Ruth chapter 2 and we'll read
from verse 1. And Naomi had a kinsman of her
husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech, and
his name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said unto
Naomi, Let me now go to the field and glean ears of corn after
him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her,
Go, my daughter. And she went and came and gleaned
in the field after the reapers. And her harp was to light on
a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred
of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem
and said unto the reapers, The Lord be with you. And they answered
him, The Lord bless thee. Then said Boaz unto his servant
that was set over the reapers, Whose damsel is this? And the
servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, It
is the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi out of the
country of Moab. And she said, I pray you, let
me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. So
she came and hath continued even from the morning until now that
she tarried a little in the house. Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest
thou not my daughter? Go not to glean in another field,
neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens. Let thine eyes be on the field
that they do reap, and go thou after them. Have I not charged
the young men that they shall not touch thee? And when thou
art athirst, go unto the vessels and drink of that which the young
men have drawn. Then she fell on her face and
bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I
found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldst take knowledge
of me, seeing I am a stranger? And Boaz answered and said unto
her, It hath fully been shewed me all that thou hast done unto
thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband, and how thou
hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity,
and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore. the Lord recompense thy work,
and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under
whose wings thou art come to trust.' Then she said, Let me
find favour in thy sight, my lord, for that thou hast comforted
me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid,
though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens. And Boaz
said unto her, At mealtime, come thou hither and eat of the bread,
and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers,
and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed,
and left. And when she was risen up to
glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even
among the sheaves, and reproach her not. and let fall also some
of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she
may glean them, and rebuke her not. So she gleaned in the field
until even, and beat out that she had gleaned, and it was about
an effa of barley. And she took it up and went into
the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned, and
she brought forth and gave to her that she had reserved after
she was sufficed. And her mother-in-law said unto
her, Where hast thou gleaned to-day, and where wroughtest
thou? Blessed be he that did take knowledge
of thee. And she showed her mother-in-law
with whom she had wrought, and said, The man's name with whom
I wrought today is Boaz. And Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law,
Blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness
to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, The
man is near kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen. And Ruth
the Moabitess said, he said unto me also, thou shalt keep fast
by my young men until they have ended all my harvest. And Naomi
said unto Ruth, her daughter-in-law, It is good, my daughter, that
thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any
other field. So she kept fast by the maidens
of Boaz, to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat
harvest, and dwelt with her mother-in-law. Amen. May the Lord bless that
reading to us. We've previously met Naomi and
Ruth in the first chapter of this lovely little book, and
now we meet Boaz. He is the other main character
in the history of this book. His name means in him, is strength. That's quite a difference from
the names that we read last week about hunger and sickness but
here is a man called Boaz whose name means in him is strength
and that's a lovely name to have and we'll think a little bit
about that later because we have a parallel here with one who
also is strong to save his people. Boaz is called, he's described
as a mighty man. Now that probably doesn't mean
that he was a mighty man of valor in the sense that he was a fighter
or he was a soldier. It probably means that he was
an important man in the community. He was wealthy, he was a man
of property, but he was also rich in honour and kindness and
likely in the scriptures as well. He was well respected by his
neighbours and those who lived around about. And most importantly,
he was a close relative. He was a kinsman to Naomi on
her dead husband's side. Now, as we come to this chapter,
this passage, we might do well to know that Under the law of
Moses by which this society was managed at the time, poor people
were allowed to glean in the fields as the harvest was being
gathered and gleaning just means that they were allowed to go
along after the reapers as they were taking in the crop, as they
were taking in the grain and little grains of wheat or barley,
whatever the crop might be, that fell on the ground, they were
allowed to pick them up grain by grain and to take them and
keep them for themselves. And it was a way of the Lord
being gracious to the poorest in the community. And In fact,
the reapers of the grain were prohibited from cutting the very
edges of the field or the corners of the field. So there was always
a little bit where the corner went round in the angle of the
field where the grain still stood and the gleaners were able to
take that for themselves. they would also not be allowed,
the reapers were not allowed to go back and to pick up the
individual grains. This was left as a little spillage
left for the poor such as widows and strangers as God's gift to
them. And Ruth, we discover, I would
think as soon as she and Naomi came back to Bethlehem, she very
quickly said, because they came back at the time of the barley
harvest, she immediately said, here was an opportunity to get
some food for them both. And at once she asked leave of
Naomi to go and to glean to help feed them both. And this shows
humility and respect and industriousness, a willingness on the part of
Ruth to be a worker. She was a hard worker and she
gave proper respect and honour to Naomi as well in asking for
her advice and for asking for her permission to go and do this
job. And out of plightness, we learn that she also asked permission
of the reapers. And that being granted, she commenced
to work amongst the others that were doing the same and amongst
the group that were reaping and gathering in the field. And we
read a little phrase. It is that her hap was to light. I'm not sure that everyone would
necessarily know what that phrase means. Her harp was to light. Well, it means this. It means
it just so happened that she chose to glean in the field that
belonged to Boaz. Her harp, that's happened, to
light, or a light, she sort of landed not by any design, not
by any previous plan. She just landed in a field that
happened to belong to Boaz. However, here we begin to see
something called providence at work. And providence is God's
way of accomplishing his will by which he uses what we might
otherwise consider random or circumstantial events to achieve
his own purpose. and God's eternal purpose is
to save his people from their sin. And for that reason, a saviour
was required to come into the world, the Lord Jesus Christ
was required to come into the world as a man and redeem his
people by paying the ransom price by dying in their place. And
that saviour, as we know, is the Lord Jesus Christ. However,
this was over a thousand years before the birth of Christ. But
let me tell you something which is very, very interesting and
I think important. Boaz was in the direct line,
and indeed Ruth, were in the direct line of the Lord Jesus
Christ's genealogy. So that Boaz and Ruth were the
great, great, great, great, great, great, great, lots of times grandparents
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when God was making his plan
to send the Lord Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners,
He also made the plan that he would be the son of Mary. And all the way back, his grandparents
and great-grandparents, all the way back to Boaz and Ruth, were
in God's plan. That just shows you how big God's
plans are. and how much detail and specific planning went into the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing was accidental, even
the fact that Ruth happened to come to this field this day. God's plan was that she should
meet Boaz and that Boaz and Ruth would be married. Now I hope
I've not given too much away about the end of the story but
that's the important thing about what is happening here in this
meeting. Ruth and Boaz were in the direct
line of the Saviour and this is what we see beginning to unfold. Boaz, when Ruth was gleaning,
came to his field and we hear about the courtesy that he expressed
to his reapers and they to him and the care that he took of
his employees. but he noticed Ruth. He saw Ruth
in all the field of people amongst all the reapers and all of the
business that was going on and all of the work and the labouring
that was taking place and all of the other maidens that were
there. He spied Ruth and that's a lovely
thought as well that the Lord sees his people. He knows where
we are, he knows who we are, and he is interested in us. And noticing Ruth, Boaz inquired
who she was. Now he already knew about this
girl, we discover that in the later verses, and he knew about
her kindness to Naomi. So he encouraged her to remain
in his field and he promised her protection and he offered
her refreshment. He instructed his young men accordingly
and when Ruth asks why she is being shown so much favour by
Boaz, Boaz acknowledges Ruth's kindness to Naomi and he also
recognises her faith in God. which he describes as being under
the wings of him whom she had come to trust. So Ruth thanked
Boaz, she expressed surprise that she had been taken so much
care of, and we then discover that Boaz further invites her
to eat a meal with him and his workers at the day's end. As the story unfolds, we see
that after the midday lunch break, if you like, before the evening
meal, the day being divided up according to the meal times,
after the midday break, Ruth went back to reaping and Boaz
takes special note of her again and he tells his young men to
allow her to reap in the best parts of the field and he instructs
them to purposefully leave handfuls of grain for her to collect. And at the end of the day, after
she had done her afternoon shift, if you like, at the end of the
day, she had collected a sizable amount, about enough to eat for
both Naomi and Ruth for a week. That was the amount that she
had gathered. And we also learn that she took
back to Naomi some of the meal that she had gotten from Boaz
that she had left over. So that showed Ruth's care and
provision for her mother-in-law. And Naomi, of course, was impressed
at the amount of grain that Ruth had brought home and she asked
her where and in whose field she had gleaned. and learning
that it was Boaz, she rejoiced and informed Ruth that Boaz was
a near kinsman. And actually, it's an interesting
word that, because kinsman also has a meaning of redeemer. And a kinsman or a redeemer was
someone who had a close family relationship and family rights
of inheritance and redemption of property. So, Given that,
Naomi encouraged Ruth to do as Boaz had said and remain close
to his workers for the rest of the barley and wheat harvest
and not to go into the fields of anyone else. And that would
have ensured her personal safety, but it also was a mark of respect
to Boaz for his kindness and concern towards Ruth. Here's a couple of things that
I want to leave with you by way of little lessons which I think
we can take from this delightful story, this delightful history
of Ruth and Boaz. The appearance of Boaz coming
into the story as he does introduces us to the true and spiritual
meaning of this passage. Boah's relationship to Naomi,
that of a kinsman and a close family relation as we've seen,
is also bringing with it the concept of this Redeemer. And here we see the types and
the pictures and the patterns that the whole of Scripture contains
concerning the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ beginning
to unfold once again for us in this beautiful story. Boaz points
to the Redeemer who is the Lord Jesus and the redeeming work
of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Boaz had a relationship
to Elimelech who was now of course dead by family ties. Elimelech had gone down to Moab
and he'd lost everything. Just as we, you and me, just
as we have fallen in Adam and lost all our blessings, lost
all contact with God, lost all peace with God, lost all friendship
with God. But Boaz had a right to redeem. and by the Lord Jesus Christ
taking our flesh and joining himself to our nature, he too
has a right to redeem us from the loss and poverty of our sinful
state. So here is a parallel between
Boaz and the Lord Jesus Christ, a kinsman redeemer. The story
of Ruth is part of the history of salvation because as we've
mentioned, and we'll see this hopefully a little bit more fully
later, Boaz was in the line of the family, the family line of
the Messiah. And by this account, we see a
picture of Christ's redeeming work being given over a thousand
years before the Messiah came to the Old Testament Jews and
of course to us as well because we can read this story in our
Bibles still all this time later. But the Old Testament Jews were
provided with a picture of the Kinsman Redeemer. and they would
think about this and they would harbour this lesson, this story,
this history of Ruth and Boaz and they would know that there
was something profound in what Boaz had achieved and accomplished
on behalf of Ruth. Boaz was a lawful, fitting and
able redeemer. of Ruth, for Ruth, and the Lord
Jesus Christ is a lawful, fitting, and able redeemer for his people
like you and me as well. And another little lesson that
we can learn from this is that we can note how the Lord works
in providence. In providence we might just think,
oh it's just, it just happens, it's just circumstances, it's
just the way things are. There was no planning in there,
there was no thought went into that and yet the Lord uses the
random circumstances of our life to do his will in our life, and
we call that, once again, providence. And so we see God's hand in providence
here, to bring about his purposes and do his people good. And let
us note something in this. He gave Ruth a need. Ruth was hungry. Ruth would have
starved. But she thought, I need to go
out for the sake of Naomi, for the sake of my own life, I need
to go out and I need to work and I need to glean and I need
to gather these grains that we might eat. And that's what the
Lord does. He places a need in his people
and then he uses those needs and the circumstances of our
lives to accomplish his purpose and his will. People who are
alive need to eat. And that is true spiritually
as well. All to whom the Lord gives new
life, they need to eat the bread of life. We need to feed on the
one who is the bread of life, the Lord Jesus Christ. We need
to feed on spiritual things in order to grow and develop. And that's what we're doing here
when we come to hear the gospel preached. We see and we hear
and we learn about the Lord Jesus Christ with a spiritual understanding. Now, Ruth happened to go to Boaz's
field. But in truth, the Lord led her
to that particular field according to his purpose. and he leads
us just the same. He leads us to Christ for the
bread of life. He leads us to his gospel for
the nourishment and refreshment that we need in our souls. He
leads us to his pastors and preachers who are like the workers in the
field and there the Lord provides for his people just as Boaz provided
for Ruth's protection and for her care and for her refreshment. What Boaz did for Ruth physically,
the Lord does for us spiritually. He loves us, he protects us,
he feeds our souls by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And did you
notice that the reapers were instructed to leave handfuls
of purpose? What a beautiful phrase that
is. Handfuls of purpose. They were to leave handfuls of
grain on purpose behind them so that when Ruth followed up,
she would be able to pick up these grains and put them in
her sack, put them in her bag and carry them home. Boaz told
his reapers to leave handfuls of purpose or on purpose. And
the Lord instructs faithful preachers to leave handfuls of spiritual
blessings that we may collect them as we glean under the sound
of the gospel, under the sound of his word. And we shall not
go home empty and unfed if we come into Boaz's field, if we
come into Christ's church and seek and feed upon the spiritual
food purposefully left for us to find and to gather up. So let us ask the Lord to lead
us to the right place for our soul's good. And as Naomi instructed
Ruth, let us not forsake the field of Boaz for another field,
when our Lord graciously and kindly supplies our need. Just one more little thing and
then we're done today. This part anyway. Ruth was a
Moabite. and she was a widow and she was
poor and she was hungry and she was an outcast in many ways but
she found grace in the sight of Boaz and may this picture
too speak to our hearts Maybe you think you're too bad or you're
too young or you've got so little to offer and you're unsure and
fearful for what the future holds. And that's all true, that's all
true. This is a difficult stage in
life for young people. Yet despite all of that, despite
all of the things that were against Ruth, Boaz looked upon her and
took notice of her and blessed her. He invited her to eat with
him, to labour in his field, to continue under his protection
and his provision and so the Lord Jesus Christ extends his
welcome. to those who are weary and lonely
and hungry and poor and outcast. And spiritually speaking, we
are all these things, but our Lord and Saviour welcomes us
to his field of plenty, his banqueting table, his banqueting house,
and his banner over us is love. Ruth trusted in God and she trusted
in Boaz. Let us trust in the love and
mercy of our kinsman, Redeemer Jesus Christ for all our needs
and he will never let us down. Amen.