Today on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. Through difficult circumstances and experiences, Ruth has come. to shelter under the wings of the living God. This is a figure of speech. The Bible is full of figures of speech.
A comparison is being made here between the wings of a bird. and the Lord's protective Clear. Welcome to the verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. Many of the struggles that come our way can often seem far too big for us to handle. And when those moments come, God wants us to find shelter and strength in Him.
Not quite sure what that means. Today, we're learning how to trust God as our refuge in the storms of life as we continue our study in the book of Ruth. Here's Pastor John Monroe with today's lesson. Today we come to chapter 2 in this fascinating little book of Ruth. Ruth, a young widow, has left her native country of Moab.
in a step of radical faith. She has chosen to follow the living God. and accompany her mother-in-law Naomi back to Bethlehem in Israel. Ruth is now an alien. a destitute widow in a foreign land.
How will she survive in this totally new and strange situation? Perhaps you'll like Ruth. You may feel forgotten, alone. disappointed with life. Perhaps you're overwhelmed or uncertain how to move forward.
I love this chapter. As it shows how God guides and protects us when we step out in radical faith. and trust him. Let's learn from Ruth. as she takes her refuge under the wings of the Lord.
Many of your forefathers and some of you came to the United States with almost nothing. other than the shirts on their back. They had to survive in a new country. Adapt to a new culture. A home, find work.
establish a new life and in many cases learn and your language. They were aliens. in a strange land. Just Like Ruth. Ruth?
Is an alien. She is a mobile test. She's a destitute widow in a foreign place, Bethlehem. And she knows only one person there, Naomi, her mother-in-law. who is also a widow.
The question is, as we continue our study in this little book of Ruth, will Ruth. Make it in her new world.
Some of you are like Ruth. Life at the moment for you is tough. You may feel Forgotten, alone, disappointed with life, disappointed with people, perhaps even disappointed with yourself. And as you look around, you see people seeming to have a good life, a great life. They're prosperous.
They have a network of family and friends. Life seems so good to them, for them. But no one really seems to care about you. It's almost Sometimes as if you didn't exist. Your life is rather difficult.
You're not sure if you will survive. Perhaps this morning you're the opposite of Ruth, you're well established in life. Comfortably off, you have all the friends and family you can handle. In fact, sometimes you could do with a few less of them. But life for you is good this morning.
Well, here is a question for you. How do you treat the poor, the neglected, the lonely, the orphan, the widow? the single parent the underprivileged, the person with a disability. the immigrant, the alien. the person with a different colour of skin.
the person from a different race. Our continuing study in this wonderful little book of Ruth tucked away in the Old Testament will help us to answer such questions. Let me ask you to open your Bibles to the book of Ruth, to chapter 2. This is our fourth message. In this book, And this morning we're going to look at the first thirteen verses, and I'm going to Read them.
at this point. Ruth chapter two then, verse One Now Naome had a kinsman of her husband. a man of great wealth of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabite said to Naome, Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favour. And she said to her, Go, my daughter.
So she departed and went and gleaned in the field after the Reapers. And she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.
Now, behold, Boas came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, May the LORD be with you. And they said to him, May the LORD bless you. Then Boa said to his servant, who was in charge of the Reapers. Whose young woman is this? And the servant in charge of the reapers answered and said, She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab.
And she said, please let me glean and glean. gather after the reapers among the sheaves. Then she came and has remained from the morning until now. She's been sitting in the house for a little while. Then Boa said to Ruth, Listen carefully, my daughter.
Do not go to glean in another field.
Furthermore, do not go on from this one, but stay here with my maids. Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Indeed, I have commanded the servants not to touch you. When you're thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the servants draw. Then she fell on her face.
Bowing to the ground and said, Why have I found favour in your sight? That you should take notice of me since I'm a foreigner. And Boaz answered and said to her, all that you have done for your mother in law and after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me. and how you left your father and mother in the land of your birth and came to a people that you did not previously know. May the Lord Reward your work.
And your wages be full from the Lord. The God of Israel. under whose wings You have come to seek refuge Then she said I have found favour in your sight, my lord. For you have comforted me, and indeed have spoken kindly. To your maidservant, though I am not like.
One. of your maid servants. And we see here an example of a woman who is trusting in the Lord. Ruth trusts In the Lord. Here in Bethlehem, she's at the very bottom of the society in which she lives.
It would be difficult to think of a less unenviable situation than that of Ruth. She is poor, she is foreign. She's a widow, she has no children. Her parents and friends are all back in the foreign land of Moab, but Ruth is a remarkable woman, as we've been finding. She is an outstanding example of a young woman who trusts In the Lord.
Like the great patriarch Abraham, she steps out in radical faith. leaving all that she knows for the unknown. She goes from the known to the unknown, but she does that trusting. in the true Lord. She turns her back.
on all of her false gods. She turns her back on her old life in Moab and enthusiastically and unreservedly places her trust. In the Lord. As we saw in chapter one, verse sixteen, as he says to Naomi, Your people shall be my people. And your God shall be my God.
And God is about to bless This remarkable young woman. of Ruth. In very difficult circumstances then, Ruth trusts In the Lord. She seeks refuge under the wings of the Lord, the God of Israel. Look again at verse 12, which surely is one of the outstanding verses and possibly one of the key verses.
In the four chapters of Ruth, chapter two, verse twelve. Boas To Ruth. May the Lord reward your work. and your wages be full from the Lord. The God of Israel.
Under whose wings you've come. to seek refuge. Through difficult circumstances and experiences, Ruth has come. To shelter under the wings of the living God.
Now just think of that. Obviously, the Lord doesn't have literal wings. God is spirit. This is a figure of speech. The Bible is full of figures of speech.
This is a figure of speech. The technical term for it is a zoomorphism. That is comparing animal imagery The mm. A comparison is being made here between the wings of a bird and the Lord's protective KO. Don't you agree that's a beautiful picture?
The point of the imagery that Boas is using here is that the Lord. is the perfect protector of his people. The Lord is portrayed, as it were, as a great winged eagle. Ruth is portrayed as a defenseless little bird, a little eaglet. But one who has come to find her protection, her safety, her security, her stillness, her warmth under The wings.
of the eagle. What is she doing? She is trusting In the Lord. She is seeking her refuge And her future. And all that she has, she's seeking it in the Lord.
She's come to find her refuge. And the shadow of the wings. of the Lord.
Now, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, Doesn't this give you, as it gives me Tremendous security and confidence. and life. And none of us know what is going to happen to us tomorrow. You may think you do, but life has many surprises for all of us, doesn't it? But whatever life has for you later today, or tomorrow, or next week, or next year, of this we are assured.
that the Lord is my protector. That my hope, as we've been singing, is in the Lord. And that the Lord is watching over me and over you. Therefore, trust. Trust.
Here's the point. Trust. And the Lord. He is watching over you.
Now let's stand. And read some of these verses together. Can we do that? Read with me these versus emphasising the need to find our security and our safety in the shadow of his wings. Be gracious to me, O God.
Be gracious to me. For my soul takes refuge in you. And in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge. That's Psalm 57. For you have been my help.
And in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. Psalm 63. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High. will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord.
He is my refuge and my fortress. My God in whom I trust. He will cover you with his feathers. And under his wings you will find refuge. Amen.
Please be seated.
Now we can begin to understand how it is that this woman took this remarkable step of faith. Leaving her parents Leaving her home. leaving her friends, leaving her fellow Moabites, and coming to Bethlehem. How is it she can do that? Because she's found her refuge under the wings of the Lord.
She is sheltering in the shadow of his wings. Her trust, her hope is in. the Lord. By some of you this morning, need to hear this. You're feeling abandoned.
You're feeling very anxious this morning. You're feeling rather confused. You've lost your job, suffered bereavement. gone through or are going through a messy divorce. struggling personally with some personal issue.
Let down by others. falsely accused, gossiped about, some relationship has failed. a serious health problem. Have failed badly in some situation, whatever it is, this morning you're experiencing a deep, deep. heart.
And this morning you are facing a profound uncertainty. How are you to respond? What would God have you do? What is to be your reaction. Let me say to you.
You will never know the Lord's reward. Your wages will never be full, to use the terminology of Ruth 2, verse 12. Unless you seek And until you seek your refuge, the Under his wings.
Now isn't that the safest place to be? Isn't that a place of warrants, a place of security, a place of divine protection. sheltering under his wings. That's what Ruth does. Follow her.
Example. Live by radical faith. Don't lean on your own understanding, the Bible tells us over and over again. Don't do that. But commit your ways to the Lord.
Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, and he will direct your steps. Place your complete trust in the Lord.
Now As Ruth does that, notice now From the passage that we've read, how God is going to work. You see, when you trust in the Lord, He will guide protect and provide. When you trust in the Lord, when you shelter in the shadow of His wings. God is going to guide you. God will protect you.
and God will provide for you. What does Ruth do here? Ruth gleans in the barley fields. We see that in verses 1, 2, and 3. With Naomi's blessing, Ruth goes to glean in the barley fields.
And verse three, She departs and went and gleaned in the fields after the reapers, and she happened. Notice that word. She just happened, as it were, to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech, her father-in-law. She gleans all. Morning.
And then Boas meets her, is extraordinarily kind to her, and makes sure that she's cared for.
Now what was this gleaning? Gleaning was a gracious provision under the Mosaic law for for the poor person and for the alien, for the stranger. Turn back to the book of Leviticus, the third book in the Old Testament, to see this about gleaning that Ruth here is taking advantage of being a foreigner, an alien. Leviticus nineteen Verses 9 and 10. It's amazing how people try to portray the Old Testament as something harsh.
Is God is a kind of ogre? But throughout the Mosaic covenant, the Old Testament, we see God's grace over and over again. And here's an example. A part of the Mosaic law. Leviticus nineteen verse nine.
Now when you reap the harvest of your land, You shall not reap to the very corners of your field. Neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger, just for someone like Ruth. I am.
the Lord your God.
Now again in Deuteronomy twenty four, Couple of books over. Deuteronomy twenty four. Verse nineteen. We'll see the same. Principle.
of gleaning Deuteronomy 24:19. When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the alien, for the orphan, for the widow, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all of the work of your hands. Notice that. A divine principle.
You obey God, you honor God, and God will bless you. Those who honor me, I will honor. The greedy person would say, Well, I'll go bank for it and I'll make more money by selling it. No, in actual fact, the reverse is the case. If you take care of the poor, if you're a generous person, God is going to bless you.
Verse twenty When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go over it again. It shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow. And you shall remember.
That you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore, I'm commanding you to do this. Why should we do this for the poor person and for the alien and the widow? Remember, once you were slaves. Remember your past.
And remember, the Lord your God is the one who delivered you. And everything that you have is from the mighty hand of God. That God is a God who gives the rain. God is a God who puts the necessary ingredients in the soil. Remember that and take care of the person who is in a poorer condition than you are.
Yeah. Here is the principle now we see being worked out in the Book of Ruth. Under the Mosaic law, provision then was made for the poor and the alien. The corners of the fields of the crop were left for the poor. The poor and the stranger were permitted to pick up any grain, any crops.
Any grapes, any olives. Any grain that was left behind by the reapers who are being paid to pick it up, if they left it behind, You could come and pick that up. You didn't go back. And do it. a second time.
Ruth becomes not a reaper, but a gleaner. Hard humiliating work. I'm sure some greedy farmers were not always sympathetic to the poor or the alien coming into their fields to get the crops left behind.
Sometimes the gleaners, obviously, we can imply from Ruth 2, were treated harshly by the reapers who were working for a wage. You see, Ruth was not only poor. She was an alien. She was an outsider, she was a gleaner, she was at the very bottom of the socio-economic ladder. No wonder then Ruth is amazed, is overwhelmed.
by the kindness of the owner, the boss. who was extraordinarily kind to her. A foreigner, a woman. From Moab. the enemy of Israel.
I notice that while Ruth works And trust in the Lord. God is guiding her. God is protecting her, and God is her provider. You see, do we believe that God is actively at work in our lives? Of course, we do.
We saw that earlier, that God is not the God of the deas. He's not a remote God. He's not a God who makes us and then retires. He's not an absentee landlord. He's not a sleeping partner.
No, He is intimately involved in our lives. And although that is true, that God is sovereignly in control over our lives, that does not mean. that we are passive or have no freedom of choice. The old Heidelberg Catechism. of fifteen sixty three states Question twenty eight.
What advantage Is it to us to know that God has created and by His providence does still uphold all things? What's the advantage of knowing that? Answer? that we may be patient. In adversity, Thankful in prosperity.
And that in all things which may hereafter befall us, we place our firm trust. In our faithful God and Father, that nothing shall separate us from His love, since all creatures are so in His hand that without His will they cannot so much as move.
Now there's a good statement for you, back written by the Dutch in fifteen sixty-three. Not bad. You see the God who is in control of our lives. gives us real choices and real opportunities. Did you notice this in verse two?
Ruth the Moabite says to Naomi, Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favour. And Naomi says to her, Go, my daughter. I like that. Here is this woman, this woman of faith, this young woman, this widow, this mobile test, in these poor circumstances, she takes the initiative. She wants to work.
Do you get it? She is certainly trusting in the Lord. Ah, but she's not too lazy. Or she's not lazy, and she's not too proud to work in this menial way. I don't know what kind of family she came from in Moab.
But I do know this. Here is a young woman whose trust is in the Lord. Who seeks her refuge under the shadow of his wings, but is not too proud. to work. She doesn't sit at home, as it were, with Naomi and say, Poor me.
Neither Does she expect Naomi? her older mother-in-law to go out to work. And she stays at home. In today's society, we have young, able bodied people and some not so young who don't like to work, who are quite happy to live at the expense of their parents or of the government. Ruth is prepared to work hard And she takes action.
Do you remember Proverbs sixteen verse nine? The mind of man plans his way. By the Lord. directs his steps. Isn't that a good principle?
The mind of man plans his way By the Lord. directs his step. Ruth Amobita slans her way. This is what I want to do, Naomi. Is it all right with you?
I'm going to go out and go to one of the fields and glean. And Naomi says, Yes, you do that. My daughter. She plans her way, but the Lord. directs her steps.
This is the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. And today we're beginning a message titled, In the Shadow of His Wings. Part 2 is coming up on tomorrow's program. And remember, you can always find these messages online at the verdict. org.
On our website, you can also download your free copy of the brand new listening guide for our current series in the Book of Ruth. In this insightful printable workbook that John has put together, you'll be able to follow along with the key points and opportunities for real life application in every lesson from Ruth. John provides practical guidance to help you make the most of each of these daily messages. Again, you can download your free copy of the Ruth Listening Guide today by visiting us online at theverdict.org. And while you're there, be sure to join John's monthly email list to get first looks at upcoming resources, series, and events.
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Now, here's Pastor John Monroe with his closing remarks for today's lesson.
Well, what's your verdict? Isn't that wonderful to know that when you're feeling uncertain and confused, with no idea what the future holds, you can always rely on the Lord?
Some of you are listening today. and you're in a tough place. possibly feeling abandoned. disappointed. Overwhelmed, as you face the future.
Here in the life of this young widow, There's a wonderful example of trusting God and relying totally on Him. He'll never let you down. Join me next time as we see some of the ways in which God provides for Ruth. and how he guides her. Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict.
I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
