Face life honestly

Ruth 1:19-22; 7/17/2022; BCBC/IOUC; Rev. Paul Wang

 Introduction

Some people say that life is just a face, do you agree? Or, you have to suffer for your face, have you heard of it?  I went abroad thirty-five years ago, and I regretted it in just over a month.  However, if I don’t achieve something, it’s shameless to see my family!  Naomi has been abroad for ten years, and her family has been ruined.  How can she meet the elders of her hometown?  Let’s look at the first point:

 Face the elders

Naomi did the opposite, and she came back.  She also brought a Moabite woman Ruth,   the one who said, “Your kingdom is my kingdom, and your God is my God.” The Bible specifically emphasizes:  The two of them walked together and came to Bethlehem. First, face the unfamiliar again.  Why do we say that facing the unfamiliar again? Note that the scriptures are very detailed, saying that Naomi did not return to Bethlehem, but came to Bethlehem.  Because Bethlehem, where Naomi has been away for ten years,  may already be a familiar and unfamiliar home for her.  For Ruth,  it was a new home, a kingdom of faith, and a committed fellowship.  When faced with strangers and unfamiliar environments, people will not be able to go forward if they have no faith to support them.  We see that God gave Ruth and Naomi a relationship to a growing community of life. Just like our relationship with the spouse,  parenthood, and friends.  They all have one thing in common, that is, to face the common strangeness again.

Second, face people’s facial expressions bravely. One of the signs of a person’s growth is how to face people’s faces.  What is a person’s face?  In short, it is a trace of a person’s psychological emotions left on the face.  However, this is originally the imprint of other people’s psychological activities, and it is not necessarily related to you.  As soon as you react, other people’s faces have associated value and have a controlling effect on you.  The Bible describes that the “face” of the Bethlehemites at Naomi’s return home was surprising,  and it was the common “face” of the people in the city. The meaning of surprise seems to be asking:  How did you come back?  Wasn’t it very majestic when you left?   Wasn’t it a family of four when you left ten years ago?  Why are you the only one back?  Why did you bring a strange woman back? Who is she?   It seems that there is not much luggage, and you have not made a fortune?  Has the money been hidden?  Maybe no one said anything, but it was written on their faces.

Finally, face the ridicule calmly. Now that you’re back, you have to say something, right? The women said, “Is this Naomi?”  They didn’t seem to know each other, but they were able to call her by name.  The meaning of ridicule is strong, right?  It’s okay to ask alone, but this is what all the women in the city are asking!  After walking a few steps, a woman asked:   Excuse me: Are you Naomi?  Two people asked, three people asked, ten people asked, if it was you, how would you feel?  In fact, what we really have to face is not people’s asking,  but to be afraid of the inner fear of being asked before no one asks, right?  Business failed, divorced,   bereaved, children did not study, did not go to college, abortion, lay flat, addicted to games,  self-harm, and even suicide.  Are you at ease with the ridicule you have to face when your life reaches the bottom?  Let’s look at the second point:

 Accept the identity of Mara

The Israelites came out of Egypt,  It’s hard work and they finally crossed the Red Sea.  To everyone’s surprise,  the first spring water encountered after crossing the Red Sea was Mara Bitter Spring.  This is the challenge that Naomi and Ruth face together. First, please call me Mara.  Mara’s history is as follows: “Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) (Exodus 15:22-23)”  The Israelites faced the bitter fountain in the same way we face suffering today.  Naomi’s quiet days and her family’s well-being suddenly hit rock bottom.   How to do?  self-pity, bitterness, complaining, even blaming others?  Or pretending to make people feel good?  However, Naomi went straight to the point and said: Please call me Mara!   All the expressions and ridicules were instantly silent. At this time, people would ask:  What is the reason for this?

Second, God made me suffer. Yes, what is the reason why Naomi is not complaining, not bitter?  Others may not know, but Naomi is very clear.  she says:  Because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.  Knowing this truth is not easy and may require suffering.  All Job’s belongings, cattle, sheep, servants, and children were gone in one day. All were ruined, destroyed, all are gone!  How to do? Was he not sad?  That must be fake, impossible, right?  The bible says,  “At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship. (Job 1:20)” At this moment Job can still worship God, so it is no wonder that the Bible calls Job:  “This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. (Job 1:1)”  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.  Why can’t God take what’s outside of us?

Lastly, this is who I am.  Then why do you still call me Naomi?  This is where I am today, Naomi,  and I am Mara.  God made me suffer.  I accept, I am grateful, and everyone here can bear witness for me.  May God help me and guide me to find the tree He will show me,  so that I can throw it into the water and the water will be sweet.  Just please call me Mara today,  because accepting yourself as Mara brings hope of sweetness.  God wants to heal all the diseases we contracted in Egypt.   As long as we go one step further with faith,  the fountain of Elim, with twelve springs of water and twelve palm trees, meets the needs of the twelve tribes of Israel.  Let’s look at the third point:

 Ruth accompanies home

 

As a Moabite, Ruth was not allowed to join the assembly of the Lord.  Moses said in Deuteronomy: “No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation. (Deuteronomy 23:3)”  This is a key turning point in the book of Ruth and the crux of understanding the gospel.  First, she was Naomi’s daughter-in-law.  At this time, Ruth was no longer a Moabite,  but a person who belonged to the family of Israel.  Although the eldest daughter-in-law, Orpah, also married into the house of Elimelek as the wife of the eldest son Mahlon, she eventually chose to return to the Moabites.  And, as Naomi said to Ruth, “Your sister-in-law has gone back to her country and to the god she worships.”  Orpah had come to the church, but had no true faith, and was lost in the end. However, after Ruth married her youngest son Chilion for ten years, she not only got a husband,   but also got the Jehovah that her husband the Israelite believed in.  Even life and death could not separate her love for Jesus Christ!

Second, she returned from Moab to Bethlehem.  Ruth’s faith was not superficial, but a real commitment.  Her elder sister-in-law, Orpah, who was familiar to her, became her new stranger.  Bethlehem should have been a strange country, but now it has become her eternal pursuit.  She said to her mother-in-law: Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.  Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.  Your people will be my people and your God my God.

Finally, it is harvest time. Whether it was Naomi or Ruth,  from what she heard when she set off to what she saw with her own eyes when she arrived in Bethlehem, it proved that God’s faithfulness is great.  Naomi, in particular, must have felt a lot.  She left Bethlehem with her husband Elimelek and ran to the land of Moab, but she ended up in ruins and death.  However, God had mercy on her, causing her ” heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them.”   God not only gave her life, but fed her.  It even gave her a richer life, far beyond what she thought.

 

Conclusion

Thank God!  That’s it for today’s “Facing Life with Honesty”.  Let go of your proud stature, accept the lowliness of your life, in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Let us pray……

 

Ruth 1:19-22

19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

20 “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 

21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.