The Providence of God

Transcript

Ruth chapter 1 verse 1. In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land and a man from Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi and the name of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephratites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives and the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about 10 years and both Mahlon and Chilion died so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return

from the country of Moab for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her daughters-in-law, go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, no, we will return with you to your people. But Naomi said, turn back my daughters, why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back my daughters, go your

way, for I’m too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore remain, refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. And she said, see, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said, do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you, for where you will go, I will go. Where you will lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will

die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more. Also, if anything but death parts me from you. And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred up because of them. And the women said, is this Naomi? She said to them, do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me. So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning

God’s Providence in Judgment

of the barley harvest. Trinity, this is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your Word, and I pray now that you would use the written Word to shine light on the living Word, your Son Jesus, who has come to reveal your glory and your salvation to us all. I pray this in Jesus’ name, amen. I love the story of Ruth, because it’s about people who travel to a foreign land and have all kind of experiences in that land. We read about Naomi’s family as they leave the land of Judah and spend time in Moab. It speaks to me, because I also left my country of birth to go to a different country when I was a young man. I remember traveling to the U.S. for the first time and being quite a bit anxious. I didn’t know the culture. I had limited

English language ability, and it was scary. Even some of you might have had the same experience. You might have moved to the U.S. from another country, or you spend time in a foreign country, or even if you traveled from the place where you were born to a different state, a different city, it can feel strange. It can feel unsettling. It can feel disorienting. Now, of course, Naomi, the main character in chapter 1, did not just travel to a foreign country as if she was going on vacation. She left Judah because of the upheaval in her own country, and the disaster and calamity followed her into the land of Moab. From all that we can discern, Naomi was a believer, and yet she encountered setback upon setback. So how are we as believers to deal with this? How are we to understand setbacks, tribulations, calamities in the light of God’s love?

And this brings me to the idea that I think the text focuses on, namely God’s providence. God’s love and care for us is especially relevant and clear in the providence of God as we see it here in God’s judgment of sin, one. Two, in God’s providence in His salvation and God’s providence in His timing. While the word providence does not occur in the Bible, God’s Word illustrates this concept repeatedly. So what is God’s providence? Practically, it means that God takes steps to make sure His purposes come to fruition. God is guiding everything to bring about His purposes according to His character. As Isaiah writes, my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose. So let us dive into our text. The first part of the text presents us God’s providence in His judgment of sin, in contrast to human expediency as a solution for sin. At

times, we will undergo difficult situations, not necessarily because of personal sin, but because we live in a fallen world. We often share the consequences of the sin of the world. So your house might be broken into. You might get hit by a drunk driver. Your computer might get hacked. You might get seriously ill. And this doesn’t mean that God has abandoned you. It is the result of living in a sin-plagued world. As Christians, we are not exempt from the effect of a broken world. But through all this, God brings us through. And so let’s look at these first five verses, and let me read it again. In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and the man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife,

Naomi. And the name of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephratites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they lived there for ten years. And then both Mahlon and Kilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. As a text said in verse 1, our story takes place in the time of the judges. This was not a spiritual high point in the life of Israel. It was in fact a very dark period. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes, and there was no human king in Israel. Our story takes about one or two generations before Saul became

king, and it begins by telling us that there was a famine in the land. Now, how could a famine happen? Well, I can give you the naturalistic explanation. It happened due to a lack of rain. The land of Israel was and is very much dependent on a certain amount of precipitation for its agriculture. It needs rain, and if rain didn’t come, there would be droughts, leading to a failure of crops, leading to a famine. Now, this was a very unusual famine. How do we know this? Because the famine even was in Bethlehem. And the name Bethlehem means house of food, which tells us that this was normally a very fertile region, the place where you would not expect to have a famine. There is a bit of irony here, pointing to judgment that the fruitful place is now bare of food, so that people have to leave

it. Second, we know it is an unusual famine because a famine lasted ten years, not just one year, not just two years, ten years. Three, we know it was an unusual famine because the famine was in the land of Israel, but not in the land of Moab. But Moab was normally even a drier place. But the Word of God teaches us that things don’t just happen. And so there is also a theological explanation for this drought. That is, God in his providence allowed certain things to happen, sometimes as punishment for sin to fulfill his purposes. Now, Israel is a very unique country. They were chosen by God as a nation. As we read in Judges, at times the Lord would punish the nation with all kind of calamities because they had abandoned the Lord. The curses at the end of the book of Deuteronomy tell us that God would strike the land with droughts if

they abandoned the Lord. And so because of this famine, a man went from Bethlehem to sojourn in the land of Moab. Now, you also have to realize when you say Moab, what kind of picture that would paint in the mind of the Israelites. Israel’s history tells us that Moab came into existence due to an incestuous relationship between Lot, the nephew of Abram, and his daughter. Secondly, the Moabites had not been very kind to the Israelites when they left Egypt. They had not allowed them to travel through their country. More than that, Balak, the king of Moab, had called Balaam to come and curse Israel. Even when they were going by Moab, some Moabite women had seduced some of the Israelites to prostitute themselves and worship a false god, Baal Peor, which in turn brought God severe punishment on them. It’s even so that, according to the Israelite law, Moabites

were excluded from the assembly of the Lord. And then, just a few decades before this, the Moabites had oppressed Israel so badly under the reign of King Aglam. So when they go to Moab, it creates a very dark picture. When you have to go to Moab for food, it means things are really bad. In verse 2, the names of the main characters are revealed. First, we have Elimelech, the husband. And the name Elimelech means, my god is king. His wife Naomi and his two sons, Mahlon and Kilion. Elimelech, as head of the family, leads them to Moab. But Elimelech’s decision to go to the land of Moab, I think, conflicts with the meaning of his name. If God is king, ruler of all, and famine descends on your land, the first thing you should do is throw yourself at the mercy of God, lie prostrate before

the Lord, and pray to God for mercy. His departure from Judah seems to say that God is not king. He is not in control. And it is every man, woman, and child for themselves. So the family went to Moab, very likely because they hoped to escape the judgment of God. But while in Moab, further calamity strikes. Elimelech dies. Instead of escaping tragedy, they now experience the death of the Pater Familias. And so Naomi is left behind with the two sons living in a foreign country. But then there is a small ray of hope. The two sons marry. They marry Moabite wives with the possibility that the family line of Elimelech would not die off. These marriages could provide them with children. And the names of the wives are Orpah and Ruth. Verse 4 tells us that after the sons married, they continued to live in Moab for 10 years. And for 10 years, no children were born.

The temporary barrenness of Ruth and Orpah is another expression of God’s judgments. And later on in the book, it explicitly states that after Ruth had married Boaz, that God gave her conception. It required an act of God to lift the barrenness of Ruth. For 10 years, they hadn’t heard anything about changed circumstances in the land of Israel, and they remained in Moab. So even while her husband died, Naomi still thought it would be better to stay in the land of Moab. And then after 10 years, a further blow comes to the family. Both Mahlon and Kilion died. We don’t know why or how, but they died. So death took Naomi’s husband and sons. Now a widow is normally supported by her dowry, a gift that normally her parents give her at the time of marriage. And normally also, grown-up children would help support the widow. But famine had taken away her

dowry, and now a new tragedy has taken away her sons. So things did not go as planned, and Moab was not the place of salvation, but the place of death. And here we find Naomi in a foreign country, alone with her daughters-in-law. As a result of sin, God brought judgment on his people in the form of a famine. And believers will often suffer in this world because of sin, because sin has entered this world, and we are still part of this world. Suffering can take all kinds of forms. It can be war, it can be persecution, it can be sickness, but we live in a broken world, and this brokenness will affect us also. Because of sin, Elimelech’s family endured a famine, but even a famine is not beyond God’s control. No calamities. God was not surprised by this catastrophe, but Elimelech was looking for a way out, which we often also do.

Elimelech should have remembered that God had been true to his promises. Look back to Abraham. God had promised Abraham that he would make him into a great nation, and he did. God had promised that he would give him the land of Canaan, and the Lord did. God had promised he would bring him out of Egypt, and he did through the wilderness. He had given them the tabernacle, a clear sign of his actual presence with the people. God had been faithful. When Daniel and Ezra were faced with calamity in their times, they approached the Lord and they confessed the sin of the people as if it was their own personal sin. They confessed it on behalf of the people. But here, by choosing Moab, Elimelech was really not trusting in the promises of God. He didn’t want to stay where God had called the people of God to be,

and he thought Moab might be a better place for his family than the land that God had given them. He chose the expedient way. Now, the opposite example of choosing the expedient way is our Lord Jesus. Our Lord Jesus did not consider his equality with the Father as a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, humbling himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Christ laid down his life for us while we were still sinners. And what first seemed like a defeat, that the Son of God hanging on the cross was actually God’s way of redeeming sinners, reconciling us to the Father. So how about us? Is God the king of our life? Is he the king of all your life? Or are there areas that are in rebellion to his rule? If we have turned away

Providence in Salvation

from the promised land, God is calling us back. He is ready to visit us again. He’s eagerly looking for us to hear the call of God. When we return to him, we find that he was always ready, looking out for us to come back. And this brings us, of course, to the second point in our text, God’s providence in his word of salvation over against human words of desperation. And we read in verses 6 to 18, Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each of you to her mother’s house.

May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, No, we will return with you to your people. But Naomi said, Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter for me, for your sake, that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.

Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. And she said, See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said,

Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more. Also, if anything but death parts me from you

— Ruth 1

(ESV)

. And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. At this darkest point of Naomi’s life, she decides to go back to Judah. Why? Because as we read in verse 6, the Lord had visited his people

by giving them bread. Bethlehem was again the house of bread. God had supplied food to his people in his providence, and Naomi heard of it at the right time. This provision of food is a clear commentary that the famine was a judgment from God, for when the famine ended, the text described it as God’s visitation upon his people. It is also clear that this restoration of food had been in the works for months. God must have first provided the required rainfall so that eventually then the crops could grow. And then after the crops had grown, the people could reap the harvest. And then, only then, would that report go out that God had seen to his people, and there is again food in the land of Judah. So the report reaches Naomi, and she realizes, yes, God has again been kind to us. And she decides to move.

The rest of this pericope marks three petitions that Naomi makes to her daughters-in-law. And the first petition is found in verses eight to 10. In verses eight to 10, Naomi attempts to send Ruth and Orpah back to their mother’s house, back to their families. She blessed and implored them, implored the Lord to bless them with the same kindness as these two women had shown Naomi and her sons. Naomi also expressed the hope that God would grant them new husbands with whom they would find rest. She had greater expectations that the Lord would bless her daughters-in-law than that the Lord would bless her. Naomi was flat out of any expectations or hope for herself. She focused on the physical, on the here and now, on what was humanly possible, and staring at her circumstances, she forgot who God was. Naomi tried to finalize this goodbye with a kiss,

but Orpah and Ruth responded with railing and weeping and the rejection of their mother-in-law’s advice. They would return with the mother-in-law to the land of Judah. And then we find a second petition in verses 11 to 14. And so Naomi renews her plea, and she makes three arguments now, why they should remain, why Orpah and Ruth should remain in Moab. First, she says, she begins with rhetorical question, why would you go with me to my people? With this question, Naomi pointed out the futility of going with her. Orpah and Ruth would be better off with their own people, their own culture, and God’s. The second argument expressed the hopeless situation that Naomi thinks she is in. I’m too old to marry again. And even if I married tonight and would have children, would you wait till they’re grown up? Would you wait to be married all this time

while they’re growing? It could be that Naomi was thinking of the levirate marriage custom, whereby the nearest unmarried relative of a man who died without offspring would marry the widow of the deceased to preserve the family line. But clearly, Naomi thought this was not possible considering her age, and the fact that Orpah and Ruth would wait for children from Naomi, then maybe they would be too old to have children because time would march on. In her third argument, Naomi speculated that it was not good to go with her because the hand of the Lord was against her. She believed that she was under God’s judgment. For Naomi, all these calamities had happened because God was her adversary. She concluded that the famine, her family’s exile, her husband and children’s death, and the lack of grandchildren were all signs that God’s judgment was on her.

Naomi’s arguments caused pain and grief again for Orpah and Ruth, and they cried and wept again. But then the reactions differ. Orpah accepted Naomi’s analysis and kissed her goodbye while Ruth decided to cling to Naomi. This is the first difference between these two daughters-in-law. Up until now, they were always mentioned together as if they were Siamese twins, doing everything together. But now, Ruth is distinguished from Orpah. Ruth decided to stick with Naomi for better or worse, and Orpah vanishes in the vast blackness of history, never to be heard from again. Now, the text does not criticize Orpah. She is not a negative example of faith, of unbelief, but Ruth is a positive example of care, love, and faithfulness. In a way, Orpah is a foil for Ruth and gives Ruth’s actions a greater, excellent brightness. In verses 15 to 18, we find a third petition from Naomi,

but this plea is only made to Ruth. Ruth’s sister-in-law becomes the basis for the third petition. And Naomi says, look at your sister-in-law. Go back just like her. So it’s an appeal, really, to the familiar. Go back to your people and your gods. By turning around, Ruth could again embrace her land, her culture, her gods. These were things that Ruth grew up with. That would be the road of least resistance. But immediately following Naomi’s pleas, we get Ruth’s response. And it’s a very brusque change. And the narrator doesn’t really reflect on all that, really, Ruth must have thought through this. There are some serious predicaments here for Ruth. Would she stay with her mother-in-law, whom she had known these past 10 years? Would she attach herself to an uncertain future, a new land, a new culture, a new god, and an uncertain economic outlook? Or would she go back to her own people,

move back to her mother’s house? Very likely your family would provide her economically to help her survive. But was she willing to give up that relationship with Naomi? And even maybe also the memories, a connection that she had to her deceased husband? It is quite possible that Naomi’s walk with the Lord had actually intrigued Ruth, had attracted Ruth to the Lord.

But now that Naomi’s children are dead, she’s down, she’s depressed, and she’s not sure of the Lord. And now there’s quite a contrast between Naomi and Ruth. Naomi is an older woman, and Ruth is quite a young woman. Naomi is an older believer, and Ruth is very likely a very young believer. Naomi had lost her husband, but also Ruth had lost her husband.

But then it changes, then it’s different. Here, Ruth follows Naomi. She had accepted the Lord. She calls God, the Lord, her God. Her dedication and care for Naomi seems now to have no limits. Ruth’s love for Naomi is a down-to-earth picture of God’s love for Naomi and for us. She had become God’s instrument to win back Naomi, but Naomi doesn’t see this yet. In a real way, Ruth was the redeemer of Naomi’s soul, but Naomi was blind to it. Ruth’s response to Naomi is threefold. First, it’s a plea to Naomi to stop imploring her to go back. Secondly, she made her intentions clear and revealed that this was not just a reaction of an unbalanced, emotional young woman, as she explained what she would do. She would take the same road as Naomi. She would endure the same accommodations. She would embrace Naomi’s people as her own people

and embrace the Lord. She accepted the faith of Naomi in life and death. And lastly, Ruth pronounced an oath that if she failed to do as she had promised to do, then she would be accursed. Only death would separate them. In this curse, she appeals to the Lord to be the guarantor, the executioner of the curse, if she failed in her oath. And Naomi now realizes that Ruth would not budge. Any further argument would be futile. So Ruth has cast her lot with Naomi till death do them part. Amidst her grief and pain, Naomi couldn’t see what a gift Ruth was to her. It was because of the famine that they had moved to Moab. It was after her husband died that the need to continue the family line became pressing and that her sons married Moabite wives. It was after their deaths that Ruth’s extraordinary love

shone forth in her care for Naomi, in her willingness to give up everything that she knew and embrace the Lord of heaven and earth. See, God’s grace doesn’t fail us. In the midst of calamity, we can have hope because God is committed to saving for himself a people for his own. He doesn’t require his kingdom to be filled with perfect people, but he calls sinners and transforms them from the inside out. This transformation is often a slow process with sometimes painful paths as God purifies us and strips away the things we lean on instead of leaning on the Lord. But along the way, we experienced the love of God that draws us and drives us to himself. He will not let us go. Sometimes it looks like that life has left with no options. Every direction you turn to is a dead end or you can’t see beyond the obstacle to see a way out.

While indeed at times things can look bleak, that is when we’re called to go back to scripture. We need to remind ourselves who God is and build on what we know of the character of God. And scripture is clear who God is. God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, checking God’s word always provides a beneficial check for our evaluation. And when you can’t see a way out, it is time to look to God and ask for wisdom. In some ways, we are very much like Ruth. We were outsiders, objects of God’s wrath because of sin. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, but we’re saved by grace. And this not because of our own doing, but it was a gift from God. We all face the same dilemma that Ruth faced.

We can stay where it is familiar to us or we can embrace the Lord. We can seek our temporary security and peace or we can entrust ourselves to the Lord. We can try to find meaning and value in the thing that the world admires. In Ruth’s day, the aim was to have a family, raising a family, building wealth and so on, actually not that much different from us now. Or we can leave all that behind and trust that God will have our backs. What guides our decisions in life? Is it comfort, security, stability, or are we willing to go on an adventure and allow God to direct us? Ruth chose the path of God, the path of faith, entrusting herself to God, whatever he brought upon her path. Ruth’s way, in a way, was the way of the cross, adding to one’s own ideas of success.

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Providence in Perfect Timing

Our natural tendency is constantly trying to set up our own salvation, thinking we can save ourselves, but Christ calls us to take up our cross and follow him. This will lead us often where Jesus walked. And remember, he was a man of sorrow, acquainted with grief. He carried the burden of sin to Calvary, laid down his life for us, but God raised him up the third day as a clear sign that his offer on the cross was accepted. Not only that, he is now sitting at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us. God’s providence is at work. God’s providence would at work in his judgment of sin. God’s providence would at work in his salvation of the people from the famine. And we see then in the last section that God’s providence is also at work in his working in time, as we read on from verses 19.

So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, is this Naomi? And she said to them, do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me? So Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest

— Ruth 1

(ESV)

. Paul writes in Romans 5, 6, for while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Or in his letter to the Galatians, he writes, but when the fullness of time had come,

God sent forth his son. See, God’s timing is never off. We might not always understand it, but his timing is perfect. So at the right time, Naomi hears about God’s visitation and she decides to go back. And so because of this, we see Naomi and Ruth arrive in Bethlehem, where Naomi is recognized. After all these years, they still knew her. Well, Naomi had been gone for so long, but now she came back, but she was alone. She had gone out with four and now only Naomi came back and the whole city was in an uproar. Here she is, Naomi. Where is the rest of the family? And here she is accompanied by a Moabite woman. And the question posed by the women, is this Naomi? Might indicate that the hard life, the deprivation, the grief had left an aging mark on Naomi beyond the years that had passed.

They probably had seen Naomi go when she was in the prime of her life, but now she came back defeated, deprived, disoriented, destitute. And when the city women asked her if she’s Naomi, she responds, don’t call me Naomi. And the word Naomi means pleasant, but she says, call me Mara, which means bitter. And then Naomi launched a fourfold complaint against the Lord. She explained this change in name due to the fact that one, the Almighty had dealt very bitterly with her. God, she says, you have made my life bitter. Secondly, she went on to say that she had gone out full, but the Lord had brought her back empty. And she defined her fullness by her family, her husband and two sons. She accentuated that she didn’t want to be called Naomi, pleasant anymore. Because also the third point that she makes is that the Lord has testified against her.

She almost sounds like Job. Fourthly, she asserts that the Almighty had brought calamity on her. Naomi made herself the adversary of the Lord. Her analysis of her situation is faulty and short-sighted. Did she go away full? What defines fullness? Did she come back empty? She was blind to God’s provision. God had provided a loving daughter-in-law. God had responded to his people by giving them food. God had made known to Naomi that food was delivered again to the people. God provided a helper who would stick with her no matter what. Yes, she had lost two sons, but she gained a daughter-in-law that later in the book it is said of is valued more than seven sons. Two sons, seven sons. I think that’s a very good exchange. In the last verse of the chapter, we see another reference to God’s timely provision. In his providence, they returned to the land of Judah

at the beginning of the barley harvest. This timing will prove very important in providing for them, not just food, but also a redeemer, a restorer of Elimelech’s family line. This is again a clear testimony how God has directed everything. He brought them back at just the right time to set things in motions so that when Ruth is looking for food, she will find Boaz, and then eventually they will marry. And in that marriage, they will have a son, and that son will be the forefather of King David from whose family line would come the Messiah, the redeemer of the whole world. What we must learn, what I must learn, is that God can be trusted. Our circumstances are not a measuring stick for what God thinks of us. The doctrine of God’s providence teaches me that he’s acting on our behalf with astounding, marvelous grace.

We should not make judgments, statements, evaluation based on our circumstances. For as Paul says, for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purposes. If you are like me, I want God to show up when I think it is right. My timing, but God’s timing is far more wonderful. When things don’t go according to our timing, we might conclude just like Naomi that God is out to get us. Life is just not a constant unending stream of immediate fulfillment. Humanly speaking, if Naomi had stayed full in Moab, she probably would not have turned back to be part of God’s wonderful salvation plan. We are content with the little things when God is offering us so much more. C.S. Lewis writes, we are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us like an ignorant child

who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot understand what is meant by an offer of a holiday at the beach. The gospel answers Naomi’s accusation. God is not out to get us but has our best interest at heart. That is why God poured out his wrath on his son and not on us. Although he had no sin of his own because just like Naomi, we need a redeemer, we need a savior. And so at the fullness of time, Jesus came to die for us. And then he rose again from the dead and is sitting at the right hand of the father to intercede for us. If you’re not a believer, if you’re not a Christian, if you have never made a commitment to God, you have never asked Jesus to become the king of your life, maybe the Lord is using this time to call you to himself.

Will you heed his call? God is calling you to himself today. We are not guaranteed a tomorrow. Today is a day of salvation. God is calling to himself sinners who are willing to listen to his voice. Just think of the Ethiopian eunuch who was returning back to Ethiopia with many questions left unanswered. And so God brought Philip in a miraculous way on his path to share the gospel with him. So if you have not made that decision, if you have not made that decision to follow Christ, maybe this is a time that God is using. If you are a Christian, at times when things are difficult, it looks like we’re all alone. We need to remember to go to the father because he’s not against us, he is for us. While there is evil in the world, as we saw here, while it looked all bad for Naomi,

God turned it around for good. Just think of Joseph who spent years in Egypt, even some time in prison. But he included in the end, when he talked to his brothers, you intended to me harm, but God intended for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. God’s providence is active in real time so that Naomi and Ruth arrive at the right time to participate in the harvest of barley and wheat while God allows emptiness to come to Naomi. He did so in order to bring fullness to her once again in a far more significant way. And yet at that time, Naomi couldn’t see this. And maybe we are in the same case that we may be in a dark period and we can’t see yet the way out. Well, it requires time to allow God to work in your life.

It is good for us to have milestones in our lives, milestones that we can look back to at God’s faithfulness in our lives so that when things go dark, we can look back and say, but look at what he’s done in the past. The greatest moment, of course, the greatest milestone of our life is when Christ came into our lives, when he revealed himself, when he called us to his own. And so we see this at work here. God’s providence at work in our life in the provision of eternal life through Christ Jesus. And so we can be grateful to that. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray.

Lord, your provision, your providence is beyond our understanding, but we do understand from the many stories in the scriptures and even the many events in our own life that you are faithful. So father, I pray that we will build on that faithfulness, that we will go out and declare your faithfulness to a world lost in sin. Father, call us clearly to walk a path that will glorify you. Help us, Lord, to see where we can declare your salvation. Help us, Lord, to use the open doors that you give us and declare your faithfulness. And help us, Lord, also to our own brothers and sisters when they go through a dark time, to be careful and faithful witnesses of what you have done in our lives. And we thank you, Lord, in Jesus’ name, amen.