The Second Journey
(Ruth 1:1-22)
Introduction:
“George went on a vacation to the Middle East with most of his family, including his mother-in-law.
“During their vacation, and while they were visiting Jerusalem, George’s mother-in-law died.
“With the death certificate in hand, George went to the American Consulate Office to make arrangements to send the body back to the States for proper burial.
“The Consul, after hearing of the death of the mother-in-law, told George, ‘My friend, the sending of a body back to the States for burial is very, very expensive. It could cost as much as $5,000 dollars.’ The Consul continued, ‘In most of these cases, the person responsible for the remains normally decides to bury the body here. This would only cost $150 dollars.’
“George thinks for some time, and answers the Consul, ‘I don’t care how much it will cost to send the body back. That’s what I want to do.’
The Consul, after hearing this says, ‘You must have loved your mother-in-law very much, considering the difference in price between $5,000 and $150 dollars.’
“‘No, it’s not that,’ says George. ‘You see, I know of a case many, many years ago of a person that was buried here in Jerusalem, and on the third day he was resurrected. Consequently, I do not want to take that chance!’” (http://www.withfriendship.com/jokes/mother-in-law/in-jerusalem.php).
When someone says, “Let me tell you about my mother-in-law,” more often than not we expect to hear something negative. We expect to hear how difficult life is when they’re around, and how hard it is to get along with them. But this wasn’t the case for one specific person we’ll be talking about today…
There’s a book in the Old Testament that’s only four chapters long called Ruth. And in this book there begins a story of a mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationship between a woman named Naomi and a woman named Ruth. Now, their story is a bit unusual. Not at all like the stereotypes of today. As we read we find that Ruth loved her mother-in-law, Naomi. And when we pick up there story, we find that they are on some sort of journey. We also find that they had come through a lot together, and that their responses to specific life situations were very much different. In a sense they had gone on a second journey together. It’s at this point we pick up their story today…
Ruth 1:1-22 (NLT)
In the days when the judges ruled in Israel, a man from Bethlehem in Judah left the country because of a severe famine. He took his wife and two sons and went to live in the country of Moab. [2] The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife was Naomi. Their two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in the land of Judah. During their stay in Moab, [3] Elimelech died and Naomi was left with her two sons. [4] The two sons married Moabite women. One married a woman named Orpah, and the other a woman named Ruth. But about ten years later, [5] both Mahlon and Kilion died. This left Naomi alone, without her husband or sons.
[6] Then Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had blessed his people in Judah by giving them good crops again. So Naomi and her daughters-in-law got ready to leave Moab to return to her homeland. [7] With her two daughters-in-law she set out from the place where she had been living, and they took the road that would lead them back to Judah.
[8] But on the way, Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back to your mothers’ homes instead of coming with me. And may the Lord reward you for your kindness to your husbands and to me. [9] May the Lord bless you with the security of another marriage." Then she kissed them good-bye, and they all broke down and wept.
[10] "No," they said. "We want to go with you to your people."
[11] But Naomi replied, "Why should you go on with me? Can I still give birth to other sons who could grow up to be your husbands? [12] No, my daughters, return to your parents’ homes, for I am too old to marry again. And even if it were possible, and I were to get married tonight and bear sons, then what? [13] Would you wait for them to grow up and refuse to marry someone else? No, of course not, my daughters! Things are far more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord himself has caused me to suffer."
[14] And again they wept together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye. But Ruth insisted on staying with Naomi. [15] "See," Naomi said to her, "your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. You should do the same."
[16] But Ruth replied, "Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. I will go wherever you go and live wherever you live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. [17] I will die where you die and will be buried there. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!" [18] So when Naomi saw that Ruth had made up her mind to go with her, she stopped urging her.
[19] So the two of them continued on their journey. When they came to Bethlehem, the entire town was stirred by their arrival. "Is it really Naomi?" the women asked.
[20] "Don’t call me Naomi," she told them. "Instead, call me Mara, for the Almighty has made life very bitter for me. [21] I went away full, but the Lord has brought me home empty. Why should you call me Naomi when the Lord has caused me to suffer and the Almighty has sent such tragedy?"
[22] So Naomi returned from Moab, accompanied by her daughter-in-law Ruth, the young Moabite woman. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Author Brennan Manning writes that, “Many people between the ages of thirty and sixty – whatever their stature in the community and whatever they personal achievements – undergo what can truly be called a second journey” (Brennan Manning, The Raggamuffin Gospel (Multnomah: Sisters, Oregon, 1990, 2000), 157).
In Naomi and Ruth’s case, this second journey was brought on by several factors, like death of family and famine in the land, and they had to make some very hard decisions.
As we all know pretty well, life can throw us curve balls now and then. We either duck and try not to get hit, or we plant ourselves firmly and try to catch it if we can. And the reality is, we all respond differently to life. We all make different decisions based on how we feel at the moment when something is hurled at us. For instance, one person may feel totally devastated and angry by being passed over for a long-awaited promotion at work, whereas another may just view this as an opportunity to continue to excel in their current position. Another person may be completely overwhelmed and fatigued by the challenge of meeting a pressing deadline, whereas someone else may be energized by the challenge that lies ahead.
As we look at the story of Naomi and Ruth more closely, I want us to notice how both Naomi and Ruth responded to life’s situations on this second journey, I want us to compare and contrast their perspectives in light of the pain and sorrow due to the loss of loved ones, and I want us to stop and assess our own lives and the challenges we face; I want us to observe what our typical responses are to what life throws at us.
First, let’s look at Naomi…
• Naomi:
[20] "Don’t call me Naomi," she told them. "Instead, call me Mara, for the Almighty has made life very bitter for me. [21] I went away full, but the Lord has brought me home empty. Why should you call me Naomi when the Lord has caused me to suffer and the Almighty has sent such tragedy?"
Naomi’s journey was somewhat different from Ruth’s, and I’m sure that most of us can relate to Naomi; maybe not her specific situation, but with how hard life can get sometimes. And her response to life is a very normal one. It’s understandable why she would be hopeless and downtrodden. She had, over the course of 10 years lost her husband and two sons. For anyone this would be devastating.
However, there are several things that we can gather from Naomi’s state of being, the first being that she was…
1. Bitter:
Naomi’s bitterness had skewed her perception of God. In essence she was unable to comprehend her current station in life with the loss of those closest to her, and instead of seeking God for comfort and peace, she blames God for the bitterness that she has encountered. In her own words she claims that, “the Almighty has made life very bitter for me” (v. 20), which leads to the next thing we can gather from Naomi’s state of being. Naomi was…
2. Disappointed with God:
The pain of Naomi’s loss brought disappointment with God.
Philip Yancey in his book, Disappointment with God, says that, “Disappointment occurs when the actual experience of something falls short of what we anticipate” (Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God, (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1988), 2)
I’m sure that Naomi would have never dreamed her life would have ended up this way. Who could? But through the shock and dismay of life’s circumstances, Naomi became disappointed with God.
How many times have we become disheartened or disenchanted by something that we had high hopes for? How many times has disappointment set in all because our expectations were shattered on the rocks of the disappointment and regret?
If we’re honest with ourselves, and with others, we could all say that we’ve been disappointed with God at one time or another in our own lives. Whether we admit it or not, we all have this expectation that a life with God at the center will be devoid of problems (or at least that the problems we face will be small and menial). We don’t anticipate that life could get harder, or that hardships will continue to come. And so, we become disappointed with God.
We live life with the understanding that God is all-powerful and all-loving. We see evidence of his working in miraculous ways to step onto the scene of history and bring about deliverance and protection. But when God remains silent in the midst of our despair we feel let down and alone. Like Naomi, we too wish to be called Mara because we feel that God has made life bitter for us.
Yancey goes on to say that, “Disappointment with God does not come only in dramatic circumstances.” He says, “For me, it also edges unexpectedly into the mundaneness of everyday life. I remember one night last winter, a cold, raw Chicago night. The wind was howling, and sleet slanted out of the skies, coating the streets with darkly shining ice. That night my car stalled in a rather ominous neighborhood. As I raised the hood and hunched over the engine, the sleet stinging my back like tiny pebbles, I prayed over and over, Please help me get this car started.
“No amount of fiddling with wires and tubes and cables would start the car, and so I spent the next hour in a dilapidated diner waiting for a tow truck. Sitting on a plastic chair, my drenched clothes forming a widening pool of water around me, I wondered what God thought about my plight. I would miss a scheduled meeting that night and would probably waste many hours over the next few days trying to wring fair, honest work out of a service station set up to prey upon stranded motorists. Did God even care about my frustration or the waste of energy and money?” (Disappointment with God, 12-13).
Disappointment with God comes in all shapes and sizes, and though Naomi originally left Bethlehem full of joy and hope, disappointment and bitterness became the dominating factor in her latter years.
Lest you think that I’m being too hard on Naomi, please realize that though I may not have lost family the way she did I have become disillusioned and disenchanted by life’s quirks, and I know you have too. I’m not saying that the way she felt was invalid or unrealistic due to her circumstances because life can be tough, and we may, at times, experience the silence of God, the bitterness of life, and disappointment with God. But I don’t think this is where we should stay.
Unlike Naomi, I believe Ruth responded differently. Listen to her side of the story…
• Ruth:
[16] But Ruth replied, "Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. I will go wherever you go and live wherever you live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. [17] I will die where you die and will be buried there. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!"
When Ruth could have been thinking only of herself and what she had gone through in loosing a husband, father-in-law, and brother-in-law, she instead was thinking of Naomi. Through this selfless act of perseverance and humility, Ruth showed her true colors and gave witness to the fact that though tragedy had ensued she remained hopeful in what the future held, and faithful to her mother-in-law, Naomi.
More than just a duty or obligation, Ruth desired to stay with Naomi. She was determined to stay by her side, even to the point of death.
Though the future was unsettled for her, I believe that Ruth perceived life more optimistically. As we observe her we notice that aside from having gone through such tragic loss, Ruth was…
1. Loyal:
Ruth’s loyalty is the hallmark of her character. Even when given the release by her mother-in-law to go back home and seek a husband where she was familiar, she decided to remain with Naomi. Not only this, we find that Ruth was…
2. Willing to be a foreigner:
She was willing to be a stranger in a distant land. She was willing to give up the familiar for the unfamiliar. She was willing to make a fresh start of things in a place full of risk and mystery.
I’ve often thought, "Why would Ruth want to leave her homeland and go with Naomi." I mean, she had just experienced the loss of her husband. Why would she want the added stress of trekking off into a land where she didn’t know if she would be able to make it or not? Was the pain so great that she just wanted to escape, or was she hopeful that their truly is life beyond the pain…? I believe – at least in Ruth’s case – that it was both. I believe that there was something driving her beyond her pain into something much greater, and I believe she knew it; which leads me to the next thing we know about Ruth. She was…
3. Willing to accept Naomi’s God as her God:
Ruth was a Moabite woman from the land of Moab, a pagan nation; a nation of multiple gods and various pagan practices. Why would she be so willing to give up her religious practices and way of life to take Naomi’s God as her God? I believe that she had spent enough time around Naomi and her family and had witnessed the true God of all creation. And in spite of her tragic loss, I believe that God had a hold on her heart. I believe that she had begun to have hope in the God who gives everlasting life.
Conclusion:
So where do we go from here? What do we do with what we’ve learned of these two ladies. What do we make of their second journey? As for Naomi, Brennan Manning reminds us that, “It need not be a bullet that initiates a second journey. A thirty-five-year-old wife learns of her husband’s infidelity. A forty-year-old company director finds that making money suddenly seems absurd. A forty-five-year-old journalist gets smashed up in a car accident. However it happens, such people feel confused and even lost. They can no longer keep life in working order. They are dragged away from chosen and cherished patterns to face strange crises. This is their second journey” (The Raggamuffin Gospel, 158).
However, as with Ruth, “The second journey begins when we know we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the morning program. We are aware that we only have a limited amount of time left to accomplish that which is really important – and that awareness illumines for us what really matters, what really counts. This conviction provides a new center.
“Second journeys usually end quietly with a new wisdom and a coming to a true sense of self that releases great power. The wisdom is that of an adult who has regained equilibrium, stabilized, and found fresh purpose and new dreams. It is a wisdom that gives some things up, lets some things die, and accepts human limitations. It is a wisdom that realizes: I cannot expect anyone to understand me fully. It is a wisdom that admits the inevitability of old age and death” (The Raggamuffin Gospel, 158, 159.
For those of you who are fans of the J. R. R. Tolkien trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, Philip Yancey reminds us of a scene where hopelessness is changed to hopefulness. Listen…
“Is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to the world? [asked Sam].
“A great Shadow has departed,” said Gandalf, and then he laughed, and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to him that he had not heard laughter the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count. It fell upon his ears like the echo of all the joys he had ever known. But he himself burst into tears. Then, as a sweet rain will pass down a wind of spring and the sun will shine out the clearer, his tears ceased, and his laughter welled up, and laughing he sprang from his bed.
“How do I feel?” he cried. “Well, I don’t know how to say it. I feel, I feel” – he waved his arms in the air – “I feel like spring after winter, and sun on the leaves; and like trumpets and harps and all the songs I have ever heard!
“For people who are trapped in pain, or in a broken home, or in economic misery, or in fear – for all those people, for all of us, heaven promises a time, far longer and more substantial than the time we spent on earth, of health and wholeness and pleasure and peace. If we do not believe that, then, as Paul plainly stated, there’s little reason to believe at all. Without that hope, there is no hope” (Disappointment with God¸ 299-300).
