The Christmas story shines through the Book of Ruth

The Book of Ruth: if you take a good look at it you will realize that it has many elements that are connected with Christmas, it is a very interesting book. When I began to ask the Lord: Father, because I feel this affinity that there is in the Book but I don't know exactly where those points of affinity are between the Book of Ruth, the principles that this book indicates and the Christmas story, I began to explore : ok where are those connections and why does this Book remind me so much of the Christmas theme? and frankly it has opened up a new perspective on the Book of Ruth that I didn't have before, it has enriched me and I want to share with you some thoughts about that.

And I don't want this to be seen as simply a theological discussion or conference because this has many applications for our lives, I think it is a very practical teaching. But it also teaches us sometimes how we should explore the Scriptures, that the Scriptures sometimes have themes underneath that unless we dig deeper we don't discover them and a whole dimension of this book has opened up for me.

If you think: why was this little gem, this little book put there in the Old Testament? when in reality it is the story of two women who set out to find a new life and then they have some adventures and they meet this man called Boaz and then finally he decides to marry this woman Ruth who is from another tribe in another country foreigner and they live happily ever after, all ends well.

But I believe that the Lord often places, I believe that each Book in Scripture and each passage has a reason for being, the Holy Spirit directed the men who wrote these Books, I am not saying men and women because they were only men. who wrote the sixty-six Books that we have in Scripture, each thing has meaning and purpose and meaning.

I now think seeing this that the Holy Spirit was recording there some principles about Christmas and the Messiah that was to come and the account of the Gospel and the themes of the Gospel centuries before these themes were given, we are talking about 800, not Much more than that, it is the time of the Judges; Imagine David still has 3 generations left to be born, before him there was Saul, that is to say that this is before the time of the kings, this is the time of the Judges when Israel was ruled by judges, that is to say people that God chose like this sovereignly and put them to liberate the people when they were under oppression etc. and to direct His people, there was no king, there was no institution called Monarchy that began with King Saul.

So centuries, centuries before, God is like, it's that the Holy Spirit has always been like resting on history and leading history towards Christ. All Scripture since Genesis when God tells Adam and Eve or tells the serpent that the woman will bruise her head, it means that he was going to cut off his head and the serpent was going to bruise the woman's heel and God was speaking of Jesus Christ who would give a mortal blow to the serpent through His Coming and God was already thinking of Christ. That is why it is said that the entire Old Testament, the entire Bible leads from different points of view towards the person of Jesus Christ and towards the theme of Christmas, the birth of the Son of God.

And this Book seems to me that in a very beautiful way it encourages us and invites us to think about the themes of Christmas and the themes of the birth of the Son of God and the person of the Son of God, we are going to see how that happens and why I think this book is a book we could almost say messianic in a sense and it is one of the reasons why this book is here, because if not one thinks like: wow where are the teachings of this book ? It's kind of hard to see it in its greatest magnitude, but it's a very deep book.

So the Book of Ruth has many affinities with the theme of Christmas and with the main themes of the Gospel, it is as if God had put it in the Old Testament to remind us that His plans are eternal and that He has been planning the history of the Christmas from the beginning. This explains why this little book does not seem to have much justification for being in the Scriptures.

Here we see something like God's subconscious, God doesn't have a subconscious just in case right? but something like that brooding, God is brooding over these themes, the subconscious of God hundreds of years before Christ came already processing the themes of the Gospel and Christmas. It reminds us that the entire Bible is connected through secret connections and that we have to learn to discern these connections by studying it carefully.

By the way: let me tell you this, I'm not going to charge you for this comment that I'm going to do now, sometimes the unbelievers out there to attack us regarding some of our beliefs tell us: oh and why does the Bible say such a thing? in such a text and you then in another place do not do what it says there? to confuse and neutralize us in the things that we believe.

And I've thought about that, by the way it bothers me many times to listen to that nonsense but sometimes they lock us up in a television interview where there are three seconds to answer. And I believe that one of the answers that we have to give to unbelievers is: if for us who are inside and study Scripture in depth it has taken centuries many times to elucidate all the complexities of Scripture, how much longer does it take a person who is out to understand why?

The Bible is a seamless book, there are 66 books but it is a single Book in a sense, it is the mind of God, there it must be read as a single book where different teachings that are in different parts are nuanced and complement each other and a person who has never read the Bible possibly or if he has read it has read it with a critical attitude and from the outside he will never be able to understand the complexities, things that seem like contradictions to the unbeliever make perfect sense to us because we have already been inside and we know that all these Books, all these teachings speak to each other, they color each other and that is why we have to know the Scriptures.

You have to know them thoroughly, we cannot take out the texts like this, like pulling them out to prove our own teachings, that is one of the serious errors of evangelicals, we have to be studious people. And I see this complexity here, well, plenty of preambles. Where do I see some of these similarities to the story of the birth of humanity's redeemer and this Book of Ruth?

Let me read a passage before that just as a connecting point. Ruth chapter 4 verses 14 to 18, Boaz do you remember? Briefly, the story is that Ruth arrives with her mother-in-law in Bethlehem after losing both their husbands in the land of Moab, they arrive at the city where Naomi is from, there one day Ruth goes out to collect a little sheaves of wheat that is the harvest time in the field of which Boaz owns; Boaz is a businessman, an entrepreneur, a landowner, he has land and in Israel this was used that the poor went after those who were collecting the wheat and if seeds fell so that they would not be lost, the poor had the right to come and eat of them, this was a form of social assistance.

So Ruth goes to the field that Boaz owns to do that and then Naomi discovers that Ruth is doing this and says: ah! that is my relative, he is my relative so stick there, continue every day; Boaz notices this beautiful young woman who is eating the seeds of her field and calls her impressed by her, her way of being, her beauty of soul and all this and says to her: look, how is the man not stupid Don't leave here, stay here, this man has a very clinical eye, right? says: don't get detached from here, here's something good for you so keep going.

And Ruth, who is neither slow nor lazy, says: ok if you say so. So there is a story that when a man dies, well I am not going to get ahead of myself, leaving no children, his closest relative is supposed to marry the widow so that his lineage does not perish and there is a name of his family that remains. . And then finally as it says: God raises them and they get together and finally Boaz and Ruth end up getting married, they live happily ever after, everything turned out alright in the end.

But what we see here then is the end of the story, look at what it says here in chapter 4 verse 13 says: "Boaz then took Ruth and she became his wife" his wife "and he came to her and Jehovah gave her to conceive" note that it says "Jehovah gave her to conceive and give birth to a son, and the women of Bethlehem said to Naomi" the mother-in-law "praised be Jehovah who made you not lack a relative today" look how interesting, it says: "whose name shall be celebrated in Israel."

They did not know that they were prophesying here because listen to me if any name has been celebrated throughout the world it is the Name of Jesus, "which will be a restorer of your soul and will sustain your old age, since your daughter-in-law loves you" that word restorer in fact It is a word that is used a lot for Jesus, "who loves you has given birth to him and she is of more value to you than seven children. And taking Ruth the son, he put him on his lap and was his governess" that is, his nurse , the one who took care of him, took care of him, "and the neighbors gave him a name saying: a son has been born to Naomi and they called him: Obed, this is the father of Jesse, father of David, how beautiful isn't he? Then Naomi think that she was like the great-grandmother of King David from whom finally descends who? Jesus Christ from the lineage of David from the tribe of Judah, right? this is the end of the Book, how beautiful.

So, as you can see, there are many things there that are there so that whoever has eyes to see can see, and whoever has ears to hear can hear about this Book. The first thing I see here is the following: Ruth is a Moabite, that is to say: she came from the nation of Moab, which incidentally was an enemy nation of Israel. In the books of the prophets there are many attacks from God, denunciations of the tribe of Moab that was hostile to the nation of Israel and it is ironic that in the lineage of David and Jesus Christ there is an ancestor of Moab, from outsiders ; these people had no right to be where Ruth puts them, they had no right.

They had done everything possible not to deserve to be in the lineage of the Son of God, she comes from a pagan nation. Doesn't it remind us Gentiles of something? that the Bible says that we are a people that we were not a people and that God has called us His people. We Gentiles are a graft, we are outsiders, who are insiders? the Jews, as Paul says for example in the Book of Romans: they are the natives of the Gospel, however the Bible says that they rejected the Gospel, right? now God has a plan with them too.

Now it wasn't like it occurred to God: well, since the Jews rejected me, then I'm going to go, no. From the beginning it had been said that all the nations of the Earth were going to be part of the Kingdom of God and that Christ came to all the nations, right?

Notice that in the Christmas story, who gets to see Jesus? they are always outsiders. The first are these wise men who come from Babylon and other pagan nations that did not know God and they are among the first to find out that the Child Jesus has been born and they go from afar, as Ruth travels from afar to reach Bethlehem . So you see this topic.

Who else is there? the shepherds who are people who, because of their work dealing with goats and skins, and all this if you look in the Jewish religion, the people who worked with skins and animals, so they were almost considered unclean, are also outsiders who arrive and those who first witness the Son of God.

Because the Lord Jesus Christ has never come to look for the exalted, the insiders, the insiders, no, the Lord has always had a preference for the poor, for the weak, for the outsiders. The rich, the kings despised Him, the Jews themselves who were from within, "He came to his own and his own did not receive him" says the Bible, that is why the Lord has always had a preference for the poor, the people of outside, those who do not deserve.

Because it says that when we were lost in our sins and our rebellions, Christ died with us. The Gospel story of Christmas is always about a God giving people what they don't deserve and not giving them what they deserve. So Ruth is like the example of that, of that person who does not deserve to be in the lineage of the Son of God, that is the essence of Christmas for me; this human race that has despised the Lord so much, has offended him so much, Christ died for it, Christ came into the world to save what had been lost, seek what had been lost and forgive what did not deserve forgiveness.

And Ruth is like a type of that of the Gospel inserted centuries before and included in the lineage of the Son of God so that it is known that in that blood of Jesus, that is why the Bible calls him the Son of Man because the Lord Jesus Christ embodies all the humanity in its entirety, He did not come looking for just a little piece but all and Ruth is like an outstanding example of inclusive nature.

I believe in the inclusive Gospel, not as it is portrayed today inclusive, but in that sense the Gospel is absolutely inclusive, there is nothing more inclusive than the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you know? So in that sense Ruth is like: look, she doesn't deserve to be included but God includes her in the lineage of His Son and it's by grace.

One of the themes of this Book is grace, mercy. Boaz has mercy on Ruth, he receives her, allows her to eat the food of his land and blesses her and accepts her, all of this is by grace, you will see that later. As the Gospel is by grace, Christ came into the world by grace, by mercy, he gave himself to us by grace and mercy.

But then Ruth being a Moabite from a foreign pagan nation is a type of the Gentiles and the Bible always talks about Christ coming to bless the Gentiles. If you look in Luke 2:32, which is where we have the story of the birth, of Christmas it says that: "Jesus comes as a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to Your people Israel." Go? that is to say, there is something there, God never forgets His people Israel, never allows anyone to say: no, now Israel does not count, now it is simply one more nation, no. Israel will never be another nation in the heart of God, God lives in love with that rebellious people who are His people and He still has plans for that people.

"But Christ comes for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to His people Israel." In Mark chapter 12 verse 21 it says that: "In His Name the Gentiles will hope" in His Name the Gentiles will hope, they will hope. So number one: Ruth being a Moabite included in the lineage of Jesus reminds us that the Gospel and the Coming of Christ is for all nations including all those peoples and nations that do not deserve salvation because salvation is by grace and not by works so that no one can boast, amen? Are you starting to see since I'm not going crazy here that this makes sense? It's not that the cold toasted my brain or anything, this has meaning here.

Look at the second thing here. Ruth's story takes place mostly in Bethlehem. What about Bethlehem? It's where Jesus was born, right? wow! Hundreds of years before, God is doing a little rehearsal there of His Christmas story, a little rehearsal because it is a small rehearsal in the town where His Son is to be born hundreds of years later. Do you think it's a coincidence? I don't believe in coincidences. Why does God choose this? but that's how it is.

Look it up in Micah I think it's Micah chapter 5, let me see if I can get it because those little books I always forget where they are, Micah chapter 5 I think it's, hmm verse 2. Micah chapter 5 verse 2, this it is a messianic prophecy written in passing. This prophet Micah when he writes this he doesn't even know who Ruth was I think, these books are written many times but not everyone had them available there.

But here the prophet Micah says: "But you Bethlehem Efrata" if you think Bethlehem was an insignificant village, okay? It always has been, it's a little hole, a little dot in Israel right now and it's actually interesting what's happening there in Bethlehem right now. But it says: "But you, Bethlehem Efrata" we are talking about when I posted here years ago, between 640 and 710 BC, this prophecy is enunciated, 700 years before and it is clear that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that is historically incontrovertible, okay?

I can say with more certainty. When you go on a tour to Israel there are many things that the tour guides tell you: here the Lord Jesus Christ stopped and ate some hamburgers, etc., I take those things with a lot of salt but there are things that are very clear. It is one thing that Bethlehem exists, there it is you can go there today and that historically there are more historical documents that affirm the fact that Jesus was born in Bethlehem than many other historical figures who have lived that we do not question their record.

Ok so where was I? then look, we know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and we also know that this book dates from the 8th century before Christ, and here in this book 8 centuries before Christ this prophet says: "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, small to be among the families of Judah" small because it was a very small town, "from you I will come out" who is that that says "me" there? "From you shall come forth to me the one who will be Lord in Israel." Listen to me: if I were a Pentecostal I would start speaking in tongues right now and so will you.

Because this is tremendous what he is saying: the one who will be Lord in Israel. That is a messianic prophecy, if there is any messianic prophecy this is it, okay? and how nice that he says to me. It's like "it will come out to me", the Father begotten the Son and indicates with the intimacy with which God sees his Son as well, that Son "because he was born to us today", he was born to us today, he says, right?

As one always tends to personalize because Christ is my Savior, your Savior, He is the Son of God, He is His father God, so he says: "From you will come forth the one who will be the Lord of Israel and His departures are from the beginning from the days of eternity" ayayay yayay, any Jehovah's witness who tells you that God created Jesus Christ does not know what they say that? that He is not eternal but that God created him, it is a lie from the devil, excuse me, I love Jehovah's Witnesses but that is clear.

If you read Isaiah among the names given to Jesus is Eternal Father, wow, that can also blow your brains out if you think so too, Eternal Father. So how cute is that "His exits are" how beautiful is that His exit, right? His exits, His entrances, the places where He moves, His exits are from the beginning from the days of eternity. So it's interesting because that's what happens, something about prophecies, you're learning a lot of things here and here I'm giving it to you for free.

And it is that the prophets often wrote things and it was like the Holy Spirit got into them at one point and they wrote something and they did not realize what they were writing but it was God himself speaking and whoever has ears to hear hears. The Lord Jesus Christ did that many times and took out a passage and said: this had to do with me, this was a prophecy of the Holy Spirit because this is in the context of other things.

But he says: "But he will leave them until the one who is to give birth gives birth" who is that? Maria, but then they put something else in there. That is why sometimes these things, unless one understands how the Scripture speaks, can go over one's head and one does not see them. But you see this here then, right? that Bethlehem in the mind of God had a very important place from the very beginning and that is why this story of Bethlehem where Ruth arrives is not a coincidence, it is like God is doing something there where Jesus is born.

How nice, further on it says: "And He will be and feed with the power of Jehovah, with the greatness of the Name of Jehovah Their God and they will dwell in safety because now they will be magnified to the ends of the Earth" that is still there in that one, wow that is a prophecy who else can that apply to but Jesus? we understand it, the Jews are still waiting for the Messiah. They know that this applies to the Messiah but they think that the plane has not yet arrived from Him, and we know that it has arrived, left and returns again.

So that is again why Bethlehem where Ruth and Naomi arrive have a very powerful meaning and very powerful associations there with Christmas and the birth of the Son of God. A third thing then notice I have said, the fact that Ruth, a Moabite, is a pagan reminds us that the Lord came to the Gentiles. Second, is the fact that this story takes place in Bethlehem where Jesus was born and where he was prophesied and also connects us with Christmas time.

The third thing is that Boaz is from the tribe of Judah, that is clear and I don't have time to prove it but it is from the tribe of Judah from where the Messiah is born, because David is born from the tribe of Judah and Boaz is like David's great-grandfather through Obed his son, then it is clear: Boaz comes from the tribe of Judah as well and Jesus is born from the tribe of Judah and that is a very important connection in this Book.

So as a direct ancestor of Jesus, we see this: He had to come from that tribe. The God who fulfills what he promises, here we remember this. We have to remember that Christ, always related to the lion of the tribe of Judah, is the lion of the tribe of Judah from which David came. If you go to the Book of Genesis I think it's in the chapter, let me see it's when Jacob is going to die, bless his children, he left me here a little bit, 40 I knew it was in the 40s but my faith failed me but it was a little before that.

Look here again we are talking here many centuries before the seventh or eighth century, two thousand years, three thousand years before? perhaps that he is born, well, a thousand and a bit of years before Jesus is born, three thousand years before our time, when Jacob is going to die he blesses all his children, including Judah, Judah was one of the children, of the 12 sons of Jacob, twelve tribes twelve sons.

Then look in verse 8 chapter 49 when Jacob prophesies about his children, he blesses them, Jacob is like in a prophetic trance and begins to bless his children and declares things that are going to happen, he imparts a spiritual DNA to each one of his children. children through his blessing; parents have a lot of power to bless or curse their children by the way, always bless your children. Never say: oh I'm going to see you in jail when you're older, be careful with that because you may be marking it with something. You are never going to be anything, you are a problem, he is cursing his children. Bless them, bless them and declare a blessing from God because you have a lot of power like your father or mother let me tell you, never underestimate the power that a father or mother has with their mouth to bless their thoughts and their prophecies.

Then Jacob prophesies about Judah, it is Judah's turn to say in verse 8: "Judah: your brothers will praise you" does he know that the tribe of Judah is the main tribe? there is no doubt of that in all Israel. The tribe of Judah has always been seen as the head, as the leader. It says: "Judah, your brothers will praise you, your hand on the neck of your enemies" in other words you are going to reign over your enemies, "your father's sons will bow down before you" in other words all your other brothers are leaving to bow before you as they have bowed before the Son of God, you are going to be a leader.

"Lion cub Judah, my son subsists on prey. He bowed down and lay down like an old lion. Who will wake him up?" He is saying, he is assigning a role of head and leader to Judah and his descendants, of course because it is the tribe from which the Son of God is born. Look how interesting in verse 10: "The scepter of Judah will not be taken away" in many Bibles that is probably marked in red, in mine it is, if yours does not have it, change the Bible that means that it is not so good like mine.

"The scepter of Judah and the legislator will not be removed from between his feet until Shiloh comes" that is an image of Jesus "and the peoples will gather to Him" wow. He is also talking about a messianic prophecy, Judah, he is saying: you are going to be, the scepter, that is, of reign, will never be taken from you, as he told David: your lineage will never cease to be, his kingdom will have no end, he says. Isaiah about Jesus.

So these connections, Boaz from the tribe of Judah, Ruth ancestor of David in Bethlehem is a very close connection. I see this here, right? that God who fulfills what he promises, that God who has always been related to the lion, look at how many allusions to Judah as a lion, the lion is the king of the jungle. It is the animal that par excellence, it is like the glorious, strong, courageous, beautiful in its appearance, fierce and terrible animal, it does not back down, says the Bible when the hunters come.

It's an image of a leader, of a king and all of this is stuffed in there and Boaz is implicated in that and his descendant is from that tribe of Judah. And I see here again another link of this God thing in a weird way meditating on what he's going to do. I am going to go a little faster because I know that we are already finishing but I want you to leave with this thought in your mind.

Another thing that I see here that ties the Book of Ruth together with the Christmas story is that Boaz is an advanced man. I don't think he was a very old man but in those days maybe people didn't take care of themselves so well or whatever but there is a story here, Boaz says to Ruth as he approaches, "Blessed are you that you didn't go where the young" you went to a mature man, perhaps he thought: I am too old for you, you would have looked for a much younger man because she is a woman of much more powerful values than just appearance, that is what he wants from her say to her

But Boaz is an advanced man in years and has a son at the end. Notice that in the Book of Ruth, it was going to say the Gospel according to Saint Ruth, but it could be one way. When Ruth right there in that passage that I read, right? It says that: "Jehovah gave her to conceive and bear a son" those expressions are only used with something special, like God intervened directly in that it is not 200% clear I would not dare to say it, but like there was a miracle over there. Maybe Boaz was already too old to have children, I don't know, but the idea is that the son that is born is out of the chronological normality. Ruth perhaps because she was a relatively young woman but Boaz was older.

So this also reminds us of people like the birth of Juan and Elisabet. Elizabeth was a barren woman, already advanced in age and God gives her a son already in an advanced age. Mary, a woman who could not have children because she was a virgin and Jesus is born from her through God's intervention on her body. Neither of those two women could conceive naturally, it required divine intervention to give birth.

God reminds us of the impossible that makes those who do not have any live in a family. Get this: the Bible has a long history of deliverers with miraculous births to fathers and mothers who could not conceive. Many times the Lord points to a deliverer with a miraculous birth. Think, for example, of Isaac who is born to Abraham when he and Sara are one hundred years old and he and Sara closed the store a long time ago, they can no longer have children and yet God miraculously fertilizes both so that they have a son who is the great father of faith, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob all, gives lineage to this man because of that man there is something great that has to happen.

God loves to tell the world: I choose what can no longer give life so that it gives life and a life that heals, frees and blesses. God delights in the impossible. When people say: oh there is no more He says: oh yes, not only is there more but I am going to give until there is overflow.

Think of Gideon who is born by a miraculous intervention, an angel comes and tells his father: a liberator for Israel is going to be born. Think of Samuel: Ana could not have children and frustrated to the extreme she goes to the temple and God blesses her there and she has Samuel, the great prophet Samuel, right? think of John the Baptist and think of Jesus and others that escape me.

It wasn't Gideon, it was Samson. I always confuse these two characters. I'm going to have to go to a psychiatrist to have him psychoanalyze me. Why do I always confuse Gideon with Samson? Gideon you will be saying there what is the Shepherd saying? all these -ones in the bible confuse you.

You see this right? the fact that Boaz is a man of advanced age, that God gives him this son as sovereignly there is here as on tones of that son that was to be born to a couple that was not supposed to be born to them and all this is here well indicated .

Another point, I'm almost done. Both accounts include the theme of redemption through grace and mercy. Boaz seems to be a type of Christ redeeming Ruth. The story is this: in Israel, as I was telling you, when a man died without having children, the law dictated that the closest relative, his brother, for example, take the widow as his wife, marry her and have children with her so that the lineage of this man will continue.

So Ruth's husband dies, they don't have children and then when Ruth approaches him Boaz, as he's distantly related but through Naomi because he's not related to Ruth, that's what's interesting again like, oh don't judge me here because, think that Joseph was not the natural father of Jesus and yet he is seen as the son of Joseph and Mary, here Naomi is the relative, Ruth is not but anyway Boaz feels the responsibility of him marrying Ruth for give offspring to his distant relative and then he redeems her in a sense, he gets her out of a bind in the sense of not having children and he does it in a kind of graceful way.

Look at chapter 3 in verse 10 how Ruth reacts, he is saying: "And he said: blessed be you of the Lord my daughter, you have done your last goodness that the first one not going in search of young people whether they are poor or rich, now Do not be afraid, my daughter; I will do with you what you say, for all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman. And now, although it is true that I am a close relative, with all that, there is a relative closer than me; spend the night here And when it is day if he redeems you well, redeem yourself, but if he does not want to redeem you I will redeem you as long as Jehovah lives, then rest until morning."

How cute is this story, isn't it? of this woman who is redeemed is the word, it was a different idea of redemption but it was the same idea of taking a person out of his anguish, his sterility, his poverty and give him life, give him offspring as Christ son with us, Christ He adopted us, he redeemed us, he redeemed us from that slave owner who had us seized by sin, death, tragedy, a world without purpose, without meaning. Christ adopts us. The Father adopts us as His children the Bible says, redeems us, gives us a name, blesses us as Boaz did with Ruth too, right?

And what is interesting is that it is also a story where the one who has the right does not do what he has to do and then the second one comes and does it, because Boaz, as he is a man of integrity, says: you know what? yes I'm in love with you, I love you, I would like to marry you and I want to do it well but you know what? there is a person who is closer than me in the family and I am going to go by law, by the book and I am going to go to that person, I am going to tell him: look, you have the right if you want to marry her because legally you are the first to have the right. He doesn't hide that.

This Book is also a book of integrity and nobility and generosity, the character of Boaz, the character of Ruth. Do you remember that I told you that last Sunday? that is why God blesses these people because they have a heart that God sees. You better cultivate a clean, beautiful, noble, always beautiful heart no matter what you see others do, no matter if they see you or not see you; guard your heart because life flows from it, make sure that your actions are upright as much as possible because God always sees the heart, He sees in secret.

Even if no one sees you, even if you are locked in a safe in the middle of a bank vault, God sees you so always do the right thing and you will be blessed. That's why Boaz says: look, there's another one closer than me, I'm going to give him the opportunity and we'll see what happens, when Boaz gives the opportunity to the one who has the right, the man says: you know what? I can't because it would damage my lineage etc. so you redeem it and that's the story.

The Hebrews were the ones who had the right to salvation and they rejected it and then the Lord gave it to the Gentiles, the Church of Jesus Christ. Here we are, a group of Dominicans and Caribbeans and Central and South Americans speaking Spanish and we are children of God and these poor Jews who are the ones who should be enjoying the salvation of the Gospel are still there waiting for the Messiah, what a thing because they rejected, they could have done it but they didn't.

So here there are these overtones in this story also that the one who has the right doesn't do it and then the one who doesn't have the right is blessed. That other man might have been the ancestor of the Son of God but no, it was Boaz because he had integrity and he had love and grace and generosity. How beautiful is the Word of the Lord, right?

The last thing I see here is that Ruth takes refuge under the protection of Boaz, it is as if she covered herself under the wings of Boaz. One of the most romantic scenes in the whole story is when Ruth approaches the tent where Boaz is sleeping at night and she arrives hidden like this so that no one can see her, there is nothing dirty here or anything like that, you know? this was something very symbolic. And she approaches Boaz's bed and takes Boaz's blanket, lifts it up and stands at his feet as a sign of: I'm going to take refuge in you, do you want to receive me, do you want to adopt me? oh! how cute.

And she offers herself as: hey would you like to take over my life and bless me? listen to me that moves me, it is a very poetic story, very beautiful, a beautiful love story. So Ruth takes refuge in Boaz as if she covered herself under his wings, by the way he uses that expression that she, like us, have to take refuge under the wings of Jesus, right?

In verse 10: "She then lowered her face and bowed to the ground and said to him: why have I found grace in your eyes so that you recognize me as a foreigner?" So this story right? of that God who blesses those who approach Him. "And answering Boaz said to him: I have known everything you have done" is there we are talking about chapter 2 verse 10 onwards Gonzalo, "He said to him: I have known everything what have you done with your mother-in-law after the death of your husband and that leaving your father and your mother" here reminds me of what the Lord Jesus Christ says: "He who will not leave his father and mother does not deserve to be My disciple " go? These are things that he who has eyes to see sees.

"Leaving your father and your mother and the land where you were born, you have come to a people you have not known before. Jehovah reward your work and your remuneration be fulfilled from Jehovah God of Israel under whose wings you have come to take refuge." The Lord Jesus Christ has said: "Whoever comes to Me I will not cast out" and the Lord Jesus Christ once said to Jerusalem: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who stone your prophets! how much did I want to cover you with My wings like a chicken it covers its young with its wings and you did not want to."

The Lord always wants to cover those who approach Him with His wings but you have to get close to Him, if you don't get close to Him you won't be able to receive. The one who is not humble, the one who does not draw near to the Lord, in James says: "Come close to God and He will draw close to you."

In order for the saving power of Christ to be fulfilled, we have to get closer to Him, take shelter, get closer to His feet, allow ourselves to be covered, take refuge in Him, be redeemed by Him, receive coverage from His Grace and His mercy, if not given the miracle of salvation. The Christmas story has always been that, right? the God who sacrifices himself and comes so that we may have life and life in abundance but we have to approach Him and seek protection under Him and if we do He never rejects us as Booz did not reject Ruth.

The Book of Ruth is an eminently Christmas Book and we will never read it the same way again when we see these resonances in this book about the Christ who has always been on these pages if we have the understanding to see it that way. Let's lower our heads for a moment and I want you to thank God for having made the Christmas story possible and because He has been thinking that since the world was the world and since before the world was the world, He has been always there rehearsing the story of Christmas and salvation, themes that bless us and inspire us as much as this wonderful book.

God willing that the Christmas story is always shining in our hearts and we thank the Lord for this. Father: thank you, we adore you, we bless you Lord, you are our God, thank you for having us here this morning, thank you for your people who have come to take refuge in your wings because we know that one moment in your house is much more powerful than many days in the warmth of our homes. I bless Your sons and daughters who have come, thank you for this Christmas teaching.

We surrender to You now. Guide us and continue with us Father the rest of this day and bring your people with blessing. We receive this Word Father and we thank you because you are a God who always makes sense, there are no coincidences for You, in the Name of Jesus, amen and amen. Glory to the Name of the Lord, glory to the Name of the Lord, amen, amen, God bless you.