Introduction:
Anne and I may be driving along the highway, and out of the blue, she will say, “did you see that?” And for some reason, when she does that I am not usually looking in the same direction that she is, and I have to say: “No, what did you see, I missed it.”
Just like I miss what Anne sometimes sees because I am not looking in the same direction that she is looking; I sometimes miss what God is doing in my life and in the world because I don’t have my eyes focused the same place Jesus has His focused.
Did you know that according to Hebrews 12:2, our eyes should be fixed on Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith? If that is true, and it is true because it is the Word of God (let God be true and every man a liar), then where Jesus is looking, we ought to be looking. But we don’t always do that.
In our passage of Scripture this morning, a family didn’t do that, and they missed a lot of what God was doing in their life and most importantly, they missed the last-minute miracle that God performed. Our story takes us to two books of the Old Testament- The Book of Judges and the Book of Ruth.
The last chapter and the last verse of the Book of Judges sets the scene, and the first six verses of Ruth describes what they have missed. Let’s take a look at those Scriptures and make some statements about them.
Scripture Reading:
Judges 21:25 (KJV)
25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Judges
Ruth 1:1-6 (KJV)
1 Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehemjudah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.
2 And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehemjudah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there.
3 And Elimelech Naomi's husband died; and she was left, and her two sons.
4 And they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled there about ten years.
5 And Mahlon and Chilion died also both of them; and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband.
6 Then she arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread.
Background Information:
We are told in that last verse of Judges that the people of Israel took their eyes off of the Lord and did what was right in their own eyes. And we turn the page to the next book, Ruth, and it tells us in the very first verse, “now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled. So what are we to conclude about the family we are about to be introduced to? They have taken their eyes off of God, and they are doing what is right in their own eyes. That is an important thing to know as we read these first six verses of Ruth.
POINT #1
YOU DON’T KEEP YOUR FOCUS ON JESUS, AND YOU WILL START THINKING IT IS ALRIGHT TO TURN AWAY FROM GOD IF THINGS GET BAD ENOUGH.
Listen to what I am saying? We all have a spiritual breaking point. If too much bad stuff happens in your life while you are a Christian, you say to yourself, “what is the use,” and you pull away from the faith. You don’t read your Bible like you use to; you don’t pray like you use to; you find reasons not to be in church. Unfortunately, as a preacher, I see this all the time. And we never give any thought to the fact that some of this bad stuff that could be happening in our lives is because we are not doing what we should be doing.
Israel is suffering a famine in their land. If you read the Book of Judges, you know that God is using the famine to discipline the people for turning away from Him and enjoying the pleasures of sin. If you want to place blame, the children of Israel are to blame for the famine because they turned away from God, and God uses that famine to disciple the children of Israel because He loved them. We are not told of a mass exit of the people of Israel to land of Moab or any other country around the Promised Land. Most people stayed and dealt with the discipline of the Lord. What we are told about is one man that took his family and left Israel because he wanted none of that.
I can remember, as a young boy running away from the discipline of my dad once or twice. But I learned pretty quick to stand there and take it because if I ran when he got hold of me, and he always did, it was twice as bad. It was better to stand and take the disciple than to run and eventually have to take a readjusted measure of discipline.
Elimelech, in our Scripture, is not told by God to go sojourn in the land of the Moabites. He did not counsel with God even though his name means “My God is King.” In Elimelech’s mind, he has had enough, and he is going to do what he sees is right for himself and his family.
Listen to me: I don’t care how bad things get in your life; keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
POINT #2
YOU DON’T KEEP YOUR FOCUS ON JESUS, THE DETOURS THAT YOU TAKE AS A BREAK FROM HIM WILL LAST LONGER THAN YOU THINK.
Another thing that I hear people say, I am just going to take a break from God and church. Listen to me that is so dangerous because that little break from God or church may not stay a short break. It might turn into a big break or worse case a lifetime break.
In Ruth verse 2, we are told it was the initial intention of Elimelech to sojourn in the country of Moab. Now, I looked up the definition of “sojourn,” and it means to stay somewhere temporarily. Some words that are similar to sojourn are a stopover, to visit, or to vacation. The idea is that Elimelech went to Moab with the intention of staying there with his family for only a short time.
But look with me at verse 4, they dwelled there for about ten years. I don’t know about you, but if Anne’s sister came to sojourn and stayed for ten years, I would say that she stayed for nine years and 50 weeks longer than she should have stayed.
And the Bible wants to make sure that you catch this point. In verse 1, they sojourned in the country of Moab, but in verse 4, they dwelled in Moab for ten years. They went from a short visit to making themselves at home. You parents need to be careful that your adult kids don’t come to sojourn and end up dwelling there.
In other words, they left Israel with no intention of staying ten years, but you take your eyes off of Jesus, and I can promise you that you will stay where you don’t want to be longer than you want.
POINT #3
YOU DON’T KEEP YOUR FOCUS ON JESUS, THE BEST THAT YOU CAN HOPE FOR IS TO HEAR ABOUT THE LAST MINUTE MIRACLES OF GOD BECAUSE YOU WON’T BE IN A POSITION TO SEE THEM.
There is this commercial on television were these people are watching some sports event, and nothing is happening. So, one of them gets up to get something out of the fridge, and you hear the people in the back room screaming because something just happened and he missed it because he was not in the right place to see it first hand. And it goes on with two similar scenes, one with a guy starting to dose off and he misses why the others are shouting. And in the final scene, one of the guys gets up and answers the door for the pizza delivery, and as he is taking the pizza from the delivery guy, the people are shouting because something just happened and he missed it.
Naomi has missed it. She did not see first hand the miracle of God supplying bread to His people. The best that she could settle for is hearing about it second hand how God has visited His people. We are told that in verse 6. You take your eyes off of Jesus; you are only going to get second-hand knowledge about what God is doing.
If you think about it, it is dangerous to miss Sunday School, worship and Wednesday night because if God breaks into time and space and you are not here, you missed it. And the best you can settle for is second-hand knowledge. I don’t know about you, but if God does a miracle, I want to see it.
Let us pray!
