You know, a while back I heard about a lady whose husband passed away and he had always taken care of the checkbook. He had always taken care of everything, you know, financially, materially around the house. So when he passed away, she was quite at a loss. I mean, she didn't know what kind of insurance they had, how much insurance. She didn't know about their bills. She didn't know how much money they had in the bank. She didn't know anything. She had just never really written checks. She didn't know how to keep a checkbook. It's kind of a bad situation, isn't it? If you can't do any of that or never have done it before, it doesn't mean that she's dumb or anything like that, obviously. It's just something she never had any experience at. And that's not necessarily good either. So anyway, it was a very bad situation. And a lot of times, those sorts of things, that's not that uncommon. You know, when a man passes away, the wife or the widow is in a very hard situation. It becomes a point of crisis sometimes in the widow's life, doesn't it? And I'm sure you've been familiar with certain situations of your own. Now, can you imagine, though, living about 3,100 years ago and being married to someone, this is for you women, and then your husband suddenly dies. Now in those days especially, your whole security, your whole sense of security came from the man and his family in particular. Now that's what happened in the book of Ruth. And that really brings us up to the point of where we left off last time, in the book of Ruth. In the first five verses we read about a man named Elimelech, who had a wife named Naomi, and they had two boys, Mahlon and Chilion. And they experienced a famine in the land of Bethlehem, which means the place of bread. And because there was a famine there, they moved down to the country of Moab. And we looked pretty in depth at Moab and what all that was involved there. But they moved there, and if you recall in the first five verses, Elimelech died. So Naomi and her two boys were left. She lets them marry Moabite women. They live there for about ten years, it tells us. But after this period of time, the two boys died also. So Naomi is left and her two daughters-in-law. That brings us up through the first five verses. So far in the book of Rutho, we looked at the author who was Samuel, according to tradition. The type of text, we saw it was a narrative, 55 out of 85 verses contained dialogue. This person said this, and that person said that back, and so forth like that. And we also saw that it covers a time period of right around 1126 B.C. during the judgment of Jer. Last week in particular we looked at five different failures that occurred in those first five verses. The failure of Elimelech and Naomi and so forth and the two boys. So that really brings us up to today. As we started out, we talked about when a woman's husband dies, a lot of times it will bring about a sort of crisis in her life, especially if you lived back 3,100 years ago. And when the husband dies, now all the decision making gets put upon the widow, doesn't it? She is responsible for making various decisions for her own life now. Especially on that day, the man made the decisions and the woman pretty much followed along. But now the decisions are totally up to Naomi. And I want to talk to you today about making wise decisions. Making decisions that are delightful to God. Delightful decisions in a crisis is the title of the message. Let's read verses 6-18 in Ruth chapter 1. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab. For she had heard in the country of Moab how the Lord had visited His people in giving them bread. Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her. And they went on the way to return into the land of Judah. And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her mother's house. The Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead, and with me. The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice, and wept. And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people. And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters, why will ye go with me? Are there yet any more sons in my womb, that may be your husbands? Turn again, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have a husband also tonight, and should also bear sons, would ye tarry for them till they were grown? Would ye stay for them from having husbands? Nay, my daughters, for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me.' And they lifted up their voices and wept again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth claimed to her. And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people. And unto her gods return thou after thy sister-in-law. And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. For whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her. You see here the two main decisions of Naomi, first of all. In verses 6 and verse 8, Naomi makes two important decisions. The first decision she makes is found in verse 6. She makes the decision to return to where? Remember, that's where they were from. That's where the family was from. There was a famine in Bethlehem, therefore they moved to Moab. After approximately 10 years of time, after the death of her husband and two sons, she decides to move back to Bethlehem now. Now that she's on her own, she decides to move back to Bethlehem. Why does she decide to move back? It tells you in the text, the three letter word there, for, tells you the reason. When you see the word for, it's typically giving you the reason. If you were to say, I'm going to go to the store for bread and milk. I just told you the reason I'm going to the store, right? By the word for, F-O-R. It tells us here in the text that she is going to return to the land of Bethlehem for she heard that the Lord gave them bread again. That there was no longer a famine in the land of Bethlehem. I think her decision is fantastic to go back to Bethlehem. As you know, all along I've been saying that I thought they were out of the will of God by going to Moab in the first place. So I think it's great that they're going back to Bethlehem. where I think they should have been the whole time. But, were her reasons for going back all that noble? All that grand? You see, in this passage I see no hint of her deciding, it's because this will be good for me spiritually. This will be a good thing with my relationship with God. This is because this is what God wants for me. She goes back because, just like her husband, she puts the physical in front of the spiritual. Because there's bread now in the country. You can, you and I, can make good decisions, but we can make good decisions for the wrong reason. Praise the Lord when you make a good decision, But it's even better if you make a good decision for the right reason. Doesn't that make sense to you? I see no hint of repentance here. I see no hint of renewed fellowship with God. I see no hint of interest in anything spiritual from Naomi at this point. In fact, it's scary, isn't it, if you read verse 15. What did she tell Ruth? to do. She tells Ruth to follow Orpah's example and to return to the gods of Moab. Naomi, what are you doing? You're supposed to be worshipper of Yahweh. You're supposed to be a monotheist, a person who believes in only one God, yet you're telling your daughters-in-law to return to the land of their fathers to stay in Moab and worship their gods. I don't understand Naomi at this point. Although she, I think, made the right decision, I think she made it for the wrong reason. You know, sometimes we make, again, good decisions, but for the wrong reasons. Sometimes people decide to go to church, which is a good decision. but what is the reason for going to church? You know, sometimes, especially teens or young adults, especially single adults, will go to church for the purpose of meeting certain people of the office at 6. Now that may be a good reason, but that should not be your prime reason, should it? For some people, that's their only reason. Because they want to go and meet some wholesome girl or whatever the case might be. You know, someone that they can take home to mom. Because the other people, they couldn't have. that's her first decision I see there, that she decided to return to the land of Bethlehem. Good decision, I believe, based upon bad motives. Her second decision, the second decision of Naomi is to send Ruth and Orpah back to Moab, or to tell them to stay in Moab, in verse 8. And this decision was based upon apparent logic. If you read in verses 11 through 13, she gives you all these reasons why they should stay there. She says, first of all, in verse 11, that I have no more sons. I believe this is a hint of the Leverite marriage, which you're probably familiar with. And that is, typically, if the husband dies, the wife would marry the brother of the guy. and then he in turn would raise up children in the name of his brother, basically. So there would be descendants. And if that brother died, then sometimes it would go over to the third brother. And see, she only had two boys, and they both died. And she's an older woman at this point. Exactly how old, I don't know. But she's saying she's older now. That was part of her logic here that she uses. Anyway, she says she has no more sons, first of all, in verse 11. Then she says that she's too old and she has no husband, and no son is on the way, because she's not married, in verse 12. And in the beginning of verse 13, she says, "...that it would be too long of a wait for you anyhow, even if I were to have a husband tonight, and even if I were to be with child tonight." I mean, these are grown women now, right? By the time this baby is born and by the time he gets old enough to marry you and do his duty of raising up children in the name of his brothers, you wouldn't want to wait that long. It's too long to wait. It's too hard for you, she's saying. You don't have enough willpower anyway. Even if I did have a child right now on the way, you wouldn't want to wait. Good, again, seems pretty logical, all that she's saying. and besides that she says God's judgment is upon me and you don't want to be around me God's judging me that's kinda odd isn't it? she knows God's judging her but yet I don't see again any sign of repentance in her life so basically she's saying it is foolish for you to come with me you would be better off staying here in the land of Moab serving your own gods being with your own family maybe marrying again here another Moabite man and living here, then coming to me back to the promised land, the place where we worship the one and only true God." I don't understand her decision at this point in time either. Again, I think she's telling those women that they would be better off physically if they stayed back in this land, the Moab. But what about spiritually? Would they be better off? She again, I think, is a woman who is putting the physical ahead of the spiritual. And when you do that, you tend to make bad decisions. And even if you happen to make a good decision, it would be based upon the wrong motive. And that's what we see here with her. I mentioned to you before about people taking jobs. You know, sometimes you're all, maybe offered a job about moving here. And you would be a pay raise. And maybe it's a nice area. But you know, there's some places I just really wouldn't want to move to because of the environment that's around there. Personally, I have no, desire to move to certain places like San Francisco. Never really been there and I realize the whole area is probably not what you think of or what I think of. But with all that I do know that goes on there and stuff, I have no desire to be there and put my family in that environment. I don't care what kind of job I'm offered. Now, if God were to want me to go there, I would hope I would go. But he would have to make it pretty clear, I think. So we need to be concerned about the spiritual as well as the physical, not just one or the other. And then in verse 14 we see the decisions, or the decision of Orpah. Look at her decision. She listens to the logic of Naomi. Hmm, that makes sense Naomi. You're right, you have no more sons. I could stay here and just worship, go back to my old lifestyle, worshipping the gods of Moab, marrying Moabite men, man again, and so forth. And she listens to the apparent faulty logic of Naomi. I believe she was a woman, Orpah, had little faith that God could provide for her needs. You see, if she were to go back to the land of Bethlehem with Naomi, it would be an area that was a little bit unfamiliar to her. Maybe the culture would be a little bit different than she's used to. The God that they serve over there is different than what she has been used to. It won't be easy because she won't have a husband. And maybe they won't want to marry her being a foreigner in that land. You see, it's a difficult thing to do that. I see Orpah as taking the easy way out. Making a decision based upon what's easy. Making a decision based upon what's comfortable. Making a decision like the salmon or the person on an inner tube floating down the stream. Just kind of going with the tide or the current. Whatever seemed to be the easier method, I think that's what she does here. She goes with what's comfortable. And I don't think that's what you should base your decisions upon either. But then we look at the decision of Ruth in verses 16 through 18. And what does she say? No! Don't send me back. I heard your logic. But I think where I belong is with you and with the people of God over in the promised land. Because I believe now she has received enough light, even though they weren't the most godly family in the world, I don't believe. But I believe that she's seen enough to know that she wants to worship Yahweh. She wants to worship God. And she knows that where a worshipper of God should be is in the promised land back in Bethlehem with her family and Naomi. But see, Naomi tried to convince her actually four different times in this passage to stay. She told her in verse 8, Go, return! And she said, No, I won't go. I want to stay. She tells her in verse 11, Turn again! Go back! And she says, no, I'm going with you. Or she does by her actions, she doesn't say it verbally. And then in verse 12, Naomi again tells her, turn again, go back. And verse 15, she does it again, return. And finally, she says the beautiful passage there, in verses, I think it's 16 down through 18, where she tells her that, entreat me not to leave thee, which we use in weddings all the time, and you've heard those verses, right? and a lot of weddings. So basically at this point then she is convinced that it is pointless to keep trying to persuade her back to go back for Naomi to persuade Ruth to go back. So the decision of Ruth was based upon the fact that she refused to listen to faulty logic. It may seem logical, but it wasn't really biblical. It wasn't based upon good principles. She did not want to be blinded by the imperfect faith of Naomi. Naomi was evidently a Christian woman, or a godly woman, but she didn't have great faith. And sometimes that's hard to see through, you know, because people will lead you astray and they have good intentions, perhaps. But I believe that Naomi was what one would call a henotheist versus a monotheist. A monotheist, again, is one who believes in one God. Mono means one, right? A henotheist is one who worships only one God, but they don't deny that there may be other gods in existence, such as Chemosh in the land of Moab. I think that's what Naomi actually is, if you want to be technical. But anyway, Ruth, she put the spiritual ahead of the physical. You start doing these things that she does, and you'll make good godly decisions. She trusted that God would take care of her Even if she had to go back to this foreign land, this pagan, to her, maybe pagan land at the time, and go to Bethlehem, she was convinced that God would take care of her. What does Matthew 6.33 tell you? But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things, these physical things, will be taken care of, won't they? That is the principle upon which Ruth made a decision of seeking the kingdom of God first. She made her decision based upon what was right, not what she could see would come from it. She had no idea what would happen to her if she went back to Bethlehem with Naomi. She had no clue, but she had faith that God would take care of her if she did it. Her decision was not based upon what was easy or what tradition might have her to do. Because probably Orpah did what would be the normal custom, that would be stay back in her land. It seems to me at this point that neither Naomi or her family would have told her, or advised her to go on to Bethlehem. They only tried to talk her out of it four different times. I can only imagine what her family must have said and done as well, if she was having any day-in-day-out contact with her family at this time. But you see, probably the people around her, all the people around her were persuading her to stay. it appears. But yet she knew the place for God's people is in God's country. So, it is really refreshing to see someone make delightful decisions like Ruth. Making good decisions, godly decisions based upon what is the spiritual best thing. Based upon having faith that God can take care of them no matter what. not giving in to peer pressure or faulty logic of other people, but doing what was right. Someone wrote, Naomi tried to cover up, Orpah gave up, but Ruth stood up and did what was right. When I read that, I liked it, so I wrote it down. Let me say it again, Naomi tried to cover up, Orpah gave up, but Ruth stood up and did what was right. That's the kind of people we need to be. People who will stand up and do what is right. If we make decisions, study this on your own, verses 16-18 primarily, about Ruth and how she made a good and delightful decision. because she was a woman who walked by faith and not by sight. A woman who put the spiritual ahead of the physical. A woman who implemented biblical principles instead of listening to human logic and so forth. A woman who was willing to do what was difficult because she was convinced it was the right thing to do. Not giving in to what's easy. Easy is not always right. And I used to, as a kid, I would, I wished that it, there was a way to get on your bicycle, you know, and go coast downhill to everywhere. You know, because I didn't like to pedal the bicycle up those big hills, did you? You know, I grew up in Tennessee. There was a lot of hills there. And I used to think, boy, it would be so neat if you could just hop on your bicycle and coast over to your friend's house or whatever and have a good time. When it's time to go home, hop on your bike and coast back home. You know, I find life's not like that, is it? There's ups and there's downs, there's hills, there's mountains, there's valleys, all these things. And to get from this point to that point, it may not always be easy, but we should follow biblical principles, even if it takes us up steep hills or if it is smooth sailing and we can coast. Ruth was a woman who was willing to go up the hill. as well as down the hill and to do what was right because she was convinced it was biblical it was right the right thing to do for a follower of God I hope that may help you a little bit about making a delightful decision for the Lord let's try not to be like a Naomi let's try not to be like a Orpah but let's all try to be more like Ruth. And if we do, we will make delightful decisions, even in times of crisis. Let's pray. All Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your blessing upon each and every person here. Father, I pray that you would help us to be more like Ruth, help us to be people who are willing to walk by faith and not by sight, a person who has a willingness to take the hard road if necessary, a person who is willing to do right no matter what the cost, a person who is willing to put our life completely in your control, depend upon you to take care of us and provide for our physical needs. Father, I pray, Lord, that you would just bless each of us now as we go our ways. In Jesus' name, amen. that we if we're living in the light of eternity we should manifest a forgiving spirit one with another. When confronted about sin we should not always take that personally