Ruth: All-in Commitment – Nov. 26 Lesson

What does it mean to be “loyal”? 

Faithful in allegiance (fidelity [faith] owed).  Faith: firm belief in and reliance upon something.

We live in a world where talk is cheap.  Loyalty, faithfulness, should be second nature to those who follow Jesus.  But we must CHOOSE to live lives of commitment over the convenience of self desire.  In fact that is the point of the lesson “Christ-centered living chooses commitment, not convenience.”

Today we look in the book of Ruth. 

As background material, let’s look at the ancestry related to Ruth:

Perez ➵ Hezron ➵ Ram ➵ Amminadab ➵ Nahshon ➵ Salma ➵ Boaz ➵ Obed ➵ Jesse ➵ David

This list of 10 ancestors symbolically indicate the beginning of a new epoch, that of the David monarchy.  There is a similar list of 10 names in Genesis that symbolically indicate the division between the pre-flood and post-flood era with Noah, and the new world divided into nations with Abraham, David began the dynasty that will ultimately lead to messianic times under the Messiah son of David.

The seventh person in this list is one of the heros of the Book of Ruth.  Seven is always a significant number in the Bible.  The Rabbis understood that the Ruth list was written in a way that indicates that it represents the culmination of the cosmic saga of Genesis, the coming of the Messiah.  Ruth, an ancestor of David, a Moabite woman, is a central part of God’s plan for the salvation of mankind.

Ruth takes place during the period of the Judges, a time during which God’s people struggled with spiritual compromise in Canaan. Their turning to idolatry led to suffering when God disciplined them through foreign invaders.  Then when the people cried out for mercy God forgave them and raised up judges to deliver them.  But, when the Judges died the people would slip back into their old ways and the cycle of sin and idolatry would begin all over again.

At the opening of this book we learn that to escape a drought plaguing the land, a man named Elimelech (meaning my God is king) his wife Naomi and their two sons Mahlon and Chilion have moved from Bethlehem to Moab, east of the Dead Sea somewhere in modern Jordon.

They lived there long enough that the two sons each married women from Moab.  Elimelech died and after about 10 years Naomi’s sons’ also died.  Naomi found herself the matriarch of a family of three widows.  Widowhood presents a difficult time in a woman’s life, especially when compounded with a diminished ability to meet financial needs, a common circumstance in the ancient patriarchal world of the Bible. 

Following the death of her husband, a widow’s best hope for security would be a son’s ability to provide for her. The loss of a son was thus an even greater tragedy for a widow.  The case of the widow Naomi, however, has a twist because her redemption comes unexpectedly through her widowed daughter-in-law Ruth, rather than through her own sons.

The distance between Moab and Bethlehem is some 50 to 60 miles, up hill in the mountains most of the way.

Naomi had weighed her options for her and her remaining family.  If the three widows remained in Moab there would be no family members obligated to assist them in any way. She recommends to the young women to return to their own families, who would be obligated to provide something for them.  This would leave Naomi alone to return to her family lands in Bethlehem where she might find some amount of support from close or distant kin.

Naomi was confident that each of the young widows would find a new husband to provide rest and security for her.  Naomi kissed her daughter-in-laws goodby.  

Ruth and Orpah had faithfully lived out the terms of their marriages.  Ruth refused to return to her ancestral home in Moab.  The phrase “don’t plead with me” has the force of a stone prohibition.  Roughly the equivalent of “now mom, stop it! the debate on this matter is now over.”

A great deal is wrapped up in Ruth’s pledge.  Ruth was going to a land unfamiliar to her, a place where she would be a stranger and have no friends.  She would know ONLY Naomi.  It was a new land with a new god and new religious rules to follow.  She would have to learn new customs and a new culture.  Ruth would “put down stakes” and settle wherever Naomi chose.  She would share Naomi’s life conditions.  Ruth severed ties with her family members, extended relatives, friends and acquaintances and would adopt Naomi’s people as here.

An interesting point is that in original language the phrase “your people will be my people, and your God will be my God” literally reads “your people, my people; your God, my God.  No verbs are present in the original language, indicating the meaning of “Your people ARE my people, and your God IS my God.”  This was not Ruth’s initial profession of fatih.  She had made that profession long ago when she married Naomi’s son.  In effect she was saying “stop trying to send me back to Moab; those are not my people any more.  Your people are my people.  I settled that issue when I married your son, and I’m NOT turning back now.”

Ruth made clear that her commitment to Naomi was binding and permanent.  She would remain with Naomi as long as her mother-in-law lived.  Then Ruth would live out her life in Naomi’s land and be buried there – no conditions, no loopholes.  Ruth took an oath to her commitment to Naomi.  There WAS no turning back.

Commitment has mostly fallen out of style.  It is simply “too hard” and “to inconvenient” to commit to a person, a church or even a faith.  But for Christians, this kind of all-in commitment is more than an ideal; it is a part of who we are.  It is our second nature.  Ruth, an ancestor of Jesus, demonstrates and illustrates this kind of commitment for us.