I love the story of Naomi and Ruth, of the devoted daughter-in-law that would not leave her mother... even after all the tragedy they had experienced.
Naomi was a foreigner in the country of Moab. She had two daughters-in-law, woman who had married her sons. But now all three women had become widows. Naomi's husband had died, as well as her two sons. Now, sorrowful and downcast, Naomi decides to return to her homeland, the country of Judah. But Naomi was wonderful mother-in-law, and because of this her two daughters-in-law did not want to be separated from her. "We will go with you!" they told her. "Do you expect me to birth more sons for you to marry? No, I am too old. Return to your families. It is better that you stay," she told them.
At long last, with crying and tears, one daughter-in-law Orpah kissed Naomi, and then she turned and returned to her country and to her gods. But the other daughter-in-law, Ruth, would not be turned away. In fact, she clung to Naomi. "And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou longest, I will lodge: thy people shall bey people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me." (Ruth 1:16-17)
What a beautiful vow of allegiance, not just to her mother-in-law Naomi, but to God!
And so Naomi along with Ruth, returned together to Naomi's homeland.
Ruth was a wonderful daughter-in-law, and she worked faithfully to help provide for Naomi. I love how she goes to glean in the field and finds favor in the eyes of the wealthy land owner Boaz. (I like this story so much, probably because I'm a romantic at heart and I know what's coming!) But something special jumped out to me as I was reading today, and that was how Boaz invited her to come sit with his reapers at his table, and he gave her bread, and she was SATISFIED (Ruth 2:14). Did you catch that?
Do we recognize that the King of the Universe has invited us to His table? Of course,we don't deserve to sit at His table, any more than Ruth deserved to sit at Boaz table. We are foreigners, we are sinners who have served other gods. And yet our Heavenly Father invites us to come and eat of His bread. What is the result? Just like Ruth, we will be SATISFIED. That means we won't look anywhere else for bread, because we've found the source! He's all we need. However, we will not only be satisfied, we will have to take some left-overs home with us to share. Ruth took home some bread back to share with Naomi. When we taste and see that God is good, we too will desire to take this goodness and share it with others. (In fact, if we aren't interested in sharing this Living Bread... perhaps it's because we have yet to sit at the King's table and taste His goodness for ourselves.)
I also saw beautiful parallels from Ruth's story with today's reading in Mark 8, where Jesus fed the 4,000 and there were 7 baskets of left-overs taken up. Wow! The King does not lack bread. There is enough and more than enough for all at His table!
Such beautiful lessons... Lord, Thank You for inviting us to sit at Your table. Thank You for feeding us with Living Bread. You are so good.
"Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man [the woman] who trusts in Him!" (Ps. 34:8)
Tomorrow's Reading: Ruth 3-4 and Psalms 45
No comments:
Post a Comment