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Believing that God will ultimately triumph over the grave is one thing; knowing what to do with yourself in the meantime is another. Ruth 3 presses that question through people who have lost everything and choose to prepare rather than wait it out—and what their ordinary faithfulness looks like, in the daily grind before the story resolves, may be more unsettling and more freeing than expected.
The following study questions are AI generated and may contain errors.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
I love singing about that promise, that promise that God is triumphant over death. As we’ve been going through the story of Ruth, the story that starts with the grave, we’re reminded that God does that at multiple levels. We’re reminded that God does that at the overwhelming level of the ultimate resurrection. Someday, all of our loved ones who have passed, we mourn with our friend Jason, who comes and shares God’s word over the summer and is part of our online community, as he lost his grandfather this week. He and I were recording a podcast yesterday and reflecting on how profoundly, when we were in that moment, we know in ourselves it’s not right. This is not how it’s supposed to be.
So we know that, but how’s that going to work? Well, if you’re Ruth and you’re Naomi, I mean, you’ve lost your husbands. They’re very much dead. The question is, “But I’m not.” What am I going to do? How am I going to move in God’s path at this moment? We talked a little bit about that last week. We were thinking last week about how we live as people who know that God is positioning us to do His work. But okay, I know God is positioning me to do His work. But what does that mean? I know that God is going to use me to communicate to others that ultimately the grave is not the end. How does that work? And that’s a lot harder, isn’t it?
Maybe you remember long ago you became a believer. Maybe you’re a brand new believer. Maybe you’re right on the cusp right now, and you’re thinking about becoming a believer. And you think, okay, I get it. Okay, I believe in Jesus. What happens as we confront the graves of loved ones? But God’s still leaving us here. We’re still alive at this moment. We still have a purpose in this moment. How do we prepare? Sometimes we just treat it like, okay, I’m just going to wait. I’m just waiting my time.
But if we truly believe that God positions us, if we truly believe that God has a purpose for us, then it isn’t about just biding our time until our own grave and the eventual experience of God’s triumph over that—or something more. We need to prepare for all kinds of things in life, don’t we? We had a work day a few weeks ago. I’m not trying to make anyone paranoid here, but let me tell you a little story. We had a wonderful time. We had great fellowship as we were cleaning and repairing things and adjusting things. I hope if you weren’t able to be a part, come next time. Because you know the thing about work days, it’s really about enjoying that fellowship of fellow people who believe there ain’t no grave. To fellowship with other people that believe that Jesus is the Savior, and it’s wonderful.
But some of the folks helping, they were out clearing the little wooded area out there of trash, and I’m not exactly sure where it happened, but at some point, I was not actually in the woods, but somewhere along the line—it’s the only place I can think of that this happened—I realized I picked up a tick in the middle of the city. Now, I don’t want you to worry because here’s the thing you need to know about me. If I go near those sorts of creatures, they will find me. If I put one toe in the grass in a place that’s semi-wooded, maybe it’s just not been trimmed in a while, I will have chigger bites all over me. I mean, that’s just me. They see me and they run. I don’t quite understand it. But they like me, you know, so I guess I’m the tick whisperer.
Anyway, so I had this tick, and I caught it relatively early. Hopefully, I didn’t pick up any unfortunate parasites or anything. It’s sort of like, “Oh boy,” but now I’m thinking, well, if I need to work over there on the far edge of the parking lot, or certainly if I’m going to go into the woods, what am I going to do? I’m going to prepare, right? Maybe there’s several things I might do. I might prepare by waiting until winter when it’s below freezing, and all of them are at least in hibernation, if not dead. I don’t quite know how that works, but they’re hopefully not too active. Maybe that’s what I’ll do. Maybe I’ll go and get some bug spray, and I’ll lather it all over myself and I’ll go ahead and poison myself because at least I won’t get bit by those ticks and chiggers and stuff. But I’ll prepare, right? We encounter challenges and we prepare.
Are we preparing as Christians? Because here’s the thing, there’s a lot of cynics out there. There’s a lot of thin triggers. And one of them is just sit back and wait. Just sit back and wait. There’s nothing you can do. Satan wants us to believe, “There’s nothing you can do. Yeah, Jesus, he’ll say, ‘Okay, I’ll give it to you.’ Yeah, Jesus can triumph over the grave, but as to you, you’re not going to be able to do anything for anybody else. So just wait it out. I’m in control here.”
We struggle to be kingdom people. We struggle to actually live as those who are ready to help other people prepare. So how do we prepare ourselves and help prepare others? That’s what we’re going to be thinking about as we continue into Ruth chapter 3 tonight, starting in verse 1. It says, 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.”
Ruth listens to her mother-in-law and says, “Okay, if you’re telling me how to prepare, what I should do, I’m not just on standby here, I will do it.” And as we read God’s word, may that be our attitude. Let’s pray now as we study His word, that we would have that attitude.
Father, we come before you as those who often struggle in those moments where we’re waiting. We know the truth of who you are, and yet, and yet we feel like maybe all we have to do is nothing. We aren’t sure how to prepare. We’re not sure what preparing looks like. We’re not really sure what purpose we have. But Lord, would you help us to see in the simple, everyday things that we see expressed in this chapter how you prepare your people, how you prepare all of us here. Would you help us to see how you are calling us in our lives? We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
So, here’s a starting point: starting point is humility. I think the book of Ruth has humility in spades. If you look at that book, here’s a book of people who don’t spend too much time thinking about how important they are. The way we start with that is to value other people and what other people have to say.
It’s a blessing here in this church family. There are incredible people God has brought together here. I’m amazed when I see how God has brought us all together and the different things that each of you share, the different areas of insight and wisdom that you share together. I can’t imagine this church without what each of you speak into it.
We see in Scripture that’s how it works, right? Because none of us, we don’t have everything figured out. None of us know exactly how everything should go. But we start by valuing others. I say that as something that I believe Scripture is calling us to here, but also as something to affirm what I believe I see in practice so often here. This isn’t merely, “Well, this is something I think you should do.” I’m often blessed seeing how you do it. Be encouraged; keep doing it. That’s what we’re called to be and to do—to be people who are ready to hear how others speak.
Ruth is willing to listen to her mother-in-law and think about this for a moment. Yes, she’s her mother-in-law. You might say, “Okay, well, she is older than her. She’s sort of the authority. She’s the mother-in-law, not the daughter-in-law. She should listen.” But Ruth wasn’t even obliged to go with her. Naomi had no claim on Ruth. Naomi’s son’s dead, presumably for a little while at this point. We don’t know exactly how much time’s elapsed here, but some time has elapsed.
Ruth doesn’t need to listen. Let’s not forget who it is that we’re talking about here. Ruth isn’t someone who is 15, 16, 18, or 22 years old trying to figure out, “She just went off to college and graduated and got… I’ll pick on English majors since I am one. She got her English major. She doesn’t know what in the world she’s going to do with it.” Again, I’m an English major. Any English major listening, I love that major, but a lot of times, even if we get the so-called practical major, people graduate and think, “Okay, I got a marketing major, but I don’t know where I’m supposed to apply that.” Right?
That’s not Ruth. Ruth has been married and widowed, and she moved to a foreign land to take care of her mother-in-law. Ruth is not someone who’s just, she’s listening to Naomi because she’s never been out in the world. She’s never experienced anything. Some of you here have been widowed. Some of you have at least seen people go through that. All of us have seen people go through that experience. Naomi’s experienced deep, deep things, but so is Ruth. She might be quite a bit younger than Naomi, but we shouldn’t look at her as someone who, by our standards, would say, “Doesn’t know what she’s doing.” She’s figured it out. She knew how her life was going. It wasn’t that she just graduated and was now trying to figure it out. She had it all arranged the way it was supposed to be. She’d found a husband and married her husband—in the ancient world it was supposed to all work from there, right? She’d have children. Those children would take care of her in her old age. Everything was going to go as it was supposed to.
She loses it all. And now, out of her devotion to her mother-in-law—that she doesn’t need to show, but she chooses to—she’s learning how to survive in a land that isn’t her own. Because some people in our church family have been through that experience as well. These different experiences—Ruth had a lot of experience—and yet what does she do? She says, “Naomi, I’m going to listen to what you’re saying.” I think about myself: What’s your experience when people tell you what you should do? Do you always just say, “That’s what I’m going to do. I’m gonna do it because someone who clearly knows more than me told me to”? Is that what we all do? No, I don’t.
It really doesn’t matter what stage of life a person’s in, I don’t think. When we’re younger, we think, “Well, old people don’t know what they’re doing. I haven’t got it all figured out.” Then you get a little older and you think, “Well, I was foolish then, but now I haven’t figured it out.” And then it’s not always about just pure age either. It’s about different experiences, right? Maybe you’re older and say, “Well, I don’t need to listen to anyone who’s younger than me because I’ve been through so much,” but there’s someone who has more experience in a particular area. And in all these places, the human sense is, before we even think about it, “I know what I’m doing. I know how I should do it. Leave me alone.”
That’s not Ruth’s experience here. She’s not obliged, but she chooses. I think a key part of this is that Ruth sees herself as a servant. She sees herself as a servant to Naomi. She sees herself as a servant more generally. Ruth doesn’t value that experience she’s had so much that it gives her a trump card where she shouldn’t listen to other people. No, she’s going to listen to someone who understands. And in this case, the key experience that Naomi has isn’t that she’s been through being married, then losing a husband, and trying to survive afterwards, but that they’re both in the middle of that experience right now. The key thing Naomi has is she’s from this culture and Ruth isn’t. Naomi is trying to take care of her daughter-in-law and help her survive, and Ruth understands that.
Do we understand that in the different places we find ourselves? Do I understand that in the places I find myself? Or do I think I have it all under control? It starts with how we view what our job is. If we understand our job is to serve others, it makes us more willing to hear from others. And who did that? Ultimately, Jesus is the one who did that. Jesus is the ultimate servant. He is the one least obliged to serve, and yet the one most inclined to serve. He serves in unimaginable ways. And so if we look to Him, we learn how to have this attitude. It’s not easy, but listen to what Jesus says to His disciples.
The disciples are having one of their favorite arguments, “Who’s the greatest?” Who’s going to have the authority? What else are you going to do when you’re 12 guys together? Matthew 20:24 says, “And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave.’ Even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
What does Jesus do? Jesus comes into the world as God. Can you come into the world any higher than that? You can’t come into the world with a higher rank than God. He comes into the world as God himself, the one who shaped the very dust that He’s walking on. Every single fiber of dust He walked on was one He was aware of. Every time He walked by somebody, He knew. Jesus knew that stuff. Jesus was the one who deserved all the glory, all the honor. He says, “Well, I came to give Myself, came to give Myself that you might live.”
So, disciples, as you follow me, don’t be arguing about who’s the greatest. Don’t be trying to figure out what’s going to make you feel fulfilled in this ministry. Don’t be looking for how you fit in as the most important, how you remind other people that you’re important, anything like that. Be thinking about how you can do like I do and serve. How can you die for other people? That’s a hard question, isn’t it?
I think in Ruth we see something really important: If we’re going to say, “I want to be a servant to other people. I want to actually even be willing to lay down my life for other people,” one place we really should start is to care enough about other people to hear what they have to say and what they have to share with us. Because if we think we have it all figured out, if we think that we know how everything should be, how are we actually going to serve other people?
Jesus’ sort of service is not condescending service. Ruth doesn’t say, “Okay, Naomi, since you’re the old widow, I’ll be there for you. I will do what you say.” No, now she says, “I’m going to do it.” She is, as firmly as she can, “I am going to do exactly what you tell me to do. You tell me, I do it.” You know, such a beautiful sign of humility.
What we also see is that both she and Boaz don’t overvalue themselves in this process. Look at verses 9 and 10. Boaz wakes up, and Ruth has done exactly what Naomi told her to do. And Boaz does what you expect someone to do in that situation. So who are you? Simple everyday moments, right? Boaz just realizes there’s someone lying down there. “Who are you?” She answered, “I am Ruth, your servant, spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.”
And he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first, that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich.” It starts with how she labels herself. Boaz asks the natural question. He has awakened from his sleep. He was sleeping really soundly. Now he’s awake and wants to know who this person is, and she just says, “No, I am Ruth, your servant.” There’s some debate amongst commentators—the word she uses for servant here is a different word than in chapter 2. It may be just a synonym, but it’s thought it might even be a stronger sense of her lowliness.
She doesn’t say, “I am your servant, you know, I’m kind of important now. I know that you like me.” She doesn’t say anything like that. No, “I’m your servant,” and if anything, “I’m even less important than the last time you met me.” And she says that. I’ve been in a larger church at times where you can kind of just fall through the cracks and wait a while and decide whether you want to serve or not. But when you’re in a little bitty church plant that’s just getting started, it’s all hands on deck. We’re all serving.
And so all of us are going to be confronted with this particular spot at some point: We’re leading something; we’re pushing the charge for something. And do we view ourselves as genuinely serving the rest of the body, or do we view ourselves as those people who are in charge and therefore should be served by the body? Where do we see ourselves?
Ruth looks at Boaz and doesn’t think, “I know what I’m about to try to get worked out here. Boaz is going to say, ‘Sure, you’re younger than me, and I’ve already said I think you’re a wonderful person. This is—boy, look at the favor I’m about to do for you. Let me tell you how I’m going to make your life better.’” She doesn’t do anything like that. No. Ruth says, “I am here to serve.”
Let me say the same with Boaz. On the one hand, yes, here is the young woman who says, “Boaz, would you redeem me? Would you go ahead and make me your wife?” And on the flip side, Boaz could look at that and say, “Well, you know, Ruth, you’re a Moabite. We don’t really like Moabites that much, but I’ve been impressed enough by you, and I know you’re in a really hard spot. So okay.” You know, “Yeah, it’s obvious, of course, you came to me. I’m generous. I have my means. Look at me. Yeah, I kind of been waiting. When’s she gonna get the idea that this is really what’s good for her?” No. He doesn’t do that. What does Boaz say? And likewise with Boaz, we should understand as he speaks that he’s speaking sincerely.
He says, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first.” I’ve read that a bunch of times, but it wasn’t until more recently that it struck me what he’s referring to by the first. What’s that first kindness? He’s talking about how Ruth has dedicated her life taking care of Naomi. That’s what Boaz has observed. Boaz already commented on that in chapter 2. He was really impressed by that. Most people wouldn’t have done that. They would have gone back to their own home. They would have known it was easier to find another husband and then not end up living to the point where someday you’re just destitute and starve to death. No, that would have been so much easier, but you’ve chosen instead to take care of Naomi. That’s a great kindness.
But here you are coming to me, asking me to be the one to redeem you. And as he says that, he says, you could have gone after the younger men. And that’s another word that’s a little tricky, and it might not be so much just younger men. For one, it’s the younger men, so it’s the people in the village. So it’s not as if they’re out in a place where there are no eligible bachelors and so, “Well, here I am.” That’s not what Boaz is saying. No. What Boaz is saying is I know there are people who seem like men that would seem like a much better fit for you. They’re younger. They might be richer. They could be poor but much better looking. It could be this or that or the other thing, but whatever it is that you want in a husband, there’s someone there that you could pick instead of me.
The fact that you’ve come to me, the fact that you’re willing to go through this whole redemption process, it’s something—in our culture, but not in yours—the fact that you’re doing all of it, you’re the one serving. I haven’t earned this.
We see that Boaz, even though he’s clearly someone who has some importance—he has servants, he has facilities with enough fields that he can have Ruth taking tons. He’s amplifying the little charitable edges of the field that she can be taking. He’s amplifying that with all this extra food that he’s providing and the protection he’s providing. He has male servants and maidservants. This is someone who is important. He doesn’t see that. He doesn’t see it of himself.
I think about how easy it is to fall into seeing myself as important. We all want to think of ourselves as important. You’re all important to me, and I think you’re all important. But may it not be that we build ourselves up and think of ourselves as important? It’s funny the different ways we do that, right? Like, there’s a weird glitch. I don’t know how it happens. Someone must be a hacker that’s been following me around because I preach a sermon with this profound preaching voice, and then I go and listen to the recording, and there’s this awful, screechy voice that I hear back at me. I don’t know where it comes from. It has to be a hacker, spends a lot of time playing with every single word I say.
Have you ever had that experience? Maybe you’ve heard a recording of yourself in a voicemail message or on a video conference or wherever, and you hear yourself and think, “I have a picture of what I sound like, and this is the cold, harsh reality of what I sound like.” We all need to hear our voice in a bigger sense because we build up that thing we have in our head that’s so wonderful and profound and great, and we then confront that cold hard reality.
Here are two people, though, with Ruth and Boaz, who I don’t think need to listen. They already get it. They’re not looking for the hacker that’s changing their voice. They know. They know.
And so we see two people seeking to serve each other and able to move into a position of service because neither of them is seeking to be the one served, but rather the one to serve, and seeing the value in the other, but not in themselves.
I realize there are exceptions to what I’m saying insofar as sometimes people get so prone to beating themselves up that we start to essentially insult God because we don’t even see the fact that we’re people made in the image of God, that God said we had value.
If you’re there, I’m not saying go and beat yourself up further, but even that actually is a sense of pride because we’re saying, “Well, I know better than God what my value is.” So we fall into that pride one way or another, but here are two people who actually are confronting the cold hard reality that they are two people. And yeah, in different ways society could heap up their value, but they see that cold, hard reality of who they are and say, “I just want to serve. I just want to do what serves others.” And they’re ready to do it.
This is not a false humility. False humility is really just a sneaky pride where we always downplay ourselves, at least when we’re around people we know are going to argue with us. I’m not going to talk about how I’m not really that good at this or that if I’m around people who might agree, but if I know people are going to say, “No, you really are,” well, let me tell you how bad I am. Come on, let’s talk now. That’s not what’s being done here.
Ruth isn’t saying, “I’m going to say I’m your servant because I know you’re this incredible woman that I was hoping would do this.” No. And Boaz is saying, “Well, why would you pick me? You’ve been so kind to Naomi, even though you didn’t need to, and now you’re being so kind to me.” He’s not saying that she can say, “Let me tell you all the ways that you’re wonderful.”
We really confront the ugliness of sin and the problems we have in life. We know this is not us, that this great picture we get—the booming, profound voice—that’s not us. Yeah, we fall into it again and again.
What should we go into instead? As we’re preparing, as we’re seeking to be people doing kingdom work, we understand this: God is the one that shapes character in us, and God’s the one who works in character.
Ruth chapter 3, once again, we’re going to back up just a little bit. So Ruth went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law 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, 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?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant; spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” And he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first, and that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich.”
Now, why did I want us to back up? Well, I want us to think a little bit more about the situation that we find ourselves in the context of this. Sometimes people have tried to say, “Well, maybe something inappropriate was going on here.” And I think if we look at the pieces clearly, that’s not the case. These are two people of good, godly character. There were sinners like we are.
What do we see? We see Ruth, who, for some period of time now, has been taking care of Naomi. She faithfully comes and does what Naomi says, and Boaz has observed this. She’s been quietly working. She’s been quietly serving. She hasn’t been shouting from the rooftops, “Look how much service I am! Let me get out my cell phone and take a picture, hashtag selfless service, and put it up on Instagram.” She doesn’t do that. What does she do? She just does it. I don’t think she knows that anyone notices.
Here’s the thing that’s really hard to arrive at, but she is such a great model for us; this is godly wisdom in life. I don’t think she cares if people notice if I’m doing something good, but I sure wish I didn’t, and that’s where I want to be. But Boaz has noticed, and that’s when he talks about Ruth and uses his phrase in verse 11, “worthy woman.” We see that phrase, that exact phrase, elsewhere. We see it in Proverbs 31:10: “An excellent wife, who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.”
Excellent wife, worthy woman. As Boaz looks at her, he says, “There’s no doubt, Ruth, you are someone who is truly godly. You are someone who truly does what you should do in life.” But what’s been admired in her? And if you know Proverbs 31, sometimes that gets used as a catchphrase, a beautiful depiction of God’s appreciation of a woman who is ingenious and determined and takes care of her household, goes to the marketplace, accomplishes things, and does all kinds of stuff. It’s an incredible painting. I believe Boaz has that exact picture in mind when he looks at Ruth because that’s exactly what she’s done.
Ruth has lived quietly. She hasn’t been shouting about her great character. She doesn’t want people to know how great she is. She just has been doing it, and Boaz sees that. Is that what people see in us? We are worthy men and worthy women. We don’t need to shout it. We don’t need to post it. People just see it. And the starting point for that is we do the service.
That’s what we see in that first thing: Ruth is serving, she’s valuing others; Boaz is serving, he’s valuing others. If we do the service, if we’re actually doing it and living it, then it does become apparent, and that apparent character is not so that people can praise us, but so that character actually authenticates what God’s doing in us. Totally unpretentious.
Certainly in the case of Ruth, she’s not trying to build herself up, and neither has Boaz. Think about this: Here is someone who is important enough to have all these servants, and what does Boaz do? Boaz is sleeping on the threshing floor. Now, why is he doing that? Well, it’s harvest time. The threshing floor is the place where you separate the wheat from the chaff. You’d throw the mixed product up in the air and depend on a certain wind. When that wind comes, it takes the debris and blows it away, and the heavier grain falls on the threshing floor, so you’d have a bigger and bigger pile of what you’d harvested.
More than likely, this is during the time of the judges. There’s lots of unrest, and we don’t know the exact situation and problems, but presumably what’s going on here is that Boaz is sleeping there to guard his harvest. He hasn’t assigned one of his servants. Now that doesn’t mean he doesn’t trust them. It seems Boaz is so engaged with what God has placed him to do—this is his work, this is how he serves the community, this is how he employs other people, this is his particular calling in life—that he doesn’t mind doing the dirty work of sleeping on the threshing floor to watch out for the harvest. Maybe he worked late. Maybe the wind came later that day.
He was right in the midst of it. He didn’t just dole that out to others. He was so engaged with the harvest. And so he’s sleeping on the threshing floor. Now, where I think people start to misinterpret this, unfortunately, is it says he ate and drank and was merry. And so people say, “Ah, now we know what Boaz really is like; he’s a drunk.” And he ate and drank himself until he lost consciousness, and then he wakes up, and there’s a woman lying at his feet.
No. What it really seems like here is that after a hard day’s labor, he’s exhausted. He eats some food and drinks, and he’s merry—not in a drunken sense. Why is Boaz merry? Because he just did what God made him to do. He just did the work that’s been laid before him, and he’s joyful in that. He had a nice meal. He’s not starving to death. He’s merry. That’s a picture of good biblical thankfulness.
Notably, as he wakes up, he’s on guard. He’s startled. The way it’s described is he wakes up, maybe he shakes—maybe he’s cold because his blanket’s been pulled off his feet, but whatever the reason, he wakes up and then turns away. Why would he do that? Why is that his initial reaction? He realizes something’s amiss. There were many folk tales of the time, and maybe we believe the spiritual world is genuine and true. People of the time paid more attention to it, and there were tales of being out in the threshing floor and a demon coming. Maybe Boaz was thinking, “Something demonic here. I’ve fallen asleep. What’s going on?” People think maybe that’s it.
Whatever the case, whether it’s just that he realizes it’s a person or he thinks it’s supernatural, it doesn’t really matter. Boaz is on guard. He wakes up and turns away. This is not something he intended to happen.
So they’ve been doing his work. He hasn’t seen himself above that work, and in that, God is going to work because he’s living as someone who doesn’t see himself as overly important. He lives as someone who rejoices in building character by just doing the things God laid before him to do. God is going to use that stage for God’s bigger purpose for Boaz. Boaz never would have imagined—and presumably, in his lifetime, never even understood—that it was what was happening.
As I was thinking about this, it struck me how different that is than one of his descendants, one of the crucial descendants that makes Boaz so important: David. Because we all know, and you probably know as I say this where I’m going to go now. Second Samuel 11:1: “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained at Jerusalem.”
At the time when kings go to war, what’s David doing? He’s not wearing himself out in battle and then falling asleep, merry because he’s worked hard all day doing the thing he’s called to do to protect his people. What’s he doing? He’s lounging in the afternoon until it gets cooler outside because it’s just too hot on him, and I get it. I don’t like heat either. But he’s taken an extended siesta; he’s resting as long as he can because the wording indicates it’s longer than what they normally would do.
What’s going to happen? This begins the story of Bathsheba. It leads into ugly things that will have ramifications for the rest of David’s life. And when we talk about David as a man after God’s own heart, but with the asterisks, here is a man after God’s own heart, who was an adulterer and a murderer. Here’s where it happens: It’s not doing what he was called to do.
Now David was still a man after God’s own heart. He was saved by God’s grace, not by his works or lack thereof. We don’t want to muddy that. But he wasn’t setting the platform at this moment to go and do the kingdom work God had given him to do.
Isn’t that where we find ourselves in the most trouble too? Other kings were off at war—Middle Eastern kings. It’s not like today. I mean, we don’t want our president—just to be clear, whether you voted for the current or last president—whomever, we don’t want the person you like to be out there at war.
We want our president back at the White House so he can control all the military. He has all the communications. He has all the important levers and phones and buttons, including the nuclear suitcase football thingamajig. He doesn’t need to be out there where someone might take him out and then he’s gone. So it’s very different for us.
But in this time, it’s not like that. You don’t have all the communications and technology. You aren’t launching drones and sending airplanes. You have soldiers going into battle, and their king is there to encourage and direct them—and David isn’t.
David has been given this platform. David is the leader of God’s kingdom, and then he’s passing the time. He starts to fall into, “I don’t really need to prepare anymore. I’m just going to clock it in and clock it out. I have tenure now as king. I don’t need to do anything because I know I’ll someday be in God’s presence.” We know enough about David that I don’t think he would have said that, but I think in this moment, that’s basically how he’s living, even if he would have said it. And even if that’s not how we would say it, our lives are sometimes that for all of us. We fall into that groove. We fall into that place, and we feel like we can just clock it in.
How do we do more like Ruth? How do we do more like Boaz and be on the platform ready for how God’s kingdom work is going to work? How do we do that? We content ourselves on what God’s doing. We have an underlying confidence that God is at work. That’s what we see with both of them. They don’t know exactly how it’s all going to work, but Boaz genuinely believes as he says to Ruth, “May the Lord bless you.” I have every confidence that it’s not just a nice thing to say. He believes that God’s the one who actively blesses and works, and so it’s happening.
So sure, he’s an important man, but he can be laying there on a threshing floor sleeping at night because he’s just doing what God’s placed him to do. Ruth can set off to a foreign land. She can go and do this strange custom of uncovering a man’s feet in the middle of the night—whatever her mother-in-law says. Don’t you wonder sometimes when Naomi describes that to her, Ruth says, “I’ll do whatever you say,” but did I understand that correctly? Because presumably the fact that Naomi has to explain it means this is not a widespread custom at the time. This is something Ruth is learning, and it probably very likely sounded bizarre to Ruth as well. They could have gone terribly wrong. Someone could have thought Ruth was doing something unfortunate and killed her or hurt Boaz as well.
But no, what do they do? They’re living as people of character. They’re listening. They’re acting. They’re ready for God’s kingdom, and in that, they content themselves even when it’s not quite clear yet.
We had some sourdough pizza and sourdough brownies before the service, if you’re here in person. If you aren’t here in person, when you come and visit, we’ll make it happen. If you’re part of our online church family, we’ll make it happen. We will have a celebration just like that. It’s neat to share that together.
One of the things I love about sharing sourdough things is that sourdough isn’t just a recipe I prepare. It is the starter, this thing that you feed every single day that you take care of. I’ve had my sourdough starter for four years now. At times, I don’t have time to make anything from it; I’m just feeding and dumping some of the discard. You take some of it every day, put some more flour and water, and just keep it going every single day. It doesn’t always look like it’s going to produce anything because I don’t have time to produce anything right now, but you have to keep doing that basic stage-setting or it’s not going to be there when you want it.
And it struck me as we were preparing for tonight. It struck me as I was mixing up all the different sourdoughs to be ready. I don’t normally make enough for a church, so I don’t keep that much starter growing all the time. It took a few days to figure out how many times I need to double it without discarding anything, to get enough so we have enough for tonight.
I couldn’t just say last night, “I want a bunch of starter.” It has to grow. More than that, even then, it made me think back to when it first started. If you ever started something like a sourdough starter, you’ve mixed the ingredients, but at first, it doesn’t look like anything other than flour and water. What is it? It’s the wild yeast in the air that floats around and lands and starts growing. But I’ve never seen yeast. You can buy the little packet of stuff that holds yeast together, but you don’t see it.
You can’t see it working directly, but you start to see those little bubbles, and suddenly you start to realize, wait, there’s something happening in the starter. Something’s going to happen. Then you realize, wait, there’s this sourdough, this yeast community. Yeah, it’s alive. It’s happening here. Something is happening. Then you have to keep it going until it can produce something like pizza, brownies, or bread.
Isn’t that how it is when God’s working in us? There are those times when we feel like we’re just flour and water. There’s no sign of life. We’ve never seen yeast, just like we can’t see the Holy Spirit, but we know He is working. He is bringing in that process that’s going to allow us to bubble up into what we’re supposed to be, to rise to the occasion. And there are times we’re just going, sort of what feels like maintenance mode, waiting.
But God’s going to use us. Every person here, God’s going to use you still. That’s why you’re here. If you’re thinking, “I have nothing left. I’ve never had anything,” wherever you’re coming from, hear this: God has you here for a reason. You may feel like you’re just watching the flour go in and the discard go out day after day. You don’t know when it’s going to turn into pizza. You don’t know what’s going to turn into brownies or bread, but God is going to do it.
That’s something we see in the life of Ruth and Naomi. They were ready, and they were content in that waiting and in that daily cycle that doesn’t look like much because they understood the King is at work. That’s our calling too. We can live as people of character and humility, even though it’s not the way of the world, because we understand the King is at work—the King who came and humbly served us.
Pray with me, please. Lord, would you help us to be people who understand we have value because you have called us yours? That’s where our value is. We shouldn’t view ourselves as overly important in our own eyes. We should be willing to listen to others and not just view ourselves as having everything figured out. We should be willing to content ourselves with simply living lives of good character in times when it’s not necessarily clear what the point even is.
Boaz didn’t know that Ruth was going to show up. Ruth didn’t know that all this care she was showing was going to lead to Boaz. They didn’t know the story. They didn’t know how then God would use them in the very line of your Son, our Savior Jesus. We get to see that, but they didn’t. Likewise, we often don’t see how you’re using us. Lord, would you help us to live in that daily contentment, knowing you are using us and that the platform of character and humility is what you are calling us to show, what you are bringing out as we trust and lean on you and allow your Spirit to work on us. That’s where you work and what you use. Would you help us to show it? We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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