Don’t check out when it gets hard—hang on, because God is still at work, turning bitter chapters into beginnings

The Tragedy: When Life Falls Apart -- Ruth 1:1–5

• “In the days when the judges ruled” signals moral chaos; famine compounds the crisis.
• House of Bread (Bethlehem) is empty; desperation drives a risky move to Moab.
• Loss stacks up: husband gone, then both sons—security, legacy, and future erased.
• Names intensify the ache: “My God is King,” “Pleasant,” and sons whose frailty proves fatal.
• Ruth opens with funerals, not a fairy tale—covenant love is forged in suffering.
  
  

The Bitterness: Suffering Exposes Our Idols -- Ruth 1:20–21

• Naomi renames herself by her pain—Mara—publicly reading her story as ruin.
• Crisis unmasks functional saviors: control, approval, comfort, productivity, escape.
• Modern “Moabs” promise relief but deliver emptiness; false refuges collapse under weight.
• God welcomes honest lament, yet warns against letting bitterness define our identity.
  
  

The Turning: God Moves in the Mess -- Ruth 1:6–7

• While Naomi feels abandoned, the LORD has already “come to the aid” of His people—provision precedes perception.
• Return starts with a rumor of grace and one small step toward home.
• God turns apparent endings into beginnings; He specializes in resurrection stories.
• Ruth’s path points to Bethlehem’s greater Son, the true bread who gives life.

Clinging Through the Chaos -- Ruth 1 (overview)

• Real faith doesn’t avoid hard chapters; it encounters God within them.
• Checking out is easy; covenant love stays, laments, and hopes.
• Your pain isn’t the period—God is writing the next paragraph.
• Bethlehem’s emptiness won’t have the last word; neither will yours.

Take-Home Applications

• Name your “Moab.” Where have you run for relief that leaves you emptier? Write it down and pray Ruth 1:6–7.
• Refuse the rename: when bitterness speaks, answer with Ruth 1:20–21 and God’s promises of presence and provision.
• Bring someone with you: ask a trusted friend to check in—“How is God meeting you in this mess?”

Study Notes

“You were made for relationships This fact takes us back to the beginning. It asks the basic questions, “Who are we, and how important are our relationships?” In Genesis 2:18, God says that it is not good for man to be “alone.” This statement has more to do with God’s design for humanity than Adam’s neediness. God created us to be relational beings because he is a social God. God lives in community within the Trinity as Father, Son, and Spirit, and he made humanity in his image. Genesis 2 is not speaking primarily to Adam’s experience of being lonely as much as it is revealing his nature as the person God created him to be. Because God created a communal being—someone designed for relationships—creation is incomplete without a suitable companion.

Genesis 2 points to the fact that relationships are a core component of who God has designed you to be. Relationship is so important to God that he brings his creative work to a climax by creating Eve. Together she and Adam can experience community—vertical and horizontal—in the presence of the living God.” Lane/Tripp

“Suffering is the crucible for love. We don’t learn how to love anywhere else. Don’t misunderstand; suffering doesn’t create love, but it is a hothouse where love can emerge. Why is that? The great barrier to love is ego, the life of the self. In long-term suffering, if you don’t give in to self-pity, slowly, almost imperceptibly, self dies. This death of self offers ideal growing conditions for love.”  – Paul Miller

Ruth 1.1 “This opening clause forms an inclusio with the historical reference to David in 4:17b so that the leadership vacuum evident during the period of the judges is answered in the ideal king, David.  K. Lawson Younger

1. 5 It is perhaps unusual that the three males of the household should perish. The Talmud regards it as a punishment for leaving Judah (Baba Bathra, 91a). No cause of death is given, but for the purposes of the story this is not important. It is the reactions of the women that matter. Naomi had now been bereaved of husband and all children. She was completely alone. Literally translated, the Hebrew says ‘left from’.
   C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch

Discussion Questions (Nielson)

For a glimpse into the period of the judges (1:1), read Judges 2:6–23 and 21:25. Why might this background be important for understanding the book of Ruth?

Look on a map to find the land of Moab across the Dead Sea from Bethlehem. Moab’s inhabitants were the descendants of an incestuous union between Lot and one of his daughters (Gen. 19:30–38). The Moabites worshiped other gods and were not friends of God’s people (see Numbers 22–25). The story does not directly judge Elimelech, but in what ways might we see his move to Moab as problematic?

Resources

• ESV: Study Bible : English Standard Version. ESV Text ed. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Bibles, 2007.
• Hubbard, Robert L. The Book of Ruth. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1988.
• Keil, Carl Friedrich. Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1865.
• Lane, Timothy S., and Paul David Tripp. Relationships: A Mess worth Making. Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2006.
• Miller, Paul E. A Loving Life: In a World of Broken Relationships. Ill: Crossway, 2014.
• Nielson, Kathleen B. Ruth and Esther: A 12-Week Study. Crossway, 2014.
• Piper, John, and Cory Godbey. Ruth: Under the Wings of God. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010.
• Whitworth, Michael Carr. Bethlehem Road: A Guide to Ruth. Bowie, Texas: Start2Finish Books, 2014.

For next week, read Ruth 1:8-13

Pastor Sam Sutter // Sam@bbcconline.org

‍