A Bitter Reality

SERMON: 2008-04-06--ru0503--1-a-bitter-reality-part-2 SOURCE DURATION: 00:40:31.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with the speaker introducing the topic (sermon exposition). The material ends after discussing crop failure due to excessive rain, before transitioning into sustained acoustic music/praise singing. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:36:52.000-00:40:30.480 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- I want to begin this morning as we approach the book of Ruth by looking at the bitter reality of Naomi's life. Listen again to what she says to the people at Bethlehem when after 10 years she returns home. She says, "Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me. The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me." The name Naomi means pleasant. The name Mara means bitter. And the change of name that she is proposing and suggesting gives us a powerful insight into the bitter realities of her life. Here is a woman who has lost everything. If you look carefully at the verses that we've read together in chapter one of the book of Ruth, then you will discover the reason that bitter reality has overcome Naomi is because of a convergence of three events that have conspired to bring her to where she is. We're going to take a little bit of time this morning to look at each of these and then see how God in Christ promises to turn all of that around. The first reason that Naomi experiences the bitterness of reality is because there is a famine in the land. Ruth 1 verse 1, "In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land." Now a famine, as you know, is a shortage of food. And a shortage of food among the people historically is caused by one or more of the following factors. The first is crop failure. But in the Middle East and in many parts of the world, the most dominant cause of crop failure is the lack of rain. Even today, if you follow the news in the subcontinent of Africa, the nation of Mali and Niger, millions of people on the edge of starvation because the rains have not come. Sometimes crops fail because there is too much rain. We've seen that happen, particularly in the Manitoba regions of this country. Other times, the crop fails because of disease. Back in 1845 and lasting six years in Ireland, there was what is known as the great potato famine. For six years, they had no potato harvest. That potato harvest was the food staple of the nation. And during those six years, 1 million people in Ireland died. Another million emigrated to North America. The cause? Potato blight. Spores had drifted in from across the sea. Their crop was not prepared for it, and for six years they had no harvest. Those of us who are from PEI and who are accustomed to raising potatoes can tell you that to this day, potato blight is a dreaded disease and a lot of money is spent trying to apply the fungal material that is needed to keep the potato from succumbing to that disease. There's crop failure, and then there are oppressive economic policies that often cause famine. Up until the early '30s, the Ukraine and Eastern Europe was known as the breadbasket of Eastern Europe. And beginning in 1932 and 1933, the communists under Stalin enforced collectivization of the farms. Instead of being independent farmers, they made state-owned farmers. In order to make the population comply, they induced an artificially-created famine. Seven million people died during those years. And the same thing is happening even today in Zimbabwe under the leadership of President Mugabe. A number of years ago, you will recall, he took the land away from the white settlers and he gave it to his own thugs who don't know how to farm. And a nation that used to be a net exporter of food now constantly faces a shortage of food. Even more recently, he's been cracking down on squatters getting rid of their houses and their gardens, and another million people are homeless and without food. I saw on the news just this past week he's now turning to China and trying to get help from there. Crop failure, oppressive economic policies, and of course, the ravages of war. Anybody that's been through World War II in Europe, as a lot of our people at the 9 o'clock service especially have, will remember the hunger winter of 1944, 1945, when many people in many places were reduced to eating tulip bulbs because war destroys the food chain and creates economic havoc. Now we don't know, in this passage, we're not told what is the cause of the famine that caused the Limelech and Naomi ultimately to leave the land, but we can do some speculating because we're told that this story is set in the days when the judges ruled in Israel. We're also told there's about a 10-year period between their emigration to Moab and their ultimate return to the land, so the famine was less than 10 years. And without going into a lot of detail, if you add all together the figures, then it's very likely that the span of time that is being referred to is the invasion of the Midianites in the days of Gideon. They invaded the land for seven years and you may remember they had sort of a scorched earth policy. The Bible says they camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels. They invaded the land to ravage it. In other words, a combination of war and a deliberate oppressive economic policy undoubtedly coupled with the usual kind of crop failures produced this dreadful famine in the nation of Israel. And that's where their trouble began. And I belabor this point because there is a point to be made in all of this and that point is this. Not all of the trouble that we experience in life is of our own making. Now let me say that sometimes, indeed oftentimes, it is, is it not? We disobey God collectively or individually. We go our own way, we make bad choices, and we live with bad decisions, and we experience the consequences. And in the sense that the invasion of the Midianites was caused by Israel's sin, in that sense the famine was the disciplining hand of God upon their sin collectively. And there are many times you and I experience the consequences of our collective sin. That doesn't mean necessarily that it is our own doing because when discipline comes and when judgment comes, we all, to one degree or another, get caught up in the consequences. When war breaks out, Christians and non-Christians alike suffer and even die. When the economy collapses, Christian or non-Christian, you're going to suffer the consequences of what happens to the economy. And if an epidemic of bird flu breaks out, which of course they continue to be much worried about in recent months, then at least some Christians will die just as readily as non-Christians. It's very important to understand that because sometimes as believers we have a bit of a naive notion that somehow or another it's God's responsibility to keep me safe and out of harm's way. And then when he doesn't, as we'll see a little bit later on, we lose our faith and we turn against him. It's important to understand that, yes, there are marvelous promises that God makes to his people and there are marvelous instances in which God marvelously protects and keeps his people from evil. That having been said, when the big picture collapses, when famine strikes, when there is a collapse of the economy, when war takes place, Christians also can get caught up in the pain of what happens. That is the product of living in a fallen world. That doesn't need to make us afraid, but it does mean we need to have a theology that makes allowances for the fact that even as the rain falls on the righteous and on the unrighteous, so also the judgment and the disciplining hand of God cuts a very broad swath and being a Christian is no guarantee that you're always going to avoid getting caught up. Elimelech and Naomi and their two sons were so hungry they didn't know what to do with themselves. So Naomi's bitter reality begins with this famine and then is compounded by their decision to escape the famine by emigrating to Moab. Verse one goes on to say, "A man from Bethlehem and Judah together with his wife and two sons went to live for a while in the country of Moab." The map here will show you what was involved in that journey. Here is Bethlehem in Judah. Here is the nation of Moab. This is the Dead Sea and so they would either have to travel this way to Moab or if there was a road this way, they would have traveled the southern route. Don't know exactly what is the distance. I looked at the map, I'd guess anywhere from 150 to 200 kilometers. It was no small journey to leave Bethlehem and to go to Moab. Now again, please understand this, there's nothing wrong with emigration. If not ourselves, then many of our forebears right here, I suppose ultimately unless you're a Native American, all of us are descended from people that have emigrated from some country, immigrated into this one. And even Abraham many years ago when he lived in the promised land and when famine hit as it occasionally would, emigrated for a season and went to Egypt, got him into a lot of trouble you might recall. But here's what we need to understand about the decision they made to leave their country and to go to Moab. Two factors that I think are critical. Number one, God had given them an inheritance in Israel, that is to say a piece of territory that was their own and that was to stay in their family to all generations. You don't just walk away from what God has given you. In fact, what they probably should have done together with the rest of Israel is sought the face of God. Why is there a famine? Can we please repent of our sins and will you please give us the blessings that we're looking for? And number two, in going to Moab, aren't they really trying to find help outside of God and the blessings that God has promised them in the land of Israel? When you get to that point and you start to think through it a little bit, you see how typical their reaction is and how much you and I outside of God's grace are likely to fall into the same kind of situation. Now chances are most of us have never experienced any significant literal famine, oh, maybe a day or a week when we didn't have enough money to buy the groceries, some days we might even have been hungry, but nothing like the kind of famine that hits a lot of nations around the world. But not all famine is physical, is it? Sometimes there is a deep hunger in our hearts for love, sometimes there is a deep hunger in our hearts to be seen, sometimes there is a deep hunger in our hearts to matter, sometimes there is a deep hunger in our hearts to be a person of significance. And we look to God and we trust God to provide those needs, but then sometimes it seems as if he doesn't care, the heavens are brass and our prayers go unanswered and the hunger just intensifies, what do we do when we have our back against the wall? Well don't we too begin to cast about and look with an envious eye at the neighboring land of Moab and try to get help from places other than the Lord. Think of the young woman whose heart is hungry for love. God has not been hearing her prayer or giving her the man of her dreams and so there comes a given point in time where she says, "Well, if God's not going to do it, I'll take matters into my own hands," and she makes alliances that she may well live to regret. Think of the person who's got his back against the wall financially and you've prayed for God to answer, for God to provide, for God to supply, and it seems as if all the fountains of heaven are dried up. You got your back against the wall and how easy isn't it for all of us to make a deal with the devil and to try to get the devil to provide in some significant way what God does not seem to be providing? And how many people don't you know when confronted by illness and God hasn't heard or answered their prayers seemingly for healing and medicine doesn't do what they would have hoped it would do? How many people aren't there? Who, without regard for what scripture says, end up embracing some alternative form of medicine that may well be energy-based and totally at odds with what scripture says? How many people do you know that turn to quacks when everything else has already failed? How many people do you know who will sell their souls so their bodies can get better? See it's easy to sit in judgment when you see that happening. But if you've ever had your back against the wall, if you have ever been confronted by famine literally or spiritually or emotionally in such a way that your very existence was at stake then you will know how great is the temptation to go anywhere you can and make whatever bargain you need to make in order to have what you need to have. I think that's what lies behind this decision to emigrate to Moab. Many years later God says to Isaiah, "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen. But do not look to the Holy One of Israel or seek help from the Lord." It starts with a famine in the land. It gets compounded, I think, by their response to the famine. It digs them in even deeper. And then, of course, it comes devastatingly to a head in the death of her husband and her two sons. Now, Elimelech, Naomi's husband died and she was left with her two sons. After they had lived there about 10 years, both Malan and Kilian also died and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. To lose even one family member, as we've seen just this past week, is a devastating tragedy that cuts you to the core of your being. To lose all your family members, as Naomi did, is pain, I think, beyond description. And it's pain beyond description not only because your loved ones are gone, their companionship is gone, you no longer can connect and relate with each other. It is tragedy because in that culture, if you didn't have a husband to look after you, or if you didn't have sons to provide for you, you were left penniless and bereft. It was not a time of social assistance programs. You had no future, you had no hope, and you were truly left with a bitter reality of poverty and everything that came along with it. And so is it any wonder then that Naomi says to the women in Bethlehem, "Don't call me Naomi. Don't call me pleasant because my life has not been pleasant. Call me Mara, bitter, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi?" The Lord has afflicted me. The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. Do you notice in the bitter reality of her pain how easy it is to blame God for all her problems? The Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full. The Lord has brought me back empty. The Lord has afflicted me. The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. You know, there is a particular temptation that people of faith face, and that is to hold on to God in times of loss and in times of hardship. Because if it is really true that God exists and that he wants to bless his people, then when tragedy upon tragedy overcomes you and you are reduced to nothing but the bitter reality of your loss, as is true here for Naomi, then I'll tell you the temptation is to say either God does not exist or if he does, he is cruel and uncaring, and why should I love him and serve him? That's why many people, when they go through deep pain, when they experience deep loss, end up turning against the very God who is probably the only one who can provide help and comfort in their deep time of need. And here again, it is so important to have a theology and understanding of scripture that is bigger than the here and now, a theology and an understanding that sees the big picture of that also understands that not only is there a God in this life, but there's also an evil one, and there's an interplay between those two in a cosmic battle that is much greater than most of the time you and I have even yet begun to realize. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me. The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. And you know, I suppose the story could have ended here, Naomi could have spiraled down into bitterness and depression, died cursing God, as do so many. But the interesting thing is that's not where the story ends. And without getting into a lot of detail this morning, as the story goes on, we're told that Ruth, despite Naomi's desperate pleading, refuses to go back to her people, but throws her lot in with Naomi, travels back to the land of Israel, to the city and the region of Bethlehem. And there, wonder of wonder, she meets a man, well-to-do, rich, kind, a distant relative of Liminak, whose name is Boaz. They marry. Wouldn't you know they have a child. That child's name is Obed. Obed becomes the father of Jesse. Jesse becomes the father of King David, and King David, we know from scripture, ultimately becomes one of the forebears of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's a woman who's lost everything, who has no hope and who has no future. And through the ordinary, almost serendipitous events of life, ends up with a grandson who not only becomes her future and her hope, but one who ultimately gives birth to the great Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, who becomes the hope and the redemption of all the world. And we talk about life coming out of death, destruction being averted, and the curse being turned into a blessing. And that is the story of the Book of Ruth. I said earlier, it's a great love story, as we'll see later on, but it's a lot more than that. It's how God takes the bitter reality of having lost everything. And in His mercy, He meets Naomi, and He gives her a future, and He gives her a hope. And the book ends with that picture of Naomi dandling Obed on her knees, and all the women of Bethlehem rejoicing with her, because this woman who had lost everything in this child has just gotten everything back. That's really the meaning of the gospel, isn't it? And that's really the meaning of Comedian. God in Christ bears the penalty of all our sin, all our failure, not only that of ourselves, but that of everybody else around. When He hung on the cross, He absorbed all the curse so that by faith in Him, we could be delivered from the curse and experience the blessings of God. And even though we might only experience them in partiality in this life, we know that in the life to come, every tear will be wiped away, every broken heart will be mended, and nobody who has put his hope in God will have hoped in vain or be ashamed. We all know this morning as we draw near to the Lord in communion what kind of a summer you've had. Maybe your summer was really good. You've been relaxed, and God has blessed you, and you're full of joy. And if that's the case, rejoice in it and be sure to share it with others and to give thanks to God for it. But maybe, just maybe, you can identify a little bit with Naomi. You know the bitterness of hunger, needs that have not been met. You know the bitterness of loss. And you know a little bit of the temptation of the human heart to cast about feverishly trying to find our own solutions to the problems that we face. And this morning as we turn to the Lord, I would encourage all of us to place these at the foot of the cross and to say, "Lord Jesus, I don't know how you're going to make beauty out of ashes. I don't know how you're going to make a way through the wilderness. I don't know how you're going to provide for me when every avenue that I have tried and that I know has been shut down. I don't know how you're going to do it, but I know that because of Jesus, you're for me, you're not against me, even though sometimes I feel that. And so Lord, here I am without anything in my hands. I'm just going to trust that when the time is right, you will move, you will speak, and you will deliver. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. The voice was lost, but now I vowed I was blind, but now I see so clearly. Hallelujah, grace like rain, flows down on me. Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away. They're washed away. 'Twas grace that taught my heart to feel and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed. Hallelujah, grace like rain, flows down on me. Hallelujah, all my stains, they're washed away, they're washed away. 'Twas grace that taught my heart to feel and grace my fears relieved. 'Twas grace that taught my heart to feel and grace my fears relieved. Hallelujah, grace like rain, flows down on me. Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, they're washed away. Hallelujah, grace like rain, flows down on me. Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, they're washed away. Hallelujah, grace like rain, flows down on me. Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, they're washed away. Hallelujah, grace like rain, flows down on me. Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, they're washed away. [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:36:52.000; remove through 00:40:31.000] (gentle music) [CUT] [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:40:31.000; resume after this marked segment]