“Ruth: He Will Give You Your
Heart’s Desires”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We continue our Fall Sermon Series on Life Lessons from the Old Testament,
this morning looking at today’s Old Testament Reading, the story of Ruth. Ruth is a unique and unusual book in the Bible. It does
not give the history of the ancient world and ancient Israel, like Genesis,
Exodus, and the other historical books. It is not a book of
prophecy, like Isaiah and the other prophets. It is not a
book of poetry, like the Psalms. The closest parallel books to Ruth are Esther and Song of Songs.
Ruth and Esther are similar because they are the only two Biblical books
with a woman as the main character, after whom these books are named.
Song of Songs and Ruth are similar because Song of Songs is a beautiful
love poem, and Ruth is a beautiful love story. The love story begins with Ruth’s first husband: “In the days when the judges
ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah,
together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of
Moab. The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name 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. Now Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and
she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and
the other Ruth.” Ruth and her first husband Mahlon must have had a love that overcame great
challenges to their marriage. She was a Moabite, he was an
Israelite and a foreigner in her land. Theirs was a love like
Romeo and Juliet. For, the Israelites and Moabites were
bitter enemies, like Shakespeare’s Montagues and Capulets.
And, like the American Hatfields and McCoys, these two groups had an ongoing
feud, and were often actually at war with each other. So, the first life lesson we learn from Ruth is to have a love for your
husband or wife that overcomes all obstacles and challenges you will face.
As Paul says in 1st Corinthians, “Love is long-suffering . . . it bears all things . . . endures all things.
Love never fails.” It seems Ruth and Mahlon must have had that kind of love, overcoming the
great obstacles and challenges they faced in their marriage. But, the love story
of Ruth and Mahlon had a tragic ending: “After they had lived there about ten
years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died.” Ruth lost her beloved husband Mahlon. But, that’s not the
end of the love story. For, the beautiful love story of Ruth
now continues with the love of family, between Ruth and her mother-in-law,
Naomi. “So Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. When she heard in
Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them,
Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. With her two
daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the
road that would take them back to the land of Judah. Then
Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back, each of you, to your mother’s
home. May the Lord show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to
me. . . . Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-by, but Ruth clung to her.
‘Look,’ said Naomi, ‘your sister-in-law is going back to her people and
her gods. Go back with her.’ But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to
turn back from you. Where you go I will go . . .” The second life lesson we learn from Ruth is to show love, kindness,
compassion, tenderness, within your family. As Paul says in
Ephesians, “Be kind and compassionate to one another. . . Be
imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love,
just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.” For Ruth, it was her mother-in-law that she felt compelled to give herself up
for. In that culture, being a widow without any children to
take of care you was the worst possible predicament. So, we
read in today’s Old Testament Reading how Ruth loyally and lovingly accompanies
Naomi back to Bethlehem and goes out into the fields to glean food for them. Ruth is an example of what Paul tells us in 1st Timothy: “If a widow has
children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion
into practice by caring for their own family, and so repaying their parents and
grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. . . If anyone does
not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has
denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” The third life lesson we learn from Ruth is to love not only your spouse, not
only your family, but above all to love the true God: “‘Look,’ said Naomi, ‘your
sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.’ But
Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go
I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people, and
your God my God.” The Israelites and the Moabites had different languages, different cultures,
but, most of all, different religions, different gods. The
Israelites worshipped the true God, Yahweh, while the Moabites worshipped Baal
and many other pagan false gods. As faithful Israelites, while the brothers Mahlon and Kilion were alive,
their households would have been outposts of the true faith among the pagan
Moabites. As Joshua declared in last Sunday’s Old Testament
Reading, “Choose this day whom you will serve . . . but as
for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” For ten years, Ruth had learned about and worshipped the true God, Yahweh.
Now, Naomi is releasing her, to go back to her own family, and their
false gods: “Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods.
Go back with her.” Why does Ruth instead want to go with Naomi to Israel, which for Ruth was a
foreign nation of hostile, unfriendly people? It wasn’t only
Ruth’s love for Naomi that compelled her. It was also her
love for the true God, Yahweh. There was such a sharp contrast between Baal and the other pagan gods Ruth
had grown up with, and Yahweh, the true God she had come to know since marrying
Mahlon. The pagan gods were vicious, angry, not objects of
love, but of fear. But, Yahweh, was completely different.
Yahweh did condemn humanity’s sinfulness. Ruth learned
that she and all of us are guilty in his sight and deserving of damnation.
But, Ruth also learned the Good News that Yahweh himself provided the
cure for humanity’s sin. He promised to send a Messiah, his
own Son, who would come from the Hebrew people and offer himself up as a
sacrifice for humanity’s sin. As Peter says in Acts, “All the
prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives
forgiveness of sins through his name.” The Book of Hebrews says of the people in the Old Testament, “For we also
have had the Gospel preached to us, just as they did.” That’s
what was different about Yahweh from Baal and the other pagan false gods Ruth
grew up with: the Gospel, the Good News, the promise that God so loved humanity
that he would send his Son into the world to save the world through him.
As Paul says in Ephesians, “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as
an offering and sacrifice to God.” That is God’s Good News for YOU: Christ loved you and gave himself up for you
as an offering and sacrifice to God. Your sins are all
forgiven for his sake, you receive forgiveness of sins through his name. Paul says in Galatians, “Now that you have come to know God . . . how can you
turn back again to those weak and miserable spirits?” That’s
why Ruth does not want to stay in Moab and return to the false gods of her
people. “Now that you have come to know God . . . how can you
turn back again to those weak and miserable spirits?” Naomi says, “Your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go
back with her.” But, for ten years Ruth has grown in her faith in the true God,
and she doesn’t want to go back “to those weak and miserable spirits,” because
she treasures the Gospel and doesn’t want to lose the joy of salvation.
“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will
go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God
my God.” The last episode in this beautiful love story is the romance between Ruth and
Boaz in today’s Old Testament Reading. Ruth’s world had
fallen apart. She lost her father-in-law, brother-in-law, and
her own husband. Her sister-in-law decided to stay in Moab,
while she left her native land and her own family to go with Naomi to Israel. There, they were what the Bible calls “the poor of the land.”
They had nothing, and had to live only on what Ruth could glean in the
fields. But, perhaps Ruth’s greatest disappointment was that
she remained childless, and as a foreigner living in Israel she had little
prospect for a husband. The solo by Felix Mendelssohn which began today’s service quotes from Psalm
37: “O rest in the Lord, wait patiently for him, and he shall give thee thy
heart’s desire.” That is the fourth life lesson we learn from
Ruth. She left Moab alone, a widow with no husband or
prospect for one, and childless. But, when she reached
Bethlehem, all of Ruth’s deepest desires came true, more wonderfully than she
could have ever imagined. Her husband’s cousin Boaz falls in
love with Ruth, and they marry, and have a child. That is the fourth life lesson we learn from Ruth: “O rest in the Lord, wait
patiently for him, and he shall give thee thy heart’s desire. Commit thy way
unto him, and trust in him, and fret not thyself.” Paul puts
it this way in Ephesians “[He] is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask
or imagine.” “So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the Lord
enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. . . And
they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.”
Ruth not only had faith in the Messiah, the Savior who was to come.
By a wondrous miracle of God’s grace, she actually became an ancestor of
the Messiah, through her great-grandson, King David. Perhaps
David was remembering the story of his own great-grandmother when he wrote in
Psalm 113, “He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of
children.” Some 12 centuries later, at Bethlehem, Ruth’s great, great, great, great,
great, great, great, great, great, great, great Grandson was born.
“Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,” “Son of God and
Son of Man,” “the Savior of the world”—and YOUR Savior too. “Christ loved us and
gave himself up for us as an offering and sacrifice to God.”
“Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” The first life lesson we learn from Ruth is to have a love for your husband
or wife that overcomes all obstacles and challenges you will face: “Love is
long-suffering . . . it bears all things . . endures all
things. Love never fails.” The second life lesson we learn from Ruth is to show love, kindness,
compassion, tenderness, within your family: “Be kind and compassionate to one
another. . . Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved
children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up
for us.” The third life lesson we learn from Ruth is to love not only your spouse, not
only your family, but above all to love the true God: “Your people will be my
people, and your God my God.” The fourth life lesson we learn from the life experiences of Ruth was written
by her great-grandson, King David, in Psalm 37: “O rest in the Lord, wait
patiently for him, and he shall give thee thy heart’s desire. Commit thy way
unto him, and trust in him, and fret not thyself.” Amen. Return to Top | Return to Sermons | Home | Email Church Office
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