11/12/23 Ruth 3:7-14 “What’s Love Got to Do with It?”

09 Nov 11/12/23 Ruth 3:7-14 “What’s Love Got to Do with It?”

11/12/23    Ruth 3:7-14        “What’s Love Got to Do with It?”

I have noticed that being married to a language teacher has pros and cons although I cannot think of any cons at the moment.  Anyway, I usually have to be careful what I say or I will find out how to say it the right way.  So, we have a lot of fun playing word games.  I like to say things like indubitably or subliminal just because they are fun to say.  These words just roll off your tongue.  Language stories can be fun also.  We talked with our daughter one time years ago and she told of a woman she worked with who is from Bulgaria.  She has a tough time learning English because so many of the rules that we have apply differently in different situations.  Anyway, she discovered Little Debbie Oatmeal Cookies and she really liked them.  One day she was eating one and a friend of hers told her that she shouldn’t eat them because they contained so many preservatives.  This woman freaked.  She said, “Why didn’t you tell me?  I’ve already eaten 6 of them.”  She went on and on about this to everyone she met.  No one could quite figure out why she was so upset until someone finally cornered her.  She had her words mixed up and thought that preservatives were contraceptives.  Words are very important.  Today, we are going to look at the book of Ruth.  Once again there are many facets to this story but I want us to see the love that is in this book.  Let’s understand what we mean by the word love.

I’ve told this story before from Darren Ethier about a couple who had just celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary with a big party and lots of relatives.  They had just got home and decided to have a little snack of tea with bread and butter.   They went to the kitchen where the husband opened a new loaf of bread and handed the end piece to his wife.  Suddenly the wife exploded with anger and said, “For fifty years you have been dumping the heel of the bread on me. I will not take it anymore; this is a lack of concern for me and what I like.”  On and on she went with the bitterest of terms as she told him how she hated the heel of the bread.  The husband was astonished by this and when she was done he said in a small, tiny voice, “But it’s my favorite piece.”  This man loved his wife so much that he had given her his favorite piece for 50 years.  Sometimes it is hard to see love when others are making sacrifices.

This is quite a story, the story of Ruth.  Just to recap this a bit.  Naomi, her husband and two sons fled Bethlehem to escape a famine.  They went to the foreign land of Moab.  There the husband died.  The two sons had married women from Moab.  Then these husbands died.  Naomi and her daughters-in-law were now stuck because in those days, if a woman had no man in her life, then she had nothing.  In that culture, the men owned and ruled everything.  Widows with no sons became extremely impoverished. So they decided to move.

One daughter in law, Orpah, stayed in Moab while Naomi and Ruth returned to Israel.  Ruth, the other widowed daughter in law, was fiercely loyal to Naomi.  She knew that life was going to be really hard for Naomi and she loved her so much that she would give up her home country and go with her to Bethlehem.  So they arrive in Bethlehem and things were hard.  Now Naomi loves Ruth so much that she decides that she has to find a husband or home for Ruth.  We know that Ruth has already gleaned the fields of Boaz who is a distant relative of Naomi and to Ruth through marriage.  So this sets the stage for what happens next.

As a sidebar, as I was studying for this sermon, I ran across some advice that may be humorous but there is also some truth in it from David Asch.  He calls it the ways to find a perfect mate.  Listen closely because this is important.  The first way to find a perfect mate is to have a matchmaker to find a mate for you.  This would be like in ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’  We should have someone arrange our marriages for us and the reason is quite simple.  When two people in this age and country meet and decide to get married, they are 90% of the time relying on emotions and hormones.  A matchmaker, on the other hand, is only interested in what is best for both parties.  Incidentally, this method has been working for centuries.  I know you aren’t going to go along with me on this but it is food for thought.

Anyway, this is what we find in Naomi.  She loves her daughter in law.  Ruth has refused to leave her.  She has been faithful to Naomi to the point where they both could have starved to death.  Ruth loves her mother in law and will do anything for her except to leave her.  These two people want the best for the other person.  This is what love is all about.

So Naomi sends Ruth back to Boaz with matrimony in mind.  Naomi knows that Boaz is a relative and relatives are supposed to take care of their family widows.  So there are lots of things in play here.  Most importantly is that Naomi wants the best for her daughter in law and that would be where Boaz takes care of Ruth or marries her.

How often are we thinking of what is best for another person when we do something and this includes marriage?  Most people are governed by greed and want what is best for themselves.  We do have to look out for ourselves somewhat but we also need to take care of others.  Moms and dads know exactly what I mean.  You would sacrifice anything for your children.  But would we do the same for a daughter in law? An aunt?  A perfect stranger?  What Naomi is doing here is above and beyond the call to duty.  As a matter of fact, what Ruth had been doing would have to be classified like this also.  In our world we get so caught up in things and happenings that we forget each other.

You folks all know that I try to invite people to know Jesus all the time.  I think that part of my job is to just get people to know and love Jesus.  If we all know and love Jesus, then Jesus will work in us to love others through our gifts.  This is where we begin to care for others and do things like we are reading about today.  The key to it all is to be in love with Jesus.

When we look to God, we see a love that we cannot begin to understand.  To help us understand this love, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to live with us and then die for us.  Now, we understand what the love for one of our children is all about.  God set it up this way so that we could understand in some minute way, what God’s love for us is like.  God’s love like this is then extended to everyone in the world.  This is where we stumble.  For many people love doesn’t extend any farther than the end of their nose.

So we read that love is always seeking what is best for others.  We also have love seeking purity.  I totally disagree with some of our so-called experts who say this scene is something else.  It tells us right in our reading that Ruth and Boaz are noble characters.  Ruth is to go and lay at the feet of Boaz after he retires and this is what she did and no more.

I also want you to notice the symbolism here.  Ruth gets all dressed up in her finest.  She is trying to be as pure as possible so that she can be at the feet of her redeemer, Boaz.  These two women had been driven to their knees through hardship.  They had been reduced to nothing more than scrounging beggars.  This was the fate of women who have no men in their lives.  This was their last chance for life.

Are you beginning to see the parallel here?  These people were down and out.  They knew of someone who could redeem their lives, Boaz.  Ruth cleaned up and put on her best clothes.  Then she fell down at the feet of her redeemer.  If this isn’t a parallel to what we are supposed to be doing with Jesus, then I don’t know what is.

Today, we have many, many people who are down and out.  I’m not necessarily talking about money.  They have had one bad turn after another and now they don’t know where to turn.  Maybe you are like this.  Maybe you just don’t recognize your life.  All you have to do is confess your sins to Jesus.  This is the cleansing part where Ruth cleaned up and put on her finest clothes.  Then come to the feet of Jesus.  Ask Him to live in your life.  Ask Him to be your Redeemer.  He will help you.  He will be the last Redeemer you ever need.  This passage from Ruth is so important because it tells us that this was the way even in the Old Testament.  I hope that as we go through the Bible this year you will see a lot of similarities in the Old and New Testaments.

I think that we also need to be reminded that the purity that ‘love’ demands has to be practiced on a daily basis.  Remember that we read in 1 John 4:16 that God is love.  Therefore Jesus is love.  Therefore, this purity is what Jesus demands.  If you want to have a bad time, then practice bad things.  If you want to have good things, then practice good.  You cannot play around with the devil all week and come on Sunday morning and expect everything in your life to turn around.  You have to practice being pure all week.  Our relationship with Jesus is a full time relationship, not just once in a while or once a week.

The last thing I would like to point out here is that love keeps its promises.  Jesus keeps His promises.  In our story Boaz is overwhelmed with the attention given him by Ruth.  She is obviously a younger woman as Boaz tells her that there are basically many men her age who would be willing to marry her.  After all, Boaz is older and no prize to look at.

Anyway, Boaz tells her that he will honor her request for marriage.  He will be her redeemer and she will have a life again.  However, there is one slight catch but Boaz will take care of it.  It seems that there is another man who is a closer relative who would have first chance to marry Ruth.  Boaz wants all of this to be above board because He is noble.  He wants this marriage to start out purely as we just talked about.  So Boaz goes and talks with this new party and Boaz is given the ok to marry Ruth and take care of Naomi.  Boaz promised to take care of things and he ties up all the loose ends so this relationship can start off on the right foot.

Every four years we have our election process to elect a new President.  In the last few years, we have seen some of the dirtiest tactics ever.  I would guess that if these politicians delivered 5% of what they promised, they would be doing pretty good.  It doesn’t matter which party you favor.  People have gotten so sick of all the negative campaigns that they just don’t vote.  The point here is that all the politicians made promises that they can’t keep.  What do you think of the person who promises to deliver let’s say your groceries for the week and they don’t show up?  Or maybe someone promises to give you a ride and they don’t show up.  You don’t think much of them and you probably would think twice about asking them again.

Unfortunately, many of our nation’s businesses, churches and also our government are operating on these principles.  They have no intention of keeping their promises.  Advertisements and political campaigns drive me up the wall.  Whatever happened to a little honesty?  Don’t you ever get tired of all the lies and misinformation you hear?  I know I do but I also know that I don’t have to let this get me down.

You see, like Boaz did for Ruth and Naomi, Jesus has done for us.  You don’t have to worry about a lot of the things in your world that you like to worry about because of the promises that Jesus has made to you.  He has promised you eternal life with Him.  He has promised to be with you in all your troubles.  He has promised to love you always.  He has promised you grace.  The list goes on and on.  Jesus promises these things and He will deliver and you can take that to the bank.  You don’t have to worry about the empty promises from this world, the promises of Satan.  They are worthless.  Put your trust, put your faith in Jesus Christ in all you do.

In modern Jewish weddings, there is a custom where the groom takes a cotton or silk cloak and spreads it from his shoulders to the bride’s shoulders and covers her.  He is declaring that it is his responsibility to protect her from this day forward.  This is really what happened in the story of Ruth and Boaz.  When we come to Jesus, this is what we are asking.  We are asking for the cloak of Jesus to be around us.

So next time you are down just think about this idea from Davon Huss.  He states, I don’t care how ugly you think you are; you are God’s delight.  I don’t care how fat you think you are; you are God’s delight.  If your marriage is struggling, you are God’s delight.  If you are divorced or your self-esteem is wrecked, you are God’s delight.  If you are so depressed that you throw a pity party and no one shows up, you are God’s delight and He loves you.  If your business bad, you are the apple of God’s eye.  When the wrinkles come, you are the most beautiful person in the world to God.  So instead of wasting time trying to prove to everyone that you are worth something, you can start with the idea that you already are somebody because God, the maker of everything in the universe, takes great delight in you.  He loves you.

So, the question we have to ask is this, (I sing) “What’s love got to do, got to do with it.  What’s love, it’s not a second-hand emotion.”  Love is a first-hand emotion and it has everything to do with all of our lives.  Love has everything to do with everything.  Jesus has everything to do with everything. Love is the emotion of the King of kings and Lord of lords.  Don’t ever forget this love that never fails and is only for you.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.