Ruth 1, What’s It Look Like?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

Ruth chapter 1 be reading the entire chapter here the Word of the Lord in The days where the judges ruled there was a famine in the land in a man of Bethlehem and Judah went to sojourn in the country

Of Moab he and his wife and his two sons The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife

Naomi and the names of his two sons were Malon and Chilean They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah They went into the country of Moab and remained there

But Elimelech the husband of Naomi died and she was left with her two sons

These took Moabite wives the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other

Ruth They lived there about ten years and both Malon and Chilean died So that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband

Then she rose with her daughters -in -law To return from the country of Moab For she had heard in the fields of Moab that the

Lord had visited his people and given them food So she set out from the place where she was

With her two daughters -in -law and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah But the name he said to her two daughters -in -law go return each of you to her mother's house

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

The Lord grant that you may find rest each of you in the house of her husband then she kissed them and they lifted up their voices and wept and They said to her no, we will return with you to your people.

But Naomi said turn back my daughters Why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands turn back my daughters

Go your way for I am too old to have a husband if I should say I have hope Even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they are grown?

Would you therefore refrain from a rig? No my daughters for it is Exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the

Lord has gone out against me Then they lifted up their voices and wept again and Orpah kissed her mother -in -law

But Ruth clung to her and she said See your sister -in -law has gone back to her people and to her gods return after your sister -in -law the roof said

Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you for where you go

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

God my God where you die I will die and there will I be buried may the

Lord do so to me and more also if Anything but death parts me from you and when

Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her with her She said no more

So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem And when they came to Bethlehem the whole town was stunned because of them and the women said is this

Naomi? She said to them do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara For the

Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty

Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me

So Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabite her daughter -in -law with her who returned from the country of Moab and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning a barley harvest

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word well, one of the secrets of effective communication is to be as picturesque as concrete as Possible, you know tell a story that people can see in their in their minds.

Don't just use abstractions speaking generalities for example Let me tell you a story in 2011 during an unusual warm spell in February I was at the footbridge across the

Dan River About to start a run on the Riverwalk when a lady reporter from the local TV station with a cameraman approached me and asked

What I thought about the warm weather now, I wanted to say something that people could envision instead of just kind of you know

Something general comment. Yeah, I like it when it's warmer So I said it's good to be able to go jogging without sweatpants and the toboggan and gloves on I Could just go out in shorts and a t -shirt

Unfortunately, the reporter didn't quite get my point and sum me up for the TV Audience is saying that I like the warm weather because I could go out with fewer clothes on Which could lead people to wonder how

I'd go jogging in July People want to see things not just hear abstract lectures about ideas as they say a picture is worth a thousand words

That's why people learn by example or by actually doing things not just hearing about it

Particularly not just hearing about ideas in our culture and Western culture the culture the academic

People often think the way to be sophisticated is to talk in abstractions principles and philosophies

Don't you don't believe me? Well, let me tell you a story. I Saw a panel discussion of a group of scholars and experts

About ethics they were discussing ethics Along with a man on the panel was a man who had been a lieutenant in the

Vietnam War He had a hook for one hand I assume from a combat injury they brought up the case of what would you do if you had if you were in charge of a platoon on an important mission in battle and One of your soldiers just froze in fear and wouldn't move on The scholars kind of gave their abstract blather and the

US talk about principles nothing Practical Then the lieutenant spoke up and said point -blank

You shoot him. Well, you just can't let one man destroy the mission now I'm not sure whether he's right and I'm not necessarily endorsing that but I was just glad to hear an answer that I could see

That could be put into practice that wasn't just empty words a Picture is worth a thousand words.

That's why unlike in modern Western philosophy with this love of thousands and thousands of abstract words

Most people love things that they can see at least see if they're even to see in their minds and their imaginations

One of the most popular books in the Bible is the book of Proverbs because it contains all these little picturesque stories

Proverbs Which you can see in your mind the Proverbs doesn't just say be loyal but in Proverbs 3 it says to bind

Steadfast love around your neck like a necklace like some people wear something valuable like their

ID or Keys around their neck so they don't they don't lose them. So they have them easily available at all times

Proverbs says do that With steadfast love you can see that Can't you?

Well, that's what Ruth is like. It's like a child asking. What is love or God's sovereignty or losing faith or Providence What does it look like?

The Western theologian wants to write a heavy book full of philosophy the Bible answers with this

Ruth a story a few word pictures There are worth a million theology books

What does love? look like Well, let me tell you a story in the time of the judges when everyone did what was right in their own eyes when there

Was no king to make people do what is right when lawlessness makes love grow cold

There was a man from Bethlehem who went to Moab because of a famine Moab is directly across the

Red Sea from Judah if your Bible has maps in the back So you can see you'll find Moab on the eastern.

That is the right side of the Dead Sea across from Judah You can just see it there The man's name was

Ella Malik, which means my God is King His wife's name was Naomi which means pleasant and they're from Bethlehem, which means house of bread

They had two sons Malan and Chilean or Chilean I don't know how you pronounce it when hard times came they did what millions of people have done throughout history

They moved to greener pastures They probably didn't intend to stay for very long in Moab but they were probably like a lot of immigrants to the

USA thinking they'll make some money or maybe in this case a few seasons of crops and Then they plan on returning home, but their kids grew up there the kids feel at home there

They marry local girls and they find themselves merging into that country

Assimilation that's what Ellie Malik and Naomi were going through They settled down in Moab and their two sons even get married to two local girls or pine

Ruth And so they're a bigger family. They're looking forward to new generations looking forward to assimilating into Moab but two things happen to stop their assimilation first Naomi's faith

Stops her from assimilating When in Moab do as the Moabites do right?

Well, they worshipped what's called the vile God Chumash Jeremiah the

Prophet calls the Moabites the people of Chumash Many people at that time believe that a

God had power only in the nation that worship that God Otherwise there were different gods for different nations

And so if you're in Moab you worship too much, right? Just go along with everyone else there here, though Naomi still believes even though she's living in Moab She still believes in the

God of Israel in the Lord all capital letters and Yahweh She blesses her daughters -in -law in verse 8 with made the

Lord Deal kindly Lovingly Covenantally on most important words in the

Bible right there with you even in Moab She doesn't just believe while in Israel and that goes along with whatever other religion there is and when she's in other countries

She's a real believer in the Lord even when she's in Moab. The second thing that stopped their assimilation was death first of verse 3

Elimelech died leaving Naomi a widow and then about 10 years Later in Moab both of Naomi's sons died leaving her now bereft

Now in that time, there's no police forces. There's no personal firearms or firearms of any kind.

There's little protection There's no Social Security hardly any opportunities to make a living for a woman outside the house

So a woman or women living by themselves with no men were very vulnerable

Easy pickings for any criminal that wanted to take advantage of them Take everything abused them drive them out of their own homes.

And even if that didn't happen, how were they gonna live? Were they gonna get food? They couldn't do the backbreaking work of farming by themselves.

So now Naomi and her two daughters -in -law are Desperate Naomi's only hope she thinks is to return to Judah and hope her distant relatives

There will help take care of her somehow and so the daughters -in -law loyal to her Start out with her

Returning to Judah damage returning to Judah for Orpah and Ruth This is their first time going there

But they hadn't gotten very far when Naomi realizes that her Moabite daughters -in -law would be better off staying in their home country

If you want to know what love looks like It looks like someone who thinks

What is best for the other person? Even at one's own expense

Now here Naomi She's desperate. She's bereft. She probably all her possessions are slung in a bag on her back.

She's sad She's needy and yet she doesn't Manipulate her daughters -in -law to stay with her even against their own interests

This is to say something like now, how can you leave your poor old mother -in -law to fend for herself?

Kind of manipulating them with guilt to make them stay with her But instead she does the very opposite of that She decides to put what's best as far as she can tell for them ahead of her own interest

That's what love looks like You want to know what love looks like? It looks like the loyalty or pie and Ruth are showing to Naomi Naomi blesses them and sends them away

With may the Lord you'll kindly The word there is in Hebrew is chesed

I don't do a lot of word studies in my preaching, you know saying the original Hebrew says this and thus and so Often I think that's exaggerated but it's different with this one word

Chesed here in verse 8 is translated kindly. It's usually translated Steadfast love.

It's a loyal covenant love. It's hard to define what it means with just one

English word I wonder if one reason Ruth was originally written was that someone asked maybe some kid asked what is chesed?

And so some wise man answered Let me tell you a story of Naomi of Ruth of the

Lord of steadfast love the book of Ruth is

The definition of steadfast love now Naomi is saying ever say may the Lord deal in covenant love with you just as you have with me

Their loyalty to die and me who has nothing to offer You know There's nothing as far as they know that Naomi has in Judah for them to go with her

Therefore not so she has a mansion there. She's returning to she has nothing there their love for her

Made them willing to abandon their families their friends their homeland the religion They were raised in that loyal love that you can see here in them

Is what's driving them and she wishes that the Lord would be just as loyally loving To them as they are to her what would that look like?

when verse 9 That they would have the security Notice that which translates their security the peace or the rest is translated as rest here but you can't have rest without security that they would have the rest of their own house and Husband and may the

Lord provide them with a new family to provide for them Even if that means from Naomi point of view if that means leaving

Naomi with less. I was let me go by myself even if it's not to my interest,

I'm really bad off but Naomi puts them first what loyal love looks like is both or pine roots saying in verse 10.

No, we will return with you To your people now here they are.

They're arguing with each other They're trying to get the other to do what is best For them at their own expense

Not for themselves or pine roots want to do what is best for Naomi even a great sacrifice to themselves

Willing to give up as far as they can tell their whole futures Naomi loves and wants her daughters -in -law to do what is best for them, you know, go back home

You at least you have you can go back into your society there You have contacts there your people there and so she tries to reason with them in verse 11 turn back

Return my daughters. She's tenderly pleading with him Why would you go back to Judah with me?

Not for you? It's not even going back This is going to some whole new foreign place Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husband's in their culture if a man died

His brother was supposed to marry the widow to take care of her and carry on the name of the brother and also, you know just provide for the widow, but Naomi says

She's not going to be producing any more sons I'm too old and even as she does in verses 12 and 11 12 and 13

Have a husband immediately and bear sons. You're not gonna wait that long until they grow up to marry them

No, she says in the middle of verse 13. You have no future with me. That's what

Naomi thinks That's what she's trying to convince them of she's sure of that So in verse 14, they cried aloud and orpah as loyal as she was finally saw

That Naomi was right so orpah kissed Naomi goodbye and Went back home if you want to see what natural human loyal love at its best looks like Look at orpah

If you want to see what supernatural steadfast love looks like Look at Ruth Naomi looks at Ruth Now see this picture in your mind

They're standing beside some we call it a road, but it's probably not much more than a hiking trail

There's these three Desperately poor women one older looking like she's had a hard life

Bitten by grief. They're talking to each other. They're pleading. They're crying Passersby don't even think they're worth paying any attention to there are three of the most unimportant people in the world

Then one turns back to Moab and now there are only two of the most unimportant people in the world

And Naomi says in verse 15 see Look at orpah. Look at that. Here's something you can see your sister -in -law has gone back to her people

To her friends her relatives her connections that can give her a future and to her gods

That vile God of Chumash the same God you were raised with Ruth Return after your sister -in -law go with her follow her example

Naomi's pleading with Ruth, but see Ruth This young widow standing beside some dirt path leaving everything.

She's seen for nothing that she can see But her loyalty to her a dead husband's mother.

What a completely Pathetic figure she is and Ruth says her first words of this book in verse 16

Do not urge me to leave you or to return for following you For where you go,

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

God My God where you die, I will die and there will

I be buried made the Lord The Lord all capitals the

God of Israel made the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death

Parts me from you. You want to know what love looks like?

There it is Now these words are often used now in in weddings to describe the commitment two people are making to one another in marriage

I'm sometimes tempted to be a little smart alecky and say that at a wedding you should say these say this pledge to your mother -in -law

Because that's why Ruth is doing here But I think it's fair that this is the kind of love marriage is supposed to be till death do us part

But here Naomi is not returning the commitment to Ruth. This is not like a mutual. It's not both going both ways

She's not going to follow Ruth She's not gonna have the vile God Chimash be her God This is

Ruth not only committing but converting Ruth is here become a believer in the

Lord. She's not just gonna help Naomi relocate back in Israel Maybe kind of inadvertently over time gradually assimilating into Israel like so many immigrants do over history here

Ruth Ruth clings she commits and she converts

She will be with Naomi she will be a believer in the Lord Because of her love what is the sovereignty of God that's an abstract kind of clumsy term

What does it mean? What's it look like? Well, let me tell you a story of LA millet.

Remember his name means My God is King Kings have sovereignty.

That's what they are. That's what they do. Their will is done So my God is King with his wife.

Naomi went to Moab with her two sons because of a famine Their two sons married two local girls that they looked like they were going to assimilate into Moab But LA millet and then later the two sons died leaving

Naomi alone with her two daughters -in -law They were loyal and wanted to return with her to Israel But when they heard in verse when they heard in verse 6 that the

Lord has visited his people and given them food Notice the Lord does it he's sovereign over The end of the famine the famine that originally drove

Ella Malik and Naomi and their sons to Moab was over It's not just over because the El Nino weather patterns started the chain of events that sit rain their way

Maybe that was the natural explanation. I don't know. No one knows but whatever it was the Lord who was behind it

The Lord visited his people the Lord was sovereign over the famine. He could end it Because he was in charge of it in the first place because My God is

King What's the sovereignty of God look like? Well, it looks like God ruling

Calamity not just alleviating it if you don't have a God who rules over calamity

If you only have a God who alleviates calamity You don't have the true God the

Prophet Amos asked in Amos chapter 3 verse 6 Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it?

This isn't just a kind of an abstract doctrine. Try reading that verse to a class of students on September 13 2001 like I did

It's something you can see You were constantly seeing it at that time. Calamity had come to a city on TV at that time

There was there's disaster There's calamity and we say not that the Lord is detached from it that he was absent from it that he didn't know what's gonna

Happen and he was unable to stop it. It's all cuz he's just respecting our free will

So he's hands are tied by our free will so we can't do anything. No, he was king of it

Now if you believe that Satan does the disasters and the Lord comes later To pick up the pieces maybe help us pick up the pieces and maybe just make up help us feel better Satan brings the hurricane but only

God can bring the warm emotional blanket after if you believe that You're a dualist

You believe that there are two gods There's dual deities and they're fighting each other.

They're dueling one is bad. He's bringing the calamities he's bringing the diseases the stormy times the famines the early deaths of men like LA Malik and his two sons and The other is trying to help

As best he can he's carrying us through the hard times Dual gods are battling it out one trying to help us.

The other tried to hurt us This is the fantasy world Some profess Christians try to bury their heads into so they won't have to deal with with why if God is almighty

If they have bad things happening in their life Well, just Satan did it our free will has to allow it one of these excuses people come up with but in the

Bible Satan is God Satan and Job Satan can only do what the Almighty God allows him to do

Now if you believe like Naomi and like really like all the Bible that God is almighty

That nothing happens outside his control Then you see there is one

Almighty God Who accomplishes his will? Through however, he chooses to do it

Then everything else you see Looks different. What is the sovereignty of God look like?

It looks like decreeing famine and Alleviating famine. It looks like Naomi coming back home to Bethlehem.

The whole town is humming. It's a buzz about her Spend ten years since she's been away and she's hard -bitten by tragedy.

They could hardly recognize her Is this Naomi pleasant? She says don't call me pleasant

She says the verse 20 called me Mara bitter for the

Almighty Notice that's what she calls God here the Almighty in Hebrew the

Shaddai Like El Shaddai means God Almighty The Shaddai the all -powerful the

Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. So I'm bitter He's calamities the famine that drove her to Moab the deaths of her husband and two sons were not out of God's control

They were not Satan doing something that the Lord couldn't stop. So she says in verse 21. I went away full a

Husband two sons and the Lord Notice the

Lord's in charge of it. The Lord has brought me back empty the Almighty Has brought calamity on me

That can't be we protest today Especially we've been raised on a

God who just alleviates calamity who was not sovereign over them But it shouldn't be a surprise to Christians since we can see it in the cross

The cross was the worst calamity in history the worst sin and the history of the universe the most horrendous

Atrocity and yet the Apostles prayed in Acts chapter 4 verse 28 If the cross was what you're speaking to God your hand and your plan had

Predestined to take place you want to know what the sovereignty of God looks like Look at the cross

But Naomi sounds so bitter She sounds in despair

Today, we try to cover up hardships our own personal disasters with assurances Footprints of the sand poems that God really does care and we try never ever to think about well if he's

God He's all -powerful He's the Almighty Then why doesn't he stop the tragedies?

So we'll blame it on Satan or we'll blame it on free will and cling to a God who couldn't we think

Overcome them many people do that because if they believe like Naomi That God is in control

They're afraid They'll almost lose faith Like Naomi What's it look like to almost lose faith

Well Let me tell you a story of a poor widow who came back home to Bethlehem after her husband and two sons had died

Her name was Naomi pleasant, but she said call me bitter For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.

She said I went away full But the Lord has brought me back empty It's the lesson of Ruth that Naomi is wrong about God's absolute control over all things got the sovereignty of God Is Naomi wrong?

Well, no, of course not But what of her despair she believes but she is bitter in verse 21.

Why call me pleasant? When the Lord she says has testified Against me the picture there is that the disaster the

Lord brought in her life She thinks is proof that the Lord has as judge brought her in to God's court and Issued his verdict

Against her the Lord is against her God opposes her and you can see it in her life

Don't give her just words just abstractions Footprints and the sand poems she is convinced

God is against her because of what she can see What does it look like for God to be against you

No, Naomi knows She thinks it looks it looks like this a dead husband two dead sons

No future empty nothing Bitterness you can see it

The Almighty has brought calamity upon me Is she right

Well, she's right about the sovereignty of God. She's right that the Almighty has brought calamity upon her

But it's the Lord really opposed to her is it's God really against her She's right in her theology understand

She's wrong in her interpretation of what she can see because she can't see the whole story

She's come to a conclusion that God's against her Based on what she could see so far before the end.

She's reasoning as if it's all over now That's what happens when people lose faith when they look at their life and they conclude

God has been opposed to them God's not carrying them through the hard times. He's bringing the hard times on.

Well, that's true Well, then they conclude he's against me That's false

The problem is that they're in the middle of the story They don't know Naomi here doesn't know she cannot see where God is taking this a switchfoot song goes

Where is God out in the darkness? Because the voices in my head ain't talking honest. They're saying maybe you made us they'd forgot us, but that ain't you

That ain't you. All I know is I still don't know a lot. I don't know how it ends

I'm in the middle of this plot Yeah, and I found grace for the man that I am not

The problem with basing our conclusion about God Being against us opposing us or what we can see so far now is that we can't see the whole story

We're in the middle of the plot. We can't see that God moves in a mysterious way.

They're behind a frowning Providence He hides a smiling face What is the providence of God That's an abstract

Theological term people throw around they even name this little town after it. What's it mean?

What's it look like? Let me tell you a story a Story of Naomi pleasant who moved to Moab because of the famine

That God was in control of and there lost her husband and two sons It came back home when

God visited the land to Bethlehem She came back bereft She understood that God was

Almighty that nothing happens by chance that indeed the Lord had brought calamity on her

She's right about that, but she couldn't see at all. She couldn't see the smiling face behind a frowning

Providence the voices in her head Weren't talking honest She couldn't see where this would end

She was in the middle of the plot and she told the other ladies at Bethlehem with tears That the

Lord has brought her back empty at that moment Ruth probably handed her a tissue

She couldn't see She wasn't empty at all She couldn't see what was coming

She couldn't see Ruth right beside her with the tissue in her hand

What is Ruth though? I mean sure. She's she's company. She's helpful. She's loyal but She's no future is she

You want to see the providence of God Look at Ruth See here how

Naomi Couldn't see Ruth not at this point How Naomi returned in grief the

Lord having brought calamity on her visited Israel so that now they have crops So Naomi would come back

Gave her Ruth the epitome of steadfast love and brought her back at the very end of that last verse notice when she's brought back at the beginning of Barley harvest now barley is the first crop to grow

So finally crops the Lord's visited Israel now The crops are ready for reaping the famine is finally over the plot is about to change

The smiling face behind the frowning Providence is about to appear finally

Barley harvest is beginning They have a harvest because the Lord visited the people it took away the famine now

Everyone will be out working in the fields mixing and mingling workers with their sickles

Wealthy landowners out and about supervising organizing the very poor Picking out what they can

You want to see the providence of God The smiling face It's the beginning of barley harvest it's not a coincidence, it's not an accident a destitute young woman like Ruth renowned of the town for a steadfast love can now go out in the field to help herself get some

Grain, and who knows? Since everyone will be out what some wealthy single man might notice and who knows what could become of that a future

For you Naomi a king from Bethlehem a

Savior from the same town. Oh Naomi You're not empty at all

But how behind a frowning Providence a bitter Providence. There's a smiling sweet face

Naomi and despair Thinks God has worked all this just for calamity to bring her back empty that he's against her

She can't see the good yet She can't see that God has the steadfast love that she's seen in Ruth She will see it before the story is over, but she can't see it yet She's in the middle of this plot after all

It's only the beginning of barley harvest Can you?

Can you see it God's steadfast love if you like Naomi now

Ruth are one of God's people and because of that you have it assimilated into this world and made money or Pleasure your

God even in in a foreign land this world you have clung to the

Lord, but there is calamity There's disappointment. There's disease. There's death. There's famine Don't give up a despair

Concluding ways in charge of all he's brought of this old me. He's against me Refusing and don't on the other hand refused to face the facts of what has happened pretending

It's not there that God is not in control of it instead. See what maybe now you cannot see in the darkness the smiling face the word

More sure than what you can see now That if God has given you his son

Will he not also give you all things Maybe you can't see it yet You're in the middle of the plot