Daughters in Law

Then she arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread.

Ruth 1:6

There is almost nothing more blasphemous than a mother-in-law joke. There. I’ve said it. Now I just need to show it from Scripture.

Introduction

For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother,

the daughter in law against her mother in law;

a man's enemies are the men of his own house.

Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

Micah 7:6-7

Woe to us when we call evil good, and good evil… but perhaps a greater woe is when we call evil normal, and call good abnormal. Indeed when we see good as so abnormal that we preach that it must have taken a whole lot of effort to produce what previous generations would have seen as a routine good.

Isn’t that the case? If you were to visit family, and see that that the daughter’s in law had a good relationship with their mother in law. That the sons had married, brought the women home, and they were living comfortably and happily as part of the same household as their mother in law. Wouldn’t you, or if not you many of those around you, start talking about how odd that was? How they really needed to separate themselves, form their own house, and… perhaps you wouldn’t quite say this but it would be there underlyingly… start to have a little ‘natural’ antipathy toward their mother-in-law.

And yet, Scripture teaches the exact opposite. Scripture teaches that the normal state of affairs is that a daughter-in-law lives in her father-in-law’s house, and has a good relationship with… her mother-in-law.

And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him.

Ruth 4:15

The Problem of Orpah

And Naomi said unto her two daughters in law, Go, return each to her mother's house: the LORD deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me.

Ruth 1:8

I have heard sermons where Orpah, one of the daughter’s in law of Naomi, is castigated for abandoning her mother-in-law. What I have rarely heard is anyone using Orpah as a condemnation for our society.

Job’s three friends are similarly condemned. I would like to know how many of their detractors were willing to sit for three days… no, wait, it was seven days and seven nights… completely silent, while he mourned. No? I didn’t think so.

Similarly I would like for the critics of Orpah to even come close to being as honouring to their mothers-in-law as Orpah was before she left. She was living with her, first of all. That leaves about zero Americans. And she left with her. Did you catch that? Packed up, on the road, traveling together. And she refused to go back the first two times her mother in law told her to!

So, sorry, Orpah stands in condemnation of us, we do not stand in condemnation of her. Yes, Orpah did not rise to the level of Godliness of Ruth. But we do not rise to the level of Godliness of Orpah.

The Problem of House

And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar.

And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him.

And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also.

Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain a widow at thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown: for he said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house….

And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more.

Genesis 38:6-11, 26

You see, back then… in Bible times with all of those Godly patriarchs running around on camels… a daughter in law was considered part of her father in laws house. Multiple generations, all part of the same ‘house’.

But nowadays a boy turns eighteen and, bang, he is no longer part of the house. And woe betide the person that should even dare to consider the daughter in law part of the house.

Did you read the story of Tamar? She was not only living in her father in law’s house, passed from unGodly son to unGodly son… but she recognised it as an evil thing that she was not given to the third son! Not given a chance to bear and raise up a son in the name of her two unGodly husbands!

And God blessed her for it. The husband of Ruth came from… the offspring of Tamar!

And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb.

And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first.

And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez.

Genesis 38:27-29

Conclusion

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

Without natural affection,

trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

II Timothy 3:1-5

Our society has broken away from the will of God in many areas. We praise barrenness, shout out murders of our children… and tell mother-in-law jokes. We are, as was predicted, ‘without natural affection’. And we need to recognise this, turn, and repent.

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Von