Ruth 1:14

Orpah kissed her mother-in-law; but Ruth clave unto her.

Orpah’s defection

I. Worldly respects are great hindrances in the course of godliness. The world keepeth from the entertaining of the truth (Matthew 22:5); it hindereth in the receiving of it.

II. An unsound heart may for a time make a fair show in the way to Canaan, but yet turn back at the last, as Orpah doth here. And this is by reason, first, of certain motions of religion, which maketh them in general to approve of the same; holding this, that it is a good thing to be religious, and that none can find fault with a man for that. Further, the working of the Word, moving the heart in some sort to entertain it. And, lastly, the desire of praise and good esteem with men: these will make hollow hearts to set on a while to heavenward, but shall not be able to enter.

III. Such as want soundness towards God for religion may yet have otherwise commendable parts in them. For Orpah is commended for a kind wife, as well as Ruth by Naomi, and for a kind daughter-in-law (verse 8); and she showed good humanity in going on the way with her mother-in-law, yea, a good natural affection in weeping so at parting. (R. Bernhard.)

Orpah; or, the mere professor

An onlooker not able to discover the difference between Orpah and Ruth so far. The crisis has come. Both had made professions (verse 10). Here the difference is made apparent.

I. We learn that it is possible to go a long way towards Christianity and yet not to be a Christian. To be born, educated, and dwell in Christian households, these are great blessings, but do not constitute or make a Christian. It will not do to be almost, we must be altogether, decided for Christ. The cup that is almost sound will not hold water. The ship that is almost whole will not weather the storm. Feelings, sentiment, profession are all good if they spring from a living faith in Jesus Christ; without this they are worse than worthless.

II. We learn that it is possible to deceive ourselves, and to think that all is right when in truth all is wrong with our souls. Hardly possible that Orpah played the conscious hypocrite. She meant what she did when she became a proselyte--did not deliberately act a part. Feeling and sentiment (love for her husband) blinded her eyes. Love to God, which she had thought supreme in her heart, subordinate to the love of Moab. This often so with men; they are not hypocrites, they are self-deceivers. Education, circumstances, the force of influences around them, produce an emotional religion which they mistake for vital godliness. They hear with joy like the “stony-ground hearers.”

III. We learn that our religion will not profit us at all unless it be characterised by perseverance to the end. Improvement: Is our profession a mere profession or the fruit of a living faith? Brought by circumstances to the boundary-line between life and death, have we stopped there? The Bible full of such instances. Felix trembled; Balaam prophesied; Herod heard gladly; Judas sat at the sacramental table with our Lord! Whatever we do, we must not stop short of conversion; if we do, we perish. (Aubrey C. Price, B. A.)

A good word for Orpah

The others did not greatly blame her, and we, for our part, may not reproach her. It is unnecessary to suppose that in returning to her kinsfolk and settling down to the tasks that offered in her mother’s house she was guilty of despising truth and love and renouncing the best. We may reasonably imagine her henceforth bearing witness for a higher morality, and affirming the goodness of the Hebrew religion among her friends and acquaintances. Ruth goes where affection and duty lead her; but for Orpah too it may be claimed that in love and duty she goes back. She is not one who says, “Moab has done nothing for me; Moab has no claim upon me; I am free to leave my country; I am under no debt to my people.” We shall not take her as a type of selfishness, worldliness, or backsliding, this Moabite woman. Let us rather believe that she knew of those at home who needed the help she could give, and that with the thought of least hazard to herself mingled one of the duty she owed to others. (R. A. Watson, M. A.)