outWORD by Matte Downey

The biblical story of Ruth is brutal and brilliant. It is brutal because it reveals how suffering becomes compounded when you are part of a vulnerable sector of  society. But it is brilliant because this context becomes the backdrop for an astounding and unexpected display of hesed . The story goes like this: there is a famine in Judah so Elimelech and his family (Naomi and two sons) go to nearby Moab so they won’t starve. While there, Elimelech dies, leaving his wife and sons on their own. The sons marry Moabite women and after ten years, both sons, Malon and Kilion, also die. This leaves Naomi with no husband, no sons, and two foreign daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah. It is important to note that in the patriarchal context of the time, a woman’s value was linked to the males in the culture, be it a father, a husband, or sons. Without any attachment to a man, a woman was nothing, what Carolyn Custis James call "a zero." A woman on her own (or with another woman)...