Part 14

---The series on Ruth began in Part 10---
“I will give you treasures of darkness and hidden riches of the Secret Place, that you may know that I, the Lord, Who calls you by your name, am the God of Israel.”  Isaiah 45:3

“Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home.  May the Lord show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me.  May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.’  Then she kissed them and they wept aloud and said to her, ‘We will go back with you to your people.’  But Naomi said, ‘Return home, my daughters.  Why would you come with me?  Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands?  Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband.  Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons---would you wait until they grew up?  Would you remain unmarried for them?  No, my daughters.  It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has gone out against me!’  At this, they wept again.”  Ruth 1:8-14a

In our story, thus far, we have experienced a famine, (hunger and thirst), we have stood at the crossroads (seeking, making a definitive decision), we have experienced the darkness (where is God?), and we have set out on the road that would take us home, to the Holy of Holies (walking through the narrow gate).  All of these things line up beautifully with the construction of the Old Testament Tabernacle because until we experience and acknowledge these things, we cannot know we are in poverty of spirit; therefore, we cannot know to enter in and find rest for our souls.    

In Part 5 we discussed that once a person passed through the East Gate of the Tabernacle, they would find themselves standing in the Outer Court.  Naomi, Ruth and Orpah had “set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah”.  They were about to enter the East Gate, the way to Life….now what?  Another decision:  do they enter in?  Or do they listen to the voices of fear, the voices that will keep them in familiar territory, the voices that will cause them to stay in their comfort zone?         

Naomi meant well.  She thought that by urging her daughters-in-law to stay behind in their homeland she was encouraging them to make a better life for themselves rather than following a poor destitute widow woman to another land.  She did not realize she was in the midst of making eternal history…how could she?  She did not realize she was encouraging them to miss out on an adventure of a life-time.  She did not realize the words she was speaking were literally that of Life and Death.  But the choice was Orpah’s and Ruth’s, just like it is always with us:  which road?...which voice do we listen to?...the voice keeping us in the familiar, but usually in bondage?...or the Voice of Truth?

“Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-by, but Ruth clung to her.”  Ruth 1:14b

Orpah chose to go back to the familiar, to her comfort zone. Just as the flesh is always outside the Tabernacle, so is our comfort zone.  “The high priest carries the blood of the animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp.”  Hebrews 13:11 

But Ruth clung to hope, to the unfamiliar road, trusting in the lamp which was illuminating her path to life; therefore, leading her into the Holy of Holies.   

“Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the Lord.  This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter.  I will give You thanks, for You answered me; You have become my salvation.”  Psalm 118:19-21