Do you ever go on a walk around your neighborhood and ponder
these questions? Who makes the birds sing?
Who feeds the flowers? If you live in a farm, who cares
for the cows? Or anyone can relate?
Who pours down all the pollen every spring?
That blanket of yellow covering your car?
Who sends the rain? Who withholds it?
Who governs the dry grass? Who gives life?
Who takes life away? If you're not a Christian, have
you ever wondered, is there anyone running this show?
That is my life, friends. If you're not a believer, do you
believe that the world is a mechanical machine just
operating on its own accord? Or could it be that there is
someone working behind the scenes around the clock?
That someone is God, your Creator, who constantly cares
for his creation. Theologians refer to this
doctrine as Providence. We confess God's Providence in
the Heidelberg Catechism earlier in the service.
Turn back there in your bulletin.
This is what we believe about God.
God's Providence is His almighty and ever present power, whereby,
as with His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth and all
creatures, and so governs them that leaf and blade, rain and
drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health
and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things come
to us not by chance, but by His fatherly hand.
Friend, that means that every moment, every minute, everything
in your life comes to you, not by chance, but by God's hands.
This is the sweet doctrine of God's Providence.
But sometimes Providence isn't so sweet.
Today we begin a sermon series through the book of Ruth.
Turn your Bible to the book of Ruth.
If you didn't bring a Bible, maybe you don't own one.
Just raise a hand. Somebody will be glad to bring
you a Bible. Right now.
Ruth is near the beginning of the Bible.
It's just after Judges. If you're not familiar with the
Bible, the big numbers in the Bible, those are the chapters.
The little numbers, those are the verses will be in Ruth
chapter 1. Ruth chapter 1.
Ruth is a story of bitter Providence in the Old Testament.
God saved sometimes by powerful displays of signs and wonders,
like in the Exodus. But Ruth is not one of those
stories. Ruth is a story of God's hidden
work in the ordinary mess of our lives.
Grab a microscope and zoom into the book of Ruth with me.
There's the whole world. Zoom in now the nation of
Israel, zoom in again. There's the tribe of Judah one
more time. There's the little town of
Bethlehem. And there in the little town of
Bethlehem, there's a single seemingly insignificant family
facing a bitter Providence. As I read Ruth chapter 1, hear
the word of the Lord. In the days when the judges
ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem and
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 Malan and Killian. They were Ephrathites from
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 Orpa,
and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about 10 years,
and both Malan and Killian 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 your 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 to your
people. But Naomi said, Turn back my
daughters, Why will you go with me?
Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may become your husband's?
Turn back, my daughters, Go your way, for I am too old to have a
husband. If I should say I have hope,
even if I should 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 is 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 Orpa 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 I will be buried.
May the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death
departs me from you. And 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 and 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
barley harvest. When God sends you a bitter
Providence, there are only two responses.
Turn to the Lord. Turn away from the Lord.
Those are the two responses. How will you respond today if
you're not a believer? My prayer for you is that you do
what may seem illogical and even impossible, that you would turn
from your sin, from this world to God in faith in Jesus Christ.
If you're in Christ, my prayer for you is that you'd return to
the Lord in every bitter Providence.
There's three scenes in chapter 1.
We'll walk through each. The first scene is a bitter
Providence versus 1 to 5A bitter Providence.
In verses 1 to 5, we see just how quickly life can come
undone. First there's a famine, then a
family sojourn, followed by three funerals.
What is happening to this little family in Israel?
Why? We're going to walk slowly
through verses 1 to 5 because the context is crucial.
In verse one, we get The Who, what, when, where, and most
importantly, the why. Look at verse one.
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the
land. In the Bible, Ruth follows
Judges. Ruth takes place in the days of
Judges. This is not just a chronological
marker. This is a theological evaluation
of the times. In Judges, Israel lived in the
promised land. Israel is the Lord's bride.
But in Judges, they've not been faithful to their husband.
You're not familiar with the book of Judges?
Maybe just look one page to the left in your Bible.
The last verse of Judges is a summary of the entire book.
In those days there was no king in Israel.
Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
In other words, these were days of a downward spiral of
disobedience. These were days where God's
people turned away from the Lord.
So the result in verse one, look at verse one, there was a famine
in the land. Many of us have never lived
through famine. Kids, Can you imagine a famine?
You come down for breakfast. Mom, what's for breakfast?
Nothing. What do you?
What do you mean nothing? There's nothing for breakfast.
What about lunch? Nothing.
Dinner. We have nothing.
It's hard to even picture what that's like.
In a subsistent aggregarian economy, famine function like a
death sentence. And do you see the irony here?
There's no bread in Bethlehem. Bethlehem's name means House of
Bread. That land flowing with milk and
honey has run dry. Israel's moved into the promised
land, and when they moved into the promised land, they signed a
renter's agreement with God. If you're renting, what do you
think your landlord's going to do if you quit paying your rent
month after month after month, They're going to kick you out.
But Israel's covenant with God was not based on finances.
It was based on faithfulness. In Deuteronomy 28 and 29, God
laid out the covenant stipulations.
There were blessings for obedience.
There were curses for disobedience, curses like
famine, curses like infertility, meaning the famine they face was
not random, nor was it just an outworking of the curse on the
ground. From Genesis chapter 3, the
famine was retribution. Facing famine, one family flees,
verse one, and a man of Bethlehem and Judah went to
sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two
sons. It seems reasonable enough,
doesn't it? But if the famine was a result
of unfaithfulness, the right response would have been
repentance, turning to the Lord, not leaving the promised land.
Now leaving the promised land was never prohibited, but the
departure was only ever described as a judgement from
God. So Elimelech, whose name means
my God is king, does what's right in his own eyes, and he
heads east to Moab. He departs the one place where
God's promised to bring blessing.
Elimelech leads his family away from the Lord in verse three.
He dies. His wife Naomi is left with two
sons. But like father, like son.
Look at verse 4. These took Moabite wives.
The name of the one was Orpa and the name of the other Ruth.
These two boys from Bethlehem, Mary Moabites.
What's so bad about that? Remember back to the Book of
Numbers. The king of Moab hired Balaam, a
sorcerer, to curse Israel into oblivion.
And when he didn't succeed, he then sent Moabite women into
Israel's camp to seduce them into apostasy.
So Deuteronomy 23 three forbids the entrance of Moabites into
the Lord's assembly to the 10th generation.
After 10 years and no children. In verse 5, Naomi's two sons
also die. Famine, funerals, infertility.
This is the backdrop of the book of Ruth.
And God in his mysterious Providence was behind it all.
Why? Live long enough and you'll
taste your own share of bitter Providence, overwhelming,
unexplainable, seemingly hopeless troubles.
And you'll ask, why isn't that the question we so often wonder?
Why is this my lot? Why is this happening to me?
In verses one to five, we learn that sometimes our suffering is
due to our sin. It's not a sin to lose your job,
but if you lie at work, you may get fired for it.
It's not a sin to have a broken relationship with your child,
but if you neglect your child over and over again, you might
lose that relationship. Now, to be clear, if you're
suffering today, it doesn't mean you've sinned.
But if you've sinned, sin always comes with suffering.
And Ruth, the author, has given us the covenantal context we
need to see the sin and its consequences.
Yet even in Ruth, the exact correlation between sin and
suffering is beyond our pay grade.
The formula is hidden from human eyes.
We can at least say that some of their suffering was due to their
sin. But God is too mysterious, He's
too wise, for us to fully comprehend his ways.
He's hidden his blueprints. So beware of simplistic
solutions to suffering and sin. For who has known the mind of
the Lord when you're suffering? You may be tempted to think back
and see, is this suffering due to some sin in my past?
That's often not helpful. Job's friends were confident,
certain, absolutely sure that the reason he suffered was
because of secret sin. It was in fact, the opposite.
He suffered for righteousness, and God never told him that.
He never knew why. On this side of eternity,
believer, you may never know why.
It's always helpful, though, before sinning, to look ahead
and see what suffering awaits. Sin always comes with a cost.
Sin always brings suffering. What suffering has your sin cost
you? We need to learn to think
soberly about sin and its consequences.
In verses 1 to 5, we also learn that sometimes our response to
our suffering is sinful. Divine trials.
Dr. Elimelech and his family away from the Lord.
They exile themselves from God's presence.
See the progression of sin in response to suffering.
Verse one. They went to sojourn in the
country of Moab. Verse 2.
They remained there. Verse 4.
They lived there about 10 years. When you choose sin, you are
choosing A trajectory for your life.
You're choosing a path. When you look back at times of
suffering, how have you responded?
Did your trials lead you away from the Lord?
Did you take matters into your own hands?
Did you justify just a little sin and then a little more, or
did you turn to the Lord? Did you walk by faith?
Brothers and sisters, you are stewards of your suffering.
None of us desire suffering. Each of us will suffer.
We will receive bitter Providence from God's hand, and
He has good reasons for it, though we won't often understand
them. How will we respond?
Will we turn to the Lord or turn from Him?
In verses 6 to 18, Naomi responds.
Scene 2 a surprising repentance. Verses 6 to 18, a surprising
repentance. In verses 6 to 18, Naomi
responds to bitter Providence. She repents.
But Naomi's repentance isn't the most surprising of the story.
Look at verses 6:00 and 7:00. 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.
The scene changes. Naomi begins the journey back to
Bethlehem. She returns.
See that word verse 6? Return.
See it again verse 7. They went on the way to return
to the land of Judah. The Hebrew word for return
happens to be the same for the Hebrew word for repentance.
Why does the author use this word?
Because the author presents Naomi's return home as more than
a physical return. Naomi's return to Bethlehem is a
return to the Lord. In other words, it's repentance.
We can easily miss the significance of this word here
because the Hebrew word for return is not always translated
as return in English. It's also translated in chapter
1 as turn back verses 11 and 12 and gone back verse 15 and also
brought back verse 21. In Hebrew, repetition is a key
way to emphasize the significance of an idea and how
important is the idea of repentance as the word appears
12 times in chapter, 112 times in 22 verses verse 6, verse 7,
verse 8, verse 10, verse 11, verse 12, two times in verse 15,
verse 16, verse 21, two times in verse 22.
Repentance is the melody of chapter 1.
The prodigal is returning home. What leads Naomi home?
Not simply her destitution. Verse 6.
She heard the Lord has visited his people and given them food.
What's changed? The good fortunes of Israel.
It's not good luck. It's not random chance.
This is divine Providence, divine intervention.
God visited his people. God gave them food.
It seems that rebellious Israel has also repented.
Remember, we're in the days of Judges.
In Judges, God promised peace and prosperity in response to
repentance. It is God's kindness to Israel
that leads Naomi to the road of repentance.
For the Christian, all of life is repentance.
Repentance is the way home. Are you believer walking in the
way of repentance today? When you're learning how to
walk, which I'm sure many of you have forgotten, eventually you
ditch your parents. You don't want them to hold your
hands. You can do it fine on your own.
When you're learning to ride a bike, eventually you ditch the
training wheels. Just two wheels here.
When you're learning to drive a car, which some of you maybe
are, eventually you ditch the parent in the passenger seat.
You need them no longer. But in this life, the Christian
never ditches the need for repentance.
We walk the way of repentance all the way home, which means
that each of us needs to regularly and personally repent.
Two motivations of repentance. 1A.
Sorrow for sin 2 The kindness of God.
In that sense, repentance is bittersweet.
Sin is bitter, but God's mercy in Christ is sweet.
Sin is the reason we need to repent, but God's kindness is
what brings us to repentance. 2 Practices of repentance.
Turning from sin and turning to God, we leave behind Moab and we
make a beeline for Bethlehem. Another way to say this is we
put sin to death and we bring godliness to life.
We kill sin, and we cultivate godliness to postures to discern
in repentance are between godly grief and worldly sorrow.
As Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 7 verse 10, godly grief produces
a repentance that leads to salvation without regret,
whereas worldly grief produces death.
Some questions to ask as you consider which one do you
display? Are you sorry because you got
caught or are you sorry because you grieved God?
Are you sorry for the consequences of sin or are you
sorry because you sinned? Do you hate what's happened
because of your sin, or do you hate your sin itself?
We need to discern the difference between godly grief
and worldly sorrow because it will help us see when we care
more about saving face than seeking God.
Two challenges 2. Repentance, blindness, and
excuses. A physically blind man never
denies his disability, but a spiritually blind man can't even
see that he's blind. How can you tell if you're
spiritually blind? If you can't see a need for
repentance, it's likely that you can't see yourself clearly.
You're spiritually blind if you don't regularly confess your
sins. It's likely that you don't
realize that you sin regularly. But sometimes we see our sin or
it's presented to us by brother or sister in the church.
But in response we excuse it. Or we hide our sin with vague
language like I messed up or I'm struggling.
How should we talk about our sin?
Here's what the Westminster Confession of Faith says.
It is every man's duty to endeavor to repent of his
particular sins particularly. In other words, we should use
specific words and biblical categories to describe our sin.
Brother, sister, repent today. If God's exposed sin in your
heart, if your conscience is birding you right now, do not
delay. Turn from the sin which is
making you miserable. Turn to the God who gives you
more grace. Turn home.
It's time to come home. That's what Naomi does.
She returns home. But first she tries to persuade
her daughters in law, Orpa and Ruth, to go back to Moab in
verses 8 to 18. Naomi tells her daughters in law
three times to turn back. Look at verses 8 to 10.
The first time Naomi says to turn back.
She prays that the Lord would deal kindly with them, just as
they've dealt kindly with her and with her family.
She kisses them to depart, but they both weep and refuse.
In verses 11 to 14, Naomi says to turn back a second time.
She explains the great cost if they follow her.
Naomi's a widow. She's too old to have another
husband. She cannot guarantee them
husbands either, or children. Or even hope.
Naomi cannot promise them provision.
They both weep again, but this time there's a parting of ways.
Verse 14 and Orpa kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to
her. Orpa makes the rational
decision. She returns home, back to Moab,
back to her family, back to her gods.
In verse 14, Orpa exits the scene.
Naomi is left alone with Ruth. Ruth clings to Naomi.
She doesn't turn back. She stays put.
The word the author chooses here, cling, is a covenantal
term. It's the same term used in
Genesis 224 to describe the responsibility a man has to
cling to his wife in marriage. It's also the word used
throughout Deuteronomy to describe Israel's responsibility
to cling to the Lord. The author here implicitly shows
us a glimpse of Ruth's devotion not just to Naomi, but to the
Lord himself. In verses 15 to 18, Ruth makes
her devotion explicit for the third time.
Naomi tells Ruth to turn back. Naomi says your sister-in-law
turned back to her people and to her God.
Turn back like her. So Ruth must make a choice here.
It's not just a choice between her own mother and her
mother-in-law or between Moab and Israel, but between the gods
of Moab and the one true God of Israel.
Here Ruth's declaration in verse 16, 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 I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me and
more. Also, if anything but death
departs me from you. Naomi has nothing left to say.
Silence. Do you see what's happened to
Ruth here? This is the surprising
repentance of the chapter. This is Ruth's conversion.
This is her declaration of faith.
See the faith of this Moabite. Ruth commits herself irrevocably
to Naomi. She departs Moab for the
Promised Land. She forsakes her gods for the
one true God. She determines never to go back.
Her resolve is total, extending even to death and she confirms
her commitment commitment with an oath to her new found Lord.
That is the faith of this Moabite.
When God made his covenant with his people, he said, Exodus 3,
Exodus 6, I will be your God and you shall be my people.
After being told to turn back three times, Ruth says to Naomi,
Your people shall be my people, your God, my God.
Ruth, a Moabite, an enemy of God and his people, becomes a
friend. Her declaration of faith is the
climax of this chapter because her faith makes no worldly sense
whatsoever. The original audience would have
been shocked that a Moabite repented and returned to the
Lord, and they would have been encouraged to follow in her
footsteps. Friends, today you have the same
choice as Orpah and Ruth. Will you turn to God or will you
turn from God? Will you walk with God or will
you walk away from God? Each of us must repent of our
own sins, for none of us is good according to God.
We've rebelled against God, we've disobeyed His commands,
we've fallen short of his glory, we've broken His covenant, and
so we've received His judgement. Death in this life, judgement
forever. But friend, do you see the
steadfast love on display in the book of Ruth?
That God, through a bitter Providence, would save a Sinner?
A woman who once lived in Moab now dwells in heaven.
That is the kindness of God. Friend, would you let the
steadfast love of God on display in Jesus Christ lead you to
repentance 2000 years ago? He came for our salvation.
God sent His only Son to save sinners.
The only man who never needed to repent of his own sins died on
the cross to save us from our sins.
And on the cross, He bore God's judgment for sinners.
And three days later, he rose from the grave.
And the tomb is empty because he's seated at the right hand of
God the Father. And he will return to judge the
living and the dead. And you must respond.
How will you respond? Will you follow in Ruth's
footsteps? Would you return to the Lord?
Would you run home? Would you repent?
Would you let her faith be your faith?
Would you let her people be your people?
Would you let her God be your God?
That's the choice you must make today.
There's great cost of following Jesus Christ.
In some sense, that's what Naomi was trying to persuade Ruth of.
There is great cost to following the Lord.
Are you sure you want to follow the Lord?
But friend, there's more to gain than anything you'll lose in
this life. For if you gain God, you gain
everything. Brothers and sisters, there's
great cost to following Jesus Christ.
But God gives us one another to bear the burdens together.
God does not allow us to drink bitter Providence alone.
He doesn't allow us to suffer alone.
He gives us companions who will cling to us on our journey home.
Following Christ looks like clinging to God and clinging to
his people. Are you truly clinging to God if
you're not clinging to his people?
The Christian weeps. The church weeps with those who
weep. The Christian carries burdens.
The church bears one another's burdens.
The Christian and the church face bitter Providence together.
The Christian and the church walk in the way of repentance
together. There's one final scene to
consider in chapter 1. The story began in Bethlehem.
It's to Bethlehem we return. 3rd And finally, a foretaste of
deliverance. Verses 19 to 22.
Look at verses 19 to 22. We see a foretaste of
deliverance, but for Naomi, it doesn't feel like deliverance.
At least 10 years have passed since Naomi's been in Bethlehem.
She departed with her husband and her two sons.
She returns with Ruth in verse 19.
The whole town was stirred. The women said, Is this Naomi?
But Naomi corrects them. Verse 20 Do not call me Naomi,
call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
She says I went away full and 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? Naomi, whose name means pleasant
tasks to be called Mara, which means bitter.
That is her perspective of God's managing of her life.
It's bitter. This is the second time Naomi's
expressed this perspective in verse 13.
Look there, she said. It is exceedingly bitter to me
that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.
Here again she says the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
And in one sense she's absolutely right.
From a famine to three funerals, she's been driven to despair.
If God Almighty is against her, who could possibly help her?
But is Naomi right when she says the Lord has brought her back
empty? Empty.
Did she not return with a loyal daughter-in-law who's forsaken
everything to cling to her? Don't you see?
In Naomi's suffering she cannot see God's provision, which is
standing within arm's reach. In Ruth, she can't see.
God's hidden hand of Providence working for her good.
Behind the scenes in chapter 1, there are three conflicts.
The first is the famine, which has just been resolved, verse
22. They're back in Bethlehem at the
beginning of barley harvest. They're baking bread in the
House of bread. Again, this is a foretaste of
more deliverance. It's a sample.
Have you ever been to Costco at 11 AM?
That's my family's favorite time to go to Costco, 11:00 AM.
Because at 11 AM, they start serving samples.
Just a taste, just enough to whet your appetite.
They'll point you down the aisle where you can get more.
The bread in Bethlehem is a foretaste of deliverance because
there is more deliverance to come in this story.
The second conflict in Chapter 1, Ruth's infertility, will be
resolved at the end of the story.
The third conflict, which is more behind the scenes in the
book of Ruth, that there's no king in Israel, will also be
resolved through Ruth in a few generations.
Naomi's tasted A bitter Providence.
She thinks God is punishing her. She does not know that God is
really restoring her family through Ruth.
She thinks that God is against her.
She does not know that God is really rescuing a people through
her. She doesn't realize that God's
purposes and plans are so often hidden in the moment, but become
evident over time. She doesn't realize that the
little town of Bethlehem will be the birth place of the King of
Israel, David. She does not realize that
Bethlehem will be the birth place of the King of Kings,
Jesus Christ. She doesn't realize it yet.
Brothers and sisters, do you realize what great deliverance
God is working for you and through you, even in the most
mundane details, even in bitter Providence?
Do you realize that Christ's resurrection, which we celebrate
today, is a foretaste of further deliverance?
What great deliverance awaits you if you've trusted in Jesus
Christ? Do you realize that every moment
and every minute and everything in your life comes to you not by
chance, but by God's hand, even the bitter Providence?
Friend, let every bitter Providence return you to the
Lord. Let's pray.
Father, we declare that whatever you ordain is right, even the
bitter Providence that you send our way.
Would you help our church by the Spirit to return to the Lord in
repentance again and again and again, all the way home in Jesus
name, Amen.