21 August 2011
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Ruth 1:1-5
1 In the days when the judges ruled,[a] 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. 2 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.
3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
-- well, I have shared with you all before that I am something of a movie geek -- I really enjoy going to the movies -- watching movies on TV and on DVD are okay, but my most favorite form of entertainment is going out and watching a movie on a big screen in a crowded theater -- there's just something special about seeing a movie with a crowd of other people, as you experience together the drama and the excitement and the emotion of the story
-- but even though you know this about me, I think there's one thing I haven't told you and I want to confess this to you today -- my most favorite type of movie in the entire world are chick flicks -- romantic comedies -- those sappy stories where boy meets girl, boy loses girl, and then they end up together as the credits roll
-- now, don't get me wrong -- I like guy movies, too -- I can enjoy Gladiator and Braveheart and Robin Hood just as much as the next guy -- but I guess I'm just a romantic at heart -- I really enjoy the classic romance stories like Casablanca and the romantic comedies you see the theaters today
-- that's one reason why I love the Book of Ruth so much -- it's not really a story that you'd think a guy would like -- when I have been to men's events like Promise Keepers, you don't hear them preach much from the Book of Ruth -- you hear about David and Goliath -- you hear about Gideon taking on the Midianites -- you hear about Moses standing before Pharaoh and saying, "God says, 'let My people go'"
--and while we need those stories of men and women standing up for their God despite overwhelming odds, we also need stories like the one given in the Book of Ruth, because, if you think about it, Christianity is all about relationship -- and what better way to typify the relationship between Christ and us than a romantic story like the one given in the Book of Ruth
-- if you think about it, doesn't our relationship with Christ sound just like a classic romance? -- Man meets God -- Man loses God -- Man is restored to God and is joined to Him in marriage at the end of time
-- as I mentioned in the announcements, we're going to be starting in the Book of Ruth in our Wednesday night Bible studies -- so, I thought it would be nice to have a sermon series that paralleled the Bible study -- we certainly can't go into the depth that we'll go into on Wednesday nights, but we can hit the high points and walk together through this wonderful book over the next several weeks -- so, today I wanted to kick off a new sermon series that I have called, "Redeeming Ruth" by introducing this book and its main characters to you
II. The Theme and Setting of Ruth
-- I read one time that when Benjamin Franklin was the Ambassador to France, he occasionally attended a gathering called, "The Infidels Club" -- this was a group that spent most of its time reading and discussing literary masterpieces together -- on one occasion Franklin read the book of Ruth to the club, but he changed the names in it so it would not be recognized as a book of the Bible -- When he finished, the listeners were unanimous in their praise -- They said it was one of the most beautiful short stories that they had ever heard, and demanded that he tell them where he had run across such a remarkable work of art -- you can imagine their surprise when he told them that it came from the Bible
-- without a doubt, the story of Ruth is one of those classic love stories -- a real "Gone with the Wind" type epic -- the story of a love blossoming in the midst of tragedy and of a relationship rising from the ashes of fate -- it is the story of a young widow who is swept off her feet by the man of her dreams, who redeems her and her mother-in-law from a life of poverty and misery and gives them a hope and a future that they never imagined possible
-- before we get started in earnest, let me give you the context and the setting of this book -- if you would, look back at verse 1
1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.
-- this writer tells us that this story is set "in the days when judges ruled" -- that dark period of time when Israel was living in the Promised Land but kept forgetting God
-- that happens, doesn't it, in times of plenty? -- when things are going well -- when we're going through life and everything is going good, we tend to forget God -- maybe forget is too strong a word -- how about, we tend to neglect God -- we're getting by okay on our own -- we don't have any major crises going on -- and whatever comes up, we're able to handle -- we don't really need God -- we know He's there -- kind of like a spare tire in the trunk -- we'll pull Him out if we get a flat, but right now we're just cruising through life without a care in the world
-- that's kind of what was going on in the Book of Judges -- the Israelites have entered the Promised Land and the generation who knew God in the wilderness has passed on -- the people who are left don't know what it is like to suffer -- to know want -- to be living in desperate situations and having to depend on God for their very lives -- all they've known is plenty -- and all they've experienced is wealth and prosperity -- and so God's just not that important
-- they start enjoying life and looking for worldly entertainment and before long, they started following the examples of the pagan nations who were already living in the Promised Land when they go there -- they even started worshiping idols -- and finally, God's patience would wear thin and He would respond by sending trouble and calamity to Israel -- an enemy or a plague or something that would get their attention and cause the Israelites to turn to Him for help -- and when they turned back to Him and cried out for help, God would raise up a deliverer or judge who would rescue them from their enemies and lead them back to a right relationship with Him again
-- the key verse that kind of sums this all up is Judges 21:25, "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit"
-- this is the setting for the book of Ruth -- we read here at the start of this book that there was a famine in the land -- and knowing what we do about this time period, we can assume that the people have strayed away from God once again -- and He has allowed a famine to stalk the land to force the people to turn to Him once again
-- look back at verse 1
1 In the days when the judges ruled,[a] 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. 2 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.
-- here we are introduced to the main characters in the Book of Ruth -- the family of Elimelech and Naomi -- they lived in Bethlehem during the dark age of the judges
-- this famine that God had sent had evidently been going on for a long time -- it was starting to affect the lives of the people -- there just wasn't enough food to go around -- and conditions were getting desperate
-- Elimelech's name literally means, "My God is King" -- but rather than call on the name of God -- rather than ask God for deliverance -- Elimelech moved his family to the land of Moab
-- Moab was a land of rich soil and adequate rainfall -- it lay east of the Jordan River, so this family would have traveled north to Jerusalem and then crossed the Jordan River at the fords by Jericho -- it was a journey of about 100 miles, and probably would have taken them a week or two to move their whole household to the land
-- one thing you need to know about Moab -- God hated Moab -- Moab was Israel's most bitter enemy -- when Israel was wandering in the wilderness, Moab refused to help them and even sent Balaam to curse them and lead them into sin by enticing them with idol worship and sexual immorality -- in Deuteronomy 23:6, God tells the nation of Israel to never seek a treaty of friendship with them as long as they lived
-- this is where Elimelech chooses to move his family, even though this would have been in direct violation of God's word -- remember what I told you was the key verse for the people living in the day of the judges? -- "everyone did as he saw fit"
-- Elimelech sought to avoid the wrath of God by moving away, but, as we will see, it didn't work -- when God removes His hand of protection from our lives and allows us to suffer the full consequence of our sin, He does so for a reason -- He does this to bring us to the point of our need and to lead us back into a relationship with Him
-- Elimelech could not escape what God was trying to do in his life and in the nation of Israel by fleeing to Moab -- even though his name meant, "God is King," Elimelech thought he could king in his own life, and he lived without faith or trust in the God of Israel
-- verse 3
3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
-- shortly after the family arrived in Moab, Elimelech died -- leaving Naomi a widow with two sons to raise -- this was probably harder for Naomi than you might realize -- her son's names indicate that they were sick and weak -- Mahlon means "unhealthy" -- and Kilion means "weak" or "puny" -- in all likelihood, they were unable to work and to help provide for their family as they should
-- this is probably one reason why Naomi arranged marriages for them with Orpah and Ruth, both Moabite women, even though it was expressly forbidden in God's law for Israelites to marry women from pagan nations -- Naomi probably thought it was her only hope -- in her mind, these marriages would have been a way to secure wealth for the family through the marriage dowry and to gain position in the Moabite society by marrying into Moabite families
-- but just 10 years later, both Mahlon and Kilion died, leaving Naomi completely alone except for her two widowed daughters-in-law -- it was a bad thing to be a widow in that day and age -- "Widows in the ancient world had no social status and no economic means to survive -- This would especially be true for Naomi, since she was an Israelite living in a foreign country"1 -- with no means of support -- with no husband or sons to protect them or to provide for them, Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth were basically homeless and reduced to living on the charity of those around them
-- verse 6-14
6 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. 7 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.
8 Then Naomi 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. 9 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 10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”
11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 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— 13 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!”
14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
-- when Naomi got word that Israel had returned to God and that the famine was over and the people had food again, she made plans to go back to the land of her birth -- Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth got everything ready and started on the road to Israel, but before they got very far, Naomi stopped and told Orpah and Ruth to go back
-- by law and custom, Orpah and Ruth were bound to Naomi's family, even though their husbands were dead -- in fact, according to Levirite law, when a man died, the nearest of his kin was to marry the widow so that any children they produced would be the heirs of her first husband -- it was a way of continuing the family line through what the Bible calls a "kinsman redeemer"
-- but, as they headed towards Israel, Naomi realized that she had no kin who could redeem her son's lines -- traditionally, the kinsman redeemer would be a brother to the deceased -- but Naomi knew that she was too old to have any other children and that Orpah and Ruth were too old to wait for children to grow up to be adults
-- also, because they were Moabites, no close kin left in Israel would be willing to marry them -- so, their journey to Israel would be the end of the line -- they would be returning as widows without hope for the future
-- because of this, Naomi urged Orpah and Ruth to go home -- to go back to Moab where they would have a chance to remarry and have a better life
-- Orpah understood and went back to her family -- but Ruth refused to go
-- verse 15-18
15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”
16 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. 17 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.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
-- here we see, in Ruth's words, one of the great promises in Scripture -- we see Ruth making several statements of faith and promise as a covenant to Naomi -- telling her that she would never leave her but would go with her to the land of Israel, come what may
-- Why would she do that? -- knowing that she had little to no chance of being married again -- knowing that she probably faced a lifetime of poverty and discrimination in a foreign land -- why would she agree to do this?
-- it all comes down to faith -- even though Ruth had been born a pagan -- even though she had spent her life worshiping the gods of Moab and living in the culture of that land -- she had come to believe in the God of Israel
-- Elimelech and Naomi had fled Israel because of a lack of faith -- because they didn't trust God and had neglected Him in their lives -- but, in their heart of hearts, they still believed -- they still were part of God's chosen people -- and that remnant of faith that they carried with them to the land of Moab affected Ruth -- when you read this passage, you realize that Ruth came to know and trust in the one true God
-- and, so she refuses to go back to Moab because her heart is just not there any longer -- not only is she loyal to Naomi, but she's loyal to the God that she now follows -- so she binds herself to Naomi with these words:
-- "Where you go, I will go -- Where you stay, I will stay" -- in other words, Ruth was going to identify herself with Naomi -- she was going to live with her no matter what her condition -- in sickness and in health -- in poverty and in wealth -- she wasn't just using Naomi as a passport to the Promised Land, but was pledging to stay with her and support her and live with her forever
-- "Your people will be my people" -- Ruth was saying that she was forsaking her people, their customs and their ways -- she was going to become an Israelite and live as them -- she was going to follow Naomi's example and live like Naomi -- Ruth wasn't going to be like someone who comes to a place and spends all their time telling you how they used to do it at home -- she's going to be part of the family
"Your God will be my God" -- with that promise, Ruth rejected her people's false God -- she proclaimed her faith and trust in the one true God of Israel
-- "Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried -- nothing but death will separate you from me" -- with these words, Ruth promised to stay with Naomi forever -- this wasn't a passing fancy -- this wasn't just something Ruth was doing until things got better -- this was for ever -- Ruth was going to stay with Naomi and be part of her family for eternity -- she would live in the land and die in the land -- she would be buried there and would look for her salvation and resurrection through the God of Israel
-- to put it in poker terms, Ruth has gone all in -- she's laid everything on the table -- and together, Ruth and Naomi make the trek back to Bethlehem
-- verse 19-22
19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”
20 “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
-- the people could hardly believe it when they looked up and saw Naomi walking down the road -- Bethlehem was not a big town -- it was a small village, and you know how things spread in small villages -- when the news got out that Naomi was home, the women came running to hear the story
-- Naomi's name meant "pleasant," but her life has been anything but pleasant -- she has suffered through the famine -- through the long, arduous trip to Moab and back -- she saw the death of not only her husband, but her sons -- and now she's facing a lifetime of poverty and uncertainty
-- when the women say, "Is this Naomi?" -- she responds by saying, "I am Naomi no longer -- I am pleasant no longer -- from now on call me Mara, which means bitter" -- I have lost everything, and I have no hope left"
III. Closing
-- I imagine most of you have seen the movie, "Gone with the Wind" -- one of the most memorable scenes in that movie is right before the intermission -- Atlanta has been burned to the ground by Sherman -- the people are destitute and hungry -- their sons and their husbands -- their fathers and their brothers have been beaten and killed -- the Yankees have come -- the south has lost -- and all hope is gone
-- it's at this point that we see Scarlett O'Hara on a hillside next to a bare oak tree with a red sky behind her -- she has nothing -- she has no one -- everything and everyone has been taken from her -- and she has collapsed onto the ground on that hill out of sheer exhaustion and hopelessness
-- but, as the movie fades into the intermission, we see her rise from the ground and stand up and she shake her fist at the sky as she gives these memorable lines:
-- "As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again"
-- as this first chapter of Ruth comes to a close, Naomi's not there yet -- she hasn't reached the place where she stands up and shakes her fist at the sky and becomes determined to live again despite all the odds against her
-- no, Naomi's lost hope -- she's given up -- she's gone home to die and she's brought Ruth with her to an uncertain future
-- and that's where we're going to end this introduction to the Book of Ruth today -- next week, we'll pick back up with the story of Naomi and Ruth in Chapter 2 -- and I do want to invite you to come out and join us in our Wednesday Bible study on Ruth as we look at this in more detail beginning on September 7th
-- let's pray
1[from "Ruth: A Loyal Love Story" by Brian Bill]
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