whatever happened to orpah?

Yes, you read that correctly.  I didn't misspell her name.  I'm not referring to Oprah, the talk show host.  I'm talking about Orpah.  Her story is told in the Old Testament book of Ruth.  She is mentioned in the first fourteen verses of the first chapter and then never again.  Whatever happened to her?  Well that is kind of the point.  Let me explain.

 

 

 

Our small group has recently been studying our way through the book of Ruth.  It has been such a time of deep revelations to my heart and rich new understandings of who God is.  It is amazing how the stories of women who lived sooo long ago in a completely different culture can have such a bearing on my life.  I've learned a lot from Ruth and from her mother-in-law Naomi and from the kind man, Boaz, who eventually becomes her husband.  I've seen the beautiful foreshadowing of Jesus, the One who redeems and makes new, pictured in this Old Testament book.  But, I've also learned a lot from Orpah....the lesser known daughter-in-law.  She is only briefly mentioned, and it has my imagination running wild wondering what became of the rest of her life.  Ruth and Orpah were Moabites.  Enemies of Israel.  Outsiders.  They married Israelite brothers who had come to settle in their land for a time to escape the famine.  In time, they both lost their husbands and their father-in-law.  They were living with their mother-in-law, Naomi, when she decided to return to Israel after hearing the famine was over and God was providing for His people.  They both began the journey back to Israel with her, but only Ruth made it.  Somewhere along the long road back Naomi tried with all of her might and persuasion to get them to go back to Moab.  They would be better off there.  They would be with their families.  They could find new husbands and settle down and have children.  They would be better off without her.  Ruth could not be persuaded.  She was determined to follow Naomi and even more determined to follow Naomi's God.....the God of the Israelites... the One she had heard of who delivered His people and provided for them time and time again.  She wept and she struggled and she hurt deeply, but she pressed forward.  She continued on the road toward Israel.  Orpah on the other hand.  She took the road back to Moab.  She probably thought of the family she would miss and the mother and father she might never see again.  She may have been fearful that Naomi was right and she would never find a husband in Israel.  Who would marry an outsider?  Maybe she couldn't bear to leave her friends behind and thought of the joy of raising children alongside those friends in the years to come.  Maybe her logical reasoning kicked in as she wrestled with the absurdity of moving to Israel.  Why uproot her life and everything comfortable, convenient, and familiar?  Why follow her mother-in-law to live in a foreign land with those who did not know her and may never understand her?  Why follow a God she didn't serve and worship this foreign people's God?  It was just easier to go back to Moab.  And so she did.  And can I really fault her for it?  I'm 99% certain I probably would've done the same thing if I had been in her shoes.  But oh the thought of it just hurts my heart.  What did she miss out on?  I guess we'll never know what her life could have been.  She probably went back to Moab and had a "fine" life.  She probably got remarried, had a few children, took joy in raising them and watching them grow and mature, had great relationships with her friends and family, and lived a long, comfortable, happy life.  But, what if her life could've been all this and SO, SO much more?

 

 

 

Ruth pressed forward into the heartache, into the unknown, into the uncomfort of it all, into the fears and doubts, and into the provision of God.  She, too, could've gone back to Moab and probably had a "fine life", but it would not have been the one that God had waiting for her.  The one He had waiting for her was grander then anything she could have dreamed up or imagined on her own.  Ruth goes on to become the great-grandmother of King David....the great-great grandmother of King Solomon....which makes her a part of the line of King Jesus!  What a legacy!  She went from an outsider to part of the people of God. Yes, she could've turned around on that road like Orpah.  Yes, she could've lived a fine life.  But she would've missed out on SO, SO much that God had in store for her!

 

 

 

Let us be the ones who press forward into the heartache, into the unknown, into the uncomfort of it all, into the fears and doubts, and into the provision of God.  Let us not do things our own way.  Let us not go back to our own Moabs.  Let us walk forward on the road trusting the God who is with us each step of the way!