The Village Church
The Trail That Lags Behind Fullness, both present and future - Audio
I remember a hurdle that stood in a way of Boaz redeeming Ruth, taking her as his wife. The hurdle was the other Redeemer. The other Redeemer who was closer than Boaz and this nameless Redeemer had the first writer redemption, he stood in the way. So Boaz told Ruth, "If this other Redeemer would not redeem you, if you will redeem you good, let him do it, but if he will not redeem you, then as the Lord lives, I will redeem you." So we saw Boaz deal with this hurdle. We saw him come face to face with the other Redeemer. We saw that he did not rest. He called the elders of the city together. He met with the other Redeemer and gave him opportunity to take his writer redemption, but he did not. He passed it on to Boaz. He told Boaz, "Take my writer redemption for yourself." And that phrase and those words spoken by this other Redeemer began the final thing that held down a spot on the life of Naomi and Ruth, and that was fullness, fullness, both present and future, fullness, for pray with and for me. Father, guys, we come to Your truth. It's Your truth. This is not an opinion. This is not words of man, but it's the words from the mouth of our Father, who is creator of heaven and earth. It's Your truth. And we all need Your truth. I need it. Lord knows, I do, and so I pray that Your Spirit, by His power, will apply it to my heart and apply it to the hearts of everyone here this morning and Christ in my prayer. Amen. Fullness, both present and future. This is what Ruth and Naomi was getting ready to experience. In a big game when the other Redeemer gave up his writer redemption, "I can't redeem it for myself," he told Boaz, "take my writer redemption. Or I cannot redeem it." So the other Redeemer, he verbally gave Boaz the right to redeem, but Thanes wasn't fully valid yet. There was a process that they had to go through to make everything valid. You see in verses 7 and 8, the author gives us some background information about what took place. He said, "This was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming an exchanger to confirm in transaction the one through office sandal and through it to the other." This was a matter of a testing in Israel. Former times, a custom, or does that mean it's referring to a cultural regulation that was in place at some point in the history of Israel and this practice dealt with matters of redeeming and exchanging. As one author calls it, it's a process of ratification, which means it's a process that has to go through to make something valid. Just because the Redeemer said you can take it, my writer redemption did make it valid. They had to go through a process to confirm it. So he threw office sandal, gave it to Boaz, and so Boaz got the right of redemption. He could redeem Ruth. This made everything in valid. It confirmed it. You see, Boaz knew of this process when he told Ruth he was redeeming. Remember the conversation he had? He knew, even when he told her, "I want to redeem you. I want to do all that you say." He knew there was a process that he had to go through in order for that to be true. There was no other way around it. He had to go through the process. He needed the other Redeemer to give up his writer redemption, or otherwise, there would be no him and Ruth. He would not be able to redeem her. He had to go through the sandal process, so to speak. So you said, "What's your point, Alex? Here's my point." Let's say you are looking to buy a house or to a new apartment, a new apartment. So one day, you're driving around looking for houses. You see the perfect home, and so your generous prayers about the home become a little more specific because you see this particular house that you want. So you pray to the Lord for this particular house, "Lord, I want this house. I want this apartment." So you're praying and praying, and then over time, you get a sense of peace come over you about this particular house. You're convinced that this house, this is the house that the Lord wants me to have. So one day, you run a new home, pick up your stuff, pack it all up, go to this house, take out the for sale sound, sign out of the yard, and you move in. Now is that the process? Is that how it works? Is it your house? Just because now you have peace about it, and you're going to move in, is that the process? No, you still got to get along. You got to talk to the landlord, or a real estate agent. You can't go around the process, just because you prayed about it, and you got peace about it. There's a process. You want to get your driver's license, right? But there's a process you got to go through to get them. You want to adopt the child. You just can't pick up in the kid off the street and say, "I'm going to adopt them." But there's a process that's in place, Boaz wanted to marry Ruth. There was a process he had to go through. And here's the thing, the Lord often works through some of the cultural processes that we have in place, and you might not believe it, but it's true. He sometimes worked through those processes to advance this kingdom, to advance its purposes in your life. He does. The only one that comes to him bringing fullness into your life is a process that he has in place. Listen to what one Christian says about this. He says, "Part of the message of the book of Ruth is that God operates on a different kind of calculus, a new math in which the way to fullness is through emptiness. God operates on a new math. The way to fullness is through emptiness." I don't like that, but I think it's true. And that's the process that Naomi and Ruth has been on since we started this book, going for emptiness to fullness. Since they lost their husbands, they've been on the process of being full, being made full. She said it herself, "When she returned to Bethlehem, what did she say? "I went away full, I came back empty." But ever since Ruth ran into Boaz, their emptiness would have started to become full. It wasn't by accident. If it wasn't by accident, their Ruth made her way to Boaz's field. The Lord guided her steps all the way. We already talked about that. When she met Boaz, "Well, what happened?" He provided for them food. That's the process of being full started, provisioned for food, and here in these words that's spoken by the other redeemer, and Boaz is right of redemption that's going to continue to bring us to the final piece of their fullness in verses 9 and 10. He called all the elders together and the people. He said, "You are witnesses this day to this transaction." Twice he told them that. One Christian said, "The people and the elders, they know the rise to transaction basically." Like if some things we do got to get notarized by witnesses, that's the purpose that this crowd served for this transaction. So now the other redeemer cannot come back in the future and try to make certain claims. Everything is final, but Boaz is free now to redeem Ruth, and you know what, he didn't waste any time with it. He exercises right of redemption immediately, and I'm going to go ahead and redeem from Ruth, from Naomi, the land and the houses and goods, all that belong to her husband. I'm going to go ahead and redeem these items, but in verse 10, we get to the heart of the matter for him. You see the land and the property, that was just extra, but what he really, really wanted was the one. The transaction, the translation we have, in verse 10, it doesn't place enough emphasis on Boaz's point here. You see, one Christian says, "He separates the transaction from Ruth and the land, intentionally distinguishing the redemption of the wife from that of the land, and a good or a better translation would be, and more importantly, Ruth and more importantly, Ruth, I want to take to be my wife, but she's more important to him than a land. He was what she was fighting for, and now he wanted to fight. He's going to take her to be his wife." And so by doing that, he fulfilled the vow that he spoke to her. He told her, "If this man would not redeem you and ask the Lord lift, I would do it." And he's going to do it. Notice here that these words spoken by Boaz also fulfilled and answered Naomi's prayer for Ruth. What was her prayer for Ruth at the beginning of the book that you would find rest in the house of a new husband answered? What was Boaz's prayer for Ruth? "May the Lord repay you for all that you've done," and he gave you a full reward for all the goodness you have shown to your mother-in-law, is taking place here. He's blessing her, he's fulfilling her, he's giving her a reward, and to be honest, she was getting ready to receive much more than just being a new wife. You know what that could be? She was getting ready to experience something she's never experienced before. Who do you think that is? She was bearing up to this point, her mother. That's receiving much more than she thought she was going to get. So Boaz says, "I have brought Ruth to be my wife," and he said, "He's going to preserve the family line from extinction," and so that, and the other, for that to happen, she had to bear him some kids, because remember, Naomi's family line died when her two sons died. The line was cut off. And so the only way it was going to continue was going to be through Ruth, and so that means the Lord was going to have to move in order for that to happen, needed him to move again, because if they could see the family line would continue, the family line would be preserved, and that people is emptiness turning more and more into food for this couple. And in verses 13 and 17, we see the present fullness complete. So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. He went into her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore him a son, fullness, receiving more than what she thought she deserved, her wife and our mother, and not only that, she is a believer in Yahweh, much more than what she probably deserved. And that is not forget about Naomi in all this process, but she needs to be full as well. Then the women said to Naomi, "Bless be the Lord who has not left you this day without a redeemer, may his name be renowned and Israel, for he shall be your restorer life, a nurse of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him." When we started looking at the book of Ruth, we started with those words, don't know if you remember that. We started with that passage, because I want to show you her present situation, because she went through stuff to get to there. She went through emptiness to get to there. It just wasn't given to her on a silver platter. She went through sufferings and trials and emptiness that brought her to the verses in 14-17. It just didn't fall into her lap. She went from fullness that runs through emptiness. If you're empty this morning, and some of you may be, then you've got to know that's not an abnormal, that's the norm, that's part of the journey. But you also got to know that your Lord would shepherd you through those things. He would shepherd you through that process. That's what you should see when you read this chapter. It is not about how good they did. It's like, "Man, look how God has sustained them. Look how he's shepherded them. Look how he was faithful to them." Do you see that? When you read this book, do you see the hands of Yahweh at work? And that's how he works in your life too. Even when you don't think he's there, he's there. Can he bring fullness in your life? Do you believe it? You have to believe it. Paul says, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich." It was empty on the cross for you, so that you could be made for. That's where you start knowing him, being in a relationship with him. As we just saw, God is faithful, God is strong, God is forever with you before the throne of God above. If you have a word, a strong and perfect, please, who is it? My great high priest, whose name is love, whoever lives, and please, for you, your name is engraving on his hand. Do you believe it? Your name is written on his heart. How will he not bring fullness into your life? How will he not deliver you from what you're going through? How will he not? He will shepherd you, just as he's shepherd Naomi and Ruth, through that emptiness and brought them to fullness. Not just a present fullness, but a future fullness that extended beyond just them. You see, when Boaz got to write a redemption, the people that was there, they prayed for Boaz and for Ruth, and all those prayers they offered were for future blessings that were going to come over their life. The first one says, "May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Lea, who together built up the house of Israel." That's speaking of future blessings over them. And who in the world is Rachel and Lea? If you know anything about Old Testament history, Rachel and Lea were two sisters who were married to Jacob, and through childbearing, they built up the house of Israel. Now, I also know they ain't do a lot of right things in that process either, but the focus is the Lord used them in spite of them. And so underneath that prayer, as in spite of Ruth with the Lord still used them, just as he used them, you see, because those two women were barren as well, and to the Lord blessed them to have children. So these elders and these people wanted the Lord to use the kids that come from Boaz and Ruth to build up the house of Israel, so that's extending beyond them. The next prayer is for the future of the Lord, man. The next prayer is for future blessings for Boaz, that he will continue to be a worthy man, a worthy husband and father, that his name will be renowned in his hometown, and finally the prayers for future blessings for their household, that will be prayer for their descendants. I hope you can see what these prayers for these witnesses are talking about. These prayers are highlighting another important theme in the book of Ruth, and it's this, one Christian said, "This is just not a story of God's covenant faithfulness to these two women, but his covenant faithfulness to the nation of Israel, to the people of Israel." The author wanted his readers to know that the Lord was putting into place something they needed long before they cried out for it in the book of Samuel. Do they cry out for the book of Samuel, a king, and this author is showing him, long before you cry out for it, the Lord was working to have a king after his home heart in place. That's what you see here, that's the future blessing. That's why the author is connecting this to King David, to show you that King David just wasn't by accident that in the times of the judges, when there was no king, Yahweh was making for you to have a king after his own heart. And so you got to know in your life that when you're going through stuff, you don't know how the Lord's going to use it, but he will use it for your fullness, not just for you, but for your family, down the road. Boaz, who was his parent? Who was his mother? Ray Havert Frosty, and his father came from the line of Judah. So Boaz is in that family line, the kingly line for the nation of Israel, and that's the tribe of Judah, and who else is in that line? When you read in Matthew 1, who else is in that line, King Jesus? This is connected to more than just David, it's King Jesus, the one true king. None of the stuff is by accident people, none of the stuff in your life where you go through, where you suffer, where you lose, is not all accident, the Lord is working, something that's bigger and greater than you. You have to realize long before you started praying about what you need, the Lord has already been working on your behalf, before you ate, before the words even came out of your mouth. That goes back to the passage that were read in for Ephesians 1, long before you prayed about it, centuries before you were born, the Lord was working on your behalf. And that's love, that's what they motivate you, nothing will go on. Psalm 139 says, "You see your eyes saw my unformed substance, and your book was written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when you get none of them existed." They were there, and so if you're empty this morning, no, the Lord will bring for us, for present and future. We don't know how he's going to use it, but his words said, "He who work all things to be good of them, fullness does run through empty," yes, please pray for me this way. Father, I can bear witness to this, I've seen it in my own life. There was a time when, I mean, there was a possibility, I would even be standing here. And Waikita can testify to that, there was a time when I questioned my call, there was a time when I came out of seminary, I was to put soon another job, another career, another calling, because I was at that point when I didn't think this is what you wanted me to do. But I realized looking back, I had to go through those things, and you wanted me to go through those things to make me a better pastor, a better husband, a better father. I know what emptiness is like, and I also know what fullness is like when you bring us out of it. And so I pray for anyone here who is empty, that Lord, you remind them of your faithfulness. I pray for those here who don't know you, who don't have relationship with you, that they got to get right with Jesus and that your spirit, this moment we're convicting them of the need for safety, and they will see him and receive him as the Savior. I pray for those who have known you for years and who are struggling, doubting your care for them, that they would know that they are not forgotten, they are not abandoned, that you are forever faithful, you are forever a good shepherd, and you will work all things to be good all things well for you. And I pray for those here who don't know this magnificent man, amen. Amen. (gentle music)