Symbolism in Scripture

The title of my sermon today is Symbolism. Symbolism in Scripture. I had a couple classes in my theology teachings about symbolism. And frankly, I got bored. I was like, come on, we stayed in Daniel, and we stayed in Revelation, and we stayed in various places. But I want to do something a little different. Hopefully you will not be as bored as I was during those classes. I want to talk about the one example of, to me, incredible symbolism, and that is in the book of Ruth. Everybody here read the book of Ruth? Just got a few that didn't raise their hand, so maybe we can teach you. Nice to have Waldo back. Where's Waldo? She's back. Maria, great to have you back.

Yes. So why symbolism? Why symbolism? Great examples in the Bible. As a matter of fact, there's a lot of examples. Symbolism is used from Genesis all the way to Revelation. Do we appreciate symbolism? I want you to think for a moment of perhaps what you would consider a leading or top symbol used in Scripture. Think about it for a minute. I'm going to give you mine. I'll give you time, and then I'd like to. As you can see, we have some mics up here, so they can hear you if you're whispering how bad the sermon is. These mics can pick that up, right, David? All right, and they'll play it back to me. A symbol that I think about the very first is what we see every year at Passover, the Lamb. The symbol of the Lamb representing Jesus Christ. Is it a Lamb Jesus Christ? No, it's a symbol of it. It helps us to remember or reminds us what Christ did for us. And you see the Lamb, and if you ever spent time with one, matter of fact, I even thought about one time in Tennessee because I had a customer that had little lambs, and I was actually going to bring one to services and hold it in my hand and then talk about putting a knife to its throat and killing it. That's the kind of thought we should have. Exactly. That's why this was a symbol. But short of putting it in diapers, I figured it was best not to bring a lamb. Do you have one that comes to mind of a symbol or symbolism used in Scripture? Anybody? Raise your hand. Yes, Frank. Water. Water. Water is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. That's right. Holy Spirit. I think we all kind of agree to that, and it's found also in the Old and the New Testament. Anybody else? Crown. Okay, how it was a symbol of authority. And it shows up in the Old Testament and New Testament. Very good. Bill? I thought of the dove, but it's also the Holy Spirit. The dove. Yes, we see that when Jesus Christ. Matter of fact, it's a visual manifestation of the Holy Spirit that came down, if we can say that manifestation. But more or less, it was a symbol of that. Very good. Jeannie? Wine. Why would I... you just bring that up like that.

She was thirsty. Frank thinks of water, and you think of wine. And sitting in front of each other, in front of her. Wine is symbolic of? Christ's blood. And we drink that? Yes, ma'am. Bread. Symbolic of? Christ's body. Yes. Any others? Okay. Jonathan? The ants. The ants? Also symbolic. For your employees, right? I went to work. I learned from the ants. You sluggered, as I said. Matter of fact, I walked in this woman's garage one time. I was selling her a job, and I was getting ready for my men to come out to the job. And right there by the door, she said she had that very Scripture. She said, I hope your guys, when they get here, will read that. I said, well, I don't have any sluggards, but yes. Anyone else? Yes, John? A sword. Right? It's called a sword, and it cuts both ways. Any others? Yes. The what? Armor. Symbolic of what we're to put on, like in the military. And I don't see a bunch of people with armor on here today, but hopefully you did put on the armor of God, not the armor of the military. Anyone else? Frank's going again. Yes, Frank? Mountains. Okay. Government. Good. John? And I'll get your wife. It's hard for me to understand, but the Bible talks about our prayer. Incense, as he says in Revelation 5. They come up to him like incense. Yes, ma'am? A serpent, symbolic of? Definitely. Definitely. Oh, she says angels, symbolic of the authority of God. They were messengers, aren't they? Malak in the Old Testament, angel was a messenger. Anyone else? Exhausted, most of you. Yes, ma'am? Woman, church. What kind of church? Righteous? Yes, either church. There's two women of Revelation representing religion. One's good, and one's not so good, as it talks about. Very good. Yes, Bill?

Oh, the image represents symbolic of the nations of world-ruling countries. Yes. Yes, ma'am? Wedding garment, which is symbolic of? Righteousness. Right, put on white linen robes, as it even talks about Revelation at the churches. Anybody think about rainbow? Yes, it's a covenant. And that so many times reminds me, even though it's not my number one, but it reminds me when I see a rainbow, it takes me back to Scripture of why I have the opportunity to see that. And I think that's one of the great gifts of symbolism, is it takes us back. We also had stars. Angels? Yes. And how about a lion? How about a lion?

Could we have multiple? Satan walks about as a lion, and the lion of Judah is mentioned in, and that's definitely not Satan. So, number seven is actually symbolic, yes, of the seventh day. And seven should remind us of the Sabbath day. But let me tell you that in this Bible, there are over 1,600 symbols used, 1,600, and many of them multiple times. Why? Because they teach us. They paint a picture.

They tie us to Scripture. Help to be a reminder. Remember the little blue thread that he had the Israelites use? The tassels that he used to have them use? Tied him back to Scripture, 10 commandments, even the covenant that God had. That is why I want to touch on the symbolism of Ruth. All of you read Ruth? Yes, you said you did, except one or two that didn't raise their hands. I won't name you. No problem. No problem. But you have read Ruth.

Yes, and most people do. I must say it's one of my favorite stories in the Bible. Isn't it yours? It's simple to read. I think we understand it. It's short, and all of us can kind of relate to it. Let me touch on the definition of symbolism. It means, according to the dictionary, a word or phrase with a double meaning.

The use of symbols usually represents ideas and or qualities. It's a figure of speech that is used when an author wants to, and I like this one, create. When an author wants to create a certain mood or emotion in the work of the literature, and that's what God does. That's what the word is about. That's what these stories in symbolism is about. Remember it says, using a word to represent an abstract idea.

So in a way, symbolism is a symbol of itself. That abstract idea. Why do we need it? Because why did Jesus Christ say he spoke in parables? Oh, so everybody could understand. No. So they use his symbols. He uses various ways of speaking to drive a point home. I've always wondered myself because he lived for as God for 4,000 years. I wonder how many of his parables were real stories. If you got to see everybody who ever lived for 4,000 years, don't you think you would have seen about everything? And was it a real parable? Did people's faces or images flash in his mind when he was telling some of those parables?

The prodigal son, do you think he ever saw that? A lot. Quite a bit. And he's seen it since. In Scripture, names often are symbolic of someone's character. We see that many times, especially with some of the prophets. And I won't go into that to any degree other than our historian Ruth, the word Boaz. Anybody know anyone named Boaz? No? You do? You know a Boaz? Really? Boaz? I never heard that before. Okay. Well, only a Bratnick can bring me to that.

Boaz. You know what Boaz means? Strength. Not a bad name. Not a bad name. But I want to look at symbolism that most theologians agree on. Not just the theologians in our church, not just members of our church, but it's an overall perception of symbolism of Ruth. They generally say that Naomi, the mother, Naomi represents the church.

Naomi represents the church. Not perfect, but she was chosen just like everybody here. Not perfect yet. If you think you're perfect, well, guess what? You're not. But hopefully we're all working towards perfection. So Naomi, it said, was a church. Ruth was one called out of the world. Chuck Smith. You may say the same thing. I know my wife was born in the church, so that doesn't represent her. But Ruth is a story of most are a good part of the church.

Then there's Orpah, the one whose mother, Oprah Winfrey, spelled the wrong name wrong way, and otherwise she would have been Oprah Winfrey. But Orpah represents one who's called but turns back. Goes back to the world. We've all seen some people like that. We all hope that we will not be people like that. And then they reference Elimelech, Melon, and Killian, Naomi's husband, and his two sons. They represent casualties of living in the world. And I guess their thought, when you talk about two lands, two different countries, two different nations, and I think Elimelech and Naomi and her three sons found out that grass is not always greener. You ever found that out in a job?

So the grass was not always greener as they thought it was in Oab.

Yes, I won't go there. A different sermon. But I love this scene. I didn't come up with it. Somebody wrote, but it was anonymous. Talking about this family of Ruth's. Instead, a family left a land absent of food for a land absent of God. It made a very good point. Because not everybody left, did they? So I want to go through, if we can here, I won't go through the whole book, even though we could read the book in 20 minutes. I'd like you to turn back to the book of Ruth with me, please. Book of Ruth. Ruth.

And you've all read what happened and how she got there and how her sons died and, you know, these two women that they had married. One went with Naomi, the other because she decided she needed to leave. And they go back to the area near Jerusalem. And in chapter 2 of Ruth, I'll read from the New King James version. I'll just touch on chapter 1, then we'll get to my main verse. Chapter 2 and verse 1, it said, Naomi had a kinsman of her husbands. What does kinsman mean? Relative. Yeah, close relative. Usually kinsman comes in there. Of her husbands, a man of great, great wealth. Actually showed he lived in Jerusalem, but he also had land over here. Or he's believed. Of the family of Elimelech, his name was Boaz, which meant strength. Now, verse 2. Let's look at the symbolism here. So, Ruth the Moabites, isn't that interesting? We know she kind of gets that title, doesn't she? Why'd she get that title? Yeah, but that's what everybody was going to know her as. It means she wasn't of that tribe. She wasn't related. They didn't recognize her as anything but someone from Moab, a foreigner.

So, Ruth the Moabites said to Naomi, Please, let me go to the field and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor. And she said, Go, my daughter. So, we have, in chapter 2, the symbolism of Ruth being an outsider and symbolic of someone who needed to be redeemed. We were all that way one time, but she wasn't really home yet, was she? This wasn't her home. Maybe perhaps you felt that way when you walked into a different church and you just didn't know anyone.

That's how she had to kind of feel, because Ruth was the only one. People would have known Ruth, but they didn't know her. You can feel when somebody is not really comfortable with you. And here they had come back because they had no way to earn a living in Moab. The men all died, and they came back because it said they heard that the drought was over. So they came back because at least you have family. And at least in this country, this was during the days of the Judges, wasn't it?

That's what I said. At least in those days, they were given a command. If you had a field, you couldn't cut the field all the way to the fences, to the borderline. And why was that? Yes, you leave them for the poor, the travelers who couldn't afford them, they would have to go out and get their own food. But at least they had a way to survive, a way to live, because God wasn't just going to hand you something.

It was his form of welfare, but he wasn't writing a check. You were going to have to go out and collect this food so that you could eat. So he's symbolic of that, and we realize that Boaz, being strength, is symbolic of because he was really a kinsman. So he was a relative, and he was going to be able to redeem her, which makes him symbolic of who redeemed us, Jesus Christ. And if I knew anyone who was strong, I would say we had strength that would be Jesus Christ.

But let's go on, and let's go into this. Verse 4. And if you want to read the rest of the story, you can through here. Most of you know it. I'm just touching on the symbolism and how beautiful the symbolism is to us and how we should think about things. Verse 4, Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, the Lord be with you.

And they answered him, the Lord bless you. He didn't come out to his workers and say, Get to work faster. What's wrong with you, sluggards? Consider the ant. He didn't, did he? But he actually represented Christ in this way because he said, The Lord bless you. And then they went, Oh, the Lord bless you. He wasn't afraid to speak the truth. He wasn't afraid to give God the credit.

He was a wealthy man. How many wealthy men you know that give God the credit? Hmm. Not many. Yes, there are people who do that. And is this the reason he was blessed? Or is it the reason he was used to be a symbol of Jesus Christ? So here, we've gone out to the fields, and he gave this great word. And in actually verse five, he looks over there and he goes, Who's young woman is this?

You know, he noticed she's different. And he's never seen her before. And so, let's go down to verse eight as she was working. She actually said something to him. Please let me glean and gather in verse seven. But then in verse eight, Then Boaz said to Ruth, You will listen, my daughter. So here he's taking symbolism, being like a father.

She's obviously from this. She's quite a bit younger than him. Of course, she'd been married for 10 years, but at the time this was going on in time of the judges, men and women got married when girls were 14, 15. So she could have been 25, 26. So she was still young compared to him.

Because he would have been older. Then Boaz said to Ruth, You will listen, my daughter. Will you not? Will you not? Do not go to glean in any other field, nor go from here, but stay close to my young women. Why did he say that?

As Bill says, she was vulnerable. What did he say about the time of the judges? Everyone did what was. So I'm a young man. Hey, she's a foreigner. She's not one of us. I bet she's a loose woman. Yeah, I bet we can put some pressure on her. We can harass her. Boaz knew it. Boaz said, Stay around women. Stay around this. So he still has that symbolism of a father looking after her, taking care of her, wanting to make sure she's okay. Let's go down to verse 10. Oh, I love verse 9, though. It says, Have I not commanded a young man not to touch you? So guess what the men wanted to do? The boss has to say, Don't touch her.

She may have been a very beautiful woman, according to Scripture she was. Who was her great-great-grandson, David. So he was a good-looking guy, and so were his brothers and everything. But let's go down to verse 10. Because he told her, When you drink, drink from where I have, and whatever. So verse 10, he said, Then she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner? Symbolism. Symbolism of us before God. Our prayer of thanksgiving. Because what were we? Before God called us. What were we? Nothing. And you found grace, God's eyes. We found grace, we still have grace. It's a beautiful thing, and she realized, This man could have been a hard man.

He let her have water. He let her glean. And he even wanted to protect her. And she looks and goes, Wow, I don't even deserve this. Haven't we all said that at a time or two, where God stepped in, saved us from ourselves sometimes, saved us from catastrophe, saved us from danger, saved us from some terrible thing that could have happened by His grace. She realized this. Do we? That's why when we read this, do we picture ourselves as Ruth? Do we picture Boaz as what a redeemer? That's what this is about, is seeing that picture, seeing that symbolism that's there. Let's go down to verse 12. The Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given to you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wing you have come for refuge.

To remind you of anything? Under the wings. Mind you of the song and also the writing from Psalm 91 on eagle's wings, as those wings it talks about covering you and how this has come to be. As she realizes, and he reminds her that your God back in Moab, and there were quite a few gods back in Moab, this God isn't like your God.

Verse 13, he says, Let me find favor in your sight, my Lord, for you have comforted me and spoke kindly to your maidservant, though I am not one of your maidservants. Example for us, isn't it? How do we speak to people sometimes? How do you speak to your server in a restaurant? This isn't right! You brought me the wrong stuff!

I didn't order this. Have you ever said it? I hope not, but I've heard it. Haven't you heard it? Where somebody is just a servant and they are mistreated? It's sad. Very sad. We have to make sure. Because we have been, as this book tells us, we've been called, we've been given grace. How about us showing a lot of grace to other people? Maybe they've made a mistake. Maybe they faltered. Maybe they said something cruel to us. Remember my parents, because I grew up from age four to eight, and my father had a restaurant. And I remember my father and mother, they both worked there, and I remember going in. And the one thing they always told me, they had some young girls who were serving, and it was a pretty good-sized restaurant. And no matter what it was, I learned at a very young age, say thank you for anything somebody brought you. Wait a minute, I'm the owner's kid. I don't have to do that. Oh, no. Thank you. Every time they would bring water, every time. And I could have anything I wanted. I was spoiled, because this is a restaurant open for three meals a day, so I could go in any time or get anything I wanted. But my parents did teach me, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I so remember a friend of mine, I had lunch with them when I was in my 30s, and we went to this restaurant, and we had a very good server who just thought of everything and brought something over. And every time I would say thank you, and he would go, are you going to say it again? Are you going to say it again? I mean, you already thanked her four or five times. You're going to tip her. Why should you be saying that? And I realized that was a mindset that my parents gave me that I still want to do. Because we need to show grace to others so that we can be like Boaz, who was symbolic of Jesus Christ. It's a way for us to relate. Let me go down to verse 15. Verse 15, And when she arose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, even among the good stuff that you're gathering and we're going to collect and we're going to do all this, the easy money. Now, and do not reproach her. Don't go, get away from that. No, you're supposed to be over here. Because did she know a lot about gleaning? How would she? This is the first time she went to glean. She didn't know what it was about. How about us? Do we have patience with people who really don't know? Have you had that? Maybe it's your work where somebody you didn't know how to do something the first time. All you got was correction. Well, you're not doing it right. Well, I don't even know how to do it. See, it's with God, it's always been a matter of the heart. And He appreciates loving kindness as I gave the sermon on Ghesed a few months or two ago. So let's go down to 16. Also, let some grain from the bundles fall purposely for her. Leave it that she may glean and do not rebuke her. He's given her more than she deserves. He's making sure he gives an abundance. Have you ever felt that way in life? Things come your way. Do we recognize where it comes from? And that it's done many times purposely? We're able to enjoy things because God wants us to have it. Oh, we can think back on the times when it's a little rough and we're going through things.

But here, when things are good, it's time. It's time we stop and think of the symbolism that's laid out for us and the amazing miracles, amazing gifts that God gives us.

Do we wait until we have all we want before we thank God? Because here, she got more than she should have gotten. It wasn't that she wasn't a good worker. Let's go over to verse 22. And you know what's amazing there is, just verse 17, that she gleaned in the field that evening and beat out what she had gleaned. And he was an ephah. That was about five days worth of grain. And typically, when she harvested before, it was one ephah. But he had given her so much stuff, it's five times what she could have gotten herself. I think God does want to give you five times and what you can come up with yourself. Exceeds our expectation. Very good, Maria. You haven't been lost spiritually since you've been lost physically here. But it is. It's a beautiful thing. My only question is, it's about a bushel. A bushel. That's pretty heavy if you take grain, a bushel of grain. She had to carry that, and she was willing to do it. Wow. Let's go to verse 22. Verse 22. 22. And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, It is good, my daughter, that you may go out with his young women, and that people do not meet you in any other field. What does that tell us? Ah, yes. The day it says it could have been. Chances are it was dangerous. You've got to remember, everybody did what was right in their own eyes, the time of the judges. Even Samson, what did he say? Give me that woman! And he was a judge. So this gives us this thing of the protection. Stay with God's people. You're safer. And do you know why? Because there are expectations, even though we let God down, there are expectations that you should expect from someone in the body of Christ. But there's also, when I used to do business, I would have men who would come up, and they would have something on their contract, they would have something on their truck, they would have something about Jesus and give a scripture or something like that. And I would always ask them, I said, so you're a believer? And they would say, yes. And I wanted a believer. Do you know why I wanted a believer? Because they were all held to the same standard. We have the Ten Commandments. It says, don't steal, don't lie. So if there's a problem, guess what? I can go, and I had to do it. Actually, a time or two where they lied. When someone stole, and I had to say, hey, you said, you said you were a believer. How do you write this wrong? Where if I didn't have that sign or those words, what could I expect? You knew I wasn't a Christian. You knew you should have expected. And I had that in a business where I hired these guys to do this whole crew. They worked for me for quite a bit, and then I started seeing that the material wasn't coming back. And it wasn't my company yet, but then I asked the guy after a while because I was just keeping up with material. And we were, we weren't short, but we never had access. So I asked. I said, wait a minute. I went out and looked at the job today, and you were almost finished, and I saw a couple boxes. Where's those boxes? They said, it's not your company.

It's not your company. But what could I expect? They weren't. That was their rule. Everyone did what's right in their own eyes, and they still do today. So why should you expect it? Why should you expect anything different? And this is what this is what it is to Ruth, isn't it? He's telling her, stay out of those other fields. Stay with my people because you can get in trouble. Because they're dogs. They're going to do what dogs do.

I found this to be very interesting. Symbolism. And I, this is probably, when did I write this? 10, 15 years ago. I still remember having this because I know it's on a big sheet here like this. And I read about the symbolism of Ruth for for or by or per PhD students of theology at three major schools in America. And they looked at this symbolism. Stanford. They call it the Harvard of the West. Harvard and Berkeley. And these were all in the divinity schools or seminary school. And they collected these because they throw this out and tell us the symbolism. Well, I found it so funny because I was studying this morning. I was giving that this morning and reading some of the explanation of John chapter four of the woman at the well. And I read two or three articles and they were just so far off. But yeah, they were the lead articles and they had PhDs. And so it made me understand.

People go to these schools not to teach God's way. They go to be writers. They go to be lecturers. They go for a lot of things because this is what surprised me. And they got some things right. So this consists of some of the answers of the symbolism that we talked about earlier. These are the top students in America. Ruth, they said she's symbolic of being empty, which, okay, she might have been empty when she got there. I don't know. But also, she's a gold digger. A gold digger. A young woman just looking at an older man to marry him and get all his wealth and not have to do anything. Did you read anything in here like that? But somebody did. Somebody with a PhD in theology.

Another one said just another desperate woman.

The names were, as it says, symbolic of lives, which brings out pretty true. You see how there's a little truth in with some understanding that they can see. Bethlehem and Moab, one's good and one's bad area. Boaz, symbolic of a brother or a husband or overseer. And then, as we get into the story of this that you all know, I really won't touch on it because that's not my point. I look at my watch today, too, but we know that she went as and joined him at the threshing place, and she laid down at his feet, and he covered her with part of his cloak. And I did say that he was worked all day and had food and then had some wine. Did he have too much wine? I'm afraid if you're doing green barley green like this is, and it's hot. I don't think you want to be and you have to work again the next day. Not to him, but I bring that up because this is what they got from the symbolism of that.

Said there was actually a euphemism. Said in chapter 3 and verse 7, when he uncovered his feet, these are these students, that it meant that they were having intercourse.

And that the symbolism of his feet was the male genitalia. Oh, wow! This is, these are theology. This is, you read the story, it's just like, well, this is a story of us and and Christ, and this is what they think. These are the people who are going to teach the next generation. The threshing floor, they said was a party place. It's where you went to party. Another said it was a shack up place. It's where you met to shack up. Now, why am I telling you this? It's because this is the real world. You think this is how they think, as Bill said, this is what is happening in our theology class. Not everybody. There's some good people out there that go there that's as dedicated and they're honest and they try to do these things, but this this came from the top schools. And then finally, what was that threshing floor? A place to go get drunk and have sex.

That is the symbolism they got. But this is the thinking of their minds. It wasn't the holiness of these scriptures. That's what's so precious. That's what we hold on to. The symbolism here represents Jesus Christ. It represents us and Him redeeming us. It's a sad state. And this is 10, 12 years, 15 years old. These students are probably already out teaching. Imagine. So let's finish this up. Let's go and look at this. Ruth, let's go to chapter 3 and verse 9. We know the story. There's a woman laying at his feet in verse 8 and then in verse 9 he said, Who are you? It's dark. There's no lights there. He's going, Well, somebody's laying at my feet. Who are you? So she answered, I am Ruth, your maidservant. Take your maidservant under your wing, for you are a near kinsman. She's reminding him that he was a kinsman. She's not a gold digger. Ask yourself, were you a gold digger? Were you a gold digger who came into church? Go, let me see what I can get out of this church. Let's see what I can get out of God. No. Amazing people can think that way. Reading the Holy Scriptures. It's a reason. It's called the Holy Bible. Is nothing holy to some people?

So what is that? He's talking about him being a redeemer, a kinsman. He's going to redeem her. He's going to marry her. He's going to take care of her. It was the law that the next and closest kin because she still had a limilex land. But she couldn't work that. She didn't have it. So how was she going to get it? Something had to happen. So the nearest kinsman, the nearest relative, was to have it according to God's law. So he actually went to the nearest one and said, here you can do this. He goes, well, but if I do, I don't want to because my sons, my kids, will be knocked out of theirs because this son. So he couldn't do it. So Boaz says what? I'll do it. You know, when we may have been in our lives at the time that God called me, I was lost. I had decided the church wasn't for me, religion wasn't for me. It only took me about a year to find out that my life was miserable. And I didn't think anybody cared about me. And God did. And I think many of us are that way. Such a beautiful thing. Being bought back. Being bought back from the world because that's what we were. Let's go down to 13. Verse 13. He said, Stay the night, and in the morning it shall be that if you will perform the duty of a near kinsman for you, if he will, this closer one, good, let him do it. But if he does not want to perform the duty for you, then I will perform the duty for you. As the Lord lives, lie down until morning. What does it teach us? It doesn't matter day or night. God's there to protect us. God's going to take care of us. We should think about that because he took care of Ruth, who was a foreigner, who wasn't one of his, but he called. Just like he called many of us. It's incredible. And let's go over to chapter 4. Chapter 4, verse 5. Then, Boaz, then on the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you shall also buy it from Ruth the Moabites, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance. And as you know, the near kinsmen said no.

My parents gave me a lot. They didn't give it all. Jesus Christ gave it all.

We have to remember that. He was our atonement, our Redeemer, and one that this book clearly shows we should be more thankful than what we are. And we all get that way. We all get a little more sentimental as a Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread come, and that's good. We're supposed to. But don't you wish we could keep that feeling all the time? So does God. Who wants us to do that? Then finally, as we know, in verse 8, verse 8, chapter 4, It says, Therefore the near kinsmen said to Boaz, Buy it for yourself. So he took off his sandal. Took off his sandal.

Yes. What was that symbolic of? Like she said, an agreement. That's how they did it. In front of people. In front of people, he took off those sandals. It's a contract that everybody could see. And then how did you know everybody saw it? Go walking somewhere with just one shoe on. You know what people realize? You only have one shoe on. Are they going to notice? Absolutely. This is one of the ways that they made sure people knew that agreement. And so here he's walking through town, this rich man, missing a sandal. Symbolic of an agreement. Just a sandal. So I bring this to you today because the symbolism is amazing. The uniqueness of Scripture because the symbolism teaches us. Are we wanting to be taught? Do we want to start reading Scripture now and pick out over 1600 times of when symbolism is used? Because the symbolism is given to us to put in here and to put here so that we can relate to the kindness of God and the love that God has for us. Because we are redeemed. Brethren, you and I are the Ruth. And Jesus Christ was the Boaz. Physical representation of the wonderful, wonderful gifts that only God can give.