Ruth and Naomi: Their Hope and Struggle

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There was a famine in Judah, and Naomi’s family (her husband and two sons) moved to Moab for food and economic prosperity. While staying there, worse things happened. She lost all the men in her family: her husband died, and after ten years, her two sons also died, leaving two more widows beside her. So Naomi decides to return to her homeland only after losing everything. So she tells her two daughters-in-law to go back to their homes. The story may have ended at this point if she returned to the land with empty hands.

But the story goes in different directions because Ruth insists on following her mother-in-law. Ruth becomes a model of an ideal immigrant or foreigner who accepts the God of Jews as the true God and follows her mother-in-law and widow. But Orpha, the other daughter-in-law, returned to her home. That is her decision that must be honored. There is nothing wrong with it.

From the perspective of Jews who hear this story, Ruth is a model foreigner/minority who can be part of Jews through confession of faith and marrying one of them. As a widow, she must follow her mother-in-law to become an ideal foreigner/immigrant to Jews. So finally, Naomi reluctantly allowed Ruth to follow her to Judah. At this point, Naomi may have felt that it would be okay to take Ruth with her because she may be a helpful means of her survival and redemption back in Judah. In other words, things happening in Judah were roughly imagined by her, especially about her goel, Boaz. Ruth was asked to glean in the field and met Boaz. Soon, the redeemer, Boaz, married Ruth, and she bore a son to Naomi. Ruth is a surrogate. Naomi’s success (redemption from poverty and recovery of her family through Ruth) sacrifices Ruth. Does the end justify the means?

But if we hear from the underside of this story of Ruth, we cannot help but imagine her own struggle when she got to live in Judah. She faced strange people and an unfamiliar environment. She was a foreign woman showing her commitment to God and her mother-in-law. Because she came to their country by her decision, she had to endure all hardships, economic or psychological. But she certainly suffered from those conditions. She could not have her full humanity in the foreign land of Judah. She was still a Moabite woman who bore a son to Naomi. While she came to Judah with hope and was successful in some way, she may not have been happy. I wonder if she regretted her decision to follow Ruth.

 
When it comes to the transformation of Naomi and Ruth, we see the complexities. Naomi was hopeless when she lost everything in Moab. But because of Ruth, she hoped for a better future and made it through her goel, Boaz. But she used Ruth as the means to achieve it. Ruth chose to follow her mother-in-law out of her loyalty to the God of Jews. She also hoped for a better future with her mother-in-law. She persevered and survived well with Naomi. Beyond this, we do not know how terrible her life was because of her Moabite identity. Did she feel happy throughout her days? Did she get complete integration into the Jewish culture? What role did she play in raising her son?