Some months
ago I received an understanding that made sense of one part of my life. It was
given to me to understand that opportunity of self-sacrifice was offered as a
choice in pre-earth life to those who wanted to become like Christ. It meant
that someone else’s life and well-being would matter more than one’s own. I
could see that Celestial Kingdom will consist of people who care about others
more than they care about themselves. That’s being Christ-like.
Yesterday,
I made a connection to this principle at a deeper level. I had maintained for a
while now that it is wrong for children of single mothers to feel responsible
for their care in their old age. I maintained we are a burden around their
necks that would prevent them from pursuing their own lives. I saw it as
something unhealthy when in reality this is the view of the ‘me, myself and I’
world we live in today.
This is
what opened my eyes. I was speaking to a close friend who is also a single
mother. She was telling me of her daughter who was recently faced with a choice
to create a new life for herself away from her. She chose to stay to care for
her instead rather than pass her onto someone else’s care. This girl also
intends to move to another state to care for her father in his old age if that
ever becomes necessary. My friend said her daughter was “100% Ruth”. I saw how
wrong I had been in my assumption of what is right in such a situation. It also
opened my eyes to the wider view of the 5th Commandment to ‘honour
thy father and thy mother’.
I wrote
about Ruth yesterday and how her choice to remain with her mother-in-law Naomi
put her on the path to becoming a symbol of redemption in Israel through her
levirate marriage to Boaz. What else I see now is her Christ-like
self-sacrifice which rewarded her for her noble life.
Ruth's story
begins in Moab, her home-land, where she married Mahlon, one of the sons of an
Israelite couple called Elimelech and Naomi, who had fled from their hometown
of Bethlehem because of famine and came to Moab, a gentile country east of the
Dead Sea. Another Moabite woman by the name of Orpah married Chilon, the other
son of that family. Neither of the women produced any children before the
father and both sons died leaving the three women destitute.
Ruth's story
is a prime example of how you can go from nothing to everything if you live a
life of sacrifice and faithfulness. When the famine abated Naomi decided to
return to Bethlehem and entreated her daughters-in-law to remain in Moab and
return to their families. Both of the women wept at the suggestion wanting to
follow her but Orpah consented after further encouragement from Naomi while
Ruth refused to abandon her aging mother-in-law who faced a life of uncertainty
without offspring and opportunity (Ruth 1:15-17). And here begins a life
dedicated to caring.
Ruth
accompanied her mother-in-law to Bethlehem and there gained a reputation of a
virtuous woman in Israel. This is a true convert….The entire city of Bethlehem
knew how good she was and told Naomi that Ruth was better to her than seven
sons (Ruth 3:11, 4:15). I am a convert also so this touches me to the core….
As the poor
in Israel were accustomed to do, Ruth offers to go gleaning the barley fields
being harvested. Gleaning was in effect gathering any stalks of barley that
fell from the harvesters' hands and that were left on the field for the poor to
gather to save them from starvation. Being new in the area, Ruth, unbeknownst
to her, chose a field that belonged to Boaz, a wealthy relative of Naomi's
husband, but not just any relative. Naomi identifies him as the 'next kinsmen’.
This is
where Ruth’s sense of duty and care comes into play. Ruth, a young woman does
not seek a man closer to her own age and of her own liking to marry and get on
with her life, as the women in our day would do, she instead heeds the counsel
of her mother-in-law and approaches Boaz to lay claim to a 'levirate marriage'.
As the 'next kinsmen' it would be his duty to marry the widowed Ruth and
provide her with offspring. This duty would have fallen to her husband's
brother had he remained alive.
What is even
more interesting is that Naomi could have laid this claim herself but Naomi was
too stricken in years to bear more children. By Ruth marrying and bearing a
son, she provided a way for both women to be cared for in their old age. Lucky
for Ruth, Boaz was a good man and was impressed that she was following the
Israelite family law in seeking a rightful husband rather than going after her
own selfish desires. He regarded her proposal as 'a proof of feminine virtue
and modesty by offering herself as a wife to an old man like him rather than
going after young men’. (Ruth 3:10,11)
Ruth, a
converted Gentile, came to Bethlehem empty but was filled in every way. She
went from nothing to everything. Boaz married Ruth and they had a son, Obed who
was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David, who was a progenitor of
Mary, who was the mother of Christ (Ruth 4:17-22). By giving birth to Obed,
Ruth brought honour again to her mother-in-law who was left childless:
"And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom and became nurse unto
it. And the women, her neighbours, gave it a name, saying, There is a son born
to Naomi; and they called his name Obed...." (Ruth 4:16,17). Thus by her
life's choices Ruth became a symbol of selfless love to be emulated by all the daughters
of God.
I take my
hat off to people who care for their aged parents in our day.
I personally
know one modern-day Ruth. Her name is Kimberly.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Ruth by Sue Killingsworth)
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