Purposeful Sovereignty (Ruth 4.1-22)

Introduction

Back in June, I was driving in central France on an open road, newly surfaced, with beautiful scenery all around. The sun was shining, and there was virtually no traffic. After a very pleasant 3-hour drive, we got straight to our destination with no complications. Isn’t this basically what we want our lives to be like?

 

But, in reality, for many of us, life is more like traveling down an obscure, winding lane in the middle of nowhere. You get stuck for miles behind tractors. The satnav, if it’s not broken, is sending you down unmade roads with potholes and confusing signposts. There’s fog. 

 

The engine starts making a strange sound and a warning light on the dashboard starts to flicker ominously. There are overgrown hedges scratching the paintwork on the side of your car. There are even occasional herds of sheep wandering out onto the road in front of you.

And yes, I have driven in Wales...

 

But for Christians, to continue the analogy, all along this narrow, winding road, there are songs playing on the car radio with lyrics like, “My grace is sufficient for you” and “I am with you always” and “those who persevere to the end will be saved.” God’s word speaks heavenly encouragement and perspective all through life.

 

Not least the book of Ruth. If you are dejected, or weary, and it seems like God has gone quiet and left you, the message of Ruth is that, however challenging the road of faith is, it is not a dead end. We cannot always see it, but Ruth shows how God is at work in all of life’s ups and downs.

 

The story so far…

 

For the benefit of those who are joining us for the first time today, or who might have been away for some of the last few weeks, I want to briefly recap what we have seen so far. The story of Ruth begins with a series of tragedies and disappointments. 

 

Chapter 1 begins with a famine in Bethlehem, prompting a man called Elimelech to move his wife Naomi and their two sons to a godless place called Moab. He then dies. Naomi’s sons marry Moabite women - Orpah and Ruth. Then the sons also die, leaving three destitute widows. 

 

Naomi decides that blood is thicker than water. So she returns to Bethlehem, urging her daughters-in-law to stay behind. Orpah agrees, but Ruth says, “No. Don’t make me go home. I’m not leaving you. I’m staying with you. Your people are mine now, and your God is going to be mine too.”

 

Chapter 2 then describes how, back in Bethlehem, Ruth works hard to put bread on the table for Naomi. She picks up grain that the harvesters miss in a field that belongs to a godly and wealthy man called Boaz.

 

He notices the sweat on Ruth’s brow and her loyal heart. He makes sure she is safe from sexual harassment, which was all too common, and he provides kindly for her. 

 

Naomi then realises that Boaz is relative of her dead husband, and therefore a potential “guardian-redeemer,” that is to say, someone who can restore the broken family line by marriage.

 

So, in chapter 3 Naomi devises an unusual and risky plan. She tells Ruth to approach Boaz while he sleeps at night, startle him by uncovering his feet and ask him to “spread his cloak” over her. 

 

This is basically code for, “Boaz, this is the bit where you propose to me.” It’s not the done thing at all, but Ruth goes for it, and Boaz… responds positively. 

 

But, just as Naomi and Ruth’s winding road is starting at last to straighten, there’s a big complication.

 

It turns out that there is someone else who, according to custom, is first in line to marry Ruth and so give her and Naomi the security they yearn for. So, chapter 3 ends with suspense and uncertainty. How is this all going to play out? Let’s read on. Chapter 4, verse 1:

 

Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, ‘Come over here, my friend, and sit down.’ So he went over and sat down.

Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, ‘Sit here,’ and they did so. Then he said to the guardian-redeemer, ‘Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek.

I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.’

‘I will redeem it,’ he said.

 

God’s invisible hand of blessing

 

All the way through the book of Ruth so far, we have witnessed the invisible hand of God at work. Ruth happens to insist on sticking with Naomi instead of returning home, where her prospects are better. They just happen to return to Bethlehem at harvest time, when there is a need for casual labour.

 

It just so happens that Ruth is invited to glean in a kind and protective man’s field. He just so happens to be a close relative of Naomi’s dead husband. And it just so happens that Boaz responds positively to Ruth’s audacious advances.

 

Nothing in life “just so happens” though. Not one sparrow falls to the ground without the Lord’s permission. This is the sovereignty of God. 

 

When I was a young Christian, I used to love listening to a song by Amy Grant with these lyrics:

 

God only knows the times my life was threatened just today.

A reckless car ran out of gas before it ran my way.

Near misses all around me, accidents unknown,

Though I never see with human eyes the hands that lead me home.

But I know they’re all around me all day and through the night.

When the enemy is closing in, I know sometimes they fight

To keep my feet from falling, I’ll never turn away.

If you’re asking what’s protecting me then you’re gonna hear me say:

 

And then she sings about the Lord watching over our lives, ordering every step.

 

And so it’s no surprise that God’s providence in Ruth continues into chapter 4. Boaz goes to the city gate and this next of kin guy just happens to be right there. 

 

A bit of background

 

It goes without saying that some of the customs and practices in the Middle East 1,200 years before Christ, are very different to what we are used to in 21st Century Britain. Ruth chapter 4 is a case in point. 

 

Alas, I have no expertise in the obscure arrangements for the transfer of property and for the marriage of widows in that culture, but do not be dismayed. All is not lost. Because I feel sure that our esteemed leader Michael Coltman will have been busy becoming acquainted with all such matters over the past 12 weeks, and that he will be willing - indeed, eager - to patiently explain it all for you in stunning detail when he returns from his sabbatical leave on Wednesday!

 

Until then, you will just have to make do with a simplified summary of these cultural peculiarities from the rank amateur who stands before you.

 

If you haven’t been here the last couple of weeks, you probably won’t be familiar with this guardian-redeemer vibe. So here, in three sentences, is a basic summary:

 

1) If a man lost his land, for whatever reason, his close relatives had first refusal to buy it back to keep it the family.

 

2) If a married man died before having children, his male next of kin had a moral duty to consider marrying his widow and have children with her so that the name of his deceased relative did not die out. 

 

3) If this new couple had children, and this is key to understanding Ruth chapter 4, if the new couple had children, it was the children who inherited the land, not the next of kin who had married the widow.

 

That, in a nutshell, is how their society worked. 

 

A spanner in the works

 

So here’s Boaz sitting down with the next of kin to Naomi’s deceased husband Elimelek. We don’t know this man’s name. Boaz just calls him “friend,” so let’s call him Mr. Friend.

 

Boaz informs Mr. Friend, in v3 that his relative Naomi is selling a bit of land. It’s not worth much. I mean it can’t be. Otherwise, Ruth wouldn’t have been gleaning like a beggar in the barley field. 

 

In all likelihood, Naomi needs to sell her one, last, modest asset just to have food to eat. So Boaz says, “Friend, you have first refusal; the land is yours if you want it. If not, I’m next in line.”

 

Mr. Friend, I want to suggest, is something of a waste of space. He is the guardian-redeemer. That is to say, he has prime moral responsibility to look after Naomi and Ruth after their husbands’ deaths. It’s his duty, it’s his job. 

 

And what has he done for these two poor widows so far? Answer: Nothing! This is the first we even hear of him. The barley and wheat harvests are both now over. That’s at least 8-10 weeks they’ve been back in Bethlehem. 

 

He hasn’t called round, he hasn’t supplied a single grain of barley for them. He hasn’t protected them. He has been completely anonymous - Mr. Friend doesn’t really care.

 

If Mr. Friend decides he wants to buy the land instead of Boaz, it will be a disaster. And in v4, all the sirens go off because it turns out that Mr. Friend does want to buy the land. 

 

So Ruth, this sweet, loyal, hardworking, devoted and godly woman is going to get landed with a useless lump who didn’t notice her, doesn’t love her and doesn’t care about her welfare. And Boaz, who loves her, will go home empty handed.

 

So in v5, Boaz ups his game - and what he does is brilliant. Let’s read on.

 

Then Boaz said, ‘On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.’

At this, the guardian-redeemer said, ‘Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.’ (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalising transactions in Israel.)

So the guardian-redeemer said to Boaz, ‘Buy it yourself.’ And he removed his sandal.

 

The fine print

 

In other words, Boaz says, “Oh yeah, did I mention the small print? The land comes with a Moabite woman who you’ll have to marry.” 

 

Notice he doesn’t say how lovely Ruth is or how she has become a member by faith of God’s chosen people. He just says, “Ruth the Moabite, the dead man’s widow.” In other words, she’s a needy foreign migrant, dependent on handouts. And she’s been married before. 

 

We don’t know how her husband died... Ruth doesn’t seem to be able to have children. And she comes with a mother-in-law who describes herself as “bitter”, who’d have to live in your house as well. A destitute migrant, apparently infertile, whose first husband died in mysterious circumstances with a bitter mother-in-law. Still interested?”

 

Mr. Friend’s jaw drops, and he says, “You know, I would really love to, but I just can’t. You do it.” Boaz thinks, “Yes!” and they shake hands. Or rather they exchange shoes.

 

Wouldn’t it be great if buying a house was as simple as some random guy in the town centre taking his shoe off and giving it to you? No survey, no flowery hard sell from the estate agent, no haggling over the asking price, no stamp duty, no solicitor, no searches, no bank loan to arrange, no proof of address paperwork – just some random guy’s sweaty shoe and it’s all done that same day!

 

We read on, v9.

 

Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, ‘Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his home town. Today you are witnesses!’

Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, ‘We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.’

 

God’s way is best

 

And that’s how Boaz becomes the family guardian and redeemer of Naomi, and by extension of Ruth. Verse 13 and following bring the story to a close.

 

So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi: ‘Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.’

Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said, ‘Naomi has a son!’ And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

This, then, is the family line of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David.

 

Ruth and Boaz marry, make love and have a child, v13. Notice the order, by the way. Marriage, sex, children. They don’t move in together for a few years to see if they’re compatible. 

 

Very wise of them. I once read an intelligent and perceptive comment by a Christian woman called Anna, on a blog I used to follow. This is her perspective:

 

“It is foolish” she writes, “for any woman to give herself to a man who is not willing to give her the security of marriage. It cheapens her and makes her an object for the man’s pleasure. A man might walk away anytime, possibly leaving her with children. Women are more vulnerable, invest more in relationships, and suffer more when relationships break up. A ring is the very least any respectable woman should expect from a man before she allows him to touch her body. Marriage empowers women, and our mothers were wiser than the liberated women of today.”

 

Research backs her up. A dozen studies from the 1970s into the early 2000s all showed that, on average, couples who cohabit before marriage have a 33% higher chance of divorcing than couples who save themselves for marriage and set up home together after their wedding. 

 

Who could have possibly foreseen that God’s way is the best way?

 

Ruth and Boaz commit to one another, for better or for worse, then they consummate their marriage, and then they have a little boy called Obed which means “servant worshipper.”

 

And I love v15 where they say to Naomi, “your daughter-in-law, [Ruth] who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given birth.” 

 

I love this verse because in our world, even in our day, in many places, people so often value boys above girls. Not just in places like China with their one child policy. Here in the UK as well.

 

In 2012, two doctors, one in Birmingham and one in Sheffield, were filmed in an undercover sting investigation offering to abort babies because they were girls. Sex-selective abortion is not permitted in the UK under current law.

 

The Crown Prosecution Service were handed the recordings and had sufficient evidence to prosecute these doctors, but they decided it was not in the public interest to do so. So someone launched a private prosecution, and these doctors were summonsed to answer charges in Manchester Crown Court. 

 

The CPS shamefully and culpably refused to release the footage, so the judge could not allow it as evidence. The case therefore collapsed and the court ordered the brave young woman who brought the case to pay the two doctors £36,000 compensation, plus £11,000 costs.

 

So, in the UK, there has been state collusion in the termination by healthy mothers of healthy babies because they are girls. Lord, have mercy for this injustice.

 

God’s infallible word says that godly and kind and loyal daughters, like Ruth, are better than seven, the perfect number of, sons.

 

All’s well that ends well

 

After all the famine, the funerals, the hardship, the homelessness - here is Naomi, with tears of joy running down her face. There’s a baby boy in her arms, a baby born in Bethlehem, who makes everything right. I hardly need to ask, who does that remind you of?

 

There are so many ways that Boaz foreshadows Jesus as our redeemer, it cannot be accidental.

 

Boaz is under no obligation to redeem Ruth. Just like Jesus didn’t have to redeem us. He chose us out of pure grace.

Boaz was eligible to redeem Ruth - Jesus was eligible to save us because of his sinless life.

Boaz was ready to redeem Ruth - Jesus was willing to save us.

Boaz paid a price to redeem Ruth - Jesus paid the highest price to save us; his own blood.

Boaz overcame obstacles to redeem Ruth - Jesus overcame the greatest obstacle of all to save us; rising from the dead.

 

Like Boaz, Ruth also foreshadows her greatest descendant, the Lord Jesus.

 

In this part of the story, notice that Ruth is in the background, and she doesn’t say a word. Her redemption is a free gift for which she brings nothing. Nor do we contribute anything to our salvation; no good works, no religious performance, no persuasive arguments, just ourselves, empty handed, just as we are.

 

You look at Ruth and:

You see one who left the comfort of her father’s house to become poor in a strange place

You see one who loved the loveless, Naomi

You see one who gave up her life for a bitter, hopeless woman and became her salvation

You see (as I explained last week) one who considered a man’s heart, not his background

 

The invisible hand of God. The purposeful sovereignty of God. We believe in it. 

 

Let’s, as we close the book of Ruth, have faith to trust that God’s hand is surely at work in all the everyday ups and downs of our lives to bring outcomes, even long after we’re gone, that we could scarcely dream of.

 

Let’s pray...

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 17 August 2025

High-Risk Faith (Ruth 3.1-18)

Introduction

 

For the last three weeks, we’ve been looking at the book of Ruth in the Old Testament. It’s August; people are away a lot, so I thought I should start this morning by quickly summarising the story so far. 

 

It all starts in Chapter 1 with a series of tragedies, disappointments and setbacks. A family leaves their hometown because of a famine and relocates to an ungodly place called Moab. 

 

The husband, Elimelek, dies. The two grown-up sons marry outside of God’s people. For ten years, neither couple is able to have children. Then the two sons die, leaving Elimelek’s wife Naomi with her two daughters-in-law, all three, now penniless widows. And even though one of those daughters-in-law, Ruth, loves and stands by Naomi, chapter 1 ends with Naomi returning to Israel dismayed and empty handed, complaining that her life has become bitter. 

 

The opening chapter of Ruth could hardly be bleaker. The one faint glimmer of hope is this; Israelite family law at the time provided a potential lifeline for destitute widows. The nearest male relative, though he was under no obligation to do so, would be asked to consider taking on responsibility for a widow’s well-being by marrying her. He was called a guardian-redeemer, and this was Naomi and Ruth’s only real chance of avoiding a lifetime of abject poverty.

 

In chapter 2, Naomi begins to wonder if there is perhaps a way out, because a kind, considerate and godly man with a good job, called Boaz, who just happens to be single, is so kind to Ruth that maybe, just maybe, Cupid’s arrows might fly. In addition, he is related to the dead man Elimelek so qualifies as a potential guardian-redeemer.

 

But Boaz turns out to be no Casanova. And after a promising start, it all goes quiet. The tension starts to build in chapter 2. Will he, or won’t he, show any interest? Has he got eyes for Ruth or not? 

 

By the beginning of chapter 3, the harvest has ended. Ruth will soon have no reason or opportunity to be near this man. No doubt, she begins to wonder to herself, “Should I, or shouldn't I, force the issue?”

 

And so we left chapter 2 last Sunday, holding our breath. We want answers. But we are left in suspense. Isn’t it so hard to trust God when you’re waiting and waiting, and just don’t know where you stand?

 

Some of you might be in a waiting season at the moment. What’s God got for me? Where am I going? What will my exam results be? What career path am I going to take? Where am I going to live? Will I marry or remain single? What will my medical tests reveal? What is my diagnosis going to mean for me? 

 

Psalm 130.5 says, “I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.” Does that sound familiar? Well, in his word we put our hope.

 

So let’s read the next bit of the story, where Naomi decides it’s all or nothing time.

 

One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, I must find a home for you, where you will be well provided for. Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.” “I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered. So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.

When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned—and there was a woman lying at his feet! “Who are you?” he asked. “I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.”

“The Lord bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character. Although it is true that I am a guardian-redeemer of our family, there is another who is more closely related than I. Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to do his duty as your guardian-redeemer, good; let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Lie here until morning.”

So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized; and he said, “No one must know that a woman came to the threshing floor.” He also said, “Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out.” When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and placed the bundle on her. Then he went back to town.

When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did it go, my daughter?” Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her and added, “He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, ‘Don’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’” Then Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”

 

This is the word of God.

The plot thickens

So Naomi and Ruth throw caution to the wind in an audacious move that I would tend not to advise any woman, young or old, to try at home. There are some things that do not translate so well from culture to culture, and creeping up unannounced, pulling back the duvet on a man’s bed and startling him in the middle of the night is one of those things. I’ll come back to that in a minute.

 

But first, another thing that we might not understand is what winnowing is. Having lived my whole life in towns or cities, and having taken no interest in history at school, it will be no surprise to you that my expertise and familiarity with pre-industrial agricultural practices is zero. But, be reassured that after some painstaking research, I have learned plenty about winnowing barley this week. 

 

Winnowing consists of energetically throwing a harvested pile of straw and grain into the air with a large fork. The useless chaff is blown away by the cool evening breeze, while the edible grain is collected in piles as it falls back to the threshing floor. This is what Boaz will be doing one evening, says v2. 

 

Here’s the plot. Verses 3-4 tell us that Naomi devises a plan in which Ruth will appeal for marriage to her guardian-redeemer.

 

Ruth will put on her best dress and perfume, and silently approach Boaz when he’s asleep, exhausted from the day’s hard work and sleeping off a hearty supper and a few drinks. She will then remove the bedcovers from his feet as he sleeps, snuggle up at the end of his bed and wait to see what happens. 

 

This she obediently does. In the middle of the night, something - someone - makes him jump. It’s dark. He’s half asleep. He’s not sure what’s going on. But he can smell perfume. And as his eyes adjust, he can make just about make out the silhouette of a woman. Who’s this lovely, sweet-smelling, attractive young female at the end of the bed? 

 

Faith is always risky

 

Here's the first thing this passage teaches us; faith is always risky. Faith is all about taking risks. I hardly need to convince you that this plan is fraught with risk. The tension rises and the suspense increases because so much can go wrong here. 

 

What if someone sees Ruth and accuses her of indecency, trashing her good name? What if Boaz reads the signals wrongly and interprets this as a flirtatious seduction? 

 

Here he is, in a dark room, alone with her, in her best clothes, smelling like a garden of flowers, introducing herself with her soft, feminine voice. Many lesser men would assume they’d hit the jackpot. We might suppose from our modern perspective that all this is inappropriately racy and suggestive, but we would be wrong. It is so risky. But it is not risqué. 

 

As it happens, up to now, we have plenty of evidence that Boaz is a righteous and virtuous man, so it is no surprise to us that he acts completely honourably towards Ruth.

 

Nevertheless, it’s not at all clear how this plan will work out. Naomi herself in v4 doesn’t really know. She just says to Ruth, “he will tell you what to do.” There’s no detail, no plan-b, no guarantees and no assurances. 

 

Ruth has to take a step of faith. I hope we haven’t forgotten how it feels to step out in faith! There’s a testimony I heard four years ago that I share whenever I train people for prayer ministry.

 

A prophetic evangelist called Rachel Hickson opened the post one day and found a letter from someone she had met only once – and very briefly. This is what the letter said: 

 

Dear Rachel, you came and spoke at my church on Mothering Sunday last year. At the end of your talk, you invited people to the front for prayer, in particular women who were unable to conceive and carry children. I was in the ladies’ at the time but a friend of mine ran out and said to me, ‘Come back in, there’s an appeal for women who long to conceive but have so far not been able to.’ 

So I left the ladies’ and walked to the front where the team was praying for those who had come forward. It was you came to me and as you did, you simply looked at me and said, ‘The Lord is giving you two zebras.’ Then you moved on to the next person. 

I have no idea whether you knew what you were saying or if you have any memory of it. But what you need to know is this. My husband and I have a marriage of mixed ethnicity, black and white. We have been trying unsuccessfully for years to conceive. Every day, we’ve been praying that God will give us a little zebra. [That was their love language name for the mixed-ethnicity child they longed for]. Then she said, “I enclose a photograph of the twins that were born nine months after you spoke that word.

 

Rachel remembered the moment very well and had, at the time, no idea what it was about. It was high risk faith. High risk obedience. 

 

Francis Chan in his brilliant book Crazy Love asks, “What, specifically, am I doing in my life that requires me to take a step of faith?” Ouch!

 

So be inspired and provoked by the faith and initiative and boldness and obedience of these two women. And let’s understand that the sovereignty of God in all things never means we sit back, do nothing, and wait for God to work.

 

In v9, Ruth immediately averts any potential misunderstanding. She gives no opportunity for Boaz to misconstrue the situation. “I am your servant, Ruth” she says. Then, heart in mouth, she says, “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.”

 

She is not exactly proposing to Boaz. But she is asking him to propose to her.  She is saying, “I want you to protect me, to be a refuge of safety and to provide for me, as my husband.”

 

This is amazing. Even in our culture that assumes equality, it’s usually men who initiate courtship and who propose marriage. In those days, and in that conservative society, this was totally not done. 

 

A woman proposing marriage to a man! Not only that; a poor woman, proposing to a wealthy man. Not only that; a foreign woman proposing to an Israelite man. Not only that; a younger woman proposing to an older man, as we’ll see in a minute. Not only that; a female labourer proposing to her male boss.

 

The power dynamics, the sexual politics, the social customs, the conventional gender roles, the whole lot is out the window! 

 

Will it work? Boaz, remember, is not obligated to act as a guardian-redeemer, only to consider it. But notice, Boaz tells Ruth, not how out of line she is, but how kind she is.

 

Love is always kind

 

What is it about Ruth that steals Boaz’ heart? She's a young woman in a nice dress and wearing perfume, what’s not to like? I don’t doubt there is some physical attraction, that would be natural, though it is not mentioned here. Boaz is struck by her kindness to him (v10) which exceeds the kindness towards her destitute mother-in-law that has been on display throughout chapters 1 and 2. 

 

Boaz has spent weeks quietly observing Ruth’s faithfulness, her gentle servant heart, her devotion, her love for Naomi, her fierce loyalty to her, her willingness to work from dawn till dusk gleaning leftover grain. And now her audacious faith.

 

Boaz then says, v10, “You haven’t gone running after younger men.” So that must mean, as I just said, that Boaz is noticeably older than other eligible bachelors. And he calls Ruth “my daughter” which suggests there is quite an age gap.

 

All of which raises a delicate question. Why, in that society, would an older man with property and a good income be unmarried? That would be most unusual. Was it just that he hadn’t yet met Miss Perfect? Was he perhaps a widower? Was he simply not the marrying type? Did he perhaps have some physical disfigurement? Did his personal hygiene leave a lot to be desired? 

 

Here’s the reason no girl wanted to marry Boaz; it’s because of who his mother was. Matthew 1.5 tells us that his mother was Rahab – that’s the Rahab from Joshua 6; a prostitute who betrayed her own people. For some reason, none of the girls in Bethlehem want a Canaanite, double-dealing, retired sex worker as a mother-in-law!

 

Boaz is clearly a lovely guy, and he’s done well for himself, but he’s got baggage, and no one wants to marry into his family. Except Ruth, who sees his heart and accepts him for who he is. 

 

No wonder Boaz says to Ruth in v10, “The Lord bless you for this kindness.” This is the first woman who has ever seen him and loved him for who he is and who is unconcerned about his dodgy background and questionable family tree.

 

Despite the shadow over his past, Ruth chooses him. And listen, no matter what you’ve done and where you’ve been, if you are a Christian, you were chosen to be adopted and cherished by your heavenly Father. You are the focus of his affection. You are the apple of his eye. You are his son, his daughter, by faith. He has lavished grace upon you. You were once cut off from mercy, but now you are part of a chosen people, a holy, treasured possession. God’s love for you is always kind.

 

Boaz tells her to stay till morning. It wouldn’t do to send her off into the dark night all alone. 

 

This chapter paints such a beautiful picture of godly masculinity and godly femininity. Notice the lengths they go to protect each other’s honour, the integrity, the respect for boundaries and the duty of care. “No one must know that a woman came to the threshing floor” he says in v14. He’ll have no one whispering that she is a flirtatious tart. Because love is always kind.  

 

Wow! A few weeks earlier, Ruth arrived in Bethlehem as a heartbroken widow from a foreign land. Now, she’s pretty much engaged to a worthy and godly man who values her and cherishes her above all, v11, for her true beauty; the purity of her character. 

 

God is always working

 

Faith is always risky. Love is always kind. Third and final point; God is always working. 

 

The book of Ruth teaches us how God’s hidden hand sovereignly operates in our lives. Looking back over the story so far, even as Naomi is grumbling bitterly on her return from Moab, the Lord’s perfect timing is graciously bringing forth an abundant barley harvest. 

 

Then it just so happens that Ruth lands in Boaz’ field. Then it just so happens that he notices her. All the way through, God shows he has not forgotten Naomi by graciously providing grain for her time and time again, including here at the end of chapter 3.

 

We sometimes sing, “All my life you have been faithful, all my life you have been so, so good.” It’s true. In so many ways, most of them subtle and mundane, the providence of God orders your steps, provides for your needs, goes before you, removes obstacles, protects and defends you, keeps you from falling and works all things for your good. The Lord has not forgotten you, nor will he ever forsake you.

 

When the day dawns, v15, Boaz sends Ruth off, but not before pouring six measures of barley into her shawl to once again bless Naomi with. 

 

Ruth arrives home, and Naomi asks, no doubt having slept very little, “Well, how did it go?” And the chapter ends with more uncertainty, more waiting, more suspense. How will it all turn out? We’ll just have to wait till the next chapter.

 

But, because faith has taken the risks and love has shown its kindness, we can trust that God will keep working his purposes and complete the good work he has begun.

 

Ending

 

And so they both live happily ever after… Right? Except, unfortunately, there’s a twist in the tale. A complication. 

 

Boaz is a man of honesty and integrity, so he feels honour-bound to tell Ruth in v12 that there’s a closer male relative who therefore has first refusal for a potential marriage proposal. There is a legal process that must be respected and who knows what the outcome will be?

 

The book of Ruth is a beautiful short story, skilfully told, tucked away in the Old Testament between two books full of smiting and carnage. It’s a rose between two thorns. But Ruth is not just a literary gem, it’s God’s word, eternally true, always alive, and God wants to speak through it to you today.

 

Are you ready to take risks in faith this week? Are you committed to showing this week to all those you meet, as 1 Corinthians 13 says, that love is kind? Are you freshly awakened to the reality in your life that, even if we don’t see it or feel it, God is always working?

 

Let’s stand to pray...

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 10 August 2025

Disaster Strikes (Ruth 1.1-5)

Introduction

 

For the next six Sundays, we’ll be in the Book of Ruth, and this will take us to the end of August. 

 

The German poet Goethe said, “no poet in the world has written a more beautiful short story” than the Book of Ruth and he described it as “the loveliest complete work on a small scale handed down to us.” And it’s hard to disagree. 

 

Ruth is one of just two books in the Bible that are named after women, the other being Esther. But that’s not all these two books have in common. Both are at least partly set in a foreign land. Both involve a crisis carrying the threat of death. Both have unexpected twists that dramatically change the fortunes of the main characters. Both are romances, which end happily ever after. 

 

Most significantly of all, and this is key, both Esther and Ruth explore the way God works imperceptibly but decisively behind the scenes in ordinary lives to accomplish his purposes. 

 

As we know, sadly, romances don’t always end well. I once read about a post on Twitter, as it was then called, where someone said, “I'm tweeting to say I sent you an email explaining my voicemail about a note I left saying I'm leaving you because we don’t talk anymore.”

 

But this romance ends as well as any possibly can; with a royal bloodline that will feature in the genealogy of King David no less – and, even more importantly, of King Jesus. Humanly speaking, if there’s no Ruth, there’s no Jesus. And that’s the main reason why this book has such significance for Christians. But it’s not the only reason; there’s so much in here to enrich our faith. So let’s read the first 5 verses, which set the scene for the whole book. 

 

In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together

with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.

Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

Background

 

The story of Ruth begins by situating her in historical context. It was, says v1, “in the days when the Judges ruled” which is a 300-year period that ends around 1,050 BC. 

 

If your Bible is open at the book of Ruth, you can just glance over at the previous page and see that the very last verse of Judges gives you a concise summary of what life was like at that time; “In those days” it says, “Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” Everyone carried on as they pleased. 

 

Very much like in our day and age, most people didn’t ever really stop to think about God and what he might want. The vast majority just went around doing whatever they felt like, whenever they felt like it. 

 

And, because of that, surprise, surprise, these were dark and desperate days. The time of the Judges spanned three centuries of chronic spiritual malaise, with one crisis after another. It was a godless time. It was an age of ingrained corruption, and lawlessness and spiralling violence and sexual promiscuity. 

 

It was in no sense the best of times. As C.J. Mahaney says, “If Charles Dickens were to write the opening line of this book, it would simply read, It was the worst of times.” God’s chosen people, whom he had graciously freed from centuries of slavery in Egypt to inherit a delightful new land, were behaving like the godless nations that had previously lived there.

 

That’s the unpromising background to Ruth, but we’re going to see in the next 5 weeks that God loves to do beautiful things in our bleakest crises.

 

 

Tragic irony 1: famine in the house of bread

 

There are three tragic ironies in the opening verses of this book that help us understand what God is saying here, and the first one is this: Bethlehem is surrounded by fertile wheat and barley fields. It’s a place of agricultural abundance. 

 

Bethlehem means ‘house of bread’ but, irony of ironies, v1 tells us that the land is blighted by severe famine. Food has become scarce. Prices are shooting up. It is increasingly challenging to put daily bread on the table.

 

How can it be that a land once flowing with milk and honey is now experiencing food shortages? Is it simply “one of those things”? Is it purely a few years of freak weather leading to some bad harvests? 

 

No, this is a display of God’s righteous correction, and it’s designed to turn the people of God back to the path of blessing. Remember what God said in Deuteronomy 28 when he set out for Israel the terms and conditions for living in the land he gave them. 

 

He said, “The crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks, your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed... All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God.”

 

“But if you do not fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow his commandments… you will sow much seed in the land but you will harvest little.” 

 

God always does what he says he will do. There’s no question that this is a setback sent by God to steer his wayward people back to their senses. 

 

Verse 1 also introduces us to Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons. Elimelech decides to take his family to a neighbouring land. 

 

Why do they head off to, of all places, Moab? Moab is only about 50 miles away and even though it’s an arid, barren country the other side of the Dead Sea, for some reason they are not, at this time, experiencing the same famine as Israel is.

 

Moab is a nation born in incest (you can read about it in Genesis 19) and it has a deserved reputation for depravity. They worship a demonic fertility god called Chemosh and even sacrifice their children to him. The Moabites are enemies of Israel, and they often raid the land and plunder it. They are neighbours from hell. Why would any Israelite relocate there? 

 

It's because in those days, Israel had no king; everyone did their own thing. And when you do your own thing, without ever looking to God, you tend to come up with bad ideas.

 

Tragic irony 2: my God is king - except he isn’t

 

Here’s the second tragic irony. Elimelek means ‘My God is King’. But this man acts like he is in charge. There is no hint of living by faith, seeking God, asking for guidance, or praying for provision. Elimelek is a self-made man. He devises a human solution with man’s wisdom to every problem. 

 

He should stay in Bethlehem, in the very land God promises to bless his obedient people. He should turn to God in repentance and cry out for mercy with everyone else. But he just does the first harebrained thing that enters his head, leading his family off to Moab.

 

But, if we’re honest, this is all too familiar. With our prayer tank empty, leaving us running on fumes, we often find ourselves managing our way out of our problems. Elimelek looks for a human answer to his family’s troubles, but it just leads him, literally, to a dead-end.

 

“Trust in the Lord”, says Proverbs 3.6, “with your whole heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Acknowledge him in all your ways, and he will your paths straight.”

 

But Elimelek and Naomi do lean only on their own understanding. They think they can straighten out their paths all by themselves. And it is “all by themselves”; this does not appear to be a mass migration. Only Elimelek and his family, it seems, emigrate to Moab to escape this famine.

 

Like unchurched Christians, they sever their ties with God’s people, and they desert the land of milk and honey that God had promised them, hoping the grass is greener elsewhere. 

 

But listen, it’s not by forgetting God’s promises, and leaving God’s people, and turning your back on the arena of God’s blessing that your problems magically vanish. 

 

Do you ever get restless and bored in the place that God has placed you? Are you constantly feeling spiritually and emotionally disappointed, or dissatisfied? Are you tempted to wander away from God’s call on your life? 

 

The Bible scholar Matthew Henry wisely writes, “It is evidence of a discontented, distrustful, unstable spirit, to be weary of the place in which God has set us, and to be for leaving it immediately whenever we meet with any uneasiness or inconvenience.”

 

I have known many Christians shaken in their faith by adversity. I have myself. We live in a spiritual battleground. Are we going to stand firm and come through it stronger? 

 

Let’s make sure our exhausted souls are replenished with grace. Look for opportunities to pray with others, build others up and be encouraged by them. 

 

Tragically though, some Christians drift away. Like Elimelek and Naomi, they try to manage on their own but end up slowly disconnecting from God and isolating themselves from the community of his people.

 

Some years ago, a disillusioned and burned-out missionary walked into a church. He didn’t really want to be there. He found churches like this one a bit annoying, so he sat at the back with every intention of dashing out as soon as the service was over. 

 

Against all expectations, it did him a power of good. There was sung worship and really great preaching (also from Ruth incidentally).

 

The service host grabbed him at the door they got talking for a few minutes, and the conversation finished like this; “You know, we’re looking for someone exactly like you for a new ministry starting in three weeks’ time. Why don’t you send us your CV?” The church was St Michael’s Paris, the discouraged missionary was me and that chance conversation led to great personal restoration and ten happy, fruitful years on their ministry team. 

 

And I learned something that day. When everything seems to be against you, and when God seems distant and silent, and when you’re discouraged and demotivated, that’s when you have to put yourself in the place where God is most likely to bless you; in his presence, among his people and under his word.

 

Verse 2 introduces us to the rest of the family; Naomi means “pleasant” or “sweet.” And the Book of Ruth confirms that she was well-named. 

 

Mahlon and Kilion, their two sons, have the weirdest names. You might like the names Mahlon and Kilion. You might think they sound cute. But, I assure you, they’re not good names. Mahlon means “Sickly” and Kilion means “Poorly.” It’s like me introducing you to my two lovely boys, Birdflu and Herpes! We’ve got a little girl on the way, and we’re thinking of calling her Salmonella... 

 

So Elimelek means “God is King” but he was king of his own life. Don’t make the same mistake.

 

Tragic irony 3: they move to avoid death - and then die 

 

Here’s the third tragic irony. Elimelek taking his family to Moab is his plan to escape death and what happens? In v3, he dies. 

 

Notice it doesn’t say how he dies. It doesn’t tell you if he had a heart attack, or fell off a roof, or got food poisoning, or got struck by lightning. It just says, he died. No one will ever know how - or why. 

 

This is the first question we usually ask when someone dies unexpectedly isn’t it? “Why?” We always want to know why but we don’t always get to find out. There are mysteries in God we will never plumb the depths of. There are puzzles and enigmas in life we will never solve. 

 

Deuteronomy 29.29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 13.12 says, “We only see a dim reflection, we only know in part.” One day, in eternity, we will understand fully. But, for now, we all live with questions that will remain unanswered all our lives. 

 

But what we can say is that sorrows and heartbreaks are often crossroads in our lives which either drive us deeper into God or turn us away from him. 

 

San Franciso based church leader John Ortberg says that if you ask atheists why they don’t believe in God, the number one reason will be suffering. But if you ask people who do believe in God when they spiritually grew the most, the number one answer will be, “when I came through a period of suffering.” 

 

“Now Thank We All Our God” is the English translation of a German hymn from the 17th Century. If you’re not familiar with it, here’s the first verse:

 

Now thank we all our God with hearts and hands and voices,
who wondrous things has done, in whom his world rejoices;
who from our mothers' arms has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

 

And so it goes on, speaking of “ever joyful hearts” and “cheer” and ending with “all praise and thanks to God.” 

 

Martin Rinkart, the hymn’s composer, pastored a church in Eilenburg, about 15 miles from Leipzig. And he wrote it as his world crumbled around him. Now, we all thank our God, he wrote, but there was precious little to be thankful for. The Thirty Years’ War was raging through Europe, and the bubonic plague was spreading rapidly at that time.

 

During the height of the plague in 1637, Rinkart was the only surviving pastor in his town. He had to conduct over 4,000 funerals that year, that’s 11 per day, including his wife’s. The heartbreak!

 

This was the setting for that song of worship - social and political unrest, daily fear, life-threatening pandemic. But the hymn gives no hint of the turmoil of the time. Instead, it points to a bounteous God who meets every spiritual need in want and in plenty, in war and in peace, in sickness and in health. 

 

The hymn soared in popularity. People desperate for light, desperate for relief, became renewed in faith and hope.

 

Romans 8 talks about groaning and grieving. We groan and we grieve. We suffer loss and affliction. But Romans 8 goes on to say that God will replace groaning and grieving with gladness and glory. And it says that what is to come, for those who love the Lord, will far, far outweigh our current suffering. In fact, in Romans 8.17-30, Paul mentions suffering twice, sighing three times, but glory four times.

 

And if you today are stuck in the valley of the shadow of death – and I know some of you are walking there right now – honestly, you may never know why your loved one died instead of recovering. You may never know why your prayers for healing, or for a job, or for a soulmate still go unanswered. 

 

But as Martyn Lloyd-Jones used to say, “Don’t let the things you don’t know spoil the things you do know.” 

 

What you do know is that God is always good, your Father is eternally for you, Jesus is still Lord, the Holy Spirit is your comforter, there is nothing that can separate you from his love, the devil is under Jesus’ feet, he’s soon going to be under ours too, the Bible is true, death has lost its sting, Christ has overcome, his yoke is easy, his burden is light, and his grace is sufficient for you.

 

Don’t let the things you don’t know spoil the things you do know.

 

Grief Upon Grief

 

For Naomi, the pain is not over. In v4 her sons marry outside the people of God. This was not totally forbidden like intermarrying with Canaanites was, but it was never God’s ideal. It was seen as unwise and ill advised, like marrying unbelievers is for Christians. 

 

Because Mahlon and Kilion, like their dad, did as they saw fit, they got absorbed into the pagan culture around them. They let go of their God, who had delivered them from Egypt, to adopt the idols of Moab. 

 

For any Christian parent, it is heartbreaking to watch your children drift away from the Lord. Never give up praying for them. Most people I have seen come to faith at Alpha down the years turned out to have had some kind of Christian experience or acquaintance in the past. Never underestimate the awesome power of a praying parent who never loses hope.

 

In v5 it’s rock bottom. The two sons die too. And Naomi is bereft. I don’t believe there is any human experience more painful than having to bury your own children. 

 

Naomi’s husband was her breadwinner and he’s dead. Her sons would have assumed the role of providing for her in his place. Now they’re dead too. She’s now too old to have more children who could, one day, look after her. Her parents are probably dead as well, either from old age or in the famine. 

 

There’s no social provision for childless widows - at all. She has no income, no savings, and no pension. She is destitute and penniless. And she’s stranded in a foreign country. 

 

And all because she and her husband just did as they saw fit and left the Promised Land. Now she has no one from her own faith or even her own country. 

 

Ending

 

David will pick up the story next week – I’m glad to say it gradually gets brighter as it goes on. And whatever mess we find ourselves in, whether it’s because of our own life choices or whether we’ve just been dealt a bad hand in life, by the grace of God there’s a way out.

 

But I want to end by looking to another man from Bethlehem, the house of bread, who revealed himself as the Bread of Life. 

 

He never did what was right in his eyes, but only what he saw his heavenly Father doing. He said his food was to do the will of God. 

 

He knew grief more than anyone else, being a man of sorrows familiar with suffering. His heart went out to a bereft widow about to bury her son and who said, “Don't cry” before raising him to life. He overcame death for good and will one day finally put an end to it. 

 

I think he would say to each one of us today, “Whoever you are, whatever you’ve done, however you’ve got yourself here today, why don’t you open up your heart right now to receive grace for a brand-new start?”

 

Let’s pray...

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 20 July 2025