Women in the Bible: Ruth - Chloe Yeung

It says in Genesis that God created mankind "in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them". Though we are created to be different genders, we are all made in His image, and are dearly loved and powerfully used in His big plan for the world. We hear a lot about the men in the Bible, from Noah, Abraham and David to Jesus’s disciples; this series aims to offer a look at the women - named and unnamed, young and old, yet all loved, valued, blessed and used - in hopes of empowering and encouraging all of us, whoever we are.

Deciding whether to go to Bristol for university was a difficult ordeal: I remember spending more than 3 weeks going back and forth between my university offers in Hong Kong and the UK, weighing up the pros and cons as prayerfully as I could, and asking for as many opinions as possible. By the end of it, I had come up with every remotely relevant consideration and argument for staying or leaving home, but it wasn’t until I realised that the decision was more about faithful obedience than logic that I finally found peace to take the step and leave home.

If I found my decision challenging during the era of airplanes, Facetime and the internet, I can only imagine how difficult Ruth’s decision to drop everything and follow Naomi could’ve been: not only was she giving up the comfort of familiarity, stability, a social circle and the only home she had ever known, going on a very long walk with a destitute and miserable old widow was not anywhere near a good trade-off. Even after arriving in Bethlehem, Ruth had to do the dirty, exhausting work of harvesting leftover barley grains to keep her and Naomi fed.

Ruth’s decision to go with Naomi seemed risky, counter-intuitive, unreasonable, or even plain stupid; yet upon her vow to believe in Naomi’s God (Ruth 1:16), she became endlessly committed not only to her mother-in-law, but to her God. Consequently, she was able to be brave, patient and selfless in serving Naomi during and beyond their journey; ultimately, her unfailing faithfulness led her into blessing and favour, both with Boaz and with God.

The story of Ruth reveals how our God loves to bless those who trust and commit themselves to Him. In Ruth’s time, danger, disruption and even a lack of food and shelter was very common, especially for widows who had no husband or son to rely on; God’s blessing to Ruth and Naomi came therefore first as food and security, then a redeemer and a family. For Ruth, these blessings started from her radical, risky choice, and the humble, loyal dedication to serving Naomi. Her rewards, then came not just in material blessings and the reversal of heartbreaking tragedy, but with something greater that lasted much longer than even their lifetimes: a part in the genealogy of Jesus.

In the same way, the God who sustained the promise of salvation to all of mankind through a widowed foreigner’s radical promise to trust and commit to Him, loves to use those who do the same. More encouragingly, our obedience trumps any of our other characteristics if we are to be useful to God: Ruth’s nationality as a Moabitess, heartbreak as a widow and initial status as a non-believer could not stop God from using her mightily to accomplish His divine purpose when she gave her life to Him, nor would God be stopped from making good on his promises. Even and especially when our sinful nature inevitably causes us to fall short—like Gideon, Barak, Jonah in the Old Testament, and even Jesus’s closest disciples in the New Testament—our God delights in using our weaknesses for His glory (2 Corinthians 12:9). He delights in using the dynamic, faithful and consistent responses of His people in directing the circumstances of life so that His will is carried out, both for His glory and for our good.

The Christian life takes commitment – radical, counter-cultural, sacrificial commitment. Yet when we commit to a life of service to others as a result of our obedience to a loving and trustworthy Father, we will be richly rewarded (Hebrews 10:35). More importantly, however, we can rest assured that our God is faithful in loving, using, providing and caring for His people (Matthew 7:11). He promises to be with us, that He knows more than us, that He has prepared a way for us, and that in Him our eternal outcome is secure (1 John 2:25).