Taken from the book, Reflections on the Book of Ruth, by A. B. Saint
Chapter 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 sojourn in the country of Moab,
he, and his wife, and his two sons.
Ruth 1: 1
Not always is the old adage true that ‘big is always beautiful,’ far from it. Some of the prettiest scenes have been painted upon the smallest of canvases, some of the daintiest alpine flowers can carry with them the sweetest of fragrances, and is it not true that the happy smiling face of a tiny innocent child can virtually light up a room? Big can be beautiful but not always, sometimes small is good. This is the way in which I regard the compact and pocket-sized book of Ruth which comprises of just four chapters, yet is packed full of such spiritual insights as to feed a man a whole year.
There are only two books in the bible which are named after women, and both are found in the Old Testament Scriptures. One is Esther who was Jewish and married a Gentile husband and the other is Ruth who was a Gentile and married a Hebrew man. I suppose both unions conveying the thought that the Gentiles are blessed through Abraham’s seed. Although really unknown, it is thought by some that its author was Samuel the prophet and I am completely happy with this. Amongst his other virtues, Samuel, it seems, was also a good storyteller.
At the very beginning of the narrative and in its opening chapter, the writer introduces us to what can only be called a calamitous situation which had taken place. There are many terrible things which can befall man on this old earth of ours but none more terrible I suppose than that of famine. The famine, our scribe informs us, took place in the days when the judges ruled but does not specify its exact date, although some profess that this book would indeed line up with Judges chapter 6 verses 1 to 6.
It seems that because of the evil which the children of Israel did in the sight of the Lord that the Lord delivered them into the hands of Midian for seven years, and when Israel sowed seed in the land both the Midianites, the Amalekites and the Children of the East came up against them destroying the increase of the earth and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, ox nor ass. The whole purpose of this continuing invasion was to completely destroy the land.
The timeline of the book appears to have been written either early on in the time when the judges ruled, or after, and because David’s name is mentioned right at the end of the book, some see this having been written after the birth of David. The book of Judges tells of one of the darkest periods in the history of God’s people. Great spiritual apostacy abounded and the book deals with such things as compromise, intermarriage, lawlessness, and idolatry.
In its pages, a clear picture is painted of Israel’s backsliding and failure and a continuous cycle appears to have taken place throughout these years where Israel would rebel against the Lord and fall into sin and God would then cause judgement to fall upon her. In turn she would then cry out to Him for help and in His loving mercy He would then send earthly deliverers to aid her. Sadly, all the way through it seems that repentance, deliverance, backsliding, and failure became a constant merry-go-round which was repeated over and over again, showing us the frailties and imperfections of man and yet on the other hand the goodness and patience of God.
A famine……in Bethlehem? Does not its very name suggest otherwise? Do we not refer to Bethlehem as being the House of Bread and had the Lord God not promised His people to bring them into a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land where there would be no scarcity of bread? How did this happen? Could there possibly be a connection between the famine taking place and the spiritual temperature of that time?
Famines are real and many well-known bible characters lived through them. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived through them along with others who followed later. Famines were unmistakeably real for the ancient Israelites whatever the reason for their appearance, but often they were indeed judgements sent by God to bring a backsliding people to Himself.
Musing on this I recall how in my younger years, a godly brother in the Lord, whenever hearing or reading of certain disasters which were taking place somewhere or other in the world, was usually of the opinion that God was behind them all and would ever make the declaration that “God was speaking.” As things have got progressively worse since his passing, what would he think today? Is it not true that the Lord Jesus Himself predicted that wars and earthquakes, famines and pestilence and such like would be on the increase the nearer His second coming?
Although we cannot say that every calamity and every catastrophe which befalls a man is necessarily due to his own personal sin, nonetheless it is a way through which God can cause men to begin to think and it is a way to speak to the world in an effort to bring all men unto Himself. This surely was the case in the book of Ruth for notice how the famine spoken of in our text seems to tie in with the apostacy taking place during that time period.
Many people were suffering from the effects of famine in the days of which we speak and yet our writer chooses to home in on a particular family and alongside this he chooses to reveal their actual names. This was not an imaginary family he was speaking about, there was no guesswork involved here, no trying to make the picture fit, in fact there was nothing fanciful at all. These were real people who experienced what it was to be hungry, so hungry in fact that the head of the household made what could have been a difficult decision to make, which was to leave his homeland in Bethlehem the House of Bread, for Moab the House of Idolatry.
We do not know much about Elimelech excepting for his name, and that he was of the tribe of Judah. He possessed a parcel of land it seems and was in some way related to the man called Boaz who we read about later in the narrative. Bible names are usually very important are they not, and verse two tells us that his wife was called Naomi, and their two sons were called Mahlon and Chilion. Elimelech’s name means ‘My God is King.’ I wonder at that time just how true this was in his life. Naomi’s name means ‘Pleasant’ and yet in time to come she felt far from this and asked to be called Mara which means ‘Bitter.’
The bible says ‘they went to sojourn’ in the country of Moab. I was drawn to this word. How long a time period is meant by the word sojourn? The dictionary defines it as ‘a short period of time.’ My next question was as to how far Moab was from Bethlehem and varying accounts suggested it was anywhere between thirty and fifty miles away and was composed of both rugged and steep terrain as well as rich pastureland, therefore it was evidently no easy journey to make and was not for the fainthearted.
This decision surely had been thought about very seriously for their travel time alone would take quite a few days. Perhaps their flight into Moab was never meant to be permanent but only to be a temporary stop over. I am sure that Elimelech would have been surprised to know that he was in fact going to die there. Was it really in his heart to sink down roots there or was Moab supposed to be just a ‘stop-gap’ until things got better harvest-wise at home, but sometimes things don’t go as planned, because the Scriptures tell us that they continued or remained there. In other words, they put down their tent pegs and in so doing decided to stay put.
It was surely a downhill slide, for not only had he left behind his own parcel of ground but now he had to work the field belonging to another. No longer his own boss, he was forced down the route of doing the bidding of another for there were no ‘soup kitchens’ over in Moab. In point of fact, it appears they lived there around ten years or so, and sadly during that time Elimelech unexpectedly went to his grave leaving behind his wife Naomi and their two sons.
We have to stop here and think about what has just happened. Now they are in an even worse plight for not only are they in a strange land, but Naomi finds herself a widow. They started out as a family of four and now they are down to three. If indeed it was Samuel who penned the book of Ruth, in only a few words he was able to speak of the depth of this tragedy with real pathos as his mind centres on the grieving widow. In words which pity he writes: “and she was left, and her two sons.”
Any who have gone the way of Naomi will know exactly what has taken place and just how she would have felt, and what of the boys without their father? Looking back, would it not have been better for them to remain in Bethlehem with the famine raging, trusting God that it would only be temporary and believing God to keep them through it, rather than embarking for idolatrous Moab in time of plenty?
Feet firmly planted now in the soil of Moab, time moves on, and the two sons marry. Whether Elimelech found these two wives for his sons before his death we know not, but two brides are presented to the reader early on in the narration and are introduced to us as Ruth and Orpah. Of course, these were not women of Bethlehem but rather two Moabite women. We have all read something of Moab and its early beginnings which started through the incestuous relationship between Lot and his two daughters after the fall of Sodom. Both of these daughters had sons and they named them Moab and Ammon, from where we get the names Moabites and Ammonites.
In Deuteronomy chapter 7 and verse 3, one of the things we are told is that when the Israelites went into the Promised land of Canaan they were not to intermarry with the other idolatrous nations that were residing there. The reason for this command was because if this were to take place, these other ungodly nations would turn the hearts of the people of God against Him and cause them to go into idolatry and worship evil deities.
By verse four of Ruth chapter one, what had begun as a mere sojourning in the Land had definitely turned into more of a permanent dwelling in the Land. Then, as if things could get no worse, it is reported that both these new husbands also died. Given the meaning of their names, Mahlon which means ‘sickness’ and Chilion which means ‘pining’ or ‘wasting away’ this should perhaps come to us as no big surprise. Why would any mother call her offspring by such names? Had they been sickly children? Were they premature at their birth? Was something perhaps apparent from the very beginning?
How strange that all three men should be taken in such a way, and how they went is a mystery as our author seems to leave this to our own imagination. Why should he single out this one little family from any other family which may have done exactly the same thing? During this period of famine there could have been many people perhaps whose faith in God had become weakened, in turn bringing about a restlessness of spirit which caused them to press the panic button and looking for the nearest exit sought to ship out as soon as possible, making their way from their own land to a land belonging to another.
All three hunter gatherers were now gone and could no longer be relied upon for their support. Famines are desperate things sometimes arriving by way of natural disasters, at other times the hand of the enemy is at work, or it could be the judgement of God coupled with an idolatrous people. In so short and serious a reading we are met with a famine, a foolish choice and three funerals. However, all was not lost, for those of us who have read further into the story know that God’s redemptive plan was at work, a plan filled with purpose and hope for the future. This plan we know would work out for God was behind it all.
THOTS AT THIS TIME:
- Stay under or keep under the chastisement of the Lord until it has passed rather than seek to come out from under it, and then finding oneself miles away from home and in the camp of the enemy.
- Do not point those following on after you in the direction of Moab for your sojourning may in the end become for them the place to put down roots. Your brief stay could for them become long term; your temporary their permanent.
- Moab worshipped other gods and child sacrifice was practised there. Even though she had not suffered the effects of famine at the time of our dialogue as had Bethlehem, and still had plenty of grain etc, nevertheless, her judgement would come later.
Taken from the book, Reflections on the Book of Ruth, by A. B. Saint
LIFE ON THE ALTAR 