Ruth’s decision to cling to Naomi is a picture of how a new believer finds their true home in the arms of God and His people. This commitment to God’s community, even when it means leaving the familiar behind, is a vital direction of faith. Through this simple act of loyalty, God works out His mysterious and sovereign will, placing Ruth in the lineage of the Saviour Himself. In the same way, when we commit ourselves to the church, we make ourselves available for God to achieve His divine purpose He has in our finding and following Christ.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] Everybody, the sermon this morning, the message this morning is from Ruth in Chapter 1. Okay, so it’s the story of a person who’s one of the Old Testament personalities. And this Old Testament personality, Ruth, has a storyline that’s very instructive about being someone that comes to know God and continues on and has God use her. And this storyline of Ruth has a number of deep currents flowing through it and lessons for us. And by God’s grace, I hope to bring out at least a couple of those lessons this morning as we do Chapter 1. In the days when the judges ruled, now this is by judges, there were people who were set by God to give leadership to the people of Israel. They were also military leaders. So when we read judges, don’t think of someone with a cap on his head ruling in a court.

[00:01:07] They were military people who led the armies of Israel. But they also called the people of Israel into account. And so the word judge is nonetheless appropriate. The judges were ruling. And there were a lot of warfares that went on with neighbouring nations. And thankfully, there was one city that missed out on much of the warfare. It was Bethlehem. And it didn’t have the wars come to them as much. So it’s talking about a town during the era of the judges. But at the end of the series of different men that were leaders, and therefore they’re written

[00:01:47] up in the Bible as judges of Israel, the end of that series of time, there was a terrible famine. A lack of water and a lack of crops coming to help. And there was a famine in the land. And because of that, although Bethlehem didn’t suffer that much from the fightings that went on. They did suffer because there was just not enough food. And people tend in any given nation when their troubles are too great to try somewhere else as a place where they won’t starve. There were people who at the end of World War II left Japan to go to other nations because of the severity of how World War II left Japan. And similarly back then in the era where this is talking about there was a family who decided to see if they could survive

[00:02:39] food-wise in a neighbouring nation. And they went to sojourn in the country of Moab. And the wife’s name was Naomi and her husband’s name was Elimelech. And they had two sons. The sons’ names are listed there as Marlon. Marlon. They’re listed as Jillian. And these were, the word Ephratites is just another name for a Bethlehem-like type, Bethlehem living in that area. They’re from Bethlehem in Judah. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there. But as they went there, what happened was they got married and they had two, therefore, daughters-in-law, one of them being Ruth. And in that time, I think they were ten years living in Moab. And in that time, the dad of the family, Elimelech, died and the two sons, I did cite their names, Marlon and Jillian, died. So Naomi is left as a widow with two daughters-in-law whom she has come to be looking after because her sons, their husbands, had died. And as

[00:04:02] things happened, time changed. And news came that back there in Israel, the famine had passed and there was good living to be had. So verse 6, she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from Moab where they were because she had heard in the fields of Moab, the rumours, the farmers that the Lord had helped out in Jerusalem. If we can move it up another hop, please. Keep going. And so this mother of two daughters-in-law and the two girls who were also bereaved decided they’d try to go to the land of Israel. And as Naomi was heading out, she could see the wrench that was happening in the hearts of these two girls because they’d have to leave their extended families in Moab. And in verse 11, she says, turn back my daughters. Now immediately you notice, she doesn’t sort of back off owning them as her daughters, though they were not her physical daughters, they were her daughters-in-law. And she’s concerned

[00:05:18] for them leaving their own families. Why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back my daughters, go your own way, for I am too old to have another husband. And I should say that if I did say I had hope, even should I have a husband this night, and he bore me sons, would you wait that long as basically she’s going to say, before you could get a new son-in-law from me? Would you therefore refrain from Mary? Keep hoping, that’s good. Know my daughters, for it’s exceedingly bitter to me, for your sake, that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. Now notice first of all, in this storyline, we have a personality, Naomi, and apparently her name also meant bitter, but she’s now owning what her name meant. And fancy having a name that means bitter. I don’t know what angers their parents had to call her that. But she says, I’ve come as bitter.

[00:06:28] No, or did she say I’ve come the other way around? But the storyline of the whole book is from bitter to sweetness. That happens to Naomi. There is, you know, a lesson even in the names of this story. It’s there in the scriptures, and every detail of the scriptures often has significance that you could glide over when you first read. But it’s a storyline of someone who goes from bitter to sweet. Now very often in the lives of people, and I think all of us probably experience this, that you meet up with different people who started off sweet, but in the way life goes, they can end up bitter. Part of that is not necessarily the fault of the people we’re talking about. Part of it is the circumstances that this sinful world brings to bear on everybody. And Naomi understands herself as once having been sweet, but now she’s bitter. And her very name rings it out, so she’s owning it. And so she says to the girls, and

[00:07:40] she wants the best for them. She could have clung on to them for her own sake, take a little bit of family back with her. But she says, recognizes the big loss it is to them if you miss your family, especially in times of difficulty. And so she tries to say to them, you know, go back to your families. And that’s a generous attitude that she had. But in verse 14, they all lifted up their voices and they wept again. And Orpah, which is the oldest of the two daughters-in-law, kissed her mother-in-law. But Ruth clung to her. Now I know it’s just a normal, a story line of normal happenings in human existence. But it’s in the scriptures. And it seems to me, and I suppose it just might be my guess, it seems to me that everything in the scriptures can be used of the Holy Spirit to speak to us. But it says Ruth clung to her. There’s something that’s happened. And it is what I wanted to bring out in this first chapter of the book of Ruth. This is Old Testament, so they don’t have a Christian

[00:08:53] conversion per such, but they do have these two daughters. They’ve had a conversion to the beliefs of their mother-in-law. And not only to their mother-in-law’s beliefs, but there’s something that’s happened in terms of their commitment to this woman, Naomi. And though Naomi’s advice to go back to their families was their common sense and good one, Ruth clung to her. And it says to me that in terms of what has happened in the heart of Ruth is that she has found a new home. The new home isn’t just the one she found with her husband. The new home is the one that she found with the mother-in-law

[00:09:40] and with a sense of belongingness to that which is Jewish. For the proposal is to go back to Israel where they’ll be immersed in the culture and the beliefs of the people of God. I think it is a picture of what happens to people who come to Christ. That there is a dedication that along the way it’s not necessarily immediate but along the way they find themselves having become a part of the Church of God. It’s something which we as pastors are very aware of that there is in the process of someone coming to know Christ

[00:10:20] a growth that follows of finding themselves in a belongingness that gets richer and richer. And they find sometimes it happens through a process of having to make a choice between the world and the Church, between the secular world in which they have to live anyway and the new community to which they’ve found belongingness by coming to know Christ. This is Old Testament so they don’t talk about coming to know Christ but it’s something that’s visible in Ruth.

[00:10:55] Ruth clung to her. I think that’s a natural process that happens when people find the Saviour that they can across time find themselves with a new commitment and with a choice. It happens also to people. I grew up in a Christian home and it was something that I remember in my own life. When you get sent to school you become a part of a community.

[00:11:23] There’s certain aspects of it you like and some that are a challenge to you. And being involved in my high school it was sport I liked most. I was a bit of a lazy student but I did love playing cricket and football. And I used to love talking with my friends about what I hoped to do and never got to do but driving cars and going… I used to go skin diving

[00:11:48] and all the things boys think is great, you know. But that got overcome by happenings in the churches where my parents took me along to. They had to take me along and force me along and make sure I got trained when I went to church and all the rest. But nonetheless there came something that happened in my heart

[00:12:11] when it was more important to me the fellowship I had at church than it was what happened in the cricket team or the football team or amongst my friends at school. And we had a group of people that not all of them are Christians especially at the first. But we were…

[00:12:31] We had something in common. We actually loved cars and used to talk about cars and we had a little group that seemed to know everything about cars at least we thought we did. But we could tell you statistics and brag about what we thought and when we got to have our licence

[00:12:47] which in Adelaide was at 16 one of my friend’s father was one of the leaders of Chrysler or Valiant cars and he’d bring a Valiant along and demonstrate how it handled and I brought my dad’s little Cortina. But it was very balanced and I could beat him on corners.

[00:13:05] And we’d all be watching whose car slid the vest all that stuff. And they were things that I loved. But something deeper happened to me that I loved the church more. And I used to bring those other kids from school along to church. They got to know something that was

[00:13:28] the most important part of me. Ruth clung to her. And I’m going to say to you if you’re someone who’s recently come to Christ we have some people amongst us for whom that’s been recent that there’ll be a process going on in you where more and more

[00:13:45] you find yourself at home with the people of God. Sometimes it brings you a choice. There’s times when some of the people that I used to find at school would be doing the sort of activities that were not consistent

[00:14:00] with going to church. And I had to make a choice. It wasn’t a hard choice. My best friends I had some best friends at school but I had best friends at church but you know the ones who were at church got to me more important than the ones at school.

[00:14:22] In fact, I worked at the ones at school to bring them to church. Well, Naomi replies to Ruth, who’s clinging to her. She said, see, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. She didn’t really want her to go, but she knew in the natural, that was, well, the thing that would appear to be the normal thing to do. But Ruth said, do not urge me to leave you or return from following you, 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 I’ll be buried.

[00:15:16] She’s turning it up a bit. May the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you. And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said, no more. So they went on until the day they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole of the town was stirred because of them. Can you feel the belongingness of that town? Are stirred when Naomi comes back? And the women, that’s the women of the town, is this Naomi? And she said to them, do not call me Naomi, but call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.

[00:16:08] Naomi is meant to mean bitter, and the other name Mara is meant to be pleasant. The Lord has dealt bitterly with me, and I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. There’s many a person, you know, who’s found the Saviour, and then been shifted, and ended up in a different scene where they lost a lot of what they had found, and the belongingness of the church, who’d have a similar story. And Naomi recognises that belongingness to the people of God is actually richer and more important than anything else they can have. Well, and she says, the Almighty has brought calamity upon me. She’s talking about the death of her husband, the death of her two sons. It couldn’t be a bigger calamity for a woman like that.

[00:17:08] So Naomi returned, and Ruth, the Moabite daughter-in-law, with her. She returned from the country of Moab, and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. This will set us up for the next chapter, but there’s a bit of information I need to tell you. And that is that God has purposes in what goes on in our lives. Sometimes people come and ask. When I was younger, I used to do lots of youth camps. It seemed to be the question I got inendingly. When I went in youth camps, someone would say, how do I find the will of God?

[00:17:45] And I could see in their minds what they meant for the will of God is take this job or not that job. Take this subject and not that subject at uni. Or go here and not there. Or get married to this person and not that person. There will be these questions that are coming to them. They’re thinking of the will of God as incidentals. They’re important incidentals, maybe. be. But the will of God is often not something that you can predict and write it down in your diary, this is what I’m going to be. I shall be a missionary or I shall be a lawyer

[00:18:22] or I think God has a will that touches those things but he doesn’t always want to tell you. He doesn’t always have to give you a full script of the whole life that you’re heading into. The will of God is his special purpose that sometimes can be mysterious but finding the will of God is not done by your knowing it, it’s done by your walking close and he just makes it happen. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest and if you already know the story of Ruth and how the barley harvest has a big part to play in her ending up marrying to Boaz. Why is that important? Because they have a son who’s going to be the father of Jesse, who will be the father of David, who’s the one requisite of the future coming Messiah to be a son of many generations from David. And by her coming back at that beginning of the barley harvest, the whole outworking of God in Ruth’s life, that she should end

[00:19:34] up as one of the personalities in the very heritage of Jesus. And God’s will in the biggest fashion is going to be done through Ruth. But she didn’t know all those details. And often you’re knowing the will of God as not knowing this or that. You certainly pray about those things. Commit your way unto the Lord, trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. But what it says when it says he shall bring it to pass is not every detail that you imagined. It is him achieving his divine purposes in you. And you can rest one thing about God, that if you open yourself to him, he doesn’t miss getting you where he wants. He is able to bring about his purpose, sometimes through our mistakes, sometimes through our littleness of misunderstanding, understanding, sometimes by our weakness and being unable to do what we think he wants us to do. But trust yourselves, the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding in all your ways. Acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. The beginning of the barley harvest

[00:20:58] sets us up for chapter two, in which God does his will for reasons that even the generation that Naomi and Ruth are in had no idea about. But we who look back through what the Bible tells us, that he was achieving that lineage that would bring Jesus and achieve his greatest will of having come into the world, the Saviour, the Saviour, the Saviour who died on a cross for our sins and be raised again and go to heaven and send his Holy Spirit to be available to make us Christians. Ruth had a major part to play in setting up the lineage of Jesus. There’s only a few women that get to figure in that line and she’s won. But it starts with her clinging to the people of God. And if you want to be available to God, let me tell you that one of the items in your consideration of how to achieve it, if you want to be significant to God, then be sure that you take yourself to be within his people, which is what Ruth did. Let’s have a moment of prayer.

[00:22:13] Heavenly Father, I thank you for this passage. Lord, it was not the one I was going to bring this morning, but I had that sense of what you wanted me to say. And I’m praying that all of us will value what we saw this morning in dedicating a child to be brought up in the church, really. We all stood because we had a part to play in asking you to look after a little girl. We pray, Father, that she will always be one who finds a nestling within the bringing upness, the advocation of true Christian living that the church can bring. So we pray, Lord, that you will be with her across the years and her parents and her grandparents, that they will know how to help her come to grow up in the fear and the admonition of the Lord. We pray, Heavenly Father, Lord, that you will put your hand upon Rhoda, Rhoda Jane. To do that, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.