Lesson 14: A daughter’s choice

Read Ruth 3

Both Ruth and Orpah began the journey back to Israel with Naomi. Since people of that day walked everywhere they went, the three women were walking – a distance of about 30-40 miles (about 50-65 km). Along the way Naomi again urged Ruth and Orpah to stay behind, and finally Orpah left as Naomi had asked.

But Ruth chose to stay with Naomi. She had grown to love her mother-in-law.

Ruth chose far more than just to go with Naomi; she chose to change everything about her life so she could stay with Naomi and be a true part of her family. Her promise to Naomi is found in Ruth 1:16-17, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return 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. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried.”

Everything she had ever known in her life was less important to Ruth than Naomi was. She gave up her family, neighbors, traditions – all she had ever held dear just to be with this woman.


This is a picture of what it means to believe in Jesus – to be saved. Everything else in our life means nothing to us, just so we can be with Him. This does not mean we care nothing about other people. It does not mean we abandon our children or families who depend on us for their lives. It means Jesus is first in our lives. Jesus said, in Luke 14:26, that if we do not hate our father and mother, spouse, children, brothers and sisters, and even our own lives, then we cannot be His disciples. But this is not a hate of anger; it is a hate of comparison. Our love for Jesus should be so much greater than our love for even those we love most here on earth that our love for these people should look like hate in comparison to our love for Him.

Our lives are determined most by the choices we make. Even for things over which we have no choice – such as a car accident which leaves us either in debt, or physically damaged, or both – our own choices have far more effect on us than the incident itself. If I become focused on the fact that I am injured and not able to do the things I want, then I become angry and bitter, and my life becomes full of darkness where others do not want to be. If I choose, rather, to forgive and let Jesus make this into something good in my life, I will have joy as I discover how He uses my accident to help others. The accident no longer rules my life; I have chosen the Lord Jesus to rule my life.

*How have you chosen Jesus this week rather than your own interests?