In this sermon, the preacher discusses the book of Ruth and its significance in the context of the spiritual state of the children of Israel during that time. The book portrays a cyclical pattern of spiritual ups and downs, with periods of apostasy and social chaos. The preacher highlights the romance between Ruth and Boaz as a godly and wonderful example. Boaz shows care and concern for Ruth, even though she is a foreigner, and offers her protection and provision.

Tonight, turn to the book of Ruth with me and we'll look at this, just tremendous story. One of the neatest love stories to me and watching it unfold in all of the Bible. It's right after the book of Judges and before 1st and 2nd Samuel there. And if you're having trouble finding it, there it is. Let's pray and then we'll look at this. Father, how we thank you for your word. And Lord, we thank you for what you designed when you created man and woman. Lord, for the relationship and the magnificence of marriage. And we ask, Lord, that in these series in which we're going through just looking at Biblical couples and watching, Lord, their relationships develop. We ask, Lord, that you would teach us of your plan and how you work in wonderful ways. And so we thank you and we praise you for it. Teach us and feed us. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, the book of Ruth, of course, as it begins, it says, Now it came to pass in the days in which the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land. The book of Ruth, of course, is put here, right? Because it's right after the book of Judges. Because it takes place during the time of the book of Judges. And it's really a wonderful story, I think. If you aren't familiar with it, I hope you get familiar with it tonight. But it's wonderful in the sense of it with the backdrop. At a time where the children of Israel were largely spiritually in a wasteland. They were up and down, you know, all the different cycles. Some seven cycles through the book of Judges. They would have a high point and then down they would go. And over and over again, it was quite cyclical, spiritually speaking. Up and down and back and forth, it seemed. And there was a lot of apostasy. There was tremendous leadership disorientation in the whole of the country. There was social chaos. It was just a time to where it wasn't healthy. It wasn't a good time at all. But just to kind of firstly, because it's a wonderful book and it's also a short book. So it's easy to do a whole kind of a simple review of the book. And that's what I want to do first. Then we'll go back and look at their courtship. Because it's easy to look at the whole book together. But it's one to where the story, it begins at this time, of course, during the Judges. And there was a famine in the land. And so off goes this Hebrew couple. Here as it were told in verse 2, as they head off, go to the land of Moab. And their names were Lamanack and Naomi. And his name means, My God is King. And her name means Ruth, pardon me, Naomi, means Pleasant One. Or Delightful. But here, My God is King and Delightful head off. And they have two sons. And if you happen to have a marginal translation, they named their children in those days so often by whatever their observations so much were about them. You may recall that like with Esau and Jacob. Esau, he was a hunter and he was these two supposed twins. But one of them came out strong and healthy and quite hairy. He took all the good food in the womb, it appeared, and left nothing for little poor Jacob. But they named one of them Harry. And the other, that's what his name means, what Esau means. And Jacob means heel catcher or cheat. He had to cheat in the womb to get what the poor guy could kind of get. But they named him that way. Well, here, My God is King and Pleasant One have two children. And they named them Sickly and Pining. And so these guys had a rough start when you look at them. I mean, from the day that they were born, these guys obviously unhealthy pregnancies. And there they were perhaps there with famine and everything else going on maybe in the land and the difficulties. But they were born in weakness. And they were obviously they never got over it. They died quite young. But here they head off and they leave Jerusalem or Bethlehem. And they head on out and go to the land of Moab, finding out that they hope they can make it there. Well, when they get there, their two sons, they met a couple Moabites, women, gals from Moab there, Naomi and Oprah. Oprah means gazelle and pardon me, not Naomi and Oprah, but Ruth and Oprah. But Oprah means gazelle and Ruth meant friendship. But here they went off and they met and got married there. Well, while we're there, dad dies. And then while they're there, the two sons die off rather early on in the book. And there Naomi is now left with her two daughters-in-law, Oprah and Ruth. She then turns to them and she tells them just stay here. She hears that the famine is kind of over, that the wheat and the barley harvest are coming through, and that there is some way to make a living back there. And she says, I'm going to go back to the land where I came from, but you stay here. And they said, no, we'll go with you. And they said, wait a minute. She says, I'm too old to have children. If I had another husband now, I couldn't give you, you know, ever give you sons anyway that could ever raise up and be husbands to you. I have nothing to offer. There's no future with me. So you stay here where at least you've got family and you've got an opportunity and you've got a world and you've got a culture all of your own. So you stay here. And so Oprah, she says, OK. And she figures, well, I guess that's it. They both initially were going to go. But then at that point, Oprah reasoned it out and she stayed. But then Ruth came and said, of course, one of the most famous verses in the Bible is when she said, don't, I won't leave you. I'm not going to turn back. And she says, from following you forever, you go. I will go wherever you lodge. I will lodge. Your people will be my people, your God and my God. And where you die, I will die. And there will I be buried. And so the Lord do so to me. And also more of anything but death parts, you and me. Here she came and somehow or another, this Hebrew family had come here as she'd come from another religion, another culture, another world. And here they came out in famine. They came out unhealthy. Three of them died there. And yet she saw something that was there within Naomi or what was left to say, I don't know much about where you've come from. I don't know much about the world. But even what she had already seen is pathetic of a view of godliness in the sense of a sorrowful view. Not pathetic, I don't think that's the word, but sorrowful one. I've seen it like this, but she was so touched by it. She said, wherever you go, I want to go. Wherever you lodge, I'm going to lodge. Whoever your people are, I want them to be my people. Your God's going to be my God. When you die, I want to die where you die. I want to be buried where you're buried. And only death is ever going to separate us. And so she turns and she says, okay. But as she returns back to the land, they say, Naomi's back. And she says, no, don't call me Naomi, the delightful one or pleasant one. Call me Mara. It means bitter because the Lord has dealt bitterly with me. I went out full, it says in verse 21, the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi? Since the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has afflicted me. And so here they come and the harvest has come in. And by the time they get into chapter 2, they're now into the harvest season. And the way that kind of the welfare system of the Old Testament was, is that they didn't have anything like we do where you'd give a percentage and it's taken out of your taxes and then it's set aside in a welfare system to help the poor, the needy, or the widows, or the fatherless. Or whoever it is that society determines is needy. The way that it was done, which I think is a wonderful way, but it was one there to where as they would glean the fields, or as they would harvest the fields, is that they could pass through twice. The owner of the field, this was just the way the government was set up. If you owned a field and you had a harvest in it, you could pass through on two occasions to get whatever it is that you could harvest out of it. And after that, whatever grew or whatever was left was then left for gleaners. And those were the people that needed welfare. Those were the widows, or the fatherless, or those that couldn't find work, but needed to sustain themselves. And so that there was a certain dignity to it. They went out and they found work. They worked alongside other people. And their lives were functional. And while they were going through a difficulty or whatever it was, they maintained a dignity and kept themselves used to and disciplined to work and to go out and find work. And it was really a rather wonderful system. Well, they came, and here it just mentions in chapter 2, verse 1, it says, And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz. So Ruth the Moabitess went to Naomi and says, Please let me go into the field and glean heads of grain after him, in whose sight I may find favor. She said to her, Go, my daughter. This was something that sounds like Ruth was aware of Boaz. She wasn't. It makes that quite clear later on. But it just mentions it here. And she just says, Let me go out and see if I can find some work with anybody who finds favor on me and do some gleaning. And she said, Okay, go on out. Well, it tells us in verse 3, Then she left and she went out and gleaned in the field after reapers. And she happened to come upon a part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. And here is something where it just says, of course, it happened. It just appeared, obviously, to us maybe or somebody watching. It's just kind of coincidental. Of course, it wasn't, was it? But the thing is, is that here she, according to her thinking, she was just going out and just doing what she thought she ought to do. And as she was doing it, she comes along and she's in this field of Boaz. Then Boaz comes along out one day just to check his field, see how the labors are doing. Verse 4, it says that he came and he said to the reapers, The Lord be with you. And they answered him, The Lord bless you. Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, Whose young woman is this? Well, the servant answered who was in charge of the reapers. And he said, The young Moabitess woman. And she came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. And she said, Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sea. So she came and has continued from morning until now, though she rested a little in the house. Then Boaz said to Ruth, You will listen, my daughter. Will you not? Do not go and glean in another field, nor go out from here, but stay close by my young women. Here is something where she just comes along and she just happens, as it says there. And then Boaz, he just kind of happened to come along himself to check on things, see the employees. But as he looks out, he sees this woman who he had never seen before. And he asked about her. Who's this? Oh, this is, you know, Naomi, she's back. And this is her daughter-in-law. And she's been out here working all day. She's been working, working. She only took a brief rest. And so Boaz comes cruising over to her. And says, Now, listen, young lady. And she's, of course, unaware of anything. And he said, I don't want to see you working any other place. He actually called her and says, You know, you will listen, my daughter. There was an age difference, obviously, between. We'll see a little more of that later. But it's something that he just kind of, it would appear, took this fatherly kind of role. Now, listen, my daughter. He said, I don't want to see you go out and work in anybody else's field. So you just stay right here. And stay with the young women, he tells her in verse 9. And he says, Also, I've told the young men to stay away from you and not to bother you. And have I not commanded the young men not to touch you? And he says, It's a rough world out here. There's real tough times. And I just, I'm just caring for you. Maybe as he appeared, at any rate. I kind of think there was something happening right from day one myself. But it's something that watching this thing is he's kind of watching her. And she's kind of unaware of it. But he looks and he sees her. And he kind of says, It's a dangerous world out there. So you just stay around here and we'll all watch over you and make sure you're okay. And then she turns. She says, Well, why? Why do you care about me? And why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I'm a foreigner? Why? Well, Boaz answered and he said to her, It's been fully reported to me. All that you've done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband. And now you've left your father and mother in the land of your birth. And you've come to a people whom you didn't know. The Lord repay your work. A full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel under whose wings you have come for refuge. He looks there and he says, I realize that you've left. Perhaps he'd already heard of this vow that she had made to Naomi. Wherever thou goest, I will go. Wherever thou lodgest, I will lodge. Your people, my people. Your God's, mine. And he looked at her and he said, I realize you left everything. Home and family and everything to follow her. And may the Lord just be your refuge and may he repay you wonderfully. The reason I think there might have been a little something to it is. It said in verse 14, Now Boaz said unto her at mealtime, Come here and eat bread and dip a piece of bread in vinegar. So she sat beside the reapers and passed parts grain to her. And she ate and was satisfied and kept some back. Here's something, he asked her out to dinner. And he says, Why don't you, let's just have a little, since we're here, you know. You eating? You hungry? Didn't you read he asked her there to join him for a meal and she does. And then he says, By the way, keep all the scraps here. Keep all the leftovers. You take them all home with you there. And then he turns and he tells the servants. And verse 15, And when she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men saying, Let her glean, even some among the sheaves. Don't rebuke her or reproach her. And also let some of the grain of her bundles fall purposely. From the bundles fall purposely for her. Leave it that she may glean and don't rebuke her. Here he says, Let her pass through the fields, even before it's gone through twice, is what it means there. And he says, And afterwards, just kind of spill a little. You know, when you're going through, just kind of let a leak out of you. Just sort of a casual way. So she goes and she comes home at the end of this day there to Naomi. And in verse 19, when Naomi sees all that she's brought home, this huge amount of food, you know, she looks at her mother-in-law and said to her, Where have you gleaned today? And where did you work? Blessed be the one who took notice of you. So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked. And she said, Well, the man's name with whom I work today is Boaz. And he says, I just went out. I was just working. And this guy came up. He was so nice to me. And, boy, everything just, it was just wonderful. Is this a lot? You know, she probably thought as she came home with all this pile of stuff, where a gleaner would kind of, you know, like welfare. You didn't come home like you own the company. You came home, you know, like, you know, you got enough to make, you know, a night's meal for the evening and then go back to work the next day. Well, she comes home with all this. And she's looking at this thing and says, Where have you been? And the Lord has blessed you in a wonderful way. And she says, Well, just, I don't know. Just with a guy named Boaz. Then Naomi said to her and her daughter-in-law, Blessed be the Lord who has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead. And Naomi said to her, The man is a relative of ours. He is one of our near kinsmen. Then Ruth, the Moabitess, said, Well, he also told me you'll stay close to my young men until they have finished all of my harvest. And he says he wants me to come back and just work there. He told me not to go any other place. Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, It's good, my daughter, that you go out with the young women and the people do not meet you in any other field. And so she stayed close to the young women of Boaz, gleaned until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest. And she dwelt with her mother-in-law. So here for some period of time, while the harvest is continuing on, this little scenario goes on for at least some weeks. Well, it comes to the end of it. And then as it comes to the end, it tells us in chapter 3 now that Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, My daughter, shall I not seek security for you that it may be well with you? Now Boaz, whose young women you were with, is he not our kinsman? In fact, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Therefore, wash yourself, anoint yourself, put on your best garment, and go down to the threshing floor. But don't make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. Now here's something, what is happening here to explain is that in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew nation, they had what they called the right of a kinsman-redeemer. You see, the whole great expectation, the whole great dream of all of Israel, of course, was to be the dream of ever being in line to the Messiah. That was the ultimate of all. That's why, I mean, that they knew that they always dreamed of the firstborn, of it being a male, and all the dreams that they would have. But it was something there that they wanted to continue the family name on. And also just to keep the heritage. The way that all of the generations passed things on, and the way that inheritance was, it was passed on through the sons. And so when somebody would have sons, they would die, and there was a certain amount of land. It was set way back under Moses and Aaron, initially spoken of. And then when Joshua divided up the land when they came in, it was all according to tribe. And every tribe had a certain area of the land of Canaan. And part of the geography was set for that tribe, and then they divided it up. And then for then on, the land belonged to that family. And all that had to happen is the family to continue. But if a man didn't have any sons, then it would end up being lost. Well, here in the family, identity and heritage would be lost. But if a man was married, and he died before he had had sons, one of his immediate kin, the closest of kin, right on through a line, but they had what they called a kinsman redeemer. And that is, is that that man would then go to this man's wife who had died, and have a child with her, hopefully a son, and then that son would then take over the inheritance. And so here was the family farm, or the plot of land. The husband had died, the wife was there, and then a brother, or someone would come and have a child for her, but the child would carry on the brother's name, the one that had died. And they're to carry it right on through history for them, is what a kinsman redeemer was all about, was to redeem the family name when an extra kin had died, and to step in and take that. They would also take the financial responsibilities of it. They would take the responsibilities of helping to raise the child as if they were their own, though it was a nephew, essentially, as far as the history, though they were actually the father. Well, then it would be passed on down. And at any rate, here is Naomi, her husband has died, and now at this point, because she is too old to bear any children of her own, it would just be lost. But because she had a son, though he had died, who had married a woman, now that made Ruth there the one that was the kinsman redeemer, or the one that if she could have a child, it would carry on for the family. So Naomi tells Ruth after the harvest season, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go down there, and she says, first I want you to wash yourself, get all cleaned up, put on some perfume, anoint yourself, get on your best garment, go down to the threshing floor. I understand Boaz is working tonight. So go on down there, and when he's all through working, wait until he's finished eating and drinking. You know, I don't want to get sidetracked, but that's some wonderful advice there, I think, given by this mother-in-law. You know, I mean, the things that she said, some of them just so simple and yet so practical. Where she just tells her some things, she says, now get cleaned up, and smell nice, and wear the nicest thing you've got. And this is something that's funny. There's a lot of people, they don't understand. I'm not talking about trying to be worldly or fancy, but there's nothing wrong, Kay Smith used to say, if the barn needs painting, paint it. But we're somebody just to look as nice as they can look. And a lot of people just don't think that way, and wanting their just to look nice. I went to college at Cal Poly in Pomona. At the time, it was predominantly an agricultural school. And there was a lot of jokes on campus, because most of the gals were there studying agriculture. We used to have a lot of kidding going on. The homecoming queen came over the hills at 5 o'clock. You know, it was kind of the joke there. And if the son was right, you weren't sure which one she was. And they were bringing in the cattle. But it was just a lot of them. They were just tough women. They could spit and chew like anybody else. And it's something where, instead of just realizing the femininity, there's nothing wrong with realizing its power and the wonder of it. I'm not into trying somebody to be flashy. And Peter talks in the Bible about the women trying to adorn themselves with all of the plating of gold and the fancy, you know, external things. And to where the real beauty of the woman is in the hidden woman of the heart. But there's nothing wrong at all whatsoever with what's there to take care of it. And not only that, but also the wisdom of, he's had a tough day, before you talk to him, make sure he's had something to eat and drink. Tremendous wisdom. There's a well-equipped mother-in-law there. And she says, just wait until you look nice, and then wait until he's ate and drank. Then talk. And then she sends him in, though. And the way that the kinsman-redeemer thing worked is, is that after he went to bed, she was instructed, she went in and she was to lie at the foot of his bed. This was not a sensuous thing at all, or in that sense of the word. But it was one there to where then she said, you uncover his feet. And that isn't just because he'll eventually be waken up by his feet being uncovered. That was part of it. But also one that now there, he then is to take his blanket, and if he covers you, that is saying there that he is going to take the part of the kinsman-redeemer. Well, he wakes up, sure enough, later on, and he says, Who's there? It's dark. What's happening here? And she says, Well, I'm Ruth, your maidservant. She said, Take your maidservant under your wing, for you are a near kinsman. Then he said, Blessed are you of the Lord, my daughter, for you have shown more kindness in the end than in the beginning, in that you did not go after young men, whether poor or rich. But he goes on and he tells her, he says, However. So obviously he'd thought about this, but he says, However, we have a problem. I'm not the next of kin. I don't have the first right here to do it and to take you to be my wife. But there's another that is the closer of kin. And so you've got to go home. It's not my decision. It's his. And so she gets up while it's still dark and he sends her on home and gives her some food to go. And then when she gets there, Naomi, of course, is waiting. She said, Well, Ruth, how did it go? What happened? And she said, Well, there's another one that's of closer kinsman redeemer than he is, who has the first right of refusal. And so he said he was going to take care of it. And then in verse 18, Naomi says to Ruth, And she said, Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out. For the man will not rest until he has concluded the matter this day. Here's Naomi. She looked at this thing and she says, Got it. She obviously turned and she said, This guy is not going to sleep again. We hooked him good. We got the guy. And he's not going to go to sleep until he's settled this matter, I can tell. And to me, it's a wonderful picture of romance, but romance in a godly way, in a wonderful way. I mean, here are these two people. I think as we go back and we make some observations, it's so wonderful to see the way this all happened. And so the next day, immediately, Boaz is out there. He goes out the city gate to where, that's where the business was done. He gets ten men of the elders of the city, which they need to have to have this council. And then he gets his brother there. And here as he gets his brother, he says, By the way, brother, I got a little thing, a little business here to do with you. He said, Sure, what is it? And he said, Well, you know, our brother, Lemonade. And he says, Yes, God rest his soul, or whatever they said. But at any rate, he says, Well, you know, Naomi, she's back. And that didn't bother him because she was too old to bear children. But before he had left, he had sold his land in the famine, obviously. She said, I had to sell the land, but you have the right to buy it back. That was the way that also with the kinsmen redeemer, anytime somebody had to mortgage, it was more equivalent to a mortgage, in a sense, that couldn't actually be sold. Or anytime that money was taken, you could return the money and get it back. And so he says, Well, there's the land, and it's there, and it's yours if you want it. So if you want to go, you know, redeem it back, you know, it's all yours. He says, Hey, I'll take it. And he says, Okay. And he says, Oh, by the way, maybe I forgot to tell you. She also came back with a daughter-in-law, you know, sickly and pining. You know, they got married, and they died, of course, too. That was real sad. But before they died, one of the wives has come back here, a Moabitess. And I don't know what you think about that. And he says, Oh, he says, That wouldn't be good. No, my wife won't go for this at all. I don't think it'd be tough at home. It'd be tough on the whole inheritance. See, it'd be fine if he thought, Oh, I'll take it. We'll bring it all into my family for the inheritance. It'll just add to our wealth of our family to pass on. But in the kinsman-redeemer, the children, they were produced through it, that you had to finance and raise them up and take care of the cost of all of that. And then you turned it all over to them in the end anyway. And so he says, Oh, that's going to mess up my inheritance real bad. My kids won't go for that. Pay all this money out, and they'll never get anything back. Bad deal, bad deal. And he says, I can't redeem it for myself, lest I ruin my own inheritance, in verse 6. He says, So why don't you take it? Bless his soul. Okay. I'm a good guy. I'll do this. And so he turns, and as was the custom was that a man, when he had made a deal, he took his shoe off and his sandal off. He gave it to the other, and so he did that. And then he says, You are witnesses. And then he ended up where Ruth became his wife. And not only, of course, did she become his wife, but then obviously Naomi, her life was entirely turned around. It says in verse 13, Then Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And when he came into her, the Lord gave her conception. She bore a son. And the women said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a near kinsman, and may his name be famous in Israel. And may he be to you a restorer of life, a nourisher of your old age, and for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons has borne him. Then Naomi took the child, laid him on her bosom, and became a nurse to him. Also the neighbor women gave the same saying, say, There is a son born to Naomi. And they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David. But now in this wonderful story to think here that not only was the family immediately cared for and was hit, but then they went on to where he ended up becoming the great-grandfather of King David. Of course, when Jesus inherited the throne of his father, David. But what a story. You know, when you just stop to think of it. To me, when I think of this story myself, it's one there to wear over the whole thing. I just want to write Matthew 6.33. Because to me, as I look at this love story, it's a story that to me, both of them, when you look at both Ruth and Boaz, the secret of this magnificent love, of this magnificent story of redemption listed through all eternity now, set in stone in a wonderful way. But right over it, you could just write, here's two people in a world and a time when they were largely backslidden. They still live, both of them, spiritually for God. They were somebody, both of them, they weren't looking for each other. It's pretty apparent when these two came along, I mean, they had all sorts of differences about them. They had all sorts of reasons they shouldn't have made it. That these two shouldn't have met. She was raised in poverty. He was raised in affluence. They're from two different cultures. It was one there to where the cultures didn't even talk to each other. Aaron had commanded, Moses and Aaron had commanded, that the Moab, they were never ever to be allowed within the temple. For what they had done and their terrible sins, the children of Israel looked at Moab. Even David later on, he says, Moab is my washpot. You know, and over Edom I cast out my shoe. But it was something that the Moab, they were far, far from anything that the children of Israel would ever talk to, ever have anything to do with at all. Two different cultures. You may remember the first meeting they had when he talked to her. He says, why do you talk to me? She says, I'm a foreigner. There was great racial discrimination at this time. These two should never have made it. It was something that there was something in their backgrounds. Very, very different as well. He was born and bred in Judaism. He was born and bred in, so to speak, in the church. She had a very godly and spiritual background, obviously. And yet here she was born in Moab and raised on pagan gods in her background. It wasn't until finally that she had come to this place of, recently in her life of coming over to this tremendous conversion, in a sense, over to Judaism and thy God shall be my God. And there, but it's, there are a couple that on one hand, it's almost would be easy to say, oh, for a different time. Oh, for a different space or place in the world if we only could have met. But there's so many differences. These two never would have made it through. I'm trying to think. There's one big counseling thing that a lot of people go through and they get married in premarital counseling that gives you, if you're compatible. These two would have flunked it real bad. They'd have gone through this thing and people would have shake their heads, wait a minute, no way, Jose. Forget this thing at all before you get going. And yet the wonderful thing about them is that they were destined of God to be together. It's something to where, as you look at it, though the thing is, is both of them, for one thing, they were saints. They were wonderful saints. She was a saint in poverty, he was a saint in wealth, but they were saints. And rather than her looking back to Moab, rather than her, when it came time, when Oprah left, there was something that she made a decision that in her heart, in her life, she had given her life to God the best way she knew how. And though even a recent convert, her conversion was genuine, it was deep. She could look at her and she said, wherever you go, that was geography. Wherever you lodge, those are the circumstances in which you live. She looked at Naomi, wherever it is, your people, I'll take your culture. I'll move right into it. And your God. Here she looked at her and her life had changed geographically, circumstantially, culturally, spiritually, in every way. She made a decision that she never looked back on where her conversion was real. And though, on one hand, the wonderful thing is that all she knew about Judaism, it was all formed in poverty. There was a famine in the land. And there was something so magnificent to me about it that the reason I'm convinced of the depth of her conversion, there was no affluence out there in following. There was no blessing. There was no worldly thing whatsoever to follow Naomi for. She was a woman, when she met her, they left the land and the people in a religious world that was in famine and a country that was in division and in backsliding. And yet this couple, as they came and they brought their two sons, they were sick, they were all dying. Three of them died right there. And yet there was something she saw in it where whoever your God is, I love Him. He's mine. And I want to know Him. I want to be a part of Him. Nothing in Moab had ever touched her. And her conversion, it was genuine. It was real. It was obvious. And it was something there that she came and the Lord had become her refuge, even as Boaz looked at her and he says, The Lord be your refuge. And she made it through difficult times. It's difficult being raised in poverty. But through it, she lived. Boaz had the equal amount of difficulty, only at the other extreme. He was a saint in wealth. In both of these, neither one of them are real common. But there's something there to where you look at this man, he's a wealthy man. And yet he was obviously a saint. He was a spiritual man. When he came out in the fields, the first word that we hear out of his mouth, he looks at his employees, he says, The Lord be with you. They answered him. And the Lord bless you. Here was something that this man in a backslidden world at the time, spiritually not much going on, but all the reason just to live for his wealth and live for whatever it was. But he looked there at his employee. He wanted to put a blessing of God upon them. The Lord bless you. And how he loved and he cared for them. He had great compassion about him as a person. In verse 8, when he looked there at Ruth, she's obviously somebody there quite a bit younger. Significantly younger. We don't know how much younger, but it would appear because Boaz was Alemanek's brother, that he was equivalent to being her uncle. And probably significantly older. In his first conversation, he called her his daughter. It was something in chapter 4, in verse 3, it says there in verse 3, talking about the kinsmen redeemer process, he says there's this land that belongs to our brother Alemanek. So here he is, of course, Alemanek's brother. In chapter 3, in verse 10, it tells us there that when she came there to be the kinsmen redeemer and lay at his feet, he looked at her and he says, well, you haven't gone after the young men. And so here he was, perhaps even a generation older than her. And yet at the same time, he looked at her in just compassion. He cared for her. He wanted to do what was right. He said, you stay with the women. And he says, I've told the young men to behave around you. But it's something there that is life. It was one there, there was just a tremendous spirituality about it. He was a man as well of great integrity. When there, he obviously had this great love just within him, but yet at the same time felt, well, she's too young for me. This wouldn't be right. And there, this man looking at this relationship and perhaps dreaming of it and desiring it, but yet at the same time just treats her so correctly all the way through. And then when there the opportunity is in his integrity, he says, it isn't right yet. We've got to do this right. I've got to go and check things through. And of course, the next day, he did. He also, as he remarked about her, he looked at her and he wasn't taken in so much by her appearance. We don't know what she looked like. We haven't any idea. But he saw beauty in her. It says there what he was taken by in verse 11 of chapter 2. It says that it has been fully reported to me all that you've done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, how that you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and you have come to a people who you did not know. The Lord repay your work. A full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel under whose wings you have come for refuge. But here it was something what Boaz, the beauty he saw and the beauty he was taken in was spiritual. He looked at her and he says, in this backslidden world in which we're in, when everybody else lives for their own interest, when it's a world get it all you can and be all you can be and instead of self-preservation and self-protection, you're here going out gleaning fields. You've left everything just to take care of this little lady, your mother-in-law. And he looked at her and he realized what a tremendous quality. Somebody once said that usually when guys are out dating, there's one type of girl they look for, but when they sit down and they want to pick somebody to get married, they pick somebody like their mother. And I suppose that depends on the mother, I don't know. But it's something to where I do remember one time my mother-in-law, when I was engaged to Jean, and she was quite a character. She was a lot of fun. She had Alzheimer's the last ten years of her life and it was difficult. But when she was doing well, and I'll never forget one time when I'm over dating, when I was dating Jean, she was going to college in Santa Barbara and a friend of mine from Pomona, he and I, we used to go because he had a girlfriend up there at the same college at Westmont. And so we'd go flying up there all the time. Well, we stopped by Jean's house to pick up something for her on the way up. So we stopped by and Jean's mother talks to my friend about this girl. She says, now tell me all about her. Is she spiritual? Does she love God? And then she gets into a thing and she's real intense in this conversation. You'd have to know her. She's a real strong, real bold lady. But she gets to him finally and he's talking to her and explaining everything. She says, okay, now tell me about her mother. Tell me about her mother. I want to know about her mother. And he says, well, what do you want to know about her mother for? And he said, because women, they'll turn out like their mother. And you should really consider her mother. And while she's saying this, I said, goodbye. I'll go walking out the door. And she says, where are you going? I said, I was just over here in your council and I'm getting out of here. And she says, oh, no, no, not in this case. This is different. This is different. Really, I was just kidding her out of this thing when she said a woman's going to be like her mother. But you know she is. And my wife, that's one of the things, the qualities I loved about her. I loved her mother. But it's something here where Boaz, he looked and he watched this relationship that Naomi had, or Ruth had, and how she cared and how she was a giving person. And when somebody is that way, people oftentimes think it's the flash or that they pick up somebody. It isn't that. Boaz was taken. He looked at her and he realized this is a woman of great quality. This is a woman of great heart, of great depth, of great character. This is a woman that he realized he desired to spend his life with her. I'd like to give her all I've got. That's, of course, what he did, I'm sure. But you want somebody to share your life with that looks out for not their own interests but yours. One of the great problems in most marriages is selfishness, isn't it? One of the great tensions in marriage is when people can't give to each other. When they're there for their own interests, you're in trouble. A little while back, my son called me down in San Diego and he said, Dad, I need some advice. I said, what? And he says, well, I'm getting $1,700 in tax return. And he'd already called and talked to Jean the day before. And Jean told me, she said, you better call him and talk to him. I was going to, but he called me first. So I already knew the story. Because Jody, my daughter-in-law, when she heard about this money, she'd already seen a sofa and a matching chair and a coffee table and these things for the house. And she had most all of it spent. You know, she just, whoopee, isn't this exciting, we're getting $1,700. And she went out and she found these great deals. And she came and she says, look, honey, what we can do? Well, he says, we can't. We're not doing that with it. And she had it all spent in her mind. And he, of course, had it spent in his mind when he called me up. He says, Dad, I don't know what to do. He says, Jody really thinks that this is how this money is going to be spent. And I don't know how to tell her, but she really is into this. And I said, well, I'd just tell her. Just go to her and tell her. You go do that. What would I tell her? I said, well, tell her the truth. Tell her it's your money. And you're going to spend it on your Jeep. And you're going to get new rims for your car. And you're going to get yourself a new surfboard. And you're going to get yourself the new outfits. And you're going to spend it all on you. She's not going to get a penny of it. Now, you just go tell her that. And you do that. And I want you to know, I just really, I went on for three or four minutes. And you tell her, don't touch your stinking money. Don't expect a penny of it ever. And I poured it on so heavy. And at the end of it, I stop. And it's completely quiet. And he says, do I really sound like that? And I said, well, you tell me. And I said, you can either give it to her with a big fight. Or you can just give it to her. And I said, if you give it to her with a fight, nobody will be happy. But if you just give it to her, you can both be happy. He said, yeah, I guess so. So he did. But I learned that a long time ago. You just, you know, give it up. It's quite a world. It's a nice place if you do that. You know, I know this doesn't sound too, I don't know what it sounds. I guess I'm whipped. I don't know. But the thing is, my dad, I told a story of what I went through with him one time. And he just taught me. It's a long story. I won't get into it now. But I'll never forget the phrase that he told me at the end of this. He says, Don, let me give you some advice. After I'd been through a little ordeal. And we'd only been married a couple of years. All the money went her way. And he said, Don, let me give you a little advice. He who has a happy wife, has a happy wife. And I'm waiting for the end. And then I realized, that's it. If you've got a happy wife, you've got a great life. You really do. If you don't, you're in trouble. You know, no matter what you do. But the thing is, I'm not saying in a worldly way of maneuvering. But to me, when there's people that know what it is to give to one another. When they know what it is with spiritual values. Things for the kingdom. And to me, as you watch these two. And you see the wonderful way that God brought them together. They grew in faith together. I think both of them had to have a night that lasted a month. When their Naomi came home. And she'd fallen in love with Boaz. He there had fallen in love with her. But there was this huge roadblock there in the way. And next of kin. And nearer of kin. And it's something there to where now it was up to him. It was outside their hands. But they both had to look there and say, God has to take care of it. The Lord has to work this thing through. And I think the secret of every marriage as well. Is where people know what it is to even put their own relationship on the altar. And say, God, if you're going to put us together and keep us together, you have to do it. We've got to rely on you. We've got to trust you. But the wonderful thing here is that they learned this. And then to stop to think that these two couples. I mean, they were not only saints in faith. And saints in trust. And saints in obedience in their life. They're saints in eternity. When you stop to think that Ruth and Boaz. They had a little boy there. Little did they know. And they were holding a little guy. And they named him Obed. And then one day as Obed grew up. And he had a son. And they named him Jesse. And then Jesse grew up. And he had a son. And he named him David. To stop and think of the grace of God. The goodness of it. They reaped a harvest beyond any barley field they were ever in. They reaped a harvest in eternity, their faith did. Came through their children. Because they taught them the way of God. They taught them. What a heritage to have parents like this. For young Obed. And then as he raises Jesse. And then Jesse raises David. And on how not only are the sins of the parents followed. You know, go down to the third and fourth generations. But also a lot of the spirituality of it. A lot of the heart for God. And it happened so wonderfully. In this whole genealogy. To think their harvest. You know, their love and their trust for God. But how wonderful it is. When somebody to me, as I said, just puts over this whole book. And to me the story, I think, of every marriage that succeeds. It's Matthew 6.33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things will be added unto you. They weren't looking for each other. They were looking for God. So often people, I've watched people through the years. That often times have gone off this. I'm going to go to places where all the people my age are at. I want to go to where, you know, things look the best. And so they go out. I want to go to get this great singles group. I want to go here where they got this. So I'm going to go because, you know. But they're going looking. Rather than they're just about the business of serving and loving. And in those things, I'm convinced that the person who goes out and looks. I think God just says, well, have a nice time. Go look. But if you'd seek me first, I'll bring them to you. You don't have to look. You just serve me. You just go out in the barley field. You go out and glean. You go out and do what it is I've got for you. And then one day you watch. And I'll bring you a kinsman redeemer. I'll bring you somebody that here Boaz, this man who had so much. But in reality, he didn't have anything until he had her, did he? His life ended with himself. And though he had great wealth, he had no one to share it with. But to be able to just to pour it out on her and then the generations to follow. And as well there too with Boaz, with Ruth. She had so much to give. The two of them had so much to share. And what a marriage they no doubt had. What a joy they brought to each other. Father, how we thank you for your word. How we thank you, Lord, for the things that you want to teach us. And while, Lord, a lot of the ways that we would think of going out to pick someone and find someone. That, Lord, so often when we're just about the business of serving you. When we're going about the processes of whether thou goest, I'll go. Whether thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people. Thy God my God. Whether thou die or shall die. Where you're buried, I'll lie. Lord, that when we can just look at the body of Christ. Be about the business of serving. Bringing in, Lord, the harvest. Serving the kingdom of heaven. Not out on some sort of a search. But, Lord, that when we're seeking first the kingdom. You will add on everything else unto us. Teach us, Lord, that faith. Teach us, Lord, that fidelity to you. Teach us, Lord, what it is just to be about serving and doing the business. And then, Lord, just like Ruth, one day we'll just happen. Quote, unquote, upon a field. And another person will just happen to show up. All by your divine providence. Teach us these things, Father. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.