Make Way for the King

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Isaiah 2:2-5
• Hymn — Praise the Lord, All You Nations (#117b)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Catechism — Westminster Shorter Catechism Questions 29–30
• Hymn — O Lord of Hosts, How Lovely (#84b)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Ruth 4:13-22
• Sermon
• Hymn — The Church's One Foundation (#404)
• Benediction — Numbers 6:24-26

Sermon Title: Make Way for the King

Scripture: Ruth 4:13-22

I. The Lord's Gracious Provision in the Picture of a Marriage

• A. Boaz takes Ruth as his wife, securing enduring provision through covenantal relationship.
  1. Ruth the Moabitess — once an outsider, an enemy of the God of Israel, destitute and gleaning scraps — is raised to a new status as the wife of Boaz.
  2. Boaz gives her his name, his home, and all that he has; she will never again want for anything.
• B. Boaz is a small picture of Christ, the greater husband and redeemer, who takes to himself a bride from far off.
  1. Paul reminds gentile believers in Ephesians 2:12-13 that they were once separated from Christ, alienated, and without hope, but have now been brought near by the blood of Christ.
  2. As Ephesians 5:25 teaches, husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
  3. Christ gives his name, his home, and himself to his people; he nourishes and cherishes his bride.
• C. When tempted to despair of what Christ provides, remember the picture of marriage — it is a promise of enduring, everlasting provision secured by covenant relationship.

II. The Lord's Gracious Provision in the Picture of a Son

• A. The Lord himself gave Ruth conception — it is he who opens and closes the womb, as seen with Sarah, Leah, Rachel, Hannah, the mother of Samson, and Elizabeth.
  1. Ruth 4:13 is deliberate: "the Lord gave her conception" — this is only the second time in the book that the Lord is the subject of a verb (cf. Ruth 1:6, where the Lord visited his people and gave them food).
  2. Ruth had been married ten years with no children, implying barrenness; the Lord's personal visitation reverses this.
• B. The son is highlighted especially as provision for Naomi, not only Ruth.
  1. The women of the neighborhood bless the Lord: "He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age" (Ruth 4:14-15).
  2. Naomi, who returned empty, is brought to fullness — she has a grandson who is heir to the Lord's provision for her life.
• C. Believers need friends like the women of the neighborhood who can help us see and name what the Lord is doing in our lives.
• D. The Lord's grace is personal — given personally, received personally, and enjoyed personally.

III. The Lord's Gracious Provision in the Picture of a Lineage

• A. The genealogy from Perez to David is not incidental; it is a record of God's faithfulness to his covenant promises, generation by generation.
  1. The phrase "she bore a son" echoes Genesis 3:16 and the promise of the seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent.
  2. The construction "these are the generations" mirrors Genesis genealogies, which are a record of the search for that promised seed.
• B. Obed is in the line of Judah, through whom God promised a kingly line in Genesis 49:8-10: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah."
  1. The line runs through Obed to David, and through David to the covenant promise of 2 Samuel 7 — that one in his line would sit on an everlasting throne.
  2. Obed's name means "servant" — pointing forward to the one who came not to be served but to serve and give his life a ransom for many.
• C. Jesus is the greater Boaz and the greater Obed — the suffering servant and conquering king that Isaiah holds together in one Messiah.
  1. He is the restorer of life and nourisher of his people; he continues to nourish believers as they hold fast to him in faith, including at the Lord's Table.
  2. He came to lead his people back to God and in the ways of God — bearing the iniquity of his people, led as a lamb to the slaughter, and raised in resurrection.
• D. The call of the passage: put your trust in the greater Boaz, the one who comes through the line of Obed — his life is yours by faith in him.