Ruth 1 verses 6 to 22: Returning

 

Introduction

Today we come to the Lord’s Table to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. You may be thinking. ‘Ruth 1 is not the passage I would have chosen for today’. But all Scripture leads to Christ and speaks of God’s grace, and so is appropriate preparation for the Lord’s Supper. And, in fact, we will see today that Ruth 1 verses 6 to 22 is all about God’s grace and the way He is sovereignly at work to save His People and give them fullness of life.

We touched on this last week when we considered verses 1 to 5. There we saw that our sovereignly gracious God is as work for the good purpose of His People. And it is this truth that calls us to live lives of complete trust and total obedience for our good and His Glory.

This next portion of Ruth presents us with three women- Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah- and the crucial decision they face. We read first of God’s gracious provision to His People; the famine is over. Now Naomi has a decision to make: stay in Moab or return to Bethlehem. To return would prove costly in earthly terms. But Ruth chooses to return with Naomi who return. However, all is not well with Naomi- her returning is bitter because she sees only what she has lost; but there is hope…

And so, in Ruth 1 verses 6 to 22 we learn that…

God’s grace provokes action…

…God’s grace calls us to count the cost..

…God’s grace is sometimes ‘hidden’.

Today we are once again called to ponder God’s sovereign grace. The great cost that has been paid for us calls us to count the cost of following Christ. The wonder of the Cross calls us to see that God is always at work to achieve His perfect purposes- even when we cannot see it. Today we are called to consider how God has been at work in our lives and our appropriate response to Him.

This is a most fitting way to prepare to sit and feast at the Lord’s Table.

So, let us ponder God’s sovereign grace as we consider how…

God’s grace provokes action…

When was the last time you heard good news? What was it and how did you hear about it? How did it make you feel? How did you respond?

Our passage begins with a wonderful reminder of God’s amazing grace; in verse 6 we read:

⁶ When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.

For the first time in the book of Ruth, we now read of good news. Grace abounds in every word of this little verse.This simple verse contains many hints about the nature of our God and His wonderful provision for His People.

Think about how He allowed Naomi to hear the news from Israel all the way in the fields of Moab. She had no television, radio, or social media. Yet the word made its way to the distant fields of Moab, and Naomi responded.

And consider how He came compassionately to visit those suffering in famine. It was ‘the LORD’ who provided this remarkable gift of grace. This is the first mention of God in Ruth. He is doing what He does regularly in Scripture: providing. At this bleak time in history, God opened His hand and provided food for the hungry.

He came to His People, with whom He had made a covenant; and He did not overlook their basic needs but gave them food. This is the nature of our God- He intervenes when His People are in need.

And notice how God’s grace should always provoke us to action and devotion- Naomi, Ruth and Orpah prepare to return home when they hear of God’s grace.

Does the grace of God provoke us?

As we sit and feast at the Lord’s Table today let us ponder His grace on display in the bread and the wine. Let us be thankful that God has spoken to us in a far off land- that in our sin-sick state He spoke to us by His Spirit and called us to Himself. And let us be filled with gratitude as we consider how, in the Gospel, He has intervened for us.

In the Gospel we see that it is all of us who are desperately in need. And Jesus has come to our aid- in Christ God adopted us into His Family, God made us citizens of heaven, and gave us a glorious inheritance. We must remember how God has visited us with grace and satisfied our truest need and deepest desire. And then we must respond as we love our God and love our neighbour.

So we must understand that… God’s grace calls us to count the cost…

In response to God’s gracious provision, Naomi sets out with Ruth and Orpah to return the land of Judah. Naomi is an Israelite, so she is returning home. But the other two women are Moabites. For them, it will not be a return trip but a move to a new homeland, leaving all they know behind and facing much uncertainty.

Will they go with their mother-in-law? This is the tension at heart of the drama played out in verses 7 to 18. Here see that God’s grace calls us to count the cost.

As we read these verses we should remember, Naomi, Ruth and Orpah are three women who have shared tragedy together- they are bonded to one another. And now, Naomi is returning home. We might wonder what is in her head as she makes this decision- How will she be treated? Will people care for her or scoff at her?

Somewhere along the journey, an important conversation takes place. Even though she loves these daughters, she feels the need to show some ‘tough love’. In verses 8 and 13 we have a scene filled with emotion- there is weeping and kissing and prayers for blessing as Naomi pleads with Ruth and Orpah to make the ‘sensible’ choice and go back to Moab.

When Naomi pleads a second time in verses 12 and 13 she effectively saying: Think it through, ladies. Even if I were to have sons in my old age (which I can’t!), you would need to wait years before you could marry them. It’s not going to happen. So go back to Moab, where you can find another husband. You are better off there!

After first rejecting Naomi’s proposal, Ruth and Orpah now face a decision: Will they forsake all and follow Naomi, or turn back to Moab?

After more weeping, Orpah makes the decision to turn back. She concludes the more sensible route is to return to Moab, where she may find a husband. She kisses her mother-in-law goodbye and then drops off the pages of Scripture, never to be heard of again.

Ruth, however, clings tightly to her mother-in-law. Ruth displays deep loyalty. She has counted the cost and is abandoning everything to journey with Naomi.

Ruth is a picture of risk-taking faith. Her decision to go with Naomi is rooted in her trust in God. Orpah’s decision makes sense on a human level. But Ruth’s decision requires something more than conventional wisdom; it requires faith. It is the kind of faith that bears fruit. It is a relational faith, an active faith.

Ruth’s faith shines in the next few verses. In verse 15 Naomi urges Ruth to return to her Moabite way of life and worship- to go back to what she knows. In this crucial moment of decision, we read of Ruth’s stunning profession of faith. Every phrase of verses 16 and 17 is worth considering:

¹⁶ But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”

Ruth’s statement is poetic and profound. Ruth is not merely expressing devotion to Naomi; she is expressing faith in the One True God.

This declaration of faith is carefully constructed to make clear that Ruth has counted the cost- she is now following the Covenant God and joining His People. She is declaring her commitment to God alone.

Ruth is a model of authentic faith. Like all true Believers, she has turned her back on the gods of this world, and everything else, to follow God and enjoy the rich blessings of being counted one of His People. She has experienced the grace of God and has counted the cost to follow Him.

Ruth’s remarkable conversion should encourage us and fill us with praise toward God. In the Lord’s Supper we remember the great cost paid for us to make us God’s People. We, too, were once outsiders, but God has made us insiders. As Ephesians 2 reminds us, we too were dead in sin, alienated from God, but in Christ Jesus we have been brought into a relationship with God. This is the wonderful truth of the Gospel we declare in each Lord’s Supper.

And, as we ponder the cost paid for us, we count the cost of following God. At each Lord’s Supper we resolve to leave behind the gods of this world, to devote ourselves to God and His People. We count the cost- we do not to seek meaning in our career, our family, our health, or our wealth. We choose the narrow road just like Ruth did. We commit ourselves to God and His People and find fullness in Him.

Ruth entered through the narrow gate, and no one who passes through there ever has cause to regret following Jesus Christ. Though He does not promise that life will be easy, He does promise to be with us and satisfy us with His presence forever. And so, in closing we consider how…

…God’s grace is sometimes ‘hidden’.

In Ruth we see an astonishing act of surrender and self-sacrifice. Ruth was laying down her entire life to serve Naomi. In response, Naomi says… nothing(!). Having listened to one of the most emotionally moving speeches in the whole Bible, Naomi remained deafeningly silent.

Naomi’s silence tells us all about the bitterness she feels about how her life has turned out. We see this in the words she speaks when she and Ruth eventually reach Bethlehem; in verses 20 to 21 we read:

²⁰ “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. ²¹ I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

Naomi is no atheist. She considered her present situation and places the blame for it all squarely on God. She left Bethlehem full, and she has returned empty, and it is all God’s fault.

Strikingly, there is no acknowledgment of personal accountability- no mention of leaving Bethlehem for Moab, of staying in Moab, or of marrying her sons to Moabite women. She has shifted the blame entirely to God.

Naomi was not broken and repentant over her Moabite experience. Instead, her heart was angry with God. She had grown hard and bitter toward Him, both recognising and resenting His power in her life. Her body may have made the journey home, but her spirit was still far from restored.

To Naomi, God’s grace was hidden- she could not see how God was at work for her good and His glory. Naomi only saw what she did not have, or what had been taken from her. In her bitterness she fails to see God’s compassion and His commitment to His People.

As those who can read on to Chapter 4, we know that Naomi would truly recognise God’s grace by the end of the story. But today we pause in Chapter 1. And as we do so, it is worth considering how Naomi feels and what that means for us. All of us either have, or will someday, experience the sense of utter emptiness Naomi felt. What should we do when difficulty is brought upon us?

 

Well, firstly, we must recognise that it is understandable to wonder where God is, and what He is doing- this is why the Bible has a great number of laments. Naomi is not the only person who has questioned the purposes of God. The psalmists ask similar questions; for example, in Psalm 13:

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?”

At times God will withdraw from His People, or appear to withdraw- He will not always immediately answer our cries. At other times He will lead us in paths of apparent darkness or emptiness. But whatever we may face, God is at work accomplishing His sovereign purposes, though we may perceive Him to be hidden.

Consider this: Without Naomi’s emptiness, she would never have left Moab behind and returned to the land of promise. Had she stayed in Moab, Naomi would have missed out on the far greater blessing of a prime place in the history of redemption. She was so caught up in what she had lost, however, that she could not yet see the far greater treasure she had been given.

God sometimes takes away the things that have become precious to us because they are leading us far from Him. Then again, He sometimes takes away things that were good in themselves because He wants us to truly depend on Him and the grace He supplies. Whatever we face we must remember: in Christ we are His Children, He loves us and He wants what is best for us. He wants to give us more of Himself.

 

 

In our difficulties we must never forget who God is and what He has done for His People. We must continually look to the Cross. At the Cross we see the ultimate display of God’s sovereign grace and His ability and willingness to use suffering for glory- to use emptiness to bring fullness, to draw His People back into the Land of Promise.

The real empty one was Christ. He emptied Himself, leaving heaven for earth, in order that we may receive full forgiveness and eternal life. He took the judgment against us on Himself, and by faith in Him we receive His righteousness. Believers now have a totally new identity and status as sons and daughters of the King. We must not forget the grace of God in the Gospel!

Conclusion

And yet, how quickly we forget. In our Christian walk, and in our difficulties, we must remember. This is why we sing songs of God’s grace, listen to sermons about God’s grace, and speak His Gospel to one another in our times of prayer. This is also why we take the Lord’s Supper regularly. Jesus gave us this sacred ordinance to help us never to forget what He has done for us. It is when we ponder deeply the sacrifice of Christ that thankfulness, in place of bitterness, fills our hearts.

It is when we think deeply about what God has done for us that we realise that we are not alone in this world. Immanuel, ‘God with us’, has come for us and has poured out His Holy Spirit upon us. Believers in Christ have the indwelling presence of the Comforter, even when our lives are filled with hardship and grief. And we don’t just look back, we also look forward in anticipation to the Day when Christ will come again. As those who have counted the cost, who have responded to God’s grace, we look forward to that Day when all will be made right and we will be brought to true fullness forevermore.