Well, in chapter one of Ruth, God's hand fell hard on Naomi and her family, right?

A famine in Judah, a move to a pagan land, the death of her husband, the marriage of her two sons to foreign wives,

10 years of marriage each without children, the death of each of the boys,

and then one of her daughters-in-law turning away as she was heading home.

So she says in verse 13 of chapter 1, the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me.

And in verse 20, the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.

So the situation at the end of the chapter 1 is that a crack, a ray of hope is shining because it says they arrived in Bethlehem, her home

at the beginning of the barley harvest. And if you've read ahead, then you know what's going to

happen in the barley feels us where the love story is going to start and Boez is going to appear

and a relationship is going to happen and everything is going to change and it's just a beautiful

little touch at the end of chapter one that dawn is just over the horizon but Naomi simply did not

have the wherewithal to see any signs of hope.

She was very depressed because of all the blows that God had brought against her,

and she thought her days were over as far as any significant life or influence in the world.

So now we turn to chapter two.

There are, in verses one to seven, three things that we need to see.

One is, who is Boaz?

What do we find out about this man?

Number two, the character of Ruth.

And number three, a very merciful providence behind the scene.

So let's take those one at a time in verses one to seven.

Boaz, right off the bat, verse 1, chapter 2, is said to be of the clan of Elimelech,

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