Hope For Hard Times Series

Our nation’s first President had a different way of looking at life and you could see it in his very first inaugural address. Had you been in the relatively small crowd to hear Washington’s Inaugural address some 230 plus years ago, you would have been surprised at how visibly nervous Washington was giving the speech. Fresh off the heels of his victory over the British in the Revolutionary War, “The Father of his Country” spoke in a quiet voice that was difficult to hear at times. Only a few hundred Senators and Congressmen heard our first President at Federal Hall at half past noon in New York City on April 30, 1789. And perhaps his most memorable line of his address, Washington spoke of the Invisible Hand. Listen carefully to our first President’s words: “No People can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.”

When Washington says “Invisible Hand,” he speaks of God’s intervention in our lives. Washington viewed his personal life as well as the events surrounding our nation as being moved by the Invisible Hand of Providence.

And it wasn’t just Washington that believed in the Invisible Hand. Men such as Benjamin Franklin did as well. Though Franklin was no believer, he maintained, “I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?” The founding fathers viewed life very differently.

How do you see your life? Do you see God’s invisible hand moving about in our day? Do you see His invisible hand behind you landing your job? Is there an Intelligent Being that makes sure your plane lands or who you parents were?

Today, we begin a short series on the Old Testament book of Ruth, one of only two books in your Bible named for women. And it’s the only book in the Old Testament not named after a Jew.

A Challenge

One way that you can make the next three weeks a memorable time of insight for yourself is to read through this beautiful story once each week. It will take you less time to read this book than it will to watch a sitcom. I invite you to look for the Invisible Hand in the little book of Ruth. It’s for people who wonder where God is when one tragedy after another attacks their faith. It’s a story for people who wonder whether a life of integrity is really worth it. I hope to raise your hope level in the weeks to come. This is bright hope for dark days.

The Relationship of Judges and Ruth

The story of Ruth is a really old story, more than 3,000 years ago. Ruth begins with these words, “In the days when the judges ruled…” (Ruth 1:1a). Ruth happens in the timeline of the book of Judges, just one book in front of it. These times were especially wicked and when Israel was not ruled by the kings. This was a 400-year period after Israel entered the Promised Land where trial chieftains ruled Israel (roughly 1500 BC to 1100 BC). You might think of the book of Judges showing you the world’s events like the evening news might. The book Judges is the headlines of the day for ancient Israel showing you all the major events.

Ruth has none of that inside its pages. It’s as if you took the ancient Israelite world under the lens of a microscope and you “zoomed all the way in” on just one family of a husband, a wife, and their two boys. Zoom past these judges, the diplomatic treaties, and the wars of the day to a little of family migrating to a new country because of a famine. There you have the book of Ruth where God’s watchful eye isn’t distracted by the turbulence of one most of wicked times in Israel’s history. We discover that He has His eye even one little “no-name” family.

The Move to Moab

Elimelech and Naomi decide to move from Bethlehem to the nation of Moab with their two boys. They would live in Moab, modern day Jordan, for 10 years (Ruth 1:4). This move deserves your attention for a moment. Can we really appreciate how difficult it is to move to another nation?

Michael Medved tells the astonishing story of his grandmother, Sarah Medved coming to America. Sarah was the mother of 6 children and her husband, Harry, moved to the United States in 1910 by himself. He did so in order to earn enough money for his family’s passage across the ocean to the world of opportunity. Years went by but he scraped together the money and sent it back to his wife. So in 1914, Sarah came with all the 6 kids along with her elderly father, and they were riding in the train from Ukraine to eventually make to Philadelphia to join her husband. But when they got to the border of Austria, Hungary, and Russia, they were stopped and were taken off the train. WWI had broken out in August of 1914, and they were forced to go all the way back to their village in Ukraine. Ten years followed where they could not make it to America. After WWI, there was a bloody revolution and then they endured the Russian Civil War. There was no chance for this grandmother to reunite with her husband who was in Philadelphia waiting, writing, and trying to get news. During the ensuing years, five of their six children sadly died of disease and starvation. She eventually made it to the United States with her only son, Moshe, and then reunited with her husband. She was 49 when she reunited with her husband and it was tearful reunion to say the least. It takes tremendous courage to leave your land and your people.