Ruth the Moabitess
INTRODUCTION – I preached this sermon in 1999 as the conclusion of a study of the book of Ruth. Please read Ruth 1:22; 2:2, 6, 10, 20; 4:5, 10, 21-22.
- THE MOUNTAINS OF MOAB
Climb with me to the high hills above Bethlehem. The pathways are ancient; the view is… well, the view is like looking into the past, my past. There, to the southwest, over the Salt Sea, are my mountains, the mountains of Moab. See them? From here, they look purple, but up close, they are a red color, like kiln-fired pottery. As a child, I loved those mountains, because they were so starkly beautiful. I loved them, yet I feared them, too, for I believed that Chemosh, the god of Moab, lived in the high places. How can I explain to you the horror, the horror of being a child in a land that worshiped Chemosh? Children, children just like me were sacrificed to Chemosh… burned. Sometimes when the sun set, the mountains seemed to be on fire… and I wondered if the fire would come to consume me. Why would anyone worship such a vicious god – what I now know to be a false god? There is only one explanation – fear, fear of what might happen if we did not call ourselves “the children of Chemosh.” Children of Chemosh! What god, what father, would love to burn his children? It is all so clear now, but then I was confused and frightened, badly frightened. What a terrible way to live! Yet I knew no other way, until the One True God showed me a new way, the right way, the only way. “Why did I find grace in His eyes, that He should take knowledge of me, a stranger?” Why, indeed?
- THE MOTHER-IN-LAW
But He did. He reached out to me in Moab and brought me into His family and into Naomi’s family. Now, I know that some of the women here in Bethlehem called Naomi an old bitty – what I have seen in her is different: I have seen a woman of faith, a woman who, even in her distress, spoke of God. What I saw in her was different from what was in the women of Moab: she had a personal relationship with her God. We were afraid of Chemosh; after all, how can anyone have a personal relationship with a god who demands burned children? I learned from Naomi about the One True God; I learned that even in the darkest of times He does “not leave off His kindness to the living.” When we left Moab, it seemed that we had nothing to look forward to, but we were wrong.
- THE MARRIAGE
Who would have thought that I would find work so quickly? Who could have imagined that an outsider such as me could be accepted so readily by the people of Bethlehem? Who would have dreamed that a Moabitess would be married to the best man in Bethlehem? Naomi did not expect any of this; I did not know what to expect…
- THE MESSIAH
I certainly did not expect marriage: I did not anticipate that we would have a child, for in Moab, we were childless. In Moab, no children; in Israel, a child, Obed. Certainly God is doing an unusual work: what will it all come to? I do not quite know, but I know that it will be good. One day, I know, the Promised One, the Messiah, will come, for our God – my God – always keeps His promises.
CONCLUSION – Let us hasten back to Bethlehem. The mountains of Moab are beautiful, but they no longer hold me. Let us hasten back to Bethlehem, back to where I belong. Yes, let us all hasten back to Bethlehem.