Word of Salvation – Vol. 44 No.33 – September 1999

 

God’s Grace Keeps Breaking Through

 

Sermon by Rev W J Bosker

on Ruth 4:13-21

Scripture Readings: Genesis 38:1-30; 49:8-10

Suggested Hymns: BoW 180; 176; 435; 392; 404; 525

 

Dear Congregation, Brothers and Sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Some families take great pride in having a well-documented family tree that goes back several hundred years.  We had a family in Canberra with such a family tree, and I’m sure someone here does too.

It’s great to have someone famous in your family pedigree.  It makes you feel proud if one of your forebears was an explorer, a well-respected Bible scholar, scientist or businessman.  But what if you have someone in your family tree who is an embarrassment to the family?  Every time you look at him you would think back to what he did.

When one of your children really plays up, it’s tempting to blame this ancestor for the bad genetic material passed down the family tree.  “You’re just like your great uncle Martin who went to jail for…”

In our text we have a brief and condensed family tree which runs from Perez to Israel’s great King David.

As a child, I remember reading through long lists of hard to pronounce names.  Why would God bother to tell us that “so and so begat so and so, and then he died”?  (Refer Genesis 5, the genealogy from Adam to Noah).

Now, I know part of the answer!

1.  As Human Beings We Have A History

Our family trees connect us with the past.  Every time a human life is conceived and born, God has been active in giving life.  So our family tree says as much about God as it does about us.  Since the beginning of history, God has been at work in and through the lives of ordinary people like you and me.  That has been a theme running through the book of Ruth.

The fact that the Bible gives us many lists of genealogies shows that God has been working through history for a long time.  His plan since Adam and Eve has been unfolding through the generations.

God started something with people, He is still working with people, and He’ll continue to work with people, until His grand purpose for our world and all His creation is completed.

This is an important observation because it gives meaning and purpose to life.  We are not just a mass of flesh and blood, bones and tissue – here one day, gone the next – to be recycled as compost for someone else’s garden.

God says in Ecclesiastes 3 that He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in our hearts (3:11).  From the moment We are conceived we are created for eternity!  Where are you going to spend it?

Do you know another reason why family trees are important to God?

2.  Because Families Are Important to Him

Families are the building blocks of society.  Families are God’s design.  The family is God’s primary means for extending His kingdom.  Godly parents nurture and train their children in the Lord.  One set of godly parents can, by the grace of God, lead to many generations of Christians.

Even in our church there are families with three or four generations of Christians.  No wonder there is such an attack on the family today.  The devil tries to confuse us with all sorts of alternatives.  Be alert to the social engineering that’s going on today.  It won’t be long before anybody who defends the traditional family of husband, wife and children will be derided as old fashioned.  Watch the posturing of different pressure groups before the next election!

We noticed last time that the elders at the gate prayed that Ruth and Boaz might build up a godly family.  “Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah” (4:12).  The mention of Perez is not a chance recollection.  Most people would probably like to skip over his name and leave him out of their genealogy.  The incidents surrounding Perez’s birth are an embarrassment.

Having read the account of his birth in Genesis 38, there’s a striking similarity between the situation facing Naomi and that facing Tamar.  Both women were looking at the prospect of their family line coming to an end, even though their circumstances were quite different.  The fact that Perez’s name is mentioned in prayer and again in the genealogy means that we should take a closer look.

We’ll have to go back to Genesis 38, which is a brief interlude in the account of Joseph.  Judah was the one who didn’t want to kill joseph but suggested to his brothers that they sell joseph to traders (Gen.37:27).

The purpose of looking at this passage in some detail is to see how God’s grace can break through accumulated sin.  Judah left his brothers to marry a Canaanite (38:1-2).  God didn’t want His people to marry idol worshipping pagans, but Judah went ahead and did so.  The family of Jacob was beginning to disintegrate.  God knew this would happen, that’s why Joseph would go ahead of them to Egypt where God’s people would be gathered and set apart among the Egyptians for a time.  Judah’s marriage to the Canaanite woman produced three sons.  When Er, Judah’s eldest son was ready for marriage, Judah chose a wife for him whose name was Tamar.  Er aroused God’s anger because of his wickedness, so the LORD took his life.

Tamar was now a widow in Judah’s household, so the next son Onan was given to Tamar as a husband.  Onan was to raise an heir for his dead brother, so that the firstborn’s inheritance could be passed on to a son of Tamar.  (This is the first mention of a brother-in-law marriage in Scripture.)  Onan was not prepared to do this and made sure Tamar wouldn’t have any children through him.  God was displeased with Onan and took away his life.  Tamar was again a widow in Judah’s household.

Judah must have been blind to the wickedness of his sons and God’s divine judgment on them.  He thought Tamar was a bad omen, so he told Tamar to go back to her father’s home and wait till the third son was of marriageable age.  Tamar’s future in Judah’s family was bleak.  Judah was not about to see his only other son die through this woman.  Tamar must have felt the stigma of being rejected as a childless widow.

In time Judah’s wife died.  His line was near to coming to an end and he was doing little about it.  So Tamar took things into her own hands.  Instead of Judah waking up to himself and giving his third son to Tamar, he found comfort with a woman he thought was a prostitute.  Judah preferred a “one night stand” rather than please God.

It so happened that through Judah’s lust and Tamar seeking to prolong the line of Judah that she became pregnant to her father-in-law.  Tamar was taking a great risk!  She was a woman dedicated to marry Judah’s third son, now pregnant through another man.  When Judah heard of this he wanted her burned, but then he found out that he was himself the father of Tamar’s child.

Although Tamar’s actions were morally wrong, she was deeply concerned to preserve the line of her husband.  Judah had closed off the opportunity for her to have children, so she was forced to find a way out of this dilemma.  Judah acknowledged that Tamar was more righteous than him.  In making this confession, Judah vindicated Tamar as innocent of wrongdoing (Gen.38:26).

When the time came for Tamar to give birth, the firstborn of the twins was “Perez”, who’s name literally means “breaking through”.  God’s grace was able to break through:
 – despite Judah marrying a Canaanite,
 – despite the wickedness of his sons,
 – despite Judah’s suspicions about Tamar and the death of his sons,
 – despite Tamar’s dubious actions.

In short, God’s grace still manifests itself through the darkness of our sin.

God is an expert in causing His grace to break through our sinful human corruption.  He has been doing it ever since Adam and Eve, and He is still doing it today!  Paul takes the same line in Romans 5.  “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (5:20-21).

The elders at the gate knew something of the grace of God that pierces our darkness, and they prayed that God would continue to exercise that grace through Ruth and Boaz.

The author of the Book of Ruth begins the genealogy as if to make the headline that it all begins with God’s grace “breaking through” in the name of Perez.

Interestingly, Salmon (4:21) married Rahab the prostitute from Jericho (Mat.1:5), who chose to join the people of God rather than perish with her own ungodly people.  She was Boaz’s mother!

Here again you can see how God’s grace breaks through the barriers of sin to accomplish His work!  The whole book of Ruth, as we have seen, is an account of how God’s grace breaks through the decision of Elimelech to leave his people for Moab.  Despite sorrow, death and famine, God’s grace breaks through with Ruth, a Moabitess, joining God’s people, marrying Boaz to become the great-grandmother of King David.

Ruth is another prominent woman in the line of Christ who came from paganism and through faith joined God’s covenant people.  The son born to Ruth and Boaz was named Obed (4:17).  His name means “the serving one”.  From the text we see that the focus of the book returns to Naomi who virtually adopts Obed as her own son.

It must have given Naomi great joy to hold this grandson in her arms.  We are told she cared for him (4:16) and I’m sure Obed would have responded by caring for his loving and aged grandmother.  After a time of bitterness and sorrow, joy and gladness returned to Naomi.  Such is the effect of God’s grace in a believer’s heart.

The author hastens to a conclusion as if to show that this son of Boaz the kinsman-redeemer, is the forebear to Jesus Christ, God’s anointed Kinsman-Redeemer, though he only knows of the generations to the great King David.

As we view this genealogy we can see that no one really deserved to be on this list through their own merits.  God chooses to act according to His mercy and calls to Himself those He wants to save.  He is still doing the same today.  Everyone who believes in God and is joined to the Lord Jesus Christ through faith, marvels at the mercy and grace that God has shown to them.

That’s how we should view the doctrines of grace and election:
 – How marvellous God’s grace is to me!
 – How powerful the blood of Christ must be, that God takes a sinner like me, and through the blood of Christ Jesus adopts me into His wonderful and blessed family!

If this is the way God deals with His covenant children, then how should we view one another?  The Bible is candid about the life of Judah and Tamar, as well as Rahab who was once a prostitute.  God doesn’t try to hide the darker side of our human nature because He has come to us in Jesus Christ to do something about it!

In a church family there is a whole heap of accumulated sin.  Families are devastated by rebellion in children and unfaithfulness in parents.  It’s amazing how many times the precious gift of our sexuality can lead to so much sin and heartache.  Young people and adults may have engaged in casual sex.  Like the world, we often want pleasure and excitement without responsibility, commitment and obedience to God.

When a brother or sister in Christ falls into obvious sin, what do we usually do?  We judge them, get angry and mark them for life.  They feel ostracised and unwanted and many end up leaving the church.  Have we in the process forgotten that we are sinners too?

What did God do in the case of Judah and Tamar and Rahab?  His grace broke through the barrier of sin.  God saw their wretched estate and had mercy on them!  God does not take sin lightly.  Though His grace is greater than our sin, that doesn’t mean we can take sin lightly.  It’s just because God is serious about sin that He demanded the perfect sacrifice of Jesus our sin-bearer.  Because God is serious about sin, He is also serious about grace.  It’s this character of God that we should also reflect.

• How many of us are labouring under personal or family guilt and condemnation?
• Has sin in your own life or your family’s life bogged you down spiritually and sapped the joy out of your bones?
• Have you been disillusioned by the reaction of fellow Christians?
• Are you wondering whether God really loves you, or whether anybody else does for that matter?

The message of our text is clear!  God’s grace breaks through the deepest sin and heals the most ugly scars.  God’s grace (GRACE = God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense) was so obvious in the Lord Jesus Christ that He repelled those who were holy in themselves, but He attracted those who saw their own sin in the reflection of Christ’s holiness.  God’s kindness and ever-present grace in the person of Jesus attracts sinners and leads them to repentance.

In every church there are people who long for healing.  Today, Jesus is again visiting our hearts.  He wants you to see that His grace can break through your sin.  If we can begin looking at each other as people for whom Christ suffered, died and rose again, then we, too, will become agents of healing and restoration to each other.

Be quick to confess and quick to forgive.  Through each other the grace, goodness and faithfulness of our God will be reflected, and people will know we are Christians by our love!

God’s grace keeps breaking through sin’s darkness.

You better believe it!

Amen.