Ruth: God Honors Our Choices

Reading: Ruth 1:1-13

These notes are from our sermon series on Ruth.

For Ruth and Orpah, to abandon the Moabite homeland and go with Naomi meant joining Israel, the people of Yahweh.  To go with Yahweh’s people was to go with a nation that had no earthly king—and because of that they had been vulnerable to invasion from without and rebellion from within.  They were a backwards people.  They denied the latest science that attributed weather to the natural forces of Baal and the Ashteroth.  Their worship was limited—instead of multiplying worship throughout their kingdom on the high-places—giving all the people a chance to worship how they felt like they should worship—the Israelite worship was limited to a tent which was located, probably, at Shiloh.

But in Israel there was a promise—a coming seed of salvation.  Who knows what Ruth and Orpah knew.  They probably never met Elimelech.  And based on the actions of Mahlon, Chilion, and Naomi—it’s probable they were not being catechized very well.

Orpah goes her own way.  She makes her choice.

Orpah, it says, “kissed” her mother in law—betrays her with a kiss.  She probably says something like, “I’ll pray for you,” as she walked away to Moab.  (James 2:14-17)

Remember:  God honors your choices.