Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Isn't Advent season so fun, so joyful and expecting Christ as they were his first coming. As we come each day we live expecting his second coming. Isn't that just as awesome? And we do that today. We're going to come as the psalmist tells us in Psalm 95. 6 oh come, let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
That's who you are. That's who we are. That's how who we are. To come and rejoice, to fellowship, to worship, to lift up his holy name, because he is worthy of that today. Let's pray.
Father God, you are such an amazing God.
And Lord, we are. We are thankful for you, Lord, that you loved us.
And Lord, as we celebrate the manifestation of that love through your son, Jesus Christ, Lord, to be born, to come, to take away the sins of the world, Lord, that by our faith that we can have life with you, that we are your sheep and you take care of us. Lord, forgive us when we fall short even this morning as we come and prepare ourselves to worship you this morning, Lord, that we allow you to search our hearts, Lord, that we would confess our sin to you this morning.
Because we want nothing to be a barrier today in our fellowship as we want to come in one accord to lift up our voices and to praise you because you are worthy. Father, we love you, we thank you. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stay condemned already because they have not believed. In the name of God's one and only Son, this is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but people love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
[00:02:29] Speaker C: Let's pray.
Lord, as we light this purple candle of love, we thank you for sending your son a gift of unconditional love.
Let your love fill our hearts this season and help us to love others as you have loved us. May your love guide us and shine brightly through us in all we do. Amen.
[00:02:57] Speaker D: Today we have a guest with us. If you hopefully heard that before, let me just read some things about him because I'm not going to remember and then he can tell you some more as well. So Dr. Wayne House is a leading evangelical scholar, having authored or co authored or edited nearly 40 books, more than 100 journal and magazine publications, contributions to dictionaries, encyclopedias, study Bibles, commentaries. The list kind of goes on. And he teaches a variety of subjects, including biblical archeology, apologetics, law science, theology, biblical studies. And today, we're just honored to have him with us. And he'll be sharing today on Bethlehem. So the second candle that we light is the love candle or Bethlehem candle, and a unique maybe view of Bethlehem that you have not yet heard before. So let's warmly welcome Dr. Wayne House today.
[00:03:49] Speaker E: Well, it's a privilege to be able to speak here today with you and yesterday. How many were at the talks yesterday? Anybody? Well, quite a few of you. So we're not going to cover the same subject. There's not a lot of archeology here, but there is also some information you might not be aware of.
I decided to do this talk because we're in the Christmas season and what we think of is the place called Beit Lehem or Bethlehem depends on whether you speak English or Hebrew.
And so we're going to give you some information about some of the terminology. We're not sure exactly who wrote the book of Ruth per se, but we do know that it's a wonderful story that builds on historical reality.
And sometimes the words that are used are there deliberately. And if you don't know the language, then you miss part of the story. And so I will try to fill in the places for you.
Also, we need history, because what we find in Ruth is that it's a.
It's right placed in the middle between historical events. I mean, Boaz mother was a woman called Rahab, if you remember that from Joshua.
And we find out, though, that coming from Boaz and Ruth comes another person called a king, eventually called David, eventually the son of David, Jesus himself.
And so you have to have an understanding of some of these historical and linguistic matters to fully appreciate reading the book.
And so I'd encourage you to find some sources that maybe fills in some of the blank spaces.
Well, we're going to take off and deal with this. I should say, oh, well, maybe. I think I have presenter information.
Let me say right off the front. Yesterday I saw it. I shouldn't have been surprised. This guy is a genius.
Because I told him up here, when I went up, I said, you know, I think I had a presenter view in my notes for tidbits that I wanted to say about the book. And I said, but he transferred his to a PC. And I thought, I don't know if you can transfer the other. And it's here. So good. I just look down, I say, well, we got this thing covered.
So I was thinking, I hope I can remember all that stuff that I put down.
So anyway, let's just start it off and talk about it. And there's a reason why I named this talk called the Hidden God, because the God is hidden. In the Book of Ruth, you'll see that there is no activity of God that you observe.
It seems only to be the activity of individuals like Ruth or like Elimelech or someone like that, or what you have with Ruth's mother. It's all these people acting out. And sometimes in our life, that seems to be how it is. We're doing all the things that we do day by day, moment by moment, and our minds are not focused in the middle of all that on God.
We're living our own lives, and God's out here for us to talk to on occasion.
Right? Am I speaking the truth? I mean, we don't always keep focused on God, and so that's what's happening here. And so we need to have that understanding as we approach the Book. And I'm actually going to preach the whole Book of Ruth, but I can't take the time to read it all. But I'll present the ideas that are found within it. The hidden God who is in control is faithful to his covenant. And that says it all. If I actually didn't. If I actually stop right now and sit down, that's the focus.
God is hidden, but he's faithful to what he said he would do.
And that's enough for me. If I understand that truth, it's enough to live on, to know that even if I don't see it all, I know that God is in charge.
But let's move on with the story that we have here. Now that I know I have my little tricker. And that's in there. My goodness. There we go.
I think.
Well, hold it. Aha. I can just use the conventional finger for some reason. It's not doing it.
It's okay. We're all friends, right?
Okay. So the point of it is the first Bethlehem story precludes or it comes before, and sets up the stages for the second Bethlehem story. You know what we find in the Bible, there was a prophecy that Jesus, that is the Messiah, the anointed one, which is what the word Messiah means, Mashiach, is that he would be born in Bethlehem.
And so this Story sort of starts it off, and it ends with what we see in the book of Matthew about the birth of Christ, what we observe. It says that the story of God's eternal Son entered into humanity. And most of us haven't really thought through probably what that means, the idea that God, the person who is God as the Son, he comes into human existence and he takes upon himself the frailties of humanity other than sin.
My wife just finished a dissertation not too long ago. Oh, by the way, I should introduce her. Hello.
This is Irina.
She finished her dissertation not too long ago. And I got into working with her on sort of thinking through it. And it dawned on me that apart from the question of sin, all the frailties of humanity come with Christ.
Something that is not sinful is something that happens in humanity.
And the fact is, what is it that Jesus is feeling in the garden, for example, when he says, father, is there any way that you can let this cup pass for me?
And he prays that three times.
Doesn't he know the frailties of humanity? Says, I understand what my job is, but is there some other way?
He's a human talking to God, even though he is God Himself as Trinity.
And so Jesus had frailties. He got tired, he got hungry. He had to get sleep, sometimes even to the dismay of the disciples in a boat.
And all of these things, the frailties of humanity came on him. And so we look at the fact that we have the story, ultimately, of God's eternal Son moving into humanity, because that's the whole point when you get to the end of the story, is to see what is the lineage that takes place.
Because if it weren't for this connection, we wouldn't understand the fact. How did you get all the way from Rahab, through Boaz and Ruth, to Jesse to David, and then the Son of David? You see what I'm saying? This puts the story together for you. And that's why I like to call it the first Bethlehem story. Because if we didn't understand the first, we might miss the second.
And that's when we're all about to celebrate, assuming that they haven't started putting Easter things in the stores.
And so what we're encountering here, then, is that we find the Son of David anticipated all the way through this story as being the story of the finality. When we think of Bethlehem, we probably don't think of this story, but this is a pivotal story to understand the second Bethlehem, the place of bread. You know, this Bethlehem means a house of bread. And yet we Find out. The story leads us to something else. So let's move ahead.
Anytime you talk about what's happening with Jesus ultimately has to be understood in light of God's work hundreds of years before, by the way, God lives in eternity. You realize that.
And so he's at every single point of history, wherever you get there, he's already been there. And he's there still.
He's eternal in his person in every way. And he comes to a guy called Abram.
Now, Abram, he's living in the Mesopotamian area and he knows nothing but false deities.
That's what they didn't teach in the schools there. Anything about Christianity or Judaism or anything. I mean, the fact is it's a false religion that's being taught. And God comes out of nowhere and says, knock, knock, it's me.
Now, I don't know how that experience would be. I really don't. Because all of a sudden what God says, hey, it's me. I want you to go do something. I want you to go to Haran. And he says, I want to make through you up great people.
And so what he does, he goes to a place called Haran, which is in the area right above where Israel is, not quite in Israel. And he gets there and he has a family, different things that are going on. He says, now here's the problem. What I want you to do is go down and all the pieces of land you put your feet on will be you and your inheritance forever.
Now this is called the Abrahamic Covenant. Now why am I talking about that? Because that if you don't understand this, you won't understand the rest. I've been a teacher for. Well, I started teaching grad school when I was 24, and let's see, I'm 45. Let me think. But the point of it is that you have to learn to put pieces together to make sense of life.
And it just doesn't come just naturally. And so what Abram had there, he said, God said, I want you to go and do this. And he does. And there he receives another name. His name is Abram Abraham.
And there's a difference between the two.
One is the Great Father, and he probably was. But Abraham added a dimension to his life that he had never, ever anticipated. Certainly as a boy, he hadn't thought about being the father of many nations.
Not everybody gets that. But see, God makes his own decisions. We don't make them for him.
And we gotta get that in our heads sometimes.
But the point is, now he said, I wanna Make a covenant with you. Now, I taught about this yesterday a little bit, but there's two kinds of covenants. I'll not get the fancy names to you. You don't have to remember them.
You have two kinds of covenants. The first covenant is called a bilateral covenant. That is, two people come together and say, let's shake hands, make a deal. You do this, I'll do this, and we'll be good. And then connected to that is a question of unconditional versus a conditional covenant. Conditional means if in fact you go through with what you said you would do, I will do it. I'll come through with my part. If you don't, the deal's canceled.
So what we have with Abraham is a very special covenant. It's called an unconditional unilateral covenant. That is, God says, you don't have to shake hands. I'm going to do it myself. I'm in charge. As long as I'm God, which is ever, I will fulfill the covenant. It's going to happen. And he says, it's going to happen without any conditions. Even if you don't follow through, I'm still going to do it.
Now, we don't usually think of it so much that way, but that's what the Abrahamic covenant is. He says, I'm making the deal. Matter of fact, when he cut the animals in two and he walked through Abraham, he put to sleep.
Abraham had nothing to do with walking through the covenant. Why? Because he's not part of the bilateral aspect. It's a unilateral making a deal. This is what's going to happen.
And it's going to happen without any conditions. That is, I'm going to come through. Now, if you don't come through, there may be a problem. I have an illustration. Any of you have children?
You ever bought a bicycle for a child? Yes. If you were to buy a bicycle for a child and you say, John or Mary, this is yours, you can ride it and have fun and so forth. And the kid gets out, he ends up going out and staying out late at night and says, listen, okay, I'm going to take this bicycle away for two weeks.
But you know whose bicycle it is? It's his. I gave it to him.
The point is, I also can control the conditions.
And I'm saying, I'm going to punish you for not being obedient. But it's still your bike.
That's what God does with the Jews. You wonder about the Jews today in the land.
The promise is going to happen. But sometimes God says, if you don't do it, you're on some kind of.
I don't even know what the name would be. We say, you've got two weeks before you can use it again.
And so we have this Abrahamic covenant, which serves as the basis of all the subsequent teaching we receive in the Bible that ultimately leads in Jesus himself being the final one who is of the seed of Abraham, who gives us Galatians chapter three, that there's neither male nor female, there's neither slave or free, and there's neither those who are Jew or Greek or Gentile.
See, he says, why? Because I am the one who is the ultimate fulfillment of Abraham's covenant, which started in this whole issue we're talking about.
So we have the Abrahamic covenant and it has three components. And we have to understand these. The three components. One is that I promised you a land.
And you're going to see that, by the way, in the story of Ruth and Boaz.
And he says, I'm also promising a covenant, a seed ultimately, through which will come the seed of David, which is the last chapter of the book of Ruth.
And then the last thing he says, and through you, this chosen people from Abraham, I'm going to bless the entire Gentile world.
And most of you probably qualify under that one.
Okay, unless you're a Jewish person, you qualify under that one too.
That all started here.
But it was anticipated from this story that we find.
Background to. The story of Ruth is written in the time of David. Now, the story ends with the fact of what? That you have Ruth and Boaz giving birth to people who eventually end up being the son of David. It doesn't say Jesus in the book of Ruth unto Ruth. But it leads us to the story. Because in the time of David, someone recorded the history and the understanding for us.
You understand that you have the time of David that culminates in chapter four. Now, if it had been written in the first century, he could have gone on and done a little more. But as it was, we end with this. So 200 years earlier, in the period of the Judges. Now, the period of the Judges, if you study the Bible, is not a great time.
They have a lot of opportunities, a lot of abilities and a lot of failures.
How many can you imagine being like a Samson?
He's one of the great judges. There's some others. But Samson had supernatural capabilities. He was Superman in his day, except he couldn't fly, I don't think.
But you can't pick up a multi Ton kind of legate and move it up a hill. Probably that woe. Thousands of pounds and you pick it up and carry it away. That's super.
You can't take and take the jawbone of a donkey and kill an entire army. This is capabilities. The fact is, though, Samson never did his job. He was too busy doing other things. There's something to be learned in that. By the way, when God enables you to do something, you should do it and not get distracted. The things of the world can distract us. Anybody notice that one? We can get caught into things that do not fulfill the purpose of God. And we think that we're doing something that's important, but it's not because it's failure to do what God said to do.
Now, there's a lot more that could be said about Ruth, but Ruth is a theological story. I don't know. Some people, when they hear the word theology, it turns them off. It ought to turn you on, because what the word means is study of God. And if you got something else more important, let's talk about it.
Is there something more important than understanding who God is?
I don't think so. So the fact theology is good. I teach it.
And because of that you learn the aspects the Bible teaches us. And the book of Ruth gives us some theology about God. That's why I call this thing the hidden God who is in control.
God is hidden most of the time.
He's not hidden in the sense of his information. Because he gives us a book that if we'll take some time to read it, we might learn some things.
Please understand that reading the Bible is not the daily verse.
I was talking about this yesterday. People have, you know, the verse for today. They're always a little clip. They're always out of context. And they'll never lead you to any understanding.
They're supposed to make you feel better. You'll feel better if you understand the Bible by actually reading it. Instead of little clips. They don't do the good. So the fact is that when we read the Bible, we begin to understand who God is. And by that I mean read it seriously. It wouldn't hurt to read a chapter and you would get a lot more out of it than you would out of reading a verse. So the point of it is it's a theological story and it teaches us something about God is faithful to his covenant. Remember the covenant I just mentioned, the covenant with Abraham?
God actually gave that before this period of time. And they were experiencing that fulfillment in their own lives. These people were Talking about. But it continues on because there are failures of the Jewish people in the period of the Judges. There's a failure of the Jewish people in the days of the Kings.
You know, there's separation of the nations during the days of the Kings. There's the Babylonian captivity in the days of the Kings. You know, we have all these things in which God is having to take away the bike.
You got my story now, right? What happens is they keep breaking the rules.
And God says, okay, you can't use the bike for two weeks.
You can't occupy the country I promised you for 100 years or whatever it is. God says, I have conditions for your use, but I will be faithful to the covenant I made.
You understand the difference, right? God says, that's yours, but it's going to be a little bit of cursing time. That is the curses and blessings of the end of Deuteronomy. He says, if you do this, I will bless you. There will be no famines. There will be no army that can take you. You will have a great life. Things will be wonderful. But if you don't, what do you get?
You get the curses. And what that means is not how we sometimes use that term. It's the fact that you're going out to be with famine.
You're going to be overtaken, you're going to be punished. But he says, that's okay because you're going to come back.
And that's what we have. The move between Ruth and the move between Jesus. God continues to keep his covenant, keep the people do what he said he would do. And hopefully people will become better now.
So God is faithful to those who are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Bajan.
So the story of youth, then. What do you find?
That Ruth is in the period of the Judges, like a diamond among lumps of coal.
The period of the Judges is a dismal, terrible time of disobedience in which you have people being given charges who do not follow through.
And yet in the midst of that whole problem, it's sort of like Abraham in the pagan lands. In the middle of that whole problem, there's one little story going on about a woman by the name of Ruth and a man by the name of Boaz.
That sets the stage for another development that God has in mind. See, God isn't taken by surprise.
He knows what's going to happen. Now you have a man whose name is Elimelech, okay? Or Elimelech. Some people say Elimelech is a term in Hebrew which means, my God is King. If only that is true.
My God is king. And yet I sort of run my life.
Well, and then you have a wife whose name is Mara. No, it's not Mara. I'm sorry, I can't even think of her name now. But the point of it is his wife and her name is someone who is pleasant.
The name means pleasant. I can't think of the name right now. Huh?
Naomi. Naomi. Oh, yes, that's it. Thank you very much. I should tell you that I was getting over a surgery from about March 1. It takes away your memory. Occasionally it's a crazy surgery, but it's a five hour one and they put anesthetics and all of a sudden it separates little synapses in your brain.
So I usually can get past it. But anyway, the point of it is you have Naomi, which means pleasant. Later on she's called Mara, which means I'm bitter.
Well, that's quite a step to me being pleasant and happy about things and to be absolutely turned off, I'm bitter.
And of course you have my God is king, who actually dies over there.
And so you have Mara coming back. So that story is actually a little diamond of Ruth and Boaz in the midst of all these problems.
So in the days when the judges ruled, did you ever like books, you know, that actually have great beginnings, like it's not about you?
Huh? Rick Warren had that one in his book or Tale of Two Cities.
It has a statement about, you know, the whole issue of the French Revolution. They have some words that are interesting and books I like to write and trying to get the interest is important.
So it starts out in the days that the judges ruled. I have a framework. There was a famine in the land.
Now they left a place called Bethlehem. And Bethlehem means a house of bread. Now that's so ironic to me. You leave the house of bread because there's a famine and you go to a pagan country where you have child sacrifice.
I mean, that doesn't seem the best place to go. When I think about not too long ago we left Oregon, went to Texas, my place of birth and where I lived many of my years, and taught several years there at places like Dallas Seminary and places like that.
I went back to Texas, my home, so to speak.
But if I went from one place to another place, it was even worse.
That wouldn't be a good move.
And so they went to a pagan land to get away from the house of bread.
And so they go over there, this place called Moab. They went with two children whose names I Won't even go into. Let me just say it means you're sick.
The names of the children are named like that.
But when they get there, they find in the land which, as I'm giving you a picture of here, they moved from the place called Bethlehem, or Bethlehem near Jerusalem, about six miles from it.
And they took this little circuitous route across the top and they went all the way down into Moab. And again, Moab is not a nice place. It's a pagan land.
And once they get across over this Dead Sea in the Old Testament, sometimes called the Salt Sea, that sounds better than the Dead Sea, but that's what it ends up being called. And so they get over this place called Moab.
And so we have this move of family moving. This is their station wagon as they move across the area or maybe some kind of other kind of larger or something to go in. They went over on the camel and everybody walking and traveling on top. And he and his wife take their sons, Mahon and Chilion, over to Moab.
Now, notice it says that when they get there, they meet some women, which is very common for boys.
They meet two women, one by the name of Orpah.
I don't know, I don't seem attracted to that name.
But if you were over there desperately wanting somehow to find a woman to marry, you're over in Moab land and there's Orpah and Ruth. And so they get married to Orpah and Ruth. Now, Orpah and Ruth both seem to be nice people by and large, because you have the children die and the husband's dead and the mother is left with nobody.
But now you have two wives or daughter in laws. And, well, Naomi is not dumb in this story.
She's by herself and two daughter in laws. And she's thinking, you know, it may be this was not the best move. This was not one of. This is not one of Elimelech's best choices for us. And she says, I think I'll go back home, maybe where the bread is. Because by the way, the famine had passed in Israel, they should have stayed around a little longer, but they left it and they went to Moab. And now she's got to say, I got to get back to the land of bread.
And so what happens is that the two daughter in laws, one says, I'll go with you. And Orpah decides to stay behind.
It's fascinating to read Ruth's comments. And many of us in reading this have thought, wow, what a person seems to have a tremendous Character, do you notice?
She says, you know, I'm going to give myself to taking care of you and your people, the Jewish people, not Moabite, the Jewish people.
I'll become part of you. And she does and says, and also, not only will your people be my people, but your God will be my God.
So this is a movement that you see in the story in which you find the kind of character that you find of Ruth. We named the book Ruth, you notice, not Naomi or Mara, because it's the character of this woman. Even with Boaz, he doesn't get first billing, you know, at the show, right across the top, it's Ruth, not Boaz.
We have a person of tremendous character because Naomi said, go back and go back to your family. It'd be easier for you to go back. And Ruth is not interested in the ease. She's interested in the taking care of her and adopting another God, which is something that all of us had to do at one time.
You know, before you became a believer, you were under the control of another God with a small letter. You know what I'm saying? A small letter.
Because Satan is the God of this world.
Am I right?
That's the reason I say that. Maybe I maybe think of my theology a little more. No, I thought it through. The fact is that Satan is the God of this world. And if I'm not serving the true God who created the universe, then I'm serving the one who has actually tried to take it over and will ultimately be unsuccessful in doing so. Does that all make sense to you? I hope my big theology class is coming through some. The fact is that we need to get a perspective.
When she was in Moab, she was worshiping another deity.
When Ruth came with Naomi, she adopted the God of this universe.
See, that's what we see in the story. And so she goes along with her and the Count. And so we have Orpah kissing bye bye and Ruth clinging to her.
Now let me move ahead a little more. I'm watching time. I only have 10 more minutes, I think. Right? Is that right? 10, 15, something. I can do it.
So the fact is, we have them going there, but something important happens in the process. You have the disposition of Naomi changes, and that's why she develops this name. When they're around the well, women in the ancient days used to draw water and they would go down to wells. You're familiar with the woman at the well with Jesus and Samaria, and this was a practice. So you have Naomi and you have the other ones. They're down there at the well and they call her, oh, Naomi's back. And she says, don't call me Naomi Pleasant.
Call me Mara.
I'm bitter. That's what she did. She says, I have a disposition change.
But what happens is, guess what? The one that clung to her began to change her attitude because Ruth seemed to be a genuine convert.
There's a difference between a fake and a genuine.
There are some who talk about Christianity and don't seem to follow it very well.
And so Ruth is an indicator of someone who truly knows how to take the load upon her to become what she says.
And so Naomi says, myra, I'm very bitter. But Ruth makes something that's worth losing your bitterness.
And that's what happens with Naomi. She changed her. By the way, if we are genuine, we can actually change people's thoughts and mind and actions. I think that's true. We can lead the way instead of them. We can be the ones that make the difference instead of them.
We have to be faithful in all of this, and we have to know who our God is in all of this.
Now, as I'm moving through here, there's a story then that develops, and that is that Ruth figures it out. We need something to eat. Now, I can respond to that. I understand that when you get hungry, you gotta figure a way to get the food.
And so what happens? She says, well, why don't you go out and. Because in the laws of Israel, you had a certain right, by the way. It's not like our system today. We need to take care of people that don't have food. So let's take it to them.
Israel had another policy.
If you're hungry and you need food, you can get some. You have to go work and get it.
It's there. You just have to go get it. By the way, that's a good idea. I'm not going to get into politics, especially in California.
I've read the newspapers. But nonetheless, if there's someone in need, I say we help. But they need to do the exertion because they will maintain a certain sense of dignity if they have to work for what they get, free even. Does that make sense?
I think this is actually a good policy that yes, you can get it because you don't have any, but you have to go and work and get it and bring it back. So that's what happens in Israel, because now the famine's over, things are. Well, the crops are growing and there's plenty of food for everyone, for those that own it and those that are providing it for those who work to get it. So that's where we are.
And so we have this man called Boaz, who came from Beit Lachem, the house of bread, and he said to the reapers, yahweh be with you. Now, I'm going to mention this to you, and I'm not going to try to make it law, but I make it a point. I have a visual study Bible some of you know about, and if you can go look at it, I use the World English Bible in that on the Internet because I like how they translate things. They tend to stay with the text of the Hebrew and Greek.
And so what you find is they use the name Yahweh, which in Exodus 3, God said to Moses, he said, you're going to go to Pharaoh. And when you go, you tell them that Yahweh sent me.
And what that means is yahweh is the third person singular of another word. The word is the concept of.
I can't even think of the word. Now. See, this happens to me.
Huh?
Oh, yeah, I know it's I am, but I'm trying to. Oh, et yeh. Escher eh. Yeh. Okay. I had to think on it for a moment. The Esher. Esher. Esher ehyeh. Escher ehyeh means I am who I am in Hebrew. I do know Hebrew, actually. And so the fact is, this is, I am who I am. And the third person singular of that ehyer, Esher ehyeh. I am is, he is. We affirm what God says to be true. I like the term better, so I like to use Yahweh because that's God. He says, when you go, this is my name forever, for all generations. And as far as I can tell, we're still there in the generations that it is. So if it's for all of them, I'm going to use it. Since he said this is my name forever. Okay, I could go with that. So here he says he is, Yahweh be with you. And Yahweh bless you. Boaz is a good guy. You can tell by his disposition, his. His attitude, the way he spoke to people. And even with the time when he got to the fact he got the. Well, I won't use that term. That's.
I don't think I'll use hots. But he really got intrigued with this woman called Ruth.
And he says, you know, I've seen a lot of people come to my fields who needed food, but I haven't seen one like you. I don't know if he said that, but that's sort of an approach.
He's infatuated with this woman. And so what he does, he does something interesting. He actually goes down to the city courthouse, which is, by the way, if you read in the Bible, the gates of the city is a place that the court met. We have courthouses they had at the front of the gates. If you go to a place called Tel Dan, everybody had been to Israel and gone to Daniel. If you go to Dan, when you go into the city gate, there is a place that the ruler of the city or the king or whatever sat, and they still had Dan, the whole construction. That way you can see where the guy sat. So you go and you have city council meeting.
And what he did, he took off his shoe and he said, okay. It was a statement of the fact that I'm serious, really about this. I want to buy the land.
And the reason why is because he wanted to buy the heritage. The Liverit law says about taking care of the widows and those in distress.
And so here you have this fine young woman, and we can take care of Naomi, we can take care of her. And I want to go through this process. And so he gets a city court stamp the approval where he can move ahead. And. And we have this wonderful story of Ruth and Boaz.
Now I'm going to follow through because I am looking at my time.
But the fact is, you find that Ruth says, why have I found such favor in your sight that you should take note of me, a foreigner? And I'm sure Boaz said some really nice things. He said, it's been fully reported to me all that you have done for your mother in law since the death of your husband and how you've left your father and your mother in the land. In other words, I have become aware of your character.
Now, isn't that the best way you should go if you're gonna decide to go with someone and marry someone, find a person of character. Why should you go through life fighting when you can find someone who has good character? And that's what Boaz encountered here and says, Yahweh, repay your work, she says, and a full reward be given to you by Yahweh, God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.
And she said, let me find favor in your sight, my lord, for you've comforted me, have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of yours. In other words, she said, she's a humble person. Well, the story goes on, and I'm going to move it through is because you have these movements that are. You don't have a strict reference to. You have the recognition of God, but you don't have God shown as acting. I want to make that point. We can speak about God all day long. The question where is God acting in our lives?
You very seldom actually see God acting.
I know there's times in which you have certain kinds of special people have a certain sense of revelation or some kind of thing. I had a situation. I'm not going to go into it, but I had a situation where I had something. I think I had maybe even an angel come by. The Bible says in Hebrews that we know that the angels are at work unawares.
And so we don't know that God forever. I mean, go all the way back through the Bible and even to current days in which God sends angels to do certain things. And then you come saying, how did that happen?
It can't occur. I mean, the guy that helped me, all of a sudden, he was helping me. I turn around and say, I'd like to thank you for this. And he's gone, and the truck is gone. How could he do that? I don't know. But whatever happens, God is involved in taking care of us. We just simply may not be recognizing it. Do you understand that? And so you have this situation here where God is not necessarily always evident, but he's always there and he's in charge and he's bringing about the world that he wants to do. He does everything the scripture says, everything after the counsel of his own will. Do you notice? God does not act according to my limited and very faulty wisdom.
We sometimes think we have such knowledge and such skill and understanding when we have so little understanding of the world around us. We make guesses here and there. We think things are such and they may not be. So the point of it is God's in charge of every detail of the universe. And thank God that He is all present and all wise and he knows how to put together his own world.
And so here in Ruth, we get a depiction of that, that Ruth and Boaz do not know the major characters of this book.
This is written later.
But we are seeing in Ruth and Boaz and these events the fact that God, who is hidden, is nonetheless in charge.
He always brings it where it should be at the end.
And so we find that this happens in this book and they get together and everybody is happy ever after. And I'm not going to go into all these things about this, I'm going to move toward the end, because after we move here, I want to move to the fact that you have a scene now.
I'm going to get there.
Okay, here it is, the conclusion.
So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Isn't that a great story? This is better than Cinderella.
And when he went into her, Yahweh gave her conception and she bore a son, Obed.
Then the women said to Naomi, or Naomi, blessed be Yahweh, who has not left you this day without a close relative. In other words, you don't have to be Mara anymore.
You don't have to look at the world in a dismal fashion. You don't have to say, it's all lost. When I lost Elimelech and my son's life ended, say, you know, it still goes on. God has provided something else for you. And so when we lose a loved one, it's a terrible situation. I know that, I've experienced that. But the point of it is that's not the end of God's workings in the world.
He's still there. And he provides a way to move from pleasant to even excited, and certainly not to dismal Marah.
Then the woman said to Naomi, blessed be Yahweh, who has not left you this day without a close relative. And may his name be famous in Israel. And it was. And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age for your daughter in law who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons has borne him. Isn't that a great statement?
So Naomi took the child, laid him on her bosom, became a nurse to him. Neighbor woman came and said, there's a son born to Naomi. Not it wasn't her, she's still the mother in law, but son born to her called his name Obed. He is a father of Jesse, the father of David.
So the person at the time of David was writing this story, and he ends the story and he says, this is what God did behind the scenes. And nobody anticipated that this would happen this way.
So may I say, the hidden God is in control.
And we have no reason to question when God is in charge. Let's pray.
Father, we're just so thankful that you have given us such good stories that are true stories. The best stories are true.
And you've shown the fact that you have worked in in a world that's difficult for us, but one that is something you're in charge of and you will bring it about. To our good and to your own glory, we ask, Lord, that you be with each of us today as we seek to follow you and to know you in a better way.
And in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, we pray. Amen.
