091108

Click here to listen to the sermon 

Ruth 3v1-5, 4v13-17.      Ruth marries Boaz and bears a son, Obed.

Hebrews 9v24-28                 Christ Sacrificed once, for all.

Mark 12v38-44                      Contrast of prayerful devotions. (The Widows offering.)

Our loving faithfulness in God’s great plan!

Background context.

I could not get much worse for Naomi!

In the Period of the Judges (1200bc) relations between Judah and Moab were hostile. 

Naomi, her husband and two sons, moved from Bethlehem in Judah to Moab during a famine period

The three men (Husband and two sons) in Naomi’s life all died in Moab.

She became a completely destitute woman and so she chooses to go back to Judah.

Naomi’s two young Moabite daughters would be despised in Judah, so Orpha stays in Moab with her people, to hopefully marry again.

No Moabite or his sons to the tenth generation were allowed to enter the assembly of the Lord (Dt 23v3). 

            As it happens, there are ten generations before the coming of Jesus.

Ruth chooses to go with Naomi back to Judah.

By making this choice Ruth was committing herself to destitution. No Israelite man is likely to marry a despised Moabitess, the odds are really against her.

¦ Ruth’s faithfulness marks her out in God’s eyes. Remember it was Abraham’s faithfulness that marked him out in God’s eyes.

1v16. “Where you go I will go, your people will be my people, and your God my God.”

At the likely cost of personal loss, Ruth’s declares her absolute devotion to Naomi and to Naomi’s God, the God of Israel.

3v11 She is known locally as a woman of noble character.

¦ Boaz’s grace and loving kindness in his willingness to redeem and provide for Ruth goes beyond the law.  Likewise God’s grace and loving kindness to redeem the Gentiles goes beyond the law.

¦ Could Ruth be the mother of the Gentile Church?

It seems then that through the faith, devotion and commitment of Ruth, this dispised Gentile woman, the Gentiles are grafted into the Kingly line of Jesus. Ruth’s grandson, a shepherd boy, became King David!

An important link in the chain of God’s plan, brought about by her faithfulness.

¦ I am sure Ruth never realised how important her faithfulness would be in God’s great plan!

We never know what God is able to accomplish through our simple faithfulness to him!

God’s plan for provision was much greater than anyone could have imagined.

God welcomes and responds to the faithfulness of all people.

It’s not that God requires us to complete His plan for Him.

Rather he requires us to be lovingly faithful to Him, living in Him so that He may complete His plan through us!