THE BEGINNING OF THE BARLEY HARVEST (Ruth 1:14-22)
INTRODUCTION:
This morning we will finish chapter one of Ruth, it has only taken me three Sundays. Last week we looked at Ruth’s willingness to abandon her country, her people, her family, and her religion to go with Naomi to the land of Judah. We also saw her resolve to allow Naomi to show her where to go; to make Naomi’s dwelling place, her dwelling place; Naomi’s people, her people; and Naomi’s God, her God. Finally, we saw that her resolve was a lifelong commitment in that she would die where Naomi died and would be buried near her.
This morning we will witness Ruth’s determination and Naomi’s bitterness and the joy associated with the beginning of the barley harvest. Let’s pray and then get into the rest of chapter one.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Ruth 1:14-22 again this morning. We will be focusing mainly on verses 17 – 22. Please, if you are able, stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along while I read.
Ruth 1:14-22,
“And they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. Then she said, ‘Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law.’ But Ruth said, ‘Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.’ When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her. So they both went until they came to Bethlehem. And when they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was stirred because of them, and the women said, ‘Is this Naomi?’ She said to them, ‘Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?’ So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the land of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.” (Ruth 1:14–22, NASB95)[1]
RUTH’S DETERMINATION (Ruth 1:14-18)
Last week we looked in detail at Ruth’s choice to abandon all that was familiar to her and her resolve to go with Naomi to a place she did not know. Ruth saw something in the life of Naomi, at least, that made her determined to go with her back to the land of Judah. It was Naomi’s testimony or that of Ruth’s husband or father-in-law or brother-in-law that caused her to willingly abandon her former life and to move forward into a place, a people, and a country that she did not know, and to willingly abandon her religion to take Naomi’s God as her God and put her faith and future in His hands.
Ruth resolved to go with Naomi without knowing what the future held for her. Naomi was clear that she had no more sons who Ruth could marry to carry on the line of Elimelech and Mahlon. But she was so determined to go with her mother-in-law, that neither the uncertainties of her future, nor the words of Naomi to try to persuade her to go back, nor the example of Orpah returning to her people and her gods succeeded to turn her back from the choice she had made. When Naomi heard and saw Ruth’s determination and her oath that the LORD do to her and worse if anything, but death parted her from Naomi, she said no more to her. Ruth had stood the required test and now all the obstacles, all the arguments were removed. And the history of mankind was shaped by that decision.
Last week I spoke briefly of the humility that Ruth showed in determining to go with Naomi. From these verses we see another admirable trait, determination or as the older versions call it steadfastness. This word means to be fixed in position, to be unwavering, to be firm in purpose. This is a quality that Christ desires of His children, that we be steadfast in our faith and the outworking of our faith, that we are unwavering in our belief. Paul after his great discourse on the resurrection encouraged the Corinthians with these final words in 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 15:58, NASB95)[2] Be steadfast, unwavering in your faith in Christ. So, it was with Ruth, her determination or the steadfastness of her resolve convinced Naomi that she would not be deterred from going with her and she allowed Ruth to follow her.
NAOMI’S BITTERNESS (Ruth 1:19-21)
Continuing on their journey we simply read that they both went on until they arrived at Bethlehem. We are told nothing of the trip between Moab and Bethlehem. What did the women talk about, what did they think about? Where did they stay as they journeyed? The trip would have taken several days, did they face any hardships on their way to Bethlehem. We get a little glimpse of what went on in Naomi’s mind as she made this trip from Moab to Bethlehem in Judah by how she responds to the women of Bethlehem.
When Naomi and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem, we are told that it caused quite a stir and tongues started wagging as they do so readily in small communities. I remember when we lived in Summit, South Dakota one of the men in the church commented one day that he couldn’t even drop a wrench in his driveway that the whole town didn’t know about it. That is the idea here with the stir caused by Naomi and Ruth’s arrival. Some of the older women recognize Naomi, but her appearance caused alarm, and the women began to ask one another, “Is this Naomi?” (Ruth 1:19b, NASB95)[3] Naomi and Ruth are like storm-battered ships limping into harbor. Neither of them are in good shape after their long journey. Ruth is a complete stranger in Bethlehem, and Naomi, while still herself, is also not herself. She is not like the Naomi that went away, and she knows it. In verses 20-21 we read her response to the women asking if she is Naomi. We read, “She said to them, ‘Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?’” (Ruth 1:20–21, NASB95)[4] Naomi’s response to the women of Bethlehem shows that she believes she did wrong when she went away and the death of her husband and sons is how she has been punished for it. Is she right, or is this her grief talking. After all the famine was real, she was a wife and mother with a family to feed. What else could she have done? Would staying in those circumstances have been any better than going away? And the decision to leave had not been hers. Remember what verse one of this chapter said, “Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons.” (Ruth 1:1, NASB95)[5] Naomi lived in a patriarchal society, and when her husband went away, she went with him, as she was bound to do. Others may have stayed, whether that was right or wrong or wise or unwise, but Naomi had no choice in the matter. But for Naomi all this was irrelevant. She offers no justification and no excuses. “I went away,” that is how she sees the situation, “and God has punished me for it,” she says in essence. So bad and so ashamed Naomi feels at that moment that she does not want to be called Naomi (which means pleasant) but instead wants to be called Mara (which means bitter). Naomi was who she was, Mara is who she has become. Back in verse 13 she spoke of it being harder for her then for Ruth and Orpah, the literal translation is, “it is more bitter for me than for you, for the hand of the LORD has gone forth against me.” There bitter referred to how she felt about what had happened. But in verse 20 it has to do with the severity of the events themselves, especially the loss of her husband and her two sons. “…the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.” (Ruth 1:20b, NASB95)[6] She returns to Bethlehem full of bitter memories.
This we can understand from the grief that she is experiencing. Less understandable and certainly less justifiable is the word “empty” in verse 21. “’I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.’” (Ruth 1:21a, NASB95)[7] This statement simply is not true. She may feel empty, but in truth she comes back with two significant assets. The last chapter of the book will reveal that she still has a parcel of land she inherited from Elimelech. And more significantly she has her daughter-in-law who has pledged undying loyalty to her. How sad Ruth must have felt to hear the word “empty” fall from Naomi’s lips, because it rated Ruth’s own value as nothing. Maybe she saw Ruth as an embarrassment since she was a foreigner. Naomi’s perception at this point is so distorted by pain that she can see nothing good in her situation. Worst of all, her perception of God is twisted. She can only see Him as her judge, so that even bringing her back is further humiliation that He has inflicted on her. Naomi arrives back in Bethlehem a bitter woman, with a very poor view of God and very low expectations. But God is at work to change that poor view she has of Him and blow her low expectations completely away.
BEGINNING OF HARVEST (Ruth 1:22)
Verse 22 sums up the chapter by telling us that Naomi has returned to her hometown and with her Ruth. Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned with her from the land of Moab. Making very clear that Ruth was a foreigner here. She came to Bethlehem in Judah, a place she did not know, and to a people who despised and hated her people. No wonder tongues were waging.
Then we have a very interesting side note giving us the time when they returned. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest. This was the early springtime, barley was the first of the grain that ripens in the Spring, barley is the “first fruits” of the earth. The first fruits hold a special meaning in Scripture and have a very important spiritual significance. In the first place, the beginning of harvest was a time of joy, and for one to come at the beginning of the barley harvest you were in time to partake of the joy and blessings of the entire harvest.
For us to understand the special significance of the beginning of barley harvest, we must look at the feasts of the Lord which the Israelites were commanded to keep year after year. Moses had recorded and described them, and given the order of their observance in the 23rd chapter of Leviticus. The first of the feasts to be observed was the Passover, which came on the 14th day of the first month in Israel’s calendar, and the Passover is a type for us, and the antitype or the fulfillment of that type is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the shedding of His blood as the Lamb of God for the redemption of His people and the forgiveness of their sins. The Apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthian 5:7 that Christ, our Passover has been sacrificed. In 1 Peter 1:18-19 we read, “…knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” (1 Peter 1:18–19, NASB95)[8] Each one of these feasts described for us in Leviticus, beginning with the Passover and ending with the feast of Tabernacles (which is a foreshadowing of the Millennium), corresponds with some specific aspect of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The second feast is the Passover Supper, following immediately upon the Passover Sacrifice which foreshadowed the communion of the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus indicating that the immediate result of His death would be a company of people, a fellowship or communion of people sharing together the benefits of His sacrifice. This is what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 when he says, “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:16–17, NASB95)[9]
The third feast is the feast of First Fruits which is the feast in which we are especially interested in this morning. The command to the people concerning this feast is recorded in Leviticus 23:10-11 and says, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.’” (Leviticus 23:10–11, NASB95)[10] This feast very definitely foreshadowed the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, as the New Testament plainly declares and as the feast itself clearly indicates. Paul speaking of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ in 1 Corinthians 15:20 wrote, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.” (1 Corinthians 15:20, NASB95)[11] This feast and what it foreshadowed is full of truth for us. This present age, the age of grace our Lord compared to a great harvest field, in which the whole world is the field, and the Gospel, or the Word of God is the good seed, and the harvest is at the end of the age. And just as the beginning of the harvest season in Israel was marked by the feast of First Fruits, and the waving before the LORD of the sheaf of first-ripe grain, coming up from the earth after the death of winter, so the beginning of the age of grace, or the age of the church was marked by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, which brought joy greater than the joy of harvest to Christ’s disciples.
What is unique about this feast is that the sheaf of first fruits was to be waved before the LORD on the day after the Sabbath, in other words on the first day of the week, Sunday. The feast of First Fruits, in the year in which our Lord was crucified, fell on the 17th day of the first month, three days after the Passover, resurrection day. The words, “He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted…” (Leviticus 23:11a, NASB95)[12] indicates what the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is to His people. Paul describes what this is to God’s people from our Scripture reading this morning in Romans 4:25, “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.” (Romans 4:25, NASB95)[13] Since it was for our sins He was delivered to the executioners and put to death, His resurrection is proof that He is accepted for us, in other words His sacrifice was sufficient to pay for our sins. We are justified before God because of His resurrection, the proof of our justification.
Besides this, there is even more, the very words “First Fruits” means that there is more to follow. And the significance of this is given to us in Paul’s great argument in 1 Corinthians 15 where in verse 23 he shows the connection between the Lord’s own resurrection and that of His people when he comes again, “But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming…” (1 Corinthians 15:23, NASB95)[14] The sheaf of first fruits waved before the LORD not only acknowledged Him as the One Who had brought forth the living grain out of the earth, from the midst of the darkness, and of the corruption of dead and decaying matter, but it was also the pledge of the full harvest to follow later. So, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ not only shows us the greatness of God’s power toward us; but it proves the resurrection of the dead in Christ in the future. For as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:13, “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised;” (1 Corinthians 15:13, NASB95)[15]
CONCLUSION:
The application of this should be apparent. The glad message of redeeming love with the invitation of God’s grace is intended for everyone, Jew or Gentile, slave or free, despised or loved. The words of the Gospel can penetrate everywhere and even to those cursed by the Law, as were the people of Moab, even they may, through the Gospel of grace, become partakers of the unsearchable riches of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:13-16, “But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.” (Ephesians 2:13–16, NASB95)[16] and now, by means of the Gospel, all that Christ is in resurrection is shared equally by believing sinners, whether from among the Jews or the Gentiles.
So, we may say that every believing sinner comes to Bethlehem, the House of Bread, to share the true Bread from heaven, and that he comes at the beginning of the barley harvest; for he comes to Christ risen from the dead, the First Fruits of them that sleep.
It should comfort us who have received salvation in the last days of this long age, that it is still “the beginning of the barley harvest.” It as if God stopped the clock at the moment of Christ’s resurrection. Times and seasons are not counted in this age. To the prophets of old there was no interval of time seen between the sufferings of Christ and the glories which should follow. Even to the first disciples the return of the Lord Jesus Christ was preached and promised as a thing always imminent, in other words, it could happen at any moment. So, why then do we have this exceedingly long time? Peter explains it this way in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9, NASB95)[17] Praise God that He was patient with us, and is still patient with the multitudes who are still dead in their trespasses and sins.
As we proclaim the Gospel to those whom God brings to us, let us not exclude or make little as some do of the resurrection, but instead make it central to our Gospel message because no other religion can claim that its founder has risen from the dead as the First Fruits of those who sleep. The Lord Jesus Christ Who rose from the dead is the same Christ Who was crucified for sinners, by this means making atonement by the shedding of His blood on their behalf.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995. Emphasis Mine.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995. Emphasis Mine.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[10]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[11]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995. Emphasis Mine.
[12]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[13]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995. Emphasis Mine.
[14]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[15]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[16]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[17]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.