And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to
return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where
thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me,
and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. When she saw that she was
stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her. (Ruth
1:16-18)
If home is where the heart is, then home is also the place of love. What is the
perfect measure of love? I am sure you already know that it is the love of God.
If love is sacrificial, and it is, no other has ever sacrificed His innocent
blood in the place of your putrid and sin-laden blood but Jesus Christ. In
fact, God is love, and that is His essence. He loved us first and thereby
enables us to return that love. But love also cleaves to the object of its
affections just as Ruth “clave unto her” (Naomi). “And they
lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but
Ruth clave unto her.” (Ruth 1:14) In Christ, we have “a friend
that sticketh closer than a brother.” Ruth is an exemplary example of
that love because it came to her heart from God’s endless fountain of love.
Love will never let go. Love will lay down its life for its friends. “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I
have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends.” (John 15:12-13)
The tender expressions of love that Ruth avers and extols (in verses 16-18)
should be enshrined in the central chamber of every heart that loves God. Apart
from the powerful examples of Christ, there are no greater terms of unconditional
love found anywhere in Scripture – and it comes from the heart of a virtuous
Gentile girl toward a Jewish mother-in-law. One message of Ruth that God would
have us see is that the Gospel is open to both Jew and Gentile. Ruth was a
Gentile, but even one from an accursed land; yet, she was transformed by the
Holy Spirit into a child of God as much as any – even becoming an ancestor to
the line of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us consider:
RUTH’S
PREDICAMENT:
1.
She was willing to desert her old acquaintances,
culture, religion, family, and familiar home.
2.
She was launching out into the deep of
uncertain destiny – a land of different religion, culture, language, and
people.
3.
She was going to face the prospects of
a life of hardship, hard labor, and poverty with an aging mother-in-law
(Naomi).
4.
RUTH’S RESOLUTENESS:
1.
Ruth swore an oath of
fealty to Naomi and her God.
2.
Ruth’s decision
was irrevocable, unqualified, and unwavering. She hesitated not for an instant
in giving it. She made the decision with her eyes open after having counted the
cost. But, truly, love knows no cost at all.
3.
It was a decision
without limits. It was not for a while until Naomi was settled, but forever. It
was the kind of vow a woman and man make under the vows of Holy Wedlock; and
the kind of commitment the convert makes to Jesus Christ as the Bridegroom of
the Church.
4.
THE DECISION:
1.
Ruth said, “Do not
entreat me to leave thee, or to return from following after
thee ” for she would not forsake Naomi even if asked. When I was a young boy,
an old hound dog ‘sojourned’ to our house and ‘continued’ there. It thought it
had found a home, and surely it had. Despite attempts to scare the old dog
away, he would slink back to the porch where we stood – half crawling, and half
slithering. Finally, my mother could not bear to dispense with him, and he
stayed with us until he was buried in our back yard. He came to stay, and no
manner of treatment would convince him to leave. That was the steadfastness of
Ruth! Her mind was made up, and that was that!
2.
Though Ruth had
no idea where Naomi was going, that was not an issue: “for
whither thou goest, I will go.” What a precious young lady is
Ruth! Love makes no conditions when it is divine.
3.
Ruth knew not where Naomi would sleep,
and that, too, was no issue: “where thou lodgest, I will lodge.”
Are you, too, not beginning to fall in love with this beautiful woman of
virtue?
4.
Ruth was leaving
her people. But she loved Naomi and would readily accept Naomi’s people as her
own even without knowing of them: “thy people shall be my people.”
5.
Next is a comment of profound meaning
and application to husbands, wives, and neighbors, and the Church: “thy
God (will be) my God.” What was the power that brought
Ruth to accept our God? Was it not an unyielding love for Naomi? If we love our
lost husbands or wives enough, will they not be drawn to accept the God we love
and serve? When neighbors see our love, and return it, will they not be drawn
to the same God we serve?
6.
We see that Ruth’s
commitment was unending by the next comment: “Where
thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried.” Not
only would Ruth live with Naomi in this new land of Bethlehem until Naomi slept
with her fathers, but she would remain afterward to be buried there as well.
Naomi’s land would become, in every way, the land of Ruth. Ruth would be
buried, decades later, nearby to Naomi.
7.
Ruth sealed her
vow by the name of the Lord in whom she had come to trust through Naomi: “the
LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.”
Every time we mention the Lord’s name, either in prayer or in a vow, we must
mean it with all of our hearts, else we have taken the name of the Lord in vain.
Ruth did not – she MEANT it, and she DID it!
8.
When another speaks with undeniable
conviction and resolution, there is no point in arguing with them: “When
she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking
unto her.”
9.
I wish I could meet such a lady as
Ruth, and witness her heart of love and loyalty. If I guard my own heart in
faith, I surely shall be privileged to do so in the eternity to come.
There is such beauty in Ruth that no
artist could possible portray on canvas. It is humbling to undertake to capture
such beauty by mortal hands. Just as an artist attempts to imitate the beauty
of God’s Creation with his brushes, so do we undertake with our little pens to
describe that beauty in the words of mere man. It cannot be done! But I strive
to capture as much beauty as my unclean hands can write. I love this story of
redemption – it is a perfect picture of Christ and the Church as we shall later
see. How wonderful it is to see this promise related in word-pictures in the
midst of the Old Testament! Just remember the story centers, at first on two
women – one Jewish, and another a Gentile. These two women travel to Bethlehem
Judah where the Gentile woman (Ruth) meets with her Kinsman-Redeemer. Perhaps
you have met with him, too, as you traveled from the sinful land of perished
hopes and dreams (Moab) to Bethlehem (Christ).
In this Book of Ruth, we are given the
beautiful descriptions of seed-time and harvest, of gleaning behind the reapers
that none should be lost. We will see also that the Kinsman-Redeemer who
redeemed Ruth was not the nearest of blood kin to Naomi and Elimelech – there
was another that was more closely and naturally related. Who might that be? It
was another descendent of Adam whose blood is tainted with the poison of sin;
but Boaz, is the redeemer who will pay whatever price he is able to pay to
redeem the treasure of his heart (Ruth) – even the price of the cross - in
latter days.
Please read this book with your
spiritual eyes open, for it is a veritable treasure as you will see. Our next
few devotions will cover this Book of Ruth to completion, the Lord give us
light to see the Light of Christ revealed in the shadows of its tall trees.
