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by GLENN PEASE
04/24/18
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Based on Ruth 1:14-22

      When Cecil B. DeMille was a nine year old boy, and old preacher came to Echo Lake, New Jersey to conduct a series of meetings. Young DeMille attended every morning, but one cold rainy morning he was the only one who showed up. He wondered if that man would preach to one small boy. DeMille describes that unusual scene-

   "If he preached under those circumstances I felt that he was a man of God. If he dismissed the service I felt that he would be false. And he did preach, although it was a very short sermon. Then he came down to the alter railing of the church and invited me to come up. He said: "My audience no doubt noticed that I did not take the collection at the usual time. I now invite my audience to come up and put the offering the plate." I walked up proudly to that alter, put my nickel in the plate and, as I did so, that old gray-haired preacher put his hand on my head and prayed a prayer in which he lifted my name to God. I shall never forget the feel of that old preacher's hands on my head. I have en-joyed the greatest honors of life. Here in Hollywood I have met the great of the earth. But I have never had any thrill as great as the feel of that preacher's hands on my head. It was a kind of ordination. That had much to do with my interest in producing Biblical motion pictures.

     Millions have watched the Biblical movies of Cecil B. DeMille, but nobody even knows the name of the old preacher who put his hand on him as a boy, and thus, became a major influence in his life. Because of the impact of influence, that hand that touched the little boy, touched a whole world of people. The same story can be told on the negative side of influence. Vincent Teresa in his book My Life In The Mafia, tells of how his uncle would ask him to shine his shoes, and then give him ten or fifteen bucks. This made a deep impression on him, and he said to himself, I don't know what he does, but what ever it is I want to do it. That was the beginning of his desire to be a gangster.

     Every biography written is a story of influences, and their impact on lives. The story of Ruth is no exception. Ruth abounds in illustrations of the impact of influence. Ruth would never have become a part of God's plan, and never would have become a believer and a part of Israel, a part from the influence of Naomi. Naomi, of course, would never have been heard of without Ruth, and neither would have been heard of without Boaz. Everybody in this story has a major influence on everybody else in the story. But there would be no story at all without the influence of Naomi. She is the key influence, but the influence was mutual.

     Influence can be a two way street, as it was for Naomi and Ruth. Naomi influenced Ruth to come to God, and Ruth influenced Naomi, and made her a famous personality for all time. Bach's, the Passion According To St. Matthew is generally acclaimed as the greatest choral work ever written in German. Bach performed it once in his day, and it was put away where it lay unperformed for 100 years. In 1829 Felix Mendelssohn obtained a copy of it and revived it. He unleashed a title wave of enthusiasm for Bach that has never ebbed to this day, and so Mendelssohn had great influence on Bach's fame, but Bach even more on Mendelssohn, for the 20 year old composer was converted to faith in Christ by his exposure to Bach. They lifted each other, just as did Ruth and Naomi.

     The word influence has a fascinating origin. It originally referred to an ethereal fluid thought to flow from the stars, which affected the actions of men. It is of interest that the only use of the word in the King James Version refers to this connection. In Job 38:31 we read God's question to Job-"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleides." Pleides is a group of stars. The idea behind a influence is that it is a power which produces an effect without any apparent force or direct authority.

     If you tell your child to get the garbage down to the road, that is not an influence, for that is a direct order by which you are exerting the force of authority. Now is you habitually get up from the table after each meal, and went to the garbage, and scraped off your plate, and one day your child got up and did the same thing, without ever being told, that would represent the power of influence. Influence tends to be an unseen, and unconscious means by which actions and attitudes are changed. It is a flow of power from one person to another with no visible link.

     Naomi had this kind of influence on Ruth. Ruth was a Gentile who worshipped the pagan gods of the Moabites. But something happened when she came under the influence of Naomi. Ruth was ready to renounce her family, her nation, her gods, and her life, in order to remain with Naomi. We are compelled to read between the lines here. Naomi cannot counteract the impact of her influence on Ruth. She tried to get her to go back to her old life and culture, but Ruth had been so deeply touched by Naomi's life, and her love for God, that her present depression and negative spirit could not quench Ruth's desire to be like her, and to be with her.

     It is wonderful that our positive influence can be so strong that we cannot reverse it by our negative influence or authority. That is what we see here in chapter 1. Naomi said in her sorrow, and so blinded by grief, I have come back empty. Someone may have pointed out that Ruth was standing there, but Naomi, at this point, could not see the potential of Ruth. She had done her best to get rid of her, like a stray dog following her home. She did not realize that Ruth was her greatest treasure. She did not see her as a asset at all, but as a liability, and so she says, I came back empty.

     Henry Drummond said, "There is nothing exaggerated more than the power of our words, and there is nothing we exaggerate less than the effect of our influence." Here is Naomi feeling empty and worthless, with no assets, but because we know the impact of her influence on history, we know that she is rich in resources in Ruth. We want to learn from this wealthy woman weeping over her poverty some precious truths about influence that can change our perspective on life and history, and our role in it. The first thing we see is-

I. INFLUENCE IS INVISIBLE.

     It is like gravity which is everywhere having an effect on all that is, yet we are not conscious of it. It is like salt in food, making a difference but not seen. Naomi was not even conscious of the fact that she was having an enormous influence on Ruth.   Horace Bushnell, the great preacher of the 1800's, preached a sermon titled Unconscious Influence, which has had a great influence on Christian thinking. He used the text where Peter and John are running to the empty tomb of Christ, and John, being younger, out ran Peter, and got there first, and stood there gazing in. But Peter in his unusual impetuous way did not stop and gaze in reverent awe, but dashed past John right into the tomb, and the text in John 20:8 says, "Then went in that other disciple." Influenced by Peter John let down his resistance and went in. Peter did not shout, "Come in John," but Peter was just doing his own thing, and unconsciously influenced John to follow.

     The point of Bushnell's sermon is that we all are unconsciously influencing others, and so, paradoxically, we need to be more conscious of our unconscious influence. We need to be aware of the invisible flow of energy from us to others that motivates them to take action, or develop attitudes. This invisible flow of influence makes it possible for even the most gentle and obscure person to have an impact on other people. Andrew Robinson, one time chairman of the board of Westinghouse, tells of the strange experiment he saw performed in their lab.

     A great steel bar eight feet long and weighing 1000 pounds was suspended by a slender chain from the ceiling. Parallel to it was a small cork suspended by a silk thread. The cork was slung into the steel bar, and, of course, had no effect whatever. But after about ten minutes of constant swinging of that cork into the steel bar, a little quiver could be seen, and after two more minutes a visible vibration could be detected. After 25 minutes the steel bar began to swing like a huge pendulum. The experiment proved that even the least likely force, with no visible influence can by persistence have an impact that is visible. This works with people as well as matter. Obscure people often become the primary influence in the lives of famous people. Ruth has a book of the Bible named after her, but she never would have been known had it not been for the influence of Naomi.

     Wordsworth is a name we all have heard, but who is aware that this great poet was deeply influenced by his younger sister Dorothy. Her tenderness and sweetness as a person molded his nature, and opened his mind to the influence of poetry. He lifted the race by his poetry, but he was lifted himself by the gentle nature of one the world does not know. He wrote of her She gave me eyes, she gave me ears, And humble cares, and delicate fears; A heart, the fountain of sweet tears,     And love, and thought, and joy.

     Henry Martyn began one of the great missionaries to the Indians, and his biography has been read by masses of people. But nobody ever heard of his special friend. Martyn was a weakling with a delicate and nervous temperament. He never went out for sports, and the boys took pleasure in teasing him. One older boy took it upon himself to protect Martyn from his tormentors, and help him with his lessons. He was a rather backward student, and needed the help. This friendship went right though college. Martyn was fitful, unstable, and temperamental, but his bigger friend was steady, patient, and hard working. He kept pushing Martyn to work hard, not for the praise of man, but for the glory of God. He kept him from evil company, and got him through school.

      Martyn went on to become one of the heroes in the history of Christian missions. His friend passed into obscurity. His influence on Martyn, however, made him a key person in Christian history, even though his name is not even known. It is known to God. He is another example of the invisibility of much of the Christian influence in history. The goal and meaning of life is not just to make a name for ourselves, but to be part of the flow of invisible influences that help all we come into contact with to be all they can be for the glory of Christ. We will come back to this as we look at the second truth-

II. INFLUENCE IS INEXHAUSTIBLE.

     You cannot just influence one person, and that is the end of it. Naomi influenced Ruth to commit her life to God and His people, but it did not end there. In fact, it did not end anywhere, for the impact of that influence is going on right now as we study this book, and will keep on to the end of time, and through all eternity. There is no end to influence. It starts as a invisible flow, and becomes a river cutting a path through history.

     Because Naomi influenced Ruth to become a godly woman, the name Ruth, though it had its origin in the pagan land of the Moabites, has become one of the most popular of Christian names. Ruth is the seventh most popular name in America, with over one and one half million bearing that name. Ruth gave this name a sense of dignity for all the rest of history. Her influence, by simply being a committed and loyal person, has become inexhaustible. Jezebel did that same thing on the negative side. Her ungodliness made her name unusable for the rest of history.

     The study of influence reveals just how tremendous the trivial can be in its impact. Dr. Albert Schweitzer and his wife were being moved from one prisoner of war camp to another. They were so heavily laden with baggage they could hardly move. Just then a poor cripple came along and offered to help them. He had no baggage, for he possessed nothing. Schweitzer says in his autobiography that as they walked along in the scorching sun, "I vowed to myself that in memory of this cripple I would in the future keep a look out for heavily laden people, and give them a hand.

     Little could that unknown cripple realize how his act of kindness would influence history. Forty years after this incident Schweitzer was in Chicago changing trains to go to Aspen, Colorado. As he stood on the station platform being questioned by reporters, for he had become a world famous personality, he saw a woman carrying a heavy suitcase. He immediately excused himself and asked the woman if he could help her. He got her to her train, and then returned to where the group, but they were all gone. Each of the reporters, seen Schweitzer helpfulness, were assisting others with heavy suitcases. Who knows how many acts of kindness have been generated by that one act of a cripple many years ago. The potential of any act of love is inexhaustible.

     Canon Moseley said, "It is astonishing how much good goodness makes. Nothing that is good is alone, nor anything bad; it makes others good or others bad-and then others, and so on, like a stone thrown into a pond, which makes circles that make other wider ones, and then others, till the last reaches the shore.....Almost all the good that is in the world has, I suppose, thus come down to us from remote times, and often unknown centers of good." Every act of love we do can start a chain reaction that will never end.

     Gandhi, in his autobiography, tells of how a Christian author greatly influenced his life and thinking. He writes, "Tolstoy's, The Kingdom Of God Is Within You, overwhelmed me. It left an abiding impression on me." Tolstoy not only influenced this man who changed the history of India, but he became one of the most influential men of letters in Europe. Solzhenitsyn says, one of the main reasons Christianity has survived among Russian intellectuals is the novels of Tolstoy. The question is, who influenced Tolstoy to become a Christian? The answer is another lesson on the inexhaustibility of influence.

     Leo Tolstoy never knew his mother. She died when he was an infant, and his father died when he was nine. He was an orphan boy thrown into a very wild and turbulent world. He was taught there was no God, and that all religion was merely man's invention. Every time he sought to chose a pathway of goodness, he was laughed at and ridiculed. When he gave way to his lowest passions, and chose evil, he was praised and encouraged. He was fast on his way to becoming a totally godless and flesh centered person. Then his aunt Tatiana stepped into the picture. The book of Ruth is about how relatives influence one another. Relatives are the key people in most lives, and so it was with Tolstoy. She became the mother he never had. She loved him and gave his guidance.

      Tolstoy wrote later in life, "Aunt Tatiana had the greatest influence on my life. It was she who taught me, whilst yet in my childhood, the moral joy of a pure affection, not by words, but by her whole being, and imbued me with admiration for all good things. I saw how happy she was in loving and I understood the joy of love. That was the first lesson. And the second was that a quiet and lonely life may never the less be an exquisitely beautiful one." This unknown, unsung, never to be acclaimed, aunt, changed the course of history by her influence on one child, who, a part from her, would have been part of the world's problem instead of part of the answer. The impact of her influence flows on, and has an inexhaustible potential. Naomi only influenced one person, as far as know, to surrender her life to God, and that was Ruth. But the impact of that one life will go on having inexhaustible influence on lives all over the world.

     Only a small percentage of people ever become famous, and so it cannot be God's plan that becoming famous is the goal of life. There has to be a purpose and a plan that all people can get in on, and that plan, it seems to me, is in the impact of influence. All people have influence for good or evil. If they are a tool for the kingdom of God, they will have an influence for good that will have effects for all eternity. Every child of God is an influential person, for however insignificant their influence seems, they pass on the positive influence of the past, and add to the positive influence of the future, and so they become a part of the over all plan of God.

     Think of that one lonely Samaritan traveling down a dangerous road nearly 2000 years ago. He had to make a choice, either to pass by or stop and help a beaten man. Why he stopped we do not know. Someone in his past influenced him to be caring and compassionate. For all we know, he had been helped by someone who found him in the same condition some years before. Whatever the influence, his act of love for a stranger has influenced all the rest of history. There are Good Samaritan Hospitals, Good Samaritan Nursing Homes, and Good Samaritan Ministries of all kinds.

      The whole world has been lifted by one man's kindness. We do not even know his name, but he was an Atlas of influence, for he lifted the whole world when he lifted that helpless victim. We have no record of what that victim did in gratitude, but he could very well have become a social worker ministering to people who were victims of crime. For all we know, the world is full of people with compassion who have been influenced by this one unknown man. Only the omniscient mind of God could trace the impact of his influence, but we know it is inexhaustible.

     All we know for sure about this man is that he suffered. Sometimes that is enough to influence all of history. Dr. Touree grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in an immigrant Finish family of ten children. His mother suffered so with Rheumatoid Arthritis that he longed, as a little boy, to become a doctor. They were so poor, but he struggled for years to get through school, and finally was in practice for himself. One of the first babies he delivered was born an orphan, for the mother died and there were no relatives. He had compassion on the child, and this suffering scene moved him to specialize in Pediatrics. He started the Flint Area Health Foundation, and it became the largest public foundation in Michigan.

      He gave his life to the care of needy children, and helped thousands of them through troubled times. There are hospital wings, and schools, named for Dr. Turee all over Michigan. Had his mother not suffered, her son may never have had the influence he needed to give his life to medicine. By her hurting, she sent a river of help through history to heal the hurts of others. This is how God can work in all things for good. It is by influence that even bad things can influence others for good. At his retirement party, Dr. Turee said, "Many people ask me why did I devote my life to the poor and disadvantaged when I could be in private practice and be a wealthy man? I tell them knowing from whence I came, and the fact that the greatest healer of all time, Jesus Christ, said when you do it unto the least of these you have done it to me-it is enough." Compassion for his mother got him going, and the compassion of Christ for all kept him going, and the result is inexhaustible influence flowing all through history.

     The thing we need to see is that the rivers of influence in history are just like the rivers of nature. They are fed by many small tributaries-little streams that make it what it is. All great and famous people are what they are because of the influence of people that are never known. We all know of the Mississippi, Missouri, Amazon, and Nile Rivers, but who knows the names of the millions of streams that flow into them, making them mighty rivers? We do not have the slightest idea who it was in Naomi's past who made her such a godly woman. Who could have made her so strong that even in adversity and great loss she could so express her faith that a pagan girl would want to be like her. Whoever it was is a part of the inexhaustible influence of this book of Ruth. And who influenced that person, and so on, and so on it goes. It is impossible to trace influence, but all of us are having it. And our goal is not just to be all that we can be, but to influence others to be all they can be, for such influence, however invisible and unknown, will produce inexhaustible fruit for the kingdom of God. The third thing we want to see is-

III. INFLUENCE IS INEVITABLE.

     You cannot avoid being an influence. Even if you go away and hide as a hermit, that will influence people. There is no escape, for just being alive makes us an influence in history. Since it is inevitable, we need to make the best of it. Influence is like the weather. It may be good, or it may be bad, or it may be just so so, but it always is. We have never experienced non-weather, nor can we experience non-influence. It goes with the territory, because it is a part of life.

     We are all products of influence. The very fact that we are here is because of influence. What we have for dinner is also due to influence, and the list could go on and on. We are products of influence, and we are producing influence. There is a never-ceasing flow of energy both to us and from us, that is making us and history what it is, for good or evil. Sarah Bolton wrote,

The smallest bark on life's tumultuous ocean
Will leave a track behind forever more;
The lightest wave of influence, once in motion,
Extends and widens to the eternal shore.

     We are all making history, and influencing eternity, whether we want to or not. The purpose of the Biblical record is that we might see how people of the past have influenced history, and imitate their virtues, and avoid their mistakes. The practical purpose of Ruth is that we might be influenced by it to see the impact of influence that any of us can have, and, therefore, be committed to make it an impact for the glory of God, and the fulfillment of His purpose in history. May God give us the mind of Christ, and the fullness of His Spirit that we might be more aware of the impact of our influence.

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