October 18, 2015: Ruth

Ruth 1:1-17

During the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. A man with his wife and two sons went from Bethlehem of Judah to dwell in the territory of Moab. ² The name of that man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the territory of Moab and settled there.

³ But Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died. Then only she was left, along with her two sons. ⁴ They took wives for themselves, Moabite women; the name of the first was Orpah and the name of the second was Ruth. And they lived there for about ten years.

⁵ But both of the sons, Mahlon and Chilion, also died. Only the woman was left, without her two children and without her husband.

⁶ Then she arose along with her daughters-in-law to return from the field of Moab, because while in the territory of Moab she had heard that the Lord had paid attention to his people by providing food for them. ⁷ She left the place where she had been, and her two daughters-in-law went with her. They went along the road to return to the land of Judah.

⁸ Naomi said to her daughters-in-law, “Go, turn back, each of you to the household of your mother. May the Lord deal faithfully with you, just as you have done with the dead and with me. ⁹ May the Lord provide for you so that you may find security, each woman in the household of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.

¹⁰ But they replied to her, “No, instead we will return with you, to your people.”

¹¹ Naomi replied, “Turn back, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Will there again be sons in my womb, that they would be husbands for you? ¹² Turn back, my daughters. Go. I am too old for a husband. If I were to say that I have hope, even if I had a husband tonight, and even more, if I were to bear sons— ¹³ would you wait until they grew up? Would you refrain from having a husband? No, my daughters. This is more bitter for me than for you, since the Lord’s will has come out against me.”

¹⁴ Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth stayed with her. ¹⁵ Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is returning to her people and to her gods. Turn back after your sister-in-law.”

¹⁶ But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to abandon you, to turn back from following after you. Wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. ¹⁷ Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do this to me and more so if even death separates me from you.”

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Introduction:

While living in Boston, Massachusetts during Graduate School I was able to get a part-time job in an office in order to help pay the bills.  When many of my fellow office workers discovered that I was a married Midwesterner they immediately began to make some rather sweeping assumptions about my identity. Because I was married they assumed had to be in my 30s (I was actually 23) because “no one” got married at such a young age in their experience and when they discovered I was a Christian they immediately assumed that I was like all of the other Christians they had seen on the news or in other forms of media: judgmental and superior. As a life-long Midwesterner I had my own assumptions of what these East Coast people would be like: brusque and rude, direct and impersonal.

The original audience of the Book of Ruth had similar assumptions about the people living around Israel.  The Israelites did not always get along with their neighbors and many wars were fought over the centuries between the Moabites and the Israelites.  Israelites simply did not like Moabites and vice versa.  As our story begins today, a family from the tribe of Judah has moved to Moab due to a severe famine and the two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, married Moabite women. Right away alarm bells must have been ringing: what are these fine Israelite men doing? Marrying Moabites? Goodness!

And, as if the story wasn’t scandalous enough already, when all of the men of the family have died and Naomi decides to head back to her homeland, one of those Moabite women decides to stay with her. This woman, named Ruth, expresses strong loyalty; something a Moabite woman wouldn’t do…would she? This story gets below nationality and ethnicity and speaks about human relationships and the struggle for survival that can seem daunting. 

The Technical Stuff:

The Bible gives ample evidence of the Israelites’ extremely negative impression of Moab and the Moabites.  Genesis 19 says that the Moabites are descended from Moab, the offspring of Lot’s drunken, incestuous relationship with his eldest daughter.  In Numbers 22-24, King Balak of Moab hires the prophet Balaam to curse the Israelites, only to have the request backfire.  In Numbers 25 the Israelites get on the wrong side of the LORD by having sexual relations with Moabite women and worshiping the Moabite god. Deuteronomy 23:3 forbids any Moabite person from being admitted to the assembly of the LORD, even ten generations along.  In the Book of Judges, King Eglon of Moab subjugates the Israelite tribe of Benjamin, only to be assassinated by a left-handed Benjaminite named Ehud. Later both King Saul and King David of Israel will fight and ultimately defeat Moab.

What’s more, other parts of scripture strictly prohibit (or at least strongly frown on) Israelite men marrying foreign women.  Deuteronomy 7 contains commands against marrying any Canaanite women because they will lead their husbands away from the LORD. Marriage to [many] foreign women is one of the things that gets King Solomon in trouble with the LORD in 1 Kings 11. The Book of Nehemiah is very stringent about Jewish men marrying foreign women from many different places, including Moab (Neh. 13:23-31) The Book of Ezra dedicates two chapters (Chapters 9 and 10) to the issue of intermarriage (including Moabites in 9:1) and ultimately culminates with the separation of Judean Exiles from their foreign wives in order to avoid the wrath of the LORD.

And yet, not only is Ruth portrayed positively in this book, she becomes the heroine of the story!  Her faithfulness, resourcefulness, courage and downright tenacity turn a very sad looking story into something else entirely.  Ruth will not only serve as this story’s heroine, two of her descendants will be David and Solomon, the greatest kings Israel ever had. This also means that Jesus of Nazareth is a descendant of Ruth and she is included in his genealogy, found in Matthew 1:5.  Ruth, the outsider, is very much on the inside of God’s salvation story.

It is important to remember that the bible was not written by one, single author and that the different books found within the Old and New Testament take different views of the same subject. It’s as if the book of Ruth is having a conversation or debate with Ezra and Nehemiah. How should the people of Israel relate to the people of other nations?  “Be careful!” Ezra might say, “They will lead us away from our relationship with the LORD!” Ruth might answer, “Perhaps, but God can work through them and be present with them in ways we cannot expect.” 

What Does This Say to Us?

Many writers, scholars, and commentators have noted that Ruth is an extremely “human” story. We can almost feel the sadness and desperation of Naomi, Orpah and Ruth as they mourn the loss of their husbands and look at an extremely uncertain future. It is certainly hard to blame Orpah for eventually turning back to Moab. Ruth’s devotion to Naomi is heartwarming and impressive. Women in biblical times had almost no economic possibilities if they were unmarried or not a part of a man’s household and it quite possible that they will starve to death.

We humans do an all-to-effective job at drawing lines between groups of people whether those demarcations are made over race, religion, nationality or any other categories. Ruth reminds us that these are lines of our own making and that the LORD smiles on those who reach over these boundaries with kindness and compassion.  I began this devotion by talking about the assumptions present in my part-time office job in Boston.  As the weeks, months and years passed by, however, we all began to realize that we were so much more than the stereotypes we had for one another and many of us became very close indeed. Even ten years and many states later, I am still good friends with people I met at that job and I feel blessed by the experience.

The Book of Ruth reminds us that goodness, compassion and the love of God are greater than the boundaries we build. Thanks be to God!