However Naomi was dealing with her bitterness, she still managed to influence her daughters-in-law in a very godly way and to win their love and devotion. When she decided to return to her people, they both wanted to accompany her. Sue and I have three wonderful sons-in-law and one daughter-in-law. We love them as our own children and know they love us too. What a joy and a privilege!

Both Ruth and Orpah set out with Naomi, but on the way she encouraged them to return to their Moabite families. "But they started crying and said to her, 'No! We will go with you to your people.' 'You must go back, my daughters [I am too old to provide husbands for you] … the Lord has turned against me, and I feel sorry for you [for having lost your own husbands]'. Again they started crying. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye and went back home … to her people and to her god."

For about ten years Orpah had been exposed to Naomi's witness to the greatness of her God Yahweh and had experienced his loving-kindness expressed through her and, in all probability, through her own husband. She truly wanted to return with Naomi and wept over the possibility of being separated from her. But there were other things she loved more: her own god, her own people and the probability of marrying one of them.

Sadly, there are many like Orpah. Some are faithfully brought up in Christian homes and others become very involved in local churches because of their friends. They are exposed to the Gospel and to a real experience of God's love through God's people, yet they never receive Jesus as Saviour and Lord. The rich young ruler walked away because he valued his wealth above becoming a disciple of Jesus. The Bible talks about a stubborn refusal to believe. This may not be obvious as such to those looking on, but at the end of the day the decision to follow Jesus is a personal one. The invitation is to come to him and his promise is that those who do so will never be rejected by him or snatched away from him.