A Man Named Boaz

Filt led for your children Israel and the peace of Jerusalem, Lord God, we lift them up to you.

We'll continue on. It's old, it's your end, lost without hope, with no place to begin, at mercy come in.

When death was arrested, dash was redeemed, don't leave the rest of me, disrejoice, it's your end. The old has passed away and we have been last darkened, that's mine. But Jesus Christ does walk in faith tomorrow. But tomorrow, like you, mercy in the Spirit of Satan.

If you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Ruth, chapter 2.

Ruth, chapter 2. Or as I like to call it, episode 2. Episode 2, I have named, or I've called a man named Boaz. Felt pretty right. Well, let's give a quick recap. Last time that we were together, we saw the, sort of the scene set, if you will, for the book of Ruth. The things that were going on. So, there was a man named Elimelech. And he had a wife named Naaman.

And they had two sons named Malon and Chilion. It was a time during the judges. And there was a famine in the land. They lived in the area of Bethlehem. They were of the tribe of Judah. But they decided that the best thing for them to do was to leave the promised land and go down to the land of Moab. A decision they probably should have never made. But the one that they made nonetheless.

While they were there, Elimelech died. And Naomi's two sons, Malon and Chilion, each took a wife. One of the wives. One of the wives was named Ruth. The other was named Orpah. Well, over a period of time, the two sons passed away as well. And so, now it was Naomi and Ruth and Orpah. That was all that was left of the family. Well, after about ten years had gone by, Naomi had heard that God had visited the land of Israel again.

And that there was bread in the land. And so, she decided to go back to Bethlehem. And initially, both daughters-in-law decided that they wanted to go with her. But eventually, she convinced Orpah to go back. But Ruth made that decision. And she made that beautiful statement of commitment. Not only to Naomi, but to Naomi's God. She said, your people will be my people.

And your God will be my God. And so, this beautiful statement of commitment that comes about. And so, she goes back to Israel with Naomi. And when Naomi shows up, remember Naomi's name meant pleasant. And so, when Naomi showed up with her daughter-in-law, Ruth, the Moabitess. Everybody said, look, pleasant is back in town. Or as J. Vernon McGee called her, Little Mary Sunshine.

She's back in town. And she looked at everyone and said, don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara. Mara means bitter. She said, because God has dealt bitterly with me. And so, that was where everything ended. So, as we end chapter one of Ruth, sort of the scene for the rest of the book is set. You have Naomi, who is broken and bitter over the circumstances of not only losing her husband.

But losing her two sons. And ultimately failing. And ultimately failing. And ultimately failing. And ultimately failing. Facing the fact that they had made some really wrong decisions. And now she has to live with the consequences of those wrong decisions. And then you have Ruth. Ruth, who is left hopeless, helpless, and a stranger and an alien in a brand new land.

Where she has made the most difficult commitment of her life. To leave everything she knew behind. And to start over in a place where she was a foreigner. With that scene being set, we come to chapter two. The first thing that we see is we see the man, Boaz. It says in chapter two, verse one. Now, Naomi had a kinsman of her husband. A man of great wealth. Of the family of a Limelech.

Whose name was Boaz. Now, before we get into what takes place. This first verse sort of is a little addendum. It sort of again sets the scene for us for chapter two. Because it tells us that there is someone who is a kinsman. To Naomi. Now, you know that the premise of the story of Ruth is that of the kinsman redeemer. But that's not what the word kinsman here means.

We'll actually deal with that at the end of the chapter. The word kinsman here simply means a relative. Somebody that she was related to. Perhaps a cousin of a Limelech. But someone of the family of a Limelech. And this guy's name was Boaz. Now, the name Boaz is a great name. Because the name Boaz, when fully interpreted, means in him. Is strength. Or literally, you could just simplify that the name Boaz simply means strength.

And it's kind of interesting. Because names seem to have really meant something at that time. Especially in our study of the book of Ruth. Because you have Naomi in a place where she is broken and bitter. And you have Ruth in a place where she is hopeless and helpless. And a stranger and an alien in a brand new land. And along comes strength. Right? It's kind of a cool story that's painted for us here.

And we're told that not only is he a kinsman of the family. Not only is his name Boaz. But he has one statement that's made about him. And that's that he is a man of great wealth. In other words, this guy was pretty well off. He could take care of a family. As a matter of fact, we find that though much of the family of a Limelech had struggled through the famine.

Boaz had stuck around and had actually really succeeded. His crops had become very, very profitable. And God had blessed him because of that. Interestingly enough, the phrase a man of great wealth is actually interpreted a little bit differently in other places in scripture. That same phrase in Hebrew is interpreted as a mighty man of valor in our story about Gideon.

It's the exact same Hebrew wording. So we're given two different indications about Boaz. Not only is he a man of great wealth and that he had material things. But he also is a man of great strength. He is a warrior. Someone who could really stand up. For those that he cared about. And that would make sense if he's living in the time of the judges. Because in the time of the judges, there were a lot of wars that were fought.

So for him to have been a warrior is really nothing surprising based on who he is. But I want you to pay attention to those things. Because I think that they paint for us a really interesting picture of Boaz who's going to become this kinsman redeemer. And so it goes on in verse 2. And it says this. And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favor.

And she said to her, Go, my daughter. Now the bulk of what we'll deal with in chapter 2 is her gleaning in the field. Now for us to understand why Ruth brings this up, we need to understand a little bit about God's plan for taking care of the poor. In the margin of your Bible, you might write Leviticus 19. Because the... The whole plan of gleaning comes to us in God's law in Leviticus chapter 19.

You see, God knew that there were always going to be the poor in the land. Because we're humans and some people would not handle their money very well. Some people would not handle themselves very well. And quite frankly, sometimes stuff just happens. And so God had established a way for the poor to always be taken care of. He had, if you will, his own sort of welfare program.

Only his was a good welfare program. Because it meant that there... There was great dignity in the things that took place. The welfare program that God established for the people of Israel is he told the landowners, he said, When you harvest your field, first of all, leave the corners of the field for the poor in the land so that they may come through and glean in the corners of the field.

Second of all, only pass through your fields once. Don't do a second pass through. And leave behind anything that's there for the poor of the land. Now, here's the thing about this welfare program. Because there were two important components to this welfare program. Number one is that you had to have landowners that were willing to care about people enough to obey God.

Have you ever noticed that obeying God and loving people absolutely go hand in hand? Because God's law was actually for them to love their neighbor as themselves. And so in order for this welfare program to work the way... that it was supposed to, the people of the land had to have a care for the poor. I say that because sometimes as conservative Christians,

when we look at the welfare program, we become very hard-hearted and we say, I don't know if they deserve anything. Because after all, what have they done to squander their money? Well, it doesn't matter what they've done to squander their money. They're here now. And they need help. And they still have to be able to eat. And so God's law was dependent upon man having enough care.

And concern in his heart to not only obey God's law, but to be willing to let people come in and glean in the fields. But the welfare program had a second portion. And the second portion of the welfare program is that you had to be willing to work. If you were able, if you were physically able to do so, because sometimes that's the case. And if someone is on welfare and they physically are not able to work,

that's a whole other situation in and of itself. At that point, you're not able to work. And so God's law was dependent upon man having enough care and concern in his heart to not only obey God's law, But at that point in time, family was supposed to step in and take care. That's why we are told in, I believe it's the book of James, a man that won't take care of his family is worse than a heathen.

Right? And so if you were physically able, you were supposed to go into the fields and glean for yourselves. That way, not only would you appreciate what you have, care for the things that you get, but also it would maintain your sense of self-worth. Because brothers and sisters, one of the things that's missing in our culture, culture today is that God created us to work.

God created us with that desire, with that desire for self-worth. And I would present to you that a lot of people deal with a lack of self-worth because they don't want to go to work. They view work as something that's a very evil thing to do, something that we are forced to do instead of viewing work as a gift from God. If you will, in order to take care of yourself, if you were one of the poor in the land, you had to learn that it's okay to be uncomfortable.

Because the work that they would have to do was very hard. And you know, that's another thing that's sort of missing in our culture today. I was actually having a conversation with a track coach the other day. I had watched my youngest daughter compete in the one mile. And then I think she did one other thing, 200 meter or something like that. But I got to watch her do that.

And she did really good. And I was really, really proud of her, especially for a sixth grader. She's got a pretty good stride. She didn't walk the entire time. She ran really hard. I was really proud of her. And I said, you know, I think she has some potential. I think you actually have a lot of runners that have a lot of potential on this team. And one of the track coaches said, I think you're absolutely right.

The hardest thing to teach to kids at this age is that it's okay to be uncomfortable. Because that's the hardest thing to learn. You will find that anybody that's really good at track hates themselves by the time they're done with the race. You know why? Because in order to win at track, it has to hurt. Yeah. I remember when I wrestled, a guy tried to come out for the team.

And I think it was in eighth grade at this point in time. He wanted to wrestle because that's what everybody else was doing. And every time we would practice a move, he would say, does this move hurt? And finally, I had to look at him and say, they all hurt. You just need to know that, right? Like it just, it's wrestling. It's not, it's not a comfortable sport to do.

You don't do it because it feels good. It's just a hard sport. And running is the exact same way. In order to be good at running, it has to hurt. But you know what? Sometimes in life, it's okay to be uncomfortable. And that was the program that God had set up for the people. Now, here's the fascinating thing. Gleaning has a great application to our own spiritual lives.

Have you ever thought about that? Because if you think about what we do when we get into God's word, is that we glean. God has provided for all of us poor people a way to learn everything that we need to know and to gain as much as we possibly can, if we are willing to put in the time. Think about it. When you're gleaning, what you're doing is you're walking through the field

and you're seeing the fruit, if you will, and you're bending down to pick it up, to take it for yourself. And the more that you do that, the more that you have to take home to eat. Well, your time in the word is no different than that. Inside of this entire book is a lot of fruit. And it's just laying there ready for you to take it. But what that means you have to do,

because God loves us so much, he's provided it for us, but now you have to actually get into it for yourself. I have learned, and I learned this early on in Bible college, osmosis doesn't work with God's word. I can't just lay my head on this book, fall asleep, and hope that it all sinks into my brain. Trust me, I've done it a lot. As a matter of fact, I have a lot of Bibles with coffee spilled all over them

because I fell asleep while I was reading. And I've never had any of it go in because of that. The only way that I can take it in is if I bend down and pick it up and I take it for myself. And that was exactly what Ruth did. And I want you to notice the hardworking spirit of Ruth because Ruth, the Moabitess, says to Naomi, notice Naomi didn't have to say to her,

Ruth said to Naomi, why don't I go glean in the fields? Because they'd lost everything when Elimelech and his family moved to Moab, and now they've come back and they've got nothing except Elimelech. Empty bellies. She says, let me go glean. So Naomi sends her on her way. Notice what happens in verse 3. It says, so she departed and she went and gleaned in the field after the reapers.

And she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who is of the family of Elimelech. Now, if you're an underliner or you like to star things, you draw happy faces next to things, whatever you like to do, you might do that with verse 3, especially the part after the semicolon that says, and she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz. She just kind of happened to show up at the exact right field. Remember, we were introduced to Boaz because he was a kinsman of Elimelech.

He was a man of great wealth. He was from their family, and she just so happened to end up in the field of Boaz. Now, I have a question. I have a question for you. Do you think that that was an accident? Do you think that she just happened to show up there? Do you think that God was like, I mean, why not? That field will work. But in her mind, that's what she did.

In her mind, she's just walking along and she says, well, one field's as good as any. That's got a lot of gleanings in it. Why don't I go to this field? And it just so happened to be the exact field where Boaz, that Boaz owned. I want to remind you of a couple of things. There is no such thing as an accident with God. There's no accidents with God. She didn't accidentally end up in Boaz's field.

God guided her to Boaz's field. God brought her exactly where she needed to be. How did that happen? How did that work? Everybody wants to know the same thing. What's God's will for my life? I've talked to young people for years. I've been a person who's tried to figure this out at points in time. How do I know God's will for my life? How do I know where I'm supposed to go?

How do I know what I'm supposed to do? How do I know who I'm supposed to marry? Who I'm supposed to be with? How am I supposed to be spending my time? How am I supposed to know those things? I want you to notice that Ruth didn't just sit around in Naomi's house and say, Lord, I will wait here until you tell me the field that I'm supposed to go to. She'd be waiting there

until they starve to death, right? But that's what we do sometimes, isn't it? We say, I'm not going to do anything until I hear specifically from God exactly what I'm supposed to do. Now, 300 people may come by to you and say, I think you should do this. And you're like, I don't know if that's from God. Right? Because usually it's what you don't want to do.

Not always, but sometimes that happens. But how did she know where to go? You see, she just got up and went. Right? You know, the easiest way for you to discern God's will is to get up and go. Because it is a lot easier to steer a moving car. Right? Let me tell you a little story. Very first job I ever had, I worked for Reiki Oil Company. Right? Oh, Ed McGowan. What a wonderful guy.

I hear y'all laughing out there. God love him. I worked for Ed McGowan. 16 years. Actually, I started there when I was 15. I turned 16 while I was working there. The day that I turned, 16 years old, which at that point in time, most of you know, you could have your driver's license at 16. I think now it's like 16 years old, 6 months and 39 seconds, or something like that when you can get your full driver's license.

But at that time, it was 16. So July the 3rd of 1996, I'm working at Reiki Oil Company. Right? And so there is a car that's sitting there waiting to be moved across the street because they were done with tires. Meanwhile, there's also a semi-truck sitting on the side street where they oftentimes park. Waiting to get tires worked on. Well, I was 16, and the guy that worked with me

was 18. Surely he had infinite more wisdom than I did, right? I mean, he's 18 years old, right? He says, get in the car, Ryan. It doesn't feel like the steering wheel is locked because we couldn't find the key. Get in the car. It doesn't feel like the steering wheel is locked. We'll put it in neutral. I'll just push you across the street. So we put it in neutral.

We go to push the car across the street, and as I turn, I turn it just enough, the steering wheel locked. You know the second thing I learned that day? Is that if a car is not on, the power brakes do not work. Now you may say to yourself, you should have used the emergency brake. Bear in mind, it's the first day I'm 16 years old, okay? And so as we're going, I'm like,

I can't steer this car because it's not on. And lo and behold, I clip the edge of the semi-truck with the front end of the car. Let's just say, I can't repeat anything that was said by anyone after that moment in time. Not only because I can't remember, but because Jesus wouldn't like it. I learned an important lesson that day. It's hard to steer a car when the steering wheel doesn't work, right?

And so that's the way it is with our lives. If the car's not moving, if the car's not running, if it's not going anywhere, it's a lot harder to steer, right? And so sometimes the best way you can know God's will for your life is to start taking steps. Go through the open doors. Don't go through the closed doors. But I have news for you. You say, I went through closed doors.

That's okay because God's still gracious. And he'll teach you with that knot on your forehead why you shouldn't have tried to walk through the closed door. Some people live their lives paralyzed in fear and they will not take a step because they're so scared of doing it wrong. And I'm here to tell you right now, just take a step. Can you imagine? Can you imagine if Ruth would have just sat there

in the living room praying that God would show her the field and God never told her which one to go to and she never went? Well, then King David wouldn't have been born. And then it wouldn't have mattered that they were from Bethlehem, right? So she goes and it just so happened that she ended up in the right field. Brothers and sisters, we can rest in God's ability

both to guide and to correct us. Amen? And so, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and he said to the reapers, may the Lord be with you. And they said to him, may the Lord bless you. And Boaz said to his servants, who was in charge of the reapers, whose young woman is this? And the servant in charge of the reapers replied, she is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab.

And she said, please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. But she came and remained with them from morning until now. She has been sitting in the house for a little while, and Boaz said to Ruth, listen carefully, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field. Furthermore, do not go on from here, or do not go on from this one, but stay here with my maids.

Now, we're given sort of the first real life introduction of Boaz, right? Boaz shows up, and I want you to notice how he greets his workers. He greets his workers by saying, may the Lord be with you. And they respond to him by saying, may the Lord bless you. Now, from there, this, I think we can draw, and every commentator that I've read says that we can draw,

that Boaz had to have been not only a godly man, but a man who took very good care of his employees. You can tell the character of a man often by the way people that are underneath of him address him. And they clearly address him with both respect and love. And so he comes, and he shows up there. Now, I don't know how you picture Boaz, okay? I'm going to tell you

how I picture Boaz. But remember, he's an older gentleman. We learn that from later in the book. I don't know how much older, but he was certainly surprised that Ruth would be interested in him and didn't go after the younger men. So he's sort of an older guy, maybe a little bit more gray in his beard and on top of his head. Maybe if there even was any hair

on top of his head. I think if he was truly distinguished, there probably wasn't any. But anyway, so he shows up there. And again, I don't know how you picture Boaz. Can I tell you how I picture Boaz? I picture Sean Connery. Can I just be honest about that? Like, that's exactly who... He's like, who's this woman? Right? And so he walks up and he's like, may the Lord bless you.

Right? And they say it back to him and may God bless you. And the first thing he says is, who's she? Right? Now, there's been many explanations based on the commentary that you read about exactly the tone of how he said, who is she? Some say he just simply wanted to know who the new person in his field was because he hadn't seen her around with any of the gleaners before.

And perhaps he was just going, I've not seen her before. Bethlehem's probably not an overly large town. Matter of fact, we know it wasn't a very big town. He probably knew just about everybody there. He wasn't used to seeing her. And so he's going, hey, who's that? Not only that, but remember, Ruth is a Moabitess, so she might have looked a little bit different

than everybody else, perhaps maybe dressed a little different than everybody else. And so he says, who's the woman in the field? But you see, I know reality and I know guys, right? What he really said, was who's that, right? Because here's Sean Connery, right? And I'm thinking 007, like older 007 Sean Connery, right? Showing up, looking dapper as ever, saying, who's the new girl, right?

Because there was just something about Ruth. Remember, Ruth's name meant beautiful. Actually, J. Vernon McGee goes so far as to say her name meant glamorous, but not glamorous like high-maintenance glamorous, glamorous like you just don't want to not be around her type glamorous, right? She just had a magnetic way about her. At least according to everything

that you read concerning her name and even the way that people treat her. There was just something magnetic that drew him to her. And he just said, who is that, right? And so he took notice of her. Oh, that's Ruth the Moabitess. Remember, she came back with Naomi and she's been gleaning in the fields. And did you notice how Ruth even asked if she could glean in the fields?

Verse seven, it says, please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. So she was very humble, and very gentle in the way that she approached things. Not only that, she was a very hard worker. It says, thus she came and has remained from morning until now. It's a very hard job and she was working. And Ruth was quite the lady. And so she caught his attention.

So Boaz does something great. Boaz looks at her and says this, verse eight. Listen carefully, my daughter, don't go to glean in another field. Furthermore, do not go out from this one. Stay here with my maids. Let your eyes be on the field which they reap and go after them. Indeed, I have commanded the servants not to touch you. When you're thirsty, go to the water jars

and drink water from where the servants draw. And she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner? And Boaz replied to her, all that you have done for your mother-in-law after the day of your death, the death of your husband has been fully reported to me and how you left your father and your mother in the land of your birth and came to a people that you did not previously know. May the Lord reward your work and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.

Now, Boaz does something amazing for her. First of all, Boaz provides for her. Did you notice that? He says, don't go anywhere else. I want you to stay here. Glean here. There's plenty for you here. I'll make sure that there's plenty for you here. Second of all, he fills her thirst. He says, if you need something to drink, it's here for you. Third, he provides protection for her.

He says, you stick close to my guys because they're going to take really good care of you. And he commands all of his guys to take really good care of her. Fellas, we should be like Boaz. We should be those who would provide. We should be those who would meet the needs. We should be those who would protect the ladies that God has given to us. There's a lot of lessons that we can learn from Boaz.

And when we wrap up the book of Ruth, I'll put together a full list of them. But I just find him to be such a fascinating character and someone that we as men should look at and say, this is how you should treat a woman. This is how you should act. Be a Boaz in a world full of not very many Boaz's, right? Full of a whole lot of other words that men act like today.

But ladies, I want you to take note of Ruth. I want you to take note of the fact that Ruth was this industrious woman. Ruth was someone who was not concerned with all of the superficial, shallow things of life. She was concerned with the reality of life. She was not necessarily concerned with her looks. Can you imagine Boaz, Sean Connery, coming up to her and going,

hey, Ruth, and her being like, hey, right? Because she's been working in the field all day. She got dirt all over her face, sweat. And she's just like. And she wasn't caught up with the superficial things. She was caught up with what needed to be done at the time. And there was a great deal of humility about her. A great deal of tenderness about her in the way that she approached,

the way that she handled life. And so, so he says, don't go anywhere. Stay here. And she says, why are you showing me so much kindness? And once she knows what he says, he says, because I've heard about you. I heard what you did for your mother-in-law. I know how you left your family behind. And I know how you've come here. Friends, we need to realize something.

People know. People know more about you than you think they do. People watch you more than you think that they do. And sometimes that's a really good thing, right? Sometimes they watch you and they say, man, look at the life that they live. Look at the things that they do. Look at how they honor God with every decision that they make in their lives. Sometimes people take note of the things that we don't do.

I have a hard time believing that they're a Christian. I can't believe that they go to church every Sunday. And they still act like that. People are watching us. Listen, even when they don't realize, even when we don't realize that they're watching us. I remember going on a young Christian's weekend trip quite a few years back now. And these boys, I watch people.

I'm a people watcher. And I know that makes me creepy sometimes. I don't mean to be. But it's just, I'm fascinated with people. And pretty soon I'm sitting there going, and my wife will go, you have your creep stare on again. And so I have to stop with the creep stare. Which I go back to immediately because I can't help it. I find people fascinating. I'm watching this group of little boys, right?

Probably sixth, seventh grade boys. And they take a quarter. And it's kind of up towards the front entrance of Silver Dollar City. They take a quarter. They throw it down on the street. And I don't think anybody can see them. They throw it down on the street. And they see just how far it can roll. And nobody in the world paid attention to them. And I saw them.

Because they wanted to see who would try to pick the quarter up after it rolled so far. And I thought, they don't think anybody else in the world is watching. And I just saw what they did. And that's the way we are sometimes. We don't think anybody else is watching. Somebody's paying attention, right? Because somebody else has a creep stare on. And they see the things that you're doing.

And so he says, I've taken note. I know I've heard about you. I've heard about the things that you've done. And then in verse 12, I love it. He says, may the Lord reward your work and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel. And I love this last. Again, if you're an underliner, it's great. The Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.

Is there any greater statement about who we are as people? As believers in Jesus Christ, is that we have come to seek shelter under the wings of the Almighty God? There's actually a psalm that says that. It says, he who abides under the shadow of the Almighty, right? That's the idea, abiding under the wings of the shadow of the Almighty. And that's what she'd done.

She'd come to seek refuge. Because remember, she was broken. She was helpless. She was hopeless. She was a stranger and an alien. She was just hoping to find shelter under the wings of God Almighty. And it says, may the Lord bless you through that. And so he goes on from there to say, or he goes on from there to say, at mealtime, verse 14, Boaz said to her,

come here that you may eat of the bread and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar. So she sat beside the reapers and he served her roasted grain. And she, she ate and was satisfied and had some left. And when she rose to glean, Boaz commanded his servants saying, let her glean even among the sheaves and don't insult her. Also, you shall purposely pull out for her some grain from the bundles

and leave it that she may glean and do not rebuke her. So she gleaned in the field until evening. She beat out what she had gleaned. And it was about an ephah of barley. I want you to notice who Boaz invited her to come eat with. Did you take note of the word that was used to come eat with all of the reapers? In other words, his employees. In other words, he gave her a seat at the table.

She wasn't just a gleaner. She wasn't just one of the poor people who was gathering. She was a part of the family. She was all of a sudden starting to feel not like a stranger in an alien, but like she actually belonged. And then notice how he addressed his men. He said, listen, make sure that she can glean anywhere that she wants. Don't say a word to her. If she strays off from where she's supposed to be, don't say a word to her.

Matter of fact, drop a little extra for her. And then notice how much she gathered. Verse 17, it says, So she gleaned in the field until evening, and she beat out what she had gleaned. And it was about an ephah of barley. From what I understand, if I'm understanding it correctly, an ephah of barley was about five and a half gallons of barley, which was about four times more than anybody else would have gathered.

Then most of us would have gleaned. Most of the gleaners would have gathered in a day's worth of work, if I understood correctly the way that that goes. No matter what, across the board, they all said she gathered more than most normally would. And I want to point something out to you. Boaz showed Ruth a great deal of grace. In every way possible, he showed her grace.

He showed her grace in inviting her to his table to eat with him. He showed her grace by making sure that she was protected. He showed her grace by making sure that she had even more than everybody else. But Ruth did not take that grace in vain. Because in the midst of Boaz showing her that kind of grace, she took it for all that it was worth and got as much as she possibly could out of it.

In other words, she was diligent with the gifts that God had given to her. And so Ruth gathers all of this. Well, now it's time for her to go back and talk to Naomi. So she returns to Naomi, and notice what it says in verse 18. So she took it up, and she went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. And she took it out and gave to Naomi what she had left after she was satisfied.

And her mother-in-law said to her, Where did you glean today? And where did you work? May he who took notice of you be blessed. So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, The name of the man with whom I worked today was Boaz. And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, May he be blessed of the Lord, who has not withdrawn his kindness to the living and to the dead.

Again, Naomi said to her, The man is our relative. He is one of our closest relatives. Now, she comes back to Naomi. And remember, he had given her some to eat, and she ate until she was satisfied and kept some back, right? Of the meal, not of the gleanings, but of the meal that he provided. And so she takes some of the meal back and gives it to Naomi, because that's the kind of gracious lady,

that Ruth was. And isn't it interesting? Oftentimes, when we really understand God's grace, what do we want to make sure that we do? We want everybody else to have a piece of it, too. Because when we have really been touched by God's grace, it makes us want everyone else to know God's grace in their life. Amen? And so she goes back to Naomi, and she gives her some of the food that she had eaten,

and she shows her what she'd gathered. Now, I don't know if this is Ruth's first day of gleaning, like she's new to this whole thing or what, but it's not Naomi's first day of knowing how much was gathered. And so Naomi goes, Whoa, where did you go gleaning today? Whose field were you in? Because I've never seen anybody glean this much before. You should make sure you go back.

Whose field were you in today? And Ruth goes, What was the name of that guy again? Oh, yeah, his name was Boaz. Boaz was the name of the guy whose field I was gleaning in today. And she said, Oh, you should stick close to Boaz. Because not only is he a gleaning guy, but he is Boaz, a relative. Notice what it says in the verse 20. This man is our relative. Same word that's used for kinsman at the beginning of chapter 2.

But this man is one of our closest relatives. Different Hebrew word. The Hebrew word there for closest relatives is the word goel, what we often call the kinsman redeemer. Now, for us to understand what's going to take place in the rest of the book of Ruth, I need to talk to you for just a few minutes about the kinsman redeemer. Over in the margin of your Bible,

you might write a couple of chapters in the Bible. Write Deuteronomy 25 and Leviticus 25. Because both of those chapters will give you a little bit of information that you should go back and read later about the kinsman redeemer. But here's what you need to know about the kinsman redeemer. The kinsman redeemer would do three things. He could redeem property.

He could redeem relatives. And he could redeem children. He could redeem childless widows. The kinsman redeemer would be the one who was most closely related to a family member. Now, if you were living in Israel, and you, much like these guys had to do, sell their land because there was no bread in the land, then if you came back and you could not repurchase the land for yourself

in order to keep the land in the family, the nearest relative, the closest relative, the goel, the kinsman redeemer, could purchase that land on your behalf, so that it would stay in the family. That was how the kinsman redeemer could redeem property. If you yourself got into debt, and you had to sell yourself as an indentured servant in order to pay off the debt, then your closest relative, your goel, your kinsman redeemer, could purchase you out of indentured servitude by paying off your debt. And in that way, he could redeem a person.

But there was also a law within scripture that said that, if a man, an oldest son, married a wife, and he passed away before that wife could produce any offspring, then the younger brother or the nearest kinsman, the kinsman redeemer, would then marry that woman and produce offspring on behalf of that oldest son. And in that way, he would redeem a childless widow. Well, as she tells him, as she tells Naaman, as she tells Naomi about Boaz, there's this guy named Boaz. And Boaz, his field is where we gather today.

And Naomi says, hmm, this is a really good thing because God led you to the right field because he is our closest relative, at least as far as she knew. I want to point something out to you that's happening in the life of Naomi, or shall we call her Mara. Notice what it says in the middle of verse 20. Just read. Verse 20 again with me. It says, Naomi said to her daughter-in-law,

may he be blessed of the Lord who has not withdrawn his kindness to the living and to the dead. Isn't that a beautiful thing? Naomi, Mara, is starting to take note of the fact that God has not withdrawn his kindness from the living and the dead. See, I think that this is the beginning of the softening of Mara's heart. This is the beginning of her going from being bitter

to once again being pleasant. But listen, it's a process, right? When our heart becomes bitter because of things that have happened to us, when our heart becomes so broken and beaten down because of things that have happened to us, whether they be things that just happened in the course of life or things that evil people have done to us, and we find ourselves bitter because of it, we don't just immediately get over it, right? We don't just immediately go, okay, well, I'm good now.

No, it's a process. It's a healing process. And it always begins when we start to understand the grace of God. Because what Naomi realized right there is God has not forgotten me. Because you know what happens when we get bitter? The first thing that we think is, God's forgotten me. He doesn't even know I'm here anymore. That was how Naomi felt. That's why she said, don't call me Naomi, call me Mara.

Because God has dealt very bitterly with me. And now she says, you know what? I just realized, maybe God hasn't forgotten me after all. And that little bit of softening starts to take place in the heart of Naomi. And so we go on from there, and Naomi has some parting instructions for Ruth. It says, verse 21, then Ruth the Moabite has said, furthermore, he said to me,

you should stay close to my servants until they have finished all of my harvest. So Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it's good. My daughter, that you go out with his maids so that the others, so that others do not fall upon you in another field. So she stayed close by the maids of Boaz in order to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest.

And she lived with her mother-in-law. Now, again, in my study, it turns out that this is probably a roughly six week process to get all the way through both the barley and the wheat harvest. So once you think about the faithfulness of Ruth through all of this, six weeks, every day, she goes to the field. And everybody, you can imagine, in Bethlehem was watching because I bet everybody kind of got to know Ruth a little bit, right?

Because she was the person that caught your eye. She was the one that sort of magnetically drew people to herself. And Boaz had taken note of her and was very kind to her. And Boaz was pretty well known in that area. And every day, people would see Ruth walking down the street and they'd say, there goes Ruth going back to the field of Boaz. I wonder how that whole thing is going to shake out.

I wonder how that whole thing is going to work out. Isn't it great when we can step back and see God doing things in people's lives and we see it even though maybe they don't in the moment? Because I think Ruth was probably just as surprised as anybody at what's going to happen in the next two chapters. She didn't see it, but everybody else was probably like, I think I see what's going on here.

I'll never forget when I asked Aaron to marry me and I showed up to men's study the next day and I told him, I'm going to marry you. And I told the guys, we did a men's study every Saturday morning and I told the guys that I'd asked Aaron to marry me and that shockingly enough, she'd said yes. And I'll never forget one of the guys looking at me and going, I've been wondering when that's going to happen because I've been seeing what God's doing. And isn't it great when we can see that, when we can see God at work and that's what's going to take place in the life of Ruth and it's what's going to take place in the life of Naomi.

And next week, we'll look a little bit more at Boaz and Ruth. As their relationship continues to grow. Father, we come to you and I just thank you so much for your word. I thank you for how good it is. And Lord, I thank you for beautiful stories like this in the Old Testament that remind us of the beauty and the grace and the great love that you have for us.

And so Lord, may we continue to glean from your word what you would have us to learn. In Jesus name, amen.