We are going to start a new series today in the Book of Ruth.
What do we know about that Book of Ruth?
For one thing, this short Book consisting of only four chapters and 100 verses is a link between the time of the judges and the kings of Israel.
Remember that during the time of the Judges, everyone did what was evil in their own sight.
They were under bondage due to sin and God allowed a foreign nation to invade them as a punishment.
But once they prayed and repented from their sins, God would send a judge or a deliverer who would rule for a few years.
After the death of that judge, the nation went back to sin and slavery.
Hence, there is this cycle of sin that we talked about - being oppressed by the enemy, repentance by crying to God and ultimately deliverance.
The Book of Judges therefore was like the dark ages of the nation of Israel desperately in need of light and direction.
The next book of Ruth on the other hand is like the sparkle of a light shining during those dark times when the provision of the kinsman-redeemer is introduced.
God has been working all along in the background even if all around us is full of darkness and despair.
God was slowly disclosing his plan for redemption in the unfolding love story of Ruth and Boaz.
This book therefore is a picture of God's providential working in Israel to bring alive the genealogy of the Promised Messiah through the line of David.
Someday, the King will rule in God's Kingdom who will be the Great Deliverer of Israel.
There are only two books in the Bible that are named and devoted for women in the ongoing plan of redemption.
These are the Books of Ruth and Esther.
Esther was a Hebrew woman who married a Gentile king.
God used Esther during a strategic time of Israel history to help preserve the nation of Israel from destruction.
Ruth on the other hand was a Gentile woman (she was a Moabites) who married a Hebrew man living in Moab.
One author called this Book of Ruth as "the greatest piece of literature ever written" because of the clear narrative display of its story.
Another writer called this as "the Cinderella of the Bible" because it is a story of how a poor pagan girl named Ruth came to be part of the covenant of Israel.
So, let's examine this wonderful story of the Book of Ruth.
Chapter one started when Elimelech who lived during the time of the Judges made a wrong decision by taking his family and relocating them to a place of pagan worship, a place of sin and lawlessness called Moab.
The people there were called Moabites and were descendants of a man named Moab.
If you remember, Moab was the son of an incestuous relationship between Lot and one of his daughters after they fled the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The land of Moab is located just across the Jordan River, east of the Promised Land.
The people of Moab have been attacking and opposing Israel, seeking to destroy the people of God especially during the Israel wanderings.
It is to this despised and wicked nation that Elimelech relocated or immigrated his family where they experienced various setbacks in life such as hardships, famine and death.
Elimelech was married to Naomi and they had two sons, named Mahlon and Kilion.
However, after some time, Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons.
They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth.
After they had lived there in Moab for about ten years, another unfortunate thing happened, both Mahlon and Kilion also died.
We were not told in the Bible how Naomi's sons died but it was a recognized fact.
They were left as three poor widows in the land of famine who had to take care of themselves the hard way - Naomi, Orpha and Ruth.
Considering the very difficult situation they were facing, Naomi heard a good news regarding their homeland.
There was food in the land where they came from - Judah.
She then decided to venture and go to back to Judah and hope that life would be better there.
They did not know that in the midst of the overwhelming situations they were going through at that time, God's providence was at work.
The key word of this book is "mercy" which speaks of God's faithfulness borne out of kindness and love.
It is important for us to study this short Old Testament Book because we all go through difficulties and bitter setbacks in life.
Sometimes we don't know what to do when these difficulties come about.
We easily become discouraged and waver in our Christian faith.
We become bitter and are not able to face our situation with courage and strength.
This short book of Ruth will help us see that there are great possibilities ahead that we are not aware of.
The grace of God is at work in the background connecting us to great possibilities ahead.
We have been far from His presence and we have been overly focused on the problems instead of directing our thoughts on God.
We do not know that in spite of the thick darkness we encounter, there is a road ahead that will lead us to our deliverance.
This book of Ruth therefore will remind us that God is in control of our lives and He is able to turn those setbacks into stepping stones for joy and success.
We must therefore pray what David prayed in Psalms 51:10 (NIV)
“10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."
Because many times, when the situation around us is unbearable, our spirit is wavering and weak.
But if we learn to trust God, we can be relentless and unwavering in our faith.
And so, our prayer to God is to create in us a pure, obedient and dedicated heart.
Our prayer is that we must set aside that heart of bitterness, that heart of rebellion and hatred.
The way to do that is make the right choice each day because many times, we make the wrong choices that leads us to failures.
That is why in our study of the first chapter of the Book of Ruth, we will look at the different choices that had been made whether good or bad that had its corresponding consequences.
When Naomi chose to return home.
When Ruth chose to return with her.
And when Naomi chose resentment.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FIRST CHAPTER OF RUTH.
1. NAOMI CHOOSES TO RETURN HOME
Ruth 1:6-7 (NIV) 6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been livingand set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah."
We find here in verse 6 that Naomi while in Moab heard wonderful things that God was doing back in their home land of Judah.
There was no longer famine in that land and God has now provided food for His people.
It is time to go home.
It is time to renew her relationships with her relatives, friends and fellow Israelites.
It is time to partake of God's blessings which they have missed for so long.
She then decided to take with her the two daughters-in-law (who were also widows just like her) and set out on that lonely and far road towards home.
She could not believe her mind that she is finally going home after many years of living in that land of wickedness and sin.
But she had many thoughts in her heart.
How will they receive them?
Where will they live?
What would they say to them?
Her heart was excited but at the same time anxious with this thought of going home.
How about you?
How about going back home to God's guidance and care after living for many years in a life of sin?
Are you that excited to come back home to God or it generates fear, hesitation or doubts in your mind?
You see, if you have wandered far far away from God's presence, it is time to go home with hope and expectation.
If you have taken the path of sin for too long, it is time to come home to the path of holiness and purity of living.
If you have wasted many precious years in ignorance and lies of the enemy, it is time to go home in truth and spiritual productivity.
It is time to repent from those bitter years of sin and misery and go home where you can enjoy rest and peace in God's care.
Brothers and sisters, we need to go home to Christ's love where there is life and peace and joy.
Receive Christ as Lord and Savior.
Rededicate your life to God.
Reject the life of sin.
The story of Naomi is a story of a believer coming home to God's fold.
She had been far away from home and far away from God for many years.
Now we find her coming home and wanting to come back to God.
You see, a believer away from God does not give glory to God.
A believer out of fellowship with God can no longer enjoy the presence of God.
A believer will only dishonor the Lord if he is of great distance from God.
And so, consider coming back home where there is an abundant love, hope and joy.
Attend worship regularly, involve yourself in Bible study and prayer.
I assure you, you will be richly blessed when you start in that right direction.
Remember the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15?
It is a story of a believer coming home after spending many years in a distant land.
He was wasting his time and money on pleasures of sin, and one day, he found himself bankrupt with nothing to eat.
And so, he employed himself into taking care of pigs.
There he began to realize what he lost when he ran away from home.
And so, he recognized his desperate condition.
He recognized his father's sufficiency and finally he decided to return home.
This was a wise decision because at the end, his father accepted him and restored him back to the family, to abundance and prosperity.
In the same manner, what do you do when you are facing insurmountable problems in life?
What do you do when there is famine in the land?
What do you do if you have wandered far far away from home?
What do you do when you have neglected to pray and read your Bible?
Our next lesson will clearly tell us what to do.
RETURN TO THE LORD OUR GOD. Joel 2:13 (NIV) 13 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity."
The prophet Joel encourages us to return to the Lord our God.
To return means to be restored, to recover what was lost or to rebound to the previous position you had before.
Many times, we had difficulty returning to God because we though that he will not accept us due to our insurmountable sins.
But the text assures us that God is gracious and compassionate.
That means God is sympathetic to us, he is warm and merciful.
And so, we need to reject those negative thoughts about God and proceed with our desire to be reconciled to him.
Let us return to Him with an open and loving heart.
Let us return to Him with a repentant heart.
What should we do as we return to God?
This will lead us to the next lesson.
TRUST GOD IN THE MIDST OF THE PROBLEMS. Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."
If you want to return home, you need to learn how to develop your trust on God each day.
Because in the past, you probably have trusted more on yourself, your own abilities, your own knowledge more than God.
Now is the time to trust God for provision, for guidance, for direction and for the future.
Trusting in God builds a love relationship that is hard to break.
That is why the Text on Proverbs reminds us that trust must be with whole heart, fully submitting oneself to Him daily.
Then, when you do that, your paths will be straight and solid.
So, what do you do when you have insurmountable problems ahead of you?
You trust God even more that it will be all right.
Let me tell you a story.
One of the most amazing things in nature is the story of the birds migration over long distances.
According to the 2010 researchers, the Arctic tern makes the longest migration of any bird in the world traveling an average of 44,000 miles per year.
This type of bird travels from Greenland in the Arctic north all the way down to the Weddell Sea in Antarctica.
Its migration takes it from pole to pole as it travels from the breeding grounds to the feeding grounds and back.
Since this type of birds often live 30 years or more, the researchers estimate that, over its lifetime, an arctic tern migrates about 1.5 million miles (2.4 million kilometers) which is equal to three trips to the moon and back.
Wow. That is so mind-blowing.
No matter how far they had been, ultimately, they will be back home to where they come from.
In the same manner, no matter how far you have been in your life, it is good to go home and rebuild your relationship with God.
Naomi chose to return home.
2. RUTH CHOOSES TO RETURN WITH HER
Ruth 1:16-18 (NIV) 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. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her."
When Naomi decided to go home to Judah, she brought with her her two daughters in law from Moab who are now both widows also - Naomi and Orpha.
But along the way, Naomi thought that her two daughters-in-law might not be able to enjoy in the place she calls home because they have not been in Judah all their lives
And so, she bid them to go back into their mother’s home.
She even prayed for them that the Lord will show kindness to them and grant each of them rest in the home of another husband.
Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud.
But when they both insisted to go back with her, she reiterated that they could freely return home.
She told them that there was no reason for them to go with her in Judah.
She had no more sons who could become their husbands.
And even if she thinks there was still hope for her to have a husband and then give birth to sons, it would be impossible for them to wait until they grow up.
And so, they wept aloud together and Orpah kissed her mother in-law goodbye, but the Bible says that Ruth clung to her.
And so, Ruth made a choice to return with her in the land of Judah even if she had not been there before.
Her words were powerful: "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.
Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.
May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”
Those are words filled with earnest consecration, of determined friendship with her mother-in-law and above all, filled with great faith.
Even if Naomi urged Ruth to go back to Moab yet, she persisted in joining her of the long travel back home.
She chose to stick to Naomi's God and to her people.
"Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God."
This choice means an act of renunciation of Moab and receiving of all that is about the true and living God.
It was a declaration of her separation from what she once believed in and embracing faith in the God of Israel.
She broke all his old loyalties of the past life of sin and embrace a life of worship to the true God.
That, my brothers and sisters is what it means to be a true Christian - following Christ.
Jesus said, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself - this is the self-renunciation we need to make in Christian discipleship.
It means you deny yourself and relinquish the power of the old self in order to embrace the new life in Christ.
The old self does not rule anymore but God is now in full control.
You are determined, you are fully consecrated and you are full of faith in your commitment to Christ.
That is the same thing when Peter told Jesus, "We have left all and follow you."
When you come to Christ, you left all and follow Him.
That is also the same thing when Paul wrote that all the things he once considered to be his tremendous attainment are now counted as loss for the surpassing knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then he said, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."
This is the attitude that we need to learn as we grow in Christ likeness.
We renounce the old life of sin and misery and we embrace Christ and His Word.
Have you made that decision already?
Or are there some sins that you have difficulty leaving that makes it hard for you to follow Christ?
Ruth made a good choice of returning home with her.
You can make a good choice as well.
This brings us to the next life lesson.
WE ARE TO CHOOSE TO LOVE GOD.
Everyday, you have to make a choice - to love God or to love the things of this world.
The prophet Hosea encourages us to return to God.
Hosea 12:6 (NIV) 6 But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always."
You see, we make hundreds of decisions everyday.
We decide on what we'll eat, what we'll do, what we'll wear and what we'll watch on TV and so on.
All these decisions are of great significance.
But choosing to love God is the most important decision you will ever make in this life.
Because every choice is a seed you sow, and those seeds will produce fruits in your life - either for life or for death.
When you choose to love God, it is for your life that will change your situation for the better.
And so, the text tells us to choose to return to God, to maintain love and justice.
So, don't waste another day missing out the good life that God has for you.
Choose to love God more each day.
And as you choose to love God more, we now go to the next lesson.
WE ARE TO CHOOSE TO REMAIN FAITHFUL IN OUR RELATIONSHIPS. Psalms 85:10 (NIV) 10 Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other."
Once we have chosen to love God, we will learn what it means to be faithful in our relationships with other people particularly with our spouses.
Because Christ is the model of faithfulness.
The more we love God, the more we will be faithful in our relationships.
You see, one of the things that can destroy the relationship of husband and wife is mental and emotional infidelity.
People are overcome with infidelity because they have no power of their own to overcome the power of lust.
Only Christ will give us the power to be an overcomer.
That is why the text says that in Christ, love and faithfulness meet together.
In Christ, righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Christ is the basis of remaining faithful in every relationship.
Do you know that according to American Demographics Magazine, one-third (35 percent) of Americans today say they have been through a breakup at least once in the past 10 years.
Americans under age 35 are twice as likely as those between 35 and 54, and nearly five times as likely as those 55 and older, to have split with a significant other in the past decade.
In fact, 59 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 say they have recently experienced a breakup.
Although half of women (51 percent) say they initiated their most recent split, only 32 percent of men say their partner dumped them.
Infidelity is the number one reason cited by women when asked about the cause of their most recent breakup.
The number one reason guys say they split with their last partner was that they simply “grew apart."
1 in 4 women say abuse was a factor in their most recent breakup, compared with just 10 percent of men.
43 percent of Americans who have been through a recent breakup say they called friends or family afterward, and 29 percent say they rented movies or watched a lot of TV (multiple answers were allowed).
36 percent of adults get over an ex by dating someone new, and 22 percent drown their sorrows in alcohol.
We really need to learn how to be faithful in every relationships.
And we need to learn total commitment.
There was a story of a college student who walked into a photography studio with a framed picture of his girlfriend.
He wanted the picture duplicated.
This involved removing it from the frame.
In doing this, the studio owner noticed the inscription on the back of the photograph:
“My dearest Tom, I love you with all my heart.
I love you more and more each day.
I will love you forever and ever.
I am yours for all eternity.”
It was signed "Helen,” and it contained a P.S.: “If we ever break up, I want this picture back.”
Helen was obviously not completely committed to that relationship.
When Ruth declared: "Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay."
That’s the kind of commitment God admires - unqualified commitment.
First, Naomi chose to return home.
Second, Ruth chose to return with her.
3. NAOMI CHOOSES RESENTMENT TOWARDS GOD
Ruth 1:19-22 (NIV) 19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” 20 “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” 22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning."
Their arrival created a lot of sensation to the community that when the two women arrived in Bethlehem, the attitude of Naomi changed into bitterness.
Probably, a lot of people recognized Naomi when she arrived that they could not believe what they were seeing.
They could not believe that it was Naomi who left the town with great wealth and always smiling but now returning empty and very bitter.
She had been in Moab for ten years with all its misery and anguish.
She lost her fellowship with God and she dried up spiritually.
The burdens she carried were so overwhelming.
Consider what she lost in ten years - she lost her husband, she lost her two sons, she lost her security, she lost her possession and she lost her status and her closeness to God.
Because of that, her feelings and her attitude towards life had been severely affected.
When she left Judah, she was sweet and smiling, now, she came home sour and bitter.
She even blamed God for her poverty and for the desolation she had to endure.
Naomi chose resentment towards God and it was a big mistake.
Why should she be bitter towards God?
Isn't it that it was an act of disobedience when she and her husband left Bethlehem for Moab?
If only she stayed in her own land and maintained her trust in God, in spite of the famine, it would have been different.
God would have provided for them and carried them through.
Her fellowship with God would not have been affected.
But the journey to Moab was a journey away from God and into the hands of idol worshipers.
Consequently, spiritual emptiness take root and bitterness was the fruit of such disobedience.
And that is the same thing with each one of us.
You could choose to be sweet or you could choose to be resentful all your life - that's your choice.
You could choose to be happy or you could choose to be sad.
It all depends on the things you allow to pass through your thoughts.
Bitterness can make you hostile to others and even blame God for your present predicament.
Sometimes, heavy burdens of life can also drive you back to emotional bitterness and despair.
When that happens, we tend to conclude that no one cares and that everyone is our enemy.
Only Christ can take the load off your back.
And so, don't be wrapped up in self-pity.
Don't feel that you have been abandoned.
Don't think that you have been forsaken.
God has something good ahead for your life and it's just hidden in plain sight.
Open your eyes to the love and concern of others.
God has placed somebody in your path to be a friend to you.
This brings us to the next lesson of life.
DO NOT ALLOW EVIL TO DOMINATE OUR THOUGHTS. Romans 12:21 (NIV) 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
You see, if you allow evil to dominate your thoughts, you will be overcome by evil and feelings of bitterness.
That is what happened to Naomi.
She was already in her home land but bitterness dominated her thoughts instead of thanksgiving.
Do you know that a violent battle is raging 24 hours a day in every thoughts of men - between the forces of evil and the forces of good.
This battle for dominion of your mind is vicious and intense.
The reason why it is intense is that your greatest asset is in your mind and Satan wants to enter with lies.
When you allow evil to dominate your thoughts, you will have difficulty connecting with God.
When you allow evil to dominate your thoughts, you are allowing garbage to enter your thoughts.
And of course, garbage in will automatically allow garbage out in your life.
And so, the only way to dominate evil with good is to guard your mind from garbage, to strengthen your thoughts with godly ideas, to renew your mind with God's Words daily and put all thoughts captive in the name of Christ.
And this will lead us to the next life lesson.
ALLOW CHRIST TO DWELL IN OUR HEARTS. Ephesians 3:17-19 (NIV)17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
It is God's desire to dwell in a heart where there is faith, love and obedience.
When Christ enters our hearts, He desires to dwell and fill our body with life and glory.
The desire of God is to have a house, a habitation, a dwelling place where He coudl stay and where you are right now.
We must therefore allow Christ to dwell in our hearts.
Closing story:
Naomi was a woman whose life was full of bitterness.
She is like the monk described by Dr. Tony Evans in his book, "Guiding Your Family in a Misguided World."
There were two monks that walked along a river's edge one day.
Suddenly, they saw an old woman sitting by the bank.
That old woman was so upset because there was no bridge for him to cross.
One of the monks offered to carry her across. to which she agreed.
So, the two monks joined hands and carried her to the other side.
She thanked them and went on her way.
After the two monks had walked a mile or two, the second monk began to complain about the pain in his back and the dirt on his clothes.
A few minutes later, the second monk griped again, "My back is hurting badly, I cannot go on."
And he asked his fellow traveler, "Isn't your back hurting?"
"Of course not.", replied the first monk.
"You're still carrying the woman, but I set her down several miles ago."
This is the attitude of Naomi.
She was already in Judah where there is food, but it seems she feels she was still in Moab due to her bitterness.
And many people have the same problem of discontent even if God has already delivered them from famine.
It is time to be grateful to the Lord
It is time to resist evil thoughts and let Christ dwell in our hearts.
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