Thank you. I'm sure all of us have said or done things that we have come to deeply regret.

And if that describes you, take heart, because today on Truth for Life we'll learn how God uses even our wrong choices

for ultimate good and for his glory.

Alistair Begg is continuing our study of Ruth and her kinsman redeemer Boaz.

We're looking at the opening verses in Ruth Chapter 3.

For the in Ruth chapter 3. For those of you who like to write stories or have the responsibility to write stories,

this is a wonderful story.

This is marked by a fascinating brevity, by a skillful use of language, and in it all, leading forward the

reader, not answering all the questions immediately, holding out possibilities, introducing little

themes, creating ideas in the back of people's minds, and leaving us at the end of chapter

two wondering, I wonder if Boaz and Ruth are going to get

together. I wonder what will happen next. Now Naomi at the end of chapter two had informed

Ruth that Boas was a close relative. Indeed, in verse 10 of chapter two, she had said to him that he is

one of our kinsman redeemers.

There are two Old Testament pictures that need to be understood as the background to the events of chapter 3.

Incidentally, we will only go five verses into chapter 3 now.

But the two Old Testament practices are number one, that of the leveret, L-E-V-I-R-A-T-E. The noun is a lever.

Not a lever that you would use on a machine, but it is a Latin word which translates the Hebrew for

brother-in-law. And it is the leveret process which, according to the Mosaic law, was to regulate

marriage customs when the man of the house died. So that God, in his wonderful provision,

had determined that rather than leaving everything up to the women fancy of people,

if there was a death within the family framework, then he had determined the way in which that should be addressed.

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