Ruth 1: 6-13
We've seen how God is setting up this family in His way, unknown to the participants, to further His plan for Israel.
During one of the famines at the time that the judges ruled, this family went to where there was food.
They stayed longer than they had planned, because the father of the family died and the two sons grew up and got married.
But then the two sons died, too, leaving the women destitute.
(6) Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the land of Moab, for she had heard in the land of Moab that the Lord had visited His people in giving them food.
Then Naomi received the news that the famine was over in Israel and Judah, so she determined that it was time to go home.
(7) So she departed from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
Naomi and her family packed up and started on the road to Judah, all together.
(8) And 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.
(9) "May the Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband." Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.
Suddenly she expanded her realization to more than just her own situation, and remembered what it was like for her daughters-in-law. They were foreigners, and would not be accepted in Naomi's neighborhood.
So she told them to go back home to their own mothers' houses. The women's parts of the homes there were to prepare for the marriages of the marriagable women. Otherwise, she would have directed them to their fathers' houses.
And they were all crying because this little family was breaking up!
Naomi blessed them in the Name of the Lord, her God, not by the gods they worshiped in Moab. This shows that she had continued to trust God even through all the sorrow and disaster they had faced.
(10) And they said to her, "No, but we will surely return with you to your people."
They didn't want to break up their family, and said that if she was going, then they would go with her, not realizing all the ramifications that these Moabite women would encounter living in Judah.
(11) But Naomi said, "Return, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?
(12) "Return, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I should even have a husband tonight and also bear sons,
(13) "would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters;
In all the societies of that time, a lone, unmarried woman that didn't have a father or a brother or a husband to support her, would be destitute, with no means of income. So their only recourse was to marry again.
As foreign Moabite women, there would be very few Israelite men who would even consider them. But back in their own culture, in their mothers' houses, their prospects were much brighter for their future.
for it is harder for me than for you, for the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me."
Naomi said that it was harder for me than for you, because she was too old to have a husband. She may have concluded that God was punishing her for whatever, like even leaving Judah in the first place, and letting her sons marry these foreigners.
She didn't understand that God had planned all this, and it would turn out for her benefit, because she couldn't see the future. Everything she anticipated was bad. But she still believed in the Lord, and wouldn't turn from Him.
O my Father, thank You for this little story. Naomi is teaching me that even when I don't have any idea of how things can work out in my life, I can still trust You, and not let negative circumstances get me down.
Father, You have told me that everything that happens to those who love You, who trust You, will work out to our benefit and Your glory (Romans 8: 28), but Naomi didn't have this knowledge; she knew that You are good, and You are just, and she still placed her trust in You and didn't turn from you. She still clung to you.
How much more can we, who have Your promises, cling to You, even when we find ourselves in the chaos and persecution that You have told us is coming soon!
O Father, You've made it easy for us to trust You, having given us all the stories and all the fulfilled prophesies and all the promises that have been kept in the past. We have all of this in Your written Word, and we can look at Your character to know how faithful and steadfast You are in Yourself!
My Father, even when they of the Antichrist have been given power over Your people, we know that they may be able to attack our physical bodies, and even to kill us, but they have no power beyond that. And those who are martyred will receive a higher position in Your eternal Kingdom!
So You have strengthened us to be steadfast in Your righteousness, and to see this world through Your eyes. We can renew our minds (Romans 12: 2) to think Your thoughts, have Your attitudes, and accomplish Your works. And leave the consequences to You.
And Father, please send us out courageously and boldly to cast broadly Your good seed of the Gospel, so that every living person in all the nations will be able to hear and understand Your Love for all of us, Your Good News that You have already rescued us. Help us to bring all of Your embryonic children to the birth, and let no one else have any excuse for rejecting Your gracious and generous gift.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come swiftly, Lord Jesus!
