Kindness
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Good morning Chapel family! Good to be with you today.
We are continuing our study of the book of Ruth today. If you’re reading through the Bible, Ruth seems out of place. Right before it is the book of Judges, which is all about these military leaders that God raises up to rescue his people; right after Ruth is the book of 1 Samuel, which talks about the beginning of Israel’s monarchy, with King Saul and King David. And right in between is little Ruth: the story of an obscure family that has to deal with a famine in Bethlehem. To me, it’s a reminder that God is not just concerned with big, national issues; he’s interested in the little things and the little people. If you’re feeling overlooked and left out and like you don’t matter, maybe that’s the most important thing you need to hear today: God sees you and he cares about your story deeply.
So last week, in chapter one, a woman named Naomi leaves her home in Israel because of a famine; she’s accompanied by her husband and her two sons, and they go to a place called Moab. Then her husband dies. Her two sons marry local, Moabite girls; and then, tragically, both of her sons die. So she’s left with her two daughters-in-law. She gets word that the famine in Israel is over, so she travels back home, accompanied by her one daughter-in-law, Ruth. And Naomi, whose name actually means “pleasant,” has become bitter. She feels empty and hopeless and kind of smacked around by God. And that’s where we left off last week.
I’m calling the series “a story of redemption,” and the most basic meaning of “redemption” is to take something bad and turn it to good. So here’s the question: how could a situation this dark ever be redeemed? And the answer is: because of the unexpected kindness of God.
So let’s read Ruth chapter two. I invite you to hear the Word of God…
1 Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.
2 And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”
Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” 3 So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.
4 Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The LORD be with you!”
“The LORD bless you!” they answered.
5 Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”
6 The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. 7 She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”
8 So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. 9 Watch the field where the men are
harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”
10 At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”
11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12 May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
13 “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have put me at ease by speaking kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servants.”
14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.”
When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. 15 As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her. 16 Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”
17 So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. 18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.
19 Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!”
Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.
20 “The LORD bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.”
21 Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’”
22 Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”
23 So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law. This is the Word of the Lord.
So, two things we see in this passage: A Choice We Need to Make, and An Encounter We Need to Have. Okay? When we experience loss, there’s a choice we need to make, and there’s an encounter we need to have.
So first, let’s talk about A Choice We Need to Make. Here were these two women; Naomi, probably middle-aged, back in her hometown. Ruth, a young woman, in a completely foreign country. Both of them having experienced extreme loss, right? Both of them widows; both of them childless. And Ruth makes a request. Verse 2: “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.” There was actually a Jewish law—it’s in the Hebrew Scriptures—that says if you own a field, you have to allow poor people to come and pick up leftover grain in your field. Isn’t
that interesting? So when it was time to harvest the grain, you would have all your workers cut down the stalks and make big piles of them, and then they’d come and gather those piles. But anything that was dropped, the law said, “Don’t pick it up. Leave it there so the poor can come and take it.” It was actually brilliant—because it put some responsibility on the wealthy, but also required the poor to work. And that act of picking up leftover grain was called “gleaning.”
So Ruth—who just lost her husband; who just lost her homeland; who doesn’t know a single person here except her bitter mother-in-law; wakes up and says, “Let me go find a field to glean in. To pick up the leftover grain.” That’s extremely significant, that she said that. You know why?
Because when you’ve experienced loss, it’s possible to get paralyzed by it. Do you know what I mean? It’s easy to be frozen in place by your self-pity and your bitterness and your grief. Did you notice that Naomi didn’t go out and join Ruth? I mean, she wasn’t that old. She was maybe 45 or so. Why didn’t she go work with her daughter-in-law? I think it’s because she was paralyzed by her grief. She couldn’t find the will to get out of bed.
When we experience loss, there is a choice we need to make: will I be paralyzed by grief, or will I choose to get up and continue living?
There’s a professional basketball coach named Monty Williams—he just became the coach of the Detroit Pistons. A few years ago, his wife, Ingrid, was struck head-on by a car that lost control and crossed the center line. She died instantly. Monty and Ingrid had five children.
And amazingly, he got up and spoke at his wife’s funeral. About halfway through his speech, he said this: "This is hard for my family, but this will work out…That doesn’t take away the pain. But it will work out because God causes all things to work out. You just can’t quit. You can’t give in.” A little later, he said, “…when we walk away from this place today, let’s celebrate because my wife is where we all need to be. And I’m envious of that. But I’ve got five crumb-snatchers [back home] that I need to deal with.”
And I remember sitting in my office, listening to this eulogy on YouTube. And I just wept because of the power of his words. Because here’s what he was saying: because of what I know about God, and because life is not about me—it’s about the people that I need to love—I’m choosing not to quit. I’m making the choice to go on living.
A woman from our church lost her husband a few years ago. He was only in his early 60s. And I remember talking to her a few months after he died. She said, “You know, I have so many questions. I don’t know why God took him when He did; it doesn’t make any sense. But here’s what I know for sure: I’m still here. And I know there’s a reason for that. And I’m going to press into God, and press into life, and live to the fullest.” And I will tell you that this season of her life—since she’s been widowed—has been amazing. She has influenced and blessed the lives of countless people...because she made the choice to persevere.
Ruth could have easily curled up in a ball and stayed in bed. But she got up, and she walked out the door.
So let me ask you a question: have you allowed loss to paralyze you? You had a devastating breakup…or a terrible injury…or a humiliating job loss…or a tragic death. And of course you’re going to grieve—grieving is a good and necessary thing. And there may be a season where you step back from the normal flow of life. But maybe it’s gone beyond healthy grieving and it’s really stopped you from living. Maybe it’s time to take your eyes off yourself, and put your eyes on God and others, and get up and walk out the door. There’s a choice we need to make.
Secondly, there’s An Encounter We Need to Have. See, this chapter isn’t mainly about Ruth’s decision; it’s about what she encounters as a result of her decision. I see four things about this encounter.
First, it’s Planned. So Ruth wanders around and finds a field where barley is being harvested. She finds the foreman and asks permission to glean in that field, and she goes to work picking up the scraps. Verse 3 says, “as it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz.” And you start to realize that this guy, Boaz, is going to be a key player in this story. In verse 1, it says he was a relative of Naomi’s late husband, and he was a man of standing. Probably wealthy. And then down in verse 20, Naomi says Boaz is one of their “guardian-redeemers.” Some translations of the Bible use the term “kinsman-redeemer.” What is that?
Well, according to Old Testament law, you had your immediate family, and then you had a broader group of relatives called your “clan.” And the men in that clan were called “guardian-redeemers.” And here’s what that meant: if somebody in your clan was having hard financial times, and they had to sell their land, one of your duties as guardian-redeemer was to buy it back—so you could keep that land in the family. If someone in your clan was sold into slavery, your duty was to buy that person back—so they’d be free. Or—and this is key in the book of Ruth—if a man in your clan got married, and he didn’t have any children, and then the man died, it was your duty (and this sounds crazy to us, but…) it was your duty, if you were single, to marry the widow and have children to carry on the name of the deceased man. You with me?
So…of all the fields Ruth could have found, she winds up in the field of Boaz, by pure chance! Do you believe that? No way. As you read this story, it becomes obvious that there’s a much bigger plan that’s unfolding. And even though, from a human perspective, it looks random, it’s not random at all. When we make the choice to take our eyes off our own loss and walk out the door, we open ourselves up to the plan of God. So this encounter that Ruth has is planned by God.
Secondly, the encounter is External. Maybe that sounds obvious, but it needs to be said: the thing Ruth needed to encounter was outside of herself. And here’s why this is important. How many times have you heard something like this: “I had this great tragedy or this great challenge, and I had to reach deep down (where…?) inside myself to find the answer.” Right? That is a deeply-ingrained cultural narrative! It’s actually the message of The Wizard of Oz. Think about it: if you need courage or heart or brains, you’re not going to find it by seeking out some great and powerful wizard! The thing you’re looking for has been inside you all along—you just didn’t know it.”
I would say this has become the prevalent worldview in our generation. And I’m just saying that it’s very different from the worldview you find in the Bible. Because the thing that was about to make all the difference in the life of Ruth was not something she had to find within herself…it was something—or rather, someone—outside herself.
When I was a young Christian, one of my favorite musical artists was Rich Mullins. He was kind of a hippy/flower child guy—he hung out on Native American Reservations and played all kinds of strange instruments. And in one of his songs he talked about the advice he received when he was searching for meaning. And here’s how he describes it…
They said boy you just follow your heart But my heart just led me into my chest They said follow your nose But the direction changed every time I went and turned my head And they said boy you just follow your dreams
But my dreams were only misty notions But the Father of hearts and the Maker of noses And the Giver of dreams He's the one I have chosen And I will follow Him
If you’re at a crisis point in your life—whether it’s because of loss, or maybe it’s a life transition—you just graduated, or you just got divorced, or you just moved away from home—and you’re looking for direction and meaning…the answer isn’t deep inside you. The answer is Someone outside of you, who loves you and who’s pursuing you.
So this encounter that Ruth had is planned; it’s external; thirdly, it’s Surprising. What Ruth had hoped for was that she wouldn’t get kicked out; that she wouldn’t get attacked by anyone out in the fields; and that she’d scrape together enough grain to bring home to her mother-in-law. Right? She had low expectations! And her expectations were blown away. Boaz welcomes her to glean in his field—and not only that; he tells the harvesters to pull out extra stalks and just lay them out for Ruth to pick up. He commands his men to treat her well. He gives her food and drink. And all through the chapter, you hear Ruth expressing how surprised she is that she’s getting this kind of treatment. Verse 10—she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?” She can’t believe it!
Remember last week, we said there was a Hebrew word that’s one of the key words in this whole book? It’s the word hesed, and it means “kindness/faithfulness/loyalty/love.” It’s always shown by someone in a stronger position to someone in a weaker position, and never to gain anything for themselves, but simply because of their loyalty to the other person. So that word shows up again in this chapter—look at verse 20: “The LORD bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” So there’s that word again: loyal, faithful, kind love. So here’s a question: when Naomi says that, is she’s talking about God’s kindness or Boaz’s kindness? Yes. I think she’s talking about both.
See, I’m convinced the author wrote it that way to remind us that in this story, Boaz represents God. This is not just a story of a poor, foreign girl and a nice, rich Israelite man. The reason this made it into the Bible, and the reason we can learn from it is that Ruth represents us, and Boaz represents God. And therefore…the kindness and generosity of Boaz, that surprises Ruth…points us to the kindness and generosity of God—that should surprise us.
Tim Keller often said that there’s a way you can tell if you’ve truly understood the gospel. It’s the way you respond when somebody asks you if you’re a Christian. If you say, “Yeah—I’ve always been a Christian. Been a Christian all my life,” you probably don’t get it. But if you say, “Yeah—can you believe it? It’s crazy—with my pride, and my greed, and the things I’ve done…can you believe God would accept somebody like me? It blows me away.” If you respond like that—you probably get it. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a pretty good guy like me! No. A wretch like me. That’s why it’s so amazing! So what Ruth experiences is surprising.
And then finally, it’s Personal. To me, the most beautiful part of this chapter is the lunch. Not just because I like to eat. But because it’s so personal and intimate. Look at verse 14: At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.” When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. Here’s the owner of the whole operation, inviting her to sit down for lunch. And by the way, doesn’t it say something about Boaz’s character that he would sit down and have lunch with the workers?
My brother works at a large pharmaceutical company. He was recently at a meeting in Europe, and his flight home got canceled, so he was going to have to wait an extra day to come back. He happened to be talking to the CEO of the company, and the CEO said to my brother, “Why don’t you fly back on the private company jet, with me?” So my brother said, “Okay.” While they were flying over the Atlantic, the CEO—who had just recently become CEO and is a Christian man—said to my brother, “Would you like some dinner?” My brother said, “Sure.” And the CEO said, “I’ll make it for you.” And he got up and went into the kitchen area, and put together a meal—it was microwaved, you know—airplane food—but the CEO took his time to prepare a meal and serve his employee…and my brother will never forget that act of service. It made him want to follow this leader all the more.
Doesn’t it remind you of Jesus—who always chose to hang out with the common people?
But most amazing was not that Boaz ate with his workers; it’s the fact that he ate with this outsider. He invited her to sit with him, and he personally handed her food from his table. Two times in this passage, it uses the phrase “took notice.” Boaz “took notice” of Ruth. He knew her by name, he cared about her as a person, and he invited her in. Which is exactly what God does with us.
If you are in a time of loss, or a time of pain, would you keep your mind open to this: that God may be using this very thing—the emptiness you feel—to personally draw you to himself. In John 6:44, Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them.” Could it be that God is drawing you to himself? You’ve heard me tell my story before—it was a period in my life where I felt like I had lost all the things that had given me identity—I was in college, and my academic dream crumbled; my athletic dream crumbled; my social life was terrible. And I felt empty. But it was through that loss that God drew me. He put certain people in my life who showed me the kindness of God. He was relentless. Because he wanted me to have a seat at his table.
Could it be that through your loss, God is drawing you to himself, or maybe drawing you back to himself, right now?
It’s interesting, because when this chapter ends, Ruth’s life situation is still unresolved. She gets to keep gleaning in Boaz’s fields through the harvest season. But at the end of the chapter the harvest is over, and there’s no more talk of Boaz having interest in Ruth. The two widows are just living together, and that’s that. And you’re thinking, “Is that it?” Of course that’s not it! But you have to wait. God is playing the long game.
Which is so much like life. Because even if we have recognized our need for something outside of ourselves, and we have encountered Jesus Christ, and been surprised and amazed by his grace, and we’ve come to his table…our life situation might still be very confusing and very unresolved. Life is messy.
But here’s the thing: because we know him, and because we’ve tasted his kindness, we persevere. We refuse to let our losses paralyze us; we keep our eyes open to how we can show the kindness of God to others; and because God is good, we walk with hope.
