The whole Bible is a story about Jesus.
So, how does the Old Testament story of a Moabite girl who was gleaning barley in a field point us to? Jesus.
Well, today on Truth for Life Alastair Begg demonstrates how God is often found in the most unexpected places. in the ordinary events of ordinary men and women.
Well, can I invite you to turn again to Ruth chapter 4? Ruth chapter four.
So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. Then he went to her and The Lord enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to a son. The woman said to Naomi, Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a kinsman redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel. He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age.
For your daughter-in-law, who loves you, And who is better to you than seven sons? has given him birth. Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap, and cared for him. The woman living there said Naomi has a son. And they named him Obed.
He was the father of Jesse. the father of David. This then is the family line of Perez. Perez was the father of Hezron. Hezron the father of Ram.
Ram the father of a minidat Aminadab the father of nation Nation the father of Salmon, Solomon the father of Boaz. Boaz the father of Obed. Obed the father of Jesse, And Jesse. The father of David. And when you go into the New Testament and into Matthew's genealogy, you discover that wonder of wonders, this genealogy leads right to the person.
of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Thanks be to God for his word. We come to Our final study of what must be one of the loveliest short stories that has ever been written. both within the frame and out with the frame of biblical literature. Those who love a good story must surely say, This is a good one.
The way in which it falls out, the way in which characters are introduced and reintroduced, it really is lyrical poetry at its very best. It is interestingly the only book in the Bible that carries a lady's name and is concerned solely with the domestic circumstances of her life and those around her. It's a story that, as we have seen, is set within the context of the book of Judges. Judges is the previous book. Judges ends, just a page over, if you turn to it in chapter 21.
with the statement that in those days Israel had no king And everyone did. as he saw fit. In other words, the period in which this story unfolds is one of great instability. Within the nation, there was civil unrest.
Social disintegration. Immorality was rife. Idolatry was enshrined And when the people looked beyond the borders of their own locale into the international situation, they found that out there there was only war and bloodshed. And yet it is into those dark and fearful circumstances that there comes this wonderful ray of light which shines clearly through these four chapters of this lovely short story. It is, as we have seen, the story of ordinary people.
facing the ordinary events of our lives. which of course should be an encouragement to us. inasmuch as we are ordinary people living ordinary lives. That's not a judgment on us, it's just frankly the truth. There may be some days that are a little more extraordinary than others, but by and large, life is routine.
We know that each of us needs to find employment somewhere, and some of our time is spent doing that, finding it, and then fulfilling it. We enjoy family life. As did the people in Ruth. We endure the pain of the parting of loved ones when the time comes for us to be separated by distance. We enjoy the wonderful anticipation in our hearts as we look forward to the reunions that come as a result of geographical separation.
They were experiencing bereavement. And so do we. They were trying to work out relationships with one another, and not least of all, Ruth, how do you deal with your mother-in-law? And somebody, I suppose, who was far more creative than myself can probably get a book out of the book of Ruth on how to deal with your mother-in-law. I don't suggest you spend a great deal of time on it, because it probably won't sell very well.
But the fact of the matter is that the story, the four chapters, are is a story of ordinary people going through their ordinary days. And the reminder that is at the very core of the story is this. that although God oversees all the affairs of the nations, Still he is interested in and he is involved with A Bethlehem farmer. and a foreign girl from Moab. And if you just think about it for a moment, in the great unfolding of revelation that we have in the Bible, it is interesting to have four chapters of the Bible.
Given over to this little story. Clearly, the story exists in a historic moment in time. Clearly, it has immediate lessons in the community of its day and for us as we read, but it surely points back. to Genesis and it points forward into the New Testament. Even in the darkest times we discover that the work of God continues.
That in the judges' period, leadership was Ebbing and flowing, every so often a good judge would arise, and it would be fine for a while, and then it would fall apart. I think we could illustrate that from contemporary politics in the last 10 or 12 years, but I will leave it well alone. I'll let you make your own applications. Yeah. Suddenly, a good leader arises, and there is a measure of stability and security.
Then, a bad one comes along, and the people are thrown into chaos all over again. And as a result of all of the social disintegration and the moral chaos, men and women are often asking themselves and often challenging those of us who profess faith in Christ to tell them how it is that we can believe in a God in the midst of all of these circumstances. Where are we supposed to look? That's what people are saying. We understand why.
It's the kind of thing that people were saying in the period of the Judges. Into all of this darkness and into this fearfulness, they're saying, Now, where in the midst of all of this do we find God at work? And the answer is, of course, in the strangest of places. Here in a quiet corner of the community, in this little place, the village of bread, the town of bread, which is what Bethlehem means. Here in the routine familiarity of agricultural life, Here, in the apparently insignificant lives of Ruth.
the foreigner and Boaz the farmer, is unfolding God's plan of redemption. Reminding us, as it should. That we daren't make the mistake of assuming that we will find God always in the most obvious places. They came looking for this king of the Jews. Where first?
In the palace of Herod. Because after all, if you're going to look for a king, you'd look for him in a palace, would you not? How would these wise men who had seen these cataclysmic events in the sky? Find themselves to some little strange place, a little outhouse environment where there's a few oxen and cattle and bits and pieces, and somewhere in the midst of all of that, he who is born king of the Jews. You see, they went looking in the wrong place.
People are looking in the wrong place today as well. The events in North Carolina and bringing together clergy from all across the country and all around the world in order that we might have this great interfaith communion may stand out as an indication to men and women of, oh, the great future, you know, we're all fine because these bright buffins down there in North Carolina, they're going to put it all together again.
So presumably God is down there with the clergy, you know, He's down there with the intellectuals, He's down there with the establishment. Probably not. Probably not. So men and women rush to the cathedral to look for him. They get to the cathedral and it's empty.
They get to the cathedral and the songs are boring and the story is dull if it's in existence at all. You're looking in the wrong place. Where is God? He's not in the cathedral. He's in the cottage.
There is God. He's not on the stage. He's in the corner. Where is God? He's not in the palace.
He's in the manger. Where is God? He's not on the throne, he's on the cross. There's a song that talks about looking for love in all the wrong places, and I think that as people go looking for love in the wrong places, so they so often go looking for God in all the wrong places. This past week somebody gave me a gift.
A lovely old book, the standard book of British and American Verse. Um Given to somebody in 1933 for the first time. interestingly enough, presented to A lady by another lady called Ruth, just so happens. And as I took this book, and I love poetry books, I took it home and I immediately began to read it and look for any of the poems that I knew. which turned me first of all to the Scottish poets.
and to my Scottish national poet, namely Robert Burns. And a poem from childhood, which I can't read to you because it's too long, but I want to give you an inkling of it. The poem is called The Cotter's Saturday Night. Cotter is a Scottish word for someone who lives in a cottage. And it's a wonderful description.
of agricultural life in rural Ayrshire in the middle of the eighteenth century. Burns himself was born in 1859, I think it was. He died. He barely made it to 40. He was a plowman.
He wrote, Should all acquaintance be forgotten, never brought to mind? That's his poem, which is a national international song. And it describes them eating supper together, and then at a certain point in the meal, the father decides that he's going to have family devotions, and it reads as follows. I'll translate as necessary. The cheerful supper done.
With serious face they round the angle form a circle wide The sire turns over with patriarchal grace the big hall Bible. and his father's pride. His bonnerate reverently is laid aside. His lyric Hafferts His grey locks Wearing Thin and bare. Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide, He wails a portion with judicious care, And let us worship God, he says.
with solemn air. Then goes on to articulate uh the way in which devotions were conducted. staggeringly. Robert Burns, who was known more for his philandering and his consumption of alcohol. Then for his ability with a plow.
Is able As a young man, To write with such incredible knowledge as this. Let me just give you one other verse as an offline indication. Of the extent to which a Scottish heritage in the middle 18th century implanted catechetical truth in the hearts of the general population. Otherwise, it would be impossible for somebody who was completely unrelated, uncommitted to the things of the gospel to write in this way. Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme, Burns writes.
How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed How he who bore in heaven the second name Had naught on earth whereon to lay his head How his first followers and servants sped The precepts sage they wrote to many a land How he, who lone in Patmos banny shed, Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand. And heard great Babylon's doom pronounced by Heaven's command. It's amazing. And then he describes the end of it all. Then homeward all take off their several way.
The youngling cottagers retire to rest. The parent pair. Their secret homage pay. And proffer up to heaven the warm request that he who stills the raven's clamorous nest. And decks the lily fair in flowery pride, Would in the way his wisdom sees the best For them and for their little ones provide.
But chiefly, in their hearts with grace divine. Presayed.
So here is Scotland. Ravaged by war on its borders. Confronted by poverty within. In the heart of the struggles of those mid-centuries. And Burns takes us into a corner of rural Ayrshire and opens the door in a tiny cottage and he says, God is still at work, a God whom he doesn't worship.
A God whom he does not believe in. And yet he recognizes, you may look for him up here, he's not there, but let me take you to the cottage on a Saturday night and I will show you that God in the ordinary things of life is still at work.
Now it is that message which runs all the way through these wonderful chapters here in the book of Ruth. The scene depicted here in verse 16 is not unusual. Ladies that are present this morning will identify with it. Men who have watched this scene unfold on a number of occasions can also understand it too. Then Naomi took the child and she laid him in her lap and she cared for him.
What a wonderful change in her circumstances. Back in chapter one, remember, she comes into town. And the people say, the women particularly say, could this be Naomi? She looks so different from the woman who left. And Naomi says around verse 21, she says, Please don't call me Naomi, which means pleasant, call me Mara, which means bitter.
Because God has made my life very bitter. I went away full and I have come back empty. Off she goes, and her husband dies, and her sons die, and she's left with her daughters-in-law, and finally, she makes her return journey. In rebellion essentially against God. disappointed with him.
Disappointed in her circumstances, the way some of you may be here this morning. I don't see why it should be this way. After all, You know how your thinking goes. What a wonderful contrast. She went away empty.
She has come back and now look, her lap is full, full of this wonderful little bundle. Snuggled peacefully up on her lap. And she brushes her gray hair away from her forehead. And she exercises the semi-parental responsibilities. As mother-in-law providing.
The kind of care that moms and grandmums and grandmother-in-laws and so on are able to provide. Indeed, her attachment to the child is such that the women living there, verse 17, actually thought of Obed as Naomi's son. Because the great gap that had been left by Elimelech, she had articulated when she told her daughter-in-laws to go home. Why should you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons?
I'm not going to be able to have any sons. And even if I could have sons, you think you're going to wait long enough to marry my sons? The whole thing is finished, she says in chapter one. There's nothing now for me.
Now look at her.
Now look at her.
You know, don't miss these little things in passing. I don't think that I think I need to to preach this hymn that we just sang. And once I've preached it, then we'll sing it again. Because I'm not sure that it is the melody line of this tune. that prevents you singing it.
I don't think you understand what it says. I think the language is too hard kick. And I don't have time to preach it this morning, but I want to tell you in part what it's saying is this. Before our infant hearts could ever conceive of what was happening. God in His gracious mercy was providing for us.
In mothers who suckled us. In people we call that anti. Who looked after us? And grandparents. who came around us.
And these are the things which are the fodder for us when the days get dark and the doubts get real, and we go back and we say, Do you think that God would quit on us now? That he brought me safely through all my infant years. all of the times I fell off my bicycle, all of the skinned knees, all of the bangs on the head, all of the trips to the hospital, all of that stuff, and he has guarded and guided me safely through the days. You see, everything that has happened to us in our past, in our ordinary lives. Is a reminder to us of these things.
And incidentally, the role that you play in the nurture of those who bring little ones for you to cuddle up on your lap is a wonderful privilege. This is not a net. Isn't that a something? This is not a random collection of molecules. This is a divine creation.
Now my children think I'm strange on multiple counts. But none more so than the fact that I have a bear. That remains close to me. Because he's the same age as me. He only has one ear now?
as a result of some mishandling in his youth. The stuffing is knocked out of him, but he is. He's in my company. Why do I keep him?
Well, I think I'd probably keep him because he was given to me on the day I was born. And I remember it well. Of course, I don't. But what does it tell me?
Well, it tells me my grandmother cared, otherwise she wouldn't have brought the bear. Tells me that before my infant heart conceived. of any notion. Of parental or familial care, God was ordering the steps of my life. Yours too?
Now this you see is the great mystery. And it is the mystery of history, if you like. That all of the constituent elements of our past that have nudged and guided us along to this morning are themselves of distinct interest and importance. And this child, say the women, is the one who will renew your life, Naomi, and renew this lady's life, he did. She'd come back and she was gloomy.
She'd come back and she was despondent. But now there's a twinkle in her eye. In routine terms, nothing had changed. In contemporary terms, she still got up largely at the same time. Her alarm went off at the same time.
She still made tea at the same time. She still dingled a tea bag in the same way that she did. She still went for the shopping at 11 o'clock. She came back at 12. She made herself a sandwich.
She slept for 20 minutes and then she woke up and she did this and did that. And all of these days were just routine, routine, routine. And all of a sudden, the people see her in the routine of her dish. She has a twinkle in her eye. She has a spring in her step.
What's the difference? The bundle. The bundle. Can I show you the pictures of my grandson? Can I show you this?
Oh, you gotta hear about this. You know what he did the other day? This child, say to women, he will renew your vigor. And he did? And they said, he will sustain you in your old age.
It's like a word of prophecy. The very phrase there, sustain you, is a Hebraistic statement for provide you with food and succor. The very thing that had taken her into Moab with her husband in the first place, because there was no food, because there was a famine, and because she had gone into that darkness. She had returned in such emptiness. And now We see that here.
Her life is lifted, her sagging spirits are picked up. And in the artful. Storytelling, the women who in chapter one We're listening to Naomi's lament are now in chapter 4, the one singing the good news of great joy. And the writer is telling us this. God's gracious care.
extends to two defenceless widows. And beyond these two defenseless widows, ultimately to the benefit of all Israel. That David's life, King David, that is. The great king of Israel, in terms of physical descent, was linked to the story of a Moabite girl who was gleaning in a barley field many miles from her home.
Now I don't know if you've thought much about Ruth's family. I haven't. But she had a family. And she had a family and more. And when she married, her circumstances were altered because the two will become one, and for this reason, a man will leave his father and his mother, and the two will become one flesh.
And so they established a new family unit. But she had to walk away from that when she came back into Israel with her mother-in-law. And doubtless, the family that was left behind as a result of the geographical separation would have said to one another, you know, I don't know what is happening here. What will we make of our daughter? What's to become of Ruth?
Now, these are real people living real lives. Twelve centuries BC. And God is working his purpose out. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life, and we'll hear more tomorrow. This is the time of year when many of us are starting to plan vacations, and I want to remind you: you don't have to miss a single program because you're traveling.
If you're away from home and you'd like to listen to Truth for Life on a local radio station, you can find the time and station call letters where that program can be heard by visiting truthforlife.org/slash station finder. Just key in the zip code or the city name, even a local landmark, and you'll find a list of stations in your area that broadcast Truth for Life. Thanks for listening today. Tomorrow we'll conclude our study in the book of Ruth and learn why everyone. should hear Ruth's story.
The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
