Loyalty

Introduction

Some of you are far more faithful than I am; and you could legitimately say to me, “Who are you to tell me about faithfulness?” I’m not telling you, God’s Word is.

God has brought me back to Ruth again and again.

The writings are meant to be a joy to read. The writings are filled with positive examples of righteousness. Even at a time as difficult as the Judges, something good was going on.

Faithfulness is an enduring commitment to love another person or group (not the lovy dovy kind).

Covenant faithfulness.

Steadfast love.

Loving kindness.

Covenant love.

Hosea 6:4 NASB95

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning cloud And like the dew which goes away early.

Covenant faithfulness.

The story: My God is King marries Pleasant. They have two children named Sickness and Destruction. Hebrew names were not arbitrary, and the original reader were not surprised when they died. They may have felt a sense of dread when they read that they had married, yet died before having any children.

Theme verse:

Ruth 3:10 NASB95

Then he said, “May you be blessed of the Lord, my daughter. You have shown your last kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men, whether poor or rich.

Emendation: last act of faithfulness

Young men: choice men

The first faithfulness:

The Test of Faithfulness

Ruth 1:8 NASB95

And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me.

Note: kindly: hesed

Naomi makes a proclamation of two daughter-in-laws’ faithfulness. Saying that they have shown faithfulness both to the dead and Naomi herself.

Both Ruth and Orpah are faithful to Naomi, why? They were married to her sons. They were faithful to their new family. In a sense, a covenant was formed, not just between husband and wife, Ruth and Mahlon, but the families were now united.

She was being faithful to her dead husband.

Naomi makes a proclamation of two daughter-in-laws’ faithfulness. Saying that they have shown faithfulness both to the dead and Naomi herself (1:8).

Will they stay faithful to their new family, in spite of the death of their husbands and their father-in-law? This is the test.

Naomi makes a proclamation of two daughter-in-laws’ faithfulness. Saying that they have shown faithfulness to both the dead and Naomi herself.

Naomi, I’m sure in great grief from having lost her husband and two sons, does not encourage the family to stay together.

At first they are with her all the way:

Ruth 1:9–10 NASB95

“May the Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, “No, but we will surely return with you to your people.”

Naomi is not satisfied with that answer, so she exacerbates the hopelessness of the situation:

Ruth 1:11–13 NASB95

But Naomi said, “Return, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? “Return, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I should even have a husband tonight and also bear sons, would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters; for it is harder for me than for you, for the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me.”

Naomi likely is not trying necessarily to hurt her daughters-in-law; she is more likely just trying to get them to do what will allow them to survive.

Orpah comes to simply agree:

Ruth 1:14 NASB95

And they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

I am emphasizing Ruth’s extraordinary faithfulness. I am not saying that Orpah was evil for her decision, she likely was doing what she thought she had to do to survive. Ruth put her faithfulness to Naomi above her own needs.

Ruth’s faithfulness endures.

So Naomi tries again:

Ruth 1:15 NASB95

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

But Ruth gives hard words to accompany her actions:

Ruth 1:16–17 NASB95

But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. “Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.”

Here we see that Ruth’s faithfulness to Naomi is completely self-sacrificing. Ruth’s religion, people, choices; she put them all behind her so that she could serve her mother-in-law (serve, don’t get the impression that this meant that she just always wanted to hang out with her).

Naomi acts the foil to Ruth in many ways. In her great mourning, she is very negative when she tells her daughter-in-laws to leave and when she first enters Bethlehem. She says that she left “full” and came back “empty” with Ruth awkwardly standing in the room. But Ruth, who has also just lost her husband, is diligent and faithful. She seeks to provide for her mother in law when they return.

You might think, “I’m not in any kind of situation like this.”

But you are. Those of you who are married; have you set aside your religion, people, choices for your spouse?

Your God, my God. Remember that Ruth had a idol-worship background. Her mother-in-law even asked her to go with her sister and to her gods. Ruth had to change everything about what she did with her time. She had to change her fears. Her joys. Her moral compass. She had to change the way she spoke. Your religion (latin for “yoke,” the thing that attaches the ox to the plow), you have religion outside of worship.

for a lot of husbands these days, it’s video games. For some, it’s that way they talk. It’s the tendency to be easily angered or frustrated. Your ideologies. The “and that’s that” mentality.

Your people, anyone who get in the way of your relationship. The relationship is more important that your identity.

Your choices, do you like to get your way? Is your way better? Maybe you say: “where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge.” Often, we must give up things that are good.

Note that Ruth does not have an attitude of submission, in fact, she is doing the exact opposite of what Naomi told her to do. It’s an attitude of wanting to good for another, no matter the cost.

Faithfulness is self-sacrifice.

As we knew from this narrative, and from Leviticus, a widow can still be faithful to her late husband by raising up a child for him through a redeemer.

God isn’t solely interested in our being faithful Him to the neglect of our being faithful to others. Trying to do so, will end up in not being faithful to Him at all. Going to church when your sick spouse or child needs you at home. (Man with the most marriages: Glynn Wolfe, 29, no wives and one of his 40 children attended his funeral and no body claimed his body) (All of my Chinese students (up to 14 and 15 years old) still live with both of their parents).