Compare/Contrast

Application

• Words tend to be very easy to say without actual intent to perform. Actions sometimes are faulty, but they are a better measurement. Lifestyle, the combination of highs and lows, is the best measurement.
• People tend to be exceedingly quick to blame God for what is their own fault.
• Conclusion: Compare/Contrast” calls to examine what is the same and what is different. Both Naomi and Ruth arrive in Bethlehem. However, Ruth has looked to God in hope and faith, and Naomi has looked to herself with no hope or faith.

Bible Text

(14) And they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. (15) Then she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” (16) But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back 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. (17) Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the LORD do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.” (18) When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

(19) So they both went until they came to Bethlehem. And when they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was stirred because of them, and the women said, “Is this Naomi?” (20) She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. (21) I went out full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

-Ruth 1:6-13 (NASB)