Welcome Trinity Bible Church guests, family members. What a joy it is to come together on the Lord's Day. To take the opportunity today, we're transitioning into from Colossians and before that to we were in Romans and then now we'll be starting today in the book of Ruth in the Old Testament. And then we'll be kind of staying in the Old Testament all the way through the season of Advent, all through the remainder of this year. And so, just as a purpose as we're looking to cover the whole counsel of scripture. And I'm excited about entering into this time of Ruth today. I've never taught it in a classroom in 14 years in the ministry, and I've never preached from it once. So, I apologize that you are an experiment for the next few weeks. But as we enter this time of transition from a epistle or a personal letter, which is reading small at times amounts of scripture, one or two or at the max, it seemed in Colossians, three or four verses a Sunday, we'll be taking entire chapters in the book of Ruth. And so what we'll be doing in the next couple of weeks, I'm gonna do all of chapter one today. And then next week, I'm gonna do all of chapter one again. And there's a couple of different reasons for that. And so as we look today, I'll ask that we as we read the scripture this morning, giving you an opportunity after we read the scripture to pray silently, and then I'll pray for us corporately and we'll enter into the time of the word. Reading from Ruth, the entirety of chapter one. If you have a problem finding Ruth, if you see Judges, it's right after that. It's a small book. And so right at the end of Judges, I still hear pages flipping, so I'll wait. If you're in 1 Samuel, you're to the book immediately after it. Reading from Ruth, chapter one, verses one through 22. In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a man of Bethlehem and Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi. And the names of his two sons were Matlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem and Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there, but Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. Those took Moabite wives. The name of one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about 10 years, and both Melon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law and returned from the country of Moab. For she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to return to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, go, return each of you to her mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband.' Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, no, we will return with you to your people. But Naomi said, turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that you may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me, for your sake, that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.' Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. And she said, see, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said, do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go, I will go. And where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die. And there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also, if anything but death parts me from you. And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. So the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, is this Naomi? She said to them, do not call me Naomi. My name is Mara. For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me? So Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab, they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest. Please take this opportunity to pray in light of God's word. Heavenly Father, as we come to worship you this morning as Christ's church, I pray that through the Holy Spirit and the union we bear with Christ, you would illuminate our hearts and minds to the truth of your word, that we would see ourselves in reality as sinners who have been rescued and redeemed by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. and that of no work of our own, but freely of grace and his love and mercy bestowed on us. Lord, may we see ourselves more truly in light of God's holiness and what our hearts and minds yearn for a deeper and closer relationship. May our worship be more pure. May our affections be turned towards you. We pray, Lord, in the midst of this time of God's people gathering, that if there are unbelievers here or watching or in our midst, Lord, that you would use this time, through God, the Holy Spirit, in the ministry of your Holy Word, to transform their lives, regenerate their hearts, and that they may turn by faith to Christ our Savior. God, we pray this time you are glorified, and the church is edified, and that unbelievers are convicted. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen. Well, this is going to be a little aggressive today. It's a little bit of text, and so I have to kind of get through it in certain ways. But the first thing I want to start with is to inform you of all the ways you have read Ruth incorrectly over the years and continue to do so. And not only that, the way you've been taught and the way we read some of these Old Testament narratives and how it actually lessens the intent of the author. Ruth happens to be in that great trio of Ruth, Esther, and Proverbs 31. Meaning, if you've been in any kind of women's study, you've had to read something at least from one of those maybe a dozen times. And if you're a guy, you didn't even know Ruth was a book in the Bible. And I say this, but unfortunately, statistically, if you look up women's devotional studies, it's absolutely an avalanche of Ruth, Proverbs 31, and Esther. And if you look in men's study, crickets. That was my crickets. I don't know what that was supposed to be. Nothing. And the reality is those are results of a very poor and malnourished way of looking and reading the book of Ruth. One of the things that we do incorrectly with Ruth is that we interpret it too literally. And it makes it this kind of empty moralism. Be like Ruth, ladies. Have faith like Ruth. The courtship process that Ruth goes to, I don't know if that translates well. Guys, be like Boaz. Do it like him. Have faith or be this loving heart like he has. It's all wrong. It's not how we're supposed to read this book. It's not even the central part of this book. This book is written in the middle of the worst period of Israel's history. And it's just this beginning part here. In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land and a man in Bethlehem of Judah. See, this book, if you go all the way to the end, it connects the parts that, and I'm gonna go to the end now and kind of just cheat. The very last part, or the very last subsection of this book tells you one very clear thing. From this line comes David, and Ruth is a part of that line. And yet the point of the story isn't some shallow moralism, this terrible way that we read the Old Testament, of here's a main character, let's look what they did, and then let's copy what they did. And then if we copy them, then we're either gonna be a pretty good guy, a pretty good girl, a pretty good whatever, and we follow these ways, and we don't even realize how base and legalistic that is. This is a book about God rescuing his people. and his people in this book is not just Israel. See, Ruth and all the emphasis put on the Moabites is essential to the understanding that this book, if you're gonna put one big umbrella over it, it shouldn't be women's studies, it shouldn't be men's, ignore it, it should be God's grace. See, there should be just as many men's study as women's studies on the book of Ruth. Just as there should be on Proverbs 31, hear me out. And just as there should be on Esther. These are books that are central in understanding who God is. Not central in understanding how you can be a better person. And so when you look at this, I wanna give you a few background things. Either you don't read it at all, You read it segregated as man or woman, or you read it in an overly literary way that gives us this kind of faulty idea of who God is. And yet, let me also give you some background on who, or during this time, what's happening. Judges, chapter two. We don't want to read this out of context. This is what's known, unfortunately, as the judges' cycle, is what it's called. And starting in verse 16, going through 20 in Judges, again, it's just the book to the left. It says, then the Lord raised up judges who saved them out of the hand. Now this is after they've entered the land and Joshua has died. The Lord raised up judges who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them, he, not the judge, from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge, for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And he said, because this people has transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died. This is the time this is taking place. See, it's not a cycle. The judge's 300 years is not a cycle of, oh, they're doing it again. If you read this beginning of judges, it's a spiral that continually goes down and gets worse and worse. When you're introduced to Othniel, the first judge, you're like, that guy's awesome. He's a hero. He seems pure. Then by the last judge at your sown, Samson, who we venerate, you see someone who absolutely betrays any idea of what a hero should be or a deliverer should be. And it's with purpose. And in the last three chapters of Judges is to show you just how far Israel has fallen. Not only do they look just like the nations around them, the nations around them look on them in horror in the things that they're doing to each other. That's the time period that this is written. And so as we look at the beginning of this, I want to challenge all of us today not to think of who are we? Are we Ruth? Are we Boaz? Because I'll tell you who you are in this narrative. You're Naomi. And you're a Lemelick. And so am I. And it's this. understanding of how we are towards God. When circumstances go against you, when life goes against you, your first response is almost never, I'm not gonna speak for everyone, thank you God. It's almost always, what does Naomi say? Don't call her anymore. Don't call me Naomi anymore. Naomi, excuse me. Don't call me Naomi anymore, which means nice or pleasant or bright. Call me Mara. Call me bitter. Why? Because the Lord has done this to me. The Lord has done this to me. The Lord has done this to me. And you read it and you go, he did. God is sovereign. If you haven't read all the details, God's people had taken the land and had been given and delivered to them under Joshua. And now they're in this time of the judges and they were supposed to do one thing, stay in the land and believe that God was going to faithfully deliver his people no matter what circumstance. And how does the very beginning of this particular book start? It says, and in this time of the judges, Bethlehem and Judah where he's supposed to stay where of course Redeemer and Messiah will eventually be born. They went to sojourn in the land of Moab. Oh, where's Moab? Oh, I'm glad you asked. Moab's history is that it originated from Lot's sin. And Moab is an enemy of Israel. Moab is the nation who had King Balak, and now I'm testing your Old Testament, you know, discipline in reading it, who hired Balaam, who's more famous probably for talking to a donkey than anything. But Balaam was hired to curse Israel. And in a footnote, almost in a passing detail, he later is killed. Israel, when they came out of Egypt is when Balaam was sent to curse them. And they eventually use their women to seduce the men of Israel and draw them away from Israel. And in Judges chapter three, they are the nation who is oppressing Israel under the Judge Eglon. So God's people who are dwelling in his land, participants in his favor, who not that long ago, a couple generations earlier, they know they were slaves and were delivered by the almighty hand of God. The inhabitants were pushed out of the land they were promised. They were given that land. And now they were set to do one thing, represent him to the nations around them by following his law and always leaning on him and understanding that he, God, would deliver them. And yet her husband Elimelech, whose name is My God is King, and his wife Naomi, because there's a famine in the land, decide to go to this great vacation spot of Moab. because Moab has food. Now, the pragmatist in all of you goes, well, if, yeah, everyone would do that. That's the problem. That's the problem with reading this the wrong way. You're not supposed to see it in a manner that goes, well, I would do that too. I hope you wouldn't do that too. That's the point of the story is that when the very beginning of the story, Naomi and Alemlek and their whole family is disobedient and faithless in their move to Moab. They're coming out of Bethlehem in Judah, where, of course, Messiah would come. And then it goes on with the story as they're moving in this disobedience and they're sojourning in Moab. They also have two sons. But look at what happens. They go into the country of Moab and remain there, but Alemalek, the husband of Naomi, died. Tragedy. Tragedy strikes. And she, Naomi, was left with her two sons, which meant that during this time, Naomi still had a way to live. Her sons would take care of her. It was their responsibility. That's why the detail is there. But what happens next? So they've already been disobedient and faithless by leaving. And now the two sons marry two Moabite women. expressively against the law. As I read the details of Moab not that long ago, Moabite women were this idea of this concentration of, or this history of pulling people away from the God of Israel. So they take two Moabite wives, one named Orpah, which if you read it too fast, it does look like Oprah, and the name of the other Ruth, thought I would just get that out of the way. They lived there about 10 years, and both Malon and Chilion died. Now both sons are dead. Now this, the fullness of the fields of Moab, right? The grass is greener on their side. The beauty of these fields of Moab while famine has hit Israel, we're going into Moab so that we can eat and everything is good there. All these pragmatic decisions, nothing being made or based on anything that God has revealed to his people. And now all hope as they had associated it. For Naomi is gone, no husband, no sons, no family to support her in a foreign land. So she becomes, she comes upon a decision. The reason that this book should be read according to the time and the church should read it in fear and awe is what happens to God's people when they no longer are looking for God to give answers, are believing that he is faithful in what he's promised. See, that's the chilling part of Judges. If you read it as simply an event of like some kind of long episodes of Conan the Barbarian, you are missing out. It's horrifying to see people who have been delivered and rescued by God's very hand so easily forget all the work of His hands. You're here today because the God who created all things interceded on your behalf, specifically you, before the foundation of the world, and set you apart to be in His family, no longer being judged justly for your sin, but rather Christ took that judgment. And now he has a great inheritance set aside for you. And when he returns, you will inherit all of that which you never worked for, which you never earned, and which you did nothing to receive or keep. And yet, if you can read this story and never once go, And always read it as, gotta be like Ruth, gotta be like Boaz, and never go, I'm Naomi. I'm a Lamelech, sitting in the land where Messiah will be born. And when something difficult comes along, I do whatever comes to my mind first, instead of believing the promises of God. You know what else is interesting about this? How does this chapter end? in the time of the barley harvest. See, that's the beauty of these Old Testament works. The narratives are not only just stories, they're filled with hints of what the story is about. They left because the land was in famine. And they thought, we're never gonna eat again, we're gonna die here. They never thought about what God had promised. And while they're in Moab, everyone dies in a place that's full of food. And then where does Naomi have to turn? She goes, I have to go back to my family. And when they go back, this little note at the end of it, during the barley harvest, meaning that God had supplied not just their food, but abundantly. And when you're reading the next chapters, what's Ruth doing the whole time? She's working in the field. She just can't stop working. There's barley everywhere. There's grains everywhere. Why? Because God has provided for his people, just like he promised. And that's why we're looking at here as we are Naomi or Alemlich is because the bitterness that can come in our own hearts when difficult things of life, by the way, which the author of the book never, it never says, Naomi, there's no hint of this idea of Naomi, man up or woman up. It's this idea of a story being told about someone who is a given this promise as a child of Israel. And her reaction to her own sinful behavior and things that happen in those circumstances isn't to reflect and repent on what's happened and the decisions she and her husband made. Rather, it's to just simply look at God and go, God did this to me. And when she goes from being pleasant to bitter, it's a reflection of how she is in her relationship towards God. She's bitter, she's angry. Be honest with ourselves. Very few of us have ever had tragedy like this happen to us. Some of you have. But most of us, it only takes watching a really dumb debate on TV to become really bitter about everything in the world. The shallowness with which we kind of live in, the self-reflection, the things that we allow for us to stop and not go. I only hope in God. It's only before him that I bow. It's only to his word that I hold to. It doesn't take much for us to just get angry and bitter and down. And part of that is the way that we innately look to ourselves. C.S. Lewis, who I don't quote very often, said this, and he said, considering the promises and the staggering reward described in the gospel, it shows our desires aren't too strong, they're too weak. We are half-hearted creatures. running about with drinking and eating and relationships and hoarding money. We're too easily impressed. We're like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot understand what the implication is on the offer of a holiday by the sea. And then he repeats, we are too easily pleased. We are, Naomi. The church is God's people gathered together. And if you can look around and just in the last year, think back. and you're honest with yourself and the ways that something either in church or with another person in church has driven you to despair or act in ways you shouldn't have and all these ups and downs and angry, you're playing in mud, making mud pies. When life didn't get the job you want, didn't get the boyfriend or girlfriend you want, didn't get the toy you want, for young believers, or maybe older, I'm not judging. And it begins a spiral of anger, a spiral of hurt, playing at making mud pies and losing sight of the glorious reward. I may use those simple things because there are people in our congregation who have experienced great tragedy, loss of spouse, loss of children, loss of loved ones. And by no means is the author even at any point kind of saying, as I said before, woman or man up. The author is taking us on a ride to show us that in the deepest aspects of despair, even as God's people, who we can get down, and yes, you don't lose your salvation, you can turn away, and I'm not listening, and I'm here, and I'm even beginning to like this place I'm in of despair and anger and bitterness, kind of feels good. And yet God is constantly, through this journey, journey's not about Ruth, the journey's about Naomi, gradually seeing God calling a Moabite, to repentance and faith. Unclean Moabite is being called by God into his family. Of nothing she's done, of nothing of worth, he's drawing her to himself. And by the end of the story, you see Naomi transform. And that's what God's calling all of us. If you find yourself down here as God's child, and bitter and angry in your circumstances and things that have happened to you. God is calling you to stop looking at yourself and your circumstances and look into the hope of the Redeemer who has called you to Himself. Because there is joy. Not just jumping around all the time, singing joy and levitating around, but joy even in the midst of the worst circumstances and the knowledge of who you are, God's chosen child. See, that's why I apologized for experimenting on you, and I needed two weeks for chapter one. because I'm dancing around a bit, but I want you to see the full theological thrust of Ruth found right here in this first chapter. Ruth is angry and she's bitter, as anyone can see in her circumstances, that that would happen. The daughter-in-laws come to her, Orpah and Ruth, after they have died, and she tells them now to go back, because she's going back to Bethlehem. Go back to your land, go back to your parents' house, and this time, if your husband died and you were a woman, you would go back to your house so that you could be taken care of, and then you would probably, if you were young enough, get married again. She even hints at the idea of, are you going to wait for me? When Naomi says, I'm too old to have children, hinting at the idea of in what was the Jewish custom or the law, if your husband died, his brother or his nearest kinsman would then marry that woman if he was unmarried or unpromised. And then they would have children, but it would be in the brother's name who died. Of course, we'll run into that later. So it's a foreshadowing of that. It's this idea that Ruth is acknowledging. If I were younger, would you even be willing to wait until I had sons who were grown and then in that time you would marry them? So she's kind of pointing out to customs. No, go back to your land. And Orba makes the decision. Okay, I'll go. But then Ruth has the confession that is probably the most famous part of the whole book, this confession that she makes, and it's important. And I'm going to deal with it a lot more next week. We're going to kind of centrally just go through it, and that's what the whole sermon will be about. It'll be Ruth's confession. But she's telling her daughters, looking down in verse, say, 13. I'm sorry, 12. Turn back, my daughters. Go your way. For I am too old to have a husband if I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons. Would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter for me, for your sake, that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.' Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, But Ruth clung to her. It was an implication that Orpah was going back to her people. She tells Ruth, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said, do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go, I will go. And where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people will be my people. And your God, my God. Where you die, I will die. There I will be buried. May the Lord, using Yahweh, the covenant name of God there, do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you. So Ruth, in contrast to Orpah, who Orpah would be more kind of along the lines of how most people would be, Ruth binds herself to Naomi. This is covenantal language. She's saying, where you go, I go. Where you live, I will live. And where you die, meaning the land, that's where I also will die. Do not tell me to leave you. And it's this great statement that will lead us down the road of Ruth the Moabite being an ancestor of the King David, whose line would then be synonymous with Messiah. But because we're talking about Naomi this week, look at 18. Talk about bitter. And when Naomi saw that she was to Derman to go with her, she said no more. Now. That is probably. One of the nicest renderings of what the Hebrew says in the Hebrew, literally, it says the following when Naomi. Realized that Ruth was determined to go with her she stopped talking to her It's interesting right it there's supposed to be a flavor to the text if you will of Naomi's contrast to Ruth and And Naomi's interaction, because the audience reading this at the time that it was written would have seen this as something both amazing. So look at the implications. Moab is pointed out. Moab is an absolute enemy at the time. Leaving Israel in any way to go to any of these foreign enemies at a time of a famine would have been seen as faithless. or an abandoning of Israel. She goes there, loses everything. And then to come back by herself was bad enough. She was going to have to face that. But now she's got this tag along, which is just called the Moabite woman. And the reason being that the Moabite woman was not gonna be like when she walked through the streets of Bethlehem, they're going, oh, look, it's Naomi. Oh, and it's a Moabite woman, yay. No, it's why it's written this way. And we can see this right here. It's the idea that this was something that was also a reminder of the pain and the failure and what she says, what God has done to her. So the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, is this Naomi now? Don't make too much out of this in terms of like, well, women are kind of, you know, with each other. That's what I hear. But the idea is the idea of that Naomi as a woman of Bethlehem of Judah would have been a part of that before she left. She was gone for a decade. And so she would have been known. She would have had friends. So she's gone for a decade. She leaves with a husband and two sons. And when she comes back with some Moabite woman, There's a story there. So don't read this as, oh, here's, you know, these women are being mean to her or whatever it is. This is an idea of like, is that Naomi? The acknowledgement of that, where's her husband? Where's her sons? And the answer would have been evident. She's lost everything. And she's come back with a pagan. It'd be like growing up in Texas for the native Texans and going on a sojourn to California. You left the promised land. Some of you believe this is real. I'm just trying to connect it to your thoughts. And when you You leave, you have, you know, your husband and your sons, and you're going to California, and you're dressed well, you're clean cut, and you come back and, you know, you smell like granola, and you walked the whole way because of the environment, and it's been, that's what took 10 years. And when you get back and you go to your family reunion and they're all eating barbecue, you start to cry. Am I going too far? And you know, and just have a hard time. There'd be questions to be asked. Number one, why granola? Number two, what happened to your hair? When was the last time you washed your feet? And why won't you eat this barbecue? As a Minnesota transplant, some of this is personal. But just so we understand the implications on a more serious manner, it would have been seen as a type of apostasy to leave, an abandoning, and then to come back and everything is gone. And she's already bitter. She's already angry. She's already lost everything worldly that she could think of. And now there's a bit of shame in that return. Now she's not going to repent of anything, but that shame and that bitterness she carries with her up until this interaction, what certainly would have been women she knew when she was younger. Is this Naomi? Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara or bitter. For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me? The reality is the hardest part of tragedy and hardship in our lives is that it's difficult in the midst of being in the weeds of that and the emotions of that, to see that the emptying out of our lives at times is because God has something greater that He wants to fill it up with. You see, Mara and Alemalek and their sons had forgotten all the rescues of God's people. See, the interesting thing about the judge's spiral is that no matter how far the people descended into their adultery against Yahweh, he always rescued them. Always. And the rescues in the book of Judges are supposed to be the thing you latch onto. In spite of the high places and the worshiping of the idols and all the grossness that happens in the book of Judges, one character in that story remains the same. One individual's character never changes. And promises are never broken. It's God. And that's the same God here. We just get to see it in an individual that we should relate to easy. I confess to you, when the simplest things happen in life, I often get angry and bitter. And even as a teaching pastor, if you have some type of view of me, well, Ken's got it all going on. Talk to Christina. Talk to my punching bag in the garage. The idea is that we're supposed to be honest with who we are. And who we are, more often than not, are people who forget everything God has promised us. And we forget that he has been 100% good on fulfilling all of his promises for all time, from the beginning of time until the end. and that God will deliver you. And when you see a story like this of lost hope, and that's what this is, hope that is completely lost. There is nothing in this life for me but bitterness. God is here to remind you, hope remains. Get our eyes off of ourself and put our eyes on Christ. Because while we play at making mud pies with our back turned to the almighty God, creator of the universe and redeemer, Jesus Christ. Now, this brings up a question, I think, when it comes to Naomi. What can protect us from bitterness and grief and anger towards God? As I've said, I've challenged you to be honest with yourself and circumstances in life. Bitterness, anger, grief toward God, playing out in your life, real time, for your spouse to experience, for your children to experience, for your coworkers to experience, in a life called to reflect His glory. How do we fight against it? It's to be reminded always of His redemption. What's one of the more beautiful parts of this tale? It's about Ruth, that Moabite woman. When she comes to town, it says they see two women, and do they ask who she is? They go, isn't that Naomi? They know who the other one is. But it's God's glory that he's going to bring all people to himself and redeem them and show himself magnificent to the nations. And so I want to read something to you here to end things out in Psalm 67. See, the Psalms are great about reflecting God's glory and how we sing his praises based on what he's done. May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on Earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. This next part, let the nations be glad. That means all people. And sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon Earth. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. The earth has yielded its increase. God, our God, shall bless us. God shall bless us. Let the ends of the earth fear him." Ultimately, when you're reading Ruth, you should be reminded of one primary thing, Jesus Christ, Messiah. who will come and as Boaz's redemption of Ruth is a foreshadowing of God's redeeming his people from all nations and all tribes in Christ. When we read this, we're supposed to go, the kinsmen redeemer, that's pretty cool. You're right, that is pretty cool. because God does that on a grand scale with His people. As He draws people to Christ and they are in Him, we are all redeemed in a similar manner. He has paid the price for us and put His arms around us, and we are inheriting His inheritance and clothed in His righteousness. Bitterness, anger, grief. The reality of human existence in a sinful world is loss and heartache and people letting each other down. But we're not supposed to be a people defined by those emotions, even though that's, again, a reality. We're supposed to be a people defined that in spite of those emotions, we will not forget that our hope doesn't remain here in other people, in our circumstances, it remains in God alone. May we encourage each other. With those truths, please pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the truth found in it. We we Lord, we we come to you and pray. that our minds would be shaped by the word of God. And dealing with the realities of this fallen world and our own fallenness, our loss and our grief, and at times anger, can draw us away. God, at times of our faithfulness, our faithlessness, we sojourn away from you. And you call us back. God, may we ever seek your face. May we always be reminded of your glory and your mercy, and ultimately, the redemption that has been purchased in Christ. May you be glorified in our worship. May we be edified in the reading of your word. May we continue on the path acknowledging and remembering our blessed hope in Jesus Christ. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.