LIFE LESSONS
RUTH
RUTH 1:16-17
DR. JIM DIXON
MAY 16, 2004
In the year 1528, King Henry VIII, King of England, sent a delegation to Rome to meet with Pope Clement VII. The delegation was headed up by the Earl of Wiltshire. Pope Clement VII granted an audience to the Earl and a strange thing happened. The Earl of Wiltshire brought his dog. He wasn’t trying to be disrespectful. He just loved his dog and his dog loved him. He took his dog everywhere, even to an audience with the Pope. As the Earl approached the Papal Throne, he prostrated himself. He got down on his hands and down on his knees and put his face to the floor. He offered to kiss the Pope’s feet and the Pope put forth his foot for the kiss. Historians tell us that in that moment the dog misunderstood. As the Pope thrust forth his foot, the dog attacked Pope Clement VII. He took a piece right out of the Pope’s foot. The Vatican guard attacked the dog and killed the dog on the spot. The Earl of Wiltshire was stunned. His dog was dead. The audience was over and the Earl of Wiltshire returned back to England. King Henry VIII was enraged because his delegation had accomplished nothing.
Some historians believe that this failed delegation was the beginning of the separation of the Church of England from the Church of Rome. It was only one year later in 1529 that Pope Clement VII refused to annul the marriage of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. In the aftermath of that, King Henry VIII put pressure on the English Parliament and forced them to pass the Act of Supremacy and so in 1534, the Church of England was officially separated from the Church of Rome and the King of England became Supreme over the Church of England.
History is filled with facts which are verifiable but oftentimes the interpretation of these facts, the interpretation of history, is very subjective. Whatever your interpretation of the delegation of the Earl of Wiltshire and that failed delegation and its importance, there’s no denying this. The Earl of Wiltshire had a very loyal dog, loyal to its master. We’re not surprised because dogs are virtually always loyal to their masters. In fact, scientists tell us that over centuries and millennia, loyalty has been bred into dogs. Canine loyalty is not particularly meritorious. It’s just theirs by nature and they don’t run it through a moral grid. If you were to rob a bank today, your dog would still greet you at the door because it’s your dog. If you were committing adultery, and hopefully none of you would ever do that, the dog would still sleep at the foot of your bed. They do not run their loyalty through a moral grid. Their loyalty i5 simple. It’s not complex, but this is not so with people. It’s not true of us. Human loyalties are very complex and we do not give our loyalty readily. We do not give it easily and oftentimes our loyalties are conflicted. One loyalty comes into conflict with another.
The Book of Ruth is all about the subject of loyalty and the whole story of Ruth is about the subject of loyalty. There are some Bible scholars and some Christians and some Jews who believe that the Book of Ruth is about friendship loyalty and that her vow to Naomi is about friendship loyalty, loyalty in friendship. On the surface this is true. On the surface the story of Ruth is about loyalty and friendship and her vow is about that as well. But Jewish scholars have always seen two deeper loyalties in the book and I want us to examine these two deeper loyalties today.
First of all, loyalty to God. Ruth was loyal to God and her oath was a vow of loyalty to God. As American citizens, all of us have said the Pledge of Allegiance and most of us have said that pledge many, many times. The strange thing is no one knows who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance. Some historians believe it was written by Francis Bellamy. Some believe it was written by James Upham but nobody knows for sure. Both of these men lived in Boston. They both belonged and worked for the same organization. They belonged to and worked for the same organization but nobody knows which of them wrote the Pledge of Allegiance. We know the words were written in 1892 but we don’t even know what the original words were because the pledge was changed in 1923 and words were added. The same thing was done in 1924.
Of course, in 1954, United States Congress added the words, “under God.” Today there are some who would remove those words from the pledge and we hope and pray that the words remain forever. But the Pledge of Allegiance is a vow of loyalty to this nation. It’s a vow of loyalty to our country. “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.” It’s a vow of loyalty and loyalty is costly. It has an economic cost. As loyal citizens, we pay our taxes—federal, state and local taxes. It’s all part of our loyalty.
Of course, there can be a blood cost and we see this in a time of war such as today. Loyalty is costly but as Christians the Bible makes it very, very clear that loyalty to country pales when compared to the importance of loyalty to God. Nothing is more important in your life or in my life than in loyalty to God. It, too, comes at a cost.
Ruth was loyal to God. We see her vow. She says to Naomi, “Your God shall be my God,” but that’s not really where Jewish and Christian scholars find her vow to God. They find it in her use of the Tetragrammaton. The Tetragrammaton is the theological term for the covenant name of God revealed to Moses on Mt. Sinai. The word “tetragrammaton” means, four letters. There are indeed four consonants in the divine name that God revealed to Moses—four consonants. In early Hebrew, only the consonants were written. Those four consonants are YHWH. This is the divine name, the tetragrammaton—YHWH. When you add the Hebrew vowel sounds, it becomes Yahweh, the divine name. God said to Moses, “This is my name, Yahweh, so shall I be known forever. Yahweh.” That name is built on the Hebrew verb “to be,” and the name of God means simply, “I Am and I cause to be. I am He who is and I am He who causes to be. Yahweh. My name forever.”
There came a time in late Judaism when some of the Jews were afraid to vocalize, afraid to say the divine name and so they changed it just a little bit by making a hybrid word. They took the vowels off the Hebrew word “Adonai, the Hebrew word for Lord and they added those vowels to the Tetragrammaton and Yahweh became Yahweh. Yahweh is anglicized as Jehovah. Here is the amazing thing. Ruth was a Moabite. She was not Jewish. She lived in Moab, east of the Dead Sea, east of the Jordan. Her entire nation of people were polytheistic. They had many, many Gods. Their chief gods were Chemosh and Astor Chemosh. There were many, many gods and their gods were all false gods and they had idols everywhere. She was Moabite and yet she spoke the Tetragrammaton.
We can understand why when we understand that the story of Ruth really began in Bethlehem. It began with Naomi and Naomi’s husband who was Elimelech. Elimelech and Naomi were a Jewish couple living in Bethlehem and they had two sons. But it was a time of famine. This was in the 11th century during the time of the judges. David had not been born. Naomi and Elimelech and their two sons were… They had property and they had land but the land did not bring forth fruit because it was a time of famine and so they did something kind of radical. Naomi and her husband Elimelech and their two boys went to Moab. This Jewish family went to Moab just to get food and then they decided to live there for a while. They had no more arrived than Elimelech died. There was Naomi with her two boys. These two boys were young men. They were strong. They found Moabite women and they married them. The oldest son married Ruth. The younger son married another Moabite woman.
After ten years, both sons died so now there was just Naomi, this Jewish woman, and her two Moabite daughters-in law. That’s all there were. Naomi, as you could well understand, decided she wanted to go home and be with her people. “I want to go back and be with the Jews. Ultimately, one daughter-in-law stayed with the Moabites, stays with her people, but the other daughter-in-law, Ruth, made this vow to Naomi. “Entreat me never to leave you nor to return from following you. Where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people. Your God, my God. Where you die, there I will die and there shall I be buried. May Yahweh, Jehovah, do thus to me, more also, if even death parts you from me.”
Most Bible scholars agree that she had already become a believer. She had already embraced the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. She had been married to a Jewish man for ten years and she had seen his faith. She saw the faith of Naomi and she had already embraced Yahweh, the one true God even before she made her vow of loyalty. Ruth was loyal to God and she went with Naomi and she lived in Bethlehem. She submitted to the laws of God. She lived by the laws of God and she longed to please God and to serve God. Ultimately she married again, a relative of Naomi’s named Boaz and they had a son. Through her line came King David. In fact, Ruth was the great- great- grandmother of David, King of Israel. Through her line also would come the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. A Moabite woman, the ancestor of both David, King of Israel and Jesus Christ, King of Kings, because she was loyal to God.
The early day church understood that it had taken a vow of loyalty. They viewed baptism as a vow of loyalty to Christ. They called it the sacramentum from which we get the word sacrament, but they had borrowed the word sacramentum from the Romans, from the Latin, and in the Roman world, the sacramentum had one meaning and the sacramentum was the sacred oath—and the meaning of sacramentum is sacred oath. The sacramentum was the sacred oath a Roman soldier swore when he pledged loyalty to the Emperor and the Empire unto death, the sacramentum. The early church took this word, borrowed from the Latin, borrowed from the Romans and they used it to describe baptism because that’s how they viewed baptism—a pledge of loyalty to Christ and His kingdom unto death. They knew they had taken a vow.
They also called communion the sacramentum. That might seem strange to you. They called communion the sacramentum from which we get the word sacrament again, but that’s because they viewed communion as a time when they reaffirmed their sacred oath. Next week is Communion Sunday. We’ll share communion together. You should know as you come to the table and you partake of the bread and the cup that there’s an expectation that you would reaffirm your oath, your vow, your loyalty to Christ.
It’s not easy to be loyal to Christ, is it? I think we are a generation that finds it particularly difficult. There are many temptations. It feels as though we go against the grain of the culture when we follow Christ. Some would mock us. Jesus said, “If they hated me, they will hate you.” Jesus said, “You will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.” It’s not easy to be loyal to Christ.
I know you’ve all heard of the French Huguenots. The French Huguenots were French Protestants. In the 16th century they were persecuted, even slaughtered by the pro-Catholic forces in France and by the kings of France. Perhaps you’ve not heard of Gaspar de Coligny but Gaspar de Coligny was the leader of the Huguenots in the 16th century, a great man of Christ. He loved God. He loved Jesus. He was a man of great courage. Somehow Catherine de Medici, the Mother of King Charles IX, thought Gaspar de Coligny was a threat to her son and she orchestrated what today historians describe as St. Bartholomew’s Day, August 24, 1572 when Huguenots were slaughtered in the streets. Gaspar de Coligny died that day.
Many stories are told about him. One story took place north of France where Gaspar de Coligny was in a castle with other Christians, other Protestants and the forces of the king were coming against the castle with all of their vast armies and they were sheltered inside the castle. According to historians, the armies of the French King sent arrows over the castle wall. There were notes on the arrows. The notes all said the same thing. “Surrender. Embrace the reign of the King and your lives will be spared and you may keep your land.”
Historians tell us the Gaspar de Coligny took a javelin. He tied a note to it and he wrote two words in Latin and sent the javelin back over the wall. Those two words were “regim havamus,” “We have a King!” “We already have a King,” and he was referring to Jesus Christ. I think the church of Christ to this day would say, “regim havamus—we have a King!” This church would say that, “regim havamus—we have a King” and that King is Jesus Christ, but our loyalty to Him is tested every day. Whenever there is temptation and we’re tempted to sin, loyalty is tested. Whenever others would mock or scoff at our beliefs and our faith, loyalty to Christ is tested.
You know in the movie, “The Dead Poet Society,” Robin Williams plays the part of John Keating, a teacher at a New England prep school in the 1950s. John Keating teaches poetry. He loves his students and his students love him. They call him, “Oh Captain, my Captain.” from Walt Whitman’s famous poem about Abraham Lincoln, but John Keating is a very controversial figure, kind of a “Jesus” figure because he stands against traditions that have calcified. He stands against dead traditionalism and he brings a new life to his students and to his followers.
The administration hated Keating, the powers that be, and they wanted to remove him. One day a student in his class committed suicide and the headmaster at the school saw this as his chance. He blamed Keating for this student’s suicide. He got all the students in Keating’s class to sign a document, under threat of expulsion. He forced them all to sign a document that John Keating and his teaching style was somehow responsible for this suicide. Then John Keating was fired. Before he could even take his stuff out of the room, the headmaster took over the class. I want you to see this clip from Dead Poet Society.
That was a powerful scene from a powerful movie and all about loyalty. All about loyalty. I hope you understand that Jesus was a radical in His time. He stood against traditions that were calcified. He stood against dead traditionalism and he gave new life to His people. I hope you understand that He is no less radical today. He calls His people to a lifestyle the world does not understand. It is a lifestyle of love and service. It’s a lifestyle at war with sin, from pride sins to flesh sins. It’s a lifestyle of incomprehensible joy and purpose and it requires loyalty, loyalty to God. It’s tested every day.
There’s a second loyalty in this book. Our time is short but the book of Ruth is not only about loyalty to God, loyalty to Christ, but it’s about loyalty to the people of God. The life of Ruth is about loyalty to the people of God.
Who are the people of God? In biblical times in the Old Testament era, the Jews were the people of God. It was not that God loves the Jews more than He loved other people, but God had entered into a covenant with the Jews that, through them, all nations of the world might be blessed. Today God has entered into a new covenant with a new people, Jew and Gentile, called “The Church.” The people of God are called Christians. We have entered into a covenant that, through us, all the nations of the world might be blessed. We’re called to take the Gospel to the nations.
We look at Ruth in the 11th century before Christ. In her time, the people of God were the Jews. She was a Moabite and she made her pledge. She would leave her people. She said to Naomi, “Your people shall be my people.” How hard that must have been. She swore her oath, “May Yahweh, may Jehovah do so to me and more also if even death part you from me.” Bible scholars believe that that pledge, that vow, was not simply a vow of loyalty to Naomi but to her God and to the people of God and so she went to the people of God. She went to Bethlehem. She went to Israel. She went to the Jews. She lived amongst them. She gave loyalty and she received loyalty.
It’s hard for us even to imagine the sense of community that was in Israel in biblical times in the Old Testament era. Their culture was not individualistic but their culture was communal. Jewish people in those days didn’t even think individually. They thought communally. It was all about the community. The laws of Israel were set up to form community. The feasts and the festivals of Israel were all about community. The synagogue and its Hebrew equivalent—synagogue being a Greek word, they both mean “assembly or congregation.” It was all about assembly. It was all about congregation. They gathered every week without fail. Community.
Some of the concepts we find in the book of Ruth, particularly Ruth chapter 3 and 4, is really all about community, the concept of Levirate law or Levirate marriage law, the concept of the “Goel” or the “Goelim.” Ruth arrived and she was not a Jew and she was a widow. Her mother-in-law was also a widow but a Jew. The home, the land that the family of Naomi had held, they could no longer afford and they had no means of support. Ruth needed a Goel. The Hebrew word means, “redeemer.” By Hebrew law and by the law of the community, by the law of the book of Moses, by the law of Torah, a Goel had to be provided, some relative had to be a Goel, a redeemer, and so Boaz stepped forward, related to Naomi, and he served as Ruth’s Goel. He purchased the land of her deceased husband’s family so that Ruth would have a place to live and that her needs would be provided for. This was all in accordance with the communal community laws.
Ultimately Boaz married Ruth in a Leverite marriage in accordance with Leverite law, but all the laws were about community, that there be nobody in the entire community whose needs would not be met, that there would be nobody in the community who would be left helpless. There was this common commitment, a commitment to the people of God. Would that the church were like that today. Would that we were committed. That nobody would be left helpless, that we cared that much about the needs of the other that we would redeem each other wherever possible, however needed, that we would be Goelim, would that we were loyal to the people of God.
It’s difficult here because, you see, in our culture, in our nation, there’s not much of a value given to community. We’re a culture of individuality. Throughout our history, we’ve cherished and valued individuality and our entrepreneurial spirit is kind of rooted in individuality. We have a consumer mentality throughout our culture. It’s all about me. This cultural individuality has even influenced our view of the Gospel and we’ve run the Gospel through the grid of our cultural perspective and so the Gospel is all about personal salvation. This is the American gospel. It’s all about personal salvation. We talk about your personal devotion life. It’s about you and God. This is the American gospel. And certainly, God cares about personal salvation. Certainly, God cares about personal devotions but understand that God is not trying to create saved individuals. God is trying to create a saved community. The Gospel calls people into community. It’s all about community. Jesus said, “I will build My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” But our culture is against it.
Twenty-five years ago, the top 20% of church attendees in America attended church 48 Sundays a year. Twenty-five years ago, the top 20% of church attendees in America attended church on the average of 48 Sundays a year. They only missed four Sundays. But now, today, survey studies show the top 20% of church attendees only attend church 35 Sundays a year. Now, they miss 17 on the average. This is the top 20%. There are 400,000 churches in the United States of America, but did you know that every five years 100,000 churches die. Every five years, 100,000 churches just shut down and close their doors. Of course, every five years another hundred thousand churches are born in America. You look around and you see all those new churches in your neighborhood. They are just replacing the ones that have died. We just stay at about 400,000 churches. It’s constantly dying and birthing, dying and birthing. There’s no loyalty. No loyalty.
There’s a crisis in the realm of loyalty in our nation. It’s not just in the church. It’s everywhere, but I’m encouraged with regard to our church, very encouraged. I feel like many of you are deepening your loyalty to Christ and to His church and kingdom. I’m excited.
In January, Dutch and I were looking at our financials here at the church and we were really afraid. We were looking at the numbers and our debt and our inability to match revenues with expenditures. It really looked like we were a train heading for the cliff! We prayed fervently and I know many of you did. We felt led by Christ to challenge you, the people. God has been so great. We should get down on our knees and thank God. He’s been so great. I’ve received so many e-mails from you, so many wonderful letters. God is changing your life. God is changing your behavior. It’s incredible.
Our giving patterns have changed and we’re now operating in the black. It’s unbelievable. Since January I really believe that there are growing numbers of you that are seeking loyalty to God and loyalty to the people of God. Since February, our giving has exceeded budget and we’re now in the black and we’re economically strong. I don’t want you to get the wrong impression because we’ve cut back on a lot of ministry expenses and there’s much in ministry we’d like to do that we still haven’t done, but I’m so encouraged and I thank God.
It really is not just about the money. It’s about the time and the talent that you are offering. More and more of you are volunteering and yet the needs are still there. On an average Sunday we have 5,000 to 6,000 men, women and children here, but we have 6,800 households in our church representing 14,000 men, women and children. Obviously most of them are not here on a given Sunday but they all expect us to serve them, and we have a heart to do that. That’s our heart—to serve. All of those 14,000, the men, women and children who have some association with our church—whenever they have a need, they want us to serve them. If they need a counselor, if they just want to talk to a pastor, if they’re in the hospital and they want a visit, if they’re struggling with addiction and they need us to provide a recovery group, if they want to get married, if they want that for themselves or for one of their family members, of if they need a funeral, whatever their need.
We have 2,600 events every month in this church building, 2,600! Out staff is worn out but oh so faithful. Of course, if we’re to have the staff to serve the people, that’s going to take more money or more volunteers, but we’re moving the right direction. We’re moving in the right direction and it’s God’s work amongst us.
I’m sure you’ve looked up and seen the birds flying in those “V” patterns, the geese as they move across the sky in those “V” patterns. You’ve looked up and seen them. Have you ever wondered why sometimes one wing of the “V” seems a little longer than the other wing? That’s because there are more birds in that wing, but ornithologists and scientists have actually studied this and they found that the birds rotate the head position at the point of the “V.” The birds rotate and that bird flying at point creates a measure of a vacuum that makes flying easier for both wings. Of course, they’re able to go 72% further together than any one of the birds could do on its own—72% further than any one of the birds could do on its own.
God wants us to know that there’s no limit to what we could do together. He’s given us a vision statement and He’s called us to be part of transforming this community and to elevate the urban poor and to impact the nations of the world with the Gospel. He’s given us a call, and there is no limit to what we can do together. I believe He’s beginning to grow us together.
Some of you have heard of Juan Carlos Ortiz. I heard him tell the story of a pastor in South America who was feeling pretty good about himself. His church had really grown. It was about 200 people and then it grew to 500 people and then 1,000 people and then 2,000 people. This pastor was feeling really proud like he had something to do with it. He was feeling pretty special and then God spoke to him. In a word of knowledge, God spoke to the pastor and said, “Hey! I’m not impressed. You began with 200 people who were not committed to Me. Then you had 500 people who were not committed to me. Then 1,000 people not committed to Me. Now, you have 2,000 people not committed to Me. I’m not impressed.” God’s looking for committed people. I’m excited because there is a core of committed people here and that core is growing.
Mike Yaconelli died just late last year. He was the founder of Youth Specialties. He was one of the founders of the Wittenberg Door Magazine, a committed Christian, along with Zondervan Publishing and along with Leadership Magazine. He sponsored the National Pastors Conference every year, but Mike Yaconelli died helping his mom and dad move. He had put furniture in his car. He was tired and stressed and he just had a heart attack and drove right off the road and into the arms of Jesus.
Mike Yaconelli hated large churches. He hated what he called mega-churches. He knew the mega-church movement was raised up by God but he still just didn’t like bigness and he didn’t like a large church. He always pastured a small church. He had a church of 60 people. He was one of the greatest communicators in the country but in a church of 60 people. In order to keep it there, he had to make sure that he offended people every week and so he did that. But he once said that in his view, a mega-church was just like a huge lake but only one inch deep. I don’t know. Maybe some large churches are like that but I don’t think that that’s true of this church. I don’t know whether the lake is getting wider but I do know this. It’s getting deeper and I’m excited and I hope you are. I sense that God is deepening our commitment to Christ and to Jesus.
It really is about loyalty. It’s a tough world. Loyalty to God and to His Son Jesus Christ. Loyalty to God’s people. Loyalty to the church. Let’s close with a word of prayer.