Ruth chapter one, verse six through 18. We're actually gonna start in verse one. And by way of introduction, the book of Ruth is set in the context of the book of Judges. And this is a time during Israel's lifespan where faith is rare. People actually have a lack of faith in God. And over and over, God will raise up a person, particularly a judge, to offer back to God. And as soon as this judge would die, the people would go right back into their sin. And so it makes you ask the question, oh man, has God abandoned Israel? Is God's plan of redemption still unfolded? And we see how God's plan still unfolds to two particular women, Naomi and Ruth. So let's go back just a day in our text. Let's look at that first one. It says, 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 live 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 the two sons were Malon and Achilleah, Ephratah of Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there. Then Amalek and Amalek's husband died, and she was left with her two sons. Now they took wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelt there about 10 years. Then both Malon and Kilian also died. So the woman survived her two sons and her husband. Verse six, then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she may return to the country of Moab. For she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited his people by giving them bread. Therefore, she went out from the place where she was and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went out on the way to return to the land of Judah. And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, go return to her mother's house. The Lord did kindly with you, as you have dealt with me. and the dead with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest each in the house of her husband. So she kissed them and lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, surely we will return with you to your people. But Naomi said, turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb? That they may be your husbands. Turn back, my daughters. Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, If I should have a husband tonight and should also birth sons, would you wait for them till they're grown? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? No, my daughters, for it gives me grief very much for your sake, such as the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. When they lifted up their voices and wept again, Oprah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. And she said, look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return to your sister-in-law. Return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said, entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you. For wherever you go, I will go. And wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people should be my people, and your gods should be my gods. And will you die, I will die. Will you die, I will die. And there will be, I will be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me." When she saw this, that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her. Let's pray real quick. Father God, thank you again so much for being here with your people. Another Sabbath day, another Lord's day. I pray as we hear our Baptist text, I pray that it will be encouraging. and people leave here with application. First, it's just head knowledge, and that's transformative. I need you to say that prayer in your name. Amen. Amen. Three familiar paths that you guys are probably all familiar with, one of them in the New Testament. In particular, in Matthew 14, you guys know the story of Peter walking on water. Jesus, through his ministry, he did several miracles. One of the miracles is that Jesus, a man, walking on water, right? But not only Jesus, he allowed Peter to also walk on the water. The text right here in Matthew 14, verse 30. When he saw the wind, he was afraid and began to sink. And he cried out, Lord, save me. Immediately, Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. And he says, you will fail. Another passage you guys are probably familiar with. In Exodus, you guys remember the people, God delivered them in the hands of Pharaoh. And they went to the Red Sea. And God destroyed all their enemies. And they were in the wilderness for a long time. And the journey from Egypt to Israel wasn't that long. But yet, they were in the wilderness. In particular, in this particular case, Exodus 16, verse 2, it says this, in the desert, the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, if only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt. There we sat in pots and meats and ate all the food we wanted. But you have brought us out into the desert to starve this entire city by death. One more passage. You guys are familiar with the story of the kings, in particular, Elijah. Elijah had seen many things by God, and he just ran away from Jezebel. And Jezebel was after him, and so, during a significant part of his life, or this trial, his faith began to waver. In this particular case, in verse one, chapter 19, while he himself sent a day's journey to the wilderness, he came to a broombush and sat down under it and prayed that he might die. I've had enough, Lord, He said. Take my life. I am no better than my ancestors. Now, how do all three of these passages connect to the story of Ruth? You know, KJ, why do you use these three stories, right? Why do you use these three stories? Because all three of the characters in those passages, they all were believers, right? They all had faith in God. But immediately when a trial hit, what happens? Their faith wavers, right? In particular, we focus on the Israelites. This kind of highlights our text right now, because if you look at the judges, this is all they ever did. God sent the judge. They would be faithful. And so when the judge dies, it's right back in the sin. Peter's the same way, right? Peter, he's walking on water, he's trusting the Lord, his trial is gone, or he sees a storm, the wind blowing a certain way, takes his eyes off God, he loses focus, right, and his faith begins to waver. Elijah's the same way. In our text, we see that mankind has a tendency to waver in their faith when trials hit. Lastly, we discuss how mankind's sin in the text, but that when trials hit, we try to want to escape the reality of these trials, right? A lot of times when adversity hits, the first thing we think about is how to get out of adversity versus what is God doing in the midst of this trial. But here, again, the same problem is that when trials hit us, our faith begins to waver. And from this text, what's the cure or the remedy to this problem? The cure to this problem, if you are a Christian that struggles when trials hit and your faith wavers, the cure is that God's faithfulness endures in our trials. So we should trust in his providence. We're going to break this down in three points that answer the question of why. You might ask the question, how is that possible? How do you make this case? The text helps us with this by our first point. His providence is what gets us through our trials. Our second point, it's providence in our trials allows us to be a witness to others. And lastly, it's providence in our trials brings others to faith. So our first point, it's providence is what gets us through our trials. Before we break down the text, what does the word providence mean? It says in the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 5, Section 1, God, the great creator of all things, does uphold, direct, and dispose and governs all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least. That's based on Big Pants' way of saying it. Everything that happens within creation, God is at hand. Is that still too much? Nehemiah, Chapter 9, Verse 6. You are the Lord. You alone have made the heavens, the heavens of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth and all that's in it, the seas and all that's in them. and you preserve all of them. If that's still not enough, Psalms 145, verse 14, the Lord upholds all who are falling or rises up, all who have bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in new season. And lastly, Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact temperament of nature. And he upholds the universe by his word. So all three of these passages, as well as the confession, highlight the biblical doctrine that God does govern everything that happens in the creation. Christ uses it all the time, is that God is not like a watchmaker. He creates the watch, and then sets it while it starts ticking by itself and leaves it. But no, God, He creates the world. But not only creates the world, He still is right there within creation. Everything that happens, He has a hand in it. He's governing everything, right? So this is very comforting to us, because His providence is enduring right now, even for us as Christians. But our first point, his providence is what gets us through our trials. Look at verse six, it says this. Then she arose with her daughter-in-law that she may return from the country of Moab. where she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited his people by giving them bread. Now for those who may not have been here last week, we preached through this last evening. And Cressy, this is like a little intro to the Book of Ruth. Well, you got to look at verse one. It says, now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land. Now, that sets the context up for when this book takes place. But regentrally speaking, all the Jews in this time period, they lived under what's known as the Old Testament, or the Old Covenant. And so under the Old Covenant, you had things that pointed to Christ that the people had to do to be saved. But these means that pointed to Christ was a picture of the original covenant works. By that, I simply mean that if you obey God, there were blessings attached. If you disobey God, there was curses attached. And in particular, when it says there's a famine in the land by Israel's disobedience during the time of the judges, it brought about this famine. And Imoulac is the main character until we get to Naomi and Ruth. Look at verse two. You would think by just glancing at this text that Imoulac was doing the right thing. There was a famine in the land. Our supplies are limited. How can I take care of my family as a man? Let's go to this next land to provide for my family. But in actuality, Imoulac was actually in sin. But you guys remember. Canaan is a land of promise. Bethlehem is a land of promise. And in fact, Moab was the land of compromise. So you had two different places. One is a land of promise. One is a land of compromise. Amalek, instead of trusting in God's providence to provide for them in the midst of their trials, he takes his family to the land of compromise. And Moab was known for several different things. One in particular is that the Moabite women led their men, the Jewish men, away from Yahweh and to worship the idols. But if we can go back to our first cities, they had just departed from the promised land, Imalek and his two husbands. And we find out that the two children, Keilah and Amalion, they end up dying, right? And this is another one of the consequences of the old covenant. In Deuteronomy, we talked about this last week, that if a person or a foreigner were to marry outside of their race, God's hand would be upon them. It's destruction and judgment would be upon them. And so I think by judgment, as a form of compromise, we first see that they were leaving the promised land, going to the place of compromise, and then as a result of that, their children start intermingling with people outside of God's community. And therefore, not only did God kill the husband, he also kills the children, right? And so you're left with three women, Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah. But in our text, these three women did not find out that God has brought back or uplifted the famine from their land. Now, the irony is that, if you guys remember last week, we talked about how Moab, you know, for Naomi, Imalat, it seemed like a good place to go to, right? Because the grass seemed greener on the other side. You know, in Canaan, there was no bread. We talked about Bethlehem, means the place of bread, or it means the place that one could be supplied by God. But now, this time period, it seems like God's not supplying his people. In Moab, God's supplying people over there, right? And so Imalat decides to take his family And that's how sin always does, typically, right? It whispers in your ear, hey, come and join us, come and have fun with us. It promises all those temporary blessings, right? But as soon as you taste that sin, it always leaves you more guilty or more ashamed of your relationship with the Lord, right? It reminds me of Romans 6, when Paul says, sin, for you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have in the things in which you are now ashamed of? For the hand of those things is death. And so sin always promises temporary satisfaction, but only God can produce eternal satisfaction, right? So Naomi, in the same position, chases her sin to comfort her, and now her sin leaves her with worse predicament. Without a husband, without her children, and also, older in age, having to provide for herself. And so I think this text right here gives us a good application for Christians or the church that in the midst of our trials, God promised sustenance, right? Because you notice in the text, it says that God brought back bread to the place of Bethlehem, right? It was God's hand that brought this food. It wasn't nothing that people could do, but it was his hand. And already, we keep kind of before them going in this, is that the same place that she left, It's not the same place that she's going to to get provided for. So if she would have just simply stayed where she was and trusted God, and had missed her trials, she would have been fine. But when she trusted her own wisdom and turned to the side of God, she found herself in the worst predicament just to get back to where God wanted her to be in the first place. Think about that. 1 Corinthians 4, verse 7. And what do you have that you did not receive? Now that you did indeed receive it, why do you boast that you did not receive it? Why quote that passage? A lot of times God sends trials to remind us that he's the one that sustains us. Think about that. A lot of times we think if it's going to college, it's getting a good job, if it's getting a check on Friday, whatever it is, right, your means provide it, right? In a certain sense, that is true. But all the things that God gives you, those gifts, that check, that job, that car, it's all by God's hands, right? And trials happen because God's trying to remind us that, hey, it's never been about you. It's not your work. It's all my hand. That's sustaining. And again, if Naomi would have simply just trusted in the doctrine of God's providence, she would have been in a better situation, right, with her husband and her two children. But now she's stranded without none of those places, right, or those means to sustain her. Now you guys look back down to verse seven. It says this, therefore she went out from the place where she was, her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went and returned to the land of Judah. Now the text doesn't say anything. She left and went by herself, but it says that she brought both Orpah and Ruth, right? And so this is a big indicator that in the midst of our trials, God always has someone around us that sees us, right? And based on how we do in these trials, he can encourage those around us. And Lisa makes a point that his providence in our trials allows us to be a witness to others. Look at verse eight. And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, go return each to her mother's house. Now, the previous verse would be saying that both Ruth and Oprah joined Naomi on her journey, but now it seems like Naomi is sending them back. You know, what happened in time from leaving to go to a place of promise, and now, hey, y'all need to get out of here, right? Why did she say this? But not only that, look back down at verse eight. It says, go return each to her mother's house. The biblical context, the place that you wanted to be if you were a woman, was either your father's house, your son's house, or your husband's house. Why? Because in this context, women couldn't take care of or provide for themselves. Either they had to go into prostitution, or they had to be under a man's household to provide for them. And so her being older in age, why wouldn't she tell him, hey, go to your father's house? Because we know in Ruth chapter 2, verse 11, Ruth has both a mother and a father. But she says, go to her mother's house. What does she mean by this? Because we see again, it's not because she does not have a father. But I believe it's because daughters will always have a bad relationship with their mothers, right? But now with this, a lot of times, many women in this context, they have a problem. either divorced or your spouse died, you would go to the place of your mother and be careful and she would take care of you. And so on a certain extent, you see that Naomi did such a good job at loving these women that when she departed, they wanted to go with her. But here she tells them, hey, go back to your mother. Now, last week we talked about again that the place of Moab was not known for anything good. I quoted one of those passages that would happen if you were to intermingle with the people of Deuteronomy 7. Nor should you make marriages with them. You should not give them a daughter or son, nor take a daughter for your son. For they would turn your sons away from following you. And so by the God, to the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. So here, Naomi being with two mobile women, going back to Judah or Bethlehem, think about how this would be frowned upon, right? Because all the Jews knew that it was a sin to be married to outsiders, right? or foreigners, so her, not only being older in age, no husband, no son, no one to take care of her, now she also has two Gentiles, in a sense, with her, right? And so for the Jews around her, this would be a reminder of, hey, Naomi didn't trust in God, and now she brings back two foreigners in the land. And not only for just the Jews, but think about Naomi's own heart. Every time she looks at these women, she sees a consequence of her sins, right? Her not having a husband, her not having sons, And again, it's not a bad thing to love each other, but I'm saying in particular this context. She would be challenged in her heart. Man, why didn't I trust God? If you guys look back down at verse eight, we further see this by it says this, the Lord deals kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband. So she kissed him and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, surely we will return with your people. Now what does it mean when it says the Lord deal kindly with you? There's a similar instance of this throughout the Bible. Again, 2 Samuel chapter two, verse six, it says, and now may the Lord show kindness and truth. I also repay you this kindness because you have done this thing. 2 Samuel verse 15 says the same thing, verse 20. So we see it throughout the scriptures, but apparently, the phrase was used in a technical way of bringing up the end to a relationship. So essentially, if someone told you this, and they were testing you, they were saying, hey, we've gone to our journey's end, we're going about our ways. So the relationship was ended. And so here, they always said, hey, I appreciate you guys for loving on me, you know, being here with my husband and my children over here, but now it's time for you guys to go back home, right? But not only this, we also see that she was freeing them for responsibility to love on her and take care of her, right? She was saying it was better for you guys to go back home than to leave Bergen to take care of you. You guys remember again, Beltingham had been a place of God's providence. And now, when they were in Moab, they thought that Moab was a place of God's providence. Skip back down to verse 11 real quick. It says this, Maynoni said, turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with them? Are there still sons in my womb? They may be your husbands. Turn back, my daughters, go. For I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, I have hope. If I should have a husband tonight, you also should bear a son. Would you wait for them to name a brother? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? So here you see that Naomi had such a good affection for the woman, and again, that these two wouldn't want to follow her. And from a pleasure standpoint, the decision that Naomi made is to send these women off makes a lot of sense, right? She can't provide for herself, let alone provide for others. Her age included, as well as being a woman. There's other things on why it's a very logical decision, hey, to send these people off. But from a spiritual standpoint, again, before we even get to Naomi or Ruth and Orpah, If she would have trusted God, like I said, at Beltingham, she wouldn't be in this predicament. But not only that, now that she's in this predicament, if she were to trust God in her trials, it would be a great witness to both Orpah and Ruth, right? Because again, these both are more about women. They know nothing about the things of God. Nor how does it look like for someone to endure in trials? Or when trials hit, how you still can have faith and have joy and happiness? Only Christians know about this. And not only did Jews have this doctrine, right, because they knew and had access to God's promises. And so by Naomi, if she would have trusted in God's promise in her trials, she would have been a great witness to these two women. But also as a church, when trials hit us, what do we do? Maybe this season right now, the church is in, a lot of people not coming in or people being inconsistent. Whatever the areas of the church, right, or even your personal life, why do bad seasons happen? Why do trials happen? these trials happen for us to be a great witness to the world around us. Because the world doesn't have the same joy and happiness that you have. They have a form of happiness or a form of joy, but it's temporary. But as Christians, your joy is eternal, and it produces happiness in you. And because of that, regardless of your circumstances, you should be a great witness to those around you that when bad things happen, you can point them to Christ, because Christ sustains you in your trials. And again, Naomi's faith is saying waver here because the reason why she says a lot because again, she's pressing for the meetings I and myself don't have the means to provide for you. But she could have said, God, regardless of me not having the means to provide for myself, we're all three of us going to trust in God to provide for us. And we're going to go back home. But she does the opposite. So as believers, we can be the opposite of Naomi here. But also believers, if you do recall, just like Naomi, sometimes our faith wavers. But the cure right here is, again, trusting God's promises. Trusting God's promises. And in particular, God's providence has control. We talked about this earlier, but he has control of all events. Amos 3, verse six, if a trumpet is blown in the city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in the city, will not the Lord have done it, or has the Lord not done it? Isaiah 45, verse six, again, it says, there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light, I create darkness. I make peace, and I create calamity. So both these verses talk about how God's the one that sends trials. God's the one that sends bad times. He has a hand in this. And that's kind of counter-cultural to the prosperity gospel, that only God says good times, right? When was the last time you went to a church outside of this one, or talked to other Christians, and they were happy about the trials you were going through? And that sounds weird, to be happy the trials you're going through. But trials can be a good thing, because again, we talked about that it reminds you of God's providence and sustainability. But here, trials can be a good thing, because it also allows us to be a witness of the world around us. But thirdly, trials are a good thing because God's the one that has a hand in them. So all three of those reasons is a good thing why we as Christians, we go through trials, we can be encouraged. God has a hand in us. But before the proof, look at verse 13. Look at what Naomi says. She says, for it grieves me very much for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. Now, in the Old Testament, the hand of God symbolized many things, but in particular, it symbolized the irresistible power of God. 1 Timothy 5, verse 9, kind of gets at this. It says, so it was, after they had carried away, the hand of the Lord was against the city, with a very great destruction. Again, we see in verse 7, chapter 5, verse 11. Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah, and he drew up his loins, and ran away. And also, in 1 Kings 18, 46, then the Lord said to Moses, go and Pharaoh, tell him, God of Hebrew, let my people go, that they may serve you. For the Hebrews let them go, and still hold them. Behold, the hand of the Lord will be on your account in the field. So in one instance, you see how the hand of the Lord can be seen as a good thing because it sustains us. But in another instance, it can also be seen as a bad thing, right? If somebody says that the hand of the Lord is against me, it's referring to the bad, that you are in opposition, you're an enemy of God. Deuteronomy 2 gets at this also in verse 15. But here you think, Naomi says that the heavenly Lord is going against us. And we know in this text that Naomi, throughout the book of Ruth, that Naomi did as a believer. And so why does she think that God is having fun? And before we kind of unpack that, there is a distinction between God's judgment and God's discipline. Naomi was definitely under a form of God's judgment, because again, she left the place of promise to go to the place of compromise, and she's saying, make that decision right. She'll lose her husband, lose the children. And now, the situation that she's in, she could have been easily prevented of that by simply trusting in God's promise. And so in a sense, God's judgment is here because God has to deal justice with sin. God is hope. He can't let sin go unpunished. But that's distinctly different than his discipline. Because she's a believer, even though God did judge that sin, he did so as a form of critique or discipline to correct her behavior, to remind her and point her back to Christ. This is a new doctrine, Hebrews 12, verse six. Now, no chastising or discipline seems to be joyful for the prisoner, but painful nevertheless. Afterwards, it yields to the peaceful fruit of righteousness, to those who have been trained by it. So Paul talks about that when trials hit, a lot of times as Christians we think, man, this trial's happening because God is at war with me. My sin is the reason why God hates me. But God doesn't hate us, he has to judge the sin In reality, God is on that trial, which God is bound to Himself. And that trial produces fruit, and here it says righteousness. But Naomi seems to be missing this point, because her faith is wavering on all these different things, right? I can't provide for myself, I can't provide for these women. I don't know what I'm gonna do. Is God gonna provide me a place of promise? What's gonna happen, right? And because of all these different thoughts, what are the other Jews gonna think about me? If I pray to these women, what are they gonna say about this, right? Do they know about my decision? Are they gonna laugh at me that my husband and my son are dead? And there's a mind going everywhere, right? But if she simply just trusts God, she knows that God can provide her in the midst of these trials. And the reality is that Naomi is a picture of all Christians, right? A lot of times in trials, we do the same thing that Naomi did. Our faith wavers, just like Peter's, right? When he was walking on the water, he had faith in God, his eyes was on God, and the moment the bursary hit, he began to sin. But the same cry that Peter had, the Lord helped him, is the same cry that we have to have as Christians in our trials. Because it's only by God's strength that anybody can get through trials. As Christians, we have the benefit of having Christ in the midst of our trials. So in the midst of our trials, we should see this as a form of discipline, pointing us back to God, if it's a form of your sin, or if it's God's trials, both of these things are always good. And here, even though Naomi's paper's wavering, her return back to Bethlehem signifies that her eyes are starting to fixate back on God. which leads us to our last point, is providence brings others around us to faith in the midst of our trials. Let's look at verse 14, it says this, then they lifted up their voices and wept again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her, and she said, look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and gone to her guidance, Return with your sister-in-law. The Ruth said, entreat me not to leave, or to turn back from following after you. Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people should be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. The Lord do so to you, me, and more also to anything but that parts of you. And when she saw that she was determined to go away, she stopped speaking to him. So this passage begins with Orpah's departure back to Moab. We're talking about how Moab was not a place of promise, was not a place of God's willing. But here, they worship other idols, other gods. And you can see that in the text. It says, Oprah not only went back home, she went also back after her own god directly. And I think that in this text, Naomi, lack of faith in God, had consequences because here, she could have been a great witness to Orba, hey, no, you're not gonna leave, we're gonna stay in the Church of God's promise. But now, her decision has led to Orba leaving and going back into ideology. And I'm not saying that Orba can lead anyone to Christ, lead anyone to faith, or that our actions has a direct determination whether or not God can save someone. God does use us to bring about salvation to others, but he doesn't need us to do that. But sometimes the decisions that we do can point people away from the gospel versus towards the gospel. And here, if Naomi trusted in God's providence, maybe three of them would have went back and said it to her. But look back down at the text. It says, they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law. In the Old Testament, kissing signified a departure, a friend. We talked about that same saying earlier, that God be with you. So if someone would kiss you on the cheek, it signifies that, hey, our journey has come to an end. It's time to go. And so hopefully you see that she is no longer going to be with our characters. So now we just have two. And we see this in Genesis 31, verse 26. When Laban said to Jacob, what have you done that you have stolen away and unknown to me, and carried away my daughters like captains, taken with my sword? Why did you flee away secretly, and steal away from me, and not tell me? For I might have sent you away with joy and songs, with temper and heart, and you did not allow me to kiss my sons and daughters. So you see here that they were leaving secretly, and Laban, to my protest, he wasn't allowed to kiss his children, to formally say goodbye. And so here, Orba formally says goodbye. Now, originally in our story, in this context, we had six characters. We had Imoulette, we had Melon, Killian, Naomi, Ruth, and Orville. But now we have three, and now that's also building out to two. So it makes you wonder, man, has God's promise of redemption, is it really gonna come about with simply just two people? Satan on the outside looks like he definitely winning, right? Everyone in Israel barely has a faith in God, and for the most part, they're running after other gods. And now we have two people that are supposedly God's supposed to use, and one of these people, their faith is lacking, right? And one of them's a Gentile. So how can God's promise really be unfolded? So the devil thinks that definitely that he's put a hold to God's plans, right? And again, failure on Naomi's part allowed to one of these women the potential to leave in their journey. And as a good reminder, illustration, you guys, I'm sure maybe some of you guys have seen pigs, but pigs, they love to eat like slops, or like just trash, plant trash, dirty environment, right? And I've seen that if you put like, you know, the best steak in the world in front of a pig, and you put like a whole bunch of slop in front of the pig around it, that pig will run to the slop and eat the slop before it eats the steak. And you're wondering, how can a pig do something like that, right? Or the same way, the moment that God is not the focus and has hands upon us, not upon us, we run after other gods, right? We run after idols. And Orpah potentially was never a believer in the first place. So her leaving this group and going back to her people and worshiping these idols is a picture we're all unbelievers in. But not only that, to make it more personal, maybe that's you in your own life right now, that when trial's here, maybe you run after your own idols instead of trusting in God's promise. A good indicator if you're a believer or not, is that when trials hit, are you a hoper or are you a root? Think about that again. When trials hit, do you do a hoper then and worship idols? Or do you do a root then and run after the Lord? And we're gonna practice a little bit more about what did Ruth mean when she says this. Looking down at the text, it says this, Ruth said, entreat me not to leave you, or to turn my back on falling out from you. Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people should be my people, and your God should be my God. Now you notice, in spite of Naomi, God still is drawing someone to himself. Look at Ruth's heart right now. on these women loving her so much. The unity they had as friends and women brought about them not wanting to be a part of one another, right? But it wasn't solely just that love that Naomi had for these two women. It was solely God's providence in the midst of this, changing her heart. And many commentators are, I guess, divided on when did Ruth come to faith. Did she come to faith right here? Do I relate to the story? People are not sure. But for the most part, a lot of commentators say that this indicator of Ruth says, hey, I want your people to be my people, and your God to be my God. This is her coming to faith. This is her saying that, hey, she wants to follow God and follow Christianity, compared to her idols, right? And you see, again, God's the one that's bringing about this. Also, if you look at the text, we see that the word God is in all caps. Now in Hebrew, God, or the word Lord, it has several different connotations and significance. The word can either mean Yahweh, it can mean Jehovah, it can mean Adonai, it can mean Jireh. The word Lord and God has several different meanings. But in our text, you see Ruth use God's name, and here it says Elohim. And Elohim, it meant a personal connection with God. The first occurrence that we see of this is in Genesis 1, verse 1. You guys know how the verse goes, emigrating what? God created heaven and earth. Y'all scared me this morning. But anyway, God created heaven and earth. And Elohim means that God is the creator. So the same God that has the power to create out of nothing, Ruth said she wants that God to be her God. And there's a distinction between, again, the false gods that she had known growing up, and this God, the Israelite sir. But she wanted that guy to be her guy. So she called God by his personal name, which is Elohim, because she wanted this guy. And again, this is in spite of Naomi, solely because of God. Some commentators also say, again, they're undecided, but they say that in the midst of these 10 years, while Naomi, Amalek, the children, and all of them were gathered together, she's seen some form of God's notifications. And so because of how they love one another, in the midst of them being a Moab, she's seen that sense of joy and happiness with that family compared to what she's seen or known in the land of Moab. And so in her mind, she would rather be with the people of God or the Jews than to go back to her land because of how well they loved one another. Now, on a practical level, she wasn't just saying that she wanted to become a Christian. That is the main essence. But also, she was saying that she's bringing a vow or oath to Naomi, that wherever she goes, if she wants to go, and wherever she dies, she wants to die there, and she wants to be with her. And if she doesn't honor that oath, she said, hey, God can kill her right now. So why is she saying this? Again, the influence of Naomi's life and even her life, they had such great love for one another. They were unified. And so here, you see a perfect picture of unity, of loving one another. And as a church, it's a love that Ruth has for Naomi, the same love that we have for church. And on a personal level, if you claim to be a Christian, would others in your life say that they see the love of you? Willingness to serve and to die, to sell it, to put God first and others first. Ruth here is a grappler in this, and she's willing to do this right. But not only this, if we had new people come to church, they see this as a future of the church, a body of unity and love one another, right? So God in our trials, he uses what we're going through to bring the left, the faith around us, but also to increase our faith in the face of loss. So again, God in the midst of trials, he uses loss to bring about salvation in others around us, but also for the ones that are already saved, he increases their faith. You may be wanting to question, man, God, why this trial here? Why did this happen? Why did that flat tire? Why did the person, you know, pass away? Why am I sick today? You know, what's going on, right? God uses trials to bring about something. And we've seen that throughout this text. But today, we see that mankind's main sin problem was that they have a tendency to waver in the faith from trial sin. And the cure to that problem was that God's faithfulness endures in our trials. So we should trust in his providence. And he broke it down in three points. His providence is what gets us through our trials. His providence in our trials allows us to be witness to others. And lastly, his providence in our trials brings others to faith. Now, I spoke a lot about unity. about going through trials and about other things, right? But as an unbeliever, the comfort, there is no comfort for you in this text. Because again, the only thing we see about unbelievers is Oprah. She went back and worshiped for islands. And for many of you guys in here, maybe that's what you're currently doing, worshiping islands. You have no joy, you have no happiness. You think you do, but it's temporary. But only God can produce eternal happiness. The things in this world are fleeting because they're gonna pass away one day. When God returns, he's gonna destroy this earth. But for those who have a relationship with God, not only do you have joy in this life, but the hope that we have is not in things in this world. It's in things to come, in the person, in Christ. And so if you have Christ and you know Christ and have a relationship with Him, in the midst of your trials, you can trust in the doctrine of God's providence to provide. Let us pray. Father God, thank you so much for another day again to be here with your people.