Ruth 1:1-5 – “Famine”

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.

There is so much to observe and learn just from these first five verses, it’s hard to stop posting about them. One more thing I want to record is some thoughts on this matter of famines.

The land of Canaan is an interesting place. Right next to it is Egypt. Egypt has pretty much a totally secured water supply with the Nile ever flowing through its middle. They could still suffer famines (as in Joseph’s day) but the supply of water was so constant, Egypt was considered the bread basket of the ancient world. Canaan, on the other hand, has essentially no usable river. The Jordan River forms their eastern border but, generally speaking, it is on the “other” side of the mountain range (upon which Jerusalem sits), and so its water is unavailable to most of the nation. The result is that Canaan, in particular, is completely dependent on God to provide the rains they need to grow their crops.

As I have posted before, it is good to “need” God. We were created to need Him. Some people, like Egypt and their Nile, live their whole lives with a huge bank account and seemingly can “take care of themselves.” It is perhaps easy for them to think they don’t “need” God. My family, on the other hand, has never enjoyed such a luxury. We pretty much have lived our entire life under the terror of no money. We have had to very consciously depend on God month after month after month because if He didn’t provide the money, it simply wouldn’t be there. Looking back I have no idea how we did it. I even kept the budget, kept very close track of our meager finances, knew exactly how much came in and went out every month, yet I will still confess I have no idea how we made it. All I can say is we prayed and God provided. As my mother once said, “There’s always just enough. There’s just never any extra.”

My point is that is not really, in the end, a bad thing. It’s awfully hard on a worry-wart’s heart, but it is a good thing to be dependent on God. I’m sure there are people with big bank accounts who trust God just as much or more than me, but, for us, it has certainly taught us to appreciate the things we do have, to take care of what God does give us, to appreciate even the little things He provides, and to sincerely feel for others who have to do without.

The point at which this relationship of dependence becomes “dangerous” is that the same God who provides can also withhold. Of course, my use of the word “dangerous” in this case is totally faithless – God is neither mean nor capricious – but, the fact is that this dependence relationship is rendered fragile by the presence of my sin nature. As a born-again believer, I am indwelt by His blessed Holy Spirit and, as long as I stay in step with Him, the Lord is essentially free to shower me with blessings. Unfortunately, I am also likely to be “seduced by the dark side,” be making bad choices, and place the Lord in a position where, being a loving parent, He has no choice but to use whatever means He can to arrest my attention. The land of Canaan, being so completely dependent on the Lord to provide rains, was left with famine as one form of judgment the Lord could use to get their attention when they set upon a course of their own self-destruction.

Such was apparently the case as the story of Ruth begins. This would be one more place where it appears Elimelech’s decision to go to Moab was a bad one. For the people of Israel, famines were judgments of God, designed to move them to repentance. Elimelech’s decision to go to Moab would seem to be a decision of “flight” rather than faith – to think that somehow, if he just went somewhere else things would improve. Once again, I don’t want to be too hard on him because I so intimately know how he must have felt. But over the years I have also learned that most of the time it is better to stay where I am, deal with the hardship, and learn whatever it is God is trying to teach me, rather than yield to the “grass is greener” syndrome.

All that being said, however, there is one kind of famine that is far worse than all the rest, and which (I hope) I fear above all others. Amos 8:11,12 warned:

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
    “when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
    but of hearing the words of the Lord.

 They shall wander from sea to sea,
    and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,
    but they shall not find it.

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” “And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

As I have often gleefully reported, it seems like every week the Lord shows me something from His Word that literally rocks my world. I have long enjoyed opening the Word morning after morning with the joyful expectation that He will once again show me truth and “set me free.” And He has ever seen fit to do just that. I don’t want that to ever stop.

I couldn’t even begin to recount the number of times I have opened the Bible in some kind of mental terror or debilitating confusion, only to have Him (usually instantly) show me something that gave me peace or confidence or hope or whatever it was I needed. I brought to Him the raging sea of my life, sure I was drowning, only to have Him say over me, “Peace. Be still.” Just the reading of a few of His words and my world went from chaos to peace. I don’t want that to ever stop.

I want to ever be like Jeremiah and be able to say,

Your words were found, and I did eat them,
    and Your words were unto me the joy
    and rejoicing of my heart,
for I am called by Your name,
    O Lord, God of hosts.

I pray the Lord will continue to provide food for my family, good jobs for the men, and whatever else we all need, but above all else, may His Word ever flow abundantly through our hearts. To have faith is everything. And faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. May we always hunger and thirst first for righteousness, and enjoy the blessing of knowing Jehovah Jireh, the God Who Provides.

God deliver us from famine.