Finding Hope in the Midst of Ruin - Ruth 1

0:36The theme of Ruth 1 is simply this: return from ruin. We could say return from suffering. We could say returning to God's gift. Ruth teaches you that when you are faced with catastrophic, heart-wrenching circumstances, that you must recognize that God, God is in control. And when you think that he is nowhere to be found, I assure you, he is found in the circumstances. I'm going to read chapter 1 of Ruth. Join along with me as I read.

1:16Now it came about when the judges governed that there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons. The man's name Elimelech, the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of their two sons were Malon and Killion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem and Judah. Now they entered the land of Moab and remained there. Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They took for themselves Moabite women as wives. The name of one was Orpah, the name of the other, Ruth, and they lived there about ten years. Then both Malon and Killion also died, and the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the land of Moab, for she had heard in the land of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and giving them food.

2:20So she departed from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. And 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. May the Lord grant that you may find rest, each in his own house, or the house of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, No, but we will surely return with you to your people. But Naomi said, Said, Return, my daughters, that you should go, why should you go up with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may be your husbands? Return, my daughters, go, for I am too old to have a husband. And if I said, I have hope, if I should even have a husband tonight and also bear sons, would you therefore wait until they are grown? Would you therefore remain or refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is harder for me than for you, for the land of the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me. And they lifted up their voices and wept again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. Then she said, Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods, return after your sister-in-law. Ruth said, Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you. Where you go, I will go. 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. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse if anything but death parts me and you.

4:22When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her. So they both went until they came to Bethlehem. And when they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was stirred because of them. And the women said, Is this Naomi? She said to them, Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara. For Almighty, the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has witnessed against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me? So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth, the Moabitis, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the land of Moab, and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

5:12What on earth is going on here? We need to make sense of the book of Ruth before we can really dig into the details of what's going on. So a little more detail about this book. Some people refer to the Book of Ruth perhaps as sort of a novel kind of a love story. And it's far more than that. I'm here to advise otherwise that the Book of Ruth is what's referred to in literature as a historical short story. These are things that really happened. How do we know that? As a historical short story, we see geographical locations. We see Moab, we see Bethlehem. We see characters with normal, everyday human emotions, just like ours. They weep. They rejoice. They're hungry. They want food. They want water.

6:06They search things out. They love people, and people love them. There's customs that we'll talk about in a couple of weeks. There's laws to be obeyed that they obey. There's legal proceedings, court hearings that they go through in this book. This is a real historic book. There's a sound work ethic. In this book, we find probably the first mention of anything having to do with a sexual harassment problem in the workplace. It's mentioned right here in this book. Matthew in the New Testament, he depended on the book of Ruth so that he could tell us that Jesus was in her genealogy, the genealogy of her great-grandson, King David.

6:50The timeframe represented within these 85 verses in this book took about 11 years of her life. And these are the events that happened when everyone, the book of Judges, tells us, was doing right in their own eyes. We better understand this: this leadership that's going on, the book of Judges, the judges were ruling the land in the day. They were chieftains. They were like military leaders that God had put into place to protect his people from other nations. This happened about the events in this book happened at about 1100 BC. See.

7:32The book of Ruth is a theological masterpiece. It's about God's providence working in the lives of people who trust Him and people who don't yet trust Him. It's for believers and unbelievers alike to watch how God works through normal, everyday people facing harsh circumstances of disappointment, of destitution, and even judgment. Ruth refers to the judgment as God's affliction. Yet, in spite of all the chaos that we know, as Ruth chapter 1, God grants people grace. He grants them unmerited favor through his steadfast love, which is repeated throughout the book. We see redemption. We see his grace in such a way that their physical needs are met by none other than God himself. God's grace doesn't end by meeting their physical needs. You see, he extends his hand, he extends his amazing grace into the lives of Ruth and into the lives of the Moabites of all people. Ruth, a Moabite of all people. Ruth, a former worshipper of a pagan god known as Kimosh. He extends grace to her.

8:48To what end? Why does all this happen in the book of Ruth in chapter 1? Here's why. God's preparing her to be the great grandmother. Of King David, the very last word that's said in this book, in chapter four, we see David's name as a book of hope, a book of promise. David, from whom the Lord Jesus Christ would one day be born in her town, in her town, the town of Ruth's people, the town of Bethlehem, the breadbasket of the Middle East.

9:26Let me give you a memorable outline of the book of Ruth. It's very simple. I would say that there's only one word for every chapter, but I determined at the end of my study I needed to add one more to chapter one. They all start with an R. Chapter one is about ruin. Then I determined after my study, you can't leave it there because it's also about return. Chapter one is about ruin and return. Chapter two is about restoration, God restoring a people. Chapter three is about romance. We'll get to chapter three. Chapter four is about redemption, about God purchasing his people back.

10:08I want you to be encouraged this morning. When bearing up under the weightiness of life and death, when everyone and everything seems to be fleeting away from your very eyes, when you're left with the sense that you have no hope, recognize this. God is with you. You in the details. He knows your circumstances. Even when he appears to be nowhere found, he wants you to return to him. He wants you to trust in him. That's what this chapter is about.

10:48Let's break down chapter one into three smaller bites because this is a big chapter. Chapter one, verses one through five, we're going to look at understanding a family in crisis. This is a real family, and they are hurting. Second point, understanding a widow's desperation. And we see that in verses 6 through 19. Understanding a widow's desperation. And third, understanding a human response to suffering. Let's not cast stones at Ruth or Naomi, but how did they respond? And we see that in verses 20 through 22. Now let's look at what appears to be a complete ruination of a family in chapter 1. We've already read it. I want you to notice that along with chapter 1, verses 1 through 5, there are four crisis moments that this family goes through, four of them.

11:41I want you to look at the first word in the book of Ruth. If you have a New American standard, it's the word now. Now comes from a word that can also be translated then. Then. It's a Hebrew kind of a way of indicating to us or telling us that there were continued. Events going on, one right after the other. From our perspective, we would say, what an odd way to start a history book. Why would you start a history book with the word then to indicate continuous action that was going on? It would be like me saying, you know, then in the 1970s, there was a gas crisis, and the speed limit was 55 miles an hour.

12:29And I stopped there. We'd be scratching our heads. Why then? What happened before the speed limit was reduced? We're talking about history here. And so the writer of Ruth is referring back to some history. What historical events took place before the book of Ruth? The Bible that you have in your hands. The Bible that you have in your hands is, in this way, it's structured much the same way as the Bible that Jesus used and the New Testament apostles used in the very turn of the millennium, in that Ruth followed the book of Judges.

13:10Would you just glance up one verse from that word now, or should I say then, and you'll find it in Judges chapter 21, verse 25. It says this: In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes. Then, Ruth chapter 12, 1, verse 1. It came about in those days when the judges governed that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his sons.

13:45So many times when we're faced with a crisis, we tend to take action before fully understanding what's going on or the cause of the problem. In verse 1, we enter into, as I said before, the breadbasket of the Middle East, Bethlehem, the house of food, the house of bread, an area best known as the land flowing with milk and honey. Struck by what? It's not flowing with milk and honey. It's dried up. It's a famine. People are hungry.

14:22So we reach famine as our first crisis moment for this family. I want you to picture what's going on here in this chapter, in this first five verses. Our eyes are drawn to a husband. Our eyes are drawn to a father, a dad who loves his wife and his children. They're pining away without hope. There's no food. This man will do anything to provide nourishment for his bride and his two sons. Dads? What would you do?

14:56Wouldn't you get up and go find food and take care of your family? If we're going to understand this family in a crisis, we need to understand the question: why is this land no longer flowing with milk and honey? Why is it no longer the breadbasket? Well, the writer, he doesn't tell us. He simply wants us to know that there's a famine and there's a hungry family and a father who wants to take care of his bride and his two baby boys. Our science books would be profound in telling us there's a famine because there were no clouds in the sky and there was no rain coming. And so there was no water to grow grass or food for the animals to eat. What our government science books don't tell us is who created the storm clouds. So we have to consult the ultimate book. We have to look at the book we hold in our hands, Scripture, to ask the question, what caused the drought? And what do we need to do to fix this?

16:00Would you turn in your Bibles to Leviticus chapter 26 with me, please? As you're turning there, let me just say this. If Elimelech, whose name literally means, my God is king, would have looked to God for the reason he hadn't delivered rain to the land, then he would have known how to deal with the crisis. If Elimelech would have applied God's word to the situation, he would have read these very words from Leviticus chapter 6, starting in verse 3. We see a bunch of what's called conditional statements, if-then statements, if this, then that. Verse 3. If you, three things, if you do these things, God says, number one, walk in my statutes, number two, keep my commandments, and number three, carry them out. Verse four, then I shall give you rains and their seasons. Why? So that the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear fruit. If indeed, or excuse me, verse 5, indeed, your threshing will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time, you will thus eat your food to the full and live securely in the land, the breadbasket of the Middle East. Glance down to verse 11. Moreover, God says, I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul will not reject you.

17:27I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, so that you would not be slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect. Verse 14. But if you do not obey me and do not carry out all these commandments, if instead you reject my statutes, and if your soul abhors my ordinances, so as not To carry out my commandments and also break my covenant. Those are the three things he talked about in verse 3. Here's what I'll do, he says in verse 16. I will, in turn, will do this to you. Drop down to verse 19. I will also break down your pride of power. I will also make your sky like iron and earth like bronze.

18:25This is what's happening in Ruth chapter 1. Skies of iron don't pour forth water, and barley plants they don't grow in bronze soil. God tells them in verse 20, he says this, Your strength will be spent uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit. If then, verse 21, you act with hostility against me and are unwilling to obey me, verse 3, I will increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins. Go down to verse 40. This is what Elimelech should have done.

19:08If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers and their unfaithfulness, which they committed against me, and also acting in hostility against me, verse 42, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. The breadbasket of the Middle East. Many years later, many years later, in 2 Chronicles, you have to turn there. 2 Chronicles chapter 7, God talked to Solomon, King David's son, Ruth's great-great-grandson. Here's what God said to Solomon about famine. Verse 13 in 2 Chronicles 7: If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command a locust to devour the land, if I send pestilence among my people, and my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven will forgive their sin and heal their land.

20:17We needn't take these blessings and curses lightly. God's a promise keeper, and God keeps his promise. He keeps his word. While the author of Ruth doesn't provide us the reason for the famine, he opens the door just a little bit and allows us to peer in to say, what's going on here? There's a little crack, and we can see that Elimelech and Naomi's famine crisis took place at a time where people neglected three things. Leviticus 26:3. They neglected to walk with God. They neglected to keep his commandments. And third, they neglected to carry out. His word. That's what he told them to do. Why would they jettison the authority of God's word and run away from it?

21:08Why would we do the same thing? Do you see what's happening here for Elimelech? Obliviousness about God's Word is not a good excuse. It resulted in misguided decision-making, which is the cause for the ruination of a family and ruin in Ruth chapter 1. Elimelech, he departs in the land that God gave him. And in verse 2, he and his family is found living amongst a people, Moab, a people that hated Israel for years. They despised Israel. And after arriving in Moab, they thought their food crisis was over, their bellies were full, they were drinking, and everybody was happy. But in verse 3, we see more disaster.

22:02Verse 3, here's the second crisis of the four, the second crisis that the family faces. Elimelech dies. The family is exposed to more heart-wrenching crisis and pain. Moms, your husband's gone. You're in a foreign land. You've got two boys. What are you going to do? It's a woman who loves her family. This was a patriarchal society. Let's face it, that's just the way it was. A widow's life was very difficult, but with two sons, she had some hope. A widow's life was very difficult in a foreign land, but with two sons, she had the opportunity to at least have them around her to be her provider.

22:55Look down again at verse 3. The author, he chooses his words very carefully. Notice what he writes: he said, Then she was left with her two sons. The word left in verse 3 and the word bereft in verse 5, they're the same Hebrew word. Daniel Block, in his commentary, points out this Hebrew word, quote, often speaks of bereavement and death, and dealing with the survivor is a sign, or as leaving the survivor behind is a sign of God's judgment.

23:39Let me read that again. The Hebrew word often speaks of bereavement at the death of another and often refers to those who have survived the wrath and judgment of God. Let me illustrate this, if you will, from Genesis chapter 7, verse 23. You don't have to turn there. This is about the flood. I'll just read it. He uses this word that we interpret left and bereft. He says this: Thus he, God, blotted out everything, every living thing that was on the face of the land, and from man to animals, to creeping things, and to birds of the sky, they were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah was left. Everybody's gone, and only Noah and his family was left together with those with him in the ark.

24:27So the word left in Ruth 1:3 and verse 5 couples God's judgment on one person with an indication of his mercy on another. It's just a recognition of their lives, of what's going on. So while Elimelech is gone, by God's mercy, at least Naomi still has her two boys. What mother wouldn't rejoice in that? Verse 4. Verse 4. The family seems to have a break in the middle of their fourfold crisis. Malin and Kilion marry women from Moab, which, from Naomi's perspective, is a good thing because now she's not only has her sons to take care of her, but they'll raise up grandchildren to take care of her. She'll be okay. She thinks her crisis moments are over. But there's a problem.

25:22Either Naomi is oblivious to God's instructions, or she ignored God's prohibition against marrying. Her sons marrying spouses who worship false gods in a foreign land. Scripture is very clear here. Maybe she just never read it and just acted or didn't advise her sons accordingly. Maybe there's times in our lives when we make a decision and do something that in later times we find out was a bad decision. There's consequences to pay. Well, whether she knew it or didn't know it, there's consequences to pay.

25:57Either way, she's neglecting God's word, and now she faces a third crisis. Would you turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 7? Deuteronomy chapter 7. You see, God was very clear about marriage in Deuteronomy chapter 7. He warns that these marriages would turn their sons away from following God to following and serving other gods. Chapter 7, verse 3. Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them. You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn, here it is, your sons away from following me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will quickly destroy you. God keeps his promises, you see.

26:59Moses. Says that the anger of the Lord will be turned against them back in Ruth 1.5. Back in Ruth 1.5, hardship rears its dreadful head again for Naomi. We see Naomi's troubles are even more severe, which brings us to the fourth crisis. And we say, how much can one woman take? The fourth crisis. Before her sons die, she's a widow without income. in a foreign land caring for two other widows, and then her sons die. Ladies, if you're Naomi, your husband's gone, your two sons are gone, your any hope of having grandchildren are gone, and now you have two other widows in tow.

27:51What are you going to do? What happens now? In the first verse, in the first five verses, we see four crisis moments that appear to have come about because people ignored God's word in Leviticus 26, 3. They were doing that which was right in their own eyes. We know that because that's how the book of Judges ends, and the book of Ruth is inserted right in the middle of the book of Judges. That's what's going on then. They were doing that which was right in their own eyes. Eyes.

28:34Walking in and carrying out God's statutes is what they're called to do. God wants them to do two things here. Here's what they should have known to do. They should have repented and they should have trusted God. Even through the most agonizing circumstances of life, this is what they should have done. That's the behavior God's looking for, repentance and trust, repentance and belief. It's no different than it is today, even in the New Testament. Perhaps doing so, we don't know, would have alleviated the famine in Bethlehem because God keeps his promises. He says the land will continue flowing with milk and honey unless you reject me.

29:19So God's call has always been for people to turn from sin, to turn away from rejecting him, as we're about to see in a moment. Here in the chapter, Naomi felt that God abandoned her. In fact, she uses the word, God afflicted me twice. It's God's fault. You know what? Maybe she's right. Maybe he did. Not every hardship comes as a result of sin. We're in the book of Ruth, and it looks like this is what's going on, but. Ruth is describing an event that took place, not prescribing something that is happening in our lives. This is what happened in Ruth's life.

30:10Even so, we're encouraged by her great-grandson's word. King David said in Psalm 119:15, This is my comfort in my affliction, that your word has revived me. We go back to God's word. His word revived him. Maybe he was thinking of his great-grandmother at that point about affliction. One of my professors in my doctoral program, Steve Lawson, tweeted these words on Friday morning. He says, Quote, In a trial, you may pray for deliverance from it, but God may give you endurance for it.

30:55In a trial, you may pray for deliverance, but God may be giving you endurance to go through it. Does the Lord want you to sense that perhaps in the crisis moments of your life, that they stem maybe from his courageous love for you? That he's allowing you to go through some situations so you can see that his love is steadfast and it won't give up, even in the harshest times of life, because that's what's going on here. Endure hardship and don't resist returning to. Him.

31:32Let his word in your affliction do what David said, revive your soul. Might I suggest that we take Naomi's actions. Naomi's course of action, she begins to do the right thing. She returns to what God gave her, which is really picturesque of returning to God. She's returning to the land that God gave. Therefore, she's returning to God. God is with you in the details, even when the circumstances indicate that he's nowhere to be found. I assure you, he's there.

32:06He wants you to trust in him. Second item, verses 16 through 18. Understanding a widow's desperation. I said, ladies, what would you do? Well, let's understand her desperational here a little bit. Verses 6 through 18, help us to understand it. And Naomi's desperation, we see two key actions that she took here. Number one, she changes course. She goes back to what God gave her. Number two, she shows care for her daughters-in-law by using three commanding statements. So she goes back to the land and she's taking care of the ladies that God has given her. She gives her three commanding statements in the text. Upon hearing, in verse 6, she changes course upon hearing of God's blessing for the people. In other words, God has given them a bunch of food in Bethlehem. Naomi wants to return home. I love.

33:00That word return. Return is mentioned a whole lot of times in the book of Ruth, 12 times in the first chapter. Return is the Hebrew word shuve, from which we get the word repent. Makes sense, right? She is repenting. She's returning back to her land, returning back to the gift that God had given her. The idea is to stop walking away from God in Moab and return to what God has given you. That's what she's doing. Naomi's returning to Bethlehem.

33:34And we see in tow, along with her, are her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth. They're coming along with her. In verse 8, Naomi comes to her senses. She's realizing to herself, okay, I'm going back to Bethlehem. I've got two young ladies with me. What Israelite in their right mind is going to marry them? Who's going to take care of them? I can't take care of myself. How am I going to take care of them? She wants them to go back home.

34:00Naomi issues them three commands. Three commands. You see it there. She uses the word go and return. Those are imperatives. Go, she says. Return. And they're tempered with a wonderful blessing. She wasn't harsh with them. She blessed them. She blesses them, saying, This, may the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with me. Deal kindly. Kessed. It's an extreme kind of God-kind of steadfast loving kindness for his people. He'll never let them go. And she's saying, you had that kind of love for me.

34:43This blessing is more than you think. Naomi is freeing her daughters-in-law to not have this overwhelming sense of responsibility for her. She says, Don't have any misgivings about returning. Go back to your mother. Go back to your father's house. Don't have any heartache. Don't have any regret. Life in Bethlehem is tough for a widow. You know, we don't know Naomi's age, but she was probably in her 40s at the time. She indicates that she's too old to have a husband. She indicates that she's not able to have children. And out of love and out of care for the women, she demands that they go home and find rest.

35:28The word rest there, look at verse 9. You'll see the word rest. Go get some rest. The word 9 is also used by Ruth's great-grandson in a very familiar verse, Psalm 23, 2. I wonder if perhaps David had his great-grandmother in mind when he used this word. He says this, Psalm 23, 2, He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. Dear Christian, the whole concept of quiet waters is the same word as rest. He wants them to rest, to have quiet waters in their lives. Naomi ain't getting off easy with these women.

36:18Love like this doesn't let go without a fight. Not Hesid kind of love. Notice the two ladies' reactions in verses 9 and 10. Take a look at it. Naomi's compassionate demands are met by Ruth and Orpah's what? Loud weeping. Sure, the women wanted rest. Sure, they wanted to lay their heads down by quiet waters. Who wouldn't? But they had an intense kind of hesid love for their mother-in-law, which brings our attention to the next verse, verse 10.

36:52In verse 10, we see this. They are bent on returning from Moab to a foreign land with their mother-in-law. Naomi. Verse 11. Let's focus on verse 11 as I read it. Uh-oh, I didn't save my place. Hold on just a second. Ruth chapter 1, verse 11 says this. But Naomi said, Return, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb? Twins in my womb, that they may be your husbands? And before the women have a chance to respond, she fires off more logical-sound reasoning with them.

37:42Look at verse 12. Return, my daughters, forgo. I'm too old to have a husband, even if I said I have hope. If I said, or if I should even have a husband tonight, and also bear sons, would you therefore wait until they're grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it would be harder for me than for you. For the hand of the Lord has gone against me. And thus we see the third command of loving. She sends them back again. She tries it again. In verses 12 to 13, she says, I gave you my only sons.

38:29I'm too old to get married. And even if I did get married, even if I got pregnant tonight and had twins, and you waited around for 20 plus years, these would be the babies they would change the diapers for and end up marrying 20 years later. Naomi's got some sound reasoning here. This makes sense. All of a sudden, in verse 14, glance down at it. What do we see? The women are bawling again. They're coming. Crying and carrying on. Think in your mind's eye, maybe people in my generation, I love Lucy. They're bawling again. A bunch of women, like 100 women, crying and carrying on. What is Naomi supposed to do? As soon as we can hear the racket, they don't want to leave her.

39:20This kind of love, it brings two opposite responses. When Orpah heard Naomi's testimony that Yahweh's hand was against her, she kissed Naomi, she kissed her mother-in-law, and she went back to her gods, back to her people. Clearly, she didn't want Yahweh's hand to be against her, too. Perhaps maybe she preferred to return to her foreign gods, her false gods, and Moab. You know, there's a lesson to be learned here. There's a lesson to be learned here. God's hand in our lives, when people see God working in our lives, will either drive people away from us, or the second response will draw people to us. It's a matter of perspective. When you're going through a tough time, are you giving glory to God? Are you saying, God is afflicting me, and I don't think you want anything to do with my God? Not what Naomi said, but what did Orpa hear? The other response was, Ruth, what'd she do? She clung to her. Think, bear hug, think three-year-old on your leg, who won't get. Up. She loves her mother-in-law. Naomi tries to apply more logic to the situation. Bless her heart. She points to Orpa and she says, Look, Ruth, she's going back to her family. She's going back to her gods. Go.

40:45Don't have any misgivings about a decision to leave me behind. Naomi's a logical woman. She has more logic to apply to the situation. She says, Do what your sister-in-law is doing. Makes sense. In a lot of ways, Orpa, she took the easy road. Naomi chose the hard road. She chose the tough road. She's going to go back to a foreign land and hope to land an Israeli husband. Are you kidding me? She took the hard road. Her love was for her mother-in-law. Husbands in the future didn't matter.

41:27Which brings us to Naomi's fourth attempt at commanding love. Naomi commands Ruth to return with Orpah. Would you follow along with me one more time as we read Ruth chapter 1, verses 16 to 17? And let's take a look at what happens here. Ruth said, Can you just see her up next to her face, holding her? Do not urge me to leave you. Or turn back from following you? Where you go, I go. Where you lodge, where you stay, I stay.

42:10Your people, my people. Your God, my God. She's holding her dear next to her ear, and she's pleading with her: where you die, I will die. Where you're buried, I am going to be buried. Thus the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me. Loyalty is not determined by the actions of another. Loyalty is determined by courageously loving another who thinks it best that you go away. This is courageous love.

42:48She couldn't bear the thought of the mother of the husband she loves so dearly dying on the road back to Bethlehem. They're on a hot, dusty road near the Dead Sea, returning. Surrendering to Yahweh includes embracing relationships that are important to him. It's seeing others as more important than yourself, is what this Moabite woman is doing. She loves her mother-in-law, who's Jewish, and yet she doesn't even know the statutes of Yahweh, and yet she's carrying them out.

43:27At the end of Ruth's answer, Naomi picks. Up on the fact that Ruth is determined. Ruth is courageous. Ruth ain't giving up. She loves dearly. Ruth's reply to Naomi is later recognized by Boaz later in the book as the hallmark of an excellent woman. Where do we read about an excellent woman in the Old Testament? Proverbs 31, ladies, Proverbs 31, that's a tough chapter. Who can live Proverbs 31 if you're a godly woman? You know that in the entire Bible, there's not one single woman who's referred to as an excellent woman in the nation of Israel?

44:08Did you know that in the Old Testament there is one woman referred to as an excellent woman? You know who it is? Ruth, a Moabitis. Didn't know God's statutes. Didn't know Proverbs 31, maybe, but she's living it. And Boaz says, you are an excellent woman. In Ruth 2.23, Ruth, she stuck to her commitment. She lived with her mother-in-law. Later, we see Naomi's relatives are referred to as Ruth's relatives. She kept her commitment. Ruth 3.2, Boaz is seen as Ruth's relative. She's a Moabite.

44:45Ruth 3.9, Ruth tells Boaz that he's a close relative, and she asks him to cover her with his blanket. And Ruth 2.12, this floors me. According to Boaz, Yahweh is Ruth's provider and protector. More about that next week. Is there anybody in your life that expresses this kind of love for you? Wow. I'm talking about loyalty. I'm not talking about fleeting emotion. I'm talking about the kind of love that Ruth extends to her mother through courageous determination, catapulted by truth. She loves her. This is the kind of love that God has for you. Jesus says, This, all that the Father gives to me will come to me, and I won't cast them out. I won't get rid of them. Ruth is coming to God, and God does not get rid of her. Yahweh becomes her God, and we'll see again more of that next week. God says to you who embrace him that he will never leave you, he will never forsake you.

46:10When you're bearing up under the weightiness of life and death, and when everyone and everything seems to be fleeting away, everything that you hold dear is going away. When you sense that you're left without hope, remember. Remember this, God is in the details, even when your circumstance declares that he's nowhere to be found. You know what? He wants you to come back to him. He wants you to return to him. But even as Naomi returns, she blames God for the bitterness that is her life. Wow. Verses 19 to 22. Again, we've already read them, but here's the third thing I wanted to identify in the text. Here we're understanding a human response to suffering. This is her response to suffering. The 10 years that Naomi was away in Bethlehem have taken their toll on this precious, precious woman, a lady, once known as an energetic woman, when in the prime of her life, people referred to her as the pleasant one.

47:27Do you know pleasant ladies in your life, pleasant women in your life? Who doesn't want to be around them? That was Ruth. She was the pleasant lady. That was her name. Excuse me, Naomi. That was her name. The famine, her husband's death, the death of her children, and the return back to Bethlehem have left her bitter. The woman, the women of the land, they hardly recognized her. What did they say? Put some emotion into the question.

48:04Is that Naomi? She'd been beaten down. Is that the pleasant lady? In verse 20, what does she say? She confirmed that, yes, indeed, she was the pleasant one. Yeah, my name is Naomi. She changes her name to Mara. Mara means bitter. Bitter. I think bitter, nasty water. And she's bitter. Notice Naomi's words in verse 21. This too floors me. I went out full, she says. I went out full, but God, he brought me back empty with nothing. Hold on.

49:08You went out starving, emaciated, to a land where there was food. What do you mean you went out full? When you left here, you had a husband and two sons. She's not talking about food. She's not talking about a house with air conditioning. She's not talking about living by the lake. When she says, I went out full, she had her husband and she had her two little boys with her. That's all she needed. Who cares about food? I want my husband back. I want my boys back.

49:49Two times, Naomi declares, The Almighty has afflicted me. Almighty, you should know, is the Hebrew word Shaddai. Shaddai. Almighty, the Almighty has afflicted me. She says, Almighty has afflicted me. Yahweh has brought me back empty. Yahweh has testified against me. Yahweh has afflicted me. When I left Bethlehem, I had everything I needed. I had my family. But you know what? God brought me back, and now I'm bitter. Things ain't going my way. I've felt that way before of you.

50:33If I were to ask for a show of hands and I won't, those of you holding your hands down would probably not be telling the truth. I felt this way. A few remaining minutes. Go over to Joshua chapter 24. Joshua chapter 24. She uses those words afflicted in Ruth chapter 21. And it's only used in that way five times in the entire Old Testament. And its application in Joshua 24, 20 is very telling. I would challenge you to read verses 14 through 20, excuse me, 14 through 19 at another time. I'm running low on the clock here. I want to point your attention to verse 20.

51:24This is the passage that says, as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. The people said, we're going to serve the Lord too. Joshua in verse 19 says, you can't. You won't be able to, because God is a jealous God, and he will not forgive your transgressions and sins. Notice what he says in verse 20. He uses the same word, afflict, that Naomi uses twice. He says this, if you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm. He will turn and he will afflict you and consume you after what he's done good to you.

52:02The people said to Joshua, no, but we will serve the Lord. We recoil when we hear that God might be afflicting somebody. We don't like that sound, but I guarantee you, you're going to like next week. If you think you don't like the word affliction or the idea that God can afflict, then you have no claim on chapter 2 when he brings them back and he restores them. You have no claim on chapter 4 when they rest. He redeems them.

52:32God is a promise keeper. He restores. He might afflict, but he redeems. The author, he casts no blame on Naomi or anyone else in the book of Ruth for that matter, but he does reveal to us that we are living, they are living, we are living in a land of freedom, a place where everyone did that which was right in their own eyes, a kind of hard and fast living with consequences. We also live in a land like that. We have jettisoned in God we trust in our nation.

53:12We have a court system that has declared war on our Constitution. Politicians who pick and choose which laws they are going to enforce and which ones they're not going to enforce. My former pastor once proclaimed from the pulpit on Romans 1, he says the platform of one of our nation's political parties resides in Romans 1. I think he's right. I think we're paying for it. We live in a society that can no longer distinguish, according to Romans 1, the difference between right and wrong in a world that is seeking to force Christians to do the same, and we won't bow.

53:54But there's consequences. Trust in God. That's what we're called to do. Believers of all people need to trust in God. We must return to his loving kindness if we ever hope to have hope in the midst of ruin. From a human perspective, God was seen as dealing bitterly with people. However, from these bitter circumstances, they led Naomi and Ruth back to Bethlehem, where Ruth and Boaz become the great-grandparents of King David, from whom the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would one day come.

54:35Do you know Jesus? Do you know the Messiah that came from the loins of Ruth? Have you come to him for rest? The kind of rest that the women were seeking, laying their heads down by quiet waters. Here's a loving, courageous promise I want to leave you with. And I want to say it again. God keeps his promise, so let me give you a promise. These are the words of Jesus, Ruth's descendant, Matthew 11. He says, Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

55:23Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest. For your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And we say, come, return, and surrender your lives to this Savior. Whether you know him or don't know him, today is an opportunity for a different focus for your future. What is God doing through the crises that are in your life? I'd say it's for his glory.

55:57Let's close in prayer. Father, you have brought us through an amazing historical situation of real people facing real trials and struggles. And in this, I can't help but think that you're wanting to, for each one of us individually, to focus on what it is that you're bringing us through. Maybe there is no crisis for us. Maybe there is no trial for us at this time, but the day's not over. Tomorrow's coming. Next year's coming. Lord, how are we going to respond? We must go back to your word. We must do what Elimelech should have done, Leviticus 26:3. We must walk in your statutes. We must trust in you and proclaim your truth.

56:48And then when the trials and struggles of life come, we pray and we ask, Father, for direction. We ask for your healing in our lives. We ask you to heal not only our individual selves, but our neighbors. Perhaps just in the remaining moments that we have together, would you just maybe do business with the Lord for a moment and I'll just close us in prayer in Jesus' name we pray.