Welcome to Truth for Life. Today we begin a new study in the book of Ruth. This is a story of loyalty, duty, and love in the midst of heartbreak and hard times, and it all happens. Under the providential care of God. Alastair Begg begins by introducing us to a widow, in a desperate situation.
I uh Would like to ask you to take your Bible again and turn to Ruth with me if you would. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth. You say, Well, how did we get to Ruth?
Well, I have to confess to you that This is a book that I have never ever touched. I have never preached one verse out of the book of Ruth. Not because I haven't wanted to, because I've wanted to. I can't tell you how many times I've started an outline of a series of studies in Ruth. only to throw it away very, very quickly before it ever saw the light of day.
Indeed, I have nothing at all by way of outline. I only have what I have in front of me. A few Sunday nights ago, someone came up to me at the end of worship and said, Hey, by the way, when are we ever going back into the New Testament? We seem to be stalled, back to the Old Testament, we seem to be stalled in the New Testament. Um I said, well, we'll go back to the Old Testament as soon as I can.
And this is as soon as I can. And uh so we're going to uh take these evenings to look at this book of Ruth together. I'm not sure just how far we'll get this evening. And um When Derry Prime was here some years ago, he gave a talk. And he said, and I thought it was a very novel way of introducing it, he said, the address that I have to give you today will have something about it of what fresh bread would have.
I don't know if you remember he said that, but it has just come out and it hasn't fully formed and it hasn't fully settled. But I think it'll be tasty nevertheless.
Well, I'd like to apply that analogy to what we're about to go through now. And uh We better pray as we always do and ask God to help and guide us. Father, thank you that all Scripture is inspired by you, the living God, and is profitable for correction and for reproof. for training in righteousness.
So that we might, as men and women of God, be thoroughly equipped for every good work. We pray that as we turn to this ancient story This historic record As we're introduced to the lives of these individuals from a time so long ago and so far away. That you will help us. First of all, to get an inkling of who they were and what you were doing with them and for them and through them. And then that we might discover the way in which that has application to us tonight.
As we seek to take these ancient words to heart and mind and life.
So then quicken us and help us, we pray. We desperately need that. And so we humbly seek you in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, you could safely say that Bethlehem was buzzing. If you allow your eye to look down at verse 19 or so, You realize that the word that was zipping round this small community. was simply this Naomi is back. It had been some time, it had been over a decade since This lady, in the company of her husband Elimelech, and her two sons. had headed out at a time of famine into the land of the Moabites.
There is nothing within the record of the book to tell us that there was any contact maintained in the intervening years. Indeed, it would seem from the response of the people. That they were trying to determine that the lady's face that they now saw. Which presumably bore the impact of these intervening years. the bereavements, the relocations, the peculiar challenges.
That this lady's face was actually the face of their old friend Naomi. And the question, can this be Naomi? Presumably, it was a question that they were asking one another. Here in Bethlehem. Among the hills of Judah.
In the same location where, afterwards, David, as a shepherd boy, would be looking after the sheep. In the same location where afterwards shepherds also looking after sheep would hear the words of the angels announcing the arrival of the Messiah, the Christ. It is in this same location. That these events unfold that are recorded for us in these few chapters. of Ruth.
Now a quick glance for your homework backwards and a quick glance forwards will give you the immediate context in which we find this lovely little book. If you go back the way, you come to the story of the Judges. If you go forward, you come to the events surrounding the life of Samuel. And in the midst of these very dramatic and dark eras. uh we have this wonderful A story, this record of God's dealings.
in such a way as to remind people in every generation that no matter how dark and dramatic the events of life may appear to be, that God still has his people. is still working his purposes out. and is often choosing to do so in places that we would regard as very unlikely. and is choosing to do so in such a quiet fashion That those of us who tend to believe that the dramatic and the loud is the significant. Are caused to wonder whether God is doing anything at all.
Now the historic Identification is there in the opening phrase of the book in the days when the judges ruled. The judges period is approximately from 1200 BC to 1020 BC. The period of the judges is essentially the time between the death of Joshua, which you have recorded in Joshua 1.1, and the coronation of Saul, which is recorded in 1 Samuel 10. It's not my purpose to sketch in all of that background. It would take a long time, and it really isn't germane to what we're doing.
But when you read that period, you will discover that it was an era of frightful social and religious chaos. It was pandemonium. One commentator says the book of Judges teems with violent invasions, apostate religion, unchecked lawlessness, and tribal civil war. And frankly, that's putting it mildly. If you go home and read, for example, this week the story of Judges, some of you may have been doing so as a result of reading the Murray McShane program through the year, you know that the commentator is certainly not guilty of hyperbole.
But it is in that period, in the days when the judges ruled, that we're told the backdrop was then compounded by the arrival of a famine.
Now all we're told is that there was a famine in the land. We're not told if it was caused as a result of the intervention of the warring parties on the borders, or whether it was simply, if you like, a natural occurrence. But nevertheless, the response of one man to the circumstances of that time was to determine that he would go in search of food elsewhere.
Now again, you have to understand that the events of the famine had hit a lot of people. They would have been coming down to breakfast in the morning and saying to one another, well, I wonder if there any of the stores will be open today. I wonder if we'll manage to get any wheat today. I wonder if the barley or the olive supply will be down as it was yesterday. Mom, I'm hungry.
Dad, I'm dreadfully hungry. Isn't there somewhere that we can go and get food? And so it is that Elimelech, we're told, this man from Bethlehem in Judah, taking his wife and his two sons, went to live, notice, for a while in the country of Moab. The very terminology seems to suggest that he didn't intend to go there for the rest of his life, although, as it turned out, it was. He told his friends and his neighbors, presumably, that pragmatism was going to have to control his life and it was important for him to provide for his wife and his children.
Therefore, he'd have to make a run for it and see what he could get. And so off He went away from Bethlehem in Judah, six miles south of Jerusalem. On the eastern ridge of the central mountain range, some of you have been there, just east of the main highway that joins Hebron to Beersheba. A significant place in all of biblical history. Known best, of course, for the arrival of the Lord Jesus.
Try as best as you can to get your mind into this here in a small community. our families, mums and dads and children. Living out their life in the midst, and in some senses, isolated from the rampant chaos that is going on all around them. Preserving family values. maintaining ancestral religion.
Seeking to do things, if you like, by the book. nurturing one another in the things of Yahweh. And out of this community, Goes this individual. Incidentally, Leaving behind a town called Bethlehem, which is the meaning of the word is house of bread. And ironically, he has to leave the house of bread because of an absence of bread and go in search of it elsewhere.
It would appear that the author of Ruth is very, very interested in the names. For each of these names has significance. Elimelech actually means the Lord is my king. The sons' names, Killian and Malan, are not Dissimilar from two other words, which actually mean sickly and pining.
Now you must assume that he didn't choose these names. And here's our first boy, why don't we call him sickly? And then now that we've got a second one, why don't we call him pining? But it just so happens that the very names that they were given would make it possible for people to identify them in that way. And there is every indication, as a result of what we read a little later on, that these characters may actually have been both sickly and pining.
as a result of their uh sorry pilgrimage, we read of their premature death.
Now, the fact that this man would decide to head out of here is really a quite astonishing decision. The reason that it is astonishing is twofold, or the reasons are twofold. First of all, because God's presence, according to the Jew, was distinctly in the land. God had promised his people that he would meet with them there. They had symbols of the abiding presence of God.
If ever there was a place where they could meet with God, if ever there was a place where God would provide for them, then surely it was in the land that He had given to them. Therefore, for this man, whose name means the Lord is my king, to head out to a foreign place At least Raises the question in our minds as to whether he really was trusting in the kingship of his God at this point or not. Or whether he was tempted to go off and try and take matters into his own hands. The second reason that it is so striking is because the people of Moab had actually been. told by God to his people as a raw bunch of individuals.
And therefore he had encouraged them to avoid the people of Moab. Don't spend time with the people of Moab. Don't get involved with the people of Moab. If you doubt that, you can read it in Deuteronomy 23, in 2 Kings 3, in Numbers 21, and so on.
Now, before we stand in judgment of a limelech, we recognize that a father has a responsibility to provide for his children. And therefore, he must have said, We can only last here a very small time longer, and I think the best thing we can do is get up and go in search of bread somewhere else. And so we see him heading out at the end of verse 2, and they went to Moab and they live there. You notice the Advance in terminology, they were going to go to Moab and live for a while there. The description in verse 2, at the end of verse 2, is a far more subtle description.
And they went to Moab and they actually lived there. It wasn't so much that they were just popping in to see if there was any bread or barley or olives or grapes, and then they were going home, but they had actually settled down there. Moab Was and is a mountainous region on the east side of the Dead Sea. It had a particularly fertile plateau that ran for about 25 miles and also was several thousand feet up above the sea's eastern shore. And it was to this region.
As a result of famine, That a LMLF takes His wife. and sons.
So, in my notes, all I wrote down for the first two verses was famine. And then that. Then I wrote down the word bereavement as we come to verse 3. You may want to have these as headings. Bereavement.
Now Elimelech Naomi's husband died. And she was left with her two sons.
So, the security and the protection that Elimelech had been seeking for his family never materialized. And fine, he dies. leaving his wife A widow? She fortunately has two sons. And unfortunately, she's about to lose them.
However, as is true in family life, the loss of her husband would have been mitigated in some sense by the prospect of the weddings. There is always joy in weddings, and they must have looked forward to the day with great anticipation. And uh one was married and then another. And the weddings themselves would do something to soothe her grief. Many of us have been there in the absence of a loved one.
There has been that bittersweet day. The wish that they could have been present, and yet at the same time the great joy and the unfolding of the marriage. Naomi would have lived through all those emotions. And of course, with marriage comes the prospect of grandchildren. And so she would have been able to drop over for the equivalent of coffee and inquire in the discreet way that mother-in-laws do.
As to whether there's any kind of activity in the offing and whether she might be hearing the sound of tiny feet any time soon. But she could not have imagined the tragedy that would then unfold. Not only does she have no grandchildren, none are born to these couples in a period of some ten years, but she actually finds herself without her children, inasmuch as her sons Melan and Killian also died. And so, verse 3, she was left. with her two sons.
She's down now to two. And then at the end of verse five, She was left without her two sons. and her husband. In that sorry scene it is. A lonely widow?
Living in a foreign country without either the protection and provision of a husband or that which may come by way of her sons. in a male-dominated society. It was a hopeless setup. And as the story unfolds, as the readers read the story, and some of you have never read this story in your life. You're inevitably saying to yourself, well, I wonder what's going to happen here.
Is there going to be, out of the tragedy of these events, a triumph which God brings? Is this going to be, some of the readers, the early readers would have said, a similar story to the story of Joseph, who was so poorly treated by his brothers, who was strapped on the back of a camel, who was shipped off into exile, and yet by means of that God was providing for his people so that they would not die in the famine. Is that the kind of thing that's going to happen? Is this the kind of story that we have with Moses and the children of Israel in the Exodus? And of course, she herself must have been saying, I don't know what I'm going to do now.
I really don't know what the future holds. She faces her declining years with no children to care for her and no grandchildren to cheer her up. Naomi. Who's to know whether she thought it was a great idea to go to Moab or not? Who's to know the discussions that took place in the family room before they left?
Did she say to Elimelech, Elimelech, I don't know if I really want to go to Moab. And he said, Oh, come on, I think it's the best thing to do. Or was she the champion of it? Did she lead the charge? Did she say, you know, Elimelech, I think we should get out of here and go to Moab?
If it was the former, then she would of course have reason to sit and say, I wish I had listened to him. And if it was the latter, then she would have reason to sit and say, I wish Ian listened to me. But whether the former or the latter, she now sits alone. An alien in a strange land. Driven from her home by famine.
Robbed of her loved ones by death, And the most significant part of this, which will unfold as we continue our study, is this: that one of Israel's family units. quarters on the brink of extinction. And if there was one thing that was a shame in the nation of Israel, it was that your family line would come to an end. And that is exactly what she faces. Her husband's gone, her boys are dead, she's too old to get married again.
If there were to be any prospect at all. of any kind of offspring. in these amazing odds. then it would have to be a work of God.
So we read on. Famine. Bereavement.
Return, verse 6. When she heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them.
Somehow or another the news was getting back from home. Here's a little ray of sunshine in the darkness. God is intervening in providing His people with food. We ought not to be too quick just to jump over that in our highly technological society. This is not something that ancient people believed.
This is something that God's people believe. I am thoroughly impressed, as I'm sure you are, at the ability of these vast superstores to know how many jars of pickle they still have on their shelves without looking. I am constantly amazed at the ability for of the trucks to show up right on queue at the absolutely correct bay with the right requisite number of toilet rolls to fit the space on the bay that has been left by the absence of the aforementioned without any human being either interfering in it in any way at all. And so we say my, my, my. Isn't technology a wonderful thing?
It would have been strange, of course, wouldn't it, to have lived in the days when we actually believed that the Lord came to the aid of his people by providing food for them. He still does. Ultimately, it is God who stocks the shelves. It is God who stalks the shelves. It is a wonderful exercise, you know.
If you go early in the morning or late in the evening, I detest any other time, and you engage in this exercise. As you take things off the shelf, just at least under your breath, if not audibly. to thank God for his provision. I thank you for another box of Cheerios, Scott. Without you, there would be no Cheerios.
Thank you, Father, for milk. Thank you for orange juice. I love orange juice. Thank you, Father, for eggs. Thank you, Father, that you come to the aid of your people.
See, something lives in every hue that Christless eyes have never seen. Nobody ought to walk up and down the aisles of a supermarket with a greater sense of amazement and gratitude than the Christian. For we know from whence this comes. This is the Lord's doing. And it is marvelous in our eyes.
So the word comes to Naomi. God has intervened. The food is back on the shelves. Things are picking up at home. She would have been glad to sing the children's harvest hymn, All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above.
So thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord for all his love. He only is the giver. Of all things. near and far. He clothes the morning flower, he lights the evening star, and so on.
I love that hymn. I can't remember any more of it now. But we have to remember to keep singing those hymns as well, you see, because otherwise we'll get unhinged here. Reminding who God is, reminding us of who God is and what He does. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alastair Begg.
We'll hear more in this story tomorrow. Most of us will encounter in life what Naomi and Ruth encountered, loss, grief, loneliness, and uncertainty, and we can learn a lot from this short Old Testament story.
So to day we are recommending to you a resource that is a brand new study in the Book of Ruth called God of the Ordinary. And we're excited to offer this six-session study. This is a format we have never offered before. Not only is it a verse-by-verse study through the Bible, but each lesson includes a link to brand new video commentary from Alistair, so as you work your way through the study, Alistair is right there with you, offering insight along the way through the paired video instruction. If you're part of a small group Bible study, or you lead a Sunday school class, this is a terrific study that offers a deeper look into how Ruth's story assures us that God's loving hand is always at work, even in the routines of your day-to-day life.
You'll also see how the book of Ruth points us forward to Jesus our Redeemer. Ask for your copy of God of the Ordinary, a study in the Book of Ruth, to day, when you donate to support the Bible teaching ministry of Truth for Life. You can do that using our mobile app, or online at truthforlife. org slash donate, or call us at eight eight eight five eight eight seven eight eight four. Your donation helps care for the cost of producing and distributing this daily program, so when you give, in addition to receiving the God of the Ordinary study, keep in mind your donation is making it possible for people all around the world to benefit from Alistair's teaching in the same way you have.
Thanks for studying the Bible with us today. Tomorrow we'll learn how Ruth's decision to stay with Naomi points forward to a decision each of us must eventually make. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
