Pastor Thanael Certa-Werner
Scripture | Ruth 1:11-22 (NIV)
11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!” 14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. 15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” 16 But Ruth replied, “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. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. 19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” 20 “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” 22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
We’re beginning a series looking at the Book of Ruth. Ruth is a beautiful story found in the Old Testament of the Bible in which we see terrible loss, great love, and profound faithfulness. Over the next four weeks, we will be exploring more of what is behind this story of Ruth’s and dive deep into what this story can teach us about our lives and how it points forward to the life of Jesus Christ. This week, we will be exploring the first chapter of Ruth and learning about her great loss.
In the first chapter, before we get to our reading for today, we find a small family which is moving from Israel. The chapter begins, “In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab.” Already, we know so much. The time when the Judges ruled was pure chaos. Think of the stories of Deborah, Gideon, and Samson. This was a time when there was little leadership in the country of Israel. The people would fall away from God and so the natural consequences would take place and great calamities would happen. Then the people would cry out to God and He would send a judge to end the disaster and bring the people back to God. Then the cycle would start over. Over the years, as we read the stories of the Judges, we can see that with each cycle, things just get worse and worse.
In the midst of this chaos, a family decides that it’s time for them to get out. As a result, they move to Israel’s neighbor and enemy, Moab. Their names are Elimelek, his wife Naomi, and their two sons Mahlon and Kilion. So, they’ve left the constant disasters of Israel behind and moved to this new land. While they were there, Mahlon and Kilion get married to two women: Orpah and Ruth and Elimelek, the husband, passes away. Then, after ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion die as well leaving behind Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth. What’s important to remember here is what this means in this time and in this society. Women do not own land or properties. Their husbands were expected to take care of them and after their husbands died, their sons were to take care of them. So the women were completely dependent on the men to take care of them. And here, we find that all of the men who should be taking care of these women are gone. They have nothing in the way of income. They have no resources or sons to take care of them.
So Naomi decides to bring the family back to Israel. She’s heard that the Lord has brought food back to the people of Israel and realizes its time to return home. This is where our scripture for today begins. As the women are on the road towards Bethlehem, where Naomi’s family is originally from, she turns to her daughters-in-law and says, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands?” At this, Orpah turns around and returns to her people and her gods. But Ruth isn’t leaving.
Naomi says, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” But Ruth, instead of turning back, gives this beautiful response. She says, “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 even death separates you and me.”
We’re talking about loyalty and loss today. So far, it is clear to see that all of these women have experienced incredible loss and from this passage, it’s also clear that Ruth shows incredible loyalty. Her words are so moving that many people use them in their wedding vows. But the essential question here, is why? Why is Ruth so loyal to Naomi? These are two women of completely different backgrounds, who have experienced this great loss in two different ways, who do not even worship the same God. Yet, Ruth will not leave Naomi. Why?
It seems to me, that Ruth’s loyalty stems from Naomi’s loyalty. I know that we don’t often focus in on this aspect of the story, but if you look, you can see clearly that there is actually great loyalty in Naomi first. Here, this woman has been taken from her homeland to live abroad in a place where no one else worshiped the same God. In fact, the whole reason she and her family left was because the land of her God – the land that was supposedly under the guidance and protection of her God – was in complete chaos. There were famines and wars. It was terrible. This was supposed to be the land of a good and loving God, yet there seems to be little proof.
Yet, Naomi doesn’t abandon her faith. She continues to worship God and then comes her great loss. Not only does she lose her husband but her two sons. Everything she has, her family, her husband, her income, her status – the life she has known up to this point is completely gone. It seems as though God has completely abandoned her. Yet, even through all of this, she does not abandon her God. She claims that God has treated her bitterly, she may think that God is not being fair or is working against her, but she does not abandon Him.
In fact, her return to Israel is confirmation of her continual trust in Him. Why would she return to a land whose God seems to do nothing right, and whose God seems to have no power of this world? Why return to a land full of chaos? Because Naomi believes that God is powerful, that He is real, and that He will take care of her.
You might be wondering at this point, if that’s true and if she’s still following God, then why does she try so hard to send both of her daughters-in-law away? Again, it is because of her loyalty, but this time, its Naomi’s loyalty to her daughters-in-law. She knows the challenges which lie ahead. She knows that following the one true, Almighty, and everlasting God is not an easy path.
So she is making sure that they both understand what lies ahead of them. This is incredibly reminiscent of what Jesus does during his ministry. In Luke 14:26 Jesus says, ““If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.” This comes after He has started to amass a large following. So, He turns to them and works to make sure they understand what it really means to follow Him. In the same way, Naomi, out of her great love for her daughters-in-law, lays out clearly the struggles which are before them if they should continue down this path.
Which brings us to our last question, why, then, did Ruth continue with her? Naomi has laid out before Ruth the challenges which are in front of them. Orpah has heard these challenges and returned, not only to her people but to her gods too. Why doesn’t Ruth return to her father and mother and to her gods? She could find another Moabite husband and live happily living a life like she thought she would live.
Yet there is something which has foundationally changed her. And that thing is Naomi’s faith and loyalty to God. She has been there almost the whole time. She has known Naomi in the grief of loosing her husband and has watched as Naomi has lost both of her sons. She has witnessed Naomi lose everything and has seen Naomi remain faithful to God. Ruth is not dumb – no person would have been in this time. They all knew that Israel was in chaos and that there so-called-God didn’t seem to be doing anything. Ruth already had her own gods – the gods of her ancestors – but she sees Naomi’s loyalty and how this God of Naomi’s has seemingly seen her through this incredibly hard time.
So Ruth does not turn away and return to what she has known. Instead, she exclaims, “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.” Ruth knows, at least a little, of the challenge which lies ahead. She is going to the land of a different people, of a different God. Yet, she has seen what faith in this God can do and the love it creates in a person, so she chooses to abandon her gods and leave her homeland to be loyal as Naomi has been loyal.
Accordingly, Naomi and Ruth travel to Bethlehem. Naomi changes her name to Mara to reflect that her life has been filled with sadness. And this is where the chapter ends, at the beginning of Ruth and now Mara’s life in Bethlehem. From this brief story, there are so many things we could gleam. But the most important is trust in God.
Naomi and Ruth both placed their trust in God because they had belief that He would see them through the hard times. Despite the challenges which both of them fully knew were about to come, they both elected to be faithful to God because they put their trust in God’s faithfulness to us. And how many more reasons do we have to put our trust in God than Naomi or Ruth had? We now know the risen and living Christ. We have the life, the teachings, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus to remind us of God’s promises and faithfulness to humanity.
In a time when there was chaos and seemingly God was silent, Naomi had trust in God. We know what that’s like now. We live in times when it feels like there is chaos all around us. Yet, we have even more reason to trust in God, because He has shown Himself to be faithful through His Son, Jesus Christ. What Good News, that even in the midst of chaos and confusion – in the reality of loss and grief – we can still place our trust in God and know that He will be faithful as He has been faithful. And for that, thanks be to God. Amen.