This morning we will not be turning to the Gospel of Mark. This morning we're going to be looking at Ruth chapter 1. Ruth chapter 1. We're going to read the first six verses. We're going to take a little break in our series on Mark and we'll pick it up again sometime in the new year. So we begin now a series on the book of Ruth. We'll start reading Ruth 1 verse 1 and we'll read until verse 6. Ruth 1, starting at verse 1. This is God's Word. 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. The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Malon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Malon and Kilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. 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. And that's as far as we're reading in Ruth chapter one. I would encourage you to keep your Bibles open as we'll be going through these six verses together this morning. Well, dear people of God, one of the many books written by reformed theologian R.C. Sproul is entitled From Dust to Glory. From Dust to Glory. And the book is really a crash course in the story of the Bible and the history of redemption. begins in the garden and then culminates with the book of Revelation and the glorious blessing and victory that we find in that book. And the book of Ruth is sort of like a small-scale version of that. The book of Ruth begins in the dust. It begins in a dark and gloomy place, but it ends with blessing and it ends with glory. And we're going to be going through the book of Ruth over the next few weeks. In fact, Lord willing, this series will take us right up until Christmas time. I hope that as we explore this book together, we can see the providence of God. We can see the love for his people. We can also see the amazing grace of our God that comes to us full force in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And so let's dive in and explore this book together. And we're going to start at the very beginning. The words of verse one give us an important timestamp. In the days when the judges ruled, or quite literally, in the days of the judging of the judges. The reason that this is an important time stamp is that if you were to flip one page over and go to the very last verse of the book of Judges, you'll find these words in Judges 21-25, In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. In fact, the book of Judges is marked by a very tight and succinct cycle. The people of Israel fall into sin. The Lord in response sends some kind of affliction or discipline. In response to that, the people cry out to the Lord for help and deliverance, and so God, in His grace and mercy, sends a judge to deliver them, and peace is restored in Israel. But then the judge dies, and the people of Israel return to their sinful ways once again. And here in Ruth 1, verse 1, we read that it was during those days, those days of disobedience and deliverance, that the events of this book take place. This is sort of an appendix to the end of the book of Judges. But while the message of the book of Judges was predominantly and primarily one of struggle and sin, the story of Ruth actually has a very different focus. And we'll see that different focus as we go through this book together. The author continues in verse 1, and he says, There are two possible reasons for this famine. These two reasons, though, are not necessarily mutually exclusive. First of all, this famine could be because the Israelites were being ransacked and raided by one of their enemies. Now we don't know exactly when in the book of Judges, the events of Ruth take place, but we do read at the beginning of Judges 6 that after Israel planted their crops, the Midianites would come, they would camp out in and around the fields, and then as soon as it was harvest time, the Midianites would destroy and ransack all of the Israelites' produce. So it could be that the people of Israel were experiencing a famine because of these Midianite raiders. But another and perhaps more direct reason for this famine could be the just judgment and discipline of the Lord. Moses, in fact, had warned the people about this in his farewell speech in Deuteronomy 28. He says in verse 15, if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God, or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. And then as chapter 28 continues, the Lord through Moses begins to list some of those curses. I'll give you a couple of examples. In Deuteronomy 28, 23-24 we read, "...and the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron. The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed." Or think about verses 38-40. You shall carry much seed into the field, and shall gather in little, for the locust shall consume it. You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for the olives shall drop off. And so this famine could be a direct act of discipline from the Lord. But regardless of the specific reason for the famine, the bottom line is both clear and consistent with the overall message of the book of Judges. The people of Israel are not obeying the Lord and they are suffering the just and righteous discipline of the Lord because of their disobedience. And that sort of makes what happens next and what comes next in the book of Ruth a little bit unexpected. Because based on the fact that this famine was happening during the time of the judging of the judges, you would almost expect to read that the people of Israel cried out to the Lord in their distress. That would make sense because it fits with the general narrative cycle of the book of Judges. But that isn't what we read. In fact, we actually find the complete opposite as verse 1 continues. 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." Instead of repenting from their sin, this man packs up his family and they leave to sojourn in Moab. The word for sojourn here implies that this was only meant to be a temporary thing. They were just going to do this for a short period of time, a little hiatus from the promised land. And then eventually they were planning to return. Now on the surface it seems wise and prudent. This man had a family to look after. He needed to provide food and water. So isn't he doing what any well-meaning father figure would do? He's packing up his family and he's taking them to greener pastures so that he can better provide for them in a time of famine. But really, this is a terrible thing for this man to do. But if we're going to understand why this was wrong and sinful for him to do this, we have to consider the fact that these opening two verses are actually dripping and saturated with irony. And in a subtle but brilliant way, the narrator of this story uses that irony to expose the sinfulness and unbelief of this man and his family. And that irony predominantly shows itself in two particular ways. First of all, we see that irony in the name Elimelech. Remember our historical context. This is happening in the days when the judges judged. In the days when there was no king in Israel and everyone did as he saw fit. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. The name Elimelech means, my God is king. In the days when there's no earthly king in Israel, Elimelech's very name testifies to the royalty and the majesty of God. Elimelech's name bears witness to the power and sovereignty of Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel. And yet, Elimelech still leaves the promised land and does his own thing. Instead of trusting in his God and king, Elimelech goes his own way. And second, we see that irony in the meaning of the name Bethlehem. The name Bethlehem means the house of bread. There's a famine in the land of Israel. And so during the days when there is no king in Israel, my God is king has no bread in the house of bread. You see what the narrator is doing here. He's building the drama. He's heightening the intensity of this story. You see, these aren't just random insignificant details. These are true elements of a true story that have real meaning and real significance. How do we know? Well, look what happens next. Elimelech and his family go to Moab. Moab was an enemy of the people of Israel. They were descendants from Lot and his daughters. And so Elimelech and his family are seeking shelter in the land of idolatry, in a land that is saturated with the enemies of God. And they had only gone there to sojourn. But they end up sticking around. The author tells us that they remained there. What was meant to be a temporary thing ended up being the place where they actually put some roots down. They got comfortable. They settle down. In fact, verse 4 even tells us that they lived in Moab for at least 10 years. Elimelech's sons, Malon and Kilion, even marry foreign Moabite women. You see, what's happening here is that Elimelech and his family are essentially starting a new life outside the promised land, outside the land of God's blessing, and outside the covenant community of God's people. They are effectively cutting themselves off from the Old Testament Church of Christ. That's what's going on here. The unbelief in Elimelech's heart, his lack of faith in his God and King, is being highlighted. Elimelech isn't trusting in the Lord. Elimelech is going his own way. Elimelech is doing his own thing. He even removes himself from the covenant community of God. Instead of acknowledging his sin or even the sin of his people, instead of turning to the Lord in repentance and faith, instead of humbling himself and submitting to the yoke of the Lord's good and righteous discipline, Elimelech decides that trusting in the Lord and remaining in the promised land isn't worth it anymore, and so he leaves. Think about what that means in the greater context of redemptive history. This is all happening after the Lord has delivered His people from slavery in Egypt. The Lord has delivered His people from their cruel, brutal Egyptian taskmasters. On top of that, the Lord has brought them into the promised land. He's destroyed their enemies before them. He's brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey. The Lord has proven His faithfulness and His love. The Lord has shown that He is the faithful God and King. The Lord has made it very clear that He will stop at nothing to make His chosen people a royal priesthood and a holy nation. At this point in redemptive history, time and time again, the Lord has showered His people with love, with provision, with faithfulness, with goodness, and with blessing. And Elimelech says, no thanks. That's not enough anymore. I'm gonna do my own thing, thank you very much. And it can be so easy to point fingers and accuse, but we are so much more like a limelight than we tend to think. You see, we go rogue all the time. We try and do things by ourselves all the time. We look to ourselves, our own strength, our own abilities, our own wisdom, our intelligence, even our finances and whatever else. That's what we put our confidence in. When life gets hard, we tell ourselves, well, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And so we buckle down. We put our heads down. We give ourselves a little pep talk. I got this. And then we make decisions that we think are the right decisions for us to make. All the while, we fail to look to the Lord. We fail to get on our hands and knees in prayer. We fail to humble ourselves. We fail to ask the Lord for his help and his blessing, and we fail to recognize our own weakness. We believe in our own strength. We fail to consider our own sin. We fail to consider how much we need a Savior. We forget that apart from God's will, we can neither move nor be moved. And so we do our own thing without even a passing thought about the God who loves us and gave up His Son for us. As the hymn writer says, O what peace we often forfeit! O what needless pain we bear! All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. See, there isn't nearly enough of a focus on the God who provides everything for His redeemed people. Our lives need to be marked by fervent and devotional prayer, by prayer that trusts and believes in the amazing grace of God and in his promises. We need to look to the Lord at all times and for all things because the hard-hitting, slap-in-the-face reality is that apart from him, we are absolutely nothing. We wouldn't even exist. We need him for every single breath that we breathe. Apart from His grace, we're still dead in our trespasses and sins. Apart from His grace, we're completely lost and helpless. Apart from His grace, we are completely and totally without any hope whatsoever. But you see, the message of the Gospel is that God in His grace has already met our biggest need. He's already given us Jesus. He's given us salvation. He's redeemed us. He set us free. He's made us His own. He's adopted us to be His children. That's what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. And yet, for some strange reason, when things get difficult in our lives, when stresses, when worries, and when sorrows pile up, we operate as if our God doesn't even exist. As if He isn't with us in the day-to-day things of this life, the so-called mundane things. Even the hairs of our heads are numbered. But foolishly and selfishly, we fail to look to our God in our time of need. We go our own way, we do our own thing, and we trust in ourselves just like Elimelech and his family do here in Ruth 1. You see, we need to see our own sin in the sin of Elimelech and his family. We need to recognize how similar we are to Elimelech. Because in Elimelech's life, the results of his sin were significant. Look at verses 3 and 4. Verses 3 and 4. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years. Elimelech's sin leads to death. Because the wages of sin is death. Elimelech went to Moab to sojourn, but the land of Moab is where he dies. He dies outside the covenant community of God, outside the realm of God's blessing, outside the place where the Lord had set his love and set his name. Elimelech dies in Moab. It's a very subtle warning for those of us who either directly or functionally cut ourselves off from the covenant community of God. You see, the Lord has set his love on his church. The Lord has promised to protect and preserve his church because the church is a place of blessing and a place of spiritual health and vitality. And so a refusal to come to church or a refusal to commit oneself to the church A refusal to use your gifts to serve the church, or a refusal to just be a living member of the church is a dangerous, dangerous thing. In fact, there was even a church father named Cyprian in the 2nd or 3rd century who said, no one can have God as his father who does not have the church as his mother. In other words, being a living member of a true Bible-believing church is absolutely vital for our spiritual health and well-being, because there's a very good argument that outside the covenant community of God, death is waiting. Elimelech dies in Moab. And if you couple that with the fact that Elimelech went his own way, did what was right in his own eyes, and didn't even repent or ask the Lord for help, And there's enough of a warning here for all of us to consider how we live. Are we looking and praying to the Lord for strength and help in our time of need, or do we look to ourselves? Elimelech dies of Moab. Second, Elimelech's sin leads to more sin. His sons marry foreign women. This was forbidden by the Lord in Deuteronomy 7. To be very clear, this isn't a racial or ethnic thing. It's a spiritual thing. In those days, someone's religion was very closely tied to their ethnicity. And so if the people of God married foreigners, then the covenant community of Israel would be defiled by unbelief and idolatry. And so to protect his people from being polluted by the world, the Lord commanded the people of Israel not to marry foreigners. That's exactly what Malon and Kilion do. In the land of Moab, cut off from God's people, outside the covenant community, the sons of Elimelech ally themselves even further with the enemies of God by becoming united to them in marriage. It's a real warning to young people who are looking for a spouse. He or she needs to be committed both to the Lord and to his church. If they're not, then you need to ask, excuse me, then you need to ask if you should be dating them or even interested in them at all. It's also a warning to parents to raise their children in the fear and the knowledge of the Lord. To raise your children in the covenant community. You've made a commitment right here at the baptismal font. You've made a commitment to raise your children in a God-centered, a gospel-centered, and a Bible-centered way. So honor that commitment. Take that task and that calling seriously. Encourage your children in their Bible reading, in their prayer life, while they do their catechism lesson, and so on. Third, limilexed sin leads to even more death because Malon and Kilion also die in Moab. They die outside the covenant community of God, cut off from the land of blessing. They die in the land of God's enemies. And so if we take a step back and if we look at verses 1 to 4 as a whole, this is starting in the dust. This is one of the darkest introductions to any book of the Bible. It's almost Psalm 88-like. During the days of the judges, during the days of death, devastation, and disobedience, there's a famine in the land flowing with milk and honey. And then we read about a family that refuses to trust and obey the Lord. They go off and do their own thing. And they pay the consequences. And verse five ends with dark, dark words. And both Mallon and Killian died so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. You see, if Naomi was in Israel at the time, this would have been bad enough. But now she's a widow in charge of two daughters-in-law in a foreign land. She's exposed. She's helpless. She's a sitting duck. The sins of her and her family have left her in a horrible and indeed a dangerous situation. She needed a miracle if she was going to survive. And a miracle is exactly what happens. Because the Lord is full of grace, He's full of compassion, and He's full of mercy. Look at verse 6. And she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab. For some reason, she's going back. There's a little bit of suspense here, but we get the reason. For she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. The Lord has visited his people. And notice how Naomi hears of it. She just kind of hears of it. Somehow and in some way in the fields of Moab, seemingly at random, seemingly out of the blue, Naomi just so happens to hear that the Lord has visited His people and given them food again. But think about what that means. That means that in spite of the sin and rebellion of His covenant people, indeed in spite of the sin and rebellion of Naomi's family, the Lord still visits them. He gives them food. He provides for His covenant people. The Lord is once again proving His faithfulness and His love. And then by word of mouth, Naomi hears of it. She hears that once again, there is bread in the house of bread, and so she goes home. She returns to the land of blessing. She goes back to where she belongs. Because this is what the Lord does. In His covenant faithfulness, the Lord continues to draw us back to Himself. And the main way He does that is through the message of His goodness and His providence. Through the Word, God is constantly drawing us back to Himself and reminding us of His love and provision. And there's no better expression of the Lord's providence and love than what we find in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Because Christ is the true and living bread sent from heaven. Christ is the visitation of God to His people. He is the full expression and the full revelation of the glory of God. John Owen has a great book on that called The Glory of Christ. By His death and resurrection, Christ has given us everything that we need for body and for soul. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want We've been delivered from our sin and misery. We've been set free from bondage to sin. We've been redeemed from our lives of spiritual famine and spiritual slavery. We have been made alive in Christ Jesus. You see, the Lord visiting his people and giving them bread in Bethlehem here in Ruth is a small foretaste of what the Lord would again do in Bethlehem many years later when he sent his son to be our redeemer. That's why this series is called Bread from Heaven. Because it's about Christ. It's about the true heavenly bread. It's about the spiritual manna. It's about the bread of life who was born in the house of bread to provide eternal nourishment for our hungry souls. And so when you sit under the preaching of the Word, when you do your family worship, when you do your personal devotions, you need to be listening for the still, gentle, compassionate voice of the Good Shepherd excuse me, who is calling his straying sheep back to himself. Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. I will give you what you need. And so just as Naomi is called back to the promised land because of the message of God's providence, so too our souls are called back to the Lord through the message of the gospel. The Lord provided Naomi with physical bread. But God in Christ has given us spiritual bread for the eternal nourishment of our souls. And that matters for the day-to-day. That has a direct impact on how we view and approach our lives even now. Think about what Paul says in Romans 8. Romans 8, 31 to 32. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? In other words, if God has already given us Christ, if he's already given us salvation, if he's fulfilled our biggest need, we can trust that he will provide for us in our time of need. We don't need to look to ourselves or our own abilities. No, we look to Jesus. We look to the Lord. We believe in the promises of our God. We believe that He will never leave us or forsake us. Our God knows what He's doing. He's guiding us. He's leading us. He provides for us. And so no matter what we face, We need to trust and believe that our God is caring for us in a beautiful and a glorious way, even if we don't fully understand how. And as the book of Ruth unfolds, we're gonna see how the Lord showers Naomi and her family with blessing upon blessing upon blessing, blessings that ultimately come to full expression in the person and work of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Let's pray together.