I. Disappointment (Ruth 1:1-22)

I. Disappointment (1:1-22)

1:1-2 The events of this book occurred during the time of the judges, a miserable period in Israel’s history when a vicious cycle kept repeating itself: the people fell into idolatry, God let their enemies oppress them, they cried out to him for deliverance, he raised up a judge to rescue them, and they fell into idolatry again. As the author of the book of Judges says, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him” (Judg 21:25). Thus, the famine that was in the land as the book of Ruth opens was likely a result of God judging Israel’s idolatry. To get relief from it, a man named Elimelech, who was from Bethlehem in the tribal territory of Judah, took his wife, Naomi, and two sons and went to stay in the land of Moab (1:2).

1:3-5 While they lived in Moab, Elimelech died, leaving Naomi a widow (1:3). Her sons married Moabite women named Orpah and Ruth, but after only ten years in Moab these sons died, too (1:4-5). Naomi was left without her two children and without her husband (1:5). Thus, things had gone from bad to worse for this descendant of Abraham. In an attempt to escape the peril of famine, Naomi had become a widow and childless. Her circumstances had spiraled down to a point at which she had no way to provide for herself in Moab.

1:6-13 When Naomi heard that the famine back in her native Israel had ended, she determined to return home to Judah (1:6-7). She encouraged her daughters-in-law to return to their childhood homes in Moab and prayed God might grant each a new husband (1:9). She wanted God to deal kindly with them, a fact that may suggest she felt they had placed themselves under God’s covenant covering by marrying Israelite men. In any event, as far as Naomi was concerned, the women would be throwing their lives away to stay with her because she could not provide either with another husband and was more or less destitute herself (1:11-12). As she described it, The Lord’s hand [had] turned against her (1:13). Yet, it was through her very difficult situation that God was about to work in a big way.

1:14-19 In spite of what Naomi said, Ruth was determined to remain with her. Though Orpah turned back, Ruth said, Wherever you go, I will go . . . your people will be my people, and your God will be my God (1:16). She even swore an oath to remain with her mother-in-law for life (1:17). Her commitment was so deep that she preferred widowhood and its challenges to abandoning Naomi and her God—a fact suggesting that she’d probably come to place faith in him at least in part through the woman’s witness. In renouncing the idolatry of the Moabites and embracing Israel’s God as her own, Ruth had clearly made a complete break with her past. And because Ruth was determined, Naomi stopped trying to dissuade her, and the two women returned to Bethlehem (1:18-19).

1:20-22 Naomi reentered Israel as a broken and bitter woman (1:20; see 1:13). She told the people of her hometown, the Lord has opposed me, and the Almighty has afflicted me (1:21). In other words, in returning to her homeland empty-handed, Naomi felt she had nothing to show for her commitment to her husband or to her God. Nevertheless, she recognized that both good and bad circumstances come through the fingers of the Lord. In his sovereignty, he either causes events or permits them to come to pass. And, while Naomi was truly in despair, it was time for the barley harvest (1:22). She could see that God had ended the famine, the very thing that had driven her family off and to their graves. There was hope in the midst of her hopelessness.