Lessons from the book of Ruth

I have recently been looking at the book of Ruth, preparing a Bible Study on ‘Zoom’.
There’s a fantastic Youtube video of the whole story which you can watch 
here
-       which takes just 7 minutes.

Naomi and her husband are driven by famine from Israel to Moab, where their sons marry Moabite women, but then those sons and her husband all die. Naomi decides to return to Israel, and Naomi tells her daughters-in-law to leave her.
One of the daughters-in-law – Ruth – refuses to leave, and I love the words of love and faithfulness Ruth speaks to her mother-in-law (Ch 1 v16) ,‘Where you go I will go and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God..’.
After quite a story, Ruth marries Boaz and together they have a son, Obed, who is to be the grandfather of King David. When Obed is born, the women of Bethlehem declare “a son has been born to Naomi”. And they all live happily ever after.

But before the happy ending, there is very real pain and lament. Naomi says when she arrives back in Bethlehem, ‘Call me no longer Naomi (pleasant) call me Mara (bitter) for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.’  (Ch 1 v 20 & 21). 
These words comes just 4 verses after Ruth’s wonderful speech. In the faithfulness of Ruth and their return to Bethlehem there are the seeds of the turn of the story to good – but right now for Naomi it doesn’t feel like that. She will need the whole story to unfold before she knows joy again. Before the joy there is real, deep, heartfelt bitterness.

As followers of Jesus this shouldn’t surprise us – the joy of Easter Day does not take away the sorrow of Good Friday or the emptiness of Holy Saturday. We sometimes need the whole story to see where God is bringing joy and hope to us. 

So today I wonder where we are in the story of our church, or the story of our own lives, or the story of the coronavirus? We might be at a point of lament, or a time of waiting to see what will happens next, or we may be fortunate and feel we see glimpses of hope for the future. The whole story is in God’s hands, even if the whole story is not yet apparent.
Even in the times of bitterness, may we know God with us. At all times may we know the support of our sisters and brothers in prayer. And may God grant us courage and perseverance to travel through to the end of this story – so that may we know joy at the last. 

Yours in Christ,

Ruth

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