Courage That Clings

Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.   Ruth 1:14

I am reading through the book of Ruth with a dear friend and I was reminded this morning of why this beautiful story is one of my favorites.  It seems as if every time I read this account of a few seemingly ordinary women, God shows me something new; some brand new beautiful picture of His tender and unending love.

Here’s the background:  Elimelek and Naomi, along with their sons, relocate to the foreign land of Moab when famine strikes Bethlehem, their home town.  Though only seeking a temporary refuge, they stay ten years- long enough for life to completely fall apart.  Naomi loses her husband and is left with her two sons, who both marry Moabite women.  Then tragedy strikes a second time and both sons pass away.  Naomi’s sons, in the time they had settled in Moab, had married two Moabite women.  So the story shifts very quickly to these three widows, who find themselves in the most desperate and destitute situation imaginable.

I was drawn this time to the names of the two women whom God brings into Naomi’s life: Orpah and Ruth.  Orpah means ‘gazelle’ and is derived from the root word oreph, which means ‘stiffnecked.’  Ruth means ‘friendship.’ Little did I know that the meaning of their names plays an integral role in how this story unfolds.

When Naomi hears that God has provided for her people back home, she sets out on a ten day journey with both of her daughters-in-law.  Not too far into the journey, though, Naomi urges Orpah and Ruth to go back to their homeland and their families and their gods.  Though it is clear to see that both women loved their mother-in-law dearly, this story shows two totally different courses of action. 

All three women “wept aloud” not once, but twice, as I’m sure it was incredibly painful to part ways after all they had been through together.  Here’s what each woman did next:

                Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. Ruth 1:14

One leaves, the other cleaves.  One turns back, the other turns towards the unknown and unfamiliar choosing to follow.  Oh, how I wish I could only identify with Ruth, but I have stood where sweet Orpah was standing, too!  I have loved Jesus from afar, willing to trust Him when life was easy, when life was good.  But the moment it got tough, the moment my famine struck, I wanted to turn my back on Him and kiss Him goodbye. 

I was angry and felt entitled to the “good life” that surely my “good God” was able to give me.  It would have been easier to say goodbye and turn my back.  It would have been the safe route- to go back to the predictable, the routine, the life that revolved around me.  It would have been far more comfortable to go back to the old life instead of trusting God with the unknowns which were anything but unknown to Him. 

Choosing to cling to Him during my famine, trusting Him through the pain of losing something so precious to me, and believing that He is good even if life is not good completely changed my world.  What Jesus taught me was that His ways are so much higher and so much greater.  Every single ounce of pain I felt was cultivated by His hand into a deeper and stronger faith- one that has absolutely nothing at all to do with what I did but everything to do with what He’s done for me. 

There is no doubt that both women in this story love their mother-in-law deeply and perhaps both even know Naomi’s God.  But only one chooses to follow and say these words:

“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.” 

Ruth 1:16-17

Ruth knows that Naomi’s God was the one true God.  She refers to Him as Jehovah and commits to leave her entire life behind for Him.  The Hebrew word for clung is dabaq, which means “stay close, cleave, follow closely; to be joined together.”  It paints a beautiful picture of relationship- of friendship.  Clinging or cleaving to another often seems weak and even dependent, but reading further shows that it is only in our weakness that God’s strength is truly manifested. 

When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.  Ruth 1:18

This word, determined, is 'amats in the Hebrew language, and it means “to be strong, alert, courageous, brave, bold.”  The New King James Version reads that Ruth was “steadfastly minded.”  Another translation puts it this way:  “she was strong in her purpose.” 

Ruth was not alone; neither was Naomi and neither are we.  Jesus wants us to cling desperately to Him because He knows that He is our only hope for strength and courage.  He wants more than our love; He wants our friendship.  Like Orpah, we are all programmed to be stiffnecked and stubborn, ready to turn our backs at the first sign of trouble.  But there is much to be learned from Ruth’s obedience in the midst of troubling circumstances.  Not only did God provide for her a husband and a son in this new land, but she became the great-grandmother of King David, whose lineage would produce the long awaited Messiah, Jesus Christ. 

Clinging to Jesus and depending on Him for everything transforms us into people who are strong and courageous, too.

It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.  Deuteronomy 13:4 

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.   Deuteronomy 31:6


*Hebrew meanings taken from STRONG’s Numbers, blueletterbible.org.