Living in Light of the Sovereignty of God

This morning we’re looking at chapter 3 in the book of Ruth, and after this week we’ll only have two more weeks to finish out the book. From the very beginning, we’ve seen this story rooted in the idea that God lovingly—and sovereignly—provides for his people. When Israel wondered in the book of Judges if God was going to fulfill his promises that kings would come from them and that the offspring of Abraham would bless the whole world, God was actively working out his plan in this story to bring a Moabite woman and a Bethlehem man together to give birth to the grandfather of King David whose descendants would eventually lead to Jesus the Messiah.

When Naomi’s family ran away from God’s discipline and fled Israel in the middle of a famine that was meant to bring the people to repent and return from worshiping other gods to follow him—when her husband and two sons both passed away one after the other and she returned to Bethlehem describing herself as a bitter woman—God was working in each of those things to strengthen her, give her new purpose, and use her experience to guide her daughter-in-law toward the man who would redeem her family and fulfill God’s promises to his people.

God lovingly provides. He sovereignly provides. He’s in control, and nothing can prevent him from accomplishing his good purpose. There are a lot of passages in the Bible that elaborate on how God is in control, but I don’t know that any other single verse summarizes the doctrine of God’s sovereignty better than Job 42:2 where Job tells God,

Job 42:2 ESV

² “I know that you can do all things,

and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

If you’re a first time guest with us this morning, or you’re newer to our church (and let’s face it, our church is 6 months old, so we’re all new), I’m sure there are several different kinds of reactions and assumptions when I bring up a topic like the sovereignty of God. Often, it’s followed up by 1 of 2 categories of questions: either, What does this say about God? or What does this say about us? If God’s in control of everything, then why is so much bad in the world? or If God’s in control of everything, then does anything I do matter?

This morning isn’t about describing what it means that God is sovereign. We looked at that in more detail at the end of Ruth chapter 1 a few weeks ago. Today, I want to look at the implications of God’s sovereignty by addressing those two important questions. Ruth chapter 3 is going to help us answer how God’s sovereignty affects us. If God’s in control, then does anything I do matter? And we’re going to get there in a few minutes.

But I also want to briefly look at the first question: If God’s in control of all things, then why do so many of those things look so bad? We could quickly offer a one word answer and say, “sin”, but that just begs the question of why God would allow sin in the world in the first place if he knows everything and is in control of everything. If you’re the gardener of the garden, then why would you let weeds grow?

At this point, many people upgrade from a one-word answer in “sin” to a two-word answer: “free will.” And that certainly makes sense: God brought us into the world and we brought sin into the world when we chose to try to be the ruler of our lives rather than submitting to his rule over our lives. But if the world looks the way it does today largely because of what we’ve done and not because of what God has done, then is he really in control of everything?

I think that responding to the problem of evil in the world with only the concept of free will is insufficient. Not because we don’t have free will, but because that answer, by itself, doesn’t bring peace to our hearts. There’s not much comfort in believing that God’s in control, but he allows us to be affected by all kinds  of death, disease, and decay because we’ve freely chosen sin. If he’s in control, then why would he allow us to do that?

Saying it’s our own fault keeps the focus on us, but the best understanding of God’s sovereignty places the spotlight directly on him. Yes, we are freely choosing other things to get our sense of self and our sense of worth from besides our Creator, and that’s disordered creation in all the kinds of sad and broken ways we see in our own lives and throughout the world around us. But God isn’t just passively allowing that. He’s actively using that. He’s not salvaging the story. He’s telling a bigger story.

ILLUSTRATION: One of my favorite sitcoms is How I Met Your Mother. And the plot of the story is right in the title: a guy sits down and starts telling his two kids the story of… how he met their mother. And 9 seasons later, he actually meets her.

And given how the creators of the show ruin the ending as bad as any other finale in the history of tv ever has, the only reason the show continues to be liked (except for that last episode) is because the story wasn’t just about how Ted Mosby met the mother. It was about how he grew up with his friends and became the guy he needed to be before he met the mother. That was the bigger story.

We look at our lives, we look at this world, and if we’re honest, we live and think like this is the only story God’s telling, and that might make us wonder if he’s any good at it. But God is telling a bigger story. A story that’s bigger than our sin. A story that’s bigger than our brokenness. Those pieces are just part of the grand story—not about who we are—but about who God is and how he demonstrates his character to the world he created.

He’s loving, so he forgives. He’s just, so he punishes wrongdoing. He’s patient, so he endures our sin and calls us to himself. He’s sacrificial, so he takes on our penalty that we’re unable to pay. We see all those things in the Bible generally, but also in the person and work of Jesus specifically. When you look at the world and you think things are not the way they should be… so does God. That’s why he sent Jesus.. And that’s why in Revelation 21:5 he promises,

Revelation 21:5 ESV

⁵ And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

God is telling a bigger story, and every piece of it—the good and the bad—will one day show him as both glorious and victorious. This is the God that Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz all trusted in. We’ve seen them repeatedly in this short book comment on how God is in control, and now in chapter 3 they act on that belief. And that’s the other question people often have when the topic of God being in control comes up? What does that mean for me? Does anything I do matter?

Chapter 3 answers this question for us in four ways. When we trust that God is sovereignly in control, then it will empower our planning rather than eliminate it, it will make us active rather than passive, it will lead us to serve others rather than just ourselves, and it will allow us to trust people rather than try to control people. Let’s look first at how trusting in God’s sovereignty empowers our planning rather than eliminating it. Read with me verses 1-5.

Ruth 3:1–5 ESV

¹ Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? ² Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. ³ Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴ But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.” ⁵ And she replied, “All that you say I will do.”

So, this is the chapter. We finally arrive at the point where Ruth is going to make her play at Boaz. And how does it start? Not with Ruth, but with Naomi. The woman who lost her husband and two sons; the woman who back in chapter 1 declared that God had testified against her and brought calamity upon her and wanted to rename herself “Mara”, which means “bitter”.

We’ve seen Naomi increasingly coming alive over the course of this story as she’s “seen” God providing for them. When Ruth came back with 30 pounds of barley and some lunch leftovers from just one day of gleaning in Boaz’s field, she counseled Ruth to stick close to Boaz and told her that he was a potential redeemer—a relative who according to the Mosaic law could marry a widow and provide children who would allow the deceased man to have legal descendants that would continue his family name and receive his inheritance.

In the last verse of chapter 2, we learn that Ruth followed Naomi’s instruction and gleaned in Boaz’s field through the end of the barley and wheat harvests, which would have been another 6 to 7 weeks. Naomi’s continued to see how God’s providing for them—how he’s been in control the entire time. And what does that lead her to do at the start of chapter 3? She develops a plan to put Ruth in a position where Boaz can officially become her kinsman redeemer.

All the way back in chapter 1, Naomi told Ruth and her other daughter-in-law, Orpah, to leave her and return to their families after their husbands had died. As she’s trying to drive them away, she tells them in Ruth 1:9, “The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” But now, after seeing how God is sovereignly meeting their needs and providing for them, she’s changed her tune. Instead of sending Ruth away to find rest, in Ruth 3:1 she says, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?” She believes God’s doing something, and she wants to participate in that.

This is the exact opposite of the stereotype we often hear when people talk about the sovereignty of God. “Well, if God’s in control of everything and he has a plan, then there’s no need to make any plans ourselves.” But that’s not Naomi. She sees God working, and it leads her to start planning how she can join that work.

She tells Ruth to get prettied up and to anoint herself with some nice perfume and go to the threshing floor and wait for the exact time when Boaz would be by himself and well fed and content and relaxed, laying down. She knew that threshing floors were typically communal places, so Ruth couldn’t just approach him at any general time. But she also knew that the owners of the fields would usually sleep in those locations after they did their work in order to protect their grain, giving her an opportunity to meet him in private.

See, it’s not, “God can do all things, so let’s wait for a husband”. No, it’s “God can do all things, so let’s figure out how to put you in the best position where he might give you a husband. Too often, we can use God as an excuse for our laziness or fear. But your inactivity might not actually be you trusting the Lord; it might be you testing the Lord. The times we see God’s people sitting and waiting on him in the Bible, like when the disciples wait and prayed after Jesus ascended into heaven—those are times when he had specifically told them to wait.

The normal pattern we see in Scripture is the people of God using what they know to wisely live for God and trust their plans to the sovereign will of God, whether it ends up being what they expected or not. It’s important for us to realize that, even after Naomi gives Ruth this detailed, step-by-step plan, it ends in verse 4 with her saying that “Boaz will tell her what to do.” Naomi knows she can’t control the outcome, and just because they have a good plan and might follow it well doesn’t mean it’s going to lead to the exact result she’s hoping for.

This is where we see our plans and God’s plan meet. Naomi’s being diligent and faithful to do the best with the information and resources she has, and then she’s trusting God for the outcome, whatever that may be. That’s some incredible growth from where we met Naomi back in chapter 1. But remember, she’s been seeing with her own eyes how God is in control and providing for them, and that’s cultivated a deeper level of trust that he will continue to do so.

When you’re intentional about looking around you and looking behind you to see how God’s been faithful and the ways he’s used people, things, and events in your life, then that’ll help fuel your ability to trust him, both with the questions you still have about what he’s doing as well as the things that he may do in the future. Remember, God’s telling a bigger story, and it’s a good story.

One last question I’m sure you have before we move on in the passage: What in the world is Ruth doing uncovering Boaz’s feet? Well, the short version is, we don’t know conclusively. If this was a custom, then the specifics of the practice have been lost in ancient history. But from the context, and from Boaz’s response in the next set of verses, we can infer a couple things.

One, it was strategic. If there were other workers sleeping around the threshing floor, and Naomi wanted Ruth to be able to have a private moment with him, then taking the covers off his feet seems like a good way to quietly wake him up.

ILLUSTRATION: I know it works for me. When Macie and I first got married, I quickly learned how much she rolls around in her sleep. Meanwhile, my side of the bed barely looks like somebody got in it the night before. And any time those sheets would get pulled off of me during the night, I’d wake right up and start a little game of tug-of-war with my sweet, comatose wife beside me.

But Naomi’s instructions also seemed to be a signal. Ruth is going to essentially propose to Boaz when he wakes up, but Naomi doesn’t give her any words to say in her instructions: just that Boaz is going to have a reply when he uncovers his feet. This is an intimate and vulnerable moment that communicated Ruth’s availability and her intentionality. And as we keep reading in verses 6-9, we see how Ruth puts this plan into practice. Let’s look again, starting in verse 6.

Ruth 3:6–9 ESV

⁶ So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her. ⁷ And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. ⁸ At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! ⁹ He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.”

The plan goes into motion, and it’s happening just like Naomi expected. Of course Boaz’s heart was happy after a long day of work. He’s a landowner getting to see his first bountiful harvest after a decade of famine. Can you imagine how encouraged he would have been when he laid down next to all that grain? He’s been pointing to God’s goodness throughout this book, and no doubt he went to sleep that night thankful for how God had provided in his life.

And then he wakes up, and it seems like God’s provided one more thing! Ruth is at his feet! But like verse 9 starts off, he doesn’t immediately know who it is. It would have been incredibly dark there, so he asks, “Who are you?” Naomi got her to this point, but now Ruth has to respond, and she does so with a proposal:

Ruth 3:9 ESV

And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.”

I’ve heard some unique proposals before, but telling your boss to spread his wings over you in the middle of the night is a bold play. Actually, Boaz had used similar language back in Ruth 2:12 when he told Ruth, “The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!”

And now Ruth is telling Boaz that the refuge he to God about for her is being provided through him. You see, that’s how our activity aligns with God’s sovereignty. When we truly believe he’s in control, it makes us more active, not more passive.

ILLUSTRATION: If your boss at work is in your corner, then you’ll feel more freed up to do your work or share your ideas, not more hesitant. If a sports team has a superstar athlete, it empowers his teammates to work even harder because they know they have a greater chance to succeed.

When you believe that God is sovereign over the good and the bad—when you believe he has power over all things and one day will make all wrong things untrue—Then you’re not enslaved; you’re freed—you’re freed up to attempt big things, to be bold and not timid, because you know that whether it’s in success or  in failure—God is not surprised, his plans are not thwarted, and he is using all things together for the good of those he’s called as he makes you more and more like Jesus.

Think of the boldness of Ruth here. Daniel Block summarizes her actions well in his commentary on the book:

Judges, Ruth (1) Phase 1: The Night Encounter (3:6–13)

Here is a servant demanding that the boss marry her, a Moabite making the demand of an Israelite, a woman making the demand of a man, a poor person making the demand of a rich man. Was this an act of foreigner naïveté, or a daughter-in-law’s devotion to her mother-in-law, or another sign of the hidden hand of God?

Our level of trust in the sovereign love of God will always be reflected by our boldness in living for him. Not doing stupid things believing he’ll bow to our plans, but humbly being willing to attempt things because we know we’re safe in his perfect plan. Ruth didn’t act blindly. She had wise counsel. She considered her steps. But because of her trust in the Lord, she was willing to take them, no matter where they might lead. Where is God calling you to trust who he is so much that it would lead you to be more active and more bold in that area of your life?

Once Ruth states her proposal to Boaz, she doesn’t have to wait long for his answer. Let’s continue reading in verses 10-15.

Ruth 3:10–15 ESV

¹⁰ And he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. ¹¹ And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. ¹² And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. ¹³ Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning.”

¹⁴ So she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another. And he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” ¹⁵ And he said, “Bring the garment you are wearing and hold it out.” So she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. Then she went into the city.

ILLUSTRATION: It’s a quick shift for Boaz, going from being asleep to receiving a marriage proposal. I’m a morning person, but I am not a middle of the night person. Macie will tell you that when one of the kids wakes up at 2 or 3 in the morning, it’s like I have amnesia about who she is, where I’m at, and what’s going on in the world around me. She has to repeat herself several times before it really lands that there’s a kid crying, and I need to get up.

Here, Boaz goes from being startled by Ruth in verse 9 to blessing Ruth in verse 10, calling her proposal an act of kindness. It appears Boaz was older than Ruth, and he didn’t seem to think he was as desirable as others. Clearly, he finds Ruth attractive. He thinks she could have had younger men—poor, rich—whoever she wanted.

Verse 11 is the second time he mentions the positive reputation Ruth has around town, even calling her a “worthy woman” just like the author called Boaz a “worthy man” at the start of chapter 2. It sounds like they’re the perfect fit. But then comes the problem in verse 12. There’s another guy (and Boaz knows about him). Why does there always have to be another guy in every love story?

Of course, this one’s a little different. This other guy might be a problem, not because Ruth’s more interested in him, but because Ruth’s more closely related to him (well, to her deceased husband). We don’t see that angle as much in romantic movies.

But in verse 13, Boaz makes a promise anyway: If this other, unnamed man won’t redeem Ruth, then, “as the LORD lives”, he will. But that’s not all. Boaz takes even greater steps to care for Ruth in the moment. He keeps her safe overnight and has her wait until the right time when she can leave unnoticed and prevent people from speculating and destroying her reputation. And, if that wasn’t enough, he tells her to hold out her garment and he fills it in verse 15 with barley to bring back home for her and Naomi.

Boaz trusted in God, so much so that it led him to serve others rather than just himself. As soon as he realizes what’s happening, his focus is on caring for Ruth and not himself. He knows God will provide in the situation. Remember, he literally just woke up from sleeping surrounded by his first harvest after years of famine. God’s been faithful to Boaz, which becomes his foundation for being faithful to other people.

Ruth came asking for a marriage, but she got more than just the “yes.” She got protection and provision. When we feel safe in God’s plan because we trust that he’s smarter than us, more capable than us, and loves us even better than we love ourselves, then we are freed up from having to look out for our provision and can step into the gap to better care for others. Whether it’s your job or your the demands of your family, or somewhere else: how would resting in the sovereign love of God free you up to be about others rather than feeling the need to defend yourself?

One final note as we read the end of the chapter in verses 16-18. Trusting God is in control doesn’t just allow you to be about other people; it helps you trust people. Starting in verse 16,

Ruth 3:16–18 ESV

¹⁶ And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, “How did you fare, my daughter?” Then she told her all that the man had done for her, ¹⁷ saying, “These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, ‘You must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law.’ ” ¹⁸ She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.”

Naomi and Ruth don’t know what’s coming next, but God’s been faithful this far, and he’s used Boaz repeatedly to be a blessing in their lives, so they put their trust in him now: verse 18 says, “the man will not rest but will settle the matter today”. When we feel like everything is up to us, then it leads us to feel like we need to do what we can to control the situation and even control other people. But the doctrine of God’s sovereignty is an invitation to lay down your burden of control and rest in his.

And whether you’ve been a Christian for a while or are only recently exploring the Bible and faith in Jesus, this is the message of the gospel that we all need. God is in control (even when we don’t understand what he’s doing)—and he loves you (even though you haven’t earned it in your sin against him).

Jesus is the ultimate answer to our two questions about God’s sovereignty this morning. He shows that God isn’t apathetic or powerless to do something about the bad in the world (Jesus defeated it by his suffering with his first coming, and he’ll remove it by his reigning in his second coming). But Jesus also shows that our sovereign God doesn’t erase your purpose or activity in the world; he gives you a new identity and the freedom to actually serve and reflect him in every part of your life.

When you trust in God’s ability over your own, when you trust in what he’s accomplished through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection in your place over what you can earn through your attempts to be right with God, then you are freed up to make plans, be bold, serve others, and live a life of trust because you know that he is using all things to tell the greatest story of his good character, and we get to be a part.

Let’s pray.