Barbara Feil's Blog: Ministering to others when you are a mess and other insights from the book of Ruth

Regina Veillet gave the message at our Women's Bible study this week. It was awesome. She took us through the story of Ruth and I felt like I had gone to the movies. I get to hear Lorna, Lindsey and Regina teach twice (Tuesday morning and Wednesday evening - or I teach twice on my weeks). On Wednesday night I lead one of the table groups and we have never had such a good discussion of the passage. Renee, at my table had read the entire story and really got into it. She even looked up key words and phrases on a Bible Dictionary site!

Here is a synopsis of what we discovered about the book of Ruth:

When Naomi left Israel she was married and had two sons. The question was posed about why the family left. We are told in the text that they left because there was a famine. Not everyone left during the famine, whey this family? And they went to live in Moab. Several women at my table remembered Pastor Ron had said in his overview of Judges on Sunday that Israel was not to be like the Canaanite nations and they were to destroy those cultures who were evil and those that might be left - well, they were to make sure they didn't inter-marry. We realized that here was an Israelite family who had gone to live among the people God told them to destroy and then their sons inter-married. So, this is not the family at church with the perfect children and the good Christian life. They are more like the black sheep family - not exactly in the "center of the will of God". So Naomi's husband dies, and if that is not enough loss her sons die as well. Now she has nothing except these Moabitess daughter in laws. What amazes me is that they love her and she loves them. So, she took foreign women into her home and loved them even though she knew it was taboo. Now she has no reason to stay in Moab and she has word that the Lord has relieved the famine in . She will never fit in there and though she very well might not be accepted in Bethlehem - after fleeing there and then coming back with Moabitess daughter-in-laws. It will be a hard life as a widow and a widow scorned by her own people, and having forfeited the right to ask for help from her kinsmen - (at least in her own mind!). Naomi has sentenced herself to a life of bitterness - she sees her circumstances as "the LORD's has gone out against me!". But she does not want to inflict that story on her daughter-in-laws. So she tells them to return to their homes, their families of origin and their gods. (One wonders if she is doubting whether HER God, the GOD will come through for her - so why not have these two young women try their gods...perhaps they will do better?)

Orpah goes home, but not after protesting out her love for this Israelite mother (that's a story in itself), but Ruth begs to stay with Naomi and Ruth indicates part of the reason is Naomi's God. She has a beginning relationship with this God of Israel and somehow she has come to believe He is her hope and she wants to stay with Naomi says that God has "afflicted her and brought misfortune on her..." Naomi's response to the town when they ask if this can be her? "Don't call me Naomi, call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty..."

One little side note on that comment. I think often we make choices (or her husband made choices and it could be that she didn't agree) and then we blame the outcome on God. Did God tell this family to go Moab and ride out the famine? I don't think so, I think that was their choice...was God still involved, even in the disastrous consequences? Of course, he always is - but sometimes he is involved by letting our own choices direct our lives, then he becomes the one who helps tell the rest of the story from the disaster forward.

One conclusion our table came to was that Naomi influenced Ruth's life and somehow made God real to Ruth so that Ruth wanted to follow God, and she did this at a time when her life was a MESS!!!!! Okay, that has to be comforting. That means that God can use me to tell other people about who he is even when my life is bitter and off course!!

So, the two women return and apparently Naomi's depression combined with her age and stage of life render her unable to work and so Ruth used the Israelite welfare system (of picking up what's life in the fields - see Leviticus 19:9) and goes to work. She chooses a field and Regina said the field was an open public one so Ruth could not have known that it was Boaz's and then of course the love story unfolds. Regina did such a good job of taking us on that journey - the excitement each night as Ruth came home and Naomi asked if she had eaten with Boaz, and what did he say etc. Naomi must have become increasingly aware that this man who was a potential "kinsman redeemer" was interested in Ruth. Naomi would never have gone and requested he (or the other relative even closer) to consider taking Ruth and caring for she and Ruth as kinsman who could redeem them from their shame and poverty - and miracles of miracles, this exact reality seems to be unfolding by natural consequence (or should we say, God-designed consequence?).

So you can read the "rest of the story". Naomi sends Ruth, after having her put on perfume and her "prom dress" and after Boaz has finished his work and eaten and drank - she is to lay down, uncover his feet and put her head their - an act of such vulnerablility - to declare her desire to be cared for, loved, protected and "covered" by Boaz. And he responds with love, honor and desire.

One last note - Regina had mentioned Matthew 1 and the geneolgoy from Adam to David and from David to Jesus. Four women, named or mentioned, stand out in that list (first because they are women and the rest are men - fathers only). The four are First is Tamar, the daughter in law of Judah who in a cry for justice and provision when Judah abandons her, sleeps with him and becomes the mother of Perez and Zerah. Last is Bathsheba, listed as the wife of Uriah who becomes the mother of Solomon. And in the middle is Ruth and before Ruth is Rahab. Rahab is the prostitute who hid the spies from Israel who come to check out Canaan before they conquer the land. She hides them and helps them escape and then they tell her to keep her family in her home and hang a red cord out the window and when they return to destroy the city she and her family will be saved.

So, Rahab is the mother of Boaz. No wonder this middle aged man was willing to look at a foreign woman!! His mother had been foreign. God is just a master of weaving our stories together for his purposes. Regina told us there are no missing pieces (Lindsey Smith had told her that about some random pieces of Regina's life) - and there are no missing pieces in my life OR YOURS!!

Comments

That has to be one of the most interesting discussions about Ruth that I have ever read. I love the connectivity you showed.

I found myself relating to your comment "God is just a master of weaving our stories together for his purposes." I have always considered myself to be the black sheep of our family. You could say that I made some disastrous decisions in my life and it's so very easy to get caught up in "what if...?" But...

I have two wonderful kids, a bunch of grandkids and a husband who loves me as myself. I am living in a place that is *home* and I am repairing my relationship with God. It's not Ruth's story, but the twists and turns are similar.

Great post, Sis!

Posted by: Heather | April 19, 2009 at 07:04 AM