A Biblical Immigrants’ Story—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 24B (Ruth 1)

Wendy Keller, Ruth and Naomi

Ruth 1:1-18 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. ² The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. ³ But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. ⁴ These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. When they had lived there about ten years, ⁵ both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

⁶ Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had considered his people and given them food. ⁷ So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah. ⁸ But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back each of you to your mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. ⁹ The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband.” Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud. ¹⁰ They said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” ¹¹ But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? ¹² Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, ¹³ would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.” ¹⁴ Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

¹⁵ So she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” ¹⁶ But Ruth said,

“Do not press me to leave you,
    to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
    where 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.
May the Lord do thus to me,
    and more as well,
if even death parts me from you!”

¹⁸ When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

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                 It’s election season in the United States. At the top of the list of issues on which voters are deciding is immigration. Should the United States welcome immigrants or not? Should the nation engage in mass deportation, even of people here legally? These are questions on the hearts and minds of many. It’s in the midst of this debate that the Revised Common Lectionary offers to us the story of Ruth and Naomi. Both women are immigrants to each other’s countries. Ruth is a Moabite woman, while Naomi is an Israelite. Their lives become entangled due to a famine in the land of Israel, during the time of the Judges, when Naomi, her husband, and their two sons flee their home in Bethlehem and head to the land of Moab, seeking refuge from the famine. While in Moab, after the death of their father, the two sons (Mahlon and Chilion) took wives from among the Moabites. Their names were Ruth and Orpah. Unfortunately, the three men in the story die, leaving three women as widows. The question is, what will happen to these women?  

                Bruce Epperly gives us a helpful overview of what we find in the Book of Ruth. It’s a reminder that people usually leave their homelands because life has become too difficult to stay.

      The Book of Ruth is an immigration story. Once upon a time, there was a famine in Bethlehem, “the house of bread,” and a certain man Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, sojourn to Moab. The journey must have been difficult physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Their roots and property were in Bethlehem and they were going to a land, whose relationships with the children of Israel, were complicated and conflict-ridden. In Israelite lore, the Moabites were the children of an incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters. Moreover, they worshiped a god who sometimes demanded child sacrifice. Further, the Moabites were also known to be sexually promiscuous by Israelite standards. The children of Israel and Moabites often engaged in military conflicts. Elimelech and Naomi must have been desperate to leave their homeland and settle in such an unfriendly region, among people most Jews saw as moral and religious inferiors. It was a matter of survival.  [Bruce G. Epperly, Ruth and Esther: Women of Agency and Adventure (Topical Line Drives Book 21). Energion Publications. Kindle Edition].

When Elimelech took his family to Moab, he took them to what likely was a hostile land. Israelites and Moabites were historic enemies, as well as neighbors. Moabites were idolaters and apparently sexually promiscuous. In other words, these were not the kind of people you would choose as neighbors. But, in a time of great difficulty, these folks from Bethlehem had little choice. It was Moab or perhaps starvation. Interestingly, they seemed to find some form of welcome in Moab because the family integrated into that country, even intermarrying. This story has many parallels to the stories that modern immigrants share as they flee their homelands for what they hope will be a new start in a new land.

                Unfortunately for Naomi and her two daughters-in-law, the death of their husbands left them adrift. Ruth and Orpah probably alienated themselves from their families by marrying foreigners. Now, with their husbands dead they were left in a difficult situation. Naomi had no family in Moab besides her daughters-in-law. In an age when the social safety net was family, Naomi had no way of supporting herself. Her only hope was to return to Bethlehem to see if family members could help. As for Ruth and Orpah, they couldn’t count on the largesse of Naomi’s family. If they followed Naomi, they would become strangers in a strange land.

                After Naomi decided to head back to Bethlehem, she told Ruth and Orpah to return to their families because she couldn’t provide for them. She was grateful for the way her daughters-in-law dealt kindly with both their dead husbands and with her. All she wanted for these two women was that they would be blessed as they returned to their families. Now neither daughter-in-law wanted to leave Naomi. They were committed to their mother-in-law. But Naomi was insistent. She knew that her future was uncertain. Taking two foreign women with her would make her homecoming even more difficult. Naomi mentions the practice of levirate marriage, where younger brothers would take the wives of an older brother who died and produce an heir for that brother. But Naomi told Ruth and Orpah that she was too old to produce sons. Besides, would they wait until sons could be provided? No, there was no hope for the three of them to return to Bethlehem. They needed to go to their homes and Naomi to hers. Naomi interprets her situation theologically as God turning against her. If that was true, then again, there was no hope for two foreign women living successfully in Judah. As they wept, Orpah recognized that she needed to find her fortune back home, but Ruth clung to Naomi. She wouldn’t let go.

                Naomi tried to push Ruth away, pointing her to the wise decision made by Orpah. Orpah may have made that choice with deep sadness because she felt a strong loyalty to this woman who had been like a mother to her for the ten years she was married to one of Naomi’s sons. We should never look upon Orpah in a negative light. She did as she was asked, even commanded. But, despite Naomi’s pleas, Ruth would not leave.

                Verses 16 and 17 offer us Ruth’s song. Her response to Naomi has a poetic feel to it, which is why it is set out in verse in our texts. Ruth tells Naomi “Where you go, I will go.” If you’re going to Bethlehem, so will I. Not only that but where Naomi lodges, Ruth will lodge. Further, “your people will be my people, and your God my God.” Ruth is ready to leave behind her old life and become a citizen of a land she’d never visited and become part of a people who were not her people. Yes, she loved her husband and Naomi, but everyone else was a stranger. She didn’t even know if Naomi’s family and neighbors would accept her. As for the religious dimension, she may have gained insight into Naomi’s religious beliefs and practices, but we don’t know if she shared them. Perhaps she had “converted” after her marriage. But still, in an age when most Israelites had yet to become true monotheists, the assumption was that the gods went with the people. Israelites embraced Yahweh. Moabites had their own gods and goddesses. At this point, Ruth’s loyalty was not to Israel or Israel’s God, but to Naomi. If she went with Naomi, she was ready to sacrifice everything she had grown up to believe to be true. There was great risk in this choice. Nevertheless, Ruth was committed to living and dying, even being buried, where Naomi will die and be buried. She even offers an oath, telling Naomi and God that God may do what God would do if they were separated, even in death. At that point, Naomi gives up because Ruth is determined. From then on, their fates would be shared.

                This reading from Ruth is the first of two chosen for the lectionary. The second story, which comes from chapter 3 of Ruth focuses on Ruth’s encounter with Naomi’s kinsman, Boaz, who will in the end become Ruth’s husband and the protector and provider for both Ruth and Naomi. Ruth and Boaz will become ancestors to David and later to Jesus (according to the genealogies).

The readings from Ruth serve as reminders of David’s ancestry, which later becomes central to Jesus’s story. She is one of four women mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus (the others being Tamar, wife of Judah and mother of Perez; Rahab, wife of Salmon and mother of Boaz, and Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah and mother of Solomon and David). Ruth’s story might be brief, but besides providing a context for David’s ancestry, it also offers us a message that should resonate with is happening in the United States, as we witness a tremendous backlash against immigrants, whether legal or undocumented. People migrate for various reasons. Many are fleeing violence, persecution, and economic hardship at home. Others come to a new land seeking new opportunities. The United States has been known as a nation of immigrants, though we must acknowledge that this land was populated before Europeans arrived and took up residence. We must also acknowledge that a majority of African Americans are the descendants of Africans brought to this land to be slaves. Of course, many living in the Southwest, from Texas to California, can trace their ancestry to people who once lived under Mexican and Spanish governance. In other words, for American Christians, immigration has a complex history. Anti-immigrant sentiment has often arisen in the nation, often serving as a foundation for political movements such as the Know Nothings of the 1840s or more recently in one of the major political parties (I needn’t mention the name as that party has made it part of their platform, let the reader understand!).

                The story of Ruth reminds us that migration has been a regular occurrence throughout history. Abraham and Sarah left their homeland and lived as nomads. Jacob’s family migrated to Egypt due to famine, and later experienced enslavement, before they escaped and made their way to a Promised Land. Later on, some of Jacob’s descendants would experience exile in Babylon. Over time, they were scattered across the known world.

                As we ponder this story it’s worth remembering the words that are found on the Statue of Liberty, words written by Emma Lazarus titled “The New Colossus.”

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

We often forget these words placed on a statue overlooking a harbor where thousands of immigrants flowed into the United States, helping build the nation. These aren’t biblical words, but they seem to fit with the message we find in scripture. In Deuteronomy we read: “You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deut. 10:19). Then, in the parable of judgment, Jesus tells those who listen that those who will inherit the kingdom are those who found the king a stranger and welcomed him. When asked when this occurred, along with giving the king food when hungry, drink when thirsty, and visiting when in prison, the king answered that they had done it to him when they did it (or not) to “the least of these” (Mt. 25:31-46).    

                I conclude with these words offered by Bruce Epperly:

The book of Ruth points us toward a different set of values, which embrace the well-being of others. Despite its patriarchal context, the book of Ruth tells us clearly that the poor and vulnerable are our business. Our well-being and the future of the nation — after all, Ruth is David’s great-grandmother — depend on how we respond to those at economic and social margins and to the strangers in our midst. [Epperly, Ruth and Esther, Kindle Edition].

In these days when immigrants and migrants are the focus of political debate, and when fear of the other has taken hold of many, might we attend closely to the story of Ruth and Naomi, both of whom experienced what it means to be strangers in a strange land?