"Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God."
Ruth 1:16
The story of Ruth and Naomi is a beautiful picture of love and devotion between a woman and her mother-in-law. After the death of her husband and two sons, Naomi determines to leave Moab and return to Bethlehem. She releases her Moabite daughters-in-law to go back to their homes and their gods, where they can start afresh. Orpah departs, but not Ruth. She pleads with Naomi to allow her to stay by her side. To stay with Naomi and Naomi's God. For Ruth to abandon everything she knew -- her home, her religion, her friends -- to follow her mother-in-law and God to a strange land, speaks volumes not only of Ruth's devotion, but of Naomi's character. Spending time with Naomi changed Ruth. She came into Naomi's life as an idolatress, but left her false god to follow Jehovah, the one true God. She became the great grandmother of King David and received honorable mention in the genealogy of the Messiah. Naomi impacted Ruth's life. In the words of Alexander McLaren, "If we had more elder women like Naomi, we should have more younger women like Ruth."
In the Bible we are instructed as older Christian women to be teach and be good examples to the younger women. Naomi was a great example and she was much loved. "the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed." Titus 2:3-5
ReplyDeleteI know you are a great example of a godly woman to many younger women, Sue. Thanks for sharing the Titus verses.
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