The book of Ruth opens with tragedy and loss. Naomi has lost her husband and both of her sons and is alone in a foreign land with only her daughters-in-law. Hearing that the famine that drove Naomi’s family out of Judah is over, she determines to go back to the land of her people.

Naomi’s instruction to her daughters-in-Law, Orpah and Ruth, was to go home and “find rest in the home of another husband.” The word ‘rest’ here does not mean relaxation, or freedom from work. It might better be translated as ‘security’ or ‘safety’. It is a blessing that God repeatedly promised the Israelites as they prepared to enter the Promised Land.

Naomi knew that her place of security was in the land of her people – the Promised Land – yet she did not encourage her daughters-in-law to join her. Perhaps she thought they would not find their security in the land the Lord had given to his people because they were Moabites. She did not even consider the possibility that the Lord could provide for Orpah and Ruth if they sought their rest in him.

However, Ruth chose not only Naomi, but Naomi’s God, and the security and ‘rest’ that he alone could offer. Unlike Naomi, who was struggling with bitterness at her losses, Ruth trusted the Lord.

Her decision was remarkable. She gave up any hope of the only type of security available to women at the time – a marriage – to devote herself to Naomi. She had no hope of a reward but, as she promised to make Naomi’s home her home, she also promised to make Naomi’s God her God.

Today, we might seek the blessing of security or freedom from trouble in many different ways – through saving money, through job security, through surrounding ourselves with the right people – yet today, as in Ruth’s day, the place of our real and total security is in the Lord. Ruth gave up her only hope of worldly ‘rest’ to enter into the Lord’s ‘rest’ and she was richly blessed.

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NEWBOLD BAPTIST CHURCH