Daughter-In-Love

Judges 19:1-20:48

“The Daughter-In-Love”

There is a 1954 musical called “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”. This is a story of the eldest of seven brothers living on the frontier in the Oregon Territory who returns with a bride. She is shocked to learn that her new home includes six untamed, unkempt, and uncouth brothers-in-law. This musical is her effort to turn these lumberjacks into gentlemen to find wives of their own.

As today’s culture looks back on this movie some find it problematic that this jestingly advocates “kidnapping women as a means of finding romance”.

Today’s passage came long before this musical but it has this theme running all the way through it. The tribe of Benjamin is in danger of extinction because of their sin and their lack of brides for their sons. They can not break a vow and marry the wrong people, and so the Israelites begin to scheme a plan to save them. It too is problematic and they need a lot more than "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers". In this Israelite musical, there is dancing, kidnapping, and their theme song is definitely NOT “Wonderful, Wonderful Day” like in the movie! It is far from that!

This passage now takes us to the most famous “Daughter-In-Law'' in all of the Bible. Her name is Ruth. Does that ring a bell? I have heard this story over and over since I was a child, but I must admit that I have never “got it” mentally or emotionally until NOW.

Perhaps you remember her famous Mother-In-Law. Her name was Naomi. She asked her name to be changed to “Mara” meaning “Bitter”. That is what I remember of this story as a girl, Oh yeah, the old woman who was bitter and blamed God for her troubles. I had a pretty shallow view of her and this story as I look back on it now.

Also, the main passage from this story is used in weddings A LOT! I have heard it over and over through the years. I have also been told, “That really isn’t a wedding verse; it was about a ‘Mother-In-Law’ and a ‘Daughter-In-Law’. I have changed my mind about that too, and I will tell you why…

There was a time of great famine in the land. Naomi’s husband, the man from Bethlehem in Judah, (Does this location sound at all familiar?) took her and their two sons away from their homeland so that they could survive. He died after they moved to the foreign, pagan land of Moab, leaving his wife with two sons to raise. They both married Moabite women. About ten years later both sons died!

She was now left all alone in a strange land with pagan gods and NO FAMILY. She had no husband, no sons, and no relatives in this strange land. All she had was two daughter-in-laws who were from a pagan faith.

She was God-fearing (and as all Jewish people did), she attributed the circumstances dealt to them as being from God’s hand. He was sovereign and she could not begin to understand why God would take her husband and two sons and only leave her with two pagans who were not related to her in heart or homeland. I can relate to her broken-hearted ‘why’s’; can you?

She changed her name because everything about her changed! She was broken and bitter!

About three years ago at Thanksgiving time, we spent the last week of my mother’s life around her bedside. She was surrounded by family and caregivers around the clock. I was on break from school and was there for the week without my husband and kids as we live a few hours away. Each and every day as I sat there with her while she was on Hospice and in a coma, I was accompanied by my brother and his wife, “The Daughter-In-Law”.

My sister-in-law was there and has been for years, through all the ‘ups and downs and all arounds’. She has been there when sometimes the daughters could not be there. She was there to talk with my mom often, and to take her to doctor’s appointments. She was even there when they came to take my mom away after her passing.

Now, mind you that ‘Mother-In-Law’s’ just seem to have a way of always mentioning their son’s names as well as their daughters’ names first, but somehow the daughter-in-law always seems to get remembered: “after the fact”. Secondly, my mother’s daughter-in-law has the same faith as my mother. She worships the very same God and serves Him! I still stand in awe and thanks for my mother’s daughter-in-law, who I consider my sister.

I hope that like me, you can just take a minute to glimpse this story through ‘fresh eyes’ today.

Naomi had no income, home, food, family, or future. She lived in a land of pagans. She also had lost her hope and joy in living. She did not know why God had allowed this suffering to come her way? She had lost all three of her loved ones and there was no one else… or was there?

“But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live. I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!’ When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.” (Ruth 1:16-18)

What a perfect verse for a wedding! Even in death and with the loss of her own husband she had made a vow that she would keep. She chose to love her husband in his death by loving his God, His people, and His mother. What a beautiful FOREVER vow!

Brokenness and bitterness are about to turn into Blessings because of…“The Daughter-In-LOVE.