Daily text, Thursday, December 28. 2017

[Queen Esther]

Return with your sister-in-law.—Ruth 1:15.

Naomi is determined to press on to her homeland, Israel. With her is Ruth, who faces what may be the most important decision of her life. She can either go home to her people in Moab or stick with her mother-in-law, Naomi, and travel to Bethlehem. (Ruth 1:1-8, 14) Ruth could easily have reasoned that she had a family there in Moab—a mother and other relatives who would take a young widow in and help provide for her. Moab was her homeland. Its culture was her culture, its language her language, its people her people. Naomi could promise her no such advantages in Bethlehem. In fact, she advised Ruth to stay in Moab. Naomi feared that she could provide neither a husband nor a home for her daughters-in-law. What would Ruth do? Note the contrast between her and Orpah, who “returned to her people and her gods.” (Ruth 1:9-15) Did Ruth want to return to the false gods of her people? No, she did not. w16.02 2:4, 5

https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/dt/r1/lp-e/2017/12/28