03 Redeeming Ruth: Running to Stand Still Ruth 1:19-22

Date: March 16, 2025 Lord’s Day: 11 Series: Redeeming Ruth Title: Running to Stand Still Text: Ruth 1:19-22   Introduction: Last year, around November, I had an appointment with a friend in the neighborhood.  At that time, she was not as mobile as she currently is, so I had driven her to a doctor’s appointment.  We use her car most always when she needs to go places.  I had brought what I usually bring things iPad for any reading or note taking and my ear pods if I needed to listen to anything.   After I had got her into the building where her appointment was, I went off for a quick gasoline trip.  Upon returning I had decided to leave my iPad in the car.  She has no window tint so I put it in the trunk of the car and for some reason that to this day I do not have an answer, I put the keys in the trunk as the iPad was being placed in there.  As I recall, I was making some adjustments to a few things that were inside the trunk.  Then I closed the lid.   Next, I was in the waiting area reading news on my phone.  She was not long in the appointment and then it was time to leave.  We walked to the car and I began searching for the keys in my pocket and at this point a small drizzle had began to descend.  I am digging in each pocket and not finding keys.  I run into the waiting area to see if the keys had fallen out of the pocket or if I had placed them on a side table.  No keys.   This is when it occurred to me that I locked the keys in the car, in the trunk.  The moment I placed the keys on the floor of the trunk was insignificant (freeing my hands).  It was not something I placed a lot of thought, so I really had to replay the whole thing in my head.   Now, I will confess, I am not a man quick to anger.  I will also confess that typically, in the event that I do get angry, I tend not to remain there long.  There began at that moment an increasing sense of anger that just did not relent.    After ushering my friend back to the waiting room and then returning to the car, the next 90 minutes would be filled with further bad news. After roadside assistance helped with unlocking the car doors, guess what does not work when the keys are inside the trunk: trunk release.    I went to YouTube university and found that I was not the only idiot that had this happen.  To fix the problem there was a variety of ways to get the seats to collapse in order to crawl into trunk to retrieve the keys.  The issue there was the right tools/materials were not available.    I was stuck, in the drizzle and sprinkling rain.  Anger was building.  It was hours of anger that turned into bitterness.  I was bitter.  How could I be so stupid?  What in the world was I thinking?  Tina is going to make some stupid remark about me and keys!  How could I do this to my friend?  How could you be so stupid?  You are an idiot!   By 8 PM we had that car back to its place in my friend’s garage, after a 10 AM appointment.  I was reflecting on this as I studied the text because I began to ponder moments when I was bitter.  There have been very few moments where I have made company with bitterness, but this was definitely one.  I was so bitter because this was completely unavoidable.  It was just a silly mistake, that I could not fix, that cost the whole day.   Let us think back to our friends here Ruth and Naomi.  After the great and tragic loss, Ruth and Naomi are coming back to Bethlehem.  Last week, our time was spent looking at what was and was not in their moving boxes as they made the 70-mile journey from Moab back to Bethlehem.    And when they came into Bethlehem the whole town was stirred because of them.  They were genuinely happy to see Naomi.  “Is this Naomi?  We are so happy to see you Naomi!”   What did she do?  Remember what her name meant?  I know it has been three weeks.  Her name means pleasant, or sweet.  We called her sweetheart.      What does she do here?  Don’t call me Naomi.  What she is saying is, “Don’t call me pleasant! Don’t call me sweetheart!”  What does she want to be called?  “Call me Mara!”    If you have a modern translation, those who translated the text wanted to make sure you understood what was being said so they put a footnote on it.  She is saying, “Call me bitter.”    We can return to my cutesy little story about locking my keys in the trunk.  My anger turned into bitterness.  How could I waste my day?  How could I waste my neighbor’s day?  How could I be so stupid?    Naomi is not bitter over something cutesy.  In her words, “I went away full and the (Shaddai) Almighty brought me back empty.”   She undergoes a name change.  “I am bitter!”    You been there?  Has there been moments or seasons where in your assessment it appears that God is picking on you?    Do you want to know what I admire about Naomi here?  She is honest!   Great to see you Naomi, how are you?  “I am bitter!”    I spent that whole day, the day of rage and anger, bottled up.  I am not saying that this was wrong on that occasion, may have been the right thing to do.  But we do it as Christians.  Here is where I am a bit of disadvantage because I am new to this family.  What I see and have experienced is genuine love and welcome.  What we have experienced so far from the youngest to the oldest can’t be faked.  It is real.   Here is the issue.  Just like I put on my best poker face and did the manly thing and stuffed that anger and bitterness deep down inside, we can do that with our church family.    And if it is not true now, it will certainly be true when we start growing.  Because Church is where we need to have our smiling faces on.  Church is where we can be having WW2 getting the family ready in the morning and in the minivan on the way to assembly, but soon as we see that first person in the parking lot, “Mr. Jones . . .Ms. Williams . . . good to see you!  How are you?” The reply, with smiles and a complete change in demeanor “I am doing great.  Good morning!”   It is a total ruse.  Thing are not doing well.  It is a car full of people minutes away from a misdemeanor assault charge and instantly had to turn on the charm.  But there are people who will come through our doors that have real hurts and they will question if God is even good.  God is picking on me.    I have heard the pain.  My own sister, someday maybe I will share the full story, but she lost her daughter by being shot.  A good Christian woman.  Faithful in prayer. Faithful in study.  In every aspect, living a fruitful Christian life.    The sound of weeping as they first let immediate family in to see her before the funeral.  Gut wrenching weeping.  This is that which Naomi and family had faced.    Naomi will not fake smile.  Call me BITTER!  I am bitter.  Life is not going well right now and I am bitter.  God is bitter towards me.  I am having trouble!    We are not used to hearing this type of response.  Nor are we used to being this honest.   It appears Naomi put this out on Main Street in Bethlehem.  I am really struggling right now.   So, I am going to ask a question and I really want you to think about it.  It’s rhetorical.  Did God fail Naomi?  That is what she is thinking right now.  She still calls Him by the Covenant name YHWH – but she feels let down. (V. 21 I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty.)   It is similar to what I have placed on the front of your bulletin this week.  Syria is a mess.  It is on display for the entire world to see.  This mess is graphic.  You can go on social media, where most everyone gets there news now, and see actual people getting shot.  Fellow Christians who are dying for the faith.   What do we do with that?  This is the level of pain that asks, “How can God let that happen?”  This can be a source of deep bitterness in a believer’s life.   What the World Says The world rarely has an answer of substance.  The world will suggest that maybe you have bad Karma.  You are being paid back for something you have done.  Maybe you should not have thrown your house slipper at the dog when he was licking his paw for 30 minutes at 1:25 in the AM.  You are getting paid back because you did not contribute to that poor person begging on the street corner.   This reasoning is not limited to Karma.  We are confronted with a reality here that, as your pastor, I will address many times.  We discussed this reality in our first sermon in Ruth, but at this moment I would like to take a little further.  It concerns the notion that if things are going bad for you, then you must have done something wrong, maybe you lack faith.  If you have enough faith, things will go well for you.   This was the counsel that Job’s friends brought to Job.  “Job, just confess your sin and ask forgiveness, and all this calamity that has beset you will cease.”   I warn against this because this thinking still exists today.  It appears on television in abundance.  It is called prosperity theology.  How many have heard of this?   If you have enough faith you will not suffer.  That is the message.  If you have enough faith, represented by what you give, you will sow a seed for success.  That you will have watches and cars and houses.  How did that work for Jesus?  Who had more faith and was more faithful than Jesus?  Who did not have a home to lay his head and was murdered.   Advice from Paul From where is our strength for this?  How shall we bear such bitterness? The Psalmist says: “Whom have I in heaven but you? There is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.  My flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” You think David had moments of doubt?  You think David may have had times where he asks the Lord, “Are you still on my side God?  Are You still with me?”  You bet ya he did. I was thinking about this regarding prayer.  This sovereignty of God.  We come to God when it’s a big deal.  When there is a surgery.  We pray, “Lord, help us through this surgery.” And rightfully so.  We should pray like that.  We pray, “Lord, be with the nurses and the doctors.  Let them be fresh and not tired.  Let them be alert.” Because we know the God is sovereign.  We know that He is over all.  We read through all those wonderful passages in the first sermon that God holds the heart of the king and that God controls what is above the earth and what is below in the seas and all the deeps. I was thinking regarding this in the differences in how prayer is offered if things are less out of our hands, as if nothing is in our hands.  He holds it all. If my daughter was driving two hours away, I would pray that the car would make it.  I would pray that she be alert.  I would pray that the belt does what the belt is supposed to do and that the crank shaft would crank and that the alternator would alternate.  But how differently I pray if she is going five minutes away.  I would not pray at all.  Or if I were driving the prayer would be different. The things which we feel are in our control we think we can accomplish.  This is your reminder, there is no sin in not praying that you make it home from church today.  The wrong is feeling confident that we have control of some things and God has control of the big things.  Everything is life and death.  Every heart beat.  Every breath that we take is life and death.  Every microscopic particle in our body is life and death and God controls it. John Flavel was a terrific Puritan pastor who wrote and taught extensively on Sanctified Affliction.  We will spend more time on this next week, but permit me to introduce it here.  He says that Christians must view suffering as one would read Hebrew.  His point is in that Hebrew is read right to left.  English is read left to right.  So from an English perspective, what Flavel is saying, is we must view suffering from the end and looking back. In another way, we begin with this playdough.  It is a child’s toy.  But as we look at this playdough we can make it into anything.  It depends on what skill level.  We can make a ball.  That is easy.  I have very little skill, so I can make a ball.  There are others who are artistic and can use that gift and skill and make something spectacular.  Whatever the skill level, there is a process.  In this process there will be things removed that should not be there.  We can press the playdough into a mold and it becomes that mold.  The end product being exactly what we desire. In the believer’s life, we serve a God who molds us.  There are several passages of Scripture that speak of this process.  There are season’s of molding in which God has led me that I deserved His wrath but rather He gave me discipline.  I look backwards, just like reading Hebrew, I look at the event(s) and look at where I am and realize, these things happened because I needed shaped into holiness.  It is not Karma – It is the potter shaping the pot. There are also season’s of suffering in which God has led me that were not a response to any specific rebellion on my part.  The end result, looking back, God shaped me and He is to be praised.  God is sovereign and God is good.  God is sovereign and rules over them perfectly and for His glory.  Think of Paul who had “far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food,[b] in cold and exposure. “ (2 Corinthians 11:23c-27) This is suffering.  This is suffering that we could not imagine.  His attitude?  “We do not lose heart.  Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.  For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17) Can you see that?  You think of the suffering of Naomi.  The loss is severe.  The loss is tragic.  Her loss, your loss and my loss, is nothing in comparison to what awaits us.  This momentary affliction is no comparison.  What awaits us a one million to the one million power of glory that we can’t comprehend.    In the Life of Our Savior Naomi had a bitter cup that she had to endure.  It consumed her.  I don’t think any of us really want to be in Naomi’s position.  Yet at the same time we see the suffering Christ in Naomi’s plight.  Can you see Jesus here?  We are beginning our ascent to Easter Sunday.  Jesus drank a cup of bitterness on our behalf.  “Father, if there is any other way, please. Let this cup pass.”  Our Lord personally faced the deadly bitterness Naomi faced.  He took bitter death upon himself. Jesus has led us in paths of righteousness for HIS name’s sake.  It is for the glory of God alone that this cup of bitterness was consumed.             Now I look here at Naomi’s recollection of things.  While it may be true that God will discipline the believer it is not always true that this is the reason for rough times.   I do want to reiterate this: from the first week.  Sometimes, rough times do beset us because we are in need of that.  We need to be shaped. It is not stated in the text of Ruth, but based on what the Law of Moses says, the reason for the famine was disobedience.    Isn’t it so like us that Naomi has selective recall.  I went away full and YHWH brought me back empty.  You left in distrust.  You left because there was no food.   This is where I see myself.  I can see me in Elimelech.  Psalm 37:3, “Dwell in the land and thou shalt be fed.”  But they left the land.  I just need to provide for my family.  Elimelech looks around and reasons, I am doing all this running but I am standing still.  There is nothing for us.  I will go over here.   It is not unusual in our bitter moments to have recall the good and not the bad.  This is what Naomi is doing.  She did not leave full.  She left in need.  She left in want.  She left in disobedience.