1) A Committed Faith, Ruth 1:1-17
Today we start a new sermon series in the book of Ruth.
Ruth is only mentioned one other time in the Bible – in Matthew 1:5, she’s listed as an ancestress of Jesus Christ.
This is a beautiful love story that unfolds in a very unlikely setting. Israel was at a low point in its history, and Ruth’s background had hardly poised her for a fairy tale ending. Moabites were under God’s curse!
And we too are part of a divine romance that’s unfolding in a sin darkened world as God seeks a Bride for His Son, Jesus Christ. We were born under the curse of Eden with a nature to sin. Yet the Lord wants to “live happily ever after” with us.
The opening scene of the book shows a Jewish family trying to run from one problem only to land in something worse.
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.
The story of Ruth is set in the days when the judges ruled – from their entering Canaan under Joshua until Saul was anointed the first king. Acts 13:29 says that this was about the space of 450 years – beginning around 1450 BC.
What was this period like? Both Judges 17:6 and 21:15 said that during these days, there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. The nation constantly vacillated between idolatry and revival. Whenever they fell into idolatry, God delivered them to their enemies. Then they’d repent and cry to the Lord, and He’d send a judge to save them. Once delivered, their devotion would dim, and before you knew it, they were right back into idolatry. It was like a constant merry-go-round – seven times you see this pattern repeat itself throughout the book of Judges.
And this is when Ruth’s story takes place – showing that even during dark times, God keeps a faithful remnant of followers.
And you know, we too live at a time when the King of heaven is not honored in our land, but every man does whatever seems right in his own eyes with no regard for God’s Word. We too live in a time when the culture of a once godly nation has turned to idolatry, and God’s blessing seems ever farther as we decline to each new outrage. And yet, in just such an unlikely setting, at a spiritual low point in Israel’s history, this story of grace and hope and love takes place.
Doing what’s right on our own eyes is walking by sight, not by faith. But II Corinthians 5:7 says that we are to walk by faith, not by sight. And the crises that we face in life are God’s pop quizzes when our faith is put to the test.
The family in this opening verse is from Bethlehem of Judea just south of Jerusalem. It’s ironic that the name “Bethlehem” actually means “house of bread” – suggesting it was the site of a grain storage. Yet these people are fleeing it because it has no bread.
This family went to sojourn in the country of Moab across the Jordan River from Israel where they expected to find bread. Well, they found the bread they were looking for all right, because they ended up staying there.
But the problem was that Moab was a land under a curse. This was a nation born out of the drunken incest between Lot and one of his daughters. Its entire history was one of hostility toward God and His people. When Moses led Israel out of Egypt, He asked Moab to let them pass peacefully through their land to reach Canaan, and they refused him. In fact, the king of Moab hired the prophet Balaam to come and curse the Jewish people, but God turned his cursings into blessings. Still, Balaam came up with the scheme to send heathen women to infiltrate the camp of Israel and seduce Jewish men into fornication and idolatry, thus bringing a curse upon the Jewish people after all. Moabite idolatry involved sacrificing their own children in the fire to a pagan god called Chemosh. For all of this, God cursed Moab and said that no Moabite could join the people of Israel for 10 generations.
Eventually the Jewish prophets would pronounce the doom of Moab, and by the time Israel returned from its Babylonian Captivity in the book of Nehemiah, the people of Moab had disappeared from history.
And now this Jewish family from Bethlehem is being exposed to all of this. Like Lot who led his family into the well-watered plains of Sodom and lost them to sin, so this family is making unspiritual decisions guided by the pursuit of gain alone.
Now a man ought to provide for his family – but the first thing he needs to provide is a spiritual environment. Jesus said in Matthew 6:33 that if you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then everything else will follow. But a man who seeks everything else first won’t really seek God at all – and if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul, then in the end he’s lost everything forever.
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.
Elimelech’s name meant “my God is King”. How tragic for his family that he didn’t behave like it!
His wife Naomi’s name meant “pleasant”, but later on in verse 20, we’ll see that she didn’t feel like her life had lived up to that hopeful label either.
The only ones in this family who did live out their names were the sons Mahlon and Chilion whose names meant “sickness” and “wasting” – odd names to gives your boys! Were these parents just really pessimistic or what? Kids tend to live up (or down) to the expectations of those around them, and especially of their parents. When grownups tell their children things like, “You make me sick!” “You’re nothing but a waste!” “You’ll never amount to anything!” or any other phrase that tells their children, “I expect nothing from you” they’re tacitly giving their children permission to fail – and unless there’s a strong dose of higher expectations coming from somewhere else to counter it, then those negative expectations of the parents can quickly become a self-fulfilling prophecy. And that’s exactly what happens to this ill-fated family.
The verse says they were Ephrathites of Bethlehemjudah, meaning they were natives of Ephrath. That was the old Canaanite name for Bethlehem before the Jews conquered the land and gave it a Hebrew name. Genesis 35:19 says that Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. Micah 5:2 foretells that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem Ephratah, distinguishing it from another Bethlehem up north.
The Canaanite name Ephrath means “fruitful” – the same basic idea as the Hebrew name “house of bread.” Of course, if the famine was so bad in the nation’s “breadbasket”, then what was it like in the rest of the land?
The previous verse says they went to sojourn, or temporarily visit Moab. But the end of verse 2 here says they continued there. They stayed much longer than they planned. In fact, the men in this family never came back.
When a person’s heart wanders from a land of promise to a land of cursing, he often goes farther than he meant to go, stays longer than he meant to stay, and pays more than he meant to pay.
The men who led this family tried to escape God’s chastening in the Promised Land and ended up paying with their lives. None of us can run away from our problems. Emerson wrote long ago, “The efforts which we make to escape from our destiny only serve to lead us into it.” These men ended up being buried in a heathen land where bread was plenty – high-lighting God’s reminder that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. There is never any safer place in the world than the center of God’s will, however difficult it may be for a while.
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.
This says they took wives of the women of Moab. In Deuteronomy 23, Moabites were excluded from joining with Israel, which, according to Ezra 9:1-2, prohibited Jews from marrying them. But just as Lot’s daughters lived among the Sodomites and eventually befriended and married them, so the sons of Elimelech eventually became enamored with Moabite girls.
The name of the one was Orpah, meaning a “forelock” or “fawn”.
And the name of the other Ruth, meaning “friendship.” The central character of the story is a woman born to a cursed nation. Ruth’s future seemed destined to end in pagan idolatry and eternal damnation. Humanly speaking, there seemed no hope for her. What a testimony of grace, then, this story will turn out to be for Ruth the Moabitess! The hopeless and the helpless are exactly the kind of people God is looking for!
5 And Mahlon and Chilion died also both of them; and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband.
Mahlon married Ruth, Chilion married Orpah. The end of verse 4 says that they dwelled there about ten years after marrying these girls, and now verse 5 tells us they died also both of them – clearly these were both early deaths. The Jewish Targum viewed their premature deaths as a judgment for violating God’s laws.
It’s interesting that in all that time, Ruth, had no son by Mahlon. Neither daughter has a son, or Naomi wouldn’t have been in a pickle. They had no heir to carry on her husband’s name, and that becomes very important in the story later on.
How ironic that at the time, it must have seemed like a terrible curse to have gone ten years with no child. And then for her husband to die without an heir! Ruth must have felt that her whole world had fallen apart.
Yet it was in the providence of God, for had she borne him a son, there would have been no need for a kinsman to redeem her later on!
But hold that thought – let’s not get ahead of ourselves! Suffice it to say for now that in life we’re often shortsighted in the face of trials, and we think like Jacob of old, all these things are against me, when they are all actually working together for our good!
The end of verse 5 says Naomi was left of her two sons and her husband. This created a serious hardship for the childless widow. The social security program for ancient widows was sons who would take care of them. No sons – no support in her old age.
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.
Here Naomi is a destitute and childless widow in a heathen land. There is nothing left to keep her here anymore. Like the Prodigal starving in the pigsty, she hears that in her Father’s house there is bread enough and to spare. How many times has God had to let someone hit rock bottom before they would look up to Him?
But in Naomi’s case, there’s nothing in this passage to suggest that she’s really looking up to Him even now. She came to Moab seeking bread, and now she returns to Judah for no other reason than she had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread. She is returning to the land, but not to the Lord. She is not confessing her sin in moving to Moab in the first place, in putting the gain of grain above the glory of God, in putting material concerns above spiritual ones, in walking by sight, not by faith. Her heart is still not right, and that’s about to show up in her attitude in just a couple more verses.
The verse says that the Lord had visited his people. Remember that during the times of the judges when the story of Ruth takes place, this was a repetitious pattern. It appears that the Israelites have now repented of their apostasy, and the Lord has visited his people with prosperity once again. But Naomi’s family dodged the chastening, and she has not brought forth the fruits of repentance even yet.
7 Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters in law with her; and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah.
As Naomi starts off for Bethlehem, her daughters in law begin with her – they’re childless widows too. They apparently view themselves as all in the same boat. They share a bond of common suffering, but it also seems that there is something in Naomi that they prefer to their own families. Naomi has a difficult time in convincing even one of them to return to her childhood home. It seems that the climate in the home of even a backslidden Israelite was preferable to that of a pagan Moabite.
Then too, perhaps these girls would have been stigmatized in Moabite society for having married Jews in the first place.
Still, with no half-breed children to complicate things, they were young enough to have found husbands among their own people – as Naomi now begins to argue.
8 And Naomi said unto her two daughters in law, Go, return each to her mother's house: the LORD deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me.
Obviously Naomi isn’t advising what’s in the spiritual best interest of these women. She’s encouraging them to return to a life of idolatry in Moab, as verse 15 later makes clear! But then, the male leadership she’s had didn’t exactly set a pattern of godly decision making for her to follow either. From the time they fled a famine in the Promised Land, continuing with their long “sojourn” in Moab, and their sons marrying idolatrous wives, her family has simply followed a policy of whatever seemed most expedient at the moment. So it’s no wonder that Naomi is now continuing the trend.
It is also possible that Naomi is trying to avoid bringing Moabite daughters in law back with her to Bethlehem because she does not want everyone to know that her sons married forbidden women. Again, this would be expedient for her.
But only in the short term. If these girls do what Naomi is saying, then Elimelech’s line cannot be rescued by a near kinsman marrying one of them. So while bringing a Moabite daughter-in-law home might be uncomfortable – it’s nothing like the discomfort she’ll face with no heir to provide for her in her old age.
The last phrase, the Lord deal kindly with you, is a heartfelt prayer for these young women. It implies Naomi’s faith that the Lord, Jehovah, the God of Israel, reigns in the land of Chemosh, the god of Moab, as much as He does in Israel.
9 The LORD grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept.
She wishes them rest, or a trouble free life – unlike what they’ve had with her sons, or what their prospects would be like as widows with her. She prays they will find husbands and homes in their own land.
But this is misguided – there is no rest for the idolater. How much better was Moses’ invitation to his father in law in Numbers 10:29, come with us, and we will do thee good; for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel.
Verse 9 ends saying they lifted up their voice and wept – from what follows, this does not appear to be staged emotion, but genuine affection for Naomi.
10 And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.
Here were pagan, idolatrous women who were willing to turn from their bloodthirsty idols to the God of Israel and His people, His culture. What an opportunity this embittered mother in law was passing up!
11 And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?
Naomi says, there’s no hope for you with me. Any life in Moab is better than continuing to live with me – which has only brought you death and desolation, barrenness and bereavement. I’m under a curse, and anyone who sticks with me will share my misery. Get out while you still can!
To say Naomi was at a low point in her life would be putting it gently!
When she says there are no more sons in her womb to marry them, she’s alluding to the Levirate marriage, a customary practice in the Middle East.
Here’s how it worked: if a man died before his wife bore him an heir, his brother was duty bound to beget a child by the deceased brother’s widow. This would give her the closest thing to a child by her departed husband that was practically possible. The child would care for her in her old age, and inherit her deceased husband’s estate and carry on his name so that his lineage would not be lost to future generations. As revolting as the practice may sound to us today, it had a very practical purpose in ancient Israel, and was in fact commanded in the law of Moses in Deuteronomy 25:5-10.
This was so important in the ancient world that if a man refused to fulfill this duty to his brother’s widow, he was cursed of God. The neglected widow would take the shoe from his foot and spit in his face, and he’d be called the man who hath his shoe loosed.
Because in ancient times, slaves and captives had to go barefoot. For the brother to give up his shoe was humiliating. To have his name called in Israel, the house of him that hath his shoe loosed was to pass his humiliation down to all his posterity – since he had refused to give any posterity to his departed brother. Obviously, this was not a duty that was taken lightly!
But what Naomi is telling her daughters-in-law is that in their case, there are no brothers to even offer them. She says, it’s pointless to follow me back to Israel.
Technically, only a brother of the deceased could enter into a Levirate marriage. The word “levirate” is from the Latin “levir” meaning “brother-in-law.” If the deceased had no brothers, then the legal obligation did not extend to cousins or uncles or other kin.
However, that’s technically speaking. In actual practice, the custom expected the widow’s nearest kinsman, the Kinsman Redeemer, to perform the duty of the brother if none was available – even though the law did not technically require it.
It was also customary of the kinsman to redeem, or pay off, any liens on the deceased brother’s property so that the destitute widow could dwell in it and the heir could inherit it unencumbered.
This Kinsman Redeemer is a picture of Christ who became a man to be our Kinsman Who could die on our behalf, pay for our sins, and redeem us from its penalty in hell. Hebrews 2:14-16 says that since we are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death, be might... deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. He pays our sin debt, makes us a part of His Bride, and is preparing a wedding supper for us someday when He returns.
Has this Kinsman Redeemer redeemed you?
12 Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also tonight, and should also bear sons;
13 Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from having husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD is gone out against me.
She says, there is no hope for you with me. I have no husband, I’m too old to get a husband, even if I had a husband right now, and got pregnant tonight, what good would it do you? How long would it be before they could raise up seed for you? It would be too long – so just go home and marry some nice Moabite boys!
Sometimes a widow had to wait for a child to grow up and impregnate her (as Tamar waited for Shelah in Genesis 38:11). But in this case, Naomi has no more children, no husband to conceive by, and she’s beyond childbearing age anyway. What she is emphasizing is the utter hopelessness of her situation – as hopeless as any sinner apart from the gospel!
When people think God is against them, they tend to exaggerate their hopelessness.
The case is actually more hopeless for Naomi than for her daughters in law – they’re young and have fair prospects of finding husbands to bear by. But Naomi sending them away guarantees her no lineage. The only way her husband’s line could continue would be if one of them married an Israelite to give her a grandson.
Now before we move on from this, I should point something out. I don’t want anyone to get some crazy idea like we should maybe still practice Levirate marriages for childless widows today. Paul writes in I Timothy 5:1-16 that the church is to care for widows that have no children or nephews. In Naomi’s day, there were no churches, so God made a provision for them. But now God provides for destitute widows through believers in the church. And for younger widows, like Ruth, the same passage says they are to marry and bear children.
Now look back again at the end of verse 13. Naomi says, it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me. She interprets her sorrows as the hand of the Lord being against her. But in reality, it is sin that is against us. The Lord’s chastening hand is only trying to pry us from our own self-destruction. It only feels grievous to the degree that we are attached to the sin it is tearing us from.
14 And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.
With this tragic decision, Orpah turns back to the nation under the curse of God, and disappears from the Bible. She illustrates the words of Jesus in Luke 9:62, No man, having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.
But Ruth is committed. Though she and Orpah have the same background and face the same situation in life, Ruth’s wise decision condemns Orpah’s bad one. Just as one crucified thief trusted Christ, and the other refused, so these widows demonstrate that nobody, regardless of their circumstance, need despair of salvation, but neither should any take it for granted, presume upon it, or ignore it.
15 And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.
What a spiritual low point Naomi is in! We usually urge sinners to leave their idols and turn their hearts toward Zion – but she pleads the very opposite! If Naomi thinks life with her has been empty, hopeless and grievous, it’s been because Naomi herself has been outside of God’s will. The jinx isn’t on Naomi – it’s on Moab. And now when she finally starts returning to where she belongs, it’s hardly the time for Ruth to despair and quit on her. Anyone leaving a life of sin should bring as many as they can with them!
But despite Naomi’s misguided plea, Ruth refuses to leave.
What keeps her heart fixed as a flint toward Zion? We’re about to see that she’s come to trust in the God of Israel. One element of genuine saving faith is its absolute commitment – no turning back, no turning back.
Satan doing his worst couldn’t destroy the faith of Job.
Herod’s death row couldn’t destroy the wavering faith of John the Baptist.
Satan sifting Simon couldn’t destroy his faith with Jesus praying for him.
A Christian’s faith may at times be shaken, he may temporarily deny it around the devil’s campfire – but he’ll go out and weep bitterly afterwards, because denial under duress doesn’t truly describe his heart; his faith will prevail in the end.
And in response to Naomi’s despairing plea, Ruth gives one of the greatest statements of faith found anywhere in the Bible.
16 And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
17 Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.
Is that the kind of commitment that you have toward Christ? Because “commitment” really is the operative word in describing a faith that saves.
Paul said in II Timothy 1:12, I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. He says, I have believed... and then he clarifies, I have committed.
Saving faith isn’t a trite faith – it’s a committed faith. It’s a faith that changes your life. Because a faith that doesn’t change your life, won’t change your afterlife. A faith that doesn’t change your direction, won’t change your destination. Ruth’s faith changed her direction from Moab to Zion. What has your faith done for you?
If you’ve never come to Christ for salvation from sin before, then wherever you are, why not just bow your heart before God and tell Him something like this:
“God, be merciful to me, a sinner; I believe Christ died for my sins on the cross; I believe He rose to give me victory over death; I trust His sacrifice to pay for my pardon; I repent of my sins; I receive Your forgiveness by faith. I trust Your grace to deliver my soul on the judgment day – Amen!
