DON’T FEEL SORRY

Naomi tried one last time to encourage Ruth to go back home, but Ruth would not go. “Ruth clave unto [Naomi]” (Ruth 1:14). The word used here suggests a maiden on her knees with her arms around her master’s waist, as if she will never let go. Ruth wanted God!

As soon as Ruth crossed over the border to Judah, she was on the road to winning Christ. There was no signpost to tell her, but we know where the road led: straight to the heart of Jesus! Ruth and Naomi came to the place of blessing—poor and not knowing where their next meal would come from—but they arrived during the beginning of the harvest season.

Ruth was penniless, with no future in sight, yet she was a virtuous woman, and had committed everything to the Lord. She said, “Let me now go to the field, and glean” (Ruth 2:2). Only the very poor did such work. The Law demanded that the owners not harvest the four corners of their fields and not glean the remains, so that the poor could have them. “And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shall not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest . . . thou shall leave them for the poor” (Leviticus 19:9-10).

It looked as if Ruth had made a poor bargain: Her devotion took her all the way to the place of visitation and now she was sweating over a minimum-wage job! She was even below the poverty line. Take a good look at her, because this is how you may end up if you break loose and go all the way with God!

This was the cross of the apostle Paul until he died: “For we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake . . . we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place; and labor, working with our own hands; being reviled . . . persecuted . . . being defamed . . . we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring [we get the brush-off, being considered the scum of the earth]” (1 Corinthians 4:9-13).

But don’t feel sorry for Ruth—for she was just about to win Christ!