Returning to Yahweh

In the 1800s a Chicago business man, his wife, and his four daughters were preparing for a trip to Europe by ship. The day of departure came, but the man was delayed from going with his family by a business matter and decided to follow on a later ship. During the crossing, the ship his family was on collided with another and sank, taking his four daughters into the deep with it. After receiving a telegram with the news from his wife the man set out to join her in Europe. As the ship passed over the place where his daughters met their end, Horatio Spafford penned the words to “It is Well With my Soul.” Many of us probably know this story already, but maybe we have not heard what his wife was reported to have said, “‘God gave me four daughters. Now they have been taken from me. Someday I will understand why.’”

God’s providence often puzzles, bewilders, and even angers us. We wonder how a loving God can bring such difficult things to bear against us when He says He loves us in His word. Today we come to a place in Ruth that brings into view two ways of responding to God’s hard providence. Naomi has experienced God’s providence in a bitter way, losing her husband and sons and any way to provide for herself in Moab. God has emptied her. And as we see how she responds to the Fatherly discipline of God only halfway right, we also see how Ruth is brought to Yahweh in this and how God uses these trials to bring blessing to His people in the end. As we study this section in Ruth consider this: since God loves us, His children, we can suffer through difficult times with joy.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

6 Then she 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. 7 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. 8 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. 9 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. 10 And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” 11 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? 12 Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am 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, 13 would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore 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.” 14 Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

15 And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 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, and your God my God. 17 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.” 18 And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

19 So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” 20 She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21 I went away full, and 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?”

22 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 barley harvest.

Ruth 1:6–22 ESV

6 Then she 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. 7 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. 8 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. 9 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. 10 And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” 11 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? 12 Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am 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, 13 would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore 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.” 14 Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. 15 And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 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, and your God my God. 17 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.” 18 And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. 19 So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” 20 She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21 I went away full, and 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?” 22 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 barley harvest.

Here is the outline for today: [only give the main points, maybe mention how many sub-points there will be]

Since God uses trials to return His children to Himself, we can suffer through difficulties with joy.

Naomi was emptied by God in Moab by the death of her men.

Yahweh visited His people in Judah and gave them food.

Naomi returned to Judah for filling because of her emptiness in Moab.

Since God works in manifold ways to bless his children, we can suffer through difficulties with joy.

Naomi saw God’s hand of judgment and failed to see his lovingkindness.

Ruth saw God’s lovingkindness as worth more than any judgment.

God blesses a Moabite!

Since God has visited us in His son to bring us to glory, we can suffer through difficult times with joy.

Reading through this section we note the repetition of the word “return.” Over and over some form of this word is used. The passage begins with the use of the word as she arises to return from Moab, then ends in 22 with Naomi having returned to Bethlehem. Overall it is used 12 times. Evidently there is something here that the author wants us to see!

In between we see this exchange between Naomi and her daughters in law where she commands them to “go, return” and implores them with two “turn back”s to their mother’s house to find a husband.

Let’s take a look at how God uses trials to return Naomi to Himself.

Her world had come to an end in Moab. She was widowed, left destitute, and needed a way to scrape out a living. God had emptied Moab of the prospect of a future by removing all prospect of offspring supporting her in old age. She also faced the prospect of losing her daughters in law because of her love for them.

By the way, thinking of things down the road, it was not only the poor and fatherless and widows that were provided for in the law, but the sojourner too! Consider

22 “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.”

Her daughters in law were precious to her, we clearly see this in the affection and tears they all shed as she blesses and sends them to seek rest in the house of husbands in Moab. Her concern for them is seen in how strongly she tells them to return to their mother’s house. The lot of a Moabite widow in Israel was pretty glum. Israelite men would have shunned them, they would have had no prospect of having a husband and family. Their lives would be worse than Naomi with no one to care for them and bearing the stench of their Moabite ancestry among the Israelite people. We see here Naomi sending them back with blessing from Yahweh, but she is sending them back to their cursed people and false gods. Her love for them is evident as she is more concerned with their welfare than her own, but we wonder at the state of her faith as she implores Ruth to return to the gods of Moab in 15.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

But here we have Naomi returning to the land of promise because of the providence of God in emptying Moab to her. Does she thank Yahweh for this? No, she blames Him. Her mind is on God’s fatherly discipline and judgment, not on his lovingkindness to His people. She sees the emptiness and bitterness of her situation, not the joy beyond it. This is something shared in common among God’s people today. Her complaint that “the hand of the Lord has

As we covered last week, at least in Israel there was this provision in the law for the care of widows. We will see it in action soon here in Ruth, where the gleanings of the outer edges were left. Naomi is returning to Bethlehem for provision among her native people. Moab has no such law in place for an Israelite widow. Really, in her situation, the timing was perfect, even though the circumstances were unpleasant. At just the right time God has brought food to Bethlehem and death to Moab. We see in the story the providence of God, and it should cause us to anticipate seeing this in future scenes in the story.

By the way, thinking of things down the road, it was not only the poor and fatherless and widows that were provided for in the law, but the sojourner too! Consider

22 “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

It is worth noting here that she was returning to the land in the time of the judges. This was a lawless time, when every man did what was right in his own eyes. But we see in Ruth a story of faithful covenant living that contrasts with the time of the judges, as the widows go to glean and are provided for, as the redeemer takes Ruth to raise up offspring for his kinsman, and as the characters act in such honorable ways toward one another.

So here we have Naomi returning to the land of promise because of the providence of God in emptying Moab to her and filling Bethlehem with food. Does she thank Yahweh for this? No, she blames Him. Her mind is on God’s fatherly discipline and judgment, not on his lovingkindness to His people. She sees the emptiness and bitterness of her situation, not the joy beyond it. This is something shared in common among God’s people today.

Naomi’s complaint that “the hand of the Lord has gone out against me” manifests her attitude in the situation, she sees God arrayed in battle against her rather than seeing Him battling for her. She says this to Orpah and Ruth, then again in a longer format to the women of Bethlehem. As she addresses the women, note the parallelism that highlights how she perceives the actions of God:

Ruth 1:19–21 ESV

19 So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” 20 She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21 I went away full, and 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?”

She sees His work as being bitter, as calamity, as testifying against her. She does not see God as her loving Father, but as a formidable adversary.

And yet we do see how God is returning Naomi to Himself in order to bless her, and Ruth too! The story is turning, we see this as they enter the land at the beginning of the barley harvest. Naomi and Ruth have come to a land where they will find food and shelter.

God’s lovingkindness is not something Naomi is ignorant of. See her blessing her daughters in law in verse 8:

8 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 Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

She is using the covenant name of Yahweh to invoke His blessed covenant love upon her Moabite daughters in law, even as she sends them back to their false gods in verse 15! This name has a wonderful history in Israel, God having given it to Moses as He remembers His people in Egypt and swears to bring them out and into the promised land of their fathers. Isn’t it ironic as she is preparing to leave for the promised land Yahweh has visited and blessed that she sends them to a pagan land and to false gods with the blessing of the covenant kindness of Yahweh, and then refers to Yahweh’s hand having gone out against her in verse 13?

She fails to remember how God bore with His people as they traveled through the wilderness to Caanan. That He did not wipe them out at Sinai as they worshipped the golden calf. That He again and again bore with them in His covenant love even as he punished them with a 40 year wandering in the wilderness that ended with the death of that entire generation. That after all the years of wandering and rebellion and disobedience He brought Israel into the land for the sake of His name. Her focus is on the immediate, on herself, and not on His covenant faithfulness.

You see, we all tend to focus on the wrong things. Our hearts are from birth curved inward into ourselves. In spite of the awful sin that we have committed against a holy God and the infinite grace of God in redeeming us from this sin, we fail to see that all things God sends upon us are for our good and His glory. The glory of God in the face of Christ that shows us how He only acts for our ultimate good is obscured by our tendency to think we know better than God or that God maybe sent us more than we needed. This is why the apostle writes:

3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

nor be weary when reproved by him.

6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

and chastises every son whom he receives.”

7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

As we saw earlier, Naomi was sending her daughters in law back because of the lack of prospects in Israel for a Moabite woman. There would likely be no husband, no children, no real home, no real family. In making the journey along with Naomi, Ruth would have been giving everything up that could have turned her sorrow into joy! Consider her clinging to Naomi and her speech to Naomi, certainly one of the most well-known in the Bible:

And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

15 And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 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, and your God my God. 17 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.” 18 And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Read this carefully, note the Chiastic structure and what is in the middle. [explain chiasm]

A. Do not urge me/ to leave you or return from following you.

B. For where you will go I will go/ and where you lodge I will lodge.

C. Your people my people

C. your God my God

B. Where you die, I will die/ and there will I be buried.

A. May the Lord do so to me and more also/ if anything but death parts me from you.

Somehow Ruth has heard of Yahweh. In her ten years with the family of Naomi she has picked up on His covenant name, and she knows enough to want to cling to Him and to invoke a curse upon herself from Him if she does not remain faithful to Naomi. She has been brought to faith in Yahweh by His word and Spirit. Consider her statement that includes a land, a people, and a God in light of

6 Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’ ”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

And in case we had any doubt, we can see that she indeed had come to faith in Yahweh from Boaz’s statement in 2:12

12 The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!”

But also consider this: Ruth had been given a blessing of lovingkindness from Yahweh and that He would grant her rest in the house of a husband in Moab by Naomi. Rather than leave like Orpah, who saw the practical implications of what Naomi was saying and decided to seek this blessing, Ruth pledges to cling to Naomi, suffering with her in widowhood, even after being so strongly urged by Naomi to turn back.

Ruth provides a contrast to Naomi in her outlook on God’s providential care. Ruth clings to the empty in anticipation of filling, but Naomi claims emptiness even as she is being prepared to be filled. Soon enough we will see that Naomi indeed could have looked beyond the present trials to future joy. And so can we! Isn’t it amazing to see the personalities God has given us in Scripture, how much people have not really changed even as thousands of years have passed? And how God used them to accomplish salvation for His people through Jesus?

This point is a short one, but I wanted to point this out real quick since we have this transitional verse here in 22:

22 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 barley harvest.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

What is the significance of this time marker? This would have been soon after Passover, which is followed seven weeks later by the feast of weeks at Pentecost. As we move into the book we see the firstfruits harvested and as we move forward into redemptive history we see another ingathering at Pentecost where Jesus pours out the Spirit as He gathers His harvest from among all the peoples. And we even see a glimmer of hope even for Moab in !

46 Woe to you, O Moab!

The people of Chemosh are undone,

for your sons have been taken captive,

and your daughters into captivity.

47 Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab

in the latter days, declares the Lord.”

Thus far is the judgment on Moab.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

The manifold wisdom of God is displayed by how we He has worked in redeeming His people!

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

God visited His people in Egypt in their time of affliction and redeemed them out of affliction unto a blessed life in the promised land.

31 And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

God has ultimately visited His people in His Son, redeeming us from affliction unto eternal blessedness in the new creation.

68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,

for he has visited and redeemed his people

69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us

in the house of his servant David,

70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,

71 that we should be saved from our enemies

and from the hand of all who hate us;

72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers

and to remember his holy covenant,

73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us

74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,

might serve him without fear,

68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,

might serve him without fear,

75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

for he has visited and redeemed his people

75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us

76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

in the house of his servant David,

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,

77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people

71 that we should be saved from our enemies

77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people

and from the hand of all who hate us;

in the forgiveness of their sins,

72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers

78 because of the tender mercy of our God,

and to remember his holy covenant,

whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high

73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us

74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,

79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

might serve him without fear,

to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Our present afflictions cannot be compared to the glories to come.

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

“‘God gave me four daughters. Now they have been taken from me. Someday I will understand why.’”

As we read this we anticipate the answer to “why” and we will see the “why” of this story as God works in Naomi and Ruth’s lives to provide for them in several different ways. But we don’t often get to see “why” we are brought through the circumstances of our lives. Consider the providence of God in the life of Naomi, and how He is working to return her to Himself even as she does not fully grasp that this is for her good and not her harm. Consider the providence of God in the life of Ruth, a Moabite, who should have perished in her sin but evidences God’s grace in her seeking shelter under the wings of Yahweh. These were ordinary people used by God to show us ordinary people how He works in mysterious and manifold ways to accomplish His perfect plan of redemption.

How wonderful to know that since God loves us, His children, we can suffer through difficult times with joy!

God’s mysterious providence often puzzles, bewilders, and even angers us. We wonder how a loving God can bring such difficult things to bear against us when He says He loves us in His word. Today we come to a place in Ruth that brings into view two ways of responding to God’s hard providence. Naomi has experienced God’s providence in a bitter way, losing her husband and sons and any way to provide for herself in Moab. God has emptied her. And as we see how she responds to the Fatherly discipline of God only halfway right, we also see how Ruth is brought to Yahweh in this and how God uses these trials to bring blessing to His people in the end. As we study this section in Ruth consider this: since God loves us, His children, we can suffer through difficult times with joy.

The story switches to Naomi being the principle character, see early she is called Elimelech’s wife, later it says Elimelech is the husband of Naomi.

Key word in the chapter is sub (to return).

Look into the idea of the Lord visiting His people and giving them food. ,

The concept of hesed is introduced in 1:8.

As we have noted earlier, ḥesed (NIV “kindness”) cannot be translated with one English word. It is a covenant term, wrapping up in itself all the positive attributes of God: love, covenant faithfulness, mercy, grace, kindness, loyalty. In short, it refers to acts of devotion and lovingkindness that go beyond the requirements of duty. Divine acts of ḥesed would bring the opposite of the pain and grief these women have all been experiencing for more than a decade. Specifically it could involve the application of the covenant blessings specified in and .

Daniel Isaac Block, Judges, Ruth, vol. 6, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 633–634.

The New American Commentary: Judges, Ruth

The link of חֶסֶד with covenant is made explicit in the hendiadic expression הברית והחסד, “the covenant and the lovingkindness,” viz., “the gracious covenant,” in Deut 7:9, 12; 1 Kgs 8:23 = 2 Chr 6:14; Neh 1:5; 9:32; Dan 9:4.

Naomi is giving them permission to remarry by sending them back to their “mother’s house” with a blessing to find rest in house of husbands.

The New American Commentary: Judges, Ruth (1) The First Interchange (1:6–10)

The phrase bêt ʾēm occurs elsewhere only three times. In Song 3:4; 8:2 it refers to the bedroom of a person’s mother, where lovers might find privacy. In Gen 24:28 Rebekah is said to have run home to her mother’s house to report her conversation with Abraham’s servant, who was sent to find a wife for Isaac. In each instance the phrase “house of a mother” is found in a context involving love and marriage. Accordingly, by sending each of her daughters-in-law home to her “mother’s house” Naomi is releasing them to remarry. Support for this interpretation may be found in v. 9, where Naomi prays that both of them would find security in the “house of her husband.”

The New American Commentary: Judges, Ruth (1) The First Interchange (1:6–10)

The phrase bêt ʾēm occurs elsewhere only three times. In Song 3:4; 8:2 it refers to the bedroom of a person’s mother, where lovers might find privacy. In Gen 24:28 Rebekah is said to have run home to her mother’s house to report her conversation with Abraham’s servant, who was sent to find a wife for Isaac. In each instance the phrase “house of a mother” is found in a context involving love and marriage. Accordingly, by sending each of her daughters-in-law home to her “mother’s house” Naomi is releasing them to remarry. Support for this interpretation may be found in v. 9, where Naomi prays that both of them would find security in the “house of her husband.”

Note also that Naomi was not broken and repentant over her Moabite experience. She may have been returning to the Lord’s land in body, but she was not exactly returning to the Lord with a broken spirit and a contrite heart. Mara, “Bitter,” was exactly the right name for Naomi now. It was a name with a history, a history of God’s people rebelling at his perceived lack of provision for their needs. It was at Marah in the wilderness on the way out of Egypt that the children of Israel grumbled against the Lord because they couldn’t drink the water ().

Iain M. Duguid, Esther and Ruth, ed. Richard D. Phillips and Philip Graham Ryken, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2005), 144.

V. The most wise, righteous, and gracious God does oftentimes leave, for a season, his own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled;[19] and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends.[20]

A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Ruth Exegetical and Doctrinal

Ver. 15. Thy sister-in-law returned home to her people and to her God. In these remarkable words lies the key to the understanding of vers. 11–13. Her daughters had said to her (ver. 10), “We will go with thee to thy people.” It grieves Naomi to be obliged to tell them, with all possible tenderness, that in the sense in which they mean it, this is altogether impossible. It was necessary to intimate to them that a deeper than merely national distinction compels their present parting: that what her sons had done in Moab, was not customary in Israel; that her personal love for them was indeed so great, that she would gladly give them other sons, if she had them, but that the people of Israel was separated from all other nations by the GOD of Israel. Orpah understood this. Strong as her affection for Naomi was, her natural desire for another resting-place in a husband’s house was yet stronger; and as she could not hope for this in Israel, she took leave and went back. For the same reason, Naomi now speaks more plainly to Ruth: thy sister-in-law returned home to her people and to her God. It is not that we belong to different nations, but that we worship different Gods, that separates us here at the gates of Israel.

A Leaving Moab to return to Bethlehem for food (1:6–7)

B Describing an impossible situation, blamed on God (1:8–13)

C Leaving: the natural response to adversity (1:14a)

C′ Recommitment: the supernatural road to a comeback (1:14b–18)

B′ Admitting a bitter attitude, focused on God (1:19–21)

A′ Arriving in Bethlehem with a Moabitess at harvest-time (1:22)

A. Boyd Luter, “Expositions of the Book of Ruth,” in Ruth & Esther: God behind the Seen, Focus on the Bible Commentary (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2003), 33.

English Standard Version Chapter 2

12 The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!”

See this verse and consider that the verb restore is the same verb as return in chapter one, but in the Hiphil.

15 He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Wow, Ruth’s statement reflects a faith that has been anchored upon God’s word somehow. Whether she heard it from Naomi, or her husband, or whoever, her actions and words reflect a change of heart that can only have come by the work of the Spirit through His word. Consider Ruth’s words and actions in light of

2 God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 6 Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’ ”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

https://ca.thegospelcoalition.org/article/meditating-on-gods-providence/

The third step of meditating on God’s providence brings into view, not our experiences, not the promises of God, but God Himself. “Think of the attributes and ways of God (His love, wisdom, grace, condescension, purposes, methods, and goodness).” (Puritan Theology, 176)

As we do this, the Puritans, who lived in a period of history fraught with circumstances making them close acquaintances with suffering, remind us that “God often works out His purposes through painful trials. He is sovereign in all things, gracious, wise, faithful, all-sufficient, and unchanging, which is precisely what we need to remember in the darkness of affliction: “God is what he was, and where he was (Flavel)” (Puritan Theology, 176).

In doing so we will learn, as Beeke and Jones summarize from our Puritan forebears:

God is in control of His universe.

God is working out His perfect purposes, also in my life.

God is not my servant.

God’s ways are far more mysterious and wonderful than I can understand.

God is always good; I can always trust Him.

God’s timetable is not the same as mine.

God is far more interested in what I become than in what I do.

Freedom from suffering is not promised in the Christian gospel.

Suffering is an integral part of the Christian life.

God works through suffering to fulfill His purposes in me.

God’s purposes, not mine, are what bring Him glory.

God enables me to read His providences through the lens of His Word.

I have few greater pleasures than tracing the wonders of God’s ways (Puritan Theology, 177).

Jeremiah 48:46–47 ESV

46 Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh are undone, for your sons have been taken captive, and your daughters into captivity. 47 Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, declares the Lord.” Thus far is the judgment on Moab.

Returning to Yahweh

Introduction

Since God uses trials to return His children to Himself, we can suffer through difficulties with joy.

Naomi was emptied by God in Moab by the death of her men.

Yahweh visited His people in Judah and gave them food.

Naomi returned to Judah for filling because of her emptiness in Moab

Since God works in manifold ways to bless his children, we can suffer through difficulties with joy.

Naomi saw God’s hand of judgment and failed to see his lovingkindness.

Ruth saw God’s lovingkindness as worth more than any judgment.

God blesses a Moabite!

Since God has visited us in His son to bring us to glory, we can suffer through difficult times with joy.

Conclusion: