Word of Salvation – Vol. 45 No.38 – October 2000

 

Gleaning Among the Sheaves

 

A Sermon by Rev G H Milne

on Ruth 2:11-16

Scripture Readings: Leviticus 19:9-10; Philippians 2:3-11

 

Beloved in the Lord,

Introduction:

Last time we noticed that Boaz had seen Ruth and had urged her to glean in his field.  Boaz has made her aware of his knowledge of her loyalty to her mother-in-law, Naomi.  He had also blessed her for her industry and her commitment to the God of Israel.  We are going to focus on the grace that we see in this picture and the response to it and also notice the relationship between blessedness or happiness and obedience.

Firstly then…

GRACE AND ITS RESPONSE

There is a lapse of time between verses 13 and 14.  At meal time Boaz urges Ruth to come and eat with them.  These details seem to be insignificant, but they are worth looking at a little more closely.

He invites her to eat bread with them and to dip the bread in a vinegar sauce.  Vinegar is quite delicious and refreshing when used with certain foods.  Have you ever tried vinegar with fish and chips – it’s delicious.

Ruth, then, is invited to share the food of the landowner.  She was receiving something that ordinarily a stranger who was considered to be very low on the social scale would not receive.  The sharing of food indicated privilege, as did being invited to sit with the servants of Boaz.

This phrase “so she sat beside the reapers” indicates her elevation from being an insignificant stranger to being part of the wider family of Boaz.  We see Ruth being integrated into the family of Boaz and therefore into the people of Israel.

Application:

We should understand what is happening here to be the natural process of one who seeks to serve the one true and living God, the God of Israel.  We know that her intention was to serve Naomi’s God, and we also know that Boaz was aware of this, in verse 12, where he said, “May the Lord reward your work and you be full from the Lord the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.”

She was already a converted woman.  She had committed herself to the God of Israel.  That commitment was shown in the way that she had even left her family to be with the people of God.

And notice in verse 13 her response to Boaz: “I am not like one of your maid servants.”  Her response is one of humility.  She is new in the church of God, and she does not expect to be immediately considered as important as the rest of God’s people.  This is humility isn’t it.  Ruth certainly hasn’t been too assertive.  She knows her place.  This response seems strange to us, because we are told to be just the opposite in our culture.  But Ruth is reflecting a biblical principle we find in Philippians 2:3-11 – “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not (merely) look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.  Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, [and] being made in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Are you like that?  Do you have this view, that others should be considered before you?  How do you react when you are overlooked for a position, whether in the Church or out of it?  Is that the reaction of Ruth, “I am not like one of your maidservants”?  “Others are better and more worthy than I am.”

This should be our attitude, for it was the attitude of the Lord Jesus.  Paul unites the two here in Philippians.  Notice what he says: “Regard one another as more important than yourself.”  Why?  Because Jesus did that and you need to be like Jesus.  “Have this same attitude”, Paul says “as was found in Jesus.”

This is what distinguishes the Christian from the unbeliever.  He doesn’t mind taking the last place in the queue.  Though there may even be an injustice to him, he will turn the other cheek and go the extra mile.

Are we like that?  The test is the answer to this question, “Would others see us like that?”  The remarkable thing about this principle is that this is how God is.  I wish I had a great ability to expand this idea, but I fear that I will fail to do it justice.  But consider that the God who has always been, before He created anything and He created everything, this same God made mankind, who promptly rejected His Maker, though he had the closest relationship with God that is possible to have.  He lived and ate in the presence of God.

And then, in his ingratitude, he disobeyed God, because he wanted to be like God.  He was not humble, he did not see himself as he really was, a created being totally dependent on the grace of loving God.

When Adam and Eve rejected God in their disobedience when they ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, God, according to His perfect justice, might well have given man and all his descendants up to eternal punishment, to total rejection.  In fact, God had promised that man would be cursed and that curse was eternal death, that is to say, fully conscious spiritual death, not physical death only.  The curse of God had to be inflicted upon the guilty party if God’s perfect justice was to be met.

But what did God do?  Firstly He promised Adam and Eve, in the third chapter of Genesis, that He would send one to die as a substitute taking the curse of God upon Him.  Isn’t that a remarkable thing?  And who did He send?  He sent Himself.  God Himself humbled Himself to bear the curse of divine wrath upon the body and soul that He had taken.

The Prince of Glory, the Lord of light, the creator of man and this vast universe placed Himself in a position lower that rebellious man and took not only the insults and rejection of His own people during His life, but the eternal punishment that should have been inflicted on us, in His dying upon the cross.

What humility!  Are we like Ruth who follows the redeemer in this sense?

But notice in the second place that Boaz also imitates Christ in His reaction to the piety of this young woman.  Ruth, I suggest, is already a believer, already a worshipper of the God of Israel.  Notice Boaz’s reaction to her piety again.  He has already recognised that she sought refuge under the wings of Jehovah in verse 12, and now he provides for her.  In response to her humility she is brought into the privileges of God’s people.

Application:

What is really interesting about this little scene is Boaz’s actions.  Remember that in verse 12 he has already prayed that the Lord would reward her piety.  But notice here in verse 14, that Boaz is the one who is actively rewarding her.

Doesn’t this remind you of the letter of James in the New Testament?  Recall that we are instructed there to be active Christians?  James 2:14-20, “What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works?  Can that faith save him?  If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for [their] body, what use is that?  Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, [being] by itself.  But someone may (well) say, ‘You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’  You believe that God is one.  You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.  But are you willing to recognise, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?”

Boaz is not just praying and wishing that God would bless someone, he does what he can as the hands and feet of Christ to act for God.  When did you last do something for another person?  Can you remember?  Is this not a challenge here to the authenticity of our faith if we are not helping others?  “Faith without works is dead.”

And Boaz is also an illustration and example of Christ, the Redeemer Himself.  Here is this important man, Boaz.  He has many responsibilities, many servants.  And yet he singles out this new believer and begins to nourish her with his own food.

Application:

This is exactly what Christ does.  He draws us by the bonds of love and doesn’t just leave us in a state of limbo.  He begins to feed us.  The bread He feeds us with is not only material food, He does that, too.  But most importantly He feeds us with spiritual bread.  Actually, we can say that as the one who describes Himself as the bread of Heaven, He feeds us with Himself.

We recognise that truth in a very visible way in the Lord’s Supper.  Remember that the Lord’s Supper is a visible word and really is another way that God addresses us with His Word and Spirit to nourish us in the Christian life, to increase our faith and assurance and assure us of the forgiveness of sin.

But the main way that He imparts His unmerited favour, His grace to us, is through the preaching of the Word.  You might say that the preaching of the Word doesn’t really help you or address your specific needs and worries.  But can I ask you, are you like Ruth?  Do you really come into the presence of God among the assembly of God’s people with true humility and with an active faith.

Notice that this is exactly what Ruth has.  She is invited to the table of Boaz.  She comes humbly, but she comes taking Boaz at his word.  And when he holds out his food to her, she takes it and begins to eat it and is nourished.

Are you doing that with the food that is laid before you in the preaching of the Word?  Do you actively meditate upon the applications from the sermon and put them into practice where need be?  Or do you forget about what you have heard?  For example, if you have not shown love to others in a practical way, what will you do with that application you have just heard?  Will you have forgotten it as soon as you leave the church, or as you listen to the Word are you resolving to memorise what you are hearing so that you can recall it?

There are different ways we can do that.  One way is to take notes and then read those during the week as your own responsibility to act.  Another way is to recall at the dinner table, perhaps two or three nights in a row, the applications, giving the children opportunity to recall these as well, and then discussing how you might act upon these.

We also see in this story, a relationship between blessedness or happiness and obedience, and this is our final point…

BLESSEDNESS AND OBEDIENCE

But notice that not only does she receive this food and eat it and be nourished by it, but Boaz also provides even further for her.  Faithfulness and attentiveness and obedience to God is never in vain.  As Paul writes to the Corinthians, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

Ruth receives nourishment, but this leads to still greater blessing.

Application:

It may be that you are not receiving the blessing of God, the answers to your prayers and the freedom from anxiety or worry that you seek, because you are ignoring God’s provision for you here in the preaching of the Word, or in your Bible study each day, which may be non-existent.  Don’t expect God to bless you if you ignore His provision.

But notice this other principle.  Ruth gets fed, and is then given a further promise of more food.  But she has to work for it.

Application:

At one level we can learn a very important principle here that should be applied to our own society.  We should not create a society where the poor are given food and clothing without work.  It may be menial work, but we profit more if we labour for our food than if we have it just given to us.  Now I recognise that our society is structured in this way that we don’t have to work.  And the fact is that any of us might find ourselves unemployed and we have to rely upon Social Welfare.  But we should still recognise that this is a destructive thing for society – we see evidence of that wherever there is major unemployment.  Governments do have responsibility to institute “work for the dole” schemes.

However, I want to come back to this.  Ruth still needs to be active if she would be nourished by Boaz.  Yes, he has provided, but she must glean.

Application:

And yes, God has provided, but you must glean.  You must work hard at understanding and applying His Word to your life if you would be satisfied.

And notice just how Ruth was satisfied.  She no longer scrapes around at the edges of the field, rather she is now allowed to glean among the sheaves.  Probably, people were not allowed to glean among the stacks of sheaths for two reason.  In the first place, the owners may well have wanted some of the gleanings for themselves.  But secondly, there might have been the fear that the gleaning stranger would have stolen some of the sheaves.

Not only is Ruth invited into the area of the field where she will easily pick up adequate wheat for her and Naomi, but Boaz gives some further instruction.  The servants are not to give her a hard time, as we say, and what’s more, they were instructed to give her the grain from the bundles of wheat.  In other words, Boaz was ensuring that Ruth would be blessed.  He made it certain that in her labour, she would find a full reward.

Application:

God still does that for His people today.  He wants us to be gleaning among the sheaves.  He provides the very best for His children, even the newest Christian among us.  Are you gleaning among the sheaves?  Are you following the instructions of your redeemer, reading His Word, and relying on the principles of that Word for your life?  Or are you skulking around at the edge of the field, where there is no grain to be found?  Perhaps you are there because you want to hide yourself from God.  You are living a sinful life and you know it’s wrong, so you withdraw yourself, though God has said to you, “Covenant child that you are, come and glean among the sheaves, among the Lord’s people.”

You will not find nourishment out there.  O there might be some sensual pleasure, some numbing effect on your brain, but there is no real food there.  You will only find that at the hands of your Redeemer.

If you are one who has rejected the nourishment that the Lord Jesus Christ offers, then listen carefully to your heart and conscience.  You know you should obey Him and follow Him.  Do not leave it, but heed His voice.

And, as with Ruth, you will find true satisfaction, that only God can give.  May that be the case for each one of us here today.

Amen.