Ruth: Loss, Love and LegacyParaugs

Returning Home

The first chapter of Ruth is a story of two journeys: the journey from Bethlehem to Moab and the journey from Moab back to Bethlehem. The first is briefly described in the two verses we studied yesterday, but the second journey, the journey of return, takes the rest of the chapter. 

One of the most significant differences between the journey from Bethlehem to Moab and the journey from Moab back to Bethlehem is the difference in people. Naomi was the only one to take both journeys. Though she left with two sons and a husband, she was returning with two women who were not her flesh and blood. 

I can’t help but note that the driving force behind Naomi’s choices to leave Bethlehem, and later Moab, was the same—a desire for physical nourishment. It would be especially hard for me, of all people, to fault anyone for being motivated by such a thing as food. If Moab had been known for its fresh mozzarella and olive oil, I might have moved too. But sarcasm aside, the catalyst behind both journeys seems to be governed by the physical and not the spiritual. On both occasions their physical circumstances and not necessarily the God of the circumstances dictated their decisions.

I deeply admire some of my friends for heeding the Lord over their natural desires … God’s ways are not always the most practical, popular, or unopposed, but they are the most blessed. I wonder how Elimelech and Naomi’s lives would have been different had they been directed by the supernatural over the natural and stayed in the land of Judah. 

When Naomi heard that God had come to help her people in Bethlehem, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home (v. 6). My friend April noted the word prepared and gave me a mini-sermon over lunch about how it takes preparation to return home. She thought of all the things that would have encompassed for Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah, and she likened it to her own spiritual journey, remembering the things that turning back to God required of her. She left me with Psalm 16 as a benediction—a fitting tie-in about the place God intends for us to dwell. 

No matter where you find yourself today—flourishing in His presence or struggling on your own terms—bread is always available at His table for anyone willing to return.