In the sermon 'Boaz, Protector, Provider, Progenitor' by Anthony Mathenia, Boaz is depicted as a significant biblical figure who serves as a provider, protector, and progenitor. The sermon explores the story of Ruth, who, unlike her sister-in-law Orpah, chooses to follow her mother-in-law Naomi back to Bethlehem, embracing the path of faith and commitment to God. Boaz, as a kinsman-redeemer, plays a crucial role in Ruth's life by redeeming her and Naomi from their dire circumstances, exemplifying the qualities of provision, protection, and progeny. This narrative is used to draw parallels between Boaz and Christ, highlighting the typology of Boaz as a representation of Jesus, our ultimate redeemer. The story is also a reflection on the importance of being 'born again,' the commitment to God, and the role of men to provide and protect in a biblical sense. The sermon concludes by tracing the genealogy from Boaz to Jesus, emphasizing God's sovereign orchestration in the lineage that leads to the Messiah.

Good morning. I am grateful again to have the opportunity to be here. I was here two years ago with my oldest Isaac and last year Simon. The next son was able to come along and this year I have all three of my sons with me. I have three girls at home as well, but all three boys have the privilege of coming with me and I'm delighted to be able to spend this time with them and with you all, particularly looking at the scriptures together.

I hope to be as brief as possible while seeking to drive down yet another nail. I just mentioned my son's, the just turned four-year-old. We keep reviewing each time what we've looked at so far, and his takeaway so far is be nice to your friends, obey your mom and dad, and obey God. Which is close to right, not exactly, but depends on what kind of curve we're grading on. After Pastor Scott's first talk last night, Simon, the five-year-old, when I asked him what was the main point, he said that boys are boys and girls are girls.

So he did take away an important point from it, maybe not the main point, and I will follow it up each time by saying, and what else? And he'll say, I'll say, what's the most important thing about a man? And he has said each time, you must be born again. So, as we continue thinking about that, the most important thing about a man is that he's born again and that a Christian man ought to be pure, hating evil, fearing God, And then most recently, the Christian man ought to be diligent. I want to put three nails as well into this picture using Boaz from the book of Ruth, a little known character, but an important one, both Boaz and Ruth.

Boaz as provider, Boaz as protector, and Boaz as progenitor. Who knows what a progenitor is? Even if you're above 18. We have one. The progeny are our kids and grandkids, a progenitor, someone who has kids and grandkids.

So Boaz as one who provides, one who protects, and one who has children. In order to set the scene a little bit, the Book of Ruth is familiar, but it's helpful to understand Boaz in light of the context. There were days when judges were ruling the land and there was a famine in the land where a man named Alimelek, his wife Naomi, and their two sons were living. Elimelech took his family away from the land of bread, that is Bethlehem, into the enemy's territory. Bereavement strikes.

Elimelech dies. The two boys marry foreign women, Moabite women. The grief is multiplied in the household as the sons die and Naomi is left with these two daughters-in-law who are foreigners. Naomi responds to the dark provenances in her life in quite a remarkable way. There are lots of ways that we respond to difficulties, things like turning away from God or shaking your fist at God or questioning the love of the covenant God.

Naomi doesn't do that. She hears. Providentially, just so happens is the way that it reads. She hears somehow word comes to her that there's bread again in the promised land. And with Naomi, just like with all the rest of mankind, it is the Lord's kindness that leads to repentance.

She says God has visited His people with bread. And so she turns and she sets her sights to go back to the land where she was commanded to live before her husband took her away. So she arose with her daughters-in-law in tow that she might return. She's convinced of her need to return to Bethlehem, but there's a question. What does that mean for these two Moabite women, these foreigners?

Orpah and Ruth are their names. I mean, going with Naomi at this point in their lives would seem like a path to nowhere. It would be like them embracing emptiness or settling for loneliness or hoping in hopelessness. There was nothing there for them as far as they were concerned. So Naomi says to them, go back to your family, stay in your homeland, find a husband, Make a life for yourself there.

Their initial emphatic resolve is to stick with Naomi. Know we're going with you. But Naomi presses the issue home a little bit more. She uses a very logical argument in the form of a rhetorical question, saying, if you go with me, there's no guarantee for you. If you don't return to your homeland, you're sure to be doomed.

Return while you can. Make something of yourself. Establish a family. Show some concern for your lineage. Turn back now before it's too late." And Orpah listened carefully and intently to her mother-in-law.

She loves Naomi, but she does not allow her emotions to cloud her mind and affect her decision. Naomi had successfully convinced Orpah and Ruth at this point that there was no special blessing in the land of promise. Orpah and Ruth knew the story of how they left the land of promise looking for bread in the enemy's camp. Naomi's life had testified to the lie that there was no special blessing in the land and so Orpah lays out all of her possibilities. She makes her decision using the exact same logic that Naomi had taught her by her example thus far in life.

Now was this? The fields of Moab looked greener than the land of Israel. So Orpah makes her simple, sensible choice and walks right off the pages of biblical history going back to her people, back to her gods. And we've heard nothing else from Orpah, right? You've never heard anything else from Orpah.

You've heard about Oprah, who was actually named after Orpah. Did you know that? They just misspelled it on the birth certificate. True story. She's from Cosiasko, Mississippi, And her mom attempted to name her Orpah after the biblical character and they misspelled it on the birth certificate.

So she became Oprah. But can you fault Orpah's decision here? I mean, can you blame her for the choice? All she knew was the land of Moab. So that's what she chose.

But Ruth responded differently. She had the same poor pattern in Naomi up until this point. She was an outsider. She was a member of a people who were longtime arch enemies of the Israelites, and conventional wisdom was no doubt crying out for her to follow Orpah. But the scriptures tell us that Ruth clung to Naomi.

And Naomi proceeds to have hard conversations with Ruth, making her deal with hard truths, namely this, Ruth, If you come with me, you can have Jesus in Bethlehem, Jesus plus nothing else in Bethlehem. Or you can have everything minus Jehovah in Moab. That was the choice that was before Ruth. And Ruth turned from idols to serve the living and true God. Her commitment was fully to the Lord and his people.

I mean, that's where we get that famous passage that we're familiar with in Ruth. Where you go, I will go. Ruth is choosing a new path for herself. Where you lodge, Naomi, I will lodge. She chose a new place.

Your people will be my people. She chose to be among a new people. Your God shall be my God. She chose to have a new peace. Even after you die, I will follow you.

I will follow to my own death. There was a new prospect for her future. And not just to death, I will follow you all the way to the grave." There was a new purpose in Ruth's life. And these are not just empty words that Ruth is saying to her mother-in-law, Naomi, but it's unswerving loyalty to God and to His people. It's a great pattern for us in our lives to have unswerving commitment and loyalty to God as well as to the people of God.

In fact, all of you here, every single one of us face the decision that Orpah and Ruth faced. We all choose one of the two paths that are represented here in the story of Ruth. We live in the land of Jehovah or we live in the land of the Moabites. We either have God as our Father or John 8 44 we are of our Father the devil. There are no spiritual orphans.

So, answer this question in your own mind. Is your story described in this fashion? The story of Ruth, one of turning back to God's grace, the story of Naomi, one of repentance and of conversion. Does returning to God, moment by moment, day after day, season after season, does it run like a melody line through the story of your life, defining what your story really is all about? One of turning back to God and returning to his markable grace.

Is your life a detailed display of how God sovereignly orchestrates the rescue again and again? That brings us in the book of Ruth basically to chapter 3, but if we back up to chapter 2 verse 1, we see the writer saying basically, keep your eyes out for this man. Now Naomi had a kinsman of her husband, a man of great wealth of the family of Elimelech whose name was Boaz." So the writer says, keep an eye on this man. Verse 3, Ruth departed and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers and she just so happened, literally, to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz. Keep an eye on this man.

Somehow, Ruth ends up in his field. And then more details are revealed regarding his relational status in verse 19 of chapter 2, Her mother-in-law then said to her, Naomi said to Ruth, where did you glean today and where did you work? May he who took notice of you be blessed. She told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, the name of the man with whom I work today is Boaz. And Naomi said, may he be blessed of the Lord who has not withdrawn his kindness to the living and to the dead.

The man is our relative. He is one of our closest relatives. So an increased measure of hope is on the horizon here for Naomi and for Ruth. Why? Watch out for him because he's a kinsman.

Why watch out for him? Because he has the capacity to redeem, to make up for the years that the locusts have eaten. So their eyes are fixed on him. Their hopes began to lean more on him. They were hoping in the law.

Naomi had been taught the law. She was aware of Deuteronomy 25.5. It's called the Leverite law. Basically, within the spirit of this law is the idea that a person could come along and deliver a family member, in some cases an entire family, from difficult circumstances. Doing things like buying back his kin from slavery or bondage or buying land that a relative had sold away or marrying a widow who has no male heirs.

Therefore, allowing for protection, one of the things that we're looking at, and progeny. Also included in the spirit of that law is the opportunity to avenge any wrongful death. There was an expectation of protection. And Boaz is not acting out of pity, mere pity for Ruth when he is willing to accept her, to take her into his household, to buy all of Naomi's property, to invest in it, to take Ruth as his wife, as his own, to provide for her, to protect her, and to have her children, to give her children. It's an act of obedience.

Primarily the work of a kinsman redeemer is redemption. That is a purchasing. It was costly for him to provide all that was necessary. There was a process of restoration that must take place. There was going to be, there was a requirement for Boaz.

He was well aware of this and he took it on willingly to protect her. The kinsman-redeemer would continue the family name. He's the progenitor. He would secure the interests of the family inheritance. He's able to do things for themselves.

He's able to do things for them that they cannot do for themselves. And he's able to do it because of his strength, because of his might. God has made us as men to be strong, not so that we can lord it over one another, and especially not so that we lord it over the ladies in our lives. Scott was mentioning the great benefits of the patriarchy, or being patriarchal, seeing our fathers and functioning as biblical fathers. It is unfortunate that we live in a day where there can be adequate accusations against biblical patriarchy because men have wrongly taken it for what it was not meant for.

They've not proven themselves that they were using the strength that God had indeed given them to actually rule in a loving and compassionate and endearing way, but rather with an iron fist and to crack down. Now, granted, there are those who hate the patriarchy no matter what. That's the feminization of our society. We're ignoring them, right? We're taking those who are claiming biblical patriarchy and carrying it to an extreme and using the strength that God has given, the commands that God has given, and using it basically to boost themselves up rather than come alongside and protect and provide.

Men, boys, God has made you strong in order to love your wives well, in order to protect them at all cost, in order to care for your children well, in order to protect them at all cost. That's what your strength is for, not to smash them down into the ground emotionally or any other way in order to have them serve you. It's at this point in the story, in the story of Ruth, that gospel truths began to shine a little more brightly. When we see Boaz fulfilling the type, the typology we see in him of Christ, but also as a teacher. So he's an example to us, but also there are these gospel glimpses of the Messiah who would come.

So for Ruth, for Naomi, there was a kinsman-redeemer in Boaz, and he could do for them what they could not do for themselves. For us, for you, for me, for our families, there is a kinsman-redeemer who can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Boaz is a type of that man, the God man, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Ruth and Naomi, as they continue to put their hopes in this man, come up with a plan. They have a lot of hope in the plan based on the awareness of the law.

You can imagine there would be a lot of doubt that Boaz would actually have any interest in a single childless Moabite widow with a mother-in-law in tow. That's a pretty poor ad if you're looking for a husband. I mean, if you're a single man of age here and you're interested in that, you're probably too desperate. But their eyes were on the right person, their hope was in the right place. They're looking to Boaz, a kinsman.

They're not desperate. They're not looking outside of where God has caused them to live and to look, what he has commanded. They knew that there must be someone after their likeness. The same is true for us. Here's where the typology, the typology gets so heavy here, it's hard for us to pull it apart and see where is Boaz teacher and where is he type?" and at the end of the day we can say, yes, he's teacher and he's type.

Because in the same way that Ruth and Naomi had to have a kinsman, someone after their likeness, the same was true for us. If Christ had not taken our nature fully, if the second person of the Trinity had not, who was always truly God, if he had not become truly and holy man, He would not be a satisfactory sacrifice. He is a sufficient Savior for us because of His nearness of kin, because He stooped down from the realms of heavenly glory and took on flesh like yours and mine and lived among sinners, yet remaining free from that sin." You remember the apostle Peter's famous words, Lord to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. Naomi in the same way said, Boaz is the one, not one of many, the one that you must approach regarding redemption.

Ruth, He's our hope. We've pinned our hope and our future on Him. Jesus is our only hope. No other name under heaven. There is no other name under heaven whereby men may be saved.

And in the midst of the plan that they've concocted, not only do they have the right person in their sights, but Naomi sends Ruth to the right place, to the threshing floor, where Boaz would be sleeping. And time and again, all throughout Scriptures, I won't read all of the examples I have, I won't read any of the examples that I have, but the threshing floor is a time again and again throughout Scripture where God is dealing definitively with his people. So Ruth had come to the right place, not just to the threshing floor in general, but as you look at chapter three, she comes to Boaz's feet. Submission is clearly communicated. The threshing floor for you and for me is the cross of Christ.

We come there. Again, the typology enters in so heavily. We come to the cross and it's at the cross where all the chaff of life is blown away. It's where clear distinctions are made. We come in submission, we come humbly like Ruth did.

The hymn writer says it well, never further than thy cross, never higher than thy feet. Here earth's precious things seem dross. Here earth's bitter things grow sweet." Ruth came to Boaz, lifted up the edge of his blanket at the bottom, curled up, slept till morning. The example here for us, the picture for us is uncovering not Boaz's feet as pictured, But uncovering the feet of our Savior, the path that he has trodden recorded on the pages of the gospel. Scott said it well last night, if you want to know how to be a real man, look at Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

We trace that path that he has trod and we follow him every step of the way. The way that Boaz had described Ruth previously, chapter 2, verse 12, God under whose wings you have come to seek refuge. Ruth wasn't really there seeking refuge from Boaz. She was, physically speaking, but spiritually she was seeking refuge under the pinions of Almighty God. She came to Boaz requesting him to act according to the spirit of the law and to be her kinsman redeemer.

She was confident. Confident that her future did not ultimately depend on her ability to formulate and execute a cunning plan. She didn't come trying to trick him. In the midst of it all, we see a kind, compassionate God overruling, orchestrating all things for the good of His people, for Ruth, for Naomi, for the future progeny as well. Now, just briefly here, for those of you who are familiar with this passage, and if you're not, you go back and read it and you'll understand why I'm making these statements.

So many commentators regarding this passage in chapter 3 assume that Naomi and Ruth are attempting some type of underhanded job here, trying to trick Boaz into doing something that he wouldn't normally do in his right mind, coming at night, potentially after Boaz has had too much to drink, because Ruth dressed up. Here's the thing, there's no evidence in the text that Ruth was dressing seductively. She dressed attractively, but likely it was a way for her to say to Boaz, I'm no longer in mourning. Her goal, Ruth's goal in coming to Boaz this night at the threshing floor was a marriage commitment. She was coming looking for long lasting commitment, not a one night stand, not a single night of sin.

And here's the thing, the takeaway from that, when we read anything other than that into the text of Ruth chapter 3, it reveals a lot more about us than it does about Boaz and Ruth. Ruth comes to Boaz. Listen to his response, Ruth chapter 3 verse 9 and following. We'll look at some of his, of this account. He said, who are you?

And she answered, I am Ruth, your maid, so spread your covering over your maid, for you are a close relative, a kinsman, redeemer. Then he said, may you be blessed of the Lord, my daughter, you have shown your last kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men, whether rich or poor. Now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you whatever you ask. For all my people in the city know that you are a woman of excellence.

Now, it is true, I am a close relative. However, There is a relative closer than I. Remain this night when morning comes, if he'll redeem you good, let him redeem you. But if he does not wish to redeem you, then I will redeem you as the Lord lives. Lie down until morning." Ruth comes to Boaz.

Boaz says she requests a covering. She requests protection. She requests provision. She requests children. And he says, I'll do it.

It's interesting though, he's aware, he's looked into it. He's not oblivious to the situation, he's done some research, he knows that there's someone who qualifies more than he does. He doesn't have a lot of hope in that person, but he's going to willingly allow them a chance at the beginning of chapter four. We're not looking at that much today. I will just mention that whoever that was, that nameless individual, they had no interest in taking on the protection, the provision, and the progeny of Ruth.

They read the ad like we would read the ad. Childless widow, Moabite, heathen, with a mother-in-law in tow. But what we see happening here from Ruth and from Boaz, again, is pointing to a real love story that's going on behind the scenes, one that's continuing to be written out on the pages of the Scriptures, the one that exposes and reveals to us the love that God has for his children, the love that Christ has for his bride. Ruth was seeking out provision and protection and children, progeny. But spiritually speaking, Boaz had said it well, she was seeking refuge underneath the wings of the Most High.

Which if we go back to last night, that is the most important thing. What is the most important thing about a man? That he be born again. Which really brings us back full circle. Because of all the things that were expected to do as Christians, as Christian men, to fight for purity, to play the man, to hate evil, to fear God, to be diligent.

It is all an impossibility, a spiritual impossibility apart from God working in us. In closing, we see Boaz leaving his harvest in the morning to settle this issue, leaving what he had always done. Every day had been the same, and he leaves to go and secure protection and provision and progeny for Ruth, the most unlikely of suspects. Christ didn't just leave a grain harvest in the field to act as our Redeemer. He left the glories of eternal heavenly bliss to become a suffering servant.

He took on flesh in his incarnation that he will never rid. He underwent voluntarily subordinated himself to all the laws that he himself had made of living in a fallen creation, in the midst of a fallen creation that he himself had created by the word of his power. Christ, so unlike Ruth, who found shelter in the most unlikely of places, but she found shelter in Bethlehem, there was no room for Jesus there. He wasn't welcomed into a family, he was confined to a stable before being forced out to flee for his life in a foreign land. The love of Christ for his people took him to a far deeper darkness than an ordinary midnight that Boaz experienced on the threshing floor.

The love of Christ took him to the darkness of his father turning his face away and pouring out on him an eternal weight of wrath that you and I ought to pay." He quenched it. For those who are his, he quenched it entirely. Ruth chapter 3 evidences to us in the life of Ruth and in the example of Boaz that God can, has, and will redeem us from all sorts of situations, of everything, anything, of all that could go wrong in the threshing floor of your life, God can bring about good. Boaz was completely committed to absorbing all of the cost to himself to protect, to provide, and to progenate. That's our calling with our wives, with our children, to protect at all cost, to provide at all cost, and to progenate.

And God uses ordinary folks like us to do these kinds of things. Boaz is not one of the famous people in Scripture, not at all. If you look at the end of chapter 4, you see after Boaz and Ruth have a child, just pick up in verse 16, Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap, became his nurse. The neighbor women gave him a name saying, a son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed.

He is the father of Jesse, the father of David, and the hope and the typology and the excitement of the story which began on such a dark canvas of miserable famine and three deaths in the first handful of verses. Now these are the generations of Peres. To Peres was born to Hezren and to Hezren was born Ram and to Ram Abimadad and Abimadad was born Nashon and Nashon Salmon and Salmon was born Boaz and Boaz Obed and Obed was born to Jesse and Jesse was born to David the king. David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba and I've transitioned to Matthew chapter one now. Bathsheba was the one who was the wife of Uriah.

Solomon was the father of Rehoboam and Rehoboam, the father of Abijah. And Abijah, the father of Asa, and Asa, the father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat, the father of Joram, and Joram, the father of Uzziah. Uzziah was the father of Jotham. Jotham, the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah.

Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh. Manasseh, the father of Amon, and Amon, the father of Josiah. Remember, we're called to progeny. We're seeing it happen. Josiah became the father of Jeconiah.

Jeconiah became the father of Shilteel. Shilteel the father of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel the father of Ahadud, Abedud. Abedud the father of Eliakim. Eliakim the father of Azor.

Azor was the father of Zadok. Zadok the father of Aachim. And Aachim the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eliezer, Eliezer the father of Mithon, Mithon the father of Jacob, Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and the anticipation builds by whom Jesus was born who is called the Messiah. The kind orchestration and compassion of God overseeing all things using the commitment of this one man, Boaz, willing to provide, to protect, and to produce children with Ruth, the Moabite woman who was nothing apart from Christ but submitted and came looking for her all in all in Jesus ultimately initially in the type who was Boaz.

Let's pray. Our gracious God in heaven, we thank you for your word, that it is eternal and true, and we do pray that by your grace and for your glory you would take the truths as they are in Jesus, implant them deep within our souls, that there might be everlasting fruit of righteousness, fruits in keeping with repentance, and fruit of the Spirit, that we might be men after your own heart, that we might seek you with our whole hearts, that we might not only experience the new birth, but we might fight the fight of faith all the way to the end, seeking to be pure in all our ways, seeking to play the man in every role and arena that you've called us to, seeking to hate evil and to fear you most of all, seeking to be diligent in all our ways, making our calling and election sure, seeking to provide and protect and reproduce with those that you've given us within our families. God, we thank you for the kind and compassionate orchestration that you've worked out by your gracious will in our lives as your children, we pray in the matchless name of Christ our elder brother, amen.