Ruth 1:1-17 | In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. When Naomi heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the LORD show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.” But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons—would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD’s hand has turned against me!” At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”
If there be any value in scaling the mountains, it is only that from them one can behold the plains.” —G.K. Chesterton
Those sentiments resonate. I’ve climbed some mountains during my lifetime—some real and some metaphorical. Pressing on ever higher can be hard and lead to suffering. But at the peak we can catch a view of what’s been hidden, a beauty that’s now made plain. There we can rest and experience a mysterious peace and joy, finding that we’ve been enriched and awakened by the journey.
Ruth didn’t see the jagged, foreboding ridge at first. Life was good. But then, after just 10 years of marriage, her husband and brother-in-law died (Ruth 1:4-5). A mountain of pain and disappointment shadowed her path. Living in a patriarchal society, she felt alone and vulnerable.
The journey up the side of her mountain had begun with grief. Then, because Ruth’s mother-in-law heard that the land of Judah was ripe with good crops—something that could help sustain them—Ruth left her family and homeland. Loss upon loss. A final, difficult rise in the path appeared: Naomi told Ruth and her sister-in-law to go back to Moab and not to follow her, for she was also a widow. Tears flowed as Naomi kissed the girls goodbye (v.9).
Ruth, however, stood tall on the mountain of pain and suddenly saw the “plains.” She saw what she should do—stay with Naomi and place her faith in God (v.16). The journey up the peak had led to a mountaintop experience of knowing and embracing the God who loved her.
Like Ruth, you too may be facing problems that loom like jagged peaks. Keep staying the course with your eyes on Christ. Soon you’ll “behold the plains” …the good God has planned for you. —Tom Felten
MORE: Read John 16:33 and see why we can experience peace even when mountains of pain come our way.
NEXT: What painful challenge are you facing right now? What “plain” of hope and goodness is God bringing into view?