Ruth
1:19-2:4
So the
two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came
to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the
women said, “Is this Naomi?” She said to them, “Do not call me
Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with
me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back
empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified
against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”
So Naomi
returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who
returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the
beginning of barley harvest.
Now Naomi had a relative of her
husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was
Boaz. And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field
and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall
find favour.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” So she
set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she
happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was
of the clan of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem.
There is much in this passage for us to learn from. Naomi and Ruth
have arrived in Bethlehem and are greeted by the people but they must
start a new life together. They both have a different perspective on
situation that they find themselves in. Therefore we will consider:
- Naomi's situation.
- Ruth's situation.
- The townspeople's situation.
- The true situation.
Whatever circumstances that we find ourselves in we always see the
situation through our own perspective and that is highly coloured by
all of our life's experience up until that time. It is also affected
by many other issues, for example our expectation of other people's
viewpoint concerning our situation, the future that will be affected
by it, how it fits in with our belief system and our particular
theology etc. There are a multiplicity of factors that build up our
understanding of the situation that we find ourselves in at any one
particular time. It might be worth just pausing this moment and just
consider the situation that you find yourself in and list all of the
factors that are influencing your understanding of what you are
experiencing. This is not a mindless exercise but is helpful in our
understanding as to what happens in the rest of the experience of
these two ladies.
Naomi's situation:
We have by now come to know Naomi
quite well. We can understand something of what makes her tick and if
you are anything like me you are by now appreciating this somewhat
complex character that tends to wear her heart on her sleeve. Upon
her return home the first thing that we see is that she does not put
any spin on her situation, by now that is no surprise to us. As Naomi
meets the townspeople she is open and honest about her situation she
hides nothing of her situation and her understanding of what is
happening to her. The background as we already know is that with her
family they had gone to Moab to find a new life and whilst there she
had experienced the death of her husband and both of her two sons. He
grief is obviously immense and she is now having to make decisions
that are new to her and are outside of both her cultural and personal
comfort zones. As a woman she is having to make decisions that are
usually the domain of the man and also she is deciding what is right
for her (and by now Ruth) from a perspective of destitution. From our
21st
century perspective we might be tempted to think that things could
have been quite easy for Naomi. We have our social services etc. to
fall back on but things were quite different for Naomi, she could
guarantee nothing. It is true to say that the Law of God made
provision for the poor in the land but that was dependent upon the
faithfulness of the people of God and as we see from the last verse
of Judges there would be a great probability that the people would
not be obeying God's word! Naomi could guarantee nothing from the
townspeople. Naomi's situation was not simply that she was stepping
back into her home town but what she was walking into was
uncertainty.
Put
yourself now into her situation and consider what your thoughts,
expectations and reactions might be.
Naomi simply did not know how her people would react to her after all
much water had passed under the bridge both for her and for them.
There was friends to catch up with and family to explain the deaths
of loved ones. It was going to be re-living the whole sad story over
and over again. On top of that “would she be accepted ?”
Where and how would she live, how would she pay the food bill etc.
there was also Ruth to explain away and also to provide for. She had
no Social Services or National Health provisions to fall back on! For
Naomi it was a time of great stress and so it is no wonder that she
appears a little prickly when she meets up with friends who were
clearly delighted to see her again.
Application:
This whole episode ought to help us when we meet up with believers
who have gone through hard times. We have already considered Naomi
and tried to understand her but it is important for us to see Naomi
as a type of hurt and damaged believer similar tom many that we meet
with on a regular basis. Even though Naomi was clearly hurt and full
of self pity along with accusation to God being the cause for her
situation the townspeople were gracious, loving and kind towards her.
Sadly it has been my experience of Christians and also from time to
time showing little or even no compassion for the Naomi's that belong
to them. This book of Ruth is far more than a lovely love story it is
also a paradigm as to how hurting believers when they are in the
deepest of distress should be loved, helped and accepted by God's
people.
Ruth's situation:
For Naomi this was a returning but for Ruth it was to be a new
experience. She had observed and belonged to a family of faith in
Moab. She had seen Naomi in her grief and had decided to be with her
and to belong to her people but more significantly to follow God
Almighty. Now she was about to enter into the place of faith and
worship. This situation is akin to a believer walking for the first
time into the church! We can imagine Ruth's anticipation and
expectations. Would they all be as lovely and caring as Naomi and her
husband and boys? She had been impressed by their lifestyle and their
faith in God. She had also been impressed by their God and called
into relationship with Him. She was now about to experience what it
is like to be in fellowship with God's people.
What she observed I am sure will have gone a long way to put her
heart at ease. The friends of Naomi were clearly delighted to welcome
her back home. They refused to do as Naomi suggested by calling her
bitter and thus to enter into the temptation to blame God for all
that has gone before. They simply accepted Naomi as she was and as we
shall see in later studies they were supportive to her throughout her
settling in process and joined in her delight at the outcome of the
experience! Also how would the accept her? She was an outsider! Was
she a “gold digger?” who was after something from the family? She
was after all a Moabite and not one of them! As a foreigner in their
midst, would she be accepted. Again we shall see in a later study how
she was accepted but for our purposes now we simply record that the
townspeople, friends and family took Ruth to heart and fully accepted
her.
Application:
As Christians and also the church we have much to learn from the
example of how the friends and townspeople accepted Naomi and Ruth.
They were a great example for what had been God's directive to His
people for many years previously in that they accepted and helped the
grieving, the poor and the broken hearted and they also
wholeheartedly accepted alien or foreigner who joined them!
This is an important lesson to all believers everywhere but there
is more. Ruth at first was an observer but she became a recipient of
all of the benefits of belonging. Eventually she became a vital link
in the purposes of God and is found entrenched in revelation history
by belonging to the family line of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we
entertain strangers we are never quite sure who they are and what
purpose God has for them. We must learn to be hospitable to all who
God puts in our way. Just for a moment imagine how all of this might
have worked out if the people of Bethlehem had rejected either Naomi
or Ruth or even both! At times we are guilty of being quite
unnaccepting: We must be hospitable and accommodating of people just
as these people were and as our God is to us.
The townspeople's situation:
again there is much for us to ponder and learn about how the
townspeople reacted. It is important for us to consider what happened
in Bethlehem on that day. Not only did Naomi return but Boaz's wife
to be was coming to town. God had all of this in His plan and purpose
and as we can now appreciate there was so much more for the future
involved. What to many would have been the return of Naomi and all
that entailed was in fact of a far greater order for which they were
intrinsically involved. Their reaction could have had disastrous
consequences but as it happened they were an amazing example of how
to get it right.
For a moment consider how it all came about. The “grapevine”
would have gone ballistic, Naomi was on her way and have you heard
the news. Elimelech, Mahlon and Chilion are dead and she is
accompanied by one of her Moabite daughter's in law, the other one
deserted her and stayed at home. All of this was potentially juicy
gossip but the townspeople would have none of it, they were simply
pleased to have Naomi back and accepted her and Ruth into society as
it had now become. We could speculate much and it is worth doing so
in a discussion group as to how it could have been but there is a
wonderful example and lesson here for us that is often missed in our
studies in Ruth, it is the importance of the corporate acceptance of
the backslider and also the new convert. The townspeople were a
perfect example.
Application:
It is simply to be more accepting of those who return from
backslidings and also to help them as they return without taking on
board all that has gone before. We are to be helpful and not a
hindrance to their re-settling in. We shall once again see from
future studies what effect that had on this whole episode.
The true situation:
It is simply that God is in this, He is working His purposes out. The
protagonists of the story did not see what God was doing through
ordinary circumstances that affected each of them but we are
privileged to see what His purposes were through them. They were in
the dark and yet were faithful, we are equally in the dark as to what
will become of our daily circumstances but the one thing that we
learn from all of this is that whatever befalls us god is working His
purposes out through us!
I wonder how our story will be told.
Will it be one of faithfulness or failure?
We have a great responsibility to be faithful in all that we
do!
Are we?