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PROGRAM D-8474
We’ve talked about Sarah, Abraham’s wife, who decided to help God out and got into “manipulation temptation.” This caused her a lot of misery and created problems we still deal with today.
Now let me share with you about another woman who faced some difficult circumstances but refused to manipulate. Her name is Ruth, a Moabitess, who had married a Jewish man, the son of Naomi. After Naomi, her husband, and two sons had moved to Moab to avoid a famine, Naomi’s husband and both sons died, leaving Naomi with two daughters-in-law who were also widows. Pretty tough predicament to be in for three women with no means of support!
Naomi decided to return to her hometown, and Ruth insisted on going with her. It was customary for a widow to stay with her dead husband’s family for the rest of her life, and Ruth was willing to do that. Naomi released her from that obligation, but Ruth insisted on staying with Naomi.
Ruth was a young woman who undoubtedly could have found another man in her country to marry, as Naomi suggested. But instead, she went with Naomi back to Bethlehem, where she was a stranger and a foreigner, she was poor, and she was alone. What kind of life could she ever expect to find in Bethlehem?
However, Ruth refused to manipulate; she simply obeyed. Naomi told her to glean the fields in order to find grain so they wouldn’t starve, so she faithfully gleaned the fields. It was hard work, but she worked tirelessly. I can imagine as she gleaned that she was tempted to manipulate. Don’t you think she must have wondered, “What in the world am I doing here, working like a beggar in this hot sun? How did I ever end up this way?” It must have entered her mind that she could leave and go back to Moab where life would be easier—surely she must have been tempted to do so.
She faced “manipulation temptation,” but she didn’t succumb. You know the beautiful story of how Ruth gleaned in Boaz’s field, and he was led by the Lord to take her as his own wife. Boaz said to Ruth, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law. . . May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge” (Ruth 2:11-12).
Ruth became the wife of Boaz, a wealthy man who took care of her and gave her a son, Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of King David. What a wonderful plan God had for Ruth, and Ruth didn’t mess it up through manipulation. Because she resisted the “manipulation temptation,” she knew God’s blessing without any sorrow to accompany it.