Ruth. The story of Ruth's forsaking her own people for the land and people of Israel, typifies the calling of the Gentile church. Naomi is a type of the Jewish church, that is the mother of the Gentile church; not the Jewish nation that was rejected, but the true church of God in Israel, to whom Ruth says, in the 16th verse, "Whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." Naomi sets before her daughter the case of going with her, and the advantages of staying in her own land. So did Christ set before men the case of being his disciples, and so do his ministers in the church.
It typifies the universal church, and the conversion of every believer. We are all born in sin, as Ruth was born in Moab, and was born a Moabitess; a state of sin is, as it were, our father's house, and sinners are our own people; when we are converted we forsake our own people and father's house, as the church in Psa. 45.