As was already mentioned, we started a new sermon series this morning. In a delightful book. Small four chapters. But it is a beautiful story. Of God's amazing providence. In the life of a family. is a book that provides a powerful example of a virtuous woman. It prepares us for a great person. And if you're wondering who that great person is, just turn to chapter four and look at the very last word in the book of Ruth. The very last word, it's preparing us for someone great. And you know who it is? The very last word in Ruth is David. David, the king. A great psalm writer. A great man after God's own heart. So there's many themes, but I would say that the major theme of Ruth is redemption. Redemption. It is the redemption, the buying back, the rescue of a family, but even more than that, a nation that's in peril, and even more than that, of the world. As we know that Ruth's name shows up in the genealogy of our Lord. And so it's a book about redemption. This morning, we're gonna look at just these introductory verses of chapter one, verses one to five, but let's pray once more. Our Father, as we come to your word, we ask that you might, by your spirit, provide illumination for us of mind and heart, of the word, that we might be granted understanding, an understanding that leads us to to greater faith and greater love for Christ. Lord, we ask that you would sanctify us in the truth this morning, and as we begin this book, that this book would take root in our hearts, that your word would take root in our hearts, and from that would grow fruit, and we would abound in fruitfulness. So help us to be doers of your word. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Ruth chapter one, beginning in verse one. 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 his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech. The name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Milan and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there. Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left, and 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 Milan and Chilean also died. So the woman survived her two sons and her husband. This is God's word. Our lives consist of and are made up of big and small decisions. Who we are is a result of so many decisions that we've made, both big and small. The big decisions, where will I move? Where will I live? Who will I marry? what my family be like, my job, big questions that we've all asked ourself and tried to decide what should I do? But then there's a small decisions like how am I gonna spend the next 10 minutes, next 15 minutes? Or for you this morning, how am I gonna spend the next 40 minutes? These all make up and these determine really our lives, these decisions we make, the big ones and the small ones. But who determines what constitutes a good or a bad decision? Who determines that? What is a wise decision and what is a foolish decision? These are always important questions. Who determines what is good and what is bad? What decision I should make? These are always very important questions, but these questions were key in Ruth's day. Very important. As we see in chapter one, the author tells us that the time period in which this story takes place is in the time of the judges, it says, in the days when the judges ruled or literally when the judges judged, you say, well, when was that? Well, that was between the death of Joshua and the kingship of Saul, all of those years. This story here in Ruth happened sometime during the book of Judges. So somewhere in the story of Judges lived Ruth and this family. Now, if you're wondering, like, what is a judge? What does this mean that the judges judged? We should not think of judges in the Old Testament, as mentioned here, as men wearing black robes with gavels and making decisions in courtrooms. That was not judges in their day. But rather, the judges were more local military leaders. Because in the book of Judges, there was no king. There was no national king that ruled the entire nation. So there were just these local leaders who were particularly called up just for a time to defend God's people from their enemies. And so that's the time period that Ruth falls in. It's after the death of Joshua. It's before Saul's made king. And somewhere in there, Ruth in this story takes place. What were the days of the judges like? I guess the best description, that haunting description, is the very last verse in the book of Judges. So if you just turn A page before, you should probably get to the book of Judges. And in Judges chapter 21, verse 25, the final verse in Judges gives us a haunting description of what the time was like during the time of the Judges. The time that Ruth lived, the time that this family lived that we're gonna read about and study. It says in verse 25, in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And so that was the description of the time. So when did this family live? Well, they lived in a time when there was no king in Israel, there was no national leadership, but there was actually just anarchy. And that's why Ruth gets us ready for David. Because then there is a king in Israel. And the anarchy is hopefully being driven away. Because you have anarchy when everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes. when we're all coming up with our own decisions of how things ought to be. I guess that description of Ruth's day is equivalent to our philosophy today. If it feels right, do it. Just follow your heart. And so you have people doing whatever they want, believing whatever they want, and then there's moral subjectivism, where everyone does what is right according to what they believe. Now this lack of moral absolutes got Israel in a lot of trouble, as we see in the book of Judges. But it continues to get us in trouble as well. When there is no moral absolutes for everyone, or we don't believe that, then we're gonna see a culture, families, Nations the world being in great peril great trouble and and this is what we need to be redeemed from we need redemption from Doing whatever is right in our own eyes. And so this morning I want to talk about that. How do we make decisions? How do you make decisions? Let me break this these five verses into two points two parts with you the first is the problem with doing what is right in our own eyes. First of all, the problem with doing what is right in our own eyes. And second of all, we'll look at the outcome of doing what is right in our own eyes. So first, the problem with doing what is right in our own eyes, what's the problem with that? And then also the outcome of doing what is right in our own eyes, the outcome of doing what is right. So first of all, the problem. The problem with doing what is right in our own eyes. Now the story begins here in the first two verses. We are introduced to a family of four, a family of four. There is a husband, there's a wife, and there are two sons, a dad and a mom and two sons, okay? So this is what we're introduced to. They're an Israelite family. They are from Bethlehem of Judah. At that time, Bethlehem is a pretty insignificant town. It's small, there's nothing really famous about it. At this point, it will become very famous because it will be called the city of David because David will be born there. And then of course, we will know it as the city of our Lord, his birth. And so every Christmas we sing a little town of Bethlehem. And so though insignificant and at this time, It, of course, grew to be of great significance. Well, what is the problem that we find here in verse one? Well, it says that there was a famine in the land. Now, to say there's a famine in the land, it's not talking about just the land of Bethlehem, it's talking about the whole land, the land of Israel, the land of Canaan, the promised land. There is a national crisis. It's not just limited to Bethlehem, it is the entire land. There was a famine in the land, even in Bethlehem. You say, well, why even in Bethlehem? Well, because Bethlehem, the very name Bethlehem means house of bread because it produced so much food for the nation. And so the famine was so severe that it was even in Bethlehem, the house of bread was lacking bread. And so this father, this head of his home, a Limelech, he has a decision to make. What do I do? It's a national famine, famine's everywhere in Israel. What do I do? Do I stay or do I go? He has a decision to make. And what do you do? What do you do when you have the decision to make? Oftentimes what I'll do is I'll take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle and I'll put pros, cons. And I start listing all the pros for a decision and then all the cons for the decision. Well, I don't know what Alemlek did, how he made his decision, but he made his decision to leave Bethlehem and leave Judah and leave Israel and go dwell in the country of Moab. He decides to go. I mean, what could be wrong with that decision? A man needs to eat, right? A family needs to eat. He has to live. But there is a problem. There is a problem. You see, here is the problem with doing what is right in our own eyes. is that our eyes don't see clearly. And I think that all of us here this morning need to begin with that recognition, is we have to humble ourselves and say, you know what? I have poor vision. I don't see well. I lack wisdom. I can't make decisions on my own. We have to get to that point because we don't. Our vision is failing. You think about as we grow older, many of you have done this with your parents, there comes a point where they stop driving typically, right? But really the first step of not driving at all and having the driver's license taken away is not driving at night. I saw several of you go night, yes, you know that. So, and you hear that, my parents are saying that now, you know, I try not to drive at night because I can't see well at night. There's a problem. Well, a limeleck has a similar problem, as all of us do, is that we do not see clearly. And we fail to see certain doctrines, certain truths. We look at situations in life, but we don't think about them theologically. We don't think about them doctrinally. We don't think about certain truths. And Elimelech needed to think about some certain truths. And let me tell you what those truths are that Elimelech should be thinking about as he's making his decision. Truth number one is he should have said this. I am an Israelite. I am part of the covenant people of God. I am part of the covenant people of God most high. This covenant Lord brought us out of Egypt, delivered us out of Egypt and gave us the land for an inheritance. And he gave me this specific land for my family that I'm supposed to keep. That's number one truth that he should have said, okay, let me, get this deeply into my mind and heart so I can see clearly is that I'm an Israelite, I'm part of the covenant people of God, been delivered, been given this land, I'm put in, this is my inheritance. But number two, he should have thought of this truth. I am under the Mosaic covenant. You see, God has made a covenant relationship with us. God is covenant Lord and we are covenant sons and servants. And God has given stipulations and sanctions in this covenant. He's given stipulations, all these laws he gave us. He gave us all these laws to obey him and to do this. And then the sanctions are, if we do them, blessing. If we don't do them, what? Curses. And we can go to certain sections in the law of God like Leviticus 26 or Deuteronomy 28 and read of those blessings and curses, what God will do. And let me just read you a portion of these and tell me if anything strikes you. Leviticus 26, it says this. So the Lord says, beginning in verse three, if you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments and perform them, now listen to what he says. This is from the very beginning. It's like, if you will obey me, verse four, then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Under the Mosaic covenant, God said, if you obey me, I will make the land productive, period. You don't have to depend upon nature. It will happen. All you have to do is obey. But if you disobey, listen to what he says. And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit. So it's in the time that the judges were judging, a horrible time, where God was constantly having to discipline his people, and there's a famine. So thus, according to the Mosaic law, Elimelech should have said, you know what? We are under. Judgment, clearly, God's law says that. So does that mean that I should go run off to another nation, especially the enemies of God? Or does that mean that I should trust and be a faithful Israelite, even though all the other Israelites are being unfaithful? What should I do? Oh, we know the answer. He goes. And so that's the second thing. He should have said, I'm an Israelite. I'm under the Mosaic covenant. This is obviously judgment from God. But then third of all, he should have said, you know what? The Moabites are the pagan enemies of God. There's no place for me to bring my family. I mean, the Moabites were a terrible people for Israel. Of course, where did the Moabites originate from? An incestuous relationship between Lot and his oldest daughter. Not that long ago, when Israel was coming out of Egypt, it was the Moabites that plagued them so often in the wilderness. You remember King Balak? He hired a prophet to curse Israel. That was a Moabite king. Or do you remember when the Moabite women enticed the men into fornication and idolatry? Those were Moabite women. And then even most recently, King Eglon of Moab held Israel captive for 18 years. So no, this was not the place to go, Elimelech. But Elimelech said, But I want to eat. I want bread. But you know what? God had actually said clearly in the law of God, Deuteronomy 23, that the Moabites were not supposed to come into the assembly of the Lord. Deuteronomy 23, listen to this, Deuteronomy 23, here's the law of God, Deuteronomy 23, beginning of verse three says, an Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the 10th generation, none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord, because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam. He's like, they wouldn't give you bread then, and here he's going to go get bread from them? In fact, a little bit later, he says, you shall not abhor the Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor the Egyptian, because you were an alien there in his land. So he's like, the Egyptian? But Moab? No. And so you think, see, Elimelech should have, in his decision making, said, I need to pull out some truths. I'm an Israelite. I'm in the Mosaic Covenant. This is happening because of judgment of God. The Moabites are a terrible enemy of Israel. Do I go to the enemy? Do I go to the world for food? Do I turn to the world? You see, so really, Elimelech had two choices before him. He could trust in the Lord with all his heart, or he could lean on his own understanding. He chose to lean on his own understanding. In fact, later on, Solomon, God to Solomon, gave them the prescription for when judgment came. God said, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked way, then I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sins, and what? I'll heal their land. You don't go run off to the world or to the enemy for things, you go to God. And you say, I'm gonna trust the Lord in this. He called me to this land. He called me to the covenant people of God. This is like turning your back on the church. Turning your back on Christ in the church. You turn your back on the church, you turn your back on Christ. You turn your back on the covenant people in the Old Testament, you're turning your back on God. And he leaves. And he goes to Moab. So I guess the question for all of us is, with whose eyes are we evaluating things? When you make decisions, whose eyes do you use to evaluate things? And unfortunately for many of us, if we think about this past week, we say, well, I made a lot of choices this week. I made a lot of choices this week. with the way that I see things. And yet, we know from passages like Isaiah 55, eight and nine, when the Lord says to us, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. You see, we need God's ways and God's thoughts. Your ways and your thoughts are rubbish. They're really bad. Your view of things, how you make decisions, is terrible. I'm just being blunt with you. I'm terrible as well at them. And most of us can look back on our life and look at a lot of bad decisions we've made. And we ought to say, you know what? Lord, I've messed a lot of things up. And I, because I've depended on my thoughts and my ways. So I think this morning we do need to ask with whose eyes are we evaluating things? Do you know what Elimelech's name means? It means my God is king. My God is king. But I fear that that was true only with his name, but not in reality. You see, just as there was no king in Israel, and so people did whatever was right in their own eyes, there appears to be no king in Elimelech's life, and therefore he's doing what is right in his own eyes. So many people wear the label Christian, and yet it has no real impact on the decisions they make. What about you? As I look around the room, I think most people here say, yes, I'm a Christian, but does it make a massive difference in all the decisions you make? I'm talking about the daily little decisions you make. It should, it should reflect. God is my king. My king is God. Let that be truly what we are, not just in name. You know, in our eyes, what is the top priority so often? You know, when we make our list of what's important in making our decision, what are the things that in our eyes take top place? Well, for a limelight, it was food. We could also add to that a family. You could add another F, finances. And for many of us, that's what it is. It's like, okay, what's gonna be best for my family? Well, that's not a bad question. What's gonna be best for my finances? What's gonna be best for me? And so at the top of our priority list, so often we go, well, a good education, promotion, advancement, And so we ask questions like, what's the best for job promotion? What's gonna make my family the happiest? What will be best financially? I find none of those things, particularly in the New Testament, that we're supposed to be making our decisions based on. Or Jesus was a terrible financial planner, wasn't he? Go sell everything you have. My retirement too? Yes, your retirement too. Come follow me. Leave your job, come follow me. The apostles, the disciples, the first century, they're selling things and just giving it to each other. But see, so often, isn't that our, when we make decisions, it's like, well, what's gonna be best for all of these different things? But in God's eyes, What's at the top of the list? What should be the first thing? Well, what did Jesus teach us in the Sermon on the Mount? Seek ye first job advancement, family success. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, the rule of God, Christ and his church. The very first, when you are making decisions, I'm gonna tell you this morning, I'm gonna help you out right here. Here it is, when you're making particularly big decisions, you need to ask yourself, what will promote the kingdom of God? What will glorify Christ and what will be good for the church? I wonder when you are making your decisions, is that what you ask yourself? Like those are the first things you put on your list. What will glorify Christ the most? Will this glorify Christ the most? And will this be good for the church, Christ's people? That's how we should be making our decisions. So each of us should say, I don't know what is right. Let's just be frank, first of all, and begin by saying, in myself, I'm a fool. And I'll make wrong decisions constantly throughout my life. And so we begin by saying, I don't know what is right. And so what do we do? We seek the wisdom of God. We seek the wisdom of God in the scriptures. We seek the wisdom of God within the church. We don't make decisions on our own. We come with the people of God and we ask for them to help us make decisions too. There's wisdom within the church because Christ is united to his church. So we go there. And then we ask the questions, what will promote God's glory? And what will promote the church's good? Will this promote the church's good? And so we see Elimelech leaving the inherited land and he goes into Moab. And we see this is the problem with doing what is right in our own eyes is our vision is faulty and we're not seeing things clearly. We're following our ways, not the Lord's ways. We're not thinking theologically, biblically, doctrinally, we're not thinking right. And so we need to be seeing things clearly. So that's the problem with doing things in our own eyes. The second part in verses three through five is the outcome of doing what is right in our eyes. What is the outcome of doing things as I see best? What outcome happens? Well, what outcome happens in verses three, four and five to Elimelech and his family? In verse three, what happens? Elimelech is going to Moab, why? To get bread and live. What happens to him in verse three? Dead. Which is probably the narrator's way of telling us he's under God's judgment. So look at that. The motive for moving was, I'm going to save my life. And the outcome of the move is, I lose my life. Well, that really backfired. I got the opposite. And this reminds me of two teachings, one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. The one in the Old Testament is Proverbs 14, 12, that says, there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to, isn't that kind of like perfectly sum up what we have going on right here? There's a way that seems right to you and me, but in the end it leads to death. That's what happened to Elimelech. But also, I find Jesus's teaching in Matthew 16, 25 very instructive as well. Jesus said, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Alemlek, why not stay in the land? Trust God with all your heart. Pray, repent, turn, be that godly remnant. Stay with the true people of God. Don't go to the world. Don't lean on your own understanding. There's life in the Lord. In fact, in Bethlehem will be born the one who is the bread of life. Don't leave. But I want to save my life. You're going to lose it. Friends, I'm going to tell you this morning, if your desire is, I'm going to save my life in this world, you're going to lose it. But if you will lose it for Christ, if you say, Christ, my life is yours, you can do with it what you want, then you will gain it for eternal life. So in verse three, Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died. But thankfully she has two sons. Well, for a few more years. But in verse four, It says that these two sons take on Moabite wives. Now, one of them is Ruth, and in God's wonderful, gracious providence, and this is an amazing story, what he does with Ruth. But let me just tell you something. They were not supposed to, Israelites were not supposed to be marrying pagan wives outside of the land. Moabite women worshiped Chumash, And so we see them already becoming, in some sense, Moabites themselves. In fact, even when Naomi tries to turn them back, says go back to your gods. That's really messed up. And so Most commentators believe, it seems like these sons marry these two Moabite women and they live 10 more years, and then in verse five says they both died as well. Now, within 10 years of being married and no children, that implies, and most commentators say, these women must have been barren, or otherwise they had been having children. Again, this could be God's judgment upon them, because we do know barrenness was one of the curses in the covenant for disobedience. But both sons die. This is the climactic blow. The sons die, and they leave Naomi with no male remnant. She is now all alone as Israelite woman. Now that's devastating. Imagine women here. Wives, mothers, imagine losing your whole family. They're gone. Imagine that. Imagine losing your husband and your children. That would be devastating. That would be devastating in any society. But in their society, a very traditional patriarchal society, she had like no hope. Every woman had to be connected to a man, either her husband or a father or a brother, someone to take care of her. And she is now without a man. She is in a very hopeless situation. But you know, something that we see, a principle that we see so often in our lives is that we do reap what we sow. Bad decisions, whether it be moving to Moab or marrying Moabite women, can result in consequences, God's discipline in our lives. You know, when we are tempted to go after the world's bread, there will be consequences to this. Many times there's temporal consequences. We wind up reaping what we sow. There can be problems in our family. because of bad decisions. I mean, how many of us look back on bad decisions and say, the reason that this is happening in my family right now, I did X, Y, or Z, and I'm reaping some of the consequences for that. Problems in my family, problems in my personal life, you know, why am I struggling with anxiety or depression or all these various things that say, well, I made all these choices back here and now it's, they're coming home to roost. Health problems, you know, why do I have these health problems? Well, I did do this, this, this, and this, and now I'm reaping this. But listen, the worst of them all is the eternal consequence of judgment. If you continue to live out making all of your decisions, doing what is right in your own eyes, you are going to reap the harvest of judgment, of eternal judgment one day. And so there must be repentance. There must be Lord, forgive me, turn me from my way, get me off that broad path that leads to destruction and put me on the narrow path that leads to life. Now, if Naomi's family story ended here, it would be all loss. If we just ended with verse five, first of all, Ruth would be even a shorter book, but this would be a very sad book. So the woman survived her two sons and her husband. If Naomi's family story ended here, all would be lost. Can there be any hope for this family? If this was our first time reading it, we'd wanna read on and find out what's gonna happen. What's gonna happen to this family? Is there any hope for Naomi? One lone woman, how can she go on? Well, listen, many of us can look back on our lives and look at mistakes we've made, failures we've made, tragedies, and we're tempted to say, all is lost. All is lost. But Psalm 130 verse seven says, O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is abundant redemption. I'm gonna tell you something this morning, church. with the Lord's redemption, but not just some redemption, but abundant redemption. You may look back on your life and say, I have so many mistakes, so many failures, so many tragedies, but I want you to hear something. With the Lord, there is abundant redemption. That is, he can buy you back from all of the mistakes. Your life could be one big mistake up until 60, 70, 80, but with the Lord, there is abundant redemption. He can buy it all back. And he's going to in this book. And that's the hope we have. God can and does redeem, he's a redeemer. And as long as we are still alive, we can take part in that redemption. Alemlek's dead, but Naomi's still living. And Ruth is still living. and they can take part in that redemption. You say, how? Ruth is gonna show us the way to redemption. God uses her to bring his redemption to this family, even to the whole nation of Israel, and even to the whole world. With the Lord, there is abundant redemption. You see, through Ruth will come a king for Israel. Yes, through Ruth will come a child that will save Naomi's family. But through that family is going to come David and he's going to be used of the Lord to redeem Israel, to rescue them, to stop the anarchy. So there is a king in the land so that people aren't doing what everyone wants to do. what's right in their own eyes. Through Ruth will come a king for Israel, but through her will come a king for the world to stop our anarchy, to stop us from living for ourselves, destroying ourselves. And it's in Christ, our king, who will come from the line of Ruth, Naomi's family, It's Christ in his infinite wisdom. He lost his life to give life to the world. In 2 Corinthians 5.15, we read that Christ died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves. Why did Christ die? So that you would no longer live for yourself. but for him who died for them and rose again. You know what your problem is? You know what my problem is? We live for ourselves and that's why we mess everything up. But Christ came to redeem us, to die for us, to give us a new life so that we would stop living for ourselves and we begin to live for our creator and he can redeem our lives. You see, Christ alone can free us from the tyranny of self-anarchy. We are not our own church. We've been bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus. It is his kingship that redeems our broken lives. It is his kingship that restores and redeems our broken choices. and gives us new vision to do what is right in God's eyes and no longer in our eyes. You see, this morning there's great hope. Maybe this morning you were caught in a major decision. My advice, do not lean on your own understanding because you do not see things clearly. Go to the one born in Bethlehem, go to the living bread, go to the house of bread, go to Christ. Drop your list, burn it. All those lists of finances, job, family, all this stuff, just get rid of the list and start a new list. And put at the top what decision is in line with God's word and his principles. And then ask what will promote Christ's glory. And then write what will promote the church is good. And make your decisions based on those things. If you're caught in a major decision but listen. If your past choices feel like they've ruined things and ruined you don't grow bitter Naomi. You know, Naomi's name means pleasant, but she says, call me Mara, because I'm bitter. I'm bitter with the Lord. Now, she's going to be transformed and changed back to pleasant again by the Lord's grace. But don't grow bitter. Don't look back. Naomi started by looking back and going, I'm bitter. I'm bitter of all the bad things that have happened. Oh, the Lord can redeem all of that. Don't grow bitter. But look to the Redeemer. O church, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him there is abundant redemption. Let's pray. Our Father, each one of us in this room have made terrible decisions. We've done what was right in our own eyes. And many of us have, we've paid the price for it. And yet with Christ, we know there's abundant redemption. He can save us out of all of this as he saved Naomi's family. Oh Lord, give us eyes to see. Forgive us Father for the fools we've so often been and our foolish decisions. And I pray, dear Father, that you truly would be our king and every decision we make would be based upon your kingship, Christ's kingship. Give us new eyes, Lord. Help us to see clearly and to make choices and decisions that would glorify you and help us to fix our eyes on the Redeemer and hope in him. We pray this in his name, amen.