Ruth chapter 1
As we move from Judges to Ruth, the time frame is still the same. This all happens in the time of the judges in Israel. Within Ruth there are several promises about the coming king; not only David, but Jesus as well. Added to this, we have the hope of the Gentiles in these stories as well, because Boaz is the descendant of Rahab, and Ruth is a great-great grand mother to David. How gracious God is to include the gentiles into his grace plan.
We start off with a famine in Bethlehem-Judah. We don't know if the famine is in all of Israel, but it is where Elimelech lives. Elimelech takes his wife Naomi and his two sons Malhon and Chilion with him into Moab. Now that God has given his people a promised land, I doubt Elimelech is doing this with the blessings of the most high. If he is, why wouldn't God approve of all his people leaving and going to another land. This is not like Abraham and Issac who were only temporarily in the promised land.
Down to Moab they go, and their young sons take wives of the daughters of Moab which is definitely against their law. When you are around people for long enough, you start to become like those people, and that is exactly what happened here. Either by God's judgment or to show his great hand, Elimelech and not long after Elimelech's sons die. Now Naomi is left in a strange land with no means to support herself and two daughter-in-laws with mouths to feed. Knowing that she has a long hard road in front of her, and an uncertain future, she tries to discourage her daughters from going with her back to Bethlehem. Both the daughters out of fresh feelings and love say they want to continue with her. Naomi wants to make sure that they mean what they say. This is exactly how God may treat us in our lives. We may say that we want to serve him, and want what is best from him in our lives, but when pushed, sometimes we falter. To commit not only to Salvation, but to a life for Christ is not the easiest of roads. It is a road full of joy and fulfilled promises, but it is not always an easy road.
After further prodding, we discover that Orpah is more inclined to go back to her own people. Ruth though, in the 16th verse, says what every Christian should say in their hearts and openly. That they will serve God and follow his path no matter what may come. Ruth saw a glimpse of something in her mother-in-laws religion, and was not going to give it up for nothing.
Matthew Henry says something about this occasion that I really like. "It is an evidence of a discontented, distrustful unstable spirit, to be weary of the place in which God hath set us, and to be for leaving it immediately whenever we meet with any uneasiness or inconvenience in it. It is folly to think of escaping that cross which, being laid in our way, we ought to take it up. It is our wisdom to make the best of that which is, for it is seldom that changing our place is mending it."
When Naomi comes to Bethlehem, she is recognized immediately. She now wants to be known for sorrow and not pleasantness. Her life is now a shame to her, and she no longer lives in her former families' glory. Oh, but we find out what is to come to her and Ruth. God has riches untold for those that wait on him.
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