The day you said yes to Jesus, you received an appointment with destiny. Because God always keeps his appointments. Why Naomi was going through this incredible pain and loss and suffering?
Her husband and her two sons? While she was going through that, God was working things out for her appointment with destiny. When Naomi was going through the frosty winter, God was preparing the warmth of the sunshine. Welcome to Leading the Way with Pastor and International Bible Teacher, Dr. Michael Yousaf. Sometimes the pain from loss and sufferings in life feel like they'll never end. But God always comes through.
And we'll see how he came through for Naomi and Ruth in just a moment by way of what the Bible calls a Kinsman Redeemer. Now before the message, allow me to share contact information for Leading the Way, because we know that not all of you are going to be able to stick around until the end of the broadcast. If you'd like to call, the number is 866-626-4356. If connecting online is easier, you can reach out at ltw.org. And I know Dr. Yousaf loves getting those handwritten notes.
Right to Leading the Way, Post Office Box 2100, Atlanta, Georgia, 30325. Now wait before you call or click or begin writing your note, because here now is Dr. Michael Yousaf with today's life-changing message from God's Word. In the first message of chapter 1, we saw very clearly in the winter season of Naomi's life she trusted in the living God. She experienced bitterness, but she never became bitter. Do you know the difference?
And there's a world of difference between the two. I think we all experience bitterness, but the question is, do you become a bitter person? And the reason I know Naomi did not become bitter is because she prayed for her daughters-in-law. You see, when you're a bitter person, you will not pray for others. I got enough problems.
I am so wrapped up in myself. I don't have any time to think of praying for somebody else. That's a bitter person. Naomi experienced bitterness, but she never became bitter, because she knew that the winter season of her life one day will give way to the sunshine of his redemption. Glory to God. Naomi realized that the frost of pain would one day, one day give way to the warmth of God's deliverance. And Naomi believed that the God who permitted her to experience the consequences of their family, the short-circuiting of God's plan and God's word is the God of the second chances and the hundreds and the thousands of chances. Then at chapter two, we saw how Naomi's daughter-in-law, Ruth, who worked for a minute, actually less than minimum wage, I mean, she was below minimum wage.
All of a sudden, she gets invited to have lunch at the executive suite with the CEO. Now, beloved, listen to me, fads have a way of fading away. Seen it many times in my life.
Trends have a way of trending away. Just be patient, because the hand of the Lord stands forever. Then here in chapter three, we begin to see the restoring hand of God.
Don't you love that? We all love the restoring hand of God, even though we may experience pain, suffering, but all we rejoice in the restoring hand of God. And we begin to see here in chapter three of the appointment with destiny, her appointment with destiny. Surely you must know, and those of you who don't know, you need to know, that God does everything by an appointment. Did you get that?
What does that mean? It means that God will bring to pass all of his promises in your life. God never one second late or one second early. He's always, always on time, except it's his time, not ours. Question, what is an appointment? What's an appointment of God? Well, you know, an appointment is a meeting that's already been set up, right? That's what an appointment is.
Okay, you made an appointment to see a doctor or to see a friend. It's already set up, and God always, always keeps his appointments. He never says, oh, sorry, I got tired, I'm sorry, I got way late and I forgot my appointment, I'm sorry the traffic was really bad and I'm late, oh, I'm sorry, I forgot all about it. Never, never, not our God. He always, always keeps his appointments. Even when the tempestuous wind is blowing in your face, God has already prepared a way of escape. Please hear me right. The day you said yes to Jesus, you received an appointment with destiny.
Let's repeat that. The day you said yes to Jesus, you received an appointment with destiny. Because God always keeps his appointments. Why Naomi was going through this incredible pain and loss and suffering?
Her husband and her two sons? While she was going through that, God was working things out for her appointment with destiny. When Naomi was going through the frosty winter, God was preparing the warmth of the sunshine. Listen to me, your blessing may not come the way you expect it to come. Your blessing may not come through the individual or individuals or people that you thought would come through, but when God is in charge in your life, rest assured he keeps his appointments. God synchronizes his answers to accomplish his purpose.
And that's very hard to accept, I know that, but just remember this. Whatever you are, whatever circumstances you're going through right now, remember that God is synchronizing in order to accomplish his purpose. I want to illustrate this. Many times, after a long flight home, and you can't wait to get home, you can't wait to see your family, and all of a sudden, the air controller tells the pilot to wait in the air. I don't know about you, but I find waiting in the air to be very disconcerting. What a strange place to wait! In the air!
For goodness sake! But the important thing for me is to realize that the air controller has to synchronize, he has to synchronize the landing schedules, otherwise he's going to have disasters on his hands. And so the captain announces, we are going to assume a holding pattern.
Hello! We are going to assume a holding pattern for further instructions. Listen to me, I know more about holding patterns than you will ever know.
Some of us are in a holding pattern right now. And you're wondering, what's going to land? But God is synchronizing the working and working things together for your appointment with destiny, for your appointment, because he wants to take you home safely.
He wants to take you all the way home safely. For what purpose? For what purpose? Look at Ruth chapter 3, and you're going to see with me the synchronizing of God's plan.
Why? So that he may change Naomi's and Ruth's disappointments into hope, so that he may replace shattered dreams with a kinsman redeemer, so that he may replace the years that have been eaten by the locusts with the years of blessings, so that he may give them one of the greatest blessing imaginable. And what a blessing this is. And when Naomi discovered that the man, this man, Boaz, the man who showed kindness to Ruth, is a kinsman, she popped the champagne. Well they didn't have champagne back then, but in reality, being rich and influential, it did not hurt.
It did not hurt. Naomi immediately knew that this was going to be a match made in heaven. And literally it was.
Literally it was. Here is my personal view. Beyond marrying for money, Naomi knew that Boaz's character was implicitly to be trusted. She knew right away. Look at verses 2, 4, and 18.
You'll see that very clearly. Naomi, who had been through so much pain, knew immediately that Ruth and Boaz are a real match. Her experience of pain and failure and compromise and short circuiting of God's word and God's plan helped her to recognize that these two love birds shared a common moral excellence, loyalty, and character. Naomi proved the saying that a man is not a success until his mother-in-law admits it. I know mothers-in-law get a bad rap. I loved my mother-in-law. Here's something you need to know about the culture and the history of the day. I'm making an issue of this and I'm going to explain to you why.
Very important. For Naomi to try to broker the marriage between Boaz and Ruth, for her to broker this marriage between her widowed daughter-in-law, Ruth, was perfectly normal. That was the done thing at that time. Mother Naomi knew these two had something far more in common than all the artificial and shallow things by which we measure today. Above all, she knew that God is at work. God is at work. Say it with me.
God is at work. Boaz and Ruth, excellent character, integrity, honesty, and loyalty. That is all she could see. Not only that, but you see from the text that this man Boaz is an older gentleman. Ruth is a much younger woman. Boaz did not want to put Ruth on the spot by proposing marriage to her because he did not want to risk being rejected.
I'm going to explain that to you in a minute. You see, the man's stature in society, the man's stature in the culture and in the town could never be turned down. So he did not want to put Ruth on the spot. And look at verse 10, chapter 3, verse 10. That is why he said to her, may you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness. What kindness? What kindness is he talking about? What kindness?
Her kindness in saying to him in effect, that's what she did. She was saying to him, it's okay to propose to me. It's okay to propose to me. That's really the cultural way of the day.
It's okay to propose to me. This is what it's all about. This is what it's all about. May the Lord bless you, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first, in that you have not gone after young men, whether rich or poor. Now please hear me right.
Hear me right on this one. It's very important that you understand. A man of Noah's stature could not have been turned down by Ruth had he proposed to her. Had he proposed marriage to her and she turned him down, it would be a scandal, not just in Bethlehem, but in all of Israel. And that is why he was so thankful when Ruth made it clear that it is okay to propose to her, that she will accept his proposal. It's okay.
Propose to me. It's alright. See, some of these non-believing liberal commentators are either ignorant of the historical culture or out and out untruthful. They're seeing 3,000 year old incident in the eyes of modern promiscuous Hollywood. In fact, all of Ruth had done was follow her mother-in-law's advice. Remember, she was a Moabite. She's not an Israeli. She's not Jewish.
She's a Moabite. And so she was doing what her mother-in-law told her to the custom of the day. She was following Naomi's wisdom. She was following Naomi's understanding of what the Jewish tradition is all about.
She trusted Naomi's advice implicitly. Actually, this whole incident reminds me of a story about this American lady who was on a Mediterranean cruise. Throughout the cruise, at least the first three days, she kept looking at one man. Everywhere they go, she's looking at him. At the dining room, she's looking at him.
On deck, she's looking at him. Although the man was kind of a shy guy, but he decided finally, he said, they haven't had enough of this. So he picked up the courage and went to her and said, madam, do I know you from somewhere? Have I met you before and I'm not remembering?
She said, no. You just remind me of my third husband. Well, just how many husbands have you had?
She said, two. This is a very subtle way of communicating. Men are not very good with subtleties. Women run rings around us on this. And that's all Ruth is doing.
She was subtle. She said, hey, you remind me of my next husband. Back to the text.
Who is this kinsman redeemer? There are two chapters I'm going to tell you about today in the Bible. Please read them when you go home. Deuteronomy 25 and Leviticus 25. You see, in Deuteronomy 25, God is the one who communicated to Moses these instructions.
And that is, when a man dies, his brother takes his wife as his own. This was done for several reasons. God wants to preserve his own people, the Israelites.
He wants to preserve them as a nation. Secondly, he wanted to save a widow from public humiliation. And thirdly, he wanted to basically raise up the offspring of his brother.
But that's not all. In Leviticus 25, it tells us that the nearest of kin is to redeem, not only the property because as you remember, God divided the Promised Land depending on clans and depending on tribes. So he is not only to redeem the land but redeem the person. Therefore, the kinsman redeemer acts to set free the member of the family.
Why? Because most often, back then, if there is no family support and a husband dies and a woman is suffering from financial hardship, she ends up going into slavery. In other words, the kinsman redeemer acts as a trustee. The law of God made these provisions as to remind them of their collective responsibilities to each other. Because among the people of God, the responsibility toward each other stems from, flow out of, the covenant relationship that they have with Yahweh.
This law intended to be a reminder for all of them that they do not own anything. God does. They are mere managers of God's properties. They are entrusted by God for his resources.
Everything they had belonged to God and they must use it for his glory. Beloved when God redeemed Israel out of the slavery of Egypt, it's his way of saying you belong to me. You belong to me.
You belong to Yahweh. And now he tells them you are responsible to redeem each other. One of the greatest characteristics of our kinsman redeemer God is that he redeems us from the penalty of sin. He redeems us from Satan's oppression. He redeems us from the mastery of sin. He redeems us from the slavery of sin. He paid a precious price to redeem us. To take us from Satan's ownership to his ownership.
He did not just pay a small amount of money, he paid his blood. Bowers and Ruth later had a child. Obed became the grandfather of King David who is the prefiguring of our kinsman redeemer, the son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. While so far so good, verses 12 and 13, we find an unexpected problem arises.
Put a spanner in the works. Bowers, a man of honor and integrity, was flattered that Ruth said it's okay to propose to me. But nonetheless, somebody else had more rights. Someone else in the family is more of a kin to Naomi's family than he is. And so Bowers resolves the problem with honesty, legally, and with grace. Beloved, grace is what characterized Bowers. And it is grace is what characterizes our kinsman redeemer. Grace is what motivate him to redeem us. Grace makes provision for those who have been redeemed. Grace is so rich in resources and blessings. While Bowers was a fine kinsman redeemer, was as fine as you find on the earth, but he has nothing on our kinsman redeemer.
He has nothing. For our kinsman redeemer brings us forgiveness. Our kinsman redeemer calls us his children. Our kinsman redeemer enters with us into our seasons of pain. Our kinsman redeemer provides for us our safety. Our kinsman redeemer walks with us in our fiery furnace. Our kinsman redeemer never leaves us nor forsakes us. Our kinsman redeemer keeps us secure in the hollow of his hands. Our kinsman redeemer acts like a fortress and a tower of strength. Our kinsman redeemer never slumber nor sleep. Our kinsman redeemer rides the cloud for our help. Our kinsman redeemer has his everlasting arms underneath and you could never go for a free fall. He is our shield. He is our shield, our defense, our protector, our provider. He's our stronghold. Ultimately, our kinsman redeemer will welcome us at the very supper of the lamb.
Our kinsman redeemer is a bride groom for his bride, the church, and he has pledged and promised that he will present us to his father on that great day without blemish or spot. Glory to God. Glory to God. He doesn't start something, never finishes it. He who began a good work in you is able to bring it to where?
To completion. If you're going through a season of doubt, if you're going through a season of puzzlement, if you're going through a season of pain, you can today say, Lord Jesus, you're the kinsman redeemer of the best of the best. Forgive me for doubting you. Forgive me for not trusting you. Forgive me of wondering where you are.
You are right there. Father God, we are so privileged to have a kinsman redeemer like Jesus, our kinsman redeemer who loved us to the end, who loved us all the way to the cross, who loved us by giving up his own life so that he may redeem us and that he may purify us and sanctify us and gives us his righteousness and then presents us holy to his father. Father reminds us, remind us constantly. We know the world, the flesh and the devil are constant conspiring to make us forget, to make us ignore this absolute truth. But you, Holy Spirit, bring these to mind. We thank you in Jesus' name.
Amen. Dr. Michael Yousaf on today's edition of Leading the Way with a powerful picture of God as our kinsman redeemer. Would you like to know more about what it means to have a relationship with a loving God? Then speak with one of our Leading the Way pastors or counselors and you can start that conversation at L-T-W dot org slash Jesus.
L-T-W dot org slash Jesus. And as we close today's Leading the Way, here's a testimony that our team recently received. We thought that you would be encouraged to hear how God is using Dr. Yousaf and leading the way.
Siobhan writes to us from the United Kingdom saying, Last night I felt nothing but utter hopelessness. I cried and cried because I was angry. I was angry about things that have happened to me and things that have been done to me. I felt like life was not fair and too difficult.
This morning I was listening to premier Christian radio and I heard Dr. Yousaf say that this life was preparation to live eternally in heaven. I felt weight lift from me. I felt a strong sense to ask how I could do this.
Please help me with what I should do now. I do not currently attend a church. I'm a very private person with my faith as my family do not accept it. Leading the Way counselors connect with those requesting follow up and many are led to follow Jesus. We are able to continue ministry because of you. Learn ways to stand with Dr. Yousaf and Leading the Way when you call 866-626-4356 or online ltw.org. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yousaf, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth around the world.
