingly takes up his
responsibility, he willingly isseeing to the provision of these
two women of this family linebecause don't forget, it's more
(05:15):
than just the two women. This isabout family lineage, this is
about preserving a line that isgoing to be stamped out unless
somebody steps up. This is a nohope situation. If someone
cannot redeem this family, thename of Elimelech dies, the name
of Naomi's husband is gone. It'sa race from the earth. There's
(05:39):
no other way to save it. So thisis more than just two women
needing food, needing shelterneeding a provider. This goes
down to family lineage, whichwas a big, big deal in ancient
Israel a big deal in the ancientworld period. But especially a
big deal in ancient Israel,because your family lineage was
tied to your land inheritance.
(06:03):
And if you lost your familylineage, then the inheritance
went with it. And this is such agreat picture of the loss state
of humanity after the fall. Youknow, when God created Adam and
Eve in the Garden of Eden, hegave them the earth He gave them
charge over the Earth and theuniverse, to rule it to tended
(06:24):
to care for it, to oversee it tosteward it for good. And when
man sinned, he fell from thatposition, he lost that position
and his position, our positionas humans is hopeless. There's
no way back, our family line hasbeen cut off our tie to our
creator had been cut off, andthere was no way for humanity to
(06:50):
cover that gap and get back toGod. It was going to have to be
something that God did. And sowe start to see this picture in
Boaz of Boaz taking up hisRedeemer responsibility
completely on his own. He's theone who finds out who Ruth is.
He's the one who takes theinitiative. He's the one who
(07:11):
steps into the role of provider,he doesn't tell her who he is,
he doesn't say, hey, look, I'myour kinsman redeemer,
everything's going to be okay.
He is the one who instead askswho she is. And when he finds
out, he treats her withextravagant kindness by stepping
into his Redeemer role,unprompted. And this is
absolutely a picture of theTrinity stepping into their role
(07:34):
as Redeemer without beingprompted. It starts in Genesis
three, God could have slain Adamand Eve in the garden, God could
have destroyed them and said,Okay, we're going to just burn
this universe up, we're going tostart over, we're going to make
sure that Satan doesn't comeinto it, we're going to
eliminate all evil, and thenwe're going to do it again. But
he doesn't do that. Because Heloves His creation, because God
(07:57):
doesn't make mistakes. See, Godhad a plan from before time
began. And he stepped in andprovoked to make right the
wrongs. And he starts byclothing, Adam and Eve,
punishing the serpent punishingAdam and Eve and then explaining
that one will come one day totake the cursor away. There will
(08:21):
be an intervention by God intohuman history that will
eliminate the curse that willbreak the power of this hopeless
situation. And so this pictureof Boaz just mirrors that
beautiful story. And it mirrorsthat beautiful story of Jesus
(08:42):
who humbles himself and comes toearth in the form of a baby who
is born into humanity who serveshumanity, who dies for humanity,
who rises again and iscontinuing to intercede before
the Father for humanity. Thiskinsman redeemer concept is so
perfectly portrayed in thisstory. And it was done so
(09:04):
specifically by God so that wewould have this beautiful
picture of how much he loves us.
So we have Ruth and Naomi, Ruthhas gone back. She's brought
back all this food. Naomi iswondering, where did you glean
today? How do you have this muchfood that you brought back with
you? And when Ruth shares withher, Naomi immediately
(09:26):
recognizes what is happening,somehow, beyond all hope, their
kinsman redeemer is beginning tostep forward to take
responsibility for them. And soshe instructs Ruth, how to go
about petitioning him tocomplete the redemption,
petitioning him to step forwardand marry her and raise up a
(09:50):
line to Elimelech. Naomi's deadhusband, this is important
because if Boaz marries Ruth,any children they have have,
especially sons that would carryon the family lineage will not
carry on his own lineagethey will carry on Elimelech
lineage. And this is what werefer to in the Old Testament as
leveraged marriage, it is theidea that a kinsmen someone
(10:14):
within the family will step inas a husband and procreate with
the widow in order to preservefamily lineage. But it's
definitely a negative for thefamily member that steps in,
it's a negative because his linewon't be continued, any children
of that marriage will bear theline of the dead husband. It's a
(10:35):
negative financially becauseit's now splits his inheritance,
whatever he's going to leave tohis posterity is going to be
split. So if he had a wife, andhe had children, and then he
married this widow within thefamily to raise up a line of
succession for her dead husband,now his inheritance must split
between the two. So this is aserious negative for the family
(10:58):
member that is a redeemer, it'sgoing to cost him dearly. And so
both as his immediate obedience,immediate stepping forward to
take on this role, is extremelysignificant. And the only
devices this plan with Ruth topropose this marriage solution
to ask Boaz to save them,essentially is what's going to
(11:22):
happen. And she tells Ruth, goup to the threshing floor, the
harvest has been gathered inthere threshing out the barley
that has been gathered. In otherwords, they're separating the
grain from the stock so they canburn the stocks and taking the
grain, it's a lot of work,they're going to be sleeping in
the fields to make sure theirharvest isn't stolen from isn't
taken by someone else. Sothey're going to be sleeping on
(11:44):
the threshing floor, go there,laid his feet and uncovered his
feet so that he'll wake up. Andwhen he does wake up, ask him to
save us ask him to be ourRedeemer. And so we pick it up
in route three, verse eight,nine, where it says, At
midnight, the man was startledand turned over and behold, a
(12:06):
woman lay at his feet. He said,Who are you? And she answered, I
am Ruth, your servant, spreadyour wings over your servant,
for you are a redeemer. Now,before we get into the beauty of
what Ruth actually asks him for,it's important that you
(12:26):
understand that the idea ofuncovering his feet was very
intimate. This was a veryintimate concept, the feet could
have meant anything from justthe feet, to all the way up to
the waist. And so this idea isthat Ruth is saying to him, take
this part of your robe, thisportion of your clothing that
(12:47):
covers you in the most centralpart of your body, and throw it
over me, this is a petition forhim to cover her with marital
and physically intimateprotection. This is a petition
for him to marry her and raiseup offspring with her. It's not
just a ceremonial marriage,marry me and take care of me.
(13:09):
But there won't be anyrelationship between us. This is
more than that. This is saying,marry me care for me and raise
up children to further myhusband's line because he is
dead and can't do it. And whyBoaz specifically, because he is
in the position of being aredeemer. See, it wasn't just
anybody who could do this. Ithad to be someone who occupied
(13:30):
the position of Redeemer, theyhad to have that status, they
had to be connected to thisfamily in such a way that they
were qualified to be a redeemer.
Now the idea of spreading wingsover somebody, this civilization
of incredible intimacy,protection, covering provision.
(13:53):
This stems from a beautifulconcept of God putting his wings
over Israel. And there are twospecific passages that I think
are incredibly beautiful. Thefirst one which was actually
penned by Ruth's great grandson,King David. He wrote this, he
said, He who dwells in theshelter of the Most High will
(14:16):
abide in the shadow of theAlmighty. I will say of the
Lord, my refuge and my fortress,my God in whom I trust, for He
will deliver you from the snareof the fowler, and from the
deadly pestilence. He will coveryou with his pinions and under
his wings, you will find refugeHis faithfulness is a shield and
(14:39):
a buckler. Now this concept ofRuth needing this kind of
protection, Ruth meeting, thiskind of provision really echoes
in those words of David whoknows what he was thinking about
exactly when he wrote thosewords, but I can tell you this
much. There is no accident thatRuth asked Boaz to spread his
wings over her for protection.
He and David wrote about thealmighty spreading his wings
(15:01):
over his children. There is a anincredible civilization in that,
this idea of protection underthe wings of someone more
powerful, and God himself whenhe spoke of Israel, in Ezekiel
16. And he talks about his deepand intimate love for Israel
used this language. And thischapter is beautiful, I would
(15:25):
encourage you to read Ezekiel16, because it shows God's
faithfulness and love forIsrael. But in verse eight, God
speaks this way. He says, When Ipassed by you and saw you,
behold, you were at the age forlove, and I spread the corner of
my garment over you and coveredyour nakedness. I made my vow to
(15:46):
you and entered into a covenantwith you declares the Lord. And
you became mind. This amazingpicture of a man who loves this
woman so much, that he puts theseal of his protection over her.
He says, you will be with me andI will protect you and I will
(16:10):
provide for you, and I willelevate you up. And I will give
you every good thing that youneed for life, for happiness for
joy, so that you can thrive andbe the very best version of who
you can be, so that you areloosed from any cares and
concerns of the world, and youcan fulfill the greatest measure
(16:32):
of your potential. And that isexactly what this picture of
casting wings over a bit truthmeans. God did not cast his robe
over Israel to limit Israel,Israel only limited itself
through its own sin, God casthis robe over Israel to elevate
(16:54):
Israel. That was his whole pointto bring her to this pinnacle of
beauty, pinnacle of excellence,pinnacle of righteousness and
holiness before him so thateveryone who looked at Israel
would say the favor of God restson that. You see, Ruth made this
petition and through itrecognized a few things. She
(17:15):
recognized her Redeemer, and thelove that he had for her. And in
that she recognized her helplessposition. She made herself
humble, and she understood shecould not change your
opposition, she was powerless tomake any changes, she needed
someone to act on her behalf. SoShe appealed to the one who
(17:38):
could, she remained completelyobedient. She followed Naomi's
instructions to the letter, thenshe follows Bo as his
instructions to the letter,because when he responds to her,
he gives her some detailedinstructions, and she follows
them. And then she waited withconfidence. What a picture of
Jesus Christ Jesus who coversthe sin of the world, by
(18:00):
throwing his blood over it. Hestretched out his wings over his
people, he paid for theirredemption, by doing something
they had no ability to do forthemselves. He stepped into that
role volitionally of his ownmotivation. No one begged him to
take that position. He just tookit. They were looking for their
(18:24):
deliver. When he came, theyrejected their deliver. But it
didn't matter. He did it anyway.
He took that role and fulfilledit. While he was being
persecuted for doing it. Jesusdisplays the ultimate love for
His people, by sacrificinghimself by doing for them what
(18:45):
they cannot do for themselves.
God inspired the author ofScripture, who wrote Ruth, to
give us this astounding look atwhat a kinsman redeemer looks
like, so that when Jesus woulddo what he did, everyone who
reads the scriptures could lookback and say, Hey, I've seen
that before. I've seen thatbefore, not in his pure form,
not in his greater form, not inhis far reaching of a form. But
(19:09):
I've seen it in the actions ofBoaz, in the story of Ruth. And
I know that Jesus is thefulfillment of all of that
Jesus, who came from the line ofBoaz and Ruth fulfilled the
ultimate picture set up by Boazand Ruth. And we, those of us
who believe in Him, are thebeneficiaries of his redemption.
(19:29):
We are the beneficiaries of Hislove. So as you contemplate the
love of Jesus this Christmasseason, the love that drove him
out of heaven, this is what wecelebrate. During Christmas.
It's not just that Jesus wasborn in a stable in Bethlehem.
That's what we sing about.
That'swhat we talk about. That's why
we give one another gifts tocelebrate the greatest gift. But
(19:52):
don't forget that before he wasborn before he was in Mary's
body Love drove him to lay downthe splendor and majesty of his
position in heaven and humblehimself to be born in a stable,
it was love that drove him here.
It was love for us. It was lovefor those who did not love him
(20:17):
back. Just like Boazdemonstrated incredible love to
a Gentile woman who was gleaningin his field who didn't even
know who he was. So Goddemonstrated incredible love by
sending Jesus and Jesusdemonstrated incredible love by
coming willingly to those whodidn't know him. To those who
(20:41):
didn't love him. To those whoultimately hated him so much
they put him on a cross. But inspite of all that Jesus spread
his wings over lost and dyingworld that he loved giving them
hope, giving them a future andredeeming them from a hopeless
fateI hope you enjoyed this episode
(21:08):
of drippings from the honeycomb.
If you would like to learn moreabout another 12 ministries and
the work that we are doing totrain youth ministry leaders to
bring the Gospel to youngpeople, visit another
twelve.org. If you would like tosupport our ministry, click on
the Donate link in thedescription below.
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