Greeting and Introduction
Good morning, everyone.
As Pastor Steve said, my name is Conrad. I am one of the pastors here. Pastor Joel insisted that I tell you you won’t be subjected to me much longer. He promises to be back in the pulpit soon and for a while. He’s sad that he couldn’t be here this morning, actually. So, if you need a Bible to follow along with our Bible study, put your hand up, and someone, somewhere, will find a way to get a Bible to you. Those of you who already have Bibles, you can turn to the book of Ruth.
Story: Brother Andrew and the Bibles
And I want to tell you a little story about a fellow named Andrew—Brother Andrew, actually. Andrew van der Bijl was his birth name, and he got saved in the 1940s. After he got saved, he made it his mission to get God’s Word to as many people as possible. His primary focus was on closed countries. He actually became known as God’s Smuggler because he would smuggle Bibles into these closed countries.
Well, a number of years later—I think this was in the 80s—he recounted a particularly harrowing story of trying to smuggle some Bibles into Romania, which at that time was part of the USSR. He’s trying to bring these Bibles in. He’s got his now-iconic Volkswagen Beetle with boxes of Bibles in the back, and he’s pulling up to the border checkpoint. The line’s a little bit longer than it usually is. He’s like, oh, that’s interesting—not a cause for concern, but he starts moving forward, and then some cars get in behind him. Eventually it gets to the point where you can see what’s happening up at the border. It turns out that people are being asked to get out of their car, and then the car is being stripped down—panels pulled off, doors removed, parts taken from underneath and laid out on the ground and examined.
And so he thinks, this is not good. He could just turn around, but if I turn around, who knows what happens if they see me suddenly fleeing this border checkpoint. They might even open fire for all he knows. So he is quite terrified, and he prays, God, help me to deliver Your Word to Your people. This is an impossible situation. I don’t know what to do. So the natural question then is, what happens? How does he get out of this situation? And that is a question that we will answer at the end of the sermon. Brutal.
Thank you for that, yes.
Scripture Reading: Ruth 2:2–9 (NKJV)
So with that said, we’re going to read from the book of Ruth. We’re in chapter 2 and verse 2. I’m reading as usual from the New King James. Thank you.
So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field, and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” Then she left and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. Now, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you.” And they answered, “The Lord bless you.” Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” So the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered and said, “It is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. And she said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ So she came and has continued from morning until now, though she rested a little in the house.” Then Boaz said to Ruth, “You will listen, my daughter, will you not? Do not go to glean in another field, nor go from here, but stay close by my young women. Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you?”
Opening Prayer
Let’s pray. Father, thank You for Your Word, for this beautiful story and the depth that is in it. I pray that as we mind these verses for truth this morning, that You would open our eyes and our minds and our hearts to see and hear and understand what You have to teach us this morning. And I pray that we’d come out of this feeling encouraged to step forward in boldness in Your name, Father. Amen.
Context: Naomi, Ruth, and the Setting in Ruth
So today we’re actually going to do quite a deep dive, so all you nerds should be excited. And the rest of you just stick with me. It will be good, I promise.
So we’re kind of airdropping into the book of Ruth, and I think a little bit of context will help us sort of understand the picture that’s being painted here. So first of all, there is a woman named Naomi and her husband, Elimelech. They have a couple of sons, and Israel is going through a famine. They lived in Bethlehem, and so they left Israel to go to Moab. And while they were in Moab, the sons got married, life is good, but then one day—for reasons that are not explained to us—Elimelech and both of his sons die. And so now, Naomi and her two daughters-in-law are all three widows. And Naomi decides she’s going to go back to Israel to her land with her people, and she tells her daughters-in-law, hey, you’re cool to stay here. You’re still young, you got your whole lives in front of you. Go back to your father’s house, and you can remarry. And so one of them says, good idea. And the other one says, no, I will be staying with you. My covenant was with your son, your people will be my people, your God will be my God. That’s Ruth.
So Ruth takes the journey back to Israel with Naomi. And so they come to Israel and they’re broke. Now we begin our study.
Ruth’s Bold Request and the Controversy in Verse 7
Verses 2 and 3 read:
So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field, and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” Then she left and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.
So part of the reason that Naomi returns to Israel is that there’s provision in the Mosaic law for the widow, the orphan, the poor, the foreigner. In that when the reapers were harvesting the fields, they were not to do the edges of the field, and if they missed anything on the first pass, they were not to go back for it. And that was meant to be there for the widow, the orphan, the poor, the foreigner, so that they could eat. And now, as you can imagine, there would have been several people vying for these scraps, and it would have been probably not the best possible stuff, but people were being provided for in a way that was not happening necessarily in other places.
But this is compounded by the fact that Naomi is in a terrible headspace, right? She’s just undergone immense tragedy. She’s moved back. And she doesn’t really know which end is up because she’s probably experiencing depression. But what’s interesting is that Ruth then says, okay, well, I know what the laws are here for provisions. So I’m going to take care of the both of us. I’ll go and make sure that we’re looked after. And what I love is that Ruth just so happens to land in Boaz’s field. The first field she comes to, just happens to be the field of a guy who is part of the family of her now deceased father-in-law. Aren’t coincidences amazing?
Verse four:
Now, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you.” And they answered, “The Lord bless you.”
Okay, so coincidence upon coincidence here. Ruth just happens to show up at a field owned by a member of Elimelech’s family on the same day that that guy comes to that particular field to check on the harvest. And I should just say, in case you’re not picking up the sarcasm, that when I say coincidence, what I mean is God’s providential hand at work. So just to be clear.
Now, um, Boaz and the workers greet each other with an acknowledgment that God guides and God provides, right? The Lord be with you, and the Lord bless you. So this tells us what type of people they are, what their priorities are. We see a little bit about them, their work environment, and a touch of who Boaz is.
Verse five:
Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?”
So I love this. In my mind, this is like an 80s rom-com. Like, Boaz looks up and sees this beautiful woman standing at the edge of his field and true by Spando ballet place, you know? And he’s just like, anyway, that’s what is happening in my mind.
But the question that he asks is, whose young woman is this? And it’s interesting to me that he does not ask who she is, but whose she is. Because at that time, for a woman to be alone in the field like this would have been very uncommon. We would expect that a woman like this would be performing duties in her own field, in her own home, taking care of things for her family, so to be out in someone else’s field, when she should be under the protection and care of her father, or her brother, or her husband, or possibly her son, depending on her age, was unusual, right? Boaz is saying, why is no one taking care of her? What is wrong here? That’s the real question he’s getting at.
Verse six:
So the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered and said, “It is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. And she said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ So she came and has continued from morning until now, though she rested a little in the house.”
Now, the thing I want to highlight here is, you notice how her request changed, right, from verse 3 to verse 7, and verse 3, she asked Naomi, can I go and glean and gather after the reapers? Naomi says, go girl. And then in verse seven, she asked the foreman, can I glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves?
Now, for those of us who aren’t farmers, this might not make a whole lot of sense. But the sheaves, basically, what’s being communicated here is that the harvesters would go through and cut down whatever they were harvesting—barley in this case—and then they would pile it up. That’s a sheaf. And then the ladies, the women servants, would come through and bundle them up to take them for threshing. So Ruth is asking, get this. She’s saying, I know that I can glean on the edges, and whatever is left over after the harvesters go through, but I want to gather from among the choice barley that you have already harvested. Big time request, bold request, right? Because she’s gathering for two, and she wants to do right by Naomi. She wants to take care of her. So we’re going to take that big bold request, and we’re going to put it in our pocket, because it’s going to matter later.
And so, it might surprise you to learn that among theology nerds and translation nerds that this is a hotly contested passage. And so your question would probably become, well, what’s the controversy? It doesn’t seem that complicated. The controversy is this. What was Ruth actually doing that morning?
So let’s go through. I’m going to go through 6 popular translations and see how they compare.
New King James Version:
So she came and has continued from morning until now, though she rested a little in the house.
English Standard Version:
So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.
Christian Standard Version:
She came and has been on her feet since early morning, except that she rested a little in the shelter.
New English Translation:
Since she arrived, she has been working hard from this morning until now, except for sitting in the resting hut a short time.
New International Version (1984):
She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.
New Living Translation:
She has been hard at work ever since, except for a few minutes rest.
So, we’re looking at verse three. Naomi, can I go? Naomi says yes, and then it says, so she went and came and gathered or gleaned after the reapers, right? So she went and got to work. So what’s the controversy? Well, translating from one language to another is as much an art as it is a science. Anyone in here speak multiple languages, you know what I’m talking about? I see that one hand, Martha. Thank you.
But you think about it, okay? If you grew up around the same time that I did—the 80s, 90s—you would have used words like this: bad, fat, sick and ill. These are all good things. Right? In the 90s, I might have been heard to say something like, bro, that movie was wicked. And someone not understanding the idiom, the way that we talked, the colloquial language of the time, would probably translate that as brother, that movie was evil. Right?
So in the same way, we are quite removed from this time when these events happened, and so it can be tricky how we translate these things to make sense of what’s happened.
So, I think there’s 2 words or phrases that are causing the contention here. The first one is continued. She hath continued, or has continued, which is the Hebrew amad, in case you speak Hebrew and wanted to know. Now, this word appears more than 500 times in the Old Testament, but this is the only one where any translation translates it as hard at work. Do you know what it’s translated as, every other time it appears? Stand, or stand waiting.
So, why then do the literal translations, like our King James, leave it ambiguous? Well, the more thought-for-thought translations render it as hard work? Why would they make that choice? Why do they stretch that word? Because of the next phrase, rested a little. Again, Hebrew is at yashab, for the Hebrew speakers. And the question is, why would Ruth need to rest a little in the house if she had merely been standing waiting? She hadn’t done any work, so what does she need to rest from?
Well, what’s interesting to me is that the word dwell a little, rested a little, could also be translated as dwell too little, or even hardly dwell.
But I can offer more evidence. I think that there’s also the matter of character that is at issue here. So, um, we gotta know who we’re talking about. Who are these people in this story, who are Ruth and Boaz? We know that Boaz is wealthy because he owns fields. We know that he’s God-fearing because of the way that he addresses his workers. And we know that he’s of good character because of what happens in the rest of the book of Ruth. And if you haven’t read, I can’t recommend it enough. It couldn’t take you more than 15 minutes to read the whole thing. So that’s Boaz. Wealthy, God-fearing man of good character.
And then we have Ruth, who is literally described, literally described as a worthy woman. And if you don’t understand why that significance, because that’s the same way that the woman in Proverbs 31 is described. The exact same Hebrew phrase. So here we have a wealthy, God-fearing man of good character, and a Proverbs 31 woman. So let’s just hold on to those thoughts for a 2nd as we talk about why those descriptions matter.
Now, most agree that later in verse 15, Boaz is being extremely generous. Why is he being generous? Let’s look at verse 15:
And when she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men saying, let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her.
Right now, this is generous because of what among the sheaves men, right? She wanted the choice barley, not the leftovers. She wanted the best stuff, right? That bold request that we put in our pocket earlier. This is the same phrase as in verse 7 that we’re talking about right now.
So to illustrate this, I’m going to talk about, has anyone seen Les Misérables? Not one single person? Okay, so this won’t be helpful, but I’m going to say it anyway. So this character, Jean Valjean, is taken in by this kindly bishop, right? Myriel. I don’t know, I don’t pronounce French very well. Anyway, he’s taken in by this bishop, but during the night, he steals this silver candlestick and takes off, right? So what happens? He’s caught by, um, Javert, thank you. Someone was whispering that over there. I knew you’d seen it. Javert catches him, brings him back to the bishop and says, hey, this guy stole your candlestick. Let’s press charges. And the bishop, what does he do? He says, no, no, no. He didn’t take my candlestick. It was a gift. Now, if the bishop stops there, and we’re describing that event, would we describe that as generous? I don’t know if generous is the right word, magnanimous, certainly gracious. I don’t know if we’d say it’s generous.
What makes it generous is then after. He’s like, no, no, he forgot the other candlestick and also all of this stuff he forgot. And he just remembers Javert receiving the whole seething the whole time, right? But anyway, that’s not either here nor there.
So, I think that if we think that Ruth makes a bold request, and then just goes in and starts getting to work, without getting permission, I think what she has done is robbed Boaz of the opportunity to be generous. But let’s say for the sake of the argument that we would describe this as generous, they use different words in those days. I still think it’s an attack on Ruth’s character, a Proverbs 31 woman.
Here’s another illustration. You get a knock on the door. You go to answer. A guy pitches you a sob story, oh, this thing happened, that happened, I’m down on my luck. Can you give me some money and food? Then without waiting for you to answer, he barges past you and starts rummaging through your cupboards and drawers looking for money and food. Is this a Proverbs 31 person? Would you describe this person as virtuous, trustworthy? Dignified, wise, respectful of the Lord. I don’t think so. I’ve described them as brash and boorish, and I’d probably call the police.
No, I think that Ruth made that bold request and then did not do anything. I think that she waited. But I have even more evidence. Yes, you’re welcome.
I think if we look at older translations closer to the source of when this was written, it will shed even more light. Now, how can I say that? The example I came up with that God gave me, I guess, during the 930 was that’s the Christmas song, Baby It’s Cold Outside. Now, you remember a couple years ago, the popular culture tried to cancel this song because of the line when she says, hey, what’s in this drink? And we all think like, oh, he roofied her. But, in the 40s, that was actually a joke that they would make about the drinks. It was a common phrase that people knew and were familiar with. That’s when the song was written. That’s why no one had any problem with the song for 40 years, right? 50, 60 years. But then once that phrase fell out of use and fell out of the common vernacular, and people who knew it started to die, young people who didn’t know it were offended by it.
So I think as we get closer, people who better understand the context it was written in will translate it closer to how it was intended to be read.
So, with that said, Ruth was written sometime between the 10th and 4th centuries BC. Let’s take a look at a couple of older sources. First, the Masoretic text. So this is essentially the Jewish Bible. It’s in Hebrew and Aramaic, and this is from about the 7th century AD. It says, so she came and hath continued, even from morning until now, that she tarried a little in the house, basically the same.
Let’s go a little older, the Latin Vulgate. This is an attempt to translate the whole Bible into the common language of the people, which was Latin. This is around the 4th century AD, so we’re 300 years closer. And she hath been in the field from morning until now, and hath not gone home for one moment. Oh, interesting. So yeah, that’s beginning to change.
One more. The Septuagint. Another attempt to put the Bible into the common language of the people. This was an Old Testament translation into Greek, then modern day Greek. Now, this is around the 2nd century BC. So we’re another 600 years closer to Ruth, and maybe as little as 200 years away. This is how it’s translated there. Don’t miss this. And she came, and she stood from morning until evening, and rested not a little.
See, she did not begin working, but waited until she had permission from the only one who could provide it. And I think this is the only interpretation that preserves the character of both Boaz and Ruth.
So if you’ll permit me, the Conrad’s unofficial version reads as follows. And she said, please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. So she came and has stood waiting from morning until now, having no need of the house.
Verses 8 and 9 A. Then Boaz said to Ruth, you will listen, my daughter, will you not? Do not go to glean in another field, nor go from here, but stay close by my young women. Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you?
And so we see here that her boldness and her patience have paid off, that she’s received the bold request, the giant request that she made.
Hebrews 4:16 says, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in a time of need.
Here’s my question, church. Is that what we do? Do we come boldly before the throne of grace?
Matthew 6. Jesus tells us to pray this way. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Do you think that that’s how we would pray that prayer today? When you think about how you pray, and I’m not picking on anyone. Please don’t hear me pick on anyone. This is me sometimes still. But I think today the average Christian would probably pray that prayer like this. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, God. God, if your kingdom could just come, and just let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, God, and just give us this day our daily bread, and just forgive us our debts, Lord, as we forgive our debtors, and just do not lead us into temptation, but just deliver us from the evil one, God, for yours is the kingdom and power and glory forever. Amen.
You see the difference there? I don’t think that we typically come boldly before the throne of grace. I think that typically, we act like neglected pets under the table asking God to drop crumbs down for us to eat. You know, my kids, when they want something, they just come up and ask me for it, because I have shown myself to be a faithful and generous provider. My kids only beg when they think that I’m going to say no.
Let’s not beg God. Let’s not come to him as though he’s already going to deny us the thing that we are asking for. I’m going to encourage you, when you pray, listen to yourself. Self, stop saying, God, just this or just that. If you want something, ask for it. If you’re being presumptuous or selfish, if it’s not in God’s will, don’t be surprised if he says no. But come boldly and approach. Because if you’re seeking God, genuinely. If you are seeking him, your desires will begin to align with his desires, it can’t be stopped.
As I was studying this this week, this came up in my study, this illustration I’m about to give. And so I shared it with my refresh group, so I’m sorry for giving you the same thing again. But when I came onto the leadership team with Joel, Pastor Joel and Pastor Steve, when we had to make important decisions, and I have no doubt it’s the same with the elders, but when we had to make important decisions, Pastor Joel would say, bro, take a couple days, go pray about it, and we’ll come back. I’m like, well, hold on now. We need to talk about what we’re gonna do in each of these 25 scenarios. These are possible outcomes, right? My hamster wheel is turning. And he’s like, let’s just pray about it first and then we’ll come back and talk. And you know what? Never ceases to amaze me, despite its consistency, is every time that we get back together, after taking that time to pray, God has given all 3 of us the same direction. If you’re seeking God, he will lead you. He will tell you.
So how is it that we then can come, as Hebrews says, boldly before the throne of grace with such confidence? As children of God? Right? Adopted, daughters and sons of the Most High.
Romans chapter 8 reads, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together.
Our man, Brother Andrew, is on the road to Romania. Every car that is pulled up to the border has been stripped down to its parts, laid on the ground, and searched thoroughly. And he’s coming up. He’s next in line and he’s praying, God, get me out of this. Help me deliver Your Word to Your people. I don’t know what to do. This is an impossible situation. And just as he’s being waved forward. God comes through. And God says, I want you to get some Bibles out of the back. And I want you to lay them on the dash and on the seat, face up, Holy Bible. So that’s what he does. And then there probably was no blood or breath left in him as he pulled up to the border with Holy Bible, proudly on display everywhere. Best case scenario, he goes to prison. Worst case scenario, he ends up dead in some sort of accident. He hands the guy the papers through the window. And then begins to open the door to get out. The border guard shoves his knee into the door to keep it shut, hands him his papers back and says, go ahead.
What? He couldn’t even believe it. He takes his foot off the brake, doesn’t dare touch the gas, lets the car begin to idle forward and waits for the hollering, the screaming, or possibly even the bullets. It doesn’t come. It doesn’t come. And then they wave the next car up, and those people get out, and the car begins to be stripped as he is driving into Romania to deliver God’s Word to God’s people. How amazing is that?
That’s the bold request that we’re going to take back out of our pockets as the worship team comes up. Brother Andrew asked to be saved from an impossible situation for the sake of the gospel. In the book of Acts, which we’ve been studying in our refresh group, we see that Peter and John are brought before the Sanhedrin, and they say, you better stop preaching the gospel or else. You know what just happened to Jesus. The disciples, the apostles, they go back to the group of Christians gathered and they tell them what happened. You know what they prayed? They prayed not for the persecution to stop, but for boldness in the face of that persecution. And that church that we read about in Acts, by the way, put a dent in history in case you’re curious. They asked, they made the bold request and they left it in the hands of the one who could do it. The only one who could do it. That’s what Ruth did. And you know what? So did Moses. So did David, so did Daniel, so did Jesus.
Because prayer changes things. I believe that we can see farther on our knees than we can on our feet. Because prayer opens the floodgates of heaven and shuts up the mouth of hell. Because prayer has the power to cure disease and sickness, to break addictions, to free the mind and ignite the spirit. If you feel like God is far away, know that he is as close as your next prayer, because prayer doesn’t need proof it needs practice.
If your marriage is under attack, pray. Your business is failing, pray. Has Satan got a hold of someone that you love? Pray. Are you feeling sad, alone, lost, hopeless? Pray, pray, pray, pray. Because a prayerless Christian is a powerless Christian. The same as a prayerless church is a powerless church. And don’t think of prayer, something that stops and starts. I pray here, I pray there. No prayer is an open-ended, ongoing conversation with a God who split the seas, a God who can move the mountains, a God who rained fire from the heavens and uses gold for asphalt. A God who can create an unimaginably vast universe with a breath, but even he cannot answer a prayer that goes unprayed.
So when you are faced with trials and tribulations, when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, when you are in the sweltering heat of the fiery furnace, pray. Pray to the God who loves, the God who cares, the God who saves, the God who raises the God who restores, and the God who delivers. Put your trust in him and I guarantee you, he will make you say, wow.
If you need something to change, bring it to the throne of the God of heaven and earth. If you need something to change, bring it to the feet of the Lord of life and death. If you need something to change, pray. Because prayer changes things.
Now, normally at this part of the sermon, I would pray to close us off, but I think given the context, we should all pray together. So if you’ll stand with me. We’re going to pray that prayer I read earlier from Matthew six.
Our Father in heaven. Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.