Love Your Mom
Ruth 1:16-18
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 anything but death separates you and me."
NIV
Love Your Mom
(Ruth 1:16-18)
Intro:
A. There are so many moms in the Bible. The first mom in the Bible is Eve. By the way, her name is only mentioned 4 times in the entire Bible, just for trivia sake. The word/name Eve means “living, or making alive.” While Adam was made from the earth itself, woman (Eve) was created from a bone of Adam. Eve is recorded as the mother of Cain, Able and Seth, but the assumption is she had lots of children.
B. Another famous mom was the wife of Abraham. Sarah did not become a mom until she was 90. Granted she lived until 127, but still, the Bible states that she was well past child bearing years and that her pregnancy was miraculous.
C. Of course, I have to mention Mary, the mother of Jesus? While it was a miracle for Sarah to get pregnant at her age, the pregnancy of Mary was a miracle. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary became “with child” and therefore, Jesus could be call the “holy, the Son of God.”
D. The Bible tells us about good moms and others who are far from good. But today, I want to share about a person who loved her mother-in-law. The story of Ruth is one that we often overlook, but her story of love for Naomi give us life lessons in what it means to love your mom.
I. A Sad Beginning
A. The book of Ruth, doesn’t start with her story, but starts with a sad life experience (READ Ruth 1:1). It wasn’t just selling the family land and moving to a different country, but Elimelech takes his wife and two son to a very ungodly country because he believes there is more hope there than if he stayed in Bethlehem.
B. But Moab was not the land of opportunity Elimelech wanted. READ Ruth 1:3-4. I can assure you that not every Mother’s Day is a Hallmark movie. Death swallowed up Naomi. Her husband died, boys married and then both of them died at some point early in their marriages.
C. The old saying is, “when live gives you lemons, make lemonade.” The truth is sometimes you can’t find any way to make good out of the trials, difficulties or sadness in life. Don’t quote to me Rom. 8:28 about how all things work together for good to them that love the Lord, when things are not working together for good. What you are telling me is that I am not good or that God doesn’t love me because of the trials I face. When a person is in pain, be careful about how you judge their actions.
D. As much pain as we hear in the opening verses, we find love from her daughters-in-law that is incredible. When Naomi tries to release them from the Jewish teaching by telling them she would not have any more children and even if she did they would not wait to marry them. (Ruth 1:14)
E. When it comes to Mother’s Day, I have one statement that I can say based upon God’s Word: Love your mom. Mother’s come in all types. Most think about Mother’s Day in light of the woman who gave them birth, but Ruth becomes an example of how we can honor those who are mother figures in our life.
II. Ruth’s Love for Naomi
A. We have no idea of how old Ruth was when she first married Mahlon, but it appears she was very young. We believe that she was married for about 10 years when her husband died, yet in chapter 2 she is considered a “young woman.” During her first marriage she had not children, but she did seem to become very close to Naomi and to the God of the Israelite, most likely a proselyte to the Jewish faith.
B. When Naomi tries to send the girls back to their own families and Orpah does leave, we get a strong statement from Ruth (READ Ruth 1:16-18).
C. The devotion to is not just to Naomi, but also to the Jewish faith. Ruth doesn’t want what Moab or the people of Moab offer, she wants Naomi and what the God of Naomi can offer. While Naomi saw only the hardship as God’s hand against her, Ruth saw something else, and desired it more than her family and people. Faith before family.
D. Ruth sees more in her mother-in-law than Naomi saw in herself. Love your mom for who God has made her to be, not even how she may see herself. I hope you take hold of the faith that Ruth had and make that faith more important than even family. Give yourself to Jesus and in doing so you will honor your mother – no matter how she sees herself.
E. I think about wonderful, faithful and godly moms in the Bible and how their faith affected their children. I think about Jochebed, the mother of Moses; Hannah the mother of Samuel; Lois and Eunice the mother and grandmother of Timothy and I know that when mom’s show and share faith, kids benefit.
F. I also think how Ruth looked to Naomi for advice on how to live. Naomi guided her through the courtship and helped her to do what needed to be done to let Boaz know she is available. I will say, I didn’t turn to my mom for dating advice, but I did tell my mom the first time I kissed Kerri. But my point is simply, don’t be afraid to ask godly mom’s for advice on how life should be lived. They might have more wisdom than you realize.
G. The last point I want to bring out is that Naomi was reminded about how good it was to have a daughter like Ruth. At the end of the book, when Ruth and Boaz marry they have a child whom Naomi holds and hears the ladies of Bethlehem say, “your daughter-in-law who loves you, is worth more to you than seven sons.” Just love your mom, your mother figures, your mother-in-law so that they know they are loved.
Conclusion:
A. I think about my mom on Mother’s Day every year. Growing up I was very close to my mom. She was often the cheerleader I needed. I was not as gifted academically as my brother and sister, I was not as gifted in sports as they were and I was a fairly awkward child. But I always knew my mom loved me.
B. Sunday, May 13, 2007 was Mother’s Day. My mom would die just 4 days later. I think about my mom and what she is not here to see with her own eyes, but I trust God is letting her know how loved she is.
C. Life was not easy for Naomi, but Ruth became a blessing she needed. Through the marriage of Boaz (whose mother was Rahab, a non-Jew from Jericho) and Ruth (the Moabite) came the child Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David who became King over Israel and through that line would come Joseph who was the earthly father figure of Jesus.
D. My point is simply this: You don’t know the future. You don’t know how God can take pain, suffering, and even death and use it to bring about something great. Naoimi could not know that due to the death of her son she would be a part of the line of Jesus, who was born in that same little town of Bethlehem where the story of Ruth finds fulfillment.
Because of Jesus,
Jeffrey Dillinger, minister