When you read through the book of Ruth, one thing stands out that is extraordinary, well, actually ordinary.

As we all know, day-to-day life is full of opportunities and challenges that require good planning.

Today, on Truth for Life, we'll consider a plan that Ruth made that was not exactly rock solid or risk-free.

So how do we rightly balance careful planning with trusting God?

Alistair Begg takes us to God's word for the answer.

Thank you. Alistair Begg takes us to God's word for the answer. Father, thank you that all of the circumstances of our lives,

all of the apparent inconsequential meetings are really ordained by your mighty providence.

We're grateful for them all. We thank you for the ongoing relationship

that we have with so many in Christ who are scattered far from us here this evening. And as we

study together, we commend them into your care. And we pray that you will be our teacher now

from the Bible for Jesus' sake. Amen.

For those of you who are visiting, we're studying in the evenings in this little book of Ruth,

which takes us back some 3,000 years in history.

Ruth nestles into the time period when the judges ruled, which is around approximately 1,200 years BC.

We have been discovering some very important and practical lessons that have emerged from

looking at this section of the Bible. And I think in much the same way as when we studied

Joseph, we have found ourselves

greatly stirred and encouraged. We dealt last time with the opening little section. It was

all that we really had time for of Chapter 3, and we discovered that Naomi's concern was in Chapter three, as it had been in chapter one and verse 11,

that in this instance her daughter-in-law, Ruth would be provided for, that she would be settled in her life.

And there is a lesson in this that I failed to point out, and I don't

want us to miss. Namely, that Naomi could, at this juncture in her life, have become a kind

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