We left off last week looking at Naomi's almost relentless trust in God. Changing her name to "Mara" (Ruth 1:20) did not mean she was bitter against God in her heart. She wasn't. It only reflects the bitter experience she had in Moab where God dealt harshly with her. The lesson we learned was that soometimes God empties us, but only to fill us again with His gioodness. We learned of God's unchanging faithfulness and dependability. Naomi's realization was that God never forsakes us. No matter what may be happenning in your life, God is there and He is actively at work in your life, watching over you and taking care of you.
The title figure of the book now becomes the focus. The first thing to notice about Ruth is that she is a foreigner, outside the covenant community. Yet she is going to be brought into the royal line of the King of kings because of God's grace and her faith in His covenant-love. At first her faith was a borrowed faith. It was Naomi's faith in which Orpah and Ruth shared. But God builds that faith in Ruth.
Ruth apparently was moved by the quality of Naomi's faith in the face of all her trials, and she wanted to share it. She knew that Naomi's God could be relied on. Even a little faith may be called on to face great testing, as Ruth was through her bereavement, her poverty as a widow, and her leaving behind the prospect of marriage in Moab if she decided to go with Naomi. She was further tested by the return of Orpah to their homeland, but through it all she "clung" to Naomi (Ruth 1:14), and by clinging to Naomi, she came to believe in Naomi's God.
Verse 16 expresses Ruth's decision in memorable terms: "But Ruth said: 'Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.'" Ruth's loyalty to Naomi is shown to have its roots in her loyalty to Naomi's God ("your God, my God," v. 16b). What began as a borrowed faith is now declared to be her own, and her further statement in verse 17 reveals her commitment to the powerful, sovereign hand of God over her life: "Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me."
This is undoubtedly the turning point in Ruth's life, but she is brought to it along a path of suffering, disappointment, and grief. In her way, she too meets God when she is at the end of her rope. Yet is was then that she was ready to put her life in His hands.
Whatever our past or present experience, the moment of change always comes at the point where we are prepared to stop fighting God and to start trusting Him, to stop going it alone and start giving it to God, to determine never to go back to our old way of life but to bring our emptiness to God and move forward into the unknown with Him. Your faith may begin small, but as God brings you through the trials of life, He builds your faith.
The chapter ends by reminding us that the barley harvest was beginning, just as Naomi and Ruth arrived at Bethlehem (v. 22). There will be food for them both, and who knows what other possibilities may lie ahead of them in the providence of God? The chapter ends on an upbeat note, because the future is always as bright as the promises of God for those who trust Him. As Paul said, "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. And so through him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God" (2 Cor. 1:20, NIV). Amen.
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