Ruth

Introduction We received a gift recently, brought all the way from Taiwan by Andy and Mei-ling Wilson. It was a gift of Chinese tea. But Mei-ling warned me about it. This is strong stuff. If you poured boiling water on it, and then drank it, you would find that it to be very bitter. You would probably wait until no one was watching (especially Mei-ling) and then empty your cup into the nearest pot plant, and never try it again. In fact, what you are meant to do is pour away the first brew, keeping the tea leaves in the pot, then add more water. It is the second pot from the same leaves which you are supposed to drink. And that tastes good. Bitter experience in our relationships may lead us to reject those we blame for it. But perseverance pays off. If it is God we blame, then we may be tempted to abandon our faith. But if we do, we don't just miss out on a very pleasant cup of tea. We miss out on knowing God, and the blessings of life that flow from him. That is memorably demonstrated in the account of the experience of the Moabite woman Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi. We need to look at the Book of Ruth. It comes just after Judges, which is appropriate becomes the events narrated here took place, as the very first verse says: "In the days when the judges ruled" This is not a book about rulers and warriors. It is at first sight about insignificant people, and events that are of no apparent interest to the historian. Rather like our lives. Also rather like the story of a young woman called Mary and her fiance Joseph, about a millennium later. In retrospect, what happened to that obscure couple Mary and Joseph was of cosmic significance. And because what happened to Ruth was all part of God's plan, Ruth's life, too, takes on immense significance. So can ours. And we can find a way out of bitterness, and into joyfulness. Things started OK for Ruth and Naomi, but they quickly turned very bad indeed. What we have in Ruth 1 is a picture of family catastrophe. So the first of my three headings is this: First, TASTING THE BITTERNESS OF LIFE So what went wrong? There was famine in Israel, so Elimelech and his wife Naomi went abroad, to Moab, to live. They were, it seems, prosperous economic emigrants. Naomi's husband died. Her two sons married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. Then the two sons also die. That all takes about ten years. The end result is three destitute, doubly bereaved, widows. Naomi is far from home. And she is a bitter woman. Look at the nature of her bitterness. She is convinced that her suffering is greater than that of her widowed daughters-in-law. 1:13:

"It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord's hand has gone out against me!

Do you recognise that feeling? "Why has God got it in for me?" we say to ourselves. "No one else has it as hard as I do." It is pretty clear that bitterness becomes the dominant characteristic of Naomi's life at this time. So when Ruth and Naomi make it back to Israel, to Bethlehem, see how she talks to local women about her situation (1:20-21):

"Don't call me Naomi," she told them. "Call me Mara [in other words: call me Mrs Bitter], because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 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.

How does she see her life? It is one of bitterness, emptiness, affliction, and misfortune. And she has a point! Her suffering is real enough. And her bitterness is consuming her. Who does she blame? God. He has got it in for her. To Naomi, that is obvious. But that does indicate something else about her. Naomi has faith. Her view of God may be distorted, but her faith is real. She is clear that it is "the Almighty" who is providentially ordering all the events of her life. The distortion comes in how she sees God's motive. She still sees God as potentially compassionate towards others. So she says to Ruth and Orpah before she leaves Moab (1:8):

"May the Lord show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me

But God has no compassion for her. So as she tells Ruth and Orpah to abandon her to her fate, she makes the telling remark (1:13):

"Even if I thought there was still hope for me would you wait? No, my daughters the Lord's hand has gone out against me.

She is sure that she can expect nothing from God, even if other people can. Life is bitter. Does this ring any bells for you? So many devastating experiences can lead us into such bitterness: hopes that we had cherished for years lie shattered around us; those we love are wrenched away by death; economic hardship grinds us down and leaves us with empty dreams of prosperity; we are debilitated by chronic sickness or depression or pain; personal betrayal stamps ruthlessly on our trust in other people. Life can be very bitter. But it is not just bitterness, nor even distorted and despairing faith that we can see in chapter 1. There is also Ruth's faithfulness. It begins with personal loyalty to Naomi, her mother-in-law. Look at 1:14:

At this they wept again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth clung to her (v16: ) "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

Not that Ruth is exactly overflowing with hope herself. The situation is bleak for her as well. You can see the way her mind is working in 1:17, where she says:

"Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.

Faithfulness to the people around us and faithfulness to God are closely linked in a person's character. And Ruth shows deep loyalty not just to Naomi, but to Naomi's people, and her land, and her God. Is life bitter for you? The first thing to say is this: cling to God. Are you a Christian? Then hold on. Are you not yet a believer? Then take hold of Christ now, just as Ruth, from her pagan background, took hold of the living God, and committed herself to be faithful to him, come what may. Keep on going with Christ. Obey him. Do the right thing, however hard. Live a Godly life. Have the same kind of attitude that the prophet Habbakuk so movingly expresses at a time of rampant evil (this is Habbakuk 3:17-18):

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will rejoice in God my Saviour.

If you refuse to reject Christ, do you know what will happen? In time, signs of hope will begin to appear. They may be a cloud no bigger than a man's hand to start with. But they will come. Maybe there is a hint of that in the final verse of chapter 1:

So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

The famine in Israel has ended. There is food in the fields again. Maybe, after all, something will come the way of Naomi and Ruth. Now there is another side to Ruth's loyalty that we need to notice: having tasted the bitterness of life, she is seeking refuge. That is my second heading: Secondly, SEEKING REFUGE Where does she look for security and safety? First of all, she looks to Naomi's friendship. Secondly, she looks to Naomi's God. She does that in a number of ways. For one thing, she seeks refuge in God's Law, which made provision for the poor to glean behind the harvesters. And that means that Ruth also seeks refuge among God's people. She expects that they will allow her to glean, and she is right. So Ruth says to Naomi (2:2):

"Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favour.

But the way that Ruth seeks refuge in God's Law and among God's people is a consequence of the fact that she is seeking refuge in God himself. Boaz realises this. He is Naomi's relative, who finds Ruth amongst the harvesters, and asks about her. When he has been filled in, he says to her, in 2:12:

"May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.

As a young chick in a dangerous and threatening world crawls under the wings of its mother for security, so Ruth realised where safety lay for her. She would be OK as long as she stayed close to the Lord. In him she could shelter and find refuge. Then, as well as seeking refuge in Naomi's friendship and in Naomi's God, Ruth also sought refuge from her kinsman-redeemer. The notion of a kinsman-redeemer comes from the Old Covenant Law. It relates to the family obligations on next of kin, both with regard to marriage, and also property. A kinsman-redeemer was required to buy land which had to be sold due to poverty, so that it could be kept within the family. Similarly, a kinsman-redeemer had an obligation to marry a childless widow to whom he was related so as to carry on the family line. The details of how these customs worked are obscure and not that important. All we really need to know was that Boaz was such a kinsman-redeemer both to Naomi and to Ruth. He cared for them enough to take his obligations seriously. And Ruth sought refuge with him. Naomi explained to Ruth what was, no doubt, the customary way for someone to indicate to a kinsman their request for help, and Ruth puts it into practice. During the course of the threshing of the barley, when Boaz had found a spot beside the grain pile to sleep, Ruth went to him and lay at his feet. When he woke and found her there, he asked who she was.

"I am your servant Ruth," she said [this is 3:9], "Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman-redeemer.

Is life bitter for you? The first thing to do is to cling to God, and keep on obeying him. Then the second phase in overcoming life's bitterness is to dare to hope for refuge, and to seek it. Seek it amongst God's people. Seek refuge in God's Word the Bible. Seek refuge in Jesus, your redeemer. And that means seeking refuge in God himself. Trust God's promises. Claim them for yourself, but not on the basis that Christ has any obligation to you. He has none. Seek safety in Jesus on the grounds that he is merciful. And trust him. Because God does providentially order all things, not in order that they will crush us like flies beneath a steam-roller, but for our good. Through all the details of our lives, which generally seem so random and inexplicable to us, the Lord guides us and steers us towards redemption and blessing. So when we do seek refuge from bitter experience amongst God's people, from God, and from Jesus the redeemer he has provided for us, we will find it, as Ruth did. Which brings me to my third and final heading: Finally, FINDING FAVOUR The full extent of the blessing that Ruth finds is not immediately evident to her. Very often that is true for us, too. We do not realise just how great is the scope of all the blessings that we have in Jesus. So let's take a look at how these blessings unfold for Ruth. First of all, there is There is the way that she met up with Boaz. 2:3:

As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech [her dead father-in-law]. Just then Boaz arrived

"As it turned out"! What looks on the surface like a co-incidence is actually a God-incidence. It is he who is providentially ordering events for Ruth's good. He is at work in the details of her everyday life, just as he is at work in the details of our lives. It's just that most of the time we do not see it. Only from heaven will we be able to see clearly all the ways that God worked things out to bring us there through Jesus. So the Lord is beginning to bless Ruth before she even notices. And the blessing continues. She is shown kindness. 2:8-9:

So Boaz said to Ruth, "My daughter, listen to me. Don't go and glean in another field and don't go away from here And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.

And Ruth exclaims:

"Why have I found such favour in your eyes that you notice me - a foreigner?

She is thrilled that she has been noticed. That's not what you would call the height of aspiration, but it is a start. And the blessings begin to pile up. Boaz speaks tenderly to her (2:11-12):

"I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.

And Ruth responds:

"May I continue to find favour in your eyes, my lord. You have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant

Her daily needs were met, and she found she and Naomi had enough food and to spare. Then she realises that she has found her kinsman-redeemer, and Naomi tells her that if she stays with him, she will be safe. Has it really come home to you that the place of safety for you is near Jesus? And then when Ruth deliberately goes to Boaz and seeks refuge with him, first he promises that he will take care of her, and then he fulfils his promise. So, in 4:9-10, once the negotiations are over, Boaz announces to all the people:

"Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion and Mahlon. I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon's widow, as my wife

And Ruth begins to experience the blessings that she has received. 4:13:

So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.

But in reality, these blessings were far greater than Ruth saw even by this stage. Because, as the beginning of Matthew's Gospel points out, that child she bore turned out to be the grandfather of King David. And out of the line of David eventually Jesus came. When Ruth was going through her darkest days, that was the Lord's plan all along. Her life had eternal significance. We see so much more of what God has done than Ruth ever did. But still we see so little of how God is unfolding everything piece by piece. He is weaving into his plan of salvation our bitter experiences too. And, just as with Ruth, that leads to astonishing blessing when we obey and trust. So how should we respond when we find favour? Look, finally, at 4:14:

The women said to Naomi: "Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer"

Praise and joy should be on our lips and in our hearts. Conclusion Are you tasting the bitterness of life? As with that bitter China tea, you need to know how to handle it. So consider the book of Ruth. Go home and read it, and read it again until it becomes a part of you. It's only four pages long. Learn about the God who redeemed Ruth. The same God will fulfil his promise to redeem you when you seek refuge in him. Believe in the Lord's providential ordering of your life. Come what may, cling to him. Obey him. Live a Godly life, doing what the Bible tells you to be right. And don't allow your understanding of God to be distorted by your experience. God is not against you. He is for you.

Back to top