Valley Lights Church Podcast
A Story Only God Can Write- The Book of Ruth- Chapter 2- Hopeful Encounters
Good morning, welcome to Valley Lights Church. Glad to see you're all here today. Do you believe that some things happen by chance? Do you ever think that there's some things that are coincidence, maybe something just randomly lines up, or do you believe that there's a God and a Creator behind each and circumstance of your life? Whether you believe in God or not, some of you may have been believing in God for years and some of you are maybe figuring that out, but either way, most of us, in just our common everyday American language, usually use phrases that seem to indicate a belief in chance. So you might say something like, "The weather's great, we got really lucky." You're like, "Oh, we got lucky." So is luck a chance thing, or you might say that relationship fell apart? It was just never meant to be. Something being meant to be was that, well, is that kind of a fortunate thing? Or you might say, "I was out on the water, and fortunately my sunglasses got knocked overboard." So if something happens, unfortunately, is that related to God? So we use these phrases that indicate things happen, and maybe there's a designer behind it, maybe not. What about if you find a really great parking spot really close to the front of the store? Does that happen by chance? Is that just a random accident? Has anybody ever praised God for a great parking space? And you're like, "Yes, I've never heard anyone thank God for a full parking lot, or he had to walk far, far away, though." You're like, "Oh." But doesn't he actually pick whether or not you park close or park far, or you know we should praise God? I don't know. It makes you think I went to a wedding last summer in Newport, on the peninsula, Balboa, and the parking was, it was a Saturday wedding in the middle of summer, and I had to drop off the errand, because we ended up circling with my kids for like 45 minutes. We missed the whole wedding, actually, and made it in time for the reception. And as I'm circling and just going up and down the street, we ended up, about a mile and a half away, took a trolley to get all the right, and then had to walk part of the way. And you know that situation that really tested my faith and my love for strangers, because there were a few times when people just snuck right in, and I'm like, "Okay, God, are you working some things out of me?" Because my real faith was on display in those moments. So it makes you wonder, is this all random, or is God in charge of the big things? Is He in charge of these really small things, too? Is God only in charge when the good things happen? My name is Bruce. I'm the lead pastor here, and we're reading one of the most delightful stories in the Bible. In my opinion, it's a lot of fun. We're really going to see the way that God is involved in the lives of very ordinary people, working through their joys, and even some of their devastating hardships. So over four Sundays, we're reading through the four chapters of the book of Ruth. And as you watch Ruth's life unfold, you realize her life is a story that only God could write. And even the tragedies faced by her family are so horrible in the moment, are woven into God's much bigger story of redemption for the entire world. So last week we read chapter one, today we're in chapter two. But let me give you just a quick recap, in case you missed last week. The story starts off with a man named Lemelek and his wife Naomi. And they take their two sons and move away from Bethlehem and to a foreign country Moab, which was typically seen as one of the enemy nations to Israel. And they were there for about 10 years, really because there was a famine in Israel. They were there about 10 years. The two boys grow up and marry Moab by women, foreign women. And right away, right at the beginning of this chapter, the tragedy strikes really heavy because Lemelek, the father, the husband dies, and then the two boys die also. And this is terribly devastating, obviously, because this woman Naomi, she just lost her husband, lost both of her sons. And chapter one really is full of bitterness. You just kind of soak and sit in this feeling of bitterness that just oozes out of Naomi because of this devastation. She only has her two daughters-in-law left. She plans eventually to return back to Bethlehem, but she tells her daughters-in-law who she really does have affection for. She says, "You need to stay here in Moab. Don't come with me to my country. Life is going to be much better for you if you stay." And what happens is one daughter, Orpa, does stay in Moab, but Ruth will not leave Naomi's side. She displays incredible love and loyalty. And so what happens is the two of them, they travel just Ruth and Naomi travel back to Bethlehem together. And it's, you know, with all this pain and bitterness, it sort of ends on a low note. It's very distressing. Naomi thinks that God is against her. She renames herself to, you know, just a woman of bitterness, and she really thinks that God is punishing her. Number two, where we start today, things begin to take a more hopeful turn. So I want to jump into this story. We're going to look at this. So let's read chapter two, verse one. It says, "Now, Naomi had a relative on her husband's side. He was a prominent man of noble character from a limulex family. His name was Boaz." Okay, so chapter two, here we go. This is a new chapter and there's a new character now too, Boaz. And honestly, when you read it, if you're in this story, it kind of, the beginning of chapter two kind of feels like the beginning of a chick flick, I think. Because you know, you've got Naomi strolling into town with her daughter-in-law, Ruth, a beautiful, lonely, you know, just woman who's just poor and vulnerable. And then this next scene, you've got Boaz, a prominent man of noble character, who happens to be from just the right family. And he's a good man. It kind of reminds me of a movie like this. You know, it's just like, you can almost see, you know, the movie poster for the opening of this scene. What's this movie? Is it the better one? You can say yes, I'm saying no. And if you don't know what we're talking about, you need to go watch both versions of Pride and Prejudice, okay? So here we go. We've got the opening of this story, Boaz. Just great man, you're like, "Ooh, who's this, who's this, you know, amazing guy?" He's mentioned, "You can't help but feel a spark of hope for this fortuitous new character." So the next verse, it shifts back to the women at home. And here we go, it says, "Ruth, the Moabite Tess, ask Naomi, will you let me go into the fields and gather fallen grain behind someone with whom I find favor? Who will that someone be? I wonder." And Naomi answers her, "Go ahead my daughter." So Ruth left and entered the field. Oh, actually, I stopped there. What happens is, here's the situation though, you need to understand is they need food. So these two women, Ruth and Naomi, they are probably very poor. And now they, in this culture, you know, you really need to depend on either the husband or your sons to work, to take care of you, to provide inheritance, all that stuff, and they didn't have that. So they're sort of in a pretty desperate vulnerable situation and probably without food. And someone needs to do something if they're going to survive. So what Ruth does is she's asking, with this request, she's asking to go, "Glen, green, this is the beginning of the barley harvest." And what she's wanting to do is you can't just go into someone's field and start taking their food, of course, but when the harvesters are going through, if they drop any of the grain on the ground, then there is this process where you could go behind them and just pick up whatever broken or like less desirable things that fall on the ground. And this is actually something that God had commanded the Israelites to do. Way back in Deuteronomy 24, God commanded them. He says, "When you reap the harvest of your field and you forget a sheaf in the field, don't go back and get it. It is to be left for the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow so that Lord your God may bless you in the work of your hands." God said, "Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, therefore I'm commanding you to do this." So there should be this accepted practice where people who had agriculture should let these fallen forgotten parts of their harvest be available to those widows and people in these real desperate situations. So Ruth is asking if she, if Naomi will allow her to go, see if she can find any. And most people who work in agriculture would normally protect their crops, you know, this is what we do nowadays, you put fences up and surveillance cameras. But God really instructed his people to live differently than that. He God had always provided for Israel and he didn't want them to be greedy. And so this was a command that I think allowed them to live with tender hearts and compassion for people. And so the other thing that I just wanted to point out about Ruth's request is she asks Naomi to do this. And it kind of sparked, in my mind, a principle that I've tried to live by when it comes to working with your leaders. It's a pretty general good principle to ask, don't tell, meaning if you have a plan that you want to do, don't just tell your leader you're going to go do it, ask them. And this is really in line with some of the commands that we get in the New Testament about submitting to those in authority over us, to masters, to employers, even to government officials, or husbands, if you're a wife. And so I think it's worth highlighting because it really displays some of Ruth's really good character. It's a desperate situation. She could have just said, Naomi, I'm going out, I'm going to go find some food, but with a proper attitude of submission, she asks, Naomi, would it be alright if I do this? And I think this is a really, really great principle. When it comes to working with any of your leaders, actually, it's even hardest to do this. If you're a leader, let's say it's a boss, or you're in a relationship with somebody where there's a pretty warm relationship there, it's easy to just, as a follower, just assume I can decide some things for myself. It really is good. Even if there's a good relationship, it's just still maintain this attitude of humility to ask. Anyway, that's just a highlight. Let me go on to the next verse here, though. Verse 3, it says, Ruth left and entered the field to gather grain behind the harvesters. She happened to be in the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from a limalax family. And I've highlighted, you can actually underline your circle in your notes, that phrase happened to be. This is a really interesting Hebrew word, if you look at where this word comes from. It's translated in other parts of the Old Testament as by chance. This word means a lot of different things. Hebrew, the language tends to be less precise than English. So a Hebrew word can have a ton of shades of meaning in English. Greek, by the way, which the New Testament is written in is a lot more precise than English. So a lot of times, the Greek is very dialed in and English has a hard time landing on that. But what happens here is you read it and you think, is it like by luck that she just happened to be in Boaz's field, is this kind of like good fortune, is she just a lucky girl? And it kind of makes you think about, is God behind this or not? And if he is, why didn't I just say that? So you look at this story and you think there's just a, it seems like maybe there's just a bunch of coincidences lining up. It just so happens that they arrive at the beginning of the barley harvest, perfect timing. It just so happens that she lands in Boaz's field and Boaz just so happens to be a relative of Naomi and he just happens to be a man of noble character. I mean, this is quite a string of coincidences, right? Like everything's just lining up here. God is the one lining all these things up. It doesn't say that and you know, after the death and the tragedy of chapter one, this barley harvest, you know, the timing here, it's really a hint that God has been writing a much larger story all along. These things seem coincidental, you're like, oh, they just made a decision here, but God's planning is, I believe, very meticulous. There's precision in the way God is leading this story down to every detail. Even in the midst of little daily decisions, just choices that the women make. And it makes you wonder why isn't God mentioned? Why is it written this way? I mean, why didn't this verse that we looked at a moment ago, why doesn't it say, instead of she happened to be in this field, why didn't it say God led her to this field? God's not even mentioned by the narrator in the book of Ruth at all, which is fascinating. If the characters do refer to God, Naomi refers to God in very negative terms in chapter one, but the narrator never says anything about what God is doing. And somehow God is in every scene still weaving together all the circumstances, weaving together even the choices of people. So, you know, I'm not, to be honest, I'm not totally 100% sure why it's written this way, but I do love the way that God wrote the Bible, and he had the Bible written as he inspired men to write, because it's written with such beauty and poetry and creativity. It's fun to read. There's parts of the Bible that are so interesting. The Bible is not like reading an owner's manual for a vacuum cleaner. It could be. God could have just totally made it so boring. Do this. Do that. Plug this in here. You know, replace the filter. No, like God draws us in to the stories, and I love that. And sometimes it takes a lot of work just to figure out what's being communicated, but the process of that is pretty enjoyable too. I think God really draws us in to stories, and we get really inspired seeing how there is a much larger picture of redemption happening and unfolding. So if you look at verse four, it says, "Later when Boaz arrived from Bethlehem, he said to the harvesters, 'The Lord be with you,' he's greeting all the people working in the field, and 'The Lord bless you,' they replied, which is a great greeting. You see a little bit more of his character, the way that he's a God-referenced man. And Boaz asked his servant who was in charge of the harvesters, 'Who's young woman is this?' He notices there's somebody that's out of place. Ruth is there. The servant answered, 'She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the territory of Moab.' She asked, 'Will you let me gather fallen grain among the bundles behind the harvesters?' She came and she's been on her feet since early this morning, except she rested a little in the shelter. Verse eight says, 'Then Boaz,' he just goes investigate himself, he goes directly to Ruth and talks to her, he says, 'Listen, my daughter, don't go and gather grain in another field, and don't leave this one, but stay here close to my female servants. See which field they're harvesting and follow them. Haven't I ordered the young man not to touch you when you're thirsty, go and drink from the jars the young men have filled?' She went trying to get some green to make some bread, probably, and she's actually getting a lot more all of a sudden. There's a lot of blessing that starts rolling in. First then, she fell face down, bowed to the ground, she's probably just overwhelmed. Maybe even tears in her eyes just like, 'Oh my goodness, such unexpected kindness, where is this coming from?' She said to him, 'Why have I found favor with you since you noticed me, although I'm a foreigner, you probably would not have looked at all that kindly at the Moabites. There's a shady history with Israel and Moab in the past that you can read about. But there is a reason that Boaz is interested in this woman. He says, 'Everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband's death has been fully reported to me. How you left your father and mother in your native land and how you came to a people you didn't previously know.' This really stood out to Boaz, and people knew who Naomi was, so Ruth's loyalty, it probably was a talking point. It was things that people discussed and it really stood out, it was like maybe the town news for a little while, but pretty amazing that Ruth, even though she's from Moab, she made a really big sacrifice for her mother-in-law, and the sacrifice was in the leaving. She left a lot. Ruth left things behind that were very valuable to her, and she walked into a situation that was very unknown. She left, and you might actually begin to identify with Ruth in this particular. Some of the things that Ruth left behind were people. It mentions her father and her mother. Those were probably dear relationships she just walked away from. She also left behind comfort and familiarity. She left a place that was her native land, familiar. She knew the way, she knew the language, the customs, and she decided just to voluntarily go to a place where people that she didn't previously know. It's worth drawing out the question, in your spiritual journey with God, following Jesus may have required you leave behind things that are very dear to you as well. Maybe you've had to leave behind a relationship. Maybe you've had to end a bad relationship, or maybe you've had some good friendships that you just had to leave behind because God was calling you to a different place. Maybe you had to leave your hometown, or some place that you lived that you loved and cherished, a place that was familiar to you. Maybe you had to leave something that was a source of comfort and familiarity. That is, I think, what Ruth's experience was. She left quite a lot behind. I think the sacrifice she made was pretty deep for her mother-in-law, and I think that's why it stood out to these people. Sometimes, we live in a pretty mobile society. Sometimes people leave things behind because they have no choice. There's maybe an unavoidable move, maybe there's some sort of family crisis, but Ruth, she could have chosen to stay, just like her sister Orpa did. She could have chosen to be in a familiar place, but she chose, she made a decision to leave it all behind, and so Boas, what he says, this stands out to him so much that he says, "May the Lord reward you for what you have done, and may you receive a full reward from the Lord God of Israel under whose wings you have come for refuge." He points out that part of the leaving and the going and the sacrifice, it has this idea in mind that, "I'm going to trust God, I'm going to find my source and my safety in under the refuge of God, under his wings." This blessing that Boas pronounces over Ruth, it does actually happen. She gets heaps and heaps of blessing. Just grace gets dumped on her, you're going to see in overwhelming amounts, and I really believe that sacrifice is made with a heart that trusts the Lord, they will receive a reward. And Jesus taught a very similar truth. I want to bring up his words because the book of Ruth is a, because it's a narrative, it's a story, it's very descriptive, it's not prescriptive, there are no commands in the book of Ruth, and so sometimes you have to draw out principles, but Jesus in a very similar situation, he does tell us something very directly, and he says, "Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields because of my name will receive a hundred times more and will inherit eternal life." I mean, Ruth left pretty much everything that's listed here. She left behind, mother, father, her house, everything that she knew growing up, and these are heavy words from Jesus because it makes you think, what have you chosen to leave behind? Maybe you have, maybe you've done this already. There's things that you have probably left behind for the sake of following Jesus, and whatever it is, it may still create a, it still may be a tender spot in your life, even if it was years ago. And if you have, whatever it is that you've chosen to leave behind, keep trusting God to restore what you lost because in his time, when God decides to write that chapter, you will see the blessing will come, he will restore those things. But maybe not the same exact thing in the same exact way, but restoration will happen. It's hard to trust him in the period between the leaving and the not yet getting the reward. Lakota's writing a story in your life that only he can write, and we just need to wait and see. We need to get to the end of the book to see how it plays out. And for other people, maybe this brings up a question in your mind, maybe you have, maybe you need to leave something behind. Maybe this stirs up for you. There's something, as Jesus said, a relationship or a source of security or a comfort or something I've been in that has been familiar to me for a very long time that I need to leave behind. So if anything comes to mind for you, take action, figure out what would it take for you to start taking the steps away from that. And I'm going to read the next few verses as far as what happens. And as you listen, I want you to maybe just take a mental note of some of the unexpected blessings that Ruth receives in part, I think, because of her sacrifice. Already, already, Boaz has just started heaping on the blessing, but Ruth says, "My Lord, I have found favor with you, for you have comforted and encouraged your servant, although I'm not like one of your female servants." And then later, at mealtime, Boaz told her, "Come over here and have some bread and dip it in the vinegar sauce." I don't know if that was like a pickup line, but the vinegar sauce, I would probably choose something different than that, but maybe it was a delicacy back then. I want it, I'm like, what is that? What was that? Anyway, maybe if it was like oil and balsamic vinegar, I guess that's probably what it was like. Okay, so it actually sounds pretty good. All right, so here we go. Boaz, he knows what he's doing, you know. So she sat beside the harvesters and he offered her roasted grain. She got some food, she's getting even more food. Also, it says she ate and was satisfied and had some leftover. Boaz probably had nice little like takeout containers, you know, like take some of this home in a bag. And when she got up to gather grain, Boaz ordered his young men, let her gather, let her even gather, grain among the bundles and don't humiliate her, like not just the broken stuff on the floor, that actually let her get some of the good stuff too, he says. Pull out some of the stalks from the bundles for her and leave them for her to gather. Don't rebuke her. So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. She beat out what she had and it was about 26 quarts of barley, that would probably come to somewhere around 33 pounds. She picked up the grain, oh, I'm going to end there for a second. All right, so there's this overflow of God's grace in her life. Things, it's just she, she is basically needing to survive and she needs food for her mother in law to survive. But what she gets, she gets grain to make bread at home, which is great. She gets a full meal as well, with enough to take home, she gets refreshing drinks, water that she didn't earn or probably have, certainly didn't deserve. She gets a huge amount of grain to take home, more than she would have been able to gather in the normal situation, beyond what she really should have taken home, she took home. And she gets to work there, not just that one day, but through the length of the entire harvest, which what a blessing just to be able to stock up the pantry for the year. And besides all that, besides all this food and stuff, she gets protection. But as told as men, don't touch that woman, you stay away from her. And Ruth, of course, I think was very vulnerable as a single woman and a foreigner in this place. And he tells her, you stay in my fields so I can protect you from all the other men and there's the people in the city that are less trustworthy, just stay where you can be in protection. And I love this. It's because, well, here's a question. Don't all women want to be protected and provided for? Don't women want that? At the core, those are some deep needs in the way I think God has designed, you know, men and women operate, Ruth was like a nobody to most of the world, but she was precious to God. Ruth was so precious. She left everything and then she came to the God of Israel and she entrusted herself to the Lord, the God of Israel. And then what God gives her in return is protection and provision. This is powerful. God was taking really good care of her. Just God and He will take care of you. And we, my family and I, we recently experienced an outpouring of God's grace during our last family vacation. We went to, say, in Salinas, which is written in Monterey Bay area, and this is, we stayed in this farmhouse, there's an elderly couple in their 80s that have been doing this ministry for like 40 years where they have this really beautiful tree covered property with houses and barns that they open up to pastors and ministers and missionaries, people in ministry to as a place of kind of like spiritual refreshment. And so we got to stay there. And we, when we got there, the man, he owns this big, he owns all these fields and a lot of different types of agriculture and he has strawberries. And so in the house, as soon as you walk in, was this big container of, you know, fresh strawberries, like the really good juicy ripe ones, and they are, it's like candy. It's so good. And there's six of us. So we go through, you know, basket of strawberries pretty fast. We're trying to ration out these strawberries to like make it a couple days because they're just so good and like, oh, these people are so generous. And as we're trying to like hoard the strawberries a couple days later, the man, his name is Mr. Bun. It's Mr. and Mrs. Bun. The first name is, you can't know, they just, it's always Mr. Bun, no matter how friendly they are, it's Mr. Bun and Mrs. So we always call him Mr. Bun. And he told us, we were walking around the property, he's showing us, he's like, oh yeah, these are, these are my strawberry fields. Help yourself. And we're like, help ourselves to the strawberries. You can see, you know, it's like strawberries as far as the eye can see. And this is like the perfect season, you know, they're just, there's, it was unlike any strawberry we've had anywhere else is. Salinas, by the way, is one of the best growing places I discovered. There's only one other place in the world like it that has like the fertility and the soil because of moving water in the Nile region in Africa is like this. And so they're in here and also because it's kind of close to the coast and the way the clouds come in at different times and the temperature just stays the same all year long. It's perfect. So what you get is actually this area supplies apparently 80% of the country's like perishable foods like salads and strawberries and celery, tomatoes, things like that. So it was amazing. It was so good. And what began to happen is one of the days, the last day we were there, which we made some amazing strawberry rhubarb pie too by the way, fresh rhubarb. So that was good. That's Aaron's favorite type of pie. And the last day we thought let's just get a few more strawberries, but the whole crop had been harvested and we had seen them a few times and we're like, oh, there's not that much. But we began to look and a lot of the strawberries were dropped on the ground in between all these rows and we're like, well, that one's pretty good. There's actually, they left quite a lot. And then we looked at every row, like row after row after row, there's like all these strawberries on the ground that will eventually just get stepped on or eaten by rats or just rained on or dirt or whatever. But we started, we're like, well, let's just take these because these are still totally good and can wash them off and as we're bending down, picking up the strawberries, we thought, this is just like Ruth and like, we're about to talk about this and Church is a perfect example. And like, we talked to our kids about the story of Ruth while we're like gleaning strawberries off the field. Like, this is amazing. It's like a pastor's dream, you know. But what happened was in this location, here's the couple that we stayed with, Mr. and Mrs. Bunn. Our time there was so special. It really was a place of spiritual refreshment. Our conversations, I think there's one more picture if it advances if I put it on there. Our conversations with them and this is the different books that they left in the homes, making pies together and eating meals together. Our hearts were just full to overflowing with this time that we had together as a family and with this really special couple of Christians that have been living the Christian faith for many, many years, just decades of life of walking with Christ. And to the last ounce of energy, by the way, they're using their strength to fall, like just to bless and serve others, like they're, you know, they're not even like ordained ministers, but they're living like people that are going to use their very last day for the glory of God and to love and serve others. And so our hearts were already full to overflowing. We felt like this is such a gift from God that we got to experience this. We don't deserve any of this. And on the very last night, Mr. Bun said, "You got dinner plans?" And he says, "I'm going to take you all out to a fancy Italian restaurant," and he paid for all of us. And I'm like, "My goodness, this doesn't let up." And it was just amazing, like truly, truly undeserved blessing. And you know, sometimes people say, like, "Oh, you deserve a break, you deserve a vacation." We never, that's not true. First of all, none of us ever deserve anything good. If you look from the truly scriptural, spiritual standpoint, the only thing that we deserve is hell. So anything good that we get is a blessing. But I definitely, we definitely don't deserve any of this. But I feel God has in this situation, and many other times in our life, just poured blessing into our lives as we're just trying to prioritize his kingdom. We're trying to figure out how do we best use our lives and resources to make the gospel go forward. And the sweetness that we've experienced is beyond my imagination. So we're so grateful. And I wonder if some of this is a little bit the way that Ruth felt, just sort of in probably an exhausting part of her life. And then all this blessing just gets dumped on her. Just overwhelming, probably just bringing her to tears with the way that God was providing for her and protecting her. And the other thing that you notice about Ruth is she was a very hard worker. The verses that I just read, it says that she was on her feet all day. You know how that feels? It also says she did take a quick break, but right after that she got up again to gather more grain. It says she worked until evening. Then after that she beat out what she gathered. And then she carried a 33-pound sack of grain across town, apparently a strong woman too. And day after day she continued working through this harvest. And you know you get the picture that Ruth was not a woman who just sat around. It seems to me that she was really focused on doing the next right thing. Do the next thing. What is it? What is the responsibility God has put in front of me? How do I take that step? Do the next day. Ruth was providing for her definitely, but it was in the midst of her hard work. Her sweat and her toil and her labor. And I think that hard work is part of what grabbed the attention of the workers and it started opening doors for her. Seems like you know certainly Ruth wanted to take care of her mother and to pull her own weight. So each morning Ruth probably thought life is hard, but I just need to do the next thing. Is there difficult? I don't even know how we're going to eat, but I'm just going to do the next thing. And she would never have been able to predict what day God was going to dump all this blessing on her. All she could do is just work on the next thing. So are there times in your life where you avoid the hard work? I mean the answer is probably yes because we all do that. But are there situations where you just need to get moving? You know what the next right thing is, but you're avoiding it or dodging it. What is that next step you need to take? Perhaps if you take that step, God will then provide the resources that you need. After you get moving, he'll provide while you're enduring the hard work. And so let me read to the end of this, the last few parts of this story. Verse 18 says, "So Ruth, she picked up the grain and went into town where her mother in law saw what she had gathered. She brought out when she had left over from her meal and gave it to her. So her mother in law, she probably got her job open like, "Where did she get all this?" She says, "Where did you gather barley today? And where did you work? May the Lord bless the man who noticed you." Ruth told her mother in law, whom she had worked with and said, "The man I worked with today is Boaz." Then Naomi said to her daughter in law, "May the Lord bless him because he has not abandoned his kindness to the living or the dead." Which is a great statement from Naomi because she's been pretty bitter up to this point. This is starting to soften. Maybe, actually, maybe she's even feeling convicted. Man, I've been so angry at God. And then we get all this good stuff. Oh, bless the Lord. He has not abandoned his kindness to the living or the dead. Naomi continued, "The man is a close relative. He is one of our family Redeemers." Redeemer. That word was coming in the next couple of chapters. The word "Redeemer" appears in this very short book of Ruth 17 times. It's a lot. This is going to become a very big theme for what one of the reasons that God has put Ruth in the Bible is based on that. We're going to look a little bit more about that next week. But we're halfway through and already this truth of redemption is beginning to emerge. But actually, the truth that we looked at started looking at last week, and I think carries through is this. Every chapter of your life is being written by God and every detail. Every chapter of your life is being written by God in every detail. Let me finish this out when he says, I'll come back to that. Ruth, the Mobite Test said, "He also told me, 'Stay with my young men until they have finished all my harvest.'" So Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, "My daughter is good for you to work with his female servants so that nothing will happen to you in another field." Ruth stayed close to Boaz's female servants and gathered green until the barley and the wheat harvests were finished and she lived with her mother-in-law. So it's this beautiful story that's being unfolded one chapter at a time. And when it comes to our lives, if you do believe this, like I was writing the story of your life, he's already determined the larger overarching plot to your life down to the very day that you'll die. It's not a morbid thought, but he is actually already picked out which day you'll die. He knows every day of your life has been written in his book. And he's meticulously working out the details of each day of your life. And if you believe that, you can praise him when you get that front row parking spot. Boom, yes. But if you believe this, you can also trust him when someone cuts you off and takes that spot and you have to walk and you can trust him with the job promotions, you can trust him with the job determinations, with every high and with every low, he can be trusted as the designer of your life. And you can really see this contrast of the highs and the lows between chapter one and chapter two in Ruth. Chapter one is full of death and tragedy and terrible bitterness. You've probably walked through times of bitterness and doubting God or at least just questioning him or he's just throwing some things in his face. But chapter two is bright and hopeful, you know, like who's this boas? Where's the story going? Yes, we're probably not dying of hearing from him yet, what his blessing is rolling in. And this contrast of the high and low, it kind of reminds me of Psalm 35 says God's anger lasts only a moment, but his favor, a lifetime. Weeping may stay overnight, but there is joy in the morning. Think the story of your life may meander between these two things, weeping and joy. You may have a season of terrible pain, could be physical pain or relational pain. And then you have a season of comfort, pain again, joy again, where and you may walk and meander through these. Where are you currently? Where is what season of life are you living in right now? What chapter of the story is God placed you in? It's very, very tempting to become bitter in the pain and the tragedy, becoming convinced. And God is against me, it's really easy to think that, just like Naomi did. But you'll see by the end of chapter four when we get through this whole book that God was preparing a blessing that surpassed anything she could have imagined. There's a huge plot twist right at the end of the story, something amazing that you can't know about unless you come for the whole series. But the truth is your story, or you can read it by yourself. You all have Bibles right, so you can find out for yourself and it may actually, maybe God will speak to even more himself than he does through me speaking, in your own study. But your story is not over yet. Your life is still unfolding. And I'm confident that many of you today here are, there's some here that are hurting or that you're confused or you're living in the middle of an unsolvable problem. There's a lot of those. If God has written chapters of your story that you have not yet read, and if you resolve and determine and just choose, I am going to trust him and I will endure, then you'll get there. You'll get to those unread chapters. You'll find that the endurance and even the pain was worth it to experience the full measure of redemption that God has been planning. So hang in there. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this delightful story and we thank you for allowing us to see these beautiful ways that you intersect with our lives and you cause people and relationships and even things like timing of harvest to unfold in the way that you've decided. And we know that you are good. We just declare you're good and trustworthy. It's hard. Sometimes it doesn't feel that way. And for those here that are maybe wrestling with some of those feelings, I pray that they would lean into you, believe wholeheartedly in the truth of your word and experience the peace that comes from that kind of trust. Help us to be effective in living out the purposes that you've given for us, Lord, individually and then also as the church. Thank you for your constant presence each day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.