The Book of Ruth

[0:00] And we are in Ruth chapter 2, continuing verse by verse. I believe we got to verse 13.

[0:18] And so just backtracking and refreshing you on the amount of material that we saw last Sunday that just strengthens and pictures this type of the church.

[0:28] We saw that Ruth is permitted to receive a drink in verse number 9. She's able to go to the vessels when she's thirsty and get a drink.

[0:45] She's also, she falls on her face and asks, and she bows to worship before the Lord, as we would think, and in the picture, and she said, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, seeing I'm a stranger?

[0:58] And we cross-referenced several times to Ephesians chapter 2 here with some of his statements here. Boaz replies that she's left her kinfolk and her lifestyle and her nativity and her home and her religion.

[1:14] And she's come and embraced the true God. And he says in verse 12, The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of heaven.

[1:25] And we even preached on the judgment seat of Christ last Sunday. And therefore, the picture grows stronger of the Lord recompensing the work of this woman and rewarding her.

[1:36] And in verse 13, we'll pick it up right here. The Bible says, Then she said, Let me find favor in thy sight, my Lord. For thou hast, oh, I'm sorry.

[1:47] For that thou hast comforted me. For that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaids. I do remember we read this verse last week.

[1:58] In Ephesians 2, verse 17, I commented how where Boaz has spoken friendly unto Ruth. In Ephesians 2, we read that the Lord Jesus Christ came and preached peace to you that were afar off.

[2:14] And furthermore, thou hast comforted me. Look at, keep your place here, and flip over to 2 Corinthians 1. 2 Corinthians 1.

[2:27] In type, we're looking at the Lord Jesus Christ comforting his church. I want to point out that comforting seems to be a work of all three members of the Trinity.

[2:42] The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And in 2 Corinthians 1, starting in verse number 3, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation.

[3:01] And there he goes. And it's the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, that comforteth us. Now flip back to John chapter 14. And let's add to that, that the Father is comforting us.

[3:17] And it's really, it's not, I don't even know if it's necessary, because when you start to try to break down individual roles in the Trinity, you'll find out that many times you just can't distinguish one from the other in the action and who gets credit for doing something.

[3:35] And John chapter 14, in verse 16, Christ is, this is the last night, this is the same context where we were at on Wednesday night, the night of his crucifixion, or of his betrayal and arrest, rather, the night.

[3:55] In verse 16, he says, I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, another comforter, because you already have one, but he's going to give you another one. That he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not.

[4:11] Neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. Now verse 18, notice this, Christ speaking, I will not leave you comfortless, the Holy Ghost will come.

[4:24] No, he says, I will come to you. Later in verse 23, Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he'll keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we, my Father and I, we will come unto him and make our abode with him.

[4:41] And so the comforter in verse 26, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send my name, he's going to come, he's going to be in you. But in the Holy Ghost is the Father, and in the Holy Ghost is the Son.

[4:54] And Jesus Christ said, I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you, and I'll be in you. And the Holy Ghost will be in you. But the Father is the Father of all comfort. And he's the one that comforteth us.

[5:06] And so you can't distinguish them or separate them. And it's a work of the Trinity, you might say. But back in Ruth, there is the picture of the church before Boaz, her Redeemer, and claiming that he's comforted her and spoke friendly to her as well.

[5:27] So now we move into verse 14, and let's begin seeing this type continue to grow. So in verse 14, Boaz said unto her, At mealtime, come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar.

[5:39] And so there's an invitation for her to come to eat. But interestingly, the words are, come thou hither. And you'll see in the Bible three times the phrase, come up hither.

[5:53] One time in Revelation 4, in verse 1, where John, the Apostle John, is said to come up hither, and he gets to go up into the throne room of God and see things and write things and declare things, reveal things in the Revelation that have never been revealed before.

[6:10] And he gets pulled up into there, and he's a picture of the church himself being caught up before the tribulation, being caught up to see and behold the throne of God in his face and then to see unfold on earth these disastrous things and the wrath of God being poured out.

[6:30] And so there's a come up hither there that's interesting. And then there's, by the time you get through to the close of the tribulation, prior to the coming, the return of Christ in Revelation 19, there's something called the marriage supper of the Lamb.

[6:46] And the marriage supper is prepared and it's ready, and there's people that were bidden or that were, I can't think of the word right now. I don't think it's invited.

[6:58] It's the marriage supper of the Lamb has come. But there's a marriage supper. Now, I'll be honest, I wrestle with some thoughts about the location of that, the timing of that.

[7:09] But I know what's typically taught, and I'm not going to contradict it. I just, some, there's some things that don't sit well fully with me about it. So, at any rate, the type's pretty cool to see that Ruth is being invited by Boaz to the mealtime and to coming up hither, or come thou hither, to be with him and to partake.

[7:30] And in verse 14, it continues on to say that she sat beside the reapers. She sat beside the reapers. I think that's interesting as well because she's accepted and permitted into the presence of Jews, of somebody that she really doesn't have any belonging to.

[7:49] And now, because of Boaz, she's allowed in. And I'm just going to, you can write down Ephesians 2.19, where it says, Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God.

[8:04] And earlier in Ephesians, it says in chapter 1, verse 6, Wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. And so Ruth, this stranger, can't understand why Boaz has been so gracious and kind to her, and now he's allowing her to come into the house and to partake of the food and to sit beside the reapers.

[8:25] And she's been accepted. She's in. And it says in verse 14, And he reached her parched corn, and she did eat and was sufficed and left. And so she goes back to the field to work.

[8:39] But before that, Boaz, as a type of Christ, personally, with his own hand, reached her parched corn. He personally feeds her or gives her the sustenance she needs to continue working.

[8:53] If she needs a drink, verse 9, that's available to you. You just come and get that. And you need something to eat from his own hand. He satisfies her hunger. And she's not one of his reapers.

[9:03] She's not even one of his maidens. But he cares for her. Remember the location of this is from verse 7, where this whole conversation began. It says that she tarried in the house.

[9:18] I pointed that out last week. Verse number 7, this is in the house, where the conversation begins. And then when he says, Come thou hither, let's come to the house, to this place. And so Boaz, the point is, Boaz is feeding Ruth in the house, which we saw last week, which we saw last week pictures the church.

[9:35] It pictures a place where you come and get fed. Where Boaz, at his own hand, the hand of Boaz is feeding his people, feeding the church. And some interesting stuff when you start looking at the particulars and just catching a little word, a little phrase, and picturing it out.

[9:52] You need to get to the house. You need to get around other laborers. You need to get around other servants of Boaz or of Jesus Christ, and you'll get fed. Look at verse 15.

[10:04] 15 and 16. 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.

[10:16] 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 first thought, she's to glean, here it says, let her glean even among the sheaves.

[10:31] I would imagine that him saying that is because if any of these gleaners, these widows and fatherless and the poor folks of the land would try to come up near those sheaves, those servants would run them off and say, Don't you come near that.

[10:46] You can glean the corners and you can go where we were finished working. Don't you come near those sheaves. You'll be picking off the sheaves. That's what we've gathered for the master.

[10:57] But he says, No, she can even gather among the sheaves. He lets her all the way in. And he's insistent upon some more being allowed for her.

[11:08] He says, Let it fall some handfuls of purpose. That's a really interesting phrase and that's become quite popular. Handfuls of purpose. Handfuls. A handful. Just letting it fall.

[11:19] Letting it drop. Just dropping it on purpose for her to be able to come and gather. And this is what she's here for. This is why she's in the field is to glean what's laying behind.

[11:31] But what she doesn't fully know is that the master, Boaz, is making sure that there's plenty for her to take up. She doesn't know it, but he's taking care of her.

[11:42] And she thinks she's just there working. She's just gleaning in the field. She's going to stay at this and get as much as she can. And little does she know that when she finds a pocket here and a pile there, it's like, Wow, oh, this is great.

[11:53] And she gathers it up and gathers it up and wants to make sure she gets it and not someone else. And little does she know that was left there on purpose. And it's worth noting that she showed up to the field to glean.

[12:08] And that's why she ended up receiving the extra, the handfuls of purpose. If she'd have stayed home and said, Well, God's just going to have to do something, she never would have received it. So number one, and thought is there, she showed up and got to work and the Lord blessed it with more than she anticipated.

[12:25] And then secondly, I find it healthy to note that it's the hand of God or in this case of Boaz that is insistent upon more than she anticipated being given her.

[12:36] In other words, it's the hand of God that blesses our labors for him. And it's not just your wit, your wisdom, your devotion, your persistence. If I just keep at it, it'll work out or God will make it happen.

[12:49] No, it's the mercy and care of God that provides and that blesses. And I think, I really think this, the more I, the older I get, I didn't think this so much when I was younger, but the older I get and the more I'm alive and around it and the more I try to walk with God and think on what he's doing in my life and in circumstances, I realize and I want to say that we ought to take everything that comes our way in life as if it's from the hand of God.

[13:17] Everything, the good and the bad. Whether it was purposed of God or whether it was permitted of God. And if you do that, it'll strengthen your walk with him.

[13:29] It'll help you to fully, it'll concrete your dependence upon him instead of yourself. Thinking that, well, it's because I did X, Y, and Z that this took place, but say, nope, the Lord allowed that or the Lord gave that and the Lord blessed in that way.

[13:44] And this is, this is obviously, man, I could apply this to somebody who's living in the flesh. They're going to reap corruption and that's of the hand of God. He built that in. It's a law that he insists will happen too.

[13:57] But look on these things in life as if it's from the hand of God. And so Ruth, up to this part in the story, she's, in chapter one, she's almost stubbornly insistent upon sticking with Naomi, which goes against all natural thought there.

[14:17] She's got a heritage and a home and a family and an upbringing and a culture and she's dumping all of that to stay with this old woman who has nothing, but she has something.

[14:28] She's going back to her where she's from. And so the parting of the ways seems natural at this point. It was for Orpah. Didn't take too much convincing for her to go back, but Ruth, no.

[14:39] Ruth is determined to leave Moab. I say, it had to be the hand of the Lord putting that on her heart. And then in chapter two, at the beginning, her hap was to light upon a part of the field that belonged to Boaz.

[14:53] That just happened to be the case that she ends up in this man's field. No, but again, that's not a coincidence, but the Lord's moving. And then here, in this part of it, he's making sure that she has more than that she could have had on her own, yet she is totally unaware of what Boaz is doing.

[15:11] She left, it said. She was risen up to go. Then Boaz commanded the young man and said, hey, you make sure that she has more than she needs. You make sure there's handfuls of purpose that's left behind for her.

[15:26] She's clueless to this. So, the up-to-date, the human side of this, the human element or humanly speaking, we see death.

[15:37] We see tragedy. We see bitterness and mourning. We see some widows fending for themselves. That's what it looks like to them.

[15:48] We see them, really just an ugly situation and stage of their life, but spiritually speaking and in the scriptures, we see that God is working. He's working in the situation and really, he's bringing them not over it, but he's bringing them right through all the pain and all the tragedy and the trip back.

[16:07] He's bringing them through it. She had to go out to the field. The stuff didn't just show up at her door where she just said, blessed be the Lord that provided. No, she went, did the labor till even. She worked and worked and worked.

[16:19] As we'll see, more than some of us probably work. She went after it and humanly speaking, you see all the ugly side of it all, but before long, you're going to see there's rejoicing and tears of joy.

[16:35] You're going to see that one day this woman's going to leave the field for good and be united with Boaz. And so what I'm showing you is behind the scenes, God's hand is guiding this thing.

[16:47] And again, humanly speaking, Ruth is just working in the field. She doesn't know that there's somebody looking out for her. As a matter of fact, it's better than that.

[16:57] Look at verse 16, the very last phrase Boaz told them, he told his young men, he said, rebuke her not. At the end of verse 15, he told those men, reproach her not.

[17:10] And back up into verse number nine. In the middle of the verse, have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? Does she know this? Does she know that Boaz is not just providing for her, but he's also protecting her?

[17:26] She doesn't know this at all. He did mention the, I told him not to touch thee, but she's not aware that he's commanding his servants, don't you dare rebuke her. Don't you dare reproach her.

[17:38] You allow much to fall for her to pick up. And there behind the scenes is the Lord Jesus Christ providing for his church, protecting his church.

[17:49] When we are ignorantly, unaware, and careless, and think that our lives are all about what we have in front of our face, and we've got to fix this, and just keep working harder, and keep gleaning more, and don't even realize that God the whole time is making things fall into our lap, and even through the pain of it, he's guiding us through it, he's bringing us through it, because one day we're going to be united with him, and then he's going to reward us for the work and for the labor.

[18:20] The picture's beautiful, and there it is. It's all there in the text in this story of a woman that lost her husband and is just walking in a field, bending over, picking things up all day long.

[18:34] In verse 17, so she gleaned in the field until even. She gleaned in the field, I already pointed this out, it pictures the church at the close of day where Christ appears for his church, and so she stays in the field until even, and she stays working in that field, and at the end of that verse, it says she beat out that she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.

[19:05] An ephah of barley. I've read several different sources here to get a handle on what an ephah is, what it looks like, what it weighs, and go figure, nobody agrees, and who am I to gauge or to guess?

[19:25] I just kind of take the high and the low and assume it might be somewhere in the middle, but we'll get to that in a moment. Ephah's barley, what she took home with her was after she beat it out, it says.

[19:37] So she took the ears of corn, as it's called, and she beat those to get the grain to fall off, to get it completely off, so she's not necessarily walking through the field picking up individual pieces, but rather she's grabbing those ears of barley, and as she does, she takes it, she beats them, and trims it down to where it's just the bare grain or the corn, as it's called in the text, which is obviously much more manageable to carry home.

[20:04] I've read along these lines, I've read of some cultures watching the women that have gleaned in the field carry a bundle that they had gathered on their shoulder or on their head, and they didn't beat it out, they're taking it home, or some said that they'd see them sitting on the side of the road with rocks beating out what they had got at the end of the day, and so instead, no, Ruth beats it out there before she carries it home, and it's a little more manageable, but it still seems like it's a considerable amount to carry as well, and like I said, there's various opinions about this, but from what I can tell, it's between 30 and 50 pounds worth of barley that she gleaned in one day, and it's suggested that one Iphe would feed one person for 10 days, and if that's the case, then she's got enough to feed her and Naomi for five days, but anyway, look at it, that's a pretty good take for one day, because it's kind of traditionally presumed that they go out and glean in the field for that day, they're just surviving, they're just living off of what they could get their hands on, and so for her to come home with what would be 10 days for herself, five for the two of them, that's a pretty good take.

[21:20] One of the commentators I read said this, sorry, my throat's jacked this morning, I can't get it clean, this was a great deal for one woman to pick up ear by ear in one day, and it must be accounted for not only her diligence and industry, but by the favor shown her by the reapers under the direction of Boaz, who suffered her to glean among the sheaves and let fall handfuls for her to pick up.

[21:44] So in other words, no other woman has taken home this much in one day, and it appears it may have weighed between 30 and 50 pounds, and something she had to carry back into the city, it said.

[21:59] All right, verse 18, she took it up and went into the city. Isn't that interesting? She took it up and went into the city. So at the close of day, she gets to go up into the city.

[22:12] Look over at chapter 3, and look at verse 14, and look at another little phrase that just talks about Ruth. In chapter 3, verse 14, and she lay down at his feet until morning, and notice this, and she rose up before one could know another.

[22:36] Some kind of hidden secret rising up of this woman before one could know another when it wasn't revealed to others. She's out. Interesting wording.

[22:48] So back in verse 18 of chapter 2, she took it up and went into the city. A picture of her rapturing, of the church being raptured and taken out, going into the heavenly city in Revelation 21.

[23:03] All right, so continuing that verse, 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 in verse 19, her mother-in-law said unto her, Where hast thou gleaned today?

[23:18] And where wroughtest thou? And she notices that this is an awful lot. And she says, Blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee.

[23:30] Now, I'm going to presume this. It's not anything I can prove, but I'm going to presume that when Naomi sees the take, she sees this is a very successful day, and she's thinking, Where did you end up again?

[23:44] Because for a Moabitess to come in and just, I think you'd be treated the worst in the field. I think you'd be run off from some of the men's fields around here.

[23:56] But no, she comes home with probably more than anybody. And it says, Where did you go? And whoever it was, he's a blessing.

[24:08] And she finishes the verse in verse 19, 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.

[24:20] And when she hears Boaz, no doubt she lights up. No doubt her heart rejoices. She's encouraged. She replies right away in verse 20, Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, Blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead.

[24:38] And Naomi said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen. Now she's got something going in her head. The Lord's doing something here.

[24:49] And this man, this is not a chance. This man's actually near kin to us. Naomi's clueless to this up until this moment when she hears whose field she was in. Something that, I'll just mention this, throw it out here, won't really run the references, but in verse 20, the man Boaz is connected with the living and the dead in his kindness.

[25:13] And it's kind of an awkward statement, and I know what she's saying about the deceased, her husband and her sons, and also herself being alive and Ruth being alive and his kindness on both ends.

[25:25] But to look at the Lord Jesus Christ and to see the connection to the living and the dead, he's associated with it several times. In one case, and of course in 1 Thessalonians 4, where the dead in Christ shall rise first, he's going to call them up out of their graves and then we which are alive and remain should be caught up.

[25:41] We're all going to be together with him and the Lord. But another case in John chapter 5, where he's telling the Jews that the Father's committed all judgment to the Son, and I'm going to resurrect everybody.

[25:51] And some of them are going to be to a resurrection of life and some to a resurrection of damnation. And Jesus Christ there, he's got this connection.

[26:03] In 2 Timothy 4, he's going to judge the quick and the dead at his coming and at his kingdom, at his appearance and his kingdom. So you'll see several mentions to this living and dead tied to the Lord Jesus Christ.

[26:16] And there the mention is in verse 20 with Boaz. And so now in verse number 20, he's near kin. One of our next kinsmen, she says.

[26:27] We don't know exactly how near. Already commented on this a few weeks ago. Don't really know the breakdown of the family tree. But as we know, in this chapter, in chapter 3 and 4, there's a kinsman that is nearer than Boaz and he'll be introduced shortly.

[26:42] In verse 21, 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 we understand the situation going on where Boaz is providing for Ruth and ultimately indirectly through her to Naomi as well.

[27:02] But notice the last two words, my harvest. Take a look at Matthew chapter 9. Whose harvest is it? It's Boaz's harvest. Take a look at Matthew chapter 9 here, just the type and to give you a verse to cross-reference with this.

[27:22] When the Lord Jesus Christ speaks to his disciples of a harvest, he's speaking of the souls in Israel. and in verse 37, then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.

[27:44] Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. And that harvest back there in Ruth belongs to Boaz.

[27:57] And it shows you the picture of Jesus Christ. He himself has his own harvest that he'll send forth laborers into. And so Jesus Christ is interested in a harvest as well.

[28:09] And he's got his own. And so the type grows stronger point by point, verse by verse. And so he told Ruth, thou shalt keep fast by my young men until they have ended all my harvest.

[28:20] Verse 22, Naomi said unto Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens and 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.

[28:40] Now she stays till the end of barley harvest, but not just that, to the end of wheat harvest that followed it. It seems that what I can understand that's a total of three months that she's harvesting.

[28:50] I would assume daily, as much as we could understand, she stays fast by his maidens till the end. And she works and she works and she works and she gleans and she's gathering and Boaz is providing and they're keeping up in store.

[29:06] And she's going from day to day on foot back and forth, beating it out, working till even and finding her way back to Naomi and taking care of her.

[29:20] And this is adding up on Ruth. This is wearing her down. I can imagine this is a hard lifestyle to live.

[29:32] She probably doesn't have necessarily access to, I mean, she's doing this to satisfy herself and Naomi, whereas Boaz has servants and maidens and they all kind of as a community work together and get the job done.

[29:47] And this girl's been going at it for a long time. So it prompts Naomi to say something in the next chapter. We'll start right into chapter 3 here. Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?

[30:06] And now, is not Boaz of our kindred with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he went with barley tonight in the threshing floor. And so she starts something, a plan and ideas in her head.

[30:19] Maybe it's an obligation that she feels to Ruth. She says, Shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee? Now, initially, you picture rest from the labor.

[30:32] It's got to be tough. And it's got to be hard for her to be just providing for the other and herself and to go back and back and back. It seems like it's a lot to be doing that for what could be 90 days straight.

[30:44] Or I guess we take into account the Sabbath there. But she's not just speaking of rest like from her physical labor. Come back to chapter 1. And remember verse number 8 and 9 where she's bidding her daughter-in-laws to go back.

[31:02] In verse 8, Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, Go return each to thy mother's house. The Lord deal kindly with you as ye have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband.

[31:19] And so she's saying go back and marry. You'll find rest. Rest from the mourning and from the grief and from being a widow. And so finally Naomi says in chapter 3 verse 1, Shall I not seek rest for thee?

[31:33] She's speaking about marriage and that's where she brings up Boaz in verse number 2. Rest from the widowhood. And it doesn't imply that she'll never work again.

[31:44] Certainly the wife has her own duties and she's not just going to live a lavish lifestyle. She's talking about getting married. And so she sought rest.

[31:54] And who did she seek rest from? Boaz. How about that? I should have told you to stay in Matthew because I want to go back there quickly to Matthew chapter 11.

[32:08] Look at Matthew 11, a quick cross reference for a good place to seek rest or a good person to come to, to seek rest from.

[32:22] In Matthew 11, the cross reference is verse 28 where Christ is bidding all, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.

[32:37] Boy, doesn't that sound like Ruth? And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

[32:53] For my yoke is easy and my burden light. what a glorious picture there of the church finding rest in Jesus Christ. And so Naomi says, shall I not seek rest for thee?

[33:06] Why? That it may be well with thee. That it may be well with thee. I'd say that finding rest in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way that it will be well with thee.

[33:19] We sing that song, it is well with my soul. The only person that can sing that song is somebody who's found the Lord Jesus Christ and found salvation through his blood, found that his sins not in part but the whole are nailed to the cross.

[33:34] And then you can sing, it is well, it's well with me. Yes, my name's written there. And so the picture goes and just continues to build into chapter three where Naomi is seeking to find rest for Ruth.

[33:50] And so we'll pause with that part of our study there in chapter three, verse one and two and pick it up next week where she meets him where it's a private conversation and they're going to start discussing some things that get pretty personal.

[34:08] So we'll start that next week and take a break here for about 15 minutes and then come back at the top of the hour. Thank you.