Ruth’s decision…

I was reading a commentary last night on the Book of Ruth.  I have been drawn to this small but very meaningful, 4 chapter story of a stranger, an outcast who decides to follow a God she really did not know.  Ruth was a child of Moab and grew up worshipping idols.  She met a man named Mahlon and married him and was introduced to the God of Israel. There are not many details given about their relationship, but I believe, just as the commentator who wrote the account I was reading, that it is safe to surmise some things.

 

Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law, must have been a great role model.  She must have taught and treated Ruth very well for even after her husband and his brother and father had died, Ruth was still willing to go with Naomi back to Judah.  A foreign land where she would expect to be treated as an outsider, an outcast.  But instead, since she embraced this new God and the ways of his people, she was rewarded for her faith.  She was redeemed.  Her kinsman-redeemer, Boaz was willing to put himself out

for her.  He accepted her and took her in, married her and made her his own.

 

Does any of this sound familiar?  Boaz is the precursor for Jesus.  He redeemed a lost soul in spite of where she came from, or what she had done.  Ruth had faith in God, and because of that she was accepted.  Is that not the same for each of us?  God loves us, and extends his grace to us, but we have to have enough faith to accept his gift and be redeemed by the blood of Jesus. There are all kinds of interesting tidbits in the story of Ruth. She is the great-grandmother of King David and therefore in the line of Jesus.  She had no idea that her decision to follow Naomi was important, but it was. She had no inkling that her choice to follow God would be pivotal, but it was.  And, she had not a clue that the man whose field she gleaned in would be her redeemer, but he was.

 

Each choice we make, no matter how small at the time, may be important.  (No pressure here.) But it occurs to me that we need not take things for granted and weigh our decisions out against the Word of God.  You never know how it may affect generations from now.