Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: “This is what the Lord says: “ ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved Me and followed Me through the wilderness, through a land not sown.” ~Jeremiah 2:2
Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: “This is what the Lord says: “ ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved Me and followed Me through the wilderness, through a land not sown.” ~Jeremiah 2:2
Jeremiah is speaking of the Exodus generation leaving Egypt and heading towards a land unknown to them. As a nation, they trusted God to lead them…for a minute or two, then they had a giant rebellious pity-party, but that is not what is in focus here.
God, thru Jeremiah, is emphasizing their love and devotion. The word ‘follow’ takes me to the book of Ruth, a young Moabite widow who returned to the land of Judah with her Hebrew mother-in-law, Naomi after their husbands had died.
What’s the big deal, one might ask? Ruth had family in Moab and a possible future - security and protection. She knew nothing of Naomi’s homeland and the Moabites were not friends of the people of Judah. Naomi urged her to stay, but Ruth’s response is golden:
“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.”
Fast forward a bit and Ruth is rescued, redeemed and rewarded with a husband, a household and the honor of being the great great great great great great great great great great great (11 greats) grandmother of Jesus. A Moabite woman. The ancestor of JESUS!
Especially astounding is that the Moabite nation began as an incestuous act [Genesis 19:31-37]. Another incredible connection is that Ruth’s second husband was a descendant of Rahab, the harlot of Jericho, who saved Joshua [Joshua 2]
God has a sense of humor and He uses it to show that EVERYONE is His child. All mistakes/sins/rejections are erased and He can make anything and anyone holy.
“And He has taken our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west.” ~Psalm 103:12
