SCRIPTURE: Ruth 1
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.” [Ruth 1:16-17] Ruth stands out as a shining light in this dark scene. Beginning in famine, followed by death of husbands and sons, ending with Naomi’s bitterness and emptiness, the only glimmer of hope is Ruth’s devotion to her mother-in-law.
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. [John 15:13] Ruth expresses her commitment to Naomi with covenantal language, she bonds herself to her with a vow for life. These were not just empty words, Ruth is sacrificing life as she knows it (in Moab) for the sake of her mother-in-law, whose prospects are grim; widows did not have much going in their favour at that time, especially if they had no sons (it was a man’s world, which makes this story all the greater, because the central character is a woman). There is no greater love says Jesus – the kind of love that Ruth displayed, which foreshadows the love that Jesus displays.
In Ruth’s case, only death could separate her from Naomi; in Jesus’ case, not even death could separate them. Jesus goes where we go, stays where we stay, our people become His people, His God is our God. He dies with us, is buried with us, yet that death does not separate us!
God uses Ruth, a foreigner, for several reasons: (1) To contrast her faithfulness with Israel’s unfaithfulness; this was the time of the Judges, when famine was because the people were turning away from God. (2) To show that He can use anyone (a woman, an impoverished widow, a foreigner) to work out His salvation. (3) To show people the way of blessing through humility, love and serving others. (4) To prepare the way for the messiah, Jesus the son of David [Ruth 4:16-17].
Jesus sends us to continue in this kind of loving service. As we imitate Ruth and Jesus in humility, love and serving others, God works out His blessing and salvation through us. Others are blessed, and Jesus is birthed in their hearts. We become a part of God’s salvation in others.
PRAYER:
Lord, help me to see each day as an opportunity to love and bless others. Use me, like Ruth, to bring Jesus into the world!
Do you ever come across someone and say to yourself, “I want to stay in touch with this person” Naomi must have had that affect on Ruth. Naomi’s name actually means “pleasantness” (that is before she changed it to bitter)
Lord, I thank you for the people you have brought around me that bring pleasant traits of character to me. They refresh me when others seem to sap the energy out of me.
Lord, most of all, I thank you for You – You are the fulness of pleasant character that not only surrounds me but lives within me. May I share your character with others so that they may see You.
God speaks to His people through calamities. Through the famine God spoke, because during the days of the Judges, each did what was right in his own eyes. Therefore the move to Moab – living among the non believers in order to survive. But the children . . . they married into the new culture.
When Naomi returned to her homeland, she wanted the girls to make that decision for the Lord and therefore she told them to go back to their people and their gods. Living the Christian lifestyle demands my all. It must be part and parcel of all the decisions I make each day as I live for Jesus.
Naomi sees herself as afflicited by the Lord. The misfortune was brought on by God? Yet how do I see the Lord each and every day? God speaks through the daily affairs on amn. Do I hear His voice? When all things are going my way, do I question God? When adversity hits, where do I see my God?
Open my eyes Lor to see You in all situations.
In doubt and temptation I rest, Lord, in Thee;
My hand is in Thy hand, Thou carest for me;
My soul with Thy counsel through life Thou wilt guide,
And afterward make me in glory abide.
Refrain
My God, I will extol Thee
And ever bless Thy Name;
Each day will I give thanks to Thee
And all Thy praise proclaim.
In glory Thou only my portion shall be,
On earth for none other I long for but Thee;
My flesh and heart falter, but God is my stay,
The strength of my spirit, my portion for aye.
Refrain
All they that forsake Thee must perish and die,
But near to my Savior most blessèd am I;
I make Thee my refuge, my Lord and my God;
Thy grace and Thy glory I publish abroad.
Refrain