Sermon Tone Analysis

*God’s Graciousness in Human Bitterness and Emptiness (Ruth 1:19-22)*

/Preached by Pastor Phil Layton at Gold Country Baptist Church on December 13, 2009/

www.goldcountrybaptist.org 

 

R.

C. Sproul has written a book called “The Prince’s Poison Cup,” a story for children that I have to confess I found moving as a bigger kid, a story of a King who had a golden cup that He gave to His child to drink from a fountain of bitter water, hurtful poison, a story that troubled Ella Ruth until she came to the end of the story and understood more what was taking place in that bitter cup the King’s child drank from.

There is power in stories, and I want you to turn to another story that has a Ruth in it, not Ella Ruth, but the book of Ruth, where we will continue a story that troubled its Ruth and her sister and mother-in-law Naomi who feels she has a bitter cup to drink from God and as His child she doesn’t see why.

Our Heavenly Father tells us deep truths in stories, allegories, and parables, which are sometimes unforgettably etched on our souls and remain there long after we forget most of the things we learned in church.

Jesus was the master illustrator, conveying rich truths by way of story, and what we have in the book of Ruth is a true story, not just about Ruth or even about Naomi (although Naomi’s prominent in chapter 1), but primarily a story about the LORD and His Providence over both good and bad times, bitter and sweet.

Naomi’s life in the story of chapter 1 has been a bitter cup to drink so far.

Verses 1-5 tell how Elimelech had moved Naomi and their sons away from the Promised Land to Moab in the difficult days of the Judges, a low point spiritually in Israel and even physically by way of famine.

In a tragic series of events, Naomi’s husband died, but the bitter pain was at least alleviated by her two sons that men the world to her.

Her boys had married two idolatrous women from Moab, bringing pain Naomi’s heart, but the greatest pain comes when both her sons also die, it seems not that far apart; 3 funerals in a few years.

Naomi is a widow, beyond marriageable child-bearing years, in a male-dominated world, her only family: 2 pagan daughter-in-laws whose very presence reminds of sin, suffering.

Everytime she hears them and others call her Naomi (meaning sweet or pleasant) it’s as if the bitter pain stabs her again.

But she hears in v. 6 that the Lord’s providence has visited with kindness Israel’s land again, providing food, and she decides to return and come back to her people, and her daughters travel part of the way, and as they near Bethlehem she urges them to turn back:

 

/12 //“Return, my daughters!

Go, for I am too old to have a husband.

If I said I have hope, if I should even have a husband tonight and also bear sons, 13 //would you therefore wait until they were grown?

Would you therefore refrain from marrying?

No, my daughters; for it is *harder* /*[lit.

“more bitter”]* /for me than for you, for *the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me.”

*//14 //And they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her /

 

It says Orpah went back to her gods and her land but Ruth committed to Naomi and her people and land till death, even beyond Naomi’s death, and above all, to the true God.

 

/19 So they both went until they came to Bethlehem.

And when they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was stirred because of them, and the women said, “Is this Naomi?”

/

/ /

Bethlehem is buzzing, and the Hebrew terms indicate it was with some excitement that Naomi is back after more than 10 years, her friends thought they would never see her again!

She’s back, but the years have taken a toll on her, more than might be expected in that time frame.

Her whole countenance looks different than the full and fun lady they knew, so it’s hard for some to recognize her as Naomi (the one whose very name means sweet or pleasant).

/ /

/20 She /[Naomi] /said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.

/

/ /

The Hebrew root word for “bitter” is repeated in the original with an ironic play on words.

If we tried to bring that over into English it would be “call me Mara for the Lord has marred me.”

Literally, “call me bitter, for Shaddai has dealt very bitterly with me.”

It’s as if she’s saying, “everytime you call me sweet it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth again.

Naomi isn’t my identity anymore, bitter is.”

Turn to Exodus 15.

This is from Exodus~/Passover language (/maror /was bitter herbs to remind them of bitter slavery), which every Jew would be familiar with, a bitter taste followed by sweet deliverance at the Red Sea which parted and then Israel was led on dry land by Charlton Heston to the other side and the Egyptian army perished.

*15:23*/ //When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for *they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah.*/

Any Jewish OT woman would remember sister Miriam leading the praise band a few verses earlier.

Let’s look back at that context.

/ /

/20//Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took the timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dancing.

21//Miriam answered them, “Sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted; The horse and his rider He has hurled into the sea.”/ [what a sweet deliverance from their bitter slavery!]

/22 //Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.

23 //When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for *they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah.*

24 //So *the people grumbled* at Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25 //Then he *cried out to the Lord*, and the Lord showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and *the waters became sweet.*

There He made for them a statute and regulation, and there *He tested them.*

26*b*./*/…I, the Lord, am your healer.”/*

God’s graciousness to human bitterness is the theme of this Exodus passage and the theme of this sermon.

Naomi may not have been reflecting sufficiently on the very word she is using for her identity but God’s identity is One who specializes in turning bitter trials to a sweet taste in mouths who have tasted and seen the Lord is good.

God’s goodness continued to His people despite their grumbling, but the key was when faith /cried out to/ the Lord instead of /complaining about/ the Lord.

The Lord is the healer of His people, as the end of v. 26 says, and He is the shepherd who leads them beside sweet and still waters.

His graciousness can heal even our bitterness, as we’ll see in chapter 2.

 

I like how one writer draws God’s graciousness out of even /Mara, /in OT not ‘just the definitive place of grumbling bitterness, it was also the place where God’s grace to grumblers was definitively displayed.

If Naomi had pondered that truth from the history of the covenant people, it might have brought new hope in her life!

In addition, if Naomi felt that she was presently located in her own personal Marah, she could have remembered that the next stop on the wilderness road for the people of the exodus was not more of the same, but Elim, the place of rest, with its 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees (Ex.

15:27) … even along the road there were brief oases of comfort that God had provided in his goodness for his people.

In the midst of her pain, though, Naomi had completely forgotten the history of God’s faithfulness …

Who left his Father’s house to come and live with us, even to the point of death [trading the sweetness of heaven for a bitter cross]?

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 such punishment?

Jesus is the answer Naomi needs, and Jesus is the answer that we need … He left the glories of heaven in order to say to us, “Where you go I will go, and you where lodge I will lodge.

Your people shall be my people, and [my Father God your God and Father as well]’

… no one and nothing—not even death—can now separate us from Christ.

Jesus died on the cross both as the ultimate demonstration of God’s love for his people and as the ultimate means by which God would bring all of his prodigal sons and daughters [like Naomi] back to the true Promised Land, heaven itself.

Though we have each gone astray like Naomi in search of bread that does not satisfy, God has not simply cut us off in his anger and wrath as we deserved.

Though the Lord could have justly dealt bitterly with us, he instead poured that wrath out on Christ on the cross so that we—rebellious insiders and alien outsiders alike—might be invited in.

In Christ, we are welcomed to feast at the banquet we had by our disobedience forfeited, pursuing instead the empty tables of this world.’[1]/

/

 

Back in Ruth 1, it’s on the heels of the great graciousness and kindness by Ruth to Naomi in verses 16-17 that Naomi then says:

/ /

/21 “I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.

Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?”/

 

“I had everything, now I have nothing,” she says to the ladies of the town, with Ruth standing right next to her.

Not exactly a kind compliment after Ruth’s tremendous pledge of self-sacrificial love to Naomi, one of the high points of the OT and what would later prove to be one of the high points in redemptive history before this book is done.

Ironically in self-pity Naomi thought it was so great before, like the Israelites who grumbled “we had it so much better in Egypt before, great food, etc.?” What?!! /Discontentment causes amnesia and blindness to good./

In Ruth 1:21, the word “empty” is in the emphatic position, but God’s purposes will be opposite of her perspective in an emphatic way.

Naomi thought she was full before and God brought her back empty, but in reality she was empty before and God has brought her back to make her full!

God’s graciousness to human bitterness and emptiness, is one of God’s sweetest specialties.

Hymn-writer William Cowper wrote:

/His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour;/

/The bud may have a *bitter* taste, But *sweet* will be the flower …/

/Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His grace;/

/Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face./

And behind the dark cloud Naomi so much dreads there is big mercy that will break with blessings on her head.

God has a big smile right behind it all as He looks at Naomi: “you have no idea, my child” :) /Look at ch. 4./ Even though Naomi feels like life is empty because she doesn’t have a man or any son anymore, she’s not empty.

If she opens her eyes she’ll see the blessing God has for her right next to her as she walks into Bethlehem!

The other ladies see it in *4:15b* … /your daughter-in-law, who loves you … is *better to you than seven sons* …” /i.e., Naomi is more full and blessed than any Hebrew woman, though her eyes of bitterness can’t see it.

The blessings of family and church family, spiritual family should fill us with joy.

Eric Kress asks: ‘Isn’t Naomi’s perspective typical of us?

We get easily preoccupied with what the Lord /hasn’t /given us that we miss the treasure of what He /has /given us.

“If only I had a [spouse]!”

“If only I had better parents!” “If only I had a better job!” “My life is so empty.

Why doesn’t God do something to fill this void?”

But He has.

He has given us so much already, far more than we deserve.

He’s given us Christ.

He’s given us everything we need for life and godliness in Christ (2 Pet 1:3).

A better plea would be, “Oh, Lord! Give me eyes to see what You’ve already given me!”[2]

It certainly seems in v. 20-21 that Naomi is far more focused on past bitterness than sweet blessedness she’s received from Ruth.

Ella Ruth, in the story of the bitter cup we started with, as a young child struggled to understand why her father gave her something to drink that tasted so bitter at the time, but it was actually the sweet and tender love of her father that drove him to do so.

Father knows best, and she needed to trust him, and he did it even though he knew his child’s little mind would not fully understand.

But he also knew she could understand it a little more if she heard a story.

And as children of a heavenly father, we need to trust Him.

Father knows best.