God of Our Mother

This month we have been looking at the family in God's Word. Last week we looked at a father and his son — Abraham, who seemed successful and respected from the outside, but whose family had its own dark shadows. Today we look at the opposite. We will look at a family that has fallen apart — a family that, even to others, looks like a failure. Let us look together at the story of Naomi and Ruth.

The book of Ruth is set during the time of the Judges — a time when Israel had no king. But even after the Exile, no king was restored to Israel. So the book is set in a time of great confusion and disorder. For this reason, although the story takes place in the time of the Judges, many readers also connect it to the experience of the Exile — when Israel was taken to a foreign land and later returned. However, the book of Ruth does not focus on a nation or a people. It focuses on one family — the family of Naomi.

Today's passage begins with a return. Naomi and two women are walking together on a road, heading back home. Naomi is an Israelite. The two women are Moabites. Earlier, Naomi had left Judah and gone to Moab to escape a famine. She settled there, and her two sons even got married. For a while, things seemed to be going well.

But life in Moab was not easy. Her husband Elimelech died. Then her two sons died as well. The name Elimelech means "my God is King." It is a little ironic — a man who claimed God as his king, and yet chose to live in a foreign land. When they first left for Moab, there was hope. But on the road back, all that hope was gone. Their steps were heavy.

As they walked together in silence, Naomi finally spoke. She had probably thought about this moment many times. She could not wait much longer.

Naomi told her two daughters-in-law to go back to their own mothers' homes. She said: you have been kind to the dead and to me. The Hebrew word here is hesed הֶסֶד — it can be translated as grace, mercy, or kindness. She prayed that the Lord would be kind to them in return. She told them to find new husbands and build new lives.

This was Naomi's final act of kindness toward them. If they went back to Israel with her, she had nothing to offer. No money. No other sons. She told them not to suffer any more for her sake. And yet, even in that state, Naomi thought of her daughters-in-law first.

The two women wept and said they would stay with her. But Naomi urged them again. This time, she called them "my daughters" — not daughters-in-law. "Return, my daughters. Go back." She kept repeating it. She said: as a daughter-in-law, I wish you could stay. But as daughters, I cannot let you.

In ancient Israel, there was a practice called levirate marriage — if a husband died, his brother could marry the widow to continue the family. But Naomi had no more sons. And even if she had a baby today, how long would they have to wait? Naomi said: "The hand of the Lord has gone out against me."

Orpah, one daughter-in-law, heard these words, kissed Naomi, and left. Both Naomi and Orpah knew this was the right choice. There was nothing wrong with leaving. And so Orpah went back.

But Ruth did not leave. Even after Naomi urged her, Ruth had already made up her mind. She was not going back. And so Naomi and Ruth went on together.

But Ruth's response goes beyond human kindness or duty. Ruth said: "Your God will be my God." This is the most important part.

Ruth was a Moabite — a foreigner. In the Old Testament, marriage with Moabites was viewed very negatively. In Numbers, Moabite women led Israel into idol worship — this is known as the Baal Peor incident. Because of this, Deuteronomy says that Moabites cannot enter the assembly of the Lord. The Law was very strict on this point.

After the Exile, marriage with Moabites became a serious social problem. In Ezra and Nehemiah, those who had married Moabite women were punished and told to separate. The book of Ruth may be the only positive case of a Moabite woman in the entire Old Testament.

From a religious point of view, a faithful family should not have taken a Moabite wife. Abraham sent his servant all the way to Haran to find a wife for Isaac — a believing woman. Isaac also told Jacob to marry a woman from among believers, not a foreign woman. Everyone understood what it meant to marry outside the faith: the next generation might turn away from God.

And yet, despite all these warnings about Moabite women throughout the Old Testament, this Moabite woman makes an extraordinary confession: "Your God will be my God."

Ruth did not stay simply because she felt sorry for Naomi, or because she was a loyal daughter-in-law. Orpah had those feelings too. But Ruth had something more. Ruth had seen God in Naomi's family. This is the key point.

Looking at Naomi from the outside, there was no sign of God's blessing. She had lived in a foreign land, not the Promised Land. All the men of her household were dead. Everything she had was gone. Even Naomi herself said that God had struck her.

In ancient thinking — and even today, many people think this way — material blessing and family health were signs of God's presence. To be wealthy, to live long, to have many children — these were understood as clear proof that God was with you. People thought of grace as something you could see and touch.

But Naomi's family had none of that. And yet, from this broken, empty family, Naomi still gave what little she had — and Ruth saw God in it.

There was a Methodist pastor named Jeon Deok-gi. He was an orphan who sold charcoal in Seoul's Namdaemun Market. To make a living, he took a job as a cook in the home of missionary Scranton. But there, something unexpected happened. The Scranton family treated him not as a servant, but as a person — as a member of their household. Mrs. Scranton even told her family to speak Korean, not English, whenever Jeon Deok-gi was present. No one expected that kind of treatment for a servant. Jeon Deok-gi was deeply moved. He believed. He went out to the Namdaemun Market to preach the gospel, was ordained as a pastor in 1905, and preached there until his death.

Something similar happened to Pastor Kim Chang-sik. He also worked for a missionary — Methodist missionary Ohlinger. Ohlinger did not treat him as a servant, but as a fellow human being. This was very different from the common attitude of that era, when many Westerners believed it was their duty to "civilize" the rest of the world — what was called the White Man's Burden. And yet Ohlinger treated Kim with full dignity. Kim was moved by this, believed in Jesus, and became a pastor.

These men did not believe because of what the missionaries had. They believed because of who the missionaries were. They experienced being treated as a person — as a member of a family — and in that they found God.

Perhaps Ruth's experience was something like this. In Naomi's broken, empty family — a family that even Naomi said God had struck — Ruth saw something different from all the foreign gods she had known before. At first it may have been only a dim feeling. But through suffering, that awareness became clear. And Naomi's own life was part of what Ruth saw.

Even though her husband was gone and she had no children, Ruth could not leave Naomi. Because now she believed in the God that Naomi served. And perhaps it was Naomi's very act of trying to send her away — that act of grace in the middle of suffering — that showed Ruth who God really was. Ruth wanted to know more of the God of her mother. And so Ruth followed her.

The relationship had changed. It was no longer just mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. It became mother and daughter. The legal and human bond had been broken. But now they were one family — through faith. God bound them together. Though Ruth was a Moabite woman, she became one of God's people through a faith more precious than many who were born into it.

A family is not held together only by blood. A marriage is not kept only by a vow. Our promises can be weak — we make them seriously, but they can be broken. We treasure family ties by blood, but blood relatives sometimes betray us. A family is not built only by marriage and birth.

For a family to stand firm, God must be there. Faith must be there. No matter whether the family is successful or has failed in the eyes of the world, no matter how much or how little they have — when God is present in a family, that family can stand. When God is absent, that family will fall apart.

The family Jesus spoke of is bound together by the will of God. Even without a blood connection, when God binds people together, they can become one family.

Today's passage ends here. But we know what happened next. God loved Naomi and Ruth. He poured out even greater grace on them in the land they returned to. Ruth, the foreign woman who stayed with her mother-in-law, met a man named Boaz. They married, and through that marriage, Naomi was able to recover her land. The family was restored. God's grace became visible.

And their family became part of the ancestry of David himself. A Moabite woman — and yet she was included in the line of the Messiah. She was written into the royal genealogy. God honored this foreign woman. The God who is King made this family part of the royal family.

Our families are the same. Even if your family has nothing impressive to show to others, even if there is nothing great about it — that is all right. When we live in faith, God's grace will be seen through our lives. Sometimes even a family member who does not yet believe will see God's grace in us.

The grace that the Moabite woman Ruth — who was warned against throughout all of the Old Testament — was able to find, can also be found in our families. There is an invisible grace in us. There is a grace that God has given to our families. We must believe this.

Perhaps some of you are worried because your child has married someone who does not believe. Perhaps you are sad because a family member has no faith. But please wait. Please pray that they will find God's grace. God is preparing an even greater grace for them.

Dear brothers and sisters, I urge you: be kind to those around you. Show grace. Be kind, especially to your closest family members. There may be moments of hurt and disappointment. You may have a daughter-in-law who frustrates you, or a son-in-law who disappoints you. But when you show grace, they will see God in you.

One day, from their lips, you will hear these words: "Your God is my God."

May we all live in the hope of that day.