Ruth 03: Coming Home Ruth 1:19-22 19 So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi? 20 And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. 21 I went out full and the Lord hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me? 22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest. The Return 19 So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi? They two went until At the outset of today s passage o we learn that Ruth s eloquent commitment to bind herself to Naomi was more than just an emotional promise. Ruth has backed up her passionate words o with persistent action. Eloquent professions of faith are fine but never forget that o what you actually do is far more important than what you say. Many folk say wonderful things, o but their conduct does not match their conversation. o Words are never the evidence of faith. Faith is demonstrated in action. o Obedience is the ultimate confirmation of commitment. Ruth did well when she committed o to go to Bethlehem with Naomi, however, the real testimony of that commitment is that she followed through with it.
As a matter of fact our text says that they went until o They did not quit before they had reached their desired destination. o After crossing the Jordan River, it would be tempting to quit and stay somewhere o in the Jordan plain rather than climb some two thousand feet o up the hills to Bethlehem. The journey back to the house of God o is always an uphill journey while the descent into Moab is always downhill. o It easier to go out into the world than it is to come back to the hose of God. o But they did not give up. They continued until they reached their destination. If you are not persistent in your desire o to return to the house of God you will never make it back. You must have a made up mind. o Once you embark on the journey from Ruin to Redemption, you will be given every opportunity o to stop, o to turn aside, o to abandon your commitment. o But Ruth and Naomi went until they came to Bethlehem. They pressed on until o they made it to their destination. The City Was Moved I can just imagine how it went o when Naomi and Ruth walked into Bethlehem. Bethlehem was a small town, o one of those places where everyone knows everyone. And folks immediately noticed o that their small town had visitors.
But there was something familiar about one of those ladies. She bore a striking resemblance to Naomi, but surely it couldn t be Naomi. The years of grief and sorrow o have taken their toll on Naomi. When she left Bethlehem she was a confident woman o in the prime of her life, wealthy healthy and well-to-do. But now she was o but a broken shadow of her former self. Surely this haggard o and destitute old woman couldn t be Naomi. It caused quite a stir o when Naomi returned to Bethlehem. The Bible says that the city was moved. o The Hebrew word used there indicates that their arrival in Bethlehem caused a great commotion. o It is a strong word that tells us the whole town was shocked and astonished. o The whole town was abuzz. The return of Naomi o was all anyone could talk about from the gate of the city to the city well, o down through the marketplace. o Everywhere you turned, everyone was talking about Naomi. That helps to explain o Boaz s remark to Ruth later on when he told her that he was fully aware of Ruth s situation. o He was aware because it had been the talk of the town. Is This Naomi? The tongues were wagging
o and the main question that everyone was asking appears at the end of verse 19, o Is this Naomi? Could this really be her? The appearance of poverty and stress o were very evident upon Naomi. She who had formerly been quite well-to-do o is now obviously in dire want. o Like the prodigal in Luke 15, she left in riches and came back in rags. o Naomi left Bethlehem to escape a famine but came back home o looking like she had been in a famine, in fact she looked worse than those who had stayed in Bethlehem o and had survived the famine. Isn t that just like sin? o It leads you out with such incredible promises. o It presents an image of Moab as a house of plenty, as the place where all o of your dreams can come true. o However, sin s promises are always empty. The reality is far removed from what the brochure claims. o The Naomi that went out is quite different from the Naomi that returned home. o This Naomi is nearly unrecognizable. The innocent appearance and joy of obedience is gone o replaced by the scars of sin and the brokenness of rebellion. 20 And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. Call Me Bitter You have to know
o that Naomi is aware of the questions that are circulating around town. Finally she has had enough! She breaks through the buzz o with a public announcement. Perhaps she leaps up onto the edge of the well, or finds a vacant table in the public marketplace o to crawl up on but somehow she gets everyone s attention. She makes a startling pronouncement: o Call me not Naomi! Giving public vent to her years of frustration and pain, o she demands a new name. o She may have left Bethlehem as Naomi, but she has returned as a different person; from now on she wants to be called Mara. There is quite a contrast between the names. o The Hebrew word rendered Naomi means pleasant, happy, friendly, lovely and delightful. Naomi doesn t feel like she is any of those things any more. o The Hebrew word rendered Mara means bitter, sad and sorrowful. This name better represents how Naomi sees herself now. o Moab hasn t made her better, instead it has made her bitter. o Though it is not readily apparent to us, in the English translation, there is a play on words here. o Naomi asks to be called bitter because God has dealt bitterly with her. The play on words
o goes even further back in the text. Back in verse thirteen, when Naomi told Ruth and Orpah o that it grieved her, for their sakes, o that the hand of the Lord had gone out against her, the word that was o translated as grieveth is from the same root, to be made bitter. Naomi s bitterness is not o a product of the talk in Bethlehem, it started way back in Moab. This is not a conclusion o that she is just now reaching. This has been on her mind o throughout the long walk back up to Bethlehem. o Moab will always promise to make you better but, instead, it will o always leave you bitter. Thankfully, Naomi s story didn t end in Moab. o Even as she realizes that she would be better named bitter than pleasant she has no idea that Bethlehem will be the place o where her bitterness would be swallowed by blessing. o She doesn t even realize it yet, but, in returning home, she has returned to o the blessings of the Lord. o Indeed, there was a blessing waiting for her in Bethlehem that would make the name Mara o as unsuitable for her as she now supposed Naomi to be. The Charge However, we have not reached o that part of the story yet.
Right now we have o a bitter, broken, and bereaved Naomi telling the good people of Bethlehem that the Almighty has dealt o very bitterly with her. Did you follow that? o Naomi accused God of making her bitter. o But that s not exactly accurate. God didn t deal bitterly with her, she was simply reaping o the results of her own choices. o From garden forward, men and women have blamed God for the troubles that they o bring upon themselves. When he was caught in sin, Adam blamed his failure o on the woman that God had given him as if it was somehow God s fault that he had sinned. But that s not the truth of the matter. Adam has no one to blame but himself. Likewise, Naomi is wrong to lay the blame o at the feet of God, she got here by her own hand. o Naomi and her family went against God s will, breaking their covenant with him o and fleeing to Moab at the first sign of trouble. That choice is what produced bitterness in her life. 21 I went out full and the Lord hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me? It is quite a transition from verse 20 to verse 21. o Immediately after blaming God for her troubles, Naomi recognizes the role she played in this disaster. I went out full she says. o God didn t send her out full,
she did that by herself. o What a tragedy it is that she went out full, seeking to remain full o and lost everything that made her full. When those who remained o And endured the famine Maintained their fullness. o How often do people turn to the world In pursuit of fullness yet wind up empty o in every area of their life. Naomi was, indeed, empty. o Her husband and two sons had both died in Moab. She came home without them. o She was emptied of the family she had held so dear. o But she was also empty of all worldly possessions. When she left Bethlehem full, o she had many earthly possessions. But like the prodigal son, Naomi s family spent all o their substance in a far country. When we live in sin, our fortunes will fly away. o Sin empties the pocketbook! It robs us of family. It empties out o everything in our lives. Worst of all, Naomi, is empty of hope. o She has returned to Bethlehem but she has no hope that her situation in life o will ever improve. o She is utterly convinced that brokenness and bitterness are her new reality, o that this is where she will always be. That s what Moab does to you. o It robs you of all hope.
It empties you of all promise. It robs you of the vital optimism needed o to believe that there really could be a better day ahead, o that this doesn t have to be the end of your story. In the midst of her sorrow, o Naomi unwittingly stumbles into a truth. The Lord has brought her home. o She doesn t realize it yet but she is about to walk into the blessings of God. o It was God s mercy that compelled her back to Bethlehem, it was mere circumstance o or coincidence that she was drawn o back to Bethlehem from the midst of her pit of despair. o God had a plan. His grace was calling her home. He could have left her in Moab o to experience more troubles, but His great love brought her back home, back to blessings of the Lord. Make no mistake about it, o when you find yourself in Moab, the grace of God will always be pursuing you. o God, in his love and mercy will never stop calling you back home. He will never cease o to gently tug at your heart in the stillness of the night o and remind you that you left behind a better place than where you now find yourself. But I want you to notice o that Naomi never heard that voice,
never responded to that call, until she was empty. When she was full, o she left the house of God, under the auspices of maintaining her fullness. o Sometimes our material blessings are what keep us from walking in the will of God, sometimes the wealth of the provision that we have o becomes the very hindrance that keeps us from returning to the blessings of the Lord. When that is the case, o you will only return to Bethlehem when you are empty because that s the only condition o that will allow you to hear and respond to the grace and mercy of God. o As hard as it may have been for Naomi to grasp, her emptiness was her greatest asset o at this point in the story. o She stayed in Moab as long as she had means. But when Moab had used her up, o when she was broken, bitter, and empty. That s when she could finally see o the road that led back up to Bethlehem. Listen to this preacher, this morning, o if it is your fullness that compels you to move to Moab then it will always take emptiness o to bring you back. What seemed like the judgment of God, to Naomi, o was truly the mercy of God working in her life, getting her to the place o where she could hear and respond to the merciful grace of God. Naomi went on to say
o that the Lord had testified against her. The phrase that she uses o is a very common phrase that is a reference to what happens when a witness in a trial o testifies against the accused. This is conviction speaking now. o Naomi recognizes that she has done wrong and that God is fully aware of the wrong that she has done. So she rightly claims o that he is the chief witness against her. But what she fails to understand is that her prosecutor o is also her advocate. o He may be the chief witness but it will also be his blood that cries out for mercy. Right now she sees him as her adversary o but before this is over she will know him as her advocate. o Like the woman caught in adultery, He, and He alone, could actually accuse her, yet instead of condemnation o he offers her mercy. Next she says that the Almighty has afflicted her. o The Hebrew word translated afflicted means to break, to break into pieces. Back in verse 20 she wrongly accused God o of making her bitter but now she rightly proclaims that it is God that has broken her. o God, in his mercy, has stripped away all of the things that were keeping her o from coming back home. o The brokenness that God brought into Naomi s life was designed to make Naomi o useful to him again. God is still breaking things o in order to make them useful for Him. Sometimes He has to break people s hearts
in order to gain their heart. The pitchers with a torch inside had to be broken by Gideon s army o before they could be used of God to drive the enemy out of the land. A roof of a house had to be broken up before a man could be brought o to Jesus for healing. The loaves and fishes had to be broken before o they could feed the thousands who had listened to Jesus teach. The alabaster box had to be broken before o its contents could be poured out. Even Jesus Christ had to be broken in order o to become our savior. He told his disciples, o This is my body, which is broken for you. There is a simple yet powerful point in this, o if God has broken you in some area of your life, you can rest assured that he is making you more useful o for his purpose. o When God does the breaking it is always for our benefit, no matter how it may seem at first. 22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest. Finally, we note the time and season of the year o that Naomi and Ruth returned to Bethlehem. It was the beginning of the barley harvest, o which would have been around April. This is important. o The timing of Naomi s return is critical to her survival. It is no accident, o though she may not have planned it this way, God has brought her home in the perfect season
o for him to provide for her. o Naomi came home empty, but she would not stay empty. The barley harvest would provide her o with ample food to live on. o That s the way it works when we allow God to guide our footsteps. When Naomi went to Moab, o she was full but Moab emptied her. Now as she returns to Bethlehem she is empty but God will not o leave her that way. o Before this story is over she will be full again. Naomi found only sorrow in Moab. o Three graves give testimony to that fact. Moab was a place of sorrow. o That s the way sin always works. There were probably some pleasures in Moab, at first. But the pleasure of sin o only lasts a season and sorrow soon follows. o That is all that Moab had for Naomi, brokenness, bitterness and sorrow. But in Bethlehem she will find joy. o The barley harvest will bring Ruth into contact with Boaz, a near relative of Naomi, o which eventually results in her marriage to Boaz and the baby boy named Obed who was the grandfather of King David and the ancestor of Jesus Christ. CLOSE When we return to walking in the will of God, o providence begins to work for us again. The promise of Romans 8:28, o that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to his purpose o is not a promise for the disobedient but for the obedient. o All things do not work together for good when you are sinning. But when you get back on the path o of the will of God, things start working out for good. Divine providence becomes your helper again. o I was telling someone earlier this week that I am always amazed at how God takes our failures and shortcomings o and manages to graft them into his perfect will for our lives. That great great grandson of Naomi, o King David, would utterly fail God in his affair with Bathsheba, o but when he returns to the Lord in sorrow and repentance God, in his tender mercy, o grafts Bathsheba and her son, Solomon, into the same lineage that he grafted Ruth into. o Indeed, Ruth, a Moabite, entered into the lineage of Jesus Christ, in spite of the fact o that it was failure and brokenness that brought her to Bethlehem. I want to tell someone in this house, this morning, o that God isn t finished with your story. He s still writing the final chapters. o If you will trust him, if you will walk with him, if you will allow him o to order your footsteps, he s bringing you home at the beginning of the harvest season. o In just a little while you will be reaping his blessings in your life, if you will just trust and submit to him!