If your going through Hell.........

Sooner or later, every one of us is going to go through a time in our life where it feels like we are walking through the very pits of hell. Whether it be the death of a loved one, a battle with cancer, the loss of a job, financial trouble, or even an attack on your character, If you live long enough, you are eventually going to go through a time that feels like hell on earth to you.

I believe that God gives us some good examples to show His Providence, His Love, His Workmanship, and His Plan being worked out in our lives, even in the midst of our pain and suffering.

Because of that, I believe we can gain some encouragement and some insight for these times through those examples.

This morning I would like us to take a look at the 1stchapter of Ruth.

This sermon will be done as a biblical narrative, So it will be alittle different than most sermons, so be patient and know I do have points to make, but we have quite a bit to get through before we get to them.

          Most of us know well the story of the life of Ruth, but this morning I want to focus our attention on Naomi, Ruth’s 1st mother-in-law. I say first because her 2nd has an interesting story of her own.  But we will get to that at the end.

          But before we get into the text itself, we first need to get some of the background information out of the way.

          Time period: Ruth takes place in the Premonarchic Period.

          Prior to the crowning of Israel 1st king (Saul)

After the conquest of the promised land

          Same time period of the book of Judges

The book of Judges describes the time period well in Judges 21:25

The problem: My view of Morality - Your view of Morality - Someone else’s view don’t always line up. Morality is a very fluid concept in society and it changes almost as fast as my wife changes her mind.

This period of Israel’s existence was one of the darkest, most dangerous times in their history.

A time of Idiolatry, Immorality and Anarchy.

During this time the people would fall into Idolatry, God would call them to Repent, they Refused, so God would send Judgement with hardship or oppression from people like the Philistines, then the people would Cry out to God, and he would send a Deliverer (a judge) to bring them out of their oppression, then the cycle would begin again. 

This is also referred to as the Deuterominic Cycle.

In the middle of all of this, we find the story of Ruth.

The story of Ruth takes place around 1200 BC.

          Chapter 1 takes place in 3 different locations Bethlehem, Moab, the road to Bethlehem, then back to Bethlehem .  Unlike the rest of Ruth( chapters 2-4), in chapter 1, Ruth is not the main character, her mother-in-law is.  Now that we understand the setting and location of our story, lets read the text, then we can go back and break down each part. 

Ruth Chapter 1.

Ruth1:1-2  

          There are 2 main thoughts we need to remember when we read the first two verses here,

          1. This was one of the worst time periods in Israel’s history. They were constantly fighting against the Philistines and other forces (Including the Moabites). It was a turbulent and lawless time.

          2.  Moab was an enemy of Israel.  How bad do things have to be for you to desire to move your family to an enemy nation because you feel they would have a better chance of surviving than in you stayed at home. (Us moving our family to Afghanistan) Just how bad would things have to be here in your life for this to look like the better option?

That’s where Elimalech finds himself at this point of our story. As head of the household, he is faced with the difficult choice of packing up his family, traveling the 50+ miles from Bethlehem to Moab, and settling in an enemy country, because that gives his family a better chance of surviving than if they choose to stay in Bethlehem for the duration of the famine. That’s how bad things have gotten.

So that’s what Elimalech did in order to protect his family. He packs them up and moves to Moab.

          At this stage of our story, everything seems to be going well for Naomi.  She’s gone from potentially starving to have food to eat. Moab isn’t experiencing the same Famine that Israel is. So now at least they aren’t going to starve to death. She has her husband and her children. 

Her life represents her name at this point.  Naomi means pleasant/plenty, but things are about to change.

Ruth 1:3-5

          Now things have changed. 1st Naomi looses her husband Elimalech.  But at least she still has her 2 sons to look after her. 

Then both of them marry Moabite women. 

Generally this was a no no for Jewish men because God told them not to marry into Pagan nations around them. God didn’t want this because He knew that the gods of these women and their beliefs would negatively affect their relationship with Him. One of the same reasons God tells us not to be unequally yoked. It, more often than not, tends to cause problems. So this was considered to be a bad thing for Jewish men to do.

But they did it, and considering the circumstances, we can see the logic in their decision. I’m sure Jewish women were in short supply in Moab.

Then things go from bad to worse for Naomi as both of the boys died as well, leaving Naomi alone to look after her two young daughters-in-law in a time where most women did not have a trade by which to earn a living or support themselves. So things have gotten a lot worse for Naomi, as she has been forced to leave her home, move into a hostile foreign land, only to first loose her husband, then to loose both of her children, and to be left alone to try to care for these 2 young girls without a way to even earn a living. Things are looking pretty grim for Naomi at this point.

Ruth 1:6-14

          So, after 10 years in Moab, Naomi hears that the famine in Israel has lifted, there’s food to be had back home, so she decides to go home.

But I believe based on the actions and attitude of Naomi in the rest of Ruth, that Naomi decides to go back, not for food, but basically to die.  She decides that if she’s going to die, at least she can die at home instead of in this foreign country that has been filled with heartache and pain. The way she sees it, her life is over, she doesn’t even want to try anymore, so she is really going home so she can die at home. 

At this point we see a change in scene. Up to this point, we have been in Moab, but now we find ourselves on the road between Moab and Bethlehem. So Naomi leaves her life they had established in Moab over the last 10 years and heads back to Bethlehem.

And we don’t know where they were on the trip, how far they were from Moab or Bethlehem, we just know they are traveling. 

          And on the road, with her two daughter-in-law following her, she urges them to go back to their father’s house, remarry and make a life for themselves because she has nothing to offer them, Both refuse, so she urges them again, and here we are introduced to the Jewish tradition of redemption through a go-el(a Kinsman redeemer).

It was a tradition meant to maintain the inheritance of the family. When Israel concurred the promised land, the land was divided up between the 12 tribes. Then each tribe divided their land up between the families within that tribe.

It was very important to them to maintain the property and keep it in the family and in the Tribe. So they had several traditions to assist in this. One was the year of Jubilee.

          1)If you ran on hard times, you could sell your land to someone else, but then on the year of jubilee which occurred every seven years, you would get that property back. That way it stayed in the family.

          2)Another tradition was having a Go-el. If there was no male child born into the family, a close relative in the family would have the opportunity to redeem your property, your possessions, your family members, and even your wife as their own, and their first born son would be considered your son. Thus allowing the family inheritance to remain intact.

It was not viewed as just an opportunity to do a good thing and take care of a widow bit it was seen as an obligationthey had to the family. It was their job to take care of the family and it was shameful to not fulfill your obligation.

          So Naomi introduces us to this tradition here, then she tries to explain to her daughter-in-laws that she has nothing left to offer them, she has no sons to marry them, no husband with which to have more and even if she did it wouldtake to long for them to grow up to marrying age.  Go Home.

This is enough to convince Orpha , and she goes home. But Ruth refuses.

Ruth 1:15-18              

          Here we find a beautiful example of commitment as Ruth voices her love and loyalty to her mother-in-law. (Recap verses)

Many theologians also see this as Ruth’s profesion of faith and conversion to the Jewish faith as she professes to Naomi “your people are my people and your God my God”

So not only do we have this beautiful commitment to her mother-in-law, but we also have this beautiful commitment to the God of her mother-in-law, Yahweh.

          Naomi realizes that there is nothing she can say to make Ruth turn back and there is nothing she can do about it. So they continue their journey to Bethlehem.

Ruth 1:19-21

          How many of you remember a photograph called the Afghan girl.  Her photo was on the cover of National Geographic in June of 1985.  If you’ve ever seen it, she’s really hard to forget with her beautiful piercing green eyes.

          This photo was taken in 1984 by journalist Steve McCurry.  The girls name is Sharbat Gula.  She is a member of a Pashto warrior tribe during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.  She was only 12 years old at the time of this photo was taken.  In 2002, she was tracked down and re-photographed.

By that time, she had gotten married somewhere between the ages of 13 and 16, had given birth to 4 daughters, she lost one as an infant, and she lost her husband.  When asked if she had ever felt safe, she said No.  She had lived a hard life.

          The lady in this photo is only 30 years old.  Years of difficulty and stress have taken their toll on her, even dulling her bright vibrant eyes.  Now, because of the rough life she lived, this 30 year old, a young woman looks like she is in her 50s or 60s.

          In the same way, Naomi’s life had changed her outward appearance as well, and the people of her hometown could hardly recognize her.

          The last 10 years have been really hard on Naomi.  The difficuly that she lived through surviving the famine along with the stress of losing her husband and her children had taken its toll on her. 

           So the town is just a buzzing when she and Ruth get there.

          Then Naomi in the middle of her grief, sorrow, bitterness, self-pity begins to speak out.

          Things are so bad in her life that she asks that the people not even call her by her name because her name because her name means pleasant/full/plenty, and her life seems to be anything but. She has lost everyone she loves, everything she cared about, and it seems like even God himself is out to get her.  She is bitter and empty, so she asks to be called that instead.  She asks to be called Mara, bitter and empty. She’s in a bad place right now.

She is so wrapped up in her grief and sorrow that she completely forgot about Ruth(Huh).

          The same girl who just days before now had told her “I will never leave you. I love you, and I will always be here for you.” But Naomi is so consumed by her grief that she forgets Ruth is even there. 

Now we get to the last verse and I’ll make my points and finish up.

Ruth 1:22

          This is definitely my favorite verse of chapter 1 but also one of my favorite verses in all of Ruth. 

          Can you see why?  No?  Well don’t feel bad, I had read this verse hundreds of times and had never seen it myself until someone pointed it out to me.  Look at the end of the verse, “And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.”

          You see like the author of Ruth (Samuel???) we have an advantage, we know the rest of the story.  So subtly and beautifully he gives us a bit of foreshadowing with a beautiful promise of what’s to come as we close out chapter 1.

          The entire chapter up to this point has been doom and gloom, pain and suffering, sorrow and grief; but then comes the barley harvest.

          For us, we know what the barley harvest represents. We know that the barley harvest represents the fact that Ruth is going to leave Naomi at home and go to glean the fields to pick in the areas they would leave behind for the poor. 

          We know that she just “happened” to come to a field belonging to Boaz, who just “happened” to be a go-el, kinsman redeemer, and Boaz just “happened” to come check the field while she was there. 

No coincidence/Devine appointment

We have the privilege of knowing the rest of the story.

And all of this was made possible because of what? A barley harvest. 

The barley harvest symbolized a change in their circumstances.  Life for tem was about to change for the better just around the bend at the start of the barley harvest. 

Can you see it now?

1.) So point #1: If your going through hell, keep your head up and look for the barley harvest in your life.  Your suffering is just a single scene in the movie of your life.  It will end, and your life doesn’t have to be defined by a single scene.

2.) If you’re going through hell, remember you arent going through it alone.  In her suffering, Naomi forgot that Ruth was still right there. 

-As she lamented about being empty and alone, Ruth was right there. 

-As you get into chapter 2, Naomi is totally content on staying at home and starving to death.  Its Ruth who takes the initiative to provide for them both. 

          So if you’re going through hell, look for your Ruth.  That person who has your back.  That picks when you feel like you can’t make another step.  Look for your Ruth.

3.) If you’re going through hell, remember that your pain has a purpose.  Most of the time, when we are going through hard times we feel like Naomi that our suffering has no point. 

          Our God isn’t a God of coincidence or happenstance.  He is always working out a plan.

A.) For me it is no coincidence, that I hurt my back, that I lost my job, that I spent the better part of three months on a couch or in therapy to be able to walk right again. 

----It was so that I would be free to accept the invitation to preach at Wilda Baptist Church on March 22, 2009, so that I could be introduced to this beautiful young woman after services, even though it took me almost 3 months to ask her out, who as some of  know I would propose to her 6 months later. Then, less than 8 months later, she’d be my wife.

B.) Do you think Joseph enjoyed being sold into slavery, Accused of Rape, Thrown into prison, and forgotten about for 2 years?

          No, But he was right where he needed to be when Pharaoh needed his dream interpreted. He was right where God wanted him when the faminehit so that he would be able to save his family, and ensure that his fathers 12 sons would become the fathers of the 12 tribes of Israel, and allow them to grow from just being a family to become a nation.

C.) Naomi is no different. Truth is, God sent Naomi to Moab to retrieve and bring back this Moabite woman for a purpose.

          If it weren’t for the famine - Elimelech would have never taken his family to Moab.

If they had not gone to Moab, Malhon would have never married Ruth.

If Naomi’s husband and sons had not have died, they likely would have remained in Moab instead of returning to Bethlehem (they had been there for 10 years and established their lives there).

If they had not returned to Bethlehem, Ruth would have never have met Boaz.

If not for Ruth and Boaz meeting, they would not have gotten married or had Obed.

If there were no Obed, there would not have been a Jessie.

If there was no Jessie, there would have not have been a King David.

If there wasn’t a King David, then there would have been no Messiah.

-Naomi had no idea how important her suffering was to the  entire world.

-Naomi’s suffering was the catalyst that would be essential for God’s plan for salvation and the restoration of mankind to take place.

-She could not have known that her losing her family would set the stage for us to gain everything.

So if you are going through hell, remember It is not for nothing. God is working out His plan for your life, and His plan for all of His creation.

And if you need yet another shred of proof that God was at work in bringing Boaz and Ruth together for an important reason, I mentioned earlier that Ruth’s second mother-in-law has an interesting story as well. Boaz’s mother was actually Rahab the harlet from Jerricho.

Long before Ruth and Boaz met, God was working things out to ensure they would, and to ensure His plan would happen like it was supposed to.

So If youre going through Hell,

1) Keep your head up and look for your barley harvest. Remenbering that your suffering is only temporary, and your life is not defined by one single sceene.

2) You don’t have to do it alone. Be looking for the Ruth that God has placed in your life to help you through this difficult time.

3) Remember that your suffering is never in vain, but God is working out his plan for you and your life