Good morning! I’m glad to welcome you to worship today at Hillcrest Baptist Church.
Since the beginning of our study in Ruth, we’ve seen that God is always at work. Faithfully. Lovingly. Providentially. Like Ruth, each one of us face circumstances in life that we simply don’t understand. From our perspective, it doesn’t make sense why God allows us to walk through certain circumstances. Nevertheless, the stories of the Bible in general, and the story of Ruth specifically, demonstrate that there are two sides to every set of circumstances, even the difficult ones: the human side and the divine side. Behind all the, bumps and bruises, twists and turns, and ups and downs of life, there is a sovereign God working all things together for our satisfaction and His glory. Charles Spurgeon says it well:
‘Anyone can sing in the day. When the cup is full and wealth rolls in abundance around him, any man can sing the praises of a God who gives a plenteous harvest… but no man can make a song in the night by himself… Songs in the night come only from God; they are not in the power of man.’
Against the backdrop of a dark, pagan and immoral society, death of spouses, isolation, loneliness, and barrenness, we see a faithful, loving God in Ruth 3 giving two women a “song in the night” through pain, human plans and divine providence!