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Presentation 01
Background
The events in the book of Ruth took place at a time when the Judges ruled in
Israel. People like Samson and Gideon were headline news. Media interest
would have focused on these folk-heroes. Human nature is fascinated with
the spectacular to the neglect of the mundane and ordinary events of human
history. If the Bible was edited by Fleet Street it is unlikely that the book of
Ruth would have been included. But its inclusion reminds us that God is
interested in very ordinary people. He is able to challenge our hearts through
the normal domestic situation of life as well as through the spectacular.
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Introduction
Have you ever felt like an emotional punch-bag? One blow after another rains
down on you, one disaster follows another. As heartache follows heartache
you begin to wonder how much more you can take. You may have wanted to
shake your fist at God because you believe your whole life is falling apart.
Naomi knew that experience!
The bottom had fallen out of her world.
She was widowed, childless, homeless,
penniless, without the support of
God’s people, without inheritance
and with two dependant
daughters-in-law to support.
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Introduction
Try and plumb the depths of her emotional exhaustion. Joy has been
replaced by bitterness. All that had brought her enrichment and happiness
has been drained out of her. There is no sparkle in her eyes, no spring in her
step, just a drab grey existence.
Her analysis of the situation is found in v13
'the Lord's hand has gone out against me,'
Does that tell the whole story? No!
The conclusion that Naomi draws
is “I am to blame”. Had she really
contributed to her own
misfortune and if so was there no
way of escape? This is the great
theme that the book of Ruth explores.
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Danger Of Drifting
This story is set in one of the darkest periods of Israel's history. Successive
generations had forgotten the God who had redeemed them and called them
to himself. And over the years God sent some form of chastening - in this
instance a famine, designed to call
Israel back to her spiritual duties.
C. S. Lewis describes the way in
which God gains his people’s
attention as follows:
“God whispers to us in our
pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but
shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone
to rouse a deaf world.”
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Danger Of Drifting
Naomi, and her husband Elimelech, had paid no attention to God’s
megaphone. Instead, they chose to take their daughters into the foreign land
of Moab. Note that by withdrawing from God's discipline they also withdrew
from God's protection. For a great part of the protection that could have
been theirs was bound up with having fellowship with God's people; whose
encouragement, instruction and challenge would have helped keep them
close to God..
Presentation 01
Danger Of Drifting
During the WWII ships travelled in convoy for one very simple reason, in
order to enjoy the protection of the whole fleet. Those ships that found
themselves adrift from the fleet were vulnerable and the prime targets of
enemy submarines. Similarly, we become increasingly vulnerable and open
to temptation when we are separated from the fellowship of God's people.
We rarely intend to drift from God but we can do so by imperceptible
degrees.
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Danger Of Drifting
And once we cut ourselves loose from the restraints of the family of God our
standards drop very quickly. This is demonstrated in v4. Although God’s law
forbad it, Elimelech allowed his two sons to marry Moabite women!
The great irony of this story is that the name ‘Elimelech’ means, ‘my God is
king’ in other words, ‘God rules over and is in charge of my life!’
But Elimelech’s actions contradict his name. He thought
he knew better than God. However, running from
God’s correction did not bring relief and
happiness to his family, quite the reverse.
Soon his wife Naomi is left bereft of all
that had brought her human comfort.
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Buffeted By Storm
But Naomi was not abandoned by God for into this
bitter crucible of human suffering God launched his
rescue plan. He used her distress to bring her to her
spiritual senses. Of course not every calamity in our
lives results from drifting disobedience. The book of
Job makes it clear that human behaviour does not
explain all personal suffering.
However, we are often too quick to dismiss the fact
that God may be attempting to gain our attention
through our pain. If there is a connection to be
made and we are honest enough to make it, we
will find ourselves in a position, not only learn
from our personal storms, but also to experience
the renewed blessing of God.
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Buffeted By Storm
Naomi learned from the storm. It became a major turning point in her
spiritual life. She distinguished between her experience of suffering and that
of her daughters-in-law, ‘it is more bitter for me than for you because the
hand of the Lord is against me’ v13. She was responsible for drifting away
from the blessing and protection of God. Perhaps she been the driving force
behind the decision to leave Israel! When the NT. prodigal came to his senses,
he saw that he had brought misfortune on his own head, and went home
humbled, so too Naomi makes a painful and humbling confession prior to her
journey home.
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Buffeted By Storm
A great spiritual principle is being unpacked here. When God begins to work
in the heart of the spiritual drifter, he helps them to recognise the part they
have played in creating their own discomfort. The person who is constantly
blaming others, and God, for their own mistakes, or who justifies their
disobedience is not ready to enjoy the balm of God’s forgiveness and
experience the wonder of his restoration.
It is honesty God blesses! Honesty
involves looking painful truths
in the face. Deitrich Bonhoeffer
described ‘Repentance’ as the
‘ultimate honesty’.
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Buffeted By Storm
Where did Naomi’s honesty lead. She made a spiritual
about turn and returned home to God and his people.
There is no attempt to disguise her failure or hide it
behind a public mask ,‘I went away full but the Lord
has brought me back empty‘ v21.
Naomi’s request to change her name indicates her
refusal to live a lie. cf v20 ‘Naomi’ means ‘pleasant’,
but ‘Mara’ means 'bitter'. She is saying, ‘My foolish
behaviour has led me into a sore and bitter
experience.’ One of the hardest admissions for
anyone to make is to say, ‘I was wrong!’. But when we
do we find God running towards us with his arms
extended.
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Buffeted By Storm
Our suffering and personal trauma can
leave a great residue of festering bitterness
in our hearts. That bitterness is sometimes
aimed at God and sometimes at others.
Bitterness is something that needs to be
ventilated.
In the C17th godly Archbishop Leighton
wrote to a woman in similar straights to
Naomi and said, 'Vent your rage on the
bosom of God'. He counselled her to bring
her feelings out into the open and into the
presence of God, in much the same way
that the Psalmist does. It is safer to do so
that bottle them up.
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Buffeted By Storm
God will not be shocked if you tell him how you really feel! There is a
marvellous spiritual therapy in this. We discover that an honest and openhearted relationship with God is the bridge over which his healing comes.
The person who is not embittered by suffering has discovered how to make
a creative use of it. Naomi’s humble repentance surely falls into that
category.
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Limping Back To Harbour
When Naomi's family emigrated from Israel their primary concern had been
their own material well-being. But now the repentant Naomi is no longer
obsessed with her own material welfare.
Instead, she wants the best for her two Moabite
daughters-in-law even if that meant a costly
heart-breaking separation from these two girls.
Her sons were dead but their wives could
be a continuing comfort.
Indeed, they could help make her
life more bearable in her old age.
But she was prepared to let them go.
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Limping Back To Harbour
Her reason for trying to persuade them to renain in Moab may not be
immediately apparent. Women had no right of inheritance in Israel and in
order for Ruth and Orpah to benefit from their husband's land they would
need to wait for Naomi to marry again, have children, and then marry one
of them. Years and years of waiting! It would be much easier to find another
husband in Moab. This is exactly what Naomi encouraged them to do.
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Limping Back To Harbour
Only when she was prepared to let these girls go did Naomi discover what a
priceless treasure one of them was. Often, when we open our hands and let
go of things we would naturally grasp onto, we will find that God returns
them to us in even greater measure. In v14 we read that Ruth 'cleaved' to
Naomi. Cleaving speaks of a deep personal relationship. Naomi had been
prepared to let go of the last vestige of human comfort yet Ruth clung on.
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Limping Back To Harbour
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. 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.” v16-17
What a great encourager God is! How perfect is
his timing! When spiritual drifters like Naomi
come back to God they are often overwhelmed
by the opportunities for service they have let slip
by and of the numerous people they have failed
to influence for God. Before that could happen
Naomi finds herself faced with a new convert!
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Limping Back To Harbour
Ruth had turned her back on the idolatrous gods of her home nation to
serve the living God. Why? What had she seen? What had persuaded her to
take this significant step? She had certainly seen the hand of God afflicting
his people. But she had seen much more than that! She had seen God use
affliction as a sheepdog to bring his wandering sheep back home. And was
she not also impressed by Naomi’s repentant spirit and refreshingly honest
confession.
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Limping Back To Harbour
Ruth had seen Naomi’s selfishly grasping hand open as she put the welfare
of others before her own and she had witnessed the therapy of God’s
forgiveness. God had also restored the spiritual spring back into Naomi’s
step. Ruth had concluded, ‘This is the God for me. This God deserves the
love of my heart and the loyalty of my life’. Ruth’s response must have
stunned Naomi and brought a tear to her eye. The tide had turned! God’s
wind was in her sail as he drew her home. The future was no longer bleak
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Conclusion
Shakespeare wrote. ‘There is a divinity which shapes our ends rough hew
them how we will’. He could have been writing about Naomi. She spent years
drifting from God but his grace was greater than her disobedience. He drew
her back to himself. Naomi had left Israel materially full and returned a
pauper but a spiritually rich pauper. God emptied her life in order to fill it.
Is God calling you to return to blessing? Is he using hardship to gain your
attention and draw you back to himself? Do not live in past failure but to step
out into his future. Allow him to surprise you with the riches of his grace.
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