Drafted with AI assistance, then reviewed, edited and approved by Jeff Robb. Scripture is quoted from the King James Version.
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Key passage: Ruth 1:16-17 (KJV)
16 And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: 17 Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.
Reflection
The book of Ruth opens in the days when the judges ruled, with a famine in Bethlehem. A man named Elimelech takes his wife Naomi and their two sons to the land of Moab. While they are there, Elimelech dies. The sons marry Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. Then, about ten years later, both sons die too.
Naomi is left in a foreign land with no husband, no sons, and two widowed daughters-in-law. When she hears the LORD has given bread to His people again, she sets out for home.
On the road she urges both young women to go back to their mothers' houses. She has nothing to offer them. Orpah kisses her and goes back. But Ruth clave unto her.
Then Ruth speaks some of the most loyal words in the Bible. Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.
Think of what Ruth was giving up. Her own country, her family, and the gods of Moab. She was choosing a hard road, as a foreign widow going to a land where she would be a stranger. And she does it out of love for Naomi, and out of faith in Naomi's God.
The word for that kind of love in the Old Testament is often translated in the King James Bible as kindness, or mercy. It means loyal, covenant love. Love that stays.
Later in the story, Boaz says to Ruth, a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust. That's what Ruth did on the road out of Moab. She came to trust under the wings of the God of Israel.
And God honoured that. Ruth would marry Boaz, and become the great-grandmother of King David. A Moabite widow who chose to stay ends up in the family line of the Messiah.
Ruth's words are a picture of what following God looks like. Not just believing a set of ideas, but choosing a people and a God, and staying.
Maybe there's someone in your life who needs that kind of loyal love from you today. Someone grieving, or alone, or hard to stay with. And maybe the Lord is asking you to say to Him again what Ruth said to Naomi. Whither thou goest, I will go.
Cross-references
Prayer
Lord, thank You for Your loyal love that never leaves. Give me a heart like Ruth's, faithful to You and faithful to the people You have placed in my life. Show me who needs me to stay close today. Wherever You lead, I will go. In Jesus' name, amen.
For today: Show loyal, staying love to one person today who might feel alone.