Not So Social Security, Week 9 Day 1, Ruth 1
One of the hardest things about reading the Bible is understanding
the culture in which it was written.
There are two major reasons understanding the culture is important. The first is that it gives context to the story,
perspective. The second is that it can
help us from projecting our own bias into the story.
We live in the day and age of the single parent
families. We live in an age of social programs
that provide a lot of support to those in need.
Not my intent to argue or discuss how effective those programs are. But surely there is more aid today in our culture
then there was in the time of Naomi. No
social security back in Naomi’s day.
In Ruth’s day the basic social support structure was the
family and the extended family. When Naomi’s
husband died, if she had been living in Bethlehem it would have been the
responsibility of her husband’s brother to marry her, and then work out through
a wide circle of relatives that would have been responsible for her. But Naomi is not in Bethlehem. So the responsibility would fall to her
son-in-laws. But they are dead too. She’s is truly between the rock and the hard
place. So she decides to go back to her
home land, having heard that the famine that originally caused them to go to Moab is
over.
But what about Naomi’s daughter-in-laws? They are from Moab. Ruth’s son’s have married “foreign women”. And isn’t that one of the things that got
Israel into trouble so many times before?
Isn’t that what got Sampson into so much trouble? So we’ve got no relatives and some foreign women
as daughter-in-laws. Socially, given the
time in which they lived, that’s a pretty bad hand to be dealt. And not much prospect of it getting any better.
So Namoi decides to head back home. She encourages her daughter-in-laws to stay
on Moab, maybe they can find new husbands among their own people. One returns.
The other, Ruth decides to go with Naomi back to Bethlehem. And she makes a startling pronouncement.
“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will
stay. Your people will be my people and
your God my God.” Your God, my God.
We’ll have to read the rest of the story in the days ahead to see how this all ends,
but Ruth’s proclamation is truly amazing.
Your God is my God. As we read
through the Old Testament it’s easy to see God as a harsh God. There’s a lot of killing, and much of it in
the name of the Lord. You really can’t
deny that. And so much of it is along
ethnic and nationalist lines that it would seem that God must either be a bigot
or nationalist to the extreme. But Ruth
and her story will show us that isn’t entirely true.
What is most important is if you acknowledge that God is
God, that God is The God. Ruth, in this
passage leaves her people and her god behind to follow the God Abraham, the God
is Isaac, the God of Jacob, and the God of Naomi. And honestly, it’s not entirely clear
why. It certainly isn’t Naomi’s good fortune that
causes Ruth to follow God. We could
speculate, but we really don’t know why.
But from God’s perspective what is important is that Ruth
has decided to follow God. And that
makes Ruth one of God’s people. It doesn’t
matter what her ethnicity is. It doesn’t
matter what her nationality is. It only
matters where her heart is. And she has
given her heart to God. Yeah, God always
pledges to keep His promise to Israel. And
even when they stray He remains faithful and brings Israel back. But God always has room in His Kingdom for
anyone who will follow Him, no matter where they come from, no matter where
they were born, no matter what they use believe, no matter who they use to
follow.
This is something that will take the Jewish people many
generations to understand. Not sure they
or the rest of us fully understand it even now.
The Israel was blessed to be a blessing.
And the greatest part of that blessing is that everyone from anywhere is
welcome to join God’s People, join God’s Kingdom. They just have to declare, God is my
God. God is my God.
It’s hard for us to appreciate how radical a concept that
was in Naomi’s day. They’ve seen it
happen with Rahab from Jericho. This isn’t
the first time someone’s faith has brought them into a relationship with God
and His people. But we Christians need
to always remember, Our God does not want to exclude anyone. He wants us to invite everyone we meet to
make God their God. There’s always room
in God’s Kingdom for one more, even that person that you interact with today.
God, there was a time when I didn’t know You. And then there was a time where You brought
me to the place that I was able to say, “God is my God.” Lord, I know so many that don’t say that yet,
that don’t know that yet. Lord, do
whatever it takes in my life to be the person that can invite them into Your
presence. Make me, make my life an invitation
to all I meet to come into Your presence.
To make you their God. Lord, they’re
lost without You just as I once was.
Lord, use me in whatever way You
need to so that others could be drawn into a relationship with You. Amen
Leonard
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