| Ruth 1:17-22 - 11 October 2008
Andrew Lim
We started this lovely love story last week / with the people of God
living in Bethlehem / living in a land
has been reduced to one huge wasteland dominated by dust and famine
We saw the irony of it because the word “Bethlehem” means “Granary”
the “House of Bread”
In Bethlehem / the House of Bread / there is no bread
This was the Lord’s doing / This was His discipline
to stop His people from plummeting deeper in sin
Then Elimelech and his wife Naomi and two sons
emigrates to the well-watered fields of Moab
where there is plenty to eat
But before too long tragedy strikes
Elimelech meets with an untimely death
Now after their father’s death / the two sons take for themselves
wives / of the women of Moab / Moabites
the name of one is Orpah / the other / Ruth
But they were all struck with a very savage blow again
Both of Noami’s sons die
So that now / she is bereft of her husband / and of her two sons
She is utterly destitute
And it is at this point in our story / that she hears a report
that the famine in Bethlehem / is now over
Bethlehem / the “House of Bread” / is now filled with bread again
And Noami must have said to herself:
“My life is all but gone now / I’ve lost / not only my loved ones
I’ve lost my communion with God / and I’ve lost my witness
But I’m going to cut my losses / get out of the place of my humiliation
and go back / to where I first left the road”
This is a good place to some to for any one of us
- to come to see that we have left the tracks / deviated from the road
and lost our way
- the Prodigal son came to see one day that even the servants in his house
had more food to eat than he did
When you’ve been down / a good place to start again
is to start from where you’ve fallen
Go back to where you start to fall away
Go back to that point when you began slipping away
When you’re down and out / a good place to start again
is to try to retrace their steps from you begin falling away
- a door you’ve opened
- a relationship you’ve allowed to deepen
- a neglect that has not become habitual
Locate that place / and from there / confess / repent / and start again
So Naomi resolves to return home
But Naomi is stuck with her two daughters-in-law ?
Their hearts have now become knitted to hers
by the common sorrow / which has overtaken them
But after some deliberations Orpah chooses to return to Maob
and she is heard of no more
But Ruth clung to Naomi and decides to follow her mother in law
into a strange land of her sworn enemies
This is what Naomi does / There came a time / when she decides
that she’s not going to spend one more day in that foreign land
- it is enough to have her husband and two sons buried there
- if she can help it / she’s not going to allow herself be buried there
So together with Ruth / they trudge down the dusty road to Bethlehem
When they arrive / Naomi was the one people first took notice
Why? / Because she carries on her body
the marks of a person returning from war
she’s limping / she’s scarred / she’s got a deep-furrowed brow
she’s all the worse for wear
she has all the marks of brokenness in her
Moab has etched its mark / not only on her heart but on her face
“Is this Naomi?”
The first thing they notice is Naomi
They didn’t say “Who’s this stranger with Naomi?”
Which would be natural because Ruth indeed is a stranger
but they didn’t even ask about her
didn’t ask about her two boys / didn’t ask about husband didn’t notice them all missing
None of these things
What they noticed was the changed Naomi
And someone there asks: “Is this Naomi?”
And Naomi’s reaction is swift and harsh
“Don’t call me Naomi” / which of course meant “sweet” or “pleasant”
“Call me Mara” / which meant “bitter”
“Forget the “Naomi” you knew: sweet / pleasant / happy and tender
Think of me now as “Mara” / hard / cold and bitter
In Israel names were not just a name
they were descriptions of a person’s character
and people live in such a way that they aspire to be the person
their name ascribes them hopefully to turn out to be
A person’s name in Israel forecasts a person’s future
which in turn influence a person’s behaviour and conduct
Just ask Esau how appropriate his brother Joseph’s name was
Abraham meant the father of many nations
Joshua meant a deliverer a savour
And when people’s destiny takes a twist or turn on their life’s journey
they change their name
Abram became Abraham / Sarai became Sarahame Apostle Paul: Jacob changed his name to Israel
Saul changed his name to Paul
Simon-Cephas became
In fact / in time to come / you will all have a name change
Revelation 2:17 / promises us that "To him who overcomes
I will give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone"
Now you will understand why Naomi exploded
when the people met her with the greeting “Isn’t this Naomi”
meaning “the pleasant one”
Her life now is anything but pleasant
Her name and her life smacks of a mockery
Her own name now begins to taunt her
So in a most pungent voice she blurted out
Don’t call me Naomi Call me Mara
Don’t call me Pleasant Call me Bitter
Why? “For the hand of the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me
I went away full / and the Lord has brought me back empty” 1:20
You notice something? / Naomi attributes her suffering to God
Look at verses 20 and 21
v. 20 / “Do not call me Naomi / Call me Mara
for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me”
v. 21 / “I went out full / and the LORD has brought me home empty
Why do you call me Naomi / since the LORD
has testified against me / and the Almighty has afflicted me?”
Please take note of the names of God she uses
and the order in which she mentions them
The Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me”
I went away full but the LORD has brought me back empty
That’s the first couplet / two names for God in their proper order
Almighty (Shaddai) / the LORD (Yahweh)
Now look at the second couplet
The same names / but this time the order in reverse
“The LORD has brought me home again empty
The Almighty has afflicted me”
This is no accident / this is deliberate
It tells us the emphasis that Naomi is making
It tells us Who Naomi attributes all her troubles to
In a structure like this / what we call the Chiastic structure
the emphasis is on the name in the middle
And the emphasis is not Shaddai / the general idea of a Mighty God
But it is Yahweh / my Lord / It is He / Who has afflicted me
My Lord / is the One who has done this to me
- the very one who promises to protect me has done this to me
Naomi recognises that the events in our lives / are not the result
of some blind cosmic chance / some impersonal fate
She sees the hand of God in her life
She knows nothing happens unless it is the hand of God that decrees it
She understands / it is no one else
other than God Himself / Who has afflicted her
Naomi has a theology that is so radically different
from the sentimental views of God we see in many Christians today
Some of us are uncomfortable with Naomi’s theology
Some of us are tempted to say
“Naomi is wrong by pointing her finger at God
she should be pointing her finger at the devil
for it is the devil that has made her bitter”
But Naomi is not wrong / She’s right / Like Job / Naomi is right
And I know that her theology flies right in the face
of popular modern teaching / which tells us
that God is a kind old grandfather / He wouldn’t hurt a fly
He’s here to make us happy
But no! / God’s not here to make us happy / He’s here to make us holy
and for that / God will sometime give us the bitter cup to drink
But Naomi is not the only person in the Bible who talks like that
Moses did / Elijah did / Jeremiah / the psalmist did
Supremely it is Job who spoke like that
more graphically than anyone else
and not one of them was struck down for that
I know of a number of us here who love the writings of Jonathan Edwards
From a human perspective Jonathan Edwards died much too soon
at a young age of 55 in 1758
But the occasion of his untimely death / reveals to us
that it was not only him to held on to God’s sovereignty
but his family members too had a high view of God’s sovereignty
When smallpox struck New England
Edwards was inoculated for smallpox
but strangely through the inoculation He contracted the disease
and died from it
These are his final words written to his daughter Lucy:
“Dear Lucy / it seems to me to be the will of God
that I must shortly leave you
therefore give my kindest love to my dear wife / and tell her
that the uncommon union / which has so long subsisted between us
has been of such a nature as I trust is spiritual
and therefore will continue forever
and I hope she will be supported under so great a trial
and submit cheerfully to the will of God
And as to my children / you are now to be left fatherless
which I hope will be an inducement to you all
to seek a Father who will never fail you”
His wife / Sarah / was in fact rather ill herself
when she heard of her husband’s death through a letter
And this is what she wrote to her other daughter Esther:
“What shall I say: A holy and good God
has covered us with a dark cloud
O that we may kiss the rod / and lay our hands on our mouths!
The Lord has done it / He has made me adore his goodness
that we had him (your father) so long
But my God lives; and he has my heart
O what a legacy my husband / and your father / has left to us!
We are all given to God: and there I am and love to be
Your ever affectionate mother / Sarah Edwards”
But Esther was never to read that letter
for less than two weeks following her father’s death
she contracted a fever and died / leaving two infants
Sarah Edwards did not long survive her husband and daughter
Seven months after her husband’s death
Sarah died from dysentery / she was 48
But just look at her deep trust in God’s sovereignty
“My very dear child / What shall I say!
A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud
O that we may kiss the rod / and lay our hands upon our mouths!
The Lord has done it”
In those words we see the spiritual depth of her heart
And here in our text / we see Naomi responding the very same way
To Naomi / it is the sovereign almighty God
Who governs all the affairs of nations and families
And it is no one else but the sovereign God / Who has afflicted her
Naomi knows / that He has the power
to prevent the death of her husband and two sons / but He did not
So ultimately / it is God / who has brought her grief
Naomi’s theology / is more true to the teaching of the Bible
than some of the silly shallow teaching
that’s been bandied around us today
You’ll remember that when Job had lost all his ten children and all his wealth
he was afflicted with horrendous boils from head to toes
Through all that grievous pain / he never lost his grip on God
In Job 1:21 he said / “The Lord gave / and the Lord has taken away
blessed be the name of the Lord”
Then in 2:10 he said / “Shall we receive good at the hand of the God
and shall we not receive evil?”
From his words we see that Job clearly consciously
attributed his grief to have come from that hands of God
He looks on God as One who is totally in control over all things
and he humbly submitted himself to the will of God
It is so most unfortunate that many Christians neither believe in
nor have a reasonable clear grasp of God as unconditionally sovereign
And yet when we search the Scripture / we are amazed by the fact
that God’s sovereignty is asserted / on almost every page of the Bible
Here is but a small sampling of what the Scripture affirms:
“I know that You can do all things?
No plan of Yours can be thwarted / Job 42:2
“For the Lord Almighty has purposed / and who can thwart Him?
His hand is stretched out and who can turn it back? / Is 14:27
“Yes and from ancient days I am he / no one can deliver
out of my hand when I act / who can reverse it” / Is 43:13
“I make known the end from the beginning / from ancient times
what is still to come / My purpose will stand
and I will do / all that I please” / Is 46:10
“Consider what the Lord has done
Who can straighten what the Lord has made crooked” / Ec 7:13
“What He opens no man can shut
and what He shuts no man can open” / Rev 3:7
What breathtaking statements / those are!
The Word of God teaches us that
God is sovereign over Satan and all his cohorts
One day as Jesus came up against thousands of demons / they cry out
“What have you to do with us / O Son of God?
Have you come here to torment us before the time?” / Mt 8:29-32
Demons know there is an appointed time for their final destruction
God is sovereign over rulers and kings
He sets up those in authority / He removes authority
* Daniel 2:20-21 / “Wisdom and might are His
He changes the times and the seasons
He removes kings and raises up kings”
God is sovereign over what people may do to us
Joseph’s brothers acted spitefully and maliciously against him
- they sold him into slavery
But years later / Looking at his brothers in the eyes / Joseph said
“It wasn’t you who sent me here / but God” / Ge 45:8
“As for you / you meant evil against me
but God meant it for good” / Gen 50:20
God is sovereign over our financial status
1 Sam 2:7 / “The LORD sends poverty / He sends wealth
He humbles / and he exalts”
God is sovereign over diseases and physical defects
Exodus 4:11 So the LORD said to him / “Who gave man his mouth?
Who makes him deaf or mute?
Who gives him sight or makes him blind? / Is it not I / the LORD?”
Donald Barnhouse is right when he said
No person in this world was ever blind
that God had not planned for him to be blind
No person was ever deaf in this world
that God had not planned for him to be deaf
If you do not believe that / you have a strange God
who has a universe which has gone out of gear
and He cannot control it
God is sovereign over life and death
He has absolute control over the length of our lives
We live in a world / that’s full of people who think they are in control
- but the very breath they draw in / is a gift of God
Deuteronomy 32:39 / “See now that I myself am He!
There is no god besides me / I put to death and I bring to life,
I have wounded and I will heal / no one can deliver out of my hand”
* Psalm 104 / tells us that God gives people their food
They open their hands / God fills them
When He hides His face / they are thrown into confusion
Now listen to this / when He takes away their breath / they die
and return to their dust
* When Dawson Trotman was drowned
and news came to his wife / Lila Trotman
the first words that came from her mouth / was this
“God is in the heavens He does whatever He pleases” Gen 115:3
God is sovereign over the calamities of this world
After losing all ten of his children in the collapse of his son’s house
Job says / “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away
Blessed be the name of the LORD” / Job 1:21
After being covered with boils he says: “Shall we indeed accept good
from God and not accept adversity?” / Job 2:10
Of course Satan is real and spiteful
But Job knew even Satan couldn’t have lifted up a finger
had God not ordain it
This is why when his wife asked him to curse God and die
he said to her: “Shall we not accept good
and not adversity from God?”
Yes / Satan “the ruler of this world” /John 16:11
Yes / Satan is “the god of this world” / 2 Cor 4:4
Yes / Satan is “the prince of the power of the air” / Eph 2:2
So yes / Satan “the ruler of this world / and
he may assault us with sickness
he may try to wear us down
he has the power to strike you with an illness
he may even kill / including Christians
Jesus said “He was a murderer from the beginning” / John 8:44
But he has no power except the power that God gives him
And behind every sickness is the hand of God
behind every death is also the hand of God
It is God / and not Satan who has ultimate sovereignty / over sicknesses
God is ultimately sovereign over life and death
Unless God decrees / no one dies /Unless God decrees / no one lives
And if He decrees our suffering / it is ultimately for our good / our welfare
Remember I said last week that this little Book of Ruth
is a story for people who scratch their heads
and wonder where God is when they become afflicted
with one grief after another
There are times when we wonder if it is still worth it
to remain righteous and honest / when life gets only harder
It is a story for people who are groping for God
in the darkest seasons of their lives
But although Naomi is right to believe in God’s sovereignty
she does not have the eyes to see the good purposes
behind God’s sovereign will
On this score / Joseph is a taller person
You’ll remember that Joseph too was dealt with severely by God
His brothers conspired against him / sold him off into slavery
As if that isn’t enough
Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him of sexual sin
and he was imprisoned for many years
And thing go on getting worse
- the butler forgotten him and left him languishing in prison
But unlike Naomi Joseph knows that behind God’s sovereign will
is His good and gracious purpose
And in the end he is able to say to his brothers / affirmatively
“As for you / you meant it for evil against me
but God meant it for good”
If Naomi has eyes to see / she will see
that it is God Who is bringing her home / for a good purpose ahead
We see a promise of this in the very line of chapter 1
v 22 / “And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest”
What a good time to be anywhere
- the scent of good things is in the air
- a time of hope / a time to look forward
- you sense a little of this in this time of spring / don’t you
- you’re thinking of summer
- what you will do / where you will go / who you’ll be with
The point is this / Nothing takes God unawares
If you’ve been afflicted / that affliction has come to you
from having passed through the hand of the Almighty
and if it has come / from passing through His hands
it can only be for your ultimate good
And we may grieve over the affliction
but ultimately we don’t have to be afraid
for our God is infinitely good / and wise / and sovereign
and He will not give to us
an ounce of anything that isn’t good for us
Satan knows this too
Before he could touch Job / he tells God:
“Have you not put a hedge around him?”
There was a time when I had been afflicted
then the Lord spoke to me from the psalms
“It is good for me that I was afflicted / so that I may learn Your decrees
O Lord / I know that Your judgments are righteous
and in faithfulness / You have afflicted me” / Ps 119:71, 75
God's purposes run on / through all the ebb and flow of life
The Book of Ruth starts with Elimelech
- a name meaning "God is king"
It closes with another man
who proves to be the King God chose
Elimelech is heedless but God is measuring all his steps
God's strategy is running through
1. Elimelech may choose but God will not be turned aside
Elimelech may go into Moab to fulfill his own will
but God will bring Ruth out of Moab that through her
the line of Christ may be preserved
2. Satan first attacked the first woman Eve
but through this very woman's seed
Satan's head will be crushed
3. Pharoah drowned the baby boys in the River Nile
but from that very river came One
who would ravage all his land and nation
4. Haman raised his erected a gallow to have Mordecai
but Haman was the man they hanged
5. Herod killed all the innocent children
but the very Innocent One he mised
and he grew up to prevail against Herod at the end
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