“…May the LORD punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!” Ruth 1:17

(Read: Ruth 1:)

When I first came to Christ, I prayed for instruction on exactly what it meant to live as a Christian and after many days it was revealed to me that the best example of what God wants of our lives is found in the character of Ruth.

But before we get into who Ruth is, I want to reflect on others in the story. In the time of Judges, when the story takes place, the Children of Israel had a hard time keeping the commands of God. As a result God disciplines them with a famine. They lived reckless lives and “did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” (Judges 17:6) During these times of trial and correction from God, many abandoned hope and fled Israel for foreign lands. One such man of the house of Judah, Elimelech, took his wife, two sons and himself and left the Promised Land of God and sought after the ways of man. He abandoned hope, the ways of God and His own people and fled into Moab.

Elimelech still represents the people who give up on God. Those who turn to their own understanding and flee from the Truth of the Word of God when times get tough. The children of the Promise who run from the teaching of the Bible and seek after the senseless ideologies of false teachers and who walk away from church to pursue their own solutions. Elimelech takes his family from the protection of the LORD and leaves the life of God’s choosing and he dies.

When we walk out on God and His promise the result will be the same. We are to remain in the body of belief and walk with Christ with Hope and Trust in His Way. Not only does Elimelech die, his sons also die leaving two young widows. They went against the Law of Moses and took women who were of pagan beliefs. Not only was Elimelech sinning against the God of Judea and Israel, but he had given his sons over to sin by having them marry foreigners in a strange land where the people worshiped false gods. They died having no sons of their own; that was the price of their sin.

What price are you willing to pay for your sins? Jesus died that we might have life and have it in His Abundance, yet we revoke His Love and reject His Mercy every time we walk away from His grace by willful disrespect of His Commandments. When we seek after the ways of the flesh, we are walking out on God. When we seek to justify the ways of man and support ideals that are contrary to the Word of God, we flee from His Promise. As we live in the flesh and join ourselves to the ways of the flesh, such as greed, divorce or infidelity, we worship foreign gods and forsake the God of our forefathers. And like Elimelech and his sons, we shall die.

We see by the very names of the two sons that they did not have the character of godliness. The two names, Mahlon and Kilion, mean the whiner (or crybaby) and sickly wimp (or gutless one). One son who is always complaining and not taking responsibility for his ways and one who is too weak to stand up to the wrongness of his ways. The strong people of character are first Naomi who was submissive to her husband but after the loss of her husband and her two useless sons, desired to return to the Land of her father and take her chances of having a restored life. The blessing we can see in her is that when we who are sinners repent and desire to seek after God, He welcomes us back home. We also see that Orpah, even though she desired to return to her own people, loved Naomi and cried when she made the choice not to come with her. Through the Word of God we hear Him cry out for the Children to return to Him. If they return they will be blessed. “And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey His voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you….” (Deut 30:1-3).

So Ruth and Naomi decide to return to the land of Naomi’s heritage and put their trust in the Hand of the LORD. Naomi’s prayer in her heart might have been the psalm of Moses, “Return O LORD! How long? Have mercy on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” (Psalm 90:13-14). Ruth may have taken joy in the words that, “Because [she] holds fast to me in love, I will deliver [her]; I will protect [her] because [she] knows My Name. …I will be with [her] in trouble, I will rescue and honor [her]” (Psalm 91:14-15). Ruth puts her trust in the God unknown to her except by the love she has for Naomi. Her very words, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. I will go wherever you go and live wherever you live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.” (Ruth 1:16). The two woman go back to the Promised land, one because she seeks after the favor of her people and the law of God, and the other because of a love so strong that she will forsake the gods of her own people to live under the protection of a God who loves His people.

Ruth wants to walk on the Highway of Holiness, to live with the promise and to be ransomed by the Lord and be redeemed (see Isaiah 35:6-10). Naomi returns to her LORD “with all [her] heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning; and rent [her] heart.” (Joel 2:12) with hope that she will, “Eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the Name of the LORD [her] God.” Joel 2:26). Ruth and Naomi trust in the knowledge that; “The LORD is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness [is] to all generations.” (Psalm 100:5). The Lesson is that even when things go very wrong in our lives, we can always return to God for the answers. He is the absolute solution to all our problems, if only we put complete trust in Him. Even if we have turned away from His statutes and have lived in “foreign lands” of sin, we only need to return to His love and His Promises and we will be rewarded. This is why Jesus brought the Gospel to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. We are the Ruths of the world, given the fulfillment of the Promise because we choose to believe in the One God who serves His people with absolute Love and is committed to redeem those who seek after Him.