Meet Ruth #2

Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello again, I'm Bill Wright. It is our joy to continue our commitment to teaching God's people God's Word. Today Don is continuing with the second part of a message we started last time.

So let's get right to it. Open your Bible as we join Don now in the Truth Pulpit. Look at the book of Ruth in chapter 1 verse 1. The opening verse is in some ways the second most important verse in the entire book of Ruth because it tells us the context of what we're about to read. It says, now it came about in the days when the judges governed.

Oh is that important. You see if you just read Ruth in isolation and you didn't pay attention to the historical context that we just reviewed, you would miss the importance of that. But in those days of spiritual decline, in those days of national depravity, when violence and idolatry and immorality marked the people as a whole, in those days is when the book of Ruth takes place. Now that's interesting and based on what we've seen you say well it must be there must be more trouble ahead if this is in the days when the judges governed and that's a bad period.

Maybe there's bad things further ahead. Well let's see what happens in as we continue on in verse 1. By the way there are no points to this message.

There is a point to the message but there's not the typical three points that I lay things out for. This is just this is just an introduction to meet Ruth in. Ruth 1 verse 1, in the days when the judges governed there was a famine in the land and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab which is east of Israel with 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 Malon and Killian, Ephrathites of Bethlehem and Judah. Now they entered the land of Moab and remained there.

There's a certain sadness to that aspect of the story. Here they were God's chosen members of God's chosen people. A man of Bethlehem in the land of Judah and they leave the land of promise to go to the cursed land of Moab because there's a famine in the land of Israel. We'll look at this all more next week but anyway they enter into the land of Moab and remain there and so and so from the perspectives of the promises of Abraham here's a story illustrating what's going on and the people of God in the land that God promised to Abraham are leaving and abandoning it because of the famine. Verse 3 it doesn't go well for them there. Elimelech, Naomi's husband died and she was left with her two sons and 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.

Then both Malon and Killian also died and the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband. Now we plan to examine this passage more closely next week God helping us but for now just let the historical situation that we just read about sink into your mind and what's happening here. In a time of national depravity of complete unfaithfulness to God one Jewish widow is in a heathen nation with two foreign daughters-in-law and as the story unfolds one of them goes back to her home. Beloved just try to just try to squeeze your mind back into the situation and view it from inside the reality that existed at that time from a human perspective. Here is Naomi a widow with a foreign daughter-in- law and and no children of her own and no future whatsoever. There are no outward circumstances whatsoever to suggest that God was at work in that situation and certainly nothing to suggest that his hand of blessing was actually upon them in the midst of those times. It was completely dark and those of you that have suffered the loss of loved ones and you know that feeling of separation well multiply that if you can in your thinking of being in a foreign land where where even your people are not with you you are utterly alone you would resist you would be offended by you would you would find abrasive someone who would come along and and say God's greatly at work in your situation as you're weighing under the the grief of all of that and as the story unfolds in the book of Ruth and as I said we'll look at this more in the coming weeks we'll go through Ruth verse by verse in one way or another. Here's Naomi without hope embittered at life and she takes Ruth with her and returns to the land. You know the story I'm going to assume you know the story well enough to know that in in desperate poverty Ruth gathers grain in a field for subsistence living just to live hand to mouth and gathering up grain with her own hands by her own work in a dangerous situation and beloved as you read Ruth you realize that in the humble labor of that foreign woman in an unknown to her land God did something to advance the promises that he had made to Abraham a millennium earlier it's incredible it's incredible from all outward human appearances this was a forsaken woman in a forsaken national time and and all that she had to look forward to was poverty and sadness as she remained loyal to her mother-in-law and yet as the story unfolds you see that God was at work most certainly advancing his redemptive purpose and the fulfillment of the promise that he made to Abraham he guides Ruth to the field of Boaz a wealthy relative of Naomi's deceased husband Boaz shows kindness to her they get married they have a son look at Ruth chapter 4 verse 13 understanding that I'm skipping over all of the good stuff not all of the good stuff but leaving for future times of study what we're going to look at more closely just to give you the overview of the book and so in the midst of these desperate national circumstances Ruth finds favor in the eyes of a wealthy relative of her deceased father-in-law they get married verse 13 Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife and he went into her and the Lord enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to a son they named their son Obed Obed had a son named Jesse and Obed's son Jesse the grandson of Ruth and Boaz had a son you say so what that's what people do they get married they have babies and the generations continue on pastor would you please get to the point well by the time you get to the final verses of Ruth even within the story several generations have come and gone but God's redemptive purposes were as sure as ever God does not mark time like we do beloved God does not mark circumstances like we do God is completely unhindered by the disobedience and sin of man to accomplish what he designs to accomplish God when he made promises to Abraham some 4,000 years ago had the complete power ability and knowledge that was necessary to carry them out to perfect precise precision and he did it in the course of human history look at chapter 4 verse 22 the most important verse in the book of Ruth verse 21 to salmon was born Boaz there's our guy to Boaz Obed and to Obed was born Jesse and to Jesse David oh my David David the future king of Israel that David the greatest king of Israel before the coming of the Messiah came into the world humanly speaking through this marriage between Boaz and a foreign woman who had no hope from their marriage came a line that eventually led to David how does that happen it happens because God is powerfully at work his hidden hand at work in human interactions to direct men who don't even realize what he is doing to accomplish his will and that David was the one from whose line the greater son would come the Messiah our Lord Jesus Christ look at the book of Matthew now chapter 1 my intention is to preach an entire sermon just on this genealogy which might sound funny that's certainly not seeker friendly come out next week and we'll preach on the genealogy of Jesus that'll drive them away not people like you who love God's Word but to realize that in these genealogies are profound theological statements about the power and the purpose of God if we just respect God's Word enough to read it and to take it verse by verse look at this remembering the period of the judges remembering Ruth in her poverty remember remembering her working with her fingers in the barley fields just trying to get tonight's meal and realize what was actually happening from the perspective of God at that time Matthew chapter 1 verse 1 the record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David the son of Abraham Abraham was the father of Isaac Isaac the father of Jacob and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers you go on verses 3 4 and come to verse 5 salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth and Obed the father of Jesse Jesse was the father of David the king as you follow the line as it goes down to verse 16 Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary by whom Jesus was born who is called the Messiah why is Ruth important well a lot of reasons that we're going to see but what I want you to see for tonight is is that the the true historical story of Ruth is tied directly to your own redemption to your own salvation God sent his son through a human line he was born into the line of David and where did David come from humanly speaking trace it back trace it back through his father Jesse through Jesse's father Obed go to to Obed's father Boaz and there you find a capsule picture of the power of God to accomplish his purpose in salvation and get this in a time where anyone looking at what was happening at the time would wonder if the purposes of God had been utterly extinguished and yet what is really going on what's going on from God's perspective is that he is greatly at work in seemingly chance circumstantial decisions by inconsequential people like Ruth choosing one field instead of the other to go to glean in owned by one man instead of another and and it just so happens that these two people come together and from their line in subsequent generations comes David and following David over the centuries and over the following generations comes the Messiah beloved no human being coordinated that no human being would even pretend to write that the movies would reject the script as being ridiculous and yet the Christ that followed in that line is the Christ that was lifted up on the cross for your salvation the certainty of that outcome was not contingent upon human cooperation God was at work throughout it all men on that day saw Ruth gathering grain in the field God was advancing salvation God was in the process of fulfilling his promises to Abraham so what does God do in unrighteous times and in impossible situations he overrules it all he overrules impossible situations in part working through obscure human vessels in the mundane details of life in a way that no man could coordinate the ways of God are inscrutable but he always accomplishes his purposes and when he does it through weak unassuming human vessels there's only one thing that can be said in response and that is to God alone be the glory for what we have witnessed now let's flash forward 3,000 years to today as we sit here today in the light of our miserably wicked society the same God that was on the throne in the days of judges working out his purposes in obscure human detail that God then is the same God today and he is the same God today working out his will and his purposes in the mundane details of the lives of his people go that that go unnoticed by the media that go unnoticed by society but in the midst of his people God is working out his purposes in the midst of people common ordinary Christian people just like you and me the corruption of our day no more hinders God now than it hindered him back in the days of judges his purpose is certain Christ will return one day in glory God will accomplish everything that he desires even though we don't see it notice this and let this humble you quiet your heart give you patience and give you perspective the significance of what happened in the life of Ruth and Boaz was not manifested for generations they they were happily married and people congratulated them and Naomi had a grandson to hold and that was all really cool but the ultimate significance of it remained to be unfolded days and and years and generations after they were gone beloved we need to have the same sense of perspective and patience and trust knowing these things now on this side of the cross we need to have that same sense of patience we don't need to get all worked up about the politics of what's happening we mourn over the wickedness of our society but we view it from a perspective that says God is sovereign and though I can't see it or point it out I know that somewhere somehow God is certainly and powerfully carrying out his purposes even in the midst of every visible contradiction that you could imagine the truth is is that you and I do not know the ultimate significance of our lives and we can't begin to measure it by what's happening around us now we don't know what happens in the generations after we're gone in the lives of of your own progeny or in the lives of those that you affect we just don't know and that's okay rather we just step back and we say thank God that he's sovereign and in control of this and I can trust him to work out his purposes and apparently the way that he works out his purposes is in mundane often unnoticed acts of simple faithfulness and loyalty and obedience to Scripture and I can just I can just live out my faithfulness and trust God to use that however he sees fit you don't have to go out and see a miracle or be a miracle or do a miracle it doesn't have to be flashy for you to have a confidence that God is at work in the midst of your very ordinary faithful life we don't need strobe lights and glitter falling down from the ceilings we don't need loud pulsating music to manifest the presence of God at Truth Community Church the presence of God is manifested by your and through your faithful lives the presence of God is manifested through his word and as we are faithful to his word and we are faithful to our individual responsibilities we can have confidence that somehow God is going to work out eternal purposes that go far beyond all that we could ask or think and maybe when we get to eternity we'll get a glimpse of it and if we do we won't congratulate ourselves we'll give glory to the God whose hand was so mighty and powerful through such human weakness beloved the God of Ruth still reigns let's you and me be strong and courageous let's pray our God it's just a taste of what's yet to come in the book of Ruth we bow in awe and wonder speechless at your ability to accomplish your will and to work powerfully through human weakness and ordinary human faithfulness to accomplish what you desire oh we understand father you're not limited by the works of our hands that what you do goes beyond it and yet somehow you work through us to accomplish your will we thank you for that we thank you for the assurance that it brings to us father raise up from our midst and in our midst a body of people corporately and individually who are strong in these wicked times in which we live who do not tremble in fear at the let at the next bad news report at the next catastrophe that takes place at the next advance of perversion father give us the strength and confidence and certainty of of your overriding sovereignty that we that we are confident in what you are doing that you have included us in your plans and therefore the outcome most certainly will be good to your glory and you will not forget us in the process God we bow before you we are humbled in the presence of such greatness greatness that can speak worlds into existence out of nothing and perhaps an even greater greatness that quietly imperceptibly and yet powerfully certainly accomplishes your will as men go about their daily lives transcendent purposes being accomplished in the ordinary run of life we stand in awe of you we kneel and bow before you and father we draw great confidence from the certain accomplishment of your ultimate purposes we look at this world not with fear but with courage because we belong to you through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ it's in his name we pray amen well my friend before we go after today's broadcast I just want to invite you to look me up on Facebook Don Green on Facebook I often make original posts I make comments about ministry and other matters of biblical importance there that do not make their way into this broadcast and so if you are on Facebook I invite you to join me look for Don Green and join us on Facebook for another way to connect with our ministry that's Don Green founding pastor of truth community church in Cincinnati Ohio thank you so much for listening to the truth pulpit join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word