Naomi received word that the drought was over in Bethlehem-Judah. The now childless widow had nothing keeping her in Moab. All that was left were her two widowed Moabite daughter in-laws, Orpah and Ruth. The two young ladies decided it was best to follow Naomi to Bethlehem, the House of Bread.
The three of them headed towards Bethlehem-Judah, to which Naomi told them both to head back towards Moab. Naomi wanted to return to Bethlehem alone. She didn’t want to be a burden to these two young women. Furthermore, Naomi realized that she wouldn’t have anymore sons for the women to marry. They just needed to go back home and move on with their lives.
Orpah and Ruth had a choice, they could either go back to Moab, the washpot, or go towards Bethlehem, the House of Bread. Orpah kissed her mother in-law with an affectionate farewell to go back to Moab. She had left her hometown for a time, but now she was heading back.
There are many who for a moment are urged by feelings or emotions and leave the world. But after sometime they begin to count the cost of leaving their old life behind, and look at the journey ahead. For Naomi and her daughters in-law, the trip from Moab to Bethlehem would have taken between 7-10 days. It would have required them to cross the river Jordan and to climb the 2000 plus feet in elevation required to reach Bethlehem. For Orpah, that was just too far. It was far easier to return to her old lifestyle in God’s washpot, than to continue towards Bethlehem.
Ruth, on the other hand, well she didn’t kiss Naomi goodbye. No, she kissed Moab goodbye, and clave to her mother-in-law. Ruth boldly proclaimed, “Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God” (Ruth 1:16). What a confession faith! Ruth was willing to forsake her old lifestyle, her old friends, and her old religion. The journey to the House of Bread was far more enticing than the return to God’s washpot.
What a destiny altering decision Ruth made! God would providentially order Ruth’s steps guiding her to the fields of Boaz. He was Naomi’s kinsman-redeemer. In other words, he had the legal right to claim Naomi’s family inheritance, which included a Moabite widow. What Ruth didn’t realize when she made that life-altering decision to cleave to Naomi, was that she would be included in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Kinsman-Redeemer of all humanity.
Beloved, kiss the world goodbye, and cleave to the Kinsman-Redeemer!