Ruth 3

Ruth chapter three. It begins and says this,

Ooh. Okay. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for giving us Your Word. We thank you Lord, also for your Holy Spirit who moves in the hearts of believers to speak to us and to bring wisdom and direction and insight and most of all, Lord God, application. So use this chapter to really speak to hearts this morning and minister your grace to all of us. We ask in Jesus’ name, amen. Amen. Well, this is where things heat up in the romantic department. I thought about maybe telling the teens I was going to dismiss them here, but I thought, no, we're going to keep it “G” here, even though things get a little bit interesting. First of all, just a quick summary for anyone here who might have missed our previous study. This whole thing began with a family that was suffering because of a famine in the land. And the man, Elimelech, along with his wife, Naomi, and their two sons decided to leave Israel and go to nearby Moab in order to find food there. It was not a good decision ultimately because while they were there, Elimelech passed away and even though the two boys married Moabite women the boys also passed away, leaving their mother destitute and a widow along with her two daughters-in-law, which were now widows as well. Finally, they decided to make their way back to Israel because they had heard that the famine had lifted. And so Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, girls, just go back to your family, find a husband. You're still well within your marrying years, so go and get married and be happy. And one of the daughters took her up on it, a daughter by the name Orpah and not to be confused with Oprah, right? But Ruth clung to her mother-in-law and said I'm going to go with you. And your land is going to be my land and your people are going to be my people, and your God is going to be my God. And so Naomi relented and allowed Ruth to return with her to the land of Israel. And when they got back there, they began to glean in the fields. You'll remember that gleaning is all about picking up the scraps, and it was something that God had made a provision in His Word for the poor and the sojourner and so forth in order to live. When harvest time came, they were allowed to follow the reapers and to pick up what had been left behind. And Ruth was doing that, but she found herself in the field of a man named Boaz, a man of some wealth and so forth who ultimately was a relative. And because he is a relative, he is capable of redeeming the family of Elimelech by marrying the widow of Elimech’s son.

And so this is where we get into it. So we've given you just a little bit of a summary of the first couple of chapters. Last week you'll remember that we had some advice for the young men related to how to be attractive to a woman. And we saw in the person of Boaz a real heart to provide and protect, and we talked about how that's so important for a man to learn. We're going to actually see him doing that again in this chapter. But as we get in today's study, we're going to kind of switch gears a little bit and we're going to give some practical advice to the ladies. You ready? Buckle up because this is interesting stuff here. Naomi has some really interesting insights and advice to Ruth as it relates to how to attract a man. And interestingly enough, this practical advice comes from a formerly married woman. And that alone is a real good thing. When you young women, I'm going to be talking a lot here today to you younger women, and particularly obviously those of you who are yet to marry if that's something that you feel the Lord leading you, don't sit and talk to your friends about how to attract a man. I mean, I'm talking about your friends that are unmarried. Go to a married woman. She understands men, and believe me, that's not an easy thing. And the longer she's been married, probably the better, because she's learned a lot of things along the way and all the older married women said, yeah, that's right. Okay. You guys were a little slow on that, but we'll give you that. It is the nine o'clock service after all. But I have to tell you, I'm really impressed with Naomi. As I read through this chapter, she is a smart lady, and she's got a lot of things on the ball. And so we're going to be looking at this. And by the way, this whole idea of the older women instructing the younger women is thoroughly biblical. You remember when Paul wrote to Titus, he talked about this very thing. Let me put it up on the screen. It says,

Older women likewise are to…teach what is good, and so train the young women… Right? So all of you older women who've been around for a while and you've been down the road and you've learned a thing or two, it's a good thing for you to pass that along to the younger women and you younger women, be open to the things that the older women say. Have a heart of humility and a teachable spirit, and let the older women speak wisdom into this and into your life. And I got to tell you what Naomi teaches Ruth here in this chapter, there's a lot of good stuff. And I really love the way she opens up this thing, her opening statement in this chapter is she says, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it might be well for you? Can I interpret that for you? She's telling Ruth, I will now be playing the matchmaker. That's what she's basically saying, and she's good at it. She really is. She's got this whole thing of catching a man down, and she knows what she's talking about. But you'll notice how she says it to Ruth in verse one. She talks about finding a husband for Ruth as “seeking rest.” Did you catch that? Isn't that interesting? If you have a new King James Bible this morning, your Bible says should I not find security for you? And both terms are figurative, but they are meant to simply refer to being married. The security and the rest that comes with being married for a woman. You might remember that Naomi actually used this same term when she was talking to her daughters-in-law while they were leaving Moab, and she was saying, go to back to your family and find rest. She used the same figurative language to go and find a husband. And of course the whole idea behind this figurative language is that rest or security refers to the provision and protection of a husband. And of course it assumes that he's going to provide those things, but it's the very things that we saw in Boaz last week, right? That we were, we pointed out. And these are the things that a husband ought to bring into a marriage. And of course it assumes he's going to do that. That he's going to be faithful, that he's going to provide for the family, that he's going to protect the family and his wife. He's supposed to do those things. He better do those things. The Apostle Paul had some pretty harsh words for guys who didn't do those things. Let me show you this on the screen from 1 Timothy. Paul writes,

…if anyone does not provide for his relatives, especially for members of his household, (it says) he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Wow. First of all, he's denied the faith because as a believer, this is part of what it means to love, but it even goes on to say he's literally rejected what it means to be a man because these things are hardwired into a man, providing and protecting. I think I told you guys many times over the years, I would appeal to my boys when they were young to get them to do things based on, I would call it, protecting their mom or their sisters. And when I did that with, well, especially when they got older, they got wise to me, and they're like, yeah, get outta here. But when they were little boys, I remember one time Sue was going to the store and Aaron didn't. He was probably four, five or so and he didn't want to go with her. He wanted to stay home. And I said, dude, who's going to protect your mom from the bad guys? And he all of a sudden was like, yeah, I got to go with mom. And he ran into his room and he got some tinker toys that he made into a weapon, because that's what boys do, right? And he was like, all right mom, let's go. I got your back. We’re on this thing. It was funny, but what was cool is that it just came out because, and I didn't teach him that, by the way, I didn't say, son, now here's the deal. Here's how you make a weapon out of tinker toys and protect your mother. He was just, as soon as I appealed to that in him, he just, his back got straight and, yes, protect. So Paul says, to deny this is to literally deny who you are as a man and so forth. Naomi goes on here to give Ruth some very practical advice on how to get that kind of security and so forth. And this is where I think the younger women, you need to pay a attention. Now, before we, and we've already read through the passage, so you know what she said, but some of you, might be thinking, well now wait a minute, Pastor Paul, all this advice about catching a man, doesn't this kind of run counter to what you keep telling us Sunday after Sunday about trusting the Lord? I mean, aren't we supposed to just trust the Lord? Well, you know it's interesting. I got to thinking about this as I was studying out this passage, and I thought, the Bible, everybody knows that the Bible tells us to trust the Lord, as soon as you come to Christ you run into that, you know that you know, okay, I’m supposed to trust God. Doing it of course is a whole different issue, but at least you know I'm supposed to trust the Lord. Here's the interesting thing, I find that a lot of Christians aren't really sure what trusting in the Lord looks like. It's like, well, if I do anything to try to make this happen, isn't that a breach of trusting the Lord? In fact they could even argue from this chapter and say, all this advice that Naomi gave to Ruth, isn't that a breach of trusting the Lord? Shouldn't she just have stayed home and prayed about it? So exactly what does trusting the Lord look like? This is the challenge for a lot of believers. What does it look like to trust God? If there's one thing I've learned about trusting the Lord though is that it's not necessarily about what you do or what you don't do, and that's where people struggle. They think it's all about doing or not doing, but I believe that trusting the Lord rather is the confidence that I have as I pray and commit my ways to the Lord, knowing that God's going to lead me in the way that is right, regardless of what I do sometimes. Because you know what? I'm never going to do everything right and neither are you. And you have to come to a point where you embrace, I guess, the confidence that God is going to lead me, despite my failings or despite my ability, to always figure out the right path, because you know what guys? I've been a pastor for 40 years. I don't always figure out the right path. Sometimes I go down the wrong path, and I have no problem admitting that to you because I know you do too. It's universal. We mess up guys, but you know what? I don't sit and stay awake at night staring at the ceiling, worrying about it because I have a confidence that God is going to lead my life regardless of my mistakes. You guys awake? Are you seriously? Are you sure you're awake? Okay, good. This is where believers really need to walk by faith and sometimes, sometimes, trusting the Lord even involves action on my part. I think some people think trusting the Lord means sitting back on the couch, and just waiting for the doors to swing open on their own. I think it involves sometimes wiggling some knobs to see if the door will open. And I don't think it's necessarily wise to try to break down a door that appears very much locked. I don't think that's smart, but I don't think there's anything wrong with wiggling a knob or two to see if the door is open. You know what I mean? And that's kind of what Naomi is recommending along the lines of this advice, for Ruth. And by the way, there's one other point that I want to emphasize here in the following verses or in the verses that we frankly already read. Ruth is going to receive advice from her mother-in-law about how to catch a man. But I want you to notice what kind of a man Naomi is encouraging her to catch. Okay? This isn't just the first guy that comes along, or this isn't just because hey, he's a wealthy guy. It's not about that. It's about the fact that Boaz is a godly man, and ladies, a godly man is a catch, okay? It doesn't really matter what he looks like. We talked about that last week. I know there's lots of laughter when we talk about that, but a godly man is worth catching. And by the way, a godly man is not sitting around on the sofa playing video games all day long. All right? So, make sure the man that you have your eyes on is worth your time, okay? Stepping now off my soapbox. Here's where it begins, verse two, look with me in your Bible. Naomi says, Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young men you were? Meaning, with whose young women, rather, you were working in the fields. And she says, See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Now, here's the deal, here's the deal. Naomi knew that there was going to be a winnowing party that night. She knew it. And she also knew that that kind of an event would provide Ruth with an opportunity. And ladies, I want to encourage you, this is a good piece of advice that she begins giving Ruth and it's a good piece of advice for any young woman. Look for an opportunity that works for him. Because you see, winnowing was all part of the whole threshing process of getting the grain ready to be used and so forth. And it was a happy event. This is where a man's hard work paid off. This is tantamount to payday. Even though it does involve work, this winnowing party would, you're doing the threshing, you're doing the winnowing, which is throwing the grain up in the air to separate the kernel from the chaff and so forth, and there's work that's involved, but it's mingled with celebration. And Naomi knows that it's a time of celebration, and that's a good time to approach a man, right? Because things are good. If a guy just wrecked his car and lost his job, that's probably not a good time to go and express your interest. Alright? So that's the first thing. Look for an opportunity that works for him. And then here comes the next piece of advice. Look with me in verse three. She says, Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak All right, so basically Naomi is telling Ruth to take a bath, or whatever the reasonable facsimile was to that, because not everybody had a bath or the ability to take a bath and they honestly didn't take baths very often because they just didn't have the means. If they were really wealthy, you could probably do that on a regular basis. Here we are living in a culture where we can take a bath or a shower every single day if we want to, multiple times a day if you're weird. But you know, these people, they just didn't have that ability to do that thing. So, here's Naomi, and she knows that Boaz has really only interacted with Ruth when she was out gleaning in the fields. That means she was working. So, she's wearing her work clothes, they're out in the hot sun, and you ladies know what you look like when you have your work clothes on out in the hot sun. It's not really man catching time. You're out there to do work and you're not as concerned about what you look like. And as I said, in some cultures bathing was fairly infrequent, so Naomi is simply telling her to look and smell her best. Nothing wrong with that. And while you may be thinking, well, that's kind of carnal, well, yeah, but remember something, Naomi was a married woman, and that means she understood that men are attracted visually. And every godly woman wants a man to recognize that she is a godly woman. Well, before he even gets around to figuring that out, he's going to look at you and he's going to size you up from a visual standpoint first. And that's just the way it is. Sorry, that's the way God made men. Men are visually attracted and honestly, there's nothing wrong with a woman looking nice. And I know some of you might even thinking, oh, wait a minute here, Pastor Paul, isn't there a passage in 1 Peter that says something about a woman shouldn't be fixated on the beauty of outward adornment and all these other things, and yes, there is, but let me just say this, Peter wasn't forbidding women from looking nice. He was simply telling them not to make external beauty, their only beauty. There's nothing wrong with a woman being attractive. Peter was saying, don't let that be the end of your attractiveness. If it's external, that's a very shallow thing. And believe it or not, ladies, men can recognize that, if he's smart anyway, and you might catch his gaze at first, but once a woman exposes her heart and shows that it is ungodly and crude, if he's a godly man, he's going to turn away. He's going to say, whoa, she's really pretty but it's only on the outside. It's all the beauty in her life is stuff you can see in the mirror. But when I talked with her, her language was full of obscenity and she's got ideas that are just ungodly, and he's going to say, she's not a woman to be pursued because her beauty's only skin deep. But a woman who dresses nicely is not a bad thing. In fact, you might remember that we love to exalt the Proverbs 31 woman, don't we? You've gone through Proverbs second half of Proverbs 31, the wife of noble character. Did you ever notice it says that she dresses herself in fine linen and purple? So, she dressed up. And there's nothing wrong with that. And she did it for her husband. And by the way, that statement about she's dressed in fine linen and purple is connected to how she attracts her husband.

And then comes the next piece of advice in the middle of verse three, where Naomi says, go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he's finished eating and drinking. This is so practical. I mean, I'm just, I can't begin to tell you how practical this is. She's saying don't go spring anything on him until he’s had his dinner, let the guy eat. You've heard that a way to a man's heart is through his stomach. That's what she's saying. Don't jump on the thing and go, hey listen, you're the redeemer and I'm interested and, until he’s had dinner. Let him have his dinner and then deal with it. Dinner first, okay, ladies, you got me? Dinner first. Trust me, it's going to go better for you if we have dinner and all the men said that's right. If they have the guts to, anyway. I don't think my wife heard me say that. Amen. Now the next thing that Naomi gives in the way of advice, I have to tell you, there's a practicality that is still available today for women to glean, but there's also part of what she's going to say here that is very very connected to the culture, and it probably wouldn't work today. So Naomi says in verse four, But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. And by the way, landowners back in those days would sleep with the grain after the harvest, or excuse me, after the threshing process, in order to discourage petty thieves from coming in and stealing some of it. So they would literally sleep there as a deterrent to that sort of a thing. And then Naomi says, Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do. And this is where Naomi's advice takes on a very cultural tone. And I want you to know that she wasn't telling Ruth to do anything that was inappropriate or shameful in any way. It was an expression to lay down at the feet of a man. And then to say what she's going to say is a very culturally understood thing to do to express her interest and her willingness to take this, or to invite Boaz, to take this relationship to the next level. And Boaz certainly understood and would've understood what this was all about. She's uncovering his feet to invite him to respond in kind to what she's doing. And what she's doing has a symbolic meaning, and she's asking him to receive and accept her invitation. You see? And she's putting herself on the line. Let me just say this, this is a risky thing because he could have said, go home. Go. He could have said that. So there is an element of risk that is connected to her actions here as it relates to this. But the symbolism of this act would've been well known. And it's something that frankly, the scriptures speak of. But instead of a man and a woman, the characters where the scripture speaks of this idea of casting your garment over me involves the Lord and Israel, and it's found in the Book of Ezekiel. Let me show you this on the screen from Ezekiel 16. This is the Lord speaking here, okay? And he's talking about Israel. He says,

“When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I (look at this) I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, (and that's a covenant of marriage that it's a picture of, and it says) declares the Lord God and you became mine.” So you see, this is the picture, this is the symbolism and the figurative actions that we're talking about here where someone is responding. She uncovers his feet so as to say, cover me now. Cover me with your redemptive actions and take me into your home. I'm opening myself, I'm laying myself out there so as to say, I'm inviting you to respond to this situation and so forth. Ladies, you need to know it's okay to let a guy know you're interested. I don't know if you guys have noticed, I'm talking again to you ladies, but men are kind of dense. I say that as one of them. And somebody said, amen. Thank you. That wasn't even my wife. I appreciate that. Most guys need to know that you're interested. Most guys need to know because, we just don't get it sometimes. But once you let him know, that's the point where you have to just sit back and let it play out. If he doesn't, if he doesn't respond, then you got to just move on because then you're going to appear desperate and that's going to turn him completely off. But if he if a man is interested, he will pursue. And I know that women want to be pursued, but you know, first of all, there needs to be the revelation of interest, you know, that she's interested, and she can do it all kinds of, different ways, but just letting a guy know.

And that's also what Naomi is encouraging Ruth to do. She's saying, Ruth, let him know. Let him know that this is a possibility. Let him know that you're open to this, you're open to him acting in this role as redeemer, but more than that you're interested in him. Let him know. Make sure he's not the last one in town to find out and that this isn't the best kept secret. Let him know. And again, if he's interested, he'll pursue and it's funny I found out the hard way that when you do pursue, when you do finally get around to pursuing a woman, it doesn't mean she's automatically going to respond. Most of you know that Sue and I went to high school together, and I took notice of her and I knew her. I think now she was probably about a sophomore in high school. And I took notice of her, and I walked up to her one day. I remember, and I told her that I wanted her to be my girlfriend. And she looked at me and she said, sorry, I already have a boyfriend. It was kind of like, take a hike, Mike. And I said, well, I never. No, I didn't actually. I didn't say that at all. I actually walked away a heartbroken puppy. But she came to her senses eventually, but, yeah, I've told the story about she did have a boyfriend. He was six foot nine. Yeah, I called him sir. Anyway, so I want you to see this. So, Ruth says in verse five, she replied, “All that you say I will do.” And again, I want to remind you, this is a risky venture. Nothing is guaranteed here. Okay? But yet Ruth is responding by faith. I'll do this, I'll step out, I'll make my intentions known. And it says in verse six, So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her. She held back. She didn't allow herself to be seen. She waited till Boaz had his dinner. There you go. There it is again. And his, it says his heart was merry, and that's what Naomi expected. This is a time of celebration. He's a happy man because he's bringing in the sheaves as the song says, right? And so he went down to lie down. And it tells us here that, in the end of verse seven, that she came softly, and that means other people didn't notice. And she uncovered his feet, and of course that was to get him to wake up. He's going to eventually realize that his feet are uncovered and she laid down right there. And here she enters into this risky sort of a thing. And at midnight, the man was startled and he turned over and he wondered why his feet were cold. Actually, I just threw that in there, but it's probably what happened, you know. And it says, behold, a woman lay at his feet. And he said, “Who are you?” And here we come to it, and she answered, “I am Ruth your servant. And then she says, Spread your wings over your servant. Now, some translations say, spread the corner of your garment over me, which is what the meaning is, okay? It's not literally what she said, but the meaning is, spread the corner of your garment over me, and that means accept my invitation for you to respond to my ovations toward you and so forth. She's inviting him. And then she says, for you are a redeemer. And we talked about this last week, this word, redeemer, and what it means. And I told you that I liked the translation, kinsman redeemer, because it covers what this single Hebrew word actually means. It means a relative who is in line to redeem in the case that the family needs something to be redeemed, whether it's a woman who was left childless, or whether it was a field that got sold because of a debt or whatever. We talked about some of the things that a redeemer might be called upon to redeem, but he is usually the closest male relative to the person who has passed away who could step in and so forth. And so Ruth is expressing this thing, and she's not propositioning Boaz. I don't want you to see it that way. Because by saying to him, I mean, if she would've left off the thing about redeemer, you might've said, wow, that's kind of a proposition, just to lay down at a man's feet and say, hey, cover me up big guy, or something like that. It might look like it's something more than what it is, but then by saying to him, for you are a redeemer she's reminding him that her request is in keeping with the law of the Lord. Okay? In other words, she's telling him, there's nothing inappropriate about this. There's nothing weird or wacky or strange. This is in keeping with God's Word, right? This is a good thing. She's asking Boaz to take up his right. So notice Boaz's response. This is where he says, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first. What was the first? It was coming home with Naomi. She left her family. She left her nation. She left the gods that they worshiped to come and be one of the Jews, one of the Israelites. And he says to her, you didn't go running after a young man, even though you could have. Whether the young man had money or not, you chose not to go after the young man. And by that statement, and by also the fact that Boaz has twice referred to Ruth as my daughter, we come away with the understanding that he was somewhat older than she. There's an age difference between Ruth and Boaz, and because of that age difference Boaz may have considered himself out of the running. It's like, well she's a sweetheart, she's a godly woman, and I know that I am a relative and I could possibly be in line to take her as my wife and do this work of redemption that the Bible talks about. Yeah, but I'm a lot older than her. We don't know how much, maybe 10, 20 years. It's hard to say. But he's surprised that Ruth is setting aside all of these young, buff, handsome men to talk to this guy here who's a lot older. And so, he goes on to say in verse 12, And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. In other words, he's saying that the first right of the kinsman redeemer belonged to another man who was actually a closer relative. And these things would, the Word told them what order they were to go in. If a young man died his brother would be the first in line, and after that it would be an uncle if there were no other brothers, and then it would go from there to cousins and so forth. And we don't know what Boaz's connection was family wise, but we do know that he probably wasn't, well we know he wasn't a brother of Mahlon. We know that he probably wasn't an uncle, unless there was another uncle that was in line before him. We just don't really know. All we know is there was a closer relative, but here's the interesting thing, Boaz had already figured this out. Now that's interesting, isn't it? He tells Ruth, I would accept your offer right now in a heartbeat, but there's somebody in line before me. And so, it tells you that he's already thought this thing through, right? And he's been figuring out, he probably went back to the family Bible, and he's looking through the names of all the relatives. Oh heck, there's one guy in front of me. Maybe I could send him away. No, I'm joking. So, he says to her in verse 13,

So not only is Boaz agreeing to be the kinsman redeemer for Elimelech’s family, if he can, but you'll notice that he's continuing to do with Ruth what he's been doing all along, and that is providing and protecting. First, we're going to see how he protects her. He says, lie down until morning. But you'll notice that he tells her, let it not be known that a woman came to the threshing floor. So, I want you to get up, Ruth, and I want you to get up before the sun completely is up where people really can't recognize a woman from a woman, another woman, or a man from a man, they just know it's a person. And that's when I want you to get up and go home. And what is he doing here? Well, he's protecting her reputation. Obviously, these threshing parties were all male events. And that's why he says, don't let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor. If there had been a bunch of women there, it wouldn't have been any big deal, right? She just would've been one of the ladies. But then he goes on to provide. He says in verse 15, “Bring the garment you are wearing and that, by the way, that's her shawl. And he told her to hold it out, which she did. And then he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. And by the way, we don't know exactly, the term “a measure,” that changed in different time periods. We're not really sure what it referred to now, but the good guess is that he measured for her 60 pounds of grain. That's a guess, but it's probably a fairly educated guess and that's it. 60 pounds, I'm in my sixties and I don’t like carrying any more than about 25 pounds and I hate it. And I'm thinking, here's this young woman and he says, here's 60 pounds of grain. Carry that home, sweetie. She's got some muscles. It says she went into the city, and when she comes to her mother-in-law, Naomi wants to know, of course, how the evening went. So, she tells her all about it, shows her the six measures of barley that Boaz gave to her, telling Naomi that he said that she was not to go back empty handed to her mother-in-law. I think that's good on his part. It's like, do nice things for the mother-in-law, never hurts. And so, here's the final piece of advice that Naomi gives Ruth. And she says, wait. She says, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.” Now, waiting is hard enough. I don't like the word wait. I've never liked the word wait because I don't like to wait. I'm not good at waiting. I get very impatient, and I want things to be revealed for what they are. But it's not just a waiting game for Ruth, because you'll notice she says, we'll see how the matter settles out. Well, what Naomi means by that is she's basically saying by the end of the day, you're probably going to be married. The question is to who? You might be getting married to someone you don't even know. And he might be even older than Boaz, but he's a closer relative, and if he has the right and he decides to take the right, you're going to be his wife because that's the way things go, sweetie. And I know you kind of got your eyes set on Boaz, but at this point in the game, there are no guarantees. Boy, talk about trusting the Lord. This is where trusting the Lord really becomes real. And that's what she's going to do. And bless her heart, that was no small issue. You're going to be married probably by the end of the day. I wonder who it'll be? And the ladies are like, yuck. You know what a horrible sort of deal. That's the way things went back then. So anyway, she's going to trust the Lord. That's where we're going to stop. We'll complete this study in the book of Ruth next Sunday. So, let's stand together. If you need prayer, come on up when we're done. So, let's pray. Father, thank you so much for meeting us here. Thank you, Lord, for the worship. A time to just praise you and declare your goodness, your mercy, your love. Thank you, Father, for the wisdom and insight of the Word of God to speak to our hearts and bring understanding. Thank you, Lord, for nourishing our souls. I want to just pray, Lord, for everybody here this morning. Minister to each heart, Father. You know what's going on in their lives. You know the hardship. You know the difficulties. You know the pain. And I just pray, my Father God, that you would be with each and every one as they walk through whatever they're going through. May you be their guide. And I know, my Father God, that you have promised never to leave nor forsake your children, and I thank you for that. We thank you for that, that you are always there. So, Father, guide us in this new week. Direct our course. Lead us in the way that we are to go. Open and close doors according to your will. We look to you in Jesus’ powerful name, we pray, and all God's people said, amen. Have a good rest of your Sunday.