Be like Ruth: Believe that God is Bigger than your Pain

Ruth 1 - Story of Tragedy

Ruth 1 (ESV)

In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. So she set out from 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. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.” Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”

So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty

Pain has a way of leaving us feeling empty, especially loss. We feel the weight of the emptiness surrounding the absence of the person we loved.

Naomi and her family

Historical Context -

The book of Ruth - sits during a time of Judges and before king David. This story was how one family reacted to a time of crisis (judgement from God to the nation of Israel)…They decided Moab and Israel were longtime fighting cousins.

time of Abraham and Lot - fighting and squabbling over land

wars throughout the OT

illegal to marry Moabites

The book is a work of art, because of it’s sensitivity to women in crisis.

Widowhood meant poverty

Barren Widows meant that God had not blessed them as people - some sort of sin in the family

Naomi no longer has any blessings (in her eyes and in the eyes of society)

Her tragedy encompasses her entire future hope for:

relationship, social status, and finances

I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty

Ruth gives us the best example of how to face a crisis.

Our thoughts about God do not stop God’s hand from working

Ruth calls God her God, she in her tragedy is willing to serve God to serve Naomi

Names of God - We don’t use them now, but they were important back during the time of the book of Ruth)

Naomi calls God (Shadday - referring to the role of God as the chief of the heavenly council - who created, ruled, and supervised the moral order. - The God responsible for making sure everyone behaved.

God rules over the system he set up

Things are not going Naomi’s way, so she is calling the almighty “ruler of the order of the world” - God as turning away from her.

Bitterness - Call me bitterness because CLEARLY, God views me as too bitter, broken, and worthless to be blessed with children.

Pain can cause us to view God as angry, upset, or WORSE indifferent

Our thoughts about God do not stop God from working among us

In our pain and bitterness, we need to ask God to show us his true character.

Spend time thinking about the creation

Spend time expressing pain to God

Identify the names and roles you have assigned God

Our thoughts about God do not stop God from working, but they can limit our relationship to him. (NOT him to us, but us to him)

We can be trapped by our moments of tragedy and grief - miss God’s provision, we can even miss God weeping beside us, miss the person God has orchestrated to walk alongside us.

In our grief, how many of us have the privilege of someone so devoted to us they would risk their entire future?

Naomi does.

We need to in our grief, we need to ask God to help walk with us.

Thank God for:

the people who are standing by us

the food on our tables

the eternal hope we have

Ask God to:

Reveal himself, his true name and nature to us

provide for our future

Be like Ruth - Ruth gives us the best example of how to face a crisis.

She sticks with Naomi and declares she will serve God

God of Israel is bigger than her uncertain future.

Ask God to make your faith eyes big enough to follow him and cling to him in your grief.

Ruth may not know GOD as well as Naomi, but she believes GOD is bigger than the future.

Ruth’s faith is carrying Naomi. (In our grief, we need to let others carry our faith. It is a beautiful picture of community)

God’s blessing comes from the unexpected

God shows up in Naomi’s life through blessing - the blessing of Ruth and the timing of the barley harvest

Remember Naomi’s phrase - The identification of her pain - CALL Me MARRAH

I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty

Bethlehem means House of Bread

Elimelech moved his whole young family across to wait out the harvest - HE LEFT THE HOUSE OF BREAD TO TRY somewhere else.

Naomi’s Inner monologue is normal after a tragedy, string thoughts around tragedy

If only, We hadn’t moved

If only I argued for waiting out the famine

If only,

Maybe this NEVER would have happened

A normal part of grief is bargaining and blaming -anger

Naomi has experienced a decade of repeated loss - over and over she encounters grief and loss of all the future hope in her lineage

Be nice to Naomi in her grief, Be like Ruth

(Be nice to yourself in your grief)-

Don’t let your pain define God, let God define you in your pain

Ruth - Moabite - AN OUTSIDER who doesn’t really know GOD, is the embodiment of God’s blessing

God’s Blessing comes from the unexpected

Naomi’s name - She identify’s with her pain

Although Naomi name derives from a root נעם, “to be pleasant/kind.” Transliterated precisely as noʿomî (נָעֳמִי), this may be an abbreviated name for No‘omiah (noʿŏmiyyāhû; נָעֳמִיָּהוּ), “kindness of YHWH”

Daniel I. Block, Ruth: The King Is Coming, ed. Daniel I. Block, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2015), 67.

Ruth identify’s herself in her relationships - to Naomi and to Naomi’s God and people

BOTH HAVE A CHANGE OF IDENTITY AND BELIEF IN THIS CHAPTER

God works with both of their choices. God is not limited by their choices, but Naomi, marrah - misses the blessing in the darkness and uncertainty, and Ruth clings to love and blesses others.

Now it’s time for the barley harvest,

still risky, but their is hope for food.

THERE IS HOPE in God even in your pain, ESPECIALLY, in your pain.

Don’t let your pain define God, let God define you in your pain.

PRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY, YEAAA LLLLLLLL