Ruth 1:6-14 New International Version (NIV)
Naomi and Ruth Return to Bethlehem
6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”
Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.” 11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!” 14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
Tue. October 27 Naomi lives in a foreign land. Her husband and her two sons have died. She has no way to provide for her two daughter-in-law’s and no more sons to offer them as husbands. But there is hope! She has heard of the possibility that God has blessed her fellow Israelites back home in Bethlehem. When it comes to our relationship with God we, too, have nothing to offer. What in this world does not already belong to God, the Creator of heaven and earth? But there is hope. In Moab, Naomi hears a rumor of God’s mercy. We hear that same rumor In the cross. In Jesus we know that suffering, pain, and death are not the final word. As Paul wrote, in Christ our “suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5).
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