No doubt, Congregation The Book of Ruth is a glorious and beautiful story. Some people call it a literary masterpiece. And it's no secret what makes The Book of Ruth such a delightful story. To begin with, it's a story that takes us through the whole range of different human emotions. It takes us throughout all the contours of realistic human experiences. And so at the beginning of the story, the people are living in a world of darkness and death and sadness. But by the end of the story, it becomes a whole new situation as it culminates with the dawn of a new hope from a very hopeless situation. And so again, by the end of the story, there's a new found love. There's a marriage and there's the celebration of the birth of a new child. And so there's this contrast that you see going from darkness to light. And so when you look at the book of Ruth, and I would say even from a very superficial perspective, you can see that all of the necessary ingredients to a good story are embedded in this story. But brothers and sisters, today I want you to know that the book of Ruth is not just a literary masterpiece. Indeed, it is that. But it's also a theological masterpiece as well. It's not just that Ruth is a great story, but in many, many ways. And you'll see this as we go along. It is a picture of the great story. In fact, if you really, really pay attention to the details, you can see that the book of Ruth is a mini-typological version of the story of all redemptive history. Or, to put it simply, the book of Ruth is the gospel of Jesus Christ in miniature form. And so I will just say that as you continue to read this story over and over again, hopefully throughout the next several weeks, I trust that these things will become clear to you, that your eyes will come into focus, that the picture will become crystal clear, and you'll be able to see even the story of your own redemption cycling through this book time and time again. This glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, I have no doubt, will emerge from the pages of this book. Well now, in today's message, what we're looking at is actually just the opening scene. And you can find that in the verses that I just read, verses 1 through 6. It begins with a context that we really need to understand. And so to help with that, let me just give you a couple of key terms, a couple of key words that you can use to organize your thoughts. These words are crisis, characters, compromise, and consequences. As we make our way through the passage for today, you'll see how the opening scene is grounded in all of these concepts. Well, first of all, let's look at the crisis, and we'll spend most of our time here. But in the opening scene, the story begins with a famine in the land. And here, it's not just any land, but it is the land of Bethlehem in Judea. And the reason that that should grab your attention right away is that of all the different places in the world, this one should never be a place of famine. As many of you know, the word Bethlehem actually means the house of bread. And it points us back to the fact that God is the one who gives us everything that we need for soul and for body. Even from the very beginning, the Bible shows us God's gracious character. It shows us a God of great generosity. A God who created man and put him in the garden. And in the garden there was a river and there was an abundance of food. We see from the very beginning that God is a gracious and generous God. In fact, the whole emphasis in that part of the story is on the abundance of his provisions, as you can see from Genesis chapter 2 and verse 16, where the Lord God said to the man of all the trees of the garden, you may freely eat. And even later on, when God delivered his people from Egyptian bondage, he proved himself to be gracious once again. He brought them through the wilderness. He fed them with bread from heaven. He fed them with water from the rock. And I don't say a rock, but I say the rock, because we know that those provisions came directly from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, But even from there, we know that the Lord brought the people into the promised land. And that was a land that was full of trees and vineyards that the people didn't plant, again highlighting the grace of God. And this was a land that he said was flowing with milk and honey. So now, when the book of Ruth opens up with a famine in the land, that is extremely significant. Because this is not just any land. This is the land of Bethlehem, the house of bread. And so right away what we see is the dissonance between what Bethlehem means and what the people in Bethlehem are experiencing. Right away, we find ourselves in a setting of crisis. There's your first word. We are in a context of crisis. And here, the main thing that we need to see is that the famine that's in the land is not happening by chance. This famine that's taking place in this land is not happening by chance. This famine is not a random occurrence. You know, one of the things that a lot of people miss when they read this story is that there is no such thing as a natural disaster. We all believe that because nature has no power. Nature has no will. And I know we often sort of, we just speak that way, but we really need to keep in mind that everything we experience in this life, whether good or bad, whether big or whether small, it has a reason for its existence. And there are no chance happenings in God's world. And so here the question becomes, as we open up the first verses of this story, what is the reason for the famine that's in this land? And as you look back to verse 1, what you find is that the answer is right there in the text. And there it says, now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land. So note that the book of Ruth has a very specific historical context. These things are all taking place during the time of the judges when the judges ruled. And so there we have a great clue. If you've ever read the book of Judges, then you'll know that it was a time of ups and downs for the people of God. In fact, there was something of a generational cycle that would take place over and over again all throughout that period. One generation would be faithful to the terms of the covenant, and God would bless them in every conceivable way. But then the next generation would arise and be unfaithful, and God would punish them with things like foreign invasion and the destruction of their provisions. Now, what you have to know about that is that there is a covenantal background to that arrangement. This also was not a matter of God being arbitrary in the way that he treated his people. In Deuteronomy chapter 28, God lays out his covenantal agreement with a series of, a whole list, a series of different blessings and cursings. So if the people of God would obey the voice of the Lord and observe all his commandments, God would elevate them above all the other nations. Now they will experience blessings in the various aspects of their lives. He says He would bless them in the city and in the country. He would bless them in their families and in their children. He would bless them in their cattle and in their livestock, and yes, in their work and in their produce. God even says that if His people are faithful to the covenant, He would bring the rain in its season. But on the other hand, if the people refuse to obey the Lord, If the people fail to keep his commandments, then he says that he will bring them curses instead of blessings. And of course, those curses would be the very opposite of the blessings we just saw. And one thing that would happen, once again, is that the Lord would close up the sky and he would refuse to bring them rain. And so just knowing that the book of Ruth is taking place during the period of the judges gives us insight into the nature and the cause of this particular famine. So rather than saying that it was a natural disaster, we can say that it was an act of supernatural discipline. This famine was an act of supernatural discipline. God, in the background, in the context, is chastening his covenant people. Now, what's even more interesting is that when you look at the book of Judges, you find this little repeated phrase. It happens several times. It's like a refrain. And that phrase is this, in those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Not only do we see that phrase in chapter 17, but we see it again at the very end of the book. The very last line of the book of Judges says, in those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. So again, the Bible gives us a little window into the context of the story. Here we can see the sad condition of the people who were living in those days. We can see that they had a lack of faith. We can see that they had a lack of trust in God. And we can see that they had a lack of fear and reverence for his name, no doubt. But most of all, we can identify something that was very problematic, and that was the blindness and the hardness of their hearts. And when I say blindness, I literally mean spiritual blindness. That's what characterized the people in this context. Why do I say that? Well, I say that because even though the people thought that they had no king, the fact of the matter is God was their king. This is why if you remember when the people ended up asking for a king so they could be like all the other nations, the Lord said that in doing that they were rejecting him as their king. But you see, if the people would simply believe the word of God, then they would be able to see very clearly. They would not only see that they had a king, but they would see that they had a king that was greater than all of the kings of all of the nations of the world. They had, in their midst, they had a relationship with the king of kings and the Lord of lords. But the people were so blind and unbelieving that they couldn't see that. As they looked around, they saw nothing but an independent people. And because they looked and saw that, well, they don't have a king, they fell into the trap of radical individualism and moral relativism. And so it says that every man did what was right in his own eyes. Well, the reason all of that is so important is that it helps us to explain not just the crisis, but also the characters of this story, one character in particular today. It helps us to see the nature of the compromise, and it shows us why these characters suffered the consequences that they did. You see, now we're bringing in the other points. And so here now, as we continue with the story and we're introduced to the first character, just consider who this man is. The story introduces us to a man named Elimelech. Ironically, the meaning of his name is God is King. And yet, the very first thing we see is that Elimelech betrays his own name. Rather than looking around the world in which he was living and saying, wait a second here. God is king and God is sovereign and God is our covenant Lord. The reason for this famine, the reason for this curse is that our people have disobeyed the Lord, their God. Instead of him looking around and giving that sort of assessment. that what they were suffering was due to their disobedience to the one who loved them and saved them and delivered them and then planted them in the land? Instead of doing that, Elimelech betrayed his own name. You see, if Elimelech was true to his own name, then he would have seen that the answer to the problem that he was experiencing was not to leave his own land. That's not the answer. The answer was not to go and run off to Moab. See, Elimelech fell for the complex that says the grass is always greener on the other side. These other places don't have the kind of problems as our place has. See, the answer was not to go to the land of Moab. The answer was for the people to repent of their sins and to return to the Lord their God. That's the answer. You know, somehow I can't help thinking that there's a message in here for us. Do you already sense the message that's in here for us? And as we look around, even at the land in which we live, we too can see the marks of God's curse. We too can see that there's a famine in this land. We can see that the vast majority of Christian churches and professing Christians are living as if there is no king in this land. As if the Lordship of Jesus Christ has no bearing upon their lives. as if he has no mission for them to fulfill. And so we look around and we see the sins of our culture and these sins are ravishing the churches, they're ravishing our homes, our families, all of our public institutions. We look around and we see that every man does what is right in his own eyes. And I guess the question that we need to ask here is what is the answer to this problem? Another question we could ask is, what kind of a character do we really want to be in God's story? As you think about that question, let me just remind you that as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the same name as the man in our text. We are a limeleck. And that's because we are the people who believe and teach and confess that Jesus Christ is King. That's who we are. And we believe that he's not just king of Israel. We believe that he's the king of every city, of every state, of every nation of this entire world. And so no matter where we happen to find ourselves, we know that the land in which we live actually belongs to Christ. And we know that the land in which we live is and can be Bethlehem. We know that no matter where we are, the Lord has a good work for us to do. He has a mission for us to accomplish. And the only question that we need to ask, just by way of application, is will we be faithful to our name? Will we be faithful to the kingdom and the mission of Jesus Christ? Well, in this story, as it unfolds, Elimelech is not faithful to his name. Instead of working to bring repentance to the people and reformation to the land in which he lived, he decided to flee to the country of Moab. Well, over time, Elimelech experienced the consequences of his decision. Elimelech is a man who left the work that the Lord had given him to do, and the consequences of that decision are laid out very, very plainly in the text. Alimelech and Naomi had two sons, Malon and Kilion. Eventually, Alimelech died, and he left Naomi with her two sons. Then, her two sons married Moabite women. The problem with that is not that they married outside of some arbitrary ethnic bounds. The problem with that is that they are the covenant people of God, and they were marrying outside of the true faith. So her two sons married Moabite women, and they continued in the land in their life, in their existence, for about a decade. The text says 10 years. But because the whole family was living in a way that was contrary to the revealed will of God for their lives, they did not experience the blessings of the Lord. There's no blessings that are coming their way. Finally, in verse 5, it says that Malon and Kilion also died. So, Naomi survived her two sons and her husband. You know, when you break it down, it's not such a delightful story because you're just zooming in. But this is just the opening scene. And what we have to see here is that the opening scene of the story is very sad. It's very depressing. It's very disappointing. It's very dark. But then, Right there in verse 6, we see a break in the clouds, and we see a ray of hope shining through. The Bible says, almost without any warning, So here at the very end of the opening scene, we see a shift in the story. Just as we saw before that God, you know, all that God had done to punish the sins of His people, so now we see what God is doing to bring them back to Himself. And God is just as sovereign in the punishment of the sins of His people as He is in the process of bringing them back to Himself. Sort of reminds you of the story of the prodigal son. Interestingly, a famine shows up in that story as well. God sovereignly dispatches the famine to recover the prodigal son. The prodigal son begins to think, what am I doing out here? There's bread in my father's house, so much bread in abundance that even his servants have bread enough to share. And I'm over here off in a distant land. Well, in a word, this is what we can say to encapsulate all of this divine activity. We can say, behold the goodness and the severity of God. Yes, God is severe when it comes to sin, but God is also good and full of mercy and compassion. And we know from what it says in the book of Romans that it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. And so here, Naomi gets a message of God's mercy and grace and goodness. What is God doing? God is extracting the repentance of his people. And the way that we can see that he's extracting this repentance is that he does a couple of things. The first, he shows them the utter worthlessness of a life that's lived apart from him. This is a life without his law. This is a life without the blessings of his provision. But secondly, by an act of sovereign grace, he begins to show them what it's like to receive the grace that they do not deserve. There's the gospel already. He shows them the mercy that they desire, but they know that they're unworthy of. He shows them the redemption that they need. And so as we close out, the curtains close for scene one. This is exactly where we are. The Lord sends word to Moab. And that word is a great message. It says that the king is still on his throne. The king is still full of grace and mercy. And the king is still interested in the lives of his people. The message is, yes, there's bread in Bethlehem again. And with that, Naomi hears. She turns. She rises up. And she goes back to the land where she belongs. Amen. Our gracious Father, once again, we thank you for the book, the story of Ruth, because in it, we see the gospel of Jesus Christ. In it, we see our own redemption from sin. We see your grace, your mercy, your covenant faithfulness, and yes, even your severity toward the sins of your people. Oh Lord, we pray that we would take the message of this passage to heart, that we would know that you are a king, and not just any king, but the king of all kings and the Lord of all lords. Therefore, no matter where we are, we are called to serve you and to be faithful to you, even as you've been faithful to us in Jesus Christ. For we pray these things in his name. Amen.