Wherever You May Go

Veronica McDonald - Writer/Artist

            I love the way the biblical book of Ruth begins:  “In the days when the judges ruled…”  It’s like the start of a fairy tale.  Ruth's words in the first chapter of this book are probably some of the most well known from scripture.   “ Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge.” They are used in songs and at weddings, and, in general, those places where we talk of friendship and loyalty, companionship and lifelong vows. 

            When was that time when the judges ruled?  If you know some of the sequence of the stories in the bible, it occurs after Moses led his people out of slavery in Egypt, after their journey through the desert, and after Joshua’s conquest into Canaan.  It was during a time when Israelite people were settling into a new land.  There were a number of people who rose up among the Israelites to be leaders and guides, such people as Gideon, Deborah, Jephthah, and Samson.  They were called judges.  It was before the time of monarchs and kings.  These were the days when the judges ruled. 

            The passage tells us of a famine in the land and about a man who lived in Bethlehem whose family was struggling to live, which, if you know Hebrew, would sound ironic, as Bethlehem literally means “house of bread.”  This man, Elimelech, decides to move his wife and two sons to the country of Moab.  Recorded in the biblical book of Joshua and Judges, are many battles between the Israelites and their neighbours and in other passages in the bible there are many slights against  Moabites.  Moab was one of the many neighbours with whom the Israelites constantly fought.  The people of Moab had different customs, they worshipped other gods, they were the enemy, but in order to survive, this family moves to Moab to find food and work. 

            What I imagine is that they weren’t the only ones and these refugees probably found each other, lived close to one another, and learned to survive in a hostile environment.  Similar, to refugees today who find their homes in Canada or the U.S.  Unfortunately, while there, Elimelech dies.  His wife, Naomi, as a widow in a foreign land would have been left in a very vulnerable position.  This was a time when women did not live on their own, and always had a man as head of the household.  It seems that Naomi’s two sons were old enough to be married, and maybe they weren’t yet because it had been hoped that they would return home and find appropriate women to wed, in other words, not Moabite women.  At this point though there was no choice but to find them brides, women who would support the household and birth sons to carry on the family name.  But where do you find families in a hostile land that would even think about marrying off their daughters to foreigners?  

            Enter Orpah and Ruth.  The reading doesn’t say how these marriages came to be, but, later there is a reference made to them returning to their mother’s house.  It’s possible that Orpah and Naomi lived in homes with no fathers or other men to support them, and therefore, were also desperate to secure a marriage in order to survive.

            Orpah and Ruth married Naomi’s sons, moved in with them and their mother and lived in this household and possibly this small community of Israelite people and would have learned new customs and taken on the traditions of their husband.

            Orpah and Ruth lived this way for ten years.  We get no hint of what it would have been like for them, so we take an educated guess.  We imagine these two Moabite women living among Israelite people, who saw them as foreign, and as their enemy.  We imagine their husbands may have had to defend their wives from the insults and injuries of neighbours.  We imagine that Orpah and Ruth may have even found hostility around people who used to be their friends, because they were now associated with people they disliked.

            After ten years though, the unthinkable happens again to Naomi.  Both of Naomi’s sons die.  Orpah and Ruth are left as widows.  They are now three women, with no men to support them.  Naomi, whose name means, “pleasant”, must have felt very bitter towards a God she felt had forgotten or betrayed her. 

            Naomi then gets word that things have improved in her homeland.  The famine is over.  She decides to return home.  The plan is that she, Orpah, and Ruth would travel together, but then Naomi reconsiders.  Naomi is going back home, destitute.  She has no husband, no sons, no grandsons.  A woman on her own, a woman who has had everything taken from her, is no company for these two young women.  She probably imagined life for these two Moabite women  would be similar to her own experience as a foreigner in a hostile land.  Although she may have loved them like they were her own daughters, she knew it was unfair to bring them with her.  She tells them both, “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.  The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband.”  In other words, go, start a new life, and find a new husband.

            Of course, they both refuse.  This is not the custom.  They would not allow Naomi to carry on by herself.  Naomi was probably travelling with other Israelite people who were also returning to their home, so she would not have been travelling alone, but she literally had no one left in her family, except for these two foreign daughters-in-law.  But Naomi would have none of this.  She knows that people must look at her as a pariah, as someone cursed, maybe even someone being punished by God for her sins, whatever they might be.  She again encourages them to return home.

            This time Orpah does.  And no one can blame her.  It will not be easy for her.  She will go back to the same situation she was in ten years ago, living with her mother, desperate for a husband, but she might hope to return to old relationships, to her own traditions, and to a life she missed.  Going with Naomi, to a foreign land, with no husband to protect her, could have meant certain misery and even death.  She kisses her mother-in-law and returns home.

            Imagine Naomi’s surprise when Ruth refuses.  This young Moabite woman with many child-bearing years left to her clings to her mother-in-law and refuses to go.  With beautiful, poetic words, she says,

“Do not press me to leave you

    or to turn back from following you!

Where you go, I will go;

    where you lodge, I will lodge;

your people shall be my people,

    and your God my God.

Where you die, I will die—

    there will I be buried.

May the Lord do thus and so to me,

    and more as well,

if even death parts me from you!”

            Ruth has lived ten years with these Israelites.  She has taken on their customs.  She has learned their ways.  For her, going back was not an option.  She loved her mother-in-law and would not abandon her, even if it meant leaving all that was familiar and safe to go to a land where she would be hated.  She risked it all to be with Naomi, to be with Naomi’s people, and to follow Naomi’s God.  

            Rob Bell, a preacher from the states, said in a recent podcast that the Spirit often takes us to new places and new spaces, when you’re listening, when you’re growing, when you’re up for it, when you’re open and these places might be geographical, spiritual, social, psychic, cultural. Sometimes life events have caused us to see things in a new way, or sometimes we are just at a time in our lives when we are open and ready to go to a new place and space,.  Sometimes you just have this sense that there is this journey to go on.

            The Spirit was taking Ruth into a new place and a new space and she was ready.  Yes, Ruth was loyal to Naomi, but Ruth, unlike Orpah, was ready to enter into a journey, a new direction.  Whatever it was that brought her to this point, she was ready to let the Spirit take her into a foreign land, without any kind of protection from the hate and hostility she might experience when she got there or from the meagre existence her and her mother-in-law would have to live as they depended upon charity and the goodwill of others.  She was willing to risk going where this new God of her husband’s was taking her.

            I find this to be one of the most courageous stories in our bible.  Ruth’s ability to risk and be courageous continues throughout the story and I commend it to your reading.  She’s an amazing example of resilience and having the courage to begin anew.

            It’s a story that needs to be shared in our society, a story to help us realize that foreigners are not so different from us, that an immigrant from a country we distrust might actually be the hero, that even poor widows, with different customs and habits can bring much goodness, as we see Ruth marrying Boaz, kindred of Naomi, and becoming the great-grand daughter of the beloved great king of Hebrew Scriptures, King David, the descendant of our saviour Jesus. 

            It’s a story that can inspire us as individuals.  We all encounter times when, because of hardship, we might become bitter like Naomi or we might turn back like Orpah.  We might wonder if God has it out for us or if God even exists based on the absence of all things good.  Ruth though clings to what she has left, Naomi, and decides to trust the Spirit to take her where she needs to go. 

            It’s also a story for our church.  Where is the Spirit leading us?  Is it time to leave what we’ve been used to and go into the unknown?  Are we ready and willing to trust the Spirit to take us to a new place, a new space?

            Change is painful.  Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah all experienced the pain of leaving home, of being hated for where they were born, the loss of loved ones, the act of leaving behind all they knew and loved.  They would have grieved.  They each said goodbye too many times. 

            It’s so difficult to make such life changes when you’re in the midst of such suffering, but that’s usually when it happens, isn’t it?  When all things are well and going smoothy, we don’t have any impetus to make changes.  It’s those times of loss and disruption when we have to make major life decisions, on a personal level, but sometimes at a corporate level, for instance, when a church says goodbye to their well-loved minister. 

            During those times, when big decisions have to be made, find what you need to cling to.  For Ruth, it was Naomi.  You might have a loved like that, you might cling to your faith and to God.  You might cling to a favourite book or song.  Whatever it is, find what brings you comfort and assurance and just hang on, because the ride will be a bumpy one.

            May God be with you as you journey onto new paths.  May Christ be your guide as you learn to risk and as you practice courage.  May the Spirit bring you comfort as you leave behind your grief and enter into those new places and spaces.  May it be so.  Amen