Earlier in this series, we explored the story of Rebekah – a story filled with
family drama, something that we see often
in the earlier scriptures.
The story of Naomi and Ruth might be dramatic,
but it’s not one of rivalry, jealousy, or power imbalance.
There aren’t many relationships in the Hebrew scriptures which we might wish to emulate today,
but the relationship between Naomi and Ruth is certainly one of them.
Someone once said ‘a friend is someone who walks in when the rest of the world walks out’.
I’m sure we can all think of times in our lives when friends have been crucially important to us
and have kept us going through a tough time.
Sometimes our friends are similar to us, and at other times friendships can take us by surprise.
In my early 20s one of my favourite friends was a woman called Mari who was in her 100s.
She was funny, had fabulous stories (she remembered the day the Titanic sunk)
and she always had time for me and was willing to listen to me grumble about some problem or another.
The story of Naomi cannot be told without including the story of Ruth,
two women of different faiths and ages, but whose love, friendship and loyalty to each
other was transformative for both of them.
Naomi and her husband Elimelech were a Jewish couple from Bethlehem
and they moved to Moab, a non-Jewish region, during a famine.
Elimelech died soon after they arrived, but Naomi settled there with her two sons
who had married Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah.
Tragedy struck again and both sons died
leaving Naomi’s world devastated.
She believed God had turned against her and her pain was so deep rooted
she even asked for her name to be changed from Naomi,
which means delight, to ‘Mara’ which means ‘bitterness’.
As a woman she was left without the protection
of a single male family member, in a foreign land, and far from her extended family.
It isn’t surprising then that she decides to make the 50-mile journey to return home to Bethlehem.
Her two widowed daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah begin the journey with her, but Naomi
encouraged them to return to their families, to find new husbands and rebuild their lives.
Orpah tearfully turns back. But Ruth refuses to leave Naomi.
She ‘clung to her’. She says:
‘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.'
What a powerful declaration of loving commitment from one person to another.
This loyalty bound the two grieving women together.
Naomi and Ruth slowly rebuild their lives. Ruth finds work in the fields and Naomi
supports her in securing a new husband, Boaz. Naomi’s bitterness slowly begins to melt.
She considers Ruth to be her daughter and by the end of the book of Ruth,
Naomi has a secure home, a daughter who loves her, a grandchild and a renewed faith in God.
What is so lovely about their relationship is it is an example of a
relationship that restores hope, with a mutual reciprocity at the heart of it.
Naomi relies on Ruth’s youthful energy to provide food for them;
Ruth relies on Naomi’s wisdom and contacts in a strange land.
And they walk together in their grief. Friendships like this are a gift, aren’t they?
What a close friendship we see in this story.
Do you have any friendships that echo that of Naomi and Ruth?
Perhaps you’d like to give thanks for them today.