Greener Grass

This is a riches to rags crisis hitting this family. What you have here are Rockefellers living like immigrants.

You have Vanderbilt's homeless. So why stay in Bethlehem where the famine has reduced them and everybody else to handouts? They're used to a better life than that. Why stay in the land of our faith and our forefathers? Let's move where the grass is greener.

And then comes the compromise following the crisis. As humans, our default reaction when things aren't going well is to leave. If there's strife in the church, we find another one. If we're not happy in our marriage, we get divorced. If a friend lets us down, we let them go. We think that we'll find something better somewhere else. Contentment doesn't come naturally or easily. But like everything else that's precious, it's worth working for.

As Stephen Davey continues through the book of Ruth today, the characters face a crisis which set a series of events in motion. This is wisdom for the heart. And Stephen's called this message greener grass. As I drive to and from my home, there is a pasture on the side of the road with half a dozen horses that are grazing away. In spite of the fact that their pasture is fertile and green, it's not unusual to see one of those horses straining his neck over the upper beam of that fence to try to get a mouthful of grass on the other side not nearly as green. It never fails to remind me of the myth of the greener grass, the belief that somewhere else life is better, easier, more fulfilling. It cannot be in the middle of your own pasture.

It's got to be somewhere else. The grass always looks a lot greener, doesn't it, in a different house or with a higher paycheck. Maybe it's a different job or at a different school or in a different neighborhood or driving a different car next to a different spouse belonging to a different family. The grass is always greener everywhere else but wherever you are. Now we can't ignore the fact that some situations are difficult and harder than others and sometimes we need to make changes. The problem comes though when we decide that surely God would not purposefully make life difficult or uncomfortable or challenging.

In fact, he really just wants everybody to be happy. So greener grass must be proof of God's leading. The truth is greener grass just might be the most dangerous pit you will ever escape. I'm reminded of Irma Bombeck who had that funny way of summing up the myth when she entitled her book, The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank.

It looks promising, rewarding. You have no idea what's underneath. Well, we're about to witness the myth of greener grass literally played out in real time in living color, robed in flesh and blood in the lives of real people. If you've ever read, you know, one of those fairy tales to your daughter where it's all make believe before you ever get past the first page or the hero ever shows up, it becomes foreboding and dark and troubled and storm clouds just kind of gather over the scene. Well in the fairy tale of Ruth and Boaz, which happens to be truth, the same story line emerges. So the background of this story barely gets past the first few lines and it's dark and foreboding and clouds begin to gather. Let's go back to verse one and get a running start. 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.

Now let's stop there for a moment. Without a doubt, this man, his wife and his two sons are facing a crisis. That's where thoughts of greener grass usually find their way into our hearts and minds in the middle of a crisis. For this man, there was a famine in the land which affected his hometown of Bethlehem. Add to that the political crisis, the upheaval during the days of the judges, we studied in our last session together, the collapse of morality, the collapse of civility, the affecting of life, true religious piety, all of that, then compounded with living in fear of a Midianite attack, the loss of cattle, maybe even the loss of your own life, and then you pile on top of that the investment potential in the land of Bethlehem, never looked more bleak, and now you add on top of that the very heap of the crisis at the very top, the cupboard is empty, the hayloft is empty, and the cattle are starving. There's a certain irony that's lost to English readers, a pun in the Hebrew language that Jewish readers would have immediately caught. The phrases famine in the land and a man of Bethlehem next to it. That would be a pun.

Why? Because Bethlehem means house of bread. In other words, the bread basket of Judah is empty. People who live in the house of bread are going hungry.

The original audience would have immediately caught the contradiction in terms, the pun. There is a famine in the house of bread. That's sort of like talking about a rise in gang warfare in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. The association of famine with Bethlehem, the bread basket of Judah, would have created an immediate twist for the reader. Now Bethlehem lay about six miles south of Jerusalem and its name, house of bread, was something it evidently earned. Wheat, I learned, barley, rice, almonds, and grapes were plentiful in ancient days. But now there's a famine. More than likely it's the famine mentioned in Judges chapter six. It's the only famine mentioned during the times of Judges which allows us to place this story with the leadership of Gideon and the oppression of the Midianites. Even more importantly, it helps us understand that this famine is the result of God's judgment because the people have rebelled against him. God often used famine to bring a nation to their sense of need. God's design was for the people not to leave the house of bread but to repent, beginning and to follow after God. And the cycle would come around by the grace of God and he would again fill their houses with bread to eat. God had a way of using famine to refashion faith, faith in his promises and his provision.

So it was something that you could observe as testing of their character and that which would deepen it. Now to add even more play on word meanings was the fact that they would move to Moab. The Lord called Moab in Psalm 60 verse 8, a wash pot.

That was a pot used to wash dirty feet. That would be akin to calling Moab a trash can where you put things you want to throw away. This region was the waste basket. So now you have a Jewish family in a crisis of faith leaving the house of bread and moving to the dumpster.

They moved from the bread basket to the trash can and the Jewish reader would have immediately picked up on the meanings of these words. Now before we go much further let's take a look at the characters in this drama. There are six key players here but after these opening verses only three of them will be left alive. Verse 2 informs us that the patriarch of the family was named Elimelech. Loosely translated his name meant God is my king.

The tragedy of Elimelech's life was simply that he didn't live up to his name. Next comes Naomi. Her name means gracious one. And then Naomi and Elimelech's sons sort of make a brief curtain call and their names are Malon and Killian. They have rhyming names. Could have meant that they were twins. More than likely they weren't. They just happened to have a mother probably that wanted their children's names to you know rhyme like mothers do.

They start with the same letter or they end with the same ending. Or maybe it's like my ministry minded parents. You know this was good for deputation because we would line up in front of the churches where we'd go to raise support and my dad would say now these are our four sons Daniel Jonathan Stephen and Timothy and then he would say two from the Old Testament two from the New Testament.

We'd stand there and go dad it's not even funny. But then they couldn't resist my mother had to give three of us middle names that started with D's Dwayne Dean and Dale three D's which looked a lot like my report card growing up. I don't know if Naomi had a little paperback book you know with two hundred Jewish boys names that rhymed or not.

The reason I suggest that even though it's a little tongue in cheek there's actually a little seriousness there too. She must have liked rhyming names or she and her husband because the meaning of their names are not good at all. She must have just like the sound of them. Malon means puny or weakling and Killian means pining. Imagine their names mean puny and whiny. How's that for two boys?

Way to go mom. Thank you for giving me that for the rest of my life. While we're at it verse four gives us the names of their future wives. Look there Orpah. Orpah means obstinate literally stiff necked.

It's a lovely name for a girl. Fairly confident I can say that there are no Orpahs in here. Is anybody named Orpah?

That's what I thought. Good. Orpah. Then finally there's Ruth whose name means comfort perhaps it could mean friend. So here you have Mr. Puny marrying Miss Strong Neck and Mr. Whiny marrying Miss Friend or Comfort. I think that's absolutely hilarious.

When you spend 30 hours in your study things get funny okay. Frankly you know when you look at that Ruth is the only one who doesn't quite fit the picture. And actually they will all literally live out the meanings of their names all except for one. The only one who should have lived up to his name. Alimelech. My God is king. God is the master of my life. God is sovereign. My God comes first to me.

Not quite. I want to point out one more clue about this family. The meanings of these names are so freighted with interesting insight. It's in the middle of verse two where we're told that they were Ephrathites of Bethlehem. Ephrath was the name of the wife of Caleb the famous and fearless comrade of Joshua. You remember according to First Chronicles 2 19 Caleb's descendants were the first to settle Bethlehem. Ephrathites were members of a clan one author said that was actually the first family of Bethlehem. They were the aristocracy of the town of Bethlehem. They were the leading families.

They had the last name so to speak that would stop traffic. All that to simply underscore the crisis. This is a riches to rags crisis hitting this family. What you have here are our Rockefellers living like immigrants. You have Vanderbilt's homeless and hungry. So why stay in Bethlehem where the famine has reduced them and everybody else to handouts. They're used to a better life than that. We can only imagine why stay in the land they must have thought why stay in the land of our faith and our forefathers. Let's move where the grass is greener.

And then comes the compromise following the crisis. I have learned in my study that from the ridge of hills on the edge of Bethlehem you can see into the land of Moab. Moab was situated in such a way that it was well watered by rains that were driven inland by the winds especially in the winter time of the Mediterranean Sea. Elimelech had no doubt stood on that ridge overlooking the dry brown grass the parched fields of Bethlehem and he could easily see 50 miles just due east across the Dead Sea the fertile plain the green fields of Moab.

Maybe he thought to himself we'll only go for a short period of time. God won't mind our flight from his land and his people will be a quick visit just a quick one and that's all. In fact you might notice the progression of the terms used in these verses look at verse one it says that they went to sojourn. That's a verse that refers to a temporary stay. Then in verse two it says they entered Moab and remained there for longer. Then in verse four you read that rather astounding text that surprising comment that informs us that they have lived there for 10 years.

Learn it from Elimelech. The danger of green grass is it can easily turn into quicksand which he would discover in the land of Moab. No wonder these first five verses by the way form the only part of this entire book where God is never mentioned once. And in a narrative like this the absence of God's name implies the absence of a desire for God's will. This is the only paragraph where the name of God will not appear.

But again let's try to slip into his sandals. Elimelech could have argued look I'm not going to become a Moabite. I mean come on I don't believe in all that stuff I'm certainly never going to offer my children or my grandchildren to Chemosh the god of the Moabites and enter into their child sacrifices. I'm not in the child sacrifice I'm not into idolatry. I would never do that.

I'd never condone that. I'm not a Moabite. I'm just going to go temporarily forsake God's word and worship of God go live with Moabites. But just for a little while I'll just live with the Moabites. I won't become a Moabite. Before you know it sometime before his death he has evidently picked out Moabite women for his sons to marry which is really going to compound the issue. And without warning perhaps even to him the covenant promises of the land and the seed and the prophets and the covenant keeping God no longer mattered.

It all just faded away. Pursuing greener grass has a way of lulling your spirit to sleep. It's just a temporary compromise. It's just a quick trip. It's just one phone call. It's just one bet. Just one sip. Just one personal expense charged to the company account. It's just one little lie. It's just one purchase.

I mean come on it's just one click of the mouse. But the greener grass soon grows into a wilderness where one can barely see daylight. Perhaps ladies and gentlemen a limelike never intended to return if things worked out. I frankly believe that's probably buried in his heart. Either way the leading patriarch of the leading family in Bethlehem who had scandalized his community by moving to Moab would never return again.

So let's move from the crisis to the compromise to the consequences. Notice how rather suddenly the writer reports the deaths of these men. Verse three then a limelike Naomi's husband died just that sudden. Two verses later verse five then both Melon and Killian also died. No explanation.

No medical diagnosis. Just the shocking news to everyone around him in Moab and certainly everyone back in Bethlehem. This is headline news back in their hometown. Most Jewish writers and evangelical writers as well read between the lines and contend that the deaths of a limelike and his sons were divine judgments upon their unbelief. Sort of like the subtle reference to the New Testament church and the believers in Corinth and First Corinthians that certain church members had died and they had died early deaths because they approached the Lord's table while at the same time cherishing planning engaging in secret sin. First Corinthians eleven thirty.

It's just dropped in suddenly. There's no commentary no explanation no justification no ration just it's there. They died. These sons of a limelike certainly disobeyed God by not returning. They adopted the faith of their father or the lack of by not converting their wives to the God of Abraham. Ruth would be converted later after her husband's death by not coming back with their father's body by not caring for the ways of God. Their early deaths I would believe as well were judgments for having assimilated into the lifestyle and culture of Moab and would become an example to the people of God. So the paragraph ends in verse five with Naomi virtually alone.

Notice it simply says the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband. She alone was left to wonder I'm sure where did those ten years go. Where did they go. How did I get here. How did this happen. Now that she'd lost everything. Let me offer several observations from this scene where we've watched a man chase after greener grass.

Observation number one. One sinful decision apart from seeking God can lead to more wrong decisions that lead you further and further away from the path of wisdom. Maybe you're thinking Stephen what do I do about my sinful decisions. I've made several of them in fact I'm a believer but now I'm off the path. I'm out of fellowship with Christ. Am I going to die in Moab. Well Jesus Christ can and will forgive every sin you'll confess and he waits for you to confess it and for fellowship to be restored for those of you who believe restoring your fellowship with the father is paramount for those of you who have yet to believe believing will forgive the record of sin against you and Jesus Christ happens to specialize in redeeming sinners.

I should know I'm one of them. How about you. But if you are a believer and you've made some wrong decisions that dishonor God know that true repentance is willingness to own up to those actions and decisions as sinful violations of God's word and will. And that's what John meant when he said that we admit our sin we confess it we say the same thing as how will I go. We use the same words as God uses about those actions.

There are no more loopholes no more excuses. Furthermore true repentance will take responsibility for consequences. It doesn't push them off on someone else.

It doesn't slip them under the carpet. It doesn't say well it's somebody else's to deal with it doesn't try to get out of it. True repentance admits it owns up to it and accepts the consequences. In fact consequences that may last for years but they become God's way of reminding us all of his grace and his forgiveness and his strength to do the right thing and to walk with him now. Observation number two deciding to pursue greener grass rather than the glory of God is the fountainhead of grief. Five verses but they represent a volume of sorrow don't they and grief and it all began with a look and then a longing and then leaving greener grass merely disguised great grief. Observation number three greener grass may make a lot of sense but making sense and trusting Christ are two different things altogether at times. Greener grass may make great economic sense but bring spiritual loss. Greener grass might make great personal advancement but it also might mean tragic spiritual digression. But let's put it all on the table.

Let's just put it out here where we all know and understand what's going on. The reason greener grass can make so much sense is because our hearts are selfish and corrupt and our minds are in need of daily renewal and transformation. Romans twelve one and two. The heart of every problem is the problem of our heart.

That's the issue. We happen to be the greatest obstacle in our lives for godly living. We can make so much sense out of sin. We can make disobedience look rational and we can explain our way around everything because of our sinful hearts. Disobedience can make so much sense. So just be aware that making sense and trusting Christ could be two different things altogether. One more observation.

Famine in the will of God is better than a feast outside the will of God. You take it from Naomi here. She would say oh I have learned that one for sure. One short trip. One temporary stay became a ten year residence and now look what do you have? You have three widows and you have three graves. But this isn't the end. In fact it merely sets the stage for a new beginning. God has a way of taking people that get lost in Moab the trash dump and setting their feet back on the path to Bethlehem the house of bread.

But it will require submission. Naomi and Ruth and you're already ahead of me and I know that and I feel like I'm pulling back on the reins on this runaway cart. Naomi and Ruth are going to experience the grace of God.

Why? Because they will ask for it. They will pursue it. They will return to the land of the Lord for it. He will not give it to them in Moab. He'll give it to them when they come back to Bethlehem.

God has a way of redeeming wasted years and foolish decisions for those who want him to. So like Naomi and Ruth let's leave this scene with at least remembering that we can enjoy the favor and the fellowship of our kinsman redeemer Jesus Christ if we want it. If we pursue it. If we walk toward it. If we embrace it. If we ask for it. He will not give it to us in the trash can. Leave it. Own up to it.

Confess it. And he will put our feet back and he'll head us back toward the house of bread. Just like with Ruth God brings redemption but Ruth will respond to the offer and we must do the same. God asks you to respond to his offer today.

You're listening to Wisdom for the Heart. This is the Bible teaching ministry of Steven Davey. Steven is the pastor teacher of the Shepherd's Church in Cary, North Carolina. You can learn more about us at our website wisdomonline.org. We post all of Steven's teaching there in both audio and written transcripts. In fact if you missed a portion of today's lesson you can go online and hear the entire thing. Again that's wisdomonline.org.

It's always encouraging for us to hear from our listeners. Please write and tell us how this ministry is blessing you. You can send us an email if you address it to info at wisdomonline.org. That's info at wisdomonline.org. I'm Scott Wiley and I thank you for joining us today. We'll be back next time with another lesson from God's Word. Join us for that right here on Wisdom for the Heart.