Well, turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Ruth, chapter one.

You’ll have to bear with me with my voice this evening. I used a lot of it this morning, so hopefully I can make it through tonight as well. But we are in Ruth chapter one, and a few weeks ago, we began this study in Ruth. Began with kind of an overview, introduction, and then we began in Ruth one, one through five. The last time we saw that there was really four divisions in this first chapter, and we covered two of them in the first five verses. We saw the setting of Naomi’s emptying. Really, that’s the theme of the first chapter is the emptying of Naomi. So we saw the setting in the first two verses, and then we saw the nature of Naomi’s emptying. What kind of an emptying was it?

So tonight, we’ll look at the next two divisions, and that’s Naomi’s response to her emptying, and then Naomi’s interpretation of her emptying. And really, in those first five verses, we saw the stage being set for this story. Elimelech, we were introduced to, he flees God’s judgment upon the nation of Israel with his family. And they go to Moab, a place where they never should have been. We looked at the different places in the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy and in Numbers, where Moab really was a problem for Israel. Israel was not to have any dealings with Moab. They were not to marry with Moab. There was a lot of things that they weren’t supposed to be anywhere near this nation that was their neighbor. But Elimelech brings his family to Moab. And while living there, all of the men in the family die.

First Elimelech dies, and then his sons, who marry Moabite women and live for 10 years, married to Moabite women, they both die. And that leaves the three women of the story, Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah, as we saw in those first few verses. So really, the nature of Naomi’s emptying had to do with the failure of this family to live in obedience to God. They did the things that God had forbidden and they suffered the consequences for that. We covered all of that last time. Really what you begin to see and what we’ll see again this evening is this theme of faithfulness to the covenant. This idea of what it is to be faithful no matter the circumstances. And again, this evening, as we’ll continue in chapter one, we’ll see how Naomi and then the other two women, Ruth and Orpah, respond. All three of them have had husbands pass away. And so we’ll see how these three women respond to the circumstances that God has brought into their life.

So we come now to the third division of our text, which is Naomi’s response to her emptying, and that’s verses six through 19. So I’ll read that section here for us this evening. Ruth chapter one, verses six through 19. Then she, Naomi, arose with her daughters-in-law, and she returned from the fields of Moab. For she had heard in the fields of Moab that Yahweh had visited his people to give them food. So she went forth from the place where she was and her two daughters-in-law with her. And they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, go, return each of you to your mother’s house. May Yahweh show loving kindness with you as you have shown with the dead and with me. May Yahweh grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, no, but we will return with you to your people.

But Naomi said, return my daughters. Why should you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may be your husbands? Return my daughters. Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I had said I have hope, if I should even have a husband tonight and also bear sons, would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is more bitter for me than for you, for the hand of Yahweh has gone forth against me.’ And they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. Then she said, Behold, your sister-in-law has returned to her people, and her gods return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said, Do not press me to forsake you in turning back 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. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may Yahweh do to me and more, if anything but death separates you and me.” So she saw that she was determined to go with her, and she said no more. Then they both went until they came to Bethlehem. Now what happened, when they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was stirred because of them. And the women said, is this Naomi?

So this is Naomi’s response to her emptying. So after this devastation comes upon this family, and all three of these women lose their husbands, Naomi decides to return from the fields of Moab, to return from the fields where she should not have been. This first chapter is really dominated with this word return or to turn. It’s used 10 different times in these verses. And it’s trying to highlight for us the action of Naomi and what she’s encouraging her daughters-in-law to do. Each time this word is used, it is used to trace the travels of these women. If you glance down through this chapter, you keep seeing return, return, return. And when you see this verse six open, Naomi has heard that God has visited his people again. And so she wants to return to the land that God had given her people. But why is it that she’s returning? I don’t think the idea is that she’s repenting of what she did in the first place, of what she and Elimelech had decided to do by sinfully going to the fields of Moab after God had told them in his word not to do so. I don’t think she’s returning because she’s realized that was such a bad decision. In fact, it says she had heard that God had visited his people to give them food. God has visited his people once again. God has not forgotten his people. We see the faithfulness of God on display in the midst of his faithless people. And that word for food there, it’s also the word for bread.

So it doesn’t just say that God brought the rains back and the drought was over, or that God caused the crops to grow again. It literally says God had visited his people, Yahweh visited his people to give them bread. And you remember where Elimelech was from. Bethlehem, which means the house of bread. God had visited his people in the house of bread and brought them bread again. He had refilled the house of bread. Now again, it doesn’t say anything about repentance in the land of Israel as the reason why God visited them. And you don’t have to read very far into the book of Judges to see that even though it may look like repentance at times in this era of Israel, and there are times where they call out to God and God sends them a deliverer and he delivers them and all is well again. And we’re going through Judges right now with the teenagers and youth group. But as you see this cycle go on and on, what seemed at first like it was repentance obviously wasn’t because they didn’t actually turn from their sin. Because as soon as times got good again, they turned right back to it. But then as it gets farther and farther into the book of Judges, you don’t even see repentance anymore. You don’t even see them calling out to God to deliver them. And in fact, the last deliverer they have, Samson, they’re mad at Samson for delivering them.

So they’re not even happy with God’s deliverance anymore. They don’t even want it. They would rather have the oppression of their enemies than to follow after God and to do what he says. Repentance is far from the minds of the people of Israel in this era of their history. As we’ll see later on, there is righteousness in some sense in the land. You see that in a man like Boaz, a man who follows the law of God. And we’ll see that, especially in chapter two, as we come to be introduced to this man, Boaz. But Ruth hears about God visiting his people again and she returns from Moab to the land of Israel. And verse seven says, she went forth from the place where she was and her two daughters-in-law with her.

So she starts this journey back home and the two women that live in the same household with her, they come along too. They just, well, she’s going, so I guess we’re gonna go. And the three of them start to head out, and it says, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. And then in verse eight, we don’t really know how far they got from Moab. We don’t know how far they got from their house there in Moab, but Naomi speaks up. As they’re going on their way, the three of them, verse eight says, Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, go, return. each of you to her mother’s house. May Yahweh show loving kindness with you as you have shown with the dead and with me.” So again, we don’t know how long it was. We don’t know how far they’d gotten into their journey. When Naomi speaks up and says, you two need to stay. You two need to stay behind. You need to go back to your mother’s house.

Having come to Moab as a foreigner herself, there’s no doubt that Naomi understood and recognized the problems that her daughters-in-law would face if they came all the way back with her to Bethlehem. So to spare them of this hard life, this grief that would be in store for them, at some point along the way, maybe it was when they were leaving the village or when they had come to the edge of the land of Moab, wherever it was, she breaks the silence. And she suggests that they stay behind. In fact, it was more than a suggestion. She gives them a double command there. Go, return. Return back to the land where you’re from. You see, it wasn’t easy being a widow in those days. And it wasn’t easy being a foreigner in those days. And it definitely wasn’t easy being a widowed Moabite woman in Israel. So Naomi, she had some sense in what she was saying. It would be a hard life for Ruth and for Orpah to come back to Israel. So Naomi speaks up and tells them that they need to stay.

Leaving Moab behind meant leaving this foreign land and going back to her home. But it also meant leaving these two women that she obviously loved, as you’ll see in the following verses. She had lived with them for many years now. There’s no doubt their family lived together in the same proximity, and she had gotten to know these women very well over the last 10 years. So it was no doubt very hard for her to leave them behind. And she would be returning to Bethlehem, and in her mind, she’s returning alone, without her husband. How would the community of Bethlehem treat her? Would they see her as a traitor who left them for Moab? Would they see her as a widow that God had obviously cursed and who they could also abuse and treat poorly? Or would they see her as a long lost member of their family who they would welcome home? There are a lot of questions with a big move like this.

But the move would be even more difficult. for her daughters-in-law, for Orpah and for Ruth. They had no family in Bethlehem. They had no friends in Bethlehem. They had no kinspeople in Bethlehem. It was now their turn to decide whether or not to move to a land that had real reasons to hate them. And all they had to cling to was their mother-in-law. Their husbands were gone. So Naomi speaks up and breaks the silence and tells them to stay. And she sends her daughters-in-law back to their mother’s house. Now that would signify that she was releasing them from her house and allowing them to remarry once again. And so here she introduces in verse eight this theme we’ll see throughout the book, this theme of loving kindness.

Verse eight, she says, may Yahweh show loving kindness with you as you have shown with the dead and with me. This loving kindness, this is that word I’ve mentioned before, but it is such a key theological word in the Old Testament. It is that word hesed, and it often speaks of God’s character, God’s central description of his character. And I’ve mentioned before that the depth and the range of this word is hard to translate into English because there’s so much that it encompasses. It’s a term of love and commitment. One commenter explains it this way. He says this word, lovingkindness here in the text or the Hebrew word hesed, it incorporates all the positive attributes of God, love, covenant faithfulness, mercy, grace, kindness, and loyalty demonstrated in acts of devotion, especially toward one with whom one enjoys a family or covenant relationship. That’s what this word means, this lovingkindness. These are the actions that go above and beyond what is expected. And God’s acts of loving kindness would bring the opposite of the pain and grief that this family had already endured.

In fact, acts of loving kindness always go above and beyond the letter of the law. They are those actions that aren’t expected. Those random acts of kindness, if you will, those things that you don’t have to do, but you choose to do anyways because of the person or because of just your own character. They capture the spirit of this faithful love and devotion that seeks the benefit and the well-being of the other person. This type of love or loving kindness that goes above and beyond, this is who God is. This is why God does what he does. This is the reason for the gospel, because of God’s loving kindness. He did not owe us the gospel. He did not owe us his son, but he went above and beyond. to provide salvation for us because of his loving kindness, because of this central attribute of who he is.

Not only is this what God is, this is what he calls his people to do because they’re his people. You can think to the New Testament, all of the one and other statements. All those one another’s come from this idea of loving kindness, this faithful love that goes above and beyond. That’s why we one another. And we do that because we’re God’s people, because that’s what he does. Going above and beyond is what is expected of us to love one another. And as we’re reading this story, One question we might ask is why is Naomi so concerned to leave them in Moab? If they want to come with her, why is she so insistent? And the answer is because in those days, as I’ve already mentioned, a widow, because of her husband’s death, it meant the loss of any economic support system.

The way that they lived in those days in these countries, Widowhood often resulted in being alienated and being destitute. There was no social support programs like we have today to take care of the needy. So usually a widow either ended up homeless or a prostitute. That was the times they lived in. That was the reality. And so when Naomi was going to leave Moab, Her daughters-in-law would have no ties to their family and they would have no ties to anybody that could support them if they came with her. So there would be no one to take care of them. And Naomi was going to have a hard enough time herself taking care of her needs. So she advised them to return to their homes where somebody could take care of them. And it continues in verse nine and 10. She kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, no, but we will return with you to your people. Now this is both women, Ruth and Orpah, speaking. And Naomi had pronounced the blessing of God on them.

She said, back in verse eight, May Yahweh show loving kindness with you as you have shown with the dead and with me. She asked for God to bless them because of who he is. And so they respond with their loud crying and wailing. They lifted up their voices and wept. They were crying very loudly and both Ruth and Orpah were prepared to leave their families behind. And they wanted to attach themselves to Naomi and to a foreign people. These women were more attached to Naomi than they were their own families and their own nation. They didn’t want to return to their mother’s house. But Naomi keeps pressing.

She keeps pressing them in verse 11 and 12. But Naomi said, return, there it is again, return my daughters. Why should you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may be your husbands? Return my daughters. Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I should even bear a husband tonight and also bear sons, would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? Naomi gets a little more insistent here. She’s really rebuking them. This, why should you go with me? It’s really a rebuke to them. She’s saying, it is foolish for you to go with me. This is foolish. Why would you choose this life? You’ll be much better off if you stay in your home country, if you stay in your mother’s house. And then the second question tries to bring this logically to their minds.

She says, have I yet sons in my womb that could be your husbands? This was the tradition in those days that if one son died and there was still a son that was unmarried, the wife would then marry the next son so as to provide for her needs. So she wasn’t a destitute widow. But Naomi says, that doesn’t even apply here. I don’t have any more sons you can marry. And even if I got married tonight, how long you gonna wait? By then, you’re going to be so old that it’s just not going to work. She’s trying to help them understand what she’s saying. And while these questions seem silly, she’s very serious. She’s thinking about their welfare. And she knows if they come and they’re just three widows with no one to support them, there’s going to be trouble. And Naomi rightly assumes that remarriage should be at the forefront of these women’s mind. They ought to be thinking, who am I gonna marry next so that I can be provided for? And their situation would be much better, in Naomi’s mind, if they went home. If they went back to their people, their families.

And then, Naomi concludes verse 13, with a bit of a revelation of her own heart. She says, no, my daughters, for it is more bitter for me than for you, for the hand of Yahweh has gone forth against me. Naomi was indeed a bitter woman, and it was more bitter for her. She is blaming God for her personal crisis. And she is rightly seeing herself as an enemy of God, but she’s seeing it for the wrong reasons. She is portraying it as though, well, God just chose to pick on me. What did I ever do to deserve this? God has his hand against me and that’s just my lot in life. But we’ve already seen God had every reason to discipline Naomi. and Elimelech, and their sons. She felt that she was an undeserving target of God’s wrath here.

Naomi had just asked God to bless these women, to be gracious to her daughters-in-law as they had been to her, and to provide them with the security of a new husband. But now she turns around and accuses God. accuses God of making her life bitter. As if she had no option in how to respond to God’s actions in her life. It’s God that made me bitter. Not that I have chosen to be bitter with the circumstances God has placed in my life. Now it did come by God’s hand. We know that. This whole story is about God’s hand working in the lives of these people. But Naomi’s words have no self-reflection in them at all. It’s all God’s fault. And the story continues in verse 14. And they, the daughters-in-law, they lifted up their voices and they wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

So Orpah, it says she kissed her mother-in-law. That’s a kiss of goodbye. She leaves. She listens to Naomi and returns to her people. But Ruth, Ruth doesn’t listen to Naomi. She stays with her. She clings to her. And again, in the setting, in the time period, and this verse doesn’t necessarily paint Orpah in a bad light. It’s not as though she’s making a bad decision here. She is a Moabite. She’s doing what a Moabite would do and returns to her people and her gods. So this verse isn’t to point out Orpah’s actions. It’s actually to highlight Ruth’s actions. It magnifies what Ruth is doing. Ruth is the most faithful one in the story yet. She’s the only one that showed any faithfulness. If Elimelech and Naomi had shown this sort of faithfulness to begin with, we wouldn’t have the book of Ruth. There would be no story here. They would have stayed. They wouldn’t be in this predicament.

So Ruth clings to her mother-in-law. And then in verse 15, Naomi says, behold, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. He said, look, there’s Orpah, the smart one. Follow her. Go do what she’s doing. She’s got a head between her shoulders. She’s doing the right thing. Go, Ruth. She was headed down the road to Moab. So Naomi encourages Ruth, follow her. And again, this statement reveals Naomi’s heart. Why was Naomi encouraging her daughters-in-law to go back to their false gods? This shows the lack of faith and trust on Naomi’s part. She had absolutely no inkling that God would provide for them, that God would actually take care of them, that God was the faithful one. And Naomi has no concern for their eternal destiny.

She knows where they live. She knows what they worship, and it’s not the God of Israel. She is saying, you go worship your gods and I’ll worship mine. Your truth is your truth. That’s what got her into this predicament in the first place. I hope this is not our attitude with our unbelieving friends and family. You go worship your gods, and I’ll keep my faith to myself.” I pray that’s not our attitude. But Naomi still did not fear God. She recognized God. She talked about God. She didn’t fear God. Then we have Ruth, Ruth the Moabitess, and Ruth is responding to Naomi and showing the loving kindness that God’s people should have.

The above and beyond faithfulness, the love that should mark God’s people in verse 16 and 17. Do not press me to forsake you in turning back from following you. Where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people will be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may Yahweh do to me, and more, if anything but death separates you and me. Naomi had acknowledged Ruth’s faithfulness already when she asked God to bless them with the loving kindness they had already shown. So she knows what Ruth is like. But here, the Moabite woman is demonstrating the depth of loving kindness that Naomi should be showing. Naomi ought to be embarrassed by Ruth here. Ruth had committed herself to her mother-in-law no matter the cost. And she even committed to worship the one God of Israel. Instead of the multiple false gods of Moab, Ruth says, no, your God, singular, your God will be my God. I will turn from all these false gods and your God will be my God. And we don’t know how much of Israel’s God she really knew. But apparently she at least learned from Naomi that they only had one God. She at least knew that much.

Naomi hardly strikes us as a missionary for Yahweh in the fields of Moab. But despite her best efforts, despite her best efforts, now Naomi has a convert on her hands. And we have the gall to think that evangelism is all our doing. Look at this, look at what God has done here. She’s basically trying to beat her away and God says, no, we have Ruth. She’s going to follow you and she’s going to worship me. Despite what you’re doing to turn her away, all the stumbling blocks you’re putting in the way of Ruth, I’m bringing her anyways. Nevertheless, Ruth commits to Naomi and to her God and to her people. And verse 18 continues, so she saw that she was determined to go with her and she said no more to her.

That’s a great insight to this trip. What a road trip, huh? They’re arguing back and forth the whole way and Naomi just finally throws her hands up and silent the rest of the way. Let’s go back to Bethlehem. Then they both went until they came to Bethlehem. Now what happened, that phrase in the book of Ruth is meant to be ironic, because the whole story is about how things don’t just happen. And the author says, now what happened, that when they came to Bethlehem, all the city was stirred because of them, and the woman said, is this Naomi? Ruth was determined to go with her. In this final scene of chapter one, we find Naomi and her daughter-in-law heading back to the land of Israel.

Apparently, their return caused some excitement through the whole town. The whole town was stirred because of her. Imagine arriving back home to Lakeland and the whole city of Lakeland is stirred up because of you. No, you can’t even fathom that. Here she comes to Bethlehem and the whole town is talking about Naomi’s back. Her relatives and friends had probably heard, had probably gotten word over the past 10 or so years of all the things that had happened to Naomi in the fields of Moab. So their excitement when she shows up is understandable. Is this Naomi? Look, Naomi’s back. But they remembered the wife of Elimelech, Naomi, whose name means the kindness of Yahweh. That’s the woman they remember. But when she returned, she was almost unrecognizable. Is this Naomi?

So that is our third division of chapter one, Naomi’s response to her emptying. And we see that it is not a good response. She does not respond initially the way that she ought to have. She saw God as the reason why she’s bitter. The one who has done these things to me.” She didn’t see herself as any part of the reason why God had done these things. That is Naomi’s response. And the chapter doesn’t end there. Naomi has more to say, and we get an even more revealing look at her heart. Because number four, we have Naomi’s interpretation of her emptying, verses 20 through 22. Verse 20, she says, she said to them, do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. The whole town’s excited. Naomi’s back. And they say, is this Naomi? And Naomi interrupts them. Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.”

Mara means bitterness. She may have left Bethlehem as Naomi, but she returned a different person. She interrupts the excitement to rain on their parade for her. From now on, they must call her Marah. Verse 21, she tells the reason why. I went out full. but Yahweh has caused me to return empty.” Do you hear that? She is placing blame here. She is dividing the cause here. I went out full. The thing that’s on me is I was full. Almost saying, I’m the one who caused myself to be full. God is the one who emptied me. She continues, why do you call me Naomi? To understand that, you gotta remember what her name means.

The kindness of Yahweh. Why do you call me the kindness of Yahweh? Look at my life, there is no kindness of Yahweh in my life. That name doesn’t fit because God is not kind to me. Why do you call me Naomi? Yahweh has answered against me and the Almighty has brought calamity against me. Against me. As if I was trying my best and God keeps knocking me down. and the irony of the names she’s using as she is basically blaming and cursing God here. Yahweh, the I Am. He has answered against me, the Almighty. The One who is Almighty, all-powerful, can do anything. He has brought calamity against me. Now, In the facts of what she’s saying, she’s right. Yahweh has done this to her. The Almighty has brought calamity against her. But the way that she says it, you can see her attitude is pride, and arrogance, and selfishness. I went out full, and look at what he did to me. Can you believe what type of a God he is?

Naomi’s demand for a name change summarizes her interpretation. This is how she interprets what happened to her. She charges God with all of the responsibility. And after asking the people of the town why they should continue to call her the kindness of Yahweh, she places all the blame for her current lot in life on God’s shoulders. And in her words, she is not only telling the people her perspective, she’s trying to convince them about what God is like. He had apparently answered against her. And she’s saying that as if he had no right to. He has every right to answer against her. They did not stay faithful to the covenant. God was faithful.

He did exactly what he said he would do. If they had any dealings with Moab, if they didn’t stay faithful to their end of the covenant, he would do exactly what he did to them. And she says, how dare he? Can you believe what God has done? She found no reason for joy in her life. She calls herself bitterness. How awful my life is. Look how bad I have it. This is terrible. Can you believe how terrible my situation is now? Meanwhile, her poor daughter-in-law Ruth is standing there like, hi, I’m Ruth. I’m here too. She doesn’t even acknowledge Ruth. She doesn’t say, I’ll meet my wonderful daughter-in-law, Ruth. She’s just the best. She doesn’t even mention Ruth. And you see in this final outburst by Naomi, that the curtain comes down on this first act of this story, this first chapter. And that’s where we’ll leave this evening. And again, for a book named Ruth. Not a lot of focus on Ruth yet. A lot of focus on Naomi. So as we see this narrative, this really just reading the events of how the story played out, what is it that we learn from a chapter of the Bible like this?

Well, we can pick out a few themes that we see throughout this chapter. One of the things we see is that despite our best laid plans, God is sovereign. Elimelech and Naomi had some plans. They were going to go wait out the famine in Moab, live a good life, make a little money, and then maybe retire back to Bethlehem when things got good again. But Elimelech and Naomi had a plan. But God did too. God had a plan that he was working out. And you also see that God still works out his plans despite our sinful decisions. We know how this story ends. We know what this story leads to, which makes it all the more amazing that God even bothered with this family. God is faithful to keep his covenant with his people, even when they aren’t faithful to him.

Oh, how we should be thankful for this. We as God’s redeemed people. How many times have we acted unfaithfully to God and given him every reason to say, forget it. You’re done. No more with you. We act unfaithfully to the God who killed his own son for us. But God’s hesed, his loving kindness is unending. We aren’t forgiven because of our faithfulness. We aren’t forgiven because we obey good enough and we make up for the sins that we committed and God weighs the balances and once we overturn it, then okay, then he’s gonna forgive us now. We aren’t forgiven because of our faithfulness, we’re forgiven because of his.

And in this chapter, we do see the example of Ruth. And we see the example of Naomi. And despite Naomi’s unfaithfulness to her God, Ruth shows faithfulness to Naomi. So how should we reflect God’s faithfulness in our lives, in our relationships, in our families, in our friendships, in our work, in our business? How do we reflect God’s faithfulness? We should be faithful to our commitments because God is. We’re God’s people. We should reflect who God is. We should learn a lesson from Naomi, that the consequences of sin are real. And we shouldn’t look to blame others for the consequences of our own decisions.

Part of our repentance and faith is acknowledging our sinfulness and accepting the consequences in this life for our sin. Just because our sins are forgiven doesn’t mean they don’t come with real life consequences. And we should not get bitter and blame God for the things that we have brought about. Yes, He is sovereign, and sometimes He sovereignly lets us mess up. And we should also see that God is not faithful to us if we obey or if we do the right thing. And the consequences of sin in our life are not God no longer forgiving us, as though we got to earn his favor back before he’ll lift those consequences.

We’re given two contrasting examples here. with Ruth and Naomi, and that’s what we’re supposed to see here. That’s why they’re described so much. And we should see that despite the unlikeliness of it, that the Moabite is reflecting God’s faithfulness, not the Israelite. And most importantly, we should glorify God for His faithfulness. for who he is, for his over and above loving kindness, despite the way that we continually mess things up. As we continue to go through the book of Ruth, if all you knew of Naomi is what she’s presented as in this first chapter, you would assume that things go real bad for Naomi. But God is faithful. God is faithful despite our sinfulness, and Naomi doesn’t stay empty. Naomi is filled because of who God is.

Let’s stand and close in a word of prayer this evening. God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for a story like Ruth that shows us so much about you, about who you are, and your faithfulness, and your loving kindness, and the way that you continually work in the lives of your people despite the way that we continually mess it up. Lord, we thank you that our forgiveness is not dependent on our faithfulness, but it’s dependent on yours. We thank you for who you are. We thank you for the God that you are to us. We pray all of this in Christ’s precious name, amen.