From Famine to Feast
Notes
Transcript
Our Scripture lesson this morning is taken from Ruth 1:19-21. Let us now hear God’s Word:
So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”
Providence is a word we rarely used in our conversations, but this was not always the case. For past generations, God’s providence was a doctrinal truth of great comfort. Perhaps you are unsure what God’s providence even is. God’s providence is “His governing of all things to His glory and to the good of those who trust in Him.” It is the doctrine that is expressed in a Bible verse beloved by many, Romans 8:28:
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Today however, this doctrine is under attack, especially when it comes to God’s Bitter Providence. By bitter providence, I mean God’s working and ordering in the evil things of life. Things such as we read about last week in Ruth 1:1-5: famine, the premature death of a spouse and children, infertility and poverty. In our text today Naomi asks the women of Bethlehem to no longer call her Naomi, but rather Mara, which in Hebrew means bitter.
I believe one of the reasons the book of Ruth is so beloved is because all of us can identify with Naomi to some extent, for at one time or another we have all experienced the bitterness of life. We all aspire to be like Ruth and Boaz, who are both described as people of “noble character”, but most of us live out our lives like Naomi. I want to encourage all the Naomi’s out there, God is at work in your life ordering your life by His providence to His glory and your good, even in the bitter things of life!
Names are very important in the Hebrew language, the name Bethlehem means, “the house of bread”. The opening verses of the book of Ruth point us to A Famine in the House of Bread.
A Famine in the House of Bread
A Famine in the House of Bread
The opening words of the book of Ruth are these, “In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land.” These words are meant to make us think about the time of the judges, a time of great sin and turning away from God. They are also meant to turn our minds to the promises found in Deuteronomy 28 of either blessings or curses based upon one’s obedience to the Law of Moses. Among the curses found there are famine, infertility and death. Naomi experiences all three.
The opening verses also point us to a greater famine—a famine of faith in God. The name of Naomi’s husband was Elimelech, meaning God is my King, but as we are reminded four times in the closing chapters of the book of Judges, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25). As we follow the story-line of the Bible, it becomes clear that that this refrain is not pointing us to King David, but to the greater son of David, Jesus the Messiah! Israel had lost sight of the greater promise given to first Eve and then to Abraham, of a “seed” who would “crush the serpent’s head” and “bless all the nations”.
This is still the reason there is famine in a land. It is why we have a famine of faith in our own land. We have turned our backs on God and placed our faith upon ourselves. If the Old Testament teaches anything, this is a sure fire path to national destruction. Until we turn back to Jesus, there will be famine in the land, even in the “bread basket of the world!”
Friends, it does not have to be this way. The book of Ruth and the story of Naomi which is found in it, was given to us by God so that we would learn how to move From Famine to Feast.
A Feast in the House of Bread
A Feast in the House of Bread
Naomi claimed to have departed full and returned empty, in saying this she is revealing to us that she has lost sight of the truth. The truth is that she did not leave Israel “full”, the very reason she and her family departed Israel was because their bellies were empty! She and her family abandoned God’s promised land to go to the land of Moab, a land cursed by God because it did not offer bread to Israel! Do you not see the sad irony here? Do you not see how we too are all too often just like Naomi and her family, moving from one level of emptiness to another?
It didn’t have to be that way. Both her name and the name of her husband pointed to a better way. I have already told you that Elimelech’s name means “God is my King”. Naomi’s name come from the Hebrew root that means “pleasantness, sweetness or kindness”. Many scholars believe that Naomi’s name is a shortened form of one of the names of God, “Yahweh is kind”. Their very names were reminders of the way they should have gone—not to the land of Moab, but into the loving and kind arms of God!
Thankfully, God does not wait for us to make the first move. In the book of Ruth, God takes the initiative to move Naomi and her daughter-in-law back into His blessings. First He ends the famine in Israel and then He awakens Naomi’s faith with the confession of faith of her daughter-in-law Ruth. Then God brings into their lives a man who lived up to his name, Boaz. Boaz means, “In Him There is Might.” Boaz found his strength in God.
In all these things the hidden hand of God was at work. This is what we mean by providence. Even “bitter” providence. God used the bitter things in Naomi’s life to move her to the place she needed to be in all along. The story of this journey culminates in chapter four:
So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
The women of Bethlehem named Naomi’s grandson Obed, meaning “worshiper”. Why did they do this? They did this because the power of God’s wise and loving providence was plan to see for all. The husband who did not live up to his name was replaced by a son-in-law who did! Here two faithless sons were replaced by a daughter-in-law who was better than seven sons and in her arms she held the future—Obed from whom the Messiah would come! Obed, whose name pointed to her new reality—worship!
The same can be true for you. I want to close by speaking of...
Heavenly Bread in the House of Bread
Heavenly Bread in the House of Bread
It was not by accident, nor was it without significance that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Not simply because this is the town Naomi, Boaz, Obed and David were born, but because the name of Bethlehem to who Jesus is and can be for each and everyone of us. In John 6, we hear Jesus say these words:
I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Jesus had just fed five thousand men and even more counting women and child, with just five loaves and two fish. The people were clamoring for Him to give them more bread and He does—He offers them Himself! Jesus is the true “House of Bread”, because He is the “Bread of Life”! By His power, He is able to move all who place their faith in Him from Famine to Feast! James, the Lord’s brother, wrote:
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Do you hear what James is saying, Christ by His Sovereign providence is able to use the bitter things in our lives as pathways to His blessing. To move us from Famine to Feast, in order that we “may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing”!
Someday Christ’s hand will wipe away all the tears from our eyes and as our vision clears and we see the wonder of God’s providence we will embrace our own Obed, the essence of pure worship will become flesh and blood for us and His name is Jesus!
Let us pray.