Ruth and Orpah - Glenn Conjurske

Ruth and Orpah

The land of Judah was God’s land, the land that he had promised to Abraham and to his seed for ever. It was the holy land, the land where God’s temple was, the land where God’s people were. In the time of famine, the time of difficulty, Elimelech had left God’s land and gone to the heathen land of Moab, and there he had died, and his two sons had died. His wife was left alone with her two daughters in law. Now Naomi set her heart to go back to the land of Israel, which was God’s land. I’m going to speak of this tonight as returning from the world back to God, back to his land, his temple, his people, his things. I believe what this represents to us is the soul’s setting out on the way from the world to heaven, from darkness to light, from Satan to God, from sin to holiness—-setting out on that journey the end of which is heaven, salvation, and eternal life.

Now there are two such souls here—-Ruth and Orpah—-who set out to make that journey. One of them made that journey and reached the land of promise. One of them went a little way on the road and turned back. These represent many souls who set out for salvation and heaven and eternal life. Among all those who set out, there are few who finish. Among all those who begin the race, there are few who finish it. There are many who set out on the journey. There are many that at some point in their life make a determination—-“I am going to leave this heathen life; I am going to turn to God; I am going to set out on the journey for heaven and eternal life”—-and they actually do set out on the journey, as Ruth and Orpah did, but at some point along the way they turn back.

Now it usually happens that they turn back very near the beginning of the way, and this is what Orpah also did. You know, the further down the road a person goes, the harder it becomes to turn back. At the beginning it’s easy to turn back, and this in fact is where most professed converts do turn back. The Bible talks about those who hear the word and immediately with joy receive it, but they have no root in themselves. They believe for a while, and in the time of tribulation or persecution they fall away. When something comes up that they hadn’t reckoned on, when it appears to them that the cost is greater than they thought it was going to be, they fall away, they turn back.

Now one of these girls did turn back, and one of them didn’t. I want to talk to you about these two girls that set out on the road to the land of promise, and what became of them. Often two people profess to be converted at the same time, and if you would observe these two during the early stages of their professed Christian life, you may not be able to discover any difference between them. They do the same things; they give up the same things; they embrace the same things on the other side; they speak the same language; they sing the same songs. They all pass out tracts, and witness, and make the same kind of plans to serve God, and they go on side by side for a little while, and then one turns back. I can think of examples exactly like that. In fact, I can even think of examples where two persons apparently started out together for heaven and eternal life, and one of them seemed a little more decided and a little more zealous than the other one, and that one that seemed a little more decided and a little more zealous is the one that turned back.

Well, in light of all this you ought to understand that there is some danger involved. You want to make sure that you are inside the narrow gate and on the narrow road. You want to make your calling and election sure. Just because you set out on the road for heaven and eternal life doesn’t mean you are going to end up there. Many set out and never finish. Jonathan Edwards said in his time, when they had great revivals and apparently a great many converts, he said that the number of real converts that appear to be holding out after a number of years is about like the number of apples on the fruit tree in the Fall, compared to the number of blossoms that there were in the Spring. Great many blossoms on a tree, but they don’t all bring forth fruit. Some of them just bloom and fall away. And by the way, the test of salvation in the New Testament parable that I already referred to, the parable of the sower, the test is bringing forth fruit.

Now let’s take a look at Ruth and Orpah. Verse 6 says, “Then she arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread.” The motive here for leaving the land of Moab, and setting out for the land of Israel, was bread, and there’s nothing wrong with this. This was the motive of the prodigal son when he turned from the far country, left the riotous living, the harlots, and the wasting of his father’s substance all behind him, and turned his back on it all. The motive was, “I perish with hunger, and in my father’s house is bread enough and to spare.” In other words, God has something to offer you. He has an eternal feast that he’s going to spread out before you. He has something to give you. He has bread, something to satisfy the hunger in your soul—-and there’s not a thing in the world wrong with that being your motive for setting out on that journey to heaven and eternal life. That’s the motive God gives you. There’s bread in the promised land: let’s make the journey—-let’s get the bread. Bread enough and to spare in my Father’s house, and I perish with hunger.

So they set out to get the bread, and it says, “Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters in law with her; and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah. And Naomi said unto her two daughters in law, Go, return each to her mother’s house: the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me. The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept.” (Verses 7-9). Now I used to have a great deal of difficulty with this thing that Naomi did. A lot of other Christians have a great deal of difficulty understanding this. Here is this woman who knows God, and she is setting out to return to the promised land from the land of Moab, and two young ladies want to go with her—-they want to forsake the gods of Moab and go to the land where they might learn of the true God, the land where God’s house and God’s people are. They’re going to forsake the heathen people and the heathen gods where they were brought up, and they set out on the road, and Naomi begins to labor with them to turn them back! Now some folks explain this this way: Naomi was just an old dried up, backslidden, bitter Christian, and she had so much bitterness in her heart, and so much unbelief in her heart, that she stood in the way of these girls coming to God. You can think that if you want to. I’m not going to try to explain why Naomi did what she did, but I believe that in the allegorical application which I’m making of this passage tonight Naomi did the right thing. I do it myself all the time.

What! You labor to turn people back? Well, yes, I do. The Lord Jesus did, too. He had great multitudes following him, and he turned to them and began to speak hard sayings to them in order to turn them back. You may see an example of this in the book of Luke, the fourteenth chapter, verse 25. “And there went great multitudes with him.” Now this is the Saviour of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came down to seek and to save that which was lost, who came to preach the gospel to the poor, to give sight to the blind, to heal the broken-hearted, and so forth. The Saviour of the world has great multitudes following him. You would think he would rejoice in that fact. You would think he would have encouraged them to come on, and to pursue after him to heaven and eternal life, but it says in Luke 14:25, “And there went great multitudes with him, and he turned and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” He then goes on to press them to count the cost, and not begin unless they are sure they can finish, and tells them further, “whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” All of this amounts to one thing: that when Christ sees these great multitudes following him, he turns to them—-doesn’t preach encouraging things, doesn’t turn to them and preach soft words—-he turns to them and preaches the hardest conditions that he could. You must hate your father and mother—-hate your wife and children—-hate your brothers and sisters—-hate your own life also—-forsake all that you have—-or you cannot be my disciple.

Now why did Christ preach such things? It wasn’t because he didn’t want the people to follow him truly to eternal life. It was because he didn’t want false followers that were only half committed and only half converted. He wanted real ones, or none at all. And therefore he labored to turn them back. He did the same thing in the sixth chapter of John, where he had great multitudes following him, and he turned to them and preached hard sayings, and multitudes of them turned back, and walked no more with him. Then he turned to the twelve, and said, “Will ye also go away?” And Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” He had the true disciples left, and that’s what he wanted.

Now Naomi back in the book of Ruth does exactly the same thing. She has these two girls setting out from this heathen land and from these heathen gods to the land of Israel and to the God of Israel, and she begins to labor as soon as they get on the road to turn them back. She says to them, “Go back.” Well, you know it’s the same thing that Elijah said to Elisha. “Go back.” I don’t want anything here but absolute, whole-hearted commitment. If you want to go kiss your father and mother first, just go back. And to the young man who made the same request in Luke 9:61, the Lord Jesus said, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” So Naomi labors to turn these two young ladies back. I believe she was doing the right thing.

Now she actually succeeded in turning one back. But let’s go on. Verse 10—-“And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.” And this is the first thing that I want you to see in which Ruth and Orpah were identical: they said to her, Surely we will return with thee. They both said the same thing, and my first point tonight is, TALK IS CHEAP. How many times have you heard sinners making great professions

—-“I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest”—-and the next thing you know they’ve turned back. Talk is cheap. In fact, talk is so cheap that I have learned in my years of experience to pay no attention at all to talk. For every real Christian in the world, there are a thousand that can talk the language. Talk is cheap. There are a thousand that can make great professions—-say all the right things—-make great professions of commitment when they don’t have a bit of it in their hearts—-make great professions of righteousness and holiness, and they don’t have any of it. Talk is cheap. He says, “Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest”—-and probably means it, too—-and the Lord says one little thing to him, and he turns back. Talk is cheap.

Now you’ve got these two young ladies both saying the same thing. They’re both very decided about it: “Surely we will return with thee,” absolutely. When Naomi had pressed them to go back, they answered, “Surely we will, we’re determined, surely we will return with thee, we have made up our minds”—-and just a little way down the road, one of these young ladies that was saying “surely we will” had turned back.

Well, Naomi doesn’t stop there. She labors a little further to turn them back. Verse 11—-“And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? Are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also tonight, and should also bear sons, would ye tarry for them till they were grown? Would ye stay for them from having husbands? Nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me.” Now here you see Naomi doing exactly the same thing that the Lord Jesus did in the fourteenth chapter of Luke. He labored with the people to get them to count the cost. He says, “Which of you building a tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it.” “Understand, now, Ruth, understand, Orpah, if you’re going to leave this land of Moab and go to the land of Israel, understand that it’s going to cost you something. You young ladies want a husband. Where are you going to get one? Where are you going to find a husband in the land of Israel? Who in the land of Israel is going to marry a woman of Moab? These are gentile dogs. You understand? It’s going to cost you.” And so she says, “Nay, my daughters, why will you follow me? Go back! Go back and find a husband! Go back and find rest!”

Now these two girls respond again, and you see the second point in which they are identical. Verse 14—-“They lifted up their voice, and wept again.” We already read back in verse 9, “Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice, and wept.” Twice now along this road these two young ladies are equal. And my second point is, TEARS ARE CHEAP. Tears are not as cheap as talk—-I’ll grant you that—-not as cheap as talk, but they’re cheap enough.

I believe sometimes tears are an indication of reality. I heard the testimony of a young lady years ago when I was in Bible school, who said that she had been demon-possessed, and for long months she had tried to pray, but the demons wouldn’t let her. They would torment her, twist her ankles, and put her in excruciating pain every time she tried to pray. But others were praying for her, and eventually the power of the demons was broken, and she was enabled to pray, and in speaking of this she said, “I knew it was real, because I was weeping, and I hadn’t wept for years.” Sometimes tears are worth something, but sometimes they are awfully cheap. They don’t prove anything. There are thousands of souls that have wept over their sins, and died and gone to hell. Tears are cheap. These two girls both wept alike, Ruth and Orpah. Both wept and made great professions of commitment, and in a little while one of them had turned back, and the other went on to salvation and eternal life.

Now the third thing I wish to point out is that these two girls were identical for a little while in what they did. I want you to turn back to the seventh verse. It says, “Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters in law with her, and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah.” Both of them did the same thing. They both set out from the land of Moab. They both left the heathen people and the heathen gods, and they both went on the way. They didn’t just think about it. They didn’t just talk about it. Both of them actually did it. They both actually set out on the way, and the third point tonight is that ACTIONS ARE CHEAP.

You know, in the New Testament we read an account of Herod the king, who was a wicked man. He had taken his brother’s wife. John the Baptist reproved Herod, and said, “It is not lawful for thee to have her.” Herod took John the Baptist and shut him up in prison. Now it says that while John the Baptist was in prison, Herod knew that he was a just and holy man, and he feared him, and heard him gladly, and did many things. ACTION! and it was cheap. You may know that somebody has the truth of God, you may esteem him as a servant of Christ, and hear him gladly, and do many things according to his preaching, and it all be very cheap, and you go to hell at the last anyway.

Talk is cheap, very cheap. Tears are cheap—-not as cheap as talk, but still tears are cheap enough. Even actions are cheap—-not as cheap as talk, not as cheap as tears, but cheap enough. Now it says that Herod heard John the Baptist gladly, and did many things. This can only have one meaning. It means that when Herod heard John preach, he did those things which John’s preaching required. John preached some pretty strict standards, which you can read about elsewhere in the New Testament. Herod heard him, listened gladly, and changed his ways. He reformed his life right across the board. He “did many things,” but it was all cheap. He “did many things” that didn’t cost him very much, and all the while he had his brother’s wife in his bosom and the prophet of God in his prison. And all those many things that he did weren’t worth a straw, because he didn’t go all the way. After hearing the greatest prophet that ever walked the earth, after hearing him gladly and doing many things that he preached to him, he died a fearful death and went to hell. He “did many things,” but it was all cheap—-didn’t go deep enough, didn’t go far enough.

Well, Ruth and Orpah were also identical in this, that they both engaged in the same course of action. They both set off from the land of Moab. They both left the heathen gods. They both set out with Naomi, and actually went on the way to the land of Judah. And after all of her tears and all of her talk, all of her great professions, all of her “surely we will go,” and after she actually set out on the way, Orpah turned back.

Well, what am I saying? Am I saying that there isn’t any security? Am I saying you can’t know if you’re going to turn back or not? No, I’m not saying that. The Bible says you make your calling and election sure, and you can. There is one thing I want you to see here about Ruth, wherein she differed from Orpah. It says in verse 14, “And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law, but Ruth clave to her. And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.” Naomi started to labor to turn the other one back also. “And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.” What Ruth had is that she was steadfastly minded to go. It was something that was thought out, the cost was counted, and she was steadfastly determined. I believe there may be room for self-deception here, but I also believe the old proverb speaks true when it says, “Every man knows his own heart best.” You can be determined in such a way that you cannot turn back. Years ago, nearly 25 years ago, I imbibed from the Bible many of the principles that I stand for today. I had just graduated from Bible school, and I was rooming with a young man who had also gone to Bible school with me. He was working as a janitor at a large fundamental Bible Church. I was of course preaching to him the truth that I stood for, and he readily embraced what I was preaching, and went down to the church where he was working and began to preach it to the old pastor there. And the old pastor said to him, “Son, when I was about your age, I used to think that way too, but you’ll get over it.” He came home and told me that, and I looked him in the eye and pointed my finger at him and said, “I will never get over it”—-and I never did. He did—-didn’t take him very long, either. But you see, even then there was a difference in the heart.

I believe there was a difference in the heart between Ruth and Orpah also. Ruth had counted the cost, and she was steadfastly determined. You can be that. If you’re only playing games at Christianity—-doing many things like Herod did, but never going all the way with it—-you’re likely to turn back in a minute. But if you count the cost, and take all the action that God requires of you, and are steadfastly determined in your heart that you will never turn back, I believe you can make your calling and election sure. I believe God himself will labor to turn you back if you’re half-hearted and half committed. God himself will put obstacles in your way. What about these people in the parable of the sower who believed for a while, but when tribulation or persecution arose because of the word, they fell away? God could have prevented any such tribulation or persecution from coming. God could have said, “These poor folks are too weak to bear tribulation or persecution, and I’ll just shield them from it.” He could have, but he didn’t. He wasn’t interested in babying half-converted folks along the way to eternal life—-for it would end up being eternal damnation anyway. God didn’t baby them. He just let the tribulation and persecution come, and turn them back. He just let the storm beat upon the house on the sand, and let it fall.

I won’t accuse Orpah of playing games at it. I think she was serious. She made great professions, and she took action, and she shed tears, but she wasn’t steadfastly minded to go forward through thick and thin. Perhaps she hadn’t counted the cost, and when she clearly saw what the cost was, she turned back. Whatever her reason was, she did turn back—-back to her heathen people, back to her heathen gods, back to sin and damnation.

Let’s pray. Father, thank you for this solemn record of Ruth and Orpah. God, paint this picture before our eyes—-engrave it on our hearts—-one with steadfast determination going forward to eternal life, and one after all her talk and tears and actions turning back to eternal damnation. God, help us to make our calling and election sure. Amen.

Glenn Conjurske