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Tomorrow is my children’s great-grandma’s 94th
birthday. She is Tammy’s grandmother. We all call her Nana. When I
first met Tammy’s grandparents I tried to call them by their first
names, Red and Ethel, but I soon yielded to the more familiar Nana and
Pa. Nana grew up in Southeast Texas. Her mother used to call her
Ethel Lina Bessie Bee. She went to school with Babe Didrikson
Zaharias, who was voted the greatest female athlete of the 20th
Century. Nana always thought Babe, whose given name was Mildred and
who got her nickname after hitting five home runs in a baseball game,
was a little too proud. I think winning two gold medals and two
silver medals in the 1932 Olympics and 82 Professional Golf
Tournaments can do that to a person. Of course, I doubt that Babe
Zaharias could fry catfish, or catch white perch as expertly as Nana.
What kind of stories do you have about your great grandma?
We are preaching about old friends you may have never met.
Today I wanted to introduce you to a great grandma. Of course, life
never starts out that way. No one begins life as a great grandma. So
allow me to introduce you to my friend, Ruth. It’s a story of
perseverance, participation, and providence. It is a great story and
it begins as all great stories do – “Once upon a time…”
Once upon a time there was a woman named Ruth, a Moabitess from Moab.
Hear the beginning of the story, hear now the word of the Lord:
1In the days when the
judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of
Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his
wife and two sons. 2The name of the man was Elimelech and
the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon
and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went
into the country of Moab and remained there. 3But Elimelech,
the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4These
took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the
other Ruth. When they had lived there about ten years, 5both
Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her
two sons and her husband.
This is the Word of
God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
What an introduction to a family of faith. William Williams was a
Welsh preacher who once wrote, “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,
pilgrim through this barren land.” Now we see its relevance.
In just five verses we meet a family of four who were forced to flee
their farm and become resident aliens on the other side of the Jordan
River, about which people from Bethlehem still have some serious
reservations. While over there Daddy dies leaving Naomi all alone
with her two sons. The boys wind up marrying Moabites, because that
was where they lived at the time. Now it is important to remember
that though some of Naomi’s best friends may have been Moabites, the
idea of her sons marrying them could not have been the dreams that she
had for them. Within ten years the boys also die, leaving the
storyteller with three surviving widows. This is not such a great
story after all. It has far too much pain in such a short time. It
does get better – I promise.
The
famine in Bethlehem finally ended and Naomi decided to move back
home. Her daughters-in-law have become quite fond of their
mother-in-law and start trailing behind her. She stops and says,
“Here’s the deal. For the last ten years I have been a foreigner in
your land. It is not an easy life for a widow, but I had my boys and
they were married to you. It was manageable. If you go with me to
Bethlehem, you will be the foreigners and there are no men to provide
for us there. Go home to your families and start life over. There’s
still time for you.” Orpah saw the wisdom in those words and went
home.
Ruth, though, had a loyalty and a compassionate devotion that would
not stop. Speaking through her tender tears she proclaimed, “Where
you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be
my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die— there will
I be buried.” She simply would not leave.
So
they journey back to Bethlehem. Naomi’s friends were excited about
seeing their friend again. Her name meant “pleasant one” and she had
always been so. However, when they saw her they barely recognized
her. The grief produced by losing her husband and sons left her
looking weathered and pain stricken. “Don’t call me Naomi, ‘the
pleasant one’,” she said, “Call me Mara, ‘the bitter one’,
because the Lord has dealt bitterly with me.”
Ruth and Naomi were hungry, poor, and empty at Naomi’s home, where
Ruth was a foreigner. “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim
through this barren land.” Ruth knew that poor people and
foreigners were allowed to go out in the fields behind the harvesters
and gather what the workers dropped. It was their version of
welfare. So she went and walked close behind the harvesters to get
the best and most grain. Of course, this was also the most vulnerable
place to walk, because the field hands could easily nab such a
defenseless woman. She worked without a break. When the field owner
came to check on the progress of the harvest, he noticed the young
woman walking so closely and working so diligently. He asked who she
was and when he heard the story of her and Naomi, he called her over
to him. “Don’t glean in any other field but this one and stay close
to all the other young women,” he said, taking a very compassionate
tone with the young woman who was new to this business of gleaning as
a powerless pauper. Then he added, “I have instructed the men not to
bother you and when you are thirsty, you can drink from their water
jars.”
Ruth
was touched by the man’s kindness and asked why he would be so
compassionate on a foreigner with absolutely no rights. He told her
that he had heard how incredibly kind she had been to Naomi. Her
kindness, he said, placed her under the wings of the Lord of Israel as
her refuge. Boaz then spoke privately to his field hands and told
them to pull out some grain from the bundled sheaves and drop them on
the ground so that her “gleanings” would be plentiful. In one day she
collected enough barley to provide for her and Naomi for one month!
Naomi was shocked by her daughter-in-laws efforts and after a few
questions discovered that the man in whose field she gleaned was
indeed a relative of Naomi’s. She told Ruth to stay in that field,
because anywhere else she was almost sure to be harassed. Of course,
Ruth followed Naomi’s advice.
Harvest season was nearing its end when Naomi hatched a plan. Ruth
should go to Boaz at night while he slept on the threshing floor.
Apparently, he and his workers had threshed the grain all day. They
spread it out on this smooth floor where the oxen would trample the
grain, cracking the hulls. Then they would throw the grain up in the
air, letting the prevailing breeze blow the chaff away as the heavier
grain fell to the floor. The grain was then stacked and bagged for
sale. The owner slept by his investment to protect it from raiding
thieves or animals. Ruth waited until he was asleep. Then in her
best dress and nicest perfume she lied down by his feet. At midnight
Boaz rolled over and kicked the woman. He was startled to wake up and
discover he was not alone. In the dark he asked, “Who are you?” Ruth
told him it was she and that he should cover her with the hem of his
garment as protection. She further explained that he was a relative
of Naomi’s and could provide for her and Naomi for quite some time.
In other words, this woman who had spent seven weeks gleaning what the
workers had missed, this foreigner who had few rights and plenty of
vulnerabilities, was proposing to the landowner who had yet to
show anything more than compassion.
Boaz
said, “Yes.”
However, he first had to take care of one technicality. There was a
closer kin, who really had the right of first refusal in this family
transaction of adopting a wife. He sent Ruth home just before
daybreak, sparing her the exposure to abuse by night prowlers and
gossip by early risers. Then he met with the nearest kinsman and told
him of some property that Naomi’s husband had, that Naomi was
selling. As nearest kin he had right of first refusal, but if he did
not want it, Boaz would buy it. The man was anxious to add to his
assets and said he would buy it. When he read the fine print and
discovered that with it comes the daughter-in-law, a Moabitess, and
their children would have inheritance rights, he realized that this
would actually increase his liabilities. “No thanks,” he said and
sealed the deal by handing Boaz one of his sandals. That’s back in
the day when a man’s sandal was his bond. Everyone around was so
happy. Even Naomi smiled for the first time in a long time, but it
would not be her last or biggest smile.
Boaz
and Ruth got married and a while later Ruth had a baby. He was so
cute! They named him Obed, which means “one who works”, obviously
named after his mama or perhaps after her Lord who worked through so
many people in this story. The story ends with Naomi holding her
grandson in her arms. I bet she was a great grandma. Speaking of
great-grandmas, in time, Ruth became one. Listen to how the story is
wrapped up in Ruth 4:16-17, “Then Naomi took the child and laid him
in her bosom, and became his nurse. The women of the neighborhood gave
him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him
Obed; he became the father of Jesse, the father of David.” Ruth’s
son Obed, grew up and became the father of Jesse (Ruth’s grandson),
who grew up and had seven sons, the youngest of whom slew a giant,
wrote psalms, and became the greatest king Israel had ever known –
David to whom Ruth would have been great-grandma. The end.
It is a great story: A story of perseverance, participation, and
protection.
This is a story of
perseverance. Ruth and Naomi weathered some terrible
events in their lives. Both of them knew the pain of grief. Both of
them knew the disadvantages of being far from home and in a foreign
land. When I first came to Texas from Findlay, Ohio thirty-two years
ago this summer I was looking for Old Beaumont Highway on the east
side of Houston. That’s where my best friend was attending school. I
drove all over the 610 Loop and I-10, but never saw a sign for Old
Beaumont Highway. Finally, I stopped and asked for directions. The
gas station attendant was of little help except to point me toward a
pay phone. I called Southern Bible College and a man answered giving
me directions from where I was. He told me to take DeFader Road to
the first stop sign and turn right. I asked him what road. He
repeated it for me, “DeFader Road”. I told him that I had been
driving around for thirty minutes and never saw DeFader Road. He
shouted into the phone, “Do you see that road that runs beside the
freeway? That is DeFader Road!!” It wasn’t until I got together with
my friend that I discovered what the feeder road is.
“Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land.”
Ruth and Naomi knew what it was like to be in a different land with
different customs and expressions. Yet they persevered.
This is a story of participation.
One of the notable things of this story is the lack of special
effects. Last week we met Jonah with a giant fish serving as a bed
and breakfast, a fast growing vine, and a very hungry worm. Before
that we met Job and witnessed the powerful whirlwind with which the
Lord confronted Job. Here we meet mild mannered Ruth working hard to
provide for her mother-in-law who had done so much for her. We meet
the kind Boaz who instructs his workers to watch after the foreigner
in their fields and warns them against any abusive behavior. We meet
the wise Naomi whose love for her daughter-in-law causes her to hold
onto hope and offer sound advice. This is a story of people
participating in the plan of God through kindness and loyalty to one
another. “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this
barren land.” I had the opportunity to watch this happen time
and time again at Youth Camp last week. One of the kids shared in my
small group that she had come forward to pray one night and someone
placed a hand on her head and prayed for her. She said, “That was the
first time anyone had ever prayed for me like that and it was
wonderful.” Another boy in my small group had lost a leg in an
accident less than a year ago and the friendship of people in our
group caused him to rethink his anger and the choices that he had been
making recently. Never underestimate the importance of your
participation in the plan of God, by your mercy and your loyalty.
This is a story of participation.
This is a story of
providence. The hand of God seems to be all over this
story. After all, how does one go from being a Moabitess widow across
the Jordan from Israel to being the great-grandma to the greatest king
Israel has ever known? Even Matthew 1:5 recognized Ruth’s role, not
only in the lineage of David, but the lineage of Jesus of Nazareth,
the Messiah, and Savior of the world. God did that. “Guide me,
O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land.” God
took an ordinary woman and made her a part of an extraordinary story.
While doing all that, God turned the grief of a woman who had lost so
much into the joy of a grandmother holding her grandson close to her.
I can imagine her singing out a song of joy, a song of providence, as
she lifts her eyes to the God of compassion.
It
is a great story you know – a story of perseverance, a story of
participation, and a story of providence. In fact, it is our story.
There are times in our lives where perseverance is all that we
can do. There are times in our lives where instead of a miracle of
loaves and fish, God calls us to feed the hungry and participate
in his God’s plan. There are times in our lives where ordinary events
transpire to create an extraordinary path that has God’s fingerprints
all over it – providence.
So happy
birthday, Nana. You come from a long line of great grandmas who
prayed, “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this
barren land.” Amen
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