Sermon Tone Analysis

You Can’t Hide From God

This section of the Book of Ruth includes three testimonies from our main characters.

We get to know a little more about them by what they say and what we can infer are possible motives.

Let’s take a look.

The Testimony of Naomi (vv.

6-15)

God visited His faithful people in Bethlehem, but not His disobedient daughter in Moab.

Naomi heard the report that the famine had ended; and when she heard the good news, she decided to return home.

God visited His faithful people in Bethlehem, but not His disobedient daughter in Moab.

Naomi heard the report that the famine had ended; and when she heard the good news, she decided to return home.

How sad it is when people only hear about God’s blessing, but never experience it, because they are not in the place where God can bless them.

Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Committed, “Be” Commentary Series (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993), 18.

The commentator Warren Weirsbe tells of a prayer meeting he was in with a number of Youth for Christ Leaders, among whom was Jacob Stam, the brother of John Stam who, with his wife Betty, was martyred in China in 1934.

How sad it is when people only hear about God’s blessing, but never experience it, because they are not in the place where God can bless them.

They had been asking God to bless this ministry and that project, and I suppose the word “bless” was used scores of times as we prayed.

Then Jacob Stam prayed, “Lord, we’ve asked you to bless all these things; but, please, Lord, make us blessable.”

Had Naomi been in that meeting, she would have had to confess, “Lord, I’m not blessable.”

Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Committed, “Be” Commentary Series (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993), 18.

Whenever we have disobeyed the Lord and departed from His will, we must confess our sin and return to the place of blessing.

Abraham had to leave Egypt and go back to the altar he had abandoned (), and Jacob had to go back to Bethel (35:1).

The repeated plea of the prophets to God’s people was that they turn from their sins and return to the Lord.

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” ().

They had been asking God to bless this ministry and that project, and I suppose the word “bless” was used scores of times as we prayed.

Then Jacob Stam prayed, “Lord, we’ve asked you to bless all these things; but, please, Lord, make us blessable.”

Had Naomi been in that meeting, she would have had to confess, “Lord, I’m not blessable.”

Whenever we have disobeyed the Lord and departed from His will, we must confess our sin and return to the place of blessing.

Abraham had to leave Egypt and go back to the altar he had abandoned (), and Jacob had to go back to Bethel (35:1).

The repeated plea of the prophets to God’s people was that they turn from their sins and return to the Lord.

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” ().

Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Committed, “Be” Commentary Series (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993), 18

Naomi’s decision was right, but her motive was wrong.

She was still interested primarily in food, not in fellowship with God.

You don’t hear her confessing her sins to God and asking Him to forgive her.

She was returning to her land but not to her Lord.

Naomi’s decision was right, but her motive was wrong.

She was still interested primarily in food, not in fellowship with God.

You don’t hear her confessing her sins to God and asking Him to forgive her.

She was returning to her land but not to her Lord.

But something else was wrong in the way Naomi handled this decision: She did not want her two daughters-in-law to go with her.

If it was right for Naomi to go to Bethlehem, where the true and living God was worshiped, then it was right for Orpah and Ruth to accompany her.

Naomi should have said to them what Moses said to his father-in-law, “Come thou with us, and we will do thee good; for the Lord has spoken good concerning Israel” (, KJV).

Instead, Naomi tried to influence the two women to go back to their families and their false gods.

But something else was wrong in the way Naomi handled this decision: She did not want her two daughters-in-law to go with her.

If it was right for Naomi to go to Bethlehem, where the true and living God was worshiped, then it was right for Orpah and Ruth to accompany her.

Naomi should have said to them what Moses said to his father-in-law, “Come thou with us, and we will do thee good; for the Lord has spoken good concerning Israel” (, KJV).

Instead, Naomi tried to influence the two women to go back to their families and their false gods.

Why would a believing Jewess, a daughter of Abraham, encourage two pagan women to worship false gods?

I may be wrong, but I get the impression that Naomi didn’t want to take Orpah and Ruth to Bethlehem because they were living proof that she and her husband had permitted their two sons to marry women from outside the covenant nation.

In other words, Naomi was trying to cover up her disobedience.

If she returned to Bethlehem alone, nobody would know that the family had broken the Law of Moses.

Why would a believing Jewess, a daughter of Abraham, encourage two pagan women to worship false gods?

I may be wrong, but I get the impression that Naomi didn’t want to take Orpah and Ruth to Bethlehem because they were living proof that she and her husband had permitted their two sons to marry women from outside the covenant nation.

In other words, Naomi was trying to cover up her disobedience.

If she returned to Bethlehem alone, nobody would know that the family had broken the Law of Moses.

The tragedy is that Naomi did not present the God of Israel in a positive way.

In , she suggests that God was to blame for the sorrow and pain the three women had experienced.

“It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has gone out against me!” (v.

13, NIV) In other words, “I’m to blame for all our trials, so why remain with me?

Who knows what the Lord may do to me next?”

Had Naomi been walking with the Lord, she could have won Orpah to the faith and brought two trophies of grace home to Bethlehem.

Next.

The Testimony of Orpah (vv.

11-14)

The tragedy is that Naomi did not present the God of Israel in a positive way.

In , she suggests that God was to blame for the sorrow and pain the three women had experienced.

“It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has gone out against me!” (v.

13, NIV) In other words, “I’m to blame for all our trials, so why remain with me?

Who knows what the Lord may do to me next?”

Had Naomi been walking with the Lord, she could have won Orpah to the faith and brought two trophies of grace home to Bethlehem

ruth

The two daughters-in-law started off with Naomi (v.

7), but she stopped them and urged them not to accompany her.

She even prayed for them (vv.

8–9) that the Lord would be kind to them and find them new husbands and give them rest after all their sorrow.

But of what value are the prayers of a backslidden believer?

() Three times Naomi told Orpah and Ruth to return (, ).

The two daughters-in-law started off with Naomi (v.

7), but she stopped them and urged them not to accompany her.

She even prayed for them (vv.

8–9) that the Lord would be kind to them and find them new husbands and give them rest after all their sorrow.

But of what value are the prayers of a backslidden believer?

() Three times Naomi told Orpah and Ruth to return (, ).

When she saw them hesitating, Naomi began to reason with them.

“I’m too old to have another husband and bear another family,” she said.

“And even if I could bear more sons, do you want to waste these next years waiting for them to grow up?

You could be in your mother’s house, with your family, enjoying life.”

Orpah was the weaker of the two sisters-in-law.

She started to Bethlehem with Naomi, kissed her, and wept with her; yet she would not stay with her.

She was “not far from the kingdom” (, NIV), but she made the wrong decision and turned back.

Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but we wonder whether her heart was really in it; for her decision proved that her heart was back home where she hoped to find a husband.

Orpah left the scene and is never mentioned again in the Scriptures.

The Testimony of Ruth (vv.

15-18)

Naomi was trying to cover up; Orpah had given up, but Ruth was prepared to stand up!

She refused to listen to her mother-in-law’s pleas or follow her sister-in-law’s bad example.

Why?

Because she had come to trust in the God of Israel (2:12).