For August 2

Sermon Notes: From The Same Broken Loaf

Intro: Last week we looked at God’s covenants, or sacred promises, to Abraham and his generations of descendants. By His very nature, God is always faithful to His Word, so every covenant promise He makes is irrevocable. We saw God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants that they would be given the land of Israel as an everlasting possession, that He would be their God, and that that all people would be blessed through the nation of Israel. Jesus, a Jew, a descendant of Abraham, became the greatest blessing to all peoples. After His Resurrection, Jesus commanded His disciples to go out and make disciples of all people  - Jews, and Gentiles. The problem was how to include Messiah believing Gentiles since they were outside the Jewish covenants. Paul spoke to Gentile believers about their being grafted into the Jewish body of believers, being nourished from the same roots of the Jewish faith, as separate, fruitful branches. We’ll be looking at the Book of Ruth this morning to see this concept of grafting Gentiles into Jewish covenants

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I. Ruth 2:8-16

A. After Abraham and until after the Pentecost, Gentiles were considered unclean to Jews. Under Jewish Law, set down in Torah, Jews were forbidden to marry outside the Jewish faith. In fact, Jews remaining in Jerusalem during the Exile, intermarrying with Babylonians resulted in the mixed race of Jewish Samaritans who orthodox Jews hated for centuries. Although Jesus clearly did not recognize such division, these attitudes were still very strong during Jesus’ ministry.

B. This background is what makes the Book of Ruth so unique. A casual reading of the Book of Ruth seem like the basis of a Hallmark movie. Jewish man meets Gentile woman from the other side of the tracks, they fall in love, get married, have a child, and become one happy family, blessed by God.

C. But closer study of this story reveals some major theological issues. First of all, Naomi had left her home in Bethlehem to go to the bordering country of Moab. Moab and Israel had been enemies even before the Exodus, when Moab attacked Israel enroute to the Promised Land. The nation of Moab was descended from Lot, Abraham’s nephew, therefore not a descendant of Abraham, and not under God’s covenants with Abraham. Lot and his two daughters had narrowly escaped from Sodom just before its destruction. In seclusion, both daughters wanted a child, but without other males, got their father drunk to unknowingly father their children. Descendants of the older daughter’s son became the Gentile nation of Moab, judged  even more detestable by their incestual roots.

D. So, not only did Naomi and her husband choose to live in Moab during the famine in Israel, but their sons both married Moabite women. Complicating matters even more, Naomi’s husband dies, then both her sons also die. The two childless daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, however, remain close to Naomi during their grieving. Significantly,

Naomi, and her daughters-in-law, without sons would have no means of support or legal status. When Naomi learns the famine in Israel has ended, she decides to return. She convinces Orpah to stay in Moab with her family. But, although a Moabite wouldn’t necessarily be accepted in Israel, Ruth clings to Naomi, vowing, “Where you go I will go, where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.” 

E. Naomi returns to her hometown Bethlehem where her husband’s relative named Boaz farmed. Jewish hospitality laws allowed the poor and widowed to follow behind harvesters in the field and pick up any grain that had fallen to the ground, called gleaning. Naomi was too old for that, but Ruth gleans enough to feed them. Now Boaz is a kind, God fearing, but shy, bachelor but takes an interest in Ruth, which doesn’t go unnoticed by Naomi.

F. But Naomi has a deeper concern that Ruth could help resolve. When Israel conquered the Promised Land, which, as we recall,was given by God’s covenant as an everlasting possession to Abraham’s descendants. So, when Joshua ended his conquest of the Promised Land, he divided up the land among the twelve tribes. Each tribe’s assigned portion would be their permanent possession. Tribes then further permanently assigned their land to their various clans and families. Even if one were to sell their land, they would retain the right to buy their land back, redeeming it for exactly what a buyer had paid for it. Naomi’s husband had evidently sold his land when he went to Moab, and, although deceased, retained the family’s right to redeem it through a near relative, or kinsman, in his behalf. Naomi’s problem, as a woman, a widow at that, was that she did not have the legal status to redeem it, or own it. But Boaz, as a somewhat related kinsman could. Unfortunately, there was a closer blood relative who had the first right of refusal to redeem the land.

G. So, what about Boaz?  As I described him earlier, he was God fearing, kind, but shy bachelor. He is good to his workers, blessing them in God’s name. He takes a special, protective interest in Ruth, telling her not to glean in any other field, tells his worker to give her water when she was thirsty, and see that no harm comes to her. He even had his workers let her glean among the already harvested sheaves.

H. Ruth is humbled, and asks why he would favor her, a foreigner. But he’d heard about Ruth leaving her mother and father to be with Naomi to care for her, and gives her a Godly blessing. At mealtime, Boaz invites her to share his bread and wine with him, and she has all she wanted with some left over.

I. Significantly, we see Boaz as a type of Christ. Generous, caring, God fearing, and especially protective of a vulnerable widow, a foreigner at that. Just as Jesus would do, centuries later. Ruth’s extra gift of grain from Boaz, and Ruth’s telling her about Boaz doesn’t go unnoticed by Naomi, and she begins her matchmaking efforts to help resolve her property issue. She has Ruth dress up, put on a little perfume, and wait by the threshing floor until dark, where Boaz, during the harvesting season, would be sleeping under a blanket. Naomi tells Ruth to lay at Boaz’ feet, and uncover his feet. Ruth's position at Boaz's feet would be symbolic of humility and submission. In the cultural context, this act was a non-verbal request for protection and redemption, aligning with the practice of a widow seeking a kinsman-redeemer.

J. Boaz wakes, and is startled to see Ruth at his feet. Extending his blanket over her at his feet, Boaz then responds with a blessing, saying "May the LORD bless you, my daughter”, invoking the name of the Lord, the covenant God of Israel. This blessing is significant, as it reflects Boaz's faith and recognition of God's sovereign power, highlighting the theme of divine care throughout the book of Ruth, where God's hand is seen guiding the events for His purposes. Calling Ruth "my daughter" indicates a relationship of care and respect, reflecting the cultural norms of the time, where older men would address younger women in family related terms to convey protection and honor. It’s also relevant for the age difference between Boaz and Ruth. When Boaz asks what she is doing there, she makes her plea, as Naomi had coached her, to be their kinsman-redeemer. By extending his blanket over her, Boaz is symbolically extending God’s care over her and agreeing to serve as the family kinsman-redeemer. Careful to avoid any misinterpretation, Boaz has Ruth leave before the other workers see her there.

K. The next morning, Boaz seats himself at the city gate, where business was conducted, and talks to the nearest relative who had the first right to redeem Naomi’s family land. The man initially agrees to redeem, or purchase the land, until Boaz points out that whoever redeems the land is also purchasing Ruth to satisfy the Levirate law requiring him to marry Ruth, the widow of Naomi’s son to carry on their name and bloodline with children. It’s a deal breaker for the man, and therefore passes his legal right to redeem the land to Boaz as the next closest relative.

L. So Boaz pays the redeemer price, and happily marries Ruth, satisfying the law to marry Ruth and preserving Naomi’s late husband’s name and bloodline through the son born to them, named Obed. Naomi, having felt she would never have grandchildren, a deep loss in that culture, is thrilled to hold her grandson. It's the perfect solution to Naomi’s dilemma, as well as a love story.

M. But there are also  Messianic implications. Naomi and her late husband were from Bethlehem, from the tribe of Judah. Boaz had redeemed their family’s land in Bethlehem, where Boaz and Ruth live with Naomi. Obed, later has a son named Jesse, the father of David, the future king of Israel. God covenants with David that a descendant of his would be the Messiah, who would forever reign from David’s throne. Bethlehem, the ancestral home of Boaz, Obed, Jesse, and David would even be the prophesied birthplace of the Messiah.

N. But we must still reconcile a problem here. Ruth, a foreigner, a Moabite, a Gentile, had been inserted into the Messiah’s covenantal ancestry, seemingly violating Jewish purity for the Messiah. It could be argued that the legal bloodline ran through the fathers, which would bypass Ruth. But recall that Paul, from Romans 11, talked about grafting Gentiles, as a foreign branch into the cultivated tree of Israel. Then the Jewish and Gentile branches would become one in a fruitful tree, fed from the same faith roots of God through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The covenant with Abraham and his descendants that all the nations would be blessed through them would still be met through their common Messiah, consistent with the angels’ declaration at the Messiah’s birth that He would be the “good news that will cause great joy for all people”. It would also be consistent with Jesus as the Messiah telling His disciples to go and baptize all people.

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II. Ephesians 2:11-21

A. This grafting process has become confused over the years, though. The early Church required Gentile believers to become Jewish, to be circumcised, and obey the laws of Torah. Paul convinced the Church, governed by the Jewish apostles, to relax requirements like circumcision, for Gentiles to be accepted in the Church, without becoming Jews.

B. But, centuries later, as Gentiles far outnumbered Jews, it became a requirement for Jews who accepted Christ as Messiah, to surrender their Jewishness. In our Epistle lesson from Ephesians, Paul reminds us that we as Gentiles were once excluded from the citizenship of Israel, foreigners to the covenants, without hope and without God. Reminiscent of Ruth, a Moabite foreigner to Israel, legally outside of Jewish law, but through the Christlike Boaz, was redeemed and brought into the family of God, giving her equal claim to Jesus as Messiah.

C. Once far from Christ, we have now been brought near to God by the blood of Christ. He has become our peace, making the two groups one from the same broken loaf of bread of Communion, destroying the barrier wall of hostility. Illustrative of removing the barrier, the Temple courtyard had always been open to Gentiles at the outer perimeter, called the Courtyard of Gentiles, but prevented from further entry by a small barrier.

Gentiles were welcome at the Temple’s outermost courtyard, but woe to the Gentile who crossed that barrier.

Conclusion: By His death and Resurrection, Jesus has removed that barrier, so we are all one Church, one body of believers. We have access to the Father through one Messiah, all members of God’s family, built on the foundation of Jesus as our common cornerstone, built upon as a holy Temple to our Lord God. No longer Jews or Gentiles, but Jews and Gentiles with our differing cultural backgrounds, but nourished by the same roots of the OT, as revealed in NT transformations. The OT Passover’s saving blood of a perfect lamb has become a preview of the Messiah’s blood as the Perfect Lamb, and His broken body as the broken loaf that we celebrate in Communion. Jesus has become our kinsman-redeemer, having redeemed us from sin and death’s claim of ownership on us. Amen