Sermon – Ruth 1:1-18 Chesed Love

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City

Sermon – Ruth 1:1-18 Chesed Love

November 1, 2015

Recently I completed a series of sermons from the Book of Job. You may remember that this book is in our Old Testament and in the writings section of the Hebrew Bible. It is a book of wisdom which uses personification to illustrate a complex idea. In the case of Job, he represented the concept of undeserved suffering.

Today we turn to the Book of Ruth. This book is also in our Old Testament and the writings section of the Hebrew Bible. It is also a book of wisdom which uses the literary device of personification to illustrate a complex idea. The concept which Ruth explains is chesed. Chesed is a Hebrew word which has no English counterpart. It is often translated into English as “mercy” or “kindness”. Miles Coverdale in his translation of The Great Bible used the term “lovingkindness”. All these translations miss the mark. Chesed is far more than mercy or kindness. It combines these concepts with loyalty and a promise and commitment to care for someone's needs. Since it is hard to grasp the meaning of chesed with an English translation it is most helpful to have a Biblical book which explains its meaning. And so we turn to the Book of Ruth. We will get to this, but first let's pray.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

Ruth 1:1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons.4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

There are a couple of extraordinary things happening here. First, there is a famine in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is a Hebrew word that means “house of bread”. It is the breadbasket of Judah. Bethlehem is a place of abundance where the abundant blessings of God are apparent. Remember, Jesus was born there. So if there is any place on earth that should not experience a famine it is Bethlehem. But in Bethlehem, there was a famine so severe that a man, his wife and two young sons must leave.

And then they do the second most extraordinary thing, they emigrate to Moab. The Moabites were semi-nomadic. What is probably happening is that a Moabite tribe is living in the desert and moving from one watering hole to another in search of grazing land for their goats and sheep. They have come near Bethlehem to trade meat and cheese for grain and olive oil. Even though this trade is beneficial to both the Moabites and the Behlehemites there are problems. The Moabites are hated. They are considered to be thieves. Something always seems to be missing when they're around. And back when Moses and the Israelites were themselves wandering around in the desert the Moabites refused to let them pass through their territory. And with a long history of hatred and distrust the people of Bethlehem were apprehensive whenever a Moabite tribe came near. And so when a Bethlehem family approached a Moabite tribe with a request to join them our expectation is that the answer will be “no”.

But that's not what happened. The Moabites showed chessed. They were kind to Elimelek and his family. But what they did was far more than kindness. They allowed a Hebrew family to live with them and marry their daughters. And when Elimelek and his sons died the Moabites took care of the three widows. Chessed is doing for someone far more than you are ever expected to do. It is kindness combined with sacrificial love.

Chesed is a characteristic of the God we worship. We read this in the second commandment.

Deuteronomy 5:8 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing love (chesed) to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

And so God promises to chesed us, the ones who love him and keep his commandments. God is kind to us, but so much more. God sacrificed his son for us. God loves us so much he has forgiven our sin. God loves us so much he promises us eternal life. He cheseds us. Let's continue with the story.

6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.

God so loved his people that he would not let them die of hunger. He sent the rain and made the crops grow. The Passover has arrived. The barley is being harvested. God chesed his people. It is time for Naomi, Elimelek's widow and the mother of two dead sons to return to Bethlehem. But first, she must talk with her son's widows. Let's listen.

8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness (chesed), as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 

According to Naomi her two daughters-in-law had shown chesed to her and her sons. And so now she want God to bless these young women with chesed. We see from this that chesed, kindness with sacrificial love, is not just something we receive from God. It is something we do for each other. Jesus put it this way.

Mark 12:30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[f] 31 … ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[g] There is no commandment greater than these.”

The girls, Ruth and Orpah, were filled with chesed. They not only wanted to be kind to Naomi, they also desired to act sacrificially. They were willing to do whatever they needed to do to care for their mother-in-law. Listen to what they said.

10 … “We will go back with you to your people.”

11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands?12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”

14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, 

Naomi has given her daughters-in-law good advise. There is no future for either of them in Bethlehem. The hatred of Moabites is just too great. No Hebrew man will marry a woman from Moab. They are much better off staying with their own tribe. Orpah relunctanly agreed. But Ruth had another idea.

14b but Ruth clung to her. 15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”

16 But Ruth replied, “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. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

And so Ruth is the personification of chesed. She is kind and loyal to her mother-in-law. But she goes way beyond that. She loves Naomi so much she is willing to make many sacrifices. She will not only go to a place where finding a husband is almost impossible, she will also convert and worship Naomi's God. She does this because she loves Naomi so much and wants to care for her even if it leads to her death, chesed: kindness, loyalty and sacrificial love.

When the Bible tells us to love one another, this is what it means. We are to be kind and loyal. But that's not enough. We are to love each other so much that we help each other at times of great need even if it causes great sacrifice for ourselves. We are to chesed one another because chesed comes from God.

As we gather around this table today we will be experiencing God's chesed. God is kind to us and loyal to us. But he is so much more. At this table we remember that he laid down his life for us. If God cheseds us like this, shouldn't we chesed one another? Let's pray.

Father in heaven you are so kind and loyal to us. And you have sacrificed your own son for us. We thank you for the chesed we have receive. Help us to be a people that cheseds others. This we pray in the name of your son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.