Ruth 1: Faithfulness

What happens when disaster strikes? Where do we turn, who do we blame? There are many places we can turn and many ways we can react, so what do you do? The book of Ruth starts off with a famine and for an agricultural community nothing could be worse.

But for Naomi the disaster doesn’t end there. She loses her two sons and her husband. Her situation is simply something we cannot fathom. It would be the equivalent of losing your home, your family and friends, your job and absolutely no possibility of ever gaining employment again. She had two choices: begging or prostitution.

Naomi’s response was to change her name to bitterness and lay the blame for her situation on God (v. 20-22). Orpah chooses to go back to her family but Ruth pledges to remain faithful to Naomi until they die. Ruth accepts Naomi’s grim fate. But it is through Ruth that God shows is faithfulness to Naomi. Naomi may have returned to Israel empty but she was not alone, God had provided Ruth through whom he would bless Naomi again.

The Hebrew idea of faithfulness is far more comprehensive than we typically think. It encompasses love, mercy, grace, kindness, goodness, benevolence, loyalty, covenant faithfulness. But it could be summarized as a quality that moves a person to act for the benefit of another without respect to any advantage or reward the doer might receive. Having faithfulness means I actively work for the benefit of another. Ruth shows her faithfulness to Naomi by choosing to suffer the same fate as Naomi. But there is a greater act of faithfulness in the Bible than Ruth’s, it is Christ’s. Jesus was so filled with faithfulness to God, that he was moved to die on behalf of us to save us from a fate much worse than Naomi’s and Ruth’s. While we were still sinners he died for us (Romans 5:8).

Christ has already saved us, his people, from the worst disaster they could experience. But God’s concern for Naomi and Ruth also shows that he doesn’t stop there, he is also faithful in the little things of life. Didn’t Jesus say the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount? Do not worry…because if God clothes the grasses of the fields and feeds the birds of the air how much more will he take care of you (v. Matthew 6:25-34)? God is still faithful even in times of disaster. We may not see it at first but if we wait on God we will see that he is faithful and always has been. Let us then praise our faithful and awesome God.

Posted by Aaron Miner