RUTH

Introduction

Ruth 2:12 “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.”

            The above passage is the promise verse for the month of May and this assures that our Lord almighty will reward us for all our earnest efforts. Our Lord God is going to reward us in a fulfilled manner. All the rewards that we are expecting out of our efforts will be given to us.

I God’s will

Ruth 2:12 ‘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.’

            The above verse is a blessed verse that our Lord is promising to his children. In the scripture, when we look into the lives of two women Esther and Ruth. These two women are blessed by our Lord in an abundant way. Here in this passage, we read about Ruth the moabitess. She is a gentile who was chosen by the Lord God. And when we take the life of Esther, we see she married a gentile man. When we take both Esther and Ruth, both of their lives brought salvation to their family and their land. The effort of a single woman brought in the divine salvation to the land they lived. Let us meditate on how Ruth changes the curse into a blessing in her life. We read in Ruth 1:1 ‘Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehemjudah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.’ The meaning of the word Bethlehem means the house of the Lord. When we read the passage we can understand that there was famine in the land. This could be due to the sins that people committed in that period of time. In Ruth 1:2 ‘And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehemjudah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there.’ We see the entire family settled in the place called Moab. The country of Moab is a sinful place and God did not want the family to stay there. And this resulted in a lot of problems in their place. The reason why they moved to Moab is because they had many losses in their lives. But as a children of God we should understand that no matter we starve or we face issues, we should never take a chance to do things which displeases our Lord almighty. Instead of finding an alternate way to face our problems, we should learn to put our trust on our Lord God. The word Elimelech means the Lord is my king and the word Naomi means wealth. They had the blessings in their name and the Lord purposed to bless their lives but they went by their self-will. Though they faced many struggles in their lives, they did not place all their problems in the Centre of God’s will. Even in our lives, we tend to choose alternate ways to survive than to bring in all our problems in the centre of God’s will. Therfore, we should start praying that we should land up in Bethlehem and not in Moab. Let not our trivial problems and issues that we face make us land up in the wrong place.

II Labour

Ruth  2:2 “And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.”

            In the above passage we see, Ruth went to the field to glean the ears of corn. This shows that there is a Labour in her effort. We see Ruth labored having a strong desire to be blessed. We read in Ruth 2:7 ‘And she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves: so she came, and hath continued even from the morning until now, that she tarried a little in the house.’ Ruth was ready to work from dawn to dusk and this shows her active commitment. Our Lord expects his children to be active and enthusiastic. Our Lord God acknowledges the work of Ruth and blessed her. The sorrow of Naomi was turned away. Our Lord chose a gentile woman to change the sorrow of Naomi. As the children of God, we should not expect blessings of God without taking efforts. Our Lord does not his children to be lazy and sluggish.  Therefore, let us all take earnest efforts in all the things that we do and the Lord almighty will bless us abundantly.

III Submission

Ruth 1:14 “And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.”

            Over here we see a stable decision that she took not to leave Naomi. Being a gentile woman, Ruth chose to stay with Naomi and she knew that would give her the divine comfort. The submission of Ruth made her name pass into the index of generations [Read Deuteronomy 23:3 & Matthew 1:5]. The book of Ruth started with agony and ended with an auspicious note. The love that Ruth had on her mother-in-law and her obedience led her to a blessed future. The one single decision that she took, blessed her generation on a whole. Ruth did not return back when she faced a rough life, she chose to be with the Naomi. Had she returned back to her place, this book might not have come to picture.