Has anybody noticed the heat over the last week or so?
Oppressive, I think, is the word for it.
Especially on those days when the air is still,
or when you're sitting on the sunny side of the bus.
All you really want to do is get home to a nice quiet place
and find some place to rest.
The break today has been wonderful, by the way.
Have you ever noticed also that calamity
often has the same type of reaction in us?
Have you ever had to admit failure?
Were you afraid of what others would say?
Were you angry or bitter?
Did you blame God?
Or did you just want to find a nice quiet dark place to rest?
Last week we talked about how God reveals himself through stories.
We talked about irony.
Situations that turn out exactly the opposite way
from what we would expect.
Sometimes it's for the sake of humor,
sometimes it's to make a point.
In our introduction last week,
we saw that the book of Ruth takes place in the time of the judges,
when every man did what was right in his own eyes.
And we briefly met Elimelech,
whose name means,
my God is king,
and his family living in Moab.
The central figure of the story at this point is Naomi,
a woman who left the Promised Land of Israel
with her husband and sons
because there was a famine in Bethlehem,
Bethlehem, the house of bread.
She first loses her husband,
and then both of her sons.
We met Orpah and Ruth,
two fairly flat characters,
merely introduced as the Moabite widows of her dead sons.
In our text today, though,
Naomi hears that God has visited his people
and has given them food.
Now remember that point,
we'll come back to it a little bit later.
God has visited his people and given them food.
So Naomi prepares to leave Moab to Bethlehem.
And here we see three women,
none of them related by blood,
none of them with any money,
three widows,
leaving Moab,
where Naomi is a foreigner,
an outsider,
going to Bethlehem,
where Orpah and Ruth will be the outsiders.
Naomi is their mother-in-law.
Now when you hear the word mother-in-law,
what comes to mind?
Some of you, I see you chuckling,
are probably thinking of the early 60s song,
pop song, called Mother-in-Law.
The words go something like this,
the worst person I know,
mother-in-law.
She worries me so,
mother-in-law.
If she'd just leave us alone,
we'd have a happy home.
Sent from down below,
mother-in-law.
And then the second verse says,
Satan should be her name,
to me they're about the same.
And it just goes on from there,
and I think only gets worse.
But this is not Naomi, is it?
Her daughters-in-law love her.
We've learned quite a bit about Naomi in these verses,
and we've heard, just read.
Not so much by what we're told about her,
but by what she does.
First, she's in mourning.
She's lost her sons.
Now none of us is at our best,
at a time like that.
We're heartbroken, we're angry,
we're confused,
we're rarely thinking clearly.
But she's heading back to Bethlehem.
Back home.
But it's under very difficult circumstances.
Her husband is dead.
Her sons are dead.
Her parents and her husband
are very likely to be dead.
She's going to be a perpetual widow.
She's too old to marry,
too old for children,
no income,
and no prospects.
She's bitter.
And,
most people would say
she has every reason to be.
And Orpah and Ruth
are both planning to leave
their homelands, though.
To go with Naomi to Israel.
As I said,
it's apparent that these two women
truly love Naomi.
How many of us
have that kind of relationship
with our mother-in-law?
And how many mothers-in-law
would love to have
that kind of a relationship
with their daughters-in-law?
Naomi must have been
a very gracious and loving woman.
Treating her daughters
with dignity,
with respect,
with friendship,
in order for them
to treat her that way.
She may also have been
a very devout woman,
worshiping God in her home
in Moab,
possibly keeping the Sabbath,
the Passover,
various other feast days.
But here,
Naomi starts out
with her two daughters-in-law
and then seems to have
second thoughts.
She's destitute.
She's going to be dependent
on the charity of others.
How can she afford
two additional mouths
to feed?
Or two additional bodies
to clothe or house?
It's going to be bad enough
for her,
but can she really subject
these girls
to that kind of a life?
Naomi also might have
started thinking about
what people will say
when she gets back
to Bethlehem.
You let your sons
marry foreigners?
Didn't God curse
those Moabites?
Didn't He bar them
from the assembly?
Or even,
are they going to try
to seduce our husbands?
And of course,
these two women
would be a constant reminder
of her time in Moab,
the loss of her husband
and the loss of her sons.
So they set out.
Now,
the text doesn't tell us
where in Moab
they were,
but looking at Google Maps,
the distance seems to be
about 100 miles
from the center of Moab
to Bethlehem.
It would be sort of like
walking from here,
from Ealing,
to Birmingham.
Now,
how long would that take?
You think,
three days?
Four days?
Five days?
A hundred miles?
It would take a while.
But in verse 8,
she stops.
Now,
this may have been
at a crossroads.
It may have been
as far as the Jordan River,
the border between Israel
and Moab.
It may have simply
been at the edge
of their village,
but she stops.
She says goodbye,
and she sends Orpah
and Ruth home,
back to their own families,
and she gives them
a blessing.
She says,
Go,
return each of you
to our mother's house.
May the Lord
deal kindly with you
as you have dealt
with the dead
and with me.
The Lord grants
that you might find rest,
each of you
in the house
of her husband.
It's a beautiful,
poignant blessing.
She invokes
the name of the Lord
twice,
but we see
a bittersweet irony
in this blessing
as well.
May the Lord
deal kindly with you.
She must have been
thinking,
but he hasn't
dealt kindly with me.
As you have dealt
with the dead
and with me,
she acknowledges
that these two women
were good wives
to her sons
and were kind to her.
May the Lord
grant you rest
in the house
of your husbands,
in the house
of a husband,
one who would
care for them,
protect them,
love them.
The concept of rest
really is an important
one in the Old Testament,
especially in the early books.
Rest in those days
meant far more
than an afternoon siesta
or a day off
or a cool room
on a hot afternoon.
It would have meant
more than a holiday
at the beach.
To the children
of Israel,
rest was viewed
in opposition
to the slavery
that they had just
come out of.
As slaves in Egypt,
there was no rest,
no time off,
no freedom
from their oppression.
Now, rest can also
sometimes mean peace,
rest from war,
from conflict,
from threat,
we see in Deuteronomy 25.
Rest was also,
though,
equated to the
promised land itself.
Deuteronomy 12
and Judges 1
speak of the promised
land as a resting place.
And Psalm 95
quotes God as saying
that the unbelieving
generation
shall not enter
into my rest,
but will wander
in the desert.
But Elimelech and Naomi
had left the promised land,
that place of rest.
Deuteronomy 28
predicts exile
for failing to trust God.
And Lamentations 1
talks about the people
being scattered
among the nations
and finding no rest there.
But Naomi is asking
that the Lord
give Orpah
and Ruth rest
in Moab.
Rest also was seen
as the presence
of God himself.
For in Exodus 33,
God,
talking to Moses,
says,
My presence
will go with you
and I will give you rest.
But rest also had
another spiritual dimension.
Rest was seen
as the restoration
of the relationship
between God and man,
severed by Adam's
fall from sin,
or into sin.
Each generation
anticipated the promised one,
the one who would end
God's judgment against man
and end the curse
on the earth.
In Genesis 5,
one hopeful father
declares,
Out of the ground
that the Lord has cursed,
this one
shall bring us relief
from our work
and from the painful
toil of our hands.
And then,
he gave the name
Rest
to his son.
Rest is the same word
there that's used here,
Noah.
And Noah
was hoped for,
was the hoped for one
who would restore
communion with God.
But Orpah and Ruth
each listened to Naomi,
but they responded
very differently.
Orpah saw
the pragmatic wisdom
in Naomi's words.
You're young.
You're not getting
a husband from me.
I'm no spring chicken.
My prospects
of finding a husband
are nil.
And even if that
were to happen,
you'd be way too old
to marry any child
that I might have.
Your prospects
are much better
in your own land,
among your own people,
among your own gods.
Go home.
And Orpah did that.
She walked away.
And she's never
heard from again,
at least not in the Bible.
Now, she may very well
have found a husband.
She may have had children.
She may have lived
a happy life.
But in terms of
God's eternal plan
for humanity,
or even for her own soul,
she walked away.
Ruth, on the other hand,
did not do the logical,
the pragmatic,
the sensible thing.
Instead, she chose
to stay with Naomi.
And in doing so,
God integrated her
into his wonderful story.
But I'm getting ahead
of the text.
We don't want to do that.
But Ruth's response
is absolutely amazing.
Do not urge me to leave you
or to return
from following you.
For where you go,
I will go.
And where you lodge,
I will lodge.
Your people shall be
my people.
And your God,
my God.
Where you die,
I will die.
And there I will be buried.
May the Lord do so to me.
And more also,
if anything but death
parts me from you.
This is an amazing
covenantal commitment.
Ruth commits to a journey
to an unknown destination.
She abandons her people,
her home,
her gods.
She commits herself
totally to Naomi.
To Naomi's home,
wherever that might be.
To Naomi's people.
To Naomi's land.
And to Naomi's God.
Whom she mentions by name.
This covenantal promise
echoes God's own
covenantal commitment
to his own people.
Repeated throughout
the Old Testament.
I am the Lord,
your God.
I will be your God
and you will be my people.
A treasured possession.
This sentiment
is so powerful.
So heartfelt.
That we ironically
take it completely
out of context.
We use it at weddings.
Where a husband and wife
make that same commitment
to each other.
But here,
it's a daughter-in-law
making that commitment
to her mother-in-law.
An amazing statement.
And how does Naomi respond?
She says nothing.
She just turns around
and starts walking.
Hours pass.
Days pass
on the road to Bethlehem
and Naomi says nothing.
Finally,
Naomi reaches Bethlehem.
She's recognized
by the village.
But the homecoming
is far from joyful.
All she sees
is what she's lost.
I left full
and have returned empty
with absolutely nothing.
Call me Mara.
For the Almighty
has dealt bitterly with me.
There's a place
on the east side
of the Red Sea
that bears the name
Mara.
Spelled
only slightly differently
but the same
basic name,
same words.
Three days after
miraculously defeating
Pharaoh and his army,
God brings the children
of Israel
to this place.
The people are thirsty
but the water is bitter,
undrinkable.
And the people
immediately start grumbling.
Are we to die
in the desert?
Why didn't you
leave us in Egypt?
Things were so much
better there.
But God provides
a log for Moses
to throw into the water.
And miraculously
the bitter
becomes sweet.
You know,
sometimes God
takes us to a bitter spot.
He brings us there
to get our attention.
Sometimes to teach us
some sort of a lesson.
Sometimes just to
demonstrate his power
and his love
and his faithfulness
to his people.
But you know,
sometimes we choose
our own path
to the bitter place.
But how often
are we quick
to complain
when those things
don't go our way?
We blame God
for our troubles
without ever considering
our own roles
and the natural consequences
of our own desires.
Remember,
Elimelech and Naomi
chose to leave
the promised land
and chose to go to Moab.
Now,
here is Naomi
back in Bethlehem
with Ruth in tow.
Are you familiar
with the term
the elephant in the room?
You know,
that big issue
or problem
that no one
wants to mention?
So big
that it can't be missed
and yet so disturbing
that nobody
wants to discuss it?
Did you notice
that no one
acknowledges Ruth?
Not the village women,
not even Naomi.
Ruth seems to be
the elephant in the room.
Now,
maybe it was
Naomi's bitterness.
Maybe it was
some embarrassment.
Maybe she doesn't
want to explain
who this Moabite woman is.
Maybe she's just
hoping that Ruth
would go away.
And poor Ruth,
she's been traveling
with Naomi
for at least
a couple of days
without a word
passing between them
and now they've arrived
and Naomi
won't even introduce her.
But as we'll see
next week,
Ruth remains faithful.
But let's not be
too quick to
condemn Naomi either.
Remember,
she's still grieving
and she's seeking.
But what is it
that Naomi is seeking?
Well,
think back to
that blessing
that she gave
to Orpah and Ruth
that they might
find rest.
The rest that she
and Elimelech
sought under their
own strength.
The rest that she
could not find
in Moab,
the faraway country.
A rest that only
comes through God.
The rest and peace
and completeness
of shalom
that can only be
found in a good
relationship with
the Almighty.
Today's passage
begins and ends
with God's provision
for His people.
Naomi hears
while still in the
fields of Moab
that God has
provided food
for His people.
And she thinks
of home.
She thinks of rest.
Now Naomi and Ruth
have arrived in
Bethlehem
at the beginning
of barley season.
grain once again
in the house of bread.
We all seek peace.
We all seek rest.
We all seek that
peace with God
through a Redeemer.
The one who will
pay the debt
that we cannot pay.
Rest.
The end of the
famine in our lives.
The end of the
curse on the land.
Rest from that
curse of sin
that separates us
from God.
The rest that was
hoped for in Noah.
The rest ultimately
fulfilled in the
Holy One.
The one promised
in Genesis 3.
The one pictured
throughout the Old
Testament.
The eternal God
who took on human
flesh so that
through His life,
death, and
resurrection He
might redeem a
people for Himself
from every nation,
tribe, and tongue.
Saved by grace
through faith.
The rest through
Jesus Christ.
The ultimate
fulfillment of the
promises of the
Old Testament.
who calls to us
saying,
Come to me,
all who labor
and are heavy
laden,
and I will give
you rest.
Let's pray.
We thank you,
O Lord,
for your promise
of rest
to those who
come to you
by faith.
Give us this
rest through
Jesus Christ
our Lord.
Amen.
Thank you.