RUTH: A PORTRAIT OF GRACE

Part III

Sermon, January 31, 1999

Texts: Ruth 2:1-12, 4:13-22; Matthew 1:1-6

On the way home from an Ash Wednesday worship service, a little boy asked his father, "Is it true, Daddy, that we are made of dust?" "Yes, son," the father replied. The boy then asked, "And do we go back to dust again when we die?" "Yes, son." "Well, Daddy, don’t tell Mommy, but when I said my prayers last night and looked under the bed, I found someone who was either coming or going." The grace of God can be like that...we see evidence of it everywhere we go, but we never quite know where it began or where it will go...it keeps coming and going; you never quite know where it came from or where it will go; this is vividly portrayed in this Old Testament drama of love and redemption. As mentioned these past weeks, the book of Ruth is an unusual book of the Bible in that it contains no miracles, no voices from God; no laws or ceremonies or sacraments are prescribed, there are no wars or epic battles, no angelic encounters...it’s just a story about the domestic affairs of one seemingly insignificant family in a small middle eastern town. This book, however, is a wonderful portrait of God's grace in that it succinctly portrays the normal method by which God ministers His grace in our world. God's grace in Ruth's life really began with God's grace in Naomi's life, just as God's grace in most of our lives began with God's grace in someone else’s life, and God's grace has begun and will begin in other's lives because of God’s grace in your life. Such is the normal pattern of God’s grace.

Ruth was a foreigner, a young woman of the country of Moab, a country at enmity with Israel. She left behind her country and her home to accompany her Jewish mother-in-law back to Israel, as both their husbands had died. Naomi tried to talk Ruth out of it, but verse 14 tells us that Ruth clung to Naomi. As first pointed out two weeks ago, Naomi’s faith in the face of bereavement and suffering seems to have caused her to be an evangelist to her daughter-in-law; this pagan Moabitess resolved, "I want to know the God my mother-in-law knows. I want to leave behind everything in my former world, my former way of life, in order to know this God better." Ruth responded to the grace of God channeled through her mother-in-law by replying (verse 16): "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." I closed last week by pointing out that as Ruth determined to wholly commit herself to God and His people, she began to experience the unfolding, multiplying blessings of God...such is also the normal pattern of God’s grace. When (and often, ONLY when) we commit ourselves wholly to God and determine to abandon our former ways of life, we then begin to experience the unfolding, multiplying blessings of God. There’s yet another element of God’s gracious pattern displayed in the book of Ruth, another "brushstroke" in this beautiful portrait of God’s grace, another usual way that the grace of God normally works in the lives of those He blesses. Before we look further into this, I’d like to tell a story (a true story, this time).

Many of you may have heard of Corrie Ten Boom. Miss Ten Boom is the author of The Hiding Place, a true story of faith and heroism set in Haarlem, Holland during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The Hiding Place was made into a movie some years back and the world learned of the Ten Boom family’s heroic exploits in saving Jews during World War II. This deeply committed Christian family determined to protect innocent life as they had opportunity; they determined to be God’s channels of life-saving grace to the innocent Jewish victims of the Nazi occupation who came their way; and for boldly exercising their faith in this manner they suffered concentration camp imprisonment. Corrie Ten Boom survived the camps; many of her family did not. Many people in the international Christian community are familiar with Corrie Ten Boom, but not many know of Corrie Ten Boom's equally courageous nephew, Peter van Woerden. During those horrific days of Nazi occupation, Peter van Woerden also boldly exercised his faith...he transported many Jewish children under the cover of darkness from their home in Haarlem to other secret hiding places where they were saved from the Nazis. Peter, too, was eventually caught and spent several months in a concentration camp.

I learned that many years after the war (I believe it was in the early 70’s), Peter van Woerden and his family were traveling in Israel. He suffered a massive heart attack during this tour, and was rushed to the Haddasah Hospital in Jerusalem. The surgeon on call that day skillfully saved Peter's life in emergency surgery. As he recuperated, Peter expressed his gratitude to the medical staff. When they found out about Peter's relation to the Ten Boom family, they talked about the Holocaust and Peter's activity during that terrible time; the medical personnel were full of questions and were fascinated by this faithful man and his family's efforts to thwart the Nazis and protect innocent Jews. As the conversation continued, the surgeon began to cry. So did Peter. Why? Well, as they compared notes, they both realized that the doctor was one of those children Peter had rescued. Now, years later, their paths had providentially crossed. This doctor was there to save Peter because Peter had been there to save him, years ago. Needless to say, Peter didn't have to pay the surgeon's fee! The surgeon literally performed an act of life-saving grace for Peter out of gratitude for the live-saving grace he received from Peter. This man knew he was alive today because he had been the recipient of Peter's saving grace years ago. Because Peter boldly exercised his faith, because he effectively channeled the grace he received from God through Jesus Christ to those whose lives he could touch, he was also able to be the recipient of life-saving grace. Such also is the normal pattern of God’s grace. As God’s grace is channeled to our lives by others, and as we become a channel of God’s grace and blessing to others, so God’s grace often returns to us through those He has blessed through us, especially in times of need. This is a theme addressed again and again throughout the Scriptures. Proverbs 11:25 (NIV) "A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." (The King James renders it: "The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself."). Ecclesiastes 11:1, "Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again." There is almost a boomerang effect to God's grace. Again and again, God returns blessing upon blessing to those who are faithful channels of His grace and love. Naomi's life was a channel of God's blessing to Ruth; Ruth gratefully responds to Naomi by promising to return the blessing; Ruth promises to be with Naomi, to take care of Naomi, till the day she dies....no small promise, by the way, in a day when it was nearly impossible for a woman to survive without a protecting, providing male.

We see in Chapter Two how word spread about this Moabite woman, about her willingness to leave family and friends to bind herself to her mother-in-law’s God and people, about her determination to be a blessing to her mother-in-law. This one particular man of standing, Boaz, was impressed by Ruth. It seems he recognized something very, very special in her. Who was Boaz, by the way? Boaz was someone who knew very, very well about how the grace of God touches and changes people, after all, as Matthew takes pains to clarify for us, his mother was Rahab, the ex-prostitute from Jericho. If you remember the story from Joshua 2, Rahab the prostitute placed her faith in the God of the Israelites; she acted on her faith by hiding the two spies from Joshua's army who had come to scout the city. Joshua's army spared her and her family, as they recognized her act of faith and grateful for her assistance. Like Ruth, Rahab was a foreigner who joined the people of God; she, too, was part of a people who were at enmity with Israel; she, too, committed her life to God and the people of God. She married Salmon, son of Nashon (reading between the lines, you might say that this Salmon, ah, swam against the stream to marry someone no respectable Israelite would marry, for more than likely he saw the grace of God at work in her life); Salmon and Rahab were the parents of Boaz. Boaz, too, married someone no respectable Israelite would marry; if you remember the admonition from Deuteronomy read last week, "...do not seek a treaty of friendship with them [the Moabites] as long as you live." Under normal circumstances, no "proper" Israelite would even consider the possibility of marrying a woman from Moab, and most Israelites would refuse to even associate with a Moabite. However, I believe Boaz recognized the grace of God at work in Ruth. I believe he saw that Ruth was a genuine daughter of God through faith, and therefore very much part of the people of God. I’ll bet he recognized the same grace of God at work in Ruth which was experienced by his mother, Rahab, who went on to be a channel of this saving grace to her son. We can see from this account that the Jericho ex-prostitute, saved by grace, raised a godly, moral, principled, righteous, kind and gentle son of integrity and honor. Please turn with me to 4:13-22.

Now God's grace is coming from all over the place! Naomi is now experiencing God's blessing gnd grace through Ruth; just as Ruth had experienced God's blessing and grace through Naomi. The neighbor women all said (Ruth 4:17), "Naomi has a son." Now, this "son," Obed, did not have even the slightest trace of Naomi's blood in his veins; why did they say, "Naomi has a son."? It's not a biblical misprint. The implied message is that Obed is a flesh-and-blood product of grace; Obed is a son conceived by grace. He truly was Naomi’s offspring in that he was a product of the grace of God channeled through Naomi's life. Her grandson Obed was the living product of the saving grace of God displayed by Naomi to Ruth in the midst of Naomi's suffering and bereavement. This ancestor of our Lord Jesus Christ lay wiggling on Naomi's lap because Naomi was a channel of the saving grace of God to her Moabite daughter-in-law. This future grandfather of the great King David sat there gurgling on Naomi's lap because a prostitute in Jericho experienced the saving grace of God, who, in turn, faithfully channeled that saving grace to her son. Obed, this son of grace, was a living being because Ruth responded to the saving grace of God she saw through her mother-in-law, and Ruth channeled that grace of God right back to Naomi by producing this son...a son who would be a channel of blessing right back to his mother and grandmother for years to come, and who would ultimately go on to provide a way for the whole world to receive the saving grace of God.

Ruth...a portrait of God's grace. God's grace in Ruth's life really began with God's grace in Naomi's life, just as God's grace in most of our lives began with God's grace in someone else’s life, and God's grace has begun and will begin in other's lives because of God’s grace in your life. God normally works in this world by channeling his blessing and grace through His faithful people. Be faithful channels...don’t block the flow of God’s grace through you to others by unfaithfulness, reticence to speak up, unwillingness to act on faith, and so on. As you are faithful channels of God’s grace, God’s grace will begin in others lives through you, and more often than not, you, too, will experience the boomerang effect of the grace of God.