Ruth 1:19-2:3 "The Lord Has Dealt"

Praise to the Sovereign King, here, here his people sing, solely and wholly saving his own bride.

There where the Lamb has died, hark, the Christ is crucified, washed by the blood of that great

High Priest. Verses 19 through chapter 2 verse 3.

So I would encourage you to please open your Bibles and if you don't have a Bible with you to grab one or your phone or however you can open up God's Word today and be in it that is very very important.

But before we begin I'm going to offer a prayer just over this text what we're going to be talking about and so please just let's join with one another in prayer right now.

Lord God, I just thank you and I want to echo what those words we just sung as a church to you

Lord that praise the Lord, praise the Lord, wonderful things that you have done

Lord. God you have not only just given us creation and life and breath but Lord you have given us salvation through your incarnation and what you have done on our behalf upon the cross

Lord and it is upon that we get this great privilege to come to you upon your throne and worship you today.

So Lord I just pray that through the reading of your text today through the preaching the hearing of your word through the songs and through the praise of your people to you

God that we would be more like you and that you would receive praise in these things Lord. God let us have life today in you as we remember how we have had life

Lord as you have said a man must be born again in order to enter into the kingdom of God and that the first birth though it be physical should remind us of how we enter into eternal life and that is through being born again through the

Holy Spirit Lord. So God let us remember this in humility let us remember this not taking pride in what we have done but what you have done on our behalf and Lord let us let this cause us to have a desire to serve you to love you to care for you and Lord let us be planted firmly upon your scripture today let us not go outside the bounds of scripture but let us be solid in this

Lord. God we just say these things all to your glory and to your praise in your name

Jesus Christ we pray amen. We're going to be in Ruth chapter 1 verse 19 through chapter 2 verse 3 as well today just just as a reminder.

I want to begin though by reading what we kind of walked through last week just as a reminder to help us because what we're going to see in this text is going to be a different scene they're going to be in a different area than what they were at last week but we're still dealing with the same figures speaking in the same way so let's let's see verses 14 to 18 real fast as a reminder for us as the context it says and they lifted up their voices and wept again and Orpha kissed her mother -in -law but Ruth clung to her then she said behold your sister -in -law has gone back to her people and her gods return after your sister -in -law but Ruth said do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you for where you go

I will go and where you lodge I will lodge your people shall be my people your

God my God where you die I will die and there will be there

I will be buried thus may the Yahweh may the Lord this is Ruth speaking may the

Lord do to me and worse if anything but death parts you and me when she saw that she was determined to go with her she said no more to her we'll make note of some things here in a moment but let us read verses 19 now through chapter 2 verse 3 for our selected text today it says in here so they both went until they came to Bethlehem and it came about when they had come to Bethlehem that all the city was stirred because of them and the woman said is this

Naomi and she said to them do not call me Naomi call me

Mara for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me I went out full but the

Lord the Yahweh has brought me back empty why do you call me Naomi since the

Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me so Naomi returned and with Ruth the

Moabitess her daughter -in -law who returned from the land of Moab and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest now

Naomi had a kinsman of her husband a man of great wealth of the family of Elimelech whose name was

Boaz and Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of the grain after one whose whose sight

I might find favor and she said to her go my daughter so she departed and went to glean in the field after the reapers and she had come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz who was the fan of the family of Elimelech let us pray over this text today

Lord God I pray first and foremost Lord for the privilege and out of thanksgiving and just gratitude to be able to stand here today to look at this text with humble eyes

Lord and God I just pray that you above all things would receive glory by the looking at this text us individually looking to you in this text

Lord and God I just pray that as Naomi clings unto or as Ruth clings unto

Naomi Lord I pray today that we might have a better grasp upon you Lord that we would never forget that it is you that hold us in your mighty mighty hand

Lord God I just pray that you would encourage us to be of service to our fellow man to our fellow church to our fellow believers and that we just go into the world so that they might be stirred up and ask who is this that has come into our city

Lord let us be better servants today we say this in your mighty name

Jesus Christ Amen. Now we're going to just do a quick context what we just read verses 14 through 18 just to help center our mind on what has taken place

Naomi as a reminder is a mother and and a widow and the children she has have passed away they have died her two sons have died and all she is left with at this point in this story up until today in verse 19 is both

Orpha and Ruth her two daughter -in -laws these two Moabite women that she has left the land of Israel left the land of Bethlehem and have gone to Moab a place where she shouldn't have been in the first place leaving the promised land and here her two sons who should not have married these

Moabite women because they're not believers in Yahweh as we see in this coming text that or in this previous text that they worshiped other gods and so this family has gone away from God in this way and we see and as a reminder what

Naomi says to Ruth in verse 15 I believe it is and I think that this is so important as we talked last week we are not to do this as a church never do this never ever do this in verse 15 it says then she said behold your sister -in -law has gone back to her people and her gods

Naomi knows that what they believe in what the Moab people believe in are idols pagan worshippers false gods ones that cannot save and here is

Naomi proclaiming to be a children of Israel a follower of Yahweh saying go and worship your false gods go back to that land this is downright evil and sinful we cannot do this as a church if somebody comes to us we are never to turn them back to false gods especially in the midst of grief especially in the midst of grief if anything that is the time to show them true hope and peace through Jesus Christ the only one that offers life the only one that is the way the only one that is truth this is wrong of Naomi to do that's not okay and i think that this is truly from her have gone away from the land of Israel she and her whole family have departed from the land of God in this text already but we see the remarkableness of of Ruth take place here in verse 16 she says do not urge me to leave do not urge me to go and worship the false gods do not urge me to go and be a part of my people it says do not urge me to leave you or to turn back from following you where you go i will go and where you lodge i will lodge and listen to this text church your people shall be my people and your god my god now i want you to remember that in our church context that when a believer comes into our fellowship they are now our people they are our family they're our body they are our church when someone repents and believes in the gospel and comes unto

Christ we open our arms we do not shun them and turn them away to go somewhere else we cling on to them we love them in this way we fellowship with them we have a deep meaningful relationship because guess what they are our people our land is their land our god is their god and here we see

Ruth this pagan woman this gentile woman this one that does not is not an ethnic jew say your god is going to be my god and here in the same text that we looked at last week she even provokes the very explicit name of god

Yahweh this is truly remarkable this is a a woman that has had her eyes opened to truth in this text and so she gets to the point where Naomi it sounds like somewhat reluctantly says okay i'm not going to push on you anymore that you're you're coming with me i guess there's nothing i can say to make you turn back she's giving up in this text in verse 18 when it says when she saw that she was determined to go with her she said no more she says no more she doesn't continue to push

Ruth away and so for our selected text here in verse 19 just as a little bit more of context for us this is many many hundreds of years after Abraham this is at a time that Moab is to the east of Bethlehem Jerusalem and and all of Israel and so they are miles away they are separated by this small body of water relatively small body of water and this text is finding its time frame around the 1200s bc time frame and this is years before king