When you travel to or from Israel, a security person is likely to ask you some standard questions—he or she is wondering whether you are carrying a bomb in one of your suitcases. Well, one day a young lady passenger was asked the question, “Has anyone given you any packages that you didn’t pack yourself?”

The young lady told the security agent, “Well, my mother-in-law gave me a parcel to take to her son.”

The security agent looked at that young lady very carefully and asked, “Does she like you?”

This is a message based on an account in the Bible about a daughter-in-law and her mother-in-law—the story of Ruth and Naomi.

Let’s read Ruth 1:1-18:

¹ Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. ² The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion—Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there. ³ Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons.

⁴ Now they took wives of the women of Moab: The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years. ⁵ Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died; so the woman survived her two sons and her husband. ⁶ Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the LORD had visited His people by giving them bread. ⁷ Therefore she went out from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

⁸ And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go, return each to her mother’s house. The LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. ⁹ The LORD grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.’ So she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.

¹⁰ And they said to her, ‘Surely we will return with you to your people.’

¹¹ But Naomi said, ‘Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? ¹² Turn back, my daughters, go—for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons, ¹³ would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? No, my daughters; for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me!’

¹⁴ Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

¹⁵ And she said, ‘Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.’

¹⁶ But Ruth said: ‘Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. ¹⁷ Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me.’

¹⁸ When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her.”

Now consider a related story: A group of soldiers were released from prison camp at the end of World War II. They were finally heading home. They were about to board a boat when they were told that because there was very little room on the boat they could bring only one important piece of luggage. Two of the soldiers had been with each other throughout the war. They were like brothers, always watching out for one another.

Well, this is what happened. One of the two friends was selected to go on this sailing but the other would be forced to stay behind and wait for a later boat. You know what the first soldier did? He grabbed his one dufflebag, turned it upside down—spilling all his personal possessions onto the ground—and then told his friend to step into the bag. Then he carefully lifted the bag onto his back and carried his “most important piece of luggage” onto the ship.” Now that’s friendship—that’s faithful love.

The theme of this message is “making a covenant of love with Israel.” And I believe that the special relationship between Ruth and Naomi is a picture of the special relationship that I believe Christians are called to have with the nation of Israel.

I’m going to use the account of Ruth and Naomi as an allegory. While this story really happened in history, I believe that God allowed this story to be written not merely as a historical record but as an allegory or parable. There are remarkable parallels between Ruth and Naomi’s relationship and the relationship of the Church to Israel—Ruth’s marriage to Boaz and the blessing that also comes to Naomi is a picture of how both the Church and Israel are blessed through the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua, who, like Boaz, was from Bethlehem.

My point here is to challenge all of us to become Ruth to Naomi, and to make an unbreakable covenant of love with the people of Israel. But in order to make this point, I need to make sure we all understand the Biblical story. You see, too often our attitude toward Israel is without a Biblical foundation—those who love Israel too often have a romantic love, which too easily disappears when times get tough. Our love for Israel must be based on something more substantial than feelings—it must be covenant love based upon Biblical truth.

We won’t have time here to study the entire book of Ruth. But let me just remind you of the significant parts of the story. The story took place in the time of the judges. Just as in our days, spiritually speaking, the time of the judges for the Jews were not good times. The Bible says that it was a time when “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

Interestingly, the story of Ruth’s betrothal to Boaz took place just prior to the harvest festival of Shavuot, or Pentecost—a time when barley was being winnowed. And that’s why the book of Ruth is read in the synagogue during Shavuot.

As briefly as I can, let me tell you the story: There was a Jewish man and his wife, Elimelech and Naomi, who had been living in Bethlehem until a great famine struck the land. But not having Israel’s hi-tech irrigation systems of today, this couple and their two sons abandoned their land and made yeridah (the opposite of aliyah, going up to the land of Israel). They went down from Judah eastward and settled in the heathen land of Moab, on the other side of the Dead Sea—present-day Jordan. (By the way, there’s a law in Jordan today that no Jew can ever become a citizen of Jordan.)

With them they brought their two sons, Mahlon (which means “unhealthy”) and Chilion (which means “puny”). Imagine having names like that! (They could never go out to the playground at recess without getting laughed at!) I guess they got those names because of how pathetic they looked when they were born.

Well, these two poor Jewish fellows eventually convinced two young Moabite ladies to marry them—very much in opposition to the Jewish laws against intermarriage. In fact, in Deuteronomy 23:3-6 it says that the people of Moab were to be excluded from the congregation of the Lord. But intermarriage with pagans is what Jews tend to do when they live in the diaspora. Indeed, today more than half of all Jewish people in the diaspora marry “out.”

Now one of Elimelech and Naomi’s sons married a girl named Ruth and the other son married a girl named Orpah (not Oprah—Orpah).

Tragedy struck this Jewish family in exile. They ran away from famine only to face a worse fate. Soon Elimelech the father died; then both of the sons died—leaving Naomi both a widow and bereft of children. She even lost the chance of having future descendants as neither of her daughters-in-law had borne children before her sons died. And now Naomi was too old to have more children herself.

The only loved ones remaining to Naomi were her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth.

Well, in one way Naomi’s fortunes started to improve. Back at the ranch—in Judah—the drought had come to an end. And so Naomi decided to return to her hometown of Bethlehem. (Jewish people sometimes return to Israel for economic reasons; maybe even American Jews will return when they see Israel becoming an economic powerhouse—maybe some of you can play a part in this by investing in Israel).

Now although both daughters-in-law had the opportunity to go with Naomi and begin a new life in Israel among the Jewish people, only Ruth actually went.

Ruth’s difficult decision to leave her roots in Moab and completely join herself to Israel ended up being the best decision she ever made. As you probably remember, God provided for Ruth and led her to marry Boaz, a prosperous Jewish farmer. She had never borne children before, but now she would not only have a son, but through this son Ruth the Gentile would become the great-grandmother of King David. And even more stunning than that, God would use Ruth to perpetuate the line of the Messiah, the Son of David—Yeshua—from this same town of Bethlehem.

Now I told you that we are going to look at this story as a picture of the Church’s relationship with Israel. I don’t know if this was in the mind of the author of Ruth. And I don’t intend to build a theology on this story alone. But sometimes using a story as an allegory is very helpful in understanding spiritual truth. This was the method Yeshua often used in His teaching.

So let’s see the parallels in this story. I believe Ruth is a wonderful picture of what the Gentile part of the Church is supposed to be like. Though once “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12), we Gentile members of the Church have been given in marriage to the Jewish Messiah, the “Boaz-like” Kinsman-Redeemer. And because of our relationship with Him, we are, in the words of Ephesians 2:19, “no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” Boaz is an illustration of the greater One who would come from his family, Yeshua the Redeemer.

But let’s not forget Naomi’s other daughter-in-law, Orpah. Orpah was also a Gentile, who had also married a Jew. Through marriage she too was related to Israel in some fashion. But unlike her sister-in-law Ruth, she decided to stay in Moab and identify with her Gentile culture and religion.

Orpah, I believe, is a picture of the Gentile part of the Church that has not been able to understand and appreciate the inseparable bond between the Church and Israel. Instead of identifying herself with the Jews, the Orpah Church turns her back on Israel and turns to a religion that is more influenced by paganism than by the revelation of God in the Hebrew Scriptures.

And then there’s Naomi. She is such an accurate picture of Israel. Like Naomi, the Jewish people have been in a kind of Moabite exile. The land of Israel until recent decades has been a place of famine. For the most part, the Jewish people have preferred the leeks and garlic of life in exile. Yet even in the more prosperous lands of exile, like Naomi, the Jewish people have experienced untold tragedy.

The Orpah Church has been like Naomi’s other daughter-in-law, who talks about love but doesn’t go and help Israel in her greatest time of need. The Orpah Church decides to leave Naomi to mourn and fend for herself.

It’s interesting that Orpah, who later went back to her gods, at first intended to go forward with Naomi. In verse 10 it says that both Ruth and Orpah said to Naomi, “Surely we will return with you to your people.” We see in verses 9 and 14 that both Ruth and Orpah even had tears at the thought of being separated from Naomi—and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law. Charles Spurgeon said, “Both of them had an affection for Naomi, and therefore set out with her upon her return to the land of Judah. But the hour of test came;….It is one thing to love the ways of the Lord when all is fair, and quite another to cleave to them under all discouragements and difficulties. The kiss of outward profession is very cheap and easy, but the practical cleaving to the Lord, which must show itself in holy decision for truth and holiness, is no so small a matter.”

Let’s not forget that at first, the Church, like well-intentioned Orpah, had a desire to stick with the Jews. At the beginning of the Church, Gentile believers worshiped and worked alongside Messianic Jews. They kept the Jewish feasts and had no intention of ever cutting themselves off from the nourishing sap of the olive tree of Israel (see Romans 11:17). Even Paul, who many claim gave the theological basis for the split between the Church and the synagogue, never once left Judaism. Instead, he saw his faith in Yeshua as the completion of his Jewish faith.

Indeed, when the Church began to incorporate Gentile members all over the Roman world, at first many of these new Gentile believers were already “God-fearers” who attended synagogues. For the most part, the worship of the early believers, whether in Jerusalem or in Rome, was patterned after the synagogue. (Note the irony of a church that is now a center for conservative Judaism. Very few changes were made to the sanctuary—it was already conducive to Jewish worship, because Christian worship is a derivative of Judaism.)

Some look at the Catholic Church as a far cry from what the Church was in its early days when it was still bonded to Judaism. But it’s interesting that Pope Pius XI once made the observation that “spiritually, we are all Semites.” As wonderful as this statement is, the fact is that the Church today is far away from home, and far away from its mother—and as a result, the Church, in its boastful independence, is often starving for spiritual nourishment, and, like a flower cut at the stem, it is rootless and withering.

Paul addressed Gentile Roman believers who were still attached to their Jewish roots when he wrote in Romans 11:17, “…And you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree.” But is this still the case today? How many churches have any inkling to look for nourishment from their spiritual roots in Judaism? Like Orpah, who in the end preferred to abandon Naomi and go her own way, most of the Gentile Church has done the same thing.

Let me give you a quick summary of history. For some of you, this is a review, but it’s worth recounting some of this tragic history of the Orpah church.

Within a generation of the crucifixion of Jesus, the Roman army had ransacked the city of Jerusalem and totally destroyed the Temple and, eventually, much of the indigenous Jewish culture of Israel. Like Naomi in Moab, the Jews found themselves in foreign lands.

Within a few hundred years, the Church, for the most part, came to disregard and to continue to disregard the significance of the Jewish people. There arose a number of Christian theologians who saw the involvement of the Jews in cooperation with the Romans in the crucifixion of Jesus and the subsequent destruction of the temple in Jerusalem as a sign that God was finished with Israel. God has rejected Israel once and for all. God would now form a new chosen people. The Church has become the new Israel of God.

Some even taught that it was the Jews who were solely responsible for the death of Christ, and were therefore guilty of the most terrible of all crimes—“deicide,” the murder of God. In fact, many Christians came to believe that one way of showing their loyalty to Jesus was to express their hatred toward the Lord’s murderers.

Anti-Semitism was justified—all done in the name of good theology. John Chrysostom, a Christian theologian who lived in the fourth century, had this to say about the Jews in one of his sermons: “[They are]…murderers, destroyers, men possessed by the devil….They know only one thing, to satisfy their gullets, get drunk, to kill and maim one another….” And to think that John Chrysostom is now called a saint!

Chrysostom, along with others, were to have a deep and lasting influence upon the attitudes of many Christians for hundreds of years to come. Six centuries later,an even more hideous hatred for the Jews by so-called Christians would be revealed. The Crusaders are often remembered for their chivalry, faith, and zeal. But in reality, many of the Crusaders were cruel men who hated the Jews with a passion. As punishment for the Jews’ role in the murder of Christ, the Crusaders took revenge on the Jewish people living in the Holy Land. On one occasion, when the Crusaders discovered a Jewish congregation gathered in a synagogue in Jerusalem, they burned down the building, resulting in the death of all of the worshipers trapped inside.

Yet that incident was but one among innumerable atrocities committed by the Crusaders against the Jews. In the year 1000, when the Crusaders first arrived in the Holy Land, there were 300,000 Jewish residents. But by the time the Crusaders left the scene less than 200 years later, only 1,000 Jewish families still remained.

What I have found shocking in my study of Church history is the discovery that anti-Semitism was not confined merely to the Roman Church, which had become corrupt and mixed with paganism. Anti-Semitism is even evident in the writings of the Protestant Reformers, men who supposedly had cleansed the Roman Church of much of its corruption.

Martin Luther was at first sympathetic to the Jews, believing that they would gladly receive his new-found gospel of justification by faith. But when they didn’t accept the message, he became deeply embittered against the Jewish people. As a consequence, Luther became just as severe as the Roman Church in his contempt for the Jews. He called for the expulsion of the Jews from Germany and the destruction of their synagogues and books. On one occasion, he wrote: “The Jews are brutes, their synagogues are pigsties; they ought to be burned….They live by evil and plunder; they are wicked beasts that ought to be driven out like mad dogs.”

It should come as no surprise that when the Nazis came to power in Germany, they used the writings of theologians such as Luther to justify their policies. The result was a Holocaust in which six million Jews were exterminated. Unfortunately, much of the Church stood idly by, unwillingly to lend a hand to the Jewish people, the chosen nation of God.

This is tragic history—the history of the Church in relation to the Jewish people.

There’s an episode in the book Ivanhoe, written by Sir Walter Scott, in which a Templar (a knight of a religious order established in Jerusalem for the protection of Christian pilgrims and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher) tries to force a young Jewish girl to convert. But even in the face of death she would not be converted. This is what she said to the Templar: “I envy not your religion, for it is ever on your lips but far from your heart.”

That’s the Orpah Church—like Orpah, we say that we want to love and save Naomi (the people of Israel), but in the end, our love is fickle and our love is hollow. Paul taught us in Romans 11:11, “…To provoke [the Jews] to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.” However, the reality is: The Jews envy not our religion—for it is ever on our lips but far from our hearts.

So the question I ask is this: Will we be like Orpah and turn our backs on Naomi (Israel) in her time of greatest need? Or will we be like Ruth and cling to Naomi, always ready to give her support and encouragement as she is once again being restored back to her homeland and, ultimately, to her God.

Now in contrast to Orpah, let’s look at Ruth and discover how the Church could become more and more like her in relationship to the Jewish people.

1. We must be willing to love the Jews unconditionally.

We read in Ruth 1:8: “And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go, return each to her mother’s house….’ ” Verse 14 states: “…And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.” And we read in verses 15 and 16: ¹⁵ “And she said, ‘Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.’ ¹⁶ But Ruth said: ‘Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you….’ ”

“Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you.” “Entreat me not,” in the margins of some Bibles, reads, “Be not against me.” It appears that Naomi was not very open at first to the idea of Ruth coming with her back to Israel. But Ruth was going to go anyway. Ruth’s love for Naomi would not be stopped by rejection. She would stick by Naomi through thick and thin, even when Naomi rejected her offers. It says in verse 14: “…And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.”

Speaking of clinging to or holding on to Naomi, I saw the Peanuts comic where on one occasion, Peppermint Patty said to Marcie: “I’d like to read this book, Marcie, but I’m kind of afraid. I had a grandfather who didn’t think much of reading.” She continued by saying, “He always said that if you read too many books, your head would fall off.” Marcie responds, “You start the first chapter, and I’ll hold on to your head!”

It’s interesting to read the prophecy given about Gentiles clinging to the Jews in the last days. We read in Isaiah 14:1,2: ¹ “For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob. ² Then people will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the Lord; they will take them captive whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors.”

When we take God for our God, we must take His people for our people—even if they at first would rather we not cling too closely. And we had better still cling when that day finally arrives and they do accept our help, but they begin treating us like servants and maids as Isaiah 14 prophesies. (An amazing number of Gentile Christians function this way in Israel.)

Are you ready to hold on to Israel at Israel’s moment of greatest need? Or will you walk away when Israel is universally condemned by every nation—including the United States? Some define a true friend as the first person who comes in when the whole world has gone out.

It’s interesting that three times Naomi insisted that Ruth return to Moab (verses 11, 12, 15). In baseball, it’s three strikes and you’re out. But Ruth was not playing a game. She was serious about her love for Naomi. Her love was like God’s love for Israel—an unbreakable covenant of love. There’s a lesson here. As Christians, our love for the Jewish people must not be conditional love—a love that will last as long the Jews want us as their friends, but will end when they say, “Get lost, we don’t need your help, we don’t need your sympathy, we don’t need your Jesus.”

Unfortunately, Martin Luther loved the Jews with a condition attached: “I’ll love you as long as you accept my gospel.” (This reminds me of Daniel Rossing’s complaint that many fundamentalist Christians support Israel and “love” Jewish people simply because they want them to convert to Christianity. No wonder evangelicals love Israel—evangelicals love to get results.)

But that wasn’t Ruth’s kind of love. Ruth had a persevering, unconditional love for Naomi no matter what—even if Naomi at first rejected her support. Some of you do have a Ruth kind of love for Israel—you love the Jewish people no matter what; you keep loving the Jews even when they reject you.

I’m reminded of a story told by a rabbi concerning a certain Gentile woman who came to Rabbi Eleazar. She told him she wanted to become righteous. She wished to be accepted into the Jewish faith because she had heard that the Jews were near to God. The rabbi responded, “No. You cannot come near.” And then he shut the door in her face. It’s not unusual for a Gentile to be made to feel like a second-class citizen when you’re living among Jewish people. There is an “us” and “them” mentality. And you had better get used to that. And you had better know that before you say you’re going to make a covenant of love with the Jewish people.

What you and I need is God’s love for Israel—which is an unconditional love for His people Israel. We see what kind of love this is in Psalm 89:30-34. Here God refers to His covenant with the sons of David—the Jewish people. He says:

³⁰ If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgments, ³¹ if they break My statutes and do not keep My commandments, ³² then I will punish their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. ³³ Nevertheless My lovingkindness I will not utterly take from him, nor allow My faithfulness to fail. ³⁴ My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.

True love is God’s kind of love—unconditional love.

Romans 11:28 reveals the kind of love demanded of the Christian for the Jew. Paul says, “Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.” He understood the difficulty that Christians have loving the Jewish people; “they are enemies for your sake.” Historically, very few Jewish people have accepted the gospel message, and many times it has been violently opposed (e.g., anti-missionary activity).

I heard the story of a man in Wales who sought to win the affection of a certain lady for 42 years before she finally said, “Yes.” The couple, both 74, recently became “Mr. and Mrs.” For more than 40 years, the persistent, but rather shy man slipped a weekly love letter under his neighbor’s door. But she continually refused to speak to him and mend the quarrel that had separated them many years before. After writing 2,184 love letters without ever getting a spoken or written answer, the persistent old man eventually summoned up enough courage to present himself in person. He knocked on the door of the reluctant lady and asked for her hand. To his delight and surprise, she accepted.

True love keeps on loving even when those we love spurn us and reject us. But the kind of love that God expects is agape love, a love that expects nothing in return. It is a love that loves even when our message is rejected.

2. We must be willing to go and stand with the Jews even if it means making a sacrifice.

Let’s go back to the first chapter of Ruth and look at verses 11, 12, 13, and 16:

¹¹ But Naomi said, ‘Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? ¹² Turn back, my daughters, go—for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons, ¹³ would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? No, my daughters; for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me!’ ¹⁶ But Ruth said: ‘Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge….’

In verse 9 Naomi had asked that God would give each of them a place of rest with another husband. This became a key issue in the book. Marriage meant security for a woman. In the ancient Near East a woman without a husband was in a serious situation because she lacked security. And widows were especially needy; Naomi referred to the levirate custom in Israel in which a brother was responsible to marry his deceased brother’s wife in order to conceive a son and perpetuate his brother’s name and inheritance (see Deuteronomy 25:5-10). Naomi pointed out that this would not be possible in their case since she had no more sons.

Ruth knew that by going with Naomi she was giving up opportunities to remarry someone in Moab. Few Jews in Judah would ever consider marrying a Gentile woman—especially a destitute Gentile woman.

Those of us who believe God has called us to love and serve Israel may have to pay a price—I’ve said to some of the Christian single ladies in my congregation here in Jerusalem that they might have to pay a similar price as did Ruth. In an interesting statistic, it has been found that single women outnumber single men seven to one on the mission field. Frankly, there are slim pickings for marriage in Israel for Christian women who intend to be holy and not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Ladies, your chances are likely far higher in another country where there are many Christians.

Yet if God has given a Gentile Christian woman a Ruth call—a lifelong call to serve the Jewish people—it may mean paying a price, especially if she chooses to come and live in Israel.

Famines happen in Israel. Wars happen in Israel. In fact, according to the prophetic Scriptures, war is certain to break out at some point in Israel. How many of us will abandon the Jewish people in their greatest time of need? There was a time when our willingness to identify with the Jewish people was truly tested. Back in 1991, during the Gulf war, there were people back in our native country, Canada, advising us to leave Israel. But identifying with the people God has called you to serve requires that you stand with them in the good times and the bad. So we didn’t leave. And believe me, this made a world of difference to our Jewish friends. This kind of identification gives authenticity to our faith in Yeshua and authenticity to the profession of our love for the Jewish people.

Ruth said to Naomi in verse 16, “Wherever you lodge, I will lodge” Are you kidding? With these real estate prices? Ruth also told Naomi in verse 16, “Wherever you go, I will go.” How many of us would have risked going with the Jews into the gas chambers by hiding Jews 50 years ago? Will we really be ready to go with the Jewish people in their greatest time of need? If we’ve got the heart of Ruth, we will.

So I ask you, if you are called to the nation of Israel: What will you do if war breaks out in a few years? What will you do if you find that it’s more expensive to live in this country than you thought? What will you do if other pressures make you want to flee this land? Now I’m not going to condemn anyone for leaving Israel, if God tells you to—but if you’ve got the call of Ruth, you had better make sure that GOD told you to leave, and not your own flesh.

I believe that those of us who have committed ourselves to Israel are actually a small part of what Isaiah prophesied (14:1,2): ¹ “For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob. ² Then people will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the Lord….”

How many of us are ready to serve sacrifically by holding up and supporting the Jewish people? Speaking of holding up and supporting, this brings us back to the Peanuts cartoon where Marcie tells Peppermint Patty, “You start the first chapter, and I’ll hold on to your head!” This is part of our ministry in Israel—holding others up, holding the Jewish people up through our practical service and support, holding them up in prayer until their day of salvation comes.

So we as Christians need to have that kind of love for the Jewish people, a sacrificial kind of love—like the friendship of the two soldiers I described earlier. One of the them had emptied his possessions from his dufflebag in order to take his friend on the ship bringing them home after World War II. Now that was friendship—that was covenant love. That’s the kind of love Christians need to have for the Jewish people in these last days.

But let me leave you with this thought. Even though this is sacrificial love we’re talking about, if we will love the Jewish people in this way, we will experience great blessing. Ruth sacrificed much, but she received so much more in return. After many years of barrenness she was given a son. God saw her humble, servant heart and He rewarded her.

God will reward you too. It’s interesting to read the end of the story in Ruth (4:13-17):

¹³ So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and when he went in to her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son. ¹⁴ Then the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a close relative; and may his name be famous in Israel! ¹⁵ And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.’ ¹⁶ Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her bosom, and became a nurse to him. ¹⁷ Also the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, ‘There is a son born to Naomi.’ And they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Here we see the beautiful picture of Naomi embracing her grandchild, Obed. Let’s not forget that from this very seed the Messiah would come and be born in this same town of Bethlehem. I believe we have a picture of the day that will one day arrive, when Naomi will again embrace the Messiah born in Bethlehem. I believe the Jewish people will one day see Yeshua for who He really is. Could it be that some of us will be Ruth to Naomi and will make it possible for Israel to embrace her Savior?

There is something else that is interesting to note about Naomi, representing Israel, who is related to Boaz, representing Yeshua. (By the way, Boaz is the one who, according to Ruth 4: 10, “bought” Ruth as his bride! Does that remind you of Yeshua or what?) Naomi never sees Boaz prior to Ruth’s betrothal to him. Naomi (the Jewish nation) only comes to know Boaz (Yeshua) through Ruth (the Church)! However, it is Naomi (the Jewish nation) who explains to Ruth (the Church) the regulations concerning marriage and the kinsman-redeemer—in other words, it is the Jews who instruct the Church in the law; but it is Ruth (the Church) who is the one who ends up telling Naomi (the Jews) all about Boaz (Jesus the Messiah—the Kinsman-Redeemer)!

The Word of God tells us that the Jewish people will one day receive the Messiah and His forgiveness. In Romans 11:26,27 we read: ²⁶“And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; ²⁷ for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.’ ”

Like Ruth, we as the Church have a central role to play in the salvation and deliverance of Naomi (the Jewish people). But it will require more than nice words and kisses on the cheek—even more than preaching the gospel. It will mean provoking them to jealousy as Romans 11:11 demands of us. It will mean being willing to love the Jews unconditionally. And it will mean demonstrating a sacrificial love—-a “Ruth-like” sticking with the Jewish people when the whole world has kissed the Jews goodbye.