Summary of Ruth

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brings it into light.
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Just think about this and it's a consideration.
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She's a Gentile, she's living where? Where do we find Ruth when we start? I'm gonna get you guys to say something this morning.
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Thank you.
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She's in Moab, it's a nation that's serving other gods in that sense, in spiritual darkness.
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And yet this woman, Ruth, finds salvation, finds a relationship with the God of Israel, the living God.
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And so even as a, if you think about it from a standpoint of her being outside of Israel, who's in, if you consider it was what? Either you were a Jew or what, huh? I'm just getting, I'm gonna get somebody to say something.
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Jew or Gentile, yeah, I mean, basically that was it, right? And yet Ruth is a picture to me of one who has, in that sense, comes out of darkness into the light.
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No different than many others in the Bible, right? I mean, even if we think of Abraham, where was Abraham when God called him? Ur to Chaldeas, his father was someone who worshiped idols.
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So if you think about the types and you think about this aspect of how they represent things.
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And again, I'm not trying to make it absolute 100%, but she does come into the relationship of being a daughter and how God calls, just think about it, how God calls out of every nation and every tribe and every kindred and every tongue.
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Isn't that why we support missionaries? And I've been thinking about the Dow people this week, more than usual, how God has sent Scott Phillips there and people who are in absolute darkness in false worship.
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And yet by God's great grace, they come out of darkness and they come into lights.
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And it's a growing ministry there.
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That's fantastic, right? And so just ask you to consider that.
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Okay.
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Any other thoughts on types? Anybody need coffee this morning? Okay, let's just take a minute.
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And I wanna talk about the character of them and some of it we've already mentioned, but nevertheless, I want us to think about the main people in this book of Ruth.
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And really there, you think about this really only those three, Naomi, Ruth, Boaz, everybody else seems to be kind of subsequent or secondary or background.
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Certainly the Illuminate falls off out of the scene real fast and even the sons, they fall out and even Oprah falls out of the picture.
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So you think about it, there's really those three characters and then there's the next to Kinsman and we'll talk about him in a minute, but I want us to think about it.
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And as you read through the book, in so many ways, these people really showed forth to me integrity, faith, godliness, doing things God's way rather than their own way.
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And I think there's a lot that we can consider just in that, that they all demonstrate, again, under the Old Testament economy and thinking that they really exemplify things that are worthy to copy.
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Remember what the scriptures say? Scriptures say that the things that were written, what, before were written for our ammunition? Listen, again, there were certain things in the old, especially in the narratives of the Old Testament that you and I, we looked at them and remember what I still think about the seven brides for seven brothers.
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When the book of Judges, when they run out in the field and they, you know, go grab your wife and don't be last.
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That there's so much in the Old Testament that's really, I would say, confusing in today's thinking.
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But if you look at the character of Naomi again, she, her faith is shaken, but I don't believe it's ever lost.
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I do think she falls into spiritual depression and certainly the character of Ruth.
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If you think about the character of Ruth and even the care that they had for each other.
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I mean, to me, Naomi stands out in a character how she took care of her daughter-in-law, how she was concerned for the welfare of Ruth, almost above her own care.
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And then Ruth's care for Naomi and not only Ruth's care for Naomi, but Ruth's, if you will, Ruth's submits to Naomi's instructions.
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Remember that when we read about how Naomi called Ruth and she said, here's what I want you to do tonight.
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Boaz is gonna have a nice dinner and he's gonna go lay down in the barn and here's what you need to do.
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Go there, lay at his feet, uncovering his feet and just be quiet.
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Again, I think we talked about that at a minute.
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That takes some character to follow that instruction.
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So again, when you think about that and certainly Boaz, I thought specifically when he's about to redeem and restore the land and Ruth, and you remember how he calls the closer relative? And he doesn't try to, well, that might be a little bit of a discussion, but he doesn't try to do it his way.
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I believe he fell in love with Ruth way before this point when he meets that closer relative.
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And yet, if you think about it, Boaz behaves himself in a godly manner.
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He puts himself in a position where he tells the near kinsmen, and he even told Ruth, if he redeems you, so be it.
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And he doesn't try to manipulate everything for his own benefit.
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Although, again, we might have a little conversation.
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Why does he first only mention the land? He's kind of holding Ruth back until the member, the near relative says, I'll buy it.
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And he says, oh yeah, Ruth comes with the package.
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Oh no, I don't want that.
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So again, just something to think about in the character of these people.
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And here's something to think about, friends.
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These were just regular people.
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I mean, I think sometimes we portray in our minds characters in the Old Testament almost like they're superheroes, like they were created by Marvel Magazine.
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These were regular people.
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Naomi had to carry that burden, right? She lived in Moab for 10 years as a widow, and I don't know how long it took in between when Malon and Chilean died and she had the two daughters.
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But these people were regular people.
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They got up in the morning and they were just like us.
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They had issues.
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They had confusion.
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They had perplexities.
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They had challenges.
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Again, like nature is ours, and yet I challenge anyone really to find a true mark against them in what we see, right? Only in what we see doesn't mean, I'm sure there were bad days, right? I'm sure that Naomi had bad hair days.
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I don't have bad hair days.
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Some of you guys don't have bad hair days, but I'm sure there were issues.
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I'm sure Boaz had struggles.
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I'm sure Ruth certainly had struggles.
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And yet, friends, they all stand out to me in that way about a godly character or a character that desires to please God and to show it.
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So any thoughts on the character of them? Okay, I'll leave it blank.
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All right, for a few minutes.
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Providence.
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First of all, somebody tell me what they think providence means.
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Not Rhode Island either.
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Providence, the means by which God carries out his purposes that are based on his decree, right? So really, when you think of the providence of God, we think about his outworking of the desires of his heart and the purposes and the plans that he has.
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And as I read through the book of Ruth, and as I wanted to ask you to think about, as I read through it, I believe that the providence of God is one of the highlighted features.
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And I wonder sometimes if we do not consider the providence of God as much as we ought to.
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That there are times when we look at things, and you've heard that old example, but maybe just to remind us, remember, there's an example about how God is working all things according to his purpose.
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And if you were to do a tapestry and stick those threads in, right, with the needle, and if you look at it from the backside, what do you see? A mess, right? It's just a bunch of strings.
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And it's only when you turn it over and you see what all those loose ends have accomplished on the other side of the tapestry.
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You remember those? I remember my daughters used to do that, the cloth, the two, you know.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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I do it in the garage every day, but I just, yeah.
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But again, the providence of God, and many times that's the way it is.
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What seems to be disconnected is those threads that we can't assemble in our mind.
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God in his providence has already have, already has the final tapestry.
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Sister.
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I was thinking about all the loose, the things that only maybe count the other side, and then they had nothing.
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So she goes back to the land where she's supposed to be, and God removes those things she counts on so he can work them around.
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Yeah, and then when he gives it back to her, or when he brings much of it back, I'm sure there's a different realization.
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Here's something I thought about.
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Were it not for the famine, would we even have the Book of Ruth? Now, again, I'm not trying to say, I'm not trying to presume on the sovereignty of God.
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But what I am saying is, you think of how God in his providence uses the famine, whether it's for, you know, when God brings things, it says, and I believe it's in Amos, it says it's either, I think it's in Amos.
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It's either for judgment, for the land, or for mercy.
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Three things.
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And if you think about it, were it not for this famine, would we even be, would we be able to have read the Book of Ruth in such a way? The providence of God, and again, mysterious in many ways, and yet it has purpose.
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We were at the beginning of the problem, taking this man home, was he sinning or not? The more I thought about that, in the providence of God, he was working out his purposes to get Ruth and all of that.
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But a renelect was actually violating the Mosaic legislation by leaving the land of promise to go find prosperity in the land of cursing.
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You know, I went, man.
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Now, I can't say the direct result of him dying and his.
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Right, right.
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So we're a direct result of that.
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Certainly a direct result of sin, but not as a condemnation for 10 years.
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But just go, man, this guy really drug his wife into a land where God said, don't go.
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Yeah, I mean, he set up his sons, really, in that way for, we read that in the Old Testament where it says, don't give your sons daughters that are from other nations.
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Why? Because they'll ruin them.
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And again, we had that conversation, but I absolutely agree that, and that's why I left it open because everybody's gonna be persuaded in his own mind.
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But I do believe Elimelech should have stayed or not gone to Moab, but that's.
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But anyway, you think about the providence of God and you think about how it worked concerning Ruth.
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And again, it was only, if I remember right, it was only about 60 miles from where that Miami starts.
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It would have been Southeast down to Moab, across the Jordan.
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And so it's not that far, but how the providence of God goes down there to find Ruth.
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And I'll mention this, not only did the providence of God find Ruth, it found Oprah.
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And if you think about it, Oprah is one who did what? Turn back, right? Remember when Naomi said, hey, go back to your gods and to your father and to your house and don't follow me because it's gonna be a hard road.
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And what did Oprah do? She went back.
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But if you think about it, how God in that sense through his providence reaches all the way down there to find this stranger Ruth.
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Sir.
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Isn't that sort of kind of that picture there is like, that is just like the worst.
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Absolutely.
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What's that is not there.
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They go back to their ways and that they're there basically for what they, when this God, that's the character and the nature of someone who's not serving the God.
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Yeah, and that's what I mean.
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The providence of God revealed her character, right? In that she turned back and certainly we can relate to that.
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And she could be a whole study of herself, right? Of people who come near the kingdom of God but only near enough until it stings.
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I mean, it's almost like the power of all the seed in the soil, right? Of certain kinds of ground.
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It's the trials and tribulations, the cares of this life that stop movement forward.
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So certainly that, and I thought about how, if you think about it, you remember, oh, it was the widow of Zarephath.
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You remember that a prophet was sent to her and Jesus even mentions that because he's talking about how God goes in that sense.
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God goes into places that no one would even think of from a Jewish standpoint and from a reaching out standpoint he goes to the widow of Zarephath and he winds up becoming her help.
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I remember Jesus talked about, remember Jesus said that there were many lepers in Israel and who was the prophet sent to? Well, who was the leper that was cleansed that Jesus talks about? Naaman, the Syrian, right? Again, the providence of God is a very mysterious thing.
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The movement, if you will, of God in time and space is truly astounding and it ought to be thought about by us.
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Again, especially those of us that believe in the absolute sovereignty of God that we believe that a leaf don't fall off the tree without God's decree.
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Well, that means everything, right? The sparrow don't fall to the ground that I see in this little book and I call it little but again, it's not little, the providence of God and how even in that sense, the close relative of Boaz who at first says, I'll take the land, but I don't want Ruth.
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I'll bet you Boaz was happy.
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I'll bet you that thrilled him as soon as he heard that.
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But even in that, it was the providence of God.
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I mean, we even talked about how that day when Boaz was going to, he went to the gate and the close relative walked by and so if you wanna consider that, I think it's worthy of thinking and we see that throughout the whole Bible, right? We see God, one of the capital I would say is we see God do strange things in comparison to what we would even think of.
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God is absolutely amazing, right? He calls the things that are in darkness into light.
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He calls the things they're not as though they were, right? And it's all under his decree to both light and darkness are the same to God.
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Yes, sir, brother.
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Also with the character and the providence, Boaz sort of kind of displays the character that the people of God should have in light of God's providence.
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I mean, like you said, he didn't try to manipulate the situation even though he had probably had these fears in her, but his character in light of God's providence, he trusted, like you said, knowledge we fall from the tree.
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He trusted God like this is going to be me redeeming her.
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I can't manipulate the situation.
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He'll stay in his character.
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Right.
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He trusted God and thank God he did because we got him.
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He got the woman he wanted.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, well.
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And we got the savior we needed.
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And we got the savior we needed, absolutely.
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And we're gonna talk about that in just a minute or so.
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But if you think about it, if you go back to the character a little bit, you would be hard pressed to find in the book of Ruth, Naomi complaining.
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She doesn't complain about the affliction.
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Matter of fact, she says, and I brought this up to us to think about, I would have said Illuminac would have made the decision to go to Moab and Naomi followed.
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And when Naomi comes back, she says, the Lord has afflicted me.
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That Naomi doesn't voice complaining.
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Ruth who has to go out and pick up what's left over from the Reapers, you don't see her complaining.
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They were content in that sense, based on what you were just saying, bro.
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They were content to walk in the providence of God that was before.
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And again, would we not be so much better off if we were more in line with that than we are with, I mean, I'm saying it cause I'm as guilty.
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I probably talked to four or five of us this morning and I'll bet you, I think almost everyone that I talked to this morning was talking about how hot it was yesterday.
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I even said, I can't wait for the cold weather, right? And again, I'm not saying that that in and of itself was wrong cause it's been really hot, but it's the providence of God, right? So just little things to think about.
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And that's why I say in the book of Ruth, to me, some of these things stand out.
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And here's another thing about the providence of God.
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And I just thought about, so I mentioned it to you.
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Sometimes the providence of God comes in a whirlwind, catastrophic, beyond any conception.
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And sometimes the providence of God comes like he did to the prophet in a still small voice.
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And we ought to be those who have such communion with God that we can either hear in the whirlwind or we can hear in the still small voice.
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And I would think that many of us, if we had to choose, we would say, I'd rather have the still small voice.
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But the whirlwind of God's providence, it is as purposeful and accomplishing as the still small voice.
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Just again, just thoughts.
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I'm just trying to give us some things to think about as we go away.
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And I would also suggest, if you want to read about the providence of God a little more in another small book, read the book of Esther.
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Actually, I'm gonna try to do something with Esther on Wednesday night.
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You read the book of Esther and that great statement that is made about her.
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Remember when, well, I don't wanna go too far, but Mordecai, the uncle says to Esther, how do you know if you've come to the kingdom for what? Such a time as this.
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It was the providence of God at that moment.
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And so you and I have to think about that.
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Boaz enters the picture at the right moment.
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She just, remember what the scripture is saying in, I think it was in chapter three.
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She just, or maybe it was chapter two.
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She just happened to go to the field that belonged to Boaz.
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Did Naomi tell her to go to Boaz's field? Nope.
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It says she happened to come to the field.
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And I made a comment that there, it wasn't like they had razor wire and electric fences.
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And I mean, everybody knew where their markings were, but she just by chance comes behind Boaz's readers.
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Interesting to think about.
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All right.
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The theme, just got a few more minutes.
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The theme.
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I just wanted to at least point out that to me, and I hope you would agree on this, that really the main theme in the book is about redemption, about restoration, about how God enters in.
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And when God enters in, many, many times glorious, well, all the times glorious things come out of it, but this whole theme of redemption.
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And I kind of will tie it into the last, this historical place with significance.
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If you think about it, is that not the theme from Genesis to Revelation? Is that not the theme from the Garden of Eden on how God comes down, God covers Adam and Eve, God provides a lamb, God provides a sacrifice? The whole thing is about redemption.
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And I really love the whole thought of, if you will, progressive revelation, that God in the beginning and that God moves through time, space, here a little, there a little, in the Book of Ruth, in Exodus, in 1 Samuel, and even through as we, to do what? To finally get us to that point where we see Christ, who is, of course, what? The visible image of the invisible God.
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To me, that's such a mind-blowing thought, and yet it is such a comfortable thought that our God has progressively unfolded.
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And again, God being outside of space and time, not subject to the things that he subjected everyone else to, how God moved, and it's not like David Attenborough who says, you know, 470 billion years ago, but God moved through history to bring to pass this glorious redemption that you and I enjoy.
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And that the Book of Ruth takes a significant place in showing that to us, and in that way, in a tangible way.
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Again, I'll go back to my thought of the tapestry.
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In every one of our lives are different brothers and sisters.
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There's not two of us that live, I don't care if you've been married forever, there's no two of us walk the exact same path, and yet God redeems his children and calls them out of, and I think I said it Wednesday, he calls every one of his children out of the same prison.
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What held one might not be bound another, but God redeems.
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And that should be a hope too, by the way, right? The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.
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Why? Because God will redeem a people for himself.
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Glorious to think about.
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And certainly in the significance of it as we close, if you think about it, it's amazing how, to me, it's amazing how Ruth finds a way into the genealogy.
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Oh, it's so cool.
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And where does that come from? Comes from through Boaz, and where's Boaz's genealogy go back to? Rahab.
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And it's amazing to me that God, again, uses things which in many ways the world would despise.
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A harlot, a heathen woman.
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Just think of all the characters and the significance of it.
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And here's a point, and I think Brother Mike will certainly pick this up.
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We're gonna move from the book of Judges to Samuel, who's really the first great prophet.
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And then that's gonna lead us where? David, right? So you think of the historical significance of the book of Ruth, and it kind of ties together the judges.
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Again, you can do this throughout the whole Bible, of course, right? You can find the themes, but I'm just saying, if you think about it, the book of Ruth falls in that place where it begins to take us out of the realm of the judges, into the realm of the prophets, and then ultimately to the place of the cave.
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So I would say this, I'm looking forward to Brother Mike leading us through 1 Samuel, so that we'll see it, but just keep that in mind.
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Don't disconnect 1 Samuel from what we've been doing.
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Now, if you think about it, it's almost three years now.
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We did Joshua, we did Judges, then we took a small break and did Ruth, and now we're going to 1 Samuel.
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We're taking a big chunk of history here.
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God's history.
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Okay.
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We gotta go, let's pray.
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Father, thank you for who you are.
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Thank you for what you do.
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Thank you for your redemption.
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Thank you for Christ, who is our great Redeemer and Savior.
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May we be blessed by you this morning, and may we be a blessing to you.
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In Jesus' name.