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Uh, yes.
I'm tired. The hell for her. I think I'm again.
Where we pray? I wonder if we could read a few verses. Umm.
First of all, in Ephesians.
Chapter One.
I was just thinking of the prayers of the apostle.
For his people, for the people, his children. And, uh, so often, I know it's important for us to, to pray for one another physically and all this, all and all that. And how important that is. And we've been reminded of, uh, in the prayer meeting of the compassion of the Lord for us in that regard. And, uh, but I, I think also when we read, uh, the prayers of the apostles of the apostle Paul, especially his prayer is more for the, the spiritual welfare of his people.
And sometimes we tend to forget that I speak for myself and that, that, umm, the Lord's real desire is that we might grow in grace and in knowledge of him. So I was just thinking we'd read these, uh, prior to beginning our meetings in chapter one.
And in verse 15, Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the Saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints.
And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us? Word, who believe according to the working of His mighty power, which he wrought in Christ?
When He raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality.
And power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this world, but also now, which is to come. And have put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all. And then, umm, a light passage in Colossians.
Chapter one as well.
And verse umm 9 For this 'cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will.
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In all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that he might walk worthy of the Lord unto all, pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.
Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power unto the patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. Giving thanks unto the Father, which have made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light, who have delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the into the Kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature.
For by Him we're all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be Thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things are created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things consistent. He is the head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning of first, born from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.
Shall we pray?
Our God and our loving Father, we do thank thee this morning that we begin these meetings with thee and, uh, with the consciousness of our needs that, uh, we might be built up on our most holy faith, that we might increase in the knowledge of God and increase in the knowledge of my purposes. Indeed, our God, our Father, this is thy desire for thy children, that we might not remain babes, but that we might be full grown and that we might be de desirous not only of the milk of the word, but of the meat of the word as well. And we are here this morning, our God and our Father, because we are our needy people. And we do pray that it's all impress us with the, the destitution of our spiritual needs.
Where we sometimes to forget that we are destitute as compared to what we should be. And our Father, we do pray that that will help us to, uh, increase in the knowledge of myself in these meetings. And that it might be our desire, as has been mentioned before, too, that we might help to break up one another and to, uh, uh, to encourage one another on the pathway of faith down here. So our Father, as we open these meetings, we pray that they'll guide and direct us as to the portion.
That would be suitable for us and that, uh, could be for the honor and glory of our Lord Jesus. And, uh, that would be good for not only the older ones, but the younger ones as well. Do thou give guidance and pray that we might wait on one another and on thy Spirit to guide and direct us and, uh, in all the thoughts and participation that their flesh might be held down. Our God and our Father, we do just look to thee now as we begin these meetings and give these thanks for this opportunity.
And we ask all with Thanksgiving and the worthy name of our Lord Jesus.
Hey my.
I would like to suggest, brethren, that we meditate on the Bucharest. I had it on my heart before I came down here, and what we've had to in our prayer meeting both last night and this morning, and seems to tie in with what the book presents to us, a practical case of restoration and bringing into the knowledge of.
The large thoughts to bless an impossible situation.
Our brothers read from Ephesians and Colossians about our the one body, our relationship to our head, the Lord Jesus, and that is also in the book of Ruth in picture.
What do the rest of the brethren think if we read the 1St chapter this morning?
Let's do it.
I wouldn't want us to stay in the Old Testament brethren, but I, I I trust there will be liberty to re refer to the New Testament, which is really our the feeding ground. But we do need some practical part of it too that comes out in the buckaroo.
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 sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.
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And the name of the man for the Limelack, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons, Mahlon and Chilean aphrophytes of Bethlehem, Judah. And they came into the country of Moab and continued there. And Elim Elimilac, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left, and her two sons.
And they took them wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Oprah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelled there about 10 years at Milan. And Chilean died, but also both of them. And the woman was left of her two sons and her husband. Then she arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab. For she had heard in the country of Moab how the that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread. Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was.
And her two daughters in law with her, and they went on the way to return into the land of Judah.
And Naomi said unto her, two daughters in law, Go return each to her mother's house. The Lord deal kindly with you as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me the Lord grants you, that you may find rest, each of you, in the House of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and wept. And they said, Adora, surely we will return with thee unto thy people. And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters, why will you go with me? Are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? Turn again, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband.
If I should say I have hope.
If I should have a husband also tonight, and should also bear sons, would you tarry for them till they were grown? Would you stay for them from having husbands? Name my daughters, or agree with me much for your sakes, that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. And they lifted up their voice, and wept again. And Orpa kissed her mother-in-law, But Ruth clave unto her. And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law has gone back unto her people, and unto her gods. Return thou after thy sister-in-law.
And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave, the Orts return from following after thee, for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou largest I will lodge. My people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also if aught but death part thee and me. When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left, speaking unto her. So they too went, until they came to Bethlehem, and it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city.
Was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi? And she said it to them. Call me not Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt VE very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why then call ye me, Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me? So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law with her, which returned out of the country of Moab, and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning.
Of barley harvest.
Mm-hmm. I think it's good that we have, uh, that we do take off the practical side of our spiritual blessings because sometimes it becomes, if we just take up the spiritual side, it becomes a head knowledge to us. And, and we don't always realize that that we are in, in, in this age are the same as what those present were in that age and that God was dealing with them.
As he deals with us and he cared for them as he cares for us. But we need to remember also that God is not just interested in how we get along in this world, but he has a, he has a purpose. He has a program in this world for his people. And, uh, he would, uh, have you and me walk in the scene in a practical way of dependence and obedience. And so, uh, I think we do get this in the book of Ruth, We have to remember.
So that, that was God's, God had his eye on the center. He had his eye on a place. And, uh, in this place we find even what Rachel was buried, you know what, a lot of that, uh, uh, Abraham's children and, and his family centered in this area. Did they not? And, uh, in fact, I believe that Bethlehem, uh, really is a, it's a son of effort to who is, I understand was Caleb's wife. I may be wrong in that, but there was that connection.
Uh, we understand, we're familiar with Caleb and Joshua and all those and, uh, Bethlehem was a center as far as God was concerned. And what we're getting here in, in this chapter and in this book is the fact that there were those that were that left that place a blessing and they suffered for it. And umm, yet God would bring certain ones back again and does not do this now, brother, than in our pathway too, there is a going and a coming.
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And yet God has a center, a particular place that he would bring us to and that is, uh, centered in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, uh, we need the, the practical side of things so that we, we feel that we have an attachment to the truth in a physical way that, uh, we might realize that God has put us here for a purpose. And there is a, uh, uh, there is not certain walking ways that he would desire of us.
In order to experience blessing, uh, at this time, at the end of the chapter, we find that it was in the beginning of barley harvest, just at the time when they were ready to dispense blessing. And this is when there was a return to that, that place that, shall we say, if we wanna use that, the place of his appointment. And so, uh, let us tie this in with the, with the spiritual side that we get in the, uh, the, in the epistles because this is God's purpose for us.
We don't see understanding of what was going on in the beginning of this book, uh, as to what God was doing and how he was going to bless that family.
Uh, if we could just mention that before we get into the details of it, uh, the book closes up with the genealogy of, of David and our brother read, uh, yesterday about how God chose David.
And he raised him up and he used him. Well, he's a picture of the Lord Jesus, of course. So you have the beginnings of that right here. How, what the Lord began with and how Ruth is, uh, used of the Lord, a Gentile, a Moabite to provide what the people of Israel had given up and lost. And so she could, she is a picture in that way.
Of.
The Gentiles, how they can be be brought into blessing because the Jews failed and that's how we brethren have come into blessing. God has chosen us in this time to be united to Christ, uh, our head in heaven.
And, uh, he gets children through the Gentiles, spiritual children. And we are those spiritual children here gathered and with some measure of understanding about these things. We're very favored brethren. But when the Lord began with each one of us, every one of us have a, have a history similar to this chapter, I believe.
And we've been through experiences that have been hard to break us down and to bring us to cling to the Lord.
And so I, I trust that as we meditate it, that practical side will, will, will be emphasized as well as the, uh, the teaching of appreciation of what Ruth and Naomi were brought into and how God, nothing was too hard for God to bless them. And so nothing has been too hard for God to bless the Gentiles today and narrowing it down to our individual families.
Nothing has been too hard for God to bless us and here we are and we need to rehearse these things and remind ourselves how the Lord is where He brought us from and He what He's brought us into.
So Ruth is a real picture of grace, one that's brought into blessings by grace. A Mobitus wasn't to come into Israel to the 10th generation. And so if we have time, we'll notice later on, she says to Boaz a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. She says, why have I found grace in thine eyes, seeing that I am a stranger? She recognized that any blessing she could claim, any place she could have amongst the people of God was on the grounds of pure sovereign grace. And that's good for all of us to realize we've all been brought in on the grounds of grace. But just to get the picture, the setting of the story here, you really have to go back.
To the last verse of the Book of Judges. Let me just read it.
The 25th verse of Judges, chapter 21. In those days there was number king in Israel.
Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. This is the setting of what we have before us. It was a very low point morally and spiritually amongst the people of God in Israel. They had turned away from God. And this verse is actually been a quote from an earlier portion in the book of Judges. In the 17th chapter you have a similar statement and all through the book of Judges you see this. You find that they turned away from God.
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God came in, in his governmental ways, in one way or another, there would be restoration. He'd raise up a godly judge in Israel and there'd be restoration. God would come in and blessing. Then they turn away again. And it just was a continual regression until we've come to the end of the book. Every man was doing that which is right, was right in his own eyes. But then we have this beautiful story. And as this story unfolds, I think of what it says in Romans where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And isn't it beautiful, Brethren, we look around.
At our own situation, we see low.
Uh, uh, lo, we're at a low point morally and spiritually the Christian profession and we're part of it. We have to hang our head and admit that we're, we're part of it. But isn't it wonderful to realize that there is still grace abounding and that there is still grace to preserve? There's grace to restore when there's failure. There's grace to keep us to the, to the very end. The grace that Ruth experienced, that Naomi re experienced in restoration. It's the same limitless supply that all we've been available to the people of God.
I think we can take heart to realize that amidst all this darkness, amidst this very difficult background, God was still working amongst his people in one way or another, and God is still working today. If we just look at the circumstances, if we just look at the context of where we are in our history, we're going to get discouraged. It's gonna cast us down. But if we being aware of where we're at in our history.
Yet turn to the Lord and realize the resources and the grace that is found in Him and that we can avail ourselves of those resources. That's what's going to encourage us. We're not going to see brighter days down here, but we can find a path through it all.
My brother Doug, I have a question. Was your thought to try to cover the whole book in the three meetings we have? If it's possible, well, let the Spirit of God direct how far we get and that I, uh, uh, you have a thought that you want to express.
Well, I was just thinking it'd be nice to get the complete picture if, if we, if we can, but that requires that we, we try to get the outline rather than, well, too much and too many details, doesn't it? We have 3 readings. If the Lord direct, we could at least cover 3 chapters of Lord willing and the last is sure so shorter. So I just, uh, had a thought about, uh, this book where my brother Jim was speaking about the historic setting. And when we look at scripture, it's always good to start with the historic settings, isn't it?
Because that gives us, uh, uh, the way this was in the very beginning.
And so as we look through the Old Testament and the New Testament, we find that there's a number of historic ethics which took place of periods of time. They're not exactly dispensations exact, uh, because dispensations have to do with the distinction between Jew, Gentile and Church of God. And we need to talk about the dispensational aspect of Ruth. And I'm sure we will to get that in our heads. But first of all, uh, it's good, I think, to look at the historic setting as, as Jim has been mentioning, some, I would suggest that goes back even before the book of Judges.
Back to the beginning of Joshua, that was the beginning of a happy time. In some sense, it corresponds with our present day, uh, with the beginning of the church period in the 1St century of the church, uh, the Lord was freshly calling. Uh, it was a new generation that entered into the land of Canaan under the auspices of, uh, Joshua's we well known. And so there was a great deal of gaining during that book of Joshua. But then when we turned to the book of Judges, we find that there's now a downward course. And this has been the moral history of God's people at all time.
In every historic epic, whether we talk about the king.
Whether we talk about the patriarchs, we see the same thing beginning with Abraham, whether we talk about the church period, whether we talk about Israel in the future during the Tribulation, there's the same moral progression. It begins with the call of God, and then we see as its entrusted demands hands, that there's a fall. And so the characteristic verse in Judges, we read it in a very early chapters, is that they came to Bokehen. Bokeem is the place of weeping. And so they fell, as it tells us in the Book of Revelation, chapter 2.
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And the first address to the church, to Ephesus, it says, take heed out how thou hast, uh, that thou hast fallen and repent. And so there was the possibility of return to that condition that was found in the book of Judges. We know it was not to be. And so every judge in the book of, uh, Judges is lower than the one before. But there were revivals. The Lord was working. There's always a path for faith, even in the darkest days. And then the point comes when what brethren Nov often referred to as the ruin of the testimony.
Doesn't mean that God gives up on us people. That's not the point at all, is it? But as we say, there's always a path for faith. And so when the whole testimony is in ruins, as Jim was reading there actually mentioned, I think as many as four times in the last four chapters of the book of Judges, that every man did that which was right in his own eyes. The testimony as a whole no longer represented that which God had entrusted to them. And at that point, what always happens in every historic epic.
Whether it's the patriarchs, whether it's the kings, whether it's Joshua judges, whether it's the church period, whether it's Israel in the future during the tribulation is that God separates out a remnant and, and Ruth is morally that remnant, isn't she? She's a picture of that, uh, those who walk in the path of faith even in the various darkest of days. It starts out sad, but it ends very happy, doesn't it?
For somebody who naturally speaking, had no hopes whatsoever. And so this is the historic setting, it's the remnant testimony, much as we have in the end of, uh, Malachi, uh, with, with the end of the King's period, or much as we have in the day when the Lord Jesus came, when there was that little remnant in Luke chapters one and two. So Ruth is a picture of that restored remnant. Naomi is a picture of the promises made to Israel originally, isn't she?
As entrusted to men, men failed. But then, in connection with those promises, there's a new generation, and that's Ruth.
I think it's significant here in these first five verses that you don't get a lot of description of what they, this family gave up when that famine came. We've, it's been mentioned about Bethlehem, Judah, that was a favorite place and that, that was their heritage that they received. Israel had an earthly heritage, brethren, we have a heavenly heritage and uh, we've been brought into that through the Lord Jesus.
And that's all pictured here.
When When Uh.
When our souls get away from the lower, there's declension that comes in. You don't have the Spirit of God pointing out the point, the things that they gave up.
In order to find out what they are, you read through the whole book and you find, for example, how Ruth clave to her mother-in-law, how she said thy God is my God, thy people, my people. That those were the things that this family had given up. And Ruth is the instrument that laid hold of them by faith and got a pack, claimed it, walked in it and stuck with her mother-in-law and went back to her in spite of the, the the bitter circumstances that her mother-in-law spoke of.
And so, brethren, our faith needs to lay hold of the promises in the word of God that he's given to us and not let them slip away. We, we live in a time when much is being given up even among ourselves. And, uh, it's, you don't see the consequences when you give something up. It took ten years here for the consequences to manifest themselves.
When this family left their heritage in Israel and tried to find their sustenance in another land.
That God hadn't particularly given to them.
But but God was able to bring blessing in spite of that, and in this case, it's through the Gentile woman.
Faith delivers us from idols, is it not? And umm, uh, Ruth was subject to idol. She was that's that was her heritage at at the start. She was from a land full of idols, but Faith allowed her to.
To give those things up, just like the Thessalonians Saints, they turn to God from idols who serve the living and the true God and to wait for his Son from heaven. And so you and I, uh, we, we can, as you mentioned, Doug, we, we, we get away from the Lord a little bit on our souls and we turn to idols of some sort. And so when the Lord recovers us, restores us and his grace, he will, umm, that faith will deliver us from those things that we had taken up with.
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And so, uh, they can't go on together. And Ruth is a beautiful picture of this college as you, you're, you're saying that thy God shall be my God. Those idols were not her gods anymore.
And so may the Lord deliver us from any idols that are laying hold of our hearts.
This book opens with a salmon in the land of Israel, and I think it's interesting to follow through the Old Testament because this is not the first time there was a famine in Israel. And we find that when there are famines mentioned in Israel, there are different individuals brought before us who responded or reacted to those famines in different ways, and we see either the blessing or the sad consequences as a result of their reactions and what they did. We find there was a famine in the days of Abraham and he went down into Egypt and we know there were sad results.
It was where Lot probably got his taste for, uh, this world, so to speak, and so on. And there were results, consequences in the life of Abraham as a result of what he did. There was a famine in the days of Isaac, too, And the Lord told Isaac to remain and to sow, and he did. And he reaped a hundredfold. There was blessing because he remained where God had told him to, and he sowed in faith and in obedience. And here we find as this book opens, there's a famine. And this man, Elimelech, he takes his family.
Uh, down into the land of Moab. And it's interesting that he is the one that is held responsible. It's a Limerick who takes his family. He was the head of the home. Sometimes as we read the story of Naomi, we shake our heads and say, well, Naomi should have known better. She ought not to have been down in Moab. And that may be so. But it is interesting at the end of the chapter that Naomi says, I went out full. Now, brethren, I don't want to read more into Scripture than is here.
But I have often wondered if perhaps Naomi wasn't caught in a situation where it really wasn't her desire to leave Bethlehem, Judah and go down, but because of her relationship to her husband and no doubt the culture of that day, she had no choice perhaps but to go down to the land of Moab. But she went out full. She came back empty. There were consequences. There was a sad result, but she went out full nevertheless. The point I'd like to make, in a very practical way, is that God hell holds here.
The head of the home responsible for what happened and the sad consequences that ensued in his family. Yes, grace triumphed in the end. Yes, there was blessing in the end. There was restoration for Naomi. Ruth is brought in by grace. But what sad consequences? And this man is held responsible. And I just want to say to those of us who are heads of our home, and I say to my own heart particularly, we are held responsible before God.
As to the decisions we make in our home practically and spiritually, and the decisions that we before the Lord or the lack thereof make are going to have consequences on our family. However, I would just say perhaps there's some here and we feel we've failed in the past, but be encouraged too. If we're willing to own that failure before the Lord, then He can come in. And again, grace is greater than any of our failure, but it is.
It's interesting that the book opens with Elimelech being held directly responsible for what happened.
When I look at a book, I like to look at the title of it. The title of it is Roof.
I'd like to get an overall view in my mind and so it would be about the topic of roof. It's the 8th book in the Bible. It's a new beginning and if I could put a label on that, I would put on there God brings back.
And in this Don has asked us to also touch on the New Testament. And God took us as pagans, and He has made us accepted in the Beloved.
And if you look here, we have Moab in the first verse and it takes you back to Genesis 19 verses 363738. And we see there that lot, two daughters got him drunk and they laid with him. And the oldest daughter had a son named Moab. And Moab means that it is a people with a curse upon him. And the Moabites were the enemies of Israel. They were strangers to Jehovah.
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Uh, and here we see that these people with the curse, and she is of the Moabites, Ruth is and she is a widow.
So she is a widow that comes from a cursed race.
And he picks her up and by the end of Ruth.
He has made a noble out of her, and that's what he has done with each and every one of us. He takes us from the lowest point and he lifts us up and he places us accepted in the beloved. And there's what you have in your overall viewpoint and put it in relationship to the New Testament. And we can dissect every little part of it along the way, but we want to keep an overall viewpoint. And I feel in my heart that this is the overall viewpoint that he changes the human nature.
He completely changed her by the time we were done with the Booker. Ruth, Lord willing.
When she left UMM, she had a husband and she had two sons. Maybe she lacked bread.
When she came back, she said she went out full. She changed her perspective of looking at things. After going through that bitter experience, Brethren, we can easily get focused on the wrong things, just the blessings, the bread. The Lord sometimes sends famines in our assemblies or in our families, and He has a reason to do it. The people who stayed in Bethlehem, Utah, didn't die of the famine. They lived through it.
This family left their ground of blessing.
And went to Moabite territory to live. Then when they got into problem in Moab, they were really destitute.
They had to go back to Jewish ground of blessing that God had given them. And so, brethren, if we, if we go out to other places, there's blessing and, and, and other places in the world today that substitute and we can go to help us through when we have problems, they're kind of crutches. But if the Lord takes those away, then where are we gonna be? And that's what this family was brought to.
Well, the wonderful thing is that God wasn't unable to help them and to use Ruth and Moabite as a means to, to give them children again in that family that was cut off. And so he did that. And so we need to, I trust we'd be encouraged, brethren, as we go through problems. Uh, uh, this is, there's dispensational teaching in this, but also.
Along with it, every one of our families go through difficulties and, and we face situations similar to this in principle and how we react to them. I hope we can be kind of encouraged by going over this to, to lay hold of the source of our blessings and not give them up when difficulties come, when there's famine. And so when Ruth came back, I believe the reason she said I went out full of was she was focusing now.
Uh, on what was of real value, her husband and her children. And, uh, and she didn't have them when she, when she went back to Bethlehem, Judah, she had lost them. Well, God made it up to her because she went back to the source, her, her home territory, her place that God promised to bless them. And when she went back there, as hard as it was, you know, when we get away from the Lord in return, it's hard.
I don't believe she wanted to take her daughter's in law back.
To that land because it would be, uh, a blot, It would be a witness of what had happened those past 10 years. And, uh, but when Ruth, uh, clay to her and insisted and really claimed her God, then she couldn't refuse her. Little did nail my know that Ruth was what Ruth was going to be to her after she got back.
Brethren, when we don't know how the Lord can bless us.
When we really come back in humility to him and and he is able to bring blessing.
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Think of how God brought his people out of Egypt and what a terrible condition they were in in Egypt under that tyrant Pharaoh, which I believe is a picture of Satan. And so they were subject to, uh, great ******* in Egypt. God miraculously brings them out of that ******* brings them through the Red Sea.
And.
Brings him out into the wilderness.
Now what is the attitude?
What I'm reading here in Exodus chapter 16, apparently they run into some difficulty out there and they were hungry. So what do they want to do? They want to go back to Egypt. Well, they must have very short memories to realize what their true ******* was, their true state of things in Egypt. It was awful. But you know, they wanna go back there and Exodus 16 and verse.
Three.
Uh, verse two, it says, the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the children of Israel said unto them, once to God, we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full.
Well, was it really that good? I mean, was it an accurate description of their condition in Egypt? And then they say, yeah, brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
So do they really think that after God has in a miraculous way brought him out of Egypt through the Red Sea, that he's brought him out there to perish even though they get hungry?
Well, what does it say in verse four? Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will reign bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day that may prove them whether they will walk in my law or no, and so on. And so God provided that food for his people, even though it seemed an impossible situation, being out there in the wilderness, God.
Is the God of the impossible. It's nothing too hard for the Lord and you can trust him in any situation, sad to say, eliminate you run into some problem there. And So what does he do? He runs away, but he's really leaving God. But, uh, thankfully God hadn't left his family and uh, we find that Ruth makes it bad along with, uh, well, Naomi makes it that long with the Ruth, but I just feel that, uh.
Sometimes God's help doesn't come.
Immediately.
No, somebody said one time that, uh.
God's help doesn't come right away that we might know the blessedness of trusting in the dark.
But it doesn't come too late either that we experience the misery of trusting in faith.
Think of it in connection with David.
You know, David said. I waited patiently for the Lord.
And he inclined on me, heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit.
So sometimes we need that we patient waiting on the Lord, don't we? But I believe He will come in.
And you always reward space.
And again, there's nothing too hard for the board, but sometimes he allows us to go our own way. But thank God there's always that opportunity for re restoration.
Restoring graces, I believe just as wonderful as saving grace.
I think perhaps it would be helpful too, just to look very briefly at the dispensational aspect here, because when we understand the force of the Scripture, uh, that the Spirit of God has in mind, then we can properly apply it. And sometimes we get the cart before the horse and get a little mixed up. But we talked about the historic setting, but then we UN have to understand its dispensational setting and I think it's enlightening to do that.
One thing is that the name Ruth means beauty, doesn't it? She was a spiritual beauty and that was a real refreshment to the Lord's heart. And that's certainly a lesson for us. Another point that the brethren have often made, Mr. Darby makes it in the synopsis in connection with Genesis, in connection with Isaac and Rebecca, in connection with Abraham and and Sarah, and that is that the woman in Scripture often speaks at the position.
00:45:23
That were called to occupy. And the man speaks of the state we're in in connection with that position and so in connection with the Naomi. And Elimelech's name, of course, means whose God is king. He had the profession that God was his king.
Naomi's name means, of course, my pleasantness. So dispensationally, Naomi is a picture of Israel under the promises of God, the depository of God's promises. That's a wonderful position.
But Elimelech speaks of the state and as we well know, Israel failed as the depository of God's, uh, God's promises. And so, uh, they left the place of Bethlehem, Judah, Bethlehem, uh, Bethlehem, of course, Mimi, the House of bread. That was the true place of bread. It was the place of blessing, but they left it and they found, uh, as we, as we say, things went downhill from there. But to get the picture properly again, I understand that the rabbis when they read Ruth, always scratch their heads.
How can it be that a Gentile is brought into such blessing? Wasn't it true, according to the book of Deuteronomy, that a Moabite was not able to come into the congregation of Israel until the 10th generation, which effectively was forever? How could it possibly be that Ruth is such a beautiful picture?
Well, it's easy to understand if we understand what the dispensational setting is. Again, what it is, is Naomi again is a picture of Israel under the promises of God. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. And so Naomi is that picture. And in connection with her we have Ruth, who's the restored remnant of the future day. And the reason, again, while the rabbis have such a difficult time, is that she's a Gentile.
What's the what's the secret there? It's very simple, isn't it? Israel will be restored. We have that in in the book of Romans, don't we all? Israel shall be restored. But how is it? It's on the same basis of grace as the Gentile comes in. That's the key to the book of Ruth. Dispensationally she's connected with Naomi. It is true she comes in under the promises made to the fathers, but Israel had forfeited their place first by.
Giving up, uh, and, and breaking the law by bowing down to idols and then by rejecting their Messiah, How can Israel possibly be blessed on the same basis as the Gentile? Pure and free grace. So in that sense, Ruth is a picture, uh, of the future Jewish remnant. She comes in the blessing again, but it's on the basis of pure grace.
What did what did Ruth see or hear that changed her mind? I don't know that we really have any.
Anything in the story here but she saw or heard something that changed her mind.
Thus, she no doubt saw and heard in her mother-in-law those things that were concerning the true God and where they had come from. And I appreciate what Brother Erica said. I think it's very important to get that setting. But just for a moment now, let's take up the three women that are brought before us in this chapter as individuals because there's another, a very practical aspect in connection with God's dealings with these three women. That is, there was Naomi, there was Ruth, and there was Orpha. And if I can start with Orpa, Orpa is a picture to us. I'm speaking in a practical way now, an application.
She's a picture to us of one who had heard about the blessing, made a profession, but when the pressure came, there was no reality. She turned back. And so it's like those who've tasted of the grace of God, they've heard about it, maybe in some way they've experienced it, maybe brought up in a Christian home in a Christian land or Christian setting and they've tasted of it. But when the pressure comes, when the heat is on, it brings out, it's brought out that there was no reality in their heart. And so Orpa, it sounded good at the beginning, sounded like she really had a desire to go back, go with her mother-in-law, back to the land of Israel.
But when the pressure came, I say it showed that there was number reality in her heart and there's many who make a profession, but there's no reality. Naomi is a picture of one who is away from the Lord and is restored by grace and has been already said, the grace of God is as limitless and wonderful as the saving and preserving grace of God. And we're thankful in each of our lives. Some measure at least for the restoring grace of God. And then Ruth is a picture of one who makes a decision.
00:50:23
She had heard from her mother-in-law, probably the same things that her sister Orpa had heard, but those things had taken hold of her heart. Those things were not just things she'd heard now, but they had in some way taken hold of her heart and soul. And she's a picture of one who has reality now in the in the soul. And even though there's pressure put on not to go by your mother-in-law, and sad to say, it's her mother-in-law that puts that pressure on. But even though there was that pressure not to go, it's like the hymn we used to sing when we were young people.
I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. She'd made a decision that the God of Israel was going to be her God, that she wanted the blessing that, uh, her in-laws had left behind at one time when they came down to the land of Moab. And nothing was going to dissuade her now. So I think it's beautiful to see these three women in that way. Sad to say, Orifa never got the blessing. She professed to want it, but she never got it. But there was one who was restored and one who was brought into the blessing because there was real purpose of heart. I'd like to just say this too, before we pass on.
About Elimelech, I I don't think Elimelech, when he went down to Moab, intended to stay as long as he did. You know, sometimes we feel perhaps as fathers that we need to do something that's going to temporarily fix the situation. Maybe we feel there's a lack of food for our children spiritually where we are. And we feel in the little assembly we come from that just isn't anything there for our young people and so.
We feel there are things perhaps we can do temporarily to help the situation along. The reason I say that is because if you notice a little progression here with the limelight, in the end of the first verse, he goes down to sojourn in the country of Moab. Now the word sojourn has the thought of just being there for a short time. We've come to sojourn here at Lake Genaluska for the weekend. We don't plan to be here more than just a few nights. And so I think he thought, well, this isn't gonna last very long and we'll just go down to Moab and it'll be a quick fix to the situation.
Don't we sometimes feel like that? Well, if we let our young people do something or associate with something, it'll be just for a little time and they'll see the light of it. And, uh, it's, it's just gonna be for a temporary thing. I, I think Elimelech perhaps was thinking along that line, but notice what happened in the end of verse 2 and continued there. He continued there. Perhaps he did find food for his family, natural food, of course. And sometimes perhaps we feel, well, we've allowed this and yeah, our young people are being encouraged and we're being encouraged and we're, they're get, we're getting something. Our families are getting something. And so we stay longer.
We allow something or we stay somewhere longer than we really intended. But what happened as a result, there's another progression in the end of verse four. And they dwelt there about 10 years. To dwell somewhere is different to them to sojourn or even continue somewhere. The thought of surge journeying is just for a little while. The thought of continuing, well, we're still, we're here, but we'll just stay a little longer. But then they dwelt there about 10 years. And again, we know the sad results and consequence. And so I just say that again as a warning, perhaps particularly to those of us who are heads of our homes.
Are we willing to just trust God in the place of blessing that He has brought us into? He can provide for us. And I could just say this too, in connection with what Eric and others have said. When God sets up an institution for the blessing of man on the earth, He provides for us to go on in that institution to the very end, in spite of whatever moral and spiritual darkness and ruin may come in and we find at the end of the history of God's people in the Old Testament.
Things were darker perhaps even than they were in the days of the judges, but there was a little remnant going on, those that were speaking one to another, going on for the Lord's glory, and He valued it. When you come over to the New Testament, you find there were a little remnant in Israel going on, and things had even deteriorated. Rita, secular history of the 400 silent years, those years between Malachi and the coming of Christ, and things had deteriorated even more.
Than they had in the days of Malachi. But there's Anna, there's Simeon, there's Zechariah and Elizabeth, there's Mary and Joseph, as well as all those that look for redemption in Israel.
00:55:09
Now come down to the last days that Paul writes to Timothy about. You know, we often say, brethren, the last days are characterized by spirit, by individual faithfulness. And certainly that is true. And Timothy was told in the third chapter of second Timothy continued out that individual faithfulness in spite of the ruin. But I believe it's significant to notice that even before he's told to continue as an individual.
He's told to go on with those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. In other words, Paul says to Timothy, you're gonna find others who are desiring to go on and honor me and walk in the truth, and you're to go on with them. Separation is not isolation. Going on in the last days doesn't necessarily mean we're totally alone if individual faithfulness, but it's with others who have the same desire.
And I say that because again, and I'd like to stress this, just bear with me. They're God set up two institutions for the blessing of man on the earth. The first was the family. And God has made provision to go on in the family right until the very end. And it's beautiful in days of ruin, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament to find families going on for the Lord, search out those families. Noah in his day built an art to the saving of his house.
His family went in with him in second Timothy. It's the days of ruin, but there's a no, there's the household of Vanessa Forest. There's there's families going on as well as as Indi individuals. And so God has made provision for that first and great institution, the family to go on to the end. We can go on as families to the end. The second institution set up for the blessing of man on the earth was the church, the assembly, and God has made provision to go on to the very end.
And even in Laodicea, there was provision to go on in spite of the complete indifference that had come in and the lukewarmness, uh, and indifference to the claims of Christ. And so we read a story like this. Yes, it's dark days, but again, like those jewels in Malachi shining against that dark background, God takes note not only of individuals, but of those who seek to go on his families and collectively to us gathered to the Lord's name, Jim, when he was talking about umm.
The husband there and there's famine in the land if there's a matching burst, almost like it in Genesis 12 and verse 10 if we turn to it together.
Genesis 12 and 10 reads and there was a famine in the land and Abraham went down to Egypt to sojourn there. We have the word sojourn. We have the, uh, famine in the land. We have going down and we see parallel things being taught here. Uh, the famine in the land is what you have to look at first to understand it. And the famine in the land is Speaking of God in judgment. This is his people.
This is his people, definitely him. Judah means the House of bread and praise. And they're and they're getting ready to literally leave that and they're getting ready to leave the judgment of God on the famine of the land upon his people. And they are choosing to go down to Moab. They're choosing to go down where Satan and all the crowd and everything else around about it. And if you take note of this, Jim said one of the two things was the family here they had.
Two sons, Naomi and Emilek had two sons, and those two sons took on them two wise, Mobite wise. It does not say that they ever had any children.
The family line was blotted out.
Naomi, the wife had two Moabite daughters and the book goes on from there. When you get to Matthew one and five in the genealogy, the messianic genealogy, you have, uh, both Boaz and Ruth there in Matthew one and five in the genealogy, there is no line left of Emily because he went down.
And he left.
The Lord loveth them who He chasteneth. They would have been better off to have stayed in the famine of the land and the chastening hand of God than to go down where Satan and all the crowd is at. And that is the teaching for the family line is to stay under the hand of God. He loves you even if He's chasing you. It'll be for better in the end. He always brings us out positively.
01:00:20
That's the that's the man's side of it. God's side of it was that.
This family got linked up with the family of Boaz and inherited the blessing of Boaz and, uh, which brought him into the lineage of David and of Christ. And, and that's how God's ways can intervene and bless us. Then I would like to comment on verses 16 and 17, uh, of, in connection with Ruth laying hold of what she laid hold of because I, I, I want to encourage everyone here of us to.
Uh, to, uh, for faith to lay hold of the promises.
Of God, to me, it's very striking that in the midst of Naomi's failure and perhaps Elimelech too, but Naomi here is the one who is still alive. Ruth and, or for both of them witnessed the, uh, life and testimony of the, of this family from, uh, Bethlehem, Judah 1 drew one conclusion and another, another. The other is the other.
Ruth, uh.
In spite of Naomi's failure, there was in her departure from her place a blessing. She was a witness to her daughter-in-law, Ruth. And I believe Ruth saw something of reality in Naomi, Uh, in spite of the failure, you know, I, I take courage in this as a parent, uh, having failed as a parent and uh, not always given the right testimony to those of my children or those that observe.
Uh, and yet, uh, do they see in me be behind my failures, a reality of faith that Ruth saw through the testimony of her mother-in-law. I don't believe she had any other testimony of Israel to, to believe in accept that, uh, her, umm, the family she married into. Notice what it says in the in verses UH-16, what she says.
And this wouldn't be what she gleaned from observing.
Her in laws.
And treat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee, for whither thou goest, I will go. Well. Where had no Naomi gone? She had le she had he hadn't been perfect. And where she went, she had gone from a good place to Moab. And yet she swears she alone allegiance to go with her. Where thou logist, I will lodge. Jim speaks about how what is supposed to be temporary and it ended up longer term.
Umm, so there's a long term, uh re uh, place. Thy people shall be my people. That was the people of Israel. She was laying hold of the of the people of Israel. She was surrendering up her citizenship to become.
An Israelite proselyte and thy God my God. And so she saw the true God of Israel in the life of Naomi.
Her mother-in-law.
We need.
To believe in what firmly and cling to what we believe in. Young people, don't be fluctuating with the winds of influence around you. Get your convictions of what you believe in and follow it. It will carry you through. It's when we let the influences around us, a famine or a trouble, influence us, a temptation. That's when we become Drifters.
But when we cling to what we really believe in, no matter what this this applies to us today, we need to be sure what we believe in.
One of the ways of doing that right is keeping the proper perspective, keeping our eyes on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. And I think that's why the Lord sent Ruth for many reasons before Naomi's life, while we love the Scriptures, it reminded her of what Naomi had lost track of, which is what was Israel, Bethlehem, Shiloh, all those things were just, was it just a place? And too often we use the word place and perhaps and it's used correctly in the meetings and so forth, but we get so fixed with the things that.
01:05:15
Are visible to us.
And so when we come to a a week weekday meeting or if we have one at all, and the place where the Lord is in the midst becomes simply the place where individual X through Y is located and maybe having a hard time and so forth. And I was thinking about this at the end of Joshua, since all of Israel has gathered together to the Lord in Shiloh and Shiloh is used once before, obviously when the prophecy concerning Judah where scepters shall not depart from between his knees until Shiloh comes, Shiloh meaning Messiah. And yet when the Lord had asked for a Tabernacle to be built, and this was in Shiloh at this time.
It's because you wanted to dwell with them and Israel is from the beginning has always struggled as we do as well as a type for us in in focusing too much upon the aspects of or the traditions of the visible and they forgot the spiritual significance that it was truly at the in the essence a relationship that God had formed with them. And our brother last night was speaking to the young people and he mentioned the deprivation sort of the privations, I should say, of the Confederacy at the end of the war.
And what?
'Cause those what used to be at the Army of Northern Virginia, some 70,000 men to some 8000, why they stayed for so long. And it was because of the person of Robert E Lee. It was because of the person that they were associated with. And here's Ruth coming out and foiling. He's a foil character for Naomi. She is, she believes by faith. What Naomi should have seen by faith in the land, that it wasn't just the land, it wasn't just a physical location. It was the God who had given it to them and the inheritance that he had separated to each of their families.
And notice Naomi basically claims I am Baron. Why wait for any child that I could have, even if it was possible? And yet, what is Ruth's claim? It is with V, the singular, uh, pronoun there, that we lose in modern translations. It's with thee. Wherethe thou goest I will go. And that identification, which is so much an echo or a 4E of the words of Christ, I send to my father, and to your father, to my God and your God, that sense of identification. So Naomi needed to hear this, and she's not. And she's on a process.
Of, of character development, as it were. So, you know, because at first she says, call me not Naomi, call me Mara bitter. And yet at the end, what does it said of her? Umm, God has given her a son and we see the, the fruit there that comes from that. So I love the fact that Ruth as a type of the church, it will one day will remind Israel of what they've lost sight of that the Tabernacle, the elements, the oracles of God, the Ephah, the Terra theme, all these things were but pictures, shadows that were supposed to represent the, the physical relationship and they will one day look on him.
But so often, umm, we, we neglect to see with the eyes of faith and instead of seeing the person to which we cling, which in the type of marriage through right, through sickness and health, haven't taken those yet. But I'm just saying sickness and in health, right, Because it's to a person. You can't just leave it and come back. In the same sense it was to a God that Jehovah, he he'd given himself in personal relations that this was Elohim revealing himself to them. And umm, she, though she may not be a primary responsibility, had lost sight of that.
In Bethlehem, the House of plenty had become just a place, not a name or spiritual significance given to Judah. Umm, And so, uh, Ruth becomes that for them and sees in faith that personal relationship that Naomi needs to also see and in the greater types, of course, for us. So I think that is the focus, that who is it, Who is it that we cling to? And if it is a person, then we will stay. If it is a place, then we will leave depending on circumstance. And, uh, and yet you can see here this almost and yet so beautiful that Ruth.
In fixing perhaps a faith in someone not worthy of faith, as we mentioned. Umm, what is the end of this story? Well, it's Boaz, the type of Christ that, uh, eventually comes before them and through which they have, uh, mutual blessing.
Strictly speaking is a picture of Israel as a depository of the promises made to the fathers, and that's a wonderful thing. And we it might appear to all outward appearance that those promises have fallen to the ground.
But it's not true, isn't it? And what Ruth lays a hold of is those promises, as we've been saying. And so to apply it to ourselves, it's the same thing, isn't it? What was the promise made to, uh, or the word given to Philadelphia Revelation chapter 3, Thou hast kept my word and not denied my name. It's the same thing in our day. It's a wonderful moral parallel to our own. I think it's helpful too. And I think, uh, the, the, the answer to our brother's question, I think it's been given, but maybe to try to clarify a little bit, But I believe it is those.
01:10:10
Versus 16 and 17, it's plain that Ruth, though she was a Moabite, shows true faith. She chose, she shows true evidence of new life, doesn't she? And our language today, we would say she's born again and she uses the name of the Lord and the Lord had gotten ahold of her soul. And that's a wonderful thing. One thing I've enjoyed in the book of Ruth, there's four chapters and uh, it's been mentioned that there's 4 words used in scripture for the, for the word love.
Perhaps we can go into that as we go through these meetings, but the first word and the the word commonly used in the New Testament for love is agape. That's God's sovereign love, which picks us up and pure grace. And that's what we have in this chapter. God and his sovereign grace is picking up someone who had no rights, only some kind of outward relationship with the Naomi and God and his sovereignty picks her up and uh, she becomes a spiritual beauty as we have here. What a wonderful picture.
And I also would just like to mention just, uh, perhaps in passing, but it's a very fruitful study to look at the nations that surround Israel. They represent various moral principles. Egypt, for instance, as we know, represents this natural world from which we've been called. Babylon, for instance, represents the corruption of Christendom and, uh, even the corruption of the political system. We have it both in both ways in Scripture. Moab, though, what does that speak of? Well, there's a verse injure in Jeremiah 48 that I think helps us understand what Moab speaks of.
Because I think it's something that speaks to us as well. Uh, Moab, uh, Jeremiah 48 and verse 11. Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his leads as haunches and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel to trials, neither hath he gone into captivity. Therefore his taste or his, his, uh, scent remains in him and his sin is not changed. Moab is a picture of the natural man.
Who seeks ease for himself? And So what these two dear people, Elimelech and Naomi wanted they they saw the famine. And they say, well, there must be an easier path. That's what Moab represents. It was an easier path, perhaps outwardly, or at least it seemed to be, but in fact it was to great spiritual loss. The true path of spiritual blessing is to keep His word and not to deny his name. And what beauty we see in this book, we'll see it develop. First Agape.
God choosing, uh, in his sovereign grace, someone who would perhaps never have been brought into such blessing. That's what he's done with each of us. We'll see you in the next chapter. I believe another word that's used in the New Testament for love. That's phileo, the love of friendship and companionship where love is returned and reciprocated. We see that developed in chapter two. Well, Lord willing, we'll go into the other two as we move through these chapters.
We're about out of time, I know, but in verse 16 and 17, we touched upon, uh, the attachment to a real person. She was attached to Ruth and treat me not to leave the, we have, of course, our attachment to Jesus Christ, but there's three more things There's, uh, and treat me not to turn away from following after the, there has to be evidence in salvation and in salvation. We can see that once we truly know the Lord and our Savior and are saved, uh, we, we don't want to, uh, ever turn away from.
Uh, following after him and that is the evidence of our salvation. And so when you get down there where thou logist, I will lodge and the people shall be my people and thy people. My God. We have the assembly, we have the spiritual lodging, don't we?
And that's why we're all here today. We're assembled together, we're getting spiritually fed, aren't we? We're with his people and we're with our people. And so we see in verse 17, the 4th one, where thou diest I will die, and there will I be buried. We see baptism and the truths of baptism that, uh, he died and he was into the waters and that he arose and resurrection. Didn't he see 100 and 93193?
Xavier, teach me to abide both, shelter that thy wounded side each are receiving grace on grace until I see thee face to face.
193.
Reverse in.
Galatians.
Galatians, chapter 4.
And uh, two verses versus 19 and 20.
My little children, of whom I TRA travail and birth again until Christ deformed in you, I desire to be present with you now and to change my voice where I stand in doubt of you. I should have read verse 20 before verse 19, but the thought is of whom I travail and birth again until Christ be formed in you. Give thanks our God and our Father. We just do thank Thee for.
Thy word we do thank Thee for the Spirit of God to lead our our thoughts.
And to bring these things to our consciences, we just do pray that we might truly grasp that, uh, restoration is Christ being formed in us. We pray that we might live for the, no matter how we've been distracted or how we might feel that we've been hurt or have somehow been left empty, we just do know that thou, Lord Jesus Christ, are sufficient for it all. And we need the in our lives.
And, uh, that that was just, uh, uh, to be formed in us, that we might reflect my glories to a world that is truly needy as well. In my name we give thanks, Lord Jesus, Amen. Amen.