Ruth 1
Hope in the Darkness
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Welcome to God's Word for you, a Ministry of Sharon RP Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today, and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart.
Please turn over in your Bibles with me to the Book of Ruth. Ruth, Chapter 1, as we begin this new series. Ruth, Chapter 1 is sandwiched between Judges and First Samuel. You can find it on page 240 of your Pew Bibles. Ruth, Chapter 1. We’ll be reading through the entire chapter. Pay careful attention. This is God's word:
Ruth 1:1-22
1 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. 2 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. 3 Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons. 4 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. 5 Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died; so the woman survived her two sons and her husband.
6 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. 7 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. 8 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. 9 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. 10 And they said to her, “Surely we will return with you to your people.”
11 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? 12 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, 13 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!”
14 Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
15 And she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”
16 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.
17 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.”
18 When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her.
19 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?”
20 But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21 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?”
22 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 New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ru 1:1–22.
Thus ends this this portion of the reading of God's word. Let's pray.
Lord we pray now, Father, that you indeed would open our minds and our ears that we would understand and receive the things which you have for us today. Father, we pray that you would be near to us, that you would apply your word on our hearts, by your Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
On that day, Elimelech finally gave up. The ground is hard, cracked. Dirt was in his eyes and his nose. And where he lived, Bethlehem, whose very name means the house of bread, he could grow no wheat or barley. So he left. He left the covenant people of God with his family, with his wife, Naomi, and with their two boys. And they leave the covenant people of God. Elimelech, the man whose very name means “My God is King” leaves the Kingdom of Israel to go to where there's food.
And when Elimelech leaves Bethlehem and goes to the Moebites, he is not going to a friendly nation. He is not taking his family with him where they know that they're going to have friendly relationships with the people who live there. No, Elimelech takes his wife, Naomi, and their sons, Mahlon and Chilion, and he takes them to a foreign land that is at enmity with the people of God.
They go and they sojourn away from God's Promise Land because there's drought. All throughout the book of Judges, when this time is taking place, this 400 years, we often think of the book of Judges that “there is a time where people do whatever is right in their own eyes”, and that's true. But there's a different refrain all throughout Judges, and that's “the people did evil in the eyes of the Lord”. And this drought is God, who has told them in the Book of Deuteronomy, that when they turned away from Him, He would bring famine. And now the ground is dry. There's no dew, there's no rain, there's no bread, and the family is at the brink of destruction. So Elimelech does the practical thing and he leaves.
But in doing so, he takes his family to an enemy nation away from their culture, away from their family, away from their religion, and into danger. But something happens when they're in Moab, when they're in this land filled with the descendants of Lot. When they're in this land of foreigners, Elimelech meets his fate. In a terse and hard and short and pointed statement, the text just tells us, that the man died. Elimelech dies. We don't know how. We don't know why. We don't know if it's a heart attack or we don't know what happens to him. But Elimelech is dead, and Naomi is alone with her two boys. And this short sojourn that had been only to stay there long enough to get food, becomes a long term residence where they're living there among the people, so long so, that Naomi's two sons take two Moabite daughters as wives.
Foreigners as wives. These are people who in the Book of Numbers, wouldn't have allowed the people to travel through their land. These are the same people that in Numbers, Chapter 25, when the Israelites were going to Canaan, the Moabites tried to seduce away the people of Israel by the daughters of Moab. And here we find daughters of Moab marrying children of Elimelech and Naomi. This shouldn't be so. This is not the way that God has intended his covenant to work. And yet, here in the depths, Naomi finds a certain amount of joy. Her husband is dead, but there's a marriage. There's hope.
What happens when somebody's heart rejoices at the idea of a wedding? Have you been to weddings where people rejoice because people are in love and there's finally okay? “There was this darkness, and in the past, God let my husband die. But now there's joy because at least maybe our line will continue.” Naomi can look forward to grandchildren. Naomi's heart can long to see little pitter patter of feet in her living room. Naomi can look forward to its future generations, but what happens next brings Naomi's heart to the very grave; her sons die.
The family plot in Jerusalem, where they would typically be buried, doesn't have their bones in it, but rather in Moab, in a foreign country, Naomi has a heart clouded with darkness. She mourns the death of her own children. She looks into the abyss of death. She weeps. She puts on the black garments of mourning as she wails. Her children are dead. There's a clan. There's a family in Israel that is on the brink of extinction, and God has brought it upon Naomi shoulders.
Naomi could only think of one thing, “I've heard there's bread again in Bethlehem.” The House of Bread has bread again. The Lord's brought it. So her heart is intent on going to where the providence of the Lord has shined. Maybe she'll be able to live in Bethlehem. Maybe she'll be able to scrounge up enough to be able to live from the generosity of those who actually have food. She doesn't have children to work in the field. She doesn't have a husband to till the soil. She doesn't have a trade. She doesn't have what she needs to live. But there's at least bread in Bethlehem, so she decides to go.
But as she begins to take that walk, as she packs up the house, as the tent is brought down and things are packed onto the camels, as the moving truck is ready to go, her two daughter in laws, Ruth and Orpah, are there and they begin to walk with her. They begin to take that long trek around the Dead Sea through the Jordan Valley to head towards Bethlehem, the family homestead, the city of their inheritance. But Naomi has a hard reality before her, doesn't she? As she's walking, in verse 8, Naomi lets her daughters walk with her. But before they get to the land of Judah, Naomi stops. There's been a heavy weight on her. These aren't Ruth and Orpah’s people. These aren't Ruth and Orpah’s culture. This isn't Ruth and Orpah's gods. They’re Moabitesses. They aren't Israelites. And how are they going to possibly live in the midst of Judah? How would they be able to co-exist with God's covenant people? And this weight of, “How is this going to happen?” finally comes to a point on the road where she has to stop.
And with glassy eyes, look at her last two people she loves and tell them, “Go. I need you to turn away from me. I need you to return. I need you to be able to go back home. Go back to your mother's house, go back to your own people, go back to your own gods. Go back where you can have husbands. You can't come with me.” And in this harsh but loving comment that Naomi, this command that she gives them, they embrace each other and they weep.
This is a family being ripped apart. These are people who deeply love and care for each other, who are being ripped apart by death and by sorrow by the providence that God has laid upon their laps. It is here that Naomi looks at her daughters in law and tells her own beloved, “Get away from me. It's better for you just to go home.” And they weep.
And the daughter's protest, don't they? They look at Naomi and they say, “No, no, we're not going to return. We're gonna go home with you. We're going to return to Bethlehem.” Naomi won't hear it. Naomi won’t put up with it. Instead, she gives them a hypothetical. She lays on them the reality of the life of providence that God has laid upon her lap that she says, “Look, I'm too old to have a husband. I'm too old to bear children. Do you think that at my old age somehow I still have kids that could be born from me? Or are you crazy? There's no way that I could possibly give you what you want. I can't give you happiness. I can't give you security. I can't give you riches. I can't give you hope. And even if I could, even if somehow the Lord did give me a husband today and I had sons. Would you wait for them? Could you wait almost two decades? No, no. You would be too old to have kids. You still would have no security. You still would have no hope. There is nothing for you to stay with me.”
Naomi looks at her daughters in law. She looks at Ruth and she looks at Orpah with tears in her eyes, desiring what's best for them. And she says, “No. The Lord of Heaven, the Covenant God, Adonai, let him show you checed. Let him show you loving kindness. Let him show you grace. Go home. Just leave.”
And Orpah does the right thing. Orpah does what any single one of us would do in that situation. Orpah does the sane thing. She does the reasonable thing. She does the practical thing. Orpah leaves. She turns her back on Naomi and she returns home. She goes back to her mother's house, where she can find a husband, where she could have children. But Ruth clings to her.
Ruth wraps her arms around her, and she won't let her go. Ruth looks at Naomi in the eyes. She holds her hands on her face as if to say, “No, no, I'm casting my lot in with you.” And we find in Ruth a statement to Naomi of conversion, a fully embracing, not just Naomi, but everything that is Naomi. And in verse 16 Ruth says, “Entreat me not to leave you or to turn back following after you for wherever you go, I will go.” Naomi's just told her go home and Ruth says, “I'm not going to go home. I'm gonna go with you. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge.” Naomi told her to go home and live in her mother's house, and she says, “No, where you pitch your tent, that's where my tent's going to be. I'm gonna be with you. Your people shall be my people. Israel, Judah, the Ephrathites, they're my people now.”
Don't imagine that somehow this is easy for Ruth to do. Ruth has just told Naomi that she is going to give up everything she knows. Ruth is telling Naomi, “I'm going to give up my family. I don't want to see my mother or my father again. I don't want to see my family members again. I don't want to see my cousins, my nieces, my nephews, my sisters, my brothers. I want to go with your people. I want to see your temple. I want to live in your houses. I want to speak your language.” Ruth throws herself fully identifying with Naomi and every aspect. She's willing to walk away from mother and father, brother and sister to follow after the Lord.
And this is a remarkable thing because it is Naomi herself who has just said that it is God who has brought this affliction upon her. Naomi has said it is God himself. It is Adonai. It is the Lord of the Covenant himself who has brought my sons and my husband to the grave. He is the one who has done this. He's the master of the universe, and he is the one who has brought all of this depression and darkness upon me. And Ruth looks at Naomi and says, “And your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die and where you are buried there I will be buried.” Even in death Naomi says, “My bones are not going to be taken back to Moab. But I am so identifying, so throwing in my lot with you, so tying myself together with the people of Israel that even when I die I will not be a Moabitess. But I will be an Israelite. I'll be buried with you. I will die where you die.” Even after Naomi is dead and gone in a distant memory, Ruth says “I am going to stay where you lived.”
And she calls upon the Lord God himself to seal this oath. The second half of verse 17, “The Lord do so to me, and more so, if anything but death separates you and me.” Nothing but death is going to separate Naomi and Ruth. And Ruth calls upon the covenant name of the Lord himself, the Great I AM as a witness to her oath. This is our equivalent of putting your hand on the Bible and swearing an oath. Ruth cannot swear on anything greater than God himself. She cannot swear on anything greater than the master of the universe, who has brought, by his providence, all these hard trials upon her. She knows what it is like for God to put to death people in her life. And yet she has so embraced the great I AM, the Lord himself. She calls upon his very name, knowing his power and willing to say, “He's the one who's cosigning this will. He's my witness. He is the one who will make sure I live this out with you.”
Ruth has become a proselyte. Ruth has become a fearer of the omniscient God. Ruth has become one who is going to worship the Lord. Ruth is one who's fully stepped foot into the life of Israel. Ruth is the one who Psalm 67 longs to see that all the nations might come to know him. It is Ruth who comes to the foreground in the story with this beautiful confession of faith. But Naomi stops talking to her. Naomi sees that Ruth’s will is as iron, and it's not going to be broken. Naomi sees that Ruth has linked herself together, and there's no breaking that chain. There's no breaking the well that keeps them fastened together.
And so they walk. They walk the trail through the Jordan Valley. They cross the Jordan River. They go up the hill that ascends into the plain where Bethlehem is. And when they reach there, there's a commotion in the city. As they walk through the fields, as they go towards the city, the women are out and they're about in the town. And they see a woman and she looks like someone familiar. “Could this be Naomi? Could this be the one who left 10 years ago? She looks so much older. Where's Elimelech? Where's Mahlon? Where's Chilion? Where's her boys?”
And you could imagine in Naomi's heart, the pain as she walks through those fields. The fields where one of them belongs to her own husband. She approaches the city gates, and she remembers the streets that her and Elimelech used to walk with their boys running around them. You could imagine the pain of coming home not to a warm welcome, but to a cold bed. Everywhere she turns, there's a memory of joy. And that memory of joy had become a fruit of bitterness in her soul. Everywhere where she once took pleasure, where she should be able to remember the good times with her family, now it's emptiness. It's darkness. They're gone and the people cry out. The women say, “Could this be Naomi?” Naomi's own name means pleasant. She says, “Don't call me pleasant. Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara. Call me bitterness, for I left full, but I came home empty.”
Naomi doesn't consider herself pleasant, but she considers herself empty. And barren in the labyrinth of darkness. She says, “Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara.” Verse 20: “For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. El Shaddai himself. The one who commands the army has wet his sword against me. And taking my own husband and sons away from me. How can you call me pleasant? It is the Lord himself who has afflicted me. I went out full,” verse 21, “and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me pleasant? Since the Lord himself, Adonai, I the great I AM has testified against me. And the Almighty has afflicted me.”
Naomi is not like how many comforters of our age will say it was just a freak accident. Naomi truly believes in the sovereignty and the providence of God. El Shaddai himself, of Yahweh himself, the Great God of the Covenant that he is the omniscient and omnipotent one. And it is he himself who brought her own family to an end. Naomi doesn't hide from the hard truth that God is offering. But she faces that hard truth face to face.
And Naomi does not find guilt with God. Indeed, we find they Naomi as the feminine version of Job. That it is Naomi, like Job, who sits in the ash heap. Bitterness and pain. She asks, “Why? Why are my sons, my own children dead? Why is my husband no more?” This is the same plight that the widows and our own congregation ask themselves, that the people in our own midst asked themselves, “God, why did you take my own children from me? It is not right that the children would die before the parents, God. Why would you do this?”
And Naomi doesn't shy away from, she doesn't give herself some type of false ointment, that if she says, “Well, God wasn't in control.” No, she knows exactly who's in control, and she's willing to face it. And Ruth is there, unlike Job’s, miserable friends who try to place the blame upon him with false accusations. Ruth is silently there, clinging to her.
We do not know why the heavy hand of providence sometimes brings us the fruit of bitterness. We sometimes do not know what the light is at the end of the tunnel. But one thing is for sure that the Scriptures give us an air tight of view of God that it is he who brought this upon us. But it is in the light of Jesus Christ that we find out that it is Jesus who is the master of the universe. And it is Jesus who comforts us. It is Jesus by whom, and through whom all things are being remade. And even though we might not feel it in our hearts, even though the fiber of our souls fight against it, Romans 8:28 is true that “all things are working together for the good of those who have been called according to his purposes.”
Take hope. True hope, that God will not let you go through the Valley of the Shadow of Death just to remain there. His rod and his staff, his sovereignty and his providence. Yes, they bring us things that we don't understand why. But it is that same providence, it is that same sovereignty that in the darkest hours we can throw ourself upon his checed, his loving kindness, next to his omnipotence, his all-powerfulness, and we can know that he is true and that he is going to work all things out for our good.
And that the light of the end of this tunnel, we get the last words of chapter one, “and the barley harvest was among them.” Harvest had come. There was bread. Where there is bread, there is life and there's hope. And it is God himself who has brought this bread. And as we continue to go through the story of Ruth, we will see the pains and the trials, and also the redemption of how God has by his providence brought Naomi and Ruth from riches to rags. And how eventually he will bring them to royalty.
Take hope. Take hope in God's providence. Even in the darkest of hours.
Let's pray: God, it's hard. It's hard to believe these things, Lord, Father, the pain of this world is real. You know our tears and you know our sorrows, Father. Please, Lord, it is only you who can by your Spirit, work these truths into our soul that we might have hope. God, please give us hope that you are our shepherd and you guide us and lead us to green pastures, even through the valleys. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Thank you for listening to God's Word for You. A ministry of Sharon RP Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for His Word, as well as your love for His people. Until next week. God bless you.