God's Hand is Evident
Ruth 1:22 - So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
This is where the real story of Ruth takes off. What we have heard up to this point is background. Naomi's husband has died, and her two sons have died. She has also said farewell to one of her daughters-in-law. Now Naomi and Ruth arrive in Bethlehem. But God's hand is once again evident. God had ended the famine, enabling Naomi to return home. Now we see that the famine's end was coincident with the beginning of the barley harvest. This relatively minor detail sets up everything which follows: this is what will enable Ruth to meet a certain man.
The book of Ruth is remarkable in many ways. It is short, it packs a lot of story into just a few verses, and it is beautifully told. It is, honestly, just plain good reading. But more important, it is God's Word. It tells us about our relationship to God and about his plan of salvation. The last verses of the book tell us how God would raise up no less than twenty-three kings from this woman, Ruth.
For the readers of the book in Old Testament times, who would know twenty-two of those kings, the most important would be Ruth's great-grandson, born in Bethlehem, the apple of God's eye: David. For those of us who now live in New Testament times, we see king David's greater son and the King of kings and Lord of lords, Ruth's far-removed grandson, and her Savior: Jesus.
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT: How has God's hand been evident in your life? In the lives of others?
PRAYER SUGGESTIONS: Thank God for all the things he's done and continues to do in your life - called you to faith, removed your sin, provides for your spiritual and physical needs, blesses your social interactions, etc.