BOOK STUDY: Twelve Extraordinary Women / Ruth-- Loyalty and Love

Twelve Extraordinary Women by John MacArthur

Chapter 4:  Ruth--Loyalty and Love

The story of Ruth is one of my favorite stories in the Bible.  Just like Esther, an entire book is devoted to its telling.    Set in the Old Testament times Ruth's name means friendship.  As you can see from reading, she had friendship with her mother-in-law and an eternal friendship with the Lord who blessed her more than she probably ever asked or thought.  

After Naomi's husband and two sons died, Naomi lamented:  Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me?... she wants them to call her Mara, which means bitter.  John M. explains that she was not suggesting that she had become a bitter person but that God had handed her a bitter cup to drink.  She was actually a woman of great faith, willing to leave the pagan land where her husband had moved them and return to her homeland in poverty.  A righteous woman as well, under the umbrella protection of the Lord for her obedience to her authority (her husband in this case).  

God provided for Naomi through her loyal daughter-in-law Ruth who refused to leave her.  I can only say that Naomi must have been the perfect mother-in-law because such devotion to an in-law is often not the case in our culture. Though expressed from a younger woman to an older one, the  poetic way Ruth refuses to leave her from chapter 1:16-17 is often used in weddings for its message of firm resolve and commitment as well as its beautiful words.  Naomi apparently loved Ruth and as was customary in that culture set about trying to orchestrate an arranged marriage for her.   Widows in that time were destitute without a man to care for them.

You've heard the illustration, I'm sure, of the tapestry of life, how we see parts of the weaving from the underside and the Lord sees the completed piece of fabric from the top with every stitch blending and fitting together as He has planned.    That is so evident in Ruth's life.  From Ruth's marriage to a Jewish man who had left his homeland for a pagan land (very unusual), to the ancestry of Boaz (his mother or grandmother was Rahab, a foreign woman like Ruth herself), to Ruth finding a job in the fields of the kinsman-redeemer for their family, to Boaz having a significant harvest where Ruth could work and get food after so many years of famine...the list goes on.  Romans 8:28 is illustrated throughout this entire book.  Sometimes in living our daily lives we miss seeing the little twists and turns of life as an actual path that the Lord has prepared for us.

God chose Ruth in his beautiful tapestry and rewarded her for her faithfulness, loyalty and love, as well as her submission to authority by providing her with a husband to care for her and her mother-in-law as well as giving her a son who was to be a predecessor of  King David and hence, Christ.  Her name is recorded in the Bible for all eternity, something that she probably would  never have asked or thought.  

Have you ever taken time to ponder your own life's timeline, its highs and seeming lows, its twists and curves from what you have planned and where you are today?   Take a few minutes today and actually write it down as a pathway that you have been on, remembering that your path has not yet ended if you're reading this. :)   If you have been following my blog for any length of time you know that my mother passed away recently and that I was adopted into our family as an infant (like Ruth was adopted into the family of God).  Due to family conflict among our elders resulting in 40+ years of separation, several in our family were reunited this past week and our family in many ways was reborn for my brother and me. So, even in death, we have discovered new life in our family.  I was even reunited with a childhood friend after 30+ years of separation as well.  A little twist in the road from our day-to-day lives resulted in abundant blessings for us as the events of the week were far better than I would have ever asked or thought as with Ruth.  God is good.  The tapestry continues weaving as our lives go on...

Ephesians 3:20-21

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, 

according to the power that works within us, 

to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. 

Romans 8:28

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good

  to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 

NEXT WEEK:  Hannah--A Portrait of Feminine Grace