Christ Church Leavenworth
Ruth 1:6-18
April 19, 2026
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OT READING: Joshua 24:14-28
NT READING: John 6:60-71
‘Til Death Do Us Part
READING OF THE TEXT
Our text this morning is Ruth 1:6-18, these are the words of God:
Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.” Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.
The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of our God stands forever.
PRAYER
Our Father and our God, we come before You this morning through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit. We have gathered this morning to hear from You. Give us ears to hear and eyes to see that we might behold wondrous things as we open Your Word this morning. We ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
INTRODUCTION
This morning we are continuing our study of the book of Ruth by looking at :6-18 of chapter 1. To recap, the book of Ruth takes place in the days when the judges ruled and “in those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”(Judges 21:25) To make matters worse there was a famine in the land. (:1) Imagine a world full of monsters. Now imagine all of those monsters are hangry. It was already ugly and it’s about to get a whole lot uglier. This is a fight or flight situation. One man, named Elimelech, chose to skip town rather than throw down. So he gathered his wife, Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, and they got out of dodge.
At this point, I feel it necessary to hit “pause” for a moment. We love kids here at CCL as anyone can see. Our children have us outnumbered. Thanks be to God. The reason I bring this up is because many of you like Bible names. So, let me just nip the names Mahlon and Chilion in the bud right now before any of you get any ideas. The name Mahlon means “sick” and the name Chilion means “dying.” So, as cool as “Chilion” might sound in English, it wouldn’t have sounded that way to any of his friends. “Sicko” and his brother “Deathbed” probably had a hard time fitting in. This would be like one of you naming your kids Cancer and COVID.
Alright, back to our regularly scheduled programming. So, this family set out to sojourn in the country of Moab (:2). Note that word “sojourn.” This was meant to be temporary. They were not relocating, they were killing time until things cooled down. They did not fill out a change of address form. But what happened? They ended up settling down. They stopped wandering. They had moved to Moab. Their sons grew up there and got married. They did not originally set out looking to leave the land of the Lord or the people of the Lord behind for good… but they did. Life comes at you fast, and herein lies an important reminder: sin will always take you further than you wanted to go and faster than you wanted to get there. It will always cost you more than you wanted to pay and keep you longer than you wanted to stay. Temporary fixes can become permanent problems.
To make matters worse, Elimelech dies. (:3) Remind me, why did he run away from Bethlehem in the first place? To save his life. And what happened in Moab? He died! In trying to save his own skin, he shipwrecked his faith and his family, and the worst part of it is he didn’t even save his own skin. He died. It simply goes to show that “whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for God’s sake will save it.” That idea was so emphatically asserted by Jesus Christ in the days of His flesh that it is referenced by each and every one of the Gospel writers: Matthew 10:39, and again in 16:25, Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24, and John 12:25. Either way, Elimelech was going to die, right? The question is never, “will you lose your life?” the question is always “for what will you lose your life?” The Bible does not tell us HOW Elimelech died, but it does tell us WHERE he was. He was not where he was supposed to be and he was not doing what he was supposed to. Do not be like Elimelech. Do not wander away from the things of God in order to try to find a better life. Listen clearly: there is no better life than being with God. And until you believe that in your bones, you will be tempted to stray. Resolve today to be where God is and where His people are, even if they are being a bit crazy and things aren’t going as well as you had hoped. It is better to be disciplined by God with His people than it is to be punished by God for abandoning your post.
But what about Naomi and her sons? They ended up living where their head led them. Her sons married Moabite women and they lived there about ten years. (:4) Elimelech left a legacy of apostasy. Fathers are the heads of their households, for better or for worse. Mom gets most of the face time, but dad holds most of the sway. As he goes, the kids go. If he goes to church and worships God, the kids are more likely to do the same. Elimelech “trained up his sons in the way they should go and when they were older, they did not depart from it.” (Pr. 22:6) Ten years away from God and church are a long time. So, why ten years? What happened? Did they finally repent and turn back? No, just like their dad, they died. (:5) Mahlon and Chilion made their beds in Moab, so God turned them into deathbeds. If you live in sin, you will die in your sins. Elimelech’s plan had been to save his family. His rally cry had been “don’t die!” And now his wife was a childless widow. It goes to show that “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” (Pr. 14:12, 16:25) Elimelech did what was right in his own eyes and it ended up killing him and his sons. What a mess. Can any good come out of such a terrible situation? That is where our passage today picks up.
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT
:6-7 “Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.” In the midst of all this bad news, Naomi finally hears some good news. God has provided for His people. Note here that “visiting His people and giving them food” referred to those living where He had commanded and eating what He had provided. God did not send down food from the sky on His people wherever they happened to be at that moment. Naomi did not receive an airdrop of wonder bread. God provides where He promises. He does not promise to bless whatever His people do wherever they are. He did, however, promise that whoever would do His will would be His people. If you set up camp in strange places and marry strange women, you will not find a blessing there. But there is always good reason to expect the blessing to be where God has promised to provide it. Bethlehem was “the house of bread” and though the pantry was empty for a bit, if bread was going to show up anywhere, it was going to be there, where God had promised.
On hearing this, Naomi finally came to her senses and got up in order to get back to where God is. And that is how it always works. In order for something good to begin, something bad must end. (repeat) So, that begs the question. Are there any people, places, or things you need to walk away from? Is your heart wandering anywhere it shouldn’t be? Are you getting too comfortable with things God forbids? Are there bad habits you are beginning to settle into? Are you getting too familiar with anyone God would not want you yoked to? In order for something good to begin, something bad must end. So, are you ready to turn your back on whatever it is and head home?
You will not find the bread of Heaven in the pantries of Hell. You cannot flirt with sin and have a healthy relationship with righteousness. Are there good things you desire that you cannot have because of where you are and what you are doing there? Be like Naomi and head home. Cut your losses before you lose everything. If you are baptized, believe and receive the bread of life. If you are not baptized, repent, believe, and be baptized; and then come to the house of bread. You cannot get this bread anywhere else. It is only available at His table and you are welcome here provided you believe. If you have been disobedient before, obey now and come to the table. You will not fix your disobedience by adding to it by refusing to come. So, come and welcome to Jesus. And when you decide to come, don’t be shocked if those around you want to come with you. Faith is attractive. Orpah and Ruth saw the change in Naomi and got caught up in her excitement.
:8-14 “But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go, return each of you to her mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!’ Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, ‘No, we will return with you to your people.’ But Naomi said, ‘Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.’ Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.”
So, this unlikely band of widowed brides begins making their way to Bethlehem. Naomi is headed back home, but Orpah and Ruth are headed into foreign territory. So, before they get very far, Naomi pumps the brakes and pulls the car over. She knows what she is getting herself into, but she wants to make sure Orpah and Ruth know what they are getting themselves into before they take another step. Naomi is a native. She knows which side of the road to drive on, which fork to use first, what day of the week to go to church, and what God to worship when you get there. But Orpah and Ruth do not know any of that. Just as Naomi had to adjust to life in Moab, they are going to have to adjust to life in Israel.
This is the golden rule regarding immigration: guests should wipe their feet at the door. If you leave California because you no longer like it there, you must make sure to wipe your feet at the border so that you don’t turn your new home into California. The same can be said for Somalia. If you like Somalia, stay there, but if you move to Minnesota, be prepared to leave your piracy and your calls to prayer behind you. We don’t do that here. This is how a guest respects his host. The host is already respecting the guest by allowing him to visit. The least the guest can do is reciprocate and honor the house rules of the home he is entering. So, Naomi, suspecting that her daughters-in-law were more attached to their Moabite ways than they were to her, suggests that they should go back home. (:8) She reassures them that she finds no fault with them for it. It’s their home, after all. She gets it. That’s what she is doing after all. They’ve been kind to her and so she lets them off the hook and wishes them well. (:9) But both Orpah and Ruth at first refuse. They confirm that they are committed to Naomi and are “willing to return with her and live among her people.” (:10) But Naomi does not want them to get stuck in Israel the way she got stuck in Moab. She knows that relocation is easier said than done and so she circles back to clarify just how much it might cost them to follow her to Bethlehem in :11-13. Twice she urges them to “turn back” and once she even encourages them to “go their own way.” Recall, these were the days of the Judges, where that kind of thing was everywhere. Everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes and so Naomi gives them that out. “I know you feel an obligation to come, but don’t have to do it for my sake. Do whatever you think is best.”
And if that were not enough, she ups the ante by bringing marriage into it. Note that she presupposes that these young widows will want to remarry. This is the same presupposition Paul had in 1 Timothy 5:14 where he said: “I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.” Married with children and busy inside her own home is the best way for a young widow to resist the adversary. Paul did not invent this in the 1st century. Naomi knew it thousands of years before. But this intensifies the stakes regarding their commitment to come. Are they willing to be childless widows for the rest of their lives? That is, after all, the most likely outcome should they proceed with a move to Bethlehem. Take note, young people, and parents of young people: the two most important decisions you will ever make are: (1) who you will worship, and (2) who you will marry. And the first must inform the latter, because the latter will influence the first.
Who you marry will affect how you worship and sometimes, it can even change who you worship. Hear the word of the Lord from 2 Corinthians 6:14 “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” If you are a Christian, you cannot be interested in, date, court, flirt with, get engaged to, marry, or otherwise relationally entangle yourself with an unbeliever. You cannot hitch your wagon to someone going in a different direction. This begins with who you worship, but it goes well beyond even that. Of course, you cannot want to go South and marry someone who wants to go North. That is impossible. You cannot make vows before God to stay with a person who is not committed to God. Either you will break apart as you both pull in different directions or you will end up going their direction in order to avoid a divorce. You cannot serve God and honey.
But beyond that, it is unwise to be going S by SW and marry someone who is going S by SE. The differences aren't as severe and they do not show up as soon as in the first scenario, but they’re not nothing. Someone can compromise SE for SW easier than they can NE for SW, but still, it will cause tension as you pull apart on some particulars. A paedobaptist cannot lawfully marry an unbaptized unbeliever, that is a N vs. S thing. But a paedobaptist can lawfully marry a credobaptist, that is a SE vs. SW thing. But even then, it may be ill-advised since the tension will ramp up once they have kids and a decision needs to be made. The baby cannot be both baptized and not baptized. So all that to say, be careful who you marry. It is hard enough with someone you see eye to eye with. Don’t make it harder than it has to be. Do not take marriage too lightly or simply assume that everything will work itself out. Many times it ends up exactly the way anyone with eyeballs would have predicted: with pain, resentment, separation, hurt, and divorce; or with pain, resentment, compromise, and more resentment. No partner is better than the wrong partner. If you marry in haste, you will repent at leisure.
Getting back to our story, Naomi essentially says, “My sons converted to your way of life and that made your marriages make sense, but where I’m going, they don’t do that. If you want what you have, you will need to go back. You don’t have to come with me, but if you do, you will have to die to your way of doing things.” This is similar in spirit to what Speirs told Blithe in Band of Brothers, when he said, “The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're already dead. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier's supposed to.”
You don’t have to soldier on, but if you do, you have to go on like a soldier, committed to the Commander’s intent and ready to die for it. Jesus is our Commander-in-Chief and this is how He put it in Luke 14:33 “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple.” Anyone can come, but no one can come without renouncing his claim to himself. Jesus does not oversell it. He does not promise rainbows and unicorns only to turn around to put you through thunderstorms and dragons. He shows all His cards up front. This is going to be worth it, but it is going to be hard. This is eternal life we are talking about, after all. Did you think it would be easy? It may cost you everything, but it will save you. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul? And what does a man really lose if he dies to the world but gains eternal life?
Naomi is laying out the costs of discipleship on the front end. She loves her daughters-in-law too much to let them suffer for her sake. Besides, there are some costs you cannot pay for others. As Martin Luther once noted, “Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.” And if all that were not enough, Naomi poisons the well one last time by putting a rotten cherry on top. She points out that if they choose to make this trip, they will be making it with a bitter old hag. (:13) “No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.” The Lord disciplines His children and Naomi has been spanked. In fact, she is still rubbing her bottom from the sting and so she says, “Are you sure you want this? (:14) “Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.” This is a hard teaching and not everyone is up to it.
This reminds us of our OT reading from Joshua 24. The conditions of the covenant are laid out for the people. “Now fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Either serve the Lord with sincerity and faithfulness or serve something else, but do not play church. “For if you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.” To this the people said, “We will serve the Lord.”
And so Joshua replied, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.” And they confirmed this by saying, “We are witnesses.” So Joshua reiterated the terms and reminded them of what they said they would do. “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel.” And the people replied, “The Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.” And so Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and put in place statutes and rules for them. He put the words down in writing and he had them sign their names to it. He then completed the transaction by saying these vows would serve as a witness against them, “lest they should deal falsely with their God.”
The same type of interaction occurred in our NT reading from John 6. Jesus clarified the terms of the covenant. It was a hard teaching. Too hard, in fact, for some. “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.” And so Jesus turned to those still standing with Him and asked, “Do you want to go away as well?” Here was the last off ramp. It is like exit 224b for Leavenworth. It is the last chance to get off of I-70 before it starts costing you something to keep going. “Simon Peter answered him and said, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’” In other words, Peter understood the assignment. Jesus was the only way, the only truth, and the only life and as much as he didn’t want to pay the tolls, he couldn’t imagine taking an off ramp to avoid paying them if Jesus was going straight.
Imagine you’re following a friend on a road trip. You don’t know the way, but they do. As a result, you are forced to match their speed. Sometimes it’s faster than you like, sometimes it’s slower. But you can’t lose them and you can’t pass them because you don’t know the way. So, you do everything you can to stick with them. That is what it is like to follow Jesus. Sometimes He gets out so far ahead of you that you worry you might lose Him. Other times He is going so slowly, you are tempted to pass Him. You cannot take an off ramp and risk losing Him and you must pay whatever tolls are charged on the roads He takes. If you go too slow or too fast or if you try to find an alternate route without any tolls, you will be lost.
Back to our text. Naomi also awanted Orpah and Ruth to understand that this was not going to be a simple change of scenery, this was going to be a change of life itself. There is no way to go down this road without paying all the tolls. You cannot live a Moabite life in the Kingdom of God. If you want to walk with God, you will have to walk in a manner worthy of those who ride on the King’s highway. There are conditions. The kingdom of God is not a buffet where you get to take what you like and leave what you don’t. You can either come to God’s table and eat what He serves or you can go to Burger King and have it your way. You can either get a golden crown from God or you can get a paper one from the world.
Having heard the conditions clearly and having been warned of the consequences, Orpah decided to kiss Naomi goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. Orpah had come into contact with Naomi, but she did not make a covenant to go on with her. And when the going got tough, she even broke contact with her. Not everyone who comes along for the ride ends up riding it out until the end. So, what about you? You have been in contact with the Kingdom. You’re here, you’ve heard the word preached, and you sit near the King’s table. But have you made a covenant with Him to keep going? Have you counted the costs and determined to cling to Him whatever comes next? That is a decision that lies before you. Is some contact with the King enough for you or will you make the decision to cling to Him? The only thing you need to follow Jesus is nothing. As long as you have that, you have everything you need to begin the journey. Other things will be needed as you go on, but to get started, you have to begin with nothing. Orpah chose the familiar or the faith. She went back to what she knew. She was not willing to give it up.
Naomi points this out to Ruth in :15 “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth is resolved and ready to leave everything behind in order to be made new. She is trading her place, her people, and her god for a new place, a new people, and a new God. :16 “But Ruth said, ‘Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.’” Who you worship determines who your people are and where your place is. It is a package deal. That is why who you worship and who you marry are the two most important decisions you will ever make. Discipleship, like marriage, is ‘til death do us part. And that is why Ruth concludes her vows with these words :17 “Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” Naomi, satisfied that Ruth understands what she is getting herself into, agrees to accept her vows, and begins the long walk home with her. (:18)
So, what about you? Do you need to end something bad so that something good can begin, like Naomi? Or have you been in contact with Christ, but you need to make the commitment to cling to Him, like Ruth? Take His yoke upon you, and you will find rest for your souls, for His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.
Come, and welcome to Jesus Christ.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, thank You for taking us from where we are when we are not where we should have been. Help us to have the humility to come home and give us the grit we need to make the journey. Help us to cling to You as Your Son clung to the cross. We ask these things in His and we offer up the words of the prayer He taught us to pray singing…
