Sound great. Appreciate that enthusiasm. Ruth, chapter two. Ruth, chapter two tonight. And I know y'all have been hanging on the cliff last week and you did as you were told and didn't read ahead and find out what's gonna happen with this Moabitess who returned with her bitter mother-in-law. But instead, you waited for this evening and are ready to go. We're gonna read verse 20 before we pray over our text tonight. And so Ruth, in verse 20. She's the one that got judged by Joshua. Ruth did. Joshua judges Ruth, 1 Kings 1. That was pretty bad, wasn't it, Andrew? You're going to use it too, aren't you? Someday, yeah, someday. Andrew's like, I just got filed away into my Never Forget. Helps you find it that way, Joshua judges Ruth. What a judgmental guy, that Joshua. Yeah, all right. It's grouped in the Old Testament in that time period because it shows us the transition between the time that the children of Israel came into Israel God was their king and there was no king in Israel in that day. And so every man did that, which is right in his own eyes. And that's the period of the judges. And Ruth is the one that helps us to understand the transition from the judges to the kings. And so that takes us first, second Samuel, first, second Kings. And so sometimes think about how your Bible's put together. Yesterday I was talking to somebody and we were talking about the Quran. And he was pointing out that the Qur'an is grouped by the order of smallest to largest books. So there's no rhyme or reason to the arrangement of it. It's just, you know, smallest to largest of the books. And I guess that some type of organization was kind of ignorant. It doesn't have any kind of spiritual significance or meanings. But the Scripture does. God's Word does. And, you know, we could not adamantly state, we couldn't say that the organization of the Scripture is, you know, what makes it important. It's just that it is Scripture and it fits in groups. And so Ruth fits in the period of the judges. And we see something happening. Of course, we were introduced to Ruth because she married into a family of losers. No, that's not people that died. She married. She married into a family where all the men died. And that's accurate, right? And so there was no hope for Ruth in that family because you can't marry into a family with dead men or you can't remarry in that family. And so we'd looked at briefly at the Levitical law and that sort of thing. We talked about at least. Verse 20 of Ruth chapter 2 takes us to our cliffhanger. And Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law, Blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, I need a dun-dun-dun. Dun-dun-dun. The man is near of Canaan to us, one of our next kinsmen. And again, we left for the commercial break, all the events of last week, because we just found out that it's not just a coincidence that Ruth met Boaz. And so we'll pray for Lord to help us to see God's hand in these things in a way that we could see God's hand in our own lives. That's what we'll ask tonight. God, this evening, as we see your hands in the life of Ruth, I ask that you would help us to see your hand in our life, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. What a beautiful story, unless you were living it. What a miserable life, if you were in it. I mean, it's easy to read Ruth. Elimelech died, Machlan died, Killian died, we don't know him. And so it's not that personal. our well-being is not tied to their existence. We don't need them for our support. We don't need them for anything. And so it's impersonal when the scripture says Elimelech died. It's like exit scene left. Mahlon died. Exit scene right. Exit middle for or at back backstage I guess we'll put we'll put Killian out backstage but really honestly like we don't feel anything for them and we really have to think about it to feel anything for Naomi and Ruth. Naomi is in a strange land she's not home they've left because of a famine and it seems evident God wasn't blessing the nation of Israel because in the giving of God's law and His covenant with His people, there was an implicit promise of an early and a latter rain, and they were never to be in famine if they honored God. And so the fact that they were in famine meant it indicated, it was an indicator that they were not honoring God. And my thing on it would be some people stayed behind and survived and made it, and things got better. And so, I just think, personally, Elimelech should have been part of our revival, and God's blessing, God's provision. If you were to read in the Kings, 1st and 2nd Kings, you would read about many instances where the children of Israel, the nation of Israel, was in famine, and then God provided for them because of their turning to Him in faith, and God delivering them. And we would read about it with the prophets, Elijah and Elisha. And so famine was something that was a result when God was your king, the famine in your land was a result of the way that you honored your king. And so that's implicit in Ruth. And it's just amazing to me that God isn't vengeful. and that He's so merciful and so long-suffering. This is not a New Testament concept that God is long-suffering. God was long-suffering in the Old Testament, and literally in the midst of what we would perceive to be a judgment, God is working out His eternal plan to redeem the world. And so the idea of kinsman redeemer and the terminology for it, when we talk about the leverage marriage and what a kinsman redeemer was, the concept of that is a concept that teaches God's people His character. And of course the kinsman redeemer would be a picture of Christ and His redemption. Redemption's always a picture that leads us to the cross. And so this is a deep story. It is full of symbolism, it's full of underlying plot. And the first thing that we saw, this kind of underlining plot, was back in chapter two and in verse three, when the Bible says about Ruth, and she went and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and her hap, and this is a wink-wink word in the Hebrew. If you could read it in Hebrew, you'd see it winking at you. You know, this is the semicolon with a parenthesis on the, not a parenthesis, what's the, yeah, parenthesis. I don't know why, but anymore I mix up the word bracket, parenthesis, and quotation marks. If I say one of them, you know, like my mind gets all switched up. Well, anyway, this is a semicolon parenthesis. And the word hap is like she happened to light on the field of Boaz, but it was no happenstance. Now, the question that we have to ask, and I think we can answer from the text, is did it happen because Naomi sent her there and Ruth knew something was up, or did it happen because God sent her there and God knew something was up, and the latter would be the truth? And as Naomi goes, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, and she saw the dollar signs in our quotation text this last week. Why is it people frowning at me? Like, Pastor, she didn't really, yeah, Boaz was rich. Naomi knew it, uh-huh. She saw dollar signs. There's more to it than that, but hey, when you've been in a famine, riches are a nice thing. Getting into Boaz's family, this is like, your ship came in. So she said, how'd you come home with this much? How'd you get this much? Well, you know, he told his young men not to bother me, and he said, You know, I could eat his bread when it was lunchtime and drink the water that was drawn for the man. I don't have to get my own water, get my own food, and I can glean with his maidens. And yeah, man, I'll tell you, you never saw such sloppy workers. Them guys kept dropping grain everywhere. I mean, everywhere they went, there's like next thing you know, they drop handfuls of it. I just pick, it was the easiest pickings you ever saw, Naomi. And then the corners, like these guys are so lazy. They didn't even come close to, you know, cutting the swath near the corner. It was like a whole field in the corners. And so, yeah, it was a good day. Whose field was that? Well, Boaz. Boaz. Boaz. Blessed be thou of the Lord, my daughter. The man is near of kin unto us, one of our kinsmen. He's not just a relative. Do you remember what I told you about not having a son? I never even thought of Boaz. So, verse 21. And Ruth the Moabitess said, He said unto me also, that thou shalt keep fast by my young men until they have ended all my harvest. He said, I can just stay until the harvest is over. I can just keep coming back. Should I? What do you think? So she kept fast, and Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter, It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other field. She said, It's really good that you stay there and don't meet any other guys. You know, Naomi's probably at home getting the house cleaned up from being abandoned for 10 years. And then probably on the refrigerator, she's got a list. Let's see. Yeah, Milan's cousin. Killian had a friend. She's writing down names. And then when she heard about this Boaz guy, she tore up her list. She's like, he went straight to the top and he's the only one on the list. You just keep on doing what you're doing, Ruth. Don't think about anything else. Don't go anywhere else. Don't meet any guys right now. We don't need any problems with this. So the Bible says in verse 23, so she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest, a two harvest. So barley harvest ends and then it's wheat harvest. And guess who's still invited and dwelt with her mother-in-law. And that's when we get to the end of the harvest, it's threshing time now. Harvest has been done, and now it's time to thresh out the grain. So, chapter 3, verse 1, Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee? Now, let's just contrast that. Let's go back, if you would, to chapter 1. Verse 12 of chapter 1, Let's look at verse 11. And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters, why will you go with me? Are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? Turn again, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have a husband also tonight, and should also bear sons, would you tarry for them till they were grown? Would you stay for them from having husbands? Nay, my daughters, for agree with me much for your sakes, that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me, point one, tonight. There is always a prospect on God's list. God always has options when we don't. You don't have even the capability to think of the things that God would do, but we try a lot of times, don't we? Don't we a lot of times figure out how God could answer prayer and then tell Him how He could do it, you know? Well, God, I could get, you know, a C6, C7 or C8 Corvette. I prefer the C8. We give God our list, you know, of options. We could get a Z51 or a Z06. I prefer the Z06. And we kind of limit God when He wants to give us a Ferrari. Now, I'm joking about the car thing, and y'all are looking at me kind of glassy-eyed because you don't care about cars. More is the pity. But the reality of it is, this evening, that you and I oftentimes are so willing to settle, it's pathetic. It really is. We're just so willing to settle, it's pathetic. And when we can't have the pathetic things that we want to settle for, we are just beside ourselves. And in Naomi's mind, God bless her, she has this idea of, well, I don't have any sons left. That would be one option. No, not going to work. Or I could remarry and have children and then wait for them to grow up and marry young ladies that are twice their age. And I don't know if anyone will marry me. So that's not an option. And as she saw it, that's all she saw. That's all she had the eyes to see. And so she renamed herself from Pleasant to Bitter because of what she saw. And there's a lot of Christians that do that. A lot of Christians sink into the depths of despair because they can't see what God sees. And that should be a lesson for us. I want to ask you a question. Does God ever see anything but good for those that love Him? Is it in God's character to see evil for those that love Him? Remember what God said to wandering Israel? I know the thoughts that I have toward thee. They're going into captivity. They're going to go into captivity and slavery and exile for 70 years. And God said, thoughts of good and not of evil. You go, you build houses, you marry, you have children, and I'll be good to you because I'm good. And oftentimes, in our nature, we tend to just look at what we would accept, and we don't see God's goodness. Now, I'm not here this evening to suggest that people are lemmings or just easily replaceable. I think one of the most beautiful pictures of the value of a soul is what we see with Job's 10 children that he lost. And when God gave him double everything else, he only gave him 10 more kids because he hadn't lost those children because they had eternal souls. I think it's, for me, one of the most beautiful things in Job. was that you don't lose souls. Humanly speaking though, God can just heal, God can replace, and God can do very good. A. W. Tozer. Anybody know who he was? He wrote My Utmost for His Highest. Was he the one who wrote My Utmost for His Highest? The Knowledge of the Holy, I know he wrote that. Wrote a lot of books about his relationship with God. A. W. Tozer died in his early 60s, and his wife remarried. And I'm trying to remember the name of her husband that she married. But she really enjoyed the last 10 or 15 years of her life. because she had a husband that really loved her. And here's what she said. She didn't say it unkindly. She just stated very matter-of-factly. Was it Archie? Archibald? What does the A stand for? I can't remember. Anyway, she didn't call him A.W. She called him by his first name. She said, he loved me. I mean, he loved Jesus. She said, my husband, the husband she has now, he loves me. He raised terrible children. His wife wasn't bitter against him. But A.W. Tozer's kids rarely ever got to spend time with him because of the ministry and because he really wasn't interested in his family. He had a lot of kids. He had a wife. And they never spoke bitterly against him. They just said, yeah, he was just really more interested in going to a room and meditating than he was being around us. I don't want this to sound the wrong way, because his wife didn't say it with bitterness, but she was very glad to be married to someone that actually loved her, and her second marriage was better than her first. And the world thinks a lot of A.W. Tozer. I don't think that Mahlon or Killian were bad guys, but this Boaz is a peach, isn't he? What a sweetheart of a guy. He sees her in the field, and for no reason at all. It isn't as though he's undesirable and he can't find any local girls that are interested in him. But he sees her, and he is impressed by what she had chosen to do for her mother-in-law. He sees this young woman out working, because she's taking care of her mother-in-law. And he just said, that is exceptional devotion. And so he just bestowed a lot of kindness on her. And he doesn't have anything in mind. It's obvious that the women are the ones plotting here, not Boaz. And we'll see that in our story. He's just being a super nice guy. And what a nice guy he is. He's just guarded her, protected her, and provided for her. But He's not thinking about Himself, and we'll see that as we read. So let's just read how this plays out. Verse 1 of chapter 3, this is after the harvest. Then Naomi and her mother-in-law said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee that it may be well with thee? And now is not Boaz of our kindred with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, now the word behold is a word like look. Look, he went with barley tonight in the threshing floor. Now a threshing floor would be more of a community location where people would bring their grain in the husk and have it threshed out. And hey, Boaz is, you know, he's up next in the threshing floor. Wash thyself therefore, always a good idea, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the floor. But make not thyself known unto the man, until he shall have done eating and drinking. And it shall be, when he lieth down, that thou shalt mark the place where he shall lie. And thou shalt go in, and uncover his feet, and lay thee down, and he'll tell thee what thou shalt do. and she said unto her all that thou sayest unto me i will do now you won't read other places in the scripture where uncovering feet has significance but evidently they definitely was at least in the bethlehem region this is the way they flirted well maybe flirting is wrong uh... but you know i'm talking about it's it's uh... you know it's the this the way they communicated interest and so in verse Six and she went down on the flirts probably wrong word, but she was a little more direct than just like flirtatious Ruth was like I want to marry you. That's what she did She went down on the floor did according to all their mother-in-law bait her when Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was married he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn and she came softly and uncovered his feet and laid her down I want to I want to just take a second and talk about the eaten and drunk and his heart was merry. He's not drinking alcohol and out of his mind doesn't know what's going on so he can't recognize people. The words, the terminology here simply indicates that Boaz is the kind of guy who has just a good outlook in life. You feed him a good steak and potato dinner with some filtered water and he's a happy camper. In other words, he's not complicated. He had a good day's work. Harvest is going well. And he had dinner. And he's happy. And he went to bed. And so, verse 8, It came to pass at midnight, that the man was afraid, and turned himself, and behold, a woman lay at his feet. And this is scary. Just so you know, it says he was afraid. And of course he was. Something like this happened to me Friday night. I went to bed before my wife did, and she came in and said, are you asleep? And I jumped. She scared me. And so it was that kind of thing. You think you're just asleep, and then somebody comes and talks to you, and you wake up. And so he was afraid. He said, who art thou? Who are you? And she answered, I'm Ruth, thine handmaid. Spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid, for thou art a near kinsman. And here she lets him know she wants to be married. To spread your skirt over, this is a term of protection. And the idea of protection here is you want to come under your protection, you want to be your family. I'm a near kinsman. I'm a relative of yours. You're related to me." And he knew those little sickly, pining cousins that he had, so he figured it out. And he said, "...blessed be thou, O Lord, my daughter, for thou showed more kindness in the latter end than in the beginning, inasmuch that thou followest not young men, whether poor or rich." Now, Boaz is really surprised, because Yeah, he's not poor, obviously. He's got servants, he's got handmaidens, he's got fields, and he's got enough to spare to actually support Ruth and Naomi. He actually made what befell them in the harvest plenteous enough to take care of them. He already had supported them. And so in verse 10, he's actually surprised because he's just saying, I'm surprised you're interested in me at my age. I would think you'd be interested in somebody younger and who's less happy to eat dinner and go to bed. Because that's him, right? When he'd eaten and drunk and his heart was merry and he went to bed. And there's something to be said for people that enjoy the simple things and know how to just be, that's Boaz. And so here's what he's going to do. And now my daughter, fear not. I will do to thee all that thou requirest, for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman. He said, I'll marry you. You've got a good reputation. And it's interesting the way he put it. The reason he said he would marry her was because she was a virtuous woman. Now, the word in the Old Testament for virtue is the same word for valor. And so it carries with it the idea, what we see in the New Testament when we add to our faith virtue, which is moral excellence. But there's more than moral excellence here. There is a courage. The word virtue here has an idea of courage to it. And what Boaz here said is more than just, yeah, everybody knows, you know, there's nothing hidden. There's nothing going on behind the scenes with you. You're a moral person. It's not what he's saying here. What he's saying is everybody knows the kind of person that you are. And what he's alluding to is the fact that she left her family because she wanted to take care of Naomi. You know, when she said, your people are going to be my people, your God is going to be my God. One of the underlying concerns that she had was, what's going to happen to Naomi? See, she's the one that's out gathering. So evidently Naomi was less capable of taking care of herself. And so here is a girl that instead of going back home and trying to find a husband, was instead concerned with making sure that her past husband, his mother was taken care of. And that really stood well with Boaz, particularly because Naomi was a relative of his. And so he said in verse 13, Terry, this night, and it shall be in the morning that if he will perform unto thee the part of the kinsman, well, I'm sorry, verse 12, we got to read this. This is the, this is the dun dun dun number two. And now it is true that I'm nigh near kinsman. It is true. I'm your near kinsman. How be it? There is a kinsman nearer than I. Someone else might get you first. Now here's the deal. A nearer kinsman had the right to marry her before Boaz did. So he had like, he had right, what we call right of first refusal. And so if he found out what a Jim Ruth was and wanted a good wife, then All might not end well in the romance of Boaz and Ruth, Boaz being number one on Naomi's list of one. And so that's the concern and that's what we'll pick up next week. God, thank you so much for what we've learned this evening, and I pray that this evening, that again, that truth, that you are more good than we are, and that God, when we see no options, you, who knows the future, see things that are better than our options. And I pray that we would understand that and keep that in our frame of thinking. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Tune in next week to find out what happens in the saga of Boaz and Richard.