May 26, 2025 • 51 mins
In this episode, Brody and JB unpack the story of Ruth and Boaz—not just a romance, but a stunning display of God’s redemptive work through unlikely people and difficult circumstances. Set in a time of chaos, Ruth’s bold loyalty and outsider status become the backdrop for a greater story of grace, restoration, and purpose. This powerful narrative points forward to Christ and offers deep hope for anyone navigating seasons of uncertainty.
Rahab: Jesus and His Crazy Grandmas
Tamar: Jesus and His Crazy Grandmas
Ruth: Jesus and His Crazy Grandmas
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
uh ta-da, you call this a set or a studio studio
set, but we finally have.
It's still very spartan wedon't know how this set's going
to end up yeah this is what wegot so far.
Yep, but we're ready to startrolling.
So, yeah, true, it's a new dayat nsr yeah, super exciting, I
picked out this plant, it's agood yesterday at lowe.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
It took me like 45 minutes.
Wanted to get the best one.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
You did good so thank you.
Thank you.
If we put one on this side, itwould be like between two ferns.
What's his?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
name Zach Gilvanakis or whatever.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Funny dude.
We're going to do a Beyond theFlannel graph.
We're going to talk about Ruthand Boaz Yep, so I'm excited to
get into it.
Welcome everyone.
To no Sanity Required.
Speaker 5 (00:55):
Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters.
A podcast about the Bible,culture and stories from around
the globe.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Okay, so one of the things that I've learned in my
Christian life is there arestories that you're going to
learn that are going to bemeaningful enough to you that
they become sort of these thingsthat you go back to.
For me, one morning last week Iwalked with Moses through, with
(01:28):
my son, my 12 year old sonMoses, who's the youngest of our
six kids, and I walked throughthe David and Goliath story.
Yeah and um, all all the dudesat SWO, all the men that are
here on set today filming andlistening, have probably heard
it a dozen times.
Right, because it's one ofthose like I go back to it
(01:49):
because there's so much going onthere, specifically in the
misconceptions we have about whodavid is and who david.
Who david was at that moment inhis life yeah, he wasn't a.
You know, I was trying toexplain to mo.
Hey, he's not just some 12 yearold kid that bebopped up to the
battlefield.
The king of israel places thehope of israel on his shoulders,
(02:11):
yeah and we've done that hereas a beyond the flannel graph,
and so that's one of the storiesI go back to, um, but another
story that I go back to is thestory of ruth and boaz and for a
number of reasons that we'llget into, but we had an
interesting conversation beforewe turned the cameras on, yeah,
and you had some insight on kindof the way you have always
(02:34):
perceived the.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Ruth story.
Yeah, just very much like Ruthand Esther, like for girls.
I just feel like people arelike, oh, it's like the book for
the women or, like you know,even just kind of making the
moral of the story per se, likeoh well, ruth was faithful and
she found boaz, so like holdfast for your man, like stuff
like that, when it's kind oflike wait, I think there's more
(02:57):
to the story, you know.
But yeah, and then we, we kindof got talking about like the
genealogy and how that playsinto David, and then we were
like let's just do an episode onit.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, it's going to be fun.
I'm really looking forward tothis.
Yeah, because Ruth and Boaz areDavid's great grandparents.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, which is so cool.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
It was so cool, which means Ruth is in the line of
Christ, and I did an early NSRepisode.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
The like crazy grandmas of Jesus.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
It was a little series.
It was a Beyond the FlannelGraph series called Jesus's
Crazy Grandmas or Jesus's.
Crazy.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
Grandmas.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
And it's.
You've got Tamar, who was inthat real scandalous story where
she poses as a prostitute sothat she can have a child but
she ends up having that child byher father-in-law.
It's a crazy story.
Rahab, who is a prostitute inJericho and not an Israelite
(04:05):
Jericho and not an Israelite.
Then Ruth, who okay, this iswhere we start our story.
Rahab was Ruth's mother-in-law.
She's Boaz's mom.
So, as this story unfolds, oneof the things about Ruth that
(04:29):
kind of jumps out at at a personwho understands the history and
the context of the story is sheis a Moabite.
The Moabites were descendedfrom an incestuous relationship
between Lot and his daughter, sothis is a group of people that
are very, uh, very pagan.
They have a really dark past.
Um, she's a mobile and theywould have been very much
(04:53):
considered unclean or outcast bythe israelite people.
Yeah, yeah, and that's a crazystory yeah so you could even say
Lot and that whole thing.
You know, eventually Ruth comesout of that and then grafts
back into Abraham's descendants.
There's a lot going on, butRuth would have been considered
(05:19):
I mean, she had already beenmarried, right?
She's a widow, she's a Moabite.
There's so many things goingagainst her.
She's an exile living in israel, yeah, and the fact that this
guy, boaz, brings her, you know,into his own, into a marriage
relationship, into his ownfamily and family line.
(05:40):
There's a lot that's going onin that part of the story which
we'll get, but I love the factthat he was probably completely
unfazed by where she had beenand what she had done.
And there's a really coolprinciple there, especially for
women that have been in messedup relationships.
(06:01):
Maybe you know I can think of agirl that lived with a guy for
years in a very unhealthy,ungodly relationship and
eventually married a guy whobecame a pastor and they have
one of the most beautifulmarriages that.
I know of.
Like there are godly dudes thatdon't care where you've been,
what you've done Right, right,Even Jackie Hill Perry funny
(06:24):
story.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
The other week when we were at the airport we saw
preston perry, jackie hill'shusband and I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I thought he's a rapper.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yes, well lately saw him anyways, besides the point
but even that is, I think, sucha beautiful picture she was like
actively living in a lesbianlifestyle, was dating multiple
women, and then even that Ithink some guys would be like oh
I'm not dating that girl aftershe's been through that.
But they have such a faithfuland godly relationship and I
(06:53):
think it's been so helpful for,like, their podcast listeners
and stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Just a really cool story, but yeah yeah, man,
because a lot of times I thinkthere are women who become wives
to men that have a really crazypast, right, but typically men
are scared of that.
They want a girl that's a goodgirl that hasn't been, you know,
down that road or whatever.
(07:18):
Anyway, boaz don't care.
So immediately Boaz begins toform, to emerge as sort of this
picture, he's a type of Christbecause he's the kinsman
redeemer.
So the overarching theme of thestory is attached to an old
Israelite tradition thatactually didn't just exist in
the Israelite world in antiquityand other cultures, where if a
(07:44):
person died, if a man died, thenhis brother or nearest family
member would, would marry, righthis widow and and bring her
into his family, the, and thathad to do with protecting.
You know, you had tribalism andin family security it wasn't
like today, where we have lawand order.
The way we have law and order,women weren't typically educated
(08:06):
, that a lot of times theycouldn't go make a living for
themselves and and uh, cultureand society was often very
oppressive to women, and so Godhad created a system in
Israelite life where if a womanwas widowed in order to preserve
her family lineage and also notjust lineage, but like land and
(08:32):
inheritance.
Then there was a way that shecould be married to her
husband's relative right.
But the trick was that man wasmarrying her, but then the
bloodline of her children wouldbe she would still maintain the
(08:52):
inheritance.
So he's marrying her to providecertain aspects of security and
stability, but he's not gettinganything out of the deal per se
.
Per se yeah where in the ancientworld, if someone did that, he
got to take all of the deadman's inheritance, like like
(09:13):
land or life insurance.
Yeah, he got all that.
Yeah, there's a running joke.
I'm I'm evaluating lifeinsurance stuff right now
because I've got a policy that'sgoing dead and I'm like okay,
if I die, if I croak out, I needto make sure little has enough
money to get the house emptyempty the nest yeah I don't want
her being broke and poor andyeah, and raising mo yeah and so
.
(09:34):
But there's this balance,there's this line of oh, I don't
want to, I don't want to sether up with so much money that
that then she's like there's a,there's a biblical principle in
proverbs 30, where where agar, Ithink, is the guy's name, and
he's like praying to the lordand he says don't give me so
much money that I'm rich,because I'll forget you right
(09:56):
but don't bring me to poverty orI'll despair and lose faith,
you know.
So that's kind of my principleof life insurance leave little
with enough that she's not goingto have to despair, but she's
not going to have the headacheof like I got so much money.
Yeah and so, and life insuranceis expensive, especially when
you're my age.
So, anyway, it's funny CauseI'm meeting with this, with with
(10:20):
my insurance agent, who's agood friend of mine, and I'm
like I probably need to.
I probably need to get somemore life insurance, and that's
part of the conversationultimately turns to if I leave
my wife a million bucks and shemarries some idiot is he getting
the million bucks?
So it's like a running joke withme, a little like uh, hey, if I
(10:40):
die and leave you a bunch ofmoney, are you going to get
married?
Hey, if I die and leave you abunch of money, are you gonna
get married?
Yeah, so we're like she's likeheck, no, I'm spending, I'm
going on trips, we'll have agood time, yeah, so.
God's plan for life insurancefor a widow in ancient Israel
was that society would comearound her.
You know, one of the beautifulaspects of Israelite life was
(11:01):
they didn't need a socialwelfare system, because God had
provided for people to be caredfor and looked after if they're
in a bad situation.
So a woman that was left as awidow, an alien, sojourner,
foreigner, an exile from aforeign culture or land that
needed to escape tyranny oroppression, could come into
(11:25):
Israelite life.
You'll hear a lot of people usethis to say well, we shouldn't
have strict immigration policies, we should have open borders,
which it's actually the opposite.
A person could come intoIsraelite culture, but they
either came as a slave or aconvert.
So, for instance, when peoplesay, oh, we should be like, you
(11:47):
know God would want us just toopen our society to outsiders,
he would.
But to become an Israelitecitizen as a man, you had to go
through circumcision, right,that's way worse than standing
in line and do us a paperwork.
That's right.
So it's not like, oh, just openborders, right.
It's like right.
So if you were going to comeinto israelite culture, there
(12:10):
were certain things you had todo.
One of the one of the mostimportant ones is you had to
forsake and abandon paganideology and worship rituals.
So it's like we want toassimilate into Israel, like
culture, as a foreigner?
Okay, well, you cannot bringyour idols and your pagan
ideology here, right?
(12:30):
You can't do that becauseIsrael was what we call a
theocracy.
They were one nation under oneGod that they all worshipped at
least that was the idea.
Now, they didn't all worshiphim, right, they.
There was a lot of infidelity,you know, with other gods, but,
but the point being, god hadmade a way for this society to
(12:51):
flourish, to bring others in, toprotect the destitute, the
widow, the orphan, even in jamesin the new testament, when
james says pure and undefiledreligion before God, and the
fathers take care of widows andorphans.
So in one sense, ruth is thispicture of an orphan and a widow
.
Naomi is a widow and as thestory starts, you've got a scene
(13:15):
that's laid out where the stageis set this way.
There's this man.
He lives in Bethlehem.
Bethlehem means house of bread.
Literally, the word Bethlehemmeans house of bread.
Bethlehem has so muchscriptural history and
(13:35):
connotation.
David was from Bethlehem.
Jesus would be born inBethlehem.
So this man so as this story isemerging as sort of this, this
guy's going to come out of thisstory as a type of Christ.
There's a lot of nuance andoverlap that points to Jesus and
a lot of undertone and meaningto the story.
It's not just a love story, inother words.
(13:56):
So Bethlehem means house ofbread, but the story starts out
and says and there was a famine,so there's no bread in the
house of bread.
And you start to feel this isone of those times where they're
under God's hand of judgment.
So it's not a random faminePeople in Bethlehem or in Israel
(14:17):
.
This is the land that flowedwith milk and honey a thousand
years earlier.
So they're not just randomlygoing through famines In Israel.
When there was a famine, it wasthe hand of God's judgment.
Well, it also tells us at thebeginning of the book of Ruth
that it was the time of thejudges.
Well, when you go and you readthrough the book of judges,
(14:38):
you'll see this continuingstatement Everyone did what was
right in his own eyes.
So it was a time where godwould bring judgment on the
people.
They would be in oppression fora period of time.
They would cry out inrepentance and desperation.
God would bring them adeliverer.
These deliverers were men likeehud Samson.
(15:05):
I love the guy Gideon, the storyof Gideon, which should be an
awesome be on the final graphsometime.
God would raise up a judge,deborah, this lady who God
raised up to deliver Israel.
So he would raise up a personwho would deliver them, and
these judges would have God'sblessing.
They would deliver the people,they would come back to a place
(15:28):
of national stability and theywould worship the Lord for about
a generation and then they'dfall away.
Judgment would come again.
So the story starts off.
We're in one of those seasonsof judgment.
There's no bread in the houseof bread, there's nothing to eat
in Bethlehem.
This man then leaves and takeshis family to Moab, which is
(15:50):
actually not.
If you look at a map, it's nota huge move.
So my mind, my imagination,runs crazy.
Is it just a localized famine?
Or is this guy like I got toget out of here but he only goes
to Moab, like I don't know whyhe lands in Moab, but when he
gets there, him and his wife,and they've got two sons, those
(16:12):
two boys marry Moabite women,which the way they go about it
is is in opposition to what Godhas commanded and designed.
So they marry pagan women in apagan land where they've
assimilated into pagan culture.
And I've, I've, I've got acouple of thoughts that I put
(16:33):
down on this.
Um in the, in the first fiveverses of Ruth, chapter one, it
says that they sojourned to Moab, which means sort of traveled
over there.
Let check it out.
It's like sojourning means itcould be we're passing through,
but you wouldn't pass throughMoab.
(16:54):
It's not on the way to anywhere, so they've gone over to Moab.
Something drew them over there.
Then it says they remained.
So they come in there, sort ofin this temporary check it out.
Then they remain there and thenit says they lived there for 10
years.
So they sojourned, they stayed,they put down roots and it's
sort of to me it's like thisreally strong picture of how sin
(17:17):
works Kind of kind of slip intothis stage of life or this area
, you see.
Yeah.
You kind of linger, you kind ofremain and you put down roots.
there's this, I think did I?
Um, I was talking to laylee Ithink most of our listeners know
that my daughter, laylee and jbare like really close friends.
(17:40):
Um, and I was talking to Lelythe other day about a situation
that she's dealing with with afriend and I said there's this
old churchy saying from when Iwas a young believer but it's so
good and it's like sin willtake you farther than you
intended to go, keep you longerthan you intended to stay and
(18:03):
cost you more than you intendedto go, keep you longer than you
intended to stay and cost youmore than you intended to pay.
So you've got this progressionof this guy.
Elimelech takes his wife Naomithey're two boys and he moves,
he goes over.
It's uncomfortable here it'suncomfortable, but the point
that to me stands out is you aresafer under God's hand of
(18:26):
judgment than you are trying toget out from under it and go
somewhere more comfortable.
Yeah.
So they go to Moab.
Um, the guy Elimelech.
His name means my God is King.
So here's a man who, who iscalled my god is king and he
lives in the house of bread andhe abandons his god in the house
(18:48):
of bread and he goes to thisdark place of my lab and he
remains there and then puts downroots.
So the first five verses, thestory.
The stage is set veryexplosively yes it's crazy, um,
and so I think there's someirony in the story and there's
(19:11):
human.
There's all the components ofgood literature, good
storytelling, good drama.
First, there is the irony ofthis guy Elimelech, his failure
of this guy Elimelech, hisfailure.
What we see is that, as hefails to be faithful to God and
he goes to Moab, as the storystarts to unfold, we're going to
(19:33):
see God be faithful over thisman's failure.
Right.
To the point he uses this man'sfailure to bring blessing not
just on his family but on thehouse of Israel.
And then there's tragedy in thestory in that this lady, naomi,
(19:53):
who is his wife, she is theperson who ultimately deals with
the repercussion of this man'sactions.
Yeah, because when he gets overthere, when he takes his family
and moves to Moab, he marrieshis boys off to these pagan
women and then both sons die andthe man dies.
So you've got Naomi all alonein a pagan foreign land.
(20:17):
Her husband has failed her.
This is like tragedy.
And she changes her name toMara, which means bitter.
She's like I came here Ithought things were bad.
They're actually pretty good,and now I'm just bitter.
And you see what we know to betrue in Israelite culture, names
and words were all veryimportant.
(20:38):
Yeah.
You know, we don't have as muchof that in our culture, but so
she even changes her name ofthat in our culture, but so she
even changes her name.
And so the the the thing thatends up happening throughout the
story.
There's two themes that thenstart to emerge.
One is the sovereignty of godright, which means god's working
(20:59):
, even in the worst ofcircumstances, to bring about
his end.
And then this word emerges thatyou see, often in scripture
it's the hebrew word has said,which means loving, kindness or
mercy.
So in the midst of the dark andbrokenness of moab, we see the
mercy and loving kindness of asovereign lord begin to emerge
(21:20):
right, it's, uh, it's reallypowerful.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
So I also think right before we filmed in the car I
briefly just read through ruthand it was kind of cool because
like the narrator of ruth, itdoesn't even really mention god
that often, you know, but likeexplicitly.
But it's just cool seeing likethe providence and the
sovereignty of god through kindof like you were saying, like
(21:45):
the actions of Boaz and likewe'll get into that more.
But it's just cool looking atlike God's will and God's
providence through the actionsof the people in this story,
even um the like maybe the badaction of taking his family to
Moab, you know, and so how likethe Lord worked through that and
(22:06):
the Lord's will is done youknow even through like the
choices and the actions of likehumans, kind of.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah, I think that is probably the big.
what you just said is, to me,the biggest point of really the
first chapter for sure, but italso sort of is a theme that
comes out through the story.
Definitely, I always thinkthere's a couple stories in my
life that I think of.
One is my sister rocky, who youknow yeah, um, that's zach
(22:38):
mabry's wife and so my parentsdivorced because of my father's
moral failure and infidelity.
It was a horrible situation andthe only people that really
know the situation and livedthrough it were like my mom, me,
(23:02):
my siblings, and even the waywe've all dealt with it has been
very different.
I've got one sister that stillkind of idolizes my dad, where I
have to fight to not hate him.
Just full transparency.
I don't hate him.
I love him.
He's dead and gone, been deadalmost 20 years.
I love him, but I fightresentment and bitterness.
(23:25):
Sure, I love him, but I fightresentment and bitterness.
The thing that keeps me fromgoing off the cliff ledge of
bitterness is realizing God usedmy dad's moral failure to shape
my life and put me on atrajectory Right to then move my
mom into a marriage her secondmarriage with the only granddad
(23:48):
my kids know who is one of myfavorite humans on the planet?
Sure, and his name is SteveParker.
My mom married Steve Parker.
At the time, steve Parker israising his biological daughter,
hannah, and his Bob, his firstmarriage niece and nephew,
(24:09):
raquel and Justin, who arebrother and sister.
And what had happened is Stevehad been married to a lady and
they had a child together andshe had a sister.
This gets real confusing, so ifyou're driving and listening,
you're not watching this.
Listen close, I'll try to makethis make sense.
(24:31):
So steve was married to a ladyI'm not going to use too many
names and confuse people and shehad a sister and her sister had
two children and her sister'shusband murdered her, killed her
and he went to prison for it.
So you got these two kids whowere like four and one at the
(24:52):
time.
The four-year-old is my nowsister, rocky Raquel.
So Rocky was four years old.
Her biological dad murdered herbiological mom, and so Rocky
and her brother, justin, go toto live with their aunt, the
(25:12):
mom's sister and her, their auntand her husband, steve steve,
and the aunt steve's wife.
Their marriage disintegratesbecause the mom's sister I
believe part of losing hersister caused her to go into
some really hard choicesinvolving addiction and
(25:33):
basically that marriagedisintegrated.
Steve then gets custody of andis raising his biological
daughter and his niece andnephew but, he's not blood kin
to him.
Yeah.
And he starts raising them.
My mom and him start talking,dating and get married and they
(25:54):
raise these kids, one of thembeing Rocky, who then, at high
school graduation, moves in withLittle and I because she loved
Snowbird and had been coming toSnowbird, and then eventually
marries Zach M zach mabry well,they're a vital, integral family
.
At snowbird, who god has usedin so many mighty ways, and
rocky my sister, is a picture ofthe lord's strength and grace
(26:19):
and and you go.
Okay, dude kills his wife.
Is that good?
No, no, yeah is god sovereign.
Yes, do we see his lovingkindness in the story?
Yes, in the most real way,kills his wife.
Is that good?
No, yeah, is God sovereign?
Yes, do we see his lovingkindness in the story?
Yes, in the most real way.
My dad, his infidelity, my momstriving and trying and working
to keep the marriage together,and she'll, she'll, she would
(26:39):
say it was through a fire, aftera fire, after a fire, and I
just kept saying until death, dous part the Lord will get us
through this and finally themarriage ended.
Was it a good thing?
No, do we see god's sovereigntyin it?
Yeah, and so, out of all thatcraziness, you've got rocky and
zach and they're amazing, yeah,crazy four kids yeah, yeah so,
(27:02):
if you know, we sometimes we getto live long enough to see the
sovereign hand of God.
Sometimes we don't, but God issovereign.
And so we see that start toemerge in the story, because at
the end of chapter one the stageis set because Naomi says I'm
going to go back to Bethlehem.
(27:22):
And then that's where we findout somewhere in the previous 10
years God's hand of judgmentlifted and they're flourishing
in Bethlehem.
And then that's where we findout, somewhere in the previous
10 years God's hand of judgmentlifted and they're flourishing
in Bethlehem.
But my man stayed in Moab, hegot comfortable living in.
Moab Cool biblical principle,yeah.
So she's like I'm gonna go back.
I got nothing.
I'm gonna go back, at leasthave some extended family there.
(27:45):
And Ruth, who's a Moabite pagan, wants to go back with her and
she's like you could get marriedhere and continue.
She said no, I'm going with you.
It's a beautiful picture ofloyalty and there's that
incredible passage.
I just it's when I do a wedding, if someone asks me to choose
the vows and the scripture,which about 90% of the time they
(28:08):
do.
In fact, I just did a weddingfor one of our guys on the team
here, mike Fitzpatrick, and theysaid what do you want to do?
First off, I'm unique as apastor in that I love doing
weddings.
Most pastors say I can't standdoing weddings.
Most pastors say I can't standdoing what, first off, there's
to me, one of the highest honorsI can be paid is for somebody
(28:31):
to say will you stand before godand us and do this?
But I always use the words thatruth says to naomi as a as
wedding vows.
it's not between a man and hiswife in scripture but, it's a
beautiful passage in scripturewhere Naomi says don't come back
to Bethlehem with me.
You're a Moabite, stay here.
These are your people.
(28:51):
I'm going to go back toBethlehem and be.
She basically says I'm going tobe a miserable old woman and
just die.
I'm a widow, I got no husband.
I got no sons.
Imagine the tragedy You've lostyour sons, lost your husband.
And Ruth says do not beg me toleave you and don't urge me to
turn back from following you,because where you go, I will go.
(29:13):
Where you lodge, I will lodge.
Your people will be my people.
And this is the key phrase yourGod will be my God.
She's saying I now worshipYahweh.
I am no longer worshiping thegods of Moab.
I'm going to go work.
I want to know this God.
She's heard of Yahweh.
I want to know your God will bemy God and where you die, I
(29:35):
will die and there will I beburied.
And this is beautiful statementof loyalty.
So she goes with her back toBethlehem.
So they get back to Bethlehemand it's the time of the year
where the harvest is full andthey're starting to take the
harvest out of the field and aspart of God's like network for
(29:57):
how the poor would be providedfor when wheat and barley was
being harvested.
And and it was so cool theythey had a system where most of
the year they were harvestingcrops it was like overlapping
crops and so there would alwaysbe food for the poor.
And so if you've got a field ofbarley and you harvest it, or
(30:17):
wheat you harvest it, you wouldleave the a large section of
that field for the poor to comeand gather right.
And so Naomi and Ruth get toBethlehem and I don't know
they're staying in an oldcontainer, a tiny house, a
trailer a van down by the river,whatever just getting by and
Ruth says I'll go, it's calledgleaning, I'll go glean some
(30:38):
food.
So basically it's like I'll gostand in line at the soup
kitchen and bring us some food.
You just stay here and youstart to see.
This loyalty is not just in theeloquent statement she made,
but she's acting yeah.
And, and I'm guessing, if shehad married the dude when, let's
say, she was 15 when shemarried the guy?
She's probably 25, I'm guessing, and so maybe your age, maybe
(31:02):
early twenties, mid twenties.
So she goes um and she startsworking and uh, she's out there
working in the fields justtrying to gather food to bring
back to naomi and the guy thatowns this property.
His name is boaz, he's arelative of naomi through her
dead husband and so that's whythey go to his field.
(31:25):
It'll be friendly, it'll be.
We're two women we have noprotection we can.
I know this guy's reputation isnothing will happen to us if we
go glean in his field, right.
So he's there.
My man, boas, shows up to checkon the workers and he's like
who's that you?
see this like moment where he'slike, uh, I don't know if
(31:47):
because he's substantially olderthan her.
I think, like when you drillinto it some of the language and
then, just looking at, he's agood bit older than her.
He's probably old enough to beher dad, probably 20 years older
than her, something like that.
Most commentators think so ifshe's 25, he's 45, whatever,
which was not uncommon in thatit's not uncommon in our culture
.
Which was not uncommon in thatit's not uncommon in our culture
(32:08):
, definitely wasn't uncommon inthat culture.
And so is he like a widower.
It's very odd that a man hisage wouldn't be married.
So I don't know what's going onthere, but he sees, and maybe
he's, maybe we don't know forsure maybe he's 30, yeah, but
he's like noticing her and Idon't know if it's just that
(32:30):
he's going.
Okay, I know most of thesepeople.
I don't know.
I don't know this gal yeah oris he like?
hmm, yeah, there's somethingforeshadowed right there, you
know.
And so he.
He starts to really try tominister to her.
We start to see his characteremerge.
I jotted down some thoughts onhis character, the first thing
(32:51):
that we know about Boaz.
I've got six facts.
Quick facts.
Number one he has a job.
Good start For moms and singleladies.
Listening don't push yourdaughter into a relationship
with a kid that doesn't have ajob.
But he's cute, he's a good,he's a good quarterback.
(33:15):
Nobody cares, right like doeshe have a job?
Is he a hard worker?
Yeah, it's a big deal.
Um, he loves jesus.
We see that in his greeting.
When he comes up, he greets allof his workers and he gives
them a blessing from the Lord.
Uh, we know that he grew up inthe home of uh Salman and and
(33:35):
Rahab, which is crazy.
Yeah, Rahab was a prostitute ina pagan city.
Yeah, Imagine imagine Rahab andBoa, Rahab and uh Salman just
sitting around chatting.
Boa's just playing with hislittle toy camels.
(33:56):
You know his little farm toysor whatever you know yeah and
there's this my mom.
He just knows her as his mom.
Yeah, she's a prostitute.
Yeah, and God brought her out,which is one of my favorite
episodes we ever did.
As of Beyond the FlannelGrounds, it's one of my favorite
stories.
He grows up with that lady as amom.
(34:19):
I just wonder what that familydynamic was like.
There had to be a sensitivityto people.
Did she raise him saying, hey,son, you be good to people.
It was two men.
So I also have a non-biblicalopinion that when the two guys
(34:46):
go into Jericho a generationearlier to rescue Rahab I think
one of them was Salmon- thosetwo guys are unnamed.
And this dude, he's the man.
He comes from a line of dudesthat are dudes.
Yeah.
And I'm like, did he go in andwas he the guy that pulled her?
(35:06):
Out yeah.
And something happened and youknow, kind of cool to think
about.
Yeah, for sure, but just thestories they could have told.
Because his dad was part of theinvasion of Jericho yeah, the
invasion of Ai, where a bunch ofmen died because of God's
judgment, god's judgment andthen the eradication of pagans
(35:29):
in like five years of war.
His dad was a veteran of that.
Yeah, raised him married to aprostitute who had lived in the
city of Jericho.
It's just crazy.
That's the house he grew up inyeah he wasn't a Sunday school
PK.
Yeah, you know yeah so he grewup in that, so we know that
about him.
He's a man of faith.
Even in a time of famine he had, he'd continue to work.
Yeah, so he didn't go anywhere.
He just kept trusting the lordand working um in a dark time of
(35:51):
the judges, where everyone didwhat was right in their own
sight he emerges as someone thatwas faithful to the lord.
He's a leader and he goesagainst cultural norms.
So pretty good resume for a dude, yeah for sure um, so I think,
uh, the the the sentence that Ijotted to kind of sum all it up,
is boaz has the capacity tolove ruth the way jesus loves us
(36:16):
yes, yeah and you know to whommuch is, is given.
Much is required, but also tothe one that is forgiven much,
that one that person loves muchyeah those are teachings of
jesus.
And so, um, the relationshipstarts to sort of I don't want
to say take off, but it startsto materialize.
So ruth is coming each day andshe's taking food from the field
(36:38):
.
He starts to cultivate arelationship with her and that
he gets to know her.
She's bringing food home toNaomi.
He starts to really invest inher.
He's given her abundantly morethan she could.
Reminds me of that uh verse inEphesians.
(36:59):
Um, in Ephesians three, it'slike a it's, it's like a
benediction A lot of times atchurch.
Now, to the only one who can doabundantly more than we could
ever ask or imagine, he startsto just provide for her.
And so then there's this pointwhere Naomi says hey, listen,
there's going to be a big party.
(37:19):
It's a harvest party whichapparently, culturally, this was
a big deal.
Harvest party was a big thing,where they would, at the end of
the main harvest, they wouldcome together and celebrate
God's goodness, and it would bea big party.
And she says Boaz is throwing aparty.
You need to go to that party.
He has only ever seen you inCarhartts and a messy bun.
(37:43):
Yeah, yeah, you know, like amessy bun.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know like you're like pitycity.
Yeah.
Here's what I want you to do.
You need to look good.
There's this really funnyconversation where Naomi's
basically saying you need to puton something that looks nice.
You need to fix up like do dowhat women do and you need to.
You need to fix up puts like dodo what women do and you need
(38:06):
to.
You need to look good.
And she does it.
And and there's this reallyscandalous moment where he he it
says he's satisfied from foodand wine and he lays down and
she goes and uncovers his feetwhich is apparently a cultural
(38:27):
thing where she's saying to himI'm at your service.
And we see again the incredibleintegrity of this man, because
what he does is he doesn't takeadvantage of her.
At that point he could havedone whatever he wanted.
Doesn't take advantage of her,he protects her.
He keeps her there till themorning because he says you
can't travel home at night.
(38:48):
She basically, by the way, saysum, will you marry me?
it's like very forward you knowyeah and uh, she's like how, uh,
I'm a single gal, you're single.
I feel like there's somethinghere.
She's really aggressive, but asan act of faith, it's cool how
(39:11):
he responds because he says,okay, we're going to do this.
I just would have neverimagined you'd want to be with a
guy like me.
I'm older, I just didn't.
You see his humility.
It's not like a false humility,he's like yeah, you serious yeah
I mean, I've been trying tolook after you guys because I'm
related to naomi and you guysare a bad situation.
(39:34):
It's the right thing to do.
You get this sense that he'sjust.
But are you serious?
Yeah, she's like yeah.
And so he says, okay, we'regoing to do this, we're going to
do it the right way.
So he keeps her there for thenight.
(39:56):
Nothing happens.
Very honorable guy, he doesn'tsend her away in the dark where
she would be potentially exposed.
You know, like, where Kilby andGreg live.
You don't go out in the darkwhere she would be potentially
exposed.
You know, like where kilby andgreg live, you don't go out in
the dark right, you don't, youdo not even grown men like we
won't, we won't travel at nightin east africa, and so he keeps
(40:16):
her there.
But he sends her home at firstlight, before people are
stirring, so they don't see herleaving his bedroom or what you
know, the threshing floor wherethey're at, because a lot of
people are sleeping in the area.
It's like a big camp out almost.
And so she goes home.
But he sends her with enoughfood that represents wealth.
(40:37):
He basically sends her with anincredible gift to give to her
mother, who, naomi, is like hermother, and he says we're going
to do it the right wayincredible gift to give to her
mother, who, naomi, is like hermother, right and and he says
that we're going to do it theright way.
And what he means by that isthere's someone else who has
rights, to you and Naomi beforeBoaz, yeah, yeah.
So Boaz is a distant cousin?
(40:58):
Yeah, elimelech has a nephew,his brother's son, whoever, we
don't know.
Right.
But what's funny is thescripture.
When boaz refers to this guy,he doesn't call him by name and
he uses a hebrew word.
That's like saying what's hisname.
It's pretty derogatory, that'sfunny.
(41:19):
And it basically tells us thisguy is probably not a man of
high character and we see thatpretty quick.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Like rejects Ruth because of she's Moab.
She came from Moab, right.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
So yes, and maybe more importantly, because if he
takes her, so if he brings Ruthin, he gonna he's gonna be
responsible for her.
However, yeah, he's gonna needto provide a child through her,
(41:51):
but then he's not going to get alimolex inheritance that child
will get it.
I see that's the way theredeemer thing works yeah, so
again I'm I'm reading a littleinto it, but I think Ruth was
attractive.
I think she's a very attractivewoman, and even if she's not
that's not necessarily here orthere I think he is willing to
(42:13):
do it because he gets Ruth.
Oh yeah.
Get a woman to sleep with her,add her to my harem, whatever.
It's very selfishly motivated,right?
So the way that Boaz goes abouthandling this he sends Ruth
home with lots of money, withlots of, you know, resources.
The next day he goes into thecity square where he knows he'll
(42:36):
meet with this guy.
He's at the part of the city.
He goes from his, from his farmand his land, he goes into the
town where everybody would dotrade and commerce and he makes
this a public interaction.
So the leaders of that town andcity are there and he says hey,
hey, squatchy, hey, what's yourface?
(43:01):
I mean literally that's what hesays.
He's not like calling him byname.
He's like hey, my man, my guy,come here and he says Naomi's
here and would you redeem?
Because a lot of times a guywould redeem an older woman like
that because he wouldn't haveto have sexual union with her.
And so we don't know, it's aguy like hey'll bring it naomi
(43:25):
into my house, look after her.
Maybe the guy's a decent dude,I don't know.
And and then whatever, and he'slike she got a daughter-in-law.
You know you're gonna have totake her.
And he starts to lay this thingout for him and the guy's like
oh no, because that will alsocompromise my children's
inheritance If I bring them innow.
(43:47):
You've got this.
Imagine, kind of like in ourworld, if a divorced man and a
divorced woman get married or ablended family, and then the man
dies.
How does the inheritance getdivided up?
Maybe the wife gets it over thebiological children.
It just creates complications.
This guy's like I don't want todo that.
And Boaz says okay, I'm goingto make a deal with you right
(44:07):
now.
And he makes a deal with theguy in the city square that's a
binding deal, that he's going tomarry her.
And then he goes and he marriesher.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
And they have a son who has a son, who has a son
named David.
Yeah, crazy.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
It's a crazy story.
Yeah, it really is.
Yeah, so, even going back to,like, the story that you told
about rocky and steve and yourmom, it's like even like I'm
sure pap steve didn't think thiswas gonna happen or even your
mom probably didn't think thiswas gonna happen, like when all
that horrible stuff washappening.
And now, crazy, like you'resaying, there are times where
(44:48):
we're able to see the mercies ofGod and the sovereignty of God.
And same thing with the storyof Ruth and Naomi.
Like I'm sure when Naomi'shusband and all her family died
and she was left alone, I'm sureshe wasn't like, ah, this is
going to happen, I can't waitfor it.
Like just so cool.
I just think that's such a coolpicture of, like I was saying
(45:11):
earlier, the providence of Godand I don't know just how
faithful.
Like I think it's just soimportant that Naomi and Ruth
and Boaz, like they all, werejust continuing to be faithful.
They didn't know that this wasgoing to happen.
You know it's not like okay, youwork to this point and then
you'll be granted what Ipromised you.
(45:32):
They didn't know.
You know, no one had any idea.
I think sometimes a lot of.
I've been thinking a lot aboutthe women's conference and just
like, especially, I guess, likewomen just being faithful in the
home and stuff.
And I keep thinking of thetwins, lauren Annabelle, their
interns here.
Their grandma is just sofaithful and, um, like she comes
(45:53):
to camp as a chaperone and it'sjust so faithful to her kids
and her grandkids and I fullybelieve that Lauren Annabelle
are here working because of howfaithful miss therese that's her
name, miss therese has been andI just think that's like a cool
picture.
That's kind of what I wasthinking about when you were
talking.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yeah, this is a good example yeah the it's.
It's interesting too.
My mom had three biologicalchildren, but she raised eight
kids.
Really, she raised 10 becausewhen I was small they fostered,
(46:38):
Like when I was six.
From the time I was like fourto seven, maybe six or seven,
there was a girl that lived withus.
It was a teenager.
Um, we called her Niecy, Hername was Denise and she was like
she was family.
But then there was a guy thatcame when I was around six or
(46:58):
seven and stayed till I was like11 or 12, through his teenage
years.
Um, my mom was always justgiving and pouring out, but she
raised eight kids that she'stheir mom, you know but only
three were biological.
Yeah.
(47:18):
She has like 20 grandkids, butlet's see, biological grandkids
are maybe six or seven, I thinkseven yeah um, and I would say
she's.
She's maybe closer with acouple of the non-biological
(47:40):
grandkids, like.
In other words, she doesn'tdifferentiate sure so Naomi has
no biological connection to Ruth, no biological connection to
Obed the, the son that's born,but she's his grandma yeah and
she's, that's her only grandkid.
Yeah, at this point, and you seethat God's definition of family
(48:01):
is way bigger than what we puton paper.
Sure, you know, um, and you, wehave that all around us.
Sure, my family's like that,you know, like um, and it's this
really cool picture of Godgrafting and adopting and
putting together families out ofbrokenness.
(48:22):
Yeah, you know.
Yeah.
It's really the for me, theimage of naomi bouncing that kid
on her knee being a grandmaafter she had changed her name
to bitter old woman.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
You see, joy even that of like she was like I'll
just go back and I'll be an oldwoman and die.
Obviously she was not seeing,like, how much more the Lord had
.
And so for her and her family,even that of like that great
grandkid brought her so much joy, and you know that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
It really is, yeah, and so Ruth is one of the crazy
grandmas of Jesus.
I love it.
It's no sanity required stuff,right there, yeah, it's like
crazy in the world's wisdom.
Yes, for sure.
Love that story.
Sure, yeah, um well, I'mexcited about the new setup.
I'm excited about developingthe set.
(49:16):
I'm excited about our team.
We have an, a team right now.
Man, yeah, it's exciting.
Send us ideas on the, on the uh, on our set yeah, we need to
fill in the shelves.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
Obviously they're a little bit bare, bare shelves we
do have one idea.
Speaker 1 (49:35):
We were talking with the, with the guys behind the
cameras, um, before we startedthis episode, not a deer head,
but a european mount, a skullmount would look pretty cool up
there.
I think it'd be cool,especially one that has a cool
story behind yeah, yeah,definitely um katie, cousins
(49:55):
jersey of course that that wasthe cause of all the controversy
that she didn't want to wearthe jersey that had the rainbow
pride stuff on it yeah that'dlook good somewhere up here,
cousins I.
So after that went down, I thinkwe talked about this when we
were talking to katie, but whenthat all went down, I said hey,
(50:15):
I want one.
I'm only ever going to ask forone thing from you in your life
and it's, I want that jersey,yeah yeah, so that'll look cool
in here.
It'd be awesome.
Yeah, I'd really like to gettucker on here yeah, it'd be
cool just talk about.
You know that elite world of ofathletics and just the pressures
and how do you stay faithfuland how hard is it to stay
(50:36):
faithful and assuming that youdon't always stay for you know
just what I think that'd bereally inspiring for, especially
for young athletes.
So cool stuff coming up.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
Yep Exciting, exciting stuff.
Speaker 1 (50:49):
Well, thanks, it was fun.
Yeah, I like having you on herebecause, uh, it's easier to
talk to a human than a camera.
Uh and um, I appreciate yourinput and questions.
Keeps things flowing.
For sure.
All right.
Well, thank y'all, and we'llsee you next time.
Speaker 5 (51:08):
Thanks for listening to no Sanity Required.
Please take a moment tosubscribe and leave a rating.
It really helps.
Visit us at SWOutfitterscom tosee all of our programming and
resources and we'll see you nextweek on no Sanity Required.
uh ta-da, you call this a set or a studio studio
set, but we finally have.
It's still very spartan wedon't know how this set's going
to end up yeah this is what wegot so far.
Yep, but we're ready to startrolling.
So, yeah, true, it's a new dayat nsr yeah, super exciting, I
picked out this plant, it's agood yesterday at lowe.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
It took me like 45 minutes.
Wanted to get the best one.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
You did good so thank you.
Thank you.
If we put one on this side, itwould be like between two ferns.
What's his?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
name Zach Gilvanakis or whatever.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Funny dude.
We're going to do a Beyond theFlannel graph.
We're going to talk about Ruthand Boaz Yep, so I'm excited to
get into it.
Welcome everyone.
To no Sanity Required.
Speaker 5 (00:55):
Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters.
A podcast about the Bible,culture and stories from around
the globe.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Okay, so one of the things that I've learned in my
Christian life is there arestories that you're going to
learn that are going to bemeaningful enough to you that
they become sort of these thingsthat you go back to.
For me, one morning last week Iwalked with Moses through, with
(01:28):
my son, my 12 year old sonMoses, who's the youngest of our
six kids, and I walked throughthe David and Goliath story.
Yeah and um, all all the dudesat SWO, all the men that are
here on set today filming andlistening, have probably heard
it a dozen times.
Right, because it's one ofthose like I go back to it
(01:49):
because there's so much going onthere, specifically in the
misconceptions we have about whodavid is and who david.
Who david was at that moment inhis life yeah, he wasn't a.
You know, I was trying toexplain to mo.
Hey, he's not just some 12 yearold kid that bebopped up to the
battlefield.
The king of israel places thehope of israel on his shoulders,
(02:11):
yeah and we've done that hereas a beyond the flannel graph,
and so that's one of the storiesI go back to, um, but another
story that I go back to is thestory of ruth and boaz and for a
number of reasons that we'llget into, but we had an
interesting conversation beforewe turned the cameras on, yeah,
and you had some insight on kindof the way you have always
(02:34):
perceived the.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Ruth story.
Yeah, just very much like Ruthand Esther, like for girls.
I just feel like people arelike, oh, it's like the book for
the women or, like you know,even just kind of making the
moral of the story per se, likeoh well, ruth was faithful and
she found boaz, so like holdfast for your man, like stuff
like that, when it's kind oflike wait, I think there's more
(02:57):
to the story, you know.
But yeah, and then we, we kindof got talking about like the
genealogy and how that playsinto David, and then we were
like let's just do an episode onit.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, it's going to be fun.
I'm really looking forward tothis.
Yeah, because Ruth and Boaz areDavid's great grandparents.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, which is so cool.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
It was so cool, which means Ruth is in the line of
Christ, and I did an early NSRepisode.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
The like crazy grandmas of Jesus.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
It was a little series.
It was a Beyond the FlannelGraph series called Jesus's
Crazy Grandmas or Jesus's.
Crazy.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
Grandmas.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
And it's.
You've got Tamar, who was inthat real scandalous story where
she poses as a prostitute sothat she can have a child but
she ends up having that child byher father-in-law.
It's a crazy story.
Rahab, who is a prostitute inJericho and not an Israelite
(04:05):
Jericho and not an Israelite.
Then Ruth, who okay, this iswhere we start our story.
Rahab was Ruth's mother-in-law.
She's Boaz's mom.
So, as this story unfolds, oneof the things about Ruth that
(04:29):
kind of jumps out at at a personwho understands the history and
the context of the story is sheis a Moabite.
The Moabites were descendedfrom an incestuous relationship
between Lot and his daughter, sothis is a group of people that
are very, uh, very pagan.
They have a really dark past.
Um, she's a mobile and theywould have been very much
(04:53):
considered unclean or outcast bythe israelite people.
Yeah, yeah, and that's a crazystory yeah so you could even say
Lot and that whole thing.
You know, eventually Ruth comesout of that and then grafts
back into Abraham's descendants.
There's a lot going on, butRuth would have been considered
(05:19):
I mean, she had already beenmarried, right?
She's a widow, she's a Moabite.
There's so many things goingagainst her.
She's an exile living in israel, yeah, and the fact that this
guy, boaz, brings her, you know,into his own, into a marriage
relationship, into his ownfamily and family line.
(05:40):
There's a lot that's going onin that part of the story which
we'll get, but I love the factthat he was probably completely
unfazed by where she had beenand what she had done.
And there's a really coolprinciple there, especially for
women that have been in messedup relationships.
(06:01):
Maybe you know I can think of agirl that lived with a guy for
years in a very unhealthy,ungodly relationship and
eventually married a guy whobecame a pastor and they have
one of the most beautifulmarriages that.
I know of.
Like there are godly dudes thatdon't care where you've been,
what you've done Right, right,Even Jackie Hill Perry funny
(06:24):
story.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
The other week when we were at the airport we saw
preston perry, jackie hill'shusband and I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I thought he's a rapper.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yes, well lately saw him anyways, besides the point
but even that is, I think, sucha beautiful picture she was like
actively living in a lesbianlifestyle, was dating multiple
women, and then even that Ithink some guys would be like oh
I'm not dating that girl aftershe's been through that.
But they have such a faithfuland godly relationship and I
(06:53):
think it's been so helpful for,like, their podcast listeners
and stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Just a really cool story, but yeah yeah, man,
because a lot of times I thinkthere are women who become wives
to men that have a really crazypast, right, but typically men
are scared of that.
They want a girl that's a goodgirl that hasn't been, you know,
down that road or whatever.
(07:18):
Anyway, boaz don't care.
So immediately Boaz begins toform, to emerge as sort of this
picture, he's a type of Christbecause he's the kinsman
redeemer.
So the overarching theme of thestory is attached to an old
Israelite tradition thatactually didn't just exist in
the Israelite world in antiquityand other cultures, where if a
(07:44):
person died, if a man died, thenhis brother or nearest family
member would, would marry, righthis widow and and bring her
into his family, the, and thathad to do with protecting.
You know, you had tribalism andin family security it wasn't
like today, where we have lawand order.
The way we have law and order,women weren't typically educated
(08:06):
, that a lot of times theycouldn't go make a living for
themselves and and uh, cultureand society was often very
oppressive to women, and so Godhad created a system in
Israelite life where if a womanwas widowed in order to preserve
her family lineage and also notjust lineage, but like land and
(08:32):
inheritance.
Then there was a way that shecould be married to her
husband's relative right.
But the trick was that man wasmarrying her, but then the
bloodline of her children wouldbe she would still maintain the
(08:52):
inheritance.
So he's marrying her to providecertain aspects of security and
stability, but he's not gettinganything out of the deal per se
.
Per se yeah where in the ancientworld, if someone did that, he
got to take all of the deadman's inheritance, like like
(09:13):
land or life insurance.
Yeah, he got all that.
Yeah, there's a running joke.
I'm I'm evaluating lifeinsurance stuff right now
because I've got a policy that'sgoing dead and I'm like okay,
if I die, if I croak out, I needto make sure little has enough
money to get the house emptyempty the nest yeah I don't want
her being broke and poor andyeah, and raising mo yeah and so
.
(09:34):
But there's this balance,there's this line of oh, I don't
want to, I don't want to sether up with so much money that
that then she's like there's a,there's a biblical principle in
proverbs 30, where where agar, Ithink, is the guy's name, and
he's like praying to the lordand he says don't give me so
much money that I'm rich,because I'll forget you right
(09:56):
but don't bring me to poverty orI'll despair and lose faith,
you know.
So that's kind of my principleof life insurance leave little
with enough that she's not goingto have to despair, but she's
not going to have the headacheof like I got so much money.
Yeah and so, and life insuranceis expensive, especially when
you're my age.
So, anyway, it's funny CauseI'm meeting with this, with with
(10:20):
my insurance agent, who's agood friend of mine, and I'm
like I probably need to.
I probably need to get somemore life insurance, and that's
part of the conversationultimately turns to if I leave
my wife a million bucks and shemarries some idiot is he getting
the million bucks?
So it's like a running joke withme, a little like uh, hey, if I
(10:40):
die and leave you a bunch ofmoney, are you going to get
married?
Hey, if I die and leave you abunch of money, are you gonna
get married?
Yeah, so we're like she's likeheck, no, I'm spending, I'm
going on trips, we'll have agood time, yeah, so.
God's plan for life insurancefor a widow in ancient Israel
was that society would comearound her.
You know, one of the beautifulaspects of Israelite life was
(11:01):
they didn't need a socialwelfare system, because God had
provided for people to be caredfor and looked after if they're
in a bad situation.
So a woman that was left as awidow, an alien, sojourner,
foreigner, an exile from aforeign culture or land that
needed to escape tyranny oroppression, could come into
(11:25):
Israelite life.
You'll hear a lot of people usethis to say well, we shouldn't
have strict immigration policies, we should have open borders,
which it's actually the opposite.
A person could come intoIsraelite culture, but they
either came as a slave or aconvert.
So, for instance, when peoplesay, oh, we should be like, you
(11:47):
know God would want us just toopen our society to outsiders,
he would.
But to become an Israelitecitizen as a man, you had to go
through circumcision, right,that's way worse than standing
in line and do us a paperwork.
That's right.
So it's not like, oh, just openborders, right.
It's like right.
So if you were going to comeinto israelite culture, there
(12:10):
were certain things you had todo.
One of the one of the mostimportant ones is you had to
forsake and abandon paganideology and worship rituals.
So it's like we want toassimilate into Israel, like
culture, as a foreigner?
Okay, well, you cannot bringyour idols and your pagan
ideology here, right?
(12:30):
You can't do that becauseIsrael was what we call a
theocracy.
They were one nation under oneGod that they all worshipped at
least that was the idea.
Now, they didn't all worshiphim, right, they.
There was a lot of infidelity,you know, with other gods, but,
but the point being, god hadmade a way for this society to
(12:51):
flourish, to bring others in, toprotect the destitute, the
widow, the orphan, even in jamesin the new testament, when
james says pure and undefiledreligion before God, and the
fathers take care of widows andorphans.
So in one sense, ruth is thispicture of an orphan and a widow
.
Naomi is a widow and as thestory starts, you've got a scene
(13:15):
that's laid out where the stageis set this way.
There's this man.
He lives in Bethlehem.
Bethlehem means house of bread.
Literally, the word Bethlehemmeans house of bread.
Bethlehem has so muchscriptural history and
(13:35):
connotation.
David was from Bethlehem.
Jesus would be born inBethlehem.
So this man so as this story isemerging as sort of this, this
guy's going to come out of thisstory as a type of Christ.
There's a lot of nuance andoverlap that points to Jesus and
a lot of undertone and meaningto the story.
It's not just a love story, inother words.
(13:56):
So Bethlehem means house ofbread, but the story starts out
and says and there was a famine,so there's no bread in the
house of bread.
And you start to feel this isone of those times where they're
under God's hand of judgment.
So it's not a random faminePeople in Bethlehem or in Israel
(14:17):
.
This is the land that flowedwith milk and honey a thousand
years earlier.
So they're not just randomlygoing through famines In Israel.
When there was a famine, it wasthe hand of God's judgment.
Well, it also tells us at thebeginning of the book of Ruth
that it was the time of thejudges.
Well, when you go and you readthrough the book of judges,
(14:38):
you'll see this continuingstatement Everyone did what was
right in his own eyes.
So it was a time where godwould bring judgment on the
people.
They would be in oppression fora period of time.
They would cry out inrepentance and desperation.
God would bring them adeliverer.
These deliverers were men likeehud Samson.
(15:05):
I love the guy Gideon, the storyof Gideon, which should be an
awesome be on the final graphsometime.
God would raise up a judge,deborah, this lady who God
raised up to deliver Israel.
So he would raise up a personwho would deliver them, and
these judges would have God'sblessing.
They would deliver the people,they would come back to a place
(15:28):
of national stability and theywould worship the Lord for about
a generation and then they'dfall away.
Judgment would come again.
So the story starts off.
We're in one of those seasonsof judgment.
There's no bread in the houseof bread, there's nothing to eat
in Bethlehem.
This man then leaves and takeshis family to Moab, which is
(15:50):
actually not.
If you look at a map, it's nota huge move.
So my mind, my imagination,runs crazy.
Is it just a localized famine?
Or is this guy like I got toget out of here but he only goes
to Moab, like I don't know whyhe lands in Moab, but when he
gets there, him and his wife,and they've got two sons, those
(16:12):
two boys marry Moabite women,which the way they go about it
is is in opposition to what Godhas commanded and designed.
So they marry pagan women in apagan land where they've
assimilated into pagan culture.
And I've, I've, I've got acouple of thoughts that I put
(16:33):
down on this.
Um in the, in the first fiveverses of Ruth, chapter one, it
says that they sojourned to Moab, which means sort of traveled
over there.
Let check it out.
It's like sojourning means itcould be we're passing through,
but you wouldn't pass throughMoab.
(16:54):
It's not on the way to anywhere, so they've gone over to Moab.
Something drew them over there.
Then it says they remained.
So they come in there, sort ofin this temporary check it out.
Then they remain there and thenit says they lived there for 10
years.
So they sojourned, they stayed,they put down roots and it's
sort of to me it's like thisreally strong picture of how sin
(17:17):
works Kind of kind of slip intothis stage of life or this area
, you see.
Yeah.
You kind of linger, you kind ofremain and you put down roots.
there's this, I think did I?
Um, I was talking to laylee Ithink most of our listeners know
that my daughter, laylee and jbare like really close friends.
(17:40):
Um, and I was talking to Lelythe other day about a situation
that she's dealing with with afriend and I said there's this
old churchy saying from when Iwas a young believer but it's so
good and it's like sin willtake you farther than you
intended to go, keep you longerthan you intended to stay and
(18:03):
cost you more than you intendedto go, keep you longer than you
intended to stay and cost youmore than you intended to pay.
So you've got this progressionof this guy.
Elimelech takes his wife Naomithey're two boys and he moves,
he goes over.
It's uncomfortable here it'suncomfortable, but the point
that to me stands out is you aresafer under God's hand of
(18:26):
judgment than you are trying toget out from under it and go
somewhere more comfortable.
Yeah.
So they go to Moab.
Um, the guy Elimelech.
His name means my God is King.
So here's a man who, who iscalled my god is king and he
lives in the house of bread andhe abandons his god in the house
(18:48):
of bread and he goes to thisdark place of my lab and he
remains there and then puts downroots.
So the first five verses, thestory.
The stage is set veryexplosively yes it's crazy, um,
and so I think there's someirony in the story and there's
(19:11):
human.
There's all the components ofgood literature, good
storytelling, good drama.
First, there is the irony ofthis guy Elimelech, his failure
of this guy Elimelech, hisfailure.
What we see is that, as hefails to be faithful to God and
he goes to Moab, as the storystarts to unfold, we're going to
(19:33):
see God be faithful over thisman's failure.
Right.
To the point he uses this man'sfailure to bring blessing not
just on his family but on thehouse of Israel.
And then there's tragedy in thestory in that this lady, naomi,
(19:53):
who is his wife, she is theperson who ultimately deals with
the repercussion of this man'sactions.
Yeah, because when he gets overthere, when he takes his family
and moves to Moab, he marrieshis boys off to these pagan
women and then both sons die andthe man dies.
So you've got Naomi all alonein a pagan foreign land.
(20:17):
Her husband has failed her.
This is like tragedy.
And she changes her name toMara, which means bitter.
She's like I came here Ithought things were bad.
They're actually pretty good,and now I'm just bitter.
And you see what we know to betrue in Israelite culture, names
and words were all veryimportant.
(20:38):
Yeah.
You know, we don't have as muchof that in our culture, but so
she even changes her name ofthat in our culture, but so she
even changes her name.
And so the the the thing thatends up happening throughout the
story.
There's two themes that thenstart to emerge.
One is the sovereignty of godright, which means god's working
(20:59):
, even in the worst ofcircumstances, to bring about
his end.
And then this word emerges thatyou see, often in scripture
it's the hebrew word has said,which means loving, kindness or
mercy.
So in the midst of the dark andbrokenness of moab, we see the
mercy and loving kindness of asovereign lord begin to emerge
(21:20):
right, it's, uh, it's reallypowerful.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
So I also think right before we filmed in the car I
briefly just read through ruthand it was kind of cool because
like the narrator of ruth, itdoesn't even really mention god
that often, you know, but likeexplicitly.
But it's just cool seeing likethe providence and the
sovereignty of god through kindof like you were saying, like
(21:45):
the actions of Boaz and likewe'll get into that more.
But it's just cool looking atlike God's will and God's
providence through the actionsof the people in this story,
even um the like maybe the badaction of taking his family to
Moab, you know, and so how likethe Lord worked through that and
(22:06):
the Lord's will is done youknow even through like the
choices and the actions of likehumans, kind of.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah, I think that is probably the big.
what you just said is, to me,the biggest point of really the
first chapter for sure, but italso sort of is a theme that
comes out through the story.
Definitely, I always thinkthere's a couple stories in my
life that I think of.
One is my sister rocky, who youknow yeah, um, that's zach
(22:38):
mabry's wife and so my parentsdivorced because of my father's
moral failure and infidelity.
It was a horrible situation andthe only people that really
know the situation and livedthrough it were like my mom, me,
(23:02):
my siblings, and even the waywe've all dealt with it has been
very different.
I've got one sister that stillkind of idolizes my dad, where I
have to fight to not hate him.
Just full transparency.
I don't hate him.
I love him.
He's dead and gone, been deadalmost 20 years.
I love him, but I fightresentment and bitterness.
(23:25):
Sure, I love him, but I fightresentment and bitterness.
The thing that keeps me fromgoing off the cliff ledge of
bitterness is realizing God usedmy dad's moral failure to shape
my life and put me on atrajectory Right to then move my
mom into a marriage her secondmarriage with the only granddad
(23:48):
my kids know who is one of myfavorite humans on the planet?
Sure, and his name is SteveParker.
My mom married Steve Parker.
At the time, steve Parker israising his biological daughter,
hannah, and his Bob, his firstmarriage niece and nephew,
(24:09):
raquel and Justin, who arebrother and sister.
And what had happened is Stevehad been married to a lady and
they had a child together andshe had a sister.
This gets real confusing, so ifyou're driving and listening,
you're not watching this.
Listen close, I'll try to makethis make sense.
(24:31):
So steve was married to a ladyI'm not going to use too many
names and confuse people and shehad a sister and her sister had
two children and her sister'shusband murdered her, killed her
and he went to prison for it.
So you got these two kids whowere like four and one at the
(24:52):
time.
The four-year-old is my nowsister, rocky Raquel.
So Rocky was four years old.
Her biological dad murdered herbiological mom, and so Rocky
and her brother, justin, go toto live with their aunt, the
(25:12):
mom's sister and her, their auntand her husband, steve steve,
and the aunt steve's wife.
Their marriage disintegratesbecause the mom's sister I
believe part of losing hersister caused her to go into
some really hard choicesinvolving addiction and
(25:33):
basically that marriagedisintegrated.
Steve then gets custody of andis raising his biological
daughter and his niece andnephew but, he's not blood kin
to him.
Yeah.
And he starts raising them.
My mom and him start talking,dating and get married and they
(25:54):
raise these kids, one of thembeing Rocky, who then, at high
school graduation, moves in withLittle and I because she loved
Snowbird and had been coming toSnowbird, and then eventually
marries Zach M zach mabry well,they're a vital, integral family
.
At snowbird, who god has usedin so many mighty ways, and
rocky my sister, is a picture ofthe lord's strength and grace
(26:19):
and and you go.
Okay, dude kills his wife.
Is that good?
No, no, yeah is god sovereign.
Yes, do we see his lovingkindness in the story?
Yes, in the most real way,kills his wife.
Is that good?
No, yeah, is God sovereign?
Yes, do we see his lovingkindness in the story?
Yes, in the most real way.
My dad, his infidelity, my momstriving and trying and working
to keep the marriage together,and she'll, she'll, she would
(26:39):
say it was through a fire, aftera fire, after a fire, and I
just kept saying until death, dous part the Lord will get us
through this and finally themarriage ended.
Was it a good thing?
No, do we see god's sovereigntyin it?
Yeah, and so, out of all thatcraziness, you've got rocky and
zach and they're amazing, yeah,crazy four kids yeah, yeah so,
(27:02):
if you know, we sometimes we getto live long enough to see the
sovereign hand of God.
Sometimes we don't, but God issovereign.
And so we see that start toemerge in the story, because at
the end of chapter one the stageis set because Naomi says I'm
going to go back to Bethlehem.
(27:22):
And then that's where we findout somewhere in the previous 10
years God's hand of judgmentlifted and they're flourishing
in Bethlehem.
And then that's where we findout, somewhere in the previous
10 years God's hand of judgmentlifted and they're flourishing
in Bethlehem.
But my man stayed in Moab, hegot comfortable living in.
Moab Cool biblical principle,yeah.
So she's like I'm gonna go back.
I got nothing.
I'm gonna go back, at leasthave some extended family there.
(27:45):
And Ruth, who's a Moabite pagan, wants to go back with her and
she's like you could get marriedhere and continue.
She said no, I'm going with you.
It's a beautiful picture ofloyalty and there's that
incredible passage.
I just it's when I do a wedding, if someone asks me to choose
the vows and the scripture,which about 90% of the time they
(28:08):
do.
In fact, I just did a weddingfor one of our guys on the team
here, mike Fitzpatrick, and theysaid what do you want to do?
First off, I'm unique as apastor in that I love doing
weddings.
Most pastors say I can't standdoing weddings.
Most pastors say I can't standdoing what, first off, there's
to me, one of the highest honorsI can be paid is for somebody
(28:31):
to say will you stand before godand us and do this?
But I always use the words thatruth says to naomi as a as
wedding vows.
it's not between a man and hiswife in scripture but, it's a
beautiful passage in scripturewhere Naomi says don't come back
to Bethlehem with me.
You're a Moabite, stay here.
These are your people.
(28:51):
I'm going to go back toBethlehem and be.
She basically says I'm going tobe a miserable old woman and
just die.
I'm a widow, I got no husband.
I got no sons.
Imagine the tragedy You've lostyour sons, lost your husband.
And Ruth says do not beg me toleave you and don't urge me to
turn back from following you,because where you go, I will go.
(29:13):
Where you lodge, I will lodge.
Your people will be my people.
And this is the key phrase yourGod will be my God.
She's saying I now worshipYahweh.
I am no longer worshiping thegods of Moab.
I'm going to go work.
I want to know this God.
She's heard of Yahweh.
I want to know your God will bemy God and where you die, I
(29:35):
will die and there will I beburied.
And this is beautiful statementof loyalty.
So she goes with her back toBethlehem.
So they get back to Bethlehemand it's the time of the year
where the harvest is full andthey're starting to take the
harvest out of the field and aspart of God's like network for
(29:57):
how the poor would be providedfor when wheat and barley was
being harvested.
And and it was so cool theythey had a system where most of
the year they were harvestingcrops it was like overlapping
crops and so there would alwaysbe food for the poor.
And so if you've got a field ofbarley and you harvest it, or
(30:17):
wheat you harvest it, you wouldleave the a large section of
that field for the poor to comeand gather right.
And so Naomi and Ruth get toBethlehem and I don't know
they're staying in an oldcontainer, a tiny house, a
trailer a van down by the river,whatever just getting by and
Ruth says I'll go, it's calledgleaning, I'll go glean some
(30:38):
food.
So basically it's like I'll gostand in line at the soup
kitchen and bring us some food.
You just stay here and youstart to see.
This loyalty is not just in theeloquent statement she made,
but she's acting yeah.
And, and I'm guessing, if shehad married the dude when, let's
say, she was 15 when shemarried the guy?
She's probably 25, I'm guessing, and so maybe your age, maybe
(31:02):
early twenties, mid twenties.
So she goes um and she startsworking and uh, she's out there
working in the fields justtrying to gather food to bring
back to naomi and the guy thatowns this property.
His name is boaz, he's arelative of naomi through her
dead husband and so that's whythey go to his field.
(31:25):
It'll be friendly, it'll be.
We're two women we have noprotection we can.
I know this guy's reputation isnothing will happen to us if we
go glean in his field, right.
So he's there.
My man, boas, shows up to checkon the workers and he's like
who's that you?
see this like moment where he'slike, uh, I don't know if
(31:47):
because he's substantially olderthan her.
I think, like when you drillinto it some of the language and
then, just looking at, he's agood bit older than her.
He's probably old enough to beher dad, probably 20 years older
than her, something like that.
Most commentators think so ifshe's 25, he's 45, whatever,
which was not uncommon in thatit's not uncommon in our culture
.
Which was not uncommon in thatit's not uncommon in our culture
(32:08):
, definitely wasn't uncommon inthat culture.
And so is he like a widower.
It's very odd that a man hisage wouldn't be married.
So I don't know what's going onthere, but he sees, and maybe
he's, maybe we don't know forsure maybe he's 30, yeah, but
he's like noticing her and Idon't know if it's just that
(32:30):
he's going.
Okay, I know most of thesepeople.
I don't know.
I don't know this gal yeah oris he like?
hmm, yeah, there's somethingforeshadowed right there, you
know.
And so he.
He starts to really try tominister to her.
We start to see his characteremerge.
I jotted down some thoughts onhis character, the first thing
(32:51):
that we know about Boaz.
I've got six facts.
Quick facts.
Number one he has a job.
Good start For moms and singleladies.
Listening don't push yourdaughter into a relationship
with a kid that doesn't have ajob.
But he's cute, he's a good,he's a good quarterback.
(33:15):
Nobody cares, right like doeshe have a job?
Is he a hard worker?
Yeah, it's a big deal.
Um, he loves jesus.
We see that in his greeting.
When he comes up, he greets allof his workers and he gives
them a blessing from the Lord.
Uh, we know that he grew up inthe home of uh Salman and and
(33:35):
Rahab, which is crazy.
Yeah, Rahab was a prostitute ina pagan city.
Yeah, Imagine imagine Rahab andBoa, Rahab and uh Salman just
sitting around chatting.
Boa's just playing with hislittle toy camels.
(33:56):
You know his little farm toysor whatever you know yeah and
there's this my mom.
He just knows her as his mom.
Yeah, she's a prostitute.
Yeah, and God brought her out,which is one of my favorite
episodes we ever did.
As of Beyond the FlannelGrounds, it's one of my favorite
stories.
He grows up with that lady as amom.
(34:19):
I just wonder what that familydynamic was like.
There had to be a sensitivityto people.
Did she raise him saying, hey,son, you be good to people.
It was two men.
So I also have a non-biblicalopinion that when the two guys
(34:46):
go into Jericho a generationearlier to rescue Rahab I think
one of them was Salmon- thosetwo guys are unnamed.
And this dude, he's the man.
He comes from a line of dudesthat are dudes.
Yeah.
And I'm like, did he go in andwas he the guy that pulled her?
(35:06):
Out yeah.
And something happened and youknow, kind of cool to think
about.
Yeah, for sure, but just thestories they could have told.
Because his dad was part of theinvasion of Jericho yeah, the
invasion of Ai, where a bunch ofmen died because of God's
judgment, god's judgment andthen the eradication of pagans
(35:29):
in like five years of war.
His dad was a veteran of that.
Yeah, raised him married to aprostitute who had lived in the
city of Jericho.
It's just crazy.
That's the house he grew up inyeah he wasn't a Sunday school
PK.
Yeah, you know yeah so he grewup in that, so we know that
about him.
He's a man of faith.
Even in a time of famine he had, he'd continue to work.
Yeah, so he didn't go anywhere.
He just kept trusting the lordand working um in a dark time of
(35:51):
the judges, where everyone didwhat was right in their own
sight he emerges as someone thatwas faithful to the lord.
He's a leader and he goesagainst cultural norms.
So pretty good resume for a dude, yeah for sure um, so I think,
uh, the the the sentence that Ijotted to kind of sum all it up,
is boaz has the capacity tolove ruth the way jesus loves us
(36:16):
yes, yeah and you know to whommuch is, is given.
Much is required, but also tothe one that is forgiven much,
that one that person loves muchyeah those are teachings of
jesus.
And so, um, the relationshipstarts to sort of I don't want
to say take off, but it startsto materialize.
So ruth is coming each day andshe's taking food from the field
(36:38):
.
He starts to cultivate arelationship with her and that
he gets to know her.
She's bringing food home toNaomi.
He starts to really invest inher.
He's given her abundantly morethan she could.
Reminds me of that uh verse inEphesians.
(36:59):
Um, in Ephesians three, it'slike a it's, it's like a
benediction A lot of times atchurch.
Now, to the only one who can doabundantly more than we could
ever ask or imagine, he startsto just provide for her.
And so then there's this pointwhere Naomi says hey, listen,
there's going to be a big party.
(37:19):
It's a harvest party whichapparently, culturally, this was
a big deal.
Harvest party was a big thing,where they would, at the end of
the main harvest, they wouldcome together and celebrate
God's goodness, and it would bea big party.
And she says Boaz is throwing aparty.
You need to go to that party.
He has only ever seen you inCarhartts and a messy bun.
(37:43):
Yeah, yeah, you know, like amessy bun.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know like you're like pitycity.
Yeah.
Here's what I want you to do.
You need to look good.
There's this really funnyconversation where Naomi's
basically saying you need to puton something that looks nice.
You need to fix up like do dowhat women do and you need to.
You need to fix up puts like dodo what women do and you need
(38:06):
to.
You need to look good.
And she does it.
And and there's this reallyscandalous moment where he he it
says he's satisfied from foodand wine and he lays down and
she goes and uncovers his feetwhich is apparently a cultural
(38:27):
thing where she's saying to himI'm at your service.
And we see again the incredibleintegrity of this man, because
what he does is he doesn't takeadvantage of her.
At that point he could havedone whatever he wanted.
Doesn't take advantage of her,he protects her.
He keeps her there till themorning because he says you
can't travel home at night.
(38:48):
She basically, by the way, saysum, will you marry me?
it's like very forward you knowyeah and uh, she's like how, uh,
I'm a single gal, you're single.
I feel like there's somethinghere.
She's really aggressive, but asan act of faith, it's cool how
(39:11):
he responds because he says,okay, we're going to do this.
I just would have neverimagined you'd want to be with a
guy like me.
I'm older, I just didn't.
You see his humility.
It's not like a false humility,he's like yeah, you serious yeah
I mean, I've been trying tolook after you guys because I'm
related to naomi and you guysare a bad situation.
(39:34):
It's the right thing to do.
You get this sense that he'sjust.
But are you serious?
Yeah, she's like yeah.
And so he says, okay, we'regoing to do this, we're going to
do it the right way.
So he keeps her there for thenight.
(39:56):
Nothing happens.
Very honorable guy, he doesn'tsend her away in the dark where
she would be potentially exposed.
You know, like, where Kilby andGreg live.
You don't go out in the darkwhere she would be potentially
exposed.
You know, like where kilby andgreg live, you don't go out in
the dark right, you don't, youdo not even grown men like we
won't, we won't travel at nightin east africa, and so he keeps
(40:16):
her there.
But he sends her home at firstlight, before people are
stirring, so they don't see herleaving his bedroom or what you
know, the threshing floor wherethey're at, because a lot of
people are sleeping in the area.
It's like a big camp out almost.
And so she goes home.
But he sends her with enoughfood that represents wealth.
(40:37):
He basically sends her with anincredible gift to give to her
mother, who, naomi, is like hermother, and he says we're going
to do it the right wayincredible gift to give to her
mother, who, naomi, is like hermother, right and and he says
that we're going to do it theright way.
And what he means by that isthere's someone else who has
rights, to you and Naomi beforeBoaz, yeah, yeah.
So Boaz is a distant cousin?
(40:58):
Yeah, elimelech has a nephew,his brother's son, whoever, we
don't know.
Right.
But what's funny is thescripture.
When boaz refers to this guy,he doesn't call him by name and
he uses a hebrew word.
That's like saying what's hisname.
It's pretty derogatory, that'sfunny.
(41:19):
And it basically tells us thisguy is probably not a man of
high character and we see thatpretty quick.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Like rejects Ruth because of she's Moab.
She came from Moab, right.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
So yes, and maybe more importantly, because if he
takes her, so if he brings Ruthin, he gonna he's gonna be
responsible for her.
However, yeah, he's gonna needto provide a child through her,
(41:51):
but then he's not going to get alimolex inheritance that child
will get it.
I see that's the way theredeemer thing works yeah, so
again I'm I'm reading a littleinto it, but I think Ruth was
attractive.
I think she's a very attractivewoman, and even if she's not
that's not necessarily here orthere I think he is willing to
(42:13):
do it because he gets Ruth.
Oh yeah.
Get a woman to sleep with her,add her to my harem, whatever.
It's very selfishly motivated,right?
So the way that Boaz goes abouthandling this he sends Ruth
home with lots of money, withlots of, you know, resources.
The next day he goes into thecity square where he knows he'll
(42:36):
meet with this guy.
He's at the part of the city.
He goes from his, from his farmand his land, he goes into the
town where everybody would dotrade and commerce and he makes
this a public interaction.
So the leaders of that town andcity are there and he says hey,
hey, squatchy, hey, what's yourface?
(43:01):
I mean literally that's what hesays.
He's not like calling him byname.
He's like hey, my man, my guy,come here and he says Naomi's
here and would you redeem?
Because a lot of times a guywould redeem an older woman like
that because he wouldn't haveto have sexual union with her.
And so we don't know, it's aguy like hey'll bring it naomi
(43:25):
into my house, look after her.
Maybe the guy's a decent dude,I don't know.
And and then whatever, and he'slike she got a daughter-in-law.
You know you're gonna have totake her.
And he starts to lay this thingout for him and the guy's like
oh no, because that will alsocompromise my children's
inheritance If I bring them innow.
(43:47):
You've got this.
Imagine, kind of like in ourworld, if a divorced man and a
divorced woman get married or ablended family, and then the man
dies.
How does the inheritance getdivided up?
Maybe the wife gets it over thebiological children.
It just creates complications.
This guy's like I don't want todo that.
And Boaz says okay, I'm goingto make a deal with you right
(44:07):
now.
And he makes a deal with theguy in the city square that's a
binding deal, that he's going tomarry her.
And then he goes and he marriesher.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
And they have a son who has a son, who has a son
named David.
Yeah, crazy.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
It's a crazy story.
Yeah, it really is.
Yeah, so, even going back to,like, the story that you told
about rocky and steve and yourmom, it's like even like I'm
sure pap steve didn't think thiswas gonna happen or even your
mom probably didn't think thiswas gonna happen, like when all
that horrible stuff washappening.
And now, crazy, like you'resaying, there are times where
(44:48):
we're able to see the mercies ofGod and the sovereignty of God.
And same thing with the storyof Ruth and Naomi.
Like I'm sure when Naomi'shusband and all her family died
and she was left alone, I'm sureshe wasn't like, ah, this is
going to happen, I can't waitfor it.
Like just so cool.
I just think that's such a coolpicture of, like I was saying
(45:11):
earlier, the providence of Godand I don't know just how
faithful.
Like I think it's just soimportant that Naomi and Ruth
and Boaz, like they all, werejust continuing to be faithful.
They didn't know that this wasgoing to happen.
You know it's not like okay, youwork to this point and then
you'll be granted what Ipromised you.
(45:32):
They didn't know.
You know, no one had any idea.
I think sometimes a lot of.
I've been thinking a lot aboutthe women's conference and just
like, especially, I guess, likewomen just being faithful in the
home and stuff.
And I keep thinking of thetwins, lauren Annabelle, their
interns here.
Their grandma is just sofaithful and, um, like she comes
(45:53):
to camp as a chaperone and it'sjust so faithful to her kids
and her grandkids and I fullybelieve that Lauren Annabelle
are here working because of howfaithful miss therese that's her
name, miss therese has been andI just think that's like a cool
picture.
That's kind of what I wasthinking about when you were
talking.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yeah, this is a good example yeah the it's.
It's interesting too.
My mom had three biologicalchildren, but she raised eight
kids.
Really, she raised 10 becausewhen I was small they fostered,
(46:38):
Like when I was six.
From the time I was like fourto seven, maybe six or seven,
there was a girl that lived withus.
It was a teenager.
Um, we called her Niecy, Hername was Denise and she was like
she was family.
But then there was a guy thatcame when I was around six or
(46:58):
seven and stayed till I was like11 or 12, through his teenage
years.
Um, my mom was always justgiving and pouring out, but she
raised eight kids that she'stheir mom, you know but only
three were biological.
Yeah.
(47:18):
She has like 20 grandkids, butlet's see, biological grandkids
are maybe six or seven, I thinkseven yeah um, and I would say
she's.
She's maybe closer with acouple of the non-biological
(47:40):
grandkids, like.
In other words, she doesn'tdifferentiate sure so Naomi has
no biological connection to Ruth, no biological connection to
Obed the, the son that's born,but she's his grandma yeah and
she's, that's her only grandkid.
Yeah, at this point, and you seethat God's definition of family
(48:01):
is way bigger than what we puton paper.
Sure, you know, um, and you, wehave that all around us.
Sure, my family's like that,you know, like um, and it's this
really cool picture of Godgrafting and adopting and
putting together families out ofbrokenness.
(48:22):
Yeah, you know.
Yeah.
It's really the for me, theimage of naomi bouncing that kid
on her knee being a grandmaafter she had changed her name
to bitter old woman.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
You see, joy even that of like she was like I'll
just go back and I'll be an oldwoman and die.
Obviously she was not seeing,like, how much more the Lord had
.
And so for her and her family,even that of like that great
grandkid brought her so much joy, and you know that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
It really is, yeah, and so Ruth is one of the crazy
grandmas of Jesus.
I love it.
It's no sanity required stuff,right there, yeah, it's like
crazy in the world's wisdom.
Yes, for sure.
Love that story.
Sure, yeah, um well, I'mexcited about the new setup.
I'm excited about developingthe set.
(49:16):
I'm excited about our team.
We have an, a team right now.
Man, yeah, it's exciting.
Send us ideas on the, on the uh, on our set yeah, we need to
fill in the shelves.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
Obviously they're a little bit bare, bare shelves we
do have one idea.
Speaker 1 (49:35):
We were talking with the, with the guys behind the
cameras, um, before we startedthis episode, not a deer head,
but a european mount, a skullmount would look pretty cool up
there.
I think it'd be cool,especially one that has a cool
story behind yeah, yeah,definitely um katie, cousins
(49:55):
jersey of course that that wasthe cause of all the controversy
that she didn't want to wearthe jersey that had the rainbow
pride stuff on it yeah that'dlook good somewhere up here,
cousins I.
So after that went down, I thinkwe talked about this when we
were talking to katie, but whenthat all went down, I said hey,
(50:15):
I want one.
I'm only ever going to ask forone thing from you in your life
and it's, I want that jersey,yeah yeah, so that'll look cool
in here.
It'd be awesome.
Yeah, I'd really like to gettucker on here yeah, it'd be
cool just talk about.
You know that elite world of ofathletics and just the pressures
and how do you stay faithfuland how hard is it to stay
(50:36):
faithful and assuming that youdon't always stay for you know
just what I think that'd bereally inspiring for, especially
for young athletes.
So cool stuff coming up.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
Yep Exciting, exciting stuff.
Speaker 1 (50:49):
Well, thanks, it was fun.
Yeah, I like having you on herebecause, uh, it's easier to
talk to a human than a camera.
Uh and um, I appreciate yourinput and questions.
Keeps things flowing.
For sure.
All right.
Well, thank y'all, and we'llsee you next time.
Speaker 5 (51:08):
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