A Widow in Moab

By the time the first 5 verses fall out of the story of Ruth, her mother-in-law, Naomi, including Ruth and Orpah have been left widowed.  It would be unfair for me to be dogmatic, but my sense is that women today certainly face a better future if widowed.  I certainly don't say that callously or as if their lives are not devastated by the loss of their husband.  But in Israel, 1200 years before Christ it was a horrible scenario.

Providentially, I was reading a sermon by Dr. Tim Keller [1], in which he vividly portrays the life of a widow in Israel.  This helps us understand the tragedy of Ruth:

"We’ve got to stop, right away. Because, if we’re going to understand the message of this passage, we have to ask ourselves: “what was the significance of childbearing in those ancient cultures.” Let me put it in a nutshell. The more children you had, the better your family did. The more children you had, the more your land produced. The more your shop produced, because you had more labor…and the more income you had. Therefore, the number of children completely determined the fate of your family…its status in society…its security economically…completely.       

Secondly, when you got old…if you didn’t have adult children to live with…you literally starved to death. And, if you wanted to have three adult children when you got to old age, you needed to have about eight-to-ten…because that’s all that would live to maturity.       

Thirdly, if your whole tribe – your whole nation wasn’t having lots and lots of children…the tribe next door would grow in greater population – and therefore come and conquer you. So you can see, if a group of women were around a well, drawing water, and one of them said, “I think I only want to have one or two children,” the rest of them would say, “what…do you have a death wish or something?” And not only that, they would say, “this isn’t just about you…it’s about all of us. Unless you have as many children as you possibly can, you’re dooming us economically, militarily, politically…”       

Therefore, a woman who bore many children in those ancient cultures was a national hero . . . Women, who either didn’t have children because they weren’t married…or couldn’t have children because of some physical impediment…felt worthless…and were regarded as worthless. If you want a perfect example of that, go to the book of Genesis where Rachel, the wife of Jacob, is seeking to have children…and she can’t have children…and she says, “give me children or I’ll die.” That about sums it up…in those cultures." [emphasis is mine]

"Fundamentally, God is the kind of God who keeps a careful eye on the widow. He is profoundly concerned for her, together with the stranger and the fatherless. He is righteous and protects them for he is “a father of the fatherless, a defender of widows . . . in his holy habitation,” (Psalm 68:5)."[2]

“You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.” (Exodus 22:22–24, ESV)

“The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.” (Psalm 146:9, ESV)

“But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:8, ESV)  

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1. Timothy J. Keller. A Vision for a Gospel-Centered Life (Kindle Locations 675-692). Kindle Edition.
2. https://www.crossway.org/articles/why-does-the-bible-say-so-much-about-widows/