We’ve been lied to. Being at the center of God’s perfect will doesn’t mean there are not challenges, obstacles, and even difficulties in the lives of God’s people. Just as obedience to God can result in pain, being in God’s will can create anguish.

I. Real Life (44" class="scriptRef">Lk 22:42-44; Job 1:8; 2:3). On the Mount of Olives before His arrest, Jesus prayed while in agony so great that His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground (Lk 22:42, 44). The Lord Jesus, the Second Person of the Godhead, was certainly in the center of the Father’s will, yet He suffered in agony awaiting the cross (Mt 26:38).
God promises to give His people inner peace when anxiety would otherwise strangle us (Phil 4:7), but that doesn’t mean we won’t encounter outward difficulty, pain, struggle, and disappointment. Faith, even the false faith promised by tv preachers doesn’t mean easy sailing through life.

II. Real Need (Ruth 3:7-9). After the evening meal, Boaz went to sleep at the threshing floor after a long and tiring day. He and his servants slept surrounding the threshing floor to protect the grain from animals, Jewish thieves, and pagan raiders. As they slept, the shrouded figure of Ruth approached. It’s a love story in the making, an illustration of and eternal romance played in real time (Eph 1:3-14).
Now it happened that Boaz was fearfully startled awake by the cold air on his feet and the realization that something, or someone, was curled up next to his feet. God was at work providentially and the writer wants us to sit up and take notice. It was Ruth, humbly at his feet in a position of submission.
Ruth asked Boaz to take her under his wing or to spread his mantle over her. This familiar phrase in the Old Testament describes claiming a person as your own, safe under a person’s protection and provision (1 Ki 19:19; Ezek 16:8). God used the term to describe His covenant love and protection for Israel as His wife.
The figure was also used by Jesus in Matthew 23:37-38 to describe His desire for Israel, who only days later demanded His crucifixion (Jn 19:15).
Ruth repeated Boaz’s own prayer, asking to be under his wing in marriage because he was her goel, her kinsman-redeemer. This Hebrew word is used 10 times in the Book of Ruth, showing its significance in understanding the purpose of the story (Ruth 2:20; 3:9, 12, 13; 4:1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 14).
The goel had several responsibilities under the Law of Moses. He had to: (1) avenge the death of a murdered relative (Num 35:19); (2) marry a childless widow of a deceased brother (Deut 25:5-10); (3) buy back any family property which had been sold (Lev 25:25); (4) buy back or redeem a family member sold into slavery (Lev 25:47-49); and (5) care for impoverished members of his family (Lev 25:35). The role of the goel was significant in Jewish life.

III. Real Redeemer. Jesus is the believer’s goel, our kinsman-redeemer. He took upon Himself human flesh so He could reveal the Father to mankind and so He could redeem sin-fallen humanity. This work by Jesus as our Redeemer was accomplished at a great price, the price of His life (1 Cor 7:23), by which our sins are forgiven not just for a lifetime, but for time and eternity (Eph 1:7; Heb 9:12-15).
Through His death, we are redeemed from slavery to sin (Jn 8:34; Rom 6:5-7), the penalty of sin (Gal 3:13; Col 2:14), and the domain of the devil (Eph 2:2; Col 1:13-14; 2 Tim 2:26).