How Ruth Was Obedient: She Trusted in God's Favor

Ruth had everything going against her:

She was a woman.
She was a widow.
She was a Moabite, one of a select number of races cursed by God, and not open to receiving the blessings of God or entering the congregation of the Israelites until the 10th generation
She had no prospects or property
She had no family other than her mother-in-law, who had become embittered from great loss.

Yet instead of looking at what she did not have, she looked to Him who has everything:

"And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:" (Ruth 1:16)

Ruth had very little idea how good God would be to her!

"And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz. 2And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace." (Ruth 2: 1-2)

Notice that Ruth does not know about Boaz, but her loving God did!

"And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech." (Ruth 2:3)

Notice it says "her hap." She wasn't planning where to go. She had no idea that this field belong to any kind of a kinsman-redeemer.

As a Moabite, she would have no knowledge a "kinsman-redeemer" or what he is (would be?) in the first place.

Then Boaz, his kinsman-redeemer, and a picture of our Lord Jesus, said to Ruth:

"The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust." (Ruth 2:12)

What was Ruth's work?

Ruth and Boaz (Credit: Walking Together Ministries)

She believed in a God in whose eyes she would find favor!

Consider what Jesus, our heavenly Kinsman-Redeemer, to the Israelites of His day:

"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6:29)

Today, we need to believe that because we believe in Jesus, we can trust that He covers for us, and will provide for us in every way, and exceed our asking!

"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20)

Consider also that under the New Covenant, we are called on to believe Him!

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8:10-12)