12.6.09 // Dead End, Ruth 1:1-5

Some dead ends

• The Dead Sea

The tributaries flowing from Mt. Hermon (elev, 9,230 feet) enter into the fertile Hula Valley and converge into the Jordan River flowing through Lake Hula and into the Sea of Galilee and on to the Dead Sea or the Salt Sea. Running north to south and less than 100 air miles, the Jordan River meanders for 186 miles and descends approximately 2300 feet to the Dead Sea (about 1300 feet BSL, the lowest point on earth). Its only outlet is by evaporation, leaving behinds high concentrations of minerals, particularly salt.

• Dictionary meaning of dead end:

An end without an exit, to come to a dead end, no outlet, cul de sac, impasse, one way in one way out, a position, situation, or course of action that leads no further

• Spiritual meaning of dead end:

A dead end is a spiritual condition whereby we forfeit blessing for trouble due to disobedience to God. We become a prisoner of the collateral damage due to disobedience – “moment of pleasure for a lifetime of trouble,” for example.


Ultimate dead end: lake of fire


Romans 8:28 and Ruth


The truth of this verse did not come into existence with Paul's writing of it. God is sovereign and whether people understood the concept or principle the way Paul articulated it does not change the fact that all things have worked together for good since the beginning of time. Look at the creation account - at the end of each day God would assess that “it was good." David in Psalm 23:6 talked about goodness following him all the days of his life. These are just two examples before Paul penning Romans 8:28.


God is eternal and has an unchanging nature -- He changes not, declared Malachi (Mal 3:6). Romans 8:28 is all in the story of Ruth. Because God is eternal, all powerful, all knowing, He has the longevity, consistency, ability, and wisdom to cause all things to work together (in unison) for good, for His purpose, His glory. No angel or man can thwart the purposes of God for He is the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and all that is therein. Here is a fourth wonder, not only is God unchanging, not only can God make this happen, not only does He have all the data and skills necessary to make this happen; He is in the middle of it to make it happen; He is not detached from it. God is everywhere present.


Of the innumerable Romans 8:28's going on at any given moment from sub atomic particles to man to earth to universe and beyond, God is working all things together for good for whom? For us, to those who love the Lord, to those called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 is God's fingerprints; they are all over the story of Ruth. Here is the testimony of Romans 8:28; Paul said in Eph 2:7, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us In Christ Jesus.
God is already doing a work of grace in our lives and Romans 8:28 is only a testament to His already revealing His kindness toward us. It will happen in the future when this world is done for, but I am here to tell you it is already a work in progress as we speak! We are a work in progress; Romans 8:28 is a work in progress.


Look at Eph 1:3, note the verb, past tense, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Romans 8:28 is just a part of that. It is a past, present, and future thing, and it went on during the time of Ruth. As long as things are churning, Romans 8:28 is working.


Background of Ruth


Title: Ruth is one of two OT books named after women, the other one was Esther. Esther was a Hebrew who married a Gentile king who God used to preserve His people from destruction; Ruth on the other hand, was a Gentile who married a Hebrew man who God used to perpetuate the lineage of Christ in order to bring salvation to the world. Ruth was the great grandmother of King David. Ruth is mentioned 13 times in the Bible: in Ruth (12 times) and in Matt 1:5 as part of the genealogy of Christ. Her name means “friendship.” Ruth was a Moabite, a descendant of Lot, the people of an incestuous relationship. The other people of Lot from an incestuous relationship were Ammon. Both groups hated Israel.


Author/Date: Jewish tradition attributes the book of Ruth to Samuel, probable but not conclusive. But it is plausible since the author was a contemporary of David (cf. Ruth 4:17; 4:22; 1 Sam 16:13) who wrote Ruth shortly before or during David’s reign in Israel; David ruled Israel from 1011-971 B.C. (40.5 years, 2 Sam 5:4-5). Since Solomon was not mentioned, the book was probably written prior to David’s son, Solomon, his successor.


Background/Setting: The story of Ruth covers about a dozen years or less that occurred in the days when the judges ruled Israel (Ruth 1:1; Jdg 1:1).
Generally speaking, the period of the judges was the time between the death of Joshua (Josh 24:29; Jdg 1:1, ca. 1383) and the coronation of Saul (circa 1043 B.C.), a time spanning over 300 years before a king or monarch ruled in Israel (Jdg 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25). When the judges (deliverers) ruled, it was a bleak and dark time in Israeli history, a period of disgrace, of reproach (cf. Prov 14:34). When every man did what was right in his own eyes; he lived life as he saw fit, man became a law unto himself and not according to God (Jdg 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25).


It was not as if everyone was purposely trying to do wrong, to be rebellious or defiant; but many were. And Judges 21:25 characterized this period, In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. But once God’s objective authority was replaced with a subjective standard, what was right became relative; truth was in the eyes of the beholder; everyone was determined to do right according to their own eyes (Jdg 21:25), they plummeted into deeper depths of sin and depravity (cf. Jdg 2:16-19).
This sounds like a description of our times, every man doing that which is right in his own eyes; there is no objective standard; there is no absolute truth. Truth becomes subjective. But in Christianity though there is no literal statuary, many believers have enthroned self and have looked to the altar of self for their wants and needs, departing from the teaching of Scripture.


So, in Ruth 1:1 we read, Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled.


During this period of the Judges (of 300+ years), there were seven cycles that went something like this in the nation.


1. Sinned, particularly idol worship and its attendant vices.
2. Oppressed by their enemies and chastened.
3. Repented
4. Delivered by judges and restoration
5. Repeated the cycle six more times for a total of seven.


Sounds consonant with our spiritual life cycle doesn’t it: rebellion, retribution, repentance, restoration, and repeated. Albert Einstein is often quoted in saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. So why can’t we break this cycle of insanity: rebellion, retribution, repentance, restoration, and ditto?


Here is what kicked it all off. In Judges 2:7 we learn that the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua and while the elders who outlived Joshua; but after the elders were buried, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel (Jdg 2:10). Know (Heb, yada, means to know relationally and experientially, knowing or not knowing God).They made a choice to turn their back on the LORD which invariably resulted in death and destruction (Jdg 2:11-15).


Judges (Heb, shaphat) were local deliverers raised up by God to rescue His people from an oppressor. This was not an office of succession or national rule; there was no replacement. Judges had the capacity to function in all facets and functions of government: executive, legislative, and judicial (Zodi, Word Study). During this period of the judges there were at least 12 judges, some consider as many as 14. The first judge was Caleb’s younger brother, Othniel (Jdg 3:7-11). Many consider Samson to be the last judge Jdg 13:1-16:31); but it was probably Samuel; he was the transitional leadership between the judges and the rise of the monarchy under Saul and served as a judge, prophet, and priest (cf. Acts 13:20).


Five reasons for the cycle of spiritual & moral decline in Israel during the period of the Judges (cf. Rom 15:4)

1. Rejected objective standard of God’s Word (Jdg 2:1-3)
   
   
   
   
   
   1. disobedience – failed to drive out the Canaanites from the land as instructed (Josh 17:16-18; cf. Jdg 1:19; Jdg 1:21, 35)
   2. Root cause – separated from the Word (Josh 1:6-9), a failure to trust God’s Word. In the KJV, the English word success is only found in Josh 1:8. Success is the knowing and doing (or applying) God’s will for your life. This is where the well done you good and faithful servant comes from!
   3. Isn’t this what Billy Graham said in the lesson last week, Ninety-five percent of the difficulties you will experience as a Christian can be traced to a lack of Bible study and reading (MasterWork, Fall 2009, p. 162). Willful ignorance is another word for disobedience. We cannot apply what we don’t know. Our love for God is measured by our love for His Word in reading and applying it in our everyday life (Jn 14:15). God’s Word is His will. And a slave is one whose will is lost in the will of the Master, lost in the will of the Word.
   4. The devil uses the RID approach in separating God’s people from His Word: reject, ignore, or doubt. Ignorance breeds doubt which gives birth to rejection. As in the matter of receiving salvation, indecision is the same thing as rejection. Willful ignorance can be viewed as rejection of wanting to know God’s will (and we can’t do what we don’t know). RID creates the opposite results of Joshua 1:8, failure through disobedience.
   5. The root cause of this endless cycle is a departure from the Word of God through RID.
   
   

Outward evidences of this are seen in the following.

1. Worshipped things, idolatry (Jdg 2:11-12; cf. Ex 20:1-5).

1. They developed a love for deaf, dumb, and dead idols.
2. Idolatry is anything that competes with the will of God for our lives; it is not limited to some statuary.
3. Love for things take priority over love for God measured by our obedience to His Word (cf. Jn 14:15).

1. Lost association with God, intermarried (Jdg 3:5-6; cf. Deut 7:3ff; this is what brought Solomon down)
   
   
   
   1. Lived among, intermarried, served
   2. Lost identity. Would people be surprised if they found out you were a Christian at work or at play? We can’t pull someone out of the hog pen if we are in the midst of the slop.
   3. We lose godly influence.
   4. “If you can’t beat ‘em; join ‘em!... (cf. Jdg 2:3).
   
   

1. Would not listen to leadership (Jdg 2:17)
   
   
   
   1. Running independent of authority (cf. Jdg 21:25).
   2. Arrogant, proud, unthankful, nobody is going to tell us what to do!
   3. Wants the authority to get them out of a scrape then tells them to take a hike. If God was to relieve us of our economic oppression, many would return back to the slop rather than maintain a godly posture.
   4. We can be very old in the Lord and yet possess the spiritual maturity of an infant.
   
   

1. Went the wrong direction, worldly living (Jdg 2:19 reverted [Heb, shoob]; Jdg 8:33)    
   
   
   
   1. Shoob – to turn back, return, to retreat, to withdraw, to do again
   2. Simplest meaning, described here as a human reaction, attitude, feeling
   
   
   

                    i. Negative sense – here, Ex 13:17
                   ii. Positive sense – 2 Kgs 23:25; Jer 34:15

1. This leads to a dead end.
2. With hair what do you do with the dead ends? They take away from the healthy look of the hair; they are unmanageable. They are normally removed or cut off.
3. If we love the wrong direction more than the right way, we might question our relationship with/to God.

Back to Ruth 1:1-5

Famine (Ruth 1:1) indicated nation was disobedient to the LORD (Deut 11:13-17). This could very well be the retribution phase of rebellion. This is the reason Elimelech moved his family from Bethlehem (house of bread), Judah (praise) to settle in the land of Moab south east of the Dead Sea (a big dead end!).

Dwell (sojourn, KJV, Ruth 1:1) intended only to live there for a short while.

Elimelech (my God is King, Ruth 1:2) has to make you wonder why he moved to Moab.... Do we always live up to our position as children of the King when our faith is not so keen, and we are moved by the circumstances of life. Bethlehem, not Moab, was the place where God would bless him, in spite of the famine.

Naomi (my pleasant one) Things didn't get too pleasant in Moab (cf. Ruth3-5).

Mahlon (sickly) son of Elimelech married Ruth (Ruth 4:10). He at least had good taste in women.

Chilion (pining) son of Elimelech married Orpah.

Neither son should have married a Moabite (cf. Ezr 9:1-2; Neh 13:23-25). Even though Moabite women were not mentioned in Deut 7:1-3, later reference to the law prohibited such marriages.

The dead end move by Elimelech resulted in his death, the death of his sons, and three widows. Ten years (Ruth 1:4) at a dead end had taken its toll. 

Though the period of the judges was a time of great spiritual darkness, we see the grace of God shining through to bring His people back in to a place of blessing. Heading toward a dead end starts when we turn from the objective source of God’s Word and move into the subjective realm; it always leads to a dead end, the place where we forfeit blessing for trouble. We can put a stop to the insanity by taking a stand,


But take careful heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul (Josh 22:5). Rid yourself of the RID influence of the devil.


And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, chose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of 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 (Josh 24:15). Open end, a spiritual condition where we forfeit trouble for blessings because of our love for God's Word…. 95% worth of forfeit according to Graham!