Introductory Comments
1. Today is your Crops and Industry service. A time when we ask God's blessing on our work - whether the planting of the fields or the work we do in the factory, office, home, or other place of employment.
2. It is a time when we affirm our belief that God is the one who is the provider. We work but He is the one who gives the increase.
3. Today we look at the book of Ruth in both services and see how God is the one who provides.
4, We enter into the time when the judges ruled Israel. Joshua had led people into promised land and led them to begin conquering the inhabitants so that they might lay claim to the land that God was giving them. This period of Israel's history, between time of Joshua and the time when kings ruled, is a time when a certain cycle repeatedly took place. The people would forget the Lord their God and serve Baal, the anger of God would burn against them and He would allow one of their enemies to defeat them. they would then cry to the Lord and He would answer them by sending out a judge to save them - like Gideon, Samson, Deborah. This cycle of disobedience, defeat, and deliverance happened over and over again.
5. It showed God's sovereignty - His hand remained upon the nation despite its unfaithfulness. The story of Ruth takes place in this setting.
6. Unlike book of Judges, however, Ruth is not about heroes, leaders, or people that had great influence upon the nation. It is not about civil strife, national upheavals, or international concerns - anything that would impact history. It is rather the story of ordinary people facing ordinary events. The story of a certain man and his family and their fortunes and misfortunes. This is important, because it reminds us that the God of the nations is also concerned with ordinary people like us and our fortunes and misfortunes. We believe in a sovereign God - that He holds the world in His hands.
7. Often hard to believe when we see wars, chaos and the mess it is in. Killings, abortiosn, abuse - how can this happen if God in charge? Yet He does rule this world. Same with our own lives. We experience tragedy, losses, illness. See in sick, in broken relationships, in addictions, in unexplained tragedies. How can we say that God watches over each one of us each day of our lives? That the same God who has a divine plan for history also has a divine plan for each of our lives?
8. Perhaps we see failures and unresolved issues in our lives and we wonder what the purpose or meaning of our lives is all about. I believe that each of us has that deep question inside of us - even as Christians we sometimes do. Many try to escape from this way of thinking, this lack of meaning, by keeping busy with different endeavour - work, hobbies, TV, sports - find it hard to stop and face realities and questions. As Christians, when we start thinking this way and questioning God, it gives us even more concern. We start to struggle deeply with our faith. Is God really there when life falls apart? How can these things happen to me? Is my faith real? Has He walked away from me?
9. If He is here, if He is sovereign, and if He cares, we would see a pattern, purpose and direction in our lives. Yet often our lives seem like the back of this wall hanging or tapestry. (sHOW TAPESTRY) There is no apparent pattern to it. R- rather our lives seem to be a tangled mess, a tangle of unrelated colours, loose ends and unravelled knots.
Teaching
1. This is the tension that Naomi is dealing with in the book of Ruth. This evening we examine the struggle which she faces and how she deals with this struggle. It may help some of us to deal with some of the struggles and questions we are facing.
2. Naomi's situation was very bleak. There had been famine in Judah and her husband had decided to take her and their 2 sons to land of Moab. But her husband, Elimelech died, leaving her with her 2 sons who married Moabite women. Then 2 sons also died and her life was empty. In Israel a woman without a husband was in a weak position. No one to watch over her in a man's world. Worse when no children - sign of God's favour. One of His covenant promises was that of fruitfulness - having many children. And there she is in a foreign land - not even among her own people.
3. We could easily say her lot in life was her own fault. God did look after His people in the time of judges. The famine was temporary and Elimelech should not have left land that God had given them. Grass always seems greener on the other side of the street or in another's pasture. Can question promise or way of God and try to do it own way, but this does not work. So they went to Moab - land settled by descendants of Lot. Israel had not been prohibited from marrying them, but they were not allowed to join the Jewish people or nation.
4. Naomi left a good situation for a bad one, in v. 21 she says that she went away full and came back empty. "The Lord has afflicted me, the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me."
5. Most of us believe that when misfortune strikes, we are suffering for something that we have done wrong - that is part of great debate in book of Job. We have a responsibility for what happens to us. Doesn't mean we are responsible for everything that happens, but we need to examine selves to see our role and what we can learn or change. Often the pain of circumstances is greater when we feel if we are partially if not totally to blame.
6. The result for Naomi was that she was bitter. She tells women of village not to call her Naomi, which means pleasant but Mara - means bitter. What really hurts her is that she feels that God has gone against her. He has deserted her and she no longer sees any purpose or meaning to her life.
7. She must have felt like the Psalmist cries out of the depths to God "Why do you turn away? Why do you hide your face?" To feel that God has turned away or against us is the greatest pain we can feel - ie. Christ on cross
8. Nicholas Wolterstorff was a prof at Calvin College when his 26 year-old son died in a mountain climbing accident. He writes about how he called out to God in despair:
"I am at an impasse, and you, O God, have brought me here. From my earliest days, I believed in you. I shared in the life of your people: in their prayers, in their work, in their songs, in their listening for your voice and in watching for your presence. For me your yoke was easy. On me your presence smiled. (But now) noon has darkened. As fast as she could say "He's dead," the light dimmed . And where are you in this darkness. If I had never looked for you or looked and never found you, I would not feel this pain of you absence."
9. What makes God's absence so difficult is that the joy of His presence is now gone. And although Wolterstoff felt God had gone away from or against him, he still sought God. In same way Naomi still seeks God's favour and presence. Despite all that has happened to her she still has her faith in God. She hears that God has come to aid of His people and that the famine is over, so she decides to return to Judah - perhaps God will come to her aid. She is willing to leave the only 2 people who remain in her life in order to find God's favour. She tells daughters-in-law - Ruth and Orpah in vs, 8-9:
"Go back, each of you, to your mother's home. May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me. May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband."
10. The hope she wishes God to give them is the hope she wishes for herself as well. We see that Naomi still hopes in God and has faith in Him. She calls Him Yahweh - God's personal name. In vs. 20 she calls Him El Shaddai or Almighty. The name God used of Himself when He told Abraham that He could give a 99 year-old man a son. A name that shows He can turn helplessness into a blessing - for man's good and God's glory. Shaddai speaks of the hope of god's protection at a time of uncertainty.
11. As said, Naomi's faith remained despite circumstances. This faith has been a witness, a testimony to Ruth who now shows her faith in Naomi's God. Ruth also calls Him Yahweh and regards herself as one of God's covenant people. The faith we have, even if weak, in hard times is strong witness to others. I have seen this in those who are sick or dying. The faith a dying man can have more affect on faith than 1,000 sermons might.
12. Naomi's faith in God leads Ruth to be faithful to her mother-in-law. She says in vs 16-17
"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."
This is a well-known affirmation of faithfulness, determination and loving commitment.
13. And so there is a flicker of hope in N's future - she is not alone. There are other signs of hope. The famine in land symbolizes the bareness of her life. The hapter begins by saying there was a famine in the land. It ends by saying that the barley harvest was just beginning in Bethlehem. And of course we know that Bethlehem is a place which could be seen as a birthplace of hope.
14. The God who had gone against her is now providing food. The welcome she receives in Bethlehem also adds to her hope. For the women of Bethlehem came out to welcome her, they remembered her and still considered her to be one of them.
15. As we said, for Naomi, her life seemed to be a tangle of unrelated colours and loose ends. But this is only one side of the tapestry. When we turn it around there is a pattern that develops and those threads receive a meaning. She may not see other side - which shows a pattern for her life, that God is still there and cares.
16. This morning we focused on struggle and tension Naomi was going through. Thos evening we focus on God's faithfulness.
17. But I ask each of you this evening, "Are you having trouble seeing the other side of the tapestry? Does your life seem to go from one unrelated event to another? From one bad experience to another? Are you bitter about your life?"
18. The only way to try to get some comfort of hope or understanding is from God. Do not walk away from the only source of hope that you have. Even in her deepest despair, Naomi turned to the one whom she thought had dealt wrongly with her. There is a meaning to each of our lives. God created us and watches over us. The only security we have is to see the face of the Lord.
David - Psa 30:7-8 O LORD, when you favoured me, you made my mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed. To you, O LORD, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy:
19. God may seem to hide face from us but this only seems to be so. Turn to Him and find His face - can only trust that God is weaver of our lives.
