Sermon Cloud

·        When the absolute best happens, what kind of thoughts go through your head and heart?

o       When you get a promotion

o       When you sell your house

o       When you solve a problem at work

o       When your child gets good grades

o       When you achieve your time running in a 5k

o       When you find $20 in old pair of pants

o       When you wake up from a good night’s sleep

o       When you fall in love

o       When you get pregnant

·        What goes through your head and heart?

o       You really only have a few options.

§         Impersonal randomness caused these things

§         Other people caused these things.

§         You caused these things.

§         Or God caused these things.

·        When the absolute worst happens, what kind of thoughts go through your head and heart then?

o       When you get sick

o       When you lose a loved one

o       When you lose a job

o       When you bounce a check

o       When you can’t achieve your run time in a 5k

o       When you couldn’t get a good night’s sleep if you had to

o       When you can’t solve a problem at work

·        What goes through your head and heart?

o       You really only have a few options

§         Impersonal randomness caused these things

§         Other people caused these things

§         You caused these things

§         Or God caused these things

·        Typically, if you have faith in God, when things go well, you want to thank Him.

o       We say, “Thank you God for giving me this raise,” or “Thank you God for letting that officer not give me a ticket.”

·        But when things go poorly, well that’s a different story.

o       We might yell at God, “Why did you cause this to happen?”

o       We might yell, “Why didn’t you stop this?”

o       Maybe we blame ourselves for making a mistake.

o       Maybe we blame someone else or some impersonal force in the universe.

·        The million dollar question though is, “Can you rise up and call God blessed and thank Him for every and any circumstance in your life whether good or bad?”

·        If you feel like God is good and just and not only in control but actually decreed that your circumstances will happen, it is possible.

·        If you feel like God is not in control and does not decree all the circumstances that will happen you either get mad that He didn’t do something or you are left to mumble catch phrases like, “Well God has a purpose and plan in everything.” 

·        Now, I believe scripture speaks to God having a purpose and plan in everything, however, I’ll tell you this though.  If God did not ordain and decree all things to happen, saying He has a purpose and a plan reduces Him to a cosmic janitor that runs around and cleans up our messes. 

·        The book of Job offers a lot of insight into the way that God interacts with us and sums it up well in Job 23:13

o       But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back?  What he desires and decrees, that he does.

o       God is not frustrated or restrained by anything much less weak creatures like us.  God does have a purpose and plan for everything:  His and only His.

·        So amid the most difficult or even the most joyous of circumstances, we need to ask ourselves this Big Picture Question:

Big Picture Question:  No matter the circumstance or condition of life, can you rise up and call God “blessed” and “good”?

Ruth 1:1 In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, 5 and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

·        As we jump into Ruth, we need to put on a different listening hat.  Ruth is the exact opposite of I John.  I John was didactic or intended for instruction.  Ruth of course has an instructional purpose but it occurs in a narrative story telling sense.  We have to listen to the story and contemplate it and know it well before we start large scale teaching. 

·        If we miss the story, we miss the teaching.  Even in that we have to be careful.  It is really easy to read a story like this, especially one in the OT and say, “Oh, be like Naomi, be like Ruth, don’t be like Orpah.”

o       You don’t need Jesus or even faith in him to interpret the Bible that way.

o       Immediately interpreting the Bible that way reduces the Bible to the equivalent of Aesop’s Fables. 

·        Though there is a place for imitating people in the books of the Bible.  We saw that just last week in 3 John, but there is a distinct different between the story of Naomi and Ruth and the story of Gaius and Diotrephes. 

o       Last week, John said emulate the good and avoid the evil so that was our command.

o       But in narrative teaching the lesson is never as simple as it mere imitation.  The point of every narrative story is always, “What is God doing first and what are we to believe about Him?  We have to get that before getting to, “What are we to do?”

·        So to begin, we need to understand the story Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah:

o       In the days where Israel was governed by judges instead of a king, there was a great famine.  How bad was the famine?  The famine was so bad that this Jewish man named Elimelech of Bethlehem took his wife Naomi and their two sons to live in Moab – an area that pretty much hated Jewish people

§         Now few of us if any have any idea what a famine is like.  A famine means there is no food.  It’s not like looking in the pantry and not liking the options.  This is “there is no food in pantry and no way to get any.”

o       The famine was so bad, this Jewish man was willing to take his family into a country that would hate him if it meant he could get some food for his family.

o       Elimelech eventually died leaving the two sons to care for their mother.  The two sons eventually married Moab women, which was strictly forbidden in the law.  The problem was not that they were a different race; the problem was that the Moabites did not worship Jehovah God, and God had strictly forbidden the marrying of other races that did not believe in Him. 

o       Naomi’s two daughters in law were named Ruth and Orpah.  Eventually the two sons of Naomi died, and the three women were left alone in a culture that did not allow women to even testify in court much less own land.

o       They were in every practical sense helpless or at the mercy of the people around them.

o       Naomi realizing the helplessness of the situation gives here two daughters in laws some advice.  Look in verse 6

6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. 7 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. 8 But Naomi 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. 9 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. 10 And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” 11 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? 12 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, 13 would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.” 14 Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

·        Naomi discovers that God had lifted the famine in Israel, so Naomi decides to head home to her family.  This would have been a journey of about 50 miles.

·        As Naomi is heading towards Judaa, she encourages her two daughters in law to stay in their homeland instead of returning with her.  She prays two things for them: 

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

o       9 The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!”

·        She then blesses them, kisses them and they have a good cry.  This is a beautiful picture here. 

o       These two women were not believers, in fact were out and out pagans.  Yet Naomi loves them and wants the absolute best for them.

o       Her love and care for two women who were not believers in God should be an example to us as how we should be:  loving, blessing, praying for them..

·        But the two women love Naomi.  She has shown kindness to them, and they don’t want to go home. 

o       Naomi is honest.  She is like, “Listen, I don’t have any more sons.  I’m told too old to get married again and if I did and had a son, you ain’t waiting around til they’re old enough to marry you.  Go home, maybe you will be blessed and I don’t know, get married again.

·        So, Orpah decides to go home but Ruth stays with Naomi.

15 And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 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.” 18 And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

·        Naomi says, “Listen, Ruth, Orpah going home.  If you hurry now, you can probably catch up with her.  Orpah is going to go home, worship pagan gods, and you should too.

·        Why would Naomi encourage Ruth to return to her home and her gods?

o       Rabbis used to interpret this passage by saying that you should deny anyone that wants to follow God 3 times.  If they want to convert, you must deny 3x to prove their loyalty.  Hogwash.  Ridiculous.

·        I agree with Mark Dever here.  Naomi is not trying to teach, evangelize or anti evangelize Ruth here.  She can’t support Ruth, and if Ruth returns home, all the things that are hers, (family, religion, home) are there to support her. 

·        Naomi is working through God’s sovereign decree right now.  She isn’t in any place to call other people to follow Him.

·        Ruth however loves her mother in law.  So much so, that she will give up her past life, her heritage, her family to stay with Naomi.  Naomi has shown so much grace to Ruth that Ruth doesn’t want to go anywhere else.  She essentially says,

o       Please don’t make me go back. 

o       Where you go, I will go.

o       Your people will be my people.

o       Your God will be my God.

o       When you die, I will be buried with you.

o       May your God deal with me if I do not keep this commitment.

·        Naomi knew that Ruth was serious.  She knew that there was not changing her mind. 

19 So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” 20 She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21 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 and Ruth finish their journey to Bethlehem.  When they get there, everyone is shocked to see them.  They figured any one who is going to leave Israel and head off to a Pagan country is probably  never coming back.  Either they got killed, enslaved, or were too ashamed to come back.

·        So Naomi comes back minus two sons and one daughter in law.  Everyone runs up to her and say, “Naomi, girl, is that you?”

·        She says, “Don’t call me Naomi.”  Now the name Naomi means either “to take delight in” or “one who receives grace”

·        In light of that truth, Naomi says, “You know, what?  My name is Naomi but I surely do not feel like God has taken delight in me and I surely do not feel like God has shown me grace.  Tell you what, why don’t you call me “Mara” because Mara means that the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.”

o       You know what, when I left here, even though there was a famine, I was full. I had my values in the right place.  I knew that even though times were hard, I still had my family.  I was married.  I had two sons, but now I’m a widow with no one to take care of me except this Moabite girl who can’t seem to find her way home.”

·        Don’t call me Naomi, the one who receives grace.  Call me Mara because the Almighty, the only one in the world that does exactly what He wants to do had dealt bitterly with me. 

o       I went away not full of food but full of good things:  a husband and two sons.

o       I return empty.

·        I’m not Naomi full of grace because God testified against me and you know what he said, “He said you are not full you are empty.”  God brought me to my emptiness by bring calamity upon me.  You think a famine is bad.  Try being widow and losing your two sons who did not have children and this little life ends here.”

·        Now, I think we should do well to ask ourselves if Naomi has the proper perspective here.  We don’t know the conditions surrounding the death of her husband and two kids.  They could have died from murder, accident, cancer, who know?  Naomi places the providence of their death in the hands of God just like you would say a famine.  I think she is right.  The providence of God here feels heavy in her life. 

·        What Naomi is fixed on is the reality of her situation and the wrestling necessary in her heart that God has ordained and decreed her circumstances. 

o       She has experienced a famine

o       She has lost a husband.

o       She has lost her children.

·        Naomi is unshaken and sure about three things:

o       God exists.

o       God is sovereign.

o       God has afflicted her.

·        The problem with Naomi is that she has forgotten the story of Joseph who also went into a foreign country. He was sold as a slave. He was framed by an adulteress and put in prison. He had every reason to say, with Naomi, "The Almighty has dealt bitterly with me." But he kept his faith and God turned it all for his personal good and for Israel's national good.

o       The key lesson in Genesis 50:20 is this: "As for you, you meant it for evil against me [Joseph says to his brothers]; but God meant it for good." Naomi is right to believe in a sovereign, almighty God who governs the affairs of nations and families and gives each day its part of pain and pleasure. But she needs to open her eyes to the signs of his merciful purposes.           John Piper

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

·        So Naomi and Ruth settle in to Bethlehem at the beginning of the Barley Harvest. 

·        Now, unaware to Naomi, there are a couple of good things that are getting ready to happen, but before we get there I want us to consider a few things. 

o       Whenever we, like Naomi, go through difficult circumstances, we often miss the big picture of what God is doing.  Why?  Because we are ants and God is God.  We don’t know what good He is bringing about.

o       However, the point of enduring and persevering through God’s providences is not to wait around for the good stuff to start to happen.  More than likely persevering through the bad stuff is exactly where God wants you and you’ll probably stop learning stuff and soon has it metaphorically quits raining and the sun comes out.

·        Yet, God is gracious   The Barley Harvest was a time of hope for the people of Bethlehem. It was a time of God’s blessing in the midst of famine.  A time where God was changing the people’s famine from desperation to jubilation.  Imagine the hope people might have had in such a time of pain and sorrow.

·        Naomi says that God has left her empty.  She has Ruth and Ruth is the key to her future blessings but she does not see that right now. 

·        Quoting Mark Dever in his book “Promises Made” - Amid the trials you presently face,

o       Do you really think God has no plans or purposes for you? 

o       Do you really think he has completed everything he means to do in your life? 

o       Don’t you know that God’s work has just begun? 

o       He’s not finished yet, and the harvest may be about to begin.

·        So don’t lash out at other people as though God is finished with you and you’re stuck.  No, God knows what He is doing. 

·        Proverbs 19:21 confirms that while the plans of human beings are not always accomplished, God's plans always succeed.  It says, "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but the counsel of the Lord, it will stand."

·        Clearly, "There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord" (Proverbs 21:30

·        The apostle Paul asks rhetorically in Romans 9:19, "who resists His will?" The answer, of course, is no one.

o       God controls the wind and lightning (Psalm 135:7), the snow and the rain (Job 37:6-13), and directs the stars in their courses (Job 38:32).

o       Forest fires, hail, and storms are all under his command: "Fire and hail, snow and clouds; stormy wind, fulfilling His word" (Psalm 148:8).

o       The sun does not simply rise on its own each day, rather God "causes His sun to rise" (Matt. 5:45).

o       Neither does the grass grow on its own, but God "causes the grass to grow" (Psalm 104:14).

o       God feeds the animals (Matthew 6:26; Psalm 104:27-29) and indeed controls even the most seemingly insignificant death of a sparrow (Matthew 10:29). God sends rain and withholds rain (Amos 4:7-10).

o       There is nothing in the universe left to chance: "The lot is cast in the lap, but its every decision is wholly from the Lord" (Proverbs 16:33).

o       Nothing in all creation--the weather, the stars, the plants, the animals, the affairs of nations, the role of dice, and the specific details of our lives--is outside of the sovereign control of God.

·        Jeremiah said, "I know, O Lord, that the way of human beings is not in their control, that mortals as they walk cannot direct their steps" (Jeremiah 10:23, NRSV

·        Proverbs 16:9 tells us: "The mind of the man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps."

·        Proverbs 19:24 says "man's steps are ordained by the Lord, how then can man understand his way?"

·        "The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord" (Proverbs 16:1).

·        In light of these astounding but sometimes difficult truths, the question is,

o       Can you called God blessed no matter what circumstance He ordains for you?

o       Does your life have to be free of worry for you to love God without restraint?

o       Basically, is your love of God conditional due your circumstances?

·        The God who calls you, comforts you, and forgives you through Jesus Christ doesn’t shy away from saying that the circumstances of your life are there because He decreed them.  He says that is who I am.  I did this.  My purposes are my own, and most of the time, I don’t share them with you.

·        So what we do?

o       Fear God and keep his commandments (Ecc 12:13); trust and obey him, reverence him, worship him, be humble before him, and never say more than you mean and will stand to when you pray to him (5:1-7) do good (3:12) remember that God will some day take account of you (11:9, 12:14), so eschew even in secret things of which you will be ashamed when they come to light at God court (12:14).  Live in the present, and enjoy it thoroughly (7:14; 9:7-10; 11:9-10) present pleasures are God’s good gifts.  Though Ecclesiastes condemns flippancy (7:4-6) he clearly has no time for the super spirituality which is too proud or too pious ever to laugh and have fun.  Seek grace to work hard at whatever life calls you to do (9:10) and enjoy your work as you do it (2:24, 3:12-13, 5:18-20; 8:15).  Leave to God its issues, let him measure its ultimate worth; your part is to use all the good sense and enterprise (and biblical exhortation) at your command in exploiting the opportunities that lie before you (11:1-6)