Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
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.
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.
Since God uses trials to return His children to Himself, we can suffer through difficulties 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.
Naomi was emptied by God in Moab by the death of her men.
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), .
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