Orpah may be smart in a worldly-wise sense. Ruth, however, is extraordinary. She is the woman we’ve been waiting for. She is the class act. She isn’t of the “correct” ethnic background. Her bloodline isn’t blue. She didn’t go to an Ivy League college. She isn’t rich. She isn’t famous. She doesn’t have a thing the world recognizes
as desirable (I like to think she was darn cute though). She isn’t even Jewish, but she shows the
faithfulness of Israel’s God.
Character isn’t about bank accounts.
Nobility is not about bloodlines.
One of the great themes in the book of Ruth surrounds the word
translated in Ruth 1 as kindness. Naomi
speaks of it. Ruth personifies it. Later, we’ll see it in her beau, Boaz. When Naomi blesses Orpah and
Ruth and invites them to return home, she speaks of God’s kindness, but the Hebrew word means so much more. It transliterates (Hebrew written as English)
roughly as hesed, with a hard “ch”
sound on the h. It means steadfast love,
faithfulness, loyal devotion. Over and
over in Scripture it is one of God’s attributes.
The Lord, the Lord, a God
merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and
faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and
transgression and sin...
Exodus
34
But I will sing of your
strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have
been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.
David,
praising God in Psalm 59
It’s a character trait of God and those who are close to him become like him. Naomi speaks of it, and Ruth demonstrates
it.
While Naomi's sense of the Lord's hesed toward her may have been nil at this point, Naomi formally frees Orpah and Ruth from any of their cultural responsibility toward her. She blesses
her daughters-in-law, saying, "There’s nothing more I can do for you. So now may the Lord show you the
same kind of steadfast love, the same loyal devotion, the same hesed that you have shown to me. Go on now. Go."
Orpah does let go, but Ruth hugs hard.
"Look," Naomi says – and you can almost see her gesturing
after her daughter-in-law. “Your sister-in-law
has gone back to her people and to her gods (reminding Ruth of her roots). Come now, follow after your sister-in-law.”
And this is where Ruth takes her famous stand. Read it out loud if you like. Go ahead.
Don't urge me to leave
you,
or to turn back from
following you.
Because where you go,
I go.
Where you stay, I'll
stay.
Your people shall be
my people,
your God shall be my
God.
Where you die, I will
die, and
there will I be
buried.
May the Lord cause my
own death and more,
if anything but death
separates you and me."
Imagine if someone were that devoted to you. Have you
ever been as dedicated to anything in your life as Ruth is dedicated to her
mother-in-law? "I am in it for the long
haul. I will accept your people as my
people. I shall worship your God in the
way you worship him. I will live with
you; I will die with you, and no matter what happens, I will never let you go." That is exactly God's devotion to you.
Here it is Ruth, a young woman -- likely in her teens or early twenties -- a
woman of noble character, herself showing the hesed that may be the only glimmer of hope a woman like Naomi may have ever known, a woman whose life
has been overshadowed by heartache and pain. Here's Ruth, a Moabite woman, a youthful foreigner at the bottom of the social
strata, whose selfless devotion to Naomi, to her people and to her God provides the
example of hesed to Israelite men and
women throughout the kingdom[i]. For Ruth there will be no turning back. She won’t
be denied. Ruth will go with Naomi, Ruth
will stay with Naomi. Ruth will identify
with Naomi’s people. Ruth will bow to
Naomi’s God. Ruth will not simply keep
Naomi company till she lives out her remaining days. This young woman is giving herself to Naomi heart
and soul. She will herself be buried in
a foreign land; such is her devotion to Naomi. Such is hesed. Such is God's love.
The kindness Ruth shows is nothing less than the steadfast love of God,
demonstrated in Ruth, a quality Christians recognize in Jesus Christ. Ruth the poor, Moabite widow is a type of Christ, a figure, a foreshadowing one who is to come.
Here is Ruth, our heroine. Is there a man out there good enough for her?
- Do you know anyone who has shown a similar selfless devotion to another as Ruth shows to Naomi?
- What creates this kind of character in a person? What quenches it?
- Do you sometimes wish you had some “credential” you lack – more money, better looks, be skinnier, the “right” education, etc.? How can Ruth’s example encourage you?
[i] Ruth was probably written at
least few generations later when Israel had a king.
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