Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given
them food.7 So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. 8
But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 9
The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. 10
And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” 11
But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? 12
Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons,13
would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.” 14
Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.15
And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”16
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. 17
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.” 18
And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.
Naomi, in her bitterness, is saying to her daughters-in-law that her life is over…but Ruth says, no, MY life is over. From Ruth’s perspective she is willing to give
up everything for the sake of Naomi. Give up her future…the potential of marriage and children.
She embraces hopelessness so that she might give hope to Naomi. Ruth is willing to die to all of this because she loves Naomi. This is the gospel being lived! Giving
up life for the sake of love.
Listen to this conclusion from one commentator: “Ruth took on the uncertain future of a bitter widow in a land where she knew no one, enjoyed few legal rights, and given
the traditional Moabite-Israelite rivalry, faced possible ethnic prejudice…she gave up marriage to a man to devote herself to an old woman, in a world dominated by men.”
Today we worry about “enabling” bad behavior and I have seen that in the church in spades. I have seen it with parents toward children, but that is not what Ruth is doing.
She is giving her life away for the sake of another…
That is not just for Ruth and for Jesus, it is the BEGINNING of the Christian life!!! This is for you and me. But so many Christians do not understand this. What did Jesus
say: “If anyone would come after me…” This is where the Christian life begins!
*What has happened to the message of Christianity in our day? Why do we ignore that at its heart, the gospel, love, freely embraces death?
The Lord says: “I have loved you with an everlasting love (hesed) Therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you. Jeremiah 31:3
“God has bound himself to his promise, bound himself to his people. “Jesus’s hesed of us means that he turns his face to the cross and never looks back.” His faithfulness
to you continues…what about yours to Him?
Naomi is in deep grief and suffering and she seems to think that God is nowhere to be found…He is ignoring her. But she is wrong. God’s answer to Naomi’s suffering is Ruth’s
love.
How many times has God answered your prayers, or come to you through the love and mercy of a brother or sister in Christ? Sometimes we are so self-absorbed, we miss it…We miss
his kindness, his ‘coming to us’ because we don’t understand what the church is nor how God works.Ruth is ‘being the gospel’ to Naomi! But I want to make sure that we understand and hope to see Ruth in ourselves.
When we die to ourselves for the Lord’s sake, we mirror Jesus. Dying to self is seen in the 1,001 little things that come to us every day. Why do you shrink back from this?
Why do I? Why is our love so filled with conditions and so easily offended and put off? Could it be as simple as, we don’t know the love of God…or we swim only in the shallows of it?
Look at verse 17. “…May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”1:17
This is a common way that the Jewish people would make an oath or vow. The bad thing that the person is bringing upon themselves is unstated but clear. Remember in
Gen 15, God passed through the cut-up animals…
And then verse 18: “And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her she said no more.” This is, in essence, stunned silence.
In the movie the Passion of the Christ, there is a scene where Jesus is being fastened to the cross…it is gruesome, it is hard to watch, and I am not necessarily encouraging
anyone to do so…but with some artistic license, Jesus is being fastened there, and he utters, Father Forgive them…there is a cut-away to the apostle John…and he sighs…it is powerful…as if to say without words…what kind of love is this?
Hesed love, will often bring us great praises and rightly so…and then at times it will leave us speechless. “Love can at times be lonely, it does not remain so,
but that is often where it does its best work” (Miller, pg. 42)
Some have wondered why Naomi does not even say thank you to Ruth.
–is she so absorbed she sees nothing?
–so long or so deep is her suffering, she is allowing suffering to define her?
–Perhaps she doesn’t think she is worthy of such love?
I don’t know. Hesed love is not caught up in the ‘response’ of the recipient…there should be a response and most often there will be, but this kind of love is ok with
things being “uneven”, or love being a bit lopsided…this kind of love simply demands to be expressed so that it might change everything.
Many have drawn comparisons of Ruth to Abraham, leaving all to go where God is.
“Ruth stands alone; she possesses nothing. No God has called her; no deity has promised her blessing; no human being has come to her aid. She lives and chooses
without a support group, and she knows that the fruit of her decision may well be the emptiness of rejection, indeed of death. Consequently, not even Abraham’s leap of faith surpasses this decision of Ruth’s, and there is more.
Not only has Ruth broken with family, country and faith, but she has also reverses sexual allegiance. A young woman has committed herself to the life of a woman
rather than to the search for a husband…one female has chosen another female in a world where life depends upon men. There is no more radical decision in all the memories of Israel.”
The depth and character of Ruth is revealed as she:
Chooses God and God’s people…
Gives her life for the sake of another
Fights to embrace suffering, (her own and Naomi’s)
And then ultimately, she refuses to be “out-loved”…
She refuses to be out-loved.
Do you see yourself in Ruth…at all? Can we set ourselves to loving like this, to living like this…This is the cruciform life and we are all called to it…every one
of us.
In the upper room, we read that Jesus, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end. And He, our God and Savior, knelt at the feet of
those He loved and washed their feet…He continued, with the cross looming, to love and to demonstrate that love. And afterwards…the cross.
Prayer: Father of mercies, I too often live my life in a manner that does not set me apart from those who do not love you. Forgive me. In all circumstances I pray
that I would trust You and not fear. I know there are consequences for sin, in the world and in my own life, I humble ask that you would give me the grace and strength to endure whatever Your kind hand deems right to set in mine, through Jesus Christ my Lord,
Amen.
Psalm Chant: O Give Thanks Unto the Lord
