God’s Sovereign Grace

Ruth 1:6-22 (ESV)

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.

[19] So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?”  [20] She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.  [21] I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”

[22] So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

As we learned last week, the Lord had visited His people with a bitter providence.  Their fields dried up and a famine was the result.  Now in verse six, we learn that the judgment was over.  The storm of wrath had passed over and Bethlehem once again had grain in her fields.

We really get a sense here of Divine Grace.  It doesn’t say that the people in Bethlehem or Naomi in particular repented.  It seems as if God’s grace was at work.  Naomi hears the good news that the famine is over and she responds.  She arose and returned to Bethlehem from the land of Moab.  I believe this is a picture of how we respond to the call of God.  We don’t repent and then God saves because of our repentance.  God saves and then we respond.

It’s like the account we have of Lazarus.

John 11:43-44 (ESV)

When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”  [44] The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Lazarus was dead and couldn’t respond.  When Jesus called him he came to life, got up and came forth.

The author wants us to understand that Naomi’s coming back to Bethlehem is in a sense a resurrection.  She was destitute and left empty and alone.  In the midst of her struggle, the Lord calls her home.  She hears that the Lord had visited His people with kindness.  She doesn’t stay in her former condition but rises and goes to the Lord.

It’s very clear in the text that it was the Lord who visited His people and it was the Lord who provided food for them, just as it was the Lord who caused the famine.

1. Naomi’s Bitterness (Ruth 1:7-14) Continue Reading

Learning From Bitter Providence

Ruth 1:1-6 (ESV)

In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. [2] The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. [3] But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. [4] These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, [5] and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

[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.

The Book of Ruth is a simple somewhat ordinary story on one hand and on the other; it is an amazing account of God’s sovereign dealings with a simple family. The Book of Ruth is sort of the calm in the midst of the storm. The Book of Judges is a book of one episode of judgment after another. God’s people would listen for a while and then they would turn to evil…God would judge them…God would send them a deliverer…they would turn back to Him. This cycle would happen time and time again. The reason this was so was that rather than listening to God, rather than reading His Word and obeying, the people did what they thought was right. Continue Reading