The providence and grace of..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Well brothers and sisters, last week we began our journey in this very short book, the book of Ruth. We're only two chapters in but believe it or not we're halfway done already because it's only four chapters.

Very short book. You begin and you read, you can read the whole book in 20 or 25 minutes. It doesn't take very long. It's interesting to me. In fact, apart from the Minor Prophets, it is the shortest book in the Old Testament.

But it's a well-known book. Many people know the book of Ruth. Many people love the book of Ruth. Do you blame them? It's a book who doesn't love to read a book with a happy ending as we see here in the book of Ruth.

I walk through this romance that blossoms between this foreigner by the name of Ruth from Moab, a foreigner to the people of Israel, a lady, a young girl who who is no stranger to hardship, no stranger to suffering, no stranger to the affliction and the difficulties of this life. And then she comes and meets this maybe a middle-aged man by the name of Boaz. Boaz is his name. Quite rich, we're told. He seems to be a godly man.

And from the very onset, we see that he takes unusual care of Ruth, that he displays and portrays an unusual kindness to this young girl. And at first, we don't really know why. It's a love story that ends with them getting to know each other more intimately. One thing leads to another and they do end up getting married. You know the story, I don't need to tell you.

And they end up becoming fruitful. And then what comes next is very interesting and we'll get to that. But who doesn't love to read a story like this? Who doesn't love to read a story that ends so wonderfully? And let's face it, it warms our hearts when we read stories, love stories like this.

But if this short book is merely a book of romance in your minds, then you may have missed the main point. Because some deem it only to be a book of romance. It is that. It's nothing less, but it's a lot more than that. This is God's Word.

And as God's Word, every book in this Bible that you have in your laps, and I'm reading from what I've read from this afternoon, has primarily God at the front and center. Boaz and Ruth and Naomi are key characters in this story. But the main character of every book in this Bible is the Lord Himself, the only God of the universe. This book is a book about God. And I'll submit to you that God is seen in the pages of this book, the book of Ruth, in a special way as he is in the other books.

But here, in chapter 2, I submit to you that in two particular ways, two properties or attributes of God are seen very clearly. And the first is the providence of God, that He is the Sovereign One over all things, and He's working out in His providence exactly His plans according to His good pleasure. And the second thing I believe we see in this book which is incredible is his amazing grace. That although on a higher level he's working out his sovereign plan, his decree from eternity past and working out that decree in real life day upon day to bring his plans to bear, but also we see as he works out his providence, his decree in the providential things that we see, that we also see his amazing grace upon the people he loves and this is what we see in this book. Now the setting must never be forgotten because when we start new books it's easy to forget the context.

Let me ask you first and foremost, has Israel or does Israel have a king at this time? In the book of Ruth, the context, does Israel have a king? No, you answered correctly. Therefore, if Israel hasn't got a king, then we're still in the era or the epoch of what? Of the judges.

The Judges, if I've said it once, I've said it many times, that in the time of the Judges was a time of darkness. It was a time that Israel was steeped in a rank immorality, in idolatry, steeped in depravity. We've examined it, we've gone through the 21 chapters and we've been shaken up. I don't know about you, but it moves me when I read, especially the last few chapters how deeply sinful the human heart can be in the book of Judges. That's what's taking place now.

That era is when this book takes place. It's still about a hundred to two hundred years away from the kingship being established in Israel, so we're still in the epoch of the Judges. And Israel is continuing to sink deeper and deeper into immorality, into sinfulness. They are breaking over and over and over again the covenant they made with God at Sinai, a covenant that is contingent upon obedience. The God said he will bless his people if they obey his laws his statutes his precepts and his commands And we see over and again in the idolatrous hearts Israel as a as its totality is sinking deeper and deeper into darkness and not far from Destruction a destruction that is portrayed for them in Deuteronomy chapter 28 where the Lord is very clear through Moses to tell these people that if you Disobey if you don't honor me as God if you don't sanctify your hearts circumcise your hearts and have only the only true God is the God that is before your eyes and before mine that you will be bestowed or you'll be the recipients of the curses uttered in Deuteronomy chapter 28 which are very fearful fearful curses they are they're there they should have been destroyed but for the grace of God because God had made a promise God had promised that He would preserve these people because He has a greater overarching plan.

That from these people that there would be blessings to the whole of the earth. That a light will spring from amongst the people of Israel. And that light will be a blessing to all the nations of the world. As we read through this book and through the Old Testament and into the New, we know that that light will come by way of a king. a king of God's own choosing that will lead Israel in righteousness and rule and reign in righteousness.

A virtuous king. The hope of Israel will be in that king. Apart from that king, they will be destroyed. And then the setting takes us from Moab, where Naomi and Ruth were dwelling for at least 10 years, It takes us to a place of blessing. The first name we get is a place in Judah called Bethlehem.

And verse 6 of the first chapter tells us that Naomi called that place a place where God had visited, at least Judah, Israel. He says there, where Yahweh has visited this people. The reason why they departed from the place called Moab and came back to Israel, Judah in particular and Bethlehem in Judah is because Naomi recognized the blessing of God that God had come upon the people of Israel somehow in the way of a harvest. because God had visited, he said, the people and has given them food. God had visited them.

And Bethlehem is the first name that we have in our text. It's no secret to you and I that Bethlehem is the birthplace of who? David, yeah. But David, King David, soon to be the king of Israel, not the first but the second, the one that is chosen by God. He'll be the king of Israel.

It's no secret that David's name is in the very last verse of the book called Ruth. So we have Bethlehem, we have David. You point the... drawing the dots together. And the fruitfulness of the union of Ruth and Boaz will produce an offspring and that offspring will become David.

Jesse David. Glorious reality. God had a greater purpose yet. The greater purpose of God wasn't simply that Israel would have a king, but the king of kings and the Lord of lords. The sovereign ruler over the whole universe will be born through him and through this lineage also.

That yes, David will be born in the lineage of Ruth and Boaz, but we go down several more generations and the King of Kings, Jesus Christ himself, will be born to this people. And it is Christ who is that light unto the nations. It is Christ who is the blessing. for the whole earth. You see, God is orchestrating under his sovereignty all the events that are taking place to bring about his glorious purposes, for which the people at this point cannot really see.

We can, because we look back. Hindsight is a lovely thing, but they couldn't see it at this point. But when we look at it from a high point of view, we can join the dots together. We can see God's providential hand in everything. That's the big picture.

But God is in the details. And so when we zoom in, although God in His sovereignty is working out all things providentially, we also witness His absolutely amazing grace to the people He loves. Naomi and Ruth were subject to a great deal of suffering, a great deal of grief, a great deal of hardship. You see, Naomi was residing in Israel, but they departed because the famine had struck. And so they'd gone over to the land of Moab, hoping to avoid, what?

Starvation and death. And upon arriving within years, They experienced three deaths, three funerals. Her husband Elimelech and both her sons-in-laws passed in Moab. Hardship, suffering. Both Ruth and Naomi are no strangers to suffering.

Even Naomi says that her suffering is bitterness. Don't call me Naomi Namia, which is pleasant, or even Grace, somewhat her name can mean. But she says, call me Maram or Murra, which means bitter. Call me bitter because my life is bitter. Naomi couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel, right?

The difficulties that she was experiencing, from her perception, this is just dark and dark and dark and probably despair of life itself. And from chapter one, a chapter which was awfully bleak, it ends on a glimmer of hope. Because towards the end of the chapter we read these words, so Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned from the country of Moab, and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest. They could have stayed in Moab, but instead they decided to come back to Judah. where the Lord had visited the people of Judah, the people of Bethlehem, and the Lord had given them a harvest.

Now, a harvest is great for who? It's great for those who own the land, right? Because, especially if it's a bumper crop, they have a lot more to have for themselves and their communities and even to sell, but it's also a blessing for the poor. You see, there was a provision in God's law, and you know of it. We've worked our way through the Old Covenant in Leviticus chapter 19, in Deuteronomy chapter 24, and there are many other sections of Scripture that speaks to that if you're a landowner and you have a harvest, that when you have a crop, when you're harvesting, make sure that you leave the edges unharvested, because the edges have been left alone for those who are impoverished, those who don't have means they are left to the poor among you that they would be able to go with a bit of work and to be able to provide for their own food, a daily meal at least.

So in the mind of Naomi and Ruth, at least now if there's a harvest we can go there and we can find hopefully someone who will allow us to glean the edges and from gleaning the edges at least we'll get some food into our stomachs. But that's not guaranteed, right? It's a provision made in the law of God, but is that a guarantee? You would think it is, but remember, this is the time of what? The judges.

This is the time when people's hearts were dark. If you're looking for human benevolence, you're not going to find much of it in this time. The harvest may be a bumper crop, but it didn't mean that the poor were being provided for. You read the prophets and see how over and again when Israel sunk into darkness and into depravity, how they oppressed the poor from among them. The rich were oppressing the poor.

There was no guarantee that they were allowed to go and glean the edges. There's no guarantee that landowners would have allowed the edges or kept the edges from being harvested. This was no guarantee. This was not going to be easy because of the greed in the heart of people. There's another point.

Ruth is a young woman. And being a young woman, we see in the text that there's a risk that she will be mistreated, that she will be molested. She's out in the field with men working. Now, there were women that worked with the men, but it seems like there was a problem with the men molesting the women and treating them in a way that is indecent. We see it throughout the text.

Things weren't going to be easy. Hard work, yes, but there was risk involved. There's a third thing that would make this quite difficult. Ruth was not an Israelite. Ruth was a Moabite.

Now, the Moabites come from Moab. Moab was the son of Lot. Actually, he was the offspring of the incestuous relationship that Lot had with his oldest daughter. She produced Moab. And it's not exactly like Israel had a very lovely relationship with these people.

It wasn't as though they really got along for a number of reasons and you would know too at the very least. You remember when Israel was walking through the wilderness? The 40 years in the wilderness, they wanted to cross. They wanted to cross through the land of Moab as they were going towards the promised land up north and the king of Moab said, no, no you don't. You don't cross through my land.

There's another event that took place because the king of Moab also, he made an alliance with the Midianites. And you remember who he enlisted or who he hired to curse Israel? Balaam. You remember that? But he couldn't.

God didn't allow him. In fact, he uttered his prophecy, which is glorious, that is pointing to Jesus Christ. But then furthermore to that, that alliance led to Balaam then speaking or convincing them to bring the women of Moab and Midian. to then to tempt the men of Israel into Horeb, you remember that, Numbers chapter 25, a dark chapter. 24,000 of the Israelites died that day because God sent a plague.

Let me tell you, the history that Israel has with the Moabites is a colorful one, it's not exactly terms of peace. So in other words, beloved, we need to keep that in mind And when we see kindness being bestowed upon this young widow from Moab, that kindness should shock you and it should shock me, because this is not usual. This is not normal in this time, this is unusual. We read this and we see an instant kindness and favor. And we must stand back and say, God's hand is in the details.

There's no other explanation. In a dark time that the people of Israel are going through, in the darkness of the hour and her being a Moabite, you must stand back and say, God is in the details. God is orchestrating His plan somehow to bring about all the events that we see before us taking place in His good plan. That's the standpoint. Taking the context in mind, that's where we need to sit.

That's where we need to view. And then in verse 3 we read these words. So she, that is Ruth, set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. Now the work begins. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech.

I love that, the author. He says, and she happened to come. Oh, what a coincidence. That must have been a happenstance. Of all the landowners in the land of Israel, in Judah and Bethlehem, of all the landowners, he comes across Boaz.

She just happened to come across the relative of Elimelech, Naomi's deceased husband, and also a kinsman. Redeem, I'm more on that next week. No, it's not happenstance. It's not a coincidence. From Ruth's point of view, she didn't be, she's never been there before.

As far as we know, this is the first time she lays foot in the land of Israel. She doesn't know her left from her right in the land of Israel. She doesn't know which land belongs to who. So yes, from her point of view, she happened to come across, or happened to find herself on the land of Boaz. But from God's point of view, He was guiding her every step.

Every step was guided by the Lord. From eternity past, He had already decreed that where she would go and the people she would meet and how we would feed her and Naomi and the offspring that would come from the union between her and Boaz. God had already decreed all these things to take place in His glorious plan and He will bring it about. What does Proverbs 16 say? That in our hearts, in the heart of man, we We plan our ways, but it is He who establishes our steps, right?

So she needs to work. She needs to be active. She needs to be industrial in the way she does what she does. But it is the Lord who directs, the Lord who guides at the same time. And this is the mystery.

And as we walk and we commit our ways to the Lord, we trust that he's leading us and guiding us as we see before us here. God is guiding her. And what we see is from this godly man called Boaz. Lord, the Lord provides protection and the Lord provides an abundance of provision for Ruth and for Naomi. Now think about what takes place, we'll just look at some details and we'll end it there.

Boaz instructs Ruth Upon speaking to the servant or the head servant to who's this lady, he tells him that this is Ruth. She's come up from Moab with Naomi. He tells the story to Boaz and Boaz then finds his way to Ruth and then he begins to speak to her and he says immediately, he says, don't glean any other field. Stay here. Now you've got to think about that.

Why would Ruth be tempted to go and glean another field? Because there may not be enough. in that field. Right? Is there any other reason?

There would be no other reason. But he's saying don't. Don't glean any other field. Stay where you are. Stay here and I will provide.

I'll make sure that you are amply provided for. that there's more than enough for what you need. Now it was said or writers would say that those who were impoverished who gleaned the edges of the field would normally after about a day's work have enough to provide for themselves for about that day and possibly another day. It's not exactly you become rich from gleaning the edges of the field at the time of harvest. But Boaz says, don't worry, I'm going to provide for you.

Amply. I'm going to make sure that you are amply provided for. Don't glean only the edges, he says. He says, the leftovers of the field, but also go glean among the reapers, among the sheaths. That is, they're gleaning right in the thick of things, in the middle of the field, and as they glean, those behind, maybe the ladies were putting all the bundles together, and they were tying up the bundle, calling them sheaths.

He goes, you go behind them, right in the thick of things, and you can glean. there was an abundance for you to have. And not only that, but he's also instructed his reapers to leave some of those sheaths, some bundles, just leave some aside so that Ruth would go and enjoy and be able to glean of those. Why is he being so kind? And then she collects after a full day, she collects an ephah, we're told, which is hard actually to know because different commentators say different things.

It would be, I would say most agree that it's at least 20 litres. grain or barley. That's a lot. That's not a day or two worth. It's at least a month's worth of food.

That's a huge amount. And you get that from the impression of Naomi's response when she comes. She says, blessed is the man who let you come. She's seen him come back with his barrel and it is so incredible. He gives her, Boaz gives her a seat, gives Ruth a seat among his own people to enjoy a meal of roasted grain.

And it wasn't a small portion that he gave her, was it? She ate and was completely satisfied. And once she was satisfied, she even had some left over to take back to Naomi. He commands his men not to harass her, not to rebuke her, not to ill treat her. He provides protection.

And the water that she'll get thirsty as she works in the day, he says, you can drink as much water as you'd like from the water that the men have drawn. So much kindness, so much grace. So Ruth is curious, why? Why has she been the recipient of the favor of Boaz? That word favor, by the way, is either translated favor or grace.

And her being a stranger, she understands that she's not worthy of it. She's not entitled to it as a Moabite. She's not even entitled to any of these things. It is grace. There is a provision in the law to take care of the Sojourner, but it's not a necessary thing for Boaz to do that because, once again, she's a Moabite.

Why? So Boaz says to her, after commending her, For her faithfulness to Naomi, he says these words in verse 12. He says, Lord, repay you for what you have done. A full reward be given to you by the Lord, the God of Israel. Hear this, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.

Aren't they wonderful words from a godly man? Yes, it's my field. Yes, it's my harvest. And these are my workers. I pay them to do a job and what they collect at the end of the day is mine.

My field. And I've allowed you to come and to take and to glean amongst our people. This is my water, my field, my food, my harvest. This is all of mine. And yet he looks at Ruth and says to her that you have come to seek refuge under the wing of the Lord God of Israel.

In other words, I am but a servant of His. The goodness and the grace that you were experiencing, the favor that you were experiencing is God's favor. It's a glorious thing. No boasting in his mouth, but rather he points her to the God of Israel, a God that she may know a little of, but she's going to learn a lot more about as time goes on. Boaz's kindness is in fact a favor and the kindness and the mercy and the blessing of God himself.

That ultimately it is God's gracious hand at work is what Boaz is saying. and you've taken refuge under His wing. No better place to be than to take refuge under His wing. You know, just a few months ago or even weeks ago, Naomi and Ruth were in Moab. Dark.

Bleak. They didn't know what they're going to do. Their situation was horrible. They'd lost their husbands and know where their next meal is going to come from. They'd heard that they can travel over to Judah, to Bethlehem and be there amongst the harvest, but they didn't know what to expect.

They couldn't see what God could see. They were unable to see God's plan unfolding like you and I as we read through the text of scripture. They couldn't see any of that. Naomi's heart was at a point of despair. Her heart was at the point where she's probably ready to give it all up, apart from the responsibility that she now has in Ruth.

And look at where they are right now. She comes back and speaks to Naomi, and for the first time in the text, there's a glimmer of hope. For the first time in the text, you see in the words of Naomi, there's courage, there's something to actually live for. Brethren, the point I want you to take away from this, of course the Lord is working in the big picture and we'll come to see this as we move forward into this book, but I want you to see this. I don't know where you are.

The Lord knows. You may be at the point right now where you don't understand why you're going through the difficult times you're going through, the hardship you're going through. Maybe you're in a dark place. Maybe you're in a place at the brink of despair. I don't know.

These are realities. These are human realities. Sometimes we stand here and we tell you, we tell you, trust in the Lord with all your might. He is your redemption. He is your savior.

He is your joy. He is your hope. And we say that with a heart full of hope and tell you, yes, this is the truth. We believe this beyond a shadow of doubt, but we're not foreign to the human experience. The prophets aren't foreign to the human experience.

Naomi wasn't foreign. Ruth wasn't foreign to the human experience. We know the human experience and we do experience ups and downs because of who we are. One day that will be behind us when the Lord glorifies us and we're with Him in eternity, which is a glorious, the glorious place that our hearts look forward to. But until then, wherever you are, you need to know the Lord is in control.

that He's sovereign, that He's providentially working out every single event, every single minute detail in your life and mine to bring about not only His sovereign purposes, but while He does that, He's simultaneously also working for your own good and mine. His grace is being bestowed upon you in more ways than you can imagine. You just need to trust in Him for now. For now, trust Him wherever you are. Trust in Him in the darkness, in the valleys, and on the peaks.

To whom else will you turn? Let's pray.