Loyalty and Faithfulness

Ruth 1 - Episode 144

When Ruth married her husband, she joined herself to his family and his God. Even after his death, she refused to leave either. Her sister-in-law reluctantly went back home, but Ruth knew there was nothing left in Moab to go back to. So, she went to Israel with her mother-in-law, made it her home, and followed their God. Her loyalty and faithfulness to her adopted family and God are a testament to us all.

Naomi Loses her Sons, but Gains a Daughter – Ruth 1

At some point during the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. It is speculated that it may have been in the early 1100’s BC when Jair was the judge in Israel although it isn’t explicitly stated. The famine got so severe that Elimelech took his wife and two sons east of their home in Bethlehem to the land of Moab. Elimelech intended to live outside of Israel temporarily during the famine but died before the drought passed. After his death, Manloh and Chilion both married women who lived there in Moab.

God had strictly forbidden the Israelites to marry anyone from the other nations living in the Promised Land, but not necessarily those living outside the land. Although there was a command specifically regarding the Moabites. Remember these were the descendants of Abraham’s nephew Lot. Because they were from the same family as the Israelites, God did not let them take the Moabites’ land. But the Moabites felt threatened by their number and recruited Balaam to curse them. But the Lord prevented it and instead caused Balaam to bless the Israelites before Balak, the king of Moab. So, they conspired to weaken the Israelites from within by intermarrying with them. Then the Israelites began worshipping their gods and the Lord commanded that everyone be killed who had betrayed Him. (Numbers 22-25) Because the Moabites did not welcome the Israelites when they left Egypt and they instead tried to curse them and seduce them with women and other gods, the Lord commanded that the Moabites not be brought into their congregation until the tenth generation. (Deuteronomy 23:3-6)

Naomi and her sons lived in Moab with their wives Orpah and Ruth for ten years. Then, Mahlon and Chilion also died, leaving the women alone in a strange land. Naomi had heard that since they left Israel God had sent them rain and there was food in the land again. So, she decided to go back to Bethlehem, telling her daughters-in-law to go back to their family homes, too. At first both of the women stated that they wanted to go to Israel with Naomi, but she discouraged them. It was customary for a widow with no children to marry her husband’s brother in order to carry on the family name. (Deuteronomy 25:5-10) But both of Naomi’s sons had died and she was too old to have any more children. She told her daughters-in-law that even if she was wrong and she was still able to have children, they should not waste their lives waiting for her to marry and give birth to a son, who would still need to grow up. They needed to go back to their families and remarry so they could have children.

Orpah was sad but agreed that Naomi was right. So, she kissed her mother-in-law goodbye and went back to her family’s household. But Ruth would not leave Naomi’s side. She told Ruth again to go back to her family and her gods as Orpah had done. This lets us see that both of the women had left the gods of Moab and were fully adopted into the family with all its practices while their husbands were alive. The reason God did not want the Israelites to marry people from other nations is because He did not want the foreigners to persuade the Israelites to leave their God. But, if foreigners were willing to worship the God of Israel and live by His rules, then they were welcomed. These women seemed to meet those qualifications. (Exodus 12:48-49)

But the difference between Orpah and Ruth is that Orpah only abandoned her gods while she was part of an Israelite household. Now that she was going back to her family, she was also going back to her gods. But Ruth was not willing to leave her Israelite family or Israel’s God. She was fully committed to both. So, she responded to Naomi by asking that she not keep urging her to leave. She wanted to go with Naomi to Bethlehem. So, Ruth committed to go wherever Naomi went and live wherever she lived. She was not willing to return to her family or her family’s gods. Instead, she vowed to stay with Naomi and worship her God forever. Nothing but death would part them.

After such a promise, Noami could no longer ask that Ruth leave her, and the two women continued traveling to Bethlehem. It was somewhere between 60 and 75 miles from Moab to Bethlehem. So, it took them a week to 10 days to arrive in the land just in time for the barley harvest. When Naomi got to Bethlehem everyone was excited. Her family was obviously well known, and they were happy to see her. When they exclaimed that Naomi had come home, she told them that she no longer lived up to the name of Naomi, which means pleasant. Instead, they should call her Mara, which means bitter, because God had dealt her a bitter hand. She left Bethlehem with her husband and two sons. But she returned without a man to care for her or her young daughter-in-law. Without her family, she lacked more in her return than in her departure when she only lacked food.