Ruth 1:1-5 – “Faith is the Victory”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹And it was in the days of judging one judging, it was a famine in the land and it was a man from Bethlehem Judah going to sojourn in the fields of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. ²And the name of the man [was] Elimelech and the name of his wife [was] Naomi and the name of his two sons [was] Mahlon and Chilion. [They were] Ephrathites from Bethlehem Judah and they went [to] the fields of Moab and they lived there.³And Elimelech the husband of Naomi died and she was left and the two of her sons. ⁴And they carried to themselves wives of Moabite women. The name of the one [was] Orpah and the name of the second [was] Ruth and they dwelt there about ten years. ⁵And also died both of them Mahlon and Chilion and the woman was left from the two of her children and from her husband.

I have been reading a lot of articles on the book of Ruth and thinking a lot particularly about these first few verses. There are quite a few interesting implications and observations to make. What probably strikes me most, however, is God’s providence, as evidenced in this book.

What I mean is that, on the surface, this is a very simple, mundane story of people living their lives. What is amazing is to see how the Lord completely superintends the events to, in the end, lead to the reign of David and ultimately Christ.

I am thinking this realization is critical in our lives – that even in the mundane, everyday events, God is at work bringing about His great eternal plan. I guess I am realizing more and more that, in a sense, faith is everything. Life, it seems to me, is very, very hard. Most of the time I feel confused and uncertain about so many things. I feel I have failed miserably in practically everything I set about to do and be. The future is very scary. Like Yoda says, “The dark side clouds everything. Impossible to see the future is.”

Yet, here is this story of people just like us, living in the same world. Elimelech marries this cute neighbor girl named Naomi and they get a house to live in and he gets a job and they have two boys. All they really want is to just live their lives and be happy. Yet, along with all the other ups and downs of life, they find themselves in the middle of a famine. They decide the only way to deal with the famine is to move to Moab. Then add to all of that trauma that Elimelech dies. Naomi’s boys marry but she has to bury them too. Imagine the heartache of this poor lady. It’s a wonder she stayed sane. Then she decides to return to Israel, but even in that she has no idea how it will all work out.

Sounds like life.

Yet, over it all, we have here the clear account of how the Lord oversaw everything. Naomi didn’t starve. And this Moabite girl Ruth ends up marrying a wealthy man and becoming the great, great grandmother of David himself.

The Lord knew.

We can even return again to the question of whether it was a bad decision for Elimelech to move his family to Moab. I know the theological world is pretty much unanimous is their condemnation, but, as I study, I find the whole matter uncomfortably familiar. When being pressed to make decisions, I rarely feel like the issues are black and white. With Elimelech, people will quote from Deut 7:1-4, “You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son”. “There you go,” people will say, “Elimelech had no business being there.” Yet, if you go back and read the passage, in verse 1, it is specifically says, “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them …” Notice the “them” is not the Moabites. It is very specifically the “seven nations” of Canaan. My point is just that the passage being used as a proof text doesn’t directly apply to Moab. In fact, I think it difficult to find a crystal clear passage to absolutely condemn Elimelech. But then, that is the problem with legalism. It’s hard to make enough rules to absolutely address every single possible situation. Personally, I think the spirit of OT law and clearly the spirit of God’s communication with Israel in so many ways would make it clear that God intended them to stay in Israel and that intermarriage with Moab was a bad thing. But then I come back to the real world that Elimelech lived in and can easily imagine, especially in the days of the judges, him deciding the Moab move was a good idea. I personally agree now that it was probably a faithless move on his part, but I’ve made so many bad decisions in my own life, I’m loathe to be too hard on him.

What is amazing is how the Lord stays on top of it all, right or wrong, and grace still wins in the end.

That’s a good thing. That is what I am finding encouraging.

We need a God Who is bigger than our confusions, bigger than our uncertainties, even bigger than our bad decisions and failures.

The good news from the book of Ruth is that is exactly Who our God is. He is the great champion of history. He is the great champion of our history(!). His grace will win.

What that all comes down to today is that I need to trust Him. I need to sincerely try to stay close to Him, to sincerely try to make good decisions, to let His Spirit lead me. But the future is not in my hands. He is so great He can even handle the inevitable factor of my endless stupidity. I do need to my best, but that is not because the future is in my hands. I need to do my best because that is what He wants me to do. Whether I succeed or fail (track record leaning to the latter), the Lord’s grace will prevail.

In my projects at work, I really do want to do good for these communities. I want to help them have the infrastructure they need so their people can live “peaceful, quiet lives.” But somehow, I have to let go of the sense that it is all up to me, that somehow I have to superintend the details and make it all happen. I need to somehow grasp and accept that my job is to work hard and do the best I know how. Yet I should believe that the Lord loves these people far more than me, that my efforts are only a tool He uses to accomplish that love. Whether I succeed or fail, in the end His grace will win.

The book of Ruth reminds us that is the kind of God He is.

I really need to permeate my mind with thoughts just like this. Faith is the victory.