HANDFULS OF PURPOSE

HANDFULS OF PURPOSE

Ruth 2:14-18 (KJV)

And Boaz said unto her, At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left.

And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not:

And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.

So she gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that she had gleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley.

And she took it up, and went into the city: and her mother in law saw what she had gleaned: and she brought forth, and gave to her that she had reserved after she was sufficed.

My message will come from verse 16 and the phrase, “handfuls of purpose.”

In order to get us all on the same page, I am going to need to take a few moments to remind you of God’s provision for gleaning.

The Bible says in, 

Leviticus 23:22 (KJV)

And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.

This wasn’t intended to be a handout.

Those who owned property and had fields ready to be harvested were commanded by God to leave the corners of their fields unharvested.

That way, if the poor had any sort of motivation, they could come harvest, or glean, those sections of the field for themselves.

·   They could get enough to meet their momentary needs or

·   They might glean enough to pay their way out of the poor house

But it wasn’t a handout.

The farmer did not harvest his crops and then give away some of his fruits to the poor.

If the needy wanted it, they were to work for it.

One of the most demeaning things any human can ever do to another is to provide for them without expectation.

That’s what we do with an animal.

·   We buy it

·   We house it

·   We feed it and

·   We keep it

It’s what we do with a prisoner

·   We confine him

·   We feed him

· We let him have a few moments of exercise

·   We give him necessary medical attention

He has his basic needs met – and it is his punishment.

God did not devise a welfare state. He gave Israel a plan whereby even the poor could have self-worth and initiative.

Naomi and her daughter in law, Ruth, have returned from Moab beaten down. Naomi said, Ruth 1:20-21 (KJV)

… Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.

I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?

But once in the Promised Land, Ruth took advantage of the opportunity God had provided. She began gleaning the corners.

The Bible says, Ruth 2:3 (KJV)

“…and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, …”

But we don’t believe in happenstance and chance, do we?

I’ll remind you once again, whether you think life “happens” to you or that God “watches over and cares” you will have a major impact on whether you are happy and thankful in your life, or miserable and unhappy, the victim of all the bad things that happen to you. 

God superintended and placed Ruth in the field of Boaz, the one man in all of Bethlehem who could reverse the course of Ruth and Naomi by a simple act of his will.

Ruth caught the eye of Boaz and he immediately gave her favor.

·   He instructed his people to see she had water

·   He invited her to eat with his crew and

·   He reached her parched corn

When the meal was over, he instructed his men to let her continue to glean in his fields and then in verses 16, “…let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.”

If any of us could read Hebrew we would see that the phrase, “let fall” and “of purpose” are the same Hebrew word.

The Hebrew word has to do with “taking a spoil.”

When an army defeated another army in those days, the victor got to go among the fallen enemy and take for themselves anything of value. They were the spoils of war.

Boaz was saying essentially, 

·   “Let her purposely spoil us.” 

·   “Let her pick up our treasures.”

And don’t rebuke her for doing it.

The word “handfuls” is also important.

When the poor gleaned, they would go to the untouched corners of the field and harvest. They would have to: 

·   Cut the stalks, 

·   Bundle the sheaves,

·   Carry them to a threshing area and 

·   Thresh out the grain

The handfuls, however, were already cut and bundled.

“Men, as you do your work, leave some of those bundles of harvested barley or Ruth to collect.”

The idea of them being “spoils” is that they were to do this in such a way that she was still not getting a handout. 

She was winning.

She was victorious.

And then notice, as I now transition into the message I want to preach, that the Bible says, “handfuls of purpose.”

Many of the other versions of the Bible say, “on purpose.”

The King James Bible says, “of purpose.”

I do not intend to explain why there is the difference, but I will say that the Hebrew word does contain a root meaning “of” and that the phrase, “handfuls of purpose” is much more powerful than “handfuls on purpose.”

So much so that many of the modern versions, just say, let fall some bundles.

They’re not just bundles; they were bundles of purpose.

Boaz was paying these men to make these bundles:

·   These bundles were valuable but

·   These bundles were not yet a finished product

·   These bundles contained the very reason the men were in the fields in the first place.

It got me to thinking, God has let fall some handfuls of purpose in our salvation.

Salvation is totally free, but it is not a “free ride.”

Ephesians 2:8-10 (KJV)

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Not of works, lest any man should boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

When He invited us to freely take the gift of salvation, that salvation was full of purpose. It is ours to thresh that purpose out.

I. THE PURPOSE OF GOD’S PLEASURE

2 Thessalonians 1:11 (KJV)

Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:

I wonder, when you pray for others, do you ever pray that they would “fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness”?

Revelation 4:11 (KJV) says,

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

God has created all things, that includes you and me, for His own pleasure.

·   That’s true of the heavens and the earth

·   That’s true of the plants and the trees

·   That’s true of the animals on the land and sea

Even we can receive pleasure from the creation, can’t we?

·   To wonder at Mt Rainier on a bright and beautiful day

·   To gaze into an aquarium filled with colorful and diverse sea life

·   To watch in awe a herd of elk, on a mountain meadow

It isn’t hard at all to see how God to find pleasure in them.

It’s true of even the lost man.

He was and is created by God for God’s pleasure.

He might disagree with that, rebel against it and reject it, but it is the truth.

It is especially true of those of us who are saved.

Christian, learn to live for God’s pleasure.

·   Pray for those Christians you know to live for God’s good pleasure.

·   Pray that you will learn to live for God’s pleasure.

II. THE PURPOSE OF GOD’S WILL

Romans 12:1-2 (KJV)

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Notice firstly

This is a plea

“I beseech you….”

The command of God is a powerful thing.

I would surely not want to be disobedient to any command of God.

But an appeal, a plea from God – that’s a whole different level.

I think it is more compelling than a command.

At this point in my life, my mother’s commands aren’t very impactful.

If she says, “Marvin, you will do this!’

I may or may not do it. I might even get my hackles up and refuse to do it just because she is trying to make me do it.

But when I mom calls me, with a tear in her eye and a trembling voice and asks me if I could do something for her, I’m just going to tell you, I will move all of my earth to make it happen.

Notice secondly

This is a sacrifice

That ye present your bodies a living sacrifice

Doing the will of God will be a sacrifice, but it is a reasonable thing.

Jesus was a dying sacrifice for us.

He asks us to be a living sacrifice for Him.

Notice thirdly

This is the will of God

They ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God

That you would not be conformed to this world, but that you would be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

The passage gives us three phases of the will of God

·   The good

·   The acceptable and

·   The perfect

will of God.

There are several ways to apply this.

I think I see a progression.

·   We begin our Christian life learning the will of God – that’s good

·   We continue on and grow in our understanding of the will of God – that’s acceptable

·   When we get to heaven we will fully know and do the will of God – that is perfect

There is thirdly

III. THE PURPOSE OF GOD’S FELLOWSHIP

Genesis 3:8 (KJV)

And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

Reading Genesis chapters 1 and 2, I get the impression that Adam and Eve had regular and wonderful fellowship with God.

·   He came to visit them in the garden. 

·   He spoke about all those things they might freely eat

·   He brought all the animals to Adam for him to name

·   He saw that it wasn’t good for the man to be alone

·   So He made a helpmeet for him

God came to walk with them and they ran up to greet them.

Until the fall.

After they knew good and evil, they knew they were naked, they were ashamed, and when they heard the voice of God, they hid themselves.

The remainder of the Bible is the plan of God to restore that broken fellowship.

Back to Revelation 4:10-11 (KJV)

The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Almost everyone agrees that the four and twenty elders are representative of all the Christians, by that time in heaven.

·   They are around the throne – no shame

·   They worship Him – no fear

·   They cast their crowns before the throne – no reservations

The fellowship is back.

Finally, our salvation contains within it

IV. THE PURPOSE OF GOD’S WITNESS

Acts 1:8 (KJV)

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Oh dear Christian, be a witness.

Now I want to tell you something about witnessing; you are going to have to teach yourself to do it.

It’s like that barley hidden within the bundles. It’s there, but you are going to have to get it out.

·   You are going to have to plan to be a witness

·   You are going to have practice being a witness

·   You are going to have to get into the habit of being a witness

You can do it.

You can carry tracts and learn to pass them out.

You can become bold enough to invite people to come to church and to speak to people about your salvation.

You can do it.

It’s God’s plan, His pleasure and His will that you do it.

Conclusion

Handfuls of purpose.

God saved you for a purpose. 

• Not just so you could go to heaven.

·   Not just so you could escape hell.

When He saved you, he handed you a bundle full of purpose.

·   The purpose of His pleasure

·   The purpose of His will

·   The purpose of His fellowship and

·   The purpose of His witness