We Intend; God Superintends
Southern Baptist preacher Jess Moody once said, “May the dear Lord teach me that the more candles on my birthday cake, the more like Jesus I am supposed to become.” Would that we all had such a goal and attitude! Unfortunately, there seem to be a lot of Christians who feel that getting saved is the sum total of the Christian’s experience. Once they make a profession of faith in Christ (and perhaps get baptized), they sit back in their spiritual easy chairs, go to church when nothing more important gets in their way, give when their consciences force them to, and pray at the dinner table (unless they’re in a restaurant, of course). They don’t spend time daily in God’s Word, they don’t involve themselves in intercessory prayer, they don’t serve the Lord in any visible way, and they certainly don’t share their faith.
Ruth was not such a person. Last week we were introduced to this young Moabite woman as she was making a critical decision to leave her family and homeland to join the people of faith. What a picture of God’s ideal woman she presents! A faith in God that sees beyond present bitter setbacks. Freedom from desperately clinging to the security and comforts of this world. Courage to venture into the strange and the unknown. Radical commitment to the relationships appointed by God.
Today we will find her following up on her decision with actions that reveal the tremendous depth of her character and her faith. Let’s review the story briefly. When a famine hit Israel during the period of the Judges, a Jewish man from Bethlehem named Elimelech took his wife Naomi and his two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, and moved to Moab, a foreign nation under God’s curse, to find food. After Elimelech died there, his two sons married Moabite women, contrary to God’s express will for His people. Then the two sons also died, leaving Naomi with her two daughters-in-law, all three widowed. All this happened in the space of ten years.
Naomi recognized the discipline of the Lord in her life, became quite bitter and hopeless, and decided to return to Bethlehem when she heard that the famine in Israel was over. Despite many obstacles, Ruth went with her. She committed herself to her Jewish mother-in-law, but more importantly, to Naomi’s God, the one true God, the God of Israel. Today in the second chapter we will see Ruth blossom as a woman of faith. We will also see an incredible love story unfold.
Please follow along in your Bibles as I read the second chapter of the book of Ruth, which is the eighth book of the Old Testament, right after the Pentateuch, Joshua, and Judges.
Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, from the clan of Elimelech, a man of standing, whose name was Boaz.
And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”
Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.
Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The LORD be with you!”
“The LORD bless you!” they called back.
Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, “Whose young woman is that?”
The foreman replied, “She is the Moabitess who came back from Moab with Naomi. She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”
So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”
At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me–a foreigner?”
Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband–how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
“May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant–though I do not have the standing of one of your servant girls.”
At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.”
When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Even if she gathers among the sheaves, don’t embarrass her. Rather, pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”
So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.
Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!”
Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.
“The LORD bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers.”
Then Ruth the Moabitess said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.'”
Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with his girls, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”
So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
I would like for us to approach this chapter by means of three theological principles that follow directly on the message of last Sunday.
The providence of God is continually fashioning the details of our lives.
There is a phrase in verse 3 that I wish to camp on for a few moments. It’s the phrase, “As it turned out . . .” “As it turned out, Ruth found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz.” The KJV translates it, “Her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz.” The ESV reads, “She happened to come . . .” It is clear from all these versions that Ruth did not consciously choose that particular field. She did not know the owner. She had no ulterior motive.
The average American would say, “she was lucky enough to stop at,” or “by coincidence she arrived at.” But Ruth’s happy coincidence was not a surprise to God. She stopped in Boaz’ field because He planned it that way. How do I know that? Because the Scriptures indicate frequently that God is sovereign over everything, even the contingencies of life. One of the strongest statements to that effect is Proverbs 16:33: “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” And earlier in the same chapter we read these words: “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. The Lord works out everything for his own ends–even the wicked for a day of disaster.”
I’m reminded of the words of Joseph (whose story has some amazing parallels to Ruth’s, by the way), as he said to his fear-stricken brothers, who had years before thrown him in a pit and left him for dead: “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:19-20). Humanly speaking Joseph had a whole string of bad luck, incredibly unfortunate coincidences. But in retrospect he could say with full certainty that God planned it all and meant it all for good purposes. We intend, but God superintends.
Friends, to me this is one of the most profound and profitable truths you can possibly grasp: your coincidences, your misfortunes, your good fortunes, your mistakes, your successes are all part of God’s plan for your life–some for discipline, some for blessing, and some for purposes you may never know. I don’t mean for a moment that you are a puppet on the end of a string God is dangling from heaven. God bears a different relationship to some events in your life than to others. Some things happen by God’s directive will and some only by His permissive will. That is, He permits some things that He doesn’t even like. Nevertheless, God is in control, working all things after the counsel of His own will.
Now I find that a lot of people, even a lot of professing Christians, don’t really believe that. I suspect there are a fair number of people here this morning who have a fundamental objection to the idea that the providence of God is so all-encompassing. The notion of luck is deeply ingrained in our culture and we have a very hard time grasping how providence can co-exist with the freedom of the human will.
There is even a relatively recent heresy that has gotten quite a foothold among evangelicals called the openness of God (actually it’s an old heresy with a new name). Clark Pinnock, John Sanders, and Greg Boyd are among the advocates of open theism, claiming that while God knows everything that can be known, the future is of a different nature and cannot be known even by God. If you want to explore the topic, I recommend a book that critiques Open Theism by Millard Erickson, What Does God Know and When Does He know It?
I believe balance is the key word when we begin to talk about God’s providence. It is possible to both under-emphasize and overemphasize God’s hand in our circumstances. Those who under-emphasize God’s control tend to fret their way through life, hoping against hope their luck will improve. They are subject to mood swings and anxiety because there are no solid anchors for their souls. They tend to be manipulators, because after all, the ultimate outcome of events is only what they can make of them. That is not a healthy way to live, nor is it biblical.
But I think it is also possible to overemphasize God’s control. Some people put so much stress on predestination and election that they become, in effect, Christian fatalists. They are like the Calvinist who fell down the stairs, got up, brushed himself off, and said, “Whew! I’m glad that’s over!” One would almost get the notion that he didn’t really fall down the stairs; rather God tripped him. Such people can be tempted to minimize prayer, since God is going to do what He’s going to do; minimize evangelism, since God is going to save whomever He wants; and even take sin lightly because, after all, God can even bring good out of our mistakes.
But as a philosophy of life Christian fatalism is no better than blind chance. The best way to live, as I see it, is to know that God is sovereign, watch for His leading, try to discern His plan for our lives, but realize that much of the time the decisions we make will be blind ones, like Ruth’s. Things will seem to just happen, and we won’t see the evidence until later, if at all, that God’s hand was on it all the time.
I have mentioned on more than one occasion that I have a pet peeve–it’s people who talk like they have an inside track on God’s plan. They never seem to be in doubt about what field they should glean in. They are constantly saying things like, “The Lord told me to do this,” “the Lord told me to go there,” “God revealed such-and-such to me.” You know what? I don’t believe them. I think they talk that way because it sounds so spiritual.
Dr. Harry Ironside, the famous pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, once said that about 80% of the time he didn’t know for sure what God’s will was when he had to make a decision. Usually God would confirm His will later, but at the time Ironside had to make his decisions based upon reason and common sense and the general parameters of Scripture. If a man as godly as Ironside was flying blind, I suspect you and I are, too, most of the time.
As it turned out, Ruth found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz. And as it turned out I ran into a man named Gary Jost in a crowded ice cream store in Ames, Iowa in 1984. He was my brother’s best friend in high school and he was looking for a pastor for a new church he was launching in St. Louis. Four months later we left Wichita to go to St. Louis, where we spent the next 20 years.
As it turned out, nearly seven years ago I happened to drive through Wichita on my way from K.C. to Arkansas and called Dan Wilson to see if I could stop and see him and Susan. That meeting led to our return to this church to finish out our ministry years.
If you stop to think about it, there are similar events in your life that “just happened.” Some of you could tell amazing stories about how you met your life partner, or chose your career, or moved to Wichita. But how critical it is to realize that behind our blind decisions is a God who cares, a God who plans, and a God who works all things after the counsel of His own will. The providence of God is continually fashioning the details of our lives.
Responsible behavior is a key ingredient in the outworking of God’s plan.
What I want to convey to you here is that there is no need for us to pit predestination against freedom of the will, or God’s providence against human responsibility. Both are taught in Scripture, and therefore both are true, whether or not we can always see how they work together. I don’t even know why we should expect to understand everything about God’s plan. If we did, we would be equal to Him, and such a God wouldn’t be worth worshiping.
God is clearly at work in Ruth’s life to bring her to a certain field at a certain time for a certain purpose. But Ruth is not an automaton, not a pawn in God’s hand being moved inexorably against her will and better judgment. In fact, God’s providence incorporates the godly character and the responsible conduct of this remarkable woman.
Ruth demonstrates responsibility by putting feet to her faith. Ruth has made a commitment and has followed through with it by traveling to Bethlehem with Naomi. But having reached that spiritual safe haven, she doesn’t sit back and take a vacation; she doesn’t apply for welfare; she doesn’t ask Naomi, “now that you’ve got me here, what are you going to do for me?”