Wonderful. I do hope you have that with you. It really is a wonderful text that we want to be looking at as we go through it. Let’s pray together. Father God, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you, especially this evening, for the Book of Ruth. We thank you for the experience of life with you that we see here. And I pray that as we read it, it would. You would speak to us by your spirit, Lord, that it wouldn’t just be of historical interest, but that we would be changed this evening by it. Amen. I probably confessed this before, I imagine, but my favourite type of film is not really what it should be, to be honest with you. My favourite kinds of films are chick flicks. I’m going to be honest, I can’t let that be known too widely because it’s. It doesn’t really allow me to give much ammunition with my wife when I’m choosing films, because, of course, they’re what she wants to watch. The thing about a chick flick is particularly a romantic comedy. They’re just so good, aren’t they? Like, you know, the whole story, you know, it’s going to end and whatever happens in the middle, the ending is going to be amazing. You’re going to go to bed at the end feeling good, aren’t you? That’s the nice thing. You go to bed feeling good. They get together. There’s a nice snog at the end, which some in this room are like, oh, that’s so grim. I can see that. But it’s a good thing. It’s happy ending. But do you ever wonder what happens after that happy ending? Because marriage happens after that happy ending, which is wonderful, isn’t it? But it’s not always a romantic comedy, is there? Is it? It’s not always, like, perfect after the fact. I’m sorry if that’s news to you. I’m really sorry if that’s you. And I hope this isn’t just me confessing, but you see, sometimes you have these amazing promises and you get this sort of romantic comedy and you wonder what happens after the happily ever after. What about the after the happily ever after? Well, the Old Testament really gives us a lot of after the happily ever after. And what I mean is this, do you ever wonder, you know, we talk a lot about coming to follow, know and follow Jesus. That is so important. But sort of what. What’s life like next? You know, once you’ve. Once you’ve committed your life to Jesus, is everything just smooth runnings? You know, I’ve got God’s promises now, happy days, everything sorted. We know that’s. That’s not the case, is it? Because life goes on and life can be hard. And you see, when we turn to the Old Testament, we get a lot of stories of long term living under God’s promises, just long term experiences of what life is like, you know, just normal life going on and on. And this is what the promise of Ruth is for us, that actually we’re just going to find out, just a real lived experience under God’s promises. This is somebody who’s in God’s family. They’ve got his promises. What’s life like for these guys? Well, that is the promise of Ruth. And I hope that’s exciting for you because it really is a lovely little book. And we’re going to look at it in three. We’re going to look at it in three bits. The aim of Ruth, if you have it open with you, if you look, if you flick over the page, a couple of pages, you’ll find that the last bit of Ruth. I’m just going to give you a little bit of a spoiler, I’m really sorry. And we’ll just sort of pretend we haven’t heard it when it comes back. But the very last bit of Ruth is a genealogy. I can hear the excitement of a genealogy. It’s such a good bit, isn’t it? But you see, where is this ending? And our translators have given us a title to tell us the genealogy of David. So this book, whatever happens, we know it’s happening to talk about David. Now, if you don’t know who David is, he’s the great king of Israel. He’s like the great king of kings. We had a sermon series on him earlier in the year. He points forwards to Jesus. So this is kind of a book that’s talking about where did David come from? Where did David come from? And we’re going to have a little history of this. That’s where the book is kind of going to tell us where David comes from. But we’re just going to have to sort of pretend we don’t know that for a minute. And we’re going to try and live through the book in the next four weeks. We’re going to sort of like live the chapters as they come. Right. So the first section, we’re going to look at it first, is one to five. One to five. And there are three things we want to see under this section, because this really talks about difficulties in life under God’s promises, difficulties in life as you live under God’s promises, and we need to know who it was. We need to know when they were, and we need to know where they were. So let’s think quickly about who it was. This story begins with the story of two guys, Elimelech and Naomi. These are Israelites. They’re members of God’s family, as we’ve already said, which means they’re inheritors of God’s promises. They have God’s promises for them, and they know these promises that God has made. I will be your God, and you will be my people. Wonderful. Wonderful. These are the people we’re talking about. And actually, we know their names are sort of very positive, excited sort of names, really, because Elimelech, which you’re all thinking, is actually pronounced as Elimelech, right? Elimelech means God is king. Wow. I’ve got God’s promise. God is my king. And Naomi means pleasantness. Pleasantness. I mean, that’s a great couple of names, isn’t it? God is my king and pleasantness. But we know all is not well because of the names of their children. And this is important for you to know, lest you think I’m going to name my children Marlon or Kilion, because it means frailty and weakness. It’s not probably your most first choice for children’s names. These are real children’s names. They did call their children this. Don’t know why they chose to call their children this. But it does give us a hint about there’s something wrong in this next generation, which we’ll. We’ll see. And names are important. You might be thinking what you’re talking about. Names don’t really matter. It’s not that big of a deal. But we already read in verse 20 that Naomi tries to change her name to reflect what’s happened to her. So names, names in Hebrew really matter. They really do matter. So this who we’ve got. Naomi, Elimelech, inheritors of God’s promise. The second thing is, when did they live? Right? Verse one, we’re told, in the days when the judges ruled. Now, if you know anything about the period of the judges, that’s not a great time to live. It’s probably the worst time in the history of Israel to be alive. It’s a terrible time to live. Judges ruled, it said. I mean, judges, they weren’t really that official. They were sort of like heroes that came and did occasional good deeds. A bit more like Batman than they were like Boris, really. They’re not coming in and sort of running the nation properly. They’re really just occasional heroes coming in because the nation was in chaos. You don’t actually even need to turn your. Your Bible page to look. Actually, the last verse of judges is just on the other side of your page. Judges 21 25. In those days, this is the days of the judges. Israel had no king. Everyone did as they saw fit. Now, this is terrible because they really did have a king. We’ve already heard it. Elimelech, his name means God is king. So they did have a king. The problem was they didn’t really want to live as if they had a king. So they were ignoring God. And everything just went, went terribly, went terribly. So the period of the judges, even though they had God king, they were ignoring him. This is when it was probably the early sort of a period in the judges, because we find out in Matthew, chapter one that Boaz was descended from Rahab. Rahab was his grandmother. So that’s sort of like quite early on in the conquest. So sometime right in the middle of all of this chaos, this little story is happening. And I think we can already just see here how this speaks to us. It speaks to us massively, because from Nami and Elimelech’s standpoint, they’re looking back already in a lot of history. You know, we’re looking at the Old Testament thinking, wow, that’s a long time ago. All the good stuff’s yet to come. But from their perspective, they’re thinking, man, do you remember Abraham? Do you remember Moses? Do you remember Joshua? That was all so good, but now it’s just all gone to pot. Now it’s just terrible. When will the nation get back to those glory days? Doesn’t take much imagination, does it, to connect with how we often feel? Do we often say things like, may we in our nation love the Lord again, as if the past was just like this perfect thing? Well, this is how they felt then. Eliment and Naomi are looking back and thinking, God, where are you? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses and Joshua and all of these exciting people. What are you doing now? So it connects straight to us in times of difficulty. Well, the third thing in this first section is where they lived. Okay. And I’m going to need calling out here because I want to know what comes to your mind when you hear this. Bethlehem. Come on, give me an answer, someone. I’m willing to stand here all night. Bethlehem. Tell me something about Bethlehem, anyone? I’m not going to just pick on you. It’s where Jesus was born. And we may have to do a different type of sermon. If that’s really the only person who knows. Yeah, that’s quite terrible. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Yeah, that’s right. Bethlehem. Now, they don’t know that Jesus was born there, but the first readers, as we’ve seen this book, points to David, and the first readers would know that David was born in Bethlehem. David was born in Bethlehem. It’s the place where the king was born. But there’s something even just more basic than that about why it’s important, you see, because we’ve already said they’ve inherited God’s promises. Bethlehem. Bethlehem means house of bread. House of bread. This is where they were living, in the house of bread. Now, if you live in the house of bread under God’s promises, you’d think you’d be pretty well provided for, wouldn’t you? God has brought me into this land of promise. It’s the land flowing with milk and honey. My town is literally called bread house. And there was famine. You know, there’s famine. Like, what an irony is that? Where is God’s promise? You know, I live in the bread house in Bethlehem, in the land of milk and honey, and there’s famine. And there’s famine. That’s the who, that’s the when, that’s the where. And it’s this famine that really brings a test to Naomi and Elimelech, you see, because what we find is that they decide to move away from Bethlehem. This isn’t really just as simple as they went on, right? Move. And found somewhere that had the best house. They’re in the land that God told them to live in. They’re in the land that he promised for them. He brought them up out of Egypt for this very purpose. Come into this land. I’m giving it to you. It’s your land. So to move away from it is really not a good idea. Not only that, though, they don’t just move away from Bethlehem. They could have move somewhere else in Israel. They decide to move to moab. And if this was a panther, when I said moab, you would say, ooh, okay, moab. It’s. It’s not a great place for an Israelite to move, you see, because it’s. It’s geographically quite a small move. You know, you just sort of have to go over a river to get there. Theologically, it’s a massive move, see, because the Moabites were descended from lot, only it came about in quite a sad way, because lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt, and then he hid in the mountains and his daughters decided that they would produce offspring with their dad. Let’s put it that way for the ears in the room, okay. This is how Moab started. And this was not seen as a great thing. You can read the story in Genesis 19. If you’re over 15, it’s there. Okay, so this is important because they’ve moved to Moab. That’s not just an empty place. It’s not like they’ve just moved somewhere. They moved to Moab. That’s not a great thing. So he’s moving away from God’s promise. And it’s just interesting here, if we stop to pause, even just in these first few verses, it’s a struggle that has led them to move away from the Lord. Isn’t it just this famine is a difficulty in their life. And they’re thinking, well, where’s God in this? What shall I do? How should I face this difficulty? I don’t think they thought it out loud, but implicitly, there’s a thing, isn’t it? Should I trust God has brought me to this land and put me in this place? Or should I move to Moab where there seems to be. Seems to be food? Now, this difficulty is making them think about their choices. And although at the beginning they had no intention of settling, we read this in. They went to live, right, verse two. Together with his wife and two sons, Elimelech went to live for a while in the country of map. He sort of, in the old version, he sojourned. He lived temporarily. They thought they were just going to stay there for a little bit. But, you know, they stayed there for a bit longer, and that little bit turned into ten years. Then Elimelech died. And then to try to support the family, they thought, well, Naomi thought, well, I better find some wives for my son so that we can have more children. I mean, this isn’t temporary living, is it? You don’t go on holiday to somewhere and then go and get married and stay there. It’s that settling down. The point is this. This struggle sort of started them down a road that they increasingly started to settle away from God’s promises. They were led gently away, trying to find security outside of God’s land. I mean, isn’t that the way with us? So often, you know, something happens in our life, and it’s. It’s often not a big choice, is it? It’s not like if you said to eliminate, do you want to move to moab and have chemosh as your God and worship that he would have been like no, of course they don’t. But, you know, there’s food there and, you know, I’ve got family to provide for. These little decisions. They’ve made little decisions. And they’ve ended up living outside of God’s promises. And actually, all of their fears come to pass, you know, what are you worried about from famine, ultimately? Death, wouldn’t it? And that’s what happens to them all. So they don’t actually gain anything by living away. So the challenge for us is to see that actually sometimes we’re moved away from God little by little, little by little, and we start to look elsewhere for hope. It might just be something simple like moving house or changing job. You know, it becomes a little bit more difficult to go to church or to make home group or whatever it might be. It’s not a major thing, but it leads somewhere, doesn’t it? I think that’s the experience we find in these first verses. Let’s crack on. Second verses 618. We’re moving now into, really, where Naomi has met Ruth and Orpah. A little fact here. Oprah actually got her name from here. Oprah. That’s true. Yeah. Just no one could pronounce it. So if you say Ruth and Oprah, then you’re in good company. Five. Ruth and Oprah. Don’t let that be the one thing you remember, incidentally. And afterwards, thank you for your sermon. I was really interested to find out that Oprah was actually called Orpah, either back to the text. Okay, we get here, a discussion between Ruth and Naomi. So ten years have passed, you might think I’ve spent a long time on verses one to five. That’s ten years. You know, it’s about ten years. Quite a long time. Naomi hears that the Lord has visited Israel. He’s done, done good for Israel. There’s food now in Bethlehem, so it’s time to go back. And so she’s going to. To head back. And in verse eight, we have Naomi’s first words. In fact, we have the first words of the book at all. These are the first words in the book of Ruth at all. And this is really, really important, because in the Old Testament, in hebrew writings, words are really, really important. Most of the narrative happens in words. And the first thing people say really tell us a lot. They really tell us a lot. And so Naomi says to Orpah and Ruth, go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness as you’ve shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. So she’s trying to send them back and at first they refuse. She’s trying to send them back because she’s got no hope for them, she says. She goes on to say, I can’t bring more sons for you. I mean, that’s quite alien reasoning to us, isn’t it? We might not really understand what’s going on. What’s happening is that in the law, in the Old Testament, if a brother had a wife and they didn’t have a child and the husband died, then the next brother would marry the wife to bring up a child for the deceased brother. You might remember this from school. This is what happened to Henry VIII, isn’t it? Arthur married Catherine. They didn’t have the right baby, so Henry married Catherine to raise a child for Arthur was the idea. And then the rest is history, as they say. That’s what’s going on here. But what it shows us importantly is that Naomi has lost all hope. She’s saying to them, look, there’s nothing. I. I’ve got nothing left for you. All hope is gone. I’m absolutely at the end of myself. And so she offers them a blessing. Sounds like a good thing, doesn’t it? Verse 9. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest. And earlier, may the Lord show you kindness. I think what she means by that is, God’s going to have to help you, because I’ve got nothing. May God help you, because I’ve got nothing left. But actually, what she doesn’t see is that the Lord really is preparing great kindness for her and for the whole of Israel. Indeed, we know this is heading to David. She didn’t know that. And that word kindness, I just want to teach you one word, one word in Hebrew and it goes like this. Maybe we should practise it together. It’s hesed. Can you say that? Hesed? Nice. Very good. Very good. If you really want to get it absolute, it’s chesed, but I won’t let you do that. We can practise that afterwards. So chesed is what’s translated kindness here. It’s a very difficult word to translate, really. What it means is that the person doing chesed is protecting or delivering someone they’re in a relationship with. They’re sort of looking after them, someone in a relationship. So think about, you know, when a parent has to make a costume for their child’s world book day, the next day, because you know, the WhatsApp’s gone crazy and you didn’t realise that sending them in just a hat was enough, so you stay up all night, you’re like, okay, I don’t know. How am I going to make you into a gruffalo by tomorrow? I don’t know. But you stay up and you do it. This is like an act of hesed for your child. Or it might be defending a colleague at work. They get into some trouble and you know that your boss is probably going to be annoyed with you for doing it, but you defend them, you act kindly in that friendship. That’s an act of hesed. It might be anything like this. It might be a teacher helping a student out of hours. They’ve got a relationship with their student. They don’t have to. They’re sort of going above and beyond to help them, to protect them. And this is what the chesed being prayed for by name is that the Lord would deliver and protect them. And it’s exactly what God is doing. He’s delivering and protecting Israel. Because Ruth is going to meet Boaz and later on in a few weeks, we’re going to find out that it’s a lovely, good romantic comedy ending and they have a baby that leads to. Leads to David. But none of this can be seen right now. None of this can be seen right now. So Naomi’s distraught now, again, it’s not a great leap of imagination, is it, to see how this lands for us, is it? Are there not times when we think, what on earth is God doing? And we can’t see what he’s doing? The times for all of us, it may be that later in life, we find out that he was working something out. It may be that we only find out in heaven. Naomi only finds out in heaven that David came out of all of this because she wouldn’t have been alive to see it, you know? But the Lord was working. He was doing hesed for her. Even now, even as she can’t see it, even if she can’t speak, the Lord’s hand is taken and working all of these things. All for good. All for good. It’s a little bit like, you know, if you’re making a tapestry, you know, you sort of sew it and you look at the back and it looks like a mess. You know, one day it gets turned around and it’s like, whoa, it looks amazing. This is the Lord’s working in our lives. And, you know, it doesn’t always feel like it, but one day we’ll see it and we’ll say, wow, the Lord was really merciful there, wasn’t he? Finally, just very briefly, we’re going to have to finish verses 19 to 22. We have Naomi being really, really despondent, really despondent because she arrives back into Bethlehem, back into the house of bread, back where the other people, who presumably didn’t leave, managed to survive and have their food. But she arrives and she wants to change her name. Don’t call me pleasantness anymore. Call me bitter, call me Mara, call me bitter. She’s absolutely at the end of herself, but the name doesn’t stick. You know, that’s good. Is it? The name doesn’t stick. Why? Because the Lord hasn’t called her bitter. You know, the Lord has got things for her. So you’re not going to be called. You’re not going to be called bitter. You won’t be called Mara. You’re going to be called Naomi, because you do have my promises. Well, look, as we arrive at the end of chapter one, are there not times in all of our lives when we feel like we feel like this with Naomi actually just change my name to something? Bitterness. It’s not how we would do it in our culture. We wouldn’t change our name to express our sadness. It’s not hard, is it, to feel with Naomi what she’s feeling? She’s lost everything. She feels like she’s lost everything. Where’s the lord now? Her husband has died, her sons have died. She’s got Ruth. But she doesn’t know that Ruth is the Lord’s great plan. She doesnt see that. Havent many of us felt like, where on earth is the Lord in all of this? When a spouse dies and were left, what is God doing? How on earth could something good come of this? When marriage breaks down or we even lose a child or any of these things? Pretty heavy that have happened in this chapter, aren’t they, when we think about it. But remember at the beginning we said that this was a story about living under God’s promises, of how God’s hand was there and looking after people. In the long term, this chapter takes ten years. That’s a lot of long term suffering and pain, isn’t it? It’s not just brief, but the Lord is doing hesed for Naomi and he’s doing hesed for us. I mean, for us. It doesn’t stop at king David, does it? You know, even David, we’re like, oh yeah, Bethlehem, we’re going to Jesus, you know, because there’s even greater kindness to come with Christ. He’s going to come and actually he’s going to sort all of these things out. He’s protecting all of us and delivering all of us finally in his kingdom. But there is this time in between where we’re in sort of like a Ruth one sort of stage, you know, where we follow the way of the cross. Jesus says, take up your cross and follow me. Doesn’t he? It’s hard. Life can be tragic. This is tragic, isn’t it? There’s not really much other way to explain it. But the Lord is there. King Jesus is there. He has walked this path before us. And his promises are yes and amen for us. So we can walk the way of the cross, trusting that God is doing Hezek for us in Christ, he is kind for us. Let’s pray. Father God, we thank you for Ruth, we thank you that you are with us, that you walk with us, that you are kind. We thank you that in Christ all your promises are yes and amen. And, Lord, we pray that as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we may know that you are preparing a banquet for us. I want to pray particularly for anyone here tonight who’s walking through that valley, who is in a ruth, one stage in life, who’s maybe tempted to leave the promises to go to Moab. Father, I just pray that you might reveal your kind hand to them, that they might see that you are for them and that you’ve got them. Jesus name, amen.