Providence Brings Together, 1

Yeah, if your Bible's with you, open them to the Book of Ruth. Ruth. If you'll remember we talked about the way we would proceed with the Book of Ruth. Uh. We are l looking to do an exposition of the book itself, to do so in a way that applies it to our current setting and situation. There is a major problem in our midst as it relates to the issues of marriage and family. The issue is that in the modern age, we love weddings more than we love marriage. Amen, somebody, we love weddings more than we love marriage. Back in the US recently, and everyone is all excited about the upcoming wedding, you know, the American princess right, And there are going to be millions upon millions upon tens of millions of dollars spent on this wedding. There will be people all around the world who set their alarms to get up in the middle of the night to watch all the pomp and circumstance. There will be people who haven't gone to church in decades who can't wait to see these people go to church and get married. There will be people who despise the Church of England who can't wait to see the Church of England do this ceremony. There will be people who trash marriage from one end of town to the who can't wait to see the wedding because we love weddings more than we love marriage, and we are raising a generation of people who are the same. We are raising a generation of people who want sexual partnership but not marriage. We are raising a generation of people who excited about the idea of a wedding, but not about marriage. We live in a time where when it comes time for the wedding, everything stops. We have to have everything and it all has to be the exact right way. But let the pastor try to get some time to do some premrial counseling and we'll see if we can fit it in. We love weddings but not marriage, and we're paying a price for it. I've often said, and only half jokingly, I'd much rather do a funeral than a wedding, because when it's time for a funeral, there's a family who says we need a pastor, we need a shepherd lead us through this. When it comes time for a wedding, there's a family who says, pastor, hold on, this person is in charge. They'll tell you where to stand, when to speak. You can't say amen, you ought to say ours. Then you add the cultural miliu and the amazing moral decay around us. Feminism which says to us we are not bound by biblical roles, homosexuality which says to us we're not bound by biblical sexual morals. Transgenderism, which says we are not even bound by biblical identity. God says male female. We say maybe, maybe not now beastiality. And you think I'm making this up. You might not be aware of this. But the Academy Awards happened not long ago, and the Academy Award for Best Picture went to a film called The Shape of Water. The Shape of Water is about a woman who has a sexual relationship with a sea creature. I kid you not, the Academy Award for Best Picture. This is where we live. And so in the midst of this moral decay, we're trying to raise up a generation of Christian men and women and say, go do marriage the Biblical way. For some of us who've been doing it for ten twenty thirty years, there's a struggle there to go and do marriage the Biblical way. In the midst of all that we face. And so here we come to the Book of Ruth, and we're going to look at the Book of Ruth. We're going to look at three movements I introduced to you these three movements. The first is the providence of God that brings us together. And in each of these movements, it's important that we look from both angles. That we look from the angle, really multiple angles. One from the angle of those of us who are married and who have been married for a while. See, all the married people should have said, amen, right there, I said, we married, and we've been married. So let's try that again. First we look at it from the perspective of those who are married and have been married for a while. Okay, all right, Then we'll look at it from the perspective of those who are preparing for marriage and considering marriage. But we also need to look at this from the perspective of those of us who have children in our homes, who are pointing in this direction in the midst of a culture and the world where we celebrate bestiality for the best picture award. But we have to prepare our children for this. And I believe the Book of Ruth has all of this for us. So first we look at the providence of God that brings us together, the work that God does to bring us together. Secondly, the character of Christ that's revealed in our courtship, and thirdly the redemption of Christ that is revealed in our marriage. With that in mind, let's look at the first movement here, and let's look at the providence of God. The first movement here Ruth chapter one. We look at the first paragraph. This is perhaps the most tragic paragraph in the entire Bible. Just listen to this five verses one paragraph. Five verses makes you just want to run and close the book. 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. The name of his two sons, Milan and Kiliani. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Alimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. At least she's got the sons right. These took more by wives. The name of the one was Orpa, the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Maelon and Kilian died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. Lord have mercy. Tragedy upon tragedy upon tragedy. But this is where we have to rely on providence. Let me define it for you. I love the definition of providence that when Grudom gives and his Mata theology, he says God is continually involved with all created things in such a way that he won keeps them existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them. So that's the first aspect of providence. God created the world, and he gave everything its properties, and he keeps them existing and maintaining the properties with which he's created them. That is God's providence. Amen. And it's important because most of the time most Christians use the word providence, but what they mean is Christian luck. Right, I was heading out and another vehicle came out. I swerved and I missed it. Providence. Right, I'm heading out and another vehicle comes I swerved, and I don't miss it something other than providence. Right, So we use the term providence when we really mean Christian luck, and we're wrong because, first of all, providence has to do with God creating the world, giving everything its properties, and making sure that everything maintains its properties. Right, you can sit on this bench because it maintains its properties. You don't have to worry about a solid turning into a liquid underneath you and you fall into the floor. Right, it maintains its properties. The providence of God number two cooperates. He cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to do as they do. So, don't just create the world and everything that it can, give it its properties and then leave it. No, he cooperates with all created things and directs them to act as they do. And third, he directs them to fulfill his purposes. Everything everywhere God directs to fulfill his purposes. Do we believe that the answer for most of us is no. There are things that happen and we immediately think God must have been I know the Bible says he never slumbers or sleeps, but if he was awake, that couldn't have happened, so he must have missed that one. There are times in our lives where we may not say that out loud, but that's the way we feel like somehow we have been abandoned. What about the providence that we see in Ruth a number of things in general. First, the canonical significance in place of the Book of Ruth, it is among the historical books. We have the five Books of the Pentitude, and then we have the twelve historical books. And within the historical books there is a transition. In the Penituke, we have Moses as covenant mediator, and the Book of Deuteronomy closes the Pentituke. And the Book of Deuteronomy is actually the covenant treaty document. It is Israel's treaty document. Moses gives a series of sermons wherein he reiterates and affirms the covenant in this covenant treaty document. Well, after the Penitub we have the Book of Joshua. Joshua takes over from Moses as the covenant mediator, but he's the last one who will do so as Moses did. Now we have the conquest, but the conquest is incomplete. This leads us to the time of the Judges, the darkest period in Israel's history, after the time of the Judges, who are not really covenant mediators, they're just stand ins. And here is Israel wandering without the covenant mediator. Is there going to be another Joshua. No, there's not, because now we're going to get the monarchy and we will have profits priests and kings, and the covenant will be mediated that way. And so between the time of Moses the covenant mediator, and the time of the monarchy withets priests and kings as covenant mediators, we have this period in the middle. And there's one book that covers it all. It begins in the time of the Judges, and it ends with the lineage that leads to King David, the greatest of all the kings. That's the Book of Ruth. It sits right there as a bridge between covenant mediator Joshua and covenant mediator monarchy. And the book begins with one we've lost the covenant mediator. It's the time of the Judges, and it ends with the other. Here comes King David, the prototypical and quintessential monarch, as covenant mediator. We have to see the story of Ruth from the end in order to understand it's beginning, in order to understand the providence of God, because you and I do not understand the providence of God unless we look at it in reverse. Amen. When God does things in your life, you don't know what God is doing. All you know is tragedy struck me, or something good struck me, or something that I don't understand happened to me. But oftentimes later on down the line, when you look back, you can now trace the hand of providence to see how it is that got you from point A to point B. Amen. It's been amazing for us as a family to think about that as we look back on how the Lord us to this place. But you cannot see that until you look at it from the other side. It's sort of like if you've ever watched someone make a tapestry. While they're making the tapestry, every time you can't see what happens. But then if they just take it and turn it over and let you see the other side, you say, ah, now I see the pattern. This is what happens with the providence of God. You have to look backwards at it. So we have to recognize where the Book of Ruth is going. We have to recognize that Ruth is going to get a husband, and she's going to get a son, and this son is going to be the grandfather of the greatest king that Israel has ever known of, the one who is going to have a covenant with God that says he will always have a man on the throne and Christ right now and forevermore is the fulfillment of that covenant promise. That's who we're talking about in the Book of Ruth. Amen. So let's look at that first. There is a tragic historical setting. This is set within the period of the Judges, again, of Israel's dark days. Moses is gone, his replacement, Joshua is gone. The conquest was not complete. They did not drive out all of their enemies, and because of that, they are oppressed off and on for a period of three hundred and fifty years. Think about that for a moment. Three hundred and fifty years. There is also a famine. A famine often points to the judgment of God against his people, So it makes sense that in the midst of the time of the Judges that there would be a period of famine, the time of the judges judgment of God. A time of famine judgment of God, and there is no bread in the House of Bread. These people come from Bethlehem and there is no bread there, so they have to leave. There is also a tragic geographical setting away from the land of Promise. There is no bread in the House of Bread, so they must leave the house of Bread. They must leave the land of God's dwelling. They must leave the land of covenant promise. Not only must they leave the land of Covenant Promise, but they end up going to Moab. Moab is Israel's ancient adversary. You remember, these are the people who would let them pass by. By the way, where do we get Moabites from? Well, they're descendants of Lot, Remember Abraham and Lot. Lot take the land that you desire, and Lot goes and takes the land that he desires. Things don't go well in the land that he desires, and so God brings fire and brimstone. As they're departing, his wife looks back and is turned into a pillar of salt. And then things get worse, as now his daughters are in despair. They get their father drunk, go in and lay with him. One becomes pregnant, and her descendants are the Moabites. This is not just anywhere, and Ruth is not just any foreigner. She is a foreigner who, during the darkest days of Israel's history, points back to one of the darkest and one of the most immoral moments of Israel's past. That's who this is. The Moabis also oppressed Israel during the time of the Judges Judges three, verses twelve to fourteen. And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord strengthened Eglon, the king of Moab, against Israel because they had done what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He gathered to himself the Ammonites and the Amalekites and went and defeated Israel. And they took possession of the city of Palms. And the people of Israel served Eglon, the King of Moab, eighteen years. This is not just any land, It's Mohab. Moab also influenced Israel's sin Judges, chapter ten, verse six. The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Bales and the Asheroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Yemmonites, and the gods of the Philistines, and they forsook the Lord and did not serve him. So it is significant that during the darkest period of Israel's history, in the midst of a famine. So this is the darkest knight, in the middle of a series of dark knights. And these people leave, and they don't just leave and go to an unspecified location. They leave and go to the land of Israel's oppression. They leave and go to the land that influences Israel toward idolatry. And they leave and go to the land that is inhabited by the people who remind Israel of one of the darkest of all of their dark knights in their past. That's Moab. There's also the tragedy of family became. There is the death of a husband of a patriarch. Their sons, after the death of the husband their patriarch stay in Moab and marry mulebite women. This is tragic, and it's not tragic for ethnic reasons. These people are of the same ethnicity they're part of the same ethnic group. One group comes from Abraham, the other comes from a Lot, Abraham's nephew. These are the same people. So this is not a tragedy because God says you have to marry people within your own ethnic group. If that was the case, then we'd have a problem with Boaz marrying Ruth. Amen. It's tragedy here because we're outside of the covenant community with people who don't know our God. That's the tragedy. Then there's the death of the sons, and now for the Moabipe women, the death of their husbands. Again, tragedy piled on top of tragedy, piled on top of tragedy. Then there's the tragic social setting. These are three women alone. This is the one writer. Biblical background commentary makes this statement about this tragic social setting. Widows of the ancient Near East had lost all social status and generally were also without political or economic status. They would equate to the homeless in our society. Typically, they had no male protector and were therefore economically dependent on society at large. Tragedy on top of tragedy, on top of tragedy. An Israelite woman widowed in Moab tragedy two Moabid women who were widowed after having married Israelite men, which means that their marriage prospects in Moab would probably be jeopardized as well. Tragedy, tragedy. And again at this point we're probably thinking, by the way I sat, I thought that you know what we were supposed to be looking at. Here is the providence of God. And we are, We absolutely are, even in this tragic paragraph, we are staring face to face with the providence of God. And here's a new flash, Saints. If you can't see the providence of God in the dark, then you can't see the providence of God at all. See in your difficult in your in your in your good days, in your in your mountaintop days, in those days where everything is going exactly the way you desire for them to go, those days, you're not thinking about the providence of God. You're not leaning on the providence of God to get you through. You're not even worried about getting through those days you don't want to get through, you don't even want them to end. Oh, but when it's dark, When it's dark, when a loved one has died, and then another, and then another, and then another. That'sh when you lean on providence when your hopes and your dreams have been shattered. That's when you lean on providence. When you had everything figured out, all the eyes dotted, and all the tea's crossed, and now you can't find an eye or find a team. Now, that's when you lean on providence. That's why this paragraph is here. This paragraph is here to say, can you imagine a worse set of circumstances? Can you? You who are in the midst of a marriage that's difficult? Can you imagine a worse set of circumstances than this? You who think that somehow God will never bring you a husband? Can you imagine a worse set of circumstances than this? You who's on your way to marriage or was on your way to marriage and things fell apart? Can you imagine a worse set of circumstances than this? Oh you can't, No, you can't. So for those of us who was in the midst of a dark day in marriage, this paragraph says God's there, Providence Amen. For those of us who are in the midst of a dark day looking for a marriage and feeling like it was God's damn Providence had a conversation not long ago with a young man. It came up during an event and just was just distraught. You know, you think, I don't know should I leave my church? You know, I'm at my church. You know I'm ready to get married, and I'm looking around at my church. There's not a lot of prospects that I just go find somewhere else to go to church. And somebody red, brother, don't leave your church, all right, don't leave you jan He goes, yes, but I just don't see any prospects. And I looked at him and I said, listen to me. God found Adam a wife when he was the only human being on earth. Amen, folks, there wasn't another human person and God found him a wife. He can find you one, Providence, Providence, And the rest of our time. What I want us to do is is a politeness. LUs see what we learned here. First thing I want you to see. All of these tragedies would seem to point to god forsakenness. All of these tragedies would seem to point to god forsakenness. Can you imagine Job's friends showing up at this point at Naomi's place. Can you imagine Naomi just curse God and die right? Can you imagine they're gonna sit there and they're gonna say, listen, sit down, girl, sit down, Sit down, Sit down, sit down, sit down, Let's talk because you did something. Because God doesn't do this to people unless they did something. What did you do? Confess it, get it out there. But none of these tragedies was a punishment for sin. Hear me, please, and specifically again, we're talking about the Book of Ruth. We're talking about marriage, we're talking about courtship, we're talking about so specifically, hear me on this. You can have tragedy within your marriage. That's not God punishing you for saying amen. Now, now, it could be there are consequences to sin. Don't don't hear me saying that there are consequences to sin. But if you're sitting around trying to make a list of things to figure out where the connection is between this, No, no, it's not how God operates. That's not how God operates. None of these tragedies was brought on by outside influence. These weren't brought on by Naomi's sin, and they weren't brought on by outside influence. No one used the charm against her, Amen says, but you and I both know that there would be people running around trying to figure out who did something to me, who used something against me, who's praying and plotting against me? Because these sorts of things don't happen unless someone out there makes it happen. That's not biblical, it's not No one took blessings from them. We do not live in a world where blessings are a zero sum game. In order for you to be blessed, you gotta take blessing from somebody else. That is not biblical. That is not biblical. That is not what happened here. They have not angered God. There is no point in the Book of Ruth where they are going to have to go off and do something to appear he's the God whom they have angered, because that's not what this is. That's not what this is. Thirdly, these ladies, or if these tragedies would have made these ladies think, God must not want me to be married. God must not want me to be happy. Have you had that conversation I have as a pastor. I've counseled Naomi and Ruth a number of times. You know what I mean. I've sat across the table from these women on a number of occasions, and I have heard them say, you know what, I think God just doesn't want me to be happy. I think it just doesn't want me to have a good marriage. I think that's just what it is. It's just I mean, how could it be anything else. And I'm not just assuming this. We're going to see it from Naomi. She goes back and she changes her name. Call me bitter because God has dealt bitterly with me. God doesn't love me. God has hanged with me. No, that's not what's going on. Her husband died, Both of her sons died after they had to leave the home that they love, the Covenant community, the place where God dwells and go and live in the land of Moab. None of it, None of it meant that God didn't want them to be happy. None of it meant that God didn't want them to be fulfilled. Naomi's a young woman, and this young woman finally found someone, she found a good man, and then he died. God, why would you do that to me? Better that you just don't bring me a man than to bring me a good man and then have him just die. God you hate me, says Have you been there? Are you there right now? Are you looking at your life as it relates to marriage and thinking God must not want me to be happy? God must be angry with me? Or the message of this first paragraph and ruth is that's not biblical thinking, for none of these tragedies would have pointed naturally to God's redemptive work. That requires faith. Because here's the other side of it. The other side of it is the people who you know, you have the people on the one hand who something like this happens and all of a sudden the wheels fall off and they just don't trust God, they don't believe anything. And then on the other side they are the people who just don't live in reality. How are you? I'm blessed in highly favored. I'm the head and not the tail. Oh it's good, you know, speaking of things that be not as though they are. Do you know these people there's a ditch on both sides of the road. On the one side of the road, there's the ditch that says this must have happened because I did something, or this happens because God's angry with me. God doesn't want me to be happy. And on the other side of the road there's the dish that says, all right, nothing bad has happened. And somewhere in the middle there is faith that says, this hurts, but God is good. Somewhere in the middle, this is devastating, but God is good. It is so dark that I don't know the difference between when my eyes are open and when my eyes are closed. But God is good, and the sun is going to shine again. A marriage is hard. God is good. My marriage is over. God is good. My spouse is dead. But God is good. Why because I believe that, Because I believe God, because I believe in his providence. This is hard. I thought i'd be married by now, but I'm not. But God is good. It hurts, It hurts, was on my way to marriage gone. But God is good. God is good. We do not define God's goodness by our tragedies. We define God's goodness by his character. Amen, Because here's the news flash. As bad as things are in this paragraph, you and I deserve worse. You follow me if God were to actually to give us what we deserved. The first paragraph of Ruth would be a good day. Fine. None of these women would have believed what God was doing had they been told. None of them would have believed it. If you come to Ruth now, not only of these women, Naomi Ruth Boas at this point, you go to any one of them and you say, listen, you meet the great grandparents, great great grandparents of the greatest king Israel will ever know. Do you know what they would say, Israel a king? We're under the listen, we're under the boot of another oppressor right now, our covenant mediator Moses dead, our covenant mediator, Joshua gone. We spent eighteen years under the boot of the Moabites. And you come to me talking about Israel having a king. We don't even have a nation right now, we have nothing right now, you say we're gonna have great king? What I would just take a king a kingdom? What if? What if your greatest days with God are ahead of him? What if there are things that God is going to do in your life that are so magnificent that if God himself were to tell you right now, you'd say, ah, come on. What if six the woman in this story who clung to God, they were blessed Naomi and Ruth. They both end up blessed. Please hear this. Ruth is blessed with a husband, a good man, and a son. Right, Naomi's blessed even though she gets neither. Do you hear that. At the end of the Book of Ruth, Naomi is on cloud nine. She is blessed, ecstatic, excited about the way that God has blessed her. He does not replace her husband, and he does not replace her sons, but he does give her a morbide daughter in law, who she says with her own mouth, better than the meeting seven sons, better than seven sons. So here's what I'm saying. If you're in the midst of your dark day and you're married, God can bless you in the midst of that. If you're in the middle of your dark day and you're not married, God can bless you and you never get married. And if you are at a point where you say no, the marriage of my dreams is the only thing that would make this acceptable, then you're an idolatry. That is idolatry, pure and simple. You were not created to be satisfied by a spouse. You are created to be satisfied with Christ and Christ alone. And if you are in a place where you are saying, the only way that I can be okay is if God gives me the spouse that I want, then repent of your idolatry. God is enough. He's enough, He's enough. Here's a final piece. They're blessing Israel's blessing. It's amazing. How what is this book about? Is this book about individual people and individual marriages and individual families, or is this book about Israel? The answer is yes, yes, yes, it is your life and your marriage, about your individual marriage and your individual family. Or is it about what marriage points to? This beautiful, mysterious relationship between Christ and his bride, the church which one saints. The answer is yes, yes, you know. The Book of Ruth says, the God who is concerned and at work redeeming Israel, is not so busy that he can't be at work redeeming Baoming and Ruth and Boaz as individuals. Our marriage is point to something greater, and we praise God for that. But that doesn't mean that we have to sacrifice the something smaller. They both matter, they both matter to God, and they are both under God's providential care. Amen, that's mis pro God. We cry out to you in the midst of our darkness. We live in dark days. We live in days where men, like the era of the Judges, all do what is right in their own eyes. And yet in the midst of those dark days, you have reminded us that we can trust in their providential care. Grant by your grace that we might trust you in the dark. For those under the sun of My voice who are married and in the midst of marital darkness, grant them grace to trust your providence. For those of the sun of My voice who are on their way to marriage, or who are even being prepared for men marriage and it's dark, grant them grace the trust in your providential care, to trust that you are the God of all grace, and that everything large and small not only matters to you, but is covered by your providence. That you work all things together for good. All things. Grant that we might trust you in this, for we ask him in Christ's pain