Temple Baptist Church - 9-8-2019
Ruth 1:19-22
Introduction:
A. The Typology of the Book of Ruth.
1. The typology is so rich in the Book of Ruth that we could spend much more time preaching through it.
2. Elimelech is a type of the Nation of Israel that chose to leave their spiritual roots by rejecting the Messiah, the Bread of Life.
3. Elimelech’s leaving Bethlehem-Judah and going to Moab, a type of the world, brought the God of Israel to the Moabite people. The breaking off of the “Natural Branch” and the grafting in of the “Wild Branch.”
4. Some accepted, and some rejected. Orpah, a type of the worldly who reject Christ, chose to return to her people and their gods while Ruth, a type of the Church, chose to follow Naomi.
5. Naomi is a type of Israel’s return to both God and the land of Israel, the blessings of God. Israel, in the Bible, is referred to as “the wife of Jehovah.” John said that he was the friend of the Bridegroom who rejoiced in the purchase of a Bride.
6. Through the choices of both Naomi and Ruth, we find the redemption that could only come through the Kinsman Redeemer.
B. Naomi and Ruth have returned to Bethlehem-Judah! They left God’s washpot, Moab, and returned to the “House of Bread.” BUT, each was restored from something different.
1. Ruth was restored from a sinful, lost condition to faith in the God of Israel as well as from “God’s Washpot” to His “House of Bread.! Something that she had never known to something she would have never known had it not been for Elimelech’s family coming to Moab. She is coming to her NEW HOME!
2. Naomi was being restored to something that she had been removed from! She is coming her previous HOME! From the “House of Bread” to “God’s Washpot” to the “House of Bread!”
C. We need to look at Ruth first. This is all new to Ruth! Ruth made a hard but right decision to leave Moab and return home with Naomi. Her decision involved:
1. Fidelity – Ruth “clave” to Naomi in verse 14.
2. Friendship – “wither thou goest, I will go”
3. Future – “where thou lodgest, I will lodge”
4. Family – “thy people shall be my people”
5. Faith – “and thy God my God”
6. Funeral – “where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried”
D. For Ruth, it was a new start to a new life.
1. Her People were Different – she was raised in a different culture, different conditions, different convictions, and different circumstances.
2. Her Past was Defiled – Moab was a wicked, filthy place. (Psalm 60:8; 108:9) People would be apt to judge her by her past and, therefore, rob her of her future.
3. Her Present was Difficult – her husband was dead, she was destitute, Naomi tried to discourage her. BUT, she made the right decision.
E. Now for Naomi. For Naomi, it was very different also. She left behind in Moab three graves. Though the people were “moved” at Naomi’s return, Naomi came back with bitterness in her heart.
1. “Is this Naomi?” The people of Bethlehem were thrilled to see her. No one faulted her for following her husband. Neither do I find that God faulted her.
2. Ruth 1:20-21 And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. (21) 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?
F. Love’s Restoration! How often we underestimate the love that God has for His children. GOD LOVED NAOMI and allowed her to return home.
1. God allowed Naomi to come home! “So Naomi returned”
a. God could have left Naomi in Moab to die there. Elimelech, Mahlon, and Chilion died there! Orpah went back and died there. God allowed Naomi to return to her people and here land.
b. Aren’t you glad that, when we get out of the will of God, God’s will for us changes? It was not His will that we go to “Moab,” but it is God’s will that we return to the “House of Bread.”
c. I am so glad for the love of God that allows us to come home! When we choose to go to our “Moab,” God is so gracious to forgive us and restore us to where we belong. “Lord, I’m coming home!”
2. God allowed Naomi to bring Ruth with her! “and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her”
a. She would soon realize the blessing of a young, Moabite girl named Ruth!
b. David’s great grandmother who no doubt held him in her lap and helped in his upbringing.
c. When we return from our “Moab,” God will sometimes allow us to bring someone with us.
d. Even in the worst of our decisions, God can still bring something clean out of something unclean. He can “draw a straight line with a crooked stick.”
3. God would restore to Naomi the blessings of Bethlehem-Judah. “which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem”
a. Her bitterness would turn to Joy as she would become nurse to Obed.
b. The ending was far better than the beginning for Naomi.
c. Our return to the Lord can be the beginning of something far better than we have ever known. I am glad that the Lord doesn’t “throw the clay away!”
4. It was the beginning of barley harvest! “in the beginning of barley harvest”
a. Naomi came home with nothing in her hand, but God had something else in mind for her.
b. God had both Naomi and Ruth’s lives “mapped out” before they ever returned.
c. I am so glad that God knows the end from the beginning and can both use and bless those who choose to return to Him.
d. Our last years can become our best years.
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