Ruth

Ruth, while a real woman, can be seen as a type representing all Gentile believers. After her father-in-law and husband died in her native land of Moab, she, her mother-in-law, and sister-in-law had to make decisions to survive. Although Oprah went back to the safety of her people, Ruth decided to stay with her mother-in-law Naomi and go into the unknown. She took a leap of faith, staying loyal when she could have gone back to her father's house, married again and worshipped her people's gods. She left her former religion and people to follow the one true God, saying, "Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.”




May we say the same thing to the Lord today! In the West, most people do not have to leave their family when they become a believer, but in many parts of the world, there is a great cost to become a follower of Jesus. May we stick with Jesus in the same way that Ruth stuck with Naomi. Because of what Ruth did, she became a part of the history books; if she had not left Moab, no one would know her name today as one of the ancestors of David, of one of the ancestors of Jesus. Let us give ourselves fully to the Lord so that he can use us in ways we could never think.




Ruth left her people
God gave her a new people
Ruth had nothing
God gave her everything
Ruth was a widow
God sent Boaz to make her his wife
Ruth was in mourning
God turned her mourning into dancing
Ruth was not of the people of God
God made her ancestor of the one to bring all people to God