Should I Stay or Should I Go?

picture from www.tate.org.uk

...but Ruth clung to her..."Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you..."

Ruth 1:14 & 16

Unlike Ruth, I would probably have jumped at the chance to run back to my mama!  My mother in-law is amazing and I love her dearly and am so thankful for her, but if I ever had to choose between my own mama or my mother in-law, I'm pretty sure I would choose my mom - especially if I knew that staying with my mother in-law meant that I would never, ever see my mom again...ever.

But Ruth stays - she clings to Naomi and refuses to leave her.  In fact, she abandons her own homeland and goes back to Naomi's home - a place where she will be despised because of who she is: a Moabitess.  

"The decision to stay with Naomi is so all-encompassing because it is a decision to follow the God of Israel."  There must have been something about Naomi that pointed Ruth straight to God!  "Ruth is not in love with Naomi's beauty, riches, or liveliness, but her wisdom, virtue, and grace.  Naomi preserves these in spite of her loss." 

And with great determination and resolve, regardless of the cost, Ruth was ALL IN!!!  "She vows to do 6 things with Naomi: travel, dwell, claim her people, worship her God, die where she dies, and be buried where she is buried."  

Ruth was faithful to Naomi and through her faith to Naomi, Ruth became faithful to Naomi's God.  Ruth, the despised Moabitess is then used by God in ways she could never imagine.  There are only two books of the Bible named after women: Ruth and Esther.  But it gets even better than that.  There are five women that Matthew includes in the genealogy of Jesus: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba (indirectly), and Mary. 

Who was Ruth?  Ruth was King David's great grandmother!  Yes ma'am!!!  God can use anyone for anything at anytime!!!

**So, what am I doing with great determination and resolve, regardless of the cost?**

Quotes from She Reads Truth, Ruth Study Day 3