{"id":1145,"date":"2021-11-04T09:08:24","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T13:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1145"},"modified":"2021-11-04T09:08:24","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T13:08:24","slug":"leaving-space-for-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/11\/04\/leaving-space-for-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaving Space for God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Throughout November we\u2019re taking an in-depth look at Ruth, the little book that helped pave the way for God’s Messiah to come into the world.<\/em>


In the Bible\u2019s library of 66 books, Ruth is distinctive.

Along with Esther, it’s one of only two books named for a female.  No other book reserves the starring roles for two women (Ruth and Naomi).  Unlike anything else in the Old or New Testaments, more than half the book is in the form of conversation.

The first dialogue appears in Ruth 1:6-18.  It\u2019s definitely one to remember.   

Naomi has heard that the Lord \u201chas come to the aid of his people\u201d back in Israel.  The famine is over.  She resolves to leave Moab and return home.  As she sets out, however, she decides to have a DTR \u2013 a \u201cdefine the relationship\u201d talk \u2013 with her two widowed daughters-in-law. 

Naomi tells Ruth and Orpah that it\u2019s time to get real.  \u201cThen Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, \u2018Go back, each of you, to your mother\u2019s 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.\u2019 Then she kissed them and they wept aloud\u201d (1:8-10)

Ruth and Orpah push back.  \u201cWe will go back with you to your people.\u201d  This is a beautiful and unexpected expression of commitment. 

So Naomi pulls out the big guns.  Essentially she says, \u201cDon\u2019t waste your lives by getting stuck with an old loser like me.  I am a rock heading to the bottom of the ocean.  You need husbands and I can never provide another mate for you.\u201d  Her clinching argument comes in verse 13:  \u201cThe Lord\u2019s hand has gone out against me!\u201d

Naomi is being entirely logical.  Her life is a disaster, so she concludes God must have it in for her.  Ruth and Orpah would be fools to throw in their lots with her.  She has no husband, no sons, no land, no food, no bank account, and no future.  A normal life back in Moab would be overwhelmingly more sensible than following her into uncertainty. 

Suddenly something clicks inside Orpah.  Verse 14 tells us, \u201cAt this they wept again.  Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye.\u201d

Years ago I was blessed to hear a sermon with a title I have never forgotten: Orpah the Sensible<\/em>.  This young woman appears to be an honorable person.  The text gives us no reason to heap blame on her.  Orpah is not a risk-taker.  She calculates the likely outcome of continued loyalty to Naomi and says to herself, \u201cThe sensible thing is for me to exit this relationship and go create a future for myself.\u201d  So off she goes.

But then we come to the rest of verse 14:  \u201cBut Ruth clung to [Naomi].\u201d  The contrast is stunning.  \u201c\u2019Look,\u2019 says Naomi, \u2018your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods.  Go back with her.\u2019\u201d 

Many Bible readers, Jews and Christians alike, have concluded that the next two verses, Ruth 1:16-17, are among the most tender in all of Scripture:

\u201cBut Ruth replied, \u2018Don\u2019t 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 anything but death separates you and me.\u2019  When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.\u201d<\/em>

Even though this statement of commitment in its original context bridges two generations of widowed women, it has been spoken at numerous weddings over the centuries, and rightfully so. 

Ruth sees the same data that Orpah sees.  She also has accurately assessed her situation.  But what Ruth has come to know of the God of Israel compels her to be lavishly courageous.  She will leave behind everything she has ever known \u2013 her homeland, her family of origin, and the gods she used to believe in \u2013 and begin a new life. 

As one commentator has written, \u201cIn a world where life depended on men, she committed herself to an old woman.  There was no more radical decision in Israel.\u201d

There will always be times when, from the world\u2019s perspective, it will seem sensible to walk away from our commitments \u2013 from a marriage that no longer thrills us, from childrearing that overwhelms us, from taking care of older parents that depletes us.  Where can strength be found?  The blessing of God is in the resolve to be promise-keepers \u2013 trusting that God is able to provide more than we could ever ask or imagine.

Naomi and Orpah were being sensible and logical.  And logic is a good gift from God.  But it is highly overrated as a means of charting our way through life. 

A logical approach to reality takes into account everything that we<\/em> see, that we<\/em> think, and that we<\/em> feel.  But in practice, human logic almost always excludes God.  We come up with every scenario we can imagine and try to account for every possibility. God, however, operates far beyond the boundaries of our imagination. 

We cannot try to be in control and trust God at the same time. 

What is the simplest, most profound definition of faith?  Faith is leaving space for God to work<\/em>.  We leave room for a sovereign God to do what we don\u2019t even have the wisdom to ask him to do. 

That means that hope is a choice.  We choose to believe that life isn\u2019t over, even when our circumstances scream that all is lost. 

Ruth made the bold choice to put her hope in God.

That\u2019s why her story is still being told today. 
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Throughout November we\u2019re taking an in-depth look at Ruth, the little book that helped pave the way for God’s Messiah to come into the world. In the Bible\u2019s library of 66 books, Ruth is distinctive. Along with Esther, it’s one of only two books named for a female.  No other book reserves the starring roles for two women (Ruth and… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[127,353],"class_list":["post-1145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-faith","tag-ruth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1147,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145\/revisions\/1147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}