In women, the modern west exclusively values youth. Our overpowering cultural narrative is fix your wrinkles, dye your hair, lose the weight, get the facelift. Paula Freolich, writing for The Free Press, tells an anecdote:

Over the summer I was at a dinner party in the Hamptons when a friend of a certain age—still a society staple but not getting as many invites as she used to—suddenly pounded her fist on the table and screamed: “I AM INVISIBLE! EVERY WOMAN OVER 60 IS!” … Almost every woman at the table— there were 12 of us, and at 50, I was the youngest— appeared shocked and embarrassed. But in the weeks since, most of them privately conceded that they, too, feel passed over, overlooked, not seen—despite the many surgeries they’ve had or the $10,000 outfits they’ve bought. And I—though not yet past the six-decade mark—have to admit my friend wasn’t far off the mark¹

Freolich’s article reviews a film from last year—The Substance— about an aging starlet who will do anything, even take a bizarrely disfiguring medication, to maintain her youthful beauty. And in the modern West, that’s what a woman needs to stay relevant.

But God says to aging women: I prize you. Your income, your beauty, your social status—they don’t matter to me. You do.

How do I know? Just look at Naomi in the book of Ruth, when God carefully tended to a resourceless, depressed, aging woman by means of her daughter-in-law.

Ruth 1:1–5. In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab,² he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

The Hebrew text underscores the tragic loss of all the male members in this family with the word rendered “and she was left” (va tisha’er). Two times it repeats: “and she was left.” Twice, Naomi’s family goes to the grave; 20 words into the text and she is all alone.

What we read in these verses is the end of a family line. And in a world with weak social institutions, Naomi is not just bereaved; she has found herself in a hopeless situation. This is the ancient near east: there’s no government social safety net, no Medicare, no unemployment office, no homeless shelter: only family. In fact, the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary of the Old Testament comments on her situation, saying, “After her husband’s death, normally a widow had to rely on her sons for support; if she had none, she might have to sell herself into slavery, resort to prostitution, or die.”³

It is in the face of this utter devastation that Naomi instructs her daughters-in-law to leave her in chapter 1. She has heard of the end of the famine in Bethlehem, and she will return there; but she essentially says to Ruth and Orpah, Don’t come with me. I have nothing to give you.

Here we encounter some of the most extraordinary words of devotion in the biblical text:

Ruth 1:16–18. But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” And when Naomi saw
that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

With this poetic vow, Ruth commits herself to Naomi in a way that divests herself of her cultural and familial identity. Burial location was a big deal in the ancient world—Genesis records Joseph insisting that, after his death, his bones be exhumed and taken to the promised land for burial, not left in Egypt. Ruth’s statement that “where you die I will die, and there will I be buried,” identifies her completely with Naomi in a bond of deep cultural significance.

There is no romance in the Hebrew Bible between a flesh-and-blood man and woman that compares to this devotion. No warrior utters words like this to his liege lord. No mother speaks like this to her children. In the midst of hopeless devastation, Naomi has a beloved companion in Ruth.

Ruth 1:19–21. So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”

People don’t even recognize Naomi when she returns to Bethlehem after her years of hardship. The text emphasizes this by recording the question the women ask: “Is this Naomi?”

And Naomi’s attitude here shocks me. My culture values include looking on the bright side, being thankful, staying hopeful. But
here, in verse 20, Naomi is wallowing in her mourning hopelessness. She’s certainly not a delightful travelling companion to Ruth!⁴

What are the odds that, back in Moab, Naomi would have known to choose Ruth for one of her sons? Surely God intervened to match Naomi’s family with this wonderful young woman who would serve as such a faithful friend. The two women will, through a series of chance encounters, meet a wealthy older relative and proposition him for Ruth. The book culminates in Ruth’s romance with Boaz and the birth of their first son.

But the way the book concludes tells us that, to God, Naomi is still a focus of all these events. It says it like this:

Ruth 4:14–17. Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.”

Ruth gave birth to the baby! But in the text, the women of the village interpret events for us: God views this baby as a gift to Naomi, too, Naomi who was left without anyone to help her, Naomi who was facing an abbreviated old age of destitution. God saw her, valued her, and gave her a “redeemer”.

I should note the strength of Ruth’s example to us younger women. For at least a generation now, our culture has told us that
we will find value and significance in our careers. But we see in the book of Ruth how the God of the universe values humility, service, and family. The text of chapter 1 implies both that she could have returned to her family and that Ruth’s age made her a candidate for remarriage back in Moab; but she chose to accompany her forlorn and destitute elder relative to a foreign land—Bethlehem. God so prizes Ruth’s devotion that, in the lineage of the Christ, she is one of only three women mentioned by name.⁵ Ruth’s actions were of eternal significance.

What a picture of love the book of Ruth is, and we would do well to learn from it. Youth and romance, so important to the Western world, are eclipsed by the loyalty and friendship between two women of different generations. The book concludes with a piece of information that does not just tell us why the Ruth story matters but should also read like a punch-in-the-gut headline for those of us who love Jesus: “They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David” (Ruth 4:17b).

Question for consideration: How can you demonstrate loyal love to overlooked individuals in your sphere of influence?

1. Paula Froelich, “For Women, Aging Is Like a Horror Film,” The Free Press (2024), https://www.thefp.com/p/demi-moore-the-substance-paula-froelich.[↩]
2. Some have argued it was a sinful mistake to leave Bethlehem (“house of bread,” in Hebrew, ironically). But sojourning elsewhere during a famine was neither rare nor sinful in the OT (see 1 Kgs 17; 2 Kgs 8).[↩]
3. Dale W. Manor, “Ruth,” in Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, vol. 2 of Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament. ed. John H. Walton; Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 246.[↩]
4. Naomi, in keeping with other Old Testament speakers, attributes her fate to Yahweh. But note here that her utterance is hyperbolic mourning, not a fully formed theology of suffering. Her speech gives us a picture of her very real anguish in the face of devastating loss[↩]
5. The Christ’s lineage is accounted by fathers, in line with ancient custom, with three notable exceptions: Tamar, Bathsheba, and Ruth (all foreigners, all young widows—a topic worth study and meditation).[↩]