Ruth Chapter 4

Estimated Reading time: 14 minutes · Written by tim chilvers

Throughout this series on Ruth, whether you're here for the first time or you've been with us every week throughout this series, there's been one lingering question. It's a question that I think many of us, if not all of us, ask at some point in our lives. Whether we have been a Christian for decades or if we're not sure we'd call ourself a Christian, whether we're at the beginning of that journey or we're kind of well established in our faith…there's one question that's been lingering.

When life seems hard or circumstances seem challenging, what do you do when God seems to be hidden or not present?

How do you navigate those times when the circumstances of life mean that you question whether God is even there, or certainly if he's in control? Because as we've been through this book, you'd be forgiven for doubting that God is present at all. The very opening words are these, of Ruth chapter one.

In the days when the judges ruled…

This was not a good time. And if you don't know why that's important, you can flip back a page in the Bible and you'll see the very last verse of the book of Judges says these words:

In those days, Israel had no king. Everyone did as they saw fit.

That was the context. That's what going on. It was a time in which the leaders and governors were just doing whatever they wanted. And as a result, everyone else did whatever they wanted. It's was this vicious spiral when leaders seem to be abdicating good and Godly responsibility…where is God in that? And some of us may be asking that question right now. In our present day, how do you navigate when the world and the circumstances seem to be going in very, very chaotic and crazy directions…where is God in all of this? Is God really in control?

But it's not just to do with the national leadership. In the context of Ruth, you've got something else that happened. This is how Ruth chapter one goes on:

In the days when the judges ruled, there was famine in the land.

Not only crazy leadership, now crazy circumstances because people now have no food. National insecurity and instability, meaning they had to move house and be refugees in another country to try and be able to provide for their own needs. Isn't that amazing how these themes tend to apply today? Where's God in all of that? But it's not just national or geopolitical things. In Ruth’s context again, you've got personal tragedy, because this is how Ruth chapter one goes on:

Now, Elimilek, Naomi's husband, died.

So you've got national insecurity, national instability because of no food and then personal tragedy because her husband dies. And to compound the tragedy, something else happens.

And both Mahlon and Killion, her sons, also died.

Which, of course, doesn't just mean tragedy to do with the emotions and the loss. It now also means vulnerability. Because in those days, if a woman didn't have male heirs or a husband to look after her, she had to rely on somebody else to give to her, which was an uncertain.

So you've got huge issues: political instability, real insecurity, personal tragedy and future vulnerability…where is God in all of that? And for some of us, that question is very real right now. Do we wonder, because of what life has thrown at us, “is God really in control?” The name Elimelek means God is King, and we might be forgiven for thinking…is he? Where is he when the test results come back or the phone call happens, or the “whatever”? Is he in control? How do we navigate it? Well, as we've been along this book, there's been some hints, haven't there, that God is not hidden at all.

In Ruth chapter two, you've got the story in which the family come back to Israel and Ruth basically commits herself, even though she doesn't have to, to go back with Naomi, to Naomi's people. And saying “I'm going to stick with you. I'm going to turn away from my nation. I'm going to stick with you.” And then they go back. But they’re destitute and so they try to find food. And there you’ve got Ruth chapter two, verse three saying this:

As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who is from the clan of Elimelek.

This is the key phrase: as it turned out. Even though God may not always be obvious, we've begun to realise that he's always at work. He always is. It may not be clear at the moment what he might be doing, but as it turned out, there is a God behind all of this.

And for you, whoever you are, if you've got stuff going on, you know there may be those moments in your life where you're able to look back and see those glimpses where something was happening. Maybe you just had a sense that, whether you'd called it “God” at the time, that there was something going on bigger than what you could see.

I remember years ago I was driving down the street, and it was one of those days where the moon was massive. You know, one of those days when it was very low in the sky, big moon. Driving along, there it was right in front of me, clear as day. And then I remember my car turning left, and then suddenly the moon was on the right hand side, going between the houses. And occasionally you saw it, then you didn't, then you saw it, then you didn't, and then a bus came along and parked there whilst I was in the queue and I couldn't see the moon at all. And then I turned right again and there it was. And I wonder if, for some of us, that’s true. The moon hasn't changed but our position has changed, and life can be like that sometimes.

In this story and in this chapter four, I want to suggest there's four things for us to remember to help us navigate those times when life seems to throw stuff at us, when we wonder if God is there or in control. And here's the first one:

God is the God of the meanwhile.

At the end of last week, in that beautiful encounter between Ruth and Boaz, she effectively proposes…and Boaz promises to make this happen. Then the very last verse in chapter three says this:

Then Naomi said, wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens.

And then the first verse in chapter four, the next verse, says this:

Meanwhile, Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down just as the guardian redeemer came along…

Do you see that? Naomi says, wait. And meanwhile Boaz is already doing it. Friends, that's a reminder that God is the God of the meanwhile. God might be doing something even now that you cannot currently see—to answer your deepest prayer, your biggest longing, or to deal with your circumstances. He's the God of the meanwhile. While you're waiting, he's working.

This came home to me years ago in a story I've shared before, but I love because it meant so much to me at the time. Years ago, when I was at theological college, I was learning the Bible and it was this thing where you had to pay the fees at the end of every year to be able to carry on the next year. What I didn't know is that by halfway through the year, you had to have paid the first semester's fees to be able to carry on to the second semester. I didn't know that. And so it was to my surprise when I got a letter halfway through January from the guy that was heading up the finances saying, “Tim, you'll be aware of this rule in which you're supposed to have paid half the fees by the end of this thing. Currently you owe £3,400 and you've currently paid £32.” I wasn't aware of the rule because I didn't read the student handbook. I remember going to his office thinking, “How on earth…what's going to happen…I don't have this money.”

And I remember, as I went into his office, the look on his face. He said, “Oh, Tim, come in. I've had a couple of letters this week with cheques for you.” And what had happened is two people had paid, very generously, to cover my fees, taking it £10 over the fees. And the astonishing thing is, one of those two people I had not met two weeks previously. Before that, I didn't know they existed and they didn't know I existed.

God is the God of the meanwhile. And so whatever you're navigating, whatever the big longing, whatever the circumstances that make you think, “God, are you even there?”, he actually may be working in a way that in years come back, you say, “Meanwhile, he was working.”

I love this quote from a guy called Paul Miller.

When you stop trying to control your life and instead allow your anxieties and problems to bring you to God…you shift from worry to watching. You watch God weave his patterns in the story of your life. Instead of trying to be out front designing your life, you realise you are inside God's drama. As you wait, you begin to see him work and your life begins to sparkle with wonder. You're learning to trust again.

God is the God who works in faithful, sacrificial acts.

It's easy to think of the story of Ruth as this sort of romance, just this romance story. We view it through a sort of Hollywood lens, don't we? It's all about personal fulfilment and all about needs being emotional, needs being met and happy ever after and all that sort of stuff, a love story. We can imagine the Disney music at the end and “let's put up some merchandise so we can have Ruth figures and Boaz figures”. But as you've been going through this story, if you've been reading it, you catch a glimpse that that's not really what's going on at all.

In chapter four—after this moment where Boaz takes this amazing step and like a good, clever lawyer, manages to help navigate the situation by giving just the right information at the right time so that he can get what he needs and what Ruth needs from the other person, and they end up getting married—we read these words in chapter four, verse ten. Boaz says:

I've also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Marlon's widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown.

Now those words seem strange to our 21st century ears, but what's really going on there is we see it through romanced-Disney lies. Whereas in those days, what this is really about is joining God in the building of his people. And you remember, if you know your Bible, the whole point of God's people is so that they would then bless the world. And the reason why this was going on—this is so important—is that therefore, they could keep on building the people of God so that the world could be blessed as a result. That's what's going on. And it was Boaz’s faithful act, of choosing to do this task, that meant the building of God's people was able to carry on.

There was a problem because there was this other person who could have acted, another “kinsman redeemer” or a “guardian redeemer”. But what's interesting is, he doesn't. Why? He said, “I cannot redeem it because it might endanger my own estate.” Do you see the contrast? You've got one guy over here saying, “I'm not going to keep on building the people of God because it might endanger me.” Whereas Boaz and Ruth together kind of say, “We want to do this task so the name keeps going, so the family keeps being built, and so therefore I will do it even at cost.”

We live in a world of significance, where all of us want our lives to count for something. We want it to be on TikTok and everyone go “yay, amazing.” We want to achieve great things and travel to great places and just feel significant while on adventures. And in the process, it can mean that the ordinary, faithful acts of just boring, normal life…we undervalue them. And we think there's exciting stuff over there that I'm missing out on. And I want to say, particularly for those of us here today, that we're really struggling. We long for something different—a different job, a different career, a different house, a different partner, a different child, a different outcome, different, different, different. We know deep down we're called to be faithful, but it seems so dull compared to the potential adventure and significance over there. But God is the God of the ordinary, faithful acts.

Let me make this personal. My great grandparents wrote a few books. I have one here written by my great grandmother called The Ministry of Women and their Message of Victory. This was written in 1923 by Ethel E Chilvers. This is the introduction, the forward of the book:

To my five sons, for whose salvation I never ceased undoubtingly to pray. Four of them have openly confessed Christ by Believers’ Baptism, while the youngest, only eight years of age, gives sure evidence of faith in the Saviour. To them I dedicate this book—they who have not known a sister's love. She, of tenderest years, waits for them in the Homeland.

Isn't that beautiful? The one I want to draw attention to is the youngest, the eight year old. My granddad. I never met my granddad. He died when my dad was ten. But what I want to say is, the faithful acts of just praying for her kids means that I'm here today talking to people about Jesus because of the faithfulness down through the generations. Friends, you never know the impact of your faithful acts in a world that dreams of TikTok significance. Friends, let's keep on being ordinary because God does the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.

God is the God of the long haul.

The story of Ruth is, yes, about specific people: Naomi, Ruth, Boaz, and so on. But it's way more than that. Because listen to what is said as they get married:

May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel…through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.

Do you see that? It's not about the here and now. It's way more than that. It's about the future and the fact that God is building his people generations down the line. We tend to think of the immediate. But it might be that actually, the most significant thing we do is maybe our own biological children or not. For those of us that don't have children, it may be other people's children. And in a church community, it might by playing our part to keep on supporting through the brilliant ministries that happen in our Generations ministries. So that years down the line, stories will be told of generations passing onto generations of God's people to bless the world.

I want to tell the story of Helen Cadbury, part of the famous Cadbury family, based in Birmingham. She became a passionate Christian at age 12 and she decided to commit herself to reading the Bible every day. She started getting a few of her friends to do the same. So much so that they started sewing pockets in their skirts and dresses so that they could always have their Bible with them. And out of that they formed a little club they called Society, and that became known as the Pocket Testament League. Today the Pocket Testament League globally has given away over 100 million Bibles. All because a 12 year old girl decided to pray and commit to reading the Bible every day, and then getting a few others to do the same. Just like Helen, you might never know the generational impact of your choices.

Did you notice the reference to a strange name in the reading? In verse 12, there’s a reference to somebody called Perez.

May your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.

We haven't got time to look at it, but I'd encourage you, if you like a good a juicy story, to read Genesis chapter 38. It’s the story about Perez and Tamar. It is a really edgy story about prostitution, incest and deception. It's horrific.

And isn't it beautiful, then, when we've got a horrific, tragic, desperate story…that God is at work even in those stories? And it might be that you're somebody who’d say, “You don't know my family background, you don't know what's been done to me or what I have done, or the world that I've been in or my background,” whatever it might be. “God can't do that.” Yes he can. God's in the business of redeeming even the most broken worlds for his glory.

God is the God of the surprising rescuer.

There's one character in this story that is, as yet, unnamed, and this is who the story is really about. The story’s not really about Ruth or Naomi or Boaz. The character doesn't get named until the end, but here it is, chapter four, verse 14. Boaz and Ruth get married and they have a child.

Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel. He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law Ruth, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.

The Redeemer is the child, the son, the one who would redeem the family and redeem the people. The one that we mentioned earlier is the only way, the one that the God of eternity in his goodness meant that there was a way for all people to be redeemed. The one King, the one Lord. And that's why the genealogy at the end is so stunning because this child was the forerunner to the great King David. But then, as we flip forward to the New Testament, we read these words in Matthew chapter one, which we read right back at the beginning of this series. At the beginning of Matthew's gospel, the story about Jesus, we read these words:

Boaz, the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed, the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus, who was called the Messiah.

What a surprise. The child is the rescuer, friends. No matter what life throws at you, there is a way to be redeemed, to have hope for all eternity. For the God of the long haul has always been at work and through a child, the King of the universe. So Elimelek means God is King. Yes he is. And he gave a child, his son, to be the King. That would, for all who want to come to him, guarantee a hope for all eternity.

This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.