A. Donald MacLeod

GOD'S LOVINGKINDNESS EVER ENDURES:

(1) WOMEN WITHOUT MEN

Ruth 1:1 - 14

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GOD'S LOVINGKINDNESS EVER ENDURES:

(2) WHEN LIFE CAVES IN

Ruth 1:15 - 22

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GOD'S LOVINGKINDNESS EVER ENDURES:

(3) AFTER THE CAVE-IN: STARTING OVER AGAIN

Ruth 2:1 - 23

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GOD'S LOVINGKINDNESS EVER ENDURES:

(4) FINDING GOD WHILE FINDING A MATE

Ruth 3:1 - 18

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GOD'S LOVINGKINDNESS EVER ENDURES:

(5) WE'RE GETTING MARRIED

Ruth 4:1 - 12

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GOD'S LOVINGKINDNESS EVER ENDURES:

(6) AFTER THE HONEYMOON

Ruth 4:13 - 22

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ENDNOTES

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GOD'S LOVINGKINDNESS EVER ENDURES:

(1) WOMEN WITHOUT MEN

Ruth 1:1 - 14

There is a poignant scene in the missionary classic Through Gates of Splendor when the five women whose husbands have just been murdered by the Auca Indians are sitting around the kitchen table in Shell Mera, in Ecuador . Dr. Art Johnson has found the bodies, and they want to know the facts about how the fathers of their small children were martyred. How did ten Aucas, Stone Age tribespeople in a remote jungle overpower five men armed with guns?

They sit there listening to the reports until the last bit of information has been received. They finger the watches and the wedding rings that have been returned. They try to picture the scene, who had watched while others fell, who had thought of wife and children?

And then the reality of that terrible word "widow" struck them - young widow, widow with children born and yet-to-be-born. And the knowledge that though their men were "with Christ" there was a lifetime ahead of them. And the verse: "All this has come upon us, yet have we not forgotten thee ... though Thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death."

And the children: how to break the news to them? "This was not a tragedy. This was what God had planned." Somehow the optimism of the mid '50's seems a bit shallow today in the shadow of the Twenty-first Century. Three year old Stevie McCully "I know my daddy is with Jesus, but I miss him, and I wish he would just come down and play with me once in a while."

Women without men, women raising children without their child's father. Is this really what "God had planned"? The questions come to anyone in a single parent situation, to anyone who lives alone. What kind of a God is that any way? To give me desires that I will probably never be able to fulfil - ever, again whatever. The heart cries out as it must have for those three widows making their way back from Moab . The mother-in-law of the two younger women, Naomi, must have remembered how she had taken that same path years earlier. Her husband by her side, her two sons walking on ahead. There was no food in the "the house of Bread" - Bethlehem 's literal meaning - and so they had gone east to a place of exile, to Moab , filled with fear and yet hope that theirs would be a better life. And then Elimelech, her husband, father of her sons, had died. His name meant the "Lord is king" - was the Lord truly King? Her two sons had taken wives from the unbelieving world around them, and then they had died. And now, famine over in the "house of bread", they were returning to Bethlehem .

I. WOMEN WITHOUT MEN: DIFFERING REALITIES

The story confronts us with the fact that there are differing situations when it comes to women without men. Naomi is the older woman, bereaved of both husband and two adult sons. Here daughter-in-law, Ruth and Ophrah, have never had children.

In the society of the Judges, where every person did what was right in their own eyes, women without the protection of family, of men, were particularly vulnerable. An unaccompanied female was basically a chattel in the Ancient World. Those women setting out on that road that day were terribly vulnerable, particularly the younger two. Ogling men, wanting to satisfy their lust, those looking for cheap labor - these were just a few of the many reasons why these women were in a very precarious situation. Ask anyone who has travelled in certain places overseas what it is like to be on your own and - you understand.

Christianity made a dramatic difference in its teaching about women, and particularly about women on their own. In a time when there was no "safety net", no social insurance, no care-giving outside one's own family, the Early Church took care of its own. Paul provides some very practical advice for widows in I Timothy 5. He distinguishes between "widows who are really in need" and widows with children and grandchildren to care for them. The latter should "put their religion into practice" by caring for their families "for this is pleasing to God". Widowhood is an opportunity to pray "night and day", "to ask God for help". But the widow who succumbs to pleasure "is dead even while she lives".

Women with the experience of raising a family ("over sixty") who have been exemplary in married life, "well known for her good deeds" should be on a special list of widows or deaconesses with specific responsibility. She can wash the feet of the saints, help those in trouble and, because of greater freedom, devote herself to all kinds of good works". Young widows, on the other hand, have their own specific temptations, and should be encouraged to remarry, have children, manage their homes, and give no occasion for slander. Above all Paul reminds us that family duty is not an option for the Christian, male or female, man or wife, husband or mother: "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever".

Paul's practical guidance about single mothers and women on their own is timely for us today. In a recent editorial in the Economist^{^[i]} titled "The Disappearing Family" it was noted:

"Today, many social commentators regard it as hopelessly old-fashioned to welcome the advance in individual freedom of the past 30 years, especially for women, or to notice that the family is not quite dead. Ten or 20 years ago, they say, such arguments had weight, but several big things have changed. One is the continuing rise in the number of single-parent households: the trend shows no sign yet of slowing down. Another is the mounting evidence of harm caused to children by broken marriages and/or lone parenthood. A third change, the most telling, is the undeniable collapse of the black American family. Here the figures are startling. In 1994 more than three out of five black American households with children were headed by a lone mother - typically young, poor and never married. In many inner cities, the figure exceeded four out of five."

The conclusion? The article cites Charles Murray: "Sometimes, the sky really is falling."

As in so many other areas of our society, the Christian today is finding herself or himself called to radical discipleship. We are being asked to provide another way. Not critically, no judgmentally, but by getting involved in the reality of the world's needs. One imaginative approach to this has come from our own Dr. Hal May, who has been busy, since retirement, analyzing the needs of the inner city and an organization called FAMILY (an acronym for Fathers And Mothers Infant eLders & Youth) has been set up with a vision of a nation "in which the well being of our children and the strength of their families is our highest priority". It notes that "current debates about policies affecting children and families are dividing us as a nation rather than helping us to seek effective solutions on common ground". And so ...

II. WOMEN WITHOUT MEN: NOT GOD'S ORIGINAL INTENTION

The other thing that we need to hear from this passage is that the situation described here, young women without men, is not natural, nor is it the way that God intended it to be. Look at verse 9: "Go back to your mother's home ... May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband." As with Paul, Naomi recognizes the appropriateness of younger women getting remarried: "I counsel", he says, "younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes".

The figures are startling: in Iceland in 1992 55% of all children were born out of wedlock, as contrast to less than 25% a generation ago, in the United States and Britain it is now 30% as contrasted to 5% 30 years ago. Again to quote the Economist^{^[ii]} "Greater economic and social forces, combined with policy itself partly shaped by those forces, have weakened the link between parenthood and partnership. Compared with 30 years ago, it is easier for women to raise children without men, and for men to escape the burdens of fatherhood."

It is hardly surprising that the young are highly suspect of marriage. The shambles that their elders have all too often made it make them cynical and determined not to find themselves in a similar box. They want alternatives, freedom - and the downside is that they are afraid of commitment. In the face of this contemporary attitude towards marriage the book of Hebrews is very specific: "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and the sexually immoral."^{^[iii]} The Christian increasingly finds himself or herself in a minority of one when suggesting that God established sexual intercourse within marriage, and that marriage is not to be entered into as a last resort or as a sentimental surrender to tradition after there have been experiments with a variety of living arrangements. It is not popular, but it is, I believe, Biblical. Marriage is the place for the full expression of love between a man and a woman committed to each other in a lifelong relationship which God may honor by giving children to love and cherish, each partner sharing fully in the home and in the family.

III. WOMEN WITHOUT MEN: FINDING THE LOVE

But in the mean time: how does one cope, survive, maintain faith and hope in a world in which "the sky is falling"? We have all made mistakes, we are all fallen creatures. What can I do where I am now?

Naomi's final advice to her two daughters-in-law comes in verse 6. "May the Lord show kindness to you." The theme of this book is hesed, an untranslatable Hebrew word that we will meet over and over in these four chapters. We see that dramatized as Ophrah obeys Naomi's instructions and returns to the land of her birth - that is not hesed. It is Ruth that does the unexpected. committing herself to Naomi's God and people (as we will see next week), seeking not marriage for herself but a partner for Naomi. It is a life of risk taking, but Ruth has set her sights on living with challenge. She is not one who "goes back" (again in verse 6, a key word in the book), but walks with Yahweh the Lord in confident hope and assurance that "Goodness and mercy will follow her all the days of her life".

In his letter from Birmingham Jail in 1963 Martin Luther King issued a challenge to the Christian community: "Yes, I see the Church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists."^{^[iv]} And on the day before he was assassinated he declared: "I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land"^{^[v]} The epitaph on King's tomb, in South View Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia, reads in a reference to the spiritual with which King often closed his speeches: "Free at last, Free at last

Thank God Almighty

I'm free at last"

Sisters and brothers, we are pilgrims together, on a journey through life. We are here to share the load, and to minister God's lovingkindness. Let us, as counter-cultural believers, be nonconformists and discover God's freedom and then

"May the Lord show hesed to us all."

GOD'S LOVINGKINDNESS EVER ENDURES:

(2) WHEN LIFE CAVES IN

Ruth 1:15 - 22

In the area north of my home as a boy in Kowloon Tong, in the so-called New Territories of Hong Kong , there were a series of tunnels that had been place by either the Japanese during their occupation of the British colony during the War, or as defensive strategies by the British themselves before the colony fell. At any rate, these places were a wonderful gift to a small boy: but there was always danger. You went down one of these caves and followed it as far as you could. Mystery. Excitement. You were never sure at what point the cave might conceivably collapse leaving you stranded and without any possibility of escape.

Perhaps you have felt that way during an experience of life: suddenly the whole of your world collapses on top of you. You're doing quite well, thank you, and then without warning everything comes to an end. A relationship ends. A job is terminated. A diagnosis is given. You can recall those terrible words: "It's not going to work, I'm filing for a divorce." "We are downsizing and your position has been eliminated." "I am sorry, but I have to confirm that cancer was detected." And there is that sinking feeling in your stomach as life comes crashing down.

Naomi could relate to that feeling: a series of bereavements had brought sudden and unwanted change. First, her husband, then one son, then another ... How much could one woman take? And then the decision to move, back to familiar territory, to the land she had left. But - to use Edward Albee's phrase - "You can't go home any more". Bethlehem would not be the same place she had left twenty years earlier, as any immigrant who wistfully wants to return to the place of their birth, discovers. Questions come: How will I live? Who will care for me in my old age? Can I really rely on my daughters-in-law?

The story of Ruth is really the story of Naomi, and how one woman's courage when life caves in affects another and brings her to faith as much by example as by witness. To survive Naomi discovered you need certain things:

I. A FRIEND WHO CLINGS WHEN LIFE CAVES IN

(a) "Cleave" - Gen. 2:24

Orpah, Naomi's other daughter-in-law, has done what her mother-in-law suggested. She has returned to her own people, to her own land, to her own god. Weeping she turns back. "But Ruth clung" to Naomi. The phrase is striking. Instead of the usual verb, the clause begins with a name, a noun. But Ruth stayed close to her mother-in-law - she clung to her, a word used only for the most intimate and loyal relationships. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother", Genesis 2:24 tells us, "and cleave ("be united to") his wife." As one commentator notes^{^[vi]}: "One may understand Orpah; one must emulate Ruth."

Ruth is that friend who clings when the world caves in on you. Where would you have been without a friend, without a family, without a community, that stayed with you in the tough times, supported you, defended you, cared for you, clung to you, even when you wanted to withdraw and hide because of the shame and pain of failure, of rejection?

(b) A movement towards faith - "return"

One more time Naomi pleads with Ruth: "You have your god" - Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, "go back". It is the fourth time Naomi has used the single word: "Go back!" "Orpah has done the right thing, return to your own people, your own god." Ruth stands in the valley of decision: unsure which way to turn. Would she stand by her mother-in-law, or would she go back to the familiar, the routine, the unchallenging. She is forced to make a choice.

"Return!" But Ruth has other ideas: "Where you go, I will go too." She is moving towards Judah , not Moab , travelling towards the faith of her mother-in-law. She is in transition: "Your people will be my people, your God my god." Faith involves renunciation, and Ruth is discovering that. "Take up your cross, and follow Me", Jesus says. "The world behind me, the cross before me." Faith is a journey, a journey of discover, a journey towards God.

(c) Why move towards faith? Naomi's example

Why is it that Ruth clung to this old widow, abandoning - it would appear - her hopes for a familiar, safe, comfortable future? Because Naomi had something that Ruth knew she wanted. The years of loneliness, rejection, bereavement, loss, and desperation have given her an inner beauty, an inner radiance. Ruth was moving with Naomi.

What kind of a friend are you to those whose world is caving in on them? Do you come alongside of them as Ruth did, walking together along the stony and slippery path. Do you hear them as they talk, drying their tears as they weep. Whom do you know whose world is crashing in on them that needs to have you walking together hand in hand as you sing together:

"I will weep when you are weeping,

When you laugh I'll laugh with you,

I will share your joy and sorrow

Till we've seen this journey through."^{^[vii]}

II. A PROVIDENCE THAT BAFFLES WHEN LIFE CAVES IN

(a) Questions from the locals

But faith does not always burn bright. When the two finally return to the home town the community is "stirred" and "all the gossips (as Knox translates it) turn out and wonder at the change in Naomi: "What's happened to her? She is vastly changed!" The ravages of famine, widowhood, grief, despair, are all written across her face. Line by line they tell their story. A transformation has taken place from that beautiful young woman who went out in confidence two decades earlier.

(b) Questions from the victim: Naomi or Mara?

As is so often the case, the intrusive outsider causes us to ask our own questions. "He trusted in God, let Him deliver him!" The Psalmist's hears the taunt^{^[viii]} of those who mock his faith. And that cry is echoed by Jesus: "Come down from the cross" they jest. But the naked Figure there on a crossbeam can only say: "My God, my God why?"

"Call me not Naomi - Lovely - but Mara - bitter." She sees the place where she courted, the paths her children had skipped along. The memories come back. What a strange providence has shaped my end, she thinks. All those pious platitudes, those careless clichés, of my youth. The songs I sang. Where are they all - the easy optimism, the thought that everything will work out in the end. It hasn't and I am alone. Ruth almost seems to disappear in the wings. Bitterness. Anger.

"See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many." The writer of Hebrews is emphatic^{^[ix]} as is Paul in Ephesians: "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger," he warns them.

(c) Questions to God

How do we deal with anger? Spilling it all out to Him, rather than to others."I bid you vent your rage into the bosom of God", Archbishop Leighton of Glasgow once stated. Tell God how you feel, deal honestly and openly with the One Whose providence shapes your life, and tell Him that you think you have had a raw deal, that life is not fair, that you are being unjustly treated, that life has caved in on you for no apparent cause.

And if you have a friend who is doing that, don't be quick to judge, instantaneous in your condemnation, shocked that someone would be so direct. Gutsy prayers are not an offense to the Almighty, though sometimes they offend the saints. The community of faith should be a place of honesty, and speaking the truth in love, not only to each other, but encouraging each to speak truth-fully and honestly to God. In that way we may learn that

"beneath a frowning providence

[God] hides a smiling face."^{^[x]}

III. THE GOD WHO PROVIDES WHEN LIFE CAVES IN

(a) 'El Shaddai'

Naomi continues: "El Shaddai has made me very bitter." It's God's fault. But in the mean time she uses a very special name for God. "Shaddai" means literally mountain. It is an expression of God's "durability, solidity, trustworthiness"^{^[xi]}. It's the Lord - this so-called Mountain of complete integrity and trustworthiness that made his covenant promises to our forefathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is the One Who has afflicted me, who has brought misfortune on me. I left full, but THE LORD brought me back empty."

You can hear the litany of complaints. You may identify with them. But, in the darkness, when our world has caved in on us, if we can still call God El Shaddai, our Mountain, our Rock, the Trustworthy One, then we are not far from deliverance and from hope. As J. A. Motyer once said El Shaddai represents "the God Who is at His best when man is at his worst".

(2) The beginning of the barley harvest

So the final verse of the chapter brings hope: "So Naomi returned .. arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning." The famine was over, food was provided, there would be a harvest, the land would bring its fruit.

Harvest to Israel always reinforced their confidence in a God Who would bless His people. As the Lord had promised Noah: "As long as the earth endures,

seedtime and harvest,

cold and heat,

summer and winter,

day and night

will never cease."^{^[xii]}

God's harvest time: the ultimate ingathering, a time of promise and a time of judgment. That is the promise of the Scripture. As Paul Robson used to sing out of the sorrows of his life:

Some day He'll make it plain to me

Some day His blessed face I'll see

Some day I shall in glory be,

And some day, then, I'll understand.

The story of Ruth and Naomi is a story of coping when your world caves in. Right now, if your world is caving in you need a friend. Or perhaps God is calling you to the costly adventure of standing with a friend whose world is caving in. And if you are, allow that person to vent the full rage of their anger against life, against God. But help them to avoid bitterness for that acid only eats the vessel that holds it. And then remember that there is always El Shaddai, the trustworthy mountain-like God, and harvest is coming.

Then you will say, with so many others:

"I will lift up mine eyes to the hills,

From whence does my help come?

My help comes from the Lord

Who made heaven and earth."^{^[xiii]}

GOD'S LOVINGKINDNESS EVER ENDURES:

(3) AFTER THE CAVE-IN: STARTING OVER AGAIN

Ruth 2:1 - 23

Your life has caved in: now what?

If it hasn't, what advice do you provide for someone whose life has caved in?

You've heard the old clichés. "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." Or "Carpe diem", "Seize the day". Organize a dead poets' society.

But these are not really adequate. Writing from his cottage in Canterbury , New Hampshire , my long-time friend Gordon MacDonald wrote in May of 1988. "My perception is that broken-world people exist in large numbers, and they ask similar questions over and over again. Can my world ever be rebuilt? Do I have any value? Can I be useful again?" And then his own particularly nagging question at that time: "Can I be useful again? Is there life after misbehavior?"

Cave-ins come in all sizes and varieties. Rebuilding after a cave-in depends on what kind of a cave-in you have experienced. A job ends: is there life after you've been down-sized? What about the out-placement company? Can they help or does it depend on your attitude? Life after divorce. Is there a future for me, for my family? Death and loss: the place is empty. How can I fill my life again with laughter and joy?

To Live Again - Catherine Marshall's title for the book describing her experience after her famous preacher husband died, leaving her a widow in her 40's with a young son to raise. Rebuilding Your Broken World, the title of Gordon MacDonald's book. "But When Life Tumbles In, What Then?" - the title of A. J. Gossip's first sermon after his wife's sudden and dramatic death. It's still, after almost a hundred years, a classic. Speaking to a stilled congregation he spoke in a way that resonates with many: "You people in the sunshine may believe the faith, but we in the shadow must believe it. We have nothing else."^{^[xiv]}

Ruth is moving towards that faith. She has said to her mother-in-law Naomi Your people will be my people, your God my God." But what then? Will Naomi's God, El Shaddai, "the Mountain", "the God Who is at His best when man is at his worst", will this God actually direct her way, pointing to a path out of her predicament? The second chapter of Ruth is a demonstration that faith is supremely practical, and that God provides for the one whose world has caved-in not escapism, not pie-in-sky-by-and-by, but an abiding presence so that after the cave-in you will be able to say with even more confidence: "Goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life."

How? Ruth 2 is a drama in three parts:

I. RESPONSIBILITY: TAKING CHARGE OF ONE'S LIFE (verses 1 - 4)

(a) Pro-active and positive (gleaning: Leviticus 19:9 - 10; 23:12 ; Deut. 24:19)

Ruth turns her mind to her predicament and is obviously turning over in her mind possible ways of coping with her situation. The most obvious way is family, and she realizes that Naomi is not without support. "Now Naomi had a relative ... a man of standing .. whose name was Boaz." The name "Boaz" is significant, as all names for the Hebrews - and in this story - are important. "Boaz" means "In him is strength" or, perhaps, "In the strength of Yahweh I rejoice"^{^[xv]}. He is a man of valor, an individual with standing in the community, a property-owner. And he is a relative.

Ruth's next step is to take advantage of the fact that harvest has come, and that there are rules about gleaning among the people of Yahweh, provisions that the Lord has made for the poor, the widow, the outcast^{^[xvi]}. The law is very clear: "When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God." And so she thinks to herself: "I am poor. I am an alien." And she takes advantage of a rule that reflects the justice of the God whom she is just beginning to worship.

(b) Coincidence or providence?

And so it "just" happens that the part of the field in which she is gleaning belongs to her father-in-law's relative. As the King James Version has it "Her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz." Happenstance or God's circumstance? Being in the right place at the right time? An answer to prayer, a gracious provision of God? God provides these little pointers in our lives to show, just when we have almost given up hope, that He is there. "I've not forgotten you My child. I am here with you in the dark. It's My hand that you feel, resting in Mine." That is providence: God with us in the seeming maze of our lives. He sees the sparrow fall. He loves us. And sometimes His providence is hard to recognize. As the Puritan John Flavel once stated: "Sometimes providences, like Hebrew letters, must be read backward." But do not doubt for a moment that God is there. God delights in surprising His children

(c) Finding a godly employer

One of God's surprises for Ruth was the provision of this remarkable individual Boaz, that rare individual - a godly and good employer who greeters his employees in the name of the Lord: "The Lord be with you!" he says, and they call back "The Lord bless you!" An amazing case of labor relations. Can you imagine saying that to your boss! A diligent entrepreneur, a businessman up-to-date with his investments. He looks around the field and asks: "Who is she?"

II. RECOGNITION: LISTENING TO AND TRUSTING GOD IN OUR PREDICAMENT (verses 5 - 16)

From accepting and taking responsibility we go to the second stage of recovery. And this second act of the drama of chapter 2, is marked out by certain leading questions.

(a) Compassion: "Whose young woman is that?" (vs 5)

First the question of Boaz to his foreman: "Whose young woman is that?" And you can hear his slightly defensive response. "Well, she's a Moabitess, but she's a hard-worker." Talk about racial stereotyping, and covering your bets when you are not sure how the boss will react! Boaz does not flinch and the foreman continues, so he feels free to commend this anonymous gleaner. "She said: 'Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves, behind the harvesters.' And she has been working steadily from morning until now, except for a brief rest."

She's no slacker, folding her hands, allowing self-pity and despair to grip her. She is out there pitching. Provision had indeed been made for aliens like Naomi. The God of Israel was a God not just for Israel but for the outcast, the stranger within our gates, the immigrant. There is compassion in the heart of Yahweh for the poor. And the Moabitess discovers that in Israel she can find justice. Quickly she responds to that God, a God of justice and care for the poor.

And Boaz takes notice of her: was it her diligence or her beauty? He shows immediate personal and practical concern. "Stay in my field, remain with my servant girls. The men are not going to sexually molest you. Oh yes, when you're thirsty in the heat, take a drink."

(b) Condescension: "Why have I found favor?" (vs 10)

And so Ruth is grateful. Humbly she asks the second question of the chapter: "I'm a foreigner. Why have you shown such favor towards me?" In answer, Boaz explains that she has found favor because of her the integrity of her witness: care for her mother-in-law, her willingness to leave her own land. And her growing faith: "May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge." One is reminded of Peter's words^{^[xvii]}: "Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?" he asks. "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience .."

Underneath, Boaz assures this woman. there will be the everlasting arms. The God of Israel will "cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you find refuge. His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart."^{^[xviii]} The alienated find refuge. When we are afraid God is there with us. He cares for us. He is sovereign. He will provide.

So Ruth finds comfort in God's gracious provision of One who reminds her that under the wings of the God of Israel she, the foreigner, the alienated one, may find refuge. Is there someone who needs to hear that from you today? Or do you need to hear it yourself?

III. REFLECTION: LOOKING BACK AND THANKING GOD (verses 17 - 23)

(a) Horizontal: "Blessed be the one who took notice of you" (vs 19)

She returns to her mother-in-law. And again there are questions: "Where did you glean today? Where did you work?" And then she blesses the unknown benefactor, whose name turns out to be a member of her husband's family. Boaz, a kinsman-redeemer. He has protected her from danger, may the Lord bless him.

(b) Vertical: "Blessed be Yahweh who has not forgotten His hesed" (vs 20)

But there is another dimension to this protective provision. Naomi is quick to remind Ruth that behind our good fortune there is a God whose supreme characteristic is His hesed. "May the Lord show hesed to you," Naomi had prayed for her daughter-in-law as they came to the valley of decision. Now she says of Boaz, "May the Lord show hesed to him." Ruth is being discipled by her mother-in-law, and part of being a disciple is the discovery - which we need to make over and over again - that at each point in our lives, indeed, our God is a God of hesed, unfailing lovingkindness, mercy without measure, grace beyond comprehension. And we know that Reality in the person and power of Jesus. Jesus is the incarnation of hesed, God's final definition of hesed, lovingkindness and mercy that pursues us until we find in Him our home.

(c) Rest: harvest and home

So Ruth stays close to her mother-in-law, living with her. And harvest? Harvest is complete, the grain is gathered in. Life has found its full measure of grace and generosity.Under the wings of Israel 's God both Naomi and Ruth - who has found a place there - are secure. Looking back and thanking God. Looking ahead and trusting Him. So the God of Israel is found to be One whose name is "steady lovingkindness", One on whom we can completely rely and depend. Add that word hesed to your vocabulary this morning - understanding it will enrich your life. And help you to see Jesus in all the circumstances of your life.

Indeed, how about you this morning? When your world caved in, did you succumb to anger and resentment and bitterness? Or did you get on with life, seeing in each circumstance hesed, the loving hand of God, rising above circumstance and negative thoughts and anger? And now - or perhaps it is too soon to do so - looking back do you see the hand of God guiding you?

And there is a refuge - under God's wings. We pray as Augustine did:

"O Lord our God, let the shelter of your wings give us hope. Protect us and uphold us. You will be the Support that upholds us from childhood till the hair on our heads is grey. When You are our strength we are strong, but when our strength is our own we are weak. In You our good abides for ever, and when we turn away from that we will be lost. For in You our good abides and it has no blemish, since it is Yourself. Nor do we fear that there is no home to which we can return. We fell from it; but our home is Your eternity and it does not fall because we are away."

GOD'S LOVINGKINDNESS EVER ENDURES:

(4) FINDING GOD WHILE FINDING A MATE

Ruth 3:1 - 23

Well, the Steelers didn't make it last Sunday, but I have a story from Pittsburgh for you.

At the corner of Sixth and Wood, in the heart of what used to be called "The Steel Town" there stands the massive First Presbyterian Church. There for almost thirty years Dr. Clarence Edward Macartney held forth from the pulpit. He was fond of series, and one year he determined do one on "Great Women of the Bible". In order to provide background for his sermons he decided to conduct a poll, and asked the congregation to vote on the greatest women in Scripture. When the tally was made, Ruth stood number one as the first choice among all the women of the Bible.

Why did that congregation choose Ruth as their first choice? She is not called beautiful as were Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel, the wives of the patriarch. I think there's a simple reason: everyone loves a love story! And it comes just at the right moment in the order of the books of the Old Testament - at least in our English Bibles (the Hebrew order is different). We recall Joshua and Judges, which come before: "Crossing Over" and "Facing The Enemy" were those series' titles. We will go on to I and Ii Samuel - more of the same. But Ruth, to quote Dr. Macartney, "is a sweet interlude of peace and love in a fierce, wild chorus of war and passion. In this book not a single wicked, cruel, or licentious person makes his appearance. Here we behold the attractiveness of virtue, the beauty of sacrifice, and the winsomeness of truth in God."^{^[xix]}

Everyone loves a love story! And a story about a successful courtship and a marriage made in heaven. We hear so much that is otherwise. It reminds me about the story Chuck Swindoll told when four-year old Suzie first heard about Snow White and the seven dwarves. She got to the part that said that Prince Charming had arrived on his white horse and brought her back to life. She then turned to mother and asked: "Do you know what happened then?" "Yes", Mom replied, "They lived happily ever after." "No", Suzy said, with a frown. "...they got married."

Finding God when finding a mate may sound incongruous if you've ever played the dating game or you are playing the waiting game or you wonder where God was when you found your mate. Or you wish God was there with you right now. Professor Elizabeth Achtemeier of Union Seminary, Richmond , says that we preachers are cowards when it comes to dealing with marriage and the family. We neglect the teaching of the Bible and most people get more help from "Dear Abby" than they do from their pastor!"One of the principal reasons is pastoral. We know the people facing us there in the pews." But there is another reason: "loss of respect for the biblical authority in relation to home and family. Many preachers carry around with them the unspoken but firm belief that the scriptures no longer have much to say to twentieth-century homes."^{^[xx]}

On the contrary, the book of Ruth is intensely relevant when it comes to "Finding God While Finding A Mate. Again the third chapter is a drama in three acts.

I. RISKY YET RESPONSIBLE (verses 1 - 6)