Gtcotr/ws0081110
Somewhere between 1100 and 1150 years before Jesus was born, during the period of history when the judges ruled in Israel, there was a great shortage of food in and around the land of Judah. Perhaps this famine was a result of invading armies from neighboring enemies who had a long history of raiding the fields of these crop rich lands.
It was much like the days of Gideon, recorded in Judges 6, when for 7 years the Midianites perpetrated these raids at every harvest season. So much so that Judges 6:6 says that during this time Israel was greatly impoverished. However Gideon, following the call of the Lord, fixed all of that and the land returned to its former prosperous state.
At any rate, it was during a time of great distress and shortage of food and supplies that a man living in Bethlehem, which belonged to the Tribe of Judah, moved his wife and two sons from Israel eastward to the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name was Naomi, and his two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion.
*(Show the country of Moab in relation to Bethlehem on the whiteboard)
While in that country Mahlon and Chilion married Moabite women, presumably Mahlon married a woman named Ruth and Chilion married a woman whose name was Orpah. After approximately ten years had passed the Bible tells us that Elimelech, Mahlon and Chilion died; from what we do not know. This left Naomi and her two daughters-in-law alone to fend for themselves.
Naomi heard that things in Israel had gotten better and she decided to return to her homeland to live out the rest of her years. Believing it to be best, Naomi encouraged both Ruth and Orpah to remain in there in the country of Moab. After some discussion along the way, Orpah kissed her mother-in-law and went back to her family while Ruth made a covenant with Naomi declaring that she would never leave her alone.
I have heard several sermons through the years from teachers who shine a dim light on Orpah as a bad, and even as a wicked woman for leaving Naomi while Ruth is seen as one who followed the will of God. Let’s read a few verses from the book of Ruth to see for ourselves.
Now remember, we have nothing to prove and we start with no pre-conceptions … rather we have much to discover from the pages of the most accurate recorded history known to man, the infallible Bible.
Ruth 1
6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the LORD had visited His people by giving them bread.
7 Therefore she went out from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
8 And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each to her mother’s house. The LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
9 The LORD grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.”
So she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.
10 And they said to her, “Surely we will return with you to your people.”
11 But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?
12 Turn back, my daughters, go—for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons,
13 would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? No, my daughters; for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me!”
14 Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
15 And she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”
16 But Ruth said:
“ Entreat me not to leave you,
Or to turn back from following after you;
For wherever you go, I will go;
And wherever you lodge, I will lodge;
Your people shall be my people,
And your God, my God.
17 Where you die, I will die,
And there will I be buried.
The LORD do so to me, and more also,
If anything but death parts you and me.”
18 When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her.
The difference between Ruth and Orpah is not, “Good Girl – Bad Girl”, but rather a difference in calling.
Let’s look again:
8 And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each to her mother’s house. The LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
9 The LORD grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.”
So she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.
10 And they said to her, “Surely we will return with you to your people.”
11 But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?
12 Turn back, my daughters, go—for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons,
13 would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? No, my daughters; for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me!”
14 Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
This was not an easy decision for either of them; they were already on their way to go to Bethlehem; three times Naomi tried to reason with the girls; however one of them had a calling on her life to go with Naomi but for the other one, I believe it was most likely not the will of God.
The will of God is not the same for every person. Destiny has to draw us along individually and what is right for one person may not be best for another. Not everyone has the same calling or the same duty of life.
Both Ruth and Orpah made a very difficult decision in life. One made the decision to stay and one made the decision to go – but neither decision was bad or made from a bad or purely selfish heart. Rather I believe that both of them made their choice to do the will of God as best they understood it at the time.
And, even if their decision was a bad decision, it does not make them bad and it does not mean that God has forsaken them or will not use them in the future to accomplish His plan. This is not justification for sin!
God does not make every decision for us but when we give Him our life and do what we believe is right based on the Word and will of God as we understand it out of a good and submissive heart, He works with every decision we make, even the bad ones, to benefit us and the part He has for us to play in His Kingdom plan. I am not talking about sin, stubbornness or rebellion to the known will of God – but rather a bad decision or wrong choice or costly mistake.
Was Orpah good, bad, or ugly? I am convinced that Orpah was a good woman who made the best decision for her life in accordance with the will and plan of God for her and for others around her. There is no Biblical indication or evidence otherwise. I hope, as did Naomi, that Orpah lived a long and prosperous life with her next husband I the land of Moab.
How about Ruth … was Ruth good, bad, or wicked and evil? She was a good woman. Even though many scholars agree, as do I, that Ruth went against all known laws, ethics, culture, customs and that modesty which even nature upholds as divinely ordered, to place herself in bed of Boaz in the cover of darkness and there to offer herself to him in the nighttime … Ruth still had no evil, rebellious or sinful intent and the Lord worked, despite her risky and perhaps, poor choice, to further the work of His plan.
From the marriage of Ruth and Boaz came a son, Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David the King who was one of the paternal progenitors of Joseph, the carpenter, and of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Ruth is in the lineage of Jesus as one of His great, great grandmothers.
Sometimes people make bad decisions, alarmingly bad decisions, which none of us could ever imagine making ourselves. However, unless and until we have been faced with the same situation which others were faced with, we cannot tell what we might decide in that isolated moment of life.
One of the seemingly worst decisions ever made in an isolated moment of life was based on the best information available at the time. It is truly alarming what a person is capable of when they are recovering from a tragedy, are surrounded by fear and isolation, and possess a strong desire to do something to help. It is alarming what we can sometimes embrace as a best choice in life. Bad choices costs, and even good people make bad choices.
Such was the case with Ruth’s ancestors. Ruth would not have ever existed if it was not for the fact that God works with people and their choices far beyond their bad decisions and their worst mistakes.
So often we see people who make bad decisions and costly mistakes as just bad people … especially if it affects or offends us … God does not. God looks on the heart. Just because someone made a bad decision does not mean they have a bad, wicked, evil or rebellious heart.
The Book of Genesis gives the account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. You are probably familiar with the story, or portions thereof.
*(Show the location of Sodom and Gomorrah on the whiteboard)
What a terrible tragedy to behold: the destruction of the cities in that lower plain of the Jordan River Valley below the Dead Sea. And then, to witness your wife or your mother turn into a pillar of salt right before your eyes and then to be forced to quickly move on forward for safety’s sake. For the two daughters of Lot these events came the day after they had both been offered by their father to a mob of sex craved maniacs as ransom for a couple of strangers who had just hit town. This had to be a terribly frightening and traumatic experience for both of these young women.
They first escaped with only their lives to the nearby city of Zoar and then, in fear, further alarmed by their father’s frantic delusions, they find themselves living in isolation in a cave tucked in seclusion high in the mountains on the eastern side of the Dead Sea. These two young ladies had been through a lot … what were they to believe?
Genesis 19:31 says that the girls believed they were the only people left alive on planet earth. What did they know about God? The probably knew the stories told them how that twice earlier, once in the Garden of Eden and once after the flood, when after evident chaos and destruction, God’s plan was to replenish and repopulate the earth from one family.
They knew their father to be old, as the account describes, and therefore time offered its added pressures to make a hurried decision. What did they do about what they believed was right?
It is not unreasonable to imagine that Lot was not in his right mind and therefore more subject to the scheme of his daughters as they conspired to get him drunk so that subsequently both sisters could become pregnant and begin what they imagined was their duty to repopulate the world.
Well, they were wrong and what they did was wrong … but I do not believe that these two young girls did what they did from a bad, rebellious or evil heart. For goodness sake … they were alone, surrounded by fear, recoiling from tragedy, isolated from truth, living in shock, the weight of the world on their shoulders, overwhelmed by youthful imaginations, subject to false conclusions, living in a cave with a frightened old man, a man they believed to be the last man on planet earth.
How could anyone fault either of these two women for what they did? They were strong, courageous, decisive, committed, brave and determined women. I can’t imagine the heart it must have taken to do what they did and they did it all for the right reasons based on all they knew to be true. You may say that you would never do anything like that but don’t be too quick to judge others until you have actually walked a mile in their shoes.
Genesis 19
36 Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.
37 And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day.
38 And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.
God evidently sees things different than does man, for He looks on the heart. In fact the oldest daughter of Lot bore a son named Moab … that’s right … the progenitor of the Moabites and the grandfather of Ruth. He, by the way, was one of the great, great grandfathers of David the King and of Jesus our Lord! (and so was Lot) Not to mention that Lot’s oldest daughter is Ruth’s great, great grandmother and one of the great grandmothers of Jesus as well.
All in all, God often sees things a bit different than do we. God is able to separate the bad decisions we make from the person we are. Not that He gives licenses to make bad decisions or in any way agrees with our sin. However, God is bigger than your sin and bigger than your last worst mistake.
Now if you have a heart problem, are stubborn or rebellious to God’s known will … that’s different. There are bad people and there are wicked and evil people.
In a couple of weeks we are going to take a look at a woman in the Bible who was truly wicked – and evil woman bent on pleasing only herself.
Conclusion and life application: What have we discovered tonight?
