Word of Salvation – Vol.32 No.26 – July 1987
The God Who Works Out His Purposes
Sermon: by Rev. B. Aldridge on Ruth 1:8-22
Reading: Ruth 1:8-22
Singing: Ps.H.284; 461; BoW.H.812; BoW.Ps.87
INTRODUCTION
This little book of Ruth is not primarily about people. It is a book about God. A God who works out His purposes, His plans… that culminate in salvation in Jesus Christ. In the history of the people of Israel we saw that there was a crisis for the people of God. There was moral and spiritual disintegration. There was no King. But what was a crisis for them was no crisis for God. He knew what he would do. God’s plan was eventually that a king might arise from Israel and this book tells us how it was brought about. So it is a book about the activity of God.
- OUR GOD IS THE GOD WHO WORKS IN THE ORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES OF LIFE:
This book gives us a picture of real life – of people making critical decisions, of people taking chances on their own judgement, of work, of marriage, of human love and affection, of death, of tragedies, of bitterness over the failures of plans.
Our God is a God who is concerned with us as we live in real life; of life and death, of happiness, of boredom, of decisions, of romance.
Our God is not a God who is simply ‘hung up’ on the spectacular. God does the spectacular, but he is not hypnotised by it. In the world in which we live people are hypnotised by the spectacular.
We only have to look at the popularity of TV programs like “That’s Incredible”. In the newspapers, only the spectacular makes head-lines. “Dog bites man” would only get two lines on the last page but the opposite head-line of “Man bites Dog” would be in 5 inch letters across the front page. And too often we as Christians have pushed God out of our ordinary lives into the realm of the spectacular. You see, if we have a cold, it is the doctor who heals us, not God. But, if we want someone to raise the dead, then of course, we go to God and not to the doctor.
You see, one of the greatest challenges we face as Christians is the re-introduction of God in a meaningful way into our life and society. God has never been a factor in Australian society. He has always been on the outer. And yet, God became man in Jesus Christ to penetrate humanity; to invest our ordinary life with dignity. He died to redeem the whole of human life, to declare himself to be King over every area, and that’s why Christian Schools are important, and why parents spend so much time and money and effort, that their children might realise that every part of their life is to be dominated by God and by Jesus Christ. But we as Christians can’t stop there. We need to demonstrate in the society in which we live that Jesus Christ is King. We can do that in so many different ways; whether it is the Christian politician who agonises over the problem of election promises, but finds that there is no money to pay for them. Or the Christian policeman who pulls somebody up in the street for speeding, and then is offered just a little bit to overlook it. Or the student who faces the choice of a career. What to do? Any old job that comes along, or deliberately set out to serve God in the job that they have? Or the Christian housewife, who day after day faces the washing, the ironing, the nappies, the husband who doesn’t seem to understand, no economic freedom. The challenge is to see that God is really meaningful in the ordinary circumstances of life. It is this God who is working, who is meaningful in all these circumstances who is shown to us in this Book of Ruth.
- GOD IS A GOD WHO WILL NOT LET US SUBVERT HIS PURPOSES:
Now, we saw that Naomi was a bitter old woman; she saw very little hope in the future. She had gone with her husband to Moab and that just had not worked out. He had died, her sons had married but they also died and now she was ready to head back to the land of Judah. She said to her daughters-in-law, “Look, it is no good coming with me, go back to Moab.”
Naomi thought she was being kind. The laws of that day that governed her relationship with her daughters-in-law could not apply. There was absolutely no future for Moabites in Israel. There was no possibility that she could have more male children, who according to the law, could then become the husbands of her daughters-in-law. Naomi only saw God acting in judgement in this, and of course this represents the classic and common misinterpretation of God’s purposes. For so often people, and very often Christian people, see that when things go wrong, that this is God’s judgement. But, this is not necessarily so. God, however, would not allow Naomi to subvert His purposes. God had a plan to establish a King in Israel and His purpose included both Naomi and Ruth. Nothing that could be done by Naomi, whether out of kindness or bitterness, would thwart God’s purposes. So when she offered her daughters-in-law the opportunity to go back, one accepted, but one refused. Orpah returned, but Ruth clung to her. God had His purpose in this.
This is a warning to us that we should be very, very careful about trying to interpret God’s purposes, or God’s will from the circumstances around us and from the things that happen to us. All too often, we as Christian people, think that when everything is going right for us, that this automatically means that God is happy with what we are doing. And that when things go wrong for us, that this automatically means that God is displeased with us. But let me tell you: such thinking is often total and utter nonsense. That is why Paul says that all things work together for good for those who love God. For those who are called according to His purpose. That is why the Bible calls us to live by faith in what God says; and not by sight, that is, according to the circumstances around us. He will not let human failure subvert His purposes. Time and time again in the history of Israel, God is faced with the reality of human failure.
We see this in Abraham, in Moses, in Saul, in David and God is so sovereign that even our failures very often serve His purposes. Of course, it would be very, very foolish for you to conclude from this that you can go around being happy in your failure. That is not the point we are wishing to make. The point we are wishing to make is that God is working out His purposes, and in this congregation also, God is not going to allow your and my failure to subvert His purposes. God is going to work out His purposes through this church and through this congregation of people, and God will do it because it is His purpose. God would work our His purposes through Naomi and her husband, in spite of their failures and in spite of Naomi’s attempt to send Ruth away and thereby subvert the purpose of God. God is sovereign, he is not hindered by us, or anything that we do.
- OUR GOD IS A GOD WHO ACCEPTS AND CHOOSES PEOPLE TO WORK OUT HIS PURPOSES:
In this story there is grace at work amongst both the Israelites and the Moabites. Among the chosen people of God and also among the heathen
a) Among Israel there is Naomi, a failure, one who could not trust God when the going got tough. One who was bitter at God when her plans and purposes didn’t work out as she wanted them to. And then to her, in the midst of her failure, in the midst of her bitterness, God sends the good news that He had come to the aid of His people by providing them food; that now there was the opportunity to return home to Israel; that God would be gracious to her, even though it took her a long time to recognise the way in which God would be gracious to her. To Naomi, God, in spite of her failure, in the very time when she was at her bitterest, God would in grace and mercy, work out His purposes.
b) And among the Moabites there was Ruth. Look at the words of verses 16 and 17. Note also Ruth’s reply … “Do not urge me to leave you, or to turn back from you; where you go I will go, where you stay, I will stay, your people will be my people, and your God will be my God, where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried…!” These words of Ruth to Naomi are among the most famous and beautiful in the English language. They are often used at weddings, between lovers at engagements, but notice:
c) They were spoken to a mother-in-law. Now, of course, in our culture mother-in-laws are not popular. I mean, they are only one step above the tax collector. However, in America the American congress has now decreed that the fourth Sunday in November should be declared National Mother-in-Law Day. I am told that the congressman who initiated this move in his speech is supposed to have said that “behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law.” Well, be that as it may, these words were spoken to a mother-in-law.
d) These words are also deeply religious. I wonder if you really realise what is happening here. Here is the conversion of Ruth, the Moabitess. Here, she enters the covenant people of God. Look at the terms of this expression. They are covenantal terms… “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God…!” These are the very words used by the later prophets when talking about the New Covenant that God was to make with His people in Jesus Christ. Here she was totally rejecting Moab and the ways of Moab “…Where you go, I will go, where you stay I will stay…!” She was totally repudiating her own people: “where you die I will die…!”
Here is the Grace of God extended to one who would normally be totally unacceptable among the people of God. Moab had been born in incest, Gen.19: The tribe of Moab came from the incestuous relationship of Lot and his daughters. Moab was a nation that was under the curse of God, according to Deut.23. Here, Ruth, abandons her land, denounces her people, denies her gods and is placed clearly under the Covenant protection of the Lord God of Israel. God, in working out His purposes, has chosen a bitter failure from amongst the people of God, Naomi and He also chose one from among the heathen Moabites, Ruth. God – our God – is a God who accepts and chooses people to work out His purposes. One of the most marvellous things that can ever come to you is that God wants YOU in the working out of His purposes. God wants to take YOU and use YOU to do things for Him.
You know, there is a story told that, when the American Army was going through Germany during the 2nd World War, they came across a statue of Christ outside a church, and during the bombing that took place during the invasion, the hands of the statue of Christ had been blown off. But around the neck of that statue someone had hung a sign which said.
“He has no hands, but our hands!”
Now, of course, that is total nonsense, isn’t it? I mean, God doesn’t really need us. God can get along perfectly well without us. After all, He used a donkey to bring His message to the Prophet Balaam, when Balaam would not listen in any other way, and God, if He choose to, could proclaim His gospel through all the donkeys in this world. Now don’t say to me, that, a lot of the people who proclaim the gospel are donkeys…that may be true, but the point is that God chooses to use US to carry out His purposes. “God has chosen” Paul says, “the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.”
Are you foolish? God has chosen you.
“God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”
Are you weak? God has chosen you.
“He has chosen the lowly things, and the despised things.”
Are you lowly and despised? God has chosen you.
God amazingly, because of His grace and mercy, wants to use US and God wants to use this little church and this small group of believers to work out His purposes and to proclaim His gospel here. We must be amongst the smallest, the weakest, and in some ways, the loneliest church, but God has a plan and a purpose and God in grace, has chosen us to work out this plan and this purpose.
CONCLUSION:
Our God is a great God. He is the God who works in the ordinary circumstances of the lives of His people. He is a God who is so sovereign that no failure, no matter how great and no tragedy, matter how great, will thwart, or bring to nothing His purpose of making His salvation known. And He is a God who is so gracious that He brings us, totally unworthy, totally unacceptable, not only to share in His salvation, as He did with the Moabitess, Ruth, but through us, to work out His purposes in the world in which we live.
This IS our God. We are HIS people.
AMEN.