May 26, 2012 – Ruth 1

I was trying to think if this was a normal practice.  Not so much the leaving lands and going somewhere new, but the relationships between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.  We know that marriage is very important.  From the beginning, God announced that the two become one.  We also know, or will soon find, that mothers are very important in Israel.  When Solomon looks for his guide or the one who sits on this right hand, the queen is not one of his wives, because he had too many.  The queen was his mother.  The queen mother is a very important figure in Old Testament views and one the reasons Catholics pay so much honor to Mary.  So, with those two idea in mind, if a woman marries a man and is then widowed, it makes some sense that she would cling to her mother-in-law as opposed to going back to her own family.  When the two become one, her mother-in-law takes on a “motherly” role and with the mother of the husband being of importance, following her feels logical.  There are also lessons in here of not abandoning family, following God’s will, persevering, but I thought I would comment on those two ideas and how they might fit into this story.