It All Falls Apart - Ruth 1:1-22

The book of Ruth tells us about a family that fell apart. A woman who became bitter and angry at God and at life. It tells us how God rescued that woman and rescued you and me. You and I have a big stake in the book of Ruth because through the story given in the book of Ruth, we come to the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. You see, the last word in the book of Ruth is the name David. And it's through the family of David that our Savior came into the world. Were it not for Ruth, there would not be a Savior to come into the world through the family of David.

The book of Ruth begins: "Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled." I'm going to stop at that point. In the days when the judges ruled. It's remarkable that the book of Judges describes for us a time of intense trouble, difficulty, problems—everything was falling apart. And yet in the midst of that period, we have this beautiful story about Ruth and Boaz, their love for each other, and God's leading in their lives. I'm a great believer that we should see the total picture before we start looking at the individual parts of this book.

Ruth is one of two books in the Old Testament devoted to the story of a woman. The other, of course, is the book of Esther. In Ruth, you have a Gentile who married a Jew. In Esther, you have a Jewess who married a Gentile. In the book of Ruth, we start off with a famine. In Esther, we start off with a feast. The book of Ruth ends with the birth of a baby—the new beginning. The book of Esther closes with a hanging of an enemy. Ruth tells us the story of poverty in Bethlehem and how God did something about it. Esther's the story of the riches of a king's court. But both Ruth and Esther played significant roles in the history of Israel because they helped to preserve their nation. God enabled Ruth to be the ancestress of David, and God enabled Esther to protect the nation from annihilation.

There are four chapters in Ruth. I'd like to give a title to each of these chapters; it might help you and me in remembering what this book is all about.

* Chapter 1 we're simply going to call Weeping. Throughout this chapter, all you find is trouble and weeping. Naomi and her husband Elimelech and her two sons Mahlon and Chilion go off to Moab, and there the three men die. And Ruth is one of the daughters-in-law, Orpah is the other daughter-in-law. Naomi is left childless, and she decides to go back home. Chapter 1 we're going to call Weeping. It's a story of sorrow. Everything falls apart in Chapter 1. But there is still hope because here is Ruth who has put her faith in the living God. "Thy people shall be my people and thy God my God."

* Chapter 2 we're going to call Working. Because in Chapter 2, you find Ruth out there serving in the field. She goes out into the field to pick up the grain that the reapers drop as they do their work. She becomes a gleaner out in the field. This is not the highest place in the world, is it? But in Chapter 2, you find Ruth working, and Boaz comes to her. And Boaz falls in love with her. And Boaz starts to make provision for her, and he cares for her.

* Chapter 3 we're going to call Waiting. Naomi says to Ruth, "Now you go present yourself to Boaz. He is the kinsman-redeemer. He can redeem us. He can pay our debts, he can set us free, he can marry you, and then we can all live happily ever after." And Ruth, in a great act of faith and love, goes to Boaz and puts herself at his feet. That's the turning point in the book. Now you'll find her at the feet of Boaz back in Chapter 2, where she's thanking him for his generosity, but she did not know who he was or what he could do. He was simply providing food and protection for her. But in Chapter 3, she knew what she was doing, and she knew who he was, and she put herself at his feet. And he said to her, "Fear not, I will do to thee all that thou requirest."

* Chapter 4 which we're simply going to call Wedding. Boaz goes down to the gate and he redeems the land that belonged to Elimelech, and he redeems Naomi, and he redeems Ruth. And he says, "I'm going to marry Ruth, and we're going to produce a family, and that family is going to inherit the land."

In Chapter 4, you find Boaz doing everything. All Ruth has to do is just accept it because Boaz is her kinsman-redeemer. So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife, and God gave her conception, and she bore a little baby, and they called his name Obed. And Obed was one of the ancestors of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David. And so the story ends that they all lived happily ever after. Now remember, had it not been that Ruth had put herself at the feet of the Lord of the harvest, Boaz, the kinsman-redeemer, everything would have fallen apart.

The story of Ruth can be studied on many different levels. It certainly pictures Christ and His Church. It certainly pictures God's gracious working in the lives of people. But I'm going to use this book to talk to you about how to put your life together. How that through faith in Jesus Christ and submission to Him, you can experience the fullness of the life that Jesus Christ has for you.

Now in Chapter 1, we find how everything fell apart. Naomi and her family made some mistakes, and people today are making these very same mistakes. Ruth 1:1-5:

"Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehemjudah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehemjudah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there. And Elimelech Naomi's husband died; and she was left, and her two sons. And they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled there about ten years. And Mahlon and Chilion died also both of them; and the woman was bereft of her two sons and her husband."

Let's ask the question and try to answer it: Why do people try to run away from their problems? Here you have this lovely family in Bethlehemjudah. There's a famine in the land, and they pack up and leave and go to Moab. Why do people try to run away from their problems? Well, I think there are several reasons.

Number one, they live by sight and not by faith. You see, if you were to compare Bethlehem and Moab, you would make a big mistake by seeing things only from the human point of view. You see, if you look at Bethlehem, you see a famine. You look at Moab, and you see plenty. Moab was a heathen land. It was about 50 miles away from Bethlehem. They worshiped false gods in Moab, and yet there seemed to be a bright future in Moab; there certainly didn't seem to be any future in Bethlehem. When you start living by sight and not by faith, no circumstances will look good to you where you are in the will of God. You see, from God's point of view, their decision was all wrong. Moab was the enemy of Israel. God had said in Deuteronomy 23:3, "An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever." Now from God's point of view, Elimelech and Naomi, Mahlon and Chilion were leaving home and going to reside with and depend on the enemy.

The name Bethlehem means "house of bread." Judah means "praise." Ephrathah means "fruitful." Bethlehem was called Bethlehem Ephrathah. So here you have House of Bread, but there was a famine. Praise, but people were complaining. Ephrathah means fruitful, but there was no fruitfulness. The problem is, if you're living by sight and not by faith, nothing looks right. And Elimelech said to Naomi, "The wisest thing we can do is to leave."

There's a second reason why people run away from their problems: they live for the physical and not for the spiritual. You say, "Well, these people had to live." I would rather be hungry in the will of God than full and satisfied and rich out of the will of God. When you put the physical ahead of the spiritual, the most important thing in life is to be comfortable, not to be conformable to the will of God. Suppose our Lord Jesus Christ had put the physical ahead of the spiritual? Suppose He had been more concerned about His own comfort and His own pleasure than He was doing the will of God—where would we be today?

There's a third mistake that these people made. They lived by sight and not by faith, and they lived for the physical and not the spiritual, and thirdly, when people try to run away from their problems, they live for the world but not for the Lord. It's interesting that the word of God says, "Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled." The book of Judges is the book of no king. At least four times in the book of Judges we read, "There was no king in Israel." And twice we read, "In those days there was no king in Israel, every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Naomi and her family were living in an era of anarchy. Every man was doing his own thing; why shouldn't they? Christians are like that today. "Everybody's doing it, why shouldn't we do it?" Well, the fact of the matter is everybody wasn't doing it. Boaz didn't run off and go to Moab. Boaz stayed right where he was, and God used Boaz to rescue Naomi and Ruth.

The problem today is that people are conforming to the world and its atmosphere and its attitudes. And when the situation got tough in Bethlehem, Naomi and her family made three wrong decisions. Number one, they decided to leave Bethlehem. That was wrong. Number two, they decided to go to Moab. That was especially wrong. Number three, after Elimelech died, Naomi had her two sons marry women from Moab, and that was really wrong. When you start running away from your problems, you are living for the world and not for the Lord, and your excuse is "Everybody's doing it." There was no king in Israel, every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

Well, there's a fourth reason why people run away from their problems and that's this: they ignore the real source of their problem. What is the source of their problem? Their own hearts. Their own pride. You see, when Naomi and Elimelech and their two sons went to Moab, they took their problem with them. What was their problem? Their unbelief in their heart. Their living for the world. Their putting the physical ahead of the spiritual. They were the problem. The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart. And they were proud in thinking they could manipulate and manage their own lives and do a better job of it in Moab. The source of every problem is right inside. Oh, we blame circumstances. Naomi ends up blaming God. But when you get right down to it, we are the ones who are to blame. We are the ones who have doubted God. We are the ones who have disobeyed His word. We are the ones who have put the world and the flesh ahead of the kingdom of God. We are the ones who think that we can run away, and the word of God makes it very clear that when you run away, you take your sinful heart right with you. That's why you can't run away, and that's why running away makes the problem worse—because you get into new places and new situations but you still have the same old heart and you're going to make the same old mistakes.

Now what were they going to do? Let's read the record in Ruth 1:6-14:

"Then she (Naomi) arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them food. Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters in law with her; and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah. And Naomi said unto her two daughters in law, Go, return each to her mother's house: the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me. The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept. And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people. And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also to night, and should also bear sons; would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from marrying? nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me. And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her."

When you find yourself in difficult circumstances because of the disciplining of God or because of the disobedience of somebody else, you can make one of three decisions. You can decide to cover up—that's what Naomi did. Or you can decide to give up—that's what Orpah did. Or you can decide to stand up and believe God—that's what Ruth did.

Let's look at these three decisions as they are recorded here in Ruth 1. Naomi decided to cover up. Now she made a right decision: she decided to go back home to Bethlehem. You know often in the Bible some of God's choice people have had to go back. The victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings. How does one get restored to fellowship? Go back to the place where you left the Lord. He didn't leave you; you left Him. And so she made a right decision to go back home. But she had a wrong motive. Her motive for going back home was not to glorify the Lord; she was still walking by sight, she was still interested in bread. The Lord had visited His people in giving them food. She was still living for the physical and not for the spiritual. There's no evidence of her repentance. There's no evidence that she was confessing her sin—in fact, we find that she is bitter.

And then she used a wrong approach. She tried to get rid of her daughters-in-law. This used to perplex me. I couldn't figure out why Naomi, a believer in the true God, would want to send her daughters-in-law back to Moab, back to the place of idolatry, back to the place where they would not be worshiping the true and the living God. And I think I've come to the conclusion: she was trying to get rid of the evidence. You see, if she went back to Bethlehem bringing with her the two girls from Moab, this would be evidence to all of her friends, all of her people, that she had disobeyed the Lord. Not only had she gone to Moab—that was bad enough—but she had permitted her sons to marry the women of Moab. And of course, this was disobedience to the word of God. We read in the word of God that the Jewish people were not to mingle with the other people in the land. And so she tries to get rid of these girls and gives them bad advice and exerts a bad influence on them. And here is Naomi giving the wrong counsel, going back home for the wrong motive, and she's trying to lead these girls astray.

Well, when you are facing difficult circumstances, you can try to cover up—that's what Naomi did. Or you can give up—that's what Orpah did. Now Orpah started out to go back with Naomi. In verse 6, "Then she arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab." Naomi started off for Bethlehem and both Ruth and Orpah went with her. We read in verse 10, they said to her, "Surely we will return with thee unto thy people." And yet she kissed them goodbye and she encouraged them to go back to their people, back to their gods (verse 15), and to go back to the old life. Well, Orpah was a woman of indecision. She started out to go back with Naomi, and she wept a great many tears and she shared a great many kisses, but then she turned right around and went back to Moab. You see, Naomi appealed to her natural desires. She wept, she kissed her mother-in-law, she promised she'd go along, and yet she went back to her idols, she went back to darkness, she went back to the idolatry of Moab, she went back to live with the enemies of Israel.

You can get awfully close to the kingdom and still not enter in. It's possible for a person to show a great deal of emotion and even show some determination and yet never do the will of God. Orpah, when she faced these decisions of life, she decided to give up. She said, "I'm going to go back where I was before." The book of Hebrews was written to tell us don't give up. Keep going forward, don't go back. The Jews wanted to go back to Egypt, and God disciplined them because of this. Orpah went back to Moab and she's never heard of again.