A life that points to Christ
Ruth
From Ruth we learn loyal love that stays when it would be easier to leave, faith that clings to God even in grief, and the quiet faithfulness that God weaves into His redemptive plan. Her life teaches steadfast devotion, and it points to the Redeemer who takes the outsider as His own.
“And Ruth said, 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
“The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.”Ruth 2:12
“And now, my daughter, fear not; I will do to thee all that thou requirest: for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman.”Ruth 3:11
“So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bare a son.”Ruth 4:13
Their story, honestly
Ruth was a Moabite widow who, when her mother-in-law Naomi lost everything and set out for Israel alone, refused to turn back. She said, whither thou goest, I will go, and thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God, binding herself to Naomi and to the LORD. In Bethlehem she gleaned in the fields to feed them both, and her character was known to all. Boaz, a kinsman, noticed her, blessed her for taking refuge under the wings of the God of Israel, and as their kinsman-redeemer married her and restored Naomi's family. Ruth became the great-grandmother of King David, and an ancestor of Jesus.
What their life teaches us
First, Ruth teaches covenant loyalty, a love that commits and stays when there is nothing to gain and every reason to walk away. Second, she teaches faith that chooses God freely; a foreigner from a despised people made Israel's God her own. Third, her ordinary faithfulness, gleaning, serving, and trusting, teaches that God works His largest purposes through small, humble obedience. She did not know she was in the line of the Messiah; she simply kept faith day by day, and God was writing a redemption story through her quiet steadfastness.
How their life points to Christ
Ruth was rescued and restored by a kinsman-redeemer, a relative with the right and the willingness to buy back what was lost and take her as his own. Boaz is a living picture of Jesus, our Kinsman-Redeemer, who became one of us in order to redeem us, and who takes the outsider and the widowed and the poor to Himself. Ruth the Moabite was brought into the family and the royal line, so that Christ Himself descends from a redeemed foreigner. He is not ashamed to redeem strangers and make them His bride.
Questions people ask
Why is Ruth's loyalty to Naomi so significant?
Because she had every reason to leave and nothing earthly to gain by staying. A young widow could have returned to her own people and remarried, but she bound herself to a grieving old woman and to Israel's God. Her costly, covenant loyalty is a small mirror of God's own steadfast love.
What is a kinsman-redeemer, and how does Boaz point to Jesus?
A kinsman-redeemer was a near relative who had the right to buy back a family's lost land and raise up its line. Boaz redeemed Ruth and Naomi at cost to himself. Jesus is our Kinsman-Redeemer, who became one of us to buy us back and take us as His own.