A steel reinforced, underground, lead-lined concrete vault. In case of nuclear attack that’s where you should take refuge, say experts. Only a structure like that will adequately protect you from the initial blast and subsequent radioactive fallout. Such structures were not uncommon during the height of the Cold War. They’re still around of course and one in Switzerland was recently converted into a budget hotel. Patrons of that hotel claim that once you put on slippers for the cold concrete floor and wear earplugs to block out the noisy ventilation system, a bunker is not a bad place to bunk for the night. That may be but can you imagine having to hang out in such a place for two weeks after a nuclear blast as you wait for the radiation outside to dissipate? No thanks.
A nuclear attack on the capital region (of Alberta) is, I suppose, conceivable but it doesn’t seem to be very likely. So it probably doesn’t matter that you don’t know where the nearest bunker is to take refuge. There is, however, a much more serious threat that we live under. It’s the reality of daily attacks from Satan and the pain of living in a sin-filled world. Is there anywhere we can take refuge from these hardships? There is. The Old Testament believer Ruth sought refuge under the wings of Israel’s God (Ruth 2:12). Caity, through your profession of faith today you’re signalling as did Ruth your intent to take refuge under the Lord’s wings. Today’s sermon text will encourage you to remain there until God calls you home to heaven.
The true story of Ruth is one of the most loved in the Bible. It took place about 3,100 years ago during the time of the Judges. Initially the story isn’t even about Ruth. It’s about a man named Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons. They fled Israel because of a famine and went to live in the land of Moab. There, Elimelech’s two sons married Moabite women. But then Elimelech died and not long after that his two sons also passed away leaving three widows: Naomi and her two daughters-in-law. Naomi was so distraught by the deaths that she insisted that people no longer call her Naomi which means “pleasant” but Mara or “bitter” because that’s how she felt towards the Lord.
There’s at least one thing for us to learn here, Caity. Things don’t always go as planned, not even for God’s people. Elimelech thought he could save himself and his family by moving to Moab but he ended up dying there. What we learn is that we really are not the masters of our domain, God is. So you may have some definite plans for what you want to do this summer or further down the line when you’re done with high school but acknowledge what is written in the book of Proverbs: “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). Keep making plans but always humbly add: “If the Lord wills.”
So does this mean that you are promising to follow a God who will do with you whatever he feels like? No. God is not a dictator who orders his servants to do what suits his fancy without any regard to their well-being. This King has promised to guide your steps for your good. That too is illustrated in the story of Ruth. The trip to Moab may have seemed to end poorly for Elimelech and his sons but it was good for Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite. Her people did not follow the true God. But when Ruth married into Elimelech’s family she came to believe in the one true God. She came to possess salvation. And so God will direct your steps, Caity, so that everything that happens to you will somehow work out for your eternal good. In fact Elimelech’s death wasn’t even evil. Death is really just God’s green light for believers to cross into heaven.
Elimelech and family must have taught Ruth this truth and she believed it. My how she believed it! Her faith is obvious in what have become the most famous words Ruth spoke. When Naomi decided to go back to Israel after the death of her husband and sons, she insisted that her daughters-in-law stay with their own people. One daughter-in-law, Orpah, went back but this is the exchange that followed between Naomi and Ruth: “15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” 16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:15, 16).
Do you see how serious Ruth was about her faith? She was willing to turn her back on her own family to follow the God of Israel. She was willing to do this because she sensed that staying in Moab surrounded by unbelievers would not have been good for her faith and therefore not good for her hold on eternal life. In the same way, Caity, aren’t you today promising to turn your back on anything including a job or even your family should they get in the way of you following Jesus? That’s a serious promise you’re making but it’s worth it. No, it’s not worth it in the sense that the Lord will make you rich because you follow him. Ruth certainly didn’t become an instant millionaire because she followed Naomi to Bethlehem. Life there was difficult for Ruth. She was poor, so poor she had to go out into the fields and pick up leftover grain for something to eat. That’s not quite the same as dumpster-diving but it doesn’t seem to be very far from it. I doubt if you’ll become instantly rich either just because you said your confirmation vows today, Caity. In fact you may have to work hard the rest of your life just to keep food on the table from one day to the next. But even so the God of the Bible under whose wings you are taking refuge will look after you as he looked after Ruth and Naomi. Do you think it was by accident that Ruth gathered grain in a field owned by Boaz, a generous believer of the Lord? Of course not. God had guided Ruth’s steps to that field so that he could care for Ruth through his faithful servant Boaz.
Ruth ended up marring Boaz and they had a son named Obed. This Obed was King David’s grandfather. And David, in turn, was an ancestor of the promised Messiah, Jesus. It’s comforting isn’t it that God included Ruth, a former unbeliever and non-Jew, in the family tree of the Savior? It illustrates how God does indeed love all people and wants everyone to be saved, including you and me.
The steadfast faith God had worked in the heart of Ruth wasn’t only good for her, it was good for her mother-in-law Naomi too. Remember how Naomi thought that her name should be changed to Mara because she was bitter at what God had allowed her to go through? Well Ruth’s love saw Naomi through the loss of her husband and sons. This love was so obvious that when Obed was born the local women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth” (Ruth 4:14, 15). Ruth’s love for Naomi is not unlike God’s love for us. Even when we feel that God has slighted us and dealt us a bad hand, he doesn’t take his love from us. He continues to sustain us and hold us through tough times even when we are guilty of Naomi-like grumblings. What a gracious and patient God we have! Don’t leave the refuge under his wings.
The best evidence of God’s love for you and me, of course, is the sending of his Son, Jesus. Baby Obed was like Jesus in a way. The local women even called him Naomi’s “kinsman-redeemer.” Because Naomi had no sons and no chances of marrying again to have more children, her family name and her family lands were in danger of being lost. But when Obed was born to Ruth, Naomi’s daughter-in-law, that boy became an heir to Elimelech. Obed’s arrival “redeemed” Elimelech’s family name from annihilation. When God sent his son to be born of the Virgin Mary it was so that we would have a kinsman, a brother who would rescue us. By his perfect life Jesus earned eternal life and then passed that prize on to us when he gave his life on the cross to pay for our sins. What Jesus did would be a bit like if your sister bought a concert ticket with her own money and then gave you the ticket while she stayed home to serve a grounding you received for being out too late the night before.
No, you may never have to take refuge in a concrete, lead-lined bunker, Caity but you will want to take refuge under the wings of the Lord. It’s only here that we find protection from the eternal judgment we deserve for our sins and it’s here that we can be certain that every detail of our life is being guided in the interest of our salvation. So as you make your promise to cling to the Lord do so with the intensity and sincerity of Ruth’s promise to cling to Naomi, mindful that through Jesus, God is already firmly clinging to you so that nothing - not hunger, not Satan, not even death can separate you from his love (Romans 8:38, 39). Amen.
