Ruth 1:6-18 - God's providence works through human devotion to one another

Song

Song

Song

Introduction: The importance of human connection, particularly family

Humans are by nature social creatures

COVID has had a cost that is difficult to quantify but nonetheless profoundly impactful: social isolation

People are struggling because of the inability to connect with other human beings

The isolation that COVID has brought on has brought with it all kinds of other problems

Even though we can’t quantify these things, we are coming face to face with the desperate need for human interaction

This social dimension is intrinsic to human nature, and always has been; the book of Ruth is, among other things, about human connection

Like we said last week, the book of Ruth is ultimate about God, and about his providence, or gracious and sovereign control over all things in order to bring about his good purposes

But this week we will see one of the ways in which God’s providence is actually at work, and that is through human connection

God providentially works through “normal” human connections

One of the most important human connections ordained by God is family, and family is one of the central themes of this book

20 references to family and human connection in this passage alone

Husbands

Sons

Daughters-in-law

Daughters

Mothers

Fathers

People

But this story also has a twist

Naomi’s entire blood family that she came to Moab with has died

She has been “left” without her husband and sons

In the ANE, it was difficult to be a single woman in adulthood

Husbands and fathers were the means of provision for a family

Women who lost their husbands as a general rule had no way to provide for themselves, and they were dependent upon other family relatives or the community itself

The Torah gave commands that protected the well being of widows by prohibiting taking advantage of them and mandating the community to provide for them

But Naomi was living in the time of the judges; people didn’t obey the Torah

To be at the mercy of the kind of generosity we see in the book of Judges would have been a terrifying prospect

So what we are wrestling with here it the idea that while family is so crucially important, at the same time it doesn’t always work how it’s supposed to, does it? To learn more, we need to dive into the story.

Ruth 1:6-7

Ruth 1:6–7 ESV

6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. 7 So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

After the death of Naomi’s husband and sons, she heard that God had again provided food for his people in Judah, so she decides to go back to Judah

MAP

Again, Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah are all in a difficult situation as widows

But Orpah and Ruth are better off, because they are likely still young enough to marry

If they were married at 15 and lived ten years with their husbands until they died, they were probably in their mid twenties

They are still young women whose prospects at marriage at not at all gone

I. Naomi’s first speech: Permission for Ruth and Orpah to pursue their own well being

So as these three women walk along the road back to Judah, at some point Naomi breaks the silence to plead with them to pursue their own well being Ruth 1:8-9

Ruth 1:8–9 ESV

8 But 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. 9 The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.

She is releasing them to remarry, because she knows that is the path toward their security and well-being

She tells them to each “return to her mother’s house”

This is a very rare phrase in Scripture (4 times total) that always has to do with love and marriage (Song of songs, Genesis)

She wraps this first speech up with, “May the LORD grant you to find rest in the house of her (new) husband

She blesses them and prays over them

May the Lord do חֶסֶד with you

This is an extremely rich Hebrew term for which there is no single English word to do it justice

Translated various ways: Steadfast love, faithfulness, loving-kindness, covenant love, loyalty

It is a term that expresses how God relates to his covenant people

God’s commitment to his covenant with his people

God is reliable and loyal in working toward his people’s best interests

God steadfast love for his people

This is not just something God does; it is something God is

God is described as himself being חֶסֶד

Psalm 144:1-2

Psalm 144:1–2 ESV

1 Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; 2 he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.

Because you have done so with the dead and with me

This is a huge compliment to both Ruth and Orpah

Naomi is saying that in their kindness and loyalty, she has seen the kind of covenant love and loyalty that God himself has for his people

This is a profound truth to recognize: God’s own love, faithfulness, compassion, and loyalty is seen in human interaction!

Naomi is peeling back the veil of God’s providence just a little bit here

Part of how God works in the world is through human reflections of his own character

May God do חֶסֶד with you as you have done with me

And Naomi releases them to go with a clean conscience

But Naomi and Ruth are not to be swayed so easily

Ruth 1:10 ESV

10 And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.”

They are indeed doing הֶסֶד with Naomi!

And here’s the thing - God works through this kind of human devotion - God is working for Naomi’s ultimate good through the devotion of these two women

But Naomi is also not easily swayed, and so she moves on to a second speech.

II. Naomi’s second speech: She is all used up

Ruth 1:11–14 ESV

11 But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? 12 Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, 13 would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.” 14 Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

Naomi’s second speech trying to convince them to leave has four main elements

She has no sons left for them to marry

She is too old to remarry and thus be able to provide for them herself

Even if she entertained the absurd hope that she could marry that very night and conceive sons, would they then wait decades for that?

Naomi believes that God’s hand has “gone out against her” and the effect she sees that having on Naomi and Ruth is exceedingly bitter for her

In essence, Naomi views herself as a worn out, used up, decrepit old woman with nothing left to offer. She has a profoundly negative view of God’s sovereignty and providence as something that is against her and thus dragging Ruth and Naomi down with her

Therefore, Ruth and Orpah should just cut their losses, look out for themselves, and take care of their own well being while they still can.

How many of you can resonate with Naomi here?

She perceived herself as someone with nothing to offer - do you view yourself that way?

On the one hand, we can see how such a perspective can turn us into a bitter hermit unable to accept help from others and receive love from other people, even up to and including God

On the other hand, there’s a certain gospel truth to this, isn’t there?

We all have sin, pain, brokenness, don’t we?

We all have baggage from the sins we have committed, from the sins that have been committed against us, from the sins that happened around us that we could have stopped and didn’t, from the sins that were done in our presence and defiled us and broke us

If we are honest with ourselves, aren’t we such a greater mess than we typically want to believe and think about?

That’s good news actually, as we’ll see in a minute

Orpah is convinced by this speech, and though it pains her greatly, she kisses Naomi, weeps, and leaves

But Ruth? Ruth clung to Naomi

III. Naomi’s Third Speech and Ruth’s Response

Naomi offers up one last rather lame speech

Look, Orpah left, so you should too

Ruth’s response is nothing short of astonishing Ruth 1:16-17

Ruth 1:16–17 ESV

16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return 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. 17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”

She first tells Naomi to stop pressing her to “forsake you or to turn back from following after you”

She then makes Naomi an increasingly intense set of commitments and promises

She ends by invoking a curse from the God of Israel to seal her commitment

Ruth is abandoning every base of security that she might have clung to in her society

She is abandoning her native homeland to journey to a place she has never been

She is abandoning her people and heritage to assimilate into an unknown people group who are hostile to hers

She is abandoning the faith and religion she knew to give her allegiance to the God of Israel

She is leaving everything that is comfortable and safe for her to embrace a person who doesn’t even want her help

Ruth refuses to take a course of action that would solve her problems but leave Naomi without hope

Ruth truly does show חֶסֶד to Naomi!

God is providentially at work for Naomi’s benefit through the loyal love of Ruth

God is supplying Naomi’s desperate need for family that she has lost in her own husband and sons

Though Naomi has lost her family, Ruth is right here in this moment becoming Naomi’s family through her fierce devotion and commitment

So God works providentially through human family devotion, but the twist is that sometimes that family devotion shows up in ways that transcend blood family

So what should we learn from this story? What’s our takeaway?

Application: Principles from Ruth’s Fierce Devotion

Ruth is a picture of faith in God

Ruth takes a massive leap of faith here to pledge herself to Naomi, to Naomi’s people, and to Naomi’s God, no matter what it cost her

Ruth gives us a model for responding to God with faith even when we don’t understand

We don’t even know how much Ruth knew about the God of Israel

We don’t even know for sure if this was a “true conversion” in the sense of understanding and believing the truth about God

What we do know is that Ruth took a massive step of faith partly out of her fierce devotion to Naomi, to transfer her allegiance from her people to Naomi’s people, from her god, Chemosh, the god of the moabites, to יהוה, the God of Israel

She illustrates a critical principle of faith:

The world around us seeks to understand something completely before they will believe it

Understand in order to believe

Biblical faith is choosing to trust God, and then understanding comes from that choice to trust God

Believe in order to understand

Some of you are on the edge of faith in Christ, and your hesitancy in choosing to trust Jesus is that you think you need to understand everything before you can believe; may I suggest that perhaps you need to trust Jesus before you will be able to understand

If that’s where you’re at, please let someone know, because we would love to have that conversation with you and help you take a step of faith in Jesus

Ruth is a picture of fierce devotion

Ruth becomes Naomi’s family through her commitment and devotion to Naomi’s wellbeing no matter the cost for her

Principle of family: Family is critically important, but family only works to the degree that its members are devoted, have  חֶסֶד, for one another

This has implications for your own blood family

Your family will only be healthy and function to the degree that you are devoted to one another

Are you more concerned for what you get from your family or what you do for your family?

If everyone in a family is concerned only about what they get, no one will ever get what they need or want

If everyone in a family is concerned only about what they give, you won’t get everything you want, but you’ll get what you need and you’ll have a healthy family

This has implications for the church as the family of God

Part of the beauty of the gospel is that in Christ, God is reconciling people to himself as sons and daughters

In his body, God gives us a family

Jesus promises that anyone who loses family connections for the sake of him will gain a family IN him

In the church, God is creating a family that transcends mere blood relation

In the church, people gain fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters

But this beautiful truth only really works if the members of the church are devoted to one another

This flies in the face of the shallow consumeristic culture that has crept into much of the western evangelical church

Our church family only works to the degree that our members are devoted to one another, have חֶסֶד, for one another

Are you more concerned for what you get from your church family or what you do for your church family?

We all have to exist in a family where we contribute and where we receive

If you are only concerned with what you get, then you are a taker

But you can err on the other side, where you have a hero messiah complex and you think you can and have to save everyone, so you can’t accept help or encouragement from others.

Ruth points us toward the gospel

Ruth displayed חֶסֶד with Naomi in that she committed herself in love and steadfast loyalty to Naomi’s well being despite the great cost to her own security and safety

Naomi’s main argument to try to get Ruth and Orpah to leave was “I have nothing to offer you”

She didn’t have sons for them to marry, she had no ability in herself to provide for their well-being, she was too old and too worn out and too broken

And that was true! She didn’t actually have any ability in herself to offer them anything

And Ruth’s response disregarded the fact that Naomi had nothing to offer and committed herself to her well being regardless

God IS חֶסֶד, and nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the incarnation of Jesus, and his life, death and resurrection

In becoming human, Jesus was taking upon himself the frail and painful nature of humanity, committing himself to us, identifying with our suffering, throwing in his lot with us

In his death on the cross, Jesus was relentlessly committed to whatever it took to save us, no matter the cost to himself

And it cost him his life - in his death on the cross, he bore all of the sin of the world and absorbed the wrath of God on our behalf that we might be forgiven, made righteous, and reconciled to God

He is the one who is ultimately the embodiment of חֶסֶד, the one who shows relentless covenant love and loyalty at great cost to himself

So many times we get caught up in our need to be able to offer God something, and sometimes a hindrance of faith for us is that we really don’t have a shelf for the idea that we have nothing to offer God, and yet he gives everything to rescue us anyway

In Christ, God is saying to you, “I know you have nothing to offer; that’s the point”

Romans 5:6-8

Romans 5:6–8 ESV

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Conclusion: God’s providence is displayed in human devotion

In our devotion and faithfulness to one another

Let us be a people who display the same kind of faith and devotion that Ruth did

The world out there is mostly concerned about what they can get from others

We are a people who are mostly concerned with what we can contribute

In Jesus’ devotion and faithfulness to us

Let us be a people who turn in trust to Jesus every day, knowing that though we have nothing left to offer, he nonetheless is relentlessly committed to our ultimate good in Him

Transition to Communion