← ArchiveRuthRuth: The House Without Bread (Ruth 1:1-5)DateApril 24, 2022SpeakerDr Josh BurnhamTextRuth 1:1–5Passages in this sermonRuth 12:53Ruth 1:15:02Psalms 13022:33John 628:15TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Thank you. Okay, welcome to the church that gathers at Bethel.0:30My name is Josh, lead pastor here, and I have the joy of bringing the Word of God to you. We gather, like we say every week, we gather because of the gospel. And the gospel is, in one phrase, Jesus in our place. So if you're new here, if you have joined us online, we want to thank you and welcome you. Before we do, there's a special group I want to welcome and applaud today.0:56Our students were away this weekend on D-NOW weekend, and some of them did not sleep. They're going to need help because they're on the struggle bus this morning, especially this front row. So can we just say thank you to our students and just say, we believe in you. You can stay awake. I'm already hearing reports of the great, great, deep, rich relationships and spiritual growth of this weekend.1:21So I can't wait to hear more. Boys, especially, we know you can do it. Give me two hours and we'll be finished. We begin a new series in the book of Ruth. And as we start today, let me remind you, if you missed last week or you want to go re-watch it, go re-watch the service from last week. It'll bless your life to see lives change and the Word proclaimed.1:49And it gives you a picture of what God is doing at this church. Today we begin Ruth. And if you have your Bibles, if you brought your Bibles, go ahead and mark them because we'll be in Ruth through May. Why Ruth? Well, we believe at Bethel that the entire Word of God, from beginning to end, is good for your soul, for the instruction and the correction and the edification.2:06And we systematically preach Old Testament, New Testament. We rotate on an ongoing basis. Last year we preached through the book of Judges, and then we preached through the book of John, and now we are back in the Old Testament because Ruth follows Judges. So if you've ever wondered why do we preach the way we do, I'm naive enough to believe that everything in the Word of God is good for our souls.2:36And so we want to preach the entire counsel of the Word of God. So join me in the book of Ruth this morning. As you find your way there, if you're already there, I want to tell a story that will set the stage for Ruth chapter 1. In World War II, at the end of the war, the allied forces in Europe gathered together children of the local communities.3:00Most of these children were orphans, and they were homeless because their parents had either fled or were in some type of concentration camp. So they gathered these children together, and they nourished them, and they fed them, and they put them in a safe environment in these allied force camps. And the physicians and the psychologists could not figure out, because for the first time in years, these young children, they had food.3:28They had more than enough. They had shelter over their heads. They had adults that were watching and caring for them. And for whatever reason, these children would not sleep. One psychologist said, let's try this.3:57Let's give them pieces of bread. And they would give them pieces of bread, and these children would consume the bread. They would scarf it down until they were full. And they would give them one more piece of bread, and they would let the child keep that bread through the night. And they noticed that something radical happened with these children. They began to sleep and rest. It is as if having that piece of bread gave them the assurance that in the morning they would have food,4:25because they had been empty for years and years. Listen, we're reminded in this story that when you live your life on empty, you will become restless and hollow. This is what Ruth tells us. Because we read a story where there is a family living in a place with no bread, just like these children.4:52So let's read together Ruth chapter 1, verse 1. During the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. There was no bread. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to stay in the territory of Moab for a while.5:16The man's name was Elimelech, and his wife's name was Naomi. If you're wondering, the names of his two sons were Malon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the fields of Moab and they settled there. Naomi's husband Elimelech died, and she was left with two of her sons.5:44Her sons took Moabite women as their wives. One was named Orpah, and the second was named Ruth. After they lived in Moab about ten years, both Malon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two children and without her husband. Today's message is simply entitled, The House Without Bread.6:13The House Without Bread. Let's pray. Father, we come to your presence as we come through your word by the precious shed blood of Jesus Christ. Lord, we ask that you have blessed the reading of your word, that you would open our hearts to know your truth, that you would open our hands to serve you, and that you would open our eyes to see you. Lord, we confess our sins, and we desire holiness that only you can provide in our lives.6:44Lord, may we never go empty again. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, Ruth begins with a moral famine. If you notice in verse 1, it says, during the times of the judges, and the times of the judges were a moral blight on the history of Israel.7:10Specifically, most scholars, if you ask, well, what judge are you speaking of? Is it Gideon, or is it Samson? No, no, no, no, no, you're getting it all wrong. It's between Ehud and Jephthah. Now, those who were tracking with our judges' sermon last year would know that Ehud, as I am, is a left-handed man. He was a left-handed Benjamite, and that helped him hide a sword and stab King Eglon to death.7:39If you don't know the story, go back and read. We don't have time today, but pretty interesting soap opera. And Jephthah was a man named Jephthah was a man, a judge, who said, God, if you give me victory today in my life, whatever comes out of my house first, I will sacrifice in your honor. Don't bargain with God, and don't make rash vows, because to his horror, God gave him victory.8:11And Jephthah, who did not make this vow because of the Lord, he made it to the Lord, but he did not ask the Lord's insight or wisdom. When he runs home, the first thing that comes out of his house was not a sheep or a goat or a chihuahua or a cat. It wasn't a pet, and it wasn't an animal. It wasn't a clean animal for sacrifice. Who comes out to greet him but his daughter?8:38And instead of Jephthah saying, God, I repent, I should not have made that vow. God, forgive me. You have forbidden human sacrifice, God. In my folly, forgive my wickedness and my transgression. He sacrificed his daughter to the Lord. It's in between these two judges, because these are the judges that lived in the flourishing environment of Moab, that scholars would say, Ruth is set.9:03And it's the reminder for each and every one of us that moral famines lead to sinful decisions. When you live in an environment where morality has decreased, sinful decisions will follow. So let me remind you, church, if you've given your life to Christ, do not go empty.9:30When we are empty spiritually, we cannot help but make sinful decisions. Do not go empty. But rest assured, the moral famine did not begin and end with Ehud and Jephthah. Samson was no saint. Gideon was not the bastion of moral supremacy. And for 250 to 400 years, over and over again, the people of God slip into a moral swamp.9:56It's so much so that if you have your Bibles open and you turn back one page, the very last verse in Judges says this about the whole period. Listen, you show me a society where everyone does what they want, and I will show you a society that has rejected Yahweh as their Lord and their King.10:18We live in a society of moral famine, don't we, church?10:45Don't go empty. Do not go empty. Moral malnourishment looks like judges. It looks like a society that says, well, I'll do what I want to. Again, it's what the chief minister Polonius and Hamlet said, "This above all, to thine own self, be true." You might say, well, I'd never heard that on TikTok.11:12Well, it might sound like this. We still live in a society that says and worships at the God of self, "Do what is in your heart." Do whatever feels right, as if truth is a feeling. Our society would say, well, we'll do what is best to you or live out your truth. Or even a Christian who would say, I love Jesus, but I'm going to live my life my way.11:39This is the book of Judges. And to you and to me, the Bible would say this, don't live your life, don't live your best life, don't to thine own self be true. The Bible says, be holy, for God is holy. We have a mandate to live in righteousness, even in a world that is in moral famine.12:04John Piper said this, when there is a famine in the word of God, in the land of spiritual nourishment. We will no longer be able to see the sin spot. When we have lost sight of God and we, we have a famine of the word in our lives, we will no longer see our sin and see others and be, be rest assured Ruth is not in danger because there's a government oppression.12:32There's not a new world order. There's not a change in regime. Not one party has lost authority over another party. There is moral decay. Because the people of God said, let's do what's right in our eyes, not what God desires.12:57There is a moral famine because there is a lack of bread, but it gets worse. There's also a physical famine. Look at verse one. During the time of Judges, which is, there's a lot to be said without saying there. During that time, there was a famine in the lands. So to make matters worse, not only was this family living in moral famine, they were living in physical famine.13:27Now, this is not the first time in the Bible that there has been a famine. If you ask, well, what is a famine? It just means that there's no food and they were hungry. As my grandmother would say, I'm hungry. That's more than hungry. There's hungry and there's hungry. Remember Abraham going to Egypt for the first time because there was a famine in the lands.13:51Remember Isaac having to travel because there was no food at home. Remember that God has sent this dreamer. Yeah, a little arrogant, well-dressed man named Joseph. He had this fancy coat of many colors and his brothers had had enough and they sold him into slavery.14:19Thinking he's better off dead, he's better off away than with us. And then one day there was a famine in the lands. And Jacob tells his sons, we're going to die here. Go to Egypt and see if there's any food in Egypt. Bite grain. And it was in Egypt where they found the head of the granaries.14:45They didn't recognize him at first, but it was their brother Joseph. Oftentimes in our lives, church, famine can advance God's plans for his people. There are times in our life where we are in physical need that in those moments of emptiness, God proves that he is enough. And if you're going through a season of heaviness, if you're going through a season of hunger and thirst, maybe you've had a long week or a bad week, don't miss the fact that God is still working even in famines.15:15And he can work in your life. Remember what Joseph said. Joseph lived in a moral famine because his brothers sold him into slavery and they told their dad, hey, we brought his coat back, you know, the expensive coat. Look, there's blood on it. He died. And Joseph says to these brothers, he says, what you intended for evil, God intended for good.15:48Blessed be the name of the Lord. In moments of your deepest need, God still proves that he is enough. So the family leaves the famine and they go from Bethlehem to Moab. Now, let's stop on Bethlehem really quick. Bethlehem, for our Hebrew scholars, means, the word means, the house of bread.16:15So Elimelech and Naomi and their entire family are living in the house of bread and there's no bread in the house of bread. Hold on to that thought. We will come back there. How ironic is that? Wouldn't you think that if you were going to live anywhere and find food, it would be that place?16:44It's the reminder that you can have your whole life ordered well and there could still be famines. You can live your whole life and say, I'm going to work myself till I have, I'm going to make who I am. I'm going to make a house and I'm going to have a career and I'm going to have this house of bread. It would be folly to think that you are famine proof, even in the house of bread.17:13And I'm reminded spiritually you can be in a place of worship and still be empty spiritually. You can be in a place where the Spirit of God is working because two or more are gathered in his name. And you can be spiritually empty if you don't have Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. To those living in Bethlehem, it is not enough, church. Only God can satisfy.17:43Only God can satisfy. So they leave the house of bread and they go to the territory of Moab in chapter 1. According to Genesis, the Moabites were descendants of Lot. And the Moabites were a product of an incestuous relationship between Lot and one of his oldest daughters. Not necessarily the best family tree.18:12It was the sons of Moab that when God's people were traveling from Egypt to the promised land, that they wandered through Moab and they asked the people, they said, We're hungry. We're thirsty. Give us food and give us drink. And the Moab said, We will not give you any food. And now it is to Moab where God's people run. Scholars are silent.18:42And the Bible is also whether Elimelech made the right decision or not. The early rabbis treating this passage were very harsh in their treatment of Elimelech. They said he made the wrong decision. Why would he leave a place of God's promise and provision and go to a foreign ungodly land, a place that was a product of an incestuous relationship and a place that withheld food when we were in need from coming from Egypt?19:08Biblically, we don't know, but it's a reminder to each and every one of us. Be careful making decisions when you're hungry. I had a pastor once tell me this. He said, Satan always hits you when you're down, when you're hungry, when you're isolated, and when you're tired. Be careful making eternal and significant decisions when you're hungry, when you're isolated, and when you're tired.19:38Did Elimelech make the right decision to go to Moab? I don't know. The Bible does not give that judgment on him. But I would say for each and every one of us, if you're worn out today, make sure that you go to the Lord. If you're tired, make sure you go to the Lord. Listen, church, there's a reason that Satan tempted Jesus with bread when he was in the desert and hungry.20:06Satan tempts us when we are in need. Be watchful. So now we meet Elimelech. Elimelech here means my God is king, and his wife's name is Naomi. And Naomi, like Lydia, means pleasant or pleasing. Later on in the book, when Naomi's life falls apart, she says, don't call me Naomi.20:31Call me Marah, which means bitterness. I'm not pleasant. I'm bitter. And they take their two sons and they go to Moab. So there was a moral famine in the land. There is a physical famine in the land. And now we see there's a spiritual famine in the land. Look what happens. The names of the two sons were Milan and Chilion.21:01Verse 3, Naomi's husband, Elimelech, died. That's all we have. We don't know how. We don't know why. We don't know how long. We know that they journeyed there and they died. So this is a family that has left their security because they're starving. They've gone to a foreign land. And now the husband's died. And so the two sons get married and you're thinking they're going to have children. There's going to be an heir and there's going to be redemption, right?21:29There's going to be great restoration of this family. There's going to be an heir. But we see that the sons marry Orpah and Ruth and both Milan and Chilion die in verse 5. And Naomi was left without her two children and without her husband. Hopefully, yet tragically, the sons marry and there's no heir.21:56Naomi is left by herself. To be without her sons and her husband means that she has no support. What was a physical famine from a moral famine has now left to a spiritual famine. Lord, what are we going to do? There's no sons and there's no husband. And to have a lack of a husband and a family in a foreign land means that she doesn't have support22:24and she doesn't have identity. And I wonder if Naomi is crying out, as Psalm 130 would say, Lord, out of the depths I cry to you. Have you ever felt what Naomi feels in her spirit? Have you ever been there? Where you say, God, morally, there's nothing.22:50And God, physically, I don't have. And God, spiritually, I feel alone. God, where are you? Maybe for you, that was when you lost your child. And you cried out and said, God, out of the depths, I cry to you. Maybe, maybe you hear the childlessness of Naomi and that's your situation right now.23:12And you've been praying and weeping and saying, God, we want a child of our own. God, would you give us that? And there have been many nights where you cry out over and over and say, God, out of the depths, out of the depths, I cry to you. Maybe for you, that was the day where the doctor walked in and gave you the diagnosis. Or you got the phone call that your father or your mother has passed away.23:42And it is in these moments that we see the darkness of spiritual suffering. And church, I do not want to lie to you. The Christian will go through suffering. We don't come to Christ to avoid difficulty. We come to Christ because in the midst of our darkest day, he will shine upon us. And Naomi is experiencing that.24:13And maybe that's your week. Maybe that's your day. Listen to Naomi. She had no husband and she had no son, but she was never alone. God was with her. And Yahweh provided a way for Naomi to find nourishment. Psalm 130, the psalm that begins, Lord, out of the depths, I cry to you.24:41Verse five says this, Lord, I will wait on you. I will wait and I will put my hope in his word. Lord, I will wait for you like a watchman in the morning. And I will wait for you more than a watchman, even at night. Naomi might have been alone, but with the Lord, she was never alone. We're not going to finish the story today, but God was there with her.25:09God never abandoned her. Even in the darkest of night, God was there working in eternal wait for his glory. In her life. And God will not abandon you. So if you walked in here today, maybe you're watching online and you said, God, I don't see you. God says to you, but I see you. And I have not left and I will not forsake.25:38I will remain faithful even in your darkest day. Let's go back to Bethlehem. The place that had no bread, right? Place that was not providing substance and they had to leave. Thousands of years later, God the Father would send his one and only son to a world that was spiritually and morally empty.25:58As providence would have it and as the prophets predicted, even in Micah, God incarnate, Jesus was born in an obscure little village. About five to six miles southeast of Jerusalem. The village was a blue collar neighborhood.26:29A lot of artisans that worked and many of those artisans helped rebuild the Herodian or the second temple, the grand temple of Herod. It was in this blue collar neighborhood that a lot of shepherds lived. And being only five or six miles from Jerusalem, these shepherds were the ones who would keep the sheep, the sheep that would be sacrificed at the temple. It was a blue collar, rough neighborhood, salt of the earth type of people.26:58It was also a village that grew a lot of grain and barley. The day laborers would commute to Jerusalem and the shepherds would supply the fields that only had around a thousand people. Insignificant, you probably never heard of it. Well, maybe you have. In scripture it says that Jacob's beloved wife, Rachel, was buried here.27:22Maybe you remember the story. She gave her life as she gave birth to their youngest child, Benjamin. And when she died, they buried her in the place, this town. You might have heard of it. It was the boyhood town of the king, the great king of Israel, a man named David.27:46By the way, you remember David was a shepherd. He grew up in these fields. It was a village by the name of Bethlehem. You see, God sent his only son to be born in the house of bread to a world that was starving spiritually. One day later, Jesus would say, maybe near this town, he would say in John 6,28:15I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry and no one believes in me will ever be thirsty again. God sent his only son to be born in the house of bread that anyone who believes in Jesus will never be hungry again. This is the hope that we have in God.28:43And to think, the Bethlehemites, they thought it was about wheat and barley. There is a deeper bread that we needed. It is in Jesus Christ. The bread of life came to a world that was in famine so that you would be filled. On the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says again, he says, Blessed are those who hunger, Naomi, Elimelech, Ruth, Orpah. Blessed are those who are hungry, who thirst, but not for food and water.29:12Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For what? They will be filled. Jesus said that. The bread of life, the one who was born in the house of bread. So we hear this and we hear what Jesus has done and we say, so what? Remember the children in World War II, the ones that were fed and clothed?29:35They were restless because they were still something inside of them was empty. Yes, their stomachs were filled, but they just didn't have the safety and the security they needed until they held on to the piece of bread. Jesus is our bread. Jesus is the one that said, come to me who are hungry.30:05You will never be hungry again. Jesus was born in the house of bread and he emptied himself and he died on the cross and he rose again that everyone who was hungering spiritually would find and be filled. This is what Jesus did for us. This is what he did for you. Maybe you're here and you have, your life is together.30:34But you've never slept through the night because there's something more that you need. And you can't figure it out. You say, I have a house and I have food and I have success and there's just something more. I believe that's the Holy Spirit in your life saying there is something more. His name is Jesus. When you give your life to Christ, you will find what you're looking for. You are created in his image, as Pastor Jared said, not to worship the creation, but to worship the creator.31:02Jesus is the one that you're looking for. You will never rest ever in your life fully until Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Hold on to the bread of life. Hold on to the one who has given you everything that you need.31:30And if you're here and you've never given your life to Jesus Christ, you say, well, how do I do that? The Bible says it is by faith that we receive the gift of eternal life. And it's praying and asking God to change our lives. And your prayer could sound something like this. God, I recognize that my life is empty. God, I need your bread.32:02God, I'm a sinner. Forgive me. I believe that you sent your only son. Born where, church? In Bethlehem. I believe that your son was the bread of life. The bread I need. I believe your son died on a cross. I believe he rose again. And God, you did this. That I might be in relationship with you. Lord, today, I believe. God, help me hunger and thirst for righteousness that I might hold on to the bread of life.32:33And to you, God, the Father says, I sent my son Jesus for you. Yes, I will forgive. Yes, I will forgive. Yes, I will make you righteous. Yes, I will fill you. That's why Jesus came. So that we never have to be empty again. Would you give your life to this Savior?33:03Maybe you're here and you feel like Naomi and you say, God, this is dark and I am crying out of my depths. Know that you have a Father in heaven that even when you cry on your darkest night, he hears your voice. And he will never leave you. Church, when will God forsake you? Never. Out of the depths I cried to you.33:33But Lord, we will stand as a watchman in the morning. And we will wait. Because you are faithful. Lord, we thank you for your word. Lord, we thank you for your word.Next in Ruth →Ruth: The Way Home (Ruth 1:6-7)More sermons on Ruth →
