SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning and welcome.
SPEAKER_01: Please take your Bible with me for a few moments this morning and open to the Old Testament Book of Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: Going to be spending today and the next two Sundays in the book of Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't know where that is, find the book of Judges early on in the Old Testament, and it's right between the book of Judges and 1 Samuel.
SPEAKER_01: It's short.
SPEAKER_01: If I remember right off the top of my head, about 58 verses is all.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm not going to be able to cover everything in this book.
SPEAKER_01: It is rich, much like the Old Testament book of Jonah.
SPEAKER_01: There is great depth and great riches in this story about Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: The prophet Micah penned the familiar words, but you, O Bethlehem Ephratha, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you will come for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
SPEAKER_01: The prophets foretold that the hope of Israel would come from the little insignificant village of Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: One day, the prophets declared, the world would be surprised by the hope coming from that one small town.
SPEAKER_01: Long before the prophets gave those promises, however, Bethlehem was a place of no great renown.
SPEAKER_01: It held sentimental value for the Jewish people because Rachel, Jacob's wife, was buried near there.
SPEAKER_01: And in today's language, we might call Bethlehem the breadbasket of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Not because necessarily it is the breadbasket, but that's where Bethlehem got its name.
SPEAKER_01: It's a compound Hebrew word, Bethlehem, which means house of bread.
SPEAKER_01: However, in the Bible, even the meaning of Bethlehem points to an inglorious history.
SPEAKER_01: To be from Bethlehem was not necessarily a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: Bethlehem's reputation begins in the depressing book of Judges.
SPEAKER_01: Judges records the settling of God's people in the land of Canaan.
SPEAKER_01: He brought them out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: They spent 40 years wandering in the desert.
SPEAKER_01: Then at the death of Moses, Joshua led them across the Jordan River.
SPEAKER_01: They defeated Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: They had some setbacks here and there.
SPEAKER_01: Eventually, they settled throughout the whole land of Canaan.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, they thought God's promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were being realized.
SPEAKER_01: But just like a bright summer day is suddenly obscured by dark clouds of a severe storm, the excitement of finally experiencing the blessing of God's promises turns dark and ominous.
SPEAKER_01: Judges chapter two records that after Joshua's death and those who led with him, Israel abandoned their God and served false gods.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to Judges chapter two, beginning in verse thirteen.
SPEAKER_01: Says the people of Israel abandoned Yahweh and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.
SPEAKER_01: So the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he gave them into the hands of their plunderers, who plundered them.
SPEAKER_01: And he sold them.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.
SPEAKER_01: Wherever they marched out, whenever they marched out, the hand of Yahweh was against them, as he had warned, and as he had sworn to them.
SPEAKER_01: And they were in terrible distress.
SPEAKER_01: Then Yahweh raised up judges who saved them out of the hands of those who plundered them.
SPEAKER_01: Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them.
SPEAKER_01: They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commands of Yahweh, and they did not do so.
SPEAKER_01: We call this the judges cycle.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Judges recounts Israel's sad downward trajectory deeper and deeper into sin and further and further away from God.
SPEAKER_01: And he brought up judges who would rescue them out of that and turn them a little bit back towards God until the whole cycle starts itself over again, over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_01: And gradually, as we work our way into the book of Judges, we see that even the judges themselves become more and more sinful.
SPEAKER_01: The further you read in judges, the worse it gets.
SPEAKER_01: The last two cycles in Judges, which are the most perverse and depraved of all, center around the little village of Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: The rampant sin results in almost an entire Israelite tribe being exterminated.
SPEAKER_01: And the concluding comment of the book of Judges is ominous.
SPEAKER_01: In those days, there was no king in Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
SPEAKER_01: The end of Judges records what may be the most spiritually dark time in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And the records show that Bethlehem existed near the epicenter of that lawlessness, of that injustice, of the cruelty and idolatry of the time.
SPEAKER_01: It was a time of spiritual darkness.
SPEAKER_01: The people of God were leaderless and faithless.
SPEAKER_01: There was no king to lead them, and their covenant God was strangely absent from their minds.
SPEAKER_01: The mood is dark and dreary and depressing.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry to begin that on Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01: But that is how we must begin reading the short Old Testament account of Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: You see, in our Bibles, Ruth is placed right after the judges because it is the third story involving the village of Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: But unlike the two accounts at the end of the book of Judges, this story rescues Bethlehem's reputation by bringing hope to the dark world of judges.
SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't just bring hope to the dark world of judges, but to our world today.
SPEAKER_01: And not just to our world, but to you.
SPEAKER_01: And to me.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth is a story of God's redemption to a family, and through a family to a nation, and through that nation to the whole world.
SPEAKER_01: Look with me at Ruth chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: In those days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem and Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.
SPEAKER_01: The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife was Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: The names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilon.
SPEAKER_01: They were Ephrahites from Bethlehem and Judah.
SPEAKER_01: They went into the country of Moab and remained there.
SPEAKER_01: But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons.
SPEAKER_01: They took Moabite wives.
SPEAKER_01: The name of one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Kilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
SPEAKER_01: Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that Yahweh had visited his people and given them food.
SPEAKER_01: So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
SPEAKER_01: But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each of you to her mother's house.
SPEAKER_01: May Yahweh deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
SPEAKER_01: May Yahweh grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.
SPEAKER_01: Then she kissed them, and they lift up their voices and wept.
SPEAKER_01: And they said to her, No, we will return with you to your people.
SPEAKER_01: But Naomi said, Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me?
SPEAKER_01: Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands?
SPEAKER_01: Turn back, my daughters, go your way.
SPEAKER_01: For I am too old to have a husband.
SPEAKER_01: If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and bear sons, would you therefore wait until they were grown?
SPEAKER_01: Would you therefore refrain from marrying?
SPEAKER_01: No, my daughters.
SPEAKER_01: For it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of Yahweh has gone out against me.
SPEAKER_01: Then they lifted up their voices and wept again.
SPEAKER_01: And Orpa kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods.
SPEAKER_01: Return after your sister-in-law.
SPEAKER_01: But Ruth said, Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you.
SPEAKER_01: For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge.
SPEAKER_01: Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
SPEAKER_01: Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.
SPEAKER_01: May Yahweh do so to me, and more also if anything but death parts me from you.
SPEAKER_01: And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.
SPEAKER_01: So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred up because of them.
SPEAKER_01: And the women said, Is this Naomi?
SPEAKER_01: She said to them, Do not call me Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
SPEAKER_01: I went away full, and Yahweh has brought me back empty.
SPEAKER_01: Why call me Naomi when Yahweh has testified against me, and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me.
SPEAKER_01: So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab.
SPEAKER_01: And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: As many good stories do, in its Hebrew version, it makes full use of the nuances of the Hebrew language that are difficult to translate.
SPEAKER_01: So, as English readers, we miss a lot of the sounds, the nuances, the tongue-in-cheek aspects that the original composer put in this story.
SPEAKER_01: It's quite fascinating how it's all woven together.
SPEAKER_01: For example, the first five verses of chapter one set the stage for this account.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe to kind of put it in a modern kind of parallel, if we used the words from one of our Christmas songs, the first five verses would reflect the line long lay the world in sin and error pining.
SPEAKER_01: It says, in the days when the judges judged, in the days when the judges judged.
SPEAKER_01: The first detail in the story looks back over our shoulders to see the sin and the error of the days of the judges when everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
SPEAKER_01: From the Bible's viewpoint, this is another way of saying there is not much right in God's world in the time of this story.
SPEAKER_01: And even in Canaan, that promised land that God said was flowing with milk and honey, even there when God's people were no longer looking to their covenant God, even the house of bread was lacking bread because of famine.
SPEAKER_01: Famines were feared in ancient times.
SPEAKER_01: You were in for a slow, painful death if you were not a wealthy landowner with plenty of food in reserve.
SPEAKER_01: The likelihood of surviving a famine was pretty rare.
SPEAKER_01: And if you survived a famine, the likelihood was very great to be in ruinous debt or even having sold yourself into slavery just to have food to eat.
SPEAKER_01: So it's unsurprising to hear of a family leaving one area to find food somewhere else.
SPEAKER_01: In the days when the judges judged, there was a famine in the land.
SPEAKER_01: And a man of the house of bread in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab.
SPEAKER_01: Even God's people were pining in sin and error.
SPEAKER_01: Everything is upside down in this world.
SPEAKER_01: Israel's history here is filled with lessons of not leaving the promised land during times of famine, but instead of remaining there and of trusting Yahweh to provide.
SPEAKER_01: Every time you see God's people leaving the land of promise in times of famine, it never turns out good.
SPEAKER_01: But we know, because this is the time of the judges judging, that everything is not right with the world.
SPEAKER_01: This is a period of not trusting God.
SPEAKER_01: Everything is upside down.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone does what is right in his own eyes, and so does Elimelech.
SPEAKER_01: His name means my God is king.
SPEAKER_01: The implied irony is that Elimelech doesn't trust God to provide in the house of bread.
SPEAKER_01: Our parallel would be Christian.
SPEAKER_01: We are called Christians.
SPEAKER_01: But how often do we fail to trust Christ our King?
SPEAKER_01: Naomi's life was turned upside down.
SPEAKER_01: As she struggled to feed two boys in Bethlehem without bread, life became unpleasant.
SPEAKER_01: Naomi's name means pleasant.
SPEAKER_01: Do you feel the tension of the dark and dreary world?
SPEAKER_01: Even the boys are strangely named Mahlon and Kilion.
SPEAKER_01: Sick and pining.
SPEAKER_01: Great names for your boys.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they weren't typically healthy children.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they were born unhealthy.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe this reflects that there wasn't enough food to feed them and to feed the family even when they were born.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, they are Ephraithes from Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: With judges in our rear view mirror, we think we know where the story is heading, and it's not pretty.
SPEAKER_01: It's only going from bad to worse in Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: So what they did was right in their own eyes.
SPEAKER_01: They heard that there was food across the river in the fruitful regions of Moab.
SPEAKER_01: So they went intending to sojourn there.
SPEAKER_01: That means, if you don't know what a sojourn is, that means you're planning to go on a little trip and you're going to stay there for a while until things get better back home and then you come back home.
SPEAKER_01: It's temporary, it's for a shorter time period.
SPEAKER_01: But good intentions like planning to stay a short while are common when people do what's right in their own eyes.
SPEAKER_01: But our storyteller frames this account such that we see everything here in light of a failure to trust in Yahweh, the covenant God.
SPEAKER_01: And generally speaking, in the Bible, life doesn't go so well when you don't trust in God.
SPEAKER_01: What happens next is not stated as judgment.
SPEAKER_01: It's not stated that what happens next is God judging his people.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, it is framed as the inevitable result of doing what is right in your own eyes instead of looking to God as your king and trusting in his provision.
SPEAKER_01: So it's no surprise to us then that when they leave the house of bread because they think Yahweh isn't providing, it's no surprise that the man whose name shouts, God is king, suddenly dies when he does not trust that God is king.
SPEAKER_01: And so Mrs.
SPEAKER_01: Pleasant's life turns more wretched.
SPEAKER_01: But she has some hope, right?
SPEAKER_01: Her sons have married pleasant Moabite women.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, but by the way, don't forget that God had told his people already that they were to never intermarry with the Moabites.
SPEAKER_01: Just one of those little side details.
SPEAKER_01: We can shove that under the carpet, right?
SPEAKER_01: And not worry about that.
SPEAKER_01: But we're not surprised because God's people are doing what's right in their own eyes.
SPEAKER_01: It's the days when the judges judged.
SPEAKER_01: When they refused to look to God as their king.
SPEAKER_01: And another thing, that that temporary sojourn, that that short stay in Moab until the famine broke, that tragic wandering away from trusting God, yeah, that turned into a 10-year relocation.
SPEAKER_01: The Hebrew word changes in verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: The storyteller wants us to know that the sojourn became permanent.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 1, they went to sojourn.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 4, they lived there.
SPEAKER_01: They lived there.
SPEAKER_01: The storyteller wants us to know that what was intended as temporary has now become permanent.
SPEAKER_01: And that happens sometimes when we do what's right in our own eyes.
SPEAKER_01: Our well-intentioned, not so wise choices become more permanent aspects of our self-led lives.
SPEAKER_01: There's no rejoicing in this weary world.
SPEAKER_01: At least not yet.
SPEAKER_01: The two brothers, known as Sickly and Pining, also died outside the land of promise.
SPEAKER_01: And so Mother Pleasant was left with two daughters-in-law and no way to provide for themselves outside of the house of bread where God was apparently no longer king.
SPEAKER_01: You can understand the setting of Ruth in the days of the judges.
SPEAKER_01: If you, as a Christian, have ever endured a dark and gloomy period of life where you just struggled to see God's kindness and his grace and his mercy to you.
SPEAKER_01: And even more so, if as a Christian, you have experienced the gloom of living life by your own standards, and then suddenly you come face to face with the harsh reality that your choice is.
SPEAKER_01: Have led you down the wrong path.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to live too long to know what that's like.
SPEAKER_01: But even then, just as in the days of the judges, God will sometimes step in and interrupt your life to rescue you from yourself.
SPEAKER_01: As the song says, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
SPEAKER_01: The Hebrew story hints that something is about to happen.
SPEAKER_01: When verse 4 says that they lived in Moab, it is the Hebrew word that's often used for sitting.
SPEAKER_01: You sit down in the seat, in the pew in front of you or behind you or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: But now in verse 6, what does Naomi do?
SPEAKER_01: She gets up.
SPEAKER_01: She's sitting in Moab for 10 years, and now everything changes because she's now standing up.
SPEAKER_01: It's a metaphor.
SPEAKER_01: Sitting is for remaining there, but now in verse 6, Mrs.
SPEAKER_01: Pleasant stands up.
SPEAKER_01: She stood up to return, we are told.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Why would she return to Bethlehem?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we're told it's because she had heard that Yahweh had visited his people and given them bread.
SPEAKER_01: Lachim.
SPEAKER_01: Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah are scrounging around in the fields for leftover grain after the harvest with no support.
SPEAKER_01: And by chance, the rumor mill, without email or cell phones, reaches Mrs.
SPEAKER_01: Pleasant with the news.
SPEAKER_01: But notice the almost insignificant change.
SPEAKER_01: The storyteller subtly leaves the impression that the family left Bethlehem because of a lack of trust in Yahweh's provision, and now suddenly that lack of trust is shifting to some kind of faith.
SPEAKER_01: What is it that Naomi had heard?
SPEAKER_01: She heard that Yahweh had visited his people.
SPEAKER_01: How did she know that Yahweh had visited his people?
SPEAKER_01: Because there was once again bread in the house of bread.
SPEAKER_01: In the New Testament, at John the Baptist's birth, his father Zechariah declared another visit.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people.
SPEAKER_01: That declaration was made in the hope of Yahweh's powerful work to redeem his people.
SPEAKER_01: John the Baptist was a forerunner of the Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: And here in Ruth, the provision of bread is Naomi's redeeming hope.
SPEAKER_01: That is the evidence of Yahweh's visit.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh is the covenant God of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: I purposely used that term this morning.
SPEAKER_01: In older times, Christians called it Jehovah.
SPEAKER_01: It's the personal name of God that is connected to his faithful covenant loyalty to his people.
SPEAKER_01: We don't see it in the introduction to this story.
SPEAKER_01: It's not in the first five verses.
SPEAKER_01: He's strangely absent.
SPEAKER_01: But the name of God appears seven times from here through the end of the chapter.
SPEAKER_01: And those seven appearances of Yahweh are connected to another central theme in this chapter: the concept of turning.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it means to physically turn or to return, to go back where you came from, to turn around.
SPEAKER_01: Metaphorically, it's used to speak of repentance.
SPEAKER_01: That turning around and going the other way because of a change of mind about truth and reality.
SPEAKER_01: Our storyteller uses that term for turning or returning twelve times in this chapter.
SPEAKER_01: There are only fifteen times in the whole book.
SPEAKER_01: So on the one hand, Naomi is returning to her homeland from her untrusting sojourning.
SPEAKER_01: But the narrator hints that something more may be at work in this terrible, no good, very bad, dark world.
SPEAKER_01: A revival of sorts in the provision from the covenant God of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And that work may be for more than just Naomi because he has visited his people.
SPEAKER_01: But news of Yahweh visiting his people did not make all things right.
SPEAKER_01: How do we know that?
SPEAKER_01: We know that because Mrs.
SPEAKER_01: Pleasant changed her name to Ms.
SPEAKER_01: Bitter.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Mara means.
SPEAKER_01: She was so bitter that she asked her daughters-in-law to go back to live with their parents and get remarried in Moab.
SPEAKER_01: I can't do anything for you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have anything.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going back home empty.
SPEAKER_01: What have I to do to help you?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13 is quite terse.
SPEAKER_01: No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter for me, for your sake, that the hand of Yahweh has gone out against me.
SPEAKER_01: Can you hear that bitterness, Christian?
SPEAKER_01: Next to his only begotten Son, Yahweh has given you an excellent name, patterned after his own son.
SPEAKER_01: But when life impacts you in a rotten world, do you praise the name of your covenant God, or do you view his power as something that grinds you into the dust?
SPEAKER_01: Do you trust his guiding hand to superintend all things together for your good and for his glory?
SPEAKER_01: And so bring your companions along with you to know him and to trust him, even in the most painful of times?
SPEAKER_01: Or do you exchange your name, Christian, for bitter?
SPEAKER_01: Because you think that the wisdom of God has deemed your crushing, not believing that he intends that to make you into his image.
SPEAKER_01: And so by changing our name from Christian to bitter, we tell people, no, just stay where you are because my God isn't that good.
SPEAKER_01: Or do you praise the name of the God who crushes you and so motivate others and insist on them coming with you to where that God is worshiped?
SPEAKER_01: You know, three of the saddest words in the Bible are in verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Three Hebrew words are behind our English words in the English Standard Version here, where it says, And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law.
SPEAKER_01: Mrs.
SPEAKER_01: Pleasant was thankful for Yahweh when he visited with bread.
SPEAKER_01: But she was Ms.
SPEAKER_01: Bitter when his visit grounded her into the Moabite dust.
SPEAKER_01: And in her bitterness, she sent one daughter-in-law back to idolatry, hopelessness, and condemnation.
SPEAKER_01: She would have sent both of them.
SPEAKER_01: So our storyteller has left us with some questions about Naomi's faith.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe even some questions about our own faith in times of trouble.
SPEAKER_01: She trusted God when he met her ideals of provision.
SPEAKER_01: But at this point, she is embittered against Yahweh for taking her life away.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a measure of hope, but this hope is infinitesimal, surrounded by gloom.
SPEAKER_01: But there is still the dawning of a new and glorious morn, for while she has changed her name to Ms.
SPEAKER_01: Bitter because of Yahweh's painful providence, there is a confident young Moabite woman insisting on returning with her.
SPEAKER_01: Orpah turned away from Yahweh's distressing providence to return to her other gods.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth says, No.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care what you say or what you do.
SPEAKER_01: I'm coming with you.
SPEAKER_01: And your God will be my God.
SPEAKER_01: Is this a turning in repentance and faith in Ruth?
SPEAKER_01: A turning away from the gods of her youth to trust the God who has brought both bread to the house of bread and the painful providence that has left her destitute and without a husband.
SPEAKER_01: Seems possible.
SPEAKER_01: You know, verses 16 and 17 are sometimes used in weddings to demonstrate loyalty and commitment and love for one another.
SPEAKER_01: I discourage couples from doing that.
SPEAKER_01: Because if we understand these verses properly, they're a curse.
SPEAKER_01: May God kill me if I don't do what I've said.
SPEAKER_01: May God kill me.
SPEAKER_01: And we're left to wonder, like like Elimelech?
SPEAKER_01: And Machlon and Kilion.
SPEAKER_01: Is that what you mean?
SPEAKER_01: May God kill me if I don't turn my back on the idols of my youth and my family and my culture and commit my loyalty to Yahweh and to you, Miss Bitter.
SPEAKER_01: Loyalty to Yahweh in the times of the judges wasn't found among God's people.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, what we see is that it's found in a foreigner, a Moabite girl, who was not even encouraged to come to the house of bread.
SPEAKER_01: And in case you haven't caught it yet, our storyteller wants us to know one more time in verse 22 that both Naomi and Ruth have returned.
SPEAKER_01: They have turned in trust of Yahweh's provision in the house of bread.
SPEAKER_01: And it just so happened that they arrived at the time of the barley harvest.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a thrill of hope.
SPEAKER_01: And a weary world rejoices at the end of the first chapter of Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh had visited his people with bread in the days when the judges judged, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
SPEAKER_01: The painful providence and death's dark shadow weighed heavily on his people, just as it does today.
SPEAKER_01: So many of us are wearied and burdened.
SPEAKER_01: The shadows are hard to dispel sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: And it feels so desperate, like there's no bread in the house of bread.
SPEAKER_01: How will God's people today respond?
SPEAKER_01: Will they say, I have to find my help somewhere else?
SPEAKER_01: Or will they trust in him?
SPEAKER_01: Ruth begins to show us that the gloomy clouds of night are dispersed when he causes his light on us to rise.
SPEAKER_01: And when that does, death's dark shadow is put to flight.
SPEAKER_01: When his people turn to him, he becomes our comforter and our guide.
SPEAKER_01: He becomes our great high priest who intercedes.
SPEAKER_01: He is our covenant redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: He is the great king.
SPEAKER_01: Our God is King, who brings an end to all of our suffering, for he promises rest through his redemption to all who will turn to him.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we turn to you.
SPEAKER_01: May you cause anyone who is listening right now, who has not understood where they are.
SPEAKER_01: May you give them insight and understanding to see that they need to turn from their place of trusting in themselves and doing what's right in their own eyes and to trust in Christ our Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: To place their faith in you alone.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we know that you understand what Ruth endured.
SPEAKER_01: You understand what Naomi endured.
SPEAKER_01: You understand the bitterness of life.
SPEAKER_01: For you were brought so low yourself.
SPEAKER_01: But that was because we needed, like Ruth and Naomi, redemption.
SPEAKER_01: So we come to you in faith, trusting that one day you will return again, that you will bring bread to our house of bread, that you will bring light to our darkness to dispel all of our grief and suffering, and restore us to full and perfect joy in your presence.
SPEAKER_01: It's in this we trust.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.