Ruth 1: 9a – “Menuchah”

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

⁹May the LORD give to you and may you find rest each [in] the house of her husband...”

I’ve already noted how Naomi’s simple prayer alludes to the fundamental responsibility of a husband to provide to his wife “rest.” Before I leave this verse, I want to note how this is actually and ultimately true because Jesus gives His people rest. Naomi here prays that the girls might find “rest” in the home of another husband. Later, in the opening verse of chapter 3, when Naomi realizes Boaz’s affection for Ruth, she says to her, “My daughter, should I not seek for you a place of rest which will be good to you?”

In both cases, the word translated “rest” or “resting place” is the Hebrew word “menuchah.” I’ll record a lot more thoughts when I come to 3:1, but this “rest” is such a wonderful thing, I can’t resist scratching down a few thoughts now.

Jeremiah will write (about 500 years later!), “Stand at the crossroads and see, and ask for the old paths, wherein lieth the good way, and walk ye in it, and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (6:16). Isaiah writes, “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and confidence is your strength…” (30:15). Isaiah also says, “But the wicked are not so, they are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. ‘There is no peace,’ saith my God, ‘to the wicked’” (57:20,21). In John 14:7 and 16:33, Jesus said to us, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you … I have told you these things, so that in Me you might have peace.”

These verses are a very small recounting of the many, many, many verses in the Bible where we learn that our God wants us to enjoy menuchah, “rest” and peace. Even as I type, more such verses come to my mind. But, probably the crowning passage of them all is Matthew 11:28-30: “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and heavy-laden, and I shall give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

What an utterly unfathomable blessing – to embrace this Jesus as our King, only to find that, far from being a demanding, austere ruler (as too many people imagine Him), His rule brings us peace and rest! That is the kind of King He is – One whose rule means great happiness – menuchah – for His people.

And that is precisely why a husband should provide a place of “rest” for his wife – because their marriage is modeling Christ and His church. Just as we’re told in Eph 5, “…Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives …” Being a husband and having a wife is all about what we give to them. It's all about providing for our wives menuchah.

When a girl wakes up in the morning to realize, “I’m married now,” the very thought ought to bring her a sense of joy and expectation, of security, and of love. She ought to be able to look at the man lying next to her and see a rock. Hopefully her father has always been that for her and all that’s changed is that the Lord has given her a new rock. But whether that was the case or not (and perhaps more so if it wasn’t), it’s a husband’s place to be the rock that gives to his wife a world of menuchah.

Now, the fact is, in the real world, life is hard and always will be. To be a wife is going to be very, very hard work. Regardless of whether she will be a stay-at-home mom or a working mother, it will be hard. But there is a vast difference between the “hard” of taking care of a baby who doesn’t sleep at night, as compared to the “hard” of a husband who is insensitive, or unreliable, or unfaithful, or even cruel. I’m certain that, even after marrying Boaz, Ruth still had a very busy schedule. The woman of Proverbs 31 is a very busy, hard working woman. But, again, there is a vast difference between facing the very painful realities of life alone or facing them under an umbrella of love.

What Jesus calls us to is, in fact, a yoke. It is a yoke that is “easy” and a burden that is “light,” but it is still a yoke. We need only read Hebrews 11 again to be reminded that His yoke may cost us our very life itself. But, again, I would suggest that even deep pain is a different experience whether we face it alone or under an umbrella of love. In Jesus’ case, the very yoke itself is bringing us menuchah. Consider His words again, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and heavy-laden, and I shall give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” The menuchah He offers is a menuchah under a yoke! Even the best husband can’t shelter his wife from the fact that life is hard. But, like Jesus, what he should provide her is that umbrella of love that turns her “yoke” into a menuchah.

Words fail to express how much I enjoy the book of Ruth. But is not part of the charm of the book the very fact that in the end, our man Boaz provides Ruth with the very thing our hearts know is good and right – a menuchah, a place of rest, a place of love and hope and security.

We husbands should hear the Lord’s words, “Go and do thou likewise.”