Sunday School: The Return to Bethlehem (Ruth 1:6-22)

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You're listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

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New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

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Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. Thank you so much.

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If you want to open up your Bible to Ruth chapter one, we're going to pick up where we left off last week.

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If you miss the introductory lesson, verses one through five, that's on my podcast.

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So if you go to WWUTT, you'll find the introduction to the book of Ruth. We're going to pick up today in verse six and go through verse 22, reading through the rest of the chapter here.

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Then I'll say a short prayer and we'll go through an outline of our lesson today. So picking up now in verse six.

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Then Naomi arose with her daughters -in -law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the

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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.

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But Naomi said to her two daughters -in -law, Go, return each of you to her mother's house.

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May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me.

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The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.

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Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her,

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No, we will return with you to your people. But Naomi said,

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Turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may become your husbands?

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Turn back, my daughters. Go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say

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I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown?

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Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the

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Lord has gone out against me. Then they lifted up their voices and wept again.

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And Orpah kissed her mother -in -law, but Ruth clung to her.

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And she said, See, your sister -in -law has gone back to her people and to her gods.

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Return after your sister -in -law. But Ruth said, Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you.

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For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge.

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Your people shall be my people, and your God my

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God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried.

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May the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you.

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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.

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And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said,

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Is this Naomi? She said to them, Do not call me Naomi. Call me

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Marah, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the

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Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me, and the

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Almighty has brought calamity upon me? So Naomi returned, and Ruth the

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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.

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Let us pray. Heavenly Father, as we look into our text this morning, as we're looking at a story, events that took place thousands of years ago, may we see the hand of the

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Lord working. Even in these events, you would work salvation for your people, redemption for even those who are destitute.

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And ultimately, this is working out for our redemption. Because we know, already spoiling the ending here, as we considered last week, that these events are setting up things that will happen later on, through which a

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Messiah would be born, who will save his people from their sins. We have salvation today, even because of these things that we read about.

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And so may we see your goodness and your mercy. Though Naomi here says that she is bitter because the hand of the

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Lord has gone out against her, may we see that even in our most difficult circumstances, you are working for our good and for your glory.

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It's in the precious name of Jesus that we pray. Amen. So to quickly recap,

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Elimelech took his family, Naomi and his two sons, Malon and Kilion.

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There was a famine in the land of Judah, so he took his family to Moab looking for food. That was against what the

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Lord had commanded of the people of Israel. You shall not go to Moab and seek their prosperity.

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But that's what it was that Elimelech did. And what was the result of that? He thought that he was going to save his family by going to Moab, and instead he dies.

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The head of the household dies. And the order of events that we have there in the first five verses of chapter one, it says that after he died,

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Malon and Kilion took wives, Moabite women to be their wives. So while Elimelech was only meaning to sojourn there in the land of Moab, his sons take up a more permanent residence.

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And what happens to them? They die. And now we have three widows, Elimelech's wife,

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Naomi, and then Malon and Kilion's wives, Orpah and Ruth.

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And these three widows left to themselves to provide for one another.

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Now, we don't read anything else about their time in the land of Moab. And what we have here in this particular section is essentially now the decision to go back to the land where Naomi came from, and that is back to Judah, specifically the town of Bethlehem.

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Now, this is the Bethlehem that you're thinking of. It's the same Bethlehem where David is born, and the

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Bethlehem, of course, where Christ would be born. As we know from the ending of the book of Ruth, all of these things are being set up for the coming of the

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Messiah. So we're seeing the providential hand of God. He, in his sovereignty, that is working all these things out for the most ultimate good that could ever be given for mankind.

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Yes, it is very devastating for Naomi and for Orpah and for Ruth. But we have the benefit of seeing the end of this story.

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Not just that the Messiah is going to come. Not just that he dies for us, and whoever believes in him will not perish.

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We are saved from the judgment of God, and we will have everlasting life in his eternal kingdom. But we even know the end of the story of the whole

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Bible. The whole Bible, going to the book of Revelation and seeing ultimately what

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Christ fulfills. But I'm jumping way ahead in the story. Let's just consider our outline here as we break up this story into these three sections.

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From verses 6 through 14, we have Naomi convincing her daughter's -in -law to go back to Moab.

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So we have three widows here. We start with three widows. That's what we have in verses 6 through 14.

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But then, in verse 15, at the conclusion of this first section, Ruth is determined to remain with Naomi.

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So now we have it down to two widows. And that's in verses 15 to 18.

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And Ruth being so insistent to Naomi, where you go, that's where I'm going to go.

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Where you die, that's where I will die. Your God will be my God. Your people will be my people.

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And when Naomi sees how insistent she is, she says no more to her. So we've gone from three widows to two widows, and now we go the one way.

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And that's in verses 19 to 22. There's only one way for them to go.

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And that is back to Judah. Back into the presence of God and to his people. That was the way that Elimelech and Naomi and Mallon and Killian should have walked in the first place.

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So they go back to the land. It is through the land that God blesses his people. Naomi, of course, comes back there destitute.

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She comes back there in mourning and bitterness. But it is through this land that God is going to provide for the both of them.

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And even ultimately for Judah and even for us.

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So that's the final portion that we have there in verses 19 to 22. So we have the three widows, then the two widows that go back the one way.

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There's our sections for today. Now, what is the central proposition? What's the main thing that we're looking for in this particular text?

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What's going to be the main focus? It would be very easy to say that it's the speech that Ruth gives to Naomi.

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That that seems to be the emphasis. That's the focus of the action on this story.

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With, again, Ruth saying, don't urge me to leave you, to return from following you.

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Where you go, I will go. So that seems to be the emphasis on this, right? I'm going to present to you that it actually is a little bit before that.

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So the main point of this text, this section that we're looking at today, this lesson, the main point is going to be actually in verse 14.

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Where it says, they lifted up their voices and wept again. Orpah kissed her mother -in -law, but Ruth did what?

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Ruth clung to her. Because everything that Ruth is going to say comes from that.

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The fact that she's clinging to her. So it's not necessarily the speech that is the central action.

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It is the fact that she clings to Naomi that is the central action of this particular text.

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So there's our focus, that's our emphasis. That's our central proposition. As we go through this, we're going to come back to that over and over again and see that persistence in Ruth, that devotion, her dedication to clinging to Naomi and why that's so critical even to the rest of this story.

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Even to the things that Judah should have been doing at the time and were not doing.

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Alimelech should have been clinging to God and had not clung to God. Instead, went a direction that God had told them not to go.

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But Ruth is faithful and because of this woman's faithfulness, oh the amazing goodness that God is going to do that we celebrate even today.

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The very reason why we're gathered. So let's come to verse 6 once again. The very start of this particular lesson.

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In verse 6, Naomi hears from the fields of Moab that the Lord has visited

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His people and given them food. Naomi set out with her two daughters -in -law,

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Ruth and Orpah, all three of them widows. And it was customary during that time to see a friend or a relative on their journey.

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So here Naomi is going back to Judah. Remember there was a famine in the land. She's heard now that there's food. She's going to go back.

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These are three grieving widows together. So they remain together. And at least what we have here in the story, it appears as if Ruth and Orpah meant to go with her the whole way.

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But Naomi never intended that that was going to be the case. So they go out from the city, whatever city it was in Moab, we're not told.

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But they go out from the city with her and they go that distance. That customary distance that you would go with a guest as you kind of escort them out of the city.

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We don't really do things like that anymore. When a guest leaves your home, they just walk out of the house, you shut the door, and that's it.

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Bye. Boom. Now they're outside and you're inside. Finally, you got rid of those people who are bothering you so much.

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But when it comes to treating your guests well in this land at that time, it didn't matter whether it was

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Israel or whether it was Moab. It was kind of all of that area of the world. This was the way that you treated your guests.

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When your guests were leaving, when they were going out of the city onto their next place, you would walk with them out of the city for a little ways.

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That was even part of your visit, right? You get to talk a little bit more, chat along the way. Then you'll say your goodbyes out of the city, and there they go.

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Or at the very least, you would walk with them to the city gate before they left the city entirely and went down the road.

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So the daughters -in -law are there with Ruth, sorry, they're with Naomi, intending to go the whole way.

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So Naomi let them accompany her, but she did not intend for them to return with her.

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And she said, Go, return each of you to her mother's house.

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And this was, in a sense, Naomi telling these women, I am not your mother.

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So you go back to your mother. I'm not her. I was listening to Alistair Begg teach on this particular section, and he said that this text would literally be translated,

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Go back to your mother's bedroom. Because where would daughters be with their mother and accompany their mother and help her dress, and the mother would teach them how to do womanly things?

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That would all be in the mother's bedroom. And so Naomi is telling her daughters -in -law,

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I'm not your mother. I can't provide for you. I got nothing for you. I don't even have any sons to give you, as we're going to see as the speech goes on.

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So convincing them to go back to their mothers because they're natural birth mothers who still love them and care for them, certainly.

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We'll be able to find for them sons to marry.

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These are still young women. They're still desirable. They're still of marrying age and childbearing age.

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These women have not even had any children yet. So however long they were married to Mallon and Killian, we're not told.

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The amount of time that they were there in the land of Moab was about 10 years. But how long they were married and never had children, the text doesn't tell us that.

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But nonetheless, they die. Mallon and Killian die childless. This is important even for the law of the

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Leveret marriage that we see in Deuteronomy 25. That's going to be coming up a little bit later on in the story. But that law, the law of Leveret marriage, had to do with a man who died childless.

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So these women are childless. Naomi's even childless. She doesn't have any children left.

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The two daughters -in -law, they don't have any children. Naomi thinks it would be better for them.

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Now she thinks that what she's doing here for them is the best thing for them. To go back to Moab and to go back to their birth mothers and find husbands.

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But the thing that should be alarming to us in that is that we see a little bit later on that Naomi says to her daughters -in -law, or she says to Ruth rather, see, your sister -in -law has gone back to her people and to her what?

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To her gods. Yeah. See, that should alarm us, that that would be okay with Naomi.

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She thinks that's the best action for them. Go back to your false gods? So though her heart may be in the right place, she thinks she's caring for her daughters -in -law.

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She's thinking with a human mind and not with a godly mind. And so here

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Naomi urges them to go back to their mothers. The favor of the

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Lord was no longer with her. She believed, as evident by the name she'll give herself a little bit later on in verse 20.

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These women, still young and desirable, able to find blessing. Maybe they'll find a husband.

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So she says, May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me.

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The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband. Naomi did not believe

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God's favor was with her. But she believed that Yahweh would bless these young women because of the kindness that they had shown to Naomi.

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So it's certainly not that Naomi has become agnostic here. She still believes Yahweh is

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God and that He blesses. But she's very self -pitying here.

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Oh, woe is me. He's not blessing me. His hand has gone out against me. That's her attitude that we see through all of chapter 1 here and pretty much most of chapter 2.

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We'll see somewhat of a change there at the end of chapter 2, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself here. So she knows that God is real and that He blesses, but He's not blessing me.

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Her attitude is very similar to Job. We see some of the things that she's saying here are very similar to things that Job said.

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Of course, in Job, he said it in much more words. We're getting kind of the paraphrased version here in the book of Ruth.

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But she has an attitude that's very much like Job's. I was just fine.

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I was a righteous man. What in the world? Why did God's hand come out against me? It seems like He only means calamity for me.

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And so Naomi has kind of adopted that mindset. The book of Job, by the way, precedes the writing of the book of Ruth.

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So it is an older book than Ruth, and the people of Israel, the people of Judah, certainly would have known it.

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Going back to the time of the patriarchs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that's when it's believed that the story of Job would have taken place.

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So these were things that Naomi certainly would have known. One of the oldest books in the history of Israel. So she puts herself in the place of Job.

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God has brought calamity against me. But she doesn't deny that God is there, nor that He blesses.

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So may Yahweh bless you. May God's favor be upon you, even though it's not with me.

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And she believes that Yahweh will bless them because they've shown kindness to her.

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As you have been kind, Yahweh will be kind to you. Now, the text says that Orpah returned.

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So these women, they say goodbye to one another. They lift up their voices and weep.

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And Orpah goes back, but Ruth clung to her. Now, this contrast is pretty important here.

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And it's something that we're going to see again as we continue our study in the book of Ruth.

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We see a contrast between two characters. We see that Orpah goes part of the way, but doesn't go the whole way.

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Now, at first, Orpah's like, I'm going to go all the way with you.

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We're going to go with you back to your land. That's the attitude of both Ruth and Orpah when in the first place,

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Naomi insists that they go back to Moab. So Orpah at first says, no,

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I'm going to go with you. But then when Naomi presents this case of how foolish that would be for you to do that, you can still find husbands.

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Your mother will find husbands for you. Your mothers will find husbands for you.

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I can't give you husbands. I've given you what I've got. They're dead. If I were to even have children tonight, what are you going to do?

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Wait around for 20 years? You're going to be 40 before they're 20? And you're going to hold out until that?

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Not going to take a husband? Not going to have any children? No, don't do that. Go back. Go back to Moab.

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And Orpah's convinced by that and goes. She weeps. She kisses Naomi.

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There's some genuine, real affection there. There's heartbreak. There's the realization that I'm never going to see this woman again.

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But just like with Naomi, it doesn't matter how great

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Orpah's intentions are. She doesn't have the mind of God here. Human affection, heartbreak, compassion, yeah, all of that's there.

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But it's, what good is it? It doesn't save her. And in fact, she even turns from going the way that would have been the way of salvation.

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And she goes back to Moab. She goes back to false gods, to paganism, to a place that God will eventually judge.

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And we read about that in the prophets, that the land of Moab was indeed judged, no longer exists today.

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The land that they used to occupy is there, but the people are not because God brought judgment against them.

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So we know what the outcome of the Moabites was going to be, and that's where Orpah ended up going.

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Very tragic. I mean, at first when you're reading this and you're just thinking, oh, you know, difference between two characters,

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Orpah went this way, Ruth went that way. There's so much more to that. Ruth went a direction that would be to eternal salvation, and Orpah goes a direction that would be to eternal destruction.

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That's huge. That's huge to consider about this story, and which is why I say that our central proposition here, our central focus in this section of chapter one is that.

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That is the turning point, and something that sets up not just the lesson that we're reading today, but even the rest of the story.

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Orpah goes back to Moab. She kissed her mother -in -law, and that's it.

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That's the end of Orpah. But Ruth clung to her.

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Now, this statement, that Ruth clung to her, the word used here is the same word that God has used for how

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Israel should have held fast to Him. Remember, what's going on at this particular time?

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This is the time of the judges. This is the time that we read about in Judges 17 and in 21.

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Everybody is doing what is right in their own eyes. No king in the land at that time, and everybody is doing, they're following their heart.

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They're doing what they want to do. They're following their own human passions. And we kind of see that with Orpah even.

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Even though this is not Judah for her, she's going back to Moab, but even with her, though her heart breaks for Naomi, she doesn't follow the

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Lord's heart. She follows her own. And it goes back to the Moabites. This is what's happening in the land at the time.

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Elimelech should have clung to God. Naomi should have been clinging to God. The Israelites, the

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Jews, they should have been clinging to God. But they're not. They're going their own way.

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A lot of wickedness. A lot of rebellion going on in the land at this particular time.

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So the word used here is the same word God has used for how Israel should have held fast to Him.

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Deuteronomy 10, 20. Moses said, The word translated there for hold fast is the same word describing how

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Ruth was committed to Naomi. It's more than sentimentalism or emotion here that Ruth is feeling for Naomi.

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For Ruth, this was a deep conviction of her own soul.

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And so convicted was she. She was absolutely dedicated to Naomi to the point,

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I'm leaving my family, my land, everything that is familiar to me to be with you.

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You are my family. Ruth is the epitome here of leave and cleave.

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You've heard that said about marriage? Adam said it when Eve was brought to him.

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Jesus repeats these words in Matthew chapter 19. Leave and cleave.

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Leave his father and mother. Cleave to his wife. The two shall become one flesh. This is what

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Ruth is doing with Naomi. Not in the one flesh aspect. Not any sort of consummation of this that is going on.

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But it's the commitment to family. I left my family.

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I became part of a new family when I married your son. You are my mother.

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I am your daughter. She clung to Naomi. When Naomi would not cling to her.

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And Naomi had not been clinging to God. Ruth is the picture here of what

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Israel should have been doing and was not doing. What Elimelech should have been doing and was not doing.

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Now again, that word for clung. Ruth clung to her or cleaved to her. Some of you may have cleave in your translations.

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It's the same word in Deuteronomy 10 .20. For you shall fear the Lord your God and you shall hold fast to him.

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You shall serve him. You shall hold fast. Hold fast is cleave. It's clung. Same word that's used here in Ruth chapter 1.

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Now I'm reading out of the English Standard Version. Most of you, that's the translation that you have. So that's what I'm using here.

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But the Legacy Standard Bible, I've read, I've done a couple of lessons out of the

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LSB. I've preached a sermon out of that. Pastor Tom's preached a sermon out of that.

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And he's going to do more out of the LSB when we get into Ephesians as well. As we get deeper into Ephesians.

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So the Legacy Standard, the translation committee of the

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Legacy Standard Bible, they were committed to something that's called lexical uniformity. And what that means is where a certain word or phrase is translated this way in this text, or in this verse, we're going to make sure, as consistently as we can do it, we're going to make sure that that word is always translated that same way throughout every text.

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So you'll see more consistency in the Legacy Standard Bible than you'll see in the

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ESV or even in the NASB, the New American Standard Bible. So this word here in Ruth 1 .14

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for clung. Ruth clung to her. It is the same word in Deuteronomy 10 .20,

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even in English. For it says in the Legacy Standard, you shall fear the Lord your God, you shall serve

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Him, and cling to Him. So it says it that way in the LSB, even though we have the expression hold fast in the

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ESV. So Ruth is convicted to cling to Naomi, to be dedicated to Naomi.

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And honestly, you know, Naomi may have died if it was not for Ruth's commitment to her.

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Naomi has to go all the way to Bethlehem by herself. Then she's going to live there in Bethlehem. What's she going to do for herself?

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At the beginning of chapter two, we see she's doing nothing for herself. Ruth has to go out and work to be able to provide for herself and for Naomi.

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So if it was not for Naomi's dedication, Naomi would not have, if it was not for Ruth's dedication,

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Naomi would not have survived. Did I say that? All right, make sure I didn't get my names mixed up there. And Boaz recognizes that, right?

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We get to that next week. We're in chapter two. He recognizes, it's been told to me, everything that you did for Naomi, you left your land.

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You clung to Naomi. So we have this emphasis on clinging.

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As Naomi should have been doing, as Israel should have been doing, so Ruth is doing. She clings.

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She holds fast. And that is how each and every one of us are to be with God.

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In each and every moment, in every circumstance, we cling to the Lord. No matter how bad, no matter how difficult things get, we cling to God.

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Turn with me here for a moment to 2 Corinthians 1. So keep your marker here in Ruth, or your finger there, whatever is easiest for you to mark that place.

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Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 1, and consider something that Paul says here in this letter to the

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Corinthians right at the very start. I'm going to begin reading in verse 8.

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He talks about comfort. That blessed be the God and Father of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our afflictions.

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That's in verses 3 and 4. But picking up from that theme, picking up in verse 8, for we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction that we experienced in Asia.

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For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

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Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. It's about halfway through verse 9.

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That's where I stopped. You ever heard the expression, God will never give you more than you can handle? Yeah, that's a lie.

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It really looks like here that God is giving Paul more than he can handle, doesn't it?

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God certainly gave Job more than he could handle. Paul believed that he had been given a sentence of death.

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This is it for us. The persecution we've been enduring, the things that we've been through. The Corinthians have even heard about it.

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And Paul is saying, we don't want you to be alarmed about what it is that you have heard.

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We don't want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction that we've experienced in Asia. We were so burdened beyond our strength, we thought we'd received a sentence of death.

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This was it for us. We can't go on anymore. What's the resolution to this here? Look at the rest of verse 9.

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But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

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Indeed, we were burdened beyond our strength. We could not make it one more day.

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Why would God allow this to happen to us? Paul, who was preaching the gospel to the world at the time, who had given up his rock star status as a

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Pharisee to become an apostle to suffer for the name of Christ. What higher calling could there have been to be going all over the

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Roman Empire sharing the gospel? And yet, all of this disaster and calamity happens to him.

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If there was anybody who could have looked at God and said, God, come on, give me a break.

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Paul certainly had, or at least, you know, we would have agreed that Paul had a case to be able to bring before God.

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Why all of this? Why can I not get a little bit of a break here? He's building a fire on an island.

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A snake comes out, bites him in the hand. He shakes the snake off into the fire. But still, it's just one of those things where it's like, man,

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I just went through a shipwreck, and now I get bit by a snake? And yet, that's not

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Paul's attitude. Paul said, these things happen to us. All the stuff that I go through, which he will say later on,

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I think it's in chapter 4 here of 2 Corinthians, he'll call these things a light momentary affliction. Then he even lays out all the afflictions that he went through when we get to chapter 11.

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And it's an astonishing list. It's more than you will ever go through as a Christian, most likely. Just an incredible amount of stuff that happened to the

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Apostle Paul. He calls it a light momentary affliction. And he said all of these things has happened, so I would not rely on myself.

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So I would rely on God who raises the dead. So no matter what you are going through, no matter what you face, no matter what you have to endure, you go through cancer.

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We've talked about cancer in here. We've talked about losing loved ones. We've prayed this morning for friends of ours who are in the hospital.

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We've had people from this church that have caught COVID and came out okay.

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We've got other people who caught COVID and didn't. And as we mourn and we struggle, some of us losing jobs, wondering how

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God is going to provide for us in the midst of all of these things. We've lost friends. I mean, just the change in political climate in our country right now.

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I don't know about you, but every time we go through one of these major election cycles, I think I lose more friends. Our political differences that divide us.

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People we thought were friends, people we thought were devoted family members, but now we're even being divided over whether you're wearing a mask or whether you're getting vaccinated or not.

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All of the things that we see going on in the world and in our culture, all of this stuff is to teach us, to remind us, that we would not rely upon ourselves.

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We would rely on God who raises the dead. My friends, there's no more final conclusion in life but death.

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You don't recover from death. Anything else that happens to you, a temporary problem, a light momentary affliction, as Paul puts it.

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You can't get over death. So you must rely on God who raises the dead.

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Naomi and Ruth have experienced death. Their husbands have died. And Naomi is not relying on the

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Lord. Ruth is. Even swears by the Lord. Clings to Naomi because she's clinging to God.

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Her devotion to Naomi is a reflection of the heart that she has in obedience to the

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Lord. To Yahweh, whom she has heard about and learned about through this new family that she's become a part of.

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Through Elimelech and through her husband. Both of whom are now dead. But she has come to know the

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Lord. And by the conviction of Yahweh, she's going to remain with Naomi and she's going to go back to the land of Yahweh.

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The land that belongs to Yahweh, as God says in Leviticus 25.

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This is who Ruth is committed to. This is who Ruth is clinging to. Clinging to the one who raises the dead.

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And so, my friends, as we come to see that as the central point of this lesson today, may it be the same for you.

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That you cling to the one who raises the dead. Peter and James both saying, not to be surprised by the fiery trial that comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.

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But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings. For we go through these things for a time.

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These things that we endure in this life, they are not permanent. They are temporary. And as Paul will say in the book of Romans, these things that we go through now, not even worth comparing to the glory that awaits us in Christ Jesus if we endure to the end and He will sustain us.

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So, Ruth vows by the name of Yahweh here. Look at verses 16 to 17.

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Ruth says, Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go,

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I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people.

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Your God shall be my God. Where you die, I will die.

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And there will I be buried. This is a lifelong commitment that Ruth is making to Naomi.

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This is not just, Hey, I'm going to make sure you get back to Bethlehem alright. Ruth is there with Naomi to the end.

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And this is a devotion that she has to her mother -in -law because of a devotion that she has to God.

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Your God will be my God. And again, it's still astonishing and even somewhat heartbreaking to consider that Naomi had just tried to urge her to go back to the place where it will eventually be her judgment and had convinced

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Orpah to go back there. Now, Naomi made a grievous error and we're going to see her come back around as the story goes, but still just incredibly devastating.

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Consider the hopelessness and despair she has fallen into in these moments because her husband has died and her sons have died.

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It's just a hopeless despair. We must grieve. When things happen to us that go bad, there is nothing wrong with grieving.

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Christ grieved. So just as Jesus grieved. Remember, He wept when

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Lazarus died, though He was going to be bringing Lazarus back from the dead to see His friends in pain and to see even the effects of sin upon creation, which has resulted in death.

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Romans 6 .23, the wages of sin is death. Jesus observed all of that. It broke

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His heart. And He wept, it says in John 11. So Jesus mourned.

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He grieved. It is right for you to grieve, but let our grief not fall to despair.

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That we would lose sight of God because we are just so caught up in our own emotional turmoil.

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You must cling to Christ in those moments. You must cling to the promises of God.

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For again, God is the one who raises the dead. Ruth is clinging to Naomi as she clings to God.

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May the Lord do so to me and more also, if anything, but death parts me from you.

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So Ruth vowed by the name of Yahweh, knowing that judgment was ultimately in His hand.

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And her commitment to Naomi was more than a woman's commitment to her widowed mother -in -law. Naomi was miserable and wished to be alone, but Ruth was not about to leave her alone.

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Her commitment was not to her own benefit. For Ruth, it was not to her own benefit, but to truly care for someone that she loved.

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So now Naomi and Ruth, they come back to Bethlehem, and the text says that the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women said, is this

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Naomi? Now, the time that Naomi was in Moab was about 10 years, according to verse 4.

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And in that time, she lost her husband, her sons. She returned with a woman that the people there did not recognize.

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So Naomi insists. Now, when the people there, they say, is this

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Naomi? It was pretty similar to the way that Job's friends came upon him after all this calamity had come upon Job.

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When they saw him from a distance, they didn't even recognize him. Because of the grief that painted his face, and the horrible boils that he had on his body as well.

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They saw him, you know, laying in the dirt and scraping his boils with a pot shirt. So they saw this from a distance, and it caused them to weep because they did not even recognize this man.

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So we see something a little similar, not exactly the same, obviously, because Naomi has not been afflicted with illness.

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But of course, her demeanor, like her posture, stature, everything, is hunched over because of grief.

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She's difficult to recognize. Plus, where's her husband and her sons? She's come back here with this

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Moabite woman. Who is this? Is this Naomi? And Naomi insists not to call her

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Naomi, which means pleasant, but to call me Marah, which means bitter. I went away full, the

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Lord has brought me back empty. Now, that's kind of a bummer for Ruth, who's right there, for Naomi to say something like that.

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And it's also not true that Naomi went away full because there was no food in the land.

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She was full in the sense that she had a husband and she had sons, but they were struggling when they left.

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So she's kind of heaping the mournfulness on herself with statements like this.

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I left full, the Lord has brought me back empty, so why call me Naomi when the

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Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?

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Now, it mentions in verse 22 that they come back at the beginning of barley harvest, and that's pretty significant because barley was at the beginning of the harvest season.

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And that's when Naomi would have returned to Bethlehem during the month of Nisan, which is about March to April on our calendar.

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So according to Leviticus 23, 9 through 14, the children of Israel were to bring the first fruits of the harvest as an offering to the

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Lord, which was a consecration of every kind of harvest to follow. So if the barley harvest went well and they dedicated that to the

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Lord and God blessed the barley harvest, He was going to bless every other harvest that came to them as well, the festival of the feasts or the first fruits that they would have there.

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But Naomi comes back, she doesn't have anything in the field to give. Nothing has been sown, nothing is being harvested.

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So she is coming back empty, and not just here at the beginning of the barley season, but she's not going to have anything.

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Through the rest of the harvest, she's not going to have anything to be able to give to the Lord. We know that she has a field, that's talked about later on, a field that is either leased out, somebody else is either harvesting from it.

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They're not just leaving it unused, but there's nothing there for her to be able to be a blessing to her.

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So this is truly a time when the rest of Israel is rejoicing during a time of harvest, and she's just sitting around and mourning.

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Now, though Naomi is mournful, we do not get a sense that in her mourning she humbles herself before God and is asking for His forgiveness and provision.

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We don't see any of that at all. She doesn't become rejoicing in God until the end of chapter 2.

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But for the sake of time here, we'll save that until next week. So Naomi comes back to Bethlehem with Ruth to the land of the living.

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We see that it is living once again. The people are rejoicing because it's harvest time.

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Crops have been produced, they're being harvested. But Naomi does not rejoice in the living, she continues to mourn for the dead.

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Ruth is going to go out to the field and work to be able to provide for her and her mother -in -law.

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And because of her devotion and dedication in the fear of God, as God has provided for her, so she's going to provide for Naomi.

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And in her obedience, and in the moment of the valley of decision,

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Ruth chose to go the way of the Lord. And it's while she is there working in the fields, harvesting, in obedience to God, in providing for her mother -in -law, it's there she's going to receive blessing.

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And receive blessing in so much abundance, even she won't understand what

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God is going to do through her and this man who would be her

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Redeemer. Amen? Amen.