Let the Shepherd Lead

Originally Proclaimed: 01/06/19

Intro:

• Take just a moment and try to imagine life without any commitment.
  • Without parents committing to raise us we have no home or family.
  • Without teachers committing to instruct us we have no schools, colleges, or universities.
  • Without doctors and nurses committing to treat our illnesses we have no hospitals, doctors offices, dentists, or eye doctors.
  • Without farmers and ranchers we do not have anything to put in our supermarkets.
  • Without commitment to other people we do not have friends, spouses, or children.
  • Without commitment to a particular church we do not have a church family.
• We could go on and on, but it is safe to say – Life without any commitment is really no life at all.
• But most Americans would not say that they do not want any commitment. Rather, by their choices they display that they seek to avoid as much commitment as possible.
  • Americans want cellphones, cable tv, and presumably most other services that do not require contracts but month to month billing.
  • Americans invent dating apps like tinder that offer the opportunity to date and hook-up but not move towards even as steady relationship. (https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/jan/17/tinder-dating-psychology-technosexual)
  • That said, Americans who want a steady relationship will think nothing of cohabitating and even having children together, but do not take the step to make things official by marrying because the fear divorce, or do not want to be stuck in a relationship where they no longer love the other person.
  • Americans do not expect or desire to get a job with a company and spend their entire career there. They often change jobs to find greater fulfillment or benefits. Most people change jobs 12 times in their career with a tenure of five years in any one place. (https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-often-do-people-change-jobs-2060467)
  • Americans who do have some sort of faith want to be spiritual without having to commit to any one church or faith tradition.(https://www.barna.com/research/americans-have-commitment-issues-new-survey-shows/)

Hook:

• So what does avoiding commitment produce?
  • Think back to each of those situations and consider what the common denominator is in those examples.
    • We are talked about month to month billing.
    • We talked about date to date relationships.
    • We mentioned feeling to feeling relationships.
    • We discussed stint to stint careers.
    • We discussed spiritual moment to moment faith.
  • The common denominator is that as Americans we avoid commitment in favor of a life where we are free to make any decisions we desire, at any time, for any reason.
  • This means that major decisions on what to do next constantly interferes with the ordinary course of our lives.
• It is not a bad thing to have the freedom to decide on what to have for lunch or how to spend our day off.
• And we certainly would not want to live in a socialist or totalitarian regime where most decisions have already been made for us.
• But when we avoid commitment we constantly invite the stress of having to make major life decisions whenever any number of life events end.
• No wonder Psychology Today as recent as December 3, 2018 tell us that Americans are stressed out and it is getting worse. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/do-the-right-thing/201812/americans-are-stressed-out-and-it-is-getting-worse) When we constantly invite the stress of major decisions by avoiding commitment we invite more stress into our lives.
• But this is not the way that God designed us to live. Let me show you today from Ruth 4:1-12 three ways that commitment frees us to truly live.

Message Points:

• Notice with me that Boaz, did not waste any time after Ruth offered him with the opportunity to redeem her according to God’s law.
  • The language in verse one is that he went to the gate and sat down.
  • The gate of the town functioned not only as an entrance and defense, but also as a town hall or courtroom.
  • Into the walls of the city gate, as has been excavated at Gezer from the 10th century BC, chambers with seats for town elders so that public decisions could be made in the presence of many witnesses.
  • For Boaz to go and sit there, immediately signaled he had business and wanted a public, binding commitment that would free him to take action.
• From this we see the 1st way that commitment frees us to live: Commitment to God helps us resolve unnecessary complications (4:1-4).
  • Boaz knew that if he were to marry Ruth scandal without some sort of public hearing and permission great complications could ensue.
    • The situation was already complicated because of Ruth’s Moabite heritage. Deuteronomy 23:3 says that no Ammonite or Moabite could enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation.
    • But her status as a widow of an Israelite, resolved some of these complications. Her status as a widow made both the laws of the kinsman redeemer and the levirate marriage apply to her.
    • But those same laws in God’s Word made it clear that the nearest kinsman was to redeem or to pass the right to another. Since Boaz lists himself as a relative, the closer kinsman would likely have been an uncle to Mahlon one of Elimelech’s brothers (Numbers 27:9-11).
  • Thus Boaz sought to have the complications resolved by making his commitment public.
    • He first sees the closer redeemer and asks him to come and sit down.
      • While the NIV calls this man a friend, the original language purposely uses a phrase that may be the equivalent of our phrase “Mr. so and so”.
      • By never naming this closer redeemer the text places the focus clearly upon Boaz and his commitment.
      • The closer kinsman may have been heading out to his own fields to work during the end of this harvest season.
    • Boaz then asks ten elders to join them, and the word used, “took” indicates that he was a man with enough standing to call for these elders, and they would immediately respond.
    • He then says that Naomi is selling the piece of land belonging to Elimelech.
      • Boaz had realized that the key to fulfilling his promise to Ruth and desire to marry her rested upon following God’s Law or way of doing thing exactly.
      • This translation of sold is not preferred because technically a widow did not have any right to her husband’s land according to Numbers 27.
      • That passage amid others says that a poor family could offer their land up to a relative until the Jubilee year.
        • Since Elimelech felt as if he had to go to Moab, that he either he never offered up his land to a relative for sale or could not find a relative to buy it.
        • So without any public commitments transferring the land, technically it was still held by his family.
      • The word translated as sold could be paraphrase as “offered for redemption” which fits in this context.
    • Now notice, that Boaz does offer the nearer kinsman the right to redeem the property, but he also announces his desire to do so as the next in line according to God’s law.
  • Even though Boaz’s public commitment to God’s way of doing things appears to have left him without the land or his bride to be at the end of verse four, let’s pause to apply this principle to our lives.
  • As we said last week, our first and primary resolution in life should be to please Jesus Christ. When we commit to please Him we resolve many of life’s complications.
    • In the NT Jesus tells us in John 8:31-32 “if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
    • Lest you think that we must live a perfect life, the truth of the gospel is that we are set free in one of two ways.
      • Either we choose to follow the example Christ has set for us and please Him by doing so.
      • Or we please Him in the midst of our mistakes or failures to turn to Christ for help and healing.
    • The truth of the gospel is that no matter what the complication of life it is resolved in following and pleasing Jesus Christ our Lord.
  • So how do we today make the kind of commitment that Boaz and other biblical believers have made to follow and please our Lord?
    • We call that a public profession of faith, and it is made before a congregation of believers.
    • Today if someone should come before us saying that they want to commit to follow our Lord and please him, we have a responsibility like those elders who were seated before Boaz.
    • As the gathered congregation our job is to affirm that someone’s profession of faith is credible, or in other words agree they want to turn away from their past ways and now live to follow and please Christ.
    • Once we affirm that profession, just like the elders in that town, we are promising to help them to keep that commitment.
    • Whenever we need help following and pleasing Christ, the earthly helpers God has provided is the congregation before whom we made our profession of faith.
    • That is why Boaz gathered the elders or leaders of his town. He wanted their help him in this matter of following and pleasing his Lord.
    • And members, when you need help, be like Boaz and turn to those who lead in this congregation – your Sunday School teacher, a deacon, and especially your pastors. God has given us to you to help you follow and please Him.
• We know Boaz has made a commitment to follow and please God, but notice as well that Boaz makes public his commitment to others.
  • Verse five picks up the story and Boaz, before the witnesses tells the closer redeemer that to truly please and follow God he must not only buy the land as the law requires, but redeem the widow of Mahlon, Ruth.
  • The verse continue makes plain the importance of a family’s name being maintained in Israel.
    • While this is a unique requirement of Old Testament law, it is not something we cannot understand.
    • In the Old Testament, every person who was a part of Israel was given a portion of the promised land. That land was to be passed from father to son, occasionally to daughters.
    • If a father had no sons or daughters to pass the land to, his family’s name was taken off the list of those who inherited, or those who were a part of God’s people.
    • So having children to pass the land to was of vital importance.
  • It is this very fact that likely causes the closer redeemer to relinquish his right of redemption.
    • He knows the stain of marrying a Moabite.
    • He knows that any child with Ruth would inherit Elimelech’s land and his own, but his name would be forgotten.
    • And he also knows that he would be responsible to provide for Ruth, Naomi, and any potential children.
  • Thus the nearer kinsman realizes that to follow and please God he has a choice, continue as he is or redeem all that was Elimelech’s, including these women.
  • Verses 7-8 reveal an ancient custom of removing one’s shoe to finalize the sale of a property.
    • Perhaps this custom comes from Joshua 1:3 in which the Lord repeats his promise that, “I will give you every place where you set your foot”.
    • Thus the sandal may have been a way of symbolically giving away the right to step upon what would have been one’s own property.
    • This is exactly what the closer redeemer does and now, Boaz has been freed by this public commitment to pursue his promise to Ruth and desire to marry her.
• This leads us to the 2nd way that commitment frees us: Commitment to others frees us to follow through (4:5-8).
  • A public commitment to others as a Christian is a promise to treat someone else the way that you would want to be treated.
    • In this story we have already seen Boaz treat Ruth and Naomi with kindness and respect, as he would have desired for himself.
    • He also has acted in the best interest of the closer kinsman by reminding him of all that redeeming Elimelech’s land would demand of him.
    • When we commit to others we commit to respect them and act in their best interest,
• Finally we see that public commitments free us to pursue the future (4:9-12).
  • We never find out why Boaz is still single. Perhaps he never married, but it is more likely that his wife died in the famine or due to complications in childbirth.
  • The fact that the narrator does not tell us focuses upon the future.
  • The same is true for Ruth and Naomi. As widows they have no future, but now, after Boaz’ public commitment their family will live on and their future is a bit more secure.
  • Even the townsfolk are blessed by this public commitment. Since they witness this intention to wed, and later the ceremony, they share in the way that God is giving them a future as bright as it was for their forebearers Rachel, Leah, and Tamar.

Conclusion: