Naomi

The story of Ruth grapples with all of these emotions.

Naomi, Ruth and Boaz are all learning the same life lesson at the same time.

Today we'll learn about three realities that helped them move forward even while grieving.

From Chicago, welcome to the Moody Church Hour with Pastor Philip Miller.

And I don't know if you've ever felt that way, but I have.

It's not a comfortable place to be.

And as we saw last week, it's kind of where Naomi's at, isn't it? She returned to her hometown, to Bethlehem, and she said, don't call me Naomi.

Her name means pleasant.

He was descended from one of the princes of Judah, and was a man of means and consequence.

Elimelech's wife was named Naomi, meaning pleasant, and they had two sons, whose names were Malin and Chilion.

This old and noble family lived in this fertile region, amid pleasant surroundings and with happy prospects, until one of the frequent famines that were brought on by want of rain visited their district.

leaving the parched and sterile fields around Bethlehem, Elimelech and his family and his flocks left their home and settled in the rich and well-watered lands of the Moabites beyond the Jordan.

First Alamelech died, and the family was without a head.

Then Malin married a beautiful woman of the country in which he was then living, named Ruth, and his brother Chilion married another named Orpah.

such marriages were against the law of moses because the moabites worshipped idols but as the nation was descended from lot the nephew of abraham the marriages were not so bad as they would have been with women belonging to other of the different tribes of canaan After a while both of the sons of Naomi died, and she was left a childless widow in a strange land.

By her gracious ways she had won the affection of both Ruth and Orpah, and now sorrow locked their hearts together in sympathy.

We are continuing our Ruz.

Alright, so we finished off that Naomi and her husband Ali Melech and her two sons Mahlin and Kilian, they arrive in Sdey Melev, we spoke last time why they left.

Now they arrive in Sdey Melev, they're hoping things are going to settle down.

There's a hunger and a distraught.

And Hashem is unhappy with them.

And Pasagimu is tragedy number one.

Tragedy number one is, وَيَمَسْ أَلِمَلَخْ إِشْنَا أَمِي Ali Malik, the husband of Naomi, passes away.

So this, you can imagine what's happening.

We're gonna be looking at the book of Ruth in a series we're titling, Mercies in the Shadows.

And Naomi and Ruth, the two leading ladies in this story, they have their worlds completely shattered.

They lose everything.

And they're trying to pick up the pieces of their lives and get back to normal.

In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.

The name of the man was Elimelech.

and the name of his wife, Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Machlon and Chilion.

They were Ephratites from Bethlehem in Judah.

They so huddled together as they walked that an onlooker might mistake them as one person, which was all right with them, for really all they had was each other.

Ten years prior, a famine had driven the elder one, Naomi, and her husband out of Bethlehem, and their family had migrated into the enemy territory of Moab.

That's where the couple found fertile soil to farm and found girls for their two sons to marry.

But then tragedy struck.

Naomi's husband died.

So did her sons.

And Naomi resolved to return to her hometown of Bethlehem.

Ruth, one of her daughters-in-law, resolved to go with her.

Well, I'll just spoil it for you because Ruth gets us from Judges to 1 Samuel, and we see that most clearly in Ruth 4, verse 17.

The women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, A son has been born to Naomi.

They named him Obed.

He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

A man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab.

The name of this man, verse 2, was Elimelech.

Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and his two sons, Malon and Chilion, are finding themselves in this awful cycle of sinful disobedience.

They find themselves in a place where there's no food to eat.

And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, 'Sit down here.' So they sat down.

Then he said to the closest relative, 'Naomi, who has come back from the land of Moab, has to sell the piece of land to which belong to our brother Elimelek.

So I thought to inform you, saying, "Buy it before those who are sitting here and before the elders of my people.

If you will redeem it, redeem it.

But if not, tell me that I may know, for there is no one but you to redeem it, and I am after you."' And he said, 'I will redeem it.' Then Boaz said, 'On the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must also acquire Ruth, the Moabitess, the widow of the deceased, in order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance.' The closest relative said, 'I cannot redeem it for myself, because I would jeopardize my own inheritance.

Redeem it for yourself.

You may have my right of redemption, for I cannot redeem it.'" The closest relative wanted the land, but not the Moabite woman.

Now the story gets pretty amazing.