Leaving The House of Bread

Ruth 1:1-5

There was a night when I was working at Chick-fil-A in Florida that a couple came to the door of the restaurant after we had closed. They asked me for some money because they were "hungry". I told them that I did not have money, which was true, but I offered to get them a couple of sandwiches from the kitchen. They turned me down stating that they just wanted to go to the convenience store and get some snacks. I'm not genius, but a Chick-fil-A sandwich beats a pack of chips or a snack cake ANY day. I told them that I could not help them, and they left. I had a pretty strong suspicion they were not really hungry but were having a different type of craving. When a person leaves a place with food to go elsewhere, there is a problem somewhere in their life.

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Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion—Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there. 3 Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons. 4 Now they took wives of the women of Moab: the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years. 5 Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died; so the woman survived her two sons and her husband.

Ruth 1:1-5

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Elimelech, Naomi, and their two sons left Bethlehem to go to Moab. The reason they left was because there was a famine in the land. Being as this was during the time of the judges, it is safe to assume that the famine was a result of disobedience to God and His law. Elimelech, rather than trusting God and trying to lead the people to obey God, left. The name Bethlehem means "House of Bread". In a time of famine and hunger, He took his family from the House of Bread to Moab, which means “from the father”. This could sound good, unless you understand the meaning behind the name. The man that the land was named after was born of an incestuous relationship between Lot and one of his daughters after they had to flee Sodom. Moab's mother gave him that name because he was conceived from her own father.

Another problem we see in this text is that Elimelech took wives for his sons from Moab. Deuteronomy 23:3-6 prohibits the marriage of an Israelite to a Moabite. It would seem that Elimelech had no intentions of returning to Israel because he made himself and his family right at home in Moab.

In time, Elimelech died. Not long after that both of Naomi's sons died. It seemed as though the family was cursed. While not directly stated in the text, it is not a far stretch to again assume that God was judging this family for their disobedience. They left the Promised Land (Israel) and the House of Bread (Bethlehem) to go into a pagan land and to break God's laws. If this was all there was to this story, we wound only ever read it once. Instead, this is viewed as one of the most beautiful love stories ever written. It gets even better when we understand that the main character actually represents Jesus; but I don't want to get ahead of myself.

Elimelech let his family down. For that, the consequences of sin fell upon the family. Paul wrote that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). He also wrote, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned" (Romans 5:12). The one man represented here is Adam. However, in the story of Ruth, Elimelech's sins spread to his entire family and with that sin came death. Now, only the three women remain. It is a sad beginning.

I do not have anything positive to leave you with in this passage. All I will say is keep reading. This story gets MUCH better. As much as we like rainbows and butterflies, we must understand that our actions have consequences. When we violate God's laws, that is sin. Sin has consequences. However, from this story we will also see that there is redemption available.

Father, You give us clear instructions and we violate Your instructions with no regard for the consequences. I pray that we would have a greater love for You. A love that would keep us in a right relationship with You and a love that would cause us to not want to violate Your righteousness.