Loyal

But Ruth said, “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.”  (Ruth 1:16-17,NASB)

In the days of the judges, there was a famine in the land of Israel.  A woman called Naomi escaped to the country of Moab with her husband and their two sons to ride out the famine.  While there, the two sons married Moabite women.  Naomi’s husband and her sons later died.  Naomi decided to go back to Israel, to the land of Judah.  She told her daughters-in-law to return to their parents’ homes, as there was nothing Naomi could do for them.  One, called Orpah, complied.  The other, Ruth, refused, and her dialogue with Naomi is in the passage above. 

Ruth was devoted, very loyal to Naomi.  Once back in Judah, near Bethlehem, Ruth went to glean in the barley fields of a man called Boaz.  It turned out that Boaz was a relative of Naomi’s late husband.  Boaz ended up redeeming Ruth.  In Israel, under the Law of Moses, if a husband were to die, under redemption his brother or another relative was expected to marry the widow to keep the deceased man’s name alive.  Boaz had heard of all that Ruth had done for her mother-in-law, and knew that she was a “woman of excellence.”  He was only too happy to marry her. 

Ruth’s loyalty was rewarded when she and Boaz had a son.  Ruth and Boaz are mentioned in the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Their great grandson would be the second king of Israel, King David.  Ruth is one of the few women, and one of the few Gentiles, to be mentioned in Jesus’ lineage.  God certainly blessed Ruth for her loyalty and that she was that woman of excellence! 

Sunday’s essay was my 200th post.  Please pray for my eyes, so I can keep writing!