Providence Baptist Church of Baton Rouge
November 30
  • O Worship The King
  • Count Your Blessings
  • What A Friend We Have In Jesus

      • Hebrews 13NASB95

  • Who May Abide in Your Dwelling (Psalm 15)
  • Ruth 1:1–13 NASB95
    1 Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons. 2 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, Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. Now they entered the land of Moab and remained there. 3 Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left with her two sons. 4 They took for themselves Moabite women as wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. And they lived there about ten years. 5 Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband. 6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the land of Moab, for she had heard in the land of Moab that the Lord had visited His people in giving them food. 7 So she departed from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. 8 And 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. 9 “May the Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. 10 And they said to her, “No, but we will surely return with you to your people.” 11 But Naomi said, “Return, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? 12 “Return, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I should even have a husband tonight and also bear sons, 13 would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters; for it is harder for me than for you, for the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me.”

    Introduction

    When we read scripture, we have to understand that the books and letters recorded there are ancient.
    They were written by people who lived in different times, and thought in very different ways.
    Some of the things that we read when we read the Bible can really make us scratch our heads.
    Especially in the Old Testament.
    For example, if you remember the story of Abram and Sarai, God promised them a son and multitudes of descendents.
    But God would fulfil that promise in His own time.
    Trying to hurry up the process, Sarai does something that I don’t believe any wife that I know would do.
    Sarai gives her maidservant, Hagar, to Abram as another wife, for the purpose of having a child.
    That is not the solution to infertility that would be a go to in our day, but it was a valid way for them in that culture to deal with the problem.
    We as Christians have to be students of ancient near eastern manners and cultures to be able to interpret scripture.
    Just think of all the explanations you have heard of ancient practices from this pulpit over the last 15 years.
    Little by little you are being schooled in some heavy historical knowledge.
    And this is all for a reason. God decided to reveal Himself and His will for us in time.
    And that time was ancient history for us, so in order to understand and interpret His word, we learn about their culture.
    Turning to our subject today, we will be learning many things about ancient culture, brother-in-law marriage duty, sandal contracts, and kinsmen-redemption.
    But we don’t learn these cultural artifacts for fun, we learn them because this is the revelation from God.
    And no matter how differently we do things from the ancient hebrews, the accounts of scripture are still directly applicable to our lives.
    So because it is scripture, and because it is important to interpret scripture right we don’t skip over them.
    We strive to become experts in them to whatever degree is necessary to understand what the Holy Spirit intends for us to understand.
    Now, let’s turn our attention to our passage.
    Ruth is a short story about a family in the time between the Hebrew people taking the promised land, and the beginning of the monarchy.
    Verse 1 says
    Ruth 1:1 NASB95
    1 Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land…
    In those days, there was no king, there was a federated government of families, clans, and tribes.
    The Hebrews were given instruction on how to live in the land in the form of God’s law.
    If they were to follow God’s law, He promised to bless them, but if they were to disobey His law, he would curse them.
    Deuteronomy 28:15 NASB95
    15 “But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
    Specifically,
    Deuteronomy 28:17 NASB95
    17 “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
    And so the book of Judges has a repeating cycle.
    The people would do evil and worship idols.
    God would curse them.
    They would cry out to God for help.
    God would hear them, and have mercy on them.
    Rinse and repeat.
    But God was faithful to His promises and kept them, in spite of their continual, repeated failure to keep His law.
    And they would keep failing to keep the law, like the last verse of Judges says
    Judges 21:25 NASB95
    25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
    So, in one of those cycles, there was this story about this family that went through this hard time.
    I want you to remember something that we sometimes forget.
    We get the opportunity to read the book of Ruth in one sitting if we want to, it only takes about 25 minutes.
    And as we will see, the story wraps up with blessings, not just on the family who the Book is about, but on all of the Israelites and eventually to us.
    But this family had to go through this time, moment by moment and day by day.
    They responded to the situations around them as it happened.
    This is important for us to grasp as we apply this to our lives.
    You see that when we see God working through the lives of this one family, we can directly apply that to how God works in our lives, in our families.
    One of the main reasons why this short story about this one little, seemingly insignificant, families’ struggles and hardship is to show us that God is in control.
    His sovereignty works through providence in our lives.
    The old timers would separate providence into 2 categories: sweet and bitter.
    But no matter which category you put the immediate working of God in your life, it is never purposeless.
    It is never for nothing, or whimsical on God’s part.
    Proverbs tells us
    Proverbs 19:21 NASB95
    21 Many plans are in a man’s heart, But the counsel of the Lord will stand.
    And I can promise you that Elimelech and Naomi didn’t have any inkling in their plans what actually happened to them, but God knew exactly what He was doing.
    And from fullness, to emptiness, and back to fulness, God’s hand was working everything out so that His purposes would be worked out through this little family.
    And those purposes would have effects that would ripple all the way through eternity, even to our lives.
    God works through sweet and bitter providences in the lives of His people, but like the words of the great hymn teach us, we should look beyond the immediate pain to God’s smiling face.
    Judge not the Lord by feeble sense
    But trust him for his grace.
    Behind a frowning providence
    He hides a smiling face.
    And that is what our passage shows us today, that…

    Every believer must trust God’s working through bitter providence.

    Because God works through bitter providence around our lives. v. 1-2

    Ruth 1:1–2 NASB95
    1 Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons. 2 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, Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. Now they entered the land of Moab and remained there.
    As we have seen, our story happens in the time of the judges.
    And in the part of the Judges Cycle where God is punishing the people through famine.
    The Israelites were living in a land that used to be occupied by worshippers of false gods.
    In particular the false god that was called Ba’al.
    Ba’al was supposed to be the god of storms and he would bring rain, he was the god of fertility, of crops, animals, and people.
    Now imagine living in the ancient near east and your very survival depends on the fertility of your crops.
    In order for their to be rain and fertility, which the idolators believed happened when Ba’al would perform the act of marriage with other gods.
    Apparently, Ba’al would forget about doing this, so when the people wanted to remind him to bring rain and fertility, they would go on the top of a flat hill, and perform the act with priests and priestesses of Ba’al.
    I know, this is graphic and disgusting, but only because it is so foreign to our culture and our consciences (praise God for that!).
    But this was completely normal to the Mesopotamian people of the time.
    This made complete sense.
    But this ritual of reminder, called imitative magic, should have the same effect on the people of God at the time that it does on us.
    Yahweh didn’t need to be reminded of His promises by certain acts performed by His people, the people needed to be reminded of His faithfulness to keep His promises, as do we.
    The fertility of the land and the prosperity of His people rested on the covenant of God with them, and their obedience to that covenant.
    We saw in Deuteronomy one of the curses of not being obedient, and there are many more curses for disobedience, but the curses are proceeded by blessings.
    Deuteronomy 28:1–6 NASB95
    1 “Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 “All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God: 3 “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. 4 “Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. 5 “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
    And the list goes on.
    But the problem was lack of faith.
    Not on God’s part, like it was with Ba’al who would just forget to bring fertility to the little humans who worshipped him, but lack of faith with God’s people.
    And here is where we relate.
    We don’t fall into the false belief of imitative magic in such direct ways as the ancient Canaanites, but we have our own modern ways of idolatry.
    How many of our fellow citizens, on the right and the left, believe that the State is the bringer of fertility and prosperity?
    If we just vote for the right person, and convince enough people to vote for the right person, that will usher in prosperity and morality for our nation!
    Now I’m not saying that we shouldn’t vote for the right person or try to persuade others to vote for the right person, but that the only way to true prosperity is in bending the knee to the true God of the universe and His Son, through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit.
    If you took the people of today, including many who go to churches in our land, and plop them in the time of the Judges, they would be right on top of those hills with the Canaanites and unfaithful Israelites.
    And so because of their unfaithfulness, God was punishing the Israelites with famine.
    Our text looks at one family out of the thousands that were affected by this famine, Elimelech, Naomi, and their two sons.
    Notice where they are from, Bethlehem Ephrathah.
    Does that sound familiar to you?
    It was the home of David, and David’s descendent, Jesus Christ.
    Elimelech, looking for food for his family, uproots them and moves to the country of Moab.
    So the hand of God brought famine, a bitter providence, and from the later description of Naomi and how her faith was followed by Ruth, it appears that they were followers of Yahweh, so they were dealing with the effects of that punishment against the unfaithful Hebrews of their time.
    But the bitter providence of God that was happening around them, will be used by God in great ways.
    Put yourself in their shoes, leaving for a foreign land under the threat of starvation, starting over again.
    Eventually, God’s providence would make sense, but it wasn’t finished with the emptying part yet.
    For Naomi, it was about to go from bitter providence around her, to bitter providence directly in her life.

    Because God works through bitter providence in our lives. v. 3-5

    Ruth 1:3–5 NASB95
    3 Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left with her two sons. 4 They took for themselves Moabite women as wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. And they lived there about ten years. 5 Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband.
    There is debate over whether they should have staid in Bethlehem Ephratha despite the famine.
    We know that the Israelites were called to be separate from the surrounding nations, and it would be very difficult for them to follow God’s laws in Moab.
    Moab was the land of the descendants of Lot.
    Lot, the nephew of Abraham, had 2 sons in a very unorthodox way, if you want to know more, read Genesis 19:30-38.
    One’s name was Ben-ammi, and his descendants settled in the nation called Ammon.
    The other’s name was Moab.
    This was the founder of the nation that Naomi’s family escaped to.
    But they were steeped in Ba’al worship as well.
    So when Elimelech died, Naomi probably felt that this was another judgement from God.
    Then here two sons, which was all she had left, married Moabite women.
    One named Orpah, which is the namesake of the Oprah, and her actual real name.
    The other is the namesake of our story, Ruth.
    Now the hand of God falls on her again, and takes the life of her two sons, Mahlon and Chilion.
    And verse 5 says that she is bereft of her two sons and her husband.
    Again, this may be easier for some of us to picture, but she has gone through a famine, the death of her husband, and now the death of her sons.
    She has had blow after blow, and tragedy after tragedy, just stacking up in her life.
    Just sit in that for a second, no matter what the situation, or cultural differences, or time difference between us, we can really feel for poor Naomi.
    All that she’s gone through, all that has happened to her, now in a place of complete loss and destitution.
    A widow in the care of two other widows.
    God’s face was dark in her life, and there was really no place for her to turn now.
    But again, God is doing something amazing in time that she couldn’t see.
    Her crying will be turned into singing, although she couldn’t see how at the moment.
    God was working through the dark, bitter providence in her life.
    But she will have to carry on trusting.
    We must trust in God’s bitter providence, thirdly…

    Because God works through bitter providence in our hearts. v. 6-13

    Ruth 1:6–13 NASB95
    6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the land of Moab, for she had heard in the land of Moab that the Lord had visited His people in giving them food. 7 So she departed from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. 8 And 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. 9 “May the Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. 10 And they said to her, “No, but we will surely return with you to your people.” 11 But Naomi said, “Return, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? 12 “Return, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I should even have a husband tonight and also bear sons, 13 would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters; for it is harder for me than for you, for the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me.”
    Remember the story of Job?
    Remember after losing everything, his wife counseled him to curse God and die.
    But he didn’t, he recognized that God gave the good gifts to him, so God could take them away.
    But there was indeed suffering in his heart.
    He definitely felt the pain and hurt in his heart.
    He had questions that he wanted to ask God.
    And certainly, we would, or we do to when we face these difficult times.
    Naomi was no different, bereft of her husband and sons, she was in the middle of misery.
    And our story shows it here in the last part that we will look at today.
    She heard that the Lord had visited Israel again and blessed them with food, so she decides to leave Moab and go back to her hometown.
    And while she is travelling she is trying to convince Orpah and Ruth to go back to their land and families.
    In verse 8 and 9
    Ruth 1:8–9 NASB95
    8 And 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. 9 “May the Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.
    Imagine passing them on the road, and seeing 3 single ladies sobbing!
    But here the author takes his time in the narration of Naomi trying to convince Orpah and Ruth to return.
    He is setting up the story by
    First, introducing us to an ancient custom.
    Ruth 1:11 NASB95
    11 But Naomi said, “Return, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?
    We will dive more into this custom later, but as she is trying, in her misery, to get them to go back to Moab, she gives us a glimpse into the problem they have.
    It was so important for widows to be taken care of and for the family line to continue, that God set up a system where the brother, or near relative, of the deceased would marry his widow so that there would be an heir.
    This plays a huge role in the story of Ruth, and this is a bit of foreshadowing.
    Second, he sets up the story by showing us how faithful Ruth was.
    Naomi is right, from all that they now, returning to Israel would be a dead end for the two daughters-in-law.
    No Hebrew man would want to marry or give his son to marry a widowed Moabite woman.
    For all that they could see there was no hope.
    But even with all that was against her, Ruth loved Naomi and decided to stay with her.
    Ruth 1:14 NASB95
    14 And they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
    Orpah went back, and that was the last we hear of her, but Ruth clung, or held fast, to Naomi.
    We will see more next time about Ruth’s faithfulness to Naomi and all that it meant, but just see how strong of a person Ruth was.
    Naomi had gone through the fire, but Ruth would stay with her to the end.
    This, beloved, is what we are to be like. Faithful friends, faithful family.
    And remember, in this introduction, we are just beginning to see the connections, but we will see later how this is a picture of Christ, through and through.
    Ruth is to Naomi, what Christ is to us.
    Like Paul told Timothy
    2 Timothy 2:13 NASB95
    13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
    In Naomi’s despair and misery, Ruth was a shining light.

    Conclusion

    Brothers and sisters, we could go chair by chair and describe the dark and bitter providence of God in our lives.
    And though we can see the reason and how God worked out some of them already, but the ones we are going through now, we may not be able to see how God will work it out.
    And for some, we are not given the answer to in this life.
    But what we know, and what Naomi and Ruth learned, is that God is ever faithful.
    Jeremiah learned this as well.
    In Lamentations chapter 3, he repeats all of the pain and trouble he has seen as a prophet of woe to the Jews, here is a small sample.
    Lamentations 3:12–18 NASB95
    12 He bent His bow And set me as a target for the arrow. 13 He made the arrows of His quiver To enter into my inward parts. 14 I have become a laughingstock to all my people, Their mocking song all the day. 15 He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drunk with wormwood. 16 He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust. 17 My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness. 18 So I say, “My strength has perished, And so has my hope from the Lord.”
    But in the end, he knew it was better to have all of the pain and suffering that was brought into his life, and to have God on the other end of it, then the opposite.
    Lamentations 3:21–24 NASB95
    21 This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. 22 The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.”
    Sometimes it takes the bitter providence of God to get us to a place where we can understand this.
    But we can also learn from the stories of others, which is what the Book of Ruth was written for.
    May God teach us through His word and through our suffering that He is faithful and His loving kindness endures forever.

      • Ruth 1:1–13NASB95

      • Ruth 1:1NASB95

      • Deuteronomy 28:15NASB95

      • Deuteronomy 28:17NASB95

      • Judges 21:25NASB95

      • Proverbs 19:21NASB95

      • Ruth 1:1–2NASB95

      • Deuteronomy 28:1–6NASB95

      • Ruth 1:3–5NASB95

      • Ruth 1:6–13NASB95

      • Ruth 1:8–9NASB95

      • Ruth 1:11NASB95

      • Ruth 1:14NASB95

      • 2 Timothy 2:13NASB95

      • Lamentations 3:12–18NASB95

      • Lamentations 3:21–24NASB95

  • 'Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus
Providence Baptist Church of Baton Rouge
broguay@gmail.com
http://www.pbcbr.com
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