Episode 4 of Rescue & Rest

Welcome to episode 5 of our Bible study in the book of Ruth. As we begin Ruth chapter 3 today, Naomi is suggesting a plan to find rest for Ruth. This has been her idea from the beginning. Do you remember way back in chapter 1 on that road from Moab to Bethlehem? The first time they stopped, she stopped the train and said, you girls need to go back to Moab and find rest in the home of a husband. So she's always been looking to see that they would be provided for and protected and married to find rest. As women, we all appreciate rest. We love rest. Every woman that I have ever known creates little spaces of rest in our home. It doesn't matter if you even have a dorm room or a bedroom. You want a little chair in there. You want to create a place of rest. And yet, when we have time to do whatever we want to do, we don't often rest. We get busy and do something. It's like, oh, I have a day to myself. I'm going to paint a room. You know, or I'm going to prep a week of meals or I'll host a yard sale. And those things are not rest. They are work. They are labor. They might be fun. They might make us feel, you know, what's the word I'm looking for, accomplished. They might be enjoyable, but they're not rest. Ruth was working by gleaning in the field. That was not rest. That was labor. That was work that she was doing. And, you know, on a nice day, it may have been enjoyable, might have been rewarding, but it was not rest. I want to remind us that Jesus says, come to me, all of you who labor, and I will give you rest. This is the come to me episode of the book of Ruth, okay? And if I was making titles for each week, which I just didn't do with this session, I would title this one, Finding Rest, Finding Rest. So Ruth chapter 3, 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? Verse 2, Is not Boaz our relative? Now this is the fourth time in this book that it is mentioned that Boaz is a relative. The most recent time that it was mentioned was in chapter 2, when Ruth came back from the field with all of this grain that she had, and Naomi said to her, Well, who took notice of you? And he said, she said, Well, I was working in Boaz's field. Oh, he is a close relative. He is one of our redeemers. Well, Ruth went on to chatter on about how he said, Yeah, stick close to his young men. And that's where Naomi said, No, I think he said he's supposed to stick close to his young women. But anyway, the point was, she said about Boaz, Oh, he is a close relative. He is one of our redeemers. Now that word, redeemer, in Hebrew, is the word, I was going to listen to it again before I got up here, and I didn't, ge-al. All I know is it starts with a G, it ends with an L, and it's two syllables. So forgive me if I can't, you know, just get that dialed in. I think it's because I said it wrong all my life that I'm struggling with it, ge-al, next of kin. Okay, same bloodline. Now listen, when God set up Israel and gave them laws, he issued forth some laws of compassion. These laws were to help eliminate dead ends in people's lives. One of the laws of compassion we studied last week, the law of gleaning. So if someone became poor, or if they were a sojourner, they could glean in the fields. Now we're introduced to another law of compassion, the law of redemption. You studied it in your handbook. And basically, it means that a close male relative had the privilege, maybe the responsibility, to help a family member who was in trouble for some reason, including the ge-al, could ge-al, man, got to figure it out, could acquire property or even people to perpetuate the name of the dead. So it was a very important person to stumble upon. So let's continue with Naomi now, verse two. She said, he's winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Wash, therefore, and anoint yourself. Put on your cloak, go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. This is good advice for women in any time and any culture that we could possibly, just don't say words until the tummy's full. Make sure that they're fueled, and then you may speak, am I right? Verse four, but when he lies down, observe the place where he lies, and then go uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do. And Ruth said, all that you say, I will do. So Naomi sent her on a mission. I have an adorable three-year-old grandson that loves to go on missions. He has a little walkie-talkie, and he likes to run around and go on a mission. I'm on a mission. And he has the same phrase, there's not much time. There's not much time, he'll always say. Super cute. And when the family gathers, the teenage cousins will play with him and send him on a mission, and they'll say, Benjamin, go to the toy closet, and he listens and nods, go to the toy closet and bring me one yellow block, and one red truck, and a book about baby animals. Okay, okay, there's not much time. And he'll run to the toy closet and come back with those things. Super, super cute. This is what Naomi was doing. And she may have said, there's not much time, this has to be done, you know, tonight. But she said, I want you to find one person at one place and take one position. That was her mission to Ruth. The person was Boaz, the place was the threshing floor, and the position was to lay down at his feet. So Ruth followed her instructions. Verse six, she went down to the threshing floor, check, she found the place. She did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her, and when Boaz had eaten and drunk, check, she found the person. His heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain, and then she came softly, uncovered his feet, and she laid down. Check. Yay, Ruth, you've completed your mission, you found all three. So verse eight, at midnight, the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet, and he spoke three words, who are you? Now I personally don't believe he asked, who are you? Because he couldn't recognize her, and he needed to know who she was. I think he had expected this, he knew what was going on. I think he asked the words, who are you? Because Ruth needed to verbalize who she was and what her intentions were, okay? It was her turn to state her intentions. She had to verbalize this during this encounter, and so she says, I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer. You are a ge'al. Very simple request, she asked to be covered, she asked to find refuge, she asked to find shelter. I love how the ESV has a consistency in wording here, when it says the wings, because you might remember, this is where we left off with last week, we were looking at chapter two, verse 12, where Boaz said to her, a full reward be given you, you know, by the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. And now specifically, she is asking for that to happen under his wings. So I love that, but the NIV makes it just clear, it says, her words were, spread the corner of your garment over me. What did she mean by that? It wasn't a matter of, would you share your blanket, I'm a little bit cold, you know? It was clear to them in the moment what she was asking. She was saying, would you include me in your household? Would you spread your garment over me so that I am covered by you? I become a part of who you are. Very sweet. She was basically saying, will you marry me? But Ruth needed to verbalize her choice. Now remember, Boaz had already made his intentions clear out in the field when he approached her, and now it was her turn. In any contract that we have, each side needs to make their choice, their intentions clear in the contract. In any relationship, or especially in a marriage situation, both parties have to make their intentions clear. In our salvation experience, both parties need to make our intentions clear. First God expresses his intention toward us, we know this, he has done this, John 3 16, for God loved the whole world that he sent his only Son, that whoever believes in him should have eternal life. And Jesus made it even more clear in John 15 16, you did not choose me, I chose you. So God has made his intentions clear to us and then we must make our intentions clear, we must, to complete the transaction, we must choose him back as I like to say. So the story of Ruth and Boaz demonstrates this act, this contract of salvation, if you will, in such a beautiful way in that Boaz first made his intentions clear, he chose Ruth in the field and she came to understand what she needed to do, that she needed to find covering under him and she chose him back at the threshing floor and it becomes a beautiful picture of our salvation. Now she may have made the choice to continue gleaning in the field and she may have survived by doing that but that was labor, she would not have been at rest by gleaning, this was the only possible way for her to find rest. So person, place, position, Ruth made her request and then we get to see Boaz response. We're at verse 10, 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 rich or poor and now my daughter do not fear I will do for you all that you ask and all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman and don't read in that word worthy because you've done these things I will accept you. No, this worthy means you are a determined woman, you are determined to find rest under the wings of the God of Israel and because of that everyone knows this, everyone has seen this. So Boaz's response is, yes, yes, I will do as you ask, of course I will marry you, of course I will give you rest and then he adds do not fear. Why do you think he added do not fear? Well in that moment certainly she must have had a fear of rejection. Have you ever gone and laid down at the feet of a man and said would you marry me? I mean that's going out on a limb for sure. So there may have definitely been a fear of rejection but I want to look at the parallel here to how God responds to us when we assume that same position. God says I will do what you ask, of course I will, of course I will forgive your sins, of course I will cover you, it's what I do, I am the Gael. So we have verses like John 6 37, whoever comes to me I will never cast out. This is the assurance. Romans 10 13, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, it is a guarantee. And God also expresses to us that same thing, do not fear. What kind of things do we fear? I thought about this, we fear that we're not worthy of God's attention and I would say yeah that's exactly right, you are not worthy of God's intention, attention, but he chose to attend to you and he chose to turn around and cover you and make you worthy because he sees his son when he looks at you. We worry that we've done too many bad things. I've just done too many bad things in my life and I would say yeah you have. I agree with that but you know what it doesn't matter if we have a list of five bad things or 5,000 bad things, there is no limit to God's choice to cover us and once he covers us all those things are covered and now he sees us because he sees his son, the covering of his son. We might be afraid that we're going to fail and let God down so we're afraid to approach him because I'm afraid I'm gonna fail, I'm not gonna do things right, I'm gonna let you down and I would say yes you will, you will fail. I am going to fail again in my life but that is no reason not to approach the Lord because after we fail the same process is in play and he will cover us and forgive us and some people some people fear that they've missed their chance. I was talking with somebody recently and we were talking about a person said you know she's a tough nut, she has a tough nut to crack you know and maybe you have been that tough nut, maybe you feel like like I've drugged my feet for so many years but you know what God covers tough nuts. It's not too much for him. We have never missed our chance. If God gives us a chance today, today is our opportunity and so again everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now I didn't really finish my story last week. I kind of brought you right to that concert moment, my as it turned out moment. As it turned out the girl that God set me right next to was this sturdy Christian girl who wrote out the names of churches on a napkin and gave them to me and so what happened was we went to the first church on the list and we stayed there and it's as if the Holy Spirit in doing that in making that one approach, he led me to the perfect person, the perfect place and the perfect position in that time in my life and so I rediscovered that just like when I was eight years old and I wanted to make sure that I knew Jesus and Jesus knew me that the perfect person at this point now at age 22 was Jesus. He was always there. The one I had been avoiding. Have you ever gone through a time in your life when you have avoided, you know, the one that I had been avoiding was my answer. He was the perfect person now and I came back to that realization and God led me to the perfect place and I don't mean that the church that we were going to that was the field that he brought us into. You can go you can be in church and still avoid but he brought me to the perfect place which was for me the threshing floor. What happens at the threshing floor? The threshing floor is where the grain is separated out, right? You winnow the grain and you keep the good part that stays there and the chaff gets blown away. It is a place of separation and that's what God did in my life. He brought me to that place of separation where I needed to allow him to separate out some things in my life. Some people they want they want to meet up with God on their terms. Easy terms. No threshing floor. I'll come into the field. I'll come into the church but I want to hold on to everything. I'd like to hold on to my pride. I'd like to hold on to my intellectualism. There's even a few sins that I'd like to hold on to and you have to be willing to be at the threshing floor where those things are eliminated. That's what the Lord did for me and my perfect position was being humbled. To be able to express who I was in that moment. A girl that needed covering. A girl that needed just like Ruth to say, would you cover me? Would you forgive my sins? Would you receive me? Would you now cover all of this? And God granted that. So what about you? What about your life? Maybe someone who is watching this is like Ruth. Not yet even connected to the Lord. Just hanging out in the field. Like going to church, gleaning away, laboring at it. Laboring at it. I think I need to keep working to know the Lord. And what we see in here is like, no, labor isn't gonna do anything just being in the field. You need to come to the threshing floor and say, I need you to cover me. And maybe some like I was are like Naomi. Having been connected to God, but for whatever reason, distance had been created. And the process is the same. The person, the place, and the position. To return. In returning and rest you shall be saved. Right? I love that verse. And to be able to say, your servant is here asking to be washed and covered anew. And then maybe like all of us experience from time to time, we get in a place in life where we are just restless. Restless. We didn't intend to make distance from God, but somehow we just feel it. We just feel distance. Disappointments in life. Maybe a lack of forgiveness, which has brought on bitterness. Maybe too much of the voice of the world and not enough of the voice of the Word in our life. Restless people need rest. And you know how we get it? The same process. The person, the place, and the position. It is the same process. So what I want to do, I'm gonna put Matthew 11 28 on the screen again because we've talked about this verse. love a New Testament verse that goes along with an Old Testament story and I believe this one is it where Jesus said

so people like us have maybe found our rest for salvation it's like that's great I know I'm connected to the Lord I am resting in the blood of Jesus I am confident that I am his and he is mine and I will spend eternity with him and yet we get restless in life do we not so let's tear apart this verse as a little this is a little side stream that we're going on here okay so this this first sentence is what we call an imperative sentence if you're an English person which I am NOT but I've tried to be an imperative sentence gives issues in order or a command says do something and so if we try and tear this apart and find the subject and the verb the verb is come that's what you're supposed to do come what is the subject it is assumed you come that is the point of this sentence you come you move this direction it's like we say to a little a little kid shoes are untied come here come here I'm gonna tie your shoes the directive is you come to me and so when we look at that word come Jesus is saying to us come my direction okay that is the what same way that Ruth approached Boaz and then we ask who he says all all who are weary all who are burdened I actually love how the ESV says all who labor because I love the connection with where we're at and with Ruth laboring in the field come all who labor all who are doing it on your own you are the ones that are to come and we all experience that we've experienced the labor the weariness tired frustrated disappointed anxious depressed this is what our soul feels when we feel labored or burned or restless our soul gets downcast now what's the how here Jesus said take my yoke now you probably have a picture in your mind of what a yoke is right it connects to animals usually oxen it connects them so now they are together so there's a place for one two Jesus me I should go this way Jesus me and now we are connected we are facing life together we are facing the challenge we are facing the difficulty we have been united together like a partnership very similar to what Ruth was saying to Boaz I need this partnership I need to be covered and this is our New Testament way of maybe looking at that in another way take my yoke so that we can be partners once we're in that yoke together then we can learn from him and with some of the things that we learn is we tend to react to circumstances around us and we learn how he responds it's like oh I need to learn that because I'm reacting but you're responding to the circumstances I need to learn how to respond to my circumstances and what is the result the result is rest rest for us our restlessness our inner turmoil our burdens will become smaller and lighter because we have a sense we're in this together we are yoked together if you look up the Greek word here for rest it basically means to just lay back so it's like Jesus says I'll just make you all chill laid back because you'll know that we're in this together this is the rest that we have so again whatever is going on in our lives maybe we're past we love to look at this as salvation but maybe we're past salvation but we still need the same things to find rest for our souls Jesus says to us come to me lay down at my feet lay this burden down that makes you restless and ask me to cover it Lord would you cover over that thing in my life that is so troublesome by your grace would you cover this situation so both of these situations spiritual rest emotional rest we see this law of compassion at work the law of redemption at work so redemption is a Bible word that I think is best understood by pictures like this that's why I love this passage Ruth's request along with Boaz's response equals redemption she is the one being redeemed he is the Redeemer Ruth required a rescue in her life because she did not have the ability to do it herself no ability to provide her rescue and that is an important gospel term because it flies around our culture right those three words you are enough no you are not we all need rescue for salvation and we need rescue for our soul and she needed to express that and come to the one who actually possessed the ability to cover the belief that we have no ability to provide our own rescue is what in fact unlocks the door for our rescue I want to show you Isaiah 66 to love these words but this is the one to whom I will look he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word that is the key that is the one to whom God looks and says oh look she's laying this down she is saying by her actions she has no ability to be rescued I will look to that one I will come in I will rescue love it so I want to ask you how are you doing on your story how are you doing on your personal story of redemption assuming you are covered spiritually how did that happen are you working it through I am sure it did not have anything to do with a barley field and you know a threshing floor physically like Ruth I'm sure it probably didn't have anything may not have had anything to do with a concert and a bossy girl in the list of churches on a napkin but yet you have a particular story you found a way to come to the person at that place and assume that position so I want to encourage you as you are working on your story to keep going over and to be able to express to someone what God has done let's finish up by verse 12 it is true Boaz says I am a Gael a redeemer yet there is a Gael nearer than I what that is not at all how the story is supposed to go he says so just sit tight remain in the morning if he will redeem you good let him do it but if he's not willing to redeem you then as the Lord lives I will redeem you lay down until the morning what is gonna happen I'll have to come back next week father thank you for this beautiful image that we can have Lord you know that we learn best in pictures and I just pray Lord God that you would help us maybe understand our own salvation through this picture this midnight episode that we see going on and Lord I pray that you would help us to catch a vision when we feel restless in our life that we would follow the same procedure Lord help us to learn to just come to you and to lay down our burdens to admit that you are the one that has the ability to rescue and then Lord to just take that yoke upon us and to be in partnership with you facing these things together Lord thank you so much for your grace your goodness your ability to rescue us and your willingness to rescue us Lord we pray this in Jesus name Amen