Ruth
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written/recorded by Samuel
WE ALL WANT MORE IN LIFE............. WE WANT THE BEST LIFE HAS TO GIVE US.......... WE DESIRE TO BE SATISFIED AND LIVE A LIFE OF SATISFACTION...............
Ruth 1:1-9 vs 1“Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn (to turn aside/dwell for some time in a new place) in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons.
crisis..... when hard time happen we start to think ........what if...... dreaming of better, bigger, different.....
famine in Bethlehem, political disruption, days of the judges....
With famine came starvation, plague, even war. Famine meant the loss of property, as families scrambled to sell everything they had for food. A common response to famine was even to sell your children into slavery just to keep them and you alive. How do you decide which kid to sell? Every day was a fight to stay alive and find food. For Naomi’s family, they flee to Moab to escape famine and stay alive.
Famine is a result of disobedience- Deuteronomy 28...... promises of blessing and cruses...... so when we are disciplined, what should be our response?
REPENTANCE
But....... Elimelech flees. He leaves Judah to be a foreigner in a foreign land.....Moab..... searching for something else, something more!
Ruth (The Crisis)
To add even more to the play on word meanings is the fact that this family will move to Moab. The Lord called Moab a washbowl (Psalm 60:8). A washbowl was used to wash dirty feet. It would be like calling Moab a trash can—a plot of ground where you dumped things you wanted to throw away. Moab was a spiritual wasteland. So here you have a Jewish family, facing a crisis of faith, who choose to abandon the House of Bread and move to the Place of Trash. They effectively moved from the breadbasket to the wastebasket.
Stephen Davey, Ruth, ed. Lalanne Barber, Wisdom Commentary Series (Apex, NC: Charity House Publishers, 2013), 19.
vs 2 The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi; and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. Now they entered the land of Moab and remained there.
Elimelech- translated means “God is my king”...... how tragic that is actions were not giving evidence to his name or that he lived as such......
Naomi- gracious one
Mahlon- puny/weakling wife Orpah- strong neck
Chilion- complaining wife- Ruth- comfort/friend
Deuteronomy 23:3 ““No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord,”
I want to point out one more thing about this family: we’re told that they were Ephrathites of Bethlehem (Ruth 1:2). Ephrath was the name of the wife of Caleb, the famous fearless colleague of Joshua. According to 1 Chronicles 2:19, Caleb’s descendants settled Bethlehem.
Ephrathites were members of a clan that held the prominent position of being one of the first families … they were among the aristocracy of the town of Bethlehem. That simply underscores the riches-to-rags crisis hitting this particular family.
Here they are homeless and hungry. Why stay in Bethlehem where the famine has reduced them—and everyone else—to handouts? They’re used to a better life than this. Why should they stay in the land of their faith and forefathers when the grass is so much greener in Moab?
This crisis will lead these characters to justify compromise. We are really good in talking ourselves into do the things of the flesh, to satisfy our worldly cravings.
vs 3 Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left with her two sons.
vs 4 They took for themselves Moabite women as wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. And they lived there about ten years.
vs 5 Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband.
Ruth Chapter Two: Greener Grass (Ruth 1:1–5)
Erma Bombeck had a funny way of summing up the myth when she entitled her book The Grass Is Always Greener over the Septic Tank. The truth is greener grass might be the most dangerous pit you’ll ever avoid. It looks so promising—so rewarding—but you have no idea what’s underneath.
Ruth (The Consequences)
The opening paragraph ends with Naomi virtually alone, bereft of her two children and her husband (Ruth 1:5).
She must be wondering, What do I do now? Where did those ten years go?Let me offer four observations from this opening scene in our study where we’ve watched a man move to what he thought was greener grass.
1. One sinful decision is often followed by additional wrong decisions, leading farther away from the path of wisdom
Maybe you’re thinking, So, what do I do about my sinful decisions? I’ve made several of them and now I’m off the path and out fellowship with Christ. Do I stay here and die in some spiritually deserted plain like Moab? No. Jesus Christ is ever ready to forgive our sin. He’s on the lookout for returning renegades … people who confess, rather than negotiate … runaways who want their relationship restored with Him again.Jesus specializes in redeeming those runaways and renegades. I’m an eyewitness—and a recipient—of this kind of redeeming grace.If you are a believer in Christ and you’ve made sinful decisions that dishonor God, don’t let the distance you find yourself from the path of wisdom keep you from taking the first step of genuine repentance. Just remember, true repentance leads us to take responsibility for the consequences of sin. Repentance doesn’t hand it off for someone else to repair the damage; it doesn’t sweep the dirt under the carpet—it throws it out.Renegades who truly return to the House of Bread own up to their sin and accept the consequences that may last longer than they’d like. They become reminders of how dangerous sin can be. They also become daily testimonies of God’s grace and forgiveness, as well as revealing His strength in their life as they commit to walking with Him and doing the right thing.
2. Greener grass may seem to make sense, but trusting the Spirit is a different thing altogether
Greener grass might make wonderful economic sense, yet bring about spiritual loss. It might offer personal advancement but, at the same time, result in spiritual regression.Let’s put this out on the table where we can see it clearly: the real reason greener grass can make so much sense is because our hearts are selfish and corrupt, and our minds are in desperate need of daily renewal and transformation (Romans 12:1–2).The heart of all our problems is the problem within all our hearts: we are our greatest danger to wise living. Because of our sinful hearts, disobedience can actually make sense.
3. Pursuing greener grass rather than the glory of God is the fountainhead of grief.
Imagine, in only five verses you have a huge volume of sorrow and grief. And it all began with a look … then a longing … then a leaving behind of all once held dear.A newcomer to our church shared with me the tragic story of his renegade wife. She was an unlikely candidate for choosing a rebel lifestyle: a homeschooling mother of nine children and a committed wife of more than twenty-five years. One day she announced to her husband that she was leaving the family and her marriage for another man she’d met online. To the shock of both husband and children (her youngest was six and her oldest was twenty-four), she turned her back on her family and completely walked away. She left her husband with these words, “I’ve given you and this family twenty-five years of my life; now it’s time for me.”The trouble is she left everything behind except a guilty conscience. That would never leave her alone. And she didn’t make it too long with her wealthy new friend; she eventually married another. She started drinking along the way and stayed “medicated” all day long to try to numb the searing pain of guilt. Eight short years after leaving her family, she died of liver disease. Her stay in Moab was not quite as long as runaway Elimelech and his two rebel sons.When you leave the path of obedience, you invite pain to become your traveling companion. Greener grass often disguises greater grief.
4. Famine in the will of God is better than feasting outside the will of GodTake it from Naomi … she learned this the hard way.
A short trip became a ten-year stay. Three funerals and three fresh graves brought her to her senses. Perhaps for the first time in a long time she realized how far she was from home.And this isn’t the end of her story—it’s merely the prelude to a new beginning she would not even be able to imagine.Fortunately for all of us, God has a way of finding people who are lost in the middle of Moab—the Trash Dump—and setting their feet back on the path to Bethlehem, the House of Bread.He never forces our feet to move. The path back will always begin with fresh surrender and repentant trust. But the good news of grace is that God has a way of redeeming wasted years and foolish decisions.Like the prodigal’s father in Luke’s Gospel, God is waiting to offer fellowship to runaways who return to that place where they left the path—the place where they will begin to write a new chapter in their relationship with Jesus Christ … a most gracious, forgiving Kinsman Redeemer.
Deuteronomy 13:4 ““You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.”
Joshua 23:8 ““But you are to cling to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day.”
Deuteronomy 11:22 ““For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and hold fast (cling) to Him,”
God’s people did not see the value in CLINGING to Him, His land, Worship..... but went for greener grass. Those is the waste land saw the value in CLINGING to those of the LORD and left the waste land for the Bread of Life!