No Turning Back
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Prayer time for Broadview
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.
Last Week: Suffering of Naomi - Decade of Death
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.
1 of 2 places that God is mentioned in the book.
Interesting that the famine was not attributed to God but provision is. I believe the author is setting the reader up for what is to come and seeing God’s provision in another way later in the story.
Naomi tells her DIL’s to go back home while she returns to Bethlehem.
Girls say no - vs. 10
Naomi tells them I cannot provide you husbands, go to where you can marry.
Orpah kisses Naomi and goes back
Ruth clings to Naomi
Orpah’s decision gets knocked often but it isn’t an unwise decision.
Ruth’s decision is the one that appears unwise which is why Naomi responds by saying
See, Orpah returned, go with her.
As Ruth clings to Naomi she says
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.”
Some commentators say this is Ruth’s conversion moment
Others say it is a moment of commitment like a citizen takes when becoming a citizen of a country.
It is hard to determine which position is accurate but there are three things we see in her statement that are very clear.
Her commitment is complete. (go and lodge)
Her commitment is abandoning. (old people and God)
Her commitment is life long. (natural death or God kill her)
What Ruth does in this moment is that she makes a commitment of complete self-sacrifice. It’s not conditional, partial, or temporary it is a commitment of her whole life.
The sacrifice we see here in Ruth is a shadow of the complete self sacrifice we see in Jesus.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
In Christ we see the complete, abandoning, self-sacrifcing commitment to His people who he new and loved from before the foundation of the world.
Jesus loved us and was committed to us even though we were sinners. This exposes the beauty of the Gospel.
Jesus died for sinners.
When we see this type of commitment we should be humbled at this thought. Jesus knew our sins and still went through with it.
In light of this type of self sacrificing commitment we must ask ourselves. Do I cling to Christ with this type of commitment? Does my life look like,
34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
When we see the commitment of Ruth and the example and command of Jesus we have to examine our lives. We have to ask,
Has my commitment to Jesus become situational? Sundays vs. Work
Has my commitment to Jesus become a side-gig? As long as I benefit from it, I’m in.
Has my commitment to Jesus become seasonal? Kids are little or older folks
a commitment to Jesus isn’t these things, it is a call for your commitment to follow him and do not go back.
In the 1880’s a Welsh missionary who had endured severe persecution finally saw his first converts in a particularly brutal village in the Indian province of Assam. A husband and wife, with their two children, professed faith in Christ and were baptized. Their village leaders decided to make an example out of the husband. Arresting the family, they demanded that the father renounce Christ, or see his wife and children murdered. When he refused, his two children were executed by archers. Given another chance to recant, the man again refused, and his wife was similarly stuck down. Still refusing to recant, the man followed his family into glory.
Witnesses later told the story to the Welsh missionary. The reports said that when asked to recant or see his children murdered, the man said: “I have decided to follow Jesus, and there is no turning back.”
After seeing his children killed, he reportedly said, “The world can be behind me, but the cross is still before me.” And after seeing his wife pierced by the arrows, he said, “Though no one is here to go with me, still I will follow Jesus.”
I have decided to follow Jesus was never about an altar call or a decision for Jesus. It was about commitment to Jesus no matter what. This is the type of commitment we see in Ruth, in Jesus, and is what we should strive for. When our commitment looks like this no matter what comes we will cling to Jesus.
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