We saw last time that
Naomi, found in the Bible Book of Ruth,
could have grown up during the Exodus wanderings in the wilderness. This isn’t
found in the Biblical record so we must use our imagination to figure out the
timing and the possible events. In my Biblical novel Naomi’s Joy, I postulate her childhood and how she meets her
husband Elimelech.
In my book, she encounters
Elimelech after rescuing one of his newborn lambs and the ewe from a flooded
wadi. Months later the man approaches Naomi’s brother Isaac and the betrothal
and marriage are arranged.
“Finally I
found my voice, “Elimelech…me.” The two stammered words were all I could force
out.
“Yes,
Elimelech spoke to me after the Sabbath prayers,” Isaac could no longer contain
the secret…
“The
betrothal will be sealed this Sabbath,” Mother interjected. “After the Passover
we will hold the marriage feast.”
“So soon?” My
sentence was brief when I considered how rapidly my life was changing.
“It is a
shorter betrothal than many,” acknowledged the woman. “The man is lonely. He
has admired you since before you rescued his sheep.”
She did not acknowledge the thought
that immediately came to my mind. As soon as I was wed to Elimelech he would be
responsible for my family.
Naomi is wed in the fashion of the people of Israel. In my book, she is
14 years old, a normal age to be wed. Soon she is pregnant and hopes for a son,
who is born in due time. This delights her husband. In her marriage, Naomi
finds the love she lost when her father died, and even starts to trust in God a
little more, but not for long.
“I have a
son!” Elimelech entered the tent grinning with delight. “Let me see my son!”
“He has
fallen asleep,” I cautioned, holding the newborn carefully so his father could
see him.
The man
dropped to his knees beside my pallet. One finger stroked the soft cheek. His
hand looked huge next to the tiny head.
“You have
given me a son,” my reward was a kiss on the forehead.
I was happy.
My husband sat beside me. Together we watched the sleeping baby.
“The great God is wonderful,” at
last the man spoke. “See how perfectly my son is made. I must offer the
sacrifice of thanksgiving. Our son will be blessed.”
Naomi’s son is a sickly child, in fact his name Mahlon means ‘sickly’.
Naomi pours her love into the baby and later his brother Chilion. When the new
baby is weak, the family fears that they have sinned.
Like Mahlon,
at first the infant was slow to thrive. He was lethargic and slept much of the
time. Elimelech offered a goat as propitiation.
“It may be
that we have sinned somehow,” he pointed out, “and God is punishing us with
weak sons.”
I wracked my
brain for some trivial or large transgression. The only thing I could identify
was my secret jealousy against my sisters.
“God of
Israel, I am sorry that I have envied Hephzibah for her beauty and
desirability,” it was a private conversation with the clouds on Sinai just before
the congregation moved on toward the summer pastures in the north.
“We can no
longer claim Chilion is failing. Look how plump he is.” I rejoiced with my
husband only a moon turning later. “Mahlon is stronger, too. God has heard me.”
The fear that her failures bring about bad things in her life haunts
Naomi for much of her life, in my book. We,
too can get caught up in trying to figure out how to appease the ‘angry God’
when things go wrong. In my family, my own mother often felt she had to
earn God’s love. She feared that the results of things she did, or didn’t do
showed that God was angry with her. Only much later in her life does Naomi
learn that God loves her and has not been punishing her at all. My mother,
sadly, only had brief times in her life when she felt truly loved.
Have you ever felt that you did something to make God angry when things
have gone wrong? What helped you
discover that God is love, not vengeance?
For many generations women and girls were constrained by societal mores
to plan on being wives and mothers first. In many cases that was the only
avenue open to them. They handled household things. Men were responsible for
crops and herds and business. Women who stepped outside of the norm were looked
at suspiciously and sometimes labeled as harlots or ostracized. That is much
less true today, which gives young women many more options. In fact, many women
feel the pressure to do both career and home, and to do them perfectly. Now,
those women who stay at home to care for children and husband are looked at
with suspicion. Some may even be the subject of gossip that says ‘she’s just
lazy’ or ‘she has no ambition’. Anyone who has raised children knows that is
totally false.
As a child in the 50’s and 60’s, I found myself caught in the whirlpool
of the Women’s Rights movement as I came to young adulthood. I found myself
torn between the ‘good old’ attitude that being a home-body wife and mother was
best, and the ‘new’ understanding that a woman could be anything she wanted. I
opted for the traditional role and only gradually eased into the workplace. However,
my choice was not without some soul searching and ‘what if’ questions to
myself.
Look back at your own teen and young adult years. Were you influenced
by societal expectations to marry? Did you have the option to choose career or
marriage? Have you felt pressure to do
everything to have the approval of family and/or society?
