May the mumbling commence!
I am glad for a break from the disturbing chapters of Judges that I read yesterday. The chronological Bible that I am reading places the book of Ruth in the midst the days of the judges – probably because of that first phrase in Ruth, “In the days when the judges ruled”.
Once again, we find remarkable faith in the Lord in an unlikely place – in a foreigner. Elimelech and his family abandon Bethlehem in a time of drought. They go to Moab, where Elimelech dies. Elimelech is consigned to being the husband of Naomi. Naomi and her two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, survived Naomi’s husband. Naomi’s sons married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. Then Mahlon and Kilion died as well.
Why did Naomi’s family have such bad fortune? Perhaps, this misfortune happened because they had not shown faith in the Lord. They left Bethlehem and their trust in the Lord. They went to a foreign land with foreign gods.
Naomi was embittered. She no longer wanted to be called Naomi, which means pleasant. Life had been much too unpleasant for her. She wanted a new name, Mara – which means bitter. When her two daughters-in-law wanted to leave with her and go to Bethlehem, Naomi tried to dissuade them. She could not give them new husbands. She argued that Orpah and Ruth would have better fortune returning to the father’s house – better fortune if they trusted in their gods to provide them a new husband.
Most people have heard of Ruth. This book, after all, is named after her. She is included in Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew. She was the great-grandmother of King David. But, what about Orpah? She accepted the reasoning that Naomi, or should I say Mara, gave to her. Orpah returned to her father’s house.
Returning to her father’s house was the path of least resistance. I would wager that most of us today would have chosen Orpah’s path. Would you desire to become a foreigner in an alien land, where the natives would hate you? Would you abandon all the people and things that you have depended upon?
For these reasons, the confession of Ruth is that much more powerful to me. After Orpah left, Mara encouraged Ruth to follow suit. This was Ruth’s response:
"Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." (Ruth 1:16b-17)
Ruth and Naomi returned to Bethlehem together. And the danger for Ruth was real. Boaz knew this. Think about their first words to one another.
So Boaz said to Ruth, "My daughter, listen to me. Don't go and glean in another field and don't go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled."
At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, "Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me – a foreigner?"
Boaz replied, "I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband – how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge." (Ruth 2:8-12)
Boaz provided protection for Ruth. He went above and beyond the call of the Lord to leave gleanings from the field for this alien. Boaz thought she should be protected for placing her trust in the Lord, and Boaz knew that he could help provide that protection.
May we display the same wholehearted trust in the Lord, and may we protect one another as we place our trust in the Lord.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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