Hope in the Harvest Ruth 1

Tue, Jan 14, 2025 8:38AM • 44:29

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Advent season, coming of Christ, second advent, book of Ruth, God's providence, incarnation, Naomi's tragedy, Moabite women, famine in Bethlehem, Elimelech's death, Ruth's loyalty, Naomi's bitterness, Bethlehem harvest, steadfast love, Lord's Supper

SPEAKERS

Josh Slater

So Advent season, that's the season that we're in. The Advent is a is a holiday that we have the church has celebrated for millennia. And it's Advent is simply a lofty theological word that means coming. And so at this time, in this season of Advent, that we are expecting and and celebrating the coming of Jesus Christ. That is what this time is about. Is the time to recenter ourselves, to divorce ourselves from the consumerism that so entangles our souls, day in and day out, that we just continue to point forward to and look forward to the coming of the Christ child. And not only that, but then there's a second advent coming right? There's a second advent where Christ is coming back. Christ is coming back to gather His Bride together. And so that's a beautiful image of of what we got to expect moving forward. So what we're going to do for this Advent season is we are going to study the book of Ruth. The book of Ruth is an important book in our Bibles. It the purpose of it. If you ask normal people what the purpose of Ruth is, if you've ever read Ruth, you may be confused as to why we're studying Ruth for the Advent season, because it looks like Ruth is about family and friendships and loyalty and maybe finding a boyfriend or a husband. That's that's usually the way that Ruth is taught, is that you need to find your Boaz, which is the character we'll be introduced to next week, that if you're single, look for a man of God, which is important. And that's a good theme. And loyalty is a good theme in and Ruth as well. But what is the overarching theme in Ruth? And the overarching theme in the book of Ruth is this, that God is sovereign, that God has Providence over his creation. Now, Providence is this theological term that means that God is governing His creation, that he is not divorced from his creation, that he is not out of reach from his creation, that he is in creation. And what is more providential than the incarnation of Christ? There's nothing more providential, nothing more of a demonstration of God being concerned with and caring about his creation than the coming of Jesus Christ at the Advent. And so that's what we're going to be looking at this next four weeks. So when we think about what we're going to do, even if we don't see Christ, even if we don't feel him in our lives, I want you to know that he is there, that he is not he's not left us, that He is with us. He is around us. He is in in active in his creation. And sometimes it doesn't feel that way. The story of Ruth is going to begin with a tragic situation, and we'll look at that in just a minute, and even in the pain, and even in the heartache that sometimes this, this time of year brings about. Some of us have lost loved ones. Some of us don't have any family or friends that we love and care about us. Some of us are just confused about what life looks like for us in the time of Christmas. I actually just saw a Facebook post of one of my friends that she lost her mother a couple years ago, and it's this time of year that always just dredges up something within her, because she knows that she's not going to see her mother at this time, we have family and friends in the church who have lost loved ones in this time of year just really maybe be that time of year that just really is hard for them because their loved ones aren't going to be with them, and in the darkest of nights. I want you to know that God is working in our lives, that he is never divorced from the suffering in this world, that he is never outside the bounds of the beauty of His creation. He is there with us, that He is in the mess. And so we see this in the book of Ruth. Before we begin, though, I want to pray one more time and open up the word, Father God, we are just so thankful for the life that you've called us to. We're so grateful for your providence in your creation. We're so grateful that we get to know you, that we get to love you, that we get to cherish you, that we get to see you. And I pray this morning, Lord, if there are people who are hurting, there are people who are distressed by this time of year, I pray that you would just be with them, that you would comfort them that they would be able to see your beauty, see your grace and see your providence. Today, pray all this in Jesus name, Amen. Alright, so Ruth, chapter one, verses one through five. This is what the word of the Lord says during the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. A man left Bethlehem and Judah with his wife and his two sons to stay in the territory of Moab for a while. The name of the man, the man's name was alimalek, and his wife's name was Naomi. The names of his two sons were melion and Killian. They were ephrathites from. Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the fields of Moab and settled there. Naomi's husband Elimelech, died, and she was left without her two sons. Her sons took Moabite women as their wives. One was named orpa and the second was named Ruth after they lived in Moab about 10 years both Malon and Killian died, and the woman was left without her two children and without her her husband. This beginning of the book of Ruth. There's a tragedy that strikes Ruth's life. The first thing we see is that, and this is important for the for the understanding what's going on is that this book takes place during the time of the judges. Now, if you know anything about the time of the judges, the time of the judges was a time of complete unrest in the land of Israel. The judges lived, and what they did was they would govern over Israel, but Israel was wicked and evil. Just to kind of give you an overview, one of the themes that's repeated time and time again in the book of Judges is that in those days, there was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in their own eyes. The problem is, is that when everyone does what is right in their own eyes, then chaos ensues. Chaos happens all around them, and we see this during the time of the judges. The time of the judges was a time of not just people governing. So judges weren't like the judges that we think about today. They weren't black robes sitting in a courthouse. They were more like military leaders. But these judges, what would happen in the book of Judges is there's a cycle that goes on that the people of God would sin. God would judge the people, the people, usually through oppression of another group. Then does God's people would call out to God. God would save them. They would have peace, and they would start sinning against God again. And the cycle would continue and continue and continue. And there's this unrest that is happening, happening in the book of Judges. So this story of Ruth happens during that time. Not only do we learn that it happens during the time of judges, where chaos and just people's own thoughts and patterns of sinfulness reigned, we also see that there was a famine in the land. Now, for a famine to be in the land, that means that there's no food to eat. That means that there's no wheat to harvest. It's a hard time for the people, and during this time where there's no food to eat, this man, Elimelech, and his wife, Naomi, along with her two kids, decide to leave. But we have to ask the question, why is there a famine in Israel at the time, there are two reasons why they could be a famine. One, it could just be natural that there's just not enough rain, there's not enough water, there's not enough Earth to till and ground and grow. So there's just a natural reason that the famine happens. The other reason that a Famine can happen is that during the book of Judges, we see that God judges his people, that there are examples of God judging his people. And a famine can be one of those judgments that God withholds His grace of allowing them to have food for that reason. In fact, in Deuteronomy, chapter 28 there's a list of judgments and curses that God says, if you listen to me, if you obey my commands, then you will be blessed. But if you worship false gods, if you abandon my love, then you will face judgment, and one of those judgments is that God will shut up the sky, and he will not allow rain to fall in the land. And if there's no rain falling on land, what happens? There's no food, right? If there's no rain, there's no we've gone through spots here in south Texas of that right, where there's no rain, and then all of it happens at one time, but this is a famine that happens. And so Elimelech decides that he's going to move his family from Judah Bethlehem to Moab. Now, Moab is an interesting place. Moab and Israel have been at contentions for almost their entire existence. If you don't know, Moab is comes about because of a relationship between Lot and his daughters, an incestuous relationship that is told to us in Genesis, where there's some things that happen and lot's daughters sleep with their father, and they become the Moabites. And so from there, there's some tensions that raise between Israel and Moab. So going to Moab doesn't seem like a more safe place for them to go than to stay in Bethlehem, but they decide to move to Moab. Not only does Moab start off, the Moabites start off with with an incestuous relationship, but also there's tensions throughout numbers. At one point, Israel is walking around in the desert, in the wilderness, so to speak, and some of the Moabites end up hiring a prophet to to curse the Israelites. So he's standing on a mountain trying to this is interesting. Seen in, I think it's 24 numbers 24 where this prophet is standing over and he's looking at the Moabite or at the Israelites, and he's trying to curse them, but he can't speak the words of a curse over the Israelites. God is preventing him from speaking the words of the curse. He ends up talking to a donkey. And it's just a whole situation. Go back and read it. It's an interesting story, but so the Moabites have no love lost for the Israelites. So the moving from Israel into Moab is a dangerous situation for Elimelech and his family, and yet they leave Bethlehem to go into Moab. Now, one of the interesting things is names. Names have meanings, and we'll see that later in the story as well. But a limit like means My God is my king. It doesn't seem like God is his king, though, as he's leaving the promised land and going into Moab, also Malan and Killian. Those words mean, those names mean something like sickness and illness. What kind of person would name their kids sickness and illness? I don't know, but that's that's what happens. And so they're moving to Moab. They're hoping to find food in Moab. They're leaving Bethlehem empty, hoping to find fullness in Moab, and they leave Moab more empty than they they did as they're there in Moab. Elimelech dies, Naomi is grieving the loss of her her husband and then her sons marry. And who do they marry? Who's in the land of Moab they marry? Moabites. Now, again, there's no love lost between the Israelites and the Moabites and the Israelites aren't supposed to marry outside of their tribe. They're not supposed to marry non Israelites. Now, there is an interesting thing that there is no prohibition against the Marian, a direct prohibition against the Marian Moabites. But why is it that God doesn't want the Israelites to marry people who aren't Israelites? It's because of part of the problem of what's going on in judges at the time is that when you marry somebody who is not part of your religion, then you start worshiping the gods that they worship. And that's what God prohibits them. He prohibits them and says, Don't marry out other non Israelites, because you will start chasing after their God. So as these Moabites are in Moab they are worshiping a god that is not Yahweh. And then Elimelech sons, they decide to marry Moabite women because there's nobody else there, or no other Israelites there, and they marry those Moabite women. And so now you feel this like tension, as there's an in law battle, right? There's already in law battles, and then you add this complexity to it, and there's this whole thing, but they're there for 10 years, and in that 10 years, what happens? They marry Moabite. Us, our Moabite women, and then both melan and Killian die. So now Naomi has lost her husband and her two sons. We're also told through context that Malan and Killian didn't have any children. There were no offspring. So Naomi, though she went to Moab to feel full, she is now empty. She has nothing. She has no family, she has no children, she has no grandchildren, and we just feel this tension of overwhelming hopelessness and helplessness. And it could be that the reason why Ruth and Orpah don't have kids is because they're barren. They're married for 10 years, and after 10 years, you would think that they would have kids. They don't have any kids. And so there's a little bit extra hopelessness there tragedy. I can just imagine how Naomi feels watching everything that she knows, everything that she loves, just poof right in front of her. There's heartache, there's tragedy. No sons, no husband, no grandchildren, no hope, hopelessness. She has no source of income. She has no way to make money, because the husband is the one or the children are the ones who make money. She has nothing destitute. Do you feel that air of hopelessness here? But even in that air of hopelessness, we get a glimmer of hope in the next verses. It's just a glimmer, just a silver lining, if you will. Says this in verse six, she and her daughters in law set out to return from the territory of Moab because she had heard in Moab that the. Lord had paid attention to his people's needs by providing them food. She left the place where she had been living accompanied by her two daughters in laws, traveled along the road leading back to the land of Judah Naomi, said to to them, each of you, go back to your mother's home. May the Lord show his kindness to you, as you have shown to me or to the dead and to me, but the Lord grant each of you rest in the house of a new husband. She kissed them and they wept loudly. They said to her, we insist on returning with you to your people. But Naomi replied, return home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Am I able to have more sons who could become your husbands. Return home. My daughters go on for I am too old to have another husband, even if there was still hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons. Would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No, my daughters, my life is much too bitter for you to share because the Lord's hand has turned against me again. They wept loudly. In warpa Kissed her mother in law, a Ruth clung to her. You see Josh, that doesn't sound very hopeful. Where's the silver lining? The silver lining is in that opening verse, verse six, that she heard that the Lord had provided food for those in Bethlehem. The ironic thing about the name Bethlehem, do you know what that means? It means house of bread. In house of bread, there was a famine, and they left, but now they've heard that the pantry shells have been restocked, so to speak, right that the the bread has been fulfilled and and so they're heading back to Moab and as or back to Bethlehem, and as they're heading back Ruth or Naomi looks at her daughters in laws and says, Hey, don't come with me. Don't come with me. One travel is going to be really hard for them. Do you know how hard travel is they don't have cars, they don't have planes. Moab is about 50 miles away from Bethlehem, and so to travel, they would have to go down around the Red Sea and back up into Bethlehem. And women traveling alone during that time is not a very good thing to do. It's not a very safe thing to do, because there are robbers and there are nefarious people, there are there are many things that could go wrong. So don't come with me. I'll go back by myself. She's already she's already lost everything. What what happens if she's traveling on the road and something bad happens to her? So daughters in laws, don't come with me. Bandits and gangs may get us nefarious people, and especially because we remember when was this, during the time of the judges, where every everyone did what was right in their own eyes, so it would not be outside of the realm of possibility that there would be some bad people wanting to do bad things to Naomi and to her family. So we're told, though, that they start returning, which is a special word in Ruth. It's used 12 times throughout this one chapter. It's a Hebrew word, shoe, S, H, u, v, I think is or U B is how it's spelled in Hebrew. And it's special because it's a word that means to return or to repent, if you will. It's the same word that the the prophets use to say repent in their oracles of the people. So they are repenting. They are turning, they are returning back to the land. There's a an about face, a time for Naomi and Ruth and Orpah to go back to their town to return. So you'll see this time and time again, but we'll get back there later. And she said tells but Naomi's like, don't go with me. Ladies, you know what? I have nothing for you. I have absolutely nothing for you. Go back to your mother's house. Why would it be important for them to go back to their mother's house? If they go back to their mother's house, and they can be raised by their mother and they can find another husband, they need to be married. They need people to provide for them. Women did not work during this time. They were they outside of the home. Mostly they didn't work, and so they needed a man to provide for them. And their husbands had died. They are widows, and they're supposed to be taken care of by the Israelite people. But remember, Ruth and and Orpah are foreigners, so they cannot expect anybody to take care of them. They can't expect anyone in Israel to take care of them because they're foreigners, especially because everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. And so Ruth is like, I have nothing for you. I have no kids for you. I have no and even if I got pregnant today, were you going to wait the time period for them to mature, to marry them? Are you just going to be widows for the rest of your life? What are you going to do? Don't come with me, because coming with me is going to ruin your life. Coming. With me is going to ruin your life. Do not come with me. So instead, Naomi offers him a blessing. Did you see that she goes, Hey, may the Lord pay attention to you. May the Lord show his kindness to you, as you have shown to the dead and to me, she speaks a blessing over them. She's saying, Hey, you're free to go. You have nothing. I have nothing for you. I have no way to provide for you. I have no way to bless you. But I'm asking that the Lord blesses you. And in her blessing, she highlights two important themes in the book of Ruth kindness and rest. Do you see this? They're restless right now. They have they have to move. They have to be quick. They have to get back to the place where they came from. And there's restlessness. They have lost everything. Tragedy has dropped. They're currently restless, and she's praying that the Lord would provide rest for them, that he would demonstrate His loving kindness to them. Naomi, though she she says, I pray that the Lord would bless you, that he would cause you to have rest, that he would place his loving kindness upon you because he has his hand against me. Her whole heart is that God is not for her. She feels that God has stood against her, that He does not love her, that he does not care about her. He is actively crushing her life. That's what she believes. She believes that there is nothing in this world that is good for her, because the Lord is against her, and she's like, if the Lord is against me, I am in total despair. I have lost everything. Ruth and Orpah don't come with me, because nothing good is going to happen in my life. Everything I have is lost. I don't have anything to offer to you, and so I am going to tell you that you are free from any commitment you had to me. You no longer have to be with me. Leave me so that you don't have any extra pain. Leave me so that you don't have to face the hardships I'm going to have to face. Leave me because I don't need you to be with me. That's the state, that's the heart she has, total despair. Isn't this something that we do when hardships happen in our lives, we want to blame someone. We want to say someone is the problem, and too often, it's not anyone but God, God, you're You're the problem. Your hand is against me. I don't know why you hate me. I don't know why you feel like it was time to take away my family member from me. I don't know why you feel like this hardship is what I need to endure. I don't need this. I don't want your hand against me, Lord. But is that ever the truth? Is it the truth that God's hand is against Naomi, or is it the truth that something else is happening? Is it the truth that we need to look at what God is doing in our lives around us? I heard it, and I'm probably going to quote it later, but it's such a good thing. I think it was John Piper who said this, God is doing 10,000 things in our life, and we can usually only see three of them. We can only see what's right in front of us, and we want to blame God for the hardships. We want to blame God for our depression. We want to blame God for our child walking away from the faith. We want to blame God for our our spouse's death. We want to blame God for all of these things we feel like Naomi, why God is your hand against me? But what we'll see is that the hand of the Lord is not against Naomi. Naomi is not being divinely punished by God, and we see this in the person of Ruth. We see at the end of this section that Orpah leaves and Ruth clings. She clung to Naomi. She holds on tightly. In fact, that word right there is the same word that we see in Genesis two, when it says that the man shall leave his husband or his family and cleave to his wife. They clung together. There's a loyalty there, there's a love there. There's a compassion there. There's a wholeness of relationship. There. They are together as one. There is a bond between them, firm loyalty, deep affection. And then we see this in the next verses, verses 15 through 18. Naomi said to Ruth as she was clinging to her, she says, Look, your sister in law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Follow your sister in law. But Ruth replied, Don't plead with me to abandon you. To return and not follow you, for wherever you go, I will go, wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me. When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped talking to her. I don't know if you see it here, but Ruth loves her mother in law. She has a steadfast and compassionate love for her mother in law. And Orpah stands in stark contrast to her or believes and Ruth clings. But what I want, I don't want us to do, and I've heard it preached like this before, is that people go, Orpah did the wrong thing and Ruth did the right thing. That's not what's happening here. The the scriptures don't say that Orpah did the wrong thing. Orpah, in the eyes of humanity, did the right thing. She had nothing going up for her in Bethlehem, so she went back home. She did not the wrong thing. She just did a different thing. But Ruth here, she's the one that we're supposed to be focused on. Ruth did an amazing thing. She did something that embodies the essence of God's love for His people. The idea here is this Hebrew word called has said, you want to say it with me? No, you don't have to said, Is God steadfast, ever longing love for His people? That is the word said, it's a good tattoo if you ever want to get one. But don't say I did. I told you you could. But here's the thing is that that has said is one of the ways that God identifies himself with his people in Exodus, chapter 34 verse six, it says this, The Lord passed in front of him. So here, here's what's happening. Moses is on the mountain top, and he tells the Lord that he wants to see His glory. He wants to see the Lord's glory. And and God says, Okay, I'll show it to you. And so in Exodus 34 or 34 verse six, this is what happens. The Lord passed in front of him, passed in front of Moses and proclaimed the Lord. The Lord is compassionate and gracious. God, slow to anger and and abounding in faithful love and truth. And that phrase, faithful love and truth is the has said of God, the steadfast love of God, the love that never ends, the love that longs for his people to be restored to him, the love that conquers all, the love that sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. That is the said of the Lord, that He has a compassion and a love and he clings to those who are His, in fact, Naomi or Ruth in her, her saying, I will be with you, right, that that little I will be your people, or I will come and live with you wherever you live, I will live. I will be your people. Will be my people. Your God will be my God. This is actually a refrain that God speaks to His people in Exodus, chapter six, verse seven, he says, I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the Lord your God who brought you from first forced labor of the Egyptians. I will be your God, and you will be my people. Ruth clings to Naomi, knowing that she is demonstrating, maybe unknowingly, knowing that she was demonstrating the love of God in that moment, I will be with you to the end of the earth. I will die where you die. I will live where you live, I will go wherever you will go. I will even adopt your people as my people. Remember Ruth as a Moabites would not have served Yahweh, the God of Israel. She would have served another god called Chemosh of the Moabites. And in serving that God, she is abandoning everything that she has. She is abandoning her identity. She is abandoning her her security. She is abandoning her family to go with Ruth to show her the beauty and love that is still in the world today. Because Ruth has lost everything and yet, or Naomi has lost everything, and yet, Ruth is saying, I will show you that not everything is lost, not everything has been left, left behind. The blessing is great Naomi, but I want to stay with you. I am committed to you. And here's another way that she showed Naomi compassion. Ruth didn't need Naomi. She didn't need Naomi. She could've gone back, or shows us that she could have gone back. She didn't need Naomi. She could have gone back to her family. She could have got married. We would have never had this scripture. But again, Ruth mirrors God's steadfast love. What I mean by that God had every right i. To abandon us. He had every right to leave us behind. He had every right to give us over to our own sinful desires, and yet he clung to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ, that through Jesus's sacrifice, he demonstrated his love to us, that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. That is the steadfast love of God, that though he didn't need us, he sought after us. He came after us. He came and he lived a life of sorrow. He lived a life of pain. He lived a life of heartache. He lived a life of being rejected. He lived that life showing us that he can sympathize with our pain, and he clings to us as we continue to walk in that he selflessly committed himself to us on that cross. That's a picture through this pagan Moabites of the love of God, and the readers of The Book of Ruth would not have lost that. They would not have lost that the one who demonstrates the love of God is not the one who is a part of the people of God, but one who comes from the pagan nations. And she's going to change because she says, Your God will be my God. She had heard about Yahweh, she had heard about the God of the Israelites, and she had decided that she was going to come and worship Him. I want to let you know that God uses people in our lives, even those we don't expect to demonstrate his character and his love to us. Nobody would have expected Ruth to be the one to show Naomi love. No one would have expected Ruth to be the one to show her the character of God. And so God uses people in our lives to demonstrate his own character. He uses us to be demonstrations of his character to others. So look for an opportunity to demonstrate the love of God to those who are around you. Look for an opportunity to do the things that go against the earthly wisdom and that just glorify the Lord. Look for an opportunity to love a widow. Look for an opportunity to love those who are unlovable. Look for an opportunity to be like Ruth, because God showed you the beauty of His grace and His love in Ruth, chapter one, verse, 19 through 22 we read this. The two of them traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited about their arrival, and the local women exclaimed, can this be Naomi? Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara she answered for the Almighty has made me very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi? Since the Lord has opposed me and the Almighty has afflicted me so, Naomi came back from the territory of Moab with her daughter in law, Ruth the Moabites, they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. There's hope in the darkness that last phrase that they came to, Bethlehem at the beginning of the harvest. It's the beginning of us seeing what God is doing in their lives. But we'll get there in a minute, or Naomi gets home, and people hear that she's home. They hear that she hears that they're excited, and they start saying, Hey, is that night Naomi? And Naomi's like, Don't call me that my name is no longer Naomi. I told you earlier that names mean something Naomi means something like pleasantness or pleasant, and she doesn't want to take that name any with her anymore, because she's not pleasant. There's no happiness in her. There's no joy in her. She's Mara she's bitter, she's angry. And why is she angry? Because the hand of the Lord is against her, or so she believes, she believes that the the Lord has caused this divine punishment upon her. So she is just sitting there sulking in this pity party. She's sitting there just unable to rationalize and think about the beauty of God, because she is so hurt by the things that have gone on around her. And I get it like horrible things happen in this world. The thing that we can understand is that we can never avoid suffering. Suffering is going to happen in this world, whether it's at the hands of somebody else, whether it's because of our own stupid decisions, suffering is going to happen in the world, and we can choose to be bitter like Naomi, or we can choose to get better by following Jesus. Naomi is bitter because she feels like the Lord is against her. Naomi is bitter because she feels like there's. Hope in anything. And so she sits there and she's just sulking and angry and frustrated. She's forgotten who God is. Usually, when a suffering happens, we respond to suffering in a couple of ways, right? We either deny that God even exists. So that's the first step. Suffering happens in my life, and we can say God doesn't even exist. There is no God. There's no way there can be a God, because suffering happens. Or we deny the goodness of God. We say God may exist, but he's not good. He's not loving. He doesn't have steadfast love. The God that that I know isn't like that, because if he loved me, then he would not let these bad things happen to me, or we deny that God is in in control. One of those things usually happens when, when suffering happens, when pain happens, is that, Oh, God doesn't exist, or he's not good, or he's not in control. And Naomi thinks God exist. He's there. He just doesn't love me. He just doesn't care about me. He doesn't care about what's happening because he's the one who has caused all this to happen to me. But the reality is, is that he's not the one that has caused this. Maybe he allowed it. He definitely allowed it in his providence. But I tell you this that in the brokenness of this world, the beautiful thing about the Lord that we serve is that he can redeem brokenness. He can fix brokenness. He can put back together things that are broken. He can remake things. And it's the beauty of what he does is that he takes these broken situations and he makes them better situations. But I want you to see that Naomi, she doesn't talk to God about her problems. Does she What does she do? She talks about God. He did this to me. The Almighty's hand is against me. He hates me. He doesn't love me. He stands against me, rather than going to him with prayer, going to him and asking him. You see, one of the things that we don't do well as American Christians is we don't suffer well. We want to blame God for everything, rather than talking to God about the things that are happening. And in his good grace, Naomi didn't have this. But for us in the 21st century, one of the good things that God has given us is the opportunity to see how to suffer well and how to pray to God in that suffering. One of the good examples of that is we have a book in the middle of our Bible that's called the Psalms. And a big chunk of those books, or of those psalms, are lament Psalms. These are people crying out to God, saying, God, where are you? I don't know where you are. I can't feel you. I can't see you, I don't know where you are. Can you please answer me? But it doesn't stop there. In most of the Psalms, some of the Psalms, it does. But in most of the Psalms, says, Even though I don't know where you are, even though I can't feel you, even though I can't see you, even though I don't know what's going on here, I'm going to praise you anyway. That's how the Psalms lament. That's how we communicate to God about what we're struggling with. As we say, I don't know what you're doing, but I'm going to trust you, because you are good, you are holy. You know what you're doing. You are in control. You are providentially over all of this. I love you, and I'm going to follow you and Naomi here, instead of saying I don't know what you're doing, God and I but I'm going to praise you anyway. Says I don't know what you're doing, God, and it's all your fault. You hate me, and I'm bitter, I'm angry, I'm frustrated. I lost everything. There is no hope for my life. I can just imagine her sitting in a dark corner, curled up, just rocking back and forth, saying, My life really stinks. So we can fall into that situation, we can fall into that trap right where we're not talking to God, but we're talking about God. We forget who he is, and we cause and it causes us to question his goodness. It causes us to question his existence. It causes us to question whether he's in control or not. But when we suffer, let's not talk about God. Let's talk to God. Let's talk to him and say, I don't know what's happening, but I trust you remember that quote I said earlier about John Piper. God is doing 10,000 things in your life, and you only know about three of them. God works all things out for the good of those who love him are called according to His purposes, Naomi and Ruth are living in a dark time, but there is a glimmer of hope here. In verse 22 it says they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. The famine that caused them to leave is gone. In the harvest brought them back. There is hope in the harvest. Now, what does this all have to do with Christmas? Why are we celebrating this during Advent time? How do we look at Naomi and Ruth and see the story of Jesus? We have to remember what the point of Christmas is. It's not decorations, it's not trees, it's not light. Because the purpose of Christmas is the incarnation, the coming of Jesus in the flesh. And why do we need the incarnation? We need the incarnation because of our own sinfulness, because of our own brokenness and because of death. That's why we need the incarnation. Jesus came to conquer death, to conquer sin, to conquer all the things that cause us to fail and to feel like he doesn't care about us. That's what Jesus did. He came and he died so that we can be set free. He came and we died so that he can conquer death. He came and it's he died so that we could become one with the Lord, that we could know that he loves us, that we can see that he we can trust Him, because He offered up the greatest gift, the gift of His Son. And in this little town of Bethlehem, the city of bread, the bread of life, Jesus Christ was born. That little town that Naomi returns to is the same town that Jesus will be born into. But it's even more than that. This is a spoiler alert for the sermon series, but at the end of the book of Ruth, we read this. Now. These are the family records of Perez. Perez fathered hezron. Hezron fathered ram, ram, father of memedab, a memedab Father nation, nation, fathered salmon, salmon fathered, Boaz, Boaz father Obed, Obed. Father Jesse, Jesse father David. That may just seem like a bunch of random names, but here's the reality that because of the darkness that Ruth and Naomi went through, because of the journey from Moab back to Bethlehem, because of that, God used that situation to bring this woman, Ruth and this man, Boaz, together, and in that he provided for them a child that would be the father of David. And David is the one that was made the promise by the Lord in Second Samuel seven, that he would have a king that would eternally sit on the throne. And in that lineage, from David, we get Jesus, we get the King of kings. We get the Lord of lords. So it is through the suffering of Naomi, through the suffering of Ruth, through the suffering of people throughout the scriptures that we get Jesus, that all of it hinges on the fact that God is moving. Everything towards reconciliation with himself, everything towards the beauty of the sacrifice of Jesus, everything towards this time that we celebrate the Incarnation where God became man and died for our sins, so that we could have reconciliation with him, so that we could be part of the family of God, so that he could take those who are sinful and broken and remake them into new creations. That's what's happening. That's why we're studying the book of Ruth, because the Lord shows us that even in our heart, even in our suffering, that he still loves us and he still cares about us, that he still sees us. And one of the things that we get to do because of Jesus is we get to celebrate his coming. We get to celebrate his death. We get to celebrate his burial and His resurrection. One of the ways we do that is through the Lord's Supper. And we're going to take the Lord's Supper right now. Lord's Supper is for believers. So if my deacons can go grab the Lord's Supper and help pass it out, the Lord's Supper is for believers. If you don't believe, if you haven't trusted Jesus, I would ask that you just let that pass you by. But know that we offer something so much greater, something so much more beautiful, and that is the salvation that Jesus offers through His sacrifice. I want to pray real quick as they're passing it out, Father, we are so grateful for the love that you've shown us. We're grateful that in the darkest night there is hope, that hope hinges on the beauty of Jesus, that hope hinges on the salvation we find in the bread of life, Lord and some of us feel empty, some of us feel broken, some of us feel like we've lost everything. But Lord, there is hope in beauty, in you. I pray that we would not feel like your hand is against us, but know that the hope that we have is in you. Pray all this in Jesus, name Amen. You.