BEAUTY IN THE BROKEN: RUTH

Pastor Jonathan Falwell 

Matthew 1:5-6 (CSB) Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse, 6 and Jesse fathered King David. 

Ruth 1:1-5 (CSB) During the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to stay in the territory of Moab for a while. 2 The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife’s name was Naomi. The names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the fields of Moab and settled there. 3 Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 Her sons took Moabite women as their wives: one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth. After they lived in Moab about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was left without her two children and without her husband.

Ruth 1:8-9 Naomi said to them, “Each of you go back to your mother’s home. May the Lord show kindness to you as you have shown to the dead and to me. 9 May the Lord grant each of you rest in the house of a new husband.” She kissed them, and they wept loudly.

1. Loss is not the end of the story

Ruth 1:19-21 The two of them traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited about their arrival, and the local women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” 20 “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,” she answered, “for the Almighty has made me very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has opposed me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?

• Naomi means “pleasant” while Mara means “bitter”
• Naomi is a broken woman due to the great loss she has experienced
• Here, Naomi is not blaming God, she is simply stating her view of her own condition that everything is in God hands, good and bad
• Remember, verse 6 states they went back to Bethlehem because of God’s provision
  • Ruth 1:6 – She and her daughters-in-law set out to return from the territory of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to his people’s need by providing them food
• While she felt bitter, alone and neglected, she failed to notice the timing of God’s deliverance
  • Ruth 1:22b …They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest

2. The righteous acts of today will follow you tomorrow

Ruth 2:10-12  She fell facedown, bowed to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor with you, so that you notice me, although I am a foreigner?” 11 Boaz answered her, “Everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband’s death has been fully reported to me: how you left your father and mother and your native land, and how you came to a people you didn’t previously know. 12 May the Lordreward you for what you have done, and may you receive a full reward from the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.”

• In ancient Israel, Moabites were not welcome and Ruth had every inclination she would be rejected by the people of Naomi’s homeland. Yet, here Boaz shows her kindness. While Boaz certainly would have ulterior motives, the greater message is the faithfulness of God to all people.
• Vernon McGee states, “…this little Book of Ruth reveals something that is quite interesting: racial barriers were broken down, and God is concerned and loves even those who have upon them a stigma and a judgment.”[1]
• Boaz echoes God’s faithfulness in verse 12

3. God responds to our need in the most unlikely ways

Ruth 2:20 He is one of our family redeemers.

• “redeemers” – gōâlẽ (to reclaim as one’s own)
• Naomi was now aware that the man who had shown kindness to Ruth, and Naomi, was family. And, she was now aware of his position within “levirate law”

Isaiah 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.” This is the Lord’s declaration. 9 “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

4. God is always faithful

Ruth 4:11-12 All the people who were at the city gate, including the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is entering your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built the house of Israel. May you be powerful in Ephrathah and your name well known in Bethlehem. 12 May your house become like the house of Perez, the son Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring the Lord will give you by this young woman.”

• While levirate law was regularly practiced, it was not required. “Yibbum” could be rejected by either party through a ceremony called “halizah” meaning Boaz was not required to redeem Ruth, he wanted to
• Boaz went to the closer relative to inquire if that relative wanted to redeem the land and by extension, Ruth, but the man would not (vss 1-5)
• While the man wanted the land, he didn’t want to marry Ruth and divide his own estate (vs 6)

Ruth 4:14-15 Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you without a family redeemer today. May his name become well known in Israel. 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. Indeed, your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”

• The key statement here is “blessed be the Lord, who has not left you…)
• This has far less to do with Boaz and his relationship with Ruth and far more to do with the faithfulness of God to us all
• “May his name become well known…” Clearly here, God was faithful as the child of Ruth became the father of Jesse who was the father of David, the king of Israel, and the ancestor in the line of Messiah

Application:

1. Loss is a part of life
2. In troubling times, focus on the “harvest” of God’s faithfulness
3. Remember God’s great promise: Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and courageous; don’t be terrified or afraid of them. For the Lord your God is the one who will go with you; he will not leave you or abandon you.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that in his book The Conduct of Life, and it’s just as true today as when the book was published back in 1860. Because God gave us freedom of choice, we can ignore the will of God, argue with it, disobey it, even fight against it. But in the end, the will of God shall prevail; because “the counsel of the Lord stands forever…”[2]

[1] J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible Commentary: History of Israel (Ruth), electronic ed., vol. 11 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), 43.

[2] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Committed, “Be” Commentary Series (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993), 13.