Well, I invite you to turn this morning to the book of Ruth as we are continuing this study. I was sitting with a pastor the other day, and he said he had a dream that he could not find the book he was preaching in the Bible. And I keep thinking about that. What if I can't find Ruth? It's on page 264 if you're in that same place. 64. And this is the great story we've been working through. Ruth and Boaz now at the threshing floor, and we will be considering the entirety of the chapter today. Beginning at verse 1, let's give our attention to the word of the Lord. 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. So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. At midnight, the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet. He said, who are you? She answered, I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer. He said, may you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter, for you have made this last kindness greater than the first, and 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 laid his feet until the morning, but arose 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, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her, and 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 it turns out. For the man will not rest, but will settle the matter today. And there we'll end the reading of God's Word. The beautiful truth of this little book of Ruth is that God is working in the events that unfold in the most surprising of ways. I tried to capitalize on that last time, his surprising ways to fulfill his greater plan. It's really wonderful to study and to see God's master plan unfold in this book as we look at the event's turn and the choices that human beings make through that. It's a marvel and something that, as we study, we are just caught in marvel at his wonderful ways through even the choices of sinful human beings. The marvel is that he is doing it through terrible decisions that were made. Terrible decisions that, as we've studied, we have focused in on this little family in Israel and studied them as what we call a microcosm of the macrocosm. In other words, they represent the spiritual state of Israel and are, as we study the story, are supposed to understand a larger message for Israel through their story. Bad decision number one, leave the land to escape God's chastisement when he's driving his people back to him. Bad decision number two, your sons marry outside the covenant because of terrible spiritual leadership on, I hate to say this on Father's day, a father's part. Bad decision number three, get mad and bitter when it all comes crumbling down on you because of your decisions and blame God. And then today, bad decision number four, once things turn around a little bit, try to take it into your hands to make it all work again. Well, that's the way I'm going with it and we'll see by the time we're done. I have a good discussion, I hope, afterwards. It's a little more complex of a passage to know exactly how to look at the events that are happening here today. But the overarching truth can't be missed that we have watched God in mercy and grace begin to showcase his great plan through all these actions that are rather shocking. And now he's beginning to spotlight his Redeemer. As I study this book and look at it freshly, I believe that this today is the heart of the book. What we're seeing in Naomi is how God brings Israel to himself, how he restores Israel. A recognition that when God gives blows and chastisements for sin in our lives, it has the goal of drawing back his people to show them his great love and care, his chesed and redemption. That little word kesed is all throughout this book for a reason. Covenant love, steadfast love, loving kindness, fidelity. All those words, faithfulness, all those words come together in that word kesed to capture everything beautiful about God's love for us. And that's what drives this story. The more you understand that, the more you appreciate that, the more you begin to contemplate the love of God for you and understand that he's not out to attack you, but to bring you to himself as his people, well, then we begin to rejoice in our Redeemer and our bitterness is replaced with joy. And that's what we're looking at today. The struggle is still here, but we're beginning to see something happen in Naomi. We're beginning to see her engage and understand, as we sung out from Psalm 113, how he condescends and enters in and cares about the things that happen on earth. in our lives. I want to look at this today in three brief ways. The unholy plan that Naomi gives here to begin with, and then the righteous response that follows, and then at the end, we'll set it up for next time, the greater call to Israel, looking at the greater story in the background. But let's start with this unholy plan of Naomi. You'll remember last time that we began to see this great change in Naomi as Ruth was provided for in Israel, as she went to Israel's fields, contrary to Naomi going to the fields of Moab, as Ruth did what was right and went to the fields, lo and behold, there were all kinds of surprising blessings to a field, an important field that God had placed her in. And you'll remember when she came back full and provided for, and Naomi heard what field she had gone to, the field of Boaz, Naomi begins a beautiful testimony of praise. It's wonderful. Blessed be the Lord who has not forsaken his kindness to the living and the dead. I see now God's not against me. He's for me. And he's remembered the living and the dead. he loves me so so we're beginning to see that that blindness and that bitterness replaced by hope and replaced with happiness so we enter the scene of a starting to revival of naomi if you will a beginning revival of naomi but i want you to notice what happens now at this point in verse one this is you'll see why i call it unholy plan uh naomi has a sense that god has be begun to reverse the course of their sorrow. Providence has moved from dark providence to smiling providence. She can see it. This has revived her, but it's not moving quite quick enough. It's not moving quite quick enough. What's on her mind? Well, you went to Boaz's field. There's a lot of things that could happen to wreck that. We need to make this happen. We need to make this happen. So here's my plan. Look at verse 1. Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, My daughter, should I not seek rest for you? But she kind of stopped and said, Who seeks rest and who gives rest? I'm in a resting place. Should I not seek rest for you that it may be well with you? The word means rest, and Naomi recognizes that though things have turned around, there still was one thing lacking. There still was one thing, and this is a whole history to this. I think you have to read Ruth in light of all the history at this point that has come before. This was the big issue through all the patriarchs. Remember going through Genesis, how much they were so concerned to get the seed, So concerned to get a son. And you'll notice here that we're at the end of the wheat harvest, which means this would have been six to eight weeks later. Things are not moving very quickly. And it should be striking to us when she says, I will seek rest for you. Boaz, he's our relative. In fact, guess what? He's winnowing barley tonight. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to wash yourself. I want you to put on your best garment. I want you to go down to the threshing floor. But don't make yourself known to the man. I want you to hide. Until he has finished eating and he's really feeling good after he's had some wine. And then you show yourself. I want you to lie down at his feet when he's asleep. and I want you to uncover his feet, he'll tell you what to do. I asked, I ran into Reverend Van E. yesterday, and he was already pressing me what I thought about this. How are you going to preach that? How are you going to preach that? He wanted to get the lowdown early. See, he knows that verse 4 is one of the most unclear verses in the Bible, if you will. In other words, that verse almost, as all the scholars say, almost every word could mean something different than how we think. It's all over the place in how to interpret it. This is the great threshing floor scene. Now here's why I call it an unholy scene. We know from Hosea chapter 9 that the threshing floors were notorious places of wickedness and lasciviousness in Israel. Wicked behavior took place there. Threshing floors were typically outside of the city walls, and they sat up high enough so that the wind could blow the chaff away from the wheat. They were very secluded places, and because of that, they were common sites of drunkenness and prostitution. For Naomi to send Ruth there at night, and Boaz recognized this in the last chapter. Stay by my women so that no other men come after you. It was dangerous to do this. So you stand back as a pastor and you're an interpreter of the Bible and you say, well, how do you interpret this? Put on your best dress. Put on perfume. They've been a hard day's work. After he's well drunk, after a hard day's work, and his heart is lifted up and happy. I'm not saying drunk in the sense of sloppy. He's cognizant and aware. They would have wine after these things. And they would rest. Once he's felt good, and he's cheered from his hard day's work, and he goes down to lay down. I want you to uncover his feet. Now, some say this is a great euphemism. That's what they call them. You have two options. When you read this, you can probably come up with this, that Naomi was suggesting to Ruth to seduce Boaz to get her redeemer. Or she was simply doing all in her power to give Boaz the opportunity to take Ruth and do this. You stand back and you start to say, well, would you do this? Would any of you parents here tell your daughter to go do this? Some parents might. If they want a husband for their daughter, they might. Prince Charming comes around, they might. after a lot of potential hardship and a lot of potential difficulty and a lot of potential grief and possibilities endlessly of what could happen to your daughter, here comes Prince Charming. He's got to get noticed. I guess it depends on how bad you want her to get married. Parents lose all objectivity when it comes to marriage at times for their children. We'll get his attention. We'll get his attention. And here's how you do it. You make a provocative throw at him. Well, okay. Someone might disagree with me on that. I'm okay if you do. Someone might say this was a righteous thing that she did. I don't see it. If you're a pastor, how would you preach this? Here's my problem. Here's my problem. Here's why I made the choice. There's so much history behind this. That's how you interpret it. Here's something that will rattle your minds a little bit when you think about this threshing floor scene. You remember who this is? This is a Moabitess. How did the Moabites come about? Come, let's make our father drink wine and we will lie with him that we may preserve the offspring. So they made their father drink wine that night. And that was Ruth's people. The plan originated. Moabites came this way. And then to suggest, which is another provocative thought, to send a Moabite woman down to the threshing floor has a lot of bad history to it, doesn't it? You may agree with the, disagree with the interpretation, but it certainly was not prudent to send a Moabitess there. For the biggest problem of Israel in history was that the Moabite women seduced them into sexual immorality. And Israel began, and I quote, to commit sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab. Don't make yourself known until he's done drinking. And then go lay at his feet and see how his responds. Or, who can forget Tamar? I need a kinsman redeemer, which is interesting. The brothers failed. Onan failed. He wouldn't take me. She puts on garments, hides as a prostitute, poses as a prostitute, and righteous Judah takes her and has a son. Oh, you know the story. It's all been told to you all throughout the Bible. Elimelech and Naomi don't have a good track record. They had taken matters into their own hands with God's chastisement on Israel, left Moab for Moab. Their sons marry foreign women. Chastisement comes. And so now here we are. God's favor begins to be shown. And she tries to control obtaining the promise her way. We already have this long history who can forget Sarai to Abram. Hey, go into my servant Hagar and get the seed. There's so much history to this. And it's leaving us on the edge of our seats. You see, I think it captures the book so beautifully of the great question of it's not just God went after Israel in chastisement when he showed his covenant love and fidelity and kindness and goodness. They failed to trust him. You don't have to run to Moab. You can be the other prodigal in the house who never left but doesn't trust the father. How many times do parents make all kinds of poor choices with regard to their children for just hope? How many times are people willing to compromise all that they know to be right for just some light when they know the truth and won't speak it? All objectivity of the truth and of righteousness goes out the door. Apply it. Apply it through and through to our lives. And in their own wisdom, we will find rest for ourselves from this pain. We will get rest ourselves. Whatever the case, what I want you to see here is, whatever happened there, there is a big contrast of a righteous outcome. And I don't think you can miss that. Here the story begins to build, the suspense of it. So what happens? Naomi dresses up, and after Boaz had eaten and was well drunk and his heart was cheerful. She lay down, verse 6, beside him at the end of the heap of grain. She came softly, we read in verse 7, and uncovered his feet. Verse 8. And at midnight, the man was startled and turned over. Behold, a woman lay at his feet. Notice the emphasis there. Who are you? Now, that's going to be the great question of this text today. Who are you? That's not just ask once in this text. I'll show you in a minute. Notice how she went to do what Naomi said to do, but she would not do and fulfill everything Naomi suggested. When Naomi said, uncover his feet and wait, see what he tells you, she could not, notice this, instead of offering herself sexually to him, She does something bold. Amazing. Take your maidservant under your wing or better spread the corner of your garment over your maidservant for you are a redeemer. Ruth makes her intentions really clear. She's come to Boaz. desiring for him to take her as his bride. That was symbolized. There's custom here that we have to understand. That was symbolized by asking Boaz to cover her with his robe. So when a man in the ancient world like this wanted a wife in Israel, he would do that by symbolically throwing his garment over her. And here she's asking Boaz to do that. She was asking him to be the kinsman redeemer, the nearest of kin to redeem her, to redeem Naomi. It was a radical request. Women didn't really do this at this time. But Ruth was honest. She didn't pursue Naomi's way. But with courage and with boldness approached Boaz and called for redemption. Boaz rises up. Look at the response. Verse 10. Blessed are you of the Lord, my daughter, for you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning. And that you did not, listen to this, you did not go after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you request. For all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous or a worthy woman, a virtuous woman. Wow, that's quite a bit different than Israel's history, isn't it? Paul uses the same word, kesed, to refer to Ruth here. He speaks of her kesed, her kindness. Ruth is showing loyalty. Ruth is showing covenant faithfulness to her mother-in-law. And Boaz is taken by a virtuous woman. What a righteous moment. What a righteous moment that just happened in Israel. I asked Darcy as we went through this the other day and we're going through this book and we read it at home. And I said to Darcy, what do you like about this story? She goes, I don't just like this story. Women like this story. And I said, why? Because Boaz's attraction for her is that she was a virtuous woman. That's why women like this story. Yeah, I guess women have been viewed as sex objects for too long. I guess that's true. Especially in our culture. That to get anywhere it is assumed, notice this, this is just in us, women to get anywhere have to sleep to the top. That this kind of response in the face of temptation is so beautiful, it just stands out in scripture to us. In a situation that was set up for moral failure, no sex took place. I suppose it's right to say to all the young women here, don't give your dignity away to some man who doesn't care about you. Don't do it. To get him any way you can to think he'll love you, don't do it. He won't. To find acceptance to think that that's your way to find true identity, he doesn't care. to start a relationship that doesn't produce true love before marriage? What a waste of your life. You want a man who will love you for your godly character and beauty. Charm is deceitful. Beauty is vain. But a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her works praise her in the gates. What does Boaz say? I'll cover you. I'll cover you. I suppose this is a moment to say to the men, look at this righteous man. Don't disrespect another man's daughter. Don't do that. Deep within her was what Naomi recognized. This woman is full of covenant faithfulness. Verse 12. Now it's true that I'm a close relative. However, there's a relative closer than I. Boaz says, stay here this night and I will go to him on the morning and find out if he will redeem you. If he will not, verse 13, then I will perform the duty for you as the Lord lives. Lie down until the morning. Go back to sleep. Another redeemer is introduced here in chapter 4. We'll meet him. That's set up for next time. I'm not going into that today. But we're sort of left in suspense here. Will this Redeemer take away Boaz from Ruth? Who is this? Who will be the Redeemer? And that's where we are. That's what's teasing us in this text. So as we move on from this, Boaz measures 60 faffs of grain and fills her garment. 60 faffs, over 80 pounds she has taken home. The first time was equivalent to working a half a year. He is just loading this woman up with abundance and provision and care to care for her mother-in-law. So now this gets really beautiful. In verse 16, she comes to Naomi. Is that you, my daughter? I want you to look at that. How did you fare, my daughter? That's the worst translation of the ESV. It's the same question Boaz asked when he woke up in the middle of the night and saw her at the feet. Same construction, same question. Who are you? Yeah, that's the question. Who is this? I think Israel was supposed to read that for generations and ask that question. Who is this? Or, who should she be? Listen to it. Listen to it with spiritual mind for a minute in light of Israel's history. You didn't choose the other men. Instead, you've come to me. You're a virtuous woman. You came to my field. And you asked for me to be your redeemer. Israel, do you hear that? That's the effect. You left your home. You left your gods. You left your land, your people, and you came to me. And in loyalty, covenant, faithfulness, to help your mother-in-law, You lost everything coming to me. I will reward you. I'm so thankful I have an astute congregation and somebody wrote me last week and said, you know, pastor, that sounds just like this verse. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my name's sake will receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life. Yeah, that's it. Loyalty. Covenant fidelity. But Israel's been playing the harlot with all the other gods. Living and doing what's right in their own eyes. Never trusting the Lord. Never speaking the truth. Giving their children away to the other gods. My people inquire of a piece of wood. Hosea 4. And their walking staff gives them oracles, for a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they've left their God to play the whore. Whoa. That's what we do every time we don't trust the Lord and live by the truth of the gospel and refuse to tell our children the truth. play the whore. Listen carefully to Ezekiel 16 this morning. When I passed by you again, this is the Lord, and I saw you, behold, you were at the age for love. And I spread, now listen, the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I made a vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord, and you became mine, Ezekiel 16.8. What does Boaz represent? I will greatly, Isaiah 61, rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exult in my God, for he's clothed me with the garments of salvation. He's covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress. and as a bride adorns herself with jewels. In Naomi, we saw Israel, a wandering bitter sheep, bitter against the Lord, self-absorbed in pity over her sin and misery, leaving the fields of the Lord to trust in everything else, to other gods, representing the whole nation of Israel in idolatry, and today trying to force the rest herself and here's your faithful covenant God rising and raising up a redeemer to clothe you because he loves you and he will do that for his bride he will take away all her shame and call her a pure virgin did you know that? This is the marvel of the Christian gospel, beloved. Come now, let's reason together, my bride. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. You don't have to wear the wedding dress in a lie anymore. You can put on white with confidence. Though they're red like crimson, they'll be like wool. That's what I'll do. I'll cleanse my bride of all her sin. I'm jealous for you with godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband to Christ so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him, said Paul. He will clothe your shame. He will clothe your defilement and present his church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. See, this is the true love story behind the scenes, beloved. We love it because we think it's just a love story of a sweet love story of a man and a woman. It's a real love story of God and his people. It's about God reclaiming in Jesus Christ our true Redeemer, a bride to himself, who will have a heart of flesh to him, a true Israel to him. See, this is the shock of the whole story. Ruth represents the true Israel of God. always intended to be a gracious landowner, ready to redeem, willing to redeem. And a woman who comes to his field and comes to him and says, give me life, save me, rescue me, redeem me. I think in this, we see a call of what the true bride of Jesus should be. Should we not love his field? Should we not love our Redeemer? Should we not respond to a God who's been so gracious to us like this and love him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength? See, Proverbs 31 is not just about, we like to say Proverbs 31 is about some virtuous woman over there who's done a lot of good things, and that's true. Proverbs 31 is meant to capture the virtuous Israel of God who responds to his covenant faithfulness in belief and in trust and doesn't look elsewhere. That's a virtuous woman. You know, life is hard, beloved. Life is really hard. It doesn't seem to get any easier. And all the way, you're going to be tested as to what's right, and you're going to be tested on this little fundamental point of all of Scripture. Will you trust the Word of the Lord or not? Will you lead your children in the Word of the Lord, or will you compromise? Will you make his field your happiness? He calls you to himself, offering forgiveness and mercy and grace and help in time of need. Think of the psalm we sung out. Hope in the Lord, you waiting saints, and he will well provide. He's going to provide for you. He's going to care for you. Seek him. Come to his feet. The feet of Jesus. Every knee shall bow. every tongue shall confess he is Lord. Be patient in his ways. The Lord is the giver of rest. The Lord is the giver of rest. Isn't that what Naomi wanted? We have rest in our kinsman redeemer. We have rest in Jesus. So let's trust him. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, what a wonderful story what a beautiful story we offer you our sincere praise and thanksgiving we know what we are like an unholy bride we know that we have sought satisfaction and fulfilled lust and desire everywhere else instead of coming to the field of the Lord and trusting you may this message affect everyone here in a way that it should may our young adults think a lot about the beauties that are here represented may our young women aspire and love what is set so beautifully before us may our men look a lot like boaz but most of all may the church of our day respond to the covenant mercy and faithfulness of the Lord with this kind of trust forgive us Lord that we turn everywhere else thank you for spreading your garment over us washing us and making our sins as white as snow we give you our praise today for the true redeemer in this story who is Jesus us. In his wonderful and gracious name we pray. Amen.