Well, I invite you this morning to turn in the Bibles that are in front of you to Ruth chapter 1 as we are continuing our study in the book of Ruth. You'll find that on page 262. 262 in those Bibles that are in front of you. We'll read the entirety of the chapter. The text is verses 6 through 22. This is Ruth chapter 1. Let's give our attention this morning to God's wonderful word to us. In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Malon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites, Ephrathites from the Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Malon and Chalion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each of you to her mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, No, we will return with you and to your people. But Naomi said, Turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in the womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters. Go your way, for I'm too old to have a husband. If I should say that I have hope, even if I should say I have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it's exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. And she said, see, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said, do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go, I will go. And where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you. Now when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said, no more. So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, is this Naomi? She said to them, do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me? So Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. There ends of the reading of God's Word. Last week, we opened up this study in the book of Ruth, chapter 1. We looked at the first five verses, and it was somewhat a difficult opening to study what had happened in Israel, what had happened among God's people, because it really does capture for us the spirit of the times in which Israel was living and their relationship with the Lord. You remember in verses one, in verse one, it said, in the days when the judges ruled. What a statement. There was a famine in the land. That was a commentary helping us. That was a great comment telling us how to understand the book and to understand the times in which this book comes to us everyone as we looked at the end of of judges ends the last statement was there was no king in israel and everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes there was no repentance there was no looking to the lord they must have thought that the the idea of the god of israel was some old concept that they didn't have to take seriously anymore there was no help they didn't go to the Lord for help the people were living now isn't this remarkable the people were living as if God didn't exist you know we expect certain behaviors from the world but it should be remarkable that this book comes to us and that right from the beginning in the covenant community we see this very problem where there was no seeking of the Lord. The famine, of course, was another marker for us to understand the book that in the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament times, when these famines would come, they were called covenant curses upon the land for their rejection of the Lord. There would be blessing and curse, and the curses had fallen on the people. Nothing was going well. This was right out of Deuteronomy. I will hit your kneading bowls. I'll take your bread. I'll take all your stuff. It's really fascinating if you have some time this afternoon. Go read Isaiah 3 through 5. That the same covenant curses had fallen in those days. And how everything from the pendants that the women wore on the heads. And all the beautiful scarves. And all the beautiful jewelry. He hid it all. It was all taken away. All the excess was struck. It's really interesting to study these times. The famine was a signal that things were not going well and that the covenant people had departed from the Lord. Well, here we are, and this family has decided, we don't really want to put up with this. We're going to move to Moab. We're out. We're not going to go through this. And someone asked me, well, was it okay last week? It seemed, you know, I think most of us would say we would leave the land in this moment. And it's a little different from simply moving another place in the U.S. That's not what this is about. This was the land in the Old Testament was the land of milk and honey that God had promised to them. It was in America. And the land of milk and honey was where God's blessing was upon them. He had brought them and delivered them to give them that land. Nothing was right about leaving. That's so clear in this text. And Naomi knows it. She'll say that later. And they paid the price dearly for this. The marvel of the story is, as we open this up and as we'll see today, is that God shows us his character and his help to them and what he thought. and we get this window into God's dealings with us through the story of this family that had made such a terrible decision and how God would work in the Old Testament. You see why the book's so important. God would take this little story, this little family, and from this mess that you're studying would show us the whole plan of salvation through Jesus Christ. That's a marvel. And that's what we're supposed to feel through this, see through this. The point here, of course, is that God was not against Naomi. God was working to bring her home. But not just that, God was going to bring her home with a great gift, a gift that she wouldn't even see initially. God does not abandon us in the midst of our failure. Oh, God has a plan for our lives. Sometimes it's not the plan we like that's the problem. We assume when we read those verses, I have this plan for you to prosper you and bless you. That's the only side of it. You'll see Jeremiah 29 11 plastered everywhere, but you don't see the other side of the story. And that's why this passage is important, that in times of great darkness, what it's showing is God will not abandon his people. Open your eyes and see, even in the darkness of his chastisement, the indescribable gift that he's opening your eyes to see. And that's how we're going to look at this today as we open up this section. I want you to notice here there is a painful exodus that is described up front. And then what follows is Naomi's bitter complaint and then the unacknowledged gift. And that's what this section is showing us, this painful exodus, the bitter complaint, and the unacknowledged gift. So let's begin with this painful exodus that's here. We looked at last time that due to the famine in the land where Bethlehem was called the house of bread, it's the name, meaning of Bethlehem, the irony was there was no bread in Bethlehem, the narrator zeroes in on this man named Elimelech, Naomi, and their two sons. Looking over to Moab, oh, it's much better there. There's greener pastures. There's food. There's prosperity there. And so they packed up and they left their people. Now hold that thought. It's a big point. They separated from God and his people. God was in Israel. Now what we're going to see is God is omnipresent. God is not limited to the borders of Israel. But we know that that's what an Israelite thought. So they packed up and thought, we can escape this. It captured, of course, as I said, the spirit of the times. You know, there was no prayer. There was no seeking of the Lord. I said last time, it was not as if the people were starving to death. God still provided for them. Life got hard for them. It would be like today, in the midst of hardship, everyone running around trying to solve all their problems in the covenant community without looking to the Lord. No prayer in the homes, no gathering at the table. That's all gone that Pigon generations had done. Those things are just gone. And really, if you look at the course of the weeks, there's no real spiritual life among God's people. That's the time we're in here in this book. And you can draw the lines of correlation to ask the question if there's any real tie to our time. But here, what we have is, is the great truth that you're never really able to run from anything. No matter what you think you're getting away from, you'll never get away from it. In fact, it'll probably get a lot worse when you try. God will never let his people just run from him. Now, you can stand back from that and say, well, that scares me. And I think that's one of the best news in the world. God's not going to let you run. And when you try it, you may go for a while, and things are going to get really hard on you if you want to try that. If you can't miss that here, you can't escape hardship in life. You can't escape it. The reality was, it was an appointed famine. And the intention of the famine was what? Just to make life hard on God's people? well of course not the intention of the famine was to bring them back to him the intention of the famine was to draw his people back in repentance it meant that God was was using the famine to put his people on their knees now the general way God does that is Romans 2 this is the standard way God does it this is the normal way God does it, the goodness of God should lead you to repentance. In other words, look at all your blessing in life. Look at all the goodness God's flooded you with. Look at all the care. Look at all the kindness. Look at all the provision. All these good gifts that you enjoy as a people. That should lead you to repentance. What do we do with them? We grab them and we bow to them and we make them idols and we trust in those things and we get absorbed in all the stuff of the world. And all of a sudden, when everything's going well and there's much prosperity and there's much gain and there's much happiness and there's much good gifts, all of a sudden you look very much at an apathetic people to the Lord. I mean, that's just history has proven this. So what does God do? Well, taught us something very important about difficulty through the common covenant curses of the Old Testament. Either way, the Lord had the goal of restoration. The Lord had the goal of bringing His people home. The Lord had the goal of chastising and drawing his people back to him. Well, I can promise you, chastisement knows no borders. Chastisement knows no borders. It knows no bounds. And nothing in God's providence here, as we're studying this passage, went well. The narrative wants you to fill in this story. It's a really bad situation that happened. With a stroke of a pen, Elimelech dies. and then with another stroke her two sons die an unfathomable situation to an israelite to think of well at least in those days because this is how a woman this is how a woman was cared for and and survived in those days if your husband died your sons would care for you but this is one of the worst of predicaments there are three widows in this passage two of which are moabites and now she's alone with no one to care for her. Is that true? Well, that's what the story is prompting us to see. Who is the real husband here? Now, this is where we enter this narrative today. This is where the exodus begins. This exodus is a glorious exodus, but a difficult one. She has, the word has come in the fields of Moab. Isn't it interesting that the pagans are talking? God has visited his people with bread. He didn't visit Naomi with bread outside the land, did he? Bad choice. God has visited Israel with bread. The intended effect of the famine at some point in the time of the judges had put the people on their knees and they called out to the Lord and he delivered them. He helped them. He loved them. What a chilling statement. He visited not with judgment. This word is often used with judgment. He visited with blessing. The land again was fruitful. The land again was full of bread and food. We read in verse 6, Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab. For she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. In Naomi's choice, there was no other choice but to go home in her mind. She had not been visited with blessing. She had been visited with hardship. So here she is with her two daughters, daughters-in-law, on the road now back to the house of bread, back to Bethlehem. It's quite a moment and a scene. You have to understand this, the scene. They're on the way and all of a sudden Naomi stops and I think the realization of the situation must have really hit her. I'm coming back home. The shame of this with two Moabites. My husband's dead. My sons are dead. These are symbols of my pain. I don't, I don't, she turns around, go home. go home. I want you to go home. And this dialogue now begins of this great pressure of Naomi trying to force. Now, you can read the narrative and you can stand back from this. And you realize that in the midst of this, that the greatest blessing is right there that the Lord was sending her home with already. She doesn't see that. She doesn't quite like this blessing. It wasn't the most exciting of blessings. She now actually tries to turn away the Lord's favor to her with great force to push her daughters-in-law back to Moab. Humanly speaking, it makes total sense. Notice verse 12. She says to her daughters-in-law, they want to stay. I can't give you sons. I'm too old. Verse 12. If I should say that I have hope, well, I think that's a crucial word here. A crucial word that is chosen here in the Hebrew. Septuagint uses confidence. The word means confidence. I have no hope. I have nothing to offer you, it would be far better for you to go back to Moab. And you get the sense from Naomi that really she wishes she could have stayed in Moab. It would be far better for you to go back. Go back, verse 15, be with your gods. It's unreal, isn't it? She's gone back to her gods, she'll say of Orpah. Well, this is a painful Exodus home. Who brought her home? See, all this is, we're being teased with the questions of, what is the Lord's disposition? What is the Lord doing here? He's not been mentioned much in this whole section. What is he doing? What is Naomi's perspective? How is she trying to interpret providence? How is she trying to interpret her reality? What is she doing right now? And all we know is we're watching an exodus happen and it doesn't look very glorious. Hold that thought. Now comes the bitter complaint. Four things are said of the Lord in this passage. I want you to notice in verse 13. She says to them, No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. Verse 20. In fact, when she gets to the town, she says, what does she say? Notice this in verse 20. They say, this is Naomi. This is Naomi. No, I am not Naomi anymore. I've got a new name. You call me Mara. because the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full. I had everything when we left the land and he gave me a blow and he took them all and I'm bitter. That's what you call me, bitter. And then she ends up, the Almighty has brought calamity on me. That is a, that's a remarkable thing to say. You have to kind of stop for a minute and get into the psychology of how she's thinking, don't you? It's interesting to do that for a minute and think about this and look at it. On the one hand, you know, it's a remarkable thing to look at an Israelite mind here in how they thought about life. There was no view of chance. There was no view of random chance in the Israelite mind. even though she's way off in interpreting providence here, there was no view of random chance. There was such an understanding in the Israelite mind that God was this intimately involved with his people. She recognizes that even outside the land, she couldn't escape God's choices for her, good or bad. Whatever they were, it involved the direct hand of the Lord. That's how the Israelite thought. I find that significant. I think this is why David would say after his sin with Bathsheba, and he had done those terrible things in killing Uriah, and all those awful things that in Psalm 51 and 32, he makes a striking little statement that's similar to Naomi's here. The hand of the Lord was heavy upon me. heavy. He was giving me blows. Look at his son. Was this the truth of the matter? See, these are the questions you have to ask of the text and you have to think through. Is this how we're supposed to look at life and look at things? And I think this is important to say that when God's people are spiritually lacking and misunderstanding and spiritually dull to his work and his ways, there's a sort of evil view of providence that God is just out to get us. When we define God on our circumstances and his ways to us based on our circumstances, one pastor gave some three classifications of how we view God and have a defective view of God and how that defective view shows up in light of the circumstances, and he said there's three, and I think you'll resonate with these. I think you'll connect with these. The first one, he said, is that we view God as a cosmic policeman who's ready to blow the whistle on us every time we take a wrong step. Ah, there you are. That's how we view God when things go bad. Or we view him as an absent landlord, he said, who checks out, you know, who checks in at the worst moments of our lives. Penalizes us when things are out of order. But who generally is outside of our lives and uninterested until he checks in. Or, now this is the American problem with our view of God, or we view him as a cosmic bellboy. who when everything's going well and everyone's making money and everyone's full, we can ding, ding, ding, hey, we need something up there. We expect you to run to us when we call on you to fix our every ache and pain. You see? Circumstance-driven. How do we interpret pain and sorrow in this life? She knows she's sinned. I don't think you can miss that in the text. She knows she sinned. She knows what they did and made a choice to do as a family was wrong. And it's a very defining moment that had the hand of the Lord really gone out against her. See, I think this is the question. When you're studying pain and sorrow, it's giving us a window in how she's trying to understand this and interpret this, which is what we do. Sometimes we face hardship in God's providence in the mysteries of it all when we haven't rebelled. That's the Job situation where his friend stood alongside and said, ah, you should have done this and you should have. And Job says, stop judging me that way. And sometimes we face dark providences when we run from the Lord and he comes after us in chastisement. I think this is exactly why the author of Hebrews said, in this case, you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as what? Sons. My son, don't despise the chastening of the Lord nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son he receives. Wow. She looked at what happened. God put his stroke on her in anger. Cosmic policeman. Was it true? well you could ask the question should the Lord have just left her there should the Lord have just left him there might there be a bigger plan in the death of the husband and the sons that's even better for you that you don't see should the Lord have just left them there in Moab in their rebellion it's a fascinating study in human responsibility and God's sovereignty, isn't it? The question is when everything was chosen wrongly, what do you want? What do you want? What do you want God to do? Give them the abundant life in Moab? You know. It's really a moment, too, to think about chastisement, discipline. Hebrews uses, some translations use discipline. Don't despise the discipline of the Lord. we have discipline all backwards if we have a son or daughter wandering or we have somebody wandering. The last thing we think of is we don't ever want them to face the discipline of the church. Why? Because it's mean and cruel. Really? Who's mean and cruel? The one who says farewell, well, I hope it goes okay. And not talk to them. Or the one who says, no, we're going to discipline to come get you. Leadership gets so scared at this point for reaction of people. You're studying God's discipline. He doesn't do that. He doesn't take that laissez-faire attitude. Should the Lord have just left her? Never to bring an exodus. Might the Lord's actions of taking her husband and her sons have a really great purpose here. That's what you're going to see. See, a lot of people, when life doesn't turn out the way they think it should and they've made bad choices and hardship comes, because hardship comes. Deep hardship. They get really bitter at God. That's what's behind it. and they become incredibly unhappy with him and his dealings with them. Unhappy that things are not going according to plan, their plan. Should it? I think this is why Hebrews also says, let there be no root of bitterness springing up and causing trouble, and by it many become defiled. This rot of bitterness that can fill someone's life is awful. It's dissatisfaction with God. It's dissatisfaction with him and his ways. Any of you bitter? Deep down? Are you mad at God? Dissatisfied with where he has you? Dissatisfied with his plan? And dissatisfied because you tried to take matters into your own hands and it got worse. How are we to understand the Lord's ways to us? Well, there's a much bigger picture here. This is the mesmerizing point of the text. You can complain about life. You can complain about your job. Complain about those whom the Lord appointed to put over you. You can complain about your past. You can complain about everything in life. I'm good at it too, by the way. I'm a master complainer. Call me Mara. Bitter. That's my new name. Well, there's a much bigger picture. I believe this whole story was meant to be read to Israel and they would see a larger narrative in this. They'd see a larger metanarrative, if you will, in this that is really important. God brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt and what did they do? How, what was their attitude to the Lord? When they came to Marah, Exodus 15, oh, that's interesting. They came to Marah. They could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was called Marah, and the people complained against Moses, saying, what shall we drink? They were angry with God, and their whole life was full of complaining because of his ways. Yet, what had he done for them? That's the question. Stand back. What had he done for them? Only brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Rocked the heavens with signs and wonders to show his power and love to them. The Lord had done everything, parting the Red Sea. They didn't lift up one finger in the fight. He saved them out of Egypt from that army that was coming out of them and promised to give them the land, the promised land. Naomi leaves it. That's the history of Israel always wanting to go back and complaining the whole way in the wilderness. And now she's bitter at God. But was the Lord's hand against her? She arrives in the city. And what's her statement, the glaring statement to the ladies of the city? Everyone says, that's Naomi. Don't call me that. The Lord has brought me back empty. Well, really? An unappreciated gift is right there. Who's standing there? Ruth. You know, her name means refreshment, comfort. Verse 8. Naomi had said to Ruth, go back and may the Lord show Chesed to you. That's an interesting word she chose. His greatest covenantal word, may he show Chesed to you in going back. What did Ruth say to her? Verse 16, For wherever you go, I will go. And wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people. And your God, my God. Where you die, I will die. And there I will be buried. The Lord do so to me and more also, if anything but death parts you and me. Now, you could contest me on this, but I think those are some of the most beautiful words in all the Bible. The word for clung means here, she clung to her. Deep, intense loyalty. It's used of marriage in Genesis 2. Strong joining together. This radical, in the midst of this, now listen to this. This is not the choice of a blessing you would choose. In the midst of this, little Moabitess clings to her with radical commitment and radical loyalty in life and in death. What an irony. Naomi willing to leave the land to her, her gods. Ruth is willing to cling to her and leave her land to her God. Was God caring for Naomi? Was God redeeming the situation? Well, you could start with that little phrase at the end today. There was the barley harvest. You know what the law commanded at the time for the poor when the barley harvest happened? That the poor would glean the ears dropped by the reapers? In other words, what was being said to you there is God was bringing her home to feed her and care for her. You know what clung to Naomi that day? Listen carefully. The Lord's salvation. C.S. Lewis once said, this was quoted by Ian Duguid, and I thought this just captured it. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that the Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us. like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he can't understand what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea, we are far too easily pleased. Ding, ding, ding. Drink, sex, ambition, as if those fulfill. Oh, your desires are weak. You're far too easily pleased. And Ruth stands right in front of her and clings to her and makes a promise to her. I am promising you the kind of loyalty. There stood a mother of Jesus. Put that together. God was giving her everything. And Israel, everything. Through a gift that when she walked into town, no one recognized. No one said, who's that with you there? Who's that with you there? Did anyone? And the text tells us, beloved, we need a Savior. Ruth's whole life becomes a testimony to Naomi and to us of what we need. Someone who the Lord will send for us. Someone who will deliver us. Someone who will take away our bitterness and complaints. And isn't this just what we need to start thinking about here? Who came and joined himself to us? Open your eyes and see what you have, beloved. A love of God that will not let you go. That's what's being shown to you. The love of God that will not let you remain in Moab and live up your dream. A love of God that will bring you home to his love. A God who sovereignly loves and will not let go, who will strip you of whatever you need stripped, as difficult and painful at times as it may need to be, how long will it take you to see it? How long will you toy with useless desires? Ruth's greater son, we're going to see this unfold, will say to you, wherever you lodge, I will lodge. When he came to this earth, he had no place to lay his head. Left the heavenly glory seen and came to famine. Your people shall be my people. That's the essence of the covenant of grace. I am your God. You will be my people and I will be your God. It's ringing through this. Where you die, I will die. Whoa. Who? the one who bore your sins on the cross went to your place of death for you and clung to you that way you want to talk about covenantal love and loyalty you want to talk about an indescribable gift here you go your desires are still too weak though until you appreciate it as you should then you see the greatest gift that's been given to you what path are you traveling today the road of life or death It's time to wake up to your God, O Israel. It's time to wake up to your God, O Israel. If you're a Christian today and you think you can go the other way, I've got news for you. He'll come right after you. And you may have to live the pain of what you chose to do. He will cling to you. Christ will come and bring you home. And I think that requires praise for his grace, doesn't it? That's what's starting to unfold here. For his grace and favor to rebels. Return to the city of your God. Return to your God. This is the joy the Lord has given us today. Love his kingdom. Love his people. Your desires are too weak. Christ has united himself to you. You've been united to him by faith. he has the ability to supply everything you need, to give you lasting joy and happiness, to fill you with life, and a life that is meaningful, and a life that is well-lived for his glory. Enjoy your God, O Israel, for he loves you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this wonderful text today. Thank you for showing us your covenant love and loyalty. through this imagery that's given of a gift was not appreciated that clung to Naomi. Replace our bitter hearts with joy. Show us your salvation. Let us, Lord, come to you for light and life and stop fooling around with the stupid things that don't satisfy. We've done it for far too long, all of us. Forgive us. Thank you for your steadfast love. Thank you for clinging to us. Thank you for loving us to the end. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.