Hey guys, my name is Johnny Ardavanus and this is dial-in. Thanks so much for listening to the show.

In this episode, we are looking at Ruth Chapter 3. If you haven't already listened to the previous

episodes in this series, you might want to go back and do that now. But for everyone else, let's dial in. As we return to the story of Ruth, we are reminded that the grand plan of God

isn't being worked out exclusively amongst kings and kingdoms, but in barley fields and

threshing floors in the little town of Bethlehem.

In chapter two, we were provided with a healthy perspective of both a trust in God's sovereignty

and a proactivity and initiative that undergirds God's people.

God's sovereignty doesn't hinder human action.

God's sovereignty propels human action.

In chapter two, it concludes with Ruth returning from the

thrushing floor with an Ifa of barley, and Naomi asks, oh my, where did you get all this? And Ruth

responds in the fields of Boaz. And Naomi's response serves as the closing benediction of the second

chapter and really the foreshadowing of the third

Naomi says may he be blessed by the lord but then she also adds that man is a close relative of ours

one of our redeemers like in any good story the reader wonders at this point is there more to this

relationship with ruth and boas is he someone that could come to their aid? Now as we come to chapter three in our story,

it's worth highlighting that narratives are not normative, meaning that everything happening in

the story is not prescriptive for the life that we are to live, but rather descriptive of the

account as it occurs. At the beginning of chapter three, Naomi gives Ruth a series of instructions.

Let me read those for us in the first five verses.

It says, then Naomi, her mother-in-law said to her,

My daughter, shall I not seek security for you, that it may be well with you?

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