Coming from a Non-Christian background I have always felt inadequate in church. I do not know how to pray right or how to praise God in everything even when my heart acknowledges it. I am the last to provide witness during testimony time. That does not mean that God has done any less for me or that he does any less for me than for anyone else.
My feelings of inadequacy brought me to the story of Ruth. Born a Moabite and having been brought up in their culture I wonder how she settled in among her husband's people. She abandoned not just her home, her familiar surrounding but also her faith and her practices. She had only one tool in all that she did and that was obedience to her mother-in-law, Naomi.
In this study, I wish to focus on the relationship between these two women and how the beliefs of one shaped the other. In our walk of faith we are often in need of a Naomi. Naomi did not choose to return to Israel because of her faith in God. In fact the only reason she returned was that she had no where else to go. She had lost her husband and her two sons. In short she was a person who had nothing left to lose. Naomi sets for us an example of carrying on despite the situations. She considered herself too old to remarry and have a family again. She was a sojourner in a foreign land in a time of famine. In the patriarchal world of the time a woman without a male figure in the family rarely had any way to survive. Her desolation is made complete in the understanding that she asks her people to change her name from Naomi to Mara which means bitter. Naomi was bitter but not lost.
In her situation, Ruth provided her a reason to carry on. Among her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, the latter decided to accompany her lonely mother-in-law. There was no social obligation for her to stay with Naomi. She could return back to Moab and take another husband and start a family. According to Israeli custom, Ruth was supposed to marry within the family but Naomi had no other children or the hope of any other children. So she was free to marry whoever she wants. Ruth however did not choose to let Naomi return alone. Her journey into the pages of the Bible doesn't start with hope or faith. It starts with her sense of duty towards her mother-in-law and her compassion towards a fellow widow who has lost everything.
In this study of the Bible we will be discussing about the various aspects of their relationship. The Bible leaves breadcrumbs for us to follow into their lives and each trail of bread crumb leads us to a treasure chest of wisdom and knowledge.
