Good morning y’all! Ruth chapter 4 There is Hope!
The final chapter and completion of another book of the Bible!
I don't want to make chapter 4 sound like everybody lived happily ever after, but we see where at the beginning three women lost their husbands and later saw how God brought good into something so horrible. Who would have thought such a thing would have happened? Ruth meets a man who finds favor in her and they marry and have a baby. In the meantime, Naomi receives healing and has the joy of holding a grandson. Little do they know this son will be the grandson of King David and from whose line will come King Jesus.
On Earth we can look back at certain disasters of life. We see the time of pain and hurt and can perhaps remember, at the time, feeling what good could ever come from this? Where is God? But God never leaves us nor forsakes us. He intervenes in his timing and brings new life for us.
When we face trials and tribulations, do we look at them with a sense of doom and gloom and with the sense of no real hope, kind of like Naomi when she lost three men in her life?
Or in the face of disaster, do we hang on in faith believing in the hope of Jesus that he can heal and restore and bring to us new life?
We all have faced disasters in life! Perhaps we could all share a testimony of how God gradually took us through it. How He helped us to grow through it. And how we experienced healing restoration and a new life. We experienced hope.
It's easy to become lost in disaster, but do we like to stay in the doom and gloom or do we call out and hang on to Jesus trusting he will get us through and bring us new life? Do we have hope for the future? Or do we hang on to hopelessness?
I think that the Book of Ruth can be very inspirational. May we not become bitter about our circumstances, but instead better in them by allowing God to carry us through the difficult times of life as He gives us hope for the future. I remember back when my wife, Donna became pregnant with our first child soon after we were married possibly even as early as our wedding night. We were so excited about becoming parents and many plans were being made for our little family! Then the sad news came. About three months into the pregnancy, she had a miscarriage and we grieved the loss of our baby. We certainly didn’t think this would be part of the plan that God had for us. Our dreams seemed to be shattered at that time, but God was still with us.
We may not always understand why things happen as they do, but we can trust God through it all. Donna became pregnant again soon after our loss and before we reached our one year wedding anniversary on May 31st, our daughter, Monica was born on May 1st. We didn’t have any more daughters after Monica, but God blessed us with four sons in the years after that. Now Monica is grown up and married. After experiencing a similar situation as us, she gave birth to our first granddaughter, Harper on 4/5/2019. We are thankful for God’s many blessings and for the hope and joy that He gives to us just like He brought to Naomi, Ruth and Boaz!
I was reminded today that our greatest hope is in Jesus and how He can give us eternal life as a born-again child like we see in John 3:3.
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
The ApologetiX song that I chose for today is Born-Again Child, a parody of Born to Be Wild.
https://youtu.be/TM9ruGLBQXI
I love the book of Ruth because it shows God’s plan for our redemption, revealed even during the days of the Judges. While the book of Judges details the faithlessness of Israel and its leadership, the book of Ruth gives us a picture of faithfulness among the common folk. It inspires me also because God uses a Moab woman and the descendant of a prostitute for His Son’s lineage. We see it again and again. God can use any one who is willing. It doesn’t matter what we’ve done in the past. We are forgiven and valuable in His sight. Thank you, Jesus!
Jim thank you for sharing that personal story, what a great example of Gods great love for all His children, even through hardships.
I really had no idea the book of Ruth was only 4 chapters. I also loved reading about how Boaz was able to give Ruth companionship and even children after she lost her first husband. Ruth is a beautiful testament to staying the course of faith even when we face hardships. God is always loving and He is always faithful!