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Daily Devotion for 16 July 2026 (8th Thursday after Pentecost)
Description
Readings
- Psalm 21
- Judges 16:4–30
- Galatians 4:12–31
- Apology of the Augsburg Confession II:5–22
Commemoration
Today we commemorate Ruth. A native of Moab, and therefore not a natural descendant of Abraham, Ruth is the subject of the biblical book that bears her name and a study in God’s grace. During a famine in Israel, Elimelech and Naomi of Bethlehem moved to Moab with their two sons; the sons married Moabite women and then a decade or so later died, leaving the women as widows. Naomi told her daughters-in-law to return to their people, but Ruth refused, stating: “Where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” After arriving in Bethlehem, Boaz, a relative of Naomi, agreed to marry Ruth and become her ‘redeemer’. Ruth gave birth to Obed, grandfather of Kind David, making Ruth great-grandmother to one of OT Israel’s most famous kings and an ancestress of Christ.