Reasons not to be surprised and a call to commitment

Text Ruth 1:1-18 Time 02 03 22 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church (Zoom)

I thought we might begin to look tonight at the Old Testament Book of Ruth. Ruth is a very attractive book as it is a book about ordinary people living ordinary lives but who are surrounded by God's love and care. It is not really, as so much of the Old Testament is, about kings and prophets or empires and wars. Ultimately, it links in with the stories of kings and prophets, yes, but first it is a love story told against the backdrop of tough times. No wonder God's people like it so much.

One other things about it is that it is full conversation - lots of dialogue. That adds to the interest.

If someone should say to me, why should I read the Book of Ruth? I would say

1. Because it is in the Bible. God want us to know this story. It is part of his revelation to us.

2. Because it is a wonderful story. Even just a story it is very engaging and worth knowing.

3. The book begins In the days when the judges ruled. I think it is particularly interesting as a contrast with that book, which in many ways is quite a depressing book with its cycle of forsaking the Lord, the Lord sending an enemy to chastise his people and then relief through a judge but all of these judges marked by one flaw or another. One writer calls the book "a summer's morning after a night of wild tempest" (Edersheim). The Book of Ruth reveals that even in days when everyone did was right in their eyes, there were godly people in the land such as Boaz and Ruth. We too can and must live good lives even in wicked times. There is light even in the darkness times.

4. It is always interesting in the Old Testament when we read of Gentiles who believe. Ruth, like Rahab before her, was a pagan and yet she found refuge under the wings of the God of Israel as the predominantly Gentile church does today.

5. It is a very feminine book. Naomi and Ruth are prominent in it. Modern people sometimes suppose that a patriarchal system has to be anti-women. That is not the case. This book shows it. Ruth is a heroine fo all times.

6. Because it supplies with important information about the ancestry of the Messiah. At the end of the book it is revealed that this is not just a charming story but the story of King David's great grandparents. David himself was, of course, himself an ancestor of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah.

Today we will look at the opening chapter as far as verse 18. We want to say three main things.

1. Do not be surprised when bad times come and when bad times turn worse

1. Do not be surprised when bad times come

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.

Verses 1 and 2 set the initial scene for us. The book was written probably in the time of David but it goes back to an earlier time, that of the Judges.

On one hand, here is a man who lives in Bethlehem - if you are a Christian, you cannot miss the fact this would be Messiah's birth place. These are Jews living in the Promised Land. His name means My God is King and hers Pleasant. They live in a place called The House of Bread.

However, there is a famine and they decide to emigrate to a nearby pagan country, to Moab. The names of their sons are ominous too (perhaps they were nicknames). Mahlon means sickness and Kilion wasting away. Perhaps it was concern for the boys that led Elimelek and Naomi to take the radical step they did at this time. They were probably a wealthy family at the start of the story. It is the wealthy not the poor who can afford to flee.

Reading of refugees from famine at this time inevitably makes us think of the refugees pouring out of Ukraine at the moment. They are refugees because of war rather than famine but they are having to cross borders, into Poland or Moldova or Slovakia or Hungary, leaving behind a great deal but finding safety.

In ancient Israel part of the covenant was that if the people were disobedient then they could expect war and famine and drought and other such things. No doubt this famine was part of such a judgement. In these New Testament times matters are not tied together so closely. Even in Old Testament times it was not that famine came because Elimelek and Naomi were personally responsible.

The thing to learn from what happened to them then is that troubles can come in different shapes and forms at any time. We must expect such things.

It was not necessarily wrong that they fled to Moab but it was a strange thing to be doing, especially if, as seems likely to be the case, they had lived through the period when the LORD gave Eglon King of Moab power over Israel to the point where the Moabites, with others, had occupied Jericho, before God raised up Ehud. Perhaps peace in Ehud's time made it easier to travel to Moab.

Ironies abound when the man whose God is the king leaves the house of bread for a pagan land. Ironies often come in when we are in trouble. Yet, trouble is never too far away, we will find.

2. Do not be surprised when bad times turn worse

It would be nice if we could say that after a while in Moab things took a turn for the better but that was not the case. We read in verses 3-5 first 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. This, on the face of it, is not a good development. If it was right to flee to Moab, surely to intermarry with Moabites does not sound right, although it was not banned completely. And then further After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion the sickly one and the one wasting away also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. It may be that the ten year period is not how long the marriages lasted but how long Naomi's family were in Moab altogether.

Sometimes after a trouble, things get better but sometimes they don't - rather they get worse. There is no guarantee. We need to accept that is going to be so at times. Sometimes we feel we cannot take any more but then we find we sometimes can.

At the beginning of his book on the subject of suffering Don Carson gives examples of terrible sufferings Christians have gone through. He does it in order to counter the superficial retort that Christians do not suffer as the world does. As he says, "The truth of the matter is that all we have to do is live long enough and we will suffer."

2. Do not be surprised that when bad times become good there is still heartache

So that is the first part of the story, in verses 1-5. Next we come to the story of Naomi leaving Moab to return to the Promised Land. That is in verse 6 and the verses that follow.

We read in verses 6 and 7 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. The LORD comes to the aid of his people in various ways. Here it is by bringing the famine to an end. Naomi had kept the channels of communication with here home town open and so she knew when Bethlehem became the house of bread once again. Even though several years had passed by this time she knew where home was and she was keen to return.

In verses 8 and 9 we read how she 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. Naomi spoke openly of the LORD and had no doubt taught her daughters in law a good deal about the true God. However, despite the bond that had evidently grown up between them, she did not expect them to go with her to Bethlehem.

However, we read how (10-13) they said to her, "We will go back with you to your people." But Naomi is insistent 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!" Someone today would not put it quite like that but what Naomi is saying is that she does not expect her daughters in law to remain with her as they need the wherewithal to live and she is in no position to help them find it.

I do not know what you make of her It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD's hand has turned against me. I suppose she is referring not to returning to Bethlehem but to the famine and then the loss of her husband and her two sons which she recognises is what the LORD has done. They have lost their husbands it is true but she has lost her husband and two sons and whereas they are young enough to remarry, she is not.

And so even when her time away comes to an end, there is still sadness - sadness over the memory of what has happened but sadness too at the need to say goodbye to these women and to the prospect of not seeing them again.

We are perhaps tempted to suppose that if the Lord is with us then everything will be rosy at all times but even in the good times there can be things that are tough to take, as here.

3. Do not be surprised when God brings you good in the midst of trouble

So up to verse 13 of Chapter 1 it is pretty much bad news - the sadness of famine and emigration, of sickness and death and then of helplessness and parting. But then in verses 14 and 15 almost out of nowhere happiness comes. 14, 15 At this at the prospect of parting they Naomi and her two daughters in law wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but an important 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." Naomi does not want to take advantage of Ruth's loyalty and kindness. Ruth was a Moabite and she had worshipped Chemosh - should she not go back to doing that? It would be wrong to think that Naomi condoned it but she would not take advantage of Ruth.

And then another But and in verses 16-18 and one of the most beautiful statements in Scripture

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 realised that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

There are moments in life like this - when the Orpahs and the Ruths of this world part and from then on, everything is different. It is in part a matter of God's sovereignty but real choices are made. Are you Orpah or Ruth?

Ruth says three things that show that the commitment she was making was

1. A radical commitment. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. She is committed to Naomi. Where Naomi goes Ruth is going. She had grown up in Moab, worshipping Chemosh but all that was about to change. She had learned about the true God from Naomi and she liked what she heard and was willing to go with Naomi to learn more. Everything was about to change she knew but she knew this was the right thing to do and so she made the commitment that was necessary.

It's like that when you become a Christian. It is a radical change. It means that everything is about to change.

2. A theological commitment. Your people will be my people and your God my God. From now on Chemosh and the other gods of paganism meant nothing to her. For her, God had only one people and they were her people. For her, there was only one God and it was Naomi's God and from now on he was her God too.

Again that is what it is like when you become a Christian. It is a theological change. It means that you recognise that God has only one people - true Christians - and that there is only one God and that you serve him.

3. A lifelong commitment. 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. Here we see the depth of Ruth's commitment. This was no spur of the moment thing. She had thought it through and she was committed to Naomi and to the true God no matter what may come.

Have you made that sort of commitment? That is how it must be. Lasting. Lifelong, Forever.

Here we are thinking of Naomi and the good that came to her because of Ruth's commitment but such commitment is good in all sorts of ways - good for Naomi good for Ruth, good for the kingdom, good for all who hear her story. Pray for such commitments in the midst of the troubles that surround us.