Monday, July 26, 2010

God Is At Work - The Story of Ruth Part II - A "Chance" Meeting, Part 9 of 44

TEXT: “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 him, ‘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 to 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 when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.’ Then she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, ‘Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?’ And Boaz answered and said to her, ‘It has been fully reported to me all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before. The Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge’ ” (Ruth 2:2-12).

IDEA: Chance may not be "chance" at all.

PURPOSE: To help listeners appreciate how what "appears" to be chance fits God's larger purposes.

Have you ever purchased a lottery ticket?

Do you believe that there is any such thing as "chance" or "luck"?

Proverbs 16:33 says, "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord."  If you shake the dice and they go tumbling across the board, what comes up may seem like "chance," but the writer of Proverbs maintains that God controls the dice.

I. In Ruth 2:3 Ruth certainly doesn't seem to be "lucky" in what she decides to do to provide for her mother-in-law Naomi and herself.

In Ruth 2:2, Ruth ventures out to glean behind the harvesters as they bring in the barley harvest. She says she hopes to "find favor" in their eyes.

She has two qualifications working for her, but they may also work against her.  She is faced with both an opportunity and danger:

She has an opportunity. The Law said that harvesters were to leave some grain "for the poor" and for the "aliens." As a Moabite and a widow, Ruth qualified on both counts to be allowed to glean. She was a poor widow and an alien.

BUT being a Moabite and a single woman put her at risk.  How?

God's people don't always act according to their Scriptures. The reapers could take advantage of a poor alien woman gleaning in the fields and there is little she could do about it. This presents danger, hinted at in Ruth 2:9.

The danger could have been increased because she was an alien from Moab. Moabites were prohibited from becoming part of the Israelite community. Why?

Seduction was in their history.

Years before, during Israel's wilderness wanderings, the king of Moab attempted to hire a seer, Balaam, to curse the Israelites, but Balaam blessed the people of Israel instead (Numbers 22-24). However, Balaam came up with a scheme to draw God's people into idolatry. He suggested that the king send Moabite women to seduce the Israelite men and get them to marry them. His plan worked, but 24,000 people died as a result.

With seduction being part of Moabite history, it could have given the harvesters an excuse to abuse Ruth sexually (Ruth 2:9) or treat her with disdain (Ruth 2:8, 16, 22).

II. Have you ever had an event in your life that seemed dangerous or "bad luck" but had it turn out far better than you expected?