The Book of Ruth could be called a book about love. One certainly can see the great love exhibited by a daughter-in-law toward her mother-in-law and the loving qualities of this remarkable young Moabite lady. “Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me” (Ruth 1:16-17 NKJV) are the words Ruth spoke to her mother-in-law, and years ago these words were often repeated as wedding vows between a husband and a wife.
We can learn many valuable lessons from this remarkable young woman. One lesson is the need to follow the God of the Bible.
Ruth the Moabitess was reared in a land that worshipped idols. The Moabites were descendants of Lot and his incestuous relationship with his daughter. Being descendants of Lot, these people should have had knowledge of the God of the Bible and His prohibition about worshipping idols. However, over the course of time, they neglected God and turned their affections to the idol Chemosh.
Sometime during Naomi’s ten-year stay in Moab, her family influenced Ruth to leave the false religion of her people and obey the God of the Bible – the God Who created the universe and all that is in it (Genesis 1:1-2:25). God had said, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Deuteronomy 5:7).
The New Testament clearly teaches there is one God. Consider the following verses: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). “Yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live” (1 Corinthians 8:6).
Romans 1:17-32 teaches that one can see the power of God by observing the created world. Furthermore, a correlation is made between the unrighteous who worship things made by the hands of men and their evil activities. When mankind forgets God, evil abounds! Ruth left the worship of idols to worship the God Who created the universe. God is clearly defined throughout the pages of the Bible.
With this knowledge of God, Ruth realized that simply following the religion of her parents was not good enough. She understood the need to abandon her ancestral religious practices and turn to the One True God. Ruth determined to leave her family, homeland and all that was familiar so that she could serve the one and only God. She did not sit back and say, “What is good enough for mom and dad is good enough for me.” She realized the need to change in hope of a heavenly reward.
The Old Testament plainly teaches that we cannot allow family members to influence us to sin.
If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him. (Deuteronomy 13:6-8)
Jesus gave the same lesson in the New Testament. “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). The word “hate” means to “love less.” To be a faithful follower of God, the love and obedience one has for family members must be less than the love and obedience one has for God.
Are you willing to follow the example of Ruth? Do your religious practices follow the one true God of the Bible? Have you studied the Bible to know what God wants from you, or are you simply following the example of your parents?
