Ruth 4:13–17 (ESV) —
13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and
the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. 14 Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left
you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! 15 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.” 16 Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap
and became his nurse. 17 And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name,
saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father
of Jesse, the father of David.
NOTE: Obed did
restore Naomi, who was left with almost nothing after the years in Moab. She
returns and once again holds a baby in her arms. Her daughter-in-law loved her
and her son-in-law provided for her. The name "Obed" means servant,
and while he served to restore Naomi, even more importantly he is a servant of
God. Constable writes as to the purpose of the story of Ruth: "to show
that the reign of David resulted from neither his shrewd politics nor his
clever tactics but from the divine preservation of his worthy family
line." (Constable, T. (2003). Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the
Bible (Ru 4:13). Galaxie Software.) With God's foreknowledge, God is divinely
working things, within our free will, to achieve his purpose. God does not
control the actions of the sinner, but God in his infinite wisdom can bring to
pass his purpose no matter what choices men make. So, it is today. Nothing is
unknown from God. He is bringing about his purpose. We need to trust. It will
not look like God is at work, because we have to look through the actions of
sinful man, but he is working.
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