Social media can help us stay connected to friends and family members, but sometimes the pictures we see on social media. makes it look like everyone else is living a remarkable life and we feel pretty ordinary.
Well, being ordinary doesn't mean we're insignificant. And today on Truth for Life, Alastair Begg illustrates how God uses ordinary people and ordinary events for extraordinary purposes. Boom, what's it? When you read the story of Judges, you find that the backdrop against which this wonderful little story of Ruth is set. is one of civil strife.
And of national upheavals and of international concerns. And then right in the middle of all of that, God gives to us this story about ordinary people facing the ordinary events of life. And when you read these four chapters, you realize that here we are introduced to a small group of people who are just like the rest of us dealing with the everyday routines of life.
Now that ought to be immediately an encouragement to most of us because despite protestations to the reverse, the fact is that most of our lives are rather humdrum. It is a tremendous encouragement to turn to this little book of Ruth and realize that the God who's in charge of the whole universe actually knows the names and is interested in the affairs of these ordinary people in the village life of Bethlehem.
So the book serves as a necessary correction. To our proneness to believe that ordinariness must be the precursor to uselessness. It also is a very important reminder when we are prone to go in search of the unusual and the spectacular. Here this story says God doesn't need you to be unusual and he doesn't need you to be spectacular. He made you you and he put you where you are and he knows exactly your street number and he created your DNA.
So, if you happen to be feeling yourself lost in the universe, Take encouragement. From the providential care of God. in this little story. It made me go immediately to a book. Which is an older book now.
It just says Fred Mitchell on the spine. I'm sure you all know Fred Mitchell, don't you? Yes, that's what I thought. When I picked it off, I said, Now everyone will know Fred. No, I'd be hard pressed to find people in Britain, many of them who even know Fred now.
Says of this chap, Fred Mitchell. The abiding message of Fred Mitchell's life is that he accomplished no great thing. His name was linked with many Christian organizations, but he was the founder of none. He turned the feet of many into paths of righteousness. but not more than others of his contemporaries.
He made no spectacular and inspiring sacrifices. He effected no reforms. For the first forty-five years of his life, the pathway he traversed was similar to that of thousands of other moderately successful businessmen. From village school to pharmacy. would have been an appropriate summing up of his outward course.
Now here's the sentence it sent me to it. On that ordinary humdrum track, however, He walked with God. Climbing steadily. in spiritual experience. And then, and this is the preface to the opening chapter of this brief biography, and this is where it launches it.
This, then. is the story of an ordinary man from a village home. with working class parents. who spent the greater part of his life as a pharmacist in Yorkshire. and who walked with God.
And it's a great story. It's a great story. He became the general director of the China Inland Mission. Hudson Taylor. DE host.
Fred Mitchell. Doesn't kinda have the name for it, does it? And now, the general director of the China Inland Mission, Hudson Taylor. D E host. Mm.
And we Freddie Mitchell from Yorkshire. Here with the vastness of the universe to care for. God takes, as it were, the telephoto lens of his gaze and he shines it right down on the life of this character, Elimelech. He goes from the concerns of the globe. To a certain man, actually in the King James it is, and a certain man from Bethlehem.
in Judah.
Now last time we dealt with the body of the chapter under three words. We noted famine. Bereavement. Return And in the moments that are left to me now, we'll put it just under one other word, and the word is arrival. Arrival, famine, bereavement, return, verse 6, at least the preparation for it, when they discover that food was bank in the region.
they would uh make their way back to Bethlehem. And so they set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. And we noted last time. The dialogue that then ensued between these two daughters-in-law to Naomi. One of them, Orpa, finally turning around and going back to her gods and her culture.
And this other uh Great statement of devotion. from this uh young girl Ruth. which sends her on her way in the company of Naomi. Which is uh verse 19. The description of the arrivals, so the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem, and when they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred.
Because of them and the woman exclaimed, Can this be Naomi? Any hope that Naomi may have had of slipping back into things quietly was immediately scorched. We're told that their arrival in Bethlehem caused the whole town to be stirred. Those of us who have spent the greater part of our lives living only as city dwellers or in the suburbs may find this very, very hard to imagine. After all, it's difficult for us to see, living in a place of some size, how it could be that the arrival of two widow women in the routine of life would somehow or another create a stir throughout the whole community.
But if you have lived any length of time in a small village, you will understand exactly how it happens. As a youngster in Scotland, our family vacations were more often than not in the Highlands of Scotland. We would go mostly to a little village called Ballantor. was contiguous with two other villages. You came down the hill of Fern and you arrived in a little uh fishing port called Shandwick.
There was no end to Shandwik, it simply ran into Ballantor. There was no end to Ballantour, it simply ran into Hilton. But everybody knew where they lived, and the person in Hilton knew they didn't live in Ballantour, and the people that lived in Ballantour knew they didn't live in Shandwick. And it was always a great mystery to me. that we could come down that hill Make a journey of less than two and a half miles and arrive at the caravan site.
and be greeted by boys and girls on their bicycles. They already knew that we had come. Why? Because from the vantage point of their lookout spots, they could see the arrival of any aliens. They could know that a car had come from somewhere that they didn't recognize.
And the word passed rapidly through this tiny community. And that's exactly what happens here. They come. And suddenly the place is a bus. The people are saying to one another, I believe that Naomi's back.
She is. That's who that was?
Well, it looks like Naomi. Oh, said another girl. I didn't think so. She seems a lot smaller than when she left. Has she lost weight?
Oh no, said somebody. I don't think she's lost weight at all. In fact, I mean, I was behind her, but I think she's a little plumper than when she went away. You say, come now, they didn't say things about that about Bible characters, did they? Of course they did.
This is a this is a group of women having a discussion. I wonder where her husband is. What happened to Elimelet? I mean, she went out of here. She had a husband.
What's she back on her own for? Where are her sons? Who's the girl? Oh, I don't know. They say she's a widow too.
She's back. She's a widow. She has a girl with her. She's a widow. Who's to know?
And then one of them up close. It is you, Naomi, isn't it? Hey. Don't call me Naomi. Why don't you just go ahead and call me Mara?
What?
Well, of course they only means pleasant. And mara means bitter. And I've got to be honest with you and tell you: yes, it's me, and yes, I'm back. But I don't really fit my name. And the journey of my life through these last years.
has brought me to a position in which I feel such a sense of bitterness and embitterment That for somebody to shout out, pleasant. It doesn't make me turn my head. But if you were to shout out, Bitter I may respond. Jeez, quitter. Quite a how do you do, isn't it?
It is you, Naomi, isn't it? And all of a sudden she jumps down her throat. But here let's be fair to Naomi. Can you imagine that journey back? And particularly when you get in the precincts of those old familiar haunts.
When suddenly Old familiar faces Reappear on the other side of the street, and you know in an instant. Oh. That's Mrs.
So-and-so. My, she's changed. and that must be her sons. Look how they've grown. And then round the corner to the park.
And suddenly a flood of memories. This is where I used to bring the boys. And further down the road to where she and Elimelech walked when they courted one another. And it all gushes over her. I went away full.
Look at me now. Hey. Don't call me pleasant. Call me bitter. That'd be a better name for me.
Right now. I'll tell you why, she says. I'll tell you why. Because Shaddai The Almighty. has made my life very bitter.
This is a level of honesty that we don't often encounter, isn't it? We saw it back in verse 13 when she tried to dissuade the girls, her daughter-in-laws, from coming with her. She says, Listen, my daughters, it's more bitter for me than for you. The explanation, because the Lord's hand, Yahweh's hand, has gone out against me. I actually am really drawn to this character, Naomi, now.
She'd gone on my buddy list, you know. I would like to I am her. Because we would have a lot to talk about. She doesn't hide her feelings, right? What you see is what you get.
Don't call me this, call me this. She doesn't pretend that she isn't ticked. Because she is angry. There is no attempt on her part. to sweep all of these experiences of life aside.
And play the part of the Stoic with a stiff upper lip. Oh yes, I'm back and everything is fine. Nor is there any endeavor on her part, by means of false affirmations, to try and make everybody believe that not only is all well, but she feels that everything is well. If she were to have done any of the above, then she would have been less than honest And secondly, She would have betrayed the theology which underpinned her expression of faith. in the midst of the dark side of Providence.
For that's where she'd been living. Where Cowper calls it a frowning providence. It's no surprise that when in verse 13 she said what she said about the Lord's hand going out against her, the women wept. Says one commentator, let the women's tears Remind us of the importance of not hiding our feelings or pretending. that they're not there.
Somebody wrote to me last week and said, you know, you said that dreadful thing about ladies crying, and you know, you're such a male chauvinist pig of a person, and so on. And I felt so bad because I didn't mean to be offensive. I mean, I just do that naturally. I wasn't trying. Believe me, when I start trying, it will get really out of control, but I was just...
Making a passing comment, like, you know, the gossiping one, and do right, um, right. right early because this is a short week. The fact of the matter is. That the tears of the women are a reminder to us. That tears are a great gift from God.
Many times men in seeking to circumvent this expression which God has given. find themselves pressing it down into their souls and it comes out in difficult and disappointing ways later on. But you see, Naomi's experience reminds us. That some pains, quite frankly, seem unbearable. that some circumstances seem unjust.
And some questions through all of our lives. remain unanswered. It is in the hundred. and ordinariness of life. That we make that discovery.
The language with which he makes this expression. In verse 21, I went away full. The Lord brought me back empty. is actually this. Fool I went.
But empty Brought me back, Yahweh. I mean it's absolutely clear in our mind. I had a husband, I had children, I had a future, I had hopes, I had dreams, I had the expectation of all this new and wonderful opportunity. And I went away full. And here I am.
And yes, it is Naomi. But as I say, I don't fit my name. But look at how her, and I just draw this to a close here. Look at how her honesty is more than matched by her theology. She doesn't attribute these dreadful things in her life to chance.
Is it Ellie? It's only the God-fearing person who has any problem with pain. The atheist shouldn't make any comment about pain. What does the atheist have to say about pain? If there is no God, it is a chance universe, and things just rumble and tumble along.
What do they have to say about pain? What do they mean? Where is God in the midst of this? You have no God, you have nothing to say. It's the God fearer who has a predicament.
For now we have said that this God controls everything by his sovereign power. He creates and by his providence he sustains. And so now I've lost my two boys.
Now I've lost my husband.
Now I've made a hatch of this.
Now who are we gonna blame this on? Is he our theology? Shaddai The providing, the protecting God. Alec Mattiya says this is the characteristic of God that may be summarized as the God who is at his best when man is at his worst. What does Shaddai mean?
It means that God's at His best when we're at our worst. And that's the framework within which she deals with her pain. The Lord has afflicted me, verse 21. The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. I've gone through famine.
I've gone through bereavement. I've gone through partings. I've gone through questionings. I've gone and lived in apparent hopelessness. But I know God as Shaddai.
And so I can leave the explanation and the responsibility for this bitterness with him. You see why theology is so important? You see why a knowledge of God and His dealings is the key when the waves hit and when the wheels come off the wagon and when everything goes haywire on us? What are we going to do in that day? She would have been glad to sing the song.
Through it all, through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus, I've learned to trust in God, I've learned to depend upon his word. And then verse twenty two. The narrator returns. draws the chapter to a close with perfect symmetry. I love the way the whole thing ties together.
Any poet would be thrilled with this. Notice verse 1, in the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine. And the man from Bethlehem went to Moab Verse 22. They came back from Moab to Bethlehem and the harvest was beginning. It's so wonderful.
But a great story. Full circle. Finally, Bethlehem's living up to his name. The house of bread has bread in it. As I've read this again this week.
It's just been um It's been like a movie in my mind. And I've had my own theme music playing in my head. I would sing it for you, but it would probably clear the building. Faster than the fire alarm. But it has all been a lament to this point.
Part of it has been played by a loan bagpiper. And all in a very mellow key. All of the cinematography has been shot. through a lens that makes everything just slightly gloomier than it would otherwise be. But now, as it comes to the narrator's voice coming up on this closing scene in verse 22, the music is just about to change just ever so slightly.
And what it does is it just changes from a minor key to a major key. Just there's an inkling of it, and then it goes back, and then it comes again. And just suddenly, there is a shaft of light that comes down through the clouds and it hits on the barley fields. You just get a long shot away out from the village, and there you see some of these men out in the barley fields. And somehow, the clouds have parted, and there's an inkling that there's a future beyond chapter one, that there's something about to take place, that the narrator is telling us that this Mauabite girl has a future, that there's something about to dawn, there's something about to break.
Because when God is at work, even hopelessness. May be the doorway to fresh starts. and to new opportunities. And so the music picks up. And it doesn't become a jig.
But it certainly moves it forward. Lifting the spirit of the reader. Saying, well, this Naomi who still trusts even in the bitterness, I wonder what's going to happen to her. And I wonder what part God has for Ruth. I wonder if she'll get remarried.
Oh I don't think I'll fall asleep. I think I'll read chapter 2. Have you seen God in the ordinariness of your life? Have I? Or we've fallen into the trap of believing that somehow or another God only operates in the spectacular and in the extraordinary.
And so we're going through day after day after day looking for something spectacular and something extraordinary and missing the fact that God is speaking in the ordinariness of everything. In a bowl of apples on a table. In a meal well prepared. In a bird on a feeder in a garden. In a conversation with a friend in the backyard.
Although he has a whole universe to care for. He turns his gaze on a certain man. or a certain woman in Cleveland, Ohio. And he says, I know your name. And it is graven on the palms of my hands.
And although you feel yourself cast about on a universe that is going who knows where. As surely as I took Naomi off and brought her back, I'm looking after you two. Don't miss him. And the moon. as it shines through the clouds.
For in these simple gestures God is sustaining and guiding his children. Until at the last He will dispel all the darkness. He will dispel all the darkness. Such an encouraging reminder from Alastair Begg that God is at His best when we are at our worst. You're listening to Truth for Life.
Well, I hope you're enjoying this journey we're taking through the story of God's providence over Naomi and Ruth. As you listen to their story on Truth for Life, let me suggest you look ahead to a group Bible study you're planning for this fall and think about diving deeper into this Old Testament book. We are recommending today a resource that is a brand new study in the Book of Ruth. It's titled God of the Ordinary. It comes with a study booklet that takes you verse by verse through Ruth's story, and then each lesson is paired with new video teaching from Alastair.
So through this six-session Bible study, your group will learn that within the routine of life's events, God's sovereign hand is always at work. Ask for your copy of God of the Ordinary, a study in the book of Ruth, today. When you donate to support the Ministry of Truth for Life, you can use our mobile app. Or reach out online at truthforlife.org/slash donate or call us at 888-588-7884. And if you'd rather mail your donation along with your request for the book, Write to Truth for Life, at P.O.
Box 398000, Cleveland, Ohio, 44139. We're glad you studied the Bible with us today.
Sometimes our current circumstances can create a bleak outlook, and it's tempting just to give up. Tomorrow we'll find out where hope is always found. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
