Open your Bibles to the book of Ruth. Ruth is one of two books in our Bibles that is named after a woman, the other being Esther. Both of these books are in the Old Testament and both involve times of great tragedy and great triumph through God’s grace. Both are also depictions of God’s providential workings in the background instead of through obvious miracles or divine visitations or visions.
Ruth is set during the early history of Israel as a nation and Esther is late Old Testament history. Ruth is a doubly unique book because not only is this Book named after a woman, but Ruth is also a foreigner to Israel. She is a Moabite.
How many of us here know the origins of the nation of Moab? Where did their ancestor, Moab come from? Way back in Genesis 19 we read the sad story of Lot and his family. Abraham’s nephew, Lot, had journeyed with his uncle into the land of Canaan where he and Abraham became so successful in their livestock that their herdsmen were quarrelling. Abraham, being a gracious man, gives Lot the choice of which direction to take his family and herds, telling Lot that he will go the other direction. Lot chooses what looks like the easy way and moves toward Sodom. Abraham goes the other direction.
Lot’s decision to take what looked like the easy way turned into a great disaster, didn’t it?
Lot and his family end up living IN the city of Sodom with its sinful wickedness until the Lord decides to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but rescues Lot, his wife and two daughters. Lot’s wife dies when they are escaping because she turned back. Lot is so afraid he goes into the hills and lives in a cave. The Bible tells us how Moab was born of an incestuous relationship as an idea of the oldest daughter. Moabite women had a stigma from that time on. Numbers 25:1-3 tells how the Moabite women seduced the Israelite men into sexual immorality and idolatry bringing God‘s punishment on Israel and 24,000 of the Israelites died as a consequence.
Listen to what Moses wrote in Deut. 23:3 No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord, 4 because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
Other Old Testament references show us that the nation of Moab was often at war with Israel. Moabite women, in particular, would not easily find a welcome in Israel considering their background. With this in mind, let’s enter the first chapter of Ruth.
In this first chapter Naomi’s name occurs 12 times, Ruth’s occurs 4 times. This chapter is primarily Naomi’s story and how she understood her relationship with God and how she came to meet and build a relationship with Ruth.
Let’s just walk through it together and let God speak to us a message from His word.
Read chapter 1
What does this chapter say about the Lord?
He comes to the aid of His people and gives them food. Vs. 6
Naomi calls on the Lord to bless her daughters in law with kindness and give them husbands. Vs. 8-9
Naomi sees God’s hand against herself. Vs. 13, 20-21.
Ruth accepts the God of Naomi as her God. Vs. 16.
What does it tell us about Naomi?
She is married with two sons. Vs. 1
She is from Bethlehem in Judah, but during a famine, she and her family go to Moab. V 1
Her husband dies in Moab.
Her sons marry Moabite women.
Her sons die in Moab.
She hears that the Lord has given help and food to Israel and decides to go home.
She encourages her daughters in law to go back home and blesses them in the name of the Lord.
She reflects on her dire condition to persuade them not to come with her and lays the responsibility for her condition on the hand of the Lord.
When Orpah leaves and Ruth will not leave, she urges her to go back to her people and her gods.
Naomi came back to Bethlehem accompanied by Ruth, the Moabite.
The whole town was stirred and recognized her when she arrived.
Naomi expresses her bitterness and three times lays the responsibility on the Lord.
The chapter ends: So, Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
What do we learn about Ruth?
She married one of Naomi’s sons, but we don’t know which until chapter 4:10.
She will not leave Naomi, and swears a beautiful, thoughtful oath of devotion stay with her.
In spite of Naomi’s understanding of God’s hand against her, Ruth tells Naomi, your God will be my God.
She made good on her word.
Little did Naomi know, but Ruth was to be God’s gift to her, and through this devoted Moabite daughter-in-law Naomi would enjoy God’s redeeming grace.
Application:
What is God’s message for us in this passage?
Let’s focus on Naomi. Just think about her condition! There’s the before picture with her happily married with two sons. She says in verse 21, I went away full! Her life with Elimelech in Bethlehem must have been sweet to her in many ways. She lives as an Ephrathite from Bethlehem in Judah! The word Ephrathite means fruitful and the name Bethlehem means house of bread. This is the place where life is good and food is plenteous and they are God’s people! They know the Lord. This is during the days of the Judges and it seems to be some of the good days… at first. There were many days and years of peace in those times, when the people were faithful and walking under the leadership of a faithful judge who had delivered them from some enemy like the Moabites. Othniel delivered them from Eglon, the king of Moab in Judges chapter 3.
Naomi believes that everything that happens to her is from the Lord’s hand, does she not?
But is this true? Does the Lord bring both blessing and calamity on us? Or does God only bring the good things? We know that every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights in whom there is no variation or shifting shadows. James tells us. And Jesus said, If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will God give good things to those who ask Him.
But what happens when the famine comes? Where do we run? What happens when tragedy and death strike? Where is God then?
James, who told us that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights began his letter saying, “Rejoice when you encounter various trials.” And Jesus, who said that God gives good things to those who ask Him also promised, “In this world you WILL have tribulation.” Notice, not might, but WILL have tribulation.
Naomi’s trials were extremely severe, were they not? She had to leave her homeland with her husband and sons during a famine and go live in enemy territory in Moab. It seems like there must have been peace at the time, but the Moabites were idol worshipping people who sometimes sacrificed their children to their false god, Chemosh. Imagine what the neighborhood must have been like! These were people God banned from coming into his presence. But now Naomi and the family are living among them. I wonder if she ever felt like Lot in Sodom?
Then her husband died! How sad. Naomi is an Israelite widow living in Moab. Her sons marry Moabite women. Perhaps Naomi is looking forward to grandchildren and hoping things will take a turn for the better, but no. Her sons die. Both of them! How did she handle the terrible weight of that? I wonder if she ever thought God was punishing her family for leaving the boarders of Israel? I don’t know, but one thing is clear: Naomi always saw in all that happened in her life the hand of the Lord. She was not happy with it, but to her, this was inescapable. They may have moved to Moab, but the hand of the Lord was still upon them. This was both a great burden and a great blessing for her. God’s presence, for good or ill, was the very fabric of her existence. This was the foundation of Naomi’s faith. It became the model for Ruth’s faith as well. Lesson? First, wherever you go, go with God. Second, know that God often uses the worst events to bring us the most valuable benefits. This principle is nowhere clearer than in the life and sacrifice of Jesus. Was God’s hand in the events leading up to Jesus’ cross? Was it not God who worked in that terrible time to accomplish His greatest victory?
Lesson three: Your life of faith during the worst times may have the greatest impact of producing faith in others. Ruth said to Naomi, your God will be my God. This, not because Naomi had made it big and successfully navigated to avoid the troubles of life, but because she could not see life in any other way but through the lens of God’s hand in it all.
