December 8 – Redeemed to be Heirs

“Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a redeemer today, and may his name become famous in Israel.” – Ruth 4:14 (NASB)

A short book of four chapters which recounts a beautiful story of God’s promise to watch and care for His people. Naomi, returns from Moab with her daughter-in-law to Bethlehem, her home town. With nothing left and having lost all in the death her husband and both sons. Ruth, now a believer in the God of Naomi is a Moabite and widow of Naomi’s son Mahlon. The story is one of redemption by a close relative named Boaz. Boaz takes the legal steps to claim the land belonging to Naomi’s late husband Elimelech. God provided this means of preserving a family who had lost all claim to the land through the death all their men. In the same way our Lord God has not left us by providing a redeemer for us in Jesus Christ. All who believe are now promised to be co-heirs with Jesus of all of that is His (Romans 8:17-18). Boaz marries Ruth and they have a son, Obed. It is Obed who cares for Naomi and Ruth in their old age and is the father of Jesse, the father of King David of Israel from whose line Jesus of Nazareth is born.

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September 16 – Your God, My God

“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)

This story demonstrates remarkable loyalty and worth reading in context. There’s not space here to go into it entirely. We find some contrasts as we read the story, Ruth’s sister-in-law, Orpah choses to return to her heritage which was idolatry and worship of the false gods, Chemosh and Molech, to whom children were sacrificed. Ruth wants nothing of that life. Naomi, her mother-in-law has demonstrated her faith in the true God and has won Ruth’s loyalty and desire for it. Yahweh God is who Ruth wants to serve. She is willing to give up her past, any family she has back in Moab in order to live the life of Naomi, no matter what that will be. Our promise is in Ruth’s declaration. God has put that love and desire and faith in Ruth’s heart. But there is a much larger promise that is being fulfilled through Ruth’s choice. A wealthy man of importance named Boaz marries Ruth and they have a child named Obed. Obed became the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David. Ruth, a Moabitess became part of the line of the promised Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. 

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