Ruth's Promise

Ruth 1:1-17

Naomi and her late husband, Elimelek, were refugees - there was famine in their land, and they fled to Moab to survive. They weren't famous, they weren't important, they were 'regular' people.  [Aside:  it is very interesting that these Jews fled to Moab, which was  country hated by the Jews.  But when you're starving, you go where there is food.]

You know the story:  Elimelek dies.  Naomi's two sons also die.  She is left widowed in a strange land, so she decides to come home, a bitter, defeated woman.  She tells her daughters in law to stay in their home country.  Orpah obeys her.  Ruth does not.  Ruth's statement is beautiful and eloquent.  You have probably heard these verses read at many weddings:

Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me. (v. 16b-17).

Of course, these words aren't about marriage at all. Ruth, a Moabite, an enemy of the Jewish nation, says that her loyalty is now to her mother in law's people. She will not leave Naomi without a family. She will return with her to a country that she has never seen. This is statement of love, of worship to the God of her husband and her mother in law, and a statement of faith that she will make a new life in this strange land.

And we know the rest of the story - how Ruth befriended Boaz, how Boaz fell in love with her, and how their son - Obed - came to be in the lineage of Christ.

Yes, Naomi and Ruth were 'regular' people that God used mightily to fulfill his promise to send a savior to the world. That savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, has some pretty 'normal' people in his lineage. People like you and me. As gentiles, we have been grafted onto the tree of life, and by obeying Jesus' commands to bear fruit, we will show our love for what he has done for us (John 15).

Read the rest of the book of Ruth - it is a fascinating story, and you will be encouraged by how God uses ordinary people to accomplish his work. And be ready to answer the call - to say "I will go where you send me" - when he has work for you to do. If you listen, he will answer!