Ruth, Esther, and a GOOD DAY!

Thought about the book of Ruth


Written by a woman? Seems to be, except for the final genealogy report.

And what exactly happened to the two sons of Naomi? Were they hit by the bus? Was it because of the intermarriage?

(Side note: Does anyone else see OPRAH when they read Orpah?)

It would probably be a shame if I didn’t mention possibly the most possibly moving passage in the Bible...Ruth says, "Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die-there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more aw well, if even death parts me from you!” You just don’t see this type of dedication everyday! Ruth loves Naomi, mother of her deceased husband, and shows her love by following Naomi to Bethlehem

So, Ruth remarries Boaz and everyone is happy. That’s it. Everyone seems to like the Book of Ruth and I can see why. It’s simple, it’s happy, and it’s easy to read. It doesn’t shove any laws down your throat and God isn’t smiting anyone. Perfect.

Esther

It seems that we dove into this book at just the right time. With all of the feasting these people are doing (I think I noted 10 different meals!) it got me in the mood for Thanksgiving and then for the multiple feasts of leftover that take place in the following days. Delicious!

So let me get this straight, King Ahasuerus gets all liquored up on “royal wine” and then wants to show his woman off to all of his buddies, but she doesn’t feel like being objectified so he kicks her to the curb? Hmmm, and women wonder where men learned such behavior. Again, I guess we will blame the bible. However, I just told my boyfriend the same story and he said “I think we both just learned a valuable less here: Be a good woman and listen to your husband.” He’s not serious, he’s from Vermont.

So perhaps this little blog is turning more into an “oh my goodness are you kidding me?” blog because as I reread Esther I see that approaching the King uninvited, even if you are his wife, is punished by the death penalty? Whoa. Let’s talk about patriarchy.

Alright, after all of the crazy rules and woman ruling the book gets better. I followed my reading up with a little youtube searching and found a trailer to the Veggie Tales version “Esther...the girl who became a queen” and found it to be fairly accurate and more than mildly entertaining. I was having a hard time figuring out exactly what this book was about because it read like multiple stories I have read before, movies that I have watched, and situations I have seen people confronted with in reality. I guess, the book of Esther is simply about the courage to do what’s right. Is that too simple? Chapter 4 verse 14 says “For if you keep silent at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” Esther really has no other choice than to help save her people, even if her attempt results in her own death. Ya, I like this story. It’s been made into many movies (other than Veggie Tales) that are based loosely on the book...I can see why. In fact, this may be the plot of about 80% of all of the movies I have seen.



In closing, I want to add a note about “having a good day”... I have dedicated a pretty lengthy blog about a having a bad day and it doesn’t seem right to only write a few sentences about a good day when I wrote a whole entry about a bad day, but then again some say that the stories of the Bible tell us to be more humble. At any rate...I had a good day! It’s been a helluva semester for me...I took too many classes and work too many hours. I’m trying to attain the elusive “straight A’s” but don’t really see that happening. I needed a break to catch up on schoolwork, sleep, and sanity. Finally, Thanksgiving break arrived. I headed down to Utah with the boyfriend and met up with his family. I cooked the entire Thanksgiving Day meal and everyone liked it. Our dogs played until they were exhausted and everyone was happy. There isn’t anything exciting to report, but it was a good day and for that I am thankful. It’s easy to point out the bad days and let the good days go by the wayside. So, here is my good day blog and I can check that one off of the list.