Read Ruth 1:15-22
I think it is noteworthy that Naomi said that Orphah had gone back to her people and her gods. Ruth made it clear to Naomi that she knew that choosing to go to Naomi's people was also choosing Naomi's peoples' god. That proclamation was Ruth's salvation confession. They traveled till they came to the "House of Bread" - Bethlehem. (That is exactly where we need to live when we come into salvation - God's Word.)
In verse 19 it says that "all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi?" "Moved about them" in the Hebrew means "greatly agitated; made an uproar". I don't know why they were so upset; maybe it was because she brought a Moabite with her or maybe because she and her sons chose to leave when things got rough. Anyway, Naomi was very humbled and told them to call her "Mara" which means "bitter; heavy". She had left with her sons - her hope for an inheritance - and had come back with a Moabite woman who would not carry on her name. What I love about God is that no matter how hopeless the situation seems, He is not confined to our imagination. He supercedes our hopes and gives us something beyond our dreams. He did that for Naomi.
Notice that they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest. Barley harvest has to do with great growth. Pentecost is the beginning of barley harvest and it signifies the beginning of a new spiritual harvest. For the children of Israel, the first Pentecost was at Mt. Sinai where God gave them his laws and betrothed Israel to himself. In the New Testament it signified God's gift of the Holy Spirit when God betrothed himself to the Church. In Ruth, it was the grafting in of the Gentile into the Holy line of Kings. Jesus came from Ruth's line. Ruth stands for the Church at large: Jews, Gentiles, Muslims, the whosoevers. Thank you God, that you came to save the whole earth!
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