if you would take your Bibles and join me in the book of Ruth as we continue on and that study it seems like it's been about a month or so since we had a regular Wednesday night in the book of Ruth and it's such a short little book and it was It won't be long and we'll be done. Because we're not looking at everything, we're just following. specifically some things we can learn as we look at the life of What I think sometimes is a woman who's overlooked in the Bible and that's Naomi Even the books named after Ruth. It's not named after Naomi So she doesn't get the high the limelight a lot of times when this book is studied Because it is primarily what's happening with Ruth and kind of laying the stage for passing on into the time of Samuel, and it's kind of the groundwork of David's genealogy, et cetera. But if the Lord's recorded some things, he wants us to learn some things. And so that's important. Ruth, excuse me, Ruth in chapter two, and let me start at verse 17, okay? And she took it up, excuse me, so she gleaned in the field until even and beat out that she had gleaned and it was about an ifa of barley. And she took it up and went into the city and her mother-in-law saw that she had gleaned and she brought forth and gave to her that she had reserved after she was sufficed. And her mother-in-law said unto her, where hast thou gleaned today? And where wroughtest thou? Blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee. And she showed her mother-in-law with whom she had wrought and said, the man's name with whom I wrought today is Boaz. And Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law, blessed be he of the Lord who has not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, the man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen. And Ruth, the Moabitess said, he said unto me also, thou shalt keep fast by my young men until they have ended all my harvest. And Naomi said unto Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other field. So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest and dwelt with her mother-in-law. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day and the opportunity now to come to your word. I pray you'd give us clarity of understanding and application of the truths that we learned from the life of Naomi and how you worked in her life Father, even though the story maybe is quite familiar to us, I pray that you might help us to see some things and see an application in our own hearts and lives, please. Father, we pray for the Jones family tonight. You know all the details. and what is needed, and so we ask for your grace and mercy and just guide and direct in all of those things, please. Father, no doubt there are other needs amongst our church family, things that maybe we've forgotten, or that we thought were not important enough to mention, but you know all about what we're facing, and so we ask for your mercy and grace in our lives, guide and direct and help us please. Blessed now we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. So tonight, as I said, we're continuing our study of Naomi, And we pick it up now in chapter two, she's home. She got home at the end of chapter one and we kind of reviewed that. She was kind of bitter and had some issues and that's understandable, the hardships that she went through and why she might be bitter and difficult. That doesn't excuse bitterness or the wrong attitude. We're not doing that. We're not like giving her a pass. But, you know, if you want to help somebody, rather than us just bashing them with the Bible, I mean, they need the Bible, amen, they need God's Word, but it helps us if we understand where they're coming from. and the Lord can give us some clarity on how we can answer their questions or their needs or give them some direction. So we're not giving Naomi a pass, but we understand she's been through some very difficult things. If you went to a foreign place and your whole family died and now you're left alone and destitute, you can imagine how you would feel. You might feel like God has abandoned you. And we know the Lord hasn't, And we could get sort of sanctimonious and say, well, you shouldn't have ought to have gone down there in the first place, which is true. Truth is truth. What is it I want to say here? Sometimes pushing the truth too boldly is like punching someone in the face. If they're already in a difficult situation, it doesn't help for us to remind them that it's their own fault. More than likely, they already know it's their own fault. So anyways, moving on. So that's where she's at, she's home now. And listen to I read a little thing out of dr. King's book And I want to read as he starts a chapter of the commenting on chapter 2 He says there have already passed before our view the wanderers in the folly and suffering of their flight from God The backslider in her awakening from sin and her penitent return to find again the mercy She had cast away Those words kind of lay the groundwork of what it is maybe the Lord kind of showed me and I want to share with you tonight. So point number one, past foundations. Past foundations. Things that if she hadn't forgotten, they had grown dim in her memory. And yet, even when we're, whether we're walking away from God intentionally or we're drifting because of distraction or whatever the case may be, okay, is it not wonderful that the Lord doesn't abandon us? We may not recognize what he's doing and how he's doing it, because our focus is somewhere else. But it's not like he's checked out, okay? It's not like, you know, we can get kind of irritated with a situation or whatever and say, well, fine, I'm out of here. And maybe you've felt that or done that at times. I did that. I was a high school senior with that exciting job of being the French fry guy for McDonald's. And this is back when they wore those yellow double knit sort of horrible uniforms. Oh, it was terrible. And the burgers were all fried ahead of time. and they sat up in a warming bin, and whoever the shift manager was, had to put like a little number up there based on what time the burgers were in the bin, because they could only stay in the bin so long, then they had to be all thrown away and all fried all over again. Well, it's not really a great shock, is it, that a manager might just accidentally swap the numbers out? So I was going on break, getting my free delicious and nutritious food. And a customer came up and was complaining to the shift manager, my burger's cold. And under my breath, I muttered something to the effect of, it's probably been in there for 30 minutes, you know, no wonder it's cold. And the manager heard me and she kind of chewed me out. I went on break. And that was not a good attitude. But I just said, fine, I'm out of here. And I quit like that. I just walked out and quit. That wasn't really very good. Not the right way to handle that. I should have... Anyways. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Okay, so I'm not the only one who's kind of felt that way. Okay. Why am I saying that? I lost track of what I'm doing. Isn't that terrible? Okay. All right, so let's pass foundations. Oh, we're talking about God's working anyways. Okay. So we may not be knowing or recognizing what the Lord's doing, but He is working. Notice, if you would, verse one of chapter two. And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth. That means he's filthy, stinking rich. Okay. Of the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz. Oh, isn't that interesting? We're introduced to some of her family. And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, let me now go out to the field and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, go my daughter. You know, it seems to me right off the bat, Naomi doesn't even know her own family. She's forgotten. I mean, if she's got a brother-in-law, it's next of kin. We're not sure exactly how close that is, but it could have been a liminal ex-brother or his cousin or something to that effect. And if the guy's filthy stinking rich, if they're gonna go begging, why not go begging from the rich brother-in-law? instead of her daughter-in-law going out there and gleaning like a common, you know, that would be a bit, I mean, anybody here want to go dumpster diving for tomorrow's meals? I mean, in essence, that's what gleaning was, okay? It was the leftovers. The reapers had already gone through, the harvest is over. And so now you're out there in a farmer's field and you're just hoping you find something that got dropped. You've got to be pretty destitute to be driven to that point of life. And that's how you're going to survive. And that's what Ruth says, let me do that. And she's like, yeah, go do it. She just happened to forget the Limmelux family. Has she forgotten even the principles of how the law applies to how you care for your family? apparently, but those past foundations are still there. In Deuteronomy 30 and verse 19, we can read about some of that, the Redeemer, the kinsmen, et cetera. Now, notice verse three. And she went, this is Ruth, so Ruth goes out, she's given permission, so she's going out, she's gleaning, okay? And came and gleaned in the field after the reapers and her hap. We would say, she just happened to be in Boaz's field. It just happened that way. Like, wow, what a coincidence. Really? A coincidence? You think it was all accidental? God planned all that, that's right. So this past foundation has to do with her relation, both in a general sense, she's a Jewish woman. She's a daughter of the covenant, if you will, which meant that all the care of those within the covenant was, you know, the rest of the family, which was the nation, because the nation was all one family. They're all the descendants of Jacob. They're all cousins. And they're supposed to take care of each other. And that was all stipulated in the law, how that was supposed to happen. But she seems to be forgetting that because of all these circumstances. And then in the sense of relation, there is the specific relation that she seems to have forgotten. And that's that of the kinsmen. Specifically, let's look at Deuteronomy 25, because this is gonna come to play a little later on here in the story. And we may remember the concept of a kinsman and how important that was. The kinsmen would redeem you out of being an indentured servant. The kinsmen would come to your aid if you needed protection or you needed supplies of one form or another. But specifically here now it talks about, well let's just read it, Deuteronomy 25.5. If brethren dwell together and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in unto her and take her to him to wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her. So they're supposed to raise up the brother's name. That's the point. And so the child that's born isn't his son, it's the dead man's son. So that lineage continues on. That's part of this whole idea of the kinsman redeemer and that's why there was struggle when we get later on in the story between Boaz and the one who's of closer kinship than Boaz is. but that's how close of relationship this is. So there's a past foundation. She seems to be forgetting what the law says. Now, why is the whole story of the kinsman-redeemer important? Job 19.25 says, for I know that my redeemer, it is a goel, that's the Hebrew word. Sometimes it's translated kinsman. It's specifically one who's related to me. Job says my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth night. He's talking about the Savior, isn't he? That's really is a prophetical reference to Jesus Jesus is the kinsman Redeemer. He's related to us in this sense that He's a if I can say it this way. He's a son of Adam. He comes all right He was fully man and fully God, which is why he can fulfill the duties of a kinsman and meet the provisions that we need, most notably that of salvation. This, and that's right there, that's God's provision ahead of time. That's what providence means. When we talk about the providence of God, it's not coincidence. It just doesn't happen to work out that way. It's God already planning and preparing long before it's necessary so it's all laid out. Now, from our perspective, it seems miraculous. It seems, that's amazing. But for God, that's not amazing for him to do that. He knows how everything's supposed to work. And he sets the stage ahead. He knows where we're gonna wander and drift. And in the midst of our wandering and our drifting, he does not abandon us, but he's already laid the groundwork for our restoration. Isn't that wonderful? Now, that's not an excuse for us to go wander, oh, God will bring me back. Well, he might just kill ya, okay? Say, you're a lot of trouble. Just taking you right to heaven. You know, that's a lot of problems, okay? But God makes provision ahead of time for our restoration. That is a wonderful picture of grace. He doesn't cut us off. He's already planning and preparing so we can come back. Wow. Next, as we're thinking about past foundations, I wanna move on from relation to recognition. Because here in chapter two, long before we get to Naomi, and she has a little part in this chapter when she says, yep, go ahead, go do it. And then there's a lot about what happens with Ruth. And what's significant here is the impact of Naomi's witness, even as shallow as it is, I mean, how could her and Eliminic have this wonderful God-exalting testimony when they've run away from a famine and they've gone down to Moab? And she's so, she's drifted to the point where she tells her daughter-in-laws, go back to your paganism. It's like, does that make sense? Okay, your son or daughter gets married and things happen and so they pass away and so you look at their spouse and you say, it's okay, go back to Hinduism, that's where you belong. Does that sound like a good idea? But that's what she was telling them. Yet in spite of that, that's why I'm saying as shallow as it was, Ruth says, no, your God will be my God. That must have meant her God was even shallower than what it looked like in there. But she's thinking, well, what Naomi's got's a whole lot better than what I got. And to be quite honest, even if our testimony is a shallow testimony, what we do have in reality, even though we may not be accessing it, is far better than not having Christ. Far better. Well, that's important. Then I want you to notice the impact of Naomi's witness on Ruth as it's evidenced in Ruth's behavior and her testimony. Because Boaz comes to the field and he's checking with the foreman, what's going on? Who is that? And he tells her, oh, well, that's That's Naomi's daughter-in-law, Ruth, the Moabitess. And she came and asked if she could glean, and so I said yes, she could. And verse 9, let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap. This is what Boaz is saying to her. and go thou after them. Have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? And when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels and drink of that which the young men have drunk." Now that's, this is the provisions that Boaz has made for his workers, his employees. Gleaners are not employees. There, if I can say it in a way that will help us click that, gleaners were the poor people from the wrong side of the tracks. The guy who owns the field has no obligations other than when I'm done harvesting, you can come and pick up what got dropped. But I don't have to provide nothing for you. I mean, I don't have to give you lunch or provide you water or refreshment or give you protection or anything. You're all on your own. But here's Boaz, and he's going to extra lengths, isn't he? He's saying, listen, you can come in and partake of all the refreshments and the provisions that I have made for my workers. You can access as if you were one of my workers. And she's quite astounded by that, okay? Verse 10, then she fell on her face and bowed herself to the ground. How is this? I don't even know who this guy is. And he's like this. Notice what Boaz says, verse 11. And Boaz answered and said unto her, it hath fully been showed me. Ruth, you don't know me, but I know all about you. All that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-law, since the death of thine husband, and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not hithertofore. The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust. Her, the impact of Naomi's even shallow faith upon Ruth is so powerful that it affects Ruth, and she now has a testimony that even Boaz knows all about it. Now maybe he's been inquiring. He is one of the next kinsmen. Maybe he's thinking, well, look at that, Naomi's back in town, and that was the next wife, and I have an obligation. So maybe he's been inquiring, we're not told that, but this is the first time she's ever met him. But her testimony is so amazing, based on where she's come from, that he recognizes that. Wow. Revelation 14, 13 talks about their works following them. Now, this testimony that Ruth has, is actually gonna be to Naomi's benefit. Why do I say that? Well, look at verse 14. And Boaz said unto her at mealtime, come thou hither and eat of the bread and dip thy morsel in the vinegar and she sat beside the reapers and he reached her parched corn. That'd be kind of like oatmeal, gruel, doesn't sound very tasty to me, but that's what they were having for lunch. And she did eat and was sufficed and left. And what's important is when you look down, okay, verse 18, and she took it up and went into the city and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned and she brought forth and gave to her that she had reserved after she was sufficed. The portion she was given for lunch, she didn't eat it all. She saved some for Naomi. She said, oh, mom's home and we have no food. I'm going to save some of this so that she can have some when I get home. The only reason she's even getting that lunch is because of Naomi's testimony that impacted Ruth. So Ruth's living that testimony and it's come back to be a benefit to Naomi. Wow, that's pretty amazing, recognition. And all of that brought relief. There's provision for Ruth, we just looked at that. Verses 9, 14, and 19, okay. And her mother-in-law saw all that she'd gathered, okay. It's the provision for Ruth, she's the gleaner, but there was a provisional overflow to Naomi. Naomi is receiving the blessing because she's gleaned about a bushel of barley, which was a lot. Now, the reason it's a lot is because Boaz said, let there fall some handfuls of purpose. Now once the reapers went by, whatever's on the ground was fair game. Except they were leaving some on purpose. I want you to recognize something here, because that's what the Lord does for us. He leaves things on purpose to draw us back, to meet our needs. And he comes along. We don't even see it. We don't even run. I'm sure Ruz is going along, like, oh, man, I need a jackpot. They really missed this part. And so she's got all this grain. And then afterwards, he even gives her more extra on top of that. And then he says, you stay gleaning in all my fields to the end of my harvest. Now this is barley harvest. That means through barley harvest, and then through wheat harvest. So there's a month or two of gleaning here. And the provision is way beyond what would have normally been expected if you're just picking up the few strands that got left over and forgotten. God's providing in a phenomenal way. And she still doesn't even get it when she gets back after she threshes it all and brings it back, okay? There's this amazing provision. Ting in his commentary makes an interesting comment about how, you remember from chapter one, Naomi basically said, I went out full and I've come back Empty. And yet here in chapter two, it's Ruth who goes out empty and comes back full. The Lord's working, isn't he? In his providence, he's providing. Whatever we might say about why Elimelech took his family away, whatever, Naomi's come back and she's bitter and kind of frustrated, but God hasn't given up on her. He's meeting her needs in a very amazing way. His providence is functioning. She doesn't see it. Ruth doesn't see it, because she doesn't even know who Boaz is. She comes back. So we have past foundations, and the Lord's using all these things. Oh, the lesson, if we would learn, all of us, stay close to the Lord. Psalm 37, 25, I've been young and now I'm old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Say, well, it sure seems like they're begging bread here. Well, maybe that's because they weren't, there were some chinks in the armor, if I could say it that way. They had left the Lord, didn't they? For whatever, however we may want to talk about that, being in Moab is a place that they should not have been. but God in His grace and His providence doesn't overlook them. And if we'll stay with the Lord, He'll meet our needs. And that's important. So we have these past foundations, the next is the present blessing. The present blessing in the now. It's not just blessings in the future, in the sweet by and by, it's the presence, the blessings He gives to us right now. And I think the key is asking God to open our eyes so we see Him. Sometimes if we're focusing on the difficulties we're going through, and those are real difficulties, okay, and real hardships and real losses and pain, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, we're not diminishing any of that, but God is bigger than all of that, isn't He? Is He not a God who's bigger than our pain, our sorrow, our loss, our depression, our discouragements, and on and on and on we could go? Is He not bigger than that? Because if He's not, then we have no message for the unsaved. And we're just scratching and clawing like everybody else is. But we have a God who says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. He's with us, and that's good for us to remember. So there's the present blessing. Notice Naomi's surprise at the abundance, okay? Verse 19, and her mother-in-law said unto her, where hast thou gleaned the day, and where wander thou? Whoa, blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee. I mean, she's like, that's amazing. You've brought a whole bushel back. I was just hoping there was gonna be enough to make a loaf of bread. We got a bushel, we can make bread for the rest of the week. I'm adding a little bit there, but she's amazed. Oh, if I would open my eyes to notice the greatness of the blessings that God does give to me instead of the intensity of maybe my pain or the loss or whatever the difficulties I may be going through. When we focus on that, that becomes huge and overwhelming and we don't see the intensity of the blessing and his provision and how he watches over us. It just depends on which way we're, doesn't it say daily he loadeth us with benefits, okay? Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from above. James 1, 17, okay? So there's the surprise of the abundance. There's the shock of the affinity because she's like, who, where did you go? And you know, and Ruth's like, well, I was in this guy's field and he came to check it. His name's Boaz. What do you think Naomi did? Boaz? No, I don't know who that is. Never heard of that guy. He must have moved in while we were gone. No, that's not what happened, is it? Because she's like, man, Boaz? He's like a near kinsman. Oh, this is amazing. This is providential. Yes, it's providential. God already worked that all out. So that the first field she goes to is Boaz's field and she stays there all day, all harvest. All the harvest, she's there. All the harvest. Wow, shock at the affinity. Yeah, there was no coincidence. That recognition on Naomi's part gave security of a potential future affluence because he's a next kinsman. And we find out later in the story, Naomi's not as destitute as maybe we might think because Elimelech owned property. and it's Boaz who's gonna buy it, but when he buys the property, he's got to marry Ruth, which is why the other guy's like, well, I can't be doing that. I don't think my wife's gonna like that very much. So, sorry, here, have my shoe. And then Boaz's like, sweet, the gate's open for me. and I'm ready to do it, I'm ready to take care of business. So there's a security of what may be coming. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Ephesians 1, 3, wow. There's gonna be perpetual relief. We know that's coming. Notice what Naomi says here. Verse 22, and Naomi said unto Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other field. I'm not so sure Ruth kind of gets what all this may mean, but Naomi does. And she's like, it's good you were there. And yeah, don't go in anybody else's field. Make sure Boaz sees your face every day. And you maintain that testimony. He's related to us, so I think she gets that part, but what's coming later on maybe, she's gonna find out about that a little later. But there's a future security here. And we need to stay close to the one who's giving us the blessing. Is that not true for us and the Lord who is our Redeemer? We need to stay close to the Lord. And to borrow from her words, the Lord ought not to find us in a place where we ought not to be. Now he's gracious enough to rescue us from a place we ought not to be, amen? but he shouldn't find us there. And that's kind of what Naomi's telling Ruth. Maybe, it seems perhaps Naomi is, little lights are coming on, like, wow, I forgot about that. And look what God's, he's kind of set this up for this to be taken care of. And maybe she's like learning the lesson, like, I don't want to do any more wandering. No more drifting. Let's stay close to the things of God and the provisions that are available. Now, in closing, it's good that they don't mean, so she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean at the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest and dwelt with her mother in, so there's two months or more goes by when this takes place. Okay. You know, God's gracious, excuse me, in preparing for her return, God is gracious in preparing for our return. And maybe some of us could give testimony of times in life where we drifted from the Lord to one degree or another, and we weren't all that we should have been, but God so gracious to not cut us off, but planned ahead of time to kind of draw us back and draw us back. Now I can't help but think about in my own life, you know, how I ended up in the Navy and probably for those first couple of years, I wasn't what I should have been. But God was gracious because when I got to my second ship Dave Eilers was there and I just happened to be put in training division to assist him. And he was on fire for the Lord. He's not a guy I probably would have linked up with because he was a submariner and they're kind of weird. At least in the eyes of a skimmer. Submariners are a little weird. But he was a Christian brother. And it was his influence that caused a great change in my life. It just happened to be that way. I don't think so. It didn't just happen to be that way. See, God plans. Potentially, I think all of us could say, oh, I see that at this point in my life. Because something was there and God sort of preserved me or drew me back or how he reached out that I would get saved. That's God's providence. That's his grace at work, if I can say it that way. That's wonderful. And gratitude for that grace is something Now, it might almost seem that Naomi's like, this is, man, this is working out great. Well, God's not only great because he's providing you at the moment. He's always great. He's always good. He's always gracious. We just need eyes to see it, okay? Hebrews 13, five, let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have. For he had said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Never. The times when I felt like God had abandoned me was not because God had abandoned me, but I wasn't looking in the right direction. And that's why it felt like I was abandoned. and I need to stop and looking unto Jesus, Amen? The author and finisher of our faith, we gotta keep our eyes on the Lord, gotta walk with Him. Father, we thank You for Your loving grace and I pray You might help us, we might learn some lessons from Naomi's life and we thank You, even in those times when we seem to forget, maybe drift or wander, you're still gracious. You're still there caring for us, planning, preparing to draw us back and willing to draw us back. And we thank you for that. Would you help us that we might keep our eyes where they ought to be? Work, I pray. Would you bless the upcoming services we ask in Jesus' name? Amen. Thank you, folks. You are dismissed.