Refreshment along the way...

Reading of the Day: Judges 21, Ruth 1-2

Ruth 2:12: 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.

We are finally coming to a time of turn-around for the Israelites! I absolutely love the book of Ruth! What starts out in sorrow, similar to the previous chapters of Judges, slowly starts to take a turn for the better. We can see that this seemingly hopeless situation is going in the right direction & God is leading their steps! In these chapters, Naomi & her family leave Bethlehem to go to Moab because of a famine. Her husband dies, and her two sons marry Moabite women. Then, her two sons die also. This is the part that looks bleak...the part that looks like nothing is going to change or get better...and then Ruth decides to make a daring commitment! Instead of staying with her people and her gods, she follows Naomi & her God (the One true God!) back to Bethlehem, because they heard the famine had ended. This was a bold move for Ruth! What if the people there rejected her? What if she took a while to get used to the new country & culture? I think she was willing to take the risk because she loved her mother-in-law, and she realized she had nothing left to lose! So, they made the hard journey back. So many times Ruth could have questioned, "Did I make the right choice?" because they knew they were not returning to much. They would have to start from scratch...but Ruth held onto hope & encouraged her mother-in-law! Then, when they arrive, Ruth goes to work in the fields to glean & gather food...probably after not having rested much after the long journey. Tired & weary physically, she probably made her way to the field-and that field belonged to a distant family member-Boaz! This is where things start to turn around! Boaz heard of the great sacrifice Ruth made for Naomi, and he spoke this message of hope in the Scripture above! "...a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust." How beautiful! It took the courage of an outsider, a Moabite woman, to come into Israel & trust their God, Who became HER God! And through this God-ordained connection, The Lord would begin to restore Israel as we will see in the chapters to come! Our sacrifices do not go unnoticed by God. We may not reap the rewards right away, but we must keep gleaning! And The Lord will give us these sweet signs of refreshment along the way...someone might speak some encouraging words to us. An unexpected blessing might come our way. We just have to hold onto hope, and hold onto the One true God like Ruth did! God will always provide the refreshment we need along the way!