For Where You Go
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May 06, 2012 |
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 "But Ruth said, 'Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the LORD do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.'" (Ruth 1:16-17)
Nowadays, egoism and materialism are so rampant that people don't follow their basic duties as human beings. Some people abandon their parents in a strange place during a trip. Some parents abuse their children or starve their children to death. Love cools down, and people are unloving, and transgress morals. This is the current situation.
In the Bible, a Gentile woman was loved by God for she served her mother-in-law who was alone after losing her husband at a young age. This woman was Ruth. With what kinds of her goodness and deeds did she give glory to God and how did she become so admired for generations?
1. When her mother-in-law was alone, Ruth served her until the end
Elimelech and his wife Naomi lived in Bethlehem. There was a famine in the land, so they went to the land of Moab with their two sons and remained there. Not long after that, Elimelech, head of the family, died. Ten years later, her two sons also died. All the men in the family died without any offspring, and there were only Naomi, and Orpah and Ruth, her daughters-in-law left.
In that situation, Ruth's mother-in-law, Naomi, heard that the LORD had come to the aid of His people by providing food for them, so she decided to return home. And she said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back, each of you, to your mother's home." She wanted them to return to their mother's house to start new lives because they were still young.
On her repeated urges, Orpah, the first daughter-in-law left Naomi weeping, but Ruth clung to her saying decisively, "Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the LORD do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me." (Ruth 1:16-17) She said there was nothing but death that would make her depart from her mother-in-law.
Ruth couldn't leave her aging mother-in-law who had nobody to rely on. She wanted to follow her duty as a daughter-in-law even if it meant hardship and suffering. Since she was of goodness, she didn't think about her own hardship, but rather she had concern for her mother-in-law.
But if Ruth had had a mind to seek her own benefit, she could have just said a couple of times that she wouldn't leave but then she could have left Naomi pretending to be forced away by her mother-in-law just like Orpah did. But Ruth loved her mother-in-law from the bottom of the heart, so she had never even thought about leaving Naomi.
For Ruth, Bethlehem was a strange place. There was no home or food for them. Their livelihood was not certain there either. Still, Ruth did not seek her own benefit but she boldly chose the way of doing her duty to serve her mother-in-law, and she never regretted it.
2. God looks for a person of goodness like Ruth
Men of goodness don't look at reality and seek their own benefit. They just follow the right way and practice goodness even if they have to suffer a loss and their lives are put at risk. They don't stop doing good after several trials, but they sacrifice themselves for others' benefit and unchangingly practice goodness following their duty.
God is still looking for people like Ruth who do goodness and fulfill their duties without changing. But there are few who practice goodness. There is almost nobody who does goodness until the end even if he or she has to suffer a loss. Many people even forsake others' grace and betray them although they receive help from them.
Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, his teacher and did evil for his own benefit. He eventually fell into destruction. He betrayed Jesus who taught him the knowledge of life and was leading him to Heaven. Yet Judas handed Him over to elders and high priests for thirty pieces of silver.
Some people who preached the gospel with the apostle Paul left him and went back to the world when there was difficulty. Though they saw God manifest countless signs and wonders through the apostle Paul, they left him out of fear of persecution and hardship and for their own benefit, because they didn't have good hearts.
We can see people like this all around us. They said they would work faithfully with their lives and with fullness of joy when they met God for the first time. But, over time they forsake the grace. Also, some people vowed to God carelessly just in order to receive an answer. But they changed their minds and broke the vow after receiving the answer. They just sought their own benefit, which is far from the heart God wants.
Therefore, it is very important how much we can keep the Word of God until the end with an unchanging heart under any circumstance. We have to go beyond the level of just saying "God, I love You." We must keep trust in God even if our lives are put at risk. Even if we stand to lose our lives in a furnace of blazing fire like Daniel's three friends, we must keep the trust.
3. Blessings that are given to those who follow their duties and do good
Because God is so pleased with goodness, He pours down blessings upon us when we practice a little bit of goodness. In my church, a member set a good example in her town by serving her parents-in-law like Ruth did. Her husband abandoned her and went away from his home. She had to live with his parents in a little one-room house. Her father-in-law was even on the sickbed because of a car accident, so she had to take care of him.
But she didn't blame her husband or the situation. She didn't think, "Why do I have to live like this?" She didn't lose heart. She believed God would surely change her situation even though she was now in hardship. She only performed her duty and served her parents-in-law.
Seeing her fulfilling her duty unchangingly, God made her husband, who had no intention to return, go back home. In addition, God blessed her to move to a better house and lead a happy family life.
In this way, those who follow their own duties and seek others' benefit are loved by other people. People will recognize them saying they are trustworthy. They can be the source of joy to God when they fulfill their duties and unchangingly practice goodness like Ruth. Tests and trials will depart from their home, school, and workplace. The enemy devil and Satan cannot work because God protects them. So their problems will be solved and blessing will come upon them.
Although Ruth was not an Israelite, she could still be blessed to marry a wealthy husband who was one of her late husband's relatives because she followed the right way and kept fulfilling her duty. Through her descendants, King David was born. Ruth is in the genealogy of Jesus even though she was a Gentile woman.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Ruth was a Gentile woman, but she is not only in the genealogy of Jesus but also became a great woman in Heaven by fulfilling her duty as a daughter-in-law and serving her mother-in-law until the end. I pray in the name of the Lord you will be the one who enjoys amazing blessings by unchangingly practicing goodness that delights God.
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