In the Holy Bible there is a great book named for a woman—the book of Ruth. This book is a record of deep and unselfed love, moral courage, intelligence, humility, and obedience to spiritual law. It is a timeless reminder that such virtues triumph over the boasts and claims of evil, however traditional or sinister such claims may appear to be.
In a time when the land of Israel was experiencing a famine, Elimelech and his wife, Naomi, with their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, migrated from Israel to the land of Moab. Here Mahlon and Chilion married the Moabitish girls, Orpah and Ruth. Here Elimelech, and later his sons, passed on, leaving Naomi childless and a widow. Then news came that in Israel there was plenty for everyone. So Naomi decided to return home. Both daughters-in-law started off with her on her journey; but Naomi thanked them tenderly for their kindness to her and her sons and bade them return home to their own people. Orpah did turn back, but Ruth begged that she might go on with Naomi, saying (1:16): "Intreat 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." Naomi consented, and they continued on their journey.
When they arrived in Bethlehem, it was the time of the barley harvest. Ruth went at once into the fields to glean, into the fields of Boaz, a kinsman of Elimelech, her father-in-law. Boaz treated her with great kindness, and very soon he married her. They had a little son, named Obed, who in time became the father of Jesse, the father of David, king of Israel. Both Matthew and Luke, in tracing the human genealogy of Jesus, include Obed as one of his progenitors.
