Making A Nation Great and Eternally Revered, Part 4 of 4
In the last post, Mother of Exiles, (part 3 in the Making A Nation Great and Eternally Revered series), we looked in depth at the criteria that God used to define greatness in a nation and how God implores His people to identify with aliens having themselves been in places of misery and exile before.
Emma Lazarus’ famous poem, The New Colossus, inscribed at the base of America’s Statue of Liberty identifies Lady Liberty as the Mother of Exiles, standing at the welcoming “golden gate” of America’s premier port city eager to take in the world’s refugees. One wonders when America will return to its former glory and take on the mantle of Eternal Greatness by once again embracing aliens and welcoming the world’s poor, destitute, tempest-tossed, refuse… refugees… as championed in Lazarus’ poem.
In a world that celebrates power through conquest in masculine terms, liberty is identified as a virtuous woman. Is it because women tend to be more hospitable and compassionate, with significant portions of their lives devoted to nurturing others? Could it be that liberty cannot be coerced merely by force, but must be nurtured and generously applied to those who are too weak to secure it for themselves?
The Bible elevates one such character and devotes an entire book to the story of an individual who encompasses the trifecta of all three of God’s protected classes people: widows, orphans, and aliens. Ruth (which in Hebrew means “neighbor/companion/friend”) was the foreign born (Moabite) daughter-in-law of Naomi (“pleasant”) a Jewish woman from the tribe of Ephraim. A foreign woman would not be expected to be featured in the Jewish holy scriptures, let alone have an entire book devoted to her story as the main protagonist. And yet, in a patriarchal and religiously “pure” society, Ruth becomes the ONLY foreigner to have an entire book in the Holy Scriptures named and written about them, and earns a place in the genealogy of King David, and subsequently to Jesus.
Ruth’s story and that of her mother-in-law, Naomi, is one steeped deeply in tragedy. Even though Naomi and her husband Elimelech (“my God is king”) are from the tribe of Ephraim, which means “fruitful,” their lives are anything but. They are forced because of famine to give up their ancestral lands in Judea and become exiles (aliens – ger) ending up in Moab (a region whose name finds its roots in patriarchal incest – definitely not a place of honor). Perhaps that is why they named their two sons, Mahlon (“diseased”), and Kilion (“wasting away”) as they find themselves settling in a foreign land away from their home, relatives, and religious community.
If being an alien ekeing out survival in a foreign land in the middle of famine were not bad enough, Naomi loses her primary source of providence, wealth, and protection when her husband Elimelech dies, leaving her to raise her sons on her own. With the death of Elimelech (“my God is my King”) one would forgive Naomi if she were to wonder if God (YHWH) was still her King.
Much to the chagrin of an upstanding respectable Jewish household, Naomi’s two sons end up marrying outside of their religious faith, taking on foreign moabite wives (Ruth and Orpah) who know nothing of Judaism. To add insult to injury, her two foreign daughters-in-law are barren after 10 years and then, yet a deeper layer of affliction overwhelms her. Both of her sons die, depriving Naomi of her nuclear family, safety net, descendants, and the chance to continue the family line.
Naomi’s story is one of unspeakable tragedy, and she hints to its agony when she tells her friends to call her Mara (“bitter”), “because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.” The formerly pleasant has turned into bitterness. Naomi might even be considered a female archetype of Job, who had an unending string miseries visited upon him. Where was God in the midst of those long strings of tragedy?
Let us now turn our attention to Ruth, who herself is no stranger to adversity.
Ruth leaves her family and moabite community to marry into a jewish family to a man whose name means “diseased” (Mahlon – is that related to his infertility?). Her community’s heritage (at least from the Jewish point of view) is based on the dishonor of patriarchal incest (when Lot’s daughters ended up sleeping with their drunken father in order to produce children after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah). When she joins Mahlon’s family, she joins a family without a patriarch, for Elimelech has died. This makes Ruth fatherless – for she has left her own biological father and mother and joined another family whose father had passed away. She does not receive the protection and the financial security that the family patriarch would normally provide. When her own husband dies she is not only a widow, she is a functional orphan. This is made even more clear when she leaves Moab and follows her mother-in-law Naomi back to Bethlehem in Judea. In that moment, she becomes an exile from her own moabite community and pre-marital family. When Ruth chooses to stay with Naomi as Naomi returns to Bethlehem and Judea, she does so as a widow, orphan and alien. She is the trifecta of protected classes that are close to God’s heart.
Ruth’s adversity is compounded by their infertility, and in a time and culture that prized offspring above almost anything else, 10 years of bareness leaves her without children to care for and without children to look after her when she herself grows old. She has no legacy to leave to the world and no “social security blanket” to guarantee her own future. And the shame of having no offspring is one that anyone can see – from Moab to Bethlehem.
Noami sees this and recognizes that Ruth’s and Orpah’s only hope to raise a family of their own would be to go back to their pre-marital moabite community and find a new husband and start over again. Naomi releases them from their familial obligations to her and implores them to go back to Moab to their mother’s house. (Does that imply that their fathers are not in the picture and perhaps have died, confirming their status as fatherless orphans? Common practice would be to return to their father’s house under a patriarchal society where he could provide protection, resources, and security, but curiously, that is not indicated here.)
Orpah, in alignment to the meaning of her name (“gazelle”) leaps at the chance, kisses Naomi goodbye, and heads back to Moab. Ruth, on the other hand is true to the meaning of her name (“friend/companion”) and clings to Naomi. Incidentally, the same word for “cling” used to describe Ruth’s committed attachment to Naomi is used to describe the cleaving of newlyweds in marriage earlier in Genesis.
The next interaction becomes the reason for Ruth’s elevation to hero status. Ruth becomes the answer to Naomi’s redefinition of herself as afflicted by the Lord and returning home to Bethlehem empty.
Naomi: “go back to your mother’s home… May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband”
Naomi: “It is more bitter for me than you, because the Lord’s hand has gone out against me!”
Ruth: “Where you go I will go, 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 anything but death separates you and me..”
Naomi: “Call me Mara (bitter), because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi (pleasant)? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune to me.”
This hearkens back to another key confrontation earlier in the scriptures, where God (YHWH ) introduces himself to Moses, an orphan and alien in Egypt being asked to follow YHWH and lead his people out of enslavement.
Moses: “Lord, you have been telling me, ‘Lead these people’, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me…” (Ex 33:12)
God: “My presence will go with you and I will give you rest” (Ex 33:14)
Moses: “If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.”
God: “I will do the very thing you have asked because I am pleased with you and know you by name”
Moses: “Show me your glory” [What is YOUR name, and what is your most famous/important quality?]
God: [I am] “YHWH, YHWH, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness and sin.” (Ex 34:6-7)
Where Naomi feels afflicted by God and abandoned by his goodness, Moses asks God for someone to go WITH him on this new mission of leadership. Naomi feels that she is returning to Bethlehem empty, totally bereft.
God tells Moses that He Himself will go with Moses, that his presence is the guarantor of success, and not only that, God’s presence will give Moses rest.
Naomi tells Ruth to find rest in another husband. She has given up on finding another husband (and therefore rest) for herself.
But Ruth rejects Naomi’s urgings, and pledges herself to be WITH Naomi, forever until death. Just like YHWH promised to be with Moses.
Ruth, the widow, orphan, and alien, in making a similar pledge to be there for Naomi that YHWH makes to Moses, ensures that Naomi is not abandoned nor alone. Ultimately, as the story unfolds and Ruth eventually marries Boaz and becomes the great grandmother to King David. It is the restoration of this family line that would allow Naomi to experience rest through Ruth’s commitment to her. Because of Ruth, Naomi has a companion in suffering and is rescued from emptiness. Ruth is Naomi’s guarantee that God has not abandoned her and left her to wallow in suffering all alone.
Why is it that a foreign woman would merit the honor to be enshrined in holiest scriptures with their very own book? Could it be that this foreign woman exhibited the very qualities that demonstrate God’s glory?
A clue to this proposal can be found in the way YHWH describes him/herself to Moses. After God says to Moses that s/he knows Moses by name, Moses asks God to show him God’s glory – which is another way of saying, What is YOUR name?, and What is your most defining characteristic?
God says to Moses, [I am] “YHWH, the compassionate (rachum) and gracious (chanun) God,….”
The first descriptor that God provides of him/herself in the entire Bible is that given to Moses after Moses asks God to reveal to Moses God’s glory. God could have chosen any number of impressive achievements to describe their glory (creator of all, most powerful of all, able to protect from harm or evil, etc.) but s/he chooses Compassion instead. To Suffer With (comp = with, passion = suffering). God wants to be famous for being the Suffering-With God. Compassion is YHWH’s glory, God’s first and most important characteristic.
YHWH does not shy away from suffering themselves, s/he does not distance themself from suffering, nor shield themself from the pain, agony, and trauma, but s/he enters into it in order to be there WITH God’s people so that humanity is never totally abandoned nor alone.
Ruth is the heroine in this story because she has taken on the most primary characteristic of YHWH – that of compassion – to a soul who has experienced immeasurable suffering akin to the levels of suffering encountered by Job. Perhaps one might read that YHWH enter’s Naomi’s story through Ruth, and that Ruth is the Angel of the Lord’s Presence to Naomi. Naomi did not return to Bethlehem empty and abandoned, she had a companion and friend, a Ruth, who was an emissary of YHWH’s providence and presence.
Ruth could understand Naomi’s suffering because Ruth experienced exile, fatherlessness, death of a spouse, and infertility herself. Her own trauma qualified her to be a balm to her mother-in-law who was traumatized even more. Instead of abandoning Naomi to pursue her own rest (in finding another husband from her Moabite kin) Ruth chooses to remain an exile by following Naomi back to Judah and enters into a community of suffering with Naomi, pledging to suffer alongside with her until death.
In Hebrew, the word for compassion is rachum, which has its root in “womb”. This is definitely a term with feminine roots, as the care a mother has for her children comes from a deep willingness to suffer with and for her children.
Why is it that God has special favor for the three protected classes of widows, orphans, and aliens? Could it be that they are the ones who are most vulnerable to being alone and abandoned, with no friends, community, or social support?
If God’s glory is to be compassionate, to suffer with, what does it mean for his people to reflect God’s glory to the world and thereby be a blessing to the world?
Isn’t it curious that God chooses to use a foreigner, an Alien, and Widow, and Orphan, in Ruth, to demonstrate God’s glory in the book of Ruth? She is the only foreigner in the royal lineage that leads to King David, and ultimately to Jesus. But it is arguable that she more than any other person in that lineage, demonstrates the glory of God through compassion as revealed to Moses.
What does it mean to Make A Nation Great and Eternally Revered? Could it be as simple as the nation welcoming, celebrating, embracing, and nurturing the widows, orphans, and aliens found within it… no matter how they got there or came to be?
Ruth, a moabitess, showed the way to the nation of Israel, and her grafting into the patriarchal lineage of Jewish royalty stands as a jarring reminder that God’s most important characteristics have distinctively feminine and possibly foreign roots as evidenced by compassion.
Perhaps, we might go one step farther and give Lady Liberty, the Mother of Exiles, the name Ruth to remind us of YHWH’s compassion toward us and our imperative to extend that same compassion to all of the tired, the poor, the huddled masses, wretched refuse, homeless, tempest tossed around us and yearning to join our community.
The question is not, “who is my neighbor or alien”, the REAL question to ask is, are we willing to be like Ruth?
