Sunday School: The Restoration of a Family (Ruth 4:13-22)

You're listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament, and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday, we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. Let's come back to our scriptures this morning.

We're going to open up to Ruth. We're finishing up Ruth today. Ruth chapter 4, verses 13 to 22, and then coming up in a couple of weeks when we resume on Sunday morning for our

Sunday school classes, we're going to be going backwards. We're going to go to the book of Judges, and we'll spend the rest of the semester there.

So this morning, we're in Ruth, finishing up the book of Ruth chapter 4, starting in verse 13.

I'll read our passage, and then we'll take a moment to pray. So Boaz took

Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went into her, and 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

Redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel. He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age.

For your daughter -in -law, who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.

Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying,

A son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Now these are the generations of Perez. Perez fathered Hezrin.

Hezrin fathered Ram. Ram fathered Aminadab. Aminadab fathered Nashon. Nashon fathered

Salmon. Salmon fathered Boaz. Boaz fathered Obed. Obed fathered

Jesse. And Jesse fathered David. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, as we bring to a close our study of the book of Ruth, I pray that we see in the focus here that comes to this closing genealogy, a recognition of the king that you were providing, that you were gonna set up in Israel.

And of course, we know that through David, through the line of David would come the Christ, that you had ordained all of these things to come together, not just to redeem your people,

Israel, but to redeem the people that you had predestined for adoption as sons and daughters of God through faith in our

Lord Jesus Christ. All of this coming together by your sovereign hand, that we may know our

Lord Christ, have faith in the gospel that has proclaimed to us and so be saved.

Christ gave himself for our redemption, that he would purify for himself a people for his own possession.

And we are that people. So as we look back on this story and Ruth, we're not just looking back on a historical event that happened in the

Old Testament and to a certain ethnic group or nation. We're looking at our own history, how you were working in the past to bring about the salvation of your people.

And we rejoice in God this day as we read. It's in Jesus precious name that we pray.

Amen. Amen. So this is the conclusion. This is the resolution to the story.

Last week, as we were looking at Ruth chapter four, verses one through 12, all of that was climax, right?

Like we were just kind of building the action there in chapter four with that, what would essentially be considered a courtroom scene, that exchange that was happening in the gate of Bethlehem to seal and approve that the land that belonged to a

Limelech and to Naomi, this land belonged now to the possession of Boaz.

And he acquired not only this land, but he acquired Ruth to be his wife and the people blessed him.

They sang his praises. May the Lord bless you. May the Lord give. And we saw that kind of climactic action, that building action that was going on there in that first half of chapter four.

So that was all climax. Here what we're looking at today, this is all resolution. So what we have in verses 13 to 22 is the resolution to the story.

We had that building action. We kind of start big here in verse 13, and then it all comes back down.

So everything in the book of Ruth was building up to what we read last week. And now all of what we're reading this week is kind of is resolving the story.

It is the final conclusion, bringing everything to a close here in the book of Ruth. So she becomes wife to Boaz.

The Lord gives Ruth a son who is said by the women to be a redeemer to Naomi.

The book concludes with the genealogy of David, which is later repeated in the genealogy of who?

Where else do we see this genealogy come up? Yeah, Matthew, right. That's the genealogy of Christ also.

So we are seeing something here at the conclusion that's not just a genealogy tacked on to the end.

It's not somebody that went, oh yeah, I guess we need to make a point to see what the significance of this is here.

Here we go. Let me throw in this genealogy. There's something pretty significant about this genealogy, which I'll get to even in the context of the

Israelites. And we'll see the significance of that when we get to that here at the conclusion.

So let's break up our text in this way. The first part of our text today, verses 13 to 15, this is the

Lord giving a redeemer. So remember, as we're talking about resolution here, think back to the praise that the people gave, the blessing that the people and the elders bestowed upon Boaz in verses 11 and 12.

Sneak your eyes back up there and let's kind of be reminded of our central proposition from last week.

So in verse 11, all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses.

May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel.

May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem. So we begin that statement with, may the

Lord make, right? So then in verse 12, and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom

Tamar bore to Judah because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.

So we start with the Lord, make, may the Lord give. And now what do we see here in verse 13?

We see that the Lord is given. So the Lord gives a redeemer, Boaz and Ruth have a son, a redeemer for Naomi.

As the women say, the women there of Bethlehem saying that a redeemer has been given for Naomi.

So that's part one. As we look through verses 13 to 15, part two is going to be Obed, a son given to Naomi.

That's verses 16 and 17. Naomi becomes Obed's nurse and he is a son to her.

So not merely talked about as being a grandson, but she essentially adopts this boy to be her son and even raises him.

We'll talk about that as we get there. And then in the third part of this is that final conclusion,

Obed, the grandfather of David. As we see that genealogy in verses 18 to 21, and the closing genealogy points to the promise of a coming

King. Now when I talk about a central proposition, we're talking about what's the main point of the text that we're looking at today.

Last week, as I mentioned, the central proposition was the Lord gives. What's going to be the main focus of our text today?

The Lord has blessed Naomi by giving her a what? What's the word that we saw there?

A redeemer, right? That has been the focus of this whole book, right? We've been hearing about a redeemer the whole time.

In fact, the word redeemer or redemption or redeem or something to that extent comes up like 15 times over the course of the book of Ruth.

It has been the main theme of this book. So of course we conclude with that theme, being reminded of the redemption that God has given.

So in God's provision, through Boaz and Ruth, for Naomi, we have a redeemer who is given.

That word even being used to describe Obed who is Naomi's redeemer.

Ruth's redeemer was who? That was Boaz, right? Boaz was Ruth's redeemer, and it is

Obed who becomes Naomi's redeemer. But all of this provided by our great redeemer who is

Yahweh. Even the way as we've seen over the course of the story, the way that Boaz acted in generosity toward Ruth, that was in light of the redemption that he knew that he had been given in Yahweh.

And when Ruth had acted so charitably on behalf of Naomi and even so humbly before Boaz, all of that was in light of the redemption that she knew was provided by Yahweh.

So because Yahweh gives redemption, we see the effect of that humility before the

Lord coming out in God's own people over the course of this story. So we read about a redeemer here for Naomi who is

Obed, but ultimately that points us to our great redeemer who is Christ. And that direction is even guided toward the genealogy that we have here at the conclusion.

So let's consider our text in these three parts today. First of all, the

Lord giving a redeemer in verses 13 to 15. So look at verse 13. So Boaz took

Ruth and she became his wife and he went into her and the Lord gave her conception and she bore a son.

So back in chapter three, when Naomi had encouraged Ruth to propose marriage to Boaz, remember that part of the story?

It's not unreasonable to believe that she had grandchildren in mind. We have any grandmothers, who in here is a grandmother?

And how many of you, be honest, nagged your kids and said, when am

I going to get some grandchildren? Hey, we have some granddads that are raising their hand. I did too.

I was in on that. When do I get some grandkids? So it's not unreasonable, nor is it selfish in any way for Naomi to think, hey,

I want to hook Ruth up with Boaz. This looks like a match. This is going to work.

Ruth is obviously taking note of Boaz. Boaz is obviously taking note of Ruth. So there's a marriage that could happen here.

Naomi is playing matchmaker and she's not being mischievous. She's not being conniving or anything like that.

She's being a wise woman. And even the desire for grandchildren is selfless in the sense that she wanted to see the name of her deceased husband carry on in Israel.

So again, we go back to that whole thing of Leveret marriage that was given in Deuteronomy chapter 25.

Ruth, or Naomi, knew that law. She was acting and guiding in the advice that she was giving to Ruth according to that law, that Ruth would propose to Boaz in this way, and they might fulfill the law of Leveret marriage so that the name of Elimelech would carry on in Israel.

Now even though in the genealogy, we don't have Elimelech or Malan's names mentioned there.

Elimelech would have been Ruth's father -in -law. Malan was her deceased husband. We don't see the names mentioned there, but they're mentioned in the story.

So just because a name does not get blotted out in Israel, in other words, doesn't mean that that name is the one that gets thrown into the genealogy.

We'll still have direct descendants there in a genealogy, but that person's name is perpetuated in Israel.

Just as my last name, Hughes, would be perpetuated through my sons,

Zachary and Ezekiel, if they were to grow up and the Lord bless them with wives and give them children, then the name

Hughes continues on through the line of my sons, right? So it was the same with Elimelech.

Even though his sons are dead, he's dead, his sons are dead, but a widow had been left behind,

Ruth and Orpah. So it was through the law of leverate marriage, the way that God had set this up, so that blessing would continue to this people, and even a possession of the land that God had given to them,

He set up these laws of leverate marriage. Now the blessing that God gave to Israel, He did through the land.

Like a land I'm going to give you, the promised land that they have inherited, all the blessings that God would give to them would be through the land.

And what did Elimelech and Naomi do when famine hit the land? Well, they left.

They left the land of blessing and the land of God's provision, and they went to Moab where God told them not to go.

So now without that blessing, they ended up in quite dire straits.

Exactly the opposite of what Elimelech was trying to do. He was trying to sustain his family. Elimelech died, and Mallon and Killian died, so that they, then

Naomi and Ruth come back to Bethlehem, and they come back into God's provision, and God continues to provide for them.

So even through those laws of leverate marriage, it's set up so that a land would still be in possession of the family line, so that God would continue to be able to provide to that family.

This is God's law. He set this up for the care and the provision of his people.

So Naomi has these things in mind, even as she's setting up Ruth with Boaz.

I used the term hooking up. That was probably not the right term to use. The way that that's used in our culture today, that's not the term

I should use, but setting them up may have been the better expression there. So anyway, her husband's name is carried on in Israel.

The Bible says that children are a blessing from God, and we see it as God who provides these children, even right here at the start of Ruth 4 .13.

Psalm 113, verse 9 says, He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.

Praise the Lord. And Psalm 127 .3 says, Behold, children are a heritage from the

Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. So it says here in 4 .13

that the Lord gave Ruth conception. And this is the focus of the resolution, that all this while, the

Lord has provided even a redeemer here in the story. Now the interesting thing to note here, when we finish up Ruth, we're going to go back to Judges, but if we were continuing in canonical order here, we would go from Ruth into what book?

What's next? 1 Samuel. What's right at the beginning of 1 Samuel? What story are we reading about there?

Anybody know right off the top of your head? So there's another woman who is barren and without children.

Hannah, that's right. So Hannah pleads with the Lord that she would have children. We have this story again, right at the beginning of Samuel.

Now we don't have Ruth described as a barren woman, but consider that she was married to Mallon for no more than about 10 years.

And no children were given to her during that time. No children were given to Ruth or to Orpah during the time that they were married to Mallon and Killian.

So this was even in God's intention and in God's plan that He would close their wombs so that they would not have children to Mallon and Killian.

So that God would give Ruth's children by Boaz, for it's from that lineage would come a

Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, right? Yes, sir. Emilex had the baby and everything, but his lineage is gone right there, and it goes on to Boaz.

I would believe that's probably pretty accurate, yeah. Right, right. But it doesn't,

I just want to be sure though that when we talk about Elimelech doesn't get recognition there in that closing genealogy because he wasn't as faithful as Boaz was.

We also should not look at that as Elimelech's name being blotted out because we have his name in the story.

Same with Mallon and Killian. Now with the Redeemer, who did not fulfill the law of leverage marriage and take

Ruth to be his wife, as what seems to be indicated there in the beginning of chapter four, we don't even know his name.

So now I didn't mention this last week when we were looking at that, but when Boaz says, remember he's sitting in the gate and the

Redeemer comes by and Boaz says, friend, turn aside and sit here because they're about to have their legal exchange in the presence of the elders.

The Hebrew word that we have translated into English friend, the Hebrew word is literally so -and -so.

So hey, so -and -so, come over here and sit down because that's the way the story recalls this guy.

He gets no credit because he did not fulfill the law that was required of him as the nearest kinsman, as the

Redeemer that was next in line. So he doesn't get a name in there at all. And then when we see at the conclusion of that exchange, the people who are praising

Boaz because of him having taken

Ruth as a wife and they give him blessing, which I guess I didn't really quite finish all that up last week anyway.

We're doing that here. We're getting 11 and 12 in here. So as the people are giving a praise to Boaz, that guy would have been there in the presence.

So he's passing on inheriting the land and receiving Ruth as a wife and then continuing the line of Elimelech according to the laws of leverate marriage.

And so Boaz acquires the land. He takes Ruth to be his wife and the people praise him.

And the guy who was the nearest kinsman, he's there in the midst of all of that and he's just kind of sitting there and he's like, could have been mine, but I passed it.

I took my sandal off. I handed it off to Boaz. I passed it on to somebody else and he gets no credit.

And so even as we see all of this praise that comes at the conclusion of this story and we have

Boaz being mentioned in the line in the genealogy of Christ, Mr. So -and -so never gets any credit or any praise in any of that.

Now we actually see this twice in the story of somebody who went part of the way, but not all the way.

And remember at the beginning of Ruth in our introduction to the book of Ruth, I'd talk about there being like this chiastic structure.

So everything kind of builds up to a point and then it comes back down and you'll see those events happen again in opposite succession.

So it's like the events, as you outlined, it would basically be A, B, C, B, A. So A, B, C, then we go to B and A, kind of seeing parallel events coming back to the resolve that we have at the conclusion.

So what we have at the beginning of the story, so in chapter one, remember

Naomi has heard now that food is being produced in Judah. God has visited his people and he's given them abundance in their crops.

So she's leaving Moab. She's going back to Bethlehem and Orpah and Ruth are going with her.

And she turns to her daughters and say, go back my daughters. I have nothing for you. I don't have sons.

There's no more sons for me to give you. Even if I were to get married and God were to give me children this night, are you going to wait 18 years or something like that before you can marry these guys?

No. So I'm telling you, go back to your mother's homes and may you find rest in the house of a husband.

So still young, desirable women and Naomi hopes for them that they would have a husband. Now of course she's telling them to go back to their gods, which is astonishing in her despondency, just not acting in wisdom at all and telling them to do this.

Now Orpah walked out of the city with her and they kissed and wept and loved affectionately on one another.

But Orpah turns around and goes back to Moab. And Ruth says,

I'm not going to leave you. It says Orpah returned, but Ruth did what? Clung to her.

Yeah, that was the word or cleaved in some translation, cleaved to her. And Ruth said, do not send me away.

Don't even try to do this again. Where you go, I will go. Your people will be my people.

Your God will be my God. Where you are buried, that's where I'm going to be buried. That was what

Ruth said, where you die, I will die. That was her commitment to, uh, to Naomi.

So Orpah went part of the way. Ruth was fully committed, fully dedicated. And so we see the same thing happen at the conclusion of the story as well.

This Mr. So -and -so, this no -name guy, he went part of the way, but he didn't go the whole way.

He doesn't get any credit. He went part of the way. He was like, I'll take the land. But then once the land came with Ruth, then he was like, yeah,

I can't do that. I might mess up the inheritance that I've already got. And so he says, yeah,

Boaz, you're better suited for this. Why don't you take it? And so Boaz gets all the credit, gets the praise from the people, gets the blessing of God even in the genealogy of Christ, but Mr.

So -and -so gets none of it. So we see kind of the same event happen at the beginning and the end of the story. Orpah goes part of the way,

Ruth goes all the way. Mr. So -and -so goes part of the way, Boaz goes all the way. And so this demonstrating our full commitment unto the

Lord that it's not enough that we go part of the way. We got to go the whole way. And in fact, when

Jesus called his disciples in Matthew chapter 10 and commissioned them that they would go out just within the land of Judah at that time, we don't get the great commission until the end of Matthew, but at that time telling his disciples to go out, but saying to them, those who endure to the end will be saved.

Not just talking about in the context of end times teaching, because Jesus will say that again in Matthew 24, but it's the one who endures in the faith to the very end.

It's not enough that you had started the race at one point and ran a certain leg of it. You've got to finish the race.

And it's those who finish who receive the kingdom of God. And so we see that demonstrated even in the character of Boaz and Ruth here.

Now, oftentimes, whenever we're looking at these figures here in the

Bible, we try to make this direct line from that character to Christ.

We got to get the gospel in there. And that's good. We should do that. Whenever we're studying our

Bible, whenever we're teaching this to somebody, how does this point us to Christ and the cross?

Where do we get to the gospel, even in a story such as Ruth? It's important to keep those things in mind.

But I think sometimes when we do that, we think that the gospel needs to be the only focus, and we miss that we're actually being given examples here for us to follow.

So there's the gospel, but there's also men and women of godly character that we are to emulate.

And Boaz is one of those men. And Ruth is one of those women. When we're looking for persons that we are to be like in our

Christian walk, even though this is prior to the cross, we're still talking about walking in uprightness and in godliness.

When we're looking for those persons to imitate and to follow, we see persons that are presented before us like this, like Boaz and like Ruth.

And Boaz demonstrates a character of uprightness, of worthiness. That was the way he was described from chapter 2, verse 1, that he was a worthy man, or Ruth described as a worthy woman in chapter 3.

So as Boaz is demonstrating this godly character and a desire for God's word and to uphold his law, that's exactly the kind of man that we should want to be, men.

And when we see Ruth as somebody who is humble and in submission to the law and likewise desires to keep it and receives godly counsel in those areas where she doesn't understand and follows along with a woman such as Naomi who had advised her in the way that would be honoring to God and to a man that she is going to marry.

So women, you have an example of a woman of godly character. And so we see godliness in these two people that are demonstrated for us that we may walk in the same way.

We see a full devotion to God's word and his law. And so we are to be the same.

As I kind of joked with one of my classes earlier this past week, whenever we read about law we have that tendency to want to jump right to Romans 6.

Ah yeah, but it says in Romans 6, we're not under the law but we're under grace. So everything has to be grace. Law is bad, grace good, right?

Well, in the very next chapter in Romans 7, Paul says the law is good.

So it's not something that we just throw out. Previously in chapter 3 he said, do we overthrow the law by this faith?

By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. So the law tells us, it reveals to us

God's holy character and it also says to us how we are to live in a way that would be pleasing to God.

Now we were unable to keep that law in a godly way before Christ. But now that we are in Christ, we can keep that law in a way that is honoring to the

Lord. We should desire to know what the law says and to do it. For Jesus said in John 14, 15, you'll show me that you love me when you obey my commandments.

And it's the one who keeps God's commandments who shows their love for God. So very important for us to know what

God's word has said so that we may do it. As James says in James chapter 1, do not just be that person who looks into the law of God and then walks away and forget what it says.

You're like a man who looks at himself in a mirror and then walks away and immediately forgets his own reflection. So we're not to be just merely hearers of the word, we must also do what it says.

And so even in a story such as this, we don't have a lot of imperative. As we're reading through Ruth, there's no exhortation here.

There's nothing at the conclusion that says, now go and do likewise. But nevertheless, we have these figures of Boaz and Ruth who are obedient and submissive to the instruction of God.

And as they are given to us as examples, so we are to do the same. It's not the main point of the story.

Because the main point again, we're looking at redemption. We're looking at the promise of a king that is to come. But we still see these characters in the story that we are to imitate.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul says the things that were written down in the Old Testament were written down for you so that you would not sin as they did in the wilderness.

Like don't fall into the same sins that the sinful people did in the

Old Testament. You have an example for you to not follow in that instance. But then

Paul says in another place in Romans chapter 15, what was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we may have hope.

So then we have other stories in the scriptures that are given to us that we may hope.

We may find examples of godly men and women that we follow and continue to grow in godliness even in our present day.

Amen? Thoughts about that? Let me ask if there's any questions there and then we'll jump on to the next part here.

Yes, ma 'am. Oh, Limelech.

Yes. That guy got blotted out.

Who was he? Right. Right. Right, certainly.

So you have the record of the name so you know who the land belonged to and who it was passed on to.

Right. Yeah. So the main focus here, especially in this first section, is that a redeemer has been given for Naomi.

So looking at the next verse in verse 14, the women said to Naomi, blessed be the

Lord who has not left you this day without a redeemer and may his name be renowned in Israel.

So back in chapter one, when Naomi had returned to Bethlehem from Moab, how did the women respond there in chapter one?

Do you remember that? They saw Naomi and they were like, is this Naomi? So yeah, didn't even recognize her.

It's like she's, yeah, depressed, look different.

She's got a different person with her. Where's Limelech? Where's Mallon and Killian? Instead, she's got this woman,

Ruth, a Moabite, who is with her. And so, yeah, the people are asking questions. Now these are not gossiping women because we see that even by their response here in chapter four.

These are God -fearing women. So when they ask that question, is this Naomi at the very beginning, they're genuinely like, what happened to her?

What's the story behind what's happened to her? And Naomi's response is, don't call me that for the name

Naomi means pleasant. Call me Mara, which means bitter because the Lord has dealt bitterly with me and has meant calamity for me.

And so how do we see the women responding now at the conclusion of the story? The women said to Naomi, blessed be the

Lord. As though to minister to Naomi and remind her, kind of bring to her attention, look how

God has provided for you. He's not meant calamity for you. And we've seen Naomi come around earlier in the story, kind of at the conclusion of chapter two.

Her eyes are open to recognize what God is providing for the living and those who are left after the deceased.

So blessed be the Lord. He's not left you this day without a redeemer. And the women go on to say, may his name be renowned in Israel.

He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age for your daughter -in -law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons has given birth to him.

So remember once again, Mallon and Killian did not have any children when they were alive with their wives.

There was no children that were born to them. And so Ruth now having provided a son that becomes a redeemer to Naomi, you could have had seven

Mallons and Killians and still not have had an heir to your name. But Ruth, who has given herself for you and has given herself to Boaz has now become one who has provided for you a redeemer worth more to you even than seven sons.

And in verse 16, it says that Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap. So that's the next section here,

Obed becoming a son to Naomi, point two of our text here. Naomi became more than just a grandmother to the son that was born to Boaz and Ruth.

The text says she became his nurse. And this was as if to say she adopted the child to become her very own.

Now, as far as nursing goes, you know, breastfeeding and things like that,

Naomi couldn't have done that. So we're talking about her having adopted the child after he had been weaned.

But then Obed becomes a son to Naomi. It's almost as if Naomi becomes that primary caregiver and raises him up in the training and the instruction of the

Lord. Not to say that Obed would have been torn away from his family, from Boaz and from Ruth.

They probably all live together. But Naomi becomes that primary caregiver for Obed who becomes as a son to her.

So as in part one, there's an action here that follows a response from the women. So in verse 13, it says that a son has been born.

And then in verse 14, we have this response from the women. So here in verse 16,

Naomi took the child, became his nurse, and then we get a response from the women again, verse 17. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, a son has been born to Naomi, and they named him

Obed. Who gives the name Obed? Yeah, the women in the village there. They named, they got to name

Obed. So they gave him this name. And that Obed, by the way, that name Obed means servant.

There's another more popular rendition of this name in the Old Testament, and that's

Obadiah. So Obed is the first part of Obadiah. Now Obadiah means servant of the

Lord because it concludes with that syllable

Yah, Obadiah, which is a reference to God. Just like names that will end in L are also a reference to God.

Gabriel, right, L, means man of God. Ezekiel, which is my son's name, has

L at the end of it. Michael has L at the end of it. So there's a reference to God where there is an L or a

Yah at the conclusion of the name. Now his name is Obed. There's not that Yah at the conclusion. So this doesn't mean servant of the

Lord. It just means servant. And since we see in the context here that Obed is a redeemer to Naomi, the understanding would be that Obed is a servant to Naomi.

That would be kind of the usage of the name. That's why the women give that name to him and apply it in that particular context.

But we see there's even something prophetic about it because this Obed is mentioned to be the grandfather of David.

You look right, continue on in verse 17 there. A son has been born to Naomi. They named him

Obed. And we have this very brief genealogy before we get to the larger genealogy at the conclusion.

David or Obed, rather, was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David.

Obed was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David. David is described as a servant.

So in, where do I have that here, Acts chapter, I'm trying to remember where I had that in my notes, wherever it is,

David is described as a servant of God in the book of Acts.

And then Christ is also described as a servant. So as you have Obed kind of pointing to David, who is a servant of God, Jesus is described as a servant, even in the book of Romans, that he was a servant of the

Lord. And so somewhat in that way, you have this prophetic mention of Acts 4 .25.

Thank you. So say it exactly. What does it say there about David? Right.

So David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit. So it's mentioned there. And then Christ also described as a servant also.

So there you go. Something prophetic about the name Obed. There's something else I was going to mention there.

I don't remember what it was. But to make sure that I'm actually going to finish this week, because we have to conclude,

Ruth, we can't wait until next week. We're done today. So let me mention something here about the genealogy as we kind of bring this to a close.

Look down at the genealogy in verses 18 to 22. Now these are the generations of Perez.

Perez fathered Hezrin. Hezrin fathered Ram. Ram fathered Amminadab. Amminadab fathered

Nashon. Now let's stop there for a moment. So we have 10 generations that are mentioned here in this genealogy.

Now genealogies were very, very important to Hebrews. As was kind of already mentioned, it's a genealogy that will help you to establish whose land belongs to who.

What family do you belong to? What rights and privileges do you get because of the family or the lineage that you are descended from?

Most famous genealogy, whenever we think of genealogy, where does our mind probably go in the scriptures?

To Matthew, right? Yeah, we think the genealogy of Christ. That's an easy one.

It's right there at the beginning of the gospel to establish that Jesus is descended from Abraham, who's descended from David.

Because why? Why is that important to establish? Right, because the

Messiah was going to come through David. So if Jesus is the fulfillment of that Davidic covenant that was made in 2

Samuel 7, well, we have to establish that he was actually born in the line of David. And we see that genealogy, in that genealogy, this one that we have here at the conclusion of Ruth is taken and placed over there in the genealogy that Matthew gives at the beginning of his gospel.

So we see something that's even pointing toward a coming of a Messiah in that way. Now, so again, the genealogy is very, very important to Hebrews.

And sometimes when those genealogies were given, there was a pattern that was established for a particular reason.

We like things exact. You can't leave any gaps. You can't skip any names.

Every single name in a list better be mentioned there, because I'm not going to assume anything that you haven't listed in that list.

That's the way that we think about in our Western world American thinking. But to the Hebrews, it wasn't a big deal for them to skip a generation in a genealogy.

We might think that, you know, you got to take everything absolutely literal. There cannot be any skips there.

But to the Hebrews, that wasn't a big deal. Sometimes the pattern was part of the message that was being conveyed by the genealogy that was given.

So in Matthew's genealogy, you actually have three sets of 14, right?

Fourteen generations from Abraham to David, 14 generations from David to the deportation of Babylon, 14 generations from the deportation of Babylon to the birth of Christ.

Now there's gaps there because Matthew's trying to establish a pattern. Now even here, there are gaps because between Rahab and Boaz, remember that Boaz is a descendant of Rahab according to the genealogy that we have in Matthew.

I'm getting all tongue tied and everything. But Boaz is not a direct descendant of Rahab, not his son in other words.

There's about 200 years in there. So there is a gap. There's a gap in that genealogy in Matthew.

There's a gap in this genealogy. We might think that's a big deal, but to a Hebrew, that wasn't a big deal. All the names are there.

All the names are established. This person was a descendant of that person. There was not a Hebrew word for grandfather.

So when you have, like David was the father of so -and -so, that might be several generations down, that was the applicable word in Hebrew.

We have grandfather, great -grandfather, so on and so forth, but they did not use those words in Hebrew.

So there's patterns that will be established in these genealogies. And in this genealogy, that is the case also.

We have five names and then five names. There's 10 generations that split into five and five.

Can anybody tell me or might be able to recognize the difference between the two sets?

Did I die? Yep. My mic's out. All right. I'm just shouting here at the conclusion. Didn't finish in time.

Anybody see or identify any pattern in the first set of five and in the second set of five?

Do you see anything there? There's an event that separates the two halves.

From Nashon to Salmon, there's something that divides those two, though it's not actually expressed in the genealogy you have in front of you.

The Exodus, right. Yep. The giving of the promised land. That's exactly right. So the first five names, this is all slavery in Egypt and wandering in the wilderness.

You have Perez, Hezron, Ram, Aminadab, and Nashon. But then the giving of the promised land, you have

Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David. So the genealogy is meant to point the

Israelites to recognizing. You were once slaves and God redeemed you.

Through these five generations, you were either in slavery or you were wandering without a land.

And then through these five generations, you have been given a land and now you even have the promise of a king.

Of one who is going to come and redeem his people in this way by establishing the monarchy there in Israel.

So that's why the author of Ruth concludes with the genealogy in that way.

Only 10 generations are given there. There are gaps, but those generations set up to show you, here's where you needed redemption.

Here's where you're provided redemption. And so even in such a thing as this, as we consider that genealogy at the close, we can remember in our own

Christian lives, there was a time we did not have a redeemer. And there was a time now that a redeemer has been given and we have been forgiven our sins.

As it says in Titus chapter three, once you were not a people, but now you are, sorry, that's first Peter two.

Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. And so it is in Christ Jesus, we have become the people of God.

We have been given the promise of a land, which is not an earthly land, but a heavenly kingdom that is to come.

Amen. So even as we read this story of redemption in the book of Ruth, may it remind us of the redemption that we have in Christ.

We're right at a quarter till, let me pray and we'll be dismissed. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what it is that we have been reading over the course of the book of Ruth.

We thank you for guiding us and keeping us in our lives, that in our sin, we did not fall into destruction, but you have rescued us.

You have redeemed us from that pit. You have given us a people and a land and a promise. And so just as you did so for Israel, so you do for us through our

Lord Jesus Christ. And may we see even this story directing our attention to Jesus, that we would continue to fix our eyes on him, even in these days, knowing the promises that are laid up for us in heaven above in glory.

Forgive us our sins and lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.