Sermon Tone Analysis

In 2004, the third largest earthquake ever recorded occured off the west coast of Indonesia.

Registering a magnitude of 9.3, the shock began a series of tsunamis with waves 100 feet high along the Indian ocean that killed around 250,000 people in 14 countries.

It was one of the most deadly natural disasters in history.

In light of the tragedy, David Hart of the Wall Street Journal wrote:

When confronted by the sheer savage immensity of worldly suffering—when we see the entire littoral rim of the Indian Ocean strewn with tens of thousands of corpses, a third of them children—no Christian is licensed to utter odious banalities about God’s inscrutable counsels or blasphemous suggestions that all this mysteriously serves God’s good ends."

There are numerous Christians who have been through various trials, persecutions, or tragedies who embrace God’s sovereign control of all things as the comfort and hope of their lives.

Scripture is clear that nothing occurs that God does not cause or allow, and that He is able to use even tragedy for His good purpose…and tragedy is the backdrop for the story of Ruth.