1 Valley View Chapel December 4, 2011 Bethlehem B.C., Part 1 Ruth 1:1-22 Introduction Every Christmas at one time or another, we sing the carol O Little Town of Bethlehem. The words were written by an Episcopal pastor, Phillips Brooks, in 1868 inspired by a visit he had made to Bethlehem three years earlier. Brooks organist at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Philadelphia, Lewis Redner, put the poem to music and it has been sung at Christmas time ever since. I suppose most people identify Bethlehem with the birthplace of Jesus. It is mentioned by both Matthew and Luke in connection with the nativity. If we were to do a word association exercise and I were to say: A place associated with the Christmas story, most of you would answer Bethlehem. Others, more schooled in Old Testament history, know Bethlehem to be the royal city, the ancestral home of David, Israel s greatest king. In fact, most hymnals include the carol written by Cecil Frances Alexander in 1848 that connects the birthplace of David with the birthplace of Jesus: Once in royal David s city, stood a lowly cattle shed. Where a mother laid her baby, in a manger for his bed. Mary was that mother mild, Jesus Christ her little child. But not very people know that Bethlehem was a place of strategic importance a hundred years before the birth of David and more than a thousand years before the birth of Christ. It is important because events transpired there not only resulted in the birth of David, but directly influenced the birth of Jesus. The story is as fascinating as it is instructive and is told in the little Old Testament book of Ruth. We re going to unwrap this ancient tale for the next four weeks, seeing the relevance of this book not only to the Christmas story but to our lives today. I ve called this Advent series Bethlehem B.C. The time of the Judges The story of Ruth begins with a description of the historical setting: In the days when the judges ruled in Israel, a severe famine came upon the land. Ruth 1:1a (NLT) The time of the judges is best described by the last verse of the book of Judges the verse that immediately precedes the book of Ruth in our English Bibles: At that time there was no king in Israel. People did whatever they felt like doing. Judges 21:25 (Msg)
2 Charles Dickens began his novel A Tale of Two Cities with the memorable lines: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. In the days when the judges ruled in Israel, there was no such dichotomy. The time of the judges was the worst of times, the age of foolishness, the epoch of incredulity, the season of Darkness, and the winter of despair. Do you remember the movie Groundhog Day where Bill Murray lives the same day over and over again? That s the book of Judges same story, just different characters. The beat goes on: God s people rebel and sin against the Lord. God sends judgment, usually in the form of an enemy who defeats and subdues the Israelites. The people cry out to God and repent. In grace and mercy, God sends a deliverer to rescue them. The people experience a measure of rest. God s people rebel and sin against the Lord. God sends judgment, etc., etc. The book of Ruth begins when the nation s worst nightmare comes true. A famine had gripped the land. This was something new and unexpected to the people of Bethlehem. Bethlehem means House of Bread and for good reason. Bethlehem was Israel s bread basket, an area known for unusual fertility and of critical importance for the grain harvest. A famine in Bethlehem was a calamity of life-threatening proportions. If the people had known the Law that had come down from Moses, they wouldn t have been surprised, for the consequence of rebellion and disobedience was clearly stated in Leviticus 26 - "'But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, then I will do this to you.i will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze. 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. Leviticus 26:14-16a, 19-20 (NIV) In the Old Testament, famine was often a sign of God s judgment on his disobedient people. It was his way of getting their attention and motivating them to repent and return to true worship. With that as background, I want to draw 1 life lesson from the first chapter of Ruth. Bad decisions yield bad results
3 The bad decision is described in the first two verses of the book: In the days when the judges ruled in Israel, a severe famine came upon the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah left his home and went to live in the country of Moab, taking his wife and two sons with him. The man's name was Elimelech, and his wife was Naomi. Their two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in the land of Judah. And when they reached Moab, they settled there. Ruth 1:1-2 (NLT) Apparently there was food in Moab, so Elimelech moved his family there. Moab, located about 50 miles east of Bethlehem, had a checkered past. Their roots went back to an incestuous relationship between Lot and his eldest daughter. From almost the beginning of their existence, the Moabites were the enemies of the Jews. The book of Numbers describes how they hired enlisted the prophet Baalam to curse the Israelites. When god turned Baalam s curses into blessings, Baalam suggested that the Moabite women entice the Israelite men into sexual relationships, which they did. The result was that inter-marriage between Israelites and Moabites became common and the people of God began to mingle pagan Moabite religion with the true worship prescribed by Moses. Social and spiritual disaster ensued. Moreover, the Moabites worshiped a god named Chemosh. So ingrained was the worship of this false god into the fabric of the peoples lives that Jeremiah referred to the Moabites as the people of Chemosh. According to 2 Kings 3:27, the King of Moab sacrificed his own son to Chemosh in an effort to gain favor in his battle against the Edomites. So not only was Moab steeped in idolatry and paganism, child sacrifice was an acceptable form of worship! So despicable were the beliefs and practices of the Moabites that God declared in Deuteronomy 23:3, No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, even down to the tenth generation. (NIV) It s little wonder that one commentator in questioning Elimelech s decision to move to Moab, asked the rhetorical question: Does this sound like a place to raise a godly family? Elimelech did what was best in his own eyes. Yet according to the standard of purely human reasoning, he made the right call! Apparently no one was prepared to challenge his logic. Certainly Naomi wouldn t have dared to voice a negative opinion. In that time and culture, for a woman to question her husband s wisdom was a breach of protocol with serious consequences. He forgot that God had called him to Bethlehem. He forgot that the same God who called him was able to sustain him, even in a famine. After all, it s apparent from verse 19 that many people had remained in Bethlehem and God had taken care of them. But Elimelech thought he knew better than God and chose to do
4 what was right in his own eyes. Ultimately it cost him his life and the lives of his two sons. Decisions made without reference to the laws of God or the will of God often seem right. Elimelech s decision to relocate to Moab seemed to turn out OK. After all, when there s no food in one place, the logical thing to do is to go to where there is food. For a decade or so, he and his family got enough to eat; he made a home for himself and settled down; the kids got married. In fact, I wonder if Elimelech ever thought about going back to Bethlehem. He had gotten pretty comfortable in Moab! Short-term choices such as the one Elimelech made are aimed at either immediate gratification or immediate relief from pain. It s why people charge stuff they can t afford; why they opt for sexual pleasure outside of God s boundaries; why they eat too much or drink too much; or abuse prescription drugs; or do a thousand and one other harmful things to themselves. Here s what Elimelech forgot: sometimes, it takes awhile for wrong choices to yield bad fruit. But they inevitably do. It s a law as eternal as God. Josh McDowell said it best: "Wrong choices bring immediate positive benefits and long term negative consequences while right choices [may] bring immediate negative consequences and long term positive benefits." If Elimelech s objective in going to Moab was to avoid death, then he failed big time! And by the way, look at the heartache his poor choice brought on his own sons and also on Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah. We never sin in a vacuum. Personal sin has a way of splashing its mud on those closest to us. Elimelech s name There was a second reason why Elimelech made the poor decision to move to Moab: He forgot his name. Or I should say, he forgot what his name meant. Elimelech means My God is King. But God wasn t his king when he made a conscious choice to seek sustenance and security among a pagan, idolatrous, and immoral people. Remember: This all happened during the time when the judges ruled. Elimelech s actions were based on the values of a disobedient culture rather than on the good and gracious counsel of God s Law. Elimelech brought disaster on himself and his family because he didn t live up to his name. What is your name? I m not talking about your given name, the name on your driver s license or your passport. What s your spiritual name? If you have trusted Jesus for your forgiveness and eternal life, then your name is Christian. Christian comes from the Greek word christianos and it means a follower of Christ. What does it mean to be a follower of Christ? It means to imitate Christ in our
5 character and our conduct. How do we imitate Christ? Jesus gave us the Cliff Notes version in John 8:28-29, I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.for I always do what pleases him." (NIV) The words that come out of my mouth are what the Father wants me to say, and the things I do are what the Father wants me to do. So how are we doing? Are we living up to our name? Are we following Christ? I m speaking to Christians who aren t living up to their name. You re a Christian but you re not living like one. Got a question: How s it going for you? Pretty good? Never been better? Or is it going pretty bad? You re doing what you want to do, what is right in your eyes, but you don t like what you re doing and you don t like the way things are working out. It s too late for Elimelech to repent, return to Bethlehem, and start living up to his name. But it s not too late for you. You can tell God you re sorry right now. You can come home right now to your Father s house, back where you belong. You can begin again with God. Conclusion It wouldn t be the second Sunday in Advent if I didn t tie this into Christmas somehow. So I ll give it my best shot. 2000 years ago a powerful ruler named Herod the Great was faced with a decision. When the Wise Men went to worship the infant King, Herod could have gone with them. He knew the prophecies. In his heart, he knew they were right. If he had doubted the ancient Scriptures, he wouldn t have killed all the baby boys under two in Bethlehem. But he chose poorly. He served his own selfish self-interest and today his name is synonymous with violence, vengeance, and disgrace. It could have been otherwise. The Wise Men also had a choice to make. When they first saw the star in the east, they could have ignored it. Or they could have made up excuses for not following the star. It was too far, too dangerous, too expensive. But they made a decision that meant shortterm pain but long-term blessing. 2000 years later we sing Christmas carols about them and hold them up as models of wisdom, devotion, and worship. We call them Wise Men and they truly lived up to their name. One of my favorite authors is Yale law professor Stephen Carter. In his first novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park, a character named Jack Zeigler made a penetrating observation: We live today in a world in which nobody believes choices should have consequences. But may I tell you the great secret that our culture seeks to deny? You cannot escape the consequences of your choices. Time runs in only one direction. The Christmas season is all about decisions Who do I buy for? What do I buy? How much do I spend? 1000 years from now, what I bought and how much I spent for those
on my Christmas list won t matter very much. Here s the chief decision we need to make this Advent season: the decision to live up to our name. 6