Ruth is one of only two women in Scripture with a book that bears her name. Her story is one of redeeming love and grace to a woman who most people would have looked upon as a foreigner. An outcast.
In She Walked Before Us we will see more into Ruth’s character than I covered in my novel Redeeming Grace. I think the biggest lesson I learned from her life came not just from the loving and losing, but from the waiting she endured.
She waited to marry—and then married a foreigner. She went ten years without a child, then lost her husband and did not know if she would ever marry again.
She waited on her mother-in-law to decide what to do next. She waited to see if the people of Israel would accept her.
Once they did, and a new love, a new possible husband stood in the wings, she was forced to wait yet again to see if he had the kinsman redeemer right to marry her.
Ultimately, though? She was waiting on God to answer the longings of her heart.
And aren’t we the same?
No one enters this world knowing what life will hold for them. No one walks earth’s dusty paths without picking up a thorn or two, and maybe some things that hurt a whole lot more.
No one is immune to suffering here. Neither was Ruth.
Not only did Ruth lose her husband, but his brother died the same day. (An accident perhaps?) Shortly before this happened, her father-in-law also died, leaving three women without husbands or children. I don’t know about you, but in any culture I would find that kind of grief nearly impossible to bear. How long did it take to heal? Naomi lost the most and she returned home a bitter woman. But Ruth…she simply followed where Naomi led her. She committed herself to honor her mother-in-law.
We don’t know when Ruth came to trust in the God of Israel over the gods of her people. Her people worshiped Chemosh, a child-sacrificing god. Ancient gods (idols) asked some pretty awful things of the people they enslaved to worship them. (Remember behind every idol is a demon.) And they still exist today though they may not use the same names. The practices might not look at barbaric today, but children are still sacrificed today on the altars of greed.
I suspect Ruth knew the God of Israel detested child or other human sacrifice, and she decided it was better to enter an unknown land with her mother-in-law and a redeeming God than to stay in a place that did unthinkable things. And God blessed her for honoring Naomi and honoring Him.
Ruth may have waited fifteen years before she finally had a son. We don’t know the exact number of years that passed. But we do know that she waited and worked and trusted and honored the mother-in-law she had come to love. And her faithfulness landed her in the line of King David, an ancestor of Jesus Christ.
The interesting thing about Ruth’s book in Scripture is that it is as much Naomi’s story as it is Ruth’s. Both women have much to teach us. But I’ll save Naomi’s story for next time.
~Selah
