Ruth 1:1-6

1 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. 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, Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. Now they entered the land of Moab and remained there. 3 Then Elimelech, Naomis husband, died; and she was left with her two sons. 4 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. 5 Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband. Now: (it came about) (in the days) when the judges governed, >Judges covers - about 400 years in totality, from 1400 BC to 1000 BC > Judge c. 1 we see that the Israelites fail to drive all the Canaanites out of the land-Disobedience c. 2 Israel does evil in the sight of the Lord & God raises up Moab< the sons of Amon & the sons of Amalek the are delivered c.3 they are delivered from the Phiistines c.4> Debra was a woman judge: delivers them from the Canaanites (woman judgement) c.6 Israel does evil in the sight of the Lord and God gives them into the hands of the miianites (They are Baal & Asherah worshippers) c. 7 Gideon chosen to fight the Midianites c. 8 40 years of peace Civi war followed by wars with the Phlistiens & Ammonites A fw years of peace then more wars with the Philistines The writing of the book of Ruth took place sometime during the period of the judges. So you can see that this was not a good time for the nation of Israel. They are under constant judgment of God and in constant warfare with their enemies. We can at the last verse of the last book of judges and get an idea of what this time period was like. Judges 21:25 "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes." they are in disobedience which means that they are also under judgment. And God told them that if the nation did not obey Him that He would judge them with harsh punishments. Det. 28: God pronounces a series of blessing on the people if they will obey Him & a series of curses if they refuse to obey Him. Deut. 28:15-17 "But it shall come about, if you will not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed {shall} you {be} in the city, and cursed {shall} you {be} in the country. Cursed {shall be} your basket and your kneading bowl. Deut. 28:23-24 "And the heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed." Now the Scripture declares that God told Solomon what we should already know: 2Chr. 7:13-14 "If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

And we can see the result of God's judgement against them in the next phrase "that: there was a famine in the land. " > God told them by their disobedience He would bring curses on them & the point of His judgment was to bring them & He has. One thing that we need to see is that God is working on a national but nations are made up of people. With all this judgment going on in the national of Israel there are people who are just trying to survive. The book of Ruth has the story of God's judgment as the setting- the time & place that they story occurs. I want us now to turn our attention to one family. (And) a certain man /of Bethlehem in Judah /went to sojourn in the land of Moab Before we look at where this man is going we ned to see where he is coming from. "Bethlehem of Judah"- Notice please that the author is very specific to tell us not only is this Bethlehem but it is Bethlehem of Judah. Why would we need to know that? There is Bethlehem of Zebulun but the writer is clear to point out that that this is Bethlehem of Judah. Why is that important? Who will be born in Bethlehem? The Messiah. Also we know that Bethlehem means "house of bread."It is ironic that there is nothing to eat in t house of bread. " went to sojourn in the land of Moab"- This man comes from Bethlehem & he goes into the land of Moab. Again, it is not just by chance that the writer gives us these details but the details are very important to the story. The wrier could have simply said that there was a man who left his home, with his family and he went to another place. But the writer (who is being led by God) gives us these details. God is giving us important information in these details. As this story develops you will see more & more why these dtails are important. What do we need to know about Moab? Moabites are the descendents of Lot. Recall that after the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah, the wife of Lot was also killed. The story of Lot ends with him drunk in a cave having incestual relations with his daughters. the result of that was the birth of Moab. Please understand that moab is not abad person because he had a bad start in life. He could not help what his father & mother did. The issue with the Moabites is that they are at constant war with Israel (the people of God). If you will recall when I talked about the times of the judges before I mentioned that Moab was one of the nations that was at war & oppressed the nation of Israel. In fact, during the time of Judges they oppressed Israel for 18 years. Tje Moabites were not only enemies of the nation of Israel but they were also idol worshippers. One of the primary idol gods they worshiped was Chemosh. We have an interesting detail in the book of 1 Kings about Chemosh. Listen please while I read it. 2 Kings 3:26-27 "When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him 700 men who drew swords, to break through to the king of Edom; but they could not. 27 Then he took his oldest son who was to reign in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall. And there came great wrath against Israel, and they departed from him and returned to their own land." We want spend any more time talking about Chemosh but what I want you to see I that this man left the nation of Israel- he left the people of God and went into the land of their enemies. And not just the land of enemies but also the land of idol worshippers.

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with his wife and his two sons. "- He did not go alone. He took his family with him. He is in the land of the enemy- he has cut himself off from the covenant protection of God when he left Israel, and now he and his family are in a land of pagan idol-worshipper. You might say that he had no choice because there was a famine

in the land and h had to provide food for his family. But I tell you better to be hungry in the will of God than to be full in the land of pagns.
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The name of the man was Elimelech"- remember I told you earlier that the details in the Bible are put there for a reason. First off by giving us the name of the person we can know that this is not just a parable or an illustration but a true story about real people. But secondly there is significance in the names of the people. Elimelech means "God is King." we have to ask the question though: Did Elimech truly believe that God was king? Elimelech would have been in disobedience to go to Moab, so I would say that either he did not truly believe God to be king or (and this is more likely) he openly rebeled against God and sought to fill his belly at any cost. And as we shall see the cost to him will be great. "(and) the name of his wife, Naomi;"- Naomi means pleasant. Now please remember these people did not choose their own names but their parent gave them these names. What does the name of Elimelech say bout his parents? I t sounds as if they were God fearing worshipper of YHWH. And Naomi's parents thought very highly of her and considered her to be sweet & pleasant. Perhaps when this daughter was born it was a time of rejoicing for them. But let us look at the names that Naomi gives her children. (and) the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion, "Mahlon"- "weakness" or "sick" "Chilion"- consumption or pining. Let me explain the word pining. When a person is pining for something they are longing for that thing- they are deeply desiring that thing. Why would Naomi give her sons these names. Maybe she was sick of being in Moab and maybe she was desiring to be back home in Bethlehem. Ephrathites - We knw from vs. like Gen 35:19 that "Ephratha" is just another name for Bethlehem. So Ephrathatites is just another way to say and to reinforce that these people were residents of Bethlehem. "of Bethlehem in Judah." _ we saw in v. 1 this phrase & it is here again to reinforce the point. "(Now )they entered the land of Moab and remained there." - some translations say they "sojourned" there. That word seems to imply that there were traveling or passing through but the NAS & Young's Literal & the KJV say they "continued" or stayed there. The point I that they went there to get food but they stayed and lived there in this foreign, God-hating, pagan idol worshipping land.
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Then) Elimelech, (Naomis husband) died"- I have no doubt that this was a terrible thing for naomi to loose her husband and be away fro home in the forirgn land but notice the next phrase. "(and) she was left with her two sons. "- SO even without a husband she had two sons who could protect her and provide for her.
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They took for themselves Moabite women as wives; " - there is nothing in scripture that forbids the marriage of foreigners. There is nothing in scripture that forbids people of different colors from marrying (we will talk more about this later in Ruth) but God does forbid a believer from marrying a non-believer or in the context of the OT - an Israelite from marrying a pagan worshipper. (in ref. to the Canaanites) Deuteronomy 7:3, "Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son."

So these men married women of the pagan land and you can imagine the trouble that will cause. Maybe some of you are living in a house with someone who does not share the same religious beliefs that you do. If so, I would say God bless you. So often what happens is that 2 people get married and maybe they are bot not saved and then one of them gets converted. That is normal & happens all the time. The Apostle Paul speaks of this ad the point is that the Christian may lead the none-Christian spouse to salvation. But that is not what we ar talking about here. Here we have 2 men who intentionally ignore the commands & warnings of God and take pagan wives for themselves. "the name of the one was Orpah (and) the name of the other Ruth. "Orpah= "gazelle" Ruth= "friendship" "(And) they (the boys) lived there about ten years. "- this verse also has significance as it demstrates what we saw earlier. These people had not simply gone into the land for food but they had now settled in the land and were living there. Even after the death of Elimelech the family chooses to stay there. "(5 Then) both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband."Sometimes in life thins go from bad to worse. it was terrible for Naomi to lose her husband. I have never experienced the death of a spouse & I cannot image the pain and the lonely that a person feels when they lose their husband or wife. But Naomi could console herself in the fact that she has two sons. Now the sons will not feel the emotional void in her life but at least she still has family and maybe even more importantly, she has someone to provide her. But now she has lost her husband - and two children. I cannot imagine the pain & loneliness that she would be feeling. She has lost her entire family. She has no one left in the world. And in a real practical way she has no way to survive. She has no one who can provide for her. She is an old womanalone in the world- and with no to provide for herself. This is not like today where a woman can go out and get a job. In that time in that culture women did not work. They cared for the home & the children. Naomi does not even have a grandchild. She is alone- totally alone in the world and there is no way for her to survive in the land of Moab. Her situation I hopeless.
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Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the land of Moab,.

" Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the land of Moab"- There is no reason for Naomi to stay now. I would like for you to imagine what it is like to go to another country- to leave your family- to leave your friends- to leave everything you have ever known and live in a foreign place. People look different. They soeak different. The houses are different. The shopping in the store is different. The products are different. All the things you are accuostome to having are now no longer there. Food taste different. Things smell different. It is a very strange & lonely feeling. To have no one & be in a foreign place. There is no reason for her to say and we can get a hint from the names of her children that Naomi is not happy there. Her children were named "sick" & "pining." I am sure she missed her home. But that is not the only the reason she wants to go home. Look at the last phrase please: Now there is just a ray of hope. In the midst of all this sorrow pain & loss. There is one ray of hope shining in the darkness of her broken heart. "for she had heard in the land of Moab that the LORD had visited His people in giving them food."-

The only hope that Naomi has is to return home and maybe- just maybe there is some way that she can survive. At least there is food now in Bethlehem. She can return home with the hope that not only will se have food but will be in her land again. What can we take away from this account. What can we learn from these few vs. in the first chapter of Ruth. 1) God works in nations but also in individual lives. 2) Our dicisions affect not only us but others. 3) Better to seek spiritual food than physical 4) Sin will bring about punishment 5) Even in the worst of situations God gives hope to His people.