Ruth (2)

Ruth 1:14–22 NASB95

And they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. Then she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back 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. “Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.” When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her. So they both went until they came to Bethlehem. And when they had come to Bethlehem, all the city 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 out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?” So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the land of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

Ruth Chapter Three: Three Widows Three Ways (Ruth 1:6–22)

According to Scripture, pain manufactures maturity. A crisis conditions character; difficulty develops depth.

Ruth Chapter Three: Three Widows Three Ways (Ruth 1:6–22)

You might think it strange for Naomi to encourage her daughters-in-law to return to their mother’s house. This doesn’t mean that Orpah and Ruth have deceased fathers. It actually refers to the mother’s place; it was typically in the mother’s bedchamber where marriages were planned and often arranged.

Naomi is effectively saying, “Listen, girls, you’re young; you have your life in front of you … go back to your mothers and makes plans for another wedding.”

We need community

In the body of Christ we have family that are closer then biological brothers and sisters and will cling for eternity.

We cling because Christ Jesus clings first to a surrendered heart!

Ruth God Is Not Worthy of Worship

As tragic as it sounds, Naomi is actually encouraging these women to return to their families and their gods. She says:

• God’s hand has been against me (Ruth 1:13);

• God has dealt bitterly with me (Ruth 1:20);

• God is against me and has afflicted me (Ruth 1:21).

ORPAH AT THE CROSSROAD

When Naomi first demanded that the girls return to their mothers, both Ruth and Orpah refused to go, and they said in unison, “We will surely return with you to your people” (Ruth 1:10).

But then Naomi lays out the reality of what they’ll lose if they do. And for Orpah, that will change everything.

Naomi promised Orpah that:

• her life will be difficult as a widow from Moab;

• her prospects for a husband will be less than nothing;

• she will be unwanted by the Jewish community (Moabites and Jews don’t get along—in fact, they hated one another);

• she will leave her nation with all its comfortable customs and conditions for a foreign country;

• she will forfeit her rights as a citizen;

• she is given no prospects and no promises.

And Orpah wept, kissed her mother-in-law, and said goodbye.

J. Vernon McGee wrote that Ruth and Orpah demonstrate two kinds of members in the church: the professors and the possessors. Orpah made a profession of faith, but Ruth possessed genuine faith.

At this crossroad of life, a decision is made by Orpah which will determine her eternal destiny.

Stephen Davey, Ruth, ed. Lalanne Barber, Wisdom Commentary Series (Apex, NC: Charity House Publishers, 2013), 33.