Notes
The Restart Process Takes the Time it Takes
Last week we looked at how Naomi guided Ruth in starting the courting process with Boaz. Boaz made it clear that another relative was closer in relation and had the right to redeem, or pay the price of debts, and take the property and marry Ruth. The custom and law of the time was clear that the closest relative had the first option, and only if they decided not to pay off the family debt could another of the kinsmen, or close relatives step in.
Let’s be clear, Boaz is very interested in Ruths offer to marry him, and it definitely is more than just to get the family land and extend his own properties. First, he already appears wealthy, since he has to hire servants to take care of the crops and isn’t doing the work himself or alone. Second, when we go back, he clearly shows that he is interested in Ruth’s offer by his gracious way of accepting her.
Boaz just wants to be sure the legalities and customs were observed. This meant having to set up a meeting with the closer relative to see if they are open to the idea, or if they had plans to redeem the property themselves. We see this unfold at the start of chapter four, which show a great picture of how the men at the gate of the city conducted business. It also shows how the process of redeeming the land and making an offer to redeem family land would have played out.
Naomi expressed that she knew Boaz wouldn’t let things rest until the matter was settled one way or another at the end of the previous chapter. However, understanding someone’s interest and the time it takes to cross all the “T’s” and dot all the “I’s” sometimes comes with an unknown timeline.
God’s time is not our Time
2 Peter 3: 8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,[a] not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
While it is true that Boaz gets to work right away, the truth is that no one knew what the time of the process would be. Maybe the other family members would be out of town on business? Maybe the other family member would want the property? Maybe the other relative would want to marry Ruth himself?
The fallen world we live in seems to have so many maybe’s and activities that can change the direction of our plans that many of us learn not to fully count on anything until we have it in hand. We become like the old saying, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” This saying comes from hunting and basically means it’s better to have one bird already taken from the days hunt than all the birds still out there in the wild, because only the one I have right now can feed me an my family.
Time is one thing many of us struggle with, especially when it comes to how and when God takes action to care for our needs. Most of us wait too long to turn to God, because we are not spending daily time with him, or “praying without ceasing” as Paul would tell us. So problems start to build, and we try to solve them on our own. Finally, as a last resort we turn to God. Turning to God should be our first and not our last plan.
God has perfect timing in all situations. We may not understand his timing, but the fact is that knowing all things present and future His timing is perfect. Our problem is impatience. As Peter reminds us “a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day.” God is eternal and ultimately is concerned about the big picture and how today’s events may impact that big picture. We tend to live in the moment, and we sometimes miss where God is moving in the everyday.
God’s ways are not our ways
In Isaiah 55, as Isaiah write a poem about God’s restoring power and the judgment upon those who had been against Israel God adds these words:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
(Isaiah 55:9-10)
Proverbs 16:9 puts it this wise way:
The heart of man plans his way,
but the Lord establishes his steps.
I am sure in many ways it must have been hard for Ruth or any woman in these days to have to wait upon the decision of the men’s counsel at the City Gate. God had a greater plan for his children in Israel with the whole process of the kinsmen redeemer. It wasn’t just that men would own the land and women couldn’t, since there are cases in Scripture that mention women owning land. The heart of these laws were to preserve the family descendants and family properties for generations. It was to make sure there was enough land that they all would have plenty to grow and keep their crops. And, ultimately so the people could never be permanently enslaved again. The laws were part of justice and mercy that was promoting a freedom for the Hebrew people and guaranteeing the heritage and safety of everyone.
We can make plans, and God never says we should; however, we should always keep God in center of all the plans we are making? These verses we share in this section really demonstrate that not only does God have a plan, but we must learn to seek His ways and hear His voice in the process of Restarting and change in our lives.
This isn’t easy, and we will discuss that more in moment, but we must come to a place where we can know that even in the waiting God is still in control. We must learn to see the little victories and not just look at the end game. The truth is we may not see the fullness of the end game. Ruth, Boaz, and Naomi had no way of knowing that this plan of Kinsman protection would lead to the greatest king the nation would know, or that the entire world would be saved through their linage and the birth of Christ.
Dealing With Anxiety in the Restart Process
Philipians 4:4-9
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness[d] be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned[e] and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Anxiety is a normal part of change and the restarting process. No one likes dealing with any level of anxiety. Sadly, anxiety can overwhelm us and consume our thoughts and time. It can literally paralyze us and prevent us from making the right decisions and choices in even the smallest everyday moments at times.
Anxiety has become a fad saying, to cover a multitude of worrisome and fearful mindsets some real other often brought on by our own actions or imaginations of our day and age. However, some anxiety can be real and it should be expected when our world is turned upside down by circumstances out of our control.
Naomi had opened herself up to Boaz. She had taken a big risk in offering herself to be his wife. She was skirting the edge of societal norms where the man usually initiated marriage proposals. She risked losing not only a future husband, but the land she was getting her daily food from. If she was rejected everything for her and Naomi could be lost.
Naomi, I’m sure had her own concerns. After all she likely knew there might be other closer relatives than Boaz. Her plan to put her daughter-in-law out for marriage to secure her own life could look to some like a gold-digger seeking to put her claws into the far more well-off Boaz instead of seeking a lowly relative farmer. She had to have known the risk that the very place their food had been coming was on the line if Ruth was rejected or approached Boaz in the wrong way. It had to have been an anxious time for both she and Naomi.
Our own anxieties:
We’ve been sharing about our restart process, and how we are hoping for a home of our own. We haven’t quite finished the journey in this part of the process. We are waiting for banks and inspectors to clear our way. We are needing to prove work, since we’ve not been employed in the area all that long. It is a scary time. It takes a lot of risk to sign paperwork that will put you in debt further.
This all comes together with worries that everything will come falling down around us. This is especially true when you’ve just moved out of a situation where everything did come crashing down. The proverbial “If you fall off a horse get back on” theory isn’t as easy as it is to say to others. Seeing the end blessing is overshadowed with worry and concern, and that every text or phone call is coming to tell us it all fell through.
It is hard, but sometimes we have to force ourselves to sit a moment or an hour to think on what God has been doing and be reassured that God still has plans. We must learn to put scripture in our mind, heart, and mouths reminding us that God is still in control.
God Has a Plan & Way Through the Restart Process
Jeremiah 29:10-14
10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare[b] and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
Isaiah 40:28-31
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Where is God? When will this be over? When will life be normal?
These are normal questions when going through the restart process. You should know that asking is okay. Some people have sanitized their Christian Walk almost to the point of denying reality. They try to hide their concerns and what’s more they push others to do the same. We need to start from a mindset that the Bible clearly teaches us, and not lean on our own understanding.
First, we see many people in the Bible asking why. David starts many of his Psalms with an attitude of why, but ends on the focus of God being in control and seeing God’s bigger plan. Asking why and seeking God in the process of change should be a natural part of our experience. It only becomes dangerous when we get stuck or when we move beyond simply asking why and asking guidance to blaming God and becoming bitter toward God.
This is the difference expressed in the Book of Job, when Job is crying out and his friends are giving poor advice telling Job to confess sins that were not there or just to give up. Job avoids being bitter and is asking why all the disaster happened. He desires hope of explanation. We may not like the answer Job gets, but Job does get an answer. God starts by saying in essence “Where were you when I created everything? Who are you to question my ways?” Many people may think this means we should question God. The reality is that God also tells Job that his friend’s advice was wrong and they needed to repent. He is telling Job of His greatness so that Job will be reassured that God remains over all and in control. Finally, God restores Job at the end of his ordeal.
Second, we can trust that God is a God of restoration and always has our best interest in mind. The process we are facing may seem out of control, but God is never out of control. We like Job and like the verses we read above can realize in everything as Paul tells the Romans, “God is working all for His good.”
Trusting God in this time had to have been hard, but Ruth and Naomi had done their part. They had put themselves out and taken the risk. Now, they had to trust that God was going to bless their hope. We don’t see it, but I have to believe that Naomi and Ruth had a deep prayer life. Waiting and suffering and still believing somewhere God is working it out had to be driven form this deeper relationship with God.
The end result was blessing, and renewal of life. Just as the passage we read in Isaiah says, “They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will rise on wings like eagles.” We may be in the heart of change, so seeing the lift of the wind beneath our wings may not seem so evident at this moment, but God is in business of lifting and restoring us. We can be encouraged by Scripture and time alone with Him through this process and know that He is working out His plan for our good.
Word Through The Wilderness * Deep Treks 
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