"From Tears to Great Joy"
Out of tragedy and loss God can bring great blessings.
Out of sorrow God can bring peace and joy.
Out of seemingly hopeless situations the LORD gives hope and eternal blessings.
One of the rewards of faithfulness and love for the LORD is seeing Him work in this way in your life.
Ruth is a story of famine, death and sorrow turning into fullness, new life and joy.
God many times overrules in the lives of men and women as He works out His eternal purposes.
There were blessings- eternal blessings coming upon Ruth, Boaz and Naomi from their Father in Heaven.
Look in verse eleven at
1. The Blessing Upon Ruth. v.11a
Ruth humbled herself- went to the fields to glean. God exalted her. The LORD placed this Moabitetess up with the woman who gave Jacob sons which would become the foundation for the nation of Israel!
Rachel was buried by Jacob in Bethlehem (Genesis 35.19) Now she is being likened to to the mother of Joseph and Benjamin.
built=bana= to give birth to sons.
God was bringing a Moabitetess into the genealogy, the ancestral line of David and of Jesus Christ.
Think of where He brought this widow from!
Psalm 68.6 God sets the lonely in families. We do not know what happened to Orpah, her sister-in-law. Ruth's choices brought her from a widow in a country that because her own to blessings eternal.
2. The Blessings Upon Boaz. - vs11b-13
vs.9-10 show the magnitude of this man, the like the Josephs of the God's Word.
The blessing upon Boaz rings of blessings eternal.
This word "famous" means to be called out and appointed to something special.
For his kindness God richly rewarded him- gave him a permanent honor of being David's greta grandfather and in the ancestral line of the Messiah!
Standing= might and strength like of an army- this was fulfilled too. Boaz went from being a single man to a happily married man. Married to a fine woman, to be the father of Obed and a place in the most important genealogy in this world and forever.
The LORD did not forget about Naomi...
3. The Blessings Upon Naomi vs.14-17
Kinsman Redeemer
being famous throughout Israel
being renewed and sustained in her old age.
A daughter-in-law who loves her/ better than 7 sons (better than the bonds of the law are the bonds of love)
Naomi cared for him- Naomi has a son!
Finally amidst all of this we see...
4. The Blessing Upon the Nation and the World and Eternity
Obedience, love loyalty go way beyond our own family circle- although it starts there!
An alien woman becomes the ancestress of the Messiah.
Ruth, the great grandmother of David, a king after God's Own heart. David definitely had some of Great Grandma's character. I can see that in some of my grandkids- with even their great great Nana. Who you are passes onto to future generations... those not even born yet.
Those fields of Baoz became the place where David watched the family's sheep, probably where the 23rd Psalm was inspired if not also written. These fields of Boaz were in the area where the shepherds watched their flocks when the announcement came that Jesus had been born Savior of the world! The world has a Savior!
Savior Like A Shepherd Lead Us!
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