Reading… and Thinking

Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons. 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, Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. Now they entered the land of Moab and remained there. Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left with her two sons. They took for themselves Moabite women as wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. And they lived there about ten years.

— Ruth 1:1-4 (NASB)

There is a progression here that’s worth noting. We first read that Elimelech “went to sojourn” in Moab. That is, he didn’t plan to stay long, or make a home there. But then, a little later, we see that they “remained there”. They settled in for a long visit. Finally, “they lived there about ten years”.

This reminds me of Lot, who saw the valley was good, then pitched his tent toward Sodom, then dwelt in Sodom, and finally sat in the gate (was a leader) in Sodom. He ends up being very reluctant to leave the comfort and prosperity, even when the angels tell him they’re going to destroy it. Good man in a bad situation, distracted from what is lasting, by what is appealing and handy.

Was it a good idea for Elimelech and family to go to Moab? Well, the Lord wasn’t fond of Moab. He said no Moabite could enter the assembly for 10 generations (Deut 23:3), and He warned Israel about Moab’s gods and about marrying Moabites. Elimelech cut himself off from the worship of the Lord. He obtained Moabite wives for his sons. And he died. There’s no indication that his death was a punishment, but when combined with the deaths of both sons, it begins to look like God is not pleased. When Elimelech died, he left his widow (a very faithful woman) with no family support, and a long way from where the God of Israel was worshiped.

But there was a famine, right? There are always refugees from famine; it’s a matter of survival. Well it’s true that there was a famine. We don’t know how severe, but certainly the land was not emptied; in fact we don’t hear in the book of Judges of anyone else leaving. And verse 21 of Ruth chapter 1 is most revealing. When Naomi comes back to Bethlehem, she laments, “I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.” So, they weren’t hurting when they left. And she believes that her present poverty is directly the Lord’s doing.

It begins to look as though Elimelech was getting out, with his stuff, before things got bad. And as far as we know, they never got all that bad. Boaz, for example, is very prosperous, and he’s been there all along.

The lesson is that we can be so clever that we defeat ourselves. If we trust in our own wisdom, we will come to ruin. And worst of all, we’ll affect those around us, those we love the most. At best, it was questionable for Elimelech to leave. But there’s no question that he should have gone back when the famine was past, instead of settling in a foreign land away from God. And it was unconscionable to marry his sons to foreign women.

But how could Ruth, that wonderfully faithful Moabite, have come to a knowledge of the God of Israel, if faithful Naomi hadn’t been there to teach her? Don’t shorten the arm of the Lord with such a question! Another way would have been found.

As we know, this story has a very happy outcome. Which proves that the Lord can bring good out of any situation, no matter how big a mess we make of it! But this doesn’t give us excuse to follow the desires of our own eyes, or the wisdom of our own heart, in defiance of the will of God. Even if the Lord brings good in the end, we may not be around to see it.