I wanted to spend the bulk of
my time looking at those remarkable words which Boaz uses. Boaz obviously a type of our
Kinsmen Redeemer. He's not only the great, great,
great, great, great grandfather many times removed of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the great grandfather of David, But here when he speaks,
he's speaking as the kinsman redeemer and he's speaking to
his bride. So these words are precious words
and he describes Ruth's place, Ruth's journey, Ruth's place
of rest in verse 12, the last phrase in verse 12. the God of
Israel, the full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel,
under whose wings thou art come to trust." It's a glorious picture,
isn't it? It's a glorious picture of the
Lord drawing his people to himself. The picture, of course, from
a natural point of view is the picture of a hen gathering her
chickens under her wings. I haven't had much to do with
hens and chickens for many years, but I did remember when I used
to have them that she'd make this particular noise, she'd
make a sound that they knew instantly, even as little tiny babies they
knew it, and they would come a-running. and she'd fluff herself
out and there they would be hidden and you couldn't see a single
chicken under those wings. And when they were under there,
if I remember rightly, she used to make these really soft, comforting
sounds to them. It's a beautiful picture, isn't
it? It's a beautiful picture of the Lord drawing his people
to himself. And so I'll go back through these
earlier verses, but I want you to keep that in mind. The wings,
of course, of the Lord are pictured throughout the scriptures, and
particularly, of course, they're the wings of the cherubim. And so just to set us, set our
minds on Jesus Christ and Him crucified, I was just going to
read this amazing passage in Exodus 25. from verse 17 on where
the Lord gives to Moses the instruction concerning the mercy seat. Just
let me read this. He has the mercy seat sits on
top of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant, that
remarkable Ark that contained the law of Moses, the law that
had been broken by man so willfully and so willingly. that law that
our Lord Jesus obeyed perfectly and completely, that law that
our Lord Jesus shed His life's blood in satisfaction of for
us. Thou shalt make a mercy seat
for us. of pure gold. Two cubits and
a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth
thereof. And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten
work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. and make one cherubim on one
end and the other cherub on the other end, even of the mercy
seat shall ye make the cherubs on the two ends thereof. And
the cherubs shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering
the mercy seat with their wings. Their faces shall look one to
another, toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims
be. And thou shalt put the mercy
seat above upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the
testimony that I shall give thee. And there will I meet with thee,
and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from
between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony,
of all things which I will give thee in commandment under the
children of Israel. What a glorious picture. It's
on the mercy seat. It's only in that mercy seat
which represents the Lord Jesus Christ and His shed blood. That's
where He meets. That's where He communes from
between the cherubim, under the wings. It's where God meets and
where God can commune with sinners. And such is the picture with
us, before us in the book of Ruth, of Him drawing one of His
own. Ruth, of course, like the women
in the Scriptures, is a picture of the Church, sinners being
drawn and brought into the Church. In verse 4, We have the buyers
who came from Bethlehem. He came from that town, the town,
the city of David. It's the house of bread, the
place where our Lord Jesus Christ was born. And it's interesting
to think about bread. It is life. It represents life. It represents that body that
was broken for us. We have life in a broken body.
But wheat to grow, and to produce more wheat has to be put into
the ground and it has to be buried out of sight and it has to then
break. It has to be broken. It's broken
as the root and the shoot come out of it and it's broken and
then it grows and produces more fruit. And when you take a grain
of wheat and you want to Get some nourishment from it and
make some bread. What do you do? You break it
again, don't you? You break it and you pulverise
it. You crush it and then you have
life sustaining nourishment. What great pictures of our kinsmen
redeemed of the Lord Jesus Christ. Boaz comes from Bethlehem and
he comes into his field and he said unto the reapers, and it's
a great picture, isn't it, of the fact that now there was a
harvest and the reason there was a famine, the famine that
sent Elimelech away, was that there was no worship and no acknowledgement
of God. The famine was the judgement
of God upon a people who were wicked and disobedient. And here
is this greeting in real genuineness. The Lord be with you, says Boaz
to them. And they answered him, the Lord
bless thee. Glorious picture even in the
simple things of life, just harvesting grain. There is a mention and
an enjoyment of the presence and the blessing of our Lord
God. Then Boaz said unto his servant,
verse 5, that was set over the reapers. There are reapers in
this field of his. And there is one set over the
reapers. We are all reapers together in
God's field. We are God's field and we are
reapers together. And there are in God's kingdom,
there is an order and there is one set over them. But the question
is amazing, isn't it? Whose damsel is this? Who is she? It's not that Boaz
didn't know. It's a bit like the Lord speaking
to Adam, isn't it? Where art thou, Adam? He knew
exactly where Adam was. Who do you belong to, is in a
sense what he's saying. Where did you come from? Why
are you here? On what circumstances has brought
you here? And the servant that was sent
over the reapers answered and said, it is the Moabites 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 has continued
from evening until morning until now that she tarried a little
in the house. Under the law, that we've looked
at in Deuteronomy 24 and Leviticus 23, the harvesters had to leave
the corners of the field and they had to leave any heads of
grain that were left there. But to be a gleaner was to be
a beggar. Ruth, as you looked at it last
week, Ruth comes into this field and she comes as a beggar. She comes as a beggar. The law permitted her the right
to glean, but she came. She came and asked permission. And this conversation then takes
place in this house and I imagine you have to picture it, that
there was a field and in that very labour intensive time there
were a number of people, sometimes dozens of people. The fields
in India would sometimes be crowded with people when they were planting
rice and doing other things or harvesting things, just little
quite a band. And around this field there may
have been trees and other things, but on the side of the field
somewhere was a pavilion, just a little house, a little house
as it's called at the end of verse 7. A place of shade, possibly
a place underneath the trees, a place where they could be fed,
a place where water was gathered for them, a place where they
could find some rest from the sun. It is a picture, of course,
as so much of the scripture is, it is a picture of the Lord gathering
His people and nourishing His people and feeding His people
in His house, the house of God. It's a picture, of course, of
the Church. And so out of all of this world,
wasn't there, there was this field and there was this particular
house In all of that area of Jerusalem, in all of that area
of Judah, in all of that area of Israel, in all of that area
of the world there was this particular field and this particular house. And it's in this house that we
have this conversation, the first conversation between Boaz and
Ruth, between the kinsman, redeemer and she who was about to be redeemed
and married to him. Glorious pictures of grace. So
the words of Baez are like the words of the Lord Jesus. And
they are his words to his returning child. They are his words to
his bride. Loved her from eternity, loves
her with an unquenchable, unceasing love." And listen to his words. I often think when I'm reading
passages like this, what an amazing conversation it must have been
on the road to Emmaus when the Lord Jesus opened up the scriptures. And I don't know whether this
story of Ruth was one of them, but when I'm thinking about these
things I often think of what would his conversation have been. Listen to his words, listen to
his words. Hearest not thou my daughter?
He says, listen to me my daughter, indicating of course that he
was much older than her. Listen to me, hear my words,
my daughter. It's a great instruction, isn't
it, that God might speak to his people, might speak to us through
his word. And she says, go not, glean in
another field. You stay now, you've come to
my field, you stay in my field. So the Lord blesses His people
in a specific place, in this particular place of His care,
a particular place where He reveals Himself and speaks to His people. And the Lord encourages her,
don't go anywhere else, you don't need to go anywhere else. Now
you've come here, you can stay here. And don't go anywhere from
here, neither go from here. Don't go, you don't need to go
anywhere else. This place is sufficient for
all of your care and all of your needs. And abide, remain here
close by my maidens. You stay here next to us, you
remain here. is to stay, don't go anywhere
else. She is to abide, to remain. And then, let thine eyes be on
the field that they do reap. God's children, of course, reap
from the Word of God. We take our nourishment from
the Word of God and from the promises of God and the revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ in His Word. You don't need to go anywhere
else and you stay here and you leave your, let your eyes be
fixed. fixed on Him and His Word and
go after them. And you follow after them. You
stay where they are and you stay with them. And here is a place
of protection. He has charged the young men
that they shall not touch you. No harm will befall you here
in my house, in my field, under my care. And when they are to
thirst, when you're thirsty, go to the vessels and drink,
drink water from the wells of life, from the wells of salvation,
and drink water of that which the young men have drawn. You
don't have to even draw your own water. Here you will be nourished
by the other's efforts. Here you will be nourished by
grace. Here you will have your thirst
quenched by grace." And this is the response. the response
of a sinner. 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, seeing I am a foreigner? a foreigner,
a stranger to God and a stranger to his people by nature and a
stranger by practice. I love what Joseph Hart said
about sinners. I don't meet many sinners and neither will you.
When you meet a sinner, you've met a precious thing. Joseph
Hart wrote in one of his hymns, though all are sinners in God's
sight, there are but few so in their own. To such as these our
Lord was sent, There are only sinners who repent. What comfort
can a Saviour bring to those who never felt their woe? A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. New life from him we must receive,
before for sin we rightly grieve. Sinners saved by grace, are continually
saying, why me? because they see nothing ever
in themselves which is attractive to God. So all people who are
resting in their own works and their own righteousness are looking
to the blessing of the Lord via their works. I am owed, I have
done something, He has to repay me. That's not have sinners saved
by grace. They're rare and precious and
they're continually saying, why have I found grace? What have
I done? Here am I, a moabiteess. Here am I, a stranger. What have I done to merit any
grace from you? Beggars are amazed that anyone
would take notice of them. Beggars are amazed that anyone
would consider them worthy of being given something. a stranger. At that time, Ephesians 2 says
that you were without Christ, you were being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world. But now, but now
in Christ Jesus, you who were sometimes far off, are made nigh
by the blood of Christ, for He is our peace, who has made the
both one, and broken down the middle wall of petition between
us. that he might reconcile birth
unto God in one body by the cross. And he came and preached peace
to you which were far off." That was the message that they heard
in Maui, wasn't it? That God had visited his people in bringing
them bread. is come and preach peace. So
therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints and of the household of God. As sinners begin, sinners
so by grace continue. Why me? Why me?" And Boaz answered,
verse 11, and said unto her, Nothing is ever hidden from his
all-seeing eyes. It has been fully shown me all
that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-law since the death
of thy 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 hereto. 4. And the Lord recompense thy work,
and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel." You've
got to remember that Ruth was drawn here because of her relationships. She was drawn here because of
covenant relationships. She's going to be blessed because
of covenant relationships. She's going to be blessed in
this most remarkable relationship of all, a marriage to the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord recompense thy work
and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel. A full reward is given to all
of God's children. He is our great reward, our exceeding
great reward. she had come to Him, under whose
wings thou art come to trust." It's a glorious picture, isn't
it? When we're under the wings of Him, we are not seen. When we are under His wings,
we are hidden in Him. When we are under His wings,
the only things that can ever get to us are things that come
through those wings to us. The wings are of course the wings
of the Eternal God, the wings of His covenant. The great grandson, I thought
I'd spend a little bit of time just looking at the remarkable
places where this phrase is used. And it's extraordinary, isn't
it? Ruth and Boaz had a child who had a child. who had a son
called David. And it seems as if this phrase
in all of the scriptures is used by David almost exclusively and
he uses it over and over again. I think he was well taught. He
was well taught possibly by his great grandmother. But these
words echoed down through that family. And I'd like us just
to contemplate the context of some of these psalms. And I can
just read bits of them and you can follow along. But they are
nearly all psalms of David. He says in Psalm 17 verse 4,
concerning the works of men, and by the word of thy lips I
have kept me from the paths of the destroyer. He says, hold
up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not. You hold me up and I won't slip. I have called upon thee, for
thou wilt hear me. O God, incline thine ear unto
me, and hear my speech. And again and again when David
speaks of the shadow of these wings, he's speaking of that
covenant, that eternal covenant, he's speaking of that covenant
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, he's thinking of those
wings over the mercy seat. Again and again he speaks of
the loving kindness. He says in Psalm 17, show thy
marvellous loving kindness, show it. He's showing it to Ruth here,
isn't he? Thou that savest by thy right
hand, you save by your hand of power, them which put their trust
in thee from those that rise up against them. So many of David's
psalms of course are pictures of him crying out in times when
he was in travail of all sorts. And then he says, show thy loving
kindness, you save by your power, you save those that put their
trust in thee from those that rise up against them. And then
he says in verse 8, keep me as the apple of the eye. Keep me as someone precious in
your sight." And then he says, hide me under the shadow of your
wings. It's a place to hide, isn't it?
It's a place to be kept. It's a place where you can still
commune with Him, where He communes with you. The glorious full reward
that Boaz spoke of is mentioned again at the end of Psalm 17.
He says, As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I
shall be satisfied, I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy
lightness. That's satisfaction. That's the
awakening of all of God's people. in Psalm 36. He speaks of the
Lord again and again. He goes back as Boaz did to Ruth. He goes back and mentions again
the character of God, because His character is revealed in
His covenant mercies and grace to His people. He says, Thy mercy,
O Lord, Psalm 36 verse 5, Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heaven,
and Thy faithfulness reacheth under the clouds. Thy righteousness
is like the great mountains. Thy judgments are a great deep,
like the deep sea. Thou, O Lord, preserveth man
and beast. How excellent is Thy lovingkindness,
O God! Therefore the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied
with the fatness of thy house. Thou shalt make them drink of
the rivers of thy pleasures." If you read on in Ruth chapter
2 you'll see that not only does Boaz bring her into a place and
freely provides water for her, he actually personally feeds
her. It's a glorious picture, isn't
it? Thou shalt be abundantly satisfied
with the fatness of thy house. Thou shalt make them drink of
the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain
of life, and in thy light shall we see light. Continue thy lovingkindness unto
them that know thee, and thy righteousness to the upright
in heart. Psalm 57. This is one of the
Psalms that David wrote. He wrote in a cave. He was in
a cave in Psalm 57 and he fled from Saul. And he says, Be merciful
unto me, O God, be merciful unto me. There he was, the rightful
king of Israel, hunted like a dog. be merciful unto me, for my soul
trusteth in thee. Yea, in the shadow of thy wings
will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpassed. What a great place in the midst
of the calamities of life, the calamities that come upon us
again and again, to make our refuge under the shadow of His
wings. It's really just simply a picture
of trusting He who is Sovereign. he who watches over his people. I will cry unto the Lord, unto
God most high, unto God that performeth all things for me. He shall send from heaven and
save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up.
God shall send forth his mercy and his truth." See, David didn't
have to do a single thing. in his defense regarding Saul. God was his defender. Be thou exalted, verse 5, O God,
above the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the
earth. Verse 7, My heart is fixed, O
God, my heart is fixed. I will sing and praise and give
praise Be thou exalted, verse 11, O God, above the heavens.
Let thy glory be above all the earth. We saw in Psalm 61 on
Sunday morning that he spoke of abiding. Abiding in thy tabernacle
forever, I will trust in the refuse, the covert of thy wings. you will prolong the King's life.
He shall abide before God forever. Psalm 63 verse 7 he says, Because
thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will
I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after
thee, thy right hand upholdeth thee. He speaks of his God, doesn't
he? And this time he's speaking in
the wilderness of Judah. O God, Thou art my God, early
will I seek Thee, my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for
Thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is, to see Thy
power and Thy glory so as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary, because
Thy lovingkindness is better than life. My lips shall praise
thee, and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be
thy shield and buckler. under his wings, he'll cover
you with his feathers, and under his wings thou shalt trust. Ultimately only those who have
been put by him under his wings really trust him. And like Ruth, they really trust
him when they've been taken out of the land of Moab. by a strong
and mighty hand, invisible to man, but gloriously directed
by our God. Verse 9, he says, Because Thou
hast made the Lord which is my refuge, even the most high Thy
habitation. He is the place, under His wings
is where He is, under His wings is where His communes, under
His wings is where His people live. There shall no evil befall
thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling, for he
will give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all their
ways. And even Satan used these words
against the Lord Jesus, and he spoke strong words of God back
to him. They shall bear thee up in their
hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." Satan uses
scripture as well. He will, our great God, He will
renew the strength of those who wait on Him. So Ruth had come
to His field, she'd come into His house, in His field, with
His people, under His word. And they that wait upon the Lord,
they that rest, they that look to Him to provide in all situations,
they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk
and not faint. And He, the last words, The last
passage in the Old Testament as they waited for the Lord Jesus
to come, Malachi speaks and says, But unto you that fear my name
shall the Son of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings
and you shall go forth and grow up as cows to the stall. Our great God remembers His covenant. It's a covenant in the blood
of His Son. It's an everlasting covenant.
It's an eternal covenant. It's the covenant that David
died with those words on his lips, that God has made with
me an eternal covenant, ordered and secure in every detail. This is all of my joy and all
of my salvation, all of the salvation of all of God's people. It's
all His desire. It's all of His salvation. It's
all of what God's children come to desire. God remembers His
covenant. He came to rescue them and redeem
them out of Egypt because He heard their groanings and He
remembered His covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
He remembers His covenant forever. And in the first message of the
Gospel spoken to men, Zechariah in Luke 1.72 says, speaks of
our God. He's come to perform the mercy
promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant. The Lord Jesus, as he died on
Calvary's tree, said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Ruth had come. Ruth had come,
and she who was a recipient of remarkable grace, and at no time
in her journey in a physical sense until this glorious meeting
with Boaz, would she have said that she was the recipient of
blessings? A husband dead, a mother-in-law
without a husband, her brother-in-law dead, her sister-in-law left
behind of her own will in Moab, her mother-in-law destitute,
so destitute that she is even unable to glean. And here is
Ruth, a stranger, a needy stranger, but she's come to the one place,
the one place where sinners can find rest. Come to the God of
Israel under whose wings thou art come to rest. Why have I
found grace? Why have I found grace that you
should take knowledge of me seeing I'm a stranger? That's how God's
people find themselves again and again, because He has worked
in our hearts. Again and again we keep coming
back, doesn't it? Every day, whether it marks out
His mercy and grace, also marks out again our sins against Him
and our rebellion. And we continually say, why have
I found grace? You found grace because of an
eternal covenant to find grace. is to have Him smile upon you
because of an eternal covenant made before the foundation of
the world, Jesus. Our precious Lord Jesus is the
only answer to why I have found grace in His sight. He will be gracious. And when
he begins to be gracious, he always finishes what he's begun. The Lord delights, He delights
in mercy. He will perform the truth to
Jacob and mercy to Abraham. The mercy and the truth that
you have sworn to our fathers. from the days of old. His compassions
never fail. It's a glorious picture of him
drawing his roots to himself. for them to find shelter in his
house, in his field, with his people. Under his wings thou
art come to trust. May that be our portion. May
we find our Lord Jesus stretching his wings again over us. May we hear his voice that calls
us to those wings. Let's pray.