Daily Devotions
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
Ruth 1:1, 2b-5, 7-8a, 14b, 16-17, 19a – In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. … They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives … They lived there about ten years, and both [sons] died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. … So she set out … to return to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house.”….And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her …. 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. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” … So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem.
The beginning of the book of Ruth always moves me because it is so full of sadness. A family of four leaves home looking for a better life in another country; but three of them die there, leaving only an elderly woman, Naomi, with her two childless daughters-in-law. Naomi has lost everything in this country, and she decides to go home again, though she has nothing much to look forward to there, either. And then, much to her surprise, one of her daughters-in-law decides to come with her.
There’s no sensible reason for Ruth to go with Naomi. In Israel she will be the foreigner, not Naomi; and Naomi herself has no guaranteed home or inheritance to go to, only the slim hope of help from relatives. Ruth will have to work hard to support them both; and her chances of a future marriage and children are slim. But she accepts the suffering, because she loves Naomi—and based on what she says to her, she also loves the Lord.
“Your God shall be my God,” she says. And she swears an oath by Him as well. Surely Naomi’s family had already passed on their faith in the Lord to Ruth, and now Ruth is completely unwilling to lose this God or the woman who has taught her about Him. Ruth already reflects God’s love in the way she sacrifices herself for Naomi. Is it any wonder that the Lord chose her to be an ancestor of Jesus?
Ruth’s love is a foreshadowing of His; for Jesus saw us in our trouble and He, too, was completely unwilling to give us up or lose us. He came with us into our broken world and lived among us, caring for us. He sacrificed Himself for us through His suffering and death; and through His resurrection, He gave us new life—life that will last forever, living with Him forever. What could be better than that?
WE PRAY: Dear Jesus, thank You for loving us and staying with us forever. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo.
Reflection Questions
- Are human beings made to be alone? Why or why not?
- Who do you rely on to stay with you and help you?
- Why has Jesus promised to be with us forever? (See Matthew 28:20.)
Today's Readings:
Hosea 1-4Romans 14