The following is a lightly edited transcript and may contain errors.
Contents
The Theme of Rest
The Levirate Marriage and the Goel
The Promised Rest
Seeking Rest for Ruth
A Worthy Man and a Worthy Woman
The Already and the Not Yet
Coming to the Redeemer
Closing Prayer
All right, before we get into the word, we handed some of these out last week. If you are an adult, these are a little notebook that we had printed that have our theme for the year on it, Make Truth Your Home. You can use it for prayer requests, for taking sermon notes, for anything like that. So they’re back by the offering plate. Feel free to grab one. Also yesterday was the kind of initial kickoff for the REACH interest meeting, and we actually had about 200, 250 people. So it was really, really good, a lot of interest. We had a time for Q&A, a lot of people asking really good questions, different questions, an opportunity to answer those. And the start date for us to begin offering services is March 3rd, so that is coming up very quickly. So be praying for REACH, and we will continue to roll out opportunities to get involved, serve, help, as well as opportunities to give as well. Also, if you have your baby bottles, turn those in. I’ve gotten a number of those back, and if you have any of those and you want to put some more change in, that’d be awesome as well. So things are going very good, continue to pray for it. Sadly, on February 14th, a judge decided that abortion clinics in Missouri do not have to be licensed by the state, which was previously not the case. And so what’s happened is, since Amendment 3 has passed, all these pro-abortion organizations have been attacking every single aspect of all the pro-life laws that have been passed in Missouri over the past couple decades. And so this judge ruled that they do not have to be licensed. Horrible, horrible. I believe his last name is pronounced Zang. So you can pray for him, but he needs to repent. And the blood will be on his hands. It will be on his hands. So that is awful, a travesty, a horrible decision, completely and completely unjust. So how much more needed is organizations like REACH that need to step in the gap and be there? I saw that Coalition for Life and other pro-life organizations said, based on that decision, Planned Parenthood is indicating they’re going to start offering services immediately. They don’t have to be licensed. And so Coalition for Life is starting their sidewalk ministry, I believe, tomorrow. So anyway, we definitely need to be praying for those things, very sad day. We serve a good God, amen? And he uses his church to stand for truth. So we will continue to do that. We will continue to speak to the darkness. We’ll continue to call sin sin, and we will continue to call people to walk in righteousness. Let’s look at Ruth chapter 3, starting in verse 1.
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 is 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, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.” And she replied, “All that you say I will do.” [audio unclear] And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” And he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning.” So she lay at his feet until the morning, but rose before one could recognize another. And he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” And he said, “Bring the garment you are wearing and hold it out.” So she held it out, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. Then she went into the city. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, “How did you fare, my daughter?” Then she told her all that the man had done for her, saying, “These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, ‘You must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law.’” She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.” (Ruth 3:1–18)
Let’s pray. Lord, we do come before you and we intercede for the innocent, unborn lives in Missouri. And we ask, God, that you would somehow by your power and might overturn this unjust ruling by this unjust judge. We ask that you would do that by your power and your strength. You would give the church leadership wisdom. We pray you’d give the wisdom to different pro-life organizations in how to best work in Missouri as pro-life organizations, best work in Missouri as pro-life churches. We pray for our legislators that they would best know how to proceed to protect and care for innocent life, Father. We pray, Lord, that you would reclaim the family in our land. Satan is trying to steal, kill, and destroy, and in many ways he’s doing a good job, wreaking havoc wherever he goes. So we pray, God, you would stay his hand, that the church would show what the biblical family looks like. That you would help the church to minister to women of all sorts, women with crisis pregnancies, unplanned pregnancies, to minister to them, to show them what a family looks like, what God calls them to do, Lord. We pray for their boyfriends or their husbands that they would be men, that they would be men and they would act in righteousness. And that, Lord, you would redeem some of these situations for your glory. That as these pro-life organizations are stepping in the gap for physical life, many, many of them, Lord, are also offering the gift of eternal life, so that I pray these dads and moms are hearing the word of truth, that they would respond in faith to you, Lord. God, continue to send forth your Spirit. You are our Redeemer. We thank you, Lord, that it is in you that we have life. Lord, help us now as we’re looking into your word to hear from you. Because it is your word. We want to hear God’s word today. We thank you for it. So let it go forth in power and in might and let us receive it in power and might. Father, sanctify us by your word. Continue to conform us to the image of your Son more and more. Help us to take rest in you, Lord, we pray. In Jesus’ name, amen.
The Theme of Rest
So we took a few weeks to look at a particular Hebrew word, hesed. And even though that is very much involved in the book of Ruth, and it’s really key to understanding the book of Ruth, we kind of did pause for quite a bit in going through where we were at in Ruth. So we’re going to revisit just a couple things so that this chapter makes sense to us, and then we’re going to continue on. But the theme that I want us to see as we’re going through Ruth chapter 3 is there is a theme. And if you’re not careful, you can miss it. But there’s a theme of rest. A theme of rest. So let’s just review just a tiny bit. The book of Ruth, it’s a prophetic picture of the gospel. And Ruth tells a story that will find its goal in Jesus. Now, remember, in terms of the different people that are mentioned in the book of Ruth, who is the book of Ruth about? That’s true. Jesus, God, God, those are good. But we have a couple of different people mentioned repeatedly. Naomi, you guys are always afraid to give, like, any answer besides Jesus. That’s all right. All right, so remember the book is about Naomi. She’s lost her husband, she’s lost her sons, and what we see is a long-awaited filling of a terrible emptiness. We’re going to visit this idea later. But Naomi, even in her emptiness, even as she kind of goes through a rough part, she, you know, renames herself Mara, but she still walks in hesed. And we see that her pain doesn’t dictate her actions, and her pain doesn’t define her life. Now, throughout the book, no one really behaves badly. Maybe the closest character is this unnamed redeemer we just read about because he really doesn’t step up. But even he isn’t quite portrayed poorly. But the three key characters, Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz, they go above and beyond. Over and over again, we see them go above and beyond, they’re always concerned about other people. What a great example. But the story is not complete until it finds its fulfillment, as you all said, in Jesus. And the book itself hints of it throughout. And we’re going to see it very clearly in the last chapter. But here’s the thing. This book doesn’t just illustrate the gospel, it foreshadows it. We can have a nice illustration, and it can give us a great picture, which is happening, but it also foreshadows the gospel. Just the fact that we’re talking about this in Hebrew, the goel, the Redeemer. God put that into his word thousands of years ago, this concept of a redeemer. And what is he supposed to do? Redeem his people. So he gave a literal position or office, if you will, that had certain responsibilities that the goel was supposed to do. Now think just for a moment of some of the key people in the history of God’s chosen people. I mean, God has used women in amazing ways encapsulated right here in the Scriptures. True? Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, the Hebrew midwives, Rahab, there we have Ruth and Naomi, Esther, even Jael, be careful if you go camping with her. Deborah, Abigail, Hannah, Bathsheba, Mary and Martha, Priscilla. I mean the list goes on.
The Levirate Marriage and the Goel
Okay, but what we’re looking at here is really the concept, I’d say, of two ideas. One is what’s called the levirate marriage. We see that first in Genesis 38. I talked about it last time, so I’m not going to, when I first last talked on this passage, I’m not going to go to it, but it really is encapsulated in Deuteronomy 25, and you can just listen. It says, if a lady hasn’t had kids yet, her husband dies, then the brother steps in to take the place. There’s a couple reasons for that, which we’ll look at. This same concept, though, is not just some obscure thing. Not just some obscure idea that the Israelites actually never practiced. No, in fact, in Matthew 22, again, just listen. The same day Sadducees came to him, who say there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’” Now we’re not going to look at that passage, but the point is, even in New Testament times, that concept is very much still real. They try to use it as a gotcha moment for Jesus, but it was still something that was practiced. The biblical passages don’t offer us a legal code which covers every imaginable case. That’s true not only in these situations but in all sorts of situations. You get some case law in Deuteronomy and the idea is we’re going to give you a particular situation and then you can take that principle and extrapolate from there and how to apply it to other cases. Otherwise, if you didn’t, your law would probably be as much as the United States law. You would just have, I mean, probably a room this size filled from top to bottom with books, because you can always think of another situation, oh, how does it apply to this, right? So it doesn’t offer a comprehensive legal code, which covers every imaginable case. Rather, it constitutes instructions about sample or crucial topics, from which inferences about other cases are to be drawn. The goal is more to [audio unclear] for two, that the son will carry on the name and family line of the dead man in his inherited farm or his inherited land that he has inherited. Names are important in Old Testament times. Genealogy is important in Old Testament times. Ancestry, ancestry is important. Even today sometimes you might see a video. I’m the last, you know, of my lineage, I don’t have any kids. There’s a video kind of was making the rounds even just like a few weeks ago and this guy was just crying, he’s like I’m the last, you know, Jones or whatever his last name was, like his line, and he didn’t have any kids, it’s going to die out. Well even more so in Old Testament times, that would be a horrifying thought, so the brother would come into that situation to provide an heir. What do the verses show as we look at them? A strong emphasis on family lineage, raising up descendants, honoring and remembering the dead, and also provision for the widow, someone to take care of her. Now this word goel, and even as we were reading Ruth, if you were following along in your own Scriptures, you probably had potentially a different word translated for Redeemer. There’s no similar institution in modern Western societies. So therefore, we pick a word that we think best encapsulates that concept of what the goel does. So the ESV usually uses the word redeemer. The NASB will use closest relative, maybe kinsman-redeemer. The NIV will go with guardian-redeemer. The NKJV will go with close relative. And the KJV will go with next kinsman. And all of those are trying to encapsulate, okay, there’s some type of relative, he’s a near relative, but he also has a role to play. He’s doing some type of redemption. This goel takes upon himself, and we’re not going to look at the verses like we did last time, but he takes upon himself the duties of redemption, the Hebrew word, geullah. So he repurchases property once owned by clan members, but sold out of economic necessity. So you have someone in a particular tribe, take the tribe of Judah, and land gets sold. It’s his responsibility to get that land back, to go and repurchase the land. You have his role is to redeem relatives whose poverty had forced them to sell themselves into slavery. So he finds out, oh, you know, cousin Joe sold himself into slavery. Like, that’s not good. So his job was to go redeem relatives. He was also to avenge the killing of a relative by tracking down and executing the killer. So someone in the family gets murdered, it’s a goel’s job to track down and execute justice once the elders had decided what the proper justice would be. He’s also to receive money as restitution if a wrong is committed against a family member who’s now been deceased. And then he’s also supposed to assist the clan member in a lawsuit to see that justice was done. What do all these things show? A very strong feeling of tribal solidarity of both people and possessions. So every disruption of tribal unity was an intolerable breach that had to be repaired. And thus, redeeming people or property constituted the restoration of that tribal wholeness. Now in the book of Ruth, that term goel is used quite a few times. Used nine different times, we see goel used. Again, depending on what version you’re using, it’s going to use one of those particular terms. It’s probably pretty consistent, at least through the book of Ruth, as it uses and translates that term.
The Promised Rest
But let’s just pause for a moment because as we’re looking at this, I want us to think about in here [audio unclear] about past rest just briefly, because in Genesis chapter 2, what does the Lord end up doing after he creates everything, right? He rests. Did he need to rest? No. He didn’t need to rest. So what’s he doing? He’s setting a pattern, right? So he rests. Just listen again. Genesis 2: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” Now, if you think about the different covenants that you see, you have the Abrahamic covenant. What’s the sign of the Abrahamic covenant? Circumcision. Of the Noahic covenant? The rainbow. What’s the sign of the Mosaic covenant? It’s actually the Sabbath. It’s the Sabbath. Again, just listen. Therefore, Exodus 31. So, I mean, this is, you’re getting, he’s given the law. Actually, we can look at it so you can see it for yourselves here. Exodus 31, hold your place because we’re coming back to Ruth. But Exodus 31. So this is Exodus 32 is the golden calf. So Exodus 31, he’s been up on the mountain. He’s gotten the law and the Lord is finishing things up. And so we’re coming right up to chapter 32. But in Exodus 31, let’s pick it up in verse 15. Well, let’s go, let’s just start in verse 12.
And the Lord said to Moses, “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’” (Exodus 31:12–17)
So two different times there again in verse 17, it’s a sign. That’s the sign. The Sabbath is the sign of the Mosaic covenant. But the full biblical understanding of rest, it’s much richer than I think we sometimes understand it. You know, rest is a journey’s end. It’s the fulfillment of a promise. It’s the celebration of completion. The promise of rest, because rest here is echoed, but what happens to the Israelites, the golden calf happens, and what do they do, I mean, they’ve already rebelled a couple of times, but what do they do once they come up to the precipice of the promised land? They’re right there, the precipice. They send the spies, right? How many spies they send? 12, right? And all but how many of them were like, we should not go there? Just two of them. Who are they? Yeah, Caleb and Joshua. So Caleb and Joshua, they’re the only two faithful spies. The others are like, dude, them people are big and bad and scary and we’re going to be destroyed. Everyone believes the 10 spies. I mean, Joshua and Caleb were like, no, we’ve got this, trust the Lord, but the people rebel. What’s their punishment? They get 40 years. But what is it actually, they get 40 years, but not a single adult gets to enter into the promised land. Not a single one, except the two spies that were faithful. But not a single one gets to enter the promised land. Every adult, so all of them, boom, they die in the wilderness. And the Lord talks about this a couple of times, talking about this concept of rest. He’s taking them to the promised land. Do you have this illustration of the promised land? And then we can see how it applies to us as well because God promises us an inheritance. It’s not a physical land, but he promises us a promised land, right? Well, look at Deuteronomy just briefly so we can see this. Deuteronomy 12, verse 8: “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you.” So do you see how the, I mean the rest and the inheritance, they’re linked together. You’re getting the promised land, that’s the inheritance, but it’s also for the Israelites, that’s the place of rest. Couple verses later, or a couple chapters later, Deuteronomy 25, verse 19, the last verse: “Therefore, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess.” Again, that idea of rest and inheritance linked together. And they actually have a feast that commemorates the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. Do y’all know what feast that is? It’d be the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles, also known as Sukkot. It commemorates the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years, but it also celebrates the harvest season, God’s provision for them for 40 years. We don’t know because we’re not really given, I don’t think we’re given any specific months in the book of Ruth, but it wouldn’t make sense that now that the harvest is being brought in, they are very close to celebrating this feast. They would celebrate, hey, the harvest is brought in, look at God’s bountiful provision for us, once again, his faithfulness for us. We’re not wandering in the wilderness anymore, we’re in the promised land, but here’s the thing, this rest that they had week after week after week, it’s not because of their own achievement. It’s certainly not a reward for faithfulness. Were they faithful? No. It was a pure gift. It was a gift. The rest is a gift. And it’s a similar way to the rest of the Sabbath day. It’s not simply relief from labor for us. That’s part of it. That’s part of it. But it’s really an opportunity to remember and celebrate God’s finished work of creation. It should recall us back to what God did. That he has created it all. That he is Lord of all. That this is his. And anything we get is a blessing from him. It should also call to us as we celebrate his redemption that he has given us. He is the Redeemer. Such rest is a covenant blessing. It was a covenant blessing for them. It’s a covenant blessing for us. It’s a gracious gift God gives his children. So this concept of rest, it really lays the foundation for what we now see in the rest of the book of Ruth. From the beginning of the book, it’s actually mentioned, look in Ruth, go back to Ruth, and we’ll see this. A lot of good stuff. I mean, honestly, this is how the whole Bible is. It’s just packed full of information that we can sometimes easily gloss over. So if your quiet times are sometimes boring, it’s probably not the person who wrote the word. Probably the person reading it. Just saying. There’s so much information here. If you just had maybe a helpful commentary to help you out, have by your side as you’re working through different books, it can help bring out some of that richness, but the richness is already there. It’s just helping shine a little magnifying glass on it. That’s really the only thing I’m doing as well, shining a little magnifying glass on it. So back in Ruth chapter 1, here is Naomi’s hope, as she’s like, oh, the Lord has given food. The famine is over. Verse 8, Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.” And then look what she says, “May the Lord grant that you may find rest.” Find rest. So from the very beginning, we see that this concept of rest is still being discussed and talked about. Naomi wants rest for her two daughters-in-law. What concept do we pick up again in chapter 3? The very first verse, it’s still on Naomi’s mind. Naomi, her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?” She’s still seeking the rest. So she’s still thinking about, hey, what is best for Ruth?
Seeking Rest for Ruth
And so Naomi takes action based on, hey, what’s best for Ruth? And then as we see, Ruth takes action on what’s best for Naomi. It’s a beautiful picture of hesed. But everything Naomi does in this chapter is to secure rest for Ruth. And we read it, so we’re not going to read it again. But when you think of resting, what are some of the things that you think of, when you think of like literal resting? Like I got home yesterday from the REACH meeting. I was kind of tired. So I wanted to rest. What do you think I did? Right, I laid down. I took a rest. So we might think of many different things. But one of the things that we’re thinking of rest, we’re going to think of sleeping or lying down. The author of this book wants to make it clear that rest is in clear view in chapter 3, because it uses the word to lie or to lay down eight different times. Eight different times, there’s lying, there’s lying, there’s lying, there’s laying down. What’s the idea? Yeah, all this lying down, but will Ruth get real rest? Will she get the real rest? There’s all sorts of rest going on. They’re sleeping there, but will she get real rest? And we have kind of this foreshadow all the way back in chapter 2, which I mentioned it at the time. So just go back a chapter. Remember what Boaz says to Ruth when she’s gleaning in the field. Verse 12: “The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” You’re like, you know, basically the Lord bless you and may you find exactly what God would have for you. May you find that under his wings. So what does Ruth say to him when he wakes up back in Ruth chapter 3? “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” Essentially, remember what you said a couple months ago? You’ve got the opportunity to fulfill that now. Talking about the Lord right in this kind of generic sense spreading his wings, well you have the opportunity to be the one the Lord uses to do that. And here’s the thing, she doesn’t appeal to Boaz on the grounds of her attractiveness. I mean, she’s not like, hey I’m super hot, and he’s not like, and you’re pretty handsome yourself. Actually we don’t know if she was attractive or not. We don’t. We like to think that it’s kind of charming, it’s kind of cute, it plays well with Hollywood stories. But the text gives no indication one way or the other. And we don’t know about Boaz. We know he’s older, but we don’t know about Boaz. We don’t know what he looked like either. So, we’re thinking, oh, this is like some, you know, romantic love story, and then maybe it was. But if we think that, it’s largely because of the context and culture that we have lived in and grown up in, which is very much romance. Relationships come together because romance is there. Not necessarily the thinking thousands of years ago. I mean, how did Isaac end up with his wife? Right? Abraham sends his servant. I mean, you want to talk about making sure you get in your prayer closet, right? Isaac was doing a lot of praying while that servant was gone. And he comes back. Oh, here’s your wife. Oh, wow. Okay. Romance was not the essential ingredient back then. So we kind of read that into this story, and we read it wrongly. The appeal, what is Ruth’s appeal? She’s appealing on the covenant obligations. That’s what she says to him. “Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” Boaz, you’re a goel. Will you function like the goel? So what’s Boaz’s response? Verse 10: “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first, in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich.” Now, some commentators actually think that maybe she had had offers, because Boaz makes this comment about going after young men, like she had offers from young men. The text doesn’t say. It’s possible, we don’t know. But what is he talking about when he talks about this last kindness? What is this greater kindness that is better than the first? We tend to assume that Ruth is being kind to Boaz because she is approaching him for marriage. It would appear she has had approaches before. No, the reason she has rejected them is not because she is being kind to Boaz. The former kindness for which she has been commended was her covenant steadfast loving-kindness to Naomi, her hesed to Naomi. And Boaz has been told all about it, right? Back in verse 11 of chapter 2, right? Hey, I heard about everything you’ve done for your mom. Well, the greater kindness that Boaz now commends is still the kindness to Naomi. That makes sense if he realizes, which he does. Oh, she’s coming to me, not because I look great. He probably thought he did, most guys do. But she’s coming to me because I’m the goel. So she knows, she understands the function, she understands there’s a responsibility, and she knows ultimately it’s really Naomi who has that claim. So the greater kindness is yes, that she’s still thinking about and asking him to perform the role of the goel which was [audio unclear] Naomi’s husband. That’s pretty crazy if you think about it. That’s pretty powerful.
A Worthy Man and a Worthy Woman
And so this worthy man, that’s what he’s called back in verse 1 of chapter 2, “a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz,” this worthy man acknowledges that this woman is also worthy. Look what he says. Verse 11: “And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman.” This phrase translated, it’s one, it’s the same Hebrew word to describe Boaz in chapter 2, it’s now being used to describe Ruth in chapter 3. But this is the same word we find in Proverbs 31:10 where it talks about the woman of great worth, a worthy woman who can find. And you want to know about that? In the Jewish ordering of the Old Testament, the Jewish ordering is different than how we order our Old Testament. Same books, just ordered in a different order. But the Jewish ordering of the Old Testament, the book right before Ruth, is Proverbs. So you’re reading Proverbs, you get to Proverbs 31, and it’s talking about the worthy woman, and then the very next chapter is Ruth chapter 1. And what do we see? Ruth. We see you really have the picture really of two ladies, but in this case, Ruth, you see what the worthy woman looks like. The man of noble character, he meets the woman of noble character. And yes, there is a hint here of, hey, what a great match that would make. We want righteousness and righteousness going together. So there’s a lot of rest going on in this chapter, but one person decides not to rest any longer. Who is that? It’s Boaz. Look what it says. Verse 18. This is Naomi: “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.” So Boaz, he’s not going to wait. He’s going to take action. Boaz’s restlessness will guarantee that Naomi, as well as Ruth, get rest. And look at what the Lord’s been doing for Naomi. Do you remember how she went away? Verse 21 of chapter 1, how she sees herself. “I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty.” And part of this story, as we see, is Naomi being, her emptiness being taken away. Because now, notice what verse 17 says of Ruth chapter 3. You know, Ruth gets the, Boaz is like, hey, don’t go back empty to your mother-in-law. It’s kind of an interesting little interjection in the story. He’s just like, hey, have some. Hey. Like, okay. But the author includes it for a reason. Because in verse 16, she’s like, “How did you fare, my daughter?” Then she told her all that the man had done for her, saying, “These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, ‘You must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law.’” So it’s a foreshadow. Ruth’s empty, and here, he’s like, hey, you can’t return to her empty. She needs something. It’s a foreshadow of that emptiness being removed. It’s going to be removed. It’s going to take one more chapter for it to be fully removed. But it’s a foreshadow that God is going to remove the emptiness. She is no longer empty. It’s the same word, the same word in Hebrew both times that it’s talked about. So we have kind of the past rest that God has created since the world began. We talked about the present rest here. Let’s talk about the future rest, the heavenly rest that awaits all the Lord’s children.
The Already and the Not Yet
How many of you have been on a long trip with your younger kids? Even a long trip? What are some of the questions they ask? Are we there yet? How much longer? Are we there yet? I mean, it’s interesting. That’s kind of how we are. Really, in our walk with the Lord, we’re like, hey, are we there yet? How much longer, Lord? How much longer? And there is this concept of what theologians call the already but not yet, that we see through the Scriptures. It’s the idea that these things have been realized in some fashion but not fully realized. So do we have salvation currently? Yes. Have we realized the fullness of that salvation? No. So it’s not fully realized. Have we experienced the fullness of it? No, we haven’t experienced the fullness of it. In fact, if you—and hold your place in Ruth because we’re coming back. But if you doubt that, just one verse, hopefully just settles that. Look at Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians 1, verse 13. Let’s go back to verse 11. “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” Notice that word inheritance, right? It’s not about the land anymore. Not about the physical land. It’s about the spiritual land. It’s about the new heavens and the new earth that come, the real inheritance. Verse 12, “so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” So what’s the Holy Spirit? He’s the guarantee of our inheritance. Why is he the guarantee? Because it says right there, we haven’t acquired the possession of it. In fact, that word guarantee, we would use it in a similar way. It’d be like an earnest deposit. You go to buy a house. And you’re like, okay, are you serious about buying the house? You got to show some cash, right? And you make some type of deposit. What’s that called? An earnest deposit. That same word here is being used in other Greek documents to have that same concept. An idea of a down payment. The Holy Spirit, he’s the down payment. I’m committed to doing this. I’m committed to doing that. You know, you sign the documents and you put, I don’t know how much they put forward these days. There’s probably a lot of money. But you put forward the cash and you sign the agreement to buy the house. And the Lord doesn’t back out of his, right? He’s signed on the dotted line with blood of his own Son. But the promise, the earnest deposit, if you will, is the Holy Spirit that he gives, that he fills each one of us. Is he going to take his Spirit away from us? No. That’s the guarantee. That’s the deposit. That’s the earnest deposit. So what is it? What is it the deposit for? Until we receive the fullness of the inheritance. Look at Hebrews 4. We’ll see this even further. It’s kind of a little bit lengthy passage, but it’s important. So we’ll probably read it all. Hebrews 4, verse 1:
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.” Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:1–11)
So we’re striving, there’s a rest to still get to. If you think about it, God creates the world six days, rests on the seventh. But really, that is a foreshadow of—he creates the world six days, seventh day rest, and that is the rest that God promises to his children that each one of us can enter. How do we enter it? By faith. Jesus tells us, Matthew 11, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” I mean, think about that. I mean, we know that Jesus is God, but he’s making a promise that God the Father made, but he can do that because he’s God the Son. And he promises the same rest that God promised all the way back in the very beginning on the first page of the Bible, Genesis 1, really, chapter 2, the first verse. He promises that. Rest and inheritance. Jesus is walking in obedience to the Father. “I will give you rest.” And what does he say? “Take my yoke upon you.” That’s some big words. If he’s just a man, that’s some big words. Seriously. I mean, who would he be if he was just a man? Who does he think he is? He should be saying take my Father’s yoke. No, he can say that. Because he’s the Messiah. He’s the appointed one. He is the Son of God. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” You know, rest for your bodies, yes, that’s going to happen too, but his emphasis here is rest for your souls. I’d rather have the rest for my soul if I had to choose. Thankfully, we don’t. We get both.
Coming to the Redeemer
So, let’s make a couple applications here. Our approach to the Redeemer. Think about how Ruth approached Boaz. What did she come to him on the basis of? Again, her good looks, no. No, she appealed. Really she appealed to the covenant. Are you going to be faithful to the covenant law? How do we come to the Lord? On the basis of the covenant. Not the covenant of the law, but the new covenant that Jeremiah talks about. I will make a new covenant with them. I’m going to have a new covenant come about. And where’s the law written? On our hearts, right? So how do we come? On the basis of the covenant that the Son and the Father covenanted together to redeem a people for his own. That’s how we come to him. I want to be a part of that covenant, Lord. That’s what we’re saying when you come to him. How do you enter in? It’s through faith. You have to believe. Actually, it’s really the same in the Old Testament too. What does Habakkuk say? Justified by faith, not by works. That echoes throughout. You study a biblical theology of salvation, right? It was never about works. Even the Jews, sadly today, they still think it’s about works. You talk to any of them. It’s justification by works. No, that was never the intent whatsoever. It was never the intent. So the covenant, the new covenant, it’s by faith. Justification by faith alone. So we come to the Redeemer, and we have nothing to offer. We’re appealing to him because he is a good and a righteous God, because he is gracious, because he is quick to forgive any that come to him, any that humble themselves before him and ask for forgiveness. So he sees our emptiness just like Naomi’s and he fills us. What does he fill us with? His Spirit. So he takes away the mourning, he replaces it with joy. Two, I want you to notice as a way of application, the Redeemer’s assurance. Look back in Ruth, because I’d like you to see this. Ruth chapter 3, what does he say, “And now, my daughter, do not fear.” Do not fear. Do not fear. That’s the assurance that we get over and over again. That phrase is echoed throughout the Old Testament by God and the New Testament by Jesus. In fact, in Mark 6, it says, they all saw him and were terrified when he’s walking on the water. He immediately spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” It’s the same exact wording, the same exact tense, the same exact mood, the same exact voice, except here in Ruth, it’s in the singular. When he’s talking to the disciples, it’s in the plural. But why? Because when it comes to the Redeemer, you don’t have to fear. You don’t have to be afraid. Regardless of what’s going on, you don’t have to fear. You have a Redeemer much better than we’re going to find out even Boaz could be. We have the Redeemer of Redeemers. So we have an assurance from him. Over and over, do not be afraid. And then finally, God’s children find true rest in the Redeemer, Jesus. What does Job say? 19: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.” One day Jesus will return. Amen? And what is he going to do? He’s going to claim his bride for his own. He’s going to claim his bride for his own. So all the tears gone, all the mourning taken care of, all the hurt, the pain. God wipes it away. He addresses it. He deals with it. We have true rest in the Redeemer. A Sabbath rest. Hebrews 4, the Sabbath rest. Every week when we’re having our Sabbath on Sunday, every week, every week, every week. It should be a reminder to us that the real Sabbath rest lays ahead of us. And brothers and sisters, some have been faithful to the end and they’re already in that rest. Right? And the author of Hebrews, I appreciate that he strikes a little fire into us. He’s like, don’t fall short. Don’t fall short. He starts the passage that way and that’s how he ends it. Let us strive so we don’t fall short. So we’re running a race. And brothers and sisters, it is not finished until we breathe our last. For some of us, that’s going to come sooner. For some of us, that’s going to come later. No man knows the day or the hour. But God does. And so we run. We run the race until we have no more breath. Then we enter the rest of rests. And we can take hope and confidence because God is the one from the beginning of time that’s what’s been foreshadowed, a rest for his children, a covenant rest where ultimately the focus is on celebrating who God is and what he’s done. And we’re going to do that for all eternity. It’s part of the reason, it’s part of the reason when we’re worshiping, like if you don’t have a good theology of worship, well, you want to get one. Why? Because when we’re singing, like we’re practicing. I mean, we’re doing the real thing. Don’t get me wrong. But it’s like a rehearsal for the worship in heaven. All right? It’s the real thing here. We’re worshiping him. One day we’re going to see face to face. We’re going to be worshiping him. Will it be a fuller worship? Absolutely, absolutely. And will it be a rest? Yes, it will be the rest of rests that God promises to those that are his. And he offers that today. If you don’t know him, how do you come into the covenant? How do you come? Faith, you have to trust what Christ did. Christ lived the perfect life and he died the perfect death, and your sins placed upon him. God had to deal with sin. The Bible says we were by nature children of wrath. God has to deal with our sin. One of two people is going to pay the payment for your sin. Either you will pay the payment, eternally removed from God’s presence in hell, or Jesus will have paid the payment for you. Your sin is placed upon him, and he was punished. There’s a lot going on on the cross. Yes, he had nails driven through him. It’s an excruciating death, but God pours out his wrath. If you thought physical crucifixion was bad, have wrath poured out on you, you can’t even put a number on it. A trillion to infinity. God’s wrath poured out on you, you don’t want to experience that. And yet, the Father says, I will abate my wrath if you have the Son. If you have the Son, the wrath is abated. Brothers, the wrath has been abated if that term applies to you, brothers and sisters. If you’re not a brother and sister, if you haven’t come into the covenant, then the wrath will be poured out on you. At this point you walk out of this door, something happens, the Lord forbid, it is eternity in hell. But here today, right now, every single person here in my voice, he offers salvation. He offers for the payment to be paid by Jesus. Jesus paid it. Do you want the payment or not? He offers it. It’s a gift, the gift of eternal life offered freely. Offered freely. What do you have to do? You have to trust. Repent of your sins and trust. Offered to you today. I encourage you, if you haven’t trusted, this is the day. That’s what Hebrews is getting at, talking about today, today, today, yes, and he goes on later, today is the day of salvation. So make it your day. Make it your day of salvation. Let’s pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we do thank you that for those that have trusted in Jesus, the wrath is abated. It’s abated from us. Your Son received it on our behalf. Thank you. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Son. Thank you, Holy Spirit. And Lord, I do pray if anyone is here who doesn’t know you that they would hear these words and it would land exactly where it needs to land on their heart of hearts, deep into their soul. They would feel the weight of their sin, but they would know that by your mercy and grace, the sin can be wiped away, that they need to trust you. May they do so now. And I pray for people here who have already trusted. They take assurance, much, much assurance, that the rest, the true rest awaits them. They have the deposit. They have the down payment, your Spirit. What better payment could there be? Thank you. And may they walk with that deposit daily. May they exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. May the Spirit fill them more and more, each one of us. There’d be so much fruit and people could come right up and pick the fruit off the tree. Lord, do that for us, and continue it. [audio unclear — recording ends]