Ruth: Refugee With A Human Face

I imagine we probably all have a favorite book of the Bible. The gospels should be high on everyone’s list because they tell us the story of Jesus. And when the church’s heart and mind are fixed on Jesus, everything comes together. When we lose sight of Jesus things go wrong. Luke is my favorite gospel, but they are all good. Those who are into theology might especially like Romans or Ephesians. And the Psalms are perennial favorites. When you are struggling to process your feelings about something, you can usually find a psalm that helps you turn those feelings into a prayer and work through it.

Who can tell us a favorite book of the Bible?

Well, this morning I want us to look at a book of the Bible that probably isn’t on anybody’s list of favorites. It’s the book of Ruth. I won’t ask how many have read it even once, but it’s really short, 4 chapters, an easy read. Do you even know where to find it? The Bible starts with the 5 books of the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Then you come to a bunch of books we call history books. There’s Joshua, Judges and then Ruth. So, Ruth is the 8th book in the Bible.

It’s a small book, but I’ll show you several reasons for knowing about it.

For one thing, Ruth is just a really nice short story. It’s good literature. There is tragedy. There is redemption. There is romance. And the romance has some exotic twists as Ruth finds love in a culture very different from ours. If you like short stories, Ruth is a good read.

Let me read for you how the story gets started. I’ll start with verses 1-9. While I read listen for where the story begins, the setting.

1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. When they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. 6 Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the LORD had considered his people and given them food. 7 So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah. 8 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back each of you to your mother's house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 9 The LORD grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband." Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud."….

Where does the story start? In Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. What a coincidence! Or is it a coincidence? We’ll come back to that in the end.

And you heard the tragedy. There was a famine in Israel. That’s a tragedy all by itself. Elimelech was desperate to feed his family and when he had probably used up all his money and there was nothing for him in Bethlehem, he packed up his wife and 2 sons and moved from his home town of Bethlehem to the land of their ancient enemies, the Moabites. Israelites would not be welcome in Moab. They arrived with nothing but what they could carry. They had no land, no home, not much hope for mercy. They were probably part of a wave of desperate, hungry Israelites. I can imagine the locals complaining, “Oh, no, it’s more of those Israelites. Don’t let them get comfortable here. Look at how tattered their clothes are. How do they expect to support themselves? Why don’t they just go back where they came from?”

So, what do we call people who run into tragedies and just have to pack up and leave home and hope for refuge someplace else? We call them refugees. The Bible has a number of refugee stories. Jacob faced famine in Israel and had to move his family to Egypt. Mary and Joseph faced the violence of Herod’s attempt to kill baby Jesus and they fled to Egypt. But refugees aren’t only in ancient history.