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Howdy, it's good to see you all this evening. If you have your Bible, turn to Ruth chapter 2. God is so good. That last song we sang is just so rich. I'm so encouraged by that. Great is thy faithfulness. Ruth chapter 2. I'm going to continue our series I've started us in through the book of Ruth.

And last time I was up here, we looked at chapter 1, and we saw a lot of things there, and we'll recap that this evening. This evening, the plan is to get through all of chapter 2, okay? And I think we'll be able to do that. It's really rich.

And I want to start just by reading the whole chapter and kind of situating us in God's word. So look with me at Ruth chapter 2, verse 1. Now Naomi had a kinsman of her husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.

And Ruth, the Moabitis, said to Naomi, Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favor. And she said to her, Go, my daughter. So she departed. And went and gleaned in the field after the reapers.

And she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, May the Lord be with you. And they said to him, May the Lord bless you. Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, Whose young woman is this?

The servant in charge of the reapers replied, She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab. And she said, Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. Thus she came and has remained from the morning until now. She's been sitting in the house for a little while.

Then Boaz said to Ruth, Listen carefully, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field. Furthermore, do not go on from this one, but stay here with my maids. Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Indeed, I have commanded the servants not to touch you.

When you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the servants draw. Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, Why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?

Boaz replied to her, All that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me. And how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people that you did not previously know.

May the Lord reward your work, and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge. Then she said, I have found favor in your sight, my Lord, for you have comforted me, and indeed have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your maidservants.

At mealtime, Boaz said to her, Come here, that you may eat of the bread, and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar. So she sat beside the reapers, and he served her roasted grain, and she ate, and was satisfied, and had some left. When she rose to glean, Boaz commanded his servants, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not insult her.

Also, you shall purposely pull out for her some grain from the bundles, and leave it, that she may glean, and do not rebuke her. So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an epha of barley. She took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned.

She also took it out and gave Naomi what she had left after she was satisfied. Her mother-in-law then said to her, Where did you glean today, and where did you work? May he who took notice. Of you be blessed. So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, The name of the man with whom I work today is Boaz.

Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, May he be blessed of the Lord, who has not withdrawn his kindness to the living and to the dead. Again, Naomi said to her, The man is our relative. He is one of our closest relatives. Then Ruth the Moabitis said, Furthermore, he said to me, You should stay close to my servants until they have finished all my harvests.

Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maids, so that others do not fall upon you in another field. So she stayed close by the maids of Boaz in order to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest.

And she lived with her mother-in-law. All right. So here's a question, something to think about. Is there a such thing as a coincidence or an accident in the world? Is there a God who is actively involved in the day-to-day affairs of your life? Now, if God doesn't exist, then everything is an accident and meaningless.

And this is the atheistic worldview of many. One atheist philosopher gives us a bleak picture of this reality. Bertrand Russell says this: Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving. His origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms.

So, in other words, you are just the result of some atoms bumping together in that worldview. So, if God doesn't exist, there is no meaning. There's nobody controlling history. That's a really bleak picture. The Christian worldview is opposed to this. There is a God, and he does reign and control the universe.

And he works all events and circumstances to accomplish his plan for his glory. And there's a word for that, and we call that providence. That's one of my favorite words, because it's a word that always reminds me of the fact that God is working all things for his glory and for the good of his people, and that nothing in my life that happens to me is meaningless or accidental.

In contrast with Bertrand Russell, George Mueller was a Christian who lived with this reality in view. He lived almost every day of his life talking. Convinced of the fact that God controls and orders all things for his glory and the good of his people. If you're not familiar with George Mueller, how many of you have heard of George Mueller?

Okay, good, many of you. We know that George Mueller ran an orphanage in Bristol, England, and thousands of orphans came through that orphanage, and they had no money, but they never went into debt. And Mueller's philosophy was that he was just, he would never advertise his needs. He just simply relied on prayer, and God always provided.

And it's in the most just crazy circumstances. They never lacked anything. To me, there's something just so attractive about a life like that, just totally trusting in God's provision. But I think a lot of us just struggle with actually living that out. At least I do. You know, does God really provide?

Can he really do stuff like that? Is he really involved in day-to-day life? And often, at least in my life, so often I don't acknowledge God's kindness or providence toward me. Fortunately, Ruth chapter 2 has answers for us, and it offers help. And that's what I'm excited about tonight.

And just to give you a little flashback to chapter 1, if you remember. We had an Israelite man, Elimelech, and he moves his family out of Bethlehem into Moab because there's a famine. But tragedy hits, and all of the men in Elimelech's family die, his sons, himself, and it just leaves Naomi and her two daughters-in-law.

Naomi's devastated, but she hears that there's food in Bethlehem, so she moves back, and her daughter-in-law, Ruth, stays with her amazingly and commits herself to take care of Naomi in this foreign land. And it's important to remember that the cloud hanging over the whole book of Ruth, all four chapters, is this problem: Elimelech's line and his land, the obliteration of those things, the permanent loss of Elimelech's tribal land and his family, because there's no males in the family anymore.

And that's the main crisis of the book. And the question is, how is God going to solve that problem? And so when we start chapter two, we've got to remember that Naomi is in a place of doubting God's kindness in her life. And remember, in chapter one, she said, the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me.

And the lesson that Naomi is going to see by the time we get to the end of the narrative is that God providentially shows favor to his people's needs through ordinary, faithful people so that they'll appreciate his kindnesses in their life. And that's what Naomi will realize. At the end of the chapter, she'll begin to appreciate God's kindness.

That's the same thing I want you to see this evening. Something we all need to see in our lives and appreciate God's kindness to us through His providence. So, chapter 2 is pretty simple. There's really three movements. Verses 1 to 3, we see the need. In verses 3 to 17, we see the answer.

And in the last portion, we see the hope of God's kindness. So, let's start first with the need. Look with me at verses 1 to 3 of chapter 2. These kind of frame the setting for us, they give us the initial crisis, and it's simply this: Ruth needs food.

Now, look with me at verse 1, and it's kind of this sudden introduction of some information we're not expecting. Verse 1. Now, Naomi had a kinsman of her husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. Now, why does he drop that in there?

Because he goes on and completely goes away from Boaz in verse 2, and he's hinting at us that this guy is going to have some role to play in the story, that God's going to work through him, spoiler alert, to show favor to Ruth. Now, notice it says that Boaz is a kinsman.

That means he's related to Naomi's family and her dead. Husband, and he's a man of great wealth. He's wealthy, he's influential, he's powerful in the city of Bethlehem. And so the author is kind of introducing us to this guy and not really telling us what role he's going to play yet.

Now, look at verse 2 now. And Ruth the Moabitis said to Naomi, Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favor. And she said to her, Go, my daughter. So she departed and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers.

And we'll stop there. So Ruth comes to Naomi and says, basically, the situation is they're sitting in Bethlehem, they're broke, they're widows, they have nobody to provide for them, and they need food. And Ruth sees that, and she takes the initiative to go and say, hey, I need to go gather some food.

And so, but notice her need is to find favor. Now, why is that? A little bit of cultural background here. Again, I mentioned this summit when we went through chapter one. But Ruth and Naomi are widows, and there's no welfare system in the culture. There's nobody to provide for them.

There's nobody, no males to take care of them or farm Elimelech's tribal land. And so nobody's really looking out for them. But remember, In chapter one, the last verse of chapter one, we're told it's the barley harvest right now, coincidentally. And farmers are out harvesting barley in their fields.

Now, usually what would happen is the gleaners would go through and they'd grab some stalks of barley and they'd cut them off and they, you know, they'd hold them under their arm. And if you're a beggar and you want to get some food, what you do is you follow the gleaner and you hope that maybe he'll drop one or two stalks and you can just get a few heads of grain and survive.

Now, if you're really ambitious, you would actively try to steal crops from the farmer. And so it's probable that if you were a beggar coming into a field, you'd probably be viewed with suspicion, maybe ostracized and kicked out, especially at this time in Israel's history. But what's interesting is that beggars, the orphan, the widow, these people that had nothing, were always close to God's heart.

And we see this in the Mosaic law. Deuteronomy 24:19, God says to Israel, When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back for it. It shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow in it, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the ways.

Work of your hands. You see the wisdom of God there and the kindness? So Ruth says, Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose sight I may find favor. So Ruth basically needs somebody to be nice to her, but what makes her situation bad is she's a foreigner.

She's not even an Israelite. So she's in a really bad situation in that not only is she a beggar and might be viewed with suspicion, but she's not even from around here in Bethlehem. And it's really just a pitiful scene, honestly, when you realize this young woman has her whole life together and is going to try to pick up some scraps after the reapers in a field.

And so Ruth goes out of the city of Bethlehem early in the day, hoping against hope that she will get something to bring back to her and Naomi. And so the need is pretty simple. Ruth needs to find favor so she can get some food. Now, let's look at the answer.

How does God answer this need? Look with me at verse 3, and I want you to notice something before I read the rest of verse 3. There's two things in chapter 2 that are about to intersect. Remember, Boaz in verse 1, the author introduced him to us, and the author also presents to us Ruth's need for favor.

And these two things are about to connect. And that's what's amazing about verse 3. It's the turning point of the chapter. So look at this: second half of verse 3. And she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

I love this. So Ruth goes out at random into the fields of Bethlehem, and the first one she goes into is Boaz's field. And, you know, it seems like Ruth just got really lucky. It's just a coincidence, a happy coincidence, like exactly what Bertrand Russell was talking about.

But is that really what happened? I don't think so. I think the author of Ruth is almost humorously signaling something to us here. He's winking at us. And he's saying, hey, there's somebody working behind the scenes here. There's somebody writing the story. And there's somebody who has a greater purpose in all of this.

And he doesn't say it explicitly. He almost undersells it humorously. But God is the one at work controlling these coincidences. And he's going to unfold his plan. And he's going to show Ruth favor through the faithfulness of this guy, Boaz. All right. Now look at verse 4. Boaz suddenly bursts onto the scene.

Now, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, May the Lord. Be with you. And they said to him, May the Lord bless you. Now, this kind of introduces us to a new section of this guy, Boaz, and everything about him and what he does with Ruth.

And there's really a couple things the author wants us to see about Boaz. And number one is that he serves God. Look again at verse 4. We see this by what comes out of his mouth. He comes to his gleaners and he says, May the Lord be with you.

And they say, may the Lord bless you. Now, the author wants us to zero in on this. He could have just as easily left this out, and we really wouldn't have lost that much in the narrative. But he wants us to see something about Boaz. He's a man who loves Israel's God.

And this thing he says isn't just some religious formula that's kind of sterile. You learn a lot about somebody by what they talk about the most. And what immediately the first lines out of Boaz's mouth in the whole book is, may the Lord bless you. I just love that.

He loves the Lord, and his expressions show that. And remember, this is the Judges' period in Israel. This is a dark time, and Boaz kind of stands out as a light here. Now, look with me at verse 5. Another thing we see that the author wants us to note is that Boaz shows concern for Ruth.

Look at verse 5. Then Boaz said to his servant, who is in charge of the reapers, Whose young woman is this? The servant in charge of the reapers replied, She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab. And she said, Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.

Thus she came and has remained from the morning until now. She's been sitting in the house for a little while. So Boaz comes and he asks his foreman, What's going on here? Who's this? And notice he doesn't immediately just kick her out of the field. She's a beggar.

She's taken my food, my harvest. He doesn't just kick her out. Who is this? And that signals that there's some concern here. And we get a little hint into Boaz's character. That brings us to another thing the author wants us to see. Boaz shows favor to Ruth, who's a foreigner.

And that's really the central thing here. Look at verse 8. Then Boaz said to Ruth, Listen carefully, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field. Furthermore, do not go on from this one, but stay here with my maids. Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them.

Indeed, I have commanded the servants not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the servants draw. So something happens that Ruth was totally not expecting when she left Bethlehem that morning. Boaz invites her just to keep gleaning in his field, and he gives her protection, and he gives her access to water.

This is really amazing. And he's very emphatic about her staying in his field for her own protection. And Ruth's completely blown away by this. Verse 10. Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, Why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me since I'm a foreigner?

So notice Ruth has found favor, but she's surprised. And notice the ground of her question, I'm a foreigner. She went out to Bethlehem expecting probably ostracism, but she's been welcomed. Now, why does Boaz do all this? Verse 11. Boaz replied to her, All that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me, and how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth and came to a people that you did not previously know.

May the Lord reward your work and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge. Wow. Boaz has kind of heard about what Ruth has done for Naomi, and she's left her people, her gods, and she's joined herself to God's people, Israel.

And notice he emphasizes the cost of her decision. He says, Everything that you've done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me, how you left your father and mother in the land of your birth and came to a people that you did not previously know.

And so Boaz invites God to reward Ruth for that. And ironically, God's kind of already doing that through Boaz. That's what's amazing about this. And God is also revealing something about himself to Ruth through Boaz. Boaz says, It's God, God is the one under whose wings that she has come to seek refuge.

That's a great place to be. God doesn't turn away those who come to him for refuge. I just love that. Now, look at verse 13. Ruth's response again. Then she said, I have found favor in your sight, my Lord, for you have comforted me and indeed have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your maidservants.

So Ruth is just totally blown away by this, completely. I mean, she never would have expected this. But we see that Boaz has shown her favor, the exact need that she needed. When she set out from Bethlehem. So we've seen that Boaz serves God, seeing that he shows favor to Ruth.

Let's look at another thing the author wants us to see about him. And this is significant. He obeys the spirit of the Mosaic law. Look at verses 14 through 16. At mealtime, Boaz said to her, Come here, that you may eat of the bread and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar.

So she sat beside the reapers, and he served her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied and had some left. When she rose to glean, Boaz commanded his servants, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not insult her. Also, you shall purposely pull out for her some grain from the bundles and leave it, that she may glean, and do not rebuke her.

So she gleaned in the field until evening, then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an epha of barley. So notice, the first thing that Boaz does here is he invites Ruth to a meal. And notice it's Ruth the Moabitess, and again, emphasizing that she's a stranger here.

She's a foreigner, and yet he's welcoming her in to fellowship with his people to share a meal. And now, it's kind of at this point where we begin to ask ourselves, you know, maybe Boaz has an ulterior motive here, you know. He's kind of maybe there's some romance happening here.

That's not what's happening. We've got to be careful when we read the book of Ruth not to import 21st-century categories into what's happening. Right now, we'll get to chapter three. Right now, the author wants us to just see that God's showing favor to Ruth through the faithfulness of Boaz.

Now, notice what Boaz says. He says, Come here. And you could literally, literally, it's draw near. And Boaz welcomes her into fellowship, and that's just an amazing display of favor. Now, notice verse 14, it says, She sat beside the reapers. He's brought her into this meal of fellowship with his own workers.

We also see that Boaz obeys the spirit of the law when he lets Ruth glean among the bundles. What does that mean? Basically, Boaz is like, don't just pick up the scraps after my reapers. He tells the servants, let her glean from the collected bundles of barley, and then pull out other stalks of barley and just drop them on the ground for her to pick up.

And remember that verse in the Mosaic Law I read earlier about how God said, you shall not go back and pick up those sheaves that you drop. Now, Boaz could have just done that. You know, and on a kind of technicality, he would have, you know, been within, in a certain interpretation, the boundaries of that command.

But in reality, this kind of generosity and kindness was God's intention behind that law. Boaz is getting at the heart of what God intended here, of generosity, welcoming the alien and the stranger and showing kindness and getting at the heart of God. And so Boaz gets to the heart of the law and cares for the stranger, and he shows favor to Ruth.

Now, look at verse 17. It says that Ruth collected an ephah of barley. That's about 30 pounds that she collected, which is crazy, because if you imagine just following behind some reapers and collecting a few scraps and stalks of barley, you would never get 30 pounds in a day.

That's just amazing. God has answered all of Ruth's needs. And so verse 17 kind of brings us to the end of our interaction with Boaz for the chapter. He's a man who serves God, he shows favor to Ruth, and he obeys the spirit of the Mosaic law. And now notice the author has positioned Boaz as the answer through which God shows kindness to Ruth and provides for her needs.

And Boaz is kind of a savior here. And Boaz is just a faithful guy, an ordinary guy, who just loves the Lord and is getting at the heart of what God wants from his people, Israel. And it's hard to, at least for me, to read about Boaz and not think about the greater Boaz, Christ.

You know, Christ is the one through whom God would providentially show favor to those who draw near to him. And Christ always served the Father and pleased him. And Christ shows favor to those who draw near to God through him. And Christ perfectly obeyed the law on our behalf.

And so I encourage you: if you feel like you're alienated from Christ tonight, draw near. Experience the forgiveness of sins. Christ died to forgive you. And if you look again at verse 12, come under the wings of God's refuge. Seek refuge if you don't know him. Jesus says in John 6:40, For this is the will of my Father that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day.

God doesn't turn away people who seek refuge in him. Draw near to him. There really is a God, and he really does offer pardon. And even if you're a believer, I feel like I'm just far from the Lord right now. Draw near, and he'll welcome you back into his fellowship.

So we've seen the need, we've seen Ruth's need for favor, we've seen the answer, God's answer through the faithfulness of Boaz. Let's look now at the hope of God's kindness. We're getting at the heart of what's going on in this chapter. Look with me at verse 18, or starting verse 17.

So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. She took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also took out and gave Naomi what she had left after she was satisfied.

Her mother-in-law then said to her, Where did you glean today, and where did you work? May he who took notice of you be blessed. And notice Naomi's just also surprised here because Naomi wasn't expecting her daughter-in-law to come back with 30 pounds of barley. That was not in the cards for them.

Now, notice Ruth's response. Ruth says, The name of the man was Boaz. And now, look at Naomi has two realizations here that bring hope to her situation. And remember, just the darkness of Naomi's situation. And we see a hint of that just in the fact that she didn't even follow Ruth out to glean after the reapers.

She's just in this place of despair. And then Ruth comes back with 30 pounds of grain and says it was from Boaz. And again, remember verse 1: the author introduced to us Boaz, who's of the family of Elimelech. And Naomi begins to have some realizations here. So look at verse 20.

Look what Naomi realizes. The first thing she realizes is that God has not withdrawn his kindness. First part of verse 20. May he be blessed of the Lord who has not withdrawn his kindness to the living and to the dead. Notice what Naomi is saying here. God has not abandoned me.

He's not withdrawn his faithful love and kindness to Elimelech's family. Now, this is huge for Ruth. I mean, Naomi. She said in chapter 1, the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me. I went out full, but the Lord brought me back empty. Call me Mara, bitterness.

And suddenly, Naomi's acknowledging, God hasn't abandoned me. He's showing kindness. So that's Naomi's first realization. Her second realization. Realization is this. God has provided a Redeemer. Notice the second part of verse 20. Let me read the whole thing. Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, May he be blessed of the Lord who has not withdrawn his kindness to the living and to the dead.

Again, Naomi said to her, The man is our relative. He is one of our closest relatives. Now, this is huge. This is a huge turning point in the book of Ruth. Now, circle the word closest relative. And if you have a different Bible than mine, it might say something else.

The word really should probably be translated redeemer. And this is something we'll explore more when we get to chapter 3. But for now, a redeemer under the Mosaic law was a member of the family clan who had a really important role in caring for the clan. Whoever stepped forward to take on the role, he was responsible to buy back or redeem land for a brother who had to sell his land because he was in debt.

Or maybe he bought back a brother who had sold himself into slavery. Or in other cases, he might step up and marry his brother's widow if his brother died to raise up children to farm that land. So God had this very careful system to make sure that his people remained on their land.

And the author is hinting at us that Boaz could. Be the one who steps up and takes on this role for them, for Ruth and Naomi, for Elimelech's family. Now, he's hinting at that right now. Naomi's like, maybe this is possible. Maybe this could happen. But we'll see more of the resolution of that in chapter 3.

And Boaz is the one who can take on this role and rescue Elimelech's line and land from obliteration. And this is just amazing. This is God's providence at work in their life. And to give even more hope, in the remaining verses, we learn Boaz wants Ruth to stay in his field the whole harvest period.

Look at verse 21. Then Ruth the Moabitis said, Furthermore, he said to me, You should stay close to my servants until they have finished all my harvest. Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maids so that others do not fall upon you in another field.

So she stayed close by the maids of Boaz in order to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest. And she lived with her mother-in-law. And so we see that, again, chapter 2, like chapter 1, ends on this note of hope that God has provided and shown favor to Ruth.

He's not withdrawn his kindness to Naomi, and he's provided a redeemer, somebody to step up. And bring, in air quotes here, salvation to the family of Elimelech, deliverance from this situation. And it's again, it's hard for us to not think of the fact that in a different way for us today, God has provided a Redeemer, and obviously His Son, Christ.

And Christ is the one who redeems us from our sins and debts and purchases us by his blood and redeems those who draw near to the Father through Him. God shows favor to us through Him. And Galatians 4:4, in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem us from the curse of the law.

God has raised up a Redeemer, and God is kind to all those who draw near to Him. Now, before we land the plane here, I want to go back and circle back to verse 20 again, because there's something just significant in this chapter that I really want to leave you with.

Look again at Naomi's initial response. Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, May he be blessed of the Lord, who has not withdrawn his kindness to the living and to the dead. We have the impression. Here that Naomi, again, really thought that God had abandoned her and that God had totally withdrawn his kindness from her family.

And there might be some of you who are in that place today, tonight. You feel like God has just withdrawn his kindness from me. And maybe you'd never say that out loud. You know, you kind of, I mean, I know I can be this way sometimes. You know, the theological answer to give, you know, God is sovereign, God's good, you know, God cares for me.

But deep down, it just, there's an emptiness there. It just doesn't feel real for you. And you're starting to doubt that maybe God's withdrawn his kindness from me. Notice by the time we get to the end of the chapter, Naomi's gone from doubting God's care for her to appreciating his kindness to her.

And I want you to know the more you look for God's providence and care in your life for you, the more you'll appreciate his kindness. But if you, like Naomi, and when we started the chapter, if you sit in the darkness of your circumstances and refuse to acknowledge God, you'll never see his kindnesses in your life.

You'll always only be looking at, God is against me, the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me, God's attacking me. If you look for God's kindness, In your life, it'll bring hope. I like what Samuel Rutherford says. He wrote to somebody once: Faith believes no evil about God.

Faith believes no evil about God. God is kind to his people, and he's faithful to show favor to his needs, and even to your needs tonight, whatever they are. I don't know what they are because I can't see people's hearts. I'm fallible. But God knows, and he wants you to see him that way in this chapter.

And if you belong to him, he's not withdrawn his kindness from you, and he's provided you with a redeemer. And you've got to know that. You've got to believe that. That will bring joy and hope. It's not just true for Ruth and Naomi. You know, Ruth chapter 2, verse 3 doesn't just happen for Naomi and Ruth.

It's true for believers today. Look for it in your life. I mean, we see in this chapter, God saw this one young woman wandering out at random into the fields of Bethlehem. God saw her, and God provided her needs. I think about how many times in my life, you know, I've gone through my day, and I, you know, I'm busy, I'm doing different ministry things, and I breathe out some.

You know, rushed prayer, Lord, help me with this. And then I forget about it. And then God answers that prayer later, but I don't even notice. You know, and I know that there's been hundreds of times like that in my life, of just being totally oblivious to those small kindnesses of the Lord providentially.

And one way to remember is just to write those things down. If you see a kindness of the Lord, writing it down will help you appreciate it. I think of Psalm 107, verse 1. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his loving kindness is everlasting.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Let it be on their lips. And so, Ruth chapter 2 has shown us this case study of God's providence to show favor to the needs of his people. He really does this. He really is involved in the day-to-day of your life.

There is a God who's sovereign over the universe. He is attentive to his people's needs. He does hear them. And he does answer them. And that's what God wants you to see in Ruth 2. Bertrand Russell is wrong. God is real, and he loves his people. So learn to trust in God's goodness.

In your day-to-day, and appreciate his kindnesses to you. And on this side of the cross, again, George Mueller is a brother who learned to trust God for his day-to-day needs. And something else that struck me, I was providentially given a copy of his autobiography this week. As I was reading it, parts of it, Mueller learned to praise God and appreciate his kindnesses as God met his needs.

That's what you see, too, with Naomi learning in a very embryonic form in chapter 2. So I want to close just with an entry from Mueller's diary that I think just captures the idea here. This is what Mueller writes: October 29. The Lord has given us this day our daily bread.

Although in the morning there was not the least prospect of obtaining supplies, we are trusting in God day by day. He meets our needs faithfully in so many ways as we wait patiently upon him. Our needs are great, but his help is also great. Our needs are great, but his help is also great.

That's God. That's the God that you know if you're a believer. God shows favor providentially to answer. People's needs. So let's pray. Father, we just rejoice at your character seen in Ruth chapter 2, that you care for your people. Lord, we thank you that you see and you saw that young woman, Lord, thousands of years ago in a little speck of a town in Israel, wandering out into some fields, and you provided for her.

And Father, it's just amazing, and we celebrate that. Lord, we thank you that you're the same God who can provide for us, whatever our needs are. And Lord, you want us to see you as a generous God. Father, as a loving God, as a God who has not withdrawn his kindness and has provided us with redemption through his Son.

And I pray that you would help us to see you that way as these things in Jesus' name. Amen.