You may be seated. Good morning, it is a privilege to be with you and to bring God's word to bear upon us this morning. If you recall last time that opportunity to preach here in the morning, we left off in the book of Ruth and just wanted to give you a brief reminder of where we left off. You may recall that this book is set in the days in which the judges rule, which speaks volumes to the prevailing cultural moment of Israel's day, the seemingly collective hardness of heart, especially against a Lord in all that he commanded.
If the people themselves were their own goding light, there was no king in those days, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. It seems this particular Hebrew family, the book of Ruth really zeroes in on that this family from Bethlehem was no exception. They too did what was right in their own eyes. When famine struck Bethlehem, or house of bread, Elimalek led his family into land of the Emmys.
Sojurning in a foreign land for food instead of waiting upon the Lord and returning to him. And so while they were sojurned there, you would recall that their sons took Moabite wives, but then Elimalek died and so did Naomi's sons. And so here we have this morning set before us, the sea, Naomi returning to return back to Bethlehem, and the question is going to be, will her daughters all come, or will they? Stay, they're happy.
They're happy. And so that is true. We should be reminded of the sobering nature of life. Right, lest we think that we find in the scriptures here some sort of fairy tale, right?
Some sort of fairy tale that when it comes to the Lord's sovereign hand at work in life, that all we must do is return, and all will be well. Here we find me, some way, is the grief, knowing the hardness of life. And there's nothing really ever after about her return. So what does Naomi's homecoming look like this morning?
That's what we're going to see here in Ruth chapter one, beginning in verse seven. I would invite you to turn with me in your vitals. Before we read God's word, let us pray. Would you pray with me, please?
Our God, and heaven, we thank you that you have spoken to us and revealed yourself. Lord, might we value your word? Might it be as to us, gold, even very refined, gold, might it be sweeter than honey? And Lord, in it, might we be whole Christ.
And so we ask that you would fill us with your spirit, Lord, that you would enliven us to your word, that you would grip our hearts and our minds, that we might love Jesus all the more. And so would you be with us now? Ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.
This is God's word beginning in verse seven. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, go return each of you to her mother's house. It will all deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with, as you as 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. It was 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 Orpa kissed her mother-in-law. But Ruth clung to her. 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 or to return from following you, 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 will I be buried. It'll, 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. And so Naomi returned, and Ruth, the Moabite, her daughter, and the maul with her, who returned from the country of Moab.
It came to Bethlehem at the beginning of a barley harvest. The grass withers and the flower falls. The word of our God stands forever and ever. Thanks be to God.
I wonder if you have ever been stumped by the dreaded not? If you have been shooters that have been tied and cenched down with sinically and human strength, maybe you have those Christmas lights that you swore that last year you were going to take time and actually wrap them up properly, but really, you shoved them in a box only for this year to have to struggle with untangling them. Again, that happens in my household. Maybe you've tossed an extension cord into your shed, and a quick job becomes a very long job, because you spend all the time untangling it.
Maybe little girls and necklaces twisted, not it, to the point of being practically fused together. Have you ever been faced with a daunting task of unraveling something, and you just can't seem to make it work? Well, spiritually speaking, when we consider God's providence, it can feel oftentimes tangled and twisted and convoluted, and knotted together. And it's all around difficult for us to make any sense of it.
And before us this morning, we have a case in point. How do we make sense of God's providential and sovereign work in the life of Naomi, with all that's come to pass, and with all that lies ahead? Well, we come to the ultimate answer of God's ordaining all things to come to pass, and friends of secret. It's unknowable.
It is greater and beyond our comprehension. We peer into the infinitude of our triune God, and the perfection of all his attributes, and to the absolute perfection of his character. And all we can do is hear his words and Isaiah echo in our hearts from my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways, my ways, declares the Lord.
Perhaps we hear the psalmist, that's the heavens are higher, then the earth so are my ways higher than your ways. And my thoughts, your thoughts, the Lord has exalted over all the nations. It's glory above the heavens. Who is like our God, the one who sits and thrown on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?
The sermon this morning comes with a little bit of a disclaimer. We can't untangle God's providence. Not even often in hindsight, will you have the proper perspective to get the full picture? And I imagine for many of us, that God is always heavy on our feeble human hearts itching to plan, exercising control, or perhaps even coming to grips with the fact that God's province transcends our plans, our five year, our 10 year, our 20 year plans.
It's hard to wrestle with the fact that God is Lord even over our lives and our future. But for a while, the Lord is transcendent. While he is above all things, and his ways are higher than our ways, he has condescended to us and revealed himself most gloriously in Jesus Christ. And it's not that we don't know his ways at all, but rather it's that we know him.
It's not that we don't know his ways at all, but more so that what matters for us is that we know him. It's not that the Lord would have us unravel his secret plan for our lives as if we are Sherlock Holmes on the case, but more so that we might behold him in all of his glory, that we might see Christ. So let's look together this morning and behold our God from our passage first. We ask the question, how do we make sense of the Lord's directing hand?
How do we make sense of the Lord's directing hand? Well, we should know that it's costly. It's here that we have a realistic understanding of what a way to Naomi and Israel. Seemingly, she considered her own future in verses 11 through 14, and she will lay out what awaits them in Orca, in Ruth, in Bethlehem.
And she had no illusion that things were going to be easy. That returning to Bethlehem would merely make all of her problems go away. There's a crossroads in our text this morning. And what Naomi begins to do is to lay out the realities of what life would mean for Ruth and Orca, as they would have attached themselves to Naomi, honoring their mother-in-law.
So Naomi seeks to give them a way out. She here to go. Return. Spare yourselves from the misery that awaits me back home.
You can imagine the emotional interchange. We read that there was weeping that took place. Naomi, perhaps even taking their faces in her hands, pleading with them, please go back home. Live the life that I hoped that I would have had myself.
You see, Naomi was hopeless. She had no husband to provide for her. It seems she had no parents to take her in. She has two advanced in years to remarry and bear children in any sort of way that would have provided for her needs, and would have met God's law to provide for both Ruth and Orca.
She was a widow. She had no trade to support herself. And so this is the situation which Naomi hopes to spare, Orca, and Ruth, don't join me in my misery, she says. This misery does not love company.
Also didn't help that Ruth and Orca were Moabites. They were of God's enemies. And for them to come among God's people would have been strange to say the least. And so her words are to the pair in verses 8.
They're in fact, go return each of you to her mother's house. The Lord grant that you may find rest in each, or in your house of her husband. So the only hope that Naomi has, seemingly, is that these two girls won't share in the same fate as her. They might have a fruitful life.
But they might remarry. But they might have children. They might live the life for which Naomi had hoped for herself. And while there is an initial refusal by both women to leave their mother-in-law, we read that Naomi ups the ante.
She doubles down. She lays it out plain. There's no way to salvage this family situation, according to Naomi. She runs through every line of reasoning.
She puts out everything that would make sense. And what happens? Well, we see that Orpa chooses to go. Now, before we get to Ruth's response, which is really the climactic moment of this first chapter, we need to see the costliness of following after the Lord.
By human understanding, there is emptiness. And there is hopelessness awaiting Naomi in Judah. And yet we also see here that the grace of God is at work in pruning. It's an emptying out that Naomi may be filled again with the love and mercy of God.
I like how one commentator says that he says, Naomi here is speaking about what may be involved in yielding to the grace of God. Nothing will be guaranteed to us except that his grace will be sufficient for all our needs and that he will never be our debtor. There's an equation at work in our verses this morning. And simply this is Yahweh plus nothing in Bethlehem or everything minus Yahweh in Moab.
It's the question for us, which would we choose? We have laid before us a glory of salvation and the cost of discipleship. There is an interchange between a rich young man and Jesus recorded in the New Testament in Matthew 19. We read and behold, a man came to him to Jesus saying, teacher, what good deed must I do to have everlasting life?
And he said to them, why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments. And he said, which ones?
And Jesus said, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself and the young man said to him, all these, I've kept. What do I still lack? And Jesus said to him, if you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come, follow me. And when the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful where he had great possessions.
You can have costly nature following Christ, the giving up even of ourselves for his sake. Jesus responds following this interchange to his disciples. He says, and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my name's sake will receive 100 fold. And we'll inherit eternal life.
Yahweh, plus nothing is everything. At this crossroads for Orpa and Ruth, really the substance of it was to count the cost. And so we looked to the life of Christ who was born into a lowly estate under the law who knew the sufferings and pangs of this life, who died of vicious death and was forsaken by the Father. See when we count the cost of following Christ, we turn to the one who has already paid dearly for that forgiveness of sins that we enjoy even this day, that we have come to rejoice and proclaim this morning for adopting us as sons and daughters, for reconciling us to a holy God.
Here we see the costliness of following the Lord. He's teaching Naomi is making her lo-oh that she might be raised up again. And so what we have in front of the two daughters in law or a real depiction that the Lord does not leave his people alone, that he will bring them to himself, he will pursue them even to the point of stripping away every earthly trapping that we might find our ultimate satisfaction and contentment in him. How do we make sense of the Lord's direct in hand?
Well, we have to count the cost, Church. Secondly, what I want you to see this morning is we have another question. How do we make sense of God's about ingrace? How do we make sense of God's about ingrace?
Well, I think we find in our passage and illusion that we should look to Christ. It was astounding to me that Ruth responds the way she does. Right, and there are scholars and commentators who debate whether this is indeed a conversion outlined here in verses 14 through 18. But I don't see how we can see such a response and not see the Lord drawing and having had worked in Ruth.
But if you can probably tell this about me, but I am not a runner. To the point that if you see me running, you better ask yourself the question whether you should be running or not. Something might be chasing me. Maybe there's a fire that needs to be put out.
But I listen to runners tell me about running. And they hit the road and they put in the miles and they talk about how much they hurt, how hard that run was, how they don't seem to be getting any faster, and how much money they had to shell out for all the equipment to begin with. And to be honest with you, it doesn't make me want to run anymore. And when we come to this, we see that oftentimes, right, runners seem to be miserable.
And it doesn't make me want to run. And if you do run, more power to you. But here we have something outstanding and really astonishing in this passage because we have Naomi explaining to Ruth and showing forth to Ruth that sometimes the Lord brings us low. And yet Ruth does not return back to escape some sort of punishment or to escape some sort of suffering, excuse me, but that she actually leans in and confesses her love for this Lord that also Naomi confesses.
What does Naomi say? It is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. She menses no words knowing that the Lord is sovereign and his holy will comes to pass. Later she'll confess to the bethlemites who ask after her.
She'll say that the Lord, the Almighty, has dealt very bitterly with me. I want to wait full. Now 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.
This is not squishy and attractive language, something like we might find in the prosperity gospel. There is a testimony by Naomi here. The Lord takes away that he prunes. And you have to admit from an outside and earthly and worldly standpoint, this life is not very attractive.
Discipline isn't usually sought out by our children, right? It's usually avoided at all costs. Few children enjoy being grounded, having their cell phones taken away, or their keys taken away, or made to do major chores. We don't choose that.
And yet how does Ruth respond? She has come to know this Yahweh through her husband, through Naomi and through Elimalek, even perhaps their poor depiction of following the Lord. And her response may be one of the most beautiful expressions in the scriptures. You can imagine the emotional setting Ruth, having patiently listened to Naomi's plea.
And she responds, do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you 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 will I be buried.
The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you. What I want you to see in this passage is the language that's being used, and the language that Ruth herself has adopted and adapted. Here we have covenantal language. You may know that there are ways in which Hebrews wrote to emphasize a point.
There would be literary devices used that we can see a signpost to point us to what is being emphasized. And first what I want you to note is the author's use of repetition. The word return is used quite often in this section. In fact, it's used some 10 times.
This word usually Old Testament is that of repentance or turning or returning to the Lord. But here in Ruth chapter one, we see it used of Naomi going, home. It's what Naomi encourages Orpa in Ruth to do, to return to their own homes and find their own husbands. And here in verses, these verses emphasize that Ruth is turning to the Lord.
Perhaps she's already turned to the Lord. She's in essence saying, don't tell me to go back to my people. Don't tell me to go back to my gods. You, the Israelites are my people, the Lord.
YHWH, he is my God. Secondly, there's a literary device used. We call it a chaiassen. It's kind of like two spotlights, that point, to a single point to emphasize something.
And this is the phrase that's emphasized. You shall be my people and your God, my God. And this beloved is steeped in the words of the Lord. This is reflected of God's covenant promises, who says to Israel and to us, you shall be my people and I shall be your God.
And Sinclair Ferguson notes this. What Ruth is saying in response to Naomi then is this. This God who made his covenant with Abraham, who brought his people out of Egypt and the Exodus, who has promised to provide for us with grace and salvation. Naomi, this is my God.
That is what I'm saying. You people shall be my people and your God, my God. I want you to see here, as the beginnings of the sun peeking through the clouds that have overtaken Naomi. Remember, this whole book is asking the question, where is God and what is he doing?
And we see a glimmer of an answer here. God is saving and has saved Ruth, a foreigner, a Moabite, nonetheless, as being brought into God's covenant people. God's grace is at work. And I'm not sure Naomi understands or has come to terms just yet, what the Lord's bringing good from such tragedy, but the Lord is indeed at work in such a surprising conversion is a big indication.
Yet here we have set against the dark backdrop of the days, and we said, judges rule the Moabites, woman proclaiming and modeling such a glorious picture of God's love. And while I do think that the climax of this first scene is Ruth's confession, right, that the Lord is her God. I don't want you to miss her active service to Naomi. Here we see that as hopeless as Naomi may consider herself, as grieve that she is, as broken as she is, Ruth clings to her.
She casts her lot with Naomi because she trusts in the Lord, but also because she loves Naomi. And it's a stark contrast to Israel where Ruth embodies these traits to the Lord. And Israel seems to be turning away and forgetting the goodness of God. There are a couple of principles I want you to see for this passage.
First, as hard as it may seem, the Lord may be using your affliction to bring those that are far off near to the Lord. The Lord may be using your own affliction to bring those that are far off near to the Lord. In fact, we see that even through what we might call a limulex disobedience in Naomi's complicity, complicity, holistacy, life is born in Ruth. What testimony to the power and work of our God who uses even our sin and our wandering for his own glory and praise for the good of his people and for the good of his church?
This is a good reminder that we should continue to pray for those whom the Lord has burdened our hearts, who are far from the Lord, who may even be loved ones or family that they are not so far off from God that they cannot be brought back. The Lord cannot be at work in drawing them to himself. So if you're praying for those that are lost and dying, don't give up the Lord indeed saves. But secondly, take note of the irony of Naomi's pronouncement of blessing.
Right, she says, may the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. This will come back into play again later, but there is no greater dealing of kindness to Ruth than drawing her to himself. The Lord has shown himself to be kind. And so Ruth's blessing is not found back in Moab, but the kindness that she will know is being with Yahweh and his people.
We're called here to see the glory and greatness of salvation in these verses. And if you're here this morning having repented of your sins and believed upon the name of Christ alone for salvation that beloved, the Lord has dealt kindly with you. He has dealt kindly with you. The Lord has shown his steadfast love towards you.
And in light of Naomi's experience and perhaps your own, we must always remember that if we have been adopted as sons and daughters of God, then we did not get what we deserved. The kindness of the Lord is on full display. And Naomi just misunderstands where Ruth's gonna find it. We can only find it in Christ.
But if we have received Christ, no matter our trials or struggles, no matter the disciplining hand of the Lord, no matter those lean days of uncertainty, if nothing even ever seems to go our way, the love of the Lord has dealt kindly with us in Christ. And thanks be to God. How do we make sense of the Lord's amount of grace while we look to the cross? We behold Jesus, who suffered in our place, who died in our stead that we might become sons and daughters of the God knows time.
Lastly, how do we make sense of the Lord's chasing rod? The Lord oftentimes empties us that we might be filled with Christ. I want you to see this scene ends with Naomi making it home. And there's this shot that reverberates through the town, this noble family who leaves, of which only one individual returns with a Moabite woman in tow, it's strange.
And so the whole town was stirred because of them. They were abuzz as bees. And Naomi and Ruth had become the talk of the town. Perhaps the gossip mills were turning.
And they were beginning to questions having been asked and maybe answers having been given. And yet what we see here is a real look into Naomi's state. Did not call me Naomi, call me Mara. The Almighty has dealt bitterly with me.
I want to wait 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. Remember that it's likely that Naomi's name means something like pleasant. And what she's doing here, she's saying, don't call me pleasant but call me bitter or bitterness because the Lord has dealt unkindly with me.
I am anything but pleasant. My lot is anything but pleasant. I am bitter and that name fits me. You see, there's this recognition by Naomi that the Lord has chasing her, that he has disciplined her.
And indeed the Lord has brought her back empty, but it appears that Naomi is so engrossed in her loss and so engrossed in her grief that she has been so consumed by the darkness of her circumstances that she has failed to behold her God. And that's the irony of this passage, Ruth, the foreigner, the enemy of God's people. She has a better grasp of Yahweh than her Hebrew mother-in-law. Her grief clouded her beholding her God in infinite goodness and mercy instead of that love that she might be filled with his grace, that she may be restored and redeemed and she might behold the glory of God in such a way that she will never want to turn away from his presence again.
We begin to see the work of God's disciplining rod at work, to bring Naomi back and to see her restored, to draw her to himself. In fact, we'll see later in these verses and chapters that we may not know exactly what the Lord is doing in the midst of our affliction, in the midst of our trials, but he is building us up in him. We may never know what the Lord is doing or accomplishing through our dark days, but as he empties us, he will surely fill us with grace and with mercy and with more of himself. We know that the grace of our God abounds in us, as he accomplishes all his good purposes.
We can trust that the Lord is good, and friend, we don't get to define the Lord's goodness. We don't get to define the Lord's goodness. Could it be that Naomi is so blinded to the glory of God because she has judged his character by her own thoughts and by her own experience and not taking God at his word? Wondered why the Lord didn't show himself as being the good that she expected.
Let it be in faith must look upon the Lord in all that he is, and we may not untangle the not of his providence, but we come as we hold God, we see the one who leads and directs and brings all things to come to pass as a good God who has loved us in Christ. What you see here that these days of affliction and discipline, we must remember that God is good. And while we may not know what he's doing, we do know who he is. And so friends, if you find yourself questioning and toiling and squirming under God's providence, turn to him as he is revealed in his word, turn to him as he has revealed himself in Christ, unless you make sure that we are looking to behold who God is, and regardless of what we experience, regardless of our circumstances, we will grow in our faith and love and trust and worship of the one who is our glorious God.
Let's pray. Our God, and heaven, we do thank you that you have not left us in darkness. Well, Lord, even in our darkest days, you have shown forth brightly in Jesus Christ. What we see your grace and your mercy abound for sinners like me, for sinners like us.
Lord, how much glory will you receive for this work that you have done in Ruth and this work you will do in Naomi? And Lord, might it be so for us. And so God, we do pray that you would increase our faith, that you would hold tightly to us, and God that we might behold you, that we might love you and honor you. So God, would you bless us now as we continue to praise your name?
And in Jesus name, I pray. Amen. If I should take your bulletins and let's sing together, you may stand, so we sing for all the saints.