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Transcript 241A — The Gospel in the Book of Ruth
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Recently, Mr. Camping, you said that you would give the verses in the Book of Ruth that show us where the Gospel is. When are you going to do it?
HC: All right. Supposing we talk about that a little while tonight. Should we?
CALLER: Yes, that would be very fine, if you would.
HC: All right. If you'd like to hang up, I'll speak to that question. Thank you. Good night.
Let's look just a little bit at the Book of Ruth, and see if we can find the Gospel in it. Now in this study that we're going to look at, we're not going to begin to exhaust the whole book. I'll speak to this question for just a little bit, and then at another time we'll continue in it.
The Book of Ruth is a little book found in the Old Testament. It's right after Joshua and Judges. It's kind of hard to find, as a matter of fact, if you're not at all acquainted with the Old Testament it only has 85 verses. And it is a love story of the courtship of Boaz for a Moabitish woman by the name of Ruth.
And the upshot of this courtship is that Boaz marries Ruth, and from their marriage eventually David is born, who in turn is in the genealogical line of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Now the fascinating part of this love story is that Ruth is a Moabitess. Ruth is a girl who is under the curse of God.
In the Bible we read that a Moabite cannot come into the temple for ten generations. In Deuteronomy 23:3 we read, "No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord even to the tenth generation. None belonging to them shall enter the assembly of the Lord forever, because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam, the son of Beor, from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you."
So here we find a girl who is a Moabitess, who is resoundedly under the curse of God. And yet she marries Boaz, who lives in Bethlehem. And eventually they give birth to a son who in turn becomes the progenitor of David, who in turn is in the genealogical line of Jesus.
Now that in a nutshell is the story. Now it begins with the fact that there's a famine in the land of Bethlehem. And there's a man there by the name of Elimelech, who lives in Bethlehem, with his wife Naomi. And I'm sure that somewhere along the line, as you have heard Bible stories, you've heard about Naomi.
Now Naomi and Elimelech have given birth to two sons, whose names are Malon and Chilian. Now because of the famine in the land, they leave Bethlehem and go into the land of Moab. Now that in itself is a very sinful action. They are not trusting in the Lord the way they ought to. But that is not really the point of the story. It's simply a fact of history that they left Bethlehem and they went into the land of Moab.
And there their sin is multiplied, because eventually Malon and Chilian take Moabite girls as their wives. And that's a second dreadful sin on the part of this family of Elimelech and Naomi, and their two sons, Malon and Chilian, because these two Moabitish girls would have been classed amongst those who were the unsaved. They were not to take wives from the Moabites.
We read in the Book of Nehemiah, in Chapter 13, in verse 2: "On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people, and in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God. And when the people heard the Law, they separated from Israel, all those of foreign descent," indicating that the Israelites perfectly understood that there was to be no marriage at all with a Moabite.
And yet Malon and Chilian, totally contrary to the will of God, married Ruth, on the one hand, and another girl by the name of Orpah. Now in the course of events, after they had lived there for a number of years, Malon and Chilian died, and so did Elimelech. This is just part of the historical development of the story. Naomi and Elimelech had sinned against God in leaving Bethlehem, their two sons had grievously sinned against God in marrying Orpah and Ruth, who are Moabitish girls, and now they experience total bereavement. Naomi loses her husband Elimelech, who is the father of the clan, and Ruth and Orpah in turn also lose their husbands, Malon and Chilian.
And so now we have these three widows: Naomi the mother-in-law, and Ruth and Orpah the two daughters-in-law, who are Moabitish girls. This really now is where we want to begin our search here.
Now in verse 6 we read that, "Then Naomi started with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited His people and had 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 a rest, each of you, in the house of her husband.'"
Now here we find a tremendous statement of the Gospel, in this verse 9. She is telling her two daughters-in-law, "Go back to your own people. You're Moabitish girls." Naomi was perfectly aware that for ten generations they could not come into Israel, into the temple, into the house of the Lord, that they were under the curse of God. It was the heaviest curse pronounced against anyone in the Bible. And logically, she is telling them, "Your husbands, my sons, have died, and now you remain here in Moab while I return to Bethlehem, to the city where I have come from."
And then she uses this very strange language, in verse 9: "The Lord grant that you may find a rest, each of you, in the house of her husband." Now that's very strange language. We would expect her to say, "The Lord grant that you may find happiness in the house of your husband," or "The Lord grant that you may find security in the house of your husband." In other words, that you find a Moabitish person that you can marry, and you find your future, you find a home with him.
But no, she said, "The Lord grant that you may find a rest in the house of your husband.'' Now why did she use that word "rest"? Well you see, in the Bible God never uses words accidentally. Naomi may not have realized why she used the word rest in this discussion with her two daughters-in-law. But nevertheless she did.
And the word "rest" is pointing to the rest that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we are saved, we come to be at rest. This is particularly illustrated in Hebrews 3 and Hebrews 4. Before we are saved, we are desperately working to get right with God. Whatever our plan of action may be, this is the ultimate goal of our life. We've got to somehow get right with God, and we are trying to work this out one way or another.
But when we truly become born from above, when we become a child of God, we rest in the fact that Christ has paid for our sins. There is no more work that we must do. There is nothing at all that we can contribute to our salvation. We rest in Him.
And where do we find our rest? We find it in the house of our husband, do we not? Who is our husband, when we become born again? Our husband is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. We are the bride. What is the house of our husband? Well, remember in Romans 8:1 it says that "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Or in the Psalms we read that God Himself is our "eternal habitation." God is the house that we enter when we are saved, when we have found rest.
And so Naomi is uttering a truism, a basic principle, a basic desire of every believer who wants to see salvation for an unsaved friend. "The Lord grant that you may find rest." That is, "The Lord grant that you may find salvation, in the house of your husband," that is, by dwelling in the Lord Jesus Christ, by entering into Him, by having the salvation that is provided in Him.
And so while she may not have recognized what she was saying, nevertheless this is the language of a plea, of a desire that Ruth and Orpah might become saved: "The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you, in the house of your husband." Any one of us who has become born from above, born again, have found rest in the house of our husband.
Now let's look at Ruth for just a moment, and Orpah. Could they find this kind of rest? Could they, as being under the curse of God, could Naomi really desire salvation for them? Oh, she wasn't thinking all the way to salvation. She was only thinking in very superficial terms, about a happy home. But the underlying truth that is being presented is that there is this offer of salvation to them. And could this offer of salvation be legitimate, when Ruth and Orpah were Moabitish girls, who were under the curse of God to the tenth generation? It doesn't seem right, does it?
Well, the fact is, Ruth and Orpah represent the human race. Before we are saved, we are under the curse of God. We're destined for hell. Hell is guaranteed for us. There's no way that we can become right with God. It's just absolutely certain that we're going to hell, because the Bible teaches, "the wages of sin is death." And we are all sinners. There's not one of us that has escaped the curse of sin.
And so, even as Ruth and Orpah were Moabitish girls, and under the curse of God, so you and I, as part of the human race, in ourselves are likewise under the curse of God. There's no way that we could become right with God, except by God's grace. And that's what we're going to see in the life of Ruth, as we go along.
Now notice the next verse, verse 10: "They said to her, 'No. We will return with you to your people."' Now that's an odd thing for them to say. Think about this. "No. We will return with you to your people." Now that doesn't make any sense at all. That implies that Ruth and Orpah had already been in Bethlehem. How can they return somewhere that they have never been? They were Moabitish girls. They were not former residents of Bethlehem. They were born and grew up in the land of Moab. Why would they say, "We will return with you"?
Here again we have an example of a statement that in itself makes no sense whatsoever. It would be far more logical if they had said, "No. We will go with you when you return, Naomi, our mother-in-law, to Bethlehem. We will go with you." But certainly, for them to say, "We will return with you," implying that they had already been there, makes no sense. And this odd language guarantees for us that this was written under the inspiration of God. No human author, writing a love story, would ever have written with this kind of language. It doesn't make logical sense, that Ruth and Orpah would return with Naomi. But they did say it, nevertheless, under the inspiration of God. And this is recorded for us.
Now why did they say this? You see, they again are uttering a very beautiful truth. If we look at the underlying spiritual meaning of this statement, we are looking at mankind. Now what is the situation of mankind when God first created the heavens and the earth? Mankind was completely in fellowship with God. Mankind was not estranged from God in any way. Mankind was created in the image of God, to live with Him eternally.
But because man has sinned, man has become an outcast. Man has come under the curse of sin. He has become a Moabite, if you will. Now when we become saved, when we become a child of God, we are returning to God. We are returning to God, who originally had created mankind perfectly, without sin. This in capsule form is the whole story of the Prodigal Son, all over again. Jesus embellished this very same truth in the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
The Prodigal Son was in the house of his father, and he left his father's house. And he went out to waste his living. And finally, when he was eating the husks of the swine, then his spiritual eyes were opened, and he said, "I will go back to my father. I will be a servant there." That is the story of anyone at all who is exercised by the Gospel, "I will return to my father's house. I will return to Bethlehem."
You see, the meaning of the word Bethlehem is "the house of bread." Not only was .Jesus born at Bethlehem, this is the point on the surface of the earth where God became incarnate, it is the first point where we can literally meet the Lord Jesus, as He becomes flesh, in order to become sin for us, but it is also the "house of bread," and Christ is the Bread of which we must partake in order to live eternally.
And so when Ruth and Orpah are saying, "No. We will return with you," while they didn't know the implication of all that they said, nevertheless they were uttering a wonderful spiritual truth. They were saying, "The only way for us to enjoy life and to find rest in the house of our husband is to return with you, to go back to Bethlehem, the house of bread, to go where we can meet the Lord Jesus Christ," if you will, to look at it from a spiritual standpoint, "to go where we can again be reconciled to God, to go where we can feed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be nourished by Him."
Well now, let's go on. So far we find two sentences already that are just loaded with spiritual truth relating to what salvation really is. We come to verse 11. And here we find again some very strange language, in a sense. 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 until 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 forth against me."
Now in the context of this love story this is a very logical statement. It is a very logical statement. She is reasoning with them, "Go back to your own people. Don't go with me. You're under the curse of God. You're apt not to get a good welcome in Bethlehem at all. And I have no more sons in my womb, so that you can find a husband from me. Go back."
But when we are looking for spiritual truth here, then this sounds very strange. We would say, "Well, here Naomi in verse 9 is earnestly desiring that they find rest, each of them in the house of their husbands." And we saw that that was really wishing, spiritually speaking, that they might have salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, so they would become the bride of Christ.
And we saw in verse 10 that they indeed desired to return with her, and using language that would be the language of someone who is coming back to God as his Creator and as his Redeemer, someone who wants to be reconciled to God. And here Naomi is. saying, "Look. Don't come now. It doesn't make any sense for you to come." It seems like she's almost saying, "Look. I really don't want you to be saved." How can we fit that into the puzzle?
Well you see, there are those who feel that we've got to be salesmen for Christ, we've got to win souls for Christ is the phrase that is frequently used. And every tactic is employed that can be found, to make the Gospel as attractive as possible. We don't really dare talk too much about hell, we don't really dare to talk too much about what it means to be surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. We like to make it as palatable, as delightful as possible, so that if at all possible we can get their name on the dotted line. It's kind of like the vacuum cleaner salesman, you know, who comes to the door, and he says everything positive, and he says everything in a delightful way, in order to woo the person he is selling, so that she might be inclined to sign on the dotted line.
But you see, that isn't the way we're to present the Gospel. We are to be witnesses of the Gospel. And we are to present the whole counsel of God. We're not to kid anybody that everything is really quite well with this person, and we just want to make it a little better for him, "God loves you, and now there's something even more wonderful for you, that we want to tell you about." You know, we get on the good side of this person, and finally get them to see that yes, there's even more blessing that can come if they would only accept Jesus.
That isn't the way we're to present the Gospel. We're to present the whole counsel of God. We're to come with the ugly truth that man is a sinner, that man is under the wrath of God, and that in order to be saved it is necessary for man to see that there's nothing in himself that is worthy, there is nothing that is desirable, that he is to strip himself of his ego. There's nothing he can do to make himself worthy for this salvation. It's ugly. My self-respect is worth nothing. My works are worth nothing. If you want to be saved, you've got to come to the Lord with a broken and a contrite heart. You've got to surrender your will to Christ. You've got to forsake your sins. And it may mean that you've got to leave your old friends that are enticing you to sin. It may mean that you have to even leave your family, and in certain conditions this has been the case. It's a very very difficult piece of information we have to offer.
We've got to present the Gospel asking those who hear the Gospel to count the cost. It means you've got to give up everything, and cast yourself as worthless, empty-handed sinners, on the mercies of God. And only as you come with a broken and a contrite heart can salvation be yours. And you've got to turn away from these things that you cherish so much. This is the language that Naomi is using: "It's not an easy thing for you to go with me, Ruth and Orpah. It would be far better if you stay here. If you go to Bethlehem with me," I can see her arguing, "you're going to leave all that has been dear to you, your family, and who knows what you're going to come into?" This again is the language of the way we present the Gospel. We witness carefully of what is true and trustworthy.
Well then we see the reaction of Ruth and Orpah. Now in Ruth and Orpah we see the reaction of the human race to the Gospel. Orpah represents those who hear the Gospel, and when they've counted the cost, when they've really seen what's involved in becoming saved, that they've got to strip themselves of their own pride, of their own ego, they have to admit the ugly truth that they're rotten, no good sinners, they've got to leave their friends, probably, and they certainly have to turn away from their sins, that they so dearly cherish, they decide, "I can't do it. I can't do it." That's Orpah.
Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, and she left Naomi and Ruth. She couldn't sacrifice all of this to go with Naomi. She represents those who hear the Gospel but are not willing to surrender to the claims of the Gospel. She is like the thief on the cross. Remember, there were two thieves on the cross, and both of them reviled Jesus, when they were first hanging there. One of these thieves went to his death continuing to revile Jesus. He was in the presence of the Gospel, with Christ Himself being next to him. And yet he went to his death continuing to revile Jesus.
But Ruth, on the other hand, is a figure of those who are exercised by the Gospel and become saved. Ruth counted the cost. She saw what was involved in leaving her family and her present environment, and going to a strange land, going to a place where she had never been before, just stepping out in faith. And what did she say? She said, in verse 16, "Entreat me not, Naomi, to leave you or to turn 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 even death parts me from you." This is the confession of someone who has cast his lot with Christ. "I want this God of the Bible to be my God. I surrender my will to whatever comes. I don't know what path I must walk as a born again believer, but that path is good enough for me. I entrust my life altogether with God's people. I entrust my life with he Lord Jesus Christ. I surrender everything, and give it all to Him."
Ruth represents all who have become saved. She, like the thief on the cross, who said to Jesus, "Remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom," is a representative of those who are under the curse of sin and rightly ought to go to hell for their sins, but have placed their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and so have become born again.