Ruth 1:6-19a
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HOPE IN BITTERNESS
HOPE IN BITTERNESS
IMAGE:
How many music lovers do we have in here?
I love all sorts of music. County (not the garbage on the radio, when I say county I mean Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, The Statler Brothers, etc.), hip hop, post rock, grunge, punk, metal, hair bands, indie, synth pop…I could go on and on but I think you get the point.
Well, about 3 months ago I got the email that I am always on the look out for. About twice a year Spotify will sell you a 3 month membership for $0.99! Three months of unlimited skips! That is, pardon the pun, music to my ears…
The tragedy is…those 3 months ended this past Sunday…so I am limited in my skipping.
Speaking of tragedy, we kind of dove in deep last week… we talked about -6. It was a tough lesson for me, if I’m honest. Reliving 9/11 was tough, I didn’t really want to revisit that. But it was fitting. Because a) it was the anniversary, and b) because it was a time of confusion, desperation, and hurt.
Well tonight we are moving on to happier times in the story. We are going to start out with hope, move into some sadness, and then into something surprising…
HOPE:
6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.
7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
Ruth 1:6-
The famine is over
Finally, some good news in this story! After famine, death, desperation, and hopelessness God steps in and brings aid to His people.
SADNESS:
8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me.
9 May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud
10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”
11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands?
12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons—
13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”
14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
Naomi sends them away
Naomi appreciates not being alone, but she has a moment of realization. She knows that if these girls go back to Israel with her, they are probably throwing away the rest of their lives. The people in Israel don’t owe these girls anything. They should just go back to their father’s and hope to get married again so they will have a further when their father’s die.
They at least have hope in their land, but in Israel? Naomi says, girls, its OK, take care of yourselves…y’all don’t owe me anything.
Let’s face it, Naomi is past the age of having babies, she has no husband, no way to provide for these women…it really makes sense when you think about it…
LOYALTY:
15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”
16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.
17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”
18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”
Ruth remains with her mother in law
Orpah leaves, but Ruth doubles down. She says I’m not leaving you. Ruth says I’m going with you and you can’t stop me.
Ruth is hitching her wagon to this aging woman who has nothin to offer her. She has no idea what is going to happen. There are no guarantees. Ruth had a guarantee, she could have gone back to her father like Orpah did…and there was nothing wrong with Orpah going back home. Naomi released her from any obligation…it’s not like she abandoned her…Naomi said go and she did.
She wasn’t happy about it, she wept bitterly. This was her mother in law and she knew that she would never see her again.
And notice, Ruth wasn’t just saying I’m going with you, Ruth is all in… vs. 16-17
16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”
This is what a conversion looks like. All that I was is no more and moving forward, this is where my allegiance lies. I’m not the same person I was before, what was does not define me, going forward I am different.
Naomi looks at her and gives up. And they make their way to the promised land…
I’m afraid we have become a subscribe only society. Meaning that we don’t own anything anymore. When I was your age we had to make an effort to watch a move. We either had to go to a store and buy it or go to a video story and rent it (rip blockbuster)…and when we wanted to hear a song we had to go and buy it…or wait for it to come on the radio and press plan and record at the same time…even then the quality was poor at best.
Now what do we do? We stream everything. We don’t need to own it, we just use it when we feel like it and move on. And that’s fine when we are talking about consumable media…but we are training our minds to subscribe but not commit.
What happens when that bleeds over into our relationships? What happens when we start using people for what we can get out of them and then drop them when they are no longer useful to us?
Or when we just can’t deal with that friend because they are in their feelings again and we are just done…I think we are already there.
And my encouragement tonight, is fight it. Fight for your relationships, fight for your friendships, don’t give into the temptation of getting what you can and leaving people hanging.
Granted, there are times when we need a break and we step out for a minute, but we can’t stay there. We have to trust that the same God who brought aid to His people during the famine in Israel is the same God who rescued you from your sin, and He is the same God who is faithful to you when you are unfaithful to Him.
[Hosea illustration maybe???]
And one of the ways we show the world around us that He is real and the He cares is when we act like He acts. When we forgive people who don’t deserve it. When we fight to keep a friend when they don’t deserve it. When we look past their shortcomings and when we stay by their side when they have nothing to offer us.
Because we have nothing to offer God, but He remains faithful to us. We have no right to approach God in our sin, but Jesus died to give us unlimited access to God. Y’all we have unlimited, uninterrupted, premium access to God…and it never expires.
If you are just a subscriber tonight to this whole Jesus thing, if you’re just throwing up prayers for that test you didn’t study for, or just looking for some favor, or for what you can get out of this relationship…you will never be satisfied. Because you are not all in.
Commit to Jesus, walk away from who you have been and become who He wants you to be. And you may not get everything you want, but what you will come to learn is what God gives is better…and I think as we study Ruth you are going to see that what Ruth gets as this story progresses is way better than a meal plan at her daddy’s house…