In this sermon, the speaker addresses the relationship between the Church and Israel from the perspective of the bride. He emphasizes the importance of the Church being a woman of excellence, just as the bride is described in the Book of Ruth. The speaker highlights the significance of Jesus as the bridegroom, who is not physically attractive but is still desired by the bride. He also mentions the role of a relative who has the right of redemption, drawing parallels to Jesus' role as the redeemer. The speaker emphasizes the importance of the Church blessing Israel and sharing the gospel with them, as God used the Jews to bring the gospel to the Gentiles in the past.

Shalom Lachem, Kol Tov, Shabbat Shalom Lekulam. Open with me please to the book of Ruth. The book of Ruth. If you don't have a Bible, please share a Bible with the person next to you. Share a Bible with the person next to you if you don't have a Bible. Open with me please to the book of Ruth. Eloheinu Moshieinu, anachtu modim lehab b'shul kol ha'brahot she'anakhtu kibalne mincha. Ana Adonai achshav anakhtu mevakhshim mimcha. Tishpok etruchakhecha alenu. Gam t'shitakh et einayim sh'lanu la'kiferet shal varecha. Ten manu aval hitkerev lakha. Lo rak yishmau aladvarecha, valgam ten behazdecha. Gam bekoak mimcha la'asot. B'shem she'ha Mashiach Yeshua, Adonenu, Gowalenu, Malkenu, v'tzidkatenu. Heavenly Father, we thank you for all of your goodness and your blessings to us, Lord God. We ask you now, Father, that you would, by the power of your Spirit, open our eyes, our minds, and above all our hearts to the glory and meaning of your words. And in your grace and in your strength, Father, that we not be only hearers of your words, but doers also. We ask these things in the name of your Son, our Messiah, our King, our Redeemer, and our Righteousness, Yeshua. Amen. The Book of Ruth. I've been asked to speak on the theme today in three messages of the prophetic relationship between the Church and Israel. The prophetic relationship between the Church and Israel. We'll be looking at that today in three sections. The first section I've been asked to address from the point of view of the bride. What is the bride, who is the bride, and what does it mean for the Church's relationship to Israel and the purposes of God for the Church concerning Israel and the Jews? Secondly, I wanted to look at biblical prophecy in a broader sense, and it was suggested we look at the Autumn Feast, the typology of the Fall Feast of Israel, how they are an outline of God's prophetic program, and how they point to the return of Christ. Israel is God's timepiece for the nation. And we understand the typology of the Jewish calendar, what we call the Ruach. We understand what it means for the return of Christ and how to prepare for it. That'll be the second message. The third one I've been asked to look at is the situation today. I was in Israel just a few days, really, before Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. What is the situation in Israel now for the Messianic believers, for the indigenous body of Christ? One major problem you have in South Africa is this. We have four kinds of churches in Israel. It goes by language, really. You have the Hebrew-speaking, the Arabic-speaking, and the Russian-speaking. Those are the indigenous churches. Those who speak Russian, those who speak Hebrew, and those who speak Arabic. Those are the indigenous churches. But then you have an expatriate church, mainly English-speaking, made up of foreigners from England, America, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand. Most of the information about Israel, what God is doing in Israel, does not come to you from the indigenous body of Christ. You usually don't hear from the Hebrew-speaking, from the Arabic-speaking, or the Russian-speaking congregation. As a matter of fact, I've met so many people in South Africa that they don't even hear from Jewish believers like Jews for Jesus. They usually hear from this expatriate church. And this is a very big problem in Israel. Many of the believers in Israel do not like the fact that someone else comes to their country and makes themselves the spokesman, the self-appointed spokesman, for what God is doing for the rest of the world. Why can't the Israeli believers and the Jewish mission organizations speak for themselves? And so what I'd like to do on this final message is help share the perspective of the local believers. Most of what you've heard has come from foreigners, people who are not Israeli, who don't speak Hebrew, who have spent a year or two in Israel, and they come back and they write books and make themselves the big know-it-all, when in fact they know very little. So those are the three messages. The first will be Ruth. The second will be the typology of the Jewish calendar, looking at the autumn season, not the spring ones, but focusing on the autumn ones for the return of Christ. And finally, the situation in Israel today, what it means prophetically in the aftermath of Mr. Rabin's assassination, and what the response of the body of Christ should be to it. With these things in view, look with me, first of all, please, to the book of Ruth, chapter 1. The book of Ruth is read in the Jewish synagogue at the Feast of Pentecost. We call it in Hebrew, Chag Shavuot, or the Feast of Weeks. It is the birthday, as it were, of the Gentile church. And it's what's read in the synagogues. It's the story of a rich, powerful Jewish man who takes a Gentile bride and engulfs her the way that Jesus, on the day of Pentecost, as it were, gives rise to the Gentile church, the bride of Christ. Nonetheless, let's commence in chapter 1, verse 1 in the book of Ruth. Follow along, please. Don't take my word for anything, dear Berean. Check it for yourself. It came about in the days when the judges governed that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Betlehem meaning the house of bread, in Judah, went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech, which means, My God is King. And the name of his wife, Naomi. And the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Phileon, at the price of Bethlehem in Judah. Now they entered the land of Moab and remained there. Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died and she was left with her two sons. And they took with themselves Moabite women as wives. Now we read in Deuteronomy that the Moabites were particularly despised of the Jews because of the maltreatment of them during the Exodus period. The name of one was Orpha and the name of the other was Ruth. And they lived there about ten years and both Mahlon and Phileon also died. And the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return to the land of Moab. For she had heard in the land of Moab that the Lord had visited His people in giving them food. So she departed from the place where she was and her two daughters-in-law were with her. And they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go return each of you to her mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. May the Lord grant you that you may find rest each in the house of a husband. Then she kissed them and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, No, but we will surely return with you to your people. But Naomi said, Return, my daughters? Why should you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may be your husbands? Return, my daughters, go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I should even have a husband tonight and also bear sons, would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is harder for me than for you. For the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me. And they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law. But Ruth clung to her. Then she said, Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said, Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you. So where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people. Your God, my God. Where you die, I will die. And there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me in words, If anything but death separates you and me. When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. So they both went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came about when they had come to Bethlehem that all the city was stirred because of them. And the woman said, Is this Naomi? But she said to them, Do not call me Naomi. Call me Marah. For the Lord has dealt very bitterly with me. Marah or even Mary. Mary coming from bitterness. I went out still. But the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi? Since the Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me. So Naomi returned with her daughter, with Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the land of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. Again, this is read in the synagogue. At the Feast of Weeks, when the barley harvest is underway in Israel. Now Naomi had a tinsman of a husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. Boaz in Hebrew means, in his strength. It is also the name of one of the pillars of the temple. Boaz, in his strength. And Ruth the Moabitess 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, Let 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. Adonai l'vrechecha. Then Boaz said to his servant, who was in charge of the reapers, Whose young woman is this? And the servant in charge of the reapers answered and said, 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 trees. 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 from this one, but stay here with my maid. Let your eyes be on the field which they reach 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? And Boaz answered and said 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 know. May the Lord reward your work and your wages. May they be filled from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you've come to seek refuge. Then she said, I found favor in your sight, my Lord, for you've comforted me and indeed have spoken kindly to your maid servant, though I am not like one of your maid servants. And 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 next to him and reaped and served her roasted grain and she ate and was filled and had some left. And when she rose to glean, Boaz commanded his servant, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves. Do not insult her and also you shall purposely pull out for her some grain from the bundles and leave it that she may glean. 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 ephah of barley. And 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 and she was satisfied. And her mother-in-law 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 worked today is Boaz. And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, May he be blessed with the Lord who has not withdrawn his kindness to the living and the dead. Again, Naomi said to her, The man is our relative. He is one of our closest relatives. Krovin. Then Ruth, in the Hebrew idea of Karo, Krovin means close. It does not simply mean you ate it. It means somebody who is close to you. The idea of the family was based on a tribal model of an extended family. Then Ruth the Moabitess said, Furthermore, he said to me, You should stay close to my servants until they have finished all my harvest. And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maids lest others 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. Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, My daughter, shall I not seek security for you that it may be well with you? And now is not Boaz our kinsman with whose maids you were? Behold, he winnows barley at the threshing floor tonight. Wash yourself, therefore, and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes. Go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he is finished eating and drinking. And it shall be when he lies down, you shall notice the place where he lies and you shall go and uncover his feet and lie down. Then he will tell you what you shall do. And she said to her, All you say, I will do. So she went to the threshing floor and did according to all her mother-in-law had commanded her. When Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain and she came secretly and uncovered his feet and lay down. And it happened in the middle of the night that the man was startled and he leaned forward and behold, the woman was lying at his feet and he said, Who are you? And she said, I am Ruth, your maid. So spread your covering over your maid for you are a close relative. Then he said, May you be blessed with the Lord, my daughter, you have shown your last kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men whether rich or poor. And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you whatever you ask for all my people in the city know you are a woman of excellence. And now it is true I am a close relative. However, there is a relative closer than I. Remain this night and when morning comes that he will redeem you good, let him redeem you. But if he does not wish to redeem you, then I will redeem you. But as the Lord lives, lie down until morning. So she lay at his feet until the morning and rose before one could recognize another. And he said, Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor. And again, he said, Give me the cloak that is on you and hold it. So she held it and he gave it to her. And he measured six measures of barley and laid it on her. Then she went into the city. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, How did it go, my daughter? And she told her all the man had done for her. And she said, These six measures of barley he gave to me for he said, Do not go to your mother-in-law empty-handed. Then she said, Wait, my daughter, until you know how the matter turns out. For the man will not rest until he has settled it today. Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there and behold, the close relative of whom Boaz spoke was passing by. So he said, Turn aside, friend. Sit down here. And he turned aside and he sat down. And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, Sit down here. So they sat down. And then he said to the closest relative, Naomi, who has come back from the land of Moab, has to sell the piece of land which belonged to our brother Elimeric. So I thought to inform you, saying, Buy it for those who are sitting here and before the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if not, tell me that I may know. For there is no one but you to redeem it and I am after you. And he said, I will redeem it. But then Boaz said, On the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of the deceased, in order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance. And the close relative said, I cannot redeem it for myself lest I jeopardize my own inheritance. Redeem it for yourself and you may have my right of redemption. I cannot redeem it. Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning the redemption and the exchange of lands to confirm any matter. A man removed his sandal and gave it to another and this was the matter of attestation in Israel. So the closest relative said to Boaz, Buy it for yourself. And he removed his sandal. Then Boaz said to the elders and the brothers and all the people, You are witnesses today that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belong to Elimelech and all that belong to Chilion and Machlon. Moreover, I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Machlon to be my wife in order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance. So that the name of the deceased may not be cut off from his brothers or from the court of his birthplace. You are witnesses today. And all the people who are in the court and the elders said, We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, Rachel and Leah, both of whom built the house of Israel. And may you achieve wealth in Ephrathah and become famous in Bethlehem. Moreover, may your house be like the house of Perez from Tamar bore to Judah through the offspring which the Lord shall give you by this young woman. So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. And he went into her and the Lord enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to a son. Then the woman said to Naomi, Blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a Redeemer today. And may his name become famous in Israel. May he also be to you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age for your daughter-in-law who loves you better to you than seven sons have given birth to him. Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her lap and became his nurse. And the neighbor women gave him a name saying a son has been born to Naomi. So they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse the father of David. Now these are the generations of Perez. To Perez was born Hezron. To Hezron was born Ram. And to Ram Aminadab. And to Aminadab was born Mashon. And to Mashon Salmon. And to Salmon was born Boaz. To Boaz Obed. To Obed was born Jesse. And to Jesse David. This obviously begins the lineage of David. The Messiah would be the shortest Eshi the root of Jesse. Matthew's genealogy of Jesus does not begin in Matthew chapter one. It begins in Ruth chapter four. All of this is typology. All of this is central to understanding the purposes of God for Israel and the church and the relationship of one to the other. As a kid in New York I went both to a Roman Catholic school and to the Jewish community center. When I was a kid they named me James when I was a baby. But then I found out my name was supposed to be Yaakov my father's grandfather's name. My family is a combination of Jewish and Gentile. Spoke to my wife last night her parents are Holocaust survivors who were refused to come to the Communists in Eastern Europe. Our children are both born in Galilee. My wife and myself tell people we've seen two false religions in our lives. Mormon or Christianity which does not teach salvation comes in the new birth and we've seen Rabbinic Judaism which denies and rejects its own Messiah. The truth of Christianity and the truth of Judaism the real truth is not found in the traditions of Popes or Rabbis but in the word of God. Let's look carefully you have an old woman who feels that God himself is against her. She was forced out of her land for some time. Her husband dead. Her children die tragically. She's alone. She's bereft. She's embittered. She feels rejected. She feels that the hand of God himself is against her. This is my wife's parents and this is Jews who were in the Holocaust whose family were murdered by people who claimed to be Christian. So my wife's parents came to Israel this is their experience. God hates us. Read some of the Jewish writers like Elie Weschel who wrote after the Holocaust. One and a half million children kicked into ovens. God must hate us. Why us? Why the Holocaust? Why the Inquisition? Why the Crusades? Why always us? Why the pogroms? Jews know they're different from other people but they don't know why. Now pay attention. There is nothing special about Jews. There's nothing unique about Jews. Jews are people who need to be saved the same as anyone else. But there is something very special and very unique about the God of the Jews. There's something very special about the covenant of the Jews. There's something very special about the book of the Jews and something very special and very unique about the Messiah of the Jews. But until they see him they don't understand the rest of it. And so it is. The Jewish people today are in the character of Naomi. They feel rejected, cursed by God out of their land for nearly 2,000 years scattered from the time of the Emperor Hadrian. And then are regarded, they come back to Israel out of a desperate situation because they heard things have begun to get better in Israel. They come back the same as Naomi did. But they come back with this burden of rejection, of pain, of a sense of anguish and agony of soul, which if you talk to them about God they will even feel that God himself is against them. Even many religious Jews. And so it goes. But there are two Gentile women. Every Gentile Christian and every Gentile church will come in either the character of Ruth or Orpha. Orpha seems to be quite humane and quite polite and quite pleasant. But when push comes to shove and her own interests are at stake she goes back to her people and to her gods. Notice to her gods. What happened in the post-Nicene church after Constantine Christianized the Roman Empire? The church lost sight of its Jewish roots. As Paul warned should never happen in Romans 11 they lost sight of their roots. And what happened? Paganism invades Christendom. And you have the emergence of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy and all these things perverting and departing from the original Christianity of the New Testament which was a Jewish agrarian faith. They go back to their own gods when they lose sight of their Jewish roots. The same as you see here. But then there's Ruth. Your people will be my people. Your god my god. Where you go I will go. Over and over the New Testament speaks that kind of language. Let's look at it among other places in Paul's epistle to the Ephesians. At that time separate from Christ from the Messiah excluded from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Hamashiach Yeshua Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near drawing on the Hebrew concept again of Karoz like a relative one who is close to you. You've been brought near. Romans 11 speaks the language not of replacement but of incorporation. Yes it is true that Gentile Christians who repent and accept Jesus through the new birth replace Jews who reject him. But the tree stays the same. It's not a different tree. The church is not the new Israel. By a sovereign act of God's grace Gentile Christians are spiritually grafted in and become descendants of Abraham by faith. This is the meaning of Ruth. So it happens then that this Jewish woman comes back to her own land in this terrible terrible state a state of despondency and she comes to Bethlehem at the time of harvest. Now to go further we have to understand certain things about the Torah. The Torah had juridical and legal provisions. Remember this book begins the lineage of David that we read in Matthew. However when you read the genealogy of Yeshua of Jesus and Matthew and you read it in Luke you have certain discrepancies don't you? There are two main ways to account for those discrepancies but one of the ways is what we read here in Ruth is called pleberite marriage. Let's look at Deuteronomy 25. Deuteronomy 25 In Hebrew we call Deuteronomy dwarim dwarim the things of God. When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside of the family to a strange man. Her husband's brother shall go into her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And it shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother that his name may not be brought out from Israel. But if the man does not desire to take his brother's wife then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate of the elders and say my husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a husband's brother to me. Then the elders of his city shall summon him and say to him and if he persists and says I do not desire to take her then his brother's wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders pull his sandal off his foot and there were ten of them that's the mignon and spit in his face and she shall declare this is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house and in Israel his name shall be called the house of him whose sandal was removed. Let me explain the following. Kings had to be descendants of David. Priests, high priests had to be descendants of Aaron. The Jews The tribal inheritance appropriated or allocated by Joshua had to be preserved according to Torah. So therefore a legal descent always had to be perpetuated. How would you know who the high priest was going to be? How would you know who the king was going to be? How would you know what your inheritance is of your family? And ultimately how would we know the Messiah? The lineage had to be established and perpetuated. So you have a biological bloodline and a legal one. With love and right marriage one of the genealogies in the New Testament gives the legal descent. The other gives the biological descent. The genetic descent. Do you understand? That's one of the ways you account for the discrepancies. That's the subject. The reason for procreating was to have relations with your brother's widow was to procreate offspring on his behalf for two reasons. The first reason was financial and social provisions. The Hebrew word for honor your parents kavod comes from the Hebrew word heavy kaved It's also the name for liver the heaviest organ of the human body kaved Similarly the Greek word honor your parents has to do more with honorarium. It doesn't mean you agree with everything your parents say because they're your parents. But it means there's something heavy for you that you're expected to carry. The same as this delightful mother is responsible to take care of this little baby when he's little. So too when she's old and gray that baby is going to be responsible for her in God's economy. You understand? Having children was a form of social welfare provision for the aging. So that was the first reason. It was designed to be sure your brother's widow would have provision in her old age. The second was again the inheritance the offspring would perpetuate the family inheritance. At the last when the land went out of the family line due to debt in the year of Jubilee there'd be a repatriation of it. A restoration of it. In the New Year in the Jubilee and so on. Now let's look further. Jesus of course goes after. The Pharisees were saying anything that can be given to help my parents is Korban. It begins nullifying the commandments of God with the teachings of men. Your responsibility for your parents was built into Jewish thought and it's perpetuated in the New Testament. It says that it won't go well with you. You won't have a long life in this world if you don't look after your parents in their old age. Don't expect to live in old age yourself. Nonetheless let's look further. As we read in Ruth he would not raise up children on behalf of his brother. That his brother's name would not be cut off. This is a typology of Jesus. You understand? The Jews who died faithful to God under the Old Covenant needed something from somebody to come after them to redeem them. It's called a right of redemption. When you procreated the children on behalf of your brother and took your land it was called the right of redemption. A Jew who died under the Old Covenant needed someone to come after him from his kinsmen who would redeem him and prevent his name from being cut off from his father's and to prevent him from losing the inheritance of promise. You understand? It points to Jesus. How were the Jews in the Old Covenant saved? The same way we are. It says in Hebrews the blood of these animals could never take away sin. They only would cover the sin if accompanied by faith and repentance until the Messiah came and took them away. So the Jews of the Old Covenant the Tanakh were reliant on somebody to come after them to bring this redemption. It all points to Jesus. Nonetheless let's move on. Another form of social provision was gleaning. Ruth was going around gleaning the corners of the field. Now you have to understand this. The same as you cannot say Christians shouldn't practice birth control based on taking this verse out of context which some people unfortunately do. In fact in America and in New Zealand there's a magazine called Ruby's Above or Something and it's a whole magazine built almost on this one verse telling Christians to have kids one after another or else you have something wrong with you. When you understand the Jewish context of the verse it's absolutely absurd what they're saying. It's a matter of individual conscience. However God leads you as a couple is up to you. You have no biblical basis to put what you think God's leading is for you on another person. No biblical basis. Nonetheless let's look further. The other is the gleaning. Pathways narrow pathways would separate the fields of the different farmers or the different families. But the Jews at harvest time were forbidden from harvesting the corners of their fields. Why? So the poor the widows the orphans the socially disenfranchised even sojourners would have the right to glean. Again it was a form of social welfare provision of the haves looking after the have nots. Such it was and this is what we see transpiring in the book of Ruth. But let's look further. Ruth comes with her mother-in-law who says don't call me Naomi call me Mara for the Lord has dealt bitterly with me. Again these Jewish people come back to their own land with dissent after the Holocaust and after what happened with the communists. God did this to us. Orthodox Jews Hasidic Jews will look at Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 and they'll even admit it's the curse of the law. That what happened to them is somehow God's hands. They'll admit it. Not all Jews but the Orthodox certainly will. Now let's look. This Gentile man sees her and says who is she? And he says in verse 9 let your eyes be on the field which they reap 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. Continuing on in chapter 2 let's look again more closely. Why have I found favor in your sight in verse 10? And Boaz said all you've done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me. I will bless them that bless me and curse them that curse me. Not because the Jews are special but because the God of the Jews and His covenant with their fathers is special. God will honor His covenant it does not depend on the faithfulness or unfaithfulness of man. God's covenant and His covenant depend on the faithfulness of God. It's illustrated for us in the story of Abraham. Remember Abraham is the father of all who believe Jew and Christian. Look at the book of Genesis. There is sheath in Hebrew chapter 15 verse 17 and it came about when the sun had set it was very dark and behold there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. That flame is called Shalhevit Yah the flame of God is the Shekinah the same as the pillar. The rock of Kodesh the Holy Spirit. The way you would make a covenant in Hebrew L'chtoch Brit you'd cut a covenant. There are different kinds of covenants based on ancient Near Eastern suzerainty rites but basically here you cut an animal in half bisect its corpse and both parties making the covenant would pass through the bisected halves of the carcass. Here only the flame goes through not Abraham. Why? Because God knew from the beginning that his people would be unfaithful in keeping the covenant but he would. Only God goes through. Praise the Lord that his covenants don't depend on the unfaithfulness of either Israel or the church but the faithfulness of God himself. Only the Shalhevit Yah goes through. If God is finished with Israel because they broke the covenant which is true give me one good reason why he should not be finished with the church. Anything the Jews have done I can say the same about the church and worse. What has the church done? What Israel did? Go after other gods? Look at New Age and the church. What did Israel do before the captivity? Sacrifice their babies to demons? Yeah, they did that. It's true. That's when the judgment fell and God said no more. I won't take anymore. I'll take idolatry. I'll take immorality. I'll take social injustice but I won't take you sacrificing babies to other gods to demons. To demon Hebrews. Today I studied medicine as a kid and I can tell you if you were to take all of the clinical reasons for abortion and put them together ectopic pregnancy vaginal cancer radio induced mutagenesis throwing gestation all of the medical considerations warranting abortion it's argued that would account for less than 1% of the babies aborted in this country in the United Kingdom in the United States more than 99% of the babies aborted more than 99% of the abortions are non-therapeutic they're not carried out for any clinical or medical reason they are carried out for socio-economic reasons what Jesus called the worship of mammon make no mistake about it non-therapeutic abortion is theologically and spiritually a form of demon worship if God didn't spare the natural branches he won't spare you either if Israel and the Jews did not get away with that abomination either will the Western Christianized world 1 Corinthians 10 what's it say? these things are written the mistakes of Israel so that you, the church won't make the same mistakes it says the same thing in Timothy, in Romans in Hebrews we should learn from their errors but have we? no no we have everything they had and much more they only had the Tanakh the Old Testament we have that but also the New Testament they only look forward to the coming of the Messiah the church already has him we have Jesus in the Old Covenant the Holy Spirit the Torah the Kodesh was only for certain people at certain times high priests kings prophets now it's for all who believe on top of that we have their example to learn from but we don't if God can be finished with the Jews because they broke the covenant how much more so can he be finished with the church praise God His faithfulness is what determines the validity of a covenant not our unfaithfulness otherwise we'd be as finished as the Jews ever were but God is not finished with them let's continue so what is then I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee believe me the judgment of God would have fallen on the United States of America long ago except for two reasons one thought preserves that still has more evangelical Christians in churches than other western countries three out of every four dollars spent on missions and evangelism and Christian charity comes from North America and three out of every five full time missionaries from poor countries still come from America that's one reason the other reason is this America has treated the Jews better than any other nation in history otherwise God's judgment would have come on them long ago Holland Holland similarly if you were to walk through Amsterdam Holland you would not believe the moral depravity it's unspeakable it's an absolute disgrace it's not even normal sexual perversion it's normal sexual immorality it's perversion unspeakable perversion things that are embarrassing to even think about but they're doing it however that country blessed the Jews during the Holocaust Chloe ten Boom they protected that's the only I'm convinced God's judgment would have Amsterdam is the most wicked city in the developed world I've seen depravity in a lot of cities you know you go to Bangkok and they're selling the kids into sexual slavery and things that are terrible but Amsterdam is just as bad it's not even just the sex shooting of heroin in the streets it's unbelievable but they blessed the Jews I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee it doesn't mean God's judgment is not going to come it just means that it would have come already okay now let's look why are you showing me favor after all because you blessed my people God will bless those Christians those churches and those nations who blessed his people not for their sake but for the sake of his own name for the sake of his covenant he can't break it but let's look further by extension God will even bless unfaith people who bless Christians because they're incorporators it's the same principle now let's look even further I've commanded my servants not to touch you says Boaz where they eat you eat what they drink you drink where they go you go you have a free hand don't just go around the periphery and glean like a peasant you come and you harvest with my servants eat what they eat drink what they drink dwell where they dwell I've commanded them not to touch you there is no such thing as a second-rate Christian if there is it's somebody who's not been baptized as a believer it's nothing to do with Jew or Gentile a Gentile believer in the sight of God is just as good as a Gentile as Jew no difference in his economy now I lead a messianic fellowship in Leeds, England and I planted one in London and coke planted one in Manchester and in Israel I have a lot of experience in messianic fellowship but you have an extreme access of the messianic movement which is virtually out to rebuild the wall of partition that Yeshua died to break down you go to these meetings they'll very often make Gentiles feel like second-rate believers almost like the seven-day Adventist living under two covenants not voluntary observance of Kashrut and Shabbat but putting it on people in a non-munistic if not legalistic way you see this making Gentiles feel second-rate Boaz wouldn't have that Boaz says to Ruth it's not going to be like that you've indeed spoken kindly to your maidservants though I'm not like one of them you may not be like one of them culturally but you're like one of them spiritually if you've joined yourself to the God of Israel let not the foreigner who joins himself to the God of Israel say I'm not one of his people thou art our father though Abraham does not recognize us it says in Isaiah he's your father as much as he's the father of any Jewish person he's my father he's your father he's the father of all who believe be careful of the extreme access of the Messianic movement the extreme access it's not all extreme but there is an extreme element you've got these crazy people like Ari Fakaram who are nuts crazy stuff they're not all like that but that element exists let's look further what else happens I commanded them not to touch you what does Paul say in Galatians they were trying to touch the Gentiles Brit Milah circumcision don't touch them says Paul leave them alone you foolish Galatians who bewitched you I was circumcised as a baby if I wasn't circumcised as a baby I wouldn't mind someone else being a cut above the rest believe me I remember I was at my son's and I had to hold him and say the prayers in Hebrew and the memorial came in and gave the kid some wine said what's the wine for he said they're dead in the pain that kid knew what he was going to do with that knife he'd say give me some Jack Daniels I commanded them not to touch you don't touch the Gentiles let them alone Ephesians Acts 15 says the only thing Gentiles are required to do are those four things now a corporation if you're a Gentile call to the Jews that's something different I became as all things to all people that I might reach them it is good to adopt the Jewish culture if you're in full time ministry to them but otherwise you have your own you don't need their culture the extreme excess of the Messianic movement is pushing Yiddish type diasporic Ashkenazi Jewish culture it's not teaching people Midrash how to interpret the scriptures from a Jewish perspective it's not Israeli Jewish culture it's not Biblical Jewish culture it's just it's not Eastern or Sephardic Jewish culture or Yemenite Jewish culture it's one expression of Jewish culture and that's what they're trying to do you go to their conferences and 90% of what they're talking about is look how Jewish we are they're lifting up Jewishness instead of Jesusness why? it's like the Jewish ones are insecure about being Jewish and the Gentile ones are insecure about not being Jewish so the whole conference becomes based on insecurity instead of like Jesus absolute absurd I've commanded them not to touch you you're just as good as they are but let's look further she rose to glean and she brings it back and Naomi says to her who is this who was so kind to you who gave you this and she says it's Boaz and Naomi says he's one of our relatives and she begins to tell Ruth how to get the man now look what it says Naomi is very keen to get security for her daughter in Jewish culture we have a phenomena it's more of an institution we call it the Yiddish Mama it goes something like this when I was a kid in America before I immigrated to Israel we had this silly song called whatever will be will be will I be happy will I be rich you know that song well the Yiddish Mama has a different version listen to your mother you marry an oil surgeon like your uncle Ruben marry a stock broker like your cousin Mark you'll be happy you'll be rich you'll move to Long Island to marry well look what happens the Jewish woman tells the Gentile woman how to get the rich powerful Jewish husband the Jewish woman tells the Gentile woman how to get the rich powerful Jewish husband the Jewish believers tell the Gentile believers how to get Yeshua the Messiah who wrote the New Testament Jews every writer of the New Testament was a Jew except for Luke who was a partial writer of Judaism I guess why do Gentile people why do Zulu people why do Eskimo people why do Afrikaners people believe that Jesus is the Messiah because Jews wrote the New Testament and told them the Jews tell the Gentiles how to get the man so let's look then what happens now things get technical wash yourself get baptized anoint yourself Holy Spirit put on your best clothes what does Isaiah call them the garments of salvation what does Jesus call it a wedding garment and go to him now look verse 11 now my daughter I'll do for you whatever you ask for all the people in the city know you are a woman of excellence a woman of excellence in Jewish evangelism the most important thing is this a woman of excellence they must see the damage which was done by false Christians usually the damage must be undone by true Christians you understand a woman of excellence a spotless bride what does it say in Romans 11 provoke them to jealousy it's going to take one spotless bride to provoke the Jews to jealousy when will the church be ready for Jesus to come back when she's a spotless bride what's the acid test with her spotlessness it's going to take one spotless bride to provoke the Jews to jealousy you ask my wife mother what's the gospel of Jesus Christ you know what she'll tell you the gospel of Jesus Christ is Jewish children being kicked into an oven in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost that's the gospel of Jesus Christ it's going to take one spotless bride to provoke her when she ran up the street as a kid with the Gestapo following her with a machine gun their father and Christians were showing the Gestapo where the Jews lived what happened I wish I could say it was only the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church that did that what about Martin Luther every Jew should be hoarded into a corral and forced to confess twice at the point of the night for we we the German people are to blame for we do not murder the Jews to prove we are Christians but Luther the founder of Protestantism what about today Rick Godwin the Jews get nothing the Jews have no right to be in that land Israel is nothing but wasted money he is promoted to your country by Ray McCauley a man who teaches Christians to hate Israel and be against God's purposes for the Jews he is a very dangerous man not only is he teaching Christians to be against Israel and the Jews but the very passages of Scripture that Jesus gave so the elect would not be deceived and unprepared for his return the Alphabet discourse Matthew 24 Luke 21 Rick Godwin teaches those things are not about the last days he follows David Chilton which they were fully totally fulfilled in 70 A.D. instead of partially fulfilled which they certainly were not the very passages Jesus gave so the elect would not be deceived that false teacher from America is telling people not even about the last days I was shocked to learn you had a post-millennialist teacher in your country who said we don't have to worry about that stuff I'll take a microchip credit card out of my hand or my wrist the South African preacher from what was the New Covenant Church yeah these people are dangerous very dangerous and they're all into the hype and the money and the rest of it all of them keep away from those guys anybody who loves Israel and the Jews who has anything to do with Ramah who promotes such anti-Jewish teaching you've got you ought to have the head examined but let's look further by women or by men Jews have to see a difference between a true Christian and a nominal one between a Bible-based church and another one I lived on Mount Carmel in Galilee my children are born on Mount Carmel the Hebrew word for to bow down and to worship is the same word lehishtachavot worship is hishtachavah to prostrate to bow down when you see a Roman Catholic bowing down before a statue and praying that is idolatry in the Hebrew language that's why the Roman Catholic Church took the second commandment out of their catechism for so many centuries you shall not bow down to them or serve them when you look at the New Jerusalem Bible they give all this annotation and explanation to get around what it says and Mount Carmel we have these apparitions of Mary the same as you have in Madrigori in Yugoslavia and Fatima and Lourdes and Nacan Island and Guadalupe, Mexico and all this they have these demonic apparitions and they carry the statue of Mary from her summer home to her winter home why? because Mary doesn't like the cold weather so twice a year they carry the statue down the mountain and put it in the church in the middle of Haifa and they bow down to it and pray to it and sing Ave Maria and burn the incense I had a friend who was a charismatic Catholic monk a Carmelite his name was Gregory nice guy he'd come to our meetings waving his hand he'd be one of us hallelujah but when they carried the statue he'd be there with the rest of the idolaters Ave Maria when the Jews and Muslims saw this idolatry they would think that was Christianity but then the born again Christians the messianic Jews had to go tell them it wasn't you need to be Christians when they think that's Christian Satan's first tool in getting Jews into hell is false Christianity Roman Catholicism Eastern Orthodoxy these things are idolatry a woman of excellence looked at a map of Europe what countries protected the Jews in the Holocaust? the ones with high evangelical Protestant populations Denmark Holland which ones betrayed the Jews? the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox ones France Romania they're the ones you go to Israel today I see the young Mitnadim Mitnadim the volunteers coming to Israel with their passports to work as volunteers on kibbutz what country are you from? passport please Argentina thank you what country are you from? Canada thank you what country are you from? Japan what country are you from? Holland oh Holland maybe you'd like to come over to our house for tea tonight do you know it was Christians in Holland who saved my grandmother during the Holocaust next where are you from? Venezuela next where are you from? Kenya next where are you from? Denmark oh Denmark King Christian of Denmark when the Nazis occupied Denmark and said all the Jews had to wear yellow scarves your King who was a Christian came out with the yellow scarves and said Jesus Christ was a Jew and anybody who believed in him has to identify with the Jews we're all Jews and he told everybody in Denmark to put on a yellow scarf a woman of excellence do Jews know it? they'll know it they teach it in the high schools in Israel if you love the Jews get out of false churches get out of anti-semitic churches get out of Jew-hating churches get out of idolatrous churches get out of Rome get out of Eastern Orthodoxy get out of those so-called evangelical churches that teach people to hate Israel like Rema a woman of excellence but let's look further you've shown your last kindness in verse 10 to be better than the first by not going after a younger man what does it say about Jesus in the fourth servant song of Isaiah? it says about Jesus a man of sorrows acquainted with grief from whom men would hide their faces he had no form of comeliness that we should look upon him none none he likes a bride who finds him attractive anyway you understand but then it says there's a relative who comes before me I'm next in line but he's first in line he has the right of redemption from Elimelech to buy the land to get the inheritance and the promise of the family and to take you to procreate children for his deceased brother if he doesn't take you I can take you as we read in Deuteronomy 25 at first this chap whoever he is he's not named for a reason he's only known as he whose family was removed says yes yes give me the inheritance give me the heritage give me the blessing I want it but then he says you have to take the Gentile woman wait a minute I can't jeopardize my own inheritance by taking a Gentile woman the inheritance I want the promise of my fathers I want the right of redemption I want the redemption the blessing I want but I don't want anything what to do with that shiksa yet it was that shiksa that Gentile woman who was the key to him getting his promise his blessing his redemption Jews who will not come to the body of Christ to get it will not be named he's not named his name will be cut off from his fathers do you understand? the name of he whose family was removed he's not named their names are blotted out only those who come to the body of Christ will have the redemption that Gentile woman is the key but then look at what happens in the book of Ruth measures of barley and laid it on her and says take it to your mother-in-law what does Jesus tell the Gentile church? take the grain and give it to my people take the grain and give it to my people Israel be very careful of organizations who are trying to bless the Jews without giving them the gospel take the grain and give it to my people Israel the same as God used the Jews to give the gospel to the Gentiles in the first century church God is using the Gentiles to give the gospel back to the Jews in the last century church what does it say in Romans 11? if their rejection be the reconciliation of the world what will their restoration be but life from the dead make no mistake about it pay attention God is going to bless the church through Jewish people before Jesus comes again you hear what I said? God is going to bless the church through Jewish people before Jesus comes again the first Christians were Jews and the last Christians are going to be Jews you hear what I said? the first Christians are Jews read Romans 11 the last Christians are going to be Jews give them the grain bring the good news back home again that's the challenge we'll look at this more in later sessions but let's continue refuses the right of redemption so they go to the ritual prescribed in Torah and Deuteronomy 25 and then the marriage takes place and they call this baby who has the right of redemption now who fulfills the right of redemption what do they call him? Goel a redeemer from Bethlehem this baby who's born from this union between Ruth and Moab is called the redeemer from Bethlehem isn't he? but let's look further what do they say at the wedding? may this woman Ruth be to you as Rachel and Leah both of whom built the house of Israel both of whom pay attention here's the typology it comes from Genesis Jacob comes for a bride from his own people he desires Rachel Rachel but he doesn't get Rachel at first he gets Leah after he learns to love Leah as much as he did Rachel then he gets Rachel at the beginning Leah has all the babies her womb is most fruitful but then Rachel gets pregnant and conceives Israel shall be a fruitful vine Jesus comes for Israel he wants to marry Israel he doesn't get Israel he has to get the bride he didn't desire at first the Gentile church after he loves and desires the Gentile church then he gets Israel in the beginning the church has all the babies she's the most fruitful for her husband but in the end Israel becomes a fruitful vine both of whom built the house of Israel don't let Rick Godwin or any of these other lying heretics tell you this of me both of whom built the house of Israel but let's continue the church is Jew and Gentile one bride one bride but let's continue so what happens now this baby in verse 14 what's it say blessed is the Lord Baruch Hashem who's not left you without a redeemer today a Goel a redeemer from Bethlehem may his name become famous in Israel now who's from Bethlehem who was a redeemer who's famous comes from the union between Jew and Gentile because the salvation that would come from the line of David would be for both Jew and Gentile you understand Abraham was the first Gentile who converted to Judaism then Naomi took the child and laid him in her lap in verse 16 and became his nurse may he also be to you a restorer of life in verse 15 and a sustainer of your old age and better to you than the seven sons the Gentile woman who gave birth to this baby called redeemer is better to her than seven sons there are Gentile Christians who treat the Jews better than their own kind but more than that this baby who's called the redeemer from Bethlehem becomes a restorer of life to the Jewish woman let's look then Naomi took the child in her lap and became his nurse and the neighbor women gave him a name saying a son has been born to Naomi Naomi she's a Jewish baby what else does it say a son has been born to Naomi and so begins the line of David whom Jesus would come that's the task a woman of excellence who can take a Jewish baby born in Bethlehem who's called the redeemer a restorer of life to the Jewish people and take that baby born in Bethlehem and the redeemer and present him to this Jewish woman who's bereft who's grieved who's scorned who's embittered who feels that God himself has set his hand against her but when that Gentile woman who's better to her than seven sons takes that baby called redeemer born in Bethlehem and gives it back to that Jewish woman she says this is really my baby she's really my messiah this baby is the restorer of life and all of her grief all of her anguish all of her pain all of her believement and rejection is taken away by that baby by that redeemer from Bethlehem when the Gentile woman who's better to her than seven sons gives that baby to her that's the challenge all of these brides in the Bible all the good women in the Bible teach about the bride of Christ from different aspects last night we studied Esther we studied the song of Solomon Shir Hasharim all of these things teach about different aspects of the bride of Christ this story of Ruth teaches about the aspect of the bride of Christ as the one who would give the redeemer back to the Jewish people that bride is you God bless you and have a break