Day 11: The Redeemer
Don’t plead with me to abandon you
or to return and not follow you.
For wherever you go, I will go,
and wherever you live, I will live;
your people will be my people,
and your God will be my God.
Ruth 1:16
Family meals can be some of the sweetest parts of Christmas. It’s time when close family can gather, perhaps having not seen each other for a while. It can also be proper stressful though, I know!
Throw someone into that mix who isn’t a family member, and it might feel a bit strange. Whether it’s a new boyfriend or girlfriend, a friend, or a lonely neighbour, it would be easy for both the family and the newbie to feel a degree of awkwardness.
Ruth is one of those outsiders.
The book of Ruth is a sweet wee book, and a quick read – grab a cuppa and take time to read through it at some point today!
Ruth’s husband died. So did her brother-in-law, and father-in-law. Her in-laws were from Bethlehem, but had moved to Ruth’s neighbourhood, Moab, when there was a famine in Bethlehem.
After the tragic deaths, Ruth’s mother-in-law, Naomi, heard the famine was over, and so was heading home. Despite Naomi’s protests, Ruth decided she was going with her.
‘…your people will be my people,
and your God will be my God.’
Ruth 1:16
In that moment, Ruth didn’t just display loyalty to her mother-in-law, she demonstrated faith and repentance. She had come to know the true God, and was leaving behind her false, Moabite religion. She left her birth family, her friends, her life in Moab, because she saw the greater value of living for the Lord.
As the book goes on, we see Ruth meet, and marry Boaz, who became the family Redeemer. The family line looked doomed after the three deaths, but Boaz took Ruth under his wing, loved her, cared for her, redeemed her, and they had a kid called Obed to continue the family line.
Obed grew up and had a kid called Jesse. Yup, that’s the Jesse our tree is named after…
The book of Ruth is a beautiful story of faith and redemption, and we can see ourselves and Jesus in it clearly.
We’re the outsiders to the family. We’d never be able to win over the family head because of our sin. We’d never be at home in the family, because we’re rebels.
But Jesus was born to redeem sinners, and bring us in to the family.
Today, if our faith is in Jesus, then he is our God, and his people are our people. Just as Ruth left behind her life in Moab, we’re called to leave behind our old lives of sin, and throw ourselves to Jesus. There is always a cost in repentance, it can be hard, even painful to leave behind our old selves, but the value of knowing Christ is always greater.
Written by Pete Bell
A Thought to Remember: Jesus came to redeem his bride. A Bit More to Read: Ruth 1-4 A Question to Ask: What difference does it make that Jesus has redeemed you, and brought you into his family? A Song to Sing: The Lord’s My Shepherd A Picture for the kids: Wheat