Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Morning, guys.
[00:00:02] Good morning. Great job being here on Memorial Day weekend. You crushed it. Happy Sunday.
[00:00:08] If you're a guest with us, my name is Brandon. I am happy to be one of the pastors here, and I'm very excited. As I've tried to make clear about this new sermon series we are starting today in the Book of Ruth.
[00:00:22] Ruth is my favorite narrative book in the Bible.
[00:00:26] It's probably my favorite book of the Old Testament.
[00:00:29] I know we're starting it on the first day of the summer, the first weekend of summer. We can do this.
[00:00:36] It's allowed. And I want to begin by telling you a few things that you need to know about the book. First, it is helpful if you see the Book of Ruth as a work of theology and literature.
[00:00:49] We don't know for certain who wrote the Book of Ruth, but whoever it is has been called a literary genius by scholars of such things because of the powerful way that it expresses the character development of its characters over just four chapters and because of the ways that the characters contrast one another to help God get his message across.
[00:01:15] And the message that God is getting across through the author of Ruth is that God graciously redeems his people.
[00:01:25] God intervenes to care for the people that he loves.
[00:01:32] And it is important to know that the Book of Ruth is really several love stories involving multiple participants. It's famously a Ruth and Boaz story, but it's more than that. It's multiple participants. That usually doesn't go very well.
[00:01:50] Oftentimes, love stories are muddled by multiple participants. Right. Tales of love involving more than two people get messy. Let me share mine.
[00:02:03] Scarlet and I, in our early 20s, lived through this reality. And I have a cheat sheet that's going to go on the screen to help you make sense of our experience of living through several overlapping love stories.
[00:02:15] So I actually met Scarlett because she was trying to date, who is now my best friend, Jake.
[00:02:21] She met me and was sort of interested in me and sort of interested in Jake.
[00:02:25] Jake, meanwhile, liked to flirt with Scarlet, but he was also trying to date Chelsea. Chelsea clearly liked Jake, but she also had an on again, off again guy in her life. I was interested in Scarlet, but I was also trying to date Jessica. Jessica went on a few dates with me while trying to decide if she wanted to love Joaquin. What? Joaquin liked Jessica, but he also had just gotten out of a relationship with a girl whose name I don't know, and we were all going to the same church together.
[00:02:51] It was a mess.
[00:02:54] We all wanted to be loved, but who was gonna love who and who was gonna be left abandoned.
[00:03:00] Well, Joaquin chose Jessica and Jessica chose Joaquin, and Scarlett chose me and I chose Scarlet and Jessica and Jake and Chelsea chose each other, but then they didn't.
[00:03:12] And I don't know what happened to Joaquin's former girlfriend, but I hope it worked out for her.
[00:03:16] And I did get to do Jake's wedding last year to his wife Jackie. Love came to Jake, you'll be happy to know, but it was a mess back in the day.
[00:03:28] Sometimes love is muddied by multiple participants, but in the Book of Ruth, it is magnified.
[00:03:36] The book of Ruth, with its many characters, magnifies the meaning of love. And that is God, who is love is the driving force behind the events and the relationships in the book. So I want you to see that Ruth is an incredible, multi layered love story that reveals God's gracious provision for his people.
[00:04:02] It's a love story in several ways. Again, most obviously, it's a love story between Ruth and Boaz. And if that's what you're here for today, that's next Sunday.
[00:04:12] Ruth and Boaz are next week.
[00:04:16] The story actually begins with a heartbreaking love story of several couples who are separated by death.
[00:04:23] That becomes in chapter one, the love story between Ruth and her mother in law, which really mirrors the love story between God and Naomi.
[00:04:34] And the book is also a love story between God and his people all throughout history, which we'll see the third week of the series.
[00:04:43] Three weeks, three love stories.
[00:04:45] The redeeming love of God is all over the book of Ruth.
[00:04:51] I hope I make you want to read it.
[00:04:54] On Monday morning, I read the Book of Ruth out loud to myself in my bedroom. Guess how long it took me?
[00:05:02] 12 minutes and 54 seconds.
[00:05:06] That's it.
[00:05:07] 12 minutes and 54 seconds to read one of the greatest works of theology and love and literature on earth. It's only 85 verses. In less time than it takes you to make a frozen pizza, you can read one of the most beautiful and supernatural works in history from start to finish. So as we're going to be in this book for the next three weeks, I hope you will set aside 15 minutes this coming week to read this powerful love story. And today we're going to see the story, like I said, from Naomi's perspective, chapter one. And we're going to see two truths, two ground level, heart shaping truths about the redeeming love of God. The first is this.
[00:05:51] Sometimes God's people question God's love.
[00:05:57] We're going to see A love story between God and Naomi.
[00:06:01] But what we'll see is her bitter life that made Naomi live, convinced that her God was against her.
[00:06:11] And let's start reading in verse 1, chapter 1.
[00:06:15] In the days when the Judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. Stop there. We're going to walk through it.
[00:06:22] So the story begins with a famine in the time of the Judges. And this acknowledgment helps us to set the scene for the tragedy that we're about to read. That is Naomi's life.
[00:06:35] The time of the drudges in Israel's history was very dark. As many of you know, it's a period when God's people frequently failed to remain faithful. Israel often turned away from their God to worship other gods, running to the false gods of the nations around them. Right?
[00:06:55] And for hundreds of years, this pattern unfolded. The Book of Judges can be summarized famously by a cycle that repeats over and over again. I want you to see it.
[00:07:05] God's people would worship other gods, and in response, God brings discipline, often oppression. Sometimes that took the form of famine, Sometimes it was being overtaken by the nations surrounding them. That happened a lot. This was God's way of showing their people their sin and their deep need for Him. And eventually, in their state of desperation, they would call out to God for mercy. And God, who is mercy in his compassion, would. Would raise up a leader, a judge, to deliver them over and over again. We see the cycle really in Judges, but actually don't we see it all throughout human history?
[00:07:40] And it's during one of those seasons of oppression among the people of God that the story of Ruth begins. Pick up back in verse one.
[00:07:49] In the days when the Judges ruled, there was 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. The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went to the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives. The name of one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about 10 years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
[00:08:30] That one paragraph represents a devastating decade in Naomi's life.
[00:08:38] It begins with famine.
[00:08:41] You'll remember from Our Christmas Eve services that Doug taught us that Bethlehem, where they were from, means house of bread.
[00:08:48] But God in the time of Judges, allowed the city of bread to to be without bread. So this family decides to leave their home in Bethlehem to go to Moab, which is a place where God isn't worshiped. And we meet the family. Elimelech, his wife Naomi, their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. All day I'm asking that one of you couples that's going to have a baby this year will please name your son Chilion.
[00:09:13] Just need one of you to do it for the sake of our church, please.
[00:09:18] In spite of their awesome names, this family's story is dark.
[00:09:24] It's a very human story, and I want us to live in it together for a few minutes. They set out hoping for a better life, and instead things grow bitter.
[00:09:37] Immediately. Elimelech dies, dad dies, husband dies in a foreign land. And Naomi is left alone with her two sons, trying to build a future. Mahlon and Chilion, Mary, Orpah and Ruth, they need children.
[00:09:54] They need sons. The family patriarch is dead, which means their heritage is desperately in jeopardy in that culture. And this will be more important next week. In that culture, carrying on the family name and the family land was very significant. A big fear for Pe God's people in the Old Testament was that they would be wiped out, erased from history, and without a son, that was exactly what's going to happen to this family.
[00:10:22] But after a decade of waiting, no pregnancy, no sons, and tragedy strikes Naomi's life again because both Mahlon and Chilion die, her sons. And now Naomi is left in Moab with her two Moabite daughters in law, no offspring. We can't really imagine.
[00:10:44] We can't really imagine the despair, the heartbreak of losing her husband, the heartbreak of losing her son. And her future is devastated.
[00:10:56] And this family is a picture for us of the painful reality of our lives.
[00:11:03] Death, disappointment, loss, uncertainty.
[00:11:10] But what we're going to see is that God is still working in their story, but Naomi doesn't see it.
[00:11:18] We're going to see that in a moment. Pick up reading in verse six.
[00:11:22] Then she, Naomi, arose with her daughters in law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. This verse in and of itself could have been beautiful for Naomi's heart, this verse is an indication that in that cycle of the judges, God has heard his people's cry for mercy, and he is loving and he is restoring these people, his people, Naomi included. God is able and ready to care for Naomi. Bread has returned to Bethlehem. But Naomi is despairing. Watch what that sounds like. In verse 12, Naomi says, Turn back, my daughters. Go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.
[00:12:34] Is there a more painful place to be than being convinced that the Lord has turned against you?
[00:12:41] Sometimes God's people question God's love.
[00:12:47] Naomi hears what should be incredible news, that God has brought food back to Israel. It's time to go home. There's bread in the city of bread. But she can't see past her pain. She can't see past her past and her perception of her present and her belief of her future. I don't know anyone who has lost their husband and their kids and lived through a famine.
[00:13:14] I'm not judging Naomi.
[00:13:18] I have called into question God's love in my life through far less painful circumstances, because sometimes God's people question God's love.
[00:13:31] So in spite of the restoration in Bethlehem, Naomi says, the Lord's hand has turned against me. She tells Ruth and Orpah, you need to go home because I don't have anything to offer you.
[00:13:43] And Orpah decides Naomi is right. She makes what seems to be the reasonable decision and she goes back home. Her decision, I think, makes sense. And then there's Ruth.
[00:13:54] Ruth does what does not make sense.
[00:13:58] Ruth does the strange thing. In fact, Ruth's love to Naomi is a reflection of God's love to Naomi and is in fact God acting in love toward Naomi. Commentators often say on this book that God's active in the book, particularly in the way that the people treat one another.
[00:14:23] Ruth commits to loving Naomi to the end. Listen to what she Sundays in verses 16 and 17. But Ruth said, do not urge me to leave you or turn from following you, for where you go, I will go.
[00:14:39] Where you lodge, I will lodge. 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 do so to me. And more, if anything, but death parts me from you.
[00:14:53] That's amazing.
[00:14:56] Something in Ruth's heart said, this God can be for me too.
[00:15:01] Ruth grew up in Moab, a place filled with idolatry where people worshiped other gods. And yet we see the gracious work of God in Ruth's life. And we see the gracious work of God through Ruth's life because her love for Naomi mirrors God's love for Naomi. And Ruth declares her allegiance to God. And Naomi, she's giving her life to the one true God and to her mother in law.
[00:15:26] And it's interesting that there's only one book in the entire Bible that's named after somebody that wasn't born a Jew, and that's the Book of Ruth. This is very much a salvation love story.
[00:15:38] Ruth is turning her backs on the her back on the God of Moab and embracing the God of Israel, swearing to follow God and love Naomi for all her days.
[00:15:53] But remember everything Naomi's lost.
[00:15:58] She doesn't see it.
[00:16:02] God is loving Naomi through bread in Bethlehem and through the loyalty of Ruth. But Naomi is empty. She can't see it. She doesn't feel it. Her life is too broken. Look at what happens as we pick up reading in verse 19.
[00:16:19] This is the most poignant part of the passage for me.
[00:16:23] So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the woman said, is this Naomi?
[00:16:32] She said to them, do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?
[00:16:53] When they get back to Bethlehem, people are stunned.
[00:16:56] Is that Naomi?
[00:16:59] It's been 10 years. And the years have not been kind to Naomi. She's been through heartbreak upon heartbreak in this broken world. And she responded, don't call me Naomi, call me Mara.
[00:17:14] You see, Naomi means pleasant or delightful, and Mara means bitter.
[00:17:26] She's saying, I'm not pleasant anymore.
[00:17:31] I'm bitter.
[00:17:33] My broken life has made me bitter because God is against me. And I know some of you have felt that way before.
[00:17:43] We have a tendency to do this sometimes. We allow what happens to us to define us and what God wants for us.
[00:17:54] I am a widow. I am depressed. I am divorced. I am sick. I am failure. I am lonely. I am bitter.
[00:18:07] That's how Naomi felt. That's how sometimes you felt.
[00:18:13] She's hurting.
[00:18:15] Of course she's hurting. She lost everything in Moab. She lost so much in Moab. Some of you have lost so much in Moab.
[00:18:25] Sometimes God's people question God's love.
[00:18:30] But there's good news in point two because there's good news in the rest of Naomi's story.
[00:18:36] God's love is based on his kindness, not our questions.
[00:18:41] Will you believe that? Your questions do not change God's heart.
[00:18:48] We see this at the end of the first chapter and at the end of the fourth chapter. Chapter one ends with this statement. So Naomi returned and Ruth, the Moabite, her daughter in law with her, who returned from the country of Moab.
[00:19:01] And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
[00:19:08] I'm smiling because that's awesome.
[00:19:12] Naomi thinks God has forgotten her, or even worse, she thinks he's against her. But this verse makes it clear he's not. Chapter one ends with Naomi back home among God's people.
[00:19:26] She has the amazing and unconditional love of Ruth, a love that reflects God's amazing and unconditional love. And they're back in time for the barley harvest. Who cares? We care. This will actually be a life changing, world changing barley harvest. The Book of Ruth is a masterpiece. You're going to have to believe me. Until next week. God brought them back though what you need to see today, just in time to provide for them. Naomi thinks she's empty, but God has brought her back to eat again. God has given her unconditional love through her daughter in law. God hasn't forgotten his people on the macro level in the cycle of the Book of Judges, but he also hasn't forgotten specifically about the family of Elimelech.
[00:20:19] The background of life's most tragic and challenging moments.
[00:20:23] The death of her loved ones, utter financial crisis, moving to a distant land.
[00:20:32] God is expressing his love to Naomi through His bread and through her daughter through his provision. He's showing her love based on his kindness, not on her questions, as loud and against him though they were, but an even more profound testimony to the love of God. Redeeming Naomi's bitter life comes at the end of the story. So we're going to jump to the end of her character arc. Just know all the Ruth and Boaz stuff in the middle is very awesome.
[00:21:03] Look at the redemption that comes to Naomi's family through Ruth and Boaz over the next three chapters. But let's pick up in chapter four to see the end of Noah and Naomi's thread.
[00:21:12] Then the women, the women are back talking about Naomi again.
[00:21:17] This time they say, blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel. He shall be to you a restorer. Of life and a nourisher of your old age for your daughter in law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons has given birth to him. Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, a son. Son has been born to Naomi. We'll see many powerful implications of this over the next couple weeks. But just look at this from Naomi's perspective.
[00:22:00] You have not been left without a redeemer.
[00:22:04] He will be a restorer of life and a nourisher to you. Blessed be the Lord. And this was Naomi who was dead, convinced that the Lord was against her, that he had abandoned her. But his love was not based on her questions. It was based on her kindness. You know, Bible scholars have debated whether Elim and Naomi should have even gone to Moab at all.
[00:22:32] Some think it was okay for them to go to another land because there was a famine. Some think that it was not okay going to another land meant. Meant leaving the land where God was worshiped for a pagan place.
[00:22:44] Scholars debate it. God doesn't focus on it.
[00:22:49] God brings the barley. Even though Naomi ran to Moab and blamed God for her brokenness, he led her home.
[00:23:03] He wants her home.
[00:23:05] He wants her home for the barley.
[00:23:08] He wants her home for the boaz.
[00:23:10] He wants her home for the redemption that's coming.
[00:23:15] And God wants you home, too.
[00:23:19] I'm learning the broken hearts in our church. I'll never have them all.
[00:23:27] None of you will ever experience anything so heart wrenching that I won't be able to say, God wants you home.
[00:23:36] He wants your heart.
[00:23:38] God does not see Naomi as bitter.
[00:23:42] And if you're his, he does not see you that way either. God sees Naomi as his daughter. And she's come home. And he's going to take care of her. We're going to see next week. There's a whole lot more than a barley harvest awaiting for them.
[00:23:57] God's going to use these two women to change the course of human history.
[00:24:03] God's love for you is based on his kindness, not your questions. I hope your heart can believe that what Ruth said to Naomi, that what Ruth promised Naomi, I will be with you always. I will love you always. That is a reflection of God's heart to you. He says to you in your bitterness, in your Moab, I will always be with you. I will always love you. Sometimes God's people question his love. But his love is based on his kindness, not those questions. The reality is we do question. We Do. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand.
[00:24:43] We don't need to see 100% of the hands raised.
[00:24:49] But I want to give you a practical way, a theologically practical way to deal with the times our hearts question God's love. Because we'll have those times. We have two women just on our church staff who are like Naomi. They lost their husbands way too young.
[00:25:06] Scarlett and I have more than one friend who have carried their babies to full term just so they could die in their arms on their birthday.
[00:25:14] We've had two families in our church just in the last couple of weeks experience tragic death.
[00:25:22] It would take me forever if I knew it all to recount all of the heartbreak just in this room that we've suffered.
[00:25:29] And sometimes we think, why doesn't God love better than that?
[00:25:37] Because this is a broken world and we live sometimes bitter lives. There's no denying Naomi's life was not a top 10.
[00:25:50] Sometimes we question the love of God, but it's based on his kindness and his commitment. You remember last week we were talking about heaven and hell, and we recall that on the cross Jesus cried out, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
[00:26:10] What?
[00:26:11] That means that the greatest person who ever lived posed a question that is gloriously similar to the question in Naomi's heart.
[00:26:23] This is probably the most easy to relate to moment of Jesus's life. He's on the cross, he's dying for our sins. Can't relate to that part. And then he sounds a lot like Naomi.
[00:26:33] My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
[00:26:39] Jesus said that.
[00:26:42] But we have the opportunity to remember that the answer to that question from Christ lies in the accomplishment of Christ. Jesus was abandoned so that we could be redeemed, right?
[00:26:59] God the Father turned his back on Jesus on purpose so that he would never have to turn his back on you in your bitterness, broken Christian Father, God was silent in the darkest moment of history so that he could shout into the darkest moment of your life, I love you. And you know it. You know it.
[00:27:24] That means Jesus question can actually be the answer to our question.
[00:27:30] In fact, what I've done and what I would encourage you to do is to let Jesus question become your question. What if every time we start to question God's love for us in this bitter world, we asked Jesus question from the cross, Naomi became Mara. She was bitter, but pleasantness was returning. Bread was arriving.
[00:27:53] Ruth was loving, Boaz would be redeeming. And Jesus was coming. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
[00:28:04] He Hadn't.
[00:28:06] As soon as you ask it in that way, you remember that he won't.
[00:28:12] Because Jesus asked that question while proving that God won't abandon his kids at any cost.
[00:28:21] A couple of weeks ago, I was helping clean up one of the classrooms upstairs that our 11th grade guys group meets in, and I saw a copy of the classic book where the Red Fern Grows.
[00:28:31] I don't even know what age group our room is. I don't know who's reading that book.
[00:28:37] But I picked it up because it reminded me of last year when one of my daughters was reading the book and there were actually tears in our house as we discussed the story.
[00:28:49] Because at the end of the book, and many of you know it, there's a raccoon hunt and a mountain lion attacks.
[00:28:57] And the boy, Billy, tries to protect his dogs from the mountain lion, but he's losing the battle. And old Dan the dog rushes in to fight the lion and he saves the boy. And the lion is killed. But old Dan is gutted.
[00:29:18] And it's hard to read like entrails stuck in the bush.
[00:29:26] Old Dan fought for Billy. Old Dan saved Billy. He was split open for Billy and he died for Billy. And they bury old Dan. And then if you know the story of the other dog, Little Ann doesn't want to live without old Dan. So she stops eating. And with her last remaining strength, she crawls over and dies on his grave. And they bury her next to him. And over the grave the red fern grows. And it's a beautiful story.
[00:29:51] And there's no way that Billy can look at the red fern and wonder if old Dan really cared about him.
[00:30:04] You can't.
[00:30:06] Of course Old Dan cared about me.
[00:30:09] The proof is in the blood. The proof is in the grave. And the same thing is more than true for you Christian. In this bitter world. There will be times when you feel overwhelmed, when you feel bitter, when you feel like God doesn't love you. But in those times, we can look to a cross and remember the question, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? And we can know that he never could.
[00:30:35] And he hasn't.
[00:30:37] And he won't. If you're a Christian questioning God's love this morning, God has already been for you unto death.
[00:30:48] God has already been for you in the darkest moment of human history. And he will be for you in the darkest moment of your life.
[00:30:58] Sometimes God's people question God's love, but he doesn't.
[00:31:08] Let's look to the cross and remember that in Jesus our bitterness is always redeemed.
[00:31:17] It's always redeemed.
[00:31:21] It is who he is.
[00:31:23] That is what he does.
[00:31:26] And I'm going to pray for us that we will remember and believe and somehow rejoice.
[00:31:35] Father, this is one of those moments where we can remember the times when the world felt too big for us and too broken for us.
[00:31:48] Because it is the world is too big and too scary and too broken for anything we bring to the table.
[00:32:00] God, the heartbreaks, past and present and probably future in this room are seemingly without end.
[00:32:08] And yet there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
[00:32:16] For through Christ Jesus, the law of Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death.
[00:32:22] For what the law was powerless to do, weakened by our sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be the sin offering.
[00:32:33] You condemned sin in sinful flesh in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
[00:32:45] Who can separate us then from your love?
[00:32:50] What circumstances God can separate me and my brothers and sisters from your love? There's nothing. There's nothing left.
[00:32:58] And God, we're going to hurt until we're with you forever.
[00:33:04] But please help us not to wonder how you feel and wonder what you're gonna do.
[00:33:10] I pray that we would be a people that do, like the book of Ruth, that reflect your love to one another. I pray that as we love each other, it would make it easier for us to believe in your love.
[00:33:23] That we would see the way we treat each other as a reflection of your heart.
[00:33:31] Thank you for loving us with an everlasting love.
[00:33:34] We want to sing to you.
[00:33:36] We want to love you back in the name of Jesus.
