We have come to the end of our study through the Book of Ruth. This story is part of a much larger story of how God brings redemption to the whole world. Just as Ruth and Boaz’s obedience and faithfulness to the Lord impacted future generations in their family, our choice to obey God today will also impact generations to come. Are we leaving a legacy of faith in our homes and communities?
When we left off last week, Ruth had just gone home to Naomi with the six measures of barley in tow. When Ruth conveyed everything that happened at the threshing floor, Naomi said, “Just wait, child. He will not rest until this matter is settled. You can be assured that he’ll do it today!” This is where our story picks up—the morning after their encounter at the threshing floor. Boaz knew what he had to do—he had to give the other man (the closer relative to Elimelech) the opportunity to redeem Elimelech’s widow and widow daughter-in-law. The issue would need to be settled once and for all. As he made his way back into Bethlehem that morning, I’m sure that his mind was racing trying to consider every possible outcome of this delicate arbitration that was about to take place.
As we’ve been walking through the story of Ruth, we have seen tragedy, desperation and deliverance. But up to this point, the deliverance that Ruth and Naomi have experienced has been temporary. As we continue in this story today, we will see how a brave act of courage changes their lives forever.
In our message last week, we considered all the tragedy that Naomi and Ruth experienced in the land of Moab. We talked about Naomi’s desperate condition—questioning God and struggling to see the purpose of her pain. It seemed to her that her life had no purpose—only pain. We need to discover the purpose in our pain, because nothing in our lives is wasted. God uses both good and bad to bring about His purposes in our lives. We must look for and trust in His providence at work in us. There is no such thing as coincidence. Look for God’s purposes in every situation. He was certainly working in Ruth’s life!
When we left off last week, all the men in Ruth and Naomi’s family had died while living in the foreign land of Moab. Naomi had heard that there was food back in Israel, so she decided to return to Bethlehem in hopes that God would have mercy on her and provide what she needed to be able to live. So let’s consider this next part of the story.
As we approach a study of this short book, we note that this book contains two types of stories—a story of tragedy and a story of rebirth. The tragedy is found nestled into the first few verses of this book and makes up less than 6% of the overall book. Even though this tragedy is just a token of the overall narrative, it is vitally important to understand its characters, setting and plot to be able to properly understand the rest of the story. This story begins—as the text reveals—“in the days when the judges ruled.” This is the reason why the Book of Ruth follows the Book of Judges in the Old Testament canon.
As we’ve come to the end of this book, we find that the Apostle John delineates his purpose here in the epilogue when he explains, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). He provides us with four tests that enable us to have assurance in our salvation. They are: 1) do I obey God and His Word, 2) do I trust God completely, 3) do I love others as God loves, and 4) do I experience the indwelling of His Holy Spirit? In our sermon last week, we explored this verse (and the few that follow it) and considered how we might walk confidently in God’s Light and Love. We determined that we should have confidence in our salvation and confidence in our prayer. Today, we want to take a few minutes to consider the last three aspects of this passage—confidence in our admonition, confidence in our standing and confidence in our understanding.
We have come to the end of our sermon series in the book of First John. If you remember, the first half of the book focuses on how “God Is Light” and how we should live as a result. The second half of the book focuses on how “God Is Love” and how we should also love as He has loved us. In this last part of 1 John 5, I see this section more like an Epilogue to the main body of the letter. Just as the first four verses of First John introduce the overall theme and purpose of the book, the last nine verses of the letter serve as a conclusion for the previous assertions. As we just noted, God is portrayed in this letter as Light and Love, and John is encouraging us to live our lives in God’s Light and Love!
As we examine this next section of Scripture in First John, we notice a repeating concept throughout this passage—the idea of testifying or testi-mony. Realizing the varied definitions and understandings of this word, we see in the primary definition of “testimony” that it is a “firsthand authentication of a fact.” This is the type of testimony we see hear in John’s first letter—a firsthand authentication of the fact of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. We have a choice today—we can either believe the testimony of God and receive eternal life or don’t—it’s that simple.
As difficulties arise each day, how are you dealing with them? Are you becoming overwhelmed by the stress and anxiety of contracting Covid-19? Has the racial tension across our great country caused uneasiness in you? Has isolation from interacting with people caused you to become despondent or depressed? Everyone is dealing with these things at least at some level. How are you doing? This morning, we’re going to divert from our study in 1 John to spend a few moments thinking about the frailty of life and how we are to respond to it. We’ll be looking today at the fourth chapter of Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian church as we consider a biblical response to the difficulties of our time.