National Women’s History Month: Peace, Love & T‘Ruth’

In honor of National Women’s History Month, I wanted to talk about Ruth; and I don’t mean Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I’m talking about Ruth, the loyal and faithful daughter-in-law of Naomi, from the Bible’s book of Ruth.

There are many women throughout the Bible that demonstrate how to live a faithfilled life, but Ruth is my favorite. She was a Moabite woman from Moab. Israelites and Moabites did not get along during that time (Moabites worshipped the god Chemosh and were known for idolatry and child sacrifices). Due to a famine in Israel, Naomi and her two sons were led out of Bethlehem by her husband, Elimelech, and took up residence in Moab. This is how Ruth came to marry Mahlon, becoming the daughter-in-law of Naomi. Elimelech, Mahlon and Chilion then died – leaving all three women widows. Being too old to remarry, Naomi decided to return home to Bethlehem. Knowing it was going to be a difficult and hard journey, she offered the choice to Ruth and her sister-in-law, Orpah, to leave her and return to Moab. While Orpah turned her back on Naomi and fled back to Moab, Ruth could not. She loved her mother-in-law, and she proved it with the powerful statement of “your God, [shall be] my God.” Ruth voluntarily placed her beliefs and her homeland behind her and out of love entered a land completely unbeknownst to her.

“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.” – Ruth 1:16 (NKJV)

After traveling to the city of Bethlehem, Ruth eventually met Boaz – the kinsman redeemer. He greatly admired Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi, not to mention her beauty. When the two of them married and she bore a son (Obed), Ruth then unknowingly became the great-grandmother of King David – a key part in the lineage of Christ.

Ruth showed loyalty and honor - not only to her mother-in-law - but God as well by trusting the path He placed in front of her. We could all learn a little something from Ruth. Whether it be that God finds a way to use the most unlikely of people or that He blesses those that are faithful, I think we can all agree that we should all strive to be more like Ruth - women and men of such loyalty and integrity.