An Unexpected Journey

Life is filled of crisis moments.

How we respond to crisis is important. How we try to help those in crisis is equally important. We can intentionally and unintentionally cast blame when that is not warranted.

Our new series—The Book of Ruth!

I have chosen this book for a number of reasons. It is a short book and thus we can get through it by Thanksgiving. It is also a book with themes we need to be reminded of today with our world.

Setting-the book of judges.

As we open up the book we see the timestamp—during the days when judges ruled. This will provide a stark contrast to the ending of the book of judges, and should do so.

Judges 21:25 NIV

In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

Yet does this not also describe our world.

Our faith requires us to live differently!

In a world where anything goes we must not fall into that trap. In a world where we look for someone to tell us what to do we must always look to the one who created teh world to determine our steps.

Tragedy & crisis has struck.

Elimelek, Naomi, Mahlon, and Kilion have had tragedy happen. There is famine in the city. the city known for having bread has none. Was this the result of the nation disobeying God? Maybe but we do not know.

Sometimes life becomes unbearable at no fault of our own.

I see this in verses 3-5. We do not know why the deaths happen but they did. What will she do now? For Naomi this becames more powerful when she says to call her not by her real name but Mara because of the bitterness of life.

Keep looking for God/Jesus.

In the midst of the pain of life Naomi still had eyes to hear that God was doing something back home. Where do you see Jesus?

The “hesed” of God is powerful.

We come to the first important concept of this book; God’s hesed. Verse 8 and 9 give us a glimpse and we will see more later on. There is no good English word to capture the true beauty of what this Hebrew word has.

Hesed is a voluntary action based on relationship with someone, typically of lower status, requiring a response by the recipient.

It is known as a characteristic of God in part because over 2/3 of the time it is used God is the one expressing it.

God is sovereign over our affairs.

Naomi is bringing this to light.

We need more Ruth’s in our world.

Verses 16-18 are so powerful.

A model of true confession.

Can the same be said of us.

God honors the faith of all individuals.

Regardless of ones nationality God honors the task.