THE BELOVED
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Without love, the world is nothing. If it were possible to sum up the teachings of Christianity in one word, that word would be love. The whole New Testament is saturated with this shining concept. But the Old Testament also has its memorable examples of the power of love to change and ennoble human lives. and one of the most memorable is the story of Ruth.
During the three hundred years when Israel was ruled by judges, before there were any Hebrew kings, a famine drove a man named Elimelech and his family from their home in Bethlehem into the country of Moab, east of the river Jordan. There his two sons married Moabite girls, although as a rule the pagan people of Moab were despised by the Hebrews. Eventually Elimelech and both his sons died. This left his widow, Naomi, and her two daughters-in-law without any men to support them. So Naomi decided to go back to Bethlehem, where she had a few relatives and where she heard the famine was ended.
She urged her two daughters-in-law, Oprah and Ruth, to stay with their own people in Moab, where it would be easier for them to rmarry. Oprah (which means in Hebrew ("she who turns back") agreed, but Ruth (whose name means "Beloved") refused to leave her. This was not her own mother, remember; it wa her dead husbands mother, and all too often there is little affection between such in-laws. But now Ruth said to Naomi in words so lovely that they ring like silver; "Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God."
So Ruth and Naomi made their way back to Bethlehem, where soon they were close to starving, although in the fields around the town a fine crop of barley was being harvested. Strange to think that more than a thousand years later a baby would be born in that same little town whose words would change the world.
Jewish law in those days permitted poor people to follow the reapers in the field, picking up stray stalks of grain, and so Ruth joined the gleaners in a field belonging to a rich man named Boaz, a distant kinsman of Naomi. Quiet and hardworking, the pretty Moabite widow attracted the atention of Boaz himself, who ordred his reapers to let extra stalks of barley fall where she could find them, and who showed her other kindnesses.
The love story develops quickly, with Naomi playing the role of matchmaker and traditional obsticles arising that have to be overcome before boy can get girl and the happy ending be ralized. Boaz decides that he wants Ruth for his wife, but custom decrees that a closer kinsman of Naomis be given the chance to marry Ruth and raise up children to carry on the family name. Fortunately this kinsman allready has a family of his own. So he declines the honor, Boaz marries Ruth, and soon, to the great joy of Naomi, they have a fine son, whom they called Obed.
It's a gentle tale, this story of Ruth, sensitively told, with a poignancy that has lasted for more than thirty centuries. The lesson would seem to be that strangers, even pagans or foriegheners, can have loving hearts, and that when they do, their hearts will lead them in the right direction.
In this case, Ruth's heart led her to a true home and a true marriage and a true religion. Her son, Obed, grew up to have a son named Jesse, and he in turn became the father of a shepard boy named David. Thus from the gentle Moabite woman came a great grandchild destined to be Israel's greatest warrior king, and the sweetest singer ever heard in Israel.
: )
1|1|Also see VERSE OF THE DAY and DAILY DEVOTIONALS FOR PARENTS AND KIDS God Bless : ) |lucky7|ilovetorefund@webtv.net|16:24:22|03/16/2010|
: ) 2|1|thank you!!|Skaytes|skaytez@gmail.com|20:24:46|03/16/2010|
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3|1|Thank you so very much,i saw this movie last month|WillaD|wila111@bellsouth.net|19:05:35|03/17/2010|
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Willa