WELCOME
Good morning First Baptist. We welcome you to worship this morning. Be sure to remember your brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the week as you pray for them, and as the Holy Spirit brings their faces to your mind. Be sure to also connect with them in the ways that are possible. And if you have any questions or would like to talk to someone, please don’t hesitate to contact the church through the church telephone and leave a message. (519-733-4144)
Songs
Call to Worship
Here in this place, there are no foreigners,
for all are welcome in God’s house.
Here in this worship, there is only acceptance,
for love is the language of faith.
Here in our lives, there are no divisions,
for God dwells in each of us.
Good morning FBK – and welcome to Worship!
Songs
Prayer
Prayer of Confession & Assurance
Father,
Forgive us when we walk away from you and then wonder where you are.
Forgive us when we fail to see the signs you place along our path.
Forgive us when we are too distracted to revel in the wonder of creation.
Forgive us when we forget who we are and whose we are.
Remind us that we are not a lost, but a found people
And that there is no place we can go where you are not.
Amen
Words of Assurance
Friends, hear the Good News.
Wherever we are, there God is.
We are never alone, and we are never left to our own devices.
In the name of Jesus Christ, know that you are forgiven!
Thanks be to God!
Summer Series
Naomi: The ‘Comings and Goings’
Today's Message: Pastors Marlee Page
This morning we are going to look at the story of a woman named Naomi – this story is part of a larger story of God’s faithfulness and redemptive love found in the book of Ruth….Ruth is one of two books in our Bibles that is named after a woman, the other being Esther. Both Ruth and Esther are books in the Old Testament and both involve times of great tragedy and great triumph through God’s grace – beautiful depictions of God’s divine workings in the background instead of through obvious miracles or visions.
Ruth is a unique book also because not only is this Book named after a woman, but Ruth is also a foreigner to Israel. She is a Moabite.
How many of us here know the origins of the nation of Moab? Way back in Genesis 19 we read the somewhat depressing story of Lot and his family. Abraham’s nephew, Lot, had journeyed with his uncle into the land of Canaan where he and Abraham became so successful in their livestock that their herdsmen were quarrelling. Abraham, being a gracious man, gives Lot the choice of which direction to take his family and herds, telling Lot that he will go the other direction. Lot chooses what looks like the easy way and moves toward Sodom. Abraham goes the other direction. Lot’s decision to take what looked like the easy way turned into a great disaster, didn’t it?
As the historical account goes, Lot and his family end up living in the city of Sodom with its sinful wickedness until God decides to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but rescues Lot, his wife and two daughters. Lot’s wife dies when they are escaping because she turned back. However, Lot is so afraid he goes into the hills and lives in a cave. The Bible tells us that Moab was born of an incestuous relationship as an idea of Lot’s oldest daughter and then Moabite women had a stigma from that time on.
Numbers 25:1-3 tells how the Moabite women seduced the Israelite men into sexual immorality and idolatry bringing God‘s punishment on Israel and 24,000 of the Israelites died as a consequence.
Listen to what Moses wrote in Deut. 23:
“No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord, because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.”
Other Old Testament references show us that the nation of Moab was often at war with Israel.
What has all this got to do with our story this morning….It has a lot to do with it – Moabite women, in particular, would not easily find a welcome in Israel considering their background. Ruth was a Moabite and Naomi as you will see here in a moment abandons her life in the land God had given her as his people….With that in mind, I want us to read from the 1st chapter of Ruth – you’ll note that in this first chapter Naomi’s name occurs 12 times, Ruth’s occurs 4 times. This chapter is primarily Naomi’s story and how she understood her relationship with God and how she came to meet and build a relationship with Ruth….and how Ruth came to meet and build a relationship with God.
Let’s just walk through it together and let God speak to us a message from His word.
Scripture Reading: Ruth 1
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.
3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
Naomi and Ruth Return to Bethlehem
6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”
Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”
11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”
14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”
16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”
20 “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
Prayer of Illumination
Father, we come this morning asking for eye-opening
If I was to read or preach through out the entire book of Ruth, you would fairly quickly realize that the central theme of Ruth is the unmerited favour and grace of God to those who are undeserving.
The opening verses that we have read give us insight to the conditions of Moab and the dangers associated with living there. We find that Elimelech had decided to move his family from Bethlehem to the land of Moab, just across the Jordan River to the east of the land of promise.
Moab was not a place that was favourable to those who trusted YHWH God. In fact the environment of Moab created an atmosphere that made it difficult to live for the Lord and continue to serve Him. It was a land inhabited by those who worshipped idols and served strange gods, descendants of Moab, as we’ve noted, were from the son of Lot born out of an ungodly relationship with his daughter. They were a rebellious and sinful people who attacked and sought to defeat Israel as they journeyed in the wilderness.
At one point, God declared in Psalms 60:8 – Moab is my wash-pot; viewed as a filthy and despised vessel used by slaves to wash the feet of a conquering victor. For those whose faith was in God – YHWH – nothing good came from associating with Moab.
An Ending and a Beginning (v. 22b)
The last verse in the passage may seem like an odd place to start but it’s extremely important as it denotes both an Ending and a Beginning (v. 22b)
So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
Yes, the Barley harvest in Bethlehem was beginning but so was something else… You see Ruth and Naomi’s arrival in Bethlehem was the end of a journey, not just from one place to another, but from one chapter of their lives to another. At this point the focus is still on Naomi. It is she who went away and had come back. The chapter of her life that closes at this point has been full of pain. And the question that hangs in the air as she arrives is:
Can there be closure?
Can the pain be left behind or at least lessened?
Can there be a new beginning in which the memory of the pain will fade?
Naomi seems incapable of imagining such a thing, let alone expecting it. Yet this first chapter of the book ends with a statement that is full of promise:
“And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest” (v. 22).
The famine is over. There is a harvest, and Ruth and Naomi have arrived at a time of reaping. The rest of the book will be about Naomi discovering, or rediscovering, God as her Redeemer and being overwhelmed by his rich generosity to her. And in the process Ruth, too, will be rescued and revalued in the eyes of God. But as I’ve already said, I don’t want to focus on Ruth this morning – I want you to see the faithfulness and love that Naomi demonstrates…AND, the impact this has on her family in the long run….
Seeing the Bigger Picture
In spite of her warped perspective and downcast frame of mind, there are some good things about Naomi in this chapter. First of all, she must have been a woman of character to have influenced her daughters-in-law so profoundly. In particular Ruth’s willingness to abandon everything for Naomi and pledge herself for life to Naomi’s God and people is testament not only to Ruth’s character but to Naomi’s character and perseverance as well. Naomi had not always been as she is at the end of this first chapter of the book.
The second thing we need to recognize is the very fact that she came back. She came back bitter, she came back empty, but she came back, and that is good news. And whether she was right or wrong to think that she had done wrong by going away, there is something deeply impressive about the fact that she takes full responsibility for it. She does not blame Elimelech or make excuses. “I went away” (v. 21) – that is all; and this willingness to come home without apportioning blame or making excuses again shows us a side of Naomi that is reassuring and makes her an excellent candidate for rehabilitation in God.
And if that isn’t enough, even in Naomi’s bitter talk about God punishing her there is an acknowledgment of his sovereignty. She doesn’t attribute even her coming back to herself but to God: “the Lord has brought me back” (v. 21). And she’s right. It wasn’t just destitution that brought her back, but news—good news about something that God had done:
“the Lord had visited his people and given them food” (v. 6).
It was this good news—this gospel—that had called her home, and those who respond to such news are not just coming home to Bethlehem or elsewhere, but are coming home to God. And as Naomi is about to discover, those who come to God will never be rejected (John 6:37; Matthew 11:28–30).
We began this chapter by noting that this part of the book of Ruth is a going away and coming back story and that going away and coming back is part of the rhythm of life. It’s also part of the rhythm of Scripture.
There are many such stories in the Bible: -Abraham goes away to Egypt and comes back (Genesis 12:10–13:1); -Jacob flees to Aram (Syria) and returns (Genesis 27:41–33:20); -The people of Jerusalem go into exile in Babylon and come back (Ezra 1:1–3). – In the New Testament the prodigal son goes away from his father’s house and comes home again (Luke 15:11–32).
In fact the whole Bible is filled with this theme of going away and coming back.
What is God’s message for us in this going away and coming back story?
Well again, let’s focus on Naomi. Just think about her condition! There’s the before picture with her happily married with two sons. She says in verse 21, I went away full! Her life with Elimelech in Bethlehem must have been sweet to her in many ways. She lives as an Ephrathite from Bethlehem in Judah! The word Ephrathite means fruitful and the name Bethlehem means house of bread. This is the place where life is good and food is plenteous and they are God’s people! They know the God – they walk with YHWH.
This story takes place during the days of the Judges and it seems to be some of the good days… at first. There were many days and years of peace in those times, when the people were faithful and walking under the leadership of a faithful God appointed judge (which was a leader of God’s people then) who had delivered them from some enemy like the Moabites. Othniel delivered them from Eglon, the king of Moab in Judges chapter 3.
And when we first dig into this part of the story, it appears that Naomi believes that everything that happens to her is from the Lord’s hand, does she not?
But is this true? Does the Lord bring both blessing and calamity on us? Or does God only bring the good things? We know that every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights in whom there is no variation or shifting shadows. James 1:17
James tells us that,
And Jesus said, If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will God give good things to those who ask Him. Matthew 7:11
But what happens when the famine comes? Where do we run? What happens in out lives when tragedy and death strike? Where is God then?
James, who told us that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights began his letter saying,
“Rejoice when you encounter various trials.” James 1:2
And Jesus, who said that God gives good things to those who ask Him also promised,
“In this world you WILL have tribulation.” John 16:33
Notice, not might, but WILL have tribulation.
And Naomi’s certainly seemed to be experiencing trial and tribulation, wasn’t she? She had to leave her homeland with her husband and sons during a famine and go live in enemy territory in Moab. It seems like there must have been peace at the time, but the Moabites were idol worshipping people who sometimes sacrificed their children to their false god, Chemosh.(ka -maash)
Imagine what the neighbourhood must have been like! These were people God banned from coming into his presence. But now Naomi and the family are living among them. I wonder if she ever felt like Lot in Sodom?
Then her husband died! In that culture – this is an especially big problem. Naomi is an Israelite widow living in Moab. Her sons marry Moabite women. Perhaps Naomi is looking forward to grandchildren and hoping things will take a turn for the better, but no. Her sons die. Both of them! How did she handle the terrible weight of that? I wonder if she ever thought God was punishing her family for leaving the boarders of Israel?
Ultimately we don’t know, but one thing is clear: Naomi always saw in all that happened in her life the hand of the Lord. She was not happy with it, but to her, God’s presence and working in all things was inescapable. Remember how Dave said that the only thing we truly need is the presence of God in our lives – it’s apparent to me that even when Naomi was running away – she knew she was running away from God. They may have moved to Moab, but the hand of the Lord was still upon them. This turns out to be both a great burden and a great blessing for her. God’s presence, for good or not, was the very fabric of her existence. This was the foundation of Naomi’s faith.
And here’s one of the blessings that came out of that. Naomi’s foundation – God, YHWH…. that became the model for Ruth’s faith as well.
Here’s the first application for us in this – wherever you go, go with God. Never let his presence and your recognition of Him leave you.
And Second, your life of faith, even during the worst times may have the greatest impact of producing faith in others. Ruth said to Naomi, your God will be my God. Some of you have heard the opposite of this from people you love – Your God is not my God….Can I just encourage you not to give up here…. Naomi’s life produces faith in Ruth not because Naomi had made it big and successfully navigated to avoid the troubles of life, but because she could not see life in any other way but through the lens of God’s hand in it all.
I said earlier that the whole Bible is filled with this theme of going away and coming back.
It’s about the entire human race going away from God, and his great plan of salvation to bring us back again…and Church…. at the centre of that plan is our Lord, Jesus, and the good news that calls us back is about something else that God has done in Bethlehem—not just for those who live there, but for all of us, whoever we are, and however far we are from God. It’s a new and infinitely greater gospel than the one that Naomi heard and that turned her thoughts to home, and it’s an open invitation to all of us: Come home. Come home to the God who made you and loves you and is the only One who can fill your emptiness and meet your deepest need.
Come back empty, come back with only small expectations if that’s all you have, come back bitter if you must, but come back.
You may have been away ten years, as Naomi was. That’s a long time… So is one year, or one month, or even one day, for we were made for God, and our true home—our only place of true wholeness—is with him. So often, God often uses the worst events to bring us the most valuable benefits. This truth is nowhere clearer than in the life and sacrifice of Jesus. Was God’s hand in the events leading up to Jesus’ cross? Yes, it was God who worked in that terrible time to accomplish His greatest victory.
This book is certainly a story about its namesake Ruth…. but in its 1st chapter….
Once upon a time there was a story about a woman who who went away but came home, her name was Naomi…
This is no fairy tale, its the good news of the Gospel …. and it’s an invitation to all of us to come home too.
Let’s Pray.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Prayer
Gracious God, we come as we are, that we may be changed by your grace.
We come with our emptiness, that we may be filled.
We come with our darkness, seeking your light.
We come with our weakness, to receive your strength.
We come with our brokenness, that you may make us whole, Lord.
We come with our lives, to be filled with your power.
We come with our worship to praise you forever.
We come with our words and our prayers which we offer for your glory.
We bring to God the world he shares with us; to remember before God the people and situations that trouble us.
We pray for people denied human rights because of their race, faith or poverty.
We pray for women denied dignity or subjected to abuse.
May your Spirit of justice empower people to stand with those who cry for justice.
We pray for refugees and for those who seek asylum. May they find their “Boaz” to show them care and concern.
We remember before God those who are hungry. We think today of people forced by the current situation to use food banks. May all who are able to help be moved to do so.
And we pray for those like Naomi, who have lost hope, whose lives have become bitter. May we, as disciples of the Good Shepherd, find ways to channel your grace and hope.
We pray all these things in Jesus name, Amen.
Song
Benediction
May the God of history, who journeyed with Naomi and Ruth, and our Lord Jesus Christ, continue to journey with us through the Holy Spirit now and forever.
And the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be with you now and evermore. Amen.
Have a great week!!!