Looking for Life in All the Wrong Places: The Book of Ruth, Ch. 1
Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794–1872), Ruth in Boaz's Field; image from Wikimedia Commons.
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A while ago I was listening to a podcast about Jessica Buchanan, a humanitarian aid worker who was kidnapped and then rescued by SEAL Team Six. Such stories are filled with bravery and courage, not only by the person being rescued but obviously by those rescuing. The interesting thing was that Jessica had no idea that a seal team was going to rescue her; she had no idea what was going on for her behalf. The book of Ruth is similar in one particular way: The story focuses on a small Hebrew family that needs spiritual rescuing. God sets about rescuing them, and they don’t even see it coming.
In Ruth 1 we find both a nation and a family in spiritual disarray.
The story of Naomi’s family is set in the time of the Judges. If there is anything that is obvious about that time, it is that the people of Israel were continuing to fall away from God on a deeper and more tragic trajectory. Israel’s allegiance to God weakens more and more as the book of Judges progresses.[1] Elimelech and his family’s actions follow the mindset of life during the time of the Judges:
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judg. 21:25)
When faced with difficulty, Elimelech, Naomi, and their two children, Mahlon and Chilion, leave their home in Bethlehem and go to Moab to find sustenance. This is not just a normal move across town. As theologian Iain Duguid points out,
Elimelech’s choices were not equal choices, theologically speaking, in the way that the choice of city in which to live might be for us. God had called Elimelech to live in Bethlehem. He therefore had no business leaving there to go anywhere, least of all Moab.[2]
The land of Israel was God’s chosen land for his chosen people. God had given this land to Abraham’s descendants as a fulfillment of a promise to Abraham, and it was a land that was part of a special covenant between God and his people. Turning away from this land signaled a turning away from God who had given this land. Possessing the land was a special privilege, and having part of this land symbolized having a part in the people of God—a part in a life blessed by God. The Moabites, enemies of God’s people, ruled over Israel for 18 years during the time of the Judges. They had caused the people of Israel to sin grievously during the Exodus; therefore, God placed a curse on the sinful Moabites.
Elimelech’s family found weakness and death away from God and his people.
So while Elimelech, whose name means "My God is King,” and Naomi, whose name means “Pleasantness,” should have stayed in the land and cried out to their King for help to restore the pleasantness of the land of Israel, it seems that instead they looked with their eyes to find more pleasant fields of life in Moab. They left their house of bread (Bethlehem) to find bread and life outside of God’s promised land, away from the presence of God in a foreign country that God had cursed.[3]
Elimelech died after moving to Moab, and Naomi and her two boys stayed in the foreign land following his death. Ten years is quite a long time for a visit, so it appears that the family had settled in for the long term. The sons married, showing that the family had assimilated to the culture of Moab, with the men marrying outside of the covenant people. These two facts indicate that the faith or spiritual fruit of this family was weak.[4]
Like the land of Israel in the Old Testament, the local church today is to be a place of love, service, family, community, and life.
So much is packed into the first five verses of the Book of Ruth, but how does this story relate you and me in the modern day? Turning away from God is a recipe for disaster. How many times do we go our own way for some foreseen benefit, but tragedy is the end result? How often does the world offer solutions that they say will lead to life but instead lead to death? Only in God’s plan do we find life.
We don’t live in a physical promised land where our departure may point to a personal spiritual decline. There are things, however, that do point to our spiritual welfare, and when we walk away from those things we put ourselves in danger of a spiritual weakening and tragedy. One such place of life for a Christian is the local church.
Christ’s church is a messy place, full of saved sinners.
God called the Israelite families to live together in the community of God and find life in the land of Israel. Yet when things got tough, Elimelech, Naomi, Mahlon, and Chilion tried to save themselves; they tried to find life by looking outside of God’s land. How often do we do this? Duguid writes,
Like Elimelech, we act as the sovereign of our own lives, making the choices that seem best in our own eyes, without reference to God and without serious thought about the long-term implications.[5]
Perhaps you think you are better off living a private Christianity outside of the local church. Christ’s church is a messy place, full of saved sinners who will rub each other the wrong way, sin against each other, ignore each other, or try to control each other. While you may feel you get some benefit from walking in nature, practicing yoga, serving at the food bank, private devotion, etc., God has promised that it is in Christ’s church where you will grow up into love and be spiritually strengthened. No other activity can make that promise.
We need our local church family and they need us.
The local church is the group of people in which the Spirit of God is at work, and God has ordained that there will be growth, blessing, and even life in this sometimes messy group of people. God calls us to work together with other believers, to forgive each other (Eph. 4:3)—meaning there will be times of hurt— to serve and love each other:
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace. (1 Pet. 4:10)
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives forthe brothers. (1 John 3:16)
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Eph. 4:15-16)
Shortly put, we need our church family and they need us. It is only when the whole body is serving each other with the gifts God has given that they all will be blessed and mature in love:
You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Pet. 2:5)
So, stick to your local church, especially one that is a Bible-believing, Gospel and Christ-centered community of Christians. Don’t be like Elimelech and his family, looking for greener fields outside God’s appointed plan and means.
Author’s Note: In the study of Ruth I found these resources helpful. I hope you will too!
Esther and Ruth (Reformed Expository Commentary) by Iain Duguid
Faithful God: An Exposition of the Book of Ruth by Sinclair Ferguson
Related Articles:
Notes:
[1] Iain Duguid, Esther and Ruth (Reformed Expository Commentary), 131.
[2] Duguid, Esther and Ruth, 132.
[3] Duguid, Esther and Ruth, 132.
[4] Duguid, Esther and Ruth, 134.
[5] Duguid, Esther and Ruth, 133.
