Congregation, this morning, let's open our Bible to the book of Ruth. And in the book of Ruth, we'll take up two places. First of all, chapter one, 15 through 22. And then chapter four, 13 through 22. Interesting comparison to how people understand, in this case, Naomi particularly, how people understand the work of God in their lives. And so we'll notice that this morning, a mother's grief and then a mother's relief. First then to Ruth chapter one. And again, beloved, our reading will be 15 through 22, and then in chapter four, 13 through 22. Beloved, this is the word of the living God. Look, said Naomi, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. 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. 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, if anything but death separates you and me. When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women exclaimed, can this be Naomi? 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. The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. So Naomi returned from Moab, accompanied by Ruth, the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning. Then turn, beloved, to chapter 4, in the ending section, beginning at verse 13, to Ruth 4 and verse 13. So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 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. He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. From your daughter-in-law who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, he has given him birth. Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her lap and cared for him. The women living there said, Naomi has a son. And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. This then is the family line of Perez, Perez was the father of Hezron. Hezron, the father of Ram. Ram, the father of Aminadab. Aminadab, the father of Nashon. Nashon, the father of Salmon. Salmon, the father of Boaz. Boaz, the father of Obed. Obed, the father of Jesse. And Jesse, the father of David. And so, beloved, God's rich and glorious word. Let's ask his help as we come then to hear his word preached this morning, believing that he will indeed help us. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the sweetness of your word. It's rich like gold. It is helpful and strengthening to us like honey from the comb. And yet, Lord, sometimes your people, especially come distracted or weighed down, burdened in some ways. And Lord, by your spirit, we pray that you would free us from all of those burdens and distractions and that we might be lifted up to feast on Christ in his word this morning. To that end, oh Heavenly Father, we praise you for the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit and that he would lead us this morning in all truth. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, dear congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, we find in the Bible God acknowledging how mysterious our life can be at times. Have you ever wrestled with that? Have you faced mystery? Things you didn't have answers ready for? Well, sometimes the mystery turns to confusion. The confusion to distress, and distress can arrive at discouragement and depression. Parenting. Parenting can easily take that sort of a GPS route. Mystery, confusion, distress, discouragement, depression. Or maybe my wife and I were the only parents to follow that kind of a GPS route, I say tongue in cheek. At times, this defines Christian parenting, doesn't it? But as I'm saying that, and as I was thinking about that from the text this week, it occurred to me, Mother's Day and all, it occurred to me as a dad, grandfather now, that mothers feel that more than dads do. Now, I haven't polled you, taken a tally, whether all moms and dads would agree to that, but I think probably generally it's true. And I think therefore that our merciful Savior has special grace for moms because they are touched by that mystery to discouragement journey. They are touched by it more powerfully than dads are. And so the richness of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ for them in those journeys is, it's deep, it's wide, it's significant, and what covenant mothers have to deal with is impossible but by the grace of God. But, By the grace of God, it is possible and even likely and even normal that covenant moms will become covenant grandmas or great grandmas and look and be able to see the generations of faithfulness that God has worked in their lives. You see, covenant mothers have a savior who is also their powerful sovereign king, and his kingly roar is their sweet song. It's what we see in Ruth. For the life of a covenant mother under God's sweet, mysterious providence is hard and blessed. The life of a covenant mother under God's sweet, mysterious providence is hard and blessed. Well, notice first of all that Naomi, and we must wrestle with the reality of her situation, Naomi didn't pick this path of grief, God did. In chapter one, now we need to do just a little bit of backstory, review just a little bit, though I'm assuming most of us are somewhat maybe very familiar with the book of Ruth. If you have an hour this afternoon, you can read the four chapters quite easily just to remind yourself. But in chapter one, we meet Naomi being led away from the house of bread, which is what Bethlehem is. The Hebrew name Bethlehem means house of bread. Interesting. Irony. Naomi being led away from the house of bread, along with her two sons, being led out of that homeland by her, he should have known better, husband, whose name is, now get ready for it. If you've heard me preach on Ruth before, you're already grimacing a little bit. Naomi's husband's name, Elimelech. Because we like to say Elimelech, it just rolls off the tongue. But Elimelech was his name. Now, why do we make much of that? Because Hebrew names are weighty and descriptive. We just said the Bethlehem means, if you look at the definition of the word, house of bread, well, Elimelech Naomi's husband, who we didn't meet in our reading because he's already dead by the time we begin our reading. But her husband's name, Eli-Melech, means Eli, my God, Melech, king. My God is king. So that's Naomi's husband's name. But when it comes then to a famine resting on the promised land, the man whose name means, my God is king, decided the best way to deal with the famine is to go to a hostile land, Moab. And so for Naomi, the mystery begins right there. Can you think about a covenant wife and mother with two sons asking the question, she wouldn't have asked Elimelech in his face, but she surely would have thought about it. Why did my husband, whose name means my God is King, bring me to enemy land, to forbidden turf? They weren't supposed to go to Moab. Moab was enemy land. They had been unhelpful to Israel, the children on the offshoot of the covenant, who should have helped Israel as they're wandering through the land, but they didn't. And so the mystery begins, which turns quickly to confusion, because there in Moab, Naomi's husband dies. Lord, what's going on? What's happening? She must have been asking that. Distress and discouragement are right there and they come quickly. Because you see, after her sons had married Moabite women, not too long after that, it seems, in the span of their time spent in Moab, the sons, her sons, both die. Well, maybe it would have only been one. It would have been quite so bad, but both sons. So you see, beloved, from mystery to confusion and then quickly to discouragement and surely depression. Now, why do we put it that way? Because of what she says when they then come back to Bethlehem. Is it any surprise whatsoever that what she says when she comes back and the women say, oh, it's Naomi, she says, don't call me that, call me bitter. She names herself after the waters that the Israelites had after three days journey in the desert after Egypt. They had journeyed three days with no water. Finally they come to a water pool and instead of the water being pure and beautiful and tasty, it's bitter so that Moses has to throw in sweet wood in God's mysterious providence. Naomi picks up on that and says, that's me. I'm bitter. I've wandered. I've been away and I've lost everything. You see, unlike the false books of the false religions, the Bible is honest. Here's a hero mother saying I'm bitter. Now, how do we understand that? Well, the first thing we need to say if we understand the Bible, if we understand good biblical theology, the first thing we need to say, and it kind of pinches us a little bit to say it, is that God alone brought her on this path. You think of two people, young people, looking for marriage, getting married. They're beginning their married life and all is going to be glorious now because we're married. Soon children will come and it's going to be perfect. It's going to be heaven on earth. Go up and ask those who are married 60 years if everything was like heaven on earth all of that time. Well, you already know the answer to that question. But we need to say that, and we need to reckon with that, and we need to face that if we're gonna understand the text, because it was God who led Naomi on this path, the path of mystery to confusion, to distress, to discouragement, and to depression, and he will also lead her back up, and how glorious will be that return which is coming. How wonderful is what we'll deal with in a moment, but for now, Naomi puts it in terms that we'd be familiar with in Psalm 23. Naomi says, I've been walking through the valley of the shadow of death. That's where I've been. Have you been there? Do you know something of that? Maybe in your case, it was an actual death, as it was with this covenant mother, husband, both sons, Or maybe for you it's been the mystery of the grief of unanswerable questions. Have you been faced with something like that? A mystery which resists explanation? Moms are grieved when at times no answer comes to the questions which hurt so much. Have you ever been told that moms sometimes cry behind closed doors when no one's watching. They do. Because sometimes it's those unanswerable questions. Can I say to the children, and this is going to sound kind of strange, but I think you'll take it right. Can I say to the children, please do your best to not give your mom a reason for quiet grief. Do your best so the mom doesn't have a reason to grieve quietly behind closed doors. But if you do, and she does, trust that Jesus Christ collects those tears as he does here with Naomi. Well, in the midst of her struggle, secondly, God brings Ruth. In the depth of the pathway of grief, When it's going from mystery to confusion to distress and to discouragement and depression, the Lord says, oh, hold on, my grace is at work. Do you see Ruth? Naomi, Naomi probably thinks as we listen to her in verse 15 of chapter one, she probably thinks she's doing the quote adult thing. She's being the mother, right? Ruth, go back. Orpah, the other one who married one of my sons, she's going back. She said it's better to be back in Moab than to go to some unknown place I've never been to before. And so Naomi says to Ruth, do the wise thing. Go back to your, have you thought about this, Ruth? Go back to your own mom. Go back to your own God, verse eight, verse 15. This is sometimes how we deal with grief. This is how sometimes we pretend to be strong. We say things we believe to be the right thing to say at the moment, even though it's not at all what we want to say at the moment. We have to, we say, toughen up. I'm convinced that Naomi didn't want Ruth to leave. I mean, not really. They had been together for years already. But she thinks it's the right thing to say. Moms and dads do that. Even though they don't want to. And so Naomi blurts it out, but then Ruth answers with a firmness of the covenant. She makes a profession of faith. You're my mother, Yahweh is my God, and only death will separate us. And oh beloved, I can only imagine how for Naomi that profession of Ruth must have been, it must have been pure strength for her. Like a flood which begins, doesn't complete it, begins to bring relief. But it takes time. We don't bounce back from grief in two or three seconds. Or two or three months. May I say this simply as an aside. If you know somebody who's dealing with grief, don't tell them to get out of it. Just snap your fingers and it's all going to be better. It doesn't work that way. And surely it didn't work that way in the text for Naomi. But one thing is certain from Naomi's perspective, she knew she had not planned out any of this. It wasn't her doing. The mystery is very real for her right now. Even why Ruth might want to return to go with her must have been a new mystery. But there's a great relief coming in all how it is needed, just not yet. And parents get this. They understand. Moms understand. Mystery is part and parcel with parenting. God does not always provide to us an answer to the question that we have in the moment. Now sometimes, I want you to think about what I'm gonna say next. Sometimes, much later, We're glad God didn't give us the answer when we so brashly demanded it before. But his plan is always good, isn't it? His plan, his path is always the best. At times, like bringing Ruth along with Naomi, he gives us, shows us concrete proof that all things work together for the good of those who love him, called according to his purpose, as Paul will put it in Romans 8, 28. Sometimes, he allows us to see it. And here, Naomi sees it, experiences it. Thirdly, then God picks for Ruth a path of covenant mother. By the way, did you hear what Ruth said? That question should be asked of Naomi. Did you hear what Ruth said, Naomi? Did you hear her profession of faith? But also, each one of us, we should be ready to answer the question, did we hear what Ruth said? Your people, my people, your God, my God. Oh, Ruth, how right you are. Because even when she doesn't know it, now Ruth, God had his providential hand on the broad, strong shoulders of Boaz. Ask yourself, is God good at directing events? My, my, can he pull strings? Children, we call this God's sovereign providence. In terms of our human understanding of it, human experiencing of it, he pushes, he pulls, he nudges, sometimes drags his people into the place where they will be the most richly blessed. Now I suppose the family of Hank and Jan knows something of that beginning and their years of courtship and then marriage. Did God push, pull, suggest, drag 60 years ago? But we look at the text, and we see 2,800 years ago, Ruth and Boaz, by God's directing, met in a field. And God brought them together. Now listen, Christians. God brought them together so that your Savior would be born. Were you thinking of that as we read in chapter four at the end of the book as a little bit of the chronology is given and the movement of the family line down on and it ends with David? Did you think and were you almost ready to say it? And David the father of Jesus. Now it's not the first thing we think because of course there are several other intermediary steps along the way but do you realize that's exactly what's going on here? what plan God is unfolding and working for our salvation. Now, there's gonna be more to that to come in a moment. But now, as Naomi quietly watches and listens, because moms do this, especially in regards to their daughters, or in this case now to this borrowed, fostered, as it were, daughter-in-law, mothers notice things, they listen. Ruth is becoming, as the one in the growing relationship with Boaz, Ruth is becoming more and more convinced that this Boaz guy is a pretty sweet fella, as they used to say back in the day. And he has his eye on her for sure. But Naomi, Mom, she must have noticed. Moms, have you experienced the moment when when the fog of a deep mystery begins to be burned off by the light of God's goodness? Maybe you don't yet have all the answers to all the questions, and you probably never will. But when His goodness begins to be that sunlight which burns off the darkness of the unknowable, and your heart is again beginning to be warmed by His kindness, isn't that quite an amazing thing? You can begin to sense that things are turning now. Slowly but surely, not all is blackness anymore. I can see light. But perhaps one of the things that we need to learn about this in the text as it develops here is the reality from this book especially that the timing belongs to God. We need to learn to live on God time. He runs the clock. We just dealt with a section in chapter one, then we skipped over a bunch and we're dealing with a section in chapter four, but surely for Naomi and Ruth and even for Boaz, chapters two and three and most of chapter four must have seemed like a long time. There was that first glint of light, the fog begins to be burned off, but how long it takes belongs to God's decision. We can't rush him. There were, for those three, discouragements yet to be faced, challenges ahead, but all the while, can I say it again, God is pulling the strings. So that fourthly, Naomi finds sweet relief from God's merciful providence. I should have said by God's merciful providence. But I want us to go back a moment and consider something. The most underdeveloped matter of the book of Ruth is the role played by the other women. Back in chapter one, verse 19, remember when the whole town is stirred, it's the other women who unintentionally prick Naomi's heart, causing her to blurt out that she's, no, I've renamed myself. It's because, verse 19 of chapter one, the other women exclaim, can this be Naomi that she says, no, I'm Mara. Don't call me that anymore. But then in chapter four, both in verses 14 and 17, the other women speak again. They speak here now giving testimony to the relief that has been found in the promised kinsman redeemer. Look at this very carefully with me in chapter four, verse 14. 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. Who are these other women talking about? Go on to verse 15. He will 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 then verse 17 becomes even more clear. The women living there, here they are again, said, Naomi has a son. They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Step by step by step by step, the father of Jesus Christ. Who is the hymn of verse 15? who is, in the text, the kinsman redeemer. If you know your Bible well, and if you've studied Ruth before, surely you have heard and come to the conviction of, and it's not the wrong conviction, at least initially, to say that Boaz is the kinsman redeemer. Surely he functions in that role. Surely he is in that position of the one who is set by God in a place to be the one to redeem the promise that God has set forth in the lives of his people. Surely that was Boaz, but only as a preview, so that when the women say, God has brought through you, Ruth, a kinsman redeemer, surely beloved in God's chesed, in his loving covenant faithfulness. The promise of the scripture here is one coming in the line of Ruth, coming through the promises given by God through Ruth and Boaz and the child born who eventually will be Jesus Christ. Because may I say it this way, what every mother here this morning needs most is a kinsman redeemer. What Naomi needed was a kinsman redeemer. What Ruth needed was a kinsman redeemer. What we each need in God's covenant faithful promises is the reality of the coming of the kinsman redeemer, the one to redeem all who belong to him. And he is Jesus Christ. And this is the promise. It is God's covenant love and faithfulness, which is our sweet relief, even when mystery may remain. What I'm trying to impress upon us, beloved, is to not, if I may speak biblically now in terms of biblical theology, is that we not mash down and flatten out covenant history to say, hey, we can just jump from Ruth and Boaz to Jesus to 2025. Because there's so much more. There's mystery in the gaps. There are difficulties in the valleys. Think about it just one more way for a moment with me. What's the next book in the Bible after Ruth? Quick, what is it? 1 Samuel. Do we meet a lady? Do we meet a mother in 1 Samuel? Whose name is Hannah? Does she have grief to face? Is there agony about childbirth? About the continuing of the covenant line? So, as it were, just a moment after Ruth, in terms of the Bible's laying it out, the high point, the mountain, the apex, the glory of the kinsman, redeemer, and the promise, then, at the next moment, is Hannah. Why can't I have any sons? Why can't I have children? Oh, God, answer me. Because that, beloved, is our mighty struggle with the mystery of being Christians in this fallen world. Jesus will come, yes, in Ruth's line, David's line. But meanwhile, real life is hard, even in God's redemption plan. And yet, praise God if you've been raised in a family with a covenant mother and a covenant father who, in the midst of those hard times, has said to you, instructing you to lift up your eyes, as the author of the Hebrews puts it, and look and see the author of your salvation, who is Jesus Christ. Because you can always look and see him. Because in the scripture, he is always there. And so go on, Christians. Go on, Christians. Go on, Christian mothers and fathers, trusting in Him. Go on. Trust the Lord, who has brought redemption. Amen. Father and our God, we praise you for the glorious working of salvation, which you have accomplished in the mystery but also, Lord, have brought to light in the revelation all of your promises, which are yes and amen in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so fit us for that which is to come by strengthening us in the moment as we look back and see what you have done. May you receive the glory. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Let's sing again this morning, congregation, two more times. First from the red, both of these will be from the red songbook, 512. 512, we'll stand to sing,