This morning we are going to take a look at the beginning chapter of the Book of Ruth. In these passages we are introduced to a woman of deep faith. The story begins by telling us that there was a famine in the land of Israel and a man from Bethlehem, named Elimelech, takes his family (a wife, named Naomi, and two sons) to the land of Moab in order to try to escape the effects of that famine. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes while they are living there and Elimelech dies, leaving Naomi a widow, and the two sons fatherless. The two sons take on Moabite wives, one named Orpah, and the other named Ruth.
It seems things must go on pretty well for about ten years. Then both of Naomi’s sons die. Now, we are not told about any of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Naomi’s husband or sons, but we now have three widows, Naomi, Orpah and Ruth living together in the land of Moab.
Naomi hears that there is no longer a famine in Judah, so she decides to pack up and return to her homeland to be near her remaining relatives. Her two daughters-in-law start out with her for Bethlehem, but Naomi soon tells Orpah and Ruth to stay with their own people, with her blessing, and to find husbands to supply their needs. Naomi says, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead husbands and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”
After some persuasion, Orpah does indeed turn around and head homeward, but Ruth demonstrates the faithfulness to be a risk taker, clings to Naomi and does not turn back. Naomi says to her, “Your sister-in- law is going back to your people and to your gods. Go back with her.” Instead of turning around, Ruth replies in the well-known verse 16, “Do not 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 will be my God.” And to emphasize the point, Ruth continues, “Where you die I will die and there I will be buried.”
Faith is a choice. Ruth made the choice, in faith, to go with Naomi to a land that was strange to Ruth to live out their lives together. It was a tremendous risk for Ruth to make that decision. But she had the faith to be a risk taker. She must have seen something in Naomi that she did not see in other Moabite women. Naomi’s God was different from the pagan gods of the Moabites. Ruth must have seen something in the life of her mother-in-law that she liked so much, she was willing to leave the pagan gods of her people, gods that she had probably worshipped since early childhood, and set off with Naomi to a land and life dedicated to the worship of the one true God and Creator of the universe. Ruth had seen faith in action in the way Naomi responded to the death of her husband and sons. Naomi did not harbor bitterness, but by faith trusted in God for her future.
Faith is not a feeling. Faith is a choice. You may say, “I don’t feel like getting out of bed today. I don’t feel like going to work, school, church, etc.” Yet we often choose to act, regardless of how we feel. Faith is like that. You choose to take God at His word and act accordingly, or not. You choose to believe in Christ as God the Son, or not.
Faith is not only a choice, faith also involves commitment. Ruth chose not only to move with her mother-in-law, she also made a commitment. Ruth was committing her life to a new country, a new God, and a new lifestyle. Ruth was to be a stranger in a foreign land. She was choosing to surrender her homeland, family ties and religious practices to follow Jehovah God and His people. Ruth ran the very high risk of being misunderstood and rejected.
Ruth makes a commitment to her mother-in-law that is very similar to the commitment made in a marriage covenant between husband and wife today. In verse 17 she says, “We will stay together until death separates us… May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.” This commitment Ruth makes is one of unconditional love, and it is very similar to the commitment a person who is sincere about becoming a Christian makes to God. When a person becomes a Christian:
In the movie Raiders Of The Lost Ark, there is a scene where Indiana Jones needs to get across a wide crevasse and no path is visible. But he remembers something about a supposed “invisible” path to the other side. So he closes his eyes and steps out into space where a solid path appears and he walks across the canyon safely to the other side. Many times our Christian faith is like that. We sometimes need to just close our eyes and take God at His word.
Peter showed that kind of faith the night that Jesus appeared to the Disciples walking on the water while they were in the boat crossing the lake. Peter said (in the Pastor Walt translation), “Lord if it is you, let me come to you on the water.” To which Jesus replied, “Sure Peter, just get out of the boat and come on over here to me.”
Faith is getting out of the boat. If you want to walk on the water, you cannot do it unless and until you get out of the boat. Jesus is not in the boat. Jesus is on the water. He is looking for people who will get out of the boat. Yes, the water may be dark, swirling and dangerous, but that is where you will find Jesus. He may ask you to get out of the boat and you may be afraid. You may have been huddling in the bottom of that boat for years, afraid to take the first step. But remember this: Jesus is right there to take your hand if you begin to sink. He did it for Peter. He will do it for you. Commit to Jesus for He is committed to you.
So faith and faithfulness are each a choice and commitment. Faith is also an adventure. Ruth made the choice and commitment to follow along with Naomi to Bethlehem, and what an adventure her faith took her on. In Judah, God provided for and guided Naomi and Ruth. That is not to say it was life on easy street. Ruth worked as one of the slave girls, even though she was not. God provided food and soon a husband by the name of Boaz. And get this, because Ruth remained faithful to God, she became the ancestor of none other that Jesus Christ! Ruth and Boaz are both mentioned in the genealogy of Christ found in Matthew 1:5-6. There we read, “Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse, the father of King David.”
Faith and faithfulness. Jesus tells us with just a small amount of faith, we can move mountains. He told Matthew, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move.” God says to us that with just a little faith, we, like the mustard seed, have lots and lots of potential. We need just trust that God can do big things with small, mustard-seed-sized faith.
Mr. Adorniram Judson was one of America’s very first missionaries. He was a living example of a person who made a commitment to live by faith and risk everything in serving the Lord. He fell in love one day with the daughter of a very wealthy aristocrat. He approached Nancy Hazletine’s father and asked permission to marry her. He also asked Mr. Hazletine if he was prepared to never see his daughter again, due to the nature of the risks associated with the mission field abroad. Mr. Hazletine said that the decision was entirely up to his daughter. This is what Nancy Hazletine said to her family. “I have made my decision to walk away from all of the comforts of family and friends to go to a land I have never been and from where I may never return… to die there alone and maybe lose all. I have made my decision. As God is my witness, I will not decline the offer and privilege to give my life to rescuing the perishing.”
Nancy Hazletine Judson never did see her father again. She died in the mission field, a young wife and mother with no regrets. She was willing to risk all for the sake of God’s kingdom. And because she was faithful to God to the end, history records that many, many people came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
God may never call you to a far away mission field, but He wants each and every one of us to have the faith that allows us to be willing to serve Him, however He may require, and to have the faithfulness to stick with it and see it through to the end. May everyone here have the faith to make the same commitment that Ruth made and say, as she said, “The Lord, God of Heaven and Earth, will be my God. I will never leave or forsake the Lord.” Jesus has promised to “never leave or forsake” us. Can we, should we, do anything less for Him? Amen.