TEXT: Ruth 1

A few weeks ago we completed a long study of the Book of Judges. The Judges served Israel from the death of Joshua to the birth of Samuel, some two hundred years later. These were hard times in Israel, full of sin and judgment. But that’s not all they were full of: they were also full of grace. God’s grace was sometimes seen in the big stories, the stories that would make the evening news (if they had evening news back them). But the Lord does not limit his mercy to big people doing big things: He also gives it to little people doing little things, some of which, in hindsight, are bigger than the big things.

This brings us to Ruth, one of the Bible’s most lovable characters. Our study, however, won’t focus on her, but on Christ and what He’s doing in her story. Is this fair? It is fair, and more than fair: it is necessary, for the whole Word of God bears witness to the Son of God, Ruth chapter 1, no less than John chapter 3. Search the Scriptures, our Lord once said, for it is they which testify to Me!

This first chapter tells quite a story. It begins with a family from Bethlehem. The man's name is Elimelech; his wife is Naomi; the children are Mahlon and Chilion. They have the misfortune of living at one of the worst times in the history of Israel, "in the days when the judges ruled". If you read the Book of Judges, you'll find this was an age of chaos.

The nation was at war with foreign enemies and with itself. Crime was on the rise and idols filled the land. For the common man, life was "poor, nasty, brutish, and short".

Elimelech was a man of his age. When famine came, he quit his land and people for Moab--a place God called His "washpot" or bedpan--a thing unclean in more ways than one. The sons were no better, taking Moabite women as wives, a thing forbidden in the Law of God and repulsive to every self-respecting Hebrew. As for Naomi? She fit the family only too well. When she left for home, she advised her daughters-in-law to remain in their country, to go back to their families, and to leave the God of Israel for the idols of Moab.

Would they take her advice? One would; the other wouldn't. Ruth pledged herself to Naomi, to her people, to her land, and to her God. The words are unforgettable:

"Wherever you go, I will go;

Wherever you lodge, I will lodge;

Your people shall be my people;

And your God, my God.

Where you die, I will die,

And there will I be buried.

The LORD do so to me, and more also,

If anything but death

parts you and me".

Naomi consents to have Ruth with her; the widows enter Bethlehem to everyone's delight. "Is this Naomi?" the city squeals. "No! she snaps, "My name is Mara--`Bitterness'--for the LORD has dealt very bitterly with me.

That's the story in short. It's a moving story, isn't it? Full of human weakness and folly, pain and bereavement.

What concern does the story address? What need comes to mind in reading it? In a word, loss.

Naomi has lost everything. "I went out full, and the LORD has brought me home again empty". Her husband is lost; her sons are lost; her land is lost; her hope is lost.

Hers is a very great loss, indeed. Greater, perhaps, than you think. For in losing these things, Naomi had also lost her inheritance! Not her money (which is comparatively worthless, and may be regained), but her name and place in Israel.

"What's in a name?" To us, not much. But to the Hebrews, a name was very important. One's name stood for his identity, his heritage, and his hope. The promises of God were his because of his name--the son of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so on. His name would outlive himself and some day enter Messiah's Kingdom. To lose one's name, therefore, was calamity, and worse: It was a Divine judgment. When the people forsook God at Mt. Sinai, He threatened to "Blot out their name", a fate far worse than death.

Her place in Israel was also threatened. God promised to give His people a land. In the days of Joshua, the Divine pledge was redeemed. The land, though, was not parcelled out on a first come/first served basis. It was divided among the tribes, the clans, and the families. Each was to hold its land in sacred trust till the Savior came. S.G. De Graaf writes:

That's why Naboth wouldn't sell his vineyard to King Ahab. Why land speculation was not allowed. Why exile was a curse. Why wicked children wouldn't live long "on the earth". And why every fifty years, the land must return to the family of its original owners. The land was the inheritance of God's people. To lose your land, therefore, was to lose everything worth having.

That's what the first chapter of Ruth is about: Loss! Loss of things material. And of things spiritual. Naomi has lost it all!

Her loss is compounded by the reason for it. Job lost everything through no fault of his own. His loss, therefore, was not made worse by guilt and remorse. Can Naomi say the same? She cannot. Her loss was the direct result of her sin and the sins of her husband and sons.

What were they? Unbelief and disobedience. When famine ravaged the land, Elimelech should have stuck it out in faith, looking for the mercies of God. But he didn't. When times got tough, he ran for the nearest place of relief--Moab, a cesspool of sin. What is this, but unbelief?

And disobedience. God commanded His people to be separate from all others--especially the people of Moab! "The Moabites shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD, even to their tenth generation; they shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD forever" (Deuteronomy 23:3). As for marrying them? This was the very thing Balaam counseled; the thing for which he died in infamy. Yet that's just what the boys did.

The family's loss was a terrible one, made worse by the fact: They brought it on themselves. No loss compares to the guilty loss.

What do we have in common with Elimelech and his family? Loss. Made in the image of God, inclined to do His will, and finding our highest joy in Him, we chose another way. The way of unbelief; the way of disobedience. The way chosen long ago, is the way still chosen. It is the way of self.

The consequence is further loss. In choosing ourselves, we lost God. In losing God, we lost ourselves. As for joy, where is it? As for hope, there is none! What have we got left? A life not worth living; a death we dare not die.

Our loss is as great as Naomi's. No, it is greater. Is the loss final? If left to ourselves, it is. Naomi could not redeem herself; Ruth could not redeem herself; we cannot redeem ourselves.

But Naomi knew something we might not know. She knew there was a solution in the Word. It offered help to the destitute; it promised redemption to the lost. What was it? It was the Kinsman-Redeemer. A close relative might step in to buy Naomi's land, to marry Ruth, and to revive the name of her lost husband.

Would he? Naomi was doubtful. Who would marry a foreign wife? Who would father a child not his own? Who would pay the price to get property for someone else? Could such a man be found?

He was found, as the following chapters show. He was found for the destitute widows. He is found for us too. Who is he? For Naomi and Ruth, he was Boaz. For us, He is our Lord Jesus Christ.

Only He can recover the things we lost. Have we lost fellowship with God? If so, God "has reconciled us by the death of His Son". Have we lost peace? If so, "We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ". Have we lost meaning? If so, "Christ is the wisdom of God...In Him all things consist". Have we lost hope? If so, God has "Begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ". Have we lost a happy death? If so, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord". Have we lost heaven? If so, "Christ in you is the hope of glory".

Why don't we quit trying to obtain these things on our own? And go to the One who alone can give them to us? Go to Christ. Flee to Him in all your loss, in all your pain, in all your humiliation. He will make "All things new".

Your "Redeemer is mighty". Let your weakness prove His might! And when it does, then,

"Let the redeemed of the LORD say so".

May God turn our loss into gain, for Christ’s sake. Amen.