R1-16: How Interfaith Worship Was In Full Bloom During The Biblical Era

“Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Each of you, go back to your mother’s house. May Adonai show grace to you, as you did to those who died and to me. May Adonai grant you security in the home of a new husband.’ Then she kissed them, but they began weeping aloud.  They said to her, ‘No; we want to return with you to your people.'”-Ruth 1:8-10

Isn’t it interesting that Naomi invoked the name of the God of Israel in her blessing towards Ruth and Orpah?

I say this is interesting because the 3 women were still in the land of Moab…

Naomi was a Hebrew woman… 

So Moab would have been foreign to her…

Although it was native to Ruth and Orpah.

Let me explain a bit more.

In the Biblical era, the belief system held by both Hebrews and gentiles was that a god only held power over a certain territory and extended no further.

In other words, YHVH only held power over the land of Israel…

And CHEMOSH (the chief god of the Moabites) only held power over Moab.

Yet here we have Naomi invoking the name of YHWH while still in Moab?

What gives? 

Pay close attention to what I’m about to say because this will help you understand so many other parts of Scripture and the huge effect the belief system of the times had upon people’s decisions.

So as I just said, since CHEMOSH was the chief deity over the land of Moab, Naomi, Ruth and Orpah would have fully accepted that CHEMOSH possessed divine authority over everything that happened in Moab…

In other words, any vow or blessing issued out had to be done in the name of CHEMOSH or it wasn’t valid.

However, things weren’t so cut and dry during this period.

Here’s why.

Moab was NOT a sovereign nation at this time.

A few decades earlier, Israel had conquered Moab.

And now the tribes of Reuben, Gad and 1/2 of Manasseh were living in what used to be Moabite territory (the region on the east side of the Jordan River).

However, there still remained pockets of Moabites scattered throughout the whole Trans-Jordanian region.

This is why the situation wasn’t so black and white.

Because not only were these pockets of Moabites living side by side with Hebrews, the two often overlapped and intermingled with each other.

Ruth and Orpah marrying Hebrew men is a perfect case in point reflecting this reality.

So the situation was fuzzy in terms of WHICH deity held jurisdiction over the region.

The solution in this case was to just pay respect to all the deities in the area.

In other words, so as not to offend anybody, “let’s just worship all the gods equally” was the protocol of the day.

Sounds pretty darn familiar to the interfaith worship BS that goes on in our day and age, don’t you think?

My point is just because Naomi invoked the name of YHWH in her blessing, that in no way meant she didn’t believe CHEMOSH didn’t exist.

Nor should we think Ruth and Orpah had exchanged worship of CHEMOSH with worship of YHVH just because they married Hebrews.

It was perfectly normal in those days (for both Hebrews and gentiles I remind you) to invoke the names of different gods according to different situations and who you were associating with at the times.

When you were chillin’ with the Hebrews, you paid respect to the Hebrew God.

And when you were chillin’ with the Moabites, you paid respect to their god.

Interfaith worship and religious syncretism was in full bloom during this era folks…

And yes, it was an abomination to the Lord…

Which leads me to my takeaway for today.

Be reminded that…

In spite of the vigorous promotion of so-called religious equality in our day and age…

And the interfaith worship nonsense that’s prevalent in our time…

Know there is ONLY ONE God that exists in the entire universe…

His formal name is YHVH…

And His power ain’t restricted to any one specific piece of real estate on the globe.

Got it?

Alrighty, over and out.