7. The Choice of Ruth

The Choice of Ruth

"And Ruth said, Entreat 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: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her. So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi? And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me? So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest." (Ruth 1:16-22)

Well now, Ruth comes to Naomi and says, ’I am not going back. Do not ask me to leave, because I am not going back to my people or to my gods.’ And when she uttered the words, "Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for where thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God, my God. Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death part thee and me" (Ruth 1:16-17), it was perfectly obvious to Naomi that she had no intentions of going back, so she stopped trying to persuade her. Here was a wonderful decision, and we will find that in the three good decisions that are made, one by Naomi, one by Ruth and one by Boaz, blessing follows each decision. All these decisions linked together end in blessing, and thank God we know where it ends. We read a little later of the genealogy in the last chapter (Ruth 4:18-22), but if we turn over to Matthew 1:16 we find that the chain ends in Christ - what a wonderful thing! I am perfectly sure that neither Naomi, nor Ruth, nor Boaz were aware of what was happening that day, that they were linked in a chain that would stretch centuries beyond their time and end in the coming of ’great David’s greater son’ - what a blessing! Oh, what honour and privilege to be linked in a movement that finds it’s centre in Christ.

"Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for where thou goest, I will go". I believe there was a great attraction in Naomi for Ruth; I believe there was something in that dear woman that held her attention and her affections. Elimelech, sad to say, had led his family astray, but after he died the responsibility of the family rested upon Naomi’s shoulders. I believe that she taught her sons and her daughters-in-law the truth concerning the God of Israel. What a responsibility rests upon us, those of us who are older, I am not going to limit this simply to the household, but to every one of us who are a little older in the Christian faith. I was reading of a dear man who was out in the country, and he was watching a flock of sheep, and there were lambs there, and he noticed that everywhere the ewes went the lambs followed. Some of the ewes went through holes in the hedge and the lambs followed, and the ewes went into a place of danger, and so the lambs went into a place of danger because they followed their mothers. Now said the brother, ’What an excellent illustration of the foolishness of older Christians!’ How can we expect the young to follow in the right pathway if those of us who are older give a bad lead ourselves? Are we not responsible to lead Christian lives that are upright and truthful and righteous before God, and if they are there is every chance that those who are younger will follow our example. But if we show an example that is careless and worldly and irresponsible, can we be amazed when the young follow our example? So I believe Naomi taught those young people something of the truth of God, and it is to her credit, I believe, that there was a wonderful response that brought wonderful blessing. So says Ruth, ’I am not going to leave, I am going to follow you, there is something in you that is really worthwhile, and I am going to follow you.’

Then she says, ".....and where thou lodgest, I will lodge"; she says in effect, ’I am going to share what you have; whatever you have, I am willing to share it, I will be there.’ And we find as the story unfolds, not only does she lodge with Naomi, but she contributed to the well-being of the household. She gathered in the food, she prepared it, she provided it for her mother-in-law, and Boaz came to understand something of this and he commended her for it, he commended her kindness, and her care, and her love for her mother-in-law. It is a good thing when young Christians talk like this in relation to those who are older in the faith, ’Yes, we want to follow those people, we can see that they are following the Bible, they are obeying it, they are not simply following the dictates of their own mind, they are trying to live out what the Bible says, yes, we want to be with them, we want to share what they have, they have something good, and we want to share in it, also, if we can, we will contribute to it.’ Well, these are excellent exercises for young and old alike.

Then she said, ".....thy people shall be my people"; what a decision this is. She refuses the people of Moab and their gods, and their opposition to God, and she says, ’I want to be with the nation of Israel, I want to be with them.’ I believe that Naomi would quietly talk over the wonderful things that God had done for the nation of Israel right from the time of their sojourn in Egypt, their journey through the Red Sea and through the river Jordan, the mighty victories that He secured by the judges He raised up, and also some of the prospects of Israel so glowingly portrayed by God in various pronouncements to His servants. All this, I believe, Naomi would have made known to Ruth.

Now said Ruth, ’I want to be connected with this kind of people; people following after God, who have experienced the help of God, who obviously joy in the things of God, I want to be connected with this people. It means refusing my people, I cannot have a share with the people of Moab and a share with the people of Israel at the same time, I must make a clean cut and be finished with Moab and her idols.’ That is a very solemn thing, a very solemn step to take. That was her decision. If you like, she was ’burning her boats’, there were no half measures. I can assure you dear friends, there is no joy in the Christian life with one foot in the world and the other in the Christian company; it just will not work, there is a pathway of separation that has to be followed. Do not think separation is an ugly word, it is a privileged word, it is a privilege to be clear of the vile and wicked, evil things that are in this world. It is a privilege to be away from that kind of thing, and at the other end of the spectrum, all that man boasts of in his culture and in his attainments, to be free from it all and to have a desire to be found with the people of God walking in humility and obedience. So she gave up her people, but she found a better people in the nation of Israel.

Then she said, (and I believe this is the real kernel of her decision, this is the real heart and centre of it), ".....and thy God [shall be] my God". The gods of Moab, I believe, were many, the God of Israel was one; but that one God was the true God. How like the Thessalonians Ruth was, "they turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven" (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10). They made a complete cut. We were reminded this afternoon about the solemn statement in 1 John 5:21, "Children, keep yourselves from idols". The principle of idolatry is an affront to God, it is an affront to His majesty, it is an opposition to His affections, and He wants His people all for Himself; and Ruth says, ".....and thy God [shall be] my God". She made this definite decision, she was cutting herself of from all the gods of Moab, and finding her joy and centre in the one true God.

Finally she said, "Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death part thee and me." I believe, in simple words, she said, ’I am going to go right on to the end. There is no giving up, no turning back; I have made my decision, I have cast in my lot with you, your people and your God, and I am determined to go on.’ There are tremendous pressures against the people of God today. Oh, what a great decision this is for each one of us, to say in spite of all that is against us and all that we feel, ’We are going to keep going on, and we are going to work and pray and have our desires centred in the one great God’. Now I know that some of the pressures are very great, and thank God we have a High Priest above who knows every one of them (Hebrews 4:14-16; Hebrews 5:1-10). He has been through it all; as a Man down here He has tasted the bitterness of opposition, He has tasted the sorrows of the Christian pathway, He knows it all, and because He knows it all, He is competent to know and encourage those who are passing through the same circumstances. He does not guarantee to remove them but He gives strength and courage and help that they might be borne, and that a testimony might be rendered to His God. How thankful we are for the priestly grace and help of our High Priest.