RUTH – CELEBRATION OF FAMILY, LOVE AND LOYALTY
The name “Ruth” could stand for pity and compassion or lovely friend. I first read the story of Ruth in a Bible study book as an infant in Sunday school class. She was a young girl known for her kindness, love and loyalty. I also had watched the Girls Brigade in Nigeria acted her in stage play. They dramatized her loyalty to Naomi, her mother in law. She was depicted a resilience, loyal and courageous young Moabite woman, who left her own people to remain with Naomi, her mother-in-law and her people; became a wife to Boaz, an ancestress of King David. The Moabite people and the Israelites were arched enemies who engaged in frequent incisive wars. However occasioned by famine, Elimelech and Naomi travelled to Moab as economic refugees just like many people from the developing countries residing in advanced world. The difference is that the harsh situation in most of our home countries have not improved; not because God has not shown favor on our lands but due to gross mismanagement of God’s given resources, embezzlements and grave indifference to the yelling’s of the masses, our booms have turned into persisting dooms.
Ruth was poor and came from very ungodly background. She got married to Mahlon, one of the two sons of Elimelech and Naomi. Unfortunately for her, the husband died when the marriage was still young, just like his father–Elimelech, who hailed from Bethlehem in Judah. The causes of their deaths were not disclosed. Following the patterns, this family experienced death of the young. The biblical Ruth was a very determined and persevering woman who had the character of inner mind. However, I happened to have known another Ruth who was also rude. She was the opposite of the character represented in the Biblical Ruth. I was not too surprised because I happen to know people who answer a name and behave the opposite. For example: Some answer Innocent and behave like demon, crafty, vindictive and perverse. Others answer Peter but very feeble and inconsistent. Some answer White but are black while others are named Love but are hateful. The rude Ruth had a shape tongue and very quarrelsome; a loosed character, spiteful, deceitful and very unpleasant to stay around. She was a wet blanket, blatant, quarrelsome to the husband; she hated her mother in law and often prayed for her dead. She nicknamed her “a witch.”
Much was not known of that great character, Ruth until her mother in law, Naomi prepared to return home to Bethlehem because the news came that God had shown favor on their land and the economic situation had turned around; poverty had turned into prosperity. Naomi and her family had suffered great misfortune in foreign land. She lost her husband and two male adult children, Mahlon and Chilion and was very devastated. In anguish of loss, she persuaded her two daughters in law, Ruth and Oprah to return to their parents and homes. While Oprah had left reluctantly after some resistance but Ruth refused to be persuaded and insisted in following Naomi back to Bethlehem. Ruth came into Naomi’s life as a daughter in law and after her husband died, she had staked and suffered loneliness, grief and hardship with Naomi; decided to migrate with her, to her country and even vowed to die with her [Ruth 1:16-18].
Some women answer Ruth but have little or no knowledge of the character in the name. We live at a time some young women would not want to marry young men whose mothers are alive. Others claim to love their spouses; called them sweetie but hate and maltreat their mothers in law. They have branded them “witch,” even when they’re not. Could that be a case of giving a dog a bad name! The funny thing about it is that these women are blessed with male children who shall in future get married and their wives shall also call their mothers in law the same nick name they called theirs. Don’t you know that you ripe what you sow! In the alternative, love covers all things; if you love your spouse, you have to love your mother-in-law. Don’t ever loose your mind that it was that “old fire wood” that gave birth to, nourished and raised the man/woman you called darling, who incidentally is the father/mother of your children.
I believe there were some worthy virtues in Naomi that endeared Ruth and Oprah to her. These daughters in law were no Israelites but Moabites women who accepted foreigners into their bosom. Neither Naomi nor Ruth was faultless but they accepted each other, shared lives and clanged to each other through thick and thin. Ruth did not take advantage of either the husband or parent in law because they were economic refugees in their country. She heeded the wise counsels and advices of Naomi. As she humbly honored Naomi, her loyalty and love provoked God’s compassion and uncommon favor on her. She later got married to Boaz, a respected wealthy man from Elimelech’s family and was blessed with a male child, Obed.
Even though Naomi and family lived in Moab, they maintained their Jewish identity. Naomi was such a sweet mother in law that she lived with foreign and ungodly daughter in law that her examply life converted them to live the Jewish culture and lifestyle. Nothing except love could have endeared these Moabite women. She did not bring disaster in her children’s home but peace and love. Most mothers-in-law are threats to their children’s homes. Their presence brood and deepen troubles and misunderstandings in the home they visit; some join hands with their daughters/sons to put out their spouses and easily graduate from visitors to co-home owners. As we observe another Mother’s Day, may we celebrate family, love and loyalty of a great mother, Naomi and daughter, Ruth. I wish all mothers and mother’s to be, Happy Mother’s Day.
Reach: Evangelist Ogbonnaya, Godswill @weefreeministries.org or P.O. Box 720035, Houston, Texas, 77272.