Ruth 1:8-13 – “Clear Commitment”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁸And Naomi said to the two of her daughter-in-laws, “Go. Return each to the house of her mother. May the LORD do love with you as you have done with [the] dead ones and with me. ⁹May the LORD give to you and may you find rest each [in] the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and they wept. ¹⁰Then they said to her, “No. We will return with you to your people.” ¹¹Then Naomi said, “Return, my daughters. To what you will go with me? [Are there] again to me sons in my abdomen and will they be to you to husbands?  ¹²Return, my daughters. Go, because I am [too] old to become to husband. If I say there is hope to me also to be tonight to a husband and also I bear sons, for them will you wait until which they grow, ¹³for them will you restrain yourselves to not to be to a husband? No, my daughters, because bitter to me much from you because the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.

I’m thinking today about this whole section, from verse 8 through 13. One question that many have pondered over the years is whether Naomi is right to send these girls back to Moab.

Obviously, Moab is the dominion of their god Chemosh with all the evil practices which that idolatry imparted, not the least of which was child-sacrifice. I have lamented before how this one practice must have utterly destroyed any culture, not just because it was so evil, but because growing up in that world would mean a child couldn’t even trust his own mother’s embrace. No matter how much your parents might profess love to you, at any second they could decide to propitiate their evil god by killing you. I hope anyone reading this can see what I mean. These children would grow up in a world without the security of parental love. The entire nation – mind you – grows up suspicious, grows up having to always fear even another’s embrace. This is NOT the world the Lord wants children to grow up in. His world, the world of the Jewish people when they were even remotely following the law, is a world where children are born and raised surrounded by genuine love, where parents actually sacrifice themselves for their children, where “home” is a place of security.

But Moab’s godless world is where Naomi seems to be sending these girls.

She certainly seems to be trying hard to get these girls to go back there. Three times she tells them to “return.” She does her best to paint a bleak picture of their future with her – a future where it is very unlikely they will ever remarry, and so to discourage them from following her to Israel.

So is she right or wrong?

I would say most modern commentators are quick to condemn Naomi. They would accuse her of being concerned only for the girls’ temporal state, that, as a mother figure, all she cares is about is getting these girls “hitched.” The modern writers compare her to mothers who are more concerned that their daughters marry at all, than that they should marry good godly young men.  They condemn her because there would seem to be much greater hope for them spiritually if they at least live in Israel rather than in Moab, that she should actually do almost anything to get them to “come with her” to the Lord’s land.

All of that may be true. Maybe in her grief that is all Naomi is seeing – just the very temporal issue of whether these girls are married or not.

Interestingly, reading the old writers, they almost unanimously commend Naomi for her kindness and wisdom. What they see is the selflessness in Naomi’s urgings. She could easily have thought how much she needed these girls to take care of her. To urge them to leave is cutting off the only support Naomi is assured of. She’s leaving herself not only husbandless and destitute and old, but now she will also be alone. The older writers believe this good godly woman is too kind to put her own welfare ahead of theirs.

Personally, I am strongly inclined to agree with the older writers. As I described above, this is the very difference between these two cultures. In Moab, parents sacrifice their children for themselves. In Israel, parents sacrifice themselves for their children. In fact, I would suggest this very difference is exactly why Ruth will be so determined to go with Naomi. In being married into Naomi’s family, Ruth has seen for herself what a totally different world Israel must be. Instead of all the suspicion and fear, it’s actually possible to bear children and raise them in a world of love and security. She, for herself, has already resolved in her heart to go with Naomi back to that world.

So, what I see is that this admonition from Naomi is just more of the selflessness of good and genuine believers.

But the older writers go on. When it comes to this issue of faith, they would suggest that what Naomi is doing is a very good thing – that she is actually pushing the girls to “count the cost.” The old writers would suggest this is actually a matter of considerable wisdom for Naomi. If the girls would follow her into what potentially could be nothing but destitution and poverty and hopelessness (as far as remarriage is concerned), then she would have them make that decision fully realizing what they were getting into.

Interestingly, what the two girls say to Naomi is “We will go back with you to your people” (v10). “…to your people.” When Orpah decides to in fact go back to Moab, Naomi says to Ruth, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods.” “…and her gods.” What Ruth says to Naomi is “…and your people shall be my people and your God my God.” At least based on these few words recorded for us, this is the underlying difference between Orpah and Ruth. Orpah obviously had seen the difference in this Israelite family and she longed for that world – the world of Naomi’s “people.” But Ruth saw much deeper, that it was not only a better “world” of people, but it was so specifically because in Israel, the Lord was God. She somehow could see that the Lord Himself was the root of it all.

The old writers would commend the wisdom of Naomi to actually force these girls to make a decision. The parallel with Matt 19:16-22 is to me striking. There a young man comes to Jesus and says, “What must I do to be saved?” Jesus’ answer was, “Go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor.” The young man of course went away sad, because he couldn’t part with his wealth, even to gain eternal life. There stood that young man, like Orpah, right on the border. Both had their sights set on the “right” place. Yet both clearly needed to count the cost of going forward. Unfortunately both apparently chose poorly, but that was their choice.

I am again inclined to agree with the old writers. Naomi is an “old” woman. She’s seen them come and she’s seen them go. She has the wisdom of years on her side. And I personally see throughout this book the evidences of a very strong and mature faith (like Job’s). She is not so much encouraging the girls to go back to idolatry as she is getting them to make a very clear choice of their own.

I guess I would like to say I think this is a huge case in point of the shallow immaturity of our current world of faith. If someone came to us and said, “What must I do to be saved?” we would immediately give them the Gospel and urge them to pray. It would be almost unthinkable that we should do anything that might “discourage” them from such a profound interest. Yet that is what Jesus did. I remember reading once in Richard Baxter’s “Directory” (ca. 1650) how a woman asked him that very question and he simply sent her home to read the Bible. I remember reading that and being “surprised,” and yet being vaguely aware of his wisdom.

Just as with the sower and his seed, there is good ground and there is rocky ground. Although some of the sower’s seed invariably falls on the rocky ground, it is clearly his intent that it should all fall on good ground. So should it be in our hearts, I think. Naomi had that wisdom.  Frankly, I don’t think I do, except it does make sense that we have to give people the space to genuinely come to their own conclusions. I fear our Arminian over-emphasis on human effort has taught us to push and shove and extract “decisions” from people who simply are not ready. I suspect Naomi didn’t have that problem. Obviously Jesus did not. Perhaps the  whole matter even reaches all the way back to respecting the dignity of the individual human being, granting them the freedom to make their own choices, even when that leaves open the possibility they might make bad decisions. That is precisely how God deals with the human race. I wonder if that is how the rest of us think. I wonder really if that is how I think?

Naomi pressed the girls. One made what we think was a bad decision, but the very circumstances allowed the other to make a very clear and very positive decision. When Naomi and Ruth reached Bethlehem, even Boaz could say to Ruth, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law … May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge” (2:11,12).  How did he know so much about Ruth? Because it was true and because there was no doubt in Naomi’s mind exactly where Ruth was coming from. You can bet she's introduced Ruth with something like those exact words, "This is Ruth. She has come here to be a worshiper of the Lord." There was no doubt where Ruth stood. Having to make clear commitments does that for us.