Bitterness & the Sovereignty of God – Ruth 1

Study Guide

Sermon Outline

“Bitterness & the Sovereignty of God”

Ruth: Blessing from Bitterness

Ruth 1

The Text

In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.

Intro

We’re big on sovereignty. Ruth deals with the mystery of God’s sovereignty and providence.

In this book:

• God is sovereign.

• How we experience his sovereignty is often strange and frightening; full of mystery.

• To be his people means to live in the space between the calamity he sends and the steadfast love he shows.

Note: Ruth is not a book of theological reasoning. It’s a story.

1. Famine in the House of Bread

2. New Life Out of Death

3. Bitterness from the Woman of Joy

1. Famine in the House of Bread

Historical/Theological Context

¹In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land…

• The Land – Ex 3:7-8
• Curses – Leviticus 26:19, 20
• Disobedience – Judges 21:25

Chronology:

• Events – 1250-1010 BC
• Composition – 1010 BC

¹and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.

Irony: Famine in the “House of Bread”

Journey to Moab:

• 30 miles East, another 30 South
• Moab:
  • Balak Israel in the Exodus
  • Eglon oppressed in Judges 3

The Folly of Elimelech

• Elimelech = “My God is King”

• “Instead of seeking grace, Elimelech’s family decided that if God will not provide what they need, they will provide for themselves.” – Ferguson

• His sons took Moabite wives: Orpah and Ruth.

• Elimelech & both sons died.

• Mahlon = sickly
  • Chilion = finished

One Famine. Three Deaths. Ten Years. Five Verses.

2. New Life Out of Death

⁶ Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food.

• Here & Ruth 4:13 – the Lord acts.

Dilemma: Should Orpah and Ruth go with her?

¹¹But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands?

• Orpah turns back, but Ruth remains.

¹⁶But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge.

• Ruth (Friendship/Refreshed) but this is more than mere friendship.

This is Conversion:

• No Advantage to Ruth

• Economic
  • Social
  • Racial
  • Religious

• “Return”

• 12x (return/go back/brought me back)
  • Loaded theological term!!!
  • Deut 3:1-3

• End of 1:16

Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

• Leviticus 26:12 (same passage as earlier)

¹²And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

3. Bitterness from the Woman of Joy

^13bNo, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.”

²⁰ She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.

Naomi (Joy) – Mara (Bitter)

Christians occupy the mysterious space between God’s absolute sovereignty & his steadfast love.

Ruth does not try to resolve.

Naomi’s Theology:

• The Lord is in charge. (Almighty, 1:20, 21)

• The Lord is steadfastly loving. (“kindly” 1:8)

• The Lord has decimated my life.

Christian: joy and sorrow mingle together.

LWBC – a church that can hear honest bitterness

Our witness is strengthened when outsiders see a people who can name hard providence and still hold on to Christ.

Aware of her own sin.

²⁰Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me

Confessing her own sin.

²¹ I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty.

Complaining, yes. But complaining to her God.

Conclusion:

God’s Sovereignty/Loving Kindness?

Ruth avoids resolution. Ends with birth.

• 1,000 years – God sent bread to Bethlehem.

• His birth—glad tidings of great joy.

• The hand of the Lord went out against him. Almighty brought calamity upon him—not for his own sin.

Child in Bethlehem… born and crucified so that Mara, and all who share her bitterness, might finally know joy.

Tension is not dissolved—it’s carried to the cross.