February 10 - Naomi & Ruth

February 10 - Naomi & Ruth

Once upon a time in a land far away ...
It was a dark and stormy night ...

If you look at the beginning of the book of Ruth, it is a classic story-teller's line that opens the story. This is absolutely beautiful!

"In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab." (Ruth 1:1)

That's just perfect!

Naomi and her husband Elimelech avoid the famine by living in Moab. After he died, their two sons married Moabite women - Orpah & Ruth. Ten years later, the two sons died. Naomi heard that the Lord was providing for the Hebrews in Judah through the famine and decided to return to her homeland. Orpah and Ruth traveled with her until she told them to return to their mother's home. They argued with her and wept profusely, but she had very good reasons for them to return home and remarry. As for her, she was much too old for that.

She must have been an amazing woman because we read that Ruth clung to her as Orpah left. And some of the most beautiful words of love are spoken, "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 Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." (Ruth 1:16-17)

They did make it to Bethlehem and Naomi's bitterness showed up as she greeted her people. She asked them to call her Mara, which means bitter (remember when the water was bitter during the Exodus? Marah). Naomi means pleasant. She was finished with being pleasant.

The story of Ruth and Boaz comes next, but I'm saving that for tomorrow. Today is all about the relationship of these two women. However, we have to peek in a little bit on their lives. Naomi knew the traditions of her people and sent Ruth to lay down at the feet of Boaz. After many machinations, the two were married. Ruth conceived and gave birth to a son.

If you turn to the end of the book, you see the glory that the two women have because of their friendship. When Ruth gave birth, the women surrounding them said, "He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to than seven sons, has given him birth. (Ruth 4:15)

"Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. The women living there said, "Naomi has a son." And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David." (Ruth 4:16-17)

Ruth loved her mother-in-law more than anything. She did not want to be separated from her. And when their fortunes finally turned around, Ruth deflected all of it to Naomi. She gave her a grandson ... a son. And in the end, the love of this Moabite woman for her mother-in-law gave us a Redeemer! For it is from her that the line of Jesse leads to Jesus Christ.