The story of Ruth is a story of God redeeming those He loves.
If you have ever had a major loss in your life, you know how Ruth must have felt. When the winds of change blow and you lose a person or people that you loved for years, life has a way of reprioritizing itself. Suddenly, all those little annoyances and hurt feelings don’t bother you anymore. Your thoughts travel through eternity and then come back to the here and now, and then you ask yourself, “Now what? Where do I go from here? How do I do life now? Who is with me in this journey called life?”
Ruth must have gotten married with excitement and expectation of a new life with her husband. She probably dreamed of having children and a home with her husband. Just as any new bride has hopes for her future with her husband, Ruth would have had her own hopes and dreams for her marriage. However, all those dreams came to a dead-end when she lost her husband. She even had no children with him to give her a purpose and focus to raise them.
Losses come in all kinds of colors, shapes, and sizes. The loss could be a divorce, death of loved one, death of a dream, a major move, or a church move. Whatever the change may be, it challenges us to the core to find out who we are and what is important to us.
When Ruth lost her husband, she also lost the security of an income, the privilege of having a home, and the possibility of having children. Ruth not only lost her companion, but she also lost the chance of becoming a mother and raising children to take care of her in her old age.
Ruth was a Moabitess, which meant she must have learned about the God of Israel when she married her husband. When Naomi, her mother-in-law, lost her own husband and her two sons, she was planning on going back home to Judah. She wanted to send both of her daughter-in-laws back to their mother’s house, but Ruth refused to go. She desired to stay with her Mother-in-law.
There are three things that are significant in Ruth not going back to her mother’s house, but instead staying with Naomi.
- She was giving up the idea of getting married again. Being a widow and a Moabitess in a predominantly Jewish community would have made her chances of remarriage almost non-existent.
- She was selflessly willing to not only take care of her mother-in-law by working and providing for her, but she was also risking not having someone to take care of her in her old age.
- The most significant part of this is when Ruth says to her mother-in-law,” Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God.” Ruth 1:16b What a statement of faith! She was coming in as a foreigner and a stranger to a new land, and she was already willing to love Naomi’s people. Did she know whether they would accept her or reject her? Being a Moabitess, the most likely scenario would have been for her to get rejected, but Ruth trusted her God. She also trusted Naomi. That’s a beautiful picture of a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship with one another. Would you like your daughter-in-law to trust God so deeply because she has seen you trusting God so intimately? Naomi was certainly enjoying the fruit of her faith in Ruth!
Ruth’s Statement to Naomi reminds me of what Jesus said when a Pharisee asked him, ”Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matt 22:36-39
Thais is what Ruth did!! She loved Naomi’s God, and she loved Naomi’s people. That’s a lesson for all of us. When it all gets stripped off of us and we think we have nothing left, we always have the opportunity to love the Lord and love His people!
Losses come to strip us of identity, purpose, peace, and belonging; but love overrides the sting of loss! If we choose to love in the midst of the pain, we shut the door to the enemy and open the door to the grace of God to redeem our pain.