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Ruth Chapter One
Ruth 1
Chapter Contents
Elimelech and his sons die in the land of Moab. (1-5)
Naomi returns home. (6-14) Orpah stays behind
but Ruth goes with Naomi.
(15-18) They come to Bethlehem. (19-22)
Commentary on Ruth 1:1-5
(Read Ruth 1:1-5)
Elimelech's care to provide for his family
was not to be
blamed; but his removal into the country of Moab could not be justified. And
the removal ended in the wasting of his family. It is folly to think of
escaping that cross
which
being laid in our way
we ought to take up.
Changing our place seldom is mending it. Those who bring young people into bad
acquaintance
and take them out of the way of public ordinances
thought they
may think them well-principled
and armed against temptation
know not what
will be the end. It does not appear that the women the sons of Elimelech married
were proselyted to the Jewish religion. Earthly trials or enjoyments are of
short continuance. Death continually removes those of every age and situation
and mars all our outward comforts: we cannot too strongly prefer those
advantages which shall last for ever.
Commentary on Ruth 1:6-14
(Read Ruth 1:6-14)
Naomi began to think of returning
after the death of her
two sons. When death comes into a family
it ought to reform what is amiss
there. Earth is made bitter to us
that heaven may be made dear. Naomi seems to
have been a person of faith and piety. She dismissed her daughters-in-law with
prayer. It is very proper for friends
when they part
to part with them thus
part in love. Did Naomi do well
to discourage her daughters from going with
her
when she might save them from the idolatry of Moab
and bring them to the
faith and worship of the God of Israel? Naomi
no doubt
desired to do that;
but if they went with her
she would not have them to go upon her account.
Those that take upon them a profession of religion only to oblige their
friends
or for the sake of company
will be converts of small value. If they
did come with her
she would have them make it their deliberate choice
and sit
down first and count the cost
as it concerns those to do who make a profession
of religion. And more desire "rest in the house of a husband
" or
some wordly settlement or earthly satisfaction
than the rest to which Christ
invites our souls; therefore when tried they will depart from Christ
though
perhaps with some sorrow.
Commentary on Ruth 1:15-18
(Read Ruth 1:15-18)
See Ruth's resolution
and her good affection to Naomi. Orpah
was loth to part from her; yet she did not love her well enough to leave Moab
for her sake. Thus
many have a value and affection for Christ
yet come short
of salvation by him
because they will not forsake other things for him. They
love him
yet leave him
because they do not love him enough
but love other
things better. Ruth is an example of the grace of God
inclining the soul to
choose the better part. Naomi could desire no more than the solemn declaration
Ruth made. See the power of resolution; it silences temptation. Those that go
in religious ways without a stedfast mind
stand like a door half open
which
invites a thief; but resolution shuts and bolts the door
resists the devil and
forces him to flee.
Commentary on Ruth 1:19-22
(Read Ruth 1:19-22)
Naomi and Ruth came to Bethlehem. Afflictions will make
great and surprising changes in a little time. May God
by his grace
fit us
for all such changes
especially the great change!
Naomi signifies
"pleasant
" or "amiable;" Mara
"bitter
" or
"bitterness." She was now a woman of a sorrowful spirit. She had come
home empty
poor
a widow and childless. But there is a fulness for believers
of which they never can be emptied; a good part which shall not be taken from
those who have it. The cup of affliction is a "bitter" cup
but she
owns that the affliction came from God. It well becomes us to have our hearts
humbled under humbling providences. It is not affliction itself
but affliction
rightly borne
that does us good.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ruth》
Ruth 1
Verse 1
[1] Now
it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled
that there was a famine in
the land. And a certain man of Bethlehemjudah went to sojourn in the country of
Moab
he
and his wife
and his two sons.
In the land — Of
Canaan. It must be early: for Boaz was born of Rahab. So Christ descended from
two Gentile mothers.
Verse 2
[2] And the name of the man was Elimelech
and the name of his wife Naomi
and
the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion
Ephrathites of Bethlehemjudah. And
they came into the country of Moab
and continued there.
Ephrathites —
Bethlehem was otherwise called Ephratha. Naomi signifies my amiable or pleasant
one: Mahlon and Chilon signify sickness and consumption. Probably they were
sickly children
and not likely to be long-lived. Such are the products of our
pleasant things
weak and infirm
fading and dying.
Verse 4
[4] And
they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah
and
the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled there about ten years.
Took wives —
Either these were Proselytes when they married them
or they sinned in marrying
them
and therefore were punished with short life
and want of issue.
Verse 5
[5] And
Mahlon and Chilion died also both of them; and the woman was left of her two
sons and her husband.
Was left of her two sons
and her husband — Loss of children and widowhood are both come upon her. By whom shall she
be comforted? It is God alone that is able to comfort those who are thus cast
down.
Verse 6
[6] Then she arose with her daughters in law
that she might return from the
country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the LORD had
visited his people in giving them bread.
Bread —
That is
food; so she staid no longer there than necessity forced her.
Verse 8
[8] And
Naomi said unto her two daughters in law
Go
return each to her mother's
house: the LORD deal kindly with you
as ye have dealt with the dead
and with
me.
Mother's house —
Because daughters used to converse more frequently with their mothers
and to
dwell in the same apartments with them
which then were distinct from those
parts of the house where the men dwelt.
The dead —
With my sons
your husbands
while they lived.
Verse 11
[11] And
Naomi said
Turn again
my daughters: why will ye go with me? are there yet any
more sons in my womb
that they may be your husbands?
Your husbands —
According to the ancient custom
Genesis 38:8
and the express law of God
Deuteronomy 25:5
which doubtless she had
acquainted them with before
among other branches of the Jewish religion.
Verse 13
[13]
Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from
having husbands? nay
my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that
the hand of the LORD is gone out against me.
It grieveth me —
That you are left without the comfort of husbands or children; that I must part
with such affectionate daughters; and that my circumstances are such
that I
cannot invite you to go alone with me. For her condition was so mean at this
time
that Ruth
when she came to her mother's city
was forced to glean for a
living. It is with me
that God has a controversy. This language becomes us
when we are under affliction; tho' many others share in the trouble
yet we are
to hear the voice of the rod
as if it spake only to us. But did not she wish
to bring them to the worship of the God of Israel? Undoubtedly she did. But she
would have them first consider upon what terms
lest having set their hand to
the plow
they should look back.
Verse 14
[14] And
they lifted up their voice
and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law;
but Ruth clave unto her.
Kissed —
Departed from her with a kiss. Bade her farewell for ever. She loved Naomi
but
she did not love her so well
as to quit her country for her sake. Thus many
have a value for Christ
and yet come short of salvation by him
because they
cannot find in their hearts
to forsake other things for him. They love him
and yet leave him
because they do not love him enough
but love other things
better.
Verse 15
[15] And
she said
Behold
thy sister in law is gone back unto her people
and unto her
gods: return thou after thy sister in law.
To her gods —
Those that forsake the communion of saints
will certainly break off their
communion with God. This she saith
to try Ruth's sincerity and constancy
and
that she might intimate to her
that if she went with her
she must embrace the
true religion.
Verse 17
[17]
Where thou diest
will I die
and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me
and more also
if ought but death part thee and me.
There will I be buried — Not desiring to have so much as her dead body carried back into the land
of Moab: but Naomi and she having joined souls
she desires they may mingle
dust
in hopes of rising together
and remaining together for ever.
Verse 18
[18] When
she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her
then she left speaking
unto her.
Left speaking unto her — See the power of resolution! Those who are half-resolved
are like a
door a-jar
which invites a thief. But resolution shuts and bolts he door
and
then the devil flees from us.
Verse 19
[19] So
they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass
when they were
come to Bethlehem
that all the city was moved about them
and they said
Is
this Naomi?
Is this — Is
this she that formerly lived in so much plenty and honour? How marvelously is
her condition changed?
Verse 20
[20] And
she said unto them
Call me not Naomi
call me Mara: for the Almighty hath
dealt very bitterly with me.
Naomi —
Which signifies pleasant
and chearful.
Mara —
Which signifies bitter or sorrowful.
Verse 21
[21] I
went out full
and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye
me Naomi
seeing the LORD hath testified against me
and the Almighty hath
afflicted me?
Full —
With my husband and sons
and a plentiful estate for our support.
Testified —
That is
hath borne witness
as it were
in judgment
and given sentence
against me.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Ruth》
Ruth's Noble Choice: "I Will Go" (1:1-22)
INTRODUCTION
1. The book of Ruth is a beautiful "interlude of love
" set in... a. The period when judges ruled Israel - Ru 1:1 b. An era marked by immorality
idolatry
and war - cf. Judg 21:25 2. It tells a heartwarming story of devotion and faithfulness... a. Concerning a Moabite widow (Ruth) who leaves her homeland b. To live with her Jewish mother-in-law (Naomi) in the land of Israel 3. God honors Ruth's commitment... a. By guiding her to the field of Boaz (a near kinsman to Naomi) b. Where she gathers grain and finds a place in the genealogy of Christ! 4. It has been said the book serves two purposes... a. To illustrate how Jehovah rewards those who make wise spiritual choices and show steadfast filial loyalty b. To explain how Ruth
a Moabitess
came to be an ancestor of David
and ultimately
the Messiah - cf. Ru 4:21-22; Mt 1:5-6 [While the book's brevity and beauty makes it easy to read in onesitting
we will let it serve as the basis for four sermons
one foreach chapter. In chapter one
we learn of "Ruth's Noble Choice"...] I. A FATEFUL SOJOURN IN MOAB
A. FAMINE PROMPTS THE JOURNEY... 1. The setting - Ru 1:1 a. In the days of the judges (prior to the period of the kings of Israel) b. There is famine in the land of Judah c. A family of four leave Bethlehem to dwell in Moab 1) Bethlehem
city located 5 mi . S of Jerusalem; birthplace of David and Jesus 2) Moab
country located due E of the Dead Sea a) Descendants of Lot - Gen 19:36-37 b) Sometimes enemies
friends
of Israel - Jud 3:12-30; 1 Sam 22:3-4
2. The family - Ru 1:2 a. Elimelech the father
Naomi the mother b. Their two sons: Mahlon and Chilion c. Ephrathites - Bethlehem was also known as Ephrath - Gen 35:19; Mic 5:2
3. The move a. Prompted by the famine b. Perhaps indicating a lack of faith in God
who made provision for when His children became impoverished - cf. Lev 25:35 B. DEATH STRIKES THREE TIMES... 1. Elimelech dies - Ru 1:3 a. Leaving Naomi a widow with two sons b. Rabbinic tradition suggests his death was punishment for greed or having forsaken his homeland (Expositor's Bible Commentary) 2. Mahlon and Chilion marry women of Moab - Ru 1:4 a. Mahlon married Ruth
Chilion married Orpah - cf. Ru 4:10 b. Such marriages with women of Moab were strongly suspect
if not wrong - cf. Deu 23:3; 1 Ki 11:1-2; Neh 13:23-27 c. They live in Moab about ten years 3. Mahlon and Chilion die - Ru 1:5 a. Rabbinic tradition suggests it was because of leaving Judah
and their marriages b. Leaving Naomi a widow and childless
which she took as divine judgment against her - Ru 1:13
20-21 [Elimelech and his sons went to Moab to find bread
instead they foundgraves (Baxter). Bereaved of her husband and two sons Naomi gives
thought to return to her homeland...] II. A FAITHFUL RETURN TO JUDAH
A. NAOMI CHOOSES TO RETURN HOME... 1. The famine in Judah had ended - Ru 1:6 a. The Lord's blessings had return to Judah b. The Lord had given them bread 2. Naomi encourages her daughters-in-law to remain in Moab - Ru 1:7-9
a. As they were on their way to leave b. Naomi encourages them to return to their mothers' house c. Naomi prays God's blessings upon them 1) To treat them kindly
because their kindness to her 2) To find rest in the homes of future husbands d. Prompting sorrowful displays a great affection B. RUTH CHOOSES TO RETURN WITH HER... 1. At first
both daughters-in-law desire to go with Naomi - Ru 1:10
a. Willing to return with her to her people b. Which speaks highly of their love for Naomi and duty as daughters-in-law 2. Naomi seeks to dissuade them - Ru 1:11-13 a. She has no sons to offer them b. She is too old to have a husband c. If she did marry and have sons
would they wait until they were old enough? d. It grieves her to see them suffer because of God's chastisement of her 3. Ruth cannot be dissuaded - Ru 1:14-18 a. Weeping
Orpah kisses her mother-in-law and leaves b. Ruth clings to her mother-in-law
and Naomi tries once again to persuade her to return c. Ruth's noble choice 1) To go wherever Naomi goes 2) To live wherever Naomi lives 3) To make the people of Naomi her people 4) To make the God of Naomi her God 5) To die and be buried where Naomi is buried 6) To let nothing but death come between them -- In making such a choice
Ruth has become a proselyte to Judaism d. Naomi realizes Ruth is determined to go with her C. NAOMI AND RUTH ARRIVE IN BETHLEHEM... 1. Their arrival sparks excitement in the city - Ru 1:19 2. Naomi believes she should be called Mara - Ru 1:20-21 a. No longer Naomi ("Pleasant")
but Mara ("Bitter") b. For she feels the Lord has dealt bitterly with her 1) She left Judah full
and has returned empty 2) She believes the Lord has testified against her
and has afflicted her c. This may be true - cf. Deu 28:15-19 1) Yet not all suffering is indicative of divine chastisement (cf. Job) 2) She may have been the innocent victim of others' sins 3. Naomi and Ruth settle in Bethlehem - Ru 1:22 a. Naomi
a woman without husband and sons b. Ruth
the Moabitess living in a strange land CONCLUSION
1. Their arrival was at the beginning of the barley harvest... a. Which sets the stage for the events in the next chapter b. Which portends a new beginning in the lives of Naomi and Ruth 2. This story certainly illustrates the importance of making choices... a. Choices come with consequences
sometimes good
sometimes bad b. Elimelech and his sons made choices... 1) Which may have appeared to be a good business decision 2) But ultimately left a wife and mother a widow and motherless in a strange land c. Ruth made a choice 1) To leave family and false religion
for the true God and His family 2) One that would have provide both temporal and eternal blessings - cf. Mk 10:29-30 Sometimes the choice is not between right and wrong
but between goodand better. Yet any choice we make will be the right one if made withthese words of Jesus in mind: "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness
and allthese things shall be added to you." - Mt 6:33
"Ruth's Noble Choice" to follow Naomi and her God illustrates the truth
of Jesus' words!
－－《Executable Outlines》
01 Chapter 1
Verse 1
In the days when the judges ruled.
The transition from Judges to Ruth
Leaving the Book of Judges and opening the story of Ruth
we pass
from vehement out-door life
from tempest and trouble
into quiet domestic
scenes. After an exhibition of the greater movements of a people we are
brought
as it were
to a cottage interior in the soft light of an autumn
evening
to obscure lives passing through the cycles of loss and comfort
affection and sorrow. We have seen the ebb and flow of a nation’s fidelity and
fortune; a few leaders appearing clearly on the stage
and behind them a
multitude indefinite
indiscriminate
the thousands who form the ranks of
battle and die on the field
who sway together from Jehovah to Baal
and back
to Jehovah again. What the Hebrews were at home
how they lived in the villages
of Judah or on the slopes of Tabor
the narrative has not paused to speak of with
detail. Now there is leisure after the strife
and the historian can describe
old customs and family events
can show us the toiling flockmaster
the busy
reapers
the women with their cares and uncertainties
the love and labour of
simple life. Thunderclouds of sin and judgment have rolled over the scene; but
they have cleared away
and we see human nature in examples that become
familiar to us
no longer in weird shadow or vivid lightning flash
but as we
commonly know it
homely
erring
enduring
imperfect
not unblest. (R. A.
Watson
M. A.)
There was a famine in the
land.
Famine
the consequence of sin
This might happen many ways: by the incursion of foreign enemies
by civil wars among themselves
or by restraint of seasonable showers from
heaven. Howsoever it came
sin was the cause thereof: a toleration of idolaters
and public monuments of idolatry (Judges 1:21; Judges 1:27; Judges 1:29-30; Judges 3:5; Judges 2:2)
contrary to God’s express
commandment by the hand of Moses. They fell themselves unto idolatry (Judges 2:11-13; Judges 2:17; Judges 8:27).
I. That sins
Especially those aforenamed
deserve the judgments of God (Deuteronomy 28:1-68; 1 Kings 8:35-37). Therefore
to
escape plagues
let us take heed of sin (Ezekiel 18:31; Revelation 18:1-24).
II. That famine and
dearth is a punishment for sin
and that a great plague (Ezekiel 5:16; Deuteronomy 28:23-24; Leviticus 26:19; Leviticus 26:29; Amos 4:1-13). And when this hand of God
cometh upon us
let us search our ways and humble ourselves (2 Chronicles 7:14)
that the Lord
may heal our land
for it is a terrible judgment (1 Samuel 24:14) and without mercy (2 Kings 6:10; 2 Kings 6:29; Ezekiel 4:10).
III. We may hereby
see how God made His word good upon them
and that He dallieth not with His
people
in denouncing judgments against them; for Moses had told them (Deuteronomy 28:1-68) that God would thus
afflict them if rebellious against Him: and here the story telleth us that in
the days of the judges this famine came. (R. Bernard.)
A famine in the land!
in the land of promise and in Bethlehem
the House of Bread! No
doubt the state of affairs in Bethlehem constituted a severe trial of faith to
Elimelech and his family and neighbours. It is very hard to see the meal
growing less and less in the barrel; it is even harder for those who have
enjoyed times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord
and seasons of
genuine delight in His service
to lose the experience of the Divine love and
care
to find prayer becoming a burden and the Word of God lifeless and
unhelpful; but can either the one condition of things or the other be any
excuse or justification for forsaking the land of promise? For
to begin with
how can a change of front help us under the circumstances? If corn be scarce in
Canaan
where God has pledged Himself to feed us
is it likely that better
things will be found in a land upon which
as we shall see
His curse is
resting? If from any cause our sense of the presence and approval of Jesus
seems to have lost something of its distinctness
even in that circle of Church
life and Christian society with which we have been associated
is it probable
that we shall obtain truer solace and renewal in that “world” the friendship of
which is declared to be enmity to our Lord? And
after all
what is the
province of faith if it be of no service to us under such circumstances as
these? Christ
as we well know
changes not; if there be a change in our
experience of Him
the causes lie with us
and not with our Lord--the clouds
are earth-born; what we need is more sun
not less
and this we shall never
obtain by turning our back upon Him from whom every blessing of spiritual
experience
as well as of earthly enjoyment
flows. It is pretty certain that
like Elimelech
those whose hearts are growing colder would protest almost with
indignation that they have no intention of any permanent abandonment of Christ.
They are suffering from famine--from a loss of spiritual enjoyment. To what may
this unhappy state of things be due? Some
perhaps
would frankly aver that
they never have found enjoyment in Christ and His service from the very
commencement; they have sought to serve Him purely as a matter of duty: for
their pleasure they have looked to the world. Some
again
would admit that
there are both food and enjoyment in the Divine life for those who desire to
follow Christ
and at one time they themselves hoped that it would prove
permanently satisfying; but they confess that they got tired of it after a
time
and it seemed rather hard to them that they should be required to limit
themselves to that which
however good in itself
appeared to be somewhat
restricted in character. Now
our Bread is Christ
and dissatisfaction with our
Bread is dissatisfaction with Him
and confessions such as those to which we
have been listening simply mean that the Lord Jesus has ceased to be
or more
probably has never been in any very real sense
everything to us; such persons
as those whose cases we have imagined have not actually given up serving and
loving the Lord
or at any rate do not think they have done so
but into a
heart which has never been completely surrendered to the Master they have
admitted other objects of regard
and these later affections
competing with
that earlier one
have dimmed its lustre and loosened its hold upon us. And are
there not others who
whilst desiring after a fashion to lead a Christian life
deliberately place themselves beyond the reach
so to speak
of the nourishing
and fructifying grace of God by the very character of the circumstances by
which they elect to surround themselves? Their friends
their amusements
their
books (not to mention other matters) seem to be chosen almost with a view to
hindering instead of assisting their growth in Christ. But the Holy Spirit is
Sovereign; He is the Lord of life as well as the giver of it
and He feeds the
souls who seek Him in accordance with His own will
not in accordance with
theirs. And the famine in Bethlehem took place “in the days when the judges
ruled.” It is impossible to read the historian’s account of those days (Judges 2:11
etc.) without realising that
the times were very bad indeed
and just such as we should expect to be
characterised by famine and distress of all kinds. For
to begin with
they
were days of religion by fits and starts--days in which the Israelites served
God when they were in trouble and forgot Him as soon as their circumstances
improved. Is it likely that such a condition of things and such a fashion of
living can succeed? Will God bless those who
blind to His long-suffering
set
every law of gratitude and right behaviour at defiance in this hopeless kind of
way? But is not this precisely what some of us are constantly doing? No
religion by fits and starts cannot possibly be a happy state of affairs: it
must involve us in that separation from God which results in famine. We
shall not improve our circumstances
however
by turning our backs upon God;
let us understand that our want is due to our own conduct
not to God’s
unfaithfulness
and let us seek so to amend our lives that He may yet be able
to make our land flow with milk and honey. Moreover
the days when the judges
ruled were obviously days of intermittent government: the arrangement was but a
makeshift at the best. In our own ease it is the absence of the autocratic rule
of the Lord Jesus
or rather our fretful murmuring against the rule
which lies
at the root of most of our spiritual sorrow. We acknowledge the Lord as our
Saviour
but do we sufficiently recognise Him to be Christ our King? It is
impossible for us to fear the Lord and serve our own gods
and be happy--try as
we may. That there are times in the experience of all Christian people when the pasture which once was
green fails somewhat of its peaceful restfulness no one who knows anything of
life will for a moment deny. But this is neither starvation nor a breaking of
faith on the part of our covenant God. Elimelech left Bethlehem in a moment of
panic
or a fit of despondency or of world-hunger
but others remained and
trusted the God of their fathers; and when ten years later Naomi
the solitary
survivor of the little band
returned
she found her friends alive and well and
in the enjoyment of barley harvest. They had been tried
indeed
but never
forsaken. It was sad enough that Elimelech should have left the land of promise
and the House of Bread: it was worse that he should have selected Moab as his
new home. It was not merely that the people of the country were heathen
and
that
as Elimelech must have known
if he and his family were to remain true to
God they would have to lead lives of trial and to face unpopularity and perhaps
persecution
but Moab had acted with extraordinary bitterness to his ancestors
in times past
and in consequence was under a very terrible curse. Are we in no
danger? Are there none of us who are beginning to turn our heads
and our
hearts too
in the direction of those old associations and those old
surroundings which did us so much injury in the past--the scars of whose
wounds
the fascination of whose attractions
have not yet passed away? Are we
wise in venturing where stronger men than we are have fallen
where we
ourselves fell not so long ago? God help us
and keep us true to Him and to
ourselves! (H. A. Hall
B. D.)
Bethlehem-judah.
The famine in Bethlehem
The home of Elimelech was in Bethlehem “Bethlehem-judah” as the
historian is careful to remark
in order to distinguish it from another
Bethlehem in the territory of the tribe of Zebulun. Its very name--Bethlehem
i.e.
House of Bread--indicates its fertility. And therefore the famine which
drove Elimelech from Bethlehem must have been extraordinarily protracted and
severe; even the most wealthy and fertile parts of the land must have been
consumed by drought: there was no bread even in the very House of Bread.
Elimelech and his household were by no means likely to be the first to feel the
pinch of want
or to feel it most keenly; for he came of a good stock
of a
family that stood high in the tribe of Judah
and was a man of consideration
and wealth. The probability is that he was rich in flocks and herds
a
sheep-master such as Bethlehem has constantly produced
and that it was to find
pastures for his famishing flocks that he went to sojourn in Moab. (S. Cox
D. D.)
He
and his wife
and his
two sons.--
Family names
The names are thoroughly Jewish
and are rich in meaning.
Elimelech was a grand name for a pious man; it means
“My God is King.” The
mother is called Naomi
“the gracious” or “sweetness.” Mahlon means “weakly
”
and Chilion
“pining” or “wasting
” referring probably to their bodily
condition; for as they both died young it is possible they were ailing from
their birth. But it is noteworthy that in those olden times parents were
accustomed to give their children names according to some peculiarity in their
circumstances
or in the fond hope that the special virtue implied in the name
might be developed in after-life. Isaac’s firstborn is Esau
because of the
redness of his skin. Moses in exile calls his son Gershom
“For
” he said
“I
have been a stranger in a strange land.” The custom is dying out in these
modern times. Parents give children names without inquiring the meaning; the
sound is more to them than the sense. But there may be more involved
for good
or evil
in the old custom than we suppose. Shakespeare asks
“What’s in a
name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” True
but as an American
writer points out
“The influence of names in the formation of character is
probably much greater than is usually imagined
and deserves the special
attention of parents in their bestowment. Children should be taught that the
circumstances of their bearing the names of good men or women who have lived
before them constitutes an obligation upon them to imitate or perpetuate their
virtues.” It does not follow that the desired result will be obtained
yet it
may be an influence; and at least the name
when contrasted with the life
will
be a constant rebuke. (Wm. Braden.)
They came into the country of Moab
and continued there.
Lessons from the conduct of Elimelech and Naomi
1. Learn from the change in the circumstances of Naomi’s husband not to
trust in the uncertain possessions of this world. You may now be wealthy and
respectable among your neighbours and acquaintances; a few years or months may
reduce you to a condition of discomfort
if not of poverty and indigence.
2. Learn from the consequences of the step taken by Elimelech
the
peril of discontentedness and impatience under adverse circumstances. Should
riches make themselves wings
and poverty threaten to be your lot
beware of
rashly changing your habits and connections.
3. Ye that are parents
surrounded with a family of children
learn
from this history to reflect how soon these children may be taken away. And oh!
strive and pray
above all things
that they may be the children of God by
faith in Jesus Christ.
4. Learn from Naomi’s trials the beneficial effects of affliction;
and from her resolution to return to her native land--the land of Jehovah’s
worship--that the only true refuge in affliction is pure and undefiled
religion. (H. Hughes
B.D.)
The wanderers
Thus the history of Ruth begins with a story of wanderers from
God. It is a sad
but not a strange commencement.
I. Why did they
wander
and thus leave the home of their fathers? The answer given is
“There
was famine in the land.” God had sent upon them a temporary trouble
and they
fled from it. But when God chastens us in His wisdom
our duty is to yield with
contentment and submission. We should bear the rod and Him who hath appointed
it. When we patiently yield to His merciful chastisements
they become our most
precious blessings. “There was a famine in the land
” and they fled from it.
Temporary sufferings made their home for a little while uncomfortable
and they
could not patiently endure the will of God. It was their own land. It was their
father’s land. It was the Lord’s land. Their family and friends were there. Why
should they fly? The next season might be better
and more than repay them for
the losses of the present. The famine might follow them to the land whither
they went
and make their sufferings greater there than at home. When Socrates
was urged by his friends to escape from the prison where he was condemned to
die
he answered them
“Tell me of a land where men do not die
and I will
escape to that.” How much better might this family have found a quiet
submission to the will of God! What an illustration this is of sinful
foolish
man! Adam had all the garden of Eden. One single restraint made him a voluntary
wanderer from God. How easily have all who have descended from him rebelled and
wandered since! But can we ever find happiness in running away from God? Is
there any happiness but in a cheerful
filial submission to God? See where this
wandering from God begins--in a spirit of rebellion and discontent. Oh
be ye
watchful there. Be ready to hear and to do the will of God. In the midst of
your trials remember His mercies.
II. But who were
these wanderers whose story we have before us? They were a family of
Israelites
of professed believers in the Word of God. Never does sin seem to
be more dreadful than when man’s ingratitude is contrasted with God’s mercies.
You are never straitened in God. You have all things and abound in Him. He is
rich in His mercy to you all. Why should you wander?
III. This wandering
was wholly unnecessary. These Israelites were not poor and perishing. They
“went out full.” Their wandering was therefore wilful
and this made it the more
rebellious and guilty. But is not all wandering from God unnecessary? Why need
we ever go astray from Him? It will be always a solemn charge against us
“they
went out full.” It is the wandering which makes us empty. If we go away from
God our own heedlessness or choice is the fountain of our guilt and sorrow. Why
need we wander?
IV. From whence did
these Israelites wander? It was from the Lord’s own land
Immanuel’s land. It
was from the whole company of His people. It was from the midst of the privileges
of Divine revelation. It was from Bethlehem
the House of Bread. It was a
hasty
foolish wandering from a happy home. We will not call every journey a
wandering. It depends upon whence we came and whither we go
and under whose
direction we move. Jonah wandered. When God sent him to Nineveh he fled to
Tarshish. And God arrested him in the deep and brought him back. Manasseh
wandered. And he was taken in the thorns and bound with fetters
till
in the
day of his affliction
he sought the Lord and was forgiven. Demas wandered.
From a love of this present world he forsook his Master and returned no more.
Judas wandered. And how fearful was his end when he went to his own place! This
is the wandering of which we have to speak. It is a wandering from God
from
His Spirit
from His Word
from His Church. Whosoever goes astray from God
voluntarily leaves the salvation which has been provided for him
and makes it
his condemnation that he has loved darkness rather than light
because his ways
are evil. But there are many wanderers from God in a very peculiar sense. They
go from the very midst of His family
from Bethlehem itself
where Jesus is.
They were born in His Church. They were early dedicated to Him in His holy
sacrament. They were taught His Word
and named and registered among the number
of His covenant people. They might have lived always at His feet and in His
favour. But they left Bethlehem in rebellious discontent.
V. Whither did
these Israelites wander? “To the country of Moab”; to a land of idolatry; a
land of open licentiousness and crime. What a change of condition to them! What
though bread was abundant there! “Fulness of bread like that in Sodom!” Man
does not live by bread alone. And who that truly loved God would not rather
live with a famine in Bethlehem than with sinful abundance in Moab? They went
to Moab
but only “to sojourn there.” Just as Lot went to sojourn in Sodom.
Just as every wanderer from God goes into the world. It is but for recreation.
It is only a harmless indulgence. It is but for a season of enjoyment. They
mean some time to return and never to go back to Moab again. To die in Moab
without God and without hope! Nothing is further from their thoughts than this.
They will only dip in the lake
like the swallow
and they shall feel refreshed
for a longer flight. Ah
how little they know of the dangers they encounter!
VI. And what were
the results of their wandering? What could they be but wasting sorrow and
death? Ah
how sad are the results of a life of guilt! How mournful are the
consequences of a wandering from God! (S. H. Tyng
D. D.)
Spiritual advantages sacrificed to worldly gain
Were they wise in taking this step? For some reasons they
were wise. There was an abundance in the land of Moab
and a scarcity in the
land of Judah. Worldly prudence
then
seemed to point out some other spot as
their dwelling-place. But one thing they did not sufficiently consider--they
were leaving behind them many of their religious advantages. Yes
there is no
doubt that Elimelech was wrong
very wrong
in leaving the land of Judah with
his family
and settling in the godless country of Moab. It is a fearful thing
to set little store by our religious advantages and blessings
when God has
given them to us. When
for instance
a person chooses a new home
how apt he
is to reckon how far he will be a gainer in a worldly point of view
putting
aside altogether his gain or loss in spiritual things! How sad
if he should
grow richer for this life
but poorer for eternity! Again
when a servant
chooses a fresh situation
is he not apt to measure the goodness of it by the
wages he is to receive
instead of thinking seriously how far his soul is
likely to prosper in his new home? (Bp. Oxeuden.)
Cowardly emigration
Emigration from one’s own land can only be justified when it
becomes an inevitable thing--where the population abounds more than the means
of maintenance
and the people require to be thinned by the emigration of some
for the comfort and advantage of all. But when people leave their country in the
day of its difficulties
and thus refuse their help
they play the part of
cowards who desert the army when the tide of battle rolls against its standards
they act undutifully before God
unworthily as patriots
and cruelly as human
beings. Our best exertions at such a crisis are always due; and instead of
flinching from a sphere in which any good is possible to us
we ought to show
that duty calls us wherever we can be of service. (J. Cumming
D. D.)
The godly oppressed
while the wicked have abundance
This may seem a strange thing
that the godly should be oppressed
with famine
when worldlings and heathen wallow in their wealth. Of these David
speaketh (Psalms 17:14; Psalms 36:15; Psalms 73:4; Psalms 73:12). The like you may hear in
Job (Job 21:7). But of the righteous it is
said that they often cry out of their afflictions
their sorrows and nakedness
their hunger and misery; yea
our Saviour Christ pronounces Himself in His
members
poor
hungry
naked. Judge now between the outward estate of the godly
and the wicked; are they not contrary? That which of the world is condemned is
of the Lord commended. Yet be not terrified from godliness
but rather
strengthened in your profession. Then will you say
“Tell us the cause of this
inequality?” Our Saviour answers (John 15:19; John 16:20). He compares us to the
fruitful vine
which doth not only abide frost
snow
storm
and heat
but also
at the gathering time is broken off
that the grapes may be reached. The gold
must be tried in the furnace
the silver fined in the fire
the wheat purged in the
floor
and
before it be meat for man
must also he ground in the mill; so must
we be proved in affliction
fined in persecution
and crushed in pieces
under
the burden of our own miseries
that we may be made prepared bread for the
Lord’s own spending. Why
then
doth the Lord make such large promises to His
Church of plenty
seeing it endures continual poverty? I answer
the Church of
God must be considered after two sorts: the first
as it is cleansed in the blood
of Christ
and washed pure from all outward and notorious offences
unto which
estate pertain all these outward promises of liberality in the Scriptures. The
second is the declined estate
or corrupted condition of every one in the
Church
even unto the world’s end: unto this pertain all the punishments and
tribulations which the godly endure
which the Lord sends upon them that He may
by little and little scour us from our transgressions and weary us with the
miseries of this life
that we may the more earnestly desire the life to come
for the Lord doth here scourge us that we should not be condemned with the
world. (E. Topsell.)
Moab doomed
Moab was a doomed country. More than a hundred years before Ruth’s
birth its sentence had been pronounced through the mouth of the prophet Balaam:
“There shall come a Star out of Jacob; and a Sceptre shall arise out of Israel
and shall smite the corners of Moab.” “The earth also
and the works that are
therein
shall be burned up.” (C. F. Hall.)
Elimelech an exile
In the “Field of Moab
” that is the upland canton bounded by the
Amon on the north
the mountains on the east
and the Dead Sea precipices on
the west
people lived very much as they did about Bethlehem
only more safely
and in greater comfort. But the worship was of Chemosh
and Elimelech must soon
have discovered how great a difference that made in thought and social custom
and in the feeling of men toward himself and his family. The rites of the god
of Moab included festivals in which humanity was disgraced. Standing apart from
these he must have found his prosperity hindered
for Chemosh was lord in
everything. An alien who had come for his own advantage
yet refused the
national customs
would be scorned at least
if not persecuted. Life in Moab
became an exile
the Bethlehemites saw that hardship in their own land would
have been as easy to endure as the disdain of the heathen and constant
temptation to vile conformity. (R. A. Watson
M. A.)
Elimelech
Naomi’s husband died.
The death of Elimelech
He went first from Israel
the land of the living
and led them
thence
and so he now goeth out of the world before them.
I. Death is the
end of all
and it spareth none (Joshua 23:14; Job 21:33; Ecclesiastes 6:6; Ecclesiastes 7:2; 1 Corinthians 15:51; Hebrews 9:27).
II. A full supply
of bodily wants cannot prevent death. The man must die in Moab
where was food
enough; the rich glutton must die also
and the rich man with his barn full.
III. Where men think
to preserve life
there they may lose it
as Elimelech doth here
fleeing from
the famine in Israel
yet died where plenty was
in Moab; for no place is free
from death
and when the time appointed is come
man cannot pass it (Job 14:5). (R. Bernard.)
Elimelech’s departure and death
I. The cause of
his departure. “There was a famine in the land.” Famine cometh from God. It was
threatened in the Mosaic law
as a punishment from Heaven for disobedience and
sin (Leviticus 26:18-20). See how many arrows
Jehovah hath in His quiver! In how many ways He can wither our comforts--blast
our enjoyments. See how dependent we are upon Him. If famine and its calamitous
consequences be occasioned by sin
let us be thankful to God that they are not
inflicted upon us. We cannot deny that our sins are great and numerous
considering the precious advantages we enjoy. Still God loadeth us daily with
His benefits. “He hath not dealt with us after our sins
nor rewarded us
according to our iniquities.” Let us learn to be thankful. Let us flee to the
Redeemer’s Cross for pardon
on account of our past forgetfulness of God. If
famine and its accompanying horrors were experienced so frequently in the land
of promise
we may gather that we cannot be free from adversities in any
station or in any portion of the earth. When we are encompassed by
difficulties--when we are ready to wish that we were in the situation of some
of our neighbours
did we but know how bitter the ingredients which the hand of
Providence not unfrequently puts into their cups
we should murmur less at our
own crosses
and endure with a more satisfied mind our own tribulations. Let us
learn
then
to be satisfied with the station which Providence has assigned us
and seek for relief under the trials which are inseparable from it
in the holy
Word of God. Religion is the only effectual soother of human woe. It does not
indeed
remove miseries from those who are under its hallowing dominion
but it
mixes the sweet with the bitter
so as to render the burden supportable. By
directing the eye of the troubled Christian to that heavenly Benefactor who was
suspended for him on the Cross
and thereby opened for him a way to the realms
of unending blessedness
it deprives the trials of this temporary scene of much
of their bitterness
and imparts new energy to the sinking soul. Again
if the
sore effects of famine were felt in Canaan
while there was abundance in
Moab--if Israelites suffered want
when Egyptians
and Philistines
and
Moabites suffered it not--the possession of many earthly comforts is no
evidence of spiritual safety
no sure sign of Divine favour and love. The only
heaven which the despisers of the Saviour shall enjoy lies on this side the
tomb; therefore they often receive more of the blessings of Providence than the
heirs of glory.
II. Whither
Elimelech directed his course when he departed from Canaan. By this conduct
this man evinced too great a regard for terrestrial bliss
and too little for
that which is heavenly. He slighted Divine ordinances and the privileges of the
Lord’s sanctuary. The grace of God has
indeed
enabled His servants to keep
their garments clean in the midst of the greatest pollutions
as Joseph in
Egypt and Obadiah in the household of wicked Ahab; still it is oftener the
case
under such circumstances
that the Christian suffers more of evil than he
imparts of good. “The companion of fools shall be destroyed.” “Lead us not into
temptation.” If intercourse with the ungodly be so replete with danger
let us
carefully avoid it.
III. What became of
Elimelech in his new dwelling-place? “And Elimelech Naomi’s husband died
and
she was left
and her two sons.” We are not informed how soon he died; but that
he finished his life shortly after his settlement there is clear from his death
happening before that of his two sons
who lived only ten years after their
arrival in Moab. How short the period he escaped from the pressure of famine in
the land of his nativity! And if he had greater abundance of earthly comforts
in his new habitation
how quickly were they all taken from him! If he had
remained in the land of religious advantages
he would not have had to sustain
adversities and hardships there long. Rather than resort to unlawful
or even
questionable
measures
to get rid of our troubles
we ought to implore aid
from heaven
that we may “endure” the “chastening” of the Lord--that we may
bear the afflictions which His providence allots to us with patience and
humility--being fully persuaded that our heavenly Parent doeth all things
well--and likewise with earnest supplications for the accompanying influences
of the Divine Spirit
by which they become greatly instrumental in meetening
our souls for the habitations of the blessed. Learn:
1. That adversities and troubles should not be allowed to weigh too
heavily on our minds.
2. That we should be very moderate in our estimation of
and desire
for
earthly blessings. (John Hughes.)
Out of one sorrow into another.
The end of one sorrow is the beginning of another
like the drops
of rain distilling from the top of a house
when one is gone
another follows;
like a ship upon the sea
being on the top of one wave
is presently cast down
to the foot of another; like the seed which being spread by the sower is
haunted by the fowls
being green and past their reach is endangered by frost
and snow
being past the winter’s hurt
by beasts in summer
being ripe is cut
with the sickle
threshed with the flail
purged in the floor
ground in the
mill
baked in the oven
chewed in the teeth
and consumed in the stomach. This
made David say (Psalms 34:13). But be not discouraged
for through many afflictions must we enter into the kingdom of heaven
and by
affliction we are made like the Son of God. (E. Topsell.)
She was left
and her two
sons.
Comfort in bereavement
I. That albeit
death is due to all
yet it seizeth not upon all at once; but one dieth now and
another hereafter. But God will have mankind upon earth till the last day; He
forbeareth some
and reprieveth them for their amendment; for the lengthening
of life is for our further repentance.
II. That the Lord
in afflicting His children
sweeteneth the same with some comforts. He wholly
leaveth not them without some taste of His mercy and goodness
as we may see in
His dealing with Naomi. He took away her husband
and left her two sons
and
after took them away
but gave her an excellent daughter-in-law. If we look
upon the affliction
let us also consider what cause of comfort we have; mark
when
for what
how long or short
what it is allayed with
that we be not
wholly cast down. (R. Bernard.)
They took them wives of the women of Moab.
Sinful marriages
The sin of these young men in marrying strange women is not
expressly denounced as a sin in the story
although it is denounced in the
Targum
which commences Ruth 1:4 thus: “They transgressed the
commandment of the Lord
and took foreign wives from among the daughters of
Moab.” But no one can read the Old Testament without feeling that they sinned
against the law
for to the Hebrews marriage was a religious covenant; and St.
Paul does but utter an admitted and familiar truth when he asks
“What
fellowship has light with darkness
or Belial with God?” The reason of the law
is given in the passage just cited from Deuteronomy--“they will turn away thy
children from Me
and they will serve false gods.” The daughters of Moab were
specially obnoxious to the faithful Israelites. They appear to have been among
the most fascinating
and the most wanton and profligate
women of antiquity.
Their gods--Chemosh
Moloch
Baal-peor--were incarnations of lust and cruelty.
They demanded human sacrifices. Children were cast into their burning arms. In
their ritual sensuality was accounted piety. True
Mahlon and Chilion were
exceptionally fortunate in their wives. They were not turned to the service of
false gods
though there was grave reason to fear that they might be; but
on
the other hand
neither did they turn their wives to the service of the only
true God. It was not till after her husband’s death that Ruth learned to take
shelter under the wings of the Lord God of Israel (Ruth 2:12); and Orpah
as we are
expressly told (Ruth 1:15)
“went back to her people and
her gods.”(S. Cox
D. D.)
In the country of Moab
It is wonderful how soon and how easily one gets used to a change
of circumstances when the change itself is brought about gradually. The country
of Moab
into which Elimelech and his family had journeyed
had of course its
own language
its own fashions
and its own religion too
and these were as
dissimilar as possible from those of the country which they had just now left.
Yet the new-comers were in no serious sense shocked by what they saw and
heard--had they so been they would have retraced their steps without delay; but
each day brought its own novelty
and they managed to accustom themselves to
the new things of to-day before it became necessary to face those of the
morrow. Looking calmly at our fashion of living and way of acting now
some of
us are compelled to admit how much we have changed in recent years; we never
guessed that the alteration was so great or so complete; we never meant to have
come so far. Worst of all
we never thought we should have felt the change so
little. We remember well the qualms of conscience by which we were troubled
when first we commenced to wander: we recollect now how the protests of our
heart became fainter and fainter day by day until they ceased to be anything
more than a hardly audible whisper. We went to sojourn in the country of Moab:
we came into the country of Moab
and continued there. To begin with
our
intentions were purely selfish
as selfish as were those of Lot when he elected
to pitch his tent toward Sodom. We were going to get what we could out of Moab;
they who lived there had something that we coveted
and we determined to make
them share it with us. And
moreover
we had no serious intention of giving
Moab anything in return. It is
indeed
just possible that at one time we may
have possessed the Quixotic idea of remodelling life in Moab to suit our own
ideas
but if so we soon abandoned the idea; for on the one hand we found that
Moab was not willing to be remodelled--indeed
when we faintly suggested
something of the kind
they said to us
as Sodom had said to Lot
and with not
a little point
“Stand back; this one came in to sojourn
and he will needs be
a judge”; and on the other hand
our own opinions were neither sufficiently
clear in our own minds nor dear to our own hearts to enable us to graft them
upon others. We were somewhat surprised
it may be
and a little pained
at the
way in which our new neighbours received our well-meant attempts
in the early
days of our life in Moab
to bring before them the advantages of a life of
obedience and surrender to God. “If Bethlehem was such a charming place
and
the life there so delightful
why did you exchange it for our country?” they
not unnaturally inquired; “if Bethlehem did not satisfy you
how can you
suppose that it will satisfy us?” Nor may we forget that in leaving the land of
promise the wanderer never intends to be absent for other than a short period.
If
on parting from our true home
any one had suggested that we should have
been found in Moab to-day
we should have denied the imputation with
indignation. Yet here we are still; and here in His great mercy the Good
Shepherd has found us
and hence He desires to carry us home again--to our home
and His. So they came into the country of Moab
and appear to have been
received there with courtesy and hospitality. The world is always glad when
those who have been making a somewhat definite profession of devotion to God
show signs of a desire to relax the strictness of their behaviour; it is always
willing to meet such persons more than half-way
and to do its best to enable
them to quiet the still struggling conscience with as little delay as possible.
If the world would only persecute us when it finds us on its own ground
there
would be some hope that our stay in Moab would prove short indeed. Not that the
world is any more prompted by unselfishness in its reception of us than were we
ourselves in our journey to Moab; our new friends rejoice that
by our change
of front
another protest against their way of life has died a natural death
and they are only too glad to be present and assist at its obsequies; they are
moreover
clear-sighted enough to see without being told that our surrender is
a tacit victory for the world and indifferentism
and pro tanto a defeat
for the gospel and a discredit to the life of faith in Christ. (H. A. Hall
B. D.)
Alternation of shadow and sunshine in life
And thus the world moves on--deaths and marriages
marriages and
deaths. The household which to-day mourns as though all joy had taken flight
for ever to-morrow resounds with the laughter of many voices at a newborn
happiness. The faces all tear-stained yesterday are bright with smiles to-day.
The bell which slowly tolled the funeral knell an hour ago now rings out the
joyous wedding chime. So it must be
so it ought to be. Probably life would
lose half its beauty but for this alternation of shadow and sunshine; at least
this we know
that human hearts need both the darkness and the light
or they
will not grow to that perfection of truth and purity which God has designed
they shall attain. Elimelech died
the sons married. It is a simple statement
yet a whole world of change is involved in it for that small household. (W.
Braden.)
Mahlon and Chilion died also both of them.
Bereavement a blessing
What a melancholy collapse it all had been! For those so dear to
her
death; for herself
solitude--the woman was left of her two sons and her
husband. And yet what a marvellous blessing bereavement not only may be but
often is. Surrounded by those who make up to us our world
we are slow to raise
our eyes above or beyond them
or to realise that we have any need which they
are incapable of supplying; but when they are taken from us
these beloved ones
upon whom alone we have leaned and to whom alone we have been in the habit of looking
for strength and consolation and advice
then it sometimes is that the soul
looks up as she hears the Master calling her by name
and through her tears
recognises for the first time the patient Lord who has ever been her truest
friend. God would not have us love our dear ones one whit the less
but He
would have us learn to put Him first and to trust Him implicitly about them no
less than about ourselves. (H. A. Hall
B. D.)
Enormous trials
Observe--
1. That many afflictions do attend the most gracious souls (Psalms 34:19).
2. Crosses seldom come single upon God’s servants.
3. God did wonderfully support her in all these her great trials
and
left her upon Scripture record as a pattern of patience unto all succeeding
generations. (C. Ness.)
She arose . . . that she might return.
Homeward longings
Observe--
1. God’s house of worldly correction is to God’s people a school of
heavenly instruction. Naomi’s crosses and losses she met with in Moab made her
soul to sit loose from that cursed country
and to long for Canaan--that
blessed land of promise. God’s rod hath a voice (Micah 6:9)
and now Naomi’s ear was open
to hear the instruction of it (Job 36:8-10; Micah 2:10). It is a rich mercy when
affliction brings us from worse to better
from Moab to Canaan
further off
from sin and nearer to God.
2. Godly souls should lead convincing lives. Such and so amiable was
the conversation of godly Naomi in the eyes of those two daughters of Moab that
it convinced them both--to love her and her people
and to go along with her
out of their own native country unto her land. Plato saith
“If moral virtue
could be beheld with mortal eyes
it would attract all hearts to be enamoured
with it.” How much more
then
would theological virtue or supernatural grace
do so?
3. Every heart should hanker heavenward
as Naomi did homeward from
Moab to Canaan. (C. Ness.)
A woman of character
I. She retained her
religion--her allegiance to the one true and living God--in the midst of
surrounding idolatry.
II. She Believed in
God even in the midst of adversity.
III. She exercised
an influence for good on others.
1. On those who had known her intimately--her own household.
2. On those who had known her long--long enough to find out her true
character.
3. On those who
according to all experience
are least easily
influenced by one in her position--on her daughters-in-law.
IV. She could deny
herself for the good of others.
1. It would have been an advantage to her to have these two strong
active young women with her to work for her in her old age. But a settlement
would be easier for them in their own land than in Judah. So she bade them
return
and was willing to go home alone.
2. She rose
too
above that petty jealousy which might have been
excused in one so circumstanced
and wished them that provision which was the
best security for rest and honour for a woman: “rest each of them in the house
of her husband.” Naomi’s religion was no mere surface thing. It had become a
part of herself. It had informed her character. It saved her from the
corruptions of idolatry
from despair
and it enabled her to exercise a
beneficent power over those who knew her best. What imperfect religion could do
for her the sublime faith of Christ can do for all. (Joseph Ogle.)
The awakening
To trace the course of the wanderer away from God is sad and
painful. The result of misery and regret is always the same; whether he ever
return to God or not his sorrow over the remembrance of his wandering will be
equally sure. We must never hesitate
therefore
in proclaiming to all the
wanderers from God
“You will find no rest in Moab.” But I am not now to trace
this course of sin to its dreadful result. There is for some a day of awakening
in the present life. And
painful as this day may be
it is still a happy day.
It is the beginning of a new life
a happy life
a life of glory. It is the
dawning of a light which is prepared as the morning. It is the blessed
visitation of the grace and goodness of God to the lost and guilty. We must
never forget that this awakening of the soul is the work of God. Idolatry and
enmity to God reign throughout the land of Moab. There Naomi dwells. There
if
God permitted
Naomi would die. There
if God did not arrest and arouse him
the sinner would perish. To leave him in prosperity in this condition is to
leave him to hopeless destruction. God speaks unto him in his prosperity
and
he says
“I will not hear.” This is his manner from his youth. Then God sends
awakening providences. Afflictions and losses are multiplied. The nest is
broken up. The soul is made sorrowful. Thus it was with Naomi. Her husband
died. Her two sons are taken away. How many of His children have been saved by
the bitter remedy of affliction
and have thus been taught to bless the
chastenings of the Lord! But why should you make affliction necessary to your
soul’s salvation? Let the goodness of the Lord lead you to repentance. Let His
love awaken your gratitude. But whether affliction or joy be made the
instrument to awaken the soul
it is equally a Divine instrument. Welcome it
do not resist it
but cultivate it as a priceless gift. Now God means to bless
you indeed. Listen to His voice with gladness. In this day of awakening
Naomi
found that she had gained nothing by her wandering from God. There had been a
famine in Judah. But ah
she had found a far worse famine in Moab. There every
comfort had failed and every hope had departed. In no single point was her
condition improved by her flight from Israel. But was this peculiar to her? Can
you ever gain in such a course? Are you ever the happier for transgression
or
made the more contented by forgetting your Creator? Far enough from all this is
your actual experience. Your awakened mind looks back upon life
to say
with
distress
“I have sinned
and what hath it profited me?” There is not a single
real pleasure
or joy
or gain in life
of which any man can truly say
“This
at least
is the reward of my sin.” Even if you never truly repent
your
retrospect of life will be just as unsatisfying and destitute of comfort to
your soul. You will despise all that you have gained. You will despise yourself
for pursuing vanities so madly. And nothing will remain to you as the result
but the most overwhelming despair. How much you have lost! You have thrown away
the favour of God. You have sacrificed your peace of conscience. You have lost
your early readiness to receive religious impressions. But good news from the
Lord’s land comes to this awakened wanderer. “Naomi heard in the country of
Moab how that the Lord had visited His people in giving them bread.” What
precious intelligence does the gospel bring to the guilty! It declares the
pardoning love of God. It proclaims complete atonement in the blood of Jesus.
It announces full salvation in His merits and death. It exhibits God reconciled
to those who have rebelled against Him. The message comes to you. Receive it.
Rejoice in it. It is a message from God to each of you. Then the awakened
wanderer sets out at once on a return. Naomi “arose
that she might return from
the country of Moab; wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was
on the way to return into the land of Judah.” Yes--the very first thing
when
your mind is awakened
and you see and feel your guilt
is to go back. Many
think they must first feel much
and mourn much
and suffer much
before they
can hope to go back in peace to God. But why? Will your suffering save you?
Will your multiplied tears add anything to a Saviour’s worth? Is your dwelling
on fire? And must you wait until you are scorched with the flames before you
can escape in safety? Have you mistaken your road in journeying? And can you
recover your lost steps the better by delay or hesitation or fruitless grief?
Nay. You want all the time for actual pursuit. You have none to waste. Turn!
Turn! fly! Fly! ‘Tis madness to defer. Naomi goes to no other part of Moab
to
no other land of idolatry. She goes directly back to the land of Judah. This is
a blessed example. How many go from one broken cistern to another! But all
these efforts are vain. Edom or Babylon are no better than Moab. No. You must
fly to Bethlehem at once. Now is the accepted time. This is the day of your
salvation. (S. H. Tyng
D. D.)
How that the Lord had
visited His people in giving them bread.
God’s dealings with His people
I. God seeth His
people in adversity and want
and cometh in His due time to help them (Exodus 3:7-8)
which is from His mere
mercy and the stability of His love and promise to His people.
II. God hath ever
had more specially a people of His own called “His people.” This should make us
to examine ourselves how we be God’s people
whether according to creation or
after the work of regeneration.
III. Corporal food
and the necessaries of this life are God’s gift (Leviticus 26:4-5; Deuteronomy 11:14-15; Hosea 2:8-9; Joel 2:19). (R. Bernard.)
Good news from the far country
I. God will
certainly revive His people with some good news from heaven when their hearts
are almost dead within them upon earth (Proverbs 25:25). This cheered up her
drooping spirit
that was almost dead within her by her manifold afflictions.
This is one of God’s methods
first to kill and then to make alive (1 Samuel 2:6; Psalms 16:10; Psalms 18:16; Psalms 90:3); the good news God sent
concerning the weal of Zion to His people as they sat weeping by the waters of
Babylon (Psalms 137:1-2) was a little reviving to
them in their bondage (Ezra 9:8); and when His people were
humbled He then granted them some deliverance (2 Chronicles 12:7). Heaven is called
a far country (Matthew 25:14); good news from thence
brought in by the Holy Spirit. Oh
how welcome should that be to us and how
unspeakably comfortable! (1 Peter 1:8).
II. God hath His
visiting times and seasons in relation to His own people.
1. Sometimes God visits their sins (Jeremiah 14:10)
and then He fulfils His
word of threatening evil against them. This is called God’s visiting in His
anger (Job 35:15)
but He retains not His anger
for ever (Psalms 57:11).
2. He sometimes also visits in mercy (2 Samuel 24:16). This is that visit
which David begs
“Oh visit me with Thy salvation” (Psalms 106:4).
III. Grace and
bounty follow want and penury through Divine goodness to His people. After a
long scarcity (of ten years) God visits them with plenty. This holds true both
in the temporal and spiritual famine (Amos 8:11). (C. Ness.)
Naomi’s undying faith and loyalty to Israel’s God
During all those ten years of absence
Naomi had maintained in
undiminished strength her attachment to the service and worship of the true
God.”Among innumerable incorrupt she stood
” like Abdiel in the midst of fallen
angels
or like Noah in the midst of a revolted world. There must have been
root and reality about her religion to make it thus evergreen and perennial. So
have we sometimes seen in the Arabian desert a solitary palm fed by a fountain
and glassing its beauty and abundance in that from which it derived all its
verdure and life. How many persons are there whose religion could not endure
the test of an ordeal a hundred times less severe than this! It is a thing of
mere outward imitation and reflection. Withdraw them from the midst of
favouring external influences
and their superficial piety will speedily vanish
away like the morning dew. Like the vase that has been electrotyped so as to
resemble silver
a little tear and wear brings into view the inferior metal
which forms its real material. Carey used to complain bitterly
in his days
that the Christianity of many who came out of England to India did not survive
a sea voyage. It was all gone before they had “doubled the Cape.” In like
manner
the Sabbath-keeping and the church-attendance of multitudes have
undergone sad decadence during a few months of residence in Berlin or Paris.
And yet the degree in which our secret devotion and our Christian habits can
live and flourish in the midst of unfriendly influences and when dependent on
inward support alone
is the true test of the reality and strength of our
religion. Naomi had nobly stood this test
and had thus proved herself to be
“an Israelite indeed.” (A. Thomson
D. D.)
Her two daughters-in-law with her.
The promising commencement
Here we have the most happy and promising commencement of a new
work. We see them all set out together upon the same road and apparently for
the same result. No one who saw them set out upon their journey could
anticipate that they would voluntarily separate
or imagine that one was more
likely than the other to reach the end proposed. We are obliged to wait until
succeeding trials shall bring their real characters individually to light
before we can discriminate between them. By a great variety of means God stirs
up sinful men to seek after Himself. Anxious
excited
apparently earnest and
sincere
they set out upon their journey back to the gracious Being whom they
have so long neglected. Yes; they really set out
and appear to set out
sincerely. I do not mean that such persons feel their need and danger: that
they meditate sincerely upon their return to God; that they resolve they will
go back. No. I mean that they actually begin their journey. The prodigal not
only says
“I will arise and go to my father”; he does arise and go. The wise
and foolish virgins both take their lamps and go forth to meet the bridegroom.
Thus all go together “on the way to return into the land of Judah.” As far as
this journey lies still within the limits of Moab
so far they may unite to go.
Up to a certain point they must take the same path and travel in the same
direction: Ah
how many of these young travellers have I seen! The Church
delighted over them. Christian friends were encouraged by them. The brightest
and most blessed hopes clustered around them. The Lord only
who knoweth the
hearts of the children of men
could have told us which were the Orpahs and
which were the Ruths of this hopeful company. His judgment at the last
separates the precious from the vile
divides the gold from the dross
and
assigns to each his own place. But we must follow our travellers in their
journey
and see why and where they separate. As we thus follow them we see
them meet with many trials of faith and patience on the road. Your former
habits of sin are to be renounced. But
in addition to these
new habits of
conduct and feeling are to be acquired. The habit of secret prayer in your
closet and chamber; the habit of constant
earnest study of the Word of God;
the habit of watchfulness over your easily-besetting sins; the habit of caution
in your allowed indulgences; the habit of consideration and discernment in your
relations and company; the habit of resistance to your inward propensities to
evil; and
above all
the habit of constant remembrance of God your Saviour
and of simple
earnest faith in His presence
protection
and help; all these
if I should mention no more
are to be acquired
cultivated
and maintained. If
all this could be done by single effort
it would be easy work. But that is
impossible. It is a journey of successive steps
of continued progress; and you
have to press forward in it with the utmost determination and the most sincere
desire. But above all these habits of outward life
you have to come with the
deep sense of sin
with a consciousness that you are condemned and destitute
with an entire refusal to trust in any virtue or excellence of your own
and to
cast yourself in an affectionate and simple trust at your Saviour’s feet. When
you come to serve the Lord
you must prepare your soul for temptation. From the
day you set out on your heavenly journey discouragements and difficulties will
seem to multiply around you. The world will be arrayed against you. The habits
opinions
and plans of worldly people are constant obstacles in your way. The
professed Christians around you are often fearful obstacles in the way. You see
those who profess to follow Christ in many instances living just as gaily
as
extravagantly
as indulgently
often as sinfully
as if they had made no such
profession. Your own inward heart and feelings will often be very discouraging
to you. There is such backwardness in prayer; such want of deep interest in the
Word and service of God; so little sensible enjoyment often in your new path;
such a necessity for constant warfare and constant watchfulness within
yourself. If you relax a moment
you fall. Ah
these are great discouragements
great trials to your faith and patience. Nothing can endure through them but a
heart that really loves Jesus more than all the world
and a spirit that
willingly sacrifices itself for His service and glory. If this is your heart
and spirit
then all these discouragements are instruments of new strength.
Orpah may feel dispirited and weary. Ruth only loves the more
the more she is
tried. To Orpah the way grows more unattractive and tedious as she goes on. To
Ruth every step brings new determination and new desire to press on even to the
end. (S. H. Tyng
D. D.)
The Lord deal kindly with you.
Naomi’s prayer for her daughters-in-law
I. That it is a
duty to pray for those which do either us or ours good.
II. That at parting
friends are to pray one for another
as we may see the practice of it in Isaac
(Genesis 28:1; Genesis 28:3); Laban (Genesis 31:55); Jacob (Genesis 43:14); and in Paul (Acts 20:36).
III. That the godly
are persuaded that the Lord is a merciful rewarder of the duties of love which
one doth towards another (Colossians 3:24).
IV. That children
should so well deserve of parents
yea
though but parents-in-law
as they may
be moved heartily to pray for them
as Naomi doth in this place. A good
carriage is a duty towards all
then much more to parents; and the prayers of
parents is a means to put a blessing upon their children.
V. That God will
not only barely reward
but so deal with us as we deal with others. (R.
Bernard.)
The benedictions of life
The key-note of all I have to say is in that word “kindly.” The
argument is this. We can understand kindness in the sphere of the human
and
rise from that to a prayer for the Divine kindness. No society in any age can
be cemented together by force alone. Feudalism
for instance
in olden times
was not all terror. The baron could command his dependents in time of war
as
he fed and housed and clothed them in times of peace; but
as the old
chroniclers tell us
there was often a rare hospitality
a hearty cheerfulness
a chivalrous affection in the somewhat stern relationship.
I. The Lord knows
best what kindness is. The Lord deal kindly with you. Has He been kind? At
times we should have been tempted to answer
No! The vine is blighted
the
fig-tree withered
the locusts have spoiled the green of spring. Kindly? Yes
we shall answer one time when we stand in our lot at the end of days. For
kindness is not indulgence. God’s kindness to us may take forms which surprise
us. At the heart of His severest judgments there is mercy
in the bitter spring
there is healing water. The kindest things God has ever done for us have been
perhaps
the strangest and severest. So it was with Daniel and Jacob and Joseph
and Abraham
our father. All God’s ways are done in truth
and truth is always
kindness.
II. The Lord knows
best what others have been to us. “As you have dealt with the dead and me.” It
is a touching little sentence. The dead. So silent now. Never to come back
for
us to touch imperfectness into riper good. Gone! What a word of vacancy
and
silence
and subtle mystery! Is it strange we should wish well to those who
were kind to the dead? And Naomi links her own being with them still: “The dead
and me.” And with true hearts they never can be dissociated. Anniversaries of
remembrance make our separations no more distant. They soften them. They give
place for comforting remembrances: but the dead are near as ever. “The dead and
me!” Who shall separate? None. Christ died
yea
rather is risen again
and He
will raise us up together to the heavenly places.
III. The Lord alone
will be with us all through our future pilgrimage. Apart from Divine power
which we have not to bless with
there is Divine presence which we all need.
Christ will be with us to the end. Never will come a battle
a temptation
a
solitude
a sorrow
a needful sacrifice
but the Lord will be at hand.
IV. The Lord has
given us guarantees of His kindness. We are not left to meditate on rain and
fruitful seasons only. Not the green of spring
nor the south wind of summer
nor the gold of autumn alone proclaim His goodness.(W. M. Statham.)
As ye have dealt with the
dead
and with me.
Kindness to the departed
Let us inquire how many things a dying godly man leaves behind him
in this world. His soul is sent before him (Revelation 14:13). He leaveth behind
him--
I. His body
to
which we must be kind
by burial and lamentation.
II. His estate
to
which we must be kind
by careful and faithful administration.
III. His children
friends
or kindred
to whom we must be kind
by love and affection.
IV. His faults and failings
to which we must be kind
by silence and suppression.
V. His memory and
virtues
to which we must be kind
by congratulation
commemoration
and
imitation. (T. Fuller
B. D.)
Behaviour in the light of death
You know not
husbands and wives
how long you may dwell together.
Death may soon come
and will doubtless
sooner or later
come and tear away
the one of you from the other. When that event shall take place
how will you
wish to have behaved? Behave at present as you would then wish to have behaved
for then you will not be able to bring back the present time. Many great
miracles have been wrought by the power of God
but it never did
nor ever
will
recall the time that is past. How comfortable was it to Orpah and Ruth to
hear Naomi say
“Ye have dealt kindly with the dead!” And how comfortable was
the reflection to them through life that she had reason to give them this
commendation! (G. Lawson.)
Showing kindness to the dead
It was much to be able to say this
when we consider how
difficult the discharge of the duties of law-relationship often is
and how apt
it is to be judged with suspicion and severity even when it is well done. The
fact has been noticed long ago in the pages of many a Greek and Roman satirist.
But Naomi was not aware
when she spoke this generous tribute
how very much
their conduct had been the result of her own. She had won the confidence and
veneration of their young hearts by her unselfishness
her forbearance
her
charitable judgments
her holy consistency
and her discretion. We often make
for ourselves the beds we are to lie upon
and we may be certain that there
would be more Ruths in the world if there were more Naomis. But how blessed
when it can thus be said of us
that we have dealt kindly with the dead”! We
should make it our habitual and earnest aim so to behave ourselves towards our
kindred that
should we be called to stand beside their open graves
this would
be the testimony of others and of our own consciences. But we must not forget
that there is an important sense in which we may prove our undying love for the
dead by our kindness to the living. Those two young widows expressed their
affection for their departed husbands by their thoughtful attentions to Naomi.
They loved her for her own sake
but they loved her doubly for their sakes.
Religion
indeed
warrants us to think of our friends beyond the grave as still
living
though absent. David’s nobly generous spirit rejoiced that he could
still reach his departed Jonathan in lavishing respect and kindness upon
Jonathan’s only surviving son
Mephibosheth. And this sentiment reaches its
highest possible point of sublimity
and becomes
as it were
transfigured
when we show kindness to another because he belongs to Christ. In this way we
can still reach Him in His members
and anoint His blessed feet with our
precious ointment and wash them with our tears. That poor sufferer whom you
relieved by your benefactions and soothed by your sympathy was a disguised
Christ. Even the cup of cold water given to a disciple in the name of a
disciple is to be remembered by Him on another day. (A. Thomson
D. D.)
The Lord grant you that ye may find rest
each of you in the house
of her husband.
The rest of marriage
1. Man’s Maker is the chief maker of all men and women’s marriages in
the world. It is the work of God to provide an helpmeet for man
hence it is
called the covenant of God (Proverbs 2:17)
and therefore honourable
to all (Hebrews 13:4). Religious Naomi looks up
here unto God
saying in effect
“The Lord grant you good husbands.”Grace should
be sought for
in the first place
in those seven qualifications of good
matches and marriages: grace
race
face
arts
parts
portion
proportion.
2. A married state is a state of rest. So it is called here and Ruth 3:1. Hence marriage is called the
port or haven of young people
whose affections while unmarried are continually
floating and tossed to and fro like a ship upon the waters
till they come into
this happy harbour. There is a natural propension in most persons towards
nuptial communion
as all created beings have a natural tendency to their
proper centre
and are restless out of it. (C. Ness.)
Rest in marriage
If it is to be wished that wives may find rest in the houses of
their husbands
it must be the duty of husbands to do what they can to procure
them rest
not only by endeavouring to provide for them what is necessary for
their subsistence and comfortable accommodation
but by such a kind behaviour
as will promote their satisfaction and comfort. Men and women may have
affluence without rest
and rest without affluence. But let women also
contribute to procure rest for themselves by frugality
by industry
by such
behaviour to their husbands as will merit constant returns of kindness. (G.
Lawson.)
Surely we will return with thee.
Promises and purposes
I. Promises of
speech and purposes of heart
whether to God
to His church
or to individuals
ought to go hand in hand. If a man’s word does not express his meaning and bind
him
nothing can.
II. Promises and
purposes often proceed from passion instead of principle.
III. Promises and
purposes proceeding merely from passion soon fall to the ground. “I go
sir
”
one said in the Gospels
and “went not.” Some persons melting under the
ministry of the Word as a summer brook (Job 6:15-20). A changed heart necessary
to perseverance. Saul may have religious fits
and Jehu much zeal; for want of
a regenerated nature both come to nothing. (John Macgowan.)
Promise and purpose to be allied
1. Promises of speech and purposes of spirit should walk hand in hand
together. None ought to promise with their mouths what they do not purpose with
their hearts; this is to be fraudulent and deceitful
which is destructive to
human society. God’s children are all such as will not lie (Isaiah 63:8)
to say and unsay
or to say
one thing and think another
to blow hot and cold with one blast. Ye that have
promised to give up yourselves to Christ
and to go with Him in ways of
holiness
it must be your purpose to depart from iniquity (2 Timothy 2:19; Revelation 14:4; Hosea 2:7).
2. Promises of the mouth
yea
and purposes of the mind
do oft proceed from passion
and not from
principle. So did Orpah’s here; it was only a pang of passion which the
discreet matron prudently distrusts
and therefore tries them both with
powerful dissuasives. Thus Saul in a passion promised fairly to David (1 Samuel 24:16-17; 1 Samuel 26:21)
and David
discovered all those fair promises to proceed more from sudden passion than
from fixed principles; therefore did he distrust both his talk and his tears.
Hereupon David gets him up into the hold
well knowing there was little hold to
be taken at such passionate promises and protestations (1 Samuel 24:22). Yea
and out of the
land too
as not daring to trust his reconciliation in passion and strong
conviction without any true conversion (1 Samuel 26:25; 1 Samuel 27:1-2; 1 Samuel 27:4)
otherwise his malice
had been restless and he faithless.
3. Purposes and promises that proceed from passion
and not from
principle
do soon dwindle away into nothing. Thus did Orpah’s (Ruth 1:14)
who said with that son in the
parable (Matthew 21:30)
“I go
sir”; yea
but
when
sir? So here
it is certain we will return with thee
was enough
uncertain. It is a maxim
second thoughts are better than first
but Orpah’s
first were better than her second; her purposes and promises do dwindle away
and vanish into smoke. (C. Ness.)
The failure of good impulses
The bright morning does not always shine into the perfect day; the
sweetest spring-bud of promise does not always ripen into precious fruit. The
seed that was cast on stony ground grew rapidly up
but withered in a moment.
Orpah’s decision was the decision of impulsive feeling
of filial affection; it
was strong suddenly
it grew up in an instant
and in an instant it perished;
and she resolved to forsake Ruth and Naomi
and return to her gods
her people
and her country. (J. Cumming.)
It grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is
gone out against me.
Naomi’s parting address
This is a great aggravation of the afflictions of many parents
that their children are involved with themselves. They could bear poverty
they
could bear reproach
they could bear death itself
had they none who depended
on them for bread and for respectability in the world. God has the same right
to rule over the fruit of our bodies as over ourselves
and to allot to them
their share of the good or the bad things of this world. It is bitterest of
all
when we have reason to think that our sins have provoked God to punish us
in the persons of our friends
or to inflict those strokes which our friends
must feel as heavily as ourselves. Let us beware of ever exposing ourselves to
such heart-piercing reflections by conduct that may bring down God’s
displeasure upon our families. God’s people may sometimes
without good reason
think that the hand of the Lord is gone forth against them
in the calamities
which befall their families or friends. Our afflictions are hard enough to be
borne by us
without the addition of groundless reflections against ourselves.
At the same time
the error is much more common of insensibility to the Divine
displeasure
when it has been really kindled by our sins
than of vexing
ourselves with unjust suspicions of God’s anger. There is one thing that still
remains to be considered concerning this parting speech of Naomi to her
daughters-in-law. Why did she dissuade them from going with her to the land of
Judah
where the true God was well known
and persuade them to return to a
country of abominable idolaters? We are not bound to justify all that Naomi
spake or did. But
in charity to that good woman
we ought to believe that
for
years past
she had been endeavouring
by her practice and her converse
to
recommend to her young friends the worship of the God of Israel. If they were
truly turned from the error of their ways
nothing that is here said was likely
to drive them back to their own country. They might have been disgusted even
with Naomi’s own conduct
if she had not fairly told them what inconveniences
they were to encounter in going to her land
and to her people. Our Lord very
plainly told His followers what they were to expect in His service. “The foxes
have holes
” etc. We may
however
observe
that Christ usually administered
proper antidotes against the fears which the doctrine of the Cross might excite
in the minds of His hearers. It may be doubted whether Naomi
in the dejection
of her spirits
did not overlook the powerful consolations which might have
encouraged her young friends to follow her into the land of Israel
and would
have more than compensated all the inconveniences to which they would have been
exposed in a strange land. Doubtless she had often spoken of those privileges
to them in former times; but as yet they had not learned their nature
and
perhaps Naomi now despaired of ever being able to give them a perfect idea of
it. (G. Lawson.)
Orpah kissed her mother-in-law; but Ruth clave unto her.
Orpah’s defection
I. Worldly
respects are great hindrances in the course of godliness. The world keepeth
from the entertaining of the truth (Matthew 22:5); it hindereth in the
receiving of it.
II. An unsound
heart may for a time make a fair show in the way to Canaan
but yet turn back
at the last
as Orpah doth here. And this is by reason
first
of certain
motions of religion
which maketh them in general to approve of the same;
holding this
that it is a good thing to be religious
and that none can find
fault with a man for that. Further
the working of the Word
moving the heart
in some sort to entertain it. And
lastly
the desire of praise and good esteem
with men: these will make hollow hearts to set on a while to heavenward
but
shall not be able to enter.
III. Such as want
soundness towards God for religion may yet have otherwise commendable parts in
them. For Orpah is commended for a kind wife
as well as Ruth by Naomi
and for
a kind daughter-in-law (verse 8); and she showed good humanity in going on the
way with her mother-in-law
yea
a good natural affection in weeping so at
parting. (R. Bernhard.)
Orpah; or
the mere professor
An onlooker not able to discover the difference between Orpah and
Ruth so far. The crisis has come. Both had made professions (verse 10). Here
the difference is made apparent.
I. We learn that
it is possible to go a long way towards Christianity and yet not to be a
Christian. To be born
educated
and dwell in Christian households
these are
great blessings
but do not constitute or make a Christian. It will not do to
be almost
we must be altogether
decided for Christ. The cup that is almost
sound will not hold water. The ship that is almost whole will not weather the
storm. Feelings
sentiment
profession are all good if they spring from a
living faith in Jesus Christ; without this they are worse than worthless.
II. We learn that
it is possible to deceive ourselves
and to think that all is right when in
truth all is wrong with our souls. Hardly possible that Orpah played the
conscious hypocrite. She meant what she did when she became a proselyte--did
not deliberately act a part. Feeling and sentiment (love for her husband)
blinded her eyes. Love to God
which she had thought supreme in her heart
subordinate to the love of Moab. This often so with men; they are not
hypocrites
they are self-deceivers. Education
circumstances
the force of
influences around them
produce an emotional religion which they mistake for
vital godliness. They hear with joy like the “stony-ground hearers.”
III. We learn that
our religion will not profit us at all unless it be characterised by
perseverance to the end. Improvement: Is our profession a mere profession or
the fruit of a living faith? Brought by circumstances to the boundary-line
between life and death
have we stopped there? The Bible full of such
instances. Felix trembled; Balaam prophesied; Herod heard gladly; Judas sat at
the sacramental table with our Lord! Whatever we do
we must not stop short of
conversion; if we do
we perish. (Aubrey C. Price
B. A.)
A good word for Orpah
The others did not greatly blame her
and we
for our part
may
not reproach her. It is unnecessary to suppose that in returning to her
kinsfolk and settling down to the tasks that offered in her mother’s house she
was guilty of despising truth and love and renouncing the best. We may
reasonably imagine her henceforth bearing witness for a higher morality
and
affirming the goodness of the Hebrew religion among her friends and
acquaintances. Ruth goes where affection and duty lead her; but for Orpah too
it may be claimed that in love and duty she goes back. She is not one who says
“Moab has done nothing for me; Moab has no claim upon me; I am free to leave my
country; I am under no debt to my people.” We shall not take her as a type of
selfishness
worldliness
or backsliding
this Moabite woman. Let us rather
believe that she knew of those at home who needed the help she could give
and
that with the thought of least hazard to herself mingled one of the duty she
owed to others. (R. A. Watson
M. A.)
Thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people
and unto her gods.
Backsliding
1. The backslidings of such as set out fair
and do begin well
is a
sore temptation to young converts and proselytes. It was no less to the very
disciples themselves (John 6:66-67). Thus it was also an occasion
of stumbling unto the primitive Christians to behold the backslidings of two
such forward professors as Hymenaeus and Philetus had been; insomuch that the
apostle saith to them
“Nevertheless the foundation” (of God’s election)
“standeth sure; the Lord knoweth them that are His
” etc. As the multitude of
sinners cannot give any patronage to the evil ways of sin
so neither can the
paucity of saints put any disgrace or disparagement upon the good ways of God.
2. Some forward followers of the only true and living God may
apostatise from thence to embrace the vanities of the Gentiles.
3. That love to the ways and worship of God is a sincere love which
doth undergo trials and temptations
yet bears up against all: godly Ruth rides
out the storm against wind and tide of both the sister’s pattern and the
mother’s precept. (C. Ness.)
The painful separation
Nothing can be more encouraging to the Christian heart than to see
the young setting out to seek the Lord. It is a beautiful exercise and
exhibition of youth. Never do the morning hours appear so bright or so
promising. We cannot suspect the sincerity of any
and therefore we encourage
them to press forward. We have seen these youthful travellers going with Naomi
out of the place where they dwelt
on the way to return unto the land of Judah.
For a time they travel together happily and affectionately. There is a line
which divides Moab from Judah. This is a painful but an inevitable crisis. The
two sisters must separate. There is just such a line in our soul’s history
where similar entire separation must take place. The awakened mind sees its own
sinfulness and need
acknowledges the darkness and emptiness of the Moab in
which it has dwelt
and truly feels the importance of those blessed offers
which the gospel proclaims. The Holy Spirit has taught the sinner the
guiltiness and wretchedness of his past life. He knows
he sees
he feels the
truth. But he does not love the truth. He does not embrace and choose it for
his own
his portion for ever. If he would really do this
all would be well.
His heart he cannot
will not
give to Christ. Anything else he will do. But
nothing else will avail him anything. Poor Orpah! How often have I seen young
travellers to eternity stopping just where you stop; hesitating just where you
hesitate. Nothing more can be done for you where you are. There is Moab. You
have tried that
and found it empty and unhappy. There is Judah. All its
provisions and offers are before you
and brought for your acceptance. Never
will you be sorry if you take your portion there. Here are Naomi and Ruth. They
are journeying to the land which the Lord hath promised them. Soon they will be
far from you
out of your sight. Then you will mourn over the separation which
you foolishly made. You may go back to Moab
and bury yourself in its sins and
follies. But you will find no peace or happiness there. Your conscience will
never again allow you to rest. Orpah goes “back to her people and her gods.”
This is a most important fact in her history. She does not
cannot remain where
they part. That is a place most unnatural and unattractive. No; she goes back
while Ruth and Naomi go forward. The separation grows wider every hour. This is
a most affecting illustration. The awakened and convinced mind can never abide at
the line where a Saviour is refused. There is no permanency in such a state of
mind. There is no home for the soul there. You go back. It may be to
self-indulgence
dissipation
and sensual delights. It may be to giddiness
frivolity
and empty
cheerless mirth. It may be to business
covetousness
and
unceasing occupation. It may be to infidelity and assumed unbelief and
argument. It may be to open hostility and persecution of the gospel
and those
who love it. It may be to absolute and dreadful hardness of heart. But to
whatever it shall be
you still go back. The worst opposers of the gospel we
ever meet are those who once were almost Christians. But you say you will
hereafter return to Christ. You cannot do this but by His own Spirit. And that
Spirit you have driven far from you. There is a spring that returneth in
creation when the winter has gone. But you have buried the sacred seed of your
soul’s welfare beneath a winter which knows no coming spring. You will mourn at
the last
when your flesh and your body are consumed. But it will be with a
worldly sorrow which worketh death
and not with a godly sorrow which worketh
repentance unto salvation. This is the fearful prospect in your return with
Orpah. (S. H. Tyng
D. D.)
Orpah
I. Orpah was a
Moabitish woman--had been married to one of the sons of Elimelech--and was now
a widow. She had been brought up amid the absurdities and impurities and
superstitions of idolatry. But her connection with an Israelitish family was a
great advantage to her
and ought to have been improved by her
to the benefit
of her soul
and deemed a peculiar privilege and blessing. Oh
then
let us
associate with those who live for another world whose spirit and words and
conduct diffuse the savour of heaven
and are calculated to keep God and
eternity in our minds.
II. Orpah possessed
many natural excellences
which made her lovely and amiable
though still
lacking that new heart and that devotedness to God without which no man can be
saved.
1. Orpah acted well in the character of a wife.
2. Orpah conducted herself with kindness and tenderness and affection
towards her mother-in-law
Naomi
also.
3. Another valuable feature
which we cannot view but with great
interest
in the character of Orpah
was her intention to accompany Naomi to
the land of Judah. It is well to see hopeful beginnings--to see the careless
aroused
the indifferent in some degree alarmed about their sins
and paying
more attention than before to the welfare of their souls. It is well to see the
profane putting on the decencies of morality
and renouncing their vile habits
and pursuits. It is well
we say
to see these hopeful signs. But
alas! they
often disappoint our fondest hopes.
III. Orpah’s fatal
deficiency
She only began her march to Canaan--her resolution failed--she
persevered not
but returned to her own land! Naomi wished not to prevent
either Ruth or Orpah from accompanying her to Canaan
but from doing so for her
sake. She had no earthly inducement to hold out to them. If they came
she
wished them to come from religious considerations alone. If we take up the
cause of God from any but spiritual motives--if we attach ourselves to the
cause and people of God from earthly views
our religion is hateful in heaven.
The “loaves and fishes” are to have nothing to do with our pursuit of Christ
but the attractions of His grace--the privilege of serving Him
and a supreme
desire to be His--His alone--His for ever.
1. Orpah forsook the cause of God--she returned to her people. Their
maxims and their habits
after all
were more congenial with her mind. Woe
awaits those who are kept from “following the Lord fully” from regard to
earthly connections and associates.
2. Orpah forsook the cause of God with great reluctance.
Agrippa-like
she was almost persuaded to go with her to the land of Judah
yet
though with many misgivings
she retraced her steps to her own country
and saw her no more. Now
with the view of inducing these wavering characters
who are thus daily withstanding the convictions of their own minds--who return
to Moab
but with many tears--to hasten out of their present condition
we beg
to say a few words concerning their danger. It is a great mercy to have our
minds in the smallest degree impressed with Divine things
and awakened to the
importance of the things which accompany salvation. It is a mercy to be made to
feel some measure of anxiety about our never-dying souls and their everlasting
welfare. It is the Holy Ghost striving with us
and bidding us to consider our
peril while yet it may be avoided. With the view of urging these characters to
a speedy determination to be altogether on the Lord’s side
we beg to add a few
remarks likewise concerning their present folly. When man neglects to follow
the admonitions of his conscience
he deprives himself of all comfort. He
cannot enjoy inward tranquillity in this state. There is something within him
constantly telling him that his end cannot be desirable if a radical spiritual
change does not take place in him. He cannot have real joy in this condition.
If your religion resembles that of Orpah
give God no rest till the weight of
your transgression drives you to the Saviour
and a believing view of His
matchless love constrains you to devote your persons and your talents to His
service and glory. (John Hughes.)
Orpah and Ruth
I. Family sorrows.
1. Want.
2. Separation.
3. Death.
II. Family errors.
1. Preference of worldly comfort before religious privileges.
2. Formation of worldly connections.
III. Family
attachments.
1. Their power. The amiableness of Naomi has so attached these
idolaters to her that they are willing to forsake even their own mother.
2. Their weakness. The case of Orpah may teach us that an attachment
to religious people is not religion; nor can it
of itself
produce religion in
the heart.
IV. Family mercies.
1. The return of moderate prosperity.
2. Converting grace bestowed upon an idolater. (Homilist.)
The danger of religious indifference
A family perished
not long ago
by a fire in their own house.
They were not consumed by the flames
but suffocated by the smoke. No blaze was
visible at all
nor could any alarming sign of fire be discovered from the
street
and yet death came as effectually upon them as if they had been burned
to ashes. Thus is sin fatal in its consequences
few being destroyed by
outrageous forms of it
flaming up with lurid glare
but multitudes perishing
by the stifling smoke of indifference and spiritual slumber. (J. H. Norton.)
Unto her people
and unto her gods
When Christian set out from the City of Destruction
he too
for a
short part of his journey
was attended by two companions: the first indeed
Obstinate
only went with him in order to try and bring him back to what he
considered wiser courses
but the other
Pliable
was absolutely sincere in his
desire to reach the Celestial City.” I intend to go along with this good man
”
he said
“and to cast in my lot with him”; he might have availed himself of the
words of sincerely-meant devotion in which Orpah joined with Ruth
and have
declared
“Surely I will return with thee unto thy people.” Yet
as we know
when the pilgrims
“being heedless
” fell into the Slough of Despondency
poor
Pliable
his virtuous intentions notwithstanding
“gave a desperate struggle or
two
and got out of the mire
on that side of the Slough which was next to his
own house. So away he went
and Christian saw him no more.” There are one or
two particulars in which the behaviour of Orpah was not unlike that of well
meaning Pliable. To begin with
there can be no question but that she had a
sincere affection and regard for Naomi
and would genuinely have liked to spend
the remainder of her days in her society; but the attachment was purely
personal
and in all such friendships there is a breaking point
a limit to the
extent to which others are prepared to follow us. For it is only us whom they
are following
and our path may lead us into circumstances more trying than
they are prepared to undergo whose hearts are not buoyed up by the hope which
animates our own. Another somewhat sad reflection respecting the history of
Orpah springs from the fact that she actually started for the better land
and
indeed went some considerable way on the journey. The thought of those
fellow-travellers of ours who set out so cheerily with us and yet failed after
all to persevere is one of the saddest that comes into our memory when we
review our pilgrimage. We call to mind their fervour
their enthusiasm
their
kindly interest; we shall never forget how our heart sank within us when they
announced their intention of turning back. And in the case of Orpah our
feelings are the more regretful because we bear in mind that she was full of
the best possible resolutions of going further still. “Surely
” she said
no
less earnestly than did Ruth herself
“Surely we will return with thee unto thy
people.” But
as we have already noticed
the desire in her mind was to be
as
she put it
“with thee “; it was the personal element in her relation to Naomi
which
however charming in itself
constituted the weakness of her position--it
was on this rock that her frail vessel was wrecked at last. Further
if Orpah’s
decision pains us
can we remain unmoved at Orpah’s tears? She is quite clear
in her own mind that she can go no further; she will leave no inconsiderable
portion of her heart behind her when she says farewell to Naomi; she lifted up
her voice and wept; she lifted up her voice and wept again. Alas for the
impotence of tears! The question for each to ask himself is not
What have I
felt? but
What have I done? Orpah loved Naomi dearly
and wept bitterly at the
prospect of parting from her
but returned to her people and her gods
nevertheless. And here we must pause to inquire how far Naomi was to blame for
the failure of Orpah. We recognise the honesty with which the older woman
points out to her companions the sacrifice which they will be called upon to
make if they elect to go further with her. She must have known
she evidently
did know
that by turning back Orpah was losing her reversionary interest in
the property of her deceased husband
yet we do not find Naomi telling her of
this. Warn people by all means that life in the kingdom of heaven is the life
of a servant and a soldier
but tell them too that their entry into the kingdom
has made them inheritors of a possession greater and more real than anything
than the world can offer
and which it would be the most fearful madness to
throw away. Love had brought Orpah a long way towards the land of Judah: might
not a little affectionate entreaty have brought her further still? It is
important that before passing away from the story of Orpah we should try to
realise what it was that she lost by turning back. And with the inheritance
redeemed as it was by Boaz
Orpah had also lost the honour--Ruth’s chiefest
glory in the ages yet to come--of being the ancestress of David and of the
Messiah. Of all the promises to Abraham
that upon which in all probability the
patriarch set the greatest store was God’s pledge that in him all the nations
of the world should be blessed. To be an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven is
in itself a marvel of grace
the true meaning of which we shall never fully
know here
but to have it in one’s power to bring redemption within the reach
of others
surely this is an infinitely greater marvel still. God offers us
salvation as the satisfaction of the needs of our own heart; but He also offers
it to us in order that we may be qualified as the possessors of it to work with
Him in plucking from the burning those who are the bondsmen of Satan and of sin.
What answer shall we give to Him that speaketh? (H. A. Hall
B. D.)
The parting-place
Where was it that Orpah parted from her companions? She went with
them some way
possibly a great way
but at last they reached a point in the
journey which was geographically
so to speak
one of decision
one beyond
which no one could pass without committing herself to new things and a new
life
and at this point Orpah made up her mind to return. What more likely than
that this point was the river itself
which if they adopted the southern route
would form the boundary between Moab and the land of Judah? The river flows
still
and each pilgrim has to make up his mind whether or not he shall cross
it. There
then
flows the river: shall we cross? Sometimes it seems to us to
be the river of surrender. Can I give myself wholly and unreservedly to God?
And can I give up
or consent to His taking from me
whatever is contrary to
His will and therefore to my happiness
love it as I may? Sometimes the river
is one of confession. We have travelled thus far without our life or our
relation to the world being appreciably affected or altered
and God
who is
infinitely tender in His dealing with the returning soul
often postpones the
necessity of or the occasion for a definite confession of our allegiance to Him
until we are strong enough to make it. Yet sooner or later the river has to be
crossed
and the more definitely the confession is made the better it always is
for the soul. And sometimes the river is that of a consistent life.” I would
not shrink from throwing in my lot with that of the people of God
” says many
an one
“if I could only hope to lead a consistent life: I will make no
profession unless I can carry it out
and I fail to see how under my
circumstances that can be possible.” Certainly God requires that those who
follow Him shall follow Him fully
as Caleb did
but God asks no one to lead
the life of faith in his own strength or trusting to his own resources. A new
life lies before you; but to enable you to live it
God offers you new
strength. (H. A. Hall
B. D.)
Ruth said
Intreat me not to leave thee
or to return.
Ruth and Naomi
I. Every person is
tested. Sooner or later
but certainly. The tests will vary in severity with
the cases. In every case they will be conclusive
determining the genuineness
of the life professed. They cannot be evaded. If one is for Christ
he will
continue with Him. The test of God cannot be too severe. The true follower
cannot be driven away. To the strongest appeals he replies: “Lord
to whom
shall I go?”
II. When tested
an
Orpah will go back. Why should she leave so much for so little? Naomi was only
her mother-in-law. There was her own mother standing and beckoning in the
doorway of the old
home. She was not only leaving home and country
she was leaving her God. With
much depth of feeling
there was not depth enough to bind her heart.
III. A ruth
when
tested
goes on. What is the difference between her and Orpah
leading to this
different conduct?
1. Her devotion to Naomi. She was less impulsive
perhaps
than her
sister
but hers was a love which bore testing. The Greeks and Latins
among
their fine discriminations
distinguished between the emotional love of feeling
and the intelligent love of choice. Orpah’s love was the former; that of Ruth
was the love of choice. It grew out of careful reflection. It was a deep
undying attachment.
2. The religious foundation of her conduct. This is a trait
if not
wholly wanting in her sister
too weak for any mention--a trait beside which
Ruth’s exceeding love is wholly secondary. Ruth had chosen her mother’s God.
3. Her resolute exercise of will. She was moved by Naomi’s appeals.
She thought anew of what she was leaving. She heard tender voices calling her
of the living
of the dead: “Come back
come back.” Her heart began to yield.
When Orpah returned
she could scarcely resist the impulse to go with her. Then
“she strengthened herself.” She summoned her soul. She put forth a supreme
exercise of will.
IV. Ruth received
her reward. She became an ancestress of the world’s Redeemer. (Sermons by
the Monday Club.)
Ruth’s choice
All the elements of a true choice of God are here described.
1. It involves the surrender of a false belief. This quiet scene may
be placed beside that on Carmel. Ruth’s decision is mightier in its gentleness
than Israel’s in its terror. In manner the two are as unlike as the dawn to the earthquake; in results
as the clear ray of a planet to the flash of a meteor. In essence they are the
same. Our false god has no repulsive name
such as Baal or Chemosh; its real
title is self
its worship sin
its wages death. It must be surrendered.
2. True choice of God involves sacrifice. To start out with Naomi
meant not pleasantness
but bitterness. Ruth followed
as she thought
to
loneliness
homelessness
perpetual widowhood; against the desire of those she
left
without the wish of those to whom she was going; ready to work
to beg
to
die if need be
for the one who stood to her as representing God. To-day
Canaan in the Church welcomes even Moab to its circle. Earthly advantages are
largely on its side. But a cross seems to wait somewhere in the way
if only
that sore surrender of pride and pleasure and will which prompt the soul’s real
refusal.
3. God sends help to a right choice. Providences both of joy and of
sorrow; attractions and repulsions of heart; subtle influences of
companionship; favour and famine; marriage and mourning; our life is one long
plea for Him.
4. A decision is forced. Somewhere in the way comes a test. On either
side example
desire
promise; we must hold to the one and forsake the other.
5. Right decision has its great rewards. What Ruth feared proved only
unsuspected blessings. Losing her life
she found it. Bishop Hall exclaims:
“Oh
the sure and beautiful payment of the Almighty! Who ever forsook the Moab
of this world for the true Israel
and did not at length rejoice in the
change?” (Charles M. Southgate.)
Conduct of Orpah and Ruth contrasted
It is the difference between feeling and principle in religion
between emotion and consecration
kissing and cleaving.
I. Emotion has its
large appointed place in life. It is the colour and fragrance of the soul’s
world. It gives both impulse and reward to action. Emotion has great play in
religion. God appeals to it. The character of God is so presented as to excite
our emotions. We tremble at His awfulness
adore His greatness. The story of
Christ’s life and death has power to move us beyond all else. The insensible
heart is usually a selfish heart. But--
II. Emotion will
not take the place of consecration. Here distinguish between sensuous and
spiritual impressions. There is a peace
a rapture
which the Spirit breathes
into the believing soul
the promised manifestation of Christ to him “that hath
My commandments and keepeth them.” This is the reward of obedience
not its
substitute; is not of nature
but of grace. No degree of feeling about
religious things is religion. Natural fondness toward God
as toward parents
may be the mere delight of an emotional nature
a snare to the soul and an
affront to Him. What joy to Christ that eyes which overflow for a novel or a
play should moisten at the story of Calvary? There is need of searchings of
heart and stings of conscience in unsuspected places. Orpah and Ruth feel
alike
love alike
but part for ever at the test of following.
III. The true office
of emotion is to draw to consecration. Feeling is for the sake of following.
The Church has still no realm of mightier influence than a consecrated home.
The heaviest condemnation of many in the day of judgment will be that they
resisted the influences and withstood the prayers of a godly home.
IV. Choosing God is
proved by choosing
God’s people. The world estimates our relation to Christ by
our relation to His followers. Yet it often seems as if men must be twice
converted
first to Christ
and again to His Church. Do not let this woman’s
devotion shame us. She gave up
literally
all her world for God. True devotion
to Christ turns to His Church with Ruth’s matchless consecration. (Charles
M. Southgate.)
Ruth; or
decision for God
1. An impulsive religion is not always real religion; nay
is very
often the reverse. Better
far better
to be quiet and undemonstrative like
Ruth
and to have the root of the matter in us
than to be impulsive and
demonstrative like Orpah
and in the hour of trial to fail. A straw will show
in what direction the stream is flowing. Ask yourself
“How do I act in little
things? Is self habitually postponed to God? And this because the Lord is my
joy?”
2. The importance of (nay
the necessity for) an entire surrender of
ourselves to God
if we would be Christians indeed. Let us ask ourselves
“Is
it thus with me and the Saviour? Have I thus taken Christ to be mine? Do I thus
cleave to Him? Is He supreme in my affections?”
3. The choice which we have been considering must be made with the
full determination to abide by it
come weal or come woe
for ever. (Aubrey
C. Price
B. A.)
Ruth’s trial and decision
It must have been a severe trial to Ruth’s constancy when
she beheld her sister-in-law
who had probably been the companion of her youth
and the friend of her early widowhood
turning away back to Moab and its
idol-gods and leaving her alone with Naomi; for we are greatly influenced for
good or for evil by sympathy and numbers. And had her steadfastness now
depended on her human relations and affections alone
and had her heart not
stricken down and rooted itself in something that was Divine
she would in all
likelihood have returned after her sister-in-law. When one flower in a garden
is pulled up
it loosens the hold of all the other flowers near it
unless they
are much more deeply rooted. And Naomi’s words seemed to give a voice to this
temptation: “Behold
thy sister-in-law has gone back unto her people
and unto
her gods: return thou after thy sister-in-law.” This was like giving an
increased momentum to the stroke
or feathering the arrow and driving it to its
mark. But let us not misunderstand the venerable woman in her yearning interest
and disguised love. There was a hidden harmony between her treatment of Ruth
and the rule to deal gently with young converts as you would do with the early
spring blossom or with the new-born child. But she dreaded a choice made from
mere temporary impulse or secondary motives. The cable that is to connect the
ship with the anchor needs to be tested in every strand or link. One weak point
makes all weak
and may be the occasion of death to thousands. Suppose Ruth to
go on to Bethlehem-judah
to be brought face to face with the stern realities
of penury
and then to regret her choice and to steal away back to Moab
would
not the most sacred interests suffer the most? Here
then
was her “valley of
decision.” Naomi had anticipated the maxim
“Try before you trust”; but she was
equally ready to obey the other part of it
“Trust after you have tried.” (A.
Thomson
D. D.)
Whither thou goest
I will
go; . . . thy people
shall be my people
and thy God my God.
Ruth: Mind
its purposes and powers
1. That private families are as much under the providence of God as the houses of kings.
2. That whilst religion does not secure from the ordinary trials of
life
it does secure their being overruled for good.
3. That a devout committal of our being to God in His providence will
never fail of its reward. In the text we have--
I. A deliberate
resolution for the true.
1. The true in society.
2. The true in worship.
II. A social
influence for the true.
1. Naomi represented her country
and her people
and her God
to
Ruth.
2. The representation which Naomi gave was most attractive.
III. An invincible
energy for the time.
1. This force triumphed over all old associations.
2. This force overcame all the pleadings of Naomi.
3. This force changed her social condition and her destiny.
Away with the dogma that man is the creature of circumstances! The
soul is a mariner that can so pilot her barque as to make the most hostile
winds waft her to the shores on which her heart is set. She is an eagle that
can rise above the darkest thundercloud of circumstances
and bask in sunlight
whilst that cloud spends itself in wild tempests beneath her buoyant wing. (Homilist.)
Ruth’s decision
I. The
circumstances of her decision.
II. The extent of
her decision. It
comprehends the sum of all her actions
and reaches to the utmost limit of her
existence. Profession without principle is nothing.
III. The felicity of
her decision. There is no substantial happiness apart from real religion.
Application:
1. Are we Christians? Then we have each a soul to save--a God to
serve.
2. Are we yet undecided? Ruth is our pattern.
3. Are we indifferent? Then we resemble Orpah
Ruth’s sister-in-law.
(F. Ellaby
B. A.)
The faithful choice
1. It was an humble choice. She has nothing to offer but herself. She
affects not to bring anything which can make her of any worth. She pleads only
for permission to be to Naomi in her future life all that affection and
fidelity can make her. She has nothing else to offer. It matters not in what
condition of life the child of earth was born
when the Holy Spirit brings her
heart to Jesus she comes as a beggar. Parents and sisters may say she has been
always the light and comfort of the household. They are ready to think she has
never sinned. And yet she feels the burden of guilt
and weeps
and prays over
the remembrance of her foolish
wasted life. The preciousness of the faithful
saying
that Jesus came into the world to save sinners
is her only comfort.
The assurance that the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was
lost is her single encouragement and support.
2. It was an affectionate choice. Her heart is with Naomi. Her
desires all reach forward to the land to which Naomi journeys
and thither
on
whatever terms
she must and she will go. It is just such a choice to which the
Saviour would lead you all.” My daughter
give Me thy heart
” is His tender
appeal to you. And our youthful
spiritual traveller freely and affectionately
responds
“I give my heart to Thee; Thy face will I seek; hide not Thy face
from me.” Her choice is of the Saviour
because she really loves Him. Infinite
attractions are gathered around Him. His service seems to her all that she can
desire.
3. Ruth’s choice was an entire one. There was no hesitation in her
mind about the decision she should make. She manifested no remaining love for
Moab
and no lingering desire to carry something of Moab with her. And it was
this entire choice which made the happiness of her future course. She made the
exchange
the transfer of herself
freely
completely
and without reserve. And
there was nothing left to turn her back to Moab in her possible experience
hereafter. When the choice of a Saviour is thus entire
how completely it opens
the way for future duty! How it settles all future discussions and difficulties
with a single decision! The secret of happiness in religion is just here.
Making it the entire
single choice of the heart. The troubles and difficulties
in the Saviour’s service habitually arise from the vain attempt to serve two
masters.
4. Ruth’s choice was a determined choice. Lovely and gentle as she
appears
and humbly and affectionately as she pleads
there was amazing dignity
and firmness in her stand. Some of the most triumphant and remarkable deaths in
the history of early martyrdom for Christ are of young and tender virgins who
calmly and boldly endured every conceivable torture without a moment’s
faltering. “I am a Christian
” was their gentle but firm reply to every
solicitation to recant
until
worn out with suffering
they departed to be
with Christ. You may never be called to the same sorrows. But you will be
always summoned to the same decision. Jesus will always require from you the
same unshrinking
determined choice.
5. Ruth’s choice was an instant choice. She asked no time for
consideration. Her mind was made up. Her decision was settled. She staggered
not in unbelief
nor wavered amidst conflicting motives. Why should we ever
hesitate a moment in our acceptance of the Saviour’s offers? Surely when the
Lord sets before us life and death
a blessing and a curse
and bids us choose
for ourselves which we will have
we require no time for consideration. It has
become a mere question of personal voluntary choice. This can never be settled
but by our own personal decision and act. If it is to be settled
it must be
finally
in a single moment of time. Why should that moment be delayed? Why
should that frank and affectionate choice be postponed? Make an instant choice.
Say
“When Thou sayest
Seek ye My face
my heart replies
Thy face
Lord
will
I seek.” Why should any of you hesitate? All the arguments of truth
of
interest
of duty
of happiness
are on one side. (S. H. Tyng
D. D.)
The noble choice
Five choices Ruth made
and five choices must we all make if we
ever want to get to heaven.
1. In the first place
if we want to become Christians
we must
like
Ruth in the text
choose the Christian’s God--a loving God; a sympathetic God;
a great hearted God; an all-encompassing God; a God who flings Himself on this
world in a very abandonment of everlasting affection.
2. Again
if we want to be Christians
like Ruth in the text we must
take the Christian’s path. “Where thou goest
I will go
” cried out the beautiful
Moabitess to Naomi. Dangerous promise that. There were deserts to be crossed.
There were jackals that came down through the wilderness. There were bandits.
There was the Dead Sea. Naomi says “Ruth
you must go back. You are too
delicate to take this journey. You will give out in the first five miles. You
have not the physical stamina
or the moral courage
to go with me.” Ruth
responds: “Mother
I am going
anyhow. If I stay in this land I will be
overborne of the idolaters; if I go along with you I shall serve God. Give me
that bundle. Let me carry it. I am going with you
mother
anyhow.”
3. Again
if we want to become Christians
like Ruth in the text we
must choose the Christian’s habitation. “Where thou lodgest
will I lodge
”
cried Ruth to Naomi. She knew that wherever Naomi stopped
whether it were
hovel or mansion
there would be a Christian home; and she wanted to be in it.
4. If we want to become Christians
like Ruth in the text we must
choose Christian associations. “Thy people shall be my people!” cried out Ruth
to Naomi. Oh
ye unconverted people
I know not how you can stand it down in
that moping
saturnine worldly association. Come up into the sunlight of
Christian society--those people for whom all things are working right now
and
will work right for ever. I tell you that the sweetest japonicas grow in the
Lord’s garden; that the largest grapes are from the vineyards of Canaan; that
the most sparkling floods break forth from the “Rock of Ages.” Do not too much
pity this Ruth of my text; for she is going to become joint-owner of the great
harvest-fields of Boaz.
5. Once more
if we want to become Christians
we must
like Ruth in
the text
choose the Christian’s death and burial. She exclaimed: “Where thou
diest will I die
and there will I be buried.” I think we all
when leaving
this world
would like to be surrounded by Christian influences. You would not
like to have your dying pillow surrounded by caricaturists
and punsters
and
wine-bibbers. How would you like to have John Leech come with his London
pictorials
and Christopher North with his loose fun
and Tom Hood with his
rhyming jokes
when you are dying? No
no! What we want is radiation in the
last moment. Yes; Christian people on either side the bed
and Christian people
at the foot of the bed
and Christian people to close my eyes
and Christian
people to carry me out
and Christian people to look after those whom I leave
behind
and Christian people to remember me a little while after I am gone. (T.
De Witt Talmage.)
Trueheartedness and the tests of true-heartedness
I. I observe that
the conduct of Ruth assures us that there is such a thing as true-heartedness
and thus teaches a lesson of trust in humanity. It reveals certain elements in
humanity that are reliable. Much heartlessness
much frivolity and sin
will a
wise and good man find as he goes about in the world
much to dissipate the
rosy credulousness of his youth
and to sadden his philanthropy; but
on the
other hand
something of his faith will be justified
and he will learn that
after all
there are elements in human nature worthy of our trust and our love.
As the chemist finds some admixture in what seemed to be a simple element
so
doubtless
at the bottom of the purest heart lurks some particle of self
some
ingredient of our earthly composition. And if one is disposed to turn a
magnifying-glass upon this
it will appear enormous; if he beholds it through
the lens of a sad or a foul experience
it will look grimy or distorted; or
if
with nothing more than his naked eye he has a mind to notice only the evil that
exists among men
he can see plenty of it
and it will look badly enough. But
it is an equally correct theory of human nature
and a much more agreeable one
which admits the conviction of some moral loyalty
extant even in the obscurest
places
and maintained under all trials.
II. But
having
thus vindicated human nature as to the fact of true-heartedness
let us proceed
to consider its tests. By what signs or expressions may we be assured of its
presence? I reply that the very words of the text
the very ideas to which Ruth
referred
afford a sufficient indication of these tests. For consider what
these ideas
expressed in the language of Ruth
really are. They are the ideas
of home
country
God
and the end of our mortal life. And are there any ideas
more vital than these? Surely
if one cherishes any sacred and true thoughts at
all
they must cluster around these things.
1. Home
that has sheltered and nourished you
that encloses your
most secret life
that claims the first flow of your affections and their last
throb.
2. Country
that organism which links your individual being to a
public interest
that gives you a share in history
a pride in great names
an
influence in world-wide issues
and
as a second home
inspires you with a more
comprehensive loyalty.
3. The grave
which bounds all earthly action
and limits every
earthly condition
that realm where distinctions of home and country melt away
the bed where all must lie
“the relentless crucible” in which rags and
splendour alike dissolve
the gateway to a stupendous mystery.
4. And God
the Infinite Being to whom the instincts of our souls
respond
to whom in our highest consciousness we aspire
the Source and the
Interpretation of all existence
the Light that comprehends our darkness
the
Strength that sustains our weakness
the Presence to which in our guilt and our
adoration we lift our cry
the Nature in which we live and move and have our
being--these are great realities; and it appears to me that the words of Ruth
are so eloquent
and her devotion seems so great
because of the greatness of
the things she spoke of. Indeed
does not this ground of thought and action
constitute a grand distinction of our humanity? If in many points man is closely
linked to the brute
is he not largely separated by his thoughts concerning
these things
and by his action upon them? Ascribe to the animal such
affections
such faculties
such power of reasoning
as we may and as we must
surely no one will claim for him such conceptions as man entertains concerning
home and country and God and the limitations of his earthly lot. These are
manifestations of human nature which project beyond the sphere of mere animal
life
and indicate a larger scope of being. They are marks of immortality.
Start with any one of these ideas
and see to what it leads. For instance
the
relationships of home--is there not an argument for immortality in these? Or
start from the idea of country
and is not the same conclusion unfolded? The duties
the achievements
the historical problems
that pertain to nationality
do not
they suggest it? And he upon whose mind dawns some apprehension of the
Infinite
he who feels assured that he holds communion with the Eternal Spirit
and presses forward towards that perfect excellence
never completely to
attain
but always capable of larger attainment--surely in essence he must be
imperishable. And the grave itself
dark and silent as it is
to such a
conscious soul cannot seem the final barrier of existence
but only the
suggestive portal of new achievements. If
then
these great realities
of
which Ruth spoke
are associated with all that is deepest and noblest in our
humanity
he who proves faithful to even one of these ideas
who holds it as a
sacred conviction
and cherishes it with a pure love
has in him the core of
true-heartedness
the ground of a principle
and a possibility in which we may
trust. And permit me to add that these tests are personal and practical
tests
by which we may try not so much the trueheartedness of others
for which we may
have very little function
but by which each may try his own. A man can hardly
ask himself a more practical question than this: “What are my thoughts
and
what is my conduct
respecting home
country
God
and the limitations of my
mortal life?”
III. I remark
finally
that these four ideas are not only the tests of personal
true-heartedness--they also reveal the great bond of our common humanity. That
which is common to men abides in the hearts of men
is linked with the great
facts expressed in the text. They thus indicate the natural ground of human
unity. And upon these ideas it is the tendency of Christianity to develop a
still nobler unity. (E. H. Chapin
D. D.)
A good resolution
I. A resolution to
pursue the journey to heaven.
1. It is a narrow way.
2. It sometimes proves a way of affliction.
3. It is nevertheless a very pleasant way.
II. A resolution to
be satisfied with spiritual entertainments.
1. The Christian finds a sweet entertainment in communion with his
God--in praising Him
which is one of the most delightful exercises of the
mind; and in prayer
which is so necessary for the renewing of his spiritual
strength.
2. In the Word of God he finds a delightful repast. He is made wise
unto salvation.
3. In the conversation of his fellow Christians
the believer finds
delightful refreshing.
4. The believer finds also times of refreshing from the presence of
the Lord when he takes up his abode in the house of God. He experiences the
truth of the promise
” they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength.”
III. A resolution to
cast in the lot with the people of God. Before you make a resolution so to do
count the cost
and consider the nature of the step which you propose to take.
1. The people of God have generally been a persecuted people.
2. The people of God are an afflicted people.
3. The people of God are a holy people.
4. We have said that the people of God are a persecuted and an
afflicted people
but they are nevertheless a people of the best prospects
so
that they are truly wise
and consult their own best interests
who cast in
their lot among them.
IV. A resolution to
choose the service of God. When a sinner is truly converted from his sin he
cleaves unto the Lord with purpose of heart. “Thy God shall be my God
” is the
resolution which he expresses to the Church of Christ; and in doing so--
1. He resolves to cast away his idols.
2. He who makes this resolution receives God in Christ as his
God--God in the person of the Mediator.
3. He who chooses God for his God resolves to devote himself to the
active service of God.
V. a resolution to
be faithful unto death. What is necessary to faithfulness unto death?
1. Begin aright.
2. Persevere as you begin
for Christ is not only the Door but the
Way.
Often repair to the fountain of His blood for peace; constantly
resort to His throne of grace for spiritual strength; often sit at the feet of
Jesus to learn the mysteries of the kingdom of God. To conclude--
1. We admire the constancy and perseverance of Ruth.
2. We learn from this passage of Scripture that we ought to be
faithful to those who are inquiring the way to Zion with their faces
thitherward.
3. The inquiring and anxious sinner should persevere whatever
difficulties may present themselves. If the difficulties and trials of the way
were tenfold
it would still be his interest as well as his duty to endure unto
the end. (Essex Remembrancer.)
Ruth the true-hearted
That strong and brave decision on the hills of her native Moab
where she resolves to cling to her aged and sorrow-stricken mother-in-law
reveals a character of no ordinary quality. There is in her what
for want of a
better phrase
I must call depth of nature. Her character is rooted in a deep
rich soil of true humanity. A woman whose whole being is on the surface
who
has no hidden deeps of feeling and thought and aspiration and love--a tree
decked with showy blossoms
but never hung with golden fruit--is felt to be
false to her true nature and Heaven-appointed mission. Ruth reveals to us a
character nourished and strengthened from the unseen depths of an affluent
nature which we love to associate with woman. The shallow woman exhibits no
such heroism as that of Ruth. Here
too
we discover in her that most essential
characteristic of a true woman--heart. She thinks and speaks and acts like one
whose inspiring life-force is a heart aglow with the fires of feeling
throbbing with the pulsations of love and beneficence; and her whole outward
life is but the spontaneous outflow of this full
fresh fountain within. A
nature thus endowed and animated is rich in its own resources
and bestows its
abundant benefactions upon all who come within its charmed sphere. The heart is
the true regulator and benefactor of life. Sometimes neither art nor intellect
predominates
but the throne which the heart should occupy is held by the
ungracious goddess of Stoicism--a stolid form
which no prayer can move to
sympathy
and from which no loving word ever proceeds. How desolate is the
nature over which either of these three false powers presides! How impoverished
is every life encompassed by the chilling atmosphere of such a nature! On the
other hand
how enriched are all they who breathe the genial air which
surrounds one with a nature like that of Ruth
in which the heart sits queen on
her rightful throne
and dispenses her regal gifts to all. Hence the importance
of true heart-culture in education. The neglect of this essential part of
genuine culture
and the giving of exclusive attention to the intellect is one
of the most perilous tendencies of this age. Such a process may produce a
Lucretia Borgia in one sphere
and a George Eliot in another; but a Madame
Guyon
a Mary Lyon
and an Elizabeth Fry will seldom or never come forth to
bless mankind under its false reign. It is Madame De Stael who wisely says that
“life is valuable only so far as it serves for the religious education of the
heart.” Let us note another feature in the character of Ruth. Devoted affection
like that of this young Moabitess to her aged mother-in-law deserves our
highest tribute. There is an utter unselfishness in this devotion that is
beautiful to con- template. A selfish
exacting
suspicious passion
misnamed
love
is the curse of its possessor; a love pure and unselfish is the perpetual
joy of the heart in which it glows
and of all who feel its Divine warmth.
Orpah can speak loving words; Ruth can do heroic deeds. A selfish person cannot
interpret unselfish love. Two hearts must be in happy accord to read the
meaning of each aright. Blessed are they who can discern and feel true
goodness. Blessed are those homes where true-hearted Ruths preside and Love
reigns
goddess of the happy home circle. Yes
it is heart-power
and not any
other force
that is most impressive and most enduring even in this
unappreciative world. Courage pays its devotion at the shrine of suffering
love; physical force surrenders to the higher power of the heart.” Alexander
Caesar
Charlemagne
and myself founded empires; but upon what foundations did
we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ alone founded His
empire upon love
and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.” We must
rear monuments in human hearts
by true love and devotion to humanity
if we
would live through succeeding ages. The crowning grace of Ruth’s character
as
it is that of every other human being
is her piety. Love to man is crowned and
glorified by love to God. (C. H. Payne
D. D.)
True decision
We have just stood at the line which separates Moab from Judah.
Orpah has gone. We shall trace her course no longer. We would gladly never see
her example followed by others. We must now confine ourselves to the beautiful
decision and faithful choice of Ruth. She stands before us a sincere youthful
convert to the Lord’s service. She has decided the question for her soul by
gratefully accepting the offers of a Saviour’s love. She sets out upon an
untried journey alone. Naomi
indeed
is with her. And her heart is
affectionately bound to her mother-in-law. But Ruth has many cares
trials
and
remembrances of which Naomi is not conscious. To Naomi the journey is a
well-known return. To Ruth every step is untried and new. She was born in Moab.
She knows nothing of Judah. Thus is it with every youthful convert. The experienced
and aged Christian has much acquaintance with the way in which you go. The
new-born child of grace takes every step on ground unknown and untried. This is
the way in which all must go who would walk with God. “This people shall dwell
alone.” Each one
be the multitude ever so great
is a hidden one with God.
Multitudes may be travelling in the same direction
but the feelings and
experience of each are solitary. Ruth must make her decision in her own secret
heart
and make it for herself alone. Her earthly friends must all be left.
They are in Moab
from whence she takes now her final departure. This
separation is not to be made without a trial of her faith. The more
affectionate she is in her real choice
the more she will feel the separation
from those whom she leaves behind. Religion cannot destroy our earthly
affections
our interest in those who are dear to us in natural ties. Nay
it
much increases the warmth and power of our love. This decision may often meet
with much opposition from those with whom you dwell. Your dearest earthly
connections may oppose. They love you. But they do not love your religion. You
must follow the Lord fully though you follow Him alone among your earthly
connections; and He will make those who oppose at peace with you. Be faithful
to Him
and your fidelity shall be the source of increased confidence and
respect
even from the worldly who appear to reject and despise you. As we
trace the history of Ruth
we find her meeting with new trials of her faith and
decision after she sets out alone. Orpah has gone. But still Naomi proves the
spirit of Ruth. Your sister has gone back to her people and her gods. If you
mean ever to go back
now is your best time to go. Remember
I have nothing to
offer you. If you go with me it must be to be a partner of my griefs and wants.
Thus God often proves the young disciple with new trials. He sends His east
wind upon the young trees of His planting; not to weaken or destroy
but to
give greater strength and endurance for the time to come. Our real conversion
to Him is an hour of peace and blessedness; but it is not an end of trial. Nay
it is the very beginning of new contests; and our fidelity in the decision we
have made is to be proved at once
and to be proved constantly
by new dispensations
of the will of God. Be really faithful and sincere
and God will prove your
faith
to strengthen
settle
and stablish you for ever. Be truly gold
and
then the refiner’s fire will only purify and make you bright. This faithful
decision Ruth was obliged to make in the face of backsliding in others. She
sees Orpah go back
yet she perseveres. When a child of the world comes out on
the side of Christ
and pursues
in the midst of the evil examples of many
a
course of simple
faithful devotion to the Saviour
how it honours His truth! How it
strengthens His cause! How it impresses even those who oppose! How such
faithfulness is owned and prospered by the Lord
to whom it is offered
in the
usefulness to others of the life which is adorned by it. (S.H.Tyng
D. D.)
Ruth deciding for God
I. Affection for
the godly should influence us to godliness. Many forces combine to effect this.
1. There is the influence of companionship.
2. The influence of admiration. Let us therefore copy the saints.
3. The influence of instruction. When we learn from a teacher we are
affected by him in many ways. Instruction is a kind of formation.
4. The influence of reverence. Those who are older
wiser
and better
than we are create in us a profound respect
and lead us to follow their
example.
5. The influence of desire to cheer them.
6. The influence of fear of separation. It will be an awful thing to
be eternally divided from the dear ones who seek our salvation.
II. Resolves to
godliness will be tested.
1. By the poverty of the godly and their other trials.
2. By counting the cost.
3. By the drawing back of others.
4. By the duties involved in religion. Ruth must work in the fields.
Some proud people will not submit to the rules of Christ’s house
nor to the
regulations which govern the daily lives of believers.
5. By the apparent coldness of believers. Naomi does not persuade her
to keep with her
but the reverse. She was a prudent woman
and did not wish
Ruth to come with her by persuasion
but by conviction.
6. By the silent sorrow of some Christians. Naomi said
“Call me not
Naomi
but call me Bitterness.” Persons of a sorrowful spirit there always will
be; but this must not hinder us from following the Lord.
III. Such Godliness
must mainly lie in the choice of God.
1. This is the believer’s distinguishing possession: “Thy God shall
be my God.”
2. His great article of belief: “I believe in God.”
3. His ruler and lawgiver: “Make me to go in the path of Thy
commandments” (Psalms 119:38).
4. His instructor: “Teach me Thy way
O Lord” (Psalms 28:2).
5. His trust and stay (see Ruth 2:12): “This God is our God for ever
and ever
He will be our guide even unto death” (Psalms 48:14).
IV. But it should
involve the choice of His people: “Thy people shall be my people.” They are ill
spoken of by the other kingdom. Not all we could wish them to be. Not a people
out of whom much is to be gained. But Jehovah is their God
and they are His
people. Our eternal inheritance is part and parcel of theirs. Let us make
deliberate
humble
firm
joyful
immediate choice for God and His saints;
accepting their lodging in this world
and going with them whither they are
going. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The influence of friends
It is not improbable that Ruth was in heart a Jewess
and that
for reasons which looked beyond the mere temporalities of life
she desired to
cast in her lot with the descendants of Abraham. It may be that the religion
which her mother-in-law brought with her into Moab had become the daughter’s
hope; and
discerning in it those elements of truth which were wanting in the
faith of her own fathers
she naturally concluded that the people who were
guided by its promises and commands would have power and blessing from above.
When we add to this the fact that this woman was to be one in that line of
generation through which passed the seed of the Shiloh
that the child yet to
be born to her was to be the father of David’s sire
we may see how direct is
the conclusion that this heathen woman did
in her conduct
obey not merely the
impulses of nature
but the influences of grace. It does not appear probable
that God
having such a work for her to do
would leave her to herself; that He
would trust to her unguided will and emotion the part which He designed her to
act in His great scheme of love. The decision of Ruth
then
supplies us with
this proposition: those who are striving to serve the Lord should cling to
those who are the disciples of the same Master. The law of dependence
as it
acts upon this world of human beings
and resolves itself into the other laws
of influence and of sympathy
is found in all the relations of man. In itself
it is a beautiful thing
this leaning of one upon another
this clasping of
hand to hand in the great circle of human brotherhood
and feeling the electric
spark as the touch of a single finger sends a thrill through the multitude. Man
was born for this thing
even when he was born without sin; and that would be a
high life where this law of sympathy was at work
with no power but the power
of doing good. With us
however
the kindest laws of heaven have felt the
disturbing force of sin; and sin has so perverted them that they act against
their design
and in opposition to themselves. The influences
then
of one
upon another may be for evil
as well as for good; the best intentions may be
counteracted
and the best efforts frustrated
by those with whom we stand
connected under the laws of social life. If we desire to serve God and be the
sincere followers of our Lord we must break away from those who are serving
other gods
and seek the companionship of those who serve the God of Israel.
If
in times past
our associations have been with worldly persons
if we have
moved in that circle of life where there is no God save the passions
and no
law save the will
we must break out from this circle and enter another where
life takes a higher form. We must surround ourselves with those whose thoughts
and aims are upward
like our own
that thus our strivings may be aided
and
our efforts sustained
by those with whom we have to do. This counsel touches some of the most
delicate points in the social state. It enters into the family circle
and
draws its lines between those who have a common interest in the things which
concern the body. It sweeps through all our connections
from the highest to
the lowest
and demands that everywhere
and under every form
its authority be
acknowledged and its injunctions obeyed. Now
of these ties of nature
some are
voluntary
and others are not. Of the latter I will not now speak; while
concerning the former I have something more to say. The tie of marriage is a
voluntary tie
and I here confess my amazement at the readiness with which
Christians yoke themselves with unbelievers. I know of few greater hindrances
to a consistent walking with God than an irreligious husband or an irreligious
wife. We say
and the remark is applied to religious things
that the husband
can go his way
and the wife her way; but this proves
in the trial
to be
about as practicable as for the parts of the body to separate and move off in
opposite directions. The tie forbids this independence; and there is not a
Christian wife or husband in the world who can so overcome the law which holds
them as to act with entire freedom in the face of indifference or opposition.
It is time for some one to tell the people that marriage is an institution of
the Most High God
and that in its laws it touches the interests which are
eternal as well as those which are temporal. (S. Cooke
D. D.)
Ruth’s spiritual affinity with Naomi
This family feeling reigns among all the true sons of God under
every dispensation. It operates with all the steadiness of an instinct. Apart
altogether from Divine commands
believers exercise mutual attraction like
planets that move round the same central orb. They are conscious of “the unity
of the Spirit.” Under the Old Testament
“they that feared the Lord spake often
one to another”; under the New Testament
“they that believed were together.”
There is not an instance recorded in the whole inspired history of Christians
preferring to live in isolation from their brethren. If there were only two
believers in the same city
they would be irresistibly drawn to each other just
in the degree in which they were believers. And those who are thus mutually
attracted shed many mutual blessings
like flowers growing contiguous to each
other in a garden that drop the dew around each other’s roots. And now her
God-inspired resolution strengthening and glowing as she proceeds
culminates
in a solemn vow of undying constancy
in which she imprecates Heaven’s
righteous retribution upon herself should she fail to keep it: “The Lord do so
to me
and more also
if ought but death part thee and me.” (A. Thomson
D.
D.)
Influence
The Bible affirms that no man liveth to himself. Each life has an
influence. What is influence? It is that subtle something which resides in our
deeds
words
spirit
and character. It is a shadow of ourselves
our
impersonal self. It is to us relatively what the fragrance is to the flowers
what light is to the star. We are all sensitive to influence: our hearts are
open to goodness
beauty
genius. There is never a day when perhaps
unconsciously we do not receive and reflect a thousand shadowy forms. Some are
more receptive of influences than others
just as there are certain soils that
drink in more greedily sunshine and shower; and as there are certain bodily
conditions more open to disease
so there are certain mental and moral
dispositions more open to good and evil
truth and error. There are men like
clay--you can mould them as you will; others are like rock--you must chisel
them as you can. Naomi was not perfect
but she exerted a great influence upon
her daughters-in-law.
I. Some of the
lines along which her influence was transmitted.
1. There was relation ship. Naomi was mother-in-law to Ruth. This
link was sanctified to the salvation of Ruth. Relationship is to-day one of the
most powerful aids to moral influence. See it in the Gospels: Andrew first
finds his own brother Simon; Philip findeth Nathanael. Most children are open
to maternal influences. Native missionaries are the best. Influence follows
love.
2. There was sorrow. These women had shared a common grief: they had
watched at the same bed of death; participated in the same hopes and fears.
Naomi would comfort Ruth with her Jewish hope and consolation. Sorrow fits for
influence. The heart is plastic. The wax is melted and receives the impress of
the seal. The mind is filled for the teaching. Such opportunities for
transmission of holy influence are constantly occurring.
3. There was humanity. Relationship and sorrow are accidental;
humanity is the essential fact
and binds the world together. Angelic influence
is impeded by difference in nature. Our hands fit into each other’s palm
our
faces reflect similar features. We have common wants and ways. Influence runs
along the lines of our human brotherhood.
II. Some of the
impediments that might have interrupted her influence. There were
considerations adverse to her influence.
1. Nationality. Ruth was a Moabitess. Israel and Moab were ancient
enemies. The Turk will not readily yield to the English influence. Yet so great
is the power of moral influence that it overcame this barrier.
2. Education. Ruth had grown up to womanhood before she came under
the influence of Naomi; her habits were formed. She was a devout idolatress. Here was a strong
impediment for moral influence to overcome. Virgin soil may be easily
cultivated as we wish; not so the land long covered with weeds. When the whole
man is overrun with noxious principles it is not easy to exterminate and
implant new ideas and habits. This the good life of Naomi accomplished in Ruth.
3. Adverse example. Orpah went back to Moab. The good influence may
fail even where its power has been felt strongly. Who can estimate the power of
adverse example to-day! How many are turned by it from the ways of religion!
Naomi may be counteracted by Orpah.
III. The success of
the good influence. The success was not absolute. Orpah returned
Ruth
continued. See her wisdom. She in her turn becomes influential and useful--a
help to Naomi. She becomes a permanent factor in the redemptive history. See
the wisdom of yielding to high moral influences. (E. Biscombe.)
The power of Christian character
shining through the life of a Christian man is strikingly
illustrated in the following incident: “An Afghan once spent an hour in the
company of Dr. William Marsh
of England. When he heard that Dr. Marsh was
dead
he said: ‘His religion shall now be my religion; his God shall be my God;
for I must go where he is and see his face again.’”
If ought but death part
thee and me.--
Religion a powerful bond
1. Such and so powerful is the bond of religion that it makes the
saints of God not only desirous
but even resolute also
both to live and die
together.
2. All persons and people should so live as those that do expect that
they and their relations may die. So Ruth did here expect it
both for her
mother and for herself. “Alas
I never thought of his death.” So there be
others that live so licentiously as if they should never die
never come to
judgment
as if
they were to have an eternity of pleasure of sin in this world (as Psalms 49:10-13).
3. As burial is one of the dues of the dead
so dear friends desire
to be buried together. Ruth desires to be buried with her godly mother. It is
very observable that the first purchase of possession mentioned in Scripture
history was a place to bury in
not to build in (Genesis 23:9).
4. Death is the final dissolution of all bonds of duty
whether
natural
civil
or religious. The wife is no longer bound to her husband (Romans 7:1-4)
children to parents
subjects to princes
and people to pastors. (C. Ness.)
When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her
then
she left speaking unto her.
Trust after testing
After proof and trial made of their fidelity we are to trust our
brethren
without any further suspicion. Not to try before we trust is want of
wisdom; not to trust after we have tried is want of charity. The goldsmith must
purify the dross and ore from the gold
but he must be wary lest he makes waste
of good metal if over-curious in too often refining. We may search and sound
the sincerity of our brethren
but after good experience made of their
uprightness we must take heed lest by continual sifting and proving them we
offend a weak Christian. (T. Fuller
B. D.)
Benefit of a thorough decision
Those who appear half-hearted in their self-consecration expose
themselves to a legion of tempters. Lingering on the border-land
they keep
within the arrow mark of Satan. Keeping in the suburbs of Sodom
they are in
danger of coming within the sweep of its consuming fires. The world hopes that it
shall get them back again to its ranks. They resemble persons walking in a
crowd with flowing robes
which afford those who wish them evil an easy means
of pulling them back and laying them in the dust. When it becomes clearly seen
that our heart is fixed
the world
gives us up in despair and “leaves off speaking unto us.” And how that choice
ennobled the young Moabitess! What pure human love! What high devotion! What
sublime self-renunciation! What true wisdom introducing among the elements that
should determine her choice eternity as well as time! Decision of character
gives full play to a man’s powers whatever they be
and makes them his own. (A.
Thomson
D. D.)
Decision a safeguard
If a man is seen to be decided in his stand for Christ
antagonists will give over assailing him. There is nothing in the use of which
men are more discriminating than entreaty
argument
or influence. So long as
the object of their solicitude is wavering
they will bring all their batteries
to bear upon him
for there is still the hope that he will yield. But when he
comes openly and determinedly out for Christ
they will waste no more
ammunition on him. They leave him thenceforth alone
and attack some one else.
Thus decision
while it may require an effort to make it
is
after it is made
a safeguard against assault
So long as a vessel has no flag at her mast-head
the sea-robber may think it safe to attack her; but let her hoist the flag of
this nation
and that will make the assailant pause. In like manner
the hoisting
over us of the banner of the Cross
being a symbol of decision
is also an
assurance of protection. (W.M. Taylor
D. D.)
So they two went until they came to Bethlehem.
Constancy
I. That they are
to be admitted into our fellowship whom we find to be constant in a good
course
and true lovers of goodness
whatsoever they were before. Naomi thus
admits of Ruth
no doubt
with great comfort. Thus Paul alloweth of Mark (2 Timothy 4:11)
though before he
had refused him (Acts 15:38)
and willeth others to
entertain him (Colossians 4:10-11).
II. That God
leaveth not His in distress
or altogether comfortless. Naomi went out with
husband and children
and lost them; she returneth not alone
but God sent her
one to accompany her and to comfort her.
III. That a true
resolution will show itself in a full execution. She resolved to go with Naomi
and so she did
till she came to Bethlehem. By this may we learn to know the
difference between solid resolutions and sudden flashes
raw and undigested
purposes
between true resolutions and such as be made in show
but in
substance prove nothing so
never seen in the effects.
IV. In this their
travel to Canaan
and therein to Bethlehem
note three things: their unity
fervency
and constancy. They went together lovingly
they ceased not to go on
they did
not linger
they took no by-paths
neither forgat they whither they were going
till they came unto Bethlehem in Canaan. As these thus went to Canaan
so
should we unto the spiritual Canaan and heavenly Bethlehem; we must go in unity
(1 Corinthians 1:10)
and be of one
heart (Acts 1:14; Acts 2:1; Acts 2:46; Acts 4:24)
in a godly fervency (Romans 12:11; Titus 2:14; Ezekiel 3:14)
as Elijah
Nehemiah
the
angel of Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-2)
and as our Saviour
whom the zeal of God’s house had eaten up. And we must go in a constant spirit
and not be weary of well-doing
for “he that continueth to the end shall be
saved.” (B. Bernard.)
True friendship
1. Such is the faithfulness of our heavenly Father to all His
children
that He never fails nor forsakes them; but when one comfort faileth
them
He findeth out another for them. The loss of one relation is made up out
of God’s fulness by raising up another.
2. There be but few friends that are true friends. Here be but two
together.
3. Such are fast and faithful friends indeed that accompany each
other to the worship of God--to Bethlehem. Many there be that do accompany each
other to Bethaven
or house of wickedness
to play-houses
and places of
revelling
etc. This is rather a betraying than a befriending one another. A
carnal friend is but a spiritual enemy
who advised the ruin of his soul for
the recovery of his body (2 Samuel 13:3). The truest
friendship is to save and deliver a friend from the greatest evil
which is
sin; but to tempt any to it
and to tolerate them in it
is not the part of a
true friend
but of a real enemy.
4. ‘Tis matter of astonishing admiration to hear of
and be
eye-witnesses of
the great afflictions that do befall some persons
both great
and good.
5. God works wonderful changes in persons
families
cities
countries and kingdoms. (C. Ness.)
The backslider’s return
Naomi had wandered. But Naomi might return. God had not
cast her away. He will never cast away those who truly love Him. He calls them
back again to true repentance. He heals their backslidings and loves them
freely. Then
like Peter
they may strengthen their brethren. They have an
experience of human infirmity which they had not before. They know the dangers
and temptations which surround the Christian’s path. They can comfort others
with the consolations wherewith they are comforted of God. But the backslider
must return with total self-renunciation. Thus Naomi even renounces her right
to her former name. “Call me not Naomi
call me Mara: for the Almighty hath
dealt very bitterly with me.” They said
“Is this Naomi?” “Yes
I was Naomi
when I was contented and happy in the house
and among the people of God. I was
Naomi when we took sweet counsel together
and walked to the house of God in
company. How foolish was I thus to wander from His holy ways! Call me not Naomi
now. I have no right to that name. All was pleasant then. But the remembrance
is bitterness now. Call me Mara. Let me come back as the poorest of the poor
sorrowful
and self-condemned.” The backslider feels no claim to a former
Christian character. He is compelled to say
“Call me not a Christian. I have
forfeited that blessed name. Call me a sinner
the chief of sinners. But as
such
suffer me to return again to God. ‘I am no more worthy to be called a
son; make me as one of Thy hired servants.’” The backslider must come back with
conscious emptiness. He has nothing to bring; nothing to offer. Naomi says
“I
went out full
and the Lord hath brought me home again empty.” How true is
this! What can you bring back from your wanderings in Moab but the bitter
remembrance of your folly? Nothing but sadness can come from a careless
backsliding from God. And so far as your own acts and conduct are concerned
you must return to Him with perfect emptiness. If Divine grace and
long-suffering shall receive you--if the Holy Spirit shall consent to restore
you
and lead you back to the mercy-seat
once more accepted--it will be all as
a free gift to the chief of sinners. Yet how precious is the expression
“The
Lord hath brought me back”! Yes
though I am empty
and have nothing; though I
am vile in His sight
and “mine own clothes abhor me
” though I was worthy of
His rejection and His wrath
yet He did not leave me in my sin
nor suffer me
unpardoned
to perish. But I come back empty. Everything has failed me except
the loving-kindness and mercy of my God. No condition can be more humbling than
this. Let this work of the Holy Spirit have free course in you. Do not attempt
the least justification of yourselves. Speak not
think not
of any temptation
that led you astray
or of the influence of any companions
or of the want of
watchfulness of any friends
or of the unfaithfulness of others in instructing
and warning you
or of the example and habits of others in the social circle in
which you live
as the least extenuation of your own guilt. Oh
no! You have no
one to blame but yourself. You have been tempted only because you were drawn
away by your own lust. Yet
while the backslider himself mourns
others rejoice
over him. “It came to pass
when they were come to Bethlehem
that all the city
was moved about them; and they said
Is this Naomi?” Her friends had not
forgotten her. They gather around her again with delight. All Bethlehem
rejoices; Naomi’s poverty and wanderings are forgotten. She has herself
returned
and this is enough. The poor prodigal had hardly time to say
“Father
I have sinned
” before his father buries his voice in his own bosom
and lifts up a sound of joy which completely drowns the accents of the
wanderer’s grief. Oh
what a song of praise does his restoration awaken! Heaven
and earth unite to say
over the returning wanderer
“Is this Naomi?” Is this
the wanderer? This the captive that we thought was lost? This the giddy child
that was bent to backsliding
and fled from all restraint? Sing
O heavens
for
the Lord hath done it. Shout
ye lower parts of the earth
for the Lord hath
blotted out as a thick cloud their transgressions
and as a cloud their sins! (S.
H. Tyng
D. D.)
All the city was moved
about them
and they said
Is this Naomi?--
The changes wrought by time
Ten years ago she left
but is not forgotten. The story of her
battle with poverty and consequent emigration are well remembered. But what a change!
This bent form and aspect of despair tell a pitiful tale. Time and sorrow have wrought
their cruel work. Ten years
and such troubles as hers leave terrible marks
behind at her time of life. Wrinkles
grey hairs
and feebleness of body soon
reveal themselves. Care makes men and women grow old very fast. We look
twice--thrice
at the acquaintance of former years
before we believe our eyes. “Is this Naomi?”
That means
where are the husband and the sons? It is no vulgar curiosity that
prompts the inquiry. Women who knew Naomi well
and attended her wedding
are
there; men
too
who were intimate friends of Elimelech; young men also
who as
boys often played with the dead lads Mahlon and Chillon
all eagerly repeat the question to each other
as they cluster round the two
poor
travel-stained
weeping women. It is a bitter hour. The wounds are opened
afresh. For no questions cut so keenly as those which remind us of beloved ones
who have passed into the shadow of death. (Wm. Braden.)
The changes of life
I. Here is a
returning pilgrim. Home has been but a tent life
and the curtains have been rent by sorrow and death.
She tells us the old
old story. Here have we no continuing city.
Bethlehem--home! Oh! that strange longing to live through the closing years in
the country places where we were born! It is a common instinct.
II. Here is a godly
pilgrim. Travel-worn and weary
with sandled feet
she is coming to a city
sanctified by the faith of her fathers. “Is this Naomi?” If there is not so
much of what the world calls beauty in her face
there is character there
experience there. The young Christian starting on his pilgrimage is cheerful
enough. He goes forth full of enterprise and hope. Do not be surprised if in after-years you
ask
“Is this Naomi?” How careful
how anxious
how dependent on God alone!
III. Here is an
ancestral pilgrim. Ancestor of whom? Turn to Matthew 1:5
and you will find in the
genealogy of our Lord the name of Ruth. Do you see in the blue distance One
coming from the judgment hall? Do you hear the wild cry of the mob
“Away with
Him! away with Him! Crucify Him! crucify Him”? Come near and gaze. Behold the
Man! As the reapers asked
“Is this Naomi?” so we ask
“Is this Jesus?” Is this
He whose sweet face lay in the manger? Is this He who passed the angels at
heaven’s high gate
and came to earth
saying “Lo! I come to do Thy will
O
God”? Yes I Bowed
bruised
broken for us. The same Saviour
who now endures
the Cross
despising the shame. Well may we wonder and adore!
IV. Here is a
provided-for pilgrim. Back to Bethlehem
but how to live? how to find the
roof-tree that should shelter again? She knew the Eternal’s name
“Jehovah-jireh
” the Lord will provide. So it ever is. Trust in the Lord and
you shall never want any good thing. Believe still in your Saviour
and
provided for you will be all weapons of fence
all means of consolation
all
prosperity that shall not harm your soul. As the snows hide flowers even in the
Alps
so beneath all our separations and sorrows there are still plants of the
Lord
peace and hope
and joy and rest
in Him. Blessed indeed shall we be if
we can rest in the Lord
and wait patiently for Him. (W. M. Statham.)
Call me not Naomi
call me Mara.
Naomi
I. Incidents in
her life. This
world is to all
in some measure
“a vale of tears.” The pilgrimage of the true
Christian is not through verdant plains and flowery fields
but through a
“waste howling wilderness
” where much toil is exercised
many troubles
undergone
many perils encountered
and many severe privations endured. God is
a Sovereign in the distribution of sufferings and tribulations. His own people
have frequently the greatest share of troubles in this life--that their souls
which are too full of earthly attachments
may be weaned from the world. We
should learn hence not to murmur nor charge God foolishly under our trials
for
if we compare them with those of many of God’s people who were more gracious in
their dispositions and tempers than we are they will appear “light” indeed. We
find this bereaved and distressed individual returning towards her native land.
She acted wisely
for she was more likely to fare well in her own
country--among her relatives and acquaintance
and where the knowledge and fear
of God prevailed
than among strangers and idolaters in a foreign land. It
would be well if we imitated Naomi in a spiritual point of view. At length we
find Naomi in Canaan. When she returned
her former acquaintance were greatly astonished at her appearance. Her
affluence was gone
her earthly glory had faded away
and her circumstances
were mean and narrow. God
however
in mercy
calmed the evening of her day.
The troubles of the Christian are not only to end
but to end blessedly--even
in bliss and honour!
II. Moral
excellences which stood prominently forth in the conduct of naomi under the weight of her
tribulations.
1. Her benevolence. Behold it delightfully displayed towards both her
daughters-in-law. See how ardently she wished their prosperity
how fervently
she prayed for it. Herein she
and all who are under the governance of the same
superhuman principle
resemble their Divine Master. He also felt intensely for
others--even when He was Himself involved in dangers.
2. Her acknowledgment of God in her troubles. See how piously she
develops this feeling (Ruth 1:13; Ruth 1:20-21). Nothing enables a man to
behave as he should in the day of adversity
nothing enables him to keep down
an envious and impatient spirit
but the viewing his troubles as the allotments
of Heaven
the all-wise appointments of his Father and of his God.
3. Her gratitude both to God and man.
The Almighty hath dealt
very bitterly with me.
Unfinished providences not to be rashly judged
How unfit are we to judge of an unfinished providence
and how
necessary it is
if we would understand aright the reasons of God’s ways
that
we should wait and see the web with its many colours woven out! Three short
months
during which those dark providences were suddenly to blossom into prosperity
and joy
would give to that sorrowful woman another interpretation of her long
exile in Moab. And one Gentile proselyte was thereby to be brought to the feet
of Israel’s God
who was not only to be the ancestress of Israel’s illustrious
line of kings
but of that Divine Seed in whom “all the nations of the earth
were to be Blessed.” When the night seems at the darkest we are often nearest
the dawn. Begin to tune thy harp
O weeping saint and weary pilgrim! “The night
is far spent
the day is at hand.” Learn to wait. When the great drama of our
earth’s history is ended; when Christ’s glorious redemption-work is seen in all
its wondrous issues and ripened fruits; when order has evolved itself out of
confusion
and light has come out of the bosom of darkness
and the evil
passions of wicked men and the malignant devices of evil spirits have been so
overruled as to work out the sovereign will of Heaven; when all the enemies of
Christ have been put in subjection under His feet
and death itself has died then
shall the words spoken at the creation be repeated at the consummation of the
higher work of a lost world’s redemption
and God will again pronounce all to
be “very good.” (A. Thomson
D.D.)
Naomi’s error
Naomi began to err when she ceased to believe in the wisdom and
benignity of all those dark events
when she looked upon them
not as
expressive of paternal discipline
but of Divine indifference and desertion
when they appeared to her distressed soul as the arrows of judgment rather than
the strokes of love; like those affrighted disciples on the Galilean lake who
failed to recognize Jesus in Him who was walking in such calm majesty on the
tossing waves. She was also wrong in this morbid concentration of her thoughts upon
her trials
and in not realizing the many blessings and comforts that yet
remained to her. Elimelech and her two sons had been taken
but this lovely and
devoted Ruth had been raised up. She was now poor
but she had health; and God
had brought her back to those altars and courts of the Lord after which “her
soul had longed
yea
even fainted.” And then there were blessings which she
could not lose
and which were of more value to her than a thousand worlds.
Besides
how greatly did she err
as devout persons in a despondent mood are so
apt to do
in measuring God’s providence
as it were
by her human line
and
imagining that the cloud which had hung over her like a shadow of death could
not possibly be turned into the morning; just as we may imagine the people near
the pole
with their many months of unbroken night
beginning at length to
doubt whether the sun will ever rise again. An eloquent writer on astronomy
imagines the different aspect in which our earth would appear to us could we be
projected from its surface and permitted to look on it from one of the nearest
planets
or from the moon. And how different would the afflictions of God’s
people often look could they only be projected a few years into the future
and
permitted to regard them even in some of their earliest explanations and
consequences. Lift up thy head. O thou bruised reed
thou too desponding woman
for lo
the winter of thine adversity is past! Cease to clothe everything in
sackcloth. Take down thy long silent harp from the willows
and tune it anew
for notes of loudest praise. Thou hast long exercised the duty of self-denial;
it is time for thee now to exhibit the duty of delight. (A. Thomson
D.D.)
No bitterness in God’s dealings
Naomi was not wrong in tracing all her changes in condition to
God
but she erred in ascribing any bitterness to God in His treatment of her.
The father loves the child as really when he administers the disagreeable
medicine which is to recover him from disease as when he is dandling him upon
his knees. The only difference is in the manner in which the love is shown
and
that is accounted for by the differences in the circumstances of the child. In
like manner adversity
how bitter soever it may be
is a manifestation of God’s
love to us
designed for our ultimate and highest welfare. Now this may well
reconcile us to trial. It will not make the trial less
but it will help us to
bear it
just as the wounded man is braced for the amputation of a limb when he
is told that it is indispensable if his life is to be preserved. (W. M.
Taylor
D. D.)
The different effects of affliction
How different are summer storms from winter ones! In winter they
rush over the earth with their violence; and if any poor remnants of foliage or
flowers have lingered behind
these are swept along at one gust. Nothing is
left but desolation; and long after the rain has ceased
pools of water and mud
bear tokens of what has been. But when the clouds have poured out their
torrents in summer
when the winds have spent their fury
and the sun breaks
forth again in glory
all things seem to rise with renewed loveliness from
their refreshing bath. The flowers
glistening with rainbows
smell sweeter
than before; the air
too
which may previously have been oppressive
is become
clear
and soft
and fresh. Such
too
is the difference
when the storms of
affliction fall on hearts unrenewed by Christian faith
and on those who abide
in Christ. In the former they bring out the dreariness and desolation which may
before have been unapparent. But in the true Christian soul
“though weeping
may endure for a night
joy cometh in the morning
” and tribulation itself is
turned into the chief of blessings. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
So Naomi returned
and Ruth.
The young convert
Little was Naomi aware of the treasure she was bringing to Israel
or of the honour which was in store for Ruth. She says
“The Lord hath brought
me back empty.” And it was so
so far as she was herself concerned. But the
Lord had brought back with her one whom all generations should call blessed;
one who was to be a mother of the promised Messiah
the anointed Saviour of
Israel. We are now to contemplate her admission to Israel. The young convert’s
entrance among the people of God. We cannot enter upon such a view without
stopping for a moment to think of the happiness of Naomi in such a companion.
How great was the privilege to her to bring back with her own return so
precious a soul to the Lord of hosts! What an unspeakable joy it is to a
Christian parent to be attended by his children in the heavenly path! “So they
two went together until they came to Bethlehem.” I cannot conceive a greater
blessing in social life than when we can say this of father and son
of mother
and daughter. This is a bond which must long outlast every other one; and a
treasure of enjoyment which must remain when every other one has failed. How
such companionship in religion relieves the sorrows of the road! How it
multiplies the joys of the way ! The mother and the daughter take sweet counsel
together on their journey. Naomi has much to tell
Ruth has much to ask
in
reference to the new home to which they are returning together. Their mutual
prayers and encouragements are full of advantage. The blending of the varied
experience of the two becomes helpful to both. The despondency of age is
animated by the joyful anticipations of youth. The effervescence of youth is
moderated by the experience and soberness of age. “So they went together.”
Unity of feeling
unity of interest
unity of hope
bind them together. They
have fellowship one with another. But while Ruth took sweet counsel with Naomi
her thoughts and feelings were still in a great degree peculiar to herself and
completely her own. To her every prospect is hopeful
and her imagination loves
to stray through all the anticipations which are presented to her youthful
mind. The young Christian truly living and walking in Christ rejoices in the
hopes which a Saviour gives; is encouraged
ardent
and delighted in looking
forward over the way in which the great Captain of salvation is leading the
sons of God. “I see no trials or sorrows in it.” Thus would Ruth have said. She
could have no feeling but unmingled pleasure in the prospect of the journey she
had undertaken. Delightful encouragements arise in her mind which overwhelm all
possible regrets or fears. How many hopes and plans cluster around Bethlehem
and Judah! She knows not what the Lord has prepared for her. It has not entered
into her youthful heart to conceive the actual blessings which are laid up in
store for her there. But she knows that all must be well and happy for her
under the shadow of His wings in whom she has come to put her trust. Nothing is
in your way. You may do all things through Christ that strengtheneth you
and
be made more than conquerors in Him. She comes with a deep sense of her own
unworthiness. But this is silenced by her conscious desire and choice. The
young convert knows and feels his guilt. But he needs not
and does not
stop to
sit clown under the mere dominion of grief for the past. He has his new work to
do. He must press forward in it. And the cloud will pass away and leave him in
the sunshine of his Saviour’s love
to finish and perfect it. But the
perseverance of Ruth furnishes us with another most important example. “They
went together until they came to Bethlehem.” There is no fact which gives the
Church more peculiar joy in the coming of young converts to Christ than their
habitual perseverance. They are the ones who “hold fast the beginning of their
confidence steadfast unto the end.” The most fruitful
faithful Christians are
habitually those who begin the earliest. The time of Ruth’s arrival at
Bethlehem was most significant.” They came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley
harvest.” The barley harvest of Palestine was in the early spring. The barley
was sown after the autumnal rains
in the month of October
and the harvest was
in the month of April. It was a time of special joy
the first spring-gathering
of their annual fruits. The harvest is always employed as an illustration of
satisfaction and joy. “They joy before Thee
according to the joy of harvest.”
And is it not always a scene of rejoicing when the sinner returns? The harvest
was a time of opening abundance. No wants or poverty were pressing now. There
is thus bread enough and to spare in the Saviour’s house. And when the sinner
finds a shelter there he finds all his needs supplied. His soul has abundance
of all things which it desireth. No more encouraging time could there have been
for Ruth’s first acquaintance with Israel. Every aspect of the land was
promising and prosperous. The sight of plenty crowned every prospect. And she
sees her new home clothed with every attraction. Is it not always so when we
first come to the feet of Jesus and find our peace and acceptance there? Now we
seem to live for the first time. There is reality
happiness
satisfaction
here. We have found Him whom our soul loveth
and we have found everything we
want in Him. The barley harvest was the time of the Passover. Thus this young
convert from the Gentiles comes as the first-fruits of a Gentile harvest to be
gathered
and is welcomed with Israel as a partaker of the paschal feast. Happy
are we in welcoming our youthful friends giving evidence of their new birth for
God and their living faith in Jesus to the table of the Lord. Happy is the
house the first-fruits of which are thus consecrated and sanctified to be the
Lord’s for ever. (S. H. Tyng
D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》