Ruth 1 - Sickly Boys and Bitter Mothers

Well, welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today, we are beginning a new study in one of my favorite books of scripture. We're gonna be looking at the book of Ruth, and Ruth is one of those little jewels tucked away inside scripture.

And it's one of two books in the Bible that are named after a woman. And many of the books up until this point in scripture are more generic titles. You have Genesis, which is beginnings.

You have Exodus, obviously, that leaving. You have the book of Leviticus, named for the tribe of the Levites. And many of the rules that they went through that we just went over for the last 22, 21, 22 episodes.

And then there's the book of Numbers, in which the Israelites, they number, all right, who do we got? Who all's here? And some of the things that happen even after that, as they were going to enter into the promised land.

Then you have the book of Deuteronomy, which is taken from a couple words, Deutero and Nomos in Greek. So basically, second law.

And it's after the Israelites' time of wandering in the wilderness for 40 years because God brought them all the way to the promised land and said, okay, go in. And they went, oh no, it looks scary. We don't wanna go in.

So God says, okay, you won't go in, but your kids will. And so then after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness with God providing for their every need, then at the end of those 40 years, they were ready to go in.

And so God through Moses gives them, all right, here's a reminder, a crash course on what you're supposed to do, what it looks like to be God's people in God's land.

And then there was the Book of Joshua, which was the leader that brought them from the wilderness into the land of Canaan and how God worked. And there's many wonderful stories. I know I'm gonna go through Joshua at some point.

I don't know if it'll be on the podcast or if it'll be in sermon stuff here at Tabernacle. But then there's the Book of Judges, which is after Israel is in the land, will they live according to the law that God set up for them?

And the answer was no, not normally. Instead, they worshiped other gods and started doing all of the things that the nations that they were called to like kick out of the land. They just did those exact same things.

And the Book of Judges, kind of one of the themes of it is everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And it's so true that we follow our own path and we don't follow God's. And for that, it was a very, very dark time.

There was just these cycles of God put them in a great place and then they rebelled and worshiped false gods, did not obey the Lord.

And so God says, all right, if you want to worship false gods, then I'll let you like experience what it's like to not have God as your, to not have Yahweh as your God.

And so, the Amalekites, some of the Canaanites, Uyunite tribes, I think there's even one time where some of the Mesopotamian rulers, they conquer Israel. And then Israel would be in a time of great turmoil.

They'd be in slavery, their crops would be taken, their food would be taken, and then they'd cry out to God and go, okay, God, like we were so wrong, we shouldn't have done that.

And then God would send a deliverer, a judge, someone that would help the people walk in God's ways and that would physically deliver them from their turmoil. And that's where we find the Book of Ruth takes place.

So in this cycle of God does great things, the people rebel, they are basically placed under the judgment of the gods that they wanted to worship. And then when they cry out for help, God helps them. And so it's during that time period.

And this is kind of nearer the end of it, closer to where the events of the Book of First Samuel would take place. And we'll look at some of that even at the end of the book. But today we're starting in Ruth 1 and verse number 1.

It says this, during the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to stay in the territory of Moab for a while. So let's look at a few things here.

This family is from the land of Bethlehem. And that's the words bet and lechem. So it's the house of bread.

And it's kind of funny, there's a famine and there is no bread in the house of bread. Now God had said in the Torah that when there were times of famine, when there were times of need, that Israel was to call out to God.

He says, don't leave the promised land for other places. He says, call out to the person that can actually help you. But that's not what this family does.

And so they go to stay in the territory of Moab. And Moab and Ammon were two nations right next to Israel. They were descended from Lot, Abraham's nephew.

And we'll be going over that story in, I think it's the beginning of 2025 here at Tabernacle. And basically, they're akin, they're related to Israel, but they were godless and they did not worship the Lord. They worshiped false gods.

They actually tried stopping and persecuting Israel when they were in the wilderness wanderings.

And so God had said in Deuteronomy 23, because of those nations actions, he says anyone that is a Moabite or an Ammonite, they cannot come into the Lord's assembly. So they can't come into the congregation worship at the Tabernacle or temple.

He says they can't be a part of that for up to 10 generations. So this was a people that God had said, hey, like they are not worshiping me. They are not following after me.

This is a pagan place, and yet this is where the people of God are running to. Verse number two, the man's name was Elimelech.

His name means my God is king, which is interesting because he's leaving the land where his God is king and going to another place where God is not worshiped. Says the man's name was Elimelech. His wife's name was Naomi or Pleasant.

The names of his two sons were Malon and Chilion. Their names literally mean sickly and weak or failing.

So my God is king and his wife Pleasant had two kids, sickly and weak or failing, and they leave the house of bread because of a famine and they go to a nearby country. And it says they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah.

It's the specific family tribe within Judah that they are. It says they entered the fields of Moab and settled there. Naomi's husband Elimelech died and she was left with her two sons.

Her sons took Moabite women as their wives. One was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth. After they lived in Moab about 10 years, both Malon and Chilion also died and Naomi was left without her two children and without her husband.

So now she is in an absolutely destitute place during this time period. It's not like she could just go and get a job. She is absolutely without any help.

So verse six, she and her daughters-in-law set out to return from the territory of Moab because she had heard in Moab that Yahweh had paid attention to his people's need by providing them food.

She left the place where she had been living, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law and traveled along the road leading back to the land of Judah. Naomi said to them, each of you go back to your mother's home.

May Yahweh show kindness to you as you have shown to the dead and to me. May Yahweh grant each of you rest in the house of a new husband. She kissed them and they wept loudly.

So here Naomi says, it's gonna be better for you. I've got nothing that I can give you. You've been kind to me.

You were kind to my boys. And now I hope that God blesses you in this next season of life. Verse 10, they said to her, we insist on returning with you to your people.

But Naomi replied, return home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Am I able to have any more sons who could become your husbands?

It's kind of that practice, leave our marriage of a family taking care of those that maybe were widowed. By a particular son that they would say, okay, I have this other son that's not married and you can marry him.

That way you remain part of our family. Like we love you and we want to take care of you. So here Naomi's saying, I can't even give you guys that.

I have no more sons. There's no way I could have more sons. And she says, return home, my daughters.

Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying?

No, my daughters. My life is much too bitter for you to share. Because Yahweh's hand has turned against me.

Here she feels that God has brought all of these things on her. And the book doesn't necessarily tell us explicitly like, and God killed Elimelech and God killed Malone and Killian. But this is at least how Naomi feels about the situation.

And she goes, there's just no way that you guys, there's no point in you coming back with me. I can't give you anything. Verse 14, again, they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

Naomi said, look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Follow your sister-in-law. But Ruth replied, don't plead with me to abandon you or to return and not follow you.

For wherever you go, I will go. And wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.

Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Yahweh punish me and do so severely if anything but death separates you and me. Man, I love that faith, that love that Ruth here has for Naomi.

It just, as I'm reading it, I feel like that would be some really good wedding vows, too, as you go through, which wouldn't totally surprise me if that wasn't included in perhaps some Jewish ceremonies later on, as they looked back at their

scriptures, and they're like, man, this is just like with marriage. I'm sticking with you. Your God is my God. Where you die, I'll die.

There I'll be buried. May God punish me if anything but death separates you and me. Here you have this commitment that she has that she goes, I'm not gonna really get anything.

I'm not gonna get money. I'm not gonna get a new husband. I'm never gonna have children because of me being with you.

But she says, I care about you. You're my family. And she specifically here adopts Yahweh as her God.

She's not worshiping the gods of the Moabites that Orpo went back to. She says, your God will be my God. So verse 18, when Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped talking to her.

She goes, all right, I can't dissuade her. Verse 19, the two of them traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited about their arrival and the local women exclaimed, can this be Naomi?

Because they hadn't seen her for 10 years. So then verse 20, don't, she says, don't call me Naomi, call me Mara, or bitter. Don't call me pleasant anymore, call me bitter.

She answered, for the Almighty has made me very bitter. I went away full, but Yahweh has brought me back empty.

I do think it's interesting that she says, I went away full, yet you had a husband and two boys, but you went away because you did not think that God would provide for your needs, despite the fact that all of these people that you left behind, they

knew you when you came back, and all of them are still there. God did not allow them to waste away in the famine.

So while they were actually full, and while they did not pass away, you left, and whether genuinely if God brought punishment because of them disobeying his word and what he'd said, or if it was just life circumstances, both of which are

possibilities in the passage, Naomi feels like it was God that did this to her. She says, why do you call me Naomi since Yahweh has opposed me and the Almighty has afflicted me? So here she goes, like, yeah, I'm just bitter now.

Don't call me pleasant, call me bitter. And go, all right, well, that's kind of a little bit of a Debbie Downer. So then in verse 22, so Naomi came back from the territory of Moab with her daughter-in-law, Ruth, the Moabitess.

They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. What can we learn from chapter one of Ruth? I think we can learn a few things.

Number one, realize that God's way is always best, even if we don't foresee the end of it right at the moment. Here, God had said, I will provide for you. If there comes a famine, don't do what Abraham did and leave for Egypt.

Don't do what many people like this family would do. Don't go to nearby places and think that the gods of those lands will provide for you. He says, call out to me.

And here this family didn't do it. And it's not because they did not believe in God. Even as Ruth tells Naomi, she says, your God will be my God.

So she knows, okay, Yahweh is the God of this family, of these Israelites. So it wasn't that they didn't believe in God. They just didn't believe God.

They didn't follow His word. When we enter times where we're going like, oh, I don't have the money for this. I don't have, here's this job situation.

Let's not try and sneak around God to do stuff and go, okay, well, I could get some money this way. Yeah, I might not line up with God's word, but I gotta do what I gotta do. No, no, no, no.

Follow God's way even when it hurts. There was that one Psalm, I think it's Psalm 15 or so, where it's talking about the righteous person.

It says the righteous person, when they make a promise, they follow through even if it hurts them to be able to follow through with it. And I think here, if we are the people of God, like let's follow him.

If we're saying like, God, I trust you for eternity. That's a big deal. Trust him with your today.

Believe in him, call out to him. It doesn't mean that you don't have some of those nervousness, some of those nerves or some of that fear, but it does mean that we call out like Jesus tells us to in the Lord's Prayer.

He says, give us today our daily bread, that daily sustenance that we need, what we need to survive. God, please give it to me today because I need you to provide. So let's follow through on God's word.

Secondly, realize the benefit of caring for other people. We haven't gotten to any of this yet later in the book, but God is going to do some amazing world changing things through Ruth's love and commitment to Naomi.

Have a heart to love other people in such a way that you genuinely care for them. Like you're going to bat for them. You are helping to provide for their needs.

You are asking them genuinely, how can I pray for you? You're helping them walk with Jesus. You're going, hey, what have you been learning in the word this week?

Just something to help stoke the fires of, oh yeah, like I'm a Christian. I need to act like a Christian. Maybe someone in your life that's not yet a Christian, but that you would be faithful to share Christ with them and show Christ to them.

You never know how your love for another person will make a difference in their life. Here, Ruth had that love for Naomi that says, I'm going to leave the gods of my ancestors. I'm gonna leave my father and mother's house.

I'm going to abandon the country that I've lived in because I love this person and I believe in their God. And you never know what love might create.

And then from Naomi's comments at the end of the chapter, here is a moment in time, and she feels like God has punished her, that God has not been kind or good to her, but she doesn't know about chapters two, three, and four like we do.

If you are in a moment where it does feel like, man, God has dealt bitterly with me, life circumstances have not gone the way that I thought that they would or that they should. Wait, you don't know what's coming next.

You don't know what plans God has for your future. So don't turn away from him, don't abandon him, don't leave him because you don't know what's coming in the next chapter. You don't know what's coming on the next page.

And when it does show up, you're going to go, as I'll give you just the tiniest hint, at the end of the book, then Naomi goes, oh yeah, like you can call me pleasant. I've been blessed and everything has changed now because of what has happened.

And so don't give up. If you're in hard times, God's there for you. There's so much more that we're going to be looking at in the book and I'm really looking forward to continuing to look at all of this with you.

But thanks for tuning in today. Tomorrow we'll look at Ruth 2.