Ending of love and faith(Ruth1:8-17)

 

^{Ending of love and faith.(Ruth1:8-17)}

⁸ And Naomi said unto her two daughters in law, Go, return each to her mother's house: the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me.

⁹ The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept.

¹⁰ And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.

¹¹ And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?

¹² Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also to night, and should also bear sons;

¹³ Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from having husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me.

¹⁴ And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.

¹⁵ And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.

¹⁶ And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:

¹⁷ Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.

Today's book Ruth begins with "Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land." Ruth is daughter in law of Naomi and Elimelech. They are people of Bethlehem Judah. Then there was famine in the land. So they moved to Moab to get some food. Moab is south east of dead sea, which today's Jordan.

Geologically it is not that far from Bethlehem but the people in there wasn't friendly to Israel people, because Moab peoples' ancestor was Moab who was son of Lot nephew of Abraham.

Moab wasn't the promised land but Elimelech and Naomi moved there for food. They blended in the Moab people's way of life and their two sons got married with Moab women.

Then Eliemelech died and his two sons were passed away too. So their family was only women.

Naomi said like this in verse 13 and 19-21. 

¹³ Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from having husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me.

¹⁹ So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi?

²⁰ And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.

²¹ I went out full and the Lord hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?

Everyone of us have dream about beautiful luxury and comfort life. Naomi must have dreamed too, but instead having a good life, she lost all of her mans and left there with two daughter in laws and poverty.

However in old saying, crisis in our life can be turned into opportunity.

Also huge corporations like Kodak can fail if they adopt changes. Kodak was number one film corporation.

Kodak has 131 years of history. In 1980s number of employs in Kodak was 160 thousand. And they were dominated 2/3 of world film market. Anyways that Kodak went to bankruptcy in this year January 2012.

Kodak could adopt the change of technology, people's interesting moving towards from film camera to digital camera.

nowadays we see rarely old camera people using digital camera even cameras in cell phones are have good quality, everything is digitalized.

ironically the first company who brought up the digital camera was Kodak, they knew digital camera has great potential, but they could let the all the incomes from films which is their main products.

one share of Kodak was 100dollars but now it is down to 1 dollar.

Nokia, a cellular phone company in Finland, was the largest cell phone company in the market during the 1990s. But people began to abandon the regular cellphone and move on to using smartphones. Nokia did not keep up with the changing trend and focused on producing cellphones instead of developing smartphones. As a result, the company is now worth only 10% of what it was worth 10 years ago. Again, like Kodak, ironically, Nokia was among the first companies to possess smartphone technologies, but instead of developing smartphones, they believed they could maintain their number one status with just cellphones. Of course, they were very wrong.

The average lifespan of a company in Korea is 27 years, and the global average is 13. The cut-throat competition and constant demand for change doesn’t allow a company to last for much more than 20 years. These days, it is nearly impossible to see a company that has been around for 100 years.

We see a similar phenomenon in our religious lives. Even while living our life of faith, we come across trials and obstacles. However, when we face these obstacles, we must not react to them with anger and complaints. We must find a better way to overcome these obstacles, and this better way is in God.

When people face an obstacle in their life, their immediate reaction is to attempt to handle it in a worldly way, through their own strength and ability. We must not focus on just overcoming the immediate obstacle that is before us, but we must learn to look ahead beyond that obstacle into the future.

Rather than remaining in the land God gave and promised them, Elimelech and Naomi ran away to Moab to escape their immediate troubles, but the results were disastrous and worse than if they had just stayed where God told them to stay. Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, died, both her son’s died and Naomi and her daughters-in-law were left widowed. Then they heard news of plentiful harvest in Israel, and the three women planned to return there.

In Ruth chapter one, the Hebrew verb for “return” is often used. However, this word also has the definition of “repent”. Thus, Naomi’s return to Israel represents her repentance for her sins and disobedience over the past 10 years. Then came the moment of choice for her two daughters-in-law: 1. Stay in Moab, or 2. Follow their mother-in-law into Israel. These two daughters-in-law were Ruth and Orpah.

Naomi told Ruth and Orpah to stay in Moab, and Orpah agreed, but Ruth insisted she would go with Naomi. Naomi gave Ruth one more chance to return to Moab, but Ruth refused:

“¹⁶ And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:

¹⁷ Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.”

Ruth chose God and chose to serve her mother-in-law instead of choosing the path most convenient for herself. Through this Orpah became a forgotten name but Ruth was blessed as a great ancestor of the Messiah.

TAKE THE PATH OF CHANGE FROM LOVE AND FAITH

People know the importance and necessity of change. They know they cannot live a monotonous life of faith. They know they need change, but people like stability, and choose stability over the change they need. But we must accept the challenge of taking on change that is given to us by God.

Thirty-fifth president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, gave a speech at Rice University in 1962 and said within 10 years man would walk on the moon. As soon as that speech was given, many scientists claimed such an event was impossible. Kennedy ignored these people, and met with scientists who believed his statement was possible. In August 1969, only 7 years after Kennedy’s speech, astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to step food on the moon.

If Kennedy had listened to all the scientists who doubted him, he never would have been able to mark such a momentous event. Thus, it is incredibly important whom we meet and what types of people surround ourselves with.

Who do we surround ourselves with? Is it people of faith? People who only seek wealth, glory, and convenience? People who look down on others and speak badly of them? Or people who speak good of others and bring good to others?

Abraham left his home at a very old age, and went to the land God told him to go to and became the father of faith and many nations. Moses received Gods calling to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and became a hero to all. Naomi gained a new son-in-law named Boaz and lived without worries or troubles and lived into old age in happiness.

We never regret the decisions we make on faith and love, and these decisions will be blessed.

CONCLUSION

Some day in our lives, we will face trials and face decisions that we must make. We must remember that even trials are meant for us by God, and through these trials we overcome He refines and trains us to better ourselves as His children. Are any of you facing troubles or worries at home, at work, or at school? Even in those troubles and hardships, we must make our decisions based on God’s love and His way for us. If we do our best to follow His way and we are changed in God, there is no doubt that He will bless us.