We've been learning about God's faithfulness to His people through generations. The generations in Jesus' family tree so far include Adam and Eve, Seth, Noah and Shem, Abraham and Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and Rahab.

Our question today is: What does God do when His people are lost? God redeems! Redeem means to rescue what has been lost. There are two sides to the word. Someone has to be lost and then redeemed. The second part has to do with the person who is rescuing what is lost, or doing the redeeming.

All of the generations that we have learned about were lost in sin. They all needed to be redeemed, and so do we. 

In our story today, we learn that the Israelites have come into the Promised Land and established their home. We learned about Rahab last week. She married a man named Salmon, and they had a son named Boaz. Boaz redeemed a woman named Ruth.

Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi, had lost their husbands, and it was difficult for women to survive if they weren't married. Ruth and Boaz ended up meeting and they got married. This is how Boaz redeemed, or rescued Ruth and Naomi.

Ruth and Boaz are part of Jesus' family! And the best part is that this story points us to an even greater redeemer - Jesus! We are all lost in sin, and our sin makes us messy. But Jesus died on the cross and rose three days later to redeem us from our sin. When we put our trust in Jesus, we are redeemed. 

What does God do when His people are lost? God redeems His people through His promise!

Deuteronomy 7:9 reminds us of God's promise and faithfulness.

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations... - Deuteronomy 7:9