The story of Ruth’s redemption by Boaz reveals a spiritual legality. Just as Boaz acted properly and lawfully to secure Ruth, Christ’s Atonement is a finished, legal reality in heaven. Now being atoned, when we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us, not only out of mercy alone, but because of the completed work of His Son. This truth calls us to a total commitment, like that of Ruth, so that we may walk fully in the blessing of being part of God’s family.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] This morning what I wanted us to really get into, I’m not sure as to whether I can pull this off clearly, but it is the conclusion in the storyline of Ruth that we’ve been going through. And in the conclusion there is begging a question, begging an application to us about being a part of the family of God, though the story of Ruth is said in the Old Testament and so the people of God is the Israelite family, the nation of Israel, and they’re being under the Old Covenant before God. And in our case we are now in the New Testament era and we likewise are in the family of God and that family has stepped forward to become a far greater thing, a far more wonderful thing than even the nation of Israel had been as God’s family and that is the church and that is Jesus, head of the church.

[00:01:13] That is what happens when any person, whether they’re Jewish or not, whether they’re from Fiji or not, whether they’re young or old, but any person coming to know Jesus gets into the family of God. And the New Covenant is about that, that every person in this family of God will know the Lord. You won’t have one thing over the top of another person that you know the Lord and the other people in the family at a lesser level. We all have gotten to be insiders by knowing Christ and that’s the New Covenant that began at the day of Pentecost, had been promised in the Old Testament and included as a part of the blessings, not only the forgiveness of sins in a total way, because of Christ’s successful atonement that he made on the cross and his resurrection to be available as Saviour

[00:02:16] and King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But also that there was offered to those who would come and do business with Christ as Saviour, who’d come and trust him for their forgiveness, that they be given not just forgiveness, but a second blessing was the gift of the Holy Spirit. And the gift of the Holy Spirit is that by which Christ rules in our hearts, the presence of the Holy Spirit. There is actually something, and this was going to be my first point when I do preparation, it’s in my mind and it comes out. At times I don’t want it to, but on the theology night this Thursday, my very first point is going to be to distinguish between the gift of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. Because they’re connected, but they’re not the same. They’re connected in the person of the Holy Spirit, of course.

[00:03:14] But the gift of the Spirit is what was given as a consequence of responding to the Gospel, the very first gospel sermon that made opportunity to respond to the new covenant setting of it, was Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost. And he called for folk to repent, not to be lost, to be saved, to repent. And if you would believe in Jesus and come in repentance, you would get the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. And the gift of the Holy Spirit is that which marks us out as truly Christian. You can be religious, you can be Christian believing, you can be someone who is not an atheist, but you believe in God. But all of that is a qualification to be able to come. If any person would come to God, he must first believe that he is

[00:04:12] and that he’s the rewarder of those who diligently seek him, says the Book of Hebrews. And so coming to know Jesus is how you get in the door and with the forgiveness of sins that’s available to you because of his fantastic atonement on the cross. Because he is the Saviour. It’s Jesus. Could I tell you something? In that room back there, this morning I went to the prayer meeting. I don’t always get time. I did this morning and one of the setbacks of having the early morning prayer meeting in that room is that we have to listen to the practice going on with you people in getting ready for the worship leading. But they were singing and the singing really got to me. But what got to me was the name Jesus. And just the way they were practicing then and they’ve already been leading us in it,

[00:05:17] that there is no other name. There is no greater name. There is no person necessary beyond the person of Jesus. When you have him, you’ve got the lot. He is all we need. Please go on practicing because you ministered to me while I was listening in the prayer meeting this morning. There’s something I want to bring out today that’s connected to this idea about the supremacy of Christ, the total absolute sufficiency of Christ. And it is actually pictured in the story of Ruth as well. And it’s the reason why Ruth was blessed and became a person that God could engraft in. She became one of the ancestors of Jesus. And the message has been brooding in me over the last few weeks. Part of it has already been sneaking out in my messages. But it is this truth about how Jesus is all that we need,

[00:06:43] how he is in his person, so beyond comparison point, so beyond oversupply. In him we have all that we need. There is nothing more that you need when you’ve got Jesus. And what a choice it is to choose Jesus every day of your life as a Christian and to place him as first and let him be the one who leads you in this life is something I’ve been noticing in the scriptures, in the storyline of Ruth I want to bring out because I see it in our experience as people in the church just the same, that it is possible to be offered the highest of blessings but somehow not to walk in it all, not to take it all. And in the storyline that we have of Ruth, we’re going to see this again. And so I’ll take you through it and by the end of the message, a few hours later, no, no, at the end of the message,

[00:07:59] I wonder whether you’ll get the point. So to do this, we’ll start in just where we’re already up to in tracing the narrative of Ruth in chapter 3 and verses 11 to 14. So if you put, it’s on the screen, but if you’re looking in your Bible in chapter 3 and verses 11 to 14, we’ll come to the end of where we were in the narrative in previous weeks. I’m not going to take long on this part but just to set the stage. And now my daughter, do not fear, I will do for you. Now this is Boaz speaking and the storyline is the coming together of Boaz and Ruth. They’ll be married and the child that they have will be an ancestor of Christ. And now my daughter, do not fear, I will do for you all that you ask. For all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. And we’ve been talking about a worthy man finding a worthy woman.

[00:09:05] And now it’s true that I am a redeemer, the kinsman redeemer bit we’ve been rehearsing. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. There’s what could have been a possible fly in the ointment because the whole scheme of Naomi is to bring Ruth to come to this one who is in line to be a kinsman redeemer who would be able to redeem the family line and also to marry Ruth. But he says, it’s true that I’m a redeemer, yet there is a redeemer nearer, nearer in relative closeness, as a relative connection. There is a redeemer nearer than I. Remain tonight, she’s gone and lain at his feet, which was accustomed to show that she was asking a request that he be this Redeemer. Remain tonight and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good, let him do it.

[00:10:04] But if he is not willing to redeem you, then as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down now until the morning. So she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another. And he said, let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor. He’s not going to prejudice the decision that he knows needs to be made in a legal sense. Now I’m going to bring out a point about legalities, so hang on to see that emerge. But let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor. He was not wanting to prejudice the legal thing that was possibly going to happen because of there being one person closer relative-wise to being that possible redeemer. Now that’s what Boaz says and she goes home, he equips her with some extra amount of barley to take back to Naomi

[00:11:02] and chapter 4 continues and what I’ve got in mind for today is chapter 4 but that’s the setting of it, that there is the possibility of another person stepping in and it not working out as Naomi had sent Ruth along to work out with Boaz. And so we’ll turn to chapter 4 and we’re looking here, we’re going to be going through in chapter 4 and the four or five steps I’ve got are tracing through this chapter 4. Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there and behold the redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by. Now by the way there’s something you need to know about those ancient times that they were a lot less making all their legalities happen in special rooms and courts and everything done formally like we do in our modern era

[00:12:00] but how they did their legalities was to have discussion by the elders at the gate and if something special had to occur to make it legal they’d do it with the elders at the gate and enough people there to be witnesses to recall it and that’s what made it legal in their system. Now I’ve got a reason to underline that word legal. I’ve always had the attitude the Old Testament and the laws of Moses were legalities that we need to move on from into the New Testament. There’s a sense that that is true that the New Covenant has surpassed the Old Covenant. It didn’t make it wrong for back then but there’s something in what is a legality. I don’t think I’ve fully picked up but I’m aiming at making clear today if I can. But we notice here the precedent that Boaz is setting

[00:12:55] that he’s not going to try and do things that is illegal to achieve the will of God and so he goes to the gate and he waits for this other chappy to come walking by and Boaz said turn aside friend. Notice he’s friendly, he’s not coming at it from a point of view of yelling or shouting or someone being aggressive and hoping to achieve something by push and shove. He’s not using the laws to create something or force something that should not be so forced. Turn aside friend, sit down here. And he turned aside and sat down and he took ten men of the elders of the city, he being Boaz, sit down here, he says to them. So they sat down. So he set up to do properly what was the legal system of his day to have this thing settled. So they sat down. Then he said to the Redeemer,

[00:13:58] Naomi who has come back from the country of Moab is selling a parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. Did I say right? Elimelech. Elimelech was Naomi’s husband who had died. Remember, not only did the husband die but the two sons that they’d taken with them also died and that’s why there were just two Moabitess girls who were left. And when Naomi decided to go back to Israel, only one Ruth chose to go with her. And so then he, let me just catch that for a sit down here. So they sat down. Verse 3 then said, he said to the Redeemer, Naomi who has come back from the country of Moab is selling a parcel of land. So you see that there is a motivation for this redeeming to happen because somebody could expand their holdings and the man might be so motivated who’s closer, Redeemer,

[00:14:54] and he’d get in and spoil all of Naomi’s plans by so doing. Though he’d had the right to do it. And this, and Naomi is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. So I thought I would tell you of it and say, Buy it in the presence of those who are sitting here, in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me that I may know. For there’s no one besides you to redeem it and I come after you. See how he’s doing everything properly without being gruesome, bosom lawyer at all. Without him being sneaky. He’s setting it all out and giving the man a chance. And so the man says, I will redeem it because the mention of the land, it was a pretty good thing to be done.

[00:15:50] Then Boaz said, now notice not only is Boaz being legally correct, but I think he’s not being sneaky so much as he’s being astute. And he adds in the corollary, The day you buy the fill from the hand of Naomi, you’ll also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance. Now we don’t know the details, but we don’t know the family scenario of this man and what having another woman brought in as an extra wife was going to do to him. We can only guess. But that changed everything. And then, we’ll go on to the next passage, Then the Redeemer said, I can’t redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. He’s putting it on to, this is going to confuse the inheritance bit, but I think it could be a mask, and I can’t prove that to you,

[00:16:47] but it’s going to give him problems in his family. I don’t know what the reason is, but he just says no, and it’s changed everything. And Boaz, though he was being legal at every step and fair, you can see he was being quite fair to the sin, nonetheless, I think he was rather canny to know how to do it. He didn’t say the other bit about Ruth first. And he just, you know, allowed the man to back out, which is what he wanted to happen, because he had come to the place of wanting to redeem Ruth. Now, this was the custom in the former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging to confirm a transaction. The one drew off his sandal and he gave it to the other. Apparently, sandals were fairly easy to come by, so if you did business a lot, you’d have to get a lot of sandals, I guess.

[00:17:43] But anyway, he took off his sandal, and what this means is that Boaz is seeing that there’s been a visible action done in the presence of the ten elders that he had sitting there, so wouldn’t be able to ever go back on it. But he’s doing it properly, legally, and he’s not acting in a way that will give us any reason to think the Bible teaches that you could ignore the laws. This is very hard for someone like me to say, because I like driving and, you know, I’ve had my share of tickets. But it’s something I’ve just had to swallow hard and learn, the laws are the laws. And there is something about law that I want to bring out and get you thinking on. And I know for some of you, this is going to be a deep thought you’ll have to chew on. But often we think about the Old Testament.

[00:18:40] Remember the word testament and the word covenant is really coming from the same, if you’re in the Greek language, same Greek word, testament. That’s why when you read New Testament, Old Testament, You could have read New Covenant or Old Covenant. But when we have this law time, the law of Moses, and by the way, the law of Moses coincides, while I’m in the business of having a few corrections, I think Matthew won’t mind if I add in something here from the communion service, but the law of Moses coincides with the law God has written on our hearts, but they’re not exactly the same. and the law written in our hearts is a subset perhaps and is that which is the Ten Commandments more than it is all the little extras in the law of Moses. But the law of Moses, including all the extras,

[00:19:37] were the law that God instituted for the Israeli people to be a people and they had to stick to it. There’s quite a lot of smaller things and it had the whole system of the Jewish worship and then when the temple eventually was built all the necessary requisites for temple worship and how to do sacrifices is very detailed. And that law of Moses was nonetheless the legal basis of God’s covenant with the Old Testament people. A whole lot of it. And he didn’t make it just what was written on the heart. That written on the heart is that which comes across to us the same because that’s like the Ten Commandments that are there except for the Sabbath has been reapplied. I’ll get into that another day. But here we have a precedent of the law being kept by Boaz even though he’s being appropriate and he’s being,

[00:20:41] not scheming, but he’s being understanding how to do it all to get the result of this other man foregoing his opportunity to redeem the whole sin, being a kinsman redeemer. And he’s also doing it in a way where it’s made visible with a record. Sometimes people talk about marriage and they say it doesn’t really matter whether you do it in the church or not. That’s true. It’s not the building that makes it a Christian marriage. What makes it a Christian marriage is you’re obeying the Christian laws. Not ceremony. And if there were to be a group of people who don’t have churches and I know when I lived amongst the Aboriginals there would be a moment where some girl at an appropriate age climbs out the window, runs down the road, gets in the house of a young man and she’s never left.

[00:21:35] And in her understanding that was marriage. There was no church because they weren’t Christians, ceremony. But marriage is something deeper than how it is legally put together in our society. But God wants us to have the legal definitions. He doesn’t want us just to live with a girl and then call it marriage. He wants us to observe from the scriptures the legality of it. He wants us to observe the legalities in our country. We pray in the prayer meetings on Thursday mornings for often pray for Australia that God might move in our nation that we might return to being a nation under God. And if that happened it would cause a lot of people who have put aside the meaning of marriage it doesn’t mean a thing and recognise that the laws of the land have underlined again, hopefully one day

[00:22:48] the laws of the scriptures about marriage. I’m not going to make this very clear but what I want to say to you is in the Old Testament there were the laws of Moses by which people walk with God and there were the laws of Moses by which they sacrificed and the sacrifices given were that which the Mosaic law required for there to be an atonement for sin all of which was a temporary pointing of the way that finally Jesus would represent more fully and when Jesus came and went to the cross and died for our sins and the wrath of the Father fell on him for our sins and he removed our sins by making atonement for them once and for all that transcended, that superseded, it’s a better word the law of Moses which now no longer is the way that you get atonement if you were to be so enamoured with the Jewish nation

[00:23:59] decide to go back to Israel and become a Jew you’d be welcome to do that but I want to tell you that it’s not possible for you to go back to the law of Moses and have it mean anything before God for he has taken the way that you get atonement from what it was with the nation of Israel and for all the customs that he gave to them all the legalities he gave to them with their temple system or with their sacrificial system with the death of animals and all the things that was involved with that that has been finished and superseded by something that is far greater and can never ever be matched by the giving of his son who was a sacrifice that could never ever be measured against who went to the cross and bore our sins once and for all. Once and for all. That’s including backwards since the beginning of time

[00:25:05] to today. And so the atonement made by Jesus has completely taken over from all the previous background of the old covenant. This is the new covenant. And when a person comes to Christ I want to tell you about your sins. They’re totally atoned. I’ve often had cause to think of that little verse in 1 John 1.9. You’ve probably heard this come out of my preaching many times. If we confess our sins now the we written by the Apostle John as we Christians. If we confess our sins this is not someone coming to God and being atoned and being atoned this is we someone who’s like one of the Apostles or someone like us who are Christians who still sin. It says in 1 John 1.9 if we confess our sins he is faithful. Underline that word faithful because until you understand that word you won’t get the point. he is faithful to forgive us our sins

[00:26:22] and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness all sinfulness all the effect of sin. Now the word faithful is the word that we people have trouble. We in churches if we’re not if we stay in the shallows we don’t get it. There’s something about attitudes there’s something about faith when it’s used of us toward God has a meaning that’s necessarily appropriate to our limitations to our humanity to our sinfulness for all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God and faith is when we trust him for what he has done to bring our atonement faith is when we rest in his action faith often like the man who said I believe to Jesus he said I believe help thou my unbelief faith sometimes just a little measure faith on us very limited in what we can do but when the Bible talks about God being faithful I want to tell you that it’s really talking about something

[00:27:44] quite from another point of view God doesn’t have any trouble mustering up belief God doesn’t need to somehow or other exert himself to have faith I want to tell you God is in the very essence of who he is believing and knowing and doing mean when it says God is faithful it’s because he has made a promise and when God is faithful he does what he has said and when Christ died on the cross all heaven shouted it is finished along with Jesus as Jesus said when there is no more atonement ever needing to be done and when you as a Christian person fail at times as do we all and we bring that sin to God and say Lord forgive me for I’ve sinned this will sully, this will impair this will put a smudge on our relationship then God says I will be faithful I will do what I have said he’s saying there’s no way in the world that my atonement that I have had done in Christ my son

[00:29:06] well won’t be effective to forgive you even for that sin your atonement is complete since Jesus cried it is finished and when we learn that God has done all that’s necessary not just to bring us to a place of getting in the door with him so he smiles on us and calls us a son and daughter of God but when we have already done that God doesn’t change that decision of his he’s faithful to now cleanse the individual sins if you found yourself as someone who’s failed and you think oh I just better crawl away because I’ve made a mess of being a Christian I had a bit of an attempt but it didn’t work for me you don’t need to crawl away because God is faithful on the account of his atoning work that he has completed he will forgive you for every little sin he only requires you acknowledge it

[00:30:11] and the word confess in the original Greek language means to say the same as God has said this is wrong and when you come back and say yeah it is wrong sorry God he’s not doing a new work to have you forgiven the atonement is finished and complete and total and God is faithful to the atonement that he has done in Christ to cleanse you every time and there’s no limits you won’t run out of credit with God thank goodness for that because don’t we all as Christians have our ups and downs and sometimes you can be an old codger like this preacher but you could be someone who is still going to do sins and God’s faithfulness has not been run out because you’ve had so many long years of confessing sins and he says, oh no, you’ve had your limit. Oh, thank God. That’s not how it is.

[00:31:12] If we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That’s the effectiveness of the finished work of the atonement. So Boaz, he finds out that he can be the person and, you know, there’s a bit more to go in the storyline as we’re going through in chapter 4 but as we look and see, he says, I’ll redeem it for myself and so he does and he’s made it a recognition of the law of the land by getting the bloke to take off his sandal and hand it across and to have ten witnesses to see and in a parallel way, Jesus, by his death on the cross has made there to be, as it were, a spiritual law that if you confess your sin, it is forgiven. It’s record, the scriptures speak it. It is a law that has to do with the atonement. Now sometimes in evangelical circles

[00:32:36] we get a bit over-enthusiastic at trying to point out to people I’ve made this mistake myself that the Old Testament’s full of law and we’ve gone past that and now we’re in the New Testament and it’s all about Jesus and don’t bring up laws anymore. That’s not quite the right flavour of meaning for the truth is that there’s a law of Jesus’ atonement, if you like that because he has paid for your sin it’s a legality, spiritual legality, if you like that if you confess your sin he is faithful and just in the eternal laws of heaven to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness and the Christian life is best lived when we take availability of that to walk with God and be cleansed daily or as often as is necessary weekly of all unrighteousness and it’s a legality in the spiritual sense

[00:33:50] that rests not upon the law of Moses that rests upon the eternal law of God because they’re the aspects of his heart and when we confess our sin he is faithful and just that’s mention of the word just is why I bring up the idea of the legality of the cross the legality of the atonement once and for all done and you walk under God in the benefit of it as a cleansed person and one thing that makes a person go on with Christ and go on as a Christian and to grow is you go on allowing the cleansing to deal with your sins don’t just let them stack up and lose sensitivity about them but confess them and walk with God by so confessing and you become a deeper and deeper Christian because the law of the cross, it’s not usual language to use like this but the principle of the cross applies that God will be faithful and

[00:35:08] just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness and there’s a record of it in the Bible, there’s a record of it and so Boaz takes the whole business of the man even passing across his sandal. Well there’s a final bit that I should bring out because it’s important that we’ll go looking at verses 13 to 17 if you can get to verse 13 we have the post the after the event summing it’s so wonderful, Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife and he went into her they had sexual relationships and the Lord gave her conception I like to recognise that again that God is the God of deciding who has children and who doesn’t and the Lord gave her conception and she bore a son then the women said to Naomi women have a lot more intuitions all about birth we husbands only looking in from outside

[00:36:23] don’t really know the depths of it but the women said to Naomi blessed be the Lord by the way I mentioned in the home group Friday night when we say blessed be the Lord we’re not giving anything to God in a sense of making him blessed that means we recognise God is to be praised you can’t give God anything he’s got the lot already blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day talking to Naomi without a redeemer Boaz has become the kinsman redeemer and may his name be renowned in Israel which it is we’re reading it in Israeli scriptures and he’s been renowned ever since he shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age I think he’s not this is talking about God being this as well as through Boaz he shall be a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age for your daughter-in-law who loves you

[00:37:28] who is more to you than seven sons has given birth to him then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse and as I mentioned last week in one of the services this is the understanding of a wet nurse which is possible for an older lady who’s going to do but it’s like she’s having another child because she’s there breastfeeding this little child and the women of the neighbourhood gave him a name saying a son has been born to Naomi and they named him Obed and he was the father of Jesse and the father of David who’s the ancestor of Jesus Christ now the point I’m going to have to go on to continue in this tonight in the message but how is it that one of the sons in sons of of Naomi disappears from history is mentioned as one of her sons that died and one of them has the name of Elimelech flow through him

[00:38:41] and continues on to be a part of the ancestry of of David and then eventually Christ one of the sons in daughters in law who was a Moabitess now you know the nation of Noab Moab that they were said of God that he wouldn’t ever let them into the people of God but Ruth got in because she said may your God be my God your people my people but that other one who turned back shows that some people are in on the ground floor she could have come with Naomi and come back to Israel but she’s ended up with nothing the spiritual status of the people of Moab which is rejected by God and Ruth gets to be mother of a child who comes to be the father of Jesse the father of David the ancestor of Jesus and what a contrast between where this opportunity went for the one that turned back to Moab compared to Ruth who took a big step of trust and went with Naomi

[00:40:10] back to the people of God and I can’t help but noticing in people who come and make decisions for Christ being involved in evangelism all my life it’s something I’ve marveled at I have relatives who’ve turned away from God but came back and loved the Lord and I can say that I’ve seen in the church people who come and they’re in the youth group and they’re on fire but sometimes they turn back and now they’re lost nowhere to be seen at least are they saved if they really trusted Jesus I think they still are but nonetheless they don’t have much to say for it and you people yourselves know amongst your own families and relatives that when people come to Christ it doesn’t guarantee that they’ll always take the steps of walking on and what a contrast there is in the results in their lives I don’t have to prove the point of this sermon you all can see

[00:41:24] it around you you think back to your own youth group days and some went on and some are now nowhere to be found you look at the facts that we there is some point of even after coming to Christ that you could waste your opportunity or you could take the opportunity to go all the way and just like last week I was trying to illustrate with Ruth, she made a total commitment to Naomi and says, where you go, I’ll go. Your people will be my people. Where you die, I’ll die. Your God will be my God. And it is, I believe, the Romans 12, verses 1 to 4, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. It’s the full commitment, the total giving yourself to God, that often is the decider as to where your Christian life will eventually take you. Will it be like Ruth to have a place in the annals

[00:42:39] of the people of God? Will it be like that other daughter-in-law who disappears back into the non-God nation? They had their own gods, but they disappeared away from the one true God. You decide where your destiny is in the growth as a Christian by whether you give it all to Christ. It’s not a work that you’re doing to give it all to Christ. It’s a recognition of the completeness of his atonement for you. And you seek then to confess your sins because he is faithful and just, just because of the completion of the atonement, to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Will you resolve this morning to live a Christian life that confesses your sins regularly, gets things right with God, walks with him and let him make you a Ruth in some way that’s appropriate to today. He’ll make you a Ruth

[00:43:52] and not the other lady who went back to Moab. That’s the challenge of this story. Let’s pray. Father, I thank you for the moment of the practice this morning that our worship people had and the words of some of those songs that rang through to my ears listening in the prayer meeting room just here. I thank you for the truth of the story of Ruth and the beautiful way in which you take someone who’s of a nation that’s cut off from ever being a part of the people of God and you bring her to a place of central importance in the heritage of the coming of the Messiah. What an amazing contrast set before us that if we trust in Jesus and believe in his faithfulness, if we seek to live a life of being with the people of God of confessing our sin to let your justice and your faithfulness forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. May that be the beginning even this morning of many stories from our church we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.