Barry Metz 05/01/16
He Does All Things Well
Ruth 4
One time when Jesus was ministering outside the land of Israel,[1]a group of people brought to him a man who was deaf and who had a speech impediment. Jesus took the man aside privately, put his fingers into his ears and after spitting touched his tongue. The whole thing gives me the eebie-jeebies. Jesus looked up to heaven, sighed, and then said to him Ephphatha (E-fatha) which means ‘be opened’. And the man’s ears were opened and his tongue released and he spoke plainly. And the Gentile audience was astonished beyond measure, the Bible says, and they said, “He has done all things well.”
“He has done all things well.” Pretty incredible words from a Gentile crowd! Piercing words, in fact, from a people, not His people!
Well, I have to be honest, this phrase took on a life of its own in my life this week. Could I ever confidently say those words? Could I walk into a hospital room where someone’s family member has received a difficult diagnosis and say, “He does all things well”? Could I look into the eyes of a young woman who wants to be married….she’s waited a long time and there’s no one on the horizon…could I reassure her with those words “He does all things well”? Could I look into the eyes of a young man who has been without work for a long time and reassure him, “He does all things well.” I don’t know about you but it sees that there are always loose ends in life. Every picture has a flaw. Every garden has its weeds. Every engine has its leak. Every ointment has its fly-- or so it seems. When it comes to almost everything—it seems—there are five or six things that really gas my tank but the seventh thing is troubling, sometimes troubling beyond measure.
Of course context is everything. If my “deaf-and-impeded-speech” friend was healed as in the story I began with and he could hear perfectly and he could speak freely for the first time in his life, it would be easy for me to say, I think, “Jesus has done all things well!”
But it’s harder to say so those words when the doctor gives a difficult prognosis, or when there’s little or no money in the bank, or when a mother is slowly dying of cancer, or when a loved one can’t find work, or when an adolescent struggles to make it. (By the way, many of those scenarios come from our church prayer requests.)
We stand here before the symbols of Christ’s broken body and shed blood. And we can boldly proclaim…. He has done all things well.
A people have been redeemed! Sins have been paid for! A forever family has been created! A resurrected savior reigns in heaven! Jesus has done all things well.
But context is everything, isn’t it? Travel back with me to Good Friday. Oh the loose ends on that most terrible of days. Oh the flies in the ointment on that Friday we call good. See the Roman centurion astonished. Hear him say, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” I wonder what happened to him. See the soldiers gambling for Jesus’ clothes. Hear Jesus say, ‘I thirst’ and “Forgive them, they know not what they are doing!” See the women weeping. Hear the religious leaders hurling abuse at Him. See him hanging on the cross, see him gasping, see him suffering. Could we standing there that day have said….He has done all things well?
The cross reminds us…..and we’ll talk about the same idea in the book of Ruth chapter 4 this morning….that for those who love God, all things…. all things work together for good. At any point in the drama of our lives it might not feel like ‘good’, it might not look like good, it might not seem that any good could ever come of that which happens to us, it might seem that evil stretches to the horizon in every direction… but you and I are given [2]the assurance that God is working all things together in our lives for… good.
Would the men come forward?
23For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
25In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Pray
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Well if you have your Bibles this morning we pick up in Ruth 4, verse 1, Ruth 4, verse 1. Follow with me as I read verses 1-12.
4Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the redeemer, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. So Boaz said, “Turn aside, friend; sit down here.” And he turned aside and sat down. 2And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, “Sit down here.” So they sat down. 3Then he said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. 4So I thought I would tell you of it and say, ‘Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people.’ If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me, that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you.” And he said, “I will redeem it.” 5Then Boaz said, “The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.” 6Then the redeemer said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”
7Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging: to confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was the manner of attesting in Israel. 8So when the redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself,” he drew off his sandal. 9Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. 10Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.” 11Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, 12and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.”
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If you were here last week you remember that Naomi, in Ruth chapter 3, hatched a daring exploit to bring Ruth rest. Ruth was to go down to the threshing floor and basically propose to Boaz. Well she did go down to the threshing floor and he did say yes. A quick point of application for our youth: don’t try this at home.
Well we know Boaz as the kind of man who always did the right thing, even if it might cost him. That’s integrity right? And so Boaz brought up the fact to Ruth that there was another ‘redeemer’ closer than him who needed to be notified.
(Given that this was the time of the judges when every man did what was right in in his own eyes, couldn’t we imagine some of Boaz’s friends arguing with him: “Boaz, you love her. She loves you. Why go to the gate? It all might go south for you. What if this closer redeemer takes Ruth from you?” And couldn’t we see Boaz responding… “I must do the right thing….God sees everything”?)
When Ruth arrived home that night from the threshing floor, she explained to Naomi what had happened and chapter 3 ends with Naomi saying… ‘Wait my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today’
Well as we turn to Ruth 4 this morning we see that Boaz didn’t rest. He went up immediately to the city gate and sat down there.
The city gate in ancient Israel was where people transacted official business. [3] It was also the marketplace. One author describes it this way… “The whole gate area served as both bazaar and courthouse. There the ancients gathered to buy and sell, to settle legal matters, and to gossip.”[4] “Boaz went there not because he had an appointment but because he was looking for an appointment. He was committed to do the right thing.”[5]
There is some indication that Bethlehem was a fortified city[6] and the city gates of fortified cities were complex structures. I’d like to briefly explore that complexity.
Here is an aerial view of the remains of the city gates of Gezer.
And again this is not Bethlehem, but the picture is representative of the city gates of other fortified cities seen throughout Israel. The word ‘outside’ on the slide indicates the area outside the city walls. Coming from the outside one would enter the city walking the opposite direction to the arrow on the slide. He would immediately encounter six chambers—three on either side of the main thoroughfare. These chambers, when enemies attacked, served as ‘guard rooms’. But they also served as a gathering place for the citizens of the town when business needed to be conducted.
Here is a picture of the same gates with a man who from a distance looks remarkably like Boaz I think….
… sitting in one of the guard rooms. Now the side chambers or guard rooms for these particular city gates in Gezer measured slightly more than seven feet wide and fourteen and a half feet deep. And around the three walls of each side chamber, were plastered benches. [7]
So in the story when the Boaz gathers the other redeemer and the ten elders we could imagine all twelve of them in in one of these side chambers.
Well apparently Boaz sits down in one of the side chambers and behold, verse 1, the other redeemer who stands in the way of a happy ending to the story, just happens to pass by. Isn’t that interesting? Perhaps he was on his way outside the city to his fields. What a coincidence we might say for him to pass by. But a deeper hearing here recognizes the hidden hand of God.[8]
God is doing all things well.
Boaz says, “Turn aside friend and sit down”…. At least many of our versions say that. But the Hebrew text beneath our English text has two rhyming words—they’d be pronounced… ‘Peloni Almoni’[9]. Turn aside Peloni Almoni. Now such rhyming words suggest an artificially created name, a whimsical made-up name like ‘Joe Schmoe’[10] or ‘Jonesy Wonesy’[11] or “Mr. So and So”. I like the name “Jonesy Wonesy” so I’ll use that from this point forward. Now certainly Boaz knew the other redeemer’s name. What’s going on here? Well it seems that this made up name was a way of diminishing the other redeemer’s stature. It was a way of saying that this other redeemer lacked definition or at least he deserved to be portrayed as lacking definition. Because in the end we know he was concerned only about himself and his own family. And just like Orpah was a foil for Ruth in chapter 1, he is a foil for Boaz. And we know that within a few verses he will disappear from the drama, never to be heard from again. It’s as if the author of the book of Ruth says, “You were so concerned to preserve your own family and your own name, I won’t even give you a name.”[12] It’s kind of a judgment on the man for refusing to take responsibility.[13]
Well in verse 2 Boaz found ten elders of the city to join in the proceedings. “Sit down” he says and they do, evidence of Boaz’s reputation and influence I think. Why the need for witnesses? Because few written records were kept and witnesses made transactions legally secure.[14] Why the need for 10 witnesses? There’s nothing in the law about the need of ten witnesses. We could imagine that such a number would increase the social pressure on Mr. ‘Jonesy Wonesy.’
Follow with me as I again read verses 3-5 which represent the heart of the negotiation. Then Boaz said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. 4So I thought I would tell you of it and say, ‘Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people.’ If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me, that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you.” And he said, “I will redeem it.” 5Then Boaz said, “The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.”
Now Boaz’ presentation surprises us a bit. Up to this point, nothing has been said about a parcel of land for sale by Naomi. And in fact, there is some indication that as a widow she couldn’t own land.[15]
To make some sense of what’s going on we need to understand the three aspects of the law that come into play here.
The first aspect of Israel’s law that we need to understand is, ‘Israel’s distinctive theology of land’. According to the law, Yahweh was the divine owner of the land and the people of Israel were his tenants. This is distinctive, wouldn’t you agree? The people didn’t really own the land, God did.