5 women who changed eternity - Ruth - Love

Today is from Ruth, and in the bible, it's in Ruth :P 

What's the basic story?
I really love this story! So Ruth. To explain the family situ, i've done some family trees (you can tell I've had fun with this!) 

Family Tree #1

Okay so Naomi is married to Elimelech, they have two sons called Mahlon  and Kilion. There was a bit of shortage of food in the land of Bethlehem in Judah so they leave. They toddle off to a place called Moab. Eliemelech dies, and then Mahlon marries Ruth, and Kilion marries Orpah who are both Moabities. 10 or so years later, Mahlon and Kilion die :( which brings us to the next family tree. 

Family Tree #2

So as we learnt in Tamar, once a son dies in the family, she should be given to the next son. Well, the next son was also dead. So it leaves Naomi with two daughters-in-law who she can't provide sons for. She says even if she were to re-marry and have sons, they still got to wait for them to grow up and that's a pretty long wait by anyone's standards. Naomi hears that there is food back in Bethelehem again, so she sets off to go there. But she doesn't want Ruth or Orpah with her and tries to persuade them to leave her and go back to their own families and their own gods. Orpah goes off, but Ruth doesn't. Ruth stays faithful with Naomi and promises to never ever leave her!

They get to Bethelehem and Naomi asks everyone to call her Mara which means "bitter" or "sad". Neither of them have a job, and neither of them have a man to go get a job to bring them money and food - so Ruth takes this responsibility. She goes to this field, which belongs to Boaz, who somehow is related to Eliemelech! pretty cool. She sets off to work collecting grain that the workers leave behind, and she's pretty hardworking as she doesn't really stop. Boaz goes up to her and tells her that it's fine that she is there. She's a bit astounded, because she's a foreigner and he's being really lovely to her but he hears of everything she's done to help Naomi. 

Boaz continues to be lovely, letting her eat with everyone, and making his workers "accidentally drop" grain for her to pick up. She goes home, and has a lot of grain, and has given it to Naomi. Naomi tells her to keep working in that field, because if she went elsewhere she might be hurt. 

Naomi then hatches a plan mwah-ha-ha-ha. She realizes that Boaz is the nearest relative, and he can have children with the widow in the family to have children. She tells Ruth to go and lie at Boaz's feet after making herself like all pretty with perfume and clothes. By lying at his feet, she's asking him to marry her. He wakes up in the night like, WOAH, who is this?! He finds out who she is, and what her request is and says that this is her greatest act of kindness because she didn't look for a rich / poor young man to marry. Boaz is like there's another relative who could marry you, we'll find out in the morning what he wants to do, but someone will definitely marry and look after Ruth.

Ruth goes home with some grain for Naomi as a gift from Boaz which is pretty nice. Boaz goes and asks the relative if he wants the land of Elimelech, and he has to take Ruth as a wife. He basically says no. Boaz says in front of elders and witnesses that he's taking the land and Ruth. They get married, and have a child called Obed and we get to the last family tree!

Family tree #3

How is it significant?
The first thing we notice about Ruth, is how much she loves Naomi. She could have gone home to Moab, and got re married and had kids and had a very different life. But she loves Naomi and she's obedient and stays with her. Now that's dedication and a half.

Secondly, she is really hard working, when she goes to the field, she has minimal breaks and she gets a lot of grain.

Thirdly, there is a recognition that she isn't an Israelite, that she is a foreigner and that she would get hurt if she went to another field. It's no coincidence she came at the same field as a relative of hers, God was there in that and making sure she wasn't hurt!

Ruth goes and asks Boaz basically to marry her. I think that's pretty bold! Usually it's the men who ask, even in modern days but nope, this time it's Ruth who asks Boaz to marry her which if she didn't they probably wouldn't have got married. 

Lastly, their son Obed, was the father of Jesse who was the father of David. Yes that David. WOOO, Ruth is mentioned in the Matthew 1 Genelogy of Jesus as well which is pretty AWESOME. 

How does it apply to me?
Ruth shows amazing love to Naomi, and we need to do that. As women after God's own heart, we need to be loving. Not just to family members, not just to friends, but those who are unlovable, or those who aren't loved. We need to be showing God's love to all people, even when it's not at best advantage to us, and even when it's hard.

We need to be hard working as well! Whatever we end up doing, whether that is a real job, or whether we're stay at home wives / mums we need to be working hard. And working hard as if we're working for God. Whatever situation we're in = work hard!

But anwyay, Ruth is confident and assured in herself and she knows what she wants. Oooh yes, so I know this happens to me and a lot of other people but girls tend to be a bit fickle. Like "ooh I like this guy. No I don't. Yes I do. No, wait, do I?" We need to be strong in what we believe in, in all circumstances!