Trust Like Ruth

 


Naomi and her husband Elimelech lived in Bethlehem with their two sons.  Due to a famine in the land they travel to Moab seeking work and the means to support their family.  

While there, both sons marry Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth.  Then, over a period of years, both sons and Elimelech die. 

Naomi, Orpah and Ruth are devastated, as would be any in their circumstances.  Naomi wants to return to Bethlehem where things have improved, and probably seeking the comfort of familiarity.  She tells both her daughters-in-law that they are free to go.  Orpah tearfully chooses to leave.  Ruth issues this famous decree to Naomi:

"Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.”  Ruth 1:16

Thy God shall be my God.  The Moabites worshiped a god called Chemosh and their rituals included human sacrifice.  This was Ruth's faith tradition.  Yet she full embraces Naomi's faith, worshiping Jehovah.  She trusts God completely.

She trusts God even when her husband dies.  

She trusts God even when she has to leave the land where she is confortable.

She trusts God when she is starving (and gets to work!). 

She trusts God when she is lonely and feeling cast out and like an outsider. 

She trusts God when Naomi is bitter (Naomi's own words) and complaining.  

She trusts God when she has to glean grain from the fields with other beggars.  

She trusts God when she meets Boaz. 

Basically she trusts God period. And ends up being an ancestor to David and even Jesus Christ.  She didn't quit. She trusted. 

Aileen H Clyde further sums up:

"Ruth confidently met hardships not uncommon in our time—the death of a loved one, loneliness in a new place, and the need to work hard for her bread. Her small efforts, linked significantly to a later great event, tell me that each of us can take seriously the importance of our daily lives and decisions as we choose to follow God."

I want to trust like Ruth.

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