Delay Is Not Denial
Then Boaz said to the leaders and to the crowd standing around, “You are witnesses that today I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion, and Mahlon. And with the land I have acquired Ruth, the Moabite widow of Mahlon, to be my wife. This way she can have a son to carry on the family name of her dead husband and to inherit the family property here in his hometown. You are all witnesses today.” (Ruth 4:9 –
You are the laughing stock of your family and community because your marital life is in shambles. Every time there is a disagreement involving you, people are quick to count how many times you have suffered disappointment in marriage. They even call you a witch because something bad always happens to the men who come to ask for your hand in marriage. And now you have resigned to this evil fate the devil is trying to establish in your life.
Naomi suffered worse. She lost her husband and two sons in a foreign land. People could also have concluded that Ruth was cursed because she got married and her husband died. Naomi had made it clear to her daughters’ in-law that she couldn’t give birth to other sons who will marry them and Ruth’s decision to follow her must have been an expression of the fact that she had given up on ever getting married.
But God is omniscient; He knows the beginning and end of every life. His plans for the lives that depend on Him are good and not evil to give them a hope and a future. God had a kinsman-redeemer waiting for Ruth; He had created her and reserved her to fulfill divine destiny in God’s redemption plan. That is why among all the women who flocked around the wealthy eligible Boaz only she was chosen to be David’s great grandmother! Let your mockers carry on; your testimony will be like Ruth’s, in the mighty name of Jesus.
For some of you, delay and disappointment might not be in the area of marriage; wherever the devil is trying to checkmate your life, I declare that God’s plan for you must come to pass in the name that is above all names, Jesus!
Liberation thought: God has a good plan for my future
Further reading: Isaiah 53:1 – 11
Amen
Thank you.