Ruth 1:

8 Then Naomi said to her two dayghters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me

9 May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them and they wept aloud

10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”

11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have more sons, who could become your husbands?

12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me – even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons –

13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has gone out against me!”

This portion of the story of our meditation consists the conflict resolution. The conflicts presented previously is that of the relocation of a family from Israel to Moab because of economic and food provision reasons; the death of the head of the family; and the deaths of the two surviving sons of the family, childless, though they were married. The hand of God could not be against one worse than this. It’s a bitter experience for the one involved.

One could sit in eternal silence and, like many do, ask hot questions from God: “God, what is my sin that you do this to me?” The question could be varied and more sanguine: “God, where were you looking when this happened to me?” Some could be more pugnacious and combative against divinity. Many could walk away from the salvation that cost the Lord Jesus Christ his blood because of the adversity of life. A friend, in a less exacting situation, spoke to God: “Keep your eternal life, I’m not interested.”

Naomi is in this scene asking her daughters-in-law to return to their different homes. Ostensibly, this is what is being presented, but in reality it’s a scene where she is able to give full rein to her quarrel  with a God who would not raise a finger for him.

The first resolution in the story is the determination to return to Israel. The second is to disperse the two faithful and caring wives left behind. If this last issue were completely resolved, then the book of Ruth wouldn’t have been written. The final resolution is still in the future. Naomi sincerely wants to get rid of her backlog of past which she wants to forget quickly as she returns to her native land. The three women actually journey for a while before Naomi begins to urge them to go back to their land as she to her’s.

The two widows insist they must follow her back home, “We will go back with you to your people.” With good appeal to their emotions and intellect, their mother-in-law, lays it all bare before them: she and they are in hopeless situation that even the God of Israel couldn’t fix.

One other thing that comes through in this narrative is of a cohesive family displaying amazing homogeneity though it’s really heterogeneous: Naomi is Hebrew and the other two women are Moabitess. Yet, it’s evident that the cohesive force of their togetherness is the Spirit of the bible. It can be appalling to find that church is against family. No, that may not be a good way of putting it; but the preachers are against father, mother, their children and spouses and grand children living together under one roof. I decided to look around whether I’ll find a New Testament scripture that will be a witness against this rejected bible prescribed lifestyle. Mathew tells the story of Jesus Christ visiting Peter’s household and found the mother-in-law of Peter, sick (8:14). Evidently, the wives of the sons of Elimelech came to this decision through the unique knowledge of God that came to them through living as one family. I learnt from this that nuclear family concept originated from the West and not from the righteousness of the God of the bible.

Naomi wants the members of the runt of what became her family to disperse. They refuse. Then Naomi paints further gloomy future: no future – husband, companions…. cultural adaptation, and so on and so forth. She appeals to their sense of immediacy and makes them understand that she doesn’t have the faith of Sarah – and that they shouldn’t expect such miracle to happen to her. She seems to say, “If you observe well, you’ll find out that God has set me up as his enemy…” I’ve been in this boat with mother Naomi but have generally been able to handle situations better than her because of my New Testament revelation and knowledge. So, I can’t lay any blame on God. I know that I’m up against principalities and powers, against rulers of darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12).

Orpah must have seen the hopeless future: no future husband; no children; no strong shoulders of a man to cry; no fulfilment of destiny (of which marriage, family and children are part)! She drops out of the story immediately, the story of the path of life. And, there’s no need to judge this wonderful damsel. She probably remarried in her nation. (God wasn’t unhappy with her), reared children and had a good family. But she failed to be a divine choice in creating a future life that’s eternal. She’s a candidate that’s attracted by the seen and not by that which cannot be seen. Moses endured as seeing the invisible. Everyone who’s taken up by the temporary and not the unseen will come to this end; everyone who’s satisfied with the introduction to the divine plan of culturing God’s life by being born again and not going the needed extra mile will also come to this end; the eternal life will suffer truncation, even when it cannot be aborted! Lord, help me to go the extra mile of exploring the heart of the Father in His larger thought of being born from heaven.

“Orpah,” continues the story, “kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth clung to her.” Naomi tries to persuade Ruth, but she admonishes the elderly woman: “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the good Lord deal with me…” (verses 14-18). This is one most beautiful scene ever penned – beautiful because it’s a true life story. It depicts utter commitment to a course, the course of the Holy Spirit. It’s of a person determined to go all the whole hog with God. Elijah did everything in the book to discourage Elisha from following him but failed. That’s the stuff those that are filled with the Holy Spirit are made. This is the company of the Lamb of God on mount Zion; the company of the Lamb’s 144,000. “These were they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they which FOLLOW the Lamb WITHERSOEVER he GOETH. These were redeemed from among men, being first fruits unto God and to the Lamb… (Revelation 14:1,3,4-5).

What an absoluteness! No wonder, God found in her the material necessary for the ancestral lineage of David and greater David.

Lord, thank You.