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In a moment, we're about to have our Bible reading. But as you just get your Bible out and prepare to listen, I just wanted to give you a couple of things to look out for, really, as you hear the text is, you know, a fairly long chapter in a narrative like this. I just like you to listen out, really, for this theme of rest, how Ruth chapter three is about Ruth finally finding rest. And also, just as you listen to this chapter, just allow yourself to feel. Feel the tension, feel the stress of the text as it unfolds, as it's read to us.

Hopefully that will help us. Let's have our reading. Thank you, Ruth. Chapter three, which can be found on page 269 of the church Bibles.

Ruth, chapter three. One day, Ruth's mother in law, Naomi, said to her, my daughter, I must find a home for you where you will be well provided for. Now, Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes.

Then go down to the threshing floor. But don't let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.

I will do whatever you say, Ruth answered. So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother in law told her to do. When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet, and lay down. In the middle of the night, something startled the man.

He turned, and there was a woman lying at his feet. Who are you? He asked. I am your servant, Ruth, she said. Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian redeemer of our family.

The Lord bless you, my daughter, he replied. This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier. You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. And now, my daughter, don't be afraid. I will do for you all you ask.

All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character. Although it is true that I am a guardian redeemer of our family, there is another who is more closely related than I. Stay here for the night and in the morning. If he wants to do his duty as your guardian redeemer, good. Let him redeem you.

But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives, I will do it. Lie here until morning. So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognised. And he said, no one must know that a woman came to the threshing floor. He also said, bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out.

When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and placed the bundle on her. Then he went back to town. When Ruth came to her mother in law, Naemi asked, how did it go, my daughter? Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her and added, he gave me these six measures of barley, saying, don't go back to your mother in law empty handed. Then Naomi said, wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens.

For the man will not rest until the matter is settled. Today, this is the word of the Lord.

Thank you so much for that reading. Let's pray as we come to God's word. Father, we thank you for this word that you have inspired for us, for our teaching and training and rebuking and correcting and learning. And I pray this night that you would, by your spirit, to press home those lessons you would have us learn, Lord, that we might be hearing your voice tonight. In Jesus name, amen.

How are you at resting? Are you a good rester, I wonder? I saw some no's already. Some people are good resters, some people are not. I'm not sure.

Most of us are probably that good at resting, are we? I mean, it used to be that standing in a queue was a few minutes with your own thoughts. Now it's a chance to get your phone out to. I mean, you've got it out before you even know what you're going to do on it. Let's be honest, haven't you?

You know, you got it out, unlock the screen and then think, I'm not even sure I've done this. Just a few moments quiet and, you know, lest I be bored for a few seconds. So bad at resting, aren't we? Most of us, actually, this just in this past week, I can think of a couple of occasions where I was walking to the school run and twice somebody nearly walked into me because they were on their phone. Phone walking.

I've decided to dub it. Have you seen phone walkers? It's everywhere. I've obviously been guilty of it myself. I'm being mean to others.

Phone walking. Goodness, we're so bad at resting, we can't even be with our thoughts for a few minutes. But there are different kinds of resting, aren't there? There's the kind that some of us are good at staying in bed till late. You know, some of us might be quite good at that physical rest, but there are other kinds of rest, aren't there?

There's the kind of rest that is emotional rest, you know, quiet from all those things that are bothering us going on. You know, when your head just feels like it's so busy, everything's going on and buzzing, and you long for rest. I know that many of us feel that way a lot of the time that we're just struggling to find rest. Statistics tell us that 39% of people in this country struggle with anxiety, which is the opposite of rest, isn't it? You know, if rest is being at peace and knowing you're secure and being anxious is being riled up, isn't it restless, but in your mind, emotional restlessness.

If you're age between 16 to 29, they tell us you're 48%. 28%. Sorry, I should read my notes. 28% more likely to be anxious than the rest of the population. And almost half of people who feel anxious are embarrassed to tell someone about it.

Now, if you think of that for a second, that means that as you sit today in this congregation, if those statistics are even slightly true, if they're even close to the mark, one of the people you're sitting next to at least, is probably feeling quite anxious, struggling with anxiety. We need rest, don't we? Surely there are different reasons we feel anxious, but we all need the same thing. We want that rest. We want to know that security and peace.

Well, this chapter, Ruth three, is all about rest. It's all about finding a home. In fact, if you look right in verse one, we read one day, Ruth's mother in law, Naomi, said to her, my daughter, I must be find a home for you. You see, in your bibles, you'll have a little a next to home. And you look to your footnote, and you find that the Hebrew says, find rest.

Literally, what it said was, find rest, not find a home. Find rest. And that matters because back in chapter one, verse nine, Naomi had prayed that Ruth would find rest in Moab. But we'll come to that. See, this chapter has this theme of finding rest.

Finding rest. Remember, the story so far was that Naomi and Elimelech had left. In chapter one, they left Judah because of famine, a fear of food. They were anxious about how they were going to provide for their family. Where was the food going to come from?

Okay, what should we do about that? Should we go to Moab? Okay. It's worth a try, isn't it? So off they drop.

Remember, they spent ten years there. And then after ten years, when they finally came back and Ruth and Orpah say that they're going to return to Judah with Naomi. Naomi says in chapter one, verse 9, may the Lord provide rest for you. She's thinking, I'm anxious now about how I'm going to find rest for Ruth. How is she going to find protection?

How is she going to find security? I can't do anything about it. Maybe you better go back to Moab because you're not going to find it with me. Through chapter two, Naomi has learned, actually, that God does provide for them, that God has got a plan for them in the land of promise. But there's still that tension in this chapter.

Will Boaz kindness last? It's all very well, isn't it, being provided for for a season. It's great for someone to come alongside you and help you with food for a bit. But what's next? You know, what will happen after that?

Will there be a real home? Will there be solid provision long term? This is really the tension of our chapter. And our chapter really is based around the meeting with Ruth and Boaz at the threshing floor. And it's sort of bracketed by Naomi spending time with Ruth.

So we have three scenes, three scenes in this act, this third act of Ruth. And scene one is verses one to six. We've already mentioned that in verse one, Naomi says to Ruth, my daughter, I must find rest for you. She doubted in chapter one she'd said, hadn't she? Do you remember at the end of chapter one, Naomi had said, change my name from Naomi.

Change it from pleasant. That's what Naomi means. Change it from pleasantness. And call me Mara, call me bitterness, because the Lord isn't giving me rest. He hasn't given me those things.

I haven't got security. She thinks the end of chapter one. But she knew God's work through chapter two. And she trusts that the Lord has rest for her. She trusts now at the beginning of this chapter, actually, the Lord will find a place for us.

He will give security and provision for us in Judah.

So Naomi has been on a journey through this, hasn't she? She's been on a journey from doubt to faith, from doubting that the Lord would provide. Yeah, I lived in the land of promise, but what was I going to do for food? She lived away in Moab. My husband has died, my children have died.

All these anxieties. She's coming back to the land. She doesn't know what she's going to do. She knows now. She trusts now.

The Lord will provide. But she doesn't know how it's going to come. She doesn't know how it's going to come. But she sees, actually, Boaz is going to be God's man for the job. Boaz is going to be the one who provides for us.

And so she tells Ruth about her cunning plan. And this is her cunning plan. Ruth. Naomi says, ruth, go and have a wash. Put on some perfume, look nice.

Go down to the threshing floor. See, the threshing floor is a place where at the end of the harvest, they would gather all of the grain and they need to get rid of the chaff, all the bits you can't eat, and just get the wheat. So they're working all day and all of the guys would be there working hard all day, and they would sleep by the pile of grain overnight. Otherwise someone might come and pinch it. So all the guys are sleeping there.

And Naomi's cunning plan is, look really nice, put your perfume on, dress up and go and spend some time with Boaz.

You're probably wondering, what on earth is all of this about? What is Ruth's cunning plan doing? I don't know. Are you thinking that? I certainly am thinking this as I read it.

What is this cunning plan doing? Well, Naomi wants Ruth to make it clear to Boaz that. That she's available, not in an inappropriate way, but just to say to him, actually, you are one of my kinsman redeemers. I would like you to. I would like you to take me as your wife.

I would like you to protect me, to redeem me. So she's sort of showing him that this is what she wants. But there is a kind of a mystery about how all of this is going to pan out in the chapter. Notice that it all happens at night. It's all kind of dark.

Ruth waits until it's dark and everyone's laid about on the side. We don't really know how it's going to pan out. And actually, we don't even know if everyone knows who each other are and how they're all going to respond. This is really interesting. In verse eight, if you look with me, the narrator drops the names.

He doesn't say Boaz and Ruth. He says, in the middle of the night, something startled the Mandev. It's an odd thing, isn't it? We know full well who Boaz is and what his name is. Suddenly, the man was startled and there was a woman lying at his feet.

There's just this mystery. You know, what's going on? Everybody doesn't really know. It's dark. We're not sure how it's going to pan out.

So you need to feel that mystery, okay? Scene two. They arrive at the threshing floor.

Ruth approaches, quietly uncovers Boaz's feet and she lays down.

We're still wondering what all of this is about, really, isn't it? It was one thing that she was told to wash and put perfume on, but what's all this lying down and uncovering feet and all of this sort of stuff about the question being raised here is how Boaz is going to act. How is Boaz going to respond to Ruth? We know he's got a duty to her, that he is, as we saw last week, he has the same flesh with Naomi's family. He has a responsibility for her as their kinsman Redeemer.

But that doesn't mean he's going to act properly towards her. We know it's a dangerous culture. Again, in chapter two, Boaz had warned off the other guys not to touch her. It was clearly a dangerous place for Ruth to be. And we don't really know how Boaz is going to act.

We do, because we've read the end. But if we're following it through, we don't. Right. We should feel this tension going in the text. And Naomi and Ruth lies down at his feet.

Now, there's an ambiguity here about what this lying down means, because lying with somebody in Hebrew can be a euphemism, just like sleeping with somebody is in English. Now, don't hear me wrong. I'm not saying that's what happened here, but the question is raised in your mind as a reader, okay? Is that what's going on? Is something untoward happening here?

We see that as well, with the uncovering of the feet. Feet, again, in Hebrew is a euphemism for something, okay? Feet is a you. Let's leave it at feet is a euphemism. Okay?

And again, I'm not saying that Ruth uncovered something unhelpful, but that's the question we're supposed to be thinking. What is going on here? Is something really, you know, is this something inappropriate going on here or is something, you know, how's this going to pan out?

So all of these tensions are in the text. What will Boaz do? Will he. Will he give her the rest? Will he be honest?

Will he do hesed with her? Will he act according to his covenanted relationship with her? I. Because Boaz could have refused, couldn't he? He could have refused.

If you know the story of Ruth in chapter four. Sorry if this is a spoiler in chapter four, someone else is going to turn out to be a closer redeemer for Ruth. And this guy is going to say, no, I don't want her. She's way too high maintenance for me. Got loads of baggage that I can't deal with right now, to be honest with you.

You have a. So Boaz could have said that, you know, she doesn't know that. He's not going to say that. But here's the beautiful bit. And this is just so amazing.

Right in the midst of all of this, all this tension, all this nervous energy and restlessness comes this, you see, because something woke the man up in the night. Verse eight woke up the man and there was the woman lying there. Her heart must be really going here, mustn't it? You know what's going to happen. Okay, who are you?

He asked. I'm your servant, Ruth, she says. And then she says, this really the key bit. Spread the corner of your garment over me since you are a guardian redeemer of our family. So the guardian redeemer means you're the one who could redeem me of the family.

Means we're the same flesh. We talked about that last time. Being in the same family means you share the same flesh, has a responsibility for her. But even better than all of that is where she says, spread the corner of your garment. Because.

Because literally the corner of your garment here is. Spread the wing of your garment over me. Spread the wing of your garment over me. If you have been following Ruth, I hope you're going, whoa. Okay.

Not really. I can see it in your faces. You're rejoicing in your heart in a really english way, saying, I've just made that connection. What a beautiful thing this is. Tell your face.

No, I'm joking. So this is an amazing thing because this is precisely what happened in chapter two, verse twelve. Boaz had said to Ruth, you might remember, the Lord talks about the Lord under whose wings you've come for protection. And here Ruth is saying, Boaz, I believe that you are God's man for protection for me. So spread those wings over me.

Spread those wings of your garment over me. I want to be redeemed. I want you to be God's man to redeem me. Boaz is a covenant redeemer, the one who shares her flesh and has a responsibility to save her, to protect her, to provide for her. Will he do it?

Will he do it?

Yes, he will. He will. He will. He will. And he says to Naomi, he says this, doesn't he?

Verse ten. The Lord bless you, my daughter. He replied, this kindness, this hesed, is greater than that which you showed earlier. You've not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. Okay, maybe you're asking, how is that better than the former hesed?

How is this kindness better than the former kindness? The former kindness, if you remember, was that she stuck with Naomi, came back from the land of Moabite. That was a kindness, wasn't it? She could have left Naomi. This is even kinder, says Barath.

How is this even kinder? Well, this is kind of because Naomi, Ruth. Sorry. Is committed to raising up sons for Elimelech and Elimelech's sons. You remember in chapter one we talked a little bit about this, how it was the responsibility to raise children for deceased members of the family.

And she's sticking to that. She could have gone after younger men. And it wasn't just because, you know, this wasn't kind of like an attractive young men type thing. This was because she would have forsaken raising up descendants for her husband and father in law. So her kindness, her hesed, just keeps on going.

And so she's committed to marrying Boazden. Well, the final scene is when Ruth arrives back to Naomi. The wait is over. Verse 16. When Ruth came to her mother in law, Naomi asked, how did it go, my daughter?

Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her and added, he gave me these six measures of barley, saying, don't go back to your mother in law empty handed, love. This is another wonderful connection. You see, where it says empty handed, this literally is just empty. Dont return empty. And this is precisely what Naomi had said in chapter one, verse 21.

She said, the Lord has brought me back empty. Dont return back empty. Because theres fullness now. Everything is for you. Theres fullness for you.

Wonderful connections. All these threads are being tied up here in chapter three for us. And wonderfully, verse 18. What wonderful words these are. Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens.

For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today. Wait. Rest. The restlessness has moved, doesn't it? From Ruth and Naomi to Boaz.

He's taken the restlessness on. He's not going to rest. He's going to trouble himself to sort it all out. Now, you can wait. You can rest.

The rest of this is gone. And Boaz's character is known now, there's one more twist to the story. We'll find out next week. But I hope that we felt the tension of this chapter. You know, we can read it quite quickly, can't we?

But it should be quite tense, you know, how is this going to pan out?

There was a lot of things, a lot of reasons for anxiety for Ruth, a lot of things to worry about. And for Naomi. Will I be provided for? Will I find rest? Will I be safe?

How will the Lord come through for me?

Now, all scripture is God breathed, and it's given for us. So what's this passage here for us for?

Wouldn't it just be easier if it just says, don't worry, it would be fine. That would be shorter, wouldn't it? But it's taken us through this story. We've lived with Ruth through this for a purpose. And one of the purpose is that to those who feel like they struggle with anxiety today and maybe who are ashamed or worried to tell somebody about it, hopefully this passage can show you, you should be able to speak about that.

You know, those tensions in life, those experiences of restlessness, of not knowing where that provision is coming from, of how it's all going to pan out. These are things that these people in the Bible lived through. This is what Hebrews twelve one means when it says, we've got a great cloud of witnesses. Ruth is one of those witnesses. For you to say, don't be ashamed of telling someone, of sharing those anxieties.

It also says to those of us who might feel anxious, is that it gives us a perspective and ask us to move our perspective to think about the one who cares for us, the one who spreads his wings over us, you see, because what fills our minds, fills our concerns, doesn't it? Those things that we think about, those things that we dwell on, those are going to be the things that we think about. I want to show you a picture I think we have on a slide. This is just a picture based around. You may remember Mary and Martha's being with Jesus and, oh, goodness, I have to look behind me to read those words.

It's tiny, but in this story, Mary and Martha had had Jesus round for tea, hadn't they? And Martha was all sorts of stress. She had all sorts of anxieties about the things going on around her. But the Lord answered her. Martha, Martha, you're anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.

Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. Now, what this picture is illustrating is that Martha's mind is full of all of those things to worry about, isn't it? It's full of the washing up and the finances. It's worried about getting old and whatever it might be, all of these sorts of things that could be bothering her. All of those things are still true for Mary, actually as well, aren't they?

There's still things in her life, but she fills her mind with Christ. She fills her mind with thinking about the one who spreads his wings over her. You see, we can't deal with anxiety and worries in life by tackling it one by one and getting rid of everything that might worry us. That's never going to work. If we have money troubles, we'll get money and then worry that the money is going to disappear.

You know, we want a perfect job. We get that perfect job and think, am I going to keep it?

Whatever it might be? There's always something to be worried about. So the answer isn't, let's go and fix every single issue one at a time.

The issue is, let's put our minds on the one thing necessary, the one person who takes us under his wings, who provides for us, the one person who is a safe place for us, because Jesus is that one for each of us. We come to him today and we say, spread the wings of your garment over me. I want to be safe in the shadow of your wings. And we cast our eyes to him. And all those other things don't disappear.

But they get smaller. Don't they get smaller because Christ so fills our vision. He's so precious to us, so wonderful to us that those other things don't have as much space to stress us out and so we can be just like Ruth. At the end of verse 18, wait, rest. Because actually there's one who's not going to rest until he's got it all sorted.

There's one who has taken all of those things from you and he is sorting it all out for you. He is going to be restless until you have true, eternal rest.

Let's pray.

Father, we do thank you for your love for us in Christ.

Thank you that he is our kinsman redeemer, that he is the one who spreads his wings over us, under whom we can take shelter. And I pray that you would teach us, teach us this week to so think on him, that those other things around us might become smaller in our minds. In Jesus name, amen. Before we finished, I think the things we've touched on tonight, it's not like, you know, cool. We've talked for two minutes on how to deal with anxiety, and we're done.

I brought one book with me, one resource, which is called finding the better story. The title is 31 day devotional for teenagers. I see no reason why it's just for teenagers. To be honest with you, it's a great book if you'll be interested in trying to, but fill your mind with Christ to try to help push those things to the side to deal with those anxieties in your life. Let me encourage you maybe to pick up a copy of this book or come and steal it from me or something.

That's fine. Talk to me afterwards. We're going to sing now about coming under the wings of the Almighty. Thank you.