A Living Testimony

I want you to think about Naomi and Ruth for a few minutes and their relationship to one another?  Naomi must have been a living witness to Ruth, for Ruth did not want Naomi to leave her even if it meant Ruth leaving her family and friends and even her homeland and also her gods.

I don’t think I have ever thought of this quite like this before.  Ruth and Orpah must have loved Naomi very sincerely to want to forsake everything that they were accustomed to and go with Naomi, even though in the end Orpah stayed behind.  

Please read Ruth 1:8-17, “And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘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.’ So she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, ‘Surely we will return with you to your people.’ But Naomi said, ‘Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go—for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons, would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? No, my daughters; for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me!’ Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. And she said, ‘Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.’ 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. 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.’”

Even Orpah, Naomi’s other daughter-in-law wanted to leave and go with Naomi but the pull of the old life was stronger than her commitment to Naomi and she decided to go back.  This was a great mistake when you think of what happened to Ruth!!  Orpah went back to her pagan idols that could do nothing for her, but Ruth made the right choice and the Lord not only blessed her but He also blessed Naomi because of the choice Ruth made.

Now think of this, Naomi had no one to take care of her, but Ruth was like a daughter to her and worked very hard spending long hours in the grain fields gleaning to provide for herself and for Naomi.  Even then the Lord intervened and Naomi had Ruth go to a field owned by a man named Boas, a close relative on Naomi’s husband’s side of the family.  If Ruth went to any other field she could have been in real danger, she could have been beaten and even raped, but the Lord intervened in all that happened to Ruth for making the right choice that she had made.

Please read Ruth 2:19-23, “And her mother-in-law said to her, ‘Where have you gleaned today? And where did you work? Blessed be the one who took notice of you.’ So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, ‘The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.’ Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, ‘Blessed be he of the Lord, who has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead!’ And Naomi said to her, ‘This man is a relation of ours, one of our close relatives.’  Ruth the Moabitess said, ‘He also said to me, ‘You shall stay close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’ And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, ‘It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, and that people do not meet you in any other field.’ So she stayed close by the young women of Boaz, to glean until the end of barley harvest and wheat harvest; and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.”

This is a great love story between Naomi and her daughter-in-law, Ruth.  Ruth was so dedicated and committed to Naomi that she obeyed her and took good care of her.  This must have started because of Naomi’s love and witness to Ruth!!  When it was all said and done, Ruth ended up marrying Boas, who was a kinsmen Redeemer, and they and Naomi couldn’t have been happier.

The moral of this story is this that love and obedience always win out in the end.  I would like to relate this true story to the Lord, who is our Kinsmen Redeemer.  Think about this; God created all things, please read Genesis chapter 1.  

Man was created in His image and likeness that is true.  But, because of Adam and Eve and their non-obedience and their rebelliousness and sin, all have been born with a sin nature which separated all of us from God.  Adam and Eve were banished from the garden and separated from God because of their choice to sin and we are separated from the God because of our sin nature.  So we all need a Kinsmen Redeemer, which is the Lord, and God has been trying to redeem us ever since the garden experience.  God has proved His love over and over again.  Please read John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

God has made a way that we can be redeemed through His beloved Son, Jesus.     

Read 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Repent of your sins, which means to turn away from your sins and turn to the Lord and ask Him to forgive you of your sin and to be your Lord and Savior!!  Everyone needs a Kinsmen Redeemer and there is none like the Lord!!  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may you have a super day!!  Remember the Lord is worthy of our praise, so let’s Praise Him!!