You Don’t Have to Hide | Ruth 3:1–9 | Risking Vulnerability

All right, good morning, everyone. So good to see you. We are in Ruth chapter 3, so if you have a Bible, why don't you go ahead and turn there to Ruth chapter 3.

! And as Joseph said, Ruth is the climax to this story. All right, so we kind of left middle of July on a cliffhanger before we went into chapter 3.

And just to give you kind of a spoiler alert, the Bible often does that, right? If you've got books of the Bible that have got four chapters, you'll often find at the end of the second chapter, there's this statement that's made.

And you're like, what's going to happen next? So like case in point, Jonah, right? You know the story of Jonah, a guy who fled from the Lord, got swallowed by a fish, right? At the end of chapter 2, it says, and Jonah got thrown up on a beach by the fish.

And that's the end of chapter 2. And you're like, what's chapter 3? And then, of course, the Lord came again to Jonah from the Lord. And so often does that. And so this book is no different.

At the end of chapter 2, it finished with one of the most underwhelming statements that you're ever likely to read in the New Testament. Ruth went home and lived with Naomi.

Yeah, but what about redemption? What about the Savior of Israel? What about this? What about that? It doesn't tell us until we get to this chapter. And so this chapter is the climax of the story. And as I was thinking about, as I was praying about what to share this morning, this is what I'm praying for us today.

Okay? Through these nine verses. I'm praying that you will be able to see, maybe in a new, fresh way, the depth of God's love for you today.

That's what I want you to go away with. Like maybe you're here the first time and you're not a Christian. I'm praying for you this morning that your heart will be open wide to the great love of God for the first time.

Maybe you are a Christian this morning. I'm praying that your mind will be renewed and washed again by this picture that we see in this chapter of God's great love for us. And so Joseph is absolutely right.

It's been a while since we were last in the book of Ruth. So let me take you back through the story. The story begins in the dark days of the judges. Israel was experiencing famine, a lot of instability and spiritual decline.

And there was a man called Elimelech who was married to Naomi. They lived in Bethlehem and they decided to take their two sons and to go to Moab.

And Moab was an enemy of Israel at that time. The story continues where tragedy follows and Naomi's husband dies. And then Naomi's two sons die.

And she is left with two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah. And she says to them both, look guys, I know that it's not cool living with your mother-in-law.

So if you want to go home to your families, then I'm going to release you to do that. Please don't feel guilty for it. Go home. But Ruth refuses. And we get that classic kind of t-shirt or fridge magnet verse where Ruth says, wherever you go, I'm going to go.

Your God will be my God. Your people will be my people. And so the two women, Ruth and Naomi, they decide then to go back to Bethlehem. And the difficulty is that Ruth, excuse me, Naomi returns very, very bitter.

And in effect, actually one of the verses, it says, she says, don't call me Naomi, call me bitter. I've changed my name. And she was this lady who really couldn't see what God was doing through all of this, through all the challenges.

She couldn't make head or sense of it. And so it's in that moment that the story kind of begins to turn, where Ruth then goes out and starts gleaning in the field.

And she's doing it so that Ruth and Naomi can survive, so they can eat. And it just so happens, just so happens, that it ends up to be a field belonging to a man named Boaz.

And Boaz notices Ruth. And he hears about her loyalty to Naomi and he protects her, he provides for her. And then Naomi discovers whose field Ruth had been working in.

And Naomi suddenly kind of sees a possibility that she hadn't seen before. That Boaz isn't simply a kind, generous landowner, but Boaz is a relative of her husband.

And therefore someone who might be able to act as a redeemer for Naomi and Ruth. And then again, chapter 2 closes with, again, the most anticlimactic verse that you'll probably ever read in the entire Bible, verse 23.

It says that Ruth lived with her mother-in-law. That's it. But what about Boaz? Boaz notices he saw her. What's the next?

What's the story? And so chapter 3 begins actually with the same problem that ended chapter 2. And I think it's really important that we note that.

Nothing's changed between the chapter breaks, right? Ruth is still a widow. Naomi is still without security. And although Boaz has shown extraordinary kindness to Ruth, that is all he's done.

And so Ruth, excuse me, Naomi comes up with a plan. And it's a plan that requires Ruth to do something that most of us find incredibly difficult.

She has to risk being herself. And most of us find that incredibly challenging. Just to risk being ourselves.

And so by the end of the story, and this is kind of what we are potentially going to be struck with. Ruth is going to invite us to do three things.

The first thing Ruth is going to invite us to do is to trust God. Then Ruth is going to invite us to take a step towards God. And then finally, Ruth is going to invite us to come out of hiding.

And it's all wrapped up in this idea of how much do we know God loves us. So I'll leave you with that thought.

Let's pray. And then let's find out what this text says. Father, thank you for your word. Lord, we come to it, Lord. And we want to know again.

We want to see afresh. Lord, we want to know deep down in our hearts, Lord, that you love us. Lord, and if you love us, Lord, we come to you not out of fear. Lord, we come to you as our Father, as one who loves us in spite and maybe because of what you know about us.

Lord, we confess again, Lord, that there are things that we know about ourselves, Lord, that you know intimately. And there are things that you know about ourselves that we haven't even begun to discover.

Lord, and yet you still love us. And you love us more than we can understand that and the depth of that and the magnitude of that. And so this morning, as we consider this story in Ruth, Lord, we pray that you, by your spirit, would make it personal to us, enlighten it to us.

Lord, as we get invited into these three things, Lord, we pray that it would be rooted in the love that you have for us. Lord, help us, Lord, we pray that you have for us, Lord, to be in the love that you have for us.

And so, Lord, help us this morning to trust you afresh in that love, to take a step forward and to even maybe confess that we're not at the place where you would desire us to be.

And then, Lord, may we take that invitation to come out of hiding and to be the person that you've called us to be. Lord, help us with these challenges.

Lord, awaken us by your spirit, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And so, look, check out the first verse of chapter three. And we'll just read a bit.

I'll talk a bit. We'll read a bit. I'll talk a bit. Then we'll finish. Okay, is that right? So, chapter three, verse one, it says, And look, that's Hebrew for, Ruth, you need a man.

Right? You've been around the house too long. You get in the kitchen dirty. Like, it's time you moved out. You need to find a guy. Right? And so, the word rest there is important.

Because the same idea appears in chapter one, in verse nine, when Naomi is praying that Ruth and Orpha would find rest in the house of another husband.

Right? That's what she prays. And so, the word here carries with it, like, security. It carries with it settlement, a place of flourishing, a place of belonging. Naomi isn't simply just trying to say, Ruth, you need to find a husband.

She's looking for a place where Ruth can belong and settle down. She doesn't want Ruth just to move out. All right? And it's significant because Ruth has spent the whole book in survival mode.

Actually, both of them have. Right from the get-go. Right from verse one and two. They're in survival mode. And she's lost her husband. She's lost her homeland. She's become a foreigner.

And now Naomi begins to believe that Ruth's story might be moving from survival to security. And that's kind of really the twist of this chapter.

It's really more about Ruth's re-found faith in God and what he's doing. And so, here is the scheming plan that Ruth's mother-in-law comes up with.

Verse two. Is not Boaz our relative, with whom young women you were? Like, he's such a nice man, Ruth.

Right? That's kind of where she's going. See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Like, the threshing floor is not a pub in Millbrook.

Right? It's where you would go to winnow wheat. So, you'd throw the wheat up in the air and the chaff would disappear. The wheat would come down.

And so, look, there's two things that we're reminded about Boaz. Number one, he's an eligible bachelor. She wants her to know that. And the second is that he's going out to the threshing floor, which would have been actually, you know, most normally it would be up on a hill or the side of a hill.

It would be a secluded place. It's not a place where it's open like the field. And the contrast is supposed to give us that. You know, from chapter two, everything was happening in the open field. Here, it's happening in a secluded place.

On the side of a hill and on top of a hill. And now watch verse three because now it's going to get a little shady. Right? Right? So, if you're sensitive, you might want to plug your ears a little bit.

Right? So, verse three, she says, Wash, therefore, and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes. Right? Get out your joggers, put on your best clothes and go down to the threshing floor.

But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover. This is scandalous. Uncover his feet and lie down.

And then he will tell you what to do. So, if you are hearing this in its original context, you are blushing right now. Right? Like, if you're hearing it in its original context, you're running to make sure the children have covered their ears.

So, let's see if we can unpack what's going on. Go back to verse three. Naomi says, Wash, therefore, and anoint yourself and put on your cloak. This is more than Naomi saying, Ruth, you smell bad.

Like, get up, brush your hair, take a shower. There's an interesting parallel, actually, in 2 Samuel 12, verse 20, where King David does the same thing.

And it's so close to a parallel, it's hard to dismiss it as just being a coincidence. Because there, he rises himself. He washes himself.

He puts on oil. He anoints himself. And he puts on his best clothes. And the question is, why? Well, the context of the story is, is to signify what he's left behind.

What he's leaving behind. And in that story, what he's left behind was that his son had died. And he'd been in mourning. And one morning, he gets up and he says, enough is enough.

My grief is done. My mourning is over. I'm going to wash myself, anoint myself, put on my best clothes as to signify I'm now moving forward. And this is exactly what Naomi is telling Ruth.

She's saying, look, I know tough things have happened to you. I know things have been hard. I know that there's been challenges along the way. But now is probably the time to put the past in the past and to live for the future.

And so go wash yourself, anoint yourself, put on your Sunday best and get out of here. And so that's what's happening. It's time to move on. Ruth, you've been a widow. You've been in a state of mourning all of these years.

And now it's time to put that behind you and move on to show that you're no longer in mourning over your former husband. And so then Naomi says to go to the place, she says, do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.

So hide and watch him eat and drink. Which is possibly the weirdest thing to do when you're going out looking for a guy, right?

Just hide. Like wait till he comes out of the threshing floor. You hide in a bush. When he comes out of the bush, you'll know what to do.

You're like, really? So then watch what she says. Then go and uncover his feet. Like that is not, ladies, that is not a pickup line you want to be doing with any guy's feet.

Let me tell you, right? So, and this is where it gets difficult, right? The three words in the Hebrew right there are actually filled with kind of sexual overtones that we don't read in our English language, right?

So the word uncover. The word feet. It's okay to laugh at that. And the words lie down, all right?

And so, look, this is where it gets a little bit difficult. Because in that culture, there's, there's, these are not, this is not something that you do to, I mean, in our culture, it's not something that we just do to anyone, right?

But you might have a completely different motive for doing it in our culture than they did in their culture, in their day. This is, this is culturally, it's in a culturally appropriate way of acting for a marriage proposal.

Let me put it that way. This is, we might call it flirting. And we might go, really? But in that day, yes.

And then, then Naomi says to her, I want you to observe the place where he lies. Which, which, which, which again is, is like, just don't, don't, don't get the wrong guy.

Make sure, make sure it's him, Boaz, right? Observe where he, he lays down. And then notice something else. Like, she isn't being passive, right?

Naomi doesn't say, well, you know, as the spirit leads, right? Or just, just pray about it. Or, you know, the classic, if the Lord wills.

There's, there's, there's, and I think there's a place for all of those phrases, don't get me wrong. But, Naomi doesn't call Ruth to be passive. She has to go.

She has to act. She has to kind of do something, right? She has to put herself, actually, in a pretty vulnerable position. And I think that's one of the great tensions of faith, isn't it?

Is, yes, we don't want to move out before the Lord's told us to move out. Yes, we want to do things in the will of God. Yes, we want to pray about doing, doing things. But also, sometimes, trusting God means actually doing something.

Trust, trusting God doesn't mean doing nothing. That's for sure. And sometimes we use, you know, I'm trusting God as a spiritual exercise for avoiding obedience.

I'll just wait. I'll just see what happens. I don't want to get ahead of God. And I've said all of those phrases. But most often, faith involves being obedient, doesn't it?

You read the great hall of faith in Hebrews chapter 12 that actually the men are going through right now in the men's studies. It's all about, you know, God's, God putting them in a position or God calling them to do something.

And not one of them says, well, let's see. There was an action related to that.

And so this is what Naomi is calling Ruth to do. To put her faith in God into action. To actually step into something. And so she replied, this is Ruth's response.

Everything you say, I'll do. There's no weirdness about it. Everything you say, I'll do. So she went, verse 6, down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her.

And look, there's a beautiful progression there. She hears what Naomi says. She trusts Naomi and God. And then she goes.

And that's faith. She hears, she trusts, and she goes. And so faith isn't merely agreeing with God's instructions. Like, it's really good that we are people of the word and we, you know, are in God's word.

But actually, faith is more than just agreeing with God's word. It's stepping out into faith. It's actually obeying God's instructions. Faith eventually puts faith on what God has said.

And this is where we need to be kind of honest with ourselves. We often want faith, but we often want faith with a safety net. We want God to tell us the outcome before we obey the instruction.

Lord, if you guarantee this is going to work, I'm in. Lord, if you know, if you just tell me how this person will respond when I invite them to church, I'll have that conversation.

Lord, if you know, I'll succeed. If you let me know, I'll succeed. I'll step out and do it. But that's not really trust, is it?

Shall I tell you what that is? That's control dressed up as faith. We want God to give us the map before we take the journey.

But God often gives us the next step rather than the whole truth, doesn't he? You know, the story of countless people in the Bible is they will say, God, tell me what you want me to do.

And so God says, well, okay, I'll tell you a step at a time. How's that? I want you to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and go to the land that I'm going to show you, he said to Abraham.

But where is that? Well, if you just head west, try that. It's a step at a time. And so Ruth doesn't know how Boaz is going to react, what Boaz is going to say, how she is going to react, what she is going to say.

But she knows who Boaz is. And perhaps, maybe that's the word for some of us today. Like we, we don't have to know how it's going to turn out.

We just need to know who we're trusting. So then Boaz said, when he had eaten and drunk, it says in verse seven, his heart was merry, like he wasn't drunk.

He was just relaxed. He was, you know, he was merry. He went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. And then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down.

And at midnight, the man was startled and turned over and behold, and you might want to underline that word, behold, a woman lay at his feet.

Now, I don't know if this has ever happened to you. I know that that probably hasn't happened to you, but I probably guess the scenario that I'm about to say has happened to you, when you've been asleep, and maybe one of your kids, or as we're experiencing right now, grandkids, you've been asleep.

You may be just on the sofa, and you're having a nap, and you recognize almost in your sleep, that there is a presence in the room with you.

And you open your eyes, and an inch from your face, is one of your kids looking right into your soul. And you're startled.

This is, and behold, the man was startled. Now, notice how the author tells this story, which I love, right?

Boaz doesn't exploit Ruth. At this point. He doesn't take advantage of our vulnerability. He doesn't use his power.

Instead, he asks in verse nine, and we're not told how he asked it. We're just told that he asked, who are you? Like, who are you?

Who are you? Right? You know, different. And she answered, I am Ruth, your servant. And what's interesting is that, when they first met in chapter two, she uses a different word for servant.

So he, she uses the same thing, I'm your servant, in chapter two. And here it's Ruth, I'm your servant. But in chapter two, it's a different Hebrew word than it is here for servant. Two different Hebrew words. And in chapter two, it's the word for just servant worker.

Almost like it more, more literally, I'm your slave. Here, it's way more personal. It's way more relational. And then she, she makes this extraordinary request.

Out of all the things that she could have asked for, from Boaz, who was, as a wealthy, wealthy man, power and privilege. She says, spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.

Now, this is important because, in chapter two, Boaz had previously blessed Ruth. Do you remember this? Let's just turn back to, to verse 12. chapter two. Boaz had previously blessed Ruth.

And this is how, Boaz blessed Ruth. He says, the Lord repay you, for what you have done, and a full reward be given to the, by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings, you have come, to take refuge.

And here, Ruth says, spread your wings over the servant, for you are the redeemer. You see what Ruth is doing. Boaz had described Ruth, as someone who would come under God's wings.

And now in chapter three, Ruth comes to Boaz, and essentially says, be the answer to your own prayer. Like, can I find that so often, about myself, right?

And, and, and actually, I see that in, in others as well, you know? Like, I'll be praying for something, and I'm just like, God, will you just do this? Would you do this? Would you do this? And I'm reminded, it's like, well, why don't, why don't you step out?

And maybe it's your, maybe if it's your burden, maybe it's your call, right? And, and this is what Ruth is actually saying back to, um, Boaz. She's saying, Boaz, if you have, if you have a burden, for me, and that I would be protected by God, maybe God has raised you up, to do that.

Maybe that's your burden, Boaz. You be the answer to your own prayer. You said, come under God's wing, now spread your wing, wing over me.

And actually the, you know, of course he doesn't have wings, like this isn't some weird thing. Uh, wings just means, um, it's the same word for garment. Spread your garments over me.

And so what, um, but what wrote, what Ruth is doing, he is asking, she is asking Boaz to pursue her for marriage.

That's what's going on. And that is an extraordinary act of vulnerability, isn't it? Because Ruth, um, is not, is not only risking rejection and embarrassment, um, Boaz could also undo all of the kindness that he had, uh, previously shown to her.

And I think this is where the kind of the story gets under our skin a little bit. Because most of us struggle with the fear of being exposed in the same way Ruth is being exposed. Like the risk that that entails.

Like, what will they think of me if they know the real me? That's the question that Ruth is asking. What will they think? What will they say? How will they act? And so we struggle to let people know us.

And for the most, most of us, it's not, uh, as easy to answer, I'm Ruth, your servant, right? because somewhere along the line we've learned if people really know me they might reject me and so what we see now in culture and we see potentially in our own lives as well is that we we curate ourselves don't we we make sure everybody sees the best version of ourselves in public we show ourselves the version of ourselves that we think they'll accept and so we don't talk about our weaknesses we don't talk about our failures we want to hide those we want to fail we want to hide our insecurities and hide our sin and hide our disappointment and we want to hide behind the things that we think people will accept us for and so we try to be funnier or we we hide behind competence so we try to be smarter or we hide behind busyness there's a reason why i'm like this it's just because i'm flat out all the time and sometimes we even hide behind spirituality like we we say i'm fine i'm trusting god or i'm just praying about it but what we're actually saying is i don't really want you to know what's really going on and the classic response isn't it when we say oh how how are you how's your week been oh it's been fine isn't it that's what we say how how often did i say that this morning to you as you came out how was your week simon i was been fine the first people in scripture to hide were adam and eve weren't they genesis chapter 3 tells us that after sin entered the world they realized their nakedness they realized their exposure and they hid themselves from the presence of god and ever since humanity has been doing the same thing we hide why because being known is frightening if we believe that being known and this is the key we believe that being known will lead to rejection to be fully known and then also then rejected is possibly our greatest fear to be fully known and then fully rejected is what we we fear and that's exactly what ruth is asking she she's putting herself in a position where boaz could could know what she wants hear what her needs are know her vulnerability and then reject her but listen david says um something incredible about god there in psalm 139 verse 1 he says oh lord you have searched me and you know me now that is possibly one of the most scariest verses in the bible isn't it to have someone know us so intimately so much more than we know ourselves and anybody else could know us he knows the things that we are ashamed of he knows the things that we haven't told anyone he knows the motives behind our actions he knows the thoughts that we would never say out loud he knows the history that we would like to erase he knows all of that he knows the future that hasn't happened and all of the struggles with that too he knows all of that and yet paul says in romans chapter 5 that god shows his great love for us that whilst we were still sinners christ died for us and that is the tension of the gospel isn't it

you're to be fully known and still fully loved you see our story paints this this picture of this woman who needs a redeemer who needs saving who risks being known by coming to her redeemer but we need a redeemer too don't we but the difference is that god doesn't ask us to clean ourselves up before coming not once he doesn't say go wash yourselves anoint yourselves put on your sunday best then you can come he doesn't say that he invites us to come as we are you see the gospel is not make yourself acceptable then come to god the gospel is come to god because christ has already made a way for you to be accepted and of course then this is where ruth becomes a picture of something much bigger ruth becomes or comes to the feet of boaz and she says spread your wings over your servant for you are my redeemer and ultimately the greater redeemer jesus did indeed spread out his wings didn't he spread out his arms not on a threshing floor but on a cross to cover what to cover us to cover our exposure to cover our sin to cover our fear and maybe that's where ruth chapter 3 actually leaves us because ruth doesn't know what's going to happen next and we're not going to finish this chapter for another couple of weeks she doesn't know yet whether boaz will say yes like it's brilliant because you this week you can go read ahead you can know this afternoon you can know what happens but ruth doesn't know that she doesn't know whether she'll be accepted or rejected she doesn't know how the story is going to end but she does know who she is coming to and that's the thing for us she knows who she is coming to she is coming to her kinsman redeemer and perhaps that's where some of us are this morning we don't know what's going to happen next like we don't know why God's placed us where God has placed us we don't know why God allows some of the challenges that we are facing we don't know why we don't know what's going to happen next we don't know how the relationship is going to work out we don't know what will happen with our jobs we don't know what will happen with that conversation whether it will go well or not go well and you've been determined all week in your mind

I'm going to invite that person to church or I'm going to invite that person for coffee because I need to share Jesus but I haven't done it because I just don't know how it's going to go you don't know whether God will answer the prayer that you've been praying but the invitation of Ruth chapter 3 is this trust God take the step come out of hiding because here's the thing about the gospel is that you don't you don't have to make yourself acceptable before you come to Jesus you don't have to fix yourself before you come to Jesus you don't have to become a better version of yourself before you come to Jesus you come as you are to Jesus and Jesus does the changing God knows God knows you completely but he's already decided to love you completely Ruth came to the feet of Boaz and said spread your wings over your servant for you are my redeemer and the story points us again to that greater redeemer

Jesus doesn't simply spread his garment over us he spreads out his arms for us on the cross Jesus taking our sin and our shame and our failure and our rebellion everything we've been hiding and he bears it in himself and so maybe today you need to start being the person God has called you to be maybe you've been following Jesus for years but there's an area of your life you've never really fully surrendered maybe you've been managing it controlling it maybe hiding it and today your step of faith is simply Jesus I trust you with this because it's not about the thing it's the person that you're bringing it to or maybe you've been here today and if you're honest you've never really trusted Jesus at all maybe you've been around church maybe you've heard about Christianity maybe you've believed some of it and there's some stories you're like that's just strange I don't believe that maybe you've never actually surrendered yourself to Christ or then today perhaps is your moment you don't need to have everything figured out you don't need to understand some of the more peculiar stories of the Bible you don't need to clean yourself up you simply need to come because Jesus already knows everything about you everything and he's inviting you to come out of hiding and into his grace and so wherever you are this morning let's just close our eyes let's bow our heads the musicians are going to come up and I just want to give you a chance this morning to respond if you're a Christian maybe your prayer is

Jesus I don't know what's going to happen next I don't even know why you've put me in this situation but I know who I'm trusting and I surrender it to you or maybe you've never put yourself maybe you've never put your trust in Jesus and your prayer can be just as simple Jesus I need you I believe you died for me and you rose again forgive me receive me make me yours I put my trust in you you don't have to pray the perfect prayer you're not saved by saying the right words you're saved by grace through faith in Jesus and so if that's where you are today don't hide come come to Jesus because the God who knows you completely loves you completely and you don't know have to know you don't have to know what happens next you just need to know who you're coming to

Father thank you that you love us that you love me and Lord even though you know everything about me everything there is to know Lord thank you that you still love me and Lord thank you that you went to the cross and you covered me your blood covered me not just your wings so that I can truly come without being washed without being anointed just standing in my rags without fear without fear of what you're going to say without fear of being rejected without fear of being destroyed not because of the certificates that I can waive or the good things

I've done this week or the way I'm really having victory in my life but because of the victory that you won for me thank you that you went to the cross and through the act you were accepted by God so that we could be accepted thank you Lord that it doesn't matter what happens today what happens tomorrow that I I don't have to fear bringing that stuff to you because you know it already and thank you Lord in that there is true freedom and help us today Lord if there is a step that we need to take of obedience Lord we pray that we will take that step today towards you Lord that we would come out of hiding Lord and declare our trust and our faith in you today and maybe that just needs to be renewed in our hearts today maybe we've been following Christ for many years and maybe we've been just been letting the storms of this world overwhelm us

Lord we want to say again Lord we trust you we bring these things to you because of what you've done on the cross Lord we don't fear Lord have them Lord have control Lord we thank you Lord we praise you in Jesus name Amen Amen Amen!

Thank you.