1. "The Christian life is not one long happy party. It's not a life only filled of triumphs, but also some tragedies and sorrows. The Christian life is often one long, extended, trial-filled, trouble-filled, grief-stricken journey."

2. "Don't let the bitterness of life blind you from the better and bigger purposes of God."

3. "Sin never brings life. It only brings death."

4. "When you leave God trying to be filled up somewhere else, all you find is droughts, more spiritual dryness. You leave the fountain of living waters and you dig up sand and put it in your mouth. And you wonder why life is not fulfilling for you."

5. "The devil don't never tell you that side of things. He shows you the little trinkets. He don't show you the path it leads to."

6. "It's often said and it's sadly too often true that hurt people hurt people. But friends, it's also true that hurt people can help other hurt people."

7. "In the midst of melancholy, when God might seem like he's most distant, you may just find that it's in those moments that the Lord is most at work."

8. "God has purposes behind our pain that are greater than what we can imagine."

9. "Friends, you never know who's watching you. Parents, I hope that encourages you. When your kids don't have immediate conversions, you just remain faithful to the Lord."

10. "We don't know all that God is doing through the gloom and hardships of today. But we know that for those who love God, who are called according to his purposes, all things work together for our good. So we can trust him."

Observation Questions

1. According to Ruth 1:1-2, what circumstances led Elimelech to take his family from Bethlehem to Moab, and who comprised his family?

2. What series of losses does Naomi experience in Moab according to verses 3-5, and how does verse 5 describe her situation after these events?

3. In verse 6, what news does Naomi hear that prompts her to return to Judah, and how is God's activity described in this verse?

4. What does Naomi urge her daughters-in-law to do in verses 8-9, and what specific blessings does she pray the Lord would give them?

5. In verses 16-17, what commitments does Ruth make to Naomi, and what covenant language does she use regarding Naomi's people and God?

6. When Naomi arrives in Bethlehem in verses 19-21, what does she ask the townspeople to call her instead of Naomi, and what reasons does she give for this new name?

Interpretation Questions

1. The sermon emphasizes that the famine in Bethlehem was not random but a result of God's judgment on Israel's rebellion (referencing Deuteronomy 28). How does understanding this context change the way we view Elimelech's decision to leave the Promised Land for Moab?

2. The word "return" (Hebrew: shuv) appears twelve times in this chapter and can mean both physical returning and spiritual repentance. How does this dual meaning help us understand what God is doing in Naomi's life and in Ruth's declaration of faith?

3. Ruth was a Moabite—from a nation that was Israel's enemy and worshiped other gods. What does her inclusion in God's people and her declaration "your God, my God" reveal about God's purposes for the nations throughout Scripture?

4. Naomi acknowledges God's sovereignty over her suffering in verses 20-21, saying "the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me." How can someone hold both a belief in God's sovereignty over suffering and a continued trust in His goodness, as the sermon suggests Naomi does?

5. The chapter ends by noting that Naomi and Ruth arrived "at the beginning of barley harvest" (v. 22). How does this detail function as a sign of hope in the narrative, and what does it suggest about how God works through seasons of loss?

Application Questions

1. The sermon warned against leaving God's presence to seek fulfillment elsewhere, comparing it to leaving "the fountain of living waters" for "broken cisterns" (Jeremiah 2:13). What are specific "broken cisterns" you are tempted to turn to when life feels empty or difficult, and what would it look like to return to God as your source of satisfaction this week?

2. Naomi showed selfless care for her daughters-in-law even in the midst of her own deep grief. When you are suffering, what tends to happen to your concern for others—does it increase or decrease? What is one practical way you could serve someone else who is hurting even while navigating your own pain?

3. The sermon challenged the assumption that strained relationships with in-laws (or others different from us) are inevitable. Is there a relationship in your life—with family, someone of a different background, or a fellow church member—where you have settled for distance or tension? What step could you take toward deeper love and care?

4. Ruth's commitment to Naomi came after watching Naomi's faithful witness through years of suffering. Who in your life might be watching how you respond to hardship? How might your response to a current trial either draw them toward God or push them away?

5. The sermon urged believers to stop "coming to church with a mask on" and instead share burdens with the church family. What is one burden or struggle you have been carrying alone that you could share with a trusted brother or sister this week, allowing them to help bear it with you (Galatians 6:2)?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Deuteronomy 28:1-24 — This passage outlines the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience that God promised Israel, including famine, providing the covenantal background for understanding the famine in Bethlehem.

2. Jeremiah 2:9-19 — Here God accuses His people of forsaking Him, the fountain of living waters, for broken cisterns, illustrating the sermon's warning about seeking fulfillment apart from God.

3. Job 1:13-22 — Job's response to catastrophic loss demonstrates how a blameless person can suffer yet still worship God, paralleling the sermon's discussion of suffering that is not tied to personal sin.

4. Luke 1:67-79 — Zechariah's song at John the Baptist's birth declares that God "has visited and redeemed his people," echoing the language of Ruth 1:6 and showing how God's visitation culminates in Christ.

5. Romans 8:28-39 — Paul's teaching that all things work together for good for those who love God and that nothing can separate us from His love reinforces the sermon's call to trust God's purposes behind our pain.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Question of What Miserable Christians Can Sing

II. Life Is Bitter (Ruth 1:1-5)

III. But God Is at Work (Ruth 1:6-22)

IV. Don't Let Bitterness Blind You to God's Purposes

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Detailed Sermon Outline

What can miserable Christians sing? What can miserable Christians sing? That's the question Carl Truman posed in an essay about a decade ago. As Truman observed the landscape of many churches in America, he noticed that the language of what Bobby led us in earlier laments was largely missing from worship services. Instead, so much of the mood of the music was about creating and keeping an emotional high.

The problem? Truman remarked, a diet of constantly jolly hymns inevitably creates an unrealistic horizon of expectation, which sees the normative Christian life as one long triumphalistic street party. A theologically incorrect and a pastorally dangerous scenario in a world of broken individuals.

You know this, the Christian life is not one long happy party. It's not a life only filled of triumphs, but also some tragedies and sorrows. The Christian life is often one long, extended, trial-filled, trouble-filled, grief-stricken journey. Maybe you're feeling that acutely this morning.

For you, this past week has been hard. This current semester is hard. This entire year has been hard. Your entire life has been a hard life, while everybody else around you it seems is living in total and complete happiness.

Now perhaps you're wondering, is there a place for a person like you in the world? Is there a place for a person like you in this church? Is there a place for a person like you in the Bible?

According to our pastor, this morning I think we learned that there is a place for hurting people to find rest and hope and restoration and redemption in God himself. So if you have your Bibles, would you turn with me to Ruth chapter 1. Ruth chapter 1. It's right after the book of Judges in your Bibles, right before the book of 1 Samuel. I don't know what it is in the Bibles under your chairs, if someone can shout it out if you find it.

What is it if you're using a chair Bible? 222. If you're using one of the Bibles under your chairs, it's 222. Do y'all still have separate page numbers for these? Okay, good.

Everything's the same now. Good. 222. Right? If this is your first time in the Bible, I'd encourage you to just look at the Bible as I read it.

Look carefully at the Bible as I'm preaching it. If you've never been to a Christian church before, and this is your first time at a Christian church, what we're going to do this morning is pretty standard at most or many evangelical churches, and also pretty nonstandard in a lot of churches. We're going to preach from God's Word, and we actually want you to believe that what's being said from the preacher is coming from the Word. So I'd rather you look more at the Bible that you look at me, right? So that you can see if what I'm saying actually matches what the text says.

Ruth chapter 1, 2:22, if you're using one of the Bibles on the chairs. We read, 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. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife, Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah.

They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives. The name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about 10 years and both Mahlon and Kilion died so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

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. 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.

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. 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, and they said to her, 'No, we will return with you to your people.' But Naomi said, Turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that may become your husbands?

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, I should bear sons. Would you therefore be willing to 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. Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. And she said, See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people. And to her gods, Return after your sister-in-law.

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

She said to them, Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me? The Almighty has brought calamity upon me.

So Naomi returned, 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.

You're looking for a main idea from this passage. The main point of the sermon, I think, is this.

Don't let the bitterness of life, Blind you from the bigger and better purposes of God.

Don't let the bitterness of life blind you from the better and bigger purposes of God. As we walk through this text together this morning, we want to hang our thoughts on two dual realities we see in the text. Number one, life is bitter. Number two, but God is at work. Number one, life is bitter.

We see that in verses 1 through 5. Number two, but God is at work. We see that in verses 6 through 22. First, life is bitter. Now, we don't know the specific author of this book, nor do we know the exact date of the book, but the author gives us some clues.

If you look at verse 1, he writes, In the days when the judges ruled. It's a time marker letting us know where we are in the biblical storyline. God has established a people for himself, Israel. Promised Abraham in Genesis. He's rescued them from slavery in Egypt in the book of Exodus.

He's entered into a covenant relationship with them and given them his law to live by. But the people rebelled continuously, leading God to cause them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years until an entire generation died off. It's during this wilderness wandering that the events of Leviticus and Deuteronomy and Numbers play out. Then finally, God brings them into the Promised Land led by Joshua. And we read in the book of Joshua of Israel's conquest of peoples and territories to inhabit the Promised Land of Canaan.

The book of Judges then opens up with Israel still in the midst of the conquest of these lands and peoples.

But they still keep continuing to rebel against the Lord. And so God gives them up over and over and over again to their enemies as a consequence of their sin. But then over and over and over again he keeps on raising up judges to rescue them from their enemies time and again. It's during this cycle of time, the author of Ruth tells us, that the events of this book occurred. Friends, this is not some mythical tale of some far away place, some enchanted place that happened long, long time ago.

This is not a fairy tale story that you tell your kids that is only untrue. No, the events in this book are rooted in history. Things that happened in real space and time, as are all the things in the Bible. This is a true book with true events that have specific timelines and dates in them. The events in Ruth probably happened between 1250 and 1050 BC.

But by giving us the setting of these events, the author doesn't just put a dot on a timeline. He also provides something of a spiritual temperature check for the nation of Israel. You see the time of the judges was one of the darkest times in Israel's history. Some of the most gruesome sins that Israel committed are recorded in the book of Judges. Indeed, the very last verse in the book of Judges tells us how horribly the people lived.

We read in those days, in the last line of Judges, in those days there was no king in Israel, so everyone did what was right. In their own eyes.

Add to that the fact that the author here in Ruth chapter 1, verse 1, tells us that there was a famine in the land, and you can see how incredibly grim things are. But it's not only a dark time in the nation of Israel, it's a particularly dark time in the lives of one family in the nation of Israel. You know, I appreciate that the Bible doesn't just deal in abstractions. No, it talks about real people and real problems. And we read that in response to the famine in the land, a man from Bethlehem in Judah named Elimelech takes his wife, Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, and travels to Moab, the country across from Judah on the opposite side of the Dead Sea.

They leave Judah where there's lack, looking for a more abundant life. But instead of finding life in Moab to be better, what they find instead is that it's actually more bitter. Look at verse 3. We read that Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, dies, and she's left with her two sons. Naomi is a widow.

Suddenly a single mom with two sons to try to raise and lead in the right direction without the help of a husband, without the help of a community, a village of extended family members, as she's left home and now lives in a foreign land. In verse 4, we read that her two sons take foreign wives, Orpah and Ruth, Moabite women. There's a kind of fullness that's returned. Naomi's own marriage has ended through death, but two new marriages have sprung up. Not a replacement for Elimelech, but perhaps a refreshment.

But then after 10 years, Naomi and Mahlon and Kilion and Orpah and Ruth all together in Moab, verse 5 tells us that Mahlon and then Killian dies. And no parent ever wants to outlive their children. There are visions of seeing them grow up and get married and give you grandchildren and all the rest. Naomi has seen her sons grow and get married, but they haven't given any grandchildren. And there never will be any grandchildren.

Their lives are taken, and something of Naomi's as well. In just a decade, death has totally decimated and destroyed this once full family. Naomi, who came into Moab a wife and a mother, is now neither. Look there. Notice how the end of verse 5 now describes her.

Not in terms of marriage or motherhood, she's been stripped of both. She's described only now as the woman left in Moab without her two sons and without her husband. If she thought there was lack in Judah, there's far greater lack now.

Don't put yourself in this woman's shoes. Perhaps flashing through her mind were countless memories the smiles and laughs she shared with Elimelek on their wedding day, the joy that was theirs when they found that she was pregnant with their first son, the equal excitement when her womb was filled again with a second son. Their family line would go on for generations, they must have thought. Maybe she recalled Mahlon's first steps. Or Killian's first words, or all the little moments of life that when going through them seem frustrating and demanding and seemingly insignificant.

I mean, helping the boys with their Hebrew homework, teaching them how to properly strap your sandals, telling them for the thousandth time, stop hitting your brother.

But now what she wouldn't give just to talk to them, to see them one more time.

Maybe she remembered the last trip they all took together over to Moab. Elimelech assuring everyone that this was best for the family. And it would only be a short time, only until the famine ends. And it might actually be a fresh start. A time to finally act on his long-held dreams to start a family business and secure their financial future.

He'd call it Elimelech and Sons.

But as all these memories flood Naomi's mind, just as many tears flood her eyes as reality sets in. And she grievingly glares at the three grave sites in front of her. Her husband and two sons dead. She is left alone with no men in her life, no protection, no provision, no posterity.

As we read these first five verses, I think we're meant to see and feel the sadness of them. Perhaps you can relate quite well because you know in your own life how deep a part loss has played. The lack of finances. You know, when the bottom seemingly drops out. The loss of house or land.

The loss of dear family members. You know the swing of emotion from jubilation to deep sorrow. When the first sonogram reveals a healthy baby. But the second sonogram can't detect the heartbeat. You know what it is to walk into a quiet house, past rooms filled with kids' toys, but no longer filled with kids' noise.

You know what it is to climb into a cold, empty bed at night, Because your spouse is gone, either through death or desertion, which feels like a death. Or maybe the person you thought would one day be your spouse has broken off the relationship. You know what it is to weep with this woman. To be sad. But the sadness here is not only in Naomi's subjective feeling of losing her husband and her sons, The sadness is meant to be felt as we see the object of reality of sin's effects.

All of this in one way or another is because of sin. I mean, from the first verse, this famine that we read about in Bethlehem is not some random event. It's not that mother nature has acted irrationally and caused a drought. Nor is it that not enough people pledge donations to UNICEF in their fight against world hunger. No, this famine in this land at this moment in time is the result of sin, is an act of God's judgment.

In Deuteronomy chapter 28, God promised his people Israel that when he brought them into the promised land he was giving them, that if they obeyed him and his word, they'd meet innumerable blessings.

They'd be blessed in the house and blessed in the field. Their fruit and their flocks would constantly increase.

But he also promised curses if they disobeyed him. He told them in Deuteronomy 28, Cursed shall be the fruit of your ground, the heavens over your head shall become bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron. The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed. This drought was from God's hand, the consequence of his people's rebellion.

And the death we see in verses 1 through 5 is also a result of the people's sin. I mean, even with a famine in Bethlehem, the fact that Elimelech left the Promised Land, the land God had given his people to go to Moab, is not a good thing. Moab was Israel's constant enemy. You might remember the famous stories. It was the Moabite king, Balak, who hired the prophet Balaam to curse Israel.

It was the Moabite king Eglon and the judges who conquered and ruled over Israel for a number of years. It was the Moabites who worshiped other gods. And so the choice of Elimelech to leave Bethlehem to go to Moab, of all places, was a move from a bad situation to an even worse one. Yes, there may have been food in Moab, but look what else was there.

We're not explicitly told the cause of Elimelech's death.

But it could be directly because of his sin. Perhaps God's judgment upon him for not trusting in his providence and his provision in Bethlehem and instead seeking rest in another land. Similarly, we're not told the exact cause of Naomi's sons' deaths. But given what we are told about them, that they took Moabite wives, we might presume that sin may have been a factor. I mean, God had forbid his people to marry other nations, to intermarry with them, given their polytheism and their worship of false gods.

But even without the explicit causes of death spelled out here, death itself is always the result of sin. Maybe not a direct sin, but all death is a consequence of sin.

God promised the first man, Adam, that his rebellion would lead to death. And friends, God always keeps his promises. So then, when Adam rebelled, sin and death entered into the world and spread like a disease so that now all men and women sin and all men and women die.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23. And the penalty of sin is death. Romans 6:23.

We're not meant to read these first few verses and simply read of the sad situation of one woman way back when. Nor are we meant to read these first few verses, resign to the fact that life can just be hard. That loss is normal. We're meant to read these verses with a sense of heartfelt agony at the horror that sin causes. Saints, sin never brings life.

It only brings death. Sin never brings life. It only brings death. Death.

Maybe that's a reminder you need this morning.

Because you're toying with some secret sin that you think is safe because you haven't gotten caught yet.

You think it's cool because nothing bad has happened yet.

Kids, maybe you're already texting and plotting some secret sin with some girl, some guy this coming week, tomorrow at school that you think is okay because your parents don't know about it. Maybe there's something that you're playing around with as if it's a pet, not knowing how dangerous it is.

Perhaps you need these verses to remind you that current hardships, hard as they might be, should not cause you to turn your back on God, to seek something or someone better. The proverbial grass is never greener on the other side. In leaving the famine in Judah, this family found greater futility in Moab. When they left God's place, where he pledged that his presence would be, what they met was death. Friends, that's how it always is apart from God.

Life is not life apart from him. In his presence, There is fullness of joy. At His right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Friends, if joy is full in God's presence, then when you step away from God's presence, what do you expect to find? There's no more joy to be had.

It's only in the Lord's presence. So why do you keep seeking joy somewhere else? In something else. Reminds me of Jeremiah. Chapter 2, where God says, My people have committed two sins.

They have left me. Try to find it so I can read it verbatim.

They have committed two evils. Jeremiah 2:13. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that hold no water.

When you leave God trying to be filled up somewhere else, all you find is droughts, more spiritual dryness. You leave the fountain of living waters and you dig up sand and put it in your mouth. And you wonder why life is not fulfilling for you.

Friends, when you leave God's presence, You don't found life, you know, it's kind of slang out here now. People say, oh, this joint giving me life. You heard that phrase before? This song giving me life, this vibe giving me life. It ain't giving you no life.

It might feel like it, which is even more dangerous. It's bringing you death. Outside of God's presence, there's only doom and destruction. The devil don't never tell you that side of things.

He shows you the little trinkets. He don't show you the path it leads to.

You know, we need not only view these verses as tied only to sin. Even in our obedience to God, we're not promised to have an easy life. I mean, Naomi's loss here might remind you of Job's loss, which was prompted not by his sin, but sent his way, although he was blameless in the Lord's sight. The reality is that life in this fallen world can be bitter, not only owing to our individual sin, but to sometimes God's strange and hard providence. From our perspective, all we may see and experience is that life is bitter.

But we need not lose sight that in everything, God is at work. Point number one, life is bitter, but point number two, God is at work. Notice something of the juxtaposition between verses 5 and verses 6. While Naomi is mourning over in Moab, The Lord is moving in Jerusalem and moving Naomi back home. We read in verse 6-6 that after the deaths of Elimelech and Mahlon and Kilion, then Naomi arose with her two daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab.

And what prompted her movements were the Lord's movements. The end of verse 6 says, She left because she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food, or literally bread. While Naomi's world is dark and dreary, the dark and dreary world she left has seen something of a great light. Bethlehem, which literally means house of bread, has bread again. For the Lord has visited his people.

If those words sound familiar, it's because we've read them. You've heard them before in the biblical story. It's those words that we read in Exodus when the people of Israel were in a dark place, trapped in bondage in Egypt. But God sent Moses and Aaron on to the Israelites and taught to tell them of God's plan to rescue them. And Exodus chapter 4, verse 31 tells us that the people believed.

And when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped. If you fast forward a thousand years from Exodus, you find the people of Israel again in gloom. They'd experienced the misery of sin and were still waiting for their Messiah.

Even though they had not heard God's voice in over 400 years. But then an angel appeared one day to a man named Zechariah, and he told him that his wife would bear a son who would be the forerunner to this promised Messiah. And when this son of promise, John the Baptist, was born, his father Zechariah, seeing that God's plan of salvation was about to be realized, broke out in praise. Saying in Luke chapter 1 verse 68, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people. Oh saints, whatever you are experiencing in life is not the sum total of life itself.

You and I are finite beings with a finite view of what is going on in the world. In the midst of melancholy, when God might seem like he's most distant, you may just find that it's in those moments that the Lord is most at work.

You see, God is not some detached, unconcerned deity. That might be what the world is telling you. That might be, as Mark said earlier, those unanswered prayers might be trying to convince you of. That when you speak, the Lord is so far away that they never reach him. Or that when you speak, the Lord is unconcerned and he don't care about answering you.

No, the Bible presents a personal God who though transcendent to the world and the people he's created is also present with us, is in the midst with us. He's intimately involved in every single detail of you and my life. And amazingly, not even our sins have turned him away.

I mean, the famine that Israel faced was because they sinned against God, and yet God still comes to them. He still visits them. And do you see how he refers to them? As his people. The Lord visited his people and he provides for them.

For instance, what's called grace. God giving them contrary to what they deserve. What Israel deserved was to perish from starvation for their sin of turning away from God. But God grants them life by giving them bread to eat. It's the same way he treats us.

He's given us grace. What we deserve is to perish for our sin and to go into an eternal hell for our sin of turning away from God. But God has also granted us life by giving us bread, the bread of life, Jesus Christ himself, whose body was broken, who came from heaven to earth to take on our sins. To die in our place so that all who turn from their sins and put their trust in him might have life forever more, even though we've sinned and rebelled against him. And when he purchases us, when he gives himself to us as a piece of bread to take and eat, to have and to possess, he never turns you away.

As we were saying earlier, he will hold us fast until he comes at last.

God has provided what his people need. Naomi hears about it all the way in Moab, maybe through some returning traveler or some courier who came along and passed along the news. But behind their words was the almighty voice of God beckoning this broken woman to come home, Naomi. Come home. Come back to me.

Return.

You see that word return splattered 12 times throughout the rest of this chapter, from verse 6 to verse 22. It's the Hebrew word shuv, which in some contexts means to physically return to a place, and in other contexts it means to repent. Most often in this passage it seems to refer to a physical returning. But at least in some instances, I think it has some undertones of spiritual returning. As feet are turning back to a place, hearts are turning back to God.

God is at work drawing Naomi to himself. And so she sets out to go to return to the land of Judah. But as she goes, she implores her two daughters-in-law to go back to their homes. Look in verse 8. Naomi says, 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. The Lord grant that you may find rest each of you in the house of her husband. The Lord is not only at work bringing Naomi back to Judah, the Lord is also at work in Naomi's heart. I mean, she's experienced the bitterness of life, but it's not made her bitter towards other people. Notice the incredible mutual love that exists between her and her daughters-in-law.

She cares for them, even at the expense of her own well-being. I mean, she's an older woman left all alone with no men to provide for her. You might think that the next best thing would be to get these daughters-in-law now to care for her. But see her selfless love here. She wants what's best for them, not only what might benefit herself.

It's pretty striking, isn't it? Because suffering can make us incredibly selfish, only concerned with how we're served, with how we're suffering, and unconcerned with serving others in their suffering. Yes, Naomi has lost a husband and two sons, but these two women have lost their husbands as well. They're hurting too. And Naomi isn't blind to that.

It's often said and it's sadly too often true that hurt people hurt people. But friends, it's also true that hurt people can help other hurt people. I wonder if that's how you view your suffering. How you see yourself in suffering. Do you see yourself as only victim or as a possible ally to help others in their hardships?

It's the mindset you see throughout this book, how the characters are marked primarily by a care for others and others oriented outlook. It's the way the Lord intends all of us to live. Looking not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others. Naomi petitions the Lord in verses 8 and 9 to grant a better future for these two women, Orpah and Ruth, for them to go back home and find husbands. She believes in the Lord, and she still believes he is good to people, even if she personally has not felt the benefits of it.

In her experience, she will later say in verse 13, the hand of the Lord has gone out against her. But she prays to the Lord still, that he would deal kindly with these women. And you think that Orpah and Ruth would readily jump at Naomi's request to return home. I mean, that's the easiest, least path of resistance, sensible thing to do. You know, that's the, The easy thing to do would be to go back to what you know.

But verse 9 says, They wept at the suggestion. Saying in verse 10, no, we will return to you with you, to your people. It just speaks of the incredible bond these women had. They all loved each other to the point that Orpah and Ruth did not want to leave. This is just an aside here, but I wonder, does this kind of deep love and care characterize your relationship with your in-laws?

Why or why not?

Friends, don't give in to the world's thinking that assumes and settles for strained relationships with your in-laws. Almost every sitcom kind of just plainly says, hey, this is going to be a hard relationship, you got to deal with it.

No, trust that God can change hard relationships. Pray that he will and work towards building better, deeper relationships. You kind of drill that down a little bit more. Don't just think of the strained relationship with in-laws that everyone expects. Think about the way the world expects you to have strained relationships with everyone who is different from you, with people of different races.

With a Democrat if you're a Republican or with a Republican if you're a Democrat. There just has to be some tension, some friction. Well initially there might be, but work to the point where that's not what characterizes your relationship. What characterizes your relationship is deep love and care for others. That might require repentance on your part.

It will require patience. Well that's specifically in a Relationship of mother-in-law, daughter-in-law, it will require repentance and patience if you're the mom or dad-in-law or the son or daughter-in-law. In any relationship, it will require you putting up with awkwardness and putting others' interests above your own. Like these women did for each other, like Jesus did for you. Against their protest, Naomi has to work in verses 11 and 12 to remind them that there is no earthly hope There's no promise of a better life that she can offer.

She's too old to get married and have more sons who could be their husbands. And even if that wasn't the case, would they be willing to wait decades until the child reached an age to marry? In verse 14, Orpah resigns to what seems like good worldly wisdom. It's better for her to go back to Moab. So after more tears, she kisses her mother-in-law and leaves.

But Ruth clung to her. So Naomi says to her in verse 15, C, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. Now, some people here see some kind of tacit approval of other gods by Naomi, encouraging Orpah first and now Ruth more explicitly to go back to Moab, even if it means going back to worshiping other gods. But given Naomi's constant reference to the Lord in this passage, notice how much the Lord's name is on her lips.

I don't think that's the case at all. Or rather, I think what we see here is Naomi pressing in the cost, the heavy cost of following her back to Judah. It means giving up everything. Your gods, your prospects for marriage, your prospects for children, your financial stability. Everything, are you willing to count the cost?

That's how it always is going to be when you're moving towards the Lord. It's going to cost you some stuff. Are you willing to count the cost? Or do you want to still cling to whatever idols might be in your life?

With a heavy cost laid out in front of her, Ruth doesn't collapse and turn away. Rather, she turns more boldly and she says, Yes! That's the essence of her amazing words in verses 16 to 17. She says, 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. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more, Also, if anything but death parts me from you.

Sometimes on the internet you see these little funny memes, sometimes with a person kind of gazing adoringly at another person. And then there's a caption underneath that says something like, Get you somebody who looks at you like this.

Well, if there was a caption under this scene right here, I think it would be get you somebody who loves you like this. I mean, talk about a ride or die.

But you don't have to worry about going out to get you somebody like this. The Lord has given you somebody like this in your family, in your church family, made up of people like Ruth, different from you, not sharing your same blood, not sharing your same ethnicity, not sharing your same voting patterns, but committed to follow the same God as you and to love and care for you in him. It is the Lord's kindness to give this weary widow, Naomi, another weary widow, Ruth, to walk alongside her. To comfort her, to care for her. And saints, it is the Lord's incredible kindness to give you other brothers and sisters in this local church to walk alongside you, to help comfort and care for you.

They are extensions of God's grace.

But are you pushing them away?

How might you do that?

Well, one, by allowing differences to create uncrossable divisions. Or by not opening up and sharing your life with others, trying to handle grief and pain on your own. Friends, that's not the life that we're called to. Now, Galatians 6:2 calls us to bear one another's burdens and sorrows. That's what you pledge to do in your church covenant.

But for someone to bear your burdens, you have to open up and share your burdens. So stop coming to church with a mask on. Stop allowing perhaps the law that was in your home growing up. That what goes on in here stays in here.

To keep you crippled from finding real help and real hope.

Who might be a Ruth to you right now and this congregation? And this is not like a main point of the passage, but I just want to be, you want to be careful. I think sometimes when we think about somebody who's really in need or hurting or in pain, regardless of who it is, we just move quickly In this instance, notice it's another woman helping another woman, going through the same things. Be careful of getting into what might be unwise situations where your heart is leading you in a good way to help someone, but it might be a kind of fuzzy situation that leads to more problems later on. So if you're a woman trying to help a man, it's a wonderful thing.

If you're a man trying to help a hurting sister, that's a wonderful thing. Just notice that there might be some wisdom in encouraging and employing the help of other brothers and sisters to come alongside you and to guard you. And the Bible tells us that Satan will use any opportunity, even hurting a fellow sufferer or struggler for sin, so just guard yourself from that. The Lord is at work in Naomi's life, bringing Ruth along with her as a companion. But he's also at work more broadly fulfilling his plans.

His securing Ruth's attachment to Naomi is not simply securing a friend to walk alongside another sister. It's securing a foreigner to walk alongside his chosen people. It's God opening, as it were, his arms and inviting the nations home as well. And where is home for them? Is not back with their natural families.

It's not back with their supposed gods. Home is with him, worshiping him, because he made all people everywhere for himself and to belong to himself. It's been God's plan all along. Not just to show his saving grace to one person or to one people, but to all peoples through one people. And that's why he told Adam and Eve to multiply and fill the earth.

That's why he told Abraham that through him all the families of the earth would be blessed. That's why he rescued Israel and made them into a kingdom of priests and put them alongside the Mediterranean trade path so that they might make God and his ways known to all the nations. And here God is again, using his people and Israelites, Naomi, to bring the peoples, the nations, a Moabite to himself. Friends, God has purposes behind our pain that are greater than what we can imagine. God has purposes behind our pain that are greater than what we can imagine.

Regardless of the sin that may have been involved, God providentially brought this family into Moab. And then he removed all the earthly crutches and sources of strength that Naomi could rely on so that all she could rely on was God himself. And then something of Naomi still crying out to Yahweh, through all the years of pain and grief, still trusting him when another tragedy hit, she left an indelible mark on Ruth.

Friends, you never know who's watching you. Parents, I hope that encourages you. When your kids don't have immediate conversions, you just remain faithful to the Lord. Keep reading your Bible in your home. Keep having family time.

Keep putting on them Christian songs in the car that they hate to listen to. And they're like, Can we change the station, please?

You keep leaning on the Lord even when life hits hard. And by God's grace, your children will see that the Lord is worthy of putting your trust in. He's carried mom and dad through all these things and they haven't left him yet.

Ruth has seen Naomi's witness. Imperfect, no doubt, but still leaning on the Lord. So that now Ruth pledges here, if I can't have anything else, I want to follow you as you follow your God. Indeed, your God will be my God, and your people my people. That's covenantal language.

It's similar to what God told Israel when he entered a covenant with them. I will be your God, and you will be my people. And Ruth says here, more eagerly, sadly, than many native Israelites, Yes, Lord, be my God, and I will be one of your people. God used tragedies to secure Naomi's physical return and Ruth's spiritual resurrection. In his commentary on Ruth, Sinclair Ferguson makes the keen observation that through all the death that marked the previous, earlier parts of this chapter comes this spiritual life.

That's God's strange plan, isn't it? He uses suffering to bring sinners to himself.

Naomi's suffering and her witness in it was God's instrument to save Ruth. How might God be using your suffering, your struggles, for His purposes? Ultimately, it was through the suffering and the experience with death of another native from Bethlehem that would secure the salvation of all nations. When God's eternal Son, Jesus Christ, entered into the world, being born as a baby in Bethlehem, and he lived the perfect life, but then laid down that life and picked up the cross and hung to die for the sins of all those who would trust in him. Bible says he was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities. He was killed for us, and by his blood, he ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

God was at work in all Naomi's suffering to bring Ruth to himself. And friends, God is still at work using Jesus's suffering to bring you to himself. He's calling you today as he called Naomi, Return, come home to me. Friends, will you listen to God's beckoning to you this morning? If you're here this morning, you're not a Christian.

Will you turn from your sins and put your trust in God? Maybe you're here this morning and you grew up in a Christian home and you've left that heritage to follow a more intellectual path. To follow a path that allows you to express your desires more freely with your body.

Have you found that other life to be more satisfying? To be honest, when you lay down at life, at night, Is life as good as you thought it would be? Turn from your sins and put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves you. He wants you.

He came for you. If you have questions about that, talk to anyone around you after service. Talk to anyone at the doors. We love to tell you more about the Lord's deep love for you. This chapter ends with Naomi and Ruth finally coming to Bethlehem.

And verse 19 says, the whole place was buzzing with their arrival.

It was the talk of the town. I mean, here was Naomi returning after so many years, but not with her husband and sons, but with a young Moabite woman. What in the world is going on? Is this the same Naomi they ask? So much has changed in her life, in her demeanor.

Naomi responds in verse 20, Do not call me Naomi, which means pleasure, call me Mara, which means bitter. Bitter, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 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?

We don't need to read these verses as Naomi being bitter with God or mad at God. Nothing in the text says that. Rather, what I think it demonstrates is that Naomi has an accurate view of God. She believes that God is sovereign. He is the one who brought Naomi all these bitter experiences of life.

He's the one who brought all this calamity. He's the one who brought her back to Bethlehem without her husband and her sons. She understands what a previous sufferer understood. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. But in Ruth's understanding of God's sovereignty in her life, in her grief it seems she's temporarily blinded to his goodness in her life.

Yes, she left Bethlehem full with a full family, but she hasn't really come back empty. She's come back with a daughter-in-law, a family member fiercely loyal to her. And not only that, she's come back with a daughter in the faith, a family member fiercely loyal to her God. Here they are, at the end of chapter 1, together. At the start, verse 22 tells us of barley harvest.

God has turned this once barren land into a harvest, a glimpse into what he's about to do in this book. Turn this once barren family into a harvest. And through this family bring a spiritual harvest to all the world. As it's through this family line that King David and greater and later King Jesus is born. The bitterness of life is about to bring forth fruit because God is at work in their lives.

And brothers and sisters in our lives. We don't know all that God is doing through the gloom and hardships of today. But we know that for those who love God, who are called according to his purposes, all things work together for our good. So we can trust him.

And rest in His plans. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, help us to lean upon youn when life gets hard. To trust that when life is bitter, you, are working all things together for us. Help us not to trust in our experiences, but trust in youn. We pray this in Jesus' name, and for His sake, amen.