Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Ruth: A Redemption Story | The Writings | Ruth 4

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

Are you plagued by hopelessness? Do you find it hard to trust God's plan for your life? Do you ever question God's promises of redemption? In today's episode, Tanya shares how Ruth 4 points us to a God who works all things together for the good of those who love Him. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Ruth 4

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. And the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. So the story of Ruth in the Bible is easy to read. It's fun to teach. Lots and lots of women's Bible studies are done over Ruth, and I've kind of been part of several of them. Some are better than others because they often just center on Ruth and how faithful and courageous she is and how much she loves God.

And yes, that's all true. but Ruth is more than a story of a faithful woman. It's a story of God's healing and God's redemption. It's a bigger picture of God working behind the scenes in one family's story when things just honestly didn't look like they could get much worse. It's an even bigger picture of God working behind the scenes in history to make his promises for all of his people come true. It's actually a picture of how and why this verse in Romans 828 truly is believable.

Romans 828 says, And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love him. The story of Ruth is how we know that a family who has no hope can hope again. Now remember, there was a famine in Bethlehem, and Naomi fled with her husband and her sons to the foreign country of Moab. And while they were there, tragedy struck. And she lost her husband and both of her sons who had married Moabite women. So at that point, Noemi was no longer just a foreigner in Moab, but she was also a widow.

And so what's she going to do? But she hears that the famine is over in Bethlehem. So she decides to return home, even though this is going to be really embarrassing and hard to do because she's going back worse than she left. Now, the only thing Naomi had left in Moab were two daughters-in-law. And she tells them to stay where they are. She explains that it will be hard for them to go with her to Bethlehem. Bethlehem because the country will be hostile and she has nothing to offer them. She has no sons to give them a family. So one of those daughters-in-law decides to stay in Moab. But the other one, Ruth, tells Naomi, I'm going with you. She says, I love you and your God will be my God. So these two women make the trek back to Bethlehem. They get there. And because they're poor, they're allowed by the law to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. Now the field that really chooses to glean from just happens to belong to a man named Boaz, who was also Naomi's

kinsman Redeemer. A kinsman Redeemer is someone who's related to the late husband who can marry the widow, or in this case, the widow's daughter-in-law, Ruth, and give them a new family. And that new family will be in the name of the late husband. It's a way to continue the name of the man after he's deceased. So Boaz offers to do this for Ruth, and Ruth has a son named Obed, who will become the grandfather of King David and will lead to the lineage of Jesus Christ. Wow. All things truly do work together for good, right? That's the big overview of the book. But in chapter four, we get a close look at the pain and redemption of this little family.

There's a series of just a few verses in Ruth four that described precisely how all things have worked together for good, even though no one could have dreamed that it would happen. this way. So it goes like this. In chapter four, after they get back to Bethlehem, it says, So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. And he went into her and the Lord gave her conception and she bore a son. Okay, now this is really cool. Then the women said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a redeemer. And may his name be renowned in Israel. He shall be to you a restore of life and a nourisher of your old age for your daughter. in law who loves you is more to you than seven sons. She has given birth to him. Okay, right, women,

you aren't kidding. This is not only a beautiful baby, but he really is the nourisher of all life, or in one way he's pointing to the nourisher of all life, because this is going to be the lineage of Jesus Christ. Really cool. Now, that sounds wonderful. It's easy for us to look and see how that has come about. In fact, so much had changed since Naomi dreaded her way, back to Bethlehem with her daughter-in-law, and those same women saw her coming back with no family and no money. When she first came back, they said, is this Naomi? And she said to them, do not call me Naomi. Call me 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. Now, maybe where you are in your life, you feel more like Naomi when she first came back and wanted to be called Mara or bitter because her life was so empty. See, at that point, nothing about Naomi's family had worked out the way she wanted to do. It was hard to believe God's plan for her life

was better than what she could do on her own. The last thing you might want someone to say to you, Today or on a day that you're trying to figure out your life is, hey, all things work together for the good of those who love God. Even if it's true. Maybe your marriage is struggling. Maybe you don't know where you're going to be a year from now. Maybe your kids are going through a hard time or maybe your parents don't support you the way

you hope they would. Whenever we're on the verge of becoming bitter or resentful toward God, because our family is not living up to what we hoped and dreamed. The story of Naomi and Ruth reminds us that God is with us. He is patient with us in our unmet expectations and our disappointments. And he is at work on his plans that are hidden from us for a time, but always for our good. When the women told Naomi that her daughter-in-law Ruth was more than seven sons,

they actually recognized that this new family was even better than the story Naomi would have written for herself. It was better than what Naomi hoped for when she left Bethlehem with her husband and sons. Seven is the number of perfection, and the women had eyes to see that God's plan for restoring Naomi's family was better than Naomi's original plan. The restoration of her family through Ruth and Boaz and this grandbaby Obed was more perfect than her best laid plans. It didn't look like the path.

Naomi had envisioned for her life, but it was so much better. Ruth and Naomi were given a new family, but so was all of Israel. This baby Obed was a picture of the greater king, the ultimate redeemer, that would be born through this family's genealogy. Ruth and Naomi were redeemed, their little family was healed, so was the nation of Israel, healed and redeemed through the birth of Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter. your past record, your nationality, the status where you live, your family.

The way we have all been redeemed is by being put in a new family. How do we know this is true? How do we know that God works all things together for his good? Ephesians 1-5 tells us, God decided, in advance, to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself. through Jesus Christ. That's how we know. It's God's plan.

He invites us in. He makes us part of his family through our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Ruth was a faithful woman in her own right. But I don't think we're supposed to read this book and try to be more like Ruth. I think we're supposed to see Jesus. I think we're supposed to be pointed to the hope of his redemption.

I think we're supposed to see our messy lives in the hands of his providence. I think we're supposed to put our trust in what he has done, what he will do to redeem our lives from this pit, and bring us into his glorious grace and presence. Ruth is a book about our ultimate Redeemer, Jesus Christ, His life of suffering, his sacrifice, his resurrection. This is the reason we can believe all things truly will work together for the good of those who love him.