And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.
So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”
So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.
These initial few verses contain some of the most popular words recited to pledge devotion and commitment at weddings today, however the original readers would have been struck by the unusual response and the great cost for this Moabite widow to pledge covenant loyalty to her widowed Israelite mother-in-law, her people and her God.
15 — Naomi urges Ruth for the fourth time to be sensible, to “return” to her people like her sister-in-law is doing, and then adds another reason why she should “go back” to Moab. It’s not just a place where her family is; it’s not just the society that she has grown up in; it’s not just her ethnicity and her culture; it is a religion, a belief system that infiltrates all aspects of life. Ruth, go back to the god of Moab, Chamos, the god of your ancestors (cf. Judg. 10:6, Num. 21:29; 1 Kings 11:7 & 33; & Jer. 48:7)
16 — Although we can’t know for sure what is going on in her heart & mind, we can see by Ruth’s words that God is doing a work in her heart that is not driven by any example or faith of her mother-in-law, and certainly is not driven by the customs or culture of the day. It is another example of the great kindness or hesed of God reaching out and moving in the life of someone who was an enemy of God, a foreigner, and outsider and bringing them into relationship with him.
17 — Ruth binds her pledge with an oath that invites punishment if she is unfaithful & swears by the name Yahweh, Israel’s God. This kind of oath is not uncommon in the original day and age,and there are twelve times in the OT that it sites this kind of pledge. What is quite different is that she words her pledge in a way that declares her allegiance to the God of Israel (Yahweh), to Naomi and her people, while renouncing allegiance to Moab, her people and to her former gods!
18 — Naomi no longer attempts to get Ruth to change her mind & she says nothing more.
The last few verses start to build the tension of the story again with Naomi voicing her view of her circumstances and her viewpoint and experience of God. She sees him as sovereign, but without grace, as an omnipotent power without compassion and a judge without mercy. There have been many other responses to circumstances in Scripture for us to see that Naomi’s response is much like ours before we know God. Exodus 3:16 & 4:31, describes the very difficult circumstances that the people of God went through and they “bowed down & worshiped.” In the beginning of Judges, the people would recognize their sin, repent and cry out to God. In Job 1:21, Job responds that he came into the world with nothing and everything he had was from God. God gave and God took away, “Praise the name of the Lord”! These responses are so unlike Naomi’s.
19 — The two women leave Moab and arrive in Bethlehem. When they arrive, the whole town is “stirred because of them” most likely because they have not seen Naomi for over ten years and the last they saw her she was full and pleasant but now she is empty and bitter, such a dramatic change in circumstances and her attitude.
20, 21 — Naomi summarizes what has happened. “I went away”, but the Lord, the covenant God is the agent who has “brought me back”. “I went out full” and came back “empty,” no husband, no sons, no one to provide, and no hope for the future. She says she is empty and bitter telling the women not to call her Naomi (pleasant) because that no longer describes her situation. “Call me Mara instead, for that is what I am.”
22 — Although Ruth has just made such an amazing, God inspired pledge and covenant to her, Naomi is absolutely oblivious to her words, her costly decision and her sacrifice. Ruth continues to be “Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law.” The original readers would have been aware that God has brought these two women and caused them to “return” at the end of famine and right at the beginning of the barley harvest. And so the tension of the divinely inspired story teller begins again ………
Prayer: Father, thank you for your Word and how you reveal yourself as the covenant God who chooses us when we are so undeserving and causes us to return. Thank you for bringing us to a place of recognizing that without you we are empty and for making us willing to make the costly return to you. Even when we are in situations that feel very empty and destitute, help us to run to you no matter what we have to leave behind, and to trust you and your promise of fullness in Christ Jesus!