Beyond Empty

Ruth Chapter one. In the days when the judges ruled,

there was a famine in the land, and a man

of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country

of Moab. He and his wife and his two sons.

The name of the man was Alimelek, the name of

his wife Naomi. The names of his two sons were

Machlang and Kilian. They were Aphrathites from Bethlehem in Judah.

They went into the country of Moab and remained there,

but Emlek, the husband of Naomi, died, she left. She

was left with her two sons, and these took Moabite wives.

The name of one was Orpah, the name of the

other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both

Machlan and Kilian died, so that the woman was left

without her two sons and her husband. Then she arose

with her daughters in law to return from the country

of Moab. For she had heard in the fields of

Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given

them food. So she set out from the place where

she was with her two daughters in law, and they

went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

But Naomi said to her two daughters in law, go

return each of you to her mother's house. May the

Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with

the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you

might find rest each of you in the house of

her husband. And then she kissed them, and they lifted

up their voices, and they wept, and they said to her, no,

we will return with you to your people. But Naomi said,

turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me?

Have I yet sons in my womb that they may

become your husband's Turn back, my daughters, go your way,

For I am too old to have a husband. And

if I should say I have hope even if I

should have a husband this night and should bear sons,

would you wait therefore until they were grown? Would you

therefore refrain from marrying. No, my daughters, for it is

exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand

of the Lord has gone out against me. Then they

lifted up their voices and wept again, and Orpah kissed

her mother in law. But Ruth clung to her, and

she said, see, your sister in law has gone back

to her people and to her gods. Return after your

sister in law. But Ruth said, do not urge me

to leave you or return from following you. For where

you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge.

Your people shall be my people, and your god my god.

Where you die, I will die, and there I will

be buried. May the Lord do so to me? And

more also, if anything but death parts me from you.

And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go

with her, she said no more. So the two of

them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when

they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because

of them, and the women said, is this Naomi? She

said to them, do not call me Naomi, call me Mara,

for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I

went away full. The Lord has brought me back empty.

Why call me Namenaomi when the Lord has testified against

me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me. So

Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabie her daughter in law

with her, who returned from the country of Moab, and

they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

This is the word of the Lord. You ever notice

how sometimes the way you expect things to go just

fall apart. Naomi is experiencing this big time, and she

just wants food. She just wants family, and she goes

looking for both and she gets emptied out. Sometimes for us,

it can be big or small, but sooner or later,

the things that we expect to go one way or

another fall apart. You ever notice how sometimes what you

want and what you need aren't exactly the same thing.

Naomi is also experiencing this. She wants very basically food

and family, not bad. What she needs is the steadfast

love of God, to see it, to know it, to

trust it. In many ways, Naomi is representative of all

of Israel in the Time of the Judges. If you

remember the Time of the Judges that Israel has already

received the Law of Moses, They've already passed over into

the Promised Land. But things are not going well for them.

Everyone's just doing whatever is right in their own eyes.

It's completely disorganized. Evil sort of runs the day amongst them.

There is disorder and need. What they really need is

God's King, who will set everything right. But even though

Naomi represents really the people of God at this time.

She also represents the people of God at all times

in this way that what we want, which may not

be bad, but what we need, aren't exactly the same thing.

You ever notice how sometimes the thing you don't expect

much from at all turn out to be the source

of greatest blessing. Naomi is about to experience that. I

mean Ruth the Moabitas, I mean, this book is named

after Ruth because she gets the most action, but the

story is really about Naomi. She's the one who sees

the biggest change from start to finish, and Ruth spoiler alert,

Ruth is God's instrument of steadfast love to Naomi and

to all the people. By the time the book comes

to a conclusion. What we discover at the end of

this book is that Ruth the Moabidas becomes the great

grandmother of King David, God's king who sets to write

his people. But where we begin our story, Naomi doesn't

expect any of this, certainly not through Ruth the Moabidas.

I mean the Moabites were people that they were being

warned about. The Moabites were the people that God had said, look, look,

be careful about associating with those people. Okay, they're not

welcoming the SNB, the Lord. They weren't. They weren't a

nation that God specifically said don't intermarry with. But it

was clear that the Moabites were going to be problematic.

And so all that Naomi can see is that God

has emptied out what she expected to be her places

of blessing, and in their place, she's got this girl,

and she is bitter in soul over it, maybe very understandably.

I mean, what do you think and feel when the

things that you thought would be big blessings are emptied

out or taken away? What do you think and feel

when what you have instead, if you're candid, seems like

small potatoes, long shot, maybe even more a burden than

a blessing. In other words, if we could see past

these places of emptiness, if we could see beyond empty,

what does God have for us there? What's there? Well,

that's what we're gonna examine this morning. If we can

see beyond empty, what is there from God? We're gonna

look at it in three parts. Part one, Human Emptiness,

Part two, God's Instruments. Part three Our Perspective. So human

emptiness God's instruments and our perspective. Let's get into it.

Human emptiness, human emptiness. Here's the thing is real. It's real.

If you look at verses one through five, you see

what happens with Naomi. She goes in search of just

food with her family, and she comes back, and you

can see by the time that she gets to verses

twenty and twenty one, how she feels about what has

happened to her. Her husband has died, her baby boys

have died, and she says, the Lord has emptied me out.

Don't call me Naomi anymore, Naomi. The name Naomi means pleasant.

Call me Mara, which means bitter. Don't even call me Naomi.

Human emptiness is real, and it's right to acknowledge and

to lament, sometimes very loudly and sometimes for a very

long time. The scripture here and Elsewhere never rebukes Naomi

for seeing her emptiness and feeling her bitterness, although it

does hint that there may be more to it to see.

There may be something to trust beyond emptiness. But Naomi's

story is meant to speak to God's people in a

place of loss, in a place of emptiness, So in

some ways, if we won't see our places of emptiness,

if we won't feel our places that are bitter, we

won't hear God's word about it. In the New Testament. Also,

lament is not seen as a betrayal of Christian realities.

Someone as heavenly minded as Paul the Apostle says in Philippians.

Just after he says it is better for me to

die and be with the Lord, he says, right after that,

I mean, I'm sure I'm glad that Paphroditis didn't die,

or else I would be left with sorrow upon sorrow.

So which one is it? Paul? Yeah, why would he

be sorrowful? Because human emptiness loss is real, and lament

is appropriate, maybe required. I think we've lost some of that,

you know. In the early twentieth century, there was a

very very famous preacher named Norman Vincent Peale. Yeah, I

see nods from everybody older than me, me and older,

very famous, and he preached. In fact, he wrote a

book called The Power of Positive Thinking. Now I see

more nods, okay, the power of positive Being. And his

preaching was that like, look, look, just take what you

see as what you see as emptinesses what you see

as losses, what you feel as places of bitterness, and

you just gotta think differently about them, and the more

you think differently about them, the more they're just gonna

turn around for you. A lot of people like that.

It gutted the Biblical gospel. You don't need Jesus to

think positively. And that's why I think my grandfather, Norman

Vincent Peel, he had the power of positive thinking. Leather

bound up on his shelf. I remember seeing it there.

He was an atheist. He loved that preacher. He was

an atheist until very very late in life. But not

only does it gut the Biblical gospel, this idea that

you can just sort of think your way from an

empty place, it guts biblical lament. Lament is biblical. You

can look at the Psalms and how the Psalms teach

us to lament. You can look at Jeremiah and see

how Jeremiah teaches to lament real loss. I mean, there's

a book in the Bible called Lamentations. I don't think

Norman ever preached from Lamentations. But since this account is

meant to meet us where we are or have been, empty,

let's just consider I mean, I know that there are

people sitting in this gathering today whose work situation has

just been taken and emptied out. I know there are

people who are gathered here with us right now this morning,

whose family has been or is in the process of

being shaken upside down, and they don't know what's going

to fall out, whose health has run up against serious

concerns or limitations, and there may be nothing you can

do about it. You may not have lost your spouse

or lost a child, but nevertheless, loss in your life

is very real. And even as I say words like

lost a spouse or lost a child, there are some

of you here who cannot help but WinCE because that

emptiness never goes away. It's real, and lament is appropriate. We,

I think, need to relearn lament. A brother asked me

after the first service if there was any any way

that I could help with that, any book that I

would recommen and I said, oh, brother, I'm so glad

you asked. There is a book, a book called Dark

Clouds Deep Mercy, and I thanked him for asking me

so that I could include that for you. Now, we

need to learn to lament, because human emptiness is real.

We do well to see it, and we do well

to feel it. And yet, and yet, emptiness is only

part of the story. The message of the Book of

Ruth is actually quite subtle. It's taking several parts of

the story, several parts of the picture, and putting them

together so that we can see things a little bit

more clearly. And in many cases it's not black and white.

Emptiness is real, but it's only part of the story.

And I think the next part of the story we

can call God's instruments God's instruments. I don't think it's

very unordinary that we don't recognize God's instruments very often,

in fact, quite usually. When God is at work in healing,

bringing fullness where there was emptiness, bringing something lovely where

it was bitter, we often don't see those humble instruments

that He is making use of at all, or at

least not until we've got a lot of distance and

we can look backwards. Verses six and seven, Naomi hears

that the famine is over. Hey, we can go back.

We got to go back, And then the excitement and

then the hubbub of packing everything up. I don't think

she's quite thinking of everything, and she gets on the road,

and as she's on the road, she comes to realize something.

Because she's realized something, she tries three times to release

her daughters in law. She says, go back to your

own mamas. Go back to your own mamas. She says, look,

may Yahweh treat you kindly as you have treated me

and the dead, my baby boys. She uses the covenant

name of God with these Moabites. May Jahweh treat you kindly,

and may Yahweh give you rest in the houses of

your own husbands. That is to say, guys that you

marry who I'll never meet. So she lays this out

for them, and they cry and they say no, no, no, no, no,

no no. Let's go with you. Let's go with you.

When we packed, let's go. But Naomi has realized that

she has nothing to offer them, and she has realized

that they have nothing to offer her. They're Mobites. This

is going to be a problem when they get to Israel.

All of the people have already been properly warned that

there should there should be some distance between you and Mobites.

This is problematic. They may not have been prohibited from

marrying Mobiites, but this look they are definitely foreigners, they

are definitely immigrants. They're definitely looked at sideways. They have

nothing to offer Naomi. Naomi has nothing to offer them,

and Naomi comes to the conclusion we're better off apart

than we are together. But her first attempt doesn't work,

so she really leans in in this second attempt to

the fact that she has nothing to offer them. She says, look,

I know we're saying we're a family, but and this

probably sounds pretty weird to us. She's like, look, I

don't have any more sons for you to marry. And

even if I was to get married, get pregnant and

have boys right now tonight, you're gonna wait around for

them to grow up. And this is actually how in

that time people cared for one another. They like looked

after each other. In fact, if there was a couple

and the man died, then it would be his brother's

responsibility to marry his widow in order to carry on

his family name and that heritage. That's how they looked

after one another. And Themi's like, well, I got nothing

for you, and they cry again, and Orpah Orpa sees it.

She's like, yeah, makes sense. We probably are better off

apart than we are together. She kisses her mother in

law and she walks Bible doesn't say she made the

wrong decision. She just kind of made a sensible one.

But Ruth clings to her and Naomi. What Naomi has

said here is it is bitter for me for your sake,

that Jahweh's hand has gone out against me, against me.

I mean she she has some understanding of the sovereignty

of God. She has some affection towards the Lord, and

she wants his compassion, for instance, on her daughter's in law.

May the Lord bless you. And yet she's come to

this conclusion that the Lord has moved his hand against her. Again,

no rebuke from scripture, but I think we will see

a gentle correction because Ruth is going to be God's

instrument for both what Naomi wants food and family, and

what Naomi needs to see and to trust and to

know the steadfast love of God. But really, Ruth, the

Moabite girl, she's got nothing to offer. God could not

have picked a more humble instrument to use in Naomi's

life and in the life of the entire nation than

Ruth the Moabitis and Ruth doesn't leave, so Naomi takes

her third swing. Her third argument is very basic. It's

essentially peer pressure. Look, your sister in law left, you

should do the same. And Ruth says something remarkable. She

declares her steadfast love. She says, don't ask me to leave.

Where you go, I will go. Where you sleep, I

will sleep, Your people will be my people. Your God

will be my god. Where you die, I will die.

And there they put me in the ground, and that

shuts Naomi up. May Yahweh do to me and moral

So now she's using the covenant name. If anything but

death separates us, Ruth has pledged steadfast love, and it

should have sounded familiar to Israelite ears, having heard of

Yahwey's own declaration of steadfast love from Exodus. I will

be their God, they will be my people. But it

kind of hits different when it's a Moabite girl. I

don't think Naomi recognized it at all. I don't think

Naomi was like, oh, she is going to be the

instrument of God's steadfast love to me. In fact, once

Naomi gets to Bethlehem, she only talks about how she's

been emptied out. Naomi is standing like Ruth is standing

right there. He says, nothing to humble an instrument to

be acknowledged, even by those who should hear, who should

recognize whispers of steadfast love from the Lord. Yet, isn't

it just like God to use a humble instrument to

show his steadfast love. Isn't it just like God to

choose David, the littlest of the brothers, the humblest of

the brothers, to be his covenant king for the nation.

I mean, Samuel, the man of God, he missed it too.

Samuel shows up. He's like, all right, Jesse, show me

your guys. And Jesse he brings the oldest and Samuel's like,

this is the guy. No, not the guy. Okay, the

next brother, and then the next brother, and then the

next brother and the next brother, until he runs out

of brothers Samiel's like, Jesse, you got any more kids? Well,

there's the little one, there's the humble one. He's still

out with the sheep. I mean, I didn't think you

really wanted like him, that's the one. Isn't it just

like God to use such a humble instrument as five

loaves and two fish. The apostles weren't expecting to see

blessing upon blessing come from a little basket of lunch.

Isn't it just like God for your Lord to have

no majesty, no form that you should look upon him.

He was like one who meant from whom men hid

their faces. Isn't it just like God that He has

brought the greatest blessing to you that you can receive

through the humble instrument of that nobody's death, right through

the lynching of a homeless Jewish preacher. In this God

has encapsulated his whole plan to reconcile you and all

who would believe to himself. Because that preacher was the

son of God. The world didn't know that. His followers

barely had a clue of that. But God knows the

who and the what and the how of his humble

instruments of steadfast love in your life, though you rarely do.

Naomi didn't know this. Moa Bidas was going to become

the great grandmother of King David didn't know she was

going to get placed in the royal lineage. But God

knows the who and the what and the how of

his instruments of steadfast love in your life. Even now,

in the midst of emptinesses of all sorts and varieties

that are sitting in this congregation right now, you don't

know the humble instruments God intends to use to show

his steadfast love to you. But if you're in Christ,

Christ's message for you is I am for you and

not against you. You may not know what I'm doing

through the bitter emptinesses that I have designed, but I

do indeed work all things for good for those who

love me. I did not lay my life down for

you and woo you to myself only to turn against you.

Regardless of what emptinesses you see right now, and even

though you don't know the humble instruments that I will use.

If you are mine, I am yours and I will

never leave you or forsake you. And for Naomi, she

could not see the instrument God would use to show

her her steadfast love even when she was standing right

in front of her and declare reading steadfast love, which

is pretty typical of our perspective, which is our last

part our perspective. We can learn about our perspective by

learning about Naomi's perspective. Even though Naomi's perspective here isn't rebuked.

It is the perspective that changes the most. You want

to know who a story is about, just ask who

changes the most from start to finish. It's about Naomi.

This is who changes over the arc of the book.

She shows up in nineteen twenty back to Bethlehem. She's

been gone a decade. She comes back and they're like,

is this Naomi. It's like showing up to your high

school reunion and they're like, dude, have you seen I mean,

are you okay? And her answer is she's not even

trying to cover it up. She's like, no, I'm not okay.

Don't even call me my name anymore. Call me bitter

because God has dealt bitterly with me. And she's not wrong,

but her perspective is incomplete. She says in verse twenty one,

I went away full and I came back empty. In fact,

God has brought me back empty, and she's not wrong,

but her perspective is incomplete. Of course, her perspective is incomplete.

Of course, her perspective is incomplete. She can't see the future.

Of course, her perspective is incomplete. She doesn't know how

Ruth is going to be used by God as an

instrument of steadfast love to her and the entire nation,

and by the way to us is the great, great, great,

great great Greek Greek Greek, great great grandmother of Jesus.

I missed some greats. Of course, her perspective is incomplete.

The writer knows. The writer knows that Naomi's perspective is incomplete,

and doesn't faulter for that. But the writer of the

Book of Ruth is giving us the fuller perspective so

that we can see beyond empty when we experience it.

We get Naomi so that we can get beyond being Naomi,

so that we can see beyond empty, not ignore it.

It's real. But if we're just seeing empty, our perspective

is incomplete. I think even this one chapter gives us

some suggestions about how we see beyond empty. Here are

three we would do well to see beyond our expectations.

We would do well to see beyond our expectations. Of course,

Ruth thought that she was going to be blessed through

her husband and through her sons. Those were just normal expectations,

and we walk through our lives with normal expectations. But

we would do well to learn from this book about

seeing beyond our expectations. It doesn't always work out the

way we think it's supposed to work out. In fact,

I told our church planting trainees Seamus and Tony hey Man,

when you get out there and you get ready to

plant a church, let me just tell you. There are

going to be people and things you're expecting a lot of,

and they're just gonna get emptied out on you. But

there are going to be people and things you admittedly

aren't expecting much from, and they're going to turn out

to be God's instruments of steadfast love toward you. We

would do well to see beyond our expectations. Second suggestion,

see beyond the means and trust the source. See beyond

the means, trust the source. I bet if you're over

the age of twenty five, though God has provided financially

for you, and all along the way, those checks didn't

all have the same company name on them every time,

And when God stop the flow of checks from one

company and they started coming from somebody else, because they

were always coming from somebody else, They're coming from the source,

not the means. They're coming from the fountain, not the stream.

And yet when God stops. One means we freak out.

Oh my goodness, he turned off the faucet. It must

be the only faucet in the house. It's not. He's

the source. Let's look beyond the means and trust the source.

Third suggestion, Let's see beyond what is in God's hand

right now and trust what is in God's heart forever.

See beyond what's in God's hand right now, trust what

is in God's heart forever. You know. Naomi's not wrong.

All things are from God's hand. He is sovereign, and

what He has in his hand for you right now

may be bitter. It may be the emptying out of

something significant that's not to be ignored, that's to be lamented.

That's real. But lament is just part of the picture.

We need not have an incomplete perspective. We can lament

and trust at the same time, and as we do, listen,

I don't think that the lesson of Naomi and Ruth

is to just get past your emptiness and go find

your ruth right like, go find the thing or the

person that will be God's instrument in your life, and

make sure you don't overlook the ruths in your life.

I don't think that's possible. I think you're for sure

gonna overlook the ruths in your life. And even if

you were able to put your finger on them every

time those instruments of God's steadfast love to you, wouldn't

you be tempted to place your trust in them instead

of in Him? Now? I think the instruction we find

here is that even in the face of real emptiness,

is in the face of real bitter things, what's beyond

emptiness is a God who has pledged his steadfast love

to you in Jesus Christ. If you have placed your

faith in him, then his heart to you is the

same thing from Exodus, I will be yours, you will

be mine, and from Christ himself, I will never leave

you or forsake you. Is often that God's choices to

meet our emptiness is through instruments so humble we overlook them.

But whether we see that those instruments now or we

don't see them until we look backward from eternity, it's

not the point. The point is we walk by faith,

by trust, not by sight, and what we trust beyond

emptiness is the steadfast love of the Lord