IV.
Today let’s pay close attention to Naomi. What she says, what she does, and as best as you can tell, what motivates what she says and does.

V.
Ruth 1:6-18, 22 (NRSVue)

Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had considered his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back each of you to your mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband.” Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud. They said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.” Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

So she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said,

“Do not press me to leave you,
     to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
     where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people
     and your God my God.

Where you die, I will die,
     and there will I be buried.
May the Lord do thus to me,
     and more as well,
if even death parts me from you!”

When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

So Naomi returned together with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who came back with her from the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

VI.
If I follow this correctly, Naomi first starts on the way back to Judah with her two daughters-in-law.

“Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab … So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah.”

What happens then?

“Go back each of you to your mother’s house…. The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband.”

Does she have a change of heart? Does she begin to think it not in the best interest of her daughters-in-law to take them away from their homeland? Why?

What is the reaction of the daughters-in-law?

Read the passage once more and see where you find love manifested.

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}