025 Naomi & Ruth: Stumbling through Grief (Ruth 1:6-22)

Grief can blind us to hope, pushing us to stumble forward without clear direction. In Ruth chapter 1, we witness the raw aftermath of devastating loss as Naomi returns to Bethlehem from Moab with nothing but bitterness and her foreign daughter-in-law by her side.

This moving episode explores the heart-wrenching journey of two widows navigating an uncertain future together. Naomi, whose name means "Pleasant," insists on being called "Bitter" after losing her husband and both sons in a foreign land. When she decides to return to her homeland after hearing God has "visited his people to give them bread," she urges her daughters-in-law to stay behind where they might find new husbands and security.

The story pivots on Ruth's extraordinary declaration of loyalty—"Where you go, I will go"—a statement often romanticized in modern contexts but actually fraught with risk and sacrifice. Ruth wasn't just expressing affection; she was surrendering her entire identity, nationality, and religious affiliation to follow Naomi into what might have been mutual destitution or death. This wasn't a decision made in hope but in steadfast commitment regardless of outcome.

What makes this narrative so powerful is how it honors the reality of grief without rushing to resolution. Naomi doesn't pretend everything will be fine. She openly questions God's goodness while still acknowledging His sovereignty. The text doesn't criticize her bitterness or offer quick explanations for suffering, instead allowing us to sit in the discomfort of unanswered questions.

Yet beneath this darkness runs a subtle current of hope. They arrive "at the beginning of barley harvest"—a seemingly minor detail that signals God's provision is already underway though invisible to grief-stricken eyes. God works not through dramatic intervention but through ordinary means: a timely harvest, established systems of care for the vulnerable, and people willing to show compassion.

Whether you're wrestling with loss, questioning God's goodness, or standing with someone in their pain, Ruth's first chapter offers profound wisdom about faithfulness in life's darkest valleys. Join us as we explore how God meets us in our honest questions rather than our polished answers.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Naomi's Grief and Return Home
• 11:50 Ruth and Orpah's Difficult Choice
• 22:30 Ruth's Profound Loyalty Oath
• 33:37 Arriving in Bethlehem as "Bitter"
• 41:01 God's Presence in Suffering

Transcript

Jessica LM Jenkins: 0:20

Ruth, chapter 1, walks us through intense grief, whereas verses 1 through 5 reveal the reason for Naomi's grief and move at a crisp pace, almost unemotionally. Just here is what happened. You can listen to last episode for everything about verses 1 through 5. The rest of Ruth, chapter one, slows way down so that we cannot help but feel the intensity of the loss and emotion going on in these women's lives. Today we will be looking at the story of Ruth and Naomi as they move from Moab back to Bethlehem and set up a new household as two widow women. To begin with, I'm going to read for you my translation from the Hebrew so that we can immerse ourselves in the feeling of this story, trying to bring out some of the Hebrew highlights, like name meanings, which we talked about last time as we go through. So let me read verses 6 through 22 of chapter 1, and then we will start breaking the text down to see everything and feel everything that's going on here.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 1:38

And then she herself, naomi or Pleasant, arose and her daughters-in-law. And then she returned from the fields of incest, for she heard while in the fields of incest that the Lord visited his people to give bread to them, and she set out from the place from which she was there, and her two daughters-in-law were with her, and then they went in the way to return to the land of the Lord, be praised. And then Pleasant said to her two daughters-in-law Go, return each woman to the house of her mother. The Lord will do faithfully with you, even as you did with the dead and with me. May the Lord give to you and may you find rest each woman in the house of her husband. And then she kissed them and then they lift up their voice and then they wept, and then they said to her we will remain with you and your people. Then Naomi said return my daughters. Why would you go with me? Will there again be to me sons in my womb that they could live to be your husbands? Return my daughters, go, for I am too old to have a husband. For even if I say there is hope for me also, tonight I will be with a husband. And then I bore sons. Would you wait until they grow up? Therefore, would you shut yourselves up to not belong to any man? My daughters, it is bitter, more bitter for me because of you, for the hand of the Lord went out against me. And then they lifted up their voices and they wept again and she kissed turnable, but refreshing friend clung to her and then Pleasant said behold, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and her gods return after your sister-in-law has returned to her people and her gods Return after your sister-in-law. Then refreshing friend said you will not entreat me to leave you to return from after you, for where you go, I will go, and in that place you lodge, I will lodge your people, my people, your God, my God. Where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord Yahweh do to me, may he add to me if anything but death separates between me and between you". And then she, pleasim, saw that she refreshing friend was strengthening herself to go with her and she stopped speaking with her and the two of them went till they entered the City of Bread. And then it happened, as they were entering the city of bread, that all the city was stirred up about them and they, the women of the city, said is this pleasant? And she said to them don't call me pleasant, call me bitter, for the almighty has caused me to be bitter, for the Almighty has caused me to be bitter. I was full and I went and emptily. The Lord caused me to return. Why would you call me pleasant? The Lord afflicted me and the Almighty did evil against me. And then Pleasant returned and refreshing friend, the woman from an ancestral land, her daughter-in-law was with her. She returned from the fields of incest and they themselves entered the city of bread in the beginning of the harvest of barley.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 5:42

And so as we look at Ruth, chapter one, we have read about Ruth and Naomi's loss. They are a couple of poor widows living in Moab and Naomi hears that there's a sliver of hope. She hears that the Lord has visited his people, he's come to take care of them. It's not visiting as in your relative from out of town who just stops by for a couple days, but it's visiting as showing up finally to take care of someone. So she's in Moab, maybe staying in a rented house or wherever they were. Perhaps she's been evicted and she's just trying to figure out what to do as a widow. And she's just trying to figure out what to do as a widow. She hears that the Lord has visited his people to give bread to them.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 6:30

And the Hebrew right here is really fun because you can just almost hear the hope like a couple of bells ringing. The Hebrew words for bread to them almost mirror each other. In the Hebrew it is lehem lechem to them bread, lehem to them, lechem bread. So the Lord visited his people to give lehem lechem bread to them. And you have just a sliver of hope start to awaken in Naomi's heart. But it's a seed, it's not a full-grown plant because, as she will describe to us in just a few verses, there may be bread in Bethlehem but nothing else. There may be food, but there's no man, there's no family, there's no hope for her. But even with that, she sets out from the place which she was there and her two daughters-in-law are with her. Up until this point in verses six and seven, all the action has been Naomi's. She's the one getting up, she is the one who sets out, the daughters-in-law you kind of imagine tagging along behind, like Naomi almost isn't aware that they're there. She's not fully considering their presence, which makes sense considering the grief and trauma and loss she has endured.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 7:56

These verses have a very characteristic, almost jolting feel to them, typically Hebrew, the Hebrew language, the way it functions. It just kind of trots along, it's, and then this happened, and then this happened and then this happened, and then this happened, and this happened and then this happened. And if there's something really significant, they'll have a break in the chain of verbs and you'll be like, oh, that was different, that must be important, but here it's almost all jumbled up. Listen to it again. It's and she returned from the fields of seed, for she heard and then she set out and hurt. They were with her and then they went. And you get this jolting back and forth, which is I was reading over it this week just reminded me that that is often what grief and pain feel like.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 8:44

Naomi is trying to make a decision in life. She is trying to move forward, she is trying to do something, but all of her movement is jolting. She arises to return, she sets out, she went, but it's this jolting, stumbling movement. You trip, you backtrack, you stumble. The grief does not allow smooth movement from point A to point B. That's how Hebrew usually functions Point A, point B, we just get there and we get there quickly.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 9:16

But these verses, the Hebrew itself gives you the feeling of just stumbling through life, trying to make the next decision, clouded by grief, unable to fully get your feet solidly, one in front of the other and you're just trying to make it happen. That is the feeling we get here and she's doing all this and it's almost like she's blinders on. She's making a decision she needs to go home, there's bread there. She may not have bread in Moab anymore because she has no extended family to take care of her and she may not be physically well enough to glean or do any of those things. So she may be like I'm going to die anyway. I might as well die where I can get food. And so she says I'm going to head home, I can get food. And so she says I'm going to head home. And it's this jolting, lurching kind of feeling as she and her grief tries to just pick herself up and move somewhere with these two daughters-in-law trailing along behind. And it may be they're doing all the packing, they're doing all the prep. Naomi can't think she can't function.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 10:23

In an ancient household. The daughters-in-law have a huge responsibility to be serving their mother-in-law, taking care of her anyway. That's the role Ruth and Orpha would have had in the household before the sons died, and so they may just be continuing to do that, taking care of and then the end of verse seven, finally, the girls, ruth and Orpah. Their action is involved. Naomi, she's the one who arises, and the Hebrew even emphasizes that. It says she herself arose. It's not they arose, it's she arose. She returned, she set out and they're with her. But then, finally, the very last phrase of verse 7, and then they, all three of them, went to return to the land. So finally, it's almost like the daughters have caught up. In my mind, I picture Naomi's just getting up, but she's desperate, she's just blindly trying to get home. She's just going forward and the daughters are running behind her with all the suitcases and finally they catch up. So they are all moving towards the land of Judah.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 11:30

Now let's pause for a moment and think about this geographically, because I'm describing it like they're just picking up and moving next door. But that is absolutely not the case going on at all. For those of you listening on the podcast, I'm going to describe this. For those of you watching on YouTube, after I describe it, I will draw it out for you so you can get an idea of what's going on here. But Moab is on the eastern side of the Dead Sea. In Israel, bethlehem is on just to the west, the northwest corner of the Dead Sea. Moab is in the southeast area of the Dead Sea, so they need to go north around the tip of the Dead Sea and then downward southern to Bethlehem. Bethlehem and Jerusalem are also on a mountain range, so they to get from Moab, and Moab is also on a high plateau mountain range on the other side of the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea creates this giant chasm in between, so they have to go up. They have to go north on the mountains, from Moab up through Reuben's territory. Then they have to go down, down, down, down, down, down around the north end of the Dead Sea to cross the Jordan River some of the lowest places on earth, incredibly hot past the city of Jericho and then recline up the mountains to get to Jerusalem and then finally south to Bethlehem.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 13:02

This is a long journey. It's likely that Ruth and Naomi did not take this journey alone. So as Ruth and Naomi travel home home for Naomi, not so much for Ruth, as Ruth and Naomi travel home this is a long, arduous journey. They walk a very long way. They likely do not go alone. They probably have to join a caravan of some kind, because with their meager possessions it would be very dangerous for women. We've often pictured them just like picking up and going by themselves. Like I, you know, I pack my kids in the car and had to see my in-laws or some such. That would not be safe. So they may have had to pay a certain amount to be included in a caravan maybe some of their meager remaining life savings they have to give to a caravan driver to allow them to join this group of people going from Moab up and around the Dead Sea back down to Bethlehem. But now Naomi and her daughters are on that route. They're on the road, they are ready to get going and while they are traveling it seems they're no longer at home. They're on the middle of a road, somewhere, maybe stopped for the night to camp. We don't know.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 14:16

When this discussion takes place. Naomi finally turns to her daughters-in-law. It's like she wakes up from her grief and her slumber just enough to be like oh, oh, they're here. Oh, oh, shoot. I'm the matriarch of this home, I'm responsible for them. What am I going to do? I'm heading back. Yes, bethlehem has bread, but I have nothing for them. And so she turns to her daughters-in-law and she says go, return each woman to the house of her mother that's an interesting phrase.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 14:49

In the Hebrew the house of mother is generally used for a woman who is marriageable. In Rebecca's story she goes when the servant comes and says that he was sent by Abraham and Isaac needs a wife. Rebecca goes to tell the house of her mother about the servant, and this is significant because often in the ancient world the mother had a very huge part in finding spouses for the children. The matriarch reproduction is one of her roles. So finding a good wife for her sons or for her, yeah, finding a good wife for her sons is part of her job. That's part of her role, and she would also then be the one training the new wife that came into the household if the son stayed in the household how to do things their way. So the mother's house is this unit within the whole household. That signifies marriageability.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 15:46

In the Bible we don't often see the woman's influence directly in finding spouses for children, partly because the Bible talks about these arrangements more from the legal standing. So imagine with me it's the mother who's at social gatherings. She's scanning all the eligible young ladies. She's seeing them all. Okay, yep, she seems really good. Then she goes to her husband, which he may be feeling out some of the parents and things as well. But the mother's like, yes, ruth is a good girl, I think she would be good to go with my husband and then the husband will go to Ruth or whoever's father and he'll make the legal arrangements. But mama did a lot of the groundwork. Mama was in daddy's ear saying this is a good match, the family's good, everything's good. She has high character, she's a good girl. The mother has a huge influence. It's not that men are buying and trading women, as we've sometimes been told. There's family allegiances, family alliances here.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 16:52

So Naomi says return each woman to the house of her mother, go back where your mommy can help you find a new husband, where you can get married, where you have hope for a future. And she says the Lord and this is the covenant name for God may Yahweh, the Lord, do chesed, do faithfully with you. You may be familiar with the Hebrew word chesed, which can be translated loving, kindness, covenant, faithfulness. Some English translations just say may the Lord do good to you, which is it's really a cheapening of this blessing that Naomi is giving to her daughters-in-law. She said may the Lord do faithfully, may God's full covenant faithfulness, may my God's full covenant faithfulness. Bless you in your endeavor to find hope and a future for yourself that I cannot offer you. Even as you were chesed, were faithful, were fulfilled your covenant to the dead, my sons and to me. Naomi recognizes her daughter-in-law's faithfulness. They joined Naomi's family in marriage. They are now part of her household and they have faithfully stuck with her. They could have, as soon as their husbands died, cut and ran. They didn't. They stayed with Naomi. She recognizes their faithfulness to her and asked that the Lord would pour out his covenant faithfulness upon them. She says may the Lord give to you and may you find rest, each of you.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 18:25

In the house of a husband there is no social standing. There is very little hope for a widow, especially a poor widow. A rich widow may have hope. She probably has some money and some property. She might not even need to get remarried. She's rich and since she's rich, she has financial control of her own resources. So she may not need that. But these are not rich widows, these are poor widows. They need to be part of a household in order to thrive.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 18:52

Everyone in the ancient world needed to be part of the household A single, independent adult functioning on their own, like we have in our culture, did not exist in the ancient world, or if it did, it was exceptionally uncommon. Everybody needs to be part of a household. A wealthy widow might be able to be the boss, the head of her new household. A poor widow doesn't have a household to be part of. She can't be in charge of a household that doesn't exist because they have no servants or resources or people. So she's Naomi in many ways is praying here that the Lord will bless her daughters-in-law and that they would find rest in a house of a new husband and that God would bless them in this.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 19:37

I've been reading and researching about women and especially widows in the ancient world, and often widows were disadvantaged. A second marriage, a widow might not have the same level of rights as she did for her first marriage. Sometimes a man would force a widow to live with her without the legal documentation needed for marriage. Sometimes a man would force a widow to live with her without the legal documentation needed for marriage so that if something happened to him, she was again without any legal recourse or dowry or anything. And so Naomi is praying that that would not be the situation for Ruth and Orpah, that they would go home and they would find a marriage that God would bless them in this.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 20:16

And so, after she gives this blessing to her daughter-in-laws, she's woken up from her grief a little bit. Enough to be like I need to make sure you girls are taken care of. Go home, I have nothing for you. Go home, may the Lord provide for you. And she kisses them and they lifted up their voice and they weep. You see this deep affection between Naomi and her daughters-in-law. They cannot bear to be apart. They are so heartbroken and they weep. And then the daughters-in-law said to Naomi for we will return with you to your people. Now we don't know how much of that was completely honest, at least on Orpah's part, because in these ancient cultures there's a lot of and in these honor-shame communal cultures there's a lot of negotiation and back and forth. You don't say no directly and you don't accept an offer like this immediately. You push back and forth. Even if you intend to accept the offer, you kind of negotiate it a little bit. So that may be what's going on here, but you still sense with all she kissed them, they lift up their voice, they wept, they refuse. There's this deep and abiding affection and they say we will return with you to your people.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 21:29

All throughout this passage there's a play on with and people In the Hebrew. Both of those have the same consonants I and mem. One is im with, the other is am people. But there's a play off of those two consonants throughout this passage that who are these women? Their identity is at stake. Who are they with and what people do they belong to? Throughout it's they will. They're with her. Go back to your people.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 21:58

Whenever you read with and people in Ruth, chapter one, remember that those words look very similar in the Hebrew. And so there's a, there's a play, interplay going on that wraps up feminine identity. Who are they? Will you be? Will you go with me or are you going to go with your people? Whose are you? And they said we will return to you and your people.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 22:29

And then Naomi Pleasant said go home, return my daughters. Why would you go with me? Well, and she basically looks at them and says I can't get pregnant, I'm postmenopausal A. No man is going to want A. I'm postmenopausal B. No man wants to marry postmenopausal women. And C, even if I wasn't, and I was married and I could get pregnant and I got pregnant tonight. Are you going to wait 15 to 18 years for my sons to grow up? No, don't do that.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 23:05

This gives the idea of the Leverett marriage and if you're curious about that, we'll talk more about Leverett marriage in the Ruth series. But if you're like I, really want to learn about it now. Go back to the Tamar episode and I talk about the Leverett marriage a lot in the Tamar episode. But this gives some of the Leverett marriage brother-in-law marriage idea.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 23:30

Some scholars go no, this isn't strict Leverett marriage because it has specific criteria and this doesn't match all those criteria. But what I feel like those scholars are missing is again, when a woman married into a household, the entire household took responsibility to make sure that woman could thrive and have a future and have children. So Naomi, even though this doesn't technically fit the criteria of leverant marriage in Leviticus 25 and Deuteronomy 25, even though this doesn't fit those specific criteria, naomi understands her cultural responsibility to provide husbands and future for these women and she is saying to them I absolutely cannot do that, I have nothing for you, which I imagine was grief upon grief upon grief. She has lost her husband, she has lost her sons and now she is losing the daughters-in-law, who she seems to have a beautiful relationship with. Even today we joke about the relationships between mothers and daughters-in-law, naomi's and her daughters-in-law. They seem to have this deep emotional bond, which also makes sense when they've walked through deep loss together and have chosen to stay together in the midst of it.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 24:49

Naomi looks at them and says go, for I'm too old to have a husband, I'm not going to have any more kids and you're not going to wait till they grow up. Therefore, it is bitter for me because of you. That Hebrew phrase is very ambiguous. Nobody knows if Naomi's saying I'm too bitter for you, you don't want to be around me, I'm a bitter old woman, go get happy somewhere else. Or if she's saying my life is more bitter than yours, or a little bit of both. But Naomi's bitterness and her hurt is starting to come out here. She says it is more bitter for me than for you, for the hand the fist of the Lord went out against, attacked me. She looks up, as any ancient Near Eastern person would, and says my God has allowed this suffering to come upon me. You don't want to be near that. Like Job. Naomi looks and said God is the one who has allowed this to happen and who knows, if more is on the way. She has a theology here that keeps God on his throne even in the midst of deep suffering.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 26:06

Well, the women lift up their voices and they wept again. Maybe they they hear what Naomi's saying, that she's a bearer of shame and bad luck. Her life is just one of shame. At this point it's just going down, down, down. She doesn't have hope. Things may only get worse for Naomi, and so they lift up their voices and they weep. And then Naomi kisses Turnable and Turnable leaves.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 26:39

Now the text doesn't condemn her. She follows Naomi's wise advice on a human plane. Turnable leaves, she heads back, she goes back home to grasp at seeds of hope. But refreshing friend clings to Naomi in verse 14. Then they wept again and then she kissed Turnable. But refreshing friend Ruth clung to her.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 27:09

That term clung there is the same from Genesis 2.24 that says a man shall leave his father and mother and be united, shall cling to his wife. This is uniting of a household kind of language, as though Ruth is clinging to Naomi, saying we will be a household together. I am not going to go back and join my natal household where I came from. I am going to stay with you and we will be a household. Come hell or high water, I am sticking with you". But Pluton looks at her I imagine Ruth just clinging to her and Naomi's trying to push her off and she says behold, your sister-in-law returned to her people and her gods Return after your sister-in-law.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 27:58

Remember, in the ancient world they believed gods lived in specific geographical locations. So the gods of Moab didn't necessarily have authority or jurisdiction in Israel. The gods of Egypt didn't necessarily have authority or jurisdiction in Moab. The God of Israel, continually, throughout all of scripture, is showing that he has jurisdiction wherever he wants. Throughout all of scripture showing that he has jurisdiction wherever he wants. But this idea that gods were local is exceptionally important to understanding our Old Testament. Behold your sisters return to her people and her gods there in Moab Return after her. But Ruth, who's clinging to her, says do not entreat me to leave you or to return from after you, for where you go I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge your people, my people, your God, my God.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 28:52

In the Old Testament one of the commentators pointed out the only Gentile besides Ruth to proclaim verbal loyalty to the Lord is Rahab and Naaman. All throughout the text of Ruth we get glimmers back to the face of matriarch women who came before Ruth and Naomi. Right now there's a glimmer back to Rahab, who gave her allegiance to the Lord and joined the family of the of God. She may actually have been Boaz's mother or grandmother, which is a spoiler. We're going to get there.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 29:34

But Rahab is important. And here we hearken back to Rahab, to Rahab. Later on the women are going to hearken Ruth and Naomi's experience and give a blessing upon them. That echoes Rachel and Leah. We have this continual hearkening back to women when Naomi asked Ruth and Orpah will you wait until my sons grow up and shut yourselves up and not belong to any man? And that gives a hearkening back to Tamar, who Judah said shut yourself up in your father's house, not your mother's house. You can't go get married. You're locking yourself away in your father's house until my son grows up and go. Listen to that episode, how that turned out. But we've had all of these hearkenings back to previous matriarchal women of faith and here's another one to Rahab. We have Tamar brought up. We have Rahab.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 30:31

Ruth says your people, your people, tamar, rahab. She is walking back to Bethlehem in the footsteps of Tamar, who may have been a Canaanite, of Rahab, who was a Canaanite. And now Ruth is purposefully where, where Naomi was stumbling forward in her grief, just trying to get home, ruth is steadfastly taking step after step where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge, your people, my people, your god, my god. Where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. The text at that moment in the hebrew. You can hear it in the english too, but in the Hebrew it pauses with an emphasis and there the poetic structure of Ruth's beautiful poem climaxes at the there I will be buried.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 31:34

This is often given at weddings and in beautiful moments, and it's this beautiful poem of just steadfast faithfulness and giving herself over to the Lord on the part of Ruth. But it's not necessarily a poem of hope. She says your God will be my God and where you die, I will die. Yes, this does mean for the duration of Ruth's life, but this does not mean Ruth is expecting her life to be long. These women are going back, perhaps to die. They have no hope, they don't know what's coming.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 32:12

In chapters two, three and four, that is why she says your people are my people, your God is my God and I'll go die with you. We're headed home. You don't see hope. I'm going to be there with the end, and if you die first, when you die first I will be buried. I'm not going to go back to Moab after you die. There I will be buried, and thus may the Lord do to me. She invites a curse upon herself. May the Lord do to me and add against me. If anything but death separates us, even in death I'm going to be with you. This is a covenant between two women where Ruth is promising I will be with you, no matter what she may have been believing that she was walking to her death. She wasn't necessarily expecting life and happiness. Between verses 16 and 17 in chapter one, she is converting and she is ready to die. She may have had hope. We don't know, but we know their situation is dire, we know they don't have much going for them and Ruth has faith. After Ruth completes her poem, nothing but death will separate you and me, and even then I'm going to be buried next to you. And then she, Pleasant, saw that Ruth was strengthening herself to go with her. Ruth in this book. I absolutely love her because she is a strong woman. Ruth pushes back. She says no, I am not going to do that. No, this is not what we're going to do. Yes, I am going to adopt your God.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 34:03

We don't know what kind of religious practices Naomi had, whether she kept worship of Yahweh alive in her home while they were in Moab, we don't know. But we know that Ruth got enough that she decided to pledge her allegiance and change her nationality from Moabite to Israelite, in that she wants to be part of God's people. But remember we talked about this last week the law in Deuteronomy that said a Moabite cannot be part of the congregation of Israel, ie go to the tabernacle or temple to worship for 10 generations after conversion. So even if Ruth joins the people of Israel, she is still exceptionally limited and her children and her children and her great-grandchildren, david, are limited, solomon are limited in what they can do and whether they can go to the temple or tabernacle to worship God, which is part of the problem that the book of Ruth, I believe, is answering for us. So then, after Naomi hears Ruth's entire speech, she stops speaking with her, again in the Hebrew.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 35:20

There's a tension in this phrase. We're not sure if this is kind of an abandonment. Naomi's, just like. I'm not talking to you anymore, fine, you can come along. Or if it is a peaceful, relaxed, I'm not going to argue with it anymore. Let's walk hand in hand towards Bethlehem. We don't know the attitudes behind it, but we know that Naomi is still in a place of deep sorrow Because, as the two of them went on and they enter the city of bread again that hope it's sparkling around the edges of the text.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 35:50

They enter the city of bread and then it happened, as they were entering the city of bread, that phrase. And then it happened. Kind of a new scene If we're watching a play. The scene closes, they continue on the way. New scene they enter the City of Bread and the city was stirred up about them. Everyone in the city, somebody news. I mean, we're dealing with a small town, there's not a lot of people here.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 36:17

Naomi comes back. Perhaps her house has been vacant for years, maybe squatters are living in the house, maybe Elimelech's fields have been without anybody using them, or maybe somebody has been using them just because they were there. We don't know the situation of their land. But Naomi's coming back and they recognize is this Naomi? And the entire city is stirred up, they're happy, they're joyous. The women are whispering is that Naomi? Is that Naomi? Oh, my goodness, my best friend's back. Naomi, naomi, naomi.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 36:48

And so the women of the city say is this pleasant? They're so excited. Pleasant has returned and she looks at them. I see tears welling up in her eyes and she says don't call me pleasant, call me bitter, for I was full when I left and emptily. The Lord has caused me to return. Why would you call me pleasant? The Lord afflicted me. He's given evil to me.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 37:37

Naomi just lays it out. I have nothing left. My name once meant pleasant. Maybe she was the life of the party. Maybe she was the one who blessed or gave people things. Often these names show characteristics of the individual and she says that's not who I am. Now it's all changed. My life has changed. I left a matriarch with, married to a man who owned land, married to a man who gave me two sons. I was a matriarch of a household with sons and I come back with a scraggly daughter-in-law in tow and nothing else. Daughter-in-law in tow and nothing else. The Almighty has caused me to be bitter. The word Almighty here is Shaddai the strong one, the mighty one. It's an archaic name of God used throughout the Old Testament, and it can. One of the commentators pointed out that it can kind of give the idea of the God of the ancestors, our ancestral God. This isn't the covenant name of God, the Lord Yahweh. This is an ancestral name. Shaddai, the archaic name, god of our ancestors, has caused me to be bitter. He has brought evil against me.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 39:04

Naomi's theology matches that of the ancient Near East. In the ancient Near East, they believed that if something bad happened to you, it was because your God was mad at you. Naomi is echoing this. It's along the same lines of as Job, when his entire life falls apart. Naomi is, in many ways, a female Job. Her whole life has fallen apart.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 39:26

She says the Lord did this and, just like with Job, we as the readers and the original audience of the text does not get an answer as to why. Why did God cause? Why did God allow this evil to happen to Naomi? Did God cause it or did he allow it? These questions are not answered in the text because the text doesn't want us focused on. Why did God do this in the past? No, the text does not answer these questions.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 40:04

The text allows us to sit in the pain and the grief and the bitterness and not know why, because sometimes that is as important for our spiritual life and our spiritual journey and what comes next as any answer. Like with Job, god never tells Job why he did what he did. He reveals his character, he reveals who he is. Likewise, god does that subtly for Naomi throughout the rest of the book. God does that subtly for Naomi throughout the rest of the book. She says the almighty Shaddai has brought evil upon me. And then Pleasant returned and refreshing friend the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law with her, she returned from the fields of Moab and they themselves entered the city of bread, bethlehem, at the beginning of the harvest of barley.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 41:11

And for chapter one, that is the only answer we are given as to what is God doing. We sit in the pain, we watch the pain, we watch the stumbling, we watch the pushing away of people close to us. Isn't that often our natural impulse? When we're hurting, we want to push people away. I know when I'm in times of trauma or grief and I'll have a friend text me and I'm just like, oh, I don't feel like responding to this and I just want to push the way. Not now, not if it's a text message, I can just put my phone down and get back to it later. But we have this tendency to push people away when we're grieving. We've seen Naomi do that. She tried to send the daughters away, partly out of obligation for their good, but partly she's just in this grieving, pushing away the women come Naomi, naomi, and she's like no, don't even call me by my name. She's in this, pushing away. She's grieving. But the text will not let us give up hope.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 42:08

Verse 22 echoes back to verse six that says she arose and returned from this fields of Moab. And so now this chapter finishes saying she returned from the fields of Moab. And so now that this chapter finishes saying she returned from the fields of Moab, everything that happened in between. She arose with her daughters-in-law verse six she returned from the fields of Moab. Verse 22,. Naomi returns her daughter-in-laws with her same state of mind, same people with her. She returns from the fields of Moab.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 42:43

They enter the city of bread at the beginning of the harvest of barley. Just like Lehem the Chem, he gave bread to them. Now there is a harvest of barley. God is providing for his people and his continued presence and provision is the hope in this moment. Naomi doesn't know what's going to happen next. Ruth doesn't know what's going to happen next. She has this. Ruth has this big climactic moment where she gives her life to the Lord and to Naomi, saying I'm going to cling to you no matter what and I will die with you and we may be walking to our deaths because we don't know what's coming next. But they return at the beginning of the barley harvest. There is that glimmer of hope and God's goodness is about to be revealed over and over again, as we see that God has set up systems and godly people put in place so that those who are weak and vulnerable can be cared for.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 43:57

None of this took God by surprise. God was not surprised that Elimelech died. God was not surprised that Malchon and Chilion died. God is not surprised that Orphan went back to Moab. He is not surprised. He is not taken back. He is not offended by Naomi's pain. He is providing for them bit by bit as they take steps forward.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 44:23

Coming back to him, elimelech left Bethlehem. The man whose name means my God, his king, bailed on the land where his God was king. Now his wife, broken, destitute, feeling alone, returns for this opposite reason that she left. She returns because there is bread. They left because of a lack of bread. The Lord was in the middle of all of the circumstances, though he is not screaming and he is not telling us how. And he is not telling us why and he is not telling us what all he is doing. Yet the story is yet to be written.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 45:09

And for those of us who are listening to this as we think through these struggles in our lives, the pain, the frustrations, the traumas, I know my tendency is to be like god why, why don, why don't you fix this? Would you hurry up and stop the pain? And, like Naomi and Ruth, sometimes we have to just stumble forward, not knowing where we're going, doing the best we can. And God shows up, not in the big miracles of manna from heaven or water from a rock, but he shows up in a seed that was planted, taking root and growing. He shows up in the steel of our spine being strengthened for the work ahead. He shows up because in he shows up in someone who says I see, you have a need and I'm not going to abandon you. God is there and he is working. We just don't always see it and our inability to see through the fog of grief does not mean God is not there.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 46:21

So, as you wait for our next episode where we get into Ruth, chapter 2, allow yourself to continue to ponder God's presence in time of trauma and suffering. Chapter 2, we start to see more of what God is doing and has been doing in Bethlehem and the city in his people at large. But we haven't got there yet. Our temptation in Bible studies to jump ahead real quick, let's get to the good stuff.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 46:52

Rather than sitting in the heart, than allowing, allowing ourselves to be in that grief-blinded and bittered state of mind where we are throwing our questions against the wall, hoping God will hear and answer, allow yourself to sit there. God is not afraid of your anger. He is not afraid of your pain. He is not afraid of your grief. I don't know what's going on in your lives as you listen. I know what's going on in my life and I know that sometimes grief seems insurmountable. And that's okay, we can sit in that and you are safe to sit in that with God. He is not looking to shove you forward into happy, happy, joy, joy just for joys. Be thankful in all things. It's not what he's looking for he wants you to know he is with you in the hard times, even when you can't see.

Jessica LM Jenkins: 48:00

So get on my social media, follow me at we who thirst on instagram threads. Let's talk about this episode. How has it impacted you? What are your thoughts? What was new to you and what has really challenged your view of suffering in your own life? I can't wait to hear from you. Send me email, dm. Respond on social media. Next time we're going to dive into Ruth, chapter 2. Can't wait to talk about it in its historical context. I will see you then.