God often moves most powerfully when life feels most bitter. In Ruth 1:20–2:3, Naomi says, “Call me Mara” (“bitter”) and “I came back empty”—while Ruth stands right beside her. Then Scripture quietly notes, “as it turned out…” and everything changes. In this sermon, we explore how God’s providence shows up in ordinary steps, unexpected timing, and even in our pain. What you’ll learn: Ruth 1:20–2:3 explained: Naomi’s lament, Ruth’s ordinary obedience, and “as it turned out…” How God’s sovereignty works through everyday choices (gleaning, timing, relationships) Why lament is faith in a minor key—not unbelief Practical ways to spot “as it turned out” moments in your week.
God rarely parts clouds on cue. In Ruth, His providence runs quiet—through honesty, ordinary work, and “coincidences” that are anything but.
Point 1 — God moves even when we’re too bitter to notice (Ruth 1:20–22)
Point 2 — God moves through ordinary people doing ordinary things (Ruth 2:1–2)
Discipleship principle: Take responsibility for what you can control; do the next right thing. “Work while waiting”: Ruth embodies initiative and dependence—faith with a shovel.
Scripture add: Leviticus 19:9–10 — Leave the edges and the gleanings for the poor and the foreigner. God’s ordinary-care policy.
Point 3 — God moves through what looks like coincidence (Ruth 2:3)
Gospel Connection — The greatest ‘defeat’ that saved the world
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark 15:34; Psalm 22:1, NIV
Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause [the Devil’s cause] is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending to do our Enemy’s will [God’s will], looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys. - C. S. Lewis Screwtape Letters
Naomi lives in the tension between hope and reality. That is, she faces the reality of her circumstances while simultaneously longing for them to be different. She doesn’t collapse the tension but lives in the murky middle. That is faith at its simplest. The result? Her heart breaks. Our modern age removes the tension by dropping either God’s goodness or his power and then drifts into cynicism. It resigns prematurely to the brokenness of life. It gives up. Figure 6.2 captures Naomi’s agony. As a daughter of Yahweh believing in the promises of God, she hopes, but her life is hopeless. The gap between hope and reality is the desert. Naomi’s lament is the prayer of the desert, the agony of living in the tension between hope and reality. – Paul Miller
“at the beginning of the barley harvest,” The harvest is counter to the famine, signaling a change is imminent. Harvest connotes abundance and plentitude, an antidote to Naomi’s identity based in lack and loss. She returns at a time of harvest and the person who accompanies her will literally bear the fruit of the harvest. An allegorical reading of the names has “pleasant” Naomi and Ruth returning to the “fruitful” region (Ephrathah) of the “house of Bread” (Bethlehem). – Fentress-Williams
“The expression miqreh qārah, literally ‘her chance chanced upon,’ is a studied use of ‘chance’ to underscore the hidden hand of God. From the human vantage point Ruth ‘happened’ upon Boaz’s field; from the narrator’s vantage point the divine playwright has already set Boaz on the stage (2:1). What appears accidental is providential.” (Block, on 2:3)
Westminster Confession of Faith 5.1 (Of Providence) “God the great Creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence… according to His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.” (WCF 5.1) Westminster Confession of Faith 5.2 “Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first Cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly: yet, by the same providence, He ordereth them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.” (WCF 5.2)
If you have a God great and transcendent enough to be mad at because he hasn’t stopped evil and suffering in the world, then you have (at the same moment) a God great and transcendent enough to have good reasons for allowing it to continue that you can’t know. Indeed, you can’t have it both ways. If your God is big enough to be mad at because of the evil and suffering in the world, then you have to give your God, at the same time, credit for being wise enough to have reasons for allowing it that you can’t know.” (Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, Chapter 2: How Could a Good God Allow Suffering?)
“Suffering has the power to abduct your thoughts and control your meditation. When it does, your world shrinks down to the size of whatever it is that you are facing. When your suffering shrinks your world, you no longer look at life through the lens of the glory of God’s presence, promises, and power. Instead, you look at life through the small, dark, and deadly lens of the reality of the hardships of life in this fallen world.” (Paul David Tripp, Suffering: Gospel Hope When Life Doesn’t Make Sense, Chapter 2)
Pastor Sam Sutter // Sam@bbcconline.org
