Ruth 1:19-22 – “The Ruth Beside Me”

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

¹⁹And they went both of them until they coming into Bethlehem. And it was when they coming into Bethlehem. And the all of the city was moved because of them. And they said, “This Naomi?” ²⁰And she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi. Call me Marah, because Shaddai has caused me to be very bitter. ²¹I, I went full and the LORD has caused me to come back empty. Why do you call me Naomi and the LORD has crushed me and Shaddai has caused to hurt me?” ²²And she returned, Naomi and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, one returning from the fields of Moab. And they came into Bethlehem in [the] beginning of [the] harvest of barley.

I want to record another observation before leaving this passage. There is one thing I see in Naomi that reminds me so much of me. Think about it. Here she is at the lowest point of her human existence. I’ve already pondered her situation and I hope I have seriously tried to sympathize with the very deep grief and loss she has dealt with. Her seeming bitterness is very understandable and, as I said earlier, I am quite confident the Lord could handle it and that it was in the end all an expression of what was actually a strong relationship she had with Him.

But, all that said, she is still, humanly speaking, in a very dejected, discouraged, seemingly hopeless state in her life. She does speak like a hopeless person. I don’t doubt at all that, in spite of her relationship with the Lord, she feels her world a very dark place. She feels crushed and abandoned. She doesn’t see any light at the end of her tunnel.

I think we can all relate to where she is at this point. We’ve all felt it. I’ve certainly never been hit as hard as she has but I know those same feelings and I think we all do.

But there is one thing she is missing. There is something we are all missing in those moments. In her case, it is standing right beside her. It is her Ruth. Naomi says, “I went full and the LORD has caused me to come back empty.” That is how she feels and understandably so, but is it true? Is she “empty?” Obviously not. In her deep grief, she cannot see that one of the Lord’s richest blessings is standing right beside her. In the depth of her losses, she is not seeing that, standing right beside her, right there with her, there is a gift from the very Lord she feels has abandoned her. The Hebrew says, “And they went both of them …And she returned, Naomi and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her …”  

Isn’t that so much like all of us? When we suffer losses, when we get down, it is so easy to only see the negative and completely miss the blessing that may be standing right beside us.

I guess my prayer would be that the Lord would help me, when I’m down or when I suffer losses, that I would remember Naomi, and maybe, just maybe, remember to lift up my eyes and look around and perhaps actually see that blessing right beside me. I’m sure it’s probably always there, if we but had eyes to see it. I’m sure sometimes it really is a Ruth – a person God has given us like an angel in our hour of need. Or perhaps it is some other provision, some blessing we haven’t noticed. But God give us eyes to see. With Him we’re never “empty.”

I feel sorry for poor Naomi and her grief is totally understandable, but I wish she could have looked and realized what we see – that this Ruth standing beside her was a blessing from God, that she was not “empty.” Perhaps it might have encouraged her heart even just a little and given her a measure of joy in the midst of her pain.

Lord give us eyes to see the Ruths beside us.

One last “for whatever it’s worth” – having said all of this, I do not in any way mean to suggest that somehow Ruth “made up” for Naomi’s losses. Ruth is a great blessing to her, again, an angel from God. But nothing could ever fill the holes in Naomi’s heart. This poor woman buried her husband and her (only) two sons. Death alone will free her heart from the pain she lives with day and night. No relationship on earth will ever “replace” what she has lost and we shouldn’t be thinking of Ruth that way. I know later on the women of Bethlehem ask her, “Isn’t Ruth better than seven sons?” There may be some measure of truth in that question, but, once again, Naomi doesn’t want seven sons. She wants her husband and her two sons. Ruth can’t fill that hole. She can only be another source of love and blessing in Naomi’s life. I would suggest it is true that no relationship is “replaceable.” Each one is a jewel all its own. We should never try to “replace” anyone. We need to simply be the jewel we can be in someone else’s life. And we need to appreciate each jewel God gives us completely in and of itself.

Sometimes when a child loses a pet, we adults say things like, “We should give them another one to ‘replace’ the one they lost.” Wouldn’t it be better to say to them, “You really loved your pet and he loved you. You’ll always remember him. But perhaps there’s another doggie out there that needs your love. Maybe there’s another doggie out there that wishes someone loved him like you loved yours. What would you think of seeing if we can find him?”

Just an idea, but thought it worth throwing in while I’m thinking about it all.

May the Lord fill your life with love!

Ruth 1:19-22 – “Not Wishing to be a ‘Miserable Comforter'”

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

¹⁹And they went both of them until they coming into Bethlehem. And it was when they coming into Bethlehem. And the all of the city was moved because of them. And they said, “This Naomi?” ²⁰And she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi. Call me Marah, because Shaddai has caused me to be very bitter. ²¹I, I went full and the LORD has caused me to come back empty. Why do you call me Naomi and the LORD has crushed me and Shaddai has caused to hurt me?” ²²And she returned, Naomi and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, one returning from the fields of Moab. And they came into Bethlehem in [the] beginning of [the] harvest of barley.

I suppose this is going to be a little different kind of post. As I have read many, many commentaries on these verses, people have pretty much unanimously criticized Naomi for her bitterness, diagnosed her lapse of faith, and recommended the particular points where she should correct her thinking.

As I have read these thoughts it all reminded me a lot of Job and his “miserable comforters.” The book of Job has been around for something like 4000 years, yet I wonder if we’ve ever learned its lessons. The Lord specifically said at the end He was angry with Job’s friends. As I have read the book many times, I can’t help but notice there was much truth in what they told him. Most of the time I find myself ready to agree with them. They accost him for his hard thoughts toward God, just like pretty much everyone does Naomi. And it seems like someone should have “called his hand” on his seemingly bitter accusations against the Lord. Yet, when it was all over, it was the friends the Lord was angry with, not Job.

I’ve puzzled over all of this for years. Over time I have been leaning toward a conclusion and I think perhaps Naomi draws the knot. Prov 25:20 warns us not to “sing songs to a heavy heart.” Certainly Job and poor Naomi both qualify as “heavy hearts.” Both have suffered horrifically, Job losing all ten of his children in a single day, then his wealth, then his health. Naomi had to bury her husband, then both of her sons. By the time we meet her, she is apparently impoverished (as evidenced by Ruth gleaning grain behind Boaz’s workers – that’s what destitute people did).

Everything I read people writing about Naomi is the same as what Job’s “friends” told him. And, again, the Bible specifically tells us the Lord was angry with them.

I remember once I saw a little pamphlet entitled something like, “Lament for a Son.” Apparently this fellow had lost his son and in his very deep grief wrote this pamphlet. As I read his words he said some things right but then seemed bitter and angry at God. My first thought was, “This guy isn’t handling life very well,” and I could have offered him all the same criticisms and corrections. Then it occurred to me that what I was reading sounded an awful lot just like the book of Lamentations. … and that’s Scripture! In that book, Jeremiah is recording his thoughts in the midst of his grief at the horrific destruction of Jerusalem. … and he talks just like Job, and Naomi, and the poor father of the pamphlet. At the time I was standing there reading the pamphlet, I didn’t know what to do with it all, I just knew there was something seriously lacking in my spiritual maturity.

I’m not sure I’ve got it yet, but here is what I suspect: There are two great commands – love God, love people. Jesus said if you’ve done that, you’ve done it all. So love is the first thing I need when dealing with another human being in the depths of grief and loss. Is it possible that is what Job’s friends were missing … and me as I read that pamphlet … and people as they comment on Naomi? Are we all forgetting to love the people? I know a lot of people would say it is loving to correct their anger and bitterness. Maybe. But you can also speak with the tongues of men and angels and still not have love. Just because what you’re telling them is “right” doesn’t make it loving.

I guess I just wonder if we aren’t so easily offended by their harsh language, we forget to pause and see them in their humanness, in the horror of their grief. And then, if what’s going on in our own heart is not love – then certainly what comes out of our mouth won’t be pleasing to God or helpful to the person.

There is one more thought I’d like to record. I also expect it possible in all these cases, there is a relationship going of which perhaps we know nothing. Is it possible that God can handle it? Is it possible that Job and the Lord were so close, they could talk to each other in ways the rest of us don’t understand? The Lord is a God, not a man. But He made Job, and Naomi, and the poor father, and He made them humans. He made them as people who hurt deeply at loss. And He knows that is how He made us. Is it possible He can handle it when people lash out at Him in the depths of their despair? Is it possible that what He gives them at that time is not correction but love? And when we step in and think we’re going to do the correcting for Him, then we aren’t representing Him at all? We’re actually misrepresenting Him! No wonder He’d be angry.

This all seems very complex to me. I know it is important to keep my thinking right and I certainly want to encourage people around me to think rightly too. It is sad to hear someone lashing out at God, when I know He is a God of amazing love and kindness. But when I cross paths with people in their grief, maybe I need to slow down and more deliberately try to be God-connected myself. I need to see them as He sees them. I need to speak to them what He would speak to them. Thinking about that, I don’t know how I could be speaking anything but a love language to someone crushed under grief. And perhaps I also need to grant them the respect of letting them have a personal relationship with God – something I don’t necessarily need to understand, just to respect.

A lot to think about.

Read Naomi’s words in this passage again and see what you think.

Ruth 1:16,17 – “Influence”

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

¹⁶And Ruth said, “Do not insist to me to leave you, to return from after you, because to where you go I will go and in where you remain I will remain. Your people my people, your God my God. ¹⁷Thus may the LORD do to me and thus may He add if death divides between me and between you.”

In the last post, I said I can’t move on without pausing to consider Ruth’s famous words. Before I move on, there is another thing I think worth noting. The book of Ruth teaches us much about the subject of influence. Influence? What do I mean?

All of us want to “make a difference.” We’d all like to believe, as we passed through this Valley of Bacah, that we actually did do something to make this world a better place, or at least helped someone in it, or that we left behind some qualities or knowledge that someone after us could embrace. It might be as simple as a knot I knew how to tie that I thought was often very useful or perhaps a family recipe. Or it might be knowledge of a trade that we wish to pass on to our children or other young people. Of course, as believers we would like to believe that, because of us, other people would come to know the Lord and love Him.

I think it safe to say most of us would say we don’t have much influence at all. If someone stumbles across this blog, is that pretty much how you feel? I suspect it’s true of most of us. Few people get to be the Billy Graham’s or the Mother Theresa’s or the Nelson Mandela’s of this world, who, even in their lifetimes, can look and see a very wide swath of positive influence. In spite of our desire to “make a difference” it just doesn’t seem like anything we do is that important. I generally make it a point to vote in every election and I do believe that our votes “count” but my voting feels about as influential as the rest of my life – the proverbial “teacup in a tempest”. Most of us pretty much live our lives finding that no one seems to notice or care what we think, and our contributions everywhere are about as momentous as our votes.

So, what to make of this? We want to “make a difference,” but we honestly don’t see the opportunity or even the likely possibility.

I think we could learn much from the book of Ruth and especially be encouraged because the people we meet there are not emperors or great evangelists or any other such thing. They’re just common people like us, living their lives just like we do.

First of all, consider Naomi. What is her “position?” Wife, mother, mother-in-law. Pretty impressive, yes? Actually, as the young people say, “Not so much.” Naomi is one of “us.” She’s one of us people who find that just living seems to take up pretty much all of “me.” She has no audience, no microphone, no stage to shout from, just a life to live. She would have no doubt felt just like the rest of us – pretty useless in the big scheme of things.

But enter the Lord. There is one thing monumentally significant about Naomi – she is a believer. She knows the Lord. Even in her bitterness, she sees everything in her life in connection with the Lord. “When she heard that the Lord had come to the aid of His people …” “May the Lord show kindness to you …” “May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband …” “The Lord’s hand has gone out against me …” When Ruth came home with an abundance of barley and says it was from a man named Boaz, Naomi’s first response is, “The Lord bless him!” Everywhere Naomi goes, the Lord goes with her. She is weak, but He is strong. She may be “just” a wife and mother and mother-in-law, but the God of the universe dwells with her.

As she has been living her life, going with her husband to live in Moab, being a mother to two boys, cleaning the cobwebs out of the corners, something else happens. One day her now adult son Mahlon brings home a cute girl and suddenly Naomi has a daughter-in-law. At this point, I’m going to conjecture, but I think what I would offer is reasonable. Ruth is a Moabite. Moabites were of course the descendants of Lot’s incestuous relationship with his daughter. The Moabite people had long since forgotten anything they ever knew about the true God. They worshipped a particularly noxious pagan god they called Chemosh. Chemosh was worshipped for one thing by child-sacrifice. Think for just a minute how that one practice would affect an entire culture. Children grew up in a world where they could not trust their parents! It would be seriously a “dog-eat-dog” world of suspicion and cruelty, a world where, from the very beginning, life was cheap and other people – even your own family – were someone you used for whatever it took to “get by.” That’s the world Ruth grew up in – a cold, cruel world where even your own mother’s embrace was not to be trusted.

Enter Naomi. Ruth probably noticed immediately there was something different about this Mahlon fellow. Yes, he was definitely cute, but, more than that, he didn’t treat her like the Moabite boys. Somehow there was a kindness about him she’d never known, a gentleness. Even as she observed him and as he talked to her, she sensed that somehow she could “trust” him – something she’d never known in her world. Then he takes her home and she finds out there’s four of them!

Right away, she sees something totally different in this home. The people love each other. The parents don’t burn their children, they love them. The very fabric of this family’s world is built on the precepts of a God who loves them, who gives them commands “that it may go well with them.” And suddenly she finds in Naomi the mother she never had. Like Mahlon, Naomi doesn’t “want” anything. She just loves Ruth. She’s kind to her, embraces her as her son’s wife, is patient to explain things to her, and soon Ruth finds she actually “trusts” her. Ruth says to herself, “I want to be a part of this ‘people.’” Then she begins to realize it isn’t just the “people.” It isn’t just that this family somehow got lucky. It is their God. As she hears Naomi attribute everything to “the Lord” Ruth begins to see that this family’s God is what makes them different. And it is a “different” she wants.

Naomi doesn’t “feel” like she’s having any influence. She’s just a wife, and a mother, and now a mother-in-law, doing what people like her do. Yet, when it comes time to return to Israel, there is this Moabite girl who plasters herself with super-glue, gives Naomi a big hug and says, “I’m going with you.”

And she isn’t just “going with her.” She makes it clear, “Your God will be my God.” As Naomi lived her faith, even lived it imperfectly, the Lord has used her to win the heart of this one Moabite girl. Is that influence? Yes! In her day someone might of said, “Yeah, but that isn’t much.” I’m reminded of the boy who was walking along a beach and came to a large accumulation of starfish that had washed up on the shore to lay there in the hot sun and die. He grabbed up one and tossed it back in the ocean to save it. Someone mocked, “What difference did that make?” “It made a lot of difference to that one,” he replied.

So was Naomi’s effect on Ruth important? It certainly was to Ruth! Naomi is no Mother Theresa. If it weren’t for the Bible, no one would even know it happened. It would seem like my single “vote.” Yet was it influence? Yes. And was it important? Yes.

And of course, we know “the rest of the story.” Little could Naomi possibly imagine that the Lord would use her, through this Ruth, to lift the entire Jewish nation out of the horrific period of the Judges and into the kingdoms of David and Solomon.

There is a Ruth to utter her immortal words and to sire a king, because there was first a Naomi – just a wife and mother and mother-in-law, going about her daily life, but living her faith.

Like us, Naomi had little to offer. But like Ruth, she gave to the Lord the most important gift – herself. And He took her five loaves and three fishes, blessed them and broke them, and used her in what would prove to be a monumental way.

E. Biscombe said,

“The Bible affirms that no man liveth to himself. Each life has an influence. What is influence? It is that subtle something which resides in our deeds, words, spirit, and character. It is a shadow of ourselves, our impersonal self. It is to us relatively what the fragrance is to the flowers, what light is to the star. We are all sensitive to influence: our hearts are open to goodness, beauty, genius. There is never a day when perhaps unconsciously we do not receive and reflect a thousand shadowy forms.”

Dr. Thomas L. Constable said:

“First, God uses people who trust Him, and commit themselves to Him, to be a blessing to others. Boaz and Ruth probably did not live to see David's greatness, much less Jesus Christ's. However, God found in them people whom He could use to produce a David. Modern society is very ‘results conscious.’ We want instant success, and we grow impatient when we do not see God using us to bless others. We need to remember that we will not see all the fruit of our faith this side of heaven. G. Campbell Morgan wrote, ‘You may be God's foothold for things of which you cannot dream.’"

May we all be encouraged today to be content just to “be.”  Be who you are. “Remain in the place of your calling.” Naomi and Ruth would teach us, once again, that “little is much if God is in it.” Let us all resolve the more to simply walk with our God, to love Him and the people He puts around us. And as we go through our mundane lives, let us believe that love really will somehow, some way grant to us the influence we wish we could have. Love will make a difference – whether we ever see it or not.

Ruth 1:16,17 – “The Best Gift”

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

¹⁶And Ruth said, “Do not insist to me to leave you, to return from after you, because to where you go I will go and in where you remain I will remain. Your people my people, your God my God. ¹⁷Thus may the LORD do to me and thus may He add if death divides between me and between you.”

In the last post, I jotted down some thoughts about the overwhelming emotion displayed here in the book of Ruth. That said, I can’t move on without pausing to consider Ruth’s famous words. People all down through the years have noted Ruth’s commitment to Naomi and compared it to the commitment we ought all to have to Christ.

That certainly is a valid observation, but I’d like to focus on one aspect of it.

Notice what Ruth offers to Naomi. What is it? Herself. Ruth offers to Naomi nothing more (and nothing less) than herself. Why is this? Is it not, on the one hand because she has nothing else to offer? Ruth is a destitute young widow. She has no money, no home, no influence, no future, no nothing. And so she commits to Naomi the only thing she has – herself.

Pause a moment and consider the beauty of this. Although it is “all” she has to give, consider that, on the other hand, it is giving her all. We give a lot in this world. Everyone “gives” a lot to each other. As I type this post, we’re within days of Christmas. Gifts will pass back and forth in profusion in less than two weeks. Someone wealthy will give a new car, who knows, maybe even a new home! Others less fortunate will settle for homemade gifts. Some struggle to be able to give anything at all -- I worked last night at a Christmas Care ministry where we gave poor parents toys to give their children. Yet, through it all, Paul’s words would challenge our hearts: “If I speak with the tongues of men and angels … If I give all I have to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I am nothing” (I Cor 13:1-3). Love -- the only real gift that matters in the end is to give ourselves. It is the least we can give and yet it is to truly give the most.

One of the most memorable birthdays of my life was one year when we were so pressed financially, Joan and I decided it would be better if she and the kids simply didn’t buy me anything. On arriving home that birthday evening, what should appear from the dining room door but Daniel, Ruthie, and Esther with bows on their heads! Definitely the best presents I ever received!

Ruth understood that. She had nothing else to give, so she gave herself, and in reality she gave the greatest gift of all.

Obviously there is a lesson in this for us. Let us, in all our giving, be sure we give ourselves. Let us be sure we remember in the giving to not leave off love.

Then let us not despise the gift of ourselves. So often in this world, I think we all feel pressed to give anything at all, whether from lack of funds or perhaps lack of ideas. But let us not despise the gift of ourselves. It truly “isn’t much” but it is also the very best gift we can give.

Finally, let us remember the Lord knows all of this too. Most of us don’t feel very “gifted.” We wonder what possible good I could do in this world to make any difference at all. Yet let us not despise the best gift, the gift Ruth gave – ourselves. To give the Lord anything else without it is to give Him nothing at all, but no matter what we give, ourselves is the gift He most desires.

But Ruth said,

 “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you.

 For where you go I will go, and where 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.

 May the Lord do so to me and more also

 if anything but death parts me from you.”

Ruth 1:8-18 – “Learning From Real People”

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

¹⁴And they lifted up their voices and they wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law and Ruth clung to her. ¹⁵And she said, “Look. Your sister-in-law has returned to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law.”

 ¹⁶And Ruth said, “Do not insist to me to leave you, to return from after you, because to where you go I will go and in where you remain I will remain. Your people my people, your God my God. ¹⁷Thus may the LORD do to me and thus may He add if death divides between me and between you.”

¹⁸And she saw, because one making herself strong to go with her, and she ceased to speak with her.

As I have enjoyed the luxury of slowing down to really ponder over these verses, I find the human emotion described is almost overwhelming. Here are these three ladies. Together they have shared sorrow upon sorrow. Each has buried her husband, Naomi also her two sons, her only two sons. As if that weren’t enough grief for one lifetime, the loss of their men has left them destitute. Who knows what deprivations they have suffered in their common poverty?

Finally Naomi resolves to return to Canaan. The girls obviously deeply love her, perhaps have no real culturally acceptable alternative, and so determine to go with her. But realize, for them, this walk is a walk away from everything they’ve ever known. Naomi at least is returning to the familiar. Obviously the girls’ mothers at least are still living, as Naomi urges them to return there, so as they walk along, they are leaving their own families. They are leaving their people, their familiar streets and hills, their dialect, and who knows what all else? And what are the girls walking to? They are going as foreign women (and foreign widows at that) into a nation which has been traditionally their bitter enemies. As they walk along they cannot possibly know whether they are walking into anything better or perhaps far worse. What if they get there and Naomi dies? Where will that leave them?

Then as they walk along, they come probably to the Jordan River, the border, and they face a decision: plunge into this unknown world with this woman they love, or tear themselves away from her and everything she has meant to them and return at least to a familiar, though hopeless world. No wonder they wept aloud in verse 8 and then “wept again” in verse 14. It is all an absolutely heart-wrenching time of seemingly utter hopelessness and deeply painful decisions, none of which offer any sure promise.

I think before we pass any judgment whatsoever on any of them, we need to pause and try for a moment to feel their pain. Commentators have traditionally been quick to label Naomi as a bitter, angry woman. She even calls herself that when they arrive in Bethlehem (v20). Orpah has been quickly cast as the half-hearted follower, who like Pliable, turns back at the point of decision. Ruth has been portrayed as a serene and noble woman of deep and exemplary resolve. Every one of these characterizations may contain an element of truth, and each may be worthy of observation and consideration, but I would suggest we do these poor ladies a heartless injustice if we judge their actions without first sympathizing with them in the depth of their sorrows.

What do I mean? Consider Naomi. It is true we find her in a spirit of bitterness. “It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has gone out against me” (v.13). “I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty” (v21). It is true. We find her in a spirit of bitterness – but should we judge the woman’s entire life, her entire character, on the state we find her in when she’s just buried her entire family and has been reduced to abject poverty? Didn’t Job talk a lot like this after he had to bury his ten children, lost all his worldly wealth, and finally his very health as well? With Job, we have the luxury of being told he was “blameless and upright,” before he said things like “In His great power … He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes. I cry out to You, O God, but You do not answer … You turn on me ruthlessly” (30:18-21). After all of that, the Lord told Job’s three friends, “I am angry with you, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has” (42:7).

Notice too that everything Naomi says sounds an awful lot like the book of Lamentations – which, by the way is inspired Scripture. And may I remind us all as well that on the night before the Cross, the Savior Himself sweat great drops of blood and said, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death” (Mt 26:38).

I would suggest, before we condemn Naomi, we should look at the rest of what we’re told about her and consider what kind of person we find. Consider first that she is deeply loved by her two daughter-in-laws. Daughter-in-laws? We’re talking about a relationship which very often is far less than affectionate. The very nature of the relationship almost guarantees some element of friction. Yet, here are two girls who deeply love this woman, their mother-in-law! I think if we consider the other things Naomi says, we’ll see why – that she is actually a very kind-hearted, selfless woman whose character has endeared her to these two girls.

Think again about what she said in v8, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home.” If she were a selfish woman, she would rather have insisted they go with her, that they “owed” it to her out of respect. Think about it. She needs these young women. When they get to Bethlehem, it is Ruth who goes out and gleans in the fields. Naomi is getting too old for such hot, heavy labor. It is Ruth who goes out to gather what little food can even be had for the two of them. Yet we find Naomi here, thinking not of herself, but of these two girls. “May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then listen too as she says to them, “May the Lord show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me.” If she were really just a bitter woman, the easiest thing for her to do would have been to lash out at these girls, to perhaps implicate them in the deaths of her sons, to pounce on whatever weaknesses they may have had as wives. Yet, all she can do is express gratitude to them.

I would like to suggest we err to paint Naomi as a bitter woman. I think the other evidence indicates to us a kind-hearted, godly woman, whom we have the misfortune of meeting just at the moment she reaches the very lowest point of her human existence. Her story (and since we know the end) should encourage us in our darkest moments to perhaps rise above the bitterness of our hearts. But too, may her example help us not to be harsh with good people in the midst of their suffering. Perhaps we need to learn to just “give them space” and trust that their love for God will yet conquer the temporary bitterness of their emotions.

I think we can do the same with poor Orpah. Before we’re too harsh, we need to sympathize with this young woman’s plight. Not so long ago, she was a young girl, dreaming of a husband and a family, and a place of her own. Then this handsome young fellow Chilion stepped into her life and it was all falling in place. Her dreams were coming true. There was a wedding. He took her into a home. And suddenly, even before she could become a mother, she lost it all. Now we find her facing this extremely difficult decision of whether to follow her mother-in-law into the unknown, or at least remain in her familiar world.

I can say I wish she had seen what Ruth saw. I wish she could have had the faith to travel to Israel and, like Ruth, find hope in “the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge” (2:12).  I don’t know how grace worked in Ruth’s heart where it seems it did not in Orpah’s. But I see too much of myself in her to quickly cast stones. For myself, it only moves me to pray for my family, my children and grandchildren, that when they come to those same decision points in their lives, that grace will win, and that they, like Ruth, will always find that our God is a “rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”

Before I close this post, I want to just briefly consider Ruth herself. I love vv.16,17. I memorized her immortal words many years ago. I seriously wonder if ever in all of human history were there ever uttered such words of simple but profound grandeur? And there is much to admire. She clearly understood the spiritual ramifications of her choice, “Your God shall be my God.” Further, there was, in fact, something within her that compelled her decision. The Hebrew of v18, actually describes Ruth as “one strengthening herself.” It gets translated as something like, “She was determined,” but, for whatever it’s worth, the Hebrew is very clearly reflexive, that there is something volitional going on inside her. She is in fact a young woman to admire.

But once again, I think we do her a great unkindness if we simply read her words and envision a resolute but serene young woman standing there in the road. Let us pause to remember she speaks these words through tears. Her world is nothing but despair and uncertainty. While we admire her words (and we should), let’s also let our hearts feel sympathy for this poor girl. No young woman should have to suffer what she has suffered. But then, from that vantage, I suppose we only admire her more. She exemplifies for us the matchless beauty of faith. Hoping against hope, this young woman is doing what she’s doing, saying what she’s saying, because her heart has found hope in the God of Israel. That’s what I mean by the matchless beauty of faith. She has nothing but faith – and that makes her a woman who speaks words still ringing three thousand years later.

Even in the Bible, if we let the people be real people, we only learn more.

Ruth 1:6,7 – “Decisions"

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

⁶And she arose, she and her daughters-in-law, and she returned from the fields of Moab for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the LORD had visited His people to give them bread. ⁷And she went out from the place where she had been there and the two of her daughters-in-law with her, and they went in the way to return to the land of Judah.

The more I study these opening verses, the more I’m convinced it was a bad decision for Elimelech to take his family to Moab. As I’ve said before, I’m loath to be too hard on him because I know what it feels like to be in that kind of position. There is a famine going on. People are going hungry, some may even be starving. You have a wife and children to care for. You feel like you must do something to insure they’re provided for. The weight of it bears on you constantly. You’re faced with options. You think you see the best option and go for it. Then as the years go by, you realize that was a really bad decision and deeply regret it. It seemed like a good idea at the time. It even seemed like the “right” thing to do at the time, but 20-20 hindsight tells you it was a bad decision after all.

For me, this is one of the beauties of constantly studying the Bible. As I’m going along, living my life, making decisions, and going on living, I often find over time the Bible reveals to me inconsistencies between what I’m doing and what I’m finding it says. Those inconsistencies bother me, though at the time I may not know what to do with them. Then as I continue to study and pray and live my life, it becomes clearer and clearer to me exactly what is wrong and what I need to do differently. For me, this is a glorious freedom. It is freedom from me – the freedom to actually be able to rise above me, to see my life from God’s perspective, then to actually be able to implement changes that to me are (finally) clearly faith-driven.

As I would “look back” on Elimelech’s decision, I believe I would conclude (as so many times in my own life) that it really was a lack of faith thing. Hamilton Smith said, “The famine tests our faith. Elimelech was in the land of God's appointment for Israel. The tabernacle was there; the priests were there; the altar was there, but, in the governmental ways of God with His people, the famine was there; and the test for Elimelech was this, could he trust God in the famine and remain in God's appointed path in spite of the famine?” The key words here are “God’s appointed path.” Although I cannot personally find a single passage of Scripture that clearly says it was wrong for him to take his family to Moab, yet obviously the Lord’s plan for the Jewish people was for them to live in Canaan. Clearly, to leave Israel was to leave the land where Yahveh was their God (at least in principle) and to go live in a land that didn’t even acknowledge Him. Now, perhaps, it is 20-20 clear. Faith could have kept him in Israel. He should have just stayed there. The Lord would have provided for them.

Jewish tradition held that Elimelech and his sons died as judgment for that lack of faith. Once again, I’m not sure we need to be that harsh. I would rather look at it this way: On the understanding that it was wrong, obviously the Lord could not bless Elimelech and his family there. As a loving Father, He couldn’t allow them to just have a wonderful life there. He had to bring to bear circumstances that would make them want to get back where they belonged. The same thought is illustrated in the story of the Prodigal Son. It was his hunger that moved him to remember his father’s home. The other factor here is to realize that, even if it was wrong, the Lord was moving to bring Ruth to Israel. We may not understand why all these events had to play out, but in fact, the Lord wanted Naomi and Ruth to return to Israel. As Matthew Henry said, “Sometimes earth is embittered to us, that heaven may be endeared.” In their case, Moab was embittered to Naomi (and perhaps to Ruth), that Israel might be endeared. And of course it worked.

Back to the story, Elimelech is now dead, but Naomi is left to carry on. What should she do? She’s at a critical decision point herself now. She basically needs to go back where at least there is family around, where there is some hope that someone cares. Spiritually speaking, she needs to be in the “right place.” I’m not so sure how much of this she understands and how much she simply wants to go “home.” But whatever her reasons, she comes to a turning point and makes a decision. This time it is a good decision.

She hears “in the fields of Moab” that the famine is over. I suspect there is in fact a faith element here because what she hears and what moves her is that “the Lord has visited His people to give them bread.” It isn’t just “the famine is over.” It is that the Lord is at work. It has to do with “His people” (in contrast to the Moabites among whom she’s living), and there is food to eat, not just because the Stock Exchange has gone up and inflation is down; it’s not because Congress has passed a new public works program. The famine is over specifically because “the Lord is giving His people bread.” As confused and perhaps embittered as Naomi may be, note it is still, and always will be, all about the Lord. That was Job’s strength as well, I believe. As much as he suffered, as embittered as he became, yet it was all about the Lord and what He was doing in Job’s life. So it is with Naomi.

And so she gets up and says, “We’re leaving Moab. We’re going back to Israel.” For whatever reason, both girls accompany her. I don’t know if culturally it was shameful for them to go back to their fathers? Perhaps that is why Naomi will counsel them to go back to “their mothers’ homes” – maybe the only way culturally to “get in the door” was to go to Mom first? But for whatever reason, they all head out together.

It is interesting to me to note that the Hebrew literally says, “and they went in the way to return to the land of Judah.”   Note the “in the way.” I have often noted that Hebrew seemed to place a major significance on the term “the way.” Jeremiah says, “Here is the way, walk ye in it.”  Haggai said, “Consider your ways.” Jesus came and said, “I am the Way.” Note along with this how it says, “…she went out from the place where she had been there,” and that two times in the same verse it names that place as “the fields of Moab.” It seems to me, the Hebrew is taking literary pains to highlight that they are leaving Moab (by implication a bad place) and going in the right way – the way to Judah.

Such is our life. Lots of decisions.

Ruth 1:1-5 – “Famine”

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

¹And it was in the days of judging one judging, it was a famine in the land and it was a man from Bethlehem Judah going to sojourn in the fields of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. ²And the name of the man [was] Elimelech and the name of his wife [was] Naomi and the name of his two sons [was] Mahlon and Chilion. [They were] Ephrathites from Bethlehem Judah and they went [to] the fields of Moab and they lived there.³And Elimelech the husband of Naomi died and she was left and the two of her sons. ⁴And they carried to themselves wives of Moabite women. The name of the one [was] Orpah and the name of the second [was] Ruth and they dwelt there about ten years. ⁵And also died both of them Mahlon and Chilion and the woman was left from the two of her children and from her husband.

There is so much to observe and learn just from these first five verses, it’s hard to stop posting about them. One more thing I want to record is some thoughts on this matter of famines.

The land of Canaan is an interesting place. Right next to it is Egypt. Egypt has pretty much a totally secured water supply with the Nile ever flowing through its middle. They could still suffer famines (as in Joseph’s day) but the supply of water was so constant, Egypt was considered the bread basket of the ancient world. Canaan, on the other hand, has essentially no usable river. The Jordan River forms their eastern border but, generally speaking, it is on the “other” side of the mountain range (upon which Jerusalem sits), and so its water is unavailable to most of the nation. The result is that Canaan, in particular, is completely dependent on God to provide the rains they need to grow their crops.

As I have posted before, it is good to “need” God. We were created to need Him. Some people, like Egypt and their Nile, live their whole lives with a huge bank account and seemingly can “take care of themselves.” It is perhaps easy for them to think they don’t “need” God. My family, on the other hand, has never enjoyed such a luxury. We pretty much have lived our entire life under the terror of no money. We have had to very consciously depend on God month after month after month because if He didn’t provide the money, it simply wouldn’t be there. Looking back I have no idea how we did it. I even kept the budget, kept very close track of our meager finances, knew exactly how much came in and went out every month, yet I will still confess I have no idea how we made it. All I can say is we prayed and God provided. As my mother once said, “There’s always just enough. There’s just never any extra.”

My point is that is not really, in the end, a bad thing. It’s awfully hard on a worry-wart’s heart, but it is a good thing to be dependent on God. I’m sure there are people with big bank accounts who trust God just as much or more than me, but, for us, it has certainly taught us to appreciate the things we do have, to take care of what God does give us, to appreciate even the little things He provides, and to sincerely feel for others who have to do without.

The point at which this relationship of dependence becomes “dangerous” is that the same God who provides can also withhold. Of course, my use of the word “dangerous” in this case is totally faithless – God is neither mean nor capricious – but, the fact is that this dependence relationship is rendered fragile by the presence of my sin nature. As a born-again believer, I am indwelt by His blessed Holy Spirit and, as long as I stay in step with Him, the Lord is essentially free to shower me with blessings. Unfortunately, I am also likely to be “seduced by the dark side,” be making bad choices, and place the Lord in a position where, being a loving parent, He has no choice but to use whatever means He can to arrest my attention. The land of Canaan, being so completely dependent on the Lord to provide rains, was left with famine as one form of judgment the Lord could use to get their attention when they set upon a course of their own self-destruction.

Such was apparently the case as the story of Ruth begins. This would be one more place where it appears Elimelech’s decision to go to Moab was a bad one. For the people of Israel, famines were judgments of God, designed to move them to repentance. Elimelech’s decision to go to Moab would seem to be a decision of “flight” rather than faith – to think that somehow, if he just went somewhere else things would improve. Once again, I don’t want to be too hard on him because I so intimately know how he must have felt. But over the years I have also learned that most of the time it is better to stay where I am, deal with the hardship, and learn whatever it is God is trying to teach me, rather than yield to the “grass is greener” syndrome.

All that being said, however, there is one kind of famine that is far worse than all the rest, and which (I hope) I fear above all others. Amos 8:11,12 warned:

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
    “when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
    but of hearing the words of the Lord.

 They shall wander from sea to sea,
    and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,
    but they shall not find it.

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” “And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

As I have often gleefully reported, it seems like every week the Lord shows me something from His Word that literally rocks my world. I have long enjoyed opening the Word morning after morning with the joyful expectation that He will once again show me truth and “set me free.” And He has ever seen fit to do just that. I don’t want that to ever stop.

I couldn’t even begin to recount the number of times I have opened the Bible in some kind of mental terror or debilitating confusion, only to have Him (usually instantly) show me something that gave me peace or confidence or hope or whatever it was I needed. I brought to Him the raging sea of my life, sure I was drowning, only to have Him say over me, “Peace. Be still.” Just the reading of a few of His words and my world went from chaos to peace. I don’t want that to ever stop.

I want to ever be like Jeremiah and be able to say,

Your words were found, and I did eat them,
    and Your words were unto me the joy
    and rejoicing of my heart,
for I am called by Your name,
    O Lord, God of hosts.

I pray the Lord will continue to provide food for my family, good jobs for the men, and whatever else we all need, but above all else, may His Word ever flow abundantly through our hearts. To have faith is everything. And faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. May we always hunger and thirst first for righteousness, and enjoy the blessing of knowing Jehovah Jireh, the God Who Provides.

God deliver us from famine.

Ruth 1:1-5 – “Faith is the Victory”

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

¹And it was in the days of judging one judging, it was a famine in the land and it was a man from Bethlehem Judah going to sojourn in the fields of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. ²And the name of the man [was] Elimelech and the name of his wife [was] Naomi and the name of his two sons [was] Mahlon and Chilion. [They were] Ephrathites from Bethlehem Judah and they went [to] the fields of Moab and they lived there.³And Elimelech the husband of Naomi died and she was left and the two of her sons. ⁴And they carried to themselves wives of Moabite women. The name of the one [was] Orpah and the name of the second [was] Ruth and they dwelt there about ten years. ⁵And also died both of them Mahlon and Chilion and the woman was left from the two of her children and from her husband.

I have been reading a lot of articles on the book of Ruth and thinking a lot particularly about these first few verses. There are quite a few interesting implications and observations to make. What probably strikes me most, however, is God’s providence, as evidenced in this book.

What I mean is that, on the surface, this is a very simple, mundane story of people living their lives. What is amazing is to see how the Lord completely superintends the events to, in the end, lead to the reign of David and ultimately Christ.

I am thinking this realization is critical in our lives – that even in the mundane, everyday events, God is at work bringing about His great eternal plan. I guess I am realizing more and more that, in a sense, faith is everything. Life, it seems to me, is very, very hard. Most of the time I feel confused and uncertain about so many things. I feel I have failed miserably in practically everything I set about to do and be. The future is very scary. Like Yoda says, “The dark side clouds everything. Impossible to see the future is.”

Yet, here is this story of people just like us, living in the same world. Elimelech marries this cute neighbor girl named Naomi and they get a house to live in and he gets a job and they have two boys. All they really want is to just live their lives and be happy. Yet, along with all the other ups and downs of life, they find themselves in the middle of a famine. They decide the only way to deal with the famine is to move to Moab. Then add to all of that trauma that Elimelech dies. Naomi’s boys marry but she has to bury them too. Imagine the heartache of this poor lady. It’s a wonder she stayed sane. Then she decides to return to Israel, but even in that she has no idea how it will all work out.

Sounds like life.

Yet, over it all, we have here the clear account of how the Lord oversaw everything. Naomi didn’t starve. And this Moabite girl Ruth ends up marrying a wealthy man and becoming the great, great grandmother of David himself.

The Lord knew.

We can even return again to the question of whether it was a bad decision for Elimelech to move his family to Moab. I know the theological world is pretty much unanimous is their condemnation, but, as I study, I find the whole matter uncomfortably familiar. When being pressed to make decisions, I rarely feel like the issues are black and white. With Elimelech, people will quote from Deut 7:1-4, “You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son”. “There you go,” people will say, “Elimelech had no business being there.” Yet, if you go back and read the passage, in verse 1, it is specifically says, “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them …” Notice the “them” is not the Moabites. It is very specifically the “seven nations” of Canaan. My point is just that the passage being used as a proof text doesn’t directly apply to Moab. In fact, I think it difficult to find a crystal clear passage to absolutely condemn Elimelech. But then, that is the problem with legalism. It’s hard to make enough rules to absolutely address every single possible situation. Personally, I think the spirit of OT law and clearly the spirit of God’s communication with Israel in so many ways would make it clear that God intended them to stay in Israel and that intermarriage with Moab was a bad thing. But then I come back to the real world that Elimelech lived in and can easily imagine, especially in the days of the judges, him deciding the Moab move was a good idea. I personally agree now that it was probably a faithless move on his part, but I’ve made so many bad decisions in my own life, I’m loathe to be too hard on him.

What is amazing is how the Lord stays on top of it all, right or wrong, and grace still wins in the end.

That’s a good thing. That is what I am finding encouraging.

We need a God Who is bigger than our confusions, bigger than our uncertainties, even bigger than our bad decisions and failures.

The good news from the book of Ruth is that is exactly Who our God is. He is the great champion of history. He is the great champion of our history(!). His grace will win.

What that all comes down to today is that I need to trust Him. I need to sincerely try to stay close to Him, to sincerely try to make good decisions, to let His Spirit lead me. But the future is not in my hands. He is so great He can even handle the inevitable factor of my endless stupidity. I do need to my best, but that is not because the future is in my hands. I need to do my best because that is what He wants me to do. Whether I succeed or fail (track record leaning to the latter), the Lord’s grace will prevail.

In my projects at work, I really do want to do good for these communities. I want to help them have the infrastructure they need so their people can live “peaceful, quiet lives.” But somehow, I have to let go of the sense that it is all up to me, that somehow I have to superintend the details and make it all happen. I need to somehow grasp and accept that my job is to work hard and do the best I know how. Yet I should believe that the Lord loves these people far more than me, that my efforts are only a tool He uses to accomplish that love. Whether I succeed or fail, in the end His grace will win.

The book of Ruth reminds us that is the kind of God He is.

I really need to permeate my mind with thoughts just like this. Faith is the victory.