Ruth 1:13-22 (NIV)

13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”

14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”

16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

20 “Don’t call me Naomi,[a]” she told them. “Call me Mara,[b] because the Almighty[c] has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted[d] me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

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I decided to start this series with the story of Ruth. Now Ruth is an interesting character in the Bible-she was a woman that had known loss, grief, uncertainty but the LORD gave her peace, progress and prosperity. Why did I start the story before she met Boaz? Because men and women of the Most High, we all start somewhere-you are a person, your progress does not depend on your partner. It depends on God. And it is important to realize that-when you are single your duty is first to the LORD:

1 Corinthians 7:34 (NIV)

34 and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband.

Now a single man/woman is devoted to the LORD in body and spirit meaning in all you do-the LORD should come first-and the more you spend time with Him-the more you begin to understand how to walk in His presence and submit to His will.

But back to Ruth! So Naomi lost both her sons who were married to Ruth and Orpah. And so we start the scene at the stage of grief. Naomi encouraged these women to leave her and Orpah complied because Naomi’s arguments were rational-they were based on physical facts-she had lost her two sons and of course the two women could not wait until they grew up.

Some of you are struggling with waiting-you think just like Naomi-in other words will I wait forever? Where is this man/woman? Will I remain unmarried for so long? God is not working in my favor! Can you see the similarity? Can you see the pattern? This is how Naomi’s mindset was working-and this is how she was thinking-and Orpah agreed with her-some of you are like Orpah and to be honest we have all struggled with Orpah’s position-looking at the facts and thinking you know what-he/she will never show up; I’ve been waiting for nothing-there is nothing good for me here-I should go.

The danger with thinking like Orpah is-Orpah plays it safe-she stays in the zone of the present, she is afraid to look ahead-are you like Orpah? Are you struggling with the idea of waiting for a spouse? Have you given into the thought that he/she will never show up-if you leave, they never will. Which is why we never hear about Orpah again after this passage-she kissed Naomi goodbye, and that was the last we hear of her in this passage. Some believers are like Orpah-they fall away and allow their flesh infect their faith.

Or are you like Ruth-you need to cling to the promises the LORD has given you. She clung to Naomi. That is a powerful word: to cling means to hold on tightly to. Ruth showed by her actions that she was serious.

Let me say something Orpah kissed Naomi but she said goodbye? How many of you have said to the LORD, yes I will wait and then you go about your business-faith without deeds is dead. (James 2:26). You are only deceiving yourself not Him.

Ruth showed in her actions-that she was serious-she clung to Naomi.

And it is in that resilience that you grow-faith is a muscle-it needs to be exercised. And Ruth exercised her faith by clinging to Naomi.

Naomi urged Ruth to leave-there will be circumstances and places and even positions that you are in, you may be in a certain environment that is not encouraging and people close to you may urge you to stop waiting. But you need to persevere.

Ruth did. She did not listen to Naomi.

Pay attention to Naomi’s words-she encouraged Ruth to go back to her gods-don’t go back to whatever idol you were serving ie alcoholism, sexual immorality, loose morals etc. that is the only other option and it does not end well-case in point from this passage-we never hear from Orpah again.

Notice something as well: Ruth’s response reaffirmed her decision: your faith should partner with your words: speak and pray over that matter-pray over your future spouse, pray over your marriage, speak words of faith-they are powerful.

Ruth said your God will be my God…where you die I die…even death will not separate me from you.

And you know what that is? That’s love.

How you may ask? Well the Word says not even death will separate us from God:

Romans 8:38-39 (NIV):

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And love is very powerful:

1 Corinthians 13:13 (NIV):

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Think about your own lives-your families, siblings, parents-can you quantify that level of love? The thing is, the more you cling to the LORD, the more in love you become with Him-and He teaches you how to love-that spouse you have been praying for? The LORD will reveal how to love them to your heart-He will give you a heart of service as partners, and submission unto Him.

It is a covenant kind of love. That was what Ruth was professing.

Another important point in these particular words of Ruth is, as a believer, you need to embrace God as your God. It is not enough for Him to be your parents God, your siblings God-He has to become your God. This is the first step towards meeting your God ordained spouse and more importantly beginning to walk with Christ as your Savior-you have to open your heart to Him personally. (Jeremiah 29:13).

When you cling to the LORD as Ruth clung to Naomi, you have begun to walk in relationship with Him and He will lead you to your spouse-which is only a tiny part compared to the beauty of this intimate relationship with Him. I only make reference to it because of the context of today’s teaching.

Now Naomi stopped urging Ruth when she realized she was determined. Those people telling you that you are wasting your time? Or all those relationships that are blooming around you, they will stop to irritate and pester you as you cling to the LORD-do you know why? Because you grow stronger in faith-remember I said-faith is a muscle.

And even those that tell you to stop waiting will get tired of talking like Naomi got tired of trying to convince Ruth-because they would realize, that you are determined.

And so the two of them went to Bethlehem. This has significance-because Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And in relation to this passage, you will meet your spouse, where the LORD has assigned you to be placed in purpose.

And as soon as they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred-the environment changed. Obviously because Naomi had lost her sons and she was so bitter she wanted to be called Mara. She was in a place of grief and blamed God for her pain. But fact and faith are very different.

Even if your circumstances look dire-even if it may seem you have been waiting forever and you tell everyone that, you are tired and they should not even bother encouraging you in the place of waiting, you have no idea what is going on behind the scenes-you have no idea what the LORD is planning.

And this is clear from this passage how? Well, because the barley harvest was beginning. In other words, the season was in the process of changing.

So don’t be discouraged-keep waiting-your harvest is beginning.

For more on the Kingdom Courtship Series-Listen:

And finally one of my favorite!:

Deborah