Of Ruth and Naomi

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. Ruth 1:14-18 NASB

The story of Ruth has always been somewhat of an enigma to me. Elimelech takes his wife, Naomi, and two sons and goes to Moab because of famine. No problem for me as it makes good sense to go where there is food and not die of hunger. Here is what bugs me, he lets his two sons marry outside the Jewish faith. Something that was not done. It is a real break with the laws of the Jews.

One of the wives, Ruth, makes a conversion statement in the passage we just read. She totally gives herself over to the faith of her husband and her mother-in-law. The result of that conversion is a lasting legacy that gets her story included in the canon of Scripture.

Does this story make it into the canon to show us that conversion can take place among the "heathen?" If not, why? What about Orpah? Did not any of the faith of her in-laws rub off on her? Naomi suggest that both women go back to their Moabite gods, but Ruth rejects them and go to live in a land that is not her own. She is a stranger in the land of Israel. She has embraced the One True God, and is a stranger in the land.

I think about people that come into the church of today from a sinful existence, what a change and challenge it must be to live as a Christian in a “foreign land.” Ruth is living that life. Nothing is as it was, except for the exposure she had with her husband’s family. there are some who wonder if Elimelech, (her father-in-law) was at all a godly man, since he went back to the land they had been led away from under Joshua.

One thing is certain, Naomi was a woman of God. She is willing to give her daughters-in-law their freedom as she returns to Israel. Ruth’s words tell us the story of Naomi. She had seen in Naomi the One True God and wanted to have that life. Notice these words from the text “Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.” It is not the God of my husband will be my God; no, it is your God will be my God. There was something special about Naomi and her faith in God that causes Ruth to make her choice.

You might argue that Naomi wasn’t all that great as she didn’t influence Orpah the same way. To that end I remind you about free choice. We don’t hear anything more about Orpah, so we can’t speculate on how she lived out her life. She may have gone home and continued to serve the Lord, or she may have returned to the gods of her country. She, as well as Ruth, had the freedom to choose.

Every day you have to make choices about your faith. It is called temptation. It can be sins of commission or sins of omission. Ruth made a really tough choice. What will you choose today?