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God's Middle Man · Enjoying the Journey

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  The Book of Ruth begins in dark days,
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  but even in the darkness, God was at work.
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  Through loss, uncertainty, and unexpected turns,
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  we discover a beautiful story of grace,
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  redemption, and hope. Join Scott Pauley for this new
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  study, The Gospel According to Ruth. Light for Dark
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  Ruth was my great-grandmother's name, and it's a great
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  Bible name. She was married to a man named Charles
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  Spurgeon Riggs. That's a pretty, pretty strong name as well.
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  But Ruth has always meant something to me because of
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  my family heritage and their godly testimony and
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  legacy left behind. But the Ruth of the Bible is
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  in so many ways, I think, representative of every one of us.
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  Ruth is all of us— poor, needy,
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  desperate, unworthy,
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  seeking. And the only thing that, that makes Orpah
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  and Ruth different is that Orpah chose to stay in Moab
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  and Ruth believed God had more for her.
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  Orpah was content to just live her life and make
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  the best of it and hope things turned out better, but Ruth believed
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  by faith that God had something for her life.
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  We come today in our study of this amazing little book,
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  The Gospel According to Ruth, to Ruth chapter number
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  2. Now we've been living in chapter 1 for a while, and we've seen
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  the famine and, and the darkness of this season and the
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  destruction that sin brought into a family. At the end of
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  chapter 1, we saw the, the moment of truth as both Ruth
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  and Naomi declare again their faith
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  and, and come in, in humility
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  to Bethlehem, Judah— broken, empty, needy people And
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  now we pick up the story in Ruth chapter 2 and verse number
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  1, and it's so wonderful because now we come really to the main character of
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  the story. You see, Ruth is actually not the main character.
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  The main character of the story is Boaz,
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  because Boaz is the one through whom Ruth
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  is going to find all the blessing that she needs and is
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  going to become a part of a larger work of redemption that
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  God is doing in this world. So we come to chapter 2,
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  verse 1. And Naomi had a kinsman of her
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  husband's, a mighty man of wealth,
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  of the family of Elimelech, and his name was
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  Boaz. That— there he is,
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  Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said
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  unto Naomi, let me now go to the field and glean ears of corn after
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  him in whose sight I shall find grace.
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  And she said unto her, go, my daughter. And she went and came and gleaned
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  in the field after the reapers. I love this expression.
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  And her hap was to light on a part of the field
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  belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech. Think about
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  this. Of all the fields in Bethlehem, you know what this is? This is
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  the providence of Almighty God. Isn't this wonderful?
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  In fact, if you come down in the same chapter to verse number 20,
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  Naomi says later, blessed be he of the
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  Lord who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead.
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  In other words, God did this. This was not Ruth scheming.
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  This was not Naomi using contacts. This was not Boaz
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  making it happen. This was God.
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  Salvation is always of the Lord. Every good thing
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  in our lives is because of our great God.
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  And so what seemed like happenstance, what seemed
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  circumstantial, was really providential. Verse 4: And behold,
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  Boaz came from Bethlehem and said unto the reapers, the Lord
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  be with you. And they answered him, the Lord bless
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  thee. I like that. Boaz— may I
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  just pause and interject— this is a picture of our Lord
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  Jesus Christ. He is a type, if you will,
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  a symbolic person in the Old Testament of the Redeemer,
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  of the Messiah. He is not the Messiah.
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  He is a man like us, but he is
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  going to be, as the story continues, representative of the Redeemer
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  to come. And I see in this a beautiful picture of the blessing that the
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  Redeemer gives and the praise that then comes back to him.
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  Oh, can you hear the Lord Jesus Christ look at sinners and
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  servants like us and say, the Lord be with you,
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  and we should respond, the Lord bless thee? In other words,
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  God has been so good to us and given us his presence, we should bless
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  the Lord and we should give him praise and worship and thanks.
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  Then said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers,
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  whose damsel is this? And the servant that was set over the reapers
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  answered and said, it is the Moabitish damsel that came
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  back with Naomi out of the country of Moab.
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  And she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among
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  the sheaves. So she came and hath continued even unto the morning,
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  from the morning until now, that she tarried a little in the house. Then said
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  Boaz unto Ruth, hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean
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  in another field, neither go from hence, but abide
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  here fast by my maidens. In other words, stay close.
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  Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go
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  thou after them. Have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch
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  thee? And when thou art athirst, go into the vessels and drink of
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  that which the young men have drawn. Then she fell on her face
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  and bowed herself to the ground and said unto him,
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  why have I found grace in thine eyes that
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  thou shouldest take knowledge of me?
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  Seeing I am a stranger. Now, he was certainly fulfilling
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  the, the law of the day, a law of civility,
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  a law of hospitality, to care for orphans
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  and widows, to care for strangers, to care for the poor.
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  They were allowed to come and, and to pick up the leftovers and
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  all of that. I love this. Before it's done, she's not going to be getting
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  the leftovers. She's going to be getting the first fruits. When you get the Lord's
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  will, the Lord's way, you always get more than you ever imagined.
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  But this is an amazing story. It is more than just him doing his
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  duty. He begins to delight in her. He is giving
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  to her not out of law but out of love.
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  The story of Ruth and the Lord is really the story of
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  a man in the middle. Can we call him this?
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  God's middleman. That was Boaz.
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  Boaz was God's middleman. He was the man between
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  Jehovah God and this poor Moabitess woman that
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  was the means by which the two came together,
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  the means by which Ruth came to know Jehovah God and
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  all of his blessing, the means by which God's eternal purpose was
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  accomplished in and through Ruth. That was through Boaz,
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  God's middleman. The goal of
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  this study is not to know Boaz better, it's to love Jesus more. Let me
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  tell you who our Lord Jesus Christ is. He is God's
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  middleman. He is the God-man, the one in
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  the middle through whom all of God's goodness comes to us and
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  by which we are brought into all that God has for
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  our life. 1 Timothy chapter 2 tells us
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  there is one God And one mediator between
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  God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Can I tell
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  you about the man? I hear people say sometimes, uh,
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  he's the man, and they mean by that he's accomplished something,
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  he's arrived at something. But friend, there's nobody like the God-man,
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  nobody like the Lord Jesus Christ. He is always in
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  the middle, in the midst. Read the, the gospel records, you'll find Christ
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  in the midst. Throughout his ministry. In the midst of the
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  storm, Christ was there. In the midst of the multitudes, Christ was there. In the
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  midst of the need, Christ was there. When he died, where did he die?
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  On the cross in the middle, reaching to sinners,
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  suspended there between God and man. And now where
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  is he? He's, he's in the middle. He's right in the middle of the
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  throne in heaven interceding for us. He's our go-between.
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  He is the one who holds back hell and brings all of
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  heaven. He is the one who brings us into
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  all that God has for us. He's God's middleman. We'll return to Ruth
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  chapter 2, get better acquainted not just with Boaz but
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  with Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ,
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  because we all need to know God's middleman.
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  It is through him that we come into all that God has
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  for us.
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  Thank you for joining us for today's study. If you've
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  enjoyed this journey through Ruth, visit us at etj.bible
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  and explore our Journey Through Scripture section, where you'll find
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  overviews, Bible teaching, and preaching for every book of
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  Until next time, keep following God's Word and
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  finding Christ's joy.