I Invite your attention to the
book of Ruth chapter 1 verse 1 a Few weeks ago I Preached a message from Ruth
chapter 3 verse 9 titled Jesus Christ my kinsman Redeemer In
the message I briefly Expounded chapters 1 through 3 briefly
When I finished the message One of the brethren in the church
Told me that I had to expound the rest of the book he did not
request it He told me I had to So never let it be said that
I disrespect my elders And I thought, since I have to,
and I'm looking forward to it, I'm gonna do more than that.
I'm gonna go back to chapter one, verse one, and go through it verse by verse.
Thank you. I just got approval for that
too. We're gonna start at chapter one, verse one. We're gonna go
through this book of Ruth. And one thing you're going to
find is that Jesus Christ is in that book, this book of Ruth,
much more than is apparent upon first reading. He's there. I
presented him from chapter three, verse nine. He's in chapter one, verse one.
Now you have to look for him. And you have to go find him.
But we're going to do that today in the opening line of chapter
one, verse one. We're going to be a few weeks,
maybe a few months on this book. And you have the synopsis or
the outline for today's message inserted inside your bulletin.
We'll be looking at the first verse, but I'm going to read
the first chapter and then we'll look at that first verse. Now
it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was
a famine in the land And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went
to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his
two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech,
and the name of his wife, Naomi, and the name of his two sons,
Malon and Kilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they
came into the country of Moab, and continued there. In the Limelech,
Naomi's husband died, and she was left and her two sons. And
they took them wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one
was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelled
there about 10 years. And Malon and Kilion died also,
both of them. And the woman was left of her
two sons and her husband. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law,
that she might return from the country of Moab. For she had
heard in the country of Moab, how that the Lord had visited
his people in giving them bread. Wherefore she went forth out
of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with
her, and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah. And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law,
Go, return each to her mother's house. The Lord deal kindly with
you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant
you that ye may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband.'
Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and wept.
And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto
thy people. And Naomi said, turn again, my
daughters, why will you go with me? Are there yet any more sons
in my womb that they may be your husbands? Turn again, my daughters,
go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should
say I have hope, if I should have an husband also tonight
and should also bear sons, would ye tarry for them till they were
grown? Would ye stay for them from having
husbands? Nay, my daughters, for it grieveth
me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is gone out
against me.' And they lifted up their voice and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law,
but Ruth clave unto her. And she said, behold, thy sister-in-law
is gone back unto her people and unto her gods. Return thou
after thy sister-in-law. And Ruth said, entreat me not
to leave thee. or to return from following after
thee. For whether thou goest, I will
go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my
people, and thy God my God. Where there diest will I die,
and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more
also, if ought but death part thee and me." When she saw that
she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking
unto her, So they too went until they came to Bethlehem. And it
came to pass when they were come to Bethlehem that all the city
was moved about them and they said, is this Naomi? And she
said unto them, call me not Naomi, call me Myra, for the Almighty
hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the
Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why then call ye me, Naomi? Seeing the Lord hath testified
against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me. So Naomi returned,
and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, which returned out
of the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem in
the beginning of barley harvest. I take you back to verse one. The first line in that verse. Now it came to pass in the days
when the judges ruled. Let's look at that text. It came
to pass in the days when the judges ruled. This book is quite a book. It's
a love story. One of the great romances you'll
find in the scriptures. A devoted daughter-in-law, a
devoted mother-in-law, and a widow finding a husband. among one of the foremost men
in Israel, even though she was a Moabitess. And then God put her in the family
tree of Jesus Christ. This is, it's a marvelous book,
and a great woman. This book is one of only two
books in the scriptures that bear the names of women, Oh,
what women. In the fourth century, there
was a Greek rhetorician named Labanius. He was not a Christian. He did not care for them at all. Rode against them. But he had this to say, what
women these Christians have. He had nothing good to say about
Christian men. He hated their doctrine, he hated
their ways, he hated their worship, but he had to admit what women
these Christians have. Here's one of them, Ruth. What
a woman. Esther, what a woman. And we find that this book occurred
in the days when the judges ruled Israel." Now look at that word,
the judges. It means a magistrate, an administrator
of justice. Now, every village, every town,
every city had reputable elders who formed somewhat of a town
court that met in the gate of the city. So that when there
was a dispute or something that required a judgment, a man would
go to the gate of the city and call for 10 of the elders and
they would sit down and he would tell his case and they would
render judgment. You can find a description of
this in the fourth chapter of this very book. So every village,
every town, every city had its court of ten elders, reputable
men. But these judges ruled over a
far greater area. And they gave judgment for important
decisions. They were, if you will, somewhat
of a supreme court. Perhaps if you did not like the
decision, you got in the local court, you'd say, well, I'm going
to go see the judge. They knew who that was. He's
over the territory, and he's giving judgment in greater matters. Now, we read of one of these
judges, and the only female judge there was, whose name was Deborah. And you can find a description
of what a judge was in that day in our introduction to her. I
put it in the outline of your message, Judges 4, verses 4 through
5. We read, and Deborah, a prophetess,
and I will here emphasize, she was not a prophetess in the sense
of holding that mediatorial office, but rather she was a woman through
whom God spoke. and granted wisdom and gave her
good judgment so that people came to her. They recognized
God speaks through this woman and her judgments are sound and
sure. She was a prophetess in that
sense, the wife of Lappidoth, of whom we know nothing. She
judged Israel at that time. And she dwelt under the palm
tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in Mount Ephraim. And the children of Israel came
up to her for judgment. They recognized her. This woman's
a prophetess. God speaks through her. When
there is a judgment to be made, we come to her, present our case,
and lo and behold, it is evident that God has spoken when this
woman gives a judgment unto us. This was the case with all the
other judges. Moses was a judge like that in
an earlier day. And here is Deborah. And there
were 13 of these judges, or not really in succession, but at
various times. They ruled in the days between
Moses, his successor Joshua, and King Saul. The dates for this time were
roughly 1375 to 1050 BC. Remember that the years will
be in descending order. Let me give you some kind of
a time frame, and I give you here the dates of the judges.
But just for reference, you may want to note these times that
are easy to remember. The year 2000 BC, Abraham The year 1440 BC The Exodus Moses
bringing the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage and through
the Red Sea Forty years later or so The year
1400, Joshua leading the children of Israel across the Jordan River
and the conquest of the land begins. So 2000 BC, Abraham.
1440, Moses. 1400, Joshua. 1000 BC, David the king. And
400 BC, Malachi wrote the last book in
the scripture, set his quill down, and God did not speak another
word for 400 years. Those dates will give you some
idea as to the time of these judges. They ruled in Israel
between 1375 and 1050 B.C. Now, they were not kings over Israel, but rather
protectors of Israel. And they ruled over only a portion
of the land usually, not over the whole country like a king
would. God raised them up when they
were needed, and they would usually serve him as a judge all the
days of their lives. If you will locate Judges chapter
two. Judges chapter two. And I'll
give you some idea as to the ministry of a judge. Judges chapter two. Verse 16. Nevertheless, Jehovah raised
up judges. which delivered them out of the
hand of those that spoiled them. Verse 18. And when Jehovah raised
him up judges, then Jehovah was with the judge and delivered
them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For it repented the Lord because
of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and
vexed them. So these were the judges when
An enemy came in. and put them under subjection.
And they cried unto the Lord for help and deliverance. He
raised up a judge, and the judge would go and deliver the people. And since he had done such a
mighty feat as that, the people would say, well, you rule us
now. You conquered the enemy, and you're the commander, so
you are now our judge. There were 13 of them. I give
you the names here in your outline. 13 of them in number Now one
exception to this and as I said a moment ago They were not kings
over Israel but rather protectors of Israel and Generally deliverers
of Israel one exception is this scoundrel Treacherous murderous
Abimelech who made himself king. Killed 70 people whom he thought
might be in his way. One of them escaped and called
him the Bramble King. You can read the parable in the
text that deals with him, but called him the Bramble King,
which was not a compliment. But of the others here, and by
the way, this one, Abimelech, God did not raise him up as a
judge to deliver the people. He set himself up. But of the
others, and you recognize some of these names, Othniel, Ehud,
Shamgar, Deborah and Barak, Gideon, Abimelech, Tola, Jair, Jephthah,
Ibn Zan, Ilan, Abdon, and Samson. And then later on, you'll read
that Eli and Samuel were judges. These were notable people, with
the exception of Abimelech, as I just said. Now if you're looking
for the best commentary on the era of the judges, you would
probably find that it's mentioned twice. Judges 17 6 and Judges
21 25 it's in these words in those days There was no king
in Israel no king I Mean for a long time no king remember
Moses had been somewhat of a king He brought the children of Israel
out of Egypt Through the Red Sea to Sinai where they entered
into a covenant. God established Moses as the
ruler. He was, as a king, though not
really a king, but he ruled as a king, leading the people, commander-in-chief,
until they came to the border of the Promised Land. Moses died. Then there was Joshua, Moses'
lieutenant, who then became the commander-in-chief, led the children
of Israel into the land, and the conquest began under Joshua. He was not a king, but he exercised
the authority of one. Whatever Joshua said, that was
done. And then Joshua died. No successor. Moses had a successor,
Joshua. Joshua had no successor, so there's
no king. In those days, there was no king
in Israel. Every man did that which was
right in his eyes. Well, there's a recipe for disaster. Every man did that which was
right in his own eyes. What do you suppose was right
in their own eyes? Same thing is right in your eyes.
Apart from divine grace, the same lusts, the same sinful
desires, The same looking out for good old number one. Every
man did that which was right in his own eyes. What's right in his own eyes?
Seeing. Seeing. Unless God gives you holy eyes,
sin is what's right in your eyes. All right, sin. There's something
about that word sin. It's got the hiss of the serpent. Sin. Yeah, that's Satan's ploy. That's his device. It also is
the first of four steps that describe the era of the judges
repeatedly, repeatedly, on and on. Four S's. Here they are. Sin results in servitude or slavery. Servitude results in supplication,
and supplication to God results in salvation. Now those four
S's occur repeatedly in this book of Judges. Now remember
that this book of Ruth occurred in the days of the Judges. In
the days when every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
When there was sin followed by servitude, followed by supplication,
followed by salvation. I'll give you some references
for it. Go to Judges chapter three. Judges chapter 3 Verse 7 And the children of Israel did
evil in the sight of the Lord and forgot the Lord their God
and served Balaam in the groves. They were doing that which was
right in their own eyes. What was right in their own eyes?
Sin and Baal. Verse eight, therefore the anger
of Jehovah was hot against Israel and he sold them into the hand
of, what a name is this? Kishan Risathayim. His name is
one word in our King James Version. It actually was in, it was two
words. And there's a sort of a repetition
in this name. It means something like, the
wicked man who was wicked. Double wickedness, that's what
his name here means. He must have been a real piece
of work with regard to wickedness. Well, the Lord sent him, and
Israel sinned against the Lord, and they are in servitude to
Cushon Rishathayim, king of Mesopotamia, and the children of Israel served
Cushon Rishathayim eight years. Well, folks, you have served
him now for eight years. What time do you reckon it is
now? Sounded like time for prayer. Third step, supplication. And
when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised
up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them,
even Nathaniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. Now
you remember Caleb, do you not? He was one of the faithful spies
with Joshua. Well, he's not the only worthy
member of that family. Here is his younger brother,
and his younger brother is gonna be a deliverer. So you see the
four S's? They sinned, so the Lord put
them into servitude. Then they cried out unto the
Lord in supplication, and the Lord sent salvation by sending
unto them a deliverer. And the Spirit of Jehovah came
upon him and he judged Israel and went out to war. And the
Lord delivered Cushon Rishathayim, king of Mesopotamia, into his
hand. And his hand prevailed against
Cushon Rishathayim. And the land had rest forty years. And Nathanael the son of Kenaz
died. 40 years, as long as he lived. Now, that phrase is important.
I'm gonna come back to it later. That phrase is important. As
long as he lived, land of Israel had rest. Then what happened? The judge is gone and every man
does that which is right in his own eyes. Verse 12, and the children
of Israel did evil again in the sight of Jehovah, and the Lord
strengthened Eglon, the king of Moab, against Israel, because
they had done evil in the sight of Jehovah. And they gathered
unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smoked
Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees. So the children
of Israel served Eglon, the king of Moab, 18 years. But when the children of Israel
cried unto Jehovah, you see the third step now? Sin, because
the judge had died, and every man doing that which was right
in his own eyes. Servitude, under egg law. supplication 18 years Lord, please
deliver us they cried unto the Lord, please deliver us and The
Lord did so by raising up another judge Ehud He's a crafty fellow
Ehud Requested a private audience With Eglon and He's got his sword on his right side. That means he's safe. Because a right-handed man always
pulls his sword out from his left side. Ehud has got his sword on his
right side. It's hard for a right-handed
man to pull his sword out and do battle before you can get
your defense up. What Eglon did not know was Ehud is left-handed. And in the prime of the audience,
that left hand comes out, grabs the sword off of the right side
and plunges it into Eglon and Eglon dies and the children of
Israel are delivered. And they are delivered for as
long as Ehud lives. Now you see this, this is twice
in a row. Sin, servitude, supplication,
salvation. And then we read of one other
judge. Verse 31, and after him was Samgar,
the son of Anath, who slew of the Philistines, and hundred
men with an ox goat, and he also delivered Israel. Now, here we
do not read of sin, servitude, supplication, and salvation,
but there was servitude. The Philistines had come in.
Samgar is one of those men who was not necessarily raised up
to deliver like the others were, He is a fascinating character.
He is mentioned only one time in the scriptures, right here,
right here. What was he? He was a guerrilla soldier for
Jesus. Killed 600 men, not at once. He'd hide behind the rock where
they're walking by. And it took him a long time,
evidently. But eventually, he's got 600
of the Philistines dead. Probably took him a few weeks.
He's a guerrilla soldier. And he's bringing them in one
by one. The other judges would lead hundreds
of men in the battle. Shamgar, he just does it one
by one, letting us know, letting us know, you can be as Beneficial to the Lord. If you're leading a hundred people,
you can be as beneficial if you're leading only yourself. Here is
one man letting us know what one man can do. Never think that
you're too few in number or too lowly to be of service to Jesus.
Shamgar says I'm not capable of leading an army, but I Can
take out one Philistine at a time and he did so So these are the
judges and this is that step that for? process step of seeing
servitude supplication Salvation repeated itself repeatedly here
in this book of Judges But I want to deal with this subject and
I told you it was here. Jesus preached a message on the
road to Emmaus walking with two disciples who they did not know
whom he was. Beginning at Moses and in all
the prophets he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the
things concerning himself I want you to think about that for just
a moment in all the scriptures the things concerning himself Every time You read a text particularly
in the Old Testament Look for Jesus Look for Jesus. Now, he's there. He's there. It may take you a while to find
him, and it may be that the verse you're looking at will be leading
to another verse, but just follow it if you will. Spurgeon says that of the British
Isles, Every road in England leads to London. Now that's true. Every road in England leads to
London. And if you're far away from London,
up in some farmland, that road may be a cow path. Well, follow
it. And eventually it'll become a
cart path. And eventually it'll become a
one-lane road. And eventually it'll become a
two-lane road. And eventually it will become
an expressway. And that expressway's gonna lead
you to London. Every road in England leads to
London eventually. Every verse in this book leads
to Christ. Every verse in this book leads
to Christ. He may be a little obscure in
some places, but just go looking for him. Now, where are we right
here? Now, in those days, there was
no king in Israel. It was the day of the judges,
we read in the introduction to the book of Ruth. I think I see
Christ. Look at that word judges. I think
I see Christ. Let's see if we can find Christ
in this word judges. These judges were types of Jesus
Christ in these regards. As Israel's sin resulted in servitude
to oppressors, so did our sin in Adam result in our servitude
to him. They sinned that resulted in
them becoming slaves and servants in servitude. We sinned in our
father Adam. And what happened? We are now
by nature slaves. We are in the snare of the devil
having been taken captive by him to do his will That's every
man by nature We are born in Satan's snare. Why? Because we
sinned in our father Adam when he sinned we sinned he was our
representative We're born slaves Born in servitude Satan is our master and he's
more wicked than Kushan Rishathayim, the double wicked man. That's our servitude. That's
our master. But, as Israel made supplication
to God for physical deliverance from their oppressors, So did
his people make supplication to him for a spiritual deliverer. In Old Testament times, they
were praying for him. Do you remember the story of
Simeon, who lived in Jerusalem at the time of the birth of Jesus
Christ? And he was told that he would
not see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ. And Simeon
knows that since the Christ is a male child when he's born,
he has to be brought to the temple to be presented. So I just stand
here at the temple every day and look at every infant comes
in. And one of these days, the Lord
will keep his word and I'm gonna see my Christ being carried by
his mother into the temple. And every day there he is. He's
looking at every male child that comes in his mother's arms into
the temple. And one day, one day, he sees
him. He sees his Christ in the arms
of a virgin from Nazareth. He says, Lord, You can now let
me die because I have seen everything I need to see. Well, there's
another old woman over yonder, Anna, faithfully served in the
temple for many years. I think she's about 80 years
of age now. And she's watching this. And
she's, yeah, that's the Christ. Simeon just said that's the cross
and The scripture says she went and told all those who were looking
for redemption The craft is here. Look they were looking for redemption. They were praying for years and
years Lord send a Redeemer and Anna goes and says Simeon said
he's here. He's here well There were people
praying for Jesus to come. Just as Israel prayed for a deliverer
to deliver them out of their bondage, people in spiritual bondage were
praying for a deliverer, and God sent the deliverer in the
person of Jesus of Nazareth. God sent judges to deliver Israel
from their oppressors He sent Jesus to be our deliverer. He
is called at Romans 11 26 The deliverer shall come out of Zion
The deliverer that's who he is. He is our deliverer he has come
to deliver us like Othniel delivered from Kushan
Rishathayim. Delivered us like Eglon, or Ehud
delivered from Eglon. Delivered us like Shamgar did
from the Philistines. Delivered us like Samson did. Delivered us like all these other
judges. Jesus is a deliverer out of Zion. Fourth point in this typology
here is that as the judges protected Israel from her enemies all the
days of their lives, so does Jesus, our Deliverer, protect
us from our enemies all the days of His life, and His life is
endless. You see, in the days of the judges
of Israel, when the judge died, Every man went back to doing
what was right in his own eyes. Our judge never dies. Jesus,
our deliverer, never dies. Furthermore, As the judge is
administered justice, so does Jesus our judge deliver justice. For example, we read in 2 Corinthians
5 verse 10 that he will be the divine judge at the final judgment
at the last day. Listen to these words, for we
must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. that everyone
may receive the things done in his body according to that he
hath done, whether it be good or evil. We must all appear. This is a general judgment. All the nations shall be gathered. Described in Matthew chapter
25, When the Son of Man comes in
all His glory, all the nations shall be gathered before Him.
In that final judgment, at the final day, I will be there and you will be
there. Every one of us will be there
to be judged according to what we have done, whether it be good
or bad. Now there's something about this
judge you need to know. He rules in absolute justice. Absolute justice. What is absolute justice? Absolute
justice is justice without mercy. No mercy will be given at the
final judgment. No one will stand before that
judge and say, I plead for the mercy of the court. The day of
mercy is gone. The day of mercy is now. There'll
be no mercy at the final judgment. It is strict, absolute justice. And this justice, this judge
cannot be bribed. Absolute justice. Now, some are
going to be there and they have done good. They have done good. Who are they? Believers. And what is the good they have
done? It was not of their own merit.
They are incapable of it. But the good they have done are
the fruits of God's grace to them and the evidences of their
faith in Him. Jesus described them in Matthew
chapter 25 And Believers will stand there
With nothing but good works Remember the fruits of God's grace and
the evidence of their faith. No bad works now, how can I stand
before God at the final judgment with no bad works and because
Jesus took care of them by his blood and through his merits
on Calvary and forgave me of all my sins. Now some will stand
there with bad works. Who are the ones standing there
with bad works? Unbelievers. Unbelievers who
have not a single solitary good work to their name, though they
may think so. and we're all going to be judged
on that final judgment. Believers will hear the judge
say, come thou good and faithful servant and here at the kingdom
prepared for you from before the foundation of the world.
And then when they have gone away, he looks to the others
on his left hand and he says, depart from me. You would not
believe my gospel. Now you are condemned to the
devil's hell. Where were you standing that
day? Where would you stand in that
day? I have often imagined that day. What a day when we all are there
and Jesus steps down among us. separates sheep and goats, says
to one, you, get on my right hand, you're a believer. You,
you rejected my, get over on the left hand, and you'll separate
them. And when I think of that day,
I think of standing there with my wife, my son, my daughter, My daughter-in-law,
my grandchildren standing there, what a day. And I hope that when
the judge steps down from his throne and begins to separate
the people that are there, I want him to put me on his right
hand and then tell my wife, go join your husband. And my son
and my daughter, go join your father. Hope you'll say to my
grandchildren, go stand with your grandfather. You children who are here today,
where will you stand in that day? You have believing parents. You know where they're gonna
stand on his right hand. It'll be a day of separation.
I hope that it is not a separation for you children from your parents.
Today is the day of salvation. Believe the gospel now. Trust
in Jesus Christ now. Because there'll be no mercy
on that day. Where will you stand? Before the judge? I have heard people flippantly
say, no one can judge me but God.
I've heard people say that. Do they not know the error of
what they just said? No one can judge me but God.
I mean, go ahead and break the law. Somebody's gonna judge you
then, right? Surely they know that. But the bigger question is this. Do you really want God to be
your judge? Think about that for a moment.
Do you really want God to be your judge? Unlike the civil judge, you cannot
hide any evidence from this one. He knows it all. He knows it
all. He has written down everything
you have ever done. Unlike civil judges, he'll not
close his eyes to what you have done. It's all there before him. Unlike civil judges, he cannot
be bribed. You cannot buy him. Unlike civil
judges, he shows no mercy at his final judgment. No mercy. Who can judge me but God? Oh,
if God's beat my judge on that day, let me be ready for that
judge now. How can I do so? Trust in Jesus
Christ. Make supplication. He'll come
deliver you from Satan and be your judge and deliverer all
the days of his life, which are endless.