Famine and Faith
Ruth 1
Main Idea: In a world of sin and suffering, God has visited us with steadfast love, grace, and provision.
I. A World of Death (1:1-6)
The Book of Ruth takes place during the time of the “judges” of Israel. The repeated refrain of Judges indicates the spiritual climate in Israel: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Jdg. 21:25).
The names and places in Ruth are filled with irony:
Bethlehem means “house of bread,” but is experiencing famine (cf. Deut. 28:22-24; 32:23-24)
Elimelech means “my God is King,” but acts contrary
Naomi means “pleasant” or “sweet,” but she will soon identify as “bitter” (1:20)
Mahlon (“weak”) and Chilion (“frail”) live up to their namesake, dying in Moab
Though geographically close to Bethlehem, Elimelech’s decision to move his family to Moab is deeply problematic. Moab was infamous to the Israelites, all for bad reasons:
They are the descendants of an incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughter (Gen. 19:30-38)
The King of Moab hired Balaam to curse Israel (Num 22), and some Moabites seduced Israel to false worship and sexual immorality (Num 25)
They worshipped false gods (Chemosh) and offered child sacrifice (2 Kings 3:26-27)
What began as a plan to “sojourn” turned into 10 years of pain, suffering, and death. However, God graciously allows Naomi to hear the good news that the Lord had “visited” his people (cf. Lk. 1:68, 77-79) with food in Bethlehem. In an act of “repentance,” she decides to return home (cf. Lk. 15:17-18; Rom. 2:4).
II. A Daughter of Faith (1:7-18)
From her place of misery and bitterness, and because of the bleak prospects for these Moabite women in Bethlehem, Naomi tries to convince Orpah and Ruth to “return” to Moab, where they would likely have a better chance of security and a future family. She asks the Lord to deal “kindly” with these women (Heb. ‘hesed’)
If you want to see what natural, human love, at its best looks like, look at Orpah. If you want to see what supernatural steadfast love looks like, look at Ruth.
~ John Carpenter, “Ruth’s Prequel to the Christmas Story”
While Naomi asks the Lord to bless Ruth with his steadfast, covenantal love, it is actually Ruth who is a picture of God’s hesed love for Naomi. In this commitment to her mother-in-law, she is making a profession of faith in Yahweh, turning to him in conversion.
[Ruth’s decision] is all the more amazing after Naomi’s grim description of their future with her. Ruth stays with her in spite of an apparently hopeless future of widowhood and childlessness. Naomi painted the future black and Ruth took her hand and walked into it with her.
~ John Piper, “Ruth: Sweet and Bitter Providence”
III. A God of Grace (1:19-22)
As Naomi and Ruth return to the small town of Bethlehem, the town is “stirred” at Naomi’s appearance. She requests to be called ‘Mara’ (lit. ‘bitter;’ cf. Ex. 15:22-24). Her posture toward the Lord is a mixed bag:
Positively, she has returned to the Promised Land and is taking her lament directly to the Lord, sure of his existence and sovereignty.
Negatively, she can only see her lack and “emptiness” from a place of self-absorption. She does not have eyes to see that she has not actually returned empty, but has a reminder of God’s faithfulness in Ruth’s presence
Naomi may have come back home in faith, but hers is a flawed faith. Unable to see human causation in Israel’s famine and in her own trials, the woman the neighbors greet is a bitter old woman. She does indeed ascribe sovereignty to God, but this is a sovereignty without grace, an omnipotent power without compassion, a judicial will without mercy.
~ Daniel Block, Judges, Ruth
This chapter ends with a beacon of light as we are told is the “beginning of barley harvest” in Bethlehem. Despite Israel’s sin and rebellion, the Lord has graciously provided bread and “filling” in place of “emptiness.”
Whereas Elimelech left the place of famine to seek a false blessing in Moab, Jesus Christ left the glories of heaven to bring us a true blessing on earth. Elimelech and Naomi sent themselves into exile from the land of promise, trying to build their own kingdom rather than waiting for God to do it; Jesus, though, went into exile from his Father’s presence so that he might rescue us from our own kingdom-building and grant us a true and living future in his kingdom. The God who empties us and strips away, however painfully, those precious things in which we are trusting knows what it is to be stripped of all of his possessions, left alone and abandoned by his friends, and hung empty on a cross. Every tear of loss that God inflicts on us is a tear whose cost he himself understands.
~ Iain M. Duguid, Esther and Ruth
