Let us take a little time to open a book in the Bible named Ruth.
Although only four chapters long, the book of Ruth contains a story crucial to understanding our position as Gentile believers and our relation to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
This recount happened about 1000 BC and occurred in Bethlehem and then Moab.
The people involved in this part are Naomi, her husband Elimelech, and their sons Mahlon and Kilion. Later, we are introduced to
Ruth and Orpah. To Ruth, this book is named.
There is a famine in the village of Bethlehem in the land of Judah, where they live. To find food, Elimelech moves his family to the foreign land of Moab, where food is available. The people of Moab do not worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They worship their own gods. The sons of Elimelech and Naomi take wives from local Moab women. The wives were named Ruth and Orpah.
Over some time, tragedy hits the family in Moab. The father dies, and the two sons die. This leaves three widows: the mother, Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah.
Naomi hears that the famine in Bethlehem has ended and determines she will return to her people and her family. But she is concerned about taking her daughters-in-law away from their people to a foreign land. It would be hard on Orpha and Ruth because it would separate them from their friends, family, and gods.
Naomi tells the widows that they should remain in Moab. Orpha agrees with Naomi and decides to stay in Moab. On the other hand, Ruth chooses to return with her mother-in-law, Naomi, to Bethlehem. Ruth tells Naomi that she will go with her to Bethlehem. Her words are recorded in Ruth Chapter 2, verses 16 and 17.
16 Ruth replied,
“Do not plead with me to abandon you,
to turn back from following you.
For 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 Adonai deal with me, and worse,
if anything but death comes between me and you!”
Ruth turns from her old pagan ways and binds herself to a new people and their God.
How does this story apply to us today?
As Ruth, we must choose who will be our God. We can follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Or we can choose to remain in the spiritual land of the dead.
If we follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God will graft us in as new branches to the ancient tree to which our elder Jewish brothers are attached. By accepting the sacrifice of Yeshua on the cross for our sins, we, both Jews and Gentiles, have become the “New Creation” Paul speaks of in 2 Corinthians 5:17.
Therefore, if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Those ancient tree roots will nourish us and give us strength. That tree will define our new family, which will be made up of Jews and Gentiles. We have become the one body, consisting of Jew and Gentile, as Paul described in Ephesians 2:14.
For He is our shalom, the One who made the two into one and broke down the middle wall of separation.
Choose today that you will follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Join with the Jews who have also declared Yeshua as the Messiah. You will become part of that one new man.
