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February 7, 2021
Ruth // Part 1
Ruth // Part 1
(Ruth 1:1-22) In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So
a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live
for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name
was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were
Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. Now
Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married
Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there
about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her
two sons and her husband. When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to
the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law
prepared to return home from there. With her two daughters-in-law she left the
place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back
to the land of Judah. Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each
of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have
shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. May the Lord grant that each of
you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them goodbye
and they wept aloud and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.” But
Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I
going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my
daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still
hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— would
you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my
daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has
turned against me!” At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her
mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. “Look,” said Naomi, “your
sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”
But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you
go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and
your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the
Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”
When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging
her. So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived
in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women
exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me
Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the
Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me;
the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” So Naomi returned from Moab
accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as
the barley harvest was beginning.
- It’s better to trust in God’s providence, than in your plans.
- (Ruth 1:1-2 CSB) During the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to stay in the territory of Moab for a while. The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife’s name was Naomi. The names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the fields of Moab and settled there
- Pray for friends like Ruth, and pray to be a friend like Ruth to others.
- (Ruth 1:16-17 CSB) But Ruth replied: Don’t plead with me to abandon you or to return and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.
