Edward Boone said, "The book of Ruth is the history of a Jewish family, who, like the prodigal of Luke fifteen, went into the far country of Moab and there "began to be in want."
W.G. Heslop writes, “The book of Ruth consists of less than 100 verses, and yet it would be impossible to exhaust it during the lifetime of a minister preaching from it every Sunday…It is a garden enclosed, a mine filled with the rarest and richest gems and rubies, a treasury of illuminating truths."
Ruth is one of two books in the Bible that is named after a woman. There is Esther, a Jew that married a Gentile husband, and Ruth, a Gentile that married a Hebrew husband.
The key word and thought in the book is that of a “kinsman” (2:20). As we go through the book we will see this love story of redemption unfold and be reminded that Jesus is our Kinsman Redeemer.
The setting of this book is in the days when the Judges ruled. You only have to look back to the last verse of the book of Judges to see what kind of day it was. Because everyone did what was right in his or her own eyes, sin was rampant, and God’s people had hardened hearts.
We can all relate to the story of Ruth, because Ruth is the story of everyday people coping with the problems that life throws at them.
The opening scene of the book is tragic for we find three graves in Moab. Let’s notice the story behind these 3 graves.
I. A FAMILY AND ITS CONCERN
There were six members in this family: Elimelech and Naomi, the husband and wife; Mahlon and Chilion, the two sons; and Orpah and Ruth, the two daughters-in-law.
A. The names of the family members
ELIMELECH means “My God is King.” Elimelech reminds us of a Christian that has served God and lived for God because God is King in their life. He is called an “Ephrathite” (Vs.2), which means “fruitful.” He reminds us of one who had lived a godly and fruitful life. We will also sadly see that he illustrates the Christian that is out of the will of God, living away from God and disobedient to God.
NAOMI means “pleasant.” She reminds us of the contentment and happiness one finds as they live for God and serve Him. But she like her husband will also remind us of how that joy and happiness is lost when one is out of fellowship with God.
MAHLON means "sickly." The offspring of Elimelech and Naomi were sickly. By suggestion, we note the spiritual decline of the parents is manifested in the names of their children. Usually children reap a portion of what is sown by the father and mother. When there is a decline in spirituality at the head of the home, the effect is soon noticeable in the children.
CHILION name means "consumptive." He is possessed with a germ and a disease that will terminate in death. Again the spiritual departure of the parents is being manifested in the second child but in a worse form, showing their spiritual state is rapidly declining as years go on.
ORPAH means "a portion of the neck and back." When Naomi left Moab for the land of Bethlehem, she tried to induce her daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, to return to the land of Moab, but they both declared, "We will return with thee unto thy people," (1:10). When she again tried to persuade them to return to Moab, "Orpah kissed her mother-in-law; but Ruth clave unto her,” (v. 14). The meaning of her name was fulfilled in her act when she turned her back on Bethlehem to worship idols in the land of Moab. How many have started like Orpah, but later turned back.
RUTH means "satisfied." She did not find her satisfaction in Moab, in Naomi, or in Bethlehem-Judah, but she found it in Boaz, whom she later married. As we shall see Boaz points to Him who is to be the descendant of David.
Many have tried to find satisfaction in different things, but the only lasting satisfaction that is to be found is found in JESUS CHRIST.
B. The need of the family members
There was a “famine in the land” (Vs.1). In Palestine, the country in which was Bethlehem-Judah, they did not have rivers as in Egypt upon which to rely for water for their crops. They had to depend entirely on Heaven’s mercy to send them rain, and if the Heavens were shut, and GOD failed to give them rain, nothing but shortage, suffering, and death lay before them.
A lack of rain would produce a famine, and a famine meant a lack would mean a lack of food. Elimelech and his family were facing desperate times. Elimelech finds himself struggling to feed his family.
The famine struck terror in his heart but did not inspire trust in his heart.
II. A FAMINE AND ITS CALL
Famines in the Bible were often a sign of God’s displeasure and chastisement upon the nation of Israel. God had said, “And then the LORD’S wrath be kindled against you, and He shut up heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you” (Deuteronomy.11:17). If the rains were withheld, the fault was with His people and not with God. He had emphasized this for them so many times that they fully understood that when heaven was shut up, it was in chastening.
The drought which brought the famine to Bethlehem-Judah was a clear indication that Israel had disobeyed GOD and that the Heavens were shut. The Lord used famines to judge Israel for their sins and to bring them back to repentance and worship to God.
There was apparently food in the neighboring land of Moab, only about 50 miles away. What is ironic is that the famine included Bethlehem, which interestingly in the Hebrew language means “house of bread.”
In mercy God was trying by a famine, to bring Israel from their false gods, from their rebellion and disobedience back to a state of worship and fellowship with Him.
However, they were not hearing the rod of God. Micah 6:9 “The LORD’S voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.”
Some people run from the hand of chastisement and correction, as Abraham, who left the famine of Canaan and went to Egypt, and, as Elimelech and Naomi, go to Moab for help. What GOD wanted was a time of heart-searching. He wanted Israel to find out why the Heavens were closed.
A. The famine was God’s chastisement on rebellion
The famine was a call to Israel to the fact that something was wrong.
The famine was not some accident of providence, some unfortunate disaster that afflicted the nation. The Bible, you will recall, throughout the Old Testament, makes it very clear that famine in God’s land is a chastisement for the sin of his people. It is His judgment upon them because they have sinned against Him.
In 2 Samuel 21 we are told that there was a famine in the land for three years -- year after year after year. In the third year, David enquired of the Lord as to the why of the famine.
God said, "Because he {Saul} slew the Gibeonites." This famine is directly traceable to the disobedience of God’s covenant people. And in the Old Testament, God educated his people regarding the seriousness and solemnity of sin by sending a famine on the land.
The famine was not some accident of providence, some unfortunate disaster that afflicted the nation. It was God trying to get the attention of people.
B. The famine was God’s call to repentance
The famine was a call from God to get things right!
The tragedy of Elimelech’s story is that he did not heed the call of God. The famine called him to repent, but he did not repent. The famine called the people back to God, but many of them, Elimelech included, did not turn back to God.
The famine said to them, “It’s time for you to get your relationship with God right.” Elimelech did not get his relationship with God right; instead he went to Moab.
III. A FAILURE AND ITS COST - “they came into the country of Moab, and continued there”
Without any clear guidance from God, Elimelech chose to run away. Instead of facing the Lord’s judgment on the land and trusting God to provide, he moved his family to a pagan land and raised his children in a society that did not know the God of Israel.
He even broke God’s law by allowing his sons to marry pagan wives (Deut. 7:3-4). It is very tempting to look for the easy way out of our problems. But any choice that takes us away from God is, in the long run, the wrong way.
Elimelech’s decision to move his family into Moab may have appeared to be a good choice economically, but it was a bad choice spiritually. He went directly against God’s commands.
Of course it can be argued that when one considers the positive things that came out of the move -- then what he did was right. However, when we see good coming out of something, we must never assume that God willed it that way; rather, God works through the bad to make all things contribute to His glory. Christians should never try to foresee the results of an action and thus justify going against God’s commands. Instead, it should be the constant practice of every Christian to decide everything on the basis of God’s will as displayed in His Word. We live dangerously when we allow expediency, and not the clear guidelines of Scripture, to determine our actions and our directions.
A. It was a foolish choice
If you are experiencing difficult times, make your choices based on clear direction from God.
Don’t allow a feeling of desperation to steer you in the wrong direction. How prone we are to allow materialistic or economic values to influence our judgment.
A change of circumstances will not necessarily solve your problems. We think if we had a new home, a new church, a new husband or wife, a new minister, or a new job, that all our difficulties would be over. As Christians, every major decision we make ought to be set against God’s perfect will. We owe it to God to bring Him into our decision making. Otherwise we may find we have gained economically, we lost out spiritually.
Choice and not chance determines your destiny!
Elimelech went to Moab when God’s Word said "Don’t go to Moab!” Why did he turn away from Bethlehem, when God sent the famine to call his people back to himself? There was one fundamental reason for it. Moab had bread, and Bethlehem did not.
This was not the first famine in the history of God’s people. See Psalm 105:16-17 “Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread.
17 He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant.” The same God, who had sent the famine, sent the provision. He was not about to leave his people in utter despair. God provided for them. He raised up a Joseph, whom they despised and neglected and cast into prison. Joseph was the one through whom God gave them bread.
The history of God’s church is a history of the supernatural, gracious provision on the part of God. If he sends a famine, it’s not forever; he will provide bread for his people.
However, Elimelech is not going to wait for God’s bread. In spite of the clear message of the famine, and the clear counsel of the Bible, Elimelech yields to the temptation to disobey God and to distrust his provision.
Elimelech reasons in his mind and in his heart and in his soul and he says, "We need bread." So he takes his wife and family to Moab looking for bread, because there is bread there. Elimelech sought relief from his problem rather than profit. How often do we do the same thing. Relief should not be our first thought, but rather what does God want me to learn in and through this trouble should be our first thought.
Elimelech means in Hebrew, “My God is my king.” Unfortunately, Elimelech trusts himself to take care of his family, rather than live as his name suggests, and trust in God as his provider.
Elimelech carries a great name. However, if this story tells us anything, it tells us that a name is not enough. John was called by God in the Book of Revelation to write seven letters to the churches throughout Asia, and to one of them, God said, "Thou hast a name, that thou livest, and art dead," (Revelation 3:1). However, a name is not enough. The acid test goes much, much deeper.
The story of Elimelech tells us of the great distance there can be between a man’s profession and his practice. Does our practice argue against our profession? If “My God is King,” cannot I trust Him to provide for me where I am. If “My God is King” is not the famine but part of his rule or government.
Elimelech goes to “sojourn in the country of Moab." Elimelech and Naomi with their sons go to Moab. Elimelech moved his family to Moab with the intent to "sojourn" there. The word sojourn carries the idea of a temporary stay. Elimelech hadn’t intended to remain in the land. He only wanted to visit a short time until the famine was over. Sometimes we intend for situations to be only temporary.
Elimelech and Naomi left Bethlehem -- the house of bread -- just to sojourn in the land of Moab, but we see they continued there. The last clause of the verse 4 reads "and they dwelled there about ten years." They didn’t intend to stay there.
Sometimes we intend for situations to be only temporary. We think, “As soon as the kids are through college, we’ll start tithing again.” Or perhaps you reason, "As soon as I get through this busy period at work, I’ll get back to having a daily quiet time." But days turn into weeks, weeks into months and before you know it, circumstances that were only going to be temporary have become a way of life. Have you allowed something that was intended as transient to become a permanent in your life? Have you been waiting for a more convenient time to do what you know you should be doing now?
B. It was with fatal consequences
Sooner or later everyone dines at the table of their choices.
What irony - in fleeing famine to seek life, they instead found death.
Some few years after dwelling with the Moabites, death enters the home. The rod of chastisement failed to bring Elimelech and Naomi to repentance, and now the rod of death takes the husband from the family circle of six.
A few more months roll by, and Mahlon is taken sick. Not long after he dies. Not long after Chilion dies.
No doubt as Naomi walked from the cemetery the third time, she asked herself, “Why did we ever leave Bethlehem-judah? Why did we ever get out of God’s house and will?”
Parents, when you drift from the Lord and from your spiritual place of worship, there is no telling what the end results will be to you or your children
Elimelech’s choice ultimately brought death to himself and his two sons.
Conclusion:
Parents, when you drift from the Lord and His will, there is no telling what the outcome maybe to you or to your children.
We will all have to dine at a banquet made of our choices sooner or later.
Choices determine your destiny. Heaven or Hell is a matter of choice!
