Sunday Sermon, Ruth 1:1-6, In the midst of emptiness, do you hear that God is on the move?

Today, we are going to consider the book of Ruth, 1:1-6. The story of Ruth took place in the period of Judges according 1:1. This makes Judges an induction to Ruth.

As an introduction to Ruth, let me quickly summarize what we’ve seen and learned from Judges.

Having journeyed through the book of Judges, what we have learned is a spiritual downward pattern in all aspects of people’s lives. It began with Judges 2:10-12. After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them.”

And, we saw how God raised up different judges to in order to deliver the Israelites out of the oppression and moral decays. And, we learned about Othniel an outstanding Judge; we also learned about Deborah, an outstanding woman of God. But, we learned that things got worse quickly as we considered the remaining judges.

Gideon was skeptical and distrusting of God. He sought to manipulate God’s assurance to compensate his lack of faith asking signs from God numerous times. And, he ended up making an ephod against God’s prescribed law. Gideon told the Israelites that he wasn’t going to be their king since God was their King. But, he betrayed his own confession by living lavishly like a king. He ended up leading the whole generation of the Israelites into the path of apostasy. Judges 9:33-34 described the effect of his sinful choice; “No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal Berith as their god and did not remember the LORD their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side.”

And, we saw Abimelech, Gideon’s son, blinded by his own ambition to become a king, how he killed all his brothers with one stone, all seventy of them.

Then, we learned the story of Jephthah who was out to manipulate God. He paid for it when he rashly made the vow to sacrifice whatever came out to greet him, only to find out that it was his own daughter. Instead of seeking God’s mercy and forgiveness for making the rash vow, we saw he went ahead and killed her as though God would be pleased. How wrong he was.

Then, last few weeks we considered the story of Samson. Contrary to what’s commonly believed about Samson, we learned from chapter 13-16 that Samson was a man who squandered away God’s great blessings and calling upon him. He couldn’t control the lustful impulse. He lived by his physical sight, not by faith. At the end of his life, he lost his eyes that led him astray; he was shacked to his angles, preventing him from going where he wanted to go. And, he was given dehumanizing task of grinding grains like a donkey.

And, through all these years, it was the LORD who raised the enemies against Israel in order to discipline them, desiring that they would turn to God.

Now in Ruth, we see that there was a famine in the land. We might be tempted to explain the famine as a nature’s fluke.

But, we see in many places in the Bible how God warned the Israelites that he would send famine along with many other curses if they would forsake him and live by the sight to feed their fleshly desire. Deuteronomy 28:24 says, “The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed; verse 48 says, “therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you.” And, Leviticus 26:20 says, “Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of the land yield their fruit.”

1. There in the foreign land, tragedies after tragedies…

It is not always wise to assume all natural phenomena as God’s means to curse disobedience. But, in the case of the famine that is described in Ruth 1:1, it is highly likely that it was brought upon the land of Israel because they had forsaken God and did whatever their flash desired… doing evil against God.

The man named Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons left their home in Bethlehem in Judah to the foreign land, the country of Moab. Bethlehem means “house of bread.” But, there was hardly any bread left in the “house of bread” for the famine was severe. Leaving their home country, they went to a place in Moab, a strange and foreign land, perhaps thinking that would be better off in foreign country than in their home.

Verse 3 tells us that Elimelech died leaving Naomi alone with her two sons. It doesn’t say when he died, but the way it is phrased, it gives an impression that he died not too long after they moved to Moab. The two sons Mahlon and Kilion married the Moabites, Orpah and Ruth. But, only after ten years living in Moab, both of the sons died; Naomi was left only with her two daughters-in-law. Tragedies upon tragedies…

Adding to Naomi’s insult, in those ten some years, both of Naomi’s sons died without any children. As in the case of the famine, God also listed childlessness among the curses to deal with disobedience. Deuteronomy 28:18, “The fruit of your womb will be curse, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.” Again, it is not wise to automatically assume childlessness as God’s curse. Hannah was a godly woman; Elizabeth was godly woman; yet they were childless for long, long time before God opened their wombs to have children. Yet, in this story of Naomi and her two daughters-in-law, considering the level of apostasy in Israel, one must ponder if childlessness of Ruth and Orpah was the effect of the apostasy.

Verse 5 says, “Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.” We can draw from this verse how Naomi must felt. It was hard enough that her husband died prematurely. But, her two sons died leaving no children behind them. Now in old age, she was left with two foreign daughters-in-law. She was a widow in her old age; and her daughters-in-law were also now widows in young age; they lived in the time when a husband provided and protected his family. Now, all three of them were widows without provision or protection from their men. Who would look after Naomi and two daughters-in-law?

2. God takes note of you and he is on the move to be your sole provider.

The great thing about the Bible stories is that when we think that there simply is no hope whatsoever, when we think that God’s hand is heavy upon us, when we think we cannot go on any more, somehow we find that God is on the move!

Until verse 6, all we witnessed was tragic deaths of all men in a household; no children in the family; living in the foreign, strange land; no hope for provision or protection. What were they to do?

But, we see that in verse 6 God was on the move. “She heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them.” God’s hand of discipline was heavy on disobedient Israel. But, his promise was, is and will always be his swift move to deliver his people when they turn to him, when they return to him. But, God knows that left to us alone, we would be hopeless to turn to him. Left to us alone, we would be without protection or provision against the ties of the devil prowling to destroy us, against the tides of harsh reality of living in this world, against our own selfish, prideful flesh. Naomi certainly was in that predicament. Left to her alone, she would have no hope, no future, no motivation, no meaning, no purpose in life.

It is in this moment of hopeless, somehow our eyes are unveiled to see God who is on the move. In Naomi’s case, she heard that the LORD came to the aid of his people. This phrase, came to the aid translates a Hebrew verb, paqad; it is also translated as visited in other translations. God had come to his people; he took note of his people. He attended them kindly. And, not only was he taking note of his people, he was acting, moving on behalf of his people. He was providing them. Once again God was on the move to be their provider, to be the one who meets their psychological, emotional, spiritual, physical needs.

3. Naomi heard the good news that God was on the move.

I want you to take a good note on how Naomi responded when she heard that God was on the move; God took note of his people and was looking out for them.

It says in verse 6, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from Moab. The journey is reversed. In verse 1, she left Bethlehem, “house of bread,” because there was no bread provision. She left Bethlehem and went to Moab. But, now in verse 6, we see her packing after ten years in Moab. She had Orpah and Ruth packing too. She was going home, finally. She was going home to Bethlehem, “house of bread.”

She thought the life in Moab would be much better; her late husband was convinced that they would fair much better in Moab than Bethlehem. But, in hindsight we see it clearly that the journey from Bethlehem to Moab didn’t fair better as they expected. Away from home in the land of Moab where God was not honored nor worshiped, nor adored and loved, their lives were shambled by the tragedies.

4. Consider this… you might be experiencing the spiritual famine because of your sin.

Like Naomi, we are on the journey. Galatians 6:7-10 says, “God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life...

Let us not become weary in doing good, for the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunities, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

Naomi and her husband got tired, they got weary living in Bethlehem… they gave up living in Bethlehem when the famine was severe. None of us are impervious to the seasonal famines. Often famines in life are caused by our own sins as it was the case for the Israelites. The droughts came to Israel; the enemies were strong and they easily defeated Israel. Why? They had forsaken their God who took note of them, who came down to them when they were no bodies, just slaves in Egypt, living aimlessly, hopelessly, feeling so weary and dead tired. He took note of them; he came to them; he delivered them mightily. Yet, how could they have so easily abandoned their God, their King, who freed them from the false kings Pharaohs, to live no longer as slaves to Pharaoh, but as children of the Living God?

Well, we do the same thing, don’t we? John 1:14 says, “The Word came flesh and made his dwelling among us.” Do you know where God has chosen to have his Son Jesus Christ be born in order to dwell among us? Matthew 2:1 says, “Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea.” Jesus was born in Bethlehem, “house of bread.” You’ve heard how Jesus described himself in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

We also experience spiritual famines because we leave Bethlehem, ‘house of bread,’ where Jesus was born. We leave Bethlehem and go to Moab, thinking that the life there would be much better. We confidently journey on thinking that life away from Jesus isn’t so bad. We convince ourselves that we can make our lives successful, meaningful, fulfilling apart from Jesus. With our two hands, with our brains, with our skills, we feel that we could do anything.

But, the life in Moab will never turn out better than the life in Bethlehem. You may convince that money is your bread; good living is your bread; good clothes are your bread; good education is your bread. But, do you remember in Luke 12 what Jesus told the rich man who decided to build bigger and better barns to hold all his wealth? Jesus told him in Luke 12:20-21, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."

Conclusions

Do you know where you are? Which way are you moving towards? Have you been disappointed at God like Naomi and her husband was? Have you decided that this living in Bethlehem, living in Jesus thing is really not for you? So, you are journeying towards Moab?

Perhaps, you’ve been living in Moab for good number of years. You were once fully convinced that life journey without Jesus was just fine; you were convinced that your life would be better without Jesus. You’ve been in Moab for a while. Now, how is it going? Has it been ten years yet? Are you still hopeful that your life will turn out just fine without Jesus? Is there any fear in you what might happen to you if you continue to live in Moab where God is not? We need to take a good note of what happened to Naomi and her family. Perhaps, we will learn to fear…

But, God’s greatest weapon in dealing with our sick wondering, perverted, ungrateful heart is his kindness. He is on the move. Have you heard? Have you heard that he is drawing near you? What God wants you to know is that he is on the move; he notices you; he moves to provide for you. And, he wants you to pack up and get ready to leave Moab and come to Bethlehem, ‘house of bread.’ God wants you to come and draw near to Jesus and live with him, in him. He is the bread of life. He is the only one who can completely satisfy your hunger, your thirst. You are made for God. You are made to find your sole satisfaction in Jesus. He can change you, to be transformed from sowing to please yourself to sowing to please the Spirit in doing good, in loving others.

Do you hear? God is on the move! Are you ready to journey back to Bethlehem?

Sunday Sermon: Judges 3:12-30, Life Lessons from the story of Ehud

The story of Ehud involves the same typical cycle that often characterizes what happened during the period of Judges. The Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord responded to change the course of their action by giving Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. When they cried out for help, he gave them a deliverer, in this case Ehud. Ehud single-handedly killed the king of Moab and led the Israelites to overcome Moab’s oppression.

Ehud cunningly concealed the weapon of his choice, a short sword just made for the risky mission to take down the king of Moab. He was chosen by the Israelites to lead a group to bring the tribute to Eglon. Ehud first had his encounter with the king when he brought the tribute. After leaving and sending away the rest of the people who brought the tribute with him, he went back to the king.

Ehud managed to get a private time with the king when he told the king, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” Having received a nice tribute from the group led by Ehud and Ehud showing up alone, Eglon had little reason to suspect any foul play.

Excited to hear something special, he ordered the attendants to be quite. This was perhaps a signal for the attendants and the officials to clear out the King’s upper room of his summer palace. They left the room, leaving the king alone with Ehud.

Ehud told the king, “I have a message from God for you” in verse 20. Expecting to hear a divine message, the king got up to show his respect only to meet Ehud’s dagger. The king fell to the floor dead.

How did Ehud get out? While the attendants and officials waited outside the doors, Ehud snuck out of the porch locking the doors of the upper room behind him. The king’s attendants and officials thought the king was attending to his bodily need.
They waited until they weren’t sure what was going on any more, only to find their king on the floor dead.

Ehud having successfully assassinated the enemy’s king, went back to the Hill country of Ephraim, blew a trumpet and gathered the Israelites. And, then he gave his pep talk! “Follow me… for the LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands.” Well, the rest was history! Verse 29 says, “they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped. That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.”

Reading the story of Ehud is like watching an action flick. It reminded me of House of Flying Daggers that I recently watch on DVD. Well, it is one thing to watch and be entertained by the movies like House of Flying Daggers, but it is another thing to read a story like this in the Bible and glean spiritual insights for our lives.

Hebrew 4:12-13 says, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any doubled-edged sword, in penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him whom we must give account.”

So, this morning, I pray that this scriptural story gets applied to us as the living and active word of God.

1. Who’s driving your life vehicle?

Judges 3:12 says that Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. It doesn’t say what they actually did. But, there are few clues. When Ehud returned back from delivering the tribute to Eglon the king of Moab, verse 19 says at the idols near Gilgal he himself turned back.”

And, verse 26 says Ehud again passed by the idols when he escaped to Seriah somewhere in the hill country of Ephraim. This again close to Gilgal.

you remember what was in Gilgal? In Gilgal were the twelve stones that the each tribe of Israel carried from the bottom of the Jordan River bed when God miraculously stopped its flow to allow the Israelites to safely cross it. The pile of these twelve stones were to be the lasting reminder to the Israelites what God had done for them.

But, what we see in verse 19 & verse 26 is that along side of the twelve stones monument in Gilgal were the idols.

God very specifically prohibited the Israelites from making idols. Deuteronomy 4:15-18 says, “You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.” And, God gave them specific instructions as to what they should do when they came across the idols. Deuteronomy 12:3 says, “Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and bur their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.” Another word, they were to “purge the evil.” So often the Lord commanded the Israelites, “You must purge the evil from among you” (Deut. 13:5, 17:7, 12, 13, 19:13, 19, 21:9, 21, 22:22, 24, 24:7. & Judges 20:13). Another way to understand this command is to picture sweeping away.

Our dinning room area gets dirty very quickly because it is a high traffic area close to where Rocky our dog stays and our dinning table sits in it. The floor accumulates dirt, Rocky’s dog hair, food crumbs from the table very quickly. We either need to sweep away or vacuum away the unwanted elements from the floor few times each day.

God did not want the Israelites to tolerate any idol in the Promised Land. But, this is exactly what the Israelites did. They either tolerated the idols made by the native people of Canaan or they themselves built the idols with their own hands.

What are idols? Idols are anything that tries to substitute God.
Instead of relying on God for help, an idol is trying figure things out on our own.

Psalm 33:10 says, “The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.”

Proverbs 16:1 says, “To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue.”

Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.”

Proverbs 16:9 says, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.”

Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.”

God is very clear on this. His purposes, his plans, his steps will succeed. His call is for us to come to him and cooperate with him to accomplish his purposes, his plans, and his steps with his ability, his strength.

There are many things that make our hearts anxious, but one great source of anxiety must be when we think about our future. As students now, some of you think about what you will become, as working people, you think about how you might progress through the ladders at your business, out of school now, you are looking for a job, career direction, you are single and you want boyfriend, girlfriend or you want to get married.

I remember talking to Shannon’s mom when she visited our church a day before his departure to Guinea. When I asked her how she was doing, she chocked up. She tried really hard to hold her tears. I told her that it was hard for me to imagine how difficult it would be to send off my child to far away land where basic living condition is so poor.

Well, we had our moment when Abby got on that Big Yellow school bus for the first time to go to her kindergarten. Our first daughter, for about three hours each weekday she will not be with us. After Abby got on the bus, I asked Lyn how she was doing. I wanted to record a video clip on how mom felt for sending Abby off to school. She chocked up and cried! Well, you better believe we pray hard that week for our kindergarten student! Instead of giving into anxiety and fear and try to control our daughter’s destiny, what we are learning is to trust God knows what he is doing.

He says in Jeremiah 29:11: ‘For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD.”

So, next time you feel anxious and fearful, impatient, unhappy when you think about your life, where you think it is heading, I want you to see who is driving your life vehicle. Because the field of life is filled with rough terrains with dangerous and unexpected turns and obstacles, you want your life vehicle to be driven by the professional. You would like to think you are well capable of navigating your life vehicle, but you are just an amateur. You need to hire the big name professional! Not just any one, but the best of the best. And in the universe, there is no one with the better credentials, better track records of successes, better skills and knowledge to our life vehicle than Jesus. And, by the way, you don’t need to hire him, because he offers you his super-professional spiritual service to you at no cost. Only thing that he asks of you is for you to get off the driver seat and let him navigate for you! Another word, trust in him!

2. What do you do when you are downcast?

Let me take you back to the story of Ehud. I wasn’t sure how this rather gory account of Ehud using his sword to get the enemy’s king would apply to my and your lives. I got some help from K. Lawson Younger who wrote a commentary on Judges.

We don’t face warfare situations like Ehud as Christians. So, the question he asks is, “How are we to wage spiritual warfare against those who abuse, exploit, and persecute the church?”[1] More general question I would ask is, “How are we to wage war against Satan who wants to discourage us?”

If Satan tried to take our Lord Jesus down when Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights, you better believe Satan is out to take us down!

If it is not with the physical sword of Ehud, what is that we are to use for the spiritual warfare? K. Lawson Younger connects Ehud’s sword to the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. In Ephesians 6:7, Paul calls us to take up the arm by picking up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

This past week, I was overwhelmed with deep sense of discouragement. My wife was feeling it too. Although the weather was bright and warm, our hearts were downcast. I didn’t know how to shake off the discouragement.

That is when the Lord presented me with his sword, the word of God from Psalm 42:5-11:

Why are you so downcast with me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon- from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me- a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

Over fifteen years ago, I was able to see Niagara Falls with my family. We took the tour boat at the bottom of the falls. Wow, the roars of the waterfalls completely drown my hearing, I could hardly hear myself. The falls from above doesn’t look so bad, but where the falls hit the water, you feel so small and powerless. The roars of waterfalls drowning all your senses, it feels chaotic. Have you felt like that in your life?

Have you felt like someone is saying to you, “Where is your God?” God feels distant and far.

God put this psalm 42 in the Bible to let us know that we will go through the times of great confusion, chaos when we feel powerless, insignificant, out of control, discouraged.

What do you do? You take up the sword of the word of God and you begin to preach to yourself, “Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”



[1] K. Lawson Younger, NIVAC on Judges, p. 126.