Redemption

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Today is part 4 out of 4 in our study of the book of Ruth. Every week the story has left us hanging, and today we finally get to see how it all turns out.

So we’ve been saying that Ruth is a story about loss. Because this woman, Naomi, loses so many things. There’s a famine in her hometown of Bethlehem, so she and her husband and their two sons go to a place called Moab, looking for food. When they’re in Moab, first her husband and then both of her adults sons die. So she returns to Israel with her one daughter-in-law, Ruth. Naomi feels bitter and empty; Ruth somehow has the energy and the optimism to go out in the fields and find work; and she winds up in the field of a guy named Boaz. Boaz is not only an eligible bachelor; he’s related to Naomi’s family—which, in that culture, meant there was some social pressure for him to consider marrying the young widow, Ruth. So one night, Ruth sneaks into the area where the workers are; she goes over to a sleeping Boaz and uncovers his feet, which you should never try today, but in that culture it signified her interest in marriage. Boaz is flattered and very interested, but he informs Ruth that there’s actually a relative who’s closer to Naomi’s family than he is, which means this other guy has the first shot at marrying Ruth.

Everybody with me?

If you’re having trouble connecting this ancient story with your 2016 life, remember: the reason things got included in the Bible is that, in some way, they’re timeless and they apply to all of us. And the reality is, if you live in this world, you will experience significant, painful, sometimes life-altering loss. Whether it’s a relationship or health or a job or a child or a parent; living in this world means you will lose things. No one is exempt. So as you think about the losses that Naomi and Ruth experienced, ask yourself, “How can I find myself in their story, and what is God trying to tell me?”

So…that brings us to chapter four. Here’s how the story ends…

1 Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.

2 Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so. 3 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 Elimelek. 4 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. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”

“I will redeem it,” he said.

5 Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”

6 At this, the guardian-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”

7 (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.)

8 So the guardian-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal.

9 Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. 10 I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’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!”

11 Then the elders and all the people at 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. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 12 Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”

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. 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! 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.”

16 Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

18 This, then, is the family line of Perez:

Perez was the father of Hezron,

19 Hezron the father of Ram,

Ram the father of Amminadab,

20 Amminadab the father of Nahshon,

Nahshon the father of Salmon,

21 Salmon the father of Boaz,

Boaz the father of Obed,

22 Obed the father of Jesse,

and Jesse the father of David. This is the Word of God.

So from this Scripture, we’re going to see three things that a redeemer does: He Pays the Price, He Changes our Hearts, and He Enlarges our Perspective. Okay? The redeemer pays the price, he changes our hearts, and he enlarges our perspective.

So, first: He Pays the Price. There was a strange cultural custom, that’s totally foreign to us, but that you have to understand if you want to understand the book of Ruth. It was this thing called a “guardian-redeemer.” So here’s what that meant: If a man in your extended family got married, and then he died without having any kids, there was some social pressure on you—as a relative—to step in and marry the widow, and have children to continue the name of your deceased relative. Bizarre concept for us, but in that culture, that was the honorable thing to do. So when we left off in chapter

three, it was very suspenseful. Because Boaz was a relative of Ruth’s family—and he was very willing to play the role of guardian-redeemer. He wanted to marry Ruth! But he also knew there was this closer relative, and the custom said this other guy had the first opportunity to marry Ruth. So it was suspenseful, but very simple: which guy would step in and redeem Ruth?

You start reading chapter four, and you find out it’s not that simple. Because it wasn’t just a matter of redeeming Ruth; there was also land involved. And real estate always complicates things, right? Apparently, Naomi’s late husband owned a piece of property. And because of financial need, it’s almost certain that Naomi had borrowed against this land; or she was renting out the rights to use this land; so if her situation didn’t turn around, she was likely to lose this land. And the honorable thing for the guardian-redeemer to do was not only to marry the widow, but also to buy the land. So this was a package deal! You get the girl and the land. And not to get too complicated, but it also affected future inheritances. Because that piece of land and anything that came from the land would never really belong to the guardian-redeemer who was buying it; it would always be considered the property of the family of Naomi’s late husband. Everybody thoroughly confused yet?

Here’s the point: if you stepped forward and signed up for this deal, you would be taking on a huge responsibility. It involved long-term commitment and personal sacrifice.

So Boaz finds this other guardian-redeemer, and he says: “Look: our relative Naomi is selling this land. You’re first in line: so do you want to redeem it and keep it in the family?” The guy thinks about it, and he says, “Yeah—I’ll take it.” Then Boaz says, “Well, that’s not the whole deal. If you take the land, you also have to marry this widow, Ruth. It’s a package deal.” And at that, the guy says, “I’m out.” In verse 6 he says I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. And it’s not really clear what he means by that. It might mean he already has kids, and he would have to spend part of what should be his own kids’ inheritance to buy this land. He might be reluctant to marry this non-Jewish woman. But whatever the reason, he’s unwilling to do it. He gives up his right.

And that’s the moment Boaz has been waiting for. He steps in and pays the price—whatever it took to get the land back from the creditors. And he takes full responsibility for Ruth—and really for Naomi also—by marrying Ruth. So I want you to realize the magnitude of what Boaz does here: he’s not just rescuing Ruth and Naomi from their current crisis; he’s committing his future self and his future resources to always take care of this family for the rest of their lives. The price of redemption is huge, and Boaz joyfully pays the price.

So you and I read this, and we say, “Great story. But so what?” And here’s the “so what.” Here’s why this story isn’t just about Ruth; it’s about us: redemption is at the very core of the Bible’s message.

Anybody been watching the political conventions? Are you sad they’re over? If you watched the Republican convention two weeks ago, you heard a message, or a narrative about what’s important, what’s wrong with this world, and how to fix it. If you watched the Democratic convention last week, you heard a somewhat different narrative about those big things. And there were speakers at both conventions that made some good points.

But if you read the Bible, there is a narrative about reality that doesn’t fit neatly into any political party, and here it is: the biggest problem in the world; the biggest problem in us; is this thing called sin. Sin is the thing that makes us self-centered; sin is the thing that makes us impatient and harsh with our kids; sin is the thing that causes addicts to keep going back to their addiction; it’s the thing that makes kids bully weaker kids in school; it’s the thing that causes racism. Last year, after the racial tension that erupted in our country, there was an NFL football player named Benjamin Watson who

wrote on his Facebook page: “ultimately the problem is not a SKIN problem, it is a SIN problem.” He’s exactly right. The problem is sin.

And that’s scary, because sin is not just something we do; it’s something we get trapped in. Jesus said in John chapter 8 that anyone who sins becomes a slave of sin. So according to the Bible, this is the universal human problem: just like Naomi and Ruth were in this vulnerable, dangerous position, you and I are in a vulnerable, dangerous position because of sin…and what we need most is for someone to set us free. We need a redeemer.

Peter—one of the disciples of Jesus—wrote this: 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were (what?) redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. Remember what Naomi said when she first came back to Bethlehem? She said, “When I left here I was full, but the Lord has brought me back (what?) empty.” And because of sin, it’s easy for us to feel empty—we feel hollow; we feel hopeless; we chase after things, hoping they’ll fill us, and they just leave us empty. And Peter says, “You have been redeemed from that, by the precious blood of Christ.”

Let me explain it like this: the reason sin is so powerful and so enslaving is that it cuts us off from God. And when Jesus went to the cross, he agreed to be cut off from God, in our place. He absorbed all of the judgment our sin deserves…SO THAT we can be connected with God. And because of that connection with God, we now have a power in us that’s stronger than sin. All because our redeemer paid the price. Isn’t that awesome?

So Jesus was the ultimate Boaz! He stepped up and he said, “I will redeem them!” And he paid the price of his own life so we could be freed from the power of sin.

And the more we build our lives around this Redeemer, here’s what starts to happen: He Changes our Hearts. And I see that in two ways. First, We Learn to Trust His Sovereignty. Look at 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. You know what the most important line is here? The Lord enabled her to conceive. Throughout the book of Ruth, that message—the sovereignty of God—is hugely important. God enabled it. God is in control. Remember back in the first chapter—we said this was one thing Naomi got right—she attributed everything that happened to God. But back then, she was bitter about it, right? “God’s in control, and I hate it.” Now, her heart is changing, and she’s learning to trust this God who’s in control.

Look at verse 14: The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. And they’re looking at the baby, but I think they are looking back on everything that’s happened. They’ve seen Naomi through this last year or so. And they’re saying, “Look what has happened to bring you to this point!” Let’s think for a moment about the strange string of events that has led to this point.

The family—Ruth and Naomi—decided to go back to Bethlehem. They made that choice. They get back there, and Ruth just happens to stumble into the field that belongs to Boaz. She just happens, on that day, to personally meet the guy who owns the field. And then her mother-in-law concocts this scheme where Ruth can show her intentions, and Ruth does it…and it works! Boaz is interested. And then there’s the day in court, and it happens to be that the other guy is not interested in redeeming Ruth and the family. So that works out. So now there’s a wedding. And God helps her to conceive. And there’s a baby.

If any one of those things had worked out differently, they wouldn’t have arrived at this day. It’s a powerful reminder of God’s sovereignty: He is in the events that happen. They’re not random. They’re not coincidental.

I was thinking about this in my own life, and my mind went back to this one night—it was January 1986. I was lying in the bottom bunk of my dorm room at Virginia Tech. And I could not sleep. I had probably had 5 or 6 cokes that night; my head was buzzing with caffeine. And I was agonizing over this decision. My friends and I from the dorm had decided we were going to be fraternity guys. And we had narrowed it down to two: we liked Lambda Chi Alpha and Kappa Sigma. And we all decided: we’re going to go to Lambda Chi. So just the night before, I had called up the other fraternity, Kappa Sigma, and told them, “Thanks for the offer, but no.” And now I laid in bed, and I was just agonizing over whether I’d made the wrong choice. And somewhere in the middle of the night, I decided to reverse my decision. So I joined Kappa Sigma.

In the fraternity, I met a guy named Paul Winters. He wound up being my Big Brother—guided me through the pledge process. Paul Winters happened to be a committed Christian. And through his influence, within about a year, I had committed my life to following Christ. A few years later, as he mentored me and guided me, I graduated from college and went on to seminary. My family and I served in Eastern Europe for a while and eventually came to the Chapel. And here I am, 30 years after that sleepless night, and I am totally convinced that this is where I’m supposed to be right now.

But I think back through those details, and there are two ways I can think of it. I can think of it as random. I can say, “You know, if I hadn’t had six cokes that night, I wouldn’t be here today. Because I wouldn’t have stayed awake, and if I hadn’t stayed awake I wouldn’t have second-guessed my decision—I would have gone with the other fraternity; I never would have met Paul, so he never would have led me to committing my life to Christ; and right now I’d be working in a casino in Atlantic City or something like that. How random—how meaningless—that drinking too much Coke can change the course of your life.

Or…I can say there’s something bigger that’s going on. And that God is in those things, and it’s not random. There is an order. And not just some impersonal force; there’s a personal, loving God who’s up to something. And he’s guiding the details of life. Not only does he use little, dumb things like caffeine. He uses bad choices. He uses good choices. He uses the losses that we experience, that we can’t see any possible good coming from. He’s sovereign, and he’s good. And when you view God like that, it changes the way you process everything in life.

At the beginning of the story, Naomi wasn’t there yet! And yet, as God worked on her, it seems to me that she came more and more to peace with that.

Here’s the other way he changes our hearts: We Learn to be Content in His Plans. Verse 16: Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. Did you notice what Naomi says in this scene? Nothing. Naomi doesn’t speak a single word! She just sits quietly, with this child in her lap. She exudes contentment and peace. It’s amazing to think—isn’t it?—that only a year earlier, Naomi was going, “Call me Miss Bitter. That’s what my life is all about.” And now she’s sitting there with a child in her lap, and God has changed her heart.

Now, let’s think about this: has God restored to Naomi the things that she lost? Not really. Her husband’s dead. God has not brought him back from the dead, or even brought her another husband. Her two sons are dead. So those losses in her life were never reversed. God has given her something different…and she seems to have come to the point where she says, “I’m good with that.”

So here’s the question for us: as our Redeemer, does God have the right to redefine our lives? To change our plans—maybe plans that were really important to us? I don’t know how you pray, when you talk to God. But maybe God is calling you to pray less for changed circumstances—because that’s how we tend to pray, right? “God, change this and change that.” Maybe He’s calling you to pray less for that, and more for a changed heart. Because that’s usually the real action is.

So, the redeemer pays the price, he changes our hearts, and finally, He Enlarges our Perspective. Verse 17: The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David! How about that?? So little did Ruth know…and little did Naomi know…in fact, they would never know! What we’re reading right now, they would never know to their dying day. This is completely beyond them—that this little boy that she was holding in her lap would wind up being the grandfather of none other than King David: the greatest king in the history of Israel…incredible leader…known as the man after God’s own heart…wrote about half the Psalms.

So there was a bigger picture being carried out, that Ruth and Naomi had no idea of. You know what that tells me? I probably have no idea of the bigger picture of what God is doing with my life. And neither do you. And we will probably die still not knowing the big picture. And yet…there is one. God is up to something that’s way bigger than me! So I can believe that it’s random, or I can demand an explanation in this life, or I can believe that my redeemer is up to something bigger than I could ever realize.

So…Ruth’s baby is going to become the grandfather of David himself! Incredible! But it gets even better. Because more than a thousand years after this day, there were shepherds sitting on a hillside. And an angel came and announced to them, “I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Do you realize that—in this same place!—in Bethlehem—where Ruth and Naomi were—years and years later, Jesus would be born. Not only in the city of David, but that he would be a direct descendant of David.

So who would ever think that this obscure Moabite girl—this girl from a pagan country—would wind up being the great, great, great, great, however many greats…grandmother of the ultimate Redeemer, Jesus? It is breathtaking how God weaves all of this together.

So…I would like to close our series with one of my favorite stories.

There was a pastor named Robert Fulghum, and early in his ministry he was officiating this huge, elaborate wedding. The mother of the bride was the mastermind of the day, and there were hundreds of guests, over twenty bridesmaids and groomsmen—this was going to be just a blowout wedding. And everything was going according to plan…until the bride came in.

Now, as the music was playing, and the guests were being seated and the bridesmaids were coming forward the bride was waiting in the cocktail hour area with her father. Her mother had taken hours getting her dress just right and her hair just right; the bride had hardly slept the night before. So she was a little stressed. So she was back in the reception area, just walking along the tables. And she sampled some of the little pink and yellow mints on the table. She picked through the silver bowls of mixed nuts and ate a few handfuls of honey roasted almonds. She had a cheeseball or two. She had a few black olives. And then, to wash it all down, her father gave her a glass of pink Champaign—thought it would calm her nerves. And then it was time for her to walk down the aisle. Here’s what happened, in the words of the pastor:

What you noticed as the bride stood in the doorway was not her dress, but her face: white. For what was coming down the aisle was a living grenade with the pin pulled out.

The bride threw up. Just as she walked by her mother. And by “threw up” I don’t mean a polite, little, ladylike urp in her handkerchief. She puked. There’s just no nice word for it. She hosed the front of the church—hitting two bridesmaids, the groom, the ring-bearer, and me (said the pastor). And the mother of the bride was not amused, at all.

And the pastor explains how they pulled themselves together and cleaned things up as well as they could. They ended up conducting the ceremony in a little side reception hall. And he said, “Everybody cried, as people are supposed to do at weddings, mostly because the groom held the bride in his arms through the whole ceremony. And no groom ever kissed a bride more tenderly than he.”

I heard this story from an author named John Ortberg. And he said the best part of the story is that ten years later, everybody who went to the wedding was invited back for another party—a ten-year anniversary party, to celebrate the disaster. And they watched it on video, and they all laughed at it together. Guess who threw the party? The mother of the bride put it on.

Now here’s the question: how could all those people laugh and celebrate when everything had fallen apart so terribly? How could they actually look back with joy? And the answer is: at the end of the day, the bride got her groom. And really, what else matters, right? At the end of the day, the bride got her groom, and all was well.

And it makes me ask this question of us: how can we walk through life with so much loss—where things fall apart and there’s so much pain—how can we go through that without becoming bitter and depressed?

Well, the Bible says we are the “Bride of Christ.” Did you know that? As believers, we’re the bride of Christ. And there’s a day coming when we, as the bride, are going to be joined to our groom. He’s the one who redeemed us from sin at the cross, and he’s the one who will redeem all the seemingly irredeemable things in our lives. And it says in the Bible that on that day there will be no more death, or sickness, or mourning, or pain, because the old order of things will have passed away. No more loss.

Everything will be redeemed, and we will be able to look back on it, and laugh, and celebrate it all with joy.

We’re not there yet, guys. So until then, we walk by faith, and we trust the Redeemer.