Key Verse: Philippians 2:3-4, "3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."
It seems as though all the Bible characters we've studied over the past few months have been defined by either their obedience to God or their disobedience to him.
The story of Ruth helps us look at the role of obedience in the lives of God's people. In it we see how obedience leads to her redemption as well as the redemption of all humanity-including you.
Things were different for women in Ruth's day. When her husband died unexpectedly, Ruth was left with no security and no way to earn a living. Her Mother-in-law, Naomi, encouraged Ruth to stay in Moab with her own people. But Ruth's faithfulness to Naomi-whose husband had also died-led both women to journey to Israel. Ruth provided food for herself and for her mother-in-law by picking up bits of grain during harvest time in the barley fields. Then a man named Boaz-the man who owned the field-spotted her.
What was it about Ruth that caught the eye of Boaz? Could it have been her outward beauty? Her godly character? When Boaz asked about Ruth, people told him she'd returned to the land with her mother-in-law, Naomi. The foreman over the field workers told Boaz about Ruth's hard work in the field. Her character must have appealed to Boaz because he immediately went to talk with her, and he tried to help her as much as possible.
When Boaz married Ruth, he saved her from a life of hardship. God's plan of redemption was also at work in the lives of Ruth and Boaz. Their son Obed was King David's grandfather-an ancestor to Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world.
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