Sermon Tone Analysis

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Anger
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prayer
Ruth chapter 1.
First,
The Departure
The book begins with
The time of judges, is not a very good time for Israel.
It is an in between time, when the Israelites moved into the promised land, before they had a king.
The whole book is full of ups and downs.
Israel strays, God lifts up a judge to draw them back.
The last verse of judges 21:25
The repeating verse in judges is “ Everyone did as he saw fit”.
That is also, 17:6 and 18:1.
In honor of Mother’s day, this is a good memory verse for moms.
Let me explain.
Picture this, Mom steals away for a moment to talk to friend.
The kids start inching there way out of eyesight.
Even though mom is only gone for a second, one is climbing on the counter looking for snacks, two are chasing one another and wrestling, one is poring juice from a pitcher that is way too full.
Meanwhile, she thinks she can count on Dad to fill in the gap but he is helping to build a tower of blocks to the ceiling and is calling to her look honey we are setting the record for highest tower ever.
Mom stops her conversation, sighs heavily and says Judges 21:25, In those days Israel had no king and everyone did as as they saw fit.
If you are not familiar ith that situation, it also applies to work when your manager is on vacation.
Anyway, so the book of Ruth is set in the time of judges and it opens with.
So here is Israel in the time of the judges, and there was a famine in the land.God sends famine, from time to time as a form of judgement on Israel, and to draw her back to Him.
The Old Testament has this idea of blessings and curses.
Follow the Lord, things will go well for you in the Land.
Do not follow the Lord and you will be cursed.
The land won’t produce, or pestilence, or foreign invaders.
This is from Leviticus 26:18-20.
Since there is a famine a man picks up his family and heads for Moab.
Moab is a territory on the South East side of the Dead sea, and bordered by the Arabian desert.
Often when there is no rain in Judah, the climate is such that the Moab will remain well watered.
The problem is that the land of Moab is not in Israel, not in God’s land.
In fact it is the opposite.
The Moabites were descendents of Lot’s incestuous relationship with his daughter.
They did not get along with Israel.
In the days of the judges there was a treaty, but the relationship was not good.
Now, this is interesting.
Bethlehem in Hebrew means house of Bread.
Elimelek means, My God is king, and Naomi, means sweetness, pr pleasant.
The name is a shortened form of Yahweh’s sweet one, however, here in Ruth Yahweh is dropped and it is just pleasant one.
Let’s get the full force of these opening verses.
In the time of God’s chosen people when they had no king, and everyone was doing as he saw fit, a man by the name of My God is king, and his wife a sweet one, left the House of Bread and the Land of God’s people entirely to go to the land of gentiles, the enemies and live there.
Then
Then Elimelek died, and the boys take Moabite women as wives.
The Israelites were not supposed to marry outside of the Nation of Israel.
God did not institute that rule for some racist reason, but to preserve the land.
As you know the title to the land is passed down in the family.
The Promised Land is promised to God’s people, in order to keep the land they are to marry within the clan.
Namoi’s sons, were married for 10 years, yet did not have any children.
Barren land, barren wombs.
Jewish commentators are big on an idea of do good, blessed, do bad, cursed.
This is not New Testament thought.
They say Ruth is being punished for leaving the promised land and traveling to Moab.
However, the text really doesn’t say that.
In fact, realistically the choice to move to Moab was probably not Naomi’s anyway.
But I don’t think we can make Elimelek out to be the bad guy either.
His name is my God is King, there is a sense that this family is really just collateral damage in God’s judgement on Israel.
He did what he had to do survive.
He had mouths to feed, it was famine.
Sometimes people do not know what to do, so he was just trying to do the next right thing.
For Ruth, the famine was not her fault.
He husband, picked up and moved the family.
It was her sons who took the Moabite women as wives, these circumstances are sort of out of her control, and there she is .
Widowed, she lost her sons, and she is a displaced person.
Things are bad for Naomi, really bad.
She has every reason to be discouraged.
The Return
Naomi hears that the Lord is providing food for the people.
She hears about God’s goodness, and prepares to head back home.
Then is verse 8 we read this
The daughters protest a little, and Namoi convinces them by explaining the situation to them further.
Even if I thought there was still hope, Naomi says.
The Lord’s hand has turned against me.
When Naomi is hopeless, and bitter, Ruth clings to her, and pledges her loyal love to her, no matter what.
Together, they leave and get to Bethlehem, and verse 19-20
Everyone comes out to see Naomi the sweet one, but know it is like they don’t even recognize her.
She is this spectacle who lost her husband and her sons.
People are talking behind her back.
oh look at her poor Naomi, she was so sweet, and Noami’s share’s with them why she is the way she is.
The Almighty has made me bitter.
Has He? Really?
Is it the Almighty one who made her bitter?
Job said shall we accept good from God and not the bad.
Did all these things happen to her because God’s work made her life miserable?
We tend to look at the bad, and it is bad, and we focused on ourselves, think that god is doing this to us.
God is not out to make Naomi into a bitter one.
He is not out to get her.
Look at what Jesus said in Matthew 5.
The rain falls on the good and the bad.
The world is in sin from the fall.
Bad things happen, it isn’t specifically aimed at Naomi.
When we are i the middle of bad things, and we will be, We need to remember It isn’t specifically aimed at you.
When God sent the famine on Israel, not everyone was wrong, there were good people, but they still suffered the effects of the famine.
Today, the economy can turn, there are bad health reports.
Children can turn away from there families.
These things happen, and God is still on his throne, and God is still good, even when things around you are bad.
Mom’s can carry a lot of this weight in the family.
They love their family with a Mother’s love.
When Jobs are lost, when children turn away, when people die, They can crush the spirit of a mother.
Mothers can easily say the Almighty has made me bitter.
The Next Thing
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