Welcome back to the Ruth Advent bonus episode week two, and hopefully you've listened to the regular Ruth

Ruth episode because you will get a lot more understanding in that and then listen to this bonus episode for Advent. The definition

of Advent is a long-awaited arrival of something significant, usually notable a person or an

event. We are focused on the long-awaited arrival of the birth of Jesus on Christmas this

Advent season, and the focus of this second Advent week is love. Yeah, so Ruth

Chapter 2, Advent Week 2, we want you to be pondering love. The next two chapters of Ruth are as close

to a hallmark love story as you will get in the Bible. But the love in this story goes beyond

romance. It's a kind of love called Hesed. But the love in this story goes beyond romance.

It's a kind of love called Hesed.

Now, the Book of Ruth is considered the greatest example of Hesed in the whole Bible.

Because while Ruth and Boaz both demonstrate Hesed, it is God's Hesed that steals the show.

We define Hesed in episode one of season 8, the book of Ruth. So go back and listen. Hesed is a Hebrew word that is translated in the English Bible as

kindness. But it means so much more. We just don't have a good English word that fits. Hesed goes

beyond kindness and includes loyalty, generosity,

mercy, and compassion. It usually requires a voluntary action typically from a more powerful

person to a weaker person. So in summary, Hesed is a voluntary act of extraordinary mercy or

generosity performed for a person in real and

desperate need in the context of a deep relational commitment. The book of Ruth is saturated with

Hsed. In fact, the entire book is a love story and not just between Boaz and Ruth. It is a story of

sacrificial love, compassionate love, loyal love, and generous love. So back in the little

town of Bethlehem, Hasseed grows. Our first example is Ruth's Hasid, which is sacrificial and compassionate love.

Now, we know from Ruth Episode 1, not the bonus Advent episode, but the regular episode,

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