Daily Devotional • Februrary 24
A Reading from Ruth 1:1-14
1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. When they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
6 Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had considered his people and given them food. 7 So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah. 8 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back each of you to your mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.9 The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband.” Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud. 10 They said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” 11 But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? 12 Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, 13 would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.” 14 Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
Meditation
It would be easy to research and recount what it meant for the Israelites in need to leave their homeland and move to Moab and what it meant to be a widow in that culture. However, that’s not the point of these verses that launch the book of Ruth.
The beginning of this tale describes escalating grief and loss. First, there is a famine; it must have been a bad one if Elimelech and his family decided to leave Bethlehem and look for a better life in Moab, a nation often at enmity with Judah. Events like these are very common. To this day the nations surrounding Israel are bitter enemies of that nation, and family tragedies that are unforeseen and uncontrollable are always around us.
My very wealthy family lost nearly everything in the Depression; my mother remembered as a child moving from a mansion with servants to a small house. The wonderful family that ran a very popular homemade soap company in Oregon was shockingly bereaved when the father was suddenly killed in an accident in their workshop, leaving a wonderful wife and ten children.
Some of us have probably suffered similar corrosive, soul-shredding catastrophes, or know others who have. Elimelech’s family appears to have started off well enough in Moab, for the two sons married Moabite women. And then all three men died in short order, leaving three widows. For Naomi, it is one disaster after another. But there is a sign of the presence of God in these calamities — for “Elimelech” means “God is my king.” The meaning of names in Ruth is significant, and gives us leaven of what is to come.
David Baumann is a published writer of nonfiction, science fiction, and short stories. In his ministry as an Episcopal priest, he served congregations in Illinois and California.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
St. Anne’s Parish, Annapolis, Maryland
The Diocese of Madras – The Church of South India (United)
