But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return 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 will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” Ruth 1:16–17 (ESV)
We can all learn so much from Ruth’s devotion, commitment and selfless faithfulness. Ruth is determined to stay with Naomi and will not abandon her, in doing so she goes as far as to change her nationality and faith for which God will greatly reward her.
Jesus calls us to show this sort of resolve and covenantal loyalty in following him, our spiritual nationality changes too as we become Gods people. We must be resolute, we must not turn back and must continue to press forward. If we settle our hearts on single-minded commitment to the Lord and persevere we will be rewarded. See Mark 8:34 and Luke 9:62
This attitude should affect other areas of our lives too like our marriage etc
She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.’ So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.” Ruth 2:7 (ESV)
Ruth shows us another great example, she is a hard worker. We are called to honest, hard, relentless work in the New Testament both spiritually and physically.
Paul echoes this call in his own account in 1 Corinthians 15:10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”
Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” Ruth 2:10 (ESV)
Ruth knows where she is coming from and that she does not deserve and is not entitled to the grace Boaz is showing to her.
Ruth shows us the kind of humble, grateful and gracious attitude we should have. We too were once in darkness and we’re not part of Gods people but by Gods unmerited love he elected and saved us by his grace.
We should remember where we are coming from, how God saved us and not become proud. We should be grateful.
Paul reminds us in Ephesians 2:12-13 “remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.” Ruth 2:20 (ESV)
Jesus like Boaz became our kingsman redeemer, he became a relative of ours by becoming human to redeem us from the curse of sin and death. Here are just two verses that point to this as we praise his name for his grace to us:
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:17 ESV)
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2:6, 7 ESV)
As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. 1 Timothy 1:3–4 (ESV)
Teaching and theology matter. It matters what we believe. We can not be certain what the bad teaching was but it was likely some form of Gnosticism.
Each of us is called to know the truth, hold to the truth in faith and defend the truth. We should not give way to relativism, naturalism or any other ism that contradicts or opposes the truth of Gods word and message.
Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. Psalm 73:1 (ESV)
We must have the vital combination of pure teaching and pure hearts one is not valid without the other
Leave a Reply