An everlasting kindness, that is a very fitting song for the book of Ruth. So please turn with me in your Bibles to Ruth chapter two. Ruth chapter two.

Last week we began Ruth chapter two and we covered just the first three verses. It was following the business meeting, so I shortened it up a little bit. But we covered the first three verses of Ruth two. I’ll read those three verses to catch us up a bit. So Ruth chapter two, starting in verse one, this is the word of the Lord.

Now Naomi had a kinsman of her husband, a mighty man of excellence, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one whom I may find favor in his eyes. And she said to her, go, my daughter. So she went. And she came and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And it so happened that she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

And that is the portion we covered last Sunday evening. And we were introduced to this mighty man of excellence. Now I’ve mentioned before, and I’m sure you’ve noticed as we’ve studied Ruth, that Ruth reads a lot different than a lot of the other portions of Scripture, that it doesn’t read like a portion from the New Testament, or a letter, or even a gospel, or the Old Testament law, or anything like that. It really reads like a novel. It’s telling a story, and the narrator is really telling us things in a way that are supposed to captivate our attention. It’s supposed to point us to things, and it’s supposed to highlight things for us, and that’s what we see and have seen so far in Ruth.

As we get done chapter one, really the focus of chapter one was Naomi and her going out from Israel, her being emptied of her husband and her two sons, and the story with her and her daughters-in-law, and she comes back with Ruth and reports to the people in Israel how God has emptied her. And you remember all of those details, but the focus was Naomi. But then chapter two comes, and Naomi’s no longer the focus. There’s another focus in this chapter, and it’s really two people, Ruth and Boaz. So Boaz is introduced to us as the mighty man of excellence. And again, in that passage last week, we saw God’s sovereignty highlighted for us. And it’s highlighted by the ridiculous way that verse three is written. As I just read, it so happened that she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz.

Now, we don’t read sentences like that in English very often. And you don’t read them in Hebrew very often because it’s meant to sound ridiculous. You don’t just happen to happen. But it’s highlighting that she didn’t just happen to do anything. The author’s intent here, with such a ridiculously written sentence, is that no, in the providence of God, she came to the field belonging to Boaz. And the man she meets in this field, as we’ll see today, was the gracious and kind man that she was hoping to find. She says she wants to go find one in whom eyes she might find favor. And the man she met was both gracious, and not only that, as was highlighted again for us a couple times, he’s a relative of Elimelech.

So all of these details, as we are introduced to chapter two, all of these details are supposed to be sticking out to us. They’re supposed to be in the back of our mind as we read the rest of this chapter. And today, we will see how this first encounter with Ruth and Boaz plays out. And really, the remainder of this chapter is this first encounter in the fields of Jerusalem. Or not Jerusalem, but in Israel, I should say. And we’ll see again how she’s introduced to him. We’ll see the extraordinary level of grace that Boaz shows her. And how Boaz responds to this widow from Moab, And really by living out and embodying the grace that Ruth was seeking, it also highlights for those of us who are reading this account. that this is the man whom God has placed in her life, not only to care for her and provide for her, but we know how the story ends, that it leads to the line of Christ.

Boaz is the one whom the line of Christ comes through, and here we find out how he meets and eventually marries his wife, the one who would be the near descendant of David. So we see in, again, in verse two, that she’s seeking to go find someone whom she will find favor in the sight of, and the whole point of the rest of this chapter demonstrates that Boaz is that one, that he is the one that she was looking for. And really, there are four scenes in the rest of this chapter. And so we’ll really break up the text in those four sections. Really, it’s verses four through seven, and then eight through 13, then 14 to 16, and then the closing report of the whole encounter in 17 to 23, and that’s how we’ll kind of read through and cover this text this evening.

So I’ll read verses 4 through 7 as we have the first scene of Ruth in the field, and really this scene is Boaz’s arrival. Boaz’s arrival at the field. So this is Ruth chapter 2 verses 4 through 7.

“Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, may Yahweh be with you. And they said to him, may Yahweh bless you. Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of his reapers, whose young woman is this? The young man in charge of the reapers replied, she is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the fields of Moab. And she said, please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. Thus she has remained from the morning until now. She has been sitting in the house for a little while.”

So here we have again, Boaz’s arrival at the field. Ruth has been gleaning in the field. We had read in verse three that she came to the portion of Boaz’s field, and she just so happened into his field. And then verse four kind of intensifies the irony and the sarcasm. She just so happened to come to Boaz’s field, and well, look at that. Boaz is just getting back from Bethlehem. Now again, we don’t know how long Ruth had been there. It hadn’t been too long, because it was still in the earlier part of the day. But Boaz returns from Bethlehem. Now behold, and in the providence of God, Ruth was there when Boaz arrived.

Now Boaz, again, is a wealthy man. We saw that. And it probably means he had other fields. This wasn’t his only focus in life. This wasn’t his only business going on. So there was no guarantee that he would be at the field at this time. As we’ll later see, he leaves again. But Boaz arrives while Ruth is there. And upon his arrival, his first words are to greet his employees, his workers. He’s hired workers to glean the fields for him. And so the landowner, Boaz, speaks, and he greets his harvesters by saying, may Yahweh be with you. That’s his greeting to his employees. May Yahweh be with you.

Now, this is an interesting greeting. It’s really reflective of who Boaz is. And you can almost see the type of workplace that he is fostering in his operation here. He’s really setting the tone in his work environment. He’s creating a godly workplace as he is expecting a godly response from his workers as well. You could probably imagine today there’s probably Christian music playing on the radio. That’s sort of a workplace that Boaz has going on here. Well, these could have been empty words, I suppose, but we’ll see later on from the actions of Boaz that these aren’t empty words. Boaz genuinely means this greeting from Yahweh.

Again, Boaz is a model of grace and the true covenant loving kindness that God wants his people to show. And we see that over and over again. And so the workers of Boaz respond. May Yahweh bless you. And that’s their greeting. And having exchanged these blessings, he greets his workers and he’s kind of checking on how things are going. Then he says to his young man or his supervisor, the one in charge of the reapers, he turns to him and he says, who’s this woman? Whose young woman is this? Again, it’s an interesting question. He doesn’t ask, who is the young woman? He says, to whom does that woman belong? Whose young woman is this? It’s a little bit more of a intrigue seen in the question.

It’s not just, who’s that? It’s, what’s with this woman? Tell me about her. Who is this woman? What family does she come from? Who does she belong to? That’s what he’s asking. He’s trying to get a little more information on this woman that he notices. And again, we’ll see later on, he has many women in the field, young women, those that are coming behind the reapers. So she’s not the only woman, but for whatever reason, she stands out to Boaz. He notices her and he wants to know a little bit more about her. And even in the way he asks the question, he’s intrigued by this woman. He’s interested. He wants to know more.

And again, obviously by his question, he doesn’t recognize who she is, even though she is in the household of Naomi, who’s a close relative. He is relatives with Elimelech, so he definitely knows Naomi, but he doesn’t yet recognize who Ruth is. So the young man in charge of the reapers replies. And he says, she’s the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the fields of Moab. mentioning her Moab heritage twice, making sure you don’t forget that Ruth’s from Moab. She’s the Moabitess. And then he adds, and then she said, please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. Thus she came and has remained from the morning until now. She has been sitting in the house for a little while, way more than Boaz asked.

Boaz said, whose young woman is this? And the supervisor, you can almost tell a little annoyance in his tone, the way he’s describing Ruth. First he tells, he answers the question. She’s with Naomi. She’s that Moabite that came from Moab. She’s that one. But then he goes on to kind of fill him in a little bit. Yeah, and she came and she asked if she could glean among the reapers. She’s coming among the sheaves that we just picked. And then she’s come and she’s been here all morning and now she’s sitting in the house. Can you believe this woman?

And again, this is odd, what he’s describing, because the gleaning, as you read in the Old Testament law and the provisions that were made for the gleaners, gleaning was done away from the reapers. It was done after the fact. The harvesters would come through and do their work, and then the gleaners would come behind and pick up anything left. Well, then Ruth comes and says, hey, mind if I pick along with you guys? Mind if I fill up my grain sack with what you guys are picking? So you can tell the supervisor here is a little put off. He had to mention to Boaz what she’s doing, what she ended up doing there in the field.

And really, it creates this impression that maybe Ruth was being a little greedy. Maybe she was overstepping her bounds. And maybe she intended to skim off the sheaves that the harvesters had picked. And this might have been a bold move for this foreign woman that probably shouldn’t even be here. You just kind of sense the tone in the supervisor’s voice. But again, she is from Moab. And she probably doesn’t know the customs of Israel. So maybe this is how they do it in Moab. We don’t really know.

But in any case, The supervisor describes what she did and almost has a put off tone about him. And he says, she’s been here all morning and she’s been sitting in the house for a little while. Now this verse is, it’s kind of hard to really translate from the Hebrew, the way it’s almost like it’s stumbling. over the words like as he’s and it’s like the narrator the author is is showing you that he’s almost stumbling over his words trying to report to Boaz and he’s perturbed at what’s happening and so it’s it’s kind of rough in Hebrew to to smooth it out but really the first part it really shows ruth’s work ethic she’s been working all morning but again you see the annoyance and one uh scholar, the guy that actually was my professor when we learned this class in seminary, he kind of describes this verse this way.

He says, not only has the young man painted Ruth with negative brush strokes, but his stammering style at this point also conveys his own insecurity and nervousness before his boss, who may see through his exaggeration, if not fabrication, of Ruth’s intent. It’s an interesting verse. Again, like I mentioned before, the way that this is written, even just in the way it’s written, it communicates. It’s trying to tell you, it’s painting a picture for you. It’s telling it in a storyteller’s style, that this supervisor’s almost stumbling over his words trying to report to Boaz, something that he didn’t even ask.

Again, remember what Boaz asked. He asked a question of intrigue. He’s like, who’s this woman? Where does she come from? Who does she belong to? Almost like, is she available? That sort of a question. Who is she? The employee is clearly not picking up what he’s putting down. He is not picking up on Boaz’s genuine interest in Ruth. He’s trying to paint her in a bad light. And you will see as we go forward here that Boaz doesn’t pay any attention to the bad report that the worker gives him. So this is our first scene in this chapter, that Boaz returns and gets this report on this new young woman in his field, this woman that stood out to him, that he noticed, that he wants to know more about.

So what is his response to this worker’s report? Let’s read verses 8 through 13. Verse 7 is the worker’s report. She’s been sitting in the house for a little while. Verse 8, then Boaz said to Ruth, have you not heard my daughter? Do not go to glean in another field. Furthermore, do not go on from this one, but stay here with my young women. Let your eyes be on the field which they reap and go after them. Indeed, I have commanded the young man not to touch you. And if you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the young men draw.’ Then she fell on her face, bowing down to the ground, and said to him, Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take notice of me, though I am a foreigner?’ Boaz replied to her, All that you have done for your mother-in-law, after the death of your husband, has been fully told to me. And how you forsook your father and your mother in the land of your birth, and came to a people that did not previously know. May Yahweh fully repay your work and may your wages be full from Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge. Then she said, may I find favor in your eyes, my Lord, for you have comforted me and indeed have spoken to the heart of your servant woman, though I am not like one of your servant women.

Following the report, in contrast to this supervisor’s kind of put off and almost rude disposition to Ruth, Boaz is accepting and generous and kind to Ruth. And here we see the beginning of their relationship. This is where they meet and they first talk. And whatever the field supervisor intended by his comments, Boaz paid no attention to it. And he turns to Ruth. And he gives her his attention and he says, had you not heard my daughter? Boaz invites her to remain in his fields. He gives his approval to Ruth. And clearly, not because of the supervisor’s report, but because of what he’s heard about her. He says, my daughter. This is an expression, it’s not a patronizing expression, it’s more, it’s an expression of respect and care. And it actually, it reveals to us the age difference between Boaz and Ruth.

And we see actually in chapter 3, in chapter 3 verse 10, Boaz, speaking to Ruth, says, may you be blessed of Yahweh, my daughter. You have shown your last loving kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men, whether poor or rich. So he’s kind of revealing there’s an age difference here. And that’s seen in even the words that he uses, because calling her my daughter. And this is a concern that he has for her and a genuine sense of responsibility. Boaz wants to make sure that she is taken care of. And he says in verse nine, let your eyes be on the field which they reap and go after them. Indeed, I have commanded the young men not to touch you. And if you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the young men draw. So despite her Moabite identity, despite her being new and unfamiliar with anything in the land of Israel, he offers this foreigner protection and resources And he offers several resources to her.

First, he says, you should have a place to continue to gather food for you and Naomi. You can come to my field. Keep coming back to my field. Don’t go anywhere else. You don’t need to set out in the morning and wonder where you’re going to search for food. Come back to my field. Secondly, he basically hires her along with his young women. So the same protection that his servant women would have that she would have. Third, he tells his young men not to touch her. which, given the time of the judges, would be a relief for her. She wouldn’t have to worry about her own protection and safety. And fourth, and this is really the most staggering of them all, he offers her water that his young men have drawn. It’s a little detail that you might miss, but that’s significant. In this culture, normally, certainly foreigners would not have water drawn for them.

In fact, they would have to draw for all the Israelites at the well before they could get their own. And then women also would draw for men. So this fact that he’s saying, why don’t you take the men’s water? Don’t worry about getting your own water. Take the men’s water. That’s significant. He’s showing his care and his extraordinary kindness for Ruth. As a Moabite, Boaz is giving her permission to do what would not be acceptable for most people. How does Ruth respond to this extraordinary, over-the-top kindness from Boaz? Verse 10, she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and she said to him, why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take notice of me, though I am a foreigner? So she’s overwhelmed by this generosity. Ruth falls on her face, she literally bows down and worships.

Now that’s not necessarily a… a worship in the sense of worshiping a deity. This gesture sometimes refers to paying homage to a king or even worshiping God, but it also was a sign of respect in that culture, that often it would be a greeting or a sign of ultimate respect for someone to bow down when they came into your presence. So again, Ruth physically shows him her gratitude, but she also verbally shows her gratitude. She also answers with an answer of just amazement that Boaz would be so gracious to her. What did she do to deserve Boaz’s kindness? That he would even take notice of her, first of all, and then go and do all these nice things, especially as she reminds him, again, being a foreigner, that she’s a Moabite. Again, this keeps coming up because this is over the top. She’s self-conscious of her foreign status, and Ruth was amazed that Boaz was indifferent to her Moabite identity. He just saw her as the person she was, that he cared for her. And his respect for Ruth is evident in his answer to her in verse 11.

After she shows this answer of thankfulness and respect, Boaz replies to her, all that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully told to me. And how you forsook your father and your mother and the land of your birth and you came to a people you did not previously know. So he begins by explaining why he had shown her this sort of favor, this sort of kindness and grace. He’d heard all about her. He had heard of Ruth.

Ruth had a reputation. And again, if you were paying attention with the supervisor or the foreman of Boaz’s crew, he didn’t identify Ruth by name. He just says, oh, that’s that Moabite woman, the Moabite woman that came with Naomi from Moab. That’s her. But when he identified her status and her connection to Naomi, Boaz knew who she was. He knew who she was and he knew what she’d done. He knew how she had shown over-the-top kindness to Naomi. And he refers to that. He says, what you have done for your mother-in-law after her husband’s death. Not just Ruth’s husband’s death. She came with Naomi to take care of Naomi after Naomi’s husband’s death.

So Ruth did have a reputation. She was known. Boaz’s answer might have suggested that his generosity was simply as a favor to pay back a favor. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. But in reality, as we see throughout this passage, what Boaz is doing, this kind response, this over-the-top response, is a reflection of his character. Boaz is a godly man, and this is how God’s people ought to treat each other. We ought to take care of one another. We ought to make sure each other are well cared for and protected and secure. That’s how God intended His grace to be reflected in His people. And verse 12 shows further evidence of the type of man that Boaz is in the time of the judges, where everyone else is doing what is right in their own eyes. Verse 12 says, may Yahweh fully repay your work and may your wages be full from Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge. trumpeting his own generosity and pumping himself up for what he’s done.

He answers Ruth’s question by calling on God to bless her even more, by calling on God to continue to show kindness to her. May your wages be full from Yahweh, the God of Israel. He’s recognizing that Ruth has come to seek refuge. with the God of Israel. She’s given up her gods of Moab and come to the God of Israel. She has transferred her spiritual allegiance from the false gods of Moab to Yahweh, the God who provides for Israel. So she has claimed this God as her provider and protector now, which means she’s become a true Israelite. She has become what the Israelites ought to be, more so than many of those who had Israelite blood in their veins. She was reflecting what it is to be one of the people of Yahweh, to depend on Him, to seek refuge in Him. Not to go after the other gods, not to forget the God of Israel and to worship these false gods and these demons that the Israelites were worshiping. No, Ruth rejects all that and leaves that behind in Moab and is seeking the kindness of Yahweh in Israel.

So now Boaz is affirming this new commitment that she’s made. Not only to the people of Israel, but to the God of Israel. And Boaz not only offered her safety, he honored God in what he did. Because Proverbs 14 verse 31 says, he who oppresses the poor reproaches his maker, but he who is gracious to the needy honors him. That’s Boaz. He is gracious to the needy. Again, Boaz is demonstrating that he truly is a God-fearing man. And Ruth responds again with more thankfulness to him. In verse 13, she says, may I find favor in your eyes, my Lord, for you have comforted me and indeed have spoken to the heart of your servant woman, though I am not like one of your servant women. You’ve spoken to the heart of your servant, even though I’m not even worthy to be your servant. I’m not even like your servant. Your servant women are Israelites. I’m not even that good. And yet, you’re showing me the loving kindness of God.” She was amazed that the differences in their race, their ethnicity, their class hadn’t hindered his compassion for her. That didn’t matter to Boaz. He was still taking care of this woman. So this is the first interaction between Ruth and Boaz.

Next we see in verses 14 through 16, their first date, if you will, kind of. Starting in verse 14, at mealtime, Boaz said to her, come here that you may eat the bread and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar. So she sat beside the reapers. He served her roasted grain and she ate and was satisfied and had some left. There’s a lot of cultural nuance in this verse. There’s a lot of things that he does that are not common to do for servants, to do for foreigners. to invite someone to come dip their bread into your vinegar, or the sauce they dip their bread into, to do that with someone. That meant something. And he does that for Ruth. Come dip your bread in the vinegar here. So she comes and sits with his workers.

This foreign servant woman comes and sits with the workers. And he offered her roasted grain, and she had so much that she couldn’t even eat it all. He gives her more than she could even eat herself. Boaz has not exhausted his compassion yet. He continues to show care for this woman. And he, again, invites her to dine with him. His workers had paused for the day, or not for the day, in the middle of the day to eat and to refresh themselves. And really, it shows a lot about Boaz that he even eats with his workers. Again, they’re the worker. landowner relationship wasn’t that way. But he did spend time and he ate with his workers and he invites again this foreign woman to take part. And he gave her so much food that she had some left over. It just shows Boaz’s continued generosity to her. Now, notice the text doesn’t show us any romantic interest yet, although the hints are there.

But remember, we’re reading this from the outside. We know the story. We have details so far that they don’t have. Ruth doesn’t know that he’s a relative yet, that he’s a kinsman redeemer. She doesn’t know that yet, and she probably doesn’t even know what that means. She’s a Moabite. She doesn’t really know the Israelite customs yet. But anyways, she’s not seeing this as a romantic type of a thing yet. She’s just seeing it as, man, this guy is really generous to me. This guy is really taking care of me.

Now, I think there’s a little bit of interest on Boaz’s part. I think that’s pretty hard to deny here, that he’s taking a special interest in this young lady. But on her part, there’s nothing romantic there yet. And again, given the ethnic differences and the social barriers that separate them, that wouldn’t have been on her mind. She’s looking to go find a place not to get abused and to actually be able to pick some grain to bring home to Naomi. All she’s looking for is someone who will not take advantage of her. And she finds this guy that’s taking care of her.

And again, she doesn’t know all of the details of Elimelech and Boaz and their connection. He was simply a man God sent into her life to take care of her. And he offered the protection that she needed. And verses 15 and 16 continue. Then she rose to gleam. And Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean, even among the sheaves, and do not dishonor her. Also, you shall purposely pull out for her some grain from the bundles, and leave it that she may glean, and do not rebuke her. So Ruth gets back to work, and after she leaves, Boaz has some instructions for his workers.

Now according to the law, if landowners or harvesters inadvertently left behind bundles of cheese, they were supposed to leave those for the needy, the sojourners, the servants, the ones who needed to be taken care of. They were supposed to leave those for the poor if they forgot them or dropped them or anything like that. But Boaz, again, goes above and beyond. Boaz’s instructions are to deliberately pull out from your grain stacks some extra grain. Pull it out and leave it on the ground for Ruth. Make sure you pull out and make sure Ruth gets enough. This is an example again of that word that we looked at a couple of weeks ago now, that hesed, that character of God That loving kindness, that grace. And we talked about that. It’s that showing over and above grace. Showing more than is expected.

Boaz says, do not rebuke her. Do not rebuke her. They were to leave Ruth alone. Don’t scold her for taking too much. Don’t scold her for doing anything wrong. Take special care of Ruth. And then Boaz leaves. Boaz goes on, he probably has other fields, he’s got other business to attend to, and he leaves his workers with Ruth, but he makes sure she’s taken care of. He’s showing extra kindness to Ruth. And that’s the last we hear of Boaz in this chapter. We come to the last scene now. After their interaction and their meal together, then Ruth finishes her day and goes home. You see verses 17 and 18, Ruth finishing her day in the field. It says, so she gleaned in the field until evening, and she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. She took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also took it out and gave Naomi what she had left after she was satisfied. gets to work at the end of the day and finishes up and she beats out the grain that she’s harvested. And it says, Ruth’s one day of work, she gleaned a whole ephah of grain.

Now, depending on the quality of the grain and how they measured it, that was between 30 and 50 pounds of grain. Imagine a 50 pound bag of grain that she harvested. That’s way more than Naomi had expected. Way more, like she’s hauling back a 50 pound sack of grain back to town and she comes into the house and Naomi’s like, where did you go? How did you find that? And then it also mentions that she gave her what she had left after she had been satisfied. This was the food that Boaz gave her at mealtime. She brought back a meal for Naomi. She was showing this grace and kindness to her mother-in-law. And again, verse 17 and 18 highlights the significance of what Boaz had done.

Not only did she have food for that day, but she had gleaned enough in that first day to provide for her and Naomi for a while. She’d gone out in the morning to find a place of a man who would look kindly on her, meaning that she wouldn’t be abused and kicked out of the field, that she might be able to gather a little bit for them to eat. And she comes home with enough food left over to feed them and enough grain to provide for them. So that’s all the boring details of Ruth’s day.

Now it comes the juicy details. Now Naomi, it comes on the scene again. Verse 19, her mother-in-law then said to her, where did you glean today and where did you work? May he who took notice of you be blessed. So she told her mother-in-law. with whom she had worked and said, the name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.” Naomi wants to hear all about it. She sees Ruth come in with this big sack of grain and a plate of food. Where did you, what? Where did this come from? She asks twice. Where did you glean and where did you work? She’s like excited. And she blessed whoever it was that gave Ruth this much provision. She blesses the person who took notice of Ruth rather than the field in which she had gleaned in.

Naomi didn’t yet realize who it was. She just said, whose field did you find? You went out looking for someone to be kind to you and look at this. You’ve come back with more than you could ever ask for. And she doesn’t answer the where. She didn’t say, well, I went to the field down the road. I went to the field on the other side of town. No, she answers the who. She tells Naomi about this man that she met. She says, I met Boaz. I’ve been working with Boaz. And Naomi says in verse 20, Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, may he be blessed of Yahweh, who has not forsaken his loving kindness to the living and to the dead.

Then Naomi said to her, this man is our relative. He is one of our kinsmen redeemers. Naomi’s starting to come around. She says, may he be blessed of Yahweh who has not forsaken his lovingkindness. The thing for which Naomi is named. May he be blessed of Yahweh who has not forsaken his lovingkindness to the living and to the dead. But then Naomi brings up. that he’s our relative. First, she commends Boaz because of his character. He was gracious to Ruth in the field, and he sent her home with so much.

To Naomi, she can see that Boaz is embodying this grace of God, this loving kindness that God shows to his people. In the field, Ruth realized that he’s not only a gracious man, but he has the favor of God. Secondly, she tells Ruth that this is one of our close relatives. Remember back in verses eight and nine of chapter one, Naomi had prayed that God would repay Ruth for the loving kindness that she had shown. The same word. She had prayed that Yahweh would show loving kindness to her because of what she had done, and granting her a new husband.

And at that time, Naomi had in mind a Moabite husband. But little did she know, Naomi’s prayer is actually being answered. Naomi prayed that Ruth would have a new husband and that God would show her loving kindness like she had shown. And God is answering. Not in the way Naomi expected, but he’s answering. And so she’s starting to put the pieces together. And the second part of this answer is not only that he’s a close relative, but here we see this first occurrence of that he’s a kinsman redeemer. He is a kinsman redeemer.

So what is the Kinsman Redeemer? Well, the Kinsman Redeemer was a provision in the law of God. God wrote it into his law. And it was so that widows and family inheritance would be protected. It was really a position that God created so that families could keep their inheritance for generations. And Kinsman Redeemer’s responsibilities usually had to do with keeping the inheritance together or maintaining the integrity of the family. Especially when relatives were really in dire straits and they were really in need.

Again, the Old Testament shows us several occurrences or situations for a kinsman redeemer. Really, there’s five that stand out. The first one is buying back property. After someone in your family had passed, the kinsman redeemer, the one who qualified, could buy back the property of this person. That’s in Leviticus 25. Also, in Leviticus 25, they could purchase the freedom of people in your family who were sold into slavery. The kinsmen redeemer had ability to do that. So you could purchase land back, you could purchase people who had sold themselves into slavery back.

Thirdly, and this is an interesting one, you see it in the book of Numbers, chapter 35, and also in Deuteronomy, but the kinsmen redeemer had a right to track down and execute somebody who murdered someone in the family. So they were a bit of a hit man. They could do that. God gave them permission to track down and get vengeance for murder. The fourth responsibility, they could receive restitution money on the behalf of a dead family member for a crime. If somebody was murdered or a crime happened where it wasn’t necessarily murder, they could receive restitution money. And then fifth, they could ensure that justice was served in a lawsuit involving a relative.

So those are very specific things that are listed, and that may not be an exhaustive list, but one thing that is remarkably not present in the responsibilities of a kinsman-redeemer is marriage. The kinsman-redeemer was not necessarily responsible to marry the widow of a relative. Boaz was not required to marry Ruth. Sometimes this story is thought of that way, that because he was a kinsman redeemer, that he had to do it, but no, that’s not the case. Boaz was not required by law to marry her.

Now, there’s leveret marriage in the Old Testament, but that had to do with if the brother of the deceased, that he would marry the widow, but both Mahlon and Chilion are dead. Naomi brought up in the first chapter, I have no sons to marry you. There’s no leverage marriage going on here because I have no more sons. And even if I could have sons, you’re going to wait that long? No, it’s not going to work. So there is no requirement upon Boaz to marry Ruth. So again, it goes to show not only do his actions later on again go above and beyond what is expected. Boaz actually loves Ruth, he wants to marry her, and he actually works out the situation at the end so that he can marry her.

But again, back to our passage. It seems to be what Naomi’s hoping for. When Ruth reports to Naomi who it is, she brings up the kinsman-redeemer relationship. Yahweh had in fact been gracious to her dead husband. The kindness of God was shining through by sending these two widows a potential kinsman redeemer. Is it too late to reverse the name change that she asked for? God was showing kindness. She just needed to be patient. So in his mercy, by divine providence, Ruth had landed in the field of the one who could solve their problems, who could solve their issues that they were facing. In verse 21, Ruth answers, then Ruth the Moabitess said, furthermore, he said to me, you should stay close to my young men until they have finished all my harvest. So Ruth speaks up and says, well, yeah, he did invite me to come back. He is gonna continue to take care of us.

Again, this could highlight that Ruth really doesn’t know the customs that Naomi’s talking about, but in any case, Naomi is preoccupied with Boaz’s family ties, and Ruth seems to be focused on the provision that he is gonna provide for us. He did ask me back. And verse 22 says, Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that you go with his young women, so that others do not oppress you in another field. So she is concerned with her safety. It is good so that you aren’t oppressed. You should continue to go back to Boaz. And then lastly, verse 23. So she stayed close by the young women of Boaz in order to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest. And she lived with her mother-in-law. So this summarizes the story here.

This chapter, once again, it shows us that God is sovereign, that God is working these things all together. And Naomi, Naomi’s starting to come around. She’s starting to see the potential of this situation. It doesn’t yet say that she is fully seeing God’s hand in all of this, but at least she’s giving him credit that Yahweh’s loving kindness has been shown here. We also see in this chapter that Boaz is a picture of God’s righteousness, God’s loving kindness. And sometimes we need examples to truly understand what it is God wants from his people, how God wants his people to treat each other. And Boaz is not only obedient to the requirements of the law, he goes above and beyond. He makes sure that the needy are taken care of.

God’s law was not meant to be a list to check off. It wasn’t meant to be a rule book to follow. God’s law was to point us to the righteousness and generosity like we see in Boaz. It’s supposed to be a certain type of people. And that’s the way living out the law of God looks. And how has Boaz taken care of Ruth? Well, we read all the ways. He has gone above and beyond in so many different ways, doing things that were not expected of him, that were not required of him. And God cares about those things. God cares about our generosity.

So, as we read of a landowner and a boss like Boaz, what would that look like today? What would it look like in a modern day business? What would it look like in your workplace or in your home to show over and above loving kindness to people? Boaz is set before us as an example of the righteousness that God expects. In all of this, God is sovereign and God provides. And these are comforting things to remember when we face tough times. When we face times where we don’t know how we’re going to make ends meet. When we don’t know where the next thing is gonna come from.

When we’re faced with times like these, where Naomi and Ruth find themselves. Naomi and Ruth didn’t know how they were gonna live. But despite Naomi’s faithlessness, God provided. God answered her prayer. And Ruth went to work and God provided through her efforts. And we serve the same God, a God who is still sovereign, and a God who still provides, and we can take hope in that.

Let’s stand and close in a word of prayer tonight. Our God in heaven, we thank you for a story like Ruth. that we are reminded of your goodness and your kindness. And we think of a man like Boaz and the example that he is of your grace and your righteousness, and we pray that you would have us to examine our own lives and see where we’re not being gracious and not being kind to those who need it. Pray that you would help us to live in a way that reflects the kindness that you’ve shown to us, the compassion that you’ve shown to us. Lord, have that shape and mold who we are as your people. God, we thank you for tonight and for this time we’ve had together. We pray for your continued provision in our lives. We thank you for the provision of your son and the gospel. We pray that as your people, we would live like that is true. We thank you, Lord, and we pray all of this in Christ’s precious name, amen.