Bible Study with the Cincottis – Ruth, Chapter One – 05/03/2026
Today’s Bible Study, Authored by Arthur Cincotti.
Listen to our Bible Study Discussion at: Ruth, Chapter One Audio Podcast
Or watch the Video Zoom Session of our Study on YouTube:
Ruth, Chapter One
“O LORD, God of my salvation,
I have cried out day and night before You.
Let my prayer come before You;
Incline Your ear to my cry.
For my soul is full of troubles…” Ps. 88: 1-3
Ruth is one of my favorite books of the Bible. I’m a sucker for a good story, and Ruth has all the elements of a compelling narrative. Apparently, it was a favorite of one of our founding fathers, Ben Franklin. The story goes that when he was a delegate for our country in Paris, he was asked to speak at a meeting of leading scholars, many of whom were condemning the Bible. Without telling the source, he read them the story of Ruth. When he finished, they erupted with applause, saying that it was the most beautiful love story they had ever heard. Franklin shocked them into silence when he revealed its source.
It is a story of redemption, but today we are going to look at the pathway up to redemption, a pathway of abject brokenness. It’s almost as though God is setting us up by introducing such a stark contrast. For Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi, circumstances are about as bad as they can get. These are the times and places in our lives where God reveals His glory.
The setting is the time of the judges. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly, but we could do some math from the genealogy in chapter 4 and say that perhaps as far back as Samson, or between Samson and Eli. This period was marked by constant spiritual drift on the part of Israel, which had no central leadership at the time. They were a collection of tribes who had received their inheritance, but were mostly trying to figure that out on their own. The hallmark of this period was, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Jd. 21:25
In the midst of this, we peer into the life of Elimelech, a man of Bethlehem, of the tribe of Judah, and his small family. There was a famine in the land, not unlikely due to the people’s drift from the ways of the LORD. God is very clear in Deut. 11:26-28, “Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey…”
“The word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.” I Sam. 3:1 tells us, but Elimelech was still responsible for what he knew. Therefore, the poor choice to seek sustenance in the land of Moab quickly went bad. His two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, take wives of the women of Moab, – yah think? – and within a period of ten years, the three men of the family die, leaving three widows and no children. Ouch!
God’s not obligated to rubber-stamp our bad decisions, but as a loving Father, He brings us through the consequences of our poor choices, making way for a place of redemption, giving beauty for ashes.
Three widows with little means, in the midst of harsh times, and one of them is a foreigner. This is a bad scenario. No wonder Naomi makes the decision to return to Bethlehem of Judah. Hardship often governs our choices. Home, they say, is the place that, when you have to go back there, they have to take you in.
At first, it seems as though both daughter-in-laws, Ruth and Orpah, were determined to go with her. Perhaps they were shunned or persecuted for marrying Israelite men. We can only speculate. Naomi makes a good case for them to remain behind in Moab. The thing that she doesn’t say is that, as Moabites, they would most likely be shunned and persecuted in Judah. Orpah is easily convinced, but Ruth “clung to her.” This is where the real love story of Ruth begins to unfold, not so much between Ruth and her soon-to-be husband, Boaz, but between Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi. Ruth means “friend”. Jesus said to His disciples, “No longer do I call you servants…but I have called you friends” Jn. 15:15
How can we put a value on that dimension of life called friendship? It’s a relationship based upon choice. When it’s violated, it hurts severely, but when it’s intimate and sound, it is one of the great savors of life. Ruth is paying forward a legacy for her great-grandson, David, that he will experience and enjoy with Saul’s son Jonathan. We read later, “Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.” I Sam. 18:3. In deliverance circles, we sometimes speak of generational curses, but there are also generational blessings that we often partake of unwittingly. The tenor of Ruth’s friendship and devotion to Naomi is expressed in verses. 16-17:
“Entreat me not to leave you,
Or to turn back from following after you;
For wherever you go, I will go;
And wherever 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.
The LORD do so to me, and more also,
If anything but death parts you and me.”
People don’t talk like that anymore.
This becomes Ruth’s reputation, character and identity, because, later, Boaz will say to her, “It has been fully reported to me, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before.” Rt. 2:11. When Jesus says, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Jn. 13:35, this is the sort of love He is talking about.
The chapter closes with Ruth and Naomi’s sullen trip back to Bethlehem, which may have been as much as two hundred miles. Naomi is recognized and remembered after her ten-year absence, but she returns with a sad testimony. “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.” vrs. 20
Naomi’s theology might not have been great, but she does have a sense that there are transcendent forces at the core of her circumstances. We all have that, even the stanchest atheist. And it would seem so. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.” Ps. 13:12
But Naomi doesn’t even have hope at this point. She tried to express that to her two daughters-in-law. She is returning thoroughly defeated, intending to seek out a meager existence, perhaps by the kindness of some former friends.
I like to call Naomi the best, worst evangelist ever, because she has such a negative confession, and yet she has one solid convert. Her life must have spoken something of value to Ruth. Fast forward, and the apostle Paul will say, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Rm. 5:5.
The chapter closes with, “Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.” vrs. 22, which is not insignificant. Barley is one of the first grains to ripen in the spring and is associated with the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It was a time of great joy and celebration. Barley is also associated with the Feast of Firstfruits and, as such, with the foreshadowing of Christ’s resurrection. Paul writes, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” I Cor. 15:20. It also symbolizes humility and God’s provision for the poor. The feeding of the five thousand involved “five barley loaves and two small fish.” Jn. 6:9. This miracle demonstrates Jesus’s compassion and ability to provide abundantly.
“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” Js. 1:27
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