RUTH: WHAT A COURAGEOUS WOMAN, INDEED!

Ruth 1:16

וַתֹּאמֶר רוּת אַל־תִּפְגְּעִי־בִי לְעָזְבֵךְ לָשׁוּב מֵאַחֲרָיִךְ כִּי אֶל־אֲשֶׁר תֵּלְכִי אֵלֵךְ וּבַאֲשֶׁר תָּלִינִי אָלִין עַמֵּךְ עַמִּי וֵאלֹהַיִךְ אֱלֹהָי

  .This was what Ruth said to her mother-in-law, Naomi

“Do not urge me to leave you or turn back 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.”

For the Moaviyah (Moabitess) to say this, Ruth must have a lot of courage and commitment towards the God whom her husband, now deceased, used to worship.

She was willing to follow Naomi wherever she went. The relationship between the two widows was very strong like glue to two pieces of wood. She and Naomi were inseparable. Ruth was prepared to return with Naomi to a people who was foreign to her because she was already a committed believer of the Elohe Yis'rael (God of Israel)

Ruth could see that her mother-in-law was very bitter about the death of Elimelech and her two sons. Ruth is the wife of Naomi's second son, Machlon.

The fact that she said these words to Naomi shows that she would not abandon the Elohe Yis'rael. For her to return to her family in Moab meant that she would return to the gods of the Moabites. And, coming under the umbrella of her parents again, she would probably have to re-marry. There was no guarantee that she would be able to continue walking with the Elohe Yis'rael Whom she had believed in.
Therefore, God honoured her faith by arranging for Boaz the גֹּאֵל (redeemer) to redeem her. As a result, the Moabitess, considered to be a Gentile, was grafted into the House of Israel. She later became part of the physical lineage through whom Jesus the Messiah was born.