So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The LORD grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.” Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”

So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

Ruth 1:7-22 ESV

One of Jesus’ best-known and most-loved parables is that of the prodigal son. In that parable, Jesus tells the story of a father who had two sons. The younger son demanded that the father give him his inheritance, which he then squandered with a foolish lifestyle. When a famine came upon the land, the son was so destitute that he found work feeding pigs and desired to eat the pigs’ food.

Finally, the son came to his senses and decided to return to his father’s house. Since he was no longer worthy to be called a son, he would beg to become one of his father’s servants, at least then he would have plenty of food.

As he was coming, his father ran out to meet him, embracing and kissing him. The son confessed his sin and his unworthiness to be called his son. But father rejoiced at his returned son and ordered a celebration to be held for his return.

In many ways, Naomi is a bit of a prodigal. Our passage is filled with the word return, for that is exactly what Naomi is doing. She is returning to her home among the people of God. As she will confess, she went to a far-off country full, but in our text, she comes home empty. In her story, we find the messy but still beautiful reality of repentance.

RETURN TO YOUR MOTHER’S HOUSE // VERSES 7-9

Last week, we lingered over the very heavy events that set up the remainder of the book. Our first protagonist, Naomi, was introduced as was here severe afflictions. First, her family fled from a famine into the land of Moab. There her husband Elimelech died. Her two sons married Moabite women, and they lived in Moab for about ten years. Then her two sons both died, leaving Naomi and both her daughters-in-law without a man to protect and provide for them.

As we noted, given the context of Scripture, the family’s decision to sojourn and then remain in Moab was not a godly one, for it revealed their lack of confidence and perhaps ignorance of God’s law and their worldly mindset. Yet verse 6 ended our passage with a hopeful note. “Naomi heard that Yahweh had visited His people [isn’t that a wonderfully hopeful phrase, in itself!] and had given them bread.” In response to this news, Naomi resolved to go home.

So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, each of you to her mother’s house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The LORD grant that you find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!”

Naomi began her return to the land of Judah, and her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, set out with her. Surely, they cannot have traveled very far before Naomi makes this first appeal to them, telling them to go back to their land and to their families. It is interesting that she tells them to return to their mother’s house rather than their father’s house, which would be the usual expression. Daniel Block writes:

Apparently by sending her daughters-in-law back to their respective “mother’s houses” Naomi was releasing them to remarry. Although she would affectionally call them “my daughters” three times in vv. 11-13, she was not their mother. Normally young, widowed women would have returned to their “father’s house,” because their security depended on the protection and care of a responsible adult male. However, Naomi was not sending them home to an adult male; by specifying “mother’s house,” she apparently hoped they would not remain there long. (85)

Thus, she is emphasizing that their covenant by marriage has been terminated in the deaths of Naomi’s sons, their husbands. Legally, they owe her nothing. Indeed, when Naomi says in verse 8 that they have dealt kindly with both her and the dead, she uses the word chesed, which is rich in covenantal significance. The ESV often translates it as steadfast love, but to cite Block again:

The depth and range of meaning of hesed (NIV “kindness”) cannot be captured with a single English word. It is a term of endearment and commitment, incorporating all the positive attributes of God: love, covenant faithfulness, mercy, grace, kindness, and loyalty demonstrated in acts of devotion, especially toward one with whom one enjoys a family or covenant relationship. These actions go beyond the requirements of duty. (86)

Indeed, we do already see some of that chesed in Orpah and Ruth here. They could have gone immediately back to their own families after the deaths of Mahlon and Chilion, for they were not legally bound to Naomi. Yet both are going so far as to set out for Judah, a foreign and perhaps hostile country to them as Moabites, alongside their mother-in-law. There was a Medieval proverb that said, “No mother-in-law is pleasing to her daughter-in-law unless she is dead.” But that was certainly not the case here! Clearly, both Orpah and Ruth had a deep affection for Naomi, which they expressed through a kindness to her that exceeded their legal duty.

Let us learn from their example. Especially as we who no longer have God’s law held over our heads but written upon our heart, we should long to display chesed to both God and to our neighbor. Indeed, we should, as Paul says in Romans 12:10, “outdo one another in showing honor.” We should shun the very thought of looking for legal loopholes to justify any questionable behaviors and aim to make considering others as more important than ourselves our default mentality.

We should also note that this seems to be a great statement of faith and kindness from Naomi as well. Twice she invokes the name of Yahweh over Orpah and Ruth, so she clearly still sees Yahweh as her God. She also appears to have the overall good of her daughters-in-law in mind, since she desires them to remarry. But Naomi’s faith is not as clear as it might first seem.

TURN BACK, MY DAUGHTERS // VERSES 10-13

Verse 10 shows the great love that Orpah and Ruth have for Naomi: And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” They must have known about the tense relationship between the Israelites and the Moabites. Did they know about Yahweh’s command against their inclusion among His people? We can’t say for sure, but they certainly seem willing to endure being foreigners in Israel for the sake of their mother-in-law.

Naomi, however, gives her second appeal for them return to Moab:

But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.”

In these verses, Naomi gives us more insight into why she urges her daughters-in-law to return to Moab. With a series of rhetorical questions, she essentially points out the futility of being yoked with her. She has no husband. She is too old to have children. But even if she did have a husband and gave birth to sons, it would be ridiculous to ask Orpah and Ruth to wait for them to grow. No, Orpah and Ruth were still relatively young, and it would be far easier for them to find a new husband in their own land of Moab rather than in Israel.

Barry Webb rightly notes:

There is generosity in her concern for the girls’ future rather than her own needs. But there is also evidence of a depressed state of mind that is driven by guilt and has led her to have low expectations, even of God. She expects very little from God herself and even less for her daughters-in-law, should they continue to accompany her. (250)

More than that, I think that Iain Duguid is right to see another potential layer of Naomi’s hesitation to bring Orpah and Ruth with her:

What made it far worse for Naomi to contemplate, though, was the fact that these two were foreigners who would hardly be welcome in polite society in Bethlehem. They were Moabite women who by their very presence would be a constant reminder to Naomi and all those around her of her sin in abandoning the Promised Land and marrying her sons outside the covenant people. Every time she saw their foreign faces, she would be confronted with the heavy hand of God’s judgment upon her in the loss of her husband and her sons. (140-141)

She probably felt embarrassed enough returning alone to Bethlehem after living ten years in Moab. She would already be chief gossip of the town. How much more if she had her Moabite daughters-in-law with her!

Indeed, we also glimpse the state of Naomi’s faith in her statement that Yahweh’s hand is against her. She very much is in a depressive state. She cannot see any glimmer of hope. She cannot fathom how the LORD could be using any of this for good. The bitter circumstances have led to bitterness in her own heart, and that bitterness impairs her judgment. Piper writes:

Seeing is a precious gift. And bitterness is a powerful blindness. What would Naomi say if she could see a fraction of the thousands of things God was doing in the bitter providences of her life? For example, what if she knew that God was choosing an “unclean” outsider, a Moabitess–just he chose Rahab the prostitute (Matth. 1:5; Josh. 2:1) and Tamar who played the prostitute (Matt. 1:3; Gen. 38:15)–as the kind of person he wanted in the bloodline of his Son, so that no one could boast in Jewishness–or any other ethnicity? What if she knew that part of what God was doing was shaping a genealogy for the Messiah that would humble the world? What if she could see that in Ruth she would gain a man-child, and that this man-child would be the grand-father of the greatest king of Israel, and that this king of Israel would be the ancestor of the King of kings, Jesus Christ, the Lord of the universe? (Works Vol. 8, 33-34)

THE CHOICES OF ORPAH AND RUTH // VERSES 14-17

Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. This is their response to Naomi’s plea, but after the weeping subsides, Orpah takes her mother-in-law’s advice: And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law…

She can see the prudence in Naomi’s words, and as much as she loved Naomi, the widowed Israelite was correct. There was no future for her in the land of Judah. Thus, evidently with much sorrow, Orpah repented of her decision to go with Naomi, going back to her country.

With that simple, sensible choice she marched off, out of the pages of the Bible. She went back to her people, and back to her gods. Yet though she certainly didn’t see it that way, there was nonetheless a cost to her logical choice. Who now remembers Orpah? She rejected the road of emptiness, but at the same time unknowingly turned aside from the one road that could have led her to a life of lasting significance and meaning. The world’s wise choice to avoid emptiness leads in the end to a different kind of oblivion. (Duguid, 141-142)

Who cannot sympathize with Orpah’s choice? She made the logical and rational decision. But logical and reason are not supreme goods. Indeed, the broad, easy path always appears to be best, at first. But when eternity is factored in, it is the narrow, hard road that leads to life.

Ruth made a different decision: but Ruth clung to her. This is the same verb that Genesis 2:24 uses to describe marriage. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” So, again, this is covenantal language being used of Ruth. Her commitment to Naomi runs deeper than logic and reason are able to go.

Naomi gives a third appeal for Ruth to leave her: And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” Ferguson views these appeals of Naomi as simply testing the true faithfulness of her daughters-in-law, and that may certainly be the case. But it seems more likely that Naomi truly is depressed and cannot see any hope before her. Even though she began by pronouncing a blessing of Yahweh upon Orpah and Ruth, she knows that a return to Moab meant a return to idolatry, specifically to worshiping Chemosh, the patron deity of Moab. Indeed, I do not think Webb is exaggerating when he says that “in her present state of mind Naomi thinks Ruth can expect more from the gods of Moab than from the God of Israel” (250)!

But in spite of Naomi’s appeals, Ruth is committed to her, her people, and her God:

But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”

These would still be some of the most beautiful words in Scripture regardless of who spoke them, but the fact that they are the first words we hear from a young, Moabite widow make them all the more amazing. Indeed, it is perhaps the best expression of humanly chesed in all Scripture. Ruth thoroughly pledges herself to Naomi. Indeed, her final words of only death being able to part them are reminiscent of the marital vow: till death do us part.

Yet most importantly, we see a wondrous glimpse of Ruth’s faith in Yahweh. As with any person’s salvation, we cannot say for certain whether this is Ruth’s moment of conversion or whether it happened prior or after this moment. And really that detail isn’t as important as the clear evidence of her faith in this statement. She does not invoke Chemosh to judge her faithfulness to Naomi but calls upon Yahweh. Further, her central statement ought to remind us of one of the most important statements within God’s covenant with His people. Indeed, Beeke calls it the central pledge to all of God’s covenants: You shall be my people, and I will be your God. Whether she knows it or not, Ruth was giving a wonderful picture of Yahweh steadfast love for His people.

John Piper’s poetic expansion is well worth reading:

And thus she spoke: ‘Entreat me not,
That I return, or take my lot
Again among the Moabites
With wooden gods and pagan rites.
Turn me not back to these, but let
Me go with you. Whatever threat
Or hope you have, I will embrace.
I have no other dream or place
To live. Where you stay, I will stay.
The path you take will be my way.
And where you die, there I will die.
And bury me beneath the sky
Of Israel. There is a call
Upon my life, Naomi. All
That you’ve endured these ten long years
Has been for me and you. And tears
Cannot conceal that offspring yet
To come through us will not forget
To praise the bitter providence
Of God that wrought for us immense
And precious mercies in this place
And lavished me with painful grace.
A rod of famine was the price
For me that opened paradise.
I am a Moabite to you,
But more than that, your daughter too.
Come, let us leave this place, I cleave
To you, Naomi. I believe,
Beneath this sweet and bitter rod,
That your great God will be my God.’ (Works Vol. 11, 553-554)

BITTER AND EMPTY // VERSES 18-21

As beautiful as Ruth’s words are for us to read, Naomi was clearly not in a proper frame of mind to see it, for verse 18 records her response: And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. The Septuagint reflects another possible translation of the Hebrew: “Then when Noemin saw that she was determined to go with her, she ceased speaking to her further” (NETS). Duguid writes:

Isn’t Naomi’s silence an astonishing response to her daughter-in-law’s words? Our own response to Ruth’s words is instinctively to frame them and hang them on the wall. We quote the words in marriage ceremonies and are choked up by their implications, so profoundly touching do they seem to us. Yet these are far from welcome words for Naomi in her state of bitterness. She had nothing to say to this unwanted outpouring. (143)

Of course, this sort of reaction is not unique to Ruth. Exceptional faithfulness is rarely recognized immediately.

Our text continues:

So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?”

Bethlehem was a small town, so it is no wonder that the whole town was stirred by Naomi’s return. But notice how the text presents the scene. It specifically says the two of them came to Bethlehem and that the town was stirred because of them. However, the women’s question is only of Naomi. We get the impression that Ruth is the foreign tag-along that no one knows how they should address, so they just awkwardly avoid.

And unfortunately, Naomi is so focused on her own bitterness that she is no help:

She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty ahs dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”

Naomi, whose name means pleasant, now wants to be called Mara, which means bitter. In her eyes, God has made her life so bitter that that ought to be her name. Again, we find here another example of how bitterness distorts our vision of reality. She says that Yahweh has brought her back empty, but that is not true at all. Webb notes:

She may feel empty, but the truth is that she comes back with two significant assets. The last chapter of the book will reveal that she still has a “parcel of land” she has inherited from Elimelech (4:3). And more significantly she has at her side a daughter-in-law who has pledged undying loyalty to her (vv. 16, 17). How sad Ruth must have been to hear that word “empty” fall from Naomi’s lips, because it rated her own value at zero, and perhaps even below zero. If Naomi was even aware of Ruth at this moment she seems to have seen her as an embarrassment–liability rather than an asset. Naomi’s perception at this point is so distorted by pain that she can see nothing good in her situation. (252)

However, Naomi’s statement is not entirely without hope, even if she could not yet see it. Even if she resented Him for it, she attributed her suffering to the sovereign hand of God. Again, her view is distorted so that she cannot yet see how the LORD could possibly mean any of this for good. Even so, she still acknowledges that Yahweh is the Almighty.

Many commentators also see the words I went away as a confession of guilt in leaving Judah for the land of Moab. Once more, we are not told if Elimelech or Naomi formed the plan, and it doesn’t really matter. Naomi confesses that she left the Promised Land. She does not view herself as an innocent victim of God’s machinations. No, she views Yahweh as a Judge who has afflicted her as a testimony against her. Whether her assessment is right or wrong, she does not cling to her innocence in the matter, which means there is still hope for her.

A NEW BEGINNING // VERSE 22

So Naomi returned, and the Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. While Naomi may be hesitant to acknowledge her faithful daughter-in-law, the author does not let us forget the titular character. Her quiet and gentle patient presence is as powerful as it is subtle. Her enduring commitment to both Naomi and now to all of Yahweh’s people is worthy of our imitation.

Choosing the way of Ruth not only means identifying with Israel’s God, however; it also means identifying with the stubborn, recalcitrant, and frequently offensive flock that he calls his own. Ruth found no warm welcome either from Naomi or from the women of Bethlehem. Yet she committed herself to Naomi and her kin. So too we may often find the Lord’s people to be a disappointing bunch, exhibiting fewer of the fruits of the Spirit than we would like. The new Israel may have far too much in common with the old Israel for our taste. Yet flawed as the people of God are, if the Lord is to be our God then his people must be our people, too. We will each add our own sins and flaws to the mix, of course, yet the impact that Ruth’s faithful service had on Naomi and Bethlehem should not be missed. One person who is totally committed to the Lord and to the community of his people, even a young believer, may make a lasting difference to the life of the flock. (Duguid, 146-147)

Indeed, Ruth’s awkward presence is a stone thrown into all of Judah’s pond, and the ripples will go far beyond her lifetime. Although she may be embarrassed of Ruth, Naomi cannot yet understand the impact that an excellent woman like Ruth will have. And while Ruth may presently be an embarrassment in the eyes of the people of Bethlehem, her story will end with them praising her in the city’s gates.

Indeed, just as the excellent wife of Proverbs 31 ultimately points to us Christ, so too does the chesed of Ruth here. Her commitment to her mother-in-law was such that only death could separate them. Yet in Christ we find steadfast love that is stronger than death. Indeed, our Lord has shown us kindness that overcomes the grave. Of course, unlike Ruth, Jesus did not come to us as a foreigner, for this world is His. “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). But even though Christ was the Author writing Himself into His story, we did not receive Him with warmth and gladness; rather, “he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3). Yet He is rightly called Faithful and True, for He embraced us even while we were still sinners who despised Him. By dwelling with us, He has gone where we have gone. He has stayed where we have stayed. So, we can truly confess that “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Indeed, though being without sin, He took our sinfulness upon Himself and paid our eternal debt before God once for all. And on the last day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.

Notice that the chapter ends with a flicker of hope for what is to come: And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest. Do you see what the author of Ruth is doing? The chapter began with famine, but it ends with the beginning of the harvest season. The time of mourning is giving way to a new time of rejoicing. The rumor that Naomi heard was true. Yahweh really had visited His people and given them bread, and there would be plenty even for a bitter prodigal like Naomi to eat and be satisfied. The harvest, indeed, is a glimpse that better days are ahead.

So, it also is with the bread and cup before us this morning. Here we remember Yahweh’s great visitation of His people in the person of Jesus Christ. The true bread from heaven that He has given us through Himself. But here we also look with hope to the better days before us. Indeed, for we who are in Christ, let us never be a people without hope. Although we may be no less susceptible to depressive episodes than Naomi, we have the full revelation that she lacked. And meager as this waybread and sojourner’s cup may seem, they testify of our soon-coming wedding feast in the kingdom fully come. On that day, God Himself will dwell with us as our God, and we with Him as His people. And we will see with renewed eyes, “that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, [was] able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). To Him be all praise, forevermore.