Rewind — the teaching platform built on your church’s own preaching

The big idea

Don't look for what's best in your eyes—look for what's blessed in God's eyes.

In the darkest days of Judges, when everyone did whatever seemed right in their own eyes, God was quietly weaving a redemption story through Ruth and Boaz. Pastor Bill shows that choosing the harder, less obvious path of faithfulness—rather than what looks best to us—positions us for blessings we may not even recognize until eternity.

Point 1 of 6

The book of Judges shows what happens when people do whatever seems right in their own eyes

Pastor Bill traces the repeating cycle in Judges where Israel drifts from God, gets oppressed, cries out, and is rescued, only to repeat it worse each time. He reads Judges 21:25 as the summary verse of the whole book and notes it ends in civil war, showing where self-directed living leads.

God is moving the plan forward to make us right in his eyes

— Pastor Bill Bush

Point 2 of 6

Ruth's story unfolds in the middle of that darkness as a hidden redemption narrative

Pastor Bill sets up the famine, Elimelech's move to Moab, and the deaths that leave Naomi and her daughters-in-law widowed. He points out this bleak backdrop makes the story that follows even more remarkable.

Point 3 of 6

Ruth chose the harder path of loyalty over the safer path home

When Naomi urges her daughters-in-law to return to their own people for a better chance at security, Orpah goes back but Ruth clings to Naomi and commits herself to Naomi's people and God. Pastor Bill notes this wasn't the path that looked best, but it positioned her for blessing.

Point 4 of 6

Ruth's gleaning and Boaz's kindness set up the concept of the family redeemer

Pastor Bill explains gleaning as Israel's welfare system and how Ruth ends up, as it just happened, in the field of Boaz, a relative who can act as kinsman-redeemer. He defines the redeemer as needing to be both able (a free relative with resources) and willing to pay the price and marry the widow.

Point 5 of 6

Ruth had to ask Boaz to redeem her, and the nearer relative refused when he learned the cost

Pastor Bill unpacks the threshing floor scene as a formal proposal, not a seduction, and shows the unnamed nearer redeemer backing out once he realizes redeeming Naomi's land means marrying Ruth and sacrificing for her. Boaz, by contrast, willingly pays the price.

it's funny how often what we do that seems right in our own eyes is the thing that benefits us the most or costs us the least

— Pastor Bill Bush

Point 6 of 6

Ruth and Boaz's line leads to David and ultimately to Jesus, the true family Redeemer

Pastor Bill traces Obed to Jesse to David, then forward through the genealogy in Matthew to Jesus, born in the same Bethlehem hills. He shows Boaz's mother was Rahab, tying the story together, and calls Jesus the ultimate Redeemer who is both able and willing.

Related passage

When you go down the path that seems right to man, it always leads to death

— Pastor Bill Bush

Jesus showed up and stopped the car

— Pastor Bill Bush

He's not a way, He's the way

— Pastor Bill Bush

A story from life

Pastor's wife Carrie recounts their three-year-old grandson Phoenix insisting he could stop a car in the parking lot, illustrating the self-confidence that underlies doing what seems right in one's own eyes

Take it into your week

Pastor Bill frames the choice as whether you'll settle for what seems best in your own eyes or ask for what's blessed in God's.

Application

Notice where you're doing what seems right in your own eyes
Examine the subtle areas—money, time, relationships—where you've quietly decided you know a better way than God's, even without openly rebelling against Him.
Choose the harder path when it's the faithful one
Like Ruth staying with Naomi or Boaz paying the cost, be willing to take the option that doesn't look best but is the one God is honoring.
Ask Jesus to be your Redeemer
Just as Ruth had to ask Boaz to redeem her, confess that you're a slave to sin and profess Jesus as Lord, turning from your own way and trusting Him to pay the price.
Take communion as a moment to reflect and return
Whether you're wandering like Naomi or have never surrendered like Ruth, use the bread and cup to confess, surrender, and remember what Jesus paid to redeem you.

Keep going

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