Day 16 – Loyalty (Ruth)

Ruth’s story would make a great movie!  It has loss, love, loyalty, and royalty.  Ruth is probably my favorite woman in the Bible.  Okay, I know…my heart is fickle, and I’ll likely declare another favorite woman a few weeks from now.  Humor me, okay?

First, I love that Ruth is so loyal to her mother-in-law, Naomi.  After Ruth’s husband dies and there is no other brother to fill the role, Naomi encourages Ruth to return to her father’s house and her own people (Ruth is a Moabite, not an Israelite).  The other daughter takes off, “…but Ruth clung to [Naomi].” (Ruth 1:14)  Ruth insists on staying with Naomi saying, “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.” (Ruth 1:16)  Poor and without heirs (the horror!), the two of them head to Bethlehem where Naomi’s people are.  That was really brave of Ruth to go, especially because she was a foreigner!  If Edward died, you can be sure that I’m running home to my mother!  No way am I going to live with my mother-in-law in the foreign country called “New Mexico”.  HA!  Ma, make the bed, ’cause here I come.

Ruth’s loyalty extends beyond accompanying Naomi.  Ruth immediately tends to their immediate need by picking up scrap pieces of barley in Boaz’s field.  She establishes a reputation as a kind woman and hard worker.  She gleaned “…from early morning until now, except for a short rest.” (Ruth 2:7b)  Ruth also listens and follows Naomi’s instructions resulting in marriage to Boaz and restoration of Naomi.  What’s cool is that Boaz seems taken by Ruth – this isn’t just a family arrangement.  A child is born from this marriage who restores Naomi’s line and leads all the way to Jesus (told you there was royalty in this story).  God uses Ruth, a poor, widowed foreigner to do great things in both her family and for the nation, though she didn’t know the extent of her own reach.  She was merely doing the right thing out of love and loyalty.

Have you ever had to sacrifice something to do the right thing?  Has God ever restored you whether it was deserved or not?  Did you share that blessing with someone else in order to glorify God, or did you take credit?  I can tell you that I’ve been on both sides of the aisle in relation to those questions, but I experience joy when restoration comes by doing the right thing and giving God the credit.  At this point, my goal is to improve my stats in this area, because I still don’t have it down.  

My prayer for this evening:

Lord, thank you for the grace and mercy you show foreigners like me!  Help me to exhibit loyalty and hard work like Ruth.  Give me strength to do the right thing, and courage to share with others when you restore me.  Help me to be transparent enough to share with others when that restoration was needed due to my poor choices and behavior.  Amen

2 comments May 29, 2010