Thank you, Brother Mike Spiegel, for stepping in for us tonight. We had to make a last-minute change because Wayne couldn’t be here with us, but that’s why we called an audible on that last song and switched it up. And yes, that is an accurate use of a sports analogy.

But that’s a very fitting song, and so it worked out pretty well for the Book of Ruth. So turn with me, if you would, to the Book of Ruth, Ruth chapter 4. Ruth chapter four. Last time, we finished the scene on the threshing floor.

As we come to Ruth chapter four, it is almost a little disappointing that this book is over already. It’s been a good series and it’s a great book to study, but we are in the last chapter already. And as that last chapter closed, we saw the scene there on the threshing floor close and Boaz promised to handle the matter of figuring out the redemption of Ruth. And he promised to do it that very next day. And then as that scene closes, he sends Ruth away with her six measures of barley, as you remember. And then Ruth goes and reports the episode to Naomi. And that’s how chapter three comes to a close.

You see this scheme really that Naomi had concocted in order to present Ruth to Boaz. And while it was somewhat of a morally questionable scheme, if not dangerous, could have been harmful implications for Ruth, unbelievably that scheme worked. against all the odds that we see stacked against Naomi and Ruth and different encounters in this book, God continues to work the things together that need to happen in order to bring about the conclusion of this story. And that’s what we’ll see in this last chapter. But as Ruth presented herself to Boaz there on the threshing floor, Boaz was eager to fulfill her request, but there was a problem. And the plot thickened because of the presence of a closer redeemer, that he knew that he could redeem Ruth, but not before another man had the opportunity.

And so chapter three leaves us wondering what will come of Naomi’s plan and what will happen to Ruth. this Moabite woman who is now in the Israelite world. And again, this is all necessary groundwork in order to bring about the plan to preserve not only Elimelech’s standing in Israel, his inheritance rights, but to bring along the family of what would become the line of King David and the line of the Messiah. And we’ll see all those things tied together here in chapter four. So this first scene in chapter four takes place at the town gate where Boaz goes after being with Ruth that night on the threshing floor.

So I’m actually going to read verses one through 12 to begin with of Ruth chapter four. Ruth 4, 1 through 12. This is the Word of the Lord. Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the kinsman-redeemer of whom Boaz spoke was passing by. So he said, turn aside, my fellow, sit down here. And he turned aside and sat down. Then he took 10 men of the elders of the city and said, sit down here. So they sat down. Then he said to the kinsman-redeemer, Naomi, who has come back from the fields of Moab, has to sell the portion of the field which belonged to our brother Elimelech. So I thought to uncover this matter in your hearing, saying, acquire it before those who are sitting here and before the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if no one redeems it, tell me that I may know. For there is no one but you to redeem it, and I am after you. And he said, I will redeem it.

Then Boaz said, on the day you acquire the field from the hand of Naomi, you must also acquire Ruth, the Moabitess, the widow of the one who has died, in order to raise up the name of the one who had died on behalf of his inheritance. So the kinsman redeemer said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I ruin my own inheritance. You redeem my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it. Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning the right of redemption and the exchange of land to establish any matter. A man removed his sandal and gave it to another. And this was the manner of attestation in Israel. So the kinsman redeemer said to Boaz, acquire this for yourself. And he removed his sandal. And then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses today that I have acquired all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chillion and Malon from the hand of Naomi. And also, I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mallon, to be my wife in order to raise up the name of the one who had died on behalf of his inheritance, so that the name of the one who had died will not be cut off from his brothers or from the gate of his birthplace.

You are witnesses today. And all the people who were in the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. May God grant the woman who is coming into your home to be like Rachel and Leah, both of whom built the house of Israel. And so you shall achieve excellence in Ephrathah and shall proclaim your name in Bethlehem. Moreover, may your house be like the house of Perez, who Tamar bore to Judah through the seed which Yahweh will grant you by this young woman.

So that’s the first half, really, of Ruth chapter four, and it’s really the conclusion of this story of redemption for Ruth and for Naomi. And you see, right in the beginning there, a change of the scene, right in verse one. We leave the world of the women in the house, where we left in chapter three, where they were talking in Naomi’s house, and then chapter four begins with the world of the men in the town’s gate. And this all takes place here, as it says, in the city gate where the business was conducted. This is really where the court proceedings would take place, where the elders of the city would decide matters. And that was the place where they would meet and do these things. And so that’s where Boaz goes. And again, this is probably taking place at the same time as the conversation with Ruth and Naomi.

Remember, Ruth leaves in the morning to go to Naomi, Boaz leaves to go to the town’s gate. So you could say, meanwhile, Boaz went to the town’s gate. And so this is the very next morning after what happened in chapter three. And it says here, he went to the gate and he sat down and behold, and behold, It just so happened to be the very guy that Boaz is looking for. It’s very similar to the, and they so happened statements back in chapter two, when Ruth so happened upon the fields of Boaz. It’s ironic. It’s almost sarcasm in the text to point us to this didn’t just happen. It wasn’t just, oh, and look at that, here comes this. No, God was ordaining all of these things. And the author is pointing that out to us in the way that he is telling the story. But the exact man that Boaz needed was coming through the gate.

So Boaz sees him and calls him over. And then he gathers 10 of the elders, they were apparently pretty close by, because he gathers them to, really he opens a town hall meeting, really is what you could compare it to. He gathers the elders so they can conduct some business and he has some witnesses there to make what they’re about to do legal, and that they could testify to the things that were about to happen. And so as this guy is coming by, Boaz speaks up and says, turn aside my fellow, or some versions say friend. Well this word, it’s really hard to communicate into anything because it’s a word that is not specific on purpose. And the author is blatantly not naming this guy. Really, it literally translates into a certain one. Hey, you, come over here. It’s very specific not to mention who he is. He could be saying, hey, so-and-so, or hey, you, come over here. I have some business to do with you. He doesn’t mention the man’s name. Whatever his reason for not mentioning the name, whether the author just keeps it out for us or Boaz doesn’t use it, Whatever his reason was, his invitation was accepted. And this guy comes over, he turns aside, and he comes to Boaz to find out what Boaz wants.

And so, Boaz has come to the gate like he said, he’s found the man he needed, and he’s brought the elders together. And then it continues in verse three. He said, to the kinsman redeemer. Naomi has come back from the fields of Moab and has to sell the portion of the field which belonged to our brother Elimelech. So I thought to uncover this matter in your hearing, saying, acquire it before those who are sitting here and before the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if no one redeems it, tell me that I may know. For there is no one but you to redeem it, and I am after you. And he said, I will redeem it.” inconspicuous the way that Boaz presents this. He brings up the field of Elimelech. Hey, there’s this field that needs redeeming. Almost gives the impression that he’s really not interested, really at all.

There’s nobody else. You’re first in line, but let me know if you don’t want it because I guess I’ll take it. I’m the next in line. You need to figure out what you want to do, and if not, let me know. That’s kind of how Boaz presents this. You can tell even just in the way that Boaz is speaking. that he’s doing this on purpose. He has a intention behind what he’s saying here, what he’s doing. So he suggests that Naomi is the one who she needs to sell this land, which she probably did because they had no income. And so she eventually would need to sell the land in order to provide for them. And so he presents this scenario. that she needed to acquire some income, and we would hate for this land to fall out of the inheritance of the family here, the clan of Elimelech, of which both of them are members of this bigger clan.

And he says there in verse three, a field which belonged to our brother Elimelech. Now, this doesn’t mean that they were literally brothers. They were family members. They weren’t necessarily from the same mother and father. They could have been cousins or something along those lines. But they are in the same family, so they want to preserve, they want to keep the land in the family. They don’t want to let the land go to whoever wants to buy it. They want to keep it preserved in the family name. And inheritance rights were a big deal in Israel. God told them. to keep your inheritance in the family, to keep these things in the same family lines. And verse four, again, presents Boaz as trying to do this guy a favor, presenting it to him like, hey, check out this deal. This has come up available, and you’re the first in line.

So you ought to see what you want to do about this land. So he challenges this redeemer to the rights to Elimelech’s land. And he explained that although he was first, Boaz was second. And he didn’t, again, he didn’t say explicitly that he wanted it. He was just laying out the facts of the matter. And so the man responds and says, sure, I’ll take on another field. I’ll take the land of Elimelech. I’d be happy to do that. And if Ruth had been there, After Boaz had just told her, I’ll go figure this out. I’ll accept your proposal for marriage, but let me go figure this out. If she had been there listening to his presentation and the other man saying, sure, I’ll do that, her heart probably would have sunk.

You can just feel the emotion and the drama here. It would be at this point in the Hallmark movie that they cut to commercial. They leave you hanging. Oh no, this is going to ruin everything.

However, Boaz has another card up his sleeve because in verse 5. He lays out the rest of the deal here. He doesn’t just need to redeem the land, but in verse five, Boaz said, on the day that you acquire the field from the hand of Naomi, you must also acquire Ruth, the Moabitess, the widow of the one who had died, in order to raise up the name of the one who had died on behalf of his inheritance. So, Boaz finally introduces Ruth into the equation here. And there’s a translational difference in some of your translations.

Some, like the New King James Version says that he needed to buy it from Ruth. And the text could be translated either way, but it makes more sense that you must also acquire Ruth, that she’s part of the deal. Not that she’s the landowner that you need to buy it from, but she’s part of the package here. And that’s the better way to understand The reason why translations are different on that and the better way to understand what it should say. But if he wants the property, he has to take Ruth as well. He has to take on this woman that comes with the land. And that’s all part of the inheritance and the redeemer laws in Israel.

And really, while these laws, you have the redemption of the property and then the lever at marriage law, they are separate laws and they don’t have to go together. But the intention behind both of them is to preserve the family, to provide for the family. And so you can understand why probably often they would go hand in hand. And that’s what the understanding is here on Boaz’s part as he’s explaining what needs to happen. The intention is for both of them is to preserve the honor of the family.

So, Boaz lays out the rest of the deal. And now we have Mr. So-and-so’s answer in verse six. So the kinsman redeemer said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I ruin my own inheritance. You redeem my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it. So the other shoe drops, not so fast. I’m not going to take this field on. I can’t do that. And the reason is, is because if he does take on this field and Ruth as a wife and Ruth has children, then all of the inheritance that he just took on goes and probably his own inheritance would go to this child as well. So he doesn’t think that deal is quite so sweet as he originally thought.

So now he says he won’t do this and he leaves it to Boaz. But it’s interesting. Notice how Boaz presents the whole scheme. It’s not deceptive in any way. He is just presenting it intentionally. He is laying it out for the interest of this other Redeemer, but then he’s also including the rest of the information, which he knows he probably wouldn’t be too keen on, especially since, as he says, you need to acquire Ruth, the Moabitess. Boaz hasn’t called her the Moabitess yet. Isn’t it interesting when he chooses to include that information in describing Ruth? He conveniently now uses that and in his favor.

So now this guy’s not interested. He would have liked to just gain the land, but he knows that part of the deal is Ruth. And again, if she has a child, he would lose it all anyways. So he says, no, you take my right of redemption for yourself. All yours, buddy. You take the Moabitess and the land. You can have it. I’m not interested anymore. Boaz, his plan worked. The plan that he had laid out worked. Boaz could have written the book, The Art of the Deal. He perfectly worked out this deal with the Redeemer and the intent that he went with, and that is to convince him to allow Boaz to be the Redeemer, that’s exactly how it worked.

And you can see, God is working all these things out. God, because this man very easily could have accepted the deal and done what he wanted to, but God is sovereign in all of this. You see it continues in verse seven and eight, explaining really the way that they sealed the deal. It says, now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning the right of redemption and the exchange of land to establish any matter. A man removed his sandal and gave it to another, and this was the manner of attestation in Israel.

So the kinsman redeemer said to Boaz, acquire it for yourself, and he removed his sandal. Again, interesting details to include, but it does really inform us that this book was written well after the time that this actually took place because the author has to explain what on earth is going on here. Because apparently this wasn’t the custom anymore in Israel. And so he has to say, well, back in those days, the way that they sealed this deal was they exchanged the sandal. And so apparently this wasn’t the custom any longer, but he removes his sandal and hands it to Boaz. And so that marks that we’re going to take each other’s word for it. This deal is done.

Now we don’t know if he got his sandal back or if he just walked home with one shoe or what happened, but whatever the case, the deal’s done. He has now forfeited the redemption rights and Boaz’s plan worked. Boaz is now the one who is the redeemer. He’s now the owner of this sweet new property, fully equipped with a brand new wife! What a package! It all comes together. And that’s what Boaz testifies to. Once they do this exchange, he testifies to the witnesses. This is what you guys just witnessed in verses 9 and 10. Boaz says to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses today that I have acquired all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and Malon from the hand of Naomi. And also, I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Malon, to be my wife in order to raise up the name of the one who had died. On behalf of his inheritance so that the name of the one who had died would not be cut off from his brothers Or from the gate of his birthplace you are witnesses today so he’s just reading out the the terms of the deal all the things that he just acquired in this really transaction and it’s interesting to think about a marriage proposal and as acquiring a wife, almost like a, I went and bought this. I went and purchased this at the store type of a deal. That’s the language here. That’s not really what’s happening, but it is the legal transaction that happens here in the redemption aspect of it.

So again, this scene involves what Boaz is telling the witnesses, and really what’s remarkable is their response to Boaz in this. They apparently know what’s going on here. They understand all that’s been taking place, because you can see in their blessing that they give Boaz and Ruth and his household what they expect from this transaction that just took place. In verses 11 and 12, the witnesses agree to what he just declared that he did, and they testify that they are witnesses to what he says. And he says in verse 11, all the people who were in the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. Basically, yes, we are affirming what you just said. You did this deal, it is legal now.

And then they say this. This is the blessing they pronounce on Boaz and this family. May Yahweh grant the woman who is coming into your house to be like Rachel and Leah, both of whom built the house of Israel. And so you shall achieve excellence in Ephrathah and shall proclaim your name in Bethlehem. Moreover, may your house be like the house of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah through the seed which Yahweh will grant you by this young woman. It’s quite a blessing, it’s really remarkable. It really consists of three parts. There’s a blessing for Ruth, there’s a blessing for Boaz, and there’s a blessing for his household. The blessing for Ruth is, again, it’s really extraordinary.

They pray, really, that Yahweh would give this foreign woman a place among the matriarchs of Israel. The women who brought about the nation through their children, the women who were the most famous in the history of Israel, Rachel and Leah, the wives of Jacob, of Israel. They’re asking the Lord to make Ruth’s name as famous as Rachel and Leah’s. He does. God answers this prayer. because Rachel and Leah don’t have a book of the Bible named after them. They don’t have a story like this. Ruth’s name lives on forever because of the way that God worked this story out. God answers the prayer that they have for Ruth here. Her name does become like Rachel and Leah’s in the nation of Israel.

Not only that, not only does she have a book of the Bible named after her, she would become the great grandmother of the king. The greatest king in Israel, the great grandmother of what would become the Davidic dynasty, and the Messiah himself. All of this comes through Ruth. As one commenter says, no mode of praise more fitting or biblical could be imagined than associating this Moabite girl with the matriarchs of Israel. Think of where Ruth came from. Think of how her story began in Israel. She was no more than a beggar, going around the fields, picking up the scraps that she could, and look at what God has done for her.

Then we see this blessing on Boaz. This blessing is that he would become wealthy and famous and be rewarded for his deeds. It says, you shall achieve excellence in Ephrathah. and shall proclaim your name in Bethlehem. Boaz was already a man of excellence and they wish more of the same for him. And then you see the blessing on his household. And this again is interesting. They pray that this house would become like the house of Perez. Moreover, may your house be like the house of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah through the seed which Yahweh will grant you by this young woman. It’s an interesting comparison. Why bring that up? Why bring that name into the story? And why, when we get to the end and we start with the genealogy, why start with Perez? Well, Perez was the product of a levirate marriage too. He was the product of unlikely circumstances, and he was a sign of what God can use to bring about his perfect plan. And so, in fact, Perez is the perfect one to compare this family to.

And they ask that God would do the same with their situation as he did with that. But unlike the story of Perez with Judah and Tamar and that whole situation in Genesis 38, Boaz and Ruth have been presented as people of extraordinary character, demonstrating the highest moral standards throughout the whole story. They both embody the covenant faithfulness of God. And they recognize that God is the source of blessing and of family. And you can see that in the blessing given by these elders. They assumed that for Boaz to have offspring with this new wife was a gift. That would be a gift from God. And you could see that, because Ruth’s been married before, for 10 years, and doesn’t have children. And yet, they ask for God’s hand to bless Ruth and Boaz and their family with children. And again, these witnesses, these elders, they don’t really know how true their words would be.

They would see the, fulfillment of this blessing later on, after they were gone. But we see from the outside looking in the way that God is working all of these things together and bringing about this family and the, I don’t want to say irony, but the true nature of the blessings that are pronounced throughout this book. These people that ask for things from God don’t even realize what they’re asking for. And we’ll see that later on with Naomi. Lastly, we come to the conclusion of the book.

Really, this part of the book is about God being a promise-keeping God, that God keeps his word. Although the story, the narrative part of Ruth and Naomi and Boaz is just about over, the author has more to say. The author has more to tell us in this book. This book concludes with a genealogy. And it ends with the primary character in the next book of the Bible, 1 Samuel, and that is David.

So I’ll read the last part of this book now, verses 13 through 22 of Ruth chapter 4. So, Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went into her, and Yahweh granted her conception, and she gave birth to a son. Then the women said to Naomi, blessed is Yahweh who has not left you without a kinsman redeemer today and may his name be proclaimed in Israel. May he also be to you a restorer of your soul and a sustainer of your old age for your daughter-in-law who loves you and is better to you than seven sons has given birth to him. Then Naomi took the child and put him on her bosom and became his nurse. And the neighbor women gave him a name saying, a son has been born to Naomi.

So they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David. Now these are the generations of Perez. Perez became the father of Hezron, and Hezron became the father of Ram. Ram became the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab became the father of Nashon, and Nashon became the father of Salmon, and Salmon became the father of Boaz, and Boaz became the father of Obed. Obed became the father of Jesse, and Jesse became the father of David.

This marriage, it was the answer to a prayer. It was the answer to a prayer of a woman who had given up on God’s provision. Because if you remember back in chapter one, Ruth prayed that … I mean, sorry, Naomi prayed that Ruth and Orpah would find exactly what Ruth finds here. She says in chapter one, verse nine, may Yahweh grant you that you find rest, each in the house of her husband. Naomi prayed that they would receive a husband, and then goes on to say that God doesn’t give me anything. God has emptied me.

The loyalty and integrity and grace of Ruth and Boaz have been rewarded in this marriage. God has blessed this marriage and given them a son, and for only the second time in the God is attributed as the actor. Although his actions are behind the scenes and implied throughout the story, this is only the second time in the whole book of Ruth where it says, Yahweh did this. The first time is in verse six, where Naomi arises with her daughters-in-law and returns from the fields of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that Yahweh had visited his people. to give them food.

So the first explicit reference to God doing something was him visiting Bethlehem and bringing them food again. And the second is here in the provision of this child. And I think this tells us something. Something about the times when we, like Naomi, are frustrated with God’s lack of action. When we have prayed for things and we don’t see the fulfillment of them. When we ask God for things and he doesn’t seem to be doing anything. He doesn’t seem to be hearing us. Does God ever stop working? I think we can see in this story, even with someone like Naomi, who basically gives up on God, God still works and answers her prayers. And here, God graciously granted Ruth pregnancy as a gift. And that’s what it says.

And it continues in verse 14, the women said to Naomi, so earlier we had the elders giving a blessing and now you have the women of the town speaking to Naomi and said, blessed is Yahweh. If you translate that to our modern language, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord who has not left you without a kinsman redeemer today and may his name be proclaimed in Israel. May he also be to you a restorer of your soul and a sustainer of your old age for your daughter-in-law who loves you and is better to you than seven sons has given birth to him. So these women in town, it’s almost as if they have something to teach Naomi.

Naomi who came back and said, don’t call me Naomi anymore. Naomi means the kindness of Yahweh. Don’t call me Naomi anymore. Call me Mara because God has emptied me. God hasn’t given me anything. He’s taken from me. These women have something to say to Naomi. Naomi, look. Look at what God has done. Praise the Lord. Blessed is Yahweh. The one who you said had emptied you. Blessed is he because of look at what he’s done. This encouragement to Naomi praises God for the gifts Naomi has. Not only in this boy, but in Boaz, the redeemer, and in Ruth, her daughter-in-law. The woman whose life had been emptied by God has now experienced filling to overflowing.

Now Naomi and her daughter-in-law would be taken care of. Naomi and Elimelech now had descendants that would carry on their family name and their inheritance. Naomi had been blessed by God despite her bitterness. And for Naomi, all is not lost. Her emptiness has been filled. And the birth of this child gives new hope and meaning to her life. And as the women say, her spirit has been revived. She needed reviving. And her spirit has been revived by the way that they are pointing to her what God is doing in her life. And then these women keep their most remarkable statement once again to the end for Ruth. Taking the attention away from this child and even away from Naomi.

They don’t even name Ruth, but they talk about her extraordinary daughter-in-law. They say, for your daughter-in-law, these Israelite women, speaking about the Moabite Ruth, your daughter-in-law who loves you is better to you than seven sons and has given birth to him. These women saw the love that Ruth had for Naomi. Earlier, Boaz commended Ruth for her devotion to Naomi and to her excellent character, her nobility. But these women praise Naomi for her love, for the love that she has shown, the extraordinary care that she’s given this woman that she didn’t owe anything. Whether it’s going out and gleaning in the fields in a potentially dangerous situation, not only being a beggar, but being a woman and being a Moabite, going out and gleaning in the fields, or bringing home the fruit of her labor, or by listening to Naomi and executing the plan that she came up with.

All of Ruth’s actions demonstrate the true meaning of love, sacrificing herself for others. In this reference to seven sons, it’s the picture of the perfect Israelite family, to have seven sons. And these women say, Ruth’s better for you than seven sons would have been. Better than seven sons has Ruth been to Naomi. Again, she thought she was empty, but she’s fuller than she ever knew. And remember, when she declares that she’s been emptied by God, that you need to call me Mara, bitterness, because that’s what I am, because God has taken everything from me. I have nothing. He’s emptied me. She had Ruth at that time. Ruth was with her. So she overlooked the greatest blessing she had, because she was so focused on what she didn’t have. And on top of all of that, now God had blessed her with a grandson.

And verse 16 says, Naomi took the child and put him on her bosom and became his nurse. And the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, a son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed. He’s the father of Jesse, the father of David. It was typical in Israel to wait to name a child, typically after the eighth day, after their circumcision. And apparently these neighbor women came up with the name. They were possibly already calling him Obed by the time that it came to name him. And so they probably had influence on the naming of this child. The name Obed, it means one who serves. And compare that to the name Obadiah, which is the one who serves God, the one who serves Yahweh. And that is the conclusion of Ruth’s story. It’s not the end of the book though.

The drama of Ruth ends on a surprising but meaningful note, and that’s with a genealogy. You see genealogies at the beginning of other books in the Bible, but here you see it at the end, because this is the point. This is the point of the book of Ruth. All of those details, all that drama, all the unlikely scenarios in this story all come to this. God’s working out his plan. to bring about his promises. It reads through the generations, the generations of Perez. Perez became the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Aminadab, and then Nishan, and then Salmon, and then Boaz, and then Obed, and then Jesse and David.

This is the primary significance of the Book of Ruth. Obed’s significance was not that he fulfilled Naomi’s life. and not that he fulfilled Ruth’s life. It’s not about what he did for Naomi and Ruth, although that’s part of the story. The bigger picture is he’s the grandfather of the king. He is the one that God chose to bring about the kingly line in Israel. From the lowest point in Israel’s history, the time of the judges where everyone did what was right in their own eyes, The terrible ending of the book of Judges, where they’re basically Sodom and Gomorrah, when all hope seems lost, and that’s embodied in the picture of Naomi. God hadn’t given up on him yet. From all of that mess, all of the worst times in Israel, God brings something incredible.

This one event, the birth of Obed. It really changes the destiny of Israel. Now, they would be farther down the line, rebellious and cast out of the land, but in this picture of Israel at this point in time, they couldn’t fathom the blessings God had in store because of this event, what was about to take place. They would ultimately come to the King David, which ultimately leads to the promise of an eternal kingdom from his offspring. And that would be fulfilled in the King of Kings, Jesus. And Ruth would be more famous than Rachel and Leah, not just because of the book of the Bible in the Old Testament, not just because of being the great grandmother of King David, but Ruth is mentioned again in the Bible. She’s mentioned again in Matthew.

And in Matthew chapter one, verses one through six, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. And it reads right from Abraham down through. And then you get to where we picked up in Ruth. Perez was the father of Hezron. Hezron, the father of Ram. Ram, the father of Amminadab. Amminadab, the father of Nashon. Nashon, the father of Salmon. Salmon, the father of Boaz by Rahab. And Boaz, the father of Obed by Ruth. And Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David the king. as unlikely as it seems. All of this came through the fields of Moab, in Ruth, the Moabitess, great-grandmother of the king.

Ruth’s character also becomes famous. The type of life that she lived, the type of grace and faithfulness that she displayed When you read about what the ideal wife and mother ought to be in Proverbs 31, remember that Solomon is the one writing that. And who would he have heard great stories about as a woman of great character who works in the fields and provides for her household and whose husband calls her blessed? Who does all those things that Proverbs 31 describes? Solomon’s great-great-grandmother, Ruth.

In the book of Ruth, we see that on display. We see a lot of things on display in the book of Ruth. As all of this story comes to a conclusion, you see all of these things tie together. We see God’s sovereignty on full display, working out all these details, bringing together all of these storylines into this one family. from the emptying of Naomi by taking her husband and her sons, to the directing of Naomi back to Bethlehem, to Ruth just happening to come to Boaz’s field, to the threshing floor encounter, and even in God directing this other man’s heart to reject the deal, and to set up the marriage of Boaz and Ruth. God is sovereign, and he’s always working. even when we don’t feel like he is.

We also see that God desires righteousness in this book. Think of the people that are presented as the ideal characters. Boaz was the picture of what righteousness is. Righteousness is something God shares with us. It is what we call a communicable attribute. It is something we are supposed to emulate, something we are supposed to show in our lives because God is righteous. It’s part of being an image bearer, is showing the righteousness of God. And when we act righteously, we reflect the God who made us. We also see that God is trustworthy. God is trustworthy when we are not. And God’s provision does not depend on our faithfulness. It depends on His.

God does what He pleases. Naomi did not trust God, but God provided for her. God’s provision didn’t depend on Naomi’s faithfulness. Ruth did trust God, and God provided for her too, and provided for her in unimaginable ways. Because God is a promise-keeping God and he brings about his purposes. This genealogy at the end of the book, it exalts God’s providence by highlighting these unusual circumstances. It talks about Perez with Judah and Tamar and that sinful situation that God used. And then we didn’t even mention, I read it in Matthew, but Salmon’s mentioned there, and it says that he marries Rahab, another unlikely circumstance. And we have Boaz and Ruth, the Moabite, another unlikely circumstance.

But God doesn’t need likely circumstances to bring about his will. Our God does what he pleases. And we can trust in a God who isn’t hindered by anything. God often chooses to use the most unlikely characters to accomplish his will. So be encouraged and find hope in the promise keeping God. Because if God can find a way to keep the line of the Messiah alive, through the sin that brought Perez into the world, and through the unlikely circumstances and sin that led to the book of Ruth, he can provide all that you need as well. God has not failed to keep his promises in the past and he won’t fail to do so in the future. And his greatest promises are traced through this unlikely family.

They are found in the offspring of Boaz and Ruth, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. He too was born of unlikely circumstances. But he was an even greater example of righteousness than anyone we see in this story. And because of his perfectly righteous life and his sacrificial death on the cross, we can see the greatest story and promise in the Bible come true in us. That God is preserving himself a people. That he would die in our place so that we could live forever with him. That is the gospel. And it traces its lines through the book of Ruth. So if you have not yet trusted Christ as your savior, you need to trust him as the only savior from your sins. And if you do know him, praise God that he tells good stories and that he gave us such a great story in the book of Ruth.

Let’s stand and close in a word of prayer. Our God, we thank you. It is such a blessing to be able to read a story like Ruth. To see the way that you used the human author to tell this story in a way that we can enjoy reading about how you bring about your promises. And for the lessons that we can learn in this book about righteousness and faithfulness, your providence and sovereignty, the way that you are always working. And even when we can’t see it, and when we don’t know what’s going on, we know that we can trust you. We know that you are working things together for good, for those that love you. We thank you for who you are. We thank you for the promises we see in scripture, and we thank you that you are the God who keeps your promises. We pray all of this in Christ’s precious name, amen.