To understand Ruth, you have to look at the chapters immediately preceding it, which is the

harrowing conclusion of judges, Chapter 17 to 21. And there we find a nation in total anarchy,

a society without a moral compass. The text repeatedly haunts us with, there was no king in Israel,

everyone did it as he pleased. And apparently what they pleased was pretty wicked.

In judges,

the Israelites perform acts that seem maybe moral to them on the surface. Like, that's the best,

the kindest interpretation we can give them. But those acts devolve into theft and murder and

rape, a horrific civil war. It's a society that superficially, it's superficially virtuous,

but fundamentally corrupt. And then we turn the page to Ruth. And we find this very deliberate

rebuttal. That's what Ruth is. Come Follow Me podcast for Old Testament Year.

If you have made it through the last few weeks of Old Testament readings, I congratulate you.

They have been tough. I'm glad you're here with me. I am Jennifer Roach

Lee's. We have been talking through Joshua and Judges. Things got really intense and violent

last week in Judges. They were kind of intense in Joshua. As we saw last week, by the end of

judges, it seemed like the entire project of God of him developing his people into the ones who will

bless the whole world, the whole thing seemed lost. It was an absolute utter disaster.

If you don't remember, judges start out okay for like a second and it gets worse and worse.

It ends in human sacrifice. We're about as far from the celestial path as you can get at this point.

So what is Heavenly Father to do?

How does he correct all of this?

He could, if he wanted, come down with great power and destruction.

He could discipline his people like he does in other places.

...