A Word about Ruthless People

 

Today, I want to share a lame joke that I read in Boys Life magazine many years ago: 

Sam and Ruth were out on a date.  As they were driving along in his convertible, they hit a bump, and Ruth fell out.  That didn’t stop Sam, however, because he drove on, ruthlessly! 

The world is full of ruthless people, but our Christian walk is all about love, especially in our family relationships. People who love are never ruthless.  A prime example of this is Ruth. Let’s begin by reading Ruth 1:1-10:

During the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to live in the land of Moab for a while.The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife’s name was Naomi. The names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the land of Moab and settled there. Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, and she was left with her two sons. Her sons took Moabite women as their wives: one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth. After they lived in Moab about 10 years, both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two children and without her husband. She and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave the land of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to His people’s need by providing them food. She left the place where she had been living, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, and traveled along the road leading back to the land of Judah. She said to them, “Each of you go back to your mother’s home. May the Lord show faithful love to you as you have shown to the dead and to me. May the Lord enable each of you to find security in the house of your new husband.” She kissed them, and they wept loudly. “No,” they said to her. “We will go with you to your people.”

Ruth Grieved Her Loss:

Marriage in Biblical times was different than it is in our society today. Marriages were arranged by parents or grandparents, and the bride and groom usually had no say in the matter. Wealth, religion, power, and politics were vital factors, but love was not expected nor required. This is also true in some parts of our world today, however.

When we served in Africa, we worked with a Muslim people group in which the men could have up to four wives. Often a man’s existing wife or wives only knew when a new wife was coming when the husband said, “Make room in the house, the new wife is coming today.” We were told that the only thing those wives had in common was their hatred for their husband!

In this case, the grief expressed by Ruth and of these women seems real. Ruth loved her husband and her family. When her husband died her world was rocked. She genuinely grieved the death of her husband. She missed him, she longed for him, and she wanted him back.

This is not like what happens in some relationships today. When some marriages fail, one or both of the former spouses will host a “freedom party.” Others will just be relieved it’s all over, like the line in the Country Western song that says, “Thank God and Greyhound she’s gone!”

Ruthless people don’t love like this: They only care about themselves. They only care what others can do for them.

 So, was Ruth Ruthless?  No! Not at all!

 Next, let’s read Ruth 1:11-15:

But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Am I able to have any more sons who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No, my daughters, my life is much too bitter for you to share, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me.” Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law.” But Ruth replied: Do not persuade me to leave you or go back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Yahweh punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.

Ruth Did Not Cut Her Losses:

In Biblical times a woman had to be related to a man. Fathers watched over daughters and husbands watched over wives. When a man died, his brothers or cousins married his wife. We saw this in Africa also. Our language tutor had three wives, one of which had been the wife of his deceased older brother. She lived in her own place in a different town, and she ran her own affairs. We were never sure how intimate their marriage was, but he was her husband, and he could have intervened in any situation he chose to do so.

We also employed a cook who was a middle-aged widow with adult children. She had lived on her own for many years, but one day she told us that she had to travel to her parent’s village because they had arranged a new marriage for her.  These are very different customs than the ones we have today, but they are similar to the patterns we see in the Bible.

In this case, however, Naomi had no help to give Ruth. She, herself, had no more husbands, and no more sons. She did not know of any other relatives that might help. They were all bereft of help and protection, and they were vulnerable to exploitation.

In business, the “sunk cost fallacy” would apply to this situation. Successful business leaders don’t believe in the saying, “In for a penny, in for a pound.” The amount of resources you have invested in products or people doesn’t matter if those products or people are no longer producing a profit. Therefore, business leaders have learned to cut their losses, and move on.

Likewise, A ruthless person would have cut her losses in this case and moved on. Ruth wasn’t even Jewish!  She could’ve gone back home, with the attitude of, “It’s been real & it’s been fun, but it ain’t been real fun!” She also could have abandoned her morals and done anything for money, like the character in the play A Streetcar Named Desire who said, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”

Ruth was made of sterner stuff than that. She did neither; regardless of the cost, she stayed with Naomi because she loved her!

So, was Ruth Ruthless?  No! Not at all!

 Next, let’s read Ruth 1:18 to 2:1-3:

 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to persuade her. The two of them traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited about their arrival and the local women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,” she answered, “for the Almighty has made me very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has pronounced judgment on me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?” So Naomi came back from the land of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side named Boaz. He was a prominent man of noble character from Elimelech’s family. Ruth the Moabitess asked Naomi, “Will you let me go into the fields and gather fallen grain behind someone who allows me to?” Naomi answered her, “Go ahead, my daughter.”  So Ruth left and entered the field to gather grain behind the harvesters. She happened to be in the portion of land belonging to Boaz, who was from Elimelech’s family. 

Ruth Did Not Wallow in Her Loss:

How a person deals with a loss reveals much about them:  They can wallow in self-pity, and they can convince themselves there is no hope. They can become helpless, hapless, and hopeless. A New Orleans Seminary professor saw this happening in that city after Hurricane Katrina. He moved his family from New Orleans after Katrina because he did not want his children to grow up around people who could only see themselves as victims.

Ruthless people often collapse when faced with adversity: at heart they are mercenaries and when they can’t see a way forward, they collapse. This is often the case with bullies, and a good example of that is the people of Jericho who were quaking in their sandals at the approach of Joshua and the Children of Israel.

Ruth knew the truth: It is what it is; you have what you have; you do what you can do! She had no problem working to save her family and she was not too proud to seek the help that they needed from the support systems of that day. Remember, it is easier to act yourself into feeling better than it is to feel yourself into acting better.

When you do what you can do in a tough situation, this can set yourself up for blessings that come in unexpected ways. Let’s read Ruth 2:4-11.

Later, when Boaz arrived from Bethlehem, he said to the harvesters, “The Lord be with you.” “The Lord bless you,” they replied. Boaz asked his servant who was in charge of the harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?” The servant answered, “She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab. She asked, ‘Will you let me gather fallen grain among the bundles behind the harvesters?’ She came and has remained from early morning until now, except that she rested a little in the shelter.”  Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Don’t go and gather grain in another field, and don’t leave this one, but stay here close to my female servants. See which field they are harvesting and follow them. Haven’t I ordered the young men not to touch you? When you are thirsty, go and drink from the jars the young men have filled.” She bowed with her face to the ground and said to him, “Why are you so kind to notice me, although I am a foreigner?”  Boaz answered her, “Everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband’s death has been fully reported to me: how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and how you came to a people you didn’t previously know. May the Lord reward you for what you have done and may you receive a full reward from the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.”

 When you make yourself available to the Lord, it allows Him to bless you. People who do that don’t have to be ruthless, because they know that their God is working on their behalf.

 So, was Ruth Ruthless?  No! Not at all!

 Let’s continue by reading Ruth 3:1-5, 

Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, shouldn’t I find security for you, so that you will be taken care of? Now isn’t Boaz our relative? Haven’t you been working with his female servants? This evening he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash, put on perfumed oil, and wear your best clothes. Go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let the man know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, notice the place where he’s lying, go in and uncover his feet, and lie down. Then he will explain to you what you should do. So Ruth said to her, “I will do everything you say.”

Ruth was Restored from Her Loss:

We expect stories to have happy endings: 

• The underdog always wins. 
• The hero always gets the girl.  
• The cavalry always arrives in the nick of time. 
• The miracle cure is found. 
• The couple lives happily ever after.

Reality is somewhat different: The world is a cruel place, and happy endings are not as common as we would like them to be. Good things don’t always come to those who wait. Ruthless people know this, and they use it as an excuse for cutting corners.  Loving people don’t!

 In God’s economy, however, we do win. Jesus came that we might have abundant life: in the here and now or in the hereafter. Paul taught us that all things work together for our good, either in the here and now or in the hereafter. As the old hymn says, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” God is good to His people all the time; He makes provision for us, so we have no reason to be ruthless! We are to be as wise as serpents but also as harmless as doves!

 In this case, God brought Boaz into Ruth’s life. They were a match made in heaven, but there was one problem. Boaz wasn’t the closest relative, and he could not redeem Ruth. If he had been a ruthless person, he would have thrown up his hands and said, “That’s just too bad. We could have had a great thing, but better luck next time.” Because Boaz wasn’t ruthless, we can see what he did in Ruth 4:1-10

 Boaz went to the gate of the town and sat down there. Soon the family redeemer Boaz had spoken about came by. Boaz called him by name and said, “Come over here and sit down.” So he went over and sat down. Then Boaz took 10 men of the town’s elders and said, “Sit here.” And they sat down.  He said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has returned from the land of Moab, is selling a piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. I thought I should inform you: Buy it back in the presence of those seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to redeem it, do so. But if you do not want to redeem it, tell me so that I will know, because there isn’t anyone other than you to redeem it, and I am next after you.” “I want to redeem it,” he answered. Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you will also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the deceased man, to perpetuate the man’s name on his property.” The redeemer replied, “I can’t redeem it myself, or I will ruin my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption, because I can’t redeem it.” At an earlier period in Israel, a man removed his sandal and gave it to the other party in order to make any matter legally binding concerning the right of redemption or the exchange of property. This was the method of legally binding a transaction in Israel. So the redeemer removed his sandal and said to Boaz, “Buy back the property yourself.”  Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses today that I am buying from Naomi everything that belonged to Elimelech, Chilion, and Mahlon.  I will also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, to perpetuate the deceased man’s name on his property, so that his name will not disappear among his relatives or from the gate of his home. You are witnesses today.”

 Boaz was as harmless as a dove, but he was as cunning as a snake, and he set-up Ruth’s kinsman redeemer. By the man’s own words, Boaz showed him to be the ruthless person that he was in front of the whole town. This allowed Boaz to marry Ruth and also to perpetuate her husband’s line and legacy. This is also something a ruthless person would not do.

 So, did Ruth Have to Be Ruthless?  Not at all!

Conclusion

The relationship between Ruth and Naomi was a prime example of God’s type of love. Because of God’s steadfast love, Ruth did not have to be ruthless. The same is true of us.

Many years ago, a man who had just buried his mother told me, “Preacher, no one ever loves you like your mother.” I understood what he meant, and I didn’t have the heart to disagree with him.

The reason our mothers can love us so much is that God loved them first. As Paul said, “God manifested His love toward us in that, while we were stll sinners, Christ died for us.”

The Book of Ruth is a love story and a promise of God’s eternal love for us. Have you received His love?

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt