The Kinsman Redeemer

Transcript

GRM 908
07/11/2004
The Kinsman Redeemer
Ruth 4:1-22
Gil Rugh

The book of Ruth, the first part of your Old Testament—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth. A little book that is set in the context of the times of the judges, a very difficult time in Israel’s history. A time of disorder, a time when every man did what was right in his own eyes. The judges were men raised up by God to provide deliverance for His people. They are brought into bondage for their rebellion and sin and after a period of time under the disciplining hand of God they turn to God and ask for Him to rescue them. He does, and then after they’re rescued they quickly forget Him. Prosperity, comfort become its own trap. And we all experience this when we’re in the most difficult of times, going through painful circumstances, our attention becomes much more focused on the Lord, and we are much more conscious of our need of Him and dependence on Him. And then as the pressure is off we get absorbed in the general flow of our lives, becomes easy to forget that the Lord is still to be the focus.

Well the book of Ruth is set in that context. A beautiful story, but it’s not just to be a story of warmth and encouragement. It has a key purpose—it provides a necessary link in the genealogy of the Messiah of Israel. And it also pictures in the form of a type of a kinsman redeemer. And it becomes a picture of Jesus Christ as the one who is our kinsman redeemer.

Chapter 3 brought us to a semi-climax in the book, where Ruth the Moabitess, daughter-in-law of Naomi, has appealed to Boaz to fulfill the responsibility of being a kinsman redeemer for her, to take responsibility for her, provide for her. Boaz said he is willing to do that, but there is someone who is a closer relative who has the first option in doing what is necessary in redeeming the family of Naomi. We’ll say more about that in a moment. The chapter ended with Ruth and Naomi waiting to see what will happen. Boaz now has to take the initiative to get this matter legally settled.

Chapter 4 will bring the book to a close as Boaz steps forward, resolves the legal issues, takes Ruth as his wife, has a son with her and we are told how that ties into the Messianic line and forms a necessary link there.

Look at the first 6 verses where we deal with Boaz and the issue of redeeming the family of Naomi. Chapter 3 ended with Naomi telling Ruth we just have to wait. Boaz will act quickly to get this matter resolved. So chapter 4 opens with Boaz doing just that. Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there. The gate was where the business was transacted. The important men of the city would regularly be at the gate. Anyone who had business to take care of, legal matters, would come to the gate. It was, if you will, the courthouse where all legal transactions would take place and were formally ratified. He sits down at the gate and he’s a prominent man of the city. And he evidently is well aware that the other individual that has to be involved in this will be there as well. And that is the nearer relative.

While Boaz went up and sat down at the gate behold the close relative, or literally the redeemer. The one who is the closest relative has the first option on performing the right of redemption, being the kinsman redeemer for Naomi. He comes by and Boaz says to him, turn aside friend, and sit down here. So he turned aside and sat down. Basically, I have some things I want to talk to you about. Boaz also took 10 men of the city, elders, and said sit down. So they sat down. Clearly now we have some kind of legal issue that is going to be resolved here. Boaz has asked the other party to sit down even though the other party doesn’t know what the issues are. He has also invited 10 of the elders of the city to sit here. They will be the legal ratifiers, if you will. It will become a legally binding contract when we are done. These 10 elders can seal it. They will be the ones who testify to the validity of what will take place here. There is no explanation given anywhere why 10 were selected. Boaz selects 10 and they will be the legal entity on this occasion.

Then he said to the closest relative, Naomi who has come back from the land of Moab has to sell the piece of land which belonged to our brother, Elimelech. This is the first mention of any possessions of Elimelech. Remember Elimelech had left the land, the area here of Bethlehem, over 10 years ago but when he left he had land there, the land remained his. Even though they’ve been gone now for over 10 years, Naomi has to sell it. She can’t afford it, she needs the resources, she’s impoverished, she has to sell her land. That’s the picture.

So I thought to inform you saying, buy it before those who are sitting here, before the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it; if not, tell me that I may know, for there is no one but you to redeem it. And I am after you. Then he said, I will redeem it. So Boaz is a relative and that was made clear earlier in the account of Ruth. But there is a closer relative, he has the first option on redeeming the property.

Go back to Leviticus, just to refresh your mind, Leviticus 25 verse 23, God says “the land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.” We talk about the land belonging to Israel. God tells Israel the land belongs to Me, and I am letting you use it but you can’t sell it. That will keep the land together and keep Israel unified. Thus, for every piece of your property you are to provide for the redemption of the land. If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor he has to sell part of his property, then his nearest kinsman is to come and buy back what his relative has sold. The purpose is to keep the land in the family. Sort of the way we are familiar with a modern-day general principle of the family farm, and keeping the land in the family, trying to pass it on. Well, there was a firm provision for that in Israel. The land was to be protected that way.

Turn over to Jeremiah, an event that will happen much later in Israel’s history, the prophet Jeremiah, about in the middle of your Bible, Jeremiah chapter 32. This is not just a financial opportunity for the nearest relative to get a good piece of land. There are stipulations entailed here. Go back to Deuteronomy 25, Deuteronomy 25. Look at verse 5, when brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son. So here you have brothers, one of the brothers dies. He doesn’t have a son to take over his possessions, to inherit his property. The wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Why? What would happen? Well the property would then move outside the family because her new husband would become the owner of the property and so it would begin to break down the property rights. So she shall not be married outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall go into her, take her to himself as his wife and perform the duty of her husband’s brother to her. This is called a “levirate marriage”, from the Latin word husband’s brother. So you do the duty of a husband’s brother, the “levirate marriage”. The word levirate comes from the Latin word for a husband’s brother.

He goes on. It shall be that the firstborn, now note this important stipulation, that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother. So the firstborn son here is viewed as the son of the dead brother. So all the inheritance rights will go to him, not to the brother. So his name will not be blotted out from Israel. But if the man does not desire to take his brother’s wife then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say my husband’s brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel. He’s not willing to perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me. Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says I do not desire to take her, then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders, pull his sandal from off his foot, spit in his face and declare, thus it is done to the man who will not build up his brother’s house. In Israel his name shall be called the house of him whose sandal is removed. He is disgraced for not being willing to perform the duty that is prescribed.

Go back to Genesis chapter 38. This practice preceded the Law given through Moses. Genesis 38, you might want to leave a marker in Genesis, although Genesis is easy to get to. Genesis 38, just to summarize what we have here. Judah, remember one of the sons of Jacob, one of the 12-tribe leaders of the 12 tribes in Israel, the key, the tribe from whom the Messiah will come, the tribe of Judah. Here is the head of that tribe, Judah. He took a wife for Ur his firstborn, her name was Tamar. But Ur, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the sight of the Lord and the Lord took his life. Then Judah said to Onan, go into your brother’s wife and perform your duty as a brother-in-law to her and raise up offspring for your brother. Onan knew that the offspring would not be his so when he went into his brother’s wife he spilled his seed on the ground because he didn’t want to father a son that would be his brother’s heir. So the Lord took his life also. We’ll come back to this passage in a moment because it has bearing on a later section in Ruth 4.

But you’ll note the practice, so foreign to us, hard for us to grasp such a thing. You might have expected, come back to Ruth 4, that the nearest relative when he is told he can redeem the land would say yes. Then when he is told he has to marry Ruth he might have said, I can’t, my wife will kill me. But there are other reasons, evidently involved here that keep him from doing it. So look at verse 6 of Ruth 4, the closest relative said I cannot redeem it for myself because I would jeopardize or ruin my own inheritance. Redeem it for yourself, you may have my right of redemption for I cannot redeem it. This provision changes everything. It said it would jeopardize or ruin his own inheritance. You understand why. He has to pay the money to pay all the debts and all on the property to purchase it, give the purchase price. He has to assume responsibility for the woman that he’s going to marry and her family now, have a son, raise that son. All this is going to cost, but none of this will belong to him. This man says I’m not in a position to do this, it will ruin me, to buy this land and take all this responsibility. Evidently he’s not in a financial position to do it. He would have had to pay the price for the land, the son born would be the heir of Ruth’s dead husband, as the son of Elimelech, Naomi’s deceased husband, and then he would have had to care for the family. He says I can’t do it, I’m forfeiting my right.

Now here you have the legal emphasis. The ten elders are sitting in the gate and this man declares, I give up my rights, you have the right to redeem it. So this is all done in a legal context so he can’t come back later and say I didn’t have opportunity to exercise my right. You may have my right of redemption, I cannot redeem it. So you have the transaction formalized beginning in verse 7, “now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning the redemption and exchange of the land to confirm any matter.” The way this is written, this was the custom in former times, would indicate that there have been some changes in this practice when this account is being written. We don’t know who wrote the book of Ruth, some speculate it might have been Samuel. That may well have been, but we’re not told but it’s written sometime later. Evidently there have been some changes in the practice because he has to tell us now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning the redemption and exchange of land to confirm any matter. A man removed his sandal and gave it to another. This was the manner of attestation in Israel. So you can see going back to Deuteronomy, there may have been some alterations along the way. The practice of taking off the sandal and giving it to Boaz to formalize the transaction, and we don’t have time to go through, but a number of places, Deuteronomy 1:36, 11:24; Joshua 1:3, 14:9, talk about walking over the land. Evidently that’s involved in taking off the sandal. Here now Boaz is free to walk over the land, take possession of it. I’ve given you my rights over this land, and that’s involved in the symbolism of giving the sandal.

Boaz said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses today that I have bought the land of Naomi, all that belonged to Elimelech, all that belonged to Chilion and Mahlon. So this all goes back to Elimelech. Since his sons have died and only Ruth and Naomi are here now and they have no resources, Boaz assumes responsibility for it all and pays whatever is the price necessary to secure the rights to all that belonged to them. That will mean he also has to take Ruth the Moabitess as his wife. Now evidently Naomi would have been the wife, but since she is obviously elderly now and beyond childbearing years, it is Ruth that has been widowed as the daughter-in-law of Elimelech, whom he takes as wife to raise up seed that will be viewed as the line of Elimelech.

Verse 10, “moreover I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess,” and as we noted before, there is an emphasis in this book that Ruth is a Moabitess. That was emphasized in verse 5 when Boaz told the nearer relative, you must acquire Ruth the Moabitess; verse 10, “Boaz said I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess.” This is a unique case here in Israel of this foreign woman. We have seen that already. He also makes clear here, Ruth the Moabitess is the widow of Mahlon. This is the first time we are told which of the sons of Elimelech Ruth was married to, Chilion or Mahlon. Now we’re told that Ruth was the wife of Mahlon. I have acquired her to be my wife in order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance, so that the name of the deceased will not be cut off from his brothers or from the court of his birthplace. You are witnesses today. So Boaz makes clear what is going on here. The son that would be born as a result of my marriage to Ruth will be considered the firstborn son who will be considered the son of Mahlon. So I’ve paid the money to acquire all this, but this will all be considered under the name of Mahlon, it will be in his line, not my line. It’s a possession of that family line, so that his name is continued through the family line. He has no selfish intentions, no personal gain here, necessarily for Boaz, but it’s the right thing to do and he is willing to do it.

A prayer then is uttered. All the people that were in the court, literally in the gate where the court is being held. The elders said we are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, both of whom built the house of Israel. May you achieve wealth in Ephrathah and become famous in Bethlehem. Rachel and Leah were the wives of Jacob, and it is from Jacob come the 12 tribes of Israel. It’s from these 2 wives and then their concubines that all the 12 tribes of Israel come. So they’re asking for him to prosper as a father in Israel. Receive wealth, that word wealth we’ve seen earlier also. It includes not just riches, but indicates valor, worth, reputation of high character and honor.

Verse 12, “moreover may your house be like the house of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah through the offspring which the Lord will give you by this young woman.” Now this is an interesting connection. It takes us back to Genesis 38, which was not necessarily a pretty account. Go back to Genesis 38. Perez is brought into the picture here. We’re not as familiar with these Old Testament genealogical issues. Here the people are and a part of their prayer is, may your house be like the house of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah. Why mention Perez? Well one, there was a levirate issue with Tamar. Remember Judah? One of his sons died, his other son was supposed to perform the duties of the levirate marriage with his sister-in-law, the wife of his deceased brother and he refused, so he, too, died. It ended up, if you’re familiar with the account in Genesis 38, we’re not going to read the whole account, through an act of deception Tamar conceives a son with her father-in-law, Judah. So there is a family connection and Judah acknowledges that he had been unfair because he had a third son whom he should have given to Tamar. Tamar should have been given to him to perform the responsibilities of a brother-in-law. But Judah didn’t do it because his first two sons had been killed by the Lord. He was afraid if he gave the third son to Tamar the Lord might kill him, too. So he didn’t do it, but he acknowledges he was unfair. But it ends up the family line is continued because she bears a son through a deceptive relationship with her father-in-law, Judah.

Perez’ descendants settled in Bethlehem. And we’re not going to trace this down, it’s in 1 Chronicles chapter 2, if you get into these kinds of things. 1 Chronicles 2:5,18,50-54, and you can see how Perez’ descendents settled in Bethlehem where Boaz is. And we’re going to see in a moment Perez was an ancestor of Boaz. So Boaz is a descendent of Perez. When we get this all tied in now from Genesis chapter 38 and why is Perez mentioned we come down to that kind of situation. Tamar was herself a foreign woman, she was a Canaanite. So we have this woman out of the line of Abraham but brought into the line of the Messiah. The same thing we have in the book of Ruth. We have Ruth the Moabitess brought into the line of the Messiah. You have the levirate marriage in the context of Perez. You have Tamar being a foreign woman and outside the line of Abraham, as was Ruth the Moabitess. Some important connections.

Come back to Ruth chapter 4. So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife and he went into her and the Lord enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to a son. What a remarkable climax to the book. All that Naomi has been through, all that Ruth has been through, and now here Ruth has a husband who is happy to take care of her. Now she has a son with this husband, Naomi is part of that family, of course, comes under the care of Boaz also. What Ruth had been deprived of with the loss of her husband, being childless, now she has the blessing of a son.

The focus now comes to Naomi. Then the women said to Naomi, blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a redeemer today. May his name become famous in Israel. May he also be to you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age. For your daughter-in-law who loves you and is better to you than 7 sons has given birth to him. So Naomi is honored. The ladies realize that God has finally brought blessing to Naomi, her family, and her situation.

Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her lap and became his nurse. The neighbor women gave him a name saying a son has been born to Naomi. Now it’s not Naomi’s birth son but the line of Naomi now continues. As everybody knows, a grandson is better than a son anyway. A son has been born to Naomi so they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David. And there you get the ultimate reason for the whole book of Ruth. You have to keep the line to Messiah going and see the connection. Ruth has a son and his name is Obed and Obed is the father of Jesse, and Jesse is the father of David. We have the Messianic line here so the book of Ruth is an important connection in that. We see the sovereign hand of God, but we see particularly a Messianic connection in the genealogical line here.

Verses 18-20 give you a short genealogy going back to Perez in Genesis 38. And you go from Perez who is a son of Judah to David. I don’t have this printed out, we could put it on a screen and you could just write it down and do the connections yourself. These are the generations of Perez. We’re back to another levirate marriage situation, remember, in Genesis 38, for Perez is the son of a basic levirate marriage, a relative marriage, to keep the line going with Judah and Tamar. And to Perez was born Hezron; to Hezron was born Ram; to Ram, Aminadab; to Aminadab, Nahshon; to Nahshon, Salmon; to Salmon, Boaz; to Boaz, Obed; to Obed, Jesse; to Jesse, David. So now we’ve made the connection going back quite a ways.

And you see what seemed like random events, just driven by difficult circumstances and tragic circumstances, a famine in the land and the man leaves with his family, goes to a foreign land and the sons marry foreign women. And the husband dies, the father, and then the sons die and you’re left with these three widows, one of which stays in the land of Moab. The Jewess, Naomi, and the Moabitess, Ruth, return to Naomi’s homeland, Bethlehem. And Ruth goes out to glean in the field with the rest of the widows and poverty stricken and it so happens she ends up in the field of Boaz and on it goes.

I want to note something here about the kinsman redeemer. It does draw our attention to Jesus Christ and what He has done for us, He is our redeemer and He has become our kinsman. Three things had to be true of a kinsman redeemer and they are true of Christ, just to note these things.

1. He had to be a kinsman. Leave something in Ruth 4 and come back to the New Testament to Hebrews 2. He had to be a relative, that was a requirement. Now Boaz was not a brother-in-law, but the principle of the levirate went beyond just the brother-in-law to the nearest relative, and the nearest relative who could fulfill the responsibility. So he had to be a kinsman, and in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14, therefore since the children share in flesh and blood He Himself likewise also partook of the same that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. Verse 14, since the children, those that were going to be redeemed, are flesh and blood, human beings, He became flesh and blood. He became our kinsman. And you’ll note in that, the next verse after what we read, verse 16, assuredly He does not give help to angels. He did not become an angel, so there is no redeemer for fallen angels, no kinsman redeemer. But there is for human sinners, because we have a kinsman redeemer, one who Himself has become like us, flesh and blood.

2. He had to pay the price of redemption, He had to be able to pay that price. The nearest kinsman in the book of Ruth was willing to do it until he realized the cost, and then he couldn’t fulfill the obligation. He wasn’t able to carry it out. So a kinsman redeemer had to be able to pay the price. And Jesus Christ was without sin and so He Himself could. Chapter 4 verse 15 refers to the fact He was without sin. II Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 refers to the fact that God made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. In I Peter, Peter writes that we have been redeemed with the precious blood of the Christ as a lamb unblemished and spotless. So He was able to pay the price.

3. He had to be willing to pay the price. We won’t turn there, but in John 10 verses 15-18 He said no one takes my life from me, I give it of my own accord. So He is indeed a kinsman redeemer for us. So there is a beautiful picture in the book of Ruth of what God would do on our behalf for our ultimate redemption.

Well let’s wrap up this study. Let me just share with you some lessons from the book of Ruth that we’ve already noted, but I’ll pull them together.
1. Sometimes God’s plan for His children includes pain that may seem overwhelming and without purpose. We’ve seen this as we’ve studied particularly chapter 1 of Ruth. Tragedy after tragedy, shattering circumstance that leaves Ruth and Naomi without hope, without resources, at the mercy of the elements, so to speak. Sometimes God’s plan for His children includes pain, it may seem to be overwhelming and it may seem to have no purpose. How often do we tell God, Lord, I don’t see any purpose in this. I don’t see any good in this. And Lord this is nothing but tragedy with no purpose. Some events seem that way. But God’s plans sometimes include that for His children.

2. God is in control of all things, of nature, people, events like famine, death, suffering, poverty, personal activity, decisions, chance occurrences. That comes out through the book. I mean the famine that removed them from the land, the death of Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, the death of Naomi’s sons and their death before they have children. And then the hopeless despair that causes them to return to the region of Bethlehem with no future there. God is in control. As you just look at the account and observe it, we wouldn’t have been able to put it together as it was in process. We have to remember Naomi and Ruth couldn’t either. What did Naomi……. God has brought bitterness into my life, He has made my life bitter. She had no understanding that there was a real purpose in this, that thousands of years later people would be studying her life and seeing the sovereign hand of God at work. All she knew was that her life had turned bitter and it was bitterness on top of bitterness. But God was in control of all those things, for the line of the Messiah to be carried out. The famine was necessary, the deaths were necessary, the hopelessness from the human perspective, all part of the plan.

3. (These overlap obviously). Everything that God does is with purpose and is for our good. If you didn’t have chapter 1 you couldn’t have chapter 4. I don’t want chapter 1 in my life, but chapter 4 is wonderful. I want to be part of what God is doing and experience the wonder of His work in our lives. But if we’re honest we all want it, we all want chapter 4 without chapter 1. What misery. I don’t want pain, I don’t want heartache, I don’t want loss of loved ones, I don’t want……….but oh Lord, bless. Oh Lord, use me. Honor yourself in my life. But oh Lord, not pain, not suffering, not difficulty, not loss. Romans 8:28, God causes all things to work together for good to those who are called according to His purpose. Which naturally leads to the next point.

4.God is faithful, God is faithful. It’s His very character to be faithful.

5. We must trust Him, He has everything under control. Many of these things are closely knit together. We understand God’s plan sometimes includes difficulty, trial, more intense suffering and pain than we thought we could bear. But I understand sometimes that’s part of God’s plan. He’s in control of everything coming into my life, even the famines, the seeming events of what we would call mother nature. There is no mother nature, we know. There is a sovereign God who rules over nature. The famine came to Israel according to God’s plan. We say well that was not good, it was probably brought as part of God’s judgment on a sinning nation. Yes, that did not keep His plans for good from happening in the lives of His children. That helps us as we despair, oh God’s going to judge this nation. What will we do? The sin? Well God will still do what is good for us as His people. What are we afraid of? That we’ll get caught up in the events? Is God not in control of the events, the droughts, the famines, the deaths, the suffering? Is He not faithful? Can we not trust Him?

6. Obedience brings blessing. All we can do is trust Him. Naomi had no power to stop the famine, no power to prevent the death of her husband, no power to prevent the death of her sons. She can’t control events. We try hard, we get frustrated over it, but we can’t. All we can do is be obedient. All I can do is accept it. We noted this with Naomi. What did she say? The Lord has done this, the Lord’s done this. He brought bitterness into her life, remember we talked about that, but it didn’t make her bitter. Ruth commits herself to follow Naomi’s God and serve Him. She’s not driven away from Naomi’s God, she’s drawn to Him. So obedience brings blessing. I can’t say when. You know it’s nice to be able to read the last chapter and know how it ends. In my own life I haven’t read the last chapter, you haven’t read the last chapter. But I have read the last chapter and you have read the last chapter, because the last chapter is blessing, where we are presented in the presence of His glory how? Holy, blameless and without spot, Colossians 1. We are dwelling in the new Jerusalem at the end of the book of Revelation where there is overwhelming splendor and glory in the very presence of God. So we have read the last chapter. I haven’t read all the events that yet are before me, and I’m just as glad. And I don’t need to know them. God has it all under control, doesn’t He?

Good for us to remember. I’ve jotted down Psalm 30:5, weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning. That reminder for us as God’s people, suffering and sorrow are all temporary. It can seem like a long time, but it’s temporary. When we sit in glory we won’t be there thinking how did we suffer so much for so long. Do you think in a hundred billion years I’m going to be thinking I don’t know how I did it. It’s going to seem like nothing, isn’t it? Just like we look back on events now and think of what? It’s nothing, it’s over. So it is for us.

So we are encouraged. The book of Ruth tells us about the sovereign God and it shows us the specific purpose. God is working to bring a Messiah, a true, ultimate kinsman redeemer on our behalf. And what takes place in the book of Ruth is not random events, it’s a sovereign God working His plan to bring about His appointed purpose. And everything going on in our lives today is happening in that same kind of context. The same God rules over all and all that is taking place is within His purposes and His plans and we can trust Him and we read the last chapter and blessing in the end.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, that you are a great and awesome, mighty and powerful God and we belong to you. Lord, how encouraged our hearts are to study a little book like Ruth, to be reminded of the wretched circumstances that were going on in much of the nation during the days of the judges, to learn something of the tragedies and trials that overtook the family of Naomi. And yet to see your sovereign hand at work in all these situations, to realize it was a beautiful part of your marvelous plan in bringing the Messiah to this earth, the one who Himself would become flesh and blood in the line of Boaz and Ruth, so that we might have a Redeemer to free us from sin and death. Lord, you are a God who can be trusted, you are a God who is faithful. Lord, may we keep this before us as we serve you day by day. As difficulty comes, painful times come, we rejoice we’ve been blessed to read the last chapter. We know how it all will end, and you are a God who is good, a God who is faithful, a God whose blessings will be overwhelming. We praise you in Christ’s name. Amen.