Read – Ruth 1
Focus on verse 1
6-17
It begins with the sad reality… life is hard. It is particularly hard for those who find themselves disadvantaged by natural disasters. Last fall when hurricane Irma swept up the state of Florida it caused some serious damage and causes some serious hardship and even death in places. Most people have been able to find the resources to rebuild and move on, but a few still suffer. In today’s reading we begin the book of Ruth, which open by describing the plight of Naomi and her family. The men have all died early making it difficult for Naomi and two daughters-in-law to survive, as an unmarried women. Naomi decides to return to her homeland encouraging her two widowed daughters-in-law to return to their families in Moab and seek a new life with a new husband. Orpah heeds this advice but Ruth refuses, pledging her life to Naomi and to her God.
But Ruth said, “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. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”(v. 16-17)
A Cinderella story always starts with sweet innocent “Cinderella” (in this case Ruth) seeking to make the best of a very hard situation, and secretly dreaming of the day that she will be rescued by a handsome prince who will whisk her away to a life of “happily ever after”.
In reality life is rarely a fairy tale, and too many “Cinderellas” get tired of waiting for a prince and end up settling for life with a frog, or worse yet as a frog. What I like about the story of Ruth is that it demonstrates once again the faithfulness of God to those who patiently honor Him, and that in this case, His favor falls upon one who is “grafted in”… a Moabite of all things. There are two gentile women in the genealogy of Christ, the first is Rahab (the prostitute that hid the Israelite spies in Jericho) the second is Ruth the Moabite widow who is married by her “kinsman redeemer” Boaz. Ruth becomes the great grandmother of King David who is also no small figure in the history if Israel.
