Ruth 1

Discussion Questions

1. Have you ever had a to leave a place you loved – a hometown, a school, a job? What made that transition difficult?
2. Ruth’s vow (“your people shall be my people, and your God my God”) is one of the most famous in scripture. How did Ruth’s costly response compare with Orpah’s reasonable decision?
3. Is there anywhere in your life right now that you are being called to hesed – the covenant level of loyalty shown here by Ruth – even though it might be costly and the outcome might be uncertain?

Transcript

We study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel. If you’d like a paper copy, just lift up your hand. We have some folks who are passing them around. We are studying The Book of Ruth, beginning The Book of Ruth, in fact, this morning. So, it’d be good to have the text in front of you, either on the page there, or maybe a device that you have with you, or maybe even the journal. How many in here have the Ruth journal? We still have a few, by the way. If you want, after the service, you can purchase those for yourself, your friends, your family. So glad you’re here. Also want to welcome all those who are worshiping with us online, wherever you might be. May the Spirit of our Lord move among you as He is here. Well, this morning, as we open up the Scriptures to this little four-chapter book, we’ll be studying it for four weeks, we’ll find ourselves caught up in a beautiful story. In fact, I’d say it’s a beautifully written story, one of the most beautifully written stories in all of the Bible, in fact, in all of ancient literature, believers and non-believers alike have commented throughout history on its elegant language, on its shape, artistry crafted by a master storyteller. Yet the book of Ruth is written as history, historical narrative. A particular family in a particular place at a particular time.

Around 3,000 years ago, in Israel and in Moab, there really was a woman named Ruth. There really was a woman named Naomi and Boaz. Names matter in this story. Names matter in the Bible because individuals matter. Individuals matter to God. Now, God is always working, as we often say, in 10,000 different ways, on a global, on a national, on a cosmic scale. That’s true. But He’s also always working in 10,000 ways, in very personal ways. And there might be some in here who needed to hear, to be reassured of that truth today. The Book of Ruth sits between two incredibly kind of behemoths of books. We have Judges, which is dynamic and violent. The world of The Book of Judges is God, God’s people turning away from God, and God bringing a deliverer to bring them back, violence, just such a dark time. So, after Judges, we have this little book of Ruth, four chapters. And right after Ruth, we have 1 Samuel, which is really the beginning of what’s normally called, or what’s historically been called, The Book of the Kings. We have King David, King Saul, and then King David and King Solomon. So, between these two behemoths, Judges and The Book of the Kings, we have Ruth.

And in the book of Ruth, we don’t see any miraculous major miracles. We don’t see any prophetic announcements, no military battles. We don’t see any angelic hosts. But what we see is a small family. And we see the hand of God working through this small family to change their family, to change the nation and, I would seek to persuade you, to change human history. We aren’t told the author of The Book of Ruth. Jewish tradition named Samuel as the author, but it seems unlikely given the timeline. The unknown author, though, inspired by the Spirit, put together this book and he or she shifts the camera away from Judges, this kind of national news, if you will. The book of Judges shifts the camera to this small, what would have been an unremarkable family in Bethlehem, in Judah, the lower part of Israel, in a world of chaos and moral confusion in the background. The camera shifts and focuses. I’ll put up a timeline on the screen just to give us some handles of where we are in the story. You can see Abraham, Moses, Joshua at the bottom there. We see that Israel enters the Promised Land around 1400. That’s the period of the conquest. And then we have the period of the judges, which is about 400 years, and Ruth likely sits at about 1100. That’s where we think the actual experience of Ruth and Naomi and Boaz happened. And the little picture that’s behind that, that’s actually a modern-day picture of the coast of the Dead Sea, which gives you a sense of what Moab and Israel would have looked like even back then.

So why does that matter? Why does this little four-chapter book matter to us? What does it have to say to us today by the Spirit? We’ve been, if you’ve been with us, studying the book of Acts recently. And the book of Acts really is a story of the family tree of the church. God is moving in a particular time in history to continue the forward march of Christ’s mission, His explicit stated mission to seek and save. What? The lost. The who? To seek and save the lost. That’s what the book of Acts is about. It’s the family tree of the church. And it’s His mission to make all things new now and more fully when He comes. When we study the book of Ruth, which we’re starting today, we’re quite literally getting a window into the family tree of our Lord Jesus Christ. About a thousand years before Jesus is born in Bethlehem in a manger in a cattle stall, the hand of God was moving in a particular place with a particular family to move His mission forward, to seek and save the lost, those far away from God. When we give our attention, when we come to the Bible and give our attention to the full sweep, the whole counsel of God, if you will, God reveals Himself as transcendent, as holy, as other. And that’s true, and we have to hold on to that. But He also, and this is one of the central claims of the Christian faith, He also reveals Himself as imminent, or put differently, as a God who draws near.

He is transcendent and holy, but He draws near to the broken heart. He draws near to His people. He draws near most fully in the person of Jesus Christ and even with us today by His Spirit. God’s hand moves in history, big, massive ways, and God’s hand moves in households, in individual lives. Not only that, He loves. We hold all three of those things. He’s transcendent, He’s imminent, but He’s a God of love, steadfast love for His people, unbreakable. He will not let go. We just sang about it. He proves that over and over. Even when His people turn away from Him over and over in The Book of Judges. If you go back and read that story, you actually get some background to the book of Ruth. The Book of Ruth is a story of grief and loss and lament and so much more but pulsating it underneath it is hope. That God is alive and He’s working in 10,000 ways, and we can’t see most of them. The book, in its fullest sense, though, isn’t primarily about Ruth, but it’s about God. A covenant God, a promise-making God, a promise-keeping God, a God of steadfast love, who knows our names. He moves in mysterious ways, and He knows our name. The God of every grace who calls people.

So, Ruth, Chapter 1, if you turn there, we’ll start with verse 1. Seems like the right place to start. I’ll pray for us if you’d allow me: Heavenly Father, we come to You with Your Word open. And by Your Spirit, would You illuminate it? Open Your Word to us. May we see in it the truths about who You are, who we are, and what You’ve done for us. And open us to Your Word. Holy Spirit, would You convict and comfort and lead us to our only hope in life and death, our Lord Jesus Christ? And we all said, “Amen.” Chapter 1: “In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem and Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Malon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into 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 the one was Orpah and the name of the other was Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Malon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.”

So, the opening scene of Ruth, this first little section here, leaves us with a lot of grief and loss. And remember, these are real people. And we need to remember that. They have some empathy for what’s going on here. We really have three widows. There’s Naomi, there’s Orpah, and there’s Ruth. All lost their husbands. Naomi has also lost her sons. There’s a lot of grief here. Some cultural background here. Verse 1, let’s look at that together. “In the days when the judges ruled” you could translate this real simple, “In the days when the judges judged.” And what The Book of Judges, if you’ve studied that before, is it’s essentially a book of cycles. And in The Book of Judges, really dark period, the people of God, here’s the cycle, turn away from God, God sends judgment on them so that they might come back, He sends a deliverer to save them, they come back, and then the cycle repeats. They turn away from God, God sends judgment, then He sends a deliverer. Flawed people, if you remember, I’ve just forgotten all of them. Samson was one of them. They’ll all come to me a little bit later. Most of them very flawed. Gideon, there’s one. So, he sends these deliverers and they come back. That’s the cycle. Very dark days. So, this is the background of Ruth. And again, the camera is really narrowing here on the book of Ruth.

“In the days when the judges ruled, there was famine in the land…” So, they’re in Bethlehem. That’s Judah. Let’s put a map up here on the screen to get us a sense of where we are geographically. So, they’re on the western side, the left side is Judah. If you remember, Israel is broken up into three different sections generally. We have Judah in the south, and we can’t see the other parts, but there’s Samaria and Galilee in the north. Judah, Samaria, Galilee. What we see here is Judah. Bethlehem is right there, just a few miles south of Jerusalem. So that’s where the story begins in Bethlehem. Bethlehem, the name Bethlehem, means “house of bread” or “house of food.” And it’s ironic, isn’t it? In the house of bread there is no bread. It’s famine. And so Elimelech hears that on the east side, you can see Moab, Elimelech hears that there’s food over there. And so, he brings his family from Bethlehem to Moab, 60, 70, 80, 90, maybe 100 miles, at least a week’s journey, a very dangerous journey. So, we can see there, and again, the picture that’s underneath it scrolling, that would have been what they would have looked at when they were traveling from Bethlehem to Moab. Now, anytime we hear the word or the name of that nation Moab in the Bible, we should hear the Darth Vader theme song. Moab was not a good place to be. Outside the protection of the covenant of God in the covenant land of Judah, of Israel. And so, there’s something that the author wants us to know, and we’ll continue to study that.

But as we get to the end of this first opening section of Ruth, again we have grief. We have tragedy, there’s famine in the land. Elimelech has died, Malon, Chilion has died, and these names really matter. We’ll put up this on the screen to give us an idea of the names. In the ancient Near East, your name told you about your character. Elimelech means “my God is king.” And something really interesting, the book of Judges tells us that there was no king in the land. That’s how dark it was. And Elimelech, his name means my God is king. Naomi means “pleasant” or “sweet.” Malon means “sickly” or “ill,” Chilion, “tired” or “languishing.” So, their children are really sick and tired. We don’t know. Perhaps they were, you know, they came out with some kind of disease or something. We don’t know exactly why they’re named that. Terrible names. Orpah means “gazelle” or “fawn,” but Ruth means “friendship.” And we’re going to see friendship. She becomes the daughter-in-law to Naomi, but we’re going to see friendship undergird that, genuine friendship undergird this whole relationship. So, there’s grief, there’s loss. Elimelech takes the family to Moab. So, what’s going to happen next?

Verse 6: “Then she 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.” Now, two firsts here. First, verse 6 tells us that she was going to return back home. That’s the first of twelve times that the author uses the word “return.” And our English translations translate that word differently, but it’s the same word. It also means repentance in the Old Testament. Twelve times in the first chapter, the word “return.” Here’s the first one. She arose, she hears, apparently, they were doing some work there in the fields of Moab. She hears, hey, I think there’s some food over it. The Lord Yahweh, it’s a first mention of the God’s personal name. Yahweh is doing something over in Bethlehem. I’m going home. That’s what happens here. Verse 7: “So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.” Bethlehem. Verse 8: “But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord Yahweh deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord Yahweh grant that you may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband.’ Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices, and they wept.”

Now Naomi decides to go back to Bethlehem, and in those days the kind of goodbye or farewell rituals were a lot different than they are today. Today, you know, we get dropped off in an Uber and the Uber just leaves, or we leave a family member’s house and we just say goodbye. In those days, if you remember in the Old Testament, sometimes people would say, I’m ready to go, and the household, you know, the leader of the household would say, No, why don’t you stay one more night? Okay, I’m ready to go. Why don’t you stay one more night? That’s kind of the ritual in the ancient near East. It would take a long time. There would be weeping. And so, Orpah and Ruth go with Naomi back home along this road. We don’t know how long they’re going to go. We’ll find that out later. But this ritual is really important, and they weep. And what Naomi does is so critical. Don’t miss this. She tells them to go back to Moab, to go back to their home. Remember, that’s where they’re from. We’re going to talk about this a little bit more, why she does that, but there’s something really important in verse 8 where she is praying for her daughters-in-law. “May Yahweh deal kindly with you.” And that word “kindly” is the word chesed. In the Hebrew, there’s like a behind it, and I’m not going to pretend I can do that, but chesed is love. Chesed certainly means “steadfast love.” It certainly means “kind,” like it’s translated here, but it’s much more. It’s a much richer word that we have an English word for. And to paraphrase Sinclair Ferguson, he gets at it like this it’s the deep goodness of God towards the one that he’s committed to.

It’s the absolute loyalty of God. It’s the God who has promised a blessing, keeping that blessing at no matter the cost to Himself. That’s the kind of God, that’s the kind of faith that Naomi had in that God, Yahweh, is a chesed, steadfast God, absolute loyalty. She prays for her daughters-in-law, go back home, actually praying that He might bless them so that they might go back home. And she’s going to say, Don’t worry about me. Don’t worry about me. Go back home. There’s no prospects for you back in Bethlehem, or in Bethlehem. Verse 10: “And they said to her, ‘No, we will not return with, we will return with you to your people.’ But Naomi said, ‘Turn back my daughters; why will you go with me?’” And now she’s going to use some humor. “’Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may become your husbands?  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.’ Then they lifted up their voices and they wept again.” Now what she’s doing, she’s using some humor here, an ad absurdum argument, like there’s going to be another son that they could marry. And what she’s referring to there is levirate marriage, this idea that back in those days, if a husband died, the brother of that husband would take in that wife and continue the family name. And there’s no hope of this. So she says, no, no, no, go back. And then Naomi, this faithful woman, at the very end, she says, the hand of the Lord Yahweh has gone out against me. So, before she was talking about the steadfast love, the kindness of the Lord. But here she’s recognizing His sovereignty that all things flow through the hands of the Lord. Blessings and love and kindness, and He also allows suffering as He has here. And we can’t always understand it this side of eternity, but she’s holding both of those in balance.

She is a faithful woman, and it’s not neat and tidy. But she holds both of those in balance. Verse 14: “Then they lifted up their voices, they wept again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her [15] and she said, ‘See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.’” She tries one more time to Ruth. But Ruth said, Ruth is real stubborn, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. [Listen to this.] For where you go I will go, and where 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. May the Lord [Yahweh, Ruth is saying this] do so to me, and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” This is commitment. Ruth, the woman from Moab, actually uses the personal name of God, Yahweh. I think we’re starting to see a turning of faith here. She commits to Naomi. A little bit of the steadfast chesed love of God is coming through Ruth in this beautiful scene. Verse 19: “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 women said, ‘Is this Naomi?’”

Remember, they’ve been gone for 10 years. Maybe Naomi had more gray hair, or she looked a little different. I don’t know. “The women said, ‘Is this Naomi?’ And she said to them, ‘Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara. For the Almighty [El Shaddai] 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?’” So, we see this real, this is a real human, Naomi, dealing with this grief. Verse 22: “So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned from the country of Moab, and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.” So, Chapter 1 ends where it began. It began in Bethlehem, but there was famine in the land. There was no bread in the House of Bread. But Chapter 1 ends back in Bethlehem, and there is barley harvest. Bread is back in the land, and oh, I love bread. Anyone in here love bread? There’s a lot of hope wrapped up in that. There at verse 20. She said to them, “Don’t call me Naomi, call me Mara.” Mara means bitter. Remember, Naomi means sweet. And she’s saying, I’m not sweet right now. Don’t call me sweet right now. I’m feeling bitter. The grip of bitterness was on her heart. We’ll talk about that in a little bit, but there is hope. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. So, The Book of Ruth is an honest story. I can’t wait to study the last three chapters. It’s not neat and tidy. Certainly not a rom-com, at least not one I’ve seen. It begins with loss, it begins with vulnerability, a bitterness, longing for home. In the midst of all that, we see genuine, gritty faith in a good and sovereign God. And this wasn’t saccharine, this wasn’t syrupy, this wasn’t pie in the sky faith, but genuine, resilient faith, what I would call trust, real simple. Trust in a God who reigns over all things. And who is good and who is kind. Naomi knows He’s the provider of every good gift, including food and nourishment and life and salvation.

The Lord Yahweh is the only hope for this family and for her nation. But in the mysterious providence of the Lord, He allows suffering to enter into our lives, and it leaves us with many questions that may remain unanswered in this life. So, it is right, it is natural, it’s good, and I think we see some of this in Naomi to sometimes lament. And the psalmist often lamented. And when they lamented, they often did it in the form of a song or a question, “How long, O Lord?” Or why, God. And it’s as if Naomi is saying something like, Yet even though my vision is blurred by this suffering, I know He is good and He is kind. Based on the promises that He’s made and based on the promises that He has kept to our people, to the family, He’s Yahweh, He’s the covenant God. God. Mark Vroegraut, in a great book called Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy, says: “A lament is a prayer and pain that leads to trust.” A lament is a prayer and pain that leads to trust. Now, this is why theology matters a great deal. All of us are theologians. We all have ideas of God. We may not write them down, it might not be our vocation, but we’re all theologians at some level. If we believe that there’s even a single bit of dust outside the sovereign hand of God, a single rogue molecule outside of His control, we subtly undermine the very truth that tells us He will one day wipe every tear from our faces. That He will one day, all those who are in Christ will rise again. To newness of life today. All things are being made new. His kingdom is beginning now and will be full when He returns. I think this is one of the primary purposes of Ruth. Remember the context of the story.

Look there at verse 1 again. In the days when the judges ruled, when they judged. In fact, if you want to turn for me, it’s just one page back, turn to the last bit of The Book of Judges, verse 25 of the last chapter of the book of Judges. This actually gives us a summary of what was going on. Remember, this is going on behind the scenes in The Book of Ruth. “In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” The author is describing their moral anarchy, injustice. People want to be their own authority. Now listen, this is the 250th anniversary of our independence. We’re okay with challenging authority. There’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s another to claim that you have authority over all things. I like your stuff; I’m going to take your stuff. Might is right. That was what was going on in the background. These were dark days. And as the camera shifts away from that national history of Israel, it focuses on the small family. And through this family, The Book of Ruth gives us a window into the unseen, hidden work of God during one of the darkest periods in Israel’s history. It gives us, you might say, a map of the faithfulness of God that points forward to the hope of Jesus to come. That actually comes through the line of Ruth. God is good. And Romans 8 tells us, “…and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.” Rebecca Pippert said, “Christians are people of hope and not despair. Because we know that God, who’s had the first word, will have the last. He is never thwarted or caught napping by the circumstances of our lives. To have faith in Jesus does not mean we try to pretend that bad things are really good. Rather, we know that God will take our difficulties and weave them into purposes we cannot see as yet. And when He is done, the day will be more glorious for our having gone through the difficulties.” Doesn’t always feel like that. Naomi said, I am bitter, not sweet. Don’t call me sweet.

Well, this morning I’d love for us to consider together three moments from the first chapter of Ruth and how these moments, I think, connect to many of the longings, some of the questions, some of the fears, hopes that we brought with us in our room today. Number one, I think we see a family far from home. We see a family far from home. The story begins in Bethlehem, a city in the Promised Land. Now, when we come to the Old Testament, it would have been unheard of, except in extreme circumstances, for people to leave the Promised Land. To leave the land would be to leave the blessings, the protection of God and His people in that time. That was true both physically and spiritually. I mean, this was not a safe time. They didn’t have passports, they didn’t have international law, even a week’s journey, who knows what they would have encountered along the way. Now, this is important. The author does not tell us that Elimelech unfaithfully took his family to Moab. In other words, the author doesn’t tell us that Elimelech sinned in taking his family from Bethlehem to Moab. The text tells us there was famine in the land and that he heard there was food over in Moab and he takes his family over to get the food. But where they had hoped to find life, they found death and grief and loss. And commentators throughout history have debated whether or not the suffering that they suffered was judgment for leaving the land. And I don’t know. The text doesn’t tell us that. I can’t go there. But the fact that the author uses the word “return” 12 times communicates something to us, at least the dangers of drifting away from the promises, the protection, drifting away from Yahweh, the Lord.

But it also tells us this when we hear the word “return” 12 times, it should tell us about a God who calls to us, who makes a way for us to return, to come back home. Jesus told us His mission was to seek and save what? The lost, those far from home. That was His mission. Choices matter. God is sovereign over all things, but He does give us agency and choice in how all that fits together. We don’t know this side of eternity, but choices do matter. We can see that here. From this story, at least, we can see the dangers of drifting far from the Lord. Now, again, when we hear of Moab as we read our Bibles, the author intends for us to kind of shift in our seat a little bit. Moab was a pagan nation. More than that, it was an enemy nation. Explicitly, do you remember the story in the Old Testament where Moab actually hires a prophet named Balaam to go curse Israel? And Balaam is stopped by a donkey. And that donkey in the way actually talks to stop Balaam. That was the kind of nation they were against Israel. They worshipped a God named Chemosh who demanded child sacrifice. This was not a good place to be. This was not a fun weekend. This family was far from home.

And as I was reflecting on the story, it reminded me of the story Jesus told, the parable of a boy who left home for a far country. And choices mattered there. Far from the protection of his father’s house, from the presence and the provision of his father, his choices left him in a pigsty. And sitting there in a pigsty, he longed for home. And as Jesus tells his story, I think He wants us to imagine the boy coming back up the driveway, clothes tattered, expecting that a father is not going to welcome him back. Yet what we see is a father running after the son. The father’s love had held him fast. The father’s love never ended. As the son went to a far country, he was welcomed back. The father never let go, and neither does God the Father abandon Naomi and her family. Number two, I think we see a family longing for home. Naomi longed for home. If you look at verse six, I think it gets at this a little bit. She arose, so it’s quick, there’s some urgency. She 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. Now, Moab, she had been there for ten years, and she hears in the field, so while she’s at work in a mundane part of her day, she hears about what Yahweh is doing over in Bethlehem.

We don’t know how she heard about it, probably word of mouth. Have you heard what’s going on over there? And it says she rose. I gotta go back home. It’s time to go back home. The Lord was providing for His people. The Lord was. A word of hope, a word of grace that set her trajectory back. What she needed was not in Moab. Naomi was a courageous woman. She was a brilliant woman. She was a faithful woman. She had no husband to protect her. She only had these daughters-in-law. So, this decision to return home to take that journey would have been costly and risky, maybe into her life. Nonetheless, she sets her trajectory there. In a season of enormous loss, we find this woman hearing a word of grace that calls her back to where she needed to be. So maybe you came here this morning, and this is so what? Why does this matter to me? Maybe you’ve been in a season where you’ve been far from the Lord. Or maybe you’ve drifted, or perhaps you’ve even walked away. The God of the Bible, I hope you hear this in this story, is always running towards us. He’s the initiator. The grace of God met her in a field in the pagan land of Moab while she was working, and it told her to come back home. A word of hope in a field. Dallas Willard said, “We must be open to the possibility of God’s addressing us in whatever way He chooses, or else we might walk right past a burning bush instead of saying, as Moses did, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great site and see why the bush is not burned up.’” Naomi heard something was going on over there. Yahweh was on the move, and she got up and arose and started her way back home. There’s some urgency there.

Now, there wasn’t a famine in Moab. I think that’s really important. So, there wasn’t a material need for her to leave, apparently. But she needed more than material things. The original readers of this story, I think, as they see Orpah and Ruth going along the road with her, at least for a little bit, remember the farewell rituals were a lot longer back then the original readers would have thought, how long are they going to go with her? How long is this going to take? And I think this is why it’s so important. Why does Naomi say, go back? Go back. This is so important to us. No family to support them, no children to support them. If they came to Bethlehem, they would be foreigners, like I said, enemies of God. They would have no support. So Orpah, brilliant woman, is thinking, don’t worry about me. I want your highest good. Actually, what we see here with Naomi is some of the chesed love of God towards her daughters-in-law. Why does she do it? She loves them. She wants their highest good. We shouldn’t miss that. She pleads with them because she loves them. She demonstrates the love of God. Every great novel, every great story has something of this commitment. Isn’t this the kind of commitment that all of us long for? This chesed, this absolute loyalty. All of us long for that in our families, in our marriages, in our friendships, and our co-workers. Every great story, every great film, think of Sam Gange and Frodo. If you’ve seen the show Band of Brothers, Easy Company, or for me, Captain Kirk and Spock. Or the married couple who’s been married 50 plus years. And everyone in this room instinctually wants to celebrate that. All of us are made to long for chesed. We’re all made for it. Steadfast love between God and us, and between us and the other.

There’s something of the chesed love of Yahweh that we see in Naomi’s love for her daughters-in-law, but Ruth was more stubborn than Naomi. Anybody stubborn in the room here today? Yeah, don’t point at your spouse. Ruth decides she’s sticking with Naomi. In fact, what the text tells us, I’m sticking with you and I’m sticking with your God, Yahweh. And I think what we see here is this is a pivot point where we see so clearly the hand of God working all things together for good, making a way for the future King David who will come through Ruth, making a way for the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. Look at verse 16. Again, Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you.” She’s stubborn. Your people, my people. That’s the original Hebrew. That’s that direct. Your people, my people. Your God, my God. That’s the level of commitment here. And again, isn’t this the kind of love, the wholehearted commitment every heart longs for, especially in a world where relationships are disposable. So often disposable. We see here a love that will not let go. And Ruth, in verse 17, Ruth, the pagan Moabitess, uses the personal name of God. I mentioned that earlier, if you look at 17, I would highlight that. Ruth is speaking. There’s something really important here. She’s from Moab. And she uses the personal name of God. It seems clear to me from the text that Ruth has turned in faith towards God, towards Yahweh. And perhaps the Spirit, as the Spirit was working on her heart, she saw in Naomi something about her selfless plead for her to go back, for her good that Ruth said, there is something about the God that you worship that makes you different. There’s something about the God that you worship that changes you. In fact, the God that you worship is much different than the gods I worshiped in Moab. The gods I worship in Moab are tyrannical, they’re severe and harsh, but you worship a God who’s a God of loving kindness. I think Ruth saw something compelling there.

If you look at verse 22, this one’s really curious. So, this is the end of the section. They’ve gotten to Bethlehem together, and the author says that Ruth returned from the country of Moab. And that is a really curious phrase. Ruth has never been to Bethlehem. Ruth has never been to Judah. There would be no reason for her to go. Yet the author writes as if Ruth is coming home to Bethlehem. As if Ruth is coming home to the Promised Land, the covenant land with covenant God Yahweh. Indeed, I think what’s happening here spiritually, she is coming home. The home she’s always longed for. Augustine, in his book Confessions, opens up the entire book with this prayer: “Lord, You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You.” And you can substitute that word “rest” for home. Psalm 90 uses the word “refuge.” We’re restless until we find our refuge, our home, our safety in God alone. The mercy of God is wide enough for this pagan worshiper, wide enough for those who have drifted away, those who have turned their back, and He calls all to come home. This was a dark time in Israel’s history, but there is hope springing.

And number three, I think we see this return home of this family. Chapter 1 begins where it started, or ends rather where it started in Bethlehem. The first time the House of Bread had no bread. There was famine in the land. But now Ruth and Naomi make their way back home, and the barley is ripe. It’s time to eat some bread, maybe some pizza, I’m hoping. It’s not neat and tidy. The end of chapter one has Naomi caught in this web of bitterness, which this is something for all of us, a warning for all of us. Bitterness is a poison that, if not tended to, can blind you to the goodness around you, the goodness of God, the blessings of God around you. Look what she says there at verse 21: “I left full and I came back empty.” Now think about that for a minute. There is some little bit of truth, but that’s really not the full truth. And we need to have empathy for her. She’s gone through so much. But when she left, there was famine. She didn’t leave full. There was famine. And when she arrived, the barley was ready to be harvested. Her daughter-in-law had committed to her for her entire life. But this bitterness, don’t call me sweet, call me bitter. This bitterness was blinding her vision, giving her blurry vision to see the blessings of God. And that’s true for all of us. We have to be careful that the poison of bitterness doesn’t continue to grow. Sometimes, though, I think the questions in a bitter season can sometimes seem like a problem, or they do to me at least. Like there’s a problem with asking why God. How long, oh God? But I actually, if you scrutinize that a little bit, might suggest questions that come in a bitter season can be a grace. Because they make us ask the question, why God? They lead us to Him. The psalmist, that’s often how those prayers of lament go. They lead us back to Him.

That doesn’t mean suffering is good, it’s not good. But bringing it to the Lord can open our eyes to see that He draws near, He is near to the brokenhearted, that He holds us in His grip; He holds us fast. God is always moving in 10,000 ways. And in Ruth, we get a little glimpse of what He’s doing behind the scenes, and I can’t wait for the next chapter. The God of the Bible reveals Himself as creator, transcendent, holy, and powerful. Yet He had the entire cosmos to govern. He turns His face to this small family. He knew their name, He knows your name, He knows mine. Ruth, Orpah, Naomi. William Cooper was an English hymn writer. Many of you are familiar with him. He struggled with depression and melancholy all his life. Yet he understood the chesed love of God. And he wrote a hymn that many of us are familiar with in one of the most bitter seasons of life when he experienced the grace of God as he was about to take his own life. He writes this word: “God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform. He plants His footsteps in the sea and He rides upon the storm.” This is the transcendent, big God. “Deep in the dark and hidden mines with never failing skill, He fashions all His bright designs, and He works His sovereign will. O fearful saints, new courage take. The clouds that you now dread are big with mercy and will break. [Ah, here He’s drawing near.] In blessings on your head, judge not the Lord by feeble sense, [that’s where Naomi was] but trust Him for His grace. Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.”

Now that that word providence is a big word; it’s kind of an old, crusty theological word, but it’s a really important word. It’s more than simply God’s sovereign will. The word “providence” tells us that God is near, that He speaks, that He acts, that He provides, He loves, He makes a way back home. This young woman, Ruth, is recorded in the lineage of our Lord Jesus in Matthew, Chapter 1, along with four other women, Tamar and Rahab and Bathsheba. Ruth is the great-grandmother of King David. Ruth was a Moabitess, far from the Lord for most of her life, but God graciously called her back home. Isn’t that extraordinary? God moves through the life of Ruth by His initiative and His grace, and through the line of Ruth, our Savior is born in Bethlehem, the Savior that would die upon this cross, lay down His life for me and for you. Through this woman, Ruth, one of the most consequential decisions in history, I would say, happened on that road to Bethlehem, where Naomi said, “Go back to Moab,” but Ruth said, “No. I’m sticking with you.” One of the most consequential decisions in history because it leads us to Jesus and what He did for us on the cross, which we’re going to celebrate later today at the table, to make a way for those far from God, like Ruth, to come find their true home, their true rest in Him, to make a way for those who have drifted to come home.

Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father. God of all grace, we give You thanks, maybe even caught in bitterness, some full of joy, but the harvest is ripe. Some weary, some full of fear, we all confess, Lord, we need You. Where we have drifted, turn us around towards You to find life. For those who don’t know You, who are far from you, draw near. Lord, may we come to know You this week, this beginning of July 2026, come to know You more, grasp a little more of Your steadfast, kind, committed love. Set our hearts ablaze with confidence in Your sovereignty and Your providential care, Your loving presence, and may Your Spirit continue to conform us more into the image of Your Son and whose name we all said, “Amen.”

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs

“Blessed Be Your Name“ by Beth Redman and Matt Redman
“Come Thou Fount“ by Robert Robinson
“Jesus Draw Me Ever Nearer“ by Margaret Becker and Keith Getty
“I Surrender All“ words by  Judson W. Van DeVenter, music by Winfield S. Weeden
“Before the Throne“ by Charitie Lees Bancroft and Vikki Cook
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois
All songs are used with permission. CCLI License no. 2003690

Looking for our Hymns of the Week or resources to worship anytime? We’ve curated a playlist of hymns TVC Worship has led on our YouTube Channel!

Call To Worship: At The Cross

Most merciful God, thank You for sending to us Your Son, Jesus.

We remember this day His redeeming death, that we might stand forgiven at the cross. Thank You for sending to us Your Son, Jesus, to whom we belong, in life and in death. He bore our infirmities and carried our sorrows.

Most holy God, thank You for sending to us Your Son, Jesus, who became sin for us and suffered the punishment due to us, that we might stand forgiven at the cross. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.

Confession of Sin:

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against You this day, in thought, word, and deed; by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved You with our whole hearts; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of Your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us, that we may delight in Your will, and walk in Your ways, to the glory of Your Name.
Grant to Your people pardon and peace, that in Your great mercy, we may be forgiven all our sins, and serve You with a quiet and contrite heart.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

Classic Prayer: Gregory of Nazianzus

The stars dance for you, Lord, and planets shine for you, announcing your wisdom. Your lights sing to the glorious Trinity. Here below, we too are your glory. We exist to sing your praises, Light of the world. Immortal One, glory’s highest, you took on mortal flesh so you could put an end to our grief. We live for you, and our songs arise for you. We will be silent, or sing, at your will. May we do your bidding either way. May we say what is right, and nothing else. With your guidance, let us see the pearl in the mud, the gold in the sand, the rose in the thorny thicket. Let us hear what is pure in the noise of life.

TVC Prayer Ministry

TVC Ministry: TVC Choir
Vocation: Local, State and Federal Government
Mission Highlight: Porter’s Call
Praying for the Persecuted Church: Sudan

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