Did you pack...EVERYTHING?

Our Non-exclusive God

The story of Ruth is an important one because in it’s pages we see that God reaches to all people in his desire to redeem humanity. Reading other parts of the Old Testament it would be easy to see God as exclusive to his “chosen” people, BUT…God has always been about reconciling all of humanity to himself, not just one set of humanity.

When life just plain sucks dirt

Ruth 1:1–5 HCSB

During the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to live in the land of Moab for a while. The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife’s name was Naomi. The names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the land of Moab and settled there. Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, and she was left with her two sons. Her sons took Moabite women as their wives: one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth. After they lived in Moab about 10 years, both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two children and without her husband.

Ruth’s story is an interesting one. If you dig into the background you find a fairly tragic tale. Naomi and her Husband head to Moab to escape famine, all the men die, leaving Naomi and her daughter in laws to fend for themselves. Naomi decides to return to her people and Ruth and Orpha are going to go with her. They travel a bit and Naomi tells them to return to their own people, releasing them from any sort of obligation they would feel to their mother in law and their late husbands. Naomi gives a clue as to what the custom would have been when she talks about having other sons etc. This is where it all changes, this is where the difference happens in the story.

Starting isn’t enough

Starting things is easy. Sometimes finishing them is hard. Take for example the Marble Hills Nuclear plant This nuclear plant in Indiana was started in 1977, and for about 7 years was all set to become a fully functioning, power-generating cornerstone of the nuclear power industry. Then, in 1984, after sinking $2.5 billion (with a ‘b’) into getting the reactors to about the halfway point, the company behind the project up and abandoned it—they simply couldn’t afford to continue. They ended up selling some of the equipment to recover a few million (not with a ‘b’) in lost costs. The plant’s been sitting half-finished ever since, although the company that owns it now is currently in the process of demolishing it. Many of us start things this same way.

Ruth 1:6–13 HCSB

She and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave the land of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to His people’s need by providing them food. She left the place where she had been living, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, and traveled along the road leading back to the land of Judah. She said to them, “Each of you go back to your mother’s home. May the Lord show faithful love to you as you have shown to the dead and to me. May the Lord enable each of you to find security in the house of your new husband.” She kissed them, and they wept loudly. “No,” they said to her. “We will go with you to your people.” But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Am I able to have any more sons who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No, my daughters, my life is much too bitter for you to share, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me.”

What makes sense isn’t always what’s right

When we read the story of Ruth it’s easy to look at what her sister in law did and make a judgment about this woman who wasn’t as faithful as Ruth…That couldn’t be further from the truth as is evidenced by Orpha weeping when she left Naomi and Ruth to return home. What Naomi said made perfect sense, her decision was not a bad one, It was a logical one in fact. The truth of the matter is there was nothing at all wrong with Orpha turning around. So why was it Orpha turning around the right direction, but Ruth turning around would have been the wrong one?

Ruth 1:14–15 HCSB

Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law.”

An uncertain journey.

Ruth 1:16–18 HCSB

But Ruth replied: Do not persuade me to leave you or go back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Yahweh punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me. When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to persuade her.

Ruth makes some huge promises

Where you go I will go

Ruth is fully trusting that Naomi knows where she is going. She is putting herself in her mother in laws hands.

Where you live I will live

Naomi had left years before. Her husband and sons were dead, we don’t know what she was returning too, we don’t know if she had a home to return too. Ruth walking away from a place that is sure to a place that may or may not be there.

Your people will be my people

This one is big. Ruth is actively stepping away from all she knows, her family, her customs, her comfort zone and embracing a people group who may or may not accept her.

Your God will be My God

Perhaps the biggest step of all. In 11th century BC when the book of Ruth was most likely written Gods were tied to the location of the people who worshiped them. When Ruth tells Naomi that your God will be my God she is taking a huge step. She is walking away not just from her comfort zone, her family, the home she grew up in, the life she knew, she was walking away from all she knew, all she had been taught about who God was and how God interacted with people. She was heading off into an uncertain and scary place and was doing so willingly.

The long game

Mom’s are in it for the long game.

Webster defines the long game as, of course, a golf term.

the phase of golf in which distance driving is a factor of first importance

Of course the Urban Dictionary has taken the concept that authors and others have used.

Considering the future implications of current choices, thinking ahead, being deliberate and patient.

Mom’s play the long game when it comes to how they live and help their families. They may or may not get to see all that the prayer and work and love that they have poured into their families brings, but they continue to do so. In Ruth’s case, she gets the fairy tale ending that everyone dreams of. Just read the rest of the book, but she doesn’t realize what she is going to be a part of.

Matthew 1:1–6 HCSB

The historical record of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers, Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Aram, Aram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered King David. Then David fathered Solomon by Uriah’s wife,

Expound a bit.

This Week’s Challenge

Sit down and list out the things that you are doing to play the long game in your faith. How are you working now to prepare for what God is going to do with you and through you in the next week, the next month, the next six months, and the next year?