Ruth 1 devotional

A LONG THOUGHT from the Holy Bible’s Old Testament from THE BOOK OF RUTH, chapter 1.This book was written during the days that Israel was ruled by judges and the people did what was right in their own eyes.This was a dark time in the life of Israel.Naomi and her husband, Elimelek, and family had moved to the country of Moab on the east side of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea in what is modern day Jordan because there was famine in Israel at the time. (V. 1)They had two sons, Mahlon and Killlon, who married women of Moab.Ruth and Orpah were the Moabite women their sons married.

The people of Moab were descendants of Lot’s son.The Moab people originally shared ancestry with the people of Israel, though they were polytheistic (Judges 10:6) pagans and primarily worshipped a god called Chemosh (Numbers 21:29).Therefore Naomi and her husband should not have moved to Moab and theirsons should not have married these women because of their pagan worship. (Deuteronomy 7:3-4)

This chapter tells us the story of Naomi’s husband and sons all dying in Moab.They had lived in Moab 10 years.Elimelek had moved to Moab without the LORD’s permission.He did not trust in the LORD to supplies the needs of his family.The years in Moab were painful because of Elimelek’s and Naomi’s disobedience to the Word of God.

Then Naomi decided to return to Judah to the city of Bethlehem because she heard that the famine had ended in Bethlehem. She needed to return to the LORD.Naomi was about to make a new beginning, for with God, it’s never too late to start over again5

When she was telling her daughters-in-law good bye, she told them to return to their mother’s house and their people and their gods.Perhaps she did not want to take her sons’s pagan wives back to Judah.That would have shown the home people that her and Elimelek did not obey the Word of the LORD.

However Ruth said that she would go with Naomi. This was Ruth’s famous statement to Naomi:“Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”” (Ruth 1:16-17 ESV)

Why was Ruth so determined to go with Naomi back to Israel?Ruth saw no hope in Moab.She did not see her pagan gods meet her needs.So she chose to go with her mother-in-law and chose to move with Naomi to Bethlehem.

Did you notice that she chose to have Naomi’s God become her God? (Vs. 16-17 ESV)Ruth chose to have a personal relationship with Almighty God.How was that possible?Deuteronomy 23:3 says, ““No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever,” (V.3 ESV)Though the law says no, the grace of God says yes to anyone who is willing to confess their sins and receive Jesus Christ as LORD can enter the kingdom of God. (Romans 10:9-13).

Have you made the decision to allow Jesus Christ to become the LORD of your life?Do so today and He can make you right with God, like Ruth.