The Forsaken and the Faithful (Ruth 1)

Our gospel reading this morning comes from Matthew chapter 18, beginning at verse 21.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

Then Peter came up and said to Jesus, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?

As many as seven times?

Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.

Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.

When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.

And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.

So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.

And out of pity for him the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.

But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denare, and seizing him he began to choke him, saying, Pay what you owe.

So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, Have patience with me, and I will pay you.

He refused, and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.

When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.

Then his master summoned him and said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.

And should you not have mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?

And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt.

So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

O God, because without you we are not able to please you.

Mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, do you ever find yourself asking God that question, why?

That one-word question that goes so far.

Why?

I was thinking a little bit this week about, well, I was trying to remember the first time I started asking God this question, why?

And I couldn't have been older than five years old, and I think I was asking God why I can't fly like Superman.

No matter how hard I tried, no matter how much faith I summoned, I never seemed to be able to take off much further than a couple of inches from the ground.

It seemed to me like a faith the size of a mustard seed could move a mountain, it should be able to lift me up into the clouds.

That never seemed to work for me.

But as we grow as disciples, whether we ask those simple questions that challenge our faith as children, we never seem to graduate beyond that question of why.

That question of why seems to grow with us, doesn't it?

In and through all of life's seasons.

And when we discover ourselves in a season of defeat, maybe a season of hopelessness or a season of loss, a season of tragedy, suddenly this question of why takes on a whole new, pressing meaning for us.

Suddenly, suffering presses us to ask this question of why in a whole new way.

Perhaps we find ourselves asking this question of why in pandemic season in a way we never thought we would.

Why is this what God has in store?

Why has God not healed the sick?

Why has God not taken this pandemic from us?

When we watch the number of cases rise, or we watch the number of the death toll rise, we ask the question, why do you forsake us?

This question of why becomes an unavoidable question.

It's an important question, this question of why, especially in seasons of suffering.

A wonderful quote, um, a very thought-provoking quote from Elizabeth Elliott, who's a wonderful Christian writer, and married to, uh was married to Jim Elliott, who was a missionary killed in action in 1956.

She reflects on this question of why.

She has this to say.

She says, the psalmist asked why.

Job, a blameless man, suffering horrible torments on an ash heap, asked why.

It does not seem to me to be a sinful question, sinful thing to ask the question.

What is sinful is resentment against God and his dealings with us.

This question, why, is an important question.

We ask this question with a renewed profundity, a renewed importance, a pressing urgency in the midst of pandemic.

It's an important question to ask.

And it can be for many of us a doorway that opens to resentment, fear, anxiety, hopelessness, this feeling of utter forsakenness.

We can see the door swing open.

What we see in our Ruth reading this morning is we see that door opening for Naomi, who reflects on these very awful, difficult circumstances she's living through, and she concludes that the Almighty has dealt very bitterly against me.

Naomi has walked through that door of resentment.

Her question of why has given way to bitterness.

And her question of why has led her to a place of self-reliance where she looks out for her own good.

That's one response we see in our reading.

We see another response to times of hopelessness, to times of difficulty, to times of suffering.

We see Ruth's response.

We see Ruth wrestling with that question why in her own way, and that question of why opens up the door to a courageous faith.

A courageous faith that sets in forth a rescue plan.

It sets in motion this wonderful divine rescue plan that goes beyond just her situation, beyond Naomi's situation, but rescues God's people from devastating, um, from a devastating situation.

So here in our Ruth reading, we discover this morning that faithfulness rescues the forsaken.

Wherever we're coming from this morning, whatever kind of fears or anxieties, whatever feelings of hopelessness or forsakenness we might bring with us into this morning, I believe there's hope for us in our Ruth reading this morning.

Our Ruth reading presses this question to us.

Is God good only when life is good?

Is God good only when life is good?

That's the question we have to wrestle with as Christians.

It's wrestling with that question and walking through the door of faith that we discover of rescuing faithfulness that is the Lord's alone.

That's Ruth's hope.

That can be our hope this morning as well.

So let's dive in to Ruth together.

Over the next four weeks, we're going to explore this wonderful story together.

Ruth is one of three main characters we're going to meet.

We've met two so far, we've met Ruth and we've met Naomi.

And this wonderful story really, I think, interrupts what can be sort of a patriarchal assumptions of the Bible, especially of the Old Testament.

Here are some wonderful, courageous female voices that stand for faith, that step into God's plan for renewal and forgiveness.

There's many reasons to love this book.

That might be one of them.

Another reason that many love this book is that this book is a really wonderful love story.

And we love love stories.

Love stories are worth loving.

For many, this story represents something of the Bible's, sort of like the Bible's version of a hallmark romance, right?

Here's a young woman who's gone through some hard times, and she's going to come back to sort herself out in Bethlehem, and she's going to have this kind of meat cute with this handsome fella in uh in a barley field, and they're going to overcome all the challenges of life together and they're going to live happily ever after, or so it seems, right?

And that's a wonderful thing.

We should love love stories like that, and it's worth loving about this story.

But if we stop there, if we stop at the love story and we conclude that Ruth is this wonderful part of the Bible because it shows us this nice love story, then I think we're starting, then I think we've sold ourselves too short.

Ruth is a wonderful love story, but it points to the greatest of all love stories.

Let's keep going.

Let's let's get there.

For the first audience who would be reading this, they'd be reading this somewhere in around or shortly after King David's reign, somewhere around a thousand years or so before Christ.

The first audience, Israelites reading this, would have understood that this book is a kingship narrative.

What they would have loved first and foremost about the book of Ruth is not this nice love story.

They would have loved the fact that this story is pointing towards an established kingdom, a kingdom, a kingdom of God's covenant, a kingdom of God's reign and rule, of new peace and new rest and new order and new life in the nation.

This story of Ruth points towards Ruth's descendant, King David, who is for the people of Israel the ideal king.

And that's a wonderful thing we can cherish about this story as well, because the best stories point beyond themselves.

As Christians, we can dive into this story and see a wonderful love story.

We can see a wonderful kingship narrative, but we can see the rescuing faithfulness of Christ put on display in such a profound and unmissable way.

We can see Christ's covenant kindness being mediated through the loving actions of others.

As he weaves in the threads of history and brings forward this plan of redemption in the life of Ruth, in the life of Naomi, in the life of the nation Israel, and for the whole world as well.

There's a lot to love in Ruth.

When we start out this story, we start out with not a whole lot to love.

We start in very desperate times.

Verse 1 begins by reminding us, it begins by telling us that this story, this story of a family, begins in the time of the judges.

Now, biblical judges are not like our modern judicial system.

They don't really carry a gavel so much.

I suppose there's a thing with a tent peg in there, but um, but they're not so much modern law keepers.

They are military leaders.

They are local rulers raised up by God to deliver God's people from oppression.

Now, the time of the judges is a complicated time because if you've read the book of Judges, you know that things start out pretty well.

They start out pretty optimistically.

God is raising up these leaders to liberate his people from local oppression, but things start to spiral really quickly.

Things spiral for the nation of Israel as they give way and forsake God's covenant and start worshiping other gods.

Things start giving away morally and spiritually, and things start giving way for these judges as well, who become increasingly messed up characters.

And so the conclusion of the book of Judges, the people of Israel have have nearly wiped out a tribe in civil war.

The nation of Israel is descending and spiraling into complete moral bankruptcy, and sin is spreading around.

And Judges concludes in chapter 21, verse 25, with this very ominous note.

The narrator says this.

He says, In that time in Israel, there was no king.

There was no king.

Everyone did what was right in their own eyes, which is to say that the Lord's appointed, the Lord's ruler had not yet been realized in the life of his people, and now everything has descended into anarchy.

People are not doing the will of God, they're doing their own will, whatever's right in their own eyes.

And we're seeing all of these devastating consequences result from that.

The time of the judges is not a pleasant time.

It's a time of anarchy, it's a time of anxiety, it's a time of uncertainty.

It's also a time of famine.

We see that in Ruth chapter 1, verse 1.

Ruth 1:1

There's no food.

There's not even food in Bethlehem, which literally translates to house of bread.

And that's why we're going to see some wheat fields in the chapters that follow.

Bethlehem is a very fertile area, but there's no food to be found.

And that's a hard enough circumstance to be in, but what that suggests to the first century reader, pardon me, the first readers, Israelites, that would have suggested something about the moral and spiritual state of this nation.

We've talked about the judges.

This is a time of moral and spiritual spiral.

Well, famine is a consequence of forsaken covenant.

We see that in Deuteronomy chapter 28 and Joshua 24, when Joshua admonishes the people to choose this day whom you're going to serve.

Deuteronomy 28 · chapter mention

God has committed himself to this people.

He's committed his promise to this people, and he has invited them to walk in accordance with his will, not their will for themselves, but in accordance with my will.

Because when you walk in accordance with my will, the Lord says to his people, you're going to discover life and flourishing.

But if you choose to reject my will, so too will you be rejected.

And as a result, you will find nothing but curse and lack and lifelessness.

Famine suggests that the th that the moral and spiritual situation of God's people has declined so rapidly, so dramatically, that there's not even food to be found.

And so this very desperate family sets out.

They set out from this land of judges, this land of famine, into the land of Moab.

And for us who are just reading the story, we might read that as seeking out greener pastures, which in a real way they are.

But again, for an Israelite reader, they would have picked up on something very difficult, very sinister going on here.

Moab was not a friendly nation.

Moab and Israel have a long and difficult and hostile relationship together.

See, the people of Israel know the origins of Moab.

Moab comes from the incestuous relationship that Lot had with his daughters.

Things have not started out well.

And in recent history, the people of Israel were oppressed by Moab.

So Ehud, one of the first judges in the book of Judges, has to rescue, is raised up by God to rescue God's people from the oppression of Moab.

This is not a friendly nation.

This is not moving from Ontario to Manitoba because there's workout in Manitoba.

This is a hostile nation.

Israelites are not welcome here.

And so they're heading into very present danger, and they're heading into a wicked nation.

They're trying to satisfy hunger, but they're not going to satisfy their spiritual hunger here.

They're heading into a nation of idolatry, a nation of spiritual bankruptcy, of hostility.

And so Elimelech, whose name literally means God is king, takes his family from God's promised land, the fulfillment of God's promises and plan for his people up to this point.

But as they turn their backs on the promised land, so too are there turning their backs on God's promises.

Desperate times for them might mean desperate measures, but it also means that they are forsaking God's will and God's promises for them and for their life.

Maybe we know something of what that's like for ourselves.

See, we don't live in a time of judges, we don't live in a time necessarily of famine, but we do live in a time of political unrest, don't we?

We open up the newspaper and we get nervous to read about this scandal or to read about this election happening in a neighboring nation.

We find that these ripples affect all of our lives.

There's no security to be found in ruling governments.

We're nervous about what the future is going to look like.

We don't live in a time of famine, but we do live in a time of pandemic.

We do live in a time where, even though we're not in a distant country of Moab that's a hostile country towards us, suddenly, I don't know if you find this, I find it feels like my environment is hostile.

In a way it wasn't before.

When I go outside, I get nervous.

I bring hand sanitizer with me.

Because it seems as though the environment itself has been turned against me.

We live in a difficult, challenging, hostile time.

We live in a time where we wonder if we're going to have enough, if what we need is going to be provided for us.

We ask the question, will we be safe?

Maybe we even turn and ask God that question, why?

Why is this the case?

This is Elimelech's great gamble.

He's going to take his family from the promised land of God, where God has promised to abide with his people and take them into this hostile land, because maybe, just maybe, we can provide what God seems to have failed to provide for us.

We can provide it for ourselves.

But within the first five verses of this book, we see profound tragedy has happened.

Within five verses, everything has been lost, almost everything has been lost for this family.

Elimelech has died.

His sons, Malon and Shilion, have died, and have now left Naomi, Ruth, and Orpa as widows.

Elimelech, again, whose name means God is king, seems to make us wonder: is God really king even in this situation?

Is God really sovereign?

Is God really in charge?

Is God really ruling?

Because he seems to be pretty absent.

Maybe we can imagine Naomi asking God why?

Why if you're king?

Every time I called for my husband for dinner, I was reminded that you're king.

If you really are king, why is this happening?

We can feel like this sometimes too.

Sometimes I wonder if we find that God feels like an impotent king in our lives, that he's not shown up in a way that we counted on him to do that.

Where is he?

Where can we find hope, even when we feel forsaken?

We see two responses here, and I want to look at these briefly as we dive into this book over the next couple of weeks.

We see two responses, two responses to uh to this feeling of forsakenness.

We see Naomi's response, which is a response of resenting forsakenness, and we see Ruth's response, which is a response of rescuing faithfulness.

See, Naomi has concluded that the hand of the Almighty has, that the Almighty has dealt uh bitterly with her, and so she responds with a similar kind of bitterness.

She responds with bitterness toward her daughters-in-law, both Ruth and Orpah.

And we might read verses 12 to 14 as though Naomi is saying, Look, you better go, because there's nothing I can do for you.

And in a way, Naomi is saying that to her daughters-in-law, but in a very real way, Naomi is saying, There, you need to go because there's nothing you can do for me.

Why do I say that?

I say that because in the ancient Near East, there was such a strong and understood way that families were meant to provide for one another.

In the result of the death of the head of the family, one of the sons would step into that position and make sure that everyone is going to be cared for, everyone's going to be provided for, everyone's going to have safety and security.

So far as there's a male head of the household around, this is simply the way it was, then the family is going to be provided for.

But here all the men have died.

There's no one left to provide for them, there's no one to provide security.

And so what does Naomi say to her daughters-in-law in this moment?

She says, you better go, because even if I got married tonight, and even if I had, even if I got pregnant tonight, there's no way that you would wait around to marry this uh this hypothetical son of mine.

It'd be a strange marriage to begin with.

But what Naomi is saying is, look, even if you waited around, which you won't, and married this person, well, that's that's not going to happen.

There's no one to provide for me.

This son who would step into that place of providing security and provision for our family isn't going to happen.

So you better go because there's nothing you can do for me.

Naomi feels forsakes her daughter's love.

Naomi forsakes, resentfully forsakes God.

We see that in verses 13 and 20.

I've left full, God has brought me back empty.

God clearly has failed.

He's done nothing for me.

And what we see come out of this is what Naomi really trusts in.

She really trusts in herself.

She really trusts in her own ability to provide for number one.

Her forsaken resentment has given way to self reliance.

See, Naomi understands that God is good, but Naomi understands that God is only good when my life is good.

My life is not good.

That means God is not good, and therefore he's unreliable.

So I'm not going to be Following this God, he's dealt bitterly with me.

I've heard that there's some bread in Bethlehem, there's maybe a glimmer of hope.

I'm gonna go get that, but I'm gonna get that for myself, because this God has not shown up when I needed him to.

Friends, I think this, I think Naomi's mindset is not uncommon even for us today.

It's not hard to slip into that way of thinking that God is good only when life is going good.

When life is good, God's dependable, He's trustworthy, He's given me what I want.

But when life gets hard, we start to, we start to adopt a posture of bitterness, of resentment.

God, you didn't show up in the way I had in mind.

And friends, there are even voices within the church that will say that, that will say that God is good and he wants your life to be good.

He wants you enjoy health, wealth, security, ease, comfort, everything else.

And they'll make a million promises in the name of Jesus, and none of these things hold up.

Friends, never believe anyone, even in the name of Jesus, when they tell you that God has nothing but material goodness in mind for you.

God is good.

God is good in every circumstance of life, and this is what Naomi is grappling with.

Naomi is grappling with that question that Job himself had to face when he found himself feeling utterly forsaken by God.

Though he'd committed no sin, Job encounters profound suffering.

And yet Job's hope points beyond that present suffering towards a day when all things will be renewed.

Job chapter 19, Job is reflecting on this hope, and he says this he says, I know my Redeemer lives.

Job 19 · chapter mention

At the last he will stand upon the earth, and after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh will I see God, whom I shall see for myself, my eyes shall behold and not another.

Job is saying, Even though everything is going to be taken away from me, I know my Redeemer lives.

In every circumstance of life, God is still good, and he's still trustworthy.

Naomi believes Naomi, in her desperation, thinks that God has abandoned her.

God is no longer good, he's not worth trusting.

And yet Job's hope is that beyond these circumstances, God remains good.

And my hope that is, even though I lose everything, yet he remains faithful, and in his faithfulness he will rescue me.

This is Ruth's hope.

Job's hope becomes Ruth's hope.

Because even though Naomi trusts in herself to provide what God clearly hasn't provided, Ruth knows that beyond these current circumstances, God remains faithful.

He remains good, he remains trustworthy.

And though she is herself not an Israelite, she's a Moabite, she has more trust in the Lord than does Naomi.

Ruth has experienced just as much suffering as Naomi, and yet she claims Naomi's God for her own.

She makes a commitment to follow through and to follow this God and follow Naomi back to her homeland.

Ruth gets what Naomi doesn't.

Ruth gets that God is still worth trusting.

No matter what my external circumstances is, God has not changed.

God remains good.

He remains faithful.

And she also understands that God is not done working in and through these present circumstances.

No matter how forsaken Ruth feels, she knows that God remains faithful.

And that's what makes her faith an act of courage.

Sometimes we talk about faith like it's a crutch, like it's something that weaker people lean in on to know that someday this will be main right.

No, this is an act of courage.

Faith in the midst of difficult circumstances is an act of courage, because we are ascribing unto the Lord what is his alone, that he is good, that he will provide, that ultimately he works in and through each and every circumstances in accordance with his redeeming purposes.

Doesn't mean that we don't experience very real suffering, we do.

But it leads us to a trusting courage, a rescuing faithfulness in him.

And so, in the midst of trying to convince Ruth and Orpah to get out of here, Naomi, I'm not even sure she knows what she's saying here, ends up speaking the gospel to Ruth.

This is the glimmer of gospel hope that we find in Ruth chapter 1.

Ruth 1 · chapter mention

In verses 8 and 9, uh Naomi says this.

She says, Return each of you, Orpah and Ruth, to your mother's house.

She says, May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me, and the Lord grant that you may find rest.

Naomi doesn't realize what she's saying, but she's speaking the gospel to Ruth and to Naomi both.

This word kindly, this word kindness translates to the Hebrew chesed, which you kind of like have to kind of get deep in the back of the throat and sort of spit a little bit when you say chesed.

It's a rescuing faithfulness.

It's not just God being nice to you, it's God's commitment to bring you through each and every circumstance of life.

God's covenant commitment to you.

So in the midst of hopelessness, defeat, and loss, God is committed to redeeming this, to renewing this, to bringing you through this, not just for your sake, but for the sake of those around you and for the sake of the world.

And friends, it's this covenant kindness, it's this rescuing faithfulness that brings us to the cross, where we see the forsaken one hanging for our sake out of love, where Jesus says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

If anyone knows what it's like to lose everything, to lose intimacy with, eternal intimacy that he's had with the Father, to lose every heavenly privilege and benefit for our sake out of love, to be completely and utterly forsaken.

The cross shows us that there is no length that God will not go for us to bring us through and redeem each and every circumstance of life.

And yet the cross also shows us that the Father does not stop being faithful, that he takes forsakenness and renews it and redeems it and rescues us through it, so that just as Christ was resurrected, we too can be raised to new hope and new life, to enter into that rest that Naomi tells Ruth about.

This is not simply relaxation when we talk about rest.

This is entering into security.

This is entering into the promise of salvation.

This is a Hebrew chapter four, Hebrews chapter four kind of rest.

That God has accomplished the work of salvation in Christ, and that we rest as those who are secured in him, no matter what our external circumstances may be.

This is who we are in Christ, assured in him.

God is good, no matter what the circumstances of life may be.

This is Ruth's confidence.

This can be our confidence too.

Ruth shows us the way of a rescuing faithfulness, a courageous faith, a faith that clings to Naomi and clings to Naomi's God.

And so too, friends, in the midst of every circumstance of life, we are called to adopt that posture of clinging, of being glued to God's promises, of clinging to Christ, who is forsaken on our behalf, Christ who rescues us in his faithfulness.

In each and every circumstance of life, we glue ourselves to him, we press into that union that we have with him, and we claim him as our own, knowing that he will resurrect even the most hopeless circumstances and redeem them and renew them in accordance with his purposes.

So, friends, when we ask why, we ask God why, why do we experience these things?

The truth is there's no one answer.

But we know the one who has answered evil and suffering, the one who has answered hopelessness and loss.

His name is Jesus, and we see him on the cross, taking it upon himself.

And when we cling to him, we cling to that new life and that hope which rescues us from forsakenness.

So, Father, give us that grace to cling to your to cling to your rescuing faithfulness through Christ our Lord, we pray.

Amen.