Day 6

# 6  Lady-In-Waiting:
 Ruth

                                                                  

 HER NAME MEANS  "Friendship". 



Her Story: Ruth 2-4     

Ruth 2:11 Boaz replied, " I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband- how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge." 

Her Character:   
  She was generous, loyal, and loving. Devoted to her family. She was strong, resolved, and a hard worker. She didn't let her circumstances of life get her down. She trusted in God.  

    

What she waited for:

     The provision of a husband and a home from God. She waited for her Kinsman- Redeemer.

 Ruth was not born a Jew. She was a foreigner. She was a moabitess. God chose Ruth to be in the line of our Lord Jesus Christ. How could that be? He told the Jew's not to marry outside of their race? God see's our hearts not our skin or nationality. You may not be aware of who the moabites are so let me explain. The Moabites lived near the Jews. The Jews despised them. The story is in Genesis 19. After Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed with fire, Lot, Abraham's nephew, and his two daughters fled to the mountains. There were no men there for the girls to marry and have children, so they plotted to preserve the family line by sleeping with their father. They got him drunk and slept with him. Both became pregnant and the oldest daughter named her son Moab, he was the father of the Moabites. What these women did was evil but God turned it around and used it for good. 

So, the story of Ruth starts with her mother-in-law, Naomi. She was a Jew. Naomi and her husband fled to Moab to escape the famine in Israel. Naomi had two sons and both married Moabite women. Sadly both of these sons died, leaving their wives as widowers.  Naomi wanted to return to her people and be taken care of there. Ruth chose to go with her. Ruth also loved the Lord and wanted to be with His people. When they came to Israel Naomi had a plan and advised Ruth to stay in a field of a kinsman of Naomi's, Boaz. A relationship started and after doing what was right in the Jewish law, Ruth and Boaz were married. This is a beautiful love story. Boaz was Ruth's kinsman redeemer. It is a representation of Jesus's love story with us, Gentiles, foreigners. He is our kinsman redeemer!  Ruth became a mother of a son, Obed. He was the father of Jesse- the father of King David. Not only did God save this woman from judgement and scorn but he blessed her with a son who was in the line of Jesus!!! 
Ruth and Obed were Godly parents. They followed God. I am sure that David learned his ways from his grandmother. She taught him to follow God's heart.

We know Ruth's heart and faith in God by the following words she said to her mother-in-law, 

 in Hebrew poetic style: 

Entreat me not to leave you,

Or to turn back from following after you;

For wherever you go, I will go; 

And wherever you lodge, I will lodge;

Your people will be my people,

And your God, my God.

Where you die, I will die, 

And there will I be buried. 

The Lord do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me.

I'd like to finish with a thought about Ruth from John MacArthur in his book: 12 Extraordinary Women. 

Ruth is a fitting symbol of every believer, and even of the church itself- redeemed, brought into a position of great favor, endowed with riches and privilege, exalted to be the Redeemer's own bride, and loved by Him with the profoundest affection. That is why the extraordinary story of her redemption ought to make every true believer's hear resonate with profound gladness and thanksgiving for the One who, likewise, has redeemed us from our sin. 

  
A song came to mind when I was writing this: I've been Redeemed! Maybe you know it too. 

I've been redeemed,  by the blood of the Lamb,
I've been redeemed,  by the blood of the Lamb...
I've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, saved and sanctified I am,
All my sins are washed away 
I've been redeemed. 

Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart, wait, I say, on the Lord. Psalm 27:14 

TO PONDER IN YOUR HEART: Are you devoted and faithful to your mother-in-law? Are you devoted to the people of God, those in your church? Others will follow if you are a good role model.  Are you called to be a mentor?