(Audio and Text Available)
Title: The Lilly Pad in the Swamp
Intro:
Think of a movie that had a fantastic ending. (Usual Suspects, The Sixth Sense, etc.) Now imagine if you started watching a movie like that with about 20 min. left in the movie. Would the ending be as powerful? Why or why not?
Our final sermon in Ruth operates the same way. If you have been with us for the last 26 sermons and 10 1/2 months, I think you will appreciate much more greatly how the author of Ruth choses to end this book.
This genealogy does two things:
- It shows us “The Other Side of the Story” (The more traditional male side of the genealogy. As Mark reminded us last week, the stories of the Hebrew people were traditionally traced through the male side and shown that way in the genealogies.)
- The beginning and end of this list are very important.
Let’s start at the beginning of this short genealogy and see what we uncover:
The first name on the list is Pharez, who is also called Perez. Do you guys remember who Pharez was? We looked at his story about a month ago.
Pharez was the child born of the scandal between Judah and Tamar, where she fakes being a prostitute because Judah has refused to give his next son to Tamar as her husband, which was his duty. (If you want more on this, the full story can be found in Genesis 38)
Certainly this is a very non-traditional way to continue a lineage and legacy, is it not? But it also is certainly NOT the only example of the Lord allowing and using sin and scandal to continue the line of Jesus. The horrible story of Lot and his daughters from Genesis 19 comes to mind.
So, what does it suggest that this genealogy begins with the very odd story of Pharez and ends with the hero King David, who is the direct link to the Messiah?
In an attempt to answer that question, I want to show you to notes from two very different commentaries. Both commentaries are “correct”, but they approach the material from two very different perspectives.
Jamieson, Fausett, and Brown:
(A Very Antiseptic/Analytical Approach)
These are the generations of Pharez–that is, his descendants. This appendix shows that the special object contemplated by the inspired author of this little book was to preserve the memory of an interesting domestic episode, and to trace the genealogy of David.
There was an interval of three hundred eighty years between Salmon and David. It is evident that whole generations are omitted; the leading personages only are named, and grandfathers are said, in Scripture language, to beget their grandchildren, without specifying the intermediate links.
POINT: The author does not include a complete genealogy, but only lists the “highlights”, and yet, he begins the list with Pharez, a child of scandal, and ends the list with David, the most famous King in the history of Israel. (Hmmm…)
Chuck Smith:
(He gets it!)
So ten generations are listed from Pharez unto David. So we have the background of the genealogy of David, which also becomes the background of the genealogy of the background of Jesus Christ, for Christ came through the genealogy of David, which came through the genealogy of Pharez, who was born of Tamar, by Judah in this unsavory kind of a situation.
Here you have a Moabitess who were cursed by God, as far as the children of Israel were concerned, who could not come into the house of God till the tenth generation and here happens to be ten generations listed to David.
So you, you have the line of Christ, so that no matter what your background, you can always identify with Him. You say, “Well, my relatives weren’t the nicest people in the block.” Well, neither were His. Thus each man can identify with Jesus Christ in a unique and special way.
Even as Boaz was the kinsman redeemer, fulfilled the law, redeemed the property in order to get the bride, so Jesus Christ is our kinsman redeemer. He became a man in order that He might be next of kin to man, in order that He could redeem man. It was necessary for Him in order to be the kinsman redeemer, to become a man. That was an essential. That is why the incarnation, so that as a man He could be a kinsman redeemer to redeem man, because the earth had been sold by Adam to Satan.
Close/Q&A
As we wrap up this morning, I want to offer one final observation to drive this main theme home: It’s crucial that we remember WHEN the events of Ruth actually take place. In the middle of the story of The Judges.
What’s going on with Israel during this age? Who can tell me?
So Ruth (often referred to a “The Lily Pad in the Swamp of the Judges”) is a message to the people of Israel that what matters is not your nation’s faithfulness, but YOUR faithfulness.
Let me say that again, and think about our country for a moment. This about our country’s culture, it’s politics, it’s leaders, its influencers, the people America holds in high regard…how many of you are glad that your status with God is dependent NOT upon our nation’s relationship with Him, but rather on your personal relationship with him?
Therefore, Ruth is an incredible story of love, faithfulness, hope, and redemption in an extremely difficult time for the Nation of Israel.
So now, as we close, I want to ask you all this question: What are the major bullet points of Ruth? What did you learn as we worked through this book?
For me there are FIVE main things:
1. Boaz as the Christ Figure as the Kinsman Redeemer
2. The incredible love and loyalty of Ruth for Naomi
3. The character of Boaz the man.
4. The foreshadowing of the Gentiles coming into the line of Christ.
5. The Sovereignty of God over all events.