Refresh
A Recap from Sunday’s Sermon 

Preaching Text: Ruth 1:1-5

The choices that we make are important.  However, God is sovereign over the course of history.  When we go down the wrong roads in life, God is able and willing to save us.  Redemption means “to regain possession in exchange for payment.”  The Lord is called our Redeemer because he purchases us back from our sinful rebellion with the life of his own Son on the cross.  This large-scale redemption is set up through smaller scale examples in the book of Ruth.  

In Ruth 1, we learn about an Israelite man named Elimelech and his wife Naomi and their two sons.  Theyflee to a foreign country during a famine in Bethlehem.Calamity comes upon them.  Three deaths take place over a ten-year period and Naomi is left with only her two daughters-in-law in Moab.  There is much more to the story.  

No road is too far for God’s grace.

Ironic elements hint that this sojourn to Moab may have been sinful.  Elimelech means “God is my king,” but instead he goes to the realm of the king of Moab for food.  Bethlehem, means “house of bread,” but there is famine, which Deuteronomy 28:18 cautioned as a sign of sinfulness requiring repentance rather than sojourning.  

Meanwhile, through Naomi’s daughter-in-law Ruth, God was setting up the genealogy of David and the Son of David, Jesus (see Matthew 1).   With Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, the “house of bread” will forever have food.  Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger” (John 6:35).  In him, we can return to the Father and be graciously restored.

Taking it home:  Compare the story of Ruth with Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15), making observations about the grace of God.