Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good morning, everybody.
[00:00:06] Doing so well. You're way better than the second service at that.
[00:00:12] Couple of personal remarks before we get into Ruth Chapter four today. Thank you for making me feel welcome.
[00:00:18] I've enjoyed my time with you as we work through my favorite book of the Bible, the Book of Ruth.
[00:00:24] And I just have lots of affection for Journey Church.
[00:00:29] In five weeks, five weeks from today, Harvest Church in Billings will celebrate our 25th anniversary. And when we planted Harvest, we said that we would like to plant a church within five years of our launch, and we did, and That's Journey. So five weeks from today, you'll be celebrating your 20th anniversary, and we'll be doing that simultaneously with one another, which is very meaningful.
[00:00:54] And just so you know, I have lots of affection and love for you and I'm very proud of you. So it is a joy for me to be with you guys through this series, which we wrap up today. So Ruth Chapter four, if you've got your Bible with you.
[00:01:08] And let me summarize the first three chapters very, very quickly.
[00:01:14] In the time of the Judges, a very difficult time in human history.
[00:01:18] There was famine in the land of Bethlehem, and a man named Elimelech, in a fit of rebellion, moved his family to the enemy country of Moab.
[00:01:30] And there was a bunch of judgment that happened as a result and death. And so Naomi, Elimelech's widow and then her daughter in law, Ruth, decide that they're moving back to Bethlehem. Ruth is from Moab, and so she's now going to Bethlehem for the first time. Naomi is returning and they are destitute and they have a bunch of challenges and they're eking out a living. And then a guy named Boaz takes notice of Ruth and builds a relationship with her and is kind to her and actually provides for her and Naomi. And then in a fit of courage, Ruth actually asks Boaz to marry her. She proposes to him and she proposes that he would be an advocate for her, called a kinsman redeemer, and for her and Naomi. And he says, yes, I will happily do that. And so he's gonna get to work on that today. A few principles that are very crucial that we have been talking about. First of all, Providence.
[00:02:35] Providence is the loving care and wisdom of God caring for us and working out his perfect plan in our lives. You just sang about it, that God has good plans and we saying about waiting and that's part of the Providence deal. So we have this little phrase that the companion of Providence is patience, that we have to be patient while God's working out his plan in our lives, we see that happen in the Book of Ruth.
[00:03:05] We also learned about levirate marriage, an ancient law that essentially is that the closest blood relative, often a brother of a guy who dies but has no children, the brother marries the widow so that she would have children, specifically a son to carry on the name and the legacy and the inheritance of the man who died. Extremely important in the ancient world that there is a continuation of the family and clan name. Levirate marriage. We also talked about kinsman Redeemer. The. The kinsman redeemer is somebody close to somebody that is in need. And they advocate for them, they help them, they serve them. This is also an ancient law.
[00:03:55] We talked about two primary thrusts in the Book of Ruth. The theological thrust is centered around this Hebrew word, chesed, which is a very thick, deep, heavy word.
[00:04:07] It's very dense. But some English words that would help us understand it would be things like loyal love, covenant, keeping love, self sacrif love, unconditional love, loving kindness, mercy, those kinds of things. Very important word and very important theological idea that goes all the way through the Book of Ruth. And then the literary thrust of the book is emptiness and fullness. And you see it all the way through that there is emptiness and there is some fullness. And the emptiness makes people do difficult things and have hard times. But God is a God that wants us to live a full life. And so you see a development of fullness physically, but also spiritually, emotionally and relationally through the Book of Ruth.
[00:04:54] Emptiness and fullness. This emptiness, fullness thing is so important, you guys, because so many of us are living on empty.
[00:05:02] So many people feel like they're living in famine.
[00:05:06] And in that God can seem impersonal and distant and unengaged. And it's hard to believe that he's always working behind the scenes for our good providentially.
[00:05:16] And one of the mean things about emptiness or depression is that you have trouble seeing and believing what is actually true.
[00:05:25] So there's a sense of hopelessness that happens and a feeling that you're never going to recover and you're never going to be whole and you're never going to be full.
[00:05:33] And then as a result, we try a variety of ways to try to fill it.
[00:05:41] One of my friends that I grew up with, we'll call him Mitch, was a freakish athlete and a tremendous football player. So he played D1 football, and then he got drafted and played in the NFL.
[00:05:56] And he was such a good athlete that he played defensive end. So He's a big guy. And one of his sack celebrations is that he would do a standing backflip in full pads. So, you know, this Guy's north of 260, and he'd do a standing backflip right on the field.
[00:06:16] Well, I was with him when he learned to do that, and he actually learned to do that in our youth group in the church we grew up in.
[00:06:23] And we had a mutual friend that was a national class gymnast. And he is a middle schooler. You know, he had to stand. Do standing back flips, like you and I walk. And so my buddy Mitch was like, teach me to do that. And he did. And he was a big kid in middle school, you know, and he was doing standing back flips.
[00:06:44] He got drafted by the Niners in his very first practice with the San Francisco 49ers.
[00:06:51] The defensive coaches moved him to middle linebacker. So he played defensive end in college, but they moved him to middle linebacker just because of his size and his speed and his athleticism. And the very first play in practice, he is watching hall of Famer Joe Montana take the snap and throw to hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice on a go route. And he throws this perfect dart. Well, Mitch is watching this whole thing happen, and then all of a sudden, there's this big uproar, and it's people yelling at him, and. And it's the coaches. It's all the defensive coaches yelling at my buddy Mitch because he's playing middle linebacker. But he just stood in the middle of the field and watched this whole thing, and he's like, I'm playing with these guys. You gotta be kidding me.
[00:07:42] So he didn't do a backflip in that moment. Mitch had a good, but short career, actually a longer career than NFL average. Played for a couple of teams and then moved back to Billings because of injury, and then another injury, and, you know, you just. It just kind of stops.
[00:08:00] So he moves back to Billings and he starts a business, and he's married and has a couple of kids, and he's got to deal with, you know what, like, operator syndrome. Like all the people talking to him about the NFL and why he's not there anymore. It was hard.
[00:08:20] And so he started drinking and drinking hard, and he got to the point where he was drinking a gallon of vodka on one day, and then the next day a gallon of whiskey, and then the next day a gallon of vodka, then a gallon of whiskey. He just alternated between vodka and whiskey. A gallon per day. You drink a gallon of alcohol a Day you're full but you're not, right?
[00:08:49] I mean that wasn't fullness.
[00:08:53] That's not the fullness that the book of Ruth talks about and the fullness that God offers us booze like the rest of it. Whatever your sin area is, whatever it is that you do to try to fill the emptiness, it just leaves us empty and wanting and needing.
[00:09:15] And what we really need is a safe and trusted person to help us deny the lies and embrace what is true and to move back from Moab and to settle into Bethlehem and glean on the margins and seek God and see God's hand of blessing in your life and experience God's healing and experience God's hope. And we need help like Naomi needed help.
[00:09:37] We need a friend like Ruth, we need an advocate like Boaz.
[00:09:43] We need a community. We need a church like journey to come around us and be there for us so that we can receive love and give love and experience the miracle of fullness in our lives. This is human. This is 3,000 years ago and it's today.
[00:10:03] And today we get to see what happens in chapter four and emptiness and fullness, the theological thrust of chesed love.
[00:10:14] And what's going to happen to Naomi?
[00:10:17] Is she going to stay bitter? Remember she changes her name from Naomi to Mara, which means bitter.
[00:10:24] What will Hesed do? Well, let's find out as we talk now about Boaz. And what Boaz is going to do is he comes to the rescue reminding you that Ruth had asked Boaz to marry her and to advocate for her, her and for her widowed mother in law Naomi, and help her with her emptiness as well. And Boaz is really impressed with Ruth's chesed and he is attracted to Ruth. He's attracted to her physically, he's attracted to her emotionally and spiritually and he is motivated. So the morning after she proposes to him.
[00:10:59] Verse 1. Meanwhile, Boaz went up to the town gate and sat there. When the kinsman Redeemer came, he had mentioned, came along. Boaz said, come over here my friend and sit down. So he went over and sat down.
[00:11:14] The town gate is the hall of congress.
[00:11:17] It's the conference room. It's where business deals were done. And so when the family Redeemer, the guy whose responsibility it is because he's the closest blood relative to Naomi, when it's his responsibility to be the rescuer and the redeemer of anybody in a troubling situation, in this case Naomi, who when he comes by Boaz beckons him. And my translation here says my Friend. And it's not a very good translation because what we have here in Hebrew is a Hebrew wordplay and it's actually kind of a joke technically for the literature people, it's a farrago. A farrago is unrelated rhyming words that form an idiom or an expression. So we have examples of this in English.
[00:12:02] When you do a magic trick for your grandkids and you say, ho, hocus pocus. Hocus pocus is a farrago.
[00:12:09] When you stand and look in your cluttered garage and you go, ah, this place is a hodgepodge.
[00:12:15] That is a farrago.
[00:12:18] Or if somebody gives you the heebie jeebies, that's a farago.
[00:12:24] In Hebrew, Boaz calls him Pelne Almone.
[00:12:31] Pelleni Almone.
[00:12:33] It's actually a slight insult for us. That farrago would be Joe Schmo. Apologies. If your name's Joe so and so, or what's his face or what's your face. Okay, that's how we would say it. That's what Boaz is doing now.
[00:12:50] Boaz knew his name.
[00:12:54] The narrator of this story knows that guy's name. Bethlehem's a about 150 people or so, but the guy remains nameless. Why?
[00:13:05] Well, in part because Deuteronomy 25 says that if a man refuses to do the right of protecting the family name, then the name of that guy shall not be remembered. In Israel. It actually means says that he'll be unsandaled.
[00:13:21] Unsandaled. That's weird.
[00:13:24] And it happened because as we know right here by just reading this, we know that that guy's name has been lost. So in a story where every name of every character is given and it has meaning, and every name contributes to the storyline, the narrative arc, here's a guy whose name has been left off the page.
[00:13:48] He's just Pelleni Almeny.
[00:13:51] He's what's your face?
[00:13:54] Because by this time, as the nearer relative, he should have already helped out Ruth and Naomi. It's been a couple of months. He knows their situation and he did nothing.
[00:14:09] And his name is lost to history, unlike Boaz's name. Verse 2, Boaz took 10 of the elders of the town and said, sit here. And they did so.
[00:14:20] Then he said to the kinsman Redeemer, Pelo Neomene. Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. Elimelech was her dead husband. Little technicality here. Naomi is not really Selling the land. And she's not really selling the land for two reasons. First, the land of the clan could actually not be sold permanently.
[00:14:45] But even more, Naomi didn't really own the land because a widow wasn't allowed to own the land. It would be the inheritance would go to the sons.
[00:14:56] But she's got no sons, they died. And no grandsons because her daughters in law were barren.
[00:15:04] So what she is selling and what Boaz is representing is actually the use of the land, kind of like a lease.
[00:15:13] So Elimelech, when he bailed on Bethlehem and rebelliously went to Moab, he likely sold the use of the land. And so now Boaz is offer to the nearer relative, the closest blood relative, the option of buying back the use of the land from an unnamed third party to redeem it, the use of the land, buy it back.
[00:15:36] So that's what he's working on. And now Boaz gets really clever here. Watch what he does. He says, I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not tell me so I will know, for no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.
[00:16:05] I will redeem it. He said, boaz is the master deal maker, but he is a man of character and he is submissive. He trusts God and God's plan and his providence. And so he knows he can simply do the right thing and that he doesn't have to manipulate thing. What's his face has the rights. He's in first position, Boaz is in second position. And so Boaz says to him, I think I thought I'd bring this matter to your attention. Which is really polite and maybe a little sarcastic because the matter's already been brought to this guy's attention. He already knows about this, so he's just being polite. And what's his face, he knew about Naomi and he knew about Ruth and he knew about the land. And he's taking no initiative to fulfill his law by law, his kinsman responsibilities. He is derelict.
[00:17:03] So when he says, I will redeem it, he's good. But as readers of the story, we're like, no, because we're pulling for Boaz and Ruth and we think, well, now Boaz is going to lose the land and he's going to lose Ruth to what's his face. To Pelleni Almeni. Not good. Verse 5. Then Boaz said, now watch how savvy this is. On the day you buy the land from Naomi. And then he adds this and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquire the dead man's widow, that's Ruth, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property. Remember, this is that levirate marriage thing.
[00:17:46] So he adds Ruth the Moabitess as an owner along with Naomi. And this is crafty because he's driving home the second responsibility of the kinsman Redeemer. So you get the land, but with the land comes the childless former demon worshiping widow from an enemy country, Moab, with the intent that she's going to have a son with you and therefore continue your brother's name and legacy.
[00:18:17] But that's not all.
[00:18:19] But wait, there's more.
[00:18:22] You also get na da na na, the mother in law who's a bitter, bitter woman.
[00:18:35] So yeah, verse six.
[00:18:38] At this the Kinsman Redeemer said, nah, I'm out, I'm out.
[00:18:45] I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate, not to mention my marriage.
[00:18:54] You redeem it yourself. I cannot do do it.
[00:18:59] And he is actually being selfish right now.
[00:19:03] This is the opposite of hesed of self sacrificial love.
[00:19:07] He is concerned only with his own interests and he shows no concern for Ruth and Naomi and Elimelech's name, his brother's name.
[00:19:15] He doesn't want to do this because his piece of the pie is going to get smaller.
[00:19:20] He will buy the field then he's got to work the field.
[00:19:25] But he doesn't really get anything out of it because it's going to be for the unborn son of Ruth. And he has to provide for Ruth and any other kids that she has.
[00:19:34] And he has to provide for the mother in law.
[00:19:37] Nope, not going to do it. It's anti chesed. And so he says, you do it. And when he says that, the reader us, we're relieved because we want Boaz and Ruth together playing footsie. Speaking of feet. Verse 7.
[00:19:52] And now this is in parenthesis. The translators put it in parenthesis because as this was being recorded, this custom had probably been lost. And so they need to explain it. Verse 7. Now, in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.
[00:20:18] Huh? The unsandaled. That's starting to make sense. Verse 8. So the kinsman Redeemer said to Boaz, buy it yourself. And he removed his sandal.
[00:20:31] He removes the sandal and he gives it to Boaz. And when he does that, he is signing on the dotted line.
[00:20:38] And he is saying, by handing off the sandal, he is saying, I am giving up all rights to ever set foot on this property ever again. And if I do, I am a trespasser.
[00:20:53] This is actually a shameful moment. And in Deuteronomy, the woman who is spurned, the one that the kinsman redeemer is not helping, actually spits in his face as the sandal changes hands.
[00:21:08] He is abdicating his responsibility of redemption.
[00:21:14] He is saying, I give up my right to walk on this land, and it's the promised land. Well, now it's official, because that guy really is so and so. He really is. What's his face? He really is Pelleni Almone.
[00:21:30] Because no name included in the Book of Ruth implies God's judgment on the man for his disobedience and rebellion against God.
[00:21:39] So as Orpah was a foil to raise Ruth's character, now what's his face is a foil to raise Boaz's character. We are to see the contrast here. And it's there. And Boaz is now pumped because he gets the land and he gets the girl that he's been infatuated with for a couple of months, the girl that hit on him, the girl that asked him to marry her. And now Boaz asked her to marry her. Is that what I said was a pronoun problem?
[00:22:10] Asked him to marry her. Okay.
[00:22:16] And now Boaz, a man of character, goes the extra mile, and he's going to make sure that this is an Official meeting. Verse 9. Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people today, your witnesses, that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Killian and Mahlon. Killian and Mahlon are the sons that both died. I have also acquired Ruth, the Moabitess, Mahlon's widow. This is the first time we know who she's been married to. It was Mahlon.
[00:22:44] His name means sickly.
[00:22:47] So Ruth's going to be my wife in order to. And here it is to maintain the name of the dead with his property so that his name will not disappear from among his family or the town records. Today you are witnesses. The idea that your name would be forgotten was literally worse than death in ancient Hebrew culture.
[00:23:08] So Boaz just describes what he's already talked about with what's his face, and then he extends it a bit he expands on it.
[00:23:20] What he's doing is irrevocably and legally obligating himself to the whole family of Elimelech. He is restoring clan wholeness that went away. When Elimelech goes rebelliously, went to Moab, he cowardly left.
[00:23:40] And now Boaz is going to restore the dignity of that family.
[00:23:45] Now, Boaz doesn't have to do this, but he wants to do this, because this is the kind of stuff that love does. This is what chesed love does. This is what romantic love does. Verse 11. Then the elders and all those at the gate said, we are witnesses.
[00:24:00] And then they may the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman. May your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.
[00:24:24] So what these guys do as they're praying is they're giving us some Israelite history.
[00:24:29] They pray three things. First, that Ruth will be fertile and give Boaz children as Rachel and Leah gave Jacob children. And those children became the twelve tribes of Israel, still famous today.
[00:24:44] That's how much blessing that they're praying for these kids, that this kid, whatever you have, will be even better than the 12 tribes. The second thing is that Boaz would be famous, that we'd look up to him, and he was and is, and we do. And then the family of Perez is interesting because this is a miracle baby that continued the line of Judah when Judah didn't deserve it.
[00:25:10] That's grace. It's chesed they're praying. May all the good stuff from our history be unto you and your family, Boaz. And because Boaz came to the rescue and Boaz demonstrated chesed love, that we might be like Boaz.
[00:25:30] Now, the literary thrust of the book is what emptiness and fullness.
[00:25:42] You can say it more confidently than that, or this is my fault because I haven't made this point very well over the four weeks. Emptiness and fullness.
[00:25:50] What's happening? Things are starting to fill up in more ways than 1. Verse 13. So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her sanitized language and the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. That's one year and one sentence right there.
[00:26:12] One of the reasons that we think that Boaz is a bachelor is because Ruth became his wife and then they had sex in the ancient world in levirate marriage.
[00:26:25] Closest male relative marries the widow, has a son to carry on the family name and inheritance.
[00:26:33] When that levirate marriage thing was happening, there was no wedding.
[00:26:37] It was just sex, just to get someone pregnant.
[00:26:42] It was essentially polygamy.
[00:26:44] But right here, what do we notice?
[00:26:46] Ruth becomes Boaz's wife and then they have sex. And then God opens the womb and the Lord enables her to conceive. And she gave birth to a son, which is a contrast to 10 years of infertility. There is fullness.
[00:27:03] Boaz went from empty bed to full bed. Ruth went from empty womb to full womb. Things are filling up. But that's not all. Verse 14. The women said to Naomi, Naomi, not to Ruth, Naomi, praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a kinsman Redeemer. May he become famous throughout all of Israel.
[00:27:31] This is to Naomi now.
[00:27:33] I mean, Ruth is the one that gave birth.
[00:27:37] But the women in town celebrate Naomi and they're doing that simply because she is one of their own.
[00:27:44] And they had sympathy and empathy and compassion on her. And now they are celebrating with her.
[00:27:50] And that Boaz would be famous, they say, and he was and he is, and he did become famous. And that's what Chesed will do. I mean, you want to be famous, you want to be an influencer, you should give Chesed a try.
[00:28:05] Unreasonably loyal and self sacrificial. Love leads to fullness.
[00:28:10] You do that and you'll have so many likes, you'll be full to overflowing. Verse 15. We're still filling. He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age.
[00:28:21] For your daughter in law who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons has given him birth.
[00:28:30] Seven sons.
[00:28:32] Well, seven sons was seen as the perfect number of sons.
[00:28:37] So that a mom would be cared for for her whole life.
[00:28:42] Short lifespan, violent. It's a warring culture. So the idea is you're going to have seven sons. Some of them are going to die, but at least one of the seven is going to outlive you and therefore take care of you. And they're saying that Ruth's one son is going to be better than the seven sons.
[00:29:04] Empty to full.
[00:29:07] The power of Chesed. And then Ruth gets some props from the real housewives of Bethlehem.
[00:29:15] I mean, they ignored her earlier. Now they're heaping praise on Ruth. Empty to full. And if you had any doubt about empty to full, wait till you see this.
[00:29:28] Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her lap and cared for him.
[00:29:35] Isn't that Nice.
[00:29:37] Bouncing the little guy on her knee.
[00:29:40] That's not what's going on here.
[00:29:44] Hebrew scholars aren't necessarily in agreement here, but that's because guys that have translated the Bible, you know, it's old white guys, you know, and they're uncomfortable with translating some things like this because what this really means is unusual and it would be uncomfortable for a guy to translate it accurately. But we're going to do it.
[00:30:15] You see the word lap there in Hebrew. That could also be translated breast. And it is in lots of other places in the Bible.
[00:30:25] See the word cared there. That can also be translated. You want to guess nursed.
[00:30:33] And it is elsewhere in the Bible.
[00:30:35] You understand what this suggests?
[00:30:39] Naomi's milk came in liquid gold colostrum.
[00:30:46] And it's happening in her old age now. Old age. She's probably in her 40s, not that old.
[00:30:55] But yes.
[00:30:56] Naomi became the wet nurse. She nursed her own grandson.
[00:31:03] Talk about fullness.
[00:31:06] Now, just before you think I'm crazy on this, this is actually widely attested in our culture and in cultures around the world, both ancient and modern. A woman, even an elderly woman who has not given birth but due to such a powerful and this is key emotional connection, can produce milk and nurse the baby. It's called a wet nurse.
[00:31:31] This isn't crazy. It actually happens. It has been documented that a woman as old as 80 has had her milk come in because of the emotional connection with the child.
[00:31:42] This is what Naomi is doing.
[00:31:45] The theme, emptiness to fullness.
[00:31:50] Naomi is full.
[00:31:54] So full that she nurses her own grandson, adding credence to it. Verse 17.
[00:32:00] The women living there said Naomi has not a grandson but a son.
[00:32:09] Is this hyperbole?
[00:32:10] Are they just like, wow, it's like you have your own son or what do we know about Ruth's character?
[00:32:22] Did Ruth become a surrogate and actually give the baby to Naomi to raise?
[00:32:29] That would be self sacrificial. Chesed's love, its fullness for all.
[00:32:36] But that's not all.
[00:32:38] One more really cool surprise. End of verse 17.
[00:32:43] He was the father and they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse. Look at that. The father of David.
[00:32:52] That is very dramatic.
[00:32:54] The father of Jesse, the father of David, the immigrant gave birth to. To the grandfather of King David, who is the greatest king in Israel's history.
[00:33:07] David, the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse from Bethlehem, whose dad was Obed, whose dad was Boaz, whose wife was a former demon worshiping woman from an enemy country who put her faith in God and began to serve her mother in law and caught the eye of an honorable man. And through chesed love they brought fullness to emptiness. Without Ruth, the line of Elimelech would have extinguished, as would the line of Boaz, and therefore no King David.
[00:33:43] And so the narrator drops in a lineage as a coda to this great story, our last verses. This then is the family line of Perez. Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of. Here we go. Boaz. Boaz the father of Obed, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David. In the book of Ruth, the lineage stops at King David. But 1,000 years later, the New Testament writer, the Gospel of Matthew, includes Ruth in his genealogy. Remember how important it is for the name to continue on. And a thousand years later, Matthew writes about Ruth. And in there he says, boaz the father of Obed. And then he adds this little line.
[00:34:44] Whose mother was Ruth? Very unusual to add her name in there, especially because she's not Israelite, she's not Hebrew, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. And so another delightful surprise is in the line of Jesus Christ the Savior and king of the world is a former demon worshiping gentile widow from an enemy country that God calls his toilet.
[00:35:16] What is this but the far reaching, providential, gracious, chesed love of God?
[00:35:23] He includes Ruth.
[00:35:26] And if he includes Ruth, you know who else he's going to include?
[00:35:33] You and me.
[00:35:39] And now we, like Ruth, get to express chesed love to strangers. The Naomis, the Boaz's, the Obeds of our life. Because where might it go when you do it?
[00:35:49] Whose trajectory might you change?
[00:35:52] And this is where the literary and the theological theme of the book of Ruth come together.
[00:35:58] How do you live a life of fullness that you want to live? You do it by doing chesed. When you receive chesed love, you are filled. And when you do chesed love, you are filled.
[00:36:12] And so my buddy Mitch is in his car driving to the liquor store to pick up his next day gallon. He'd go every day swapping between vodka and whiskey.
[00:36:24] And he gets a phone call.
[00:36:26] And it's a guy he doesn't know very well, but he knows that this guy is a recovering alcoholic.
[00:36:33] And he says to Mitch, what are you doing?
[00:36:38] And Mitch tells him, he's like, you want to stop? You want Help.
[00:36:47] Yep.
[00:36:49] And then Mitch says, he goes, vern, it is like Jesus reached down and grabbed me by the collar and said, you're coming with me.
[00:37:02] And he went with him.
[00:37:05] And his marriage is solid, good parent, business is doing great. But you know what he does pretty much every day?
[00:37:16] Doesn't drink a gallon anymore.
[00:37:20] He helps people that are empty, literally every day. His employees and then the meetings he goes to every day.
[00:37:28] And he just takes guys under his wing. It's a big wing.
[00:37:35] And he shows them what it is to live a life of fullness that Jesus offers them.
[00:37:41] Boaz says, you're coming with me.
[00:37:45] You're with me now.
[00:37:48] And with him and Ruth came David, and with David came Jesus. And with Jesus comes fullness. Because Jesus is the one who said, I came into this world that you might have life and life to its full fullness.
[00:38:08] And when Jesus says to you, you're coming with me, that's when you leave Moab and you go to Bethlehem and you live a life of fullness.
[00:38:28] And that is the book of Ruth.
[00:38:31] And I know, it's awesome, isn't it?
[00:38:41] I hope you keep reading it and just keep marveling forever over this book.
[00:38:46] For now, let us pray.
[00:38:48] And will you tell the Lord some of the things you're thinking about right now?
[00:38:53] And then I want to say to you confidently, Jesus is reaching down and saying, you're coming with me.
[00:38:59] And tell him you want to go and you'll go, that you'll turn from your sin and whatever it is that you've been trying to fill the emptiness with, and you're moving towards Bethlehem and a life of fullness with Christ, make that commitment to him.
[00:39:35] We're going with you, Jesus.
[00:39:37] We will.
[00:39:41] Amen.
