Turning Point - God's Providence in Our Decisions

Introduction 

One of the things they don’t tell you as a child is that you’ll have to make hard decisions as an adult. Being an adult is not just about having independence; it is also about having to make right decisions.

Have you ever find yourself in between a rock and a hard place? You needed to make a decision but it was not an easy one to make. Maybe it was a decision to move, a job change, a relationship, or a loss.  

And for Christians, it gets even more challenging because we’re not just concerned about making the right decision, we are trying to make a decision that is in line with God’s plan for our life.  

Unfortunately, we’ve all made decisions that we later come to regret. Like the time I paid to put on a Virtual Reality headset to play a scary game.  Or when I thought it was a good idea to get on a roller coaster. Now Stephanie is encouraging me to go Skydiving. Not sure I've learned my lesson.  

What I want to encourage you all with this afternoon is that in those difficult to make decisions, the priority is less on whether we make the right decision or not, and more on our faithfulness to God in whichever decision we make.  

In our scripture for today, we see multiple decisions being made by Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth. And in those decision makings, we see God’s providence at work.

There are three things I want to bring your attention to in our scripture for today. 1) The Return, 2) The Resistance, 3) The Arrival. 

We’ll be talking through Ruth 1:6-22. You can go to it if you have your bible with you. I’ll read and pray for our time together.  

Ruth 1:6–22 CSB

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 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. Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Follow your sister-in-law.” 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. When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped talking to her. 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 Return – 1:6-9 

Word got out to Naomi in 1:6 that God has visited Judah and there was now food in the land. What we have here in this passage is what I call “a double return”. The return of the Lord and his favor upon Judah and the return of Naomi back to Judah.  

Ten years after leaving, Naomi decides to go back home but she’s leaving not as she came.  

I wonder if she wondered whether they made the right decision to leave. In the grant scheme of life, she might have thought, what was 10 years? Maybe if they had just stuck it out in Judah and trusted God, her family would still be alive. 

These are the types of questions we ask on the other side of a decision that we made.   

Have you been there before?

But here’s the reality church. There is absolutely no way for us to know what could have happened on the other side of the decision we didn’t make.  

That is why the most important thing is our faithfulness to God in our decision making.

We pray for guidance, we pray for wisdom, we seek counsel, but at the end of the day, after we make a decision, what matters is our faithfulness to Jesus in that decision.  

Sometimes we’re paralyzed trying to be perfectly right. But God calls us to be faithful, not flawless.

Even in a move to a foreign land, Naomi and her family stayed faithful to God. Maybe more faithful than those who stayed.  

I want you to be encouraged that God uses our wrong and right decisions for his purpose and our good.

Our sister Naomi didn’t return to Judah alone; we learn in 1:7 that her daughters-in-law went with her.

These women are something else.

If you’re not yet seeing the presence of her daughters-in-law as God’s provision for her then you are missing something big.  

Sometimes, God will put people in your life for a season you are about to experience. They are God’s instrument of comforting you, and blessing you.  

Orpah and Ruth did not abandon Naomi after the tragedy, but they stayed. They didn’t only stay, but now they are following her back home.

They could have left after the funeral, since nothing binds them to her, but they stayed.  

Church, pay attention to the people in your life that stay. Don’t take them for granted. Appreciate them.

But it is also important to say, that Ruth and Orpah stayed not only because they wanted to be kind to Naomi, but because they had also experienced the kindness of Naomi; the love of God from Naomi.  

Your character matters in how you experience the providence of God. More on that next week.

Naomi took her faith seriously and lived it out. She was not a nasty mother-in-law. Who would stay if she was? Her godly character is paying dividends. God is using it in her tragedy.

I wish more Christian families were better examples of what it looks like to have God-honoring in-law relationships. 

Upon their return to Judah in 1:8-9, Naomi urged that Orpah and Ruth return to Moab and gave them a blessing. This was her expression of gratitude. She didn’t have money to give, but she had a blessing in the name of her God.  

Notice that in the midst of her tragedy and trauma, she still calls out to God. Notice, she did not abandon her faith in God but remained steadfast.

She endures the pain but does not neglect her God. And that steadfast faith shows up in her gratefulness. She prays that they would experience God’s loving-kindness and rest. Sometimes, prayer is all you have to give and that’s just fine.

If you can’t support Restoration Church financially, that’s okay, but you can support through your prayer. Praying for us is just as important.

Naomi blessess them and they wept loudly. What a bond of love! They’ve been through it all together - joy, grief, and pain. Nothing bonds you stronger than all three.  

Although Naomi urges them to return, Ruth and Orpah had no thoughts of leaving her behind. Let’s look at the second point in 1:10-18. 

The Resistance – 1:10-18 

They insisted. They resisted. They said in 1:10, “we’re stuck with you Mama.”  

With every decision we make, there is a positive and a negative outcome; there is a benefit and a risk. Often, we focus on the benefit and ignore the risk.

Naomi shared what the risk of their decision would be. They might never get married. She has no sons to give. She has no husband to care for them. There’s no benefit for them to stay.

In this period, perhaps the only class of people that might be in a worse condition than widows are slaves. But even slaves had someone to care for them. Women with no husbands were generally relegated to a life of poverty.  

How the widows are treated and abused is one of the consistent sin accusations that God levies against Israel throughout the bible. 

Staying with Naomi in Judah was to be okay with a life of no marriage, no children, and poverty. 

It is dangerous to stay with her.  

After hearing this, Orpah relented. But her relent does not diminish her love for Naomi. It simply means she agrees that the risk outweighs the benefit of staying.

That’s a good principle to have in our decision making. Are you okay with the risk of your decision? If not, then it’s not a decision you should make.  

Jesus speaks of this in Luke 14:25-33 when talked about the cost of following him.

Luke 14:25–33 CSB

Now great crowds were traveling with him. So he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. “For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man started to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ “Or what king, going to war against another king, will not first sit down and decide if he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If not, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.

Jesus taught that the risk or the negative side of following him is the willingness to prioritize him over family members, over your desires, and experience suffering (that’s what it means to carry your cross), and those not willing to do that shouldn’t be his disciple.   

Ruth on the hand, continued to resist in Ruth 1:16-18. She was okay with the risk. The benefit of her commitment to Naomi outweighs the risk that comes with it.  

This part of the story is perhaps one of the most well-known in the book of Ruth. It is such a beautiful and sacrificial word of commitment.

Ruth 1:16–18 CSB

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.

She was committed to Naomi, her people, and her God. She was giving her life to Naomi.  

Ruth’s level of faithfulness is a clear example of what our commitment should look like to Jesus. A faithfulness of life and death. A faithfulness that rises above the pain and suffering of life. A faithfulness that rises above the unanswered questions of life. A faithfulness that keeps its eyes on God, his goodness, and his providence.  

We can say that her faithfulness is a sort of rebuke of Israel’s unfaithfulness. A foreign woman who clings to the God of Israel in a way the Israelites did not. But she could do so because she had a godly example in Naomi. 

I pray that God will use each of you and Restoration church in such a way that our faithfulness to God causes others in our lives and in our community to cling to God.  

Ruth was okay with whatever God brings from her decision to stay. Orpah was not. And that was okay.  

Orpah returned to Moab while Naomi and Ruth continued their journey into Bethlehem.  

They arrived at Bethlehem and their arrival caused a scene.   

The Arrival – 1:19-22 

There was commotion in the streets which means the people had heard about the deaths of Elimelech and his sons.

You can hear the whispers – “is that her?”, “wow, she’s lost so much weight”, “I can’t believe she came back.” 

Those who knew her finally said, “Can this be Naomi?”  

I want us to pay close attention to her response. She said “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara.” Naomi means pleasant and Mara means bitter.  

Two things I want us to see in her response before we wrap up.  

One, she does not deny her pain. She’s explicit about that the experience of her life. She doesn’t say “It’s been hard, but we thank God.” She says, “it’s been hard and it’s God’s fault.” 

That’s the second thing I want us to see; she does not remove God from her suffering. In fact, she blames him. It’s worth noting that she didn’t not call God by his personal name or call him Lord. But instead called him the Almighty.  

It might sound weird to us, maybe off putting or even theologically wrong to blame God for the pain and suffering in her life. 

But it actually reflects her faith in God. She sees her God to be so powerful and so trustworthy that she holds him responsible for her well-being.  To her, he has the power to prevent all of her pain but instead he has allowed it to happen.

She believes that no one is more powerful and sovereign than God so the buck stops with him. He is her God and is responsible for her life so far as she is being faithful to him.  

Hear what she is not saying: she is not saying God killed her husband and sons. And she’s not saying this out of a place of disdain for God.  

Her response is geared more toward who do you believe has more control over your life? 

For some Christians, we believe Satan sometime has more control. We blame him for all the bad as though he overpowered God.  

I remember when we lost our first son 4 months into the pregnancy, one of my aunts, upon hearing the news said, “the devil has won.” She didn’t mean anything mean by it, but her worldview has taught her that the experience of such a tragedy can only be by the hands of Satan.  

But Job taught us that the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.  

And Naomi teaches us today that if we trust in God, then we should hold him responsible for our life. It is his providence that guides us. Nothing happens without his knowledge. 

Conclusion 

God has been at work in the decision to move to Moab, in the tragic loss of Elimelech and his sons, and in the provision of Ruth and Orpah. Now, we get to look forward to how God will work in the decision to move back to Moab and of Ruth to stay.

In our pain and suffering, a turning point comes. We don’t know when it will be, but we make the decision to stay faithful. And in the right time, God will use our decision for our good.

As we wrap up, what do we learn from Ruth 1? 

God works even through questionable decisions. 

He gives grace in grief. 

Faithfulness often shows up in the ordinary. 

Costly commitment reflects the heart of Christ. 

Bitterness doesn’t cancel God’s plan. 

Because God is always at work in our decisions and experiences, Naomi’s suffering is not the end of her story.  

God took her ashes and created beauty. God provided for her in ways she could not have envisioned.  

That’s God’s providence at work. 

Church, be encouraged that God is working in your life even if you don’t see it.  

You never know what decision will be the turning point in your life. Stay faithful. Trust him in your decision making. God loves you and cares for you.  

If you find yourself in Moab today, wondering how you got there, hear this: God is not finished. He’ll see you through the turning point.