November 26, 2013
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

A Transforming Commitment

Please see the links to our EXTRA Bible Study notes at the bottom of the page.

Opening Prayer

Most Holy God, grant me grace to listen, patience to wait, and strength to continue. I bless Your wonderful name.

Read Ruth 1:1-18

For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.

[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. [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.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION

Reflect

“Sow a thought and you reap an act. Sow an act and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny” (unknown). Some decisions lead to amazing destinies!

On a road in Moab, 50 miles or so from Bethlehem, Naomi is bereft, the loss of husband and sons made worse by the barrenness of her two daughters-in-law. Her family has come to an end with no male heir to carry on the name and work the family land. Famine had driven her to exile in Moab; the end of famine leads her home. The two Moabite women, bound to her by marriage vows, set out with her into their own exile.

Then the story changes. In an act of lovingkindness, Naomi praises her daughters for their kindness, frees them from their commitment to her, praying that the Lord will show them kindness, and sends them back to their own people and the possibility of marriage. She offers them a future, instead of widowhood and exile. The bitterness of her situation does not lead her to acts of bitterness. Then, Ruth changes the story again.

Ruth makes an unconditional, freely made, transforming, spoken commitment. Using the name of God, the Lord (17), Ruth commits herself to Naomi, to the land and people of God, and to God himself. Those who listened to this tale in later years knew the outcome. They knew that Ruth was, unknowingly, aligning herself with the purposes of God. She would find blessing and honor, but now she offers herself freely to her mother-in-law. She knew that the journey was long, that the people of Israel were generally hostile to Moabites  (Deut. 23:3 says, “No … Moabite … may enter the assembly of the Lord.”), and that barren widows were usually poor and unwanted. This is the moment when Naomi’s future begins to be transformed, when bitterness is softened by lovingkindness, but she will take time to realize the gift the Lord has given her in Ruth.

Apply

Pray that the Lord will show you where, in any of your relationships, you need to turn duty and obligation into love that is freely given.

Closing prayer

Lord, I need to trust You when tough decisions have to be made. I thank You that You take seemingly ominous circumstances and turn them around for good.

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