Bible with Brandi – Week 5 – Ruth Chapter 1
In the time of the Judges, or “Champion Deliverers” as The Passion Translation phrases it, a time when everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25), there arose a covenantal love so deep that it transcended suffering, loss, time and place, nationality, and generations of hatred.
The backdrop is two ancient kingdoms: God’s chosen people, the Israelites, and their distant relatives, the Moabites. One descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The other descended from Lot, Abraham’s nephew. One line was marked by trust and obedience. The other began in fear and self-preservation. Both were allotted land by the Lord. Israel’s inheritance is recorded in Joshua 13–21, and Moab’s territory was granted earlier, for the Lord told Israel not to harass or contend with Moab because He had given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession (Deuteronomy 2:9). Yet though both received land by divine appointment, one refused to honor the other. These neighboring kingdoms, close in geography and kinship, grew to despise one another.
That hostility stretched for generations. From the wilderness journey, when Moab refused Israel bread and water and hired Balaam to curse them (Numbers 22–24; Deuteronomy 23:3–6), through the seduction at Peor (Numbers 25), and into the period of the Judges when Moab oppressed Israel under Eglon for eighteen years (Judges 3:12–14), the tension endured. By the time we arrive at Ruth’s story, the animosity was centuries old.
Into that history steps a wealthy Judean family who leaves the Promised Land during a famine and sojourns in Moab. The text simply says there was a famine in the land (Ruth 1:1), but within Israel’s covenant framework famine was often understood as covenant discipline, a consequence of idolatry and disobedience (Deuteronomy 28:23–24). To leave Bethlehem, the “house of bread,” and seek provision in Moab reads less like patient trust and more like anxious self-preservation. Elimelech, whose name means “My God is King,” leads his household across the Jordan, carrying his wealth and reputation with him, seeking survival in the very land long at odds with his own people.
He fails. Elimelech dies, and in time, so do both of his sons. But not before they take Moabite wives. Mahlon marries Ruth, and Chilion marries Orpah. For ten years these women live within a Jewish household. They observe Sabbath rhythms, hear the stories of Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses. They learn the language of covenant, and come to know the God of Israel through Naomi and their husbands.
Then the tragedy strikes, and they are left widows. Naomi urges her daughters-in-law to return to their mothers’ homes. It is a mercy. In the ancient Near East, widowhood without sons meant vulnerability and poverty. She releases them to what seems most practical: return to Moab, to familiar fields, familiar gods, and the possibility of remarriage. Orpah weeps, kisses Naomi, and turns back.
Ruth does not.
Instead, she meets Naomi’s words with a covenantal decree. “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back 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, and there I will be buried. Thus may the LORD do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me” (Ruth 1:16–17).
Many read this as Ruth’s conversion moment, as though she is choosing Yahweh for the first time. But the structure and tone suggest something deeper. Ruth speaks in the language of oath. She invokes the covenant name of the LORD. This is not spontaneous language brought forth in a surge of emotion. It is the settled language of fidelity. It is the act of reaffirming a commitment already formed.
For ten years Ruth has lived among covenant people. She has heard the Torah read. She has watched her mother-in-lawpray. She has seen blessing and discipline unfold in real time. At some point during those years, she chose the God of Israel as her own. Her declaration to Naomi flows from that prior surrender. She has already covenanted herself to the LORD. Now she rebinds herself to His people, and from that place of quiet resolve, she steps into Bethlehem, already grafted in.
Reflection Questions
What part of Ruth’s story in chapter 1 speaks most to your own season of life right now?
Ruth chose devotion when comfort would have been easier. Where might God be inviting you into the same kind of devotion?
Naomi encouraged Orpah and Ruth to return to what was familiar. Are there places in your life where God is calling you away from the familiar and into deeper trust?
Ruth walked into a future she could not see. What step of faith is God placing in front of you that requires trust rather than clarity?
How has God used past hardship to shape your heart the way He shaped Ruth’s during her years in Naomi’s home?
Where can you intentionally practice covenant love this week, choosing faithfulness over convenience?
What part of God’s character in Ruth chapter 1 gives you the courage to move forward?
