Ruth Chapter 4
Gilbert Lennox · Ruth
17 May 2026
https://media.glenabbey.church/talks/ruth-chapter-4

[0:01] It's fantastic to have the choir.
[0:04] Thank you again.
[0:06] That was super.
[0:07] Appreciate it so much.
[0:09] Why don't we express our appreciation to them?
[0:19] Now this morning we come to the fourth and final act of this four-act biblical story of Ruth.
[0:29] It's beautifully told.
[0:31] It's mostly played out in Bethlehem about a thousand years before Jesus was born there.
[0:38] The book is called Ruth, and Ruth together with Boaz provides the main action of the plot, but the structure of the book, the way it's written, draws her attention chiefly to Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law.
[0:56] It begins with her, she's there throughout, and it ends with her.
[1:01] So from the way the book is structured, it is clear that the Holy Spirit wants us in particular to focus on what is going on in Naomi's life.
[1:12] This is her story, the story of a woman whose world collapses around her, living in a foreign land, the land of Moab, to escape famine in Bethlehem and try to make a better life there.
[1:26] And 10 years or so go by and her husband dies.
[1:30] And then her two sons also die, leaving two young widows, Orpah and Ruth.
[1:39] We're not told the details.
[1:42] the focus is in on Naomi, and she is understandably devastated.
[1:46] She feels bereft.
[1:49] And when she hears that there's food once more in Bethlehem, she decides to go back.
[1:55] And Ruth, her daughter-in-law, having come to reject the pagan gods of her upbringing in Moab, and come to believe in the one true God, Ruth commits to going with her, despite Naomi's embittered attempts to dissuade her, saying there's no future for her here.
[2:16] So they arrive with Naomi bitter.
[2:19] That's the focus of the first act.
[2:20] Believing that God is against her, in her own words, she left full and came back empty.
[2:28] Ruth now takes center stage in the action.
[2:32] Encourage you to read the details if you don't know them.
[2:36] I'm not going to repeat them here, but her character and her commitment shine through.
[2:43] She's an outsider.
[2:45] She's an immigrant.
[2:46] She's a young widow in an alien culture.
[2:49] But rather than see herself as a victim, she takes the initiative.
[2:53] They have to live.
[2:54] They have to survive.
[2:55] So she finds work gleaning in the harvest fields.
[3:00] This is hard, back-breaking, skin-callosing work.
[3:05] but she's prepared to do it day after day after day.
[3:08] And that initiative leads to a remarkable encounter with the owner of the field she works in, who notices her, notices her work ethic, finds out about her, and is deeply impressed, not just with her work, but with her love and care for her mother-in-law.
[3:28] And so he speaks directly with her.
[3:30] He ensures that she is safe at work, encourages her to keep on working there.
[3:36] His name is Boaz, a man of substance.
[3:40] And it also turns out that he's a relative of Naomi's deceased husband.
[3:46] And when Ruth tells the story of the encounter to her mother-in-law, Naomi perceives that this wasn't just chance,
[3:55] that the hand of God is behind the events because Boaz is indeed a near relative and he's in a position to do what she so desperately needs and that is to redeem the family inheritance and indeed even marry Ruth so that the name of the family isn't blotted out to use an Old Testament phrase but it remains on the inheritance.
[4:23] And I'll say a bit more about that as we go on.
[4:26] So Naomi instructs Ruth as to how to speak to Boaz, which she does, as we were looking at last week, not now as a worker to a boss, but a woman to a man, asking him to be their family redeemer, telling him that she is willing to commit to him as her husband.
[4:46] So her speech is in part, at least the proposal of marriage, how advanced were they back then?
[4:53] Not even a leap year.
[4:54] And yet here she is proposing to Boaz.
[4:57] And Boaz is willing.
[5:02] He just remarks again on the character of Ruth, that she is prepared in order to build a future, not to run after younger men.
[5:13] She's a young woman herself, but to go with Boaz, prepare to marry an older man, have a child with him to ensure the future of the family.
[5:24] There's a depth to her.
[5:25] This is not less than romance, but it is more than romance.
[5:30] But there is an obstacle, and Boaz explains it to Ruth.
[5:34] There is a relative who is closer to the family than he is to Elimelech's family.
[5:42] And he has a prior claim, therefore, under law to redeeming their land.
[5:49] So what's going to happen?
[5:51] And Chris left us last week on this cliffhanger moment.
[5:54] What will happen next?
[5:56] Interesting, at the end of chapter three, Naomi says to Ruth, wait and see.
[6:03] And don't we just hate waiting and seeing?
[6:05] But that's what he has to do.
[6:07] Well, we wait no longer.
[6:08] Chapter four, verse one.
[6:11] Meanwhile, Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian redeemer.
[6:18] Now, I need to explain that he wasn't just going sightseeing.
[6:23] A town gate wasn't where he would sit on the gate with a straw in his mouth as a farmer.
[6:29] Of course, all farmers do that.
[6:31] We know that.
[6:32] That's all they do.
[6:33] And just sit and shoot the breeze.
[6:36] No, the gate of the town was where the council would sit, the elders of the town, those in government.
[6:43] So that's why he went there and he sat down there because there was an area where they would sit and deliberate and come up with their decision.
[6:50] So that's the background to this.
[6:53] And the other relative called here the guardian redeemer.
[6:57] It's a legal designation.
[7:00] In other words, the relative who was closer, who was the first in line to redeem the inheritance, the land and so on.
[7:08] He calls him over, come over here, my friend, and sit down.
[7:11] So he went over and sat down.
[7:13] And then Boaz took 10 of the elders of the town and says, sit here.
[7:18] And they did so.
[7:20] Then he said to the guardian redeemer, Naomi has come back from Moab, and she is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech.
[7:30] I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people.
[7:39] If you will redeem it, do so.
[7:42] But if you will not, tell me, so I will know.
[7:46] For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.
[7:53] I will redeem it, he said.
[7:57] Well, then Boaz said, on the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead man's widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.
[8:12] At this, the guardian redeemer said, then I cannot redeem it, because I might endanger my own estate.
[8:20] You redeem it yourself.
[8:22] I cannot do it.
[8:24] Now, in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other.
[8:33] This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.
[8:37] Sounds a lot simpler than going to the solicitor's office, doesn't it?
[8:40] Just hand over your sandal.
[8:42] I mean, that's very simple, painless.
[8:45] Anyway, that's what they did in the presence of witnesses.
[8:48] So the guardian redeemer said to Boaz, bow out yourself and he removed his sandal.
[8:53] Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, today you're witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion and Malon, that is the two sons who had also died.
[9:06] I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Malon's widow as my wife in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.
[9:16] so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown.
[9:22] Today you are witnesses.
[9:24] Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, we are witnesses.
[9:28] May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel.
[9:36] May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.
[9:41] Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman.
[9:44] May your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.
[9:50] So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife.
[9:55] When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive.
[9:58] And she gave birth to a son.
[10:00] And the woman said to Naomi, Praise be to the Lord who this day has not left you without a guardian redeemer.
[10:08] May he become famous throughout Israel.
[10:10] He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age.
[10:15] for your daughter-in-law who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons has given him birth.
[10:23] Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him.
[10:27] And the woman living there said, Naomi has a son.
[10:31] And they named him Obed.
[10:33] He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
[10:37] This then is the family line of Perez.
[10:40] Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Minadab.
[10:44] Amminadab the father of Nashon.
[10:46] Nashon the father of Salmon.
[10:48] Salmon the father of Boaz.
[10:50] Boaz the father of Obed.
[10:51] Obed the father of Jesse.
[10:53] And Jesse the father of David.
[10:58] So Boaz has a very clear strategy in mind.
[11:04] First thing, next day he goes to the gate of the city where the elders of the city would sit and decide their important matters and he gathers them to him and also the unnamed relative who has the prior right to buy the land from Naomi and redeem the family inheritance.
[11:28] He's extremely well prepared for we see that he has three speeches ready to cover all eventualities.
[11:41] He, I think, would have made a good barrister well prepared before the court so that he knows what to say in court.
[11:50] And in his opening speech, it's remarkable that he says nothing about Ruth.
[11:57] His strategy is to focus on the land.
[12:03] And it was their custom in those days that if land was abandoned or a family could no longer work it for whatever reason, a relative of the landowners could buy it so that it didn't go out of the family.
[12:19] So Boaz explains to the unnamed relative and the presence of the city elders that Naomi having come back from Moab after 10 plus years is selling the land belonging to her now deceased husband and according to law you have the opportunity to redeem it he says and if you don't then I will.
[12:47] Now this unnamed relative, perhaps unknown because he doesn't appear to have had any interest in helping Naomi and Ruth up to this point.
[12:56] But the thought of land was attractive.
[13:01] So he agreed.
[13:03] Yeah, I'll do it.
[13:06] And you can feel the tension rising.
[13:09] This was not the script.
[13:12] What are they going to do now.
[13:17] Well, Boaz is prepared for this eventuality so he has his second speech ready.
[13:24] And he announces now, well, you need to read the small print first.
[13:31] And the small print of this sale is that you must also marry Ruth.
[13:38] That's a condition of the sale.
[13:41] Why?
[13:42] Well, Boaz explains why.
[13:44] because the purpose of this transaction, the sale of the land and also marrying Ruth, is to perpetuate the name of the dead.
[13:56] That is Malon.
[13:58] And of course, before that, Elimelech.
[14:02] Perpetuate the name of the dead on the inheritance so that it wouldn't go in that sense out of the family.
[14:07] The name would still be associated.
[14:11] This was a special provision.
[14:13] the involvement of marriage in it known as Levarit marriage.
[14:17] The idea was that the family redeemer, or guardian redeemer as it's called here, not only bought the land but married the widow.
[14:27] And then their firstborn son would be named after the dead husband in order to perpetuate the name of the dead man in his family and in his inheritance.
[14:39] So we'd carry the name through if they had children, of course.
[14:45] The son would grow up, inherit the land so that he would carry it on in the name of the dead first husband.
[14:52] Deuteronomy 25 puts the reason this way and it's a very interesting reason.
[14:59] It is so that the name of the dead is not blotted out.
[15:09] This is what Naomi wants and what she most desires.
[15:14] Because she and her husband had abandoned their inheritance in the land as unworkable in a time of famine.
[15:23] Now she's back.
[15:24] The inheritance is still there.
[15:26] It's still hers.
[15:27] But how can she make a go of it now as an older woman?
[15:32] Even with Ruth's help, they have no money for seed.
[15:35] the plowing or the cultivating that needs done when you've abandoned land for 10 years.
[15:40] The thing was impossible.
[15:41] She needed to make a decision.
[15:43] She could sell it on the open market.
[15:46] But if she did that, the family name would disappear.
[15:49] It would be as if she, Elimelech, their two sons, had never existed.
[15:54] And in that culture, it would have been a huge embarrassment to see the family inheritance go out of a family, never to return.
[16:06] It's similar, I suppose, in a way to some of those who own huge estates around these islands, wanting to keep the thing in the family and the sense of urgency and opening up the tourists and so on so they can keep the thing going so that it remains in the family and the family name passed down through generations is still there.
[16:27] It's something like that that is going on here.
[16:31] Now it may strike us, who maybe aren't landed gentry, that this is a rather strange thing to do.
[16:39] But I think it speaks to something very profound.
[16:45] The fear, have you ever had that fear?
[16:49] That your name could be blotted out.
[16:55] In other words, that it could be as if you never had existed.
[17:01] That you never made any impression on the world.
[17:04] That your life amounted to nothing.
[17:08] That all you worked for, all you developed, All your inheritance disappears without trace and your name with it.
[17:19] I think all of us have watched in sadness and horror, sometimes on the news when we see people who have invested all their lives in a property, in a business, for example, 40, 50 years gone into it, and then it just one day all goes up in smoke.
[17:36] And it's all gone.
[17:38] And the devastation, the feeling that there's almost a whole of my life has just gone up in smoke and there's no trace of it.
[17:48] I think it raises, at least for me, one of life's biggest questions.
[17:55] And that is, what do we believe about ourselves, about our life, about our short time on this planet?
[18:10] What do you believe about it?
[18:12] And I know it's not something that many people like to think about.
[18:16] They, I don't know what to think about that.
[18:17] I just want to get on with living.
[18:20] I understand that.
[18:21] And I hope that we'll muddle through somehow in the end.
[18:25] But there are times, aren't there, when the question forces its way upon us.
[18:30] Like Macbeth in Shakespeare's famous play.
[18:34] When he learns of his wife's death, it makes him think this way.
[18:40] Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing.
[18:50] Is that true?
[18:53] Is that how you feel?
[18:56] Or,
[18:59] is there more to it than that?
[19:00] Is there a way to ensure that your name is not blotted out?
[19:09] that you have value and significance.
[19:13] It's the thing that drives many artists to produce a piece of work that has longevity, that will hang in museums so that when they're gone, their name remains.
[19:24] It's that kind of ambition.
[19:26] As one artist said, I want to be eternal, not in the sense of living forever, but have a reputation, a name that lasts forever because that's how they see it can be done.
[19:36] But what about the 99.9% of us will never have a work of art hanging in the Ulster Museum or anywhere else.
[19:44] What about your life?
[19:46] What about my life?
[19:48] What does it amount to?
[19:52] The idea that is central to this book, the idea of this inheritance that they abandoned and then came back to and sought a redeemer to redeem the inheritance, that idea explodes onto the Bible storyline when Joshua brought the people into the land that God had promised to them.
[20:14] And he sent out surveyors to divide the land up so that it could then be distributed to the tribes and to the families within the tribes.
[20:26] And it's such an important issue that there are chapters in Joshua from chapters 13 to 21 that are basically entirely taken up with this issue?
[20:36] That's a big chunk of the Bible.
[20:39] This is an important question.
[20:42] And if you use your imagination for a moment, just imagine the excitement, if you'd been part of this, to finally get to the point, after so many years of promise, of journey, of struggle, of fighting in the end, wondering then, Is it ever going to happen?
[21:00] And when it does, which bit of it am I going to get?
[21:05] Each tribe, each family, apart from the Levites, was to get a physical inheritance in the land.
[21:13] Who got what was largely decided by the ancient custom of casting lots, a bit like drawing straws.
[21:21] Who gets the longest straw wins, et cetera.
[21:24] But in this sense, everybody won.
[21:26] It was not a lottery.
[21:29] And they had this belief that behind that process, which may seem a wee bit antiquated and strange to us, was God himself.
[21:41] They believed that the inheritance they received ultimately came from God himself.
[21:50] Some got a bigger piece than others.
[21:52] Some got easier land to work than others.
[21:55] Each was different, but each was seen as coming from God, that God ultimately is behind our inheritance in this life.
[22:09] Is that how you see your life?
[22:15] If I take myself as an example, since I happen to be standing in front of you, I was going to actually bring a photograph of me at the age of four, but then I thought the shock would be too great.
[22:28] I am a bit of my father, a bit of my mother as well.
[22:35] I didn't go bald at the age of 28 as my dad did.
[22:39] I have my mother's hair genes.
[22:42] I know that's a technical term.
[22:45] I have her white hair, not as full as hers was, but there you go.
[22:50] My eyebrows, on the other hand, are very definitely from my dad.
[22:56] And that's why I try and keep them in check, because he allowed his to grow so he could beetle his eyebrows at you and intimidate you, frighten the life out of you.
[23:05] He was a wonderful man.
[23:07] But I try not to do that.
[23:11] But of course, not just from them.
[23:14] Previous generations, There's a long heredity in what it goes to making up this strange thing called Gilbert.
[23:24] And life really doesn't consist, especially in those early years, of a journey of discovery.
[23:33] What is this package called Gilbert about?
[23:39] And I mean, I'm in my 70s now, but I can still remember what is now called teenage angst.
[23:50] Do you remember that?
[23:52] Do you remember when you first got spots?
[23:55] Some of you never had them.
[23:57] Some of you never got rid of them.
[24:02] The shape of my nose troubled me greatly.
[24:07] I inherited that from, I think, my father.
[24:11] I had a very gangly appearance.
[24:14] I was called giraffe in school.
[24:19] I was also, because they discovered there was a hippopotamus called Gilbert in Dublin Zoo, they also called me hippo.
[24:25] So I don't know how a hippo and giraffe work together, but there you go.
[24:30] And all of that sort of probably reveals that I had a certain awkwardness in certain social situations.
[24:39] I struggled with maths and science.
[24:42] I had two left feet when it came to playing football or rugby, just basically a mess.
[24:50] But this is me.
[24:55] This is my inheritance.
[24:59] What do I believe about it?
[25:01] just the results of accidents, of nature, or is the hand of God behind it and involved in it?
[25:11] It's complicated, isn't it?
[25:13] Because there are, I have to confess, not being proud, there are a couple of things about me that I actually like.
[25:19] I know you find that very hard to believe, but there are one or two.
[25:24] But there are a few things I don't like.
[25:29] Darker things, weaknesses.
[25:31] limitations
[25:35] where is God in all of this how wonderful Valerie read from Psalm 139 this morning you created my inmost being you knit me together in my mother's womb I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made what a difference it would make to some of us all of us.
[26:02] To see that our circumstances, our family, our mind, our ability, our personality are a sacred inheritance from the Lord.
[26:15] What you are, what I am,
[26:19] an inheritance given by the Lord.
[26:23] It can be hard to hold on to, can't it?
[26:30] Especially as I used to do and still do occasionally.
[26:34] Why couldn't I be like Charlie, brilliant at both science and sport?
[26:41] Just annoyed me intensely.
[26:43] Or like Richard, whose parents took him on all kinds of exotic holidays and drove sports cars.
[26:50] Or Fergus, who was such a magnet for the girls.
[26:53] And so I could continue.
[26:56] My brother John had a Rolls Royce of a brain.
[26:59] I had a Honda 50.
[27:01] I mean, you know, where's the fairness in that?
[27:03] But that's not the issue.
[27:08] This is the inheritance I am.
[27:14] It's so easy for jealousy and disappointment and bitterness to rise up and for some sense that they don't measure up to this elusive cultural standard and that they are in the end without value and worthless.
[27:30] What a tragedy.
[27:35] And yet what a relief.
[27:36] What freedom comes from realizing that God is sovereign and he's ultimately in control and he knows all about me.
[27:48] Knew all about my genetic makeup and wanted me to be.
[27:58] fantastic
[28:02] as Paul says and what a wonderful statement by the grace of God I am what I am
[28:16] we take it a little bit further into the church New Testament tells us that God has placed us individually in his body, the church, as it pleased him, not as it pleased us.
[28:32] It's so sad when we spend chunks of our life trying to be the person God never intended us to be.
[28:43] We want to be the soloist.
[28:45] We want to be the speaker.
[28:46] We want to be the whatever it is that we admire, whatever we see is somehow more valuable than ourselves.
[28:53] that we spend our life trying to be who we're not.
[28:59] The thing is that the only thing that I will ever be good at and best at, and I used to look around the classroom and look at my results, could try harder, could do better, and all the rest of it.
[29:13] I still have the reports.
[29:15] Heather won't let me throw them out.
[29:16] They're still there.
[29:19] The only thing I will ever be best at is best of being me.
[29:27] That's the only thing.
[29:30] Everything else is smoke and mirrors.
[29:35] David takes the idea even further in Psalm 16 where he writes, the lines have fallen to me in pleasant places.
[29:45] That is the boundary lines of his inheritance.
[29:48] He's thinking back to those who divided up the literal land in Joshua's days And drew their lines.
[29:54] But David is not now simply referring to his material and physical inheritance.
[29:59] And his circumstances and so on.
[30:01] Because in the previous line he writes this.
[30:04] The Lord is the portion of my inheritance.
[30:09] And my cup.
[30:11] The Lord himself.
[30:14] That was what was said to the Levites.
[30:17] The Lord is your portion.
[30:19] And now David is taking it.
[30:21] and applying it spiritually to himself.
[30:24] For something far bigger than land, greater than wealth, greater than any noted physical feature or any outstanding talent, what I've got to enjoy and inherit is the Lord himself.
[30:41] That's a big cup to drink, isn't it?
[30:44] The Lord is my cup, my inheritance, the Son of God, the creator of the universe, mine to enjoy, not just in this life, but forever.
[30:58] And that's what Peter takes up in his letter writing to Christians in the first century who mostly were poor, mostly slaves, living in the margins of society with no human rights, no union to represent them.
[31:11] Life at that physical material level was hard and basically hopeless.
[31:17] Many living in caves, many had their business is wrenched away from them because of their faith in Christ.
[31:23] And he writes to them and he says that you have been born again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead unto a living hope and unto an inheritance that can never spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you.
[31:48] The Lord is my portion.
[31:52] He reminds them, once you were nobodies, as far as this world is concerned, but now you're children of God.
[32:00] You're a new spiritual community.
[32:02] You're a royal priesthood, a people.
[32:04] Listen to this.
[32:05] A people for God's own possession.
[32:12] So it's not just that God belongs to me and he is my inheritance, but strangely, remarkably, I am his.
[32:24] You are his.
[32:26] If you have trusted Christ, you're part of his possession.
[32:30] If I could put it crudely, God gets something out of me and you.
[32:36] Bought by the blood of Christ and presented as a gift to the Father.
[32:40] It's just astounding.
[32:42] Who could ever have dreamt this up?
[32:47] what an inheritance we have but back to our story when the unnamed relative realize the conditions if he buys the land he must also marry ruth and their firstborn would be named after ruth's deceased husband's family and would inherit this land that he's paid for he decides that he can't afford it.
[33:08] He can't afford it because he might end up losing.
[33:15] Interesting, isn't it?
[33:17] Because if I could extrapolate from that out into life, there are a lot of people think like that about coming to Christ.
[33:25] I can't afford it.
[33:27] Too much to give up.
[33:31] I don't want somebody else is Lord of my life and running my life.
[33:36] Maybe that's how you feel.
[33:41] Boaz didn't.
[33:44] He was happy to pay the cost and marry the girl and establish the family name.
[33:58] Remarkable.
[34:01] There are depths to this story right there that make us reflect.
[34:09] Now, Boaz knows exactly what he's doing.
[34:13] He expresses it in his third speech.
[34:17] Makes it very clear to everybody who listens why precisely he's doing that.
[34:23] "I have bought everything that belonged to Elimelech and the boys.
[34:29] Ruth is to be my wife so that I will raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.
[34:41] He knows what he's doing.
[34:43] Paying dearly and selflessly in order to redeem the family.
[34:50] Again, it's impossible for my mind not to go to a greater redeemer.
[35:00] who's done that for me.
[35:05] My name written in...
[35:06] Why would he want to perpetuate the name of Gilbert Lennox?
[35:09] I have no idea.
[35:13] At the cost of his life.
[35:17] While Ruth and Boaz marry, sometimes later they have a child, and they all live happily ever after.
[35:24] Well, that isn't exactly the focus of the end.
[35:26] Not quite.
[35:27] You notice the striking thing at the very end.
[35:29] With Ruth now having a child, you might think the focus of the text would be on her.
[35:33] Yet the focus, once more, is on Naomi.
[35:36] This is Naomi's story.
[35:38] And the woman of Bethlehem could see the deeper level significance for her.
[35:42] First, her redemption.
[35:44] The way they put it is this.
[35:45] The Lord has not left you without a redeemer.
[35:48] And he shall be to you a restorer of life.
[35:51] And at the higher spiritual level, how many of us could say that?
[35:57] He didn't take my life.
[35:58] He restored it.
[36:00] He didn't destroy my soul.
[36:02] He rebuilt it.
[36:04] He didn't take my hope.
[36:05] He gave me a living hope.
[36:08] And secondly, the child.
[36:11] And with that child, a future for the family line.
[36:14] Notice how they express it.
[36:16] It's really interesting.
[36:17] A son has been born, not to Ruth, but to Naomi.
[36:23] And at first sight, it may seem that the book of Ruth ends in a kind of anticlimax with this list of names.
[36:29] It's like a long list of names at the end of a movie.
[36:32] Do you ever stay for that?
[36:34] Well, nobody ever does unless there are names on the screen.
[36:37] You know, wait for my name.
[36:38] Why?
[36:38] Because I was the fourth grip or the best boy or something.
[36:41] I don't know what these terms are.
[36:44] Why don't you stay for that?
[36:45] But stay for this.
[36:47] The story isn't over.
[36:49] That's the point.
[36:50] The story isn't over.
[36:53] Because this son that was born through this remarkable commitment turns out to be the ancestor of King David, the greatest king that they ever had.
[37:05] But it goes further than that.
[37:08] Because this is the royal line that one day would lead to Messiah Jesus being born in the same town.
[37:16] Now Ruth could not possibly have known that that would be the future.
[37:21] How could she?
[37:23] not even a Jewess a Moabite girl outside of all of that and yet came to faith in the God of Israel and found herself caught up in the purposes of God to bring his saviour into the world to bless the entire world that's some story isn't it
[37:47] and you're not Ruth but you're you and the same opportunity is open to each one of us.
[37:59] To sell out as Naomi did.
[38:02] To sell out to Jesus.
[38:06] Remember he said one day that if you want to save your life you'll lose it.
[38:12] But if you lose your life for my name, for me you'll find it.
[38:20] Find your life in him.
[38:21] Sell out to him.
[38:22] Because when Naomi did that, she got the whole lot back and more.
[38:28] Brilliant.
[38:30] And that's the brilliance of this.
[38:33] That through the gospel, we give it all away.
[38:38] We hand it over to Christ.
[38:41] And through Christ, we get everything back that's worth having and with him more.
[38:48] It's an amazing story.
[38:51] As we think of Naomi, bitter, disillusioned, life collapsed around her, and the gentle way of God in restoring her to joy and fullness and hope.
[39:10] You cannot know where your decision to commit to Christ will lead.
[39:18] There is no guarantee of health and wealth and happiness and all your relationships be good and your business goes well and you die at the age of 97 on the golf course having scored a hole in one.
[39:30] There's no guarantee of that.
[39:34] The only guarantee is that the Lord himself will shepherd your steps and will bring you to be with him forever.
[39:48] It's an eternal decision that impacts the whole of life.
[39:56] Shall we pray?
[40:02] As we go away from this place and from this story, Lord, we pray that each of us will take something with us, a bit like Ruth gleaning in the field, that there'll be something there that wasn't there before, that each of us takes into our own life.
[40:24] As was prayed before I spoke, Lord, change us through your word.
[40:31] And for those whose lives are seen to be in a state of chaos and devastation,
[40:41] I pray, Lord, that your Spirit, through this wonderful story, would restore them to a place not where all the circumstances of their life are sorted and everything is wonderful, but where in you they find hope and fullness and joy.
[41:03] bless your word to us for the glory of Jesus Christ Amen