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Shalom, Shalom that's how we say hello back
where I'm from the word Shalom
really means peace but we say it coming or going so whether
we're seeing each other for the first time or we're saying goodbye we say Shalom
to each other
I did a little research about
Idaho and I found maybe you have a different saying here
something like boy howdy
that doesn't make a lot of sense to me
but anyway we say Shalom and actually in my country it's a little bit rude if somebody
says Shalom to you and you don't say a back so I'm gonna give you one more
chance
ok Shalom
I'm a city elder
in a little place called
called Bethlehem actually you probably shouldn't even call it
a city because it's just this little blip on the map
the city walls are only about twelve acres
and so it's not a big
big place but as a city official
we used to have our meetings
at the city gates, here's why because that's where everybody comes and goes you gotta get
outside the city walls to go and work your fields
or go out of town you have to go to out the city gate and so if you need to find somebody
that's where you go
the merchants for example they would get up early and it's kind of a
race if you will to get the best location right at the city gate
so they could sell their wares as people come and go out the city and so it just
seemed natural to
to hold our meetings there because if you need to find somebody
you could find them at the city gate or if somebody needed to find us and had something to
discuss
they could find us at the city gate or
if you need a witnesses
that's right where you find them so I
spent most of my time there
at the city gate I've got to tell you
Bethlehem is just an ordinary place
nothing
nothing ever exciting happens there at least in my day
except for maybe one story
I could tell you
about
about Bethlehem
There is one story of a lady who showed tremendous cHesed Maybe I need to teach
you that word
OK cHesed
the first thing I need to teach you is
how to say it
okay so can you say it
cHesed
cHesed is a word that is hard to translate into your language and
I noticed in your Bible they tried doing various ways it's a word that
means
lovingkindness or faithfulness but it's really much deeper than that
it's really about
devoted covenant keeping
it's really a word that describes you giving yourself completely to someone or
to the covenant - it really is this devoted love
and it's a word that really in our language we reserve
well really we reserved exclusively for God in your Old Testament it used
about five hundred times
almost always about God but in a rare instance it could be used of a good
Jewish man In fact I've got to say it would be the highest compliment
that you could give to a Jewish man - that he was a man of cHesed
that being said I've got to say there is
one time when it's actually used
of a woman and here's the shocker
it's not even used of a Jewish woman
it is used of a
foreigner, a pagan
woman and that's maybe this story if I had one story tell you that
that I would tell
It's a story about a lady named Ruth but in order to tell the story I've got to
backup a bit
You see I've got to tell you about
Israel in my day
It was a very dark day in the nation of Israel
and in fact
the darkest day- It's a time when people did what was right
in their own eyes- It's time when people did what was evil in
God's sight- It really was a time of
of anything goes in fact there was a saying in my day
"If it feels good, do it"
you're your own boss
That you do as you please and the terrible thing about Israel
is that that Israel was God's nation and yet they kind of removed God from the
public square In fact we have the laws of Moses
people abandon the laws of Moses we had maybe you've heard of them, The Ten
Commandments
people didn't live by them any longer and more than that people took them out of the
public squares and
and they didn't follow The Ten Commandments
They just did what was right
in their own eyes It was a time we called it
of relative
moral-ism
they just did what ever they want
and it was during times like that
where God actually punished His nation, the nation Israel - that happened many many
different ways
when people turn their backs on God sometimes God would send an opposing
conqueror to come in and they would literally conquer
the country sometimes it was through pestilence even famine that
that God would actually - in a sense
punish the people because they'd turned their back on him
it's a strange cycle that happened in my day where people turn their back
on God - there be a conquering general come in and take over and people go through
oppression
oftentimes that go through hard times with pestilence and things like
famine
and then the people they always kind of
as they went through hard times
they prayed and so God would send a deliverer we called them "Judges" to
come in and
and really re-conquer the land and for a time when the Judges would come in there
would be a time of peace and prosperity again The terrible thing about my day is that we
didn't learn well and it went through a repeated cycle
where the nation just went through this downward spiral
the spirals got
increasingly deeper and more intense
and
It was a time when people just did
they wanted their own eyes
maybe your rabbi - or what do you call him here
maybe your Teacher has told you something about a book called
the Book of Judges
well that that's what goes on in my story So it's time when
when moral relativism when people are just is doing whatever they want They turn
their back on God when there is
there is one lady who shows this extreme covenant
faithfulness
But maybe I'm still get a little bit ahead of my story
In the story as I want to tell it think it was a dark time it was during all those
times when
when there was a big famine
and so in our little community which is strange because Bethlehem my community
actually the word Bethlehem
actually means "house of bread"
but in my area there was an extreme
famine there was no grain in the "house of bread" and so we had one man in our
community
that decided he was going to leave our community
we understand that a person has to take care of his family- you've got to do
what you've got to do and so it really wasn't the fact that he was leaving town
although we hated that
you have to take care of your family and so we realize okay he was leaving but it's not
that he left town
It's that he left the country
any he went to this place
the place was called
called Moab and maybe I needed stop and explained that How do I explain Moab
It would be like going maybe
as I look at a map
To Montana or Wyoming
do you tell
do you tell Montana jokes in Idaho
i know that they tell them about you I'm just saying...
but we were used to tell
Moabite jokes In fact there's one great Moabite joke
Did you hear about the Moabite that a...
You know what, I probably shouldn't tell that in church
But we used to tell Moabite jokes but I've got to say it was much more than
just being objects of ridicule They were not just the the objects of our
jokes
they were our enemies
You see the Moabites an the Israelites they did not get along, in fact it's usually
the Moabites that come in and they conquer Israel... there is a dark back-story
that i'd like to tell you at some other point about the Moabites and the
Israelites and where they came from and why they were so contentious but you see
well
we have this guy, and he's going he's going to there
and you need to understand and I know your a country where you move a lot and I know
you're a country that calls yourself a nation under God
but we're talking Israel
and Israel was God's nation
and here's a man in our midst
that he's not just going to move
move-out of Bethlehem - He's going to move out of our country He's going to leave Israel
The nation of Israel
Israelites
that's like spitting in the face of God and leaving You had a commitment
a covenant obligation
to
to the nation the Promised Land we called that So we have a guy in our town
He's going to leave
He's going to leave town and the interesting thing is that his name is a Elimelech
Anybody know what the word Elimelech means well let me tell you
Elimelech actually means
"My God is King"
and here "My God is King" is really thumbing his nose at God and saying
I'm leaving
I want to tell you it did not go well in our small little town in fact i had a few
non kosher words to say to him
but he
he left for
for Moab of all places
Well, he goes and takes his wife
a sweet little gal actually her name is Naomi which by the way means
"Pleasant" and she was and he takes their
their two sons Mahlon and Kilion and I've got to tell you it was
it was a tough time it was a time when there was an extreme famine I've got to tell you
Mahlon and Kilion
I think they were born during time when I don't think they got
enough nourishment in their mothers cooker if you know what I mean
They needed these skinny little scrawny kids
they needed some more falafel and things like that but anyway they're
frail kids but he takes his family and moves
to Moab and there in Moab
things did not go well I've got to say that we have a saying that the grass is not
always greener on the other side of the ravine
and it certainly wasn't in Moab in fact
as things didn't go well ..How do you say it in your language i think you out
struck
no that's not quite right I think he "struck out"
and really that's what what happens here you see the first thing that happens
when the move to Maob they're only there for a little while
but the first thing happens is
Elimelech dies
and he leaves
Naomi
as a widow
strike one
Well strike two, these two boys they marry
and they marry foreign
girls
strike two, Now let me explain that a little bit
God's law says that you're not supposed to marry a foreigner
that's not because of
some racist thing it's because foreigners they worshiped
foreign gods
they worshiped idols
and God's purpose was to keep Israel pure and clean and a to really bring a
Messiah out of that and so
he didn't want you to marry foreign
women because
foreign women meant foreign gods and a different religion and these boys Mahlon and Kilion
they actually
marry foreign girls
again Orpah - Don't be saying and Oprah that's somebody different
and Ruth
and
and then something else happens
Mahlon and Kilion I told you that they are a little sickly
they actually both die
strike three - Here's why
Naomi's in a foreign country in a foreign land and has
two widowed daughters-in-law
and just imagine that
now in my day we used to
we used to tell mother-in-law jokes
do you ever do that There's this great story there was this one mother-in-law who
uh... you know what I'd better not tell that story either
anyway you can imagine this terrible situation the problem is
in my day
widows were in desperate straits
you see we didn't have a... let me see if I can get this right if i get this right but uh... we didn't
have an S S card - I'm not sure what that is
you have something called
Social Security
that didn't happened in my day
and the truth of the matter is if Naomi had been back in Israel God had a plan that was a
good one
God had a plan for taking care of widows but without that plan I've got to tell you
widows were not
only often overlooked
and neglected widows were
can i say this in church they were abused
and here we have Naomi and two
daughters-in-law in that kind of situation and
while God had a plan for taking care of widows Moab didn't
and and so
We get Naomi and Ruth
and Orpah and they're in desperate straits
You see if they'd been in Israel here was God's plan
God's plan first of all is the fact that
a wife can be taken care of by her husband's estate
but the problem is that an estate can only be passed down by
a male child
and so that plan actually
we understand that Naomi
her sons
they're dead
and so she can't receive the inheritance
but God still had another plan the other plan was this
it was called a kinsman redeemer
if a man dies his brother has an obligation to
a woman if she has no children who can take care of her
and so God laid this out and in fact
God had this provisional also
that in one of the commandments that says this "honor your father and mother so
your days on the earth would be blessed" right
well that's part of God's provision
you see here's what that really means honor your parents and when they get old
you're supposed to take care of them
part of god's provision was not only I had an inheritance passed down through
generations but children were supposed to take care of their parents and the
promise was this you take care of your parents you honor your parents and then
when you're old your kids will take care of you and so you honor your parents and so
your days could be long on the Earth and so God had a plan for this not only
through passing down an inheritance but children taking care of their parents
and
well Naomi has a problem here too because her sons have died
the kinsman redeemer if a man had
if a man had a brother or his brother was supposed to take care of him but
Elimelech didn't have any brothers
the law also provided for a situation where
if a man didn't have any brothers the next closest relative of the man could but didn't
have to he could coming in and redeem this family but Naomi
she can't even think of a a close relative
and so things are tough and yet God still had a provision even in those
circumstances if everything above failed in Israel there was still
a provision - the provision is this it is called gleaning
and there are specific laws about when a person was harvesting not to harvest the
edge of his fields and so people who are destitute they could come and they could
harvest from the corners of the field
and more than that
actually even the middle of the field of something fell as it was being harvested
you were not supposed to pick it up and that allowed people to come in and glean and
in my day if a person didn't work
they weren't supposed to eat now there were still provision for the needy
the people who couldn't take care of themselves the people who were handicapped
or deficient
but really the law required that if you want to eat
you've got to work and so God had this plan about going into a field and gleaning
and so knowing Naomi had been back
in Israel
God would have a plan for taking care of her but she'd finds herself a widow with
two widowed daughters in law and they really were destitute
Moab had no such laws
it's also about that time however that
we realize that
Israel had gone through a time of repentance and God had
removed the famine and started blessing the land of Israel once again so Naomi
starts hearing about how things are going well back in Israel
and so she has this thought to go back home
the problem is she's got two daughters-in-law
and that they really are foreigners
and if they go back they worship false gods... if they go back they are going to be the
objects of ridicule if they go back people will despise them because the Moabites
they really are Israel's enemies
and so what is a woman to do
she actually goes to her daughters-in-law and
she says here is what you need to do I don't have sons you can marry
i've got no
planned for you but I'm going to go back home and so what you need to do
is you need to go back to your mother's house an interesting term by the way
you go back your mother's house
and maybe there's somebody there that can
can take care of you and maybe even get married again but you need to go back
and be with your own kind
and so at that point after much weeping and crying
Orpah actually decides that's what she should do and she leaves
but not Ruth which brings us back to our story
Ruth is this lady that has this covenant commitment
Ruth actually
she utters at this point a phrase that becomes
Well it becomes very popular in my day
we remember the phrase where Ruth says don't urge me to
leave you or to turn back from you Where you go I will go and where you stay
I'll stay your people will be my people and your God my God I want to even be buried
with you
and you need to understand these words of
Ruth
she's really saying I'll leave my people
I'll leave my kind
I'll leave my father and mother I'll even leave
my religion
and I'll follow you
I will leave my people and I will go out I will stay with you all be devoted to
you and I will follow your God
your God will be my God
and I'll even become in your land the object of ridicule because I know I'm
not one of you
do you understand what Ruth is saying
Ruth makes a commitment a covenant commitment a devoted love
Ruth is saying to Naomi I'll stay with you
it's an amazing statement
that's where I come in
I remember the day
like normal I was at the city gates and at the
city gate all of a sudden there was this huge commotion I thought hey there must
be a stable sale going on
I think maybe you call those garage sales or something but
but um...
everybody, they're running around and they're kind of frantic - I said friend what's going on?
again in a sleepy little town like Bethlehem not much happens there
and then at a distance
I see here
and I recognize her - she has aged - it has been a while - it has been a decade since I've seen her
but
the years have have been *** her
but i recognized her and i cried out to her "Naomi, Naomi".
and as she comes near she's got this
sweet young girl with here but
but Naomi looks at me and says Don't call me Naomi
she says
when I left here I was full but I have come back empty
you need to call me
mara
which which means "bitter"
It had been a hard life
it's really interesting because at that point
Ruth did something rather interesting
Ruth actual decided that she was gonna take care of his family
the family unit she was gonna provide for and so
she actually went to a nearby field and there she was going to glean
for Naomi now here's the problem in Israel that law was for Israelites
they had
they they had some provision for foreigners but
there's no telling how Ruth is going to be treated in one of these fields
but she goes anyway, she is going to provide for her mother-in-law so she goes to a field
and by chance
by chance
she happens into the field of
Boaz, now let me tell you a little bit about Boaz
Boaz's name actually means strength with speed
it's a great name isn't it?
swift
swift strength - that's Boaz
but more than that I've got to tell you a couple of things about Boaz first of all Boaz is a
wealthy man he's a landowner he's got people will work on his land
I don't know really how to describe this but maybe i could say he was the
it was the Joe Simplot
of the day
but not only that - Did I tell you that he was single
and he's wealthy
but also I need to tell you about this
Boaz we'd say in our language
he's got good bowels
Maybe that doesn't translate well
maybe i think it's kind of strange but
you might say it in a kind of a crude way
he had a big heart
what does that have to do with anything
anyway that's how we'd say it his bowels gushed he was a man that
in your language - he had a big heart
but but anyway that's the kind of man he was
and Boaz actually looks out at his field and he sees Ruth now remember
there's no telling how somebody might treat Ruth she's a Moabite
but Boaz with his big heart he looks out there and
he allows her to glean in the field in fact he kinda watches for a while
and Boaz at the end of day he actually goes up and does something strange to
Ruth he actually goes to Ruth and says
Ruth
it would be okay if you came back to my field tomorrow to glean
now that may not relate to you but the law of Moses was pretty specific that a
gleaner cannot return back to the same field
actually they were supposed to go a great distance away and that way one person is really not
taking care of all of the needy the responsibility is shared around and
so a gleaner they're able to go and glean from the edges of the field from
what's fallen on the grounds - but they couldn't do it in the same field twice
but boaz has compassion on her and so he says you can come back here and by the way
Ruth
you can even come and visit the water cooler if you want
and then actually he
he tells his workers are few things
he says you know you can just drop a little bit more than
then than normal
and so Ruth is actually coming back
come back to the field
and the next day
Boaz has been thinking about this in fact his
his heart was big
he actually is thinking lunch plans
and so here's
here's what's gonna happen he's actually going to say you know Ruth you can actually work
right alongside the gleaners
not the gleaners ..you can actually work right
alongside the laborers
and you can go to the water cooler and things at my disposal you can
do you do that and by the way he told all those workers
no more more Moabite jokes
and so they can't tell any more jokes and that day
that day Ruth goes home with so much
She's got days and days and days supplies
and so she takes it all back to Naomi
and she says "Oh you wouldn't believe it there's this guy here and he treated
me well and look how much I have"
and she mentions
his name Boaz an all of a sudden Naomi she is elated cHesed cHesed
God's provision God's faithfulness she's getting excited I should
probably stop explain some things here
it's not just the amount of food is going on
it's also not just this
this woman man thing that's maybe going on to
it's the thought of Boaz
you see she'd forgotten she does have a distant relative there
Boaz
he could be a kinsman redeemer
he's not a brother but he has a relative and
he really could redeemer Elimelech's property
and if Boaz was willing here is access all of a sudden to
to her dead husband's estate
and this could be God providing through Boaz
and so her mind is racing
Oh, how do we do this and she's even thinking
she's thinking grandchildren there's something about grand babies to do
something to women at least in my day
but she's got this plan. You know Boaz has been thinking to
and so Naomi comes up with this plan
Ruth, it's barley harvesting time
Boaz
he's going to be at
how do you say the word in
in your language
it's kind of a high spot on the hill
you take all year your crops there and and you throw the barley up in the air
and when the wind blows the
the husk of the grain
is blown away
and just leaves the grain You'd call it a threshing floor
you go to the threshing floor
and there on the threshing floor you need to go and you need to wait and here's what I want you
to do when it becomes nightfall I want you to lay down at Boaz's
feet
and I want you to ask if you can be covered by his blanket
now I know that sounds strange to you
but let me explain what's going on the threshing floor is a a community place
lots and lots of people come
and you go to the
the harvest fields during the day and so your harvesting your crops
and then you go there and you bring all your crops there and the whole community is coming
in there to the threshing floor a place really designed for this
and you've got to wait for a couple things first of all you got to wait for
for the wind to blow
and so you're waiting for the wind to blow a not only that you've got to wait for your
turn and so with the communities their harvest is all the same time for
everybody - everybody is there and they're waiting at the evening and into the morning
there waiting for the wind to blow in so that they can
they can do their threshing at the threshing floors - so there's lots of people
there and when it gets late and starts getting cold
Ruth is supposed to go up by Naomi's advice and say
Boaz, can I be
can i be covered by your
can I be covered by your blanket
Now, really what she's saying is this
I would like to be your servant
and I would like to come under your protection
and that's what's going on
and so it's interesting what
Boaz says Ruth does exactly that she goes up and says
can I be covered by your blanket can I be under your protection
and Boaz actually says "the lord bless you"
this cHesed is greater than the first
Do you understand what he says
he uses the word cHesed your covenant faithfulness
he'd earlier said look i've heard about the story of how you've stuck with
Naomi even though you didn't need to do it - even though you came here
and accepted our people and you came to this place where you not may not be
accepted
Ruth I've heard that story
and a blessing the lord bless you and your kindness your cHesed is greater than
that which you showed earlier
you've not run after younger men are rich or poor
I'll do what you ask
I'm going to go and tell all my fellow townsmen and let them know that you are a
woman of
noble character which points out that there's nothing
flaky going on here
Ruth is saying I want to come in and I want to be part of your household
servants
and Boaz says I've got something better
in store for you
he sees been thinking too
he wants to take Ruth as
as his wife
and so here's what he does Boaz this man of swift strength he goes immediately and he comes
the city gate - Why, because that's where the elders of the town are
and we're there and he comes to find us and no one would have thought any
different if Boaz would have come and simply said look i want to redeem Naomi
and I want to redeem Ruth
we would have thought hey this is great
but Boaz
he's a man of great character
see he actually realizes that he's not the closest living relative
so he actually goes and finds that man and we have the meeting at the city
gates
and Boaz actually explains to this closer relative
He you remember Elimelech, - yes course were related
well you remember that he has a field and he has
inheritance that needs to be passed down - of course I know that
well you know he is dead, - yes, I know that
well you're the closest in line - you could redeem that field and get those
possessions and so the guy actually says
I think I will
and so he's going to become the redeemer and then Boaz stops and says now
understand
with that
comes responsibilities you need to take care of Naomi - of course i
need to take care of Naomi
and then Boaz adds
and her daughter-in-law the
foreigner
at which the man says I'm out
I'm not going to do that
and so Boaz says
so then can I be the redeemer - well of course you can and quicker than you
can say baklava
he actually takes off his sandal any hands it to the city elders
you guys look puzzled, maybe I should explain that sandal bit
that's how we sign covenants
you really give a piece of your property you give some things very important to you
you give that as a sign and a seal of the covenant and so
Boaz takes off - as was customary
his sandal and he gives it saying
I will follow through with this and I've got to tell you that is quite commitment not
only to walk around in rocks and stuff like that
this in the day before odor eaters
anyway he hands the sandal there
and Boaz
Boaz becomes
the kinsman redeemer
I've got to tell you
all this took place
in a very dark
time
in the nation of Israel
when everyone was thinking about themselves and they were doing what was
right in their own eyes and what was evil
in the sight of the Lord
and yet Boaz stands out as a person of noble character he does exactly the
right thing I've got to tell you that even more than that
we have Ruth
Ruth, a person who demonstrates
well she demonstrates cHesed
the faithfulness of God this commitment to say I'll do whatever it takes
I'll go with you at all stand by you through thick and thin even if it means
great cost to me
Ruth becomes this person even outside of Israel
of cHesed
I want to tell you that even during those dark times
when people abandoned God when
people did what was evil in the sight of the Lord even when people forsook
the law of Moses in the practice all kinds of
gross sexuality and
alternative lifestyles even when people were doing things were detestable in
the sight of God
God was still working out his plan
and what was a very ordinary
city
became in a very important city
and a woman who is just a very ordinary woman a fact not even a Jew became an
extraordinary person
and I've got to tell you what happened
Boaz marries Ruth
Ruth for ten years had been childless even though she's been married before
and God opened up her womb and Boaz and Ruth actually have a son
his name is Obed
which means God is faithful
and as the story goes Obed also grows up add he gets married and he has a son
and his son's name is Jesse and by the way Jesse grows up
and he has a son
who becomes king
his name's David
and see God had been working out his plan
even in times when
things were very corrupt in a time of moral relativism when people
just did what they wanted and abandoned God
God was still working out his plan and he took a very ordinary place he took a very
ordinary woman and did something extraordinary
and I've got to stop and say cHesed it's hard to practicing anytime
but cHesed
it's really hard to practice when people live in a world where they're just looking
out for themselves and doing their own thing and doing what's right
their own eyes
but I want to tell you this
that God honors people
of cHesed
God honors people who are going to do the right thing to be committed their God
that are going to be people of covenant faithfulness and God can take ordinary people who
practice cHesed
God could take an ordinary woman who practice
cHesed
and can use that person
to do something extraordinary
and I want to tell you here is the case in a day and age like mine when people did what
was right in their own eyes and abandoned Godly principles at a
dark time in Israel's history God was still working out his plan but God
works out his plan
through men and women ordinary men and women who are willing to take up a
stand and say I will follow God - I will be committed - I will be loyal I'll be
faithful I'll be devoted - God can take those kind of people and accomplish the
extraordinary
because of their faithfulness
and I'm just wondering
is there anyone
in your day and age
who'd be willing to practice