Welcome to Trace’s Space. This morning I was thinking about being prepared for life and expectations, how unprepared we really are for the things life hands us and God got me thinking about Orpah.
Orpah was Ruth’s sister who was married to her husbands brother, Naomi’s son, both of which who died along with Naomi’s husband. She is a brief part of the story in the book of Ruth and Ruths journey from becoming a widow to becoming part of the liniage of Jesus.
For those unfamiliar, after the death of their husbands Naomi decides to return to Israel to Bethlehem to her folks because her husband and sons have died. She was technically alone. She urges her daughters in law to return to their people, Orpah goes but Ruth refuses because she loves this woman who is now her family.
That’s where the story seems to ends for Orpah... what happened to her? You won’t believe it! According to the Bible she went home... Historians indicate this woman from the moment she received the kiss goodbye from Ruth, then entered into a life of utter chaos. She was rejected by her people, so inturn she ended up amongst the Philistines. She gave birth to six sons, six different fathers, six Giants... one being Goliath!
Years later there would be a encounter with Ruth’s great grandson David and this giant! According to the Talmud (a collection of Jewish writings) not only did Goliath die at the hands of David but so did Orpah her death brought on by defending her surviving son who constantly went after Israel, so she was killed by a General in David’s army... this woman spun out of control....
Sad thing is she was a bargaining tool, sold off to a King as a political pawn, then used by men for what ever! Her life, awful!
One sister Ruth, represents good... the other sister Orpah, represents evil.
I imagine Orpah wanted revenge, even though she chose to return home. Her idea of redemption was killing off what I imagine she thought should have been her inheritance.
I don’t imagine that Ruth ever thought that her sister would come at her family in such evil ways! I figure as we see the example of her ability to love, she thought her sister loved her as much as she loved Orpah. How incredibly sad!
The day those girls married brothers, they were happy and could have never imagined where life would lead them...two starting on the same basic path, but life handing them a crappy deal. I don’t think that Ruth thought her sisters life would be a living hell, and it probably was because she was in relationships with men who did not value her, the worst part, Orpah was fully aware of Ruth’s blessings. Ruth’s family was royalty, full of honor... Oprah’s family was royalty as well, but they were bullies!
What tragedy!
Families... the good, the bad, the ugly. So back to what initially brought me to Ruth and Orpah. I was thinking about a local news story, a teenager that went into a school and stabbed a bunch of people, and a interview that was done with this kids parents. It was incredibly sad, at first they were mortified, they thought perhaps he was a victim, little did they know he was the perpetrator. They talked about a neighbor who called them and told them they needed to check their kitchen for missing knives, their son was the one trying to kill his school mates. Never in their lives did they expect this.
Stories like this happen every day.
We never expect life to hand us a crap storm. But sometimes it does, and our choice to follow good or evil is completely up to us.
We need to pray daily that God guides us and protects us. He keeps us in check and bitterness far away. It is so easy to get caught up in bitterness, it’s like cancer, it grows until it kills you! That is precisely what happened to Orpah!
Lord,
I pray today for families. No matter what situations come our way we rely on you to get us through! Kept our Hart’s from getting hard and cold! Protect us from the cruelness of this world. Amen.
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