BIBLE STUDY WITH ME | Ruth 4

hey guys welcome back to my channel and welcome back to our bible study series going through the book of ruth in today's video we're gonna be in ruth chapter four which is the final chapter in this book and we're just gonna pick up right where we left off last week which was basically on a cliffhanger so ruth has just come to boaz and made this bold proposal and boaz responds by saying i will do all that you have asked but basically there's somebody in line before me and i need to give him the opportunity to respond first and so the chapter ends with ruth being told wait my daughter to see how the matter turns out and today we're gonna see how the matter turns out in chapter four if you haven't already make sure you go back and watch the videos on chapter one two and three so you can understand everything that's been going on in the story up until this decisive point as always i'm going to have all of my study tools and resources linked down below including the scribe bible journal which i use in all of my study videos and i'm actually going to be doing a giveaway for one of these journals in this video so make sure you watch through to the end for details on how to enter that like we've been doing this whole series we're going to read through the whole chapter without stopping and then we'll go back through it a second time and unpack what is going on in the ending of this story because it is incredible so without further ado if you have a bible go ahead and pull it out and turn to ruth chapter four verse one now boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there and behold the redeemer of whom boaz had spoken came by so boaz said turn aside friend sit down here and he turned aside and sat down and he took ten men of the elders of the city and said sit down here so they sat down then he said to the redeemer naomi who has come back from the country of moab is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative elimelech so i thought i would tell you of it and say buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people if you will redeem it redeem it but if you will not tell me that i may know for there is no one besides you to redeem it and i come after you and he said i will redeem it then boaz said the day you buy the field from the hand of naomi you also acquire ruth the moabite the widow of the dead in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance then the redeemer said i cannot redeem it for myself lest i impair my own inheritance take my right of redemption yourself for i cannot redeem it now this was the custom in former times in israel concerning redeeming and exchanging to confirm a transaction the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other and this was the manner of a testing in israel so when the redeemer said to boaz buy it for yourself he drew off his sandal then boaz said to the elders and all the people you are witnesses this day that i have bought from the hand of naomi all that belonged to elimelech and all that belonged to chileon and mylon also ruth the moabite the widow of maylon i have bought to be my wife to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place you are witnesses this day then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said we are witnesses may the lord make the woman who is coming into your house like rachel and leah who together built up the house of israel may you act worthily in ephrathah and be renowned in bethlehem and may your house be like the house of perez whom tamar bore to judah because of the offspring that the lord will give you by this young woman 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 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 restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age for your daughter-in-law who loves you who is more to you than seven sons has given birth to him then naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse and the women of the neighborhood gave him a name saying a son has been born to naomi they named him obed he was the father of jesse the father of david now these are the generations of perez perez fathered hezron hezron fathered ram ram fathered amina dab aminadab fathered nashon nashon fathered salmon salmon fathered boaz boaz fathered obed obed fathered jesse and jesse fathered david all right so let's unpack this chapter this chapter does have three different subheadings so we'll go by subheading but the first subheading is boaz redeems ruth and so i want to set the scene a little bit because we open up the chapter with it telling us that boaz goes down to the city gate so he's just left ruth and he tells her that he's going to go to see if this other redeemer wants to marry her and get this matter sorted out and so he goes down to the city gate and the city gate in these times would serve as sort of a town hall or a courthouse where legal transactions would happen and so in the beginning of the chapter we see boaz gathering this other redeemer who is first in line to redeem ruth in front of him and then it says that he also gathered ten men of the elders of the city and he tells them all to sit down here and so the elders would have been witnesses to validate this legal transaction that was going to take place and so we talked last week how there was sort of this hierarchy of people within the clan that god had set up to serve as redeemers when something like this happened when a woman had lost her husband and so this man that boaz brings would have been the one man in line before him to marry ruth and he would have been the kinsman redeemer and kinsmen redeemer if we break that down kinsman means the nearest adult male relative and redeemer would have been somebody who had the right to inherit or purchase property and so again this was a system that god had set up as a means of provision in the event of a tragic event such as what had happened to ruth and naomi and the law of the lord required that the land be bought from family so that it could stay within the family because land in this time was everything it was a means of provision because you could grow crops it was a place where you could live it was something you could sell if you didn't have money in order to provide for your family so land was everything and this was god's means of providing that the land should stay in the family and so boaz draws this other guy this kinsman redeemer he's not named here in the chapter and he tells him about naomi who has come back from moab and this opportunity to buy the land and boaz is crafty in how he presents this offer because at first he just tells him about the land and this redeemer who is in front of him says yes i want to buy the land this would have been a no-brainer to acquire more land for him and so he says yes but then boaz basically says but there's a catch he says the day that you buy this land you will also acquire ruth the moabite so this land doesn't just come with naomi this older woman who is no longer of childbearing years this land also comes with this younger woman who is of childbearing ears and if you buy the land it is also going to be your responsibility to marry ruth and to provide her with a son who is going to perpetuate the name of her deceased husband and that son will actually inherit the land that you are now purchasing and so it's this moment of decision everything in the story has led up to this moment and we wait with baited breath to see what he is going to say and as hearers of this story were already invested in ruth and boaz we already know that they want to end up together that they want to get married and this is the last thing that is standing in the way and this guy responds and says you know what boaz you redeem her i'm gonna give you my right to redeem her because i don't want to impair my own inheritance so this guy we don't know but likely he would have already been married and there was concern here for having another son through ruth and that potentially creating complications with the inheritance that his own kids already had and so this guy declines the opportunity to redeem ruth which means the roadblock for boaz to redeem ruth has now been removed and i just want to pause here before going on in this story to make a note about this kinsman redeemer who passes up this opportunity to pursue ruth in marriage i think this little part of the story is such a clear reminder to us that there can be a guy who seems to make perfect sense for you but if he is not taking the opportunity he's given to pursue you then he is not it i think sometimes as girls it's easy to get so fixated on a situation that seems like it would just be so perfect or make so much sense and this guy this kinsman redeemer did make sense for ruth he was literally rightfully in line to marry her even in front of boaz but he did not respond to that opportunity he was given and because of that we now have a story that isn't ruth and what's his face who's never named in the bible we have the story of ruth and boaz and so no matter how perfect the situation may seem if that opportunity isn't being taken to pursue you then that guy isn't who god has for you on that i want to point out three characteristics of boaz that one of the sermons i listened to pointed out from this chapter it was the david platt sermon he said that boaz has the right the resources and the resolve to redeem ruth and all three of those things were needed because this other kinsmen redeemer he also has the right and the resources to pursue ruth but he does not have the resolve and because he lacks the resolve to pursue ruth his name is not now in the genealogy that comes through ruth and boaz that we're going to talk about later in this chapter but boaz did have all three he had the right to pursue ruth and again he went about it the right way he had the resources to pursue ruth and he had the resolve and because of that they are the two that end up together and they are the two that perpetuate this line that we are going to learn about and so after this other guy absolves his right to pursue ruth boaz says okay well i'm gonna do it and the text tells us about this method of legalizing the transaction which in those times would have been to take off the sandal and to give it to the other so basically as soon as this roadblock is removed of this other redeemer boaz moves quickly to legalize this whole thing and to marry ruth there again is this persistent pursuit this decisiveness this willingness to follow through with the intentions that he has clearly communicated to ruth and so the rest of this subheading what we see unfold is the exchange of this transaction and then the community coming forward to rejoice over this union to rejoice over god's provision for ruth and boaz and then they begin to pronounce this blessing on the two of them they say may you be like rachel and leah if you're familiar with the old testament you know that those are two of the women who are married to jacob who through them come the 12 tribes of israel and so when they pronounce this blessing saying may you be like ruth and leah it is this blessing and this prayer of fruitfulness over their marriage but one note that tara actually made in her bible study on ruth that i thought was really cool is that if you look at rachel and leah rachel was the loved wife of jacob and leah was the more fruitful one because rachel was barren for a really long time and leo was just popping out sun after sun after sun and so leah was fruitful but she was not the loved wife of jacob but over here rachel was the loved wife of jacob and so as this blessing is given to ruth that you may be like rachel and leah it's this combination of being both loved and cherished and fruitful and so they pray that she would be like rachel and leah and then they also pray that she would be like tamar this is another old testament story that i encourage you to read a little bit more about it's in genesis 38 but really the point here of this blessing or making this comparison is that tamar also was a non-israelite woman who god used to carry out his line and so the blessing here was that ruth would be fruitful that she would be loved and have love in her marriage and that even though she was a non-israelite woman that god would use her and her marriage with boaz to carry on his line and so that's the first subheading the second subheading now as we're moving into verse 13 is ruth and boaz mary and so this is sort of the falling action of the story right the entire time it's building the problem is presented and we're seeing the solution and it finally comes to this point and now this is sort of like those final few scenes and moments before the credits roll we just see everything falling in to place and so i want to read again verse 13. 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 i just think it is so cool that we have had this entire story spanning over four chapters where we have covered so much time we've covered basically 10 years of fruitlessness in moab we've covered all the tragedy that came to naomi and to ruth and this move back to bethlehem and this happens all over this period like i said of three and a half chapters and then in one verse we have both a wedding and a baby and i think this really highlights the principle that we see all throughout scripture i've talked about it in regards to the life of joseph and in esther and some of my instagram posts but it's this concept that the way god works in our lives happens slowly and then all at once and really it's just this idea that god is continually working behind the scenes and it seems like not much is happening like not much progress or movement is taking place and then all at once everything falls into place because all the while this whole time god has been setting the stage behind the scenes and in the fullness of time in the right moment in his timing everything happens at once and the way the story is written where so much time has spanned these chapters and so much happens just in this one little verse i think really highlights this truth and so now here we have these 10 years of fruitlessness for ruth is redeemed in one single season of harvest and she goes from being this self-proclaimed servant to boaz's wife and now we have this book that has opened with three funerals is closing with again a wedding and a baby and the truth is highlighted in this story that god is sovereign over both he is sovereign over both life and death over difficulty and tragedy and joy and new life and he orchestrates both to accomplish his purposes in the world and so still here under this second sub heading we now have the focus shifting to naomi so ruth is the one that just got married ruth is the one that just had a baby yet the focus of this section of scripture actually shifts to naomi so all of this stuff happens for ruth and boaz and then it says that the women of the town they came to naomi and said blessed be the lord who has not left you naomi without a redeemer and may his name be renowned in israel he shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age and so this focus shifts towards naomi and i just think it is so cool because that highlights really where we started in this book we opened this story meeting naomi and she is in this place of bitterness of hopelessness of being destitute and feeling like god has forsaken her and even judged her saying the almighty has dealt bitterly with me he has nothing good for me and because she couldn't see what was coming she had lost all hope but now god has brought honor to her place of shame and she started off empty but now we have a literal picture here of her ending this story with her arms full holding this baby her grandson through ruth and boaz and if you remember at the end of our chapter one video we talked about how ruth and naomi return to bethlehem and they're greeted by these same women of the town and naomi is ashamed she is saying don't call me naomi which means pleasant call me mara which means bitter because god has dealt bitterly with me and i went away from bethlehem full and i came back with nothing and i pointed out how ruth would have been standing there and she's just made this bold declaration of loyalty to naomi left everything that she knew to come with her and now she's standing beside naomi as naomi is saying i have nothing and she is standing right there and now here we have this same woman naomi with the same group of women honoring her and blessing god because of what he's done in her life and the very nothing that was standing next to naomi ruth in chapter one is the very means that god used to provide for her because now she's ending with this baby in her arms with these women adoring this baby and they say to her for your daughter-in-law who loves you who is more to you than seven sons has given birth to him to this son who you now hold in your arms you went from empty to full and a note on those seven sons biblically seven is a number of completion so they are saying ruth is better than even seven sons then of this perfect completion god has fulfilled and brought about good and life and blessing through ruth and so it is this beautiful picture of the complete 180 that god has done in naomi's life from when we meet her in chapter one to now how it is closing in chapter four and the other thing i want to point out about this section which is verses 13 through 17 again it's that second subheading is something that said there in that first verse which is verse 13. so all throughout the book of ruth there are only two places where god specifically is mentioned now he's mentioned in a lot of places in terms of people talking about him or people praying saying may the lord do this but in terms of scripture recording directly something that god did in this book that only happens two times and so i want to point those two times out the first is in chapter one in verse six when it's talking about how naomi decided to return back to bethlehem because she heard that the lord had visited his people and given them food so it's recorded here what god did that he visited his people and gave them food and then the second time that the lord is mentioned is here in verse 13 and chapter 4 when it says boaz took ruth and she became his wife and he went into her and the lord gave her conception i want to point this out for a couple reasons one it is a reminder to us that life is always a gift from god a lot of times in the old testament we hear about women who are barren and then we hear that god opened their womb and then plenty of other times women are able to easily have a child but in every circumstance whether it happens right away and seemingly naturally or whether it's a long process with a lot of waiting anytime life happens it is always a gift from god he is in control of that the second reason i wanted to point out these two mentions of god in this book is because what have we talked about this entire time as being the two needs of this character family and food the dire position that ruth and naomi started in was in need of family and food to live and to have food to live off of but to have this family to perpetuate their line and how without a husband or a means of perpetuating that line how they were utterly hopeless and so those are the two great needs of this story and the two times god is mentioned is tied to both of those things when it says that he visited the people and gave them food and when it says that he gave ruth conception in both of those instances in the provision of food and family we see how god uses boaz uses these other circumstances to provide but how god himself is ultimately the one who provided in chapter two we talked about how only god could restore to the degree that ruth had lost that she had completely put herself at the mercy of him and that aside from him acting she was utterly hopeless and here we see a very clear indication that god was the one to provide for her moving on to the final subheading this one is called the genealogy of david and really the story has already been tied up in the subheading we just left there in verse 17 right all the loose ends have been tied yet still here we have five more verses so why are these verses here why is this random or seemingly random genealogy included here at the end of the story i think the reason for that is to show us that the end of ruth's story is really just the beginning of a much bigger story because the stories that god writes in our lives always serve a bigger purpose and play into his bigger ultimate story of what he is doing throughout history and so we see here this genealogy of how the line of ruth and boaz ultimately leads to king david who is one of the greatest kings in israel so god uses their story to pave the way for king david and ruth as we see from the genealogy is actually david's great grandma and i just think it's so cool because again we started this story with elimelech going from bethlehem to moab and we learned that elimelech his name means my god is king in a time when israel had no king when people did as they pleased and so the redemption of a limoulex line through boaz is actually what brought about israel's king and so we have these 10 years of death and barrenness in moab and there's this symbolism here of showing these 10 generations that led to the line of david and it's this symbol of redemption which as we talked about is a key theme in this book and so it's this beautiful story that all of these seemingly random events that god was orchestrating to bring ruth and boaz together had this beautiful significance for them but it also had significance far beyond them that led to king david but even that wasn't where it stopped because if you go to matthew chapter one you'll see the genealogy of jesus and how all of these lines that led to king david ultimately led to the birth of jesus that through ruth and boaz not only came the greatest king in israel but ultimately came the king of kings jesus christ and in the genealogy of jesus there's only three women mentioned tamar rahab and ruth and if you learn more about all those characters we've kind of talked about them a little bit tmr basically perpetuated her family line through sleeping with her father-in-law rahab was a prostitute and ruth was a moabite and none of them were israelite women yet they were grafted into the line of israel to bring about the line of jesus and it's this beautiful picture of god bringing in outsiders and making them a part of his own family it's a picture that points us to the gospel and so there's this lineage of people here that are filling up that genealogy of jesus and they're there not because they deserve it not because they did something to earn it but because of the grace of jesus who changes our statuses from slave to son and daughter that is the gospel that is what this story ultimately points us to first peter 1 18 says this knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers not with perishable things such as silver or gold but with the precious blood of christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot ultimately this story points us to the gospel that in the same way boaz redeems ruth and naomi from their dire circumstances that jesus redeems us from desperate circumstances and he makes us his own this story is truly incredible we have a little bit more to go into i want to do a deeper study on verses 14 and 15 so i'm going to pull out my scribe bible journal and we will do that all right so i wrote down that verse again it says then the women said to naomi blessed be the lord who has not left you on this day without a redeemer and may his name be renowned in israel he shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age for your daughter-in-law who loves you who is more to you than seven sons has given birth to him so for this study what i want to do is take a look at a couple of these words that stood out to me and actually look up the definitions of them if you watched my philippian study you know i did it a lot in that study and sometimes it's something i like to do especially when certain words stand out and i just feel like there's a richness to them so i'm going to do renowned restorer and then also nourisher i'm just going to look up the definitions for those okay so renowned means known or talked about by many people famous and again this is what the women are saying to naomi saying god has provided may his name be renowned so i'm just going to write out that definition [Music] okay so i wrote out that definition again it says known or talked about by many people and then i'm just going to put a note there that says the desire of these women who recognized god's provision is that it would ultimately lead to him being glorified among people so i'm going to make a note of that next is restorer there's a couple different definitions here as you can see talking about somebody who renovates a building somebody who brings back or re-establishes a previous right but i think this third definition here is the one that applies in this context it's something that returns a person or a thing to its former condition so i'm just gonna write that down okay and then finally we have nourisher so i looked up the definition of the word nourish because this is the action of one who would nourish and so it says to provide with the food or other substances necessary for growth health and good condition and then i think the second one is cool too it says to keep in one's mind typically for a long time so i'm gonna write those down okay so i wrote all three definitions down and the reason i really wanted to highlight these words is because they all speak of god's character so this first word renowned again this is the women's prayer that god may be renowned that he may be known or talked about by many people that as people see what god did in naomi's life that he would be glorified and then the second two words are descriptors of his character and so not just a prayer that he may be renowned or he may be known but they say may he be known because he shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age and so they're saying he shall be to you somebody who returns you to your former condition so again naomi had gone through tremendous loss yet god restored her to her former condition and then he is a nourisher of her old age somebody who would provide her with the food and other substances necessary for growth for health and good condition and then i also thought this second part of the definition was really interesting where it says to keep in one's mind typically for a long time because there was a point in this story where naomi felt like god had forgotten her she felt like god was against her and that he had nothing good for her but in the middle of all of that even when naomi couldn't see the provision that was coming god kept her on his mind and he provided for her he nourished her and so i really wanted to point out these three words because they point us back to the whole point of this story which is god's character who he is in naomi's life in ruth's life and in our lives and i also wanted to read a note from the commentary on verse 15 on this restorer of life it says in the hebrew it means he who causes life to return that death had come to naomi's family but god caused life to return he brought about this son who would perpetuate the family line and again this whole story is ultimately meant to point us to jesus and we know from ephesians that we were dead in our trespasses but god made us alive together in christ and so this story isn't just a story of curse being turned to blessing of shame being turned to honor it's also a story of death being turned to life and that again points us to the gospel of what jesus has done for us so i'm just gonna make some notes about that here in the application section okay so i wrote down some notes from what we talked about here i put even when naomi thought god had forgotten about her she was always on his mind and he was plotting his provision for her i'm going to add the note the entire time [Music] and then the second note i wrote down here is saying he who causes life to return this was the note from the commentary and then on that i wrote god brought life to a family who had experienced tremendous death and loss and this points us to jesus who brings our dead hearts back to life and this was in ephesians 2 5. so i'm just going to go ahead and highlight this truth that is all for ruth chapter 4 and for our ruth bible study series i'm actually kind of sad to be ending this because i have loved this study so much but i do want to start a new study up soon so let me know down in the comments if you have any ideas of what you would like to see i want to end with a final thought and that is that this story of ruth shows us that our stories and walking with god that it is rarely this straight line that often times there is setback after setback after setback just like we saw with ruth and naomi but god is sovereign over it all and when he writes the final chapter we know that it'll be good there were so many points in ruth and naomi's stories where all seemed lost it seemed hopeless it seemed like nothing possibly good could come from it but none of those points were the end of their story when their story ended it was good because god is good and he sovereignly worked together all things for their good and this isn't a promise that we're always going to have our stories and everything that happens to us in this life tied up in a pretty little bow but it is a promise we have in jesus that the ultimate story he is writing throughout all of eternity that it is going to end in his glory and in our good i mentioned that i'm going to be giving away a scribe bible journal in this video this is such a helpful tool and i love it so much so if you want to enter to win this scribe bible journal all you have to do is make sure you're following me and then also scribe bible journal on instagram and then leave a comment down below letting me know your favorite thing that you learned from this ruth study series and then also your instagram handle so that if you are the winner i have a way of contacting you but i hope that you enjoyed this video and this whole series don't forget to leave a comment down below even if you're not entering the giveaway letting me know what you learned from this chapter if you enjoyed this video please be sure to give it a thumbs up and then also hit the subscribe button if you haven't already and i will see you in my next video bye [Music]

Channel: Kaci Nicole

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Keywords: ruth 4, ruth 4 bible study, bible study on ruth 4, ruth 4 commentary, ruth 4 sermon, studies on ruth 4, ruth study series, bible study series on ruth, ruth bible study series, bible study, bible video, study the bible with me ruth 4, sermons on ruth 4, sermon series on ruth, christian youtuber, bible study video, bible study channels, ruth, bible project ruth, bible study with me ruth 4, david platt ruth sermon, bible study with me ruth, ruth and boaz, book of ruth, bible

Id: -zbCsriR-5o

Length: 31min 10sec (1870 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2020