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Week of April 23: Ruth; A Story of Grief and Loving Faithfulness; Ruth 1
As we begin a new series on Ruth, it may be important to know a little background to the story. We are told that there was a famine in the land of Judah and a man of that country, Elimelech, takes his wife, Naomi, and two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, from their home in Bethlehem to the country of Moab. The problems with this are that Elimelech went against God’s commandment not to leave the Promised Land, and the Moabites were pagans who worshiped many gods. After living in Moab for about ten years, Elimelech, Mahlon, and Kilion died. We are not told why they died, just that they are dead, and have left their wives, Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah, behind. Our story opens with Naomi choosing to return home to Bethlemen since she is now alone and grieving the loss of her husband and sons.
(Val)
Monday, April 24
(Maria)
Naomi had a husband who had the means, ability, and gumption to move to Moab. It seems that he and Naomi did well together. Naomi, in her life, was married, had two sons, moved, was widowed, her sons grew up, married foreigners, she lived another 1o years in a foreign land, her sons passed away, time passes, the famine in Bethlehem ends, and Naomi decides she will return to Moab. Naomi wasn’t passive in these experiences. She handled moving away from her home culture, starting over in a foreign land, raising her sons without her husband, finding them wives, having her sons pass away with apparent tenacity. Reality was, after everything, that she needed to address how to continue without a husband and how to provide for her two daughters-in-law. Naomi had survived a lot and apparently was very adaptive. I think from her story we can see that she’s industrious, but then she loses some of her capital for living. Her context gets flipped and she has decisions to make.
I can’t help but think of her story in contrast to Job. Job was a very successful person with a nicely established life. His losses were sudden. Naomi’s were over time. When Job lost everything, to an extent it seems that he lost momentum, slumped down and became inert. Naomi had a different impulse. I don’t say that as a judgment of Job. People respond to grief differently. If we are going to approach the story of Naomi, I think it’s helpful to think about her as a whole person and consider what she may have been like and how her life experiences shaped who she was.
Aside from the genealogical connections with David and Jesus, why do you think this short story of Naomi and Ruth is included in the Bible? What can we take away from learning about Naomi’s life and experience?
I think many of us in life really want to reach an equilibrium where things smooth out and we have things in control. But, that’s often not the way life goes. There are many things that can impact the smoothness of life. Do we anticipate those experiences? Should we prepare for them? Or are we blindsided by random events?
Tuesday, April 25
(Maria)
Naomi says, don’t call me Naomi anymore, call me Mara. Which means, I am bitter. Naomi was facing her deep sorrow. Too often we seem to skip over the grieving process and move on to the next thing. We have trouble making space for the negative feelings that come with loss.
Today I am attending the funeral of a childhood friend. My friend was not very old, he has children, younger sisters, and his parents are still alive. Everyone involved has varying degrees of grief and ways of processing the loss. Let’s look at some examples of grief in Bible stories and how those involved processed their grief.
At one point in Matthew, Jesus tells a man who wants to go bury his father, “Let the dead bury the dead.” This seems like such a harsh response. After reading these different stories of grief, consider your own response to grief. How do you respond to loss? Does your perspective of God change when you go through a loss? Is it helpful to have people come around you and mourn with you? Why do you think
Wednesday, April 26
(Aaron)
As I write this, I’m preparing for the memorial service for my friend, Steve. He was the sort of steadfast, loyal guy that you could always count on. Steve showed up, time and again. We see this kind of loyalty exemplified in the story of Ruth and Naomi, and later between Ruth’s great-grandson David and Jonathan.
The loyalty described in these passages didn’t come cheap. More than just prioritization among competing alternatives, it involved dedication, risk, and sacrifice. Relationships and ties of affinity were severed for the sake of that loyalty. In both cases, it was also a choice of loyalty to God and His ultimate plan of salvation through the line of David, even if they didn’t realize it at the time.
When in your life has loyalty to another person been costly? Or loyalty to God?
How hard is it to view seemingly small acts of loyalty as fitting into God’s generations-long work of redemption?
Thursday, April 27
(Aaron)
We’re not very good at grief. Perhaps our entertainment-saturated culture is conditioned to expect quick, tidy resolution to any emotional situation in a 90-minute time format. Or maybe we just aren’t taught how to care for hearts that stay broken long after the end-credits are expected to roll. As we reflected at the Tenebrae service on Good Friday, we need to learn how to spend some time at the tomb before moving on.
Jesus wept. I’ve heard a number of explanatory theories for the shortest verse in the Bible. For me, only one has really stuck: Jesus wept because he was human. Because that’s what humans are supposed to do when others are hurting. Jesus believed in the power of the resurrection, but he chose to pause and grieve.
Have you experienced deepened relationships through shared grief, as we see with Ruth and Naomi?
How do we, as believers, model the balance between hope in the resurrection and human grief?
Friday, April 28
(Val)
All through the Bible, names and naming are important. According to the American Bible Society’s website, .Bible, there are six reasons why names are important in the Bible:
A biblical name could record some aspects of a person’s birth.
Biblical names sometimes expressed the parents’ reaction to the birth of their child.
Biblical names were sometimes used to secure the solidarity of family ties.
Biblical names could be used to communicate God’s message.
Biblical names were also used to establish an affiliation with God.
Biblical names are given to establish authority over another, or to indicate a new beginning or new direction in a person’s life.
At the end of the first chapter of Ruth, we find Naomi has returned to her hometown, Bethlehem, and tells everyone to call her “Mara.” While the name Naomi means “pleasant,” Mara means “bitter.” It makes sense that Naomi saw herself as a bitter woman after all she had been through, but is this the plan God has for her, to remain a bitter woman? In the following passages, pay attention to the way the names are given, what the names mean (if the meaning is given), and how the giving of names in the examples are similar and different.
When Naomi (which means “pleasant”) returns to Bethlehem and people begin to recognize her, she tells people she now wants to be called Mara (which means “bitter”). She says it is because the Almighty had made her life bitter. How do you feel about her statement? We know that grief is a difficult thing to deal with and can leave us bitter and angry. Does it seem as though Naomi thinks she is going to remain in this stage of grief forever? Have you ever felt stuck in a similar place? How did God heal you and help you find your way out of bitterness?
How was Naomi’s desire to change her name different or similar to the ways the people in the other passages received their names? What seems to be the significance or importance of these differences?
I wonder how Ruth felt during this time? She was also grieving, but handled things differently. Instead of focusing on her own grief, she committed herself to sticking with her mother in law, even though she also had nothing and no idea of what the future would hold for them! What do you think prompted Ruth’s dedication to Naomi, when she still had her own family she could have returned to after her husband’s death? We know Ruth was a Moabite, and had been raised worshiping multiple gods, unlike Naomi’s displaced Jewish family. What do you think Ruth hoped to find by leaving everything she had ever known and loved behind, and choosing the unknown over the familiar?
Saturday, April 29
(Val)
Orpah, the daughter in law that turned back, always catches my attention in this story. At first, she seemed just as determined as Ruth to follow Naomi back to Bethlehem, and even set out on the journey with Naomi and Ruth. But she didn’t stick with her decision, and chose to go home to her family. Reading this story again, I became curious about the meaning of her name. There was a lot of commentary on the Biblical sites I visited during my research, and this is what I learned: Orpah means “fawn.” This could be interpreted in various ways. First, it can mean a baby deer and represents innocence and playfulness. Second, it can also mean to try to win favor by flattering. Third, it might mean to get on someone’s good side. Knowing names are important, after reading the following passage, which meaning seems to fit Orpah the best?
After thinking about Orpah and her decision to turn back, the story of the rich, young ruler popped into my head. He came to Jesus asking what good thing he needed to do to get into the kingdom of heaven. Jesus told him he needed to keep the commandments. The young man answered that he already did this and had since he was young. Then Jesus told him he should do something difficult: give away his riches and follow Jesus. The young man was sorrowful, but chose to reject the opportunity he was being offered to follow Jesus because he loved his life (riches) too much. Orpah also loved the life she knew more than she loved Naomi, and even though some part of her wanted to follow Naomi, the call of the safety of a known existence was too much to overcome. This led me to think about how many times Jesus asks us to give up something, to leave something behind, and to choose the unknown. What might stop us from doing that and following Jesus wherever he leads us? Why are we often willing to stay stuck in an uncomfortable situation just because it is familiar? What might be waiting for us in the unknown?
What does staying stuck reveal about our trust and faith in Jesus, and belief he has good gifts for us? How can we be more like Ruth and less like Orpah when Jesus calls us to something new?