Daily Bible Reading – Ruth 3,4; Psalms 64,65; 2 Corinthians 6
Today’s Key Passage – Ruth 4:9-22
In today’s reading, we finish the story of Ruth. Yesterday, we read about her hardships. We found out that Ruth was a widow living in poverty. To feed herself and her mother-in-law, she found a field belonging to Boaz and gleaned. Today, the story is wrapped up when Boaz and Ruth get married and have a child. The story of Ruth is a good one – one that almost sounds like it would make a great plot for a movie. Picture this – a woman loses her husband and moves to a town far away where the only person she knows is her mother-in-law. There she lives in poverty until she receives charity from a man who owns some land. He notices her and they end up falling in love and having a baby. That is a great movie right? If that was the end of the story, it would still be a good one, but the story of Ruth has so much more to offer. You see, the child they had together was named Obed (which means worship). Obed would go on to have a child named Jesse, and Jesse would go on to have a child named David who would later become known as King David. King David’s genealogy would continue through a few more generations all the way to a baby born in a manger in Bethlehem. When Ruth married Boaz and had a child, she set off a chain of events that would culminate in the birth of Jesus Christ.
When I read the story of Ruth, I think about how she must have felt when she lost her husband. I cannot even begin to imagine the pain that must come with losing a spouse. On top of that, she found herself living in poverty, literally picking up scraps from a field to eat, and living in a foreign land. How easy would it have been for Ruth to start to question God? How easy would it have been for her to think God had completely left her? Throughout all of these hardships, though, Ruth remained dedicated and faithful to God. She trusted that God had a plan for her and that He would work out her situation in His time. God used her painful situation to bring about events that would lead to the greatest event in the history of mankind – the birth, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Of course, Ruth could not have possibly known this at the time. All she could see was her present situation. All she could see was her pain. When we face trials, no matter how bad they are, we can rest in knowing that God has a plan for us. Sometimes the trials we face, as painful as they may be, are absolutely necessary for God’s plan. If Ruth had not lost her husband and become poor, she never would have ended up in that field meeting the man she would marry, and she never would have given birth to a genealogical line that would end with Jesus Christ. Very often, when we face difficulties or when things do not go according to our “plans”, we find it difficult to see how our pain might turn out to be a great thing for us. We can only see a tiny dot in the big picture of life. God, however, can see the whole picture. He knows where each piece fits. We can trust His plan and we can have faith that everything He does is for the greater good.
During your Bible reading today, what “key passages” stood out to you? Leave a comment below to share what God is showing you about His Word today.
To become a fan of The Daily Bible Plan’s Facebook Page, CLICK HERE.
To follow me on Twitter for inspirational tweets, click the follow button – Follow @kevin_griggs
If you like this post, please SHARE it with others to spread the Word of God.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you today.
