The Story of Ruth

November 9, 1997

Ruth 1:19 So they two went until they came to Bethlehem.

The story of Ruth is one of the most beautiful and romantic stories every written. In fact, when Benjamin Franklin was United States Ambassador to France, he would occasionally attend the Infidels Club - a group of men who spent most of their time searching for and reading literary masterpieces. On one occasion Franklin read the book of Ruth to the club when it was gathered together, but changed the names in it so it would not be recognized as a book of the Bible. When he finished, they were unanimous in their praise. They said it was one of the most beautiful short stories that they had ever heard.

They demanded that he tell them where he had run across such a remarkable literary masterpiece. It was his great delight to tell them that it was from the Bible, which they professed to regard with great scorn and derision.

Well, anyway— the Book of Ruth is just four short chapters you can read in half an hour or so— and I recommend it as a 'good read.'

It starts out sort of like 'The Grapes of Wrath' with a family in trouble because of a drought and because it looked like a lot of people might die of starvation. So one man took his wife and two teenage sons and went looking for relief. He went eastward from Bethlehem and Jerusalem into the mountains of Moab. {You can see Moab from the hill around Jerusalem— and the hills look white as though they were snow-covered. But there is no snow— it is desert and hot— just light colored rock and sand.}

Anyway the family in the story moved to Moab but they never really made it very big. The two sons got old enough to marry, and married local girls, but then the father died. And before either son had become a father they both died and left the mother alone with her two Moabitess daughters-in-law.

It was a bad scene. She didn't have any means of support— she couldn't keep up the rent and put food on the table. So she said, "I'm going back home to Bethlehem. I have a few relatives there. That is where home for me will always be." And she got ready to leave.

Now this had to be a pretty remarkable woman, because when she got ready to go back to Bethlehem, which would be a foreign country to her daughters-in-law, BOTH of them said immediately, "We want to come along with you!" And they got their few little possessions together and started out.

But the woman— her name was Naomi— didn't want to impose her will on the girls. She told them, "You are both young and attractive. You won't have any trouble marrying again, here among your own people. Bethlehem is a long, long way from here and a lot different in many ways. Go on back and start over!"

It made a lot of sense, really. And one of the young widows, named Orpah, took Naomi's good advice. She hugged her mother-in-law and kissed her goodbye, and cried, and went back to her father's house in Moab. But the other young widow, Ruth— for whom the book is named— made a little speech that has become more famous than the Gettysburg Address. It goes something like this:

"Don't ask me to leave you or turn back from going with you, for where you go, I will go; wherever you lodge I will lodge; your people will be my people; your God will be my God; where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. The Lord be my witness that I mean it— nothing but death will ever part you and me!" Wow!

Then the Bible records (1:19) "So they two went on until they came to Bethlehem." And it turns out that Bethlehem became a 'house of bread' for them— it really became their home.

What happened just after they came to Bethlehem is part of that fascinating love story. Naomi told Ruth how to make herself attractive to the richest man in town, who just happened to be a bachelor relative of their late husbands. It sounds terribly manipulative, but actually it was pretty wonderful. I won't ruin all the good parts, but some of her advice was, "Now here's how we'll go about it:

"First, take a bath." I don't know what their bathing customs were back then. Once a month? Once a week? Maybe it wasn't the time for it, but go ahead anyway.

"Second, dab on some perfume." Wonder what it was? Chanel No. 1? Naomi's Mystique for Moabite Maidens? Not TOO much, now or it might give him a headache!

"Third, put on your best clothes." Wonder what the style was?

"Fourth, you go to the threshing floor and wait until he's had his fill of meat and drink." Naomi evidently believed that a man cannot think about love on an empty stomach, or at least can only think of one thing at a time.

"Fifth—" ... well I'm not going to tell you the rest of her advice because, well, just because!!

Actually all this advice was to enable Ruth to ask Boaz to be the go'el, the redeemer kinsman, to marry her and fulfill the Levite vows as found in Deut 25:5-10. And what do you know? It worked! Boaz, the confirmed bachelor, was smitten hard! He proposed on the spot— and one of the happiest marriages you can imagine was the result. And both Boaz and Ruth loved mother Naomi, and she got to enjoy her grandchildren.

And do you know what? This alien woman— this widow Moabitess became the direct ancestor, the great-grandmother, of David the king, and is listed as a 'fore-mother' of Jesus Christ the Messiah Himself!

Now good story tellers just tell a story and let it go at that. But this one is too rich in one area for me to just let go. I need to say that Ruth left her home so she could go home. She needed to find Bethlehem— the 'house of bread' where she could live Finding a HOME is a journey every one os us needs to make: The Necessity of Going to Bethlehem

Bethlehem means 'house of bread.' It is "home' or the place where we are fed. To be 'fed' means to me 'nourishment,' and is more than physical.

Where is your home? Where do you go? Where do you stay? Who are your people? Where is your God? WHERE IS YOUR HOME?

Every home is different. Yet those faithful people who try to put God at the center of their lives, to make God's will essential and not just convenient have one thing in common: there is a commitment, centered in the integrity of God. Spoken or unspoken there is a commitment to hang in there with God and with one another! "Where you go—I go!"

Every one of us decides where we will live, and what we will settle for as "home." Every one of us will be called on to leave, or at least, to go on past the home in which we were born and shaped. If you had strong Christian parents you may be daunted at ever living up to their standard.

If you had, God forbid, insincere parents who were Christian at church and something less at home you may be tempted to think there is nothing to this 'game' of being a Christian. If your home, like Ruth's, was not a believing home you may have to find help in your journey to Bethlehem.

But yes, there is a Bethlehem! There is a house of bread where you can live. There is a family that will take you in! And where that family is found— there is Bethlehem for you!

The church is our Bethlehem, or can be and should be. Our individual homes can become true Bethlehems, 'houses of bread' where we nurture and care for each other. (For a period in my life E.N.C. was a Bethlehem to me!)

Let me say it again: Everyone's home is different. Yet those faithful people who try to put God at the center of their lives, to make God's will essential and not just convenient have one thing in common: there is a commitment, centered in the integrity of God. There is the stability and comfort of love that goes beyond selfishness. "Bethlehem" doesn't depend on wealth or titles. It is where there is love.

I'm reminded of the story of a little girl on the first day of school. She was new in town and the teacher asked her where she lived. The little girl said that Mother and Father were still looking for a place to live. The teacher asked, "You mean you don't have a home?" And the little girl replied, "Oh, yes, teacher! We have a home; we just don't have a house to put it in yet."

Read #684 verses 1 & 2 then Sing #734 Prayer of St. Francis