Jared Wilson

Interview Transcript

Note: transcript was automatically generated by YouTube, so there may be typographical, gramattical and spelling errors.

Shalom and welcome this edition of revealing the truth where we cover the headlines the heart lines and biblical truth I’m your host a messianic rabbi Erik Walker Ruth is a story of redemption not just the redemption of Ruth or Naomi but appoints the plan of redemption that God had set up to redeem all who believed the new book Ruth by Jared Wilson is a 10-week accessible study that brings to life the theological depth and gospel centrality of the scriptures for the next generation this invaluable resource is interactive and engaging in a time which biblical literacy amongst Christians is diminishing through this study you can see Jesus more clearly in the Book of Ruth cultivate a better understanding of the themes in this book of the Bible and find gospel focused theologically rich content to strengthen your faith in God Christianity and in Jesus himself Jared Wilson is an assistant professor of pastoral ministry at Spurgeon College author and residents at Midwestern seminary in general editor for the church and director of the pastoral training center at Liberty Baptist Church in Kansas City Missouri he speaks at numerous national conferences and in church services across the country and around the globe you can find out more at Jared C Wilson comm joining us now to talk about his new book Ruth’s redemption for the broken he is author Jared Wilson Jared welcome to revealing the truth Thank You brother say thanks so much for having me on well Ruth as you know is the fundamental passage in Ruth that is used even today when a Gentile wants to convert to Judaism it is in that process of conversion so let’s say a Orthodox man wants to marry a Gentile girl and wants her to convert to Orthodox Judaism and she’ll go through a period of study a farrier training understanding what the the Torah says what the Rabbinical thought is in most cases they don’t ask her or even address the renouncing of a faith in Jesus but an acceptance in the one through God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and in her profession of conversion she says that famous line from the book of Ruth and so that’s in practice even today as a part of the Jew if you want to convert to Judaism and it’s usually for the necessity of marriage not for any other reason there’s no reason that you have to do that but in order to for most Orthodox men to consider marrying a non-jewish girl he would require her to convert and to agree to raise the children as being Jewish and if she makes that conversion then they’ll be recognized in Israel as an authentically whole logically legally Jewish family so the book of ruth plays out today even today in modern Israeli religious society and in America in any country where somebody wants to convert to Judaism so this study is comprehensive it’s thematical leading us to keep our eyes and God’s plan of redemption even for a Gentile Moabite us like Ruth but before we get in the book I want to kind of get to know you better and kind of take a look or you we’re gonna study study Ruth’s journey but first we want to study Jared’s journey to get to know how you got to where you are sure sure where should I start at the very beginning at the very beginning okay yeah you know I think sometime after delivery okay would be a good start yeah well I have very few memories from the from delivery but I was raised in in the church was born in South Texas and was raised in the Rio Grande Valley there and was raised by a Christian family not a ministry family per se but a Christian family who taught me the scriptures from a young age and you know shared the gospel with me from from a young age but I always had this sense of spiritual angst about me I think I was a very sort of insecure kid and part of that was I had a stutter so I stuttered from probably about kindergarten age all the way into college I still struggled actually with a speech impediment so the idea today that I would even you know make part of my living doing public ministry and preaching and speaking I could not have fathom that then but it was a real sort of burden for me that on top of sort of a timidity and a shyness and and an insecurity which bled into things of faith really understanding God’s love for me I had sort of a tenuous grasp on how much he could really love me whether the gospel really could be my security all those sorts of things which consequently just made me a really sort of internally anxious person I believe that the Lord called me into ministry when I was in junior high school I was at a youth camp with our church and one morning got up to do morning devotions and finally found myself reading about God’s call of of Moses essentially the mandate to go to Pharaoh and and demand the release of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage and in the midst of that exchange and I had read it before but for some reason that morning it seemed to land differently so you have Moses basically giving all the reasons why the Lord shouldn’t choose him I mean essentially including that little bit about I’m slow of speech and whether that’s a speech impediment or not or he just met he’s not articulate it really it struck me you know for the Lord to say in response to all of that no no you’re really great but you know that’s why I’m picking you because you’re the a-team but really is like you don’t think that I know you’re a loser I made that tongue you know I’ll be with you there was something about meditating on that passage that morning and I was probably Oh 14 years old at the time that this alien thought just entered my mind that that I need to be in ministry that I need to preach the gospel and again there was no pressure on me to do that there was no expectation of that my family loved me very much and and and so we the things of the word but my dad wasn’t a pastor I didn’t come from a you know ministry career family or anything and so that and so from then on I just knew this is what I’m gonna do I’m gonna be in ministry so all through high school I’m looking for opportunities to serve and study in the word had somewhat of a crisis of faith after I began ministry began public ministry or local church ministry the summer I graduated high school and and about 10 years into ministry realized that the foundation that I had built everything on was very shallow essentially I was building upon a kind of pragmatism denying the supernatural ‘ti of the gospel and and and the presence of the Holy Spirit wasn’t built on the word but I was just kind of good ideas and sort of the attraction ‘el mindset and so I’ve spent really the past 15 years or so on you know from my own estimation a kind of repentance tour for the first 10 years of ministry the last 15 years for me have been a means of trying to make amends for the 10 years I I feel like I wasted and not helping people see the beauty of Jesus Christ and so that’s sort of my mission today and that would be kinda the Cliff Notes version from from childhood to today oh yeah you you actually explained it in rather poetic terms in your bio on your website right right Jason is not a catalytic agent of change or visionary anything he’s a failed Church planner and once made a mess of his marriage he likes food too much worries way too much about what people think he’s definitely not all that he’s cracked up to be after 25 years of ministry he’s mainly learned that he’s kind of a nincompoop but he knows Jesus loves him that so ministers to me because that is just who we are and Moses being the one you identify with at 40 I was exactly the same he was 40 years old when he killed an Egyptian that was picking on it was the first time he had this crisis of identity that realizing that he was going to have to make a decision am I on the pharaoh side of the egyptian equation or mine the Jewish side of the identity of my heritage and when he made that decision that Lane then he’s now exiled and it takes 40 years to get Moses out of Moses before God can use them at the age of 80 so you got 25 years of ministry you got 15 more years to go to get Jared out of Jared and it might think you know in that bend that biblical model and that’s really the truth I were we are all of us are walking out our salvation with fear and trembling our story is our story because everybody in the Bible was a mess yeah everybody was a mess the only one that wasn’t a mess was Jesus and and he wasn’t a mess but everybody around him was a mess so it’s it’s that’s that’s where the message is and the mess it’s not in the rich beauty and the great Byzantine chapels of old and their gold and gilded columns and and the the rich coffers of Christianity and Catholicism it’s in the everyday encounters of everyday life death and the decisions we make so you went on to pursue the calling and in the bio you have in your website you planted planted a church I’ve had the same experience of planting a congregation I know what that’s like getting ready to plant another one and we’ll do a completely different this time than the time before but when you begin to identify with the person of Messiah and the person of the characters in the Bible did you begin to see that there was a pattern of flaws fail ability uncertainty the same kind of spiritual inks that you had that kind of brought you a little bit of comfort that Moses is saying is too much for me kill me Elijah is saying take my life from the last one Jeremiah’s crying all the time he’s just weeping all the time you’ve got doubting Thomas and and you have just so many different plate you got Esther who’s on the brink of disaster for the nation of Israel you have the Exile of our people into Babylonian captivity and all of this broken wounded hodgepodge of characters that that are easily identifiable with if you have a real true belief in yourself that that God’s just working out all the flaws and there were you know brain the refiners fire it doesn’t feel great but it it it it brings forth something better than what was there before so it’s worth it yeah you know before before we started with the program you were mentioning you know the first 20-some chapters of Genesis and I find it interesting how we you know that there really is nothing new Under the Sun so much that we even see today despite all the technology and modern advancements just looking at the news headlines you can almost track right from you know Kane’s murder of Abel or the the Tower of Babel people trying to make a name for themselves you just see the genesis if you will of human dysfunction and societal chaos and injustice and certainly the pattern you know despite all the different you know a variety of dysfunctions and flaws of you know the people in the Bible the the pattern is a stint just an inward focus a turning from God’s you know good way and his holiness to our own way I mean that was you know the original sin obviously is now I don’t trust God in this moment I’m gonna trust this to satisfy me and we’ve been repeating that ever since so certainly no matter what season of my life I can you know find the relevance in in in the scriptures it’s almost as if this word is living and active yes and yes it breathes it out that it would be enduring an internal you know eternal for us well there’s you know there’s a great message in the brokenness and there’s kind of a couple of clarity and passages in the New Covenant New Testament that when we see the vision of the sheet being drop down from heaven to Peter with the unclean animals on it Peter says and known this will never touch my lips Lord I honor the dietary laws Amaka being touched anything unclean and God says what I proclaim is clean is clean and the door is open to bring Cornelius and then the Gentile the merger the one new man and this identity is that God is able to always going back to the beginning when he changed Abraham’s name from Abram to Abraham he talked about the nation’s that there was a plan for the Gentiles from the very beginning but it would have to catch on to this monotheism that he was going to birth through Abraham and in this broken Idol worshipers son who was actually disobedient from the first instruction when God said to Abraham leave your home and your family take your wife and go to the place I will show you well he didn’t leave his whole family he brought a lot along with them it so he he was like 99% obedient but you and I both know that in God’s economy that’s 100% disobedient that’s right so you know here he starts out with something that’s already flawed a man and he sends him on this path but he tells them that the nation’s are somehow I’m gonna be engaged and involved in this and so what’s interesting about Ruth is that we back up a little bit and we look at Boaz and we back up a little bit from Boaz and we come to an interesting character that church has been calling Rahab the harlot for 2,000 years the church signs says this week’s message Rahab the prostitute Rahab the harlot right now what’s so funny to me as a is that she’s like the first Corrie ten Boom she’s somebody that actually should be revered she was the one that put her life on the line and I tell people that so these women are out there they’re single and well what are you looking for I’m looking for my bow as I said so like on match.com you put that one of your prerequisite is your future mother-in-law needs to have been formally a prostitute and they all look at me go what are you talking about that’s ridiculous and I said well that’s what a Boaz is Boaz is the son of Rahab and she is look ya’ll won’t let her off the hook for being a prostitute okay you know I see her as as the savior of the Corrie ten Boom of hiding you know we we revere Corrie ten Boom and then we shame Rahab Rahab set the pattern for Corrie ten Boom the idea of a Gentile hiding a Jew it wasn’t birth with Corrie ten Boom or with Oskar Shindler it was birth with Rahab that’s why she gets her place of honor in the lineage of Messiah so there’s there’s so much in the flawed and it makes me think that a vessel you can’t see the light emanating from inside a vessel if the vessel isn’t cracked because the light comes through the cracks it doesn’t come through the solid rock solid vessel you can’t see what’s inside light is dispersed and emanated and that’s exactly what we look at and all these flawed people and these flawed relationships that give us a not a prototype to emulate but a prototype to understand and so your approach to the story of Ruth you begin by saying that it’s a family story and a spiritual heritage which all all who are in Messiah this is your family story this is where you come into the picture in a very marvelous way because this is the merger of Jew and Gentile to bring about the seed line to continue from genesis 3:15 all the way through there’s the message of the seed of the woman we’re getting ready to celebrate the birth of the seed of the woman that’s from dread that’s from Genesis that’s not from Isaiah you know for unto us a child is born not from Matthew Mark Luke and John it’s the seed of the woman is introduced to us in genesis 3:15 is the first time we see that now we see the seed having traveled through generations and we know by looking at matthew these are the generations and we see who’s in there and there’s three women named and ruth is in that lineage so it is our collective family story Jew and Gentile who are believers in Jesus so you see a bigger picture you see the larger scope of this and so how do you address that and why is that important for believers to understand the relevance not just of the entirety of scripture being one book one author I’m not a subscriber to 66 books and 42 authors if all Scripture is god-breathed and he wrote the whole thing he just had many scribes okay and we understand the scribe from ancient Jewish history but why do you see it as important that this be one of the significant areas of understanding for the church at large yeah so I think there’s a couple of levels that plays on one is sort of the corporate and the other personal or individual one thing we see ride The Book of Ruth is set against the backdrop of the book of Judges it’s taking place in the same time period and so everything that we see in judges the the degradation that’s there everyone doing what is right in their own eyes so it you know the end result of that if everyone is their own little God judges shows us the the awful results of that the the perversion the violence the chaos and then here you have this little love story that is set really against that backdrop and so you have a contrast but really the Lord through the book showing us first of all that he his redemption doesn’t you know get cause he’s always at work no matter what you see so for instance just in the in the newspaper headlines around social media or just looking out in your neighborhood and you know we have so much in the world that could be caused for discouragement or yeah for depression maybe even and Ruth is a reminder that the Lord is always at work perhaps in ways that we don’t quite notice sometimes but he is always working things to his appointed ends so that little love stories is a good picture that that that history is not you know you gonna end in a whimper it’s going to in in in the glorious return of the Messiah that the king is going to come consummate the kingdom that he inaugurated and so it’s a reminder of that but then personally you know so you reference the birth of Christ and sort of the grand storyline of these flawed people you know look look at matthew’s genealogy for instance of Jesus it’s quite notable that the book written primarily for Jewish audiences would include in a genealogy quite untraditionally not just females because normally you would just list the you know the male picking of the patriarchal line matthew lists women but specific women may have been one of them who you reference but also Bathsheba and and Bruton and Ruth is among them as well and so I think that it’s a reminder to any of us who believe in Christ that you know our sin is forgiven yeah in Christ but also the Lord is working all of our brokenness he’s working our sorrows are our pain our suffering to make us more like Jesus himself to conform us more into his image but also there’s redemption at the end of this story there there will be a happy ending we will have resurrection bodies we will get to see him face to face someday and and know him as he knows us those really are the you know the hopes that the Lord is holding out for us so I think it’s you can be a great encouragement if we see that storyline as we look at the narrative of the story of Ruth we see her making a decision to choose the unknown versus the known she had the opportunity to remain behind in Moab to find another husband to make other choices and actually was quite discouraged vehemently by Naomi that know that there’s there’s no there’s nothing for you there’s no benefit I am I’m basically a curse you know why would you want to hit yourself to someone who is a curse and there was something about this sense of loyalty the sense of connection that became a model for us as we walk by faith and not by sight that that’s reinforced in this choice that she makes to follow the unknown path but it happens to being what Jeremiah calls the ancient path so when you come to the crossroads she was the ancient path and there you’ll find your peace so the ancient path would be to stay connected to the family connection as opposed to the natural inclination of you know what about me and my well being and here I’m known and we’re now about to enter into the unknown how does that speak in the narrative to you yeah what you think you certainly see it as a great step of faith right the other daughter-in-law but she turns back she sees the logic in it and and Naomi you know I don’t take her to be trying to get rid of these girls in a sense she’s looking out for them she really is thinking the best of them in some way so she’s not just thinking I’ve got these daughters a model now widows and you know you know how can I get rid of them she’s thinking the best of them it’s a love story all around in that sense but for Ruth to say no I’m gonna go to the land of your people and not mine where I will be considered by many a foreigner still no matter my you know commitment to your God and and to your family I’ll still somewhat be seen as an outsider if not very much seen as an outsider I’m going to do that because where you know I’ve made this vow to use she really has like this conversion experience and so it is a faith statement but I see it also as a picture of in a sense as a picture of Christ who really sort of embraces the curse you know he says I’m gonna take your sin onto me wherever you go I’m going to go and that means that I’m gonna have to go to my death for you even though I don’t deserve it but also maybe even through that a picture of us joining the cause of Christ to say hey you know he became a curse for us the cross is foolishness you’ll be able to understand you know the message of the cross you know it is the aroma of death to some and yet as believers we have decided we will be despised and seen as foolish by those in the world it doesn’t look like it makes any sense but we’re gonna do that because we trust that God is at work and loves us and it is securing us to him we’re introduced to a concept in what we were referred to as in the Hebrew Goyal hadam redeemer a kinsman redeemer the system of if your brother is married and your brother dies then you’re to step in preserve his the family marry her and even Jesus was approached with this kind of narrative of based on this concept and and we see the question being asked to him so there’s this guy and he has a wife and marries her and he dies and her brother steps in embarrass her and he dies and the next brother steps in and marries her and he dies and it goes on to happen seven times and you know when the question is asked so in the kingdom of heaven who’s she married to since she’s married to all the seven and and he gives an interesting answer so and and the answer is a two-fold answer first of all there’s not going to be marriage in heaven the giving a marriage in marriage in heaven but it’s also you’re not really recognizing that the entire concept of a kinsman redeemer voila I am he I am he I’m the concessions man Redeemer of the world and this concept is a very biblical Jewish concept in how to protect the lineage the seed line which is ever so important to matically throughout scripture from beginning to end it all has to do with the seed line of Messiah and God’s plan of protection for it so as we get to look at the characters you can’t really study Ruth without studying Naomi can’t really study Ruth without Stein Boaz and the whole concept of kinsman-redeemer and God’s overarching plan of redemption and how it is not always a straight path oftentimes it’s a very crooked path winding paths to get to it we’re talking with jared wilson author of ruth a redemption for the broken it’s a study guide with leaders notes from the gospel centered life in the bible series and we’ve covered several other in this series jonah if you recall if you’ve been watching the program for a while and this’n continues in that series of the gospels own life in the bible and this one’s on the story of the book of ruth we’re going to take a short break and we’re gonna talk about Naomi’s kind of role as driving the circumstances to work in Ruth’s in her behest on behalf of her to show her how to navigate the world that naomi is familiar with but Ruth is not and how she really is a mentor to her to help her navigate some of the nuances of that new life that they were going to enjoy we’re in take a short break and we’ll be right back with jared wilson talking about the Book of Ruth we’ll be right 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your journey to a transformed life the Bible commands us to study to show ourselves approved but most study using Bible study tools and not actually studying the Bible chapter and verse igniting a nation is pleased to present revealing the Bible recorded and taught each week before a live audience we take you deeper into the actual Bible and verse and both Hebrew and English and connect the dots between the oil New Testament you can attend our two classes in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham or watch the program every Wednesday at 11 a.m. Central time on igniting a nation calm and all our other simulcast outlets for more information visit welcome back to this edition of revealing the truth while we cover the headlines the heartlines and biblical truth I’m your host messianic rabbi Eric Walker and we’re talking with jared wilson author of the Bible study Ruth Redemption for the broken study guide with leader and leaders notes Jared welcome back to the program take so much sir so Naomi understands the system under which there they’re gone how did they get there they’re they’re traveling does it tell us that this is intentional that she has a location in mind that she is navigating towards and what she’s expecting to find when to get there yeah so they come to Bethlehem which of course is notable for a few reasons right and largely because there is family there at least the family connections there and that is where Boaz the businessman has his fields and and the timing is important as well because they they get there at the beginning of the of the harvest and they’ve just come from a place of great famine and so Naomi is sort of figuring that worst case scenario Ruth could you know glean from the margins of the field or you know except by a kind of charity but best-case scenario perhaps she could become you know and actually you know an employee field worker but even better than that happens of course which is that the field that she is gleaning from is you know a family member is Boaz extended family member and and he takes a shine to her he sees you know there’s something about her that he likes her hers her diligence her work ethic perhaps her beauty but really the character of her is what you kind of shines through for him and he con takes note of her which sort of elevates the Naomi’s ideas of of what might come next to the next level so in in this she takes on once it’s established that Ruth is Naomi can’t shake Ruth that she she’s in it for the long haul she helps her navigate this understanding of the gleanings but she gives her even more than that and as we take a look at this this plan of redemption of how Naomi is going to guide Ruth through the system of what in Scripture commands us in the old testament to not harvest to the glean leave the gleanings the edge of the fields for those that are poor and in need so they can come and gather but even more important than that she enters introduces her to the concept of the kinsman redeemer and Boaz is actually not the designated kinsman redeemer he is not the next in line to marry and take on Ruth so that’s a little twist to the story help us understand that whole that whole dynamic yet you know well it’s a testimony to really the virtue of Boaz isn’t it he’s one of the few quote/unquote characters you can call him that you know one of the few historical figures in in the Old Testament for which we don’t seem to have any evidence of flaws obviously you know he was a sinner in a flawed person but he really is an upstanding person there’s a phrase that I love in in the book where he he refers to the Living God as God lives and he’s a man who lives as if God is alive as if God is real as if God is watching as if he is accountable to a god and so whether Naomi knows she you know she mentions multiple Redeemer she says Boaz is one of our Redeemers or a family member but Boaz knows I’m not the first one in line and so he wants to marry Ruth and take care of her but he also wants to follow the letter of the law and he wants to do he wants to do his due diligence in you know following protocol there and so there is this other fellow who I guess is one one step ahead of him in terms of the lineage or the responsibility and and that you know that fellow determines that he’s not able to redeem Ruth and some of that you know the first thing that beau has said I don’t know if Boaz is being clever or not but he mentions land he mentions property and and then and the fellow he seems to be a tricked by that and then when Boaz says but you have to marry you know this Moabite woman to you know to get it and take on the mother-in-law and all that sort of deal that guy decides he cannot get marry her and there’s this symbolic moment of handing his shoe he takes his sandal off and hands it off to Boaz and so Boaz symbolically now is he’s officially given the approval to move forward in in marrying Ruth and even that is a wonderful picture I just see it as so you have Boaz the virtuous man following the letter of the law which in the end even even to the tea cannot redeem us Boaz becomes the kinsman redeemer and it’s a picture in the sense of Christ right so we have the law which is perfect and holy and yet it cannot redeem us mainly because we are sinners and we can’t measure up to it and yet Christ comes and fulfills the law totally it doesn’t abolish it doesn’t you know not one jot and tiddle falls away from it he fulfills it completely on our behalf and becomes our kinsman redeemer having kept the letter of the law for us there’s just so much gospel residence so much good news to see through those sort of gleaming cracks in this in in this story the protocol would be that the next in line would be approach to step in and Mary Ruth and so he’s approached and he rejects the notion he declines and in in this declining which you kind of get a sense that they’re hoping he does decline it’s like they’re just kind of going through the formality and you know we don’t know whether or not he’s like 90 years old 100 years old 150 years old and he said he’s had his hands full of what-whatever wives he’s had hey he just doesn’t want any more of it you know I always think of of Jacob when he would come home and what would he say hi honey honey honey honey honey home you know you kind of think of it in today’s terms and they had multiple wives in that environment and so she would have been come one become another one and he didn’t wanting to do with it and so once he did that that opened the door which is kind of interesting when we look at the Gospel message is is is what doors does God use to you know everybody says the old statement that when God closes one door he opens another or we look at Ezekiel 34 and we talk about a door that God shuts that no man can open but this was a protocol that it had to be done because there’s decency in order God’s the god of order there is a path he wants us to take and it’s the same way with salvation there’s a path he wants us to take there’s things he asks us to do and we can’t do it our way we have to do his way he says no one comes to the Father but through the Sun so you can’t do it in run you can’t can’t get past that that’s a that’s an absolute and it’s a non-negotiable you know in this case they they had to go through the process and it it kind of teaches us this lesson that we really have to be obedient to God’s system how he set things up he set up parameters and and if we live within those Pamprin what we call them the 10 commandments whether we look at them as the Mosaic law if we look at them at what the Jerusalem Council came up with if we take a look at the writings of all and how we treat one another the teachings of Jesus the Beatitudes all are a system of horizontal living living one among the other so it’s it’s kind of a journey from a bitter Naomi to a joyful Ruth and and the culmination of all that Ruth had not known would happen but by her faith and her loyalty God orchestrated this union and it it’s an interesting picture of in Judaism sitting at the feet of a rabbi is the picture we portray of studying under the tutelage of a rabbi i sat lilies literally sat on the floor at the feet of my teaching rabbi as a child in Hebrew school and and that’s what we did we sat on the floor and he stood we sat at his feet so we see in the picture of Ruth that that she’s to this unusual picture of they’ll crawl into his bed and lay at his feet what is that yeah well there’s a lot of a lot of speculation about it I don’t think there’s anything untoward happening there it is a obviously an image of faith for Ruth to do exactly what naomi has told her to do and it’s a faith in Boaz that he won’t take advantage of her I think because she is vulnerable in that moment and even he recognizes that if you recall he he sends her home in a particular way so that there won’t be any aspersions cast on her character and that sort of thing but she really is trusting that his intentions toward her are ones of virtue and are ones of protection which of course they are he you know he does respond to it in a in a very virtuous and and gracious way but in the in the moment itself it’s it’s a pretty peculiar custom it’s not the sort of thing that that you know certainly Christian parents of daughters would encourage to take you know if you’re interested in that particular man go into his bedroom or go where he’s sleeping at some point and get under the you know the covers by to speak with him that’s not anything you and I would would recommend and and so we need to you know be careful not we you know that we don’t read back too much you know of our own of our own in arched eyebrows into what’s happening there but it really is a symbolic aspect of she’s requesting his coverage she’s requesting his protection and that’s kind of what it is a custom you know symbol of you know so we take that even one step further the methd effete of Jesus and him him being the covering him being the pretender the provider that no one comes to the Father but through the son he it’s all that implication within this book as we look at how Ruth conducted herself in trying to get the attention of Boas how how does that kind of translate into our walk in being either significant or contributing into the kingdom work of Allah of allowing God you know there’s there’s do we get on God’s rate I mean God’s sovereign but it says if you’re faithful with the little things God will make you master of much did he know for seed the master know which one was going to give him return on the talents and what the return would be there was certainly punishment of the one who was afraid can we get on God’s radar by walking and and doing what Ruth did which was it walked along a particular way a particular path that was not a direct path it was an indirect path that wound up bringing her to the place that she eventually wanted to arrive yes so it’s a really just utter submission she doesn’t she just presents herself as a as a servant in a sense well I mean not a sense she says I’m your servant cook you know spread your wings over me she is totally open to what his response might be she’s totally dependent on him in that moment she is totally devoting herself to whatever is his intention you know she she’s expecting his intentions are good but you know there’s maybe a partner is that she doesn’t know that she doesn’t know him totally and so it’s really just this open hand of faith which of course corresponds to the way that we relate to Christ we have nothing to offer him that he needs there’s nothing you know we can’t merit you know salvation we cannot earn credit with him we are totally dependent on his grace in a you know in a very real way we are like Ruth in this moment we are outsiders to the kingdom we are rebels you know by nature we have sin in us that separates us from God and so all we can do you know we can’t bring any currency with we are spiritually poor in that sense you know in approaching the holiness of God and so all we can do is say you are Redeemer just as Ruth says you are a redeemer I am your servant cover me I am totally dependent on your on your will I’m trusting that your intentions toward me are good and for my good and to save me and that’s what we see that’s what she does with Boaz that’s what we do with the Living God we just we bring our nothingness to him and and ask him to cover us and that’s the only deal he’ll make right I mean if we try to bring anything and say hey please accept this you know my good works my my ethnicity my reputation might you know whatever it is there’s no deal but if we will come with an open hand with the empty hand of faith and say I have nothing to offer you you have everything that I need please exchange my my need for your grace that’s the deal that the Lord will make as we look at the and we come in kind of to the end of this segment maybe one final word from you in regards to why looking at the Book of Ruth is essential for us to understand the benevolence of God yes so the subtitle of the study redemption for the broken is really the through line because you have these multiple threads of brokenness even coming from Boaz as you mentioned Rahab as his his mother there’s some family you know brokenness you know despite his renown despite his you know upstanding position or prestige in the story he comes from a kind of you know sketchy background because his mother will always be identified as a prostitute or a harlot and what we see at the end it’s it’s totally night and day the beginning naomi is despondent she even says just call me Mara could you know which means better at because I am bitter my life is bitter the Lord has looked bitter Li upon me she she just at the end of a rope and so you have these two widows who are poor desperate one of them is an ethnic and religious outsider until her conversion and so they come in just really depending on the Lord’s goodness and on his blessings and at the end of the story I just love the image Naomi I’m picturing her face just beaming and she’s a little fatter because there’s food now and there’s coverage now there’s security now and she’s got her grandson bouncing on her knee and it’s a completely night and day picture from the very beginning where she is bitter and starving and in the midst of a great grief from losing her husband and her sons – now she’s bouncing her grandson on her knee it really just shows us how good the Lord is that the plans he has for us are good that no matter how bleak things look now we can trust that he is drawing all things together in our lives for the magnification of Christ and for our blessing he really does plan to bless us well if God is on the move bringing redemption for the broken Jesus came to bind up the brokenhearted and set the captives free and that is the heart of the Book of Ruth of going from being abandoned and poverty with owed without sustenance without an identity and finding her identity in God’s redemptive plan through the joining of ruth the moabite us with beau as the son of Rahab in the lineage of messiah and it is quite extraordinary that once again what the enemy meant for evil God works for his good so that many would be saved in the seed line of Messiah protected and that’s available to each one of you that the overarching story is this is a plan of a it’s a family story and you are a part of that family if you put your faith in the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and his son Yeshua Jesus God in the flesh Jared Wilson author of the Bible study Ruth redemption for the broken you can visit them at Jared C Wilson dot-com or go to ignite E&H; comm and click on Jerry’s name on today’s program schedule right there on the homepage and it’ll take you to a link to get this book Jared Wilson thank you for this time with us here on revealing the truth thank you so much it was a blessing to me sir god bless you my friend thank you where take a short break and when we come back we’ll bring in the next edition of revealing the truth.