Dark Threads of Providence — Keith Malcomson

Praise the Lord. I want you to turn with me here this evening to the little book of Ruth, an amazing book, and I want you to turn there. We're gonna embark on our study in the book of Ruth. If you wanna find it, find Judges and find 1 Samuel, and you'll find this little book of Ruth sandwiched between Judges and 1 Samuel in a very important position and place.

You know, it says over in the New Testament in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. In other words, the Holy Spirit has breathed out all scripture, not only the book of Romans or Ephesians or the book of Acts, but also this little book of Ruth with its family story and romance story has been breathed out.

It is as much inspired as the book of Romans, and yet they're very different. They have a different purpose, and so the Bible says all scripture is given by inspiration. Every book, it may seem a bit different to you, but I wanna tell you, Ruth is inspired and given by the Holy Spirit.

The Inspiration and Doctrinal Usefulness of Ruth

It is important. Then Paul says why every book is given. He says, and is profitable for doctrine. Every book inspired of the Holy Spirit is profitable or useful for doctrine or teaching. This is a story about a family.

It's all different lives, a small little story, and yet it is profitable for doctrine or biblical teaching. You can teach from this little story. Also for a proof, maybe you'll get corrected as we study the book of Ruth.

For correction, maybe you just haven't been looking at life clearly in the way you should. Your emphasis has been wrong, or you've lacked a certain truth. This little book of Ruth is gonna correct your vision and bring you onto a clear place.

For instruction in righteousness, oh, it's all here in this little book of Ruth. So that's what we're gonna find. We're gonna read from the book of Ruth here tonight, just several short verses I wanna read as we come to it.

We're not gonna cover much of this book tonight, but we're gonna deal very specifically with a theme that's important. I told you last week, don't come if you don't like a sad story. The fact that you're here, maybe you like a sad story.

If I make you sad tonight, I'll make you glad next week and in the weeks to come. But it's so, so important what we're gonna deal with tonight. This is part two of our series, Providence in the book of Ruth.

And my message tonight, listen to this carefully what I'm gonna call this, dark threads of providence. Reading from Ruth chapter one and verse one. Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land and a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.

And the name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife, Naomi, and the name of his two sons, Malon and Chilion, Ephraites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they came into the country of Moab and they continued there.

And Elimech, Naomi's husband, died and she was left and her two sons. And they took them wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Orpha and the name of the other was Ruth. And they dwelled there about 10 years.

And Malon and Chilion died, also both of them. And the woman was left of her two sons and her husband. And then just jumped on a few verses to verse 20 here. And she said unto them, call me not Naomi, call me Marah, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.

I went out full and the Lord hath brought me home again, empty, why then call ye me Naomi? Seeing the Lord had testified against me and the Almighty hath afflicted me. Let's pray together. Father, I do thank you for your grace and your mercy on these messages.

You wanna encourage us and strengthen us. You want to teach us doctrine. You wanna instruct us. You wanna correct us. You wanna rebuke us. Lord God, you wanna raise us up in the teaching of how to live righteously and godly in this world.

And Father, I do pray, oh God, anoint our eyes that we might have eyes that are open to the hidden hand of God. Lord God, show us the reality of your power that you work not only by miracles and extraordinary intervention, but oh God, you're working silently, invisibly, secretly in the most nominal and normal things in our life.

Help us to have faith tonight. You said faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And Father, I pray as we look at providence in this little, insignificant, unnotable family that you would reveal your mighty hand, that you love us individually and particularly, and that your hand is at work on our behalf.

Will you bless your word to our hearts tonight and speak to us in Jesus' mighty name, amen. Amen. And so my message is dark threads of providence. I wish I could just talk about the good, but I can't because the Bible doesn't.

God’s Hidden Hand in Ordinary and Dark Providences

The Bible actually does talk about the dark threads of providence, and it's very important. The little book of Ruth is one of the shortest books in our entire Bible. It centers around the life mostly of two ladies.

It's one of two books on our entire Bible actually named after a lady, which is unusual. So I want you to listen very carefully. This is very carefully inspired of the Holy Spirit. It's a bit different than some other books, but it's meant for you.

You've got to learn the lesson of this book. It has unique lessons that you may not find in another book of the Bible, and it's given to you by the Holy Spirit for that reason. Make sure you understand the central truths of the book of Ruth.

Look what God does in this little book. It deals with the incidental details about an insignificant family. It is utterly focused upon what happens to them, four members in a family who have two other ladies join that specific family.

Four people, a family is very small in the big scheme of things. Do you really think God is caring or interested in your little family? Do you think that God really cares about your insignificant life, going to work daily, romance, family life, whether you have or whether you lack, whether you face disaster or problems, do you really think God cares?

Yes, according to the Bible, it is very clear that God is caught in the life of nations and generations and eternity, but he is also involved in individual lives, insignificant lives, unlikely lives. God is watching, even when you don't realize it, when you can't feel him or see him, when you can't understand him, God is actually there unseen to your eye, reaching out to you.

You could walk in a meeting like tonight and yet not realize God has got a plan in that because he loves you and cares about you and he tells the truth. Remember when Joseph is left in that prison, I want you to see there are dark threads of providence in the Bible, not only nice things, God working to bring about nice things.

Oh no, there's more. God's hand is actually in things that you think are very bad, very dark, and you think they're working against you, but you can't see God's hand in it and that's okay. That's okay, you can't make yourself see this or believe this, but God could have his hand in things that you think, they are gonna destroy me, they're against me, they're on my heels.

No, God's hand is in it. Remember when Joseph is in a prison and he helps the butler and the baker and he says just one thing, remember me, get me out of here. What does God do? God makes the man forget him for two years.

You think that was the devil? It wasn't the devil. You think that was the man's bad memory? No, it wasn't. God actually removed the thought from the man's mind and Joseph is left sitting there for another two years in a dark, cold prison, isolated, deserted, and yet it's God's plan.

This is what I mean by the dark threads of providence that we find even with the Bible in an extraordinary way, an absolute unusual way. You see it all through the Bibles. What about when you come to the New Testament and into the book of Acts, the first history of the church, you read about James being taken as a prisoner, a great man of God, an apostle, a leader of the church in Jerusalem.

What happens? He gets beheaded. Herod has his head cut off. God doesn't intervene. Do you think they're praying? Yes, they are praying. Do you think he had faith? Yes, he had faith. Do you think the church was in revival and on fire?

Yes, it was. And yet God allows James to die and straight after it, Peter gets taken as a prisoner and the same thing is gonna happen to him. And again, the church prays and God sends an angel to deliver him.

Why did God allow James to die and Peter to live? Providence, God had a plan. Do you think there was less faith in James' situation so God couldn't answer and deliver him and let him die? Absolutely not.

But God did have a very real plan. Or what about Moses slaying an Egyptian and then having to run for his life? He thinks he has failed. He feels within him, I've got, God wants me to deliver the people.

He kills one Egyptian and he has to flee out into the Midian desert and he looks after his father-in-law's sheep for 40 years and feels utterly destitute, 40 long years. These are the dark threads within a life.

What would you feel if that happened? I feel I've got a call to deliver Israel. And instead you end up with a bunch of secondhand sheep in the backside of the desert for 40 long years getting a suntan.

These are dark threads and they're all through our Bible. Everywhere you look, David fleeing from Saul's spear. He's anointed, he loves God, he loves the king. He's serving God. He's doing everything right.

And then King Saul brings him into the palace and then tries to kill him with his spear because he's jealous of a 17-year-old. And then spends years trying to pursue him and kill him. You know what King David said?

Do you think he said, oh, I know it's all working together for good, brother. Oh, I know this is a wonderful character building thing I'm going through. Do you know David gets a point where he speaks to God, prays to God and he said, I'm tired of running.

There's only a breath between me and death. What's all this about? These are the great men of faith, you know. And you find it all through scripture. What about John Brown amongst the Covenanters? I love John Brown.

I hope you know about John Brown. He used to arrange the field meetings for the preachers. That's what he done. He wasn't a preacher. He helped the preachers in a time of persecution. And here he is, he falls in love with the love of his life and he's gonna get married and Pedan the prophet is there.

And as Pedan is marrying them, he looks at the wife, don't know what her name was. And he says, keep your burial garments close to you. There's gonna be a short marriage. He says, I see blood on it. A short time later, he's got a couple of kids and the soldiers ride up and drag him out of the house.

And as she stands at the door with the baby in her arms, the soldiers shoot her husband to death, several of them shooting him until he lies motionless. And then he turns to the wife and he says, now what do you think of your wife?

And she says, I think more of John Brown now in his death than I ever did in his life. Do you know what I'm telling you about? There are dark threads within the lives of very righteous people. And yet, because you cannot see providence, you don't see providence at work in dark things.

You cannot see it. You don't feel it. You don't hear it. All you see is darkness. This is against me. This is evil. This is wrong. Is it the devil? Is it my sin? Something's gone wrong. Has it? Has it really?

What about Elizabeth Elliot, that great woman of God? Her husband was 29 years old, part of a five-man team going down to South America. When the Indians are trying to evangelize, spear them to death and kill them.

29 years old. What a short marriage. That happened in 1956. He's the one that wrote, he is no fool who gives his life. Sorry, let me say that again. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

That's why he wrote dead at 29 years old. What a remarkable life. Do you know who baptized his grandson? One of those Indians that speared his father to death in the same river where they died was back there years later and the grandson's getting baptized by his grandfather's murder.

These are the strange things that happen in life. Or in case you think with our present circumstance with Candace, why wasn't she healed? What went wrong? What happened? We believe we prayed. Is that getting too close and personal?

You know, Smith Wigglesworth, one of the great healing evangelists of the 20th century. Revival had just began. His wife, Polly, died, dropped dead on the 1st of January, 1913, New Year's Day. She was 52 years old, one year older than Candace.

Two years after that, Wigglesworth's son, dies in France in the Second World War on the battlefield. That same year, his only daughter is on the mission field in South America and her newly married husband dies on the mission field, all within Wigglesworth's family.

But at that point, he steps out. He's devastated. At first, he wants to die. But at that point, he's so devastated. But you know what? God opens up a door of international travel and he begins a worldwide ministry of preaching the gospel and of seeing the sick healed in extraordinary ways that have impacted the church, not only of our generation, but previous generations and the generation to come.

And so with all of these, I could go on with example after example from the Bible and from church history of the church. And you'll see a lot of remarkable incidents. But here tonight, let me give you my points.

Ruth’s Good Beginning in Bethlehem

Number one, a good beginning. Let's go to the story of Ruth here for a moment. Ruth chapter one. And the first thing I want you to see is a good beginning. Although verse one immediately brings you into a sad story with things going wrong, I want you to step back.

And I believe there's evidence to show there was a good beginning to this story. Let's look at the names of this romantic couple that we begin to deal with. You have Elimelech who married Naomi. This is the couple the story begins with.

They're in Bethlehem of Judah, just not far from the city of Jerusalem. They are a fascinating couple. Listen to what Elimelech, his name means. It means my God is king. Our God is king. You need to realize when they lived.

They lived in the period of the judges in Israel. You remember where the book comes? It comes between the book of Judges and 1 Samuel. Either side of this book, if you look back in the judges, you have people like Samson and Gideon and Deborah, gifted ministries, extraordinary lives, the history of nations and wars.

If you look forward into 1 Samuel, you see the end of that era of the judges. And you see Samuel, that great prophet of God arise. You see the first king of Israel called King Saul, anointed, reigning for 40 years.

Then you also see the young King David arising. So either side of this little book, you have extraordinary gifted ministries that affect nations. But this little book is set in the time of the judges.

And it homes in on this father, this husband called Elimelech. And his name means God is king or God is my king. I believe he's rightly named. I believe this is a hint, he's a godly man. And believe me what I'm about to say in the next 20 minutes, most preachers, commentators say something very different.

I believe they're wrong. They're very negative about this couple. They believe they're in sin. They believe they've made wrong decisions. I wanna give you a bit of a different picture. You see, in the day of the judges, when this family actually lived, when the book of Ruth takes place, it's in the days of the judges.

Remember, there would be apostasy, then revival. The enemy comes in and rules the nation. Then God raises up someone who brings revival overnight. Extraordinary. Listen to what it's like during the day of judges.

Judges chapter 17, 16. In those days, there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Do you see how the judges is marked? There's no king. Everybody does what's right in their own eyes.

Or again, in Judges 21, 25. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. And here you get a man called Elimelech. God is my king. In an hour where there's no king in the nation, amongst God's people, everybody just, it's like our day.

Everyone who comes in this door, everyone you meet out there in the church, nobody has direction anymore. And yet here's Elimelech, a man named denotes character. I believe this is a man who says, God is my king.

Everyone around us are drifting around. There's no king. Everyone just does what's right. Well, I think, I believe, I'm gonna do this. But do you know what? This man, I believe, was rooted in scripture.

Elimelech, I believe, was a true follower of God living in Bethlehem. You see, there's a good beginning to this story. It wasn't all sad. It began well. It began right. You know who he married? He married a little bit of sweetness.

Naomi's name means either sweetness or pleasantness, or it can actually mean God is pleasant or God is very sweet. So here is God is my king. Marian, God is very sweet. But I also think he thought she was very sweet.

I'm utterly convinced. I believe this was a beautiful story of romance. And so you see at the beginning, you have a marriage. You have great hope. I believe there was hope in this marriage. All around them is apostasy, confusion, darkness.

And here's this little home of pleasantness. God is pleasant. If you walk with him, you'll have a pleasant home. You'll have a sweet home. You'll have a sweet life. Just make sure you marry a bit of pleasantness and make sure the God of sweetness is there in your home.

I believe this was a happy home. I believe it was a blessed home. I believe it was a godly home. I believe there was a love story here. I believe there was some romance. Do you know you don't have romance outside of the gospel?

I believe the greatest romantics are some of the most spiritual people that you'll ever meet. I don't believe romance is in this world. Fornication, sexual immorality, hatred, bitterness, divorce. There's nothing sweet about that.

When you come to God's order, you have wonderful, true, genuine romance. I believe this family was distinguished, notable, noticed by God. I believe his eye was on them long before the story ever began.

They were noticeable to people in their community. And do you know where they lived? They lived in Bethlehem, the little community of Bethlehem. The name Bethlehem means house of bread. See that little community of Bethlehem?

It can mean granary or a place that's very fruitful. You'll never lack something to eat when you live in Bethlehem. You'll have everything you need. There's provision in Bethlehem. It's a fruitful place, a blessed place.

It's a house of bread. You'll always get bread in the house of Bethlehem. It's like what the church should be. There always ought to be bread in the house of God. If you find a church and there's no bread there, no preaching, no teaching, no encouragement, no correction, there's something wrong.

Imagine going to the house of bread and there's no bread. It's like going to the church and there's no preaching, no teaching, no fire, no stirring of the spirit of God, no evangelism, something very, very terrible.

And so I believe this story begins in a good beginning in a good way. And I believe this couple thought that they started well. I believe this couple were an enterprising couple. You know why? It says a famine came and immediately they made plans.

We've got to do something to provide for our children. They have got two boys, two sons that they're raising up. They're not marrying yet. They're not looking at a girl yet, but they soon will within a few years.

And you know what? This man, who I believe was a godly man, they may not have been fully mature. They may have been immature, lacking experience, not having gone through the trials of life. I believe this was a couple without trials, without troubles, without a broken heart.

They hadn't been in the fire, but they were godly. But you know what? God's saying, I'll take you through some things, I want to assure you. They had many lessons to learn, but that did not mean they were ungodly.

Remember Joseph? He was very naive at 17 years old. He won't be by the end of the journey. And so we have this couple, they're enterprising. I believe this man Alimelech was quick thinking, caring for his family, making plans.

You may debate whether he made the right decision or not. I wouldn't argue with you. I'm just showing you what I believe the text says. Men add and say it was a wrong decision. Who told you that? Where do you get it in the text?

I don't read it. But I do read of God's hand upon this family. When they leave Bethlehem, a famine comes. When they leave Bethlehem, you know what Naomi says? She left full. They weren't starving. They weren't empty.

They weren't desperate. You know what? They're planning ahead, they're preparing ahead. They're saying trouble is coming. We've got to act now. This husband is saying, act before it's a crisis hour. Move before we don't have a choice about it.

And so you get to see it's a good beginning. Point number two, a constant trail of tragedy. Look with me at verse one. It talks about this famine coming. This broke in suddenly on this young family. Husband and wife, father and mother, two children, two boys who are growing up.

They're maybe into their teens by this time. I don't know. But you know what? Suddenly a famine comes. Do you know why God sends famine on Bethlehem or amongst his people? Do you know why famines come to the church?

The Constant Trail of Tragedy in Moab

Spiritual famines for the word of God. Do you know why it comes? Because of sin. It hasn't been accidental. Why have we lost preaching in the churches right across the Western world? Why can you not find a preaching house anymore?

Or the gospel and the pulpits? You know why sin came into houses where preaching was and we grieved out the Holy Spirit of God. Something actually happened. And then this little story, they are there serving God, living for God, a young family being raised up, but a famine comes not because of their personal sin, the sin of the nation, the sin of the community, the sin of God's people.

Remember in Judges, everyone starts doing what's right in their own eyes and God has to chastise them, give them into the hands of the enemy or send a famine. If we walk into famine, there's a reason.

What is a famine? It brings about a food shortage, an economic crisis, a lifestyle crisis. It is a threat to life. And so we see this famine is gonna drive them in a certain direction. They're trying to be enterprising, to care for their two sons, to do what is right, to preserve their lives, to look after themselves.

Do you know they've got a bit of land and they've got a house and they've got a property, but they don't care about that house, they care about life, they care about food. I wish people in the church did, that they cared more about the bread of life, to be fed, spiritually fed, than they did about their house.

Here's a family that's willing to move away from their country, move away from their property, move away from their family, in order to be at the house or a place where they can be fed. And so we see this famine comes, it's sent because of disobedience in that hour, but it's gonna drive them.

That famine is gonna cause them to uproot and to move away. They left their property. Look at verse one, it says, and they went to sojourn in Moab. The word sojourn means to act as a stranger, a foreigner, a visitor, an immigrant.

It's somebody on a temporary visa. They're not moving there to live. They're not planning there to go and marry like Hannah and others did, and to stay there. Oh no. Do you know what this couple, Alemlek and Naomi, they're saying, we'll just go there for a time, short period, we'll be looked after, we'll go where there's bread, we'll go where there's no famine, and then we'll come straight back again.

We're not leaving things. It's only a temporary move away. They maybe got the neighbors. Make sure you look after the house. We're gonna be back very, very shortly. And so they are here. It's a temporary visa.

They're gonna live here for a short while, or so they think. They forsake their land, but they don't forsake God. Don't think there's an act of rebellion or rejecting God's word. They took God with them.

They believed in God. The entire story shows that. They believed in God. They obeyed God. They desired God. They talked about God. Natural disasters force you to a decision at times. The past two or three years forced many people to decisions that they never thought they would have to make.

Decisions will make you to set the direction of your life in a direction. Fathers, mothers, you better be careful of your decisions. It's gonna affect your children. What you decide, what you do will affect them right down to the third, fourth generation and further.

Your little decision better be made before God. You better be sure when you do something, you are spirit-led and that it is careful because you may live to regret it. It's terrible to look back in life and regret decisions you make.

That's why when it's the time to make a decision, be prayerful, be careful, be slow. Make sure you're in the scripture because when you make a decision, 20 years down the road, you can say, why did I do that?

Too late to change anything. Too late to do it then. And so they moved to Moab. You remember who the Moabites were? They're the descendants of Lot that come out of an immoral action because of alcohol.

So an entire people, they lived at the east side of Jordan and from Bethlehem, it's about 50 miles east. You cross the Jordan and then you have to pass through rugged, steep terrain to get into the land of Moab, but there's bread there.

Can you imagine? God hasn't removed the bread from Moab, but he has from Bethlehem. These are a wicked people, a pagan people, an idolatrous people, a people who don't care about God. There's no famine there.

They've got all the bread that you can eat. They're living in peace. There's no crisis. But over here in Bethlehem, God's little town with God's little people and this little godly family, there's a famine that's gonna drive them and make them make decisions.

I believe this is happening all over our world in this hour in an extraordinary way. So you can be in the world and not of the world. Some people think because they went to Moab, they must have made a wrong decision or sin.

You're to be in the world, but not of the world. It was not against the scripture for a Jew to move into another nation. There was no scripture against that. It's just don't learn their habits. Neither is there any scripture to say that you can't work there or even that your son cannot marry a Moabitess.

There's no scripture forbidding that, as you're gonna see just shortly. But do you know what it says in verse two of our text? It says they continued there. They come in with a temporary visa. We're just stopping over.

We'll rent a property, then we'll go back home. Oh no, this famine is gonna hit hard. When they got there, they started to realize this has taken them in directions they never thought. And they continued there.

In other words, they existed, they lived. They settled down and found a house. They said, this is gonna be longer than we expected. When you leave home, you don't always know where that's gonna take you or for how long.

And they settled down to an extended stay in Moab. Can I ask you something here? Was God's hand in this? Some, most preachers, the best preachers, the best biblical scholars, believe that they were not right before God.

Some believe these decisions were wrong, a mistake. But listen to me carefully. Without these decisions and this move into Moab, there'd be no Ruth. Do you hear me tonight? There'd be no Book of Ruth.

There'd be no story here. If they hadn't have made that decision and moved into Moab, you would never have heard the name Ruth. You know how we have the name Ruth in our culture? It wouldn't even be there because Ruth was a pagan idolatrous name.

And yet it came right into the people of Israel through this little story. So those who go, it's all wrong. This family made a mistake. Really? Are you really sure about that? You see, without this, there would be no Ruth.

This sinner in Moab would not have heard the gospel. The gospel truth would not have been brought to these two ladies that we read about. She wouldn't have been brought into a godly family. And there could be no link between Ruth and Boaz, that great man of God who stayed in Bethlehem.

Notice God didn't move Boaz out to look for her. He stayed in Bethlehem. But there's some extended family go out there. She is, and they're gonna be the link to bring her right in. God's eye is on Ruth.

She's a pagan. She's an idolater. She's grown up in a home and a house that has never heard the truth of God. And yet God's eye is upon her. You know what? He's using a famine. God sent the famine. God knew the effect in Bethlehem.

God knew how this family are gonna get propelled 50 miles out into the community of Ruth. And Ruth is gonna get drawn in on this remarkable story. You know, in this family line, a bit earlier, Rahab of Jericho, another idolatress, she got married into this family.

They weren't all pure thoroughbred Jews. God brought in an ex-prostitute and allowed her to be married into the royal line of David that would bring forth the Messiah. He reached out and he got a Ruth and he began to work in famines and natural family decisions to bring her in to be a part of this royal line.

What about spiritual famines in this hour? You'll say, well, we're maybe on the verge of a famine but we're not quite there. We are on the verge of a worldwide famine. Everything's breaking down. Certain men are causing this.

Do you not know God's plan is in this? Do you realize our entire world has changed in these three years? New world order have their agenda. But I wanna tell you God has an agenda in it because it's stirring everything up.

People are thinking differently. They're moving. We are in a time of spiritual famine. Many have been forced out of Bethlehem, the house of bread. Do you know why? There's no bread there. You know, listen to us, are thousands of people who got forced out of their churches.

They love God. They wanna be in a Bible teaching church but they go to preach and won't preach it. They're not living right. There's things wrong. And multitudes across the world who want a local church, they believe in the local church.

They believe in biblical principles. They believe in being under authority. They've been pushed out into a traveling spiritual life or sitting at home praying, oh God, lead us to a real church. You know why?

Because there's a spiritual famine in our world and people are moving everywhere. They're online seeking and searching. I actually believe God's gonna bring his plan out of this. God has a plan and a purpose.

It's terrible. A spiritual famine is far worse than a natural physical famine. And it's forcing many people to make decisions. They never would have left the house of bread if there had been bread. But they're being forced out of many churches because there was no preacher, there was no righteousness.

And so here they are in the land, they find themselves, they settle down. I'm talking about a tragedy. And you know what happens? Elimelech dies, Naomi's husband. This is at the beginning of a 10 year stay in Moab.

They've moved, he's in enterprising. You know, if he's in like Candace, he builds houses in his brain. You lie down to bed with Candace and starts saying, did I tell you about my design for the room next door?

No, tell me again. Naomi has just lost her husband. He dies in Moab. You know what the first question would be in my mind? Did we make a big mistake? I'm left without a man. I've got two boys growing up in our home.

We used to talk through all these plans and we've only just got here, we settled. Maybe he made the decision and she's going, why did he do that? Maybe it was her influencing him. And I was just going, why did I influence him?

Maybe he wouldn't have died. But her husband dies at the beginning of a 10 year period. Now they are there. It was a temporary move. Now it's a permanent stay. Now she has to endure a foreign land without her own husband.

Think of the isolation, the loneliness, separation, desertion. She's going through mourning. She doesn't have her family around her. She doesn't have her old friends, her old school friends, her neighbors that used to mix with her, talking in her own dialect.

They're not there. She has lost her husband. Don't tell me there's not dark threads in the providence of God within life. There really is. Then it goes further. Her two sons married two young ladies, Moabitess.

I don't believe they are pagan or idolatrous then. I believe these two young ladies came away from their idolatry and embraced the God of Israel. And we're happy to marry these two young men saying, we hear you, we believe you.

We want to be joined. We want to raise kids according to Israelite law. That's what we want to do. There was no ban on marrying Moabitess if they came to believe in the God of Israel, none at all. And do you honestly think that God took a rebel Ruth to bring her into that royal line?

Absolutely not. She was drawn by the gospel. That marriage came about because she is drawn by the gospel. And about the end of these 10 years, we read of the death of the two sons. It gets worse. There's a 10 year period.