God has spoken once and for all in His Son Jesus (Heb 1:1-3) through the pages of Scripture. Yet His speaking doesn’t mean everyone hears His voice. This is why Jesus said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear (11.15" class="scriptRef">Mt 11:15; 13.9" class="scriptRef">13:9, 43; Mk 4:9, 23; Lk 8:8; 14:35; Rev 2:7, 11,17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). Sometimes it is only in our pain and suffering that our hearts and minds are open to hearing Him. "God’s wounds cure; sin’s kisses kill" (William Gurnall).

I. Returning to Bethlehem (Ruth 1:6-7). In the midst of her grief, Naomi heard news of hope. God had not forgotten His people. He’d graciously visited Israel with bread. He is the Lord over lots and little, feast and famine, plenty and poverty (Deut 28:23-24, 38-40). The phrase visited His people (Ruth 1:6) is a figure of speech used of God acting to either bless/help or curse/judge (1 Sam 2:21; 3:2-21; Judg 13:2; Ps 65:9; 106:4; Is 10:3; 23:17; Jer 27:22; 29:10; Zech 10:3; Lk 1:68, 78). His discipline of His sinning people ended, and Naomi ended her stay in a strange land.

II. Returning to Moab (Ruth 1:8-15). As a stranger in a strange land herself, Naomi knew the difficulty her daughters-in-law would face in Israel. She told Orpah and Ruth to return to Moab and marry. The interaction was deeply emotional, as the three women had grown close through their trials.
Naomi sent them away with a two-fold blessing. First that YHWH would deal kindly with them as they had toward her. This phrase is the Hebrew word hesed. There is no English word equivalent for hesed, but it suggests loyalty, kindness, mercy, and love from a covenant relationship. Second, that the women would find rest or security with new husbands.
Neither woman would leave Naomi, but she once again commanded Ruth and Orpah to return to Moab. Even if Naomi remarried and had more sons, her daughters-in-law wouldn’t wait for them to grow to marriageable ages. Levirate marriage was prescribed in the Law (Deut 25:5-16) and common in the ancient world (Gen 38:1-10; Mt 22:23-33). The word "levir" is Latin and means husband’s brother.
Most ancient people were farmers, and owning land was a necessity to life. If a man died without an heir, levirate marriage required the dead man’s brother to marry the widow with the goal of providing an heir in her dead husband’s name. The heir would then inherit property and provide for the financial survival of the widow.
Naomi struggled getting past the deaths of her husband and sons. Her grief drove her view of the future and she blamed God for her suffering and loss. She knew God was at work, but thought He was working against her. She forgot that "Affliction may be lasting, but it is not everlasting" (Thomas Watson). God was guilty of wrongdoing, but not her; He was sovereign, but unjust. Naomi worried God might fail Ruth and Orpah as He failed her.
Though sweet toward her daughters-in-law, Naomi was sour toward God. Rather than learning about herself or God in her suffering, she’d become bitter against Him. She couldn’t see what God was doing because she clung to the past, yet God was at work, moving all things providentially according to His eternal will. Unless one has a sound grounding in the knowledge of God’s attributes and character, bitterness of heart is always a sad possibility in life.
Orpah would follow Naomi until the consequences hit her. She refused the possibility of a social famine in Israel and returned to Moab’s greener fields and her false gods.

III. Refusing to Return (Ruth 1:14). Ruth, however, clung to Naomi, a word meaning to be glued together as one. The same word used in Genesis 2:24 of the sexual union in marriage between a husband and wife, and suggests loyalty, faithfulness, and commitment.