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Welcome
“We all like to give and receive presents showing love. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to die on the cross for our salvation. Let us give Him all the glory!”
Stella
Worship
Word
Back in the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.
Ruth 1:1
Such a beautiful story as we find in the Book of Ruth, has a very sad beginning. We read at the end of the book of Judges:
In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.
Judges 21:25
“a particularly dark background … an era of frightful social and religious chaos. The book of Judges teems with violent invasions, apostate religion, unchecked lawlessness, and tribal civil war (and) threatened fledgling Israel’s very survival.”
Robert Hubbard (p. 84 of his commentary on Ruth)
Add to this, “there was a famine in the land”. Commentators have different views on Elimelech’s response to this famine. Some say he sinned by going to Moab and thus he died. His sons married Moabite women and they die (Ruth 1:3, 5) and Naomi grew very bitter (Ruth 1:20-21). It is all very difficult and painful. Others mention that Abraham and his son Isaac responded in a similar way to a famine, Abram went to Egypt (Gen. 12:10), and Isaac to Gerar, home of the Philistines. The Lord even appeared to Isaac and told him to stay there rather than go down to Egypt, and even confirmed to him, the covenant He had sworn to Abraham (Gen. 26:1-6). Also, famine drove Jacob and his sons to Egypt where they met up with Joseph and greatly prospered (Gen. 41-50), ultimately leading to the Exodus.
“Famines, despite tragic appearances, often advance God’s plan for His people.”
Robert Hubbard
We know the end of the story and can easily quote, ‘God works all things for good!’ But we have to try and put ourselves in the place of this family and all the pain they went through. People gave names to their children as guided by the Lord. Naomi, means “pleasant”, Mahlon, “sickness”, Chilion, “wasting”, Elimelech, “The Lord is King”, and Bethlehem means “House of Bread”. Naomi refused to be known as Naomi and told everyone to call her Mara, which means “Bitter”, and the “House of Bread” was unable to provide in this famine.
Do we ever feel like this, that everything has been stripped away from us. That everything is barren, desperately painful, perplexing, puzzling, confusing. We are not able to make sense of it and like Job of old we cannot find the face of God, we cannot hear Him speak to us. But, and at the risk of churning out platitudes,
“God orchestrates even hardship, suffering and difficulties for His eternal purposes.”
John Piper on Job
So much in Scripture points to this and we will see it the more as we work through Ruth over the next few weeks, Amen.
Quote of the week
There are two kinds of people, those who say to God, “Thy will be done”, and those to whom God says, “All right, then, have it your way”.
C. S. Lewis
Verse of the week
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9
Let’s Pray
Father, You are the Sovereign Lord; by the power of Your Spirit within, may Your will be done in and through me, all the days of my life, in and through Jesus Christ, my Lord, Amen!