Ruth and Naomi (Ruth): When dealing with the tragedies of this broken world, it’s hard not to let those bitter experiences define you. Due to a famine in Judah, Naomi’s family moved to the foreign country of Moab. However, when Naomi’s husband and both her sons died there, she decided to return home to Bethlehem. Unexpectedly, Ruth, one of Naomi’s daughters-in-law, made the beautifully brave decision to commit her life to love and care for Naomi, even in her bitterness. In the end, the faithful, sacrificial love of Ruth points to the greater love of Jesus. Recorded on Aug 4, 2024, on Ruth 1:1-22 by Pastor David Parks.
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This sermon is part of the series Ruth: The Love of a Redeemer. In the Bible, the book of Ruth tells the story of a family that experienced a series of bitter tragedies. But through loyalty, integrity, and faithful love (hesed), they find unexpected redemption, restoration, and hope. Our God is a redeemer.
Sermon Transcript
For the next month, we’ll be working through a series on the OT book of Ruth called The Love of a Redeemer. In the Bible, the book of Ruth tells the story of a family that experienced a series of bitter tragedies. But through loyalty, integrity, and faithful love, they find unexpected redemption, restoration, and hope. Now, this is an ancient story, well over 3,000 years old, and is an absolute masterwork of ancient literature. But because it’s so well-told, this ancient story is just as powerful for us today. Because how can we face the tragedies of this broken world? How can we remain faithful, find healing, and avoid becoming embittered or resentful when we experience a great loss? Can we ever recover our joy and peace after enduring real pain and suffering? The answer in the book of Ruth is found in the difficult-to-translate Hebrew word: hesed. But for now, if you have your Bible/app, please open it to Ruth 1:1. This is Act 1, scene 1 of our story.
Ruth 1:1–2 (NIV), “1 In the days when the judges ruled, 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.” V. 1 places us in a certain period of history for ancient Israel. “…the days when the judges ruled” took place after the Exodus but before the time of the ancient kings of Israel — probably about 3,200 years ago. The book of Judges takes place during the same time as Ruth but paints a very bleak picture. However, Ruth reveals that not everyone was corrupt or faithless during this dark time. There were good men and women who were faithful to God and his word despite their difficult circumstances. But here, in the opening scene of our story, we’re introduced to a family from Bethlehem in Judah. There was a man named Elimelek, his wife, Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, but there was a problem. There was a famine in the land. Now, ironically, Bethlehem means “house of food” or “house of bread” in the Hebrew language. Because of the famine, the house of bread was empty. So the man decided to move his family to live for a while (sojourn) in Moab. If we look at a map, we can see that Bethlehem was a small town about five miles south of the city of Jerusalem in the southern region of Canaan, known as Judah. Moab was the country to the east of the Dead Sea and had a violent history with Israel. They were not historically friendly. Now, if there was some disaster that happened in Wisconsin, we wouldn’t think anything of moving to another state to escape it, right? There would be no moral question about that move. But for ancient Israel, it was not necessarily a good thing for this family to move to Moab. According to the Mosaic Law, a famine in the Promised Land was God’s judgment against his people. Now, there is a whole lot more to say about the Law and what God was doing during this time, but we’re about to go through the Exodus story as our main sermon series starting this fall, so I won’t say anything more here. But a famine ought to cause Israel to repent. Instead, Elimelek decides to leave — to leave his friends and family members there in Bethlehem, to leave the Promised Land. The narrator doesn’t tell us that Elimelek had lost faith in Yahweh God, but we’re certainly left to wonder. How would it go there for them in this foreign land outside the Promised Land? How would it go for them with people who worshipped all sorts of other gods, including Chemosh, the ruler of the other gods of the Moabite people, a detestable god of war? Let’s continue and see.
Ruth 1:3-5 (NIV), “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.” So we have the worst-case scenario. It isn’t just culturally or religiously hard for the family in Moab, Elimelek, the father, dies somehow, and Naomi is left as a single mom of two sons far from home. Her sons, Mahlon and Kilion, eventually marry two Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. But after ten years, Naomi’s sons died too. Now, we’re not explicitly told whether this was a form of God’s judgment against them. However, not only did this family leave (abandon?) the Promised Land, but they intermarried with the Moabites, which they were specifically commanded not to do in the Torah. The fact that no children come from these marriages is probably another mark against this family. We’re left to wonder if this family had lost faith in the God of their ancestors and were experiencing the just judgment for their actions or if they actually had remained faithful but were simply experiencing the sad reality of this broken world — that sometimes there’s a famine, sometimes people struggle with infertility, and sometimes husbands and sons die. The narrator doesn’t say. But whether or not this was divine judgment or simply a reminder that this world is not our home, it’s hard to overstate the impact of the death of a husband. Some of you have experienced this. Of course, it’s still an incredibly difficult thing to deal with today. But maybe 3,200 years ago, becoming a widow was a very scary prospect — especially in a foreign land away from all your friends and other relatives! Not only was losing your husband a loss of companionship, love, and affection, which is daunting by itself, but the widow would need to figure out how to financially support herself. Even if she were already working, her income would likely be cut in half (or more) by his death, and she’d still need to figure out how to make it work. There was no life insurance. A widow would be more vulnerable to being taken advantage of physically or in some other way, and there were no police. If the couple had young kids, then the widow would need to figure out how to care for and provide for them, as well. If they didn’t have kids, then she may worry if anyone would be able to care for her when she wasn’t able to work, either because she was ill or in her old age, and there were no Roth IRAs, social security payments, or 401k’s back then. There were no nursing homes, assisted living facilities, or health insurance back then. A husband meant security. Sons meant you had a future. No family, no security, no future, no hope. Naomi was in real trouble. What would she do? How would she feel? How might she respond?
Ruth 1:6-18 (NIV), “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. 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. 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.” So all the way over in Moab, Naomi finally gets some good news. “…the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them.” So, after all this loss, after losing her husband and her sons, Naomi decides to return home. The word repentance means to turn back. The idea is that a change in your mind leads to a change in the direction of your life. You realize that your path is wrong, and you turn/repent. The Hebrew for turn or return is repeated nine times in this first chapter. Since it doesn’t explicitly say that Naomi repented of the sin of her people/family/self, we are left to wonder, again, if it’s maybe just the narrator who believes that repentance was needed here. But whatever her motives, Naomi decides to return home. Her daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, initially come with her. But Naomi knows life will be much more difficult for them in Judah than in their homeland near their families and friends, their people, and their gods, as she says. But Naomi gives them a double blessing in the name of the Yahweh God, not by Chemosh or even just a generic “god.” This is a good thing. Naomi has not lost complete faith in the one true and living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the maker of the heavens and the earth. She says, “May the Lord (Yahweh) show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me.” And here is the first instance of the word hesed in our story. Hesed, here, is translated as kindness, but commentator Daniel Block writes that hesed “…cannot be translated with one English word. It is a covenant term, wrapping up in itself all the positive attributes of God: love, covenant faithfulness, mercy, grace, kindness, loyalty. In short, it refers to acts of devotion and lovingkindness that go beyond the requirements of duty. Divine acts of ḥesed would bring the opposite of the pain and grief these women have all been experiencing for more than a decade.” (Block, TNAC, p. 633–634). These women would absolutely be blessed by God’s hesed. But, interestingly, Naomi desires for God to show the hesed/kindness to Orpah and Ruth that they, Moabite women, have shown to them, an Israelite family. Isn’t that strange? “Oh, Lord, I pray that you would act like these Moabite women.” What?!? This is like Jesus making the hero of the parable of the Good Samaritan someone the people of his day really hated: a Samaritan. This double blessing probably would’ve shocked/scandalized the Israelites, who were the first audience for our story. Nevertheless, Naomi says, “May the Lord (Yahweh) grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Would God bless someone from Moab? Would God bless someone like Orpah or Ruth? We’ll have to see as our story unfolds. But for now, through many tears and with real affection, “Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.” This is interesting because it echoes the language of Genesis 2:24 (NIV), which says, “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united [clung v. 14] to his wife, and they become one flesh.” And then Ruth, a Moabite, makes probably the most beautiful statement of commitment/devotion from one person to another in the Bible. “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.” This isn’t a marriage, of course, but every marriage ought to be like this: a voluntary, unconditional and life-long commitment — for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, til death us do part. This would require great a sacrifice from Ruth. She must be willing to give up everything, every comfort and familiarity of home, to go to Bethlehem with Naomi to be with her and to help take care of her. Her people would become Ruth’s people. And her God would become Ruth’s God. It might seem crazy/unwise, but Ruth’s commitment to Naomi is a beautifully brave act of steadfast loving-kindness. This is what hesed is all about.
Ruth 1:19-22 (NIV), “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,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted 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.” This is God’s word. So, Ruth and Naomi arrived in Bethlehem, and the whole town was buzzing. Those of you who grew up in a small town know how quickly news like this would spread. Everyone was talking about the tragedy that befell Naomi, and the unusual love her daughter-in-law had shown her. But it’s clear that Naomi, even though she hadn’t lost faith in God, had become bitter from her experiences in Moab. In fact, in her bitterness, Naomi doesn’t quite remember the story accurately. She says, “I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.” But she didn’t go away from Bethlehem full. Her family fled their homeland, friends, and extended family because of the famine. She left starving, not full. But because she had lost her husband and sons, she remembers leaving full. This is common for people who have been through great difficulty or pain. Even their memories might be distorted by what they’ve been through. Now, it’s very understandable, but Naomi has been profoundly changed by her suffering and loss. The name Naomi means “pleasant,” but after Moab she says, “Don’t call me Naomi…Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.” Mara here means bitter. For us today, this would be like someone named Joy changing her name to Sadness. It seems as though Naomi does still have faith in Yahweh God, but she’s bitter because she believes she’s been mistreated by him. Act 1 ends with a transition to Act 2. Mentioning the barley harvest sets up our passage next week where Ruth works in the fields of Boaz during the harvest.
But before we get to him, what do we do with Act 1? How might we apply this part of the story to our lives today? Well, I’ll leave you with three thoughts. First, if you’re like Naomi (or Orpah and Ruth, for that matter), and you’re facing the tragedies of this broken world, you’re enduring or have endured real pain and suffering, try not to let your tragedies define you. Don’t let your traumas become your identity. You are vastly more valuable and more complex than the sum total of the bad things that have happened to you. Pain and suffering will leave an impact for sure. That’s unavoidable. Jacob wrestled with God and didn’t die, but he did walk with a limp for the rest of his life. But even the weakest among us has strengths. Even one who has suffered greatly still can have good days. You will sometimes feel the bitter sting of this broken world — but don’t become bitter. If you’re Naomi, don’t become Mara. This is a caution for us all. But what can help us resist this? Who or what can protect us from falling into this common trap? First, try not to let your tragedies define you. But second, as we’ll see as the story plays out, it would be the steadfast loving-kindness of Ruth, it would be the hesed of Ruth, that God would use to bring redemption into Naomi’s life. The real love of a godly friend or family member can help prevent us from falling into all sorts of traps in life. We’ve seen Ruth’s incredible commitment to Naomi. As we move forward in the weeks to come, we’ll see how God uses this beautifully brave act of love. Third, and finally, Ruth’s love for Naomi points us to a greater love. Ruth’s commitment to someone she easily could’ve abandoned points us to a greater faithfulness — that is, the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for us. Ruth’s love/hesed compelled her to leave her country, family, and home to love and care for Naomi. But in the gospel, we see that it was the hesed of God that compelled the Father to send his one and only Son from the riches/glory/comfort of heaven to come down into the brokenness of this world on a rescue mission to seek and to save the lost. And it was the hesed of the Son that compelled him to move behind enemy lines. Why? Not just to care for us — but to save us. And like Ruth, this would require great sacrifice on the part of Jesus. But Jesus wouldn’t just give up the comfort and familiarity of his own place/culture; he was willing to give up his very life through his death on the cross for the sins of the world. But it was through this beautiful act of bravery of the cross of Christ and his resurrection from the dead that God was able to bring redemption and restoration not just to one woman or one family but to the whole world — to every tribe/tongue/nation/people. So today, how can we face the tragedies of this broken world? How can we remain faithful, find healing, and avoid becoming embittered or resentful when we experience a great loss? Can we ever recover our joy and peace after enduring real pain and suffering? The answer is through hesed. We can endure and flourish even because of the love of God that is found by faith in Jesus Christ and in our relationships with the brave people who reflect his love into our lives. May we people of hesed. Let us pray.
