Ruth 1:16,17 – “The Best Gift”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁶And Ruth said, “Do not insist to me to leave you, to return from after you, because to where you go I will go and in where you remain I will remain. Your people my people, your God my God. ¹⁷Thus may the LORD do to me and thus may He add if death divides between me and between you.”

In the last post, I jotted down some thoughts about the overwhelming emotion displayed here in the book of Ruth. That said, I can’t move on without pausing to consider Ruth’s famous words. People all down through the years have noted Ruth’s commitment to Naomi and compared it to the commitment we ought all to have to Christ.

That certainly is a valid observation, but I’d like to focus on one aspect of it.

Notice what Ruth offers to Naomi. What is it? Herself. Ruth offers to Naomi nothing more (and nothing less) than herself. Why is this? Is it not, on the one hand because she has nothing else to offer? Ruth is a destitute young widow. She has no money, no home, no influence, no future, no nothing. And so she commits to Naomi the only thing she has – herself.

Pause a moment and consider the beauty of this. Although it is “all” she has to give, consider that, on the other hand, it is giving her all. We give a lot in this world. Everyone “gives” a lot to each other. As I type this post, we’re within days of Christmas. Gifts will pass back and forth in profusion in less than two weeks. Someone wealthy will give a new car, who knows, maybe even a new home! Others less fortunate will settle for homemade gifts. Some struggle to be able to give anything at all -- I worked last night at a Christmas Care ministry where we gave poor parents toys to give their children. Yet, through it all, Paul’s words would challenge our hearts: “If I speak with the tongues of men and angels … If I give all I have to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I am nothing” (I Cor 13:1-3). Love -- the only real gift that matters in the end is to give ourselves. It is the least we can give and yet it is to truly give the most.

One of the most memorable birthdays of my life was one year when we were so pressed financially, Joan and I decided it would be better if she and the kids simply didn’t buy me anything. On arriving home that birthday evening, what should appear from the dining room door but Daniel, Ruthie, and Esther with bows on their heads! Definitely the best presents I ever received!

Ruth understood that. She had nothing else to give, so she gave herself, and in reality she gave the greatest gift of all.

Obviously there is a lesson in this for us. Let us, in all our giving, be sure we give ourselves. Let us be sure we remember in the giving to not leave off love.

Then let us not despise the gift of ourselves. So often in this world, I think we all feel pressed to give anything at all, whether from lack of funds or perhaps lack of ideas. But let us not despise the gift of ourselves. It truly “isn’t much” but it is also the very best gift we can give.

Finally, let us remember the Lord knows all of this too. Most of us don’t feel very “gifted.” We wonder what possible good I could do in this world to make any difference at all. Yet let us not despise the best gift, the gift Ruth gave – ourselves. To give the Lord anything else without it is to give Him nothing at all, but no matter what we give, ourselves is the gift He most desires.

But Ruth said,

 “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.

 May the Lord do so to me and more also

 if anything but death parts me from you.”