GEMS FROM THE LIFE OF RUTH-A WOMAN OF EXCELLENCE
© CreationSwap/Jason Rutel 2014
We shall look today at particular qualities of Ruth that led her to her destiny of being named an ancestor of Christ.
The Bible introduces Ruth as one of the wives of the sons of Elimelech and Naomi. They lived during the time of the judges. Elimelech and Naomi were Jews who moved out of Judah to the country of Moab during a famine. The names of their sons shed light on how difficult times were. Mahlon means “sickly” while Chilion means pining (Bailey 3). They moved to Moab to seek greener pastures yet tragedy hit them there. Elimelech and his sons all passed away in Moab leaving behind Naomi and her two daughters-in-law Ruth and Orpah.
Naomi then decided to return to her country having heard that the Lord visited them. She asked her daughters-in-law to return to their land and families for she desired for them to find rest in new marriages. Both women insisted that they will go with Naomi. However, Naomi warned them that following her may keep them from remarrying since she no longer had any sons.
Here shines forth one of the most powerful examples of love and commitment in the Bible.
Excellent Love and Commitment
Presented with such a warning, Orpah and Ruth had different responses. Orpah’s resolve to go with Naomi dissolved. She recognized the validity of Naomi’s concern. If she went with her, practically speaking, it will be disadvantageous to her. She may not be able to marry again. Realism hit her. (Bailey 11)
As Dr. Brian Bailey pointed out, when Orpah went home to be with her family again and find a new husband, she may have actually gotten her heart’s desire. She may have remarried and found contentment in it. She may have even found herself justified for going home. She must have been fully convinced she made the right decision. There are people who will reach a certain plain in their walk with God who will desire to come up higher yet once realism and practicality hit them, their ascent will cease and they will settle on that plain (11). To follow God and come up higher with Him will cost us. Orpah was willing to go with Naomi until she realized what price she may have to pay to commit to her ageing mother-in-law. She sized up the situation and in the end determined that the sacrifices required to follow Naomi were just too great for her. So she settled on her plain and went back to Moab. When Orpah went back, Naomi spoke of what shall become of her - she will return to her family and to her gods.
Ruth, on the other hand, had a different response. Regardless of the gloomy prospects Naomi presented to her, she was undeterred from her commitment to go with Naomi and look after her.
Ruth 1:14
Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
Ruth 1:16-18Ruth did not only love through her lips, she loved through her actions. Her commitment was not merely when it was easy but even when times were hard. Ruth’s devotion to Naomi was sacrificial. She was aware of what it would take to follow Naomi. She knew that she would have to leave her people, watch over an elderly woman, lose the chance of marrying again, go to a country where her people are considered enemies and live in poverty. As if these odds were not yet enough to discourage any woman, she had to see Orpah turn her back on Naomi too. Sometimes one of the biggest challenges in sticking to a decision is when you see others turning back. Man can be easily influenced by what others around them do, particularly his peers. But Ruth had such a resolve to go with Naomi that she was undaunted by the potential consequences and even the decision of Orpah.
But Ruth said:
“Entreat me not to leave you,
Or to turn back from following after you;
For wherever you go, I will go;
And wherever you lodge, I will lodge;
Your people shall be my people,
And your God, my God.
Where you die, I will die,
And there will I be buried.
The Lord do so to me, and more also,
If anything but death parts you and me.”
When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her.
All of us at various stages in our lives will be presented with crossroads where it seems we can choose to either be an Orpah or a Ruth, to either be a realist or somebody who will be committed. Being an Orpah or a Ruth is not only a choice we make in big decisions but even in small ones, in our day-to-day. Will we be found committed to our Naomi’s? But who does Naomi represent? Who must we cleave to?
First and foremost, God. We have to cleave to Him, be committed to Him whether in our mountains or in our valleys. There are times He calls us to walk through the valley of the shadow of death or the Valley of Baca, which is the valley of tears. There are also times when He calls us to forget our father’s house, our own people, as Abraham and the Bride in Psalm 45 were called to. Will we continue to follow Him? We will be able to say I will go where You go?
Naomi can also represent our covering. It is interesting that when Naomi discouraged Orpah and Ruth to go with her, she was sincerely watching over their security. Yet, what Ruth’s life would show us is precisely because she cleaved to her Naomi that she found true and lasting security. Her love, commitment, and obedience to Naomi kept her under God’s covering.
But what made her cleave to Naomi so much that she was willing to give her life to Naomi? It was love and commitment to Naomi and God. Her name gives us an insight to why she cleaved to Naomi. Ruth means female friend.
Proverbs 18:24
A man who has friends must himself be friendly,
But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
John 15:13-14She was a friend of the highest order. She was steadfast and constant. Her love was expressed by her constancy. In math, a constant is a well-defined and fixed number. It does not vary. Others around may vary but it keeps to its identity. Ruth was the same. Many things have happened in her relationship with Naomi ever since she married Mahlon. Tragedies have hit their lives and yet her love and commitment to Naomi did not vary.
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
Orpah and Ruth's contrasting responses can be summed up in these words - calculated dedication or complete abandon. Orpah’s love for Naomi had a limit to it. Is there a ceiling or are there unconscious conditions to our commitment to God? On the other hand, when Ruth married Mahlon, she fully understood what it meant. It meant leaving behind her family, people, and past and there was no more turning back and there was a full embracing of her new identity. We are called to have the same walk with God where there is a turning away from the things of old and a full embracing of God, His truths, and His purposes for us.
2 Corinthians 5:17Today, I believe we are being made to reflect on our love for God and others. How deep is our love for God and others? Is there a constancy to our love and commitment to God and others? The question is not only whether or not we love but how much we love and how much our love endures. God has to bring us to that place where we can love Him above all else and where we can love others sacrificially.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
When Ruth did what was noble and followed Naomi, it did not instantly open the door of blessings. In fact, it led her to a season of great humbling and labor. They arrived in Judah impoverished. We can learn something from this turn of events in Ruth’s life. Simply because we have chosen to pursue the perfect will of God over our lives does not mean we shall be rewarded right away. Following God can often lead to greater darkness and we must be prepared to endure waiting for the tides to turn. The Word of the Lord will test us. If you know you have heard the will of God and have obeyed Him to walk towards that will, know as well that you shall be tested as Joseph was tried. Joseph kept doing what was right and yet was brought to increasingly difficult circumstances as a result of following God. But after being taken to great depths of darkness, he was taken to great heights of glory. How low we will allow God to take us determines how high He shall lift us up in due time.
Those who have gone through great depths are also the very ones who have reached great heights.
Excellent Humility and Industry
Ruth 2:2-3When Naomi and Ruth reached Judah, they were impoverished. It must have been very humbling for Ruth to enter a new country without ample financial resources. They were so poor that Ruth decided to glean in the fields. The humbling experience for Ruth was two-fold. She had a very low status being a poor gentile widow in Judah. She also took on a very lowly job of gleaning grain.
So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field, and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor.”
And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.”
Then she left, and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.
Leviticus 19:9-10During harvest time, the Israelites are commanded not to reap everything in their harvest so that leftover grains and those that fall to the ground can be gathered by the poor or strangers of the land. Thus, when Ruth told Naomi she was going to glean, it meant she will take on a lowly job, one that was reserved to the needy (Bailey 18-19). To glean was to literally be on one’s knees to gather leftover on the ground. She was at the mercy of others. This was a very humbling experience for the widow Ruth yet one she did not seem bothered of taking. She was the one who even volunteered to do this. How God delights in the humble! He is drawn to those who have no qualms of taking the lowly place whether it is in terms of one’s social status and reputation or one’s tasks. Those who are humble are able to move with God.
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God.
1 Peter 5:6We are also told that not only was she humble but she was also very diligent. The servant of Boaz gave a good report about her. He said that Ruth worked in the field non-stop except for a little rest. She was obviously one who fully yielded to her situation. No matter how seemingly pitiful her situation was, she still chose to be excellent in it. She did not grumble or whine. She could have also become bitter for the turn of events in her life. Yet, we are told that after all that she has been through, losing a husband, leaving her people, moving to enemy territory, facing abject poverty, caring for an elderly, and taking on a lowly work, she could still be excellent!
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time
Ruth 2:5-6It is no wonder Boaz took notice of her and asked whose young woman she was. Just like Boaz, God’s eyes are drawn towards those who can be excellent in what they do regardless of what they maybe going through or what it was they were called to do.
Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?”
So the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered and said, “It is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. And she said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ So she came and has continued from morning until now, though she rested a little in the house.”
Excellent Obedience
Another quality that stands out in the life of Ruth is her unqualified obedience. After the barley and wheat harvest, Naomi laid down instructions to Ruth of going to the threshing floor to sleep at the feet of Boaz. The purpose is for Ruth to ask Boaz to take her under his wing and make her his wife being a close relative of Naomi’s family.
Ruth 3:5Ruth’s response to Naomi was “All that you say to me I will do.” And certainly she did as she was told. What is astounding about this is how she submitted to Naomi even in this very personal matter. She has really looked at her as her own mother. During those times, mothers were responsible for finding a man for their daughters. How we need to surrender to God everything about our lives even this area of the heart and how we need to be under the covering of our authorities even in making a decision of settling down and who to marry.
And she said to her, “All that you say to me I will do.”
In nothing it seemed will Ruth not heed. This was despite the instruction being risky on her part. For lying down at the foot of Boaz in the threshing floor she could be considered an immoral woman. She also had no guarantee Boaz would take her in. We see in Ruth the secret to excellent obedience. She did not allow the ideas of the possible effects of her obedience to determine whether or not she will do as she was said. It is easy to obey when you have every natural indication that all will be well. But what if you don’t?
Excellent Trust
After she obeyed Naomi, Boaz committed to see to the matter. Then Naomi told her to sit still.
Ruth 3:18Ruth could obey because she had trust. She did what she was told to do and now she could sit still and wait with trust. God calls us to have the same attitude of being faithful in what He has told us to do and then be at rest as we wait for Him to move and fulfill His good word over our lives.
Then she said, “Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out; for the man will not rest until he has concluded the matter this day.”
We know how this ended. Boaz redeemed Ruth and married her.
When we look at the life of Rut,h we get to see how far the Lord was able to lift her up. She was a young woman who came from an enemy country. Centuries ago, her people was responsible for stirring the Israelites to committing idolatry and harlotry that resulted in a plague that killed 24,000 Israelites. Yet because of her outstanding qualities, Ruth was accepted in the Promise Land and amongst the Israelites and became an ancestor of our Lord Jesus. Just like Ruth, we were once the enemies of Christ and He offered to us the invitation of becoming part of the commonwealth of Israel. We accepted that invitation and today we are being called once more not simply to be part of the commonwealth but to become the Bride of Christ.
Reference:
Bailey, Brian. Ruth The Gentile Bride of Christ. Johor Bahru:--, 1992. Print.
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