The crying has begun, and
Naomi, Orpah and Ruth are saying their goodbyes. They have
experienced great tragedy together with the death of Naomi's husband
Elimelech, and Naomi's two sons who were married to Orpah and Ruth,
Mahlon and Chileon. Word has come that the Lord has visited Naomi's
homeland Judah, and bread is available, so she has decided to return.
In yesterday's verse we saw Naomi's concern for her two
daughters-in-law as she released them to stay in their homeland to
find new husbands. Today we see more of their story as we discover
Orpah and Ruth's first response in chapter one and verse ten where it
says:
And they said unto her,
Surely we will return with you unto your people.
Notice
the unified response to Naomi's request for them to stay behind, “And
they said unto her.” As if in a duet Orpah and Ruth give a
response to Naomi. Although this is a small group how many times do
we know of people in a group setting who initially agree for some
formidable action? In this case, both women were agreeing to the
following action at this time.
This was
their agreement, “Surely we will return with you unto your
people.” Orpah and Ruth are committed in this statement, “we
will return”. They are resolved in the moment of passion to
follow Naomi back to her homeland. If we back away from this verse a
moment and imagine this scene it must have been heartbreaking. Here
are three women in a passionate, departing moment, and they just can
not leave one another. Their sorrows are deep, and the added measure
of departing from one another only adds to the afflictions they have
already endured. Even though the people of Naomi's homeland would be
different than the people of Moab, the daughters-in-law were ready to
leave. Even though the customs, culture and religion would be
different, Orpah and Ruth were ready to leave. If we think about
this, Orpah and Ruth had such a deep love for their mother-in-law
that they would commit to leaving what was familiar for the
unfamiliar. That is called faith.
What
have we been called to leave today? Would we be as willing to leave
our homeland for a relative, especially one that was produced by law
rather than blood? Have we ever been in the midst of great emotion
and made commitments such as Orpah and Ruth? Did we follow through on
those commitments?
As we
delve deeper and deeper into this story it is important that we
vicariously live these real situations as they come before us. The
beautiful part of this book is the reality of tragedy that it
presents while setting the scene for God to demonstrate that He has
been at work throughout the entire story. Next time we will continue
to discover what happens with these two ladies and their
mother-in-law, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until
tomorrow...there is more...
Look
for the new devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From
Generation to Generation” in all major bookstore sites,
www.amazon.com
; www.barnesandnobles.com
; download
to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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