324
July 1929
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
The Maid of Moab B y J a m e s M a il l e y
Retsil, Washington
M I '■ '
f N all literature there is no more beautiful story than that of Ruth the Moabite maiden. There is in it every element that appeals to the human heart,— simple faith, unswerving devotion, unflinching courage,, gentle- submission, unspoiled modesty, unselfish love. She was the daughter of an alien and unfriendly people. She had married into the family of a voluntary Israelitish exile and had thus come under the influence of Naomi’s life and example, and had come to learn of Israel’s God. Death had claimed Elimelech and her husband Mahlon and she was now a widow in a deso late home. The stricken Naomi turns her face toward the land of her people, and this brings her Moabitish daugh ters-in-law to the parting of the ways. At this crisis each chooses according to her nature. Orpah turns back to her people and her gods because that is where her heart is. Ruth chooses Naomi and Naomi’s people and Naomi’s God, because her heart ft there. It is for them the divid ing of the ways, and the way each chooses is the way she shall walk to the end. There was no return for Orpah, and there was no return for Ruth. What they were impelled the choices and drove each through to the end. The choice made that day was final and irrevocable. R u t h ’ s C h o ic e D e t e r m in e d b y H e r C h a r a c t e r There are in every life choices that are final. They can never be recalled, and the consequences are inevitable. Nor are the causes of finality found in circumstances or influences outside of ourselves; they are in us. The moral state that determines the choice ratifies that choice to the end. These decisions are prepared for. Though they were both under the same religious influ ences, Orpah had formed a character that drove her back to her heathen gods. She loved the lonely mother and she wept; but as she wept she went. The moral urge was more powerful than the affectional pull. She was lost to Ruth and Naomi forever, not because she had to be, but because at bottom she wanted to be. She chose her gods because she wanted her gods and she wanted them because of what she was. There is no master so powerful as character; it dictates our desires, and our desires determine our choices. It is the rule that we do what, we want to do, that we go after what we want to get. In the moral crises of life our choices are final and we go, never to return, because we are swept on by the moral gravitation within. So Orpah has passed forever from the holy influences that once touched her life and she is swallowed up in the darkness of heathenism forever. Farewell, O rpah! And Ruth, too, made her choice according to what she was. The words of unsurpassed beauty in which she de clared her choice have gone into the religious song and story of all succeeding ages: “Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee : for whither thou goest I will go; and, where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall , be my people, and thy God my God '■ where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried : the Lord do so to me and more also, if aught but death part thee and me.” It" is a poor sordid heart that does not see the beauty and feel the moral sublimity, of these death
less words. They are the revelation of a great soul. How great the contrast between this woman and the woman who turned back to her people and her gods! N a o m i ’ s P e o p l e “Thy people.” How little did she know of that people! From Naomi had she learned their wondrous story; of Abraham, the friend of God; of Joseph, the great prime minister; of Moses, the law-giver and creator of the na tion; of the deliverance wrought for them by Almighty power ; the wandering in the wilderness, and the conquest of the land which may have been in part at least within Naomi’s own memory. Clearly they were God’s favored people and she the daughter of a people seemingly far removed from such divine favor. Yet into this strange nation would she go with no friend but this desolate and lonely widow. A stranger would she be indeed. She can feel upon her even now the curious and questioning eyes of this people of the wondrous history. One needs only to read the book of Judges, describing the social conditions of this very time, to understand that neither the life nor the virtue of a traveler was safe from the rough and licentious assaults of the men of this people whom Ruth was choosing as her own. To a young and handsome woman without natural protector, the danger was espe cially great. To enter, a total stranger, unprotected, among an alien people where every man “did that which was right in his own eyes” this it was that called for the rarest devo tion and the sublimest courage. N a o m i ’ s G od “Thy God”! Naomi must have given a good account of Israel’s God. How could she do this? She had gone out full and she was now returning empty. There were times during that exile when God must have seemed far away and forgetful. One by one had she been bereft of hus band and sons. All that life held dear she had lost. Every natural tie had been torn asunder. Around her had swept the storm of affliction leaving desolate her heart and her hearth. This God had seen her engulfed in a veritable sea of sorrow. Her world had been emptied and her heaven darkened by the hidden face of God. In her distress she had cried; but God, it seemed, did not hear., She was no longer Naomi (pleasant), but Mara (bitter), “Why call ye me Naomi, seeing Jehovah hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?” Yes; all these afflictions had come from the hand of God. Yet she had spoken well of Him. In all the storm, rock-like her faith had held. God is good. In spite of all, God is good. His way is best. Somehow it is' best. It was a dark way He was leading her, but it was His way and so always best. Sorrowful she might be, broken-hearted, crushed under the load of grief, perplexed beyond words, groping in the dark, bowing lower and lower as each heavy blow fell; but she held on to God. This is the God who had let Joseph languish for years in prison, but had lifted up his head at last and had exalted him. This is the God who, had seen his people, for more than four hundred weary
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