day no. 17,352: defending their innocency (exhortation outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

WLC 144: Defending Their Innocency

April 26, 2026

Defending the Innocent

INTRODUCTION

This morning we are continuing our study of the ten commandments in the WLC and we are still in Q144 which asks, “What are the duties required in the ninth commandment?” The ninth commandment, as you recall, is “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” The answer provided by the Westminster divines is this, “The duties required in the ninth commandment are, the preserving and promoting of truth between man and man, and the good name of our neighbour, as well as our own; appearing and standing for the truth; and from the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully, speaking the truth, and only the truth, in matters of judgment and justice, and in all other things whatsoever; a charitable esteem of our neighbours; loving, desiring, and rejoicing in their good name; sorrowing for, and covering of their infirmities; freely acknowledging of their gifts and graces, defending their innocency; a ready receiving of a good report, and unwillingness to admit of an evil report, concerning them; discouraging tale-bearers, flatterers, and slanderers; love and care of our own good name, and defending it when need requireth;  keeping of lawful promises; and studying and practicing of whatsoever things are true, honest, lovely, and of good report.”

The phrase we will be focusing on this morning is, “defending their innocency.”

The text cited by the WLC in support of this duty is 1 Samuel 22:14, but in order to understand how this verse applies to the duty to defend our neighbor’s innocence, we will need to understand the context in which it takes place. So, here’s some background. Even though Saul was the king of Israel, he was jealous of David. Saul’s son Jonathan discovered that his father was plotting to kill David. Since David was Jonathan’s best friend, he warned him of his father’s plans. As a result, David fled. He stopped to catch his breath in a town just outside Jerusalem called Nob where a man named Ahimelech was serving as the priest.

Because David had left in such a hurry, he did not have any food or even a weapon with him. So, he asked Ahimelech for some assistance. Ahimelech was happy to help. David was a famous warrior and the news of Saul’s change of temper towards him had not yet reached Nob. So, he gave David some bread and then he gave him the only weapon he had on hand: Goliath’s sword which was being kept on display as a trophy. This was the same sword that David had used to cut off Goliath’s head. A man named Doeg the Edomite was also there that day, however, and saw it all take place. Later, when Saul got word that David had gotten away, he was frustrated and began throwing accusations around. He wanted to know who was helping David. Doeg took this opportunity to report what he had seen and that is where our text picks up.

1 Samuel 22:11-18 “Then the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests who were at Nob, and all of them came to the king. And Saul said, ‘Hear now, son of Ahitub.’ And he answered, ‘Here I am, my lord.’ And Saul said to him, ‘Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, so that he has risen against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?’ Then Ahimelech answered the king, ‘And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and captain over your bodyguard, and honored in your house? Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No! Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father, for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little.’ And the king said, ‘You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house.’ And the king said to the guard who stood about him, ‘Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David, and they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me.’ But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the Lord. Then the king said to Doeg, ‘You, turn and strike the priests.’ And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod.”

In these few verses, we see several examples of people failing and fulfilling their duty to defend their neighbor’s innocency. Let’s begin with the failures. The first example is King Saul. This whole episode is a result of him falsely accusing David in the first place. Instead of defending David’s innocence, he accused him of treason.

Saul was insecure and, just like any of us when we feel insecure or afraid, he was tempted to look for ways to blame others for the way he felt. Because we don’t like the way we feel and because we don’t like taking responsibility for our feelings, it must be someone else’s fault. As Spurgeon once noted, "We accuse others to excuse ourselves.” It is often easier to make up things about our neighbor than it is to face the reality about ourselves. And so, we slander our neighbor’s innocence in order to defend our own guilt. But take heed and take note: the sins of others, whether real or imagined, can never cleanse us of our own.

Another example is Doeg the Edomite. He knew that Ahimelech was not trying to help David usurp Saul’s throne. He knew he was innocent. But he also knew that Saul was looking for someone to blame and he hoped that there would be a finder’s fee. Saul slandered David to try to keep from losing his kingdom, Doeg slandered Ahimelech to try to gain a position in Saul’s kingdom. So, we see that our guilt can lead us to lash out at the innocent, either because we are scared of losing something or because we are greedy to get something else.

Now, let’s move on to a few examples of people fulfilling their duty to defend the innocent. Consider Saul’s servants. When Saul ordered them to slaughter Ahimelech and the priests, they refused. They presumed a standard of “innocent until proven guilty” and defended it by refusing to obey a tyrannical order.

A second example is that of Ahimelech himself. At any given point in his interrogation, he could have changed his story to try to save his own skin, but he didn’t. He could have defended his innocence by casting doubt on David’s, but he refused to bear false witness, even if it meant being falsely accused. He stood by David and his decision to help him. Ahimelech was an innocent man who paid the price of a guilty man in order to defend the innocence of another.

CALL TO CONFESSION

Well, since we are so often more concerned with getting our guilty selves out of trouble than we are with keeping our innocent neighbors out of it, we are reminded of our need to regularly confess our sins, whether they be related to this duty or to others. So, if you are able, please kneel with me and confess your sins, first privately and then corporately using the prayer found in your bulletin.

CORPORATE CONFESSION

Gracious Father, if You were to mark iniquities, who could stand? But with You is forgiveness, that You may be feared. Called by You to the throne of grace, and confident in our great High Priest, we bow before You and confess that we have sinned against You and been unfaithful to Your holy covenant. Our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately sick, so that we often do what we hate, and neglect what we love. Out of our mouths we both praise You and curse our fellow men. You promised mercy to our fathers through the seed of the woman. Turn our hearts again, Father, to consider Jesus, who crushed the serpent’s head, and saved His people from their sins. Forgive, cleanse, and restore us for His sake. Amen.

DECLARATION OF PARDON

Saints, arise and hear the Good News!

The assurance of pardon today comes from Romans 4:4-8

“Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.’” 

The story of Ahimelech points us to Jesus: he was falsely accused and killed for defending his friend, just like Jesus. He was an innocent man who was treated like a guilty man, just like Jesus. But as good of a man as Ahimelech was, Jesus is better. A man will scarcely die for an innocent person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— as Ahimelech did for David, but God shows His love for us in that while we were still guilty, Christ died for us.

Saints, hear the Good News: in the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven… THANKS BE TO GOD!

Now let us ascend to the presence of God in all worship and praise.

day no. 17,350: atomistic or adamistic

"The integers out of which the State is constituted are not individuals, but families represented in their parental heads.” — R.L. Dabney

Men are not atomistic, they are Adamistic. They are not made without respect to others like individual widgets on an assembly line, they are made as sons and daughters in a covenantal line. Families are fundamental. Every one is born under the headship of another. No one is born outside of a covenantal reality. As such, we are not individuals, we are, as Rene Girard has noted, interviduals.

The building blocks of society are not individual souls, but independent households. As image bearers, we are molecular, not atomistic. The State wants to destroy our molecular bonds, but since it cannot win a war against reality, it settles for the same subtlety that Satan employed in Eden. It preaches radical individualism reinforced by individual votes. It tries to convince us that freedom is found in being your own god and that obedience to a head is offensive.

Husbands are the heads of their wives and parents are the heads of their children. The civil magistrate is the representative head of those households.

day no. 17,349: the beautiful words that have to wait

"People have beautiful things to say about you, but you must die first." — Fyodor Dostoevsky

We don't build monuments to the prophets until they are dead. When they are alive, we wrestle with them and how uncomfortable their words make us feel. Once they are gone, we can see their point without having to be poked by them. We are only willing to spar with them once they are incapacitated and unable to fight back in real time.

Some people genuinely have beautiful things to say right now, but lack the opportunity or the initiative to tell you. Some people do not have much to say about you, but your death will inspire magnanimity in them and beautiful things will be said, beautiful sentiments that never existed in their heads prior to your passing.

"Well done, good and faithful servant," is reserved for the dead. While those on earth may flatter your memory or finally feel compelled to say the kind things they've always thought, the kindest words one can hear are from Christ. In other words, the best things that can ever be said about you, can only be said about you after you are dead.

Eulogies are literally good words and they only arrive at the end of the story.

day no. 17,348: everything, something, nothing, and anything

“When a man stops believing in God, he doesn't believe in nothing, he believes in anything.” — G.K. Chesterton

Nihilism is a lie. No one believes in nothing. Belief is inescapable. It is not a matter of if you will believe something, but of what you will believe in. If you, in a fit of crestfallen madness, turn your belief away from everything, you do not turn to the nothing. You cannot find nothing anywhere. What you turn to is your belief in nothing. You can believe in your belief, but you can also believe in your disbelief. You may believe your disbelief to be the most reasonable belief to have, but you cannot have no belief. You will believe in something and if it is not everything in Christ, it can be as absurd as putting your everything into nothing, which when you come to think of it, is really quite something.

There is a fine line between inconsolable and gullible. Those who refuse to be comforted by Christ will go as far as to seek comfort in discomfort. Those who stop looking to the one thing begin looking to anything. Those who refuse to go the one way begin considering any way. Those who reject the one life are in danger of seeking life even in death.

Proverbs 8:36

All they that hate me love death.

day no. 17,347: internationally obsessed and domestically ignorant

“Our leaders are internationally obsessed and domestically ignorant.” — Charlie Kirk

We elect our representatives to address our concerns, but they often end up meddling in the affairs of others with whom we have nothing to do. They spend their time passing legislation to take our tax dollars to address their concerns in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Israel, or Iran. As such, our representatives, do not represent us very well. The average Joe is not interested in the middle east other than trying to avoid sending his sons there to die. The more our representatives grab passing nations by the ears, the less they concern themselves with the people playing in their own back yards. And when they begin to bark, they get put in the kennel. 

Our leaders cannot stop minding someone else's beeswax and continually ignore the needs of their own bees. They think of us as worker bees which is to say that they do not think of us. They think of themselves as queen bees which is to say they think only of themselves.

day no. 17,346: never-ending glory and never-ending nuisance

“Daybreak is a never-ending glory; getting out of bed is a never-ending nuisance.” — G.K. Chesterton

Morning is a juxtaposition. It is the glory of having been resurrected from rest and the misery of remembering that a new day brings new challenges. Christ commands us not to be anxious about tomorrow and that each day's troubles are enough for itself. As long as we stay in bed, we feel like yesterday's troubles are all behind us and today's troubles have not yet begun, but we find that the first trouble with today is having to get out of bed.

“If unwilling to rise in the morning, say to thyself, 'I awake to do the work of a man.'” — Marcus Aurelius

You were born for such a time as this even if you'd rather hit snooze.

“Sleep is a great giant, and the time to defeat it is in the early morning when it has you pinned to the mattress.” — Douglas Wilson, A Hole Under His Nose

We begin each day pinned to the mat. Will you kick out and get back into the fight or will you lay there and let the day's troubles get the victory?

day no. 17,345: 'til death do us part (sermon outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

Ruth 1:6-18

April 19, 2026

…

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…