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"And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her
gods: return thou after they sister-in-law. 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: where thou
diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought
but death part thee and me" (1: 15-17).
These simple words of Ruth have come down the centuries and express the love for
one person to another that has never been excelled. They are without peer in any
language. Love is a word that has become cheapened and clouded in our day. The love
here revealed is pure, noble and inspired. It is utterly sincere because it comes from
devotion. The beauty of Ruth's words will move the heart so long as the world endures.
They are comparable with the lowly acts of love which the Saviour said should be
remembered wheresoever the gospel was preached.
All the relationships of life demand faith and love, patience, forbearance, good sense,
good temper, good taste and good feeling. Yet perhaps above all the other relationships
of life that of a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law demands all those gifts and graces.
Every language I believe has its own stock of cruel proverbs and satires that lampoon the
mother-in-law. Naomi and Ruth redeem that relationship, and the beauty in the nature of
the one brought out and expanded the beauty in the nature of the other. This alone is the
love that is Christ-like, for when we turn to Eph. 5: 2 we shall see that the love of Christ
was that He gave His life, His all for sinful mankind. In the same way Ruth gave up
everything she held dear in her own country. Her kith and kin, her home, her friends,
her all, to go out into the unknown with her mother-in-law. She held nothing back and
willingly went all the way, clinching her resolution with a solemn oath that revealed the
intensity of her feeling, and the irrevocability of her decision. She pledged herself always
to remain at Naomi's side till death parted them. She pledged herself in the name of the
God of Israel, Jehovah, the one true God, Whom Ruth had come to know and believe in
because of the teaching and manner of life of Naomi. "Thy people shall be my people,
and thy God my God . . . . .".
It was the shining life of this woman that converted the Moabitess from darkness and
the ignorance of idol worship and idolatry in which she had been brought up. We should
not be far wrong in tracing a great part of Ruth's courage, devotion, extraordinary loyalty
and exquisite love not so much to what Naomi said, but what she did. Her manner of life,
the way she lived, her walk and witness, age and experience, have their responsibilities,
and she used both wisely and well and so there grew a bond between these two that
caused Ruth to put into words the deep feelings of her heart. "Where thou diest, will I
die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me and more also, if ought but death
part thee and me.".
So Naomi yields. After so solemn a protestation of love, she can urge no more.
"When she saw that she (Ruth) was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left
speaking unto her" (1: 18).