The Tie that Binds

Ruth 1 NIV

In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.” But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!” At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

Introduction: Story of Reading Ruth to Lady in the Hospital.

29-There is suffering in this world.

Life is Stacked up Against Naomi

Naomi - Means Pleasant

- She has lost her husband, and two sons, - Famine

Names Mahlon - “Sick”, Chilion - “failing, pining, annihilation.”

- Children is everything for a woman in that culture it was life

- She has no means of support – she owns land but can’t do anything with it.

- Needs a man to run the farm and produce the means of support

- Her Grief is so deep, she can not go and glean.

- God is against her.

Elimelech’s name - God is King - Questioning if God has left his throne.

Life is Stacked up against the world.

COVID is for some our new famine.

Factors include economic stress, social isolation, reduced access to religious services, overall national anxiety, increased firearm sales and increases in health care provider suicides.

“We have people now who don’t know how to feed their family who have not had that thought for a very long time. That’s different than the last recession,” said American Psychiatric Association President Jeffrey Geller. “There are masses of people who are quite worried today because they don’t know what is going to happen to their benefits. That kind of anxiety exacerbates fragility.”

The National Alliance on Mental Illness HelpLine has seen a 65 percent increase in calls and emails since March, according to the organization, though it is not a crisis hotline.” - Roll Call.

Grief of losing a loved one - People I know lost people to COVID - and the most difficult was not being with loved ones.

Like Naomi, we might wonder if God is against us.

30-God provides through acts of sacrificial love.

A. Ruth’s actions can be described as sacrificial love.

Ruth means freindship, companion.

B.Orpah means “Gazelle,” So someone who flees. - She picks the logical choice. She chooses well, but Ruth chose best.

C. You will have to come every week to find out how God provides for Naomi - Because she will go from pleasant to Bitter, but by the end of Ruth she will become Naomi - pleasant again.

D. For right now, we can say that God has provided Naomi with Ruth who has committed to sticking with her.

E. Sacrificial Love is the Key, not just being a Christian.

F. God uses Sacrificial love to do something bigger.

What does this sacrificial love look like?

31-Love is self-sacrifice on someone else’s behalf.

Gave up all Security

- She had no prospects

- She left her family support system

- She gave up her gods

- She went into hostile foreign territory

- She was a moabitess women,

Joseph Bayly

I was sitting, torn by grief. Someone came and talked to me of God’s dealings, of why it happened, of hope beyond the grave. He talked constantly, he said things I knew were true.

I was unmoved, except to wish he’d go away. He finally did.

Another came and sat beside me. He didn’t talk. He didn’t ask leading questions. He just sat beside me for an hour and more, listened when I said something, answered briefly, prayed simply, left.

I was moved, I was comforted. I hated to see him go.

Life Group that cleaned our house for Ben’s return from the hospital

A. Ruth did not try to fix Naomi – Did not tell her she was wrong to be bitter, She just loved her.

Conclusion: What are some ways in this pandemic we can be like Ruth’s for each other?

Life Groups - meet anyway you can, be there for each other -

Missional Communities - Come to our pray and plays and be with each other.

Reference the Reformed Confessions: The Reformed Confessions are statements of faith written to clarify the Gospel at times when the Church was in crisis. Heidelberg Catechism: Q&A 29, 36-45 Belgic Confession: Articles 17, 20 Canons of Dort: Head I: Articles, 1-12; Head II: Articles 2