Ruth and Orpah

To me, the term “sold out Christian” is as silly as the label “very explosive dynamite”.  Dynamite isn’t dynamite if it isn’t very explosive ~Aaron Darlington

This story takes place during the time of the Judges

Exodus 3:17- God tells the people that the land He was giving them would flow with milk and honey

Exodus 6 – God sets some rules about this land.  The Israelites needed to be careful to obey Him so that it would go well with them there.  They should love God with all their heart, soul and strength, be careful to not forget the Lord, serve only God, not test God, keep His commands and do right in His sight.

Then we get to Judges.  Judges begins with the Israelites not destroying the altars of the people currently living in the land, making agreements with the people rather than driving them out as God had instructed them to do since He had given them the land.  As a result God tells the Israelites that He will not drive the people out of the land, instead they would be left as a test to see if the Israelites will keep God’s ways.

After that generation died, the next didn’t know God and began to do every thing that God had warned them to be careful about not doingl.  The He appoints Judges for the Israelites, and as ling as the judge is alive the Israelites do well.  When there isn’t a judge they “do evil in the eyes of the Lord”.  During these times the Israelites warred with the surrounding people, including the Moabites.  These multitudes of wars led to a famine in the land.  This is where Ruth begins.

Read Ruth chapter  1

Let’s look at Orpah and Ruth

Bot women were Moabites.   Moabite history lesson – when Israelites were leaving Egypt the Moabites refused to help.  As a result non of the Moabites for ten generations could enter the assembly of the Lord with the Israelites couldn’t even seek a treaty of friendship with them.  (Deuteronomy 23:3-6)  At one point, in Judges 3:14, the Moabites ruled the Israelites.  At least until their king was killed by Ehud in his private chamber which led to a war in which the Israelites killed 10,000 Moabites.  This led to a tenuous peace of 80 years and then discord broke out again.  These women probably would not have been readily accepted in Bethlehem due to the history.  They both knew that.  Yet they both pack up their belongings and start on the road with Naomi.  They didn’t know what was in store for them at the end of the road.  This is like the beginning of our Christian walk.  We were outsiders, our past actions weren’t approved of by the people we were wanting to join.  Still, we were willing to pack up our stuff and change our lives.

At some point on the road though, Naomi seems to reconsider the girls coming with her.  Whether this was out of concern for them or because she was concerned about what her family and friends would think about her and her sons for marrying them we will never know.  Whatever her reasons, she tries to convince the girls to return to their old loves.  We face this early on in our Christian walk as well.   Someone makes you feel like you can’t have the life you thought or that your old life was better.  Think about it and I bet it has happened to you!

Orpah turns back.  She loved Naomi, or at least cared enough about her that the thought of separating from her brought her to tears.  But in the end, she turned back.  Makes me wonder if maybe she was just following the crowd and her heart wasn’t really in it.  After all, when she married, Naomi and Ruth became her family.  It was her husband’s families job to provide and care for her.  These were the people she hung out with.  She felt safe and comfortable with them.  Problem is that she may have been part of the family based on legality, she wasn’t part of the family in her heart.  So when faced with the thought  that things were going to be rough, she abandoned what she had committed to and went back to her old life.  A lot of Christians do too.  Maybe not as dramatic as Orpah, they may not revert entirely back to their old life, but you can tell that they are just following the crowd.  That they like the company more than anything else.  These are the ones that when things get tough, rather than draw closer to God, they start missing church services, or skipping Bible study time.  Or they are the ones that never started studying to begin with, more concerned with creating the image of Christianity than actually being one.  They get so hung up on how others see them (I am hanging out with Ruth.  Yeah, you know Naomi?  She is my mother in law.  Yep, I go to that BIG church on the main road.  Etc) that they forget to get to know God.  For whatever reason, they don’t really commit, just like Orpah didn’t really commit.

Ruth however, clings to Naomi.  She doesn’t know what is waiting for her anymore than Orpah does, but she knows that she is part of Naomi’s family through and through.  Look again at what Ruth tells Naomi.  She gives up everything that is her, her ability to go where she wants to, her gods, even a choice about where she will die and be buried.  She sells out.  This is what God asks of us.  He wants all of us, He wants us to love Him as Ruth loved Naomi, with all of our heart, soul and strength.

I believe that Ruth’s love and devotion so impressed God that he allowed her to be part of Jesus lineage.  A Moabite that should not have been allowed to join the assembly of God.  Ruth wasn’t a dynamite dud!

Patience

Luke 21:19 “By your patience possess your souls” NKJV or NIV says “By standing firm you will gain life”  

The Greek word used in these verses is hypomonē  (hü-po-mo-nā')  which means steadfastness, constancy, endurance, a patient enduring, sustaining perseverance.  In the NT it is the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith & piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.  It comes from the word hupo which means under and mone which means abide.    

Patience isn’t something we naturally have.  All you have to do is to watch a child and you can see that patience is not something that comes naturally.   We all struggle with waiting whether it be waiting for something good to happen, a bad situation to end, an answer to a question, traffic to move, or a line to end.  Paul describes Jesus as having limitless patience in 1 Timothy 1:16.  I would say that he would have to have it as many times as he has reached out to us as sinners and we reject him.  Other than the obvious fact that if more of us had patience the world would be a better place, why should we, specifically Christians, have patience?

Patience is first a trait of God.  He is a God of patience (Romans 15:5).  Think about how he has been patient with His people.  How many times He has endured rejection by those he loves, how many times He has persevered while his chosen people have forgotten Him, ignored Him, worshipped others, mocked Him.  In Ephesians 5 we are called to be imitators of God, this includes patience.

Acts 14:22 tells us that life is going to be hard, we will have many hardships before we get to enter His kingdom.  Peter tells us not to be surprised by trials (1 peter 4:12-13) we should expect them.  We experience trails so that God can learn our hearts (Deut 8:2-3), so that we may avoid sinning (Exodus 20:20) and so that we may gain patience (Romans 5:3)  We all know the story of Job, a man who had it all, lost everything, went through a terrible ordeal emotionally, physically, financially etc.  He remained steadfast, James calls him patient in chapter 5:11 (KJV), and in the end he was rewarded.  Let me point out that Job complained.  He cursed the day of his birth, he begged for death, he complained in the bitterness of his soul.  Kind of goes against our modern definition of the word patience (the quality of bearing misfortune, provocation, annoyance, delay, hardship, pain etc with fortitude and calm and without complaint anger or the like)  Even God complained when the Israelites repeatedly turned from him.  Patience is not putting on your big girl britches and your happy face and pushing through it.  Patience is hanging in there and making the best of it without sacrificing your faith, your purpose, your beliefs, your trust in God.  Did you get that?  Patience is trusting that God has a plan in your life and that He knows what He is doing.  You abide under all circumstances because you know He is in control. 

In the end Job received much more than he had to begin with.  It wasn’t the same, it was better.  He gained twice as much as he had before he was tested, his daughters were the most beautiful in the land.  We too have a reward for our patience.  Matthew 24:13 tells us that “he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved”  James 1:12 tells us that “blessed is the (wo)man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised them that love him.”  2 timothy 2:12 tells us that “if we endure, we will also reign with him (Jesus)”  

Now some of us are sitting here thinking, “I got this one covered.  I have no problem with being patient when the going gets tough.”  Great!  For some, that is a tough lesson to learn.  But I got news for you, patience isn’t just about abiding under, patience is also about self-control.  

You see, two different words in Greek are often translated as patience.  I am sure you have heard of the fruits of the Spirit, traits that give evidence of the Holy Spirit living in you.  Lets look at Galatians 5:22.  

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,"

 

 What is that 4^th word?  Depending on your version of the Bible it either says “longsuffering” or patience.  In Greek this word is makrothymia (mä-kro-thü-mē'-ä) and it means self-restraint which does not hastily retaliate a wrong.  This is the “patient” that Paul urges us to in Ephesians 4.  1 Corinthians 13:4 tells us that love IS patient.  Again I remind you that we are called to imitate God and 1 John 4:8 tells us that GOD IS LOVE.  If God is love, and love is patient, then God is patient and we should be patient, we should maintain self-restraint when dealing with others, especially when we feel wronged.  2 peter 3:9 tells us that God is patient with us because he doesn’t want any of us to perish.  Take a moment to think about your life.  Have you ever wronged God?  Did He retaliate?  Now let me ask you another question, have you ever felt as if you were wronged?  How long did it take you to retaliate?  If God can be patient with us in an attempt to save us from a miserable eternity, can we not be patient with others in an attempt to show them God’s love?  Isn’t that one of our purposes, to show others the love of God so that they may know Him?

Notice that the Greek meaning doesn’t say “does not retaliate” it says “does not hastily retaliate.”  We are called to correct each other.  Matthew 18:15 tells us that when someone sins we should correct them privately.  Luke 17:3-4 tells us to rebuke them and if they repent to forgive them, repeatedly.  1 Timothy 5 gives us a clue about this though.  Timothy tells us not to rebuke our elders harshly, but to speak to them as a parent, in other words with respect.  I believe that we can take it a step further because We are called to encourage one another and build each other up (1 Thess. 5:11) which is a difficult task if we are hastily retaliating perceived wrongs and doing so harshly.  In our haste to correct we often tend to react in anger.  We attack the person rather than the action.  Correction isn’t intended to belittle them, but to help them to understand (Prov 15:32).  This patience calls us to be more concerned with the other person than ourselves, just as God is more concerned with our salvation than with the wrongs we have commited against him.  Peter tells us that Our Lord’s patience means salvation. (2 peter 3:15)  If He is patient enough to react slowly to our transgressions, shouldn’t we as imitators of God, react slowly to the transgressions of others upon us?  

This patience is a fruit of the Spirit, evidence of His work in us.  Fruit is a thing that is a result of effort, therefore patience requires effort.  Read a little farther after we learn of the fruit in Galatians 5, verses 24-26 say, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”  We must crucify our desire to retaliate hastily, we must not provoke one another.  

Patience, whether in our circumstances or with others, isn’t something we can just do, or just have.  Remember our picture of a child being asked to wait, patience doesn’t come naturally.  That is why we are tested, repeatedly.  Psalm 119:71 tells us “it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes”  Patience is learned through affliction, whether it be the affliction of circumstances or the affliction of being wronged by others.  Look at Paul.  This is a man who was blinded, had numerous attempts on his life often causing him to flee the city he was in, was stoned to the point that witnesses thought he was dead, and he was imprisoned.  That is a lot of difficult testing and a lot to be patient through.  His circumstances were difficult and he was definitely wronged by others repeatedly.  However,  Paul tells us that he has leaned the secret to contentment in all circumstance in Phil. 4:11-13.  His secret? The strength of Christ.  Let’s look at Christ.  Isaiah 53:4 tells us that, “surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows (our wrongs) yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted”  He was pierced, he was crushed, he was punished, he was wronged.    But fortunately, Jesus has a limitless ability to abide under as we saw in 1 Timothy 1:16, as well as being slow to anger (look at Psalm 103:8) As Christians we have the gift of the Spirit in us that allows us to draw upon the strength of Christ, the ability to abide under hardship and the ability to be slow to anger and to not respond hastily.  So when we again look at the opening verse, that by our patience we possess our soul, it is through Jesus that we are able to possess our soul, or receive the gift of an eternity with God.  What good does it do to gain the whole world through our impatient acts, and yet forfeit our soul?  (Mark 8:36)

Verses to consider in the following weeks:

Proverbs 14:29                                  Proverbs 16:32

Proverbs 25:15                                  Proverbs 15:18

Proverbs 19:11                                  Ecclesiastes 7:8

1 Thessalonians 5:14                        Psalm 37: 7-9

Romans 12:12                                   1 Thessalonians 5:14

James 5:8                                          1 Timothy 6:11-14

Hebrews 12:1                                     Luke 8:4-15 (especially verse 15)