I'd like you to turn with me this morning to the Old Testament book of Ruth. As I have indicated, it is my purpose to preach a series of messages from this Old Testament book. A famous preacher once wrote these words, Have you ever read carefully the story of Ruth? four brief chapters of a lovely romance, packed with tears and laughter, pathos and rejoicing, sorrow and gladness, beginning in darkness and sorrow but ending in a burst of splendor and light that leave you with an appreciation of the richness and the inspiration of Scripture which will carry you over the barren fields of doubts and uncertainty into the verdant field of hope and security? And in answer to that question, I can say, yes, I have read the book of Ruth. And indeed, I have found that the study of that book does leave one with a great appreciation of the richness and inspiration of Scripture. In the coming weeks and I would say months, it is my intention to expound this wonderful little book and to consider with you some beautiful typology and life lessons that are to be drawn from the story of Ruth the Moabiteess. There are four chapters in this book and these four chapters set forth both in plain history and also in spiritual pictures a message of love. It is a love story. A story on the face of it of human love. But if you have spiritual eyes to see, it is also a story of divine love. It does record one of the great romances of the Bible, but it is one which illustrates in a marvellous way the love of Christ for His church. If I were summing up the message of Ruth, I would say it is a story of romance and of redemption. The commentator William Taylor observed, this little book of four chapters is unique among the treasures of the Word of God. It is unlike every other portion of Scripture, and yet it has on it the stamp of inspiration which is common to them all. Ruth is a narrative told with the utmost simplicity and yet it contains a message of great depth and profundity. It's simple because it is a tale of several individuals from a small village in Judah, the village of Bethlehem. Folks who were members of an obscure family who encountered a series of sad misfortunes. In the midst of a famine, We read that the family left home to seek a better situation in the nearby country of Moab. But there, calamity after calamity befell them. As the mother, first of all, was bereft of her husband, and then of her two sons, and left with two heathen daughters-in-law. Now this sad widow, a woman by the name of Naomi, at this time of great extremity, at her lowest ebb and in a state of virtual hopelessness, witnessed the hand of God intervening in mercy, giving to the virtually extinct family of her late husband Elimelech a renewed existence in the nation of Israel and a wonderful place in the accomplishment of His eternal purposes. even through her heathen daughter-in-law, Ruth the Moabiteess. I say it's a simple story, but this is where it is so profound. Ruth the Moabiteess was brought by the grace of God, as one person put it, from the land of Moab to the line of the Messiah. If you study the genealogy of Christ in Matthew chapter 1, You will see there that there are names of several women who were not exactly known for their virtue. There is, for example, in Matthew 1, verse 3, the name Tamar. And if you read the story of Tamar, it is a sad story in many ways. You will also read there in verse 5 of Matthew 1 of the name Booz, which is a literal translation from the Greek. It's actually Boaz, of Rechab. And Rechab is actually the Rahab who is known often in Scripture as Rahab the harlot, who was redeemed by God's grace there at Jericho. And then of course, you read in verse 6 of Solomon being born of David the king of her that had been the wife of Uriah. That's Bathsheba. And again, you cannot exactly say that Bathsheba is a woman who is first of all to be thought of in terms of her virtue. So here you have these women in sad situations. The birth of their children was not in good order. Tamar and Rahab, of course, was not known for her virtue, but also Bathsheba. But there's another one mentioned here. Matthew 1, verse 5, And Boaz begat Obed of Ruth. And here we have the leading character in this Old Testament story. Ruth, the Moabiteess. Ruth was brought by the grace of God into the very line of the Messiah. And so it is a beautiful story. A story of one who is an outcast, one who is a stranger to the covenants of promise, who is an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, being brought by God's grace into the very line of the Messiah and redeemed by her kinsman-redeemer. I say the book of Ruth is one of the great love stories of Scripture. And so that's where we will begin. Ruth, it is a story of romance. Now all of us are pretty much romantics at heart, aren't we? Though the men sometimes don't like to admit it, but really deep down men are romantic as well as the ladies. They maybe don't always show it to the same extent. But a story of romance is always a nice thing. And here you have a story of a widowed foreigner who finds love in her newly adopted country with a man that she would never have otherwise met had she stayed in her native land. Strange are the ways of providence. Strange are the ways of the Lord. To say that this was an unlikely romance, I think, is an understatement. But in His providence, God made it happen. So the book is a story of love, and of course, the love story, the two leading characters are Boaz and Ruth. But as a story of love, as such, it reflects the theme of the entire Bible. It was Martin Luther, the reformer, who said that the Bible could be read in miniature in John 3 verse 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." You could call it the gospel in a nutshell. And you have the whole of the gospel in there. The wrath of God is there because it speaks of perishing. The love of God is there. The grace of God is there. The atonement of Christ is there. Faith and trust in Christ is there. Everlasting life and glory is there. That's the love story of the Bible. God loves sinners. And furthermore, He not only loves sinners, He is intent on saving sinners. That's why Christ came. Remember what Paul said? This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. It's worthy of being accepted. That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. That's the message that we find in picture form in the book of Ruth. God loves the sinner. and His intent on saving sinners from their sins. Now, we know that the Old Testament speaks of how God prepared this world for the coming of Messiah, the One who would redeem His people. And as I have often remarked, the Old Testament is full of Christ. Frankly, I don't understand those preachers, those ministers who use only the New Testament for their sermon material. That's a huge mistake. Because the Bible, the whole of the Bible is the Word of God. And as has often been said, God speaks with only one mouth, but that one mouth has two lips. One is the Old Testament, the other is the New Testament. The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed. The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. I'm not just a New Testament Christian. I'm a Two Testament Christian. Because I believe the Bible from cover to cover to be the Word of God. And it is a book of one message. Sixty-six books. Thirty-nine in the Old Testament. Twenty-seven in the New. But there's one message about the covenant of grace. A covenant of grace that had two modes of administration. But nevertheless, one covenant. God loves sinners. And so the One who would redeem His people is spoken of throughout the Old Testament. We recall the words of Jesus to those two on the road to Emmaus. It will not do any harm to read these words again. Look at chapter 24, verse 27, and beginning at Moses. That's the Pentateuch. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. and all the prophets." And that's really a summary of the rest of the Old Testament. He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. And I like to think that that exposition included the book of Ruth. Jesus said, did He not, search the Scriptures? For in them ye think ye have eternal life, They are they which testify of me." This Bible everywhere speaks of Christ. We are told by the Apostle that the things that were written aforetime were written for our learning. He said they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. So, it will do us good always to study the Old Testament and look for Christ. And the book of Ruth is a book where you will find Christ if you look for Him. And I would suggest you don't have to look very hard. Because His great love and His glorious purpose to redeem His church, His bride, His wife, is right here in picture form. There are three chief romances in the Old Testament. You could look upon some of the other material as being romantic or not as you choose. But Ruth and Rebecca and the Shulamite are three women who are the center of love stories in the Old Testament. In Genesis chapter 24 we read about Isaac and how that Abraham sent his servant Eliezer to find a bride for Isaac. And without going into all the detail of Genesis chapter 24, it's wonderful there to see the providence of God at work. The servant was able to say in testimony to God's leading and direction, I being in the way, the Lord led me. And there's many today who can testify to the same kind of leading in their lives. Rebecca was brought from that far place where Abraham had been brought up to become the wife of Isaac. You read the Song of Solomon, sometimes called Canticles, or the Song of Songs. There is a girl in there known as the Shulamite. Again, without going into all the detail in the Song of Solomon, The story is a love story of how Solomon the king took the Shulamite to be his bride. And again, you have this account of Ruth, who became, by the grace of God, the wife of Boaz. Each of these stories has a connection to the revelation of God's saving covenant of grace. And God's covenant love for us, His people, is illustrated in these stories of love and marriage, obviously including the story of Ruth. So it is a story of romance. But we may also say, as a result of what I've just said, that it is a story also of redemption. The purpose of the book of Ruth is really twofold. It is, first of all, to reveal the seed royal line of the Messiah leading up to David. And it's interesting, when you go to Matthew's Gospel, that the genealogy there does include David and the line from him down to Joseph. But also the purpose of Ruth, secondly, is to teach the great truth of redemption through our Kinsman, our Kinsman Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you look with me at the book of Ruth, and we're going to be obviously studying this in more detail as we go along, but there are various references to this man Boaz as a Kinsman or a Redeemer. Let me just give you a quick glance through the book here. Ruth chapter 2 verse 20. And Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law, Blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen. And if you have a margin in your authorized version, you will see that there is an alternate rendering there of those words one of our next kinsmen, it is simply one that hath right to redeem. One that hath right to redeem. And if that doesn't make you think about the Lord Jesus Christ, I don't know what will. Because that is Christ. He is our Redeemer, our Kinsman Redeemer. So as we use this word going through the study, the Hebrew word for it is Goel. You could spell it in English, G-O-E-L. The Goel or the Kinsman Redeemer is the one that we see in Boaz, but he's picturing the Lord Jesus Christ. As we read on, Chapter 3 then mentions in verse 9, at the end of the verse, the words of Boaz to Ruth, For thou art a near kinsman. When he said to her, Who art thou? The words of Ruth to him were, I am Ruth, thine handmaid. Spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid, for thou art a near kinsman. Again, the thought is one that has right to redeem. You'll see again, that the kinsman is mentioned in verse 12 of chapter 3. Now it is true, he says, that I am thy near kinsman, howbeit there is a kinsman nearer than I. Again, in verse 13, he uses the term a kinsman, or let him do a kinsman's part. If he will not do the part of a kinsman to thee, then will I do the part of a kinsman to thee. The idea, again, is one who has the right to redeem. And then you come into the next chapter. Chapter 4, and it speaks there of the kinsman in verse 3. But then remarkably, it goes on to speak not only of the kinsman in verse 6, and again in verse 8, but of redemption. Notice the words that are used here. Chapter 4, verse 4. And I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy it before the inhabitants and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it. But if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me that I may know. For there is none to redeem it beside thee, and I am after thee." And he said, I will redeem it. Then you see in verse 5, the word biased and the word buy. Verse 6, Redeem. Redeem. Redeem. Verse 7, redeeming. Verse 8, buy it for thee. Verse 9, I have bought all that was Elimelech's. Verse 10, Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife. All of these terms – buying, redeeming, purchasing – they all have to do with this process, this transaction that had to take place whereby Boaz had to be willing to purchase the land and the lady, if I could put it that way, in order that Ruth might become his bride. It is a book, a story of redemption. And the book of Ruth needs to be seen in the context of the Mosaic covenant. It is actually written against the backdrop of the law as given to Israel. Now obviously, Ruth, and we'll be getting into this as we go along, is the eighth book of the Old Testament. The number eight is a significant number in Scripture. It is the number of new beginnings. You will know that the first day of the week is the Lord's Day. Then you go right through the week into the seventh day, and then you come again to another Lord's Day. And that's the eighth day. That's the number of new beginnings. A day upon which Christ was raised. There are various references in the Bible that will show that the number eight is a number of new beginnings. And Ruth really represents a new beginning. You have the law, the five books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Then you have the book of Joshua. The sixth book. That's the book of conquest. That's the book of going into the promised land and gaining that land. But then you have the book of Judges, which is a book largely of apostasy and departure from God. When the law of God is forsaken and set aside, And significantly, Ruth begins with this statement. Chapter 1, verse 1, Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled. And what were those days? Well, you look at the very last verse of the book of Judges. It just comes before Ruth. In those days there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. We're going to be coming back to that. Because men and women, there is right there in that statement That which causes us to think of our own day and age. If ever there was a day when every man did that which was right in his own eyes, it's today. Not just in America, but in the whole of the Western world. In fact, you could say in the whole of the world. This is a day for people asserting their own rights. This is a day when people will say, nobody will tell me what to do. I'm king of my own castle. Every man does that which is right in his own eyes, not that which is right in the eyes of the Lord. Those were the days in which the book of Ruth was set. It's written against the backdrop of the law as given to Israel. That law was kind of like a fence, a barrier inside of which God's people could enjoy the blessings of the covenant. And God's law made it clear that Ruth, as a Moabiteess, was naturally excluded from the fellowship of God and the blessings of the covenant of grace. You study it for yourself, you'll see that the Moabites were not to enter into the congregation of the Lord, to the very tenth generation, and yet, At the same time, the book of Ruth reveals that that very law that showed her natural alienation from God also made provision for her as a widow and a stranger to enter into the blessings of the covenant of grace. Now when we go back to the book of Genesis, and we need to, to find God making covenant promises. He made, after the flood and when Noah came out of the ark, covenant promises to Noah. People often refer to this as the Noahic covenant. Now, among the things that God said to Noah was this. Genesis chapter 9 and verse 27, and by the way, the sign of the covenant has been hijacked by sodomites. It has been used as a disgraceful emblem of that which God condemns in His Word. But the bow in the cloud is a sign of God's covenant with His people. And how much lower can the devil's crowd get than to take something that speaks to us of God's covenant of grace and make it to speak of that which is a disgrace? Having said that, I'd like to say a lot more about it of course. God said to Noah, I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. Genesis chapter 9 verse 15. But he speaks upon it again in verse 16 as the everlasting covenant. And he speaks of the token of the covenant in verse 17. But as you come down there, in Genesis chapter 9 to verse 27 it says this, God shall enlarge Japheth, he's one of the three sons of Noah of course, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem and Canaan shall be his servant. The sons of Japheth would dwell in the tents of Shem. These were Gentiles. They were strangers to the covenant line. God's purpose was to reveal His covenant redemption to the Semitic or Jewish line. That's where we get the word Semitic from, by the way. Shem. But ultimately, It was God's purpose to extend the blessings of the covenant to those who ordinarily had no claim to them, including people like Ruth from Moab, the Gentiles. And that's the theme that we find further expounded in Scripture. The Lord Jesus Himself talked about that when He talked about taking That which was exclusively supposed to be for the Jews, but then spreading it out and giving it to a people who had not sought for it. Even the Gentiles. And right now what God is doing is taking out of the Gentiles a people for His name. He's not finished with Israel. I don't believe that. I believe if you read Romans chapters 9, 10 and 11, it will give you a proper picture as to what God is doing in this earth. saving Jews and Gentiles and making them one glorious church. But notice here, if you go further in Genesis, you'll note that the covenant was ratified with Abraham. And unlike dispensationists, we don't believe in God tearing up covenants and making new covenants. God renews His covenant with His people. It's the same covenant. It's not a different covenant. The covenant was ratified with Abraham. Go to Genesis chapter 12. This is important teaching. It says there, Now the Lord had said... This is something that's already happened. The Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee. Where was that that he was called out of? Well, we find in the previous chapter, it was Ur of the Chaldees. It was the dwelling of the Gentiles. He said, I'll bring you to a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. Now look at verse 3, the latter part of that verse in Genesis 12. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. God was going to bless the line, the progeny of Abraham, And as we go on in Genesis to chapter 17, we see there the covenant that God has made with Abraham. But he mentions to him that he is going to be a father of many nations. Look at verses 7 and 8. And I will establish My covenant between Me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, And I will be their God." And then he gave them the covenant of circumcision. Now if you go to the New Testament book of Galatians, what God did with Abraham is further expounded upon in Galatians chapter 3. And there we read this wonderful statement in verse 13 of Galatians chapter 3. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. That, it means in order that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. The blessing of Abraham would extend to the Gentiles through His seed. His seed being Christ. Now, the covenant of grace, if we had time to study it in the Old Testament, we would find was also revealed to Moses and to David. The Lord renewed that covenant with them. The covenant was revealed to them. It was ratified with them. And in each case you will find it is exemplified, applied and illustrated by the theme of love and marriage. We've already mentioned Genesis 24. It's actually the longest chapter in the book of Genesis. And it has been reserved for what has been called the greatest love story ever told. The story of Isaac and Rebekah. Abraham is the father of Isaac, the son of his old age. And there's a promise that God made with him and ultimately, as the New Testament argues, the focus of that promise is Jesus Christ. But the immediate focus there is on Isaac. And God's redemptive intention is illustrated and it's ratified by the bringing of Rebekah into the line of God's saving and redemptive purpose She's brought into the family. She becomes the mother of Jacob, through whom God would continue to reveal His saving purpose to the world through His sons. And the book of Ruth is a great love story with a very similar kind of theme. It's set within the context of the Mosaic Covenant. It's written against the backdrop of that code that God gave to His people. When you read the law of God, you'll see that it revealed to Israel the nature of sin against God. It was like a fence within which God's covenant people could enjoy the blessings of the covenant. But Ruth, as one naturally excluded from the benefits, was brought in to the covenant community of the people of God and that Entrance into that new fellowship was sealed by her marriage to this man Boaz, and it is an example again of God bringing those who are outside the covenant into the covenant. If you read Ephesians chapter 2, you'll see that that's what God has done with Gentiles like us. We were strangers from the covenants of promise. We were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. without Christ and without hope in the world. Yet the Lord has brought us in to enjoy the blessings of the covenant of grace. And by the way, in 2 Samuel chapter 7, God further sealed His covenant redemption by making specific promises to David. And those promises would focus your attention on the line of David from which the Messiah would come. And so, it's very significant that the New Testament opens with a statement of Christ's descent from David. Did you notice that? Matthew chapter 1 and verse 1. It speaks of the generation, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David. Here we have the line of David that leads all the way, according to the flesh, to Christ. I think that's really significant. The New Testament opens with this thought of Christ's connection to David, who of course was the king of Israel. Christ himself, the greater David, the king of Israel. But the New Testament also closes in a similar fashion. Because in Revelation chapter 22, near the end of the chapter, the Bible speaks in this way. Revelation chapter 22 and verse 16. I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star. That's interesting, isn't it? He's the root and the offspring of David. That really shows us both the deity and the humanity of Christ. David really is not the head of Christ. As far as speaking of fatherhood, you see that Christ is the root, but He's also the offspring of David. That is according to the flesh, according to the human genealogy. Now, what has that got to do with Ruth? Well, if you think of the marriage of Rebekah to Isaac, and of the Shulamite to Solomon in the Song of Solomon, and then of Ruth to Boaz, all of these illustrate the very central truth of the gospel. that Jesus Christ, the mediator of God's everlasting covenant, came to extend the blessings of Abraham to those who were hitherto without hope and without God in the world. Those who Ephesians 2 describes as, by nature, the children of wrath. Outside of Israel, just like the Moabites, strangers, Ruth herself, if you study the book, speaks of herself as a stranger. One who had no natural right to be a part of God's covenant promise. That's true of us. And what the Lord has done is bring alienated sinners, enemies of His, into a covenantal marriage union with Himself. We are, as believers, part of the Bride of Christ. The church of the living God. And so, the story of Rebekah and of the Shulamite and of Ruth, they find their ultimate meaning. They find their ultimate fulfillment in that great statement in the book of Revelation when God says, Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. This is the church. So, in the book of Ruth, you have this all pictured. And so you might read the book of Ruth and find, yes, a really interesting story. It's a lovely story of what happened to that family and this woman who had lost her husband. She comes back with her mother-in-law. She meets a new man and it's wonderful. It's all very nice. There's love and there's blessing here. But look, the deeper meaning is to be found in this. The great, the big story of the Bible. That's where the book of Ruth comes into its own. See, there's only one gospel, men and women. Don't let dispensational false teachers tell you that there have been different gospels preached in different eras, different means, different ways by which people are saved in different eras, including in the future. There will be people who will be saved by giving a cup of cold water to somebody. There will be people who will be saved by being kind to the Jews. What utter nonsense! That there would be people in heaven who would be there because of good works. I want to tell you, there's one Gospel. There's one Gospel, and it's the Gospel of the grace of God. And it's called by various names. It's called the Gospel of the Kingdom. The Gospel of the grace of God. Paul calls it My Gospel. The Gospel of His salvation. The Gospel of God. The Gospel of Christ. They're all interchangeable terms. They all mean the same thing. And there's only one covenant of grace, not a bunch of covenants, one covenant by which sinners are saved. There's only one gospel because God is still looking for a wife for Abraham's greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And those that are saved even today are saved because God's law has made provision for redemption through kinship. And there's only one whose work is sufficient to bring us into the bond of that covenant. We are saved because of David's greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved the church and gave himself for it. So, you read the love stories of the Old Testament, including the book of Ruth, and you understand them against the backdrop of the covenantal unity of the whole Bible, it all points forward to the marriage of the Lamb. You know, when we go to heaven, others may disagree and think that the marriage supper of the Lamb is something that lasts just for a short period. My own view is that the marriage supper of the Lamb is like a metaphor for heaven itself. That's what it's going to be. He will come forth and serve us. Heaven is going to be the great supper of God's people when we sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb. And as Rutherford, in his hymn that was written, his words were taken by Annie Ross Cousin and made into a hymn, but the words originally were Rutherford's, the bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face. I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of grace. Not at the crown he giveth, but on his pierced hands. The Lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's land." This is how we must approach the story of Ruth. And I believe that we will see in this book, as we study it, the love of our Lord Jesus Christ displayed and illustrated over and over. Here is a love that reaches the outcast, the stranger, brings that stranger and that outcast into union with her Redeemer. Ruth is a story of grace. And as we close this message, I just want to illustrate that for you in a very simple way. I wonder how many of you, when you read the book of Ruth, if you read it this past week, noticed how she was described on five occasions. I'll not ask anybody to raise their hands, I don't want to embarrass anybody, but you may have noted, and if you didn't, you will now, that on five occasions in these four chapters, Ruth is referred to as Ruth the Moabiteess. I'll give you the references. In chapter 1, it's verse 22. So, Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabiteess. Chapter 2, verse 2. And Ruth the Moabiteess. Chapter 2, verse 21. You have the third reference. And Ruth the Moabiteess said. And then, in chapter 4, verse 5. But day thou buy'st the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabiteess." And then finally in verse 10 of chapter 4, Moreover, Ruth the Moabiteess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife. Now what's the significance of that? Ruth the Moabiteess, ok, it's telling us where she came from, it's telling us about her But why would you think it's only in that book five times? Well, I'll tell you. Because five in Scripture is the number of grace. And you can study that theme for yourself all the way through the Bible. Five is constantly to be seen as the number of grace. And so we have here in her description employed five times the very thought of the grace of God at work. in the life of this woman. This is a story of grace, just as it is a story of grace when we as sinners, without God and without hope, are brought in to the family of God by faith in Jesus Christ. So Ruth was brought among the people of God by grace. Not by law, though the law was upheld. The law was certainly not set aside. But she was brought in by grace and made part not only of the people of God, but had a real part in the bringing of the Messiah even into this world. Because at the end of the very book of Ruth, you see this genealogy that is mentioned in the last five verses. And it says in verse 21 of chapter 4 that Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David. So Boaz was actually the great grandfather of David. of whom came the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we say that Ruth is a story of one who was brought from the land of Moab into the line of the Messiah. And as we study the book, I trust the Lord will bless it to our hearts that we will see their wonderful pictures of the Saviour, of His love, of His mercy, of His grace, and of our own standing in Christ.