Lesson Four • We Are Family
Devotion #2: Reconciled
Jeannie Yates
I love a good romance story, and I mean, the cheesier the better, Hallmark-approved kind. Yes, the plots are all very similar, and you can usually take a nap in the middle and still not miss any important details. What you are actually waiting for is the glorious ending when all the wrongs have been made right, the couple finally finds true love, and their future is on the path to happily ever after. We might be tempted to reduce the book of Ruth to just that, but instead, we see that God uses this unordinary family and a baby named Obed, to tell an extraordinary story not just of romance, but His story of redemption. Reverend Kyle Norman writes, “At first glance, the book of Ruth may appear to be nothing more than a quaint romance. When we dig a bit deeper, however, we find an exciting story of God working for the salvation of his people. In creative and exciting ways, God brings about God’s purposes through unlikely circumstances and people.”
Ruth 4:14-17 records, “Then the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.’ Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, ‘A son has been born to Naomi.’ They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.”
Here we see the glorious ending, and it is a true “but God” moment. Naomi was lost in her bitterness, “but God” had a plan. Through the love story of Ruth and Boaz, she is given a son. Naomi is now no longer bitter but rather blessed. Her strained relationship with God is reconciled; it has been made right. Obed is called Naomi’s “restorer of life and a nourisher of old age.” Naomi had lost it all, her husband, her sons, her life as she knew it, but God brings Obed into her life and redeems her treasured desire for family.
The Bible has several stories that have the theme of reconciliation. You can read about Joseph reconciling with his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” When confronted with his sin, King David repents and reconciles with God in 2 Samuel chapter 12. One of the more well-known stories is that of a father and son in Luke chapter 15. A rebellious son leaves his father’s house, squanders his inheritance, and becomes a disgrace. Returning home to his father, he receives an unexpected welcome. Luke 15:21-24 says, “And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”
Yet, the greatest reconciliation story of all time is that of a Holy God and a sinful world. In Romans, we read, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Romans 5:6, 10-11). We were weak, dead, and enemies of God, but He made a way for us to become a new creation with abundant life; no longer enemies, but now adopted as sons (2 Corinthians 5:17; John 10:10; Galatians 4:5).
Naomi had to choose to step out of her bitterness and accept the gift of Ruth’s son, Obed. Through her daughter-in-law’s family, she received reconciliation. Naomi’s family name was redeemed as it was woven into the Gospel story as part of the genealogy of Jesus. We, too, have to choose to let go of whatever doubt, fear, sin, or disgrace that we are holding on to and accept the gift of God’s only son, Jesus. Our acceptance of Jesus as Lord not only places us in right standing with the Almighty God, but we become part of His family. So, just as Paul pleaded with the people in Corinth, I pray that today, you would “be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).