August 12, 2025 • 49 mins
Grief can blind us to hope, pushing us to stumble forward without clear direction. In Ruth chapter 1, we witness the raw aftermath of devastating loss as Naomi returns to Bethlehem from Moab with nothing but bitterness and her foreign daughter-in-law by her side.
This moving episode explores the heart-wrenching journey of two widows navigating an uncertain future together. Naomi, whose name means "Pleasant," insists on being called "Bitter" after losing her husband and both sons in a foreign land. When she decides to return to her homeland after hearing God has "visited his people to give them bread," she urges her daughters-in-law to stay behind where they might find new husbands and security.
The story pivots on Ruth's extraordinary declaration of loyalty—"Where you go, I will go"—a statement often romanticized in modern contexts but actually fraught with risk and sacrifice. Ruth wasn't just expressing affection; she was surrendering her entire identity, nationality, and religious affiliation to follow Naomi into what might have been mutual destitution or death. This wasn't a decision made in hope but in steadfast commitment regardless of outcome.
What makes this narrative so powerful is how it honors the reality of grief without rushing to resolution. Naomi doesn't pretend everything will be fine. She openly questions God's goodness while still acknowledging His sovereignty. The text doesn't criticize her bitterness or offer quick explanations for suffering, instead allowing us to sit in the discomfort of unanswered questions.
Yet beneath this darkness runs a subtle current of hope. They arrive "at the beginning of barley harvest"—a seemingly minor detail that signals God's provision is already underway though invisible to grief-stricken eyes. God works not through dramatic intervention but through ordinary means: a timely harvest, established systems of care for the vulnerable, and people willing to show compassion.
Whether you're wrestling with loss, questioning God's goodness, or standing with someone in their pain, Ruth's first chapter offers profound wisdom about faithfulness in life's darkest valleys. Join us as we explore how God meets us in our honest questions rather than our polished answers.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jessica LM Jenkins (00:00):
Ruth, chapter 1, walks us through
intense grief, whereas verses 1through 5 reveal the reason for
Naomi's grief and move at acrisp pace, almost unemotionally
.
Just here is what happened.
You can listen to last episodefor everything about verses 1
through 5.
The rest of Ruth, chapter one,slows way down so that we cannot
(00:24):
help but feel the intensity ofthe loss and emotion going on in
these women's lives.
Today we will be looking at thestory of Ruth and Naomi as they
move from Moab back toBethlehem and set up a new
(00:45):
household as two widow women.
To begin with, I'm going toread for you my translation from
the Hebrew so that we canimmerse ourselves in the feeling
of this story, trying to bringout some of the Hebrew
highlights, like name meanings,which we talked about last time
as we go through.
So let me read verses 6 through22 of chapter 1, and then we
(01:10):
will start breaking the textdown to see everything and feel
everything that's going on here.
And then she herself, naomi orPleasant, arose and her
daughters-in-law.
And then she returned from thefields of incest, for she heard
while in the fields of incestthat the Lord visited his people
(01:32):
to give bread to them, and sheset out from the place from
which she was there, and her twodaughters-in-law were with her,
and then they went in the wayto return to the land of the
Lord, be praised.
And then Pleasant said to hertwo daughters-in-law Go, return
each woman to the house of hermother.
(01:53):
The Lord will do faithfullywith you, even as you did with
the dead and with me.
May the Lord give to you andmay you find rest each woman in
the house of her husband.
And then she kissed them andthen they lift up their voice
and then they wept, and thenthey said to her we will remain
(02:14):
with you and your people.
Then Naomi said return mydaughters.
Why would you go with me?
Will there again be to me sonsin my womb that they could live
to be your husbands?
Return my daughters, go, for Iam too old to have a husband.
(02:37):
For even if I say there is hopefor me also, tonight I will be
with a husband.
And then I bore sons.
Would you wait until they growup?
Therefore, would you shutyourselves up to not belong to
any man?
My daughters, it is bitter,more bitter for me because of
(03:01):
you, for the hand of the Lordwent out against me.
And then they lifted up theirvoices and they wept again and
she kissed turnable, butrefreshing friend clung to her
and then Pleasant said behold,your sister-in-law has returned
(03:24):
to her people and her godsreturn after your sister-in-law
has returned to her people andher gods Return after your
sister-in-law.
Then refreshing friend said youwill not entreat me to leave
you to return from after you,for where you go, I will go, and
in that place you lodge, I willlodge your people, my people,
(03:45):
your God, my God.
Where you die, I will die andthere I will be buried.
Thus may the Lord Yahweh do tome, may he add to me if anything
but death separates between meand between you".
(04:05):
And then she, pleasim, saw thatshe refreshing friend was
strengthening herself to go withher and she stopped speaking
with her and the two of themwent till they entered the City
of Bread.
(04:25):
And then it happened, as theywere entering the city of bread,
that all the city was stirredup about them and they, the
women of the city, said is thispleasant?
And she said to them don't callme pleasant, call me bitter,
for the almighty has caused meto be bitter, for the Almighty
has caused me to be bitter.
(04:45):
I was full and I went andemptily.
The Lord caused me to return.
Why would you call me pleasant?
The Lord afflicted me and theAlmighty did evil against me.
And then Pleasant returned andrefreshing friend, the woman
(05:06):
from an ancestral land, herdaughter-in-law was with her.
She returned from the fields ofincest and they themselves
entered the city of bread in thebeginning of the harvest of
barley.
And so as we look at Ruth,chapter one, we have read about
Ruth and Naomi's loss.
(05:27):
They are a couple of poorwidows living in Moab and Naomi
hears that there's a sliver ofhope.
She hears that the Lord hasvisited his people, he's come to
take care of them.
It's not visiting as in yourrelative from out of town who
just stops by for a couple days,but it's visiting as showing up
(05:50):
finally to take care of someone.
So she's in Moab, maybe stayingin a rented house or wherever
they were.
Perhaps she's been evicted andshe's just trying to figure out
what to do as a widow.
And she's just trying to figureout what to do as a widow.
She hears that the Lord hasvisited his people to give bread
to them.
And the Hebrew right here isreally fun because you can just
(06:11):
almost hear the hope like acouple of bells ringing.
The Hebrew words for bread tothem almost mirror each other.
In the Hebrew it is lehemlechem to them bread, lehem to
them, lechem bread.
(06:32):
So the Lord visited his peopleto give lehem lechem bread to
them.
And you have just a sliver ofhope start to awaken in Naomi's
heart.
But it's a seed, it's not afull-grown plant because, as she
will describe to us in just afew verses, there may be bread
(06:54):
in Bethlehem but nothing else.
There may be food, but there'sno man, there's no family,
there's no hope for her.
But even with that, she setsout from the place which she was
there and her twodaughters-in-law are with her.
Up until this point in versessix and seven, all the action
(07:15):
has been Naomi's.
She's the one getting up, sheis the one who sets out, the
daughters-in-law you kind ofimagine tagging along behind,
like Naomi almost isn't awarethat they're there.
She's not fully consideringtheir presence, which makes
sense considering the grief andtrauma and loss she has endured.
(07:36):
These verses have a verycharacteristic, almost jolting
feel to them, typically Hebrew,the Hebrew language, the way it
functions.
It just kind of trots along,it's, and then this happened,
and then this happened and thenthis happened, and then this
happened, and this happened andthen this happened.
And if there's something reallysignificant, they'll have a
break in the chain of verbs andyou'll be like, oh, that was
(07:59):
different, that must beimportant, but here it's almost
all jumbled up.
Listen to it again.
It's and she returned from thefields of seed, for she heard
and then she set out and hurt.
They were with her and thenthey went.
And you get this jolting backand forth, which is I was
reading over it this week justreminded me that that is often
(08:19):
what grief and pain feel like.
Naomi is trying to make adecision in life.
She is trying to move forward,she is trying to do something,
but all of her movement isjolting.
She arises to return, she setsout, she went, but it's this
jolting, stumbling movement.
(08:40):
You trip, you backtrack, youstumble.
The grief does not allow smoothmovement from point A to point
B.
That's how Hebrew usuallyfunctions Point A, point B, we
just get there and we get therequickly.
But these verses, the Hebrewitself gives you the feeling of
(09:02):
just stumbling through life,trying to make the next decision
, clouded by grief, unable tofully get your feet solidly, one
in front of the other andyou're just trying to make it
happen.
That is the feeling we get hereand she's doing all this and
it's almost like she's blinderson.
(09:23):
She's making a decision sheneeds to go home, there's bread
there.
She may not have bread in Moabanymore because she has no
extended family to take care ofher and she may not be
physically well enough to gleanor do any of those things.
So she may be like I'm going todie anyway.
I might as well die where I canget food.
And so she says I'm going tohead home, I can get food.
(09:47):
And so she says I'm going tohead home.
And it's this jolting, lurchingkind of feeling as she and her
grief tries to just pick herselfup and move somewhere with
these two daughters-in-lawtrailing along behind.
And it may be they're doing allthe packing, they're doing all
the prep.
Naomi can't think she can'tfunction.
In an ancient household.
The daughters-in-law have ahuge responsibility to be
serving their mother-in-law,taking care of her anyway.
(10:09):
That's the role Ruth and Orphawould have had in the household
before the sons died, and sothey may just be continuing to
do that, taking care of and thenthe end of verse seven, finally
, the girls, ruth and Orpah.
Their action is involved.
Naomi, she's the one who arises, and the Hebrew even emphasizes
(10:31):
that.
It says she herself arose.
It's not they arose, it's shearose.
She returned, she set out andthey're with her.
But then, finally, the verylast phrase of verse 7, and then
they, all three of them, wentto return to the land.
So finally, it's almost likethe daughters have caught up.
In my mind, I picture Naomi'sjust getting up, but she's
(10:54):
desperate, she's just blindlytrying to get home.
She's just going forward andthe daughters are running behind
her with all the suitcases andfinally they catch up.
So they are all moving towardsthe land of Judah.
Now let's pause for a moment andthink about this geographically
, because I'm describing it likethey're just picking up and
(11:16):
moving next door.
But that is absolutely not thecase going on at all.
For those of you listening onthe podcast, I'm going to
describe this.
For those of you watching onYouTube, after I describe it, I
will draw it out for you so youcan get an idea of what's going
on here.
But Moab is on the eastern sideof the Dead Sea.
(11:39):
In Israel, bethlehem is on justto the west, the northwest
corner of the Dead Sea.
Moab is in the southeast areaof the Dead Sea, so they need to
go north around the tip of theDead Sea and then downward
southern to Bethlehem.
(11:59):
Bethlehem and Jerusalem arealso on a mountain range, so
they to get from Moab, and Moabis also on a high plateau
mountain range on the other sideof the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea creates this giantchasm in between, so they have
to go up.
They have to go north on themountains, from Moab up through
Reuben's territory.
(12:20):
Then they have to go down, down, down, down, down, down around
the north end of the Dead Sea tocross the Jordan River some of
the lowest places on earth,incredibly hot past the city of
Jericho and then recline up themountains to get to Jerusalem
and then finally south toBethlehem.
(12:42):
This is a long journey.
It's likely that Ruth and Naomidid not take this journey alone
.
So as Ruth and Naomi travelhome home for Naomi, not so much
for Ruth, as Ruth and Naomitravel home this is a long,
arduous journey.
They walk a very long way.
(13:03):
They likely do not go alone.
They probably have to join acaravan of some kind, because
with their meager possessions itwould be very dangerous for
women.
We've often pictured them justlike picking up and going by
themselves.
Like I, you know, I pack mykids in the car and had to see
my in-laws or some such.
That would not be safe.
So they may have had to pay acertain amount to be included in
(13:24):
a caravan maybe some of theirmeager remaining life savings
they have to give to a caravandriver to allow them to join
this group of people going fromMoab up and around the Dead Sea
back down to Bethlehem.
But now Naomi and her daughtersare on that route.
(13:44):
They're on the road, they areready to get going and while
they are traveling it seemsthey're no longer at home.
They're on the middle of a road, somewhere, maybe stopped for
the night to camp.
We don't know.
When this discussion takes place.
Naomi finally turns to herdaughters-in-law.
It's like she wakes up from hergrief and her slumber just
(14:05):
enough to be like oh, oh,they're here.
Oh, oh, shoot.
I'm the matriarch of this home,I'm responsible for them.
What am I going to do?
I'm heading back.
Yes, bethlehem has bread, but Ihave nothing for them.
And so she turns to herdaughters-in-law and she says go
, return each woman to the houseof her mother that's an
(14:28):
interesting phrase.
In the Hebrew the house ofmother is generally used for a
woman who is marriageable.
In Rebecca's story she goeswhen the servant comes and says
that he was sent by Abraham andIsaac needs a wife.
Rebecca goes to tell the houseof her mother about the servant,
and this is significant becauseoften in the ancient world the
(14:49):
mother had a very huge part infinding spouses for the children
.
The matriarch reproduction isone of her roles.
So finding a good wife for hersons or for her, yeah, finding a
good wife for her sons is partof her job.
That's part of her role, andshe would also then be the one
(15:10):
training the new wife that cameinto the household if the son
stayed in the household how todo things their way.
So the mother's house is thisunit within the whole household.
That signifies marriageability.
In the Bible we don't often seethe woman's influence directly
(15:31):
in finding spouses for children,partly because the Bible talks
about these arrangements morefrom the legal standing.
So imagine with me it's themother who's at social
gatherings.
She's scanning all the eligibleyoung ladies.
She's seeing them all.
Okay, yep, she seems reallygood.
Then she goes to her husband,which he may be feeling out some
(15:53):
of the parents and things aswell.
But the mother's like, yes,ruth is a good girl, I think she
would be good to go with myhusband and then the husband
will go to Ruth or whoever'sfather and he'll make the legal
arrangements.
But mama did a lot of thegroundwork.
Mama was in daddy's ear sayingthis is a good match, the
(16:14):
family's good, everything's good.
She has high character, she's agood girl.
The mother has a huge influence.
It's not that men are buyingand trading women, as we've
sometimes been told.
There's family allegiances,family alliances here.
So Naomi says return each womanto the house of her mother, go
(16:35):
back where your mommy can helpyou find a new husband, where
you can get married, where youhave hope for a future.
And she says the Lord and thisis the covenant name for God may
Yahweh, the Lord, do chesed, dofaithfully with you.
You may be familiar with theHebrew word chesed, which can be
translated loving, kindness,covenant, faithfulness.
(16:58):
Some English translations justsay may the Lord do good to you,
which is it's really acheapening of this blessing that
Naomi is giving to herdaughters-in-law.
She said may the Lord dofaithfully, may God's full
covenant faithfulness, may myGod's full covenant faithfulness
.
Bless you in your endeavor tofind hope and a future for
(17:22):
yourself that I cannot offer you.
Even as you were chesed, werefaithful, were fulfilled your
covenant to the dead, my sonsand to me.
Naomi recognizes herdaughter-in-law's faithfulness.
They joined Naomi's family inmarriage.
They are now part of herhousehold and they have
(17:44):
faithfully stuck with her.
They could have, as soon astheir husbands died, cut and ran
.
They didn't.
They stayed with Naomi.
She recognizes theirfaithfulness to her and asked
that the Lord would pour out hiscovenant faithfulness upon them
.
She says may the Lord give toyou and may you find rest, each
(18:05):
of you.
In the house of a husband thereis no social standing.
There is very little hope for awidow, especially a poor widow.
A rich widow may have hope.
She probably has some money andsome property.
She might not even need to getremarried.
She's rich and since she's rich, she has financial control of
her own resources.
So she may not need that.
But these are not rich widows,these are poor widows.
(18:26):
They need to be part of ahousehold in order to thrive.
Everyone in the ancient worldneeded to be part of the
household A single, independentadult functioning on their own,
like we have in our culture, didnot exist in the ancient world,
or if it did, it wasexceptionally uncommon.
Everybody needs to be part of ahousehold.
(18:47):
A wealthy widow might be ableto be the boss, the head of her
new household.
A poor widow doesn't have ahousehold to be part of.
She can't be in charge of ahousehold that doesn't exist
because they have no servants orresources or people.
So she's Naomi in many ways ispraying here that the Lord will
(19:08):
bless her daughters-in-law andthat they would find rest in a
house of a new husband and thatGod would bless them in this.
I've been reading andresearching about women and
especially widows in the ancientworld, and often widows were
disadvantaged.
A second marriage, a widowmight not have the same level of
rights as she did for her firstmarriage.
(19:29):
Sometimes a man would force awidow to live with her without
the legal documentation neededfor marriage.
Sometimes a man would force awidow to live with her without
the legal documentation neededfor marriage so that if
something happened to him, shewas again without any legal
recourse or dowry or anything.
And so Naomi is praying thatthat would not be the situation
for Ruth and Orpah, that theywould go home and they would
(19:50):
find a marriage that God wouldbless them in this.
And so, after she gives thisblessing to her daughter-in-laws
, she's woken up from her griefa little bit.
Enough to be like I need tomake sure you girls are taken
care of.
Go home, I have nothing for you.
Go home, may the Lord providefor you.
And she kisses them and theylifted up their voice and they
(20:14):
weep.
You see this deep affectionbetween Naomi and her
daughters-in-law.
They cannot bear to be apart.
They are so heartbroken andthey weep.
And then the daughters-in-lawsaid to Naomi for we will return
with you to your people.
Now we don't know how much ofthat was completely honest, at
(20:34):
least on Orpah's part, becausein these ancient cultures
there's a lot of and in thesehonor-shame communal cultures
there's a lot of negotiation andback and forth.
You don't say no directly andyou don't accept an offer like
this immediately.
You push back and forth.
Even if you intend to acceptthe offer, you kind of negotiate
(20:55):
it a little bit.
So that may be what's going onhere, but you still sense with
all she kissed them, they liftup their voice, they wept, they
refuse.
There's this deep and abidingaffection and they say we will
return with you to your people.
All throughout this passagethere's a play on with and
people In the Hebrew.
Both of those have the sameconsonants I and mem.
(21:17):
One is im with, the other is ampeople.
But there's a play off of thosetwo consonants throughout this
passage that who are these women?
Their identity is at stake.
Who are they with and whatpeople do they belong to?
Throughout it's they will.
They're with her.
Go back to your people.
(21:37):
Whenever you read with andpeople in Ruth, chapter one,
remember that those words lookvery similar in the Hebrew.
And so there's a, there's aplay, interplay going on that
wraps up feminine identity.
Who are they?
Will you be?
Will you go with me or are yougoing to go with your people?
(21:58):
Whose are you?
And they said we will return toyou and your people.
And then Naomi Pleasant said gohome, return my daughters.
Why would you go with me?
Well, and she basically looksat them and says I can't get
(22:20):
pregnant, I'm postmenopausal A.
No man is going to want A.
I'm postmenopausal B.
No man wants to marrypostmenopausal women.
And C, even if I wasn't, and Iwas married and I could get
pregnant and I got pregnanttonight.
Are you going to wait 15 to 18years for my sons to grow up?
(22:40):
No, don't do that.
This gives the idea of theLeverett marriage and if you're
curious about that, we'll talkmore about Leverett marriage in
the Ruth series.
But if you're like I, reallywant to learn about it now.
Go back to the Tamar episodeand I talk about the Leverett
(23:01):
marriage a lot in the Tamarepisode.
But this gives some of theLeverett marriage brother-in-law
marriage idea.
Some scholars go no, this isn'tstrict Leverett marriage because
it has specific criteria andthis doesn't match all those
criteria.
But what I feel like thosescholars are missing is again,
when a woman married into ahousehold, the entire household
(23:24):
took responsibility to make surethat woman could thrive and
have a future and have children.
So Naomi, even though thisdoesn't technically fit the
criteria of leverant marriage inLeviticus 25 and Deuteronomy 25
, even though this doesn't fitthose specific criteria, naomi
understands her culturalresponsibility to provide
(23:47):
husbands and future for thesewomen and she is saying to them
I absolutely cannot do that, Ihave nothing for you, which I
imagine was grief upon griefupon grief.
She has lost her husband, shehas lost her sons and now she is
losing the daughters-in-law,who she seems to have a
(24:08):
beautiful relationship with.
Even today we joke about therelationships between mothers
and daughters-in-law, naomi'sand her daughters-in-law.
They seem to have this deepemotional bond, which also makes
sense when they've walkedthrough deep loss together and
have chosen to stay together inthe midst of it.
(24:28):
Naomi looks at them and says go,for I'm too old to have a
husband, I'm not going to haveany more kids and you're not
going to wait till they grow up.
Therefore, it is bitter for mebecause of you.
That Hebrew phrase is veryambiguous.
Nobody knows if Naomi's sayingI'm too bitter for you, you
(24:51):
don't want to be around me, I'ma bitter old woman, go get happy
somewhere else.
Or if she's saying my life ismore bitter than yours, or a
little bit of both.
But Naomi's bitterness and herhurt is starting to come out
here.
She says it is more bitter forme than for you, for the hand
the fist of the Lord went outagainst, attacked me.
(25:14):
She looks up, as any ancientNear Eastern person would, and
says my God has allowed thissuffering to come upon me.
You don't want to be near that.
Like Job.
Naomi looks and said God is theone who has allowed this to
happen and who knows, if more ison the way.
(25:36):
She has a theology here thatkeeps God on his throne even in
the midst of deep suffering.
Well, the women lift up theirvoices and they wept again.
Maybe they they hear whatNaomi's saying, that she's a
bearer of shame and bad luck.
(25:57):
Her life is just one of shame.
At this point it's just goingdown, down, down.
She doesn't have hope.
Things may only get worse forNaomi, and so they lift up their
voices and they weep.
And then Naomi kisses Turnableand Turnable leaves.
(26:19):
Now the text doesn't condemn her.
She follows Naomi's wise adviceon a human plane.
Turnable leaves, she heads back, she goes back home to grasp at
seeds of hope.
But refreshing friend clings toNaomi in verse 14.
(26:40):
Then they wept again and thenshe kissed Turnable.
But refreshing friend Ruthclung to her.
That term clung there is thesame from Genesis 2.24 that says
a man shall leave his fatherand mother and be united, shall
cling to his wife.
This is uniting of a householdkind of language, as though Ruth
(27:03):
is clinging to Naomi, saying wewill be a household together.
I am not going to go back andjoin my natal household where I
came from.
I am going to stay with you andwe will be a household.
Come hell or high water, I amsticking with you".
But Pluton looks at her Iimagine Ruth just clinging to
(27:26):
her and Naomi's trying to pushher off and she says behold,
your sister-in-law returned toher people and her gods Return
after your sister-in-law.
Remember, in the ancient worldthey believed gods lived in
specific geographical locations.
So the gods of Moab didn'tnecessarily have authority or
(27:47):
jurisdiction in Israel.
The gods of Egypt didn'tnecessarily have authority or
jurisdiction in Moab.
The God of Israel, continually,throughout all of scripture, is
showing that he hasjurisdiction wherever he wants.
Throughout all of scriptureshowing that he has jurisdiction
wherever he wants.
But this idea that gods werelocal is exceptionally important
to understanding our OldTestament.
Behold your sisters return toher people and her gods there in
(28:11):
Moab Return after her.
But Ruth, who's clinging to her, says do not entreat me to
leave you or to return fromafter you, for where you go I
will go.
Where you lodge, I will lodgeyour people, my people, your God
, my God.
(28:32):
In the Old Testament one of thecommentators pointed out the
only Gentile besides Ruth toproclaim verbal loyalty to the
Lord is Rahab and Naaman.
All throughout the text of Ruthwe get glimmers back to the
face of matriarch women who camebefore Ruth and Naomi.
(28:57):
Right now there's a glimmerback to Rahab, who gave her
allegiance to the Lord andjoined the family of the of God.
She may actually have beenBoaz's mother or grandmother,
which is a spoiler.
We're going to get there.
But Rahab is important.
And here we hearken back toRahab, to Rahab.
(29:29):
Later on the women are going tohearken Ruth and Naomi's
experience and give a blessingupon them.
That echoes Rachel and Leah.
We have this continualhearkening back to women when
Naomi asked Ruth and Orpah willyou wait until my sons grow up
and shut yourselves up and notbelong to any man?
And that gives a hearkeningback to Tamar, who Judah said
shut yourself up in yourfather's house, not your
(29:50):
mother's house.
You can't go get married.
You're locking yourself away inyour father's house until my
son grows up and go.
Listen to that episode, howthat turned out.
But we've had all of thesehearkenings back to previous
matriarchal women of faith andhere's another one to Rahab.
We have Tamar brought up.
We have Rahab.
(30:11):
Ruth says your people, yourpeople, tamar, rahab.
She is walking back toBethlehem in the footsteps of
Tamar, who may have been aCanaanite, of Rahab, who was a
Canaanite.
And now Ruth is purposefullywhere, where Naomi was stumbling
forward in her grief, justtrying to get home, ruth is
(30:35):
steadfastly taking step afterstep where you go, I will go.
Where you lodge, I will lodge,your people, my people, your god
, my god.
Where you die, I will die andthere I will be buried.
The text at that moment in thehebrew.
(30:56):
You can hear it in the englishtoo, but in the Hebrew it pauses
with an emphasis and there thepoetic structure of Ruth's
beautiful poem climaxes at thethere I will be buried.
This is often given at weddingsand in beautiful moments, and
(31:16):
it's this beautiful poem of juststeadfast faithfulness and
giving herself over to the Lordon the part of Ruth.
But it's not necessarily a poemof hope.
She says your God will be myGod and where you die, I will
die.
Yes, this does mean for theduration of Ruth's life, but
(31:39):
this does not mean Ruth isexpecting her life to be long.
These women are going back,perhaps to die.
They have no hope, they don'tknow what's coming.
In chapters two, three and four,that is why she says your
people are my people, your Godis my God and I'll go die with
(32:00):
you.
We're headed home.
You don't see hope.
I'm going to be there with theend, and if you die first, when
you die first I will be buried.
I'm not going to go back toMoab after you die.
There I will be buried, andthus may the Lord do to me.
She invites a curse uponherself.
May the Lord do to me and addagainst me.
(32:22):
If anything but death separatesus, even in death I'm going to
be with you.
This is a covenant between twowomen where Ruth is promising I
will be with you, no matter whatshe may have been believing
that she was walking to herdeath.
She wasn't necessarilyexpecting life and happiness.
(32:43):
Between verses 16 and 17 inchapter one, she is converting
and she is ready to die.
She may have had hope.
We don't know, but we knowtheir situation is dire, we know
they don't have much going forthem and Ruth has faith.
(33:04):
After Ruth completes her poem,nothing but death will separate
you and me, and even then I'mgoing to be buried next to you.
And then she, Pleasant, sawthat Ruth was strengthening
herself to go with her.
Ruth in this book.
I absolutely love her becauseshe is a strong woman.
(33:25):
Ruth pushes back.
She says no, I am not going todo that.
No, this is not what we'regoing to do.
Yes, I am going to adopt yourGod.
We don't know what kind ofreligious practices Naomi had,
(33:52):
whether she kept worship ofYahweh alive in her home while
they were in Moab, we don't know.
But we know that Ruth gotenough that she decided to
pledge her allegiance and changeher nationality from Moabite to
Israelite, in that she wants tobe part of God's people.
But remember we talked aboutthis last week the law in
Deuteronomy that said a Moabitecannot be part of the
(34:16):
congregation of Israel, ie go tothe tabernacle or temple to
worship for 10 generations afterconversion.
So even if Ruth joins thepeople of Israel, she is still
exceptionally limited and herchildren and her children and
her great-grandchildren, david,are limited, solomon are limited
(34:38):
in what they can do and whetherthey can go to the temple or
tabernacle to worship God, whichis part of the problem that the
book of Ruth, I believe, isanswering for us.
So then, after Naomi hearsRuth's entire speech, she stops
speaking with her, again in theHebrew.
(35:00):
There's a tension in this phrase.
We're not sure if this is kindof an abandonment.
Naomi's, just like.
I'm not talking to you anymore,fine, you can come along.
Or if it is a peaceful, relaxed, I'm not going to argue with it
anymore.
Let's walk hand in hand towardsBethlehem.
We don't know the attitudesbehind it, but we know that
Naomi is still in a place ofdeep sorrow Because, as the two
(35:24):
of them went on and they enterthe city of bread again that
hope it's sparkling around theedges of the text.
They enter the city of bread andthen it happened, as they were
entering the city of bread, thatphrase.
And then it happened.
Kind of a new scene If we'rewatching a play.
The scene closes, they continueon the way.
(35:44):
New scene they enter the Cityof Bread and the city was
stirred up about them.
Everyone in the city, somebodynews.
I mean, we're dealing with asmall town, there's not a lot of
people here.
Naomi comes back.
Perhaps her house has beenvacant for years, maybe
squatters are living in thehouse, maybe Elimelech's fields
(36:04):
have been without anybody usingthem, or maybe somebody has been
using them just because theywere there.
We don't know the situation oftheir land.
But Naomi's coming back andthey recognize is this Naomi?
And the entire city is stirredup, they're happy, they're
joyous.
The women are whispering isthat Naomi?
Is that Naomi?
Oh, my goodness, my bestfriend's back.
(36:25):
Naomi, naomi, naomi.
And so the women of the city sayis this pleasant?
They're so excited.
Pleasant has returned and shelooks at them.
I see tears welling up in hereyes and she says don't call me
(36:46):
pleasant, call me bitter, for Iwas full when I left and emptily
.
The Lord has caused me toreturn.
Why would you call me pleasant?
(37:08):
The Lord afflicted me.
He's given evil to me.
Naomi just lays it out.
I have nothing left.
My name once meant pleasant.
Maybe she was the life of theparty.
Maybe she was the one whoblessed or gave people things.
(37:28):
Often these names showcharacteristics of the
individual and she says that'snot who I am.
Now it's all changed.
My life has changed.
I left a matriarch with,married to a man who owned land,
married to a man who gave metwo sons.
I was a matriarch of ahousehold with sons and I come
(37:55):
back with a scragglydaughter-in-law in tow and
nothing else.
Daughter-in-law in tow andnothing else.
The Almighty has caused me tobe bitter.
The word Almighty here isShaddai the strong one, the
mighty one.
It's an archaic name of Godused throughout the Old
(38:15):
Testament, and it can.
One of the commentators pointedout that it can kind of give
the idea of the God of theancestors, our ancestral God.
This isn't the covenant name ofGod, the Lord Yahweh.
This is an ancestral name.
Shaddai, the archaic name, godof our ancestors, has caused me
(38:37):
to be bitter.
He has brought evil against me.
Naomi's theology matches that ofthe ancient Near East.
In the ancient Near East, theybelieved that if something bad
happened to you, it was becauseyour God was mad at you.
Naomi is echoing this.
It's along the same lines of asJob, when his entire life falls
(39:01):
apart.
Naomi is, in many ways, afemale Job.
Her whole life has fallen apart.
She says the Lord did this and,just like with Job, we as the
readers and the originalaudience of the text does not
get an answer as to why.
Why did God cause?
Why did God allow this evil tohappen to Naomi?
(39:24):
Did God cause it or did heallow it?
These questions are notanswered in the text because the
text doesn't want us focused on.
Why did God do this in the past?
No, the text does not answerthese questions.
The text allows us to sit in thepain and the grief and the
(39:48):
bitterness and not know why,because sometimes that is as
important for our spiritual lifeand our spiritual journey and
what comes next as any answer.
Like with Job, god never tellsJob why he did what he did.
(40:10):
He reveals his character, hereveals who he is.
Likewise, god does that subtlyfor Naomi throughout the rest of
the book.
God does that subtly for Naomithroughout the rest of the book.
She says the almighty Shaddaihas brought evil upon me.
And then Pleasant returned andrefreshing friend the Moabitess,
(40:39):
her daughter-in-law with her,she returned from the fields of
Moab and they themselves enteredthe city of bread, bethlehem,
at the beginning of the harvestof barley.
And for chapter one, that is theonly answer we are given as to
what is God doing.
We sit in the pain, we watchthe pain, we watch the stumbling
(41:02):
, we watch the pushing away ofpeople close to us.
Isn't that often our naturalimpulse?
When we're hurting, we want topush people away.
I know when I'm in times oftrauma or grief and I'll have a
friend text me and I'm just like, oh, I don't feel like
responding to this and I justwant to push the way.
Not now, not if it's a textmessage, I can just put my phone
(41:23):
down and get back to it later.
But we have this tendency topush people away when we're
grieving.
We've seen Naomi do that.
She tried to send the daughtersaway, partly out of obligation
for their good, but partly she'sjust in this grieving, pushing
away the women come Naomi, naomi, and she's like no, don't even
(41:44):
call me by my name.
She's in this, pushing away.
She's grieving.
But the text will not let usgive up hope.
Verse 22 echoes back to versesix that says she arose and
returned from this fields ofMoab.
And so now this chapterfinishes saying she returned
from the fields of Moab.
And so now that this chapterfinishes saying she returned
from the fields of Moab,everything that happened in
(42:06):
between.
She arose with herdaughters-in-law verse six she
returned from the fields of Moab.
Verse 22,.
Naomi returns herdaughter-in-laws with her same
state of mind, same people withher.
She returns from the fields ofMoab.
They enter the city of bread atthe beginning of the harvest of
(42:27):
barley.
Just like Lehem the Chem, hegave bread to them.
Now there is a harvest ofbarley.
God is providing for his peopleand his continued presence and
provision is the hope in thismoment.
(42:49):
Naomi doesn't know what's goingto happen next.
Ruth doesn't know what's goingto happen next.
She has this.
Ruth has this big climacticmoment where she gives her life
to the Lord and to Naomi, sayingI'm going to cling to you no
matter what and I will die withyou and we may be walking to our
deaths because we don't knowwhat's coming next.
(43:10):
But they return at thebeginning of the barley harvest.
There is that glimmer of hopeand God's goodness is about to
be revealed over and over again,as we see that God has set up
systems and godly people put inplace so that those who are weak
(43:34):
and vulnerable can be cared for.
None of this took God bysurprise.
God was not surprised thatElimelech died.
God was not surprised thatMalchon and Chilion died.
God is not surprised thatOrphan went back to Moab.
He is not surprised.
He is not taken back.
He is not offended by Naomi'spain.
(43:54):
He is providing for them bit bybit as they take steps forward.
Coming back to him, elimelechleft Bethlehem.
The man whose name means my God, his king, bailed on the land
where his God was king.
(44:15):
Now his wife, broken, destitute, feeling alone, returns for
this opposite reason that sheleft.
She returns because there isbread.
They left because of a lack ofbread.
The Lord was in the middle ofall of the circumstances, though
he is not screaming and he isnot telling us how.
(44:38):
And he is not telling us whyand he is not telling us what
all he is doing.
Yet the story is yet to bewritten.
And for those of us who arelistening to this as we think
through these struggles in ourlives, the pain, the
frustrations, the traumas, Iknow my tendency is to be like
(45:00):
god why, why don, why don't youfix this?
Would you hurry up and stop thepain?
And, like Naomi and Ruth,sometimes we have to just
stumble forward, not knowingwhere we're going, doing the
best we can.
And God shows up, not in thebig miracles of manna from
(45:20):
heaven or water from a rock, buthe shows up in a seed that was
planted, taking root and growing.
He shows up in the steel of ourspine being strengthened for
the work ahead.
He shows up because in he showsup in someone who says I see,
(45:42):
you have a need and I'm notgoing to abandon you.
God is there and he is working.
We just don't always see it andour inability to see through
the fog of grief does not meanGod is not there.
So, as you wait for our nextepisode where we get into Ruth,
(46:05):
chapter 2, allow yourself tocontinue to ponder God's
presence in time of trauma andsuffering.
Chapter 2, we start to see moreof what God is doing and has
been doing in Bethlehem and thecity in his people at large.
(46:25):
But we haven't got there yet.
Our temptation in Bible studiesto jump ahead real quick, let's
get to the good stuff.
Rather than sitting in the heart, than allowing, allowing
ourselves to be in thatgrief-blinded and bittered state
of mind where we are throwingour questions against the wall,
(46:49):
hoping God will hear and answer,allow yourself to sit there.
God is not afraid of your anger.
He is not afraid of your pain.
He is not afraid of your grief.
I don't know what's going on inyour lives as you listen.
I know what's going on in mylife and I know that sometimes
(47:13):
grief seems insurmountable.
And that's okay, we can sit inthat and you are safe to sit in
that with God.
He is not looking to shove youforward into happy, happy, joy,
joy just for joys.
Be thankful in all things.
It's not what he's looking forhe wants you to know he is with
(47:35):
you in the hard times, even whenyou can't see.
So get on my social media,follow me at we who thirst on
instagram threads.
Let's talk about this episode.
How has it impacted you?
What are your thoughts?
What was new to you and whathas really challenged your view
of suffering in your own life?
(47:57):
I can't wait to hear from you.
Send me email, dm.
Respond on social media.
Next time we're going to diveinto Ruth, chapter 2.
Can't wait to talk about it inits historical context.
I will see you then.
Ruth, chapter 1, walks us through
intense grief, whereas verses 1through 5 reveal the reason for
Naomi's grief and move at acrisp pace, almost unemotionally
.
Just here is what happened.
You can listen to last episodefor everything about verses 1
through 5.
The rest of Ruth, chapter one,slows way down so that we cannot
(00:24):
help but feel the intensity ofthe loss and emotion going on in
these women's lives.
Today we will be looking at thestory of Ruth and Naomi as they
move from Moab back toBethlehem and set up a new
(00:45):
household as two widow women.
To begin with, I'm going toread for you my translation from
the Hebrew so that we canimmerse ourselves in the feeling
of this story, trying to bringout some of the Hebrew
highlights, like name meanings,which we talked about last time
as we go through.
So let me read verses 6 through22 of chapter 1, and then we
(01:10):
will start breaking the textdown to see everything and feel
everything that's going on here.
And then she herself, naomi orPleasant, arose and her
daughters-in-law.
And then she returned from thefields of incest, for she heard
while in the fields of incestthat the Lord visited his people
(01:32):
to give bread to them, and sheset out from the place from
which she was there, and her twodaughters-in-law were with her,
and then they went in the wayto return to the land of the
Lord, be praised.
And then Pleasant said to hertwo daughters-in-law Go, return
each woman to the house of hermother.
(01:53):
The Lord will do faithfullywith you, even as you did with
the dead and with me.
May the Lord give to you andmay you find rest each woman in
the house of her husband.
And then she kissed them andthen they lift up their voice
and then they wept, and thenthey said to her we will remain
(02:14):
with you and your people.
Then Naomi said return mydaughters.
Why would you go with me?
Will there again be to me sonsin my womb that they could live
to be your husbands?
Return my daughters, go, for Iam too old to have a husband.
(02:37):
For even if I say there is hopefor me also, tonight I will be
with a husband.
And then I bore sons.
Would you wait until they growup?
Therefore, would you shutyourselves up to not belong to
any man?
My daughters, it is bitter,more bitter for me because of
(03:01):
you, for the hand of the Lordwent out against me.
And then they lifted up theirvoices and they wept again and
she kissed turnable, butrefreshing friend clung to her
and then Pleasant said behold,your sister-in-law has returned
(03:24):
to her people and her godsreturn after your sister-in-law
has returned to her people andher gods Return after your
sister-in-law.
Then refreshing friend said youwill not entreat me to leave
you to return from after you,for where you go, I will go, and
in that place you lodge, I willlodge your people, my people,
(03:45):
your God, my God.
Where you die, I will die andthere I will be buried.
Thus may the Lord Yahweh do tome, may he add to me if anything
but death separates between meand between you".
(04:05):
And then she, pleasim, saw thatshe refreshing friend was
strengthening herself to go withher and she stopped speaking
with her and the two of themwent till they entered the City
of Bread.
(04:25):
And then it happened, as theywere entering the city of bread,
that all the city was stirredup about them and they, the
women of the city, said is thispleasant?
And she said to them don't callme pleasant, call me bitter,
for the almighty has caused meto be bitter, for the Almighty
has caused me to be bitter.
(04:45):
I was full and I went andemptily.
The Lord caused me to return.
Why would you call me pleasant?
The Lord afflicted me and theAlmighty did evil against me.
And then Pleasant returned andrefreshing friend, the woman
(05:06):
from an ancestral land, herdaughter-in-law was with her.
She returned from the fields ofincest and they themselves
entered the city of bread in thebeginning of the harvest of
barley.
And so as we look at Ruth,chapter one, we have read about
Ruth and Naomi's loss.
(05:27):
They are a couple of poorwidows living in Moab and Naomi
hears that there's a sliver ofhope.
She hears that the Lord hasvisited his people, he's come to
take care of them.
It's not visiting as in yourrelative from out of town who
just stops by for a couple days,but it's visiting as showing up
(05:50):
finally to take care of someone.
So she's in Moab, maybe stayingin a rented house or wherever
they were.
Perhaps she's been evicted andshe's just trying to figure out
what to do as a widow.
And she's just trying to figureout what to do as a widow.
She hears that the Lord hasvisited his people to give bread
to them.
And the Hebrew right here isreally fun because you can just
(06:11):
almost hear the hope like acouple of bells ringing.
The Hebrew words for bread tothem almost mirror each other.
In the Hebrew it is lehemlechem to them bread, lehem to
them, lechem bread.
(06:32):
So the Lord visited his peopleto give lehem lechem bread to
them.
And you have just a sliver ofhope start to awaken in Naomi's
heart.
But it's a seed, it's not afull-grown plant because, as she
will describe to us in just afew verses, there may be bread
(06:54):
in Bethlehem but nothing else.
There may be food, but there'sno man, there's no family,
there's no hope for her.
But even with that, she setsout from the place which she was
there and her twodaughters-in-law are with her.
Up until this point in versessix and seven, all the action
(07:15):
has been Naomi's.
She's the one getting up, sheis the one who sets out, the
daughters-in-law you kind ofimagine tagging along behind,
like Naomi almost isn't awarethat they're there.
She's not fully consideringtheir presence, which makes
sense considering the grief andtrauma and loss she has endured.
(07:36):
These verses have a verycharacteristic, almost jolting
feel to them, typically Hebrew,the Hebrew language, the way it
functions.
It just kind of trots along,it's, and then this happened,
and then this happened and thenthis happened, and then this
happened, and this happened andthen this happened.
And if there's something reallysignificant, they'll have a
break in the chain of verbs andyou'll be like, oh, that was
(07:59):
different, that must beimportant, but here it's almost
all jumbled up.
Listen to it again.
It's and she returned from thefields of seed, for she heard
and then she set out and hurt.
They were with her and thenthey went.
And you get this jolting backand forth, which is I was
reading over it this week justreminded me that that is often
(08:19):
what grief and pain feel like.
Naomi is trying to make adecision in life.
She is trying to move forward,she is trying to do something,
but all of her movement isjolting.
She arises to return, she setsout, she went, but it's this
jolting, stumbling movement.
(08:40):
You trip, you backtrack, youstumble.
The grief does not allow smoothmovement from point A to point
B.
That's how Hebrew usuallyfunctions Point A, point B, we
just get there and we get therequickly.
But these verses, the Hebrewitself gives you the feeling of
(09:02):
just stumbling through life,trying to make the next decision
, clouded by grief, unable tofully get your feet solidly, one
in front of the other andyou're just trying to make it
happen.
That is the feeling we get hereand she's doing all this and
it's almost like she's blinderson.
(09:23):
She's making a decision sheneeds to go home, there's bread
there.
She may not have bread in Moabanymore because she has no
extended family to take care ofher and she may not be
physically well enough to gleanor do any of those things.
So she may be like I'm going todie anyway.
I might as well die where I canget food.
And so she says I'm going tohead home, I can get food.
(09:47):
And so she says I'm going tohead home.
And it's this jolting, lurchingkind of feeling as she and her
grief tries to just pick herselfup and move somewhere with
these two daughters-in-lawtrailing along behind.
And it may be they're doing allthe packing, they're doing all
the prep.
Naomi can't think she can'tfunction.
In an ancient household.
The daughters-in-law have ahuge responsibility to be
serving their mother-in-law,taking care of her anyway.
(10:09):
That's the role Ruth and Orphawould have had in the household
before the sons died, and sothey may just be continuing to
do that, taking care of and thenthe end of verse seven, finally
, the girls, ruth and Orpah.
Their action is involved.
Naomi, she's the one who arises, and the Hebrew even emphasizes
(10:31):
that.
It says she herself arose.
It's not they arose, it's shearose.
She returned, she set out andthey're with her.
But then, finally, the verylast phrase of verse 7, and then
they, all three of them, wentto return to the land.
So finally, it's almost likethe daughters have caught up.
In my mind, I picture Naomi'sjust getting up, but she's
(10:54):
desperate, she's just blindlytrying to get home.
She's just going forward andthe daughters are running behind
her with all the suitcases andfinally they catch up.
So they are all moving towardsthe land of Judah.
Now let's pause for a moment andthink about this geographically
, because I'm describing it likethey're just picking up and
(11:16):
moving next door.
But that is absolutely not thecase going on at all.
For those of you listening onthe podcast, I'm going to
describe this.
For those of you watching onYouTube, after I describe it, I
will draw it out for you so youcan get an idea of what's going
on here.
But Moab is on the eastern sideof the Dead Sea.
(11:39):
In Israel, bethlehem is on justto the west, the northwest
corner of the Dead Sea.
Moab is in the southeast areaof the Dead Sea, so they need to
go north around the tip of theDead Sea and then downward
southern to Bethlehem.
(11:59):
Bethlehem and Jerusalem arealso on a mountain range, so
they to get from Moab, and Moabis also on a high plateau
mountain range on the other sideof the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea creates this giantchasm in between, so they have
to go up.
They have to go north on themountains, from Moab up through
Reuben's territory.
(12:20):
Then they have to go down, down, down, down, down, down around
the north end of the Dead Sea tocross the Jordan River some of
the lowest places on earth,incredibly hot past the city of
Jericho and then recline up themountains to get to Jerusalem
and then finally south toBethlehem.
(12:42):
This is a long journey.
It's likely that Ruth and Naomidid not take this journey alone
.
So as Ruth and Naomi travelhome home for Naomi, not so much
for Ruth, as Ruth and Naomitravel home this is a long,
arduous journey.
They walk a very long way.
(13:03):
They likely do not go alone.
They probably have to join acaravan of some kind, because
with their meager possessions itwould be very dangerous for
women.
We've often pictured them justlike picking up and going by
themselves.
Like I, you know, I pack mykids in the car and had to see
my in-laws or some such.
That would not be safe.
So they may have had to pay acertain amount to be included in
(13:24):
a caravan maybe some of theirmeager remaining life savings
they have to give to a caravandriver to allow them to join
this group of people going fromMoab up and around the Dead Sea
back down to Bethlehem.
But now Naomi and her daughtersare on that route.
(13:44):
They're on the road, they areready to get going and while
they are traveling it seemsthey're no longer at home.
They're on the middle of a road, somewhere, maybe stopped for
the night to camp.
We don't know.
When this discussion takes place.
Naomi finally turns to herdaughters-in-law.
It's like she wakes up from hergrief and her slumber just
(14:05):
enough to be like oh, oh,they're here.
Oh, oh, shoot.
I'm the matriarch of this home,I'm responsible for them.
What am I going to do?
I'm heading back.
Yes, bethlehem has bread, but Ihave nothing for them.
And so she turns to herdaughters-in-law and she says go
, return each woman to the houseof her mother that's an
(14:28):
interesting phrase.
In the Hebrew the house ofmother is generally used for a
woman who is marriageable.
In Rebecca's story she goeswhen the servant comes and says
that he was sent by Abraham andIsaac needs a wife.
Rebecca goes to tell the houseof her mother about the servant,
and this is significant becauseoften in the ancient world the
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mother had a very huge part infinding spouses for the children
.
The matriarch reproduction isone of her roles.
So finding a good wife for hersons or for her, yeah, finding a
good wife for her sons is partof her job.
That's part of her role, andshe would also then be the one
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training the new wife that cameinto the household if the son
stayed in the household how todo things their way.
So the mother's house is thisunit within the whole household.
That signifies marriageability.
In the Bible we don't often seethe woman's influence directly
(15:31):
in finding spouses for children,partly because the Bible talks
about these arrangements morefrom the legal standing.
So imagine with me it's themother who's at social
gatherings.
She's scanning all the eligibleyoung ladies.
She's seeing them all.
Okay, yep, she seems reallygood.
Then she goes to her husband,which he may be feeling out some
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of the parents and things aswell.
But the mother's like, yes,ruth is a good girl, I think she
would be good to go with myhusband and then the husband
will go to Ruth or whoever'sfather and he'll make the legal
arrangements.
But mama did a lot of thegroundwork.
Mama was in daddy's ear sayingthis is a good match, the
(16:14):
family's good, everything's good.
She has high character, she's agood girl.
The mother has a huge influence.
It's not that men are buyingand trading women, as we've
sometimes been told.
There's family allegiances,family alliances here.
So Naomi says return each womanto the house of her mother, go
(16:35):
back where your mommy can helpyou find a new husband, where
you can get married, where youhave hope for a future.
And she says the Lord and thisis the covenant name for God may
Yahweh, the Lord, do chesed, dofaithfully with you.
You may be familiar with theHebrew word chesed, which can be
translated loving, kindness,covenant, faithfulness.
(16:58):
Some English translations justsay may the Lord do good to you,
which is it's really acheapening of this blessing that
Naomi is giving to herdaughters-in-law.
She said may the Lord dofaithfully, may God's full
covenant faithfulness, may myGod's full covenant faithfulness
.
Bless you in your endeavor tofind hope and a future for
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yourself that I cannot offer you.
Even as you were chesed, werefaithful, were fulfilled your
covenant to the dead, my sonsand to me.
Naomi recognizes herdaughter-in-law's faithfulness.
They joined Naomi's family inmarriage.
They are now part of herhousehold and they have
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faithfully stuck with her.
They could have, as soon astheir husbands died, cut and ran
.
They didn't.
They stayed with Naomi.
She recognizes theirfaithfulness to her and asked
that the Lord would pour out hiscovenant faithfulness upon them
.
She says may the Lord give toyou and may you find rest, each
(18:05):
of you.
In the house of a husband thereis no social standing.
There is very little hope for awidow, especially a poor widow.
A rich widow may have hope.
She probably has some money andsome property.
She might not even need to getremarried.
She's rich and since she's rich, she has financial control of
her own resources.
So she may not need that.
But these are not rich widows,these are poor widows.
(18:26):
They need to be part of ahousehold in order to thrive.
Everyone in the ancient worldneeded to be part of the
household A single, independentadult functioning on their own,
like we have in our culture, didnot exist in the ancient world,
or if it did, it wasexceptionally uncommon.
Everybody needs to be part of ahousehold.
(18:47):
A wealthy widow might be ableto be the boss, the head of her
new household.
A poor widow doesn't have ahousehold to be part of.
She can't be in charge of ahousehold that doesn't exist
because they have no servants orresources or people.
So she's Naomi in many ways ispraying here that the Lord will
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bless her daughters-in-law andthat they would find rest in a
house of a new husband and thatGod would bless them in this.
I've been reading andresearching about women and
especially widows in the ancientworld, and often widows were
disadvantaged.
A second marriage, a widowmight not have the same level of
rights as she did for her firstmarriage.
(19:29):
Sometimes a man would force awidow to live with her without
the legal documentation neededfor marriage.
Sometimes a man would force awidow to live with her without
the legal documentation neededfor marriage so that if
something happened to him, shewas again without any legal
recourse or dowry or anything.
And so Naomi is praying thatthat would not be the situation
for Ruth and Orpah, that theywould go home and they would
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find a marriage that God wouldbless them in this.
And so, after she gives thisblessing to her daughter-in-laws
, she's woken up from her griefa little bit.
Enough to be like I need tomake sure you girls are taken
care of.
Go home, I have nothing for you.
Go home, may the Lord providefor you.
And she kisses them and theylifted up their voice and they
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weep.
You see this deep affectionbetween Naomi and her
daughters-in-law.
They cannot bear to be apart.
They are so heartbroken andthey weep.
And then the daughters-in-lawsaid to Naomi for we will return
with you to your people.
Now we don't know how much ofthat was completely honest, at
(20:34):
least on Orpah's part, becausein these ancient cultures
there's a lot of and in thesehonor-shame communal cultures
there's a lot of negotiation andback and forth.
You don't say no directly andyou don't accept an offer like
this immediately.
You push back and forth.
Even if you intend to acceptthe offer, you kind of negotiate
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it a little bit.
So that may be what's going onhere, but you still sense with
all she kissed them, they liftup their voice, they wept, they
refuse.
There's this deep and abidingaffection and they say we will
return with you to your people.
All throughout this passagethere's a play on with and
people In the Hebrew.
Both of those have the sameconsonants I and mem.
(21:17):
One is im with, the other is ampeople.
But there's a play off of thosetwo consonants throughout this
passage that who are these women?
Their identity is at stake.
Who are they with and whatpeople do they belong to?
Throughout it's they will.
They're with her.
Go back to your people.
(21:37):
Whenever you read with andpeople in Ruth, chapter one,
remember that those words lookvery similar in the Hebrew.
And so there's a, there's aplay, interplay going on that
wraps up feminine identity.
Who are they?
Will you be?
Will you go with me or are yougoing to go with your people?
(21:58):
Whose are you?
And they said we will return toyou and your people.
And then Naomi Pleasant said gohome, return my daughters.
Why would you go with me?
Well, and she basically looksat them and says I can't get
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pregnant, I'm postmenopausal A.
No man is going to want A.
I'm postmenopausal B.
No man wants to marrypostmenopausal women.
And C, even if I wasn't, and Iwas married and I could get
pregnant and I got pregnanttonight.
Are you going to wait 15 to 18years for my sons to grow up?
(22:40):
No, don't do that.
This gives the idea of theLeverett marriage and if you're
curious about that, we'll talkmore about Leverett marriage in
the Ruth series.
But if you're like I, reallywant to learn about it now.
Go back to the Tamar episodeand I talk about the Leverett
(23:01):
marriage a lot in the Tamarepisode.
But this gives some of theLeverett marriage brother-in-law
marriage idea.
Some scholars go no, this isn'tstrict Leverett marriage because
it has specific criteria andthis doesn't match all those
criteria.
But what I feel like thosescholars are missing is again,
when a woman married into ahousehold, the entire household
(23:24):
took responsibility to make surethat woman could thrive and
have a future and have children.
So Naomi, even though thisdoesn't technically fit the
criteria of leverant marriage inLeviticus 25 and Deuteronomy 25
, even though this doesn't fitthose specific criteria, naomi
understands her culturalresponsibility to provide
(23:47):
husbands and future for thesewomen and she is saying to them
I absolutely cannot do that, Ihave nothing for you, which I
imagine was grief upon griefupon grief.
She has lost her husband, shehas lost her sons and now she is
losing the daughters-in-law,who she seems to have a
(24:08):
beautiful relationship with.
Even today we joke about therelationships between mothers
and daughters-in-law, naomi'sand her daughters-in-law.
They seem to have this deepemotional bond, which also makes
sense when they've walkedthrough deep loss together and
have chosen to stay together inthe midst of it.
(24:28):
Naomi looks at them and says go,for I'm too old to have a
husband, I'm not going to haveany more kids and you're not
going to wait till they grow up.
Therefore, it is bitter for mebecause of you.
That Hebrew phrase is veryambiguous.
Nobody knows if Naomi's sayingI'm too bitter for you, you
(24:51):
don't want to be around me, I'ma bitter old woman, go get happy
somewhere else.
Or if she's saying my life ismore bitter than yours, or a
little bit of both.
But Naomi's bitterness and herhurt is starting to come out
here.
She says it is more bitter forme than for you, for the hand
the fist of the Lord went outagainst, attacked me.
(25:14):
She looks up, as any ancientNear Eastern person would, and
says my God has allowed thissuffering to come upon me.
You don't want to be near that.
Like Job.
Naomi looks and said God is theone who has allowed this to
happen and who knows, if more ison the way.
(25:36):
She has a theology here thatkeeps God on his throne even in
the midst of deep suffering.
Well, the women lift up theirvoices and they wept again.
Maybe they they hear whatNaomi's saying, that she's a
bearer of shame and bad luck.
(25:57):
Her life is just one of shame.
At this point it's just goingdown, down, down.
She doesn't have hope.
Things may only get worse forNaomi, and so they lift up their
voices and they weep.
And then Naomi kisses Turnableand Turnable leaves.
(26:19):
Now the text doesn't condemn her.
She follows Naomi's wise adviceon a human plane.
Turnable leaves, she heads back, she goes back home to grasp at
seeds of hope.
But refreshing friend clings toNaomi in verse 14.
(26:40):
Then they wept again and thenshe kissed Turnable.
But refreshing friend Ruthclung to her.
That term clung there is thesame from Genesis 2.24 that says
a man shall leave his fatherand mother and be united, shall
cling to his wife.
This is uniting of a householdkind of language, as though Ruth
(27:03):
is clinging to Naomi, saying wewill be a household together.
I am not going to go back andjoin my natal household where I
came from.
I am going to stay with you andwe will be a household.
Come hell or high water, I amsticking with you".
But Pluton looks at her Iimagine Ruth just clinging to
(27:26):
her and Naomi's trying to pushher off and she says behold,
your sister-in-law returned toher people and her gods Return
after your sister-in-law.
Remember, in the ancient worldthey believed gods lived in
specific geographical locations.
So the gods of Moab didn'tnecessarily have authority or
(27:47):
jurisdiction in Israel.
The gods of Egypt didn'tnecessarily have authority or
jurisdiction in Moab.
The God of Israel, continually,throughout all of scripture, is
showing that he hasjurisdiction wherever he wants.
Throughout all of scriptureshowing that he has jurisdiction
wherever he wants.
But this idea that gods werelocal is exceptionally important
to understanding our OldTestament.
Behold your sisters return toher people and her gods there in
(28:11):
Moab Return after her.
But Ruth, who's clinging to her, says do not entreat me to
leave you or to return fromafter you, for where you go I
will go.
Where you lodge, I will lodgeyour people, my people, your God
, my God.
(28:32):
In the Old Testament one of thecommentators pointed out the
only Gentile besides Ruth toproclaim verbal loyalty to the
Lord is Rahab and Naaman.
All throughout the text of Ruthwe get glimmers back to the
face of matriarch women who camebefore Ruth and Naomi.
(28:57):
Right now there's a glimmerback to Rahab, who gave her
allegiance to the Lord andjoined the family of the of God.
She may actually have beenBoaz's mother or grandmother,
which is a spoiler.
We're going to get there.
But Rahab is important.
And here we hearken back toRahab, to Rahab.
(29:29):
Later on the women are going tohearken Ruth and Naomi's
experience and give a blessingupon them.
That echoes Rachel and Leah.
We have this continualhearkening back to women when
Naomi asked Ruth and Orpah willyou wait until my sons grow up
and shut yourselves up and notbelong to any man?
And that gives a hearkeningback to Tamar, who Judah said
shut yourself up in yourfather's house, not your
(29:50):
mother's house.
You can't go get married.
You're locking yourself away inyour father's house until my
son grows up and go.
Listen to that episode, howthat turned out.
But we've had all of thesehearkenings back to previous
matriarchal women of faith andhere's another one to Rahab.
We have Tamar brought up.
We have Rahab.
(30:11):
Ruth says your people, yourpeople, tamar, rahab.
She is walking back toBethlehem in the footsteps of
Tamar, who may have been aCanaanite, of Rahab, who was a
Canaanite.
And now Ruth is purposefullywhere, where Naomi was stumbling
forward in her grief, justtrying to get home, ruth is
(30:35):
steadfastly taking step afterstep where you go, I will go.
Where you lodge, I will lodge,your people, my people, your god
, my god.
Where you die, I will die andthere I will be buried.
The text at that moment in thehebrew.
(30:56):
You can hear it in the englishtoo, but in the Hebrew it pauses
with an emphasis and there thepoetic structure of Ruth's
beautiful poem climaxes at thethere I will be buried.
This is often given at weddingsand in beautiful moments, and
(31:16):
it's this beautiful poem of juststeadfast faithfulness and
giving herself over to the Lordon the part of Ruth.
But it's not necessarily a poemof hope.
She says your God will be myGod and where you die, I will
die.
Yes, this does mean for theduration of Ruth's life, but
(31:39):
this does not mean Ruth isexpecting her life to be long.
These women are going back,perhaps to die.
They have no hope, they don'tknow what's coming.
In chapters two, three and four,that is why she says your
people are my people, your Godis my God and I'll go die with
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you.
We're headed home.
You don't see hope.
I'm going to be there with theend, and if you die first, when
you die first I will be buried.
I'm not going to go back toMoab after you die.
There I will be buried, andthus may the Lord do to me.
She invites a curse uponherself.
May the Lord do to me and addagainst me.
(32:22):
If anything but death separatesus, even in death I'm going to
be with you.
This is a covenant between twowomen where Ruth is promising I
will be with you, no matter whatshe may have been believing
that she was walking to herdeath.
She wasn't necessarilyexpecting life and happiness.
(32:43):
Between verses 16 and 17 inchapter one, she is converting
and she is ready to die.
She may have had hope.
We don't know, but we knowtheir situation is dire, we know
they don't have much going forthem and Ruth has faith.
(33:04):
After Ruth completes her poem,nothing but death will separate
you and me, and even then I'mgoing to be buried next to you.
And then she, Pleasant, sawthat Ruth was strengthening
herself to go with her.
Ruth in this book.
I absolutely love her becauseshe is a strong woman.
(33:25):
Ruth pushes back.
She says no, I am not going todo that.
No, this is not what we'regoing to do.
Yes, I am going to adopt yourGod.
We don't know what kind ofreligious practices Naomi had,
(33:52):
whether she kept worship ofYahweh alive in her home while
they were in Moab, we don't know.
But we know that Ruth gotenough that she decided to
pledge her allegiance and changeher nationality from Moabite to
Israelite, in that she wants tobe part of God's people.
But remember we talked aboutthis last week the law in
Deuteronomy that said a Moabitecannot be part of the
(34:16):
congregation of Israel, ie go tothe tabernacle or temple to
worship for 10 generations afterconversion.
So even if Ruth joins thepeople of Israel, she is still
exceptionally limited and herchildren and her children and
her great-grandchildren, david,are limited, solomon are limited
(34:38):
in what they can do and whetherthey can go to the temple or
tabernacle to worship God, whichis part of the problem that the
book of Ruth, I believe, isanswering for us.
So then, after Naomi hearsRuth's entire speech, she stops
speaking with her, again in theHebrew.
(35:00):
There's a tension in this phrase.
We're not sure if this is kindof an abandonment.
Naomi's, just like.
I'm not talking to you anymore,fine, you can come along.
Or if it is a peaceful, relaxed, I'm not going to argue with it
anymore.
Let's walk hand in hand towardsBethlehem.
We don't know the attitudesbehind it, but we know that
Naomi is still in a place ofdeep sorrow Because, as the two
(35:24):
of them went on and they enterthe city of bread again that
hope it's sparkling around theedges of the text.
They enter the city of bread andthen it happened, as they were
entering the city of bread, thatphrase.
And then it happened.
Kind of a new scene If we'rewatching a play.
The scene closes, they continueon the way.
(35:44):
New scene they enter the Cityof Bread and the city was
stirred up about them.
Everyone in the city, somebodynews.
I mean, we're dealing with asmall town, there's not a lot of
people here.
Naomi comes back.
Perhaps her house has beenvacant for years, maybe
squatters are living in thehouse, maybe Elimelech's fields
(36:04):
have been without anybody usingthem, or maybe somebody has been
using them just because theywere there.
We don't know the situation oftheir land.
But Naomi's coming back andthey recognize is this Naomi?
And the entire city is stirredup, they're happy, they're
joyous.
The women are whispering isthat Naomi?
Is that Naomi?
Oh, my goodness, my bestfriend's back.
(36:25):
Naomi, naomi, naomi.
And so the women of the city sayis this pleasant?
They're so excited.
Pleasant has returned and shelooks at them.
I see tears welling up in hereyes and she says don't call me
(36:46):
pleasant, call me bitter, for Iwas full when I left and emptily
.
The Lord has caused me toreturn.
Why would you call me pleasant?
(37:08):
The Lord afflicted me.
He's given evil to me.
Naomi just lays it out.
I have nothing left.
My name once meant pleasant.
Maybe she was the life of theparty.
Maybe she was the one whoblessed or gave people things.
(37:28):
Often these names showcharacteristics of the
individual and she says that'snot who I am.
Now it's all changed.
My life has changed.
I left a matriarch with,married to a man who owned land,
married to a man who gave metwo sons.
I was a matriarch of ahousehold with sons and I come
(37:55):
back with a scragglydaughter-in-law in tow and
nothing else.
Daughter-in-law in tow andnothing else.
The Almighty has caused me tobe bitter.
The word Almighty here isShaddai the strong one, the
mighty one.
It's an archaic name of Godused throughout the Old
(38:15):
Testament, and it can.
One of the commentators pointedout that it can kind of give
the idea of the God of theancestors, our ancestral God.
This isn't the covenant name ofGod, the Lord Yahweh.
This is an ancestral name.
Shaddai, the archaic name, godof our ancestors, has caused me
(38:37):
to be bitter.
He has brought evil against me.
Naomi's theology matches that ofthe ancient Near East.
In the ancient Near East, theybelieved that if something bad
happened to you, it was becauseyour God was mad at you.
Naomi is echoing this.
It's along the same lines of asJob, when his entire life falls
(39:01):
apart.
Naomi is, in many ways, afemale Job.
Her whole life has fallen apart.
She says the Lord did this and,just like with Job, we as the
readers and the originalaudience of the text does not
get an answer as to why.
Why did God cause?
Why did God allow this evil tohappen to Naomi?
(39:24):
Did God cause it or did heallow it?
These questions are notanswered in the text because the
text doesn't want us focused on.
Why did God do this in the past?
No, the text does not answerthese questions.
The text allows us to sit in thepain and the grief and the
(39:48):
bitterness and not know why,because sometimes that is as
important for our spiritual lifeand our spiritual journey and
what comes next as any answer.
Like with Job, god never tellsJob why he did what he did.
(40:10):
He reveals his character, hereveals who he is.
Likewise, god does that subtlyfor Naomi throughout the rest of
the book.
God does that subtly for Naomithroughout the rest of the book.
She says the almighty Shaddaihas brought evil upon me.
And then Pleasant returned andrefreshing friend the Moabitess,
(40:39):
her daughter-in-law with her,she returned from the fields of
Moab and they themselves enteredthe city of bread, bethlehem,
at the beginning of the harvestof barley.
And for chapter one, that is theonly answer we are given as to
what is God doing.
We sit in the pain, we watchthe pain, we watch the stumbling
(41:02):
, we watch the pushing away ofpeople close to us.
Isn't that often our naturalimpulse?
When we're hurting, we want topush people away.
I know when I'm in times oftrauma or grief and I'll have a
friend text me and I'm just like, oh, I don't feel like
responding to this and I justwant to push the way.
Not now, not if it's a textmessage, I can just put my phone
(41:23):
down and get back to it later.
But we have this tendency topush people away when we're
grieving.
We've seen Naomi do that.
She tried to send the daughtersaway, partly out of obligation
for their good, but partly she'sjust in this grieving, pushing
away the women come Naomi, naomi, and she's like no, don't even
(41:44):
call me by my name.
She's in this, pushing away.
She's grieving.
But the text will not let usgive up hope.
Verse 22 echoes back to versesix that says she arose and
returned from this fields ofMoab.
And so now this chapterfinishes saying she returned
from the fields of Moab.
And so now that this chapterfinishes saying she returned
from the fields of Moab,everything that happened in
(42:06):
between.
She arose with herdaughters-in-law verse six she
returned from the fields of Moab.
Verse 22,.
Naomi returns herdaughter-in-laws with her same
state of mind, same people withher.
She returns from the fields ofMoab.
They enter the city of bread atthe beginning of the harvest of
(42:27):
barley.
Just like Lehem the Chem, hegave bread to them.
Now there is a harvest ofbarley.
God is providing for his peopleand his continued presence and
provision is the hope in thismoment.
(42:49):
Naomi doesn't know what's goingto happen next.
Ruth doesn't know what's goingto happen next.
She has this.
Ruth has this big climacticmoment where she gives her life
to the Lord and to Naomi, sayingI'm going to cling to you no
matter what and I will die withyou and we may be walking to our
deaths because we don't knowwhat's coming next.
(43:10):
But they return at thebeginning of the barley harvest.
There is that glimmer of hopeand God's goodness is about to
be revealed over and over again,as we see that God has set up
systems and godly people put inplace so that those who are weak
(43:34):
and vulnerable can be cared for.
None of this took God bysurprise.
God was not surprised thatElimelech died.
God was not surprised thatMalchon and Chilion died.
God is not surprised thatOrphan went back to Moab.
He is not surprised.
He is not taken back.
He is not offended by Naomi'spain.
(43:54):
He is providing for them bit bybit as they take steps forward.
Coming back to him, elimelechleft Bethlehem.
The man whose name means my God, his king, bailed on the land
where his God was king.
(44:15):
Now his wife, broken, destitute, feeling alone, returns for
this opposite reason that sheleft.
She returns because there isbread.
They left because of a lack ofbread.
The Lord was in the middle ofall of the circumstances, though
he is not screaming and he isnot telling us how.
(44:38):
And he is not telling us whyand he is not telling us what
all he is doing.
Yet the story is yet to bewritten.
And for those of us who arelistening to this as we think
through these struggles in ourlives, the pain, the
frustrations, the traumas, Iknow my tendency is to be like
(45:00):
god why, why don, why don't youfix this?
Would you hurry up and stop thepain?
And, like Naomi and Ruth,sometimes we have to just
stumble forward, not knowingwhere we're going, doing the
best we can.
And God shows up, not in thebig miracles of manna from
(45:20):
heaven or water from a rock, buthe shows up in a seed that was
planted, taking root and growing.
He shows up in the steel of ourspine being strengthened for
the work ahead.
He shows up because in he showsup in someone who says I see,
(45:42):
you have a need and I'm notgoing to abandon you.
God is there and he is working.
We just don't always see it andour inability to see through
the fog of grief does not meanGod is not there.
So, as you wait for our nextepisode where we get into Ruth,
(46:05):
chapter 2, allow yourself tocontinue to ponder God's
presence in time of trauma andsuffering.
Chapter 2, we start to see moreof what God is doing and has
been doing in Bethlehem and thecity in his people at large.
(46:25):
But we haven't got there yet.
Our temptation in Bible studiesto jump ahead real quick, let's
get to the good stuff.
Rather than sitting in the heart, than allowing, allowing
ourselves to be in thatgrief-blinded and bittered state
of mind where we are throwingour questions against the wall,
(46:49):
hoping God will hear and answer,allow yourself to sit there.
God is not afraid of your anger.
He is not afraid of your pain.
He is not afraid of your grief.
I don't know what's going on inyour lives as you listen.
I know what's going on in mylife and I know that sometimes
(47:13):
grief seems insurmountable.
And that's okay, we can sit inthat and you are safe to sit in
that with God.
He is not looking to shove youforward into happy, happy, joy,
joy just for joys.
Be thankful in all things.
It's not what he's looking forhe wants you to know he is with
(47:35):
you in the hard times, even whenyou can't see.
So get on my social media,follow me at we who thirst on
instagram threads.
Let's talk about this episode.
How has it impacted you?
What are your thoughts?
What was new to you and whathas really challenged your view
of suffering in your own life?
(47:57):
I can't wait to hear from you.
Send me email, dm.
Respond on social media.
Next time we're going to diveinto Ruth, chapter 2.
Can't wait to talk about it inits historical context.
I will see you then.
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