What's More Important than a Wedding

We've reached the end of the book of Ruth, the last chapter. So if you'll open with me to Ruth chapter four, let's examine what we find here. What we'll do is we'll look at this chapter in its entirety, bring it to a place where we'll remind ourselves of all of the things that have gone before now. But before I do that, I want to point out something rather interesting about Ruth chapter four, and that is what's missing in Ruth chapter four. We've said that this is a love story. We've talked about the fact that, according to many, this is perhaps the most beautiful love story that's. Ever been written. But as we say that, we have to keep in mind that we have had our thinking shaped by our culture. And so when we think about a love story, having our thinking shaped by our culture, there is a way that we believe a love story ought to culminate. And because our thinking is shaped by our culture. Here's what we look forward to. We look forward to this story coming to you know, a crescendo, this story, you know, coming to this the highest moment, and then resolving itself in a wedding. That's the way we think, that's the romantic comedy. The payoff is the wedding, and the romantic comedy gets you there a number of ways. Somehow there is a struggle that is in the way of the wedding. But at the end of it, that struggle is resolved and the denu ma the resolution is finally you see her in the gown. She walks down the aisle and she says I do or in other cases she's there before the minister with the wrong one and the right one says I object, and then they go off and they get married. But regardless of that, the way it ends is with a wedding. There is no wedding in Ruth chapter four, Well, the greatest love stories ever told, there is no wedding. So here's the question that I'd like to ask and answer today. What is more important than a wedding? What is more important than a wedding? Now? I looked up some information. The Bridal Association of America did not know there was a Bridal Association of America. According to the Bridal Association of America, the average wedding in the United States now costs between twenty five and thirty thousand dollars. It's the average cost of a wedding in the United States. We love weddings. In fact, I think the figure, the official figure was half a kajillion. People got up in the middle. Of the night somewhere around the world to watch the most recent royal wedding. There are people who set. Their alarms for three and four o'clock in the morning so that they could wake up and see people who they do not know get married. They just wanted to watch the wedding. In fact, headline half a million visitors expected at Royal Wedding Dress Exhibit. More than half a million visitors are expected to flock to see Cape Middleton's wedding dress, which is being exhibited at Buckingham Palace this summer. A spokeswoman for the Royal Collection said that they were hoping to sell out the exhibition, which has an overall capacity of six hundred and forty three thousand over its ten week running period. The Royal Collection show, called the Royal Wedding Dress A Story of Great British Design, brings together the Duchess of Cambridge's wedding. Dress, shoes, earrings and. A replica bouquet for the British public to view up close. For the first time. So not only did. People break their necks to get to the wedding just to stand outside and maybe get a glimpse of something, but six hundred and forty three thousand will pay money just to walk by and get a glimpse of the dress. We love weddings, and there's no wedding in Ruth chapter four. None. In a very pessimistic article called stop looking for a wife, you won't find one, WF Price makes this observation, and here's his thesis in his article. His thesis is, because of the way. Our thinking has been shaped in our culture, young women want to be brides, but not wives and mothers. They want a wedding but not a marriage, and so it's all. About the wedding. Listen to what he writes for women, a wedding is not a beginning but an end. It is a culmination of. Years of longing and preparation to be a bride and marks a triumph and achievement. To understand this from a masculine perspective of the athlete who spends years training, dreaming, and striving for victory. After all those years of struggling and discipline, practice and sweat, he finally gets the chance to compete in a stadium full of spectators. If he is the victor, he stands on the podium in front of the crowd and has given his medal to his national anthem. This is a very emotional experience for many athletes, and a great joy. The bride standing at the altar is experiencing the same thing. It is her triumph, her. Reef of laurels, and how can a marriage ever compete with that? He goes on to make a comparison that gets to the heart of this whole cultural transformation of ours, the comparison between Snow White and nineteen thirty seven and Cinderella nineteen fifty. Snow White post Depression America. Cinderella post World War Two America. Snow White, shy, demure, modest and modestly dressed, No expensive gown ever on snow White, basically a peasant's dress. Cinderella all about the ball gown. Snow White, delighted to cook and cling and sing and dance for the dwarfs who love her and cannot live without her. Cinderella despises her domestic duties and cannot wait to escape from them. Snow White goes to sleep and waits for her prince, who will come and sink seek after her. Cinderella goes to the ball to compete with other women to see if they can be glamorous enough to win a man who's really not high on marriage at all. Snow White ends with the kids from the prince who has sought after her, no wedding. Cinderella ends with the big payoff, the royal wedding, and the unforgettable gown. Everything changed, Everything changed. And this was sort of emblematic of what was going on in our culture and what has gone on since. Then. Finally price finishes, So there we have it. There are no more wives, only brides, no more marriages, only weddings, and this change in our sciety happened over half a century ago. But we're not captive to that. But we're not captive to that. Okay, all right, y amen, thank you. We're not captive to that. We understand that there is something or there are things that are more significant than weddings. Weddings are important, but weddings are only important to the degree that they point to those things that are more significant. Weddings are only important to the degree that they exist as a microcosm and a testimony to that which is greater. And so we see this here in Ruth chapter four. In order to come to the great resolution of the great loves, it was not necessary to speak of a wedding. By the way, when was the last time that you met someone who had a solid God honor in Christ? Exalting fifty year marriage and sat down and said, okay, tell me all about the wedding. You don't, you don't, you don't. What's more important than a wedding? Several things. But before we get to those things, let's read this chapter and see if you can pick them out. Now, Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there, and behold the redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken. Notice the man is not named came by, so Boaz said, turn aside, friend, sit down. Who's the redeemer? We don't know. We know Elimelech he's died, he died. We know Maylon and Chilean they died. Who's the redeemer? His name's not mentioned. We know Naomi, we even know Orpah, who didn't even stay with Naomi but instead went back to Moab. This man's name doesn't even bear mentioned. And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, sit down here. So they sat down. Then he said to the Redeemer, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative. So I thought I would tell you of it and say buy it in the presence of those sitting here, and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not tell me that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it. And I come after you. And he said, I will redeem it. Then Boaz said, the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth. Acquire redeem Ruth the Moabite, the. Widow of the dead. In order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance. Then the Redeemer said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it. We don't know why I'm married. I can't take another wife. I have children, And if I do this purchase, and the purpose of it is to bring a son into the world who will bear the name of her husband, Mielan, who will be his heir. Then I've spent money for the land, and I don't keep it. He does, I can't redeem it. Now, this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging. To confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other. And this was the manner of a testing in Israel. Now there's a lot of speculation as to why this was the custom, that when you sold some land, you took off your sandal. But think about how many times God said to his people, all the places where your foot shall tread, over and over and over again. That's how God speaks of the promised land, wherever your foot treads. And so there is a symbol in Israel where my foot treads, that is my land. My land is now being sold to or transferred to you. Therefore, symbolically, I give you my sandal, which trode on the land, so that where my foot used to tread is now where your foot treads. The land is yours. So verse seven I'm sorry. This is the manner of testing. Verse eight. So when the Redeemer said to Boaz, buy it for yourself, he drew off his sandal. Then Boas said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Limelech, and that belonged to Chilean and Maelan. Also Ruth the Moabike, the widow of Mielan. I have bought to be my wife, or redeemed to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day. Then all the people who were at the gate, and the elders said, oh, it's not just the elders. This is the elders and everybody else who witnessed this. We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephratha and be renowned in Bethlehem, And may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman. Now why Perez and Tamar. Because that's one of the two places to me a passages in the Bible where you learn about lever at marriage. And the fact is that Tamar's deception of Judah was over the fact that his son would not perform his duty in lever at marriage. So this becomes a lever at marriage. They refer back to Judah the promised Seed and Tamar verse verse thirteen. Excuse me, So Bolas took Ruth and she became his wife. There's your wedding. And he went into her and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, now we've run into the women verse in chapter one. We see them again. Here. Blessed be the Lord who. Has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his. Name be renowned in Israel. He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age. For your daughter in law, who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him. Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying a son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed. Worshiper. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Then we end with the genealogy. Now these are the generations of Peries. Paris fathered, hes Run has Run fathered, Ram, Ram fathered a Menadab a Menidab fathered, Nashon, Nashon fathered, Salmon, Salmon fathered, Boas, Boas fathered, Obed Obed father Jesse, and Jesse fathered David. Back to our question, what is more important than a wedding? And the answer is given throughout this passage description. First, is this the picture of redemption that marriage paints is more important than a wedding. The picture of redemption that marriage paints is more important than a wedding. In fact, any wedding that is worthy to. Be called a wedding ought to be filled with the symbols of this redemption that it represents and to which it points. Weddings are not about the proclamation and the celebration of a man's imperfect love for a woman and her imperfect. Love for him. Though wedding ceremonies are often to the contrary, that is simply not the case. When we go to a wedding, it is not to hear about beloved that these two people have for each other. When we go to a wedding, it ought to be to hear about the redemption that we have in Christ, and how this marriage is significant because of the picture of that redemption that it paints, and that cannot be truer than what we find here. Because Boas is the kinsman redeemer. This is a picture of Christ, who is our redeemer. He is redeeming Ruth. Why do we see it as a picture of redemption? Number One, he wants what's best for others, not what's best for himself. That's a redeemer for others, like whom first for the other kinsmen. We alluded to this last week, but don't miss this. He comes to the other kinsman and basically says, here's the situation. Friend, Naomi's back, Naomi's in need of a redeemer. There is a parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. Now there's none besides you, So you need to redeem it, and you need to tell me what you're going to do, because if you don't redeem it, then. I'm next in line. If the other brother says at that moment, I will redeem it, as he does, and then follows through after being informed about Naomi and says, I understand, I will redeem her too. Then Boaz is gone and he doesn't get ruth. And because this is about redemption more than it's about any love that a human being could possibly muster, he allows. For that possibility. Think about that for a moment. It's a completely different picture than the picture that we have of love. The picture that we have of love is the picture that says I will do anything to have you. I must have you. I cannot live if I don't have you. In fact, that's according to our culture. When you know that you're really in love, when the feelings that you have are so overwhelming that you will not allow anything to get in your way, but you will have the one that you want. The Bible says the exact opposite. I love this girl and I want her to be redeemed. But this is not about me. God has made provision for her in his law. And if that provision for her means that you redeem her, then praise be to God. She comes to me, it's gravy. Not only is he thinking about her, but also Naomi. Naomi. The picture here is not you know what, Ruth, Come on you and me, We're gone, Naomi. Really hope you do well with that life. Whose relative is he? He's a Limolex relative. He's the kinsman redeemer because of a limele act. That's Naomi's husband. But Naomi is beyond the sort of marriageable years, so the marriage would be the Ruth. But the redemption is about Naomi is also about redeeming Ruth. It's about redeeming Ruth. This is about what's best for Ruth. This is about him caring for and providing for Ruth. But here's another picture. You see this in verses five, nine, ten, twelve, sixteen, and seventeen. I'm going to read those verses and let me see if you can get a picture of who. Else Boaz has in mind. Verse five, then. Boas said, the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth. The Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance. Go to verse nine. Then Boas said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses this day, that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Alamelet, and all that belonged to Chilean and to Mielan as Ruth. Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mielan, I have bought to be my wife to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. Verse twelve. And may your house be like the house of Perez, whom tamarbor to Judah. Because the offspring that the Lord will give to you by this young woman, which. Is a reference to what leaver her at marriage seen. Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse, and the women in the neighborhood gave him a name, saying a son has been born to Naomi. Boaz is thinking about his fallen kinsmen. This is for a limelex name. This is for Maylan's name. Boaz does not say so that we can go and live happily ever after, No, Boaz says, so that my brother's name will not be cut off from that of the Covenant community, so that my brother's inheritance will not be lost. That's why he's a picture of a redeemer, because it's the the exact opposite of the self serving, self gratifying me, myself and I and what I want picture of marriage that we have absolutely traded for a picture of a wedding, and the picture of the redemption that is ours in Christ is more important than a wedding. Turn with me to the right and look at Ephesians chapter five and listen to this carefully. This is not just for those of you who are yet to be married. This is for those of us who are married. For those of you who are yet to be married, here's what I'm saying to you. Do not settle for placing your heart's desire and your sense of fulfillment in a wedding. Do not sit and pine over a wedding. Yearn for a marriage that is. A picture of the redemption that we have in Christ, and for those who are married. Do not sit and pine over the fact. That you don't have the feeling that you had at your wedding. That wasn't real. Amen, somebody that wasn't real. And you learn that the next day, Amen, because nobody can stay on that high. Longer than forty four thirty six hours. That's about all you get, you know, and then your honeymoon and you go, Wow, getting dressed today doesn't feel like putting on my tuxedo yesterday. Wow. Doing my hair today feels nothing like when I was in that wedding gown and everybody was coming to gaze upon me. See that wasn't the truth. And then here's what people do. You put all your eggs in the wedding basket. And then down the line there's marriage going on, and you wonder why you don't feel like you did on what was essentially the most choreographed and unrealistic day of your life. Help you if you think that's okay? Verse twenty two FSI and Chapter five. Why submit to your own husband's as to the Lord? For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body and is himself. It's savior or redeemer. Now as the Church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit and everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives. Ask Christ love the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. That's redemption, so that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, and that she might be holy and without blimeish. That's redemption. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the Church. That's a picture of redemption, because we are members of His body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and holde fast to his wife, and the two should become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church. It's not all about you. It's by Christ, our redeemer. Your marriage is about redemption. I mean, what do I look like sitting there? Going? Man? I just don't I just don't feel fulfilled. My wife is just not you know, she just doesn't do she doesn't do. It for me. You know, I just don't. I mean, I just what am I? I just I gotta go. Really, I hope you don't believe that that's the way Jesus looks at his bride to the church. And if you don't, then repent for allowing it to be the way that you look at your bride, because if it was all about your bride doing and being everything that you want and need, God would have used another illustration. Amen, it's not the picture. I don't know who said it, but I will never forget it. Said brother. Let me ask you a question, what do you most like Christ? When you're on cloud nine and your wife is meeting your every need, or when you are having to fight to love her in spite of the fact that she's not. We are you more like Christ? See, that's more important than a wedding. That picture of redemption that we paint is much more important. Than a wedding. Secondly, the source of comfort, aid and protection that marriage provides is much more important than a wedding. It was more important that they get that in here, that God get that into Ruth chapter four, than it was that he get a wedding into Ruth chapter four. That marriage provides comfort and aid and protection. Listen to this from Martin Luther. Some thoughtful people have turned their own experience into a fine and noble proverb, and have said, early to rise and early to make to take a wife, a man will not regret throughout his life. Why well, this mode of life makes for people who keep a healthy body, a good conscience, possessions, honor, and friends. Marriage is good for you. Amen, Praise God. It's a blessing to you. It's good for you. It's a source of comfort, a source of aid, a source of protection. That's more important than a wedding. Amen, that's more important than a wedding. Look at the way we see this. Boas brings comfort and aid and protection to Ruth. Boaz brings comfort and aid and protection to Naomi. That's there, But it's also important to the community at large. Notice this first of all to the elders in verses two and then nine through twelve. This is important to the elders. What does Boas do. Boaz does not just go to Ruth and say, hey, this is just about me and Ruth. Not nor does Boaz just go to Ruth's family and say this is just about me and my family and Ruth and her family. Boaz goes to the elders at the gate because he recognizes that this is about the Covenant community as well. Amen, your marriage is not just about you, It's about the Covenant community. Your marriage is not something that happens in a vacuum or in isolation. It is about the Covenant community. And so Boas brings the elders to the table. Boaz calls the elders as witnesses, and then what happens. The elders and the community pray blessings upon his marriage. It's more important than a wedding. For us. The involvement of the church, the wisdom of the church, the blessing of the church, the input of the church, the discipleship of the church, the nurture of the church. Here's what's amazing. There are people who will wander around aimless and churchless and not be able to find a church to go to and be members of. But they will set aside hours and weeks to find the right church to have a wedding in, find a church to be a member of Oh man, it's just so hard. To find a church. I just you know, he kind of here, we did this, we did that. I just don't know, you know, found a church to get married in. Here's the list. Now, this one has this strength in that weakness, this one here would be better for this than that over there. Now I got this seven places to go to next week. But eventually, by the deadline, we will have the right building for the wedding. At the end of the story, we see the women who were introduced in chapter one. Look at chapter one and verse nineteen again they come back. Now the women serve sort of from a narrative standpoint. The women serve. As a kind of frame around the story verse nineteen. So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, is this Naomi? She said to them, do not call me Naomi, Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me. So the women come and they say it's Naomi. And then Naomi has a speech, and Naomi's speech is, don't call me that, call me bitter, because the Lord has dealt bitterly with me. Now the women disappear and they come back at the end of the story, and what happens verses sixteen and seventeen. Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women, who you haven't seen since chapter one of the Neighborhood, gave him a name, saying a son has been born to Naomi. They named him o Bed. First time you see the women, they say Naomi. Naomi gives herself a new name. She says, don't call me Naomi, call me bitter because of what God has done to me. Now you see the women at the end of the story, and the women give the boy a name. Naomi's not doing the naming anymore. His name is worshiper. Why because the God who brought you back empty has made you full. Worship him, That's why. And it's the women who do this, not nailmen. So you see the importance of the covenant community as it relates to wedding and marriage, not just these two individuals. It's not just about these two individuals. And in fact, therefore the wedding is not just about how many people can come and gawk at me in my nice dress. The wedding is about an acknowledgment of the community to which we belong and our desperate need for their support and counsel and aid and wisdom. So you don't have the symbol in chapter four, you just get the substance. Thirdly, the offspring that marriage produces. It's more important than a wedding. The offspring that marriage produces is more important than a wedding. Now, this is. Something that we don't even talk about at weddings anymore. Unfortunately, this is something that we don't talk about in marriage anymore. But I want you to notice something in verse five and then really from verse ten on. But we've already looked at these verses again, listen to them again. Verse five then Boas said, the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabiite. She's a beautiful woman and will make a great wife. She'll make you happy, not what he said, Why, because that's not what it's about. What is it about the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance? It's about offspring. Go to verse ten. Also, Ruth the Moabike, the widow of Maelon, I have bought to be my wife to perpetuate the name of the dead and his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from. The gate of his native place. What's it about children? Then? In verse twelve, when the community blesses them, what does the community say, Well, the community today says, I sure hope God gives y'all a long time to enjoy each other before he brings you some kids who destroy your happiness. What did they say? May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bored to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this. Young woman, children, children. In and at the end we find it again, you're blessing homie. Why because your husband died and your sons died. You had no husband, and you had no sons. God has given you a son. Listen to this from Albert Mohler, A great deal of cultural capital is required in order to encourage young men to marry and men of all ages to fulfill responsibilities as husbands and fathers. The normative picture of the good life for men, at least as presented in the dominant media culture, does not include the comprehensive responsibilities of fatherhood. When men are not stigmatized for failure to be faithful as husbands and fathers, young men will take marriage and parenthood with little significance, as many will avoid marriage and fatherhood altogether. Life's about freedom. Children kill your freedom. It's not the biblical view. That's not the biblical view. Life's not about you. You die, leave something when you do, not something perishable. What does this mean for us? A couple of things. One couple should not seek marriage unless and until they're ready to seek after and receive children. If you're not ready to have kids, you're not ready to be married. Amen, hallelujah, Praise the Lord. If you're not ready to have kids, you're not ready to be married. That's one of the primary goals here. There is this picture of redemption, and there is the issuing forth of children. Here's what's interesting. We're spending on average twenty five to thirty thousand dollars for a wedding, and you talk to that same couple about children, and they go, we can't afford them right now. Somebody make that one work for me? Can you? We can't afford them right now? What do they do? You got a wedding coming up. I have met young ladies who have a wedding coming up, who take on two and three jobs so that they can help get some of those things that they have envision in their mind. Because if I don't have my flower laden arch to walk through, and if I don't have my whatever shoes, and if I don't have this dress, it shows about it. Say yes to the dress. If I don't have these. Things, it will be wrong and my life will be destroyed. I will go do anything that I have to young men who will do anything that they have to to get the right ring because it's the ring that she wants. And they will kill themselves, beg borrow steel, plead their family will go into hawk so that they can have the wedding that they want. And if they go and get pregnant, everybody says, what are you thinking? Do you know how much that cost. What have we just communicated about what's more important the wedding, The wedding, the wedding. If you're not ready for children, you're not ready to be married. Secondly, we must reject this idea in our culture that you can have anything called marriage that involves homosexuals, because that is a categorical denial of the very purpose of marriage. A categorical denial of the very purpose of marriage. By the way, it's really difficult for us to make that argument when we are willing to mutilate our bodies so that God didn't give us kids. Finally, we must show compassion and pray for families who struggle with infertility. See there's two options on this. One option is to say, well, you know, marriage is not really about children. That's a denial of scriptural truth in an effort to make somebody feel better. The other option is we understand that this is a desire that God gives and cannot imagine how difficult it must be to not see that desire fulfilled. I'm going to pray for you that God would open up your womb or wats this? The ladies say, God has given Naomi a son well, no, he didn't because it didn't come through her womb. It's not the only way God can give you a son. That's not the only way God can give you a child. And it's no less your child. I would say, I'm sorry, but I'm not. I just stood up in front of a judge on a Friday then hurt his decree, not because I needed his decree. To say, that's my child, but it's good to have it. And people still ask, they still ask, do we feel the same way about children who come into our home through adoption? Do you know with all honesty the first thing that happens, just instinctively in me when people ask me that question, there's a check that comes in my mind and I go, Okay, which ones are those? Because I don't walk around thinking like that. Naomi didn't walk around thinking like that. This is a gift that God has given to me. Here's what I also want you to know. When Ruth is in Moab, she's infertile for ten years and then it takes a reverse to get pregnant. Amen, just the verse, and what's the next phrase that comes after that verse where she gets pregnant? He went into her and the Lord gave her conception. God's the author of life. The Lord gave her conception. But what do the women say? Basically, the Lord gave Naomi the son. That's more important than a wedding, raising children to the glory of God, and then a wedding. If a couple has to choose between the wedding of their dreams, which by the way, will always disappoint because there's always something that didn't go right, and none of it is ever, ever, ever what you expected it to be when that's what you're hoping in. Because I don't care how much you spend for your dress. At the end of the day, it's a dress. At the end of the day, his testedo usually goes back to the place where he read it or into moth balls. At the end of the day, the crowds go home, the music stops. At the end of the day, people stop staring at you like you're the most beautiful couple in the world. At the end of the day, there's no couple that looks like you on the dessert table. Every day. At the end of the day, when you dance with your spouse in the middle of your living room, nobody's watching unless there's some little faces, and here's what you better know. Better to dance in your living room in front of those little faces who smile and are slightly embarrassed, then before crowds of people who are going to go home and complain about what you served them. Finally, what's more important than a wedding? God's redemptive purpose is more important than a wedding. How does the book end? The book begins it's the time of the judges. What's the book saying at its beginning? This is one of the low ebbs in Israel's history. There's a famine in the land. They've got nothing. They've gotten no hope, they've got no real leader, they've got no real direction. That's how the book begins. How does it end? Oh Bed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David, who answers the question Israel is asking at the beginning of the book, does God care? And will he send us a deliverer? The answer yes and yes and yes. But wait, we only ask two questions. Now, actually you asked three. You just didn't know it, Israel. Yeah, but we just like we want to know if you care, because you know the whole judges thing. Yes, we care, and then we want to know if you send us a deliverer. And so you know, you sent David the King, and so you said yes, and then you said yes again. Why'd you say yes three times? Because David is really not the deliverer that you need. There is one who is greater still, who will deliver you in a way that David cannot. That's more important than a wedding. Christ is our hope. Christ is our redeemer. Christ is our rock. Christ is the lover of our souls. Christ is our brother as we have been adopted into the family of the Father. Christ is our shepherd king who guides us and directs us where human judges cannot. And that is more important than a wedding. But that's not to say that weddings are unimportant. And just so you know that, not even Jesus thinks that he chose a wedding to be the place where he performed his first miracle. Let's pray