Word Live: The Sensible Option
Have you ever had to make a difficult decision about moving on, going forward? Perhaps you knew you had to do it, but were anxious about the way ahead? Did you call upon God’s leading and protection?
Bible passage
Ruth 1:1–18
Naomi loses her husband and sons
1 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. 2 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.
3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
Naomi and Ruth return to Bethlehem
6 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. 7 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.
8 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. 9 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 10 and said to her, ‘We will go back with you to your people.’
11 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? 12 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 – 13 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!’
14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
15 ‘Look,’ said Naomi, ‘your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.’
16 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. 17 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.’ 18 When Naomi realised that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Explore
A career in teaching or nursing? With a degree in English literature, nursing was the wild card. But I knew it was what God was calling me to do. It certainly wasn’t a soft option!
The opening verses of this book present us with a back story detailing a lot of grief and heartache. The three women have lost pretty much everything. Naomi, with no thought for herself, tells her daughters-in-law to go back to their families. She will return to Judah, where the Lord has been good to his people (v 6).
Orpah follows Naomi’s advice, returning to the security of her own people (v 14). But God doesn’t always call us to the apparently sensible option. Lots of other things can come into play. And Ruth has no hesitation in remaining faithful to her mother-in-law, to support her in these difficult days. She doesn’t know Naomi’s God, but she has seen him in the older woman, and is prepared to go forward with him (v 16). She shows great bravery accompanying Naomi into the unknown. And God is already working behind the scenes.
Author
Liz Pacey
Respond
Whatever situation you are in today, thank God that he is with you. Pray: ‘God is good, all of the time. All of the time, God is good. Amen.’ Allow yourself to be at peace with him.
Deeper Bible study
‘Who am I, Lord, that you are mindful of me, that you should care for me?’1
The book of Ruth begins with an obscure family, from an obscure village in Judah,2 abandoning their homeland in desperate circumstances and binding themselves by marriage to Israel’s former enemy, Moab.3 Many Israelites probably made similar journeys and similar choices and we know nothing about them. Tragically, it looks like Elimelek’s family line will fail when he and his sons die. Naomi is left with her daughters-in-law, but Naomi is painfully conscious that they cannot restore to each other what they have lost. Their family lineage and fortunes are restored, however, because of the faith and choices of a foreigner, a Moabite woman. Ruth has beautiful courage and principle. She has a remarkable capacity for self-denying love in difficult circumstances. She chooses the risky road with Naomi when Orpah, with broken heart, turns back to the protection of her Moabite family. Ruth is an honourable woman, someone after God’s own heart, as her great-grandson David is described.4 Yet Ruth had no idea when she chose to follow Naomi and Naomi’s God that she would become part of the most amazing story ever told, or that she would be respected and honoured thousands of years after her death.
Most of us live in relative obscurity our whole lives. We are not destined to be famous even in our own lifetimes! Sometimes we feel that our lives are not very meaningful. Our hopes, dreams, fears, struggles, choices, temptations, doubts and faith seem of little consequence. Ruth’s story, however, shows how our lives are of consequence to God. It is absolutely thrilling and humbling to know that our lives are not obscure to him. Our choices, even the seemingly unimportant ones, can be meaningful in the kingdom of God.5
‘Every day of my life was recorded in your book … How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.’6 Your life is precious to God! Reflect on this.
1 see Ps 8:4 2Mic 5:2 3Judg 3:12–14; Deut 23:2–7 41 Sam 13:14 5Col 3:17; 1 Cor 15:58 6Ps 139:16,17, NLT
Author
Katharine McPhail
