Ruth 2 – God at work in ordinary lives
Our summer series is entitled Tales of the Unexpected. We are looking at unexpected ways in which God is recorded to be at work in the pages of Scripture and at unexpected people through whom God works. But I want to start by asking you some questions this morning:
Do you believe that God is actively at work in our world?
Many will tell us that this is a ridiculously old-fashioned and naïve view of our world. Science tells us that we live in a self-contained world where everything is determined by natural laws and physical particles and forces. Richard Dawkins, for instance, has written:
In a universe of blind physical forces … some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we would expect if there is, at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good. Nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.
Not a very attractive view of our world. But do we really believe that God is actively involved in our world and in our day-to day lives?
Some have suggested that perhaps God created our world at the beginning but has now stepped back and allows it to go its own way. He is like the maker of some marvellous machine – a great watchmaker people might have said in the past, but perhaps today we might use the picture of someone who has deigned and created a self-driving vehicle. God made the world and set it going, but it's now going under its own power and in its own direction. The maker has taken his hands off the machine.
Or perhaps we think that God has let the world go its own way and he keeps his hand off it for most of the time, but then he intervenes from time-to-time in extraordinary ways. He sent the plagues on Egypt to force Pharaoh to let his people go. He parted the waters of the Red Sea and of the Jordan River to let his people pass through. He sent down fire from heaven on Elijah's sacrifice on MT Carmel. He sent his Son, the Lord Jesus into the world to be born of a virgin. Jesus, as God incarnate, stilled storms, fed the 5,000, healed the sick and raised the dead. God has acted, intervened in our world in extraordinary ways to accomplish his own ends. But for the most part he lets the world to go its own way without needing his activity.
We have a Home Group WhatsApp group where members of our Home Group can share news with one another. Steve and Pauline Johnson are members of our Home Group and it was just a week ago that Steve shared a lovely story. He told us that a few months ago he lost his wedding ring which really upset him. Then, last Thursday morning, he picked some tomatoes from his greenhouse and left them in a plastic tub on his gravel path while attending to something else. When he came back and fetched the tub of tomatoes, there was his wedding ring, lying in the gravel in that very spot. He was full of joy and thanked God for answered prayer. Someone else in the Home Group responded with a similar story and expressed similar thanksgiving to God saying, "The Lord feels very close, caring and loving when he answers such prayers." And so he does, and such stories encourage us and fill us with joy.
But I want to tell you my story. Some two or three years ago I lost my wedding ring. I think it probably happened when I was working in the allotment we had at that time. I went back and searched diligently for it, but I never recovered it. The wedding ring I wear now was the one I gave my wife when we got married and she now wears one from my mother. What am I to make of my story? Does God not care for me as much as he cares for other members of my Home Group?
And what has all of this got to do with the story of the Book of Ruth?
Well I am sure most of you are familiar with the story of the Book of Ruth. Ruth, the widowed Moabite returned to the land of Judah with her widowed mother-in-law Naomi at the time of the Barley harvest. To keep themselves from starvation, Ruth is determined to go and glean in the fields to find grain for herself and Naomi so that they can make themselves bread. And in Ruth 2 and verse 3 we are told "As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz. And, as they say, the rest is history. Boaz becomes enamoured with Ruth. He protects and looks after her and before long they are married. Ruth and Naomi have a secure future in the care of Farmer Boaz.
But there is much more to this story for Boaz and Ruth have a son, Obed, who turns out to be the grandfather of King David and so a direct ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all because of that, 'As it turned out'. The old Authorised or King James Version of the Bible has the wonderful translation, 'and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz.' It's presented to us as a 'chance' event, but as the Book of Ruth unfolds we see that God's hand was behind it all.
And what I want us to take away from this passage this morning is the realisation that God is actively present in all of history; he is actively present at every moment and in every situation of our lives. He is there in the good times, but he is also there is the bad time. He is there even when bad things happen to good people – even when evil seems to triumph. He is there even in those situations where people say 'I can no longer believe in God if he can let this or that happen.'
Let me take you to Acts chapter 2. There Peter is preaching to crowds on the Day of Pentecost, less than two months after the death of the Lord Jesus. He tells the crowd:
Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. (Acts 2:22-24)
Here was an evil act as awful as any in human history and more terrible than any of us have ever suffered. Peter says that it was an act of wicked men who deliberately had the Lord Jesus, the righteous and holy one, put to death. But at the same time this was no tragic accident of history. God was at work even in this event to accomplish his own purposes. This was part of God's plan by which rebels like ourselves might be reconciled to a holy God. This is what we are remembering and celebrating this morning at we break bread and drink wine together. The world may think we are strange to cherish and even glory in the cross of Christ, a terrifying instrument of Roman torture and execution. But we glory in the fact that this is lies at the heart of the saving purposes of God for us.
And I want us this morning to appreciate afresh that God is at work in every circumstance of our daily lives, in the good experiences and in the bad, on days when our prayers are answered in wonderful ways and on the days when they seem to go unanswered. God is there and God is at work in the ordinary circumstances of our lives to work out his purposes.
The Apostle Paul writes, "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). Paul had experiences beatings, Floggings, stonings, imprisonment, and shipwreck yet he can say "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…" Think about that. God has been at work in it all, not just the good days but also the bad. He has been working out his purposes.
As one of the songs we sometimes sing puts it:
Your plans are still to prosper
You have not forgotten us
You're with us in the fire and the flood
You're faithful forever
Perfect in love
You are sovereign over us
Even what the enemy means for evil
You turn it for our good
You turn it for our good and for Your glory
Even in the valley, You are faithful
You're working for our good
You're working for our good and for Your glory
And what are God's plans and purposes? If we were to ask Paul he would tell us that God is at work, "to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ" (Ephesians 1:10). Or again, God is at work to bring every knee to bow to the Lord Jesus and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).
And God is at work in your life to bring you safely at last to glory. "I am convinced", says Paul, "that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" Romans 8:38-39. Or again, "he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6).
There is purpose and direction to our lives even as God has purpose and direction for our world.
Do you believe that God is actively at work in all the details of your daily life? Can you trace how God has been at work in your life? Do you believe that God is actively involved in all of the detailed events of our troubled world? Admittedly, sometimes it's much easier for us to see and rejoice in the activity of God – such as when we find a lost wedding ring or experience other remarkable answers to prayer. But often God's hand and purpose is hidden and it may even seem that God has forgotten us – as with those who lose a child. Nevertheless, the Bible assures us of God's constant presence and care: he is always with you; he always cares about you; he is always at work in your life, working for your good and for his glory. Could Naomi have seen that God was at work through the death of her husband and her sons to bring Boaz and Ruth together that from their descendants the Saviour of the world might be born?
The challenge for us is to live consciously and deliberately in line with the purpose of God both for our own lives and for our world. The challenge for us personally is to grow daily more like Christ, to "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose" (Philippians 2:12-13). And the challenge is for us to be actively engaged in furthering the purpose of God for our world by telling others of Christ and encouraging them to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord.
Will you accept the challenge?
In the words of another song:
I want to serve the purpose of God in my generation
I want to serve the purpose of God while I am alive
I want to give my life for something that will last forever
Make this your aim and passion.
Peter Misselbrook: Christ Church Downend, Thursday Communion, 14/8/2025