[0:00] And we're going to read of something of someone who suffered multiplied trials. And we're going to read of someone who exhausted the store of endurance.
[0:14] And we're going to read Ruth chapter 1. In the days when judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.
[0:25] And a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man's name was Elimelech, his wife named Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion.
[0:45] They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah, and they went to Moab and lived there. Now, Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died.
[0:57] And she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died.
[1:13] And Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. When she heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.
[1:32] With her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go back, each of you, to your mother's home.
[1:49] May the Lord show kindness to you as you have shown to your dead and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.
[2:01] Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud and said to her, We will go back with you and to your people. But Naomi said, Return home, my daughters.
[2:13] Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters. I am too old to have another husband.
[2:26] And even if I thought there was still hope for me, even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons, would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them?
[2:39] No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord's hand has gone out against me. At this they wept again.
[2:51] Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. Luke said, Naomi, Your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods.
[3:04] Go back with her. But Ruth replied, Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay.
[3:18] Your people will be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely.
[3:32] If anything but death separates you and me. When Naomi realized that Ruth had determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
[3:42] So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, Can this be Naomi?
[3:58] Don't call me Naomi, she told them. Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord brought me back empty.
[4:13] Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me. The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. So Naomi returned from Moab, accompanied by Ruth the Moabites, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
[4:44] Now, Naomi had a relative on her husband's side from the clan of Elimelech, a man of standing whose name was Boaz.
[4:55] And Ruth and Moabites said to Naomi, let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.
[5:07] And Naomi said to her, Go ahead, my daughter. So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.
[5:25] Just then, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters. The Lord be with you. The Lord bless you, they call back. And Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, Whose young woman is that?
[5:39] And the foreman replied, She is the Moabites who came back from Moab with Naomi. She said, Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.
[5:51] And she went into the field and has worked steadily from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter. So Boaz said to Ruth, My daughter, listen to me. Don't go and glean in any other field and don't go away from here.
[6:05] Stay here with my servant girls. Watch the field where the men are harvesting and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you're thirsty and go and get a drink from the water jars, the men have filled.
[6:22] At this she bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me a foreigner? And Boaz replied, I have been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband.
[6:41] How you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.
[7:01] May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my Lord, she said. You have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant, though I do not have the standing of one of your servant girls.
[7:13] At mealtime, Boaz said to her, Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar. When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain.
[7:24] She ate all she wanted and had some left over. As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, Even as she gathers among the sheaves, don't embarrass her.
[7:36] Rather, pull up some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up. And don't rebuke her. So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening.
[7:46] Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to Baranipha. She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered.
[8:01] Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she'd eaten enough. Her mother-in-law asked her, Where did you glean today? Where did you work?
[8:12] Bless me, the man who took notice of you. Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. The name of the man I work for today is Boaz, she said.
[8:27] The Lord bless him, Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. The Lord has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead. She added, That man is our close relative.
[8:41] He is one of our kinsmen redeemers. Then Ruth the Moabite said, He even said to me, Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.
[8:52] Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with his girls, because in someone else's field you might be harmed.
[9:03] So, Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvest were finished and she lived with her mother-in-law.
[9:19] Well, Ruth was probably written by Samuel during the reign of David. We're not sure, but it was probably, that was the case before Solomon because originally, otherwise we'd have perhaps known some of that.
[9:41] Ruth was originally considered to be an addendum to judges. It was all part of the same script, but Ruth comes to us like a breath of fresh air after reading Judges.
[9:54] It's good that it is separate because if you read Judges, as I was doing just a few months ago, a few weeks ago, I came to the end and I thought, wow, this is really hard work.
[10:07] And then you read Ruth and suddenly everything changes. And the reason why Judges is so dark and difficult is that Israel had drifted away from worshipping the one true God and God had left Israel to her own devices.
[10:23] It says in Judges about Samson, it says he did not realise that the Lord had left him. And the theme of Judges is really about how Israel fell away from God into godlessness, into anarchy, and into idolatry.
[10:43] And the great theme that runs through, mentioned four times, is what is said right at the end, that in those days, Israel had no king.
[10:54] Everyone did as he saw fit. Here's one example. Judges closes with a Levite and his concubine.
[11:07] This concubine is raped by Benjamite men in Gibeah. The Levite then cuts her body into 12 pieces and sends them throughout Israel as a call to war and brings civil war between Israel and Benjamin.
[11:24] And this war is so fierce that almost all of Benjamin, the tribe of Benjamin, is obliterated apart from a few thousand men. Men. And terrible, terrible days.
[11:37] People just taking laws into their own hands, doing what they feel. In those days, Israel had no king. And everyone did as he saw fit. And we live in similar days.
[11:48] We don't perhaps go cutting concubines up, but in religion, everything is acceptable, isn't it? Eastern mysticism, post-modernism, spiritualism, Islam.
[12:00] There was a program, Ian Hislop, on, I don't know if it's meant to be a comic view of history, of recent history, but he finishes up in this program interviewing the chief druid in all his white finery.
[12:16] And he claimed to be a descendant of direct, well, almost a reincarnation of King Arthur. And this was considered to be good TV. That's on mainline BBC programming.
[12:29] Anything is acceptable. Another example is Maria Miller resigned this week. But the bill that she introduced and forced through Parliament with the help of many friends, the same-sex marriage bill, remains.
[12:47] But God's law does not change, even though the law remains. And God's law remains firm forever. So even while in those days, and in these days, Israel has no king, and everybody does what they seem fit, there is an underlying law, the righteousness of God that he has established in his word.
[13:12] We need to realize that the greatest judgment that God brings to a nation is to give us over to our sinful desires.
[13:25] Peter read this morning in Romans 1, and the next verse that follows on from what he read is that, therefore, God gave us over, gave them over to our sinful desires.
[13:37] And when God gives over a people, it's a terrible position to be in, and that's exactly where Ruth was, the nation of Israel was, in the days of Ruth.
[13:53] Ruth opens up and it says, in the days when judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And here we have the Lord fulfilling disasters that he'd spoken about in much of his word in the Pentateuch, in Leviticus, in particularly.
[14:11] Now, the only other reference to famine in the days of judges, which is when this was written or this happened, is found in the account of Gideon. So we can almost place where Ruth lives was at the time of Gideon because it's possible that the events occurred during that famine.
[14:31] And what we read there is for seven years the Midianites had impoverished Israel. They had raiding parties every year. They came through with raiding parties and they ruined the crops, stole the food and then made off back to Midian and did that for seven years.
[14:49] So that when you get to Gideon, you find that he's so terrified that he's actually threshing the wheat in a wine press. You know, that's the situation. And with this dark backdrop, we have this wonderful jewel of a love story in the book of Ruth.
[15:07] And it's rooted in the work of redemption, of someone being bought out of poverty and brought into great wealth. And this redemption story has its source in sacrificial love.
[15:22] Sacrificial love which we see in the life of Boaz which we'll look at later. And this sacrificial love which so often can get traced to the love of Jesus Christ himself.
[15:34] And we shall see that Jesus is prefigured in Boaz who is frequently described as a kinsman redeemer. Hopefully we'll see what that means.
[15:46] And this evening what I want to do is not to trace the life of Ruth which is probably the normal way of doing it. But I want to trace the Lord's gracious redemptive work through the life of Naomi.
[15:59] Of course her story is interwoven with Ruth and Boaz the other two characters key characters her daughter-in-law Ruth and her subsequent husband Boaz.
[16:13] And Naomi's story is one of great personal tragedy. We read it in chapter one a tragedy full of bereavement and destitution and bitter experiences.
[16:26] But it is a love story with the happiest of endings. It's a love story of how an older influential man of standing who's unmarried unselfishly provides for both Naomi an older and virtually destitute widow and her daughter-in-law a foreigner from Moab.
[16:50] And supremely the book of Ruth is a vital link in God's provision of the saviour through the descendants of Ruth and Boaz the promised Messiah of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[17:05] That's another view that's ruin famine but true love. That's almost chapter one but chapter one continues of a journey a journey into a wilderness a spiritual wilderness.
[17:19] chapter one verse one and two says in the days when judges ruled there was a famine in the land so a man from Bethlehem in Judah together with his wife and two sons went to live for a while in the country of Moab.
[17:33] The man's name was Elimelech his wife's name was Naomi and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathrites from Bethlehem Judah and they went to Moab to live there.
[17:46] So the opening two verses we don't know if Elimelech was truly trusting in the Lord when he made this decision to leave Bethlehem and go into a foreign land his name means God is my king so maybe he was maybe he wasn't maybe God was his king in name only but he he makes a decision and hindsight is very helpful here helps us to be really critical of this man doesn't it you know we can look back and say oh well he shouldn't have done that and that's the benefit of hindsight but he did make a poor decision I think but yet although in making that poor decision he must and did have the best interests of his family in mind his leaving the company of God's people from the promised land of Canaan was at best pragmatic was at best of sort of looking at the situation around him thinking well I think I better scarper and go and try and find a nicer place to live well so often that's our decision as well that's the way we think isn't it how often do we think really scripturally and say well you know well I'm living in Canaan and it's not it's a land of milk and honey and we've got a famine and we need to think this through and why we've got a famine and then we'll pray about it and God will deliver us well we don't do that do we we think pragmatically we just work things out in our own strength and we you know we make decisions in that way now there is an example of a man who did leave his country it was Abram and he left
[19:26] Ur of the Chaldees and he was commanded by God to leave to leave his family and to move into a land he knew nothing about but Elimelech he leaves to escape the physical hardship of the famine when most of the people stay put and when he does this he leaves a protection of home the place where he should be not knowing of the physical and spiritual dangers that lay ahead and strangely Elimelech he heads into Moab which lies on the east side of Jordan away from Canaan remember the children of Israel cross the Jordan well he goes back and Moab was actually north of Midian so you cross the Jordan and there's Moab and underneath Moab is the Midianites so he's actually going so much closer to danger they were the people that were raiding at the time of Gideon and so they move into a greater physical danger but also into greater spiritual danger as well they went to live in the land of Moab and it was the Moab who were
[20:37] Moabites who were founded through the incestuous union of Lot and his eldest daughter and it was the Moabites who worshipped God with human sacrifice and percated this God with child sacrifice so they're moving away from what is really a sort of a downgraded religion of the true God in Israel and Bethlehem near Jerusalem and they go and live in Moabite country where the God there is a God that needs human sacrifice in order to duplicate it well the application I think is fairly plain it seems like a good idea to leave Israel if you're Elimelech but was it and we too enter danger when we move away from our home when we move away from the fellowship of God's people when we leave the people who love God and we find ourselves drifting into the world now everyone's here tonight so maybe it doesn't apply to anyone but there is always this constant drag is there not on the people of God and the world can only drag us down we're never going to improve spiritually our relationship with God is never going to improve as long as we're in the world and the sheep are only safe in the fold now with Elimelech and his family far from home the scene is now set for three terrible blows to Naomi and I just think we just need to get the import of this the first thing that happens it says that before long
[22:28] Elimelech dies so that's her husband gone not sure how old the children are but they're old enough to marry so maybe young men but here is the bedwinner here is the man who's strategized how they're going to survive and Elimelech dies then Mahlon and Kilion marry two Moabite women they marry foreigners they could never have done that or shouldn't never have done that but they could never have done that as easy as they did in Moab had they lived in Bethlehem but they marry two Moabite women and then ten years later Mahlon and Kilion die also and they die childless so after ten years what you've got are three widow women you've got Naomi you've got Ophir and you've got Ruth incidentally Mahlon and Kilion both mean weakly or wasting so maybe they were weakly and wasting young men weren't strapping lads perhaps but they died must have been at quite a young age
[23:41] I don't know how they died but they're gone and so these three widows one an Israelite two Moabites who were foreigners to Israel are on the edge of an abyss facing a future of poverty and a future of destitution and it's at this point we get an insight of the spiritual character of Naomi in verse six we read this when she heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them Naomi and her daughters in law prepared to return home she hears that the Lord had come her longings must have been I just get the sense her longings must have been well I know where home is home is not here and it's certainly not here now that my two sons and my husband are dead and I'm all on my own and I've got these two strange strangers living with me
[24:49] I know where home is and home is where the Lord is and she'd heard that the Lord had come to the aid of his people before this she was trapped in Moab as long as Elimelech and her sons were there she was trapped but now these terrible blows plus the news of the good news from Bethlehem spring the trap and she's free to return and the application is this that we too can feel trapped by our circumstances even though it might not be any fault of our own and that's why it's important to wait on the Lord isn't it that's why when we're in trouble we don't make decisions we wait on God we ask God and Naomi had to wait until things change but when they did she unhesitatingly acted and made her way back to her home she's had three terrible blows in a terrible land and now she returns with a blessing in verses 8 to 22 we begin to learn something more about her character which displays
[26:02] I think genuine faith even though she's been in the wilderness for 10 years you could say she was a backsider maybe she was maybe she wasn't but she's away from where she needs where she should be and she moves back and it's during this time in verse 16 chapter 1 where Ruth says don't urge me to leave you I will go where you will go where you say I will say your people with my people and your God will be my God Naomi had to have witnessed to Ruth who was a pagan Moabite woman an ordinary woman no doubt and this Ruth says no I want to be with you and your God so she understood something about the God of Israel the God that lived as it were the other side of the Jordan it's during this time that she's traveling home in verses 13 and 20 we read about her awareness that the
[27:05] Lord has brought a bitter experience to her verse 13 sorry verse 20 says that why do you sorry let me put my glasses on sorry about that don't call me Naomi she told them call me Mara because the almighty has made my life very bitter I went away full but the Lord has brought me back empty why call me Naomi the Lord has afflicted me and she's saying she's bitter in her experiences but she has this this trust in God there's something about her understanding of God which is not easy to fathom she may well have been depressed physically emotionally spiritually but she didn't reject God and she returns home and she recognizes God's sovereignty and providence in bringing her through these hard times twice she refers to the almighty the almighty the god of providence and the god who governs all things this is what one of the commentators says about her use of the word almighty it says that
[28:26] Naomi recognized that she had gone out full and rich while she had returned empty and poor she again recognized the hand of God in the history of her life and this time she made reference to almighty to Shadiah this name of God is associated with his power and his might such expressions on the lips of a believer are significant for they recognize that all things work together for good to all those who are called according to the purpose of God it was probably very difficult for Naomi to face many of her friends but her frank testimony is a credit to her godly character and it's easy to say well don't call me sweetness which is what her name meant call me bitter and think oh well there you are she's all bitter and twisted no she understands something about the providence of God something about his hand in her life something about her being led away suffering these terrible blows of loss of husband and sons and then hearing the news and then coming back and she comes back and there's this
[29:41] I'm home sort of feeling she's older and she's outwardly changed the women of the town say can this be Naomi well she's older and she changes doesn't she but surely her experience had just wrinkled her and it was Paul who said this in spite of all these difficulties therefore we do not lose heart though outwardly we are wasting away yet inwardly we're being renewed day by day and one just senses that inwardly there's something going on in the life in the heart of Naomi she was wasting away outwardly but inwardly she was being renewed I want us to turn to Job for a moment I'll just read out something and it's a very very similar parallel to Ruth and it's Job 23 and he's responding to
[30:43] Eliphaz the Temanite after losing again his family and all his wealth and he's saying this about God he says well even today my complaint is bitter his hand that's God's hand is heavy in spite of my groaning chapter 23 if only I knew to find him if only I could go to his dwelling I would state my case before him I would fill my mouth with arguments if I only knew to find God well she was never going to find God in Moab she had to be home and we have to be home we have to be searching out this living God and Job goes on and he says if I go to the east he is not there if I go to the west I do not find him when he is at work in the north I do not see him when he turns to the south I catch no glimpse of him but he knows the way that I take and when he has tested me
[31:47] I shall come forth as gold don't you see something of Naomi in this he knows the way that I take and when he has tested me I will come forth as gold and there's something there I'm sure in the life of Naomi and Job goes on and he says God has made my heart faint the almighty Shaddai has terrified me yet I am not silenced in the darkness or by the darkness by the thick darkness that covers my face and here is Job in all his agony in all his darkness in the distancing that God has made between him and himself and he says that but he knows the way I take and I'm not silenced by the darkness in me is a faith that is living and of course we know Job says even though he slay me
[32:48] I will trust him and I'm sure that this is something that we see in the life of Naomi but also these trials and difficulties this word of Ruth brings us encouragement also for those who have left the church for those who have backstidden for those who have left our homes our sons and our daughters our families who have gone away from the Lord and they know all about it oh I know all about Christianity don't tell me about it and they've gone into the world and it shows that with Ruth and Naomi particularly in Ruth about Naomi that the Lord always leaves a returning open door a door that is there opened ready to be walked through and this is what happens to her she is about to see blessing upon blessing Naomi had two big problems if losing her husband and sons was not enough she had two big problems she got back she was back in
[33:59] Israel among God's people but she had no means of support for herself no bond to till the fields or anything like that and for her and for Ruth she needed some money well she could raise cash by selling the family plot of Elimelech in the hope that at the time of jubilee which happened every 50 years or should have we'd have no record of the jubilee ever taking place it would revert back to her so she could find somebody and ideally that person was going to be a kinsman redeemer a close relative who would buy the land and at the end of this 50 year period he would pay back and the price of the land was based on where about in the 50 years you did the deal so a kinsman redeemer would be really helpful to raise some money to live that was her first problem now the second problem was the money wasn't going to last too long okay she was going to run out and so she needed a long term solution and the long term solution as we all know was to find a breadwinner a husband for Ruth as the only asset she had and so
[35:19] Ruth was a widow of Mahlon and Ruth was considered therefore to be an Israelite and as a member of God's people she came under a second kinsman redeemer provision which was to take up for a kinsman redeemer to take up the marital responsibilities of the deceased Mahlon and to sire a son for Ruth by doing this the property would continue to be passed down through the family line of a limelight and Mahlon that's the second problem she had a kinsman redeemer she could get a husband for Ruth and Naomi actually only works out this solution this way forward in chapter 6 and verse 19 where she Ruth comes back from gleaning in the field of Boaz and her mother-in-law asks her where did you glean today and where did you work bless be the man who took notice of you then
[36:24] Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working the name of the man I work for 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 to the dead what a strange phrase but it's not she's saying the Lord has not stopped showing kindness to the living to the dead the dead were Elimelech and Mahlon the living was Ruth and Naomi and here she suddenly sees the light she says that man is our close relative he is one of our kinsmen redeemers all of a sudden things start sloughing into place amazingly Boaz is a solution to resolving these two problems all Naomi had to do was to get Moaz to marry Ruth all she had to do problem solved because in marrying he would redeem the land marry Ruth have a child and everything would be would be fine what a stroke of luck well it says it here doesn't it doesn't it say that stroke of luck has it turned out she found herself working in the field by chance she's working in the field of Boaz you know this is obviously not a stroke of luck isn't it
[37:48] God had made provisions centuries before through the kinsman redeemer provisions so that when the time came that Naomi was absolutely desperate back where she should be at home she he turns on the light and she sees the way out of her problem and she understands the scriptures well there's an application for us isn't there a lesson for us to know God's word better I'm going to have to move on very quickly we can't cover how Naomi and Boaz the story there we've got to skip over how Naomi does this fabulous piece of matchmaking and how Boaz falls into line as it were and he cleverly persuades his closer relative not to take on the role of kinsman redeemer but let me do it mate and he buys the land and provisions
[38:49] Naomi through that kinsman redeemer act he buys the land and she has not only the money but marries Ruth and has the lineage connected reconnected again and what I want to do now is just look at how Boaz fits into this role of kinsman redeemer and how this kinsman redeemer is indeed the Lord Jesus Christ there are actually at least five ways in which you could connect Naomi and Ruth Naomi and Boaz as a kinsman redeemer but I just want to bring out just three very briefly first of all we read in Galatians 3 13 says this that Christ has redeemed us from the curse pronounced by the law when he was hung on the cross he took himself the curse for our wrongdoing for it is written curses in the scriptures curses everyone who's hung on the tree
[40:05] Christ has redeemed us from the curse pronounced by the law that's where we are as believers and Boaz redeems Naomi and Ruth from the curse of poor decisions and the curse of personal tragedy and destitution and so you can see the parallel there what is happening here that in Boaz there is a future redeemer already being planned out and worked out as we will close on in a moment Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law the law condemns us the law brings us into spiritual destitution and great harm and that the law does nothing to exonerate us but to condemn us and without Christ redeeming us from the curse of the law then we have no hope but when Jesus was hung on the cross he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing
[41:12] Boaz paid the price for the land for his wife he was just such a benevolent guy and that's the first thing is this word here in Ruth provides a future redeemer but we also read in 1 Peter 1 this it says for you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors but with the precious blood of Christ a lamb without blemish for you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life and Boaz redeemed Naomi and Ruth with silver and gold with money hard cash didn't he but Jesus redeems us with his precious blood isn't that a wonderful picture that we have that Christ with his own blood he redeems us he buys us out of the slave market of our sin and the price he has to pay is everything he pays it in his precious blood and that's a wonderful picture and the last picture is one that involves and connects
[42:37] Naomi he provides a lasting redemption Boaz is recognized through the women in the town in chapter four as the kinsman redeemer and we read this in chapter four and verse fourteen the women said to Naomi praise be to the Lord who this day has not left you without a kinsman redeemer may he become famous throughout Israel may he renew your life and sustain you in your old age for your daughter-in-law who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons has given him birth and Naomi is restored isn't she she she she has she is blessed she she's not been left without a kinsman redeemer and and she she's just so full of the goodness through this man
[43:43] Boaz he will renew your life and sustain you in your old age and that's what God does isn't it he renews our lives he sustains us as we get older day by day in not only in this life but in the life to come we're given eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ it's through Jesus that we too have our life renewed our life sustained for now and for all eternity we've seen this journey into the wilderness we've seen these three terrible blows that came to Naomi we looked at the gracious and blessed return and we see that there's a problem solving God in all our difficulties there's a God with a solution and the solution is always a kinsman redeemer it's always the Lord
[44:45] Jesus Christ you know the answer is Jesus what's the question and we read that Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him she nursed him and the women living there these women again Naomi has a son who has a son thought it was Ruth no it's Naomi has a son because it's through the son through the lineage through the family line that we have this continuation the name the son Obed Obed means servant Jesus is a servant and he was the father of Jesse and Jesse was the father of David and then you turn to Matthew and you turn to Luke and you read the genealogies and you see that out of a Moabite woman a pagan a foreigner we have the lineage of Jesus Christ out of two women actually there was the incident of the woman who looked after the spies as well and the Lord
[45:57] Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call us brethren you see let's pray Thank you.