https://odb.org/MY/2023/02/04/whats-your-name-2
When we read the first chapter of the book of Ruth, we see how her mother-in-law Naomi suffered two tragedies in a row. He husband died, and then her two sons also died, leaving her with two daughters-in-law. So she decided to return to Judah, which she and her husband had left earlier due to a famine and which landed them in Moab.
Incidentally, the Moabites were enemies since they were also inhabitants of the Promised Land that the LORD gave to the Israelites after bringing them out of Egypt. In other words, to establish Judah and Israel, the divided Kingdom, they had to fight the Moabites and the other tribes in the vicinity. Both their sons also married Moabite women, Ruth and Oprah.
It’s an easy book to read as Ruth only has 4 chapters. When Naomi returned to Bethlehem, her hometown in Judah (incidentally, many years later became the birthplace of Jesus Christ), she told the townfolks not to call her Naomi (‘my pleasant one’) anymore. She wanted to be known instead as Mara, which means ‘bitter’ as the LORD had brought much bitterness into her life.
In the later chapters of the book of Ruth, we will see how God blessed Ruth by finding her a kinsman of the family, who married her although she was a widow. God blessed Naomi through Boaz, a wealthy kinsman but more significantly, it was through the line of Boaz and Ruth (who was a Moabite who chose to follow Naomi home to Judah and became a worshipper of Yahweh) that David was born (Ruth was King David’s great grandmother) and many years later, Christ was born through the same geneology line.
There are many spiritual lessons we can draw from the book of Ruth, but I think one pertinent lesson is that despite the double misfortunes that Naomi went through, the LORD turned her life around and blessed her. Through Ruth, Naomi became an excellent example of the goodness and blessings of God.
Ruth decided to follow Naomi back to Judah, declaring that Naomi’s people would be her people and Naomi’s God her God. It is interesting to note that as we read on the book of Ruth, we will see it was the Deuteronomy law to leave something behind for the widows, orphans and foreigners that we spoke about yesterday (https://ronnielim.com/2023/02/03/treating-the-foreigner/) that Naomi and Ruth made use of to live when they returned to Judah as two penniless widows. It was through that same law that Ruth met Boaz, fell in love, and married.
Indeed, the story of Naomi and Ruth is a testament to the goodness of God for posterity, immortalised as a book in the Old Testament. May the story of the goodness of God continue on in our respective lives as we choose to follow and worship Yahweh despite the tragedies and calamities that we may go through in our broken but redeemed lives.
Ronnie's Thoughts 