Ruth the Moabite: Expansion Joint of God's Grace

But Ruth is literally living on the margins of the margin, and she is a Moabite scrap in a Jewish land. And it's there that she meets Boaz, in Boaz's field. She had no idea whose field it was and who it belonged to. But she shows up, and Boaz shows up. He's the he's the one who owns the land. And you do have to ask yourself the question, this Jewish Boaz, a rich guy who owns the land. He obviously does well for himself. Even so well that he even obeys the law to try and make this little section so that other people can come and benefit from it. Why does Boaz, the Jewish Boaz, why does why does he look at Ruth as a friend from sin as this Moabite? Why does he see her as someone as worthy and not someone to cast out? Because if you follow Jewish law in Deuteronomy and you're a good Jewish guy who follows Jewish principles, you follow the law and no Moabites, no Ammonites. Get why does he look upon her in favor? Because his mom is Rahab. [01:15:22] (63 seconds)  #BoazSeesWorth

In our eyes, this looks like a scandal. It looks like the same kind of desperation that started the Moabite line back in that cave, but Ruth isn't repeating history. She is redeeming it. When Boaz wakes up, Ruth doesn't ask for a handout. She says in in in chapter nine of the Ruth story, he says he said, who are you? And she answered, I'm Ruth, your servant. Spread your cloak over your servant for you are next of kin. In other words in other words, what Ruth was trying to do was to communicate to him, can I have some grace, please? This is initiatives. Now most of us most of us as part of churches, organizations, we want to give out the grace to others, or or where at least we want to to try and create initiatives to help others. Ruth teaches us something very valuable. If you are someone in need and you recognize that there is privilege that exists on this side or that side, and I'm not denying that it's hard, it must be incredibly hard, Ruth teaches us that there is a place to ask for privilege. [01:19:26] (71 seconds)  #AskForGrace

He shows favor to this Moabite woman because he under understands firsthand what grace looks like for his mother. He didn't see Ruth as a structural flaw to the system because his own mother, Rahab, was the expansion joint of the previous generation. He knew that the most stable peoples aren't the ones who have never fallen. They are the ones who have been redeemed from the rubble. Back to our friend from sinners, Ruth, the moment of the heat, Naomi tells Ruth, go to the threshing floor at night. Wait for Boaz to fall asleep and lie at his feet. Now, let's understand what's going on here. Remember, I told you about the story of Moab and why we have Moab in the first place. Moab began with the three daughters in that cave with the sinister action that took place. [01:18:10] (58 seconds)  #BoazOfRahab

Boaz doesn't just come from any old random Jewish home. His mother knows firsthand what it's like to be a reject because all over Israel, his mom is known for one thing, the prostitute. Boaz was raised by the prostitute. Boaz knows everything you could need to know about what it means to be an outsider, what it means to be judged, what it means to be not part of the group. Not only was his mother a prostitute, his mother was a Canaanite in Jericho. His mother wasn't even Jewish. But this little boy grew up in that home in this Jewish land, learning what it means to be embraced by a community that gave favor to his mother and thus favor to him. Boaz gained privilege because privilege was offered to his mother, and the privilege continued on. [01:16:32] (67 seconds)  #PrivilegeFromMercy

It's a food bank. That's what it is. It's a group of people who say, this is going to be the area that we harvest, and we're gonna leave this section over here for the poor and those who can't afford life. And they can go glean freely. We won't ask questions of them. They don't need to prove why they need to be there. They can if you are in need, just go to that part of the animal. Leave that rich in produce so that you can go and get. And so Ruth goes to that side, and she starts to gleam because she needs to survive. She can't show up in a Jewish nation as a Moabite and say, hey. Can I get a job, please? It just won't work. In the ancient world, gleaning was this social safety net, and the poor would pick up all the scraps that are left behind by the harvesters. [01:14:36] (47 seconds)  #GleaningSafetyNet

you could probably think that the bridge is falling apart. Or in other words, it doesn't make quite sense. Why would you create these gaps on a plane that's supposed to be smooth enough to go across? And also, not that you remember it or even think about it. Wouldn't it be nice just to drive across and you don't hear thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, but you just it's just a smooth ride across. But engineers were very specific. When they designed these bridges and they learned about the dynamics of what creates a connecting point between one side to the other side, they call these gaps expansion joints. [00:57:38] (38 seconds)  #GapsByDesign

When they designed these bridges and they learned about the dynamics of what creates a connecting point between one side to the other side, they call these gaps expansion joints. An expansion joint is essentially a gap that provides room for leverage to take place, a room for for for play to take place between the slabs. Seattle, obviously, is the sunniest place in the world. But when there is sun, the one day of the year that there is sun, it's beaten down and it's really, really hot. What happens with these slabs is because they're made of concrete and steel, they expand. And if we were having were to have one plane with no gaps whatsoever, an expansion would take place, our bridges would essentially crack. [00:58:04] (52 seconds)  #BridgeScienceAndGrace

Most of us spend our lives trying to build seamless bridges. I do it, you know, whether it's perfect careers or our families or or whether it's the faith that we are trying to hold up or or maybe the impression that we wanna come across looking like we're solid and unbroken. There's no gaps going on here. I'm just trying to do my best to look as perfect as I possibly can so that people don't think anything is slipping through. We think that if a gap shows up, a failure, or even a season of shame, or something that that you've done wrong, we we seem to sometimes tell ourselves the story that our bridge is failing. [01:00:14] (45 seconds)  #SeamlessIsNotStable