by Doug Bing, Washington Conference president
Over the years, people have confessed to me that one of their secret pleasures is watching a Hallmark movie. Some that I know even live for the Christmas season, when all the Hallmark Christmas movies come out. They like it because they know that all the movies are going to have a happy ending. All of them follow a predictable formula. They tell me they like it that way so they can just wrap themselves in the simple storyline and have a warm, cozy feeling when the movie is over.
Some readers of the Bible read the book of Ruth and think that it is just a nice, Hallmark-style book—a love story with a very happy ending. It is true that it is a love story. It is true that it has a happy ending. It is also true that some of the twists and turns in the story are far from a predictable Hallmark-type story. There are things to apply to our lives as well.
Naomi and her husband left Bethlehem to find food when there was a famine in the land. This is, of course, talking of a physical famine. However, one has to remember that Bethlehem means the “house of bread.” So, they left the place that is supposed to have bread because they didn’t have any. People should never leave our churches because of a lack of solid spiritual food.
They went to Moab, which was a country that, although relatives of the Israelites, had denied the Israelites passage through their land on the way to their new home and had joined in efforts to have them cursed. Now they became a refuge and sustainer for a family from Israel. However, even though they had food, their stay in the foreign land of idolatry ended in deep sadness with the death of the three men, leaving three widows. The three women were in despair and were left destitute. Time in the world and idolatry leads to bad results.
There is a redeemer in the story who was willing not only to purchase land but also to raise up a son who would inherit that land when he was grown. The redeemer would also marry a widow and thus redeem her from what, at that time, was a life of hardship. Out of this redemption comes an ancestor in the line of the ultimate Redeemer, Jesus Christ. In fact, the ancestry of Jesus is filled with all sorts of people, as well as different nations. Jesus came to redeem all.
It is a story of loyalty. The famous lines from Ruth’s declaration to Naomi go like this: “Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God…” (Ruth 1:16).
These lines have been put to music, sung at weddings, and included in wedding vows. They have echoed down through the centuries as Ruth expressed her faith in going wherever Naomi was going, as well as expressing faith in Naomi’s God. It seems that these are words that we should express as well. We can express them to those we love on this earth.
More than that, we can express them to God—letting Him know that we are all in with Him. There is no turning back. When we love God completely, we will be willing to go where He leads, even if we don’t know what that means or where we are going. We just go because God says so.