While we continue in our series, I haven't really given it a title, I should have, but we could say the child of God's struggle with discouragement, with disillusionment, sometimes even despair. And we considered The first Sunday that I was in the pulpit, John the Baptist and his expectations that were dashed in regards, shattered in regards to the coming Messiah. Last week we considered Joseph and the Joseph narrative. And this morning we will consider Naomi, Naomi's story. So if you would turn with me in the scripture to the book of Ruth. I should mention, I might mention it later again, that we entitle this Ruth, we could really entitle this Naomi as well. She seems to be the central person, the central character throughout the story, really. So the book of Ruth, chapter one, verses one through five, this is God's word. Give your careful attention to its reading. Now it came about in the days when the judges governed that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi. And the names of his two sons were Melon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. Now they entered the land of Moab and remained there. Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died. And she was left with her two sons. And they took for themselves Moabite women as wives. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they lived there about 10 years. Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died. And the woman was bereft of her two children, and her husband. Let's pray together. Father, now we ask that you would give us understanding. We are thankful for your word, inspired by the Holy Spirit, written by human authors, and yet so guided, overseen, and so blessed as to have your word inscribed. We would ask that you would grant your Holy Spirit to us. We pray for understanding, illumination, We ask for insight into your ways in our lives and the tremendous assurance and comfort that is ours in Jesus Christ. Be with us, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. So in spite of a difficult life that may have been lived, in spite of a bad life that may be seemingly unrelenting in spite of the suspicions that we might have concerning the future, God is working out his saving purposes for you. Romans 8, for God, all things do work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. For all things do work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. It's William Cowper and his hymn, God Moves in Mysterious Way. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take. The clouds you so much dread are big with mercy and shall flow with blessings, soft like a gentle rain upon your head. Judge not the Lord with feeble sense, This is going to be a theme in Naomi's life. Judge not the Lord with feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. His purposes shall ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste. Ah, but sweet will be the flower. Katrina von Schlegel, be still my soul. The Lord is on your side. Bear patiently the cross of grief and pain. Leave to your God to order and provide, and everything he faithful will remain. He faithful will remain. Be still my soul. Your Jesus can repay. Your Jesus will repay from his own fullness. all that he takes away. Well, we are considering this Book of Ruth, and again, as I mentioned, we could entitle it the Book of Naomi, because it is really, it's really about Naomi. She is the central character. Although God works graciously in and through Ruth, we know that and we'll consider that. But I imagine, I imagine that this book, and particularly in its opening, This book has a frowning providence. This book is fearful and really dreadful. A feeble sense, a bitter taste. Where are the showers of blessing? Where's the sweet flower? Where's the fullness? There's something here that is rather disturbing in the first five verses. What's interesting, and this is such a well-written story, narrative. you have almost an entire lifetime, and particularly Naomi, an entire lifetime compressed within five verses. Then the rest of the story will unfold, possibly a year or two, but many, many years are compressed within the first five verses, and the first five verses are rather dark, rather difficult, rather bitter. And so as we consider the story, let's consider three things, three points. Let's consider, and this is gonna be important, Naomi's circumstances, then Naomi's interpretation of her circumstances, and then Naomi's reality, what's really happening in her circumstances. So her circumstances, rather dark, Her interpretation, and then the reality, what is really happening? And make no mistake about it, there seems to be a disjunct between her interpretation of her circumstances, what's happening, her situation, a frowning providence, a bitter taste, dreadful. Her interpretation and what is actually happening, what is the Lord doing? And of course, this is, Naomi's story is our story. We have our circumstances, they're not gonna be as dreadful. We'll look at this. They're not gonna be quite as dreadful as what Naomi is facing, if you do a close read, the time when the judge is judged, the time when the judge is governed. We'll take a look at that. What kind of time was that? It doesn't quite parallel us, but yet this is our story. We have our circumstances. Sometimes they are bitter, sometimes they are dark, sometimes they're rather dreadful. And then we have our interpretation. Well, the narrative in our head, the image. Well, what's going on? What is the Lord really doing? Is the Lord really there? And then the reality. And the reality can only come through if we consider who God is and what he is doing, really. So, her circumstances, our circumstances. Leonard Cohen, you want it darker, we kill the flame. Look at the first, just even the first phrase. Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, when the judges judged. What were those days like? And it's interesting that the author is not going to give us kind of a sidebar and give us all of the characteristics of those days when the judge is judged, because those that he's writing to know about this history. He's writing this many, many years after the events that take place. In fact, it's during the reign of David that he writes this. But this goes back when the judges judge. What were those days like? And his readers knew what they were like, and for us, it should trigger us to, well, okay, go back to the judges. What were those days like? And they were pretty tough, pretty dark. You had political instability. Canaanites, Midianites, Amorites, Philistines, continuing to stalk, hamper, oppress, suppress Israel. If you read through Judges, there seems to be a rollercoaster. 40 years, God raises up a judge. There is deliverance, and Israel tends to do well. There's blessing. And after that 40-year generation, oh, the Midianites. rise up and suppress Israel for a generation and then God raises up another generation. Well, it's political instability. There's a generation of 40 years in which things are going quite well and then 40 years where things are not going well, there is persecution, there's suppression, there is all kinds of political mayhem, all kinds of instability. When the judges judge, what kind of days were those? Those were days of political instability. And this is Naomi. We don't know all that was involved and all that Naomi and Elimelech faced, but the writer is referring back to dark days. Now there is communal debauchery when you read through judges and particularly towards the end. It seems like there is this unfolding of darkness. It just gets darker and darker. So this debauchery, the tribe of Benjamin abducting the daughters of Shiloh by counsel of the sons of Israel, by the way, after civil war. But there's an abduction of women by one tribe of Israel concerning a group of women that are celebrating at Shiloh, celebrating Yahweh, celebrating the Lord. They're abducted. A religious depravity, if I might be so bold as to call it that. Remember the Levite, he takes up with a concubine. This is kind of interesting. A Levite who's to serve in the tabernacle of the Lord, he takes up a concubine. The concubine gets fed up. She goes back home to where? Bethlehem. It's rather interesting. Where's Naomi and Elimelech from originally? Bethlehem. So you hear this story maybe still circulating through that village of Bethlehem. It's not a very, very large place. But you have this concubine going back to her father. So Levi goes back to take her back with him. And so the concubine's father is, you know, kind of, this is kind of really strange or kind of weird. The father of the concubine hosts the Levite and feeds him and shows tremendous hospitality so that the Levite delays, delays, delays. And then finally, midday, after three days of being hosted, leaves with the concubine. They end up in some village. And the men of the village are rather, I think the scripture, English translation, wicked, evil. They know a visitor has come. They surround the house in order to abuse the Levite. A violent homosexual episode. And of course, the host is typical ancient Middle East, the host, no, no, no, don't do this. So what do they do? The Levite throws out the concubine and she is abused all night long. She crawls back at sunup, she crawls back, she's at the door. Not a great deal of sensitivity on the part of the Levi. Oh, get up, let's go, we need to go. And of course, she doesn't move. He takes the body, puts her on the donkey, and they go back to his home. By the time he arrives home, he knows that she's dead. And do you remember what he does to the body? He cuts it up into 12 pieces. It is so dark, it is so dark, but the scripture is realistic. It doesn't back off a time of really debauchery or depravity. He cuts the body up into 12 pieces and sends the pieces out to the various tribes of Israel in order to signal how wicked the tribe of Benjamin has become. And of course, imagine you hear your doorbell ring, and you go to the door, and there's a package, and you open it. And of course, in these days, there's no refrigeration. So what happens to a human body after a couple of days of being sent out throughout Israel? You open your door, you open the package, and there's an arm or a leg, a human arm or a leg, decomposing. It's quite a sign, isn't it? You talk about debauchery, you talk about depravity. So this is what's going on. So you have a kind of a moral relativism. What's the refrain? Particularly towards the end of Judges, what's the refrain? There's no king in Israel. Everyone is doing what? What is right in his own eyes. Everyone doing right in his own eyes. It almost sounds kind of similar to 21st century Western civilization. Everyone doing right in their own eyes. You have environmental disaster. I'll go on. You read about the famine in the beginning of this story. There's a family disruption. They have to pack up and move. And there's no moral judgment in Al-Malak taking his wife, his two boys, and going to Moab. There's no moral judgment. It's just a description. And if you know anything about famines in the Middle East, there was no social net, there was no safety net, there was no UN pulling up with a truck with food in the back. People died, animals died, people died. And so Elimelech takes his wife and two sons and they move to Moab. And probably end up in some field somewhere in order to eke out some kind of living, to gather some kind of food, in order merely to survive. This is just disruption. Domestic tragedy. We learn in the first five verses that right away we're introduced. It seems like it's many years, but it's compressed. Elimelech, Naomi's husband dies. The two boys marry, Orpah and Ruth, and then the two boys die. We are told there's this conclusion that both Melon and Killian also died, and the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband. That's how that section ends. The story begins with death. debauchery, depravity, instability, famine, environmental disaster, family uprooted, and then they end up in Moab, and after a period of time of trying to eke out a living, Elimelech dies, the two boys, after being married, they die. And Naomi is a widow indeed. You see also, and later in the text, old age futility, verse 12, oh, return my daughter's gold, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I said I have hope, the implication is I have no hope. It's a dark future. So, how many years unfolding, and there is just this difficulty. It's rather bitter. The story opens with what? The time of the judge's judging? Political instability, communal debauchery, moral relativism, everybody doing right, religious depravity, environmental disaster, family disruption, domestic tragedy, old age, futility. Yeah. Bud is tasting a little bitter, isn't he? Many years of this unfolding. We can compare and contrast it to the Book of Job. Remember the Book of Job, it seems like, and I say this with good intention, it's as though all hell breaks loose in Job's life on a day. All of his property stolen, everything taken away. His children die, all of his children, in one swoop. House collapses, they die. Everything, then his health taken away. Then his wife, disrespect, curse God and die. Eventually his friends will turn against him and judge him as a sinner. This must be God's judgment. But it all happens like within a day. Have you ever had something happen in your life that just was tragic, dreadful, bitter, a trial, something that just, out of the blue it came. You weren't expecting it, and it just fell on your head, not like gentle rain of blessings, but like a ton of weight just falling and crushing you in a day. That has its challenges. That has its struggles. That has its own, Adversity, bitterness, what is God doing? That's Joe. Here, this is a slow unfolding, a slow unfolding. Seeing instability all around, seeing debauchery, depravity all around. There's famine, you have to uproot and move. Slowly, slowly, 10 years is mentioned, but it's even more than 10 years. It's a slow unfolding of difficulty, of bitterness, of trial, of adversity. That has its own challenges, doesn't it? You think of a chronic disease, possibly Parkinson's or whatever it might be, and it slowly, slowly attacks the body, not overnight. It's a slow burn. It's a slow bitterness. Have you ever had that? The scriptures testify that the Christian life, the child of God, often does not have it easy. And brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit is saying to all of us this morning, including me, life is not easy. It might have that day in which it seems like heaven falls upon you, hell is opened up. It seems like a day within a day, it's like it doesn't rain, it pours of that which is bitter. Or on the other hand, oh, this diagnosis and there is this slow unfolding of darkness, this slow unfolding of pain. the slow unfolding of suffering, and you're witnessing slowly, day by day, as the pain possibly increases and things change radically in your life, in your family's life. That has its own challenges, its own bitterness. And that's what the first five verses give to us in Ruth. Naomi's experience, Naomi's circumstances. Not easy, is it? Well, how does Naomi respond? You'll have to consider the story further on, but how does she frame her circumstances? How does she interpret what's going on when God in his providence is bringing these trials, this adversity, how is she reading these things? And we're all called to some extent, needs to be qualified and conditioned to be sure, but we're all called to read providence to some extent. Well, what is God doing? Why is he bringing this into my life? Why is it that my story begins in death? Well, see what she says. Again, verse 12, you know, the two daughters, the boys die, the daughters cling to the mother-in-law. She says, no, go back. There is no hope. Look, the idea of liberate marriage, are you familiar with that? Even if I were to have a second husband and conceive and have another child, would you wait for that child to grow in order that he might marry you? There's no hope. I have no hope for the future. There's no husband on the horizon. There's no children. You have nothing with me because I have no hope for the future. Go back. Go back to Moab. Live your life. Find another husband. Have children. Go back. But there's this verse 12. If I said I have hope implication, I have no hope. And if I have no hope, if you cling to me, you have no hope. Interesting. Orpah goes back with tears. Everybody's crying with tears. This was a close bond. Naomi must have been a wonderful mother-in-law. Ruth clings to her, as we will see a little bit later. But Naomi, it's like, okay, so Ruth claims, okay, another mouth to feed, she kind of, Ruth hangs on and Naomi is probably rolling her eyes, you know, how am I gonna, I can't provide for myself, how am I gonna provide for Ruth? But see how she thinks theologically, if I could put it that way. How is she reckoning with, how is she imagining, how is she thinking about what God is doing? This is a tremendous text. Here's her interpretation, here's her narrative. Look at verse 13. Would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, no, my daughters, for it is harder for me than for you. Now look. Verse 13 at the end, for the hand of the Lord has gone against me, the hand of Yahweh. The hand of Yahweh has gone against me. This is her interpretation. Now, look at verse 20. As she comes back, Ruth is hanging on, she goes back to Bethlehem, she goes back. And of course, the women, this is great, the women as a chorus are introduced in the beginning of the story. They'll appear at the end of the story as well. It's rather interesting. They're like kind of, you know, the Greek chorus. Naomi comes back, of course, this bow-bite woman is kind of, this young woman is hanging on to her, coming back and, oh, is this Naomi come back? And this is many, many years later. Is this Naomi come back? And look at verse 20, and she said to them, don't call me Naomi, call me Marah, call me bitter. Naomi is pleasant, call me Marah, bitter. Look at this, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. The Almighty, El Shaddai, Shaddai. We'll take a look at some of the irony of the two names of God that she uses. But this is her interpretation. Naomi, what is the Lord doing in your life? The hand of the Lord, the hand of Yahweh is going against me. The Almighty has dealt bitterly with me, for I went out full, verse 21, but the Lord has brought me back empty. The Lord has brought me back empty. I went out full. Again, they left Bethlehem. Here's some irony. What's the literal name? Bethlehem, house of bread. There is no bread in the house. So they leave, famine. And she says, we went out full. With food? No. They were uprooted. They were sojourning. They had to go to the land of Moab to eke out a living. They didn't go out full. And yet, in her mind, they did. And what was the fullness? Well, she had a husband or two boys. She had her family. Ah, I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi? Look, since the Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me. Isn't that interesting? Don't you find this fascinating? This is her interpretation. Tough circumstances to be sure. And now how is she thinking theologically? How is she thinking biblically? She believes she's the object of God's wrath. The hand of the Lord has gone against me. Almighty has dealt bitterly with me. The Lord has brought me back empty. I went out full, but he's brought me back empty. The Almighty has afflicted me. That's her interpretation, biblically. Have you ever had to, were you tempted at times of trial to say, what is the Lord doing? Is his hand gone against me? Is he treating me bitterly? Is he judging me? Is he punishing me for some past sin? What is he doing? Were you ever tempted to think that way? You could admit it. But I have. This is part of the struggle of Christian life. What is God doing? It seems like it's so bitter. It seems like it's so hurtful. It seems like I can't get a break. There's some irony in the two names that she's using. Yahweh, Lord, in our translations, is covenant God. And, of course, the idea that covenant God, he enters into a bond, a relationship in which his promises, he promises blessing if we follow him, promises blessing. And, of course, Naomi's not getting blessing. Again, there's no moral judgment on Naomi's life. But she thinks, she thinks that the Lord, a covenant God is going against me. Shaddai, El Shaddai, it's a name we're not quite certain, you know, it's a very ancient name for God, can refer to a mountain, it's probably having something to do with His power and creation and fertility. And the irony is, here's God in all of His creative power and wisdom and goodness, and He could bring about life, and He could bring about blessing, and He could bring about prosperity, but what has He done? He has dealt bitterly with me. The very irony of the names that she uses for God. This is a woman that is struggling. And again, there's no moral judgment. See how her identity changes? This is interesting. In times of trial, it's interesting how, you know, it can, your understanding of God you know, that narrative that's going on in your head, that image that's going on in your head, what is God doing? Have you ever done it? And you think you create a story in your head? Have you ever done it? You create a story in your head, and it's like the Lord is dealing very bitterly with me. And so she comes back, and oh, here's Naomi, you know, Mrs. Pleasant, she's come back. Don't call me Pleasant, don't call me Naomi, call me Marah, call me bitter. Because El Shaddai has dealt bitterly with me. You see, she's changing her name. Her name is Naomi. She said, don't call me Naomi. Call me Marah. There's a shift in the way in which she's perceiving herself, the way in which she's identifying herself, describing herself. She is now, there is this deep and deepening belief that she is now bitter because God has dealt bitterly with her. Don't call me Naomi, call me Marat, call me bitter. You see to the depth of this poor woman's adversity, the trial that she's going through. This is hard. This is bitter, dreadful. Have you ever been placed in a situation like this? And no gender issue here for us, I mean, whether men or women, although this really speaks to women. But is it, you know, has the Lord put you through a time of trial through the valley of the shadow of death where you didn't see his presence and you really struggled? And of course the difficulty is it can so warp the very perspective of who you are, your identity. And that's what's happening here. In the beginning. There's a lot of story and we won't have time to go through the story. But consider that God is doing a work in Naomi and through Naomi. And so you have the reality. You have a circumstances, dark. Interpretation, dark. You have now a reality. It's gonna be light, it's gonna be life. You see God dealing, again, and the point of the story is, at the very end, it's like it's about David, David being born, and David becoming king. Again, the end of Judges, everyone doing right in their own eyes, there is no king in Israel, and it will be David. And of course, the end of this book is, oh, David. So God is doing that work, it's big, I think of the end of the Hobbit. There's all kinds of things going on, and yet, individually, even though the Lord is working cosmically, he's working throughout the universe, throughout creation, he's also doing a work in our lives. So it's not just about David being born the king of Israel, it's about how God is working in Naomi's life, Ruth, to be sure, but in Naomi's life. So what are the signs that God is at work that even Naomi is missing from the very beginning? Consider Ruth hanging on. Chapter one, verse 16, and Ruth says, do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you, for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried, and thus may the Lord do to me and worse, if anything but death parts you and me. This is one rule sometimes used in marriage vows. This is, she's covenanting. Ruth is covenanting with Naomi, and she gives a promissory oath at the end. This is rather solemn. It's rather serious. It is significant. She is giving an oath before the Lord that she will stick with Naomi. She will bond herself with Naomi in life and death and poverty. Whatever comes about, she is not going to leave Naomi. And she's used to, what a bright spot. Naomi's kind of going back to Bethlehem. Ruth, how am I gonna, I can't feed myself, how am I gonna feed Ruth? Oh, here's Naomi, bless her. Oh, call me Marah, but look at the promissory oath that Ruth gives. Here is a conversion of a Moabitess, a powerful work of God's grace. Naomi kind of misses it at this point, but it's there. And I should say, in your worst trials, look around. Is God providing some bright light, something to signify that all is not lost, all is not dark? There is light, he hasn't left you. There's a sign of grace, a sign of grace. If you go to the, well, you could go to chapter two, and you know you have in verse three, Ruth comes back, she's gonna go out, and she's gonna glean the fields. This is, by the way, in ancient history, this is a dark age, and throughout the whole Middle East, this is a rather dark time in all of the major empires of the Middle East, the ancient Middle East, and including Israel. It's a dark time overall, historically. Ruth goes out to glean in the fields, which she's allowed to do. The poor are allowed to glean after the harvest. And look at verse three. So she departed and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come, and this is it. She chanced upon her chance, is the literal rendering. It just so happened. You can say, well, how lucky Ruth is. It just so happened that she came to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz. Oh, another character introduced to the story. The kinsman redeemer. It just so happened that she showed up there. Just so happened. It's like Esther. Did it just so happen? Was she just lucky that she showed up in this field? You know that there was an invisible hand very powerfully at work. Another bright spot. But it's the end of the story, and I'll move quickly. The end of the story, here's the reality. Grace changing a human heart, Ruth cleaving to her mother-in-law because of Yahweh, ends up in a field of Boaz, Kismet Redeemer, just so happens. You know the story, they will be married, she will conceive, look at the end of the story. The very last chapter, verse 13, so Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went into her, and the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. Then the women, oh, all of a sudden, this chorus, these women show up again, and then the women of Bethlehem say to Naomi, now look at what the women say to Naomi. What a reversal. Blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a Redeemer today. Who's the Redeemer, Boaz? Earlier, he was called the kinsman redeemer. He's a poet. 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. Remember, the story begins in death. Ah, now, restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age. Remember the futility of her old age? Ah, now, now here's a sustainer in her old age. For your daughter-in-law who loves you and is better Better to you than seven sons has given birth to him. Who's the redeemer? It's this child. Sustainer of life. And of course, it's prophetic. There's a trajectory. It will be ultimately fulfilled in David, and then David's son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is the trajectory. Here's the sign. Morah bitter? Look at what the Lord is doing for Israel, but also for Naomi. Look, verse 16, then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the neighbor women, again, oh, here's the neighbor women, wow, the chorus. The neighbor women gave him the name, saying, a son has been born to Naomi, so they named him Obed, and he is the father of Jesse, the father of David. Better than seven sons. Restorer of life, sustainer of your old age. The women will say that this child, it's as though he's been born to Naomi. Now, I need to end with this, and it's not easy, but it's, you know, the scripture's so realistic. If you do a close read, you know, who would end a story, a great story, with a genealogy? I don't know. When I was a kid, you know, I tried to read the Bible. Whenever I got to a genealogy, it was like, oh, you know, and then I put away the Bible. Now, these are the generations. Now, look at where this genealogy starts. Now, here are the generations of Perez. And to Perez was born Hezron, and to Hezron was born Ram, and to Ram, Amenadab, and to Amenadab was born Nashon, and to Nashon, Salmon, and to Salmon was born Boaz, and to Boaz, Obed, and to Obed was born Jesse, and to Jesse, David. No king in Israel, everyone doing right, oh, now a king is coming. of course, a prophesize of that one. So let me ask you, and I know, I've gone along, why does the writer begin with Perez in this genealogy? Do you remember who Perez was? Do you remember who his mother was? Tamar. Tamar. And how was Perez conceived? By Judah, Tamar, the daughter-in-law. Remember that whole story, it's rather sorted. She acts as a prostitute, what, what, what, and Perez is born. It's rather dark. And of course, Judah says, ah, she's more righteous than I am, Tamar. But Perez is born. And it's interesting that it begins there. Who's the mom of Boaz? Rahab. Have you heard this sermon before? Rahab, the harlot, the cult prostitute. She's the mother of Boaz. How fascinating is that? And then, of course, you're gonna have, eventually, you're gonna have Solomon. These names come up in whose genealogy? Matthew's genealogy, Gospel of Matthew. And unprecedented, unprecedented, Matthew is listing the kings of Israel to the coming of the king, to Jesus, the Messiah, the true king, right? But in the king's list, women are seldom, if ever, mentioned. Women are never mentioned. Who's mentioned in Matthew's genealogy coming to Jesus? Tamar. Ruth, Rahab, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and then Bathsheba, who was seduced by David, from Solomon. This is rather interesting because it's through, and this is particularly for women, through very, very difficult circumstances, Tamar, Ruth, Rahab, Bathsheba. in the line of Christ, the coming of Christ. And I have to say, excluding Ruth, to some extent, there is awful abuse. And my point here is not to excuse abuse, sweep it under the rug, and say that, you know, well, God is gonna use us, so don't worry about it. I'm not saying that. So don't misunderstand me. Yet look at how the Lord, indeed, has used very dark and difficult situations in women's lives in order to bring about the Messiah. Isn't that fascinating? It should be so reassuring. And again, not excusing. Again, not excusing. Abuse should be dealt with in the church, in the family, in civil society. But whatever, whatever, and now universally, to you, the congregation, men, women, young people, with all of the trials that we go through, with all of the difficulties, the Lord is doing a work, and he's doing a cosmic work, read Ephesians. But he's also working, doing a gracious work in your life. Look, consider, even in the daily circumstances, those signs of grace, and then consider throughout your family's history, even for the future, what the Lord will do. He will bless you. Let's pray together. Our Father, we are thankful for your word and we ask that you would so impress upon us comfort and assurance that we might know light and life. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.