Photo by Jorge Rosal on Unsplash
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The first chapter of Ruth is a classic reading for weddings. It’s a great privilege to, as a pastor, join a man and a woman together in holy matrimony. One of my major points of emphasis as I prepare a couple is … the preparation isn’t really about the wedding day. Rather it’s about being joined together in a lifelong covenantal relationship. When I join together a man and a woman, I make it as obvious as possible that there are actually two sets of vows. In the first, the bride and groom face the altar to make a set of vows to God closing with “Will you honor God and His will for you in this way?” Only then do they face each other and make a set of vows which close saying words to the effect of “until death parts us.” Marriage is a lifelong commitment, wrapped in God’s Word, where a man and a woman start a new family …
Today we often forget that “until death parts us” can apply to the families we marry into also. Modern mobility causes family bonds to loosen. But, in Ruth’s day, and in many places in the world today, these family bonds were critical to a woman’s survival. Widows were among the poorest in society because they rarely had a way to care for themselves. So, when we hear in Ruth 1 how Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah all lost their husbands, we see they were in a bad way. When Naomi’s husband Ebimelech died, she decided to go back to her family in Judah. She also strongly urged her widowed daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, Moabite women, to return to their families to be cared for (Ruth 1:8-14). After much insistence, Orpah relented and returned. But Ruth insisted on staying with Naomi, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die …” (Ruth 1:16-17) Though Ruth was free to pursue a new husband on her own, she remained part of her new family, staying with her mother-in-law Naomi “until death parts us.”
Ruth was a pagan Moabite, not an Israelite. But through marriage to Naomi’s son, she became part of Naomi’s family. And through Naomi, came to believe in the one true God, becoming part of His family. Ruth trusted God to provide for her and He did. As you read the rest of the short four chapter book of Ruth, you’ll discover that Ruth also became King David’s great-grandmother (Ruth 4:13-22). A little over 1000 years later, another of Ruth’s grandsons was born, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God (Matthew 1:1-17).
Ruth took her vow, “Until death parts us,” seriously. God worked through Ruth to eventually bring our Savior into the world. In our baptism, we too have been made members of His family … we are children of God, brothers and sisters of Christ … and nothing, not even death, can ever separate from this family as we live now in God’s promise of eternal life with Him (Romans 8:38-39).
Your Brother in Christ,
Pastor Jim