Decisions That Determine Destiny

praise god why don't we just give the lord another hand clap of praise because he's always there amen praise god thank you sister sue this is part of our diversity and inclusion program old white guy talks about motherhood um but i i want to share with you some things this morning um from the book of ruth i became intrigued with this book just over one word that i read in it it was a word called in the hebrew tikvah when naomi turned to to ruth and orpah and said i wish i could give you hope and that hope is the hebrew word tikvah which means same one that rahab used when she talked about the cord that she lowered from her window it was a rope i wish i could give you a rope of hope and and that intrigued me and i got all involved in the book of ruth then and it has become one of my favorite uh books from ruth the second chapter verse one through verse three

and naomi had a kinsmen of her husbands a mighty man of wealth of the family of elimelech and his name was boaz and ruth the moabite has said unto naomi let me now go to the field and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight i shall find grace and she said unto her go my daughter and she went and came and gleaned in the fields after the reapers and this is the part that catches my attention and her hap was too light uh on a part of the field belonging unto boaz who was of the kindred of melimolec eliminate it seemed like it was just happenstance fortuitous fate luck but as they just sung about there was jesus in the background there was always the hand of god in this story and so the hand of god when when i think about it the hand of god is seen most often in the details and and that was already mentioned sister tina talked about all the things that that fall out to us god is in the details of our lives it's in the details of the book that i find him most often in those in those little things what seems to be insignificant and what i want to talk about this morning are some decisions that determine destiny decisions that determine destiny god's with us and i thank him for this even when i make bad decisions he somehow is able to turn things around even when i take the wrong path or make the wrong choice it's not fate it's not fortune it's not luck because all of those reckon without god when god is in your life the steps of your life are ordered by god even the details of your life are ordered by god elimelech's decision to leave bethlehem took an entire family on a journey that they probably would not have chosen for themselves and this decision of elimelechs brought about the confluence of many lives and many destinies as elimelech decided i'm sure the conversation probably went something like this hello pastor my job it's my job i'm going to have to move and i'm going to have to take my family away or maybe it's pastor my school i have to go because it's my school in order to get my education i have to leave here or our pastor i know he's not in church but but he's a good man and we make decisions like this that take us away from bethlehem i'm sure elimelech had all the justification and all the reasons as to why i have to leave bethlehem and go down to moab let me tell you something about leaving bethlehem once you leave bethlehem where you land is not important the result will be the same whether you're in syria in jordan in in babylon it does not make any difference once you leave bethlehem where you go is not important it takes you always out of the will of god and the outcome will always be the same

this is one of the shortest books in the bible it's unique in the respect that there's only 85 verses in this entire book but in chapter one in verse up to verse five there is an entire story that's told in 146 words five verses and an entire 10-year story is told in those five verses elimelech left took his family they married they died in the land of moab all of that story is told his entire world is burned in five short verses because of a decision that he made to leave bethlehem it necessitated planning by elimelech now i'm going to i'm going to just drop some what appears to be non-secutors here and you'll just have to glean what you will from this but there are many laws that are covered in the book of ruth many laws leverage law inheritance laws adoption laws redemption laws and and what i want to focus on is the fact that when elimelech made a bad decision god was still there and it put him right in line or at least his family it put them in line with the redeemer it put them in line for redemption let me say to you this morning that god redeems those who are at their lowest point he will sometimes let us get to that lowest point in life before we recognize the hand of god that is in our lives and so it was with the limolex family and and so i'm sure there was a lot of decisions that went into this how do i support my family this is cardinal 101 right here talking now depending uh basically on on some of the language of chapter four but i believe that when elimelech left there the laws of redemption were put into effect there had to be a means of support for elimelech to go down to moab and support his family so i believe because of the language of scripture that he probably sold off some of the land that he had to support them because they had no idea how they would how long they would be gone now the house in bethlehem could not be sold because a house under the laws of redemption had to be redeemed within one year of the sale if you didn't it would forever fall into the position possession of who whomever you sold it to but the land could be redeemed at any time and so it was a land lease program basically may i explain to you this morning that when someone sold a piece of property because of poverty they didn't lose the land they they they made a deal with the the person who was leasing the land or purchasing the land and the purchase of the land was based upon the harvest how much does your land produce my land produces a hundred dollars an acre so i'll give you a hundred dollars an acre for ten years on your land and at the end of ten years it'll come back to you we all know about the year of jubilee how that the land in the 50th year would always come back to the original land holder right amen so the the one who bought the land would reap the harvest based on the value of the crops that were coming in and he would get paid every year therefore at the end of the 10 years you you had gotten this loan the man had gotten the the crops and and support himself but the land would revert always back to you i don't have time to go into this but it's important because to god the land is as much important as the people he said this is my land you are pilgrims and sojourners with me this is my land this is why ahab when he came to nebac neva said i can't sell you this land it can never be sold it's not my land it belongs to god so it would always revert to the family to whom the land was given originally can you say amen so redemption don't have time to develop this either but redemption is based upon the value of the harvest the ransom price to get the land back was based on the remaining harvest on that land so redemption redemption is based upon the value of the harvest if you want to know how much god thinks about the harvest look at the redemption price that he paid for the redemption of the harvest and so elimelech made this decision and it put them in line for redemption

naomi after everything was lost she lost her husband she lost her two sons and now she's left with these two daughters in law and she made a decision i am going back to bethlehem the famine's over i'm going back to bethlehem her decision was like a domino effect now it triggers two more decisions what are you going to do now listen your decision doesn't just affect you it your decision as a mom your decision as a dad does not just affect you it will have an effect on your offspring and in this case for generations to come and so naomi says i am going back to bethlehem and the two girls standing there with her orpah and ruth now had to make a decision orpah says i'm going back to my family but ruth says i'm not leaving you now listen to me she renounced her past she renounced her heritage she renounced her family and she renounced her possessions her citizenship everything she gave it up in order to follow naomi and she was in effect adopted by naomi she became not just a daughter-in-law she became her daughter and we all are familiar with her words as she says i'm going to follow you wherever you go i'm going with you your people it was it was a a pledge of proximity i'm going to stand by your side no matter where life takes you it was a pledge of relationship she said thy people will be my people it was a pledge of spirituality she said your god will be my god it was an unconditional pledge she said i will follow you to the grave wherever you die that's where i'm gonna die wherever you're buried i'm going to be buried listen in following this god of ours it must be these kinds of pledges i'll follow you wherever you go i'll i'll adhere to your people you will be my god and i will go to my grave following you and sticking by your side in the narrative from the outside at this point she is always they are always referred to as daughter-in-law but naomi never refers to her as daughter-in-law she always calls her daughter

she comes back to bethlehem and i hurry empty she says i went out full i came back empty but this was not exactly the case because her roost decision said i'm going to go glean in a field and when she went to the field it looked like happenstance it looked like luck it looked like good fortune but god had provided for a contingency in his law and there was a redeemer there was a man by the name of boaz and i wish i had time but in in this case boaz was not he was not obligated to perform the leverage marriage the brother-in-law he was not a brother-in-law he was a kinsman and there was someone who was nearer than he was but boaz upon seeing ruth who just happened to be in his field this gentile woman that had attached herself and been engrafted to a jewish woman he saw her and but brother when he saw her duty was superseded by desire love became stronger than the law and boaz says i am going to buy the entire field just to purchase that one nugget out of the field she was the treasure in the field and boaz he approached the man and i hurry this man boaz's tree was populated with anomalies faires in his background was a product of a almost an incestuous relationship between judah and tamar elaborate marriage salmon wed rahab who was a harlot a prostitute in in jericho they were all in his family tree but there was a twist in the story when boaz says there is a nearer kinsman to be approached that has to have the first right of refusal the leverage marriage the brother-in-law duties and responsibility was not a part of this deal boaz was doing what he was doing because he saw ruth and he loved her

i want the musicians to come so boaz boaz approaches the nearer kinsmen the nearer kinsman has the first rite of refusal in hebrew it's called halitza if a man refused to raise up a child to his brother-in-law the the woman could take his shoe off spit in his face and call him basically shoeless joe jackson he would live with that appalachian on him for the rest of his life the man in the house with no shoe but this was not it the kinsmen took off his shoe gave it willingly to boaz and boaz began to talk to the council and he says to them i am going to purchase in ruth 4 9. he says ye are witnesses this day that i have bought all all that was elimelechs and killians and maylines of the hand of naomi listen in those days when you made a deal you had to be specific because you might buy a well on property but you didn't buy the property around it so a guy says sorry you can't get to that well that's why abraham when he bought the grave that he bought he made sure that he bought all the surrounding land he said i'm buying the trees i'm buying the brooks i'm buying it buying everything around it and so when boaz makes this deal he says i want you to know i am purchasing with the price of redemption everything i'm paying the price for all of it and it was the moreover that rocked bethlehem in verse 10 moreover ruth the moabitess what she is a you know that moab came from noah's incestuous relationship with his daughter my god the places that god has brought us from into this stream called redemption moreover ruth the moabitess i'm not just purchasing to set her free i am purchasing her to make her my wife and in doing so we are going to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance watch this isaiah 9 6 i can give you the dialogue right here in ruth isaiah 9 6 boaz says to to ruth unto us a child is born naomi after boaz turns around he gave this son of his to naomi boaz wasn't the redeemer here obed the child that was born became the redeemer of naomi and ruth and so as boaz gives his child his son to to naomi naomi says to ruth unto us a child a son is given and the governance of our future shall be upon his shoulders and if you go further the women of the city turned to them and said and his name shall be favored the word there is karar in hebrew it means shall be called and his name shall be called in bethlehem what wonderful counselor the mighty god the everlasting father the prince of peace he is our redeemer and we find it in this little book of ruth

let's stand together what began as tragedy with a bad decision ends in triumph in redemption thank god that he can take our bad decisions he takes our misdirections the paths that we walk on that that we shouldn't be walking on he takes that and he still says i'll save you i'll redeem you i've still got my hand on your life