Conversion's Irrevocable Power

The dramatic change in Ruth ranks as one of the highlights of the first chapter and demonstrates what happens to a person in whom the Holy Spirit does the miraculous work of regeneration. Ruth left the old life behind when she went with Naomi to Bethlehem. Family ties and former patterns of life and the idolatrous worship of Moab were consigned to the dust of that pagan land. In spite of Naomi's efforts to get Ruth to turn back, Ruth demonstrated the grip of the Spirit's power in her soul, and she would not be dissuaded from following the new life into which she had been born from above. Her life provides a telling example of the meaning of conversion, and we notice that the change in her life was one that would last forever.