"Ruth, My Redeemer Lives" Part 3
In part 1 we talked about how God sometimes colors outside the lines and uses people and circumstances to get us to places we would not go to of our own volition. Whoever is willing to do this take one step forward, and everyone takes one step backwards. God gets his way, we wind up in Moab and God does something very wonderful there in the place He calls the pot for washing dirty feet. Ruth a gem of a woman is brought from the land of outcasts, into the very geneology of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In part 2 we talked about the Journey back home. How God will use a carrot and stick approach to get us back where we ought to be. Naoimi had severe hardship in the land of Moab, and then she heard how the Lord was blessing the children of Israel so with that one two punch she was led in the direction she needed to go in.
Illus: North and South winds blowing at the same time. The cold and the warm create a double incentive to move in the direction we ought.
Today we are going to talk about:
The road thru bitterness to blessing. Said another way
Weeping and Whining and finally Worshipping
Ru 1:19 ¶ So they both went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came about when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was stirred because of them, and the women said, "Is this Naomi?"
Ru 1:20 And she said to them, "Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
Ru 1:21 "I went out full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?"
Ru 1:22 So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the land of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.
1. Weeping
Weeping always preceeds whining. Whining is the word I am using for bitterness. Behind every bitter person is a wound that has not been healed and has scarred over. The wounds that we weep over can become what the bible calls a root of bitterness.
The scientific community here in the West says there are 4 tastes: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. I think there is one more: nasty.
Naoimi drank long and deep from the bitter cup of weeping, and she became a bitter woman.
As I was thinking about how weeping leads, in some cases, to bitterness I thought of another woman in the bible: Hannah.
1Sa 1:1 ¶ Now there was a certain man from Ramathaim-zophim from the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.
1Sa 1:2 And he had two wives: the name of one was Hannah and the name of the other Peninnah; and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
1Sa 1:3 Now this man would go up from his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were priests to the LORD there.
1Sa 1:4 And when the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and her daughters;
1Sa 1:5 but to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, but the LORD had closed her womb.
1Sa 1:6 Her rival, however, would provoke her bitterly to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb.
1Sa 1:7 And it happened year after year, as often as she went up to the house of the LORD, she would provoke her, so she wept and would not eat.
1Sa 1:8 Then Elkanah her husband said to her, "Hannah, why do you weep and why do you not eat and why is your heart sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons?"
1Sa 1:9 ¶ Then Hannah rose after eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple of the LORD.
1Sa 1:10 And she, greatly distressed, prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly.
Note verse 6: KJV to provoke her to fret, literally to try and get her to explode. She did it the right way; she exploded to God in prayer.
This is what I thought about when I was thinking about Hannah: church was one of the places that was both very difficult and very blessed for her. Church was a place of great joy for Peninah and at the same time a place of great sorrow for Hannah.
Single, recently divorced, and widowed people come to the church for weddings. Ouch.
The church has a couples retreat or a valentines banquet.
Barren couples, and those who have lost a child to SIDS have to sit through baby dedications.
Widows and Widowers have to come to 50th anniversary parties.
Father's day, Mother's day.
Every ocassion for rejoicing for one person, can be an ocassion for weeping for another.
Researchers who study how people's sense of well-being varies from place to place decided to compare their findings with suicide rates.
The surprising result: The happiest places sometimes also have the highest suicide rates.
"Discontented people in a happy place may feel particularly harshly treated by life," suggested Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England.
Or, put another way by co-author Stephen Wu of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., those surrounded by unhappy people may not feel so bad for themselves.
But Wu urged caution in drawing conclusions, saying: "I don't think that means if you are unhappy you should be around others who are unhappy."
Hannah felt worse in church, but it is also where she got her miracle.
Hannah was attacked by a foe who wanted to make her life miserable. Why would someone be so bitter? Remember what I said earlier? Behind every bitter person is a wound that has not healed. Hannah's nemesis probably knew that she was loved less and wept much about it. That hurt turned to bitterness and vindictiveness. She lashed out, probably because she was hurting herself. People who have been wounded in relationships can become very bitter if they don't learn how to take their hurts to the Lord. While God may recognize what others have done to you, He never equates that with giving you permission to be bitter or vindictive.
Naoimi has had a lot of sadness and coming home for her was probably one of the most difficult things she ever did.
Familiar places brought back memories
Where her kids played, who are now dead.
Lovers lane for her and Elimilech, who is now dead
the homestead someone else now lives in - Michigan - bankruptcy.
Ru 1:19 ¶ So they both went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came about when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was stirred because of them, and the women said, "Is this Naomi?"
The coffee clatch of wagging tongues.
"is this she that could not be content to fare as her neighbours did, but must ramble to a strange country? See what she has got by it!"
"Is this she that lived so plentifully, and kept so good a house, and was so charitable to the poor? How has her gold become dim!"
Finally Naoimi can take it no more and she bursts out: Ru 1:20 And she said to them, "Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. Ru 1:21 "I went out full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?"
She was so wrong about what God was up to.
But now we see her weeping has turned to whining. Or said another way she is giving vent to bitterness.
I have a lot to say about bitterness, and I want to give a whole service to it, today I am going to give 2 causes for bitterness and then move quickly on how Ruth went from whining to Worshipping.
2 Primary causes of bitterness:
1. Someone else gets something we were hoping for and expecting. For example Peninnah wanted the love of Elkanah. The bible says hope deferred makes the heart sick. One of the types of heart sickness it produces is bitterness. A promotion, someone else got what you thought you deserved. You may have even been planning on how to spend your pay increase. A recognition, someone else got the honor you were expecting.
2. We aren't treated the way we want and or expect to be.
We have a certain expectation at restaurants don't we?
We have a certain expectation at hotels.
We have certain expectations when we want to return something to a store.
He that is the greatest of all, must become the servant of all.
How do you feel when someone treats you like a servant, instead of a king?
I will have a lot more on bitterness next week, but these two thoughts I felt led to provoke you with.
Now how did Naomi go from weeping to worshipping?
1. She returned home to Israel. Weeping is tough, it is twice as tough when you are away from God.
2. God turned her mourning into dancing.
People can be released from the wounds that cause bitterness. "I apologize."
If it is in your power to release them, release them. See them as a bear caught
in a trap. Stop thinking about how stupid they were to get caught, have compassion
on their bleeding and broken leg.
Jesus can heal the wound that leads to bitterness.
Set at liberty them that are bruised. Luke 4:20 KJV A bruise is an outer sign of inner bleeding. Some hurts need more than time to heal them. Jesus can set a liberty them that are bruised. He promised to send us a special comforter to be with us always.
Your shift is coming
