Context No. 3368 of 4322 · Ruth
Context · Reflection
Ruth 1:10-15: in context
10They said to her, “No, but we will return with you to your people.” 11Naomi said, “Go back, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? 12Go back, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, ‘I have hope,’ if I should even have a husband tonight, and should also bear sons, 13would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, for it grieves me seriously for your sakes, for the LORD’s hand has gone out against me.” 14They lifted up their voices and wept again; then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth stayed with her. 15She said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law.”
Widowed and bitter, Naomi urges her two Moabite daughters-in-law to go back to their own people and their own gods. She has nothing to offer them, no more sons, no future; the LORD's hand, she feels, has gone out against her. Both weep, and Orpah, reasonably enough, kisses Naomi and returns home. But Ruth clings to her.
The passage sets the two responses side by side. Orpah does the sensible, expected thing and goes back to what is familiar and safe, her people and her god. Ruth, against all reason and self-interest, holds fast to Naomi and, with her, to Naomi's God and Naomi's uncertain future. Ruth's clinging is a picture of committed love and faith that will not stop to calculate advantage. Where Orpah returns to security, Ruth binds herself to something costly, an old widow, a foreign land, an unseen God, because love and faith held her fast. Not every faithful choice is the safe or sensible one.
When faith or love would cost me and offer no visible advantage, do I cling like Ruth, or turn back like Orpah to what is safe and familiar?