Ruth 1:8-22, “Your God will be my God!”
Today’s message continues last week’s sermon on Naomi, a prodigal who returned to God and Bethlehem, “the house of bread.” Today, we will focus on Ruth, Naomi’s daughter-in-law, a Moabite woman who never knew Bethlehem, a Gentile.
Before we get into details, I want to point out that the book of Ruth is read during the Feast of Pentecost, which was and is celebrated fifty days after Passover when the chosen lamb, the lamb of God, shed blood. On the day of Pentecost, the bread of barley and the bread of wheat are offered, –barley, a symbol of Israelites, and wheat, a symbol of all believers. In other words, symbolically, both Israelites and Gentiles are being presented before God after the blood of a lamb was shed. In this light, the book of Ruth is particularly important for Gentile Christians like us because in this book, the love story of Boaz and Ruth coming together, –Boaz, a type of Christ, and Ruth, a type of gentile believer, portrays God’s love for all people including Gentiles. Those who might think that the Old Testament is an outdated book should know that God’s plan of salvation cannot be known without the Old Testament. There is no way of knowing that Jesus Christ is the God-sent redeemer, the Savior of the world, who is the prophesied Messiah. In this book, Ruth, we can see God’s plan of salvation for both Israelites and Gentiles.
Our text starts with verse 8, in which Naomi tries to dissuade her two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, from coming to Bethlehem when she decides to return. Because Naomi did not see much hope for their marriage prospects. As we know, it was a custom that if any married Israelite died without an heir, his widow would marry his brother next in line to continue the family line of the deceased. According to this custom, for Ruth and Orpah to remarry, they had to wait for Naomi to produce sons, which was almost impossible, Naomi thought, let alone Ruth and Orpah’s waiting for them to grow up even if Naomi were to marry and produce sons. Without a husband or heir, there was no means for them to survive in a foreign land. Not only that, Naomi thought it was enough for her to bear her bitter fate alone; it was too bitter for anyone to share it.
In the series of tragic events that happened in her life -her husband and two sons deaths-she only saw her circumstances and forgot that she had a family redeemer back home.
When we are in trouble, especially when experiencing misfortunate events, we often wallow in self-pity, focusing on our problems in despair, forgetting that we have our Redeemer Christ. If we have our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, we are not without hope. If we look at ourselves and our hands, of course, we don’t see anything because we are nothing. When we look at our Redeemer Christ, however, there is hope. He is the way, the light, and the life. Let us never forget Christ, our Redeemer.
From a different angle, when the two Moabites, Ruth and Orpah, decided to leave their homeland with Naomi. Naomi had two converts, in other words. They were converts because they chose to come to Bethlehem, “The house of bread,” leaving behind their people, land, and god, Chemosh. It was understandable that Naomi wanted to return to Bethlehem because it was her homeland. However, these two women, Orpha and Ruth, for them to decide to come to Bethlehem was not easy; leaving everything behind, –their people, land, and gods–; they were leaving their comfort zone and security they had known for all their lives.
Ruth and Orpha were a type of gentiles who came to God, having to leave everything behind. They were like Abraham, who had left his relatives, his homeland (security and comfort), and his gods/idols to follow Yahweh God.
As Ruth and Orpah are types of converts, we see two kinds of believers among Christians who have decided to follow God.
The first kind is, there are Christians like Orpah, who had decided to follow God but could not leave behind the comfort and security of the world. The name, Orpah, means in Hebrew, “neck,” as in “stiff-necked,” because she turned back from following her mother-in-law to Bethlehem, “the house of bread.” I mentioned last week that separation from one’s land meant separation from one’s god (s). It becomes all the clearer if we read Ruth 2:12, where we see how Boaz blessed Ruth when they first met, “May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” In this light, we can see that Orpah could not resist the “comfort and security,” something she was so used to enjoy in the land of her gods. She had been stubborn and “stiff-necked,” clinging to her old ways of life that did not have anything to do with Jehovah God. Moabites and Ammonites, like the rest of the Canaanites, practiced human/child sacrifice and perverted sexual orgies that are detestable to God.
Likewise, there are people who might initially have an interest in God’s kingdom but cannot leave behind things of the world—the false gods that seemingly promise “security and comfort” of life on this earth. Those who cannot resist the temptation to return to their old ways of life cannot continually walk toward “Bethlehem,” “the house of bread.”
The second kind is, there are Christians like Ruth whose determination to go to Bethlehem is so strong that only death can stop their walk toward God. Ruth declared, “I will go with you to Bethlehem until death separates you and me.” “Your people will be my people, your God my God,” in verse 16. How strong her determination was! Her declaration, “Your God will be my God,” which came from the bottom of her heart, not only broke the curse laid on her as a Moabite but also granted her to be the great-grandmother of King David to whom the ancestry of Christ can be traced, being a part of God’s plan of salvation. On a side note, Jewish legend has it that Orpah was a great-grandmother of Goliath, while Ruth became a great-grandmother of King David.
Do we know that Moabites were cursed in the bible? If we read Deuteronomy 23: 3, no Ammonites or Moabites were allowed to enter the temple of God because they did not supply bread and water for Israelites on their way out of Egypt, and what was worse, Moabites hired Balaam, son of Beor, a prophet, to pronounce a curse on Israelites. When Ruth left everything behind, her native land, her people, and her gods, and declared thatYahweh God was her God, the curse was broken on her. Only when Ruth left everything behind and made Yahweh God her God did she meet her redeemer, Boaz, a type of Christ.
Likewise, we must leave everything behind and make God “my God.” That is when we can meet our Christ redeemer, through whom we can enter the temple of God. We were cursed to damnation. But if we leave everything, the things of the world, behind and make God “my God,” we can meet our Redeemer Christ, by whom we can enter the temple of God. Christ’s blood is the door for us to enter the tabernacle of God. We cannot come to God without Christ’s blood.
Do we know that God cannot hear us unless the blood of Jesus covers us? Do we know that we cannot truly worship unless the blood of Jesus covers us? Having a good time at church functions is not worship. Having discussions in our Sunday school classes is not worship. Worship happens when we come into the Holy presence of God with thanksgiving, praises, and adoration for our God, who provides salvation for sinners like us through the sacrifice of His one and only Son Jesus Christ. Worship happens when we offer ourselves as holy living sacrifices to God, –devoting our hearts, minds, souls, and spirits entirely to God. When we come into the holy presence of God, we are being transformed. Our lips that is so used to curse will be more and more like Christ’s lips. We will no longer be the same person as yesterday if we come into God’s presence and have genuine encounters with God. Do we have divine encounters during our worship? Are we changing, at least gradually? If we haven’t changed a bit, even if we come to worship every Sunday, perhaps we do not truly worship God. We may not know the meaning of being covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. We should know that being covered by the blood of Jesus Christ means we submit to the principles, teachings, and life of Christ, practicing love and blessing instead of cursing. Let us come to God by making God “my God” and entering the Tabernacle of God through the blood of Jesus. That is the only way to God! Amen!