Text: Ruth 1–4
Topic: How Naomi reflects our journey from being God's children, to abandoning that identity, to returning as his servants

• For such a short story, the Book of Ruth has much to teach us.
• Brouwer offers a brief synopsis of the Book of Ruth.

• There's more to this story than meets the eye at first.
• For one thing, it's a well-crafted story.
• It's so balanced there are 71 words in the introduction, the first five verses; there are 71 words in the conclusion in chapter four (not the epilogue but the conclusion).
• In between are four acts with around 250 words each.
• Each act has two scenes, one in a public place and one in a private place.
• The story is also crafted well in terms of the dramatic characters.
• There are pairings all the way through it.
• You've got Ruth. She's young, single, widowed. She's an alien in Israel. She's poor.
• And here's Boaz, the counterpart. He's single, older, a firm part of the Israelite community. He's wealthy.
• Another pairing includes Orpah. She's like Ruth. She has the same options and opportunities, but she doesn't take them in the same ways.
• At the end of the story is the kinsman-redeemer. He's like Boaz. He has the same opportunities as Boaz but doesn't take them in the same direction.
• Then you've got a third set of pairs.
• You have the women who surround Naomi.
• Their counterpart is a group of men that glom onto Boaz.
• So you have this cast of characters that's easily balanced.
• One character in the book isn't paired: Naomi.
• What God wants us to know through this story is that it's not about Ruth or Boaz or the women or men, and it's not even about Orpah or the kinsman-redeemer.
• It's about Naomi. She stands alone.
• So why does she stand alone?

• Illustration: Have you ever watched a baby see herself in a mirror. for the first time? Babies look everywhere, and then finally they see the mirror.
• With a mirror you realize who you are in a whole new way.
• Samson in the Book of Judges was a mirror of Israel.
• Samson was miraculously born and was strong as could be but was always going after things he shouldn't get into.
• Israel was miraculously born. Remember Abraham and Sarah, how old they were when they had a baby.
• And Israel was unusually strong. They tromped over the nations of the Middle East, because the Spirit of God was on them.
• And they were used as a witness to the other peoples.
• That's what Samson was supposed to be: a judge or a witness to the other nations around him, including the Philistines.
• This is the case for Naomi, too.
• When you see Naomi you're supposed to look in a mirror and say, "Oh, that's us."
• The Israelites were supposed to do that.
• The story begins in the days of the judges.
• You read the Book of Judges and see this spiral that goes down, down, down, down, down.
• By the time you get to the last story of the judges it's pretty dark.
• And then comes the appendix, chapters 17–21. The lights go out completely.
• Here's the owner of all the real estate in the world, and he plunks his people in the Promised Land in Palestine.
• But this happened to be the one place where all the civilizations of that day would have to pass through and would see what was going on.
• So God had planted his community there and said, "If you do it right, everybody is going to see and they'll say, 'What is it that you have that we don't? We'd like it, too.'"
• Then, in the time of the judges, the nation begins to disintegrate and forget about God.
• They're looking for ways to fit in, to be like everybody else and lose their witness.
• It is in that context that we have the Book of Ruth.

• In the beginning of the Book of Ruth Elimelech goes so far as to say, "God may have wanted us to have that land, but who cares. Let's go somewhere else where the gettin's better."
• Elimelech leaves the land of promise to look for his fortune someplace else.
• Elimelech means "Yahweh is king."
• "Yahweh is king," but Elimelech moves to Moab?
• You know what God said about Moab? Don't go there.
• And then the curses of the Sinai covenant kick in.
• It was a covenant that included blessings if you follow the ways of Yahweh and curses if you don't.
• So what happens while they're there in Moab?
• Mahlon and Kilion get sick and die.
• Mahlon means "weakling." Kilion means "sickly."
• Naomi's name means "sweetie pie," but when she comes home to Bethlehem, she says, "Call me Mara." It means "bitter."
• Bethlehem means "house of bread."
• But there's no bread in the house of Israel, and it won't be until the end of the story that the bread is restored to the shelves.
• How does it happen?
• Well, there's Ruth. Ruth's name means "friend, companion."
• And there's Boaz. Boaz's name means "in him is strength."
• Here are the people who bring it about.

• In the story you have this question: How will Israel, who sits here in destitution, become Israel once again, the blessed light of God to the nations?
• You find it in the name of the child who's born, Obed.
• Obed means "servant."
• The story of the Book of Ruth is about how you go from destitution to restoration.
• How do you go from the time of the judges to the time of kings?
• How do you go from the time of famine to the time of bounty?
• How do you go from being a nobody to being the person you were meant to be?
• It turns out to be service, doing what you ought to do.
• But Boaz goes beyond the call of duty, and Ruth goes beyond the call of duty.
• They go beyond the call of duty not because they have something to gain by it, but because somebody else in a situation of distress has no one else to count on.

• What does it look like to go beyond the call of duty?
  • Illustration: Fred Craddock, a teacher of preaching, was on a flight, and the man next to him realized his identity was in Christ, not in his wealth or politicians.
  • Illustration: Richard Palmento's poor grandmother once splurged and bought him Tony the Tiger cereal. She made it her work to make sure he survived and thrived.

• Do you see yourself this morning?
• Can others count on you for the right reasons?
• Can God count on you?