Ruth

I. Introduction.

Many of the bravest and strongest heroes in Scripture were not heroes at all. But Heroines.

Your Bible is full of remarkable women who loved their God, their families and their people.

We should talk more often about Rahab and Deborah and Esther and Mary and Priscialla and Lois and Eunice and Junia, who Paul referred to as an Apostle.

One such heroine is at the center of our story today.

There is a book in your Bible named after her.

Four chapters on paper. But what a life she actually lived!

Her name was Ruth.

Two major themes run through her story: Kindness and Redemption.

It is divided into four parts:

In part one, we have Ruth’s return with Naomi to Bethlehem.

Then, Boaz, who shows favor toward Ruth.

Then, Ruth seeking redemption from Boaz

And finally, Boaz marrying Ruth and reedeming Naomi’s inheritance.

Some feel that Samuel wrote this book about her life.

Others say it was recorded later in Solomon’s time.

And still others look at the detail and interest surrounding the lives of two women and they feel that Ruth was most definately written by a woman!

Regardless, it is inspired of God, Holy Writ and belongs in this most important book the world has ever seen or ever will see: The Holy Bible!

Let’s begin with chapter one and then we will explain some of the cultural and historical context that is taking place.

Ruth 1:1–22 NKJV

Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion—Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there. Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons. Now they took wives of the women of Moab: the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years. Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died; so the woman survived her two sons and her husband. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited His people by giving them bread. Therefore she went out from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each to her mother’s house. The Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.” So she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, “Surely we will return with you to your people.” But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go—for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons, would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? No, my daughters; for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me!” Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. And she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said: “Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me.” When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her. Now the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And it happened, when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was excited because of them; and the women said, “Is this Naomi?” But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?” So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

The trouble begins in the very first verse of the first chapter.

A relocation has taken place.

This man, Elimelech and his wife Naomi, take their two boys and move away from the promised land.

They lived in a land promised them, and given them by God!

A land fought for and longed for by their parents and grandparents!

Bethlehem means “House of bread.”

It was known for fertile fields and good farm land.

But famine comes sometimes even to the best of places.

So it was that Elimelech and Naomi made a decision

If you were Naomi, standing in Bethlehem and you looked East, beyond the Dead Sea, you would see the hills of Moab.

The grass looked greener over there, and so they moved.

The people that lived there were called Moabites.

Descendants of Lot who at one point, invaded and persecuted Isreal for 18 years!

Elimilech made what he felt was the best choice he could and they left their promise.

Their two boys, got to the age were they wanted families of their own and so they married local Moabite girls.

Presumably, elimilech meant to go back homeeventually, but he never did.

Not long after arriving, the man of the house died.

And then after ten years, Mahlon and Chillion died, leaving their wives widows and Naomi, grieving and without family or support.

You have to realize what it must have been like to live in a time where there was no social security net of any kind!

No EBT cards, no Section 8, no government assistance at all!

Not only has Naomi lost her husband and sons, she has lost all income, basically all legal rights and all claim to the family land holdings.

Moab is a foreign land, and they are not her people.

Naomi then decides to return to her place and her people, but now there are the two daughters in law.

Orpah means “back of the neck.” And that is what Ruth and Naomi saw as she walked away.

But Ruth was a different sort.

Humble? Warm? oh yes, but there was also steel.

She was a woman of principle!

And decisive! She was not afraid to make her choices and reap the results.

She chose to go with Ruth to a strange land!

Let us pause before opening Ruth’s story and establish a few very important things.

First off, Please remember:

Your decisions today will affect your family, your children for years to come!

(Stop here and pray. Ask God to reveal his Word and apply it to our individual lives through the power of the Holy Ghost.)

Folks, I want all of us to learn something here today.

Perhaps you know it in your head, but I want us to know it in our hearts!

Elimilech should have never left!

Please! Don’t make big, life decisions without prayer!

Take counsel! Good counsel!

I understand that sometimes famine comes. Circumstances that you don’t have control over.

Trust me, I get it!

Common sense may tell you to leave the place of promise!

But common sense is not the standard!

Submission is the standard!

When we live in accordance with the structure of Spiritual authority, we are perfectly aligned to recieve great benefits and the promises of God!

Now I am talking to New Testament people who have something Elimelech and Naomi didn’t have.

You have a pastor.

Folks, I don’t even claim to be a good one!

But I am responsible.

I am responsible to God for you and this church.

It‘s terrifying sometimes, but there it is.

This is not about me. I’m highlighting a principle today!!!!

Even if you move someday to another state or city or country, you will have a pastor there.

And you need to listen to him!

You need to counsel with him before you make decisions that will affect your family for years to come!

Let me share something with you tonight and please listen to me:

Don’t ever tell your pastor what life changes your are going to make.

Don’t start that way! It shows that you have already made your decisions and you are merely asking for a blessing.

There is a very big difference between asking and telling.

It you tell me,

Then you know and I both know that you’re gonna do it anyway.

That is not submission and it is not God’s way!!!!

Far better, to present your situation to your pastor.

Tell him what you’re thinking, pray together and ask him for counsel!

When you do this, your are honoring God and his system!

You are honoring God and the authority structure that God has designed and blessed!

God will speak to your pastor and to you and if you will submit to it, God will bless you!!!!

Submission is the secret of God’s happiest people!

So much better than doing your own thing.

Folks, I will not tell you the horror stories I have witnessed, of people making decisions against their pastor’s counsel.

But I will tell you that the same formula always results in loss and regret:

When you do what you want to do when you want to do it and ignore or never ask for your pastor’s counsel,

It always ends badly!

In every case!

I have looked people square in the eye and warned them” “Don’t do this! You are sowing the seeds of destruction in your own life!

I will simply ask you and plead with you:

Be careful! For the sake of your future and your family!

And friend, what ever you do, don’t ever leave the church of the living God!

The Kingdom is a place that was promised to you!

This is a safe place!!!!

The family of God!

And please, if you get offended, or we do something you don’t agree with, don’t just leave!

Show me the basic decency of asking me and sharing your concerns!

We will open the Scriptures together! We will reason together!

If you have an issue, don’t just leave!

Don’t go to others and talk family business outside of the family!

I would expect more honorable behavior in the workplace!

Far more the church!

Families work thorugh their problems.

The Sojourn.

You know, sometimes people leave the assembly and the church and that’s it.

I’m not just talking about a local church, I mean “THE church.” The family of God.

People leave that sometimes.

They go on a sojurn into the world.

“The famine made me do it.” Unmet expectations!” “I had to go!”

And maybe one day you pray through and you do come back.

But what of your children?

What about your family?

Will they recover?

How about all those hard, critical things they heard you say?

The disillusionment?

I mean, if you leave the family of God, and you go out there, they are going to start their families in a foreign land!

Strange customs, other priorities, and even if you eventually make it back, what about them?

Parents!!!! We have to be careful with our children!

Men, we are responsible to lead the family. We must be very careful in our decisions.

Your wife deserves a prayed through Apostolic husband!

Your family needs you on your spiritual “A game.”

The wise man once said: “What you do in moderation, your kids will do in excess!”

Want them to backslide? Start getting floppy with church.

Casual, noncomital, consumerist.

They will follow your example to excess!

Or do you want them to grow into mature, well balanced Christian people?

Well, take them to the assembly!

Show them what a Christian looks like in the hard times, the good times and everything in between!

Clearly, they will eventually make all of their own choices about God and obedience. But remember that you have influence!

By the time that we meet Naomi, she is a woman haunted by regret.

In all of this darkness and suffering, finally, we hear sweet words when Ruth makes her choice and her statement!

Ruth chooses Naomi, her people and her God at face value!

She commits!

And together they arive where Naomi should have never left.

Friend, I am so grateful for the will of God!

Bro Tony Baily told me one time: The will of God is like a great, flowing river! God wants us in the middle! Caught in the flow!

But sometimes people leave.

And the enemy would love you to think that when people remove themselves from the will of God, they cannot get back in!

The good news is this:

They can come back and dive right back in!

All is not lost!

You can come home!!!

No matter how far the prodical has wandered, you can come back home!!!!

The lost must be welcomed home!

Luke 15 shows us a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost son.

This is what happened to the sheep: The sheep wandered off.

Pastor will come looking for you, because that is what a shepherd is supposed to do.

The coin was a different matter. The coin was misplaced.

And sometimes The church and the pastor can be negligent!

We are people and we make mistakes!

Sometimes people are allowed to fall through the cracks and are misplaced just like that coin. little care was given to them.

Pastor will repent and then he’ll come looking. “Where is the lost coin?”

But when the son left on purpose, against counsel, the Father let him go!

And not once, did he leave to find the boy!

So pastor will send you a text or two, he’ll pray often, but I wont go after you.

If you walk, we pray.

But I’m not gonna knock down your door.

Not gonna blow up your phone!

You’re gonna have to learn this one the hard way.

But trust me, we will be looking down the road!

And every day, you best believe the Father is walking out to the field.

He’s taking some scraps, a carrot an apple, something to feed that special calf.

I see him stroke the flank of that calf with a far away look in his eye, and he’s thinking about the day when his boy has had enough and comes back home!

The Father was ready!

Ready to run out and meet the prodigal!

Friend, it does not matter how badly you have been polluted by the world!

There you stand in your filthy rags and covered in shame, and the Father runs to you!

He wraps strong arms around you and welcomes you home!

Not a stranger, but a son!

And it is the mark of a mature church, when a backslider comes home, the mature church does not judge or punish or condemn.

We welcome you home! We embrace you!

You have a home here! This is your family!

We know the will of God is a river!

Jump back into it!

Get caught in that Holy current once more!

The prodigal must be welcomed!

We want him to feel safe again!

We want her to feel purpose and peace again!

No! We don’t ever want to see you leave!

We know that road ends in hunger and shame.

Just know, the door is always open!

This church, this family will always love the prodigal!

We will celebrate ! Shoes for a son, because servants did not wear shoes.

A Ring for the son, because he must have legal access to the family name...

Yes! The backslider prays through and when he does, he gains access to the family name!

Vs 19 says when those two women came dragging into Bethlehem, all the city was moved!

“I went out full, Naomi said, and I have returned empty.

“Don’t call me Naomi, (it means pleasant) Call me Marah, call me bitter. Sad.

Thank God for a mature church that does not judge, does not gossip and snigger behind closed doors.

The mature church is moved when those two came into town.

Pay attention folks, you never know who’s gonna walk thorugh the door!

Chapter two:

Ruth 2 NKJV

There was a relative of Naomi’s husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz. So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field, and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” Then she left, and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you!” And they answered him, “The Lord bless you!” Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” So the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered and said, “It is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. And she said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ So she came and has continued from morning until now, though she rested a little in the house.” Then Boaz said to Ruth, “You will listen, my daughter, will you not? Do not go to glean in another field, nor go from here, but stay close by my young women. Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.” So she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” And Boaz answered and said to her, “It has been fully reported to me, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before. The Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.” Then she said, “Let me find favor in your sight, my lord; for you have comforted me, and have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your maidservants.” Now Boaz said to her at mealtime, “Come here, and eat of the bread, and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed parched grain to her; and she ate and was satisfied, and kept some back. And when she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. Also let grain from the bundles fall purposely for her; leave it that she may glean, and do not rebuke her.” So she gleaned in the field until evening, and beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. Then she took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. So she brought out and gave to her what she had kept back after she had been satisfied. And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where have you gleaned today? And where did you work? Blessed be the one who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he of the Lord, who has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead!” And Naomi said to her, “This man is a relation of ours, one of our close relatives.” Ruth the Moabitess said, “He also said to me, ‘You shall stay close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’ ” And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, and that people do not meet you in any other field.” So she stayed close by the young women of Boaz, to glean until the end of barley harvest and wheat harvest; and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.

Back when God was establishing law for his people, the law made provisioin for the poor and the stranger to glean from the corners of the field so that they would not starve.

You can read about it in Leviticus 19.

God thinks of everything!

When you were reaping your land, it was made law that you would not reap the corners of the field and leave some small part of the harvest for those in need.

Now, they didn’t bring the food to you. The poor would have to come and get it!

There was some sweat equity there.

But food was available!

And Ruth did just that! she worked hard! Not asking for a handout!

Its almost like the story of one man sitting on a corner lot with a cardboard sign: “Anything helps.”

Sits there all day.

Another man on his corner, looks around and starts cleaning his area up!

Might as well. nothing better to do. He may be poor, but he’s got pride!

The second man pulls the weeds, collects the trash and his sign says “Willing to work.”

Who do you think the community will respect more?

That’s how Boaz felt when he saw Ruth, working hard, to make the best of a bad situation.

But fellas, you know, there was something more...

Folks, you know when you see some model on a magazine cover, please understand that what you are seeing is not the actual person!

Beneath all of that paint and plastic,

Beneath the lighting, the filters and the photo editing is a person… Just a person.

So much effort to look good or at least to look like what society calls good. Trying soo hard.

But then you have those other people. They don’t try at all. Don’t have to.

And you don’t see them too often but when you do, you recognize there is something special here.

Not contrived, not manufactured, but honest, simple and real.

Beautiful, yes. a holistic beauty that does not come in a bottle.

But more than just the outside, such people understand that “Beauty is as beauty does.”

Boaz sees Ruth, and he knows here is one such.

We know there is at least some age gap here and perhaps Boaz averts his eyes with a thought.

“No way she’d ever think of me in that way.”

“Beautiful young women like that don’t give their hearts away to guys like me.”

What a surprise in chapter three!

Conclusion

I would have taught this Bible study Thrusday night, but The Holy Ghost moved us in a different direction.

I am so excited about the move to hunger and consecration and deep places that God is taking us!

So most preaching has a central theme, one big idea supported much by Scripture, then applied to our lives.

Bible Study is often slower and less dynamic perhaps, but tends to build strong Christians.

We strive for balance.

I am really looking forward to chapter three and four of Ruth But I don’t want to rush! So: Next time!

You know, not every service is shouting and preaching.

Not every service is an altar call push.

As Christian men and women, we need to connect with the Word of God!

We study it, we search it. we mine it for treasure.

And those treasures? They are principles.

Principles to live your life by.

To raise your family by!

We are a priviledged people!

Arent you glad that God loves us that much?

To teach us and guide us and lead us and mentor us!

We have time now, to talk to Jesus.

Let’s thank Jesus!