How God Sees Us
Yesterday was my
mother’s birthday. When I think about my mother’s love, it is the closest thing
to God’s agape love. When I was between 9 and 11 years old, I was
addicted to video games. I even stole the money from my parents and told lies in
order to play games. One day some of my classmates’ mothers visited my mother.
And they told her how bad I was at school. They didn’t know at that moment I
was actually in my room. I overheard what they were saying about me. They said just
one good thing about me, and the rest of them were all bad. But what they said
was true. I couldn’t deny it. I was afraid of being scolded. So I pretended to
take a nap. After a good while, I went out of my room. My mom said to me just
one thing, “Son, this afternoon some of your friends’ moms were here. And they
said you get along well with your friends.” And I knew she already forgave me.
That changed me. That changed my heart, my attitude, and my behavior.
This is how God
loves us: Over and over again God’s people, the
Israelites, did turn back from following the Lord and neither seek the Lord nor
inquire of him. God was grieving, but he constantly showed them how much he
loved them by sending his prophets. Zephaniah was one of them. He said to the
Israelites, “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take
great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you
with singing” (Zph 3:17 ). In today’s passage Ruth is not lovable woman by the standard of
the world. She is a widow. Possibly, she is barren. Most of all, she is a
gentile, second-class citizen, from a Jewish perspective. In the eyes of Boaz,
a type of Christ, Ruth is a beloved child of God and a woman of noble character
(cf. 2:11 , 3:11 ). In Ruth 3:11 Boaz said, “My daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you
ask. All my fellow townsman know that you are a woman of noble character.” This
is how God sees us. We have hundreds of bad things in us, and perhaps we
have one good thing within us. God finds that one good thing from us. And he
encourages us, sustains us, and keeps us going and growing.
ds,x,(hesed), God’s Covenant Love
In today’s passage
there are 3 important Hebrew words that I want to draw your special attention
to: hesed, goel, and dabaq. The first word is hesed. In
the Old Testament this word is one of the most precious words that describe God’s
character. There is no exact English equivalent for this word. Hesed is
translated as “kindness,” “mercy,” “loyalty,” “steadfast love” or “covenant
love.” My personal favorite translation would be “covenant love.” God entered a
covenant relationship with his people. And he voluntarily bound himself to act
toward them in certain ways, and he is always faithful to his self-commitment no
matter how bad and unfaithful they are. God made a covenant with Abraham
and said, “I will make you into a great nation… and you will be a blessing. All
peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:2-3). But Abraham’s
descendants were not faithful (cf. Ezekiel 20), so they were afflicted by the
Egyptians. The Israelites groaned and cried out. And because of his hesed
toward Israel Egypt 2:24 -25). God made a covenant with David and said, “Your house and your
kingdom will endure forever before me. Your throne will be established forever”
(2 Sam 7:16 ). But after that, David’s descendants turned back from God and
followed false gods. And they were afflicted, defeated, and exiled. But because
of his hesed toward his people, he spared them and brought them back from
distant lands. So in Psalm 136 as the psalmist looks back the history of Israel
laeGO (goel), Kinsman-Redeemer
The
second word that we need to remember today is goel, translated as
“kinsman-redeemer.” In Ruth 2:20 Naomi said, “That man is
our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers.” In ancient Israel if
someone sold land in time of need, the redeemer, normally his nearest relative,
had an obligation to buy back the land (Lev 25:25). If someone sold himself
into slavery, the redeemer was to buy his freedom (25:47-55). If someone was
killed, the redeemer had the duty of avenging a murder (Nu 35:19). If someone
died without child, the redeemer had the duty to providing an heir (Dt 25:5-10).
But we need to remember this: this family law is a moral duty. A
kinsman-redeemer was under no legal obligation do to so. In the Book of Ruth
there was a kinsman-redeemer nearer than Boaz. At first he was willing to buy
the field. But later, he realized that he also had the duty of getting married
to Ruth and raising an heir through her. Then, he would lose what he had
bought. He had to give the land back to the heir. So this man said to Boaz, “I
cannot do it because the cost is too high!” (4:6) Boaz was also under no
obligation to do it. He didn’t have to redeem it. But because of his hesed
toward Ruth, Boaz was willing to undertake that costly duty.
The character of Boaz foreshadows that of the greater Redeemer,
Jesus Christ. All of us, like sheep, have turned
back from following the Shepherd and have strayed away (Isa 53:6a). Jesus
didn’t have to lay down his life for the sheep. In John 10:18
Jesus said, “No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily.
For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also take it up
again” (NLT). Jesus voluntarily became our kinsman-redeemer. He showed
his hesed toward us most clearly on the cross. We were dead
in our many sins, but he made us alive. We were slaves to sin,
but he set us free at the cost of his own life. We were unfaithful
brides, but he accepted just the way we were and made us clean by his
blood. And he became our bridegroom. Jesus is the true and better Boaz.
Pastor Tim Keller made a beautiful statement about Jesus in this way:
“Jesus
is the true and better Adam
who
passed the test in the garden, His garden – a much tougher garden,
and
whose obedience is imputed to us.
Jesus
is the true and better Abraham
who
answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar
and
go into the void not knowing whither He went.
Jesus
is the true and better Moses
who
stands in the gap between the people and the Lord
and
who mediates a new covenant.
Jesus
is the true and better Job
– He’s
the truly innocent sufferer who then intercedes for
and
saves His foolish friends.
Jesus
is the true and better David
whose
victory becomes His people’s victory
though
they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.
He’s
the real Passover Lamb. He’s the true temple, the true prophet, the
true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the
true light, the true bread.”[1]
The Book of Ruth
is not just a beautiful love story. It is not just a textbook of ethics and
morals. It points to one person. The whole Bible is not series of
disconnected stories. It is one single narrative that points to one
person – Jesus (cf. Luke 24:44).
Qb;D’(dabaq), “Cleave”
What is our proper response to this? The third key word of today’s passage, dabak, answers to this question. The verb dabak is translated as “cling” or “cleave.” Ruth2:23 says, “So Ruth “stayed close” to the servant girls of Boaz
to glean…” The verb used here and verse 8 and 21 is also used for the marriage
bond in Genesis 2:24: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother,
and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (KJV). Ruth
found favor wherever she went. So what is the secret? The answer is because
Ruth always cleaved to God. She always cleaved to God’s people and God’s
community. She cleaved to Naomi (1:14 ). She cleaved to Boaz and
his people (2:8, 21, 23). As a widow and foreigner, there was nothing Ruth
could do other than cleave to God. And when she did that, she found favor in
God’s eyes. When we hear the story of Ruth if you find yourself more like Ruth,
you are blessed. Like Ruth, there is nothing we can do. We cannot earn our
salvation. We cannot earn God’s favor and his grace. All we can do is to humbly
and faithfully cleave to our kinsman-redeemer, Jesus Christ our Lord. Cleave
to Jesus – nothing more, nothing less. And he will come and redeem you. Let
me close with Charles Wesley’s hymn, “Jesus the One Thing Needful”[2]:
What is our proper response to this? The third key word of today’s passage, dabak, answers to this question. The verb dabak is translated as “cling” or “cleave.” Ruth
Jesus,
let me cleave to Thee
Thou
my one thing needful be;
Let
me choose the better part,
Let
me give Thee all my heart.
Whom
have I on earth below?
Thee,
and only Thee I know;
Whom
have I in heaven but Thee?
Thou
art all in all to me.
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