This morning we're going to be in the book of Ruth, the fourth and final chapter. And just as you turn there, I just want to remind us of where we've come. In Ruth chapter 1, we spent a lot of time at the crossroads between Moab and then Bethlehem. And in Ruth chapter 2, we spent our time in a field where Ruth and Boaz first met. And then in chapter 3, it was the dead of night. the time was spent at the threshing floor. Well, in the first 12 verses here we have this morning, it's going to be spent at the gate of Bethlehem, and that's where we find ourselves. I'm going to read just the first 12 verses, and then we'll get into the Word, and then we'll read the rest a little bit later. Ruth chapter 4, verse 1. Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the close relative of whom Boaz had spoken came by. So Boaz said, come aside, friend, sit down here. So he came aside and sat down. And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, sit down here. So they sat down. Then he said to the close relative, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, sold the piece of land which belonged to our brother Elimelech. And I thought to inform you, saying, buy it back in the presence of the inhabitants and the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not redeem it, then tell me that I may know. For there is no one but you to redeem it. And I am next after you." And he said, I will redeem it. Then Boaz said, on the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must also buy it from Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance. And the close relative said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I ruin my own inheritance. You redeem my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it. Now this was the custom in former times in Israel, concerning redeeming and exchanging to confirm anything. One man took off his sandal and gave it to the other. And this was a confirmation in Israel. Therefore, the close relative said to Boaz, buy it for yourself. So he took off his sandal, and Boaz said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was Alimelech's and all that was Kilion's and Malon's from the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth, the Moabitess, the widow of Malon, I have acquired as my wife. to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brethren and from his position at the gate. You are witnesses this day. And all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. The Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel. And may you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah because of the offspring, which the Lord will give you from this young woman. Let's pray. O Lord, all eyes on you this morning. That is our prayer. O Lord, we come to you as your people, just to sit at your feet and to gaze upon you, O Lord, to meet with you in your word. And our great prayer, O God, is not unto us, not unto us, but unto your name, give glory. O Lord, we pray that you would get glory and honor for your name here this morning. Rivet our eyes upon you, O Lord. Fix our gaze upon the great Redeemer, the shepherd of the sheep, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, it's in his righteousness that we appear before you here this morning, and we pray that you would carry the day and that you would be glorified, O Lord. So meet with us now, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Please be seated. Well, we remember the story of Ruth. If we go back to chapter 1, we found that this young Ruth had left the land of pagan Moab and had come to Bethlehem, otherwise known as the House of Bread. And she came for one overarching reason. She came to find refuge beneath the shadow or beneath the wings of the Lord of Israel. That was her grand motivation. passed through the narrow gate of faith. In other words, she had been born again. And there's hardly really a clearer example of what true faith and what saving faith can actually accomplish. Here's a beautiful picture, perhaps the clearest picture of true repentance in all of Scripture. See, repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of life. That's what repentance actually means. It's not confession, but it's something much, much deeper than confession. In other words, what she had done is she put all of her eggs in one single basket, entrusting in the living God. And so along with Naomi, her mother-in-law, after 10 long years of being away in Moab, they return to the land of Bethlehem. In abject poverty, we know the story, they were now destitute widows. But God, you see God, the Lord was at work after a long famine. It was now the time of harvest. And what we're going to see today is this, that what became or what began with death and famine is going to end with a marriage and a baby. From Mara to Obed, if you will. And it's going to be through the most unlikely means. Here's a Moabite woman in the most unlikely of times, the time of the judges, that the Lord is going to be working his plan totally undisturbed. He's not worried or infractious at all, but he's going to carry out and execute his plan of salvation in a way that's going to cause us to just stand back and shake our heads in amazement that who could have done such a thing? It must have been the Lord who had been here. And what we're going to see is that the main characters in this little narrative, it's only about 85 verses, though they're the main characters of this book, they're really not the main characters of the grand narrative. that God is weaving using them and using their lives is a beautiful picture, but He's doing something much greater than just the immediate interests and the lives of the people that we're going to be looking at here, the people in the book of Ruth. You see, oftentimes what we sometimes fail to remember is that the Lord operates on many different levels at the same time. He's doing a multitude of different things. See, marriage is wonderful, and we're going to see that today, but it's not the peak. We're going to see Naomi bouncing little baby Obed on her knee. What a wonderful thing that brings a smile to our faces, but it's not the peak. Even the final word of the book of Ruth, David, is not the peak. It might have been for the author of Ruth, but there's something still greater that's coming that we're going to see today. See, David points to someone altogether lovely, our Lord and Savior Christ. And just this past week, a few of us were finishing off the Behold Your God study. There's 12 weeks there, 12 different video sessions. And the question that was asked during the study, this final one, is where is the zeal and the intensity of the Lord most clearly seen? Is it in his wrath or is it in his redemption? See, the greatest picture, the greatest zeal, the greatest intensity that the Lord unleashes is in the salvation of his people. You know, in 1 Corinthians we read these words, for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. And so we're going to see a much more costly redemption than just the fact that a woman has brought into a family. But in a sense, all of us are Moabites, and we're all in great need of redemption. But in order to accomplish that, it had to cost the Lord his life. You see, what's so beautiful in this little book of Ruth is that the Lord, in a sense, is killing two birds with one stone. You've probably heard that phrase. Here he's actually doing something real in the lives of these people. He is actually redeeming, and he's doing something beautiful. But it's only just a shadow of something far, far, far greater that he's going to do, how he's going to actually save souls. You know, when you go to Romans chapter 3, and in Romans chapter 3, the apostle Paul He says these words that in Christ, God was both just by executing his wrath against sin and the justifier of those who would put their faith in him. Do you see how God is able to kill two birds with one stone? He's able to paint a beautiful tapestry here with the black backdrop of the time of judges and redeem a family, which is only just a picture of a greater picture of redemption that's coming down the line. I just absolutely love it. And so I pray today that the Holy Spirit would help us and teach us what it means and help us to truly value our redemption in the way that Hannah does in her little prayer in the second book of 1 Samuel, second chapter of 1 Samuel. She says this, that he raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory. And so let's recall where we left off. The final verse in chapter three are Naomi's words to Ruth. Wait, my daughter. until you see or until you learn how the matter turns out. For the man will not rest, but will settle the matter today." No more words are going to be spoken at all by Naomi or by Ruth for the rest of the book. You don't see them appear and speak to us. In chapter 4, during these first 12 verses, they're at home. And we found out in chapter 3 that there was a complication in the matter, that we thought it was going to be Boaz. It was just so clear and so plain. But we found that there was a closer relative, a nearer redeemer, who had first right of refusal to the estate of Elimelech. And now we see him and Boaz come face to face here at the gate. And so we come to verse 1. Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the close relative of whom Boaz had spoken came by. So Boaz said, come aside friend, sit down here. So he came and set aside and sat down and we were introduced to Boaz at the beginning of chapter two. He's really a bright spot in this terrible moral and religious decline that has really marked the time of the judges every man is doing what is right in his own eyes perhaps a day not too dissimilar from our day today but but not Boaz not Boaz you see he's the exact opposite and you remember when we were looking at chapter 2 we saw how He was so eager to observe the law of gleaning, to make sure that the destitute of the land had something to gather and to be sustained by. And in the last chapter, in chapter 3, we saw his desire to honor God above all else by honoring the principle of leveret marriage, which is the way that a man, when he dies, his widow, is actually provided for. And so at a time where the honor of God is at an all-time low, here is a man committed to honoring God. It's a beautiful picture. He's a man that's guided by the law. but he's driven by the Spirit. Remember how he joyfully greets his laborers in chapter 2? He says, the Lord be with you when he shows up to work on that morning to greet his laborers in the field. And the more time we spend with him, what we find is that he's a man that doesn't just love, but he loves according to the law. And in this, he's much like our Savior, Jesus Christ. You see, today, according to the law, What we're going to find is a man who's going to carry out all of his plans in a legal, upright, just, and proper way to honor God. That's how God is most honored when we look to his word. And so in this first verse we see the hand of providence, don't we? We see this man just happens to come by. We saw in chapter 2 how Ruth just happened to show up in Boaz's field, not by design on her part, but it's a picture of the beautiful providence of God at work, even here in this chapter. We know something's going to happen. And so it says here, so Boaz said to him, turn aside, friend. Sit down here. And that word friend doesn't really render friend in the original. What it kind of means is so-and-so. His name isn't really given. It's our equivalent of kind of buddy or Joe Schmo, just not an important person that's going to be paid much regard. It's doubtless that Boaz knew this man's name, but it seems like Many commentators at least think that the author of Ruth purposely left this man's name out of the record as retaliation, as we'll see in a few minutes. But don't miss this. This is highly significant. You've got this man, and we'll call him Mr. So-and-so for the rest of our time, and Boaz sitting at the gate face to face. And he took 10 men of the elders of the city in verse two, and said, sit down here. So they sat down. You've got these 12 men now gathered at the gate of this city. And you see this man, Boaz, he's now a man on a mission. He's determined to settle the matter this day. And you could say like the greater Boaz who, remember in the gospels, he set his face like Flint. to Jerusalem, to accomplish the task, in much the same way you've got the spirit within Boaz. What he labored for all season, the barley harvest, that can wait, because there's a greater priority than just bringing all that grain to market. He's going to do something much more substantial, much more enduring. In fact, something that's eternal. And so his mission supersedes absolutely everything. But Boaz doesn't just go alone. He wisely convenes a quorum. He actually gathers these 10 men, these 10 elders of the city of Bethlehem. Normally, you could have settled a matter with two or three witnesses, but I think this just tells you the importance that Boaz assigns to the task that he's about to accomplish, that he's actually going to have 10 men observing and giving counsel in what he's attempting to bring about this morning, along with this nameless Redeemer. It will be a day of decision. We saw a day of decision in chapter 1, didn't we, Orpah and Ruth there at the crossroads. And in verse three it says this, then he said to the close relative, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, sold the piece of land which belonged to our brother Elimelech. And I thought to inform you, saying, buy it back in the presence of the inhabitants and the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not redeem it, then tell me. that I may know, for there is no one but you to redeem it, and I am next after you.' And he, being the nameless Redeemer, said, I will redeem it." You see, what's happening here is not so much that Naomi sold the land but she's in the process really this is what this means she's she's taken action to sell her land or hereby offers her land for sale we don't know much about the property how many acres it is where it's situated anything like that but it appears that out of necessity the harvest is now over and out of necessity how is this poor widow gonna be sustained for the rest of her life so it seems like she's taken action to to list her property, so to speak, so that she could survive these coming years. And so we have this legal problem, don't we? We have this problem that's confronting Boaz here this morning concerning the whole aspect of the law and leveret marriage. It really, leveret marriage really seeks to answer the question, what happens when a man or an Israelite man dies leaving a widow but no children. That's what Leverett marriage seeks to address. What becomes of the widow with no children to care for her? That's really what this is all about. Well, in the Bible, we find out that a relative of the deceased man is obliged to marry this man's widow, to raise up offspring and to preserve his name as well as his claim to the actual physical land there in Israel. And so Mr. So-and-so's response is immediate. He jumps on it. He knows a good deal when he sees it. He says, I will redeem it. I will act as the redeemer here. And so what we're seeing in these few verses is a man that's seemingly willing to accomplish what's been assigned to him as a kinsman redeemer. It's almost like a gut shot, wouldn't it be for the first time reader, all this time we thought it might be Boaz, but now this man says, well, I will redeem it. But Boaz jumps in, in verse 5, and he says this, On the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must also buy it from Ruth, the Moabitess. the wife of the dead, to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance. And the close relative said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I ruin my own inheritance. You redeem my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it." The question that comes to mind is, well, how do we account for this transformation? Here was a man just seconds ago, he said, I will redeem it, he jumped into action. But now when one more point of information is added, we move from I will to I cannot. And how do you account for this man's change of heart in just a few seconds? Well, there's just one word that accounts for it, and the word or the name is Ruth. Ruth is the deal breaker. Naomi was absolutely no problem whatever. He could take the land. He could also take a widow. After all, she was past childbearing years. And by doing a calculation, he could probably use the proceeds from the land to support Naomi. And then after Naomi dies, guess what happens to their estate? It gets consumed or brought in to this man's estate. But now, you inject the fact that here's a young woman who might be able to have children, and this would all be for naught. It's a no-brainer until Ruth is introduced into the equation. And what you find out is, in strong language, he says, I cannot. He's unwilling to act a part of a redeemer. He refuses redemption. He refuses to act as a redeemer. He refuses his covenant obligation here. He sees Ruth almost like a liability. that she's going to bear children and then they'll inherit that land. And he'll be left just doing something good for somebody else. What's amazing here is that Boaz's eyes, they're on Ruth. They're on the other. They're on Naomi. They're even on Elimelech and Malon and Kilion. But this man's eyes are on the estate, on the property. His eyes are in the end of the earth. That's what this man is focusing on. And so what's this highlighting here? What's the big draw that we can take out of these first few verses here? Well, the fact is that redemption is costly. It draws on the resources of one person, and it asks that those resources be poured into somebody else. You couldn't redeem without cost to yourself. There's absolutely no way. And there's all sorts of calculations and considerations that could come. You remember that there were three criteria for a man to be qualified as a redeemer. He had to be a near relation. He had to be able financially. This man was able. He said earlier, I will redeem it. But the third consideration is, is he willing? And we find a man who's just totally unwilling. because his eyes aren't on the right thing. You see, he did not have the spirit that the law was really after when the Lord established the principle of leveret marriage. This is so often the case. People find out, well, how far can I go to the edge and still be considered a Christian? You don't have the right attitude. You don't have the right spirit. What can I watch and still somehow be acceptable to God? Where can I go? What can I do and still be acceptable to God? But it's entirely the wrong question to ask. See, Boaz had the spirit of the law. He understood why the law was there. And you see a total difference. He's almost like the male version of Orpah, you could say. When the picture becomes clear, what happens? He goes so far and no further. Both he and Orpah are confronted with a costly decision, aren't they? You remember chapter one? And after making steps forward, I will redeem it. She left Moab, goes so far and no further. And what I want you to see this morning is that almost every, I don't think of any decision actually, that you make, I don't care if you're a homeschool mom, or if you're a little boy, or if you're an executive at a company, every single decision you make, it involves a cost benefit analysis. You look at the situation, whether it's to eat something you know you shouldn't eat, or to go somewhere you know you shouldn't go, or to make a business decision, everything you're doing, is based on a cost-benefit decision that you're making in your minds. And I want to ask us a question. You might have, if you're an unbeliever here this morning, you might have escaped chapter one of Ruth unscathed when you both looked at Ruth and Orpah. You might have just kind of shrugged it off and went on with your life. after hearing how both Orpah and Ruth made really eternal decisions while they sat at the crossroads. But I want to ask you another question for you who don't know the Lord. Will you allow this encounter of Mr. So-and-so to pass you by, a man who decided that the cost was too high, the time wasn't right, whatever it was that factored in his decision. And what you find is both Orpah and this man, Mr. So-and-so, walk off the pages of the Bible, never to be heard of or seen again. And so I want to ask you, what calculations are you making? when it comes to Christ. If you're a student of the Bible, you'll notice how many times the Lord himself in the Gospels brings up the word cost. If you do a word study on cost in the Gospel, you would be amazed. Count the cost. How many times it's brought in, they were unwilling. All of these different things. It all comes down to, a lot of times, seeing the beauty of Christ and saying, like the man who one of the pearl of great price. He sells everything that he has in order to obtain it. You see, it's everywhere in the Gospels. Count the cost. Cost-benefit analysis. And when Christ is laid before you, the question is, is he worthy? Is he worthy? Do you see the beauty that is in him? And like Orpah, like Mr. So-and-so, sometimes the most sensible thing is to Just walk according to human reason. It's too costly. I'll listen, but you know what? At the end of the day, I'm just going to keep going on my merry way, oblivious to what God is actually calling you to and what he's asking you to do. My prayer is that you would not let Orpah go, that you would not let Mr. So-and-so go, and you just think, There's nothing to see here. There's a whole lot right before you. Here's a man who was unwilling to jeopardize the estate he held so dear for the sake of someone else. He says, lest I ruin my own inheritance, you know, with more mouths to feed, maybe even a potential to have his legacy almost subdivided among not just his own children with his first wife, but also now perhaps with children from a second. He makes this decision. He actually sees these children that would be born as his ruin. That's the word he uses, as his destruction. I cannot afford to ruin my estate by having these children that would be raised up for the honor of the name of the dead, Malon and Kilion and Elimelech. And so here's the great irony. And this is the great irony for those who hear the gospel and turn away from it. Here it is right here. He who would not preserve his brother's name, or he who would not heed the call, loses his own name. See, Jesus spoke these words in John chapter 12, never more true than we have them here before us in Ruth 4. He says, he who loves his life will lose it. and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life." So here's a man, he walks by sight, he makes this absolutely terrible calculation, he relinquishes all of his rights to Naomi and to Ruth, and by doing so he relinquishes a place in the lineage of Jesus Christ. You see how monumental decisions can be? Because of his primary concern, which was himself and his own little life that he was wrapped up in, what happens is he will have no role whatsoever in advancing the cause of God in the earth. This is amazing. This is astounding. See, what happens is that self-preservation It ends up carrying the day. His refusal to uphold his covenant obligations leads him to total obscurity. He's been deceived by the cares of this life. You could say the deceitfulness of riches. But where is riches today? Where is his vehicle or vehicles? his house, his manicured lawn, and everything else that he was probably so careful. I gotta make sure this stuff doesn't get too complicated with bringing in something that would have honored God and brought glory to God's name. And so what happens in verse seven and eight, he ends up sealing his forfeiture. and gives Boaz his sandal. I'm not going to get into too much of the detail around this historical context here, but he may very well have been a believer. God only knows. Here's the thing, though. We don't know, and we will never know, will we? We don't know anything about him. His name, his family, his inheritance, all of it entirely and perhaps intentionally forgotten and gone forever. But Boaz steps in. He will pay. You know, we spoke a lot of covenant faithfulness in chapter 3, and now we actually see it here in action, displayed in vivid color right here before us. Not grudgingly, fine, I'll do it. Nothing like that. But joyfully, this man rises to the occasion. He's going to spend himself sacrificially where this first Redeemer would not. And what do we find in verse 9? And Boaz said to the elders and to the people, by now it wasn't just Boaz and this nameless redeemer and the ten men of the city, the elders, but by now it looks like a crowd had gathered at the gate. The gate was where decisions of importance were made. Legal transactions took place back in these days. And Boaz says to these people, you are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was Elimelech's and all that was Chilion's and Malon's from the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Malon, I have acquired as my wife. to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off. from among his brethren and from his position at the gate. You are witnesses this day. It is finished. It is over. You could say, tis done. The great transaction's done. I am my Lord's and he is mine. You see, this day hearkens back to what Naomi said to Ruth in three, verse 18. This man will not rest this day until he has accomplished the task. In this very day, we're seeing it all unfolding here before us. You know, you look at Ruth's life at the beginning, the battered wreckage, the charred remains of a life of this poor Moabite woman, traveling those 60 miles from Moab to the house of bread. And you look at this, and here's a man who says, I will put my name on her. Remember her bewilderment when we were in chapter two? When the first time she meets Boaz, she says, why have I found favor in your eyes? That you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner? Isn't that what happened to you? It's really all of grace, isn't it? That a man or woman stands at all, redeemed by the blood of the lamb. See, what Boaz doesn't want is, he doesn't want the name of the dead, Malon, Ruth's dead husband, to be cut off from his brethren. And I look at this and I can't help but see, isn't this what Christ does for the sin-stained race of Adam? And like Boaz, The Lord Jesus also makes a public display, but not in the same way. Instead of at the gate, he's outside the gate, and he hangs upon a cross like we see in John chapter three, where as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so too must I be lifted up, rejected as it were, suspended between heaven and earth, rejected by the earth and rejected by heaven. But if I be lifted up, he says, I will draw all men to me. I love the words of Jesus's inaugural address. The first time he's going to announce who he is, he goes into the synagogue and he takes the scroll of Isaiah. And what does he do? He says he opens the scroll and he reads these words and they're such well-known words. The spirit of the Lord is upon me. But then you read a little bit further on in that same chapter, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. The chapter continues. Look at the result. Look at this. Clothed and covered. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. These are the words of now the redeemed. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. Do you see how salvation works? What Ruth asked Boaz to do in chapter three, please cover me. Now we see a man not just covering her with a symbolic garment, but putting his name on her for all ages. It's so beautiful. And instead of the family name being wiped away, and you could say, well, it served them right. They should have never left Israel in the first place. Perhaps you might be right. But isn't that what we are redeemed from, from our disobedience, from our self-will and drive, our desire to make our way in the world, This is what happens, but all of it now, all of the wreckage is redeemed. And you find out in verse 11, look at this, look at verse 11. And all the people who were at the gate, by now it's a massive crowd, and the elders said, we are witnesses. The Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel. And may you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring which the Lord will give you from this young woman." You see, look at this response from the covenant community that these people were a part of. This is what you want when you get married. You want your elders, you want your family, the church family, to be behind you because it's more than just you and him. It's more than just you and her. But it's much more than that. It's the bringing in of an entire community. And of course, these people are pleased, so pleased with the way, the manner, all the steps that Boaz had taken with such integrity up until this point. He's a truly honorable man. and they honor him as such. And you have this hearty declaration, we are witnesses. They're happy to put their stamp of approval on this union. But not only witnesses, notice what happens, they heap blessings. upon this anticipated union. It's so beautiful. Blessings first fall upon Ruth. And you notice this here, they invoke the name of Rachel and Leah. See what happens here to somehow show the beauty of Ruth and what they want Ruth to be. They have to go back 900 years to the time of Rachel and Leah. And who are Rachel and Leah? but mothers in Israel. It's beautiful. Here they are, this previously barren Moabitess elevated into the company of being a mother. in Israel. That's basically what they're saying. May you be a mother in Israel, like Rachel and like Leah. And there's something big here, perhaps even unbeknownst to the speakers. These blessings that well up from their hearts don't just stay right there, but out of their mouths, these same blessings go all the way up to heaven. And the God of heaven is going to not only do what they say, but super abound and fulfill these blessings that these women uttered, one day to be fulfilled by the one who will sit on the throne forever and ever. You see, how did these women build the house of Israel? It was through their offspring. It was through their children that they were able to do this. And so, in a sense, she's going to take her place. Ruth will. By the time everything is accounted for, she is going to take her place alongside these two women as the foremost matriarchs in Israelite history. This pagan, foreign Moabitess, now saved by the grace of God. And then you get these blessings upon Boaz. May you be famous in Bethlehem. Not so much famous in the sense of how we think of famous, but may your name give cause for celebration. That's really what this means. Where you had Mr. So-and-so, so intent on preserving his lineage and his property, forever forgotten. These people are saying, may your name, Boaz, be a cause for celebration all down through the ages. And not only Rachel and Leah are brought into the picture here, but they also weave into the account of Judah and Tamar. In Genesis chapter 38, a not very, I would say, kid-friendly chapter, per se, but both are foreign women. Both resort to Leveret Law in order to secure redemption. And not only that, but both were instrumental in perpetuating the Lion of Judah. And Judah, you remember Jacob when he came to dying in Genesis chapter 49? He speaks this blessing over Judah, where we get the phrase, the Lion of Judah, and so on. And then he makes this statement, he says, that the scepter will not depart from Judah until Shiloh comes, a picture of Christ. And then it goes on to say, and to him, that is to Shiloh or to the Lord, shall the gathering of the people be. And so you see these women and this whole history brought to the fore in order to bless this union between these two people. And so we end the scene at the gate and we go to The final verses, verse 13 to 22, and we fast forward at least nine months, which we'll see in a second. So Boaz took Ruth. and she became his wife. And when he went into her, the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a close relative. And may his name be famous in Israel, and may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher in your old age. for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons has born him.' Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her bosom, and became a nurse to him. Also the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi. And they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David." Now we get these ten names here. Now this is the genealogy of Perez. Perez begot Hezron. Hezron begot Ram. And Ram begot Amenadab. Amenadab begot Nashon. And Nashon begot Salmon. Salmon begot Boaz. And Boaz begot Obed. Obed begot Jesse. And Jesse begot David. And so we see this beautiful picture here fulfilled. Boaz taking Ruth as his wife and granting conception. It's a beautiful thing. You see, the entire covenant community, again, was behind this union. But here's a man who was not content to leave Ruth just gleaning in the field. He answers the prayer of her heart in chapter 2, where she asked, take your maidservant under your wing. And now the Lord doesn't just do that, but he opens up her womb. Who knows how long she was married to Malon, and they had no children. But now the Lord does the work of opening up her womb and gives them a son. Now, if the Bible were a human script, This would be the crescendo. What started in chapter one and despair ends now with a little marriage and a baby. But the Bible is not a Hollywood script at all. It's not even close. What happens here is now Naomi is addressed. Remember the women, these same women that we met in chapter one? Do you remember the question they asked when Naomi came back 10 years later? Is this Naomi? It looks like, but she's told something's wrong or different or whatever her disposition might have looked like. They ask this question, the broken, undone, hopeless Naomi. But now the same woman said to Naomi in verse 14, blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a close relative. And may his name be famous in Israel. But it's not Boaz that they're speaking about. It's actually Obed in verse 15. And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons has born him. Do you remember Ruth or Naomi? Naomi in particular coming back by her own words. She says, I'm empty. But you see, the Lord had brought her home after her time of being away. And they heap the greatest honor on Ruth that is imaginable. In a culture where sons are so highly valued, they say that Ruth has been better to you than seven sons. Such a beautiful picture. Yes, Naomi, you had suffered great loss. You lost your husband. Then you lost your two sons. She probably herself imagined herself beyond hope. I think that's what she means at the end of chapter one. But God, but God had given her this extraordinary gift in her daughter-in-law, Ruth. And so here we see these women applauding Ruth's loyalty, Ruth's devotion, Ruth's love for Naomi. Naomi, she loves you, is what they say. This is true compensation for everything that Naomi had lost until this point. And now very much like Job, the last estate of Naomi is better than the first. In verse 16, then Naomi took the child and laid him on her bosom and became a nurse to him. And you can see how the great racking sobs of chapter one have now given way to just blissful contentment as this grandmother holds her firstborn grandson. I was looking at Psalm chapter four this morning, and one of the verses says, you have put gladness in my heart, more than in the season that their grain and wine increased. I will both lie down in peace and sleep. For you alone, O God, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. You can imagine very much that Ruth could have uttered those words. And if you think that's the crescendo, I'm sorry to disappoint you, you're not even close. You get to verse 17 and it says this, also the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, there is a son born to Naomi and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David. A very strange situation here where these women seem to kind of name the son. I mean, I don't know how many of you that would go over very well with if the church just named the next baby that's born here. Who knows what that might be? But here we look at this, and in a sense, these final four verses set the entire book of Ruth in an entirely new light, at least for the first-time reader. See, a story that began when there was no king, in Israel, when there was no bread in the house of bread, when death of family and hopelessness was all that we saw, it now gives way to hope for the future. And now we have the first mention of David in the entire Bible at the end of the book of Ruth. And while this is perhaps the crescendo or the great climax, at least for the author, Guess what? It is not for us. See, it's not even close. We're just at the foothills, so to speak. The view is nice from here. You look back and you say, wow, this is beautiful, what God has done. But what is it compared to what is coming, to the vistas that await if you keep going and marching through what God is yet to do? You see, this is the way it always is with the Christian, always. This is how it always must be for all of us. See, the future is always much, much better and will be better for all eternity. because of what God has done. And so what the Lord does, he takes from the ash heap of Ruth and Naomi's life, their burned out lives, and from that he forms and brings to the surface the great king of Israel, David. And as I said, it's recorded that these women gave the little boy a name, Obed. There's something else so important here. You see, this is how life often is. We found out that Naomi gave herself a name in chapter one, Mara. You remember that? She could barely lift her head, she was so bowed over. But just like Naomi, how often are we so wrong in our estimations of what God is actually doing? It's as though we're looking through a keyhole and we think we see more than we do, but we don't see hardly anything because our view is so narrow, so self-interested. Through death, delay, perhaps in your life it might be disappointment or grief or sadness, but now beauty for ashes. You see, do you know what Obed means? Obed means worshipping. From Marah in chapter 1, bowed down and broken, to chapter 4, they named him Obed, worshipping. This is the way that God works in so many of our lives. Because to get to worshiping, oftentimes you've got to go through the bitterness of what she went through. In fact, if there was no chapter one, if there was no Ruth, if there was no departure to go in rebellion, perhaps, to Moab, We wouldn't be where we're standing now here in chapter four. But God was faithful the whole way, even when they didn't know. It just so happened. She showed up at Boaz's field. It just so happened the kinsman redeemer walked by at just the time. But God is working in his providence all things for good, all things for good. And this is what I want you to take away. Here's the promise that you can take as you leave here today. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you, for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. All the years, perhaps, that the locusts have eaten, they will be restored in Obed, so to speak, in worshiping. You will be taken care of, Naomi, is the word that he has here. And we get to these final few verses here, this beautiful genealogy. You see, Ruth is not just the recounting of what the Lord has done. But again, as I said earlier, it's pointing forward to what He will do. It's a book, really, that looks forward at the end of the day. And we get these ten names that are listed here, ending in David. And here, it is the story of redemption, true redemption. Not from the ash heap of widowhood and poverty, no. Not from those things, though those things are included, but from a much greater situation. is redemption granted and given, and it's from the greater problem of sin. You see, at the fall, the human story was just totally enveloped in darkness. Think about the greatness of the fall. And just like Naomi fell into trouble when she wandered into Moab, God could have rightfully just taken her like a piece of paper, scrapped it, and just thrown the whole human race away, and he would have been fully justified in doing that. But you know there's a harder work in recreation. Nothing's too hard for God, but there's a harder work in a sense of recreating and putting back together that which is destroyed. If you're a woman or a mother, if you've got a nice crystal vase here and it falls onto the floor, you know how crystal shatters into a million pieces, which is easier? to go to the store and buy another one, or to sweep up every single last shard and painstakingly put it back together again. But that's what God does with the human race. Rather than just scrapping it and doing away with us, and that was fully his right, he restores and breathes new life, where before all you had was death. And so what happens now is that after the tragic ending, you can go and flip forward Even to the last book of the Old Testament. The people are in rebellion. There's a lot of things going wrong. The people don't even regard God anymore. And as a result of that, it seems like the Lord punishes them for 400 years. There's no prophet sent, no word really sent. from the Lord. But Malachi doesn't leave us hopeless. He says that there's coming a day when the Son of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings. And we read in the very opening words of the New Testament, after 400 years of darkness, these words, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab. Boaz begot Obed by Ruth. Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. Skip down a little bit, and it says, and Jacob begot Joseph, the son of Mary, the husband of Mary. And she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save or redeem. his people from their sins. Do you see the beauty of all of this? And so just by way of closing, I want to just leave us with a few thoughts here. I want you to remember Mr. So-and-so. I want that to be emblazoned on your mind. If you're an unbeliever here today, don't let Ruth, you might have let Orpah, but don't let Ruth 4 go past you. And you've heard the word. and you make the cost-benefit analysis and say, you know what? I'm just going to stay where I am. Don't turn away. I want to just end us, those of us who know the Lord, with a thought here. You see, Sinclair Ferguson, in his writing on this book, he said, the explanation for so much that takes place in our lives lies well beyond our own lives. and may be hidden from us all through our lives. You might end your life and say, didn't accomplish much, didn't have a name, wasn't really written about, there was no biography, no video or documentary. But what is our task as believers? It's to be faithful, to not grow weary in well-doing. See, what true faith does, what true faith is, is it looks forward even when it can't see. And I want to just end with perhaps one of my favorite accounts, a missionary account. It was a young man by the name of Robert Germain Thomas. He was a young Welshman. He left Lanover, Wales in the 1860s because he had such a burden for the people of China. He went to China with his young wife. She got pregnant and when they were in China, she ended up, he was away for a few days and he got a telegram saying, your wife has died and the baby during childbirth. And this man, there he was in foreign land with really no friends, no security, no nothing. And now his cherished wife and child are dead. He was plunged into what you could call a dark night of the soul for a long period of time. But the Lord lifted up his head and over time he got exposed and heard that there was an even greater need than that of China. Across the peninsula, there was something called the Hermit Kingdom, otherwise known today as Korea. There was no North and South Korea. It was Korea. And he heard about the plight of these people that had no exposure at all to the gospel. And so he went there. He went on an American ship called the Sherman. It was with soldiers, and these soldiers acted up, and I'm not going to get into the whole story, but they provoked the Koreans. When they were in the river, coming up the river, they ended up provoking them. And the Koreans ended up destroying the ship that they were on, burned them. And there was Robert Germain Thomas. He got his most treasured possessions, a handful of Bibles. And he jumped overboard into the water and waded to shore with his Bibles in his hands. And all he's saying is, Jesus, Jesus. That's all he says to these people. And they grabbed him. The Bibles are scattered. They grabbed the man. They said, anyone who has one of those copies of the Bible will be executed. It was outlawed to have a copy of the Bible. And they escorted him, took him to the headman of that city. And there was this man. He looked at Robert Jermaine Thomas as he knelt before him. In Robert Jermaine Thomas' face, his face was beaming. And this man had him executed. The executor came up and decapitated Robert Jermaine Thomas, and he died. And you will say, what in the world? How could that end for good? Well, the executor, the man actually who ordered his execution, took a copy of the scriptures and as a trophy he went back home to his house and he wallpapered his wall with the scriptures. And people came from all over the place to see the trophy and they would read the scriptures and many of them came to a knowledge of the faith in Jesus Christ. So that 20 years later, when a man by the name of Samuel Moffat shows up as a missionary, people are speaking about Christ and knew about Christ. In fact, the executor became a believer. In fact, the man who ordered his execution, when he saw the countenance of Thomas, What does he know that I don't know? He became a believer. The nephew of the guy who ordered his execution became the first pastor of the church. 12 years old, he had actually smuggled one of those Bibles off the shore and read it and came to knowledge of Jesus Christ. But it doesn't end there. That's not the crescendo. In 1907, Banner of Truth, if you know Banner of Truth, has a book published called Korean Pentecost, one of the most beautiful books Korea had this outbreak of Christianity, but they traced their roots back to this 26 year old man who was decapitated about 40 years earlier. But not only that, Korea today is the second most sending nation of missionaries across the world. And they trace their history back to this. See how God is working? He might be working much more broadly than you know. Your life might end in this, but God is actually doing that. And we'll only know throughout the ages of eternity, be able to marvel at the goodness of God. And so that's what I want to leave you with as we end the book of Ruth. How can we do this? How can we cling to God even in the midst when we can't see him? When things don't look clear, when our life isn't going the way we wanted it or maybe we designed it to go? What I want you to remember, all things for good. All things for good. The book doesn't promise that if you're childless, you'll have children. It doesn't promise you if you are single, you're going to be married. That's not what Ruth says. It doesn't say that You're going to have material and physical blessings in this life. That's not what it's saying here. But what is the promise? I will be with you. I am at work. I am the God of all providence, bringing all my will to pass. And though you can't see it now, you will see it then, and you will worship him forever. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, we marvel at you. We praise you, O Lord, for your great goodness. Send your word home, O Lord. May you get glory and honor as you're due. For your great name's sake, we pray. Amen.