CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—
Ruth 1:3. And Elimelech … died. The conjunction seems to intimate shortly after his arrival. Certainly before the marriage of his sons. Josephus thinks, however, towards the end of the ten years’ sojourn.
Ruth 1:4. And they took them wives. The verb, though not Chaldaic, said to be peculiar to the later Hebrew, but found Judges 21:23 (Speaker’s Com.). Always used in a bad sense (Kitto). Of the women of Moab. And they transgressed the decree of the Lord, and married foreign wives, etc. (Chaldee Paraphrast). Probably justified by necessity (Speaker’s Com.). In violation of the Mosaic Law (Lange). Marriages with Moabitish women not forbidden like marriages with Canaanites in Deuteronomy 7:3 (Keil). Bertheau, Le Clerc, and others defend the act. Aben Ezra thinks that Orpah and Ruth were proselytes. Why make excuses for them? for Scripture does in no way represent them as holy men (Serarius, a Roman Catholic expositor). Traditum ferunt Judæi Ammonitam et Moabitam quidem semper fuisse interdictos, at feminas eorum statim permissas (Midrash Tillim). The name of the one (was) Orpah. Previous names genuine Hebrew, these cannot satisfactorily be explained from the Heb. (Keil). Means, turning the back? (Keil), a hind (Haller, Simonis), a mane (Gesen.), liberality (Wright). Ruth, Ancestress of the Singer (Dante). A Jewish tradition that Ruth was the daughter of Eglon, king of Moab. Chaldee paraphrast adopts it. A higher honour in that, like Eve, she is to be mother of the chosen seed. God not only wrote her name in the book of life in heaven, but also prefixed her name before a book of life on earth (Fuller). Means vision or beauty (Gesen.). Either to be considered a contraction for רְאוּה, appearance, beauty; or still better, as a contraction for רִעוּה, a female friend, or as an abstract friendship (Wright). A conjecture that Ruth is an ancient form of the Greek ροδον, the Latin rosa, redness (Lange, Cox).
It is imagined, and not without probability, that Mahlon and Chilion are the same as Joash and Seraph, who married in Moab (1 Chronicles 4:22).—Adam Clarke. So Aben Ezra.
Ruth 1:5. And Mahlon and Chilion died. Cut short because they married strange women (Chaldee Paraphrast). Wright translates, and also the two of them died. The גם carries us back to Ruth 1:3. Was left of (from). Was bereaved of. “Almonah,” which we render widow, signifies “dumb” (Macgowan).
Theme—THE FIRST BREACH IN THE FAMILY CIRCLE
“There never breathed a man who when his life
Was closing, might not of that life relate
Toils long and hard.”—Wordsworth.
And Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died.
The story grows intensely sad (Braden). Death steps in here as elsewhere. They had escaped one danger only to fall into another sorrow. How true the narrative is to human experiences! The text eloquent in its simplicity, the chapter full of those contrasting lights and shadows which cling to human history.
I. See how much there is uncertain in connection with life. (a) As to its circumstances. I have seldom seen a tree thrive that hath been transplanted when it was old (Fuller). Changing our place is not always mending it (M. Henry). Could Elimelech have foreseen this end of all his wanderings, would he have undertaken the journey? But no! he went forward as we do. (b) As to its character. Different estimates as to this. Cox says, “He lost his life while seeking a livelihood—found a grave where he sought a home—judgment apparently treading on the very heels of offence.” But——? Those actions not ungodly which are unsuccessful, nor those pious which are prosperous (Fuller). He would have died, whether he sinned or not, in coming to Moab. The lawfulness of an action is not to be gathered from the joyfulness of the event, but from the justness of the cause for which it is undertaken (Fuller). Poor man to suffer want in his life, and be maligned after death (Braden). Note. Something of this uncertainty invests every life. We are mysteries one to another—our actions but imperfectly understood, our characters imperfectly estimated, our lives misread. Christ says, Judge not, etc. (Matthew 7:1). (c) As to its continuance. We know not what a day, etc. The only thing certain in that future is death. (α) We cannot escape it. Elimelech could avoid the arrows of famine in Israel, yet he could not shun the darts of death in Moab. (β) We cannot prevent it. With this man the journey accomplished, the project seemingly successful; but what of that? He that lived in a place of penury must die in a land of plenty (Fuller). Note. With Elimelech the mystery of sorrow and exile ends in the crowning mystery of death. The first journey to Moab, at his own desire, his own time; the second unexpectedly at God’s.
II. See how much there may be uncertain in connection with death. The Bible tells us very little of the closing scene (Robertson). One short sentence here concludes the history. (a) We know little of this man’s life. Was he one of those—
“Whom unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster”?
Then a warning to the afflicted, that sorrows bring no exemption from death. Was he one who wandering sinfully, always purposed to return? A lesson to the procrastinator here. Or one having taken the false step, and for whom there is no repentance, no return? Then an example of God’s dealings with the reprobate. (b) We know less of his death. Simply the place, and possibly the time. He died in the place to which he had wandered from Bethlehem, and in all probability just as he conceived his purpose in coming there accomplished. (c) We know nothing of his eternal destiny. Multitudes live like this, die like this, die and “give no sign.” The life such that you can form but an imperfect estimate of the character and the destiny—only hope the larger charitable hope, which rests upon the infinite mercy of God. The death sudden, or from attendant circumstances such as to give no chance of forming a judgment. Note. To be uncertain on some questions is itself decisive. Christ says, “He that is not with me is against me” (Matthew 12:30). The uncertainty here may be merely historic. Instructive even then.
“Once in the flight of ages past
There lived a man, and who was he?
Mortal, howe’er thy lot be cast,
That man resembles thee.
He suffered—but his pangs are o’er;
Enjoyed—but his delights are fled;
Had friends—his friends are now no more,
And foes—his foes are dead.
He saw whatever thou hast seen;
Encountered all that troubles thee;
He was—whatever thou hast been;
He is—what thou shalt be.
The rolling seasons, day and night,
Sun, moon, and stars, the earth and main,
Erewhile his portion, life and light,
To him exist in vain.
The annals of the human race,
Their ruins, since the world began,
Of him afford no other trace
Than this—there lived a man.”
Montgomery.
IMPROVEMENT.—When life is past, it is all one whether it has lasted two hundred years or fifty (Dr. Newman). Death levels all distinctions, thwarts the best laid plans, will come in with us as with Elimelech, to write vanity across our most cunningly laid schemes. What is our life? It is a vapour which appeareth for a little while, and then vanisheth away. Learn (a) amid the many trials of life to remember the greatest is yet to come. (b) Before the want we dread, death itself may be here. (c) Are you obliged to leave your native fields? you may have to leave the world itself (Lawson).
“Which, I wonder, is the better lot, to die prosperous and famous, or poor and disappointed? To have, and to be forced to yield; or to sink out of life, having played and lost the game? That must be a strange feeling, when a day of our life comes, and we say, ‘To-morrow, success or failure won’t matter much; and the sun will rise, and all the myriads of mankind go to their work or their pleasure as usual; but I shall be out of the turmoil.’ ”—Thackeray.
“When Socrates was urged by his friends to escape from the prison where he was condemned to die, he answered, ‘Tell me of a land where men do not die, and I will escape to that.’ ”—Tyng.
“There is a tradition of an Indian chief, who, with his tribe, fled before the prairie fires, till he had crossed a broad river, when he struck his tent-pole into the ground, and cried ‘Alabama!’ (Here we may rest!) He was no prophet. Hostile tribes overpowered them; and they found only graves where they sought a home. This is, maybe, a parable of the soul; for it earth has no Alabama.”—Die, of Illustrations.
“Death is a friend of ours; and he that is not ready to entertain him is not at home.”—Lord Bacon.
“Death argues not displeasure; because he whom God loved best died first.”—Bishop Hall.
“It is hard to die when the time is not ripe. When it is, it will be easy. We need not die while we are living.”—Beecher.
“It is said that Guerricus, hearing the passage read in church, beginning, ‘And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years,’ and ending ‘the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty and nine years, and he died,’ went home and began immediately to prepare for death.
“The ashes of an oak in a chimney are no epitaph of that to tell me how high or how large that was, what flocks it sheltered while it stood, what men it hurt when it fell. The dust of great men’s graves is speechless too; it says nothing; it distinguishes nothing.”—Donne.
“There is a moment when a man’s life is re-lived on earth. It is in that hour when the coffin-lid is shut down just before the funeral, when earth has seen the last of him for ever. Then the whole life is, as it were, lived over again in the conversation which turns upon the memory of the departed.… or the most part, when all is over, general opinion is not far from the truth. Misrepresentation and envy have no provocation left them. What the departed was is tolerably well known in the circle in which he moved.”—Robertson, “Israelites’ Grave in a Foreign Land.”
“ ‘May it please your Majesty, Jenkyn has got his liberty.’ Upon which the king asked with eagerness. ‘Aye, who gave it to him?’ The nobleman replied, ‘A greater than your Majesty, the King of kings;’ with which the king seemed greatly struck, and remained silent.”—Death of the Rev. W. Jenkyn, 1685.
“Death does not always give warning beforehand; sometimes he gives the mortal blow suddenly—he comes behind with his dart, and strikes.… Eutychus fell down dead; death suddenly arrested David’s sons and Job’s sons; Augustine died in a compliment; Galba with a sentence; Vespasian with a jest; Zeuxis died laughing at a picture of an old woman which he drew with his own hands; Sophocles was choked with a stone in a grape.”—Brooks.
“A man may escape the wars by pleading privilege of years, or weakness of body, or the king’s protection, or by sending another in his room; but in this war the press is so strict, that it admits no dispensation. Young or old, weak or strong, willing or unwilling, all is one, into the field we must go, and look that last enemy in the face. It is in vain to think of sending another in our room, for no man dieth by proxy; or to think of compounding with death, as those self-deluded fools did (Psalms 28:5) who thought they had been discharged of the debt by seeing the sergeant. No, there is no discharge in that war.”—Flavel.
“Nihil prodest ora concludere et vitam fugientem retinere.”—Hierom.
“Where men think to preserve life, there they may lose it as Elimelech; fleeing from the famine in Israel, he died where plenty was in Moab.”—Bernard.
“No outward plenty can privilege us from death.… God can easily frustrate our fairest hopes, and defeat our most probable projects, in making those places most dangerous which we account most safe and secure; causing death to meet us there where we think furthest to fly from it.”—Fuller.
And she was left, and her two sons.
Another instance of the wonderful subservience of the events of human life to the righteous purposes of God. God deals with Naomi in this way; not in anger, but in love. Recognize the Divine agency, and see something of the Divine plan. First famine, then exile, then bereavement. Naomi a Christian, but what is called a backsliding Christian; one under a cloud, one who had proved to some extent untrue, undutiful, unthankful; bitterly chastened, and therefore eventually reinstated in her forfeited privileges (Dr. Cumming). Not necessary to take this view of her character in looking for a Divine purpose in this sad event. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth (Hebrews 12:6). Bereavements natural, inevitable, common, familiar. None the less they have a meaning, and come to us pregnant with important lessons.
I. See how much there was that must have seemed severe in this bereavement. Naomi left a widow—the husband, friend, counsellor, head of the household, gone. The widow’s lot always a bitter and lonely one. Especially so here. Naomi a widow in a strange land—far from home and sanctuary. Notice. (a) That sorrow is natural under circumstances like these. A mistaken notion to think that grief in itself is sinful. It is undue, rebellious sorrow which is to be rebuked, sorrow without faith, grief which sees no future, nothing beyond the past and the present. One pregnant instance at least of a holy sorrow at the grave, “Jesus wept.” (b) That affection for those taken away is still natural. Unreasonable to think that the family bond is broken at death. They are “loved ones” still, though “loved ones gone before.” A danger in this. Affection at these times may become morbid, a matter of mere sentiment. Modern spiritualism in many family circles the perversion of what is in itself true and right; love for the dead, and then a craving for a material manifestation of the loved ones. Note. It is not the intensity of our affection, but its interference with truth and duty, which makes it sinful. No man ever loved child or brother or sister too much (Robertson). (c) That religion comes in to sanctify alike the sorrow and the affection. It says of those taken away, “Blessed are the dead,” etc. (Revelation 14:13), and of the faithful remaining, “We which are alive shall be caught up together with them: so shall we ever,” etc. (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Perhaps we never love truly until we learn to love with all the deep fulness of a sanctified affection. Especially is this true in circumstances like those in the text. That higher affection sustains and elevates the lower human one, casting round it a glory which mere personal feeling could never give (Robertson).
II. See how much there was especially to be regretted in this bereavement. To pass beyond the great loss itself. To the mother a multiplicity of new cares and anxieties involved (a) in the training up of her fatherless offspring. A mother’s task always a difficult one. Much more then a widowed mother’s. The strong commanding voice hushed in death. The will which ought to be the supreme authority in the household missing. Possibly this one reason why Paul lays stress upon widows who have children learning “first to shew piety at home” (1 Timothy 5:4). This the more necessary since the father’s character and influence is absent. (b) In doing this amid the surrounding circumstances. Journeying to Moab involved much, and perhaps nothing more serious than this. A cheerless prospect to Elimelech in dying, this of leaving his widow and orphans among strangers and heathen, and well for him only if he had strong faith in the God of the fatherless (Psalms 27:10). Even Elimelech must have known His promise: “If they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry” (Exodus 22:23). Note.
(1) A caution to those who have kindred responsibilities. When you choose your place of abode, if you have families, let this be one principal consideration, where you will leave them if God should call you out of the world (Lawson).
(2) A warning to Christians who lead their children into the midst of worldly surroundings. We wonder sometimes why the children of sainted parents fail to grow up in the fear of God. The secret here and in this: led into the world, and left there, as Elimelech’s children in Moab.
III. See how much there was merciful, after all, in connection with this bereavement. Her children left to her. The family circle broken into, but not destroyed. Two sons to support her declining years. And by-and-by Orpah and Ruth are introduced into the bereaved household. Note. The wonderful way in which the breaches made by death are repaired by Divine mercy, now and always. The family circle, like the ark of Noah, survives amid the wasting waters of universal change (Dr. Lee).
Doubtless the affliction itself had its spiritual use. Preparatory to the “I will arise” (Ruth 1:6). Manasseh’s woes drove that erring monarch to God (2 Chronicles 33:12). With the righteous, grief makes sacred. Joy may elevate, ambition glorify, but sorrow alone can consecrate (H. Gresby).
Bernard on this verse—
And Elimelech … died.
I.
That death is the end of all, and spareth none (Job 21:33; Ecclesiastes 7:2; Ecclesiastes 6:6; 1 Corinthians 15:51); for all have sinned (Romans 5); and death is the reward of sin (Romans 6).
II.
That a full supply of bodily wants cannot prevent death. This man in Moab, where there was food enough. The rich glutton also (Luke 16:22). The rich man with his barns full (Luke 12:20). Life depends not upon the outward means, for then the rich and mighty would never die.
III.
That where men think to preserve life, there they may lose it. Fleeing from famine in Israel, this man died where plenty was, in Moab. Where we may count ourselves secure, there death may take us away.
Naomi’s husband.
I.
That it is a grace to be called the husband of some women. Such an one is a crown to her husband (Proverbs 12:4). The foolish woman rottenness to his bones (Proverbs 12:4).
II.
That grace in one prevents not death in another. Married persons not appointed the same length of days. We come not together, and we go not together.
III.
That it is a great cross for a woman to lose a good husband. In this the wife loses her head, her guide, her stay and comfort.
And she was left, and her two sons.
I.
That albeit death is due to all, yet it seizeth not upon all at once.
II.
That the Lord in afflicting His children sweeteneth the same with some comforts. In dealing with Naomi, He took away her husband, yet left her two sons; and afterwards, when He took them away, gave her an excellent daughter-in-law. A bitter affliction for Joseph to be sold of his brethren, but it was sweetened with Potiphar’s favour.
“Bereavements at home are sorrowful enough, even when the tenderest sympathy beams from the eyes of friends, and all those gentle healing agencies which love has ever at command are striving to bind up the broken heart. But to bury one’s precious dead in a foreign country, away from all the blessed associations of home, is a test under which the strongest spirit may well bow down.”—Braden.
“For by the hearth the children sit
Cold in the atmosphere of death,
And scarce endure to draw the breath,
Or like to noiseless phantoms flit.
But open converse is there none,
So much the vital spirits sink,
To see the vacant chair, and think
How good! how kind! and he is gone.”
Tennyson.
“Here we see how mercifully God dealt with Naomi, in that He quenched not all the sparks of her comfort at once; but though He took away the stock, He left her the stems; though He deprived her, as it were, of the use of her own legs, by taking away her husband, yet He left her a staff in each of her hands, her two sons, to support her. Indeed, afterwards He took them away; but first He provided her a gracious daughter-in-law. Whence we learn, God poureth not all His afflictions at once, but ever leaveth a little comfort; otherwise we should not only be pressed down, but crushed to powder under the weight of His heavy hand.”—Fuller.
“Life passes, riches fly away, popularity is fickle, the senses decay, the world changes, friends die. One alone is constant; One alone is true to us; One alone can be true.”—Dr. Newman.
“God out of these things is bringing forth in us that diviner tenderness which can only characterize the matured and chastened Christian. The time is indeed short, and it is well for us to be made to feel it.”—B.
“Suffering in this world is both remedial and penal. When it is rightly received, it is remedial. When it is resisted, it becomes penal to him who resists, and admonitory to the spectator.… There are two ways of escaping from suffering—the one by rising above the causes of conflict; the other by sinking below them. The one is the religious method; the other is the vulgar, worldly method. The one is called Christian elevation, the other stoicism.”—Beecher.
“When the bridge is finished, the timbers and scaffolding upon which it has rested are all removed. So God is removing these earthly props of ours, one after another, and for two reasons as regards ourselves. First, that we may learn the great lesson of self-reliance in human life, but chiefly that we may learn to rest above all on Him.”—B.
Theme—MARRIAGES IN MOAB
“Honest wedlock
Is like a banqueting-house, built in a garden,
On which the spring flowers take delight
To cast their modest odours.”
And they took them wives of the women of Moab.
The father’s death did not arouse these Israelites in their wanderings. The sons thinking of marrying when possibly they ought to have been thinking of returning. Note. (a) Every cross bringeth not men home again (Bernard). First the loss of the father, then the marriage of the sons, the wedding feast seemingly following hard upon the funeral. How true to human life! Note (b) Sojourning in Moab meant friendship with the Moabites, marriage with their children. Little else could be expected. [The Old Testament seems to intimate that the daughters of Moab were fair to look upon.] The two sons in Moab did as Moab did,—married Gentile women, not caring whether they wore idolaters or not (Dr. cumming). Is this the explanation? or is it that Elimelech and his family were, after all, lights in the midst of a croked and perverse generation?—attracted Ruth and even Orpah for a while. New joys indeed in store for Naomi, yet these mingled with many anxious questionings, which a godly parent’s experience alone may interpret.
I. Take the brighter and more charitable view of these marriages. The act simply considered as following out the usual course of human life not at all reprehensible. Rather to be viewed favourably—the loss of one comfort supplied by the enjoyment of another. Judged by its circumstances and surroundings, much to be said in its defence. The main question of right and wrong lies farther back, as to whether they were justified in coming to Moab. Lawful for Israelites to marry foreign women under certain exceptional circumstances, as, e. g., those taken in war (Deuteronomy 21:10-11). No direct command against Moabitish women, as against the Canaanites (Deuteronomy 7:3). Better marry than do worse. Judged by its results, the answer favourable. Salmon did well in taking Rahab. Mahlon could have found no less a treasure in Ruth. By this act the young men did much to endear themselves to a people who had evidently received them kindly. Orpah and Ruth, wild branches—it was something to graft them upon the stock of the true Israel. (Cf. 1 Corinthians 7:13-14.)
II. Look at the darker possibilities connected with marriages like these. Bishop Hall strongly condemns such unions (see “Contemplations,” vol. i., pp. 210, 211). Note. (a) Does not appear that the godly mother had any hand in the matter. Seemingly their own act: “They took them wives.” The influence which won over Ruth may have belonged to after years, and to Naomi’s character and life (Ruth 2:12). The sons themselves possibly having lost all which ought to distinguish the true Israelite. Such marriages fraught with great danger, even if overruled for good. The decisive step taken, and the future has to decide whether for good or evil. Note. (b) In the most favourable view, these young men to blame, unless they had credible evidence their future wives were cordially disposed towards the worship of God. The wife’s influence often more subtle, and even more powerful and lasting in religious matters, than the husband’s. The strength of Samson, the wisdom of Solomon, not sufficient to withstand it when used for evil. Note. (c) Impossible to say what was the effect upon the young men themselves. Judging from the influence of Eve over Adam, etc., we fear it was evil (Dr. Cumming). Would naturally tend to lengthen the sojourn in Moab. Mahlon and Chilion exceptionally fortunate in their wives (Cox). Strange if they should have deteriorated, while Orpah and Ruth were benefited; yet not impossible—not unlikely. Characters assimilate, mutually act and react upon each other—give and take, especially when the bond is as close as that of marriage.
III. Improvement. To the Christian the command is, “Be not unequally yoked,” etc. (2 Corinthians 6:14). His privilege “to marry in the Lord.” This safe—without offence—within the sphere of the promises. (See next outline.)
Braden on this:—
Mahlon married Ruth, Chilion Orpah. Little is known of either, perhaps they were sisters—the parents’ names not mentioned. Both natives of Moab, and heathen—appear to have remained so while in their own land. (See Ruth 1:15.)
The question asked, Were these two young men right in marrying heathen women? Some writers justify, others condemn. A plausible case can be made out in their favour: great distance from Bethlehem, absence of Jewish maidens, uncertainty of their return, naturally diminished interest in their native land, arising from long residence in Moab, the fact that there was no distinct commandment against marrying a Moabitess, though there was against marrying a Canaanite—all good reasons for pleading on their behalf. More, Boaz married Ruth afterwards, and God made her ancestress of Christ. Yet were not absolutely free from blame. God overruled for good, still they erred. This nation under a curse, excluded from the Jews (Deuteronomy 23:3). Ezra rent his garment, etc., under similar circumstances (Ezra 9). No doubt, to marry a heathen a sin in the eyes of the Jew.
A practical question started: Should a professing Christian marry one who makes no such profession? “Whatsoever is not of faith is of sin.” If you are not firmly convinced the step is right, then for you it is sin. Does the N. T. lay down any law? No direct utterance on the subject to be discovered. Paul’s warning (2 Corinthians 6:14), “Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers,” etc., often quoted against such mixed marriages, but does not specifically refer to them. The apostle arguing as to the whole relationship of life, urging that the Christian Church should be separated from heathen associations. The greater, however, included in the less. The law applicable to the entire life peculiarly touches marriage.
It may be answered, “Times have changed, the broad line of demarcation between believer and unbeliever no longer exists. Heathen are not found among us; non-professors moral and reputable in life, and can hardly be designated “unbelievers.” True, no doubt. The lines between the Church and the world faded, a mutual movement towards each other. Many see no wrong in marrying one who appears to be everything but a professor of religion. A mistake to burden consciences by asserting that any course of conduct is sinful if the vexed matter is fairly open to doubt. Tends to produce a reaction, in which sacred principles are themselves thrown aside.
This, however, may be maintained, that mixed marriages are eminently inexpedient and very dangerous. A want of sympathetic religious convictions between husband and wife injuriously affects their sacred relationship. True marriage rests on common admiration and sympathy—a union of hearts. If religion, which concerns the deepest emotions and noblest thoughts, is excluded, the union disastrously incomplete, the real foundation insecure. Love which rises from other things meagre, partial, unsatisfactory—the richest cords of the soul untouched. That which one esteems as the best thing in life, the other may not possess—a perpetual craving for sympathy where it cannot be given. The hindrances and sorrows springing from this spiritual isolation incalculable. Man and wife do not understand each other. Look at numberless experiences from opposite standpoints—motives imputed, sneers at saintliness uttered perhaps on one side, and denunciations at godlessness on the other. Multitudes of family quarrels arise from want of spiritual union, and the highest aspirations of the godly soul perpetually thwarted. Then the education of the children perplexing; the example of the one nullified by the conduct of the other. To marry an unbelieving husband or wife may involve the future destiny of the offspring. If the children grow up in the fear of God, it will be in spite of the bad example of one parent.
It may be said that many wed hoping to produce a change. They may be instrumental in the conversion of the beloved one—a beautiful but most delusive hope. Can instances be quoted? Their scarcity contrasts most painfully with the multitude of failures. Religious influence generally less after marriage than before. The charm strangely disappears, the same words irritate. More difficult to speak upon these themes, lest there should be some taunt about inconsistency. Easier to address strangers about Christ, than our own households. The home friends know our failings—do not see our struggles against them. Decision for God the great pre-requisite for a happy and useful marriage, far better than beauty—intellect—wealth.
(Condensed by permission from “The Beautiful Gleaner.’ ”)
“Here we see the fashion of the world. Mankind had long ago decayed, if those breaches which are daily made by death were not daily made up by marriage.”—Fuller.
“And thus the world moves on—deaths and marriages, marriages and deaths. The household which to-day mourns as though all joy had taken flight for ever, to-morrow resounds with the laughter of many voices at a new-born happiness. The faces all tear-stained yesterday are bright with smiles to-day. The bell which slowly tolled the funeral knell an hour ago, now rings out the joyous wedding-chime. So it must be, so it ought to be. Probably life would lose half its beauty but for this alternation of shadow and sunshine; at least, this we know, that human hearts need both the darkness and the light, or they will not grow to that perfection of truth and purity which God has designed they shall attain. Elimelech died, the sons married. It is a simple statement, yet a whole world of change is involved in it for that small household.”—Braden.
“Hail, wedded love, mysterious law, true source
Of human offspring, sole propriety
In paradise of all things common else,
By thee adulterous lust was drawn from men
Among the bestial herds to range; by thee,
Founded on reason, loyal, just, and pure,
Relations dear and all the charities
Of father, son, and brother, first were known.”
Milton.
“Wherever found, women are the same kind, civil, obliging, human tender beings, inclined to be gay and cheerful, humorous and modest.”—Ledyard.
“True marriage rests on common admiration and sympathy; it is the union of hearts in the bonds of holiest love. If, however, religion, which concerns the deepest emotions and noblest thoughts, is excluded, the union of the two natures is disastrously incomplete, the real foundation of married life becomes fearfully insecure.”—Braden.
“Marriage has less of beauty, but more of safety, than the single life. It hath not more ease, but less danger; it is more merry and more sad; it is fuller of sorrows and fuller of joys; it lies under more burdens, but it is supported by all the strength of love and charity, and those burdens are delightful.… It is that state of good to which God hath designed the present constitution of the world.”—Jeremy Taylor.
“The woman’s cause is man’s. They rise or sink
Together. Dwarfed or godlike, bond or free;
If she be small, slight-natured, miserable,
How shall men grow?… Let her be
All that not harms distinctive womanhood;
For woman is not undeveloped man,
But diverse. Could we make her as the man,
Sweet love were slain, whose dearest bond is this,
Not like to like, but like in difference;
Yet in the long years must they liker grow;
The man be more of woman, she of man,
Till at the last she set herself to man
Like perfect music unto noble words.”
Tennyson.
“——An unlessoned girl, unschooled, un-practised;
Happy in this, she is not yet so old
But she may learn; and happier than this,
She is not bred so dull but she can learn;
Happiest of all, is, that her gentle spirit
Commits itself to yours, to be directed
As from her lord, her governor, her king.”
Shakespeare.
“When a woman marries a man that is ungodly, wrong as it is, we may indulge a reasonable hope that he through her influence will become a Christian. But it rarely happens when a man marries a woman that is not a Christian, that she becomes a Christian; rather he sinks down to her moral level.”—Dr. Cumming.
“A good wife is heaven’s last, best gift to a man; his angel of mercy, minister of graces innumerable; his gem of many virtues, his casket of jewels.”—Jeremy Taylor.
“No doubt it is a truism to say that in any case marriage is a solemn thing. We smile and jest over it; the prospect of a wedding always awakens good-humoured remark; festivities appropriately accompany the celebration; yet we cannot lose sight of the grave importance of the event itself. Two human beings of differing temperament and education stand before God and clasp hands, covenanting ‘to be faithful even unto death.’ Henceforth the making or the marring of each other’s happiness rests with that husband and wife. Henceforth they are bound by a tie strong as the law itself, and no discovery of incompatibility of character, no change of temporal circumstances, no mere inconveniences of position, only distinct criminal acts, can ‘put asunder’ ‘what God hath joined together.’ Well, therefore, does the Service declare that it should ‘not be taken in hand unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly, but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God.’ ”—Braden.
“Marriage is the best state for man in general; and every man is a worse man in proportion as he is unfit for the married state.”—Dr. Johnson.
“He that goes far to marry, goes to be deceived or to deceive. The day you marry you kill or cure yourself.”—Spanish Proverbs.
Theme—THE SECOND GREAT BEREAVEMENT
“Is God less God, that thou art left undone?
Rise, worship, bless Him, in this sackloth spun,
As in that purple!”—Mrs. Browning.
Then died these two also.
Thus far the book of Ruth resembles that symphony of Beethoven, in which the song of birds, the cheerful hum of a holiday crowd, … are hushed by the crash of a sudden and threatening storm (Cox). Scarcely so: all along there has been the undertone of sorrow, affliction following affliction. But we can imagine years of happy prosperity (possibly ten) in Moab, since the last great calamity (Ruth 1:3). Now a further trial—to Naomi the climax of all which has gone before, a more terrible famine than that in the land of Israel.
I. We have Death here once again in the family circle. Three sepulchres now attest his melancholy ravages (Eadie). This time the sons taken in the flush of manhood; not as the father, who might well have anticipated his end. Note. (a) Even the young man’s life a vapour. Death no respecter of youth, or strength, or beauty. The blossom as subject to be nipped as the flower, the spark to be extinguished as the flame. Was it the “joy” and the “ornament” (see note on Ruth 1:2) of this household God took, or the “weakly” and the “pining” ones? Was the death sudden, or ushered in by signs of failing strength, as the latter interpretation of the names would seem to intimate? The Scripture language severe in its brevity, but touching in its simplicity, “Then died these two also” (see notes)—died in banishment, from their fatherland, perhaps from their father’s God. (b) The young man’s plans vanity. Escaped famine, but death overtook them. Founded their houses in Moab, Moab became their grave (Lange). Probably determined not to return home until the famine was over; when it was, they themselves were no more (Lange).
II. We have separation once more in the household life. Husband from wife, children from a fond parent. With Naomi, first it had been separation from kinsfolk and acquaintances, then from husband, now from her sons. Thus the Divine hand is removing one after another the ties which bind her affections earthward. Note. A warning against seeking unmitigated satisfaction in family joys. We should live together as those who may be called upon to separate at any moment. Rather as those who look for a union beyond the separation (1 Thessalonians 4:14).
“The love that rose on stronger wings,
Unpalsied when he met with Death,
Is comrade of the lesser faith,
That sees the course of human things,
That all, as in some piece of art,
Is toil co-operant to an end.”—Tennyson.
III. We have still further separation in a foreign land. New afflictions added to Naomi’s former griefs—loss upon loss, trial following trial. The grief of the two younger widows not mentioned—speechless before a more majestic sorrow than its own. “And the woman was left of her two sons and her husband.” The desolation of bereavement never more vividly pictured than by these touching phrases (Braden). To heighten the picture, what little wealth had remained would seem to have vanished. Poverty comes in upon them “like an armed man.” Note. (a) The case by no means singular, even though the afflictions are complicated. Bereavement! in what household is the shadow unknown?
“Too common! never morning wore
To evening, but some heart did break.
The widow’s story too familiar! Note. (b) These providences mysterious—inscrutable. Only on all theories of human life, the atheist’s among the rest, they face us, and we must bow to them. Explain it or not, here is the fact. And happy those alone who can say, as Naomi appears to have done, “Although I have lost the gift, I have not lost the GIVER (Dr. Cumming). Faith only, though it be “but as a grain of mustard seed,” can give consolation in such hours. Note. (c) Some comfort remaining even to the most forlorn and desolate. The sons’ wives left in the household—human love side by side with Divine care.
“Oh weep no more! there yet is balm
In Gilead: love doth ever shed
Rich healing where it nestles, spread
O’er desert pillows some green palm.
God’s ichor fills the hearts that bleed,
The best fruit loads the broken bough,
And in the wounds our sorrows plough,
Immortal love sows sovereign seed.”—Gerald Massey.
Improvement. (a) When heavy calamities befall, beware of speaking or even thinking unadvisedly of them. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth,” etc. (Genesis 18:25). Our best thoughts sometimes presumptuous on these matters. (b) The love or hatred of God not to be estimated by what we see of His doings. (c) Let none because of youth put far off the day of death (Bernard). The question of early death is one about which no like mystery hangs (Braden). Some He takes away from the evil of the world; others for reasons beyond our present knowledge and judgment. (d) Those least expected may be most likely to go soonest. Remember now, etc. (Ecclesiastes 12:1).
M. Henry on this:—
I.
That wherever we go we cannot outrun death, whose fatal arrows fly in all places.
II.
That we cannot expect to prosper when we go out of the way of our duty. He that will save his life by any indirect course shall lose it.
III.
That death, when it comes into a family often, makes breach upon breach. One is taken away to prepare another to follow; that affliction not duly improved, God sends another of the same kind.
Bernard:—
I.
That the Lord gave them time to marry and to enjoy their marriage for some space, though they made no better use of their father’s death. Thus good and patient is God unto men for their bettering.
II.
That when God hath proved men in patience, and they will not make right use thereof, then will He take them away.
III.
That God can, and sometimes will, cut off young men in the flower of their youth. So Nadab, Abihu, Hophni and Phinehas, Amnon, etc. Some for their own sins, as Absalom; others for their father’s, as David’s child (2 Samuel 12:14) and the sons of Saul.
“The end of one sorrow is the beginning of another, like the drops of rain distilling from the top of a house, when one is gone another followeth; like a ship upon the sea, being on the top of one wave presently is cast down to the foot of another; like seed, which being spread by the sower is haunted by the fowls, being green and past their reach is endangered by frost and snow, being past the winter’s hurt, by beasts in summer, being ripe is cut with the sickle, threshed with the flail, purged in the floor, ground in the mill, baked in the oven.”—Topsell.
“The good husbandman may pluck his roses and gather in his lilies at midsummer, and for aught I dare say in the beginning of the first summer months; and he may transplant young trees out of the lower ground to the higher. What is that to you or me? The goods are his own.”—Rutherford.
“With many it is ebb water before the tide be at the full. The lamps of their lives are wasted almost as soon as they are lighted. The sand of their hour-glass is run out when they think it is but newly turned.”—Secker.
“Oh! these earthly separations from those we love, how terribly do they scald and wear the heart! day by day to see those things laid out, as it were, in such stony, death-like forms, which used to lie about here and there, in that sweet abandonment of daily life.”—Power.
“ ‘Death strikes with equal foot the rustic cottage and the palaces of kings.’ After ten years, in which the members of this notable family seem to have opposed a constant face to the austere and threatening brow of misfortune, and to have grown the dearer to each other for the sorrows and calamities they shared together, Mahlon and Chilion, still young men, followed their father to the grave, and Naomi was left a childless widow. Songs of mirth were exchanged for songs of mourning. The three men of the household had gone to their long home, and the three bereaved women were left to weep together, and to comfort each other as best they might.”—Cox.
“Even young men in the prime of their age are subject to death. The sons of Jacob, when they came to the table of Joseph, sat down, the eldest according to his age, and the youngest according to his youth: but Death observes not this method; he takes not men in seniority, but sometimes sends them first to the burial that came last from the birth, and those that came last from the womb, first to the winding-sheet.”—Fuller.
“He the young, the strong, who cherished
Noble longings for the strife,
By the wayside fell and perished,
Weary with the march of life.”
Longfellow.
“Hush! listen! let the heart in silence learn
How that of all things fair Time hath no certain hold:
The fairest flower, the greenest leaf, may fade.
Death is a ravening wolf, sparing no earthly fold.” B.
“Death is the solemn thought of the world. Let it be ever so vulgarized or common; still beneath the tent of the eastern emir, or in the crowded cemeteries of the capital, death is an awful arresting thing. While civilization has robbed other horrors of their wonder, death is still the insoluble event. But here we have something more than death; we have separation.… Death becomes awfully credible when those we are accustomed to live with die. We feel then as those tell us they have felt who have experienced an earthquake. The earth, the most stable of things, becomes to them unstable, and to us the solid life becomes hollow, and ‘I may be the next’ is the first thought.”—Robertson.
“God keeps a niche
In heaven to hold our idols; and, albeit
He brake them to our faces and denied
That our close kisses should impair their white,
I know we shall behold them raised complete,
The dust swept from their beauty—glorified,
New Memnons singing in the great God-light.”
Mrs. Browning.
“When you and I die, Providence will not be buried in our grave; the ‘Redeemer liveth.’ We entrust to Him our eternal life, shall we not entrust to Him our dearest earthly relatives? He will be a husband to my beloved wife, and a father to my children, when I can no longer look after them; His gracious presence will cheer them in solitude, shield them in danger, guide their inexperience through untrodden paths in the darkest night.”—Dr. Waugh.
“Before we had the particular losses of Naomi, now we have them all reckoned up in the total sum. “A threefold cable,” saith Solomon, “is not easily broken,” and yet we see Naomi’s threefold cable of comfort, twisted of her husband and her two sons, broken by death. Of the two sexes, the woman is the weaker; of women, old women are most feeble; of old women, widows most woful; of widows, those that are poor, their plight most pitiful; of poor widows, those that want children their case most doleful; of widows that want children, those that once had them and after lost them, their estate most desolate; of widows that have had children, those that are strangers in a foreign country, their condition most comfortless. Yet all these meet together in Naomi, as in the centre of sorrow, to make the measure of her misery ‘pressed down, shaken together, running over.’ I conclude, therefore, many men have had affliction—none like Job; many women have had tribulation—none like Naomi.”—Fuller.
“High up the mountain slopes of Chamouni there is a plain covered with verdure and flowers. Thither the shepherds of the Alps drive their flocks. At one point of the ascent the rocks rise almost perpendicular. When the flock arrives at this point, none is bold enough to venture; but the shepherds gather the lambs in their arms, and toss them upon the plain; the whole flock clambers after them, and soon is feeding upon the rich herbage, or ruminating beneath the ‘rose-trees of the Alps.’ Bereaved parents, the lamb of your love has been carried up, and beckons you to follow where are flowers sweeter than those of the Alps, and air and sunshine purer and brighter than is found up in Chamouni.”—Dic. of Illustrations.