WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.500 I'll do turn up the book of Ruth, page 222. As Paul said, we're going to be in this book 00:00:07.500 --> 00:00:16.399 ! in the mornings for a number of weeks now. And Ruth, as a book, is a love story. And when 00:00:16.399 --> 00:00:24.960 it comes to love stories, a plot that says they met, they fell in love, the end, doesn't sell. 00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:32.780 That doesn't get a Hollywood contract. Think of any of the classics. That's not been the plot line. 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:44.280 However, their lives were hard. They found each other. And against all the odds and in the face 00:00:44.280 --> 00:00:51.859 of great adversity, they made it. That's a Hollywood banker. That'll make you very rich 00:00:51.859 --> 00:00:58.799 if you find another way of saying that same version. That is the sort of plot line that 00:00:58.799 --> 00:01:05.340 you see in the best kind of love stories. And the book of Ruth is really that kind of love story. It 00:01:05.340 --> 00:01:11.859 is full of intrigue and tension. It's couched in adversity and sadness and pain. And we see this 00:01:11.859 --> 00:01:18.200 morning in these first five verses that we're looking at that it begins with broken hearts 00:01:18.200 --> 00:01:28.600 and tears and tears and pain and sadness. One of the great questions that we have as human beings 00:01:28.600 --> 00:01:36.219 when life is like that is, well, where is God? Isn't that the question of the ages? When people suffer 00:01:36.219 --> 00:01:42.480 and struggle and life is difficult, people ask the question, where is God in all of this? 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:52.120 When your heart is broken, when you suffer, when you struggle, where is He? And this first paragraph 00:01:52.120 --> 00:01:58.159 of the story, it reads like so many people feel, doesn't it? In the midst of real pain, He seems 00:01:58.159 --> 00:02:03.580 completely absent. Did you notice in verses 1 to 5, God's name isn't even mentioned? 00:02:03.579 --> 00:02:12.520 But as we read on, and as we get to the end, it is only four chapters long, this little book, 00:02:12.859 --> 00:02:19.719 but as we read through the story, we discover that God is far from absent. In fact, in the unfolding 00:02:19.719 --> 00:02:29.240 romance between Ruth and this figure who will emerge called Boaz is that God is at work in remarkable ways 00:02:29.240 --> 00:02:38.820 throughout the whole. He's there in the darkness. He's there in the tension of the romance, and He's 00:02:38.820 --> 00:02:45.200 there in the consummation of the story. He's there the whole way through. And it's important that we 00:02:45.200 --> 00:02:50.780 see the book of Ruth isn't just this individual love story between these two people, nor is it even 00:02:50.780 --> 00:02:55.600 about their two families, significant as both of those are. But when we get to the end of the book, 00:02:55.599 --> 00:03:01.120 if you turn over the page, chapter 4, you find that there is a list of names there, a list of names 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:09.099 that connect us to David. The last word in the book, David, God's covenant king. And if we were to keep 00:03:09.099 --> 00:03:14.299 going all the way through to Matthew chapter 1, in the list of names at the beginning of Matthew chapter 1, 00:03:14.799 --> 00:03:21.439 Ruth's name is there, and she's named in the family tree of David's great heir, the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:31.039 The story of Ruth is part of a bigger love story, a bigger story of redemption, as we see that God 00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:36.439 is ordering history. He's ordering history through all the twists and turns, through the darkness and 00:03:36.439 --> 00:03:42.079 the light, through the struggle and the success, the suffering and the pain and everything else, 00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:50.020 to prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ. And Jesus is the one above all who in great love, 00:03:50.020 --> 00:03:55.580 through great danger and great adversity, redeems His bride, the church. 00:03:56.980 --> 00:04:05.560 So, Ruth, this little book, is ultimately a story of hope. And I want to say that because as we begin 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:10.660 this morning, it doesn't feel like it. We start in the darkness. We're in this little prologue. 00:04:11.200 --> 00:04:15.879 We're taken up with three things. The author is taken up with three things. The scene is dark, 00:04:15.879 --> 00:04:21.300 and there are three things he wants us to see. The first is history, the second is irony, and the third 00:04:21.300 --> 00:04:28.920 is tragedy. So, let's start there. Point number one, history. Our author begins by locating us at a 00:04:28.920 --> 00:04:36.300 particular point in time. Verse 1, in the days when the judges ruled. So, the events of this book, 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:42.500 the book of Ruth, take place in the time of the book immediately previous. And what we have there in 00:04:42.500 --> 00:04:46.800 the book immediately previous is a theological history of God's people as they went through a 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:54.920 repeated cycle, a cycle of disobedience, disaster, repentance, and deliverance. So, they turned away 00:04:54.920 --> 00:05:00.500 from God. It went really badly for them. They went all the way down. They realized that. They turned back 00:05:00.500 --> 00:05:06.279 to Him, and He delivered them. The people would turn from God, and there would be judgment for that sin. 00:05:06.279 --> 00:05:14.000 And they would see that failure. They would come back to Him, and He would raise up a great deliverer, 00:05:14.059 --> 00:05:19.299 one of the judges, until that judge died, and then the cycle would happen again. And the story of the 00:05:19.299 --> 00:05:27.799 book of Ruth then takes place in that context between 1250 and 1050 B.C. It's at one of the darkest points 00:05:27.799 --> 00:05:33.659 in the life of Israel. The people were in such a mess that they had almost completely lost their 00:05:33.660 --> 00:05:39.900 identity as the people of God. To begin this book with the line, in the days when the judges ruled, 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:45.640 we are being taken to a point in history when everything for the people of God was almost as bad 00:05:45.640 --> 00:05:54.200 as it could be. But against that backdrop, the author introduces us to these people, and he introduces 00:05:54.200 --> 00:05:59.240 them by name. Did you see that the meaning of these names that we have in the beginning here is 00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:08.660 significant? But it is also important to see that he's being specific. Elimelech, Naomi, Malon, Killian, 00:06:08.900 --> 00:06:15.460 Orpah, Ruth. Almost all that you needed to know about this family was done by the end of verse 1. 00:06:15.500 --> 00:06:19.360 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem and Judah 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:27.079 went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. In terms of setting us where we need 00:06:27.079 --> 00:06:34.620 to be with the people that we need to understand, that's more or less it. But he gives us their names. 00:06:36.139 --> 00:06:41.000 And then, as I said, the book closes with a list of names to make the point that this is real history 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:48.599 involving real people in their real lives. This isn't just a man and his wife and their two sons. It is a 00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:56.600 particular man named Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their sons, Malon and Killian. It's not a fantasy, 00:06:56.939 --> 00:07:03.500 this story. The people are real, and their experiences are real too. And what that means is 00:07:03.500 --> 00:07:10.939 that in the midst of the spiritual chaos and the political upheaval of life in Bethlehem under the 00:07:10.939 --> 00:07:19.199 judges, despite the upheaval of moving because there was a famine, God knows these people. He is at work 00:07:19.199 --> 00:07:26.259 in their lives and the circumstances of real people bringing his purposes to pass. And it is no different 00:07:26.259 --> 00:07:33.699 today. In the days when Trump and Putin and Starmer ruled, for however long that's going to be, 00:07:34.759 --> 00:07:40.839 however hard and confusing life gets for us, God is ordering history. He is ordering history now as he 00:07:40.839 --> 00:07:46.019 was ordering it then, and he will order it every single step of the way until Christ returns. 00:07:46.839 --> 00:07:56.179 And he knows your name. Whoever you are, he knows your name. Elimelech is likely very wealthy. We're 00:07:56.179 --> 00:08:01.179 told that he's an Ephrathite, and the Ephrathites were a kind of aristocracy. So there was plenty 00:08:01.179 --> 00:08:07.120 available. But by verse 5, do you see Naomi has lost everything? Verse 5, 00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:13.879 They took Moabite wives. The name of one was Orba, the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about 00:08:13.879 --> 00:08:19.639 ten years, and both Malon and Kilian died so that the woman was left without her two sons and her 00:08:19.639 --> 00:08:28.379 husband. In fact, it's telling that the author, having made such a thing about the names, has withdrawn 00:08:28.379 --> 00:08:36.360 them again symbolically. Everyone died, and the woman, not Naomi, is left without her two sons, 00:08:36.360 --> 00:08:43.480 not Malon and Kilian, or her husband, not Elimelech. It's as if she hasn't just lost what she had, but who 00:08:43.480 --> 00:08:52.860 she is. But our story has only just begun. It might appear that she has lost everything, but God takes 00:08:52.860 --> 00:09:02.860 note of every life, and he holds her future in his hand. Whatever your circumstances here this morning, 00:09:03.899 --> 00:09:11.720 whatever you may have done in your past, whatever you have done up to this point in life, you are not 00:09:11.720 --> 00:09:20.800 beyond God's reach. The God of all history knows your name, and He can meet you even in the darkest 00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:29.419 circumstances. Our author places us, first of all, in a dark period of history, but he also then writes 00:09:29.419 --> 00:09:34.459 with a dark irony. That's our second point, irony. We see this first verse, 1, in the days when the 00:09:34.459 --> 00:09:40.899 judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the 00:09:40.899 --> 00:09:53.659 country of Moab. The name Bethlehem means house of bread, but there's a famine. The land which God 00:09:53.659 --> 00:10:01.639 described as flowing with milk and honey in Exodus 3 and 13 has no food. Now, the reason for the famine 00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:06.259 is that God's people have turned their back on Him. They're at the point in the judges' cycle where God 00:10:06.259 --> 00:10:12.379 has brought judgment for their sin. This was stated up front in the covenant that God made with His 00:10:12.379 --> 00:10:17.220 people. I will be your God, you will be my people. That is the covenant promise. I will be your God, 00:10:17.480 --> 00:10:24.299 you will be my people. And there is blessing for obedience, and there is a penalty for disobedience. 00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:30.019 Back in Deuteronomy 28, God had threatened that famine would result of His people sinned against Him. 00:10:30.019 --> 00:10:36.139 So, because the people have knowingly rejected their God, here it is. He said, if you go that way, 00:10:36.220 --> 00:10:43.139 there'll be famine. They went that way, so there's famine. Now, the goal of the covenant penalties, 00:10:43.779 --> 00:10:51.379 the curses, was the people's repentance. The goal was that they would be chastened by God, and in an 00:10:51.379 --> 00:10:55.980 act of His grace, He would chasten them so that they would see what they had done, they would repent of 00:10:55.980 --> 00:11:02.340 their sins, and they would return to Him. But that's not what this family does. And that highlights the 00:11:02.340 --> 00:11:08.220 second irony, verse 2. The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi. 00:11:09.639 --> 00:11:15.920 The name Elimelech means, the Lord is my king, or my God the king. 00:11:18.659 --> 00:11:24.300 But Elimelech's actions show that he very definitely doesn't trust the Lord as his king. 00:11:24.299 --> 00:11:30.959 What has happened? A crisis has come his way. There's a famine. And what should that have made 00:11:30.959 --> 00:11:35.299 him do? It should have made him turn back to the Lord. He should have turned back to the Lord and 00:11:35.299 --> 00:11:42.120 turned his family that way as well. But instead, what does he do? He uproots his family, and he heads 00:11:42.120 --> 00:11:49.799 for, of all places, Moab. Now, why of all places? This is an astonishing decision for an Israelite to make. 00:11:49.799 --> 00:11:56.859 Because, well, first of all, where he left, and secondly, where he went. Firstly, leaving the land 00:11:56.859 --> 00:12:01.179 which God had specifically given to that nation would have been a very clear statement of leaving 00:12:01.179 --> 00:12:09.639 God, walking away from God. God's presence was especially rooted in the land. The tabernacle was 00:12:09.639 --> 00:12:16.620 there, which was a symbol of God's presence among His people. And Elimelech, my lord the king, left. 00:12:16.620 --> 00:12:25.179 But he didn't just leave to go any old place. The fact that he went to Moab of all places, 00:12:25.980 --> 00:12:32.200 a people that worshiped the fire god Chemosh, well, that was prohibited completely, Deuteronomy 23, 00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:39.840 verse 3. Don't have anything to do with the Moabites. And my lord the king has taken his family 00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:44.680 to a land where another god, a god who demanded child sacrifice, Chemosh, was king. 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:52.560 He left the place where God was and God's people were to be, and he went to the place where God wasn't 00:12:53.840 --> 00:13:02.680 worshipped, and he chose to do that, expressly going against what God had said. It is a dark irony, 00:13:02.679 --> 00:13:11.039 indeed, that Elimelech left God to find security and provision elsewhere. He bore the name of the Lord, 00:13:12.359 --> 00:13:19.019 and yet he left that one who promised blessing in the hope of satisfaction under the rule of another god. 00:13:20.919 --> 00:13:26.099 Well, let's be as charitable as we can be. Perhaps he thought he was being prudent. We're told, 00:13:26.100 --> 00:13:32.440 verse 1, his intention was to sojourn in the country of Moab. Perhaps just sit things out until the famine 00:13:32.440 --> 00:13:39.220 passes. Perhaps even go to Moab, plunder the Moabites, get a load of their stuff and bring it back. 00:13:39.379 --> 00:13:47.220 I don't know. But what happens? Verse 2, the family remain there. Soon their sons take Moabite wives, 00:13:47.540 --> 00:13:53.920 completely forbidden by God. And before they know it, verse 4, we're told the detail that they were there 00:13:53.919 --> 00:14:01.079 about 10 years. So what began as a sojourn, we could say with giving the most charitable reading 00:14:01.079 --> 00:14:05.519 here, he thought he was being clever. I'm going to go and do it this way. I know God says not to, 00:14:05.659 --> 00:14:09.659 but this is actually being really prudent. We'll go, we'll take what the Moabites have. We'll go back. 00:14:10.860 --> 00:14:15.539 Then the sons take Moabite wives. They settle there. They stay there 10 years. 00:14:15.539 --> 00:14:25.199 Elimelech didn't like the situation that he found himself in. And rather than turn to God, 00:14:25.980 --> 00:14:31.779 rather than to see the famine even as a chance to repent of his sins, to submit himself to his God, 00:14:31.839 --> 00:14:41.259 the King, and to trust him, he walked away. If we put it most simply, Elimelech believed that the answer 00:14:41.259 --> 00:14:52.279 to his struggles would be found by walking away from God. And let's be honest, we find it very easy to do 00:14:52.279 --> 00:15:01.559 exactly the same. Look around our nation. We're in a famine in our nation, not a famine of food, 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:08.519 we've plenty of that, but of righteousness. There is a famine of righteousness in the land. People have 00:15:08.519 --> 00:15:14.919 turned their backs on God, and what has he done? He has removed his word. He has done that in order 00:15:14.919 --> 00:15:22.600 that people will come to their senses and return to him. But what do we see? As churches roll out 00:15:22.600 --> 00:15:28.899 rainbow flags and roll over on all kinds of issues, rather than repenting, the Lord closes their doors. 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:37.039 Those buildings make lovely apartments and stunning office blocks. Even among Bible-believing churches 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:42.379 that don't embrace the cultural madness, there's hardly any appetite to trust the regular means 00:15:42.379 --> 00:15:49.939 of grace that God has instituted as the solution to this problem. God has told his church what we are 00:15:49.939 --> 00:15:56.399 to do. We're to gather each Lord's Day. We're to commit ourselves to prayer, to preaching of his word, 00:15:56.439 --> 00:16:03.019 and to practicing his sacraments. Instead, what do we have? We have ministers apologizing for what the 00:16:03.019 --> 00:16:07.980 Bible says and trying to explain away the bits of the Bible that our culture hates. 00:16:08.980 --> 00:16:15.199 I've listened recently to several interviews with evangelical ministers who are having consultations 00:16:15.199 --> 00:16:19.919 and seminars and conferences to get their heads together about the state of the church in our day. 00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:27.779 They look out, they see how weak we are, and they think, right, let's have a seminar. That's the answer. 00:16:27.779 --> 00:16:35.240 What we need to do is get everybody together and have a conference. And out of the conferences, 00:16:35.500 --> 00:16:40.620 well, we're told the problem we have in the church in our day is sermon application. 00:16:42.679 --> 00:16:48.059 Services, they're not warm enough, they're not deep enough. We've got a lack of sacrificial leaders. 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:53.659 We're preaching the wrong way. We need to tweak and change the way we preach. Now, could we improve 00:16:53.659 --> 00:17:01.019 in these areas? No doubt. But these are like fiddling with the dimmer switch when the power has been cut. 00:17:03.100 --> 00:17:12.159 Doesn't seem to be working. We need to reconnect the power supply. And we do that by repenting of our 00:17:12.159 --> 00:17:18.420 sin as a church on behalf of the nation and returning to God on his means of grace. 00:17:18.420 --> 00:17:25.779 In the midst of this famine of righteousness, there is talk of a quiet revival going on in Britain. 00:17:26.200 --> 00:17:30.120 If that is the case, it is through churches that are committed to these things. 00:17:33.560 --> 00:17:39.539 That's at a national level. Well, at a personal level. Now, this isn't about moving house or even 00:17:39.539 --> 00:17:46.720 moving country. Just because Elimelech moved, don't think you can't move house or go to another land. 00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:51.220 That's not the point. Elimelech leaving the land of promise was him leaving God and his people. 00:17:52.860 --> 00:17:58.620 But we do see the spirit of Elimelech when we think that Moab will deliver the good life. 00:18:01.539 --> 00:18:06.240 Now, whether that is because things are actually hard, as they were for Elimelech and his family, 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:11.380 or because we haven't been given the life that we really want. You know, life isn't awful, 00:18:11.380 --> 00:18:19.160 but it's just not amazing. It's just not like that person's social media. Because we don't have what 00:18:19.160 --> 00:18:25.880 they have, we choose to walk away from God. We choose to turn our back on what His Word says, 00:18:25.980 --> 00:18:28.600 and so we calibrate our lives to a different standard. 00:18:28.599 --> 00:18:38.259 We see this every time God puts something difficult in our lives, and we tell ourselves that the answer 00:18:38.259 --> 00:18:43.619 is found in disobedience. Of course, we don't couch it that way, but that is what is going on. So, 00:18:43.659 --> 00:18:51.839 the difficulty is loneliness. And we choose the online madness of porn or Tinder or something like 00:18:51.839 --> 00:18:59.879 that. The difficulty is no relationship, no spouse. That's what we desperately want, and so we choose 00:18:59.879 --> 00:19:07.179 to get involved with a non-Christian. The difficulty is that we don't fit in. Boys and girls, teenagers, 00:19:07.679 --> 00:19:12.839 you feel this pressure. You think, I'm desperately, desperately keen to fit in, and because I'm a 00:19:12.839 --> 00:19:17.399 Christian, I don't fit in, but I'm going to fit in. And so, we choose to follow the crowd, 00:19:17.400 --> 00:19:24.620 even if that leads us into sin. The difficulty, well, there's no sport on a Saturday for my children, 00:19:24.900 --> 00:19:32.340 so we choose Sunday sport over Sabbath. There might not even be any difficulty. If we're honest 00:19:32.340 --> 00:19:38.460 with ourselves, it's just that in our heart of hearts, we prefer Moab. We prefer what Chemosh 00:19:38.460 --> 00:19:44.880 has to offer. We're happy, of course, to take the name Christian, but Christ stays at the periphery of 00:19:44.880 --> 00:19:51.440 our lives, and we have our real God at the center. We're so ambitious that we sacrifice our family 00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:58.060 on the altar of career success. We plan our life. We choose where we live. We do those things on the 00:19:58.060 --> 00:20:04.920 basis of status or comfort, not where there's a good church that we can join and serve. We prefer 00:20:04.920 --> 00:20:12.120 what Moab has to offer, and so we go that way, trying, as it were, to bring God with us along the way. 00:20:12.119 --> 00:20:19.699 God says, here's what is required of you. Here's what calling yourself Christian means, 00:20:19.919 --> 00:20:25.079 and you follow along this path, and you say, yes, I see that, and I understand that, 00:20:25.219 --> 00:20:32.459 but I'm going to do it this way. You can't do that. And the rest of our passage shows us in the 00:20:32.459 --> 00:20:38.979 starkest terms what happens when we do choose to do this. The darkness only gets worse. 00:20:38.980 --> 00:20:47.079 If he starts with history, he points to the irony. The third thing we see is tragedy. Verse 3. Can you 00:20:47.079 --> 00:20:55.920 see verse 3? But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took 00:20:55.920 --> 00:21:02.099 Moabite wives. The name of one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about 10 years, 00:21:02.099 --> 00:21:08.799 and both Malan and Kilian died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. 00:21:10.699 --> 00:21:16.779 God's name is left out of this prologue to symbolize how these people had left him out of their lives, 00:21:16.779 --> 00:21:24.079 and this tragedy is where a life lived in that way ultimately ends up. 00:21:26.279 --> 00:21:31.779 Elimelech dies. His sons who had followed their father's example by taking Moabite wives, they die 00:21:31.779 --> 00:21:38.660 as well. As I said earlier, this leaves Naomi without a name. She's just the woman, and in that culture, 00:21:38.660 --> 00:21:46.980 without any means of provision. She is all but wiped out. No bread, no home, no heir, no future, no hope. 00:21:49.560 --> 00:21:54.300 The security, the protection that Elimelech sought may have been there when he first arrived in Moab. 00:21:54.940 --> 00:22:00.519 You think about the prodigal son. Luke 15, the prodigal son runs away from his father, 00:22:00.860 --> 00:22:04.900 and we're told that he spent the start of his time away from the father with all the money the 00:22:04.900 --> 00:22:11.660 father had given living it up. When Elimelech first arrived in Moab, everything may have seemed great. 00:22:12.220 --> 00:22:15.940 Plenty of food. Left that famine behind. Things are good, aren't they? 00:22:17.820 --> 00:22:21.320 Sometimes when we choose to turn away from God, initially it can feel like freedom. 00:22:23.080 --> 00:22:26.960 It can feel like the prodigal. It's exhilarating even. We think, that was a good decision. 00:22:27.680 --> 00:22:30.580 When I take all things together, my life is actually better now. 00:22:30.579 --> 00:22:35.859 I can do whatever I want. I'm not being restrained in any way. 00:22:37.740 --> 00:22:42.779 Or in the case where we've chosen compromise, and that compromise has actually delivered the 00:22:42.779 --> 00:22:47.399 thing that we really wanted in our heart of hearts, it can be framed that God has blessed us. 00:22:47.819 --> 00:22:53.480 I've known people who have made life decisions that are straight up, plainly detrimental to their souls. 00:22:53.480 --> 00:23:00.599 And as they've shown me around their vast house, they've said, we are so blessed. God has been so 00:23:00.599 --> 00:23:06.319 good to us. And within two, three, four, five years, they are spiritually empty. 00:23:08.599 --> 00:23:16.960 These verses are a picture of that kind of tragedy. In the end, everything that Elimelech sought was 00:23:16.960 --> 00:23:24.079 to have denied Him. And His sinful choices brought disaster on the whole family. Oh, by the way, don't miss 00:23:24.079 --> 00:23:32.259 this, husbands, fathers. Your sin has consequences beyond yourself. As the head of your family, the 00:23:32.259 --> 00:23:37.299 effect of your choices reaches beyond you. Don't think that your sin is private. It always has a 00:23:37.299 --> 00:23:44.460 knock-on effect all the way out and all the way down. That's true. The other way as well, your 00:23:44.460 --> 00:23:50.720 righteousness also has a positive effect. Your good choices also trickle down as well. But this is the 00:23:50.720 --> 00:23:57.359 context here. We all of us, not just husbands and fathers, need to see where the decision to walk away 00:23:57.359 --> 00:24:02.559 from God leads. When you turn your back on Him, whether that's decisively or you say, right, I'm done, 00:24:02.559 --> 00:24:08.940 I'm out of here, or through compromise, or if we're going to take that charitable read on Elimelech, 00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:13.919 thinking we know what we're doing here. This is a clever move that I think I can fix this problem 00:24:13.919 --> 00:24:22.879 myself. If it's that kind of way, it doesn't matter. The end is tragic. We all die. That's what our 00:24:22.879 --> 00:24:29.000 physical death is. All of us die physically, but our physical death is not just a biological thing. It is a 00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:34.119 moral thing. It is a picture of the spiritual death that comes when we do what Elimelech did here, 00:24:34.220 --> 00:24:41.059 what his sons did, and walk away from the one who is the source of life. That's what happens when we 00:24:41.059 --> 00:24:48.519 walk away from the one who, if we cling to and trust, if we do what He says, even in the darkest times, 00:24:49.480 --> 00:24:58.579 He will bring us life. Life that is truly life. Life that is marked by eternity. Life that makes 00:24:58.579 --> 00:25:07.339 your physical death just like going to sleep. By verse 5, look again, Naomi is almost wiped out, 00:25:07.579 --> 00:25:16.019 but that almost is the hope that we are left with. Even in this awful picture of darkness, there is 00:25:16.019 --> 00:25:21.899 a glimpse of hope that God is going to turn things around. The story has a way to go. It doesn't stop 00:25:21.900 --> 00:25:28.440 at verse 5. You've got a foretaste of it in reading the whole chapter this morning. The reality is that 00:25:28.440 --> 00:25:34.120 where you are tempted to walk away from God, or you have done so, and you are here this morning 00:25:34.120 --> 00:25:39.280 because you're being polite to somebody, or you don't want others to realize what's really going 00:25:39.279 --> 00:25:45.920 on in your heart, or you find yourself empty like Naomi, go back. Go back. 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:52.880 We leave Naomi in misery this week, but that's because she doesn't yet know what we do, 00:25:53.880 --> 00:25:59.060 that her descendant has made a way for rebels to be reconciled. 00:26:01.259 --> 00:26:05.880 Said at the start in this story, the names are important. Well, Naomi's descendant's name 00:26:05.880 --> 00:26:17.160 is Jesus, which means God saves. And because Jesus died, and because Jesus was raised, 00:26:18.360 --> 00:26:27.300 you can be welcomed by a Father who is always good, always loving, always ready to cover your sin 00:26:27.300 --> 00:26:35.180 and feed you with the bread of life. Now, whether you need to this morning come to Him for the first time, 00:26:35.180 --> 00:26:42.880 or return to Him from your own wandering, your story doesn't need to end like a limelight's. 00:26:44.120 --> 00:26:52.799 No one's does. Whatever you're going through, whatever difficulties and struggles you have, 00:26:52.860 --> 00:27:02.380 and the pressure in some cases may feel completely unbearable. Whatever it is you feel pulling you away, 00:27:02.380 --> 00:27:13.660 the draw to go away from Christ, whatever those things are, the alternative does not compare to Jesus. 00:27:14.500 --> 00:27:24.700 He is the only one who gives us a new name, gives us a glorious future, gives us an eternal hope, 00:27:24.700 --> 00:27:30.720 because He lived, He died, He rose, He ascended back to the Father, He is ruling and reigning now. 00:27:31.019 --> 00:27:37.259 And if you go to Him, He will hold you. And if you resolve today that you won't go anywhere else, 00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:45.539 you don't need to end like a limelight. Go to Jesus. Go always to Jesus. Trust Him, 00:27:45.539 --> 00:27:48.819 and don't go anywhere else. Let's pray. 00:27:48.819 --> 00:27:48.899 Amen.