Sermon Title: The Power of Two
Sermon Text: The Book of Ruth
Sermon Date:
The story begins in the days of the Judges. Moses
and Joshua are gone and the great kings of
The setting is a famine in
Imagine this: Ruth was devastated when
her young husband died. She stood there as his
body was lowered into the ground and watched her dreams were being buried with him. Her dreams for a normal life where he went to work
and she took care of the children and had dinner waiting for him when he returned home
each night were now gone.
Theirs was an arranged marriage but she had grown very fond of him over the time
they had been together. He was a good man,
from a good father and mother - Elimelech and Naomi.
Ruth,a Moabite, married their son Mahlon and Orpah, also a Moabite, married Kilion.
Then Elimelech died and her mother-in-law
came to live with them. Malon’s brother
had died recently too, from the same illness that took Mahlon. So it was now just the three of them – Naomi,
her mother-in-law, Orpah, her sister-in-law and herself.
Three women alone. They lived in a time
before leaving home to get a job was done. No
life insurance. No possibility of
finishing a degree to return to the work force. They
were destitute and Naomi did the only thing she could do.
She urged them to return to their parents.
“My daughters, it breaks my heart to do this but I am sending you back to your
mother’s home. My hope and prayer is that
you will find comfort and stability there. Things
I cannot offer you. My prayer is that you will
find a husband to rest in his arms. You must
go now, daughters. You must go.”
At first both women refused to go, saying they would return with her back to
Naomi’s people.
But later Orpah reluctantly agreed to go, which certainly hurt Naomi’s heart
but also relieved the burden of caring for her. Ruth,
on the other hand, refused to leave her mother-in-law. And the following conversation took
place between Ruth and Naomi:
Ruth 1: 14-19
Again they cried openly.
Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye; but Ruth embraced her and held on.
15
Naomi said, "Look, your sister-in-law is going back home to live with her own people
and gods; go with her."
16-17
But Ruth said, "Don't force me to leave you; don't make me go home. Where you go, I
go; and where you live, I'll live. Your people are my people, your God is my god; where
you die, I'll die, and that's where I'll be buried, so help me God—not even death itself is going to come
between us!"
18-19
When Naomi saw that Ruth had her heart set on going with her, she gave in. And so the two
of them traveled on together to
This jewel is only four chapters but it goes a long way in teaching us about the
power that two have when they stay together. If
you haven’t read it or it has been a while for you, don’t read it a few verses
at a time. Read it as a short story, all in
one seating. You can’t get the whole
sense of what is happening when you break it up. It
is like reading half a story which is definitely unsatisfying. When I do that I have to go back and start over to
get the full impact.
There are famous words here – “Where you go, I go; and where you live,
I’ll live. Your people will be my people
and your God my God.” Ruth’s words
told Naomi that she would not abandon her and that in fact, she was very willing to give
up her own traditions and beliefs. And I think
Ruth is saying that she has seen something in their God that she wants too.
Yet interestingly enough these are words often used at weddings. In fact my friends Beth and Jay walked down the
aisle and out of the church to those words instead of the traditional wedding march so
they really say more about the commitment of the relationship than whether it is a
marriage or a friendship. The relationship
between these two women also set the stage for the unfolding of another story near and
dear to our hearts. The power of two is quite
amazing.
I don’t know about you but I can’t read this without thinking of what we
learn from their relationship. When I read
about Naomi I think of her as unselfish.
If she had had other sons it would have been their obligation to marry Ruth and
Orpah but since she didn’t…well, the women were at a loss.
She put the needs of her daughters-in-law above her own. With them she wouldn’t have been alone. With them she would have had her sons with her. Without them she would be alone but still she must
have wanted the best for them and decided to them back to the homes of their parents.
While always putting the needs of others before our own can be self-destructive, in
this case Naomi was doing what she needed to do.
Naomi was also honest. She admitted to
them that she was miserable. In verse 13 and
again in verse 29 she says she is bitter and blames God for her losses. In a solid relationship, honesty is a major
component. As the story unfolds you sense that
her grief is easing but for now, she is honest with her feelings. And true friends share that kind of stuff.
When I read about Ruth I realize that one of her major virtues is loyalty. And she is obedient.
I struggled for a while on the second virtue. Obedient
is an unpopular word for many of us. Sure, it
is fine to use about children and teenagers, but we adults aren’t too crazy about
that word. I have never used in it a marriage
service, usually at the request of the couple. “Obedient”
implies that someone has control over us, someone can rule us, someone can tell us what to
do.
But in this particular case Ruth was living out of her element. She was learning about the traditions of
Naomi’s people and she had to trust that Naomi would lead her on the right path.
The story continues that Ruth decided to go into the fields and glean. They needed to eat and this would be the early
welfare program of the time. The poor followed
the field workers to collect whatever was left. “As
it turned out,” she ended up in the field of Naomi’s relative Boaz. When Boaz discovered who she was he gave orders for
her to be protected and well-treated. Apparently
it was not always safe for a young, single woman to be in the fields with the men. Boaz’s protection ensured she would be safe,
plus he gave her extra grain to take home.
After a time, a light bulb went off in Naomi’s head and this is what she said
to Ruth:
1-2One
day her mother-in-law Naomi said to Ruth, "My dear daughter, isn't it about time I
arranged a good home for you so you can have a happy life? And isn't Boaz our close
relative, the one with whose young women you've been working? Maybe it's time to make our
move. Tonight is the night of Boaz's barley harvest at the threshing floor.
3-4 "Take a bath. Put
on some perfume. Get all dressed up and go to the threshing floor. But don't let him know
you're there until the party is well under way and he's had plenty of food and drink. When
you see him slipping off to sleep, watch where he lies down and then go there. Lie at his
feet to let him know that you are available to him for marriage. Then wait and see what he
says. He'll tell you what to do."
5 Ruth said, "If you
say so, I'll do it, just as you've told me."
I learned in seminary that the word “feet” may also be another word of
genitals so if that is true, Ruth was not ask to lie at his feet, but beside him. And still she did as Naomi asked her.
There is more to the story. Boaz is
delighted that she is willing to marry him but he has to get a closer relative to
relinquish a claim to her…which he does. So
they marry, because Naomi instructed Ruth and Ruth obeyed.
Now both had a good life, a comfortable home, respect and hopefully love. But even more happens to these women.
Ruth became a mother and Naomi became a grandmother – not by blood but by
love.
Ruth gave birth to Obed. Obed became
the father of Jesse who became the father of David…of
This jewel tells us that friendship offers us
more than we can imagine when it is done well.
It offers us
loyalty.
It offers us
unselfishness.
It offers us
honesty.
And it offers us
wisdom.
And the power of two friends is an amazing
thing. Even the writer of Ecclesiastes knew
that. I use this passage from chapter 4 in
weddings:
9-10 It's better to have a partner than go it alone.
Share the work, share the wealth.
And if one falls down, the other helps,
But if there's no one to help, tough!
11 Two in a bed warm each other.
Alone, you shiver all night.
12 By yourself you're unprotected.
With a friend you can face the worst.
Can you round up a third?
A three-stranded rope isn't easily snapped.
Friends don’t leave when the going gets
tough. The story of Ruth and Naomi shows us
that God doesn’t leave us either.