Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Ruth 1:15-18 (NIV)
15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” 16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
Ruth 4:13-17 (NIV)
Naomi Gains a Son
13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.” 16 Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
In the genealogy of Jesus several women are mentioned (see Matt. 1:5). One of them is Ruth. Ruth is also part of the unusual story of the House of Jesse. She was King David’s great-grandmother. If you get a chance, read the whole story of Ruth. It is an amazing story of faithfulness by a woman who was not from Israel, which is what makes her place in the genealogy so important! This Moabite woman showed incredible faithfulness to her widowed mother-in-law, to the Israelite people and to God. Through Ruth, God revealed that all people can and will be brought into his family through faith. Maybe you feel far from God. Maybe someone you know is struggling and in need of a redeemer. God’s love and grace extends to all people and God uses all people, even unexpected people, to bring about His kingdom in this world.