Sticking with God's Way of Faith
Who has shown us the way of faith and who do we invite to stick with us?
"IMG_8482 Peter Lastman. 1583-1633. Amsterdam. Ruth explique à Naomi la fidélité. Ruth says to Naomi the fidélité. 1614. Hannover" by jean louis mazieres is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
This week starts with another long passage of scripture from Ruth Chapter 1. I’ll post that in a minute. The title Sunday was Family of Our Own Making from Pastor Kristen Lee. Before we get to her scripture, Pastor Joe Palmer quoted Ecclesiastes 3 concerning Sunday’s time change.
1There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—
2A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
3A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4A time to weep and a time to laugh; A time to mourn and a time to dance.
5A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
6A time to search and a time to give up as lost; A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; A time to be silent, and a time to speak.
8A time to love and a time to hate; A time for war and peace.
9What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils?
10I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.
11He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.
Ecclesiastes 3:1–11 (NASB95)
This time of year always brings out the discussions about setting the clocks to one time and leaving them there. There is a lot of history behind why they were changed. There’s a lot of time between then and now too. It is what it is. Perhaps the way to look at this time of year is encapsulated in verses ten and eleven. It is another opportunity for us to reflect the light of a better way through Jesus, granting God works in mysterious ways.
The children’s moment centered on sacrifice Sunday. That ties in with pastor Kristen’s sermon. Let’s take a look at Ruth now.
1Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons.
2The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi; and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. Now they entered the land of Moab and remained there.
3Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left with her two sons.
4They took for themselves Moabite women as wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. And they lived there about ten years.
5Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband.
6Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the land of Moab, for she had heard in the land of Moab that the Lord had visited His people in giving them food.
7So she departed from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
8And 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 have dealt with the dead and with me.
9“May the Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.
10And they said to her, “No, but we will surely return with you to your people.”
11But Naomi said, “Return, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?
12“Return, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I should even have a husband tonight and also bear sons,
13would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters; for it is harder for me than for you, for the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me.”
14And they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
15Then she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”
16But Ruth said, “Do not 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.
17“Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.”
18When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.
Ruth 1:1–18 (NASB95)
That’s a lot.
Let’s put a little history behind this scripture. The family of Naomi moved because the area they lived in was suffering from a famine. Moab and the Moabites were descendants of Lot. However, at that time in history, they served other Gods, Chemosh. If that’s a new word to you, don’t feel bad. It was to me too. I had to look it up. If you’d like to read more in-depth about Chemosh, you can find more HERE. The short of it is they were a lot like those who worshiped Molech and sacrificed their children to their god. Thus, devout Israelites were proscribed from marrying the idolaters of Moab. Still, Elimelech permitted his two sons to do so. We can only speculate whether the deaths of Naomi’s male relations were some form of punishment for their disobedience. Regardless of whether that’s true or not, Ruth converted to Naomi’s faith as she returned with her to her home in Israel.
We are never really told what drove Ruth to such devotion for her mother-in-law, but it is clear in scripture. It is so strong in scripture that Pastor Kristen focused on a Hebrew word from verse 14 in the NASB, that word reads as “clung.” In the King James Version, it reads s clave unto her. Pastor Kristen focused on her reading of “stuck with.” They are all good.
Hebrew Strong’s Number: 1692
Hebrew Word: דָּבַק
Transliteration: dābaq
Phonetic Pronunciation: daw-bak’
Root: a primitive root
Cross Reference: TWOT - 398
Part of Speech: v
Vine’s Words: Cleave (To), Cling
Usage Notes:
English Words used in KJV:
cleave 32
follow hard 5
overtake 3
stick 3
keep fast 2
together 2
abide 1
close 1
joined 1
pursued 1
take 1
[Total Count: 54]
a primitive root; properly to impinge, i.e. cling or adhere; figurative to catch by pursuit:- abide fast, cleave (fast together), follow close (hard after), be joined (together), keep (fast), overtake, pursue hard, stick, take.
James Strong, “דָּבַק,” Strong’s Talking Greek and Hebrew Dictionary (WORDsearch, 2020).
Pastor Kristen brought out another piece of scripture to give her “stuck with” emphasis, Deuteronomy 13:4-5. Verse 4 has this same word: cleave/stick to or abide.
4“You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.
5“But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from among you.
Deuteronomy 13:4–5 (NASB95)
The point she built upon here is that there are no verbs used in Heberew making these statements about us and we instead of just me, my, I, or you. The point here is to build a Christian community of faith based on God and faith in His ways. The point is that we have a choice of who we want to stick by, and if we choose God, He chooses us too. It becomes a question of who do we invite to stick by us? Why should they stick by us? And have we been obedient to God’s way of faith.