Ruth’s Commitment to Naomi
September 11, 2021
Commentary
Naomi told Ruth, “Orpah has gone back to her people and her gods, and you should go back with her” (v. 15). Ruth answers her by begging her not to make her go back and said she wanted to go where Naomi goes and to stay where Naomi stays (v. 16). She made it evident that this determination was not meant to be short-lived as she states that she will stay with Naomi until death and die where Naomi dies (v. 17). She even concluded by calling down divine punishment upon herself should she fail to keep her word.
Naomi saw that Ruth was determined and so she accepted the situation and stopped arguing (v. 18). When the two women arrived back in Bethlehem, the city was buzzing with excitement (v. 19). She told them, “Don’t call me Naomi any longer! Call me Mara because God has made my life bitter. I had everything when I left, but the LORD has brought me back with nothing. How can you still call me Naomi, when God has turned against me and made my life so hard” (vv. 20-21)? Most of the men were out in the fields working as it was the beginning of barley harvest (the end of April) but the women of Bethlehem came out excitedly to greet them (v. 22. Several years had passed since Naomi had left and because of the hard time she had gone through she no doubt looked much different.
Application
Ruth’s decision to leave her country and her people and the vow she made to stick with Naomi is one of the scriptures’ greatest illustrations of true friendship and loyalty. I need to have a similar commitment to the family that God has given to me and not allow the circumstances and temptations of this life separate me from their friendship.
Ruth 1:15– 22 (NET)
15 So Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is returning to her people and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law back home!” 16 But Ruth replied, “Stop urging me to abandon you! For wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you live, I will live. Your people will become my people, and your God will become my God.
17 Wherever you die, I will die—and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I do not keep my promise! Only death will be able to separate me from you!”
18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to dissuade her. 19 So the two of them journeyed together until they arrived in Bethlehem.
20 But she replied to them, “Don’t call me ‘Naomi’! Call me ‘Mara’ because the Sovereign One has treated me very harshly. 21 I left here full, but the Lord has caused me to return empty-handed. Why do you call me ‘Naomi,’ seeing that the Lord has opposed me, and the Sovereign One has caused me to suffer?” 22 So Naomi returned, accompanied by her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth, who came back with her from the region of Moab. (Now they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.)
Illustration: Two travelers who meet a bear
Two travelers were on the road together, when a bear suddenly appeared on the scene. Before he observed them, one made for a tree, and climbed up into the branches and hid there. The other could not escape, so he threw himself on the ground and pretended to be dead. The bear came up and sniffed all around him, but he kept perfectly still and held his breath; for they say that a bear will not touch a dead body. The bear took him for a corpse and went away. When the coast was clear, the traveler in the tree came down, and asked the other what it was the bear had whispered to him when he put his mouth to his ear. The other replied,” He told me to never again travel with a friend who deserts you at the first sign of danger.” (The Book of Virtues by Wm. J. Bennett).