“Naomi said, ‘Go back, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb who could become your husbands?‘”-Ruth 1:11
So Naomi has told her daughters-in-law Ruth and Orpah there couldn’t be anything more futile than to follow her back to the land of Israel to start life anew.
And as I mentioned in my last post, the central thrust of her argument was based on the firmly embedded societal tradition of Levirate Marriage.
Naomi pretty much sums the matter up when she asks the rhetorical question:
“Do I still have sons in my womb who could become your husbands?”
The implication here is as plain as day.
Since Naomi has no other sons…
And since she is way past child bearing years…
It would be utter foolishness for the girls to stick around and wait for the next logical step according to the Levirate Marriage traditions.
Although this is completely lost on English readers, the Hebrew word for “womb” that Naomi uses here to drive her point home is interesting.
That word is MEEH or מֵעֶה.
According to the good ‘ole concordance, it means “internal organs”, “inward parts” or “belly”.
Basically what Naomi is saying is…
“Do I still have any sons left inside of me?”
Of course, it’s an absurd question because she’s too old to have children.
And Naomi takes the absurdity to another level by asking the girls…
“…even if I had a husband tonight and bore sons;
would you wait for them until they grew up?
Would you refuse to marry, just for them?“
Again, this question is a reflection of the Levirate Marriage customs that were assumed by all at the time.
In those days, it was normal for a widow to wait for the younger brother of a deceased husband to reach a marriageable age…even if that younger brother was a mere child when his older brother passed away!
Here’s evidence of this reality from the Torah:
“Then Y’hudah said to
Tamar his daughter-in-law,
‘Stay a widow in your father’s house
until my son Shelah grows up‘;
for he thought,
‘I don’t want him to die too,
like his brothers.'”
-Genesis 38:11
So are you getting this?
Let me break it down for you really simple here.
Let’s say you’re 10 years old and you have an older brother who’s 25 years old and married to a woman who let’s say is 21 years old.
Now let’s say your older brother gets in a fatal car accident and dies…
And when that happened he still hadn’t produced any children with his wife…
So according to the rules of Levirate marriage, when you reach a marriageable age of let’s say around 18 years old (in the Biblical era it might have been younger), you are now obligated to marry your older brother’s now widowed wife…
You’re 18 years old and she’s now 29 years old!
How would you feel about that?
You’re at an age when your hormones are raging and you’d love nothing more than to get it on with much younger girls closer to your age…
Yet because of the tradition of Levirate Marriage, you’ve got to marry your dead older brother’s wife and produce a son in his name…
Wow…what a set of handcuffs man!
I can kinda understand why Judah was having trouble getting his younger brothers to impregnate Tamar way back in Genesis Chapter 38.
And there’s also another monkey wrench that was thrown into this whole equation.
Remember Naomi was also a widow.
So if Naomi re-married and by some miracle had sons, according to Levirate marriage, the real father of those sons would NOT be the new husband from whose loins the kids sprang, but the one who had passed away.
So that means Naomi’s hypothetical sons would only be half brothers of the husband who had passed away…
My point is…does that even qualify as being a proper Levirate Marriage?
Bottomline, there was no way the girls could solve their problem via the firmly entrenched custom of Levirate Marriage.
The futility of the matter overcomes Naomi and she cries out in verse 13:
“No my daughters.
On YOUR behalf I feel
very bitter that the hand
of Adonai has gone out
against me”.
The girls also can’t help pitying poor Naomi and they also break down weeping.
The brutal and cold reality of the situation became clear to Orpah…
So she kissed her mother-in-law goodbye and began her journey back to her people and her god.
Now there’s an interesting spiritual lesson I’m getting from all of this.
As I just explained, by every logical and conceivable measure, the situation seemed utterly IMPOSSIBLE to solve…
There was no way out…
So Orpah did what any logical human being would do…
She decided to leave Naomi and the God of Israel to return back to her people and their god…
However, Ruth decided to make the opposite decision…
And we’re going to see how her faith was GREATLY rewarded.
So that’s your takeaway for today…
You may be facing a difficult and seemingly insolvable situation that by any manmade or logical means seems utterly impossible to solve or get out of…
Well, I’m here to tell you, the God we worship is a Master at solving EXACTLY such impossible problems…
Problems that would cause most people to throw in the towel, give up and maybe even in some cases commit suicide…
So like Ruth, I’d encourage you to walk the Godly path of faith…as opposed to going down any manmade road that leads to only pessimism and despair.
Move forward with the confidence that even if you don’t know HOW God will solve your problem, He is more than capable of taking care of business…
And weaving all the broken pieces of your mess together into a PERFECT solution.
See ya all next time.
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