We have two Old Testament readings this morning. Firstly, from the book of Leviticus chapter 19. We read verses 1 to 10. Leviticus chapter 19. The Lord said to Moses, Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them, Be holy. because I, the Lord your God, am holy. Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. Do not turn to idols or make gods of cast metal for yourselves. I am the Lord your God. When you sacrifice a fellowship offering to the Lord, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf. It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it or on the next day. Anything left over until the third day must be burned up. If any of it is eaten on the third day, it is impure. and will not be accepted. Whoever eats it will be held responsible because he has desecrated what is holy to the Lord. That person must be cut off from his people. When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time, or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God." We end our reading at the close of this tenth verse. We continue our study of the book of Ruth. We turn to chapter two, And we read verses 1 to 13. Ruth chapter 2 and verse 1. Let us hear God's Word. Ruth, you remember, with her mother-in-law Naomi have traveled from the land of Moab and returned to Naomi's home in Bethlehem. Now, Naomi had a relative on her husband's side from the clan of Elimelech, a man of standing, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor. Naomi said to her, Go ahead, my daughter. So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech. Just then, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters. The Lord be with you. The Lord bless you, they called back. Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, whose young woman is that? The foreman replied, she is the Moabites who came from Moab with Naomi. She said, please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters. She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter. So Boaz said to Ruth, My daughter, listen to me. Don't go and glean in another field, and don't go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled." At this she bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, "'Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me, a foreigner?' Boaz replied, "'I have been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband. how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my Lord, she said. You have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant, though I do not have the standing of one of your servant girls." We end our reading at the close of verse thirteen. May God bless the reading and the preaching of His Word. Let us turn to the second chapter of the book of Ruth. The first thirteen verses of the chapter are subject The beginning of blessing. The beginning of blessing. Some of you know what it is to be awake during the night. Perhaps you're not a good sleeper. Perhaps you're worried about something or feeling unwell. Perhaps you have responsibilities of caring for people which cause you to be up when most people are sleeping. And if you happen to be awake During the wee small hours, you will know that about this time of year, at about three o'clock in the morning, a brightness appears in the sky. It's not dawn, but it is a sign that the dawn isn't far away. It's the first rays of the new day, hinting that they soon will be coming. And we have reached a moment like this in the experience of Ruth and Naomi. So far, for some years, their life has been dark. They have been bereaved and known great sorrow. They have known need, loneliness in many ways. They are vulnerable and needy. Their only hope has been their faith in God and their love for each other. All else has been darkness. Now, at the beginning of this second chapter, there is a distinct gleam of light. It's not yet day. God's full blessing hasn't yet revealed itself. They still have many needs and problems. No doubt they are still anxious and concerned. But here we have a kind of first installment, the beginning of blessing, a guarantee from God that He is there, that He cares for them, and that He is going to provide for them and meet their needs. And we all receive intimations like this in times of need. The problem hasn't gone away. The pain is still there. But somehow God conveys to us that His blessing isn't far away. So in our brief study this morning, we want to see how God cares. for these two needy women, and to see in that a pattern of how God also cares for us many centuries later in a different place, and what we can learn from this passage about God's blessing. So the question before us this morning is this, how does God begin to bless? How does God begin to bless? Let me suggest from these verses three answers. Firstly, God begins to bless through a Bible-based culture. Through a Bible-based culture. Here we have two widows. The widow in those days was an extremely needy person. Helpless, no ready means of income, no one to care for her. These women had, as far as they knew, no close family to look after them. What could women in such a situation do? There was one option open to them. They could glean in the harvest fields. Gather up the grain which the reapers had left. They could eat it. If there was a surplus, they could sell it for cash. This was no easy option. To glean under the hot eastern sun for hour after hour was extremely hard work. And yet, it would keep them alive. And it was a provision, and I use this verb because it expresses what I want to say, it was a provision designed, designed for people in their need. In other words, this arrangement, this permission for poor people to come and glean in the harvest fields was not an accident. Nor was it a purely human custom. It didn't, as far as I know, exist in other cultures. It was here because God had decreed it. God had made this provision for poor, needy people. Let me remind you of the verses which we read from Leviticus 19, verses 9 Here is the law of God. When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time, or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God." What a kind provision. God is speaking here to wealthy people, or at least people of means, people who have enough. And He says, don't take everything from your cornfield that you could take. Leave a margin for the poor. Leave a little bit around the edge so that the poor can come and feed themselves. Don't get every last grain of corn from the field or every grape from the vineyard. Don't go over it a second time to make sure that you've gathered everything. Leave something for the poor. If you have time this afternoon, you could read from Deuteronomy 24, verses 19 to 21. You see essentially the same provision. When the people of God were gathering, their various crops and their fruits and their harvests, they had to leave something over for the poor. This was God's version of unemployment benefit or social security. In many ways, God's version is better than the human version. The poor had to work for it. It wasn't handed to them on a plate. They had to go to the fields and work very hard for the benefit which they were going to receive from their wealthier brothers. And what they got wasn't much. A few handfuls of grain, a few grapes. It was just enough to sustain life. But it was there. It was available for them. And why was it there? God gives the answer at the end of verse 10 in Leviticus. I am the Lord your God. I am the Lord your God. This law of God was a reflection of God Himself, His kindness, His mercy, His love for the poor. and his care for the needy. Why should we care about poor people? Why should we leave some of our good grain and our good grapes for needy people to come and take? Why should we do that? God says, because I am the Lord, your God. You worship me. You follow me. You obey me. That's the sort of God I am. And because you're my people, That's the sort of people you should be. So the laws of Israel were based on the wise and loving law of God. And when these poor women came into this land, they benefited from a Bible-based culture, a culture that had been shaped and designed around the commandments of God. And I'm sure that the citizens of our nation, or indeed of the Western nations, don't appreciate, as they should, the blessings of a Bible-based culture. The West has been shaped and formed by the ideals of Christianity and by the teachings of the Scriptures. We have grown up in a culture which believes that the old and the sick should be cared for. That if men and women, through no fault of their own, are for some reason unable to find work, it is the responsibility of the community not to let them starve to death, but to provide benefit for them so that they and their families may live. We live in a society which believes that sick people shouldn't be left to die in the streets, but that health care should be available, even for those who are not able to pay for it themselves. If they're not able to pay, it's to be provided for them. We believe in a culture which believes that children should be taught to read, should be given an education. We live in a culture in which we do not expect our police to be corrupt. We don't expect to have to bribe them in order to get justice. When we go to law, we expect justice. In commerce, there are widely accepted standards of decent and fair behavior. When you go to a shop, you don't expect to be cheated. You expect to receive what you pay for. And we contend to think, well, that's just the way things are. That's the way life is. But it isn't. For some time, my wife and I, many years ago, lived in Greece. And it was a shock to us to find that people expected to be bribed. That if you went to a government office and wanted a particular form, the clerk expected you to bribe him. And I remember that when we were importing our car into Greece, because I refused to pay any bribes, what would have taken me two hours took me three days. We take these standards for granted. But there are parts of the world where the poor are left to starve, where the sick are left to die in the streets. where old people are just neglected and put away. And it's because of the influence of the Bible on our national life that we have many of these blessings. And as the biblical foundation of our culture is undermined more and more, we will lose these blessings. We will lose these blessings. We are already seeing it. The unborn and the damaged are being murdered. It's now suggested that the old and the infirm should just be put to sleep. Euthanasia, it's called. In fact, it's legalized murder. Some politicians on the left are saying that the state should control everything. Some politicians on the right are saying that it should be a jungle, every man for himself. And too many Christians are closing their eyes to these things. And they're saying, as long as we can read our Bibles and worship God in our families, we don't need to care what's happening in the culture. But that's not so. God blesses not just His own people. but blesses all people through a Bible-based culture. And we need Christians to speak to the nation about the will of God and the law of God. We need organizations like CARE and the Christian Institute and others to urge the implementing of God's laws, because if this goes, everyone will suffer. Everyone will suffer. If Ruth had gone to many other nations, she would have starved to death. God blesses through a Bible-based culture. Secondly, God blesses through His overruling providence. God blesses through His overruling providence. Like every good author, the writer of this book lets us into the secret before the participants in the story. Verse one is his comment to us. He's telling us something that Naomi has forgotten and doesn't yet realize. He's saying to us, listen, this is very important. You're going to find out what this means later on. Naomi had a relative on her husband's side. This term relative in Hebrew is a vague term. It is not precise. It's not the term that's going to be used later, which is very precise. But this is important. She had a relative on her husband's side. This is going to be crucial. to the later development of the story. But here it is significant for another reason. Ruth goes out to glean. It's clear from the passage that she doesn't have any plan where to go. She doesn't know what farm she's going to, what fields. She says in verse 2, let me glean or pick up the grain behind Anyone, anyone in whose eyes I find favor. She says to Naomi, I'm going to glean, I don't know where, I don't know whose field I'm going to glean in. I'm just going to go out and hope that somebody will allow me to glean in their fields. And Naomi doesn't give her any advice. She doesn't say you should go here, you should seek out this person. She just sends her off. And what happens? Verse 3, As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech, the same clan as Naomi's husband. As it turned out, as it happened, this foreign woman just happened to go to a field belonging to a relation of Naomi. She didn't plan that. It wasn't in her mind. It wasn't her intention at all. That's just what happened. And then verse 4, just then, at that very moment, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem. Boaz just happened to come to the field where Ruth just happened to be working. She comes to the land of the man who can help her. She happens to come to the field of the man who's going to marry her. She works there, in the very place where he's going to arrive and meet her. It's like a piece of a jigsaw. She fits into God's exact and perfect place. She didn't plan it. Naomi didn't plan it. Boaz didn't plan it. Nobody on earth planned it. Nor was it a coincidence or an accident. God was guiding. God was guiding. God led Ruth that day. God directed the path of her feet. God sent her down one particular road. And when she came to this field, God turned her into that field. And that morning God caused Boaz to wake up at a certain time, and God put the thought into Boaz's mind, I think I'll go and see how the harvest is going. And God timed the speed at which Boaz traveled so that he just happened to be there when Ruth was there. Ruth thought her actions were random, but they weren't random. They were all part of God's plan for her life. God blesses through His providence. You remember what the Catechism says? What are God's works of providence? God's works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing All His creatures and all their actions. All His creatures and all their actions. People don't believe in providence anymore. At about 2 o'clock on Friday morning, 7 o'clock your time, Lorna and I were in a crowd of 200 agitated people at Newark Airport, 2 a.m. looking for hotel rooms. In fact, one of us was quite agitated. But people were angry. There was a storm. All the planes had been held up. We'd missed flights. Luggage was all over the place. It was chaos. One woman looked out at the wind and the rain. She said, I'll never fly Continental Airlines again. Well, they're no doubt not perfect, but I felt that was a bit unfair. to blame Continental Airlines for the storm and the wind. People have no idea of God's providence. But this is the second way in which God blesses His people, by guiding us. The places we go, the people we meet, the jobs we apply for, the decisions we take. And sometimes we're not aware of God guiding us. How often In our lives, we look back at something. And at the time, it seemed insignificant. But now we say, well, I see now where God was, how God was guiding. Would it be interesting if we all could get together in a group sometime and each one of us could tell the story of how we came to this church? would not be a fascinating tapestry of God's providence. Some of you would say, well, we were born into the Trinity Street congregation. And others would have other stories of different ways and paths and circumstances, happenings, friendships, all the multifarious ways in which God was guiding. I remember when I was 12 years old at Methody, one of the teachers came in one day and he said to us, now you have a choice. Those of us who were good at languages, you can take a new subject. You can either study German or Greek. And most people in the class put up their hands for German. But I was good at Latin and I thought I would like to study Greek. I put up my hand for Greek. twelve years of age, God knew I was going to be a minister. God had that in mind. And although I wasn't thinking of Him at that moment in any way, I wasn't conscious that He was guiding me. He was guiding that little boy at school as he put up his hand. It was God who caused me to do that. And you all have hundreds, thousands of ways in which God is guiding. We've got to take seriously that word, He will direct your path. Proverbs 3, 6. In all your ways, acknowledge Him. He will direct your path. What a blessing it is to know that every day God will direct your path. God's with you at every moment, leading, governing, directing every day. is a part of the unfolding of God's plan. In all things, God works for the good of those who love him. Perhaps we don't appreciate as we should the blessings of God's providence, how day by day, in countless ways, he's blessing us even though we don't realize it. God blesses through a Bible-based culture. Secondly, through His providence. And thirdly and finally, God blesses through His people. God blesses through His people. In verse 12, Boaz offers a beautiful prayer for Ruth to be blessed. He says, May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. May the Lord repay you. May the Lord reward you. That's his prayer. And she is going to be repaid. And she is going to be rewarded. But what Boaz didn't yet know was that he was going to be the reward. He was going to be the reward. Or rather, the reward was to come through his kindness and his care. And in this chapter we can learn enough to see that Boaz was truly a generous and godly man. He's described in verse 1 as a man of standing. That Hebrew word has three meanings at least. It means he was a man of integrity, an upright, just, honorable man. It means also he was a man of influence. He was respected in the community. He sat at the city gate. People listened to Boaz. It means also that he was a man of means, a man of wealth, a man of property. this man of integrity and influence and property. We see how he brings his faith in God into his daily work. Verse 4, Boaz greeted his harvesters, the Lord be with you. He sees this foreign girl working in a field. He has heard about her. He has heard how she loves her mother-in-law, Naomi. He's heard of her faith in God, and so he wants to help her. We see in verse 9 that he gives her three very special, unique privileges, or at least the first and the third are very unique. He says, first of all, in verse 9, that she's allowed to glean with his servant girls close behind the harvesters. In Israel in those days, the gleaners came in two companies. The servants of the owner of the field followed the harvesters immediately. They got the best of the grain. They got the most of the grain. And then the poor, the outsiders, they came later and got what was left. Boaz allows Ruth to glean with his servants, with his family, to get the most. Secondly, he says, I have told the men not to touch you. The Bible is very discreet and restrained in its descriptions of these things. This was perhaps in the time of the judges where there was a great deal of social unrest and sin in Israel. The harvest time could be a time of immorality when the normal rules of society were relaxed A young foreign woman could be vulnerable in a situation like that. And Boaz says, this young woman is not to be molested. She's not to be harmed. She's not to be insulted. She's not to be touched. He puts a fence around her. And then thirdly, and this is perhaps the greatest privilege of all, whenever you're thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars my men have filled. That was unheard of. the well would be a long distance away. It was a slow, laborious business getting water, and water was necessary in that hot weather. Normally, the gleaner would have to go himself or herself, perhaps lose an hour's work, traveling to the well, getting water, bringing it back, and then later in the day, stopping work again, traveling to the well, get water. Water was precious. Water was valuable. Boaz says to Ruth, you just go to the edge of the field, take some of my water. Take some of the water that my men have gathered. He is showing great kindness to this woman. The first real gleam of light in Ruth's life for some time. Look at what she says in verse 13. You have given me comfort, and you have spoken kindly to your servant. You have spoken kindly to your servant. God blesses through His people. He blesses Ruth through a Bible-based culture which cares for the needy. He blesses Ruth through His providence, guiding her steps and directing her paths. But most of all, He blesses Ruth through this godly, generous, kind man. Isn't that helpful? Sometimes our ideas of God's blessing are abstract, impersonal, theoretical. But often God's blessing comes to us in human form. And that is where Christ is in this Old Testament passage. God blesses us supremely through a person, through His Son. And you haven't received God's blessing in its fullness till you've come to this person and received this person as your Saviour and Lord. But what's true of salvation is true of all of life. And if I were to ask you today, what are the greatest blessings of your life, what would you answer? I think it would be people. I think you'd say the greatest blessing in my life is my Savior. Then I think of my family, my friends. Perhaps you could look around you this morning as you sit here in this room, and you could look at God's blessings to you. Think of that, this family here that we have. We're surrounded by people who love us. Pray for us. Care for us. If you're in trouble, aren't there people in this room that you could go to? You know that they would listen to you and care for you and help you. The old chorus that people used to sing, count your blessings, name them one by one. Perhaps we could take that literally and perhaps we could put names to the blessings. God blesses through his people. Through his people. That's how some of his greatest blessings come. That's the value of the church. The beginning of blessing. But let me close with this. Ruth was in the place where she could be blessed. Ruth was in the place where she could be blessed. She wouldn't have been blessed like this if she'd stayed in Moab. She wouldn't have been blessed like this if she'd sat in the house in Bethlehem crying and feeling sorry for herself. Ruth was taking an initiative. She was working hard. When somebody showed her kindness, she was humble, and she was grateful, and she thanked them. and she took refuge under God's wings. In other words, the message is don't put yourself outside the place of God's blessing. The passage also reminds us to see God's daily blessings, to open our eyes and to give thanks for the circumstances of each day for the provision of each day. When you sit down to your meal in a few moments, give thanks to God for His blessings. Lord, You have put this food on our tables for our friends. The passage also calls us to realize that like Boaz, you may be God's way of blessing other people. to pray, Lord, help me to be a Boaz. Help me to be kind and generous and caring. Help me to be a channel of your blessing and your love to other people. So whether it's my children or the members of my family or my friends in this congregation or elsewhere or the people I meet, so that people will thank God for me. Say to that person, Lord, it has been your blessing to my life. Amen.