WEBVTT 00:00:01.600 --> 00:00:04.000 Church, we are in Ruth this morning. 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:06.240 We begin our Advent series. 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:12.560 If you're unfamiliar with Advent, it is the first four weeks leading up to Christmas. 00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:15.679 And some churches celebrate this in different ways. 00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:28.399 Some light candles, like we have a candle lit for each week leading up to Christmas, remembering and reminding ourselves that Christ has come and that Christ is going to come again. 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:30.559 So we're in Ruth this morning. 00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:36.320 We'll be taking a chapter each week, Lord willing, for our series through Advent. 00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:40.320 And Ruth might seem like an odd place to begin. 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:41.840 It's in the Old Testament. 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:49.920 It's a story about a woman and a widower or two widowers, and it's kind of surging into different lands and God's provision. 00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:56.719 But as we get into this this week and in the weeks to come, you'll realize how significant Ruth is. 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:08.879 Now, if you were with us when we were in Nehemiah, at the very end of Nehemiah chapter 13, there's this judgment brought because the people have been intermarrying with Moabite women. 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:13.599 This curse amongst Israel because they've been intermarrying with Moabite women. 00:01:13.680 --> 00:01:26.319 But yet here in the story of Ruth, we see an immigrant foreign women, woman coming in, and she then becomes a great, great, great, great, great grandmother of the Messiah. 00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:31.760 See, Jesus' lineage comes from Ruth. 00:01:32.239 --> 00:01:33.680 He's a descendant of Ruth. 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:40.719 And we're going to talk about that as we go, but I just want to give you some framework there as we begin this study in Ruth. 00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:44.400 Before we go any further, let's pray together this morning. 00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:49.840 Gracious God, we are glad that we can gather together. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:02:02.560 I am just glad to be here with the church, gathered to singing together, reading the word together, praising you, confessing, reminding ourselves of who you are, how good you are. 00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:04.239 We praise you for that. 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:07.519 We thank you, Lord, for your goodness to us as a church. 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:15.439 How you have sustained and blessed us, how you provided for us, how we have seen just so many different people's lives. 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:18.879 Built up, encouraged, transformed. 00:02:19.199 --> 00:02:24.080 Not because we're something special, but because you're using broken people. 00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:29.599 Use the church to make disciples, to see the lost come to life in you. 00:02:29.759 --> 00:02:31.120 We praise you for this. 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:35.520 I pray, God, that you would give us encouragement as we open your word. 00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:39.199 May you give us life through your living word. 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:42.639 May your spirit bring conviction where there needs to be conviction. 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:45.919 May it bring hope and may it bring joy. 00:02:46.479 --> 00:02:47.919 Lord, we pray for other churches. 00:02:48.080 --> 00:03:00.960 We pray especially for Grace Church in Danville, with our brothers and sisters there who have gathered together this morning to make much of you, to proclaim your word, that they may be more and more like you. 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:05.439 They may share your love and your joy and your grace with others. 00:03:05.680 --> 00:03:10.400 So encourage Ron as he preaches, be with the team they're serving, Lord. 00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:18.960 Thank you for a church in Danville that is making much of you, that is serious about the word of God, serious about making disciples. 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:20.560 We praise you for that. 00:03:20.879 --> 00:03:23.280 May we do likewise here. 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:30.000 May we be serious about your word, what it means, what it says. 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:37.120 May we be serious about sharing our faith with others, our neighbors, our families, our co-workers. 00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:42.639 May we be serious about following after you and making much of you. 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:47.039 I praise you, God, that you have sustained us for another week. 00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:48.400 That you're good. 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:52.879 This morning may our hope rest in you. 00:03:53.840 --> 00:03:55.840 May we trust in you. 00:03:57.199 --> 00:04:01.680 I pray all this in your holy and precious name, Jesus. 00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:03.280 Amen. 00:04:05.199 --> 00:04:13.199 Church, imagine um living in a time when the law of the land was treated as more of a suggestion. 00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:13.680 Right? 00:04:13.919 --> 00:04:21.120 When people were allowed to pretty much do whatever they wanted, when leaders were some of the most wicked people around. 00:04:21.519 --> 00:04:26.720 Imagine living in a land that was once filled with prosperity and blessing. 00:04:26.959 --> 00:04:33.360 Although far from a perfect place, it was arguably one of the greatest places to live on the planet. 00:04:33.920 --> 00:04:35.920 But things have changed. 00:04:36.079 --> 00:04:38.319 Things change as they do, right? 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:45.519 People, they disregard the law and they disregard order, they disregard God's commands. 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:56.480 The commands of God begin to kind of disappear from the culture, and they're replaced with personal preferences, with personal freedom, which sounds really, really good. 00:04:56.879 --> 00:05:02.800 But then eventually what is deemed right is whoever is the strongest. 00:05:02.959 --> 00:05:06.160 It's the whole might is right paradigm. 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:10.079 And everyone does what is right in their own eyes. 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:15.759 Now, maybe you don't have to strain your mind too much to imagine a place like this. 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:22.319 And to be honest, this description could fit any number of places in the world throughout human history. 00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:28.319 But what I'm referring to is the land of Israel during the time of the book of Judges. 00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:34.480 This is a book, it's in the Bible right before the book of Ruth, and it's set in the same time period. 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:48.079 The book of Judges is set between the death of Joshua, when the Israelites come and they come into the promised land, and Joshua dies, and then the time when Saul is coronated as king. 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:58.000 So the time between Joshua and Saul, it's like a 200-year, 200-year span, and there's just wickedness in the land. 00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:01.199 It's a terrible time for Israel. 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:06.000 If you're familiar with that time, it's it's heart-wrenching, it's confusing. 00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:09.199 You're left wondering, man, what's going on? 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:12.639 It's called judges because the land is ruled by judges. 00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:17.920 Now they're not judges like we think, like a magistrate judge, but more like a kind of a king judge. 00:06:18.160 --> 00:06:22.240 Someone who's who is to govern the law and to lead the people as well. 00:06:22.639 --> 00:06:28.800 And God starts this system of judges, and things quickly spiral out of control. 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:34.879 And again, it just gets, to be honest, weird and sad and heartbreaking and crazy. 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:37.839 There's pagan worship of idols, it's rampant. 00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:42.079 It's just um, it's a book of increasing depravity. 00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:46.399 You have a woman who drives a tent peg through a guy's head. 00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:53.680 You have the story of a guy who's stabbing another guy with a dagger and he loses a dagger in the guy's belly because he's so big he can't find it where it went. 00:06:53.839 --> 00:06:55.040 It's just weird things like this. 00:06:55.120 --> 00:06:59.839 You have someone who takes the jawbone of a donkey and kills thousands of people. 00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:08.319 There's the stories of a guy sacrificing his daughter by mistake, but he still does this. 00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:21.199 You have a story of a man whose concubine is kept out at night, and when the guy comes out in the morning to get her to move out to the next town, he finds her dead, so then he chops her up and sends her to the 12 tribes of Israel. 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:26.959 And then the eleven tribes come together and almost annihilate one tribe, the tribe of Benjamin. 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:32.879 These are dark, dark times in Israel. 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:36.399 This is the story of Ruth. 00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:39.040 This is where it takes place in the midst of all this. 00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:44.800 Now you might be thinking, wow, this is not the Christmas message I was coming here to hear. 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:46.639 But here we are. 00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:58.000 Now we're not living in the day of judges, and we're not living when people are literally just doing whatever they want and hiring their own priests and dismembering people's bodies, and that's kind of okay. 00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:01.120 We have sanctioned things for all those in our culture. 00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:05.279 It's much cleaner, it's neater, and it's tucked away in different places. 00:08:05.839 --> 00:08:16.160 But we do live in a wicked time, and we do live among wicked people, and if we're honest, there are even things in our own heart that we hold on to, things that are not pleasing to God. 00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:20.560 And if we're not careful, we can despair. 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:23.199 We despair. 00:08:23.439 --> 00:08:26.000 You look around and think, what is going on? 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:28.480 Has the Lord forgotten us? 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:33.200 Does he not realize like where the society is at and how bad things are getting? 00:08:33.519 --> 00:08:41.440 Surely he's gonna come back this year, maybe next, with AI and all this gender stuff and people like mutations, like who knows? 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:42.480 But God has to come back. 00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:45.200 This is getting just too crazy. 00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:50.720 But yet there is always hope in dark times. 00:08:51.679 --> 00:08:53.759 There's hope in dark times. 00:08:53.840 --> 00:08:57.519 And I'm just gonna confess I mistitled this the bulletin on that. 00:08:57.679 --> 00:08:59.600 It says there's light, which is good. 00:08:59.679 --> 00:09:04.639 There is light in dark times, but this morning I want to talk about hope in the midst of dark times. 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:08.080 And it's good that we understand the context of scripture. 00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:11.440 It's a side note, but you've probably heard it from, hopefully you've heard it before. 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:17.200 But when you look at scripture and you're trying to understand what is going on, what's the message that that passage has for me? 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:22.559 One of the questions you need to ask yourself is what is the context of the passage? 00:09:23.200 --> 00:09:24.320 What's going on? 00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:28.720 Because that context is going to tell you a whole lot about that passage. 00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:30.720 So, what's the context of Ruth? 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:32.000 Darkness. 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:37.200 Sad, heartbreaking, wicked darkness. 00:09:38.639 --> 00:09:41.279 But this is where the story picks up. 00:09:41.840 --> 00:09:49.440 The story of a Moabite woman, a foreigner, whom God shows great kindness to. 00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:55.279 God shows Ruth kindness by bringing her a mother-in-law who fears God. 00:09:56.320 --> 00:10:00.159 God shows Ruth kindness by giving her a family and a future. 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:07.120 God shows Ruth kindness by using her to bring about the Messiah, King Jesus. 00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:13.120 So in the midst of the darkness and the depravity, God is still at work. 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:15.440 He's still keeping his promise. 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:17.120 He's bringing a savior. 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:20.320 He is not absent, he is present. 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:27.759 So as we look at chapter 1 today, that God is bringing hope in the midst of darkness. 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:34.960 He brings hope in dark times, he brings hope through loving people, and he brings hope to desperate people. 00:10:35.679 --> 00:10:37.600 So hope in dark times. 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:40.399 Those first five verses kind of lay out. 00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:42.000 Again, this is the time of the judges. 00:10:42.080 --> 00:10:45.120 And there's a famine in Bethlehem. 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:49.519 There's this thing going on where there's no food. 00:10:49.759 --> 00:10:54.080 Could very well be just the judgment of God upon the people for their wickedness. 00:10:54.240 --> 00:10:56.159 But either way, there's a famine. 00:10:58.240 --> 00:11:03.759 So Naomi and her husband and her boys, they leave Bethlehem. 00:11:04.559 --> 00:11:08.960 The same place that the Messiah is going to be born, Bethlehem. 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:17.360 It's interesting that there's a famine, there's no food, they're leaving because Bethlehem means land of bread. 00:11:18.480 --> 00:11:20.559 This is the place where the bread's supposed to be. 00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:21.919 It's a fertile land. 00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:31.360 There's no bread here in the most fertile part of the territory, then we must leave and go to Moab, to a foreign land. 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:42.000 But one day there will be a Messiah who was born in the land of bread, who would also flee that land from another persecution. 00:11:42.399 --> 00:11:53.360 And would flee to Egypt to live for a time, then come back, and then live in the territory and share the eternal bread. 00:11:53.679 --> 00:12:06.320 The good news of the gospel, that he was the Messiah, that he had come to pay the price for the sins of the world, that they would not perish in their sin, but that they would have life. 00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:10.240 So again, the context of what's going on here. 00:12:10.399 --> 00:12:11.120 This is Naomi. 00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:14.639 They travel, her and her husband and their sons, they travel. 00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:16.320 Then her husband dies. 00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:20.720 Then her sons marry Moabite women. 00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:24.000 And then her sons die. 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:33.519 The reality is in the midst of this dark time, a season of darkness, there is yet hope. 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:36.080 And that's not like a cliche, like, well, just hang in there. 00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:37.279 Things will get better. 00:12:37.519 --> 00:12:38.879 They kind of have to. 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:42.799 You know, people say, well, you've hit rock bottom, there's nowhere else to go but up. 00:12:42.960 --> 00:12:46.080 And somehow that's just not the encouragement that it sounds. 00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:49.519 You know, it just doesn't quite bring joy, that line. 00:12:50.240 --> 00:13:01.840 But the reality is that they don't realize what Naomi doesn't realize, what Ruth doesn't realize, is that God knows what he's doing, that he has a plan. 00:13:03.200 --> 00:13:16.159 So in the midst of these dark times and dark seasons, the reality, again, doesn't feel like a reality, doesn't feel to be true, but it is true that God sees the whole picture. 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:21.120 Now we get to look and we see the whole story, we see how this kind of ends up. 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:27.279 So even from the beginning, if you've grown up in the church or you know the story of Ruth, how encouraging. 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:28.879 You know how this goes. 00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:34.799 So you read about a famine in the land, and you read that her husband died and her sons died, and that's terrible. 00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:36.799 But you do know how it ends. 00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:42.000 And we're gonna spoiler, you know, you've had some time, a couple thousand years to read it. 00:13:42.080 --> 00:13:50.080 Uh, the way it happens is she then marries another guy who provides her, Ruth does, and loves her and all these wonderful things. 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:54.080 It's like a kind of a fairy tale ending. 00:13:54.879 --> 00:13:57.600 But the hard part is they don't know that. 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:04.000 And there's so many times in our lives we're just in really dark seasons. 00:14:04.399 --> 00:14:06.799 Sometimes those things, there are things around us. 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:15.759 Man, just the world's in chaos, our family's in chaos, our children or our parents, they're just relationships, there's darkness. 00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:20.559 And sometimes there's there's darkness, just we feel like in our own heart. 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:22.480 Like there's just no joy. 00:14:22.639 --> 00:14:23.840 I feel no meaning. 00:14:23.919 --> 00:14:27.440 I feel no purpose, I feel no interest in these things of God. 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:29.200 There's just nothing going on. 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:30.559 It's just dark. 00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:35.600 And we don't get to zoom out and say, okay, Lord, well, how's this gonna end? 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:39.840 Give me a snapshot of the last chapter of my life. 00:14:40.080 --> 00:14:41.360 He doesn't give that to us. 00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:45.200 Now, what he does give us, and the reason we do have hope, is what? 00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:49.120 We know how it ultimately ends, don't we? 00:14:49.519 --> 00:15:05.519 We know that Jesus Christ will return, that those who belong to him will be with him forever, that he will wipe every tear away, that he will bring hope and peace, and he will strip us of ourselves, our selfishness, and give us joy. 00:15:07.759 --> 00:15:12.559 So we don't, we know ultimately how it's gonna end, and that's what gives us hope. 00:15:12.799 --> 00:15:17.360 So here we are in the midst of we know the ultimate ending, but we're not there yet. 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:21.679 We're here, we're struggling, we're in a hard season, a dark season. 00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:23.759 We have to trust the Lord. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:33.440 Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, chapter 3, verses 5 and 6 says, Trust the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:38.080 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. 00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:52.159 Now, this proverb doesn't say, trust the Lord with all your heart and lean on him with all your understanding, and he's going to make your life happy again, and he's gonna make everything all right again, and you're gonna be just a good person. 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:55.039 You can skip along through the day. 00:15:55.360 --> 00:15:57.120 That's not what he says. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:05.440 But when we trust the Lord, when we trust in him, when we lean on him, and we say, Lord, I'm just putting all of my heart out there for you. 00:16:06.559 --> 00:16:09.120 What he does is he makes the path straight. 00:16:09.200 --> 00:16:13.600 And the way that he does that, I think, is he just clears everything else out. 00:16:14.240 --> 00:16:16.960 You begin to realize what really matters. 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:18.799 Well, relationships matter, yes. 00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:20.000 Jobs, yes. 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:22.720 Uh what people think of you, okay, yeah, probably. 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:29.120 There's these things that matter, but none of them matter to the degree that God matters. 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:34.480 And so he begins to clear all these things out of our lives in these hard times. 00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:39.519 Again, it doesn't just, we don't just wake up happy, but we wake up with joy. 00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:42.639 We wake up with purpose and with meaning. 00:16:42.799 --> 00:16:49.279 We wake up and we know that God is sovereign and he's good, and we trust him with everything. 00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:51.360 That he can handle it. 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:59.360 See, God brings hope in these dark times, and he brings hope through people who are loving us well. 00:17:00.799 --> 00:17:02.799 Hope through people who love well. 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:04.160 Look at verses six. 00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:07.759 We're gonna look at verses six all the way through the rest of the chapter. 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:18.160 And I just want us to see how much the Lord provides through people, provides hope through people who love well. 00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:22.240 So you see, and that there's this thing happening. 00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:26.240 We're gonna play by play through this passage of kind of how things happen. 00:17:27.440 --> 00:17:34.799 And although Naomi was an Israelite and her daughters were Moabites, she loved them dearly. 00:17:35.839 --> 00:17:37.279 She loved them dearly. 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:40.960 I mean, and you can imagine for a second, your husband has died. 00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:42.480 As a woman. 00:17:42.799 --> 00:17:43.359 You imagine that? 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:52.400 As a man, your spouse dies, your wife dies, and you have your daughters-in-law who come marry your husbands, and you you live together for 10 years, the text says. 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:55.279 They begin to develop these relationships, this friendship. 00:17:55.440 --> 00:18:05.039 But after all these things are gone, all the things that kept these ladies together have been removed, yet they love one another. 00:18:05.279 --> 00:18:06.960 Naomi loved them. 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:14.160 They didn't know what the future held or how things would work out, or how God would provide them for them. 00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:17.680 They're in a foreign land, Naomi is at this point. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:20.640 And then soon Ruth comes into a foreign land. 00:18:20.880 --> 00:18:23.039 Husbands or relatives are dead. 00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:29.920 This blended dynamic, this hard relationship dynamic, maybe? 00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:35.359 These women are loving one another because of what God has provided for them. 00:18:36.960 --> 00:18:39.440 And just remembering these things. 00:18:40.640 --> 00:18:44.559 See, when they were coming out of the land, and look at verse 6. 00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:46.559 Something had changed. 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:55.039 For she heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. 00:18:56.160 --> 00:18:57.279 So what's going on? 00:18:57.519 --> 00:18:59.599 The Lord's bringing food back to Bethlehem. 00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:01.759 There's bread back in the land of bread. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:05.119 And so, Naomi, now her husband or her sons are dead. 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:06.559 They're like, hey, there's food back there. 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:08.559 Now remember, this has been years. 00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:09.839 Years. 00:19:10.160 --> 00:19:11.839 Ten years at least. 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:13.839 This famine has been going on. 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:18.000 So they begin to travel back, return to Judah. 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:22.319 But Naomi tells her daughters to go back to their families. 00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:23.920 Don't go with her. 00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:24.319 Right? 00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:26.319 This is what it says in verse 8. 00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:32.240 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, go, return each of you to her mother's house. 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:37.839 May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with with the dead and with me. 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:44.559 So she's saying, Listen, I'm a widower, I'm old, I'm going back to my country, not your country. 00:19:44.720 --> 00:19:45.920 You're still a young woman. 00:19:46.240 --> 00:19:51.519 Go back to your mother's home, live there, be with them, and carry on your life. 00:19:52.880 --> 00:19:54.880 And this makes sense, right? 00:19:55.359 --> 00:19:56.720 Like, that makes sense. 00:19:56.880 --> 00:19:59.359 Go back to where you're from and you know, your people. 00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:06.000 But it's also an interesting dynamic of, like, well, Naomi is uh an Israelite. 00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:10.079 She she knows the God of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac. 00:20:10.319 --> 00:20:15.839 You'd think that she would also be like, you can come with me and you can worship my God. 00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:18.799 You can worship the creator God, the one true God. 00:20:19.440 --> 00:20:20.880 That's not what Naomi does. 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:23.519 She just says, Listen, my heart is broken. 00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:24.880 I'm done. 00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:26.240 I'm bitter. 00:20:26.720 --> 00:20:28.720 You go back to your people. 00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:34.559 So Orpah goes, she goes back, but Ruth clings. 00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:38.079 She clings to Naomi. 00:20:39.119 --> 00:20:42.079 It's a very vivid image here. 00:20:42.559 --> 00:20:46.160 Broken, two, three broken women. 00:20:46.880 --> 00:20:50.960 One just clinging, saying, I'm not going anywhere. 00:20:51.200 --> 00:20:53.839 And what a testament to Naomi's love. 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:56.000 That Ruth could have gone back to her family. 00:20:56.160 --> 00:20:57.039 Probably she had family. 00:20:57.119 --> 00:20:59.920 She could have gone back and it would have been more comfortable. 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:03.920 It would have been easy, but she clings to Naomi. 00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:18.000 Before we move on to Ruth's vow that she makes to Naomi, I just want to point out how vital it is to have people in your life who love God and love you. 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:21.440 How important it is for each one of us. 00:21:21.519 --> 00:21:31.519 If we're serious about our faith, if we're serious about following Jesus, to have people in our life who love us and who love God. 00:21:32.160 --> 00:21:39.279 Praise the Lord for people in your life who don't love God, but who still love you, who come and help you move or help you with all kinds of different things. 00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:40.400 Praise the Lord for that. 00:21:40.559 --> 00:21:41.200 That's wonderful. 00:21:41.359 --> 00:21:43.279 I'm not saying shun those people. 00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:53.920 When you have people in your life who love you and they love God, there's a dynamic there that can't be uh that can't be replicated. 00:21:54.559 --> 00:21:59.440 Because they know what your ultimate good is. 00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:03.039 They know what you need. 00:22:03.759 --> 00:22:05.599 They know how to encourage you. 00:22:05.839 --> 00:22:11.599 They know, now they're broken, they mess up, and they might not be doing those things perfectly. 00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:17.359 But ultimately, they love you and their love for you isn't just about you. 00:22:17.440 --> 00:22:24.559 It's because you're creating God's image and because God loves you, because they want to spend eternity with you in heaven. 00:22:25.039 --> 00:22:31.119 And so the advice they give, the counsel they give, the way that they show up for you, the way that they serve you. 00:22:31.359 --> 00:22:35.839 It's just so different because without God and his life, their world is this. 00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:37.920 It's on this plane, right? 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:39.680 They see things this way. 00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:43.039 But as Christians, we we believe in God's word, we trust in God. 00:22:43.359 --> 00:22:49.039 We know that there's the heavenly realm, there's eternity, there's God at work in us, the Holy Spirit among us. 00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:52.640 So that changes the way we view the world. 00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:59.359 So it's so important that you have people in your life who love you and who love God. 00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:03.680 Not people who are just kind of fair weather fans. 00:23:03.759 --> 00:23:06.480 You know, like when things are going well, they're there for you. 00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:09.200 When things are not going well, they're not there for you. 00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:15.599 People who can say, man, that's a really, really hard situation. 00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:19.039 Let's pray. 00:23:19.920 --> 00:23:29.039 It's not that they have always really, almost never do they have this brilliant counsel of like, well, let's open God's word and let me illuminate something to you that you didn't know before. 00:23:29.519 --> 00:23:38.559 But what the Christian can say to another Christian is let us take this problem, this heartache, this difficulty to the creator God. 00:23:39.039 --> 00:23:40.000 And we'll pray. 00:23:40.079 --> 00:23:42.960 And we'll ask Him to be working in us. 00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:45.839 You don't get that with unbelievers. 00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:49.359 They're not trying to bring God into the dynamic. 00:23:49.599 --> 00:23:54.240 Now, again, there's wonderful people in your lives, in my life, who don't know God. 00:23:54.319 --> 00:23:56.799 And I'm very, very grateful that they're in my life. 00:23:56.880 --> 00:23:58.799 And I'm praying that they would know God. 00:23:59.759 --> 00:24:05.440 But when the ultimate things of life come up, they don't have hope. 00:24:05.680 --> 00:24:10.160 They don't have anywhere to turn other than to say, man, life's a mess. 00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:11.119 What about it? 00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:15.279 Let's get some drinks or let's go kind of make ourselves happy some other way. 00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:22.160 But the Christian has hope because God never fails his people. 00:24:23.119 --> 00:24:24.640 So Ruth loved Naomi. 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:25.680 She clung to her. 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:29.359 The passage says, and she was committed. 00:24:29.759 --> 00:24:33.119 We look at 16, verse 16. 00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:38.400 But Ruth said, Do not urge me to leave or to return from following you. 00:24:38.559 --> 00:24:41.680 For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. 00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:45.119 Your people shall be my people and your God, my God. 00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:46.880 Where you die, I will die. 00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:48.720 There I will be buried. 00:24:48.960 --> 00:24:55.279 May the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you. 00:24:57.279 --> 00:25:00.960 Ruth's vow seems almost absurd. 00:25:02.400 --> 00:25:04.640 It seems almost ludicrous. 00:25:05.039 --> 00:25:09.359 You've just lost your husband, your brother-in-law, your father-in-law, all these things are happening. 00:25:09.440 --> 00:25:13.599 And you're going to a foreign land and you're saying, listen, wherever you go, I'm go. 00:25:13.759 --> 00:25:14.880 Whatever you're doing, I'm doing. 00:25:15.039 --> 00:25:16.559 When you're worshiping God, I'm going to worship God. 00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:18.960 When you die, is where I'll die, and I'll be buried there. 00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:26.000 And if I do not commit this vow, may God bring death to me. 00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:36.640 See, the reality, Ruth knew, what was true about Naomi that Ruth knew was that she was following God. 00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:41.519 And for Ruth, where else was she going to go? 00:25:41.680 --> 00:25:48.160 Back to her pagan land, back to her pagan people, without hope, without any purpose, without any meaning. 00:25:50.079 --> 00:25:53.359 The vow demands much from Ruth. 00:25:54.160 --> 00:25:55.519 It demands much. 00:25:55.680 --> 00:26:01.039 Because Ruth is saying, listen, it strips her of all previous identity. 00:26:03.680 --> 00:26:08.480 No longer can she say, well, I'm going to kind of pick my way for life. 00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:10.480 Or I have these preferences. 00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:15.200 Or I have, I have this way, this vision of how I see my future going. 00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:17.519 Or this is how I want people to think of me. 00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:22.559 Or this is the title I want to have, or this is where I want to get with life, or where I want to go. 00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:30.240 All those things are taken away with this vow because she's committing everything to Naomi. 00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:33.839 Your God will be my God. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:35.279 Your people will be my people. 00:26:35.440 --> 00:26:37.119 Where you die, I will die. 00:26:37.680 --> 00:26:40.400 It's complete selflessness. 00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:46.400 Ruth is stripped of all her identity, all her value apart from what she's committed to. 00:26:46.640 --> 00:26:50.240 That the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will now be her God. 00:26:50.559 --> 00:26:53.039 That the people of Israel will now be her people. 00:26:53.920 --> 00:26:55.839 But she's still a foreigner. 00:26:57.039 --> 00:27:04.240 But it's interesting, this same language and idea for what it means to follow Christ is for what it means to follow Christ. 00:27:04.559 --> 00:27:12.960 Ruth's commitment to Naomi is a shadow, if you will, of the commitment that Christians make to Christ. 00:27:13.359 --> 00:27:15.839 God, you are, I'm going to follow you. 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:17.119 You're my God. 00:27:17.440 --> 00:27:19.200 I'll be with your people. 00:27:19.599 --> 00:27:21.440 I'll do what you command me to do. 00:27:21.599 --> 00:27:22.880 I will follow after you. 00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:24.799 I'll follow your ways. 00:27:26.559 --> 00:27:40.720 So even though thousand were a thousand years before the Messiah would come, at least here, Ruth is making this vow that whatever God wants, she'll do. 00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:43.920 She's gonna, through namely, she's gonna follow him. 00:27:45.920 --> 00:28:06.799 There's great hope for you and me when we get to a place in our life when we're finally done trying to make much of ourselves, when we're finally done trying to put ourselves in the center of everything, when we're trying to make the world revolve around us. 00:28:07.039 --> 00:28:11.119 There's great hope and joy when that reality comes. 00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:15.680 Because it's no longer that you're chasing your dreams. 00:28:17.279 --> 00:28:19.519 Whatever the Lord brings, that's what you want to do. 00:28:19.680 --> 00:28:22.319 Lord, whatever you bring, I want to be faithful to that. 00:28:22.559 --> 00:28:24.799 Whatever life comes, I want to be faithful to you. 00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:32.880 Hard times, good times, plenty, want, whatever it is, I want to honor you, I want to make much of you, I want to live for you. 00:28:33.119 --> 00:28:39.119 And that desire is a supernatural work that the Lord does in you. 00:28:39.759 --> 00:28:41.599 You don't just kind of have that. 00:28:41.839 --> 00:28:43.440 The Lord brings that about. 00:28:44.079 --> 00:28:53.440 So there we see this hope that God brings us through even people who love us well and point us to God. 00:28:53.839 --> 00:29:03.119 Not back to ourselves, like, well, you're worth it, you're good, you're gonna be fine, the world's your oyster, make it about you. 00:29:03.599 --> 00:29:06.000 That's not a loving thing to do because it's not a reality. 00:29:06.079 --> 00:29:06.720 It's not true. 00:29:06.960 --> 00:29:20.640 What is true is it's about God, and God has come for us that we maintain to ourselves and follow after him and enjoy his creation and enjoy his words and follow what he's commanded because there is life and there is joy in that. 00:29:21.119 --> 00:29:22.960 So there's great hope for us. 00:29:23.119 --> 00:29:31.359 In dark times, there's great hope for us with God bringing people into our lives who love us, and there's hope to those who are desperate. 00:29:31.680 --> 00:29:33.359 There's people who are who are desperate. 00:29:33.519 --> 00:29:35.440 Look with me in verse 19. 00:29:35.920 --> 00:29:37.200 This is the rest of the passage. 00:29:37.359 --> 00:29:43.440 They went then from um the so the two of them went unto they came to Bethlehem. 00:29:44.079 --> 00:29:47.839 And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred up because of them. 00:29:47.920 --> 00:29:50.720 And the women said, Is this Naomi? 00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:55.759 She said to them, Do you not call me Naomi, might call me Mara? 00:29:56.400 --> 00:29:59.599 For the Almighty has dealt with very bitterly with me. 00:29:59.839 --> 00:30:04.640 Now it's interesting, the name Naomi means uh pleasant. 00:30:05.279 --> 00:30:10.880 The Lord has been pleasant to her, the Lord's pleasant, but the name Mara means bitterness. 00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:13.359 So you can just feel this woman. 00:30:13.519 --> 00:30:16.960 She comes back, and everyone's kind of this hubbub like, is that Naomi? 00:30:17.119 --> 00:30:19.359 She left like 10 years ago with a husband and two kids. 00:30:19.519 --> 00:30:20.000 Where are they? 00:30:20.079 --> 00:30:22.480 And who's a who's this Moabite woman? 00:30:22.720 --> 00:30:25.119 And she just says, Don't even call me Naomi. 00:30:25.759 --> 00:30:28.400 Life is not pleasant anymore. 00:30:28.640 --> 00:30:29.759 It's bitter. 00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:35.119 It is a bitter time, it's a bitter day in my life. 00:30:36.559 --> 00:30:52.559 Again, what Naomi doesn't know, what we know, what God always knew, was how he would provide for them, how he would answer the prayers and provide resources, family, and provision for them and bring blessing. 00:30:54.079 --> 00:31:00.880 So we see that in this desperate time, how desperate Naomi is, bitter. 00:31:00.960 --> 00:31:02.240 What is she returning to? 00:31:02.480 --> 00:31:06.799 But here we also have Ruth, who's arguably more desperate than Naomi. 00:31:07.039 --> 00:31:12.079 Now she is in a foreign land, she's a Moabite woman, not very welcome in the land. 00:31:13.039 --> 00:31:23.279 She doesn't have a husband, she doesn't have any wealth, she doesn't have a name to speak of, she's not bringing anything, but she is clinging to Naomi. 00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:33.359 See, the the the picture that we have here of desperation, these two women. 00:31:34.559 --> 00:31:45.200