The title of the sermon is going to be Christians and Uncomfortable Seasons. In the story of Israel, Chris talked about earlier, it dates back to the time of the judges, and one can be left wondering, you know, is God's plan of redemption going to be unfolded? Because right now, everything is terrible. But the book of Ruth reminds us that God is always faithful to his promises, and keeps his promises. And we're going to see how this unfolds as Ruth bears the one of the kings, as the King David, and this will ultimately lead to the king of kings. But let's read the text real quick. Ruth, chapter one. Verse 1 through 5. Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man in Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Imalek, and the name of his wife was Naomi. And the name of his two sons were Mylon and Gilead of Bethlehem in Judah. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there. Imalek, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. Now they took wives of the women of Moab. The name of one of the wives was Orpha, and the name of the other was Ruth. And they grew up there about 10 years. Then both Mahlon and Kilian also died, so the women survived their two sons and her husband. Now let's pray real quick. Father God, thank you so much to be here on another Saturday of Lord's Day here with the people. I know no place better than to be here with the people. I worship you in your name, and I have a warranty of glory as true as about who you are. I pray as we hear you unpack this text, and I pray that everyone here will just leave with the application of a Enduring the midst of suffering and trusting in your name, cleaning the cracks, who alone can help us in the midst of these times. But also pray, Father, that you'll hide behind the cross, that the purity of our path is where it is, that we can just trust you and be exalted by your name. Amen. Amen. And Brother Jacob, he read it a little bit. But the story of Job is a very fascinating book in the Bible because it talks about a man who endures great suffering, right? A lot of times when we read the book of Job, we kind of put ourselves in that story. Oh, man, I feel like Job right now because I'm going through such great suffering, right? And God's been giving me a blessing, not literally. But you get the point, right, that a lot of people, the first thing they think about in the Bible as it relates to suffering is the book of Job. And just to read Job a little bit, kind of tie into our text, Job chapter one, verse nine says, so Satan answered the Lord and said, does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions, and have increased the land. But now, stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse you to your face. From this, we see one of the most profound words in scripture, in my opinion, in verse 12, God answers back in response to the devil when he says this, behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only do not lay a hand on this person. Basically, don't kill him. But you can do anything else you want to with him, right? So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and we see kind of like the events of the book of Job unfold, right? And again, you see Job being tried by Satan, and Job endures these trials, and his faith remains steadfast in the Lord. And at the end of this, Jacob quoted it, but it's a good first kind of remembering the book of Job. Job chapter two, verse 10, shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity? So why use the book of Job, right? How does the book of Job tie in to the book of Ruth, right? And again, many times, as Christians, like I've mentioned, we're a suffering who runs the book of Job because we think that God's gonna give us a blessing, right? Or God has a reason for this suffering. But a lot of times, in my opinion, I think Job is a reminder that when trials and adversity happens, a lot of times we don't do what Job did. Job has steadfast faith in the Lord in the midst of his trials, and yet how often is that true in our lives? In fact, the moment trials hit, we tend to want to escape, right, from these trials. And so you see that there's a sin problem, not only in Job, but also in the First Paul versus the Ruth. Mankind has a tendency to not trust God in the midst of trials or hardship or bad circumstances. We tend to run away. And what's the cure to this problem that the Book of Ruth helped us right? Since God allows trials, we must trust him in the midst of our trials. So again, the cure to Christians not having a tendency to remain steadfast in trials is that God allows trials, so we must trust him in the midst of these trials. I'm gonna break this down into two points. You ask the question why, is that true, or how do you know this? First point, we learn more about God through our trials. Second point, our faith grows in the face of loss. So again, we learn more about God through our trials and our faith grows in the face of loss. But let's break this down real quick. First point again, since God allows trials, we must learn about God throughout trials. You gotta look down at verse one, it says this. Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. And we just focus on this first part of the verse. Chris talked about it earlier, but it says, now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, This verse gets the audience to understand the context of when the events of Ruth take place. It says, in the days of the judges. And most commentators are divided on what the past tense of rule means. Did it mean in the days of the judges reign and rule, such as currently present, or as in the past tense, such as Ruth is like part two of judges. But regardless, we see kind of still the author setting us up in the context of what's going on in the day of the judges. And you may ask the question, what is a judge? Craig did a good job breaking that down. But the primary purpose of the judges was to deliver the Israelites from the oppression of the enemies. And we see in the book a constant cycle. Israel would turn away from God, and God would raise up a judge, and he would bring them back to worshiping him as covenant promises. And when that judge would die, they would go right back into sin, right back into worshiping idols, right? But judges also, they were coveting the horses as well as mediating God's law. So again, they would bring people back to God's word. But the moment they died, the heart, the tendency was right back into the grapple, right? But the primary role of judges was not just to focus on the judge, but the judge was supposed to be a picture of the future work that Christ would do in the new covenant, right? So I believe that if it was, The author's main intention was not simply just to talk about the judges, but again, to give us the context about Israel's heart during this time period. You guys remember Israel was very wicked this time. You guys can turn it real quick. Judges chapter two, verse 11, it says this. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the law. And they forsake the Lord God of their fathers, who have brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they follow other gods from among the gods, of the people who are all around them. And they bow down to them, and they provoke the Lord to anger. They forsake the Lord and serve idols. And the anger of the Lord was hard against Israel, so he delivered them into the hands of their enemies. And he sold them into the hands of the enemies all around, so they could no longer stand before the enemies. Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity. And the Lord then said, I swore unto them, and they were greatly distressed. Then verse 16 says this. Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who confronted them. Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods and bowed down. And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge delivering them out of the hand of the enemies. And so you see this picture again. The author of our text is kind of putting you in the time frame of what's going on with Israel and their hearts, right? And essentially, I know we have this cycle of faithfulness, and then you have sin, repentance, faithfulness, sin, repentance, right? But I think that if you look at the heart of all of that, because the moment that the judges die, they revert right back into what? Sinfulness, right? So I think the author here is trying to paint the picture that Israel as a whole, yes they were known as believers in there, but Israel for the most part they were unfaithful people. And it ties in to how the Book of Judges ends, right? In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. So you see that right now, this time period is one of great darkness and sorrow, because no one, where is faith, right? You can't find it. And of course, there's always a remnant, but right now in this time period, the author's trying to paint this picture that is dark and bleak. There is no faith. The first is keeping God's covenants, right? It also points back to Genesis 3.15. It says, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Here, God promises Adam and Eve that through each seed, the Messiah would come through and crush the head of the serpent, deliver her from sin. And you see this promise progressively unfolding throughout scripture by way of two seeds, right? You have the seed of light, the seed of darkness. And over and over throughout scripture, you see, it would look on the outside that the seed of darkness is winning. And yet, time and time again, God would come in the most unexpected way and deliver the people. And his promise of redemption would continue to unfold throughout scripture. And in the context of our book also, we see the same thing. But right now, on the outside, it looks as though Israel as a whole is aligned with the seat of the serpent. Because where is the fate, right? How can God's plan of redemption be unfolded if everyone in his nation is unbelieving and they're side with the devil? It's very similar to what Moses says in Genesis six, verse five. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of thought to his heart was only evil. So in his context, breaking the context down, you see what the author of Rupert's getting at when he says, in the days when the judges ruled, setting his context up, that these events have taken place, it's happened in a dark time, and God has swore redemption. But before we continue, that's not the context of the judges or Roots. That didn't sound like America today. America is founded on Christian principles, supposedly a Christian nation. And yet, how far has America gone from the word of God? Did you guys know that approximately, it's a 40% rate, it's still speaking now, but all marriages in America hit divorce. So a 40% number, all marriages and a divorce. But also, not only that, so another statistic. During the Holocaust, a terrible time period, right? Over 60 million people died. But in America, the abortion number from 1973 to 2020 is 62 million, right? Not only that, in America, we are right now supporting same-sex marriages, gay rights, transgender, police brutality, racism. And this is a nation that says they're one founded on Christian principles. And yet, look how far we are from the Word of God. But my main point is that this all happens when there is no king, and when everyone does what is right in their own eyes. And it makes you ask the question, as a Christian that lives in America, similar to Israel right now in this time period, that has no king, that has no faith, has God abandoned his right? Did he abandon Israel? If you look back down at the text, it says, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem. We'll get into that a little bit. But what does it mean there was a famine in the land? Now, not to have a theology class make Christ mad, but we know that right now, this book is what, the context is, you know, judges, but ridiculously speaking, the context of this takes place under the old covenant. And under the old covenant, I think that's, you know, anything from Exodus all the way to the time of the Messiah coming, that's the old covenant, right? And if you lived under the old covenant, there were things that pictured Christ to come, In particular, the law, right? There were certain laws that the people had to keep. And if you keep these laws, there will be blessings and curses. And these was to serve as a resemblance of the original covenant works in the garden, right? Because it demanded strict obedience. And so this gives that the word, it's called republication. You guys know what it is from talking about the service. But essentially, God republicized the same law that Adam had in the garden to the people of Israel. In Exodus, right? And if they were to obey God, they would get blessings. If they were to disobey God, they'd get curses, right? And for those who disobeyed God, there were several curses. In our text, it says there's a famine in the land. And I think this gets back into that old covenant type of resemblance of the covenant works because in Leviticus 26, it says this. But if you do not obey me, then I deserve all the things in my commandments. And you despise my statutes or my law. You are so hard in my judgment that you not perform all my commandments, but break my covenant. I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and earth like bronze, and your strength shall be steep and vain, for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit. And so here, you see that this covenant, a curse for those who do not obey God, has come upon the land right now. And Gretchen said earlier that most times we see the word famine in the Old Testament is usually associated with some kind of form of judgment, right? And I think here, it's no different. Because again, think about the context of judges. Where is the faith? In Israel, right? God gave these Jews to be a covenant community, one that's supposed to worship God, and yet they're worshiping idols. And so God would send these judgments to draw people back to the Messiah over himself. Trust in his promises, right? But here, where is that faith? Because the nation has turned her back from God, God sends this famine to the land as a form of judgment. Now the irony of this famine is you gotta look back down to verse two. It says a certain man of Bethlehem. Bethlehem is a Hebrew word, it means the house of bread. Yet here in the context, Bethlehem does not produce bread. And not only that, it's not producing much of anything, right? There's a famine. The irony is that in a place that's supposed to have plenty to satisfy, there's a famine. Think about that. A place that's supposed to have plenty to satisfy one's heart. It's not in a simple way. Because this is God's promise to the people. Now there's a famine. Now, but not only that, we're also told that during his famine, a man from here moves his family to Moab. This man's name, you'll have to look down at verse two, is Imalek. And Imalek is faced with a choice or a decision. Because again, we talked about Bethlehem being a house of bread, meaning that God has blessed this place, right? But Imalek is faced with a decision. He can stay in Bethlehem. And again, we talked about that the reason his family is here is because the judgments fall upon people who do not worship the God. They have not obeyed him, right? But Amalek, he could obey God and stay in Bethlehem, trusting in God, in the midst of this judgment that God would provide. Or he can move to somewhere else that's not the promised land. And on the outskirts, it looks like it's greener, right? You guys have heard the phrase, the grass is greener on the side. And so right now, the supposed promised land is not the promised land because it's not producing anything. There's a famine. Or he could go where the grass is greener, and move his family that right to provide. But the main idea here is on this side, trusting in God's promises. And on this side, it's taking matters into their own hands. That's a decision that him lacking space. But a similar scenario, right? Genesis 12, now finally knew Abraham, right? That's good. There's a family in the land, Abraham went down to Egypt to grow there, but there was a famine severe in the land. Abraham was told, what? That he would receive a land known as Canaan, and God would provide for him, he would bless him, and anybody that harmed him, what would God do? He would take care of him, right? But yet, Abraham, the moment that adversity hit, the moment that God's promises say to not fall through, over and over and over again, what does Abraham do? He takes matters in his own hands, and what? Turns away from God's promises, right? And yet, over and over again, you see God being unfaithful in the midst of this. MBLAQ is doing the same thing that Abraham did. And not only that, MBLAQ is in the same situation. Trusting God's promises to provide what takes matters in its own hands. But not only that, isn't it true in all hearts though, that we're facing the same decision? What do we do? Do we trust in God's promises? Or do we take matters into our own hands? But not only that, on the church level, maybe you're wondering, you know, why is the church not growing like it should, right? Why is God not sending elders or deacons or whatever, right? Maybe right now in the church we're being faithful, right? And it seems like God is not answering our prayers. Maybe on an individual level. You may ask the question of God, why me? Why this adversary? Why is my child doing this? Why is he hugging the wife? Why is my car breaking down? Whatever the trial is, right? Maybe a famine has hit you personally, right? A bursary has hit you, and you're facing the same question. Will you trust God in this adversity, or what? Will you take matters into your own hands, right? But many times as Christians, we run and seek after more. And the irony of this is that Amalek is a Hebrew name. It means, my God is king. So before Amalek went to Moab, his very name should have paused him in his tracks. My God is king, meaning I should trust God in the midst of my adversities. And yet, he did the opposite with his name. And again, as we kind of look deeper into this, you guys remember the context of Israel. God had delivered them from Egypt, right? They were oppressed by Pharaoh, and God delivers them. He brings them to the land of Canaan, a special place for them. He had all these promises attached, right? And now, in particular, God had called Emalat to live in Bethlehem. He therefore had no business running to Moab, right? Many times, many commentaries call Moab the place of compromise. And they call the land of Canaan the place of promise. deeper now because on one hand you can stay in a land of promise, on the other hand you can run to the land of compromise. But for Israel, the land of Moab, it was known for several things, all that. Number one, the Moabites, they originated from a relationship between Lot and his older daughter. So you see that this is already simple, right? Genesis 19, 30, you guys can read that. But just their origination of these people called Moabites come from that lineage. Number two, they had a king named Balaam, and he hired Balaam to curse Israel when they came out of Egypt. That's in Numbers 22. And thirdly, they had women that were a constant stumbling block for the men that visited them in the woods, seducing them to worship false gods, right? So think about this. On the outskirts, does this sound like a place that wants you to take this family to worship God? Uh-uh. But yet, Imoulac does this, right? But again, I keep picking on Imoulac, but this is also true in our own hearts. Many times, we know the right thing to do, and yet we turn the opposite. But instead of reverting to our flesh or our simple nature, it doesn't result in anything, why not trust in the Lord that he does provide? As a church, in the midst of adversity, why not trust the Lord? From a personal level, why not trust the Lord? Trials, they reveal what you're trusting in, but they also reveal what our idols are. And so God is presenting for the church as a whole, a good question, and that is, will you trust him? Will you trust that he will provide? And then as I was reading a good commentator, and he says, we learn more about the attributes of God in trials than in good times. Again, he says, you learn more about the attributes of God in the trials than in good times. I'm sure Joe learned more about God and his suffering than he did when things was going good, right? That's not to say you still can't learn about God when things are going good. It's almost like trials force you to depend on God more, and you realize more about who God is. On the church level, God right now is forcing the church, I'm sorry, forcing the church to trust in God, to pick on his attributes to learn more about him. But personally, the same is true of the land. If you're facing a trial, or adversity, or a family that hates you, it's the same reality. God is asking, will you trust me? Or, will you be like Amalek, and take matters into your own hands? This leads to our next point. Since God allows trials, we must learn about learned that our faith grows in the face of loss. So since God allows trials, we must learn that our faith grows in the midst of loss. Look right now at verse two. It says that the name of the man was Imalat, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the name of his two sons were Malon and Killian, chief brides of Bethlehem and Judah, and they went to the country of Moab and remained there. In Imalat, Naomi's husband died and she was left with her two sons. Now they took the wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Oprah, and the name of the other was Ruth, and they dwelt there about 10 years. Then both Malon and Killian also died, so the women survived, her two sons, and her husband. Many times, just reading that and looking at that, many times in life, we think that a lot of the decisions we make, they may be sinful or teetering on the sinful, because they have no instant judgment or instant consequence, we still keep on doing the right thing. And Emilat, on the outskirts, just reading the text, you're like, man, he's arrived for a family, that's a family here, he's doing the right thing, right? But in reality, he's actually in sin. because it's not trusting God's promises. It takes matters on hand. And on the outskirts, nothing goes wrong. But throughout this text, you see it gets worse and worse and worse. But just because judgment doesn't immediately hit, doesn't mean that you are in a good place with God. Doesn't mean that there's actually peace. A lot of times, God gives you over to your heart's desires. Imhotep, he moved his family from the land of promise to the land of compromise. and he was able to feed his family for a season. But what happens after this, right? We see that he dies. Along with that, we also see that his two sons die. But just to focus on this part right here, again, when I talk about the land of compromise, we see that his two sons married to Boabite women. If you're not familiar with the Old Testament, the Bible actually prohibits this, marrying foreigners outside of God's covenant people, right? Deuteronomy 7. He says this, nor shall you make marriages with them. You should not give your daughter to their son, nor take your daughter from your son. For they will turn your sons away from following you. They'll serve other gods. And so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. So this is a coincidence that Emilek dies when the law says this is what actually happened. But not only that, it's a coincidence that his sons died. So it would seem that the laws of the curse attached to the law for not abandoning is a reality in this text of Ruth right here. And now we have three characters left. Started with six, but now there's three. Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth. But just to focus on Naomi real quick, because Ruth, she's coming ahead. The book is called Ruth. So we got much time to focus on Ruth, right? Well, let's focus on Naomi real quick. In a matter of a few verses, her entire world has come crashing down. Falling apart, right? Women, typically, they depend on a male figure to provide for them, whether that be their father, their husband, or their son. And here, we're not told about her anything about her father, because she went to this land with her husband. Her husband then dies, right? The next people in line to take care of her would be her sons, but both sons died, right? And the text also says that they had been in this place for 10 years, and they were married. So during these 10 years, the sons did not provide her children or other sons to provide for her, right? So now, we see that the husband died, the son died, and so now it's three women. And the question is, how can she provide for herself? Not only that, she's been here for 10 years, right? So she's older in age. So not only does she not have the means to provide for herself, she's also older in age. And she's faced with the greatest loss that she can possibly be faced with. Losing a loved one. Three loved ones, right? With no way. And I guess, humanly speaking, her way right now, this moment to provide for herself. It seems like whatever's going wrong is going wrong in her life. And the worst thing that can happen is happening. But a big question for us is that when loss hits you, what do you do? As a church, what do we tend to do? And we'll find out in the next couple of verses that Shedini does turn back to God, but just not to focus on the next verse and focus on the dark times right now. Everything comes crashing apart, right? And I think this is because there are certain things that God allows to happen in our life that may seem bad on the outskirts, but these losses increase our faith. You may not understand them, I guess, temporarily speaking, or maybe never in this life, but in the next life, never got an answer to that question. But currently, right now, in your life, you've been faced with adversity, you've been faced with trials, and you've been faced with loss. You may ask the question of God, why? And the answer is that, again, God allows you to go through loss so that your faith will be increased. On the church level, God will grow his church in his time. He'll raise up elders, raise up deacons, send more people his way. In the midst of faithfulness, and you see that these women loving one another, God's promises come through this, right? So on the church level, the same can be true in us. But sometimes we have to walk through loss and be faced with these trials or be struck with a famine so that our faith can be increased in the Lord so that we can grow. And end on a good passage of scripture. Psalm 23, verse four. A passage you guys probably are familiar with. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff. This is true for us in the midst of famine, in the midst of adversity, in the midst of loss. God is always faithful. And for the most part, throughout the sermon, I've been strictly speaking to the believers, right? Because the church is supposed to be a place of believers gathering in worship of the Lord. The main time is people come to church. On the outside, they're a believer, right? But internally, there's no faith in God. And the reality is that when trial is hit for the unbeliever, there is no peace. There is no joy, there is no happiness, right? There is no comfort. Where can you run to to fix your trials? You can try drugs, you can try relationships, you can try alcohol. All those things are a temporary fix. But notice in this text, well, I didn't talk about it much, but in next week's text, you'll see that people that trust in God and his promises, there's buttons attached to it, right? But in the world, where can you run to? The best thing about being a Christian is that it's not that we sit on face trials, but it's that when trials hit, we have a person to lean on. His name is Christ. But we have one main idea throughout this text, over and over and over, is that since God allows trials, we must trust in the midst of our trials, and we have two points. We learn more about God through our trials, and secondly, our faith grows with the faith we lost. Let's pray real quick. Father God, thank you again so much for your text, your story, your group.