Strike Three, You’re…
Ruth 1:8-16 Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back to your mothers’ homes instead of coming with me. And may the LORD reward you for your kindness to your husbands and to me. 9 May the LORD bless you with the security of another marriage.” Then she kissed them good-bye, and they all broke down and wept. 10 “No,” they said. “We want to go with you to your people.” 11 But Naomi replied, “Why should you go on with me? Can I still give birth to other sons who could grow up to be your husbands? 12 No, my daughters, return to your parents’ homes, for I am too old to marry again. And even if it were possible, and I were to get married tonight and bear sons, then what? 13 Would you wait for them to grow up and refuse to marry someone else? No, of course not, my daughters! Things are far more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD himself has caused me to suffer.” 14 And again they wept together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye. But Ruth insisted on staying with Naomi. 15 “See,” Naomi said to her, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. You should do the same.” 16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. I will go wherever you go and live wherever you live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.
Just to review here, the book of Ruth is a wonderful little story that gives us a glimpse into the tender mercy of God and the great hope and new life that He can give to people. In the last Ruth post, I pointed out the utter despair of the opening scene (Fathers and Husbands dying). Any good redemption story has to start out with a scene of desperation, and that’s what we have in this first chapter.
In today’s scene, we see Ruth determined to follow Naomi (her mother-in-law) back to the land of her family (Israel). Ruth, if you remember, is a Moabitess who married Naomi’s sons. Instead of going back to her land of Moab however, she decides she needs to stick with Naomi and return with her to Israel.
But before we assume this is the start of good tidings for Ruth, let me just point out a few things. The Moabites and the Israelites were not exactly the friendliest of neighbors towards each other. They had different cultures, different gods, and they were quite content to steer clear of each other. If you asked an Israelite whether or not a Moabite could ever become part of God’s family, they would have surely said no way! Not those people! Yet, this is exactly what Ruth is looking to do; follow Naomi back to Israel, become a part of her community, and devote herself to the God of Israel. Anyone understanding the situation would read the story at this point and think to themselves, she’s gonna have a hard time doing that. She has no right to think she can just waltz in and join up with God’s chosen people.
A lot of people like to think the book of Ruth is about Ruth; that it’s about her strong faith and devotion to Naomi and to God; that she’s a kind of hero for us all to look up to. Though she might indeed be those things, I’m not so sure that’s what we’re supposed to pick up from this chapter. In fact, it might be just the opposite. I tend to thing the author is trying to show us in Ruth the lowest, most hopeless, most desperate and unlikely person to have anything good happen to her. She’s a woman with no husband, no father or family to protect her, no sons to provide for her, and to top it all off…she’s a Moabitess! I think the real hero of the story has yet to show him/herself.
So again, here’s the question in the opening scenes of the story: what exactly is going to happen to this hopeless, desperate, family-less, unprotected woman from the land of Moab? There’s not a whole lot of personal application we can draw out yet because we’re reading a story and haven’t yet seen the whole drama unfold. But if I wanted to get some questions and issues started, I might ask you to think, where do you see or hear about other people like Ruth in the world you live in? Where are those desperate people without much hope or reason for joy? What should happen to those people? What role might you be called to play in that?
