An Oasis of Faithfulness
One of the most moving stories of the bible is the account of the life of Ruth. This story takes place near the latter part of the 12th century BC, when Israel was governed by the Judges whom God would raise up from time to time to deliver His people from their captors and from their sin.
Ruth was a young and evidently beautiful and well mannered girl from the country of Moab. She was not a Jew but rather a descendent of the eldest son of Lot. Moab was born from a drunken incestuous relationship between Lot and his firstborn daughter after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Ruth’s character and commitment, despite her ancestry, served as an oasis of faithfulness in an age marked by selfishness and sin. The once holy people of God had turned themselves over to idolatry and unfaithfulness to the law of God and God needed someone to lead them.
As often is the case, God turns to and chooses an outsider, someone unknown, to magnify and exalt His grace through. God calls greatness from obscurity and works His plans through common people.
The story goes that there was a famine in the land of Israel. So a man from Bethlehem named Elimelech took his wife Naomi and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion and moved to the neighboring country of Moab.
Eventually Elimelech died and Naomi was left with her two sons who later took Moabite women as wives for themselves. One young woman who was named Orpah and the other named Ruth.
After about ten years both Mahlon and Chilion also died leaving the three women alone. Naomi, sad and lonely, decided she would return to her homeland. Both of her widowed daughters-in-law committed to go with her to her people.
“Why should you go with me?” Naomi asked, I have nothing else to offer you. Return to your families and I will return to mine. With this they lifted up their voices and wept again. Here the bible records a verse which has become the basis for many great sermons.
Ruth 1:14 And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.
Today we still encounter two types of people: Kissers and Cleavers!
As Orpah returned to her family Naomi once again urged Ruth to do likewise. However, Ruth confidently replies:
16 But Ruth said: "Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God.
17 Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me."
Well, many of you know the rest of the story or you can read it in the bible in the book of Ruth. If you do not have your own bible you can go to our web site at www.cotr.com and click on the resources section of our home page which will provide you further access to an online bible.
In brief, Naomi and Ruth returned to Bethlehem in Judah of Israel and there through a series of divine appointments which only God could have orchestrated, Ruth met a distant relative of her mother-in-law’s family who was named Boaz. Because of Ruth’s diligent work and demonstrated faithfulness to the covenant she made with Naomi, Boaz, a man of great means, took special notice of her and ended up asking Ruth to marry him.
Eventually Boaz took Ruth as his wife and even though she had been evidently barren for more than a decade in her first marriage, God now enabled her to conceive and she bore a son named Obed who was the delight of his grandmother. The bible says that Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and became his nurse.
Obed is the father of Jesse who is the father of David the King, a man after God’s own heart, the leader God wanted for Israel. This means that Ruth is one of the great grandmothers of Jesus, the Messiah.
The story of Ruth reveals many truths. Here are five which are evident principles from God’s word.
#1. Our future is not determined by our past, but by our God.
#2. God does not first have to seek our permission before He alters our course.
#3. What may seem like a surprise to us is actually a plan to God.
#4. Sometimes we have to let go of one thing in order to take hold of another.
#5. If it’s not good, God’s not finished yet.
In other words … “It ain’t over til it’s over.” Give God some more time and space for Him to work His plan.
Today I know that God has a plan for your life … do you? What may seem like chance encounters, the fact that you are listening to this today, these are no coincidences. God is orchestrating His will using your life as a piece to a much greater picture which only He can paint. Your future is not determined by your past, but by your God.
We may as yet be unaware how the things which we are facing could ever be used by God or turned for any good. This is no doubt how Mary the mother of Jesus felt when the Roman guards scourged her Firstborn Son, stripped Him, placed a crown of thorns on His head, spit on Him and mocked Him before leading Him away to be crucified. (Matthew 27:26)
Perhaps Simon the Cyrene felt it unfair to be compelled to carry the cross of this condemned enemy of the state, (Matthew 27:32), but in both cases, God did not need their permission to alter the course of their lives and fit them into His eternal plan.
We must allow God, with His eternal perspective, to write the script of our lives with the pen of His justice and the hand of His grace.
Never adjust your theology to accommodate a tragedy. Life will offer opportunities for us to believe that God is punishing us or has forgotten our plight. Not so! What may seem like punishment for the moment is really positioning for a lifetime. God is good to His children! He is leading you to your highest calling, your greatest day.
In respect to Ruth cleaving to her mother-in-law and letting go of all that was familiar and secure to her I offer this insight. Without letting go of the past, some good, some bad, we can never fully get a firm hold on the future and all of its untapped potential.
Life demands risks - without which no one would ever get married, start a new job, have children or become a witness for the Kingdom of Christ.
Sometimes we have to let go of one thing in order to take hold of another.
And lastly remember, “It ain’t over til it’s over.” And only God decides when it’s over.
Stay in the game, focus on the future and believe that God is not finished telling the story of your life yet!
Won’t you stand.