A Closer Walk
There was a woman named Naomi who lived in ancient Israel. Naomi had a husband named Elimelech and two sons. A famine came over the land and times were very hard. Naomi's husband decided the family would move to the neighboring country of Moab because the famine had not reached the country and there was food available. While in Moab Naomi's two sons each married a girl from Moab. Later, Naomi's husband died. In her day and time a woman was completely dependent on the men in her family to provide for her. With her husband now gone Naomi was dependent on her two sons.
At an even later time Naomi's two sons each passed away, leaving her bereft of anyone to provide for her and her two daughter's-in-law. So she determined to return to Israel, the land of her birth, and where she had family. As she began this journey her daughters-in-law followed her to go with her. She stopped and instructed them to return to their own families and to live out their lives in Moab, the land of their birth. Naomi's daughter-in-law Orpah agreed, kissed her goodby, and left to go to her own family. However, her other daughter-in-law, Ruth, refused to leave her side. Then Ruth said the most remarkable thing. "But Ruth said, 'Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me,'" Ruth 1:16-17 NASB.
That is commitment. Real and true commitment. If you know someone who is or has been married to the same person for forty, fifty, or sixty years, that is the same type of commitment. Where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. That was a big statement coming from a Moabitess. Since Moab was a pagan country Ruth would have grown up with whatever pagan gods were worshiped in her town or area. The Lord God Jehovah would not have been one of those. So Ruth is going to a strange foreign country where she doesn't know anyone except Naomi. Ruth's vow makes her dependent on Naomi and Naomi's family to survive. But nevertheless, she has sworn to stay with Naomi until death parts them.
But the Lord had a plan for Ruth (doesn't He always have a plan for us?). With permission from her mother-in-law Ruth goes out to the fields and begins to glean (harvest) the grain left after the reapers had passed through. Turns out this was the field of Boaz, who is a relative of Naomi's now passed away husband. Not only is Boaz a relative, but one of the closest relatives of Naomi's husband. “Now Naomi had a kinsman of her husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz,” Ruth 2:1 NASB. Ruth coincidentally and unknowingly goes into the field of Boaz (coincidence or God's sovereignty?). Boaz asks about her and he is told the story of Ruth and Naomi and how Ruth has helped and looked after her mother-in-law.
Boaz decides to help Ruth and later to redeem the land of Elimelech along with Ruth from another kinsman who was ahead of Boaz in the line of succession. Boaz talked to this relative in front of witnesses and finally the relative said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I jeopardize my own inheritance. Redeem it for yourself...” Ruth 4:6 NASB. So Boaz purchases the land of Elimelech from Naomi and along with it the Moabitess Ruth to take for his wife. “So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her. And the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son,” Ruth 4:13 NASB.
But this was not the end of God's plan (is it ever?). “And the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, 'A son has been born to Naomi!' so they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David,” Ruth 4:17 NASB. So Ruth, the Moabite woman who was born in a foreign country, was the great-grandmother of the ancient Israelite King David. Amazing! Our God is absolutely amazing!