Forsaking Moab

She was born a Moabite. Her country was on a high plateau south of the roaring Arnon River. The Moabites were a breed of perverse pagans who sacrificed some of their young as burnt offerings to their God Chemosh. They were polygamous. Her people were born out of incest. Their culture was rooted from Sodom. The men in her country don’t have a lot of respect for their women. Their rulers are fat and foolish. They were like an infectious disease that can corrupt tribes and cities around them.

She was probably typical. Like any pebble that she can find on the roads uphill. Her face, like that of any Moabite, was marked with all the sins that her people were engulfed with. She may have been a virgin, a damsel, and lass. But that will not change her miserable case. She will just be another cracked mirror, another faded smile, another rose trampled on the ground.

Moab has been her prison. Her country was her cage. She was living inside a fence made with unseen barbed wires. Her family, her religion, her environment; these all have become shackles instead of an escape. She was just laughing but not happy. She was just existing but not living. She was Ruth and she was like a leaf being blown by the wind. The tree from where she came from has been dry and lifeless all her life.

But there is a God of whom she may not know but who absolutely knows her. This God can use famines, marriages, and everything else just to make sure that Ruth’s path will one day crosses His. And so after 10 years and 3 funerals, Ruth finds herself on the brink of decision. It was a decision whether to stay or to forsake Moab. It was a hard decision but Ruth finds herself speaking one of the most beautiful pledges of commitment that our ears will ever hear…

“…Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: 17 Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.
- Ruth 1:16-17

Her life in Israel will be much different than in Moab. This time, she’ll be a foreigner in a strange land. She will learn of Deuteronomy 23:3, where it is forbidden for an Ammonite or a Moabite to enter the congregation of the Lord. She will come to know the rituals and the ceremonies, and will understand that she is an unclean thing. She will face the full condemnation of the Law, and will wonder if the God of Israel is her friend or her enemy.

But Ruth will cling to Naomi and her God. Her commitment will prove that she has forsaken everything that is from Moab. She will also prove that it is not by blood, neither by race, nor by gender, that a person will find favor in the sight of Yahweh. Yes, she will learn to call Israel’s God by His revealed Personal Name “Yahweh”, and not just “Elohim”. (Ruth 1:16-17) Yahweh shall be the Lord her Savior.

She will earn the respect of the male reapers at the harvest field. She will have her portion of the harvest even if she is desolate in a strange field. She will have abundance for her and for Naomi. Her strength of character will cause her to meet the Lord of the Harvest. Then she will be free from the condemnation of the Law, because he, the Lord of the Harvest, will be her kinsman-redeemer.

In the end, her name will not be forgotten. Her womb will be the fountain that will give historical Israel its Golden Age. She, a woman, will earn her rightful place in the genealogy of the King of Kings.

She was still Ruth, a Moabite that is forsaking Moab. But her story will tell the world that finding the One True God can be a history changing experience.

Pastor Felix Ortinez has been a long time minister of the United Pentecostal Church Philippines Inc. and has served at various capacities for the Central Luzon District. He is a graduate of the Apostolic Center for Theological Studies (ACTS Philippines) and has also taken modular courses in Cyber Programming from Systems Technology Institute (STI Philippines). He is presently pastoring in Limay Christian Family Center at Limay, Bataan, Philippines.

Visit his blog Pinoy Apostolic to find more refreshing articles for the soul.