From Ruth: 4:11 we can see elders blessing Ruth to become like Rachel and Leah. Ruth is the first book written in the name of a woman and gives a lot of emphasis to redemption, building the house of Israel, building the kingdom of Israel, etc,. From the verse, we can understand that it’s not Jacob who build the house of Israel but it is Rachel and Leah who build the house. Both of them married a man and they had a lot of differences in terms of beauty, character, abilities, and talents. But one beautiful thing to note is that despite all the differences and circumstances they united with Jacob to build the house/ nation of Israel. When elders of the Boaz’s town took the nation’s mother’s name to bless an alien widow the whole land witnessed their faithfulness, loyalty, commitment to her mother-in-law and master.
Our family also has mothers who put their unconditional love and continuous efforts to build our house and the family-like our Vallyammachi. They didn’t go after the problems, they sacrificed their lives to build our family thus far. As I’m telling about our mothers, I’m not undermining the contribution of our fathers. I just want to emphasize the importance of their role in a patriarchal and modern age to nurture, build and develop the family. There are mothers like Lot’s wife and Jezebel in the Bible who ruined their family and made it accursed by going after selfishness and unfaithfulness.
If we are not faithful, loyal, selfless, and committed to building our family, our family will have the same situation as Jezebel and Ahab’s family. If we are selfish our children may also be like Lot’s children. On the other hand, the commitment and faithfulness of Ruth gave birth to Kings and Kingdoms through her posterity. Her love for God was rewarded through the birth of a real King from her family and the birth of the Savior of the World. Let’s think about how much we are building our household or are we destroying it. May God bless you
