Audio Transcript:

Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Boston Brookline online. My name is Jan, one of the pastors here at Mosaic and we have been praying for you, continuing to pray for you, continuing to miss you, thinking about each one of you and praying for the Lord to continue filling you with the spirit and sanctifying you.

This is the seventh week that are holding an online service instead of an in-person worship gathering. As strange as it is, we're here. I've never thought we'd become a televangelist ministry, but here we are.

We're at the point in the pandemic where perhaps you're there, perhaps you can relate where we're beginning to worry about some of the superficial consequences of the pandemic. We're worried about the deeper ones and perhaps you find yourself with a corona fatigue. The conversation I'm having with some people, I'm beginning to worry about things like their haircuts. I haven't had a haircut in way too long. I'm at a point where it's either a pandemic mullet or I cut my own hair or my wife cuts my hair. I'm not sure which one's worst or better. Sorry, baby.

Perhaps you worried about staying in shape, gaining Corona-15, something like that. Or perhaps worried about getting back to work, getting back to life and the government has begun speaking about how we can reopen the country. And as we have conversations like that, we also want to have a conversation about how we get back from where we are spiritually speaking. And if you're tuning in, hopefully, you are worried about that. You are worried not just about your physical health or your haircut, but you are worried about the state of your soul and where we go from here.

So that's why we're today starting a brand new sermon series in the book of Ruth and we are calling it from Ruin to Redemption. It's a profound story about a powerful woman of faith, a godly woman who lived not for her best life now but who lived to leave her best legacy. And that legacy actually included a king, King David, and then the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.

So, would you pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word. Heavenly Father, we're so thankful for this opportunity to gather virtually as a body of Christ. And I pray, Holy Spirit, that you speak to us, that you speak profound truth into our souls. Make us a people who aren't blinded by the short term, a people who are not spiritually myopic. But give us a vision for our lives to leave legacies, to leave legacies of thousands and tens of thousands of people worshiping you. Draw out these lessons from this incredible book of Ruth and apply them to our hearts, and we pray all these in the beautiful and holy name of Jesus Christ, amen.

One of the things that I've noticed with ESPN and NFL network don't have live sports to show so they've been showing replays or getting people to watch games that have been played a long time ago. One of the things I noticed is, we all know the outcomes of the games and if I know that my team, my favorite team loses, no matter how good the game is, no matter how good the good plays are, it's not very satisfying.

For example, like the 2007 Pats playing the Giants, could not rewatch that game. However, if I know the ending and if I know that my team wins, no matter how bad the bad plays are, they're filled with hope because I know the outcome like for example, when the Pats came back from 28-3 against the Falcons in 26th season.

Something like that is happening with the book of Ruth. The context is that the book is given to us after the book of Judges. The book of Ruth is the eighth book in the Bible right before 1 Samuel. And what we see is that at the end of the book of Judges, it's the darkest of the darkest times in all of the Old Testament. And God gives us a glimpse of hope in the book of Ruth where he says, "Let me show you the end." And the end is that the people of God win, because God's people always win.

In all of the Old Testament, this is one of the brightest rays of hope that we have and actually, the very first time that the word "hope" is used in the Bible. In the eighth book of the Bible, it's used in chapter one of Ruth. And the word for hope here is much more robust than our English word for hope. The English word for hope is you hope or you wish something will happen that you really desire to happen but you have no certainty that it will. It's a very fickle hope.

When Scripture talks about hope, it talks about a true reality that is coming, a foundational reality where we can anchor our souls on this truth. Holy Scriptures says that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, it's the conviction of things not seen. You see, when Scripture talks about hope, it talks about hope as truth. This is true, therefore, we can build our lives upon this.

The job of faith is to work itself out of a job. The stronger your faith, the stronger your realization, that what's coming is as true as what it is today, that gives us strength to overcome the darkest moments of today. And that's what the book of Ruth does for us. It reshapes our entire outlook on life, that the best for the Christian is truly yet to come because of, as we learned last week, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And we need this hope in the darkest of times, that God is still at work even the mundane details of our lives, and the ordinary details of our lives. The book of Ruth is given to us for people who ask the question, "Where is God? Where is a vision from God, a word from God, a prophecy from God?"

In the book of Ruth, God doesn't speak once. However, we see God's good hand of providence, guiding the minutia, the details of the story weaving it all together. As a good director, he's behind the scenes, but it's his script and his plan of redemption is unfolding. The name of God is named 18 times in these four short chapters.

So, here's what I'd like you to do in the next few weeks, read this book. Read it over and over and over. It takes about 10 minutes to read quickly, 20 minutes with meditation, 30 minutes with meditation. And it's a word of hope to us in particular as we're going through a season of loss. And life, we go through seasons of losses and crosses. But God sows his seeds of grace in winter time and they will bring an abundant harvest.

And the book is named after Ruth which is actually remarkable. It's the only book in the Old Testament named for a non-Israeli. Ruth is actually in this book named five times, Ruth the Moabites. Meaning she was from a different people, a different culture, a people who worship different gods. And she's not even the main character of the book. It begins and ends with Naomi and Boaz is at the heart of the story as the redeemer. And more than half of the story is dialogue, 678 words of dialogue. Boaz has 281 of those words. Naomi 225, Ruth speaks the least, 120 words of dialogue. But when she speaks, she speaks the most profound words of faith in all of Holy Scriptures.

So, would you look at the book of Ruth with me. Today, we're going to be in Ruth 1. I'm going to give you my three points prior to the texts and then with each point, we'll go through pericopes or paragraphs of the texts. The points are from Bethlehem to Moab, and that's verses 1 through 5. And then point two is from Moab to the Crossroads, and that's verses 6 through 18. And then finally, from the Crossroads to Bethlehem, that's verses 19 through 22.

Here to begin, I'm going to read Ruth 1:1-5, from Bethlehem to Moab. Would you look at the texts with me? "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 Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion."

"They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives, the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband."

This is the reading of God's holy and infallible authoritative word, may write these internal truths upon our hearts. The context is the days when the judges ruled. If you read the book of Judges, it's a story of dark times. A story of serial unfaithfulness where God's people were given God's law. They were brought from captivity into the Promised Land.

And God said, "If you obey me, you will be blessed. If you disobey, curses will come upon the land." And you see this cycle of disobedience that leads to idolatry, that leads to enslavement. Finally, people come to their senses and then repentance and deliverance.

When you see this cycle over and over and over and each reoccurring cycle is darker than the previous one, it's almost as if there's this downward spiral out of control. And the book of Judges ends with the following verse, Judges 21:25. This is the verse preceding the book of Ruth. "In those days there was no king. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes."

It's almost as if this is the description of the United States today. Everyone does what's right in their own eyes. Everyone defines their own truth. Everyone defines their own morality. Everyone defines their own reality and it leads to chaos. So, we see moral chaos that leads to political instability, that leads to financial crisis.

That's the book of Judges, not the United States although we see that same pattern over and over as people leave God, as people leave God's word. There's a famine of God's word that leads to a famine of food. So, we meet Elimelech and Naomi. Elimelech, his name in the Hebrew means God is King. Naomi's name means sweet. She's a sweetheart.

They start as children perhaps of believers from faithful families in Israel, in Bethlehem. Something happens along the way with their faith. We're not told what it is. Something happens where their faith is shaken. And one of the reasons perhaps why their faith was shaken was because of the famine. The famine led to a crisis of faith for them, financial instability, financial crisis led to a crisis of faith.

Why would that happen? Well, when we expect God to exist for us, when we expect God to give us what we define as is good or the ultimate good. And then we don't get what we want from God, there is a temptation to get angry at God, to get bitter. When we don't get what we want and when we get what we don't want, there is that temptation and I wonder if that's what happened with Elimelech and Naomi.

You see, some of that bitterness with the names of their children. Their children perhaps were born in the famine surrounding the nation and the first son they named Mahlon, which in the Hebrew means sickly. And the second son they named Chilion, which means spent or frail. They named their sons sickly and frail. Why would they do that?

I think it's because they were bitter at God. "God, we didn't want these circumstances. God, we didn't want this financial ruin. We didn't ask for this. If you're a good God and an all-powerful God, why would you assign this ruin to our lives?" So, they make a decision to leave the Promised Land where they had an inheritance, to leave the people of God, to leave covenant community in search of financial wealth. And this is what we see in the text that they went to sojourn in the country of Moab. And the word "sojourn" means, this was supposed to be temporary. The Scripture say that we are resident aliens. Our life here on earth is but a sojourn to eternity. There was no initial intention to settle down. It's a temporary residence. They were just visiting the country of Moab because it promised financial benefit. Ruth 1:2, it says, "They went into the country of Moab and remained there."

It's supposed to be temporary, but they stayed and however well intentioned, perhaps it was. Just from a worldly perspective, this was very sensible. And it could be rationalized. Well, why would we stay here? Like yeah, we have our church. We have our community of faith but we're not living the best life that we possibly could. And by the way, this famine, it wasn't a famine that annihilated everyone because afterwards, Naomi does come back to Bethlehem and people were living, and people were prospering like Boaz.

It's just that they weren't living as comfortably as they could have. So they leave. And they could justify it. Elimelech might have justified it by saying, "I need to provide for my wife. I need to provide for my kids and God isn't giving me the provision that I want." So, they go. And it doesn't seem that far away, 50 miles. We go back and visit our family every once in a while, on holidays, we'll come back. But this was a faithful decision.

And here, this brings me to a short discussion about discerning God's will? How do you know God's will is for your life? And perhaps Elimelech was wrestling with this question, "What does God want me to do? There's famine in the land. We're struggling financially. What does God want me to do?"

One of the things about discerning God's will through circumstances is that we need to interpret those circumstances through our God's word. You can't understand God's will unless you understand God's word, because God will never say something through circumstances that contradicts what he's already said in his word.

And in God's word, God had explicitly told the people of Israel, "Do not go live in Moab. That is a land full of idolatry and paganism." And Elimelech and the family weren't going as missionaries to tell these people about God. They were going in order to get upward mobility et cetera, et cetera.

So, whenever you ask, "What is God's will for my life?" First of all, you got to say, "What does God say in his word?" And then you got to go to the covenant community, brothers and sisters in your life and say, "Help me interpret these circumstances through God's word. You have the Holy Spirit. I have the Holy Spirit. There's the Holy Spirit in Scripture, let's do this together." They didn't ask.

And mostly likely, Elimelech didn't even ask God himself. "God, where do you want me to live? God, where do you want me to set down roots? If it's here in Israel, despite the fact that it's hard now in the temporary, I trust that you will provide because your will is always good."

This was a faithful decision. Scripture says that Elimelech dies. And we see Naomi's pain and we see her bitterness as well but she still had two sons. And we see that these two sons, they marry Moabite girls. They put down roots. And on the face of it, it doesn't seem like this is a big deal but Holy Scripture explicitly forbids intermarriage between believers and unbelievers. And this isn't a question of culture. It's not a question of race, it's a question of faith.

And yes, they sinned in marrying these ladies. But you got to go back to Elimelech who made the decision to bring his children into a land full of paganism. So, Elimelech's unfaithfulness leads to generational unfaithfulness because Elimelech was worried about living his best life immediately right now, his most comfortable life right now, it leads to sin in his own life and then the sin in his children's life.

And one of the things that we get from all the Scripture and one of the biggest lessons that we get from the book of Ruth is that we are not to live for our best life now in terms of our immediate comfort. We are to live lives from the perspective of eternity. We are to live lives to leave a legacy.

So, they intermarry and they lived 10 years with their wives and there were no children. And from the Old Testament perspective and from biblical perspective, children are a blessing from the Lord. And we see whispers of God's hand of disapproval or God's hand of disfavor upon this family.

So, the sons died and all three, Elimelech and his two sons are buried in a Moabite grave and Naomi buries her husband and she buries her two sons. Devastation, there's bereavement and loss. And now, we find ourselves in the story where there's three widows particularly in a time where without a family structure, they were especially vulnerable and the story wants us to get to a place where this is heartbreaking.

What seemed as a wise sensible plan from a worldly perspective, from a financial perspective, from a physical perspective ends in devastation. Elimelech, he just wanted to take a little detour from God's path and it leads in devastation. This is what happens, friends, when we walk by sight and not by faith. When we look at the facts as they are before us instead of interpreting the facts through the truth of God's word.

Earthly wisdom, it makes sense in the short term, never in the long term. Temporal provision leads to ultimate devastation. The other thing I want to talk about here is how subtly sin ensnares. You give sin just an inch, it's going to take a mile. Someone once said that sin will take you farther than you want to go. It'll keep you longer than you want to stay. And it will cost you so much more than you are willing to pay.

Be careful of sojourns around God, around God's word, sojourns into sin. You might find yourself in a land far away from God ensnared and not able to come back. Elimelech, his name means God is king. And for Elimelech, God was king in name alone. When he needed comfort, he didn't seek it in God who's a refuge. He sought it in provision, physical things.

Quick comfort kills. And this is a really important word for us today as we're going through a storm. One of the greatest temptations as we're going through a storm is to stop building a house of obedience on the rock of God's word, because it's difficult. Instead, we're tempted to build sandcastles of disobedience, of sin, of seeking comfort, of seeking pleasure and sin. Oh, friend, don't go there.

There's a deep lesson that we can see from Elimelech. Where do they live prior to going Moab? They live in Bethlehem. Bethlehem of Judah, it's mentioned twice here in this text. It's also mentioned twice in the book of Judges. It was an insignificant little village in this period of time. However, we know from the book of Micah is that Jesus, the Messiah, is going to come from Bethlehem. Jesus, the Word of God, the Bread of Life, was going to be born in Bethlehem and that's what the word Bethlehem means. It means house of bread.

So, if God names a town house of bread in Israel, it has an incredible meaning. And that house of bread was in the Promised Land, a land that was supposed to be flowing with milk and honey and there was famine in the house of bread. And that wasn't by accident. That was by God's providence. Why would God allow a physical famine in the house of bread? To show his people that they have a spiritual famine of the word of God.

See, spiritual famine of the word of God always precedes a physical famine of food. You see this promise in Amos 8:11-12, that when people turn from God, it says, "'Behold, the days are coming,' declares the Lord GOD, 'when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it."

A famine of God's word always leads to a famine of food. Why? Scripture says that people shall not live by bread alone but for every word that precedes from the mouth of God. As much as our bodies need physical food, our souls need to be nourished with God's word. So, we see a famine in every conceivable sense, famine spiritually and morally, of trust in the Lord, a famine of faith.

Famine was ordained by God to awaken his people from spiritual sleep. It's designed to awaken. It's designed to sanctify. God designs famine often as forced fasting, to get us to a place where we realize, "Oh, my. I'm addicted to physical pleasure. I'm addicted to physical comfort. God, remove these things so that I can see you and see your will more clearly."

Famine and economic crisis in general, crisis in general is designed by God to make us turn to him in repentance, to run back to God. One of my favorite quotes on this is by C.S. Lewis who says that, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience but he shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

When God sends a suffering like perhaps he's doing today, all around the world, he does it intentionally. He does it to awaken us and he gives us the choice. You can either run to God or you can run from God. You can run to God and find blessing, to find your blessed life. Or you can run from God in search of your best life.

And those two, often they're diametrically opposed. Read the beatitudes where Jesus talks about what a blessed life is. He says, "Blessed are you who are mourned. Blessed are you who are meek. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are you when others revile and they persecute you." It talks about blessing as counterintuitive, that the blessed life is often the opposite of the best life in the short term but in the long term, the blessed life is the best life.

Elimelech didn't understand this. So, they moved from Moab to Bethlehem that leads to devastation and then we see Naomi moving from Moab to Crossroads and this is in verses 6 through 18. Would you look at the text with me? "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 may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.' Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept."

They hear that Bethlehem, the house of God has been restocked with bread by God. Perhaps the people have finally turned from their disobedience and idolatry, enslaved into sin back to repentance and God delivers them. And we see Naomi and her daughters-in-law, they are moving together from this place of Moab to Bethlehem. They're on the path together. And we see that perhaps they get to the border, perhaps her daughters didn't understand the finality of the decision, the immensity of the decision to leave their homes and to go with her.

Obviously, their relationships are really deep. 10 years they've known each other at least deepened only by grief. And perhaps Naomi waited until this moment where they were at the border crossing. Perhaps she waited until this moment where they see the signs. They see a sign at the crossroad. One of the signs says, pointing to the direction that says Bethlehem. The other sign points back and says Moab.

And at this moment, she wants them to make a decision and this is a really emotional scene that's deeply stirring. And here you got to ask, "Naomi, why would you tell your daughters-in-law to leave? Do you want them to go with you to the people of God?" Obviously, she does. The best thing for her is for them to come with her so that she has some kind of support structure as she is rebuilding her life in Bethlehem. But she sacrifices what's best for her, for what's best for them in her mind.

And that's what love does, love sacrifices. She knows that ultimately what's best for them is to be with God and to be with God's people, but she wants them to make the decision with eyes wide open. She wants them to make the decision between the blessed life and the best life, and she wants them to understand that the best life is a life full of sacrifice. It's a life full of self-denial. It's a life often full of suffering.

She wants them to know that they're about to become immigrants in a foreign land. And not only immigrants, widows who are immigrants from a different culture, from a different race, from a different faith. She knows that they will always have a difficult time integrating in society, that they will be ostracized and outcast.

And actually, we see glimmers of this when Naomi goes back with Ruth and the people don't even acknowledge Ruth. There's almost as if there is a conspiracy, a communal unspoken conspiracy against even acknowledging this foreigner. So, she makes them realize the decision that's before them. Most likely, you won't get remarried. Most likely, you will not have a family. Most likely, you will live in destitution. But you will be in proximity to God and his word. Is it worth it? Count the cost.

Verse 10, "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 husbands? Turn back my daughters. Go your way, for I'm too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait 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 he lifted up their voices and wept again and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law. But Ruth clung on to her."

And this is what Naomi is saying is from a human perspective, there is no hope. There is no hope for a comfortable life. There is no hope for rebuilding a family. It's hopeless to go back. And what she says seems terribly strange to us. And here, it's almost absurd what she's saying but she is referring to Deuteronomy 25. She's referring to God's law.

She's remembered God's law. She's remembered God's word and she's referring to the levirate marriage. In a levirate marriage, when a husband dies and the wife is alive, the obligation of the nearest of kin of the husband is to marry the woman in order to keep the name alive, in order to keep inheritance in the land, in order to provide heirs.

It doesn't mean much to us but it was a matter of enormous cultural importance to them. And she says, "There's no hope for any of that. There's no heirs, there's no hope of family." She wants them to count the cost, that if you'd come with me, there's no immediate guarantees of comfort. And that's very similar to coming to Christ. Christ often talks about, "Hey, before you follow me, before you follow me on a daily basis, I want you to count the cost."

No one goes to war with an army of 10,000 when they realize that there's an army of 20,000 coming at them. That's why you count the cost. Do you have what it takes? Now, it's hard. It's difficult. There will be suffering.

Acts 14:22, "Strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God." When we come to Christ, there's no guarantees of a comfortable life. There's no guarantees of a life free from pain and distress, of difficulty and hardship. There's no promise of wealth and health and a long life. Actually, Jesus does promise, "If you follow me, you got to take up your cross and follow me daily, that there is suffering."

One of the things that our culture doesn't understand is that suffering often is a gift. It strengthens us. It purifies our character. It purifies our soul. The book of James says, "Rejoice when you meet trials of various kinds." Often, God does ordain suffering and he does it for our sanctification. He offers us eternal comfort, he does. But there's no guarantee of temporal comfort.

And the world does the opposite. The world says, "There is no eternity. We can't offer you anything in eternity, so eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die." It offers us temporal comforts. But we know this even physically that if you pursue temporal comforts through food, ultimately, you will harm your health. If you pursue temporal comforts through finances, you just spend everything that comes in and live lavishly, you will bear the fruit of the consequences of that decision.

We understand that in the short term, often, we are to sacrifice short term pleasures for long term comfort, for long term flourishing and God speaks not from a perspective of our life, he speaks for this perspective of all of eternity, that every decision we make, we need to make from the perspective of eternity. How is this decision going to impact my life 10 years from now, 20, 30, a thousand? How is this decision going to impact not just me, how is it going to impact my children? How is it going to impact their children?

Or, from spiritually speaking, Scripture talks about evangelism as having spiritual children. The decisions that I'm making, how are they impacting eternal souls around me? Are they drawing people closer to God or farther away? We are to count the cost. In John 6, Jesus says this to many of his disciples.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "'This is the hard saying. Who can listen to it?' And after this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So, Jesus said to the 12, 'Do you want to go away as well?' Simon Peter answered, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.'"

Some of Christ's teachings are hard to hear. A hard words make for sort hearts. And when our hearts are soften to God, he leads us in the way of righteousness. He leads us in the way of blessing. And the way of blessing often is counter to what the world says the best life is.

So, we see that Orpah leaves Naomi. And this is interesting because most likely to marry one of the Naomi's sons, she had to at least profess faith in God and then something happens where when the cost is too high, she walks away from God. She walks away from Bethlehem and she turns to Moab.

And perhaps you're in a similar situation. Perhaps you go to church or you observe Christianity because you love someone who does, perhaps it's a spouse or it's your parents. You're deeply committed to them and because you honor them, you honor what they believe. You respect what they believe. But personal loyalty or religion of a family or the tradition of parents, they're never enough to break the pull of Moab, the pull of the world.

When there's a cost to following Christ, it's so easy to walk away when you weren't really following Christ but you were following someone who was following Christ. Christ to you was a friend of a friend, and that's what God was to Orpah. God was a friend of a friend. And as soon as her husband was out of the equation, she had no relationship with God.

I wonder what happened to Orpah. We're not told, but I wonder what happened. As she went back, did she marry? Did she have children? Did she live long? Did she have a comfortable life? We're not told. But as far as this book is concerned, as far as the unfolding story of God's redemption, she's gone. She's out of the story. We don't hear about Orpah anymore.

And this brings us to really important point. A lot of people talk about God who has a plan for your life. And it's easy to interpret that to believe that God exists for me, that God has a great plan for me, and that leads to all kinds of wrong-headed theology. Instead of asking, "Does God have a plan for my life?" You should ask, "How does my life fit into God's plan?" If you ask that, and if you make decisions based on that question, you will live your most blessed life now and leave a blessed legacy and a blessed eternity.

Orpah was convinced by Naomi. Ruth wasn't, you see this in verse 15. And Naomi says to Ruth, "See your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. And Ruth said, 'Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go, I will go and 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 will I 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.'" Ruth clung to Naomi and same word that's used in Genesis 2:14 talked ... The Genesis 2:24 talked about marriage.

And then also, this is one of the richest phrases of faith, articulations of faith in all of Holy Scripture. This is covenant language. "May your people be my people, and may your God be my God." Where did she get this idea? And she even invokes the name of Yahweh, may the Lord do so to me than more so, talking about death, if I don't follow through. Where did she get this covenant language?

She got it from Exodus. Exodus 6 through 7 where God says, "I will take you to be my people. And I will be your God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians."

Ruth takes a promise of God, a declaration of God and she turns it upside down and she says, "Yeah, God promised that and I am taking that promise and I am declaring it. I'm owning this promise. I'm identifying myself with this God." And it's fascinating that we're not told that Ruth had some kind of audible experience or some kind of physical manifestation of God revealing himself to her, how did she know about God?

Well, she learned about God from Naomi. All she had was God's words spoken from Naomi and she had Naomi's testimony. By the way, it was a faulty testimony. It wasn't a perfect testimony. Naomi knew God's word and she wasn't happy about it. Often, she even says that she was bitter but yet Naomi clung to God, and Ruth says, "I believe this word."

This is where we get the true robust hope. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Where do we get this kind of faith? We get it from God's holy word. That's all Naomi had. She built her life on it and that led to incredible legacy for the future.

So for that, I just want to remind you in this season where perhaps you've got more time on your hands than usual, read God's word. Study God's word. Meditate on God's word. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Don't be conformed to this world. This world is giving us all kinds of sensible messages about what it means to live an enjoyable life.

In particular, those messages are really easy to accept. They resonate with us in a season of suffering because what suffering does is it makes us really selfish. This is what we see with Elimelech, what's best for me. We see this with his sons, what's best for me now? That's what suffering does. It makes us really selfish.

And then the world gives us these messages of, "Hey, following Christ in obedience in your marriage is difficult. Get out. Following Christ in obedience in your singleness is difficult. Get out, et cetera, et cetera." No, friends, build your life on God's word even in this time of suffering.

The other thing I just want to point out is that Naomi's testimony to Ruth led to Ruth's conversion, although her testimony was imperfect. Although her walk with the Lord wasn't perfect, but yes, she shared God's word and she shared honestly her struggles. Why am I a Christian, because I'm perfect in and of myself because I follow religiously, perfect ... No, of course.

I'm a Christian because I need grace. I'm a Christian because I struggle. I'm a Christian because I need God's word in my life. I need God's spirit in my life. I need God's mercy and grace on a daily basis. We're not Christians because we have it all together. We're Christians because we don't and we need God's grace.

So, Ruth turns back from her idols and she turns to God as they move from the Crossroads to Bethlehem. And suffering often exposes our faith, the strength of our faith. For Ruth, suffering strengthened her faith. For Orpah, suffering weakened or even destroyed her faith and we have a decision, will you allow suffering to strengthen your faith or will you allow it to crumble your faith?

This brings us to point three, Crossroads to Bethlehem, Ruth 1:19-22. "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?' And 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, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?' So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest."

People didn't recognize Naomi. One of the reasons why they didn't recognize Naomi is just because of the natural process of aging. The time sketches lines into our face. Tragedy does more than that, it etches lines into our faith. Crosses often they do even more than that, they chiseled lines into our faith. Her appearance was changed. Perhaps her fair color was changed. Her life tasted bitter.

When we follow the Lord, God often does lead us through seasons of struggling and often I hear people say something like, "God won't give you more than you can handle." Oh, that's not true. God often gives us more than we can handle. But as he gives us more than we can handle, he also offers us grace to handle it. 1 Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation has overcome you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."

God often leads us through the valleys of the shadow of death but he's right there with us if we continue to hold onto him. Psalm 34:19, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all." Naomi said, "Don't call me sweet. Call me bitter." She's bitter. She's bitter at the circumstances, but she still holds onto faith in the Almighty, brings in and invokes the name of the Almighty. And we see a glimmer of hope in her testimony.

In that, she invokes the name of God and also she returned to Bethlehem. If she was bitter beyond coming back to God from backsliding, she would have stayed in Moab. But she doesn't, she returns to the Lord. By the way, this is a word that's repeated often in this chapter. This is one of the primary themes of this chapter. Eight times, we see the word "return".

In verse 6, "Naomi and her daughters return from the country of Moab.' Verse 7, "They went on the way to return to the land of Judah." Verse 8, "Go return each of you to your mother's house." Verse 10, "No, we will return with you to your people. Verse 15, "Return after your sister-in-law." Verse 16, "Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you." And verse 22, "Naomi returned and with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law. They returned from the country of Moab."

Why is this word used so often? Because this right here is a word that's taken from the book of Deuteronomy. In the book of Deuteronomy, in chapters 28 through 30, you can read through that text on your own. God said, "I'm giving you the law and if you obey the law, I'm going to give you a life of blessing. If you disobey the law, it's going be curses."

Pick one, choose today. You want life, or do you want death? And in that same text, God says, "But then when you come to a point where you cry out to God in repentance and sorrow, in prayer and fasting, when you return to the Lord, God will welcome you. God will give you forgiveness and mercy and prosperity."

And this is why the word is used. And the word "return" just means repentance. When we choose our own sinful way, they way of Moab, perhaps you've stayed there way too long, God is calling you today to return. Return to him, that's what repentance means. Come back to Bethlehem. Come back to the house of bread. Come back to the God who is bread, the body of Christ is bread. His blood is the cup, it is the wine and his blood cleanses us from all sin and shame and guilt.

We see three forms of returning in the text. Orpah, she was an almost believer. She was halfway to Bethlehem. and when the cost is too high, she walked away. With Ruth, we see she's a new believer. She's following. She doesn't know what's ahead. She doesn't know all of theology but she knows that, Lord, where else am I going to go? You got the words of eternal life.

And we see Naomi, she's a backslidden believer. She knew the truth, walked away from the truth. And then God awakens her with suffering and she comes back. And she understands much of the difficulty in her life is just a consequence of her sin, of her decisions. And God promises when we come to him, he offers us restoration even from those consequences.

The other thing I want to point out here at the end in closing. In Deuteronomy 23:3-6, God in his law said that, "No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, because they did not meet you with bread and water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you."

"But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam. Instead, the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you. And you shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever."

God says no person from Moab can ever enter the assembly of the Lord. And the word "ten" here is a number of complete exclusion. Ruth was a Moabite. And even if we take this number 10 literally, there weren't 10 generations between Deuteronomy and Ruth. So, what's going on here? We read this and it seems like the prohibition is so stark. It's so unqualified that no one from Moab has access to God. No one from Moab has access to the people of God. And yet we see Ruth, this powerful lady from Moab.

She doesn't just get welcomed into the Lord's assembly, she actually has a book of the Bible written after her, named after her. And not only she accepted, but she's blessed. And the blessing is so striking that she's blessed so much so that she becomes the great grandmother of King David. She becomes an ancestor of King David, the greatest king of all of Israel, and all of the history of Israel and even more than that, she becomes an ancestor of the greatest King of Kings, Jesus Christ.

Well, how could this happen? How could this lady where God says, "No one from these people can ever become one of my people?" How did this happen? Well, it happened because of the grace of Jesus Christ, the same grace that's offered to every single one of us. Jesus Christ didn't just come from Bethlehem, he came from heaven.

And he descended to Bethlehem and he too came to a crossroads in the garden of Gethsemane where he says, "Father, let this cup pass from me. This cup of bitterness, let it pass from me." And at that moment, he chose the hard path of obedience. He chose the path from the crossroad to the cross, and he bore our sin upon himself. He bore our curse upon himself. He dragged the cup of bitterness, of God's wrath down to the dregs and he did that for us. And he was buried and he was resurrected in order to give us life.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" Same thing about this woman from Moab. "You can't enter the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. But such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

In and of our selves, there's no hope. But because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, when we turn to Christ through faith and repentance and we follow Christ, it's a difficult path. Count the cost. But it's the most blessed life eternally and also now.

The book of Ruth is a book that tells us there is a path from ruin to redemption because our God is a God of the business of redemption. The word "redemption" is used 23 times in these short chapters. We see the unloved who become loved. We see the poor restored. We see inheritance that was lost because of sin restored because the generosity of another.

We see people going from bitterness to sweetness. It starts with death and it ends with life, starts with barrenness and leads to blessedness. It starts with the person in ruin and then when the person is redeemed, this person rejoices and the blessing it is to be in the presence of God.

So, today, turn from sin, turn to the Lord and follow him. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this incredible book of Ruth. We thank you for blessing our time today and we pray that you continue to bless our time in this book in the next few weeks. I pray, Lord, apply these truths to our lives. Make us a people of faith, people who believe not just because we hope it's true but because we know it's true.

Make us a people who understand that faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. And I pray make us a people whose lives mirror that, reflect the truth of the gospel. And we thank you that there is a path forward from ruin to redemption. We pray all these in Christ's holy name, amen.