kind of starting our Christmas season, as it were, our Advent season a little bit early this time around. We're focusing on the kindness of God in the next number of weeks together as a church. And one of the things we're going to do, you'll hear more about this, is this Afghan sort of relief program was an unexpected thing, but we've been planning all year toward the end of the year to highlight ways that our church community can display the kindness of God to to those around us. And so a couple weeks from now, we're going to actually have a new ministry partner for us, which is— his name is Doug Hayes. He leads an organization called Covenant Mercies, which helps the fatherless in certain areas of Africa, like Kenya and Zambia.
He's going to be here with us to talk about how we can show the kindness of God through orphan care and the care for the fatherless. There'll be opportunities for us to jump in as individuals and families with that. The other thing that's going to be cool in the next few weeks is we're We're going to see the kindness of God through this next new members class. If you're part of the new members class, we're so excited that you're going to be joining the church. We actually— here's an awesome thing.
We have too many— I don't know if we've ever had this. We have too many people joining the church to welcome everybody on one Sunday because we just can't— like, I want them to be, like, on the stage so we can actually see them and be like, hey, I've seen that guy, you know, at my workplace or whatever. We can't do it. So we're actually going to do it next week and the week after. So for the next 2 weeks, we'll be welcoming people, which is an amazing kindness of God.
I will be honest, when we did this new members class, I thought, well, anybody that wanted to join joined in the summer. I mean, we're probably maybe have a handful of people, but the Lord's kindness continues to come through you guys. So, so excited about that.
And with that, with that season, we're also starting a new book of the Bible. We're taking a break from The Gospel of Mark, we'll finish that early next year, but we're going to start a new book of the Bible. So let's open our Bibles to the book of Ruth. The book of Ruth. If you're new to the Bible, it's probably in the first quarter of the Bible, right after the book of Judges.
And you may be wondering, okay, well, if we're doing an Advent series, a Christmas series, why are we turning to the book of Ruth? Well, here's my question for you as we start: How many people are Hallmark Hallmark movie fans? How many people, raise your hand, just be proud about it, don't be ashamed, there's no shame here, guys. Hallmark movie fans, you love 'em, okay, very good. Now put your hand down. Who here is like an anti-Hallmark movie fan? Like the opposite of a Hallmark movie fan?
Have you noticed that these two people marry each other? There's two kinds of people in the world, people that love Hallmark, people that hate Hallmark, and then they marry each other. And I know that there's a third category, I will not I ask you to raise your hands for, but which is those people who say they hate Hallmark, but you know and I know at some point this Christmas season, you are gonna cry watching one. It's gonna happen. And maybe late at night when you're weak and you happen to turn there.
Well, the next few weeks, if I could say it this way, we're gonna be going through the original Hallmark movie, which is the Book of Ruth. Tell me if this sounds like the setup to a Hallmark movie, okay? It starts with an old woman embittered by the hardships of life returning to her home, her hometown, after a long time away. With her is a young widow just wondering how to make ends meet this season. But meanwhile, in the big house on the hill is a rich, a bachelor who owns many fields and just so happens to not have found love thus far.
I bet you can see where this is going. By the end of the book, the rich bachelor and the young widow, they are married. The old woman, her heart is warmed and full of joy. The whole hometown is singing and dancing, and the book ends with, soon after, a baby arriving and this old woman holding this grandchild in her arms while snow falls. Softly around them, right?
Maybe not exactly, but that's essentially the book of Ruth. It's one of those kinds of stories.
And why do we gravitate to these kinds of stories? Well, because I think these stories speak to some of our deepest longings, don't they? They speak to our longings for home, for love, for restoration in many ways. Ruth seems like a simple book, but it goes all the way down to our deepest longings. And in a sense, what happens in the book of Ruth is we see the character of God revealed in the drama that plays out in the small town of Bethlehem. And so many years later, we see the kindness of God expressed in this small town of Bethlehem through sending Christ. So if you could say it this way, Ruth is the prequel to the coming of Christ to the tiny town of Bethlehem.
So we're gonna begin reading today in Ruth 1, verse 1. This is God's Word. 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, the name of the wife, Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. 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 Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
This is God's word.
I wanna tell you upfront what the Book of Ruth is about. It is about this Hebrew word, hesed. Hesed is kindness or mercy, or probably the best translation is loving kindness. It's used 250 times in the Old Testament, mostly to refer to God's character. God is revealed as a God of hesed, a God of loving kindness toward his people. And if you lay the Book of Ruth out, sort of, you know, on a page, the middle of the Book of Ruth, kind of the hinge of the Book of Ruth, is Naomi confessing and rejoicing in the loving kindness of God. That is where the whole book turns, and that's where we're going. But Chapter 1 seems to start with the absence of kindness. It is bleak, very bleak.
6 · Provides historical-cultural context for Ruth by explaining the chaotic era of the Judges, establishing that the story unfolds in a time when God's kindness was hard to perceive amid national turmoil
It's the days when the judges ruled. So this is the period of Israel's history where God's people had taken possession of the land, they'd gotten out of Egypt, they wandered in the desert, they finally take possession of their homeland. And you think, okay, this should be the end of the story. But no, God's people keep turning away and rebelling against God, and God brings judgment. Usually a neighboring nation comes and attacks them and oppresses them, and the people cry out to God, and God in his kindness sends a judge to restore them.
And this downward spiral occurs throughout the entire book of Judges. This is that same era. People were wondering, 'What happened to God's kindness? Our land is in ruin.' It was an era where it was often hard to see the loving kindness of God through the war and chaos and rebellion around them.
7 · Narrates the cascade of losses in Elimelech's family — famine, displacement to Moab, the father's death, the sons' deaths — establishing the initial impression that God's kindness is absent
But we zoom in very particularly on one family, We learn that there was a famine in the land. Perhaps it was God's judgment, perhaps it was just in his providence. And so they— this family finds themselves worried about how they're going to eat. And so they leave the land that God gave them. God had given each tribe an area, you know, kind of a parcel of land, and they leave this parcel of land and go and find themselves going to a neighboring country. Now, surprisingly, they go to Moab, which is unexpected.
This is a traditional enemy of God's people in many ways, but at least they have food. And you think, okay, well, maybe they'll be okay, but then the father dies. And you think, well, but at least the two sons might find wives there, and then the sons die. And so, you're left right here with the absence of kindness, it seems.
8 · Articulates the sermon's controlling question and previews the three-part structure, signaling a shift from exposition to argument
So the main question today is, what do we do when we cannot see the kindness of God? Maybe you're here wondering that today. What do we do when we cannot see the kindness of God? Three parts today we're gonna walk through this text in. The first part is questioning the kindness of God.
9 · Reads Ruth 1:6-15, showing Naomi's decision to return to Judah and her attempts to send her daughters-in-law away, culminating in Naomi's explicit statement that God's hand is against her
Naomi is the central character in this first chapter, and we're gonna see what these events have done to her relationship with God. Verse 6: Then Naomi 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 they may become your husbands?' 'Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I'm too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you 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.'
10 · Establishes the theological claim that hardship reveals our true beliefs about God, using Naomi's bitterness as the case study and noting the ironic wordplay between her name and her condition
Now, whenever we encounter hardship or hard circumstances in our lives, I think we often find out what we really believe about God, what we really believe about the Lord. I don't think the true test of what we believe about God is when things are going well and there's, you know, that's the part of the movie where there's a big musical number and people are singing and dancing and everything is happy. That's not where we find out what we believe about God. We find out in hardship. And Naomi's heart is revealed. She believes that God's hand is against her and she is filled with bitterness. That's a play on words because her name Naomi is from the root word sweet, and she's saying God has dealt bitterly with what was supposed to be a sweet person.
11 · Direct pastoral address inviting the congregation to identify with Naomi's struggle, validating their own questions about God's kindness in hardship
Maybe you today feel the same thing. Maybe you find yourself in Naomi's words. You feel the hand of the Lord has gone out against you. Things in life are hard, circumstances are difficult, relationships are broken, jobs have been lost. You're wondering where God is and whether he's kind to you.
12 · Examines the ambiguity of Elimelech and Naomi's decisions — leaving God's land, going to Moab, marrying Moabite women, staying for a decade — probing whether these were sinful, unwise, or simply tragic choices
Now, one of the difficult things about the text is it's ambiguous as to what level of responsibility Naomi and her family bear in this situation. And this could be— well, for example, think about the situation. Elimelech and Naomi, they face a famine and they decide to leave God's people, God's land. They decide to leave the tabernacle. They decide to leave a place where they could offer sacrifices. They basically remove themselves from the religious system of Israel and the land of Israel that they had worked so hard and sojourned so long to arrive at.
They leave it. In this moment of need. And you don't know exactly, okay, was this a foolish decision? Was it a wise decision? Was it really that bad?
Could they have trusted God would provide for them? And then where they choose to go is interesting, not to another part of Israel to be with kinsmen, but to Moab, to an often enemy of God's people. Was it wise to go there? Was that the only land that was unaffected by the famine? And then at some point, the sons there decide to marry Moabite women.
Now, this does seem a questionable choice given God's commands in the Old Testament. God's commands were often warning about marriage to those who had different gods. And, you know, when your heart gets wrapped up in somebody, just— this is free for the singles— once your heart gets wrapped up in somebody, all of a sudden you find yourself doing and saying things you had never planned on doing and saying. Because your heart's wrapped up in them, and God knows that, and God says, 'Okay, you gotta be careful,' and yet they choose to just go ahead. They choose to almost go full Moabite.
And then they stay. Here's the thing, they don't return after Elimelech dies to go be with their kinsmen. They choose to stay. They stay, all of this happened over a decade. So year after year, at some point in that decade, they decide, This is where we live now.
The only thing that pushes Naomi out is the death of her sons.
13 · Applies the text's ambiguity to pastoral situations, categorizing hard circumstances into three types: consequences of sin, results of unwise decisions, and inexplicable tragedies outside our control, with supporting quotation from Ian Duguid
Now, this ambiguity makes the book even more applicable for us because sometimes there are hard circumstances in our lives, but they are the result of our own sin. It's possible that Naomi and Elimelech sinned. They didn't trust the Lord, didn't have faith. We don't know. And sometimes God brings hard circumstances as a means of correction.
For us, as a means of bringing us out of what we've fallen into. And sometimes we don't see our own responsibility in them. But there are also times circumstances in our lives are shaped by unwise decisions. Maybe there was no sin involved. Maybe Naomi and Elimelech just were not wise.
You know, leaving may not have been wise. Staying in Moab may not have been wise. Marrying Moabite women may not have been wise. Wise, and similarly, sometimes our own circumstances in life can be shaped by unwise decisions. But circumstances in life can also be shaped by difficult events just outside of our control.
Outside of all of that, it's tragic that Elimelech dies. It's tragic that it seems some particular incident—we don't know if it was war, or danger, or sickness—both brothers die at the same time. Without ever having children. Probably pointing to the fact that they had not been, they hadn't been married long when they were taken. Sometimes, similarly, we find our own circumstances inexplicable and hard to understand.
14 · Notes the paradox that despite Naomi's bitterness, her daughters-in-law loved her and wanted to follow her, but her bitterness now leads her to push them away rather than invite them into the family of God
And the result is that Naomi turns to go back to her people and her daughters-in-law want to come with her. So we're to understand that there was a closeness between Naomi and her daughters-in-law. Despite Naomi just seeming like a bitter old lady here, There was something about her and her family that was attractive that her daughters-in-law loved. But she, and kind of one of the, this is one of the strangest parts of the Bible. This is not evangelism, it's like anti-evangelism. You got somebody from outside Israel wanting to go to Israel and Naomi's like, turn back, why will you go with me, right? It seems strange. We see that Naomi's bitterness is affecting her judgment.
15 · Explains the levirate marriage law behind Naomi's argument and shows how her bitterness leads her to the shocking conclusion that Ruth would be better off with false gods than with Yahweh, revealing the depth of her despair
So we don't know exactly what caused all these hard circumstances, but it's clear. That her bitterness is affecting her judgment and her counsel and her actions in a bad way. Now, they go through this complicated section where she talks about having a child and you could marry the son. That's basically an Old Testament law that if there were, you know, several brothers and one brother dies without ever having children, that would leave this woman in a difficult, vulnerable place. And so one of the brothers, if he was eligible, would marry the widow and almost like keep her protected in the family, as it were, provide for her. But Naomi says, 'That's impossible.
This is insane.' And what she's essentially saying is this: If you go back with me, I'm only sure of one thing, it's that God's not gonna provide for us. I can't do it. I don't see how it could happen. Her bitterness comes out. And it's so, her bitterness so far extends that she sends Ruth, he tries to send Ruth back to her gods, to her false gods rather than the true God.
So she didn't think, 'Okay, you know, Ruth coming with me, it's risky, but at least she'll know Yahweh, the true God.' No, Naomi's so bitter, she's thinking, 'Man, Ruth, she might as well go back to her own gods. God's dealt so bitterly with me.'
16 · Validates honest questioning of God and invites the congregation to bring their own doubts before the Lord, affirming that the Bible models this kind of brutal honesty
Here's what I want you to be honest with, friend. One of the things that somebody between services pointed out is that they're grateful that Naomi is honest and that the Bible preserves her honesty, her difficult questions to God. Where do you need to be honest about your own questions of God? Where do you feel like the hand of the Lord is against me?
17 · The pastor shares his own experience of chronic pain over several years and the Naomi-like questions it has provoked, modeling vulnerability and identifying with the congregation's struggles
You know, I was thinking about it this week, and I think for the last 3 or 4 years, for me, I've dealt with some variation of chronic pain in my life. It's been a variety of things, too long to go into, but it's included TMJ, it's included a fissure of a disc in my back. There have been days that I've just been, you know, laid up with pain, but there's been a lot more days that I'm just in pain, but not in pain enough to just lay down all day. So you just gotta keep going. And many days that I have woken up and felt more like Naomi than I want to admit, feel the pain come on as soon as I wake up and think, why is the hand of the Almighty 'against me.' Maybe you've felt the same thing.
18 · Signals the turn from the problem (questioning God's kindness) to the first movement toward resolution (experiencing God's kindness), previewing the focus on Ruth
Thankfully, the text does not leave us there. Second, experiencing the kindness of God. It doesn't just show us Naomi questioning the kindness of God, it also shows her actually experiencing the kindness of God, specifically through her daughter-in-law.
19 · Reads Ruth's famous declaration of commitment to Naomi, the text that will become the sermon's key Christological type
Verse 16, '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, 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 she was determined to go with her, she said no more.
20 · Establishes the theological claim that God's kindness is present even when we question it, and identifies the first evidence: God bringing Naomi back to His people and place
What we see is in this moment of Naomi questioning the kindness of God, she actually is experiencing the kindness of God. Even though Naomi is full of bitterness and anger toward God, God does not respond with bitterness and anger toward her. She questions, 'Is God a God of hesed, a God of loving kindness?' Even while she questions God's hesed and loving kindness is with her. We see it in a few places in the text. The first place we see it actually is in God bringing her back to her people. We don't exactly understand everything God is doing, but one of the things we do see is that Naomi's being brought back to God's people and God's place. It appears that she was stuck in Moab. We don't know if it was a decision or something, but God had to get her unstuck, in a sense, to join God's people again, to be in the presence of God again.
God in his kindness is bringing her back home.
21 · Identifies the second evidence of God's kindness: despite the family's failures and Naomi's attempts to send Ruth away, God uses their witness to bring Ruth to saving knowledge of Yahweh, showing the gospel distinction between grace and law
Second, God's kindness is seen in bringing the knowledge of God to her daughter-in-law. Look, Elimelech and Ruth did not set out to Moab, you know, like, like Craig's trip to the Amazon to preach the gospel, right? It seems like they're almost on an anti-gospel mission there, telling people not to follow them back to Israel. And yet God, through them, through their combination of unwise decisions or whatever else is going on, God uses them to bring Ruth into the family of God. This is amazing. Ruth takes Naomi as her, you know, as her mother-in-law, but more importantly, she takes God, Naomi's God, as her God. And that capital Lord, when you see that in the Old Testament, when Ruth calls God Lord, that's God's special name revealed to his people, which is Yahweh. It's the name that only God's people use to refer to God.
And Ruth is taking that name and saying, This Yahweh is my God. Now, we don't know how it happened. Perhaps Ruth sat at the fire as her in-laws told stories of God calling Abraham to himself. Perhaps Ruth held her breath as her in-laws described the Hebrew escape from Egypt and crossing of the Red Sea. Perhaps Ruth marveled at the differences between her traditional household gods and Yahweh there, different God.
Perhaps she was amazed that rather than saying, 'Okay, do these things,' because her household gods would have said, 'Do these things or I'll punish you.' Yahweh was utterly different. Yahweh goes to his people, redeems them, and then calls them to live differently for him. In other words, the grace was there before the call to obedience, which is totally different from anything else she'd ever experienced. She sees somehow the kindness of God in Yahweh. And not just— think about what this cost for Ruth.
Ruth had to give up her family, her hometown, her traditional gods, her way of life, her dress, everything to do this. Why would she do this? I don't think it's just for Naomi. I think it's because she chooses Naomi's God. See, the kindness of God in Naomi's relationship to this young woman being used by God to bring her into the family of God.
22 · Illustrates God's kindness through suffering with a testimony from the congregation — how God used marital infidelity and brokenness to bring a couple to Christ, paralleling how God may have used Naomi's losses to bring Ruth to faith
I was talking to someone from church and they were sharing really openly how earlier on in their marriage, one of them was unfaithful and they were not believers and their lives kind of fell apart. But God separately used that circumstance in each of their lives to bring them to Christ. And so now they look back on that hardship and difficulty as actually God's kindness to save them. And in a sense, this, we don't know if God maybe used these circumstances to bring Ruth to a knowledge of himself.
23 · Identifies the third evidence of God's kindness: Ruth's covenant commitment to Naomi, using Ruth 1:16-17 to show how Ruth embodies hesed toward Naomi even as Naomi cannot see God's hesed toward her
Third, we see God's kindness in giving Naomi someone committed to her in loving kindness. Ruth speaks these words that are often used at weddings. If you spoke these words to your spouse at your wedding and then were alarmed to see that they were actually from a daughter-in-law to a mother-in-law, and it's like, oh, that's kind of weird. I don't want to say this to my mother-in-law. It's kind of more spouse. Was I— you know, it's funny, even outside of being Christians, a lot of people will say these words at weddings, and I'm always like, they're to the mother-in-law though.
Like, it's okay if you did it. You'll see why that's okay in a second. But listen what he said, what she tells Naomi: Where you will go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people.
Your God and my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Like, Ruth launches into this almost poetic, um, statement of how committed to Naomi she will be. In other words, if Naomi's on the move, Ruth will be on the move. If Naomi's staying put, Ruth will be staying put.
And in life, Ruth will be there. In death, Ruth will be there. She covers all the bases, saying, from, from sunup to sundown, in every circumstance, I will I will be utterly committed to you. And even in this moment when Naomi is questioning, God, why haven't you been kind to me? God, you are against me.
God, you've given me nothing. Ruth, her daughter-in-law, is speaking hesed to her as a picture, as an outflow of God's hesed to her. To Naomi. Do you see this?
24 · Parallels the pastor's experience of chronic pain with Naomi's — internally questioning God's kindness while externally experiencing it through his wife's help, making Naomi's blindness vivid and relatable
Recently, you know, a few months ago, I was having a really severe back pain episode, and I was obviously questioning the way that Naomi is here. I was having a hard time, and I remember looking back, I didn't realize what was happening at the time, but I remember this one point being so frustrated, 'cause I was having trouble walking. I was trying to get from like the car through our house, and our bedroom is on the second level, and so, I'm trying to get up the stairs, and I'm literally, my back is so shaky and so spasmy that Jen is having to like physically support me, to just like help me get to the stairs and help me get up the stairs. And internally, all I'm thinking is, this is ridiculous, this is unbelievable, God's kindness is nowhere to be found. And yet, if you would look like with heaven's eyes, God's kindness is right next to me. God's kindness is in my wife helping her crippled old 35-year-old husband up the stairs.
That's what Naomi is experiencing. She doesn't even— she's questioning the kindness of God, unaware that she is in that moment experiencing the kindness of God.
25 · Makes the central Christological claim of the sermon: Ruth's unwarranted commitment to Naomi pictures Christ's commitment to His people, particularly in the detail that Ruth 'clung' to Naomi just as Christ clings to us when we push Him away
And this is the amazing thing, friends. In what Ruth speaks to her, in a sense Ruth speaks better than she knows. Because this kind of radical commitment is something that's almost unwarranted by Naomi. Naomi's like, 'Get out of here.' Ruth's like, 'Nope, I won't leave.' I love that verse, that fragment of the verse that says, 'But Ruth clung to her.' In Ruth, we see a picture of the face of Christ. In that even when God's people push God away, God clings.
And holds to his people. We see a glimpse in this couple heading, this pair of people heading toward Bethlehem, we see a glimpse of what would later come to Bethlehem, right? At a time when God's people were questioning, is God really kind to us? God sends his son Emmanuel to be with them as his ultimate expression of kindness to them.
26 · Unpacks the Christological typology of Ruth 1:16-17 verse by verse, showing how Christ fulfills Ruth's poetic commitment literally through incarnation, identification with humanity, death, burial, and resurrection
Iain Duguid says this: 'This answers our doubts that God really has our best interests at heart. Who left his Father's house to come and live with us even to the point of death? Against whom did the Almighty's hand truly go out in bitter judgment even though he had no sin of his own that would have deserved deserves such punishment? Jesus. Jesus is the answer Naomi needs, and Jesus is the answer that we need. Jesus is our Emmanuel.
He took God's Old Testament declaration that "I will be with you" and lived it out to the fullest extent. He left the glories of heaven in order to say to us, 'Where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge.' 'Your people shall be my people and your God my God.' Even death was not shirked in his identification with us. He died and was buried just as we are. In his grace, he has clung to us.
Church, read those words as an expression of the heart of Christ this morning. This in Christ is what God says to us. 'Where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people.' And listen to the 17: 'Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.' Ruth just expresses this out of the overflow of her heart using poetic language, but Christ lived it.
For him, this was no hyperbole. So committed was he to his people, so tightly did he cling to them, that He died for them, was buried for them, and rose for them.
27 · Signals the shift from experiencing God's kindness (through Ruth as a type of Christ) to the final movement: learning to see God's kindness
Look, in Ruth we see a picture of Christ, of the hesed of God that would come many generations later to Bethlehem. Point number 3 then: seeing the kindness of God.
28 · Reads Ruth 1:19-22, Naomi's homecoming where she renames herself 'Bitter' and declares herself empty, setting up the irony that the narrator will expose
Verse 19: So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred up because of them. And the women said, 'Is this Naomi?' And 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; 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?' So Naomi returned, and 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 the barley harvest.
29 · Dramatizes Naomi's homecoming scene, emphasizing how hardship has physically marked her and how her bitterness leads her to publicly rename herself and declare herself empty
This, so this great scene happens, right? Naomi's homecoming. And it's a notable thing. The whole town is stirred up. Kids are pointing and looking. Who is that? And everyone is talking about them.
And the women of the town Here's what's so difficult. The women of the town don't even recognize Naomi. Life has been so hard on her, the lines on her face are so engraved that they're like, is this the same woman that left so many years ago? And Naomi says two things. First, she says, don't call me sweet, which is what her name meant.
Call me bitter. You know, so you're like, instead of, you know, imagine somebody comes up, oh my gosh, Naomi, it's been so many years. It's so good to see you. And Naomi says, 'You know what, Kathleen? Don't even call me Naomi.
My name is Bitter. Call me Bitter.' You're like, 'Whoa, okay. Well, good catching up. We'll see you at the holiday party later this week.' You know, it's one of those interactions. Somebody else comes up, 'Hey, Naomi.' 'Nope, it's Bitter.' Like, 'Whoa, okay.
Great, thank you, Naomi, for that.' This is where Naomi's at. And she says something else that's very, interesting. She says, 'I went away full, the Lord has brought me back empty.' Meaning, I have nothing left.
30 · Exposes the dramatic irony the narrator creates — Naomi declares herself empty while Ruth stands beside her, revealing Naomi's blindness to God's kindness literally present in her life
And the author of the book of Ruth, we don't know who it is, is a master storyteller. This is, even among, like, ancient literature, people who aren't Christians, the book of Ruth is a masterful example of a short story. And one of the things that the author does here is he contrasts the irony of Naomi telling people, 'I'm, you know, I have nothing, there's nothing sweet in my life, and I am utterly empty, and I have not a single person in the world with me anymore.' And so Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, with her. Meaning, do you see the contrast here? Naomi's saying, 'I have no one in this world,' and Ruth is like, 'Hi, I'm Ruth, you know, I'm with her.' Naomi's saying, 'I only have horrible, bitter things in my life. Not one single good thing. Don't even call me that.' And Ruth is like, 'Well, yeah, I happen to follow this lady because I love her, and I'm going to be with her until she dies, and I'm never going to give up on her.' And you see the contrast here?
You're like, 'Wait a minute. How does Naomi not see that she's not empty?' She may lack her sons. She may lack her husband. But she has, in a sense, a daughter-in-law worth 10 sons. She has an expression of God's hesed, loving kindness, standing right there next to her.
And so the question we have to ask is, why can't Naomi see the kindness of God right next to her?
31 · Establishes the first reason Naomi cannot see God's kindness: she assumes her story is over when it has barely begun, teaching that God's kindness unfolds over time, not according to our timetables
Well, I think the text reveals a couple things. First, seeing the kindness of God requires us to see the larger picture. Story. This is only chapter 1. Naomi thought that chapter 1 was the end of the story. If Naomi wrote the book of Ruth, her story would have been, 'I'm Naomi, I had a nice life, and then horrible things happened to me and everyone died. The end.' Right? That would be Naomi's version of Ruth. Not as encouraging.
And yet God lays this out in a way that shows us that the the beginning of the story, the middle of the story, it's not the same as the end of the story. God's expression of kindness doesn't always work on our timetable.
32 · Explains why God chose to reveal His kindness through narrative rather than proposition — so that we who live in stories can learn to trust that our mid-story bleakness is not the end
Look, the Book of Ruth could just be a propositional truth, and we believe in propositional theological truths, right? The propositional theological truth of Ruth is this: God is kind to his people. And we could have saved a lot of monks, a lot of parchment over many decades and centuries By just saying that. But God says that through a story. Why?
I think so that we who would live inside stories could see the loving kindness of God lived out in other stories and look and remember that God's loving kindness is not over in our story. Look, this book is filled with story after story in which if you pause in the middle It looks utterly bleak, it looks utterly barren, it looks like nothing good will ever come, and yet if you fast forward to the end, you see fullness and kindness and joy and provision. So it is with our stories.
33 · Illustrates the principle with personal testimony — if he had written his story mid-narrative during romantic rejection, it would have ended in tragedy, but God's story had a different ending
Look, I remember Jen and I talking about celebrating our anniversary recently, and there was a point in our relationship where I kind of had the big talk with Jen, and I said, Basically, like, 'I love you, I wanna marry you, I wanna be with you forever, like, you're the one.' And she, as gently as possible, said, 'That is so sweet. I wish I could say that too.' And you're just like, 'Oh, okay.' You know, like, here's my heart, it's just, psh, you know? And if I, in that moment, or that month in particular, could have written the story If I were to write the story of my relationship, it would go like this: boy loves girl, girl doesn't love boy, boy dies of sadness, the end. Right? This is the story of Ricky's life.
34 · Illustrates the principle with church history — in the middle of the story (declining attendance and budget), the narrative looked like failure, but God's kindness has brought growth and new members
Look, I remember even— think about God's kindness to us as a church. I remember a couple years into being a pastor at this church, many of you guys have been through this with us, a couple years in, As I began to lead the church, the story, if I had written it, would have been pastor arrives, church continues to lose numbers, church's budget continues to shrink, pastor is a failure, hopefully he leaves soon, right? In the middle, like 2 years in, 3 years in, that would have been the story I felt like I was living. Pastor is there, closes the doors of the church, hands the keys off, and cries, right? That's what I felt. And yet that is not true.
35 · Concludes the first principle with the eschatological promise — even if we don't see God's kindness fully in this life, we will see it in the life to come; the canonical trajectory is toward kindness
The Bible gives us stories of God's kindness lived out in lives to remind us that God's kindness does not always work on our timetable, but in the end, we will always see the kindness of God. We may not see it in chapter 1 or chapter 2, but we will see it in the final chapter in all its fullness. Both in this life, friends, and in the life to come. And in the life to come. The trajectory of Genesis to Revelation is the Lord is kind to his people. Naomi cannot see it.
36 · Establishes the second reason Naomi cannot see God's kindness: she looks only at what she has lost, not at what God has given; teaches that while loss is real and grief is legitimate, we must also look for God's kindness
Second thing here is seeing the kindness of God requires us to look for his kindness, not just our loss and emptiness. Naomi cannot see her daughter-in-law because she only sees what she has lost. She only sees the hole in her life where her husband and sons once stood. Now, I don't mean to imply in any way that loss or sorrow are not legitimate, that Naomi should not be grieving her husband or her sons that she left with and now are gone as she returns. But her eyes only see that, not what the Lord has brought her back to Bethlehem with, not Ruth. And I think the lesson here is that if we only look for the emptiness and loss in our lives, we will always find it. This side of heaven, there will always be emptiness and loss in our lives. Maybe you feel this emptiness and loss even more acutely as the holidays draw near, as you see the commercials of big families gathered around.
You feel like, 'That's not my life,' and you feel the loss. One day, the Bible promises that every tear will be dried in God's people, but that's not yet. True. If you look for loss, you will always find it. But I think Ruth reminds us that if you look for God's kindness, you will always find it as well. In Naomi's life, God's kindness is literally standing next to her.
37 · Expands the dramatic irony of Ruth 1:22 — not only does Ruth stand beside Naomi, but the barley fields are ripe for harvest, surrounding Naomi with God's provision even as she declares everything barren
And look, I don't know how Naomi comes across to you, but Naomi does not, like, strike me as the kind of person I wanna be like. Wherever you go, I'm gonna go, and I'm gonna do everything you do, and I'm just gonna be committed to you forever. And Naomi's like, rah, da, da, da, da, you know, like, it's just not, it's like, cool, cool, you know, find a happier person, Ruth, if you're gonna do that. Naomi's just a bitter lady. And yet, God's kindness is abundant toward Naomi. God's kindness is all around her. That's actually true in the text, that Naomi is coming, Imagine if you take a wide-angle lens of this story. Naomi's coming back to Bethlehem and she's saying, 'I am empty and there will never be anything good again and everything in life is barren.' And as she's saying this, walking into Jerusalem, the text says the barley fields are ready for harvest. The barley fields are ripe. Abundance is growing all around her.
And Naomi cannot see that the same God of the barley fields is her God. Her God. She cannot see God's abundant provision that she left and this whole area was famine and barren and she returns and it is full of provision and fullness. She cannot see the kindness of God. And I think it's because we're often so much better at looking for loss and emptiness than we are at looking for the kindness of God.
38 · Illustrates the principle of learning to see God's kindness everywhere with the Disney 'hidden Mickey' phenomenon — once you learn to look, you see it everywhere
You know, recently we— one of our pandemic promises was like, man, if we ever get out of this pandemic thing, where we can't travel and do things. There's an annual pastor's conference we go to in Orlando, and so we decided if we ever can do it, we're going to bring our boys out there to do some of the Orlando stuff and the annual— not annual, the life— whatever lifetime pilgrimage everybody's required to make the Disney World Land thing something. You know, and so we brought our kids. And one of the things that's interesting about, you know, even the restaurants and shops and stuff at Disney is that they have, the designers are really good at hiding these hidden Mickeys everywhere. And you don't really look for them, they're not obvious, but when you start looking for them, you can start to see it. And when you start to see it, it becomes a little ridiculous, okay? We were driving by some power lines in the shape of Mickey, right? The solar array at Disney World is in the shape of Mickey, right? You're in the bathroom washing your hands, you look down at the little design in the tile and you're like, hey, There it is, you know, right there. And then you, and once you start to see it, it's hard to unsee it.
You're kinda like, are those 3 rocks in the shape? Look, there it is again, you know. And you're at a restaurant and they're like, would you like a waffle? It's in this shape. And you're like, oh, and you just begin to see it everywhere, in the little bag, the little thing, the little walkway, and you begin to be like, it's everywhere. How could I not have seen this? And there are people that go and they cross off all the little hidden Mickeys that they could possibly find everywhere. And here's what I'm trying to say. I think God's kindness is like that, that once you know to look for it, you begin to see it everywhere. But until you look for it, you don't see it anywhere.
39 · Direct application: because God is a God of hesed, His kindness is present in your life even when circumstances are bleak; challenges the congregation to open their eyes and look for specific expressions of God's kindness
And here is the truth, based on what we know of the character of God, God is a God of chesed, God is a God of loving kindness. And so I know no matter how bleak the circumstances in your life are today, or how bleak they they feel God's kindness is present in your life. Even if you're like Naomi, you can't see it anywhere, open your eyes, it is there. It may be standing next to you in a spouse. It may be in your children.
It may be with those who gather around the Thanksgiving table with you this week. It may be in a friend who drops off a meal. I know we got a bunch of people in our church that are sick and watching a livestream, and we've got meals from our church going to people who are sick. May be, and that you may be thinking, 'Man, God's forgotten us,' and somebody drops off a meal right then, right? God's kindness is everywhere once you begin to look.
Let's be good at looking not just for the loss in our lives. We see it, we acknowledge it, we grieve it, but also to see the kindness of God.
40 · Concludes with Spurgeon's famous quotation and applies it eschatologically — trust God's heart when you cannot trace His hand, and remember that every Christian story ends in glory because of Christ
Let me end with this, a quote from Spurgeon. Spurgeon, who battled depression, Spurgeon who battled gout. Spurgeon, who had a bedridden wife, says this: 'God is too good to be unkind and he is too wise to be mistaken. When we cannot trace his hand, we must trust his heart.' Church, I want you to feel that today. If you feel like in your circumstances, man, God is not kind, no, he is too good to be unkind to you. He is too wise to be mistaken. And if you don't understand where your story's going, if you think, like, your story is just— it ends in a dead end and it's not going anywhere, remember the God of hesed, the God of his people coming out of Egypt, the God of Ruth, the God of Bethlehem, the God that sent Christ is the God over your story too. Your story, Christian, does not end in chapter 1 of Ruth.
It will end in glory. Because of Jesus. It will end in fields white with harvest and bountiful provision forevermore. That is the trajectory of every Christian story.
41 · Applies the sermon to the church's recent history through COVID-19, inviting honest wrestling with God over the hardships of 2020-2021 and calling the congregation to communal prayer and mutual support
So as we end, I want to just communicate a couple things on my heart for us in this season as a church, okay, if I can. First thing I want to communicate is this. I know the last couple years have been hard. We're doing Ruth for a reason. I don't think anybody in— well, not that many people.
There's always somebody. I don't think that many people in the church look back at 2020 and think, best year ever, right? If you go back and look at the tweets, you know, 2020, this is my decade, the roaring '20s, best year ever coming up. Nope, right? That's not true of probably any— well, Somebody, I'm sure it's true.
Some people got married or whatever. That's great. And then 2021, I don't know if you felt like this, but I felt like 2021 is supposed to be like the makeup year. It's supposed to be an extra happy year because 2020 was hard. And 2021 comes and you're like, it's still hard, right?
It's maybe a little bit less hard, but still hard. And here's what I think. All of us are tempted to look at the last couple of years and think, Man, I see way more loss and sorrow than I see kindness. And I think one of the things Ruth allows us to do is to bring our questions honestly to God and say, 'God, help me. I feel like your hand is against me. I feel like I'm empty.' And to wrestle with God and his word. We're to bring our questions and doubts to God.
We're to be honest about them, and then we're to wrestle with his character as revealed. In his word, and God gently leads. He doesn't just give us a propositional truth, God is kind. He gives us Ruth that takes us on this journey to being able to see his kindness. So I want to encourage you, maybe you need to do some business with the Lord as the end of the year draws close.
Maybe you need to get with the Lord and you need to be honest with yourself or your spouse or your community group and say, man, this has really been hard and I've really struggled. Can you pray for me? Help me ask God to help me see his kindness. Kindness.
42 · Returns to the gospel as the ultimate answer to doubts about God's kindness, applying Ruth 1:16-17 Christologically and calling the congregation to fix their eyes on Christ in the Advent season
And let me, let me encourage you with this. Even if you cannot see the kindness of God anywhere else, look at the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Even if you feel no one is with me, there is a Savior who says, 'Where you go, I will go.' Even if you feel like no one's committed to me, there is a Savior who says, 'Where you are buried, I will be buried.' Even if you feel like, man, God doesn't love me and his kindness is absent from my life, look to the manger, friends. Look to the face of Christ. Look to the cross. Look to the empty tomb.
All that for you. Even while you push away from God, he clings to you in Christ. Look to the Savior. In every twinkling light against the black darkness of this season, Remember chesed, His kindness toward you.
43 · Issues the second major application — the church is called to express God's kindness to outsiders, using Ruth as the model; includes an evangelistic invitation to those outside Christ
The second thing we're gonna do over the next number of weeks is we want to not just experience the kindness of God, but we want to express the kindness of God to others. Look, God has not preserved us as a people and as a church just so we can stay in our holy huddle and be like, 'Yay, we get to experience the chesed of God every week,' and we sing about and experience that we have just a happy community against the blackness of the the world around us. Now, that's a joy, it's good, amen. But what does God do? Even in chapter 1 of the book of Ruth, God shows us that he is eager to bring in others outside of the people of God to experience the kindness of God. And I think in this season, God wants to recalibrate us and get us not just looking at our own circumstances, but looking at the people around us and saying, man, who is far from the people of God that could be invited in? Who can I show kindness to as an expression of God's kindness that they might turn and look up and see the kindness of God for them? Ruth, as we will see later, is one of those in the line of Jesus Christ himself.
It's hard to even say. I get choked up saying this. Ruth, a Moabitess who grew up worshiping gods against the God of Israel, becomes the one through which God sends his Son Jesus. And I think that is a loud statement, that when God pulls someone into his people, he doesn't pull them halfway in, he pulls them all the way in. And so look, if you're here today, if you're here today, you don't know Christ, the invitation is for you.
The doors to Bethlehem are open. Regardless of the circumstances in your life, maybe you feel far from God, maybe you have questions about God, God's doors are open to you. Come like Ruth. Come, make him your God, and he will be yours. He will cling to you.
And never let go.
44 · Closing prayer that recapitulates the sermon's key themes — seeing God's kindness in the Savior and in daily interactions — and returns to Spurgeon's language of trusting God's heart
Would you stand and let's pray? Father, we pray that this season of our church would, as we explore the book of Ruth over the next number of weeks, that we would see your kindness. And I pray that this week, even now, this week, we would begin to count and recount the kindnesses of God to us, first and foremost in the Savior, but also present in the people around us, in the spouse helping a hobbled husband up the stairs, in a child looking up at us with joy, in a restored family relationship, in a brother or sister from church stopping us in the parking lot and saying, 'How are you really, really doing?' Lord, I pray that we would see your kindness in each one of these interactions And look and see the kindness of God, remembering your character so that when we cannot trace your hand, we can trust your heart. I pray that in Jesus' name, amen.
45 · Final pastoral word reframing the closing hymn ('O Come All Ye Faithful') in light of the sermon — God comes even for the unfaithful and bitter, inviting honest engagement with God during worship
Well, we're gonna sing a song, and if you're new to the church in the last year, you may think, okay, you're singing the song wrong. You've probably sung the song Come All You Faithful, but Naomi would not sing that song because I don't know if you noticed, from the text, she's not particularly faithful. The good news is that God comes even for the unfaithful. God comes for even the bitter. God comes for even those that are far off in Moab. So as we sing, do some business with the Lord if you need to. Bring your questions and receive the gift of his Son.