21st
October 2018
P.A.Thatcher
The
Mustard Seed Evangelical Church.
Series:
“The best is yet to come!” {Lessons from the book of Ruth Part 4}
Orpah:
On the turning away!
Ruth chapter 1: 6-18
When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his
people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law
prepared to return home from there. With her two daughters-in-law she
left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that
would take them back to the land of Judah.
Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back, each of
you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you
have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. May the Lord
grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another
husband.’
Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud and said to her,
‘We will go back with you to your people.’
But Naomi said, ‘Return home, my daughters. Why would you come
with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your
husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another
husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me – even if I
had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons – would you wait
until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my
daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s
hand has turned against me!’
‘Look,’ said Naomi, ‘your sister-in-law is going back to her
people and her gods. Go back with her.’
But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back
from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.
Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I
will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be
it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.’ When
Naomi realised that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped
urging her.
NIV UK.
In our series “the
best is yet to come,” we have so far concentrated on the main
characters of chapter 1. We saw that Elimelech, whose name means “God
is King,” was guilty of a lack of trust and faith when it came to
matters that affected his family. We saw that Ruth, whose name means
“friend,” was truly a friend to her mother-in-law but was also a
friend the Naomi's family, friends, nation and most importantly she
was a friend of God. Last time we saw that Naomi, whose name means
pleasant, even though she was embittered by the dire circumstances
that she found herself in was a truly pleasant believer.
This week we will
consider Orpah, whose name means “back of the neck.” Her name
suggests that she turns her back against difficult issues. Orpah, is
one who could be accused of burying her head in the sand, or of
deserting the cause. She would be one of those who, when the going
gets tough, Orpah gets going! Our title is “on the turning away,”
from this we will consider the various aspects that caused that
turning away.
We see from the
verses that we read, that Orpah:
- Started on the journey.
- Listened to the voice of reason.
- Missed out on true blessing.
Orpah started on
the journey:
Great news had been
heard, the Lord had come to the aid of His people. As a good Moabite,
Orpah knew that the children of Israel were special to God Almighty.
They had their own gods, but they were weak efforts next to the God
of Israel. They were impotent whereas, Yahweh was Almighty. The
Moabites who were descendants of Lot, Abraham's nephew, they knew the
stories of Yahweh's might, power and His provision. They had been a
nation that had come under the direct judgement of God, and even
though they did not follow Him or worship Him, they knew much of Him.
Now the news is out, the famine is over and Israel are blessed again.
This news was brought to the family, whilst they were immigrants in
Moab. Naomi is up and going and both Ruth and Orpah are on their way,
with her.
If she had completed
the journey, then Orpah would have gone to the place of God's
blessing. It was her decision to go this far as is proven by the
conversation that she has with Naomi. Naomi attempted to send her and
Ruth back, and both of them protest and vow to travel with her. It
was a tearful experience and I am sure that Orpah was sincere in her
tears for Naomi and also for her decision to go along with her to
Bethlehem. But. As we know, Orpah did not remain resolved to go! We
will return to that theme in a few moments, but we must first assess
what is happening.
The Lord Jesus told
a parable of the sower, which Matthew, Mark and Luke record. As you
may recall, the good seed was scattered and it fell on any one of
four different soils. Some fell on the good ground and was fruitful,
but others fell on the path, amongst the rocks or in the weed patch,
the result of each of these seeds was death and unfruitfulness. I
could apply all three of them to Orpah's experience. The seed, which
is the Word of God, which fell on the path was eaten up by the birds
and came to nothing. The seed that fell on rocky soil, at first
looked promising because it seemed to flourish quickly until the sun
became very hot and then it withered and died. The seed that fell
amongst the weeds, grew for a while and then was choked by the weeds
that demand the water and nutrients that are required for life to
grow and become fruitful.
Orpah, by the same
assessment that we made of Ruth, knew much of the word of God from
the family into which she had married. That word as we know will not
mature and bring forth fruit because Orpah deserts the cause. There
are of course mitigating circumstances that cause Orpah to go on her
way. Naomi is particularly persuasive, we will return to that in a
moment, but we must say that Orpah chose the way that she went. It
was by her free will that she went back. Even though it was an
emotional parting, Orpah freely separated herself from the family of
God.
Now let us just
apply this to the church today. The people of God in the Old
Testament equate to the church of today. We are equally His nation,
we each have families that are just as complex as this family that we
are studying. We have those who are born into the family, those who
are adsorbed into the family. We all dearly want our family to love
and belong to the church. Our families, before they know God for
themselves, rely on us to bring them into fellowship. Therefore all
that they know of Christ and His church will almost certainly come
from our influence on them. We are often the only bible that they
will read and so we want them to know our Saviour by who we are. Just
as Ruth did from Naomi!
All along that road,
each one of them makes a decision as to whether to follow us to the
place of blessing or to reject that road. Our responsibility is to be
the best Christians that we can be in order that nothing about us
causes them to desert the road to Christ. I would suggest that it was
the personal decision of Orpah that caused her to refuse to go into
the promised land. Her tears tell us that it was a wrench to do so,
but she simply did not want to belong to the people of God.
That having been
said, we must also consider what it was that finally caused her to
turn away.
Orpah listened to
the voice of reason:
As we saw when we
considered Naomi, her voice of reason was not at all reasonable.
God's people are not only called to live a Godly life, that shows
others that God is really Saviour. But we are also called as
ambassadors of Christ who plead with others to be reconciled to God!
That is the gospel message, the problem with Naomi was that she
preached another gospel. She had the message of, go and be happy and
don't worry about blessing with the people of God.
In this case it
reared it's ugly head with what appeared to be completely reasonable,
rational and caring. It might seem reasonable to remind Orpah that
Naomi was too old to have sons and to rear them to be a Levirate
father to continue the family line. It is certainly true and logical,
but that ignores the word of God which makes provision for such
circumstances. The reason is bogus.
It might seem to be
caring to send her back to her family and into the arms of a Moabite
man as a husband, but again that is the most uncaring act of all.
Orpah was being sent by Naomi into Moab and outside of God's covenant
care.
It might seem to be
rational to send her back to her way of worship, but that is more
than irrational, it is against God's command that even in the Old
Testament was that His people should be lights to the nations, that
attract people to Him just as a moth is attracted to a light source
on a dark night.
These were the words
of Naomi to both Orpah and Ruth, and Orpah took them to heart and
left. The result of that decision was that she was no longer living
amongst God's people and being gospel influenced by them.
Let us consider this
for ourselves today. We so easily do the same thing today. We do it
in the family, are we keen to bring family, friends, neighbours to
the church in order that they might hear the gospel and be saved? Or
do we shy away from the invite for all sorts of reasons. Perhaps your
reason is as I guess Naomi's might have been, that of shame when they
meet our fellow believers. What will your contact think of your
brothers and sisters in Christ, is often a barrier, after all
Christians might just spill the beans on what the Christian life
should be like, and would that add up to the example that we have
made? It is easy also to be scared of bringing them into the church
because we can never be sure how the church would accept them. That
was so often true in Israel, it must never be true here. Sadly I do
believe that it is a problem amongst us. We must be prepared to
accept any who join with us!
O our family and
friends see gospel truth in all that we are, do they want to know
about Jesus because they know we love Him, or are they ignorant of
our faith? I pray that is not the case.
Is our voice of
reason the cross of Christ, or is it the fellowship of the church? We
only have the cross to preach, the cross where Jesus died as the
atoning sacrifice for our sins. It is the place where God's anger is
turned away from us and onto Christ for the redemption of our souls.
Our salvation is accomplished by Him alone, it is not the decision to
go with Naomi that saved Ruth, it was her personal faith in God that
changed her into a child of the living God. Deciding to go to the
promised land would not have saved Orpah, she had one thing missing,
it was something that no amount of persuading would change, it was
faith in God that she lacked.
On the other side of
the coin, we must say that no amount of persuasion, either to follow
or to leave really makes no difference either. Naomi persuaded Orpah
to leave and then focussed on Ruth but Ruth would not be persuaded.
The difference was that God was at work in Ruth, He was calling her!
Just as He called Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Samuel, Saul of Tarsus and
you and me. He called Ruth to salvation. We must be about the
business of bringing others to the promises of God in order that He
save those to whom He chooses.
Finally:
Orpah missed out
on the blessing:
- The blessing of meeting the people of God.
- The blessing of seeing the delight that the people of Bethlehem had over one member who had gone away but had now returned.
- The blessing of seeing god provision for His poor people.
- The blessing of seeing His protection through His Godly people.
- The blessing of seeing the Bridegroom.
- The blessing of a future family, through a son.
- The blessing of seeing Naomi holding a grandson.
- The blessing of heaven!
Let us make sure as
far as it is possible to make sure our friends, family, neighbours,
contacts do not miss out on the blessing of God found in Jesus
Christ. Let us do all that is in our power to make sure for them
there is no turning away.
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