Ruth: 1:20-2:3; The doctrine of bitterness, part 22 – Conclusion. Rut 2:1-3 - Ruth gleans/providence.

Title: Ruth: 1:20-2:3; The doctrine of bitterness, part 22 - Conclusion. RUT 2:1-3 - Ruth gleans/providence.

 

Men who give their vigor to the adulteress will only find bitter suffering in the end.

 

PRO 5:1 My son, give attention to my wisdom, Incline your ear to my understanding;

 

PRO 5:2 That you may observe discretion, And your lips may reserve knowledge.

 

PRO 5:3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, And smoother than oil is her speech;

 

Be wary of what she says. She will flatter and appeal to your pride.

 

PRO 5:4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.

 

PRO 5:5 Her feet go down to death, Her steps lay hold of Sheol.

 

PRO 5:6 She does not ponder the path of life; Her ways are unstable, she does not know it.

 

There is no use trying to reason with her. If she is an adulteress, get away from her.

 

If anyone is being tempted by her or is involved with her, I would suggest that you read to verse 20 and then read it over and over again.

 

The adulteress of the Bible would be a name that also applies to pornography, which is a present day plight upon men.

 

ECC 7:23 I tested all this with wisdom, and I said, "I will be wise," but it was far from me.

 

ECC 7:24 What has been is remote and exceedingly mysterious. Who can discover it?

 

ECC 7:25 I directed my mind to know, to investigate, and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the evil of folly and the foolishness of madness.

 

ECC 7:26 And I discovered more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains. One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.

 

A foolish son will be bitter to his mother.

 

PRO 17:25 A foolish son is a grief to his father,

And bitterness to her who bore him.

 

All of us should remember that our decisions don't only affect us. A young man should know that if he makes a lot of foolish choices that it will hurt his mother.

 

Bitterness is aroused if we fail the tests of faith that God gives us.

 

EXO 15:22 Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.

 

EXO 15:23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah.

 

EXO 15:24 So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?"

 

What did they just sing to the Lord in the joy of their hearts after passing through the Red Sea?

 

EXO 15:11 "Who is like Thee among the gods, O Lord?

Who is like Thee, majestic in holiness,

Awesome in praises, working wonders?"

 

EXO 15:13 "In Thy lovingkindness Thou hast led the people whom Thou hast redeemed;

In Thy strength Thou hast guided them to Thy holy habitation."

 

EXO 15:17 "Thou wilt bring them [Israel] and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance,

The place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thy dwelling,

The sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established.

 

EXO 15:18 "The Lord shall reign forever and ever."

 

A little shortage of water shouldn't interfere with Israel being planted in the mountain of God's inheritance, especially since He alone reigns forever.

 

How quickly we forget when danger presents itself.

 

EXO 15:24 So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?"

 

EXO 15:25 Then he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There He made for them a statute and regulation, and there He tested them.

 

EXO 15:26 And He said, "If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer."

 

"the Lord your healer" - Yavah rophekha

 

Seeming wants cause bitterness. Trial is always temporary and always has a good reason. God will heal and deliver. He is always righteous and just.

 

In every case that the Bible addresses the sin of bitterness it arises due to want that is illegitimate and not necessary in the plan of God.

 

RUT 1:19 So they both went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came about when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was stirred because of them, and the women said, "Is this Naomi?"

 

The journey from Moab was about 75 miles and it is not level. The would have to descend from the Moabite highlands to the Jordan valley, a descent of 4,500 feet, followed by an ascent to Bethlehem of 3,750 feet, walking through desert territory, through the wilderness of Judah.

 

RUT 1:20 And she said to them, "Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.

 

RUT 1:21 I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?"

 

Naomi means pleasant, Mara means bitter.

"Almighty" - Shaddai = the power of God that He dispenses (used 48 times, 34 of which in Job).

 

Like Job, Naomi sees God simply doing as He pleases, and in her case, she imagines that what He pleased was to make her bitter. Job had the same misconception. We're not saying that she needs to have a big smile on her face. But her bitterness, coupled with the name she chooses for God, reveals that she has forgotten the lovingkindness and faithfulness of the Lord. She needs to imagine a chapter four, though she could never accurately imagine the details.

 

RUT 1:22 So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the land of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

 

The mention of the barley harvest sets the stage for the following chapters. Chapter one is tragedy, but the harvest signifies rebirth, something joyful.

 

The word shuv (return) is used 12 times in chapter one. It means more than physical return. It connotes a return to God, the opportunity for the fruit of chesed (lovingkindness).

 

Ruth has shown lovingkindness to Naomi, and though she does not yet see it, God is going to show it to Naomi in a way she could have never imagined.

 

RUT 2:1 Now Naomi had a kinsman of her husband, a man of great wealth [mighty man of wealth], of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.

 

The rabbis make Boaz out to be the nephew of Elimelech, but they also state that Boaz had just buried his wife when Naomi and Ruth arrived, and neither of these have any foundation. The word used for kinsman in this passage is not the word used for kinsman-redeemer, which we will see coming up.

 

Boaz (ready or alert) is a moda - an acquaintance or friend of her husband. He is a blood relative of her husband, but not a close one.   

 

In other words, it is not a foregone conclusion that Boaz is a kinsman-redeemer. He is not given that title here. In fact, Naomi has a kinsman closer than Boaz, to whom Naomi's land is offered for redemption. The fact that the other man refuses the offer of the land when he hears that he must take Ruth with it, is not a matter of chance of coincidence.

 

For those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, what God presents in His word as seeming coincidence is nothing but divine providence.

 

The Book of Esther is a wonderful example of this. The book doesn't mention God once, but His hand is all over it as it is full of coincidences.

 

Boaz is described as a man of great wealth, but two Hebrew words are used to describe him. The first describes him as strong. The word is used of soldiers of heroic proportions, but Boaz was not a soldier. It is used of the Messiah in ISA 9:6. The second word refers to his wealth.

 

Boaz is a gibbowr chayil or a "mighty man of wealth." He is an efficient, capable, and wealthy landowner, who lived an exemplary lifestyle.  

 

Boaz is a relative of Naomi's husband and so, potentially, he could be a kinsman-redeemer, but that is not yet stated with the proper Hebrew word. This means that he is from the tribe of Judah, which is important for the line of Christ. He is a man of valor, meaning that he is a man who fills his obligations as unto the Lord. He is strong spiritually and so he is strong ethically. He is very wealthy.

 

His spiritual strength coupled with his lineage and wealth is going to open wide the opportunity to show chesed to Ruth and Naomi, and he will.

 

All believers, regardless of physical birth or wealth, have the assets necessary to show chesed, steadfast love, to others in the way that Christ Jesus would.  

 

RUT 2:2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favor." And she said to her, "Go, my daughter."

 

Ruth has been fully converted to the Jewish faith, but she is not ethnically a Jew, and so she is never called a Jew, but always a Moabitess, lest we forget that she is a foreigner, not of some kind of prejudice, but so that we do not forget what the grace of God can do.

 

We must understand the law of gleaning, LEV 19:9; LEV 23:22; DEU 24:19. Kindness amidst a strict Law.  

 

The law of gleaning stood in striking contrast to the heathen customs of the time. It was one of the arrangements of the Law of Moses that held exquisite kindness to God's people. Such could only be of divine origin.

 

This shows that it is possible to be strict and rigid when it comes to law and at the same time be kind. Strictness does not force harshness. Rigidity doesn't equal coldness when grace is in the heart of the law lover.

 

That which was dropped, or left, or forgotten in the harvest was not to be claimed by the owner. You were not to reap to the very corners of your field. The excess was left for the orphan, widow, and stranger.

 

LEV 19:9 'Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest.

 

LEV 19:10 'Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God.

 

We also note that the needy had to go out there and get it. They were still required to do some work. It wasn't brought to their door if they were able to walk.

 

DEU 24:19 "When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

 

DEU 24:20 When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow.

 

DEU 24:21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go over it again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow.

 

DEU 24:22 And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.

 

God knowing how greedy mankind can narrowly interpret commands, includes the stranger in all three passages as well as the orphan and widow.

 

Thus, the desolate share in Israel's blessings, and that of divine right rather than human charity.

 

The Law of Moses was uncompromisingly strict, and here it is strictly enforcing provision for the poor and desolate. However, hostile landowners, unbelieving landowners, would have ways of making gleaning difficult for the poor. We would imagine that the poor would know of those landowners who were not hostile and greedy, and certainly Boaz would have been known. Yet, Ruth doesn't have to enquire of who is the most gracious and law abiding of the landowners, for God is going to bring her to Boaz's fields for a much bigger purpose than food.

 

By gleaning, Ruth is protecting Naomi from the embarrassment of it.