A woman who wanted her apartment painted while she
was out of town was very fussy. She insisted that the ceiling
be painted the exact shade of her ash tray. The painters
after trying to mix this exact shade unsuccessfully finally hit
upon a solution to their problem. They painted the ash tray
with the same shade they used to paint the ceiling. When the
woman returned she was delighted with the perfect match
they had made.
Problems sometimes can be solved so easily, to the liking
of everyone involved, but unfortunately, paint does not cover
them all. Dr. Paul Tournier, the famous Christian psychiatrist,
says people come to him all the time for help in
solving their problems, and he discovers they are caught in
unsolvable vicious circles. They need faith to experience
God's grace, but they need God's grace to find faith. They
need forgiveness in order to love, but they need love in order
to forgive and be forgiven. Self-confidence is needed in
order to succeed, but success is need to give them
self-confidence. The list can go on and on to the point that it
leaves problem solvers wishing they had chosen math rather
than people, for all math problems do have answers, but
how do you solve the problems of people?
Sometimes it seems like you can't win. Like the little boy
who came home from school and told his mother he was in a
fine fix. The teachers says I have to learn to write more
legibly, and if I do she will find out that I can't spell. Even
kids feel the vicious circle. The reason advice columns are
so popular is because everybody is looking for solutions to
their problems. Marriage, family, sex, relationships of all
kinds, the world cries out, "Help me with my problems!"
And an array of experts are striving everyday to find
answers to that cry. The most thought word in the English
language, if not the most uttered, is help!
If you give a little thought to the professions of life, you
discover they almost all revolve around problems. If there
we no medical or physical problems, the doctors, nurses, and
hospitals, with all of the surgeons and specialists would have
no reason for their existence. They exist to solve problems.
If there were no legal problems, the lawyers and judges would
be out of a job. If there were no problems with crime
and fire, policemen and firemen could all be laid off. If
there were no problems with the mental and emotional
stress of life, the psychologist, psychiatrist, and counselors
could all close shop. If cars, trucks, and planes, never
developed a problem, the mechanics would all be useless. If
ignorance was not a problem, teachers and universities
could call it quits. We could go on and on making it clear
that just about everything that life is about is some form of
problem solving.
The entire Bible is a problem solving book. It tells us that
God has a major problem.
How can He save fallen man who has disobeyed His will?
The whole revelation of God is dealing with this problem.
Jesus came to be the great problem solver. He healed people
of their physical, mental, moral, and even social problems.
He then died on the cross to solve, once and for all, the
problem of sin, and make it possible for all sin to be
forgiven. He then rose from the dead to solve the greatest
problem in man's mind, how can I live forever? The Gospel
is God at His best in problem solving, but even that does not
end it all. Problems are what the rest of the New Testament
is all about. The problem of weak Christians, baby
Christians, backsliding Christians, rebellious Christians,
and unsanctified Christians.
We could go on and on listing the problems the New
Testament deals with, but the specifics are not our focus at
this point. This survey is to help us get the over all picture
of the Bible and life so we can see the book of Ruth in its full
context. Ruth is a book about real life, the real life of real
men and women. The result is, it is a book which is problem
oriented from the very first verse. It is one continuous battle
to find sense in a world that so often seems senseless. The
first problem of the book is:
1. A FEDERAL PROBLEM. The government of Israel in
those troubled times was very poor. Every man did what
was right in his own eyes. The judges were spectacular, but
no one person can make a good government, and so people
were at the mercy of circumstances, and had little control
over their lives.
2. A FAMINE PROBLEM. Nature became a foe rather
than a friend to man, and this is more than man can handle.
Famine destroys plans and dreams. It forces people to make
radical decisions, and this book starts with a man named
Elimelech who was forced by the famine to take his wife and
two sons, and move away from Bethlehem to the Gentile
land of Moab. The problems begin to multiply like fruit flies
on a rotten banana. The whole external world is messed up,
and that messes up a lot of lives, and so you have the third
problem,
3. A FINANCIAL PROBLEM. Here is one of many families
who cannot make it in Israel. They have to pull up roots,
and become refugees, hoping for a better life in a foreign
land. But sometimes the solution to a problem leads to other
problems, and they might even be worse than the problem
they are meant to solve.
Back in the mid 1800's millions of blackbirds deviating
from their normal migratory pattern decided to land on the
farm of Dr. Fredric Dorsey, in the state of Maryland. He
tried everything to get them to fly away, but to no avail.
Guns and firecrackers were ineffective. So he scattered
wheat soaked in arsenic over his fields. The blackbirds,
eager to wash the foreign substance from their throats,
rushed to the new by stream, and millions of them dropped
dead in that stream. By the next morning the congestion of
dead birds had dammed up the stream, and Dorsey's farm
was flooded and completely under water. His solution was
worse than the problem.
4. A FAMILY PROBLEM. This problem runs through all
the other problems, for it is the family that suffers in a world
of stress. The family is pushed and pulled and pummeled by
the negative circumstances. Bad government hurts the
family; bad crops and bad economy hurts the family; bad
environment and rootlessness hurts the family. In verse 3
the ultimate in family problems hits us, as Elimelech dies,
and leaves his wife and two boys without a husband and
father. Put this on film, and you've got a tear-jerker, and we
haven't reached the bottom of the pit even yet. The next two
verses describe two of the shortest biographies of history.
Mahlon and Kilion, the two boys of Naomi were married
and buried, and thats it. It says they lived ten years with
their wives, but their were no children, and they both died
suddenly.
We are five verses into this story, and already every male
has been removed from the stage by death, and we are left
with three widows. The subtitle of this book could be,
Murphy's Law In History, which says, if anything can go
wrong, it will. You can count on it, Naomi believed in this
law. The book of Ruth read superficially sounds like a story
of trivialities, but when you see with your heart, and enter
into the setting, and feel the emotions involved, you see it as
a story of profound tragedy, and of how faith triumphs over
tragedy. It is a book about the real world. The world of loss
and grief and stress, and one problem after another. The
whole book deals with problem after problem.
How do widows survive?
How do mother-in-laws, and daughter-in-laws relate?
How do you deal with suffering and depression?
How do you cope with failure?
How do you find a nice man?
How do you court again and remarry?
How do you win in the battle of love?
How do you respect the rights of others when they conflict
with yours?
These are just some of the problems with book deals with.
The good news is, this problem oriented book gives us a
theology of problems. That is, it reveals to us how we are to
look at the problems of life in order to see them as God sees
them. They are real but redeemable. Even when the
problems make life a hell, there is hope. The beauty of the
book of Ruth is that it gives us a realistic and balanced perspective
that can make us relevant in the world as it really is.
It forces us to recognize and acknowledge both the
pessimistic and the positive perspective on problems. Let's
consider first-
I. THE PESSIMISTIC PERSPECTIVE ON PROBLEMS.
By this I mean the realistic recognition that problems are
very real. They can make life miserable and hard to bear,
and there are no pat answers. In other words, there are
things to really cry about. In verse 9 the three widows wept
aloud, and after Naomi described the hopelessness of her
ever providing her two daughters-in-law with husbands,
verse 14 says, "At this they wept again." This is real sorrow,
and when Naomi got back to Bethlehem she expresses her
depth of sorrow and grief in verse 20 by saying, "Call me
mara because the Almighty has made my life very bitter."
The point is, her problems are very real, and there is no easy
solution. She lost her entire family. It is true it could have
been worse. Ruth might have gone back to her people and
left her completely alone. But the fact is, she was no longer a
wife or a mother, the two most important roles of a Jewish
woman. These problems were never solved, for she never
knew again the love of man, and she never again had a child
of her own.
The story ends with her joy as a grandmother with her
grandson Obed in her lap, but the fact is, some of the major
problems of her life were never solved. In some ways her
story is harder than that of Job. He still had his wife when
his battle was over, and she bore him more children, so that
all of his problems were finally resolved. Not so for Naomi,
for she suffered loses that were never restored, and we are
forced to face up to the reality of the pessimistic perspective
on problems. This simply means there are problems which
have no solution. They just have to endured. They are pot
holes in the road. They serve no good purpose, and they are
not the means to a better end. They are just a pain and a
nuisance, but they are part of the journey of life, and you
need to put up with them if you are going to go anywhere.
The Christian does not escape the problems of life. Every
disease and accident that happens, happens to Christians.
They do not escape the ravages of war. When the blitz hit
London, 36 of the 51 churches designed by the famous
Christopher Wren were reduced to rubble. The stress of life
hits the Christian family just as it does all other families.
Jay Kesler, one of the leading authorities on the Christian
family, and president of Youth For Christ, says in his book, I
Want A Home With No Problems, "I don't believe there is a
solution to every problem." That sounds to pessimistic, but
it is not, for it is just pessimistic enough to be a Christian
perspective. It is Christian to face up to the full truth of
reality. Jesus did, and that is why He too had the pessimistic
perspective on problems.
Was Jesus ever a pessimist? Of course He was. He faced
up to the reality of problems that would not be solved. He
wept over Jerusalem, for He knew they would not repent
and so would be destroyed. He taught over and over again
of how His generation would be worse off in judgment that
the ancient cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom. He told of the
evil spirit who left, and then later came back to find a man
empty, and He took with him 7 other evil spirits, so that the
final condition of the man was worse than at first. And so it
will be of this generation Jesus said.
Jesus was a realistic pessimist in most all of His parables.
He made it clear that much seed would never produce fruit.
Weed would grow with the wheat, and be burned at the
harvest. The bad fish would be thrown away. The goats
would not be allowed to enter the kingdom with the sheep.
Yes, Jesus was a pessimist, if you mean by this, He
recognized that all problems will be solved. Jesus accepted
the reality of evil, and clearly acknowledge that many would
be loyal to evil to the end, and not take advantage of the
solution to evil provided in the cross. Jesus had a pessimistic
perspective in His theology of problems. That is why He
wept, and that is why He said there are times when you just
have to shake the dust off your feet and move on, for some
people will never accept God's solution. He wept as the rich
young ruler walked away. A Biblical theology of problems
says, sometimes it is realistic to be pessimistic. But of
course, it is never realistic to see only the pessimistic, for we
need to see also-
II. THE POSITIVE PERSPECTIVE ON PROBLEMS.
This sounds like a contradiction, for the word problem is
a negative word for a negative experience. If something is
not negative it is usually not called a problem. But we need
to see there is a positive and happy side to problems.
Problems call for problem solving, and problem solving is
the catalyst for all progress. Regina Wyieman says of
problems, "They keep us from settling into stagnant pools.
They swirl us into the deepest currents of real living and
make us reach out for the life-line of life."
No one is ever saved until they realize they have the
problem of being lost. No one ever seeks forgiveness who
does not feel the problem of their sin. Prodigals never
return if they have no problems with their sinful lifestyle.
Nobody changes their behavior until they see their present
behavior as a problem. Problem awareness is the key to all
progress. The people who do most to alleviate problems are
those who are most aware of the problems. Thank God for
problem solvers in the realm of science. They devote their
lives to the solving of problems that most people do not even
know exist. There are problems in our lifestyle, and in what
we eat and drink and breathe, and these problems destroy
lives by the millions. We would never know why, and never
come up with a solution without problem solvers. People
who focus on problems become a blessing to all of us, and
give us hope that new solutions will continue to be found.
This is the essence of science, the striving to prevent and
solve problems.
You don't always solve all your problems, just as Naomi
did not, but in spite of her depression and near despair, she
pressed on in her problem solving and made a place for
herself in God's plan. By her wisdom and counsel she found
a husband for her daughter-in-law Ruth, and she became
the grandmother of the boy who became the grandfather of
David, the King of Israel. She played the major role in the
Gentile Ruth becoming a child of God, and an ancestor of
the Messiah. She did not solve all her problems, but by her
positive persistence she aided in God's plan to solve the
problems of all the world.
The positive perspective of problems says, I will strive to
use problems in such a way that they will benefit myself and
others. If my problem cannot be solved, I will not give up or
crack up, press on in hope that God will use my unsolvable
problem to lead me in directions that fulfill His purpose.
This is the story of Naomi. This positive perspective does
not minimize the heartaches of life, and try to pretend they
are no big deal. It recognizes they are as bad as language is
able to convey, but they never close the door to hope, for
God can and does work even in life's worse problems to
produce possibilities that are positive. It is superficial to
deny the reality of tragedy, but it is equally superficial to
think that tragedy has the last word. The story of Ruth is a
story of triumph in spite of tragedy, and it gives us the
balance theology of problems. The total pessimist and the
total optimist are both alike in that they are both unrealistic.
If you want to really help and comfort people, and motive
them to press on, you must have the Biblical perspective that
takes both the pessimistic and positive seriously.
What are the practical applications of this theology of
problems? First of all, it puts the right name on reality. It
doesn't call evil good. Evil is still evil, even if God brings
good out of it. The crucifixion was unjust and evil even if
God did use it for our salvation. If your child blows out an
eye with firecrackers, God may so lead that one eyed child to
become a blessing beyond our dreams, but losing an eye by
such violence is still bad and negative. Call it by its right
name, and do not cover over the evil of life. A proper
theology of problems enables us to be honest about the
negative as well as the positive.
The Christian goal is not to cover up the evil, and figure
out how it is good, but to overcome the evil with good. That
is the message of the Bible in both Testaments.
God does not try to turn vice into virtue, but rather, to
develop virtues that eliminate the vices. Naomi did not turn
grief into happiness, or depression into delight, for it cannot
be done. These are real evils and cannot be made into good
things. She went beyond them by her courage and faith, and
persistence, to develop new goals and new purpose, and God
blessed her with joy. Her tragedy never became a good
thing. It cannot be done, but a bad thing can be overcome
and motivate you to find new goals and dreams that are
good.
To often Christian demand that the positive cancel out
the negative so that we are not allowed to express our anger
and bitterness about life's problems, as we see them
expressed in the Bible. We suppress our problems, and fear
it is not Christian to feel like Naomi, or Job, or David, as
they poor out their complaints. We hold it in and suffer the
consequences of resentment, and all sorts of mental and
emotional problems. The Bible would allow us to express
our complaints and prevent these negative consequences.
Christians have a right to have problems, and to feel they
really are problems, and to say so. It is perfectly normal to
have problems. We can even go so far as to say it is
Christlike to have problems. Problems are not sin, for Jesus
had no sin, but He had plenty of problems. He had all kinds
of relational problems with His disciples, Jewish leaders,
and crowds of people. He also had personal problems. Even
as a child He had the conflict between obedience to His
earthly parents, or being about His Father's business.
At the close of His life He said, "Now is my soul
troubled." Jesus had enormous stress, as He had to cope
with His disciples betraying Him and denying Him. The
leaders of Israel would not listen to Him, and the crowds
would not believe in Him. He had to endure problems we
cannot grasp, for He had to take on Him the sin of the
world. The awful struggle of Gethsemane, and the cry of
despair from the cross is beyond our comprehension. A
false unbalanced theology of problems would sweep these
things under the rug, and play the game of cover up. These
things would be blotted from the record, and Jesus would
have gone to the cross with a smile on His face singing It
Will Be Worth It All. He knew that to be true, but He also
had to suffer real and tragic evil.
The point I am trying to make clear is that it is all right
to have problems. It is not out of God's will to be frustrated
and aggravated by the problems of life. It is sub-Christian
to settle down in that dark valley, but it is not sub-Christian
to go through it. Jesus was there, and He shared it with us
in the Word so we could feel free to be honest about our
own feelings in the same situation. The problems of life are
not illusions, but real, and we have an obligation to be
honest about them.
We don't always know how some of our problems will
work out. Naomi never knew her grandson became the
grandfather of one of Israel's greatest kings, and a part of
the blood line to the Messiah. Ruth may have lived to the
time of David and seen her great grandson, but it is not
likely. The point is, these women did the best they could,
and sought to do the will of God in their life time, and left
the purpose of their life to God. They were not told they
were to be a part of the blood line to the Messiah. Only the
future would reveal the blessedness of their lives, and the
purpose they played in God's plan of history. They had to
live not knowing. They had to live and overcome problems
by faith that God would make the battle worth while, and
God blessed that faith.
It was a pain to press on. It would have been so easy for
Naomi to give up, and just settle down in Moab, and die
forgotten. It would have been so easy for Ruth to give the
battle, and go back to Moab, and forsake her mother-in-law
and the God of Israel. It would have been so easy for Boaz
to say, it is too complicated a mess, I will just let my relative
take Ruth as his responsibility. They all faced problems,
and by faith they pressed on in spite of their troubles to
triumph. Problems are opportunities to express your faith,
and your loyalty to God.
History began with a problem. Problems are more
universal than sin, for Jesus had no sin but He had
problems. Even before sin, Adam and Eve had a problem.
Their problem was, should I obey God or not? Should I
listen to the tempter and eat, or reject this as bad advice?
Because they failed, we tend to think of problems as all
negative, but not so. Jesus faced the same problem in His
temptation, and that problem became His opportunity
to reveal His perfect loyalty and obedience to the Father.
Ruth and Naomi both had an opportunity to fail, and say,
my problems are too great, I quit. But they both chose to go
beyond their enormous problems to seek for God's best in a
far from the best of all possible worlds. Because of their
loyalty they are a part of God's Word to the whole world.
Among the many blessings their lives give to us is the
blessing of a balanced theology of problems.
