The Jesse Tree symbol for today is wheat, a grain that appears often in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. The Old Testament story of Ruth is told here.
THEME 12 LOYALTY AND LOVE
SCRIPTURE: [1]
Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her own people and her own gods. Go back with her. But Ruth said, “Don’t ask me to leave you! Don’t beg me not to follow you! Every place you go, I will go. Every place you live, I will live. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. And where you die, I will die. And there I will be buried. I ask the Lord to punish me terribly if I do not keep this promise: Only death will separate us.”
Naomi saw that Ruth had made up her mind to go with her. So Naomi stopped arguing with her. Naomi and Ruth went on until they came to the town of Bethlehem. When the two women entered Bethlehem, all the people became very excited. The women of the town said, “Is this Naomi?” But Naomi told the people,
“Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara, because God All-Powerful has made my life very sad. When I left, I had all I wanted. But now, the Lord has brought me home with nothing. So why should you call me Naomi when the Lord has spoken against me? God All-Powerful has given me much trouble.”
So Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth, the woman from Moab, came back from Moab. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Now there was a rich man living in Bethlehem whose name was Boaz. Boaz was one of Naomi’s close relatives from Elimelech’s family.
One day Ruth, the woman from Moab, said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields. Maybe someone will be kind and let me gather the grain he leaves in his field.”
Naomi said, “Go, my daughter.”
So Ruth went to the fields. She followed the workers who were cutting the grain. And she gathered the grain that they had left. It just so happened that the field belonged to Boaz. He was a close relative from Elimelech’s family.
THINK ABOUT IT
There are several connections to Jesus in this story. Rahab from the last story was the mother of Boaz. Boaz’s father was Obed, and his daughter was Ruth. They are both ancestors of Jesus, and the story takes place in Bethlehem where Jesus was born.
This is a story of loyalty and love. Ruth stayed with Naomi after becoming a widow. She did not need to do that, but chose Naomi’s people as her own. The very famous love quote begins this passage. She promises that Naomi’s people will be her people, and her God will be her God.
God sees her loyalty and love and eventually sends Ruth to Boaz who notices her, and later loves her. She is gleaning barley from the field, pieces of grain left over from the harvest, so she and Naomi have food to eat. Without husbands, they are very poor.
God rewards Ruth for loving her former mother-in-law, and protects her from harm, giving her a new life, and Ruth loves God and eventually becomes part of the lineage of Jesus because she is
Obed’s mother, Jesse’s grandmother. and David’s great-grandmother. Yes, the same Jesse as the Jesse tree is named for. God has a plan, and Ruth was part of that plan.
Sometimes the quote about following and choosing the other’s god is used in wedding ceremonies. The promise originally was between a loving daughter-in-law and her mother-in-law, but still is a beautiful promise of love and relationships.
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father:
Help us to be loyal and loving when you send people to us, whatever the circumstances. Naomi and Ruth teach us the importance of relationships, and we love it when a story has a happy ending. Thank you that you can bring happiness after sorrow. These two women were lonely and they were facing poverty. But You were a blessing to them.
We thank You for using these women to teach us to be loyal and loving to one another, and pray You will use us as examples of those who help other people who may need our attention. Amen.
[1] Ruth 1: 15-2: 3 Ibid.
About the Author
