RUTH 1: 15-18

LESSONS IN TOUGH TIMES

Let’s pray together:

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for all you have given us, for all you suffered for us. Most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother, may we know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day. Amen.

Before we dive into our reading – we need to have a summary of what’s happened.

So we have Naomi and her husband who lived in Bethlehem. Then they moved to a different country – Moab. There their two sons married Moabite women – one of whom was called Ruth. Then disaster strikes. Naomi’s husband dies and then both her sons. She is left, therefore, in a foreign country with her two Moabite daughters-in-law.

This would have been an absolute disaster. Personally, socially and economically. They would be thinking – how we will survive? What about our income (which would be severely impacted with no men around to provide). And what about their future? No children or grandchildren to look after them and provide for them as they got older. And for Naomi – to make matters worse – she was living in a foreign land, with all the insecurities that would bring. The sheer vastness of the worries they would have had would have been like a tidal wave.

So Naomi and her two daughter-in-laws decide to go back to Bethlehem (Naomi’s home town) and start on their journey. After a while they stop and Naomi – for whatever reason – says to her two daughters-in-law that really they should go back. Maybe she had on her mind how difficult it would be for them as foreigners in a strange country – as she might have found it in Moab?

So one daughter-in-law goes back but Ruth doesn’t want to go back. And this is what happens next:

15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” 16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t 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 my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. (Ruth 1: 15-17)

Put yourself in Ruth’s shoes. You’ve lost everything. You’ve lost your husband, father-in-law and brother in-law. And now your sister-in-law has gone back home. You’ve lost your hopes and dreams – all swept aside by this tragic turn of events. And you now find yourself leaving your own country – with all its familiar people and patterns and heading to a place you may never have been before and all the worries and doubts you would have about that. Then you’ve stopped on this road and your mother-in-law has more or less instructed you to go back home.

Do you stay or do you go? What would you do?

How do you deal with things when life goes pear shaped? When disaster strikes – what’s your response?

Maybe you feel downcast or sorrowful. Maybe anger (have you noticed how angry people are these days?). Maybe you lose hope in life itself?

Maybe that is how you feel now? You feel you are living “in-between”. There are two lands: Before Coronavirus and post Coronavirus. And you are in the middle. And maybe the tidal wave of worry and concern about everything sometimes rises so far it swamps everything?

So what do we do? Firstly – don’t panic! Let’s see what the Lord says through this passage.

There are three lessons I would like to draw out of Ruth’s response in verses 16-18.

  • Speak to the voices of doubt within

Notice what Ruth says to Naomi: “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.”

Sometimes when disaster strikes, the voice within can be self-pitying or full of fear or simply a fog of sorrow. It’s at times like this when we need to speak to those voices inside.

There’s a wonderful book by Martyn Lloyd Jones called Spiritual Depression. In it he was meditating on why he felt so downcast – and this is what he wrote:

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but there they are, talking to you. They bring back the problem of yesterday. Somebody’s talking. Who’s talking? Your self is talking to you..…. So he should stand up and say: “Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you.”

So as the doubts of life start to rise like floodwaters – rather than let them swamp you and overwhelm you – speak to them. If necessary – tell them where to go! Speak the clear truth into the fog of doubt. Let the truth be a lighthouse in those times. But speak it. I find it very helpful to actually tell my doubts the truth! 

We were on holiday last year in Polzeath and in the café on my Uncle Martin’s Caravan Site there is a game which George and I enjoyed playing. Whack-a-mole. Those pesky moles would rise up and our job was to whack them right back where they belonged. Well – that’s not a bad principal when these awful feelings, fears, doubts and worries rise up – whack them with the far superior promises of Jesus. So take a promise of God in the Bible – chew on it. Go round and round it and let that fill your mind instead.

As an example: So when I feel absolutely swamped by events – I turn immediately to James 1: 2-4 – “Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know when your faith is tested…”

From this I can see that God is not testing my ability to deal with these events as it says: your faith is tested – not your ability is tested. But this is an alarm call to trust Jesus in that moment as he will do something wonderful through this time of testing. I don’t know what that something is – but it will be good. Why? Because God is good.

  • Keep deeply connected with your Christian brothers and sisters

See what Ruth says to her mother-in-law in verse 2: Your people will be my people

In saying this, Ruth will be part of a bigger family. If you are a Christian – you have loads of Christian brothers and sisters. I have a Christian mate who calls me “bro” and I call him bro too!

So don’t give up on meeting (Hebrews 10: 25) and keeping in touch with fellow Christians. They will lift you up when you are down; and vice versa.

I work in the top floor of our office and there are three of us. And all of us are Christians. I mean no disrespect to anyone else in the office, but the depth of the conversations are so vastly different than with anyone else because we are Christians. There are certain things you cannot really share easily with a non-Christian – and I mean no unkindness – but it is because they would not understand.

So it is vital to keep on keeping on with our Christian relationships.

  • He is yours and you are his

Ruth then describes the Lord as “my God.”

Just take the last two words of verse 16 and chew them over – saying them in as many ways as you can – the words: “my God”. Just stop and do it now.

I don’t know how you prefer to say “My God” – but today I’ve been saying on and off “My God” with the emphasis on the “my”. MY God. He’s mine. Mine. Just let that sink in as you say it. There’s a sense of belonging in that. He belongs to you because you belong to him. Not because you are great – or worthy – or gracious – or beautiful – or powerful – or perfect in every way. But because he is. He sees us in our weakness – and stoops to save us from ourselves. He has bought you at a price. You are his and he is yours.

In the midst of misery, to know that God does not abandon you but wants to be with you – and to save you and continue to save you – what a truth!

So, with all that is happening at the moment, remember God is in control. All these things are temporary. He has called you to himself and so before you go to glory – you are here to be his, where you are now.

John Newton says this in his hymn, Amazing Grace:

The Earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbear to shine
But God, Who called me here below
Will be forever mine
Will be forever mine
You are forever mine

Let’s pray together:

Lord Jesus, would you draw close to us as we draw close to you. Teach us to rest in you in this time. Would we know what it is to belong to you and to know the preciousness of your presence in us. In your lovely name we pray, Lord Jesus. Amen

The Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory now and for ever. Amen.


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