Stepping Out in Faith

Opening

The book of Ruth is a story about self-sacrificial love against all odds. Ruth is a Moabite woman who marries into an Israelite family but becomes an impoverished widow. Ruth refuses to abandon her mother-in-law, Naomi—also a widow. Together, they travel from Moab to Bethlehem, where Ruth works to provide for them both. Ruth then marries Boaz, a relative of Naomi’s husband, and gives Naomi a grandchild—redeeming them from poverty and restoring Naomi’s joy.[1]

Who was Ruth?

Some qualities we will see in Ruth- Loyalty, Humility, Selflessness, Faithful

Ruth was a Moabite woman. This is important because the Moabites, were pagans. They worshipped Chemosh, to whom they would make human sacrifices.

Ruth was fairly young when she married and subsequently became a widow.

Setting-

Most of the Book of Ruth takes place in Bethlehem, though we see in the first chapter we are in Moab, which is located near the east coast of the Dead Sea.

The Book of Ruth takes place during the period of Judges. This was a terrible time for the nation of Israel. Ruth serves as a bridge between this lawless period when everyone did as they wished and the era of Israel’s monarchy.

So, with a little background and insight lets dig into the text.

But first, lets pray.

Main Characteristic

One thing I want for us to make sure we are seeing over the next few weeks, is the key theme in Ruth- Redemption.

From the very beginning in Genesis after the fall, we see God’s story of redemption kick in. In Ruth, it almost mirrors the whole thing for us and as we journey through the next few weeks, I hope you see how God is pointing us to a Savior, Jesus through the Ruth.

As Ruth engages her purpose and shows her loyalty to Naomi, we see how cultural norms and social status do not matter to God and that He can and will use any of us to further His kingdom work.

We also see that God will go anywhere for us.

If you have your Bible, open to Ruth chapter 1.

- In this first chapter, we can break Ruth’s journey into 3 phases:

Matrimony

Loss

Loyalty

Read Ruth 1:1-5

In these first 5 verses, a lot happens.

This family moves from the comforts of Bethlehem, though famine ridden and moves to a completely foreign land in search of food.

Moab was the closest neighboring nation to Israel.

Some things to keep in mind here are that the Moabites are on and off again enemies of Israel.

So, they move there, then, the patriarch of the family, Elimelech dies. It does not tell us the circumstances, and it really doesn’t matter how. He did.

At this point, put yourself in Naomi’s shoes for a moment. Her family has moved far from home and now her husband dies.

Then the two sons marry Moabite women, which was completely frowned upon because Israelites were marrying pagans and then worshipping their gods. This was mentioned by Moses earlier in Deuteronomy 7.

Then, ten years go by and all of sudden, both her sons die. So, now she is living in Moab, usually an enemy of Israel, without any family that she came with.

We can probably imagine Naomi, which means pleasant, to be in a bad place. And at this time, meaning of names was huge. They placed a lot of importance of what a name meant.

But through all of this Ruth comes into the picture, marries one of Naomi’s sons, then loses him. And her life will drastically alter many things.

Loss

Read Ruth 1:6-14

So, somewhere between verse 5 and 6, Naomi hears that the Lord has blessed his people with food again. She made plans and her and both her daughter-in-laws set out from Moab.

Along the way, Naomi’s mood shifts and for the first time we get a look at where she is as she is dealing with great loss.

She basically tells them to go away. She does it in the really nice way though. We’ve all been there before, right? You want to be left alone but there is people around and you are trying to politely get away from them? That’s what Naomi’s doing.

They insist on coming and she retorts back in verses 11- 13.

At the end of 13 we finally see it. Naomi has allowed herself to grow bitter at the loss of her husband and her sons and she wants to run from the problem.

One thing we don’t see much of here is the reaction of Ruth and Orpah. Naomi is self loathing but she wasn’t the only one to lose someone. Orpah and Ruth both lost their husbands.

I think this is something we can take quite a bit away from because even though I’m sure they are grieved, their attitudes are in a good place.

Loyalty

Read Ruth 1:15-22

There is so much that happens in this section.

First, Orpah finally complies with Naomi’s wishes. She kisses her and leaves, but Ruth literally clings to her mother-in-law. Not only physically, but emotionally. The Hebrew word here is davaq and is the same verb used when God is telling us how we should commit to our spouse. Remember, words were much more meaningful at this time. When specific words were used, it was extremely intentional, unlike our current culture……

Ruth was completely devoted to Naomi and as we will see throughout the book, completely loyal to her.

Naomi pleads with her to go. Here is Ruth’s response:

Read Ruth 1:16-17

Ruth is more serious about her loyalty, not only to Naomi, but to the God of Israel. She has made this grand declaration on where her loyalties are and do not be fooled that this was not all mere chance.

Ruth did not just simply give up everything she had known, worshipping Moabite false gods, to take a chance on hitching up with this Israelite family who showed up. God has been leading her this whole time….whether she realizes it or not.

So, after Ruth makes this amazing speech to Naomi, one that might leave most of us tearful, Naomi doesn’t embrace her in excitement, they don’t jump up and down together, Naomi simply stops talking about it.

Naomi’s bitterness is continuing to grow as Ruth is becoming more loyal and self-less, which is exactly what Naomi needs.

They return to Bethlehem and they are the talk of the town. People are excited to see Naomi,(this also mimics when someone else returned to Jerusalem and everyone was excited to see Him, Jesus.) as it has been some time since she was there and I’m sure there was talk of this Moabite woman who returned with her.

So, people are like, “Naomi!” And Naomi in all her bitterness, says “Don’t call me that.” Remember, what Naomi means? She is certainly not living up to the meaning of her name. She instead tells them to call her Mara, which literally means bitter. And she isn’t holding anything back here. She comes right out and tells them, the Lord has made me bitter.

She literally is having a pity party for herself and her bitter mind is thinking all this is happening because God is against her, which is not true, but He will use all of this for His glory to achieve redemption for His people.

And as chapter 1 comes to a close, it recaps what has happened and ends with this seemingly odd little tidbit……the beginning of the barley harvest.

This was incredibly important and is easily overlooked.

The Israelites had a very precise agriculture schedule. We find most of this in the book of Leviticus. And the barley harvest culminated with the feast of the first fruits. This was one of several times in their calendar year that harvesting happened and was significant because barley ripened first and so there harvesting always kicked off with this event.

The reason this is important is because it signified new life which goes on to show us a new life we find in Jesus.

- I told you this books points us to Jesus……

If we look at 1 Corinthians 15:20-23:

20 But as it is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. 22 For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

23 But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; afterward, at his coming, those who belong to Christ.

- Christ fulfilled the feast of firstfruits by being the firstfruits of the resurrection. Others in the Bible (such as Lazarus and Jairus' daughter) had been raised from the dead prior to Christ's resurrection but they were resurrected back into their old bodies which would eventually die again. Jesus was the first to be raised into a new resurrection body, never to die again! So He is the 'sheaf', the first of the harvest, that is waved before the Lord in celebration and with thanksgiving.

- We will continue to look at the significance of the barley harvest over the next couple weeks but before we go let’s look at some things we can take away from today.

Closing

Stepping out in Faith has to be genuine. We see from Ruth that everything about her is as real as it gets. She means what she says and does. She isn’t faking anything. Too often, we aren’t real. We have conditioned ourselves to go with the motions. Most of the time people don’t know who we serve, because of how we act. Our faith has to be on display and genuine. So, we need to step out in faith but it has to be genuine, not because we have to or because we know it’s the right thing. Pray for a genuine heart.

Bitterness destroys us. Naomi is reflection of many of us. Life’s circumstances has made us bitter, angry and depressed. Sometimes we don’t even know why and a lot of times all we want to do is blame God and others. But just like Naomi, if we allow this to creep into our lives we slowly let the blessings miss us and before we know it, we are completely alone. And none of us are exempt.

Cost Rica story

Bitterness is sin, plain and simple. If you know you have become bitter I pray you deal with that today and for those that don’t even realize it, I pray God reveals that to you so you can. Bitterness destroys us, keeps people from us and hides the light of Christ in our lives.

Loyalty

For those of us who are bitter, we need a Ruth. And over the next few weeks, we will truly see how loyal she was. I think when things around us get tough our natural reaction is to flee, but God shows us that being committed, being loyal has far greater rewards. Staying by someone’s side when they are in need and every ounce of them wants you to leave them alone. Loyalty means you aren’t going anywhere. This characteristic is a reflection of how God is with us and he mirrors for us here in this event. We are to be like Him and he is the most loyal person we will ever have in our life. Now, here me, loyalty doesn’t mean we turn a blind eye to sin and loyalty doesn’t mean we ignore injustices. Loyalty is loving someone enough to help them through an issue and do the right thing. Being patient and encouraging.

Where do you fall into this story? Are you a Naomi or a Ruth? Where is your heart this morning? Are you excited for the day because it is a day that the Lord has made and you just want to be with others, love them, encourage them, show the love of Christ or would you have rather not gotten out of bed this morning? Do you wish you didn’t have to be around people? Are you angry with God?

If you are a Naomi, I pray you talk to God, tell him you are hurting. Leave it here for Him. He can handle it, you can’t. If you are a Ruth, my prayer for you is that you love on the Naomi’s in your life. Show them they matter. Speak truth into their lives. Never leave them because it gets too tough.

Christ conquers everything.

Questions:

Who do you relate to in this first chapter? Ruth? Naomi? Orpah? Why?

Why is Ruth’s pledge to Naomi so significant?

What are some ways we can step out in faith like Ruth?