Father, once again, it is a pleasure and a great joy to open up your Word as we conclude this little book of Ruth and realize it is a message that rings from Genesis to Revelation. And once again, as most of your Word is, it's a focus on your Son. So thank you that you've sent him as our kindred redeemer, that we could remember him in celebrating the Lord's Supper today. and that we could have a greater anticipation of His return. Thank you for the opportunity to hear from you, Lord. Teach us, I pray. In Jesus' name, Amen. We are finishing up, Ruth. As you noted in your bulletins, next week we're going to go through Psalm 1. I'm going to take a few weeks to do a few psalms, and then I'm making a change with approval from the leadership. I am going to start into the book of Revelation. Because we have no visual of that, we have a lot of people that have come to the church since I last covered it. It'll be about seven years ago. And it is a focus on Jesus Christ. Everybody thinks it has something to do with some apocalyptic message. And apocalypse simply means revelation, disclosure, an unveiling. And it's all about Jesus. So we're going to put the focus on Him when we go through the book. and note what is being emphasized. But I'll take a break for a little while. I'm going to do a message on giving. I won't tell you what Sunday that is so you won't stay away. Might do a couple weeks on that to clarify some things. I haven't talked about that probably for at least 10 years. And this church is very generous. We have never had a problem that way. We do not pass an offering plate. We have a slot there. A number of people come through during the week and put their offerings in. And it's between you and God. And so we want to make sure you understand how all that works and what God is expecting of us today. So we'll take some opportunities that way. But right now, as we look at Ruth, and we focus on the message that's concluding here, we see, again, as you've found in your lives at times, that Naomi and Ruth had gone through some very difficult days, right? What had happened? Naomi's Her husband died, her two sons died, one of whom was married to Ruth. They're in a foreign land because of famine that had taken place in Israel, and they had fled to try to get some relief from that. Whether or not they should have gone is another question altogether. But here they are, going through some rocky places, and as they persevered through this, they went from the trials to trust, and they recognized that God, Yahweh particularly, was sufficient. and he met their needs. But he didn't make it easy, and he didn't make it short. Yet Yahweh ultimately blesses them with rewards. Naomi goes from being barren, well, not barren, I'm sorry, broken, poor, to being made rich in all the process. What else? Ruth goes from being barren, as I mix it up, to being blessed with child. Our visitors don't understand. I ask a lot of questions and try to get your reactions. You are not allowed to fall asleep unless by doctor's permission. And you are listening to the messenger. I'm only the messenger. You take your Bible with you. We want you to interact with us. So I'm going to ask questions. Hopefully that doesn't disrupt your thinking. But you're going through this process of this barrenness of fruitfulness, and it's drastic change in four little chapters. And so we get into chapter 4, verse 13, and we move from conception to connection. As you look through this first section, 13 to 15, there is conception, and he's going to describe it. Look at verse 13. So Boaz took Ruth. That's not just a matter of, you know, I'm taking you on a date to the Sadie Hawkins dance or whatever it may have been. He took Ruth. This is a word that's used to describe took her in marriage. It's used that way. He selected her, one and only. I want you, and he picks her. And she became his wife. That's what took place. So she agreed, right? She submits. Older man, kind of unique relationship. She'd been married before, we don't know if he has, but it says specifically he went into her and the Lord enabled her to conceive. They have a personal relationship that goes from marriage, a selection process, to a covenant agreement as they become one physically, sexually in marriage. And what happens to her right off? She conceives. How long has she been married before? Well, it was a tenure process that they were there, so we're talking about probably a number of years that she had been married and had not conceived. That's interesting to me. Is that hard on women who want children? Nowadays, you find a lot of other choices out there, and then many regrets when people wait too long and find out they can't have them. But here's where Ruth had been. She kept trusting Yahweh. She's a Moabite. She had no reason to have to follow Him. She made a radical change. This is what happens when you receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. The whole process of repentance is a turning around. It's a reversal in your life. You would be going after Molech or whatever God may have been following with the Moabites, and you turn around and you start following Yahweh, and what happens to your past? It is no more. You can't do both. A lot of people try to live on the fence, but in reality never go anyplace. They just have a lot of splinters in their bottom. Oh, we are alive. Okay. So as he's going down through here, the Lord enables, the Lord grants or bestows or permits Ruth to conceive. She's pregnant. Psalm 127.3, you have that memorized, right? Quiver comes a little bit later. I heard quiver, but what's right before that? You can look this up. It's always an open book exam with me. I love teachers in college and seminary that gave open book exam. Children are a gift of the Lord. So what did God say to Ruth for a number of years? No, no, no. Her husband dies. I'm in big trouble. Marries Boaz right away. He says, yes. This is how I wanted it to work out. And so as we go through life, we're struggling. We don't like the, no, no, no. What do we say to God? Why, why, why? We whine, we complain. I won't tell you what my grandson said to me this week as he commented about my whining. I went, whoa. And I was whining too. It was pretty bad. Out of the mouth of babes. This is how we tend to live. We struggle with these things. And God moves right in and allows her to conceive. Boaz followed the law. Ruth followed the law. Naomi followed the law. Didn't they? What did the nearest kinsman redeemer do? He didn't follow the law. What is his name? We call him No Name. We also call him Mr. Barefoot. And what, we have other names last week? as she took the sandal, or was supposed to take the sandal off, it was an embarrassment that he wouldn't follow through on what he was supposed to do, because he feared loss on his part. So you go from this relationship to this reproduction, this enablement on God's part, that children are a gift from Yahweh. She conceives, and she has a son. What does that mean? He's going to carry on the name, he's going to have leadership, he's going to have authority, and through him is going to ultimately come King David, Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Fascinating how God works. That's why we can rejoice no matter what comes into our lives. We're getting better at it, aren't we? Aren't I, dear wife of mine? Oh yeah, okay, good, good. We are quicker to say yes to God, quicker to say, okay, I trust you, aren't we? But we are learning. It's happening so slowly. If you're saved, many people who may not know Jesus Christ, who are religious, and nothing is changing in their life. It isn't real. And they don't understand why. It's confusing. But for the believer, you will grow. You will be conformed to the image of God's Son. You will receive a spanking when you disobey, as Hebrews 12 points out. God will be the perfect parent to us. And so he's working in this situation and we see in verse 13, perfect. God finally does this, a little late, but God finally lays out what's been desired. 14 says, then the women said to Naomi, blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a redeemer today. And may his name become famous in Israel. May he also be to you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age. for your daughter-in-law who loves you and is better to you than seven sons has given birth to him." So he's laying out another picture here. It goes from this marriage emphasis that God has finally brought together perfectly on earth, as best it could be, to a magnification of Yahweh. And so he points out the faithfulness of God. Blessed here could be translated praised or thanked. It's kind of a unique way of using the word. We typically, when we think of like next week, Psalm 1, how does it start off? Blessed is the man. And I would translate more, not so much praised or thanked, but as prosperous is the man who does three things. And you're going to go read that ahead of time, and see what God's promising blessing for. And he's working through here. But the word is flexible, and when it describes Yahweh, and it's a passive here, and that's another reason, and I won't go off into too much of it, but it's describing Yahweh being praised or thanked. And she names a few, or the women name a few specific things. They say, He has not left you without a Redeemer today. Who's the Redeemer? Boaz. It's not Obed, it's Boaz. Right? And he says here, and may his name become famous in Israel. What does he mean? What do the women mean by that? Who's the Redeemer? It's Boaz. And what would happen when somebody becomes famous in Israel? What does that mean? They'll remember him. How far removed are we from this scene? Who are we talking about? Boaz, and we're not even Jewish. There might be some Jews here, but it's not even the focus of our background. To the Jews, he's an elevated man. They say, may he become famous. This is the idea of being renowned, proclaimed and announced all around for what he's done. All he did was obey. Do you understand what you're going to get someday as a believer for simple obedience? You're not earning an inheritance. It's being given to us by God himself. Just obey. But it's too hard, too many trials, takes too long, and I don't like what he's doing. Obey. It's pretty simple. I speak as one, not as a bragging because I had my days, but I speak as a child who, being number three out of five, I had great wisdom. I watched what happened when my oldest brother would not obey. And I looked at what the results were and I went, that's not good. That could be harmful to my body. And I watched when other members of my family, and I had even younger siblings that still decided to take other courses at times, in their own unique ways each one of us has done. And I became very, very obedient. I was what they called a compliant child. I love to obey teachers. I love to obey parents. I love to obey the pastor. I love to obey everybody until I became how old? Two. You got to give me more credit than that. I was about 18. I reached this level. I went off to college and decided, hey, I can think for myself. And I started irritating a lot of people. with good motives, and often with right reasoning, but not with a good attitude. I made some people mad. I can name some names that you know that I made mad, because they hung out around Multnomah and Dallas Seminary, and they were in places where you would recognize them, and they were not happy with me. And I'm going, what's the problem? I'm just trying to obey. I'm still following the same course. Well, you find out that you need to obey with a right attitude, with a humility, sometimes with your mouth closed. You don't need to point out what they did wrong. I'm just trying to help. Zip it, Ebner. I've taught my children to unzip it sometimes, haven't I? They've watched. You've done the same thing. But here I'm pointing out a man who is now famous, who has the name Boaz, because he did what God said. His goal wasn't to broadcast everything and had become a famous man. You have so many. I had friends when I was young. One wanted to be a millionaire before he was 30. Guess what? He made it. Back in the day when a million was worth a whole lot more than it is today. What did he lose? Everything. Wife, children, everything. Destroyed. Relationships with other people. I saw that in scripture. I knew that wasn't right. But as you're going down through, all God asks of Boaz is, do what I ask, and he elevates him. What's going to happen to us someday? We're going to die. That's a good thing, because we don't want to live in these bodies forever and ever. But we are going to be elevated. We are going to be recognized by God, not because of what we've accomplished, but because of what Christ has accomplished in us. We are going to be joined in relationship with Him, to reign with Him forever and ever, to receive the same inheritance, and we're even called children of God. That's not a... what are they... I just lost a term back in the 60s, you know, we're the flower children. It's not going along with that kind of idea that we're going to be flower children of God. That's not what it's trying to describe. We have a very unique relationship with Him. It's a gift. It's been given to us. I didn't do anything to earn it. I can't do anything to make it go away. Can you stop being your parents' child? They wish some days. You're it. For better or for worse, you're it. And it's the same thing true about our salvation in Jesus Christ. It's been given to us. And so as he goes down through here, he's describing this man who's done the right thing, and God blesses him. The faithfulness of this man. He becomes a help, described here as a redeemer. One who provides and protects. He becomes an honor. His name is famous in Israel. Renowned. Celebrated. And he becomes the hope. A restorer of life. The family line was going to continue. He would be a sustainer of your old age, Naomi. This is a biblical Medicare, in case you haven't noticed. God was going to take care of her. What do you think went through her mind in recent years? I'm hopeless. I'm helpless. There's no honor about me. Just call me bitter. Remember as you went through the book and noticed all this? And then he points out this interesting little thing about being fruitful here. Your daughter-in-law has given birth to him, and it says, this daughter-in-law who loves you, a very clear indication of a strong emotional attachment, this affection of commitment, devotion, sacrifice, she loves you. She's a Moabite. This shouldn't happen. But she does, and all the women, in verse 14, note that. And they said, this woman is better to you than seven sons. Why wouldn't she say that? What was the significance of seven sons? Here's a perfect number, describes completeness, God's blessing on a home, seven sons, let alone daughters. How many in David's family? He's the youngest of eight. And yet he becomes one of the greatest kings of Israel. And so as he's going down through here, this is a symbol of supreme blessing. This is what you could have as a Hebrew, that you'd recognize that God has really caused fruitfulness. And we're not talking about seven different wives. We're talking about one wife that God has blessed in so many ways. So he's laying out this picture of the conception and the relationship with Ruth, and then he goes to the connection. In verse 16, then Naomi took the child and laid him in her lap and became his nurse. Now you have to be a little bit Jewish to understand what's going on here. What does it mean? She took the child, cared for him. You see the term I put up there, and you can scroll it up a little bit more. This often is described as probably a process of adoption. Who is the Redeemer redeeming? First off, Naomi. And following Naomi, who needed the Redeemer, who was beyond the ability to bear children, he actually marries her daughter-in-law. But to carry on the line, Elimelech, Mahlon, Kilian. Carrying on the line. They're all involved in this process. So Naomi took the child. It's the picture here as if she made the child her own. She took possession of the child. How do you know that? Look what she does. She lays him in her Lap, I wouldn't put there. What's another translation? In her bosom. Lap and bosom are two different things. Last time I looked, my bosom is ending up in my lap, but that's another story. But here, this is a more precious description of her taking him in, of this physical intimacy. This possession, legally making him her own. She becomes his nurse. Another term, when you looked it up in the Hebrew lexicon, you know what it says there? Foster mother. Another interesting description of what's going on here. Naomi is taking on the child as if he was her own. Do you have any indication that she would be living in the same home as Joab and Ruth? So she's kind of like a Would Naomi be living with Boaz and Ruth? And I'm not sure of that. You could probably find that out. I didn't come across that. What the culture, what the custom of the day was at that time. There are people over there today that still do that, but it's the Samaritans. I'm not sure that it was a Jewish custom. And so they just add on another room, add on another room. Weird looking houses in what is today modern Samaria. But the Jews, I don't know if they took on family and stayed in the same location. In this case, because she was a widow, it'd be more likely, it'd be logical, but I don't know what the custom would have been. What was that? Question? Debbie? Did she start nursing him in that or was he already nursed by Ruth? Ruth would have taken care of his physical needs. But Naomi takes care of the legal relationship. She's claiming him, and this is a big deal for her. Nursing. No, it's not. Nurse there is not describing nursing. It literally is described in the Hebrew lexicon as a foster mother. She becomes the one who's really caring for him because of the legal relationship she has with him. So it's not necessarily proven to be adoption, but it's kind of that process that's going on. Really fascinating here. Now I'm brewing questions. Nicole. Right. That's what I thought at first too. I'm just going to Scripture itself. Obed wasn't born at this point in time, or was a baby. The Redeemer is, did I say that right? The Redeemer is Boaz. He's the kinsman Redeemer. He's the one that has stepped in and taken care of her. He's the one that's being emphasized here. And when you come down to the latter part of the passage, you're at 21? Okay, where Boaz is mentioned there. But no, I'm not finding what I'm looking for. But the emphasis seems to appear to be more on the idea of actually the Redeemer today. And that's verse 14. Who has not left you without a Redeemer today. Now, they could say, well, the baby's born already, and that's why he's there. But it's a picture more of Boaz. Now, you can disagree with me because that's legal in our church. But we'll take some more time to try to study it and see if we can find out. Harold? Right. Verse 9, Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses today that I have brought or bought from the hand of Naomi all that belong to Melimelech, all that belong to Chilion and Melon. Moreover, I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Melon, to be my wife." So it's the whole package is what he's taking on. He's actually redeeming Naomi and what's involved with Naomi, her husband, her sons, and her daughter-in-law. Right. Chapter 4, verses 6 and 7 talk about the whole issue of redemption. It goes back to Deuteronomy 25 with the requirement that the nearest kinsman redeemer redeem. It wasn't an option. He is ashamed and embarrassed because she spits in his face if he won't do it. Takes off his sandal, and it doesn't say it there, but in the real fine print it says, beat him mercilessly. No, I'm just kidding. That's why we call him Mr. Barefoot. Is Naomi taking on the fostering of this child in connection to the fact that the child is receiving the name of Naomi? Yep. She's taking on a legal responsibility because he's taken on a Limelech, Malon, Killian, and also Ruth is included as part of the family. So a typical mother-in-law wouldn't necessarily nurse her grandchild? Not talking about nursing here. Foster mother. Yeah. The child is going to carry on the family name. He's not simply taking it on, it is his role to carry on a limelight's name and have the inheritance go back to the family of a limelight. This probably wouldn't have been typical because there wouldn't have been a Naomi in there. It may have simply been a Ruth who needed to be a kinsman-redeemer. In this case, Naomi is in a unique role because there's two of them. It's probably rare to have the mother and the daughter-in-law both widows and in a position where they cannot take care of themselves and they need someone to redeem them. So, there's specific things put together here by God as the book of Ruth comes together. and the message here and the people that are involved in it. So when you think about Naomi becoming his nurse, think of it as Naomi becoming his caregiver, that kind of a nurse. And so here it is, we have one sitting here today, right? You would take care of the needs of the patient. But in this case, it really brings in even more of a foster mother. There's a legal connection. that goes with this. So it's really fascinating. It's culturally so different from us that it's hard for us to put ourselves into that position and understand what's going on. But this is what Naomi has done, and Naomi has done it with great excitement. She's been waiting a long, long time for this to be carried on. She still has lost her husband. He's not coming back. She still lost her two sons. They aren't coming back. They're gone. in the resurrection they may meet again. But at this point in time, she is watching God supply and meet needs way beyond what she ever would have imagined. And so in verse 17, it goes from this adoption process to the fact that it says, and the neighbor women gave him a name. Why does that sound strange? And again, others you can respond. We don't have to have the same people always commenting, but why would the women give him a name? What does Zacharias have to do with the name of John in Luke 1? Yeah, they turned to John, because what did... I just lost her name. Elizabeth, what did she say his name was going to be? She could still speak, and she said, John. And they all go, there's nobody named John in your family. And so they turned to Zacharias, and he can't talk, because he's had a little bit of a problem trusting God. If that happened more often, and we come to church on Sundays, you could find out. And somebody walk up, and you could turn to them and say, you've had a bad week. Naughty, naughty. I don't know how long it's going to last, but hopefully God clears that up really quick. But here's Zacharias, and he confirms, his name shall be John, and his voice comes back. That's a pretty clear indicator that there was something involved with all of that. But here's this situation where it says the neighbor women gave him a name saying, a son has been born to Naomi, not to Ruth. So they named him Obed. What does Obed mean? servant, and you could put in also the word worshipper. When you get into the New Testament, one of the key words used for worship means servant, or serve, or serving, latruo, and so to serve. And so you're going into this picture here, and they have a similar idea with his name. Why would you call Obed servant or worshipper? What's his role going to be? He's going to serve Naomi. He's going to serve Ruth, he's going to serve Yahweh. And how is he going to worship? They have followed everything they had done. So you can say, I love God, I'm a great worshipper. Show me your fruit. Prove it by your deeds. Your deeds don't earn your way, but your deeds reveal who you really are. And say, well, I love God. And I say, okay, give me some examples. How would you know that someone really loved God? What would they say? What have they done? Okay, I'm loving my neighbor. Second of the great law, the birth to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, the second is like undo it, summarizes the whole law. And so I'm loving my neighbor, which is evidence that I have to be loving God or I wouldn't love my neighbor. 1 John brings that out. Jim? Okay, so I'm obedient to what he's asked me to do for how long? Two weeks? Two years? Okay, there's no limit in it. And God will take us until we get to, like Saul, and they aren't coming. The prophet, Samuel isn't coming. He isn't coming. So I'm going to have to violate the law, perform the sacrifice in order to make God happy and be prepared for the battle that's coming. That was foolish. That cost him his kingship. See, we are really, really good at justifying wrong. We don't lie, but we tell white lies, or maybe fibs would be a nicer word, right? What's the difference? What's the difference between a full-grown rattlesnake and a baby rattlesnake? Just how far they can reach. Either one of them bite you, you're in big, big trouble. And that's what happens with a lot of our situations. We are really good at justifying things. God says this, well, I don't think he really meant that. And I want to do this, so let's figure out how do we get over there and pull the two together and I can still say I love God. You love God by obeying. Period. The confusion comes in a day and age when the law is fuzzy. One policeman pulls you over for doing one mile over the speed limit, and I've heard situations of that. Just having a bad day, not enough tickets given out, doesn't like your face when you drove by. I don't know what the reason is, but something went wrong. Other ones ignore you when you're doing, admit it. 10 miles over the speed limit. Come on, auction time. 10, 10, 10. Do I have 15? Give me 15. That's what's going on a lot of times. And we go, how far can I go? What am I basing my standard on? Men, not God. I've talked to different policemen. One told me if I was doing the speed limit and impeding traffic, he would give me a ticket. I shook my head. I went, you've got to be kidding. I'm keeping one law but disobeying another so I get a ticket for that one. I'm kind of in between a rock and a hard place. What he's telling me is every few minutes I gotta pull over and let everybody go by. Don't get more than four cars behind you. So that was his big law. But he didn't care about the speed limit. I wonder how he drove. But this is the situation. God is accentuating, really revealing the law keepers of the Old Testament. That's who you see in Hebrews 11, in the hall of faith, that's what it's called. They trust it no matter what. Christi? No. So, and again, they're not always picking this up. Was Ruth irritated by any of this? No. And the reason I say no immediately is because you watch her life. Go through the book of Ruth and watch this woman. Yeah, it might be really hard, and she's a Moabite. It may not have been a custom in her country. Probably wasn't. They'd offer children to the fire. They would just put live children and burn them up to Molech. And the Jews picked up on that. They started doing the same thing. That's some of the days they got in big trouble. Can you imagine that? Taking your newborn, going to the altar and throwing your live baby into a fire? Common practice. So Ruth had made many changes. But she's also taking on some new things. So I don't know what she knew. But over a period of time, Naomi may have sat her down. They may have had a great conversation and explained to her exactly what she's doing. You're the mother. You're the one who's going to nurse this baby. You're the one who's going to be around this baby and raise it. Although I'm going to be there as often as I can. What grandmother wouldn't be? But legally in our country, this is how we do this. This is a Kensington Redeemer part of this. You get brought into the picture. And so I don't think Ruth would have reacted. Her personality, what kind of woman was she? As we summarize and end the book. What was she like? Okay, a couple things. She was a loving woman and loved her mother-in-law to the end. Humble. Servant. Kind. Sacrificial. She marries Boaz. He even tells her, you could have gone after a younger man, rich or poor. You picked me, implying I'm probably around the age of Naomi. You may have to take care of me in my old age. We just watched. When my brother was here, we found that there was a movie on the Book of Ruth on TV, on Netflix. I kind of wanted, I didn't want to watch. They reversed almost everything about the story. Boaz was a bad guy. This Mr. No Name was a really, really good guy. And on and on, they just turned everything, because it was for Hollywood. Boaz has got to be this bad guy that kind of gets won over and brought around, and finally he melts around Ruth. Ruth was a priestess of the god Moloch, and was involved with those child offerings. That's what her past was. Yeah, I kept watching this thing, where are they coming up with this stuff? Made a great movie. And you see Ruth become the woman she was. It's telling you, she was rotten. She was mean. Oh, she was nasty. Yeah, throw them in the fire. Who cares? That's the message the world gets. That's what they think of the Bible. They don't read the Scriptures. The only thing they can really watch is us. What do we look like? Do we obey like the Pharisees? I'm obedient. I tithe, you know, olive oil, mint, cumin, even down to the finest little, what do you call that stuff? Spices. And I fast twice a week. I stand on the street corners, make sure everybody notices when I'm praying. I am obedient. What does God say about that? Yeah, not good. Makes Him want to spit them out of His mouth. That's not what God's talking about when it comes down to obedience. If there isn't character behind the obedience, it's all you're doing is manipulating people to make them be impressed with you. You have to obey because you love God. You have to obey because you love your neighbor. And that's where the devotion, the sacrifice comes in that made up who Ruth was. That was her character. And so as you come down in here, the women get to name the child. It may have been custom at that time. Things have changed. We saw other things in the Book of Ruth that were customs out that day, and then later on they were gone. They didn't do that anymore. So it's hard to know sometimes what's going on at this time. They name him Obed, worshipper or servant. He's going to be an attendant to Naomi, but ultimately to Yahweh. And it says right there, he is the father of Jesse, and then the father of David. Why are they mentioning that? Is he trying to say, boy, he has a great ancestry. He has a great family line. Look how impressive you should think of this man. That's who he produced. Is that what he's saying that? What's he telling you? Yahweh is the one who's great. Why is that? Because Yahweh can take a woman whose husband died as a Moabite, a widow who is still broke, as broke as can be, bring her back in obedience to her mother-in-law, marry her to a man that's in the line of Christ, and give her the child and the blessing that goes along with that. Four times this genealogy shows up in the Bible. 1 Chronicles, Matthew, Luke. Guess whose name shows up? Boaz, Boaz, Boaz, Boaz. But Ruth gets brought in there as well. Not many women are mentioned in those genealogies. And it's interesting who gets brought in. They're outsiders. Bathsheba. And what's her name from Jericho? Rahab. I didn't get enough sleep last night. And Tamar gets brought in. So it's interesting how God says, I can use anybody. What does that say about us? You're good. Obey, walk with him, love him, follow after him. And so he goes down in this list. This is interesting. Here's the genealogy. And you go, ah, this part I skip over. Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amenadab, Nashon, David. And that's what we tend to do with that. Yes. Boaz. Ruth marries Boaz. Boaz is not a near relative. So the Mr. No-Name would possibly have been a brother of her husband. That's a good possibility, because that's more how Deuteronomy 25 fits. Boaz says he's removed from that. So what's he going to be? Maybe a cousin, maybe a son of one of the brothers. So he's kind of a step down. But again, age-wise, you think you want to shove him up there. So Naomi is related to Boaz, and fairly close, but Ruth is not at all. And so when Boaz has a child, Naomi has a little bit of blood relation, but it's really through Boaz that Perez has Ron and the rest of them come down through. But the key here is that these individuals go back to Judah, because the leader of the nation of Israel was going to come from Judah. That's where David came from, and that's where Jesus Christ is from. So look at the list as we close this up. Verse 18, now these are the generations of Perez. And I put a few things in here, I'm going to give you some scripture. His name means a breach. Why would you name your kid Breach? It's probably how the birth went. And they just grabbed on, whatever the significance of the situation, here I have a Breach birth, and he lived anyway. And that day would have been a really special thing. So they want to remember, poor kid. Anyway, he gets called a breech, but he's the illicit son of Judah and Tamar. How could God do that? Because Judah wasn't obeying the law. One son given to Tamar, he dies before their children. Next son given to Tamar, he dies before their children. One son left, not giving him to Tamar. She's a black widow. So Tamar forces the issue to make sure there's a descendant. Judah wants her to be burned. Until Judah finds out who really did it. And he sees himself worse than her. And so it's fascinating that God causes all things to work together for good. But He doesn't just give you this blank statement for everything and anything. Sin doesn't fit into that. He causes all things that work together for good to those who are loving God, to those who are being called or being selected to serve. It's a very unique position there. So be careful how you quote scripture and what it's trying to focus on. But God used the situation. He did not condone it. That was not what He wanted. But when Judah steps out of the way and Tamar goes her way, you have an illicit son. I don't know what Perez faced during his life. But he's a breach. And it says there that to him, that Perez was born Hezron. He went to Egypt. Well, let me give you this one I left out. Perez is Genesis 38, 12 to 30. I didn't have enough room on the little tarot. Genesis 38, 12 to 30 is the story that explains all that, as you're going to get in and study this some more this week, right? Because you're just eager to learn the Word of God. And then he gets into Perez was born Hezron. Hezron means village. Again? Do you know any people running around you call village or city? Maybe he took a whole village. Very wild kid, wandered the countryside. But he went to Egypt with Jacob. So you start seeing the connection. He had actually gone off into the captivity or to the captivity, but fleeing the famine and all that was going on. So that is brought up in Genesis 46 verses 8 and 12 are very important there to understand. Genesis 46 verses 8 and 12. Then you come to Ram. I can understand, I can pronounce that name even. But it means high or exalted. You can see where the name kind of maybe came down the line. All I can find about him is the realization he's the great-grandson of Judah. Ram doesn't get a whole lot said about him. And in the Greek, the New Testament, they call him Aram. And especially in the King James, he's that way. But that's all we know. We don't know a lot, but he keeps the line going. He gives birth, through his wife, to Amenadab. Ram, I don't have anything. He's found a number of places, but I didn't give you anything significant. I'm just giving you verses if they tie in with that. But he's in the genealogy, so you can look him up there. And if you have a King James, you'll find Matthew and Luke will translate him Aram. And then Aminadab, number four there, his name means noble kinsman. Finally, we're getting someplace. They're starting to improve, right? Aaron's father-in-law. Whoa! What tribe is Aaron? Tribe of Levi. And so here you're realizing these tribes crossed over, but which tribe takes precedent? Male. And so here, because Amenadab is Aaron's father-in-law, you see the situation that comes down. Anyway, we'll get into a lot of things there. I may be saying the wrong stuff, but Exodus 6, verse 23. Exodus 6, 23 brings out some of that. I know I'm going to get questions because of what I just said, but we'll look at that later. Nashon means serpent. Viper may be a way we would use that today. Asp, snake. I don't know what we would call them, but again, I don't know why. Something was going on there that the name was given means serpent. Numbers 1-7, head of the house of Judah. Numbers 1-7, numbers 7, 12, and 17. Numbers 10, 4. So you're in the book of Numbers with 1, 7, 7, 12, and 17. And then chapter 10, verse 4, head of the house of Judah. He was a key figure. It may tie in with something to do with the name as well. Solomon means coat. Some want to translate it Zolomon with the King James, but Solomon works fine. He's the father of Bethlehem. That's the title given to him in 1 Chronicles 2. Again, a very important role that he played. 1 Chronicles 2, verses 51 and 54. Then you get finally down to number 7, it's Boaz. His name means quickness. That's kind of interesting. He was a mighty man or a wealthy man, the word kind of combines to pick up. We're talking about people that are becoming key figures in the line of Judah, specifically around the area of Bethlehem. Then Obed comes along, worshipper, servant, special gift of God. Ruth 4, 14 to 17 as we're looking at. Number nine, Obed gets married, and you probably can go back to Jesse's wife, you can get a name, you could do a lot more with this if you want to, but Jesse means Manly. Probably the Colony War, right? But Manly is the name given to him, and Jesse is blessed with eight sons. This says a lot about what God thought of him. And the last one, the baby of the family becomes the greatest king of Israel, humanly speaking. 1 Samuel 16, verses 1-13. And then the last one here, it gets down on the list, this is the focus of what he's after, it's how the book ends. David means beloved or favorite, you could write favorite in there. Greatest King of Israel, described in 1 Samuel 13-14 as a man after God's own heart. That literal phrase actually comes out of Acts 13-22. But he's a man who's following God in 1 Samuel 13-14, and Acts 13-22 describing him as a man after God's own heart. That was the key. Now we're back to what we were talking about the whole morning. What has God won out of us? Obedience, which is evidenced by a genuine love. I'll do what he says. I won't cheat on my taxes. I won't tell people lies no matter what. I won't go around doing what? In which? Speeding. All right, whatever that is. You have to determine in this day and age with the basic speed law. But you have to figure out if your conscience is concerned, If you're worried about other people, I had a lady go by me much faster than I was going one time years ago, and she's just racing along, and I'm doing the speed. I used to do 55, now I've kind of loosened up, because I found out, the police told me, don't do that. But here I was, driving along at 55, and I look over, and she looked over at the same time, just like that, and she goes, because she knew me as being the pastor. She was doing at least 5, maybe 10 miles over. She did this. And then you could tell on her face, instant second, do I slow down or do I speed up? I can't stay here. I've just revealed myself. And she decided to punch it. She hit it and she took off. And later on I told her, I said, I'm not God. You don't answer to me. Now, I may have to be responsible to confront you because I love you, and you're doing something wrong that's only going to harm you. If that's why I'm confronting you, great. But if I'm confronting you, you say, you're a nasty person. I'm better than you are. When are you going to straighten up? Or what else? Other things I may say that would be worse than that. How many of us are sinners? All have sinned and come short. How far short? Really short. Don't ever forget that. Ruth was a sinner. Boaz was a sinner. Naomi was a sinner. God was the only one in charge, working it out perfectly. When Jesus Christ returns, the body He has is a Jewish body from the tribe of Judah. It was because of God. He'll do the same thing in our lives, that we trust Him and obey Him. Let's pray. Father, the book of Ruth has been a great lesson for me. I've been amazed at you, which when I take the time and read any book, 66 of the books in Scripture, that's the result. The Bible is all about you. Help us to stop focusing on ourselves. Help us to trust you when everything seems to be wrong, and even rejoice and give thanks. But to realize in time, you will have your way. And in time, we will be conformed to the image of your Son, each one who knows you. And in time, You will relieve us. Take us to be with You, because at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. So we thank You. We praise You. We ask You to help us to obey and do what pleases You. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.