While we read these New Testament passages, and we'll find many other allusions throughout this passage tonight in the book of Ruth, I'll remind you that as the writers of the Scripture produced by the Spirit of God these words, they, Peter tells us, earnestly were looking into in what manner that Christ would come. And so when we find in the book of Ruth these parallels that come to fullest expression in the New Testament, it's okay to say that the writers did not know everything that they were saying, and yet God did. Because God is the one who ultimately authored the scriptures. And so we're going to see a lot of these parallels and themes between Ruth and even the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ tonight. Luke 9, we'll read from 57 to 62 and then we'll read the better part of Ruth chapter 1. Let's stand together and hear now God's Word as Jesus teaches us about discipleship. Luke 9, 57, as they were going along the road, someone said to him, that is someone said to Jesus, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. To another he said, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Turn back to Ruth. Ruth nestled there between the books of Samuel and Judges. You have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. I'm going to be making a few pastoral modifications as I read. I promise I'm not changing the scriptures. But the ESV translates a single word in about three or four different ways that need to be, I think for the sake of the story, consistent. And also there's one other word that they translate food that I hope, if you remember from last week, should have been translated bread. and now hear this part of God's Word. Then she, that is Naomi, 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 bread. 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. 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. 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. And they said to her, No, we will return with you to your people. But Naomi said, Return, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may become your husbands? Return, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. And if I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, 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. Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. And she said, see, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. 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. 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 separates me from you.' And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said, no more. 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? And she said to them, do not call me Naomi, call me Mara. For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has returned me empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?' 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." This is God's Word. Amen. If you were out driving and you realized that you were lost, you had to do something somewhat humiliating. And that's, among other things, probably one of the reasons men like smartphones, because they don't have to stop and ask for directions. Well, I remember one time I was trying to get somewhere. I was late. I missed the turn that I was supposed to have turned. And I remember driving way farther than I should have and having to realize my mistake, having to turn around, having to retrace the route that I'd come, realizing my own folly because I looked at the directions and it said, you will see a sign for this particular place. And then right under it, the person had written turn left. I just thought they said you'd see the sign and I just kept on driving. And so as I was returning, thoughts of shame and embarrassment, frustration, lost time, they all overwhelmed me. But the reality was, in order to get where I needed to go, it was necessary to stop, to turn around, and to go back. And it's true that sometimes in our lives we find ourselves far, far off course. And it's at those times that we are in great need of return. Sometimes that return is short, brief, and simple. But sometimes, sometimes, it's one that may be long, and arduous, bitter, humiliating, but no less important. And it is in this circumstance that we find Naomi. Now the book is called Ruth, but really the book is kind of about Naomi, isn't it? And Naomi has been suffering from the consequences of a not-so-random disaster that we learned about last week, that there was a famine in the land during the time of the judges. We learned that the only time famine hit the land that was supposed to be flowing with milk and honey was when the people of God were sinning against the Lord. I told you then that one of the important grids through which we read the Old Testament is the grid of the book of Deuteronomy and it is precisely this reason because God's people had sinned they had found themselves with heavens of brass and earth of iron and they found dust and no bread and so Elimelech and Naomi together decided to sojourn out of the land of promise into the fields of Moab But what we have here this evening is the story of Naomi's return. And it's a difficult one. It's a complex one in some ways, and it's a glorious one. But what is it, what is it that prompted this woman? What is it that prompted her to return? I believe it's the same thing that prompts any wandering sinner, any backsliding Christian to return. And it's what Paul wrote about in the book of Romans when he said, it's the goodness of God. It's the Lord's goodness that brings us to genuine repentance. And that's our theme tonight. It's the goodness of God that leads us to genuine repentance. And I want to give you this story really with three words. We're going to have three words to summarize this story tonight. And the three words are these. Bread. Sorrow. and return. That's what we're going to look at as Naomi begins the long journey back to Bethlehem. Bread, sorrow, and repentance. Now, again, we are here in, well, we're there, rather I should say, in the land of the Moabites. Naomi has come to a conviction that she needs to return, but we don't know how this actually happened. It's interesting as we think about this first word to summarize the story, bread. Naomi hears rumors of bread. It's an interesting thing. We don't know how much time passed between the word husband and then. We don't know. But what happened is somehow, somewhere, Naomi in the midst of her grief heard that God had visited His people. Now, when the Bible says that God visits someone, this is not a visit for cookies. This is not a visit to exchange pleasantries. When God visits His people, this is God coming to do something powerful and profound. This is the language used when, in Genesis 21, we're told that God visited Sarah as a 90-year-old woman and gave her a conception for the promised son, Isaac. We're told in Exodus chapter 4 that God visited His people when they were in the bondage in Egypt, and He began the process of that glorious deliverance. When God visits His people, sometimes it's also in severe chastisement, as in Zechariah chapter 10, where God came to visit His people because the shepherds were poor. And He says, I'm going to visit these shepherds, and I'm going to care for my flock. When God visits He's actually doing something amazing and powerful. God visited His people, and Naomi somehow heard that the Lord, the Lord who is merciful and gracious, who is abounding in steadfast love and mercies, the Lord had visited His people. And how had He done it? What was proof that He had done it? Well, our narrator tells us, Naomi knew because they had bread. Don't you remember? There was no bread in the house of bread. So they went out to Moab to look for greener pastures. They found bitterness and sorrow. Now, the bread with which God visited his people, again, the ESV for some foolish reason translates it food, it's bread. Why does God come and give his people bread? Well, in Deuteronomy chapter 30, we're given a great promise that when God's people repent, and it's looking forward to the exile, when they would be scattered, and God says, when you're there, you need to repent, and I'll bring you back. I'll regather you. I'll bring you back out of this far away foreign land of wandering, and I will bring you back to the promised land. And in verses 9 and 10, He says, the Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous. in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your cattle, the fruit of your ground." That's where they got bread back then, children. They didn't get bread at Bilo. He says, "...for the Lord will again take delight in prospering you as He took delight in your fathers, when you obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep His commandments and His statutes that are written in this book of the law. When you turn, when you return, to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul." Revival, real revival, not revival scheduled for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Real revival had hit Bethlehem and it was proof because God gave them bread. He visited them with his abundant mercies and somehow Naomi heard Was it some person who had crossed through? Was it a businessman, perhaps? A foreign merchant? A Moabite bread salesman who had to come back with his carts full because he couldn't sell his wares there anymore because God had showered His blessings upon these people. And it is this bread, it is this news that said to Naomi, it is time to go home. Now, does this theme jog your memory of another story? Children, have you ever heard of another story where someone went into a far away country and remembered something about bread? Could we maybe say that Naomi, the prodigal mom, recalled and knew there's bread in the house of bread? There is a God who provides for His people so powerfully. And what am I doing in the fields of Moab? Why am I here? What has it brought me? It's brought me bitterness. It's brought me bareness. It's brought me nothing but sorrow. And could we say, dear congregation, could we say that God, by reminding or giving a rumor of bread and giving Naomi memory of bread, brings Naomi to herself? So she stands to return. Well, Naomi, as she hears this news, she knows that what's done cannot be undone. She can't erase the previous 10 years plus. But the question is now, what needs to be done? And Naomi knows it's time to go back to the land of promise. But the reality is, she's not on her own, is she? She's not her own. She has these two daughters-in-law who have been faithful to her and cared for her in her desperation. And as she's considering returning, going back, she's not going back to find bread to fill her stomach, but she's going back to return to a God who gives to His people good things, even the grace of coming back to your senses. It's God's kindness that brings us back to our senses when we're wandering. And isn't it true that it took some bitter sorrows to bring Naomi back to her senses? This is what God is like. This is how God works. But He always says, there's full and ample provision with Me. So if you wander, if you're sojourning in the foreign lands of Moab, remember this God. and his full provision of bread. Well, Naomi turns to her daughters, her daughters-in-law. As she begins this journey, verse seven, she sets out from a place where she was with her two daughters-in-law as they went on the way to return to the land of Judah, to go back to Bethlehem, the house of bread. There they are returning. But then we come to this scene of intense and multiple perspectives of sorrow. Why such sorrow here? Why such sorrow? Well, this is a high-stakes emotional scene. Because Naomi left the barren land of promise full. And now she's returning to the full land of promise, completely barren. And she has two daughters-in-law with her, Orpah and Ruth. She's the only two human relationships that she still has in the world. Should they stay in Moab? Or should they return to the land? of promise. And so, we're going to look at these three different types of sorrow. Naomi's sorrow, in a sense, is the sorrow of a mother, considering her bitter past. But also, her love for these two women, her two daughters, she's considering the, humanly speaking, bleak future for them. The bleak future for them. And so she says, with a heart of love to these daughters, go home. Verse 8, go return. Go each of you to your mother's house, go. May the Lord bless you as you go, as you have blessed me. She's thinking of them, certainly her heart is heavy with the grief at the potential departure of these women that she's grown to love, these women with whom she has shed doubtless many, many tears. And they all have a good cry, and the first of the two good cries that they're going to have. And the daughter's saying, no, no, no, we're staying with you. We're staying with you. But then Naomi does something that is so important. As she looks for them and cares for them in their future, she says, listen, you come back to me. You come back with me. You had better count the cost. You had better count the cost. Because you have, humanly speaking, you have futures here. You have prospects of marriage. You can go back to your mother's house. You can find a nice, upstanding Moabite man. You're a little bit older, I understand. It's a little bit harder. You're a widow. But you might find somebody here. Remember, the Moabites weren't really forbidden to marry with the Israelites, but there was a religious and cultural difference between the two. Naomi's saying, listen, here your futures are relatively known, there they won't be. And she explains through verse 11 and following this whole concept that's gonna come up very importantly later on, this concept that we call leveret marriage. And it's a little bit different than what we would do now, but there what was very important is a person's legacy was tied to their biological seed, their own children. And what would happen is a brother died, then another brother would go in to that brother's wife to raise up a child, but that child would not be the second brother's. It would be for the sake of the first brother that his name would not be blotted out from the inheritance of the people. And if you remember the story of Judah back in Genesis, that one of Judah's sons died, and so he gave Tamar to the next son, and then that son died because he was wicked and God killed him. And Naomi's saying this, listen, I can't have any more children. And if you come back with me, even if I did have a child, and I was able to have a child in a year from now, you're not going to wait around until they're old enough That's the way the Lord worked back then. Essentially, what Naomi is saying to her beloved daughters-in-law is this, if you come with me, understand this, you will suffer with me. Well, Orpah, Orpah expresses her own sorrow. In verse 14, again, have another good cry together. And Orpah's tender-hearted, genuine tears. In her tender-hearted and genuine tears for the love of her mother-in-law. She embraces her, she kisses her, but she kisses her goodbye. Because for Orpah, the cost was too great. The cost is too great. Yes, she loves Naomi, but But husband prospects there in Bethlehem, cultural change, the religious implications, they're too much. So she goes back to her house, her gods, Chemosh, and the rest. I wonder if that reminds you of another story in the New Testament. Another promising young man comes to the Lord and says, Lord, What must I do to inherit eternal life? And the Lord says, keep the law. He says, got it. He says, you need to do the one thing, the one thing, go sell all that you have. Give up the one thing that you cherish so much. And that man, like Orpah, went away very sorrowful because there was just one thing he wouldn't and she wouldn't quite give up. So she returns. Humanly speaking, can't we say we can understand why Orpah would do such a thing? And we'll come back to that crisis of decision as we look at the third type of sorrow, where we look at Ruth. Ruth has been silent this entire story, other than speaking along with Orpah about saying she returned. We've not heard her speak individually yet. So she clings to her mother-in-law. She clings to Naomi. And it's an interesting thing. Again, it's an interesting thing, these words. Deuteronomy 30, again, listen to the words. that Moses wrote to them, 30, 19, and 20. The Lord says, this I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I've set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and clinging, it says holding fast, but it's the same word, clinging to your God or to him, for he is your life. and length of days that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob, to give them." I don't know if that was an intentional connection, but it's certainly suggestive, isn't it? That Naomi finds her daughter-in-law clinging to her as God's people were to be clinging to Him. So Naomi presses. This is why in her love for her daughter's-in-law, for Ruth, now she's pressing her. She is testing her. She's saying, look, someone else has gone back. Orpah's gone back to her family. Orpah's gone back to her gods. Verse 15, you return. But Ruth says, I have set my hand to the plow and I will not look back. This is really, what's happening. I think the best way to explain what's happening here, the nature of it, is exactly what we read as our New Testament reading tonight in Luke chapter 9. People flocked to Jesus and they said, yes, I am excited at the prospect of following you, Jesus. He says, listen, I am a homeless man. I live without comfort. He says, hey, I want to follow you, Jesus, but let me go do something first at home. He says, no, no, no. It's time to leave and follow me right now. Let the dead bury their own dead. No one who sets their hand to the plow and looks back is worthy of the kingdom. And what that means is not that we are unable to look back and see what God has done, but that is a looking back the way Locke's wife looked back to Sodom. A look back with a sigh, oh I wish I could just go back from whence I came. Naomi is pressing Ruth with the cost of return and discipleship. And Ruth is sorrowful too. But it's a sorrow that Paul says is a godly sorrow. Sinclair Ferguson writes this of the choice that faced Ruth and faced Orpah. It was this. What are you going to do, girls? Jehovah plus nothing in Bethlehem? Or everything minus Jehovah in Moab? Orpah chose what she knew. Moab in the world. But Ruth chose life. Ruth clung to Naomi, and in clinging to Naomi, she clung to God's grace. Ruth chose to lose her life, and in losing her life, she gained it for eternity. And this is precisely what the Lord Jesus promises for every single person who walks that sorrowful path of discipleship, but a path that's also absolutely worth the cost. Well, Paul says that godly sorrow leads to repentance, and we come to our final word here, the return. Return, by the way, is Bible-speak for repentance, just so you know. In the Old Testament, that word, return, that's the word, that's what God is always crying out to His people, return to Me, turn, turn, return. And so we're going to look at these two different returns, first Ruth's and then Naomi's, because Ruth's return or Ruth's repentance, it's one from death to life, where she utters these striking, elegant, memorable words. She says, do not urge me to leave or to return from following you. For where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people. Your God, my God. Where I die, you will die. Where you're buried, I'll be buried. The Lord do so to me. And more also, if anything more than death separates me from you, and you can get wrapped up in the beauty and perhaps the sentimental attachment to those words. But let me focus us in on one particular aspect of this glorious eloquation. This, at root, is Ruth embracing the covenant privileges, promises, and people of God Almighty. That's what she's doing. She says, your people will be my people, no longer the Moabites. but the Israelites, no longer Chemosh, but Jehovah, but Yahweh. She says, I want to take hold of these things. She embodies what the psalmist writes in Psalm 45, as we are given this beautiful description of the King in His glory, the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory. And the psalmist says, hear, O daughter, and consider, incline your ear. Forget your people, and your father's house, and the King, will desire your beauty. This is what Ruth sees. And so it's not just a sentimental story of a woman's love for her mother-in-law. This is a sovereign trophy of grace, where God brings this Moabitess out of the clutches of death, out of the fields of Moab, and brings her into life. Brings her to Himself. Isn't that a beautiful thing? The twisted, circuitous route of Naomi's life. She didn't know it at the time, but this is one of those ways that God uses those twisted means to bring about glorious ends. It doesn't justify Naomi's foolishness or poor decision, but it does justify God's mercy and kindness. So Ruth repents, returns from death to life, but then Naomi, Naomi returns from Moab to Bethlehem. And when she returns, it creates quite a stir, doesn't it? The gossip cycle gets kicked up into high gear. The ladies are there while the men are out in the fields working. It's the barley harvest, after all. And so there they are, and there they see Naomi coming back. Wow, who's that? It's been 10 years. It's been more than 10 years. Who's this person with you, Naomi? Well, Naomi sets the record straight. She says, you talk all you want, but I want you to understand something. That's my name, Naomi, but don't call me it anymore. Call me Mara, because the Almighty..." This is not a very frequent word used to describe God, but she's ascribing to Him His place of all supreme power. This God, the Almighty, He has made my life bitter. And don't get wrong here, don't mistake this. This is Naomi saying, or this is Mara saying. Not in bitterness God has made my way bitter. but in humility and in submission, she is saying, the Lord has done this. She's echoing the sentiments again of Ecclesiastes, what God has made crooked, no man can make straight. In Naomi's emptiness, in her bitter providence, by God's grace, she has not grown bitter against Him, but she has returned to the boundaries of promise. And it was submission Not the rebel sigh that was proof of Naomi's return, not just bodily to the boundaries of God's promised land, but her harp as well. This is a story of bread. of rumors that led to a memory that God amply and abundantly provides for His people, and it brings her low, and it brings Orpah low, and it brings Ruth low, but it brought Naomi and it brought Ruth back as they returned to the Lord. One final thought as we consider these things. We've looked at the cost of discipleship, don't you see? It does cost something, but it's worth it. But also when the Lord visits you, when the Lord visits you, whether with pleasantness and an ample supply of bread or in bitterness, when His hand seems stretched out against you, when you find yourself not so much Naomi, a pleasantness, but Amara, someone who has been dealt with bitterly, what do you do? What is your heart instinct? What is your inclination? Do you push back? Do you push back? Do you push against the hand of Almighty God? Well, Thomas Boston This is on the Morning Bulletin quotation this morning. Thomas Boston said this, that those who cannot quietly keep the place assigned them of God and their afflictions or relations, but still press upward against the mighty hand that is over them, that mighty hand resists them, throwing them down and often farther down than it was before. And when God's hand rests upon you, you must be crushed under its weight, and be assured that He will lead you back up again. And remember when that happens, that the other hand holds that supply of bread. Again, reminding you that Jesus Himself, He is the bread of life. He is always worth returning for. And let your sorrow not drive you from Him, but to Him. And as you return, remember this, that the road, the road of return may be bitter, but the grace is always sweet. Amen. Our God in heaven, we thank you for your patience, for your provision of bread and how you use that and your goodness to draw sinners back to you. Lord, you have given a savior to the world, even bread to the world, that we might eat and have life. We pray for any who are tempted or in the midst of wandering, or perhaps are in a bitter providence. Teach them, O Lord, to submit to your mighty hand, to take up their cross and follow after Jesus. And remember that in every case, as we lose our lives for Christ's sake, we know that we will find it and gain it forever, for eternity. Lord, we pray, give us this grace and perspective in Jesus' name. Amen.