Ruth - A Love Story 6.5.2011

This morning, we’re going to conclude our study in the book of Ruth.

We started over a month ago as we were introduced to the woman Naomi. She, her husband, Elimelech, and their two boys left Bethlehem in order to escape a large scale famine…likely caused by widespread sin during the time of the judges. They went to Moab where Elimelich died, the boys married idol worshiping foreigners and eventually, the sons died too.

Then, we looked at how Ruth decided to follow God, return to Bethlehem with Naomi, and to become part of her family…going wherever she would go.

Three weeks ago, we looked at how, despite how incredibly dark the scene looked as chapter 1 ended, God had been supernaturally working behind the scenes to orchestrate a relationship between Ruth and Boaz.

Last week, as we looked at Chapter 3, we got a glimpse into the interesting courtship between Ruth and Boaz as she went down to where he was working and followed an elaborate plan that Naomi had laid out.

We were left with Boaz promising that he would work things out so that hopefully they could get married.

Today, we’ll see what happens with that promise, and then we’ll finish up the book.

Ruth 4:1   Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the redeemer, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. So Boaz said, “Turn aside, friend; sit down here.” And he turned aside and sat down.  2 And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, “Sit down here.” So they sat down.

I think that some groups of people might not be able to relate to this concept of people gathering at a gate in order to talk and do business. However, as people who are well-versed in the culture of Goodfield, I’m sure you can understand what is going on!

Boaz evidently got up the morning after Ruth visited him and went to grab his coffee at The Busy Corner. Why is the place named “Busy Corner”? Because it used to sit on a Busy Corner at the intersection of 117 and 150. Right?

Who comes to The Busy Corner?

Why do people come to The Busy Corner?

What happens at The Busy Corner?

Does anybody ever get information there? (Bulletin board/gossip/official meetings)

In a very similar way, the main gate in many Jewish villages functioned as the gathering place and it was where decisions were made among the village leaders. In some ways, these elders functioned as the village board, the judge, the jury, etc…all put together.

Have there ever been times where there was a group of such men who met at The Busy Corner to make village decisions…whether officially or unofficially?

Could you name the members of that group here in Goodfield?

Sure enough the other guy…the closer redeemer…showed up at Bethlehem’s gate. Do you know people who show up at The Busy Corner at a certain time most days? We don’t know who this other redeemer was…Was he Elimelech’s brother or cousin? Was he Boaz’s older brother? We aren’t told, but as a closer redeemer, he is a family member somehow.

So, the other redeemer gets called over to the table with Boaz and the ten elders from the community and he sits down.

3 Then he said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech.  4 So I thought I would tell you of it and say, ‘Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people.’ If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me, that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you.” And he said, “I will redeem it.”

One of the things I usually do when I go into The Busy Corner is stop in the foyer…why? To look at the things that are for sale! I love reading the bills of sale for the auctions…just to see if there’s something there that I can’t live without!

In kind of the same way, Boaz outlines this “bill of sale”: Elimelech, our relative died. He left his land to Naomi. She is ready to sell it, and you have the right of first refusal. So, if  you want it, go ahead and purchase it…if not, it’s my turn, and I’m going to buy it.

That’s happening right now with the farm my Karen grew up on. The land has been in her family since before the Civil War. I’m very sad that it is going to be sold out of the family this fall! Before he passed away, Karen’s dad had worked out a deal with the tenant who has been farming the land for the last twenty years that he has the first shot at purchasing the land. If Walter didn’t want it, it could go to auction, but there isn’t really that kind of hierarchy built in where after Karen’s dad, each of the brothers in order of age have the right to buy the land and then Karen’s uncles and cousins, and so on before it gets to someone outside of the family.

At any rate, the other nameless redeemer agrees to buy the land.

But then, Boaz adds to the bill of sale: Oh…did I forget, there is a second page on this bill of sale? Ruth the Moabite comes with it and your first son with her will minimally inherit this land…but maybe yours as well. Oops I’m sorry if I misled you, but you get the whole deal…it’s a two for one sale!

5 Then Boaz said, “The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.”  6 Then the redeemer said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”

All of the sudden, the other redeemer backs out of the deal. We aren’t told what his concern was, but for some reason, he isn’t willing to buy the land, take care of Ruth, and risk his own family’s inheritance.

Boom! The situation is over! Boaz wins the land and the girl!

Ruth 4:7   Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging: to confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was the manner of attesting in Israel.  8 So when the redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself,” he drew off his sandal.  9 Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon.  10 Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.”

They sealed the deal by giving a sandal to Boaz: We have deeds of sale, they did it their way…maybe we could even think of it like a handshake.

Evidently, by this time, things had gotten a little intense at the table there in the middle of The Busy Corner. No longer is it just Boaz and the elders, but now, there are a lot of other people eavesdropping and maybe even getting up from their tables to come and hear what is going on.

Boaz calls on all of them to be witnesses of what he has redeemed.

Then the crowd offers up some blessings based on other ladies in the Old Testament:

11 Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem,  12 and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the LORD will give you by this young woman.”

Rachel & Leah: You remember them don’t you? They were the wives of Jacob, and the mothers of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Perez, Tamar, & Judah: Although it was a strange and sad story, through a similar situation, Judah’s son’s died and his daughter-in-law, Tamar, did not have any children. Later, Judah was tricked into sleeping with Tamar, and she had twins, one of which was Perez. Perez was an ancestor of Boaz and so he too would make a good example of someone who had children and was successful. You can read the whole story in Genesis 38.

The people also give a blessing to Boaz, wishing that he becomes famous and that he will have many children.

Then, we’re told quickly that they got married and have a son.

Ruth 4:13   So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son.  14 Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel!  15 He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”  16 Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse.  17 And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Ruth 4:18   Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron,  19 Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab,  20 Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon,  21 Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed,  22 Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.

God is the one who determines when someone gets pregnant. We thought we were DONE after Sarah was born…hmm…God continues to send us children…in a way we never dreamed about!

After it was obvious that Ruth was pregnant (no ultrasounds), the village women went back to Naomi and gave her a blessing! God provided a redeemer; famous one in Israel, a restorer of life; a nurisher of your old age.

Those of you with grandchildren…is that true? Do you talk about “If I knew how much fun grandchildren were, I would have had them first?” Sure they make you tired…but do they give you great energy too?

This next phrase is an incredible one in Jewish culture: Ruth, the Moabite daughter-in-law is worth more than seven sons.

#1 Ruth still was a Moabite

#2 daughters were considered a liability…not a strength!

#3 seven sons was considered the best of the best (hmm…I have seven sons now)

#4 Ruth sure would have been a liability when she originally left Moab

#5 remember, Naomi was “Bitter Old Woman”, they are calling her “Blessed Young Woman”

Naomi babysat her new grandson, and took care of him. Think of the incredible joy for this woman who had lost a husband and two sons and surly felt that there would never be any grandkids coming her way!

I don’t understand why, and the commentators I read don’t have a solid answer why the village woman named him…perhaps a nickname? At any rate, he was called Obed.

The author then gives us the cool family tree flowing out of Boaz and Ruth:

Obed             Jesse              David

Then the writer backs up and gives David’s lineage back to the time of the patriarchs.

So, here we are at the end of the book of Ruth. What have we covered? Why have we invested the last six or so Sundays looking at a story that is several thousand years old?

I am convinced that there are at least three critical over-arching themes that we should take along with us as we move forward:

1.    God is in control…even if we don’t see it or if it seems like He’s working behind the scenes

a.    What is causing you distress?

                                              i.     Job

                                            ii.     Retirement

                                          iii.     Family

                                           iv.     The future of our church

b.    God is in control

2.    God can...and DOES use people we wouldn’t ever pick (widows, idol worshipers, old men, people not from our community, neighbor we don’t like, etc…)

a.    Have you written someone off? (family/work/somebody else?)

b.    Is there someone that you need to share Jesus with that you have been resisting

c.     Nobody new here at church…why…have we given up on them

3.    God’s desire is to do exceedingly more than we can ask or think…from these people, KING DAVID and JESUS come into being!

a.    Remember, history…looked BAD! Moving on to being the family of the greatest King in Israel’s history

b.    Kind of like Abraham Lincoln

c.     What needs to happen in your life that you think is too big or too tough for God almighty to accomplish?

Ruth - A Love Story 5.29.2011

This morning, we’re going to continue in our study in the book of Ruth.

We started a month ago as we were introduced to Elimelech and his family: his wife Naomi, and his two sons Mahlon and Chilion. Due to a large scale famine…likely caused by widespread sin during the time of the judges, this family decided to leave God’s protection and go to the land of Moab. However, instead of finding refuge, the sons married idol worshiping foreigners and eventually, all three men died.

Three weeks ago, we looked at how Ruth decided to follow God, return to Bethlehem with Naomi, and to become part of her family…going wherever she would go.

Two weeks ago, we looked at how, despite how incredibly dark the scene looked in chapter 1, God had been supernaturally working behind the scenes to orchestrate a relationship between Ruth and a kinsman redeemer, Boaz. Even though things looked impossible, the God of the impossible was indeed preparing an incredible future…not just for Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz, but eventually for King David, Jesus, and ultimately…we are the recipients of God’s grace in this story.

Today, as we look at Chapter 3, we will see an interesting love story develop.

Before we get started, I wanted to share two brief stories, and then I want to give you a chance to share your story:

In 1968, my parents and I moved from Western Illinois to Dallas, Texas where my dad entered seminary. While there, my parents got to know another student who was from the Pontiac area. That Christmas, my parents brought Keith back up to Pontiac to spend time with his parents, and his brand new baby sister, Karen.

My parents stayed good friends with Keith for the next fifteen years. Eventually, through some common friends and through our church’s summer day camp program, I was re-introduced to Karen when we were in high school. After doing the “normal” dating for about four years in high school and college, I finally asked her if she would marry me…and eventually she agreed. Of course, as we moved through those four years, we did the normal things like going out to eat, going for walks, spending time with each other, getting to know each others’ families, sharing dreams, and so on….

If I go back forty years earlier, Karen’s parents dated for a while and went out on dates and did all of those kinds of things that couples did in the early 40’s…whatever those things were…some of you remember that time frame. However, Tony and Eileen’s dating was cut short when Tony won an all expense paid trip to northern Africa and Italy…courtesy of the United States Army. In 1944, after getting injured near Rome, Tony was sent home. In September, he showed up in Pontiac, surprised Karen’s mom and told her they were getting married…in a couple days!

How about you…do you have a story about your dating/courtship/engagement/wedding? How did that work for you?

Thanks for sharing!

Today, as we continue on in this study of Ruth, we’re going to be introduced to Ruth and Boaz’s speedy dating experience. They have gotten to know each other a little bit as Ruth has been coming regularly to glean in Boaz’s fields…throughout both the barley and the wheat seasons. I would guess that when Boaz came out to inspect the fields, he probably came near lunchtime…why…so he could eat lunch with Ruth.

As children and teens, it’s common for kids to make fun of or tease people they think like each other…you know: Earl and Phyllis sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage. Do you remember that?

Now with adults, it’s a little more sophisticated…it’s the whispers in the cubicles about who you saw out with who last night. It’s the, “Did you see the way she looked at him when he came into the meeting?” Or, it’s the, “I think those two would make such a great couple!”

So, you can imagine over these months that people are talking about Ruth and Boaz. The gleaning girls are teasing her about how she looks at this older man. His farm hands are accusing him of robbing the cradle. You know the routine!

Of course, there’s not just the pressure from co-workers, there’s also the pressure from family! For those of you who are children (that’s all of us), did you ever hear a parent, grandparent, sibling, or other family member ask you when you were going to get engaged or married? Those of you who are parents or grandparents or siblings or other family members (again, that covers all of us), have YOU ever asked someone in your family, “Hey, you’ve been dating a year, when are you going to pull the trigger and get married?” Or, if you’re more sophisticated, how many of you have gossiped and asked another family member when they thought another member would get married????

OK…since all of us are guilty, we won’t be so judgmental as we jump into this week’s text:

Ruth 3:1   Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?  2 Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor.  3 Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.  4 But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.”  5 And she replied, “All that you say I will do.”

Naomi is working her matchmaking skills here. I keep having visions of Yente from “Fiddler on the Roof” trying to match all of Tevye’s daughters up. If you can remember all of the work she went to as a Jewish matchmaker, Naomi, the desperate Jewish widow and mother-in-law of a foreign widow is way more determined to live out the words of that chorus:

Matchmaker, Matchmaker,
Make me a match,
Find me a find,
catch me a catch
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
Look through your book,
And make me a perfect match

At any rate, Naomi tells Ruth that it’s her job to make sure that Ruth finds a good husband so that she can get settled in her life and have her own life. Of course, even as she says these words, she has already come up with a plan for Ruth to get matched!

Naomi has somehow hacked into Boaz’s calendar and found out where he’d be that particular night. She then has devised an elaborate plan to hook Ruth and Boaz up. She starts by telling Ruth to get all dressed up, put her best perfume on and go down to spy on what Boaz is doing.

Since Ruth has promised to follow Naomi no matter what, she again affirms that she will go with this matchmaking plan, and off she goes down to the threshing floor.

Ruth 3:6   So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her.  7 And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down.  8 At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! 

Now, to me, this sounds like a kind of strange way to let a guy know you’re interested in him! As I was looking through various commentaries this week, nobody seems to know if this was a common way to find a guy, but it isn’t really recorded in other places. Of course, while there is a common thread in how we courted and got married, each of ours was different, and somebody else might think how we did it was strange too!

As you can imagine, after waking up because his feet got cold and finding that someone is laying at his feet, he was a little confused and not quite sure what was going on:

9 He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.”  10 And he said, “May you be blessed by the LORD, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. 

Ruth carefully reminds Boaz of his opportunity and even his responsibility to exercise his family duty to be a redeemer for Elimelech and his family. In all of his graciousness, Boaz thanks her for not trying to get matched with someone more her own age, but that she has come to him to ask him to marry her. Boaz was a man of determination and a man who was willing to make a decision and carry it out. I wonder if all along he has been trying to figure out how to go to her and ask her to marry him, but he was too afraid or there was something else going on that kept him from seeking her out. But, maybe as she shows up, he gets excited and thinks, “YES!!!! I win!!! The cute young girl chose me instead of all of the others that she could have picked!”

Whatever his internal response, he immediately lets her know that he will work on the details in the morning. However, there is one small glitch, in the “who must sleep with a widow to have a child with her after her husband dies protocol”, there was another guy who had a few more points in the game. He had to be asked first to see if he wanted to redeem Naomi, Ruth, and all of the family’s land and property. Boaz means business and lets her know he will broker the match making process. Hopefully, the other family member wouldn’t want to fulfill his responsibility, and then Boaz can marry her!

11 And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman.  12 And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I.  13 Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the LORD lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning.”

Once again, Boaz watches out for Ruth. He doesn’t want her character to be questioned, so he has her stay for a couple more hours in the dark and then sends her home before anybody else can see what’s going on. Also, again, he takes incredible care of Ruth and Naomi. He had been threshing out his barley and sends a bunch home with Ruth again for the ladies to eat. The best guestimate I could get on these six measures was that it was somewhere around seventy-five pounds. So, Boaz has her hold her cloak, he fills it up with barley, and puts it on her head. Ruth takes it home and Naomi knows that her matchmaking has worked out perfectly!

Ruth 3:14   So she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another. And he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.”  15 And he said, “Bring the garment you are wearing and hold it out.” So she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. Then she went into the city.  16 And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, “How did you fare, my daughter?” Then she told her all that the man had done for her,  17 saying, “These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, ‘You must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law.’”  18 She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.”

So what? Most of us here are not looking to get matched by someone else this week! We aren’t looking for someone to put a fifty pound bag of rice or dog food or water softener salt on our heads so we can carry it back to our mom.

I think there are at least four good application points for us to take with us this week:

1.    There are indeed times when “mother knows best” and it’s good to listen to what she says…even if you’re an adult child.

a.    That doesn’t mean that every time my mom tells me I need to do something that I do it without evaluating it, but even pushing 45, there are times that my parents have pretty good wisdom to pass on to me.

2.    Men, there are times that we need to step up to the plate and do the right thing!

a.    Boaz knew what the right thing was, and he was willing to adjust his schedule to make sure that everything got settled appropriately and according to the law.

b.    Is there something that you know God is telling you to do, but you’re dragging your feet about doing it? Get ‘er done!

3.    Women, there are times you need to let the men do what God is calling them to do!

a.    Did Naomi know what needed to happen?

b.    Did Ruth know what needed to happen?

c.     Did Boaz know what needed to happen?

d.    Naomi and Ruth brought the issue up to Boaz, and then let him take the lead to get things done. Naomi and Ruth didn’t go to the village elders themselves and complain that none of the rotten redeemers were doing their job and so somebody better get with it and force them to follow through! Rather, they approached it in an appropriate manner by quietly bringing it to Boaz in private and then letting him do the right thing.

4.    We are reminded once again that God is in control and that behind the scenes:

a.    He gives Naomi a workable plan to make a match between Boaz and Ruth

b.    He allows the plan to work out perfectly!

c.     He causes Boaz to want to obey and to marry Ruth

d.    He prepares everything so that as we will see next week, that it does all work together for good!

We’re going to close with a song, “Forever” that reminds us that God is indeed in control of EVERYTHING that comes across our life. Just like the incredible love story we see here in Ruth, God’s love is more amazing as lived out in our lives!

Ruth - A Love Story 5.15.2011

This morning, we’re going to continue in our study in the book of Ruth.

We started two weeks ago as we were introduced to Elimelech and Naomi who chose to leave Israel and the famine in the land to follow their “luck” with a foreign god and his country instead of allowing the sovereign Lord of lords to protect them. Then, Elimelech died, and left Naomi, and his sons Mahlon and Chilion to really struggle. After that, the boys married idol worshipers and then the boys died too. That left us with a widowed mother and her two widowed daughters-in-law to somewhat fend for themselves in a land that is strange and far from home for Naomi.

Then last week, we looked at Naomi’s resolve to return to the land of Judah with her two daughters-in-law. As they were on their way, she begged the young ladies to return to their idols and families in Moab and let her, overflowing in bitterness towards God, go on by herself. Eventually, Orpah returned to Moab, but Ruth decided to make a total break with her past. She told Naomi that she would go with her wherever Naomi went and that Ruth would follow God and stay with Naomi until the day she died. After this moving speech, the two widows resumed their journey and returned to Bethlehem.

In Chapter two, we pick up the next part of Naomi’s and Ruth’s story.

Ruth 2:1   Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.  2 And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him win whose sight I shall find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.”  3 So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech.  4 And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, “The LORD be with you!” And they answered, “The LORD bless you.”  5 Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?”  6 And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the young Moabite woman, who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.  7 She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.’ So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.”

Last week, I used the Alexanders as an illustration for how people might talk in a small town like Goodfield. Today, I will use the Kuntzs and Coulters, because I think the parallels are pretty good there.

So, to paraphrase the story…Bill and Maurine left Goodfield for ten years. While they were gone, Bill and their kids all passed away. When she returns to her home with Christine in the fall of 1985, it’s already harvest time and they obviously haven’t planted anything since they’ve been gone for a decade.

In those days, people didn’t have Social Security, food stamps, Temporary Aid for Needy Families, life insurance, pensions, or any of those kinds of resources from the government or corporations to help people in need. As a result, Maurine and Christine were on their own trying to figure out how they were going to live. They had a house to live in, but no food.

So, since it was harvest time, Christine went out to the fields to try and find some corn that the combines hadn’t picked up. You know how that works…the combine goes through the fields harvesting the corn, but some kernels fall on the ground, sometimes whole ears fall and don’t make it into the combine, sometimes as the farmer turns the combine, he misses a couple of stalks in the corner of the field, and sometimes, as the corn is put from the combine into the wagon or semi a little bit gets spilled.

So, Christine knows that even though their fields don’t have corn growing, she can get some out of other fields.

For some reason, Maurine is still so upset with God that she doesn’t give Christine any directions on where to go to find her corn. As she sets out, she just so “happens” to come across a field that young Kenny Coulter owns and farms (sorry Madeline…he’s single in this story so you just have to watch from the outside).

At some point, Kenny comes out to check on the harvest…some things don’t change in farming do they? Even though he hadn’t farmed in twenty years, Karen’s dad was ALWAYS checking on the tenant to make sure he was farming the land properly!

As Ken surveys the harvest, he sees a young girl that he doesn’t recognize picking up the extra kernels of corn. Kenny, thinking he knows everyone in the Goodfield area asks Jim Morris, his farm hand, who she is, and he responds that it’s Maurine’s daughter-in-law who had appropriately asked about gleaning in the field and then who had been working really hard all day to get the food.

After finding out who Christine is, Kenny steps away from Jim to go and talk with her.

Ruth 2:8   Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women.  9 Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.”  10 Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?”  11 But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before.  12 The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!”  13 Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.”

Kenny goes over to Christine and tells her that he has heard the whole story about how she and Maurine have struggled and how Christine has done so much to help Maurine out. He speaks a blessing on her for what she has done and also tells her that she needs to stay with his servant girls to glean and that he will make sure that no sexual harassment will come from the workers in the field. She should even feel free to grab a Dr. Pepper from the guys’ ice chest during break times instead of trying to find her own drink somewhere.

Back to the text…

Ruth 2:14   And at mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted grain. And she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over.  15 When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her.  16 And also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.”

Kenny went so far as to invite this beggar, widowed, foreigner to come and eat lunch with the field hands. It seems that she may not have even had lunch of her own to eat, because Kenny provided lunch for her…and it was such a lunch that she had leftovers that we read later she took home to Naomi.

After lunch, Kenny takes things a step further…he instructs Jim and the other men to not only let Christine gather corn from the edges of the field and from the ground as the Levitical law demanded, but they are now to let her get some corn from the stalks that haven’t been harvested and they are even to purposefully drop some corn for her to easily pick up! Boy… Kenny is quite a nice guy isn’t he!

Christine keeps working after lunch and we’re told how that evening went for her:

Ruth 2:17   So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.  18 And she took it up and went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied.  19 And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.”  20 And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of jour redeemers.”  21 And Ruth the Moabite said, “Besides, he said to me, ‘You shall keep close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’”  22 And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, lest in another field you be assaulted.”  23 So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

Now, I’ve been using corn in our story with Maurine, Christine, and Ken, since that’s what we grow around here, but remember, in the story, Boaz is harvesting barley. While we don’t grow barley around here, most of us have probably seen wheat or barley kernels. They are SMALL compared to corn or soybeans. So, as we think about the story here, we need to remember that Ruth is picking up tiny little pieces of grain and putting them into her basket. I don’t know exactly how that works that someone is able to walk in a field where they’re cutting the crops by hand and you have little pieces of the grain laying in the chaff and under the footprints of the guys working in the field.

At any point, we’re told that Christine gathered up enough barley that when she had crushed it into barley flour that it was about an ephah’s worth. As I tried to figure out how much that was, one estimate was about five gallons. So, you can imagine, how hard would it be to pick up little barley pieces and then have enough that when you crushed it down and got rid of the hull that you had a five gallon bucket full…I guess that’s a pretty good day’s work!

At any rate, Christine returns to Maurine with this five gallon bucket of barley flour and the left-overs from her lunch and Maurine is shocked with how much food she had. She immediately asked where in the world did Christine glean??? It was obvious to Maurine that God had given some kind of special blessing to Christine and that the man who had helped out should receive a blessing from the Lord for that!

Remember, Maurine did not tell Christine where to go look for barley, so she wants to know where she ended up. Christine of course is a foreigner, and she innocently tells Maurine that some guy named Kenny is the one who helped her.

At this point Maurine comes to life…I can hear her saying…Ken…Kenny Coulter? THE Kenny Coulter who was raised with Bill? THE Ken who helped build the barn across the road from here? THE Ken who is one of our relatives? THE Ken Coulter who is one of the heirs of the Robinson farming dynasty? THE Kenny who could provide us with Angus meat for the rest of our lives?

As all of these thoughts are going through her mind, and probably coming out of her mouth, Maurine gets really excited! This Kenny, whose field Christine had “accidently” stumbled across that morning was a man who while not an exact relative as in a brother or uncle to Bill Kuntz, was indeed close enough of a relation that he could fulfill the laws given by the Lord to marry Christine and make sure that all of Bill’s land would be taken care of and that Christine and Maurine would be taken care of.

Now, remember from last week, Naomi was so upset with God and what He had “done to her” that she wanted everybody in town to call her bitter-old-woman! However, we see in these verses some major thawing in her anger as she is clearly recognizing God’s hand in this set of circumstances of leading Ruth to the particular field of a kinsman-redeemer who could possibly be the answer to their needs on so many levels…whether from the extra barley, the huge lunch with left-overs, ongoing opportunities to glean throughout both the barley and wheat harvests, protection for Ruth while she was out in the fields, and maybe…just maybe…Boaz would exercise his responsibility and would marry Ruth and give them long-term security and hopefully a son to carry on the Kuntz family name!

Now, I don’t know how it is for you. Perhaps, your life has always gone perfectly! You’ve never made a business decision that didn’t work out well. You’ve never done something stupid where you or someone else near to you got hurt…whether physically or emotionally. You’ve never had a job that you didn’t like or a boss that didn’t like you. You’ve never had the markets go poorly such that you wondered about your retirement account. You’ve never had UAW go on strike so you had to work on the floor instead of in your office. You’ve never had someone close to you walk out on you and leave you in a lurch. You’ve never been part of a church where people keep leaving and you wonder what the future is going to be. You’ve never had children quit following the Lord or do things that embarrass you or other Christ followers.

You get the point…. We’ve ALL had something bad happen to us or even because of us! Like Naomi, it becomes easy to become angry and bitter towards the Lord! It is easy to shake our fists at God and ask, “Why me???!!!!”

However, the problem is that we don’t see the whole picture! We don’t know what God is doing behind the scenes! We don’t know what divine appointments He’s already orchestrated so that His glory would be done and so that as Paul reminds us in Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

I will never forget the day that I came over to Goodfield four years ago to meet with my Regional Young Life Director. We met at The Busy Corner where he told me that the money had run out for McLean County Young Life and that after struggling with it for over twenty years, they had decided to go with volunteers and no paid staff…I was out of a job…I was out of a ministry that I PASSIONATELY LOVED!

Did God know what was going on with His ministry? Did God know what I would do next? Had God forgotten me?

The good news was that there was a youth pastor position open up by Flanagan, and one in some town called Congerville. I applied for both of those jobs and due to changes in what was going in each church, they both changed their minds and didn’t hire youth pastors at that point.

In a strange set of circumstances, I ended up at The Baby Fold applying for a job and then I ended up getting a different job…one that really matched my skills and gifts better. I must admit, even in those days when it was obvious that the Lord had miraculously provided a new job for me, I still questioned whether, as Naomi believed, if God had abandoned me.

As Karen and I have been able to look back over the past four years, we CLEARLY see the hand of God in allowing me to work in an agency where I’ve learned so much about things that are helping us raise our foster and adopted kids. We’ve seen friends come to know Jesus in that process. We’ve seen the Lord do many things!

Yet, there was that time where we too questioned whether God really knew what He was doing. I hope that from this little story from our life and more importantly from the things that we see God doing in the book of Ruth that you know…at least with your head (even if you can’t force your heart to believe it yet) that God is indeed working things out…whether we can see what He’s doing or not.

As we close today, I want to encourage you to think through if there are issues in your life that look hopeless like these two widowed ladies. Do you wonder if God is still at work? The resounding answer is YES! HE IS!

The very same God who could orchestrate:

·      Ruth picking the right field to go to

·      Boaz coming to that particular field on that particular day at that particular time

·      Boaz noticing Ruth out of all the others around

·      Boaz doing special things to bless Ruth

·      Ruth taking advantage of working hard to glean all she could

·      Naomi recognizing God’s hand of blessing on Ruth

·      Boaz being a kinsman redeemer who could really help the family

·      Boaz taking care of Ruth throughout the harvest

This very same God can also orchestrate the solutions to whatever problem you might be facing! You may not understand what is going on; you might not be able to see the upcoming answers today; you might not even have enough hope left to trust that the Lord will indeed do what He has promised. Yet, He is working! He is in control! He is making sure that everything will work out for good and for His ultimate glory.

Just like Ruth’s kinsman-redeemer, Boaz, lived and was there because God sent him, our Redeemer, Jesus, lives to help us in the good and the bad parts of our lives. The song that we’re going to close with today reminds us that He is right there to help us in every aspect of our lives.

One of the verses and the chorus state:

The very same God that spins things in orbit
He runs to the weary, the worn and the weak
And the same gentle hands that hold me when I'm broken
They conquered death to bring me victory

Now I know my Redeemer lives
I know my Redeemer lives
Let all creation testify
Let this life within me cry
I know my Redeemer, He lives 

Ruth - A Love Story 5.8.2011

This morning, we’re going to continue in our study in the Old Testament book of Ruth.

As we got started last week, we were introduced to a very sad story of a family who seemed to have tragedy after tragedy hit them.

Elimelech and Naomi chose to leave Israel and the famine in the land to follow their “luck” with a foreign god and his country instead of allowing the sovereign Lord of lords to protect them. Then, Elimelech died, leaving Naomi, and his sons Mahlon and Chilion to really struggle. After that, the boys married idol worshipers and then the boys died too. Now, we’re left with a widowed mother and her two widowed daughters-in-law to somewhat fend for themselves in a land that is strange and far from home for Naomi.

As I promised last week, the good news is that today we’re going to see how God is indeed working in the midst of this tragic set of circumstances. God has NOT forgotten Naomi! God is still involved in this family…even if it doesn’t look that way in the first five verses!

At some point…after living in Moab for these ten years…after having all of the men in her family die…after hearing that the famine was over in Judah, Naomi decides to pack her bags and move back home!

Ruth 1:6   Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the LORD had visited his people and given them food.  7 So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

Despite the fact that Naomi had been living in an idolatrous land for the past decade, it’s a positive fact that she attributed the end of the famine to God’s work in the life of His people. So, she had not totally given up on the Lord!

Based on this information, she, Orpah, and Ruth start the journey back to Bethlehem. This had to be a tough decision for her to make as well. In returning home, she would be leaving the graves of her husband and boys behind. How many of you know right where your parents or grandparents or other close relatives are buried? Why…because it’s important! Coming up in a few weeks, we celebrate Memorial Day…what do people do to graves? Decorate them. Why? Out of honor and respect? But, for some reason, Naomi believed that it was more important to return to the Living God than it was to stay with the Non-living men.

8 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.  9 The LORD grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.  10 And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.”

We aren’t told how far along they were on the journey when the conversation in verse 8 took place. But we are told that Naomi decides that it doesn’t make much sense to take her idol-worshiping, Moabite, daughters-in-law back to Yahweh-worshiping, Judah where they would not have a family or a husband. So, she gives them the freedom to return back home.

Naomi blesses the two women and asks the Lord to show his covenant keeping loving-kindness towards Orpah and Ruth. Evidently, they were good daughters-in-law as the asks for them to be treated in the same way the took care of her and their husbands.

Naomi also prays a blessing on them that they will be able to find another husband.

Here in verse 9 is a GREAT phrase…as the ladies wept loudly at the prospect of leaving their mother-in-law. They had such a good relationship with her, that it hurt them to be separated.

I think this is a good example for us as we relate to our in-laws. Are we in the process of developing such a deep relationship that we are sorry when we leave each other’s company, or are we happy when that happens? These three women give us a great model of how families are supposed to respond to each other!

For those of you…and I will be there soon too…who are “parents-in-law”, how are you building those relationships with the spouses of your children? Do you encourage them? Do you include them as part of the family? Do you thank them for the positive things they do for your child and your grandchildren? Do you make them feel welcome when you are together?

There are plenty of families where the parents treat their sons and daughters-in-law poorly. They remind them or their own children how they never measured up to be the right kind of partner for their child. They refuse to acknowledge their special days or their worth. They refuse to go and visit or spend time with them. This list can go on and on in describing the kinds of disrespect and lack of honor that can be demonstrated.

However, here in this passage, we’re clearly reminded that healthy families care deeply about each other and show deep love towards each other. It’s also a great place to put that plug in for Mother’s Day!

For those of you who still have a mother or mother-in-law alive, make sure you treat her with honor…yes, of course today we celebrate the traditional American Mother’s Day that Julia Ward Howe started as a feminist reaction to the Civil War. BUT, more importantly, it’s critical that we serve and honor and treat our mothers with respect day in and day out. Yes, we sent my mother a Mother’s Day card, but I also try to call her several times each week to connect with her!

Now, some of you may not have someone in the “motherly generation” remaining…so, what does that mean for you. Naomi shows that it’s important for the mother to also show love, compassion, and concern for those in the children’s generation. As mothers and grandmothers, you have the opportunity and responsibility to treat your biological daughters and granddaughters as well as those who marry into your family the same way you want them to treat you!

OK…the advertisement is over…back into the text, (verse 11)

11 But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands?  12 Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons,  13 would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.”  14 Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

Naomi starts to discuss the lack of options for the girls. Naomi isn’t married, she doesn’t have a prospect of getting married because she is so old, and even if she were to get married and have a son right away, it would be a long time before that son could fulfill his obligation according to the Law that would have him have kids with his dead brothers’ widows in order to carry on their name! So, she is clear with the daughters-in-law that they need to get married and move on with their lives instead of remaining widows for the rest of their lives.

In the midst of this part of the story, Naomi demonstrates in verse 13 how depressed she is. She is starting to show her own self-pity and her “poor me” attitude. Here she starts to express her bitterness about the situation that she’s in. She blames God for their situation and whines that life is more bitter for her than it is for the girls. We’ll see in a couple of verses that this must have been so pervasive in her heart and mind that she wants to actually change her name to reflect her feelings against the Lord!

Here in verse 14, Orpah obeys Naomi and kisses her good-bye and heads back to her people in Moab. Some commentators and others have criticized her for her failure to stay and go to Judah with Naomi and Ruth. But, as you look at Naomi’s arguments, they are pretty solid. She isn’t having any more kids. Probably, most Godly men in Bethlehem wouldn’t marry a Moabite…let alone an idol worshiping, widow from a family who ran away from Israel to hide out in a foreign country. If you stop and think about it, it is the realistic and most logical option.

After Orpah determines to leave, Naomi once again encourages Ruth to go back to Moab and back to the idols that she worships.

Ruth 1:15   And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”

However, verses 16-17 bring us one of the key statements in the book. This is a critical change in Ruth’s life. Her decision here makes a radical transformation in every area of her life and it impacts the lives of people for eternity!

16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.  17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” 

In these two short verses, Ruth commits to a radical change in her life. She no longer will be an idol worshiping, foreign widow in a strange land, hoping to find her identity and desperately looking for a husband. She exchanges all of that to become a Yahweh worshiping, adopted citizen of Judah, and permanently attached to her mother-in-law and her family.

Do any of you have children, their spouses, or grandchildren or others in your family who aren’t following the Lord? This amazing transformation is sure something you should be praying for in the lives of those who are wandering away! If God was able to grab Ruth’s heart…despite her bitter mother-in-law with the bad attitude towards the Lord…think about what He can do as you graciously and fervently pray and encourage your relatives to consider their relationship with Yahweh!

As we look at these verses for ourselves, how would our lives be transformed if we were willing to say that we’re willing to do whatever the Lord asks us to do? What if we were willing to go where He sends us and stay when He tells us to stay? After the sermon, we’ll listen to a song that challenges us to do that very thing.

18 And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

Ruth 1:19   So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?”  20 She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.  21 I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”

Ruth 1:22   So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

Naomi finally accepts the fact that Ruth is not going to return to Moab, but rather is going to stay with her. So, they resume their journey to Bethlehem and at some point get back to town.

I don’t know for sure how things have worked here in Goodfield. But, if we go back a number of years to 1955, and a family left the community for ten years and then came back in 1965, would people notice? If the Alexanders had moved out of state and then after all that time, only Karen and her mother showed back up in a U-Haul and pulled into their driveway…would anybody notice? What would people be saying? Would anybody have said something at the old Busy Corner? Would anybody have said something at the Post Office? Would anybody have said anything at one of the grocery stores? Would anybody have called around on the party line to start the gossip about why Karen’s dad didn’t come back with her?

You know it don’t you?!?!?!

Well, the same thing happened to Naomi as she returned after ten years. We’re told that the women in Bethlehem started talking among themselves and they finally went out ant talked with Naomi. Evidently she had not kept Facebook updated, or sent yearly pictures back to her friends and relatives in town. It seems that perhaps she had aged greatly in ten years and her sorrow and bitterness made people question if it was really her or not.

As I mentioned earlier, she was so upset with God that she tells the ladies that He has not treated her fairly…in fact, Yahweh has treated her in such a bitter way that they should stop calling her Naomi which means “pleasant” and instead call her Mara, which means “bitter”. Now, I’ve known some bitter old ladies in my time, but I’ve NEVER heard one admit it, let alone tell everyone that she was so mad at God that everyone should call her Bitter to remind the community that she was in a terrible mood and that she’s just waiting for God to do something else bad toward her!!!!

Then, to make her point stronger, she tells them the whole story about how she and Elimelech had left Bethlehem when everything was perfect and her life was full of all that she needed and wanted…until God caused everything to cave in on her.

To conclude this section, we have kind of the concluding paragraph in chapter one which will lead us into the important events of chapter two. We’re told they got back to Judah as the men were beginning to harvest the barley crops. In Israel, the time for gathering barley is generally the end of April or beginning of May, so it was right about this time of year when the story took place.

Next week, as we start chapter two, we’ll see the next step in God’s great plan to take care of Naomi and Ruth…and we’ll see how God ultimately put together a couple who will be the great grandparents of King David and many generations later will be the ancestors of Christ Himself!

Close with I will Follow…Tomlin

Ruth - A Love Story 5.1.2011

Today, we are starting a new series. As I mentioned previously, since I’ve been here, we’ve focused exclusively on texts from the New Testament. In the coming months, we’re going to focus more on some Old Testament passages.

Today, we’re going to begin to look at one of the greatest love stories of all times! It’s a love story that is set in a very bad period of time in Israel’s history. That is the time of the Judges.

You remember the Book of Judges…it was the time when people did what was right in their own eyes instead of following God whole-heartedly. Perhaps it was a time very similar to ours where people preferred to do their own things instead of doing what God and His Word told them to do!

Judges was the time period after Joshua died and the people would disobey and God would send a judgment on the people. That judgment would get increasingly harsher until the people returned to their senses and begged God to rescue them. At this point, God would send a Judge to rescue the people.

Some of the more familiar Judges: Ehud…the left-handed judge who was able to kill a foreign king. Deborah and Barak who defeated a Canaanite army. Gideon destroyed the mighty Midionite army with trumpets and lamps. Samson was another Judge with all of his escapades with women and with the Philistines. There were many more Judges who ruled in the nation for generations as the people entrusted God for His leadership.

Sometime during this time period, a drought broke out and caused major problems for the people who depended on farming for a living. The drought was so bad that it caused a major famine. Now, I married a farm girl. I know that sometimes farmers think that there are struggles when the rain doesn’t come at just the right time or they can complain like they are going to die when their corn is down a couple of bushels an acre. Do you know farmers like that? However, this was evidently REALLY bad. It was so bad that people were leaving their land and moving out of the country.

I know that there were times when things were not good on Karen’s farm and the yield was substantially lower than what was needed or expected. However, I never remember Karen’s dad talking about renting a semi, putting the tractor and combine on it and moving to Indiana or Missouri…let alone Canada or Mexico!

Think about it…things have to be REALLY bad for farmers to abandon their property and to go looking for better fields somewhere far away!

Maybe some of you can relate in a different way though. How many of you lived in this area in 1992 or 1994-1995? Does anybody remember any struggles with a little yellow company over in Peoria during that time? Does anybody remember struggles with a car company over on the west side of Normal over the past ten years?

What happens during those times? What happens when Cat is on strike? How does that impact Parsons? How does that impact the IGA? How does that impact Pizza Hut? Droughts…whether they are meteorological and are caused by a lack of moisture or are labor related or are generated by problems in the economy cause major problems for individuals, families, and communities!

So, after twelve or fifteen months of the Cat strike, does anybody know someone who lost their home or car or who lost their will to stay at Cat? Did anybody move out of the area? Did anybody figure out how to work somewhere else…even doing something different?

Now, let’s go back to the Book of Ruth. Please open your Bibles up to Ruth 1.

Ruth 1:1  In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.  2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there.  3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons.  4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years,  5 and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

We’re introduced here to Elimelech and his family. In the midst of this famine that was plaguing Israel, he decided that his best option was to pick up the family and move them to a different country. This move was at a minimum of moving 50 miles and of course could have been much more depending on how far into Moab they went.

However, there was a problem! Moab was a country that God had told the Israelites to not associate with. The country had started by the incestuous relationship of Abraham’s nephew Lot and one of his daughters. Despite this close ancestral heritage, the Moabites did not let the Israelites pass through their land after the Exodus. They were also a people who were known for their idol worship.

So, at the best, this was a pretty poor choice to leave Israel and go to Moab. At the worst, it was sending his family into an idolatrous nation that would not be supportive of their faith in God.

Now, we are told that Elimelech planned to only sojourn, or “spend a little time” in Moab. So, the plan was not to become part of the Moabites, but rather to go there until the famine was over in Israel and then return. However, he was making some serious choices for his wife and sons.

I think this is an important lesson for us to look at as we get started in this study. Ultimately, which is most important in our lives…living in a nice environment or living a life that is pleasing to God? They don’t have to be mutually exclusive, but often times in our society, I see Christians who are much more interested in fitting with the culture than they are following what God has told us to do!

Many years ago, a young couple showed up at our church in Pontiac. As we got to know them better, we discovered that Tim had been offered an incredible job in Pontiac. However, upon being offered the job, he told the interviewers that first, he had to determine if there was a church that he and his family would be able to be actively involved in. Wow! What a testimony for their faith…they were willing to turn down this dream job if they couldn’t provide for the spiritual growth of themselves and their family. Just a fun note…later, this guy worked at a company with Craig Maynard for several years…and Tim was still making job decisions based on spiritual opportunities.

So, while Elimelech plans to just go on an extended vacation in Moab, we’re told in verse 4 that they ended up staying there about ten years. So, this short trip turned into something totally different didn’t it?

Stop and think about the changes in your life and your family since the year 2000. In your families, has anybody been married, born, gotten really sick, or died? For those of you who worked at some point during this decade, have you changed jobs, have you seen major changes in your field, have others (or you) retired, have people come and gone at your place of work, have you had the plant leveled by a tornado? Think about the changes that have taken place in our world: 9/11; tsunamis in Indonesia and Japan; Hurricane Katrina; the election of Barak Obama as president; the end of the space shuttle program; wars in Iraq and Afghanistan;  and on and on that list could go!

Ten years is a LONG time in a lot of ways…isn’t it. Of course, it is also a short time depending on your perspective. But at any rate, Elimelech was gone to Moab for a long time.

During the ten years that Elimelech and his wife Naomi were living in Moab, things changed in their lives too. At some point their boys reached the age where they were old enough to get married, and they found Moabite girls to marry…instead of Israelites.

This is another one of those consequences that arose out of Elimelech’s decision to move to a place where there weren’t other believers for their children to build their closest relationships with. We’ll look more at the next section of the text next week, but down in verse 15, Naomi acknowledges that the sons’ wives were idol worshipers…NOT God worshipers!

Now, I don’t know how that has worked in your family, but I know there can often be pain in families as children choose to not follow in the steps of the Lord and they marry non-believers. I know that families can really struggle as they see the faith that they worked so hard to establish in their kids being cast aside or even worse. My Karen had three of her brothers go directly against the solid Christian upbringing in their home as they chose a wife and their lives have been very hard as a result of those choices. My brother’s oldest son got married yesterday, and it wasn’t a situation where things went the way the family had hoped.

I want to encourage you though to keep on praying for those of your kids and grandkids who aren’t walking with the Lord. Pray that God will raise up a co-worker or friend at school who will build a relationship with them. Pray that they will hear or read something that reminds them of their early training and that will challenge them back to Jesus. Pray that their hearts will be open to the Holy Spirit’s work in their lives. Pray that God will give you that opportunity to speak truth into their lives…in a gracious way.

We aren’t told in this particular story about who was married to whom, or even how long the boys had been married. However, since neither son had children and there isn’t a note in the text about their childlessness, it’s probable that they hadn’t been married too long.

At any rate, tragedy has struck this family! The order of events is given here that at some point during the ten years they were living there that Elimelech died. Think about the struggles that this gave to the family!  A foreign widow with two sons living far from home in a time when most women didn’t work outside of the home…what do you do? Who do you call?

Many of you are from this area or have married someone from this area, and so you at least would have some family to help you if a catastrophe like this happened. However, if you were relatively new, and you didn’t have a phone to call with or a computer to send email with, or any other quick way to contact people back home, what would you do? How do you recover? How do you even try to pull your life back together?

Evidently, one part of that solution was that Mahlon and Chilion married the Moabite ladies, Orpah (NO! it was NOT Oprah!) and Naomi. The marriages evidently kept the family there in Moab for at least a couple more years. Perhaps, this arrangement provided some stability as now there was some connectedness with the local community.

Think about that around here. Is there a difference between, “Boy, those Smiths have only been here seven or eight years.” And “Boy, isn’t it nice that the Smith boy married Kenny and Madaline Coulter’s granddaughter?” Those are two totally different things aren’t they? One is disconnected, and the other solidly grounds you to the community.

However, this situation with the boys marrying into the community was short lived as both boys died too. Again, we aren’t told how or why they died, or what the timeline was between Elimelech’s death and then the sons’ deaths.

WOW! Can you imagine how devastating this must have been? Remember, the plan was: since things are tough in Israel we’re going to move over to Moab for a short time because the grass is greener on that side of the proverbial fence. But now, everything has crashed down! Elimelech, the father of this clan has died. The two boys have married idol-worshiping Moabites. Then, the boys die.

Now Naomi is stuck leading this little family unit that now is only comprised of herself and the two foreign women that are her sons’ widows. Three widows kind of alone in the world. What an incredibly tough spot to be in. What kinds of emotions are going through Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth’s minds?

Questions about how they were going to survive? Questions about why Naomi had ever let Elimelech drag her to this God-forsaken country? Questions about whether it would be wise to go back to Israel? Questions about whether they could have done anything differently to keep any of the three men alive…second-guessing the doctor they chose, the prayers they said, etc…. Questions about which God to follow…should they follow the God of Israel or the god of Moab? Questions about who would take care of them if they didn’t have any husbands or children?

I’m sure many of us can relate to these questions and concerns! Just in the past year, people here in our church have had parents pass away. Several people have had others that are close to them enter into eternity. Yes, there are times when we aren’t totally surprised when that 85 or 95 year-old parent dies, but how prepared are we when it’s our baby, our teenager, our young adult, or our child at any age who gets to the grave quicker than we do?

Despite the inevitability of death, it seems like there’s rarely a “good time” for death and we often seem to be so surprised when it comes! Many people have lost a child or a niece or nephew at a young age, and it’s always really hard. The emotional stress can be incredibly debilitating. Often times, when young people die, those around them end up in need of counseling to help them deal with the grief and the subsequent depression that often comes into our lives in this situation.

If that’s a situation that you’re dealing with, please see me or someone else that you can talk with as you work through the issues.

This opening section of this book is very sad: we start out with a family who choses their “luck” with a foreign god and his country instead of allowing the sovereign Lord of lords to protect them. Then, the dad dies, leaving his family to really struggle. After that, his boys marry idol worshipers and then they die too. This leaves a widowed mother and her two widowed daughters-in-law to somewhat fend for themselves in a land that is strange and far from home.

As I was working on this week’s message, it felt like preparing the Maunday Thursday service. Hope is lost! Everything is a mess! Where is God in all of this?

The good news is that next week, we’ll move into the next section and see how God is indeed working in the midst of this tragic set of circumstances. God has NOT forgotten Naomi! God is still involved in this family…even if it doesn’t look that way in the first five verses.

So, please come back next week to hear more of the story! You should also feel free to read ahead and start thinking about Ruth and Naomi ahead of the service.