When the Road Turns Toward Redemption

Good afternoon, church. Today we continue our series through the book of Ruth, which we have titled The God Who Redeems. This is now Pt. 3. And as we’ve done each week throughout this series, today’s sermon has its own title. With that in mind, I’ve titled today’s sermon When the Road Turns Toward Redemption.

I remember one time I was driving home from Florida to Georgia when I ran into a major traffic jam. Now because of the traffic jam my GPS recalculated the route and suggested that I would get off the turnpike.

And at first, everything seemed fine. However all of a sudden, I found myself on a two-lane road. With the GPS telling me to turn. Then it told me to turn again. Then another turn. Then another. And I remember thinking, Where in the world is this thing taking me?

And to be honest from where I was sitting, it actually felt like some of those turns were taking me farther away from where I needed to go. I remember thinking, this feels like I’m going in the wrong direction. Now, Church my problem was that all I could see was the road directly in front of me.

In other words I couldn’t see how all these roads connected. I couldn’t understand how a road that seemed to be taking me away from my destination was actually going to lead me exactly to where I needed to be.

And, eventually, this was precisely what happened the strange road brought me exactly to where I needed to be and put me back on the road toward home.

And church, sometimes life can feel a lot like that. There are moments when we cannot understand the road God has permitted us to walk in. There are turns we didn’t expect, circumstances we would never have chosen, and seasons when we find ourselves wondering, Lord, where is this going? How does any of this fit together?

And the truth is that our temptation can be to believe that because we don’t understand the road, there must be something wrong with the destination—or even worst with the One who is leading us.

But Scripture teaches us that God does not need to explain every turn in order to remain trustworthy. And as we come to our text today, Naomi and Ruth are on a road that neither of them fully understands.

They don’t know what awaits them in Bethlehem. They don’t know where this road will ultimately lead. But here’s a comforting truth: God does. And that’s why we’ve titled today’s sermon: When the Road Turns Toward Redemption.

And the truth that I want us to carry throughout our passage today is that: Even when our faith is weak and the road before us is difficult to understand, God remains faithful to His people and His redemptive purposes.

Which raises the question we want our text to answer: How do we walk by faith when we don’t understand the road God has placed before us?

And as Naomi and Ruth continue down this road toward Bethlehem, I want us to consider three truths that teach us what it means to walk by faith when we cannot yet understand where God is leading us.

So let’s begin with our first truth:

I. Even in Our Weakness God Uses Our Faith

Ruth 1:14–18 NASB 2020

And they raised their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. 15 Then she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth said, “Do not plead with me to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you sleep, I will sleep. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. 17 Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me, and worse, if anything but death separates me from you.” 18 When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her about it.

Last Sunday, we ended our sermon in V14 with Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth raising their voices and weeping together after dealing with the loss of their husbands.

Eventually, Orpah kisses her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clings to her. And this is where we left things last Sunday.

However, there is an important detail in this story that I don’t want us to overlook. There is clearly something about Naomi that has deeply impacted these women.

If you were here last week, you might remember that neither Ruth nor Orpah initially wanted to leave Naomi. As a matter of fact, Naomi is releasing them from any obligation they might feel toward her.

She tells them to go back home.

She gives them permission to leave.

And yet, here in V14, they weep at the thought of separating from her.

The question is: Why?

In order to unpack this, let’s begin by looking at what Naomi says to Ruth in V15.

Ruth 1:15 NASB 2020

Then she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”

Again in V14, we saw that Orpah kissed Naomi goodbye while Ruth continued clinging to her. But now I want you to notice the language the author is using here. The author doesn’t simply tell us that Orpah returned to her people. He tells us that she returned “to her people and her gods.”

This means that there is much more happening here than just two women choosing different geographical directions. What we have here in V15 is a spiritual crossroads. Where Orpah chooses to return to Moab, to her people, and to her gods.

And church, in many ways, faith continually brings us to crossroads like this.

Will we return to what we have always known, or will we continue following the Lord?

Will we return to the old ways we once trusted, or will we walk by faith even when we don’t know where that road will lead?

In our text Orpah returns. However Ruth makes a very different decision.

Look at V16:

Ruth 1:16 NASB 2020

But Ruth said, “Do not plead with me to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you sleep, I will sleep. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.

The question again is: Why? Why would Ruth say this?

First, don’t miss how personal Ruth’s language is. Ruth doesn’t simply say, “The God of Israel will be my God.”

She looks at Naomi and says: “Your God will be my God.”

In other words, the God Ruth has come to know through this family—the God she has watched Naomi pray to, speak about, depend upon, and even wrestle with—is now the God Ruth desires to call her own.

And I think this is an extremely important part of the story.

Just remember what Ruth has witnessed. She has just lived through years of suffering alongside Naomi. She has seen this woman lose her husband. She has watched her bury her sons. She has watched Naomi experience loss after loss after loss.

And yet, somehow, after watching all of this, Ruth doesn’t say, “If this is what happens to people who follow Naomi’s God, I want nothing to do with Him.”

She says: “Your God will be my God.”

Again what has Ruth seen? What does she know? Church, we don’t know all the conversations they had during those ten years in Moab. We don’t know everything Naomi taught Ruth about the LORD. The text doesn’t give us those details.

But we do know this: Ruth knew that Naomi had a God.

And somewhere along the way, the God who was Naomi’s God became the God Ruth desired to call “her God.”

And if you’ve studied the Scriptures you know that this is one of the ways God has always worked.

Yes, God is the One who saves.


God is the One who gives faith.


And God is the One who changes the heart.

But God uses people. We can see an example of this in Paul’s second letter to Timothy:

2 Timothy 1:5 NASB 2020

For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelled in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.

Now, Paul isn’t saying that Timothy was saved by his grandmother’s faith. He’s not saying Timothy inherited his mother’s faith. Paul is sa, Timothy, the faith that now marks your life is a faith you grew up seeing modeled before you in your mother and your grandmother.

In 2 Timothy 3, Paul reminds him that “from childhood you have known the sacred writings.”

In other words, Timothy, your faith was shaped not only by the Scriptures you were taught, but by seeing those Scriptures lived out in the lives of the people who raised you.

Paul gives us another beautiful picture in 2 Corinthians 3:2–3 when he describes believers as letters:

2 Corinthians 3:2–3 NASB 2020

You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all people, revealing yourselves, that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Oh beloved, God has chosen to make Himself known through His people. And church, think about what that means for the people around us. This means that wherever God has placed us, our lives become an opportunity for others to see the reality of Christ in us.

So, if you’re a Christian parent, your children are watching you. Your family is watching you.

If you’re a Christian employee, your coworkers are watching you.

If you own a business, your customers and your employees are watching you.

In our homes, in our workplaces, and in our neighborhoods, there are people around us who hear what we say about God—and not only what we say but also how we live before Him.

They see what happens when our lives might seem to be fallings apart.

They see where we run when we’re afraid.

They see what we cling to when we don’t know what to do.

They see whether our faith is simply something we practice on Sunday or whether Christ is actually our hope when suffering enters our home.

And this is what makes Naomi so encouraging to me. Naomi’s faith is not perfect.

She’s hurting.


She’s confused.


And she’s struggling to understand God’s providence.

And yet, through all of that, Ruth knows something unmistakable about Naomi: She knows that Naomi belongs to the LORD.

Her suffering has shaken her, but it has not erased her faith. And Ruth has seen enough of the reality of Naomi’s God that when she stands at this crossroads and is given the opportunity to return to Moab and to its gods, she refuses.

So, church, may God make us that kind of people.

May our children see something of the reality of Christ in us.

May our spouses see it.

May our friends see it.

May our brothers and sisters in the church see it.

May our coworkers see it.

May the people who walk closely with us see a faith that is real—not a perfect faith, but a genuine faith.

A faith that still clings to God when we suffer.

A faith that still runs to God when we don’t understand.

A faith that demonstrates that our God is worthy of our trust even when the road He has called us to walk is painful.

That;

Even in our weakness, God can use our faith to point others to Himself.

For Church, how can we expect the people around us to desire the God we proclaim if our actions continually communicate that He cannot be trusted?

I am aware that we cannot save anyone. I am aware that we cannot give anyone faith. However we can live in such a way that our lives bear witness to the reality of the God we proclaim.

And this appears to be part of what God has been doing through Naomi. Because now Ruth makes a confession that changes the direction of her life:

Ruth 1:16–18 NASB 2020

Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me, and worse, if anything but death separates me from you.”

This is more than loyalty to Naomi.

This is conversion.

We can see this because Ruth is leaving more than a country behind. She’s leaving more than a people behind. She is turning away from the gods of Moab and entrusting herself to the living God.

It reminds us of what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 1:9, when he describes how the Thessalonians “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God.” That’s precisely what Ruth is doing.

Now notice the certainty of her decision.

Ruth 1:18 NASB 2020

When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her about it.

When Naomi sees Ruth’s determination, she realizes, There is no convincing her otherwise. Ruth is not going back. And I love the picture we’re left with: Naomi the woman whose faith had impacted Ruth is now witnessing the fruit of that faith in Ruth.

Naomi may be weak.

She may be hurting.

She may be struggling to understand what God is doing.

But even in her weakness, God has used her faith—and now Ruth is walking beside her as evidence of it. And that brings us to the second truth we see in this passage:

II. Our Suffering Does Not Define Us

Ruth 1:19–21 NASB 2020

So they both went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was stirred because of them, and the women said, “Is this Naomi?” But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

After everything that has happened, Naomi and Ruth have finally arrived in Bethlehem. And the text tells us that “all the city was stirred because of them.” That word stirred carries the idea of a commotion. In other words, Naomi’s return gets everyone’s attention. And you can imagine why.

Naomi had left Bethlehem approximately ten years earlier with a husband and two sons. Now, ten years later, she suddenly walks back into town. Her husband isn’t with her. Her sons aren’t with her. And beside her is this Moabite woman whom the people apparently don’t know.

And the women of Bethlehem ask: “Is this Naomi?”

Now, the text doesn’t tell us exactly why they ask the question. Maybe they’re simply surprised to see her after all these years. Maybe after ten years and everything she has experienced her appearance might’ve changed. We don’t know.

But they do recognize her.

Now, let’s look at Naomi’s response: “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.”

Church, that’s a significant statement. The name Naomi means pleasant or sweet. But Mara means bitter. So essentially Naomi is saying: “Don’t call me by who I was. Call me by what has happened to me.”

And this is where suffering has taken Naomi.

Last week we talked about how suffering can affect the way we interpret God’s providence. But here we see something different. We see how

Suffering can also affect the way we see ourselves.

Naomi has experienced so much bitterness that bitterness is no longer simply something she has experienced. It has become the way she identifies herself.

Naomi doesn’t say, “My life has been bitter.”

She says: “Call me Bitter.”

And church, we can do the same thing. We can be tempted to begin identifying ourselves by what has happened to us.

I’m the failure.

I’m the divorced one.

I’m the barren one.

I’m the addicted one.

I’m the abandoned one.

I’m the disabled one.

And before we realize it, something that happened to us becomes the thing we believe defines us.

It’s interesting because we do something similar even with ordinary things. In Puerto Rico, growing up, we have never really called diapers “diapers.” We call them Pampers. “Go get the Pampers.”

But Pampers isn’t actually the name of the product. It’s a brand. Yet the brand became so closely associated with the product that eventually we started calling the entire thing by that name.

And suffering can do something similar to us.

We can become so closely identified with something we’ve experienced that eventually we begin calling ourselves by its name.

That’s what’s happened to Naomi. And Naomi proceeds to tells us exactly why she feels this way:

Ruth 1:20–21 NASB 2020

But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

Now, we saw some of this last Sunday. Naomi has a very high view of the sovereignty of God.

She doesn’t believe her husband just happened to die. She doesn’t believe her sons just happened to die. She believes that everything she has experienced has happened under the sovereign hand of God.

But notice how she is interpreting that sovereignty. She says, “The LORD has testified against me.”

That language carries the idea of someone giving testimony against another person. This means that in Naomi’s mind, her circumstances have become the evidence that God’s verdict has gone against her.

And then she says, “The Almighty has afflicted me.”

In other words, Naomi doesn’t simply believe that God has been sovereign over her suffering; she has interpreted her suffering as evidence that God is against her. And in some ways she actually see’s God as the author of her suffering.

And now her suffering has become the lens through which she is seeing everything.

So, she looks at what she has lost, she looks at what she has suffered, and she concludes, This must tell me how God sees me. This must tell me who I am.

And that’s why she says: “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara.”

Her circumstances have not only shaped the way she sees God; they have begun to define the way she sees herself.

And church, that’s where we have to be careful.

Because suffering is real.

Loss is real.

Grief is real.

And Scripture never asks us to pretend otherwise. But what Naomi has experienced does not have the authority to tell her who she is. And there’s an additional detail in the text that I don’t want us to miss. Naomi says: “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara.”

But do you know what the narrator will call her in the very next verse? Naomi. She calls herself Mara. But the story keeps calling her Naomi.

So, yes her bitterness is real, but bitterness does not get to rename her.

Her suffering is real, but suffering does not get the final word over her identity.

And beloved, the same is true for those who belong to Christ. Our suffering may describe something we have experienced, but it does not have the authority to define who we are before God.

Your worst moment is not your name.

Your greatest failure is not your name.

Your deepest loss is not your name.

Your most painful season is not your name.

If you belong to Christ, your identity is ultimately determined not by what has happened to you, but by the God to whom you belong. And that’s something Naomi cannot yet fully see. She thinks that her name is—bitter. But God isn’t finished with Naomi.

Which brings us to our third and final truth:

III. God’s Faithfulness Is Not Dependent on the Strength of Our Faith

Ruth 1:22 NASB 2020

So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the land of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

Now, at first, this verse can almost sound like simple geographical and chronological information.

They returned from Moab.

They arrived in Bethlehem.

It was barley harvest.

But the narrator is telling us something. First, notice who is standing beside Naomi. Ruth.

Naomi had just stated: “I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty.”

And then the narrator almost seems to respond: But Naomi, you’re not empty. Ruth is standing right beside you.

Naomi cannot yet comprehend the significance of this woman who has returned with her. She cannot yet see what God will do through Ruth. But Ruth is there.

And then the narrator gives us one final detail: “They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.”

Church, don’t miss the contrast.

Two weeks ago in Chapter 1 we began with a famine.

Now on Week #3 Chapter 1 ends with harvest.

Barley was the first grain harvest of the agricultural year. So this isn’t the end of something. It’s the beginning. And I think that’s the word the narrator wants ringing in our ears as chapter 1 closes: Beginning. Why? because:

Nothing has been resolved.

Naomi is still grieving.

Her husband is still gone.

Her sons are still gone.

In other words while Naomi is struggling to understand the providence of God, the harvest has already begun, that’s grace.

God didn’t wait until Naomi understood everything He was doing.

He didn’t wait until her faith became stronger.

He didn’t wait until she stopped struggling with bitterness.

God remained faithful because His faithfulness was never dependent upon the strength of Naomi’s faith.

2 Timothy 2:13 NASB 2020

If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

And isn’t that the gospel? God did not wait for us to become strong before He came to save us.

Ephesians 2:5 tells us that:

Ephesians 2:5 ESV

Even when we were dead in our trespasses, (God has) made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

Church:

Our salvation has never been rooted in the strength of our faith. Our salvation has always been rooted in the grace and faithfulness of our God.

And the same God who is faithful in our salvation remains faithful as we walk with Him.

Our faith may become weak.

Our circumstances may leave us confused.

There may be moments when, like Naomi, we cannot understand what God is doing. But our weakness does not make God less faithful.

And that’s where chapter 1 leaves us.

Naomi thinks she’s empty.

But Ruth is standing right beside her.

Naomi thinks her life should be called bitter.

But the narrator still calls her pleasant.

And after a chapter that began with famine causing her to leave to a foreign land, she now arrives back home at the beginning of harvest. And they don’t yet know where this road is going. But their road is beginning to turn toward redemption.