Ruth and Naomi -"Where You Go I Shall Go" -Conclusion of The Loyal Love of Ruth

As she faced Naomi on that lonely road, Ruth's heart was sure and clear.  It swelled with love for Naomi-and for the God whom Naomi served.  So Ruth spoke:  "Do not plead with me to abandon you, to turn back from accompanying you; for where you go I shall go, and where you spend the night i shall spend the night.  Your people will be my people, and your God my God.  Where you die, I shall die, and there is where I shall be buried. May Jehovah do so to me and add to it if anything but death should death make a separation between me and you." -Ruth 1:16, 17.  

Ruth's words were so remarkable-so much so that they have long outlived her, echoing down through some 30 centuries.  They perfectly reveal a special quality, loyal love.  The love that Ruth felt was so strong and so loyal that she would stick with Naomi wherever she went. Only death could separate them. Naomi's people  would become her own people, for Ruth was ready to leave behind everything she knew in Moab-even the Moab gods. Unlike Orpah, Ruth could wholeheartedly say that she wanted Naomi's God, Jehovah, to be her own God as well." 

So they traveled on, just the two of them now, on the long road to Bethlehem.  by one estimate, the journey might have taken as long as a week. Surely, though, each found in the company of the other some measure of comfort in the face of grief. 

There is no shortage of grief in our this world. In our own times, which the Bible calls "critical times hard to deal with." we face all manner of losses as well as grief.  (2 Timothy 3:1)  The quality we find in Ruth has thus become more important than ever.  Loyal love-the kind of love that holds on to its object and simply refuses to let go-is a powerful  force for good in this darkening world. We need it in marriage, we need it in family relations, we need it in friendships, we need it in the Christian congregation.  (Read 1 John 4:7, 8, 20.)  As we cultivate that kind of love, we are imitating the outstanding  example of Ruth. 

Next time: Ruth and Naomi -"Where You Go I Shall Go" -Ruth and Naomi in Bethlehem

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