Ruth the Citizen

Read Ruth 3-4
 
Ruth 1:16-17 But Ruth replied, “Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”
 
ONE very visible example of God’s grace to save is in the title of this book. Ruth was a Moabite. Moab was a nation founded in the sin of Lot’s daughters with their father (Genesis 19). Born out of sin against God’s covenant with Abraham, Moab was a country consistently opposed to Israel. To Israel, Ruth as an alien.
    But we can thank God his love transforms aliens to become children of God. John 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Our Scripture verses today tell us Ruth believed in God. She committed her life to following God as she committed her life to Naomi.
    Ruth’s life is one of simple obedience. Consider the significant trials and threats she faced: She was an alien in Bethlehem and had no income nor sure means of food. It was not safe for a woman to work alone in a field. Ruth enters Bethlehem and outcast to now cast a story of faith, hope and love into our lives today.
    Perhaps one reason this story is favored in the church today is how easily we connect with Ruth’s life. We are all born aliens to the Kingdom of God. When the Spirit calls us to faith, we step into new territory. We need the sustenance of God’s daily bread from his Word. It is dangerous to walk in the world prepared to attack you. Our strength and sustenance comes in following God’s commands, trusting his way is the way of kingdom citizenship.
 
Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.