Text: Ruth 1:1-17
Naomi’s daughters-in-law realised that there was something about her that they wanted to remain connected to even though their husbands (her sons) had both died and there was really nothing binding them to her anymore.
Naomi said all she could to discourage them from following her back to her own country and after a while, Orpah was persuaded to turn back and she kissed her and returned to her own people. That was the last time Orpah’s name was mentioned in the Bible.
Ruth however wouldn’t be dissuaded and made a significant statement declaring her loyalty to Naomi in (v16), “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.” What we see here is that Ruth went from just her direct relationship with Naomi to accepting Naomi’s people, culture and ultimately her God as her own. Her relationship with Naomi facilitated a transition from her own homeland & way of life to Naomi’s.
(v17) “When Naomi saw Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her…” (trying to persuade her to return to Moab). This kind of attraction and relationship between these two women is very rare and has obviously transcended a legal or filial relationship. All through history and up until now, this kind of relationship between a mother & daughter-in-law is both unprecedented and unduplicated.
The question that this passage of scripture provokes is “what was it that made Ruth so determined to follow Naomi back to her homeland?” Ruth had probably seen something in Naomi’s life that spoke to her as an individual. When Naomi tried to persuade her to return, she made it clear to her that she had nothing to offer her. Ruth was under no delusion about where she was going & what she was entering into by following Naomi, she was going to a land where Moabites like her were regarded as 2nd class citizens at best. She was going to a land where she would be termed as an outcast. It’s doubtful that anyone would undertake such an endeavour if there wasn’t a form of divine connection or prompting involved.
Ruth must have realised that this situation and relationship she was involved in was beyond her marriage to Naomi’s late son. The importance of her relationship to Naomi had trumped that of her relationship to her late husband, she must have come to the realisation that her marriage to her husband was a portal to this divinely inspired relationship with Naomi. An instance like this where God’s hand is obviously involved in connecting two people is rather strange, but when it happens both you and the other person will know it’s a relationship initiated by God.
It happens in different aspects of life: between two men, two women, a man and a woman, in business, between friends, between two neighbours, between a man and a church. Somehow, if God is in it, He will leave you without a witness. And when you realise this, never let go of that relationship, do all that you can to cultivate and nurture it. Break every tradition that you need to in order to maintain it, change and adapt whatever you need to; do what you can to keep the relationship alive and healthy.
Let’s go back to (v17) “When Naomi saw Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her…” At the end of the day and primarily because of her attention to a divine connection, Ruth – who was a gentile – ended up marrying Boaz (a wealthy and influential man who could have had his pick of any woman in Israel at the time) and even more significantly was engrafted into the lineage of Jesus Christ.
This is Ruth, a woman from Moab (a race that God had expressly forbidden from entering into His assembly) who found a legitimate way into God’s nation by following a divine prompting to maintain her relationship with Naomi. When a person feels a divine power pulling you into a relationship don’t toy with that divine connection because if you do, you might just be destroying part of your own destiny.
An impartial God gave Orpah the same opportunity He gave to Ruth – I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Naomi had two sons who married two women from Moab. God will give everyone the same opportunities, but it’s those who follow the divine pull/prompting to enter into (or maintain) a divine connection that get the maximum fulfilment of their destinies. The Bible does not tell us and neither do I don’t believe there was anything bad about Orpah, she just made the wrong choice in not following Naomi, when she was given the opportunity to do so.
Prayer: May you never vanish into obscurity like Orpah did in Jesus’ name.
There’s a place God intends to take you and divine connections are part of the means to get from obscurity into the prominence associated with God’s divine positioning.
Another example of a divine connection is from the New Testament. It’s the case of a murderous religious zealot called Saul. He’s someone who terrorised Christians in the early church and did his best to decimate their ranks. Even after God had arrested him and he was converted (and became Paul), the level of distrust he experienced from Christians was significant (and dare I say justified). Only one person took the risk to trust him enough to develop a relationship with him – Barnabas.
There are people around us whom no one is attracted to and we don’t consider to be important, but they keep coming back. These are people who might just be the “Ruths” who will connect us to our place of destiny that God has placed amongst us today.
There are also those amongst us that can be considered as “terrors”, whom people want to avoid because they want to have peace. Try taking a risk and be a son of consolation in relating with them. If the Spirit of God is nudging you in that direction, God is trying to connect you to something significant.
Acts 15:36-41
(v39) shows there was a sharp disagreement between Paul & Barnabas over taking John Mark along with them. This was the breaking of their relationship and the last time they worked together. They broke a divine connection, they failed to realise that whatsoever God has joined together, let no man put asunder. They allowed their egos get in the way of God’s plan and stopped themselves from working out a solution to a problem that led to the dissolution of their relationship/friendship.
Now, let’s take a look at the difference in the wording of the scripture in their subsequent actions: (v39b) Barnabas took John Mark and sailed for Cyprus, (v40a) but Paul chose Silas and departed being commended by the brethren to the grace of God…”
Barnabas had made up his mind, without consulting God he knew whom he was taking with him (Mark – his nephew). He based his actions on blood relationships, on tribal and cultural considerations – not on God’s will. If you become obsessive about blood relationships and cultural considerations and allow them to influence your choices and actions above God’s word, you will end up destroying significant parts of your destiny. Remember Jesus redefined family relationships (Matt. 12:50) when he said “For whoever does the will of my father who is in Heaven, is my brother and sister and mother”. So why are we bent on holding onto and depending on cultural considerations, allowing them colour our choices and actions?
Paul however chose his own companion. Now the use of the word “chose” means he had other people whom he could have selected to accompany him. The decision on whom his companion on his journey would be was basically not his will but that of God. We then see that Paul and Silas were “commended by the brethren to the grace of God”. The Bible didn’t use such words in associating with Barnabas after he “took Mark” and this was the last time we heard of Barnabas in the Bible apart from when Paul referred to journeys he took with Barnabas in the past.
Now, you might want to ask me “Pastor James, which one of Paul and Barnabas was at fault for this sharp disagreement between them and eventual dissolution of their relationship?” My simple answer is that “I don’t know”. Maybe it’s Barnabas, maybe it’s Paul. There are a few scriptural reference passages that indicate that they both might have been culpable in some way.
• (Col. 4:10) “Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, with Mark the cousin of Barnabas (about whom you have received instructions: if he comes to you welcome him)”
• (2Tim. 4:11) “Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry”.
The second quoted passage comes from the letter that historians consider to be his last before his death and here we see Paul calling for Mark – the person behind the “sharp disagreement” between himself and Barnabas that led to their severing the divine connection between themselves – whom he considers as “useful to me for ministry”. How come he didn’t realise the fact that Mark could have been useful to him earlier in life? Could that realisation have preserved his relationship with Barnabas?
We really should be careful about what we think we know now, tomorrow wisdom and light may come into you and render your previously held knowledge obsolete. Youthful passions can cause us to make blanket statements and reject certain people, but we need to know that there are certain things that are more important in the mind of God – what God has joined together, let no man put asunder.
The Importance of Divine Connections
When God puts two people together, or plants an individual somewhere it is because He has a purpose (that might not yet have been even revealed). There are people in certain relationships and places that are totally sure that God placed them there. For instance certain people in this Church are sure they are here because they realise they have a sense of destiny and divine connection that “this is where you should be” and not because of normal external considerations like friends or family who also attend the church, or certain people followed them up, or they like the ambient environment in the church.
When you have this assurance that you are in a place God has planted you or you are sure God is prompting you to enter into a relationship with someone, you need to make sure your actions are not based on those of other people. Ruth might have been a close friend (she was actually called her “sister” by Naomi) to Orpah, but she realised she needed to make her own choice independent of what Orpah chose to do. Oftentimes, the colt on which we are meant to ride into our exaltation and to our acclaim is tied down at a fork in the road. You had probably walked to that point, but depending on which way you choose to go, a colt will carry you the rest of the way. However, we have to choose which way to go, Orpah’s way or Ruth’s way.
It’s like two close friends in a church when one decides to leave and the other has to decide whether to also leave or stay in the church. Now, this isn’t a choice to be taken lightly because making the wrong choice will lead to obscurity, silence and oblivion like Orpah where no one will hear of you again, while the right choice puts you in a place where God’s grace is available to carry and elevate you into your destiny. This is a choice that we are all going to have to make at some point in our lives.
Prayer: May God help you and grant you the wisdom to make the right choice at all times.
The wisdom to choose right is very vital in these times because people are going to find themselves under a lot of pressure to make certain choices when it seems like everyone else is seeking a breakthrough and heading for the place where the breakthrough is “available”. You might be making the right choice, but you need to be absolutely sure about it.
Don’t put yourself where like Barnabas you might seem to have won an argument/battle, but you ended up winning the argument at the cost of your destiny. Breaking divine connections can be very costly as we aren’t given the right to alter these connections.
There are two institutions that God created:
- The family
- The church
God never gave us the choice of the family (or race) we were born into. The decision on the family we are born into is God’s exclusive prerogative, he doesn’t seek our opinion on it. This physical principle mirrors the spiritual one shown here:
(1Cor. 15:46) “However the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual”.
The church is the spiritual family and God places you in the place that based on your particular make up and constitution suits you best. He places you under the care of the person that is best enabled to equip you with what you particularly need in life to cater for your own needs on your way to fulfilling destiny. God reserves the exclusive right to direct you to and plant you in the place that you will be trained.
Your spiritual father isn’t necessarily the person that leads you to Christ, but the person who plants, establishes and equips you in the way of the Kingdom. Just like any one can be a biological father, but the person who takes the pains of raising a child is the one who has earned the right to be called a father.
None of us can claim to have come from perfect families where everything is perfect, in spite of this none of us have dissociated ourselves from these families, so why do we do that with the Church (where we have a sense of destiny and planting)? If God hasn’t given you the chance to change your physical family what makes you think it is right for you to change your church at will?
When God even in marriage allows you the choice and all the time to make a choice in whom you connect to, once you make your choice and invite God to witness the establishment of your union you immediately forego the right to leave that connection. It’s the same as regards your spiritual heritage, once you are planted in a church you don’t toy with it and you do not make arbitrary decisions about leaving the church.
