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Guest (Male): This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Thanks for joining us today. Here it Connect with Skip, we're passionate about helping you understand God's word and discover how it's truth applies to your everyday life through clear, practical Bible teaching. And if you'd like more biblical encouragement throughout your week, sign up for Pastor Skip's free weekly devotional. You'll receive biblical insight, teaching highlights, and helpful resources designed to keep you growing in your faith and connected to God's word, all delivered right to your inbox. It's free and signing up only takes a moment. Go to connectwithskip.com and join the list today.

That's connectwithskip.com. Now, here's more about an unforgettable journey with Skip and Lenya Heitzig.

Skip Heitzig: Hey, quick question. What if the Bible came to life right before your very eyes?

Lenya Heitzig: Join us in Israel April 5th through the 16th in 2027 for an unforgettable experience that will change the way you read your Bible.

Skip Heitzig: Together we'll explore places like Jerusalem, the Sea of Galilee, the Garden Tomb where some believe Jesus rose from the dead, and many of the places where Jesus taught and ministered.

Lenya Heitzig: Plus, you'll have the opportunity to attend the Epicenter Summit in Jerusalem and hear from Christian leaders like Joel Rosenberg, Greg Laurie, Anne Graham Lotz, and Skip.

Skip Heitzig: We'd love to experience Israel with you. You can learn more and reserve your place today at connectwithskip.com/israel.

Guest (Male): Now, let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

Skip Heitzig: Turn in your Bibles to the book of Ruth. The book of Ruth has only 85 verses. Because of that great fact, we don't have to fly the airplane so high. We can go a little bit lower. We can get a good view of most all, not all, but most all of the verses that are in these short four chapters, these 85 verses called the book of Ruth. The book of Ruth is one of the only two books in the Bible named after a woman. What's the other one?

Guest (Female): Esther.

Skip Heitzig: Esther. And I love it because in a very patriarchal society that the Old Testament definitely was, we have two women whose names appear as the heads of these biblical books. Of course, in the New Testament that is um completely come to fruition because Paul the Apostle says that in Christ it doesn't matter if you're Jew or Greek or slave or free or male or female. Galatians says you are all one in Christ. But I love the fact that in the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament, we find this short little but very poignant little book of Ruth, a book named after a woman.

Now, the the name Ruth means friend or friendly or better yet friendship. Friendship. And she lives up to her name. She becomes in this story a close friend, a loyal friend, a loyal advocate of her mother-in-law Naomi. It's a beautiful love story between these two women who love each other. It's very unusual that you have a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law who love each other so well, so adamantly, so permanently. But also it's a love story between Ruth and her husband to be named Boaz. So one of the only two books in the Bible named after a woman.

It is the only book in the Bible named after an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that becomes really the highlight of the book. The author will highlight the genealogical record in the very beginning of the line of King David. We'll get that at the end of this short little book. And Ruth therefore is the only book named after an ancestor of Christ. And it's very noteworthy that in the genealogical records uh in the New Testament uh the name Ruth appears. That was very unusual to have as part of one's pedigree, especially royal pedigree, the name of a woman.

But she appears. She's an ancestor of Christ and it's the only book in the Old Testament that is named after a non-Jewish woman, non-Jewish person. Um she is a Gentile. We'll find out that she is from the other side of Israel, the eastern side, the the area of Moab. The book of Ruth is a story of providence. And that's a word, that's a doctrine, it's a concept that you should be very familiar with. And I'm going to talk a little bit about it at a couple of points in this study. Providence is something that you and I experience.

We experience God's providence. Now, a lot of Christians, I have noticed, make a big deal about the miraculous. And God is a God of miracles. He can do everything he wants. But God most often works through providence rather than the miraculous. And I remember hearing a guy on television years ago saying, "Have you experienced your miracle today? You can have a daily miracle." And he didn't say miracle, he said miracles. So I just thought that's kind of weird. But uh anyway, what you really can expect is God's daily providence in your life. And providence is the idea that God takes natural events and he enacts supernatural results.

Things happen in life and God uses all those things to work out a supernatural outcome. That's providence. Romans 8:28, we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are the called according to his purpose. So God can take anything that happens to you. It's not an impediment to him. It's not never an oh no moment for God. God never says, "Oh no, what am I going to do now?" He says, this is perfect. I'm going to weave this for a supernatural outcome, these natural experiences and circumstances that we face.

So it's a story of God's providence. The book of Ruth is also a story of conversion. Here is a Moabitis woman, a Gentile outside of the Covenant of God, outside of the Covenant land of God, who comes to believe in Yahweh, the God of the Jews, the Covenant God of the people of Israel. And so the story shows how a a Gentile girl comes to believe in the Jewish God, the God of Israel. So it's a story of providence. It's a story of conversion. It's also a story of redemption. We have in the Old Testament book of Ruth a preview of a very cardinal, salient New Testament doctrine.

And that is the doctrine of redemption. The doctrine of redemption is where one person, one party pays the price to buy the freedom for someone else. That's redemption. In the New Testament, the background is the slave markets of those times. In the Old Testament, it's the idea of the land that could be forfeited or it had to be sold if a person was poor, but it could be purchased back. It could be redeemed back. And the great story about Ruth, it's not just land, it's a person and land that gets redeemed as you will see.

Uh it was Augustine that church theologian from North Africa who made this statement, the new is in the old contained. Uh the excuse me, yeah. The new is in the old contained. The old is in the new explained. Or as I think he put it, uh the new is in the old concealed and the old is in the new revealed. What does that statement mean? It means this. In the Old Testament, there are truths of the New Testament, seeds of the New Testament. There are predictions that anticipate the New Covenant, anticipate what we experience in the New Testament.

It's there in the old. It's predicted in the old. When we get to the Old Testament, we see all of those predictions, all of those anticipations blossomed and coming to fruition in the new. So the new is in the old concealed, the old is in the new revealed. There's four chapters in this book. And you can outline the book based on these four chapters. Chapter one is love's resolve. There is a young Moabite woman named Ruth who makes a resolution to follow her mother-in-law to the land of her ancestors, the land of Canaan, the land of Judah, the area of Bethlehem, the land of Israel.

She makes a resolute promise that no matter what happens, she's going to follow Naomi. That's love's resolve in chapter one. In chapter two, we have love's response. Ruth goes out and gleans in the fields in Bethlehem during the barley harvest. She will encounter a man by the name of Boaz. She will respond to Boaz. Boaz will respond to her and a romance will start in that chapter. In chapter three, we have love's request. You'll see a very very interesting twist of events in chapter three where Ruth asks Boaz to marry her. It's sort of a very different kind of a setup from our culture and even that culture.

But what she does is she asks Boaz to redeem her. As Boaz to redeem her, she asks the question. It involves a marriage, but she asks Boaz to redeem her. Then in chapter four, we have love's reward. And love reward is where there is a wedding. They both wed uh Ruth and Boaz and a little bit of the family is then mentioned. So the book of Ruth opens with a famine and closes with a family. It opens with a funeral and it closes with a wedding. Very great little story. We begin in chapter one, verse one.

We won't read all the verses of the book, but there's enough to get the story. It came to pass, verse one. Now, it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah went to dwell in the country of Moab. He and his wife and his two sons. Now, there's a lot in that verse. And since we have time, I want to unravel it. If you look at verse one, it's giving us the setting of the book of Ruth. First of all, it was a a time of rebellion.

It says it was during when the judges ruled. Now, we've studied the book of judges a few weeks back. And we saw how in that book of judges, Israel turned away from the Lord. God sent them these warriors who uh were like little uh Messiahs who would temporarily deliver them from the hand of their enemy. Uh it was dark days, days of apostasy, days of war. So that is the setting. The setting is the book of judges. And if you wanted to put a fine point on exactly when it takes place, most scholars believe that you could fit the book of Ruth in judges chapter 10.

That's the chronology where it fits. Judges chapter 10, one of the judges named Yair or Jair as we like to mispronounce it in our language. Uh that is the judge that probably was ruling during the time the book of Ruth takes place.

Guest (Male): This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Your generosity helps share clear Bible teaching with people who need the truth and hope of God's word. And as Christmas approaches, we'd love to thank you with two meaningful resources designed to encourage faith in you and the people you love. The Daily God Journal by Pastor Skip will guide you through scripture and prayer every day for an entire year. And Nate Heitzig's Christmas Under the Tree tells the story of Jesus from the cradle to the cross in a way your whole family can experience together. Keep these resources or give them as meaningful Christmas gifts while your generosity helps connect more people to God's word.

Receive both when you give $50 or more to share biblical truth with more people around the world. Request your copies at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. Now, here's more from Pastor Skip.

Skip Heitzig: Also notice something else. It was a time of relativism. It didn't say that in the verse, but how does the book of judges end? It says there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. So it was a time of humanism. It was a time of existentialism. It was a time of relativism. People just sort of didn't follow God's statutes. There was no rule over them. They just sort of made up their own rule as it felt good to them. It was sort of like, dude, just do whatever's in your heart to do.

That's like the worst advice ever. It is? Yeah, it is. Cuz the Bible says the heart is wicked, deceitfully wicked above all else who can know it. Don't do what's in your heart. Do what the word of God tells you to do. Have that as the standard above you. If you don't and if you just do whatever you is in your heart to do, you're in the book of judges. There's no king, no authority, and everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes. So it was a time of rebellion, it was a time of relativism.

And it was a time of judgment. We know that because it says that in the days, verse one, when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. God had predicted in the book of Deuteronomy, if you obey me, I'm going to bless you. I'm going to pour out rain from heaven. I'm going to give you abundant crops. I'm going to give your uh families and your and your cattle and all your flocks abundance. If you don't obey me, if you sin against me, I 'm going to send famine to the land. There's a lot of different reasons mechanically or naturally why famine happen.

Sometimes it happened because lack of rainfall. That's the typical reason. Sometimes it happened because uh invaders came into the land, destroyed crops so they weren't as productive. Sometimes it was high winds along with no uh rain from heaven. Sometimes it was insects like the book of Joel uh that would uh destroy the crops. But the real reason is the children of Israel are in the midst of a cycle that we talked about in the book of judges. Do you remember it called the sin cycle? And there were four phases to the sin cycle. Rebellion was the first stage.

They rebel against God. Retribution was the second stage. God allowed Israel to be tormented by enemies. Repentance was the third stage and restitution was the fourth stage. That's the sin cycle. It happened over and over and over and over and over and over again in the book of judges. By the time we get to the book of Ruth, which takes place during the time of judges, the book opens up by telling us we are in stage number two. There is God's retribution because of their rebellion. There is a famine that has hit the land. The name of the man, verse two, was Elimelech.

Great name. His name was a testimony. Elimelech is a Hebrew name. It comes from two words, Eli and Melech. Eli means my God. Eli is the generic term for God in the Hebrew language. When you add an I to it, you personalize it. Eli is my God. So his name was my God is king. Great name, right? His parents had high hopes for him. Here's a kid who's going to be named my God is the king. Now, if you live up to that name, that's awesome. If you don't, it ain't so awesome. But he had an opportunity at every stage of his life to give a testimony.

Imagine uh Elimelech at work in the PA says, Elimelech, line six. And because you're saying in Hebrew, my God is king, line six. So he had an opportunity to tell coworkers how God was his king. Just keep that in mind that that is what his name means. The name of his wife was Naomi. Naomi is a word that means pleasantness. And the names of his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there. Now, when when couples had kids in those days, they would name their child either um either their hopes and their aspirations for that child to fulfill or they would name that child based on something that happened during birth, circumstances around the birth.

So for example, when Elimelech got his name, uh his parents were were naming him with high hopes. So here's a kid who's going to live up to that testimony that he's going to carry around with him, my God is the king. However, sometimes things happened at birth and the kids were named based upon that. So when Isaac and Rebecca had two children, the first one that came out of the womb uh was kind of all red and he had hair all over his body, so they called him Harry. Right? That's a good name. Look at how much hair he has.

Harry. That's what Esau means. And then his brother, the twin, followed right after him, grabbing the foot, grabbing the heel of his brother Harry. So as soon as little Jacob came out, Jacob means heel catcher. So he's grabbing it. Look at that. He's trying to trip his brother up. Let's call him heel catcher. So they were named based on circumstances of their birth. When we come to these two boys that are named um it's very interesting. Mahlon means sick or sickly or weakling. And Chilion means pining or wailing, weeping, crying. So when I when I read this, I can just think, you know, we're dealing with some very honest parents here.

I I I'm sure that uh you know, every couple has a fear, a kind of a morbid fear that if they're I'm going to have a child, it's going to be like really weird, weird looking. You know, or some some some deficiency. I don't know if I'll be able to handle that. That that's a fear uh that that probably most every parent has. Now, when these two kids were born, it probably they weren't that bad, but this is Dad's reaction. He sees the first one being born and goes, sick. That thing looks sick. Looks like a just like a sick old man or something.

So they named him sickly. That's his name. That's what his name means. That's a that's a tough tag to have to carry around with you your whole life. So they named the first one Sicko. They named the second one Crybaby. So you got Sicko and Crybaby. Uh and overreaction, but nonetheless, it's what they were called. Now, keep something in mind. Eli Melech, Elimelech means my God is king. Too bad he didn't live like it. Too bad he didn't trust the Lord and stay in the land of the covenant, the land of Israel. And the first hint of bad times, there's famine in the land and he hightails it across the Dead Sea to the area of Moab, the hills of Moab.

He didn't stay put like Abraham when there was a famine in the land. He went down to Egypt, didn't trust God. Was a mistake. Likewise, Elimelech goes to Moab. Moab, if you were to stand on Bethlehem on the hill, you can uh if you go right to the eastern side of Bethlehem, you can stand and look on a clear day and you can look down and see the the Dead Sea. And then on the other side of the Dead Sea, the hills rise up and you see the plains, the plateau of Moab. Moab, the high hills are about 3,500 ft.

Uh the lowlands of Moab are about 2,500 ft. The the soil is very porous. So it brings in a lot of the rain at that high plateau as opposed to the low desert. So it can be uh it can be lush. It can be great for farming. And obviously Elimelech and his boys were farmers. So they leave the place of famine and they go to find higher ground. But there's a problem with Moab. If you remember your Bible, you remember back in Genesis 19 that the Moabites were the descendants of Lot. And they were false uh uh worshippers or idol worshippers.

They worshipped a God called Chemosh, c h e m o s h. He is uh found written in the Bible in the Old Testament. And Chemosh was a very fierce, angry God whom they believed required blood sacrifice. So he was worshipped by killing people, especially children as part of their worship. That's where he's going. He's leaving Bethlehem and he's going over to Moab. How many of us are like Elimelech? There's pressure in our lives. Finances aren't good. You know, the the the mortgage seems to creep higher and higher. And so we make a reaction. Instead of waiting on the Lord, uh being renewed like Isaiah said, those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength.

We we can quickly react. Verse three it says, then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died. So evidently he was sickly himself. The whole family must have been sort of uh tendon had a tendency toward illness. Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died and she was left and her two sons. Now, they took wives of the woman of Moab out of the covenant. The name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelt there about 10 years. They're there a decade out of the land in this foreign land of Moab. Then both Mahlon and Chilion also also died.

It was a matter of time, I'm I'm guessing, you know, uh Sicko and Crybaby. They were just sort of destined to a short-lived life, I'm guessing. So they died. And so the woman survived her two sons and her husband. Now, there's a lot of heartache compressed in those three short verses.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember that your generosity helps more people discover the truth of God's word and grow in their relationship with Jesus. And this month when you give $50 or more, we'll thank you with two meaningful resources you can enjoy yourself or give this Christmas. The Daily God Journal will help you grow in scripture and prayer throughout the coming year. Plus, Christmas Under the Tree is a beautifully illustrated story that points hearts toward Jesus from the cradle to the cross. Give a gift with eternal value while helping others encounter God's word at connectwithskip.com/offer or by calling 800-922-1888.

We'll see you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.

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