GODS HAND IN OUR RISK
Ruth Part 3
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
Do we have any risk takers here?
Any bungee jumpers?
Skydivers?
Scuba Divers?
Who’s got a motorcycle?
How many of you ride without a helmet?
How many of you play golf?
That’s a risky sport isn’t it?
Driving that little cart,
that can be dangerous,
you might drive it into a pond or something.
We’ve got at least a few risk-takers here.
We’re in the third week of our series on the book of Ruth.
We’re going to see some risk-taking today.
In case you missed last week,
let me catch you up on the story.
The book starts in chapter 1 saying,
“In the days when the Judges ruled,”
this was a dark season of Israel’s history.
A period of rebellion and wickedness,
You can read about it in the Book of Judges in the Bible,
which is found right before the book of Ruth.
The story of Ruth took place about a 1,000 years before Jesus.
It says that a famine came to Bethlehem,
likely because God was disciplining his people
for their hard-heartedness,
and repeated rejection of him.
The story focuses on a family,
headed by a man named Elimelech,
And he decides rather than staying in Bethlehem
and trusting God during this famine,
that he will move away from Israel to Moab,
about fifty miles away.
Tragically, the thing he was seeking to prevent
by moving to Moab,
happens when they get there.
Elimelech dies, and then his two sons die.
His wife Naomi and the two daughters-in-law,
are left destitute,
So Naomi decides to return to God and his people
One of the daughters-in-law, Ruth decides,
I also want to follow the one true God,
I want to be with God and his people.
so she goes with Naomi to Bethlehem.
The following day Ruth goes out looking for food,
she wants to glean the leftovers in the fields
after the harvesters get done.
This is where we see God’s providence really kick in.
We said last week that Providence means,
God is involved in every detail of our lives,
and if we’re following him,
then he uses it all, even problems and difficulties,
for good in our lives,
and we also talked about last week,
that the word luck is never found in the bible,
To God there’s no such thing as luck,
but God does show favor,
to those who love him and obey him.
And we saw that
God really started to show favor, to Ruth.
“She goes to gather leftover grain in the fields,
and just happened to end up
in the field of a guy named Boaz,”
who the Bible describes as a mighty man of strength,
in other words he’s a man of character,
integrity, loves God, he’s rich.
And it just so happens that he is single.
Boaz sees Ruth,
and because he’s heard about all she’s done
to help her mother-in-law Naomi,
Boaz is impressed by her godly character,
and blesses her, by praying for her,
by ordering his employees to protect
and care for her,
and he also tells his employees
to be extremely generous
with the grain that they leave for her,
so at the end of that first day
she’s collected the equivalent of two weeks wages,
and she got it in one day.
It would be like if you were desperate for work
so you went down to the temp agency,
hoping you could get anything at all,
and then someone hired you
and paid you 1000 bucks for one day.
You’d be going, whoh, how did that happen?
This guy is unbelievably generous.
So Boaz honors Ruth,
treats her with kindness.
and he blesses her financially,
by giving her a lot of grain.
18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.
Naomi looks at the amount of food she brought home,
and she is stunned.
19 Her mother-in-law asked her, "Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!"
Now remember,
Naomi is the woman who the day before
renames herself Mara,
which means bitter
because she’s mad at God,
she’s bitter at God,
she thinks God has ruined her life.
But now a day later,
she sees God’s favor on Ruth,
and she’s back to blessing again.
Verse 19 continues:
Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. "The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz," she said.
"The Lord bless him!" Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. "He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead."
The book of Romans says that
it’s the kindness of God that leads to repentance.
And we see that here.
God is showing his kindness, his love, and favor
for Ruth and Naomi,
and Naomi’s heart starts to soften,
because she realizes God is helping them,
God is showing favor to them.
She added, "That man is our close relative; he is one of our family guardians."
I don’t really like that way your pew bible translates this verse.
In the New Intl Version,
instead of family guardians, it says,
he is one of our kinsman-redeemers."
We saw last week
that this story is an OT picture of Jesus,
and so the word redeemer
is a really important word here.
Let me explain what a redeemer was
in OT Israel
In that culture,
if you got yourself into debt,
you couldn’t just go out and get another credit card
and run that one up too.
And you couldn’t just declare bankruptcy.
If you were deep in debt,
You had to either sell yourself, or your land
to pay off your debt.
You could actually sell yourself into slavery
for a period of time
and work without pay for another person
to pay off your debt,
The problem is,
that would devastate your family
because you’d have no income to support them.
Or the other option is
you could sell your land.
Now this wasn’t like today,
where you can survive just fine
without owning any land.
This is an agrarian society.
Everybody is a farmer.
If you don’t farm, you don’t eat.
And every family in Israel owned land,
and the farm would stay in the family,
and be passed down to generation after generation,
so that each new generation had a way to make a living,
by farming the land.
That meant it was a terrible thing to lose your land,
because you were giving away
what belonged to your great-grandparents
and had been passed down all the way to you,
and what would ultimately belong
to your great-grandchildren.
So if you lost the land,
you were destroying your family name and legacy,
and condemning all your descendants to poverty.
Well, because God didn’t want families
living in continual poverty,
he gave the people of Israel a law,
In Leviticus 25,
and this law established the responsibility
of a kinsman redeemer.
The redeemer had 2 responsibilites:
to redeem people
and to redeem property
of relatives in need.
The redeemer would come in and say,
“I’ll pay off the debt
to redeem the person from slavery,”
or, “I’ll pay off the note on the land and the farm
to keep it in the family
and to bring the land back to the family
who desperately needs it.”
So the redeemer was the family member
who rescued those in need,
who rescued those who were slaves,
or had lost everything,
basically the redeemer saved those
who couldn’t save themselves.
This was obviously an OT picture of Jesus.
When we commit our lives to God,
and become part of his family,
then our kinsman redeemer Jesus,
rescues us from slavery to sin,
he pays the price we couldn’t pay,
and redeems us, or buys us back,
so that we can live in freedom
as part of his family.
Well, Naomi tells Ruth,
it just so happens that
you went to work in the field,
of our kinsman redeemer.
Now, we’re going to see later that
Boaz is not the closest redeemer,
there’s another relative who is closer.
Also, Naomi is really stretching
the role of the redeemer
in this case.
Because technically,
the redeemer was only required to rescue
biological relatives,
and Ruth is not a biological relative,
she married into the family,
but now her husband is dead,
she’s just kind of an adopted daughter of Naomi.
so the redeemer really wouldn’t be required to rescue her,
But Naomi is thinking,
maybe they’ll still help.
Verse 21
Then Ruth the Moabite said, "He even said to me, 'Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.'"
It would take six or seven weeks
to harvest all the grain by hand,
and once the harvest is over,
there’s no more work to be done until the next year.
22 Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, "It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else's field you might be harmed."
23 So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
Now at this point in the story,
some time goes by,
About six weeks,
from the beginning of the harvest time,
till the end of the harvest time.
And, some of Naomi and Ruth’s prayers
have been answered.
They gotta place to live.
They got plenty of food.
God’s had favor on them.
But, still no husband for Ruth,
no long term security,
and its seems like nothing else is happening.
It started off really good!
Boaz and Ruth meet.
He honors her,
protects her,
blesses her financially,
its God’s favor,
it’s wonderful.
But then she goes to work every day for six weeks,
And what else happens?
Nothing.
It doesn’t go any farther.
Boaz never calls.
He doesn’t follow up.
No second date. Nothing.
How many of you single ladies are dating a Boaz?
You’re like,
“I thought we were doing good,
and now, I don’t know where we’re at.
Are we just friends?
Is this going somewhere, or not?
Are we ever gonna get engaged.
Why doesn’t he call?”
Apparently, all this is Biblical.
Men just aren’t very good on the close.
One author said that
Men chasing women are like dogs chasing fire engines.
If they get one, they’re not sure what to do with it.
So for 6 weeks, Ruth goes to work,
and comes home.
Naomi’s at the door,
“Did you see Boaz?” “No.”
Or, “Yeah, he showed up.”
“Well, what did he say?” “Nothing.”
“What’s he doing?” “Nothing.”
One of the fruits of the spirit is patience.
But how many of you would say,
I love learning patience.
That’s my favorite fruit of the spirit.
Please God, teach me more patience.
No, we don’t like patience.
Give me love or joy or peace,
I like those fruits,
not patience.
Ruth is learning patience.
But eventually Naomi’s patience runs out,
because the end of the harvest is approaching,
and then there’s no more work,
no more food coming in.
So Naomi decides,
we’ve gotta find out if Boaz is really interested or not.
Now there’s a couple ways this could work.
One option is the traditional way it was done back then,
and that was if Ruth had a godly dad,
this is where the dad would get involved.
And he’d go meet with Boaz,
and he’d say,
“Boaz, you love the Lord.
My daughter really likes you.
It seems like you like her.
So, what’s your plan.
We need to know if you’re the one.”
This works great if you’ve got a godly dad,
who loves and protects his daughter,
and is always looking out for her.
The problem for Ruth is
she doesn’t have that kind of Dad,
She’s like many of you women,
you didn’t have that kind of dad either,
those kind of dads just aren’t very common nowadays.
Now, we don’t know anything about Ruth’s dad.
But if she had a dad,
he’s not a believer.
He’s a Moabite,
and the Moabites worshipped the false God Chemosh.
And when Ruth came with Naomi to Bethlehem,
she came without a dollar in her pocket,
or a bite to eat.
So if she has a Dad,
he hasn’t been the kind of dad
that loved her, and protected her, and supported her.
She’s on her own.
So when it comes to how to deal with Boaz,
plan A, the dad plan,
doesn’t work for Ruth.
Plan B for Ruth
could have been the Moabite way,
also known as the modern American way.
The Moabite way is
you have sex before marriage,
then start living together,
and hope that you live happily ever after,
which almost never happens,
but you keep hoping it’ll work out.
Ruth isn’t going with the Moabite way.
She’s decided she wants to obey God,
So plan B is also not an option.
So instead,
we’re going to see in a second that
Naomi comes up with plan C.
And in Chapter 3, Naomi, the wiser older woman,
gives Ruth some advice.
Now, Naomi’s advice is very risky.
so before we begin,
let me give you a little theology lesson.
Some parts of scripture
are descriptive,
but not prescriptive.
What does that mean?
Descriptive means,
it tells us what happens;
but it doesn’t tell us
that we should do the same thing.
For example,
In Matthew it tells us
Judas hung himself.
That’s descriptive not prescriptive.
Somebody might say,
“Oh, it’s in the Bible, we should all do that.”
No. We’re not supposed to do that.
It describes what happened.
but doesn’t prescribe what we should do.
Same thing in this story of Ruth.
This is not a model
for how we should handle dating relationships.
Just want to get that out up front.
Chapter 3, verse 1.
One day Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, I must find a home for you, where you will be well provided for.
She’s saying,
You still need a husband and family.
Clock is ticking,
we’re down to days or hours
before the temp job comes to an end.
Barley harvest is almost over.
Verse 2
Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor.
3 Wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor,
She says,
they’re almost done with the harvest,
and I hear there’s a harvest party tonight,
and Boaz is gonna be there.
So Ruth, here’s my advice.
“Boaz has only seen you working in the field,
with your hair in a ponytail,
no makeup on,
sweaty and grimy.
So why don’t you get your hair done,
go to the tanning salon,
Get your makeup done.
Get a manicure,
Get a new dress.
And go to the party.
but don't let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.
She says, “When you go there,
don’t walk up to him and say,
‘Boaz, we need to talk.
I don’t know where we’re at in our relationship,
and you haven’t called.
Don’t do an emotional dump.
Let the man finish his chicken wings.
Let him hang out with his friends.
and watch the game on the plasma TV.
Just be cool and wait patiently.
until he has finished eating and drinking.
Now, this next part gets a little strange.
Verse 4
When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down.
This is weird
because mother-in-law Naomi is telling her,
wait until he lies down,
and then the date starts.
Now, for good Christians,
dating relationships are supposed to be upright,
aren’t they?
Usually, mom is not giving instructions
about the laying down part,
unless she says, like,
when he lays down, then you run.
That’s what we’d expect.
But Naomi tells her.
4 When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do."
I would not tell this to my daughter.
They don’t put this advice
in the Christian dating books.
This is a complicated scripture, here.
Its not prescriptive.
Its like,
Do not try this at home.
There’s actually a debate among bible teachers,
about whether this is good or bad advice.
In fact,
How many of you think Naomi gave bad advice,
like Naomi, what were you thinking?
How many think,
“Well, Naomi’s a woman of faith.
She trusted God,
she trusted Boaz
and she trusted Ruth.”
Some people think Naomi was telling Ruth
to cross the line,
whatever it takes to get Boaz,
but I don’t think so.
There’s no doubt she was telling Ruth
to go right up to the edge of the line,
and maybe dance on the edge of the line a little.
Especially since,
You have to remember,
When is this happening?
The days of the Judges,
a dark and troubled time in history,
when there’s all kinds of sexual sin.
Naomi is saying,
Ruth, go climb in bed with this guy
who’s had a few drinks
he’s not drunk, but he’s had a drink or two.
And Ruth is from where?
Moab.
Does anyone know how the race of Moab got started?
The story is in Genesis.
It got started when a young woman,
waited for a guy to have a couple drinks
and climbed into bed with him.
Happened to be her dad,
they slept together
and she gave birth to a son named Moab.
That’s where Ruth’s descendants come from.
And now Naomi is telling Ruth
to do something similar.
This is a risky move.
Naomi’s advice is definitely a little questionable,
you can argue in your bible study this week,
whether it was good or not.
But in any case, Ruth says,
okay mom.
Verse 5
"I will do whatever you say," Ruth answered.
6 So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do. 7 When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile.
They would sleep near the grain
so that thieves wouldn’t come
and steal the grain during the night.
Ruth approached quietly, [like a ninja – actually, I just made that up]
uncovered his feet and lay down.
8 In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned—and there was a woman lying at his feet!
9 "Who are you?" he asked.
Now this is a good question,
because it wasn’t uncommon
for prostitutes to show up at the threshing floor,
you’ve got a bunch of men,
who’ve just harvested a crop,
got some money,
had a few drinks,
they’re feeling good.
Boaz may have thought this was a prostitute.
"I am your servant Ruth," she said. "Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a family guardian."
Again, a better translations of this is,
you are a kinsman-redeemer.
Now what is she really saying here?
She’s talking about marriage.
In that day,
Putting your garment over a woman
was like putting a ring on her finger.
It was a proposal for marriage.
We see this kind of statement in…
Ezekiel 16:8 NLT
…I saw that you were old enough for love. So I wrapped my garment around you to cover your nakedness and declared my marriage vows. I made a covenant with you, says the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.
Now, Ruth is taking a big risk here.
A woman isn’t supposed to ask a man,
and she’s a Moabite asking a Hebrew,
a younger person asking an older person,
an employee asking an employer.
This is a bold move,
she’s taking a big risk.
So the question is, how will Boaz respond?
Imagine you’re a single guy,
and you discover a beautiful woman
sleeping at the foot of your bed.
What do you do?
Do you try and manipulate that towards sin?
Do you say,
“Well we don’t really know each other that well,
let’s live together for a while,
find out if we’re compatible
and see how it goes.”
What’s Boaz gonna do?
Verse 10.
"The Lord bless you, my daughter," he replied.
He prays for her!!!
If this date was going the wrong direction,
this hits the brakes right there.
Whoh! There’s a beautiful woman in bed with me.
Hey, can I pray for you?
Bam, that changes the whole nature of the situation.
Yeah, lets pray.
Then he says,
"This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor.
Now, there may be several reasons
Boaz didn’t pursue Ruth.
Maybe because she was a widow,
and he thinks she’s still in mourning for her husband.
Maybe because she’s an employee;
and he doesn’t want to pressure her.
Certainly one reason is because he’s a little older,
she’s a little younger,
that’s the reason he mentions right here.
But whatever the issues are,
one thing is clear:
he thinks Ruth is out of his league.
And that shows how humble he is,
because Boaz is rich, she’s poor.
He’s from a good family; she’s an immigrant,
He’s probably still a virgin; she’s not.
And yet he looks at her, and says
“I can’t believe you’d want to be with me.”
He’s a humble guy.
Verse 11
And now, my daughter, don't be afraid. I will do for you all you ask.
Boaz tells her, essentially,
“You wanna marry me?
Sold! Done! I’m in!
And look at the reason he gives.
All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character.
What’s interesting,
remember that Boaz was described earlier
as a mighty man of strength?
If you were here last week you remember.
The same Hebrew word is used here,
by Boaz,
to describe Ruth.
He says, everyone knows you’re a woman of strength,
a woman of noble character.
It’s the same Hebrew word.
Mighty man of strength,
woman of strength,
they’re gonna make a great couple.
This scripture is showing clearly,
in the words of Paul,
that they are equally yoked.
That means they both love the Lord the same.
When they go to church,
one’s not dragging the other along.
“Come on, let’s go to church,
lets go to small group.
Let’s obey the Lord.
Let’s pray together.
but one has to drag the other one along.
That’s not equally yoked.
When you’re looking for someone to marry,
You need to be able to walk together, same pace,
like Boaz and Ruth.
Now there’s still a hitch to this love story.
Boaz says,
in Verse 12
Although it is true that I am a family guardian, [redeemer] there is another who is more closely related than I.
What he’s saying is,
According to the law,
there’s another closer relative,
and it’s his job to redeem the land.”
Problem is, the land was tied to the ladies.
Whoever got the ladies got the land.
So this other relative has a right to the land.
Boaz is saying,
“I would love to marry you,
but this other guy has first dibs.
So I’ve got to clear up this problem.
Verse 13
Stay here for the night, and in the morning, if he wants to do his duty as your family guardian, good; let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Lie here until morning."
He’s saying
“We’re not gonna break the law.
We’re not gonna sleep together.
God doesn’t bless sin.
Boaz knows if he sleeps with her and sins,
God’s not gonna bless that,
he may withdraw his favor from their lives.
So he says,
I want to marry you.
I want to be with you,
but I’m not gonna start it off by sinning.
So, you sleep here…
And this just wisdom.
It’s the dark of night.
Maybe miles into town,
harvest season,
guys got a few drinks in ‘em,
still out partying.
It’s dangerous to walk home at night by yourself.
So sleep here tonight,
And then you can go home when it’s safe,
14 So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized; and he said, "No one must know that a woman came to the threshing floor."
He’s telling her,
you and I know, we didn’t do anything.
But I don’t want anybody else to think we did anything,
so you walk home before anybody gets up.
Paul says in the New Testament,
“Among God’s people there shouldn’t even be a hint of sexual immorality.”
If you love someone,
you want to honor and protect them,
and that includes protecting their reputation.
That’s what Boaz is doing,
he’s protecting her reputation.
15 He also said, "Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out." When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and put it on her. Then he went back to town.
So he gives her a gift, sends her home.
She gets home –
its still early morning before its light,
but somehow, Naomi is awake,
She’s probably been up all night
biting her nails,
“Oh, Ruth still isn’t home.
I wonder how its going.”
Did I give her good advice or really bad advice.
16 When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, "How did it go, my daughter?"
Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her 17 and added, "He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, 'Don't go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.'"
18 Then Naomi said, "Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today."
Now we’re going to find out next week how its settled,
but lets talk quickly about
what we learn from this story.
We saw earlier that
the theme of the Book of Ruth,
is the Providence of God.
The Providence of God is working
through all of these people:
through the counsel of Naomi,
even though its risky,
through the faithfulness of Ruth;
and through the trustworthiness of Boaz.
And what we learn here is that
sometimes the providence of God,
involves taking calculated risks.
Now, we need to be careful with this.
I’m not saying you make foolish decisions.
That’s what Elimelech did and it ruined his family.
But Ruth and Naomi here take a calculated risk,
and it was used by God.
Sometimes, God leads us to do things that seem risky,
trusting that God is in control,
and God is good,
and God will protect us.
17 years ago I took a risk, in faith.
I became the pastor of this church in Sept 1994,
and we had 19 people,
and I think that may have included a couple dogs and a cat.
that’s not really a church, it’s a small group.
But when I first became pastor,
it wasn’t really a risk,
I didn’t have to worry,
because I had a good job
working for AT&T in corporate marketing,
I made good money,
I had great benefits and security.
I was just doing the pastor thing in my spare time,
for the first year.
But the church started to grow,
and a year later, by the fall of 1995,
we had more than 120 people,
and I was spending more time on church work
than I was on my corporate marketing work.
and I decided, I’ve gotta make a choice.
I knew if I left AT&T,
it meant I was going to take a big pay cut.
And I looked around at my wife, and 3 kids,
who were 9, 7, and 5 years old,
and I looked at my mortgage,
and expenses,
and I said, if I leave AT&T,
and become pastor of this little church,
that’s a big risk.
So I prayed about it,
and Kathy and I talked about it,
and we prayed some more about it,
and then I quit my corporate job.
Now, I solved part of the problem,
by talking Kathy into going to work,
so she could get us some health benefits,
for our 3 kids.
But even with my church salary
and her new salary put together,
we still had a huge pay cut.
But
we have never ever regretted taking that risk,
because God was behind it,
and he met all our needs,
and Kathy and I have never questioned
that it was the right move.
You see, there are times when,
even though it looks risky,
its not foolish, its faith.
Sometimes risks are foolish,
but sometimes they’re faith,
and God is behind it,
and his Providence is at work behind the scenes,
and so you just go for it.
Ruth and Naomi took a risk,
but it wasn’t foolishness, it was faith.
They didn’t know how it was going to work out,
they didn’t have a contingency plan,
in case it backfired,
they just went for it, in faith.
You see,
if you’re never willing to risk,
and never willing to step out in faith,
maybe its because you don’t understand
that God is sovereign and God is good.
At some point if you want to follow God fully,
you have to learn to trust Him,
and use your faith
even when it involves risk.
Now, when you take a risk,
you don’t know the outcome in advance, do you?
Let me tell you about a risk our church took,
and we don’t know the outcome,
and we’re right in the middle of this one,
7 years ago our church was outgrowing our previous building,
so we bought this one.
And it was a stretch for us,
but we prayed about it,
and we sat down and planned it out,
and we prayed some more,
and planned some more,
and we believed God was saying go for it,
so we did.
And it actually worked out
better than we ever thought it would,
for about 5 years.
But then about 2-3 years ago,
we got hit with the perfect storm.
The economy went down, unemployment went up,
that hurt the people who give to our church.
Then we had a couple organizations leasing space in our building,
and they cancelled their leases,
we sent a church plant to Oxford and lost some people there,
and some people left for other reasons,
and our mortgage rate adjusted upward,
and raised our payments by a couple thousand a month.
Any of those things by itself
would have been no problem.
But when they all happened at one, it hurt.
And our savings as a church started going down and down,
and we cut back every possible area,
and laid people off,
and did everything we could,
but we’re at the point now where,
we have no savings,
and we’re right on the edge.
As recently as last week
it looked like we might lose the building,
and have to move.
Fortunately since then,
the bank has told us they’re going to work with us,
to lower our payments,
so hopefully that’ll work out,
but we don’t know, we haven’t seen their plan yet.
I don’t think its an accident that
we’ve been talking about the book of Ruth,
about a couple women who are in financial trouble,
and don’t know how its gonna work out.
But they learn to trust God.
As I’ve said,
the theme of the book of Ruth,
is God’s providence,
how he’s in control of it all, even the little details,
and he’s got a good plan behind it all.
We’re going to end now with a video…
its set to a song that I love,
about our redeemer.
You see, the redeemer Boaz,
is an OT picture of the real redeemer, Jesus…
VIDEO
