Your People Shall Be My People
Ruth 1: 16,17 - But Ruth said: “Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me.”
This is a short story about Ruth, told from her perspective. Please take the time to read the whole story in the book of Ruth.
When Mahlon brought me to his home after our wedding, I met my new mother, Naomi. She was living in a foreign land without her husband who had died. She was still here with her two sons. I knew she must have grieved the loss of her partner, but she kept moving forward. I could never understand how she could be so calm. She claimed that it was through her God. That made no sense. Our god, Chemosh, was a war god. He was a destroyer, a subduer. He didn’t provide comfort, he wanted blood. We had to sacrifice our children to appease him. Could Naomi’s God be so loving that He provided that comfort for her loss?
I kept observing and learning from her as I lived with my husband. We had no children, but we lived happily for 10 years. And then all of a sudden, my husband and his brother died. I experienced that same loss that my mother had. Orpah, my sister-in-law, and I were now alone. We had no husband and no children.
My mother should have been broken too, having lost her husband and both her sons. But, she was strong. She decided to leave Moab and go back to her home in Israel. What could we do other than join her? She told us to go home. Eventually, Orpah complied and went back to her mother’s house. But, I couldn’t bring myself to leave. I was married into this family. Naomi was my mother. How could I leave her alone?
I begged her to let me stay with her. I would adapt, I would change. I would go with her anywhere, stay with her always. Her God would be mine and her people mine as well. Only death would separate us. Naomi must have been surprised, but she relented and took me with her.
When she returned home, my mother changed her name from Naomi to Marah because of the bitter hand that she was dealt. She left Israel with her family and her hands full but came back empty with only me in tow. I was determined to remain loyal to her and ease her burden. But, there was so little that a woman could do on her own, without a husband or a father’s protection. We were two women alone in the land. It was my mother’s home, but I was a foreigner. How had my mother lived like this in Moab?
When we came back, the harvest had begun. So, I decided to go glean in the fields to at least get us food. I worked hard from the morning on, with as few breaks as possible. I was motivated to do as much as I could to help my mother. While I was working in a field, a man came up to me. He introduced himself as Boaz. He was kind to me, more than any other had been to a foreigner. He told me to glean in his field for the rest of the harvest and even told his men to leave some extras for me to gather (not that I knew it at the time). He made sure that none of the men there harassed me and told me to drink the water that was drawn out by the young men. He ate his lunch with me and I made sure to stay close to the young women gleaning in Boaz’s field. He told me that he knew of my loyalty to my mother and that God would bless me for staying with her. When I went home and told mother all that happened, she was so happy. Boaz was a relative of her late husband. So, I worked in Boaz’s field for the entire harvest and stayed with my mother.
When the harvest was coming to a close, my mother started thinking of my future. She gave me a set of instructions. She told me to go to the threshing floor and wait for Boaz to pick a spot to lay down for the night. I was to wait until he fell asleep, uncover his feet, and sleep beside his feet. I was nervous, but I followed my mother’s instructions to the letter. When Boaz turned in his feet, he realized that a woman was lying at his feet. I told him who I was and that he was a close relative of mine. He praised me for not going after a youthful man, but for choosing a relative to be the redeemer of my family. And his next words proved what a good choice he was. Boaz could have claimed me as his wife and my husband’s inheritance for his own immediately. But, he knew that there was a relative with closer ties than him in the town. He told me to stay the night and that he would take care of everything in the morning.
When he sent me back home, I ran back to my mother to tell her all that took place. She and I waited together until we heard back from Boaz on the verdict. We both knew Boaz wouldn’t rest until the matter was resolved. He went up to the elders of the city and explained the situation. And when he found the other close relative, Boaz told him about how he would have to redeem my mother’s property through Elimelech her husband. That relative was ready to do that. But when Boaz reminded him that he needed to get the inheritance from me, the man refused. It would have messed up his inheritance to marry a Moabitess. So, the man withdrew and Boaz became both my and my mother’s redeemer.
Boaz became my husband and we had a beautiful son together, Obed. With his birth, my mother’s sadness turned to joy. My mother still stayed with us, and as I had said in my first vow, only death would separate us. My son later became the grandfather of King David, and my name was written into Christ’s lineage.
God planned out my story perfectly. My mother and I needed to deal with sorrow first before God’s perfect plan could unfold in my life. He took Boaz, the son of a Jericho harlot, and married him to me, the daughter-in-law of a runaway Jewish family. We would have been the most unlikely match, but God’s plan was awesome. He took my shame and turned it into a celebration. He turned my tears into joy. He rewarded me abundantly for the small loyalty that I showed my mother.
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