Anchor Devotional

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Grace Incarnate

“Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.’” Ruth 1:16

Though she can’t see it, God shows Naomi a profound act of grace in the middle of her pain. No, God did not give back her dead loved ones. There were no amazing miracles or pep talks of principles for a better life. Instead, in the very depths of her brokenness and just as she is sending her daughters-in-law away, God gives her Ruth.

Ruth “clung” to Naomi (v. 14). And she vows to continue to share in Naomi’s sufferings all the way back to Bethlehem. Not only that, but she pledges to go with Naomi even until death should part them (v. 17). Naomi is given grace in the form of a person—a suffering servant who offers the whole of her life for Naomi and her God. Does that ring a familiar sort of “advanced echo” for you?

It is Ruth’s distant descendent, Jesus Christ, who would do the same for us. He is God’s grace incarnate—bearing our humanity, our infirmities, even our sin unto death. It turns out that what we need most is not miracles, or wisdom, or added provision. We need God Himself, so He came right to us in the person of Jesus.

SCRIPTURE FOCUS
Ruth 1:14-17

INSIGHT
Do not pray simply for God’s help today, but for more of Jesus. And thank Him for giving us what we most need.

THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
Numbers 8-9
Psalm 65
John 6

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