Nicklas, Todd: January Jubilee Faith Examples from Moses and Ruth ~ Hebrews 11 New

Good morning. Turn to Hebrews eleven since we've been there last night, and we'll be there some this morning. Ask you a question to open up. Have any of you ever been an attendee at a sports game where you're a supporter of the away fans? Have you ever been a supporter of an away fan, of the away team, I mean? Have you ever been, like, hesitant, nervous, scared? No? I'll give you two examples, one where I wasn't, one where I was. I actually was at the Phillies versus Yankees World Series Game one, two thousand nine, in the New York Yankee Stadium as a Phillies fan. And I remember while I was there, I was excited. I just had this confidence that they were going to win because they already started out pretty good, and they ended up winning like five or six one. but they lost the series, they lost the World Series that year. But I was away, and I remember I was in the, I was in the right field, pretty far up, but I remember I was confident. I was yelling, maybe yelling some things that were a little bit, you know, respectful, but like a little rude to the Yankees because I was just like glad to see them losing. But I was an away fan, and I was like, let's go, we're going to get this game, we're going to win, and I was pretty pumped. Flip side of that, last year, last August, Megan and I went to London, England, and while we were planning our trip, we were there for a weekend, and I obviously wanted to go to a soccer game because I'm a big soccer fan, and my favorite team is Chelsea. Well, Chelsea was away that weekend. They were in London, so we could have went, but they were playing away, and I was like, there is no way I'm going to be an away fan in the British Premier League. You never know what's going to be thrown at you, what's going to be said of you. Some back alley, you know, an American, I know it's, it's better than it has been, but in the Premier League, there's, there's, you could come talk to me later if you want to. There's some stories about how they treat away fans, and I was like, no. So we actually went to a Crystal Palace game, and we had a fun time, um, but I couldn't be. I was like, I was too scared, I was too nervous. We're going to go through a few examples in the book of Hebrews that are in the Old Testament, where they identified with the Lord Jesus. They identified with God's character, God's faithfulness, God's love, regardless of what was around them. And I want you to think like that, like, that's a simple metaphor, right, of away fans versus home fans, the confidence, whatever. I had confidence in the Phillies, and I thought they had a pretty good chance of winning, but our confidence in God, knowing that he will never fail, he will never leave us or forsake us, he will never, you know, not forgive some sin or forget something about us. Like, when he redeems us, he redeems us completely and fully and eternally. We trust in him. So I want you to get those themes today. We're going to go over three examples, one a little brief, and we'll we'll focus um on two more, uh, a little bit more, um, uh, primarily, but... So if you turn to Hebrews eleven, and we'll start in verse twenty three. Hebrews eleven twenty three. So I wanted you to think about, you know, my examples, what was my confidence? Why did I want to hold on to supporting that team or being scared to support that team, the situation, whatever? And think about these examples we read, okay? So Hebrews eleven twenty three. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Considering the reproach of Christ's greater riches in the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is unseen. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood so that he who destroyed the firstborn might not touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passed through dry land, and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. Now you might say, oh, all right, we're going to focus on Moses. We will, but first I'd like to look at the first verse, because that faith was not Moses, it was Moses' parents. Moses' parents were living in a time where the Pharaoh of the land said, we're going to kill whatever baby is born of the Hebrew people. Gulp, right? You are the Hebrew people, and your spouse, your, your wife was pregnant, or you knew someone was pregnant, gonna have a baby. Scary times. Can you just imagine the fear that was going around them of, how are we gonna keep our people going? Like, how's God gonna look o- watch over us? I was talking to Scott right before this, and I was saying when I was reading this just the last week or so, I had forgotten that Pharaoh didn't take the approach of Herod when Jesus was born, just like, hey, let's kill the babies and just like generalize, let's just kill them. It actually says in those scriptures that Pharaoh said, throw them into the Nile. So he made a distinction of this is how we're going to kill them. Oof. That's gutsy. And what does Moses' parents do? Put him in a basket on top of the Nile and have it float, or just maybe like linger nearby, and and Moses' sister is watching over the basket. What on earth kind of faith is that? Like, can you imagine, I don't know, hiding like, I don't know, some secret book or some se- secret artifact that you know the police is trying to chase you for and find out and find, you know, get rid of all them in the land. And like, let's say you know they're going around and they're checking the outside of people's houses, and you hide it like under the doormat. Right? You would say from a human perspective, that's stupid, and I'm saying it respectfully, right? But they had that type of confidence in God, and maybe, maybe God had given them some clue. We don't, we don't know that here, but we just know that their faith was real, and their faith was in God, and they knew God would protect. They saw that Moses was a beautiful child. They're like, how could we allow this baby to die? Physical human being that God cares for and loves and made. We're going to do something about it. And also think, you know, think about this. Did you catch? It wasn't just like the day he was born, let's put him in a basket. It was three months. Okay, so imagine this scenario if you're hiding something. If you're hiding a book or a, I don't know, a trophy or something that's inanimate, all right, that's pretty easy. A crying baby. Somebody could just go by your house and hear a crying baby, and you're done, right? It's over. You could do all you can to be like, make some other noises or stuff, but they could sneak around and and hear a crying baby. So I was just thinking about the... the state of, of the mentality of the, of Moses' parents at that time. Their faith in God was so much that it overcame the anxiety of every day of those three months. What if our baby cries and somebody happens to be walking by? What if I can't get him settled and they hear something, you know, whatever. Or what if someone knocks on the door and peeks in? You know, you could think of all kinds of scenarios. They could be living in constant fear. And from what we know, the Bible tells us they had faith and they trusted in God, and they, they held out for three months before they were like, let's put them in a basket, God will watch them in this manner. The temptation to just give in every day, okay, we, we've waited long enough, like, all right, this is, this is too tough, this is too difficult, this is too scary. And they didn't give in. Um, I'm told that New Year's resolutions, eighty percent of the ones that people put New Year's, you know, they have a New Year's resolution, eighty of them are done by like mid-February. People cave, and they're like, this is too difficult, and they haven't ingrained it enough, you know, working out, eating well, whatever. Eighty percent, right? So we're people that kind of, not that we give up early, but things, sometimes things that are too tough, you're kind of like, oh, I'll just go back to my norm. Moses' parents could have been like, this is too difficult. We've done it long enough. We've tried our best, right? Let's just, let's just obey Pharaoh's death order. God will give us another baby. No, that's like a tempting thought, right? Sinful, doubtful, tempting thought. But they push that aside, and they're like, God can help us, right? So I don't know, have anybody, anybody here know Brother Andrew? There's a missionary named Brother Andrew, maybe, yeah? So he's this guy, um, that lived, I don't know when he was, when he was born and died, but I know in the seventies and eighties he was a missionary to what was called the Iron Curtain and around the Iron Curtain. So the Soviets, the Russians, there was this Iron Curtain wall that blocked off eastern to western Europe, and it was, it was made basically because of communism. And so the people behind that curtain, the countries that were behind that curtain, that Iron Curtain, as they called it, like the the the rules and the orders of the land, it was dangerous, it was scary, no one knew what, and the government was just cracking down and doing all kinds of, you could, you had no, very little to no freedom, and it was a very difficult time versus those that were outside of that. Well, Brother Andrew smuggled in Bibles behind the Iron Curtain. You'd say, okay, smuggled in, so he like secretly, maybe at night, he like, you know, worked the Bible in here, maybe it's a box, or he covered things up. What he was known for, he would drive this Volkswagen Blue Beetle car, and when he would get to the the border or the the area where he got checked in, he would have the Bibles in plain sight in his car, and he never got stopped. Think about that. I don't know how many times, but he never got stopped. He was like, I'm gonna trust the Lord. Lord will help me. And apparently there's also stories, I forget, it was a long time ago I read the book, but I also know there was issues with that Beetle that many times, like, the engine gave way or whatever, and somehow, like, they found, like, a part or he was able to fix something, and it would always work when he needed it to work, with the Lord's help. So if you're interested, check out that book. It's called Brother Andrew, you can find on Amazon or what have you, but... But he smuggled books in plain sight. And I actually, I thought of that when I was thinking about Moses' parents, like... They could be like, okay, we'll we'll put him there, but they're tossing babies in this river, and apparently they were close enough that Pharaoh's daughter was just bathing in the river near them. So, like, there's a lot of, you know, the Egyptians and Israelites live pretty close to each other. They intermingled pretty well, so that's not too smart. Like, you think if you'd hide in somewhere, you'd kind of, you know, some peripheral land or somewhere else. On the place of judgment that Pharaoh was using and near where Pharaoh's daughter was, because she ends up, obviously, as we know the story, seeing Moses and saying, yeah, I'll take care of him. Wow, right? So Moses' parents, we shouldn't look over, overlook one verse to think about, um, you know, Moses, which we'll go into next. They had amazing faith that they were willing to trust in God. And they didn't know. We, we know twenty twenty vision look back, we know all the things Moses did for God. Impressive stuff, right? Needed, needed things to get them out of the land of Egypt, but they didn't know at that time. They're just like, he's a baby, and and God's going to take care of him, and, you know, God cares about life, and we should protect him. So they, yeah, like I said, they could have said, oh, let's just, you know, give in, God will give us more children, or it's not w- not worth fighting, this is just too difficult, or it's too dangerous. What could happen to us, let alone our baby? You know, you know, you think of that. They could be like, hey, you're hiding a child, you're not following our judgment, maybe we'll kill you. We don't know these things, but those thoughts could have popped in their mind, right? Tempting, sinful, doubtful thoughts. And maybe you have some tempting, sinful, doubtful thoughts about how God's going to help you be faithful to you. With the Holy Spirit's help, you can ignore them, push them back, and say, God, help me with these things, because the the New Testament says that he will cast down, he will help you cast out all of these thoughts that are against, against God, and you can trust in him for these things. You know, M- Moses' parents and identity were in God, God's faithfulness, regardless of what the situation might look like. And that was like my example with the the Oafians, and you you don't worry about what's around you. God is before you, God is with you, God will never leave you or forsake you. So let's turn to, or let's, uh, think about Moses next, right? So verse twenty four, then, you know, the kicks in the next verse, so it starts to talk about him officially, not his parents, but just Moses. And it starts with, by faith, verse twenty four, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. So what we know from that is Moses was raised by Pharaoh's daughter. We know early on Moses' actual mom helped raise him a little bit with, uh, um, feeding him and such, but she raised him, like she was kind of his mom, more or less. But when he had grown up, he refused. You catch that? So that means he had a decision when he was allowed to have a decision. You know, in in the United States, when you're eighteen, there's some legal things you're allowed to do. When you're twenty one, there's some legal things you're allowed to do. When you're sixteen— sorry, I skipped over sixteen— there's some things you're allowed to do, like drive, right? So we don't know the official age, but there was a clear age where he was able to make a decision. He was considered an adult, and it's like, Moses, what are you going to do? What do you want to do? Maybe it wasn't even posted. Maybe they were just assuming, well, you've, you've grown up here with the Pharaoh's daughter so long, or yeah, yeah, she's taking care of you. You'll just, you'll just be an Egyptian, like, I mean, who wouldn't, right? And we'll talk about that in a second. He decided to identify with the people he's actually from, you know, the people of Israel, the people at that time that were slaves, abused, probably made fun of, looked down on, disregarded, because the Egyptians were the powerful people of the day. They owned tons of land, gold, prestige, power. We probably can't imagine, like, the, the, the extent of their nation of, and what they owned and, and how they ruled, right? And you have that contrast. That's such a more big, a bigger contrast than, like, my example of Chelsea versus West Ham. Like, I, I skipped that game. Why would he go and identify with the people of Israel? Not very smart from a physical perspective, right? If he's thinking earthly and outside of God, right? And he had a chance to, right? It wasn't as if he was an Israelite for all these years, and they're like, do you want to choose to be an Israelite or an Egyptian? No, you can't do that. That's not pop- but because he was raised by Pharaoh's daughter, she probably did love him. She probably had a lot of, you know, good memories with him. He had a chance to, to choose. So you have decisions in your life, right? Some of you, you know, twelve to sixteen, you're already having to make some decisions. Maybe starting to think about job opportunities or, you know, even just working now or like what your life might look like in the next five to twenty years. There might be a point in your time soon where your parents are like, do you want to make a decision on that, or where do you, you know, and to start to hear, what do you think? What do you think your life, like, what decisions do you want to make? What opinions do you have? What shines forth when that comes up? You're starting to be more mature, you're starting to be more individualistic in your, in your thinking, and you have to own what you decide on. What are you going to decide on? The Bible here says that Moses decided, and he chose to what? Endure ill treatment with the people of God than the passing pleasures of sin. Does somebody willingly choose affliction? Does it make sen- like, do we typically lean toward I'd like to be beat up, or I'd like to be made fun of, or I'd like to be the lesser of of a two groups of people that are living, you know, near each other? No, right? It's not something. But his thought was, he had faith in God, he had trusted God, he knew the God of Israel, and he wanted to follow him. And it says the passing pleasures of sin. So perhaps Moses understood the fleeting excitement that Egypt had, that Egypt's valuable things, shall I quote, quote unquote, were not actually valuable. They weren't what they said they were, and they sound like glitz and glam and exciting and fun and whatever, but he realized how short-lived it was. And this world around you has a lot of fun, exciting, eye-catching things that might pull you astray. And the Bible will never tell you that it's not pleasurable, because there is some pleasure in it, because they have a twinge of what God has made and what God has made us to enjoy. But the world has so distorted it and screwed it up that it's detrimental to you, it's dangerous for you, and you're not getting it how God wants you to have it. Considering the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Don't skip over that wording too quickly. He doesn't just say, like, Moses liked God more than Egypt, or Moses felt better when he was around the Israelites and Egyptians. He actually is saying, Moses saw the treasures and the storehouses and the gold that was probably all, you know, in the buildings and all decorated around and on the Pharaoh's neck and whatever. He saw the actual valuable riches, like valuable, like you could trade them at the marketplace, and they would trade for, you know, lots of sheep and food and whatever. They were valuable from a physical, earthly, monetary perspective. But what the verse is saying, the reproach of Christ, like, something that's not, like, you can't, like, put that into money perspective, but he's saying it's, that is so much more eternally valuable, that he's weighing something eternally valuable of, of representing God against physical riches, against the gold and silver that he can hold in his hands that Pharaoh's daughter probably had at his beck and call. Wow. That is some language I think you need to mull over for a bit. Same with me. I- I certainly do. Certainly do, probably every day. That he's like, I need to own what God would have me to do, regardless of what it might look like, because God is the true one. God is the right one. God is the faithful one, and I need to be faithful to him. And still, at this time, he's still, you know, kind of younger. He doesn't know all what God will lead him into, but he knows he needs to identify with the Lord God of heaven. By faith, in verse twenty seven, he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. If you remember, we don't have, uh, don't have the turn there per se, but in Exodus, um, the beginning of Exodus, when Moses is in the wilderness, he's in the wilderness for forty years, and remember he sees the burning bush, he's talking to God, and, and, you know, his sandals are off, he's on holy ground, he's talking to him. And there's a point in time where Moses is, shall I say, arguing with God, or, or, or just saying like, I don't know, like, because God says, I want you to go and lead my people out of Egypt, and I will guide you, I will be with you, here's how you're going to do it. And Moses, you know, if you go through it, has a few excuses. He's like, I don't speak that well. You know, it, it, it more centers around his confidence. Like, I just, I don't know if I can do it. I don't know if I'm the right person. I don't speak that well, you know, have Aaron do it for me. You know, so some excuses or some like scapegoat, you know, way out so that... The reason I bring this up is because we just read that he left Egypt with the people of God after the tenth plague, when Pharaoh said, get out of here, go, leave my presence, go worship in the desert, fine. This verse here says, because we might not explicitly get it in Exodus, but this verse here says, he left Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king. I personally, if you look through the story, I think I'd still be kind of scared because of Pharaoh, like how Pharaoh presented himself, his words, he's like, who is this God? Like, why should I follow him? And no, I, my magicians can do this. And he was so hardened of heart that he was like, I don't, I don't care that these, you know, these animals are dying, uh, dying all around us, or boils are popping off our skin, like, whatever. Like, it's, it resolves a couple days. That's great, that's fine. I would be afraid that Pharaoh would be like changing his mind, which he ends up doing, which you realize later, he changes his mind and sh- and goes after them. But the power and the people and the soldiers that he had. And it's not like the Israelites can hide, right? We think that there's like maybe a million or more that were leaving Egypt at the time. You couldn't just hide a few people in a closet or some random, like, behind a tree or something or a rock. He could chase you down very easily. Moses, it says, did not fear the wrath of the king. I was scared about being a wave fan. I'm just like, and I have this simple, it's not a spiritual thing. Moses was not scared at all because he feared, in a reverent way, the God of heaven that was much more powerful, right, than little old Pharaoh in God's eyes. Because what happened? Pharaoh chased him down. Uh, verse twenty nine, by faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they passed on dry land, and the Egyptians, whenever they got there, they were there, and and and Israelites were like, oh no, they're on us, where are we going to go? Our backs up against the the riv- the the water here, like what, what can you do? And God parts the Red Sea with Moses, you know, lifting up his hands, and they get across the dry land, and God times it just right, shall we say, that all the Egyptians drown, but none of the Israelites. And Moses' faith shines in that man, that he knew that even when there were backs against the walls, you might say, God would find a way out. God would find a way for them and would watch over them. And then I, I know I skipped over verse twenty eight. I wasn't going to dwell on this too much, but verse twenty eight says, by faith he kept the Passover. So before they left, they did this, um, this Passover. If you remember the tenth plague, the angel of death was going to go around and kill the firstborn, and God instructed them to put blood on the doorposts, and that anyone had the doorposts covered with his blood in a certain manner, and whoever's behind it, they would be saved from their firstborn dying. And this verse didn't stick out too much to me in the sense that it was like, it's, it, you know, we're so used to it, you know, straightforward, we kind of know the Passover situation, but this was the first Passover that happened, right? So Moses could have been like, wait, I have, I have to tell the people to put some blood on their doorposts, and then they're going to be saved, and otherwise they're going to, like, what? This doesn't, you know, it might have been a little confusing to him. I'm being respectful about it. It might have been a little bit, because it's brand new, never happened before. And God instructed in this manner, and he instructed the people of Israel, and they were saved. The firstborns were saved. So it is a matter of faith. It's a matter of trusting, of saying, I'm not going to be outside my house or not covered with blood. I need to follow God's order and obey him in order to be saved. Without faith, it's impossible to please him, because you have to believe that he is, and he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So in that moment, they might not seem like diligently seeking him, but they're diligently obeying him, because he's like, this is the one thing you need to do and follow it. Like, if you look at the Exodus, like, you have to kill a certain animal and do a certain way, and... Did the people of Egypt do it? Well, we know Pharaoh didn't, um, do it because his son died, and we know, um, you know, some implications. There was a lot of, I think it actually, remind me, I think it says there's more wailing that day that's ever occurred. Like, the screaming and the crying, the wailing that day was unbelievable. It was a separation of the people that obeyed God and the people that didn't. The people that had faith that it would occur, this angel of death would go around, and this obedience. Same with, I mean, I know we kind of mentioned Noah this morning, right? It had never rained before. Talking about something that had never happened, and then you have to still obey. Um, Chelsea, Chelsea and I act out that story sometimes in our basement. We pretend to be Noah, and she pretends to be Noah's wife. We have a fun time. But I remind her, it had never rained before. Like, can you imagine never feeling rain from the sky and then feeling rain from the sky? What? I think that's the most scared I think I would ever be in my entire life. Like, water's falling from the sky, guys. Noah was talking this for over a hundred years, and I think it might be happening. I think I felt a drop. So it's something that had never happened before. They obey it, and God had it come true, because he said it was going to come true. And those that obeyed with Noah, right, they were inside the ark and they were saved. Those that were behind the doorposts were saved with, in Moses' example, in the Passover. What's something in your life that maybe hasn't happened to you yet, but you know something in the scriptures that you need to obey a certain way, or identify with God a certain way and, and be separate from the world? We heard last night, like, faith, having real true faith in God. And well, and our brother Eric even mentioned this morning about faith and works. You don't have to do works to get to heaven. There are some religions out there today that will tell you, yes, you have to do works to get to heaven. You need to work your way to heaven. Or there's some people that just don't even go to church, but they're like, eh, I think I've done enough good things that if there is a God, he'll respect me. So there's some, there's some thought process out there along those lines. But works are evidence that you have something real inside you. I can't remember who it was, but many, many years ago, somebody used this example, and I liked it. Maybe you can save it in your mind as well. When a baby is born in the hospital, baby comes out, baby's born in the hospital, and I hope I, I hope I explained this right, but we're used to a baby crying, right? The, a baby crying is one of the first things that a baby does when the baby's born. The baby crying doesn't mean that it's living, but it's evidence that it's living. So, like, a baby could just not cry for a second, you might be like, oh my word, but there's still blood flowing, it's still a baby, and you could still, there's still evidence that's like, but you have, the baby has to cry to, you know, for the lung capacity and what have you, and you see that evidence show forth. So it would be weird and odd if the baby didn't cry. And so this works aren't necessary to get to heaven, but if you have a changed life, they should be outflowing from you because you're different. Because sin isn't reigning in you, it it it may, you know, pop up from time to time, you have to confess that, but the Lord God is is on the throne in your life. That's the difference. Now, with the time we have left, I'd like to look at another portion. Oh, actually didn't, I didn't read it. So let's go to verse thirty two of Hebrews eleven. Still with me in Hebrews eleven thirty two. We'll go to our last example. We'll just read thirty two to thirty five. And so this is, you know, after he's gone through a, a good bit of examples calling out, uh, you know, as we read Moses and, and David and Abraham and such. It says, and what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, of David, David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. So, I knew there'd be a lot of ladies here this weekend, and I didn't want to skip over a example of a woman, because there are a few in this chapter. Sarah and Rahab were specifically called out, but I'd like to look at one of those that's not of those two. So in verse thirty four, it says, quench the power of fire, escape the edge of the sword, and then it says from weakness we're made strong. So what I'd like you to do is turn to the book of Ruth. Turn to the book of Ruth, please, in verse, uh, chapter one. It doesn't explicitly call her out in Hebrews eleven, but I think Ruth is probably one of the great examples of someone that was in a, shall we say, weak situation or not the greatest situation, and God brought her mightily out of it and blessed her tremendously. I certainly, I could spend a lot more time. We only have maybe, you know, fifteen or so more minutes because this chapter is, or this book is four chapters long, and there's a lot in here you could glean from and appreciate. But we'll try to hit the highlights of Ruth's faithfulness, and then we're going to circle back at the end of Ruth and Moses and some of the things we can take from both of them, okay? So Ruth chapter one, we'll start at verse seven. I'll have to remind you, if you don't know the book of Ruth. Ruth marries a gentleman that's in her, so Ruth is a Moabitis, so the people of Moab, and she marries a gentleman that is, um, as you read in the the first couple chapters, or first couple verses, excuse me, uh, he's the son of Elimelech, and they come from, uh, Bethlehem, okay? And they're, they're, they go to the Moabite land for a bit, and they mar- they marry Ruth, and then Ruth's sister-in-law, Or- Or- Orpah? Yeah, I was, I always want to switch it. Orpah. It's not Oprah, it's Orpah. Anyway, the father dies, Elimelech, and the two sons die. So Ruth and Orpah's husbands, they both die. Well, that's sad. Three men just dying, we don't know that, but it sounds like pretty s- clear, short succession. So verse seven says, so she departed from the place where she was, her two daughters-in-law with her. This is Naomi. Naomi's the, the mother, the mother-in-law, excuse me, of these 2. So she leaves with two daughters-in-law. They went on their way to return to the land of Judah. Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, go, return each of you to her mother's house. May the Lord deal kindly with you as you dealt with the dead and with me. May the Lord grant that you may find rest each in the house of her husband. She kissed them, they lifted up their voices and wept. She's basically s- you know what she's saying here? She's saying like, listen, your husbands have died, there's nothing more I can really do for you. Just go do your thing, like live in peace. I- I'm not holding you to anything. I totally get it. Just go ahead. Verse ten. Notice what it says in verse ten, because this is important. And they said to her, no, we will surely return with you to your people. So they were in the land of Moab, and oh, I- I failed to mention there's a famine in the land, but then Naomi hears that there's starting to be food now in the land of Israel, in Judah. So she's like, hey, we can go back, there's food there now. And so they're like, no, no, we'll, we'll return with you to your people. We'll, we'll go with you. There's food now, and we want to stay with you. Naomi says in verse eleven, well, return, return, my daughters. Why, why would you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that you can, that they can be your husbands? Return, my daughters, go. I'm too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I should even have a husband tonight and bear sons, would you therefore wait until they're grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it's harder for me than for you, for the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me. And they lifted up their voices and wept. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. So did you catch what happened? Naomi's saying, I can't have another child that you can marry, right? That, what else can I do for you? I- I'm plum out of luck here, and I don't have, like, I, and she says, I feel like the Lord has dealt, you know, in a tough manner with me. Can't really help you. So, like, why? What's, you have no real reason to stay around me. And Orpah's like, all right, I'm gonna kiss you, and I'm gonna go, all right, fine. Ruth clung to her. And what did Ruth say? I'll stay with you for a little bit. I'll try it out. No. Ruth says in verse fifteen, behold your sister, so this is still Naomi speaking, behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said, what did Ruth say in verse sixteen? Don't urge me to leave you or turn back from following you, for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die. There I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me. Well, that is definitive. It's even not like I'll just try for a little bit, I'll just go find a man, I'll go find a job, whatever. She's literally saying, until the day I die, I'm going to die next to you or die with you or die in the lake, and I'm going to stick with you, you know, death is going to depart me and you, that nothing else. No other logic, no other person, no other thing, no land. She had faith in the God of Israel and saw it in Naomi and saw it perhaps in, you know, the example of the people of, of, um, of Israel. I, I want to emphasize something. So throughout history, and I say this respectfully, but throughout history, women were not regarded highly in a legal sense or political sense or in a larger social sense. Like, there were some, obviously, having children, rearing children, some of those components, but not until, like, the mid eighteen hundreds did there start to be laws and changes of, or across the globe, shall I even say, that women had more respect, more abilities to have jobs and various things, vote and various things of that. And I say that because I think in twenty twenty six we're blessed to kind of know that now that, you know, God has created male and female, there should be no disrespect in that regard, and and women have a lot of... women are viewed so much differently than shall this time period. And the and the point I'm making is, at that time, Ruth was in a weak situation. She didn't have a husband. He died. She didn't have kids. She didn't have a husband, they didn't have kids before he passed away. She didn't have a job. We see that she's going to start gleaning in the fields and try to pick up a couple like barley and wheat that fall- fell from the ground. She'll try to get what she can, and you will find out that it's in the field of Boaz. But she didn't have really anything going for her, and I say that respectfully to who she was as a person, because we see amazing great faith in her, and Boaz sees it. We'll see in a little bit. Out of weakness, she was made strong, but it took some time and took some patience in God and obedience in God. So what happens is... Well, we don't have really time to read the whole thing, but Naomi is basically like, you know, go in the fields and try to glean some, you know, try to pick up some, some wheat, some barley, some whatever's in the fields they're growing at that time, and see what you can and, and try, you know, they can either use it for themselves to feed themselves or sell it for some money just to kind of, you know, make a living. So she went out, and she started to, to follow, and, and Boaz says in verse five of chapter two, wait, whose, whose woman is this? Like this, she seems like maybe it was her demeanor, her character. And they said, oh, well, she's, you know, verse six of chapter two, she's the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab. And she said, please let me glean and gather. You know, so they're, they're kind of recounting, you know, this is what she's here for, and, and she's just here. We don't know a lot about her, but this is what we know. So then Boaz is kind of like, well, let more things fall and let, you know, kind of bless her and give her some, you know, some bounty and some, some greater things than just the typical how you approach things. Give, have some things drop for her. And in verse ten it says, she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, this is to Boaz, the, the owner of the field, why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me? I'm a, I'm a foreigner. Like, you don't, you don't care about me. I like, I, I, I say that in that, like, he, he doesn't have a reason to, right? He, she's a Moabite woman. She's not in Israel. So she went, they went back to the land, and he's there in the, the, the land of Israel, and she's like, I- I'm, I'm a foreigner. I don't offer you anything. I don't... Why are you calling me out specifically? What does he say? Verse eleven of chapter two, All that you've done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me. How you left your father and your mother in the land of your birth and came to a people that you did not previously know. May the Lord reward your work and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge. He's literally blessing her and saying, I don't care where you're from. I saw your faith. I saw you were different, and I saw that you were set apart in how you acted and how you trusted in God, regardless of you being a Moabite woman, a foreigner. Because at the time, you know, like, oh, you people of Israel, yeah, you're trusting in God, like, totally get it, it's fine, like, you're kind of amongst people that are, so it makes sense. But the Moabite people, it, she didn't have to, she didn't have to be there. She could have pulled an Orpah, right? Just been like, see ya. I'll kiss you if you go on. And, and why did I call it chapter one, verse ten? Because Orpah initially said, what did it say, verse ten? They. They said to her, no, we'll surely return with you to your people. So Orpah said, yeah, I probably should. And then when she's like, what else can I offer you? Then she's like, all right, I'm gonna leave now. Ruth still stuck for them. In your faith with God, are you still sticking with him? What are you holding to? What are you clinging to? What are you clinging to in this life? What matters to you? Ask yourself that every day. What matters to you? Is it God? Is it the Bible, the truth therein? Is it that, but also the things of the world, the things of self? And I'm asking myself this as much as you. Like, we're all human beings that have sinful hearts, sinful natures, that the Lord can obviously help us with, but we have to ask us- ourselves, what's valuable, right? Moses weighed the reproach of Christ more valuable than the actual gold and riches of Egypt. What is valuable to you that you're like, I'm gonna hold on to no matter what, no matter what situation or circumstance I'm in, I'm gonna hold on to it. Brother Andrew is like, I'm gonna hold on to these Bibles, get them in there because people need to read it, no matter if these guards look scary and could kill me or burn these Bibles in two seconds, or burn my Volkswagen Beetle in two seconds. I'm gonna stick with it. So what were, um, what were some tempting thoughts that Ruth could have, could have thought of, you know? Naomi, yeah, I mean, Naomi can go her own way. I, I don't owe her anything, and I didn't grow up with her God and her culture, right? I'm a Moabite, so I don't have to, I'm not an Israelite. I don't have to go with them. Naomi doesn't need me. There's food now in, in Israel. She doesn't like, she might be older and, and maybe can't get around as, as easily, but she doesn't need me. She has other people, she has other family members, and they have food, and so I don't really have to feel like obligated. Or, or the, or the argument that Naomi made, like, well, she doesn't have any more, more sons that I could marry or, or connections, so like, what else can I do? These thoughts could have popped up, but Ruth says, no. Your God will be my God, and your people will be my people. Her identity was tied to God and who he is, and I'm sure she learned every day once she was in the land, how good is the God that we adore, how good he showed himself to be, and righteous and holy he showed himself to be, even at that time. You know, today, the, the faith, I appreciate what Brother Justin was saying last night, uh, faith and belief in something, there's always something, and today, I think one of the most dangerous and scary things is how people take religions and kind of mix them together and say you can believe this, you can believe that, there's many paths to to heaven, um, you can just do your best, you know, whatever. There's all kinds of things you can think about. Um, and and we've been talking about this this distinction of making a distinction between who you're following and who you're not following, right? Moses is saying no to Egypt, yes to the people of Israel and Israel's God. Ruth is saying, no, I don't need Moab. I'm going to go with the people of God. Moses' parents were like, no, we're not going to follow those orders. We're going to respect and honor life and protect our child. And I think the way the world today likes to mix and mingle and change and say, you can pull from this religion, that religion, you know, it's all, it's all fine, but I'm going to leave you with a word. Maybe you've heard this, maybe you've not. I, I was convicted for this in the end. There's a word that I, I didn't know for a while, but it's called syncretism. Syncretism means that you can basically fuse different things together to make one thing, and it's perfectly fine. So, like, I could pull a couple things from Islam, a little bit from Buddhism, a little bit from Judaism, a little bit from, like, just an atheistic tendency of just, like, I don't care about this life, there's nothing out for whatever. And you, and because today it's all about finding your own way and finding your path and, and just enjoying the, the, the path you're on. And, and, you know, it's, and it's all, if we're honest, it's just selfism, where it's just like, how are you feeling? How are you feeling as you, you know, go day to day, make your own decisions? But you're mixing and matching and saying that's truth. When we're seeing, and I'm giving, like I said, just three examples from the He- from Hebrews eleven and the, and the examples of faith, that they made definitive black and white decisions where it was God's way or the world's way. God's way or sin, the s- the way of sin. Don't let the world think you can mix and match and kind of make up your own religion in your brain or make, you know, find your own eternal path at the end. They won't maybe say those words, and you know what a lot of people like to do today? Use words from the Bible, use words from Christianity, and make it seem like, you know, they're like, oh, your blessings or or I believe in God or, you know, God, the word God gets thrown a lot. Not so much Jesus, usually, unless it's a curse word. But be careful when you're out there. The world will morph it however they want it to look like, because it's all about, does it help me feel good at the end? How do I feel? Moses didn't care about how he felt, right? He was fine with the ill tr- my version says the ill treatment of following the people of His- of following the God of Israel with the people of Israel, rather than the passing pleasures of sin. It'll be a short, short, pleasurable experience that'll last for a few blips on the radar, and then suddenly you realize how bad and horrible the sin that you are following will be if you follow the world. So at the end of this, I- I was telling, I was telling Brother Scott earlier that I don't know if I've ever come across a, uh, a message on Moses and Ruth. You know, I don't think they typically go together, but I think they have a lot of important components to talk about identity with God or the world, the people of Israel or the, or the tempting, you know, sin or Egypt or something like that, or the Mo- Moabites. I don't know if we know a lot about their, their gods, but they were certainly a godless culture as far as the God of Israel goes. A distinction. They had these things. And I want to think about, if you think about Moses, Moses had to be honest and identify with the people that he was actually from, not the people he was living with, right? He was living with Pharaoh's daughter and being brought up in Pharaoh's house. So he had to identify with the people he's actually from, but not living with at the moment. Ruth had to be honest and say, I'm not of your people, and I'm not in the land you technically, but I will go to that land and be of your people because of God. So their situations were different. One lived in a place that was hers, and she could have stayed there, but she's like, no, I'm going to go elsewhere. And Moses was in a place that was pretty cushy and comfy, probably had some nice pillows, nice beds, some nice food, but he's like, no, I belong with those people, and that God is the real and true God and the faithful God. I'm going to go with them. So even though their situations looked actually kind of opposite, the way I explain it, they still had to be like, who should I identify with? Who should I cling to? Who should I be with? Or is it just, ah, I'll just, whatever's the easy route. The easy route for Moses? Hang around the silver and gold and the fun and the, the power and the passing pleasures of Egypt. Sound like they had a lot of, a lot of fun. Ruth, she just, I mean, she would have just stayed there. It's her land. She'd have stayed in Moab. We don't know a lot about it. Maybe she would have found another man, and maybe she would have, you know, hang out with some family members, aunts and uncles, whatever. Be fine. She'd have got out of her comfort zone, have faith in God, and go to the land of Israel. Can you turn to Ruth four? Ruth four. So this is, in Ruth three, there's this, there's this back and forth, this little traditional, I don't really understand it all, but she basically showed herself to Boaz as far as being faithful and asking him to maybe redeem or buy back her inheritance and, and take her on as, as a wife, perhaps, because, like, otherwise she had nothing, and the inheritance that her husband and her father-in-law, Limolek, would would would dissolve, would not be followed, because you needed a a son to perpetuate that, to keep it in in the family line. And so Boaz in chapter three is like, yeah, just just stick with me, we'll work it out. There is a closer relative that might be able to redeem you. We'll figure it out, but but I I but again, he was like respecting and honoring her her faith in God. So in, in, um, in Ruth 4, Boaz confronts his close relative, and he says, you know, sits down, sits down with the elders of the city in verses one and two to make sure like this is a, a true transaction that'll occur. And he says, you know, Naomi has come, verse three, Naomi's come back from the land of Moab, um, has to sell this piece of land belonging to Elimelech. So I wanted to tell you, you know, basically you're this closer relative, so you have the first crack at if you'd like to buy back this land and and help the situation, because, like, it was sad their the sons died, but there's no other sons to take on this land. Like, can you help? And the guy says, yeah, I'll redeem it. End of end of verse four. Yeah, okay, I'll I'll do it. And Boaz says, but on the day you buy it, you know, you buy that field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of the deceased, in order to raise up the name of the deceased in the inheritance. And what does he say? This close relative says, oh, I can't, I can't redeem it for myself. I can't, I can't do it now. I might mess up my own inheritance. Redeem it for yourself. You may have the right item. He's speaking to Boaz. You, you go ahead and do it. Um, I can't redeem it. Can't do it. The law of the Old Testament showed us our sin, showed us the limitations that we can't fully fulfill the law. We needed, we, sorry, we need, needed then, but need now, a savior to redeem us, to buy us back, to pay the penalty for our sin. Here, this man is like, yeah, I can only do so much. I'm kind of thinking about myself, and it's going to mess up the situation. I can't do it. Boaz, as you might have heard the term, is the kinsman redeemer. So he is the one that's part of this family, and he's able and willing. You have to be able and willing. Okay, don't forget that. So he was able in the sense that he was the next closest relative, so he was after this guy, we don't know his name, but he was able to do it. He was allowed to in their legalities and and such, and the the the close rel- um, relation to them, and then he was willing to do it because he says, yeah, I'll I'll do this. I'll raise up a name, and I'll marry her, and I'll take on this land, and I'll redeem. The blessings that come from God, the blessings that come from being redeemed in him, when all else fails, all else is limited, all else falls short of what your soul needs to be bought and redeemed, and your sin to be taken care of. She had weakness, right? She had death around her. Her husband, her s- brother-in-law, and her father-in-law all died. She was in a weak state, as we talked about, but out of weakness she became strong. Verse nine of chapter four, Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, you are witnesses today. You're witnesses today that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech, all that belonged to Chilion, and all that belonged to Mahlon. Whoa. He's literally, he's literally just buying the whole thing? Like, so Elimelech's the father, that's, that's the other, not just, um, Ruth's dead husband, but the brother-in-law as well. He's covering everything. What you have in the Lord Jesus this morning is worth probably more than you'll ever fathom on this earth. We'll learn so much more in heaven about what the Lord has done for you and for me. But even the little in this, the sixty-six books we have here in our hands is um, astounding, is amazing of what God has done for us. Boaz is like, I'm gonna buy back everything. Verse ten. moreover, I've acquired Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, to be my wife in order to raise up the name of the deceased in this- of the inheritance, so that the name of the deceased may not be cut off from his brothers or from the court of his birthplace. You're witnesses today. God has redeemed you completely and fully, and you can trust in him in that. There's no glitch, there's no problem, there's nothing else to be done. All the blessings are in him. How will your faith show back to him? Are you trusting on, are you trusting in him? Are you clinging to him? Ruth's faith in God led to this moment, that Boaz saw it, and Boaz wanted to do this. He's willing and able. And what happened in the end? Ruth and Boaz had a son. His name was Obed, and his son was named Jesse, and his son was named David. Ruth was able to be the great grandmother of David, despite her being from Moab. God honors faith, even if if it's outside of the people of Israel, because it's faith in him. Not a fluffy idea, not in an object, not anything temporary, faith in God. She was able to be the great grandmother of David. She was in listed in Matthew one five in the genealogy of Jesus, reminding us as we go down the line that she had Obed, who was then Jesse, and then was David in the kingly line of the Lord Jesus. So don't think because you might be in a weak, small situation, like Ruth, that your life might not amount to much, or you might not see a lot of blessings of God or whatever. God can do amazing things for you and in you and through you if you trust in him, because he is altogether lovely. Even though we might not see him, First Peter says, to those who believe and don't see him, he is precious because he is valuable. He is good. We could spend years on the quality and the character of who he is and his characteristics, but know these things today, I pray. Our God and Father, we're thankful for these examples in the scriptures of Moses' parents, Moses himself, and Ruth. Lord, that they identified with you and with your, um, faithfulness, with your trustworthiness, your presence with them, your word that would be fulfilled. Even something like the Passover, where it had never occurred before, but that Moses told the people to have faith that putting that blood on the doorpost would protect them. And we know that today, if we believe in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, it will protect us from the wrath that come because the wrath abides on us, as the scriptures say, if we don't trust in the Lord Jesus, the Savior that we need to believe in. We're thankful for him today, that we can have faith in him, that we can serve him, we can please him. We pray as we would ponder these things this weekend, we'd understand that even out of weakness, we can be made strong. We ask these things in your name. Amen.