Such Sweet Sorrow
Opening Prayer
Father, where You go I will go, and where You stay I will stay. Teach me to be a true follower of You today.
Read RUTH 1:1–18
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 realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
In the middle of difficult circumstances, who have been the people who were “there” for you?The opening reading in our story is full of sadness. Set at a time when Judah and Moab (situated to the east of Judah) were at peace, a local famine forces voluntary exile upon a Bethlehem family. They haven’t been settled in Moab for long before Elimelek dies. Naomi’s two sons marry Moabite girls, but their deaths ten years later, along with news of a harvest back home, prompt Naomi to plan to return. Her concern for her daughters-in-law is touching, and Orpah is persuaded to stay in Moab—but not Ruth.
The relationship that has developed between Naomi and Ruth is clear from her entreaty (16,17). Ruth wants to stay with the woman for whom she has developed a deep, abiding affection; perhaps she is also concerned for Naomi if she were to be on her own. But part of Ruth’s plea is that she has come to realize that she wants to belong to the God Naomi worships. In the middle of the tragedies surrounding them, something of God has touched Ruth’s heart, and she wants in.
Apply
Who may need your support? Sometimes just being there can speak volumes. Who are you “speaking” to?
Closing prayer
Lord, there are many who need extra support in their lives. Please give me the opportunity to be a “Ruth” to them.
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2024 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Discovery is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.