Please open your Bibles to Ruth chapter 1 as we continue this new sermon series, first through Ruth and then through the book of Esther, the two books of the Bible named for our matriarchs, heroines. Ruth, the only book of the Bible named for a Gentile, as we come to verses 6 through 22 in Ruth chapter 1, which you can find on page 208 in your Pew Bible. Ruth chapter 1, beginning in verse 6, I remind you, Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, that this is the Word of God, so let us be careful how we hear, knowing that with the measure we use, it shall be measured to us, and still more will be graciously added unto us. 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. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way in 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, turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters. Go your way, for I'm 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, would you therefore wait till they are grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake, but 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 gone back to her people and to her God's 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 I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts 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 brought me back 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. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word, to His name be praise. Let's pray together. Almighty God, we thank You for this precious story preserved by Your Holy Spirit on the pages of sacred Scripture, a story of human and heavenly love through which, O Lord, we can look in faith and behold the matchless love of Jesus Christ for His bride, the church. Oh, Lord, would You give us eyes to see Him and a heart that would go after Him in love and obedience tonight. For I ask in Jesus' name and I ask for His sake. Amen. I've entitled my sermon tonight, Quite the Contrast. Quite the Contrast. A contrast is one of the most striking features of the Cold War. Though the four-decade proxy war included many nations, its two chief combatants were the United States and the Soviet Union. The two countries were photo negatives, that is, perfect opposites of one another. The founders of the Soviet Union were thugs and murderers who hid behind aliases, fake names like Lenin and Stalin. But the founders of the United States were soldiers. and farmers, humble lawyers who boldly signed their names to the Declaration of Independence, even one Presbyterian George Gillespie. The Soviets emphasized the needs of the collective, while the United States Constitution enshrined the rights and liberties of the individual over the collective. When Soviets conquered a nation, they brutally subjugated it, but when the United States has achieved victory, it has been gracious in triumph, as seen in the reconstructions of Germany and Japan after World War II. No doubt the roots of this contrast between these two empires can be traced back to the militant atheism of Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto on the one hand, and on the other hand, the biblical ethics and presuppositions of the US Constitution. It's quite the contrast when you look at it. And contrast is also one of the most striking features of our passage tonight, where we find three women with three very different responses to the very same hard providence of God in their lives. If you were with us last week for our first study in the book of Ruth, We saw that after a famine fell upon the land of Israel, an Ephrathite named Elimelech fled with his wife Naomi and their sons Malon and Kilion from the land which God had promised to the land of Moab on the outside of that promised land across the Jordan River. But what began as a brief sojourn stretched out into a ten-year stay, during which Malon and Cilion, the sons, both sinfully took Moabite wives, Ruth and Orpah. And what's worse, having run to Moab, looking for life, this family found only death and suffering as first Elimelech, then Melon, and Kilion died, leaving three widows, helpless and hopeless, outside the promised land in the plains of Moab. Wonder how you would respond to such suffering. What's your posture towards God and God's people and God's promises when He deals you the black card of hardship? Is it desertion or discouragement or is it devotion? We see all three of these in our passage tonight. we consider the contrasted responses of these three women to this black card of hard providence dealt to them by the Lord and learn that we can endure hardship by clinging in faith to the Lord. The secret to enduring hardship is clinging in faith to the Lord. Well, the first response that we see to suffering in our text is that of desertion. The famine which caused the family's migration has come and gone for, as we read in verse 6, the Lord visited His people and given them food. That is after 10 years in Moab, the word finally reached Naomi, that Bethlehem, that word that means the house of bread has bread again. And so she arose with her two daughters-in-law to return to the land of Judah. And though the text doesn't tell us, it seems that something happens along the way, perhaps even something very early in their journey homeward. Maybe Naomi expected Ruth and Orpah to jump ship on their own and return to their homes. Or maybe the harsh realities facing these two Moabite widows in Israel began to sink into Naomi's mind as they began walking home. Or maybe Naomi feared the economic burdens and social consequences that she might be facing in taking these two women on. We don't know, but we do know that at some point early on in their return journey, she stopped and she turned to the girls She tried to send them home. But why is this dismissal necessary or appropriate? Because in the ancient Near Eastern cultures of Naomi's day, a wife joined her husband's family through marriage. Oftentimes newlyweds wouldn't go clear their own land and build their own house. Oftentimes they would build on the father's plot of land, sometimes even right up against the wall of their father's current house. They would just add on to the family compound and they would all live together as a sort of patriarchal clan together. And Naomi intended to release her daughters-in-law from that commitment. And so with tender affection, she bids them to return to their mothers. and imparts a double blessing on them that we read in verse eight. Go, return each of you to your mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. And the second blessing, the Lord grant that you may find rest each of you in the house of her husband. And as you might expect, the three women wept as they embraced only to Naomi's discouragement. It didn't work. Ruth and Orpah clung to Naomi crying in verse 10. No! No, we'll return to your people. So Naomi closed the honey jar and opened the vinegar instead. Her approach is reminiscent of that of the eagle. When eaglets are old enough, their parents do a lot more than literally kick them out of the nest. They beat them out of the nest with their wings. They bite them out of the nest with their beaks. They claw them out of the nest with their talons, whatever it takes to drive them away. Naomi seems to employ similar tactics here by threatening the girls. with the looming specter of lifelong widowhood, singleness, childlessness, and misery, like a mama eagle. Verse 11. Turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters. Go your way, for I'm too old to have a husband. If I should say, I have hope even if I should have a husband this night that should bear sons. Would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying?" Here we're introduced to an important legal reality. that forms the backbone of the entire story of Ruth. It is the law of leveret marriage articulated most clearly in Deuteronomy 25 verse 5. If brothers dwell together, And one of them dies and has no son. The wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger." That's the key phrase. The wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go into her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband, a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother. that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. We've seen this law in our study of Genesis. When we came to Genesis 38, we saw the way the Lord dealt with Onan for failing to raise up offspring by Tamar, the widow of his brother Ur. This law was expected and in practice long before we found it explicitly articulated in Deuteronomy 25. But where does it come from? And why aren't we still expected to obey the law of leperate marriage today? Thank goodness. Well, this law was given to the people of Israel for a specific time, for a specific purpose and a specific place. It required the deceased's nearest kinsman to marry his widow so that the name and land of the deceased, as originally allotted among the 12 tribes by Joshua after the conquest, might remain in each family and clan. So under that law, Ruth and Orpah's only hope at marriage and family then was to marry the kin or future kin of Malon or Kilion. And so with that, Orpah heard enough. We read in verse 14, they lifted up their voices and wept again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, and we can supply, she kissed her mother-in-law, goodbye. When I was studying for my licensure examination for Presbytery, there were banks and banks and banks of biblical names that I had to learn to be able to tell you who they were and where you could find them in the Bible. It was ironic to me that after months and months of studying this list of names, I randomly called my mom to quiz her. She knew them all. It took me months and months of studying, and my mom knew them all. How did you know them all? She said, well, I just read the Bible. And so anyway, licensure isn't as impressive as it sounds. Let's just say that. But one of those names that I learned for my ordination exam was Demas. Demas, I trust it's a name that some of you know. It's a tricky name. It's a great name for a licensure exam, because he's only mentioned three times in the Bible. He's a close companion of Paul, or at least he was at first. We read of him in Colossians 4.14, Luke, the beloved physician greets you and so does Demas. Then again in Philemon 24, Paul refers to Demas as quote, one of his fellow workers, so far, so good. But in 2 Timothy 4 verse nine, we read something heartbreaking, something that really makes Demas memorable for all the wrong reasons. Paul begs Timothy saying, Come to me soon, for Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. So to it seems. Orpah, the Old Testament Demas, in love with this present world, overwhelmed by the weight of the cross that God had called her to bear, deserted Naomi, and Ruth. You might be saying to yourself, preacher, that's not fair. She just wanted to get married. She just wanted to go back to her people and to her land and to her family. She just wanted to have kids. Oh, dear ones, don't you know how poorly Orpah chose? What would it profit a man to gain the whole world? and loses soul could be retrofitted to our purposes tonight. What would it profit Orpah to have all of that? To have all of the kids she could have ever asked for and the most strapping, wealthy Moabite husband she could have ever dreamt of and herself to become the queen of Moab. If it cost her soul in the end. It's possible that some of you may be standing at a similar fork in the road tonight. The way of the world before you is wide and easy. The way of Christ is narrow and hard. Maybe you, like Orpah, are so close, as close as an embrace to Naomi. You've read the Bible. You've grown up in the church. You know all the Sunday school answers. You speak fluent Christianese and you live a clean life above reproach. And yet, you've never closed with Christ personally. Like a diabetic looking through the candy store glass, you've only ever window shopped without ever entering in and unwrapping the candy and tasting and seeing that the Lord is good for yourself. And so like the seed sown on the rocky ground, you've no root, nothing to keep your faith anchored in God when trial comes. Orpah is living proof you can be close to Christ without ever being in him nor he in you. So we must heed Paul's warning for ourselves with the utmost gravity. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. We can ask ourselves, am I really resting in Christ alone for my salvation or am I looking to another? Have the roots of my heart reached down deep into the sacred soil of scripture and wrapped around Jesus? Am I bearing fruit in keeping with repentance? Is there any evidence in my life that I've been with Jesus and been transformed by the same? Is my hatred for indwelling sin growing? My longing for holiness growing? Test yourself to see whether or not there be an orpah hiding in your heart. So that when the crucial moment of decision comes, You won't be so easily sent away from Christ, but rather you will be able to stand like Ruth. What a glorious contrast between these two women, between Orpah's desertion and Ruth's devotion. We read in verse 14, Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth, but Ruth, the great hinge of this story, but Ruth clung to her. The classic film Robin Hood, this is the Kevin Costner Robin Hood, opens in a dungeon in Jerusalem where Robin of Locksley is in chains after being captured on Crusade. Then after disarming the guards and securing his own escape, he frees a man named Azeem from his bonds and the two escape together. But when the time came for the two to part ways, Azim grabbed Robin's arm and said, our ways lie together. You've saved my life, Christian. I will stay with you. Don't we find a scene of similar sweetness on the pages before us? You've saved my life, Christian. I'll stay with you. Despite Naomi's best efforts to drive her away, Ruth clings to her in dogged faith. What could account for the contrast between Orpah and Ruth? They were so similar. Both were Moabites, both were childless widows, both wept as they embraced Naomi. But in the end, Orpah left and Ruth stayed. Why? Because it seems. Something has happened in the blank space between Ruth 1.5 and Ruth 1.6. It seems that Ruth has been born again, powerfully converted by the grace of God, just like that Jerichonian harlot Rahab. whose saving faith rings loud and clear in her words and in her works to the two Hebrew spies that she harbored. The Lord your God, she says, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Can't you hear Ruth's radiant faith and radical resolve in her plea? She didn't ask, she begged Naomi there in verse 16, do not urge me to leave you or to return from following me. She says in effect to her mother-in-law, stop it, I'm going with you. Your people shall be my people. Pardon, where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people. And most importantly, your God, he shall be my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. You see, Ruth was willing to do something that Orpah was not willing to do. Ruth was willing to abandon the comforts and the convenience of Moab if it meant dwelling in the Canaan of God. Ruth was willing to let her ancestral land go if it meant being buried and laid to rest in the soil of that land of promise and in the hope of resurrection of which that land of promise was a picture. She was willing to forsake her family and her friends and her neighbors, even the hope of a husband and the hope of future children if it meant being numbered instead among the covenant people of God. Most importantly, Ruth was willing to renounce the false gods that she had served in unbelief if it meant instead being united to the living God and inheriting eternal life as a gift from a gracious God who is both the just and the justifier, in whose covenant name she swore in verse 17, may the Lord not Elohim, may Yahweh, your covenant-making and covenant-keeping God, do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you." She took His covenant name on her lips because she'd taken Him into her heart. You see, Ruth had come to share Peter's conviction who, when he was asked by Jesus, as Jesus looked and saw droves of his former followers leaving, do you want to go away as well? And Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. You see, Ruth treasured her relationship with God more than anything in the world and anyone and any place in the world. She could say with Paul, she really could, couldn't she? I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ. Would you say the same? Are you willing to suffer the loss of all things if only to keep Christ? Or does your faith have disclaimers? Do your commitments to Christ come with fine print and escape clauses? I'll follow you, God, so long as you never ask me to give up my friends, my personal ambitions or plans, my comforts. my culture, my money, my time. I'll follow you, God, so long as you never ever take away from me my reputation, spouse, children, health, soundness of mind. Ruth's is a radical devotion indeed, isn't it? A radical devotion indeed that says, Lord, anything you ask of me, I will give it. Anywhere you call me, I will follow. And anytime you ask, I will go. Just give me Jesus. God give us Ruth's radical devotion. Though Ruth's faith is exemplary, and worthy of our emulation. Ruth's faith is but a shadow, isn't it, of the faith of our Lord and hers, Jesus Christ. Think of all that Christ gave up to the glory of God the Father. Jesus did not despise the virgin's womb or the manger's stall. Though he was the creator of the heavens and the earth, he was pleased to assume the lowly vesture of a creature. Zion's great lawgiver set himself in subjection as the second Adam beneath his own law. Though he was rich, beyond all splendor, all for love's sake became poor. Though the earth and all of its fullness are his, the Son of Man had no place to lay his head. Though he was heaven's favorite son, the object of endless angelic adoration, he was despised and rejected by men. Though he was the pure and holy one, he bore sin's curse so that Gentile pagans like Ruth, and like you, and like me, might call God Abba, Father. God give us a Ruth-like faith, but more than that, God give us a Christ-like faith that says, not my will, but thine be done to the glory of God the Father, the heartbeat and passion of the Christian, to the glory of God the Father. Whatever you ask, I'll give it. Wherever you call me, I'll follow. Anytime you bid me come, I'll go. Just give me Jesus. Just glorify Yourself in me." Well, we've seen two stark responses thus far, desertion from Orpah, devotion from Ruth. The third and final response to God's hard providence, the black card of trial in our passage is discouragement, discouragement. And it comes from the most surprising character. The last one it ought to come from, Naomi, was the matriarch. Naomi is the purebred Israelite who would have been raised in church, no doubt well-read in the scriptures, but her response to hardship is profoundly disappointing. You're allowed to be disappointed in her. It seems that sin had so distorted Naomi's perception of the past, she couldn't see or think clearly. That's why she says in verse 13, know my daughters, it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake, but the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. You see, Naomi saw God as one who was against her rather than one who by the grace of his covenant was for her. She believed that God had forsaken her when in reality, she was the one who had forsaken him. by leaving the promised land for Moab. And she was the one who'd forsaken him by allowing her sons to marry forbidden women. As Naomi tried to make sense of the storybook chapters of her life, especially this last 10 years of tragedy, she saw herself as the victim and the Lord, the villain, which is why she encouraged Ruth to go back to her people. And can you believe it? To her gods. She says here in verse 15, see your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her God's return after your sister-in-law. You see her faith was so dim, she couldn't even commend her God to a Gentile. It's as if Naomi said of her own God, you're probably better off with Chemosh the destroyer than the God of Israel. Nevertheless, Ruth and Naomi walk on until they come home to Bethlehem, where it seems the boil of Naomi's discouragement, which thus far has been beneath the skin, bursts in a big mess at the end of the chapter. Their return caused quite a stir. The women were talking among themselves. Is this Naomi? You can hear them. Is this Naomi? You can hear them murmuring, whispering, talking. Maybe you know what that's like to struggle to recognize somebody after they've suffered. Maybe you know what it's like to look at old pictures taken of you during a particularly difficult season and to struggle to recognize yourself because of the way that trial has etched its lines onto your face. change your appearance. Is this Naomi?" Naomi, ironically, means pleasant one. Given the events of the past decade, it seems that Naomi did not believe that name suited her anymore, so she opted for a new one. Verse 20, do not call me Naomi. Don't call me pleasant one anymore. Call me Mara. Even sounds bitter, doesn't it? Call me Mara. Why? For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. Call me Mara. Call me bitter, like the bitter springs to which the thirsty Hebrews came in the wilderness in Exodus 15. Blinded by her bitterness and self-pity. Naomi could only see what she'd lost and she could not see all that she'd gained. You know, sin will do that. Will only open your eyes to that which you've lost and keep you from seeing that which God has graciously given. She couldn't see how she'd been spared. despite her sins. She couldn't see how she'd received the unearned and yet unshakable love of a new daughter. And she couldn't see how, through many dangers, toils, and snares, she'd already come home to the land of promise, itself the gift of God. What about you? As you look back on the pages of your past, how do you read them? Do you see yourself like Naomi did as the victim of every chapter? You cast God as the villain, the one who only takes and withholds, whose hand is against you, not for you. Are you more aware of the things that God has withheld than the blessings with which He has adorned your life? Do you ever feel incapable of being truly glad and bearing that fruit of the Spirit that is joy? The sad irony is that Naomi, who insisted on being called Mara, like those bitter springs in Exodus 15, forgot the ending of Exodus 15. But the Lord is as gracious as He is powerful, and so He watered His people and slaked their thirst. How? By making those bitter waters sweet, by making Mara Naomi again. He'll do the same for you, my discouraged, embittered friend, if you would but humble yourself and confess your own ingratitude to God and beg His pardon, knowing that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He is faithful to make the bitter waters of your hard life sweet by enabling you to rest in His sovereign purposes for your life and enabling you to sing, whate'er my God ordains is right. He does all things well. There is a season for mourning. But as Christians, we must strive to learn Paul's lesson, who said in Philippians 4, 11, I've learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. You see, you can defeat discouragement through him who strengthens you. Realizing that to have nothing but Jesus is to have everything that you could ever need. Do you know this? To have nothing but Jesus is to have everything that you could ever want and need. For to have Jesus is to have the forgiveness of your sins. is to have the love of God the Father. To have Jesus is to have the spirit of adoption, the privileges of heaven's sons. To have Jesus is to have everlasting and abundant life. And to have Jesus is to have an unbreakable union with the most blessed God-man, even our fairest Lord Jesus Christ. Desertion, discouragement, devotion, quite the contrast we see in our passage tonight. I wonder what contrast will be brought to bear in your own life when God deals the black cards of hardship and trial. God grant us a sincere and pure devotion that clings to Christ. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this example. of a Christ-exalting faith that we find in Ruth. More than that, O Lord, we thank you for the way in which Ruth magnifies the devotion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, would we look to him in faith and would we follow after him in love, saying, your God shall be my God, where you go, I shall go, and nothing but death shall ever part me from you. Father, we thank you for a blessed Savior who says to us, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Would we love Him and live for Him, O Lord, by the help of Your Spirit, for the glory of Your name? We ask in Jesus' name.