Obed and Beyond

Amen. I love singing Christmas songs. I'm ready for it to be Christmas, ready for it to be cold. We can't control that part. But if you would open with me to Ruth chapter four, we'll be finishing our study through Ruth this evening.

And I want to first just express my love for you guys and appreciation for you. It's such a joy to serve you in the way I have the privilege of serving you. And you guys are just so much fun to be around and spend time with. So Lisa and I love it every week seeing you.

And if we see you out in public, we love you guys coming up and talking to us. So it's just so much fun to be around you guys and get to serve you, including tonight as we conclude our study through the book of Ruth.

So the book of Ruth ends with a genealogy, five verses covering 10 generations. And it may seem like kind of an anticlimactic way to end a book like, oh, so riveting and so dramatic.

And now there's just a list of names to end on. That doesn't seem like a good ending. But I would like to look at these names, like to look at this genealogy and kind of trace it through most of the Old Testament and even into the New Testament tonight.

So be ready to turn in your Bibles, have your fingers ready to go, warmed up, stretched, ready to turn in your Bible because we're going to be going a lot of different places. But first I want to kind of review where we've been in the book of Ruth, just kind of catching the highlights of this book.

If you remember, it started with introducing us to a man by the name of Elimelech, whose name means my God is king. He had a family, a wife and two sons who went to Moab to flee from a famine in their home country of Israel.

And while there, their sons picked up two wives and all the men in their family died. So now it's just these three women left. Naomi, the mother-in-law, whose name means sweet, says, I'm going back home.

I've heard that the Lord has visited our land and given us crops again. The famine is over. One of the daughters-in-law says, I'm going to stay here in Moab where it's comfortable and safe.

The other daughter-in-law, Ruth, says, I will cling to you. Wherever you die, that's where I will die as well. Ruth's name means friend.

And she lives up to her name in this book. And then there's a guy named Boaz, whose name means in him is strength. And he's wealthy, he's successful in his farming, in agriculture.

And Ruth meets Boaz. Guy meets girl. They're interested in each other, which ultimately leads to their marriage and the redemption of both Ruth and Naomi.

This marriage leads to a newborn baby boy who is named Obed, whose name means servant. He's a servant both of Naomi in her old age, and he's a servant of the Lord himself.

And we left off last week at the end of verse 17. They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

And I mentioned this last week, but it's worth reviewing that this chapter, chapter 4, doesn't just solve the problem in the lives of Naomi and Ruth.

This book actually solves the problem that their entire nation is facing. If you remember chapter 1, verse 1 says, In the days when the judges ruled. And so there was no king in Israel during this day, but this book gives us a king.

And so this book is about a guy and a girl. That's what this story revolves around. But it's not just about that guy and that girl. It's about what God is doing through them.

This isn't just a cute love story. This is Israel's story. This is a story about how they survive as a nation. And so this book began in chapter 1 with 10 years of death in Moab.

And now it ends with 10 generations of life in Jerusalem. This book is about what the Lord was doing through these two ladies.

And as we look back at what the Lord has done, we can see the details of this story in a new light. There were some very unfortunate circumstances that took place in the lives of the characters.

But there were no coincidences. There were some very difficult and dark days, but there were no accidents. The Lord was sovereignly orchestrating all of it.

And it's only when we look back that we can see how God was working in this story. And that's how God's providence works even in our own lives. We go through very difficult and challenging things in life.

And we can't always see what the Lord is doing through those. And even in the midst of those, it sometimes feels like the Lord has abandoned us. But when we look back, we can usually see how the Lord was sustaining us and what he was doing to carry out his will, even through our difficulty and our heartbreak.

And now this book, before the genealogy, ends with David. And so whoever wrote this book would have at least been able to have seen David's reign as king.

Or else why end with David if he ended up being an insignificant guy. But tonight we're going to look at this genealogy in chapter 4, verses 18 through 22.

And so we see firstly, a royal line. A royal line. And the author concludes this book with a ten-generation genealogy.

And so there are ten different names of men in this family leading up to David. And if you notice, if you count them, Boaz is in the seventh position. And in these royal ancient genealogies, typically the seventh position is reserved for a person of honor.

And so if they're picking relatives, kind of put in the family line, the seventh position will be someone prominent. A key difference here is that the author doesn't kind of massage this genealogy to fit.

And Boaz just falls into the seventh place because that's where he belongs as a man of honor. It concludes with David. He's in the tenth position, which is also typically an honored position in these royal genealogies.

And so David is the highlight of this list. And so this shows us the final word of this book is the name David. And so what the author is doing is he's implanting this book within the bigger story of Scripture.

He already did this in chapter 1, verse 1, when he says, In the days when the judges ruled, he's planting this book within the timeline of Scripture. And then with this genealogy ending with David, he's throwing us forward into the future for what God will continue to do through Israel.

And so in the Lord's kindness and providence, the impact of this story stretches into the future even beyond what the human author could have seen.

So verse 18, Now these are the generations of Perez. And that phrase, these are the generations of, that occurs over and over in the book of Genesis, which we're going through on Sunday mornings.

And so this is an important book, continuing that story that God began with Israel in the book of Genesis. Perez is mentioned first.

He was the strongest line in Bethlehem at the time. And this was the lineage that Boaz shared and later David after him would share. Perez is the son of Judah, one of the tribes of Israel.

His mom was a lady named Tamar, who was actually Judah's daughter-in-law. And so Perez was born from Judah by Tamar.

We referenced that last week with Genesis 38. It's a messed up story, a sinful story. And so it's through Tamar's plotting and through Judah's immorality that Perez comes into the world.

Perez fathered Hezron. Hezron fathered Ram. Ram fathered Amenadab. We don't know a lot about these guys, specifically Hezron and Ram.

If you want to, if you need a baby boy name, those are a couple strong candidates right there. But Amenadab, we do know more about him. He was actually the father-in-law of Aaron. And so you think of Moses, the leader of Israel out of Egypt.

Aaron was his brother who became the first priest of Israel. Aaron's father-in-law was this guy named Amenadab. And so he married his daughter.

Then Amenadab fathered Nashon, which kind of sounds like Kishon, but it's not. And so Nashon would have been Aaron's brother-in-law then. And then Nashon fathered Salmon, which looks like Salmon, but don't call him Salmon because I think you'd be offended by that.

Salmon. And then Salmon fathered Boaz. Now it's interesting because Salmon's wife was Rahab, the prostitute.

And so if you remember back to Joshua 2, Joshua's leading the Israelites into the promised land. And so they cross the Jordan River, cross into Canaanite territory. One of the first places they come to is the city of Jericho.

So Joshua sends two spies in and they're kind of just trying to slip in and slip out, get the lay of the land. And so they visit Rahab's house. Now Rahab has actually heard about Yahweh and she hides these spies and lies to protect them and keep them safe.

And because of her faith, because of this deed she had done for them, her and her family's life was spared when Israel came in to conquer the city. And so Rahab and her family survive.

And so by faith in Yahweh, she lives. And then by marriage, she also becomes an Israelite by marrying this guy named Salmon. And Salmon and Rahab were actually Boaz's parents.

And so Boaz's dad's name was Salmon, but his mom was Rahab, the Gentile. And as we think back through the details of this story, maybe this is why he took notice of Ruth when she was in his field.

He remembered that his mom was also a Gentile, also a stranger in the land of Israel. And then Boaz is in the seventh position here.

This is reserved for an honorable character. But again, this isn't fabricated. This isn't shifted around. Boaz rightly belongs in this seventh spot. Boaz fathered Obed.

Obed fathered Jesse. And Jesse fathered David. David was the king of Israel. David is the greatest military general that Israel has ever had.

He was an expert in war. And he's also the greatest poet they ever had. And so he could kill giants and write bangers. Just what a guy. Goals, right?

So he's the poet, warrior, king. And just saying that, I think I've failed at my life. But he was brilliant in every way. And so whoever wrote this book, likely Solomon, but we don't know that for sure.

Whoever wrote this book knew that David was a prominent character. And so he knew that this story was worth telling because of what the Lord did through it.

This story is worth telling and for us to read because it highlights God's sovereignty and providence. And I want you to remember, Naomi could not have seen all the significance of this.

She likely never met David. She was already in her old age by the time Obed was born. So she likely never met David and certainly wouldn't have seen him rise to power as king.

And so she couldn't have seen all the details of what the Lord was doing through her suffering and through her difficulty, even at the end of her life. The human author had a little bit more perspective.

He would have been able to see like, okay, this is where King David came from. This is his family line. This is his story. But even the human author wouldn't have seen everything that the Lord would do through David.

Because David is a very prominent character, not just in the history of Israel, but he's very important in setting up our expectations for who Jesus would be.

And so we see a royal line. And secondly, we will look at David, the son of Jesse. David, the son of Jesse. And you know David, you know some stories about him.

He was the psalmist of Israel. He was a great warrior. But he was a very unlikely hero in the story of Israel. He was the eighth born son of Jesse.

And so if you think he got a lot of siblings, he had seven older brothers. Like he got left at church all the time. His parents just completely forgot about him. But he was out in the field keeping sheep. And his seven older brothers, when Samuel came, Jesse brought them in and said, hey, you're looking for a king.

Check out these seven guys. And Samuel was like, it's none of these. Do you have any other sons? And they bring in David, the youngest, the smallest, the guy that's just left out.

They're like, oh, yeah, we forget about David all the time. Let's bring him in. And he's the one that God wants to be king over Israel. And so he's used to being a shepherd. He's defended his sheep from some lions and some wolves before.

But his first act of service in the government was playing the harp for King Saul when he had his little tempo tantrums, which were demonically tormented, which is dark.

But anyway, so he played the harp for him to kind of calm him back down. That was his first act of service in the government of Israel. His first public act of service was actually killing Goliath.

That's the first kind of public thing he did that got attention within Israel. He's this little shepherd boy, the younger brother of these seven other guys. And he kills this nine-foot-tall giant.

And the way he does it is kind of ironic because they try to put this armor on him. And he's like, I'm not used to this. Just give me my slingshot. And they're like, okay, that's cute. And so I think of, like, we've got these kind of aggressive dogs that live next to us that get out a lot.

And so my kids are, like, probably going to have trauma from it. But Charlie, every once in a while, will get a stick and be like, I've got a stick to fight the mean dogs. And you're like, okay, that's cute.

Like, I'm glad you're ready. Stay strapped. But that's kind of what David is doing fighting this giant. He just has stones and a slingshot. And he kills this giant.

And the people in Israel start to wonder, like, what else is this guy capable of? That kind of launches him into the public spotlight. What else could the Lord do through him?

And then once Saul dies, David becomes the rightful king and basically destroys all of their enemies around them. And so David is like the Alexander the Great of Israel's history. Like, his accomplishments and victories are breathtaking in how quickly he was able to bring peace to Israel.

And so he's killed Goliath. He's brought peace to the nation. Is he the one? Is he the guy we're waiting for? Is he this guy that's going to not only destroy our enemies, but destroy death and Satan himself?

The one that was promised to us back in the garden. Is this the one that we've been waiting for? Well, turn with me to 2 Samuel. So you're at the end of Ruth. Go through 1 Samuel to 2 Samuel chapter 7.

David wants to build the Lord a temple to dwell in.

And the Lord says, that's not my plan for you, David. And so the Lord says to David, don't build me a house. I'm going to build you a house. I'm going to give you a name.

And so we see the prominence of David put on full display. But we see here also that he is not the Savior. He is not the one that Israel has been waiting for.

He's like him, but he's not the one himself. So 2 Samuel chapter 7 verse 8. Now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David.

So this is the Lord speaking to Nathan the prophet to relay this message to David. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel.

And I have been with you wherever you went, and I've cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place, and be disturbed no more.

And violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly. From the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, Yahweh declares to you that Yahweh will make you a house.

When your days are fulfilled, and you lie down with your fathers. And so David is going to die. He's not the one who can conquer death. He one day will die.

I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom.

Look at that. Forever. Someone coming from David's line will rule in Israel forever. Which means he has to be able to conquer death, or reverse death in some way.

If he's going to rule forever, he's got to be able to overcome death. And he goes on in verse 14, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men.

But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. Verse 16, In your house, in your kingdom, shall be made sure forever before me.

Your throne shall be established forever. And so David himself is not the promised one, but one of his sons is going to be this promised one.

One of his sons is going to be the conqueror. One of his sons is going to be the savior. And will be able to overcome death and reign forever.

But go with me to chapter 11. David not only isn't the one, but he also dishonors his life forever through what he does.

We'll just read the first verse, and I'll summarize the rest. But it says, David was supposed to be with his men.

David was supposed to be in battle. This is what kings are supposed to do. And yet David says, I'm just going to sit this one out. You guys go on without me. And he's not where he's supposed to be.

He's not doing what he's supposed to be doing. He's being lazy. And temptation thrives on laziness. And so for you, be where you're supposed to be.

Be doing what you're supposed to be doing. Or else temptation will seize you. And so what David ends up doing is he commits adultery. He takes another man's wife.

Her name is Bathsheba. Bathsheba. She's the wife of Uriah, who is one of David's mighty men. David is concerned that his love for Bathsheba is going to get exposed.

And so he doubles down on his sin and has Uriah killed. He says, Hey, put him at the front. When the battle gets hot, pull back from him and let me know how it goes. So he's an adulterer and a murderer.

Not only is he just not the one, he's now living in dishonor for the rest of his life and ruins his kingdom. There once was peace from all their enemies.

And now there is no peace even in his own house. One of his sons kills another one of his sons, kind of like Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. And then that son, the murderer, tries to kill David himself and take his throne.

And so David's reign would be forever marked by this failure in chapter 11. And so David is clearly not the one.

He will die and he has sin of his own. So he is not the one, but he sets us up for the one in so many ways. And so thirdly, we see Jesus, David's son and Lord.

Jesus, David's son and Lord. I want you to go with me to Isaiah now. If you can find Psalms, it's a big book in the middle.

Keep going to the right. Isaiah is another large book in the middle of your Bible. Go to Isaiah chapter seven. Isaiah is written after the time of David.

And so they know that David is not the one, but they know that the one who's coming to save them will be a lot like David. He'll be a lot like David in very many ways.

So Isaiah seven, chapter 14, or I'm sorry, Isaiah seven, verse 14. I don't know how the Bible works. It says, therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name. Emmanuel, which means God with us. And go with me to chapter nine.

Speaking more about this child that's going to be born, whose name can be called God with us. Chapter nine, verses six and seven.

For to us, a child is born to us. A son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called.

Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace of the increase of his government and of peace. There will be no end.

So he'll reign forever on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness. From this time forth and forever more.

And so this child, this son will rule the entire world from Israel. This guy will be the one.

And what else will he do? Go with me to chapter 11. Jesse comes back into the story here.

Chapter 11, verse one, there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

In chapter two, the spirit will be upon him in its fullness. The spirit will bring him the attributes that are his. He'll have wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge. He won't judge by what his eyes see, verse three, but he will judge with right judgment.

And he, in fact, will judge the entire world. And he kind of resets creation in verses six through nine. It says, the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat.

And so on and so forth. It goes in verses six, seven, and eight about how creation itself will be rejuvenated and restored to peace. Verse nine says, they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Yahweh as the waters cover the sea.

And then verse 10, in that day, the roots of Jesse, someone coming from Jesse's line, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples of him shall the nations inquire in his resting place shall be glorious.

And so what this is saying is this child who's born to be a king, like we just sang about earlier, he will be lifted up as a signal for the entire world to be drawn to him.

And what will that sign be? What will that signal be? We'll go with me one more spot in Isaiah to chapter 53. 53. Jesus himself says in John 12, that when I am lifted up, all people will be drawn to me.

And so Jesus himself is saying in John 12, my crucifixion is the signal. My crucifixion is what draws people from all nations to myself.

And we see a description of that crucifixion in Isaiah 53. Look at verse two, talking about Christ. He grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground.

He's borrowing from chapter 11, the shoot coming from the stump of Jesse. Verse four, he's born our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. Verse five, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed. And so he died in our place. Verse six, all we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way. And Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Look at verse 10.

It was the will of Yahweh to crush him. And then at the end of verse 12, says he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.

And so this signal is going to be this child, this son who's going to be king will be lifted up and killed as a sheep going to the slaughter.

And he's not paying for his own sins. He's paying for the sins of his people, paying for the sins of others to make atonement for them. And the last book we'll go to is the book of Matthew.

Just go with me to the New Testament in Matthew. Go to Matthew chapter one. And we see that it's in Christ that the genealogy at the end of Ruth four finds its complete fulfillment.

And so this will start looking really familiar for you here in a couple of verses, but chapter one, verse one of Matthew. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac and Isaac, the father of Jacob and Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers and Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar and Perez, the father of Hezron, Hezron, the father of Ram and Ram, the father of Amminadab and Amminadab, the father of Nishan and Nishan, the father of Salmon, Salmon, the father of Boaz by Rahab and Boaz, the father of Obed by Ruth and Obed, the father of Jesse and Jesse, the father of David, the king.

This is the exact genealogy we see at the end of Ruth four, once it picks up with Perez. And so we see that ultimately this leads to the birth of Christ.

Look at verse 16. Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus is born, who is called Christ. And so thinking through Jesus' family line that part of it is borrowed from Ruth chapter four, there's a lot of sinful people in this family.

Maybe you think your family's crazy and maybe you're right. Everyone's got crazy family, even Jesus. There's a lot of sin in this story. There's a lot of difficulty and suffering in this story.

And maybe you're afraid that you're too sinful for God to forgive. Maybe you're worried that your family's too broken and evil for God to do anything with you or with them. But as you look through Jesus' family line, he's got a lot of sin in his family.

It's full of twisted stories like Tamar's. It's full of questionable stories like Rahab's. It's full of hopeful stories like Ruth's. And it's full of just sad stories like Bathsheba.

If you look at verse six, David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah. And so one man said that Jesus was born into a real Jewish family with a genealogy full of real promises and real people with real problems.

And if you notice in this genealogy, there are five women listed in this genealogy. It was uncommon for one woman to be listed in any genealogy in the ancient world. And Jesus has five in his that get called out by name.

Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, even though she's called the wife of Uriah here. And then ultimately Mary. Five women listed.

Four of them are Gentiles. Four of them are from outside Israel. The Lord uses outsiders to advance his purposes.

And so we see here, Matthew's establishing this point that Jesus is David's son. He's a descendant of David. David. But with what we think about Jesus, he's also David's God.

He's also David's Lord. And so how is it that this descendant of David is actually the God of David? Well, let's look with me.

Go to the end of Matthew chapter 21. We've only got a couple more places to go. This identity as the son of David is important to who Jesus is and even in the last week of his life, he's being identified in this way.

And so Jesus is going to enter the city of Jerusalem the last week of his life on earth. He rides into town on a donkey that's never been ridden before, which usually isn't possible, but he's the king of creation and so creation submits to him.

But what were the people yelling in verse 9? It says, The crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna, which is save us, to the son of David.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And so Jesus is the son of David, but he's more than the son of David.

So go with me. One more chapter. Matthew 22. In verse 41.

Again, this is within the final week of Jesus' life. And so the Pharisees are amping up their persecution of him leading up to his death. And they keep asking him questions, but they're not real questions.

They're just trying to catch him in an error. They're trying to catch him making a mistake. But now in verse 41 of chapter 22, Jesus has a question of his own. Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, What do you think about the Christ or the Messiah?

Whose son is he? They said to him, the son of David. And they were correct. And Jesus said to them, How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord?

Saying, and he quotes from Psalm 110, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. And so Jesus' question is, If the Messiah is a descendant of David, how is it that David can address him by a divine name?

And so in that quotation Jesus gives, David is in the presence of the Lord, in the presence of God himself. And God is speaking to an equal who David calls his Lord.

So God the Father is speaking to God the Son, saying, Sit at my right hand. And Jesus' question is, How can someone who's descended from David also be the God of David?

Verse 46, No one was able to answer him a word. Nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. Jesus completely silences the religious experts with this one question.

They don't try to trick him anymore. They recognize he's smarter than them. But what's the answer to the question? You can say there in Matthew, but I want to read to you Romans chapter 1.

Paul describes what the gospel is. Romans chapter 1, verse 1, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets and the holy scriptures, concerning his son.

And so this is God's gospel. This is a message that God has given about his son who is descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Paul answers this question for us quite clearly. How can David's son also be David's Lord? Because Jesus is fully God and fully man.

Jesus comes from David according to the flesh, but by his nature as God, he is God over David even as he's descended from David. David.

And Paul calls him Jesus Christ, our Lord. Jesus is his given name, Christ is his messianic title, and Lord is his divine name.

And so the reason he's both David's son and David's Lord is because he's both man and God. And he has saved his people by dying on the cross for their sins just like Isaiah 53 predicted.

This is where the story of Ruth is going. The Lord accomplished all of this in part because two widows came back from Moab to Jerusalem once the famine was over.

One of them was hating life and was bitter toward God. The other was a Moabitess with no hope of prosperity. And we can see from the book of Ruth, regardless of how difficult your life may be at this moment, regardless of what trials you're walking through, we see from stories like this that God is always working even in the darkest days of your life.

We can know that God works through situations like this for his glory. And one day, when Jesus forever abolishes death, he'll wipe away every tear from our eyes.

There will be no more death. There will be no more sin. Nothing bad will ever happen again in heaven when we as God's people are gathered there with Christ.

Heaven will be a world of joy for God's people. But until then, stories like the book of Ruth sustain us and keep us going because we see that God is always good even when life isn't.

The final word of the book of Ruth is David. This final word forever reminds us of God's genius sovereignty over every dark detail of our lives.

God sees you in your trials. He doesn't just see you or see your trials. He uses these trials.

And he doesn't just use them, but he planned them for his glorious purposes and for his will to be done in this earth and in our lives. And there's a new hymn called Christ Our Wisdom that I love.

I would encourage you to look it up and listen to it later tonight. But the first verse says, Christ Our Wisdom, we are humbled when you hide your ways from us.

You have purposes unnumbered, each one good and glorious. Help us trust when we grow weary. Help us trust when we grow weary.

Give us grace to see more clearly that you are God and we are not. And the second verse, Christ Our Wisdom, be our gladness when we fail to understand.

You ordain all joy and sadness to fulfill your perfect plan. Help us know you rule with power over every raging flood.

In our most uncertain hour, you are God and we are loved. And so read the book of Ruth and rejoice in God's providence.

And truly, Elimelech's name shines a beacon of light throughout this story. My God is King. And not just King over Israel, but King over the whole world.

And that King is Christ. That King is David's son and David's Lord. Lord. And so we see by the way this book of Ruth ends that God is faithful to Obed and beyond to fulfill his purposes.

Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this book. We thank you for the ability to study it over the last five weeks. I pray it's been helpful for us. I pray it will continue to shape us and sanctify us to be more like your son, Jesus Christ.

Pray for the students. Pray not only for their small groups, but their next week, as many of them have off from school. Pray that their time with family would be sweet and refreshing. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.