Ruth 3-4 - Part A

A miracle is when God intervenes natural law or contravenes natural law, interrupts natural law with a supernatural event.

Those things naturally don't happen. Walking on water, now that's a miracle because water cannot displace the weight of an upright human being under natural circumstances unless God intervenes or contravenes that natural law to enable it to happen. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Pastor Skip examines Ruth 3 and 4 and explains what a miracle is and why they are so special. But first, we're glad you've tuned in today. Connect with Skip is all about helping listeners like you strengthen your walk with Christ and grow strong in God's Word. We want to invite you to connect others like you to the life-changing power of the gospel with a gift to help keep these teachings you love on the air all around the world.

Your support helps keep this broadcast going and growing for you and many others as we expand into more major U.S. cities. Just call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate.

That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thank you. Okay, now let's turn in our Bibles to Ruth 3 as we begin today's lesson. Big things come in small packages. Big blessings come in small books. There are only 85 verses in the book of Ruth, but boy is it packed with so many great blessings and lessons. So we have taken two weeks to do Ruth. Two chapters last week, two chapters, God willing.

This week you say, what do you mean God willing? Well, number one, you know me and we may make it through one chapter. Or who knows, the Lord may come before we even finish it tonight.

So you always make contingencies for these things. But it's a great book and it's a book about, well, romance, number one. Boaz, the great landowner from Bethlehem marries Ruth the Moabitess whose husband died in Moab and she's back with her mother-in-law. So it's a beautiful story of romance, but more than romance, it's a story of providence. And providence can be defined as God weaving natural events supernaturally. It is where God works supernaturally naturally. He's supernaturally allowing natural events to be woven together for His glory and our good. It's the Romans 8 28 principle.

God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose. That one verse called by some a soft pillow for tired hearts. That pillow of providence is one we can rest on and one that finds itself permeating the book of Ruth. God's providence, God taking natural events, but making a supernatural result all the way through. Now you've heard us talk about providence before.

We've mentioned it every time we come to this book. We've seen it in other parts of the scripture. Let me tell you where the word itself comes from. It comes from a combination of two Latin words pro and video or video.

Provideo. Pro means before, video means to see. So the combination of those two words provideo is the idea of seeing something beforehand. God can see everything before it happens. He knows what's going to happen. Part of God's omniscience knowing everything is that He knows what's going to happen in the future. And so because He knows what's going to happen, He can cause things to happen and He can predict things and then providentially through natural circumstances arrange so that those things are happening.

So it's God seeing in advance and then working those things out for the good. Don't confuse God's providence with miraculous events. Miraculous events are not natural events. I know we use the term lightly like every time a baby is born that's a miracle.

No it's not. Happens every day. It's part of natural law. Natural law happens across several species including humanity. So these are natural laws and natural occurrences. It is not miraculous. Oh a sunrise and the sunset is miraculous.

No it's not. Happens every day. Happens all the time. A miracle is when God intervenes natural law or contravenes natural law. Interrupts natural law with a supernatural event. Those things naturally don't happen. Walking on water now that's a miracle. Because water cannot displace the weight of an upright human being under natural circumstances unless God intervenes or contravenes that natural law to enable it to happen. Taking water and turning it into wine that's a miracle. There are several miraculous things and God from time to time historically uses the miraculous but most often he uses the providential. He weaves things together just so. As you look back on your life I bet you can go man I met that person then that happened and if that wouldn't have happened then this wouldn't have happened and then right you can look back and you can see it.

You don't see it at the moment. It just so happened that I broke up with my girlfriend but that she invited me over to her house for a potluck. It was sort of a bon voyage and I was meeting some new friends and it just so happened that night that I saw a girl on the other side of the room named Lenya.

It just happened that way. It just so happened that I was invited to go to Aspen Colorado to start a church. I was geeked. I was stoked.

I was ready to go. But as things would happen the Bible study broke up and they called me and said no we've disbanded. We don't want to start a church.

We're not looking for a pastor. That night it just so happened that a friend of mine was at my house and he said I'm moving to Albuquerque and I went huh I've heard of that and I began to pray about that and one thing led to another. It just so happened that at a previous building previous to this one the owner of the building was having problems with us because the parking lot was too crowded. He wanted to increase the rent. He wanted a longer term contract.

We didn't want to go through with it. There was just rumblings and trouble and strife and it just so happened that about that that time this place opened up. We can look back and we can see the hand of God so we can hear in the book of Ruth. First of all there was an issue of timing. Back in chapter 1 of this book verse 22 it says that Naomi and Ruth came to Bethlehem at the time of the barley harvest.

Now the barley harvest is late April beginning of May and so you have the the right timing. It just happens to be the time of the barley harvest and there also happens to be a law in Israel that if you're poor you can glean in anybody's fields so that you can get some of the produce and take it home. So now you have culture and it meets timing and so you have rich landowners and poor people in the fields together and something else, location.

For in chapter 2 verse 3 she left and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers and look at the wording, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz who was of the family of Elimelech. All of these things just happen. God is weaving them together. So on the horizontal things look haphazard, crazy, scary.

From the vertical they're providential. I don't know what God's doing. You don't need to know what God's doing. And God doesn't owe you an explanation of what he's doing.

That's where you just kick back and trust and you believe all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Let them look haphazard. Let them feel haphazard. Enjoy the tension. I like adventure. I like not knowing what's going to happen.

I'm in for a good ride. But God is behind the scenes working. So that takes us to chapter 3. And it says, Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, Ruth's mother-in-law, said to her, My daughter, shall I not seek security for you that it may be well with you?

Shouldn't I be a good mother-in-law to you and make sure that you and your future are taken care of? Now, I love Naomi. You're going to see she's very, very practical and very busy. But what she'll discover is though she may be busy, God is busier.

And he's already got this thing planned and is using the mental machinations and the drive of Naomi to get his will accomplished. So we come now to a time of after the harvest. After the harvest is gathered in, after the grain, after the barley is collected, there is a time of winnowing.

They winnow it to separate the chaff from the wheat. And so it says in verse 2, Now Boaz, whose young women you were with, is he not our kinsman? Keep in mind that word. It's a very, very important word. And the rest of this book kind of hinges around this idea of the kinsman, a kinsman redeemer. Goel is the Hebrew word. In fact, here it is, he is winnowing barley tonight on the threshing floor.

Let me give you a description. Threshing floors were elevated areas out in the fields or near the fields where they would collect the produce from. They would take it to an elevated threshing floor. Usually it was made out of bedrock.

And it was elevated so that the wood was made from rock fuckin' concrete. In fact, as Mark said, we are going to It was elevated so that in the afternoon when the winds come, and it typically in Israel can get breezy in the afternoon, sort of like the California coast, you've got the prevailing breezes off the ocean, the Mediterranean, the blow inland, and they bank on that, they look for that every day. So they take a five-pronged kind of a forked rake called a fan, and they scoop it up, throw it up in the air, the chaff then blows away, and the kernel falls down to the ground. That's how they winnow.

It's interesting, if you go to India, they winnow a little bit differently. Though they have trashing floors in elevated areas, there's a lot of places that are not elevated, so they'll take their grain and they'll put it out in the streets and let cars run over it. The weight of the tire takes the chaff off the wheat, then they come and collect it later on and wash it up really well, and that's how they thresh their wheat and barley.

But not so in ancient Israel, it was always on an elevated area, they would winnow it in the evening time when the winds come by. Now, this is interesting because we come to Gideon, or we came to Gideon back in Chapter 6, and we find him winnowing grain, not on a threshing floor, but at a wine press. A wine press is not an elevated area where the winds take it away. A wine press is down at the lowest part of the valley, rather than the highest hill, the very opposite.

You need wine because it's a liquid to be able to flow downward by gravity, so you always pick the lowest spot for the wine press. Gideon, rather than being up on the hill, is down in the valley. Why? Because he's scared, that's why. He's afraid of the Philistines.

If he's up on an elevated area, he could be spotted quite readily. So he's chicken, basically he's scared. So he's going through the frustration of throwing this stuff up in the air where there's no breeze.

Throwing it up, throwing it up, throwing it up, trying to get some of that stuff separated. I love it because an angel of the Lord comes to Gideon and says, hey, what's up, you mighty man of valor? Which is like an inside joke, because he was not a mighty man of valor, he was scared to death. But he was winnowing down at the lowest spot. Boaz is there in Bethlehem on the threshing floor, and he is winnowing on the threshing floor. So look at verse three. Therefore, wash yourself, anoint yourself, put on your best garment and go down to the threshing floor.

But do not make yourself known to the man till he has finished eating and drinking. Do you remember Fiddler on the Roof? Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match. Do you remember that? Some of you are looking at me like you've never seen the movie. You need to see that movie.

It's a good cultural exercise in your basic education. But that young girl is singing the song for the matchmaker to come and find her a match, catch her a catch. Look through her little book and find just the right guy for her. It seems that Naomi is taking on the role of a matchmaker. She's very practical here, and I love that. Hey, sweetie, take a bath, put on perfume, dussy yourself up, look like a knockout. That's just practical stuff. You want to win a guy, paint the barn a little bit before you go out there. Paint the house, right?

Look like he wants to look twice. So she's very practical. She is spiritual. Yes, she has come a long way from being bitter into trusting the Lord.

And last week we saw she says, praise God, praise God, God's in this. But she's also very involved. You know, somebody once said there's three kinds of people. There's the person who makes things happen. Then there's the person who watches things happen.

Then there's the person who has no idea what's happening. Naomi is in the first category. She's the kind to make things happen. She's very practical. She knows that Boaz is interested.

That's pretty obvious. Ruth has stated that he acts interested. He's done favors for me. He's given me favor with his people. He's given me this load of produce.

And so she goes, OK, so let's keep this thing going now. So be practical in life. Don't be afraid to make plans. And though you make plans and you are practical, also be flexible. Be practical, but be flexible. Because you don't know what God is doing behind the scenes.

You don't understand the full scope of God's providence. So a mixture of you be practical and you be flexible. As I had a friend say, blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken.

Bend with it a little bit. You know, just put cast your bread on the waters as the Bible says, but find out what the Lord has going on. So she gives her this little piece of advice. Then it shall be, verse 4, when he lies down, that you shall notice the place where he lies, and you shall go in, uncover his feet. Now, this sounds all weird to us. Uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what you should do. And she said to her, all that you say to me, I will do.

This is amazing to me. Most young ladies would go, what do you want me to do? Uncover his feet? Yuck. You've been working in the fields all day.

Those things smell. I'm not going to uncover his feet for nothing. But all that you say to me, I will do. So she went down to the threshing floor and did according to all that her mother-in-law instructed her. And after Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was cheerful, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. She came softly, uncovered his feet, and lay down. Now, it happened at midnight.

The man was startled and turned to himself. And there, a woman was lying at his feet. Now, picture the scene. When they would winnow, they would have a feast in the evening celebrating all that they have collected. There was a huge pile or several huge piles. And the workers would sleep around the pile of barley or wheat with their head at the center and their feet sticking out like spokes on a wheel.

Why? To guard what they have collected. There were thieves. There were marauders.

There were other nations around them. They had to watch their stuff. So that's why they slept with it. If you would uncover somebody's feet, it was for a couple of reasons. Number one, middle of the night, your feet get cold. You're asleep. Blanket was on. Somebody uncovers your feet. Middle of the night, you'll wake up as you go through your little cycles of sleep. You go, man, my feet are cold.

You'll find out why. And there's a chick down there. You'll wake up, and she'll be able to talk to you. Number two, to lay at somebody's feet was an act of submission.

Now, this is going somewhere, where she is going to suggest that Boaz perform the role of the goel, of the kinsman redeemer. So there, in the middle of the night, he was startled. He turned and turned himself, and there was a woman lying at his feet. And he said, who are you? So she answered, I'm Ruth, your maidservant. Take your maidservant under your wing. And the idea is, take your cloak or your robe or your blanket and place it over me.

Take me under your wing, for you are a near kinsman. So what's going on here? What's going on here is she is proposing marriage to him.

You go, she's proposing to him? What is this, a Sadie Hawkins thing? By the way, does anybody here even remember what that is? If you know what Sadie Hawkins is, raise your hand. So it's my age group that is raising their hands. So in high school, in the 70s, is that about right for you people to raise your hands? OK, so there was this thing called a Sadie Hawkins dance.

Am I right? Older people to raise their hands, is that right? So Sadie Hawkins dance is where the girl asked the guy to go to a dance. And it was a longstanding tradition in America.

I'm just really sad that it has fallen out of tradition and just very few people have heard of it. But anyway, she is proposing not to go to a dance, but that he marry her. But notice she says, take me under your wing. Now I'm going to read a passage of scripture to you from the prophet Ezekiel.

You don't have to turn there. This is Ezekiel chapter 16. The Lord is speaking to his nation, the people of Israel, the Jewish nation. And he said, when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, live.

Yes, I said to you in your blood, live. I made you thrive like a plant in the field, and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Down in verse 8, when I passed you by again and looked upon you, indeed your time was come, your time of love, so I spread my wing over you. Literally, I spread the corner of my garment over you. Translated here, I spread my wing over you. It's a means of offering future protection to take you under your wing, take somebody under your wing. It's a metaphor we still use today, to take somebody under their wing, to offer protection, to spread your garment over them. Same idea.

It was all a metaphor. That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series Expound. Find the full message, as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Now we want to tell you about a resource package filled with inspiring teaching from influential leaders. Over the years, Skip Heitzig has invited a number of notable speakers to come to Albuquerque. For an end-of-year resource, we want you to hear some of these amazing messages by speakers such as Tim LaHaye. I travel all over the country and speak on prophecy conferences.

And it's very seldom that you find churches that really recognize the importance of history written in advance only by God coming true so we can believe what we believe. Also a part of this pulpit package, the familiar voice of Pastor Chuck Smith. I'm overwhelmed when I see what God is doing here.

What a thrill to see the work of God being wrought here in Albuquerque. This package contains 10 full-length messages available on CD or as a download. We will send it to you as a thank you when you make an end-of-year donation of $100 or more to support this program. Request your pulpit package at connectwithskip.com or by calling 1-800-922-1888.

This resource is available through the month of December. And this pulpit package includes a classic teaching by J. Vernon McGee. I count it a privilege to be here to talk to many young people and especially those that are interested in Bible study. This is sure a high pulpit made for a tall fella. Request your pulpit package at connectwithskip.com or by calling 1-800-922-1888.

That is connectwithskip.com or call 1-800-922-1888. Thanks for being with us today. Come back tomorrow as Skip continues to preach from Ruth 3 and 4 and encourages you to be kind to others and thankful.

I have loved Boaz's reactions throughout this whole book, whether it's to Ruth or it's to the workers that work for him. He is so courteous. She is so courteous.

She says please to him and please to her mother-in-law, as we noted last week. You will catch more flies with honey than you will with vinegar. Be a pleasant person. Be a thankful person. Be a nice person. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection. Connection. Connect with Skip Hyter is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.