The Book of Ruth | Episode 2: Ruth 1:6-22 | May 18, 2025

·49 min·4 clips

Austin Gunn describes walking eight miles from Bellevue to Oakland, feeling the uphill struggle and stopping at a soup kitchen for coffee.

The episode is part of a teaching series on the Book of Ruth, specifically covering Ruth 1:6-22. Austin Gunn, the lead pastor, begins by reading the biblical text, which describes Naomi returning to Judah from Moab with her daughters-in-law after hearing God has provided food there. Naomi urges Ruth and Orpah to leave her, feeling her life is too bitter to share, but Ruth insists on staying with her, famously declaring, 'Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.' Gunn uses the metaphor of walking to discuss enduring suffering, sharing a personal anecdote about an eight-mile walk in Pittsburgh to illustrate the slow, challenging nature of such journeys. He explains that Naomi is in stages 4 and 5 of grief, accepting her situation and feeling depressed, and she changes her name to Mara, meaning bitter, believing God has turned against her. The host contrasts Ruth's approach of walking with Naomi through suffering with Job's friends, who give long speeches trying to explain suffering, referencing paintings by William Blake and Jean-Baptiste Auguste Lélois to highlight the difference. Gunn emphasizes that suffering people need friends who walk with them, not just talk at them, and outlines four ways to do so: grieve with them, listen to them, stick with them, and be silent with them. He recommends books on suffering, such as Tim Keller's 'Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering,' and shares a personal story about his father's friend Brian who walked with his family through grief. The episode connects the Ruth narrative to Jesus, describing him as the friend who walks with us in suffering, citing Isaiah 53 and Romans 8 to illustrate this. It ends with a note of hope, as Naomi and Ruth arrive in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest, symbolizing God's provision. The teaching is delivered in a sermon format with practical applications for listeners.

As heard by us

A pastoral reading of Naomi's bitterness that finds hope beginning with Bethlehem's barley harvest.

Naomi's return to Bethlehem frames a searching question: what happens when suffering begins to name a life? In Ruth 1:6-22, Austin Gunn follows Naomi's plea to be called Mara, "bitter," and draws a useful line between confessed theology and the beliefs that surface under…

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Why you'd press play

When suffering has started to feel like your identity, Ruth 1:6-22 gives you Naomi's hard-won language for it.

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