TD Jakes - The Second Chapter
In Ruth chapter 2, after the disruptions and losses of chapter 1, Ruth steps into a new season as an immigrant in Bethlehem, gleaning in Boaz’s field by «hap,» showing that embracing change and disruption with courage and adaptability leads to divine opportunity and destiny—it’s time for your second chapter, a new beginning where God turns gleaning into owning.
Turning the Page: The Second Chapter
Go to the Book of Ruth for just a few moments today. Ruth chapter 2, verses 1 to 3: «And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, 'Let me go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace.' And she said unto her, 'Go, my daughter.' And she went and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers. She gleaned in the field after the reapers, and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.» Can you say amen?
Remain standing; I’m going to pray with you. The real thing that I want to focus on is not so much the text but the heading of the text: Ruth chapter 2. I want to use the subject «The Second Chapter.» So if you miss the wording, remember the number. Look at somebody and say, «This is the second chapter.» The Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on us today. I wake up to the dew falling on the roses. I recognize your mercies are new every morning. You have assembled us out of our homes and from our towns and villages, and some have driven a ways to be in this place today—not that we might hear me, but that we might hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the church. In times like these, we need a word from you. In times like these, we need direction from you.
In times like these, we need prophetic utterances from you. For that, here’s your word: if you don’t speak, we can’t move. If you don’t speak, we can’t breathe. If you don’t speak, we can’t talk. If you don’t speak, we can’t walk. If you don’t speak, we can’t think. If you’re not going to speak, we can’t decide. We need a lot from you. If we don’t hear from you, what shall we do? If we don’t hear from you, where shall we go? If we don’t hear from you, what shall we say? Take over the service. Throw your weight around. Show hell who’s boss. Move cancer out of the building, disease out of the building, affliction out of the building. Turn them all out of the building: distress, depression, and fear. You can take anything that says «exit» on it; you’ve got to go today in the name of Jesus. I thank you for what you’re about to do. Spirit of the Living God, have your way. Ah, I’ll be careful to give you the praise, the honor, and the glory. In Jesus' mighty and righteous name we pray. Every believer in the house, shout amen! You may be seated in the presence of God.
The Depth of the Book of Ruth
It is distressing to note that the particular book that is before us today is reserved for Mother’s Day, Women’s Day, First Ladies' Day, and things of that ilk. This is because of the hidden misogynistic philosophy of our society, where we have categorized the value of the text by gender rather than by the depth of the revelation. If the Book of Ruth were not in the Bible, there would be no Book of Judges, no Book of Kings, and there would be no books of history. The psalmist would never sing the psalms if the Book of Ruth were not in the Bible. If the Book of Ruth were not in the Bible, Zephaniah would never utter a prophetic word. Can I take my time? If the Book of Ruth were not in the Bible, Malachi would have never been written.
If the Book of Ruth were not in the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John would not be categorized among the scriptures. Twenty-seven books of the New Testament would be obliterated; they are all predicated upon this particular book. This book, the Book of Ruth, is really about change. Somebody shout «change»! The Lord said to me at the beginning of the pandemic, «When you pray for change, I answer with disruption. And when I send disruption, don’t allow the disruption to become a distraction, because most people think solving the disruption is victory, when in fact, I sent the disruption to facilitate the change. You can’t have change without disruption; everything has to be disrupted in order to change. You can’t keep your waistline and have a baby. Change is disruptive. You can’t plant an acorn in the ground and tell it not to disrupt the soil because growth itself is disruptive. Wherever there is change, it will always manifest itself through the level of disruption that precedes it.»
Disruption as the Gateway to Opportunity
The Book of Ruth is more than a display of femininity; it is, in fact, a book of disruption. It starts with disruption. How you handle disruption determines how far you can go. Hear me good: if you can’t handle disruption, then stop praying for change. Most people can’t handle disruption because they allow the disruption to become a distraction, and they stop their mission to settle the disruption, as if settling the disruption was victory. This is why Nehemiah did not respond to Sanballat and Tobiah, because they were a disruption; the victory was in ignoring the disruption and staying on the wall. The second thing He said to me is that in the midst of disruption, it will always want to be a distraction, because every disruption presents an opportunity that will only mean something to people whose lives have been disrupted, whose jobs have been disrupted.
By the way, y’all sang your faces off! Excuse me, that doesn’t have anything to do with the text. You know a person can sing when they sing, so where you think you can, brother? Got the moaning in the mic? I tried to moan too, but I sound like a frog with a sore throat. Disruption comes into all of our lives, but we don’t always realize it because poor people think that rich people don’t have disruptions, and some rich people think that poor people don’t have disruptions, because they don’t have much of anything. They don’t think they have real problems, and poor people look at rich people and say, «Look at how much money you have, ” as if you could buy peace.
The problem, however, is that peace is not for sale. Disruption comes to attractive people, and you look at them and you’re amazed at their beauty, and you think, „Oh, if I could just look like that.“ Then you get to know them, and you find out that some of the craziest people I have ever met in my life were fine. Somebody ought to back me up in here: you’re cute but you’re crazy; you take nice pictures but you’re insane; you’re gorgeous but you are a lunatic. You don’t understand that disruption comes both to the intellectual and to the illiterate, often in the same degree of intensity. Disruption comes; no one is exempt from disruption. Before us is disruption because disruption is always the gateway to opportunity.
Look back over your life at the times your life has been disrupted, and you thought it was over, only to discover that it was the gateway to a new beginning and a new opportunity. Can I get ten witnesses in the building? Such is the case in the text today: how you adapt to change determines how far God can take you. Your adaptability—your ability to adapt—there are certain people that are inflexible. They’re gifted, but they’re inflexible; they’re talented, but they’re inflexible; they’re married, but they’re inflexible; they can preach, but they’re inflexible; they’re intelligent, but they’re inflexible. You cannot couple yourself with somebody that’s inflexible and expect to grow, because they cannot go; they cannot grow, because they are inflexible.
Adaptability and Flexibility in Life
In order to survive the vicissitudes of life, you have to be prepared to go at a moment’s notice—to reevaluate your circumstances, to reconstruct your position, to change your plans, and alter your strategy. You can’t be more married to your plan than you are to your purpose. I’ll say again: you can’t be more married to your plan than you are to your purpose. Some of us love the way we praise the Lord more than we love the Lord. Oh, y’all gonna make me get started early! It’s too early for me to grab my head yet, but I feel something creeping up my spine in here. Something is about to happen in this place! We love the way we praise, and we enjoy what we do more than we do the One we’re doing it for.
You haven’t really praised the Lord until you praised Him alone; until you dance in your living room, you don’t have a praise. What you have is a show. Until you have had tears running down your face while you’re driving, and you were wiping tears out of your eyes and said, „Lord, you’re the only real friend I got, ” you don’t have a relationship. Until all hell has broken loose in your life, and you said like Job, „Though He slay me…“ Yes, our civilizations have survived for years, because we had the adaptability to move, to change, to evolve, to travel, to be nomadic in our essence—it has produced our survival—because our culture was not predicated on geography.
Our culture was not predicated on geography. So we went where the food was, and we went where the water flowed, and we never lost our identity because we changed locations. We were never defined by our location. If you study the history of Africa, you’ll begin to understand that before there was Nigeria or Ghana or Congo, there were people, there were teachings, and there were communities. There were people of different tribes and origins who did not define themselves by the territory they dwelt in, but by the language they spoke, the food they ate, the culture they had, the blood in their veins, the way that they moved. It was only when colonialism came in that they started cutting up the land, because the Europeans thought the land was valuable, not the people.
So they split the people to get the land, never really recognizing that the land is only as valuable as the people that are on it. In our own country, we are here because we migrated here. And I’m not just talking about us as a people; I’m not talking about even the people that we found here when we got here. I’m not just talking about white people, but even the people they found when they got here migrated here. Migration has been essential for our survival; the ability to be flexible.
Sensing When It’s Time to Move
How do you know change is coming? Because I just spent the last 400 days watching God push a reset button. Whenever God pushes a reset button, it’s a sign that change is imminent in our society. Can I get a witness in the room? Is there anybody in here that’s been sensing in your spirit that something is about to happen? Your normal has been shattered; your predictable cannot be predicted; and all of a sudden you’re in a place of instability and vulnerability. If you hear me, holler at your boy! If you hear me right now: in chapter one, we understand that Naomi migrates to Moab because of the famine that existed in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is a semi-modern name for Ephrata. Bethlehem means „the house of bread, ” but the house of bread had developed a famine. And when the famine got bad enough, Naomi said, „I’m out of here.“
When the famine—when the famine! I know you’ve been working with somebody, trying to get them to see, and they will not hear you. Don’t worry about it; when the famine gets bad enough, people will migrate. The only reason they stay where they are is that it hasn’t gotten bad enough. When they get hungry enough, when they get sick enough, when enough people die, when enough distress comes, you won’t have to get into an argument to get them to do better. You won’t have to push them; you won’t have to beg them; you won’t have to cry; you won’t have to sleep with them. When it gets bad enough to leave—if they got to leave on a tricycle, they’ll get out of there!
Shove somebody and say, „I got to go! I can’t stay in the famine!“ Suddenly, we grabbed her husband and her two sons, put them in a wagon, and headed out for Moab, willing to risk the rejection of the Moabites rather than to die in Bethlehem, because all change has risk factors. Some people don’t experience change because they are so afraid of the risk factor that they are not willing to have a new experience. Because they’re not willing to risk rejection, they choose to die in the famine, rather than to risk not being accepted where they’re going.
Radical Women and the Call to Move
Develop all the programs you want to feed everybody; you will start all your STEM and your STEAM and your this, and we do all of that. Start all of that; do your financial literacy. But there are some folk who are more comfortable to stay where they are than to evolve to the next level. But there’s a few of us that refuse to die in the desert of despair and ignorance. There’s something more that we want out of life, and if we gotta crawl, if we gotta cry, if we gotta scratch, if we gotta dig, and we gotta take night classes, if we gotta take courses after school, and we have to go back to class, we’re going to get up from here! Look at your neighbor and say, „I’m leaving! I’m leaving! I’m leaving! I’m leaving!“ If your bags ain’t packed, I’m leaving you! I got to go; change is imminent! I know I was not created to die like this.
So then, my brothers and sisters, when we are introduced to the text, we are introduced to it in the midst of a grievous famine. The famine is so severe that the cattle have succumbed to it, the sheep have withered in it, and all lifestyles are affected. In a famine, fish die, men die, people die, cattle die, sheep die, goats die, and chickens die. In a famine, when a famine gets severe enough, a whole life begins to suffer preceded by drought, for it is the drought that is the cause to which the famine ultimately comes. As long as there is water, there will be growth. Oh, that’s why I got to be in a wet place. That’s why I get happy when He says He leads me beside still waters.
I want to be where the waters are because if there’s water, I can grow; if there’s water, I can live; if there’s water, I can survive. I got to be in a wet church. I got to have a wet pastor. I got to have a wet wife. I got to have wet children. I got to have a wet house. I got to have something I can grow in, something I can move in. Deliver me from dried-up people; I don’t need any dried-up people. Look at your neighbors: are you dried up? If they say yes, move! Run away from them; get away from them! I gotta have wet because wet is possibility. And so Naomi loads up the wagon and decides to change, for some reason. The deliverer-like is not really present; it doesn’t have a strong voice in the text.
This is much about the decision made by a radical woman. Where are my radical women in the house? A radical woman is sensitive enough to sense when it’s time to move on. A radical woman can sense more in her spirit than you can discern with your metrics and all your tests and all your science. I need some radical women to make some noise in this house! Some radical women, who know when it’s time to leave. The beginning of wisdom is understanding when it’s time to get out. Enough is enough! I’m done! Excuse me, it’s over! I resign! My good God Almighty! My God! My God! Naomi puts her family in a wagon and says, „I’ll take my chances. I’ll take my chances with Moab. If I die, I’m gonna die in motion. I’m gonna die on my way somewhere. I’m gonna die clawing and scratching. I’m gonna die moving with my wheels turning. If I perish, I perish. But I’m glad!“
Somebody holler, „I’m going!“ I don’t mind following you as long as you move, but don’t expect me to submit and get behind a parked car. I will not line up behind a car that isn’t moving. I can’t spend the rest of my life ticking, tocking. I’m running out of time; I don’t have time to sit behind your car if you’re not going anywhere. I’ve got to go! I want 30 seconds of crazy praising! All of that happens in the first chapter, and she gets to Moab, where she stays for many years. In the first chapter, her sons find wives and marry there, and she has a family and a good life. Over time, things happen: she loses her husband, people die, she loses her husband, but then it gets tougher because she loses her sons. Suddenly she finds herself in another kind of famine—a famine for love.
Lessons from Orpah, Naomi, and Ruth
A famine for love can be as detrimental as a famine for food. No one ran in the house and hugged her; no one wrapped their arms around her at night. No one told her she was a beautiful woman. No one appreciated her as a mother. The love on which she thrived had ceased to exist, and she found herself in a famine again. She says, „I’m going back home.“ All of this is in the first chapter. So what happens as she announces what she’s going to do, it’s kind of like this: I don’t know what you came to do; I can’t speak for nobody else but me. I am going home! I’m leaving! Then comes this character in the Bible, one of her daughters-in-law named Orpah. Orpah is seldom talked about, but I want to spend a few minutes on her.
Can I talk about Orpah? I want to talk about Orpah because Orpah came out to her mother-in-law, kissed her goodbye, and decided to stay. All three women teach us about different kinds of people we will deal with in life. There are some people who just cannot go with you, even though they started with you. They can’t stay with you; even though they were connected to you, they ate with you, they were related to you, they laughed with you, they followed your customs, and they seemed like one of you, but when push comes to shove, they identify themselves as not being fit to make the journey with you because their roots are in their past and not in their future. Their roots are in where they came from, not where they’re going.
In other words, she was related to Naomi but wasn’t as related to Naomi as she was to Moab. There are people who are related to you, but deep down they’re more connected to other things than they are to you. They will be with you as long as you stay in those other things, but the moment you move out of them, they will drop off because their real commitment is not to you; it’s to the environment you’re in. And if anything changes, they will kiss you goodbye. Look at somebody and say, „Kiss me now if you’re leaving! Kiss me now!“ Ain’t no need dragging this thing out for ten more years. Kiss me now! If I’m gonna cry, let me cry right now. If I’m gonna have to get over it, let me get over it right now, 'cause I’m gone! And if you’re not going, Judas, kiss me now!
She is not dexterous enough; she lacks the capacity to evolve with the times, so she stays in Moab rather than take a risk. You’d be surprised how many people in this room have allowed fear to paralyze mobility. The paralysis of fear has kept you trapped in a situation that you’ve called the devil. You’ve rebuked it, you’ve pleaded the blood on it, you’ve anointed yourself with oil, and it doesn’t change. And the reason it doesn’t change is that it’s not a demon; it’s you! It’s your fear! It’s your fear of taking a risk. You can cast out a demon but you can’t cast out you! You talk yourself out of every blessing, you talk yourself out of every progress.
Now let me talk a little bit about Naomi. Naomi has lived life; she is an older woman. She has seen spring; she has seen the leaves bud; she has smelled honeysuckle in the air. She has seen the blossoms peek through the buds and add just a touch of color to nature itself. She has smelled the fresh air of springtime; she has felt that misty dew cascade upon the ground and could almost hear the grass grow in the yard. She has been in the morning of life when love was fresh and everything was simple. She had survived the hot summer heat when everything was warm and growing. She raised her children, enjoyed her life, and went to the graduations, crying from the balconies as they graduated in the summer of her life. She has survived autumn in her life; she has watched her face change, her hair change, her friends change, her world change, her situation and circumstance change.
Obviously, her perspective is going to be different because whenever fall hangs out with spring, they always have a different point of view. So, fall—do you hear what I’m saying? For Naomi to hang out with Ruth is fall hanging out with spring. Fall understands things that spring will eventually evolve to encounter. It’s hard to have a conversation when you have a spring mentality talking to a fall experience. Naomi has a fall experience; she has lived life. She has had such experiences that even though she is bitter, and even though she has lost her husband, and even though she has lost her sons, she has kept it moving! Baby, you can say whatever you want to say about her being bitter, but even in her bitterness, she’s kept it moving! Because Naomi comes to teach us that you cannot allow your emotions to stop your movement.
Feel however you want to feel, but keep it moving! Cry if you gotta cry, but keep it moving! Hurt if you gotta hurt, but keep it moving! I need some Naomis in the house! Make some noise! Some survivors! Some survivors! I’ll take a man! I’ll take a woman! Anything that survives the death of something, make some noise! Naomi has learned not to make decisions out of her emotions. She said, „You may be bitter, but you’re going home.“ You know why? Bethlehem is a house of bread, and there is bread in Bethlehem! Naomi is going where the bread is, where the fulfillment is!
Stepping into Your Destiny as an Immigrant
And so Naomi teaches us not to make permanent decisions off of temporary emotions. Most of the time I see people who allow their emotions to make decisions for them, and then they suffer the consequences of regret because the emotion passes, but the decision remains! Naomi is not responding to her emotions in making a decision. She’s bitter, but she’s moving because she is not rooted in her circumstances; she is rooted in her identity!
Now to all possible candidates for marriage: don’t marry anybody who doesn’t know who they are! No to every CEO! I don’t care how many degrees they have; if they don’t have a good sense of who they are, leave them alone! And so Naomi is about to leave, and Ruth said, „You ain’t leaving me!“ Ruth says to her, „Can I catch a ride? Can I catch a ride? Can I catch a ride? I’m going with you.“ Naomi says, „I can’t have any more sons.“ She said, „No, it’s not about your son; it’s not about who touched me less; it’s not about who kissed me on the hand. I got a future!“
Now Naomi is at home. She has been an immigrant in Moab; now she is a resident in Bethlehem. All of her relatives live here; she speaks the language; she knows how to cook the food; she understands the music, and she dances like they dance. Somebody that’s home say, „I’m home! I’m home!“ Isn’t it funny how your spirit knows when you’re home? Ruth, who was a resident in Moab, is now an immigrant. This is why Ruth is important—and I’ll be done. If Ruth had not moved to Bethlehem, David would have never been king. His birth was predicated on Ruth’s courage to be an immigrant.
It takes courage to be an immigrant; it takes courage to come out of your familiar and be in an unfamiliar place. But the Lord sent me here with a prophetic word: You are in chapter two; you have just turned the page. You have just stepped into a revolution; you have stepped into a new place, and you got to be prepared to approach it with the thoughts of an immigrant. Your destiny always feels like immigration because your destiny does not line up with your history.
So when you come into your destiny, you’re not going to feel the sense of celebration that you expected. Because even though you prayed for it and you asked for it, you’re going to feel strange in it because you stepped into it as an immigrant. Chapter two: Ruth is now an immigrant in her destiny; she’s an immigrant in her prophecy. When God gives you what He told you He was going to give you, it’s not going to feel like what you thought it was going to feel like. Success doesn’t feel successful because when you first walk into it, it’s going to feel foreign.
Own It: From Gleaning to Owning
The Bible says she came in as an immigrant; none of the other women would have anything to do with it. She said, „That’s all right, I’ll catch what I can; I’ll grab what I can get.“ But while she was moving, the Bible says she hopped up on Boaz’s field! She hopped up on Boaz’s field! You’re just going to happen to be at the right place at the right time and meet the right person! You’re just going to happen—who am I talking to? Your Holy Ghost ought to let you know I’m talking to you! You’re just going to happen; it’s just going to be happenstance.
When she stepped on it, she didn’t own it. When she stepped on it, she didn’t own it! She was an immigrant; she wasn’t even a rightful worker; she was gleaning behind the reapers, and somebody saw her! Somebody saw you! For her it was Boaz! She just happened! In three verses, she goes from working in the field to owning the field! Do you believe that you could start out working in something, and you’re going to end up owning it? She was just catching whatever they dropped, not complaining, didn’t get mad, didn’t get bitter, wasn’t spiteful—she was just catching whatever they dropped, just glad to be in the number!
And all of a sudden, she ends up married to the owner of the field, which by virtue of that marriage makes her the owner of the field she used to work in! The Holy Ghost told me to tell somebody in this room: Own it! You’ve been playing with it! You’ve been visiting it! You’ve been hoping for it! You’ve been praying for it! Own it! You’re already in it! You’re already doing it! But in your head, you haven’t owned it! You’re scared it’s gonna leave! You’re afraid it won’t stay! You’re afraid it’s not real! And the Holy Ghost said, „Own it!“ What God is getting ready to do in your life is so real that if you don’t own it, you might just want to stay in Moab. Your today’s reality was yesterday’s miracle. And God said, „All I need you to do is just own it.“