Bad Theology

'The Cinderella story of the bible.'

That's how I once heard someone describe the book of Ruth.

And my dramatic eye roll could have made the earth move.

For much of my life I avoided this biblical love story.

I suppose bad past experiences can make one a little jaded about such things. But, of course, as I ventured to read through, I learned that this story is about much more than a romance.

And what's most relatable is that our characters today have also had bad experiences, leaving one to become a little jaded as well.

Ruth is the only old testament book named after a non-Jew, a gentile, and the only book in the bible that is named for an ancestor of the Messiah. It is one of only two books named after a woman. Scripture doesn’t tell us who the author is, but according to the Jewish Talmud, it was written by Samuel. Let's take today's story in more bite-size portions.

Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion--Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there. 3 Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons. 4 Now they took wives of the women of Moab: the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years. 5 Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died; so the woman survived her two sons and her husband. Ruth 1:1-5

There is a lot to unpack here in just the first five verses!

The time of the judges was a tumultuous period spanning over 400 years between the death of Israel’s leader, Joshua, and their first appointed king, Saul.

The time of the judges is marked primarily by disobedience, but also by violence, idolatry, instability, assassinations, sexual sin, pride, lying, rape, murder, dismemberment, human sacrifice, marriage to pagans, tyrannical priests, chaos and even a little civil war mixed in for good measure.

The book of Judges is a replaying loop of Israel falling away from God, God raising a judge to correct and save them, Israel repenting and then falling away again. This cycle repeats no less than twelve times. The period can be poetically surmised by reading the very last verse in the book, Judges 21:25, “In those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”

Sounds a little like humanistic relativism – not much has changed.

What’s right in God’s eyes, that doesn’t matter.

I am my own god and I’ll do what I want to do.

So, from the very opening line of Ruth, we see that this story is set against a backdrop of a dark, dark time in history. And I think that is fitting. Ultimately, the book of Ruth is about redemption on multiple levels. In order to appreciate a story about redemption, we need to know why we need redemption.

This darkness is like the black velvet cushion set behind a brilliant diamond.

The darkness is meant to create a contrast, it is meant to solicit our appreciation for redemption and to accentuate the beauty of redemption.

Ruth opens with the darkest days of Israel’s history, and it ends in chapter four with an elusion to the coming King David. It is a story of God redeeming Israel because He loves his people. As we continue to face darkness over the earth and gross darkness over the people, it is a back velvet backdrop to contrast the redemption we have coming in Jesus Christ with all of His radiance.

He will not forget us, He loves us and He will redeem us, too.

Now, in Israel’s darkest hour there comes a dark hour.

There is a famine in the land.

Ironically, this famine is affecting Bethlehem. Bethlehem means the House of Bread.

There is a famine in the House of Bread.

There are many oddities written on purpose in this story, and they are meant to make us say, it isn’t supposed to be this way.

Repeatedly throughout scripture we can see famine being attributed to God’s judgement and the characters in our story believe that as well. The famine was meant to show them that they are not right with God and they need to change. This famine is localized, though. To offer some geography, Bethlehem is about thirty miles from Moab. So, Sioux Falls is in a famine, but Dell Rapids is doing just fine.

But this also points to God’s judgement. The House of Bread, God’s elected people are starving, but the Moabites have food?

It is not supposed to be this way.

So, who are these Moabites?

Lot, Abraham’s cousin, who lived in Sodom, when the angels instructed him and his family to flee in Genesis 19, they ran for the mountains. Lot’s daughters, in fear and believing a lie, got him drunk, and they raped their father. The oldest one, she named her son Moab which means, ‘of my father’. The other daughter named her son Ammon from which came the Ammonites. These entire nations were literally conceived in sin and they would be a thorn in Israel’s side for many, many years to come. It was Moab that hired Ballam to curse Israel in Numbers 22 and when that didn’t work it was Moabite women who pulled Israelite men into idolatry in Numbers 25. Let’s go to Judges chapter 3 for a moment...

And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD strengthened Eglon king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD. 13 Then he gathered to himself the people of Ammon and Amalek, went and defeated Israel, and took possession of the City of Palms. 14 So the children of Israel served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years. - Judges 3:12-14

We read here that Moab is one of the oppressors over Israel during the time of the Judges. The Moabites worshiped a false god named Chemosh. He was the national deity for both the Moabites and the Ammonites and he was often worshiped through child sacrifice and sexual perversion (we'll come back to him).

After a brief introduction, the story comes to focus on a particular family. Elimelech’s name means, ‘God is my King’. A very strong name, right? But, the sad part is that he doesn’t live like it. It’s like meeting an atheist named Christian.

Again, it’s not supposed to be this way.

What may not be immediately obvious to us, but the author expects readers to remember, is that backing up to the final chapters in the book of Judges, chapters 17-21, there are two awful stories. The first is a story of blatant idolatry in the house of Micah and the second is a horrific tale of a priest who murders and dismembers his concubine. But here’s the thing, both of those terrifying incidences began with people who left the city of Bethlehem.

So, in Ruth, there’s this idea behind the curtain that it’s not a good idea to leave Bethlehem. Elimelech believes that it is better to leave God’s land, God’s people, God’s presence, God’s correction in the famine and God’s promises in order to go to a foreign land, with foreign enemies, who serve foreign gods.

And not just foreign, but their oppressors.

Elimelech would rather do this then stay, repent and believe.

Now, that can sound like a harsh snap judgement from our 21st century comforts and no famine, and we can look at this text and have compassion on him.

But there are some clues here that warn us of how that could have been a very wrong decision for him. For starters, it says he and his family, it doesn’t say anyone else went with them. There wasn’t a whole convoy, or wagon train heading to Moab. And it doesn’t say God told him to go. In fact, later in chapter one when Naomi returns to Bethlehem, there were many women who stayed and remembered her. Also, he dies not long after.

More darkness for our main character.

Was his death God’s judgement?

That’s not answered either way, but it has been one interpretation.

When I think of Elimelech, I think of Luke 17:33 when Jesus says, "Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it."

It is logical to go where the food is, but God doesn’t want our logic, He wants obedience and that was Israel’s problem throughout the entire period of the Judges.

The people were not obedient and loyal to God. The sons of Elimelech and Naomi are named Mahlon and Chilion. Their names mean sick and dying.

I cannot imagine myself or other people confessing and speaking sickness and death every time they talk to or about me.

"Good morning dying. How's your day going?"

"Hello, sickly!"

It's just so strange of a thought to me.

In this time and culture, it wasn't uncommon for children to be named after circumstances that surrounded their birth story. For instance, Jacob comes out of the womb grabbing the heal of his brother and thus he is named the supplanter. Perhaps, Mahlon and Chilion were born ill, or premature. They lived in Moab for 10 years, but there were no grandchildren. Yet, when Ruth marries Boaz she gets pregnant. Perhaps, Mahlon and Chilion’s illness made them sterile. And they do die. Were their deaths because of sickness or was that also a judgement from the Lord?

Deuteronomy 28 specifically told the Israelites not to marry foreign wives and these men did, they married women outside of the covenant. The bible says so much about not mixing, not being unequally yoked in marriage, relationships, friendships, etc. because they will pull you away. Just like they did in Numbers 25 and just like the Moabites kept doing all the way up to King Solomon erecting alters the Moabite god Chemosh in 1 Kings 11! The spirit is willing but they flesh is weak, don’t do it. Mahlon and Chilion die and now even more darkness descends upon these women.

This is the most hopeless the story has ever looked. These women are facing socio-economic ruin. Women can’t own property, can’t own businesses, they’re not employable. In verse 6 Naomi is thinking at least now I can go back to my people because in my land there is a provision for windows like me. At least in Israel I won’t starve to death. These Moabites are not going to have compassion on an Israelite widow. But we don’t know how much time existed between verses 5 and 6, this famine has been going on for ten years and so at the time of verse 5 they are as good as dead. We do not have a frame of reference to truly understand the weight of this kind of darkness.

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. - Ruth 1:6

This is the first glimmer of hope in the story thus far. I read this a wonder, whatever God did when he visited his people must have been huge enough for the godless people in Moab to be talking about it. When God moves it is undeniable. The heathen, the pagan, the atheist they will talk about it because He is God and He will not be denied.

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." - Ruth 1:7-15

We saw earlier through Elimelech that hardship is never a license for disobedience and now we are going talk about how bad times can create bad theology and we have to careful about that.

Naomi has some bad theology right now.

When we go through hard stuff it increases our tendencies to think wrongly about God and about other people. Naomi is going to go back home and she tells her daughters-in-law, you’ve been good to me and my sons, thank you very much, go back to Moab. Don’t come with me to Judah. Go back to your homes in Moab, find husbands in Moab and be taken care of in Moab.

In verse 6 God provided for His people in the land of promise and that is where Naomi is going. This is the land of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the land where God’s presence (the Ture God’s presence) dwells with His people, the land He promised would flow with milk and honey, the most important and blessed place on planet earth and she tells her daughters there’s something better than that for you.

She’s saying there is something better than being where God dwells. Go back to your mothers, find a husband because it would be better for you to have a husband than it would be for you to have the Real God.

These women had an incredible bond forged through awful adversity: a famine, two weddings, three funerals. They had to be pillars for each other and I don’t doubt that Naomi deeply loved her daughters, but she has lost sight of how going back to Moab would affect the eternity of their souls.

She tells them to go back to their gods. Go back to Chemosh.

Out of Naomi’s deep, painful loss, she has some bad theology right now.

Naomi refers to something called the law of Levirate marriage which is talked about in Deuteronomy 25. Essentially, this law affirms that if a husband dies leaving no children with his wife, then the brother of the man performs the duty of a husband with her and creates a family with her and the oldest son takes the name of the deceased and inherits all that was his so that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. If there is no brother then there is a list of other family suitors to follow and this man becomes known as the Kinsmen Redeemer. This is what Boaz becomes later in the story.

I don’t want to get too far ahead, but this is what is in Naomi’s mind when she is saying these things. She’s saying even if I had sons tonight, you would be old by the time they could marry you in their brothers’ places.

She is saying this is impossible, there is no way to fix this, go home.

We see that Orpah kissed Naomi and went home, but Ruth clung to her.

There are kissers and there are cleavers.

Orpah was a kisser. Judas was a kisser.

There will be people who kiss you and turn their backs.

Ruth was a cleaver. John was a cleaver, he laid on Jesus’ chest, clung to the cross and never left Christ’s side.

I don’t want to paint Orpah as evil for going home.

It’s not that Orpah is bad and Ruth is good.

But Ruth got a revelation that Orpah missed, perhaps because she was blinded with fear. Ruth makes a vow to Naomi, some of the most beautiful words spoken in scripture from one person to another.

Ruth’s name means Friend and she is about to become Naomi’s greatest companion.

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." - Ruth 1:16-17

Your God will be my God – I believe this was Ruth’s moment of conversion.

And just to show how serious she is, she ends with a curse on herself.

Naomi must have been an amazing mother-in-law in order for Ruth to make such a commitment to her and to not desire the house of her own mother. And I believe that Ruth must have seen God in Naomi. And that gives us hope that even in our weak moments -

Even when we are struggling -

Even when we may not be completely theologically accurate -

Even when we miss it -

God can still use us and be visible through us.

When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her. 19 Now the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And it happened, when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was excited because of them; and the women said, "Is this Naomi?" 20 But she said to them, "Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21 "I went out full, and the LORD has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?" 22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest. - Ruth 1:18-22

When Naomi and Ruth make it back to Bethlehem these women who stayed behind, who did not go to Moab, are excited to see her again. Naomi responds by saying, don’t call me Naomi, which means pleasant, but call me Mara, which means bitter.

This word Mara goes back to a story in Exodus 15:22-26. The Israelites are wandering through the desert and they haven’t had water in a while. They eventually come upon water, but it was bitter, thus they named the place Marah. Moses cries out God and he is instructed to put a tree in the water and the waters become sweet.

Now, if you are wandering in the desert, in the heat, in the wilderness and you are thirsty, parched; your throat is dry and you finally find water but it is bitter...

How bitter does it have to be for you to not want to drink it when you are thirsty?

If it tastes a little funny, you’ll still drink it, but how bitter does it have to be to be unconsumable?

That is how bitter Naomi is, and that is how bitter she wants everyone else to call her.

Call me by the worst things that have ever happened to me, call me unconsumable waters.

I am bitter.

God has been bitter towards me and I’m a little bitter towards God.

Mara.

Naomi has lost everything and it made her bitter.

But Ruth lost everything, too.

Not only did Ruth lose things, but there were many things she WILLINGLY walked away from. Naomi, a born and raised Israelite is responding to her crisis with less faith than the recent convert that Ruth is.

Naomi says I went out full but have returned empty.

I wonder how Ruth felt hearing Naomi say that.

Naomi is too bitter to notice or remember the blessing that is still with her in Ruth.

Ruth is silent here and I think that is a lesson for us.

Sometimes when people go through bad things and have bad theology it would be better for us to not take things personal.

This bad theology generally comes because we either think too highly of ourselves, that somehow we deserve better than what we’re being given, or that we think too little of God.

We saw that with Naomi. Her and her husband didn’t think that God could take care of them if they stayed in Bethlehem. And again, she told her daughters-in-law to go home in Moab because even if she had sons that day, they couldn’t fix this problem of destitution – it was impossible. Her circumstances caused her to think too little of God.

In the remaining chapters, we do see Naomi begin to heal and turn her heart again towards the faithful daughter and friend she found in Ruth. There is one other beautiful piece in this story.

"An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD forever."

- Deuteronomy 23:3

I was listening to some Rabbis discuss this phrase the ‘assembly of the Lord’ and they said it most likely pertains to a ban of citizenship. These are the kinds of people who are barred from becoming citizens of Israel. These are the ones who are legally restricted from participating in Israel’s national framework, these people would not be allowed in Israel’s military, and they would be prohibited from participating in legal, political and religious affairs.

That means Ruth.

Boaz’s mother was Rabah the prostitute who hid the spies in Jericho.

Boaz saw how Yahweh redeemed his mother and so for him to marry a converted Moabite, that reputation doesn’t bother him.

But that helps us narrow in on a time frame for this story, because if Rahab was his mother, it has to be earlier on in the time of the Judges and so it has not been ten generations!

In fact, ten generations would be David! Whom we would never have without Ruth!

Ruth made a commitment.

She said Naomi’s God was going to be her God.

She made a decision to follow the Lord and her faithfulness and dedication to Him made provisions for her, she found favor with God.

Now this woman, who legally would never be a citizen of Israel, will conceive in her womb the lineage of the Messiah, the Christ, the one upon whose shoulders the entire government rests. The one whose true religion is to care for widows like herself. The one who gives her the citizenship of heaven. The one who not only stands in the assembly of the Lord, but IS THE LORD.

So much cooler than Cinderella.

In Matthew 11, John the Baptist is in prison. He sends word to Jesus and essentially says, “Are you the One or not? Because I’ve been hearing all of these miracles that you’ve been doing for everyone else and I’m your cousin and I’m sitting in a prison cell because of you. So, if you are going to do anything for anyone, won’t you do something for me?”

Bad theology.

Jesus responded back by telling John even more stories of miracles He’s done for others, and then He says, “Blessed is he who is not offended because of me.”

As dark as the time of the judges was, there are even darker days coming for all of us that this world has never see before and we would be wise to not be offended at God because of them and to not become bitter like Naomi. We must guard ourselves from the deception of bad theology.

Guard ourselves from thinking too highly of ourselves and thinking too little of God.

And no matter how awful or chaotic times become there is never a permissible reason for our disobedience.

We must stay faithful.

We must daily choose the Lord.

Our redeemer is coming.

...

Family is sometimes more than flesh and blood. Sometimes, our closet family is made up of the ones who have chosen us, not just birthed us.

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