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RUTH Ruth 1-4 “Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land.” When the judges ruled…hmm, what does that mean? Well, it was a time when God spoke strong judgments against sin. During one such occasion, a great famine came on the land of Bethlehem. Have you ever been there, that place of seeing yourself as God sees you, and knowing your desperate need for change? At this time, there was a man named Elimelech, who knew his need but instead of waiting on God to provide, along with the other Israelites, decided to move his wife, Naomi, and his two sons to the ungodly heathen country of Moab. He proved to be unbelieving, discontented, distrustful, and unstable. Becoming weary of the place in which God had set him, he became a bad example to the rest of the Israelites, and to the world around him. He ran to Moab and it was there that he died. His two sons married daughters of Moab, and soon both sons died also. God was judging sin. Naomi was very much alone after the death of her husband and her two sons. Her heart was broken and it was as though she, too, had died. God was working on her heart in her bitter grief, during the loss of her family, to bring her to that place of desperate need. All whom she held dear were now gone, and she was very empty. Now what? Would she try to fill that emptiness herself with work, shopping, meetings, projects, Internet, eating/drinking or TV? No! Naomi had heard while in Moab, that the Lord had given a great blessing in Bethlehem that was sure to satisfy her empty heart. Therefore, she went out from the place where she was, along with her one daughter-in-law, Ruth, and journeyed for Bethlehem. She had remembered the times when judges ruled back in Bethlehem, and now she was ready for God to be supreme. Oh, joy, Naomi was going home! But why was Ruth going, too? Why would a beautiful young woman cling to her old afflicted mother-in-law, and travel to an unknown land, to dwell among a peculiar people? And to top it off, she would enter into a relationship with Someone she had only heard children’s stories about? Why? Because God had a plan that would bring Ruth into a believing faith, too. Ruth gladly joined with these words: “Wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God…” Ruth wanted the One True God for herself, including all of His negative judgments against sin. So together, Naomi and Ruth began a journey for Life that would take them to the fields of Boaz in Bethlehem. With the surrender of her self to Him, Boaz quickly purchased the family property, making Ruth His beloved bride, as Jesus did when HE bought us with HIS blood on the cross. Today, God still speaks strong judgments against sin. However, the Bible says that “men will turn away from the truth and gather to themselves preachers that will tickle their ears.”(2 Tim. 4:1-4) That is the land of Moab! Leave that place and go to Bethlehem! There you will find Jesus! Let His judgments rule! ~ Ruth Ann Ward
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