Day 9 - Outsider In

Day 9 - Outsider In.

Ruth 1:16 (ESV) - ¹⁶ But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

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On January 1, 1892, seven-hundred immigrants passed though the brand new processing center on Ellis Island, New York. Weary from the difficult weeks-long passage across the Atlantic, they carried their suitcases into a kind of promised land, where it was less likely they’d die of starvation or war. Millions followed in their wake.

One of the most famous immigrants in the Bible was a young woman named Ruth. More than a millennium before Christ, she chose to immigrate to the land of the Hebrews, but not because it was a land of opportunity. Not because there was more food there than in her native Moab across the Jordan River (in fact, the opposite). Not because she was assured of a job there. Ruth immigrated to a strange, alien place—leaving her family and friends, her culture, and her prospects for marriage behind—because of her commitment to her mother-in- law, Naomi.

Newly widowed, Naomi was returning to her native Israel, when she was stunned that her beautiful daughter-in-law, Ruth (also widowed), was insistent on sticking with her. “Where you go, I will go...your people will be my people and your God my God.” 

It was Ellis Island in reverse. A young woman immigrates, not for greater opportunity, but because of a greater loyalty. The bond was formed by “covenant kindness” (hesed). Young Ruth had been given that kindness by Naomi, and it was covenant kindness that bound Ruth to her mother-in-law.

Little did she know then that once in Israel, she would be shown covenant kindness by a man named Boaz. Little did she know that years after marrying Boaz, one of her grandsons would grow up to be anointed king of Israel—King David himself.

Don’t ever count out the outsider. God often takes the outsider, the person despised for his or her ethnicity, the foreigner, the marginalized, the weak, the obscure to play an important role. This requires us to reimagine our place in God’s plan—and to believe that God may be using us in ways today that we don’t even know. Certainly the young woman from Moab did not imagine we’d be contemplating her today.

PONDER: How might you express covenant kindness to someone today?

DISCUSSION or REFLECTION:
Ruth was having a very rough life. Her husband had just died, leaving Ruth a widow. When the time came for Naomi, her mother-in-law, to be able to move back to Bethlehem, she encouraged Ruth to stay in Moab. The amazing part of this story is Ruth’s response to Naomi. Ruth says that she refuses to leave Naomi no matter what. This is a huge sacrifice. It means she will give up her home, her friends, and everything familiar to stay with her grieving mother-in-law.

Read Ruth’s response to Naomi in Ruth 1:16 again. What was Ruth giving up to stay with Naomi? When have you had to give something up in order to do the right thing?