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Ruth - Part 1Living in the Providence of God
Good is good, all the time . . . and all the time, God is good. We say that in our church a lot. It is true. We say it. Sometimes, however, it takes a while for the reality of those words to fully filter down into every aspect of our lives. God is good, all the time. Life, however, is not always good. We live in the intersections of those two realities - in the midst of those places where they overlap. God still is good, all the time. But life can still be challenging for us, but rewarding as well.
This week we begin the Book of Ruth with chapter 1, but some might argue that the main character in chapter 1 is Naomi. She was certainly someone who knew something about what it meant to live at that intersection, where the two realities overlap.
You need only to begin reading the story of Ruth to realized that the overlap was real and profound. It was the time of the judges - a tough time at best. Furthermore there was a famine in the land. And in the midst of such times, we are invited to say, "God is good, all the time . . ." but it might be hard to grasp, especially if you are in the midst of it. As you listen to the story of Naomi and her family, and what they experience, and how they coped, perhaps you will find things that remind you of your own story reflected there as well. The situation is not ideal. Not everyone would agree with how all of the details we address by the characters in the story. And yet, it is a story full of surprises, and hope, and the unexpected and gracious work of God. In this story, God is indeed good, even in the midst of things that were not a part of anyone's ideal story. But the story God, through His providence helps to write, is an amazing story.
Oddly enough, God does not seem to paying attention to the way things are "supposed" to work. God working in the life of Moabites? How could that be? The Moabites are not God's chosen people? God's chosen people were more of a disposition to avoid them than to act kindly toward then. Even Naomi thought to send Ruth back. But God, apparently didn't read the rule book. Maybe because God really is good, all the time!
That is what Pastor Jon explores with us this morning - the reality of that experience - when we discover that what we signed up for turns out to be more complicated and challenging than we ever imagined.
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Ruth
NIV
In the days when the judges ruled,[a] there was a famine in the land.So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.
3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
Naomi and Ruth Return to Bethlehem
Naomi and Ruth Return to Bethlehem
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-lawprepared 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.
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-lawgoodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
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?”
20 “Don’t call me Naomi,[b]” she told them. “Call me Mara,[c] because the Almighty[d] has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lordhas brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted[e] me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
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