The Theme of the month of March is Divine Sunshine and the theme of this year’s Mother’s Day celebration is ‘Arise and Shine’. So Brethren I am sure you can testify with me that the Spirit of God is indeed one and I perceive in my Spirit that God has something wonderful for someone here today.
It is our turn to shine gloriously as individuals, as a family and as the church of God, Our Father in heaven has declared it in his words concerning us, and so shall it be in Jesus name.
In the Book of Ruth the Bible makes us to understand that a couple, Elimelek and his wife Naomi and their 2 sons Mahlon and Chilion left their country of birth Bethlehem in Judah, because there was famine in the land to sojourn in the country of Moab for a while, but little did they know that the journey they had just embarked upon was not going to end well. The Bible says in Prov. 14:12 ‘There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Yes there was famine in the land but did they enquire of the Lord before the left Bethlehem, Prov.3:6 ‘In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He will direct thy paths. The Bible (Gen. 26:1-3) makes us to understand that in the Philistine that Isaac sojourned there was famine but God appeared unto him and told him not to go down into Egypt, God instructed him to sojourn in the land of Philistine and He will be with him and bless him.
Going down to Moab was a mistake because according to Psa. 60:8 Moab was cursed by God; He said in that Bible passage that Moab was His wash pot. In the cause of that journey Elimelek died and his 2 sons took for themselves wives of the women of Moab, Orpah and Ruth. Not too long after this the 2 sons also died without having children.
Naomi’s sun set when it was supposed to be rising, no husband, no children, no grand-children, the Bible says in Ruth 1:19- 21 ‘So they went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem that all the city was moved about them, and they said, is this Naomi? (They almost did not recognize her). And she said unto them, call me not Naomi, (Naomi means Pleasant and Beautiful) call me Mara (means Bitterness) for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty, why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me? This was not entirely true because she returned with her daughter-in-law Ruth and through Ruth God caused his Glory to shine upon her again.
The Bible makes us to under in verse 22 of Chapter 1 of the BK of Ruth, that they returned at the beginning of the Barley harvest in Israeli, so they returned at the right time, God’s appointed time, Brethren the Bible says in the Psa. 102:13 ‘Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion, for the time to favour her, the set time is come.
It says yet again in Eccl. 7:8 ‘Better is the end of a thing than its beginning’.
Ruth got married to Boaz a rich farmer who happened to be a kinsman to her late husband by Divine arrangement and the wisdom of God upon her Mother-in-law Ruth.
This is how the Bible ends the story of Ruth and Naomi in Ruth 4; 10-17
According to Matt. 1:5 within the generation of Jesus Christ Ruth is mentioned as a Great, great grandmother of our Lord Jesus Christ.
May our Father in heaven turn our stories to Glory in Jesus name.
May He cause his Divine sunshine to shine upon us all the days of our wonderful lives in Him in Jesus name.
Delivered on March 30th 2014 on Mother’s Day.