Have you ever had that joyful feeling of being set free?
Earlier in the week, Alyssa's parents came and picked up our three kids.
Yes! Freedom! Freedom of the bondage of snotty noses.
Freedom from the bondage of being woken up at 6.30, if not earlier, every single day.
Freedom from fights over dinner.
I remember a similar feeling once I'd finished university and started working full-time.
I didn't have this burden on my shoulders of always having another exam or assignment or something coming up.
That feeling of freedom when you first get your driver's license.
And you can go anywhere.
And invariably, at my time, we just all went to Macca's.
That feeling when maybe the first feeling when lockdown happened a couple of months ago
and there wasn't the daily grind to get out of the door with kids or to go places and we could just stay at home.
Or maybe that freedom when the restrictions opened up and we could go out again.
How wonderful is that feeling of being set free?
Unfortunately, all of those freedoms I mentioned were fairly temporary.
We picked up our kids yesterday.
I did really miss them, but we've got them back.
You know, the full-time job that you get gets busier than just the nine to five.
Moving out of home brings all kinds of burdens.
And you just wish you had, you know, mum and dad to cook and clean for you again.
Well, we can get a taste of freedom and long for it.
God's good news for us is that he offers us the most wonderful freedom.
It is called redemption.
We are set free from the bondage of sin and death.
Our debt is paid.
Our sin and shame are covered in the blood of Jesus.
And this freedom is not short-lived.
It is eternal.
And whilst we only see it dimly now,
we will enjoy this freedom to be the people that we have been made to be.
And I think this is the most wonderful thing that we can be rejoicing in.
But I wonder if we can take this redemption, this freedom for granted.
I wonder if we can forget how amazing this freedom is.
And I wonder if we can chase bondage too quickly.
Today we are finishing our short series in the book of Ruth.
And as we have seen Naomi and Ruth, they have gone from ruin to refuge.
And now they are heading towards redemption.
They moved from Bethlehem in Israel into Moab.
Naomi's sons found wives.
But Naomi's husband and sons died.
And so Ruth, Naomi's daughter-in-law, came back to Bethlehem with Naomi and Ruth,
you know, their tails between their legs as they came back.
They aren't slaves yet.
But these two women were within touching distance of being forced to sell themselves to just stay alive.
As we look at the conclusion of this short story about God's people,
we will see three things this morning.
We will see a Redeemer sought, a Redeemer found, and a Redeemer born.
And we will be reminded of the joy that we have today in our redemption that God has given us.
So first of all, we're going to see the Redeemer that is sought.
Ruth has been picking grains in Boaz's field.
He has been very kind and very generous with her.
And Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law, has just found out that it's Boaz.
Boaz is a family member.
And in Jewish law, a family member could redeem a person stuck in debt or stuck in slavery.
So Naomi devises a plan.
A plan to get herself and Ruth out of their situation.
Please have your Bibles open.
Ruth chapter 3 verse 1.
You can be in the app following these points and reading along in the Bible.
But we're going to start in Ruth chapter 3 verse 1.
And Naomi said,
My daughter, I must find a home for you where you will be well provided for.
Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours.
Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor.
Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes.
Then go down to the threshing floor.
But don't let him know you were there until he has finished eating and drinking.
When he lies down, note the place where he is lying.
Then go, uncover his feet and lie down.
He will tell you what to do.
And so Ruth goes down to the threshing floor where they have just brought in the harvest.
And Boaz, he's in good spirits.
The grain has been harvested.
It's been brought in.
And maybe out of a desire to protect the grain and protect his earnings,
he goes and lies down at the end of his pile of grain.
Verse 8.
In the middle of the night, something startled the man.
He turned, and there was a woman lying at his feet.
Who are you?
Which I think is a fairly small exclamation to just find a woman lying at your feet when you're asleep.
Who are you, he asked.
I am your servant Ruth, she said.
Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian redeemer of our family.
Poor old Boaz.
There's women plotting to get him married.
But Ruth's actions can seem very strange to us.
And it's important to note here that there's not even a hint of sexual inappropriateness.
Ruth lies down at his feet, not by his side.
But in this situation, Ruth is claiming a new relationship, a new level of intimacy.
In chapter 2, when she first met Boaz, Ruth said to Boaz,
Why are you being so kind to a foreigner?
I'm not even your servant.
Why are you being kind to me?
But now, Ruth's language has changed.
She describes herself as your servant Ruth.
Spread your garment over me.
Protect me, because I am your family.
Boaz is someone who can redeem her.
Someone who can save her family.
And she's putting that to him.
Please, save my family.
I really love this.
It's like a love story.
It's really great.
And Boaz responds, verse 10,
The Lord bless you, my daughter.
This kindness is greater than which you showed earlier.
You have not run after younger men, whether rich or poor.
Boaz says that she is being kind,
because it seems that there were younger men that Ruth could have approached.
And he's inching towards a problem.
There is a closer relative.
There is a redeemer closer in law and in the family
that should have been the first to redeem.
Verse 12,
Although it is true that I am a guardian redeemer of our family,
there is another who is more closely related than I.
Stay here for the night.
And in the morning, if he wants to do his duty as your guardian redeemer,
good, let him redeem you.
But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives, I will do it.
Now, I really love this interaction between Ruth and Boaz,
because it comes across as a love story,
but it doesn't play like a normal Hollywood love story.
Usually in your Hollywood movie,
you know, two people, star-crossed,
Romeo and Juliet types,
they would fall in love,
they would profess their love to each other,
and then they would fight at all costs to be together.
You know, they would go off on a lope,
they will do anything,
they'll fight any battle, whatever,
just so that they can be together.
But that's not Boaz and Ruth.
Boaz and Ruth are both far too godly people for that.
Boaz says, well, look, there's somebody else who's got the first responsibility.
And if he does that, that's fine.
I'm not going to fight.
I might love the idea of being married to you and caring for you,
but he's got first rights and that's okay.
But if he is not willing,
as surely as the Lord lives, I will do it.
That is a very large oath to make.
I really love this story because
Boaz wants to do things in the right way.
He wants to obey God.
He wants to honor God and he wants to obey the Lord.
And so Ruth has sought a redeemer.
But Boaz needs to go and speak to the other one,
to the other redeemer who is closer,
so that we can see the redeemer that is found.
Boaz goes to meet the man who is closer
and we see the wonderful godly character
as the redeemer is found here.
He doesn't just, you know, take Ruth off
and they don't just elope somewhere.
He doesn't sneakily redeem her on the side
and then deal with the consequences.
He's not creeping around in the dark.
He went to the town gate and met with the other redeemer.
Verse 2.
Boaz took 10 of the elders of the town and said,
sit here.
And they did so.
Then he said to the guardian redeemer,
Naomi, who has come back from Moab,
is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative,
Elimelech.
I thought I should bring the matter to your attention
and suggest that you buy it
in the presence of these seated here
and in the presence of the elders of my people.
Boaz, again, obeying the law,
wanting to honor God,
he is giving this closer relative the right to redeem it.
And the man agrees.
All right.
I will redeem it.
But Boaz has very cleverly hidden one piece of information.
Verse 5.
Then Boaz said,
The man says,
I can't redeem it because it will endanger my own estate.
Now, this could be because he's already married.
Maybe he already has a wife and children
and he needs to take care of them.
He doesn't want to add on another wife
and potential rivalries of inheritance.
And so the man says,
You buy it yourself.
You redeem it.
And he takes off his sandal.
I thought about taking my shoe off,
but, you know, that's a bit annoying.
So he takes off his sandal
and hands it to Boaz as a sign.
And Boaz says,
Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi
all the property of Elimelech, Kilian, and Marlon.
I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Marlon's widow,
as my wife in order to maintain the name of the dead
with his property
so that his name will not disappear
from among his family or from his hometown.
Today you are witnesses.
Then the elders and all the people of the gate said,
We are witnesses.
May the Lord make the woman
who is coming into your home
like Rachel and Leah,
who together built up the family of Israel.
It's a really strange but exciting development.
It's not the usual response to an engagement.
You know, there's,
I don't know if there was cheering.
It's not the kind of, you know,
I've gone to my parents
and I've told them I'm engaged
and there's, you know,
cheering and celebration.
But there is a blessing that is made here.
And again, Boaz is shown to be a man of standing,
a godly man who obeys God.
He cares for the poor.
He loves and he shows mercy.
I just want to take a very brief aside
to talk about how great Boaz is.
When people see men or boys doing the wrong thing,
being buffoons or idiots,
people often have a saying,
boys will be boys.
And I think that can be really dangerous
that we just allow boys to get away
with doing dumb things
and don't hold them accountable.
But I want to suggest a new phrase.
Boys should be Boaz.
It's not quite as catchy,
but I think there's something good about it.
The genealogies in the New Testament
aren't something that we spend a lot of time on,
but there is some really interesting detail.
Boaz is the son of Salmon.
We see that at the end of Ruth.
He's the son of Salmon and Rahab.
Rahab is one of the four significant women
in Jesus's genealogy.
Boaz's mom, Rahab,
she was a prostitute
who helped the spies get into Jericho.
When Israel was coming through into the promised land
to defeat the stronghold of Jericho,
Rahab helped them
and then she joined the people of God
as they were heading into the promised land
and she became part of the people of God.
I wonder what kind of mother she was.
Was she someone who had seen
the kindness and mercy of God,
who had raised her son
to show that same kind of mercy?
And here we see how merciful and kind Boaz is.
He's portrayed as a good boss.
He goes above and beyond
what is needed to do to protect Ruth.
Ruth came to get food at harvest time
where the harvest would have been very high.
The wheat, the barley would have been very high.
This means that it actually would have been
very possible for Ruth
to be taken off into one of the fields
and raped by one of the workmen.
But Boaz told the men not to lay a hand on her.
He placed Ruth with the other female workers.
He gave her a blessing.
Boaz is a really wonderful, godly man.
And even when Ruth lays at his feet,
he doesn't take advantage of a woman
being there in the middle of the night
asking for help.
He wants to do things in the daytime,
in the morning, to do things legally.
And remember, this is in the midst
of the period of the judges.
The period of the judges
was when there was great moral failure,
so great that God would send armies
against his people
to bring them back into dependence upon him.
But here, Boaz stands out
as a model of godly character
for us to copy.
So let's see if we can get that
as a catchphrase,
that boys should be like Boaz.
So Boaz has been found to be the redeemer.
But this is not the end of the story.
Redemption comes fully
from the birth of a child.
This is our third point today,
that we see a redeemer is born.
And verse 13 sums things up nicely.
Verse 13,
So Boaz took Ruth,
and she became his wife.
When he made love to her,
the Lord enabled her to conceive,
and she gave birth to a son.
Isn't that wonderful?
It's easy to think this book
is just about this couple,
how God has brought them together
and their family.
But it's not just about them.
In one sense,
it's actually more about Naomi
than Ruth,
even though the book is called Ruth.
Verse 14,
The women said to Naomi,
Praise be to the Lord,
who this day has not left you
without a guardian redeemer.
May he become famous throughout Israel.
At the start of this book,
Naomi was cursing God.
Cursing God,
saying that he had brought calamity upon her.
But now she can see
that God is to be praised.
She has blessed God,
and now people around her are blessing God,
because how God has cared for her.
And she was not left without a redeemer.
Verse 15,
He will renew your life
and sustain you in your old age
for your daughter-in-law,
who loves you
and who is better to you
than seven sons,
has given him birth.
And whilst having a son
and grandson will continue the family
and be good for Naomi,
the women have just said something
really interesting.
They have used the word love
for the first time in this book.
For what can at first
seem like a love story,
this is actually the first time
the word love has been used,
and it's used to describe
Ruth's love of her mother-in-law,
Naomi.
The word love wasn't used
of Elimelech and Naomi.
The word wasn't used of
Marlon and Kili and the sons
for their wives.
It's not even used to describe
Boaz and Ruth.
But Ruth loved her mother-in-law,
Naomi.
At the start of this book,
Naomi was filled with too much grief
to see Ruth,
who had stayed by her side.
When Naomi comes back
into Bethlehem,
she says,
my life is empty.
God has brought calamity
against me.
She couldn't even see
the value of Ruth.
She,
who is worth more than seven sons,
a perfect number of sons.
This is a relationship
that goes beyond
the letter of the law.
Ruth could have left
her mother-in-law,
but she chose
to show kindness
and faithfulness,
like the God of Israel.
It is as if
Naomi is the main character
of the story,
and everyone else
is used by God
to show blessing
and kindness.
Boaz and Ruth,
and even their baby
that is born,
Obed,
show kindness
and God's blessing
to Naomi.
This conclusion
of the story
points to the love
of God,
not from a story
about a man
and a woman
loving each other,
but the love
of a foreigner
to her aged
Israelite mother,
her mother-in-law
who never fully
appreciates her.
It shows the supernatural,
other-person-centered
love of God
that has worked out
the redemption
of Ruth and Naomi.
Now, we can be left
wondering what the point
of this little story
is in the Old Testament,
but the conclusion
makes it very clear.
Verse 17,
And they named him Obed.
He was the father
of Jesse,
the father of David.
This book is the prequel
to the great King David.
Boaz and Ruth
are the great-grandfather
and great-grandmother
of the most significant
king of Israel.
Ruth and Naomi
have been set free
by the birth
of their son,
but all of Israel
would be redeemed
and saved
by the birth
of David,
who would be king.
This little genealogy
points to the much
larger genealogy
of Jesus,
where we see
that the birth
of that king,
that king Jesus,
would bring redemption
for all people,
the son who would lead
to the salvation
of all of us.
The book of Ruth
is a really sweet
little part of history
contained in four
short chapters.
We've seen Naomi
and Ruth go from ruin
to refuge
and to finally
be redeemed.
They've been set free
as they are brought
into Boaz's family.
He has shown them
so much kindness.
And this is a wonderful picture
of the redemption
that God offers for us.
But we don't need
another person
to be set free.
And I think this is
one of the unhelpful things
I hear in our culture today,
that we need to find
someone to be set free.
You know, girls,
you need to find a man
like Boaz
and then you can be happy.
He is a wonderful model
of a godly man.
He is great.
He is a man
that all men
should see
and be encouraged by.
But marriage
is not our path
to redemption.
I'm trying to teach
my five-year-old daughter
this.
She's grown up
on a steady diet
of Disney princesses.
And they teach you
much about
how you need
to find a man
to save you.
But there's only one man
who can do that
and that is Jesus.
1 Corinthians 6
reminds us
that we were bought
for a price.
That we were redeemed
by God
at the cost
of Jesus' blood.
A costly,
incredible gift
that we can never repay.
Far more significant
than being redeemed
from a life
of struggle
and poverty
for a widow
like Ruth.
God has redeemed
his enemies
and shown
his loving kindness
to us in Jesus.
And in the every day
that he allows us
to continue to live
and to follow him.
Let me encourage
us all
not to sell
ourselves
into slavery
again.
For us
in Sydney
we probably
don't see
the impact
of slavery
that much.
The work
of IJM,
International Justice
Ministries,
do some amazing
work
seeing people
in slavery
be set free.
But for many
of us
we are not
that kind
of slave.
We can be
a different
kind of slave.
We can have
a different
kind of slavery
that we need
to be redeemed
from.
We can sell
ourselves
into slavery
of things
that will
make us
happy.
We allow
other things
to capture
our hearts
and to enslave
us again.
We can be
slaves to our
work thinking
that pursuing
work will
bring us
happiness
and set us
free.
We can be
slaves to social
media.
Getting attention
and responses
to posts
that we make
it's really
addictive.
It rewires
our brains
and we
can think
that we need
to have a
certain amount
of clicks
to show
that we have
self-worth.
But again
that is just
another kind
of slavery.
Our self-worth
was shown
in the cross
that Jesus
would redeem
us.
That he would
set us free.
So don't
enslave
yourself again.
There are
so many
idols that
can capture
our hearts
that we
can become
enslaved to.
I'm not
going to be
exhaustive
and list
them here
but there
are so many
things that
can fill
up our
hearts
and replace
our God.
Our band
is going to
come up
and sing
for us
in a moment
but there's
another issue
that we can
have
which is
ignoring
when people
share a
difficult word
for us.
If you've
ever had a
friend say
to you
oh look
friend
James
I wonder
if this
is an
issue.
I wonder
if you're
pursuing
your career
too much.
I wonder
if you're
on social
media
too much.
If our
response to
that is
to get
defensive
it probably
is an
issue of
idolatry.
God has
redeemed us.
He has
bought us
for a price.
We are
his.
We need
to remember
that all
all that
God has
done for
us
but also
be people
like Boaz
who offer
redemption
and forgiveness.
One of the
issues I have
with our
current culture
is the
culture of
cancelling
people.
It's called
cancel culture
where people's
past sins
things that they
have said
may be an
inappropriate
joke
they get
brought up
and people
just get
cancelled
and there
is no
way forward.
It is a
way of saying
that there
can be no
forgiveness
no redemption
because you
have made
a mistake
but that
is all
of us.
God
offers all
of us
redemption
and forgiveness.
Let's not
be people
that just
push others
away but
continue to
offer redemption
and forgiveness
even when that
is incredibly
hard.
Ruth
and Naomi
have
finally been
redeemed.
They have
been set
free
but the
redemption
that we
have been
offered
is far
better.
And we're
going to
sing about
that now.