Where is my Help?
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Living Nativity Volunteer Announcement...
Start of a new book journey. We will finish Ruth during our Christmas Eve services. It is going to be amazing! If you miss that service, you will miss the amazing climax and the point of the whole book of Ruth. So mark your calendars now to be there.
Author - No one knows, Rabbinic tradition says it is Samuel but due to the details of Ch. 4 some doubt this claim.
Date - No one knows exactly, speculation spans from 1010BC to 430BC
Main Point - Not Naomi, Ruth, or Boaz but how God sovereignly keeps His covenant through times of chaos and miraculously provides when all hope seems to be lost.
So with that being said, let’s dive into the book of Ruth.
1 In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, 5 and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
Book of Ruth starts out negative, it is like starting a movie
as the boats are coming to the shores of Normandy
as a tornado is about to move through a neighborhood
as a person is about to get mugged and beat up in a back alley
Days of the Judges - everyone does right in their own eyes
Famine stalked the land - Book does not tell us if this is God’s judgement or not
Family lives in Bethlehem in Judah (2 Bethlehems) same Bethlehem that Jesus would be born in.
Family moves to Moab
30 miles SE (distance from GV to Itasca)
7-10 day journey due to the Dead Sea being in between them.
Family arrives
Dad dies
Sons marry Moabite women
Sons die
Deadly Decade
At the end of our text. Death is on display, suffering is all around, and Naomi and her two DIL’s are uncertain about the future.
Why did we stop here? It is because often people blow through how bad it was and I did not want to do that. Suffering is real and to ignore that it is a part of life is to deny reality. There are three observations about suffering I want to look at with you for a moment.
Suffering Observation #1 - Suffering has no location.
Famine in Judah/Death in Moab
A location change might bring temporary ease but it will never eliminate suffering.
Suffering Observation #2 - Suffering sees no person.
Famine struck everyone/Death strikes young and old
You do not reach retirement age when it comes to suffering
Suffering Observation #3 - Suffering knows no boundaries.
Famine is temporary/Death is final
It can always be worse
but are you dead?
So if these truths about suffering are true, why are they true? In order to answer that we have to answer two other questions.
Why is there suffering in this world that we have to endure?
These are two questions that all people must wrestle with but it is only Christians who have the answer to them.
SIN
As long as sin exists, suffering will exist. No amount of good works can fix this. Which leads us to the second question,
Where is our help in the midst of suffering?
The only way for suffering to cease, is for sin to be no more. This is why the only answer to suffering can be Jesus.
GOSPEL
So in light of the truth of suffering as we see in our text and how we know the gospel impacts us, how should we as Christians live differently than the world as we suffer?
We Trust in God as we suffer.
8 Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.
Trust of a child versus trust of an suspicious adult on God
We Remember that God is merciful as we suffer.
21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” 25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. 27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
As your suffering persists, God’s mercy persists. God is not ignoring you in your suffering, He is comforting you with His mercy every day.
We know our suffering has a purpose.
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
preparing us...
Naomi was in the moment of suffering she knew had lived the truth that suffering
has no location
sees no person
knows no boundaries
Her future was unclear at this moment and she was hurting, maybe you are like this today?
But you know something that Naomi did not know and that is,
Suffering is a result of living in a sinful world, it isn’t going away, but we have a hope in our suffering in Jesus, so as we suffer may we trust, remember, and know that our suffering has an eternal purpose as we follow Him.
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