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Have you ever made an oath? An oath is a strong statement in which a person usually calls upon God to testify that what he or she says is completely truthful. An oath can be made to testify to a past action, or it can be made as a future promise.

In my opinion, one of the most famous oaths in the Bible is found in the book of Ruth, recorded in Ruth 1:16-17. In case you’re not familiar with that story, I’ll set up the context for you and then we’ll look at her specific oath.

Elimelech and Naomi were a Jewish married couple from Bethlehem, and they had two sons. Because there was no food available in Bethlehem, their family moved to the nearby land of Moab. While in Moab, their two sons married Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah. However, Elimelech and his two sons died, leaving just the women left - Naomi and her two Moabite daughters-in-law. Naomi decided to go back to her people in Bethlehem, and she encouraged Ruth and Orpah to go back to their families in Moab. Orpah did, but Ruth would not. After Naomi kept encouraging Ruth to go back to her Moabite family, this is what Ruth said in Ruth 1:16-17:

But Ruth replied, “Dont 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. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”

This is an amazing passage, and unfortunately I don’t have enough room here to go into all of the details of its significance. In this oath, Ruth is promising to remain completely loyal to Naomi no matter what happens. She even commits to following the God of Naomi’s people - the God of the Bible. We know this is an oath because Ruth calls upon God’s name to back up her statement, and even says that she will be cursed if anything but death separates her and Naomi.

The purpose of an oath is to make a commitment. What kind of oaths have you made in your life? Have you made an oath to a close friend? Your spouse? A church? Or have you, like Ruth, made an oath to commit your entire life to following the one true God? If you haven’t made that oath yet, I would encourage you to call upon God and make that strong oath to live your life for Him, no matter what. The benefit of that oath over Ruth’s is that with God, not even death will separate you from Him!