Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Redeemed. Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Amen. That's how we're able to approach the throne of grace with confidence.
[00:00:08] Because of the blood of Jesus Christ. Children ages 3 to 5 are welcome to go to Children's Church. And as they're doing that, I encourage you to open your Bibles. Not to John, not to Jonah, but to the Book of Ruth.
[00:00:22] The Book of Ruth, something.
[00:00:25] And if you want to know where Ruth is, it's the one that Joshua judged for some reason.
[00:00:32] So Joshua judges Ruth. He didn't actually, but that's how you can remember that also, as we kind of get started, if you're new here, first off, welcome. In your bulletin, there's all sorts of ways you can learn one about the church, but also connect and you can reach out if you have questions. There's a little tab on the left side that says stay connected. You can scan that code and learn lots about the church or reach out if you have prayer requests. Other things there that you see on the right side inside your bulletin, it says offering report. And on the screen you see this. I just want to make note one. Thank you. I just want to regularly say thank you. Thank you for regularly giving to the life and ministry at Living Hope Church. One side of the screen is the building fund that you all have been so generous with. And kind of where we are in that. I didn't grab. And I was supposed to. I didn't grab. We. We made a specific envelope that you see a picture of on the screen. They're in the foyer with the other envelopes. If you'd like to be able to take one of these envelopes home, maybe stick it on your fridge. Any extra random money that you have that God blesses you with, maybe you sell something and some money shows up that you didn't expect, you could stick it in that envelope. If you're a Venmo person, there's an opportunity to give there. But we just want to say thank you for that. There's ways that you can give. You want to learn more about it in the foyer or on the board on the right there kind of shows you where we are in this process of this new building program. And then on our website, you can read lots of answers to questions that you might have. Pastor Les mentioned this earlier.
[00:02:03] Church camp meeting after church today in the harvest hall. And with those things said, let's dive into the book of what book are we in, Ruth? All right, so chapter one is where we're going to be today. And let me just kind of give you a brief introduction and then we'll pray and we'll get right into this.
[00:02:21] First off, last week we concluded the book of. If you were here, what book were we in?
[00:02:26] Jonah. Now, Jonah concluded. It was kind of a rough conclusion. We all like the stories that say happily ever after. That's like a lovely way to end a story with the happily ever afters. Jonah doesn't end that way. And much of Jonah actually is kind of rough. We're seeing this individual who is a prophet of God, but who regularly doesn't listen to the call of God, which seems kind of backwards for a prophet of God. And so we go, we went through the book of Jonah and what we saw over and over again was God's mercy. Over and over we see God showing up to people who didn't deserve his mercy. But God continues to show it. We were able to celebrate that through the last month or so of going through the book of Jonah, that God is one who is rich in mercy. And so today we start Ruth another four chapter book. And in this book we find actually the conclusion, if we were to jump ahead four weeks or so, we do see a happily ever after at the tail end of this book. But one of the things we find in the book of Ruth is an individual this book is written after, who is faithful, who is loyal, who loves and God blesses in a significant way. And she's not someone of the promise of the nation of Israel. She's a gentile woman, someone not of Israel. We see at the end of this that she's actually gonna be a part of. And I'm giving this away, but she's gonna be a part of the line of Jesus, of the line of Jesus, Someone who was part of a pagan nation, someone who worshiped idols, who God said, I see your repentant heart, I see your loving and loyal heart. And I'm gonna bring you into the lineage of royalty. Let's pray together. And then we will look at some background and some context for this chapter. And then you'll be able to. We'll read through this together. And as we work it now, because of your sacrifice, not because of anything that we have done, our good works, as we might call them, are nothing compared to the work of what you have done on the cross for us. And so this morning, as we spend time in your word, as we worship in this way, I pray that you would open our eyes to the work that you want to do, that you would keep us attentive to your spirit's voice, guiding and directing and leading us, correcting us even as we walk through this passage. For those here today, maybe who don't know you, who don't have a relationship with you, Lord, I pray that you would open their eyes to your beauty, to your majesty, to your love, to your grace, as you clearly show it to us in your word, in Jesus name, Amen.
[00:05:08] So the Book of Ruth is a unique book in a couple ways. One of the things that we see in this book, Ruth, is someone from. We're going to see this in a little bit. Someone from a particular location called Moab. Can you say Moab? Moab. Moab. Now, Moab, or the Moabites, you remember all the ites as the Israelites kind of wander through the wilderness, they were always fighting against the Perizzites and the Amorites and the Moabites and any other ites termite, not that one.
[00:05:39] There's all of these ites that they had to deal with. And so here we find Ruth is a Moabite. So someone from actually a nation that the nation of Israel had to fight against before. But what we see here is God bringing her into the fold, if you will. Now, who wrote the Book of Ruth? We don't know, but we can assume that it's very possibly someone like Samuel, perhaps one of the prophets, perhaps. And it's one of the two books named after a woman. Ruth is one. And what's the other one?
[00:06:13] Esther. We are going to start off here.
[00:06:16] Look at verse one with me.
[00:06:19] A family and a famine is how it's going to start. Your first point. You can write this in the days when the Judges ruled. So as we consider, when did this happen?
[00:06:33] This is actually meshed into the Book of Judges, right? Joshua, Judges who? Not really. He doesn't judge her, but fit in right in there. And so what we glean here, even in verse one, right here, is in the days when the Judges ruled. So that tells us the time frame. And we also know something else about these. The season when the Judges ruled. Judges like Gideon or Samson, Deborah.
[00:07:00] There was a phrase that we see all through the Book of Judges, and it's this. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
[00:07:09] And so Judges, the Book of Judges, it's about a 400 or so year period of time, is plagued with the nation of Israel actually avoiding God, disobeying God, doing things according to what was right. In whose eyes?
[00:07:22] Their own eyes. And so that gives us this glimpse into the nature of what's happening in Israel at this time. People are not honoring God. They're doing things their own ways in their own way. One of the other things that's unique about this book is that God doesn't actually speak anywhere. In the Book of Ruth. We see people talk about God, but we don't actually see God. So and maybe in some way we see as we consider people doing things that were right in their own eyes. There was a level of distance that God had. Not that he didn't care, but there was this level of distance that we see. But still, even in the midst of that, God is working. So verse one says, in the days when the Judges ruled, there was a what?
[00:08:04] A famine in the land. I'll just read verses one through five. And a man of Bethlehem in Judah. So that tells us now where we are, where this story takes place. Most of it happens in Bethlehem and surrounding areas. Went to sojourn. That means that's a plan to be temporarily somewhere else in the country of Moab. We talked about Moab just a moment ago. He and his wife and his two sons. So this famine is taking place. What we know also Ezekiel 14:13 speaks about this. Sometimes famines just happen. Sometimes the rain stops and famines occur other times. Ezekiel 14 tells us that is when people are continuing to rebel against God. Sometimes God will cause a famine in the land. And that's very possibly the reason this famine is happening right now in the Book of Ruth, in this text that we're seeing here. So there's this famine and we see that they didn't check in with God to say, hey God, should we go somewhere else? Particularly to an idol worshiping pagan nation. Should we go there? What do you think God would have said if they checked in?
[00:09:08] Probably not. Not a great place for you to be going. But we see that they go there anyway.
[00:09:14] And the name, verse 2, the name of the man was Elimelech and his name means my God is king. Isn't that a great name? If you're looking for another name for your son, Elimelech.
[00:09:28] And the name of his wife was what?
[00:09:31] Naomi. And that means my delight or delightful. Isn't that again great, Great name. Naomi, great name. There's a Naomi here. There's not an Elimelech here, I don't think, but.
[00:09:41] And the names of their two sons was Malone and Kilian. And you could pronounce that however you'd like. The names of their sons aren't as lovely or delightful as their parents.
[00:09:55] Malone, his name means sick.
[00:10:00] And his brother's name, Killian. It means wasting away or tired.
[00:10:07] So if you're wondering what you shouldn't name your son, this is what we can learn. So they were Ephrathites. That means they were descendants of Ephraim, that is Joseph's son. So Joseph, remember Joseph of many colors, he goes to Egypt. He has two sons. Ephraim is one of them. The descendants of Ephraim, that's the tribe that they are from, from Bethlehem in Judea. They went into the country of. Where did they go?
[00:10:34] Moab. And remained there. So even that word remained there is a different word than sojourn there. You notice at the beginning it said they weren't to sojourn there. Their plan was for a short time because there was what in the land? A famine in the land. So they're like, we need food. We're gonna go. We know that there's food over here. And so they go to Moab. There's a map, actually, I put on the screen for you as well. It's not a long journey. It's over to the other side of the Dead Sea.
[00:10:59] They would have had to go past Jericho, past the Jordan river, and then back down to the land of Moab. So they go there because there's food. And then what we see is this.
[00:11:08] They actually end up remaining there. They stay there. And this carries the idea that they actually didn't plan to go back home. But Elimelech, verse 3. The husband of Naomi, what happened to him? He died. And she was left with her two sons, sick and tired.
[00:11:28] Verse 4. These took Moabite wives. The names of one was Orpah, and her name means gazelle. And the name of the other was Ruth. Her name means friendship. Again, very great names, great names. They lived there about 10 years. So so much for sojourning for a short time, right?
[00:11:48] Ten years. Now, there and then verse five, and both Malone and Killian, they what?
[00:11:55] They died so that the women, Orpah and Ruth were left alone, were left without their. So that the woman that is Naomi, was left without her two sons and her husband. So we glean just a few things even from the beginning of this. Moab, which is the land that they went to. A few things that's important for us to know about Moab, because this was a significant move of them. They were in Bethlehem, which. Who was born in Bethlehem?
[00:12:22] Jesus is the right answer in this case.
[00:12:24] Jesus was born in Bethlehem. They go over to Moab. The reason they went to Moab, because they would have heard that there's food there. The question that I'd like us to consider is this. Why did they think that was a good idea?
[00:12:36] What do we know about Moab now? The Moabites, their great, great, great, great grandfather, if you will, the one who the origin of their nation was from a particular individual who was Bo.
[00:12:51] Incest. So if we go back in Genesis, you know, there's Abraham, and he had his nephew. His nephew's name was Lot. And there's a strange story that occurs when God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah, and Lot and his wife and his two daughters flee Sodom. And it says that Lot's wife turned back to look back at the city, and she becomes a pillar of salt. And so now we have Lot leaving with his. How many daughters?
[00:13:20] Two daughters. And they leave. They end up getting away from there. And then the daughters in a. You could read about this on your own time. Genesis 19 speaks about it. Verses 30 through 38 have a son with their father, and they name their son Ammon and Moab.
[00:13:40] Moab being the father of the Moabites and Ammon being the father of the Ammonites. Right. Two problem nations that Israel has had to deal with for a long time as they wandered through the wilderness, their sin had an impact on other people. Do you know that your sin can have an impact on other people even after you are gone? We see that here as well. So one, this nation was born out of incest. So the nation of Israel already doesn't like them because of that. Their God, the God of the Moabites, his name was Chemosh, and he was, as 1 Kings chapter 17 talks about, says he was the abomination of Moab. He was worshiped in part by child sacrifice and other terrible, terrible ways of worshiping this God of the Moabites. Deuteronomy 23 even says that the nation of Israel should stay away from and should not intermarry with this terrible, idolatrous nation. Who. What happens to Elimelech and Naomi's sons? What do they do? They marry Moabites. Not what God would have desired. They were often ostracized by the Jewish people, even though some of them would have been very lovely people, perhaps like the two wives that were married to their sons. So to stick with the text, here we have the two sons, which. Their names mean what?
[00:15:06] Sick and tired, married, gazelle and friendship. Then they ended up dying.
[00:15:11] And what we find is now there's three ladies who are by themselves. And in this culture, unlike today, that was a Significant problem.
[00:15:21] Significant problem. They needed somebody to care for them. They needed somebody to provide for them. They needed somebody to protect them. And so these women are left alone.
[00:15:30] I want to ask a question here. So we think about just this verse. How do you respond when your expectations aren't met?
[00:15:38] Because that's what we see here. They thought, I could live in this town. Everything's going to be lovely. Then a famine hits, not their expectation, Right? Then they say, we're going to go to this new land. It's going to be fine. God will provide for us. They show up there, it must have been nice because they plan to stay. And then what happens? Their expectations aren't met. Somebody dies.
[00:15:56] And then a little while later, somebody else dies. And we're going to see here that Naomi's response to her expectations not being met is blaming God.
[00:16:07] God's the reason, though. Should Naomi have been there in the first place? Isn't it interesting how when things don't go our way, or maybe we just decide to disobey and we go somewhere we shouldn't go, and then things don't happen the right way, we blame God for it?
[00:16:22] You know, I spent all of this money over here because I thought it'd be fun. And for some reason my bank account says zero.
[00:16:30] God, why aren't you providing for me? Now? Should you have done that in the first place?
[00:16:36] But how quickly we can even ask God, God, why is all of this happening? Why is this going on when in the first place? They shouldn't have been there. So this didn't work out for them. Let's look at the continual verses here. Verses 6 through 18. You can write this in leaving and loyalty.
[00:16:52] So they're like, what are we going to do here? What are we gonna do here?
[00:16:57] Their expectations aren't met.
[00:17:00] They need a plan. Verse 6 goes on, when 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, that is, given them bread. Some of your Bibles might say so before there was a famine in the land that is Bethlehem. I know there's a lot of Bible quizzing going on. What does Bethlehem mean? House of bread. House of bread. So there was no bread in the house of bread, so they left. And now Naomi finds out there's bread in the house of bread, if you will. The reason it was called the house of bread is because there's many grain fields. This is important for a few weeks down the road in the area. And the grain, then they can make a lot of bread from that. So there's bread, there's food. Now the famine is over. So verse seven, she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters in law, and they went to return to the land of Judah. So she's getting ready to go, is really what we see here. She intends to return. Verse 8 goes on. Look what it says. But Naomi said to her two daughters in law, go return each one of you to your mother's house. May the Lord here we see the first time that the Lord is being spoken of. The Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me, that is, with your husbands and with my husband, the Lord grant. There we see again the word Lord or Yahweh. Grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of your husband. Then she kissed them, and that's just a parting response or parting action to say goodbye. And they lifted up their voices and what, wept.
[00:18:37] So it appears that perhaps Naomi says to the daughters in law, hey, we're going to go back home.
[00:18:43] This is not going to work out for us anymore. We should go back to Bethlehem. So they pack up their house, maybe they put it on the market or whatever they do. And they're about to start going. And then Naomi seems to have this, as we read through the text, this recognition. Wait a minute. If I take these two Moabite women back to Israel, that's actually not going to be better for them because what did the Israelites think of the Moabites?
[00:19:05] They would have very much disdained any kind of interaction with them, let alone getting married to them. We're going to see that later on in a couple chapters. So she maybe her light bulb kind of went off in her head going, wait a minute, this actually isn't a good idea for me to take these two women back, these two Moabite women back to, of all places, Bethlehem, right next to Jerusalem. Because the odds of another Israelite man marrying these women is probably pretty slim. Are you with me? So she says, you should go back. It's not that she didn't love them, and it's not that they didn't love her. And she says, I hope that the Lord will deal kindly with you as you have dealt kindly with.
[00:19:43] What we find here is deep love between these women, deep care between them. And so we go on a little bit further, verse 10. And they said to her, no, we will return with you. They are loyal, they Love her. They don't want to leave. They're like, we are committed to you. This is good. Verse 11. But Naomi said, turn back. And here she's going to give some reasons that they should turn back. My daughters. What? Why? Will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb? That is, am I pregnant now that you may become husbands? Turn back, my daughters. Go your way. For I am too old to have a husband. And if I should have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear you sons, would you therefore wait till they are grown?
[00:20:29] Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No. My daughters again. She loves them. For it is exceedingly bitter. That word we're gonna see a little later on. The word is marar, Bitter for me, for your sake. That the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.
[00:20:46] And really what she's saying here is, you might be sad that your husband's died.
[00:20:51] It's actually harder for me because God, look what she says there. The Lord has gone out against me. Has the Lord gone out against her?
[00:21:00] But she's feeling like God is against her right now.
[00:21:04] And sometimes even for us today, we feel like God has abandoned me. Has any of you felt like that before?
[00:21:10] Maybe it's just for a moment or for five minutes, or something hard is going on. You feel like God. Are you still there? What's going on? Have you left? I haven't seen anything significant happen in my life. Their healing hasn't happened, comfort hasn't happened, friends haven't happened. Healing in my relationship. It hasn't happened. God, have you left me? And we see here that Naomi's feeling. That she's feeling this tension. And her statement here isn't even like as David or Job might ask a question. Her statement is out of fact, in her view, that is, God has gone out against me.
[00:21:47] And so the response of the women is what verse 14. They lifted up their voices and they did what again?
[00:21:53] They wept again.
[00:21:55] And then Orpah kissed her again. We see this goodbye kind of action.
[00:22:01] Her mother in law, but Ruth did what?
[00:22:04] She clung to her. And that's the same clinging or cleaving that we see like in Genesis 2:24, when it says that a man should leave his father and mother and cleave or cling to his wife. It's that same picture of I'm holding on to you. So you just kind of have this picture of one woman saying goodbye, the other holding tightly to her mother in law because of her love, because of her loyalty to this Woman, Naomi. Now, as you read through this, you might have had a couple questions. Look at verse 11 and 12 with me. You might have had a couple questions. You read through this and you're like, wait a minute, if Naomi had sons, would they marry these two other women? Does that seem a little off to you culturally? Anybody? Does that seem a little off? That means that in theory, let's say they're, I don't know, 30. And Naomi says, if I have kids, would you wait to marry them?
[00:22:53] Let's say they're 20 when they get married. That means the women would be like 50ish and the boys would be like 20ish. Does that seem a little off culturally for us today?
[00:23:01] Yes, you can nod your heads, it's okay. It seems a little strange culturally for them. Not as strange. You can read a little bit about that. That happened. There's an interaction between Judah and Tamar, actually, that is similar to this where someone is responsible for caring for other women if their husbands have died and they're part of the same family. So culturally it's not so outside of the norm. But for us today, hopefully, if you're reading the text as I am, you're like, wait a minute, that doesn't exactly make sense. But again, isn't it interesting that we see that Ruth blames God or at least considers it's God's fault that this is happening to me.
[00:23:42] And then we find someone leaving who leaves.
[00:23:47] Orpah leaves. Where does she go? This is the last that we hear about her.
[00:23:55] I don't know.
[00:23:57] I don't know where she goes.
[00:23:59] Now some have suggested that she might have left and become an actor and an author and a radio talk show host.
[00:24:07] I tend not to believe that.
[00:24:10] But some have considered that might have been her reality.
[00:24:13] Sorry, brief side.
[00:24:16] I don't know how I'm going to come back from that.
[00:24:20] Brief side note, brief side note. Oprah, did you know that she was actually. Her mom named her Orpah, but when they were writing the birth certificate, they mixed up the letters and that's how she's Oprah. That's actually a true story. So her mother intended to name her Orpah, but that didn't end up happening. And so now we have Oprah. So she leaves and we find Naomi and Ruth clinging to one another and we find something beautiful that happens. Look what happens. Verse 15. She said, See your mother, see your sister in law has gone back to her people and to her gods return after her. She says, this is a good thing. Go But Ruth said to her, do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you.
[00:25:11] And then what we find on many pillowcases, pictures and set at weddings, look with me. For where you go, I will go. And where you lodge, I will lodge. This is beautiful, what she says here.
[00:25:25] This is full of conviction. Your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God. Where you die, I will die. And there I will be buried.
[00:25:35] May the Lord that is Yahweh, the God that you worship, the God that is of Israel, do so to me. And more also, if anything but death parts me from you.
[00:25:49] And then verse 18 says, and when Naomi saw that, she was determined to go with her. When she was courageous is the word. When she was loyal, when she was strong, when she held tightly to her, she said, no more.
[00:26:02] Now, sometimes, as we consider and share this story, we often say, oh, gosh, Oprah, she just left. She just abandoned her mother in law. That really isn't the case. It's not something negative that we see her leaving. Her mother in law released her back to her own people to be cared for. So it makes sense that she would leave. But we see Ruth having different convictions. Let's walk a little bit more slowly through what she said.
[00:26:23] When she says, for where you go, I will go. And where you lodge, I will lodge. Here's what she's saying. I'm willing to leave my family so that I can be with you. I want you to be my new family, whatever that means. That's what I desire. And then she says, your people shall be my people and your God, my God. She's willing to leave her nation. She's willing to leave the idolatrous worship that has been a part of her family for hundreds of years. She's willing to leave it all because of her loyalty, because of her love. And then look what she says. Where you die, I will what die? And there I will be buried. What is she saying? She's saying, lifelong commitment and a willingness to abandon my entire nation is what I want until you die. And the last phrase, may the Lord do to me. And more also, if anything but death parts me, here's what she's doing. She's actually calling judgment upon herself.
[00:27:22] She's saying, judgment should come upon me if I break my promise to you. And this is where we get the word resolve. The word resolve literally means this. A firm determination to do something. Do you see Ruth's resolve here?
[00:27:37] A willingness to say, I'm gonna be determined to stay with you because of my love for you, no matter what that means, I'm leaving. I'm going to hold tightly to now at the tail end of this, we're going to talk more about this and how it relates to us. Because doesn't God want our resolve, our determination to stay committed to him?
[00:27:58] So we see a little bit further here that we can learn something from Ruth.
[00:28:03] She resolved to let nothing move her. She was grounded in her love and her loyalty for a woman that she honored. We see love woven through this entire interaction. This weeping, this clinging, even an unwillingness to leave.
[00:28:16] Love compels us to do significant things. There's few things stronger than love, right?
[00:28:23] There's songs sung about love all over the place. Wars are fought because of love, relationships and marriage. Love is huge in our culture. And oftentimes the level of love that we have for someone correlates with the sacrifice that we're willing to make for them. For example, say if we were to make this about God, God loves us so much that he sent his son to die. That shows the level, the significance of love. If you say, for example, that you love your friend significantly on a massive scale, you're probably willing to do a lot for them, right? Hopefully, for example, your spouse. If you say, I love you, that doesn't mean I'm just going to say those words to you, but it means actions are going to follow that. Right?
[00:29:07] Right. Husbands and wives, love. My proclamation of love will then bring about me doing something to show that kind of love. Second Corinthians 5 says this. The love of Christ, the love that I experience from him, that is what is to compel me to walk in obedience. Here's what it says. For the love of Christ compels us because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. In other words, I am not my own. He bought me and he died for all. That those who live shall no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. Here's what we learn from just this point here.
[00:29:48] The love that we have for the Lord, if it's done only in Word, we don't see loyalty in that because we can sing songs about loving God.
[00:29:58] But we see here from Ruth as she says, I love you and I'm gonna stay with you. Not just I love you and then I'm gonna leave.
[00:30:05] So the question for us then is, what does your love for God look like?
[00:30:10] What does that look like for you? How is your love for God manifesting itself? Because it's easy to say, God, I love you. Those are words. What does that look like in relationships for us today? Love says, for example, I will protect you. I will feed you. I will support you, be kind to you. I'll provide for you.
[00:30:30] I will listen to you. I'll be patient with you. I won't try to control you. I will celebrate with you. I will forgive you. I will speak truth to you. We're called to love one another in the church, right?
[00:30:41] This is what that looks like. I will speak well of you. I will sacrifice for you.
[00:30:46] Consider the people in your life that you love.
[00:30:49] Do they see those things lived out in your life? Husbands and wives, church, families, friends. This kind of love and loyalty. Let's look at the last point before we kind of look at the. Look, let's look at this last point, the last few verses, verse 19, following infliction and identity. And the infliction piece is that Naomi saying, God has inflicted me. Not actually true, but that's her belief about the situation. Look with me, verse 19.
[00:31:18] So the two of them went. They've already packed up. They've got their stuff together.
[00:31:25] Orpah has left. So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. Now, this would have been a long, actually dangerous journey for them, for them to travel two women by themselves back to Bethlehem. You saw that picture of the map earlier. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was. My Bible says stirred. What does your Bible say?
[00:31:46] Stirred? Anybody? Anything different?
[00:31:48] There was excited. Yeah, there was. People, like, looked around. What is going on here? This is significant not only because Naomi has been gone for. Who picked it up? How many years has she been gone for? At least 10 years she's been gone. So the little town in Bethlehem's not very big, is abuzz because Naomi's back. She's been gone for 10 years. And not only that, her husband's not with her. He left with her, but he didn't come back. The two sons that left with her, they didn't come back. But who did come back with her?
[00:32:22] This Moabite woman, who probably would have dressed a little bit differently. We're gonna find out later that she would have been wearing clothes looking like. As a widow would have dressed. So they would have said, okay, this woman is not only grieving because she has grieving clothes on, she's a widow, but she's also a Moabite woman. This would have woken up all. Like, all their senses would have been on alert here. They were stirred up because of them. And then the women Said, is this Naomi? What does Naomi mean?
[00:32:52] Pleasant, Delightful. Is this delightful? Is this Naomi? And she says, verse 20, she said to them, do not call me delightful. Or do not call me Naomi or my delight. Call me Mara.
[00:33:06] We saw earlier, Mara means bitterness. Why? For the Lord Almighty. Here again, she's speaking about. God has dealt very bitterly with me now, in those times, more so than today, which is why I tried to draw it out from the text. In those times, the name that you have, the meaning of the name that you have is very significant for us today. A lot less significant, but for them, very significant. So here's what she wants to do. She's saying, I think my name should be changed because of my circumstances.
[00:33:35] Now, we don't know if her sons actually were sick and generally tired. I don't know why she would go about naming them that. But very possibly, I don't know. But here we see she draws a direct correlation between her circumstances and her identity. And that's what we want to draw away from this here. For the Lord Almighty has dealt bitterly with me. I went away. Look what she says. 21. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty notice. She's saying, it was my choice to go away, and everything was good. But then, because of God, now things are hard. You see that there? Because God, things got harder. God has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? That is delightful. When the Lord has testified or spoken against, spoken publicly against, is what she's saying. Spoken against me. And the Lord Almighty has brought calamity upon me.
[00:34:28] When they approach her, they say, this is Naomi. She says, no, it's bitterness. And here's her reasons. Do you see those four reasons? You can go back one slide. I think these four reasons. Here's her four reasons for why she changed her name. And by the way, people today, you know this and I know this is stepping into kind of a different realm. People today are changing their names.
[00:34:46] And some of us are struggling to figure out how do I navigate an environment where people are changing their names. I know this is a significant big subject. Because I might believe something different about my identity. And so I change the name that I have. I'm just gonna put that out there for a second. Here's the reasons, and we'll come back to it. Here's the reasons that she says she's gonna change her name. Look what it says. The first one says. She says, the Lord Almighty has dealt bitterly with me. That's the first one. Secondly, she says, the Lord has brought Me back empty.
[00:35:17] Which side note is kind of rude to Ruth?
[00:35:20] Cause Ruth's right there.
[00:35:23] Thirdly, the Lord has testified or spoken publicly against me. So now she's saying, the hardship that I'm in is because the Lord wanted my life to look hard or look bad. She's blaming God for this. And then fourthly, the Lord Almighty has brought calamity. And really, the word calamity is affliction. Or he has brought evil upon me. Now, Naomi doesn't stop calling.
[00:35:46] She doesn't say, I'm not gonna believe in him anymore. Notice that she doesn't do that. Which sometimes, even in our culture today, when something's really, really bad, I'm just not gonna believe in God anymore. Do you know people like that where that's happened? God clearly isn't real because all these bad things are happening. Here's what she does. She blames God for the bad things that are happening. But we don't see her abandoning God because of that. But what she does do is this. I'm going to change my identity under God.
[00:36:14] I'm going to consider myself someone different. Now, is it wrong to call out to the Lord and say to God that you're frustrated? Is that wrong? Not at all. We see that throughout Scripture, David does. If you read Psalms, you can't read a few any more than, like, three or four psalms before David's like, God, why is this happening to me? This is so hard. You read through Job, you see over and over again, Job crying out to the Lord. And it's okay to call out and cry out to the Lord because of what's going on in your life.
[00:36:44] But the problem that we see here is this. And it's twofold. One, she says it's God's fault that bad things happen to her.
[00:36:53] She doesn't recognize. Get this. She doesn't recognize her own fault in the matter.
[00:36:58] Remember, at the beginning, we saw her own fault. Here at the end, she's blaming God for the bad things that are going on in her life. And she doesn't say, you know what? I've also done things wrong, too.
[00:37:08] The second thing that we see here that she does wrong is this. She attempts to change her identity due to what has happened to her.
[00:37:17] The negative things particularly. Now, we can choose to blame God. We can cry out to Him. We can be honest with Him. We can say whatever we want. Nothing you say to God is gonna change God. Amen.
[00:37:29] Cause if it was, that'd be a big problem. Really, really big, big problem. You could Say whatever you would like.
[00:37:36] Cause you and I, we can't control some of those things. Especially when we look backwards, we can't control those things. Here's what you can control.
[00:37:44] Someone else said this.
[00:37:46] You can control your response.
[00:37:50] My response is my responsibility.
[00:37:53] Maybe write that down somewhere. My response is my responsibility.
[00:37:57] Because other people can say lots of things to you. Bad things can happen to you. Health, things can happen to you. The question is this, how are you going to respond? We see things. For Naomi, her response was, it's God's fault and I'm mad at him rather than God, help me with this.
[00:38:15] Now, the author of this book, whoever it is, does a beautiful thing, something that is important for us to walk away with. In the last verse of this chapter, the opening line of verse 22 tells us something that I love. Maybe is worth circling and noting. Right after Naomi gives these four reasons for why she should have her name changed due to what has happened to her, the author goes back. Look at verse 22 with me. It's on the screen. Goes back and calls her.
[00:38:44] What? Can we say that together? Naomi. Naomi. The author doesn't say, oh, Naomi wants to change her name. Now we're going to change her name.
[00:38:55] The author says, God gave you the name Mara. I'm sorry, the name Naomi. We're not going to call you Mara. Something else.
[00:39:04] Naomi desired to change her name because she didn't know the end of her story.
[00:39:08] And at times we can build into even our identity. This is who I am. Because of what's happening in our current circumstances. God knows the rest of the story. And so it's trusting him to say, you know the rest of the story. I don't know what's going on. And so I'm gonna trust you rather than try to change you. God.
[00:39:27] We ask ourselves now a question.
[00:39:31] What might happen in our life to cause us to want to change our identity? Or even how do we go about identifying ourselves?
[00:39:40] Who speaks to our identity in a world where identity is constantly under attack by peers, social media, the news, parents, teachers, friends, even enemies? We must remember this. Friends, write this down somewhere. Our identity is first and foremost decided by God, not us.
[00:39:58] Our identity is first and foremost decided by God, not us. Now, it's not to say that we don't have inside of us a tension trying to figure out who we are.
[00:40:08] That's not a bad tension to have inside of us. Who am I?
[00:40:13] And then the way we find that out is by going to the word of God. Amen, and say, God, who do you say that I am? Because there's plenty of people around us. There's plenty of sources around us that will say, you are this or you are this or you are this. Even as parents, we might say this of our kids. You're like this. You're really good at this, and you're not good at this.
[00:40:34] What can happen as we pigeonhole identities on somebody is we're saying, I'm gonna identify you for your circumstances right now, not for the whole story of your life.
[00:40:45] I don't know who God's gonna have you be. And so I'm gonna have God identify me, define me, give me identity, rather than the people around me.
[00:40:56] There are some horrible things that people say sometimes to others.
[00:41:01] We can say terrible things about someone's identity sometimes if we're angry at them, sometimes we're confused, sometimes because we don't understand.
[00:41:10] And so it's vital for us as people of God to speak identity over people that God has already spoken.
[00:41:18] Not for us to create it for. For ourselves. Or even to let our circumstances or our preferences even define who we are.
[00:41:28] Now we might say, this is what I do. Now, who am I? I could say I am a pastor.
[00:41:33] Is that true?
[00:41:34] Well, it's what I do.
[00:41:37] But is that all of my identity?
[00:41:40] No, it's not. You might say I am a dad, or I am a mom. I am a friend.
[00:41:45] Those things. Yes, that might be a part of your identity. I am a parent, for example.
[00:41:51] But if I wrap up my identity in that relationship, what happens when my kids are gone?
[00:41:58] I fall apart.
[00:42:00] Well, I am a husband. What happens if my wife is gone? What happens to me then?
[00:42:05] If that's my identity, if that's all of who I am, I fall apart. Right.
[00:42:11] If I attach my identity to the things that I'm doing, when those things are stripped away from me, my identity changes. That's what we see here with Naomi. She saw herself as a wife, as a mother, and now her husband is gone, her sons are gone. And then what does she say? My identity is gone. Because I wrapped up my identity in these relationships with people, these things that are changing, rather than my relationship with the Lord.
[00:42:42] Question. For you to consider, to write down. You could write down whatever the answers are for this. What have you let define you?
[00:42:48] What have you let define you?
[00:42:52] Maybe you need to write this down. I am. And for me, it's just blank line. I am blank. What is it? I am loved, or I am scared, or I am fearful. I feel in chains. I feel whatever it Is I am. What do you feel like your identity is? And then secondly, God says, I am what?
[00:43:09] So consider that struggle that you and I really wrestle with every single day. Here's who I feel like I am. But who does God say that I am?
[00:43:21] In conclusion to all of this, Ruth one teaches us a few things.
[00:43:25] One, faithfulness to God and to others sustains us through loss.
[00:43:32] In the midst of God's redemptive plan. It's faithfulness to God. Notice how many times did God speak in chapter one?
[00:43:38] None. None. He never spoke. Now we can at times think, well, if God's not saying stuff to me, I guess I can do what I want.
[00:43:45] Rather, even when we're feeling far from God. Cause we've all felt far from God sometimes, right?
[00:43:50] I'm gonna choose to be faithful. Even though my feelings are struggling right now, I'm gonna choose to be faithful.
[00:44:00] Secondly, even when God is not working in significant ways or speaking loudly, obedience still matters. And following his known ways, even in the midst of when we're in a season that is unknown to us. Why does God have me here? What am I doing? What am I supposed to do right now? I don't know the answer to that. But here's what I do know. I can be faithful to what I do know that is clearly written in God's word. And lastly, in a world where our determination to stand firm for the Lord is constantly under attack, our resolve to follow Jesus affects everyone.
[00:44:36] If you let the attacks of the enemy burden you down one or even hold you back from trusting and walking with the Lord, people, other people around you are impacted by that. There's a connection. On the bottom of your bulletin, under your notes there, it says other passages. The last one, there is a passage in Matthew, and it's this passage. As we think about our resolve to follow Jesus. Look what Jesus says. This is Jesus speaking. And he says this. It's on the screen.
[00:45:04] Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross. And what?
[00:45:12] Follow me. There's a song, actually, I will follow, right? Chris Tomlin wrote. It's this idea of following wherever he.
[00:45:21] This kind of statement that Ruth makes about following Naomi is at its very core saying, I'm going to commit to follow you, no matter what that means for me, because I love you and I'm gonna stay loyal to you. This is what Jesus asks of us, isn't it?
[00:45:37] He says, will you stay committed to me no matter what? Will you say the same words that Ruth said to Naomi, will you say, just like Ruth said, where you go, Lord, wherever you take me, I will go. Wherever you have me, stop, I will stop. God, your people, they'll be my people as well. God, whatever you want me to do, I will do. And God, wherever you have me, die, I will die. Wherever you want me to go in life, I will go. This is the kind of resolve that God desires for each of us.
[00:46:12] So what's your resolve today?
[00:46:15] What are you going to choose to say today?
[00:46:17] I am going to follow Jesus. By what? What does that look like for you?
[00:46:22] Maybe it's I'm going to trust in Jesus as my Lord and Savior today. That's my decision.
[00:46:27] Maybe it's this.
[00:46:29] I'm going to choose to pick up God's word regularly again because I haven't been doing that. That's my resolve. Maybe it's this.
[00:46:38] I'm going to love my husband or my wife or my kids in the way that God has called me to.
[00:46:45] Maybe that's the resolve that you make today, Lord, I'm choosing to obey you in this way.
[00:46:52] Maybe it's this. As a parent, I am going to resolve today to give God permission to do with my kids whatever he wants. That's scary.
[00:47:01] Maybe it's this.
[00:47:03] I'm going to choose today to spend time alone with the Lord as often as I possibly can, whatever that might be. We consider this verse. Jesus said, if you want to follow me, it's not going to be easy. You have to choose to resolve, to make a resolution, to follow me wherever I take you. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we are grateful that we're able to come before you as one who is gracious and merciful to us and who calls us into a love relationship with you.
[00:47:32] You're jealous for our hearts. You desire our love.
[00:47:36] And as we see in this text here, the love of someone, the commitment, the loyalty.
[00:47:42] And that's encouraging to us, it's inspiring to us to see what this kind of love and loyalty looks like.
[00:47:48] Help us to spend that time with you, to experience in a powerful and maybe new way the kind of love that you have for us.
[00:47:58] Want to do something a little bit different as we close this next week? There's a few people in the life of the church who are undergoing more invasive surgeries and just want to note who they are so we can pray for them.
[00:48:11] If you would like to come up here, you can if you don't need to. But Logan is and Trista is, and I think Diane is as well. If I Remember correctly.
[00:48:21] But I just want us to be as a church praying for them this next week.
[00:48:27] Yeah, you guys can.
[00:48:29] And if you would, you would just lift up a hand as we pray for them. As you're thinking about them through this week, maybe it's a text message or a phone call of encouragement for them because surgery can be kind of scary if you have experienced that for yourself. And so I would just like us to just to lift them up in prayer. I know it's a little bit different, but this is significant in their lives. And as the body of Christ we care for, for one another. So if you would just join me in prayer for them.
[00:48:57] Lord Jesus, as we had just sung, we're reminded again of your goodness and of your kindness.
[00:49:05] We're grateful today that you are a God who sees all the things going on in our life. And not just that, but you care, you care deeply. And so help us as a church to come around and support these individuals here that are stepping into this next week. It's scary something like this. We don't know what the future holds, but you do. And so we just ask that your peace, a peace that surpasses understanding, would be upon them, that comfort as you, the God of comfort, would rest your hand upon them, that you would be with the surgeons as they work alongside them, work on them. We know, Lord, that we live in these tents, these temporal bodies, and as we deal with struggles, it causes us to look heavenward.
[00:49:49] And so I just ask that you would work in the hearts of each person here struggling with this fear, this tension of uncertainty, Lord, and remind us all of your great care for us as we are made in your image. And so, Lord, I just ask the spirit of peace would be upon them appear a spirit of strength in us as the body of Christ as we leave here today. We are ambassadors. We are called as sent ones to go into the world and to preach, to speak, to declare your goodness and your faithfulness in Jesus name, Amen. Amen.
