Two Sermons, Commentary · Chapter 1 · Verse 7
Vers. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.
And when she kissed them, they lift up their voices, and wept.
And they said unto her, Surely, we will returne with thee, unto thy people.
But Naomi said, Turne againe my daughters: for what cause will you goe with me? Are there any more sonnes in my Wombe, that they may be your Husbands?
Turne againe my daughters, goe your way, for I am too old to have an Husband: If I should say, I … h…pe; and if I had an Husband this night; yea, if I had borne sonnes:
Wo…ld you tarry for them while they were of age? Would you be deferred for them from taking of Husbands? Nay my daughters, for it grieveth me much for your sakes, that the hand▪ of the Lord is gone out against me.
And when she kissed them.
KIsses was the ordinarie salutation of the Iewes at the meeting of acquaintance, men with men, women with women, men with women; provided, that then they were of neere kindred, to avoid all suspition of unchastitie.
And they lift up their voices, and mept.
The observation here, may be the same which the Iewes collected, Iohn 11. which when they saw our Saviour weepe for Lazarus, they said, Behold how he loved him. So these teares in this place were the expression of their affection. Sorrow like the River of Iordan, 1 Chron. 12. in the first monethmonth did overflow the bankes, and streamed water downe their che…k…s.
But Naomi said, Turne againe my daughters, &c.
In these words, she disswadeth her daughters in law from returning with her; the strength of her Reason, contained in three Verses, may thus be set downe, as if she had said: Happily daughters you have heard, that it is the custome in the Land of Canaan, for Childlesse Widowes to marry their deceased Husbands Brothers; But if your returne be grounded hereon, know, that you build your hopes on a false foundation, it being impossible for me, by the course of Nature, to have any more sonnes. Who will looke, that Water should …low from a drie Fountain, Grapes grow on a withered Vine, Fruit flourish on a dead Figge-tree? Though Sarah at 90 was made a Mother, though Aar…n's Rod did bud and blossome when it was drie; I my selfe should be a Miracle, if I should expect such a Miracle: and therefore know, that there are no more sonnes in my Wombe.
Doctrine.
Now whereas N…omi dealeth thus plainly with her daughters, not feeding them with false hopes, it teacheth us this: We ought not to gull our friends with the promises of those things that neither will nor can come to passe. Otherwise we shall both wrong our friends, who the higher they are mounted upon the Hill of seeming hopes, at length the deeper they will be cast into the Dale of reall despaire; and also we shall wrong our selves; when Time, the Mother of Truth, shall unmaske us, we shall prove our selves to be no better then Lyars and Cheaters.
Vse.
Let us labour to be Nathanaels, true Israelites, in whom there is no guile; and as Iohn Baptist, when as the Pharises asked him, whether he was the Christ, or no? Iohn 1. 20. he confessed, and denyed not, and said plainly, I am not the Christ: So if we neither meane to doe, nor know, that such things cannot be done which our friends request of us; let us confesse, denie not, and say plainly, that their suites cannot, shall not be granted; and by such downe-right dealing, we shall at last get more favour from them, then they who flatter them with their tongue. Let not the Physician, when he reades in the Urinall those dismal symptomes, which are the Ushers of Death, still promise Life and Health unto his Patient; but plainly tell him, that there is Mors in ol…a; that so he may flye unto the Physician of the Soule, for a better Life, when this shall fade. Let not the Lawyer, when he knowes the Case is desperate, feed his Clyent with false hopes to recover it, that so from …im he may be fed with Money; but rather let him advise him to agree with his adversarie while he is in the way; that though he cannot get the Conquest, yet he may have the easier Composition.
For I am too old to have a Husband.
Here ariseth a Question.
Question.
Is there any Age so old, wherein a man or woman may not marry?
Answer.
Naomies meaning was not simply and absolutely, that she was too old to marry, but she was too old to have a Husband, and by a Husband to have Children, and that those Children should grow up, and make fit Husbands for Orpah and Ruth. Yet by the way, I would advise such who are stricken in yeares, especially if impotencie be added unto Age, and that it may stand with their conveniencie, to refraine from all thoughts of a second Marriage, and to expect that happie day, when Death shall solemnize the Nuptiall betwixt their Soule and their Saviour. For when Barzillai hath counted 80 yeares, he hath even had enough of the pleasure and vanitie of the world; let him retire himselfe to a private life, and not envie his sonne Cimcham to succeed to those delights, of which his Age hath made his Father uncapable. Yet if any ancient persons, for their mutuall comfort and societie, (which is not the least end for which Marriage was ordained) are disposed to match themselves herein, they are blamelesse; especially, if they have a care to observe a correspondenci… of Age with those to whom they linke themselves. Otherwise, as our Saviou… noteth, when the old Cloth was joyned to the new, it made no good medley, but the Rent was made the worse: So when the Spring of Youth is wedded to the Winter of Age, no true comfort can arise from such unequall Yokes, but much jealousie and suspition are caused from the fame.
Would ye tarry for them?
That is, you would not tarry for them; or if you should tarry for them, you should wrong your selves, and doe unadvisedly; because in the mean time refraining from the using of Gods Ordinance, you expose your selves to the Devill, to tempt you to incontinencie. Therefore S. Pauls councell is good which he prescribes in 1 Tim. 5. 14. I will therefore that the younger Women, &c.
While they were of age.
Note from hence, that Children are not to be married in their Non-age, before they are arrived at yeares of discretion: Than…ar Gen. 38. is to wait till Selah be grown up. Those Parents are therefore to be blamed, who out of by-respects, match their Children in their infancie. Whence it commeth to passe, that as their age doth increase, their minde doth alter: so what formerly they did like, afterwards they do loath, such Marriages proving commonly most insuccessfull.
N…y, my Daughters: for it grieveth me much for your sakes.
As if she had said▪ It grieveth me much that you are already plunged into povertie; but it would add more to my sorrow, if you should increase your calamities by returning home with me; for mine own part, my misery troubleth me not so much, because the Sun of my life is readie to set, and it mattereth not though the Ship be scanted of Victuals, when it is hard by the Harbour; all my care is for you who are young women, and stand upon your own preferment; it grieveth me much for your sakes.
Doctrine.
See here, Such is the ingenuous nature of Gods Children, that they sorrow more for others that are inwrapped with them in a common calamitie, then for themselves. Example in Elias, 1 King. 17. 20. Put then it goeth nearest to their heart, when others are not onelyonly afflicted with them, but also for them, when they themselves are the principall Malefactors for whose defaults others are punish't, as in David, 2 Sam. 24. 17.
Vses.
It may confute the devillish nature of such, who being in Trouble, care not though they pawne their dearest friends in their stead, so be it they themselves may escape. And it may also serve to comfort those that are in distresse, when God onelyonly layeth his punishments on them alone, and doth not involve others together with them. Art thou afflicted with povertie? Comfort thy selfe, that though thou beest poore, yet thou hast undone none by Suretiship for thee. Art thou in sicknesse? Be glad that thy Disease is not infectious, and that thou hast not derived the contagion to others. Doth God punish thee for thy sinne with a personall punishment? Be glad that thou bearest the weight of thine owne offence, and that thou art not the Ionah, for whose private sinne a whole Ship of Passengers is endangered to be cast away; for then their case would grieve thee more then thine owne calamitie.
That the hand of the Lord.
Naomi here taketh especiall notice, that her Losses proceedeth from no other bycauses, but from the hand of God. As David therefore asked the Widow of Tekoah, 2 Sam. 14. Is not the …and of Joab with thee in all this? So when any affliction befalleth us, let us presently have recourse unto God, and say, Is not the hand of the Lord the principall cause hereof? And not with the Priests of the Philistims say, It was a chance that happened us.
Is gone out against me.
Observ.
Hence we may observe, every Saint of God, in a common calamitie, is to thinke, that God aimed at his punishment, and intended his reformation in particular. The hand of the Lord was gone out also against Orpah and Ruth, in taking away their Husbands; yet Naomi appropriateth the stroake to her selfe, Is gone out against me.
How contrarie is this to the practice of the world? Men in a publike and a generall affliction, each shifteth it off from themselves, and no one man will be brought to confesse that his sinnes are punished, or his amendment intended in particular, if the Scourge be universall. As the Philistims, 1 Sam. 5. posted the Ark of God from Ashdod to Ekron, from one place to another, and none would receive it: So, in a common Calamitie, none will acknowledge, that he himselfe is especicially interested in it, but plead, What is that to us? Let others looke unto it. O, saith the people, God hath justly sent this Plague for the corruption of the Magistrates; It is justly in…licted, saith the Magistrate, for the disobedience of the people: Herein, saith the poore man, God hath met with the oppression and extortion of the Rich; Herein, saith the rich man, God hath payed home the muttering & the repining of the Poore: Now, saith the prodigall, God punisheth the covetousnesse of Old men; Now, saith the old m…n, he scourgeth the prodigalitie of such as be Young. Farre otherwise Naomi, who though the Arrowes of God did glance and rebound, to the wounding of Orpah and Ruth, yet she thought she her selfe was the Mark at whom God did levell his Shafts; The hand of the Lord is gone …ut against me.