I've already been greatly ministered to and excited to study the Word of God with you. Some have asked me, why Ruth? And it's very simple. I've been wanting to preach it for a while. I've never preached through the book of Ruth. And as I was preparing to come here this summer, I was looking at what you guys had been studying recently, and it's all been New Testament stuff like John and I think it was Ephesians most recently. Before that, maybe James. Is that correct? I should have wrote that down, but basically New Testament, which is phenomenal. But I just thought, hey, we need some Old Testament. It's one story. And so why not go to Ruth? So that's why we're here. Excited to study this book together with you. Let's pray. God, thank you. for your tremendous mercy. We are so thankful that we can sing that song with joy in our hearts, that our sins are many, but your mercy is more. On top of that, it's stronger than darkness and new every morning. We thank you, God. We're so grateful. Without that truth, we would be lost, every single one of us, we would be lost without any hope. But we are so thankful that you have lavished us with mercy. You have withheld your wrath from us. And Father, you have poured it out on your son. So Jesus, we worship you that you were willing to become the object of sin on that cursed tree and to absorb the wrath of God that we might receive mercy. We're so thankful. We're thankful for the redemptive plan that you orchestrated from before the world began. We're so thankful for how the Bible speaks in unison, pointing to you, Lord Jesus. And I pray that you would help us to see you from the book of Ruth, and be so encouraged and practically helped along the way. And we'll thank you and praise you. In Jesus' name, amen. So here in First World America, it's not difficult for us to imagine a scene that would go something like this. It's a teenager that goes to the fridge or to the pantry and looks inside and says, we've got nothing to eat. Right? And we know, not true. Like I can almost hear moms right now going, oh my word. Right? Because the pantry is probably pretty full. The fridge is probably overflowing with stuff that needs to be thrown out. Right? There's plenty of food. But in reality, the teenager is pointing to a fact in his own mind that he's not seeing anything that he likes right now. If I could maybe interpret that phrase, there's nothing to eat, it would be something like, there's no pizza, Pop-Tarts, or chips that I like in the fridge or pantry right now. The reality is we're pretty full of people. We don't really know empty shelves or empty fridges. But if you've been to a VRBO recently or an Airbnb, you might have showed up a little bit late and you didn't have a chance to go to the grocery store and you opened up the pantry or the fridge and you saw nothing. It was empty in there. Or maybe in the pantry there were a few random ingredients, but you thought to yourself, there's no way I'm making anything out of this, right? So perhaps you've felt that sense of emptiness. More significantly though, perhaps you've known an emptiness of soul. An emptiness of soul. Desires that are yet unfulfilled. Expectations that are yet unmet. Perhaps you've known, or maybe even recently known, The anxiety of empty bank accounts. Perhaps you can painfully recall moments when you were empty of character. You know acutely the pain of failure. Perhaps even today you're dealing with incredible loss and there's an empty seat at your table. The question is, what do you do? What do you do when you come up empty? What do you do when it all feels and looks hopeless? With that, would you turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Ruth? We're going to consider together a story that begins with a profound sense of emptiness, a profound sense of hopelessness. And it all begins with a line that communicates as such, in the days when The judge is ruled. That's interesting, for it not only sets the context, but it also tells us a lot about the setting that this story takes place within. For original readers of this story would have immediately thought of a refrain that was repeated multiple times in the last few chapters of the book of Judges. And that refrain goes something like this. In those days there were no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. In fact, if you look across the page, perhaps you can see it in the very last line of the book. The very last line of the book of Judges. In those days there was no king. The first sense of emptiness, my friends, that we find in the book of Ruth is the fact, the reality that is surfaced by this phrase in the days when judges ruled, that there's no king. There's no king. And what that spelled for Israel in this period was total chaos. All right, so the phrase, everyone did what was right in their own eyes, this is not some sort of positive spin, that everybody's kind of doing what's right for them. The reality that this surfaces is this, almost no one was doing anything right. I mean, if you read the book of Judges, it's chaos. It's brutal. Without a king, now, to be clear, God was their king, God was their leader, but they didn't recognize him as such. And so without a clear leader between the days of Joshua and the days of the kings, without a clear leader for the people of God, they sort of did what they thought was right, and that spiraled everything down into moral decay. It's not a good picture, all right? The period of the judges is a mess. It's ugly. In fact, I remember reading some sections of the book of Judges and perhaps 1 and 2 Samuel with my kids. at the dinner table and sort of looking up at Catherine a few times and going like, should I keep reading this? It's brutal. Heads are rolling, right? Foreskins everywhere. I mean, it's just crazy. It's crazy. It's brutal. Civil war, invasions, all kinds of things are going down in the book of Judges during this time. And so one of the things that we're gonna find is that the book of Ruth builds a bridge for us to David. and then ultimately to Jesus. But understand that this phrase, in the days when judges rules, brings about this sense of emptiness, that there is no king. And as a result of that reality, it was chaos. You've already kind of picked up on this, but a second thing you should notice with this phrase, in the days when the judges rules, is that there was no character. I don't mean to say that no one was doing anything right, but if you were to sort of graph on a chart the composite morality or character of the people of Israel during this period, it would go in steep decline. It was an ugly period. In fact, this is why, and I want to show this to you, this is why God raised up Judges. So if you would turn with me over quickly to Judges chapter two. Judges chapter two, let's go there together. I just want you to see it. We're gonna read through this a little bit. I trust that you'll find this interesting, not only to set the scene for the book of Ruth, but also to apply some things to your own heart. Look at Judges chapter two in verse six. You can see a transition here. And by the way, you're getting a little bit of a two for one right now because we're going to do a little summary of the whole book of Judges here in chapter two, verses six through 19. So check this out with me. When Joshua dismissed the people, The people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. So this is just subsequent to the conquest of Canaan. And the people have possessed the land. Verse seven, and the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heretz, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. Now, watch your text, verse 10. And there arose another generation after them, who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. Notice with me how quickly the decline, morality-wise, how quickly the decline came. It was a spiral down. In fact, you're gonna see this as the text continues, but it happened so quick. So quick, so this whole notion of everyone doing what is right in their own eyes, apart from an objective standard of righteousness, apart from God and His law, it goes downhill and it goes downhill with speed. Verse 11, and the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them and bowed down to them. Now, pause right here. This is in part as a result of the people of Israel not finishing what God asked them to do in chapter one. You can read that maybe this afternoon. They didn't finish the task, all right? They finished it enough in their mind, but not fully. Thus, there were still nations present. Thus, there were still idols present. And they went right after him. And they provoked the Lord to anger. Verse 13, they abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. and he gave them over to their plunderers who plundered them and he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm. Now what is God doing here? If you track this, what you understand is that God is sort of bringing his people to their knees so that they'll look up again. so that they will re-encounter their God, the one that is truly their king, and perhaps his law as well. So God brought oppression to them. Now verse 16. Then the Lord raised up judges who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them, yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them, They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, pause right here for a sec. Again, this is why God raised up judges, because it was going downhill fast. So God raised up judges to deliver them from the consequences of their sin that he allowed to come upon them. He raised up judges for them. The Lord was with the judge, verse 18, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge, for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. So God is still abundantly merciful and gracious, so wonderfully so. But, verse 19, whenever the judge died, they turned back, and note this next phrase, and were more corrupt. Isn't that interesting? They were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. So what do you see? Again, the speed with which they go away from God, but also notice with me the spiral down. So this is really a summary of what's going to happen in the narrative of Judges. God saves them, they get comfortable, and they go back. And God saves them, they get comfortable, they go back. God saves them, but every time, friends, every time it just gets a little bit worse. It just goes down and downhill a little bit further. What's the point? The point is that although they are in the land and remain God's people, they are at this time practical atheists. They are not serving God. They are not listening or heeding to his word. And without God and his word, the character of God's people always goes downhill. In fact, isn't this reminiscent of what Paul says about the human nature in Romans 1? It is a spiral down. By the way, take this as a warning, my friends. that even for God's people, if we lose him and his word, we will spiral downhill and faster than you ever thought. Isn't it true that we need him? Amen? One of the reasons why we have to gather and gather regularly to come underneath his word and with brothers and sisters that might hold us accountable, we need him. We cannot do this life apart from him. But again, this sets the context. All right? So the context of the book of Ruth. There's no king. It's chaos. No real character. It's corruption in the land. Now add to that what we find in Ruth 1. So go back to Ruth chapter 1, verse 1. And the phrase continues to say this. In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. There was a famine in the land. There's no food. So this has become a land of empty shelves, an obvious dilemma for the people, right? But also indicative of their lack of character, indicative of their lack of morality or adherence to the law of God. For famine, was one of the ways in which God punished his people. One of the ways in which God disciplined, I should say, disciplined his people in order to bring them back to himself. So they are undoubtedly in this period in which the book of Ruth happens, they are undoubtedly experiencing the judgment of God. The judgment of God. for their lawlessness, for their godlessness. Now, with this as kind of background and setting, the story now begins to zoom. It zooms in on a particular town and upon a particular family. So, let's read this together, verses 1 and 2. In these 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. The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi. And the names of his two sons were Malan and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. So the story now zooms in on this guy named Elimelech and his family. They are said to be Ephrathites, which simply means they're from Bethlehem. They are sort of certified citizens of Bethlehem. Now it's very ironic that they're from Bethlehem in this famine. Right? Because many of you probably know the name Bethlehem means house of bread. So it's ironic. There's no bread in the house of bread. And so they leave. This family of four, they leave from Bethlehem and they journey to Moab, which is also very interesting. For Moab was an enemy nation. All right? Not a friendly nation to the people of Israel. In fact, I thought about going into one of the stories in Judges that involves Moab. I decided against it, but it's one of the more entertaining ones, right? But this is not a friendly country or a friendly nation, but this is where they go. And so what does that tell you? What it tells you is that this time period is bleak for them. I mean, everything around them is screaming out hopelessness. There's no food, there's no character, there's no king. And then you get a really interesting plot twist. As the story progresses from here, it's like it's straight out of Agatha Christie. People just start dropping like flies, all right? So let's read it together, verses three through five. But Elimelech, pause, interesting to know that this man's name means my God is king. My God is king. There's tremendous irony here. For it doesn't appear as if he's trusting in God as his king. And certainly there is, in Israel at this time, no king. But this man's name means my God is king. And notice with me what happens, verse three. Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died. No information. Wouldn't you want to know, right? What happened to this guy and why? We don't know. The text doesn't tell us. Just very simply, again, like in Agatha Christie movie or novel, someone's just dead the next morning. He's gone. And she was left, Naomi, with her two sons. Verse four, these took Moabite wives. The name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about 10 years and both Mahlon and Chilion died. They're dropping like flies. One after another, it's boom, boom, boom. All the men die. So that the woman, Naomi, was left without her two sons and her husband. Friends, do you know what this spells? In this society, in this world, in Moab, for this Jewish woman, it spells no future. Naomi's world has collapsed around her. She's lost everything. In fact, I like how the New American Standard uses the language of bereft here. Verse five, this woman is left bereft. Consider what one commentator wrote when he put it this way. The verb bereft reappears from verse three. So if you're reading the ESV, you can see that that identical language in the ESV is represented there. Verse three, she was left. Verse five, she was left. But in ASB, she was bereft. Consider this commentator. He says, here, however, the somewhat unusual addition of the preposition men underscores the extent of Naomi's tragic loss. Note further. that the word order, her two children and her husband looks backward almost climactically. Naomi is a total loss. Driven from her homeland by famine, cruelly robbed of her loved ones by death, a lonely old widow sits abandoned in a foreign land. She's bereft. She's alone. She's abandoned. Undoubtedly, she feels forgotten of God. In fact, we'll see that next week. She feels abandoned by and forgotten by God. She's lost everything. So if you're watching this as a movie and you're tracking this scene that starts in desolation in Bethlehem and then moves with the family to Moab, where the picture is not much prettier, then you find all the men in this family are dead, and it's now just Naomi. Undoubtedly, as you watch that, it's all brown and gray, and the music score is haunting and harrowing. It's definitely in the minor key. Friends, the point is, this is a picture of hopelessness. As you look at this story, This book of the Bible, it's a picture of hopelessness and emptiness. It's no king, no character, no food, no future for Naomi. For all the world, it looks like it adds up to no hope. No hope. Perhaps this is a picture that you can relate to in some way. Perhaps this is a picture that you can relate to this morning. But my friends, we've got good news. Ready for some good news? You can shake your heads a little bit. What I wanna say to you is that when God is in the picture, emptiness is just waiting to be filled. Yeah, I wanna try that again. This is a great spot for an amen, right here. When God is in the picture, emptiness is just waiting to be filled. Amen? It is. This is what God does. Brothers and sisters, it's never hopeless with God. He may not fill your heart or fill your life in the way that you think he should or in the timing that you think he should. But friends, it is never hopeless with God. Your situation is never hopeless when God is writing your story. This is what God does. It's what he's done from the beginning. God spoke into the void, right? And created with his words, he created life and he made this world. And when the world proved empty of morality, he spoke again to redeem it, amen? This is what God does. And he does it here as well. I'm so excited to study this book with you. And so I'm not going to spoil the end, but I will give you a snapshot. A little snapshot of the end of the book for friends. Naomi does come home and God is going to fill her cup. God is going to fill her cup. And the scene is really beautiful. In fact, I pictured some of our ladies here at Calvary this week because it's a group of women around their friend Naomi, and they're dancing and singing and praising the Lord, and this is what they say to her. Blessed be the Lord who has not left. He has not left you this day without a Redeemer. Amen? This is what God does. He fills empty spaces. It is not hopeless and never is with our sovereign God. So in this story, it's not hopeless for Naomi, it's not hopeless for Israel, and it's not hopeless for you. This is a story that starts with bitterness, but ends in beauty. Friends, it starts with a famine and ends with a family. It starts on empty, but it will end on full. And this is just one little moment of redemption that we're going to study, one little moment in the big picture of redemption, the big picture of the story of redemption that God has painted from the beginning of time. For as a result of this moment, be encouraged my friends, as a result of this moment in Israel's history, eventually we get the king, who was flawless in character, totally righteous, who is the bread of life, come to satiate the deepest needs and holes of our soul, who gives us a glorious hope and future, an eternal one. Friends, when God is writing the story, I want to say to you this morning, emptiness is actually a good place to start. Emptiness is actually a good place to start. In fact, in the gospel, it's essential. For you have to be empty before you can be filled. You have to be empty. You have to recognize I've got nothing. In and of myself, I've got nothing apart from what God would provide according to his grace. I'm bankrupt of righteousness. We don't like to think about it this way, but when we peeked into the book of Judges and we saw all that chaos and corruption and how quickly people move away from God and how it spirals downhill, that's us. That's us. If we're willing to admit it, all of us have been in a place where we had no king and no real character, no saving character for sure, and no real future. But God, but God who is rich in mercy, amen, who is rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead, that's empty. That's empty. That's no life. No breath, no vitality, right? Even when we were dead, unable to even think about saving ourselves, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. So friends, the whole meaning of grace, the whole meaning of grace is that you can do nothing to earn it. It means that you and I could never save ourselves or even get close. That's why Jesus came. That's why Jesus bled, died, and rose again so that he could fill you with his righteousness. Amen? By grace you've been saved. Moreover, as you think about the future that we have in Christ and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. This is awesome, my friends. So God doesn't just forgive you, save you, and promise a home in heaven for you, he also lavishes his kindness on you every day. It's awesome, right? Emptiness is actually a pretty good place to start in God's economy. For when you get empty and you see his grace and his mercy, and you reach out in faith just to receive it, not to earn it, or win it, but just to receive it, God comes into your life and fills you with his spirit. And with that, he brings lavish gifts. Lavish gifts. So if you are here this morning, and this is the first time you're hearing this, maybe as you heard the elements described this morning, this is the first time you were hearing this, I just wanna invite you to consider your own soul. The good news that we are all gathering around this morning is the fact that even though we are all, every single one of us in this room, we are all sinners. We've all broken God's law in countless ways. God has made it possible for us to be forgiven if we will repent of our sins and trust in Jesus. Responding to his amazing display of love. If we will just turn from our sins to trust in Christ. I wanna invite you to do that this morning. Maybe through the words of a song that echoes Jesus' voice saying, I have what you need, but you keep on searching. And Jesus says, I've done all the work, but you keep on working when you're running on empty and you can't find the remedy, just come to the well. By the way, if you've come to that well, aren't you encouraged in your soul to hear these words, hear these lines? The invitation of Jesus is always sweet for his people. And all who thirst will thirst no more. All who search will find what their souls long for. The world may try, but it can never fill. So leave it all behind and come to the well. So when God is writing the story, emptiness is a pretty good place to start. In fact, it's essential in salvation. But for you as a Christian, I just wanna encourage you this morning that no matter how hopeless, weak, empty you feel today, understand that in this record, even by seeing the pronouncement of names over these individuals, understand that you are never forgotten of God. The Bible tells us that he knows every one of you and I by name. Even more detail, he knows how many hairs are on your head, which for me is like a daily count, right? It's getting easier, but, right? He knows you by name. You're not forgotten of God, wherever you are, wherever you come from into this space this morning. You are not forgotten of God. There is no doubt though, that in this text, when you arrive at verse five, Naomi would have felt completely forgotten. There is no way that Yahweh sees me. There is no way. I'm not even in the land. I have no life left. I'm empty, I'm barren, and as we'll see, I'm bitter. But God knew exactly where she was. Friends, God knew exactly where she was. So she was not forgotten and neither are you. I just wanna encourage you, trust him. Lean into this good God. When God is writing the story, emptiness is a good place to start. God does great things with empty vessels. You think about what he did with a jar at a wedding or some empty baskets on a hillside. It's pretty cool stuff, right? Pretty great stuff. This is our God. Friends, this is what he So question, how does God take Naomi from Moab to this place of fullness that we're thinking about? We're talking about how does he do it? Well, that's what we're going to study. And I think you'll find that it's fascinating. A lot of random, seemingly random, ordinary things take place that give to us some real practical application and cause our hearts and minds to be lifted to gaze at our God and his beauty. We're gonna study it over the next several weeks, and I'm excited for you to see it, for God is masterclass. Friends, masterclass of taking seemingly random, surprising, ordinary ingredients and making a beautiful meal. This is what he does. So I'm excited to study it with you. God, great. We praise you for your grace. You are so good. We are so thankful that we can look into an Old Testament narrative like this and see you so clearly. Lord, this morning, we see this picture of abject hopelessness. And yet we know the story, that it's never hopeless with you. I praise you for coming into this world, Lord Jesus, and paying the debt that we deserve to have to pay so that we might be forgiven, ransomed, and secured. And we praise you that as your children, we can know that we're never forgotten. So I pray for those that may be here this morning that are apart from you, that have never repented of their sin to trust in you as their savior. I pray that you would draw them to yourself this morning. I pray that today would be the day of salvation, that you would be glorified in that. Furthermore, I pray that if your people are coming into this space weary and worn out and broken and perhaps feeling a lot of emptiness and loss, I pray that you would remind them that you know their name and that you're with them. Father, lift our gaze to you in Jesus' name.