So this morning our sermon is on Ruth 2, verse 20. Starting there as we make our way through Ruth. Last week we looked at the chapter, or chapter two. Now we'll look at one verse of it specifically and then the first six verses of chapter three. This is God's holy and inspired word, so listen carefully to it. Okay, so Ruth 2 verse 20. This is when, after Ruth was gleaning out in the fields, getting the grain, she came home and she talked to Naomi, her mother-in-law, about what Boaz had done for her. And this is what Naomi said in verse 20. 2 verse 20. And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, So we'll pause there. That's what we'll be looking at in the sermon. But then also, if you fast forward a little bit, we don't know how long, two or three weeks maybe, maybe less, but chapter 3, verses 1 through 6. It happens soon after what we just read. Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, my daughter, should I not seek rest for you that it may be well with you? Is not Boaz our relative with whose young women you were? See, he's winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Wash therefore and anoint yourself and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor. But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. But when he lies down, That's where we'll pause. Kind of in the middle of the story, but that's okay. We'll pick it up, Lord willing, next week. Quite often, when we think about stories and things like that, getting the big picture is a good thing. At least for me, sometimes you get bogged down with a lot of details and dates and so on. If somebody would start talking to me about all the different details of the Star Wars series, I'd for sure get lost. But if you'd give me a big picture, I would get it, I would understand it. Or maybe if you like to study history, sometimes those dates and those locations are overwhelming, but if they back up and give you kind of a big picture of the timeline of the history you're studying, that's a little easier. Even sometimes in cooking, you get a description of what the recipe is going to turn out to be. A big picture view is quite often helpful. And so that's what we're going to do today. Last week I went through some of the details of chapter 2. I probably tried to do too much last week. But now we're going to back up and kind of look at the big picture here. We're going to pick up where Ruth and Naomi left off that night after Ruth came home from Boaz's field. And we're going to learn about Naomi's plan. but also see how God's providence figures into the whole equation. So basically, there's just two points this morning. First of all, the family redeemer or the kinsman redeemer is found. And then there's plans to pursue the kinsman redeemer, or the family redeemer. So he's found, and then there are plans to pursue him. So that's where we pick up the story. In 2 verse 20, this is again, like I said, Naomi asking Ruth, or saying to Ruth, So Ruth told Naomi everything that had happened that day about how Boaz was so kind and so nice to her. And then Naomi was excited and she's happy and she says, But then she says this phrase, Now let's think about that phrase that she says. It's a big phrase. Now for us it doesn't mean a lot, but back then in Old Testament law, in the Mosaic law, God gave this law, a law to help widows. It was called the Levirate law, but there are other different ways to think about it as well. Basically, in Deuteronomy 25, it says if an Israelite man dies and leaves his wife with no kids, that man's brother can marry the woman and kind of help her out in life and hopefully then give her future land and have a son to prolong the name. So this law would help the widow and give her protection and care, income and food, things that would presently help. But this man who would come and marry the widow would also give future hope to her for land and inheritance and hopefully a child. Now this law, it was a complex law. It's not so simple. If you do some deep studying on this Levirate law, this law of how a brother could marry his, you know, dead brother's wife, there are some different complexities to it. But that's the basics. But she says that this man, Boaz, is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers. Now that word is goel in the Hebrew and that word can mean redeem like in Exodus 15, God redeemed his people from Egypt. Or remember Job 10, Job's famous saying in Job 10, I know that my redeemer lives. It's the same exact word in the Hebrew goel. But Naomi is not saying that Boaz is my redeemer who will redeem me from sin and death and hell like, you know, the Lord redeems people. But in the context, this Redeemer means that Boaz is one who can rescue the family from poverty, from instability, hopelessness, insecurity, and even fear. This Redeemer can redeem in a great way and give hope again. It's almost like if your house burned down and you had a good friend who helped you and gave you tons of money to help you build a new house and get back on your feet. He would kind of redeem you in a way. He would save you. Not in a spiritual way, but in a physical way. So that's what Naomi is saying. Look, we have a redeemer. Someone who can help us in our miserable situation. Now it's different. Different translations will put it differently. The NASB says closest relatives. And I usually like the NASB, but I don't think that's the best. The NIV has decent. It says guardian redeemer. Some of us may have heard of the term kinsmen redeemer. You know what kin means? It means family. And of course, we just talked about what redeemer means. So I like how the New Living Translation puts it. Family redeemer. We have a family redeemer, a kinsman redeemer. That's what Naomi is saying. That's a good way to think about it. Again, to use an illustration today, it's kind of like if, let's say you have a rich, loving, kind uncle that you forget about, and you get into a miserable spot in life, and you have hardly any money, and you can't make your payments, and suddenly you remember that you have this loving and kind rich uncle, and you call him for help, and he helps you. He gives you what you need. He would be a family redeemer. That's what Naomi is talking about. And now you can understand, once they find out that Boaz, Ruth, remember, just happened to come to the field, you know, in God's providence, as we just heard about God's happenings. She happens to come into the field, and it happened to belong to Boaz, and Naomi said, he's our family redeemer. And that's why she's excited. May he be blessed by the Lord. Yahweh's kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead. That means her family. Yahweh's kindness has not forsaken my family. What was Naomi like right before this or a few weeks before this? Remember when she came back to Bethlehem from Moab? She was bitter, Mara. She was grieving and hopeless. She came to Bethlehem, remember, with Ruth, and she said, Her faith was shaken and she thought that God was against her and that there was no hope for her. And if you look at the surface, maybe it seemed that way. Because things were pretty miserable for her. There was a famine in her homeland. She had to go to a foreign land. Her husband and two sons die. And she comes back home and one of her daughters-in-law leaves and one stays. And she feels hopeless. That God was against her bringing misfortune her way. And so, sometimes life and faith gets complex like that, isn't it? It's complicated. We can be like Naomi sometimes when it seems, you know, like when it rains, it pours, and we think, maybe God's against me. Maybe God's hand is heavy on me. And sometimes when that happens, when we're in the middle of a difficult trial, our feelings speak louder than our faith. It feels like the hand of God is heavy on me. And that feeling speaks louder than faith. But then, for Naomi, things changed. And not too long later, she comes to Bethlehem bitter, and now, probably only a month or two, max three months later, it's much better. Things are looking up for her and Ruth. Because of this kinsman redeemer, the family redeemer that they happened to find. And Naomi's all over it. She basically says, praise God, thanks be to God for Bo as our family redeemer. So Naomi's perspective changes, even though God and His plan did not. And what's interesting, nothing has happened yet, right? She just knows that they're in the family Redeemer's field and that Ruth and their family Redeemer Boaz have rubbed shoulders and talked and the family Redeemer has been kind. But beyond that, nothing has happened yet. But Boaz brings hope. Boaz brings hope. Or God brings hope through Boaz. That's how you think of it. And even the prospect of hope revitalizes Naomi's faith. Now there's hope in this situation that was hopeless. Blessed be the Lord. Blessed be Boaz by the Lord. Now there's a lot for us to learn here, isn't there? This would apply to all of us, probably in a different way. How does it apply to you in your Christian life? Well, one thing that we can all share together is that this teaches us not to panic when faced with tough providence. Remember we talked about Naomi kind of blaming God. We don't know if Naomi was throwing God under the bus or not. But we know that we should not panic when faced with tough providence. Sometimes things go badly in life and sometimes we don't know why, like Job. It's hopeless. Life pretty much sometimes just stinks. And sometimes God's hand is heavy on us because we need discipline and correction. There's nobody sitting here this morning that never needs the correction and discipline of God. Sometimes we need that heavy hand of discipline on us. But we have to remember not to panic when faced with tough providence. Remember the lines of that brilliant hymn, judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. That's Naomi's story. We can't always judge God and his plan by our feeble, faltering sense and feelings, because God's ways are above ours, and we don't always have the insight to his ways. But we just need to trust him for his grace. And remember, in your trials and tears, behind that frowning providence, what's hiding? A smiling face. God and his love and his plan and providence. Just like the sun is behind the gray storm clouds, so God's love is behind the tough providence. Don't panic when the tough providence comes. So the family redeemer is found. And there's hope. Naomi turns. She changes. Her faith is revitalized. And then Naomi makes plans to pursue this family redeemer. So again, this is the second point, the last point this morning. Naomi, her mother-in-law, says to Ruth, 3 verse 1, So this happens before the barley harvest is over. They come to Jerusalem at the beginning of the barley harvest, which is about three months in the spring. So all this takes place within those three months. And Naomi is saying to Ruth, look, I want what's best for you. She wants rest for Ruth that it may go well with you. Now, this means that, well, what does this mean? Well, Naomi wants Ruth to have security and stability in life. A home. A good marriage to a good man to provide and to protect. And so Naomi is thinking about Ruth and Ruth's welfare. Even though Naomi's faith was shaken before, it doesn't mean she's a bad person. Look, she cares about Ruth and she says, I want what's best for you. And you have to do the math. It's not too hard. There's a family redeemer. You've rubbed shoulders with him. I want what's best for you and your security. that readers can do the math. Naomi's been thinking while Ruth was in the field working. And, of course, Naomi's too old for children, as she said earlier. But Ruth is not, and Boaz is a family redeemer. You see how things go. Sometimes, I guess, middle-aged women like to play matchmaker. And so Naomi is thinking about the family redeemer. And then look, and you can tell that she is. Look in verse 2. So I'm not making this up. Here's what she says in verse 1. So you see how the text leads us? How Naomi's thinking? I want security for you, Boaz. He's available and he's out at the threshing floor. That's how Naomi is thinking. Now what does it mean that he's winnowing at the threshing floor? We don't do that really in our culture much anymore today. But back then, at the end of the harvest, or when they would have these big piles of grain and stalks of grain, they would find a big flat piece of land, it probably was the same one year after year, and they would take the barley or the grain to this big flat piece of rock, and they would have to separate the chaff from the grain. And it would take a lot of work, a lot of workers to do that, and that's what Boas was doing now, probably close to his field. Of course, today machines can take corn off stalks and the corn off the cobs, and machines can take the beans out of the pod. But they have to do it all by hand back then. And Naomi knows that, and she says, look, our family redeemer is going to be down there. So in verse 3, she basically says to Ruth, wash yourself, anoint yourself, like, you know, put perfume on, and put some clothing on, maybe like an outer jacket, and go down to the threshing floor where Boaz is. Now, this is verse 3 when she's talking about washing, anointing, and putting a cloak on. Don't really think romance here. This isn't a Hallmark movie. This isn't an ancient love story. There was faithfulness and goodness and kindness involved in this whole thing as we've been learning, but not necessarily attraction, and not necessarily romantic words and flirting and things like that. So don't necessarily think ancient romance story. But Naomi did want Ruth to be presentable and clean when going to Boaz to gain respect and favor. To show respect to Boaz when she tells about her plan. But see what else is in her plan in verse 3. So get dressed, you know, look good, wash up, go down to the threshing floor where Boaz is. But don't make yourself known to him until he's done eating and drinking. And there's going to be more people there. It's not just Boaz on this quaint, you know, evening outside of Bethlehem. There's going to be all these workers after a hard day resting on the threshing floor. But Naomi says, And then she says in verse 4, Did you catch this? And then go and uncover his feet and lie down and he'll tell you what to do. We've got to stop here. What is this? What's the meaning of this? Well, obviously there's some custom behind what Naomi's telling Ruth to do. And Ruth is not going to understand the custom. Why wouldn't Ruth understand it? Because she's not from Israel. She's from Moab. So there's a custom here, an Israelite custom. Naomi's going to have to spell it out for Ruth. But what does it mean to go lie there and uncover a man's feet or legs? Well, Lord willing, next week I'll explain this more, but for now, it's something like a marriage proposal. Like today, if you would see somebody kneel, even if you wouldn't hear it, if you would look over there and see somebody kneeling down with a ring to a woman, a man to a woman, you would know what's going on. This was something like that. That's the meaning. It's a marriage proposal. But what's the motive? Why did Naomi plan this? We kind of hinted at it earlier. Well, obviously, Naomi wants Boaz and Ruth to get married, if it's possible, so that Boaz can redeem their situation. And Naomi is thinking, you know, maybe there's been some time in the harvest, and Naomi's possibly thinking, you know, Boaz isn't making any moves here, so we've got to get this thing going. and hopefully Boaz will notice and hopefully Boaz will accept this marriage proposal or even propose marriage himself. Now this would have been odd in the ancient Near East for an immigrant woman who's poor, a widow, to come to this relatively, possibly wealthy man who's very noble and good and has a good standing in Israel. For a Moabite woman to propose like this is not normal back then. But that's Naomi's motive. She wants Boaz and Ruth to get married through this law. But what about the morality? We learn the meaning, it's a marriage proposal, and the motive is so they get married, but what's, is it moral? Is it shady or sketchy? You think Naomi's telling Ruth to do something bad, you know, like PG-13 or R? It happens at night, there's clothing involved. And you know, back then, it wasn't uncommon. Well, let me ask a question. Were people very good and moral back then in Israel? No. Remember during the days of the judges? Everyone did what was right in whose eyes? His own. So back then, it wasn't uncommon for people on the threshing floor to be visited by certain kind of women and make proposals like that. So it might seem sketchy up front. But the context and the story as a whole would say, no, this is not immoral. Naomi's not asking Ruth to do something that would break the seventh commandment with sexual immorality. Why would I say that? Well, first of all, because Boaz and Ruth have both been wonderful examples of goodness and faithfulness and kindness, right? You don't see any major character flaws in them that would lead you to believe that Boaz and Ruth are going to do something bad. And even for Naomi, of course her faith was shaken, but she doesn't seem like this conniving, untrustworthy woman. So I would say that Naomi is not telling Ruth to do something bad. It might be shrewd, but it's not shady. It might be ingenious, but it's not immoral. It might be slick, but it's not sinful. She trusts them both to do what's right. But wait, one other question. You asked, why would they do it at night? Why would Naomi say, go do this at night? Not 100% sure, but if Boaz would say no and it was in a public place, it would probably shame Ruth and probably other people then would probably start to think poorly of her. So they do this at night in case Boaz says no, maybe he'll keep it quiet and in a noble way and not shame Ruth. Now finally then, as we look at this, so we learn the meaning of it, that it's a marriage proposal. We learn the motive of it, so that they get married. And the morality of it, it's okay. But it is a risk, isn't it? It's a gamble. It doesn't seem like this is a bulletproof plan that's certainly going to work. It's not sinful, but I would say it's risky. Boaz could read it wrong. Couldn't he? He's a noble man. And here comes this woman in the middle of the night uncovering his legs. What if Boaz says, wait a minute here, what are you doing? I don't want any of this. Who is this woman? That could happen at night. Or somebody else could see it on the threshing floor and start rumors about Boaz and Ruth. Or Ruth could even say to Naomi, no, this is not a good plan. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to make myself look like not a good woman. So it is kind of risky. But if you notice what Ruth's answer is in the end of verse 5, Ruth says, So Ruth doesn't find it immoral or degrading, and she agrees to follow the plan. And sure enough, in verse 6, she goes down to the threshing floor, did just what Naomi told her to do. Ruth shows her devotion and loyalty. She listens to her mother-in-law. There's mutual trust between the two. Now we can't read too much into it here. But we can mention that, as we know, God's providence sovereignly rules everything, to the very field where Ruth is going to go glean in. But just because God's providence rules over everything doesn't mean that we never make plans and take action in situations. We're not fatalists or determinists. You know what I mean? You could say, well, God's providence rules over everything, so I don't have to do anything. He'll sovereignly figure it out in his providence. I can just sit back and do nothing. We don't want to say that because Scripture calls us to act and to work and to obey and to love and to serve and so on. But on the other hand, we have to remember that God is sovereignly in control and we don't need to micromanage and try to be masters and captains of our own fate, as it were, because God is sovereign. There's a balance, if you see where I'm going. When we think about our plans, even for this upcoming year, when we think about our decisions for the job that we might have, or school ahead, or work, or family, or even health decisions, there's a balance when we think about God's sovereignty and providence. We don't want to sit back and do nothing. But also, on the other hand, we don't want to think that we're God and micromanage and try to over-evaluate everything. There is a biblical balance, and this is found in James 4. If the Lord wills, we'll do this or that. That's our perspective when we think about God's providence and our plans, like Naomi made a plan to get Ruth and Boaz together. So we'll stop here for today. And I know there's some tension. Most of you probably know the story. I know there's some tension. But if we would stop here and you never heard the story before, you'd say, is it going to work? How is the story going to turn out? What's going to happen? Is it going to backfire? And I'm guessing that both Naomi and Ruth were nervous. They were people like we are, and this was quite a risky plan. And probably the first time readers would be nervous as well. But think of the big picture. God is at work in his providence, like the Westminster Confession says, upholding and directing and disposing and governing all things. And in God's mysterious but good providence, Naomi goes from hopelessness to hopefulness because a man who could help comes into her life. A man who could help comes into her life, a family redeemer. Now we're not under old covenant detailed laws anymore like they were, but there's hope for us as well. There's hope for us as well, great hope. We have a family redeemer. It's not Boaz. But you know who it is? It's in Boaz's line. His great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandson, who was actually born not far from where this story that we just read took place, in Bethlehem, and his name is Jesus, the Messiah. You know this already, but if you read Jesus' genealogy, Ruth is in there. We'll talk more about the birth of Christ tonight. But there is a family redeemer for us. He is a man like us who is also fully God. And so all of us have different things going on in life. Everyone here has different hardships. Whether you're a young child or whether you're an older adult, sometimes life is painful and hard and difficult. And sometimes the storms of difficult providence rain on us. And it's hard. And we think God's hand is heavy on us. But never forget what we already learned about that behind that frowning providence there shines a smiling face. And also never forget that you have a Redeemer. Jesus, and He can make your hopelessness turn to hope. If you trust in Him, if you trust in Jesus, He's good and kind. He'll help you. He'll forgive your sins. He'll rescue you from that terrible grip of Satan. He'll guide you through life, and He'll bring you to glory in the future. These are what we talked about in the vows and the professions of faith this morning. Jesus, our Savior, in whom we trust and rely, He's our Redeemer. So when the going gets tough in life, if the going is tough right now in your life, look behind and above the dark clouds and know there's a Redeemer who lives, like Job says. And you have hope in Him. And you can say with Naomi, blessed be the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. And you can say with Naomi, in His covenant faithfulness, Yahweh has not forsaken us. He's not forsaken us. And in our Redeemer Christ, we have hope. Amen. Let's pray.