Sermon for HCBC (28 June 2020). To listen use the audio player below or click here. Also available on your favorite podcast app (“Hunting Creek Baptist Church”).
Introduction
“God’s got a plan.” We say that phrase but it’s mostly empty. At best, it’s an intellectual statement that makes little difference in our day to day lives. But who God is and what God has done and what God is doing should radically reshape our everyday lives.
If you’ve spent a little time reading the Bible, you’ve probably been confronted by one of these long lists of names. The typical reaction is to wonder why those are there. Who do they benefit? And is it OK to skip them?
The lists of names are important because they help us read the Bible as a whole story. The Bible isn’t meant to be read as a series of disconnected verses or books. All the parts contribute to the whole story. Every time we read a list of names, the Bible is urging us to remember the whole story. These lists of names help us keep track of God’s unfolding plan of redemption.
List of Names
Before we talk about God’s plan, let’s take a look at the passage. Ruth has a child. Verse 17: “The women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, ‘A son has been born to Naomi.’ They named him Obed; he became the father of Jesse, the father of David.”
Several really important things are going on in this verse. First, notice that a son has been born—the text says—to Naomi. Ruth is the one who gave birth, but remember what happened to Naomi in chapter one. She lost her husband and her two sons. She changed her name from Naomi, which means pleasant, to Mara, which means bitter. But God has brought healing where there was pain. He has brought life where this is death. This grandchild changes everything for Naomi.
Second, they named him Obed. Obed means worshipper. I think this is a way of reinforcing what has happened in this book. Ruth, a Moabite, has become a worshipper of Yahweh. She has entered into the covenant of Israel. That a Moabite does that is remarkable and highlights God’s grace.
Third, Obed became the father of Jesse, who is the father of David. David is the greatest king in Israel’s history. God’s unfolding plan goes directly through David, so here’s the point. God’s unfolding plan is running right through Naomi to Ruth to David to Jesus. We will look at that closer in a minute, but now we need to ask a question.
God’s Plan
What exactly is God’s plan? Put another way, what is the story Scripture is telling? The story of our world? The story of reality? The story we are invited to take up and live into?
Usually we summarize the story in four chapters. Chapter 1 is creation. God creates the world as an expression of his glory, and it is very good. He stamps humans with his image, tasking them with caring for and cultivating his good creation. Chapter 2 is fall. Humans rebel from their task, desiring to be independent from their creator. This brings chaos to God’s creation. Human relations between God, each other, and creation are wrecked. Sin takes root in creation and begins to distort and bring suffering and death.
But right in the middle of the Fall, God foreshadows chapter 3: redemption. He promises in Gen 3:15 that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. That’s a really interesting promise since humans had failed when they gave into the temptation of the serpent. But the promise is that one day one of Eve’s descendants will defeat sin, Satan, and death. And this promise runs like a thread throughout the entire Bible. We see it in the promise to Abraham. God tells Abraham that through him all peoples will be blessed. In other words, God is going to redeem his creation. That’s chapter 3. God will redeem or buy back his creation from sin, Satan, and death.
What does that mean? Ephesians 1:9–10 spells this out.
“He has made known to us the mystery of his will” (something hidden; that was the unfolding plan), “according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time” (so this plan has been unfolding and now according to God’s good pleasure, which means his choice, he has executed this plan in Christ), to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
What is the plan? To gather up all things in Christ. To redeem creation and fill all things with himself. Here’s another way of putting it in Col 1:20: “Through Christ God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.” So the plan is to bring all things back to God, to restore them.
Listen, the story of the Bible is not “Christ died on a cross so people can say a prayer and go to heaven when they die.” The story of the Bible is that in Christ all things are being brought back from the chaos of the Fall, the rebellion is being suppressed, and the true king is taking his seat over the nations and the entire universe.
And this is what Jesus is calling us to. This is what it means to be the Church. The Church proclaims that this is the way things are: Christ is king. And the individual Christian lives within this new reality. Christ is king. He rules the nations. His cross has defeated sin, Satan, and death. And we are being restored as we learn to live under the present reign of Christ.
There’s a final chapter. Chapter 4 is restoration. Redemption has begun, and in this life God shapes and forms his Church so that they might conform to the image of Christ. But restoration is the moment when redemption is not just proclaimed but completed. It is the moment when the king confronts the entire cosmos. What happens then? The presence of God floods all of creation, bringing complete and total healing to this world.
That’s the story. That’s the plan. How does God carry out that plan of redemption? It begins with the promise in Genesis 3:15. The seed of Eve will crush the head of the serpent. Throughout the story of Scripture conflict surrounds the seed. Often, the continuity of this line from Eve is threatened. But God sovereignly executes his unfolding plan of redemption.
Planning the Seed
Let’s go back to Ruth. Verses 18–22 are a list of names. The key to understanding them lies in where they start and end. Verse 18: “Now these are the descendants of Perez.” Hang onto that name Perez—that’s important. Perez is a great ancestor of Boaz—that’s v. 21. Boaz is the great grandfather of David.
So who is Perez? Perez is the son of a woman named Tamar. Here’s the fascinating thing about Tamar. She marries one of Judah’s sons. He is a wicked man, and he dies before Tamar has any children. Now we know from Ruth that the law requires a brother to take the widowed Tamar and give her children. Well this brother refuses to give her children. He also dies.
At this point, the promised seed that will crush the serpent is in jeopardy. Judah her father-in-law is responsible, but he attempts to shirk responsibility, and by his actions, he effectively cuts off the future seed. But Tamar comes up with a plan. She disguises herself and seduces Judah. She conceives. As Judah is leaving, she asks for a token of identification. He agrees.
When news gets out that Tamar is pregnant, Judah, being the family leader, is angry and drags Tamar out to be killed. But she shows the token of identification, and Judah’s sin is exposed.
In time, Tamar has twins. Their names are Perez and Zerah. Now this story may seem shocking and careless readings of the Bible miss the point entirely. Tamar has shown incredible faith in her actions. As John Wesley said, “She believed the promise made to Abraham and his seed, particularly that of the Messiah.” The Messiah comes from the house of Judah. God uses Tamar to preserve his unfolding plan of redemption. Then he uses Ruth in the same way. Ruth is the great grandmother of King David.
In 2 Samuel 7, God promises David that one of his descendants will be king forever. That’s an amazing promise. And it’s a promise that goes back to Genesis 3:15. One is coming who will crush the head of the serpent. That’s a king.
Now what do you know about David? He has this incredible scandal. He commands a woman named Bathsheba to come to him. She gets pregnant. In an effort to cover his sin, he has her husband killed. But in spite of all of that, God preserves his plan of redemption. Bathsheba has a son named Solomon. Solomon will be the next king.
Where is this all heading? Well let’s talk about one more genealogy in Matthew 1. In Matthew 1, we get the genealogy of Jesus. One of the most striking features of this genealogy is the is mention of four women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. Do you see the thread? The promised seed in Genesis 3:15 is preserved through the lives of Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. Do you see the big picture? How God is carrying out his unfolding plan of redemption. The story of Ruth is a critical piece in the big story.
My Place in the Plan
Here is comforting news. The Lord’s plans are accomplished despite human failure. Take the case of Tamar for example. Or how about David?
And while we are making this point, God’s plans are accomplished despite impossible circumstances. Consider the situation in Ruth.
God’s redemption is not just an abstract theory at the large scale. God’s redemption is accomplished in the ordinary, everyday lives of people like you and me. So we can say God’s plans are accomplished through ordinary people.
That means that the redemption of Christ has massive implications for our lives. Listen to how Paul makes this point in Ephesians 2. He begins by saying we were dead in our sins and trespasses, captive to Satan, but God unilaterally acted to deliver us through Christ. We didn’t earn it. We didn’t live a certain way to get it. By grace we are delivered. Then he says this in v. 10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we might walk in them.” That’s one reason God has shown us grace, so that his plan of redemption might happen in our lives and in our neighborhoods. Redemption happens as we live within our new identity in Christ. As we are swept up in God’s unfolding plan of redemption, our lives become beacons of God’s redemptive activity. They become witnesses to God’s unfolding plan of redemption.
What would it look like for you to live in the reality that Christ is king? And that you’ve been swept up into that story? What in your life needs to be different? It’s one thing to say, “God’s got a plan.” It’s something totally different to live a life radically reshaped by that reality. Can you see the difference? How is your life impacted by these three words: “Jesus is Lord”? How does the story change your story?
Do you realize who you are in Christ? You are a piece in God’s unfolding plan of redemption. He has called you to live into a new story, under a new reality, with a new identity. And he has planned and orchestrated works for you—works that will bring him glory, works that will bring wholeness to your life, and works that will bear witness to King Jesus.
Conclusion
God does have a plan, and when we see it, it changes everything. The gospel is not a theory to be believed, it is a reality to be proclaimed and lived. All of human history is caught up in the story of how God is redeeming his creation through Christ. And your life fits into that too.
The world has alternative stories. It will tell you the story that you should live by is about how much stuff you have or the money you make or what people think of you. Or it will tell you that what is important is your sports team or your political party. It will tell you that politics and nations and world events are what matter. But the gospel says, “History belongs to God, and Christ is king.” Everything else is subject to him.