Mother's Day Ruth 1:14...

Joel Gilbert

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I want to again wish you all a very happy mother’s day today.

My aim in this sermon is to honor motherhood and in this way glorify Jesus Christ who designed it, created it, and blessed it.

What I want to honor in this message is the biblical calling on a woman’s life to weave a fabric of family life:

• out of commitment to a husband and his calling, and

• commitment to her children and their training, and

• commitment to Christ and His glory.

In other words, I want to honor the biblical calling that makes marriage, motherhood, and home-management,

in the context of radical Christian discipleship,

the central, core,

dominant commitments of a woman’s life.

My aim to encourage the women—who believe that God’s call on your life is marriage, the joyful support

of a husband and his calling

as you display what the relationship between Christ and the church looks like,

and motherhood, the transmission of a God-centered, Christ-treasuring vision of life

to your children,

and home-management, the creation of a beautiful and simple place

and a living organism

called a home.

This is a very high and holy and crucial calling that you need to embrace, and

you certainly won’t get any understanding or encouragement for God’s calling, from the world.

You are the ones who have heard not as oppressive

but as liberating.

Paul said to Titus that the older women should

“train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blashphemed.”

You have heard that calling as

• rich and

• deep and

• precious and

• high and holy and

• confirming your heart’s longings, and

• as absolutely essential for the shaping of

a God-centered, Christ-exalting church and culture.

To you I direct this message as a word of honor and encouragement.

And to do that I want to spend part of our time together in Ruth.

Let’s pray and see what God says to us today!

Our gracious God and loving Father, as we continue in Your presence, we pray that You will bless us now and that You will set us before You. That You will give help as we turn to the Word of God.

We pray for a great sense of Your nearness. We pray for that quickening influence of the Holy Spirit. Come and breathe on us we pray, we ask for help now, we pray in Jesus name and for His sake! Amen.

The setting for the words I’m going to read is that Naomi’s husband and sons have died and

Naomi’s telling her daughter’s in laws to go back to their families

— 12 Turn back, my daughters, go—for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons, 13 would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? No, my daughters; for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me!” 14 Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. 15 And she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth said: “Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God.

Naomi and her husband had gone from Israel (they were Israelites)

and they left and went to Moab,

a neighboring country during a famine, and they raised two sons.

Those two sons married two Moabite women (the name of one of the women is Ruth),

but then disaster struck and Naomi lost

her husband, who died, and

her sons, who died.

We don’t know why, but they all died.

In that culture, socially and economically these widows were the most vulnerable members of that society.

Whereas in our society you might say the source …

one of the great sources of capital in our

society and status and

economic and social power

is your education or your marketable skills or maybe your money.

In those days, it was your family.

What you needed was not the education or even the money;

you needed a spouse and children.

Turn back, my daughters, go—for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons, 13 would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? No, my daughters; for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me!”

Naomi, though, is in a situation where she’s almost the worst kind of widow because,

as she points out here, she’s older.

That means, first of all,

• she does not have parents she can go back to. She doesn’t have a family she can go back into.

• Secondly, she doesn’t have prospects of building a new family.

• Thirdly, of course, now she doesn’t have adult children with families who can support her.

So she has had everything taken away from her by life. Everything … economic, social, psychological.

She’s devastated, and she’s about to go back to Israel.

She has nowhere else to go, and she’s going to go back to live an absolute

• dead-end life, a

• socially marginalized life, an

• economically marginalized life.

That’s where she is.

Then the chapter moves from the emptiness of Naomi to the courage of Ruth.

When Naomi looks at her daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, she says, “Go back to your own families.” 11 But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?

Why tell them to go back to their families?

Well, because they are, at least, young widows, and if they go back to their families,

• they have parents who are still there,

• who can take care of them.

But not only that, they have a good prospect …

If they stay in their own country, in their own culture, amongst their own race,

they’ll have no trouble, perhaps, building another family.

but when she says, “Don’t come with me,” she’s thinking not just about the fact that,

“Well, I don’t want to take you away from your families,”

she knows if they follow her what kind of life they’re going to have.

• What should these women do?

• Should they go or should they stay?

While Bethlehem had once been Naomi’s home,

it was never theirs. Her people were never their people.

Yet Ruth’s stated reason for staying with Naomi went beyond family ties.

Ruth had come to know the covenant God of Israel.

Her commitment to Yahweh, is what lay behind her commitment to Naomi, and(WOW) what commitment she showed!

In Ruth, we see how true saving faith led

to conduct that was beyond what would have been expected.

The same should be true for us.

Ruth had learned about God’s covenant from her husband and certainly Naomi and

Ruth had learned about God’s covenant and

Ruth put her trust in God’s promises.

At the very least, Ruth, like Rahab (), must have heard the reports

of Israel’s escape from Egypt and defeat of Sihon and Og.

If Ruth attributed these stunning events to Yahweh, then she, too,

could have come to faith in the God of Israel

upon hearing of His mighty deeds.

The text is clear about why Ruth stuck with Naomi.

While it cannot be denied that Ruth cared for her mother-in-law, Ruth clung to Naomi

because of Ruth’s devotion to the God of Naomi’s people.

The Hebrew word translated “clung” in “...Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.”

“clung” is used of the Israelites’ relation to Yahweh.

They were commanded by Moses to hold fast to Yahweh:

Fear the Lord your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. ()

It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. ()

Joshua repeated the same command in : “But you are to hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have until now.”

So Naomi tells her sons of the glory of God and His mighty deeds.

They come to faith and marry these women who hear of the God of Israel and His awesome in breaking into their world

and supernaturally working on behalf of His chosen people and Ruth comes to faith.

So you’ve go this progression of passing on the wonders of God to those around you.

Sort of like Timothy. Let’s go over to .

— 3 I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, 4 greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy,

He says, I thank God. And we don’t find out what he is thankful for until you go the end of the sentence in v5.

Because, what really rejoices Paul’s heart

is the reminder of Timothy’s faith,

which owed so much to his spiritual upbringing.

— when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.

Timothy was a third generation Christian and owed his ‘sincere faith’ ‘un-hypocritical faith’

to the groundwork done in his life by his mother and grandmother

who had taught him the scriptures from infancy

— and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Throughout the Bible, the role of the family and godly parentage is clearly taught:

‘Honor your father and your mother’ ().

‘Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it’ ().

‘Children obey your parents in the Lord, … And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. ()

Being a parent in today’s society is a difficult task, especially if

there is no godly father to act as a role model

as was true in Timothy’s case, and in Naomi’s case with all the men gone.

But God gives a special grace for the task as is evident from

the good job Lois and Eunice did in bringing up Timothy

who was to become a

powerful preacher of the gospel,

missionary, and

the pastor of the church at Ephesus.

We cannot under estimate the power of a godly mother and grandmother.

But in Scripture there is the contrast put forward.

Like in Ruth, there’s a contrast between Ruth and her sister Orpah, who’s never heard from again.

Here in 2 Timothy, there’s a contrast between these godly women we read of in chapter 1 and these gullible women in chapter 3.

I want to show you that contrast. Look with me in chapter 3.

Here Paul is speaking of perilous times that shall come in v1.

He goes through and describes the characteristics of people in these last days

(very much what we see in our world we live in- as we read, see if you are seen).

For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

Then he says this in 6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Here’s a description that contrasts a godly woman with a woman described as a gullible women laden with sins who are lead captive.

That phrase “gullible women” is a way of speaking of women with contempt.

This is God’s description of all women who are not saved.

And you’re not saved because you are led captive.

Look with me in chapter And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

That they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil!

This is our prayer for you dear lost woman.

That you would come out of the deception of the devil.

There is an intoxicating effect to deceit.

Lies flatter and we easily take in too willingly and too deeply.

This is how Satan works, he throws down various temptations in your thoughts,

• through Facebook,

• friends,

• the culture you live in, and

you have a nature that is fallen and corrupted because of

original sin and actual sins you’ve committed.

So as you start down the devils way it seems easy and comfortable and fun even,

but then you become laden down with many sins and are bound captive to your lusts and desires and

you have no way out!

Except one, v25 “Perhaps God would grant you repentance”.

You need light, because (by nature) you’re in darkness.

God had granted repentance to Ruth and she’s going to cleave to the God of Israel!

FAITH IN MIGHTY ACTS OF GOD

What is to be learned from Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi and to Yahweh?

In Ruth we see that true saving faith is not exercised in a purely intellectual or academic setting.

Faith cannot be reduced to the result of systematic and dispassionate reasoning

about the question of God that characteristically

arises in the philosophy of religion.

Faith must be lived out in the ups and downs of normal life.

From Ruth’s vantage point, Yahweh had said that he would deliver His people from oppression in Egypt

and give them an inheritance in Canaan.

God had delivered Canaan into the possession of His people.

They, as the fewest of all peoples (), had gloriously

broken the back of the Canaanites and inhabited their cities.

Ruth being aware of these historical developments and their theological interpretation.

Not to be overlooked, of course, were the numerous times

that God acted in seemingly hopeless situations.

It is hard to hear the accounts of the patriarchs, exodus, and conquest and

miss the truth of Gabriel’s words to Mary in .

When Mary heard the angelic annunciation of her pregnancy,

she protested that she was a virgin.

Gabriel then asserted, “For nothing is impossible with God.”

Who would have thought that

Sarah could have given birth to Isaac,

Rebekah to twins, or

• Rebekah to twins, or

• Rachel to Joseph and later Benjamin?

Rachel to Joseph and later Benjamin?

Who would have imagined

Jacob’s return to Canaan and

reconciliation with Esau after years of exile?

How unlikely Joseph’s reconciliation with his brothers

after so long a separation or

Moses’ return to Egypt to liberate the Israelites

after fleeing from justice and

herding sheep for decades.

Is there a purely natural explanation for

• the crossing of the Red Sea or

• the provision of food and water in the wilderness or

• the defeat of the Canaanites?

Being married to an Israelite man, Ruth surely had heard these accounts

of the extended family history and

could acknowledge the unlikelihood of any of these things happening apart from Yahweh.

I’m bringing these things up, as well, because some of the changes that we are making.

Some of you may not understand what it means to move forward by faith.

(even to help you think of some of the changes, we’re making as a church)

Faith goes beyond any studies that are done by the “professionals”

It goes above and beyond just data!

Ruth had accepted the Israelites’ report of their God’s show of strength on their behalf.

In Ruth’s case, she could not deny that the Israelites lived in Canaan

after God flexed His muscles,

they escaped from Egypt

and defeating a number of kings along the way.

If Israel was the least of all peoples,

then their string of victories strained believability,

unless a strong Advocate was on her side.

So Ruth believed God. We must believe God too and pray that He flex His muscles right here!

And of course, when true saving faith is granted to a person it leads to change.

Faith in God will lead to a personal change of identity.

She forsook her Moabite identity and associated with the covenant community of Israel.

Knowledge and assent led to active trust.

Ruth put her faith into action and made concrete changes in her life.

She turned from a former way of life to a new identity among Yahweh’s people.

Others could see these fruits of trust and note that a change of direction had occurred.

Boaz could see as much in their first meeting…

2:11 And Boaz answered and said to her, “It has been fully reported to me, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before. 12 The Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.”

Let me ask you,

• do others notice fruits of growing in Christ in your life?

• Do people note changes in your life?

• Is God’s grace operating in making you more and more into Christ?

So she came to faith in the covenant keeping God of Israel.

But think of the circumstances in which she did.

It’s in the context of personal upheaval and emotional distress, that she is brought to faith!

When Ruth declared that her mother-in-law’s God would be her God,

there was nothing calm and ideal about her circumstances.

Maybe God is trying to speak to you today through your own personal upheaval and emotional distress.

Along with Naomi, Ruth had suffered a devastating loss that made her future insecure.

She surely knew the risks from a human perspective,

Indeed, her faith surpassed Abraham’s because she had no personal command or promise from Yahweh.

Rather, she acted on what God had promised to Abraham

—in devastating and dire circumstances no less.

She surely knew the risks from a human perspective,

but the God of Israel (her God, by faith) was,

to her way of thinking, bigger than the situation.

It is evident from the rest of the book and her inclusion in Jesus’ genealogy in

that God credited her faith to her as righteousness,

just as he had credited Abraham’s faith.

By contrast, Orpah apparently permitted the risks, to outweigh any confidence

that she might have had in Naomi’s God.

Just as Ruth surely knew the history of God’s relationship with Israel,

New Testament believers similarly know that same history and how it climaxes in Jesus Christ.

God has done mighty deeds to secure our redemption.

Think of

• Jesus’ miracles that represent reversals of the effects of the curse for sin, or

• the raising of Jesus from the dead as proof of God’s satisfaction with his sacrifice for our sins, or

• the ascension by which Jesus was exalted as God’s vice-regent over all creation or

• the present intercessory ministry of Jesus as high priest.

Not to be overlooked as well is our own history as individuals and as groups of believers.

We can look back and see God’s faithfulness to us and to His church.

In all these deeds God has displayed his greatness and goodness.

He is great and powerful to take care of us in all situations.

He is good and gracious to even desire to take care of us.

The proof is what He has already done for us through Jesus Christ.

In Christ God has taken away our sins and propitiated his wrath.

He, the heavenly judge, has

adopted us sinners into his family and promised to care for us.

He has given us his Spirit that we might be conformed to Christ’s likeness.

If God has done all this, what are the situations of our lives but opportunities for God to advance His good purpose?

God has demonstrated his commitment to His people, and

the situations of our lives are now the stage

on which God continues to prove His love and faithfulness

—for our maturing in godliness

as well as for a witness to those who observe what God is doing through us.

So then, we need not be afraid or despairing. God is neither dead nor distant.

He is on site in our lives, as complex as they may be, to accomplish His will,

which, among other things,

is to teach us that He is all-sufficient for our every need and worry.

If God is active in history, daring to entrust one’s well-being and future into his care becomes the sensible course to take.

To try to direct our own lives according to conventional, worldly wisdom

will always come up short in the face of so many

unforeseen and unmanageable variables.

We are neither omniscient nor omnipotent and so unable to take control of our lives.

Mother's Day Ruth 1:14...

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FAITH IN MIGHTY ACTS OF GOD