Ruth 1:6-18
6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his
people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to
return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place
where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to
the land of Judah. 8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back,
each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have
shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that each
of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them
goodbye and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to
your people.” 11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come
with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12
Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I
thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then
gave birth to sons— 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain
unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you,
because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!” 14 At this they wept aloud
again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. 15
“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her
gods. Go back with her.” 16 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. 17 Where you die I will die,
and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely,
if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was
determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
Title: God’s means of calling us
back
Message: God loves us so that He
allows sufferings to get to our lives. It’s because as we suffer, we tend to
seek comfort and eventually turn to Him. Naomi lost her husband and sons,
experienced famine and realized that all that happened because her family left
the place God gave them and that they have lived with sinners. Thus, she
decided to go back to Bethlehem.
Promise to Claim: “For our light and
momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs
them all” (2 Cor. 4:17). This applied to Naomi and may apply, too to any of us.
Her return to Bethlehem brought us all the fulfilment of one of God’s covenant
(Acts 2:29-36).
Command to Obey: Turn to God. Depend on Him
especially in times that we are lost, in times that turning to others may bring
us danger rather than comfort or spiritual strength.
Warning to Heed: Unfaithfulness brings
sufferings.
Application: I will pray unceasingly. I
will always seek God that I remain firm in my faith, that I will find strength
in the midst of trials.
