If you have ever heard someone teach on the story of Ruth it is usually treated like a Bible romance novel. Reducing it to a sappy, sentimental yarn does not even remotely do this book justice.

Ruth 1 is about an Israelite prince, who should be leading his people in repentance, instead rejecting his duty and fleeing from it as God brings just judgment upon his people. That man leaves God's Land of Promise for a Land of Demons, and God strikes him down, and He also strikes down the man's heirs after they marry two women of the Land of Demons.

But a remarkable thing happens. Despite this man's faithlessness and apostasy, one of the demon-worshipping women repents and believes in Yahweh. She abandons everything she has ever known and loved and unites herself to the true God and His people.

Ruth is the story of God's grace redeeming the Seed people despite their sin and rebellion. It is the story of the powerful faith of a foreign woman and God using her to save His people.