Engaging the Rogue
I don't want to go all over the planet here, but recently I watched a young black woman's video-I didn't copy it or I would share it, but I watched it and the title went something like: 'until you know where you're at in his life, stop acting like his wife'.
It might be possible to google that and find it. However, her point was 'women, stop acting like you're married to the dude when you're just shacking up. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? was a popular phrase back in the day, and it still makes sense. She finished with the point, if you keep living like that with no commitment from him, all you'll end up being is his witness when he does find a 'real' wife. As in "I lived in sin until I found my wife, the love of my life".'
Many women don't know and aren't taught that lesson. They believe they are 'liberated' by sleeping around. They aren't. They aren't held in a place of honor, just rolled in the mire.
Ruth 3:1 "And Naomi her mother-in-law said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?
Perhaps you've read Ruth's story in the Bible book of Ruth. A young Moabite woman taken as a wife into a Jewish home. When all three men die—in the passing of time—Naomi, the mother-in-law, and the two daughters-in-law Orpah and Ruth are left. Orpah returns to her parents, but Ruth clings to her mother-in-law in an impassioned plea "16) And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, and to return from following after thee, for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; 17) where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: Jehovah do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."
Naomi goes home to Bethlehem and Ruth goes with her. Ruth finds ways to help Naomi and provide for their needs. In so doing she catches the attention of a wealthy man (Boaz) of the area. Ruth has acquired an excellent reputation amongst the local population as she worked to care for Naomi and herself.
After a few weeks of watching and listening, Naomi can see how things are stacking up and she decides she should help Ruth find 'rest'. Boaz was a near relative of Ruth's deceased husband and as such was in line (according to the Law of Moses) to marry Ruth, and raise up an heir to Ruth's previous husband so that his name didn't lose his property.
Ruth followed Naomi's instructions. Ruth went down to the threshing floor where Boaz was threshing and the long and short of it was in the legal language of their day she asked him to take her as his wife and take care of her:
...9) And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thy handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thy handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman. "
Naomi was seeking 'rest' for Ruth, and that rest included being a wife and a mother. Naomi sought for Ruth her own household, her own home. God designed families. God didn't intend for single parenthood. One person isn't supposed to raise the children. Does it happen? Yes, spouses do die, (as in Naomi and Ruth's cases). Bad things do happen, but when God created the world it was perfect. It wasn't until Adam and Eve disobeyed God that evil entered the world, and with it death and sin.
Single parenthood even in this world should be something that is few and far between, yet there has been a horrible increase.
The scriptures teach: Hebrews 13:4 "Let marriage be had in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: for fornicators and adulterers God will judge."
Religion has come under fire not because it is incompetent, but because—as G.K. Chesterson puts it:
"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”
Ruth 4:13 "So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife; and he went in unto her, and Jehovah gave her conception, and she bare a son. 14) And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be Jehovah, who hath not left thee this day without a near kinsman; and let his name be famous in Israel. 15) And he shall be unto thee a restorer of life, and a nourisher of thine old age, for thy daughter-in-law, who loveth thee, who is better to thee than seven sons, hath borne him.
