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  PROVIDENCE & THE KINSMAN REDEEMER
  by Keith Malcomson
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Summary: This sermon delves into the themes of providence, the kinsman
redeemer, and the pursuit of bread as seen in the Book of Ruth. It
highlights how God's hand of providence orchestrates events in our
lives, leading us to the kinsman redeemer, who is a picture of Christ in
the New Testament. The pursuit of bread symbolizes seeking after God's
word diligently, which ultimately leads to a bountiful harvest and
divine revelations.

Topics: "God's Providence", "Kinsman Redeemer"
Scripture References: Deuteronomy 25:5, Ephesians 5:32, Ruth 2:17, Leviticus 25:48, Ephesians 5:22

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into the themes of providence, the kinsman redeemer,
and the pursuit of bread as seen in the Book of Ruth. It highlights how
God's hand of providence orchestrates events in our lives, leading us to
the kinsman redeemer, who is a picture of Christ in the New Testament.
The pursuit of bread symbolizes seeking after God's word diligently,
which ultimately leads to a bountiful harvest and divine revelations.

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CONTENT
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I want you to turn with me here tonight to part five of our series,
Providence in the Book of Ruth. And we're going to read from Ruth
chapter two, just a few verses here, finishing off the second chapter of
the Book of Ruth. And I believe this is a dynamic and very important
series that we are dealing with here at this time because of all that we
have gone through, but also all that is ahead of us as a church and as
individuals.

And I believe this series gets our perspective right. It gets our eyes
upon the Lord. It means we're not dominated by circumstances or even the
dark things of life that affect each one of us.

So we are going to come to part five and I call this Providence and the
Kinsman Redeemer. Providence and the Kinsman Redeemer. We are going to
step in tonight to a part of this that dominates this book.

So far we've been gradually taking steps towards this point, but I'm
going to begin to open up to you the very heart of this little book. And
it is a little book, a tiny book, but we're going to see that it has a
theme that is utterly unique in the entire Bible. And it's very, very
vital.

Reading from Ruth chapter two and verse 17 here tonight. So she, that is
Ruth, gleaned in the field until even and beat out that she had gleaned
and it was about an eighth of barley. And she took it up and went into
the city and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned and she brought
forth and gave it to her that she had reserved after that she was
sufficed.

And her mother-in-law said unto her, where hast thou gleaned today? And
where wroughtest thou? Blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee.
And she showed her mother-in-law with whom she had wrought and said, the
man's name with whom I wrought today is Boaz. And Naomi said unto her
daughter-in-law, blessed is he of the Lord who has not left off his
kindness to the living and to the dead.

And Naomi said unto her, the man is near of kin unto us, one of our next
kinsmen. And Ruth, the Moabitess said, he said unto me also, thou shall
keep fast by the young men until they have ended all my harvest. And
Naomi said unto Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that
thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other
field.

So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley
harvest and of wheat harvest and dwelt with her mother-in-law. Let's
pray together. Father, we thank you for your encouragement, your
comfort, your strength, and your grace.

So God, all that you minister unto us as individuals in this room, in
this church. Oh God, even this preacher. Lord God, it's so real when you
begin to minister and to speak and open up your mind and your ways and
the truth of this book.

Oh God, I praise you that you are a speaking God. You're a God that
reveals, oh God, real thoughts of your mind. You're a God who speaks
from heaven today in your son.

You're a God that opens up your heart and begins to teach and lead. Lord
God, you do drop handfuls of purpose. Lord God, deliberately for us by
providence.

Lord God, that we might be encouraged and strengthened and led by your
sovereign grace. Lord God, we exalt you tonight as a sovereign God. Lord
God, we're not those that are victims of the circumstance of life.

Lord God, we're not mere victims of tragedy or trouble or heartache or
trials or fire or any other thing. But my God, it's your hand revealed
allowing even the enemy to come against us, our trials to encompass us.
Lord God, you lead us through for your divine purpose.

And my God, I thank you, God, that you time and time again. Lord God,
what's meant for evil? You turn it on its head and you work all things
that seem in our eyes to be for evil and detrimental and destructive. Oh
God, you weave them together to bring forth good, to glorify your name,
to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, to bless us, to benefit us.

Lord God, to afford us in the will of God. And Father, I pray tonight,
let that be so in Jesus' mighty name. Thank you for the blood of the
lamb.

Thank you we have a redeemer tonight. Thank you there's one that rescued
us from wreck and ruin and disaster. Nor God's sin, oh God, had laid us
low.

It had destroyed our bodies and our minds and our future and our hopes,
oh God. But a redeemer, our kinsman redeemer, stepped in by the hand of
God and used providential circumstances to reveal himself. We do love
you and we give you all the glory tonight in Jesus' mighty name.

Amen. Before we embark on these few short simple verses, I want to give
you another warning about providence. I've got to give warnings because
I'm teaching strongly about the blessing, the benefits, the comfort, the
encouragement of understanding, believing and receiving the teaching of
providence.

And of seeing God as the God of providence. I'm opening this up. We're
going into this in detail.

So I've got to give warnings because many who have gone down the line of
teaching and preaching providence have fallen into error. They've gone
to an extreme. If you preach the sovereignty of God but neglect the
responsibility of man, you go into error.

If you preach the responsibility of man but neglect the sovereignty of
God, you go into error. So we need to balance truth. No one truth should
ever become everything.

Never. You've got to be very careful that having learned the truth, yes,
for a time we need to emphasize it. Yes, for a time you need to study
it, maybe to the neglect of other things.

But a time has to come where you balance all truth out. Different truths
balance one another. So let me give you a warning before I go to my
three points here tonight.

In 2nd Kings chapter 20, we read about good King Hezekiah. He was a
remarkable man. He was a revivalist.

He hated idolatry. He was used in an amazing way by God. He is noted for
his trust in God that few men ever trusted God like Hezekiah.

He was used in an extraordinary way in the hand of God. But listen, he's
the one who prayed for extra years and God gave them to him. But in that
time he went wrong.

He become familiar, casual. He neglected certain things. I actually
believe he made real mistakes.

It might have been better if God had never given him that extra 15
years. But God did. God answered his cry.

Listen to what actually happened. He opened up the treasures in
Jerusalem and showed them to the Babylonians. So the prophet Isaiah came
onto him with a prophecy.

And listen, this was an extraordinary man of God. A mightily used man of
God. A man who walked with God closely and who is in heaven tonight.

Listen to what happened. Isaiah came onto him and this is what he
prophesied. Because you have showed all of your treasures to the
Babylonians, everything in your house and every person of your house is
going to get carried away into Babylon.

All your children are going to get carried away by the king of Babylon
because of this. Listen to his response. And I'm talking about
providence.

Listen to his response. This is how he responded to God's prophecy
through Isaiah. He says in verse 19 of 2 Kings 20.

After hearing this concerning that his sons would be carried off and
made eunuchs in the palace of the king. Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah,
good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. And he said, is it
not good that peace and of truth be in my days? I've always thought
there was something seriously wrong with this passage when I've read it
for 30 years.

As soon as I read this after the life of Hezekiah, I cringe. Here is a
great man who's received a prophecy saying your children are going to
get carried away and become eunuchs in Babylon. And his only response is
it's good.

It's the word of the Lord. It's the will of God. And it's not going to
happen in my day.

It'll happen in the days of my children. The word of God is good. This
is a man who's lost touch with reality.

And now he goes, this is God's word to me. I just submit to it. God has
said this is going to happen.

This is God's will. And I just yield to it and go with it and say, God's
will is good. There's something terribly wrong with this.

When the Lord said you're going to die of a sickness, he cried out and
God actually intervened and gave him 15 more years. But now when he
hears God's judgment will come on his children, he doesn't cry out. He
doesn't pray.

He submits to the will of God and says, this is good. Let it happen.
After all, it's not going to happen in my day.

You see, I believe with this teaching, there are dangers. You could
become passive. You could become blasé.

You could say everything that comes to me, every sermon of judgment, I
just submit and say, well, that's God's will. I just need to submit. Ah,
ah, surah, surah, whatever will be, will be.

That is a dangerous, and I believe it's a casual attitude that shows
you've lost touch with reality and you've lost touch with the living
God. Listen to what happened with wicked King Ahab in 1 Kings chapter 2
and verse 21. A similar thing happens to him.

You know who King Ahab was? He was a wicked, vile man. Few kings sold
themselves to do wickedness like King Ahab. So you've got an extreme.

Hezekiah was a great King. Ahab is a wicked King. But we read in 1 Kings
chapter 21, how also a prophet comes and gives a word to Ahab and says,
do you know what? I'm going to judge you.

I'm going to cut you off. I'm going to destroy your house. And it came
to pass when Ahab heard those words that he rent his clothes and he put
sack cloth upon his flesh and he fasted and lay in sack cloth and he
went softly.

And the next verse said, he humbled himself. God takes notice that this
wicked, evil man, he wasn't getting saved. He humbled himself because of
the word of God.

God says, I'm going to destroy you. Does he just go passively and say,
yes, I deserve it. I'm a wicked man.

No, he actually puts himself in a condition of repentance. And it says,
because he humbled himself before me, this is God speaking, because he
humbled himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but in
his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house. I want you to see
for a second, here's two men.

One of them, Hezekiah has blind submission to whatever happens. Here's a
wicked King Ahab who actually wrestles with God, goes to God in prayer.
Those that submit to the sovereignty of God or submit to providence and
many other things blindly without any conscious awareness, I want to
tell you, you need to be very careful.

That can become a very, very dangerous thing. So I'm warning you here
tonight of your attitude over providence that you blindly submit without
bringing another truth to bear concerning this truth. With each one of
us, our belief, our understanding and our personal experience and
understanding of providence is worked out in the hardships of life.

You've got to learn this truth. It's not receiving it theologically and
say, I believe in providence and then blindly submitting to it. You're
going to have to walk through this.

You're going to have to experience this. You're going to have to learn
God's character through it. It's not blindly submitting to a theology or
a doctrine of blind submission to providence that you just lay down and
roll over no matter what comes in life.

You must not do that. But you know what you have in the Bible is you
have a real teaching of God revealing himself. That's why I believe the
Calvinist and the hyper-Calvinist go wrong in the truth of the Bible.

They so emphasize providence and that God is in everything that they
blindly accept everything as from God when we know many things come from
the devil and they need to be resisted. My message tonight, providence
and the King's man redeemer. And I've got three points for you very
clearly here.

Three things that I believe are revealed at the end of Revelation
chapter two, three things are revealed. Providence is revealed in a way
that Naomi's eyes were blind to. The King's man redeemer is revealed.

And thirdly, the pursuit of bread is revealed. So I'm going to deal with
these three points in a few short verses. In less than one day, three
things are revealed that were kept hidden in this book for the previous
10 years.

10 years, these three things are hidden. But suddenly in one day,
everything changes. Do you know that God's hand of providence can change
everything in one single day? Where how you rose in the morning and how
you go to bed at night can be radically different.

That's what you find in these few verses. And so my first point,
providence revealed, that's what you have in verse 17 to 23, providence
revealed, not providence working. It was working already.

God was providentially at work. But my point is providence revealed. In
other words, the word revealed means to make it plain, make it obvious,
make it visible, open it up to the site, to the visible site of genuine
believers.

You see in these few verses, you begin to get providence revealed, the
hand of God revealed, and yet it was hidden from genuine believers
before. We are here in chapter two of Ruth. In chapter one, we have a
period of 10 years.

But when you come to chapter two, you have a period of less than 24
hours, a long working day. So first of all, we get 10 years of dark
providence. Everything seems to be going wrong for 10 long years.

Then you turn to chapter two and what we covered last week and what we
covered tonight, all of it happens in less than a long working day. All
of it happens dramatically, suddenly. How Ruth arose in the morning
isn't how she goes to bed at night.

How Boaz woke in the morning isn't how he goes to bed at night. How
Naomi awoke that morning is not how she goes to bed at night. And so
these three characters in this chapter, this one day changes everything.

So what happened in this one day? Well, the hand of God's providence is
revealed to each of these three individuals. A set of circumstances
happen, not a voice, not a prophecy, not a miracle, but God in the
normal natural day-to-day things reveals himself in such a way that
providence is revealed. All three of them wake up to realize this is a
unique day of providence.

And God is revealing that his hand has been working in all of the events
of life. It is utterly extraordinary. When Ruth left her house and left
Naomi that morning, everything was dark in that home.

Naomi, remember what she was? She was in bitterness of soul. All she
could see was darkness, the affliction of God, that her almighty God was
actually wounding her and almost acting against her. But when she
returned late that night, everything had changed.

I mean, everything had changed. You're going to see three people go into
bed that night who actually say, I see God's hand of providence in what
has happened today. You know that God can change things dramatically in
a period of just one short day.

And so we see in this chapter, all three begin to see the hand of
providence. But please note for a second, all three had a different
life's journey to get to this point. We know that in this story, that
Naomi had a very long, hard, rough 10-year walk to get to this
particular day.

There was much darkness, much bitterness of soul, much hardship. We see
how Ruth got to this point. She also had walked through troubles and yet
she found conversion.

She found the God of Israel. She actually had found her very soul and
eternal life in the midst of all these dark threads. Her life was
shorter, not as hard as Naomi's, but it was still hard.

Then we have Boaz, the man of this story. He stayed behind in Jerusalem
during that 10-year famine. There had been no rain.

There had been a drought in the nation. Darkness, sin had engulfed the
nation. And here's Boaz.

He stayed in Bethlehem. He kept labouring away. He kept working there.

And you know what? He became rich. He blossomed in his richness during a
10-year famine. When we first see him at the end of 10 years of a
spiritual famine and of a physical famine, there's no rain, no food.

There's great lack. We see a rich man in the midst of this. We see an
industrious man.

We see a spiritual man. This is utterly remarkable what we begin to see.
These three lies are being revealed to us here.

It says in chapter 2, verse 5, then said Boaz unto his servant that was
said over the rapers. Look what begins this entire day. Whose damsel is
this? He doesn't say, who is this damsel? He said, whose damsel? Who
does she belong to? Who is she connected to? Whose family is she in? Who
is she married to? Is she married? And so obviously one look of her and
he goes, I want to know who this girl is.

I want to find out about her. We're told in verse 1 that this Boaz was
of the family of Elimelech. In other words, there's a family connection
here with this girl.

He begins to hear that this is Ruth the Moabitess. And as soon as he
hears that, he goes, I've heard about her. I've heard the rumors.

I've heard the stories. I know all about her old family. I know about
Elimelech.

We were related. We were family. I know that her husband died and she
was faithful to her husband, faithful to her mother-in-law, and here she
is.

You know who this Boaz is? He's a man of God. Look at him instantly. Do
you know what has happened to this man? 10 long years he never got
married.

We know he's much older than Ruth. He's lived through a famine. He's an
older man.

That's very, very unusual. And he's never got married. Can I ask you,
why did Boaz never get married? Here he is.

He's a rich man. He's a landowner in the midst of a famine and he never
married anyone. Can you imagine going through that and you've got money
in your pockets? You've got a nice house.

It's a dark day. Many ladies are going to be going through trials and
yet he's still single. Do you not see God's hand of providence upon us
that even this man lived to a good mature age and he's still single? I
wonder if he ever thought, man, what's God doing? What's wrong with me?
Why hasn't the right girl come? Maybe many girls come.

And he said, no, no, no, no. And he goes, I'm going to be left as an old
bachelor here. I don't understand this.

Do you realize what it was? He did not have the answer. God's hand of
providence was there stopping him from marrying anyone or getting
connected 10 long years. I don't think he understood that until this
actual day.

And then one day he lifts his eyes. I mean, he's been a bachelor. He's a
single man.

And in one single day, he hasn't even spoken to the girl. He doesn't
even know who she is. And he goes, who is this? Who does she belong to?
Who is she associated with? He immediately began to think in a certain
way.

Do you know that's God's hand of providence in this in a very real way?
He's not conscious that God is urging him, saying, there's a girl I
prepared for you for a long time. I have laid my hand on her. I'm
bringing the two of you together.

He's got no awareness of that. He's just going out and looking, having
feelings, having thoughts, looking with his eyes. And yet God was in
this in an extraordinary way.

You know who this man was? And we saw it last week. He was a man with a
sense of responsibility. As soon as he began to see the hand of
providence, God is in this.

I believe this entire chapter shows that he suddenly realized on this
day that God was in this meeting with her, that she just happened to be
in his field. I don't think he thought it was a happenstance at all. I
think he said, I know there's something of God in this.

She's in my field on this day at this time. I believe God has actually
led her. And we begin to see a sense of responsibility.

His heart began to open up to understand the word of God. He had a
desire to obey the word of God. Because you know what? This situation
with Ruth, there's certain things taught in the Bible that he is
commanded to do.

And you know, immediately on that very day, he begins to obey the word
of God towards Ruth and his responsibility. I also believe that he
caught sight of the character of the quality of this lady. He's asking
questions.

Tell me about her. She's worked all day from morning to night. That's
exactly what I want to know.

And I believe that providence was revealed onto him. But also there's
more than that. Naomi in chapter 2 and verse 19, listen to what it says.

And her mother-in-law said unto her, she's walked in the door with all
this corn. She's been working all day and just gleaning. That's what
Naomi thinks she's doing.

I hope she comes back with enough for a meal. But when she walks in the
door, she's got about the equivalent of 22 liters of corn. That's more
than you're going to eat all week, I'm going to assure you.

And she brings all of this in and drops it on the floor. What is Naomi's
response? Do you know how we've just seen her before? You know what she
was like that morning. She is bitter and hard saying, God has afflicted
me.

But as soon as she sees all of this corn here in verse 19 says, where
has, I want you to see the shock here. She is in shock because no one is
going to glean this amount of stuff. No one.

That's utterly impossible. Where has thou gleaned today? And where,
where did you work? Blessed be he that took knowledge of thee. She
doesn't even know who it is.

And yet she says there's someone, she doesn't even know what happened
that day. She looks at all of this, but she says, you know what? There
is someone behind this. This isn't Ruth.

No way could Ruth have brought all this back. She could not have gleaned
all of this. So when Ruth dumps this, she puts two and two together and
says, there's another hand behind this.

There's an influence behind this. Are you able to discern the hand of
God, of his providence in certain things? Are you just blind when God
begins to bless? You see, Boaz is like the Lord, the God of providence
working behind saying, drop things for them. And if you merely go
through and you don't realize God is at work.

You see Naomi, remember I said, all the preachers say she was a very
bitter backslidden woman. I don't believe that. In one day, she
instantly could discern the hand of providence and saying, there's
something more going on here.

This is not a natural thing that has just happened. So she's a
discerning lady. She is a lady that is very wise and insightful.

She knows how to ask questions. And she said, blessed is he. Notice how
she's immediately blessing the hand of the person that took knowledge of
you.

You know what she's saying? There's someone who took knowledge of you.
The word knowledge there actually used, it means someone has taken
notice of you or considered you very carefully. Someone has been
investigating you.

Someone has been studying you and that person has somehow been involved
in you getting all of this corn. This was not just you, Ruth. There is
something at play there.

And so Naomi begins to see the hand of God and the plan of God and the
purpose of God and all of this. It is an extraordinary thing. There's an
entire harvest coming in and she is very aware of that.

You know, the fact that they bring in the corn here, corn was used to
make bread. Bread in the Bible always represents God's word. And so in
this entire chapter, you begin to see something of this.

This corn represents the word of God and God feeding his people
bountifully in a remarkable way. Look at verse 20. And she said unto
them, sorry, let me say that again.

Remember in chapter one, verse 20, how Naomi was left. She was telling
the entire village, don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara.

Call me bitterness. She's been testifying about all of this. And yet
within 24 hours, God is beginning to work where this lady is blessing
the hands of some, she's going, something's going on here.

And she begins to bless in the name of the Lord. Whoever took notice of
you, God bless them. See this lady, she is not a bitter, twisted up
person.

She is someone with a large heart of faith. And that's what's so
remarkable. She acknowledged the dark threads in chapter one.

She walked through the dark threads. She didn't say these are dark
things. I lost my husband, my two children.

I don't have anything. I'm coming back empty. She acknowledged God's
hands in that.

But immediately, as soon as things start changing, she acknowledges the
hand of God. She's not bitter at all. She's not backslidden at all.

You know what? She's walking through life. She can discern God's hand in
the evil as well as the good. The times of darkness as well as the times
of brightness when God begins to reveal things.

She is a remarkable lady. And she acknowledges the silver threads. She
can discern the silver threads and she can discern something that's
beginning to change here.

I hope you've got an awareness of God's hand in things that you can see
through events and go something is happening in behind this in a very
unusual way. Barley leads straight to Boaz. See this barley.

See this harvest coming in. It's going to lead to someone. Just the same
way as God's word always leads to the person of Christ.

You see, if God wants to draw you to Christ, you know what he uses? He
uses barley. He uses the word of God. You begin seeking after the word
of God.

You know where he's going to lead you? He's going to lead you to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Just as he led Ruth. It starts with barley.

But do you know what God is doing providentially? He's leading you to
the person of Christ, to a deep relationship with the Lord. In chapter 2
verse 20, Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law, after she begins to
explain who it is, blessed be he of the Lord, who has not left his
kindness to the living and to the dead. Do you know what Ruth does? She
begins to reveal that it's Boaz.

His name was Boaz. Do you realize what happened to Naomi at that time?
Until this day, she had forgotten the teaching of the Bible about the
kinsman redeemer, about provision, about what the Bible commands, about
your relatives and your rich relatives to look after you, to redeem
everything back. We'll come to this in a second.

Do you realize in one moment of time, the word of God, that she wasn't
even thinking about these 10 years, or else she would have been very
hopeful coming back to Bethlehem. She wasn't thinking about the word of
God, but in one moment, the word of God, it's provision, it's teaching,
it's commands begin to open up in one single day. That begins to change
Naomi's attitude.

She goes from being very bitter, very dark, not having eyes to see, and
all of a sudden, her eyes begin to open up on the word of God. There's a
kinsman redeemer. There's a relative.

She began to remember people she had forgotten. Boaz, I haven't heard
that name in an awful long time. Do you know Boaz is a relative of ours,
and he's a rich relative, and here's Ruth gleaning in his field.

Of all the fields, Ruth didn't know his name. Ruth didn't know anything
about him. Just a man called Boaz.

But immediately, Naomi is going, this is providence. This is God. And
you know where providence leads her? To the word of God.

You better be careful that providence, seeing providence in your life,
does it lead you to the word of God, the teaching of God's word, God's
clear commands? If providence leads you away from the Bible, or is
separate from the Bible, it's deceptive. It's dangerous. You could say,
ah, here's God's hand.

It could be the devil. It could be mere circumstance. But yet, here's
Naomi.

She gets led into the word of God. Boaz, the kinsman redeemer,
Leviticus, Deuteronomy. I'm beginning to see this.

And so Naomi gets led into the word of God. Then listen to what she says
in verse 20. And Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law, blessed be he,
that is Boaz.

She's beginning to bless Boaz now. Blessed be he of the Lord, who has
not left off his kindness to the living and the dead. She's talking
about the kindness of God.

When providence begins to open up, she suddenly realizes, I haven't lost
God's kindness. What is God's kindness? The word kindness that is used
there. It's the word hesed or kesed.

It means loving kindness. It's a word for grace. It means to be loyal,
reliable, a covenant God.

So she's saying the kindness of God, I haven't lost it. In fact, all
these events are beginning to show me that God's covenant, loyalty,
grace, faithfulness, all this happens in one single day. And it begins
to dramatically change the story.

Do you realize God's kindness? You could be blind to it. You could go,
all these things are against me. God doesn't like me.

God is wounding me. And all the time, God wants to reveal my covenant
loyalty to you. Notice what she says as well.

It's his kindness to the living and the dead. She's lost a husband and
two sons. And this day, the events of this day, suddenly her mind begins
to change and go, you know what? God hasn't forgotten his kindness to
those that are dead.

Three men are dead. They're dead. They're gone.

It was tragic. But suddenly the events of this day begin to show that
God's kindness isn't only to Naomi, isn't only to Ruth. But actually in
what is happening right now, it shows that God's kindness is being
revealed to these three dead men.

They're dead. They're gone. It was tragic.

And yet this day's events of providence begins to show that God is
thinking about dead men, three dead men. You'd think God's finished with
them. They've lived their life.

Their life is over. Oh no, not when you go into this chapter and these
verses, you begin to see here that what God is now doing, he's actually
considering these three men. He's looking back to the death of 10 years
ago.

And he said, I am not acting. I'm remembering and this is why I'm doing
this. Then the two sons, also them, God is remembering them doing
certain things.

And you know what? Naomi's seeing all this for the first time. She was
depressed yesterday. She's not depressed anymore.

She's going, hold on. She's suddenly becoming in awe, aware of God,
understanding scripture, begin to see something that's changing, aware
of the kindness of God and the loyalty of God. And the God hasn't even
forgotten her dead family members.

Are you seeing this tonight? This is an extraordinary, amazing thing.
There's four times here, sorry, five times that Naomi is called the
Moabitess. Twice in this chapter two, she's called Ruth the Moabitess.

Do you know what that means? The writer, the Holy Spirit who wrote this
little book, once she'd understand, as you begin to see everything
change, don't you forget she was a Moabitess. Don't you forget she's
from another culture. Don't you forget she got drawn out of paganism.

She had a different nationality. She had a different past that you may
not want to know about. She had a family background that you might think
is against her.

And yet all of this is being revealed. Ruth the Moabitess, never forget
it, who she was. And yet grace, God's covenant grace is being revealed.

And so that's the first thing revealed here. Providence revealed in
these few verses overnight, instantly, in a few hours, in a few moments.
Their eyes, Naomi, Ruth, Boaz, all three of them in this day, their eyes
are being opened up to see God's hand of providence.

They didn't see it yesterday. Now they do. My second point, the kinsman
redeemer revealed.

Let me say that again. The kinsman redeemer revealed. He wasn't revealed
yesterday.

He's being revealed today. Right now, progressively throughout this day,
it begins with him, begins to affect Ruth. Finally, Naomi, that night,
late that night before she goes to bed, her eyes are open to the
revealing of the kinsman redeemer.

Look at the end of verse 20. And Naomi said unto Ruth, the man you've
mentioned, Boaz, is near of kin unto us. He is one of our next kinsmen.

Underline that word kinsmen. It is an absolute vital word here. So not
only is providence being revealed, the kinsman redeemer for the first
time in this book is being revealed.

You don't read about him in chapter one. He doesn't appear in chapter
one. He's not there for 10 years, but in one individual day, not only is
providence being revealed, the kinsman redeemer at the exact same time
is being revealed.

Providence opens their eyes up to begin to see what the Old Testament
teaches unto the person. Who is this Boaz? Ruth could never imagine how
important it was that she had been on his field on that day at that
time. This wasn't accidental.

It was a profound, remarkable plan of God that was actually in line with
the word of God. And so this word kinsman is very important. What is all
this about the teaching of the kinsman redeemer? You see, the hand of
providence had turned against Naomi or so it seemed.

But now in this one day, her mind was opening up to see the truth of the
kinsman redeemer. The provision of what the Bible taught about a kinsman
redeemer. She never mentions it in the dark times.

She doesn't believe it. She's not encouraged by it. But in this one day,
suddenly her eyes are open.

She knew this. She had read about it. She was taught it, but it didn't
affect her.

But on this day, the teaching of the kinsman redeemer becomes dynamic
because God is revealing it. It has to be this day. The truth of his
being the redeemer or the kinsman redeemer is going to impact her whole
life.

True providence always leads you to God's written word. The word kinsman
used here is the Hebrew word geol. It's a very important word.

Listen to what it means. It means for someone to act as a kinsman or as
it's translated other places in the Old Testament as a redeemer. Someone
who comes, a family member who steps into your life to redeem you or to
purchase you back out of trouble.

And almost everywhere in the Old Testament, this word is a redeemer.
Someone acting as a redeemer that's going to impact and change your
entire life. It is someone who is performing a unique family task on
behalf of you.

The Bible teaches it. The Bible lays out the full instruction on it. And
it means for someone to act on behalf of those who have lost their
possessions.

So in other words, this redeemer, this kinsman, it's not just a family
member. He is a redeemer. He is someone who has the power and ability to
impact you when you've lost your freedom, you've lost your money, you've
lost your wealth, you've lost your house, you lost your land.

In fact, you've ruined your life through sin or through neglect or
through the choices you made in life. Your life has been ruined. Your
life has been lost.

You have lost hope. You've got no future. And in that condition of being
ruined and lost and poverty stricken and you have no money and you can't
provide for yourself.

Do you know what? The Bible talks about a person. He's got to be a
family member who steps in and becomes a redeemer. He is going to save
you from your terrible situation.

And so Naomi begins to realize they have a redeemer. Here's two ladies.
They have no man, no provision, no money.

And she begins to go, hold on. Boaz is a redeemer. He is actually,
according to God's word, he is the person, the family member connected
to us who's meant to step in.

And it just so happens he's very wealthy. And it just so happens he's
here in Bethlehem. But the word of God begins to teach that this is the
very man who can make all the difference in our life.

Now this word redemption or kinsman that we see written here, you know,
over in the New Testament, you go into Ephesians and Colossians and you
begin to read in the gospels and you read that Christ, when he died on
the cross and shed his blood, he died to redeem you. He shed his blood
to redeem you, to rescue you, that your sins could be forgiven. Sin
ruined your life, destroyed your life.

You're a prisoner. You're impoverished. You've lost everything because
of sin and because of the things that happened to you in life.

You're destitute. You're in serious trouble. But do you know what it
says? Jesus Christ is the redeemer.

He is the kinsman redeemer. There's an entire teaching in the New
Testament that calls Jesus the redeemer, the one who intervenes in life
to save you, to rescue you, to bring you out. Do you know where it comes
from? It comes from here.

In fact, you can't understand the teaching of redemption in the New
Testament without understanding it here in the Old Testament. Redemption
in the New Testament is based on the teaching of redemption in the Old
Testament. And you cannot understand New Testament redemption unless you
go back to this.

In fact, let me say something. No book in the Old Testament has this
story of redemption explained in the kinsman like this book, Ruth. You
won't find it in any other book of the Old Testament as clear, as
precise, as detailed as you find it here.

And so the book of Ruth is a book about redemption, the kinsman
redeemer. It's explaining it to you. And if you want to understand
redemption through Jesus, you've got to go to the book of Ruth.

You've got to understand that Boaz is a picture of redemption through
the blood of Jesus Christ. This little book of Ruth is all about blood
redemption and providence is connected to it in a very strong way. This
is literally a teaching manual concerning blood redemption.

You see, the person, when you go into the Old Testament, read about the
kinsman redeemer, you read he has to be a close relative. He's got to be
a family member. He's got to be kin.

He's got to be related to you in some way. And that redeemer, that
savior, that kinsman, do you know what the Bible says? That he has a
right to redeem you. No, he's got more than that.

He's got a duty to redeem you. No more than that. He's got an obligation
under the law of Moses to step in and intervene and rescue you from your
terrible situation.

In fact, he must buy you back or your field or your house or your
possessions. If he is a redeemer, the word of God says he must do this.
He's got to do this.

They're not allowed to leave you in that terrible state. And so this
word Geol is all through the book of Ruth. We read it in chapter 3 verse
9, chapter 3 verse 12, chapter 4 verse 1 and verse 3 and verse 6 and
verse 8 and verse 14.

In fact, you see it all through the place, but it's different than the
word in chapter 2 and verse 1. It's not the same word. Then this word
Geol, the verb of it is also used in this book four different times in
just one verse, in chapter 4 verse 4. And it's the word is used four
times. It's the word for Geol or kinsman, redeemer again.

Then in chapter 4 and verse 6, it's used three times in that particular
verse. When you go to chapter 3 and verse 13, it's used four times and
it's the word Geol, G-A-O-L. It's similar, but it's just another
pronoun, but it's the same word being used.

Do you know what Geol means? It means to play the part of a kinsman. And
in this story, it involves marrying Ruth to be a kinsman redeemer.
You're going to have to rescue her.

You're going to have to save her from her poverty, from her hardship,
from her sadness, and it's going to involve actual marriage. Do you
remember who her husband was? He was Mahalon. Ruth's husband died
without giving her children.

They were barren, no children. And so in the law, when you read it,
there's an obligation that some close kinsman or redeemer to Mahalon has
to step in. Now notice all the commentators, damn Mahalon almost to hell
as a backslider dying in Moab.

But here as you go into chapter 2, and we're going to find it in the
next two chapters, God is remembering this man. He didn't have a very
nice name, a meaning of his name, but you have God remembering him and
saying, I've got a full provision for this man who died. In fact, when
you look at his life, it seems like a sad story.

It seems like a hard end. It seems like there was none spiritual, no
answered prayer, no future. And yet here's years later, God is
intervening and saying, you know that dead young man, I'm going to
rescue the entire testimony.

This is a remarkable story. And so the word for kinsman redeemer is used
about 30 times in the book of Ruth in different ways, 30 times. You
know, there's a dominating theme in this book and God has providentially
brought these lives together in the same place at the same time and the
same family members.

And you know what he's revealing? This truth of a kinsman redeemer. It
says in Deuteronomy chapter 25 in verse six, that the name be not put
out of Israel. It's talking about the kinsman redeemer.

So if you die and there's no children, then a close relatives got to
come and marry that lady. Why? Listen, listen, this statement again,
that his name be not put out of Israel. Do you realize when Boaz finally
does marry Ruth, God is thinking about Mahalon.

It's not Boaz he's thinking of. It's not just Ruth he's thinking of.
It's Mahalon who's died.

Everyone damns poor Mahalon. And yet the entire story is God saying, you
know what? We're not going to allow Mahalon's name to be lost. Oh, it's
a poor name.

It's not a very nice name. But I want to tell you, God is saying, you
know what? His name is going to be written in the Bible and he's going
to be known because of Boaz. Boaz is intervening.

So even the story of a dead man that died in obscurity, his entire story
has changed because God remembers him and has made provision. And this
only happens after he dies. You know, my great grandmother was a woman
of God, a woman of prayer.

She lived up into her latter days. She prayed for all her family
members. She wrote letters to them saying, you must be born again.

You need to know the Lord. Why not read the Bible? You know, she got no
response all through her day. She's lived all her days.

And her 55 year old son, who is my grandfather, he's a religious man, a
moral man, a nice man, but he's not a born again man. 55 years old and
you think your son is going to get saved now? He lived all that way and
his mother was a godly woman, a woman on fire for God, filled with the
Spirit of God. And she went to bed one night and about midnight she
dies.

And when she went to bed that night, she doesn't have one single family
member born again, none of them. None of them are saved. Not her
children, not her grandchildren, none of them are saved.

But what she didn't know was about two hours before she died, my mother
walked into a meeting, got born again. And when my mom went to bed that
night, she says, I can't wait till the morning to go and tell my
grandmother that I've been born again. Do you realize that it's possible
that you're a Mahalon who actually goes down to the grave and it looks
all dark? You don't even realize what's about to happen.

You don't even realize what is just about to be initiated, that this
person who goes down to the grave, you can't even imagine. We're talking
about providence here and how God intervenes. It also says in
Deuteronomy 25 verse 7, speaking about if the redeemer refuses to raise
up onto his brother a name in Israel and will not perform the duty of
the husband's brother, he ought to be penalized and called names.

He's got to be called the one who would not redeem his brother and
everyone's going to know. It was such a serious thing. Or listen to this
as well, Leviticus 25 verse 48.

After that, he is sold. Talk about a Jew who's sold as a slave. After
that he is sold, he may be redeemed again.

It's the same word. One of his brethren may redeem him. So it's not
about when you become a slave or lose your property.

It's possible to be redeemed again by this redeemer, either by his uncle
or his uncle's son. They may redeem him or if he is able to redeem
himself. If thy brother be waxed poor and has sold away some of his
possessions and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he
redeem that which his brother had sold.

And so you've got two teachings here. You've got the kinsman redeemer
talking about if you've lost things are being sold into slavery. Do you
know this chapter, Leviticus 25, where you find this, it talks about the
50th year being the year of Jubilee.

In Israel's cycle, every 50 years, redemption breaks in on God's people.
All debts get cancelled every single 50 years in society, in Jerusalem,
in Israel. Every 50th year, they used to blow the trumpets.

And you know what, if you were a slave that had to sell yourself to pay
your debts, you go absolutely free. Or if you lost your land, it comes
back to you. If you lost your house through bad mortgage payments, the
house comes back to you.

If you lost your entire inheritance, it comes back to you every 50
years. But 50 years is a long time. So God inserted this about the
redeemer.

Someone can step in and rescue all that you have lost. And this is what
we see played out in the book of Ruth. It's been so dark until now.

But you know what's happening? The redeemer is being revealed. There's a
kinsman redeemer. And guess what? His name is Boaz.

Can you imagine Ruth's mind going, I stumbled into his field this
morning. I was working there. And then he begins to look at me and ask
about me.

Then he, not night time before I go to bed, I'm actually finding out he
fulfills Leviticus 25. He is actually a kinsman redeemer. In fact,
there's an obligation in the world that he saved me and helped me.

He's a very rich man, a businessman. He's got many workers. He's got
land.

He is the most important person in Bethlehem. And here he is, there's a
connection, a personal connection with him. This is an extraordinary
thing.

And so the book of Ruth is literally based on these two principles. It
is the only time we see these commands worked out in a practical way in
an Old Testament. We don't see anywhere else someone intervening to
rescue people as the redeemer.

It's the one and only place. And it's right here in this story. You
know, over in Ephesians chapter 5, we read about marriage.

It's Paul's teaching to the church about marriage. Verse 22 to verse 31.
It's all about marriage, a husband, a wife.

Then it even goes on to their children. It says what a husband should
be, what a wife should be, how their marriage should be. Then Paul gets
to the last verse, verse 32.

Listen to what he says. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning
Christ and the church. He's spoken all these verses in Ephesians 5 about
marriage.

A man and a woman get married. They fall in love. They like each other.

They're attracted. They come into a marriage covenant. They're going to
live together.

Then after teaching all that, Paul says, oh no, let me just tell you
something here. And I know you're enjoying this. I know you think we're
just talking about your marriage, your relationship.

You've fallen in love, but actually there's something else here. Paul
says very, very clearly, this is a great mystery. Do you know what the
word mystery there, it's mysterium.

Do you know what it means? It means something is concealed in this,
hidden in it. There's something not known unless God shows you it. So
all you see is a marriage, a man, a woman get married.

But do you know what Ephesians 5 teaches? Oh no, you only see the
outward. You see this love relationship, but there's a mystery in it.
What is the mystery? Paul says, I speak about Christ and the church.

You're seeing a natural marriage. You're seeing a wedding between one
man and one woman. The apostle Paul says, I'm seeing something very
different.

Hidden within this natural marriage is a picture, a type. If you look
closely with spiritual eyes, you're going to see the whole truth of how
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it and died for it. It
actually says there's a great mystery.

In other words, the greatest mystery. It is the greatest hidden secret
in all our world that a marriage has hidden within it, a picture of
Christ and the church. Third and lastly, let me finish here.

Saints of God, I'm opening up the truth to the kinsman redeemer. We're
going to deal with this for the rest of the time. I just began to show
you this, that the hand of providence is opening all of this up.

And you know what? Naomi and Ruth and Boaz are only beginning to see the
hand of providence and going, do you realize God's bringing a marriage
together? Do you realize God is, Naomi is all alert now. She's an older
lady with a daughter and she's going, we need to get ready for a
marriage. There's coming a glorious day.

I know what's about to happen here. I know God's word. I now see
providence.

Everything is changing with Naomi. It's not a happy home. I bet they
couldn't sleep that night.

They're going to bed. Naomi can't sleep. Ruth can't sleep.

Guess what? Boaz can't sleep. They're, they're a blaze with us. But do
you realize there's something hidden within us that Ruth didn't see and
Boaz didn't see and Naomi doesn't see.

They're only seeing the hand of providence working now in their lifetime
for their situation. It's going to change their life and turn dark
threads into silver threads. That's all they see.

Do you know what they don't see yet? Is God's hand of providence about
to affect the world? You see, you're only seeing how it affects you.
What you don't see and they never know in their lifetime until the day
they die of old age, leaving children. You know, they say, look at God's
providence.

You're only seeing a little bit of it. You're going to have to wait to
heaven to see the full picture. Now you're going, oh, God brought me to
that field.

God brought Boaz. God changed my situation. Naomi said, God made me
happy again.

You're seeing nothing of it. All you're seeing is a little edge of
providence. Whenever really the full picture is your child, your
descendant is going to become the entire redeemer, not only of the
nation of Israel, but of all men, all sinners, all nations for all
generations.

There's coming a Messiah out of your family line. The hand of providence
is extraordinary. Do you know what's sitting in this room? I would dare
say in all my life, and I've seen the hand of providence here, there,
it's extraordinary.

I'm in awe of providence. And yet I don't even realize the full
consequences, and I won't even see its final fulfillment until the day I
see Jesus Christ. Let me finish here.

If you give me a couple of minutes. I don't know why you laugh when I
say a couple of minutes. Third and finally, the pursuit of bread
revealed.

So we've had providence revealed in these few verses. We've had the
kinsman redeemer revealed, but now the pursuit of bread revealed. You
remember how all this began? Pursuing bread.

That's where it began. Never underestimate how important pursuing bread
is, the desire for bread. Because this entire story is built on this
principle, the pursuit of bread.

But it's only on this day they begin to see and understand. In other
words, something that was hidden, there was a pursuit in Naomi's heart
for bread, and in Ruth's heart, that only now they begin to understand
this pursuit of bread. Can I ask you, do you desire God's word? Have you
been pursuing God's word? Have you been seeking after it? Then I would
dare say you don't even realize what God is using that for in your life,
and where He has been leading you, and where He is finally going to lead
you.

If you pursue bread, you're on a wonderful journey here tonight. And so
third and finally, the pursuit of bread revealed. It's revealed suddenly
after this entire journey.

Remember in chapter 1 verse 22, so Naomi returned and Ruth of Moabitus,
her daughter-in-law, with her, which returned out of the country of
Moab, and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.
When they arrived back in Bethlehem, it is the beginning. Notice the
timing.

It is the beginning of barley harvest. There's been a famine for 10
years. Now here comes the first harvest of barley in all of these years.

Notice as well in chapter 2, 23, it's the last two verses of chapter 1
and chapter 2. The last verse of chapter 2, so she kept fast by the
maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat
harvest and dwelt with her mother-in-law. I want you to see when they
got back to Bethlehem, it's the beginning of harvest. The last verse of
chapter 2 is the end of harvest.

And so although chapter 2 is one day, covers one day, the last verse
isn't one day. The last verse covers that entire time from beginning of
harvest to the end of harvest, all packed into one verse. These two
chapters have been about the harvest, bringing these lives together for
the harvest.

It's a harvest of the word of God. There is a revival going on. There is
an outpouring of the Holy Spirit going on.

You remember this pursuit of the word of God. It began in chapter 1,
verse 1. There was a famine in the land of Judah and a certain man of
Bethlehem, Judah, began to make his journey. Where did all of this
begin? A famine for bread, for barley, for harvest.

There is a famine. This is what started the sad journey, the heartache,
the dark threads. Do you realize when there's a famine of God's word,
when we lose God's word in Bethlehem, the house of bread, God's house,
when we lose preaching and teaching and holiness and prayer, it is a
tragedy.

When there's no bread of life in the house of God, you know what starts
happening? We begin leaving the house of God. People get scattered.
That's where all of this began.

Then in chapter 1, verse 6, the Lord had visited his people and given
them bread. In Bethlehem, they heard about this. So look at the journey
back.

God visits. God comes. God draws near.

God revives. God stirs. What does he do? He gave them bread.

That starts Naomi on this journey. She is pursuing bread. I want to go
back to the house of bread.

I want to go to a house where there's real preaching and real teaching
and the word of God gets opened up and we see Christ in his house again.
That's what I want to do. This motivated Naomi.

She was on a journey for bread and it impacted Ruth to follow her. Then
look at chapter 2, verse 1. We read that early that morning that Ruth
rises up and she says, I want to go out to glean. Glean what? She says,
I want to start gleaning in the harvest fields.

Look at verse 2. She goes to the field and gleans ears of corn. That's
very small, isn't it? Imagine ears of corn. So they're pursuing bread.

They're in great difficulty. Where does Ruth start? I just want ears of
corn. I want you to see here before we close how God is leading these
ladies.

They're not following a pipe dream. They are pursuing, returning to
Bethlehem, going, I want bread in the house of God. And here's where
Ruth began.

She got up and began to work hard going, I just want ears of corn. I am
pursuing after something small. I'm going to work hard.

I'm going to be diligent. I'm going to be faithful. Are you like that?
Saints of God, you need to get up in the morning and you need to open
this Bible and you need to begin to say, Lord, I'm in trouble.

If you're in distress and you neglect this book, an awful lot of that is
self-inflicted. You're discouraged because you didn't get encouraged by
the Word of God this morning. You're allowing certain things because the
Word of God didn't rebuke you this morning.

And I'm telling you, if you begin to seek after the corns of head, just
a few corns of head, it'll begin to lead you. Sit down with the Word of
God for 10 minutes or 30 minutes and begin to read the Word of God.
Don't dare leave the house of God without the Word of God.

And this is what Ruth done. She went after it. Verse 3, she gleans in
the field.

She's gleaning. Oh, I'm no preacher. I'm no Bible student.

I'm no scholar. I know. That's okay.

I hardly know what I'm reading. Fine. Just pick up what others drop
behind them.

And so you have Ruth here gleaning in the field after the reapers.
There's all the hard workers. There's all the men.

This is their job. This is their profession. I don't really know what
I'm doing.

I'm just trying to get something to eat. So I follow after the reapers
and I just now and again catch something. It's not much.

Oh, it's not much. Keep on reaping, Ruth. Keep on following after the
reapers.

Some of you will hear me and go, what in all the world is he talking
about? Oh, that was a good testimony. Oh, that's a good scripture. Some
of that I don't know.

Don't worry. Just a few things will get dropped for you. Verse 8, Boaz
tells her, don't go to glean in another field, but stay by my maidens.

Go thou out after them. Look at the clear instructions. Stay here in
this field.

Do you notice that God is working in all of this? God is revealing a
journey where she's pursuing. Now she's being taught how to glean in the
field. Stay here, follow the ladies.

Don't go anywhere else. Okay, Lord, that's what I'm going to do. If you
stay in this field, you're going to get fed.

In fact, you're going to find you're not coming home with a few heads of
corn and a rough meal for the night to get you through a day. You're
going to find this is a bountiful journey. Just keep pursuing after the
word of God.

There's a revealing of God's plan. Saints, if you're pursuing the word
of God, you're on a remarkable journey. If you want truth and preaching,
and you want the word of God, you are being led somewhere.

And there's a person, the hand of providence is there. Oh, you get up in
the morning, you don't feel anything. No flashing lights.

I'll just read my psalm and I'm turning over to Timothy and Titus now.
No great voice, thunder, life-changing experience. Don't you realize
you're gleaning? Don't you realize someone is leading you somewhere?
Don't you realize God's hand of providence can be in what you read in
the morning? Do you trust him enough for that, that you're gleaning in
the right field at the right time? Then verse 14, at mealtime, Boaz
says, come hither.

It's mealtime. It's Wednesday night. It's Sunday morning.

Boaz says, come and eat of the bread, dip thy morsel, thy small morsel
in vinegar, give a bit of taste to it. And she sat beside the reapers
who are bringing in the harvest and he reached her some parched corn.
I've cooked this for you.

I've been working it over on Saturday, Saturday night, praying,
munching, chewing all week. Here's a bit of cooked corn that I prepared
for you. Please eat it.

Not gleaning anymore. I'm presenting you with something prepared. I want
you to sit here at this mealtime.

And she did eat and was sufficed and there was left. So what he gave
her, there was a load left. She ate her full.

She's hard working and she's got loads left that she's going to take
home to Naomi. Now she's being fed and handed meals that are going to
help her. I'm going to help Naomi and are going to amaze Naomi tonight.

All of this that you see a journey here that is absolutely
extraordinary. Then verse 15, straight after this, she rises up and goes
gleaning again. She goes for a mealtime.

I wish you'd done that on a Wednesday night and I wish you'd done that
on a Sunday night. I wish you left church from preaching and you went
and started gleaning again. Oh not, oh the preacher gave me a message
and broke down the word of God.

I pray that it stirs you to go and to say, I'm going back to glean and
to bring in. Then Boaz commands his young men saying, let her glean even
among the sheaths, not on the edges of the field, allow her to come
right in. Verse 16, and then listen young guys, let fall also some of
the handfuls of purpose for her.

Don't tell her. She thinks she's gleaning, working hard, studying for
herself. But I'm saying invisibly behind the scenes, I want you to drop
bunches of things.

And she's going to go, oh look what I found in Bible study. You're not
going to believe it. It was just there.

I can't even believe that I had a revelation like this. And the Holy
Spirit's there going, oh isn't that amazing. Don't you think that
handfuls, bunches of purpose can be dropped for you.

And you think it's all your hard work and your study and I'm really
researching into this. No, it got dropped for you. And you come round
the corner and go, oh look what's lying here.

Can you believe this just happened to be there and these guys, they
didn't even see it. Oh, isn't that amazing? Do you know what this is?
This is God's hand of providence. He doesn't tell you.

He just does it. He doesn't want to embarrass you. He wants you to think
it's your hard work and your study and your diligence, but really he's
dropping it for you.

Verse 17, so she gleaned in the field until even. And then what did she
do? She beat out that she had gleaned. She hasn't gone home yet.

She's beating it out. She's preparing it. Oh that you would do that in
this church.

Saints of God, go home. You're going to find God is in this. Boaz is in
this.

The kinsman redeemer is in this. Providence is in this. You think you're
just in a church.

Isn't it amazing that I just happen to be in a Bible believing church?
Isn't it amazing that we are just in this particular church with the
word of God being dropped to us like this? And it's just circumstantial.
I just happen to live in Limerick. I just happen to be online.

I just happen to walk in the door. Really? You really think that? And
you don't see that God's entire eternal purpose and plan is here
dropping food for you and it's kept you and it's preserved you and it's
drawn you into his plan and his purpose. And here she is beating it out
in verse 17.

And it says that and it was about an eaf of barley that she carried
home. 22 liters of corn that she brings back. And then she goes down
into the field and spends the rest of harvest time bringing in the
barley.

And barley was the cheap man's food. But it didn't stop there. It then
moved on to the wheat harvest.

Wheat is top quality production. Far better than barley. Now you're on
to the rich stuff.

The expensive stuff. The high quality stuff. And here she is in all of
this.

Let me finish with one story. I've kept you for a bit. One story.

My mum got born again as a teenager. In around 1959 she wanted, she was
living in Northern Ireland, north of the border. She wanted to come to
Southern Ireland as a missionary.

She wanted to evangelise. She had a burden for Southern Ireland. You
couldn't come and preach like I preach here.

There was a time in 1959 the Bible was banned for being read in Southern
Ireland by the Catholic Church. You weren't allowed to read the Bible
for yourself in your own language. It was forbidden.

The mass was in Latin. All of it was in Latin. The gospel was hidden.

And that's how Ireland was as an entire nation. 98% Catholic. You
weren't allowed.

In fact you were suspect if you read the Bible. But that began to
change. My mum wanted to come as a missionary to Southern Ireland.

And she said, I'm not going to get married. I don't want to get married.
I'm going to stay single for the Lord.

And you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to become a missionary to
go to the Southern Irish to tell them about the love of God. The
redemption of the kinsman redeemer. And so she made her choice.

She was going to stay single. She applied for the Mission Society in
around 1959-60. And they turned her down.

You know why? They said we're only looking for married couples. You're a
single girl. We're not taking any single girls.

Come back when you're married. Well she once seen my father getting
thrown out of a bar and he sneaked in to steal a load of drinks. She
just happened to say, I would never marry a man like him.

Very shortly he was saved, filled with the spirit. And now he's inviting
her to all night meetings and prayer meetings and spirit filled
meetings. And he's on fire for God.

And she falls in love with him and they get married. So they're back
again in Northern Ireland after Bible college. So she again writes to
the Mission Society in Southern Ireland saying, so is there any openings
to come as a missionary? I'm married now.

And is there openings? They wrote back and said, sorry, we're not taking
any married couples. We're only taking single individuals. And so my
mom, God spoke to her and says, my will for you is to get married.

She wanted to come as a missionary to Southern Ireland, but God's will
said, that's who I want you to marry. You're going to get married. And
out of that marriage, after their third child, little Anne died, they
weren't going to have any more children.

They're only going to have three, but little Anne, their third child
died. And because she died, they then went on to have a third son called
Keith Malcolmson. And he's standing here.

Do you realize God's hand of providence works on all these things? I
never thought I'd be a preacher on Limerick High Street in Southern
Ireland. I never thought I'd even live here. I could have believed
Germany or Siberia or England or some other nation, but never in
Ireland.

And yet here I am. And you know what? God is working on all of those
things because there's a plan and a purpose. And since if you trust him,
he can in one moment reveal and open up to you and show you providence.

The plan of the kinsman redeemer and this pursuit of God's word, you're
just trying to pick up a bit of corn to feed yourself. And you know,
it's leading you to harvest time into the plenteous supply of God. Let's
pray here tonight.

Father, we love you. We bless you. We thank you for the word of God in
this wonderful book about our kinsman redeemer.

Lord God, thank you that you brought this couple together, not only for
their delight, not only for their happiness, not just to have a child,
but you had a divine purpose that was hidden from them. They never saw
it in their lifetime that you had a plan and bringing them together in a
natural marriage that fitted into your eternal plan and purpose to bring
forth a kinsman redeemer that's impacted the nation of Ireland, that
vast multitudes have been impacted in this nation, all as a part of this
providential work in families and in homes and in individual lives. Lord
God, we pray that the same God of providence would work mightily in our
lives tonight.

Open up our eyes that we might see in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/Icc4tBD422M.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/keith-malcomson/providence-the-kinsman-redeemer/
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