I’ve Been Told

Ruth 2:11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 

One of the big lessons I learned while serving in the military is that what you do doesn’t end when the sun goes down. Our character, demonstrated in the things we do and the words we use, travels ahead of us in life. You would think that a large organization such as the US Army was big enough to absorb failings, but it isn’t.
I would often hear about people before they even arrived. Both the good and the bad travelled faster than the person themself. Their reputation, once it was established, was very hard to change.
The reputation of a daughter-in-law had travelled in the community where she now lived. She was a foreigner, and yet she was faithful, diligent and loving. Once she was loyal to you, you had a trusted friend for life. People knew her character and could see that character being worked out each day she was in the community. Her name was Ruth.
She was also a widow. Her husband had died along with her father-in-law and brother-in-law in her home country. And yet she had chosen to stay with her mother-in-law when she departed and moved back to her home country of Israel.
What is often forgotten in this account is that Ruth had seen the character of her mother-in-law Naomi and was won over by it. Naomi had demonstrated faithfulness of character even through the death of her husband and two adult sons. She had reflected the LORD’s faithfulness even in the middle of grief.
And so Ruth followed her away from her family and what she had known to a new country and culture.
And then enters the man. What a romance! And what does this man Boaz see? He sees her character and honors Ruth, and by extension honors Naomi, her husband and sons. He honors her with total acceptance and the LORD rewards them all.
The last verses of this book tell the story. This foreigner ends up an ancestor of the greatest King in Israel, David. And many generations later the human ancestry of Jesus our Messiah.
You see, our character goes ahead of us. What is the message you are sending into the future about who you serve? What is the message they are going to receive about your faithfulness to the LORD and faithfulness to your word?