NIV Application Bible Podcast: Episode 9 (Ruth)

• Y’all, what this story shows is what all the stories in scripture show. God’s God’s providence will never take us to a place where his grace won’t sustain us. [Music] Welcome back to the NIV Application Bible podcast. Okay, y’all know how I always say that the Bible isn’t a rule book, it’s a love story.
• The Bible is also filled with real love stories, kind of love stories within the divine macro love story. And one of my favorites is the book of Ruth. There’s only two books in the Bible named after women. One is Esther and one is Ruth. And I love Ruth’s story because there’s this real historical love story woven on these pages that points to the kind of real love story we can have with God.
• You may know the beginning of the story. There’s a woman named Naomi. She’s from Bethlehem. She’s married. She has two sons. They leave her small hometown and they go to a big city for a husband to get a better job. And then when they move to that big city, her husband and both of her sons die, leaving her a widow with two daughter-in-laws who now have also been widowed.
• One of them is named Ruth. I’m going to pick up right there. This is Ruth chapter 2. So, this is after Naomi’s husband has died. the her husband and the father-in-law of Ruth and Ruth’s husband. And then there’s this other girl. We’re not going to talk about her because she stays in Moab instead of going back to Bethlehem.
• So, she is the daughter-in-law who’s not quite as lovely as Ruth. So, this is picking up where Ruth and Naomi decide to go back to Bethlehem. Naomi effectively says, “I I’ve never really fit in in this big city. I want to go home now that I’m a widow.” And Ruth says,”I’ll go with you.” And Ruth the Moabitete said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor because they’ve got no way to provide for themselves materially in this ancient era as widows.” So when
• they get back to Bethlehem, Naomi says to her mother mother-in-law, and by the way, this isn’t the kind of mother-in-law you want to go to the mall with. She’s already said, “Don’t even call me by my real name anymore. Call me bitter.” So, just think kind of Eeyore, grumpy mother-in-law. Well, when they get back to Bethlehem, Ruth says to Naomi, “All actually go out in the fields and all glean grain since we don’t have enough money to even go to Aldi and get grocery groceries.
• I’ll go glean grain so we can have something to eat.” Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” So, she went out, entered a field, and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Alimc. Just then, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you.