Exile and Return
Notes
Transcript
Part 1: Ruth 1:1-7: Exile and Return
1 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.
2 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.
3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons.
4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years,
5 and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
6 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.
7 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.
PRAY
Let me begin today with a question: Is the world today the way it is supposed to be?
You know the answer. Of course not. The world is messed up. Everything is not alright. It’s not how it’s supposed to be. Why?
Well, 6000 years ago or so, our first parents lived in a world that was exactly the way it was meant to be. Perfect peace, not only with people but more importantly with God, as well as with the world itself. Everything was as it should be.
Then sin entered the world. Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command, and as a result they lost paradise. No longer was everything peaceful — their relationship with God, with each other, and with the earth itself was broken — seemingly beyond repair.
As a result of their sin they were exiled — forced to leave the Garden of Eden and head east, away from the place of God’s special presence and blessing.
Many years later, following a series of covenants with Adam, Noah, and Abraham, the people of Israel were now in covenant with God as His people, His firstborn son whom God rescued from Egypt and brought into the Promised Land, restoring them as it were to paradise — living in the presence of God, in fellowship with Him.
Of course it was different now because of sin — regular sacrifices had to be offered and faithfulness was required for them to continue to live in God’s presence. Sadly, like Adam, Hosea tells us, Israel broke the covenant, and like Adam they too experienced exile from the promised land. Eventually by God’s grace they returned.
We could say to some extent that this pattern of exile and return sums up the entire story of Scripture. Because of mankind’s rebellion against God we are exiled, but God in His grace and mercy rescues us, redeems us, and restores us to Himself and His blessing.
Exile and return is the big picture story of the Bible, and it’s a major function of Ruth in the Bible. We could say that the whole story of the Bible is encapsulated in the book of Ruth.
We spent most of last week talking about background information to help us in our study of Ruth, and I’d like to review some things with you before we look at these verses together today.
Moab
The nation and people of Moab feature prominently in this story, so let’s remember the backstory regarding Moab and the Moabites.
In Genesis 19, we have God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot had been living in Sodom, but God graciously rescued him for Abraham’s sake. Then Lot’s family fled to a nearby place, but his wife turned to a pillar of salt because she disobeyed the Lord’s orders and looked back at Sodom. After this, Lot’s daughters are concerned about carrying on their father’s line, but they’re afraid to go out and find husbands elsewhere, so they come up with a plan to get pregnant by their father — and that’s the origin of Moab.
We don’t hear much about Moab for the next several centuries, but then in Numbers 22, after Israel comes out of Egypt, on their way to promised land, they arrive near the land of Moab; at that time, Balak, the Moabite king, summoned the prophet Balaam to curse Israel (Now remember what God told Abraham — Gen 12:2-3 - him who dishonors you I will curse); so Moab is under God’s curse because they’re cursing God’s people (they’re seed of the serpent)
A couple of chapters later, in Numbers 25 when they’re not able to curse Israel, they figure out how to bring God’s curse on them by tempting them with sexual immorality; so they bring God’s judgment against Israel by getting Israel to sin with their women.
Then we read in Deut 23:3 that no Moabite is to be allowed into the assembly of the LORD (the people of Israel) until the 10th generation (by contrast, the Egyptians are allowed after 3); the reason given is because they did not show hospitality to Israel on their way to promised land and they sought to curse them.
So we need to keep that in mind as we study this book.
The Curses of the Covenant- Leaving Bethlehem as Exile Lev 26:22, 26, 33, 36
In God’s covenant with Israel, there were specific curses that were given as consequences for disobedience and unfaithfulness to the covenant.
Leviticus 26:22 says that one consequence of Israel’s idolatry would be the loss of their children — involving both death and infertility.
22 And I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted.
In Leviticus 26:26, God speaks of famine as a consequence of their idolatry:
26 When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.
In Leviticus 26:33 God speaks of exile from the land:
33 And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
In Leviticus 26:36 God speaks of only a small remnant who will be left (same word used twice of Naomi in these verses)
36 And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues.
So these curses of the covenant — famine (no bread), being bereaved of children, being driven out of land, only a remnant being left — this is what Ruth’s beginning sounds like.
Naomi’s family is experiencing the curses of the covenant — death and exile; because to be in God’s presence is to be alive, but to leave God’s presence is to go into the unclean realm of the dead. That’s where this story begins.
Ruth’s canonical location
Historically, and in the order of our English Bibles, Ruth serves as a bridge between the time of judges and King David in Samuel.
In the Hebrew Bible Ruth is placed between Proverbs and Song of Songs (connection to Proverbs 31 with eshet hayil — virtuous/worthy woman, then the marriage of Ruth and Boaz sets up the celebration of marriage in Song of Songs)
Details of passage
The Setting: Outside the Promised Land (v. 1-2)
The Setting: Outside the Promised Land (v. 1-2)
1 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.
2 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.
We looked briefly at verses 1-2 of chapter 1 last week, but we’ll just review quickly where this story starts.
In the days when the judges ruled…
This story takes place during the time of the judges, a time of spiritual and moral depravity in Israel. This phrase from v. 1 connects with Judges 21:25 “25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” The people of Israel are living however they please, and as a result, the curses of the covenant are coming on the people.
So this family from Bethlehem — a father, mother, and two sons — leave the promised land in response to a famine. There is no bread in the house of bread (Bethlehem means house of bread).
The famine here was likely part of God’s discipline of His people for their idolatry, which He had promised in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. God withheld the rain and crops to get Israel’s attention and turn them back to Him.
But rather than responding in faith and repentance, this family simply leaves the promised land and searches for food elsewhere. But man shall not live by bread alone, but rather by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Their eyes were on their physical need rather than their spiritual need.
When v. 1 speaks of the famine in the land, it is reminiscent of the famines in the days of Abraham and Isaac Gen 12:10, 26:1. Both Abraham and Isaac leave the promised land area and lie about their wives which put their families in jeopardy, yet God brings blessing for both of them despite their foolish decisions. He’ll do the same here in Ruth.
A man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn…
In v. 1, the phrases a man of Bethlehem in Judah and the word sojourn both occur in Judges 17:8, 19:1. Stories which speak of idolatry and gross immorality. The author wants us to connect this story with those and compare what happens in this story to those.
The mention of Bethlehem in Judah also reminds us of the author’s concern in the book of Ruth, which is to help us see how we get to David out of the time of the judges. How is God going to continue to fulfill His covenant promises and bring about the ultimate Redemption? That’s why he mentions Bethlehem (and Ephrathah in v. 2), to remind us not only of David, but also of Micah’s prophecy regarding the coming Messiah.
Their names
Again, the names here are significant.
Elimelech = my God is king
Naomi = pleasant
Mahlon = related to the word sickness
Kilyon = related to the word death
Elimelech takes his family from the House of bread to the snake pit (Moab) — east (away from the place of God’s blessing), to the land of the seed of the serpent. To leave the promised land was wrong, and to go to Moab was wrong.
If Elimelech had lived up to his name (My God is King), he would have repented and sought the Lord in the face of famine instead of moving away.
We need to ask ourselves, When we face difficulty, do we move toward God or away from Him?
So they settle in the land of Moab. We don’t know for sure how long they were there, but it appears that it was not too much later when tragedy began to strike — not once, but twice.
Tragedy Strikes Twice (v. 3-5)
Tragedy Strikes Twice (v. 3-5)
3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons.
4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years,
5 and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
v. 3 - Elimelech died
They left the land of life, and death results. Those who walk away from the Lord do so to their own destruction.
Naomi was left with her two sons
The word “left” in v. 3 comes from the Hebrew word where we get the idea of remnant, the remnant that remains after God’s judgment;
Noah was left (Gen 7:23) after the judgment of the flood;
at the judgment of the Egyptians in Ex 14:28 it says that none of them were left, none remained (same Hebrew word), there was no remnant
so this word implies an act of God’s judgment but also of God’s mercy
After Elimelech dies, the sons are now responsible for leading the home, and the response of the sons ought to have been to return to the promised land — this would have been the response of faith. Let’s go back to the promised land, to the place of God’s presence and blessing. But that was not their response.
v. 4 - These took Moabite wives
Even though there was sorrow over her husband’s death, at this point Naomi still has hope — her boys are now married, and surely they will have children and carry on the family line. But there’s two problems here:
first, they marry Moabites! In Deuteronomy 7:3, God forbids the people of Israel from intermarrying with Canaanites, the people of the land. This was not a race issue, but a spiritual issue. These people worship false gods, and intermarriage with them will lead Israel into idolatry (which is exactly what happened); though the Moabites were not part of this forbidden group of people, they also worshiped a false god Chemosh, and the same principle would have applied to them. And God said in Deut 23 that no Moabite to the 10th generation was allowed in the LORD’s assembly. So they should not have married these women.
second, they are not able to have children. They’re married for 10 years but those are 10 years of infertility.
Ten years connects back to Gen 16:3 and the story of when Sarah urged Abraham to have a child with Hagar (only other significant mention of 10 years); that story tells us of the intermarriage of Abraham with a foreigner, as well as presenting the issue of barrenness in the case of Sarah, who is supposed to give birth to the next in the line of the seed of the woman in fulfillment of God’s promise in Gen 3:15.
No blessing of offspring is a curse of the covenant as well.
Both Mahlon and Chilion died and Naomi was left…
So these men whose names mean sickness and death apparently get sick and die, and now the only survivor is Naomi.
The Return to Bethlehem (v. 6-7)
The Return to Bethlehem (v. 6-7)
6 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.
7 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.
In v. 6 (and throughout the passage) we have the word translated “return”. This Hebrew word Shuv (to return) also carries the overtone of repentance — to return is to repent.
In the context of exile and return, God says to Israel through Moses in Deut 4:29-30
29 But from there [the place of exile] you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice.
The idea is that to return to the land is to move back toward God, to draw near to the place of His presence and blessing.
YHWH visited His people
This phrase reminds us of Gen 21:1 (the LORD visited Sarah) — the barrenness of Sarah reversed as YHWH visits Sarah and she brings forth her son Isaac who is in the line of the seed of the woman. The same will happen in this story.
Joseph also speaks of the LORD visiting His people in Genesis 50:24-25, Ex 13:19; God will visit His people to rescue them from slavery and take them to the promised land
Now there is bread in the house of bread.
In response to this visitation from the LORD, Naomi decides to return to Judah, to the town of Bethlehem. Even though as we’ll see in the next section Naomi’s faith is very weak, she is moving in the right direction — back to the promised land.
Considering now the NT Connection to Ruth,
Matthew 1:5 “5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,”
Boaz’s mother was Rahab (the prostitute from Jericho who converted to YHWH) — this informs his response to Ruth and his acceptance of her though she is a foreigner — he must have learned from his mother that God can and will include outsiders in His people if they trust in Him like Rahab did and like Ruth does.
Lesson: turn back to God, because He will bring blessing out of cursing for those who repent
If you have moved away from God, or if you are moving away from God, return. Repent. Come back to Him, draw near to Him through Jesus Christ. God can and will redeem your trials and the tragedies that you face, but you must choose to live by faith and turn toward Him instead of away from Him during times of difficulty.
