Remember Ruth's Commitment
NKJV Ruth 1:1-19a (esp. 16-17) 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."
We were a “thrown-together” group of people—thirteen pastors, gathered around the table at the restaurant. In a lot of ways we couldn’t have been more different from each other. Some were young. Others were a little older. Some of us were even older than that. Different backgrounds, different hometowns. And yet we were thrown together—eating and laughing, listening to each other’s stories, even bearing each other’s burdens!
But that’s life! We are “thrown together”! It starts the day that you’re born, doesn’t it? You didn’t choose your parents. Or your brothers and sisters. We’re told, “Choose your friends wisely,” but to a certain degree, you didn’t even choose your friends! You just happened to be dropped into the same 3rd grade class together or lived next door to each other or played the same sport together. Even your spouse—your husband or your wife—how much of that choice was made because you had a locker next to each other in high school or you went to the same church or you were in the same course together in college.
We are thrown together—and as human beings we make commitments to the people we’re thrown together with. But why? This is where Ruth comes in. In this world where we human beings are seemingly thrown together, we hold up her example of commitment as something to recall and hold onto each and every day. Remember Ruth’s commitment.
I. Ruth’s commitment to her mother-in-law.
These three women—Naomi, Orpah and Ruth—were seemingly connected with each other for no reason at all. Naomi was an Ephrathites of the tribe of Judah, from the town of Bethlehem. Meanwhile, Orpah and Ruth were young women from the land of Moab, the country that was about fifty miles away on the other side of the Red Sea. When famine hit Bethlehem, Naomi and her husband moved to the land of Moab, where eventually their two sons met and married two women: Orpah and Ruth. But then tragedy struck: Naomi’s husband died. Then it struck again, Naomi’s sons died—the sons who were married to Orpah and Ruth.
Naomi saw that there was no reason to stay together. Wanting to return to Bethlehem, she said, “Go, return each to her mother’s house. The LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The LORD grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband” (1:8-9). And her thinking made sense. After all, was Naomi going to have more sons? Were Ruth and Orpah going to wait for those theoretical sons to grow up? Naomi’s thinking made so much sense, in fact, that Orpah was persuaded. She kissed her mother-in-law goodbye and turned back toward the land of Moab. But Ruth wasn’t persuaded: “Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her” (v. 14).
Look at the commitment Ruth made to her mother-in-law! “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. Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried” (v. 16-17). She wasn’t going to be talked out of it! She was going to remain totally committed to Naomi in life. She was going to be totally committed even in death, vowing to be buried wherever Naomi was buried! What commitment to say, “I want to be buried next to you”! And not a moment’s reflection over Naomi’s reasons why she should leave—from Ruth’s point of view, staying with Naomi was simply the right thing to do!
Think for a minute about the people you’ve been thrown together with in this life. Maybe it’s your husband or your wife. Kids, maybe it’s your parents. Maybe it is just the people who live on the same street or ride the same bus. When it comes to these people, the world says, “You get to choose!” You get to choose whether to stay or go. You get to choose whether to help or not to help. You get to choose whether to love or not to love. Yet Ruth’s commitment to her mother-in-law tells us something very different. The only real choice you have is to do the right thing, the God-pleasing thing, and to be faithfully committed to the people you’ve thrown together—and been thrown together—with in your life.
After all you weren’t just “thrown together” with these people. You didn’t just fall in together by accident. God brought you together! He saw to it that the people who are in your life are in your life! Remember Ruth’s commitment to her mother-in-law! Remember her single-minded commitment to faithfully love and care for the people that God placed in her life!
It’s a commitment that is hard, to be sure! About the only other commitment that even comes close to the kind of commitment that Ruth makes here to Naomi is marriage. And yet Ruth makes this commitment—why? When we remember Ruth’s commitment to her mother-in-law, we also remember that it’s a commitment made possible by:
II. Ruth’s commitment to her God.
This promise Ruth makes to remain with Naomi and care for her is really an oath. Ruth not only promises—she swears by the name of the LORD that she will stay with her mother-in-law and live with her and even be buried where she is buried. She says, “The LORD do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me.” In other words, she’s saying that if she breaks her promise to Naomi, she wants the LORD Himself to punish her.
In those days people didn’t take an oath lightly. If you swore an oath, you were expected to keep it. And if you swore an oath, you expected God Himself to hold you to it. It’s the kind of promise that maybe we wouldn’t expect Ruth to make. Ruth was from Moab. People there worshiped idols; they bowed down to false gods like Chemosh. They definitely didn’t take their oaths in the name of the Lord!
Why was Ruth so eager to make this oath and go with Naomi and not return home to her people and her gods? It goes back to something Ruth said: “Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God” (v. 16). Ruth is confessing her faith in the one true God! In Ruth’s time with Naomi and her family, she’d been exposed to the truth of God’s Word and by that Word had been turned from her trust in worthless idols to believe in the Lord’s promises! And her desire to go with Naomi and live as one of God’s people in Israel—it was all the fruit of her faith in God. And Ruth’s Spirit-born commitment to trust in the Lord also led her now to remain committed to her poor mother-in-law Naomi.
And isn’t it funny the way the Lord works through loving human commitments in order to bring His deliverance to people’s lives? Just think about everything happens because God brings this foreigner named Ruth to come with Naomi and live in Bethlehem. In this way God took care of poor Naomi. In Bethlehem Ruth would work as a gleaner in the fields, bringing home enough grain for Naomi and herself to survive. In Bethlehem Ruth met Boaz, the man who would redeem her in court so that he could marry her and take care of the whole family.
But the story doesn’t end there. We know that when it comes to caring for the people God has placed into our lives, we fail miserably! We need His deliverance from sin and guilt as much as anybody else! And that deliverance is exactly what God brought! Boaz and Ruth would have a baby named Obed, who would grow up to have another baby named Jesse, who would grow up to have another baby—a baby who would be called King David. And from David’s line, about 1,000 years later another baby would be born. A baby named Jesus. A baby who was more than just a baby—He was also true God. Jesus was God’s ultimate gift of deliverance. In His life He delivered those ten men suffering from leprosy in our gospel lesson for today. And in His death on the cross Jesus brought deliverance to the whole world—deliverance from sin, death, and the devil’s power. A deliverance that God brought about by leading a foreign woman named Ruth to trust in His promises—His promises of deliverance. Promises that we now know are fulfilled in Jesus Christ!
And it’s in those fulfilled promises—because there is now peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ—that our Lord promises to deliver us! We give glory and thanksgiving to God—not just for taking us to be with Him someday in heaven, but for all the little everyday deliverances that He brings into our lives. When He delivers us from sickness. When He delivers us from worry. When He delivers us from loneliness. And how does God do all that? Through the people that He’s placed into our lives!
Remember Ruth’s commitment—her commitment to God that led to her commitment to her mother-in-law. Remember the deliverance of God that leads us to put our trust in Him. Remember Ruth’s commitment as you think about how your life and your commitments are a blessing from God to the people around you. Remember the way that God worked through Ruth to bring deliverance to us all!
Sometimes it can seem like we’re all just kind of thrown together—but it’s just the grace of God at work, bringing His deliverance, His help—to us, to others, and all those in need. Give thanks for that divine deliverance and cling to it every day—deliverance that comes now and lasts forever. Amen.