Saturday, August 02, 2008

The rewards of loyalty

But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me" (Ruth 1:16-17).

Elimelech and his wife Naomi were godly people who lived near Bethlehem, the place where our Savior was born. God had blessed them; He had given them two sons, Mahlon and Kilion. God had given this family a farm, and much happiness to go with it.

But the Bible says, every branch that…bear[s] fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful (John 15:2). The Lord allows tough times to come into our lives to test our devotion to Him, and this happened in Naomi’s life. There was a famine in the land of Judah. Before long, the family’s savings were used up. Elimelech was forced to move his family so that he could continue to feed them. Land was still fertile in the land of Moab, a country just south of the Dead Sea, so it was there that the family went.

Life in Moab was a mixture of sorrow and joy. Elimelech died, but Naomi’s sons found wives among the Moabites, Ruth and Orpah. The family lived in contentment for a decade; then sorrow came again. Both of Naomi’s sons also died. This left her alone in a foreign land with only her two daughters-in-law.

In our day, it can be hard for a widow to make a living; it was much tougher in Naomi’s time. When Naomi heard that the famine in Judah had come to an end, she decided to move back to her homeland where she might find some support among her relations. Ruth and Orpah announced that they would go with her.

But Naomi, a devout and God-fearing woman, felt that it would be selfish on her part to ask these two younger women to accompany her. They could probably do better in their own land, and she, with God’s help, would make out all right on her own. She encouraged Ruth and Orpah to stay in Moab and, since they were young, to remarry.

There was a lot of weeping during this frank discussion, and Orpah finally kissed her mother-in-law farewell. But Ruth could not abandon Naomi. They embraced, and Naomi tearfully tried to dissuade Ruth once more from coming with her. But Ruth was firm in her loyalty; she said, Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.

Certainly, this involved making a sacrifice. It meant leaving her home country; it meant leaving her other relatives and friends. But Ruth was ready to make this sacrifice—after all, she had received a great deal from her mother-in-law. Naomi had introduced Ruth to the true and living God. Ruth had found the promise of salvation through belief in the Messiah who God had promised to send in the future. Ruth had found peace of heart and the hope of everlasting life; through Naomi, she had been led to God. She loved both God and her mother-in-law, and where such godly love exists, sacrifice and loyalty usually follow.

Ruth’s declaration of loyalty has often been used as a wedding text. It has much of importance to say. For example: "your God will be my God." When those of you who are single start getting serious about a person you’ve been dating, ask yourself: on my wedding day, can I honestly say to that person ‘your God will be my God’? If not, you ought to think seriously about how truly united the two of you can be. In 1st Corinthians chapter 7, Paul tells us that an unbeliever can be sanctified by the faith of a believing spouse, but he then adds the caution, How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

Consider also the words, "your people will be my people." There are some who are so naïve as to think, "I’m marrying my true love, not their family." But the tie between parent and child is so close that no marriage can truly sever it; when a man and a woman take their marriage vows, they are inevitably saying, "your people will be my people." For better or worse, your spouse’s parents and siblings become your relatives. Again, if you do not feel that you can accept this, it is best that you start dating someone else.

Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay…Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. "Until death do us part"—that is the promise of the marriage ceremony. Weddings are beautiful—the dresses, the hairdos, the flowers, the bridesmaids and the groomsmen. But these are not the things that make a wedding truly beautiful; the real beauty of a Christian ceremony is when two people, washed clean of their guilt by the blood of Christ, love God so much that they cannot imagine entering into marriage without Him as a full third partner. The beauty of Christian marriage is the vow of Christian love—a heavenly love that is not focussed on what each spouse can gain from getting married, but rejoices in giving love to the other person, understanding them, protecting them, and helping them grow, just as Jesus’ first priority is to love and take care of us.

When Ruth and Naomi returned to Bethlehem, life was very real and very difficult. The two women weren’t offered much in the way of help. When Naomi walked down the street to the market, I imagine that people whispered to each other, "Is that Naomi?" Certainly, the sorrows and the travelling must have aged her. She carried the burden of responsibility for seeing to Ruth’s needs in a community not her own.

God’s law stipulated that farmers were not to pick up wheat that was dropped during harvesting, nor were they to be too careful as they cut the corners of their fields. In this way, food was left for the poor and the foreigner. Ruth wasn’t too proud to consider herself as a poor foreigner, so she went out to see what leftovers she might find in someone’s field. As it happened, she ended up at the farm of Boaz, a wealthy bachelor and a kinsman of Naomi. When Boaz learned of Ruth’s loyalty and devotion, and saw her humility, his heart went out to her. He even told his workers to drop some wheat on purpose where Ruth might come across it. Day after day, Ruth came to Boaz’ field for food—and whether Boaz knew it or not, for the first time in his life he was falling in love.

Naomi saw that Boaz had taken a shine to Ruth. She also knew the Law of Moses—if a husband died without leaving any children, it became the duty of the nearest available kin to marry the widow. So Naomi devised a plan—Ruth should go to Boaz and ask if he would marry her as her kinsman-redeemer. Boaz was a God-fearing man and a gentleman; even though he loved Ruth, he first went to another relative who was closer kin than he was, and therefore had the first right of marriage. But when they met before the local magistrate, this other relative took off his shoe and handed it to Boaz. This was the custom of that time and place which said, "I waive my rights."

And so Boaz and Ruth were married. Her financial worries were over. And the Lord blessed them—they were given a child named Obed. Obed eventually became the father of Jesse, who in turn had a son named David, who became king of Israel. And generations later, Ruth’s family line would result in a baby born of man and God, a baby named Jesus.

There are three people in the story of Ruth from whom we can learn important lessons. The first is Orpah. Orpah went back to her own people and their false gods. She represents a lot of folks. They are found in all of God’s churches—people who would like to go with God’s people, but can’t quite bring themselves to abandon their attachment to worldly things. They join a church because someone they love wants them to, and it’s kind of nice to belong to a church. They attend church at least somewhat regularly, until Jesus asks for self-denial or personal sacrifice; then, like Orpah, they go back to their old way of life.

Ruth stands for those Christians whose decision is final—those who really mean it when they say in their Confirmation vows that they would rather die than ever walk away from their relationship with Jesus. On that day, they said to the members of the church, "your God will be my God." Orpah represents those who are content to just sit in church; Ruth represents those who desire to follow Jesus as His disciples, wherever He might lead them. People like Ruth know that through Jesus, God has forgiven them for all of their wickedness, and He has done this for a purpose—that we be enabled to care for others, as Ruth cared for her mother-in-law. Jesus meets us in church, but He also leads us out to serve as His hands and voice in the godless land of Moab that is our modern world.

But although Ruth had a book of the Bible named after her to honor her for her loyalty, the real hero of the story is Boaz. Boaz is the kinsman-redeemer, the person who rescues Ruth from dying alone in poverty. Boaz represents Christ. Jesus Christ is our kinsman-redeemer. He is our kinsman, because He was born a flesh and blood member of the human race through His mother Mary. He is our redeemer, because His Father is God Himself, meaning that Jesus had the power to do what no mere human could ever do—die in the place of every sinful human being, to buy our souls from the control of sin. By purchasing our lifeblood with His own, He redeemed us—guaranteed that we would not live in the misery of spiritual poverty, or die the unending death of hell.

Ruth was a woman of loyalty, and God rewarded her loyalty through the offer of life with Boaz. Ruth did not end up in the field of Boaz by accident; God led her there. It wasn’t by chance that Boaz loved her; God kindled love for Ruth in his heart. And it was no accident that Ruth became an ancestor of Jesus; it was arranged by God. God blessed her for her loyalty.

God rewards our loyalty to Him as well; He offers us unending happiness and life through a committed relationship with His Son Jesus. Loyalty is the subject of the fourth commandment: Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you (Deuteronomy 5:16). Martin Luther wrote, "[God] promises grace and every blessing to all who keep His commandments." It is this kind of commitment that Jesus speaks of in the Gospel of John: Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me (John 12:26).

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