Suffering and God's Sustaining Kindness

Manuscript:

[Prayer]

I'll say bless the Lord if you say, oh my soul.

"Bless the Lord..."

[oh my soul]

O bless His holy name.

My name is Eric Warren and I have the privilege of serving on staff here at The Glade as your High School Director. I've had the blessing of standing up here and preaching a time or two before and each and every time I feel ministered to by the preparation and diving into study. There are a few things that I know in my bones that I was put on this earth to do and one of them is to stand in front of God's people with God's Word and say, "This is what God says." And today is no different as we jump back into The Book of Ruth in our series, "God in everyday life..."

Misery loves company. Does it not? It is so much easier to endure suffering when others are enduring with you. Right? It's true of the child who wants to hold their parent's hand for comfort in the doctor's office right before the needle pricks. And it's true of the adult in need of someone by their side before the diagnosis is read. And it's true at the funeral procession when many come to pay their respects.

We were not made to endure the things of this life alone. Even though that's how we so often feel when facing darkness and trial. It makes us feel like we're on an island! That's why it is all the more paramount that we have the people in this life at our side in those moments to look us dead in the eye and tell us... I'm not going anywhere.

One of my dearest friends in the world is a pastor in Savannah, Tennessee. We went to seminary together. We were roommates. And we call each other our foxhole buddies. Because when the bullets are flying we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have each other at our side.

That's what we have in our bit of Scripture today as we delve deeper into this narrative of love and faithfulness in the face of all hopelessness.

Just by way of review, we find ourselves still setting of the scene as it were. This is still the first act of the narrative. Last week we read and studied of these first characters. Elimalech, Naomi, their son's Mahlon and Chilion, their wives, Orpah and Ruth.

We find ourselves in the heart of a time of judgement. Literally in the age of Judges. And that's how our Bible lays out, right. Joshua, Judges, Ruth... So we have this age of the Judges leading us directly into the narrative of Ruth.

And over and over and over throughout the book of Judges we hear a haunting refrain.

"There was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes." (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25)

You can imagine how horribly wrong things would be if that were the case in our own world and often times it is the case.

No one had consideration for another.

No one felt compelled by God's law or leading.

Everyone just looked out for number one

...and chaos reigned.

This is where we drop into Naomi's story, in such a time, with such hopelessness, depravity. And on top of it all, everything around her, in her own life, crumbles...

Husband, gone.

Two sons, gone.

And in a culture where your security and livelihood was tied up in the family, namely in the male heads of household it all spelled doom for these three women.

But if I could have you walk out of here with one thing on your mind about this text today it would be this...

Through bitter trial, God's covenant faithfulness is sure! And we see that played out through these characters in this mosaic of redemption.

First we see the depth of Naomi's hopelessness on display.

Ruth 1:6–15 (CSB)

6 She and her daughters-in-law set out to return from the territory of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to his people’s need by providing them food. 7 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.

8 Naomi said to them, “Each of you go back to your mother’s home. May the Lord show kindness to you as you have shown to the dead and to me. 9 May the Lord grant each of you rest in the house of a new husband.” She kissed them, and they wept loudly.

10 They said to her, “We insist on returning with you to your people.”

11 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? 12 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, 13 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.” 14 Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. 15 Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Follow your sister-in-law.”

Naomi is well aware of the current state of things. No husband. No sons. No hope.

Mark made mention last week that we're dealing with a book here that doesn't record anything overtly miraculous, at least in the sense that laws of nature are suspended. But through the narrative we see God's sovereign hand steadily guiding things along to accomplish His purposes.

In my time of study this past week I read from a pastor saying,

Most of us live in the book of Ruth, not in the book of Exodus! That is, we do not gather manna from heaven every morning and walk through parted seas. We live by faith in God’s “ordinary providence.” There are no miracles in Ruth, but that does not mean God is inactive. We must never assume that a lack of miracles means God is not at work. He is present in the lives of these seemingly insignificant characters, displaying his meticulous providence, just as he is at work in our own lives. Our God is working out all things according to the counsel of his will (Ephesians 1:11), and he is worthy of our trust and adoration. - Merida, Tony. Ruth For You: Revealing God's Kindness and Care (God's Word For You) (p. 7). The Good Book Company. Kindle Edition.

So here we are, backs against the wall. Naomi, Ruth, Orpah, sunk without hope, circumstances are as bleak as can be and the decision they make is simply the next one they know to make.

They hear that the Lord has visited the people of Israel once more and the famine has broke. So they journey on.

And real quick as a point of application for us all, how true is this for us all as we seek the Lord's leading in our own lives.

We'll continue on reading of a lot of things about these three and namely about Naomi and her broken-heartedness...

But in the midst of it all what did she do here other than the next faithful step she knew how to take. She hears of the Lord dealing kindly to His people and what is her response other than, "I desire that. I want that. Let's go!"

Beloved, you and I would do well to take a lesson here because even if our circumstances vary in the details we all will find ourselves in the thick of suffering from time to time in this life.

And what better advice can we draw out of this text other than just keep marching on. In faithfulness, in obedience, and as Naomi does here, if she gets one thing right in it all... she seeks after God's presence.

But moving from there we see Naomi initiate her plea unto her daughters-in-law to save themselves. To leave her in her hopelessness and find a better situation for themselves [verses 8-9 on the screen]. A bit of tough love as it were.

"I'm sunk... damaged goods... Thank you and bless you for how you've stuck with me but if you keep on with me, my fate will become your fate.

We'll read in a bit about Naomi's bleak perception of herself but again we see something in Namoi that we so often find in ourselves.

Frequently we feel untouchable... All too often we feel the sting of this life and after a while a callousness develops over our hearts and eventually we tell ourselves falsehoods that we convince ourselves are truth.

"I'm too damaged... I'm beyond repair. No one in their right mind would dare be with me."

Beloved, it's a lie straight from the enemy himself that you are unlovable.

It's a lie that you are bound for a life of isolation and separation. This world most assuredly has a whole host of atrocities and horrors and sin that would have us believe the contrary but if you are here and you are are a covenant member of God's family then you have this lovely grace offered to you as a part of God's people. And if you are here and you know in your heart of hearts that this is not you... THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A PART OF GOD'S FAMILY. THAT EVEN WHEN YOU FEEEL MOST ALONE, GOD HAS NOT DEPARTED YOU. GOD'S PEOPLE HAS NOT DEPARTED YOU. THAT'S WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CHURCH.

But Naomi introduces this idea here in verse 8 that encapsulates this entire dealing, this entire book and as we zoom out it speaks directly to the very nature of God and how He deals with us. May the Lord show 'kindness' to you as you have shown to the dead and to me..."

Kindness. Naomi is getting at something here that runs far deeper than your's or my initial understanding of kindness. You and I, we teach out kids to be nice to one another, to be kind to one another, to treat others as we want to be treated but what we're getting at here runs far deeper. This kindness.

Biblical scholar K.D. Sakenfeld comments that this חַסְדּ֛ "(Hesed) cannot be translated with one English word. It is a covenant term, wrapping up in itself all the positive attributes of God: love, covenant faithfulness, mercy, grace, kindness, loyalty. In short, it refers to acts of devotion and lovingkindness that go beyond the requirements of duty.50

50 Cf. K. D. Sakenfeld, Faithfulness in Action: Loyalty in Biblical Perspective (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985).

[return vv.8-9 to the screen]

Naomi is recognizing in these two, and eventually solely in Ruth, that these Moabites, these women that come from a pagan people are displaying Yahweh's covenant love and faithfulness to her.

Already giving us a foreshadow of God's desire to bring the nations to Himself. Here, namely that Ruth, this Moabite would not only be drawn into God's covenant people but if I can spoil the ending a bit for you, that she would be grafted into the direct heritage of David and into the line of Jesus himself.

This Moabite, this Middle Easterner, she would have worn a burka... by God's sovereign grace and His work through a seemingly hopeless situation, brings about his divine and glorious purpose.

But Naomi didn't know that. Ruth didn't know that. They simply knew that they were bound together by more than just circumstance. And even in that... they wept.

And through the tears we see a beautiful display of this hesed in v.10

10 They said to her, “We insist on returning with you to your people.”

Ruth and Orpah both lay it all on the line and say that they will foresake all that they know, their homeland, their culture, their gods, and they say... "no, your fate will be our fate."

Can you imagine the gravity behind this sentiment? Three widowed women... staring down an effective death sentence, telling Naomi that they will remain by her side. Even though she has no other son to offer. Even though this means they will live as outcasts in society. Even though this means that they too will share in Naomi's bitter affliction, they tell her

However Naomi recognizes that her situation is bound to be so horrible that she tries to issue a bit of tough love.

11 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? 12 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, 13 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.” 14 Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. 15 Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Follow your sister-in-law.”

Naomi delves into the absurdity of why either of them one stay. I have no other sons. I'm too old. Would you even wait another some 20 years for me to raise a son for you to marry?

No... "my life is much too bitter for you to share," she says. Again, after a bit of tough love she's able to convince Orpah to get a grip and look out for herself. Literally kisses her goodbye. And then Naomi turns to Ruth... "Look, she did it! She's finally got some sense about her. Go! Take care of yourself!

But Ruth clung to her.

And in the words that follow, we see on display the embodiment of this hesed. Ruth's Lovingkindness

Ruth 1:16–22 (CSB)

16 But Ruth replied:

Don’t plead with me to abandon you

or to return 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.

17 Where you die, I will die,

and there I will be buried.

May the Lord punish me,

and do so severely,

if anything but death separates you and me.

We are just a few short weeks away from mother's day. And undoubtedly there will be many sweet words shared and brunches will be had... but a common bit of Scripture to share on such an occasion is Proverbs 31. The concluding chapter of the book and a bit of Scripture detailing all these beautiful things that are characteristic of a God-honoring woman.

In many Hebrew traditions the Book of Proverbs is followed by The Book of Ruth. So you get Proverbs 31 immediately into the Book of Ruth as if to say... "you wanna know what it looks like to live this out... Here she is!"

And we see that here. Ruth's ferocious and bold response to Naomi. Don't tell me to go. I am with you. I am for you! Your people are my people. Your God, my God. Where you die, so too will I be buried there.

We can't point to any one moment in Ruth's live where we could step back and say, that's it. That's where she was converted, turned away from the pagan gods of her upbringing and pledged faith in Yahweh but we certainly see right here evidence of it.

Maybe it was the 10 years of marriage to a faithful husband and being a part of a family who recounted Yahweh's great love for His people. His deliverance out of oppression. His parting of the Red Sea. His raining down manna from heaven. All of this that painted very clearly for Ruth that this is surely the one true God.

We see Ruth's faith, well-established despite Naomi, the Israelite, being shaken. Naomi is bitter and she sees God's hand of affliction against her but Ruth says no... I am with you. Whatever the outcome, whatever it is that God has in store for you, He has in store for me also.

Moms... Dads... Let's be about the business of raising our children like this. I'm not just speaking about little girls as many have grown accustomed to applying this book. But little boys, little girls, who cling to faith with everything that they have.

The kind of kids that don't cut and run when things get tough! The kind of kids that are bold in the faith. The kind of kids that will stare down the barrel of hardship and say, I'm not going anywhere!

But guess what mom and dad, you can't give them something you don't have. So when the chips fall, and times are tough... where do you go?

Do you run to God? Do you run to your community of faith? Do you run to the people of God? Do you live these things out in front of your children?

Maybe you're single, no family, maybe your young... the same applies. As Mark noted last week, not a single soul on this earth is exempt from suffering.

There are many on this earth and perhaps some of you who would believe that any affliction, any hardship = you are outside of the will of God. That a life lockstep with God means that you are bound for health, wealth, and prosperity. Beloved I say this with all the love in my heart when I say that that is a load of bull!

You're reading a different Bible than I am! We see that in Naomi's story. We see that in her response. Beloved we see that pursuing a right understanding of this faith means that we need a right theology of suffering.

A Theology of Suffering

18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped talking to her.

19 The two of them traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited about their arrival, and the local women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

20 “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,” she answered, “for the Almighty has made me very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has opposed me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

22 So Naomi came back from the territory of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

So the two return home, or Naomi returns home rather, Ruth begins her journey to her new home. Foreign land, foreign language, foreign culture.

And we read about how excited the people of Bethlehem are! But I'd like to point out that the ESV and the NIV both translate that word excited as "stirred" instead. There's a murmur amongst the people. Why?

Because the person coming home doesn't seem like the one coming home. Old friends, undoubtedly having heard what happened to Naomi's family, so you know what happens in a small town when there's news to be heard... Everyone knows your business and so too is the case here.

Everyone gathers to "welcome," Naomi home and they can't believe it...

"No way... Can this be her?" Maybe something about her physical appearance changed but definitely something visible is going on here. That tragedy and heartache has ravaged this poor woman.

And you can hear the bone-chilling response. "That's not me anymore. I am not Naomi anymore."

Mark made mention a couple of weeks ago the note about Naomi's name, meaning sweet, pleasant...

So you can imagine her response upon return. "That's not who I am anymore. Don't call me that!. I'm Mara. Call me bitter! That's who I am."

You may not have undergone a name change, beloved, but you and I have all wanted to cry out the same exact thing some time or another.

You see the way that others look at you. You've done so well to put forth a certain image or a certain perception of yourself and someone makes comment about your life, about how you have it all together and on the inside you want to SCREAM.

"If only you knew!"

For Naomi it's obvious. She wears it on her face. "I'm not Naomi. I'm bitter."

And notice here that for all that Naomi gets right, her broken heartedness clouds her perception of Yahweh.

Not that was not powerful enough to ward off hardship... That is not the case. Let's be clear. God's total sovereignty means exactly that. God is totally sovereign.

God sends the famine. God sends the harvest.

God sends spouses. God calls spouses home.

But what Naomi fails at here, it's not that she rightly attributes God with total sovereignty. But she suffers from what all of us suffers from. Her grief, her brokenness, her bitterness, gives her such tunnel vision that she forgets what Yahweh has done!

She's forgotten Moses. She's forgotten Joseph!

You remember that one right? Joseph cast into a pit, left for dead, sold into slavery, falsely imprisoned but all of this eventually bore out God's sovereign and divine purposes to where Joseph's brothers, the betrayers and all of Israel would be saved from famine!

And the glorious war cry of one who leans wholeheartedly into God's divine purpose, "what you intended for evil... God meant it for good!"

That was Joseph's story, that was Naomi's story, and this is your story! Naomi would take the worst that this fallen world has to dish out and out of it God would orchestrate the miraculous!

If only she could see! If only she could see that her great-great grandson would be the greatest King to Israel. If only she could see that even in this darkness God is bringing about the line of His own Son and the Savior of the world.

Beloved, if only you could see what He is doing... Bringing the nations to Himself. Bringing many sons and daughters to glory. Whatever the circumstance you find yourself in right now, whether you are dwelling richly in His sweet and tender touch or you yourself are called Mara. God's will, WILL BE DONE!

Never mistake His hard providence for inaction. Never mistake these dark nights of the soul that Jesus has left His throne...

Listen up believer! You are called to faith. Wherever you are in life... keep holding on! Or as Paul the apostle would say...

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 (CSB)

16 Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. 18 So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Beloved I do not dare say that it is easy... But it is worth it. Some of you are right there with Naomi right now, in a dark night of the soul and the absolute best you can eek out right now is, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW. GOD, I'M HURTING SO BAD. DON'T YOU EVEN CARE?

Christian, if that is you, I want you to know that God is more glorified in that prayer than any fake veneer or false gospel that would tell you, "you know if you just believed hard enough then everything would be okay."

No, my prayer for you today is hold on... if only you could see what God is working out, for His glory, for His renown.

John Piper preached over the same 2 Corinthians text that we just read and this is what he had so say on the matter of suffering and enduring for the sake of the faith...

Not only is all your affliction momentary, not only is all your affliction light in comparison to eternity and the glory there.

But all of it is TOTALLY MEANINGFUL. EVERY MILLISECOND OF YOUR PAIN FROM FALLEN NATURE OR FALLEN MAN. EVERY MILLISECOND OF YOUR MISERY IN THE PATH OF OBEDIENCE IS PRODUCING A PECULIAR GLORY YOU WILL GET BECAUSE OF THAT.

I don't care if it was cancer or criticism. I don't care if it was slander or sickness... it wasn't. meaningless. IT'S DOING SOMETHING. IT'S NOT MEANINGLESS. OF COURSE YOU CAN'T SEE WHAT IT'S DOING.

Don't look to what is seen. When your mom dies, when your kid dies, when you get cancer at 40, when a car careens into the sidewalk and takes her out, don't say that it's meaningless,

it's not. It's working in you an eternal. weight. of glory.

Therefore, therefore do not lose heart but take these truths and day by day FOCUS on them. Preach them to yourself every morning. Get alone with God and preach His word into your mind until your heart sings with confidence that you are new and cared for

Brothers and sisters, the story is not over... Not with Naomi. Not with you. We made mention of it today, how God will move sovereignly and miraculously through these people to accomplish His will. So I beg of you, come back next week and let's worship how God is still in the business of bringing His hope and light into the darkest of situations.

Beloved, Yahweh's hesed rings just as true today. His covenant faithfulness and promise is still true! How do I know that? Because Jesus, the God-man, marched up that hill called the skull and exclaimed, it... is... finished!

These burdens, these heartaches they are not yours to bear anymore, definitely not alone! God's sustains us. And the cross is proof.

Beloved, if you find yourself right now at the end of your rope, in need a hope only found in God through the person and finished work of Christ, don't be so foolish as to think, "I got a lot to think about. I'll take care of that some other time."

If you feel the tug and the weight of God's presence on your heart right now. Come down after the service. We will have leaders here, myself included, ready to pray for you, ready to help carry you through, but most importantly ready to point you to the only One capable of giving you hope in the midst of heartache.

We wait for you as you come. But Jesus waits for you, just as you are.

[Heavenly Father...]