[MUSIC PLAYING] Calvary church is
dedicated to doctrine, and we want you to experience
the life change that comes from knowing God's Word
and applying it to your life. So we explain the
Bible verse by verse-- every chapter, every book. This is Expound. Turn, in your Bibles,
please, to the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament--
the Book of Ruth. There are only two
books in the Bible that are named after women. And they're both in
the Old Testament. The other one is the Book of
Esther and this Book of Ruth. The name Ruth means friendship,
or companion, or, perhaps, even more accurately,
compassionate friendship. So she is well-named
because she becomes somebody who is devoted
to her mother-in-law. She is devoted to
God's purposes. And she turns out to be a very
compassionate, sweet, godly, young woman even though
she faces great hardship. So one of two books
named after women-- Book of Esther and then
this one, the Book of Ruth. It is the only book
in scripture that is named after an ancestor
of the Lord Jesus Christ. She does show up in the
genealogical record. A lot of names show up. But this book named
after her finds it's the only book
in the Bible named after an ancestor
of the Lord Jesus. Also, it is the only book in
the Old Testament that is named after a non-Jewish person. Ruth was not Jewish. She was Gentile. She comes from the other
side of the river-- other side of the Dead Sea,
the land of the Moabites. So she is the only book named
after a non-Jewish person in the Old Testament. Now there is one that is named
after a non-Jewish person in the New Testament. Anybody know that? Book of Luke. Book of Luke-- we think. Some believe that he
was a Hellenistic Jew. But probably, he was a Gentile. That's the current idea. But this is the only one
in the Old Testament named after a non-Jewish person. There are some great themes
in this little Book of Ruth. The theme of
Providence is probably the biggest one, where
God takes natural events and weaves them together
for a supernatural outcome. And how I love the
providence of God. I-- it is, perhaps,
my favorite-- one of my favorite attributes
of God, one of my favorite ways that He works. He works so providentially. Some believers want
miracles-- claim your miracle. Look for your miracle. I like providence even
better than the miraculous. I love the fact that
God causes all things to work together for good
to those that love Him. That, in and of
itself, is miraculous. But I love that. And providence
undergirds this book. That is one of the themes
of the Book of Ruth. It is also a book of conversion. We have a Gentile girl who
becomes a convert to the God of the Covenant of Israel. Your people will be my
people, she will say, your God will be my God. So it's a story of providence. It's a story of conversion. It's a story of redemption. Really, it's about
how two people fall in love and one who
owns the field, Boaz, redeems the land that has
been lost by Abimelech and buys the bride,
buys Ruth, gets Ruth-- not buys Ruth but
gets the right to marry Ruth. And so there is a great
theme of redemption. It was Augustine who first
said, concerning the Bible-- how the Old and New
Testament work together-- he said, the New is
in the Old, contained. The Old is in the
New, explained. That is, the New Testament is
hinted at in the Old Testament. It's contained in there. There are shadows, and
types, and prophecies. So the New Testament is
anticipated by the Old. So the New is in
the Old, contained. The Old is in the
New, explained. Once you get to
the New Testament, you have an explanation
of the Old Testament. When you read the New Testament,
all that Old Testament stuff makes sense. You put Jesus in
the middle of it, He unlocks the key to so
much of that prophecy. And it's all explained. But you have, in
the Book of Ruth, an incredible
foreshadowing of Jesus, of redemption because,
essentially, you have a man from Bethlehem
who redeems a Gentile bride and brings a Gentile
bride to himself. If that's not a picture
of Jesus in the church, I don't know what is. So it's an amazing picture
of that providence, as well as conversion,
as well as redemption. The book opens up
with a choice-- actually, several
choices-- one choice that leads to another choice that
leads to another choice that leads to another choice. And one thing all
of us eventually come to grips with
is how precious and how precarious
our choices can be. One little dynamic,
one little choice can be a hinge of so much. So in chapter 1,
Abimelech makes a choice to leave the covenant
land and go to Moab. Naomi makes a choice
to stay in the land after her husband dies. Her two sons make a choice
to marry non-Covenant, non-Jewish women-- Moabitesses. And then Naomi
makes the decision to go back to the
land of Bethlehem once the famine has gone away. And Ruth makes the
choice to go with her. So in verse 1, "It came
to pass in the days when the Judges ruled that
there was a famine in the land. And a certain man
of Bethlehem Judah went to sojourn in
the country of Moab-- he, and his wife,
and his two sons." We read this verse
last week at the end of our study in
the book of Judges to show you that just like the
last few chapters of the book of Judges anecdotally
show you how bad it was in Israel during
that time, Ruth set also during the time of
Judges shows you that though it was
really, really bad, God was doing
something really good. And God often works that way. Sometimes, God is working
when you don't see Him. You don't think He's working. It looks so bleak. It looks so horrible. God is at work. And God has a really good
plan, though most of the people in the land cannot see it
and don't know about it. But God is at work. Now it says, "It came
to pass in the days when the Judges ruled." So we know this took place
during a time of rebellion. The book of Judges was
one of the darkest stains in Israel's ancient history. And we spent weeks
looking at that. And we're glad we did. And we're glad
we're done with it. It was also a time of anarchy. Every man did what was right
in his own eyes, the book says. There was no king in Israel. Everyone did what
he wanted to do. So people were breaking
off restraints. They don't want to obey God. They don't want to
obey God's laws. They don't care
about civil authority because there really is no
central civil authority. There's no king in Israel. So people were making it
up as they went along, doing whatever they
pleased, whatever they did. And that's what's ironic. The more they did
as they pleased, the less they were pleased
with what they did. They became more in
bondage the freer they got. We're free, we're
free, they said. And they were in
bondage to their own sin and to the peoples around
them, as we saw during the sin cycle of the book of Judges. There's an interesting passage
in the book of 2 Chronicles. Let me just read it to you. And I say it's interesting
because the author is giving a summary statement of
that era, but he is also evidently pointing back
to the time of the Judges and how the Judges reigned. And so it says this,
"For a long time, Israel has been without one true
God, without a teaching priest, and without a law." And if you're taking
notes, and you want to just look
at it later, I'm reading out of 2 Chronicles, 15. "But when, in
their trouble, they turned to the Lord God
of Israel and sought Him, He was found by them. And in those days, there was no
peace to the one who went out or the one who came in. But in great turmoil, it
was on all the inhabitants of the land. So nation was destroyed
by nation and city by city, for God troubled
them with every adversity." That's the time of the Judges. The author in 2 Chronicles is
hearkening back to this time that we have been dealing with. Now I just read it to
you in the translation that I read every week--
the New King James version. I want to read what I just
read to you-- or at least, a couple of the verses-- out of a translation
called The Message. The Message is a paraphrase
written by Eugene Peterson, but it's very colorful. And I found it to be
very contemporary. So I wanted to read it to you-- same passage but
out of The Message. "But when they were in
trouble and got serious and decided to seek
God, the God of Israel, God let Himself be found. At that time, it was
a dog-eat-dog world. Life was constantly
up for grabs. No one, regardless
of country, knew what the next day might bring. Nation battered nation. City pummeled city. And God let loose every
kind of trouble among them." That sums up the era
of the book of Judges. So the first verse
of Ruth lets us know during the
bleakest time, God was doing one of the
brightest things. So it was the time
when the Judges ruled. And it says this, that there
was a famine in the land. Now this is noteworthy. Famine was pretty typical
in the Middle East. There were so many reasons
that you could have a famine. You could have a famine
because of drought. You could have a famine
because of locusts. You could have a
famine because of hail. You could have a famine
because of unrelenting winds. All of that could
lessen the amount of rainfall or the productivity
that rainfall brings. But you could also
get a famine when people attacked you, besieged
you, and would take your crops, and burn your crops,
or destroy your crops, or take the harvest
for themselves. All of that could bring
hardship and a famine to people. But all of those things, God
promised, he would control. So way back in the law, when
God was giving them the land and setting up the
nation, He said now-- Deuteronomy 28--
if you obey me, I'm going to bless you in the city. I'm going to bless
you in the country. I'm going to bless you
in the kneading trough. I'm going to bless you
at the dinner table. I'm going to bless your crops. I'm going to bless this-- just
a whole list of blessings. However, if you disobey me,
you're going to be cursed. You'll be cursed in the city. You'll be first in the country. You'll be cursed where
your crops are growing. You'll be cursed in
the kitchen, the dinner table, the kneading
trough-- everything. But listen to this out of
Deuteronomy 28, that chapter that I referred to, "And you
shall become an astonishment, a proverb, a byword
among all the nations where the Lord drives you. You shall carry much
seed out to the field and gather but little in, for
the locust shall consume it," he's speaking of famine. "And you shall plant
vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither
drink of the wine nor gather the grapes for
the worms shall eat them. You shall have olive trees
throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint
yourself with the oil for your olives shall drop off." What God is telling them in this
chapter, what God is promising them for their future is that
the productivity of the land will be directly proportional
to their obedience of God. That was the covenant he
made with the Jewish nation. If you obey me, you're
going to dig it. I'm going to so
bless your crops, your families, your land. If you disobey me, you're
going to live to regret it. And so productivity was directly
proportional to their obedience to God. So it was during that time, a
famine broke out in the land. So it says this, "A certain
man of Bethlehem Judah," now this is interesting because
there's a famine in the land. And the city in question
here is Bethlehem. Bethlehem is a Hebrew word
that means the house of bread. It's the breadbasket
of the land. It's the place where
the crops in Judah grew. So they're in bread land. In the house of bread,
Bethlehem, there was a famine. In the breadbasket--
even there-- there was a famine in the land. "A certain man of Bethlehem
Judah went to sojourn," or he went to take
a trip, a journey, 'in the country of Moab, he,
and his wife, and his two sons. The name of the
man was Elimelech. The name of his wife was
Naomi," means pleasant. "The names of his two sons
were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites." Now Ephrathites--
Ephrath or Ephratha is a region where
Bethlehem is located. So if you remember the prophecy
in Micah chapter 5, verse 2, "But you, Bethlehem
Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans
of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth
to me the one who will be ruler in Israel, whose
goings forth are from of old, from everlasting," a
prophecy of Jesus' birth. Bethlehem Ephrathah-- that's
the county seat, so to speak. Bethlehem was the city. So they were Ephrathites. They were from that
region originally-- "of Bethlehem Judah, and they
went to the country of Moab and remained there." Now let's consider their
names for just a moment. I find Bible names interesting-- sometimes weird, sometimes
goofy, sometimes unfortunate. But I find them interesting. People would name their
children, in those days, based on-- number one, their
own personal conviction, their thoughts, their
worldviews, their ideas of God, or with that, the conviction
of the hope of what they wanted their child to become. So either based on
personal conviction or upon conditions
going on around them at the time of birth. So if something happened
when the baby was born, they might name that child that. So when Isaac and Rebecca
got pregnant-- finally, Rebecca got pregnant. She was barren. She couldn't have children. He prayed, and she
became pregnant. And she said, you know,
sweetheart, this pregnancy is weird. It's hard. I'm having a tough time with it. And so they prayed about it. And the Lord told
them, well, the reason she's having a tough
time with it-- there's two nations in her womb. In other words, she's
going to have twins. And two people well will
be separated from her. The older will
serve the younger. So nine months go by. She has the live birth. The first child out of the
womb is all red and hairy. So they named the
child hairy [LAUGHTER] because that was the
circumstance of the birth. That's what Esau means-- hairy. So Hairy is born first. They wipe Hairy off. But as soon as Hairy
comes out of the womb, there's a hand of the second
child reaching out grabbing a hold of the leg of the heel-- of Hairy's heel. And as that child was coming
out, they said, oh, look-- he's grabbing the heel. So they called him heel catcher. Yaakov, Jacob means
heel catcher-- one who trips his brother
up or catches the heel. So these were the
names that these kids had to grow up and live with. That's why I say it
can be a blessing. It can also be a little wonky
and weird to have that name. When Benjamin was being born and
Rachel gave birth to Benjamin in Bethlehem, she
also died during that. She was waning in her health. And as the child was delivered,
and they showed her the child and said, it's a boy,
trying to encourage her to bring her spirits up. She looked down at the child
and named the child Benoni. Benoni means son of my sorrow. And then she kicked the bucket. She died. Well, her husband thought, my
kid can't live with that name. That's going to be tough
when he goes to school and he's called
son of my sorrow. So he renamed the
child Benjamin-- son of my right hand. So anyway, enough of that. Elimelech is a great name. It means my God is King. So wherever he
would go, he would say my name is my God is King. His name was his testimony. And yet, he didn't
live up to his name because if your God is King,
why aren't you trusting your God and staying in Bethlehem,
instead of going outside of the promised
land to the land of Moab? But this guy who had the
name, my God is King, didn't believe that his King,
God, could take care of him in Bethlehem. So looking over from
Bethlehem across the Dead Sea, he could see the highlands of
Moab, 3,500 feet in elevation-- 16 inches of rainfall
per year, porous soil. So he goes, we're moving, man. Let's go over there. And so he goes over there
with his wife-- pleasant-- Naomi. While they're there, they
have a couple of kids. And the kids are mentioned here. They don't have good names. The name of his two sons were
Mahlon, which means sickly, and the second
child, Chilion, means pining or weeping, crying. So Sick-o and Cry-baby-- [LAUGHTER] not
great names, right? I did mention that people
named their kids based on the condition of the birth. This could simply
be dad's reaction to seeing his kids being born. For a new Father, for a young
Father to see a live birth can be daunting. It's like, really? That looks like an alien. That's my child? I mean, look at that head. Put a Chiquita sticker on there. It's just so-- right? [LAUGHTER] It could
just be it could have been his reaction-- ew, sick! And then the next one came
out crying-- oh, cry-baby. Well, those were the names-- Sick-o and Cry-baby. [LAUGHTER] Then verse 3, "Then
Elimelech, Naomi's husband died," so he wasn't
healthy, himself. "And she was left,
and her two sons. Now they took wives
of the women of Moab. The name of the one was
Orpah," which means fawn, like the animal, "and the
name of the other Ruth. And they dwelt there
about ten years. Then both Mahlon
and Chilion died." So the woman survived her
two sons and her husband. They thought it was
going to be great. They made a choice. Let's go to Moab. They go to Moab seeking a
livelihood and, in the process, lost their lives. They thought they were going to
start some new wonderful life together. Instead, they found a grave. Remember what Jesus said? He said, if you seek your life,
you're going to lose your life. If you lose your life for my
sake, you'll find your life. There's a lot of loss
and a lot of pain compressed into these versus. This woman loses everything. She loses her husband. She loses her son. She loses the family name. She loses the inheritance. It's all gone. She is bereft of it all. We're not told how
the deaths occurred-- could it be a disease,
some kind of a plague, some kind of a congenital
thing-- we just aren't told. They probably started out. It was great. They had a they had
a four-bedroom tent, a two-camel garage. They joined the local donkey
lodge down the street. You know, they were
integrated into the community. And then one night,
Naomi gets a call from Moab general
emergency room-- ma'am, your husband's dead. Identify the body. She decides, however,
to stay in Moab. Her two sons marry Moabitesses. Their names are
given, and they play an integral part of the story. Verse 6, "She arose
with her daughters in law, that she might return
from the country of Moab, for she heard in
the country of Moab that the Lord had visited His
people in giving them bread." Now this is interesting. For five verses,
God isn't mentioned. The Lord isn't mentioned. He's only mentioned in
names, like Elimelech. But the Lord isn't mentioned. Now He is being mentioned. It's as if there is a
God consciousness that is returning to Naomi. She starts thinking about God. She hears that the
famine has lifted. And the way it's couched here,
the way it is written, it says, "the Lord visited his people." And the name Lord is the
Covenant name that is used-- Yahweh, the God of the Jews,
the God of the Covenant. Yahweh has visited his
people in giving them bread. "Therefore, she went
out from the place where she was and her two
daughters in law with her, and they went on the way to
return to the land of Judah." So she hears about
what happened. She attributes it to God. Notice down in verse 8, "Naomi
said to her daughter in law--" we're going to get
back to a couple of these things in
the verses, but I want to draw your attention to this. She says, "Go, return each
to her mother's house. The Lord--" there's
that name again, Yahweh, the Covenant name-- "the Lord deal kindly with you
as you have dealt with me." Verse 9, "The Lord grant
that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband." Go down to verse 13,
"Would you wait for them till they're full-grown? Would you restrain yourselves
from having husbands? No, my daughters, for it grieves
me very much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord
has gone out against me." It's as if, for years, they
have walked away from the Lord. At least, He's not
mentioned in five verses that tell that story. And all of a sudden, she's
very God-conscious now. Now there is a principle,
I believe, in that. And that is,
affliction can do that. Sorrow and pain can awaken
a person's need for God like nothing else. David said in Psalm 119-- I think it's around Verse 67. There's a lot of
verses in that psalm. But in Psalm 119, David
said, before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now, I keep your word. You see how that works? You know, you got
my attention, God. The affliction got my attention. Before I was afflicted, I
did whatever I wanted to. I went astray. But now, I keep your word. The affliction has
woken me up to my need. Martin Luther even said, were
it not for trials an affliction, I wouldn't understand
the scriptures. He attributed much of the
depth of his understanding to the fact that he lived
through such deep sorrow. And so like that, Naomi
is talking about the Lord, the Lord, the Lord. Now verse 7 is noteworthy,
"Therefore, she went out from the place
where she was, and her two daughters in law with her. They went on the way to
return to the land of Judah." In that verse, you have
a beautiful picture of repentance. She goes on the main road
that she came in with. And now, she does an about
face, and she turns around to go back to where
she came from. That's really a beautiful
picture of repentance. I mean, repentance means to turn
around, to change direction, to do an about face, to go
in the opposite direction, to do a 180. They came into Moab. Now, she's turning
her back on Moab and going back to where
the Covenant God-- Yahweh-- has blessed
His people in Bethlehem. And that's always the
quickest way back to God. Oh, I feel so far from God. Well, just turn around. You'll find Him. Just repent. You'll find Him. Oh, but I've taken 100
steps away from God. Well, it's only one step back. You turn around and say,
Lord, God, forgive me. You're there. You don't have to
remake those steps. Just turn around. Quickest way back is just
to simply turn around. "And Naomi said to
her daughters in law, Go, return each to
her mother's house. The Lord deal kindly with you as
you have dealt with the dead," that is, your
husbands, "and with me. The Lord grant that
you may find rest, each in the house of her husband." So go back, get married
again, get a new husband. "Then she kissed them, and
they lifted up their voices, and they wept." Now just freeze-frame
this for a second because now we come to one of
the decisive moments in all of history. Doesn't look like it-- just three women out on a dirt
road, having a conversation. One decides to go back home. So? Certainly, there were better,
more important things happening in the world at that time. And I suppose, if you were to
freeze-frame that historically and look around at the
world at that time, there would be some
significant things happening. For example, at
this very moment, over in Greece, the
golden age of Greece was starting to
come to fruition-- at this moment in history. In China, at this very same time
that these three gals are out on the road, the Zhao Dynasty
is beginning to blossom, coming into existence. That's historically significant. Over in Central America
and South America, at the very same time, the Mayan
dynasty is starting to sprout. All of these are significant. But I say to you that this
is more monumental than all of those world happenings. Well, how is that? Because if this decisive
moment doesn't play out right, you better tell the Magi
not to come to Bethlehem. Because the Magic come to
Bethlehem because Jesus is born in Bethlehem. Jesus gets born in
Bethlehem because David, his ancestor had been
born in Bethlehem. David was born in
Bethlehem because his dad, Jesse was born in Bethlehem. Jesse was born in
Bethlehem because his dad, Obed was born in Bethlehem. And Obed was born in Bethlehem
because Boaz and Ruth got married and had Obed. So this is a very
decisive moment that is playing out on the
road to somewhere in Moab. All of that to say this--
there's a beautiful scripture in Zechariah
chapter 4 that says, "We should not despise the
days of small beginnings." Those choices that
you make, one that leads to another that
leads to another-- small though they may be
or seem, can lead to great and monumental things. "And they said to her, surely
we will return with you to your people." Now they're out there
having a little cry fest, and they're highly emotional. So they said, no, man,
we're coming back with you. We'll just follow you. We love you so much. "But Naomi said, turn
back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb
that they may be your husbands? Turn back, my daughters. Go your way, for I'm too
old to have a husband. If I should say,
I have hope, even if I should have
a husband tonight, and should also bear sons,
would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves
from having husbands? No, my daughters, for it grieves
me very much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord
has gone out against me." Now what is she referring to? She's referring to
an ancient custom. We'll just touch
on it and go on. We won't get into it. But there's a law
we have already uncovered in the
Old Testament called the law of the
levirate marriage. The law of the
levirate marriage is that if an Israel--
actually, this is in all the Semitic cultures
in the ancient Middle East. If somebody had a wife, and
that husband died, and there's no one to perpetuate
the family name, the brother of that dead
guy who would be alive would do the courtesy of having
a child through that man's wife to perpetuate the
family name in Israel. That's what she is referring to. She goes look, you know,
even if I could have kids, you're going to rob the
cradle and, you know, wait 20 years until they grow
up, and they can do that? Now something just
to make note of, twice she says-- when they
said, we're coming with you, she goes, no, go back. No, go back. Why would she tell her
daughter-in-law or both of them to go back? I mean, it'd be nice if you
went with me to Bethlehem. But twice, she says, go back. She dissuades them from coming. Here's what I think. I think, more than a courtesy,
she is basically saying, if you're going to follow
on this road with me, you're going to have
to count the cost. First of all, being a widow
is tough in any generation. Any widow who's here tonight
would say Amen to that. It's hard. It's very difficult. Being
a widow in ancient times was even worse. And being a widow
in ancient Israel, especially if you
were not an Israelite, but you were a foreign woman
living among Israelites is a hard rap. And Naomi knew the
prejudice of her people toward a cursed society. The Moabites were
cursed, to Israel. Moab was the result of incest. You remember the story
Lot and Lot's daughters, and they got their dad drunk,
and they went in lay with him, and they got pregnant
from their father. And one of the children
born was named Lot-- I mean, was named Moab. And the Moabite race came from
an incestuous relationship. So the Jews never look
kindly upon the Moabites. Even God, in Psalm
108, says humorously-- he says, "Judah is my lawgiver. Moab is my washpot." Washpot is like a garbage can. So Elimelech and Naomi
left the House of Bread to go eat out of a garbage can. Now, Naomi knows, if you, who
come from what Israel will call God's garbage can, if you're
going to come back to Bethlehem as a widow bearing the stigma
of having a husband who was a Jew who disobeyed God's
Covenant by marrying you, and you're going to
live in this culture-- it's going to be hard. So go back home. Go back to your mama. Go back, and hang
out with your people. Well, verse 14, "They lifted
up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed
her mother-in-law." It was a goodbye kiss. She walks off the
pages of history. She's never mentioned again. She goes back home. She goes you know what? She's right. Bye. And you never hear from her. But it says this, "Ruth clung to
her," she was more determined. And she said, "Look, your
sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said, intreat
me not to leave you, or to turn back from following
you, for wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge,
I will lodge. Your people shall be my
people, your God, my God. And where you die, I will die. And there I will be buried. The Lord do so to me-- Yahweh do so to me and
more, if anything but death parts you and me. And when she saw that she was
determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her." Now we have just read one of the
most beautiful poetic sections in all of literature. Rhetoricians and
poets have a hard time coming up with
something that comes close to being this beautiful. It's so beautiful, I used
it on my wedding invitation. Where you go, I will go. Your God will be my God. Your people will be my people
until death do us part. Even though that has nothing
to do with a wedding, it's a commitment
between a daughter and on a mother-in-law,
I just thought it was appropriate for the
covenant we were going into. It's a beautiful beautiful
poetic statement. Here, Ruth makes a commitment--
a sincere commitment. She says, intreat
me not to go back. Don't pastor me to go back. I'm going with you. So it was a sincere,
heartfelt commitment. It's similar to what Elisha
will say to Elijah when he says, look, as the Lord
lives and as you live, I'm not going to leave you-- same kind of commitment,
a sincere commitment. Not only is it a
sincere commitment, it's a spiritual commitment,
Where he says, "Where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God." I am willing to
disassociate myself with all of the gods of my people. By the way, do you know the
chief god of the Moabites was a god by the
name of Chemosh-- Chemosh, C-H-E-M-O-S-H. Chemosh
was the chief deity worshipped in Moab, and he was
worshipped by child sacrifice. It would be something the
Jews would call testable, even though the Jews
got down to that level a couple of times
in their history. It was a testable practice. So this is a conversion. It's a spiritual commitment. "Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God." And then notice how
steadfast this commitment is, "where you die, I will die." In other words, hey,
mom-in-law, I'm coming with you. And I'm not buying
a round-trip ticket. It's a one-way ticket. I'm in it for life. I'm going to go all the
way to death with you. "So when she saw that she was
determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her." This is commitment. She tried to dissuade
her daughter-in-law. Her daughter-in-law
said, nope, nope, nope-- I'm coming. There's a difference between
involvement and commitment. If you think about it, next time
you're at the breakfast table and you look down, if
you have a glass of milk and you have bacon-- two things I rarely have
on my breakfast table. But if you have milk and bacon,
look at that as a comparison. Milk speaks of involvement. Right? The cow is involved, right? But that's about it. It's just-- he's there,
and he's milked-- she's milked. And that's involvement. Now, bacon speaks of
commitment, right? [LAUGHTER] That pig
was in it till death, took it out of its hide. Sorry for that
analogy, but you'll probably never forget it. [LAUGHTER] "Now the two of them went
until they came to Bethlehem. And it happened when they had
come to Bethlehem that all the city was excited because
of them, and the women said, is this Naomi? So she said to them,
do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara." Naomi means pleasant. Mara means bitter. Said, call me bitter,
"for the Almighty is dealt very bitterly with me." She is blaming God for it. She is God-conscious, but
she's still bitter toward God. She's making steps, and
she's going to change. She's going to come around
and see God's great plan. Her and her husband made
the choice to go to Moab. A lot of bad things happened. They're blaming
God for all of it. And it comes to full
brunt right here. "For the Almighty has dealt
very bitterly with me. I went out full,
and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me
Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me, and the
Almighty has afflicted me?" "So Naomi returned, and Ruth the
Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned
from the country of Moab, now they came to Bethlehem at
the beginning of the barley harvest." They want you to know that. The author wants you to know
the timing is important. They're coming late April,
beginning of May-- that time, right when the beginning
of the barley harvest. Now getting into
chapter 2 is a romance. It's where boy meets girl. And they're going to
be husband and wife. And let me just say to you--
to us-- who are married, never forget the moment you met. In fact, when things
get a little dicey in your relationship. Get alone, and just
remember the first time you laid eyes on her. And how you went, wow. And how she went,
(SOFTER VOICE) wow. [LAUGHTER] And the
heart fluttered. I still remember the
night I met my wife. And I looked across the
room, and I went, wow. So they're going to
meet, and there's going to be wedding bells
by the end of the chapter. Now this couple is very-- if opposites attract, they're
perfect for each other because they are so opposite. He's rich, she's poor. He's Jewish, she's not. She's a Gentile. She's a Moabitess. He's the owner of the field. She's the gleaner in the field. He's single. She's widowed. They're very, very opposite. But a romance-- they're going
to overlook those things, and they're going
to love each other. And somebody once said, the key
to a good marriage relationship is to keep your eyes wide-open
before marriage and half-shut after marriage. [LAUGHTER] You know what
you're getting into. You look around. And then you just decide,
OK, I knew that going in. I'm just going to just not
notice those things right now. "And Naomi had a kinsman of her
husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz. And so Ruth the
Moabitess said to Naomi, please, let me go to the
field and glean heads of grain after him in whose
sight I may find favor. And she said, go, my daughter. And she left, and went,
in gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she came to the part of
the field belonging to Boaz who is of the family of Elimelech." Now the gleaning
was an ancient means of God taking care of the poor. God is concerned for the poor. And in antiquity, one of God's
ways to take care of the poor wasn't a welfare system
but a gleaning system. So you are commanded
in Leviticus 23 that when you reap your fields,
you go through your fields once. You don't go through them again. You leave some of the
fruit on the vine, some of the fruit on the tree, some
of the wheat in the stalk. You go through it
once, and you leave. And they left up to,
in most cases, 25% of the crop in the field. And that was so the
fatherless, the widow, the poor of the land,
the stranger of the land could come in and take
it-- could pick it. So it wasn't like, we'll
collect it and give it to you, so there's no labor involved. No, you have to work for it. So there's dignity
in the work, right? You're giving a man or
a woman their dignity because they have
to go in and get it. It's not just a handout. But if you're a rich landowner,
you leave some of it, so they can come in
and pick it later. So that's the
gleaning of the field. So she's out gleaning in
the fields in Bethlehem. "Now behold, Boaz from
Bethlehem said to the reapers," this is his workers now,
"the Lord be with you. And they answered him,
the Lord bless you." Can I just say, this is not
a work crew I have ever come across in my own experience? [LAUGHTER] If you go
to a construction site today or tomorrow and
listen to the language at the construction
site or a place where there's farming
like this, you're probably not going to
hear this conversation. But immediately, we are struck
with the personality of Boaz. There is a largesse
about his personality. He seems to be very
generous and big-hearted. And he's a spiritual man-- the Lord, the Lord, the Lord. He's going to take notice
of that with her-- make note of that with her. I heard about your
conversion to the Lord. He's a spiritual man. He's a godly man. Girls, look for a godly husband. Look for a man who loves Jesus
more than he will love you, who will honor Him and have a
fidelity in spiritual things above all else. You say, well, that's important
but not that important. What's really important,
he has a good income and he's handsome. We may differ a little
bit in our belief system in our world view-- OK. That's called missionary dating. And I've heard a
lot of girls say, well, or guys say,
yeah, you know, they're not really
walking with the Lord, but I can influence them. Missionary dating leads
to a missionary marriage. You'll find yourself married
to an unbeliever or a believer in name only-- a nominal
believer-- and you have kids, and it's going to be
very difficult to unravel that to agree on
the future education of that child, the future
spiritual upbringing of that child. So look for a spiritual man-- somebody who is
like Jesus to you. That doesn't mean he has to
have long hair, and a robe, and staff, and sandals-- but he is Christ-like. He is spiritual. Paul said in 2 Corinthians
6, "don't be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever." Don't be mis-mated
with an unbeliever. And so here is a godly
man, a spiritual man. And something to
make a notice of-- did you notice in verse 2-- I didn't even-- I
just saw the word. But go back to verse 2. Here's, "Ruth the
Moabitess said to Naomi, please, let me go to the field
and glean heads of grain." Now that's hard work. Hey, mother-in-law, can I
please go sweat it out today in the fields, please? Verse 7, "She said, please let
me glean," this is to Boaz, "and gather after the reapers." Notice how polite she is. I just wanted to point that out. He's spiritual, and he
has a large personality, a large heart, a generous heart. But she, too, is very, very
sweet to her mother-in-law, to Boaz, saying please. Moms, dads, if your teenage
son or daughter came to you and said, mom and dad,
please can I clean up my room and then clean up the
rest of the house? [LAUGHTER] You might need
therapy for a month or two. It's not something you'd expect. But this gal is sweet, and
polite, and says, please. Now think about what
she has gone through. She has lost her
father-in-law, Elimelech. She has lost her husband. She has made a long journey. She's in a very
foreign place to her. And she seems to be untainted
by that-- not weathered, not beaten down by the hard,
harsh circumstances of life. She has every reason to be
bitter too, but she's not-- please, please. Compare this gal to
another gal you'll meet later on in John chapter 4,
a woman at the well of Sumeria who's very terse, and curt,
and cynical toward Jesus. You know, she's been
married to five husbands. She's living with a guy
who's not her husband. And Jesus has a
conversation with her. And she answers back
in this flippant, back-of-the-hand kind of a way. She is very bitter. Life has beaten her
down, but not this one. So it doesn't have to. All that to say,
it doesn't have to. Attitude is, in my opinion,
what makes a woman attractive. OK, she might have looks. But looks, for any man or
any woman, are temporary. Am I right about that? Can I get an Amen to that? I don't look like
I used to look. I'm aware of that. People change physically. That's why Proverbs
31 says, "Beauty is vain, but a woman
who fears the Lord, she shall be praised." A woman who has a sweet attitude
and personality is attractive, and that attraction
stays over the long haul. So enough of that. "Boaz said to the
servant," verse 5 "who was in charge of
the reapers, whose young woman is this? The servant who was in charge of
the reapers answered and said, it is the young Moabite woman
who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. And she said, please
let me glean and gather after the reapers
among the sheaves. So she came, and has continued
from morning until now. She rested a little
in the house. Then Boaz said to
Ruth, you will listen, my daughter, will you not? Do not go to glean in another
field," though, she could. The law said she could go
into any field she wants. That's the law of Leviticus. But he says, no need to
go into any other field. "Nor go from here, but stay
close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the
field, which they reap and go after them. Have I not commanded the
young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty,
go to the vessels and drink from what the
young men have drawn." I love this. It's the first anti-sexual
harassment law in history. And it's by Boaz. I've already instructed
the young men, lay off. Don't make a pass at her. Just let her do
her thing and reap. "She fell on her face,
bowed down to the ground, and said to him, why have
I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice
of me, since I am a foreigner? And Boaz answered
and said to her, it has been fully reported
to me that all you have done for your mother-in-law
since the death of your husband and how you have left your
father and your mother, and the land of
your birth, and have come to a people whom
you did not know before. The Lord repay your
work, and a full reward be given to you by the Lord God
of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge. And she said, let me find
favor in your sight, my lord, for you have comforted
me and have spoken kindly to your maid servant, though
I am not like one of your maid servants." So he had heard
of her conversion. He had heard of her commitment
to her mother-in-law. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. "Now Boaz said to her," verse
14 "at mealtime come here, and eat of the bread,
dip your piece of bread into the vinegar. So she sat beside the reapers,
and passed the parched grain to her, and she ate, and was
satisfied, and kept some back. And when she arose
up to glean, Boaz commanded his young
men saying, let her glean even
among the sheaves, and do not reproach her." Let her take whatever she
wants, whatever she finds. Also-- get this,
"Also, let some grain from the bundles," that you
guys are carrying, you reapers, "let some of that fall
purposely for her. Leave it that she may glean. Do not rebuke her. So she gleaned out on
the field until evening, and beat out what
she had gleaned." Again, this is very hard labor. "And it was about
an ephah of barley." It's about a half
a month's wage. "She took it up,
went into the city, and her mother-in-law
saw what she had gleaned, so she brought out and gave
to her what she had kept back after she had been satisfied. And her mother-in-law
said to her, where have you gleaned today? Where did you work? Blessed be the one who
took notice of you," because it was, you
know, she brought in two weeks worth of food. "So she told her mother-in-law
with whom she had worked and said, the man with
whom I work today is Boaz. And Naomi said to her
daughter-in-law, praise God. Blessed be He of the Lord, who
has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead. And Naomi said to
her, the man is a relative of ours, a kinsman,
one of our near kinsman. Then Ruth the Moabitess
said, he also said to me, you shall stay close
by my young men until they have
finished all my harvest. And Naomi said to Ruth her
daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that you go
out with his young women and that people do not meet
you in any other field." Now here's what I
like about Naomi. Ruth was married to
her son at one time. Her son died. Now she meets Boaz. Ruth meets Boaz. Mom puts it all together-- goes
kinsmen, possible redemption here, possible marriage here. She figures it all out. I'll go into that law next
week in Israel a little bit-- that law of redemption. But she sees this. And she's going to be
a matchmaker in this. Say-- this is good. This is the Lord. Just follow that guy,
and do what he says. Now what I like about Naomi
is she doesn't fold her arms and say, oh, well,
whoever this guy is, he couldn't be the husband
to you that my son was. He couldn't hold a candle
to Mahlon or Chilion. None of that. She's blessing this idea. She's releasing into
a future possibility, which is one of the best gifts
any parent can give to a child. I always ask children,
what do your parents think of your relationship? And if they say, oh,
great, then that's good. If they say, well, they
think he's an idiot. [LAUGHTER] Well, OK,
either he is an idiot, and they're really smart. Or he's not an idiot,
and you're just going to have to live with
your parents not liking him. But know this-- there's going
to be problems in the future. You have to be aware of this. If you're going to enter
into this relationship, if they don't like him,
you're going to have problems. Or if they say, oh, yeah,
they love him so much. They've already
planned the wedding-- that's also problematic. Best thing you can do is just
release the bride and groom to each other. Let them work it out. So she is releasing
her daughter-in-law, even though her daughter-in-law
had been previously married to her own son. And then verse 23, we close this
chapter where we end tonight, "So she stayed close by
the young women of Boaz to glean until the end of
the barley harvest and wheat harvest, and she dwelt
with her mother-in-law." Now the undercurrent in this
book is the providence of God. The timing was already
told us about-- beginning of the barley harvest. The place, the fields of Boaz. She could have
been in any field. But all of these
things are lining up, and God is working all
things together for good to those who love him. And by the end of
the book, we're going to have the
genealogy of David already formed and mentioned. And that brings us
forward-- that launches us forward to the coming of the
Messiah, the son of David, Jesus Christ later on. I had more to say about
that, but time's up. So we'll pick it up
next week, and we'll finish the Book of Ruth in
our study through the Bible. Let's pray. Father, how we
thank you that even in the darkest
periods of history, a period like the
Book of Judges, when there was moral relativism
and existentialism abounded. And everybody decided in
their own minds and hearts what was best. There was no central authority. [MUSIC PLAYING] It was pure anarchy. That even in such a confusing
time, You were at work. When it was dark, You were
you were lighting a lamp. You were establishing
the household of David. Father, in our own
generation, as bleak and as dark as it feels and it
seems, we look around, we hear the reports,
You are on the throne. You are in control. You are doing something great
and grand in the midst of it, behind the scenes. We don't know what. We're not shaken by
the things we see. We read Your Word. We know what You say will
happen in the last days. So we are gladdened that in the
midst of a sea of confusion, we have the strong moorings
of faith that keep us grounded, that keep us afloat. Lord, just like Ruth, who
came from a pagan background, and was convinced
that the God of Israel was the true God,
the Covenant God, and made a commitment
to that God, Lord, I pray that through our
lives, through our witness, through our testimony,
through our conversations, that people like her would
also make a commitment to you. And people who are here tonight
or are watching live stream or hearing it on the
radio would also. If they find that life
is out of control, that they'll give control to
the God who controls everything. That they'll come back to
You if they've wandered, they'll come to You
for the first time if they've wandered but they
have never come to You yet If you have never surrendered
your life to Christ, if you're sitting here
in this auditorium, or if you're joining us via
the internet or the radio-- if you've never given
your life to Christ, this is a great opportunity
for you, like these three gals, to turn around and go
in God's direction. All you do is give Him your
life right where you're at. You turned to Him, and you
say something like this, Lord, I admit I'm a sinner. Please forgive me. I place my trust in Jesus. I believe Jesus died on a cross. I believe Jesus rose
again from the dead. I turn from my sin, and I
turn to Jesus as my Savior. I want to follow Him as my Lord. Help me. Show me how. Fill me with hope. Fill me with peace, for
I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand. We're going to close
in a song of worship. If you did pray that prayer
out loud, or under your breath, let somebody know. Let one of the leaders
know after the service. If you did it online, if you're
on a phone, text the word SAVED 505-509-5433. Or if you're on the
website, click the button that says Know God, and
you'll have somebody get in touch with you there. Let's close in a song. For more resources from Calvary
Church and Skip Heitzig, visit calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining us from
this teaching in our series, Expound.
