Ruth
“Your people will be my people.”
A foreign woman resolves never to leave her mother-in-law, and the Messiah's lineage begins.
Ruth was a woman of Moab. A family from Bethlehem had gone down to Moab to escape a famine, and their two sons married Moabite women. Ruth was one of them. But before ten years had passed, all three husbands died — the father-in-law, then both sons. Three widows were left. Naomi, the mother-in-law, finally decided to return to her hometown of Bethlehem and urged her two daughters-in-law, 'Go back, each of you, to your mother's house.'
One daughter-in-law, Orpah, kissed her mother-in-law goodbye in tears and went back. But Ruth clung to her and answered, 'Do not urge me to leave you or to turn back from following you. Where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.' A Moabite woman declaring she would become an Israelite woman.
When they arrived in Bethlehem, they were poor. Ruth went out to glean grain to support her mother-in-law. The field she happened to enter belonged to Boaz, a relative of her mother-in-law's husband. Boaz had already heard of Ruth's reputation — 'the woman who left her father and mother and her native land to come to a people she did not know before, for her mother-in-law's sake.' He showed her kindness, and eventually, following the law of kinsman-redemption, took her as his wife. Obed was born to them, Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David. Her name is written in Matthew chapter 1 — one of the mothers in the Messiah's line.
A foreigner who would not leave her mother-in-law. She said, 'Your people will be my people, and your God my God.'
Defining Moments
The events that made this person who they were
Deciding never to leave her mother-in-law
When her husband dies and her mother-in-law Naomi urges her to 'go back,' she answers, 'Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.' A Moabite woman becomes an Israelite woman.
Gleaning grain in Boaz's field
Arriving in Bethlehem, she goes out to glean grain to support her mother-in-law. The field she happens to enter turns out to belong to a relative, Boaz. Her posture of working with dignity even in the lowest place lifts up an entire family.
Giving birth to Obed, the beginning of David's line
She marries Boaz and gives birth to Obed. Obed is the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David. A foreign woman from Moab becomes a mother in the Messiah's genealogy.
Personality
The colors revealed through their story
A resolve that chooses the harder road at the decisive moment
She could have returned to her homeland and family, but instead follows a mother-in-law with nothing to offer. With her own hands, she chooses the more difficult path for herself.
Someone who works with dignity in the lowliest place
She isn't ashamed of the lowliest labor — gleaning leftover grain. Yet at the same time, she guards the dignity of her position.
Someone who shares every kindness she receives with her mother-in-law
She doesn't keep the grain Boaz gives her to herself. She brings it to her mother-in-law, listens to her counsel, and builds the way forward together.
★ Strengths
- Choosing loyalty as decision
◐ Shadow
- Expressing your own needs too late
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