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.
One of my sons some time ago was talking about an aspect of his life before the Lord and asked me, How did I learn this? He was living in light of the truth
but didn’t remember learning it in the common way we think of how we learn things.
It was a truth that was caught rather than taught…the liturgies of his upbringing instilled something in him, something he knew, something that had formed him, but
he didn’t remember ever a lesson or a lecture that taught him this aspect of life. But really, that isn’t so odd is it?
Let me show you something that is fascinating from Exodus 24:7. There, the people respond to Moses’ command to be obedient to God, by saying: All that the Lord
has spoken we will do and we will be obedient.
That is our English translation. But the text literally says, All that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will hear. In fact, it is the word, “Shema”…Hear
O Israel, the Lord God the Lord is One.” So, it literally reads, “All that the Lord has said we will do and we will shema.”
To our English speaking ears, to do and then to hear, doesn’t make sense so we change it to do and to be obedient. But we are missing something by changing
this. But sometimes learning comes from doing…We do…and then later the understanding comes. That is easily seen in children. They come to understand not through your lectures but by watching it being done and imitating it. They are doing what they are trained
to do long before they hear the explanation and understand it.
It is simply the case that often we learn first by doing…our formations train us, we catch the truth in our liturgies and rituals and then only later do we understand,
or “learn” them, we might even say, only later do we hear them.
Remember, the story of Ruth begins; In the days when the judges ruled. This is the period of time that we are told: There was no king in Israel and everyone
did what was right in his own eyes. Therefore, things are chaotic, not conventional.
We might wonder at Naomi’s response to the Lord, she definitely makes us think, but could it be that the liturgies of her life cause her to respond to the Lord, to
run to Him, even in her grief? She is demonstrating what she knew, but perhaps had never been taught in the conventional manner.
We find Naomi filled with grief. She and her husband fled to the wicked land of Moab because of a famine in Jerusalem. After a few years in Moab, her husband and two
sons died and she is left destitute. There is no welfare state and a woman in her situation was in dire-straights.
But there is a glimmer of hope. God has provided food back in Jerusalem and so Naomi prepares to go home, to go where God is…she decides to put herself in God’s way,
she goes to where the Lord is, because there is hope, even if it is only a small light of hope.
In so many great stories that we read and love, whether it be of Homer’s Odessa, Bilbo Baggins and Frodo or Peter, Edmond, Susan and Lucy…heroes are going on journeys,
and it is the journey that sharpens them and makes them fit and ready for the goal…and the goal is always in the great stories to accomplish the task and to get home. That is why the Christian life is so often compared to a journey home…a home going. Ruth
begins with a journey into Moab, the foreign country and now, there is a going home, a going back to where God is.
The first words we hear from Naomi are in response to her daughters-in-law saying they are going to go with her…they are going to leave THEIR home to go with Naomi,
to hers. Naomi first words: Go return, each of you to your mother’s house. And then she blesses them, not once but twice.
May the Lord deal kindly with you. Even in her sorrow she thinks of their future, she wants what seems to be best for them. The literal word translated
“kindly” is again our word Hesed; covenant love, or covenant faithfulness, or some say, “steadfast love”. This is love and loyalty combined. May the Lord show you hesed.
This is the undying, uncompromising love of God. It is the opposite of everything that man thinks when it comes to love. Hesed is commitment with sacrifice…it is “love
no matter what”. It is a binding of yourself to a person and that binding is not conditioned nor can it be undone.
Often when we say we love or we are sticking our necks out for another, and the other person doesn’t reciprocate in the way we want, or think or expect…we pull back,
we say, fine…if you won’t love me, then I am not going to suffer for the sake of my love for you.
So often our love is determined or dependent upon how the other person responds! That is NOT HESED love, that is not the kind of love God is said to have for His people.
Hesed love is who God is. And the only way we can love in like-manner, is to have Christ as the object or the one who we are looking to, when we seek to love others.
Surely you have wondered, when you lie in the darkness of the night…you are baffled at God’s love for you. After all you have done, all the sinning, all the forgetting
of God, all the poor and even sinful choices you have made…and I am speaking about this AS A Christian…Surely you have wondered, why…why does God persevere with you? Why does He continue to love you? He has every reason to be done with you…to say, fine, forget
it then!
But He does not…and He does not because He cannot. He loves you with hesed love…His love for you is not based on you but on Him…who He is, His very nature. If we are
to love this way, then the object of our love is not the other person, the object of our love must be the Lord Jesus Himself. You can finish the verses yourself:
*Husbands love your wives as…
Wives submit to your own husbands as…
Children obey your parents in the…
Christocentric focus for relationships. Christ is the center of how you love so that you can love the way He does, otherwise…well…otherwise you won’t.
Prayer: Gracious Father, please this day slow me down so that I might see all that You have done for the world, and for me. Help me to embrace the truth that I
live, not unto grace, but out of grace and that my entire life is to be a joyful thank-you for Your mercy and kindness to me, a sinner. Help me to give myself to the sanctifying work of Your Spirit that I would not quench nor grieve Him. This day, may I joyfully
walk in humble obedience with my Savior, who lived, died, resurrected for me and Who is coming soon, in His name I pray, Amen.
Hymn: Lo He Comes with Clouds Descending