We all have choices to make. We have choices for our friendships, our love life, our family, our career – you name it. Sometimes our choices are difficult and complicated. Sometimes, no matter what we choose, some people will be really unhappy with us.
My big question today is: how can we make good decisions when our choices are complicated and the stakes are high?
Boaz was of man of courage/ He was always willing to do the right thing, whether he was by himself or seen by others. He was consistent. Is your character consistent? Does your private life match your public life? Or are two completely different people? Do you care more about what God thinks even if it will cost you or do you care more about the approval of the crowd?
We know that Ruth couldn’t save herself. The situation was too dire. She needed someone, she needed the RIGHT “Kinsman Redeemer”, one with character to act on her behalf. She got it from Boaz.
I think it’s common nowadays to put our faith and hope in heroes.
Each of us has heroes in our lives that we look up to.
And in this story, heroes are emerging
Ruth is becoming a hero to Naomi
And Boaz, a new character is also becoming a hero to both.
The big question we’re looking at today is:
Who is your hero?
To answer this question,
we need to define what makes a good hero.
So today, we’re going to walk through some characteristics of
what a hero should be and what they should do.
At the end we’ll circle back find out who your hero should be.
We are starting a new series in the Book of Ruth!
Ruth takes place in the era of the Judges, which is arguably the worst era of Israel’s history. There was moral and spiritual collapse everywhere. Not only was it chaos on a moral and spiritual level, economically, things were in shambles too.
There was no food because of a famine and in the ancient world, this was not just an “economic” problem, but it was a theological indicator that something was deeply wrong.
The land was supposed to be blessed if Israel stayed faithful to Yahweh, so the fact that the crops are failing was a sign of God’s dissatisfaction. In v.1-5, we are introduced to a family: Elimelech and his wife, Naomi. They have two sons.
Because of the famine, they move to Moab, which isn’t the best place for an Israelite to go to. The sons end up marrying Moabite women, which was discouraged, because of their commitment to other gods like Molech. And then absolute tragedy strikes!
Elimelech, the patriarch of the family, dies. And then the two sons also die, BUT they die without having children. This is a very big deal in an ancient world dominated by men. It wasn’t just personal heartbreak. It also meant no inheritance. It meant no economic security and no social standing.
Our Bible passage today is about how we can respond to suffering? Every single one of us inevitably will experience some sort of suffering in this broken world. It’s going to happen, but we have a choice on how we respond to it. In our passage, we have two sufferers in Naomi and Ruth and both respond differently to their circumstances.
This week, Pastor Enoch Chee explores chapter 4 in the book of Ruth, and brings up the following points:
Pastor Enoch Chee examines the types of faith three characters featured in the Book of Ruth possess, and how every Christian is essentially repeating one of these character’s spiritual walks in their own lives.
What is the most important thing when looking for ‘The One’? Pastor Enoch Chee takes us through chapter 2 of the book of Ruth to find the answer.