Ruth -Once Upon a Time-A Choice Was Made
The grandson in this photo is much older now, but this is a favorite picture capturing him looking at the beauty of a freshly fallen snow.
I have embarked on a 4 week study of the book of Ruth with a few younger women at our church. I will be posting some snippets along the way. To familiarize themselves with the story I suggested they read this short four chapter book in The Message translations.
Everyday we make choices. Every time we make a choice we should evaluate what is influencing that decision. As you read this story ask the Lord to bring to mind some decisions you have made and what influenced that decision. Next, consider what decisions are facing you right now. Practice listening for God's still quiet voice to guide you and apply scripture to the decision process.
In Ruth Chapter 1 here is what is going down.
1) A famine caused this mother and father to choose to take their two sons to a foreign land.
2) The father dies and the sons choose to marry foreign women
3) Then the sons die leaving three widows.
4) The mother receives word the famine is over in Judah, so she chooses to go back home and suggests her daughter in laws go home to their families.
5) But Ruth has been impacted by this family's faith and chooses to follow Naomi and God, even though that means going to a foreign land.
Chapter 1 in The Message Translation.
Once upon a time—it was back in the days when judges led Israel—there was a famine in the land. A man from Bethlehem in Judah left home to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The man’s name was Elimelech; his wife’s name was Naomi; his sons were named Mahlon and Kilion—all Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They all went to the country of Moab and settled there.
Elimelech died and Naomi was left, she and her two sons. The sons took Moabite wives; the name of the first was Orpah, the second Ruth. They lived there in Moab for the next ten years. But then the two brothers, Mahlon and Kilion, died. Now the woman was left without either her young men or her husband.
One day Naomi got herself together, she and her two daughters-in-law, to leave the country of Moab and set out for home; she had heard that Godhad been pleased to visit his people and give them food. And so she started out from the place she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law with her, on the road back to the land of Judah.
After a short while on the road, Naomi told her two daughters-in-law, “Go back. Go home and live with your mothers. And may God treat you as graciously as you treated your deceased husbands and me. May God give each of you a new home and a new husband!” She kissed them and they cried openly.
They said, “No, we’re going on with you to your people.”
But Naomi was firm: “Go back, my dear daughters. Why would you come with me? Do you suppose I still have sons in my womb who can become your future husbands? Go back, dear daughters—on your way, please! I’m too old to get a husband. Why, even if I said, ‘There’s still hope!’ and this very night got a man and had sons, can you imagine being satisfied to wait until they were grown? Would you wait that long to get married again? No, dear daughters; this is a bitter pill for me to swallow—more bitter for me than for you. God has dealt me a hard blow.”
Again they cried openly. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye; but Ruth embraced her and held on. Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back home to live with her own people and gods; go with her.”
But Ruth said, “Don’t force me to leave you; don’t make me go home. Where you go, I go; and where you live, I’ll live. Your people are my people, your God is my god; where you die, I’ll die, and that’s where I’ll be buried, so help me God—not even death itself is going to come between us!”
When Naomi saw that Ruth had her heart set on going with her, she gave in. And so the two of them traveled on together to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem the whole town was soon buzzing: “Is this really our Naomi? And after all this time.
But she said, “Don’t call me Naomi; call me Bitter. The Strong One has dealt me a bitter blow. I left here full of life, and God has brought me back with nothing but the clothes on my back. Why would you call me Naomi? God certainly doesn’t. The Strong One ruined me.”
And so Naomi was back, and Ruth the foreigner with her, back from the country of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
The Song
“No Turning Back” Brandon Heath
