2025 Advent Part 4
At Keys Vineyard Church, we are presenting a series called ‘Advent 2025’ which we post here on Online Bible Institute.
This will be the last week in our series on Ruth. We have been looking at some of the similarities between this story and the Christmas story.
Ruth 4:16-17 (NIV)
16 Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son.” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
What a beautiful picture this is. Naomi, who returned to Bethlehem empty, grieving, and convinced that her story was over, now sits with new life in her arms. The women declare, “Naomi has a son,” because this child will restore her joy and carry forward her family line. Naomi is no longer Mara, which means bitter. God has made her Naomi again, pleasant and restored. The God who seemed far away has filled the empty places.
Obed is born as a child redeemer for Naomi. But then comes the quiet sentence that changes everything: “Obed was the father of Jesse, the father of David.” It almost whispers past you, but it is the moment that reveals the purpose of the entire book. Ruth’s little story, tucked away in the days when Israel had no king, ends by announcing the family line of the king who would shape a nation, David.
And yet the story becomes even greater. The family line of Boaz and Ruth is not only the family line of David. It is the family line of Christ. The line that began with a grieving widow in a distant land leads us all the way to a manger in Bethlehem. Jesus is our redeemer and our king.
Luke 2:10-11 (NIV)
10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
The angel announces that the long promised king has arrived, the one David’s kingship was always pointing toward. Ruth begins during a time when there is no king in Israel and no bread in Bethlehem. Yet the town that was empty at the start of the story, the house of bread, becomes the very place where the Bread of Life is born. Jesus enters the world not only to redeem Naomi’s story, but to redeem our story as well.
This weekend at Keys Vineyard Church, we will discuss all this and more, so be sure to join us in person or online.
Steve Lawes is a pastor at Keys Vineyard Church and also the founder of the Online Bible Institute Network.
