Life After Death - Ruth 1

For the next four Wednesdays, I’ll be considering the book of Ruth.

Ruth is a short book tucked between the book of Judges and the book of 1 Samuel in the Old Testament.

Its placement is purposeful.

Ruth 1:1 reads, “In the days when the judges ruled,” and the final verse of the book, 4:22, reads, “Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.”

So, Ruth provides the backstory of how Israel transitioned from the chaotic time of the Judges to her greatest king, King David.

But even though Ruth connects these two books, it’s quite different from them.

Judges is full of epic battles and miraculous victories. That’s where we read about Gideon’s 300 men defeating the Midianites and Samson’s incredible feats of strength in battle with the Philistines.

1 and 2 Samuel are also filled with epic battles. For example, they include the story of David defeating the giant, Goliath. However, a large portion of Samuel is dedicated to the political intrigue of the royal family and royal court—important people doing important things.

There are no battles in the book of Ruth. There are no incredible events. There are no miracles in it. There are no important people in the book of Ruth, or so it would seem.

This book is about ordinary people, nobodies like you and me. It’s about ordinary life. It’s about mundane events like harvesting barley. It’s about people just trying to make it, trying to get by in the day-to-day difficulties of life.

But God works through the ordinary and mundane. He is the God who accomplishes His will through nobodies.

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 lays it out for us:

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

God chose weak, lowly, destitute Ruth to be the vessel through which the Messiah would come into the world. She is the great-grandmother of King David, and when you read the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1, you will see her name listed.

When you read Ruth, you walk away captivated by the awesomeness of God. You are driven to boast in God. We may be nobodies to the world, but not to God. He chooses to use us to accomplish His glorious will through our little, tiny, seemingly insignificant lives.

Now, how exactly does a foreign and pagan Moabite woman end up living in Israel and worshipping the true God? It starts with famine.

Look at verses 1-5:

In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

In Scripture, famines are often a form of judgment from God. God will not bless wickedness; wickedness will eventually lead to God withholding blessings. So, God withholds the blessing of a harvest by sending famine as a way to lead His people into repentance. For example, Amos 4:6-8 says:

I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither. So two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.

The famine described in Ruth was very localized. Moab was only 50 miles away, yet they had bread. Rain was falling on Moab but not on Israel.

Why? Well, the period of the Judges was a dark time in the history of Israel.

Judges 2:11-15 explains:

And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.

No doubt this famine was on Israel because of her unfaithfulness. God was calling her to return, to repent. But the family of Elimelech fled God’s judgment. They "sojourned" in Moab. The fact that it says they “sojourned” makes it clear that this was intended to be a temporary move. They were going to wait out the famine in Moab and then come home.

Commentators like to point out all the irony in this opening passage. For example, Bethlehem means "house of bread," yet there is nothing to eat in the house of bread. Elimelech means "God is my king," yet Elimelech moves his family to a nation that hates God and serves idols.

Elimelech was the chief provider for his home. It was his responsibility to take care of his wife and children. So, you can understand his drive to take extreme measures. But all providers can only provide if God provides for them. Elimelech forgot this. In a sense, he took his family away from the greatest resource—God the provider. And things didn’t go as planned.

Elimelech dies. Dead men can’t provide.

Naomi is now a single mother in a foreign land. What was meant to be a short sojourn turns into something more permanent. Her sons decide to marry Moabite women. This was forbidden by God, not for racial reasons but for religious reasons. Religiously mixed marriages led to compromise.

The family of Elimelech escaped the barrenness of the famined fields of Israel, but that barrenness followed them all the way to Moab. Neither of Naomi’s sons were able to have children. They were married for ten years, yet the wombs of their wives remained barren.

And then things get even worse.

Mahlon and Chilion die.

It’s hard to overstate just how dire this situation is.

These women can’t just get jobs. This is the ancient world; it didn’t work that way. Moab didn’t provide social security, disability, food stamps, or any kind of welfare. They were on their own.

Not only could they not provide for themselves, but they also couldn’t protect themselves. Their protectors were dead. They were three widows in a brutal, pagan land, making them extremely vulnerable.

There was only one option for Naomi:

Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited His people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah (v. 6-7).

I like the saying, “History doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme.” The book of Ruth rhymes with many stories in Scripture. This should remind you of the story of the prodigal son.

A young son takes his father’s inheritance into a foreign land, spends it all on reckless living, and then a famine arises. He is forced to become a slave and eat with the pigs.

Luke reads:

But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”

Naomi is the prodigal daughter, and she is going home. That’s her only option because she is too old for remarriage, but her daughters-in-law aren’t.

But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.” Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her (v. 8-14).

There is an incredibly sweet relationship between Naomi and her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth. Those who suffer together often grow very close. These two young women didn’t abandon Naomi; they stood by her and treated her kindly. They loved each other.

Although they had left Moab together, they are now at a crossroads. Naomi has been thinking: there is nothing for these two young women in Israel. She is too old to have any sons to offer them as new husbands. It’s better that they return to their relatives.

Naomi is a conflicted woman. She believes in the God of Israel. She has real faith, which impacted Ruth in a big way—undeniably so. Yet, both Naomi and her husband before her are pragmatists and can be deeply unspiritual.

They see God’s hand in all things, yet they act as if they themselves are their only resource. Naomi is returning to Israel for bread, not for God. Elimelech went to Moab for bread, not for God. It’s more of the same.

How many of us believe the right things but don’t live in line with those beliefs?

How many of us are like Naomi?

She knows that God gives and takes. She knows He is a provider. But she lives as if everything depends on her ability.

Naomi can't provide for these girls she loves so much. She pleads, "Go home, please. I can’t help you.” They don’t want to leave, and this embitters Naomi.

She says, “No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.”

Orpah listens to her mother-in-law, but Ruth does not.

And Naomi said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return 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 will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more (v. 15-18).

Orpah was a good daughter-in-law, but she’s no Ruth. Ruth loved her mother-in-law, but even more importantly, Ruth loved her mother-in-law’s God.

Orpah didn’t just return to her people; as verse 15 says, she also returned to their gods. Ruth, on the other hand, turned away from those false idols. She was a true convert, declaring, "Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

Ruth was willing to leave everything behind and travel to a foreign land. Not for bread, and not because she was a pragmatist—quite the opposite, actually. She did it because she had faith.

There is a contrast throughout this book between Naomi and Ruth.

Naomi is a pragmatic schemer, while Ruth is a trusting believer. Naomi is self-focused; Ruth is focused on others and, ultimately, on God.

Ruth is an incredible woman with an incredible faith. Robert Hubbard writes:

Ruth's leap of faith even outdid Abraham's. She acted with no promise in hand, with no divine blessing pronounced, without spouse, possessions, or supporting retinue. She gave up marriage to a man to devote herself to an old woman—and in a world dominated by men at that! Thematically, this allusion to Abraham sets this story in continuity with that one. Thus, a sense of similar destiny hangs over Ruth's story. The audience wonders, May some larger plan emerge from it, too?

God judges wickedness, but He blesses faith.

Hebrews 11:6 says, "And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

In due time, Ruth would find out just how true this is…

So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. The women said, “Is this Naomi?” She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me (v. 19-21)?”

They were the talk of the town.

Sadly, Naomi’s homecoming is bitter. She left with a husband and sons, but she says, “…the Lord has brought me back empty.”

Think about that. Did she really come back empty-handed, with nothing to show?

She lost a lot in Moab, no doubt.

But she returned with a dedicated, faithful daughter-in-law who loves her.

Naomi doesn’t seem to appreciate Ruth—at least not until the next chapter when she uses Ruth in a scheme to regain her land.

Naomi may use Ruth for her purposes, but God uses Naomi for His purposes.

So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest (v. 22).

They left during a famine when there was no bread.

But now they are back in Bethlehem, and the “House of Bread” is bringing in the barley harvest.

For those who have faith…

There is food after famine. There is hope after disaster. There is life after death.