As in Ruth, a now widowed Moabite placed her life aside to follow her widowed mother-in-law returning to her home in Judah. Ruth encompasses our role in the church as she lays her life at Naomi's feet in abandonment to seek a new life. Ruth 1:16-17, "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."
In Judah, Naomi sent Ruth to glean fields for grain. Naomi hoped her daughter-in-law might encounter a distant relative and owner over the field, Boaz. Nothing but kind, Boaz protected Ruth's gleaning and offered exceeding endowment for her family. Naomi took his open kindness toward Ruth to lead her into becoming his wife. In an obedient spirit, Boaz sought to redeem Ruth by marriage, as God seeks after redeeming His church. God seeks his people.
Hosea 2:19-20, "And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord." Gomer is the world chasing after everything but God: villainy, strife, lust, murder, lying, adulterous sin. Gomer runs from God. Yet, God runs to Gomer. He seeks his people. In love, God told Hosea to rescue an adulterous woman from her sinful lifestyle and lead her into a pure relationship with him.
Similarly, the infested world in which we live is incapable of achieving purity without redemption from the groom himself, who paid the price for his bride. God seeks his people. And one day, the groom will return seeking his bride, as Ruth was redeemed by Boaz. A powerful story encompassed as what we shall one day be!