{"id":4071,"date":"2025-08-30T18:32:58","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T18:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/?p=4071"},"modified":"2025-08-30T18:33:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T18:33:01","slug":"lessons-from-bible-lives-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allthecounselofgod.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/30\/lessons-from-bible-lives-15\/","title":{"rendered":"LESSONS FROM BIBLE LIVES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RUTH \u2013 DEVOTION TO DUTY IS CROWNED WITH BLESSING AND HONOR<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SCRIPTURE: Book of Ruth; Matt 1:5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

INTRODUCTION: <\/strong>The events recorded in this book took place during the time of the Judges and present a marked contrast to the enemy oppression, intertribal jealousy, and other turbulent events characteristic of that period of Israel\u2019s history. Instead of violence and lawlessness, we see love, tenderness, and sacrifice. The book contains just four brief chapters, but it has a mighty message\u2013in fact, several of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HER NAME<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRuth\u201d is one of the most popular girl\u2019s names. Several years ago a statistician ranked Ruth seventh in the list of the 100 most popular female names in America, with almost 1.5 million bearing the name. It may mean either \u201csomething worth seeing,\u201d or \u201cfriendship.\u201d No doubt both meanings were true of this beautiful girl of Moab. She was certainly a sight worth seeing, and she was capable of loyal friendship seldom equaled in the annals of human history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took a real measure of grace to befriend a bitter woman such as Naomi became, but Ruth was bound to her mother-in-law by the cords of love! One<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HER ADULT LIFE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

l . As A Young Widow<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>\u2014 When we first meet Ruth, she is a young wife married to one of Elimelech\u2019s sons. In the very next verse we find Ruth (and Orpah as well) prematurely and unexpectedly losing her husband through death. The root cause is the chastening hand of God upon Naomi (Ruth\u2019s mother-in-law). First, her husband died. Then both her sons, Mahlon and Chilion, who had sinned by marrying women of Moab, also died. (See Deut 7:3, 23:3 for prohibition of such marriages.) We have no information about the spiritual life of this Hebrew family while out of the will of God in Moab. However, it is safe to conclude from the context ( 1:16-17) that at least Ruth had been significantly influenced by her exposure to the one true God, Jehovah. She seems to have weathered the family\u2019s shock of losing all the men much better than Naomi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. As A Faithful Daughter-in-law<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>\u2014 The three widows\u2013Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah\u2014were no doubt bound together by their grief. But since Naomi\u2019s sons died childless, when the famine in Bethlehem passed, she decided to pull up stakes and go back home. Ruth and Orpah were deeply attached to their mother-in-law and decided to go with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But on the way back to Bethlehem, Naomi urged them to go back to their own country and people. (What a sad testimony for one of God\u2019s people to be urging others to stay in their idolatry!) For Orpah, ties of kindred and her own idolatry won out, and she went back to her people and to her gods ( and to an eternity without Christ!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But with Ruth it was different. In the words of Alexander Whyte, \u201cRuth\u2019s love for her dead husband\u2019s aged mother is as pure gold and as strong as death. Many waters cannot quench Ruth\u2019s love. And her confession of love . .is the most beautiful confession of love in all the world.\u201d What pure and unselfish devotion! What beauty of character when Ruth cried, \u201cEntreat me not to leave thee.\u201d What a contradiction to modem flippancy and fickleness, especially in view of traditional attitudes toward \u201c;mother-in-law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. As A Determined Convert<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>\u2014 In spite of her heathen background in the degenerate tribe of Moab, Ruth became a true worshiper of the true God! The last words of Ruth 1 :16 are the song of a new life! (See Psa 40:1-3) Now with God in her heart, Ruth longed _to live with those people \u201cwhose God is the Lord. \u201cWhat a miracle in the heathen heart of Ruth, especially in light of Naomi\u2019s poor testimony (urging her to stay in Moab) But wanting to be with God\u2019s people is the \u201cnorm\u201d <\/strong>for those who become new creatures <\/strong>in Christ\u2013\u201cold things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. As A Humble Gleaner<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>\u2014 Ruth realized that Naomi could not work, so she volunteered to do the only profitable thing, and that was to go glean. It was the time of barley harvest, and she was directed by the providence of God to the field of Boaz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruth was not ashamed of her menial task as she took her place with the poor and outcast gleaning in the barley fields. Because of her character, she was more concerned about providing for Naomi than about the impression she might make with the public. She was determined not to eat the bread of idleness, and God rewarded her with the immediate favor and kindness of Boaz. Little did she dream that she would soon become the much-loved wife of this great, good and wealthy man! How wonderful the workings of God! Boaz was one of Naomi\u2019s near relatives, one of the few remaining kinsmen of her husband\u2019s family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nearest relative was unable ( or unwilling) to function as kinsman redeemer (\u201cgoel\u201d) but Boaz, next of kin, willingly took the responsibility. This not only provided a home and husband for Ruth, but brought ample provision and security for Naomi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruth was lifted out of obscurity into a happy union with Boaz, the mighty man of wealth, and permitted to join the ancestry of our Savior! God smiled on the marriage of honorable Boaz and virtuous Ruth, and blessed them with a son, \u201cObed,\u201d (meaning \u201ca servant who worships\u201d) who became the grandfather of David. This experience is one of the first in world history of a rise from rags to riches, from poverty to plenty!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LESSONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Naomi had told Ruth, while still in Moab (1 :9), that she would find rest among her own people, but she finally learned that there is rest only <\/strong>with the people of God and in the will of God. <\/strong>(See Matt 11 :28-30)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. The virtues of unselfishness <\/strong>and loyalty <\/strong>are the only foundation upon which true happiness <\/strong>can be built. Unfortunately, multitudes today\u2013including many professing Christians\u2013are actively seeking happiness for themselves. The simple truth is that one will never experience true happiness until he forgets <\/strong>about himself <\/strong>and learns to live for others!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. \u201cOpportunity is met on the road to duty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. The ways of God are past finding out! Only an omniscient and merciful God could orchestrate the events recorded in the book of Ruth, such that a heathen Moabite girl would be brought into the human lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ. Surely, as said the Psalmist,\u201d .. His mercy endureth for ever.\u201d (See Psa 136; Lamentations 3:22-23)<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"