I’ve decided to blog my way through the book of Ruth. It’s not my first time to study the book, but it is my first time to write as I go, so I’m looking forward to what new truths & applications the Lord shows me. I’m bringing you along…I hope you don’t mind.
I love to teach the Bible expositionally so I will be blogging expositionally as well. That just means I will go verse by verse. I love how the Bible is much like an onion, as you peel back layers you discover even more beautiful truths, promises and lessons. This is what I’m doing with the book of Ruth and so far, each layer I peel back is exposing more and more of the Gospel story.
At first glance, the story of Ruth may sound like a fairy tale, but it’s not. The story of Ruth is very much about real people. If you haven’t read these 4 short chapters of the book of Ruth, waste no time in finding your Bible and reading it. It is a beautiful story of loss, love and restoration. In the book of Ruth we see God at work in the lives of very common people, but they were known by him and redeemed by him as part of his greater story of salvation for all his people.
The book of Ruth is written about a time when there was chaos amid God’s people. This story follows the book of Judges where a pattern occurs amid the Jewish people.
They would forget their God and turn to a life of sin and idolatry. God would send a judge to remind them of who they are and who God is. They would repent and follow God. Then they would forget again, return to their sin. God would send another judge and the cycle just continued for hundreds of years. Judges 2:11-19 is a great example of this.
The last sentence in the book of Judges sets the stage for the book of Ruth.
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” (Judges 21:25)
Chaos
The story begins here…amid chaos.
So, let’s get started with the first 2 verses of Chapter 1.
In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. ( Ruth 1:1-2)
There was a famine in Bethlehem. Bethlehem literally means “House of Bread”. The Jewish people and their beloved land of milk and honey was under judgement from God because of their sinful lifestyle. Because God is not a God of chaos, rather a God of order we get a glimpse of his beautiful plan of salvation for his people in the story of Ruth and Naomi. He is creating a lineage of misfits, that together will establish a line from which his son Jesus will be born. A sacred and beloved lineage, that was ordained out of divine chaos.
So, there are several very significant words & names we need to pay attention to. Names were very important in biblical times. Parents gave their children names for very specific reasons. Sometimes they reflected the day and time they were living or their physical condition at birth. There are a number of reasons why they chose the names they did. So, when studying a passage, pay special attention to names of people and places. They can often give great insight on the meaning of the passage.
This “man of Bethlehem” made a decision to sojourn to find food for his wife and 2 sons. Sojourn implies that this was just a journey, not a permanent move. He was Jewish, his homeland was Bethlehem, he had no plans of staying. He just needed to feed his family, that was his priority. His name is Elimelech and means “God is King”. What a great name! A baby born during a time when Judges were to be guiding the people, his parents acknowledged God as their King. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as though Elimelech personally did.
His wife’s name was Naomi which means pleasant. You only have to read a few verses in to see that she lives up to her name. She seems to be a very pleasant woman. And then she had 2 sons and gave them terrible names. Mahlon means sickness and Chillion means consumption. You have to wonder what was going on when they were born. Were they sickly? We don’t know.
What we know is that a family of the tribe of Ephrathites which literally means fruitful left their home town of Bethlehem which means “House of Bread” during a famine to go find food in the idol worshiping, child sacrificing country of Moab which was established out of an incestuous relations. (Genesis 37:30-37)
Chaos
Why did Elimelech choose Moab? There were other places he could have taken his family that would have been safer, but he chose Moab. One thought I had was, they left during a famine which told us there was great judgement on their land because of their sin. If Elimelech thought Moab was a good choice, maybe he was one of those who had forgotten God is King and was practicing idol worship already. Why else would he return to the land his God had freed his people from generations before?
It’s my own thought and it forces me to think about my own life.
How quickly we can forget the salvation of the Lord. The book of Judges is the perfect example of that, the cycle of sin that continued. How do we prevent this from happening?
Be in the Word.
Psalm 119 reminds us how beautiful is the Word of God and how necessary it is to keeping our ways pure. If we want to be steadfast and keep our eyes fixed on the Lord, we must be in His Word daily. Studying it, praying it, memorizing it.
Often our sin natures wins. As believers, we have the ability to choose right over wrong and yet at times we don’t. We have been made brand new, yet at times we return to our old ways. We have been given a brand new regenerated heart, but when we become lazy in our time in the Word we slowly begin to return to the chaos we were delivered from. Galatians 5 reminds us of how we can live when we are steadfast and talking in step with the Spirit. James 4 reminds us that we cannot be friends with the world and friends with God. We get to choose.
May we keep our eyes on Jesus and not get distracted by the shiny sins all around us!
I can’t wait to share with you the next 3 verses. God’s providence is so real and clear in this story and these next verses help to set the stage for God’s providence to really shine.
Dana Bailey 