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In the Christian Old Testament, the Book of Ruth follows the Book of Judges, probably based on its opening line, “In the days when the judges ruled …” (Ruth 1:1). In the Jewish scriptures, the book is found in the final section called Writings. In this time of judges, there was a famine in the land, so a man of Bethlehem went to the land of Moab, along with his wife Naomi and two sons. The man died and his two sons married a couple of Moabite women named Orpah and Ruth. But then the two sons died, leaving Naomi without a husband or sons.
So what was poor Naomi supposed to do? She decided to return to Judah, where the famine was now over. But she knew that she had nothing to offer her daughters-in-law, so she said, “Go back each of you to your mother’s house. May the LORD deal kindly with you” (Ruth 1:8). All three wept, and the daughter-in-law named Orpah departed, but Ruth clung to her mother-in-law. Naomi said to her, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth, determined to stay with Naomi, came up with one of the greatest lines in the Bible, “Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die — there will I be buried!” (Ruth 1:16-17). When Naomi saw that Ruth was faithful to her and determined to stay with both her and her God, Naomi allowed her to come along.
This line is a powerful statement of love and faithfulness, and it has shaped human life for centuries. Ruth’s words are like the lines from a movie that remain lodged in our hearts and minds, long after the film has ended. Think of The Wizard of Oz (1939), in which Dorothy says to her dog, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” People quote that line whenever they feel like the world around them has changed. Cool Hand Luke (1967) gave us the words, “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” You’ll hear that one when people suffer a complete breakdown in communication. From This is Spinal Tap (1984) we get the line, “These go to 11.” According to The Washington Post, Christopher Guest was referring to custom amps that don’t max out at a measly 10. Now, turning something up to 11 can mean any type of excessiveness.
The world of movies, of course, is not the only source of lines that shape our lives. The Bible is also full of great phrases: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1); “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD” (Jer 29:11); “Love is patient; love is kind” (1 Cor 13:4-5); “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13); “all things work together for good for those who love God” (Rom 8:28). And, of course, there is the verse that Martin Luther called “the Gospel in miniature,” from John: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).
What is so special about these lines from the Bible? For starters, they are true — they capture an important insight about the nature of God and human beings. But great lines also shape us because they capture an entire story. When Dorothy says, “We’re not in Kansas anymore,” you know that she has entered the strange new world of Oz. The line becomes a shorthand description of the entire movie. “Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge” (Ruth 1:16) tells us something essential about Ruth, but these words also summarize the entire story of Ruth, and remind us that God used this loving and faithful woman in a powerful way. Ruth went to Bethlehem with Naomi, met a man named Boaz, married him and had a son who became the grandfather of David. Because Ruth remained faithful, she was able to become the ancestor of the greatest of Israel’s kings. She did this as a Moabite woman, which sends the message that the faith of the people of Judah should be inclusive, rather than exclusive.
Although love and faithfulness cannot be seen with our eyes, they are an important reality. In the movie A Beautiful Mind (2001), a brilliant mathematician named John Nash suffers from terrible hallucinations. After a particularly threatening episode, his wife Alicia comes to him and asks, “You want to know what’s real?” Putting his hand on her heart, she says, “This is real.” She remains faithful to him in the face of an uncertain future, and at the end of his life he wins the Nobel Prize.
“This is real,” says Alicia Nash — you are not alone. “This is real,” says Ruth to Naomi — I will be with you. This is God’s promise to us, as well — that nothing in all creation will separate us from our Lord. “Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge.” This promise from Ruth to Naomi is one of the Bible’s greatest hits because it is God’s promise to each of us. “You want to know what’s real?” This is real — the love and faithfulness of the one true God, in every time and place, in the face of any hardship, loss, or failure. This line from the Book of Ruth is one that can truly shape our lives.
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