No one looking in, as we did, on the early story of Naomi and Ruth, would have anticipated a happy ending. We probably would have expected them to struggle to get by until one or both of them died. They had suffered great loss and along with it hope for a better future.

Yet, as we’ll see today, not only did their story end with unexpected joy and comfort, but God used their experiences to keep what would become a critical family line alive. We’ll see that we have been blessed, as Ruth and Naomi were, but what God di for both of them.

Do you consider yourself a risk-taker? Many of us don’t. This applies to relationships as well as choosing to skydive out of an airplane. We don’t like to stick our neck out in a relationship. We don’t want to take the chance we might be rejected, made fun of, or avoided.

Yet it is risk – potentially very serious risk – in a relationship that we encounter in this week’s passage. Ruth is counseled by her mother-in-law to take a big risk in order to provide long-term security for her. What did Naomi suggest? Will Ruth take the risk? How will it turn out?

If God speaks to us, will we risk a relationship to obey? What is God trying to teach us through a lowly peasant woman named Ruth?

Has God forgotten? Worse yet, has God turned against me?

Naomi thought so. Under the burden of the death of her husband and her two sons, Naomi’s faith had sagged.

However, behind the scenes, God was working out a plan to bless her more than she could have imagined.

As we learned in the last message, there was a man who could change Naomi’s and Ruth’s fortunes. Just by ‘chance’ Ruth met this man. As we’ll see in this message, while Ruth didn’t understand the significance of this encounter, Naomi  did. She also recognized God’s mercy and kindness in what had happened. God gave her a faithlift. Unexpected. Through what was not an unusual circumstance. But God’s fingerprints were all over the encounter,

So far in the Book of Ruth we haven’t had much reason to think that things were going to turn out well for Naomi and Ruth. Famine, infertility, death. This is what we’ve encountered so far.

The beginning of chapter two raises a bit of hope. We meet a man who through his relationship to Naomi’s husband’s family might just be the person who could be of most help. Then we find Ruth choosing a field to glean in and we discover the field belongs to this very man. Things are getting interesting.

Then this man, Boaz, meets Ruth and is kind and gracious to her, something she doesn’t expect and feels she doesn’t deserve. He knows who she is but she doesn’t yet know who he is.

We leave the story at this point but not before some valuable lessons from both Ruth and Boaz, and the anticipation that God may still have something more in store for Naomi and Ruth.

The second act of the drama of the little Book of Ruth opens with Naomi determining to return to Bethlehem. At first, both her widowed daughters-in-law accompany her, but one turns back after Naomi urges her to return to her own mother’s house. Her other daughter-in-law, Ruth, refuses to leave and declares that Naomi’s people and people will become her people and God. She is leaving Moab for good.

Arriving in Bethlehem, Naomi declares her bitterness against God for all he allowed to happen to her. Yet, there may be some hope on the horizon as our author hints at things to come in the closing verse of this Act, in 1:22.

Though this passage is brief, Naomi and Ruth have things to teach us.

A famine. A desperate attempt to survive. Childlessness. Death. Three widows left grieving. Tragedy upon tragedy.  Where is God in all of this? 

Set during the period of the Judges, the story of Ruth, a woman from Moab, and her mother-in-law, an Israelite named Naomi, remind us that even when things are the darkest God is working out his special plan. 

The little book of Ruth is an expertly told short story of family tragedy and God’s gracious provision when all seems hopelessly lost. In this message we’ll cover Act 1 of this drama, tracing the travels and travails of an Israelite family from Bethlehem to Moab. It’s just fives verses, but short as it is, it has much to teach us today. Join us at the start of our journey with Ruth and Naomi.