Who were Naomi and Ruth?

Naomi was a Jewish woman living in the land of Moab. She had a husband and two sons.  One of her sons was married to Ruth. When both her husband and two sons died, Naomi and her two daughters-in-law left Moab to return to Naomi’s home country of Judah (Ruth 1:6)  On the journey, (Ruth 1:8) she told the women they should not go with her, but instead return to their families’ homes in order to possibly marry again.
 
One daughter-in-law said goodbye, but Ruth loved Naomi and wanted to stay with her and worship God. (Ruth 1:16 NLT) “…Ruth replied, ‘Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.’”
 
They traveled to Bethlehem where Boaz, a relative of Naomi’s husband, lived. Hardworking Ruth gathered grain in his barley fields. Back then, a system called “gleaning” helped poor people survive, because by Israelite law, they were allowed to pick up and take whatever the harvesters dropped. Boaz had heard about Ruth’s kindness towards Naomi, and how she had left her home country to stay in Judah. He was a kind man and told his workers not to bother Ruth while she was gleaning, and to purposely let good grain fall from their bundles for her to take. 
 
Boaz eventually married Ruth and they had a son named Obed. Obed had a son named Jesse, and Jesse was the father of King David. So Ruth was David’s great-grandmother! This is very important because Jesus was born from David’s lineage, or family line.
 
Ruth was not Jewish, so on the surface, people might have only seen a poor widow living in a strange land away from her family. Others may have looked down on her, but God overruled her life’s events that resulted in His son Jesus coming from her ancestry. 
 
God often includes people in His plans who are considered to be unimportant by human standards. We shouldn’t look down on others no matter where they come from or their life’s circumstances.
 
So, who were Naomi and Ruth? Naomi was the mother-in-law of Ruth, who was a kind Moabite widow who left her home to care for Naomi and worship God. Ruth gleaned in Boaz’s fields and they eventually married and had a son. Our Lord Jesus was a descendant from their family line. 

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