 Ruth chapter one verses one through five I'll go ahead and read and then we'll get into our Bible study here. Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land and a certain man a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to dwell in the country of Moab he and his wife and two sons. The name of the man the name of the rather than the name of the man was a limolec the name of his wife was Naomi and the names of his two sons were Melon and Kilian sons of Ephraffites of Bethlehem Judah and that did I do this right I'm in the right right okay boy I'm gonna tell you my brain's slow too and they went to the country of Moab and remained there then a limolec Naomi's husband died and she was left in her two sons now they took wives of the women of Moab the name of one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth and they dwelt there about 10 years then both Melon and Kilian also died so the woman survived her two sons and her husband. When faced with a decision in life big or small we try to make the best choice but sometimes despite our good intentions we do make bad choices that's something that's gonna happen because we're human we do make mistakes when you get into the book of Ruth the book of Ruth is an amazing book it's a very powerful book you can actually almost feel the emotion just in the first five five verses of the tragedy that this family went through and and what we see here is that the first five verses of Ruth begins with the story of a family who was faced with a big decision in life what what was happening is that they were actually experiencing a shortage of food and that's not a good thing it's a family of four you need food you got to eat you have children but we see here that they had to make a decision what are they gonna do are they gonna stay where are they gonna go I mean you got to decide on what to do when it comes to a situation like that when it comes to their own land well the father decided to go now we're gonna see in a moment whether it was a good choice or a bad choice but we see right away the setting is not all like all that exciting notice what it says there in verse 1 that it was in the days when the judges ruled this was not a very good time if you've ever read the book of judges the book of judges is the darkest period in the life of of Israel it was such a bad bad dark time that the children of Israel were involved in so many bad bad things the days of judges were dark days in Jewish history was a day of national apostasy it was kind of like a fallen away from the faith and when you read in judges chapter 21 if you just go to your left there at verse 25 the book ends with a frightening statement in those days there was no king in Israel everyone did what was right in his own eyes would you like to live in a country like that I don't think so this describes the days of judges this is what was going on you see what happened is that God delivered Israel out of Egyptian bondage and when he did that it wasn't to just let them go it's like I'm gonna deliver you guys and just run across the desert you're on your own what God wanted to do he wanted to establish a theocracy so so what God wanted to do is establish one nation under God so he wanted to rule them himself so when he tried to do that they rebelled against his leadership so they start asking for a king so God said fine you want a king then go for it so they went from a theocracy to a monarchy a nation ruled by kings first king was saw a maniac a weirdo but they had their king and after that there were some good kings bad kings good kings bad kings but it went from a theocracy to a monarchy and then finally they plunged into this anarchy and that was a nation ruled by no one but themselves that's a bad bad way of kind of heading as a nation to start from God ruling you to God allowing judges or allowing kings to rule you and then all of a sudden you don't want God's rule you don't want man to rule you then you're on your own now you're in a state of anarchy and that's exactly what happened to Israel Israel just decided to just kind of go on their own and the Lord allowed that and what we see here is that Israel became a disobedient and adulterous people or idolatrous people they were disobedient in the sense that they rejected God's law they were disobedient in all the commands that God wanted to give them they did not want to live by God's commands at all they're they're basically backsliders and somebody who was an idolatrous person will turn to idols to basically satisfy their sinful desires and that's exactly what they did they went after other gods listen to what judges chapter 3 verse 7 says the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord they forgot the Lord their God and serve the vows and the asterisks now what was worse is that their kids suffered from their spiritual apostasy listen to this judges chapter 2 verse 10 after that whole nation had been gathered to their fathers another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel listen can I talk to you parents do not stop talking to your kids about Jesus let them grow up with Christ's don't be afraid don't think it's too hard you don't need to be a Bible scholar to raise your kids in the ways of the Lord teach them the word talk to them about Jesus connect the dots for them a little four-year-old is constantly asking questions about this and that and I'm trying to connect the world that God created so she understands the biblical worldview because I know when she gets old enough she's going to be presented a secular worldview but I want her to understand that there is a biblical worldview I want her to think biblically and if I stop that the culture will take her so parents you have a huge job if you have little ones teenagers even bigger than right to just instill in them truth God's truth don't be afraid if they roll their eyes they'll hear it I've ran into so many prodigals so many pks pastors kids that have actually gone away from the Lord that can still quote scripture more than me because it's in their heart they'll never leave as the Bible says right the word will never come back void so keep giving it to them don't worry about what they do but just trust the Lord pray for them well the children of Israel blew it because the next generation that came up they basically were kids and young adults that didn't care didn't know the things of the Lord that's why it's important for us as parents to just keep giving them Jesus and not stop especially these days right now they're getting very very dark you know one of the marks of a backslider is one who doesn't want to live under God's rule they prefer to live under their own authority without any accountability and that's exactly what the children of Israel did they do not want any accountability at all in fact there's a really crazy story in judges 19 the story about a Levite who had a concubine and a servant and they basically were heading out traveling and they came to this place this this town square because they were resting nobody wanted to take them in until one old man came to them and said hey where are you guys going and what are you doing and of course as the Levite explained where where he was heading and what they were doing he says you need to leave this place this place is bad the town square here this is this you're gonna get you're gonna get mugged you know I mean more worse than that you'll see where I'm going with this story what actually happened you know at that time being in that area was was bad you know it's like taking a walk at nighttime through Central Park I don't think anybody would want to do that if you Google the worst parks in the world Central Park is up there New York City it's beautiful in the daytime I've been there plenty of times taking pictures all the beautiful flowers springtime but at nighttime you better get out of there listen to this I read this recently in the last four years Central Park has had 649 serious crimes including 13 rapes and 14 or 415 grand larcenies so don't go for a walk out there okay if you go ever go out there at night it's not romantic okay you'll be in trouble and that's exactly what these guys were doing they were resting in a place at night that was very very violence so the man takes them in so as he goes in his house other guys the Bible describes him as perverted guys saw that he actually took in these guys with them the Levite and they came in knocking on the door said hey we want you to give us that man because we want to sleep with him and the guy says no please don't do that I'll give you my virgin daughter and his concubine take them do whatever you want with them so they refused and they took the concubine raped her left her half dead as the Levite went off the next day found the poor woman at the doorstep picked her up takes her home she dies he cuts her up in 12 pieces yep that's in the Bible and then he basically ships all those pieces to the to the 12 territories of Israel did you imagine getting something like that in the mail oh honey look did you get something at Amazon what is it oh what an arm this is not in order that imagine that that's sick why did they do that there's no accountability these guys were all over the place with immorality they didn't care they didn't know what was going on the days of the judges was just horrible it was very dark and you know what today we are living in some desperate times where people today want to rule themselves they don't want God's leadership they don't want even man to you know I guess you know people that should actually govern them they don't even want that they're rebelling against everything and not just adults but kids don't want anybody to say anything to them any kind of any kind of direction they want to basically make what they think is right in their own eyes legal and accepted today it's my truth you know your truth is your truth my truth is my truth it's called moral relativism is what it's called it's like you have your truth Christians I got my truth and we see here that in the world today this is something that's actually happening you know my wife was listening to a song she's just kind of just she I think she was at a store or something and you know they play music and she was telling she was you know I heard a song that was pretty crazy and it sounds like a young girl singing this song and the lyrics were crazy I said well was what was it called you know and I'm googling you know I love Google I'm sorry you know I always say if Google doesn't have it it doesn't exist you know what I mean so it's like I just type in two words man I get it right there you know I said so what did the song say and I'm doing and I caught it I found the song and I'm like really well the song was this and it was interesting this is a 16 year old girl some of you may know who she is her name is Bea Miller 16 year old singer she came in ninth place on season two of the X factor she signed a Hollywood records and her 2014 debut EP song is called Young Blood and it's a song about young people basically calling the shots and listen to this and I got the lyrics I'm not gonna sing it but part of the lyric goes like this listen to this we are we were making history breaking rules and breaking free questioning the writing on the wall and then the chorus goes like this we've got young blood can't destroy us we make our own luck in this world we've got young blood no one chose us we make our own love in this world a 16 year old thing in this this is where this is where culture is this is where young people are going it's sad and this song actually her EP peaked at number two on iTunes and even more crazy is that it had a great debut on the Billboard 200 peaking at number 64 why is because the young people are eating this stuff up oh this is the song for me this is it this is where I'm at in life as a 16 year old and they interviewed her and they say well why why do you like this song why did you put this thing on it as the first thing and she's like oh because I've had so much struggle in my life and look at me wrong I'm sure there's some 16 year olds that go through a lot but but at the same time I mean come on you you're making a lot of money now you know but yet here she's singing these songs but what we see that this is where the culture is where world is going it's getting very dark they want to rule themselves they don't want others to say to tell them what to do and this is where we see that Ruth was at this is where we see that it begins here in the days when the judges ruled and and that was a very very dark era so what happened why did this family why did this family move you know I call this family the prodigal family really because they bailed out of the promised land because of a famine notice what it says it says they're very clearly that they basically left because there was a famine in the land that's what made them go now even though the text doesn't say it it is very very possible that this famine came upon the land due to the immorality that was going on it was a judgment perhaps listen to this Deuteronomy 28 verses 15 through 17 however if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees that I'm giving you today all these curses will come upon you and overtake you you will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country your basket and your needing trough will be cursed God saying listen I'm gonna hold you guys accountable listen you walk out of here or you do this or you ignore me listen I'm gonna keep you accountable I'm gonna create circumstances in your life to keep you in line second Chronicles 7 13 through 14 what the Lord says when I shut up the heavens so that there is no no rain or command locus to devour the land or send a plague among my people if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land God will always give people chances to repent a chance to repent to really get right with him I mean God is a God of grace don't get me wrong God is a God of mercy don't get me wrong but you never want to exhaust God's mercy you never want to take him all the way far that I mean you don't want to do it you want to love God you want to you know what we will goof up as a Christian we're not going to be living perfect lives we know that but listen be very careful if you're in a state where you're just kind of treading away from the Lord little by little listen stop doing that get back in the boat because God is a God of grace and he'll give you mercy but if you begin to stretch him out more he will create circumstances in your life to bring you back I guarantee you Jonah saying amen to that because wasn't it God who created the storm the Bible says it right there and the Lord created a storm wasn't God who created the guppy right and the upstruck in the whale the fish whatever was right safe you guys were paying attention and God created a great fish right listen hey we're no different than Jonah and praise God that Jonah finally gave up inside that belly and that fish and God used them to really experience one of the biggest revivals that we see in scripture the Assyrians the crazy Assyrians or barbaric I really compared the Assyrians honestly this is just my personal opinion to Isis because the Assyrians were meant were people that were actually they would actually mangle people they would torture people horribly and if if God can save the Assyrians man God can save those Isis people could you imagine a lot of those guys just just falling down says I give up Jesus forgive me you know because that's what we need we need a revival worldwide people just need to get saved and we see here that God gives them a chance to repent we see here that they went to the place called Moab now why did he go to Moab we really don't know why perhaps he had some kind of relationship with the people in that area but the Moabites were descendants of a terrible incestuous Union if you guys remember after Sodom and Gomorrah they were after they were destroyed lot was afraid to stay in the city of Zor and because of that he headed up to the mountains stayed there with his two daughters in the cave they got his they got her dad her their father drunk then unfortunately they went in with him and they had sexual relationship with their father and then they conceived children by their own father and the two kids and the two people that came out of that from this relationship one when the first boy's name was Moab and the other was Ben Amin and both of those were crazy enemies of Israel against Israel continually and we see here that he heads to Moab so basically a limelike made two bad choices one leaving the promised land that's where they were and secondly he went to Moab now how far as Moab I brought a map just to show you a picture if you guys want to project the map here real quickly he went from Bethlehem to Moab about 60 miles but there was no bus ride or train ride these guys walked I think it's pretty interesting how you actually went all the way to those mountains and we see that that was the place that he decided to go so he made this bad choice and he brought his entire family now the names of his children just the name of the names of the family actually I'm going to give you the definition because in Bible times a person's name had significance so the name a limelike means my God is king so you know he was a believer in God the next is Naomi her name is pleasant remember when she came back she says don't call me Naomi I'm not pleasant anymore call me Mara means bitter so she made sure they understood the other son Maylon means sick pretty interesting Killian means wasting away or pa where we get the word Oprah no I'm joking means stubborn and Ruth means friendship those names are very significant and I'll tell you here in a moment why in verse three let's keep reading tragedy hits the family then in limelike Naomi's husband died we're not told why or how I'm sorry how he died what was wrong what went wrong but we were told here that the families hit with a tragedy so Naomi was left and her two sons okay Naomi's lost her husband but there's still hope she's got her two kids so it's still alright so though although she experienced this death which is pretty sad we see here in verse four that the sons now actually marry Moabite women obviously being there it says that now they took wives of the women of Moab the name of the one was Orpa and the name of the other was Ruth and they and they dwelt there about 10 years these guys married Moabite women God did not specifically say to them do not marry Moabite women but he did warn them about the Moabites listen to this Ezra chapter 9 verses 1 and 2 after these things had been done the leaders came to me and said the people of Israel including the priests and the Levites have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices like those of the Canaanites hits Hittites Parasites Jebusites Amunites Amunites Moabites Egyptians and Amorites they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons and have mingled the holy place with the peoples around them and the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness it was unwise for them to take women from any of those groups of people they blew it but of course because we know the whole book of Ruth obviously Ruth was a Gentile through her lineage I mean for when she met with Boas this is where Christ comes through so God obviously had a bigger picture a bigger plan it was God's providence that we're dealing here with but when we're looking at these first five verses you're like what is going on so they marry but it was still unwise for these guys to be going in that direction you know we're told in the New Testament very clearly to not be unequally yoked we're told very clearly in the New Testament do not be unequally yoked any time a Christian marries a non-Christian you're asking for trouble it's not because God doesn't want you to to marry that person because whatever it's because there's a there's a relational gap that you're going to run into this marriage with what's that relational gap Jesus you see you marry somebody who doesn't know Jesus and you still want to serve Jesus you have a person in that household who doesn't care about Jesus there's going to be some conflict somebody's kind of give in and it's usually the Christian that gives in you know and I and I talked to a lot of young people and they're like well you know what bro this is this is missionary data it's biblical you know what I mean so no missionary data doesn't work usually doesn't work now listen I'm a product of a missionary data I mean my wife got saved first and then she brought me into church then I got saved but I've known my wife for a long time been married almost 19 years this month this year not this month this year but missionary dating usually doesn't work because there's that relational gap that spiritual relational gap that will be missing in that relationship and a lot of times and I've counseled a lot of people afterwards that will say you know we're not married anymore he left me or I had to leave him will you guys Christian no we were it's a mess guys and then when kids get involved it's even worse it's sad so when we read in scripture these prohibitions is for our good it's not God trying to keep you from having fun it's God says listen just stay within my parameters you'll have a great time and it's important for us to understand these things because as we see that during these situations that we can put ourselves in we have to stay focus on what the Lord says so a lemon leg is dead Naomi's by herself or not really not right now she's with her children but now things get even worse for her notice in verse five then both Malan and Killian also died that right there probably just deflated her emotionally mentally physically because now we see here that the woman survived her two sons and her husband now we have widows now we see here that the sons are dead we're not told again how they passed away but remember the meanings of their names excuse me one was sick and the other wasting away there are two possibilities here guys one is that their kids were already sick they had a pre-existing condition and the father took them over to Moab and somehow that probably didn't work well for them and passed away or they just because they were already sick we're gonna die either way whether they stayed at the promised land or not but they were obviously sick kids already so now we see here that Naomi is now a lonely widow and a foreign land along with her two daughter-in-laws not a good picture and the reason why I say that is because you know today generally speaking today any widow today can still find a job on her own can still find some support or support herself she can still provide for her own needs I'm just speaking in general here she she wants to remarry she could probably do that I mean she can go on match.com or whatever and she can go there and get somebody you know I'm just saying you know it's accessible it's easy right but Naomi couldn't do any of that stuff and the reason why is because back then widows basically had to depend on the support of others and not only that but Naomi was far away from home she left Bethlehem the house of bread and it's interesting because we see here that that that their plan was probably not a ten-year plan I guarantee you it was just hey honey let's just go to Moab I know a few people there and and let's just let's just kind of wait until the famine is done and then we could go back home okay all right honey that sounds good maybe in his mind he's thinking let's give it a month and listen he never even made it back with not even with his kids and it was ten years that's a long time I doubt they were thinking ten years and we see here very clearly that life can feel like that sometimes you know life can feel like it's it's you know you're lonely you're in a foreign land and you're wondering now what what do I do what direction do I go I mean this is where Naomi was at her head was spinning and that's when she came back from from you know when she finally made it back to Bethlehem everybody saw her something was wrong with her face is that you Naomi is that you don't call me Naomi call me Mara call me bitter because the Lord has dealt very bitterly with me I mean she was really really just spinning her wheels what is she going to do as a widow now but life doesn't always have to feel like ten years in Moab we have to approach difficulties in a biblical way and what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you three things here that we can actually learn from this story that will help you and I in difficult times the first thing that I want you to understand is that difficult times are not always indicators to take action difficult times are not always indicators to take action because you are going through a difficult time in your life it doesn't mean you have to move it doesn't mean that you have to do something a limit like look that is situation took action which is commendable as the leader but without ever seeking God for counsel I mean his name is my God is king and we're like wait a minute I limelike what why didn't you trust the Lord here well how do I know that well for two reasons why one is that he left the promised land God promised them that when he got brought him into that promised land that he would provide for them listen to this Deuteronomy 6 10 in 11 when the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers to Abraham Isaac and Jacob to give you a land with large flourishing cities you did not build houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide wells you did not dig and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant then when you eat and are satisfied I mean God says I will provide for you in that land you know like I said you fast right is Bethlehem which is house of bread and limelike missed seeing God take care of his family's needs in a time of difficult time difficulties we got to give the Lord a chance don't we to do something right I mean we all have the tendency to try to bail ourselves out right I mean it's hard to kind of sit still when you're going through a difficult time you're like oh Lord I'm giving you till tonight if you don't come through I'm out of here you know I mean I'm telling you Lord and the Lord's like you know what I wasn't going to come to you until like next month you're like way too early relax I mean we have to trust God what we have to let him do what he needs to do and we see here that a lemon like missed it listen to this Psalm 99 the Lord is a refuge for the oppressed a stronghold in times of trouble those who know your name will trust in you for you Lord have never forsaken those who seek you did you see that listen seek the Lord he's not going to forsake you I love this Psalm Psalm 46 1 2 and 3 God is our refuge and strength and ever present help and trouble therefore we will not fear though the earth give way in the mountains fall into the heart of the sea though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging oh that's awesome God protects us God helps there are two kinds of storms that God will allow in your life storms of correction and storms of perfection the storms of correction is to bring you to repentance again I'm sorry Jonah but I'm bringing them back Jonah is a great example storms of perfection are storms that God allows in your life to perfect you that's where we read James chapter 1 verses chapter 1 verse 2 that says this consider it pure joy my brethren whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything so you have to determine what storm you're going through if you are tonight is God trying to correct you on something repent he'll forgive you and you're like I'm not in any sin then hey listen he's perfecting your faith he's helping you he's maturing you as a Christian I I would love the Christian life to be without any trials I mean wouldn't you I take that any day right I mean I know it's not true it won't happen we're all going to face trials here and there you know all that false theologians that's out there you know that oh everything will be great God will never allow anything in your life you know all this yeah that's that's baloney you know there's no such thing as Disneyland Christianity you know the happiest place on earth you know I mean we have a joy internally that we can go through a trial and be like I praise you in the storm but but to always walk around and think that you know there's nothing that's gonna happen we don't know we just we don't pray for it I never pray for trials but what we got to trust the Lord perfection is to enforce to endure so that we can actually become stronger as Christians Israel was experiencing a famine perhaps a storm of correction Moab wasn't the best place to live because the people weren't a good influence there were other places that he could have chosen but he didn't the second thing if we take action when we aren't supposed to we are only adding to our difficulties we have to be careful with that again the lemon leg I believe he had no intentions of going to Moab for 10 years sure it was a quick trip but things got worse for him got really bad a month trip perhaps ended being a 10 year of 10 years of misery and the last one three our bad choices can affect our family our bad choices can affect our family I mean read verse 4 we just read it you know we see that they basically passed away all you know her husband her children listen sometimes it's just better to just hang on during those difficult times hang on and trust the Lord rather than taking immediate action rather than trying to adjust your life trying to do something different anytime you're met with any uneasiness or any inconveniences in your life don't begin to freak out Proverbs chapter 3 verses 5 and 6 trust in the Lord with all your hearts lean not on your own understanding acknowledge him in all your ways and he will lead your past straight I gotta trust them right you know the word trust there in Proverbs chapter 3 verses 5 and 6 the word trust means to cling on to God that's what it really means that's that's the thrust of that Hebrew word it means you hold on to him tight don't let go of him and that's exactly what God wants us to do is to trust him to understand that if you're having a hard time at work it doesn't mean to go find another job maybe God is using it to just making you stronger as a Christian maybe he's dealing with things in your own life I've talked to people that say how I'm having such a hard time at work and I gotta find another job or really have you asked the Lord if that's what he wants you to do and then some leave and then they're like unemployed for like three months you know it's like you got to be careful you got to judge everything from a biblical perspective you got to trust the Lord seek him pray so that he understood so you understand what's going on so the question is should I stay or should I go and maybe that's where you're at tonight you're thinking should I stay should I go what's going on all I could say is seek the Lord and he's gonna show you seek him with all your heart if he says to you take action hey go for it but if you don't hear from him or if you have a hesitation from the Holy Spirit I say be patient and don't go ahead of the game amen