1 In the days when the judges governed [Israel], there was a famine in the land [of Canaan]. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live temporarily in the [a]country of Moab with his wife and his two sons. 2 The man’s name was Elimelech and his wife’s name was Naomi and his two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went to the country of Moab and stayed there. 3 Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left [a widow] with her two sons. 4 They took wives from the Moabite women; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth. They lived there about ten years; and then both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so the woman [Naomi] was left without her two sons and her husband.
6 Then she set out with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in Moab how the Lord had taken care of His people [of Judah] in giving them food. 7 So she left the place where she was living, her two daughters-in-law with her, and they started on the way back to the land of Judah. 8 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you return to your mother’s house. May the Lord show kindness to you as you have shown kindness to the dead and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that you find rest, each one in the home of her husband.” Then she kissed them [goodbye], and they wept aloud. And they said to her, “No, we will go with you to your people [in Judah].” 11 But Naomi said, “Go back, my daughters, why should you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that may become your husbands? 12 Go back, my daughters, go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, and if I actually had a husband tonight and even gave birth to sons, 13 would you wait until they were grown? Would you go without marrying? No, my daughters; for it is much more difficult for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has gone against me.”
14 Then they wept aloud again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law [goodbye], but Ruth clung to her.
15 Then Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; turn back and follow your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people will be my people, and your God, my God. 17 Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do the same to me [as He has done to you], and more also, if anything but death separates me from you.” 18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.
This story unfolds at a time when Israel was ruled by judges.
Moab was one of the nations that during the period of the judges oppressed the people of Israel, the famine must have been great enough for Elimelech to decide to go to Moab with his family.
The people of Israel could not marry any of these people because they worshipped pagan gods, even when Israel walked in the wilderness during the Exodus the Moabites did not allow them to pass through their land.
All this leads us to reflect on Ruth's decision to continue with her mother-in-law, to be a woman who did not have the same FAITH as Nohemi who had nothing to offer them because at that time women did not inherit, only men had that right; when she was old and had nothing to offer them, it was logical that her daughters-in-law should leave her, even though she did not have close relatives to take care of them as was the custom.
But there was something that made Ruth stay with her mother-in-law and not abandon her ,the decision she made when she told him not to ask me to leave you because I will not do it and your God will be mine was what marked her story ,her mother-in-law had shown her with her attitude through the years that the God she served her even in a foreign land was real and Ruth saw that and wanted to serve that God that she knew through the behavior of her mother-in-law because she did not know that God.
Ruth belonged to a people that was an enemy of Israel her belief was another different one and even so the behavior of her mother-in-law made her love her in such a way that she did not desara otracosa that to take care of her in her last years, God showed her his love Ruth through the love she shared with her mother-in-law and that's why she makes the decision to leave her own land and the possibility of having another family to continue with who had shown her that the God of Israel is true and she wanted to follow that GOD and also serve Him.
This story teaches us that we must live in such a way that our attitudes ,the way we behave and everything we do shows the God we serve and who is our father ,that what we preach is consistent with our behavior.
BLESSINGS FROM ON HIGH BE WITH YOU ALWAYS DEAR COMMUNITY
