Our text this morning is Ruth chapter one. Ruth
chapter one. It's after the book of Judges before
you get to first Samuel. In the days when the
judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.
And a man of Bethlehem and 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 Malon and Chillion. They
were Ephratites from Bethlehem and 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 was Ruth. They lived there
about 10 years in both Malon and Chile on Dine.
So 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 fields of Moab that
the Lord had visited his people and given them
food. So she set out from that 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 till they were 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 see
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
to return from following you For where you go,
I will go and where you lodge I will lodge your
people shall be my people and your God my God
Where you die, I will die, and there I will be
buried. May the Lord do so to me, and more also,
if anything but death parts me from you. 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
because of them. And the women said, is this
Naomi? 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 upon me? So Naomi
returned and roofed the Moabite, her daughter
-in -law with her, who returned from the country
of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning
of barley harvest. The story of Ruth is one of
great trials. And I actually want to begin this
morning by having you close your eyes for just
a second. And I want you to think back to a trial
in your life. Maybe it was a time when you lost
your job and you did not know how the Lord would
provide for you. Or maybe you were facing a surgery
that had many variables to it. Or maybe you had
lost a home. and you did not know where you would
live or your family would live, or maybe you
lost someone near to you, dear to you. And I
want you to think, who was there with me? What
did they do? How did they act? How did they represent
God in my life? And how did God work through
that friend? And what did God ultimately teach
you in that trial? This scenario that I just
put forth is the very story of Ruth one. You
may open your eyes now It's a story of much trial,
but a trial that is not endured alone a trial
that has a friend and So we need to examine this
trial because there's much that the Lord has
to teach us with it But the Lord has much to
remind us with it And verses one through five
will actually see that we can find God's discipline
and glory in the midst of our trial. And the
background of this text is actually found in
verse chapter one. This text opens with a trial.
And the days when the judges ruled and there
was famine in the land. The days of the judges
was a time of chaos. It was a time after Joshua
had passed and before the coronation of Saul.
It was a time that should have been prosperous,
a time of Israel going forth into the promised
land and being obedient to the words of God that
had came through Joshua. But instead Israel began
a cycle, a cycle where they fell into pagan worship
and rejected God. They were fearful to go into
the land that God had promised to them. And so
God in the midst of this trial would hear their
cries and upon hearing their cries he would be
merciful and he would send them a judge. And
then that judge would deliver them and bring
them back to peace with God. But Ruth takes place
in what's most likely the beginning of Gideon's
life. Because at the beginning of the Gideon
story we find that the Israelites did evil in
the sight of the Lord and for seven years he
gave them into the hands of the Midianites. And
the Midianites destroyed the land, they ravished
it. They claimed everything for themselves and
they left no living thing. And so that's where
we find ourselves in the story of Ruth. We see
Israel's in chaos. Bethlehem, which literally
means house of bread because it was a place of
plenty, a place of much wheat and grain and oil
and olives, was desolate. It had much famine.
And we get introduced to this family of Bethlehem.
And we see in verse two that they are Ephratites.
So this is actually a wealthy family. The Ephratites
descended from Caleb, one of the spies that Moses
had sent into the land to discover it and see
what was there. And Caleb was one of the godly
men who encouraged the people. And so this is
most likely a family of aristocrats that should
be well off. But they end up going into the land
of Moab. And Moab is enemy territory. The Moabites
came from Lot and his daughters. They came from
a sinful relationship. The Moabites were one
of the main enemies that Israel faced as they
came out of Egypt. The Moabite men or women in
Numbers 25 seduced Israelite men and had their
way with them. And Deuteronomy, the Lord says
that the Moabites, in particular, are excluded
from my assembly. And even at the beginning of
Judges, before we get to Gideon, the Israelites
were suppressed by Aglon, the king of the Moabites.
And so we approach the story of Ruth beginning
with a fairly detailed setting, actually, but
it's a setting of much trial. And we learn that
these people's names are Elimelech, whose name
actually means my god is king. See, in the ancient
world, names often reflected certain characteristics
or personality traits of people. And so Elimelech's
name, meaning my god is king, means he was most
likely known for his faith. He was a man who
loved God and represented God well. And then
his wife, Naomi, her name means pleasantness.
In the midst of trial, we find Pleasantness we
find Naomi and this means that she was most likely
known for her godly character as well Someone
that people enjoyed being around someone that
represented the love of the Lord But we have
some foreshadowing and their son's names and
these could be nicknames We're not exactly sure
but it's the names the author has given us Maylon
his name most closely Would resemble the word
for sick or sickness and then Chile on his name
means consumption which ironically represents
exactly what's going on in this text, sickness
of the land, consumption of the land, much suffering.
And so this is the first phase of hardship that
this family faces. And that brings us to the
second trial that they will face in verses three
to five. Elimelech, this godly man who seems...
He would be the main character of our story.
He's someone sojourning in enemy land, which
should remind us of Abraham, who is in enemy
land, who God provided for, who had much faith.
But he ends up dying. And this might very well
be the Lord's punishment for him going into enemy
land and not trusting the Lord. The Lord provides,
and in times of famine, he is always there. So
this could be the consequence of his disobedience
of taking his family into this enemy land. Now
I think that's just one of the reasons that God
has given this hardship. I also think it's for
his glory and we'll see that as we work through
the story. And so now Naomi, who was the wife
of Elimelech, becomes the main character. Elimelech
becomes the husband of Naomi and the sons become
her sons. And so now we know that we're going
to follow Naomi through the story and we're going
to see her as she faces her hardship and she
faces these trials. But there's actually a blessing
of sorts in these trials. There is a wedding,
two weddings actually, both of her sons get married.
One of them marries Orpa and another marries
Ruth. And both. Orpah's name and Ruth will come
into play as we go through this story, as we
go through this piece of history. And so there's
this sense of blessing that they have, a sense
of peace, and this lasts for 10 years. They dwell
in this land without a limelight, and Naomi with
the safety of her sons, they dwell in this foreign
land. But there's even a sense of hardship even
within this blessing. within the trial, another
trial within the trial and within the blessing.
There's no children. Part of marriage is children
and God does not bless them with children. Now
in the Old Testament, well throughout scripture
actually, the lack of children tends to mean
something. And it could mean that there needs
to be a growing of faith. Like in the story of
Hannah when she was barren and she prayed and
the Lord gave her Samuel. who's the main character
immediately following Ruth. But it could also
be a sign of judgment. Michael, one of David's
wives, and Samuel as he dances through the streets
tells him to stop. And for the rest of her life,
she was barren. And so there's more trial that's
maybe self -inflicted here again. But again,
this also could have a dual meaning. There's
judgment, yet it's a way to grow faith. And this
trial and hardship brings us to a third hardship,
a third trial within this trial. This is a time
of many trials within the lives of Israel. Naomi,
who has left her land, who has lost her husband,
now will lose her sons. Her sons die, and now
her daughters -in -law join her in her widowhood.
And they are stuck in this land of enemies. They
are stuck in a land that was believed to be ruled
over by a god of war, Kimosh, the main Moabite
deity who actually required child sacrifice.
And it's a foreign land. So Naomi, in this time,
would have faced great depression, a great sense
of loss. And we do not know exactly how much
of this was self -inflicted and how much of it
is the will of God or even how much of it is
just facing a sinful world, living in a sinful
world. But Naomi feels how all of us have felt
at some point in our life. She feels hopeless,
she feels abandoned. She has no husband to provide
for her any longer or children to provide for
her. This was a male -dominated society where
if there was no man, you had no protection, you
had no way to provide for yourself or for your
family. There was no husband or children to protect
her from the thieves and bandits that roamed
the streets or for the lions and the tigers and
the bears, oh my, that threatened her every day
in the wilderness, in the fields where she would
have been vulnerable. I know that we all have
felt this way at some point in our lives. We
feel hopeless, we see much loss, and maybe it
was a time that should have been plentiful, just
like the time of judges. It's a time that should
have been plentiful, but it was filled with many
trials. I know for myself this time actually
happened as I graduated college. I faced a great
trial in my faith as the system, what I believed,
how scripture was structured was broken apart.
I believed Israel was essential to the people
of God and even to this church today. But that
was slowly broken apart. And I realized that
Jesus is the true Israel and He embodies everything.
And that was a big deal because as you graduate
college, especially as a man, you're looking
into your full -time job. What are you going
to do for the rest of your life? And I had desired
to do ministry. And you cannot do ministry well
if your system of faith is being slowly broken
apart. And so I did something that I did not
want to do, and I returned to my homeland. I
did the opposite of Ruth and Naomi. I went back
home, but this was not where I wanted to be.
I wanted to be somewhere doing full -time ministry,
praying and worshiping with people, but I was
driven into a spiritual wilderness where I did
not understand confidently what I once thought
I understood confidently. And so a time where
I thought I'd be coming into my manhood, into
everything that the Lord had for me, it was taken
away or at least it felt like this. But thankfully,
I found friendship and that's actually what we
see in verses six through 18 of Ruth chapter
one. Finding friendship in the midst of trials.
Naomi, this hardship seems like it's going to
end. She's in the fields and she's working and
as she's working, she actually hears good news
from Israel. that the Lord has shown them mercy
is grace. We have no record of Israel's repentance,
but we do know that there is a blessing that
the Lord is pouring out. Bethlehem, the house
of bread, is now filled with grain again. It's
filled with wheat again, everything that Israel
needs to end this trial, to bring them out of
this famine. And so Naomi rightfully wants to
go home. She wants to go back to her people.
They were sojourners in the land of Moab. They
were meant to be temporary residents. They always
wanted to go back home. She wants to be back
with her friends and with any relatives that
she has left. But her family in Moab does not
abandon her. Orpah and Ruth and Naomi actually
take off towards the land of Judah. And as they
get to the edge of Judah, or the edge of Moab,
sorry, Naomi stops, maybe sits them down, and
she begins to make a plea to Ruth and Orpah.
She makes a plea that they should return home.
Go, return each of you to your mother's house.
May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have
dealt with the dead and with me. Naomi tells
them to return to their mother's house, which
is a very interesting phrase in Scripture, actually.
Normally in Scripture, when someone's told to
return, they're told to return to their father's
house. It's a place of provision and protection
and family. But the word of your mother's house
only occurs a couple other times in Scripture.
And primarily in the Song of Solomon, where a
wife waits for her husband to come and take her
to his dwelling, to his house. And so Naomi is
telling them to go home and do what a woman should
do. Go and find a husband. Go and find safety
for yourself. This is not an unreasonable plea.
It would seem to be the wise thing for the daughters
to go and do. They were Moabites. They would
not have been readily welcomed in Israel. And
so they should go back to their people, go back
to their mother's house and find a husband. And
Naomi actually gives them a blessing. She says,
may the Lord deal kindly with you. And this kindness
is the word hesed. I've mentioned it before.
It's a word of covenantal love. It addresses
everything that God is. It addresses his being,
his safety, his love, his grace, his mercy, his
full kindness. And Naomi's giving this blessing
to Moabite women, to foreign enemies. And I think
Naomi really does believe in the Lord and trust
that the Lord will show them kindness, will provide
for them because these daughters -in -law actually
showed her this kind of hesed, this kind of love
that comes from their inmost being. They dealt
kindly with her. They never abandoned her. They
stayed beside her. They even had traveled with
her for miles as she began leaving Moab and was
returning home. And so she asked that the Lord
give his grace as they have given theirs. And
that they should find rest in the house of their
husband. And she does what any of us do when
we're leaving someone or maybe saying a final
goodbye. Naomi kisses them. And this becomes
a moment of great sorrow as they weep together
and cry together and they recall all that they
have been through together. And these daughters
now, we see some of their friendship come into
play. They respond quickly, no, we will not return,
or we will return with you to your people. They
sound like many disciples that Jesus found in
the New Testament. Lord, I want to follow you,
I want to go with you, and I will go with you.
And the question now is, will they go with her?
Will they be like Peter? And in a moment of great
confidence, they actually speak rashly, and they
end up rejecting her. And so we see a response
of Naomi to their response. Naomi begins reasoning
again, trying to give them wisdom again, and
she begins asking them questions. You know, why
should you go with me? You have no reason. There's
no family I have that you can marry. My people
are not your people. My land is not your land.
You're our enemies. So turn back and go." And
then she makes a hyperbolic statement of, even
if I could find a husband, I'm too old to have
children, it would take a miracle for me to conceive
again. But even if I did conceive again, you
would not want to wait. They would have to wait
18, 20 years before the husbands would be marriageable
material. And at that point, Ruth and Orpah would
face their own barrenness. They would not be
able to have kids, to have children. Their legacy
would cease to exist. And so Naomi is asking
them question after question, trying to get them
to realize that the most reasonable thing for
them to do is go back home, to go back to their
people. It's the safest thing for them to do.
And Naomi actually sounds like Paul in First
Timothy, who says it's wise for widows to be
married, to remarry, because it's a place of
protection. It's a place of safety, a place where
you're provided for. And with Naomi, it comes
with a blessing of the Lord. It's a very, it's
an awesome and the most literal sense of the
word moment that Naomi has given to them. Go
back to safety, but don't go back. as a pagan
woman, go back with the blessing of the Lord.
And then we return to these girls. We need to
see their response. They have already responded
once with boldness that we will not go back.
What do they ultimately do? Do they prove faithful
or do they prove to break what they said, what
they pledged? And what we see is two different
reactions. We see a split reaction. Oprah, or
Orpa, goes back to her people. She kisses Naomi.
She returns this goodbye kiss, this goodbye farewell
well, and she goes back. She listens to this
wisdom of Naomi, and she goes to the place of
safety. But Ruth, whose name actually means friendship,
clings to Naomi. She holds fast to her. She grabs
her and does not let her go. And so Naomi tries,
one more time, to tell Ruth. She uses peer pressure
this time. Ruth, look at your sister -in -law.
Look at your family. She's going back to her
people. And not just her people, but her gods.
She's going back to be a Moabite. She's doing
what's easy, what makes the most sense. You should
go with her. And Ruth now responds to Naomi's
plea with her own plea. She says, do not urge
me to leave you or to return from following you.
And then Ruth follows it up with one of the best
statements in all of scripture. For where you
go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge.
Your people shall be my people, and your God
my God. Where you die, I will die, and there
I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me, and
more also, if anything but death parts me from
you." Ruth says that she's going to follow Naomi
to the ends of the earth. Wherever Naomi lays
her head at night, Ruth will be there lying down
next to her. I will forsake my people. I will
let them go. My identity as a Moabite is dead
to me and I'm now an Israelite. And I will worship
your God as you worship. And in this moment,
I think we begin to see Ruth's faith in the God
of Israel. Maybe she had heard the many stories
of Joshua and the conquest, the capturing of
this foreign land. She probably saw it firsthand
as a Moabite even. as the kingdom began to fall
apart after the death of Aglon. And so she ties
herself to Naomi. In almost a wedding ceremony,
since she says, my family is now with your family.
Now this is not an actual wedding, but it's that
sense of two families becoming one. They're merging
into one. And that is what Ruth is doing here.
And Ruth, goes so far to not just make the statement,
but she actually invokes the covenant curses
of the Lord. May the Lord do so to me, and more
also, if anything but death parts me from you.
Ruth, as she was making the statement, calling
out on the covenant of the Lord that she would
follow the God of Israel and become an Israelite,
was most likely. dragging her thumb across her
throat showing the cutting of the covenant that
we saw in Abraham where animals were placed up
and the Lord passed before them making a covenant.
This was a normal covenantal ritual where animals
were killed and placed and a person would walk
through it signifying the making of a covenant.
Ruth is pointing to this and Ruth says that if
I break this covenant that I am making with you
today and with the Lord may he kill me. May I
face the consequences for my own sin." And Ruth
models what a true disciple looks like and a
true friend. See, I myself in my own trial needed
friends. As I was lost and the world felt like
chaos and even my faith felt like chaos to some
degree, God gave me two friends. One named Conrad
who I met actually on a Facebook group who diligently
as a brother in Christ actually would text me
daily and was willing to answer any question
I had. And then another pastor, Pastor Bruce
came alongside me and we met weekly to talk about
scripture and about the Westminster Confession
so that I could find peace in my soul. And I
do not know what I would have done if it was
without those friends. They showed me Christ,
they showed me his love, and they ended some
of my confusion. Just like Ruth has done here,
she has been a faithful friend to Naomi. She
becomes family with her. She represents God to
her throughout this text. She is a faithful disciple.
And thankfully, Naomi at this point is wise enough
to shut her own mouth. And her and Ruth begin
their journey again. They take off towards the
land of Israel. And then they end up finding
hope, finding peace in the midst of the trial
in verses 19 through 22. They begin walking into
the main town of Bethlehem, a town that is now
prosperous. It's a time of harvest. Naomi and
her family left in a time of trial and a time
of desolation, but are now returning at a time
of great rejoicing and of great praise and of
great plenty. And as they get into the town of
Bethlehem, her friends begin to recognize her,
her family begins to recognize her. Is that Naomi?
See, Naomi at this point would have looked greatly
different. It's been at least 10 years. And maybe
15 or 20, we don't exactly have the full timeline,
but we know for a fact it was at least 10 years.
She has aged. And not just aged, in the midst
of sorrow her body had changed. Her face that
was once pleasant is now maybe drooping and filled
with sorrow. And she's hard to recognize. And
as women begin to call out for Naomi, it actually
stirs up the whole town. It's a great celebration
as she comes back. But Naomi stuck in her own
sin in her own Flawed faith Rejects them calling
her pleasant. She does not want to be called
pleasant. She wants to be called bitter She wants
to be called Mara Because the Lord the Almighty
has dealt bitterly with me See Naomi, we know
Naomi has faith She sees God's sovereignty, not
just in the good and the blessings in her life,
but even in these moments, she knows that the
Lord is in control. But she has forgotten his
grace. She has forgotten that God is sovereign
and has much grace, that he is all powerful,
but he has compassion, that he does judge us
for our sins, but it's only for a time because
he has great mercy for us. But nonetheless, she
does recognize the Lord's hand in this. She says
that she went away full, she went away with family.
That's what the word full means there, that she
went away with a full household. But the Lord
has brought her back empty. I wonder what Ruth
was thinking in this moment. Did I not just maybe
a couple days ago tell you that I am now your
family, your people are mine? But she stays silent.
The story is not focused on Ruth right now. It's
focused on this flawed faith of Naomi. But this
trial, and this is why I say that I don't think
that the trial that Naomi faced in this time,
or even in our own trials, that's just because
of our sin. It's because as we go through the
whole story of Ruth, we'll see that it's ultimately
to the glory of God. Ruth finds a husband in
an Israelite man. Ruth ends up being in the family
line of Jesus. She's marked out in his lineage.
She's marked out to the greatest blessing of
all. And what we learn from this is that it's
ultimately not the end when God is our friend
and when God sends us a friend, we have the greatest
friend of all. We have a man named Jesus who,
again, Ruth was in line for. He died for us.
He sacrificed for us when we were not his friends,
when we were his enemies, when we were the Moabites
to the true Israelite. Christ died for us. And
he will not always discipline us. He disciplines
us for a time that we can learn his ultimate
love and we can learn to walk in his footsteps.
And so we should not be like Naomi where we allow
in the midst of trial to become lost in our sorrow.
And even to try to push away friendships that
the Lord has brought to us, we should embrace
them and allow the Lord to work in our lives
in the midst of trial. And we should remember
his mercy and remember his grace and ask him
for his help. We are never without a friend because
we have a friend in Jesus. Let us pray.