June 2 Famine?

 Ruth 1:1-3

“Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi; and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. Now they entered the land of Moab and remained there. Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died; and she was left with her two sons.” (NASB)

Feast or Famine? It seems like there is a theme of those occurrences in the Bible. The word “feast” occurs 114 times, and the word “famine” occurs 106 times in the New American Standard Translation (NASB).  So they are about of equal importance with “feast” barely winning. Different translations may have different word counts. God uses famine to move His people to action or to other territories. We have Abraham’s extended family, Jacob and his sons, fleeing to Egypt to seek food as an example. God also uses famine as a form of punishment as described in Deuteronomy 28:21-24. So now there was a famine—a shortage of food in Bethlehem.It was only about 30 to 60 miles to Moab from Bethlehem, but it was rugged and steep terrain and would have taken seven to ten days to walk. It was also very hot during most of the year in that area.

The meaning of names is typically important throughout the Bible. This family is no different. Elimelech means my God is King. Naomi means pleasant, lovely; and their sons, Mahlon means puny and Chilion means pining. The health of their sons must have been weak to begin with for them to have sickly names.   

Ephrathites of Bethlehem, meaning that they were citizens of Ephratah, another name for Bethlehem. There were actually two Bethlehems. This one, identified as the one in Judah, was south of Jerusalem.

Moab was from time to time an enemy of Israel, but at this particular time they had been subdued by the Israelites (see Judges 3:12-30), so it was a safe place for this family to go during the famine. The land of Moab was cooler than the area west of the Jordan River and produced grains, as well as grassy areas where sheep could graze. Apparently this land was not experiencing the famine as Judah was. The Elimelech family was just going to temporarily stay, sojourn, there in the land of Moab until the famine was over, but circumstances changed and they ended up living there for a while. Elimelech died while his family was still living in Moab. In this day and age it was important to have a man as the head of the household, but now Naomi was left to raise her sons by herself. They were growing up—as we will see in the next verses.

Spiritually the land of Moab was not the same as that of Judah. The Moabites worshipped their own gods, as they were polytheistic. The greatest of their gods was Chemosh, a detestable idol, for whom Solomon later built a high place of worship east of Jerusalem. That became the downfall of Solomon, as he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. How often do we do what is evil in the sight of the Lord? Do we worship idols? What about our TVs, movies, money or other possessions—are those sometimes “idols” for us?

In the book of Amos a spiritual famine is predicted. "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "When I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the Lord.” Amos 8:11.

 Lord, show us if we have any idols in our lives. Give us a spiritual feast, not a famine, that we would hear you clearly and live to please you.

© 2012 by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.