Naomi

By 
 on March 16, 2017

Naomi
Book of Ruth

During a famine Naomi, an Israelite woman, was forced to leave her country—crossing the Jordan River into the foreign land of the Moabites —with her husband and two young sons, who eventually married Moabite women.

When all three men died, Naomi agreed to allow her loving Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth to return with her and live in Israel.

(According to Deuteronomic tradition, marriage to a Moabite woman was forbidden in Israel, but this law was not enforced until post-exilic times under Ezra and Nehemiah).

The courageous Naomi returned to Bethlehem and managed to have Ruth the Moabite married to Naomi’s brother-in-law, and they had a son Obed.
Naomi`s grandson, Obed, brought her great joy. He fathered Jesse, who to the reader`s shock, fathered David who became Israel`s most celebrated king, David.

What was surprising about the words of the Moabite daughter-in-law, Ruth?

What was courageous and faithful about the actions of Naomi?

How did Naomi, as John Spong so well expresses the faithful life, “live fully, love wastefully and be all that you can be”?

Heather-Joy Brinkman, Hamilton.

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