Ruth Stays with Naomi

“Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.” — Ruth 1:16

In the days when judges ruled Israel, there was a famine in the land. There wasn’t enough food in Bethlehem. So a man from Bethlehem took his wife, Naomi, and their two sons, and went to live in the country of Moab.

While they were there, Naomi’s husband died. Her two sons married women from Moab, called Orpah and Ruth. But about ten years later, both of the sons died too. Naomi was left all alone in a foreign country, with no husband and no sons.

Then Naomi heard that God had given His people food again in Israel. So she set off home to Bethlehem, and her two daughters-in-law went with her.

On the way, Naomi stopped. “Go back to your own mothers’ homes,” she told them. “May the Lord be kind to you, as you have been kind to me and to my sons.” She kissed them goodbye, and they all cried.

Orpah kissed Naomi and went back home. But Ruth held on to her.

“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”

But Ruth said, “Don’t ask me to leave you. Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.”

Ruth was choosing to leave her own country and everything she knew. She was choosing to look after Naomi. And she was choosing to follow the God of Israel.

So the two women came to Bethlehem. When they arrived, the whole town was excited. “Can this be Naomi?” the women said.

“Don’t call me Naomi,” she said. Naomi means “pleasant”. “Call me Mara,” she said, which means “bitter”. “I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.”

It was the start of the barley harvest. Ruth and Naomi had nothing to eat. But God’s law said that when farmers harvested their fields, they must leave some grain behind for poor people and foreigners to pick up. This was called gleaning.

So Ruth went out to glean. And she happened to go to a field that belonged to a man named Boaz, who was a relative of Naomi’s husband.

Boaz came from Bethlehem to see his workers. “The Lord be with you!” he called to them. “The Lord bless you!” they called back.

Boaz noticed Ruth. “Who is that young woman?” he asked.

“She’s the one from Moab who came back with Naomi,” said his foreman. “She has been working hard all day.”

Boaz went to Ruth. “Stay in my field,” he said kindly. “Don’t go anywhere else. Stay with my servant girls, and when you’re thirsty, drink from the water jars.” He had heard all about how Ruth had left her own family to look after Naomi. “May the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you richly,” he said.

At lunchtime Boaz gave Ruth bread and roasted grain, so much that she had some left over. And he quietly told his workers, “Pull out some stalks from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up.”

When Ruth came home that evening with a huge bundle of barley, Naomi was amazed. “Where did you glean today?” she asked. “Bless the man who noticed you!”

“His name is Boaz,” said Ruth.

“The Lord bless him!” said Naomi. “The Lord has not stopped being kind to us! That man is one of our close relatives.”

Read it in your Bible: Ruth 1–2

Dear God, thank you that you take care of people who are lonely and sad. Help me to be loyal and kind, like Ruth and like Boaz. Amen.