Ruth and Naomi (Ruth): When dealing with the tragedies of this broken world, it's hard not to let those bitter experiences define you. Due to a famine in Judah, Naomi's family moved to the foreign country of Moab. However, when Naomi's husband and both her sons died there, she decided to return home to Bethlehem. Unexpectedly, Ruth, one of Naomi's daughters-in-law, made the beautifully brave decision to commit her life to love and care for Naomi, even in her bitterness. In the end, the faithful, sacrificial love of Ruth points to the greater love of Jesus. Recorded on Aug 4, 2024, on Ruth 1:1-22 by Pastor David Parks.

This sermon is part of the series Ruth: The Love of a Redeemer. In the Bible, the book of Ruth tells the story of a family that experienced a series of bitter tragedies. But through loyalty, integrity, and faithful love (hesed), they find unexpected redemption, restoration, and hope. Our God is a redeemer.

Sermon Transcript

For the next month, we’ll be working through a series on the OT book of Ruth called The Love of a Redeemer. In the Bible, the book of Ruth tells the story of a family that experienced a series of bitter tragedies. But through loyalty, integrity, and faithful love, they find unexpected redemption, restoration, and hope. Now, this is an ancient story, well over 3,000 years old, and is an absolute masterwork of ancient literature. But because it’s so well-told, this ancient story is just as powerful for us today. Because how can we face the tragedies of this broken world? How can we remain faithful, find healing, and avoid becoming embittered or resentful when we experience a great loss? Can we ever recover our joy and peace after enduring real pain and suffering? The answer in the book of Ruth is found in the difficult-to-translate Hebrew word: hesed. But for now, if you have your Bible/app, please open it to Ruth 1:1. This is Act 1, scene 1 of our story.

Ruth 1:1–2 (NIV), “1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.” V. 1 places us in a certain period of history for ancient Israel. “…the days when the judges ruled” took place after the Exodus but before the time of the ancient kings of Israel — probably about 3,200 years ago. The book of Judges takes place during the same time as Ruth but paints a very bleak picture. However, Ruth reveals that not everyone was corrupt or faithless during this dark time. There were good men and women who were faithful to God and his word despite their difficult circumstances. But here, in the opening scene of our story, we’re introduced to a family from Bethlehem in Judah. There was a man named Elimelek, his wife, Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, but there was a problem. There was a famine in the land. Now, ironically, Bethlehem means “house of food” or “house of bread” in the Hebrew language. Because of the famine, the house of bread was empty. So the man decided to move his family to live for a while (sojourn) in Moab. If we look at a map, we can see that Bethlehem was a small town about five miles south of the city of Jerusalem in the southern region of Canaan, known as Judah. Moab was the country to the east of the Dead Sea and had a violent history with Israel. They were not historically friendly. Now, if there was some disaster that happened in Wisconsin, we wouldn’t think anything of moving to another state to escape it, right? There would be no moral question about that move. But for ancient Israel, it was not necessarily a good thing for this family to move to Moab. According to the Mosaic Law, a famine in the Promised Land was God’s judgment against his people. Now,