Woman of the Word series: Ruth

Hey girl, welcome to the Woman of the Word series

I am so excited to have you here. It's going to be a great time of growing in God together. Today we are looking at the life of a young woman named Ruth. The life of Ruth is found in the book of the bible also called Ruth. The book consists of four chapters which I encourage you to read. You can take it slow and read these chapters over four days. The hope with this series is to stir your desire to spend time with God, getting to know Him, through the reading of His word, prayer, and fellowship with other believers.

The story of Ruth is one ofgrace. Grace is the 'unmerited favour' of God, we receive it without having worked for it or even deserving of it. This was the case for Ruth (and for all of us). The story of Ruth begins with her father-in-law's passing at the land of Moab, which was Ruth's homeland. Elimelech who was Ruth's father-in-law had left the land of Judah taking his wife and two sons with him, to live in the land of Moab. So after his passing, this left behind Ruth's mother-in-law Naomi and her two sons who both married Moabite women. Naomi's one son married Orpah and the other married Ruth. But sadly after ten years, both of Naomi's sons which were husbands to Orpah and Ruth passed away. Leaving behind Naomi, and her two daughters-in-law. While there in the land of Moab, Naomi decided to go back to the land of Judah for she had heard that the Lord blessed His people there and that Judah had become a land of plenty.

She set out with her two daughters-in-law. However, on the way she asked them to go back to their land, their families, and their gods. They both refused and wanted to go with Naomi, but after her persistence on them returning to their own homeland, Orpah decided to go back. 'But Ruth replied, "Don't ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God."' - Ruth 1:16

With this statement, Ruth showed a lot of loyalty to her mother-in-law and to the God of her mother-in-law. She refused to go back to her gods, which were the gods she knew all her life and decided to rather follow the Almighty God. Ruth was not part of God's chosen people, she and her people were heathens, better known as Gentiles (anyone who was not a Jew). Therefore, God's promises did not apply to them. This means that Ruth had no right to God's promises. But her decision to leave her family and her gods behind to follow Naomi and her God caused her to be counted as one of God's people.

Ruth's decision to follow Naomi to the land of Judah, where God's people are, and where God lives amongst His people, allows Ruth who was once not part of God's chosen people to become one of the chosen people. In the land of Judah, Ruth decides to go to the field to pick up grains of food left behind by the local women in the land. As a foreigner in the land, Ruth does not pick grain like the other women, she has to pick whatever leftovers are on the ground. Ruth does this because when they return to the land of Judah, they were extremely poor and by picking up grain, they would have food.

She continues to work in the field, and one day she worked in a wealthy and influential man's field called Boaz. Boaz showed a lot of favour towards Ruth by instructing her to work only in his field where she will not be harassed by the young men. He was also pleased with the fact that she left her family and was loyal to Naomi even after the passing of her husband. That she left her land to live amongst strangers in a foreign land, to now worship a God she did not really know. He even made things easier for her by ordering the young men who worked on his field to purposefully drop the barley on the ground for her to pick.

One thing about Ruth is that she worked really hard, she picked up grain all day and returned back to her mother-in-law when the day was almost over. Meaning that Ruth was not lazy. As shocked as I was when I first knew, laziness is a sin. And God cannot bless us when we are doing nothing.

Boaz noticed Ruth as she was working on the field. In the end, because Boaz is related to Naomi's husband, he was the male relative who would redeem their family. This he did, by marrying Ruth. In this way, Boaz redeemed Ruth which plays an important part in showing to us the picture of Jesus as the Redeemer of Israel. Ruth was the first Gentile to experience God's promises, through redemption and provision by Boaz.

The story of Ruth also shows the cost of following Jesus. Luke 14:26 states "If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else in comparison- your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters - yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple." Ruth left her entire family in the land of Moab to follow a God she was not familiar with. As she also left the gods of her people in the land of Moab. Following Christ is not easy. We have to count the cost and the cost is great as we have to put Jesus above all these other things such as family, property, and even ourselves. If we do not do that we cannot be His disciples.

Another part of scripture that speaks of what Ruth did is the one in Matthew 19:29 where Jesus says; "And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life." So yes the cost of following Jesus is great, but the reward is far more great and far more rewarding. For Ruth, this meant being among the first to be counted as one of God's people. From her genealogy, David was born and from David's family line Jesus was born. So Ruth was very blessed.

Now even though we are called to follow Jesus which has a great cost, it is nothing that Jesus Christ Himself has not done. In order to redeem us from satan's (lower case "s" on purpose) bondage over our lives which leads to death, this cost Jesus something. His life. So we follow Him with the cost in mind as a response to what He has done for us. We did absolutely nothing to deserve Jesus dying on the cross for us because He did this even before we knew Him. We cannot work for this. It is finished. All we need to do is stand upon the finished work of Jesus.

This week I encourage you to chew on:

Ruth 1-4

Luke 14:26

Matthew 19:29

Journal prompts:

1. Evaluate whether you are a loyal follower of Jesus?

2. Can you honestly say that you put God above all else in your life?

3. Have you counted the cost of following Jesus?

4. Do you believe that Jesus ' sacrifice on the cross is enough to atone for all your sins?