Accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road leading back to the land of Judah. Sermons
I. HEARTS ARE UNITED BY COMMON EXPERIENCES. These daughters-in-law were not of her land, nor of her religion; they were not Hebrews; but they were widows! A common sorrow is a welding power, uniting hearts more closely than before. It is said that a babe in a house is a new clasp of affection between husband and wife. True; but an empty cradle has done more than a living child. During the time of these ten years these two wives remained still heathen. We do not know what family they sprang from, or if they were sisters. We do know that Naomi exercised no control or domination over their religious principles. She respects their personal liberty and responsibility; she even urges Ruth not to let natural affection for her override her religious convictions, but to go back to "her gods," as Orpah did. "Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister-in-law." What a sorrow it must have been to her that her sons had married heathen women. We can respect that sorrow. And we can see that Naomi did not slight her own religion when she said these words, but used them as a test of the sincerity of Ruth. A common sorrow had brought them all very close together. "For," as Bailey says in Festus, "the world is one, and hath one great heart." II. RETURN JOURNEYS HAVE A TOUCHING ELOQUENCE IN THEIR SCENES. There were the places Naomi had traversed with her husband and her boys; places of rest under the shadow of the rocks, and of refreshment at the wells. Much must there have been, to recall conversations touched with anxiety concerning their future in the land of Moab. So would many places speak to us today. There, care gazed at us wistfully, and we remember all the thoughts it suggested. There she heard the tinkling of the bells of the camels, as the little trading cavalcade passed by her. What reminiscences! And they would all remind her of the good hand which had led her on, and never forgotten or forsaken her. III. RETURN JOURNEYS REMIND US OF LITTLE EPISODES OF LIFE THAT ARE OVER FOR EVER. We cannot in the ordinary course of an unbroken and unshifting home realize the flight of time so well as when we have marked changes, which by their very abruptness divide life into chapters, which, like volumes, have their commencement and close. A new nest has to be built, and new trees have to be sought to build it in. Thus with ordinary observation we may notice how those who have had to seek new homes find the pilgrim-nature of life more marked in their thought than those who are born and brought up and settled through the long years in one home. There is a dreamy sense of continuance unbroken in some lives! "That she might return!" But she would not, could not take all of herself with her. She would leave, as we all do, a memory of character, an influence of good or evil over those who had been associated with her in the foreign land. - W.M.S.
Her two daughters-in-law with her. Here we have the most happy and promising commencement of a new work. We see them all set out together upon the same road and apparently for the same result. No one who saw them set out upon their journey could anticipate that they would voluntarily separate, or imagine that one was more likely than the other to reach the end proposed. We are obliged to wait until succeeding trials shall bring their real characters individually to light before we can discriminate between them. By a great variety of means God stirs up sinful men to seek after Himself. Anxious, excited, apparently earnest and sincere, they set out upon their journey back to the gracious Being whom they have so long neglected. Yes; they really set out, and appear to set out sincerely. I do not mean that such persons feel their need and danger: that they meditate sincerely upon their return to God; that they resolve they will go back. No. I mean that they actually begin their journey. The prodigal not only says, "I will arise and go to my father"; he does arise and go. The wise and foolish virgins both take their lamps and go forth to meet the bridegroom. Thus all go together "on the way to return into the land of Judah." As far as this journey lies still within the limits of Moab, so far they may unite to go. Up to a certain point they must take the same path and travel in the same direction: Ah, how many of these young travellers have I seen! The Church delighted over them. Christian friends were encouraged by them. The brightest and most blessed hopes clustered around them. The Lord only, who knoweth the hearts of the children of men, could have told us which were the Orpahs and which were the Ruths of this hopeful company. His judgment at the last separates the precious from the vile, divides the gold from the dross, and assigns to each his own place. But we must follow our travellers in their journey, and see why and where they separate. As we thus follow them we see them meet with many trials of faith and patience on the road. Your former habits of sin are to be renounced. But, in addition to these, new habits of conduct and feeling are to be acquired. The habit of secret prayer in your closet and chamber; the habit of constant, earnest study of the Word of God; the habit of watchfulness over your easily-besetting sins; the habit of caution in your allowed indulgences; the habit of consideration and discernment in your relations and company; the habit of resistance to your inward propensities to evil; and, above all, the habit of constant remembrance of God your Saviour, and of simple, earnest faith in His presence, protection, and help; all these, if I should mention no more, are to be acquired, cultivated, and maintained. If all this could be done by single effort, it would be easy work. But that is impossible. It is a journey of successive steps, of continued progress; and you have to press forward in it with the utmost determination and the most sincere desire. But above all these habits of outward life, you have to come with the deep sense of sin, with a consciousness that you are condemned and destitute, with an entire refusal to trust in any virtue or excellence of your own, and to cast yourself in an affectionate and simple trust at your Saviour's feet. When you come to serve the Lord, you must prepare your soul for temptation. From the day you set out on your heavenly journey discouragements and difficulties will seem to multiply around you. The world will be arrayed against you. The habits, opinions, and plans of worldly people are constant obstacles in your way. The professed Christians around you are often fearful obstacles in the way. You see those who profess to follow Christ in many instances living just as gaily, as extravagantly, as indulgently, often as sinfully, as if they had made no such profession. Your own inward heart and feelings will often be very discouraging to you. There is such backwardness in prayer; such want of deep interest in the Word and service of God; so little sensible enjoyment often in your new path; such a necessity for constant warfare and constant watchfulness within yourself. If you relax a moment, you fall. Ah, these are great discouragements, great trials to your faith and patience. Nothing can endure through them but a heart that really loves Jesus more than all the world, and a spirit that willingly sacrifices itself for His service and glory. If this is your heart and spirit, then all these discouragements are instruments of new strength. Orpah may feel dispirited and weary. Ruth only loves the more, the more she is tried. To Orpah the way grows more unattractive and tedious as she goes on. To Ruth every step brings new determination and new desire to press on even to the end.(S. H. Tyng, . D. D.) People Chilion, Elimelech, Ephrathites, Mahlon, Mara, Naomi, Orpah, RuthPlaces Bethlehem, MoabTopics Daughters, Daughters-in-law, Departed, Forth, Judah, Law, Return, Road, Turn, WhereforeOutline 1. Elimelech, driven by famine into Moab, dies there4. Mahlon and Chilion, having married wives of Moab, die also 6. Naomi, returning homeward 8. dissuades her two daughters-in-law from going with her 14. Orpah leaves her, but Ruth with great constancy accompanies her 19. The two come to Bethlehem, where they are gladly received Dictionary of Bible Themes Ruth 1:3-13Library A Gentle Heroine, a Gentile Convert'And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: 17. Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. 18. When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her. 19. So they two went until they came to Beth-lehem. And it … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Worst Things Work for Good to the Godly Bands of Love What is Thy Beloved, More than Another Beloved, O Thou Fairest among Women! what is Thy Beloved, More than Another Beloved, that Thou Dost So Charge Us? Whether the Old Law Set Forth Suitable Precepts About the Members of the Household? Epistle xxxii. To Narses the Patrician. Epistle cxxi. To Leander, Bishop of Hispalis (Seville). Man. Epistle vi. To Narses, Patrician . A Cloud of Witnesses. Departure from Ireland. Death and Burial at Clairvaux. Place of Jesus in the History of the World. Christ the Mediator of the Covenant Appendix xii. 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