Ruth 2:2 | Ruth was the ultimate outsider. She was the poster child in Judea for someone who was unworthy and undeserving. She was from Moab (see Genesis 19:30-38), a country and people who hated the Children of Israel and served false gods. However! Are any of us “worthy” or “deserving” of what we think we should be? Does any of this have anything to do with such notions? God doesn’t work that way! See how this plays out with Ruth’s great-grandson, King David in
1 Samuel 16:1-13.
Ruth 2:3 | Write this phrase upon your heart: “As it turned out...”. The outcome of the entire universe pivoted upon Ruth going to Boaz’ field! God has a plan! We don’t understand it. We cannot! (See Job 38:1-18) But His plan is good because He is good. Words like “luck” and “fate” and “probability” and “chance” are invented words by humans to try to make sense of the world. See Romans 8:18-31 and Acts 17:26-31. Trust His Plan!
Ruth 2:12 | Boaz couldn’t have known how powerful his blessing would be upon Ruth. Blessings such as these are lost in our modern culture where we’ve been conditioned to think that “this” is all there is. Let your words be full of His grace and love! See Revelation 22:21 (where the last words of the Bible should be our first words!).
Romans 5:2-4 | It is unfathomable for us to “rejoice in our sufferings”. But this is God’s reminder to us: His definitions of success and failure are very different than ours! See 2 Corinthians 12:1-10.
Romans 5:5 | The fact is this: God loves you, which He demonstrates to you in the sending of His Son Jesus to die for you, Who was raised again for you, Who dispatches His Spirit into you, all because of His never-stopping, never-giving-up, unbreaking, always-and-forever LOVE for you!
Dig Deeper: Read Isaiah 9:2-7, 11:1-10, 52:1-53:12, Matthew 3:13-4:17
In Hope