Heartbreak, Sorrow and Faith in the Lord
Notes
Transcript
Main Point: The LORD uses TRIALS and HARDSHIPS to TEACH us and to GROW our FAITH.
Announcements- Cummin’s graduation party, cookie giveaway- bring them between the 10th and the 12th- I’ll be here during the day! Then help us give them out on the 14th-16th! We’ll have maps available that will give you locations of where to go around Savoy and these neighborhoods by the church!, Christmas eve (2 DIFFERENT services! Come and join us for both!)
INTRO: Ruth is really a Christmas story. I know that may sound crazy, but it’s true! Ruth is really a Christmas story. It heavily foreshadows the coming of our savior!
Over the next four weeks, we are going to study the book of Ruth going through it verse by verse. There’s some major themes that we are going to see.
In Ruth, we will see:
Foreshadowing for the Coming Redeemer
Restoration of Hope by God alone
Faith in a faithless time
How God can use ANYONE in HIS plan! (ONE MORE ON THE NEXT SLIDE)
We will see Godly character in a godless time
And as a bonus, we will see many reflections of Proverbs 31 in the life of Ruth!
Ruth is a really powerful story that shows deeply how God works! Today, we will see how THE LORD USES TRIALS AND HARDSHIPS TO TEACH US AND TO GROW OUR FAITH!
BODY: As we walk through Ruth, let’s start by reading the first 2 verses which give us context for our passage. We read: Ruth 1:1–2
During the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to stay in the territory of Moab for a while. The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife’s name was Naomi. The names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the fields of Moab and settled there.
Let’s walk through this context together that sets the stage for this book.
Ruth takes place during the time of the Judges, which spanned from roughly 1380 to 1050 B.C.. Typically, Ruth is dated to roughly 1200-1150 B.C.
In Judges there is a cycle that goes on, over and over. This cycle has 5 parts.
First, the Israelites walk with God.
Second, the Israelites stop following God.
Third, the Israelites are given over to their enemies by God.
Fourth, the Israelites cry out to God!
Fifth, the Israelites are rescued by a judge who God appoints.
This cycle repeats itself throughout Judges and it is at play in Ruth also. Although we will not see the full cycle, the book starts with a famine, which is often linked to disobedience in the Old Testament.
This is especially common in prophecy. Amos 4, Joel 1, Zepheniah 3, and Haggai 1 all include references to famine being sent BY GOD TO CORRECT THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL!
So, the spiritual setting for Ruth seems to be a time when the Israelites are not walking closely with God! The actions of Elimelech and Naomi further show us that.
Ruth takes place in two places- Bethlehem which is just southeast of Jerusalem and then in Moab, which is southeast of the Dead Sea.
(MAP NOTES- This is a map of the conquest of Canaan. Notice BETHLEHEM AND MOAB)
In verses 1 and 2, we are introduced to a man named Elimelech who is married to Naomi, who’s name means pleasant or gentle. Together, they have 2 sons.
They live in Bethlehem but move to Moab because of a famine. They are from the tribe of Judah, which settled in that area.
Elimelech is a farmer as was common and he settles into the fields of Moab during this famine. Deuteronomy 30:1-3 shows us a promise that God gives Israel. It is a promise of deliverance in hard times.
“When all these things happen to you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you come to your senses while you are in all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and all your soul by doing everything I am commanding you today, then he will restore your fortunes, have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.
Moving into verse 3, we read Ruth 1:3-5
Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, died, and she was left with her two sons. Her sons took Moabite women as their wives: one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth. After they lived in Moab about ten years, both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was left without her two children and without her husband.
Elimelech dies and Mahlon and Chilion (Pronounced Kilion) marry Moabite women.
The Moabites were descendants of Lot. They were distantly related to Israel and Israelites were allowed to marry Moabites.
For 10 years, the live in Moab, but by the end of these 10 years, Elimelech, Mahlon and Chilion have all died!
Now, Naomi, Orpah and Ruth are left without a way to support themselves!
In many ways, this is a hopeless situation! Remember, the entire reason that Naomi moved to Moab was to be provided for and now she has no way to provide for herself or her daughters-in-law.
This tragedy sets the scene for us to see GOD’S GREAT PROVISION! Even as everything looks hopeless, it isn’t!
Let’s look at verses 6 and 7 together. Ruth 1:6-7
She and her daughters-in-law set out to return from the territory of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to his people’s need by providing them food. She left the place where she had been living, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, and traveled along the road leading back to the land of Judah.
Naomi, Orpah and Ruth begin the journey back to Bethlehem. Look at what is highlighted in verse 6.
Naomi has heard that, THE LORD HAD PAID ATTENTION TO HIS PEOPLE’S NEEDS...”
Keep that in mind. Naomi knows that GOD HAS PROVIDED for Israel.
This statement sets up a contrast between what Naomi KNOWS to be true and HOW SHE ACTS.
Ruth 1:8–14 (CSB)
Naomi said to them, “Each of you go back to your mother’s home. May the Lord show kindness to you as you have shown to the dead and to me. May the Lord grant each of you rest in the house of a new husband.” She kissed them, and they wept loudly.
They said to her, “We insist on returning with you to your people.”
But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Am I able to have any more sons who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No, my daughters, my life is much too bitter for you to share, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me.” Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
In verse 8, Naomi tells Ruth and Orpah to go home.
She blesses them in the name of the LORD, prays for God’s kindess on them and for God to provide a new husband.
These women weep together and hold each other. Remember, this is the time of the Judges. There aren’t good options economically for women who did not have a husband!
They NEEDED TO HAVE A HUSBAND TO BE PROVIDED FOR!
Naomi kisses the women farewell and they weep loudly together.
This is a vivid scene! Three women gathered together on this road, weeping LOUDLY and mourning the loss of everything!
They’ve lost their husbands, in Naomi’s case, her husband and her sons, they’ve lost their security and they are at risk of losing each other!
The women refuse to leave Naomi though!
So, once again, Naomi pleads with them. She specifically cites taht she won’t be able to provide them with another husband.
Culturally, it was common that if a woman was widowed, she’d marry her brother-in-law.
The tribe of Judah’s history involves this heavily! Genesis 38 recounts what happens.
The short summary is that a son dies, the brother is responsible for providing for Tamar and marrying her, then dies, then the next brother is supposed to also.
“When brothers live on the same property and one of them dies without a son, the wife of the dead man may not marry a stranger outside the family. Her brother-in-law is to take her as his wife, have sexual relations with her, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law for her. The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so his name will not be blotted out from Israel. But if the man doesn’t want to marry his sister-in-law, she is to go to the elders at the city gate and say, ‘My brother-in-law refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He isn’t willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.’ The elders of his city will summon him and speak with him. If he persists and says, ‘I don’t want to marry her,’ then his sister-in-law will go up to him in the sight of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. Then she will declare, ‘This is what is done to a man who will not build up his brother’s house.’ And his family name in Israel will be ‘The house of the man whose sandal was removed.’
Deuteronomy 25:5-10 also covers this. (READ IT)
This custom doesn’t just stop in the OT! This also comes up in Matthew 22! Jesus is asked by the Sadduccees about this same thing. Matthew 22:24-28 shows this!
This is a well-established custom. But, Naomi’s point is that she can’t provide for these women! She can’t do that!
Look again at what Naomi says in verse 13- “No, my daughters, my life is much too bitter for you to share, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me.”
Naomi is falling into a dangerous trap! She goes from mourning to assigning blame!
This situation she is in? It’s all God’s fault! God has turned against her and is AGAINST HER!
Remember, this is the same woman who KNOWS that GOD IS PROVIDING FOR HIS PEOPLE!
And yet, she says that “GOD IS AGAINST ME!”
We must be on guard against this trap too!
It is easy for us to do the same thing! We see God providing for others, but we face a difficult time and we begin to think that GOD IS AGAINST US AND THAT GOD HATES US!
If we were to actually dive into what is true in this situation, we would see that Naomi is suffering not because God hates her, but because of a LACK OF FAITH!
This trial is revealing her LACK OF FAITH! Tests and trials do that!
My undergraduate degree is in Social Studies education and I taught World History and Geography for 2 years.
I often told my students that tests were important not for a grade, but to see what they understood or where they needed to grow in understanding!
The same is true in our faith!
Naomi isn’t being punished; she’s being tested and stretched by God!
In the same way for us, when we face trials and hard times, don’t quit, don’t blame God- instead, look at it and see where you can grow closer to God!
See how you can rely on God in that situation!
In verse 14, Orpah leaves Naomi. She hears all of this and she heads back to Moab.
Something different happens with Ruth. Iinstead of leaving, we see that Ruth “clung to her.”
The word for “Clung” is the same word used in Genesis 2:24 when God tells husbands and wives to CLING TO ONE ANOTHER!
Ruth is essentially saying, “No matter what challenges await us, no matter what difficulties we face, I will be with you Naomi.”
By choosing to go to Bethlehem with Naomi, Ruth is saying that she will NEVER see her family again and she is committing to following GOD instead of the idols that Moab followed!
Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Follow your sister-in-law.”
Naomi again tells Ruth to go back, using Orpah as an example! She reminds Ruth that she will never see her family again and that she will never worship her people’s gods (LOWERCASE G) again!
What follows in Ruth 1:16-17 is a statement of faith!
But Ruth replied:
Don’t plead with me to abandon you
or to return and not follow you.
For wherever you go, I will go,
and wherever you live, I will live;
your people will be my people,
and your God will be my God.
Where you die, I will die,
and there I will be buried.
May the Lord punish me,
and do so severely,
if anything but death separates you and me.
Ruth speaks in 3 paris of couplets that are all closely related.
#1- Where you go, I go---- Where you live, I live (Physically with you)
#2- Your people are my people----- Your God is my God (spiritually with you)
#3- Where you die, I will die----- I WILL BE BURIED IN ISRAEL (With an implied statement that it will be with Naomi!) (in everything, with you)
Then, she says, “MAY THE LORD” and here she says, “YAHWEH” the God of Israel- not some generic god, this is THE ONE TRUE GOD, LIVING AND BREATHING, RULING OVER ALL, CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, MAY THAT GOD PUNISH HER if she doesn’t do that!
That is intense! That’s truly walking with someone in the face of an intense trial!
Let me encourage us, that we have a unique opportunity to walk with people also.
Church, our world is full of hurting people. Our COMMUNITY is full of hurting people.
This is one of the realities of 2023. While technology could provide us with better connections, research shows that often the opposite happens.
People overall feel isolated, lack friends, and a large percentage of the American population struggles with depression.
And let’s face it, there are hard things going on in our world!
Yet, all of these hard things give us a great opportunity to do something totally different!
Instead of withdrawing and letting people walk in hard times by themselves, we can be like Ruth and we can walk WITH people!
Just as Ruth CLUNG with Naomi, we can CLING WITH the people around us and we can BE THERE for them!
We don’t have to have the perfect solution; just being there matters!
In verse 18, Naomi responds to Ruth. Ruth 1:18
When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped talking to her.
She STOPS talking to Ruth! Another way to translate this would be, “NAOMI CEASED TALKING TO HER!”
Naomi is LIVID at Ruth! She’s angry at Ruth for being with her!
And sometimes, when we are WITH someone who is hurting, they will be upset. But, let me encourage you, it’s worth it to love someone in their hardest hour! (Expand with an illustration)
The two of them traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited about their arrival and the local women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”
“Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,” she answered, “for the Almighty has made me very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has opposed me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”
So Naomi came back from the territory of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
The two continue to travel, likely in awkward silence until they arrive at Bethlehem.
The town is filled with excitement to see Naomi and the women greet her!
Naomi clearly is not doing better and she says that she wants to be called Mara.
Mara means bitter. Naomi goes from her given name meaning PLEASANT or GENTLE to BITTER! She’s BITTER AND ANGRY!
Let me draw our attention to the reason that Naomi gives. She says that she wants this name change, “since the LORD has opposed me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”
Naomi blames it again all on God!
She claims that God is against her! You may notice as we go through Ruth, the writer never calls Naomi- Mara again.
Clearly, this name does not catch on. Unlike other name changes in the Bible, this is not a name change that God ordains, this is Naomi being upset and angry.
And that’s how Naomi returns home. Instead of celebrating her return to Bethlehem and getting to see old friends, she is angry, hurting, confused and she thinks God has turned against her, all while she has her daughter-in-law with her who has sworn an oath not to leave her!
The author of Ruth gives us one other detail at the end of Ruth 1. The writer notes that they arrived at the beginning of the Barley Harvest.
The Barley Harvest began in late March and continued through April.
The book of Ruth happens very quickly. At the beginning of the book, the situation seems hopeless! But, as we will see over the next 3 weeks, GOD IS VERY MUCH IN CONTROL!
After all, THE LORD USES TRIALS AND HARDSHIPS TO TEACH US AND TO GROW OUR FAITH!
APPLICATION: Before we close, I want to take a few minutes to give us four applications today. 2 of these are more broad and then 2 are specific to each one of us.
First, we are CALLED to walk with THE LORD
Let’s just start with this. If Ruth did not have faith in the LORD, then the book is never written. Instead, she would have gone back to Moab like Orpah.
She does have genuine faith in God though! Instead of falling away, she stands strong in her faith.
I couldn’t help but think of the Parable of the Sower that Jesus tells as I studied this passage.
Jesus talks about how some hear the word of God and don’t care at all, others hear about it God and are happy for a time but become overwhelmed by life and fall away. Still others hear about God and give it up when life gives them something that seems better in the short term and finally, some hear the word of God and bear fruit that yields, 30, 60 or even 100x!
Orpah knew about God, but did not walk with God and life’s struggles showed her lack of depth in her faith.
Ruth on the other hand HEARD ABOUT GOD and WALKED WITH GOD BEARING FRUIT as we will see throughout all of Ruth!
In the same way, I wan to challenge you, do you KNOW GOD? DO YOU WALK WITH THE LORD?
GOSPEL
Second, we are CALLED to PERSEVERE in FAITH during hard TIMES.
Naomi and Ruth went through some very hard times.
We talked today about how dire this situation looked. Yet, Ruth continued on. Ruth PERSEVERED!
Let me challenge us, we are called ot PERSEVERE and keep our faith in God during hard times!
Even today, we saw how God was WITH Israel! There was a famine, but GOD DID NOT ABANDON ISRAEL!
In the same way as God provided for Israel, God provided for Naomi and Ruth, as we will see throughout Ruth.
Just as God provided for them, dear friends, GOD WILL BE WITH US AND WILL PROVIDE FOR US!
It will not always be easy, but as Paul reminds us in Romans 8:38-39, God will be with us!
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As God is with us, let me encourage each one of us here today, WALK WITH THE LORD! Keep your FAITH FIRMLY IN THE LORD, NO MATTER WHAT YOU ARE FACING!
Now, let’s turn our attention to our last two applications that are really personal questions.
Third, who are YOU called to WALK with.
Who do you know in your life that is going through a hard time right now? Further, let me encourage you to think of someone who does not know Jesus! Let me encourage you to really consider this. Is it a family member? Is it a friend, is it a coworker?
Once you’ve identified that person, and I promise, we can all think of someone who is going through a hard time, or who needs Jesus; then let me encourage you to identify how you can walk WITH that person.
In Ruth’s case, it was physically being there and pointing Naomi to God! In another case, it may be giving up some time to give someone a ride to the store (SG story), or maybe it’s taking time to talk with someone and listen. Our world needs more listening for sure!
Whoever you think of will have their own unique needs. Let me encourage you to genuinely take TIME to think about this! Once you’ve figured out the WHO and WHAT their needs are, let me encourage you to TAKE ACTION and to walk WITH THEM!
Fourth, what TRIALS and HARDSHIPS are you facing?
What struggles do you face right now? Let me ask you, identify them and then, just like with the last application, LET’S TAKE STEPS TO PERSEVERE! Friends, when we are hurting, oftentimes we want to isolate, we want to pull back from God, and we want to look inward and try to figure out the solution.
But hear me, that’s not the right solution! We need to TAKE OUR EYES OFF OF OURSELVES AND FIX THEM INSTEAD ON THE CROSS!
When you feel overwhelmed? When you want to give up? FIX YOUR EYES ON THE CROSS! FIX YOUR EYES ON JESUS KNOWING THAT HE IS WITH YOU!
When you feel worn out in life? When you feel alone? RUN TO THE FOOT OF THE CROSS AND CLING TO JESUS!
Friends, in good times and in bad, Walk with the LORD, CLING TO THE CROSS AND KEEP YOUR FAITH FIRMLY ROOTED IN JESUS!