Ruth 1 - God's Providence in Our Suffering
Tom Shrader begins a five-week study in the book of Ruth, focusing on God's providence in suffering. Through Naomi's journey from fullness to emptiness—losing her husband and sons in Moab—and Ruth's faithful commitment to follow her, Tom demonstrates that God is actively engaged in our lives even when circumstances seem dire. He emphasizes that everything happens for a reason because God is sovereignly orchestrating all things for good and His glory.
“Everything happens for a reason, and yes, there is an all-knowing, all-powerful being who spoke the world into existence and then didn't just walk away from it, but is intimately involved in our lives.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Ruth
Recorded: 2011
Duration: 50 min
Themes: suffering, providence, faithfulness, loyalty, loss, grief, commitment, hope, experiencing loss, grieving death, facing hardship, questioning god, widow, mother-in-law, new believer, struggling with doubt
Scripture: Ruth 1, Ruth 1:16-17, Judges 21:25, John 9, Romans 8:28, Luke 9:22, Mark 4, Hebrews 3:12-13, 1 Peter 4:19, Exodus 2:24-25
Theological Themes: sovereignty, divine providence, god's will, biblical narrative, old testament, covenant faithfulness, redemptive history, sanctification
Full Transcript
We're going today to the book of Ruth. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand and the guys will bring you one. You're welcome to take that with you. If you get a Bible from us or have one that you've had before, it's page 143. We're going to look at the book of Ruth for five weeks.
James was the first study we did where we printed a study guide. So we have a study guide that's ready for the book of Ruth. We did study guides, so you have options here. This is not a moneymaker for us. You can go online and download the study guide, or you can go over to the bookstore and pick one up. We've already taken it and bound it, and it's available for $2.50. I've talked to a lot of people who have really started to use these study guides in their lives, couples that have done it together, friends that have done it together. So this is really a helpful tool. This is not about cash for us, just trying to cover costs. You can download it for free, or you can get this. This is really handy, fits in the Bible, and that'll be helpful.
Let me tell you where we're going to go between now and Labor Day. Five weeks in the book of Ruth, that's going to get us to summer. Then we're going to spend 13 weeks on theology. We're going to deal with 13 different topics. When it's time, I'll get those to you so that you can be prepared. You may be sitting there thinking, there goes the summer. But I'm telling you, and today's going to be a perfect example, theology doctrine is not just an abstract study, it comes right into play. Really no place better than our study this morning.
Our Teaching Approach
The way I go about these things, and we're studying differently now, is I try to read through and get a sense of it. We started doing it this way since we began the book of James. Whoever's teaching at the campuses - this morning, Luke is teaching at Gateway, I'm teaching here, Justin's teaching in Arcadia and Tempe - every Wednesday, whoever's going to teach gets together. We meet a week ahead, not the following week. We have all the guys that are going to teach, and then we open it up to the staff, especially our pastoral team. This is just a way for us to sharpen each other, groom each other. It's been an incredible benefit to me.
For me personally, I've really enjoyed it. I've spent all my time preparing alone, and to come together is really helpful. Especially for me when we move into an Old Testament, that's always a little harder for me, more difficult. And also a narrative. A narrative just teaches differently. You'll notice today a lot of dialogue, a lot of conversation between Ruth and Orpah and Naomi. About 50% of this book is dialogue.
How to Approach Narrative
Whenever we're approaching any passage, but especially in a narrative, what I hope to do is have you get a sense of what's going on in the passage, and then apply it to your life. Now I could say our life, and I'll use "you" a lot today instead of "we," though it applies to me. But if I say "we," you feel somehow better about yourself, and I don't want that to happen. So I'll say "you." God forbid you'd walk out of here encouraged, right? We want to beat you into the ground. No, I just want you to own this.
I'll give you one other warning. If you watch the guys on TV, especially the prosperity guys, they're wearing out the Old Testament. They camp in that Old Testament and they stay there. One of the reasons is you can get this stuff to say a lot of different things.
I was today in my routine. I get up on Sunday about 4:45, I try to be here no later than 5:30, and it's when I bring everything together. It's not that I prepare then, I'm prepared, but it's when I tie it together. All the guys are coming through, and we just work stuff together. They'll say, "How you doing? You ought to prepare these things ahead of time." We have the same conversation every week.
Mary, who's our receptionist, who's probably the key person outside of Patty, because Patty's sitting here - but if it wasn't Patty sitting here, it would just be Mary. Mary, who's probably the key person on campus. Mary comes through, and I said, "How you doing today?" She's got on hot pink, she looks really cool. I said, "I'm doing fine." She said, "I'm so excited." I said, "Really? Why?" She goes, "Oh, we're going to start the study of Ruth. I'm so excited." I said, "Well, then we're up to one. That's a good start." I said, "Why are you excited?" This is what she said, it's really cool. She said, "Old Testament I enjoy, and the providence of God." She said, "Are you excited?" I said, "You know, more now than I was when we chose it."
One of the things I know, and so this is a little preventive maintenance, is a lot of you are going to see things here that I'm going to miss. In a narrative like this, and I'm not kidding, there are just dozens of options with almost every point. So I'm going to pick point A and B, and you're going to think, "Oh, there are all these other options." Then you're going to feel compelled to email me about that. That's fine. That's great. If writing a long, single-spaced email makes you feel better, go for it.
that never gets read makes you feel better, then you go ahead and do it. Now I'm teasing about that part. I read everything that comes in. But I guarantee you I'm going to miss some stuff where you, in your study or a lesson that you've had on Ruth, there's going to be something that just clicked with you and you're going to go, Tom, you missed it. There are just so many things in here. So prepare, I can't get the bar any lower. Prepare to be disappointed.
Here's what one author writes about, and then we'll get after it. He said, the book of Ruth is a story of very ordinary people facing ordinary events. It tells of Naomi, a wife and mother bereft of husband and sons who experiences a great deal of hardship and famine and bereavement, eventually being brought to the place of peace and security. It tells of Ruth, a foreign woman from Moab who attaches herself to Naomi, her mother-in-law, and to Naomi's God and receives immense blessing in later life. It tells of Boaz, Naomi's kinsman by marriage who shows great kindness to Ruth and Naomi. By His obedience to the law of God and His respectful dealing with Ruth, Boaz becomes an honored ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ. So as you trace the genealogy of Christ, you'll see that these characters are actually in there. His bloodline.
And then he ends with this, and this is why I love this stuff. These are real people with real problems, real difficulties, real experiences who enjoy real blessing from God. And that's what I love. Here's His last sentence. They are the everyday routines of life. He's talking about the book. The need to work, the joys of family, the pain of bereavement, parting from relatives and relationships with mother-in-law. So there it is.
The Literary and Historical Significance of Ruth
It's a book of great literature. You're going to see a passage today when we look at chapter 1 verse 16 and 17 that there's very famous words of Ruth. It's got great historical significance, just its placement. It's between the book of Judges and 1 Samuel, so it's in that time when the nation of Israel is moving from a judge system to a system of kings. It has great doctrinal truth. And the biggest thing being the Gentiles now being embraced into the nation of Israel and great moral values as well in relationships.
The word that we've chosen is interesting, and this is kind of cool. This is cool to know Mary's thinking this way, is the word we've chosen really, and we could have. I made a list. There are words like love, loyalty, devotion, obedience, clearly redemption is a theme. We've chosen to emphasize the providence of God as we study this book. And obviously redemption is a major theme. But the providence of God in suffering, the providence of God in blessing, the providence of God in decision, the providence of God in wisdom, and obviously the providence of God in redemption.
Understanding God's Providence
So in its simplest form, when we talk about providence, we're talking about God's actively engaging in our lives in the world. So there will be phrases that you hear in everyday conversation, and we'll even use them even though sometimes we know they don't accurately express everything we're saying. So you may say to somebody, good luck, or this happened, it was bad luck, or that's just life. Those kinds of things.
I have a phrase I use that I have not used around Susan in probably six months, and she hates it. And so, out of respect for her, I don't use it. But it's this phrase. It is what it is. Now Oprah, interestingly enough, and it's probably just kind of urban legend, but we will meet a character. I'm trying to think when you're introduced to her. You'll meet a character in verse 4 whose name is Oprah, O-R-P-A-H. And urban legend is that that's what Oprah's name was to be and it was kind of misspelled and Oprah became Oprah. I don't know.
But here's one of the things you'll hear on Oprah and you'll hear Oprah say, and she's just one of many people who say this, everything happens for a reason. And I love being able to talk to people who don't necessarily share our faith or share our view of God and say, really you believe that? It has to be. First of all, it has to be true because Oprah said it. We know Oprah doesn't lie. I've been watching Oprah a lot lately because I've been home a lot with Susan and she's had some really good shows that she's winding down.
The Logic of Providence
But everything happens for a reason. Well, we've talked about this many times but we can't talk about it enough. If that's true, then there has to be someone in control who's all-knowing and all-powerful. Because if everything's happening for a reason, then there has to be some cosmic force, some power, something, someone, somebody who's working these things together for good.
Now here's what we know, is we know that that force is God. I can know God through nature, I can look around and see that He's there, but I really know Him through His word. So that, yes, everything does happen for a reason, and yes, there is an all-knowing, all-powerful being who spoke the world into existence and then didn't just walk away from it, but is intimately involved in our lives.
When Providence Meets Suffering
Now when it comes to suffering, it may not feel that way. One of the times that I think theologically we seem most vulnerable is in the midst of suffering. So there's a little bit of, where's God? There's a little bit of, God, why would You? And oftentimes in a quest to answer those questions, we come up with a whole new theology. Oftentimes as your friends get in your grill about God and what kind of a God would do this and all that sort of stuff.
Great example this week on O'Reilly. So O'Reilly's this week, and I wanted to email him, and I figured he doesn't read his email, but I wanted to email him and say, Bill, when you talk about theology, it's like Sean Penn talking about politics. You don't know what you're
The Culture's Search for Meaning
You can see Bill O'Reilly trying to play God. You can see that he does not believe in salvation by grace through faith. He believes in a works-based salvation. He's got a file for Jesus, but Jesus only does so much—you have to do the rest. Bill's reason that there has to be a God is there has to be a place for Hitler. There has to be a place for bad people.
Then this guy says, "You know there are even evangelicals who think Gandhi's in hell," and Bill said that's ridiculous. Bill said, "We believe in the Catholic Church by baptism by desire, meaning if this guy's following God the best he can, then somehow he's baptized into the thing." I wanted to write and say, "Bill, Gandhi knows the Catholic theology better than you do."
Gandhi said, "I read the Gospels every day. I love the teaching of Jesus, but I refuse to believe that Jesus or any other person could die for me." Now I don't know if he changed his mind after he wrote that, but he wrote that. So based on his testimony, I'm very comfortable saying, Gandhi's the nicest guy in hell. I don't say that flippantly. I say that so that we come to grips with grace.
This is not about how good you are. This is about how great God is. It's not about you. It's about Him. God doesn't save good people because there aren't any. God saves sinners—we all are. That's really important.
Engaging the Culture
All these discussions are ones you can really have, and that's why understanding what Oprah says and being able to quote Lady Gaga matters. Lady Gaga had a great quote last week: "The world needs to be born again." Those quotes are important because that's who people listen to. When you can come into their world like Paul did in Athens, when you can come in and talk about what the culture is talking about and say, "Oprah's right, everything happens for a reason, but here's what that means"—that's really important.
Everything happens for a reason. They're in the midst of suffering. Here's the condition. It came about, chapter 1 verse 1, in the days when the judges governed. In my Bible, Ruth 1:1 is on the right-hand side of the book. If I drop down to the last verse before it—Judges chapter 21 verse 25—here was the overall condition: "There was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes."
Israel's Spiritual Condition
What's going on at this moment is Israel's being marked by immorality, idolatry, and war. It doesn't say, by the way, that everybody's doing wrong. It's that everybody's doing what they think is right, and they're making up their own rules—which is what we do all the time. We create God as we want Him to be. We create Him in our image.
You say things like, "My God would never..." Hear that? "Your God would never..." But we're not talking about your God. We're talking about the real God. In the days in which the judges governed, there was a famine in the land.
We haven't gotten very far—one sentence and already another distraction. There are thirteen times in the Old Testament when we see the idea of famine introduced, always the result of rebellion in the nation of Israel. That's not to say that when you have difficulties in your life, they're necessarily caused by sin. In John chapter 9, there's the blind man. The disciples say, "Who sinned, this guy or his parents?" Jesus says, "Neither, but that he might become a display case for the work of God." But there is discipline for God's people when they sin.
There's famine in the house of bread in Israel, and specifically in the area around Bethlehem.
The Journey to Compromise
There's a man in Bethlehem in Judah who went to sojourn in the land of Moab, and he took his wife and his two sons. Moab represents the enemy of Israel. It is a land—Tim, Maude, and I had our maps out today, and we figured it's about 80-90 miles away from Bethlehem. There's this man, Elimelech, and his wife, Naomi, and their sons, Mahlon and Chilion, and they're from Bethlehem in Judah, and then they enter the land of Moab and remain there.
If you're one of these who writes circles in your Bible, it might be helpful. In verse 1, they sojourn. In verse 2, they remain. This becomes really a picture of sin and compromise.
They are where God would have them be, in the place of Bethlehem, but a famine comes, and Elimelech says, "A man's got to do what a man's got to do to provide for himself." So he heads off to the foreign land, the land of the enemy. He heads off to Moab.
The Meaning Behind the Names
Names often in the Old Testament mean something. Let me give you the six characters we're going to meet today and what their names mean. Elimelech means "God is King." Naomi means "pleasant" or "delightful." Orpah means "stubborn." Ruth means "friendship" and "beauty." Then the two boys, Chilion and Mahlon. Mahlon means "puny," Chilion means "pining."
Get this now. Here's the way I put it together: "God is my king" takes "pleasant" and "puny" and "pining," and heads off to the land of the enemy. The bumper sticker on his sandal was, "God is my co-pilot." In other words, "I'm the pilot here," and he does what a lot of you do with God.
He does what a lot of you do. Remember, we're going to say "you," not "me," not "us." He does what a lot of you do with God: "God, thanks for the advice, thanks for the counsel, thanks for the friendship, thanks for the coffee, but I'm going to do it my way. I'm sure that for the other seven billion people on the planet, this makes sense, but God, You don't know me. I'm the exception to these rules. Glad You got them, because I think they need them, but I don't."
So they journey.
of a picture of engaging sin. It's going to be a journey, but they end up camping there. We say this all the time about sin. It will take you further than you want to go, and keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.
You know what it's like? Going to Costco. That's what it's like. It's going to take you further than you want to go. It's going to take you longer than you want to. And it's going to cost you more than you ever intended. They ought to just, when you come in, you should give them $100. Yeah, $100.
I'm doing almost all the grocery shopping now, and I've fallen in love with the grocery store. What an incredible place this thing is. But it happened again this week. I needed bread and milk, and I spent $53. The grocery store is the coolest place. They have all this stuff.
The Temptation of Sin
This is really interesting, too, because I've never heard God speak. But at the grocery store, I can hear the frozen food section going, "California pizza kitchen. Marie Callender, chicken pot pie." Here's the one. Oh, gosh. "Fudgsicles, fudgsicles, fudgsicles. Come here, Tom." So that's how you spend $53 on a loaf of bread and milk.
Well, God is king, takes Naomi. They're overwhelmed by their circumstances, those things standing around them. And they say to Mahlon and Chilion, "Let's go." And I've got, you know, in my mind, I was probably thinking, can you imagine this? Because they know what these names mean. So they go, "Do you have any kids?" "Yeah, I'd like to meet your kids." "All right, here's the deal. I'd like to meet your kids. All right, here's Mahlon." "Hi, how are you?" "Here's Chilion." It's got to be a great trip, 80-mile trip. But you've got to hear Elimelech saying, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"
Elimelech's going to call His shots. He gets to the land. And here's what happens. Verse 3: "Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died. She's left with two sons. They take for themselves Moabite women as wives." So they violate God's law there. "One's named Orpah, the other's named Ruth. And they lived there about 10 years."
Tragedy Strikes
So then what happens, you can see this is heading down for Naomi. "Mahlon and Chilion also die. And the women are bereft, and the woman," that's Naomi's bereft, "for her two children and her husband." So she's gone. We're going to see later that she describes herself as being full. She's gone with a husband and boys. And she now is in a foreign land with no husband. And all provision is linked now to family. No husband, the boys then would take care of her. They're gone. There's no sons or daughters or offspring in there. And she has these two Moabite women who are now looking to her.
The ESV Study Bible says this: "Naomi's world has fallen apart. A childless widow in a precarious position, lacking long-term financial support." Now, you'll notice in that, if you have an ESV Study Bible, that it says she needed community help. And so do you. That's why you need to be in community. We have community groups here, redemption groups. And we constantly say, you need to be in one of those groups.
And I think sometimes maybe you get the idea that I get paid per head in a redemption group. I don't. And we say this for your own good. We hear all the time testimonies of people who will say, "You know, I had this need and in my redemption group." Or this is even something you rarely think about: "I'm in this redemption group, and it's been a great opportunity for me to minister to others."
So it's very difficult. We have a very difficult task here in trying to minister to you, to serve you, to challenge you. And for us, the best thing you can do is be engaged in a redemption group. And so if you are not, or you're curious about that, just call Brian Berger here, and he'll get you plugged in. Jim Harper, call one of those guys, and they'll get you plugged in.
The Decision to Return
So you get the scene. I think we got it. I think we understand it. "Then Naomi arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return." The word "return" is in here. Something like one, two, three, four, five. I've got six, but I'm sure there's more than that. It's the idea of turning back. I think of repentance when I think of return. "But it's the idea of return from the land of Moab, for she had heard in the land of Moab that the Lord had visited His people and was giving them food." So the famine is over. So she's ready to go back.
"She departed from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law went with her, and they returned, and they went on the way of the return to the land of Judah. Naomi," verse eight, "said to her two daughters-in-law, 'Go return each of you to her mother's house. May the Lord kindly deal with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. May the Lord grant that you may find rest each in the house of her husband.'" And then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.
So here's what she's saying: "I'm going back to Judah. You stay here." Now, we got a really interesting discussion this morning about what her motive might have been. But I want you to see at least part of it here. They wept, and then they said to her, "No, we will surely return with you to your people."
Naomi's Bitter Reality
Now, Naomi responds in verse 11 and says, "Return my daughters. Why should you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may be your husbands? Return my daughters. Go, for I am too old to have a husband. And if I said I have hope, if I should even have a husband tonight and bear sons, would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it is harder for me than for you, for the hand of the Lord has gone against me."
So now the dialogue begins. And here's what she says. She says, "Listen, if you come with me to Bethlehem, who's going to marry you? You are not a Jew, you're a Gentile. You have no property, you have no assets. You have no reason. I'm not rich, I can't take care of you. If I had sons..."
Beyond the ones that you had, they would marry you. That would be part of the process. But I don't. I have no prospect for a husband. If I had a husband and he impregnated me tonight, it would still be 20 years or so. Are you going to sit around for 20 years? You're better off back there in Moab."
Now, I'm not sure what's going on in this whole story. I can figure out Elimelech and the boys and Orpah and Ruth. Naomi's tougher. This morning, we were just talking and I was talking with Tim and Neil and I was standing there doing my thing and drinking coffee. Neil's perspective is that Naomi's really a bad chick here. What Naomi's trying to do is offload these girls because she doesn't want to be burdened with them. He can build you that case, if you're interested. I'm sure he'd love to spend hours talking to you about this.
You can certainly build that case. In fact, there's something that she does where she actually encourages them to go back to the land and back to their gods. Whatever's going on in Naomi's life, I will tell you this from the end of verse 13 there: she's pretty beat up. She feels the hand of God has gone against her.
We have no idea if she was, when Elimelech said, "We're going to go to Moab," we have no idea if she said, "No, no, no, no, no, don't go there." Or if she just went. We don't know. We know she obediently followed her husband. And by the way, gentlemen, this is a great example of how your disobedience and your sin has consequences on your wife, your kids, the people around you.
Orpah and Ruth's Different Responses
So she says, "No, you're better off going back here." Verse 14: "And they lifted up their voices and wept again and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law and she left, she goes back to Moab, and Ruth clung to her."
Now, I want to spend a second here on the two girls because it seems to me there's no pushback. They are not disagreeing with Naomi's assessment at all. They both get it. It may have been that that first response was just an emotional response that both of them had. She's saying, "Oh, you go back, and I'll fend for myself." And emotionally, they're both clinging to her and saying, "No, no, no, we're there for you." It may have been that.
But then she lays it out in fairly specific detail here. She said, "Listen, nobody's going to want you. Nobody is going to marry you. You have no prospect at all when we get back to Bethlehem." And it appears that at this point, Orpah takes inventory and says, "You know what? You're right," and she goes back. Ruth, on the other hand, says, "No, I'm going to cling to you."
And then Naomi says in verse 15, "Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods, and you return after her." So that's why you can really come down on Naomi. It's not even like she's saying, "Just go back to Moab." She's saying, "Forget this god. You go back to your gods."
The Choice Between God and Everything Else
So the choice for the girls goes something like this: You can have Bethlehem, have nothing and no prospects and no future, but you can have God. Or you can go to Moab where you'll have everything and at least some sort of a future, but no God. Orpah says, "I'll take Moab," and Ruth says, "I'm going to stick with you."
Now I don't want to play fast and loose with the text, but I do think we can at least raise a point and say that's kind of what we see in the New Testament where Jesus gives us the parable of the sowers and the seed. You don't need to turn there, but it's in Mark chapter 4. Jesus is talking about the Word of God comes and some it's like on rocky ground and it just never takes root, and others it springs up for a moment and then fades away. But then there's two other kinds of seeds. Both prosper, both grow, but He says this third seed, here's what happens: it's sown among the thorns. They're the ones that heard the Word of God, but the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things enter in and choke the Word and they become unfruitful.
I think of Orpah when I read that. It's like she has this initial kind of adrenaline rush. We see people all the time who all of a sudden they hear the Word, they come to a study. I see it in PL all the time when I teach during the week. They get all excited and they may come for a week or two weeks or three weeks or three months or even three years. But pretty soon those very things we talked about, the deceitfulness of riches, the worries of the world, the thing that Orpah faced—I can have nothing but God or have everything but not God—I'm going to go the everything route.
Jesus' Call to Deny Self
At least Naomi is honest, as is Jesus. Luke chapter 9, here's what Jesus says to us in verse 22: "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and raised on the third day." And He's saying to them all, "For whoever wishes to come after Me must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me."
When He's talking about denying self there, it's really important now. He's not talking about self-denial. He's not saying about giving up candy for Lent. He's not talking about not doing things. He's talking about denying yourself, placing yourself in second position under God's. He's saying all of a sudden God, Your will is my will, Your goals are my goals, what You want is what I want. That's what it means to deny yourself.
And so we'll see people all along who are like Orpah. Maybe today would be a great Sunday to talk about this, so let's do it. Maybe you were here at Easter, and Good Friday was just a great day out there. It was just a really great service, and Easter was absolutely fun. Maybe you're going because we always see people at Easter like this who goes, "I just haven't been around something like this for a long time. This is really cool." And you're back, and maybe you're one who's going to take Tyler's class. Tyler's class today, four o'clock.
Go ahead and sign up for that class in room 100. If you're not signing up, go ahead—it's kind of like the ABCs of the faith, but it may be that you've been here ten years or five years and you need to take that class. Just show up today and tell Tyler I said it was okay.
You get all fired up and buy these books. I can't tell you how often you sit in the bookstore and you'll see people walk out with armloads of hundreds of dollars of books, and I'm thinking there's no way you're ever going to read those. But buy them—we can use the cash flow—but you're not going to read those. People are sincere like that. I guarantee you when Oprah says no and she's weeping, I guarantee you she's sincere. But when Naomi says here's what it's going to cost, she says, "You know what, I don't think so."
So away they go. Naomi says to Ruth, "Go back to your own land, go back to your own gods." That's why you can see we can grind on Naomi pretty hard there. Can you imagine having somebody here that God uses you to bring them to faith, and they come to know Christ, and then you say, "Go back to your pagan ways, go back to your Buddhism, go back to Hinduism, go back to your empty faith"? You'd never say that—at least you wouldn't think so. So you can see how we can grind on Naomi a little bit.
Ruth's Famous Commitment
Verse 16—man, how famous is this? Ruth says, "Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me and more also if anything but death parts you and me."
Here's what she's saying at the end: "Let God curse me if there's anything that separates us except the fact that one of us died—that's the only thing." Isn't that amazing? Ruth is saying, "Here's what I want, Naomi. I've got nothing, and I agree with you." She doesn't debate. I don't think she's saying, "Oh, she's exaggerating, that old Naomi." I think she's going, "I get it. I'm not going to get married. I don't bring anything to the party. I've got no future. But you know what I've got, Naomi? I've got you."
The Power of Committed Friendship
Oftentimes you'll hear Ruth chapter 1, verses 16 and 17, read at weddings, and that's cute. Maybe you did that, and I don't—I shouldn't—that sounded like a disparaging comment. I apologize, because you could have had that read at your wedding and it fits. To me, it's more powerful in the idea of friendship than even in the idea of marriage.
Imagine having somebody in your life like this, where you go, "I'll go where you stay, I'll stay." Then you see the tipping point here. You see Ruth coming to an understanding of wanting God: "Your God, my God. Your people, my people. We're going to be in this for the long haul because the only thing that can possibly separate us from this point on is death." I think it is—and I get it in a marriage ceremony—but I think it's even stronger in the idea of commitment and friendship.
"I've got you're hurting, Naomi, and I have no prospects, but we've got each other humanly." You see, you need people. Hebrews chapter 3, verses 12-13: "Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."
We Need Community
We need community. We need one another. It's amazing. I had an email this week from somebody I know just a little bit, and it was one of those "You and Susan have been on my heart. If there's anything, anytime, any way I can do..." We get a ton of those, and I know they're all sincere. That phone's gone off twice since I've been up here from people who are nurses that we use, saying, "I'll swing by this afternoon. This doesn't sound good." So there are people all around. We need each other. We need community in that context, and that's this commitment she makes.
When Naomi, verse 18, saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said no more to her. And they both went until they came to Bethlehem. And when they had come to Bethlehem, the whole city was stirred because of them, and the women said, "Is this Naomi?"
Now again, this is one of those things where you don't know what she's saying here. Are they saying this because she's been gone for over a decade and they just can't believe she's back? Or are they going, "Wow, time has not been good to Naomi"? It's kind of like you at the class reunion when you walk in and people go, "Bob? Really? The sun must be harsh down there." I don't know what they're saying, but either way, I like it.
Naomi's Bitterness Revealed
"Is this Naomi?" She said, "Don't call me Naomi—that means pleasant. Call me Mara—that means bitter—for the Lord has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back 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. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest. Here's what's interesting—here's the timing: they had left during famine, and they're back during harvest.
God's Providence in Suffering
I said at the beginning we're talking about the providence of God, and today it's the providence of God in suffering. Look at Naomi in verse 13. She talks about God, and here's how she ends it. She says, "No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me."
Verse 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?" See, I said it before—suffering is a great revealer. Suffering will do two things, real quickly. Suffering will reveal your spiritual condition, and at the same time, if you let it, it will also
Three Theological Approaches to Suffering
When suffering comes—and it will come—we naturally try to figure it out. Naomi is complaining about God and what He's done. She's in the midst of suffering and somehow ascribing it to God. It may be that she's just down-cycled, I get it. It may be that she's really, really discouraged, maybe even just depressed at this moment. Her heart is bitter here, and she's really pushing against God. That's a compelling element, when she tells her daughters-in-law to go back to those false gods.
Rather than beat up Naomi, let's talk about you. What do you do when that suffering comes? When that hardship comes? Some of you right now are thinking, "Why is he wasting his time on this? Everything's good, everything's fine." Let me tell you something—those good times you're having, they too shall pass. This is life, my friend. This is what's on everybody's dance card. This is what you're going to face.
Theologically, there are three approaches. One is open theism—the idea that God kind of started all this, and He's not connected to it. At best, He's impotent, maybe He didn't see it coming. There's another group that says God really cares, but He's never going to trump you. Free will—a term we never see in Scripture. What we see, and what we talk about all the time here, is the idea that God either causes or allows everything that comes into our life.
He's not distant and removed. He's not impotent in this process. He's not caught off guard or surprised. He's working things, orchestrating things. Romans 8:28 says, "And we know God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."
God's Redemptive Work in Our Suffering
Right now, in the midst of your hurt and pain and suffering, when you're asking "What's God doing?" I don't know, other than this one thing: If I could sit with Naomi at this point, I'd say at least this—look at how He's used you in Ruth's life. You would have never come in contact with Ruth had there not been some suffering. Even out of the sin of moving from Bethlehem into Moab, God redeems Ruth in the midst of this. God causes all things to work together for good.
I don't need all the answers. God's big, I'm small. I'm never going to figure it out. So let's go and let's just see what He's done in history. Let's go back to the Old Testament. Let's go back to Joseph.
Here's Joseph—he's got a little attitude, he's ticked off his brothers. They sell him into slavery. Joseph comes to this moment where he's doing everything right, so much so that God tells us in His word that the people around him—Potiphar, Pharaoh, the people around him—could see the Lord was in him. Though the Lord was in him and Joseph is obedient, even in the midst of that, Joseph just keeps sinking deeper and deeper and deeper circumstantially, physically.
Joseph's Journey from Suffering to Purpose
He becomes a slave. Then Potiphar's wife falsely accuses him of trying to force himself on her sexually. What happens at that moment? He did what was right. What happened? Deeper into the dungeon. But then God uses those circumstances to have Joseph become the second most powerful man in the land so that he can use that position to reach the nation of Israel.
His brothers come, and they stand before him. They're there for food, and they don't recognize Joseph. Joseph recognizes them. Joseph then reveals himself, says "It's me, it's Joseph." His brothers are afraid—I think they're afraid because their thought process is "If I was him, I would take care of us." Joseph, what did he say? "Boys, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good."
I'm not asking you to commit intellectual suicide. I'm simply saying God is bigger than whatever came into your life, and He knows all about it.
God Sees and Understands Our Struggles
Neil came in today, and it was so cool because he shared Exodus 2:24-25. That's when the nation of Israel is struggling, and they're under great, great repression. Here's what it says: "So God heard their groanings, God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them." Just a slightly different paraphrase: "God listened to their groaning. God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw what was going on with Israel, and He understood."
So you're sitting there today, and you're going, "Does God get it?" Yep. "What is He doing?" Don't know. But it's ultimately for your good and His glory. Don't change your theology because things are tough. Whatever's going on in your life may have surprised you, but it doesn't surprise God. He's on the throne.
What do I do? What should I do in the midst of that? Again, from 1 Peter 4:19: "Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall..."
entrust their souls to a faithful Creator. What do they do? In doing what is right. God's faithful, we know that.
It's interesting, I was invited to speak at a Good Friday breakfast a couple of weeks ago, and I didn't know what to talk about. I thought it was like a testimony - I was this, now I'm this. But they said, no, it's more of a journey. So Susan was there, and I said, what should I talk about? And she said, this is really good. And it's really what 1 Peter 4:19 is. She said, we know God is trustworthy. He's trying to figure out our we.
The Beautiful Picture of Redemption
That's what that says. It's a beautiful picture here of a variety of things, of love and loyalty and all that. But primarily, it's a picture of redemption, and it's a picture of the providence of God in the midst of suffering.
See why theology's important? Because if I didn't have that theology, and sometimes we get so worried. I've got to protect God's reputation. Oh, God, boy, I don't want to blame Him. God's not - what'd He say? Who made the deaf, who made the dumb, who made the blind? I did. What'd Job say? Am I supposed to take the good things from God, not the bad?
It's a wonderful picture. And hopefully, it's a great source of encouragement to you. And you can use this study all week long. Like I said, download the study guide, go over to the bookstore, you can pick it up for two and a half bucks, or two for $5. I don't know, I'm just throwing those in there. We'd love you to follow along.
Closing Worship
Now, here's what we're going to do, and it was an audible. The guys are going to come back, and we're going to sing the song that we opened the day with. But we're going to sing it with this understanding. See if it doesn't change things. Then Neil's going to lead you in communion, and we'll close our time through worshiping.
Let me pray as the guys come. Father, thank you for this amazing truth that nothing catches you by surprise. God, thank you that you are God, and that you're on the throne. Father, we pray that you put people in our lives where we can say with each other, where you go, I'll go, what you do, I'll do, where you lodge. God, please, we want so desperately to have those relationships, but they don't mean anything if that relationship with you isn't right. Father, as we prepare for communion, let us sing this song with an entire different perspective than maybe we sang it 50 minutes ago. Let us belt it out for your honor and your glory. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.