Family Tree: Ruth | Greg Ford | One Church
ICEBREAKER
What is your biggest pet peeve in the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season?
MESSAGE NOTES
The Family Tree: RUTH
Better Decisions…fewer regrets…what to do with feelings of regret & second guessing your decisions?
The Bible is Not a manual for living, it’s a revelation of Jesus
If you treat it like a manual you will simply try to find the answer to the latest problem and miss the spirit of the word. The word of God is living and active…sharper than
[Hebrews 4:12]
For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
Noami…had a bad decade…ever had somebody tell you about their bad day and you want to tell them about your bad decade. Ever had somebody complain about their hang nail and you want to tell them about your rheumatoid arthritis. Ever had somebody complain about the gas prices and you want to tell them about your medical bills…if so you have something in common with Naomi.
Ruth’s Time
This account begins in the closing days of the Judges, a 400-year period of general anarchy and oppression when the Israelites were not ruled by kings, but by periodic deliverers whom God raised up when the nation sought Him again.
Notable among the Judges were Gideon, Samson, and Deborah. Each of these were raised up by God, not to rule as kings, but to lead Israel during a specific challenge, and then to go back to obscurity.
The days when the Judges ruled were actually dark days for Israel; the period was characterized by the phrase everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, and 21:25).
Bethlehem was a rich agricultural area (the city name means “House of Bread”), but times were tough, so he went to the pagan land of Moab.
To do so, he had to hike through the desolate Jericho pass, through the Judean wilderness near the Dead Sea, going across the Jordan River, into the land of Moab. This was a definite departure from the Promised Land of Israel, and a return towards the wilderness from which God had delivered Israel hundreds of years before. These were clearly steps in the wrong direction.
A famine in the land: God specifically promised there would always be plenty in the land if Israel was obedient. Therefore, a famine in the land meant that Israel, as a nation, was not obedient unto the LORD (Deuteronomy 11:13-17).
Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died: When Elimelech and his family came to Moab, they did not find life easier. Elimelech soon died, and his wife Naomi was left to care for their two boys, Mahlon and Chilion.
To be a childless widow was to be among the lowest, most disadvantaged classes in the ancient world. There was no one to support you, and you had to live on the generosity of strangers. Naomi had no family in Moab, and no one else to help her. It was a desperate situation…no doubt she felt completely alone.
She had heard in the country of Moab that the LORD had visited His people: v6
You wonder if she even had a thought that she didn’t want to go to Moab in the first place, and then later hears that things are going well back home. You wonder if she and her husband had arguments about leaving. Maybe she wanted to wait it out at home. There’s no guarantee that things are going to be better in Moab. It may have been a bit of salt in the wound.
[Ruth 1:13 KJV]
…for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me.
Sometimes you have to make a decision when you cannot see the solution in advance.
Situational Awareness
Wise Advice…Naomi…in a painful season…not giving great perspective or advice…had to actually come to a place where she could see more than her mentor could see.
Past (Wisdom)…gifts, talents, human behavior, etc
Present (Values)…Your God will be my God
Future (Hopes)…trying to over program outcomes…turning down what appears to be a direct line to your dreams
[Proverbs 3:5-6]
Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
[Ruth 1:6-18]
Then Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had blessed his people in Judah by giving them good crops again. So Naomi and her daughters-in-law got ready to leave Moab to return to her homeland. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she set out from the place where she had been living, and they took the road that would lead them back to Judah. 8 But on the way, Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back to your mothers’ homes. And may the Lord reward you for your kindness to your husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord bless you with the security of another marriage.” Then she kissed them good-bye, and they all broke down and wept. 10 “No,” they said. “We want to go with you to your people.” 11 But Naomi replied, “Why should you go on with me? Can I still give birth to other sons who could grow up to be your husbands? 12 No, my daughters, return to your parents’ homes, for I am too old to marry again. And even if it were possible, and I were to get married tonight and bear sons, then what? 13 Would you wait for them to grow up and refuse to marry someone else? No, of course not, my daughters! Things are far more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord himself has raised his fist against me.” 14 And again they wept together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye. But Ruth clung tightly to Naomi. 15 “Look,” Naomi said to her, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. You should do the same.” 16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. 17 Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!” 18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.
Conclusion: Pray, Pick a Direction, Trust God’s grace.
If we treat others with kindness, kindness will be returned to us. (Ruth 1:6-18)
[Psalm 37:3]
Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
[Psalm 37:5]
Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Share a time in your life when you have had to make a crossroads decision? Describe how knowing your wisdom, values and hope will help you in making future decisions?
Has there ever been a time in your life that you too have felt that God was against you?
How has hearing the story of Ruth helped to believe that God is always for you?
Have you ever renamed yourself in times of struggles?
In what area of your life do you need to trust the Grace of God?
Further Study: Hebrews 4:12, The book of Ruth, Proverbs 3:5-6