Today we’re going to study the book of Ruth starting in chapter 1, and it’s a fascinating story. We’re going to start with Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law. Naomi was the wife of Elimelek.

“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” (v. 1). Moab wasn’t part of Israel. It was located east of the Dead Sea and wasn’t one of the 12 tribes of Israel.

According to the law of Moses, the Israelites couldn’t marry people outside of the 12 tribes. However, we can understand what happens when a family moves to a new place. The surest thing is for their sons and daughters to marry with people of the new land, and that’s exactly what happened.

“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” (v. 2-5).

Naomi was left without a husband and sons in a foreign land, so she decided to return to her own country. The stories of Naomi and Ruth are intimately related. We will study both of them, bur for now, we’re going to focus on Naomi. This story is repeated a lot today in our families. Our families have moved and immigrated to new countries. In the 80’s it was motivated by war, but in the 90’s through today, it’s been for economic reasons. People immigrate to Costa Rica, El Salvador, the U.S., Spain. Hunger obligates parents to look for work and send money to their children.

We need to remember that during this time, a woman’s value was based on her “owner”, on having men in their lives, because they were treated as objects. So a woman with no sons and no husband in a foreign country has no one to take care of her, so she decided to return to her homeland.

The name Naomi means pleasantness, and we can see that her personality must be very friendly and warm. We’ll see more of this when we study Ruth, but even with her other daughter-in-law Orpah, she was nice. She was so wonderful to her daughters-in-law that they wanted to leave their own families and follow her. Three women alone that were going to go without sons or husbands. Naomi’s character was incredibly strong, along with her faith.

She was a wonderful counselor, a mother that served not only her sons but daughters-in-law, and we can see that this woman followed the laws of her country. She knew the rights of property owners, and that a man from her country could redeem her. What do we mean when we say redeem? One of her daughters-in-law could marry this man so that they would all be taken care of. We’ll see this when we study Ruth.

We also know she was a great grandma. It says in the last chapter that when Ruth had her son and put him in Naomi’s arms, Naomi cared for him (Ruth 4:16). She returned to have a life with the birth of her grandchildren.

All the suffering she had experienced in Moab was replaced by joy with her faith in the Lord. She was blessed by her daughter-in-law that was more like a daughter, and who gave her seven grandchildren. She could take care of them and enjoy them. All of that happened because of the faith she had in the Lord and knowing the laws of her country.

In the next study, we’ll get to the story of Ruth, which is still very much intertwined with that of Naomi, but we’ll focus on Ruth.

Thank you, brothers and sisters, and may God bless you. We hope you join us for another installment of Women in the Bible.