Caring For Gods People

As we continue our journey, this four week excursion through the Book of Ruth, before we return back to our time in Romans, we come to Ruth Chapter three, which is perhaps the most disputed and controversial portion of the Book of Ruth. There are those who see subtleties here in chapter three. There are others who go beyond the subtleties and actually see improprieties here in the Book of Ruth. And because of that we can get bogged down on things like what does the covering of the feet with the hair refer to? And does the hair actually cover the feet or the feet they are used to imply the covering of another part of the body with the hair. And is this encounter just an innocent encounter or is this the author's way of providing for us a more discreete description of an encounter that was anything but innocent. We get bogged down in all of that, and we miss something. We miss a couple of things here. We miss what we established at the beginning of the Book of Ruth, and that is this that the Book of Ruth, like all of Scripture, points to Christ, our redeemer. The Book of Ruth is not about Ruth and not about Boaz as much as it is about the offspring of Ruth and Boaz, David and the offspring of David Jesus. That's what the Book of Ruth is about. The Book of Ruth is about God stepping into the history of his people in the midst of the time of the judges and saying in this microcosm that He is the deliverer of his people in spite of their current situation and circumstance. That's what the Book of Ruth is all about. And here in chapter three, what we see in the Book of Ruth is a picture of God as a deliverer and as the protector of the widow, the poor, and the foreigner. That's what we see in chapter three. We see a picture of God of Christ. Bo As is a type of Christ, the kinsman, redeemer. We see a picture of Christ as the deliverer of the week, of the oppressed, of the outsider. That's what we see here. We see a man who is serving for us as a shining example of how God intervenes on behalf of those who cannot deliver themselves. That's the message in Ruth chapter three. And if we hold on to that message as the message in Ruth Chapter three, I believe it answers many of the questions that are raised about the difficulties or ambiguities in some of the language that is used here in this chapter. What I want to do for you is to show you, in the historical context, how we see the picture of God intervening, protecting, and delivering this widow who is also poor, who is also a foreigner. The other thing that she could have been was an orphan. To put her right smack dab in the midst of every category that God used to talk about himself as a deliverer and has and to talk about his people as to how they serve as a deliverer and protector for these groups. That's the only thing that we could add. The widow, the orphan, the foreigner, and the poor and Ruth here is everything but the orphan. But as we see here God delivering this woman who is a widow, this woman who is poor, this woman who is a foreigner, we will see that there is a New Testament parallel or a New Covenant parallel to everything that happens for this woman in this Old Testament narrative. Every step of the way we will find an almost exact parallel to the way God deals with delvering and protecting the widow and the poor and the foreigner among his new covenant people as he does among his old covenant people. So we'll examine what's happening here in the text and then make that connection. Let me say as I've already said, let me say more clearly that the picture that we see here in the significance in Ruth chapter three is this idea of the kinsman redeemer. And the idea of the kinsman Redeemer is a wonderful cultural nuance. It's a wonderful legal nuance in the context of the history of Israel. And if that were all that it were, was this wonderful, interesting cultural nuance, it would be worth almost nothing. However, the idea of the kinsman Redeemer is significant to us only because it is a representative sampling or example of who Christ is. As our kinsman redeemer. He becomes one of us in order to redeem us. He takes on flesh in order to redeem us. But interestingly enough, he takes on not just any flesh, but he takes on Hebrew flesh. The very culture that gives us the idea of the kinsman redeemer. He becomes an Israelite, he becomes a Hebrew in order to redeem Israel. And if you've been paying attention in the Book of Romans, you know that Christ is the true Israel and that when we are His, we too are the true Israel, which is what Paul says in Galatians, that the Church is the Israel of God. Now, for those of you who haven't been with us, weren't with us while we were teaching through Romans, we dispelled this little myth that our dispensational friends like to promote, which is the myth of replacement theology, the idea that if you believe that the Church is the Israel of God, that you must believe that Israel is not important to God, that his promises were not important to God, and that somehow we have no vision or no hope for the future of ethnic Israel. If you want to know our position on that, go back and listen to what we taught in Romans chapter eleven, and we will make that very clear that there is a huge difference between the covenantal non dispensational view that the Church is the Israel of God and the myth of replacement, theology that somehow says that that is in any way antisemitic. Now and Ruth chapter three, and this picture of the protection of the poor and the widow and the foreigner, we see the entities that God uses utilizes in order to bring about this protection, and they are all significant. First, God uses the family to protect the week. God uses the family to protect the week. And I use that term the week to refer to the widow and the orphan, and the foreigner and the poor. God uses the family to protect the week. We see first of all in look at those first five verses. Then Naomi, her mother in law, said to her, my daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? It's not Boaz, our relative with whose young women you were. See he is willing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Wash therefore, and annoint yourself, and put on your cloak, and go down to the threshing floor. But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. But when he lies down, observe the place where he is. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do. And she replied, all that you say, I will do. Don't miss this picture. In Hebrew culture, throughout the scripture, we have the idea that the way God protects and cares for women is through number one, their family of origin. And that's what we see here, a woman being protected and cared for through her family of origin and too through a family of choice by way of marriage. But in going from the family of origin to the family of choice, God uses the family in order to shepherd a young woman into a marriage relationship. So Naomi is not sent out on her own to do the best that she can to find a man. She is actually instructed and shepherd. Whether the Ruth is not sent out, she is actually instructed and shepherded by Naomi in this process. There is no man here, so Naomi takes this role that was universally given to the head of the household, who is male, and she steps into this role in order to protect Ruth and to shepherd Ruth in this process of finding a husband. So we see that God uses the family here in order to get Ruth into a situation where she will be cared for by a husband. Both her family of origin, and then eventually a husband whose responsibility it will be to provide for her every need. So from a biblical perspective, we see the importance of this picture of God caring for the week in the way that he does through using a family, that her every need physical need or spiritual needs of course meant by the Lord. Amen, these physical needs, God uses this husband in order to meet these spiritual needs. God uses this husband in order to meet This is incredibly important for us, especially in this context, because here's what it says. Naomi's husband dead, Ruth's husband dead, and yet God is providing for the needs of this woman through her family. News flash, can use dysfunctional families, and that ought to be good news to you because yours is a dysfunctional family. Amen, do you realize that there's only been one family in the history of the world that was not a dysfunctional family, and that that family invented dysfunction in the fall? Amen, there was only one family in the history of the world that was not a dysfunctional fan. Yours is a dysfunctional family. And I say that for a couple of reasons. I say that for one reason because oftentimes when we talk about families and the importance of families and what families have to do, you hear this from people, Oh, I understand that, but you just don't understand the dysfunctional family that I came from those of you who are visiting here this week. One of the things that you may have heard. You know that those ideas that they have over there, they're pretty good. But you know, as long as you've got families who aren't dysfunctional families, because if you've got families who are broken, I don't know how that can work. Really, they are families that aren't broken. What planet do you live on. There's another way that this is important, because some of us think that because we have a mommy and a daddy and children and children and children and children and children, that somehow other people are dysfunctional. But we are not. Bless your little little spirit, you are dysfunctional. You are dysfunctional. Just because you have all of the pieces in place doesn't mean that you're functioning properly. But here's the good news. The good news is that God uses imperfect families in order to protect, to provide for the week. We also see this in a New Testament go with me to First Timothy chapter five, First Timothy chapter five, and look at verse three. First Tree of thee Chapter five and verse three. Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show Godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, For this is pleasing in the sight of God. What did we just read? The church must not take care of needs in a family that can be taken care of by members of the family. It is wrong for a church to take care of needs in a family that can be met by members of the family. The responsibility of the church, first and foremost whenever a need arises is to teach the members of the family how to take care of that need in the way that God intends for the need to be taken care of, and only to intervene when it is discovered that that is not a possibility. That's how we're to respond to the need. That's how we're to respond to the need. Look at the next part of this verse five. She who is truly a widow, left all alone, set our hope on God, continues in supplications and praying not and day. But who is but she who is self indulgent is dead even when she lives. Command these things as well, so that they might be without reproach. But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. By the way, that's to my knowledge. To my knowledge, that is the greatest insult in the New Testament. To my knowledge, that's the greatest insult in the New Testament. I cannot think of a stronger insult that Paul could use than to say, you've denied the faith and you're worse than an unbeliever. And he uses it for a man who does not take care of not his wife and children, but his mother when she's old. Yeah, marinate on that for a minute. This is a reference to widows. Therefore, it cannot be a reference to a man taking care of his wife, because your wife, by definition, is not a widow, because you're her husband and you're not dead. Amen, this is a reference to a man who's not taking care of his widowed mother. What's Paul's response as it relates to young widows. Will He goes on to say I would have young widows marry. Amen. When it comes to older widows who are beyond that phase of life, if there's nobody left there, then my people rise up and they meet the needs of that widow. For younger widows, I've got another plan. It's called marriage. It's called marriage. That they might marry, have children, and be keepers of their home. That's the plan for taking care of those needs. So we find here in Ruth chapter three a pattern that we find even in the New Testament with New Covenant believers, and that is the idea of God using the family in order to take care of the needs of the week. Secondly, not only does God use the family, but God uses civil law to protect the week. God uses civil law to protect the week. Look, get the next part of this. Let's begin in verse six and read that next section. So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother in law had commanded her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. At midnight, when the man was startled and turned over and behold a woman lay at his feet. He said, who are you? And she answered, I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer. And he said, may you be blessed by the Lord. My daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first, and that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you as you ask for all my fellow townsmen. Know that you are a worthy woman. And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I remain tonight and in the morning. If he will redeem you, good, let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down the morning. What is happening here is a matter of civil law. Now we have to be careful here and understand that Israel is a theocracy. There's not a one to one correlation between the civil law operating in Israel and the civil law operating in our culture. Let me say that up front, okay, but let me make this point nonetheless and connect the two. What God has done for his people is give them a civil law that is based on the moral law. What God has done for his people is to give them a civil law that is based on the moral law. And although we do not have a one to one correlation from civil law in Israel to civil law in our culture, we do have a one to one correlation for the fact that there is a moral law, and our laws must be contingent upon the moral law that comes from God, the tenor of the law. Listen to this in Deuteronomy fourteen twenty nine. And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do. Why does he add the Levite, well, because the Levite doesn't have a portion in the land. He has to be cared for by his brothers. Deuteronomy sixteen eleven. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, You and your son, and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant. The Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widowed, who are among you, at the place that the Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell there and again Deuteronomy twenty six, twelve to thirteen. When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled. Then you shall say before the Lord your God, I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover I have given it to the levite, the soljourner, the fatherless, the widow, according to your commandments that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. Specifically, here we see the gleaning laws, the gleaning laws that we talked about in Deuteronomy twenty four nineteen to twenty one and Leviticus nineteen ten. In other words, God uses the gleaning laws for his people a civil law in order to provide for the poor. And beyond the gleaning law, there's the leverrighte marriage law. The lever right marriage law found in Genesis eight six through twenty five and Deuteronomy twenty five five through ten is the lever at marriage law. The leaver at marriage law is a way that a widow is cared for within the context and confines of her family. So here in the civil law in Israel, God has made provision for the week. Now let me do two things. One, let me sort of draw a finer point here, because this is something that it's often difficult for us to do. Here's something that people will do. On the one hand, people will say, we want to separate Christianity and religion from our civil laws. That's what people say. That's the prevailing idea that we don't want religion to dictate our civil laws. You cannot legislate morality, by the way, morality is the only thing you can legislate. Amen. You can't murder, why because it's all together immoral. You can't take somebody else's property, why because it's all together immoral. Everything that we do, every law is a moral law. Everything that we do has a moral foundation. So let's dispel myth number one. But here's the other thing that we do. We say, on the one hand, we do not want our laws to be based on religion, morality, whatever. And then here's what we do. On the other hand, we go to the Old Testament and we say, see, here's God's heart for the widow and the orphan and the poor. Therefore, you need to give your fair share so that they can be taken care of. What does that sound like? That sounds like we don't want your religious people to bring your religious texts to the marketplace of ideas because you believe them fervently. What we want to do is use what we liked from your religious texts and bring those to bear in the marketplace of idea. But it's okay for us because we don't believe them. Amen. What would happen though, if we were to think about the widow and the orphan, and the foreigner and the poor from this kind of perspective. Let me just glean a couple of things from the text. The first is this Ruth and Naomi were cared for, but not to the extent that they fought marriage was unimportant because the government would provide further every need. Amen. Here's the second thing. They were cared for in such a way that they had to have a relationship with the people who provided for them, therefore being able to demonstrate gratitude on their part and actual kindness on the part of the one who provided, which eliminated any and all sense of entitlement. Just a couple of observations there. Thirdly, and more importantly, or before I do that, let me make the correlation in the New Testament turned to Matthew chapter twenty five. Does the coming of Christ and us entering into this new Covenant somehow overturn, obliterate, and or eliminate the idea of us as the people of God ministering to the weak the poor. It doesn't, Matthew Chapter twenty five. Beguinna verse thirty one, when a son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say, to those on his right, come you, who are blessed by my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King will answer Truly, I say to you, as you did it under one of the least of these. Let's say those two words together, my brothers. Can we say those two words again, my brothers, you did it to me as you did it into one of the least these. My brothers, you did it to me. By the way, this is not new. Here's what you find interesting. Israel takes care of the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, the poor, and the Levite. And whenever you see that where within your gates, God does not tell Israel to go to Egypt, take care of the poor in Egypt. He does not tell Israel to go to Moab take care of the poor in Moab. But if somebody from Moab comes and unites themselves with the Covenant people of Israel and lives within their gates, within their confines, and within their rules and within their law, then he says, my people take care of him. What do we find in the New Testament? The same thing as you've done it under one of the least of these, my brothers. You did it to me. We're not responsible for every needy person. We owe the Gospel to all Amen, but we're not responsible for every needy person. And even when it comes to dealing with people who are poor and who are needy, there are biblical parameters for the way that we respond to the poor and the needy. Why is all of this important? Here's why. The church does not exist to eliminate poverty. The church exist to proclaim the Gospel and to live as a gospel community. The church does not exist to be a social welfare agency or entity. The church is a gospel agency and a gospel entity. Now, because we are a gospel agency and a gospel entity, we could never as a church watch one of our members starve. Because I am a Christian, I could never personally watch one of my neighbors starve. But here's what I don't do. I don't say my neighbor is starving, the church is horrible and not doing its job. No, my neighbors starving, and God made me his neighbor. Do you see the distinction. That's what happens in a gospel community. That's what we're seeing here in Ruth chapter three, God's people living among God's people as God's people providing for the weak. Ruth, because she has left Moab and come in a covenant relationship with God's people, now is experiencing the great benefits of that covenant relationship with God's people, both through the family to which she has now joined and through the civil law that governs the arena where she now lives. God also provides and protects the weak through using Godly people. How do we see this here, Well, we see it through Naomi and through Boas. Why are they doing what they do because they are Godly. Here's what I want you to do. We need to get rid of this first, this idea of romanticism that has absolutely overwhelmed us. We gotta just just move that aside for a moment, because when we said starting off the Book of Ruth that it was a love story, some of you are still waiting for the moment. And the Book of Ruth where Boaz stands there and says, but soft, what light through yonder window breaks just the east? And Ruth is the sun? Speak first. No, this is not Shakespeare, this is God. Ruth is loved by Boas. And how do we know that Boaz loves Ruth Because he says I want you, I've got to have you, and I will do anything to be with you. No, because he says I will redeem you. But I'm a godly man. So what I'm going to do is first go to the one who has the right before me to redeem you and see if he will redeem you. And if he does not exercise that right, then I will redeem you. That's love. What do we think love is? I want you and I must have you, no matter what propriety means nothing. No, that is not love. This is love. It's other oriented. Ruth. I love you, and I want you to experience God's best, which means that I am going to operate in our relationship according to that which is biblical and that which is proper. Because I know that God's best for you is going to flow from that which is biblical and that which is proper, which is proper. Because of that, I am going to follow the next appropriate step. And the next appropriate step that is biblical and proper is for me to go to the other redeemer and give the other redeemer, who is a closer redeemer than me, an opportunity to step in here. And because of my love for you, if that happens, then here's what I know. God has met your need. And because I am other oriented, I am pleased that God has used that to meet your need. If I was just me oriented, I would say I have to have you, no matter what. What would this look like in the here and the now. You know what, I have a great deal of interest in you, But you're not a believer. And since God's word is rather clear on that, and I want what's best for you, I'm not going to use you as an unbeliever in order to satisfy my desire simply because you make me feel good. I'm going to walk away from you as an unbeliever, because God commands me not to be an equally yoke with an unbeliever, because my greatest desire is for your greatest good, and for your greatest good to come about, you need to hear the gospel and come to faith in Jesus Christ. And the worst thing that I could do in order to represent the gospel before you is to blatantly disobey God in an effort for you to see that he's my all in law. I want to be married to you, but your parents say no or they say not. Now, what's biblical? What's proper? On your mother and your father? What's the opposite of that? Forget them, girl, They don't understand our love. Let's just run away. Wrong answer, wrong answer. Boaz is a type of Christ. What bride does Christ come to redeem the bride his father sent him to redeem. He didn't save us because you looked down and we were cuter than the alternative. He saves us because he was sent to do so, because it was what was right. Boaz does what's right, what is proper, and it is more important to him to obey God and to grab a hold of what he wants. This is important because there's a final piece. God intervened directly for the week through a redeemer. God intervenes directly for the week through a redeemer. So this is not just some just vague law out there that happens to be set up in such a way that the week had their needs met. No, this is an actual redeemer that God uses and through whom God intervenes directly on behalf of the week. And that's what God does here with Ruth. He intervenes directly through a redeemer, and Boas says those words to her verse eleven. Now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask for All my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. By the way, if I can just put in a side here this statement, along with his statement at the end in his interaction with her, Boas talks about those who would interpret this. There are some who interpret this, and I didn't get into all of that because there's not evidence for it. But I didn't get into all that. But there are those out there who make the argument that what happened here was a very inappropriate meeting, that what happened here should not have happened, that it was not godly, and that that the terminology used here was used with a wink and a nod, basically to say that what happened was that Ruth went in there to Boas and they had a sexual relationship. Verse eleven denies that. Verse eleven says, I know what kind of woman you are, and all of the men who know you know what kind of woman you are. Verse eleven's not true if this was that kind of encounter. The other thing is Boas doesn't even want her to be seen when she leaves because she He didn't even want to take the chance that her reputation would be tarnished, let alone take advantage of her as a woman. Here's the other issue. Bo Ass does not come take this woman physically and then go to another redeemer and see if he'll step up first. None of that fits here. And of course the other thing, the Bible is not at all shy when it comes to inappropriate relationships like that. The Bible does not say, you know, and David brought Bathsheba, and you know, kind of she covered his feet and he's spread his garment over her. No, it's not what you find in Genesis chapter thirty eight with Judah and Tamar. I mean, the Bible's not squeamish at all about these sorts of things. So that's not what's going on here. But he is intervening as a redeemer, and God is interviewing, intervening directly through a redeemer. Of course, we see this in the Old Testament, but most appropriately we see this in the New. In fact, it's what we know from the New Testament that makes this a beautiful picture. That there is one who will redeem this woman who is an outsider. There is one who will redeem the gentile woman. Boaz does this. But the significance of what Boaz does is only seen when it is compared and juxtaposed with the significance of what a descendant of Boaz is going to do. And it is that descendant of Boaz who is the kinsman redeemer to God's elect. It is that descendant of Boaz who stands in for us when we are weak, when we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. Christ died for sin once for all the righteous, for the unrighteous, in order that he might bring us back to God. That's the picture that we see here. Who's Ruth. Ruth's a foreigner who married a man in her own hometown who happened to be from Israel. Ruth's a woman who became part of a household that wasn't exactly a normal household in Moab. Ruth's father in law died, Ruth's husband died. She's alone. Ruth now goes to Israel while she's obviously a foreigner, but she's united herself to this woman, Naomi, and has no idea what this means. And as far as Ruth is concerned, it's enough for her that she just gets to glean from the fields and spend the rest of her life with Naomi. And this foreign widow, poor woman finds herself at the feet of a well to do, upstanding, godly prince of a man in Israel who looks at her in spite of her circumstances and origin, and says, I will redeem you. That's you, that's me, a foreigner, a stranger, poor, isolated, helpless, alone, And we throw ourselves at the feet of Christ. And what does he say, I will redeem you? And what do the scriptures say? We've become the bride of Christ? That is the end of our redemption, our role, our place, and our relationship as his bride. So when you come to the third chapter of the Book of Ruth, if you're looking for Romeo and Juliet, first of all, you will be disappointed because you will not find it there. But secondly, I hope that after you get over your disappointment, you recognize that what you find here is far more signs magnificant then a story of an emotion that is so powerful that people kill themselves over it. Hope I didn't ruin the end of Romeo and Juliet for anybody, But isn't that ironic. Our standard of what love is is a story that ends and suicide, But the Bible's picture of what love is as a story that ends in life and redemption. You do not know how tall Boaz is, how broad his shoulders are, how wavy or straight his hair is. You don't know what color his eyes are. You don't know how or flabby his form is. You have no idea what he wears. You cannot imagine his gait when he walks. You have no sense whatsoever of how beautiful or elegant or clumsy Ruth is. Why because that stuff only matters in the modern American slash inherited from Greco Roman paganism myth of romantic love, and that stuff never delivers. But here's what I know. Ruth gets old and her form changes. Boaz gets old and his form changes. Amen, somebody. But this stuff right here, it never changes, does it. See? Those things that we look for and the story of love are the things that don't last and don't redeem. The things that we find here are the exact opposite. They do last, and they are redemptive. Let me read the last section. So she laid his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another. What a beautiful turn of phrase. They could have just said, she arose early. She arose before one could recognize another. And he said, let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor, and he said, bring the garment you were wearing and hold it out. So she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. Then she went into the city, and when she came to her mother in law, she said, how did you fare my daughter? Then she told her all that the man had done for her, saying these six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, you must not go back empty handed to your mother in law. She replied, wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out. For the man will not rest, but will settle the matter today. That goes back to where we began. What do we read at the end of chapter one? They get back and it's the beginning of the barley harvest. And what we said at the end of chapter one was that that phrase was pregnant with meaning. It's the barley harvest, but it's not about barley. It's about the bread of life. How do we end in chapter three? We end in chapter three with this woman who comes with her garment filled with barley, And what does Naomi say saying about the barley? Girl? Amen, praise God for the barley. But this is not about the barley. There's another statement here. To those whom God would grant eternal life and salvation, would he withhold from them some barley? No? No, So go back to where we talked about earlier. God uses the family to meet these needs. God uses civil law to meet these needs. God uses godly people to meet these needs. But those needs are just barley. Is it important? Yes, it's important, but that's just barley. What's more important. God meets people's real needs beyond the barley through redemption. Do we need good solid families, Yes we do. Poverty is all but eliminated where families are intact. I don't know if you realize that or not. By the way, if I can put another footnote here, there are virtually no poor people in America. Okay, I don't know if you realize that or not. There are virtually no poor people in America. And if you believe there are, then you've never been around poor people before. Leave our shores and you will find poor people, and you will come back here and you will see people walking on the streets who are healthy, not emaciated, sometimes overweight, begging. They're beggars, but they're not poor. They're not poor. But even so they have a greater and more significant need. But where you find families, you find almost no poverty at all, even by American standards of poverty. So our families good, yes they are, and we ought to do whatever we can to promote and encourage healthy, solid families. But that's just barley. Civil laws, are they helpful for the week and the downtrodden and the widow and the orphan and the poor. Yes, they most assuredly are. And when you have good civil laws, you do have a health your society in that regard, and that is extremely important. And yet it's just barley. Godly people who reach out like good Samaritans to meet the needs of their neighbors, like Boaz is doing. Meeting the need of a neighbor in essence, is that important? Yes, that's important. It's important that God has his people strategically set throughout a given city, a given town, a given culture, and that those people get involved in meeting the needs of others because of who God is on the inside of them. That is important, It is significant, But it is just barley. It's not until you see the picture of the Redeemer that you understand two things. One, why it is that God's people would even bother to take care of those in need, because when you're redeemed, what do you look like not doing that? Amen? But secondly, you understand the secondary nature of those things that God has put in place to meet those needs, because they pale in comparison to our need for a redeemer. Are they important, Yes they are. Are they un ended themselves, No they are not, because man does not live by barley alone. Let's pray