Ruth 1: 3-5
We saw yesterday that this man left Bethlehem to take his family across the border into
nearby Moab temporarily during one of the famines to take care of his
wife and sons.
(3) Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died; and she was left with her two sons.
When her husband died she was dependent on her sons to support her.
(4) They took for themselves Moabite women as wives;
These are the people they lived among, these boys grew into their manhood from boyhood here.
the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. And they lived there about ten years.
The name Orpah could be derived from orep, meaning "the back of the neck, mane" which would refer to "stiff-necked."
These names are indicative of how they ultimately responded, as told in the rest of this chapter.
We're not told whether they lived ten years after Elimelech died or if they were married for ten years, but they apparently stayed in this foreign land longer than they had originally planned.
(5) Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband.
Being widowed and now with no sons to support her either, was a serious situation in her own community, but here in another land she would be in desperate straits.
We can see here that God is setting up Naomi for her part in His great Plan of the Ages, but she is completely unaware why God would be treating her this way.
Often we also cannot discern why God is letting negative and even disastrous events happen in our lives, but we can still trust Him through it all, as Naomi did.
O my Father, thank You for being worthy of our complete trust, even when we are bewildered and befuddled in the chaos and darkness around us. We know that You have told us that everything we are reading in the headlines today would happen, when You had Your prophets write so long ago.
My Father, as You have led me in my studies of Your written Word, You have let me connect so many dots, that I never before knew had any connection! But You have shown me that it is all one story, the story of Mankind, from before the beginning until after the end, and the Star of the Show is Jesus! He is the Lord God Almighty who appeared and gave the information to write, and who broke into our world as a Man like us to be our Savior and Redeemer.
And it will be He who will return soon to judge and clean up this world to rule it in righteousness, giving this Earth its Golden Age. Only after that, when everything is finished, will be the end, when it explodes, and the Universe implodes, and You create anew a completely different Earth-like planet in another Universe, in which to live with us, and we with You, forever.
O Father, send out Your children to cast broadly Your good seed of the Gospel. Please let every living person hear Your Good News while they are still able to make a free, informed choice. Father, draw to Yourself all of Your embryonic children to the birth into Your own family, and let no one else have any excuse!
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, please come quickly, Lord Jesus!
