The Wedding Chapter
(and Why Marriage Matters)

Sunday, July 26, 2026
Pastor Jojo Ma

Sermon Video

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Ruth 4

Chapter 1 - The Weeping Chapter
Chapter 2 - The Working Chapter
Chapter 3 - The Waiting Chapter
Chapter 4 - The Wedding Chapter

In the Hebrew, Boaz calls him ‘peloni almoni’; that basically has the same meaning as “Mr. So-and-So”.

5 Then Boaz said, “The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.”

6 Then the redeemer said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”

This man was interested in taking care of the lowly and the least but only if there was gain for himself.

Are you like Mr. So-and-So? When you invest in others, care for others, serve others, do you think, “What’s in it for me? Will I have to give up anything? Will I have to sacrifice my time and money? Will it make me happy? Will it make me look good?”

Boaz was a God-fearing man. He cared more about trusting God, and he cared more about what God thought than what man thought. He was a God-pleaser and a God-fearer.

Are you a God-pleaser and a God-fearer? Does it matter more to you what God thinks of you, or what people think of you? And what would your life look like if you put your full trust and your complete identity in the Lord?

13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son.

22 Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.

Using a Moabite widow, barren and childless for over a decade with Mahlon, God redeems her in so many ways. And it’s through this woman, and through Boaz also, that God would bring about Israel’s greatest king, king David. And it would be through David that the ultimate King, the final Kinsman Redeemer would come, Jesus Christ.

William Cowper, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way”

I especially love that it puts God where He belongs…on the throne over all creation and over our lives. God rules, God reigns, God does as He pleases, in the heavens and on the earth.

1. God is sovereign over all (including conception).
God is the One who grants babies. He is the final Decider whether a sperm will fuse with an ovum to form a zygote. God gives conception.

14 Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer…

In all our problems and pains, here at CrossLife we want to always go back to the Redeemer and his cross of love. God has not left you this day without a Redeemer. Keep trusting him, keep loving him.

2. Be faithful in faithless times.
Will we be that faithful remnant? Will we stand up for what is true, good, and beautiful --- namely Jesus Christ and His gospel? Will you live with godly integrity, in private and in public?

Will you live and make choices in a way that pleases God, first and foremost? Will you be sold out for the gospel? Will you trust and treasure Jesus Christ above all?

3. Marriage is a picture of the gospel.
“The love of Jesus is far greater than the love of Ruth for Boaz or Naomi. He left his place in heaven, not just the greener fields of Moab. He left intimate fellowship with the Father for the pain of this fallen world. Jesus didn’t merely risk his reputation for us, he bore being made of no reputation, despised and rejected by men. At the moment of his greatest pain and rejection on the cross, however, there was no nearer redeemer to rescue him. There was only the darkness closing around him on the cross…What awesome love Jesus demonstrated for us on the cross!”

Eph 5:32 This [marriage] mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

The reality is that earthly marriage has one chief aim: To display Christ and the church. That’s why Paulp says that husbands are to love their wives and wives are to submit to their own husbands…because it is the picture of Christ and the church.

Eph 5:32-33 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.