Scripture References: Ruth 1:1-18; John 8:31-38
From Last Post: Naomi became convinced that her young daughters-in-law would be better off to stay in Moab, each with her mother.
She decided to send them back. “Go, return each to her mother’s house. The LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The LORD grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.”
Orpah and Ruth were more likely to find husbands in Moab than in Judah; and while Naomi, no doubt, would have been comforted a great deal by the presence of her daughters-in-law, she unselfishly wanted what was best for them. She kissed them, and in a most poignant scene, the younger women cried, protesting out of their loyalty to someone whom they obviously loved a great deal. With reluctant reason, Naomi explains:
“Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go—for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons, would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? No, my daughters; for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me!”
Naomi couldn’t hold it in any longer. She believed that all the tragedy had come to her and her loved ones because of God’s anger. It was a common way to respond to bad news, still is, and it heightens the tragedy. To think that in addition to the grief of losing loved ones God is punishing you in ways that can’t be taken back must be overpowering. How grateful we should be for a newer and clearer revelation of God than that. Still, Naomi only had what was known to her.
Caught up in familial, practical, and theological grieving, they began to weep aloud again. Orpah kissed Naomi and, for very good reasons, turned back to Moab; maybe they would never see one another again. “But Ruth clung to her [Naomi].”
Naomi pressed Ruth one more time: “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” Ruth was determined that she would not leave Naomi, and her explanation is preserved for us in a memorable, poetic statement. Ruth said to Naomi:
“Entreat me not to leave you,
Or to turn back from following after you;
For wherever you go, I will go;
And wherever you lodge, I will lodge;
Your people shall be my people,
And your God, my God.
Where you die, I will die,
And there will I be buried.
The LORD do so to me, and more also,
If anything but death parts you and me.”
This is beautiful. It says, in essence, that in a devoted relationship my whole life will be intertwined with yours. Where you are, there I want to be. People to whom you relate, I will relate. As you honor God, so will I honor God. Then, with an oath which we cannot understand, Ruth says may God punish me if anything short of death separates us or comes between us. That’s some kind of determination!
To Be Continued
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 