Resumo de Ruth - Bible OT

Providential Power and the Role of the Female

We all have choices to make throughout our time of discernment. From ealy childhood, we decide how, when and why certain things are to be or not to be done. We do this according to perception of what feels best or right for our individual needs. Even though we feel we are free and using our own set of personal will to take these options, it is dubious whether our routes are already predetermined. Choosing one direction over another may differ in the time it takes to get there but the final destination or outcome will always be the one predestined.
This Providential Rule is evident thoughout the Book of Ruth from the Old Testament. Also obvious is the substantial role of women in this universal concept. The ingenious woman seemingly uses her ability to make decisions though her own insights, and makes roads which at one time seemed impassable, clear. At the end of the day, the wiser woman looks back and perceives that even though her body, mind and spirit were actively working towards an end, true Providence has been realized through her actions and the role of others.
The story of Ruth begins with the woman, Naomi, who finds herself widowed and mother of two dead sons. With men seen as protectors and providers of the family in her day, she may have wondered how effective she could now be as an independent citizen of the world. Being in a foreign land with two daughters-in-law, her age did not make her a bargaining chip for finding another husband or producing more sons in a timely manner to help her. Still she does not give up her decision making abilities as she opts to return to her homeland and her own people.
As mentioned earlier, the steps our feet take are already ordered according to a predestined script written well before our bodies formed in our mother's wombs. The predetermined arrangement is so great that one path out of many may be chosen according to our free will, and still end up according to God's plan. Only the players may differ.

Different routes also were taken by Naomi's daughters-in-law. Being younger women than Naomi and still considered fruitful, one woman makes a decision not to proceed on the journey with Naomi back to Bethlehem-judah. The other daughter-in-law, named Ruth, vows to hang on to Naomi wherever she goes. Both young women were presented an opportunity, a road to take. One took the path which led back to the less chancey existence of returning to her own mother's house. The other took the lesser known road, the path of let's see what will happen. But she took it full of love and devotion for her mother-in-law. She was full of faith.

Women from time to time are presented with such dilemmas of playing it safe or stepping out into the unknown using their own intuition, which has no solid reasoning other than it feels right. Such decisions don't have the safety guide wire to Mr. Spock reasoning where A plus B will equal C. Attempts to even explain these actions are ineffable because of the seemingly illogical base. Still, the thing must be done.

Life does, and will go on, with or without one's moping or grieving, and life will proceed with or without one's participation. Naomi and Ruth greased the wheel already put into motion by oiling it with a perseverance and persistance to live honorably in the face of great odds. The regard Ruth showed Naomi in obeying her esteemed intstruction without question placed these two women on the seat of power in world history. Ruth becoming the mother of Obed, becoming the grandmother of Jesse, and the great-grandmother of King David. His existence as one of the greatest rulers of biblical history could not be denied because it was prophesied. In this, the role of the female is not to be denied. Her ability to grab the reigns that guide to greatness is determined by her humility to be brave enough to trust in the Providential Power of the Supreme Being. The willingness of spirits to be great, yields greatness and assures the shortest path to His will.

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