We are going to spend this Sunday and the next two Sundays working through the book of Ruth in a three-part series.
It's one book, and I'm hoping that it will be one sermon with three parts, and they all connect together.
I'm really excited about it because I love the stories of the Old Testament.
They are so interesting and attention-grabbing,
and then they just sneak up on you with these powerful images of who God is
and how he relates to his people and how his people are supposed to relate to him.
The book of Ruth is a really popular book.
It's fairly short. It's only four chapters long.
There are a limited number of characters and a fairly simple plot.
Interestingly, it's one of the few books of the Bible that is focused on women.
Another reason I think people like it, I don't want to spoil anything here,
but the people in this story are all good.
It's one of those books where everyone is a good guy.
It's very easy to relate to them and root for them.
In this book, we don't read about kings.
We don't read about, quote-unquote, important people.
These are just God's people in everyday life.
We're not hearing here about armies at war and great military campaigns
or prophets standing in the marketplace proclaiming the word of the Lord.
This is just a simple family in a simple rural village
in the middle of nowhere that nobody knows about.
And I think that's part of its power.
That's one of the reasons that we can relate to it
and that we appreciate it so much.
So there are four chapters in the book.
Today we're going to look at chapter one.
Next week we're going to look at chapter two.
And then the third week we're going to look at three and four together.
But it's one story, and every chapter builds in the plot toward the conclusion.
And so today we're just going to get part of the story,
and we're going to look at Ruth chapter one.
Would you turn there with me in your Bibles in Ruth chapter one?
One of my favorite works of fiction is J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
It was adapted into a film trilogy 17 years ago.
It's really hard to believe that it's been that long.
In the second film, in the two towers,
things are really starting to get dark.
The characters, Frodo and Sam,
are attempting to travel across country
to get to the fires of Mount Doom,
where they will attempt to destroy the Ring of Power.
And Frodo, who is carrying the ring,
Sam, who is with them,
and then there's this golem fellow
who's tricky and deceptive,
a thief who may or may not be their guide.
And along the way,
Frodo falls into a pool of water filled with corpses.
And when they arrive at the enemy gates,
they're almost captured and killed by these hideous orcs.
And they wander through enemy territory,
hungry and isolated and exhausted,
and their hope is dwindling.
And the ring is constantly pulling at Frodo.
It's constantly tempting him and wearing him down,
and there are these hideous, screaming beasts in the air
who attack them, and they keep hiding,
and barely escaping with their lives.
And finally, exhausted and broken and filthy,
Frodo turns to Sam,
and he says,
I just, I don't think I can do this.
And Sam says,
a speech,
probably one of my favorite speeches in the whole trilogy,
he says,
I know, it's all wrong.
By rights, we shouldn't even be here.
But we are.
It's like in the great stories,
Mr. Frodo,
the ones that really mattered.
Full of darkness and danger they were,
and sometimes you didn't want to know the end.
Because how could the end be happy?
How could the world go back to the way it was
when so much bad had happened?
But in the end,
a new day will come,
and when the sun shines,
it will shine out the clearer.
Folk in those stories kept going
because they were holding on to something.
And Frodo says,
what are we holding on to, Sam?
And Sam says,
that there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo,
and it's worth fighting for.
It's an inspiring speech,
but there's one thing that Sam didn't get to
in that speech.
There's one thing that we're left to sort of
fill in the blanks for ourselves,
and that is,
what is the good?
What kind of values
drive our decisions
and our life experiences?
When life is dark and difficult,
that's when our true value and characters come out.
What is there as a compass for us?
What is the basis of the decisions that we make?
Especially when things become hard and difficult.
We all want there to be good in the world
and in our lives.
We want to be good.
We want to experience the good.
But where does that come from?
Let's look at Ruth 1 together.
We'll read it.
We'll read it together,
then we'll talk through it,
and then we'll draw some conclusions.
It says this,
And the days when the judges ruled,
there was a famine in the land,
and a man from Bethlehem in Judah
went to sojourn in the country of Moab,
he and his wife and his two sons.
The name of the man was Elimelech,
and the name of his wife Naomi,
and the name of his two sons
were Machlon and Kilion.
They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah.
They went into the country of Moab
and remained there,
but Elimelech, the husband of Naomi,
died, and she was left with her two sons.
These took Moabite wives.
The name of the one was Orpah,
and the name of the other Ruth.
And they lived there about ten years,
and both Machlon and Kilion died,
so that the woman was left
without her two sons and her husband.
Then she arose with her daughters-in-law
to return from the country of Moab,
for she had heard in the field of Moab
that the Lord had visited his people
and given them food.
So she set out from the place where she was
with her two daughters-in-law,
and they went on the way
to return to the land of Judah.
But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law,
Go, return, each of you,
to her mother's house.
May the Lord deal kindly with you
as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
The Lord grant that you may find rest,
each of you, in the house of her husband.
Then she kissed them,
and they lifted up their voices,
and wept.
And they said to her,
No, we will return with you to your people.
But Naomi said,
Turn back, my daughters.
Why will you go with me?
Have I yet sons in my womb
that they may become your husbands?
Turn back, my daughters.
Go your way,
for I am too old to have a husband.
If I should say I have hope,
even if I should have a husband this night
and should bear sons,
would you therefore wait until they are grown?
Would you therefore refrain from marrying?
No, my daughters,
for it is exceedingly bitter to me
for your sake
that the hand of the Lord
has gone out against me.
Then they lifted up their voices
and wept again.
And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law,
but Ruth clung to her.
And she said,
Look, your sister-in-law
has gone back to her people
and to her gods.
Return after your sister-in-law.
But Ruth said,
Do not urge me to leave you
or to return from following you.
For where you go
and where you lodge,
I will lodge.
Your people will 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
separates me from you.
And when Naomi saw
that she was determined to go with her,
she said no more.
So the two of them went on
until they came to Bethlehem.
And when they came to Bethlehem,
the whole town was stirred up
because of them.
And the women said,
Is this Naomi?
And she said to them,
Do not call me Naomi,
call me Mara,
for the Almighty
has dealt very bitterly with me.
I went away full
and the Lord has brought me back empty.
Why call me Naomi
when the Lord has testified against me
and the Almighty
has brought calamity on me?
So Naomi returned
and Ruth the Moabite,
her daughter-in-law with her,
who returned from the country of Moab
and they came to Bethlehem
at the beginning of the barley harvest.
This is the beginning of a great story.
And it's also history.
But it's not just history.
It is theological history
because it's a story
that has been presented in such a way
and given to us
to teach us about God.
It begins in verse 1 by saying,
In the days when the judges ruled.
The author begins by telling us
the names and the time
and the place of the story.
And there are some details here
that would really catch the attention
of an ancient Israelite reader.
First of all,
he says,
It was when the judges ruled.
God had brought Israel out of Egypt,
out of the house of slavery.
He had brought them into the land,
through the wilderness,
into the land that he had promised
way back in the Pentateuch to Abraham.
And over time,
Israel forgot what God had done
and they turned away from him.
In the period of the judges,
they turned away from him so severely
that this became one of the lowest points
in Israel's history.
It was a time of declining faith
and declining morality.
And the decline of the nation
is personified
in the various judges
that we read about in the book of Judges.
When the Canaanites invaded,
Barak was supposed to go and fight them,
but he was a coward
and he insisted that Deborah go with him.
When the Midianites invaded,
Gideon did not believe God.
Remember the story with the golden fleece?
He tested God
and then when the people
tried to make him king after his victory,
he says,
Oh no, no, no.
I won't be your king.
Only God is king.
And then he named his son Abimelech,
which means my father is king.
When the Ammonites invaded,
Jephthah made a very foolish vow
that whatever came out of his house,
he would kill as a sacrifice to the Lord.
And then when he got home from battle,
his daughter came out.
And so he killed her.
And when the Philistines had control,
God raised up Samson,
kind of the Old Testament version
of the superhero.
This guy should have been
the most powerful and potent
of all God's soldiers,
but instead,
he wastes his time
partying,
visiting prostitutes,
and in the end,
his death is a tragic waste
of all that potential
squandered on his own selfishness.
And as we go through the book of Judges,
the stories get longer
and they get more complex
and each judge is more compromised
than the one before
and the story just gets darker
and more dreary
and it's like everything's just sort of
going down the drain.
And one really interesting thing
in the book of Judges
is that as you go through the book,
there is increasing danger for women.
And that's because
when society is out of whack,
when society is going crazy
and has lost their foundations,
it's sometimes the vulnerable
who end up bearing the brunt
of the immorality.
And in chapter 11,
Jephthah kills his virgin daughter
and in chapter 15,
the Philistines burn Samson's wife alive
and in chapter 19,
the Levite's concubine is gang raped
and then cut into 12 pieces
and it starts a civil war
and then in chapter 21,
the Benjamites,
who are supposed to know better,
essentially go and kidnap
all these women
and steal the women
from their families.
It is ugly.
And the book of Judges tells us
in a repeating refrain
that in those days,
there was,
Israel had no king.
The reason I think it says that
is because the Lord
was not their king.
They just did whatever they wanted.
Whatever felt good to them
at the time,
they abused each other,
they exploited each other,
anyone who was weak
and vulnerable,
they just took advantage of them.
Just traveling from one town
to another,
you were just as likely
as not to be cut up
into pieces.
And in fact,
in the book of Judges,
the evil Canaanites,
the evil Canaanites
that are supposed to be
the ones that Israel
is purging from the land,
they stand around
and they say to each other,
what is with Israel?
They are bad.
What is with them?
And this is the setting
of the book of Ruth.
Not only that,
but there was a famine
in the land,
a severe famine
and a man from Bethlehem
thought he could do better
somewhere else
than staying in Israel
so he packed up his family
and he left Israel
and he traveled to Moab.
It raises a couple of questions.
First of all,
why did he leave Israel?
The irony is
that the name Bethlehem
in Hebrew means
house of bread.
Second,
lots of people
stayed in Israel.
We're going to see
at the end of the chapter
that when they get back,
everybody's still there.
So was it really necessary
for them to leave
in the first place?
Third,
why did they go
to Moab
of all places?
Moab was not just
a foreign country,
it was an enemy country
with assorted history.
All the way back in Genesis
after God destroyed
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah,
Lot and his daughters
escaped and went up
into the hills
and his older daughter
got him drunk
and had intercourse with him
and she gave birth
to Moab,
the ancestor
of the Moabites.
So they come from incest.
In the book of Numbers,
when Israel was traveling
to the promised land,
Moab refused
to let them pass.
And the king of Moab
hired Balaam
to curse Israel.
But when that didn't work,
the women of Moab
came out
and sexually seduced
the men of Israel
and led them
into idolatry
and it's one of the
great scandals
in Old Testament history.
So if you're an ancient Israelite
and you're reading this book
and you hear that
they went to Moab,
you just kind of get
this sickening feeling
in the pit of your stomach.
Like, Moab?
Ugh.
It represents idolatry
and all kinds
of sexual deviancy.
So the setting
of the story,
we're only in verse 1,
but the setting
of the story
sets up all kinds
of expectations
for us as a reader
because we know
how this is going to go.
Not well.
Right?
The Israelites
in this story
in the time of judges
are disobeying God
and doing whatever
is right in their own eyes.
They're raping
and killing
and dismembering
each other.
And it's in Moab
where especially
Moabite women
have this reputation
of being conniving
and idolatrous
and sexually immoral.
These are dark times
and we're just thinking,
oh boy,
this is not going
to end well.
No good is going
to come out
of any of this.
Then in verse 2,
we learn the names
of the family.
Naomi means pleasant.
That's important.
We're going to talk
about that in a bit.
Machlon in Hebrew
means something
like sickness
and Kilion in Hebrew
means something
like death.
I mean,
who would name
their sons
sickness and death?
But it's appropriate
because they die
very young
and it just sort of
adds to the sickly,
dark picture
of this family
that we're being
presented with here.
And we're not told
how Elimelech,
the husband of Naomi,
died,
but Naomi was left
a widow
without her two sons.
And those two sons
took Moabite wives.
The name of the one
was Orpah
and the name
of the other
was Ruth.
Now,
marriages to foreign
women were not
forbidden in the
Old Testament,
Testament.
But we can question
the wisdom of this.
Because Moab was
typically at war
with Israel
in the Old Testament
and the people
of Moab
were pagans
who worshipped
their own gods.
And in Deuteronomy 23.3,
it says,
that because of the
history,
no Moabite
would ever be
allowed to enter
the assembly
of the Lord
ever
because of how
they had treated
Israel.
So,
it raises a question
in my mind,
why didn't Naomi
stop her two sons
from marrying
these two Moabite
women that they,
I don't think
they should have
married?
And then there's
another clue
that this isn't
right.
Because the word
marry here
is the word
took.
they took
Moabite wives
and in Hebrew
that is a word
that is reserved
for illegitimate
marriages.
Marriages that
should not
have taken place.
It is almost
always used
in connection
with concubines
or mistresses
or taking wives
that were forbidden.
And then
it says that
they lived there
about ten years
and yet there
were no children.
There are many
couples in the Bible
that are unable
to conceive
children.
And that is
a very
sad
and heartbreaking
fact.
And it's
something that
definitely adds
to the pain
of the situation
here.
But when you
think about it,
neither of these
couples had
children for ten
years.
I think it's
possible
that there may
be something
additional going
on here.
Moses had said
in Deuteronomy
28 that those
who break his
covenant will not
be allowed to have
children.
That was a
special circumstance
in the Old
Testament in
Deuteronomy.
And it just
makes me wonder
if there's some
indicator here
of something
that was off.
In verse 5,
Naomi's two
sons, the
husbands of Ruth
and Orpah,
die, and Naomi
is left with
nothing.
I mean, this
is like the
female version
of Job.
It is hard
to be a widow.
In our society,
it's hard to be a
widow.
A widow is
alone.
A widow has
lost her social
connections.
She's lost her
companion.
It affects her
friendships.
When everyone
pairs off, she
doesn't have a
partner like she
used to.
She doesn't have
the support of
her husband.
She struggles
with loneliness.
At least in our
society, there are
often financial
safety nets.
sometimes the
husband will
have life
insurance or
there are food
stamps or other
kinds of
government
assistance.
But in the
Old Testament, a
woman who was a
widow was truly
desperate.
She had no way
of providing for
herself except
through her sons.
Because someone
has to go out
there and work in
the fields and
grow the crops to
eat.
There are no
grocery stores and
you can't get a
job somewhere.
But Naomi didn't
have any sons
because they had
died.
And so here is
Naomi with no
one except two
other widows who
are also with her.
It is a terrible,
desperate situation.
Now in verse 6,
she had heard that
there was food in
Israel, so she
decides to pack up
and travel with her
daughter-in-laws back
to Judah.
Judah.
And they're on
their way and
they're traveling on
the road toward
Judah and at some
point, Naomi starts
to think about the
situation here and
she changes her
mind.
This is really what
dominates, this
conversation is really
what dominates this
chapter.
She realizes that
there is no hope
for her daughters
back home in
Judah.
It is not in
Ruth and Orpah's
best interest to
come along.
And so she says to
them, somewhat
forcefully, go,
return each of you
to your mother's
house.
And as she says
goodbye, she
blesses them and
she says, may the
Lord deal kindly
with you as you
have dealt with
the dead and with
me.
What is this kindness
that they have
done?
Well, maybe their
faithfulness to her
in hard times.
I think perhaps the
fact that they're
returning to her
with Judah.
Returning to Judah
with her, I should
say.
They're moving to a
foreign country to
stay with her and
help take care of
her.
This word kindly or
kindness is a
really significant
theological word in
the Old Testament.
It's the Hebrew
word chesed.
And sometimes it's
translated covenant
love or something
like that.
In the passage in
Lamentations that
Brian read this
morning, it's
translated as
steadfast love,
the steadfast love
of the Lord never
ceases.
It's characteristic
of God throughout
the Old Testament
and it's built upon
his relationship with
his people.
It involves love
and mercy and
kindness and
grace and
goodness and
benevolence and
loyalty.
And because God
acts toward his
people with chesed,
because he is kind
to them and he
loves them on the
basis of his
covenant relationship,
he expects his
people in the
covenant community
to show chesed
toward each other.
And Naomi's
blessing of her
two daughters-in-law
suggests that the
Lord is interested
in chesed.
She says, may the
Lord deal chesed
with you as you
have done with me.
She hoped that
the Lord would
recognize the chesed
that they had
showed toward her
and that he would
then deal kindly
with them in
response.
And in verse
nine, she
blesses them,
hoping that they
will find new
husbands back in
Moab and that
they'll be taken
care of and
provided for.
And the dialogue
here in verse
nine is just
infused with
emotion.
She kisses
them and they
lifted up their
voices and wept.
This isn't,
this isn't, you
know, standing
around dabbing
your eye with a
little tissue.
They are, they
have lifted up
their voices.
They are wailing
and weeping,
three desperate
widows on a dusty
road on the way
to Judah.
It is a
miserable scene.
This family has
experienced so
much brokenness
and so much
pain and now
these desperate,
poor, miserable
widows are wailing
and weeping on
the road because
now they have to
separate because
there's no hope
for them at all
in the future.
Naomi says,
look, don't even,
don't even come
with me.
As bad as things
have been in
Moab, in Judah,
you will be
foreigners and
there is no
possibility of
your finding a
husband there.
That isn't going
to happen.
All they have
left is each
other and now
they have to
separate.
But the two
daughters-in-law
say, no, no,
no, we'll go
with you and
Naomi urges
them again and
says, why would
you do that?
It's a really
good question.
She's probably
right.
She's probably
right about that.
What do they
have to look
forward to in
Bethlehem,
where they
are foreigners
who have been
so traditionally
maligned by the
people of Israel?
And then Naomi
says to them,
do I have sons
in my womb
right now that
they would grow
up and be sons
for you?
Verse 12,
turn back.
I am too old
to have a husband.
Even if I should
have a husband
tonight and
conceive two sons
and bear them,
are you going to
wait until they're
grown up?
Now, it's a
ridiculous scenario,
but the point
that she's making
is quite serious.
There is no
possible way that
they are going to
find husbands in
Israel.
No one is going
to want to marry
them if they're
Moabite women.
What Naomi's point
is, is this,
the only possible
way that you are
going to have a
husband to take
care of you and
make you anything
other than desperate
when we get to
Judah is if I
bear him for you
and you wait
20 years until
he's grown up
and then you
marry him
yourself?
Or we can say
it like this,
it is more
likely that I
will have a
husband and
conceive a child
and give birth
to him and
you will wait
20 years and
marry him than
that anyone in
Israel would
ever want to
marry you.
That is not
going to happen.
So don't get
involved with me.
I am a poison
pill.
I'm like a
sinking ship.
Just get off
while you can.
Go back to
Moab.
Maybe you can
cobble together
some kind of
life back there.
Now we
shouldn't miss
here that Naomi
is actually being
very unselfish
because think of
how important it
is to her to
have that support,
to have these
daughters-in-law to
stay with her and
help provide for
her.
But she is being
unselfish and she's
saying I give you
up so that you
have some kind of
hope for the
future.
She's looking out
for their interest
and not her own.
So, maybe she's
right.
And in verse 14
they wail again
and now Orpah
realizes, yeah,
that's probably the
best thing and she
kisses Naomi goodbye
but at the same
time that Orpah is
kissing her mother-in-law
goodbye, Ruth is
just clinging to
her.
And so Naomi tries
one more time and
she encourages Ruth
to follow her
mother-in-law and
she says, look,
your sister-in-law
has gone back to
her people and to
her gods, return
after your sister-in-law.
Now, some scholars
think that this is
bad theology here,
that Naomi is
actually encouraging
Ruth to go back to
the gods of Moab.
But I think what's
happening is that
the author here is
setting up Orpah
and Ruth as a
contrast.
Orpah is providing
a foil for Ruth
and it's for this
reason, Ruth has a
decision to make.
Is she going to go
like Orpah back to
her own family and
her own home?
Or is she going to
go to Judah?
Is it going to be
Naomi's family or is
it going to be Orpah's
family?
Is it going to be
Judah or is it
going to be Moab?
Is it going to be the
gods of Moab or is
it going to be the
God of Israel?
And Ruth makes her
choice and says in
one of the most
beautiful statements in
the Bible, no.
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 to
me.
Here she swears.
She swears by the
Lord if anything but
death separates me from
you.
Ruth is not saying here
that Naomi is wrong.
Ruth is not saying here
to Naomi, don't worry
about it.
I'm sure things will
work out.
She's saying it's okay,
Naomi, because when you
die back in Judah of
starvation, I'll be right
there with you.
They will bury me there.
Notice she says, where
you lodge, I will lodge.
That means to kind of
camp out outside
temporarily.
She's saying, I have no
hope for a home.
I have no hope for a
husband.
I have no hope of even
living, but I'm with you.
She is turning her back
on her country.
And I believe here that
she is a believer in the
God of Israel.
She has committed herself
to the God of Israel.
She says, your God is my
God.
It's difficult to be more
clear than that.
And she says, by the
Lord, I swear it.
That is God's covenant
name.
So even though there is
no future for Ruth at
all, and even though
Naomi urges her to leave,
and even though Orpah has
already made the decision
to go home, Ruth has
decided that she is going
along with Naomi, not
for herself, but for
Naomi's sake, to take
care of her and be with
her and have a
relationship with her.
And it's startling.
Naomi has been so
unselfish in trying to
get Ruth to leave, and
now Ruth is being so
unselfish in deciding to
stay with her.
And so, verse 19, the two
of them went on until they
came to Bethlehem, and
when they came to
Bethlehem, the whole
village was just in a
tizzy, right?
They were just worked up.
Because news travels fast
in a small village, and
Naomi had been gone for
ten years, and everyone
is excited.
We can just imagine
people stopping in each
other's homes, or over at
the little market, and
saying, hey, did you hear?
Naomi is back.
She's been gone for ten
years, and she's home, and
she's got a Moabite girl
with her.
But Naomi immediately
squashes their excitement.
She is discouraged.
She's been through a lot.
She is discouraged and
depressed, and she's even
angry.
And she says to them,
don't call me Naomi.
In Hebrew, that means
pleasant.
She says, call me Mara,
which in Hebrew means
bitter.
She says, call me what I
am.
Call me Mara, for the
Almighty has dealt very
bitterly with me.
She says, this is who I am
now.
Have you ever felt that
way before?
Things have been so hard
and so dark and so broken
for so long that you just
kind of feel like this is
who I am.
This is my identity now.
Don't call me pleasant.
Call me bitter, because
that's my name, she says.
I went away full.
She can't be talking about
food, because she didn't
go away full of food.
She went away in a
famine.
I went away full with my
husband, with my sons who I
love.
And now I have come back
empty, and it's God's fault.
And so she uses two
statements in verse 21 that
kind of intensify from one
to the next.
She says, not only has the
Lord testified against me, he
has brought calamity on me.
And not only do I call him
Lord, I call him Almighty,
which is a name often in the
Old Testament that you reserve
when God is a little bit
scary.
She is angry at God.
He is the source of her
trouble, and she has
struggled and lost everything,
and she comes to the
conclusion, I guess God is
just out to get me, so call me
what I am.
You remember what Sam said to
Frodo?
Boy, do we really want to know
the end here?
I mean, this is dark stuff.
How could the end possibly be
happy?
But one thing we can say is
that in the midst of all this
darkness, these two women are
good.
They are kind to each other and
good.
And so having worked through
this story, we want to ask
ourselves, what's the point
here?
What is the message that the
author is trying to
communicate to us?
I think one of the ways that
we can identify that message
is by noticing the key
details in the story, the
most significant things that
the author wants us to note
in the story.
And here they are, I think.
Number one, these women stand
out in stark contrast to their
surrounding culture.
In verse one, the author makes
sure that we know that this
story takes place in the time
of judges in the country of
Moab.
It sets up expectations that
these are going to be horrible,
disobedient, evil people that do
whatever is right in their own
eyes.
And then that's not what happens
at all.
These two women are showing
tenderness to each other and
kindness to each other and
loyalty.
And Ruth is from Moab.
She's not a seductive, licentious
idol worshiper.
She's a faithful woman who is
sacrificing her own future to
commit herself to the God of
Israel.
It is, that's a surprise.
Second, a second key detail is
that Naomi links good character
with God's character.
In verse eight, Naomi wants the
Lord to bless Orpah and Ruth
because of their chesed, because
of their kindness.
And so she says, may the Lord
show you kindness as you have
shown the dead and to me.
This word chesed, this word
kindness only occurs three times
in the book of Ruth.
It occurs one time in chapter
one, one time in chapter two, and
one time in chapter three.
Isn't that interesting?
This is going to be the key
theological thread that we follow
through the book.
I believe it's the interpretive key
to the book.
The question here is, why does Naomi
think that God cares if Ruth shows
kindness to her?
Well, the answer is obvious.
It's because God is kind.
In other words, there's a link between
God's character and the way that his
people act.
Naomi is angry at God and hopeless, but
she still believes.
In fact, I would say that her anger at
God is proof that she believes in him.
So she tries to send her daughters-in-law
back to the family, even though she will
be alone.
And Ruth has determined that God of
Israel is her God.
So even though Orpah goes home, Ruth
swears an oath to the Lord that she
will stay with Naomi, even though it
will probably end in starvation and
death.
This kindness that they show to each
other is a reflection of their faith, and
that is the reason Naomi think that the
Lord might bless them because of it.
There is a link between the chesed of
God, the kindness of God, and the
kindness of his people.
And that, I think, is the main point of
this particular chapter.
God's people are sacrificial in their
actions toward each other because God
is sacrificial.
It's because he is sacrificial that his
followers look out for each other's
needs, even at their own expense.
It's because God is sacrificial that his
followers act differently than everyone
else in that country, in that time
period.
His character is reflected in his people, and
the way his people act is showing us
something about God's character.
We can look at the actions of Ruth and
Naomi here and say, so that's what God is
like because of that link.
And I think there are three more sort of
sub-points of application that we can take
from this.
First of all, this story reminds us that God
cares for apparently insignificant people, which
is really good news for all of us.
Ruth and Naomi are poor peasants without any
political or social connections.
They are women.
They are widows.
They don't have anything to contribute to society.
In fact, they have to be cared for by other
people.
And Ruth is an immigrant from Moab.
She's a foreigner.
She's an outsider.
She speaks with an accent.
She comes from a different people group.
Isn't it amazing that there is an entire book of the
Bible about these two women?
In our culture, there is constant pressure to network,
to connect with people that will benefit you,
to get a following on social media,
to meet the head of the company,
to have dinner with someone who can advance your vocation.
There is pressure to avoid wasting time with people that
are a drag on you and don't have anything to contribute to
your personal welfare.
But that's not how God is.
That's not how God prioritizes his concerns at all.
He doesn't need to network with anyone.
Every relationship he has is lopsided.
Every relationship that God has is about him giving to
someone else who has nothing to give to him in return.
These poor widows in the middle of nowhere,
weeping on the road, are significant to him.
And this story, as we'll get into chapter 2,
chapter 2, and 3, and 4, is about how God will care for them
in increasingly significant ways.
If you're an unimpressive person,
if you're weak,
if you don't measure up,
that's okay.
We aren't significant because we benefit God.
We are significant because God benefits us.
The second sort of sub-application, I think, that's going on here
is that God is faithful through his people.
How is it that he sacrificially cares for the people that he loves?
It's through his people.
When we say that God sacrificially cares for people,
of course we mean that he will never leave us
and that he will help us,
but that rarely comes as sort of an airdrop out of heaven.
He's not sending C-130s over,
and here come the package and the parachute.
It doesn't work that way.
He didn't provide for Naomi through a package from heaven
or even through the high priest up in Jerusalem.
It wasn't even through the local town elders.
He provided for Naomi through Ruth,
and he provided for Ruth.
Well, we'll get to that in chapter two.
There are people in our church who have given up hope,
and they're discouraged,
and they are tired of everything always turning out wrong.
And maybe when we talk to them,
they sound like Naomi,
and they just feel like,
I'm trying to follow God,
but it is not working.
Maybe they have a questionable past.
Maybe like Naomi and Ruth and that situation in Moab,
maybe there's some murkiness there,
some illegitimacy there.
That's okay.
The way that God will show faithfulness to them
and sacrificially care for them is through us.
So as a body here at Christ the King,
we won't wait for the pastors to do it.
We won't wait for the elders to do it
or the deacons to sort of jump into that situation.
It's our job, all of us.
Because that's how God will care for these people who are hurting.
We're the ones who will listen to them.
We're the ones who will hug them,
who will give them money that they need for their daily needs
on behalf of God.
And finally, the story is a good reminder
that God is faithful even when he is silent.
Did you notice in the course of this story
that God doesn't say a thing the whole time?
He doesn't say a thing.
He's there in the background.
People are talking about him,
but he has not done one thing yet.
And so from Naomi's perspective,
not only was God silent,
but he was actually working against her.
I mean, how could she not feel that way?
She had experienced one soul-crushing event
after another one.
Even though famine and sickness
and death and poverty with no hope for the future,
she calls out to God,
where are you?
And he is silent.
For 10 years, he was silent.
But one thing this book tells us,
not only in chapter 1,
but in the course of the book,
is that being silent
is not the same thing as being absent.
God has not abandoned Naomi,
even though she doesn't know it.
He is there.
First of all,
in the form of Ruth,
clinging to her and saying,
I will not let you go.
And he is also there behind the scenes,
watching, caring,
biding his time
until the moment is right
for him to step in
and redeem her.
Even though Naomi feels like
God is working against her,
we will soon find out
in just the next chapter
that he is actually working for her,
even though she doesn't know
anything about that yet.
Some of us have suffered
and experienced God's silence.
It is painful.
It is painful to struggle and suffer.
That is when we want God the most.
That's when we want some answers from him
and we want to feel that he is near.
We want to have some type of hope
that we can cling to in the future,
that God has not given up on us.
It's painful to think about the fact
that in this situation,
God could do something,
but he doesn't.
But silence is not the same thing
as absence.
God's presence doesn't always
remove our suffering,
but he is there in our suffering.
He will always know
and care
and work
in the situation
that we are going through
even though we cannot see it.
Now, Naomi is angry now,
but if she would just wait
a little longer,
then she would see
that God is at work.
In fact, there are some hints of hope
in the next two verses.
Look very quickly at verse 22.
They came to Bethlehem
at the beginning
of the barley harvest.
Oh.
So there is food.
And then in 2.1 it says,
And Naomi had a relative
of her husband's,
a worthy man
of the clan of Elimelech
whose name was Boaz.
Interesting.
Why are we told
that little detail?
Maybe God has something
even greater in mind
for Naomi and Ruth
that they don't know about yet.
But that's for next week.
We'll continue the story next week,
and for now we'll remember
that God cares for us
sacrificially,
and his people care
for each other sacrificially
in good times and in bad.
Let's pray.
Father, we know
that there are people among us,
there are people here
in this building
who are hurting.
Some of us don't have enough.
we pray that you would provide
for what they need.
Some of us are lonely.
We pray that you would comfort them
and give them friendship.
Some of us need counsel
and support
and are struggling
with what to do.
We pray, Lord,
that you would give them
wisdom and guidance.
Some of us are dealing
with physical sicknesses
and illnesses and pain.
We pray, Lord,
that you would give them
healing and grace.
And we pray
that you would do that
through us.
That we would be sensitive
to the needs of each other
and that we would reflect
your character
by sacrificially caring
for each other,
looking to the needs
of each other,
encouraging each other
in really significant ways.
You are a good God.
And you have shown yourself
to be good and kind
in the way that you care for us.
And we know that
in this book of Ruth,
you show yourself
to be an amazing,
redeeming,
kind God.
And we know that
that kindness
and even that sacrifice
was ultimately
demonstrated
in Jesus' sacrifice
on the cross
and his glorious resurrection.
We thank you
that you have saved us
from our sins
because you sacrificially
gave your son
as an atonement for us.
You are a good God
and we want to be like you.
We pray that you would
teach us your ways,
transform our hearts,
and bring glory to you
in the ways that we act
in our daily lives
in the good times
and the bad.
We pray these things
in your name.
Amen.