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Text: Ruth 4:13-17
The book of Ruth is an incredible history of redemption, faithfulness, and grace. It is the product of people living in a godly way. The book begins with death and ends with life. It is one of the few, if not the only book in the old testament, that ends on a high note. The state of the souls in Ruth matches the agricultural seasons.
Recap of Ruth
- The world brings death (chapter 1)
- The living move outside the will of God to greener pastures.
- The world turns out to hold only seasonal pleasure. In time, death will be the only companion the world has to offer.
- The women are widowed; Naomi is a lost Jew, Ruth and Orpah are dead in trespasses and sins, without hope and without God in this world.
- Lost seems to be a word the LORD uses to discuss unforgiven Jews.
- Naomi hears good news that there is bread in Israel. She returns to Israel with a faithful heathen. Both return with the thought that salvation is of the Jews.
- The prospect of life is this man (chapter 2)
- There is a man in Israel who is gracious and a kinsman related to Naomi’s family.
- He is from Bethlehem.
- He is a mighty man.
- He is a wealthy man.
- Most importantly, he is a man who loves faithfulness regardless of who it’s found in. He is no respecter of persons in Ruth 2:12.
- Ruth happens to work in Boaz’s field.
- The promise of life more abundantly (chapter 3)
- Boaz is a good man willing to redeem the stranger and raise up new life. He’s not just going to provide food, but he makes clear that in him will be life more abundantly.
- Boaz is not just going to get Ruth and Naomi through the hard seasons, but he is going to give them life more abundantly.
- Boaz provides full redemption of all the land and family (chapter 4)
- Boaz buys the land and marries Ruth.
- Out of this union between Boaz and Ruth, new life is produced. His name is Obed. And the testimony of Obed is the testimony of new life produced from the union of a believer and Jesus Christ.
Let me give you four things about what Obed represents
- Obed is a testimony to what God desires (4:13)
- Obed is the new life produced from the gracious kinsman and faithful stranger.
- Boaz is the gracious kinsman; Ruth 2:2,10. Within Israel’s national law was the prescription for charitable grace. Boaz’s graciousness toward Ruth was in accordance with the law. The LORD prescribed gracious living to the nation of Israel.
- Ruth is the faithful stranger; Ruth 2:12. Within Israel’s national law was the prescription for redemptive grace. Naomi gives instruction to Ruth in these ordinances. Ruth yields herself to these laws.
- A Christian is a testimony to what God desires. A Christian is to act like Christ because this is what God desires.
- Obed is the heir (4:15)
- This new life is one of God’s children in the sense of enjoying God’s inheritance
- Obed is not a Moabite, nor is Obed considered an outsider.
- Obed is reckoned with God’s promises and God’s inheritance.
- This new life, Obed, is a restoration to what Naomi lost outside the will of God. And to Ruth, Obed is new life in God’s house, graffed into an inheritance she had no part in while living in Moab.
- A true Christian in Christ is made part of the inheritance. Ephesians 3:6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
- Obed is the restoration of what was lost (4:16)
- Naomi now has a future and opportunity and new life from what was lost. She lost her children outside the will of God, but now will enjoy her children in the will of God.
- 2 Corinthians 5:17
- Philippians 3:13 – you can only do this if you have somewhere you’re going and a Christian certainly does!
- Revelation 21:4
- Obed represents future royalty (4:17)
- Rahab the harlot becomes the mother of Boaz the kinsman. Boaz marries Ruth and three generations later king David is born. Ruth is David’s great-grandmother and Rahab is David’s great great grandmother. So from this new life, Obed, comes a king.
- Revelation 1:5-6
