Ruth 4: Faithfulness Pays Off In Big Ways

Theme: We overestimate what we can do in the short term. We wildly underestimate what God can do through a lifetime of faithfulness.

The sovereignty of our great God is clearly seen in the story of Ruth. He guided her every step of the way to become His child and fulfill His plan for her to become an ancestor of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:5). In the same way, we have assurance that God has a plan for each of us. Just as Naomi and Ruth trusted Him to provide for them, so should we.

Let’s read it together.

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Episode Setup
• 0:27 Theme: Faithfulness Pays Off
• 0:36 The Grocery Store Kindness Story
• 2:54 Community and Calls to Engage
• 3:20 Ruth’s Backstory and Kinsman Redeemer
• 5:05 The Closer Redeemer Problem
• 5:24 Reading Ruth 4: Boaz at the Gate
• 7:22 The Sandal Custom and Public Witness
• 8:20 Marriage, Birth of Obed, and Blessing
• 9:05 Genealogy to David and Jesus
• 9:31 Life Application: A Lifetime of Faithfulness
• 11:04 Prayer and Closing Encouragement

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Hey everyone, and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us. Let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

SPEAKER_01: 0:23

Well, hello, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Ruth chapter four, and we're gonna call this Faithfulness Pays Off in Big Ways. Faithfulness pays off in big ways. I heard a story of a guy one time who was getting ready to check out at a grocery store. And as he was doing this, the person in front of him was, you know, finishing up checking, you know, all of her stuff. And there was an amount, and he's like, I don't even remember how much it was, but whatever it was, she was about a dollar and some change off. And she just starts panicking and she's looking through her purse and she's doing whatever and she's so embarrassed and she didn't have any of her check cards, credit cards on her for whatever reason. And she was just like a dollar and change off. And he said, You know, to be honest with you, I really just wanted her to get out of the way. But at the same time, I know how that is. And she was a young lady, and so I just said, Hey, you know what? I'll take care of it. You go ahead and go. And he said that this young lady was just so embarrassed and was apologetic. And he said, To be honest with you, I got it. He said, I had a daughter that was just a little bit younger than her, so I just I understood. And he's like, she asked me for my name and number because she wanted to pay me back. And he was like, you know, sweetheart, it's it's like a dollar and change. You know, my daughter's just about your age. I'd I tell you what, you just pay it forward, okay? But she just insisted. Well, he didn't think much of it. And he said the next week he got a letter from this young lady's dad. And it was just this letter of how of congratulations and all this stuff. And and what actually ended up happening is he was the local judge of the area. And his daughter had just forgotten or whatever, and he had taken and gave this guy$10,000 in the check. And he said, I just want you to know how much it meant to me, and it restored my belief that there's good people still. And at the bottom line was this guy was like, in this note was a thank you and a check for$10,000. And he said, Don't you know every time I see somebody who needs a little extra change, I'm like, I'm gonna give you some change, but first, you got a rich relative I need to know about. But it was just an amazing story of he just wanted to help somebody and had no idea that it was gonna pay off and he was gonna get this wonderful check as a result. And I don't know if that's gonna happen all of our lives, but we're gonna see how something like that, and even more so, infinitely more so, happens in Roost life. Something small like faithfulness pays off in an amazing way. But before we do that, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel. Make sure on the podcast that you're leaving us a five-star review. It really does help. And also for our rallying point at the Facebook discussion group called the Bible Breakdown Discussion. We would love to hear how you're interacting with God's word. Thank you so much to that team that's doing an amazing job. And I'm gonna tell you something, the more we dig, the more we find. And I love doing it together. And so if you got your Bibles, you want to open up with me to Ruth chapter four. We're finishing this amazing story of Ruth is the daughter-in-law of a lady named Naomi. Naomi has lost everything. She comes back to the land of Israel, she's living in Bethlehem, and Ruth decides to go with her, even though that meant that she's gonna be at the bottom of the social ladder, just a beggar. But she wants to go and be faithful to Naomi and help take care of Naomi. And then as time continues to go, this faithfulness and her just doing the best she can to make things happen, it starts to build this reputation around the area of faithfulness. And finally, there is a guy named Boaz who is the kinsman redeemer, the family redeemer. And what would happen is if you ever were in a place where you lost your land and you you lost everything, instead of it being sold to another tribe or heaven help to a another nation, not Israel, what could happen is the closest living relative could buy the land and buying the land, it would stay in the family and it would also cancel all of the debts of your family. It was a wonderful way to keep the land in the family. And what Naomi found out was Boaz was the close family redeemer. And so she goes to Ruth and says, Hey, you should go talk to him about getting married. Well, as we saw in the chapter yesterday, the reason why Boaz was even able to consider it was because of the reputation of faithfulness that Ruth had. But that was a problem. The problem was he actually wasn't the closest family redeemer. There was one other guy who was a little bit closer. And if he wanted to redeem it, then he would. And all this wonderful fairy tale ending would be over with. And so as we pick up the chapter today, he is gonna go talk to this other person and see does he want to marry Ruth or is Boaz gonna get the chance? Well, if you got your Bibles open, Ruth chapter four, let's finish this amazing story of what it looks like to have a family redeemer and what faithfulness does. You ready? Ruth chapter 4, verse 1 says this. Boaz went to the town gate and took a seat there. Just then the family redeemer that he had mentioned came by. So Boaz called out to him, Come over here and sit down, friend. I want to talk to you. So they sat down together. Then Boaz called ten leaders from the town and asked them to sit as witnesses. And Boaz said to the family redeemer, You know Naomi, who came back from Moab? She is selling the land that belonged to our family relative Elimelech. I thought I should speak to you about it so that you can redeem it if you wish. If you want the land, then buy it here in the presence of these witnesses. But if you don't want it, let me know right away, because I am next in line to redeem it after you. The man replied, All right, I'll redeem it. Oh no. Is this a problem in the plan? Well, let's keep reading. Verse 5. Then Boaz told him, You know, of course, your purchase of the land from Naomi also requires that you marry Ruth, the Moabite widow. That way she can have children who will carry on her husband's name and keep the land in the family. Oh, no, no, no, no. Then I can't redeem it, the family redeemer replied, because this might endanger my own estate. You redeem the land, for I cannot do it. Now, in those days, the custom of Israel was for anyone transferring the right of purchase to remove his sandal and to hand it to the other party. This publicly validated the transaction. So the other family redeemer drew off his sandal and said to Boaz, You buy the land. Wouldn't that be a funny thing? Hey man, can you hand me your shoe so that we can get this deal finalized? But that's what they did. Verse 9. Then Boaz said to the elders and to the crowd standing around you, You are witnesses that today I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kileon, and Mahalon, and in the land that I have required also Ruth, the Moabite widow of Mahalan, to be my wife. This way she can have a son and carry on the family name of her dead husband and to inherit the family property here in his hometown. You are all witnesses today. Then the elders and all the people standing at the gate replied, We are witnesses. May the Lord make this woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, from whom all the nations of Israel descended. May you prosper in Ipropheth and the famous and be famous in Bethlehem, and may the Lord give you descendants by this young woman who will be like those of our ancestor Perez and the son of Tamar and Judah. So he goes and he tells this guy, Hey, look, if you buy the land, you also got to marry Ruth, and he's like, I'm out, fam. You go ahead and do it. So he does, and now watch what happens. So Boaz took Ruth into his home and she became his wife. When he slept with her, the Lord enabled her to become pregnant, and she gave birth to a son. Then the women said to Naomi, Praise the Lord, who has now provided a redeemer for your family. May this child be famous in Israel. May he restore your youth and care for you in your old age. For he is the son of your daughter-in-law who loves you and has been better to you than seven sons. Naomi took the baby and cuddled him to her breast, and she cared for him as if he were her own. And the neighbors' women said, Now at last Naomi has a son again. And they named him Obed, and he became the father of Jesse, and Jesse became the grandfather of David. Now, here is the genealogical record of his ancestor Perez. Perez was the father of Nezron, of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Benedab, Abinadab the father of Nahashon, Nehason the father of Solomon, Solomon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David. So once again, faithfulness pays off in big ways. Don't forget the idea that we have a tendency to overestimate what we can do in the short term, but then wildly underestimate what God can do through a lifetime of faithfulness. Ruth was willing to do the unattractive thing, to do the not fun thing, the not exciting thing, to really risk it all in order to be faithful in what had been put in front of her. And because she did that, it started to develop a good reputation. It started to open doors that she couldn't have imagined, and in the end, it paid off in bigger ways than she could imagine. Because the reason why they finished with David, if you remember, is David became the second king in Israel. He's also known as the greatest king of Israel. And what's even more amazing is David is the great, great, great, great, great, great, great-grandfather of Jesus Christ, which means this lady. And I don't mean this to be disrespectful of Ruth, but a nobody from nowhere. This absolutely would have never known about her. She became, if you look in the book of Matthew, chapter one, one of five women who became the ancestor of the Son of God all because she was willing to be faithful. What does that teach us in our life? And that is that we can't control our success in life. We can't control outcomes. What we can control is our effort. And you know what I have started to learn in my life is faithfulness is more valuable than we can imagine. That doesn't mean that there's not times when things have necessary endings. There's times when we realize that's enough. It's time to move on, move forward, and kind of let things go, right? That there's times for that. But more times than not, most of the time, it's not quite ready, it's not quite time yet to give up. Can I tell you if you're wondering if you should move on, if you're wondering if you should quit something, if you should just maybe just count your losses and move forward, can I tell you that it might be? But more times than not, I have found that nine out of ten times it's not time to quit. It's time to press in a little further. It's time to be faithful one more day. It's time to show up one more time. Because maybe it's just like Ruth, maybe what God wants you to do in this season is He wants you to be faithful. Just to faithfully show up again and again and again. Because what's happening that you don't realize is number one, you're developing a reputation of faithfulness. God is actually opening doors that you can't see yet. And that maybe your faithfulness is actually going to pay off in greater ways than you can imagine. And maybe the legacy that you're creating is going to be so much bigger than you can imagine. We have no idea if Ruth lived long enough to see her grandson become the king. Maybe not. So maybe in your lifetime, you won't get to see all of the fruit of what God is doing in your life. But at the end of the day, it's not about us leaving a legacy of our greatness. It's about us leaving a legacy of God's greatness through our faithfulness. Let's pray together today. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you for what you are doing. Thank you, God, for the fact that you do it in us and through us. Thank you, God, that you're not in this for a weekend romance, but you're in this for day after day after day, growing in your presence, growing in your goodness, knowing you more. I pray you'll help us to realize, God, that this is about a lifetime of faithfulness. And as we continue to grow in you, you are always more faithful than we can imagine. Thank you for loving us. I pray you'll help us to reinvest our lives or to be faithful as you have been faithful to us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Don't forget one more time, our theme verse is Ruth chapter 4, verse 17. It says, And the women said, Naomi has a son, and they named him Obem, who is the father of Jesse, who is the father of David. We overestimate what we can do in the short term and wildly underestimate what God can do through a lifetime of faithfulness. I love you. You're probably doing better than you realize because you keep showing up. I'll see you tomorrow for another Bible breakdown.