Ruth, the book of Ruth, and chapter 3. Ruth, chapter 3. Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said unto her, that is, unto Ruth, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee? Now is not Boaz of our kindred, and whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to-night in the threshing-floor. wash thyself therefore and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the floor, but make not thyself known unto the man until he shall have done eating and drinking. It shall be when he lieth down that thou shalt mark the place where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in and uncover his feet and lay thee down, and he will tell thee what thou shalt do."

And she said unto her, All that thou sayest unto me, I will do. And she went down unto the floor, and did according to all that her mother-in-law bade her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, He went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn, and she came softly and covered his feet and lay her down. It came to pass at midnight that the man was afraid, and turned himself, and behold, a woman lay at his feet. And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth, thine handmaid. Spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid, for thou art a near kinsman.

And he said, Blessed be thou of the Lord, my daughter, for thou hast showed more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch as thou followest not young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, fear not. I will do to thee all that thou requirest, for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman. And now it is true that I am thy near kinsman, albeit there is a kinsman nearer than I. Tarry this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he will perform unto thee the part of a kinsman, well, let him do the kinsman's part. But if he will not do the part of a kinsman to thee, Then will I do the part of a kinsman to thee, as the Lord liveth, lie down until the morning. And she laid his feet until the morning, and she rose up before one could know another. And he said, Let it not be known that a woman came into the floor. Also he said, Bring the veil that is that thou hast upon thee, and hold it, And when she held it, he measured six measures of barley, and laid it on her, and she went into the city.

When she came to her mother-in-law, she said, Who art thou, my daughter? And she told her all that the man had done to her. And she said, These six measures of barley gave he me, for he said to me, Go not empty unto thy mother-in-law. Then said she, Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall, for the man will not be at rest until thou finish the thing this day.

That's Father reading of God's holy word. And it is especially the word for thou art a near kinsman. The whole story, it hangs upon that relationship between Ruth and between Boaz And I put on the front of the sheet, a near kinsman, Jesus, our heavenly Moab. For those of you who, of course, know and know this account, how that Naomi with her husband went down in a time of famine from Israel to Moab. She went down there with her two sons, and those sons, they married wives. One of them, Marlon, married Ruth. the other one married Orpah. And then it came that Naomi's husband, he died, then her two sons died, so she was left three widows. She was a widow and her two daughter-in-laws. And in those days there's no pension, there's no widow's pension, there's nothing. They were absolutely dependent upon charity, upon gleaning where they could get food. They had no provider whatsoever and no right to be able to redeem themselves. They couldn't rectify the situation themselves.

So Naomi heard that there was food back in Bethlehem. She went back to Bethlehem and it was Ruth that claimed to her. She didn't want to go back to her country and her God. She wanted to be with Naomi. And where she lived, she would live. Where she died, she would die. Her God would be her God.

It's one of the real marks of God's people. Where God begins to work in someone's heart, it brings them to love the people of God, to love their God, to want their God to be their God. And even though they've been brought up as Ruth had as a heathen, yet she was brought to be in the line to Christ. through being married and eventually to Boaz.

But when they came back to Bethlehem, then, and what is signified in this chapter by Boaz, that Ruth was a virtuous woman. She wanted to provide. She said to Naomi, her mother-in-law, let me go and glean. Let me be one that follows after the reefers and gleans for the family. And so that's what she did.

And in God's providence, she actually went to the field of Boaz. And Boaz had shown her great favor. He had even asked his reapers to leave handfuls of purpose for her. And when she came back to Naomi, she realized that she had gleaned more than what was usual. And so she said, Blessed is he that has taken knowledge of thee. And when she said it was Boaz, she blessed the Lord, because she said that he is a near kinsman.

Now Ruth would not have realized the significance of that. Naomi did. She knew that in Deuteronomy it is recorded that if a man die, and leave his wife with no children, none to provide for her, then the near kinsman or the brother of her husband that had died should take her to be his wife, that is, if he wasn't already married, and that the first son that was to be born, that that son would be the heir in the one that had died's name. So raise up seed to his brother.

So Naomi knew that Boaz, wealthy Boaz, that he was in a position to redeem Ruth. But Naomi let her glean there all the days of the barley harvest and wheat harvest. And then when it came to the end, then we come to this chapter where in effect Naomi advised her daughter-in-law Ruth to go and ask Boaz to marry her, and to perform that part of a near kinsman.

Well, we read in this chapter that he said there was someone that was even closer than he, and he had to deal with that first. And in chapter 4 we hear about how he dealt with that. Now, that person couldn't redeem, he couldn't marry Ruth because, no doubt, he was already married, so then it fell to Boaz.

In a spiritual way, then we are like Ruth. We are those that are under the law, we are sold, and if we continue under our first husband, and the Apostle Paul speaks of this in Romans 7, that we are to be dead unto the law by Christ who has died. But then we are to be married to another, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to be His. Like the Church is to be the Bride of Christ, who is the Bridegroom.

So the first one, the one that Boaz said was the nearer kinsman, is really us. It's ourselves. We cannot redeem ourselves, because we are sinners, because we have fallen, we must pay the debt. Very often what God does first is to bring the Law of God and convince us that we are sinners and that we cannot save ourselves. And when we realize that, then that beautiful relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is opened up to us. That He was made of a woman, made under the Law to redeem them that are under the Law. is an amazing thing to us that the God of heaven and of earth that fills all things, that He became man and dwelt among us, that He was made flesh, made under the law.

And we read how with Mary the Holy Ghost overshadowed her, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be the Son of God. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he then has a right to redeem. And we know that the way that he did that was to go to Calvary, go to the cross, bear our sin in his body on the tree, and shed his blood, endure the wrath of God instead of us. And in doing that, he has set us free by the payment of a price. He has made atonement for our souls, for our sins. He has blotted them out. And so then he rose again from the dead, showing that that sacrifice was accepted, showing that the wrath of God was appeased.

And so this is a beautiful account. It's a real encouragement for us to seek amongst the Lord's people like Ruth did, and also to go to the Lord Jesus like Ruth did, and ask Him, Lord, give me life. made me one of thy children, made me thy bride, joined me to thee, so that I am no longer one on my own to bear my sin.

" But you imagine, Ruth went from being a poor beggar with no standing, no wealth, nothing at all, but when she was married to Boaz, he was a wealthy man, and all that then became hers. What a change! in her life. And God used that. This is in the line to Christ. We trace it In that line, if you look at Matthew chapter 1, you have Boaz there in the line to Christ. And in chapter 4 of this chapter, you can look at the end of that chapter, and it goes from Ruth right through Boaz, Jesse, David, and then of course David through to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So it is a very important book in the Bible because it shows that line, how God brought it about. And in one way it's a type of the Gentiles being brought into the Church of God. Moab was under a curse even to the 10th generation because they did not receive the children of Israel when they went through to Canaan. But here is Ruth in that nation brought out and blessed. And we think of Rahab as well in Jericho that hid the spies. She is in the line to Christ as well. And so we have Gentiles in that line. And of course the church today, Jew and Gentile are one together in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And may we then think this afternoon of the Lord Jesus, His relationship to us, really made man without sin, but dwelt among us and endured the wrath of God for us, and His right to redeem, and to be like Ruth, to go and ask Him, like she said, spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid, ask the Lord to bless us and to redeem our souls and to show us and to give us that life and that change that Ruth had. So think and meditate on that. If you've got your Bibles, you can read the whole account today as well.