10-20-2025 PART 1: Sovereignty in the Shadows: Ruth’s Opening Movement

Section 1

In the days of the judges, famine drives Elimelech, Naomi, and their sons from Bethlehem to Moab. Tragedy strikes: Elimelech dies; later, both sons—after marrying Orpah and Ruth—also die. What looks like the end of a family line quietly sets the stage for God’s redemptive thread. The opening situates us in ordinary lives battered by loss, hinting that unseen purposes are already in motion.

Section 2

The teaching emphasizes God’s sovereignty without pinning blame on the Moabite marriages. We are “linear,” bound to beginnings and endings, but God works “interlinearly,” outside our time-boxed view. Because time serves human understanding—not God—painful events can be instrumental rather than incidental. The lesson urges humility: when earthly matters puzzle us, heavenly ones exceed us; still, the Sovereign One is weaving meaning through every strand.

Section 3

Ruth’s loyal love to Naomi becomes the living doorway to hope. If Naomi had foreseen that Ruth would stand in David’s lineage, her grief might have borne earlier light. Scripture’s pattern—life emerging after apparent endings—assures us that God wastes nothing: Lazarus, then Jesus; sorrow, then surprising joy. Our call is steadfast trust, believing that the Lord can turn the ingredients we’d never choose into a feast of redemption.