John Piper, “Ruth: Sweet and Bitter Providence,” Lesson 1

with seven reasons why is very very important what what you may exceed this ancient book number one this is the

Word of God this is part of the book that Jesus read and of which he said the scripture cannot be broken and of which the

Apostle Paul said everything written beforehand was written for your instruction that by the endurance and encouragement of the scriptures you may have hope so you're going to find here truth the scripture cannot be broken and you're going to find hope here and we live in a day where truth is not prized and hope does not abound and therefore

Ruth becomes very important number two this is a love story and therefore it's interesting it has some heart -stopping moments in it in fact in its tenderness and that tells me in and of itself that great and glorious God exalting truth is found in flesh and blood forms you don't leave behind romance you don't leave behind flesh and blood falling in love and having babies in order to deal with God those are the same if you don't meet him there if he's not supreme there if he's not transforming there he's a mirage in your life number two number three this is a portrait of a beautiful and noble manhood and womanhood there are not a lot of helps in television and in the movies in the media today to understand what womanhood is supposed to look like and what manhood is supposed to look like the book of Ruth is tremendously helpful in getting a picture of a beautiful and noble vision of womanhood and manhood in Ruth and Boaz in particular and Naomi number four the great issue of racial and ethnic diversity is drawn in to our lives through this book because Ruth is a

Moabite she's unclean she's a pagan until evidently something gets a hold of her and she is drawn not only into faith she would be an

Arab she would wear a burqa in London and she's drawn into faith and she is drawn in to be an ancestor of the

Lord Jesus there are four women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 and she is one of them in fact all of them are of questionable reputation all four of them that's not an accident and that she's a

Moabite an Arab is also not an accident number five well

I just noticed something I wrote in the margin here this issue of ethnic and racial diversity is huge you know viewed from outside England is a vanishing culture

I don't know if it is from inside and in America I just had

David go online and get the exact date this morning the most the most recent date is 2042 when

America will cease to be primarily white so I will be a minority before my children are off the scene my family will be the minority the whole mindset of the church in the

West today is changing the I don't know if you read books by Philip Jenkins over here on this side of the

Atlantic the the great new reality of the last generation is the rise of the the global South and East where the center of gravity and the

Christian church has moved away from Italy away from Western Europe away from America and into the

South that is South America Africa Asia and the powerful movements the dominant influences the majority effects of the church will be away from us unless the unforeseen happens and that always is possible

I personally when I when I talk to the the fading Europe the fading America I talk with great hope that at least as far as Bethlehem Baptist Church goes

I don't intend to be left out and I hope when you think about your campuses you don't think about oh once upon a time there was the

Cambridge seven or once upon a time there was the St. Andrews seven I don't know if you're familiar with that book the

St. Andrews seven that's worth a read and once upon a time we had a great

British influence in the world and I hope you don't think only that way

I hope you say that God moves in strange unexpected ways and all the trajectories could change or in the backwaters of the

Christian church in the next hundred years unbelievable impulses for good could arise because of you number five and this is most prominent in the book of Ruth this book is mainly about the reality of the providence of God in the midst of calamity and sorrow it's about the work of God in the darkest of times it's about telling stories to a people so that they will not lose hope when everything seems to go wrong that's the main thrust of this book and therefore

I hope that those of you who have come here and find yourself at a moment like that in your life for every morning you seem to get another piece of news that is not good not good in your health not good in your family your mom your dad your brother your sister your

Christian Union your church every piece of news in the last six months seems to have been bad that's

Ruth and the point of this book is to you and what God is doing in your life right now in that time that's the main thrust of the book of Ruth now finally number number oh no there are two more

I said there were seven so the sixth one is that this effect of finding

God at work in the darkest of times is that it frees you for radical obedience and I hope the effect will be that when you watch

God at work in the darkest of times in the book of Ruth and the effect it had on Ruth the effect it had on Boaz the outcomes that it had in the last chapter that it would free you to do some amazing things and then finally the ultimate don't call it the most prominent because I said that was number six this issue of the reality of God's providence in the midst of sorrow and calamity that's the most prominent but the most ultimate purpose of this book is found in the last chapter and it has to do with David King David and with his son

Jesus Christ this book really is about God's ultimate purpose in sending his son in the world to glorify his son to magnify his grace in the death of his son and I hope that he will get the glory in our exposition together let me pray with you one more time as we get into chapter one father

I asked for help now Lucas prayed for me and for us once I just want to express my own heart to you and say

I need your help to be faithful to this word it is a great word there are so many layers of implication for our lives in Ruth that I pray wherever these students are one of those layers two three four five six seven of those layers would come home with life -changing power please free me from self -consciousness grant that we would not be distracted that we would focus with Holy Spirit given attention upon the truth of this book come be our teacher now

I pray in Jesus name amen thank you verse one says that this happened during the time of the judges that's why in your

English Bibles it's located right after the book of Judges and just a word about the time of the judges and you you know this happened evidently very close to the front end of the time of judges because Boaz is

Rahab's son you learn that from Matthew chapter 1 verse 5 the father of Boaz married

Rahab presumably the one Rahab that we know about so this happened early on in the time of the book of judges the book of judges is the time of failure in the people of Israel again and again and again they sinned

God in his justice gives them over to some enemy band they cry out for mercy

God in his mercy raises up a judge deliverance is given a season of peace happens and they sin again and that's the pattern over and over and over it is not a hopeful time it's a terrible time that's when this happens so the point of the book of Ruth is to give us an opening a glimpse into what is

God doing in the darkest of times that's the point of the book of Ruth what is God doing in the darkest of times so this is a little window into one family that has global implications so that's the point we're to see mainly here's a story taken out of the darkest of times in which we are allowed to see

Providence God's work leading to Jesus Christ that's the point of the book let me show you that by taking you to the last chapter let's go to chapter 4 and verse 20 21 and 22 you need to know where the book ends so that you will read it with the proper expectation and understanding it's verse 18 following now these are the generations of Perez Perez fathered

Hezron Hezron fathered Ram Ram fathered M &A dab M &A dab fathered nation nation fathered

Salmon Salmon fathered Boaz Salmon had married

Rahab fathered Boaz and Boaz fathered

Obed Ruth was the mother there and Obed fathered

Jesse and Jesse fathered David and that's where the book ends intentionally because David was the greatest king of Israel and Israel experienced her times of greatest triumphs and greatest godliness during David as the the paramount godly king pointing towards his son

Jesus Christ so ending on David is supposed to say here in the darkest of times in the judges there's this little family and when it looks like everything has gone wrong for Naomi she is granted to have a relative

Boaz who marries her daughter -in -law Ruth who gives rise to King David who is the father of Jesus Christ now the reason

I I just jumped straight to Jesus Christ is because Jesus did remember this story from Matthew 22 it's the end of all the questions that the

Pharisees asked Jesus they're done asking their questions and he asked them a question or what it was what do you think of the

Christ the Messiah whose son is he in the Pharisees answer

David's son so there's the jump straight from Ruth 422 to Jesus the

Messiah is the son not of all the generations in between just skip right straight from David to Jesus David to Messiah as far as they're concerned so Jesus hears that answer and probably he nods and then he says

David's son if he's David's son what about Psalm 110 verse 1 where David speaking in the

Holy Spirit meaning inspired by God says the Lord all caps

Yahweh says to my Lord Messiah sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool

Jesus steps back and says if David calls the

Messiah Lord how is he his son in the conversation it's they don't ask him any more questions they have nothing that they can say what do you think that means what do you think

Jesus was doing by accepting the answer whose son is the

Messiah they say David son well then why does

David in Psalm 110 verse 1 call him Lord the Lord says to my

Lord Yahweh says to my master my king why does he do that and he doesn't answer and surely the least we could say is this

Jesus wanted them and us to understand that yes

Ruth 422 David is about the son of David the

Messiah that would come and bring hope to the world but oh how much more than you ever dreamed is this son of David he is not merely a man in the fleshly genealogy that traces down to another man like David he is more than a mere man in the genealogy with so I think we are within the realm of good exegesis to say that the way this book ends in 422 sheds light back on what

God is doing in Ruth and Naomi's and Boaz and the judges time he is preparing the world for his ultimate purpose to glorify his son

Jesus Christ you'd ask me what do you think the ultimate reason for the existence of the universe is the ultimate reason for the existence of history is or your existence is or your universities existence or my being here what's the ultimate reason of all things

I would say it is that Jesus Christ might be magnified as infinitely glorious this universe is about Jesus Christ Colossians 117 all things were made through him and for him everything exists for Jesus Christ in my sermon last

Sunday everything exists according to Philippians chapter 2

I quoted this chapter in my sermon Jesus is obedient unto death even death on the cross remember that in chapter 2 verse 8 of Philippians and then verse 9 says therefore therefore that reason because he was obedient unto death for us

God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven all the angels on earth all the

Republicans and Democrats in America these heady days and in England and everywhere in the world every knee is gonna bow to him and every tongue confess that Jesus is

Lord in other words God sent Jesus into the world to die and to be obedient and to rise again for one reason so that every tongue everywhere in the universe in all time will make him supreme there's zero doubt as to why this world exists it exists so that every single demonic tongue angelic tongue and human tongue will say

Jesus is supreme so that's got to be what the book of Ruth is about and when you read chapter 4 verse 22 there's no doubt that's what it's about and if you wonder you know

I have some people say I read there's a book by a fellow oh I shouldn't name anything no names no names there's a book in America today called 90 minutes in heaven about a man who died and went to heaven came back and I don't like books like that they're very untrustworthy because they're presented and they're read as though this person is telling truth about heaven on a par with Scripture that's the way they're read that's why they sell by the millions fresh new intimate firsthand word well

Paul went to heaven and he came back and said you can't talk about that however this this book says

I heard no songs there about anything painful when

I heard that I read I just went ballistic so angry because we know one song we know one song from Scripture that's going to be sung in heaven right

Revelation chapter 5 verse 9 and they sang worthy art thou for thou was slaughtered that's the word spaghetti is slaughtered thou was slaughtered and by thy blood did ransom men for God from every tribe and tongue and nation and has made them a kingdom and priest to our

God and they shall reign on earth and so I say we we wrote the guy David my sister down here we wrote the author and said you missed the song and I have to let you tell the story later but but we did communicate and he he admits he shouldn't have said what he said he's written and it's down in every airport the reason

I point that out is when I say that the ultimate purpose of the universe is to glorify Jesus Christ I mean glorify him precisely for the cross when he died when the

Son of God died the grace of God was manifested in its supreme form and according to Ephesians chapter 1 verse 6 that's why he did everything we were predestined through Jesus Christ on to adoption on to the praise of the glory of his grace and that happens supremely at the cross and therefore everything was planned in creation he was crucified before the foundation of the world in the mind of God everything was planned before creation leading towards the magnification of Jesus Christ in his death so all of that to say when we're with Ruth and Naomi and Boaz in the time of judges the worst of all times when it looks like nothing is going right this book is to tell us

God is at work preparing for the most important event in the universe it really is written for that purpose so is the story of Joseph so is the book of Esther so is the story of the exile would it be good to develop a whole

Old Testament paradigm of theology here to show how all these books in the Old Testament have this same point it looks as though everything is over for Joseph it looks as though in the book of Esther everything is over for the

Jews it looks as though everything is over in the exile and the Bible is written to say go with me into these dark times and watch the massive providence of God work his sovereign will and so my deep prayer for you is that you will see a providence a strong invisible hand as R .C.

Sproul calls it the invisible hand of God in the darkest of your times planning things for you that you could never trade he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for you all will he not with him freely give you all things if Christ has died for you and this is the main purpose of the universe will anything restrain the invisible hand of God from working in the calamities of your life right now okay the book of Ruth is about the work of God in the darkest of times to prepare for the glory of Jesus Christ verses 1 to 5 describe the misery of Naomi now

I don't know why this book is called Ruth I have no idea why this book is called Ruth it should be called Naomi by the time we're done it begins with Naomi it ends with Naomi Ruth just happens to be the one who has the baby this book is about Naomi about her calamity about her loss of faith almost and her recovery of faith it ends when you look at the last chapter you said why does this shift so back on to Naomi the way it does in the last chapter as you'll see it's because this book should have been called

Naomi we wouldn't be even laughing at all we would just say the book of Naomi and everybody would say well of course it's the book of Naomi because Naomi is the main character in this book after God the first five verses are about the misery of Naomi there was a famine in Judah she and her husband

Elimelech, Melon, Chilion or how to pronounce it

Chilion, Malon I don't know how to pronounce these things Naomi knows good and well who causes famines

God causes famines she read it in her her

Old Testament if you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them

I will give you rains in their season the land will yield its increase remember

Psalm 105 that was Leviticus chapter 26 verse 3 Psalm 105 when

God summoned a famine on the land and broke all the supply of bread he has sent a man ahead of them

Joseph so that's the story of Joseph you know Joseph's dark times had to do with a famine in Egypt where the famine come from was all over the world where'd it come from came from God God sent a famine and God sent

Joseph to rescue from the family you got to be able to handle things like that you got to have a

God who manages calamity and a God who manages rescue from calamity he does both he doesn't just do oh the devil does calamity and God does rescue that's a dualism that will not carry the day it won't work in a world like ours doesn't work in the

Bible it's not working in Ruth Naomi knows good and well and you'll see her theology in just a moment it is a massive theology so famine has come at God's hand she's gonna say that in a moment and they leave and go to Moab that's playing with fire so she and a limolec leave and they go to Moab because God said stay separate for religious reasons as we'll see not ethnic reasons not racial purity reasons but religious reasons mixed with the pagans you get pagan that's what they were saying and there her husband dies and her sons marry these pagan women one marries

Orpah and one marries Ruth and then they die

Mahlon dies Killian dies so her husband is died has died there's famine in the land she's moved to a foreign country they've married women they shouldn't marry they've died perhaps because of it doesn't say whether it's

God's judgment just I think any ordinary Jew reading this would say well of course they died they shouldn't have married these women that's gonna be significant if that's true makes it the book all the more significant doesn't say but maybe now that's a pretty bad situation the point of those first five verses is to say this is awful pick put yourself in Naomi's picture famine foreign country husband dies sons marry the wrong women no children for ten years maybe another part of the curse and after ten years the boys die it's just you just if you're

Naomi you say I'm cursed I'm cursed I'm it's it's it's as bad as it can get well it isn't as bad as it can get verse 6 the

Lord she hears the Lord has visited his people and given them food little tiny ray of hope the famine is over back in Bethlehem of Judah so she evidently starts out to go home with with her daughters -in -law both of them but for whatever reason partway there she tries to persuade them to go back so that's what verses 8 through 13 are about trying to persuade them to go home don't go with me now my question is

I don't know when you read narrative that covers this narrative probably covers about 12 years so it's just 10 years that that they were married and then they died so a little bit of time before long enough to have a marriage and then a baby afterwards so you know 12 or 13 years so if you got 12 or 13 years and you wanted to write everything that happened in those years it would fill up thousands of pages and here you have four pages so this is when you write a story you're obviously being massively selective so you should always be asking why is this here and so I'm asking why why this attention in verses 8 to 13 why this attention to tell the women to go home don't go with me and I think there are three reasons for these verses number one it emphasizes

Naomi's misery you're not done with that yet verse 11 Naomi said turn back my daughters why will you go with me have

I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands turn back my daughters go your way for I am too old to have a husband so I have nothing to offer you so go home this is drawing attention again

Naomi is bereft her husband's gone her sons are gone the dreams she had for the life that she thought she was going to live are gone and she's just going home to die no my daughters verse 13 it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the

Lord has gone forth against me sounds just like Job doesn't it almost identical the hand of the

Lord has gone forth against me is that a true sentence be careful the hand of the

Lord has gone forth against me is that a true statement it depends on on what against me it's true if if you mean

God brought the famine God took her husband God took her sons

God orchestrated the marriages all that's true in that sense it feels like he's against me but is he against me was he against Joe and the ultimate answer is going to be he is not ultimately against me he's not open against you right now feels like he might be against you half a dozen reasons that you could bring to mind right now you might say

God feels like he's against me like he's mad at me so those verses are first to set up the fact or to confirm the fact that things are going very poorly for Naomi she feels like God has gone forth against her number two these verses draw out a custom that's foreign to us but essential to this story namely in Jewish culture of that time according to Naomi and the

Old Testament books law if a man died then his brothers or some close relative should marry the widow to preserve the name a strange custom the name of this man be preserved so that the offspring brought now to the brother would be in his name and that's why

Naomi says I have no sons I mean if we read this as martyrs we say who care if you have sons

I'm gonna marry your sons anyway I just want to find a good man I don't have to be your son

I'm happy to find just a good Jewish man back there in Bethlehem and I can remarry my husband's dead and what's his son business so it is an odd to us it'd be a lot just to me anyway that they why are you pointing out

Naomi that you don't have sons and if you got married and had sons they'd have to wait 30 years 20 years to get married that's weird we don't have to wait just marry somebody and and this was so central to what's going on in this story that here it's brought out for us to get ready for why

Boaz is gonna be so significant in the story so that's the second function of these verses there are little windows of hope appearing on the horizon that the famine has been taken away and Ruth and Orpah are willing at first to go back with her but she's decided that everything is against her maybe

I should pause here and just draw out one more practical psychological implication for you when you're depressed because it feels like everything's going against you you're almost always unable to see signs of hope when when the last six months six weeks have been negative and God has ordained that there come into your life hard times and your emotions are sinking lower and lower your vision is becoming very impaired

Naomi could not see signs of hope the famine is being lifted

Ruth is going to say yes and go with her there is a Boaz back there she's forgotten totally about Boaz when she says

I don't have anybody for you women and that's what happens to you which is one reason by the way why you need each other why being together in ministry is so crucial you try to go off by yourself and do ministry you're gonna crash emotionally you're gonna crash if you don't have somebody to come into your darkness and just gently not in a cavalier way like praise

God anyhow but in a in a deep strong earnest biblical way take you by the neck and say

I know you can't see hope right now but I can and I'm with you and you will see it soon that's what has to happen

Naomi didn't see clearly but she could have seen more if she had eyes to see we can see here what she couldn't third reason for these verses 8 to 13 is to show us

Ruth's amazing faithfulness is probably why the book is called Ruth right here because of this amazing woman's remarkable response so let's read verses 16 and 17 these are the most famous verses in the book in the book urge me not or entreat me not to leave you she says to Naomi don't don't tell me to go back

Naomi or return from following you for where you go I will go and where you lodge

I will lodge and your people will be my people and your God will be my God and where you where you die

I will die and there will I be buried and may the Lord do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you those are amazing words number one she would have to leave her own family familiar language familiar culture number two she was embracing a life of widowhood forever because she's not arguing with Naomi when

Naomi says I have nobody for you the implication being if you marry another man outside our family you're losing if I don't know which of these two men she married it doesn't say to just take the order she probably married

Killian you're losing Killian's name and you're dishonoring his heritage so she's embracing widowhood and childlessness for the rest of her her life she's going to an unknown people and new language she says something amazing here where she says

I will be buried there meaning where you die

I will die well the assumption would be that a daughter -in -law dies years after her mother -in -law

I'm going for keeps it's not like I'm gonna help you and when you're dead

I'm coming home I'm gonna be buried there if I live 20 years longer than you

I'm living without you 20 years in your people that's just an amazing commitment here to the people of God and and you can see probably the ground of it all in verse 11 your

God will be my God in your God will be my

God I don't know how she got there there were 10 years between the arrival of Naomi and her sons and the marriages and the death of her husband and this incident so 10 years of living with Naomi as mother -in -law and her

Jewish husband and during those years she came to love

God she came to trust God seemingly more than Naomi trusted

God so in spite of the prediction by Naomi that everything would be better Ruth says

I'm going I'm going to be with that people now here's where we see a glimpse of what

I said is a picture of the beautiful and noble womanhood see manhood later but here

I think is intentionally in the Bible a picture of what ideal womanhood looks like here's a few of its characteristics faith in God that sees beyond present bitter setbacks when

I read Proverbs 31 about the great woman Proverbs 31

I have a favorite verse I think I married one of these and I love this verse in particular into a relationship to my wife according to Proverbs 31 25 the woman is like this the ideal woman the

God woman strength and dignity are her clothing and she laughs at the time to come she laughs at the time to come or just to underline it before I say what it means if you go to the woman who's described by Peter in verses 1 to 6 of 1st

Peter 3 where he's describing how a woman might be able to win her unbelieving husband to the

Lord and he describes this beautiful character the one that underlines and agrees with Proverbs 31 25 goes like this you are

Sarah's children if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening so the woman in Proverbs 31 laughs at the time to come the woman in 1st

Peter 3 doesn't fear anything that is frightening and Ruth looks into the future with Naomi and sees nothing but bleakness and takes

Naomi's hand says I'm coming with you that's the kind of woman

I want to marry and did you know when they asked me what about your student days and Brian or was it

Brian what Lauren who was giving the no no no no the guy

Brian he said that there are some cozy moments in your

Christian Union right finding a wife is not a bad thing well it is not a bad thing or finding a husband and I found

Noel and my wife laughs at the things to come you offer her some crazy challenge and missions she signs at the top of the list and she travels around the world way more than I do and takes more risks than I do and so I don't think it's an accident that Ruth is presented here as a great and ideal fearless woman of faith now they go back together and the townspeople meet her

I see Naomi coming she's been gone for at least 10 years says verse 19 the whole town was stirred and said is this

Naomi do not call me Naomi that is pleasant meaning pleasant call me

Mara means bitter I went away full and the

Lord has brought me back empty why call me Naomi when the Lord has afflicted me testified against me and Almighty Almighty has brought calamity upon me by asking how do you feel about her theology

I love her she's not reading her circumstances accurately but when it comes to her understanding of God she's got it right number one he exists she never questions number two he is absolutely sovereign if bad things come into my life

God hasn't ceased to be God they're coming ultimately from the hand of God she talks exactly like Job and all the other inspired writers in the

Old Testament and number three therefore it is true God has afflicted her

I preached on Ruth 24 years ago 24 years ago and I think

I gave the title to the series I'm not mistaken the sweet and bitter providences of God I will never say that God does evil or that God sins but I will say that God ordains that evil happen and that affliction come upon his people and if you can't make a distinction between those two

I don't know how you're gonna make sense out of the Bible God is not a sinner God is holy and in him there's no darkness at all and yet God ordains the worst sin that ever happened the murder of the

Son of God very clearly according to Acts 4 verses 27 28 God planned and ordained and saw to it that it happened the worst sin of the universe and therefore if the cross which was the worst sin of the universe could be meticulously ordained in Scripture scripted by God then it's not hard for me to say to Naomi you're right

God has afflicted you but only open your eyes to the evidences of hope in the darkest of times because God haven't you read the book of Joseph I mean the the story of Joseph haven't you read it how dark it got darker he was sold into slavery he was lied about by an adulteress he was thrown into prison and he kept faith all the way and then the windows of heaven opened and he became the vice president of Egypt he rescued the people of God from famine he preserved the line of the

Messiah Oh Naomi if you can only see that's what's happening to you you're gonna be in the line of King Jesus and I'm working it all out right now and the reason

I want this Ruth character because I'm gonna show the world the kind of ancestors I want feeding into my son's bloodline so that nobody gets an uppity attitude about Jewishness or white black you can't dream and he's doing stuff for you you can't dream so I close the main most prominent point of this book is

God is at work in the darkest of times for the good of his people the most ultimate meaning of this book is that good is seeing someday and enjoying

Jesus Christ as the paramount display of the grace and the glory of God as the

Messiah who came from David who came from Jesse who came from Obed who came from a